Rick Warren - Daring To Believe—Part Two

Hey, everyone, it's Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren. So

we're continuing with this series called Daring Faith the Key

to Miracles. And in this series you're learning how to

have a bold, unshakable faith. And so far this series

is giving all of us powerful tools to share our faith,

a faith that gives you courage to impact the world

around you. All right here it comes Pastor Rick with

part two of a message called Daring to Believe.

Romans Chapter ten, Verse nine in the Bible is one

of the most important verses in the Bible. So if

you don't get anything, get this today. It says this,

if you confess with your mouth Jesus is my Lord,

and you believe in your heart that God raised him

from the dead, you will be saved. Now this is

a promise of God. He didn't say you might be saved.

You hope you can be saved. You really wish you'd

be said. He said, you can count on the fact

you're going to heaven. You can know for certain you're saved.

You're going to heaven if you do these two things.

Confess with your mouth Jesus is my Lord, and believe

in your heart God raised him from the dead. Now,

most of us, if not all of us, have already

done the second thing. You believe that Jesus Christ racially dead.

It's an established fact. Our calendars built on it. But

many of you have not done the first part. Confess

with your mouth, Jesus is my lord. I circle that

word lord because I need to explain that word to you.

It's not a word we use anymore. We don't use

it in America because in America we have a democracy.

We don't have a monarchy. And this is a term

from a feudal system. In a monarchy, you have kings

and queens and lords and ladies and knights and squires

and serfs and pages, and these are terms of a monarchy.

We don't have a monarchy in America. So nobody goes

around using the word lord. You don't go around saying yes,

my lord, no, my lady, unless you're in Dalton Abbey.

But we don't say this term. And we don't have

a house of lords in America. Okay, we have representatives,

the House of Representatives. So what does the word lord

mean for me to say Jesus is my lord. It

means he is my master, he is my boss, He

is in control of everything in my life. He's not

just resident in my life. He's president. And when I

say Jesus is my lord, I'm saying Jesus is the

CEO of my life. He's the chairman of the board

in my life. He's calling the shots. He is my manager,

he is my director, he is my God. This week

at the bottom of my hill, well, the Albertson store

changed hands. Another company bought them out, and so they're

under new ownership, and they're under new management. And they

put up a sign in the window that says under

new management. When you truly believe in Jesus Christ, not

head knowledge, but heart knowledge, you should put on a

sign that says I'm under new management, because that's what

it means to make Jesus the lord of your life.

All of a sudden, he's the lord of my life.

I'm no longer the lord of my life. I'm not

calling the shots anymore.

He's calle it.

He's in control. I'm not in control. He's the boss

of my life. I'm not the boss of my life.

See until you do that, you're the lord of your life.

By the way, how's that working for you? You call in

all the shots in your life, you being the lord,

you being the master your faith. Everything happened in the

way you want to do, all your dreams coming true,

no problems, totally fulfilled, happy as a as a clam.

How's that working for you? You being the lord of your life.

You weren't meant to be God. God is God and

you're not. And the reason you get under stressed is

when you try to play God in your life. You

get stressed out because you don't have the power to

change the things that God does. So the first part

of believing means I say, Jesus is my Lord. He

is my boss, my manager, I'm under new management. I

saw a bumpersticular the other day in the back of

a card that said God is my co pilot. There's

only one problem with that. God doesn't want to be

your copilot. He doesn't want to say, Okay, you control

the plane half the time and I'll control at half time.

You run your life half the time, and then I'll

run it the other eye. No, he wants total control.

God has a right to total control in your life because.

He made you, He loves you, he created you.

He said it's time to die for you, and he

wants with you, with him forever in eternity. He has

a right. He doesn't want to be co pilot. He

wants to be the lord, the manager of your life.

The next thing are and trust. What does it mean

to believe in Jesus? It means to believe in Jesus.

