Rick Warren - What it means to Believe in Jesus - Part Two

Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily

Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your

past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,

and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.

Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?

And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown

people are more open to an invitation to go to

church than at any other time of the year. Don't

go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't

know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,

a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to

that church service and they come to know Christ, You're

going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be

the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.

And by the way, if they come to Christ, would

you let me know about it. I'd love to hear

that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they

found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick

dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love

to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.

Hey, everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, this weekend,

across every continent and in thousands of languages, millions of

people will join together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The cornerstone of our faith. But you know it doesn't

stop there.

Not only was Jesus resurrected, he is still alive. And

now let's join Pastor Rick as he shares the final

part of this powerful Easter message, what it means to

believe in Jesus.

Now, God has a purpose and a plan for your life,

and he wants you to follow that plan. Jesus Christ

did not come and die on the cross for your

sins so you could go to heaven, just so you

could continue living a self centered life. In fact, the

Bible says this, It's up here on the screen. It

says he died for everyone, that's Jesus, so that those

who receive his new life will no longer live to

please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ who

died and was raised for them. God says, what on

earth are you here for? You're here for his plan

and his purpose, and God wants to use you in

a way you can't even imagine. Look at this next verse,

the Bible says, give yourselves completely to God, every part

of you, for you've been saved from death, and you

want to be tools in the hands of God. Tools

in the hands of God to be used for his

good purposes. Friends, that is the greatest adventure in life,

to be used by God for the purpose he made you.

Nothing comes close to this that when you finally experience

the day where you go, WHOA, this is it. This

is why God made me, and you know it, and

you go, WHOA, this feels so good. Well, of course

it does. It's what God made you to be. And

there's satisfaction and their significance, and there's meaning, and there's

fulfillment and the greatest thrill in life, the greatest adventure

in life is the feeling of being used by God

for the purpose that you know you were created for.

If you've never experienced the thrill of being used by

God for the purpose you were made for, I'm sorry,

but you're missing out on it. You're missing There's nothing.

It's better than sex, it's better than making a million dollars.

There's nothing to compare to that feeling of WHOA, this

is why I'm here. God made me for this purpose,

and now I know why I'm on this planet, and

it's the greatest adventure of life. God says, this is

the difference between success and significance. I got a lot

of successful friends. I probably know a dozen guys who

are billionaires. But you know the problem is success it

doesn't satisfy. Why because you always want a little bit more,

and because there's always who's got somebody some more than

you do. You were made for more than success. It's

why so many people go, if I'm so successful, why

do I feel like a fake? Why am I so unfulfilled?

Because you were made for more than success. You were

made for significance. Success is just the middle level of living.

You can live at the lowest level, survival, or you

can live at the success level. Or you can live

at the best level, which is the significance level. And

how do you live a life of significance being what

God created you to be? And then you know, Wow,

that's what I'm here for. There's so many stories in

the Bible where Jesus talks about this concept and about

investing your life. Most people don't realize about half the

stories Jesus told have to do with business. In fact,

every principle of business success is in the Bible. And

if you'll do business by the book, you will prosper

at it because God has given us the principles for business.

And in one of the stories that Jesus told on investments,

he ends his story by saying this, to those who

use well and invest what they've been given by God,

even more will be give to them. But for those

who are unfaithful with what they've been given, even what

little they have will be taken away from them. What's

he saying? God has made an investment in your life.

First he created you, then he gave you gifts and

ability and personnelity and experiences, and he gave you talents.

And God has made an investment in your life and

expects a return on the investment. And he says that

if you do well with what He gave you, and

you use it for the right purposes, then God's going

to say, I'm going to give you more of it.

I'm going to give you more talent. I'll give you

more experience. I'll give you more. One day, you're going

to stand before God and God's going to give a

final exam, And here are the two questions on the

final exam. The first question God's going to ask you

is this, what did you do with my son Jesus?

What did you do with my son Jesus. He's not

going to say, did you join a country club? Did

you join a church? Did you have religion? He's going

to say, what did you do with my son Jesus?

You know, the one I sent to earth to die

for your Did you ever develop a relationship with him?

Did you ever follow him? You ever accept his grace?

Second question he is going to ask is what did

you do with what I gave you? Well, you know, Lord,

I had a really good time and then I retired

and died. What you think I put you on earth

to live for yourself? Little puny self? You gotta be

kidding me. You think that the biggest thing in life

was you for you to live for you. If you

don't have anything greater than yourself than yourself to live for,

you got a pretty puny God. You don't have much

reason to get out of bed in the morning just

for you, and that's why you get stressed out all

the time. You need something greater than yourself to pull

you out of yourself. To make you greater than you

think you could possibly be. God sees in you what

you can't even see in yourself, the ability for greatness.

