Rick Warren - What’s the Solution Part Three

You know, we really live in a world that's full

of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you

believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.

But the good news is God hasn't left us to

figure it all out alone.

No.

In fact, today, on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going

to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren

unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see

life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. And

now here's Rick with the final part of a message

called What's the Solution.

Now, there's a third incredible benefit of jesus death, and

it's called reconciliation, replacement, redemption, reconciliation. It's the third reason

Jesus died on the cross, and reconciliation says this that

means hesh my relationship to God. Now, reconciliation is your word,

you know. It means when you bring two parties together

who have been distanced by conflict. There can be reconciliation

obviously between nations, between parties, between governments, between people. It's

when we've been apart from each other and we're brought

back together, you know, whenever I do anything that hurts

my wife, there is a break in our relationship. And

isn't an amazing Have you ever noticed? This's how you

can live in the same house and feel so distant

from somebody.

You know what I'm talking about.

You're in the same house, you might even be in

the same room, you may even slept in the same bed,

but you just feel distant from them. And what needs

to take place is because there's been a hurt on

one or both sides, there needs to be reconciliation to

bring us back together.

To span the distance.

Now, the truth is most people in the world feel

distant from God. They don't feel God is close. They

think he's watching us from a distance, and that he's

not involved in my life. And when I pray, if

you like, my prayers just bounce off the ceiling. They're

not getting anywhere. They feel like God is a million

miles away, that God is not close, that God is

not near, that he's far away.

Well, I would say this to you.

If you feel that God is far away from you,

Guess who moved Okay, guess who moved. It wasn't God

who moved away. You did you moved away? And the

Bible says, our sin separates us from God. But here's

the cool thing. God doesn't wait for you to take

the initiative. You know, sometimes when k hurts me, she

waits for me to take the initiative, or when I

hurt her, she waits for me. And either way she

waits for me. Now that's not true, But the bottom

line is in your relationship to God, God always takes

the initiative. He you blow it, you walk away from God,

and God says, I'm not gonna wait until they realize

it and they come back.

No, God says, I'm gonna take.

The initiative to restore the relationship that you broke.

And that's what Jesus did.

The Bible says this, and Ephesians two up on your

on the screen here now in Christ, Jesus, you who

were far away from God are brought near to the

blood of Christ's death. In other words, he took the initiative.

One of the most amazing truths in the Bible is this.

So it's gonna blow your mind. God wants you for

a friend, not as a servant, not as a slave.

God wants you as a friend.

Jesus said it he said, I no longer call you servants.

I call you my friends. And God says, I want

a friendship. I want a relationship with the creatures that

I made. I want you to know me and love

me the way I know and love you. I want

you to be a friend. It is amazing to me

that the God of the universe would want me as

a friend. It's even more amazing to me that he'd

want you. I mean, not me, I can understand, but

God wants you you.

You for a friend. Look at the next verse.

The Bible says this, We were God's enemies, but he

made us his friends through the death of his son.

Now how does that work. Well, Jesus Christ became the mediator.

You know.

The mediator is the guy who brings the two together.

We all know about divorced mediation. When a husband and

wife are so mad and so bitter and so angry

at each other that they can't even work out their divorce,

you get somebody to come together and say, Okay, I'm

going to bring the two parties together. We're going to

deal with this and we're going to have some kind

of mediation. Here happens all the time, and the Bible

tells us, let me read a verse to you. God

is on one side, and all the people on the

other side, and Christ, Jesus himself man is between them

to bring them together. He was the mediator. What am

I saying. When Jesus Christ was on the cross. One

of the things he did was, you know, take your place.

Another thing he did was buy your freedom. And another

thing he did is restore the relationship to God by saying,

I will be the mediator. I'm going to be the

bridge builder between you and God. The Bible says this,

look here on the screen. Christ changed us from his enemies,

from enemies into his friends and gave us a task

of making others his friends. Also our message, here's the message,

is that God is making all human beings his friends

through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins,

Thank God, and he has given us the message which

tells us how he makes.

Them his friends. What is that message what we're talking

about today? You know, in the Old.

Testament, before Jesus Christ, the only way you had access

to God was through a priest. In fact, only the

Jewish priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies.

He had to represent all of the.

People before God because we were imperfect and God was perfect,

and only one person was allowed. On the day of atonement,

Yan Kaper he was going to make atonement for the

sins of everybody, and Jesus said, you know what, I

took that idea and it's now out of the way.

Now you can have direct access.

I have been the mediator and through Jesus Christ, I

have direct access to God.

