Rick Warren - The Mystery of God's Plan — Part Two

Hello, and welcome to Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren. You've joined us

during our Easter series and we're so glad you're here. As Rick continues to

share the six major benefits that the resurrection of Christ brings to people who choose

to follow him. And now here's part two of a message called the Mystery

of God's Plan. Now, before we get too upset with Adam for messing

up a perfect planet, we need to realize that we share the blame too,

because every one of us have done the exact same thing Adam and Eve

did. We thumbed our nose to God. We've said, God, I'm

gonna do what I want to do. I know what the right thing to

do is, but i'm gonna do what's easy. I'm gonna do what's convenient.

I'm gonna do what's fun. I'm gonna do what's popular. I'm gonna

do what I want to do. And God, you got your plan,

But no, thanks God, I'm gonna go with my plan. And I

know you say, don't do these things, but I'm gonna do them anyway.

The Bible calls that rebellion, it calls it disobedience, it calls us

sin, and the Bible tells us this. We've all sinned, every one

of us. Not a single person on the planet is perfect. Nobody bats

a thousand. We've all blown it. We've all made mistakes, we've all

heard ourselves, we've all hurt God, we've all heard other people. We've

all sinned and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives.

That's that life of perfection that God wills for us. We just can't do

it, okay, and so we've all messed up. Now as a result

of that, not only death entered the world, but everything in the world

was broken. And that's the second consequence. The world was broken by sin.

And now nothing on this planet works perfectly. I don't know if you've

noticed this or not, but everything is broken, nothing works perfectly. Have

you noticed your body does not work perfectly? Okay, it don't look perfect

either, And you know what, your relationships don't work perfectly. Have you

noticed that there's a lot of conflict and a lot of times we don't understand

each other perfectly. And I don't get what you're saying, and we have

imperfection in our relationships. Have you noticed the economy does not work perfectly.

Have you noticed that even the weather does not work perfectly. The Bible says

that creation grows because when the sin virus hid Earth, it destroyed everything.

It was never God's will that we have floods and famines and hurricanes and tidal

waves and all this is because even the weather got messed up. Everything on

the earth is broken. We do not live on Heaven. We live on

earth, and so now nothing works perfectly. Our minds don't always work perfectly.

Our emotions don't always work perfectly. Our attractions and our cravings and our

desires don't. Sometimes we desire stuff that's bad for us instead of stuff that's

good for us. And even our DNA got warped in all of this.

It was never God's plan that people have Alzheimer's. It was never God's plan

that people have cancer. It was never God's intention that people have diabetes.

That's because the DNA of our body is broken. On this planet, everything

is touched by sin, and because there is real evil in the world.

We have things that God never intended, like rape, incest, child abuse,

racial injustice, war, sexual trafficking, and everything got messed up and

everything is broken on this planet. The Bible says this. The earth has

broken down in utter collapse, and everything is lost and confused. And that's

why it's not fair. Have you noticed that life is not fair? It's

not fair. It's never been since Sin broke it all down. And things

aren't fair, and they don't always work out in the good way. Now

there's a third cause the catastrophe that happened, and that is the loss of

purpose. When Sin hit the world because of what Adam did, and he

chose to disobey God and ruined the perfect plan that God had for earth and

for men, God's purpose for everything was lost, and every one of God's

gifts, good gifts that God gave to us started being abused and misused.

Sex is a gift of God? Is it abused and misused today? Yes?

It is. Food and drink is a gift of God? Are they

abused and misused today? Yes? Money is misused and abused. Everything lost

its purpose. Family lost its purpose, nations lost their purpose, individuals lost

their purpose. I don't even know what I'm here for because it all happened

in the Bible, sayce is this for creation was condemned to lose its purpose.

Yet there was this still this hope. If you have an outline,

you might circle the word still this hope, this hope that all creation will

one day be set free from its slavery to decay, and we will share

the glorious freedom of the children of God. That's one day God's family would

be set free, and so would creation. Now it says there was always

this hope. You see this act that where things aren't well going right,

that's still in the first part of the Bible, and for the first two

thirds of the Mystery Story of Creation, for two thirds of the Bible,

God says, I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm going to send

a solution. There is hope. Yes, I love you, and yes,

you screwed it up. You've messed up your lives, you've messed up

your relationships, and you've messed up the planet. But I still love you,

and so I'm going to send a solution. I'm going to send a

savior. I'm going to send a Messiah. And for thousands of years we

read this promise in the story the Mystery of History over and over and over,

and God gives us signs, and he gives us symbols, and he

gives us scriptures, and he gives us sacrifices that one day he's going to

send the solution to make the problem right that we can't we can't fix.

And that leads us to Act three and Act three in the Mystery of History,

happened two thousand years ago, and Act three is this, Jesus came.

God sent Jesus, and Jesus came to restore us. He came to

restore us to God, to rebuild that relationship, to pay for all of

our sins, to make the wrong things right. And Jesus is Act three.