And God says, I want to make an investment in you,

and I expect a response back, what are you doing

with what you've been given? And he says, Lord, what

are we going to do with what you've given us? Well?

Where to use it? And we're not to use it

just on ourselves. We're to use it and helping other people. Now,

of course, every investment has a return on it, either

good or bad. Can you say bear Stearns, Because this

last week I had some friends who were millionaires in

there now zero errors because they lost it all. They

had it all invested in bear Stearns. You better make

your investments in life wisely. What is the ROI on

following Jesus? What is the return on investment if I

follow God's purpose for my life instead of my own

dinky plans. Well, that's a good question, and Peter asked

it about two thousand years ago on the screen. Peter said,

in the Bible, Lord, we've given up everything to follow you.

What will we get out of it? Jesus replied, I

assure you this in heaven, anyone who has given up

anything to follow me will receive a hundred times as

much in return, and will inherit eternal life. Whoa he says.

Whatever you give up to do God's purpose and plan,

you get restored one hundred fold in eternity. Do you

know what a hundredfold is? That's ten thousand percent interest.

There's not a hedge fund in the world that'll give

you those rates. There's not a single thing you could

do with your life on this planet that will give

you a ten thousand percent return on your investment except

doing what God made you to do. And he says,

and you get to enjoy that, by the way, not

for eighty years, but for all of eternity. If I

if I knew a better investment plan than give my

life Christ, believe me, I'm due, I'd be doing it

because I'm not going to waste my life. But there

isn't and so I have given my life to invest

my life for Him. Now, I want to tell you this,

if you choose to join Saddlebacked Church at some point

in your life, you need to realize that the people

in this church, they get this principle They understand it,

probably better than anybody else, that life is not about us.

It's about investing it for good and for God in others,

and the rewards are going to be eternal. I say,

without fear of contradiction, this may be the most unselfish

church around I heard this week. Just yesterday, I heard

about a couple hundred guys in our church business, guys

who quietly, without any fanfare, have been every weekend for

the last year going and feeding the homeless here in

Orange County. I didn't even know they were doing it.

And then over eight almost eight thousand, seven thousand, seven

hundred and sixty six people in this church in the

last four years have paid their own way to go

overseas to care for the sick, assist the poor, educate

the next generation, help people build stuff, to help people

less fortunate than us. Paying their own way. Why because

we have been blessed to be a blessing. Now, folks,

we live in southern California, in an Orange County. This

is a blessed area. Everybody want to agree with that.

I don't know many. I've been around the world many times.

They are not places in the world as blessed as

Orange County, And why did God put us here just

so weed be fat cats and spending all on ourselves. No,

he put us here. We are blessed to be a

blessing to others. And it's time for you to give back.

It's time for you to make a difference with your

life in the world, so you don't spend all your

time and money just on yourself. Are you doing anything

in your life that is totally unselfish? You do it

for somebody less fortunate than you, and you don't get

anything back from you. Just do it. It's good for

your heart. Now the tea and Faith Pastor Tom is

going to come and talk about the fourth facet of faith.

And it's trust. You trust his wisdom and strength. Trust

his wisdom and strength. The Bible says this in coloss

in chapter two, verse six. Just as you trusted Christ

to save, you trust him for each day's problems too.

Live in vital union with him. That's how it works.

You trust him at the beginning of this life of faith,

and then you trust him for each day's problems too.

It's about it's about trust. I don't know if you've

ever talked to somebody I have often as a pastor

who they feel frustrated with the whole idea of faith.

To them, faith just seems like one more thing to

add to a too busy life. And you hear people

say something like this, I've tried the religion thing. It

just didn't work for me. Anybody hear anybody say something

like that, You know what I'm talking about. Here's the

problem with that phrase. It's in the word tried. Faith

is not about trying. It's about trusting. In fact, you might,

if you're take a note, you might even write that

down in your outline. It's not trying, it's trusting. If

it's about trying, it's just one more thing to make

me more weary. I got to get up and go

to church on Sunday and try to be a good

person for God. Now that's not what it's about. It's

about trusting Him to do what only he can do

in my life. Trusting God's wisdom and God's strengthened my

daily life. I know some of you you're at the

end of your trying. I mean you've tried and tried

in your marriage, You've tried to make it at school,

you've tried in a relationship to make things work. You've

tried to make it work in your business. You're at

the end of your trying. When we get to the

end of our trying, Jesus meets us there and he says,

trust me, trust me. I will lift you up. I

will give you wisdom and I will give you strength.

Now you need both. I need both. I need wisdom

and I need strength. Wisdom that shows me what to do,

and then strength that gives me the power to do it.