You know what that means.

You don't have to go pray through a priest. You

don't have to go pray through a saint. You don't

have to go pray through any other person. You can

talk directly to God. You don't have to come confess

to me as a pastor. The Bible says, Jesus is

our priest. He is the mediator, and you can go.

That's why we pray in Jesus' name. You hear people

say at the end of a prayer, and I pray

this in Jesus name. What's that mean? It means I

don't have the worthiness on my own to come directly

to God. But I'm coming directly to God because I'm

coming in Jesus name, because of what he did on

the cross. That's what the phrase in Jesus name means.

And when you pray a prayer, then you say in

Jesus's name, which means I'm doing this because he's the mediator,

He's the go between, he's the bridge between man and God.

And because of that, I can come directly to God.

I can have direct fellowship with God. I can have

direct communion with God.

The fourth benefit of Jesus's death on the cross is

called rebirth. That means that he gave me a new identity.

He gave me a new identity. Are there some things.

About your past you wish you could forget? I know

there's some things about my past I wish I could forget.

This past week, I.

Googled in the phrase changing my identity, and to my surprise,

forty one million, three hundred thousand websites popped up, all

dealing with the subject of changing your identity. I also

found some interesting books as well. One was titled Modern

Identity Changer, How to Create and Use a New Identity

and my personal favorite, this one's a real winner. Changing

my identity and disappearing Forever. I think we've all been there,

had those moments one time or another. Why is it

we're so preoccupied with identity, the discovery of it, the

changing of it, escaping from it. Our culture basically defines

our identity on four levels. First, it defines our identity

on what we do. It's our careers. Second, it's on

what we have our possessions. Third, it's on what we know,

our education. And finally it's on how we look our appearance.

But our identity is so much deeper than that. Who

we are is really truly on a core spiritual level.

The best our world can offer us an identity change

is an extreme makeover, and that's it. Possibly a new

skill someplace, or possibly even a new name. But the

change that Christ offers us is so radical and so

profound that the Bible actually calls it becoming a new

person a new creation. When you become a believer, you

experience a new birth, a fresh beginning.

Everything changes.

Titus three five, on the outline, says God saved us

because of his mercy, and not because of any good

things that we have done. He washed us by the

power of the Holy Spirit and gave us new birth

and a fresh beginning. Two Corinthians five, p. Seventeen says,

anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person. The

past is forgotten and everything is new. See, when you

become a believer, you don't all of a sudden look

different to yourself in the mirror. It's still the same

old you that you see yourself.

And for some of us that's unfortunate.

You don't get a new house, you don't get a

new car, a new job. All that stays the same.

Even your personality pretty much stays the same. Once you

become a believer in Christ.

If you are a.

Quiet person before you you came to know Christ, you're

still probably gonna be a quiet person afterwards. You don't

all of a sudden become the life of the party.

But what does happen is a spiritual metamorphosis. Let me

ask you a real theological question here.

It's deep, So hang on with me here.

Okay, can a butterfly go back into a cocoon after

it's come out as a caterpillar? No, from the mouths

of babes, great wisdom, great wisdom, of course not. It

can't happen once it becomes a butterfly. It is what

it is, a butterfly. And when you become a believer,

you're like a butterfly and that you've come out of

your cocoon. It may take you some time to fly spiritually.

But once you become a new creation in Christ, you

are what you are. You are a new creation. Now

we're not talking about mere positive thinking, because positive thinking

would be like a caterpillar deciding to glue on wings

to try to fly.

That's not gonna happen.

God gave us a new nature when we became a Christian,

and reminding yourself of who you are in Christ is

truthful thinking. The greatest step of faith that we can

take in our lives is when we accept Jesus in

our life and believe what God said about who Jesus is.

But I believe the second greatest step of faith we

can take is believing God about what He says about

who we are. You are new creation in Christ. Look

at dirversary here on the outline Romans six three through

four sins power over us was broken when we became Christians,

and we're baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ.

Through his death, the power of your sinful nature was shattered.

And when God the Father, with glorious power brought him

back to life again. You were given his wonderful new

life to enjoy. Circle that whole phrase, his wonderful new

life to enjoy. You notice there, it doesn't say a

new life that's important. It says his new life, his

wonderful new life to enjoy. Because a true life, the

better life, a wonderful life, is only found in Christ,

and when you become a Christian, you have a new

life in him. Baptism is just an outward symbol of

that inward change. In Revelation, it talks about how they

sang a new song about what Christ did for us

on the cross. Revelation five nine says they sang a

new song. You are worthy for you were killed, and

by your sacrificial death, you bought for God people from

every tribe, language, nation, and race.