I are relax in His love. I relax in His love. Now,

let me explain this because I chose the word relax intentionally,

because what's the opposite of relaxing? Working, working, and God

is saying you don't have to work for God to

love you. You don't have to earn God's love. Growing up,

you grew up with conditional love. You got conditional love

from your parents, your partners, your pals, your professionals, all

the people around you. And you learn pretty quickly that

if I want to be loved, I.

Got to do certain things.

And you have spent most of your life trying to

earn the love of other people.

You want to be loved.

There's nothing wrong with that, because you need love in

your life. You want to be loved, But you spent

most of your life trying to earn the love of

other people, working for the love of others. When you

believe in Jesus, you relax and you realize God is

gonna love me no matter what.

I don't have to.

Earn his love. I don't have to work for his love.

I don't have to pay for his love. God is

gonna love me unconditionally. God loves me unconditionally. That means

it's not based on what you do. God loves you unwaveringly.

It never, never, never changes. God doesn't love you one

day and not the next and then the next. He's

not finicky or fickle. He doesn't have a bad hair day.

God loves you unendingly. Once you have the love of

God in your life, it never, never, never never will

leave you no matter what you do. Because God's love

is not based on what you do. It's based on

what Jesus Christ did on the Cross for you. It's

not based on who you are. It's based on who

God is his character. You can't make God stop loving you.

You could try, but you will fail.

Because God's love is unconditional, unwavering, and unending. It is

forever and that gives me enormous confidence. And when I

believe in Jesus, it means I believe what Jesus said

about God's love for me, and I relax in God's love.

That gives me enormous confidence because a lot of other

people may not like me, But the creator of the

universe loves me.

And that gives me confidence.

Let me show you what the Bible says about this,

Romans chapter eight. Nothing will ever be able to separate

us from His.

Love, that's the love of Jesus Christ.

Death can't, life can't, The angels can't, demons can't. Our

fears for today, our worries about tomorrow. Even the powers

of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we're high

above the sky or in the deepest ocean, Nothing in

all creation will ever be able to separate us from

the love of God that is revealed in Christ, Jesus,

our Lord, that gives.

You enormous confidence.

If you want to have personal security, you must put

your trust in something that can never be taken from you.

You put it in your bank account. You can lose

your bank account. Put your trust in how good looking

you are, Hey tell you you're already losing that. You

can put your faith in somebody else.

You can lose them. They will die.

You must put your faith in something you can never lose,

and there's only one thing you cannot ever ever lose,

God's love for you. To believe in Jesus means I

accept what he says about God's love for me, and

I relax in his unconditional, unending love. The you in

trust means I use my life to serve God by

serving others. To believe in Jesus means I will use

my life to serve God by serving others. We are

saved to serve God did not come to earth and

die on across and pay for all your sins just

so you could live a selfish, self centered life all

about yourself. Really, do you think God created you just

to go to school, work, make money, and die and

live totally for yourself? Really, what's the logic in that?

Do you think God made you just to live for you?

No?

No, No, you were made for so much more than

to live for yourself. God has a far bigger purpose

for your life than that, and part of that purpose

is to serve God while you're here on earth. He said, well,

wait a minute, how in the world do I do that?

How do I serve God? I can't even see him?

How do you serve an invisible God? Good question? How

do you serve an invisible God? One day we will

see God in heaven. We don't see him now. God

wants us to learn to live by faith on earth.

That's part of it.

Faith pleases God. One day you'll see him. But how

do I serve a God that I can't even see?

Who is invisible? Jesus said, many times, we serve God

by serving others. And he said, even if you give

a cup of cold water to somebody who thirsty, and

you do it in the name of Jesus, he said,

that says if you did it to me God, he said,

you're doing it to others. You serve God by serving others.

You were put on this planet to make a difference.

That difference is called your good works. It's also called

your quote service. It's also called your quote ministry. God

puts you here for a ministry, for a service, for

a good works, to make a difference with your life,

not necessarily a big, flashy difference, but to make a

difference and leave the world a better place. And the

Bible says that believing in Jesus is part of accepting

that responsibility. Let me show you here on the screen.