Now let me tell you how important this is. A lot of people

have made his way in life, a lot of people make history, but

Jesus is the only one to split history. Only one person split history into

AD and BC. And every time you write down a date two thousand and

nine years you are using Jesus Christ as the reference point. Nobody else in

history gets that clarification or classification, because in two thousand and nine years ago,

God came to earth, and he came to earth in a human form,

so we can understand what he's like. If God had wanted to communicate

to ants, he would have become an aunt. If you want to communicate

to birds, he would have become a bird. But God wanted to communicate

to his children, to human beings, so he became one of us,

and God came to earth in human form Jesus Christ, and he lived a

perfect life in an imperfect world. But he didn't just stop there. He

died on the cross to pay for the sins, the wrong, that sin,

IRUs of every sin of humanity that had ever been done up to that

point, and for all of the sins that have yet to be done,

you know, all the ones we're going to do tomorrow and the next day

and the day after that, those sins, everything has already been paid for

by Jesus Christ on the cross. And that's Act three. Here's what the

Bible says. Jesus was given to die for our sins, all the sins

of humanity, and he was raised up from the dead to make us right

with God. Have you ever thought about why do people wear crosses around their

neck? Why do they put crosses up on their walls, Because when you

think about it, the cross is an instrument of torture. It's not as

how did the cross become the universal symbol of hope, like the red Cross

is showing up at the you know, the tragedies of life. How is

it that the cross becomes a symbol of hope. It's a symbol of torture.

It would be like wearing an electric chair around your neck. The cross

was invented by the Romans to put people to the most grisly, hurtful,

shameful death. You can imagine. It's an instrument of torture, and yet

it is the universal symbol of hope and people wear it around their neck.

Why. Because what Jesus did on that cross is the solution to all the

problem that Adam created. Jesus replaced what Adam erased, and the Bible says

he was given for our sins and raised from the dead so that we could

be right with God. Now, why did God go to all that trouble,

I mean, after Adam blew it? Why, well, let's forget

it. Let's just blow up the Earth start over with a whole new,

whole new galaxy. I mean he could have You're gonna say, forget these

guys. You know, I gave him one choice, one thing wrong,

and he goes right for it. Why did he do this? Why did

he send Jesus? Because that's how much he loves us? He says,

I know these people. I love him, I created him. I want

him in my family for eternity. And they have messed up so royally and

there's no way they can fix it themselves. So I'm going to have to

go to Earth and fix it for them. The Bible says that when we

were unable to help ourselves, let us stare on your outline, when we

were unable to help ourselves at the moment of our need, Christ died for

us although we were living against God. And why did he do that?

Let me just be real honest with you. You're not gonna like what I

say, but it's true. You and I are broken in ways that we

cannot fix ourselves. You've tried and I've tried, and we're broken in ways

we can't fix, and we need a savior. It's part of living on

a broken planet. Now, we could go out and we could set up

all kinds of rules and say we're gonna abide by these rules, but that

won't fix the Brokennes sentice. And we could go out and we could set

up all kinds of regulations say here's this, and that won't work. That

won't keep us from doing the wrong thing. We could have all kinds of

rituals that we do, but that won't stop. That won't change us on

the inside. You see, laws never change anybody. You can outlaw something,

but it doesn't change the heart. We could pass a law right today

that says there will be no more racial bigotry in America, and people still

be bigots. We could pass a law right now it says everybody will never

be unselfish, everybody will always be kind, and we break the law all

the time because a law can never change you on the inside. What needs

changing is your nature, not just your behavior, and only God can change

that. And that's why the Bible says this, the Law of Moses could

not save us. What's it, by the way, what is the law

of Moses? It's the Ten Commandments. Moses gave us the ten Commandments.

You know, I was talking to a guy one time and I said,

are you going to heaven? He goes? Oh yeah, I said,

how do you know he goes? Because I keep the ten Commandments? I

said, name them. You couldn't name them if I asked you to stand

up right now and name all ten commandments. You couldn't name them. You

not only don't keep them, you can't even name them. Keeping the law

will never work because you'll never be perfect. Heaven's perfect and I'm not.

Heaven's perfect and you're not. So the Bible says, keeping the spiritual laws,

the laws of Moses, could not save us because of our sinful nature.

That's what needs changing. But God put into effect a different plan to

save us. He sent his own son in a human body like ours,

except that ours are sinful. And God destroyed sins control over us by giving

his son as a sacrifice for our sin. Now, if you're taking notes,

I want you to circle. He destroyed sins control. The Bible says.

One of the things Jesus did on the cross was not only die for

the penalty of your sins, but he wants to release you from the power

of sin. What does that mean? Jesus came to destroy sins control in

my life? How to sin control my life? What's real? Simple?

You know all those bad habits that you'd like to change but can't. That

sins control in your life? You know all those self defeating things that you

do that you know you're bad for you, but you still do them.