Now, friends, this is the greatest news in the whole world.

You're not gonna get this anywhere else except from God's word.

Jesus took my punishment, replacement. Jesus bought my freedom, redemption.

Jesus restores my relationship to God, reconciliation. Jesus gives me

a whole new identity, and he wipes out all the

things I've done wrong, says, let's start over rebirth. And

then finally, number five, the fifth doddible benefit of Jesus

dying the cross is repudiation, and that means this, he

defeated death. In fact, he defeated death and the devil.

And the Bible says this. In one John three.

Eight, it says, the son of God came for this

purpose to destroy the devil's work. That's why Jesus came

to earth to destroy the devil's work. What is the

devil's work? Messing up your heart, filling it with worry,

filling it with guilt, filling it with resentment, filling it

with anger, filling it with fear, filling it with confusion,

helping you feel worthless and helpless and hopeless and aimless.

Where do you think that comes from?

Not God and Satan's biggest tool in your life is fear.

Fear does not come from God. The Bible says there

is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear.

And the Bible says God is love. So when you're afraid,

that's not from God. There is no fear in love

and God is love. Now, the number one fear that

people have is the fear of death, and that Satan uses,

the Bible says, to keep us enslaved. You see the

acid test of your faith, of your religion, of your worldview,

your philosophy. The acid test of it is not how

you act at the weddings or the baby births, or

the dedications, or the parties or the graduations. Are all

the happy times in life. The acid test of what

you believe is how do you react in the funerals

of life.

I have been in a lot of funerals.

Being a pastor, and I have seen the difference of

those with hope and those with no hope, and those

with no hope who don't know God and don't know Jesus.

Have looked into their eyes and seeing the terror in

their eyes when they have no hope for those loved

ones who just died, and I have seen the difference

that it makes when somebody knows the Lord. And the

fact is Christians grieve. We have mixed emotions, but we

don't grieve for the person who has died. We grieve

for ourselves. We grieve with hope. We agreeve because we're

going to miss him. We agrieve because we don't get

to see him againuntil we get to heaven. But we

don't certainly grieve for the people who die who know

the Lord, because they're going to a better place anyway,

where we were all designed to go eventually in the

first place.

This last week we lost.

One of the great saints at Saddleback Church who spent

the last twenty years being an usher. And he would

stand right back there, and that's in eleven thirty service

on Sunday morning, back in the corner, and I could

see him. He'd stand through the entire service. And about

a month and a half ago, as I was finishing

speaking at the eleven fifteen Sir, I watched Hugh take

his offering out of his jacket and lean it over

and put it in the offering plate right there, because

we were getting ready to give our offerings.

And then he collapsed.

And never fully recovered, went into a coma and he

died on Friday. I thought, what a way to go

if you're an usher, I'm going You're in church, you've

just given your last offering. It's the last thing you

do on earth, and you go to have it.

Oh wow, that is a way to go. Okay, all right,

I mean we're all gonna die. Why not die in

a cool way?

Okay, I mean the very last thing he did was

giving my gift back to God.

What a cool thing.

And I was talking to Larita's wife for forty eight

years because I was over there the night at his

home before he died and he was in a coma,

and LaRita said, you know, we were married forty eight

years and when we got married, Hugh made me three promises.

He said, Honey, you can always count on these three things.

Number One, we will never ever get divorced, no matter

what happens, no matter what we do, no matter how

angry we get, We're never getting divorced. Number Two, we're

always gonna find some church home and.

We're gonna get in it.

We're gonna love God and serve God there no matter

where we live. And number three, we are always gonna

tithe the first ten percent back to God. And she

said he kept all three of those promises. Today he

is celebrating in heaven with a lot of other people

that I know and love. And honestly, the more people

who get on that side, the more eager I am

to get there, because I'm really kind of tired of

some of the problems on this earth, some of the

problems that I look around, the rapes and the wars,

and the violence, and the abuse, and the pornography and

the incest, and all of the diseases and all all

of this.

Is a broken planet.

And we weren't meant to be here, as we talked

about last week forever.

The Bible says this.

On the screen with the cross, God won the victory

and defeated spiritual powers.

He showed the world that they were powerless.

I'm not afraid of the devil, not at all, because

greater is he that is in me, that is in

the world. And the Bible says this because God's children

are human beings made of flesh and blood. Jesus also

became flesh and blood by being born in human form,

for only as a human being could he die. And

only by dying could he break the power of the devil,

who has the power of death, that was his one tool.