Romans chapter six. The Bible says this, give yourselves completely

to God, every part of you. That's give everything to Jesus,

Lord of my life, for you have been saved from death.

So I'm doing this out of gratitude. And you want

to be tools in the hands of God, to be

used for his good purposes.

There is no greater thrill.

Than to be a tool in the hand of God

and used for his greater purposes. If you've ever felt

that feeling of being used by God, you know this

is cool. This is great. This is what I was

made for. This is me, this is my niche, this

is why I live here. God made me for this,

and it gives you significance, and it gives you satisfaction,

and it gives you fulfillment you will never get from money, sex, power, pleasure,

or anything else, because you were made for more than money, sex, power,

pleasure and everything else. You were made for significance, and

that significance comes from serving something greater than yourself. You

were made to live for than more than you. And

if you live for you, you're going to be bored

and bitter with your life. Now, let me just be blunt.

If I claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ,

but I have no desire at all to serve Jesus Christ,

and I have no desire it all to serve humanity,

to serve God by serving others, then I have every

reason to doubt that I'm actually a believer. I might

think I've been a believer, but I really wasn't. Because

if you are a true believer in Christ, it changes

your motivation, It changes your want to, it changes your attitude,

and all of a sudden, you don't want to live

for yourself anymore. You want to live for something greater

than yourself. The Bible says in James chapter two, if

people say they have faith but do nothing, their faith

is worth nothing. Can of faith like that save them?

The answer is no. That's why just saying I believe

Jesus on a God is not going to get you

to heaven.

That's not true belief.

If they say they have faith but do nothing about it,

their faith is worth nothing. Let me show you another

verse Phesians chapter two, verse ten. God made us what

we are, the Bible says, and in our union with

Christ Jesus, that means by believing in Christ. He has

created us. He created you for a life of good works.

That's the good things God wants you to do with

your life, which He has already prepared in advance, prepared

for us to do.

Now, did you know that before you were born?

God decided the good things he wanted you to do

with your life. That's your ministry, that's your service, that's

your good works. God decided that. But you can miss

it because God's not going to force you to follow

his purpose. In fact, most people miss God's purpose for

their lives. Most people do. The greatest tragedy in life

is not death. The greatest tragedy in life is to

miss your purpose, to waste your life and to not

be the woman God intended for you to be, to

not be the man that God intended for you to be.

That is a tragedy.

You could make a million bucks and still be a

failure at life because you missed the idea of serving

God by serving others. Now there's a fourth letteres And

before I give it to you, let me explain a

little background because it's kind of hard to understand this one.

Jesus Christ, because he was the son of God, because

he is God coming in human form, lived a perfect life.

He never sinned, he never made a mistake, he never

had any errors in his.

Life because he was God.

That's why he could pay for your sin, because he

didn't have any sins of his own.

To pay for. He was perfect.

But even though Jesus was perfect, not everybody liked him.

Were there some people who, even though Jesus was perfect,

disagreed with him, Yes, accused him of things, Yes, misjudged

him and maligned him.

Yes, hated him. Yes?

Were there people who wanted him dead?

Yes?

Wait a minute, you're telling me that even if I

was perfect, some people aren't going to like me. You

haven't figured that one out yet. You could be perfect

Jesusjesus was, and there are people who wanted him dead.

Why because evil hates good, Darkness hates light, wrong hates right.

And so God says, if you're gonna be a believer

in Jesus, you should expect the same reactions from people

that Jesus got. Not everybody like Jesus, because when you

do what's right, people who want to do what's wrong

get a little upset about it.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say your boss comes you and your boss is unethical.

And your boss says, look, we're gonna cheat, we're gonna lie,

we're gonna steal in order to make this company go forward.

And so here's what I want you to do, and

I want you to do these things. And you say, sorry, boss,

I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ demands

integrity that I always do the right thing and tell

the truth. So I can't do that. Do you think

your boss is going to be happy with that? No?

Do you think your boss is going to give you

a promotion for having integrity?

No?

Do you think that boss is actually going to hurt

you or cause you to suffer in some way? In

all likelihood, yes, you might get overlooked for a promotion.