That's sins control in your life. You know, those addictions you can't let

go of, That sins control in your life. You know, those compulsive

thoughts, those worries that you keep thinking over and over and over, and

that compulsive stress that keeps beating you down, and that compulsive fear and that

compulsive anger, and all those emotions that you can't seem to get control of

in your life. That sends control over you. You know, the attractions

that you can't stop, and the cravings that you can't stop, and the

compulsions and the obsessions you can't stop. That sends control over you. And

the Bible says that God came and sent Jesus to not only pay for the

penalty of everything you've done wrong, but to give you the power to break

away from things that are messing up your life habits, hurts, and hang

ups. Now, let's just be honest again. Are there things in your

life that you know are good for you and you don't do them? Yes?

Are there things in your life that you know hurt your relationships and hurt

you, but you still do them? Yes? Have you tried to stop

yes, has it worked? No? Why? Because you don't have a

power to change your nature. You need a savior. You need God in

your life to make those changes. And that's why Jesus came. And that's

Act three. And the Bible summarizes Act three this way up here on the

screen. Here it is in a nutshell. Just as one person did it

wrong, that's Adam got us all into this mess, this trouble with sin

and death. Another person did it right. That's Jesus, and he got

us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble by

paying for all our sins, it says he got us into life. The

Bible says it, when I open my life to God's son Jesus Christ,

whom he sent to be my savior, that I get three kinds of life.

I get a new life, I get an abundant life, and I

get eternal life. What does that mean, Well, it means that God

says, I'm going to take care of all your problems past, president future.

You're going to get a new life. That means your past gets forgiven.

You're going to get an abundant life. That means you get a purpose

for living and you're gonna get an eternal life, that's your home in heaven,

past forgiven purpose for living home in heaven. Who else can offer you

that deal, No human being can offer you that. Only God can offer

you past forgiven purpose for living home in heaven. But you've got to receive

it. And that's why we call Jesus the Mighty Savior, because when he

came to earth, he came to save us from ourselves, from our sin,

from the expectations of others, from the past, from the present,

reistresses, from the future of hell, and all these things. He is

the Mighty Savior. Now that's Act three. Jesus Christ conquered the grave.

He busted through death so that you could live again. Believe me, if

he hadn't risen from the dead, you wouldn't either, because he broke through

that. And there's a whole explanation behind it. Now, God did this

because he loved you. And let's just review. God made it all,

Adam messed it up. Jesus came to put it back together. God says,

I thought of you before you were born. I thought of you before

I created the universe, and I made the universe so I could create a

family, and I want you to be a part of it. And the

reason you are alive is I made you to love you. And then when

you messed up and you rebelled against me, and even though you've done your

own thing and ignored me, I still love you. And so I said,

I'm gonna have to solve that problem because you can't solve it. And

so I'm going to come to Earth myself in human form and die on the

cross for you, so everything you've ever done wrong can be paid for and

forgiven and wiped out. He's done it all for you. There's not a

thing you have to do to be in God's family. You don't earn it,

you don't work for it. It's a free gift of God's grace.

All you can do is accept it. But God still gives you the choice.

That's Rick Warren with his Easter series called He Has Risen Right now,

Pastor Rick has a very special message. You know. Perhaps the best known

verse in the Bible is John three point sixteen. For God so loved the

world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him

shall not perish, but have eternal life. Easter is God shouting down to

Earth. I love you, I love you, I love you, I

care about you, I want you and my family. Have you really grasped

that I want to challenge you this Easter. Don't come to your church's Easter

service alone. You know there are two times a year that most people will

accept an invitation to a church service Christmas and Easter, So don't miss it's

this great opportunity to invite somebody that you care about who doesn't know Jesus.

Don't go to church by yourself at Easter. You know in the Bible,

in Luke chapter fourteen, verse twenty three, Jesus says this, go out

into the highways and the countryside and urge everyone you find to come in so

that my house will be full. God wants a full house, and I

want people in heaven because you cared enough to invite them. I guarantee you

the people that you invite to Easter service are going to hear a gospel message

on Easter. So make a list of the people that you want to invite

to bring to Easter service with you. Thanks for listening today. I'd love

to hear from you. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrerick dot com.

That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. By the way, if you can send

a gift this Easter to help us expand this ministry, I would deeply appreciate

it. I know not everybody can afford to give a lot, some of

you can. Whatever amount you give, we're grateful for it. And I

want you to know that all of the money given to this ministry goes into

the ministry. I do this for free. I take no salary from it,

and so you can be certain that this is going to further the good

news all around the world. And by the way, let me just say

this to you, happy Easter. Would you like to help support Pastor Rick

in this ministry financially, We'll go to Pastorick dot com or text the word

hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. Once again, Pastorick

dot com or text the word hope to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and

four, and thank you so much for your support. We hope you'll join

us next time when we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This

program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support,