And I got to have both. Another way to say

that is I need perspective and I need power. Next

couple verses talk about those two things. Romans eight twenty

eight says, we know that in all things God works

for the good of those who love Him, who've been

called according to his purpose. That's perspective. That's a different

way of looking at life. Even in the worst that

life throws at me, God's working for my good. He's

working to develop me. He's working to develop my character.

Would you like to have that perspective on life or

even the worst that comes your way, God is working,

Jesus says, when you trust me, that's what I give

in your life. He gives your perspective, and he gives

you power. I love this next verse. It's one of

my favorite verses in the Bible, Philippians four thirteen. Would

you read it with me? I have the strength to

face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

He gives you both when you trust him. How do

you know when you're not trusting? Well, let me tell

you one of the sure signs that you're not trusting.

It's in the little word worry. Anybody else is familiar

with this word and know what I'm talking about. When

you're worrying, you're not trusting. And when I'm trusting, I'm

not worrying. If I'm sure that a chair I'm going

to sit on is solid, I trust. I don't worry

that it's going to collapse under me. But when I

start worrying, I stop trusting. And one of the keys

to knowing what's going on in my life is the

worry factor in my life. How much am I worrying?

Jesus Christ can help you with your worries.

Now, the last facet of face the h and faih

is hold on to his promises, hold on to his promises.

Did you know that in the Bible. In this book,

there are over seven thousand promises from God to you,

and God says, if you'll trust him, he will make

these promises true in your life because he wants you

to learn to trust him. There's promises he'll say, I'll

take care of you. Promises a provision, I'll meet your need.

Promises of protection, I'll watch out for you. Promises of prosperity,

promises of power, promises of peace. Did you know that

in this Bible that there are promises to you about

success if you do certain things, Promises about health, Promises

about healing, promises about comfort when you're down about loneliness

over and they're over seven thousand promises. They're like blank

checks waiting for you to just write them out and

send them back to God. Because God wants you to

learn to trust him, you hold on to his promises. Now,

if I have an insurance policy and I know what's

covered in that policy, I don't worry about it when

I get in an accident or I have some kind

of surgery because I know my policy's going to cover that.

When I don't know what my insurance covers, if all

of a sudden I ask some of accident, I go,

I don't know if covers that. I start worrying about it. Now,

you know the reason why you worry all the time

is you don't know what's covered in the policy. You

don't know what God's promised to do in your life. Well,

if you don't even know what, you certainly can't claim

that promise for God to help you out. Now. I

get asked all the time, is there anything that God

can't do? Is there anything impossible for God?

Yes?

There is. The Bible tells us there's one thing it's

impossible for God to do. God cannot lie. Because God

is truth, he is ultimate truth. And God cannot lie.

Something impossible for him to do. And the Bible says this,

they're in your outline. God can't break his word, all

these promises he's made, So we who have trusted our

very lives to God have every reason to grab the

promised hope with both hands and read it with me.

Never let go, Never let go. Now. One of the

great promises in the Bible is the promise that God says,

I will never stop loving you. I will never stop

loving you. Look at this next verse. He was a

promise nothing will ever be able to separate us from

the love his love. Death can't, and life can't. Angels can't,

demons can't. Our fears for today are 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 oceans,

nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate

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

our Lord. You know you might try to make God

stop loving you. You can try, but you're going to fail.

You can't make God stop loving you because his love

isn't based on what you do. It's based on who

He is, and he says, I will never stop loving

you now. I don't know how you've been heard in life,

but I'm sure you've been heart many different ways. And

I'm sorry as your friend, As a pastor, I'm so

sorry about your hurt. Maybe you up, maybe you have

been allied to, Maybe you've been deceived, Maybe you've been

conned by somebody, Maybe you've been betrayed, and you go.

I don't know if I can believe anybody anymore. I

don't know who to trust. I'll never trust a man again.

I'll never trust a woman again. And you say, I

don't know who I can believe. Well, Jesus says this,

I am the truth. And he says the truth will

set you free. And what you need in your life

is freedom. You need freedom, and he will always tell

you the truth. Now, maybe you felt battered and beaten

and bruised and beat up. Maybe you've been abused. Maybe

you've been abused physically or sexually, or maybe you've been

abused verbally or emotionally. Jesus Christ says to you, he says,

I promise, if you'll trust me, I can heal your

heart and I can heal that hurt if you'll give

it to me. Maybe you feel like you've been cast off.

Maybe you've been rejected by somebody. You've known that pain

of rejection, and you feel like you've been unwanted, You've

been discarded. Jesus says to you, I will never leave you.