You might even get fired. You might get put out

of the company. People suffer for doing the right thing

all the time because they're a Christians. Or let's say

tomorrow morning, you're standing by the water cooler at break

and five or six people start trash talking and gossiping

and being vulgar and being mean spirited about somebody. You go,

this is not the kind of conversation I need to

be as a follower of Jesus Christ. So you don't

say anything, You just silently walk away. And let's say

one of those people comes after you say, hey, wait

a minute.

Why did you leave the conversation?

He said, well, you know, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ,

and I just I don't feel comfortable talking that way

about other people. What's going to be their reaction, Well,

good for you. No, what they're going to say to

you is, oh, you are.

So self righteous. You think you're better than the rest

of us.

You're such a goody two shoes, you're a Christian, you

think you're better than all the rest of us. What's happening.

They're feeling guilty and they're promoting it on you. Does

that make sense? And so you actually suffer for doing

the right thing, not doing the wrong. And this is

the fourth thing of what it means to believe in Jesus.

Write it down.

The S stands for I suffer for doing what's right.

Because believing in Jesus isn't always convenient. Anybody want to

give a testimony on that. It isn't always comfortable. As

a pastor, I want you to know Jesus Christ like

I do. But I also want to tell you the truth.

The truth is following Jesus Christ is not for weaklings.

It's not for wimpy people, it's not for people who

are wishy washy. Believing in Jesus Christ will demand more

courage than you possibly imagine because it's not always popular

doing the right thing. It's not always popular stand for

the truth. It's not always easy or comfortable or convenient,

and you could be persecuted, You could suffer, you could

be criticized, you could be beligned, people could ostracize you.

In fact, in some countries, you could lose your life.

And Christians have been dying for their faith for two

thousand years.

Now.

That's not going to happen to you, at least right

now in America. But it happens every moment of every

hour of every day, and it has for two thousand years.

More Christians are killed.

For their faith than any other cause around the world

every year.

Why because they're more of us.

Two point three billion people give their lives for following Christ.

Jesus was honest about this. He said, if you want

to follow me, you got to take.

Up your cross. What does that mean?

Well, in those days, nobody took up across unless the

Romans were going to nail him to it. He says,

are you willing to suffer for my name? And if

need be, are you willing to die? Are you you

a true believer? Let me ask you this. If tomorrow

they made it against the law to be a follower

of Jesus Christ in America all a sudden is against

the law to be a Christian? Would there be enough

evidence to convict you? Would anybody know that you are

actually a true fellow?

Oh well, I believe it. That's not enough.

Have you turned your life over everything to Christ? Have

you relaxed in His love? Are you using your life

to serve something bigger than yourself? Are you willing to

suffer for doing what's right? Let me show you some

Bible verses Philippians chapter one. For you have been given

not only the privilege of believing in Christ, circle privilege

of believing, the privilege to believe in Christ, but you

have been given the privilege of suffering for him. That's

the privilege nobody wants to talk about. But I just

want to be upfront. It's not for weaklings, it's not

for whims, It's for courageous men and women, and you say,

I am willing to do what's right. And what happens

if you get ostracized, What happens if you get criticized.

What happens if people attack you on the internet for

your faith and for standing up and doing what's right.

Well, here's what the Bible says.

First Peter three, if you suffer for doing what is right,

God will reward you. And by the way, that reward

is going to go on and on and on and

on and on in an eternity far longer than the

criticism was. So he says, don't be afraid and don't worry.

What a life giving message from pastor wreck And now

here's Rick with a special message.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to

love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love

your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.

And then Jesus said, go make disciples, that's evangelism, Baptize

them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign

of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything

I've taught you. That's discipleship, and we call that the

Great Commission. We believe it Daily Hope that a great

commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will

produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,

a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so

I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just

across America, but all around the world. And we want

people to know that God's word is filled with hope

and truth and the power that we need to follow

him every day is available to every single one. You

know as well as I do that the Word of

God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it

breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.

So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on

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