Only in this way could he deliver those who have

lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

You know, I'm not afraid of dying. I told another

service a while back. I was on a plane trip

to Tokyo out and halfway over the Pacific Ocean. In

the middle of the night, one of the engines on

the plane I was on burned out, and people got

a little bit of nervous.

We had half the trip still to go.

It was twelve hour trip, and then a little bit later,

with one engine out, we went through some serious I

mean serious turbulence and people were freaking out. I'm sitting

there going I'm ready. I think I was the only

calm guy on the plane. You know I'm ready.

Now.

This next part I made up. I'm just telling you

the other part was true. So they look around for

a pastor and they find They said, anybody pastor or here,

and so I raise my hand. They say, we'll do

something spiritual. So I took an offering. I made that

part up.

I'm not afraid to die.

Why Because when you know where you're going, and you

know who's there, and you're a friend of God who

is there, you're not afraid to meet him. I'm not

afraid to meet God. I've been his friend for forty years.

I talked to him this morning. We had a great

little conversation this morning.

Me and God.

We're like this Okay, now here's the cool thing. You

can be like this with God. It's not some special relationship.

It's not like God said, well, only pastors or priests

or missionaries can be like.

This with God. God says, I want you to be

my friend.

I want you to have a constant, ongoing conversation. I

don't say the end of amen, at the end of

all my prayers. I just talked to God all day,

talked about this and that. Whatever's on my mind just

comes out, and I just have a running conversation all

the time. You see, you're not really ready to live

until you're ready to die. In fact, you can't live.

You're just existing until you're ready to die. And only

a fool would go all through life totally unprepared for

something you know is inevitable.

We're all gonna die. I mean, I mean, I don't know.

You may not want to talk about it, but we're

all gonna die at some point. Well, why not be prepared.

You become a friend of God, so then it's not

a big deal. You're not scared. You know you're gonna

be with your friend. The Bible says this, We know

that when Jesus was raised from the dead. It was

the signal of the end of death as the end.

Never again will death have the last word. Jesus' death

guaranteed the death of death. It just isn't that scary anymore.

He neutralized Satan's only tool, the fear of death, because

Easter was a total surprise to Satan. Anytime you're afraid,

you're afraid of something, you run to God.

Why because when God is near, you lose your fear.

Here's the point when you understand these things that Jesus

did that we just went over tonight, and I hope

you go home and review them instead of feeling worthless

and hopeless and helpless and powerless and aimless in life.

The Cross says this about you. You are valuable, you

are lovable, you are forgivable, you are capable, and you

are usable for God's purpose in your life.

Wow.

Some powerful words from pastor Rick today. And now this

is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.

This is letters from our listeners and now here's Rick.

One of the greatest joys of my day is reading

letters from our listeners. It truly is inspiring to see

how God is working in your lives and it encourages

me just as much as I hoped to encourage you.

So today I want to share a note from Heather,

who has been discovering the incredible benefits of studying God's

Word every day. Heather wrote to me, she said, Hi,

Pastor Rick, a friend of mine recently sent me your podcast,

and I've been feeling lost and helpless and I didn't

I wasn't sure what to pray, or how to pray,

or when to pray. And it's like I hit a

wall and I haven't been sure how to get back

on track. Well, your message really spoke truth to me,

and it made me realize the missing pieces I had

in my life because I was not in God's Word daily.

I was basically living my life without God, and I

was trying to do everything on my own. Well, Pastor Rick,

it goes without saying that doing life without God has

been miserable failure. So thank you for stirring the Holy

Spirit in my heart with the words that I needed

to hear. I have now made the commitment to read

God's Word every day and to pray daily, and I

even start praying in the cars I go about my day,

just like you. It's hard for me to close my

eyes and not fall asleep. You were listening. Please keep

doing what you're doing and reaching people who really need

to hear about Jesus and God's love. Well, Heather, I

am so glad to hear that you're back in God's

Word and that you're making it a part of your

daily life. There really isn't anything more important than deepening

your relationship with Him, and I love the fact that

you are praying every day, especially keeping your eyes open

while you're driving. Do you or somebody know or even

feel lost yourself like Heather once did? Well, the best

way to find hope and strength is by staying connected

to God every day.

That's the purpose of Daily.

Hope and that's why I started it, to help people

like Heather dive into God's Word and experience his encouragement

on a daily basis. Now, our Daily Hope devotionals and

our podcasts are completely free and they're delivered straight to your.

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So if you're not getting these, sign up today and

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Hey, be sure to join us next time when we

look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program

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