I will never forsake you. He says, I will never

abandon you. It's in the Bible. I will never abandon you.

Maybe you feel like you've gotten burned in life. He said,

you know, I really got burned recently, and my life's

just a pile of ashes. It's all gone up in smoke.

Did you know that there's a promise in the Bible

where God says, if you'll give me all those pieces,

I will restore beauty for the ashes. I will restore

beauty for the ashes. You know, for so long I

couldn't figure out how people could hear about how much

God loves them and they walk away from it. I

just couldn't figure that out about you know, the Bible says,

he says, I'll give you your past forgiven. I'll give

you a purpose for living, and I'll give you a

home in heaven, past, president of future. Nobody can offer

you that except Jesus Christ. And yet I've seen people

walk away from it. And I couldn't figure it out

for so many years. But after talking to thousands of people,

I know now why behind every one of it is fear.

It's fear that causes people to walk away from God.

It's fear. Now. It may look like pride, but it's

not pride. It may look like a stubbornness, but it's

not stubbornness. It may look like intellectualism, oh, I have

all these intellectual arguments. It may look like ego it's

not ego. Underneath every single person's life. I found this

every day. It's fear. I'm afraid of losing control. I'm

afraid of giving up control to God. I'm afraid of

letting God be God in my life. Now, if you're

afraid of God, who could you not be afraid of?

It's fear. I've seen grown men walk away from the

greatest gifts. Say God has a plan and purpose for

your life. And I've seen guys walk away out of

fear and cowardice. It's fear on the inside. It says,

don't give up, don't let go hold on, don't give

up control. That's sad. The Bible says there's no fear

in love. Perfect love casts out all fear. And because

Jesus came at Easter and died on the cross and

rose again, it says this. Jesus said, I am the

one who raises the dead and gives them life again.

Anyone who believes in Me, even though he dies, shall

live again. He's talking about heaven. He has given eternal

life for believing in me and shall never perish. Look

at the next verse. The Bible says this, because Jesus

was raised from the dead. That's what Easter is all about.

We've been given a brand new life. That means you

get a second chance, you get start over and everything

to live for. That's purpose for life, including a future

in heaven. That's God's retirement plan. And the future starts. Now, say,

how do.

I get it?

How do I take that first step? Real simple? You

give up your fear. You let go of your fear.

You don't let fear keep you from the greatest thing,

what you were created to enjoy. Now, I've written on

your outline a believer's prayer, and what I want to

do is I want to read through it and then

I want us to all pray it together. So let

me just read it to you, Dear Jesus. I want

to have a real faith in you, not a fake faith.

Thank you for dying for my sins and showing me

the way to live today. I want to become a

true believer in you. I want to follow your example.

I want to accept your gift of grace. I need

your forgiveness and mercy. You made me for a purpose,

and I want to invest my life in serving you.

I want to trust your wisdom and strength, and I

want to hold on to your promises when times are tough. Friends,

This is That's what it means to be a true believer.

Whosoever believes in Me shall not perish, but have ever

lasting life. Are you ready to accept that? Let's bow

our heads. I'm going to pray this prayer again. You

don't even have to close your eyes. You can keep

them open and look at this prayer in your lap

and you can just follow along with being Go me too, God,

or you can read it aloud in your mind as

I read it. Make this your prayer, Dear Jesus. I

want to have a real faith in you, not a

fake faith. Thank you for dying for my sins and

showing me the way to live today. I want to

become a true believer in you. I want to follow

your example. I want to accept your gift of grace.

I need your forgiveness and mercy. He made me for

a purpose, and I want to invest my life in

serving you. I want to trust your wisdom and strength,

and I want to hold onto your promises when times

are tough. Amen. If you prayed that prayer for the

very first time, would you let me know about it?

Write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say, Rick,

I prayed that prayer of commitment, and I'll send you

some material that will help you on your journey with Jesus,

and I'll also pray for you.

Pastor Rick Warren says that every word Jesus spoke was

important and has life changing power. The words that Jesus

spoke during his final hours on the cross hold the

key to finding fulfillment in your life, career, and relationships.

That's why Rick put together a powerful seven session study

kit called the Seven Greatest Words of Love. Get it

now and unlock the full meaning and amazing blessings of

Jesus' last words before his resurrection words of forgiveness, assurance, love, trust,

and more. And this is a life changing Bible study

with seven video sessions and a workbook. Request your copy

today by calling eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

That's eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four, or

just go to Dailyhope Radio dot com. That's Dailyhope Radio

dot com. Thanks so much for your support. Your gift

to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ

with people around the world. Be sure to join us

again next time as we look into God's Word for

our daily hope. This program has been sponsored by Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.