Rick Warren - How the Resurrection Gives Us Hope (Part 2)

God doesn't wait for you to love him before he

starts loving you. God loved you first. In fact, the

only reason you're breathing is because God made you to

love you. And the most famous verse in the Bible

is John 3, 16 and 17. It's that next verse.

God so loved the world that he gave his one

and only son, that's Jesus, that whoever believes in him

shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did

not send his son into the world to condemn the world,

but to save the world through him. God wants you

to know his love. God not only wants you to

know his love, he wants you to feel his love.

Because when you feel God's love, it transforms you. And

then you know what? He expects you to pass it

on to other people. In fact, Jesus said it like this,

John 13, it's on the screen. I'm giving you a

new commandment. Love each other. Just as I have loved you,

you should love each other. And your love for one

another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

You know, years later, John, one of the original 12 guys,

would reemphasize this. And in 1 John chapter 3, he

1 John 3 · chapter mention

wrote this. This is how we know who the children

of God are. Anyone who doesn't obey God's command and

doesn't love others is not a child of God. This

is the message we've heard from the beginning. We must

love each other. You know, the most amazing conversion in

the Bible is this guy named Paul. He later became

Saint Paul. Paul was a religious terrorist. His job was

to kill Christians. And he traveled all around the Palestine

area killing Christians. That was his job. He was a

religious terrorist. And one day he's going to Syria, to

Damascus to kill a bunch of Christians there. And on

the road to Damascus, he encounters the resurrected Jesus Christ.

And Jesus says to Paul, why are you persecuting me? Paul, Saul,

Paul becomes, falls to his knees and and says, my

Lord and my God. And the man who had been

a religious terrorist becomes the apostle of love. And Paul

wrote the most beautiful words on love ever written, 1

Corinthians 13. They are read at weddings literally every single

day around the world. Now, the fifth reason why we

who are followers of Jesus Christ have more hope than

anybody else is this, We know the purposes that we're

created for. We know the purpose of life. Most people,

you know, I've traveled all around the world and I've

discovered most people don't have the slightest idea what is

the purpose of their life. You say, what's the purpose

of your life? I don't know. You can have success

without having significance. Significance comes from knowing your purpose. Why

am I here? What on earth am I here for?

Why does my life exist? What is the purpose of

my life? Does my life have any meaning? These are

the fundamental questions of life. You can fill your life

with popularity and power and possessions and all pleasures and

not know your purpose and there's still the emptiness. When

you don't know your purpose in life, when you don't

know why you're here on earth, then there's this big

hole in you and you try to fill that emptiness

with a lot of other stuff Money, sex, achievement, success, travel, pleasure, sports, hobbies,

those are all good things, but they're never gonna take

the place of knowing why in the world are you here?

Why do you exist? Why are you even alive? What

is the purpose of your life? There are thousands of

verses about the purpose of your life in this book,

but if you've never read it, you don't know it

You don't know what on earth am I here for.

And at some point, even if you're living the good life,

you put your head down on the pillow at night

and you go, there's gotta be more to life than

this because there is. You were wired by God for much,

much more. You were made for so much more than

simply the good life. You're made for the better life.

I don't have time today on Easter Sunday to explain

to you the five purposes of your life. But let

me just quickly show you just a few of the

thousands of verses about God's purpose for creating you. Psalm

138 says this, verse eight. The Lord will fulfill his

purpose for me because his love endures forever. What is

that verse saying? It's saying the reason there's a purpose

for your life is because you have a creator who

loves you. God always acts in love toward you. And

because he loves you, he made you for a purpose.

You were made by God and you were made for God.

And until you figure that out, life's never going to

make sense. It's just not going to make sense. The

next verse, Jeremiah 29 says this. I know the plans

I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you,

not to harm you. Plans to give you Hope and

a future. He's saying that God's purpose for your life

is a good plan. You're not going to run from it.

It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It

has hope and purpose and future. In the next verse,

Jesus says in John chapter 10, Jesus says, my purpose

John 10 · chapter mention

is to give life in all its fullness. You're not

really living until you're connected to God. You're just existing.

You were made for so much more than get up

in the morning, go to work, come home, watch TV,

go to bed, party on the weekend. Jesus said, you're

not really living. I came to give you life in

its fullness. The key to your fulfillment in life is

knowing your purpose in life. The next verse, Romans 8, 28,

the Bible says this. We know that in all things,

God works for the good of those who love him.

who've been called according to his purpose. When you're living

out the purpose you were created for, that God made

you for, God says, I'm going to bring good even

out of the bad stuff in your life. I'll take all,

even the dumb stuff, even the bad decisions I make,

even my mistakes, even my sins. He says, I'll figure

that all out. I'll work it all out for good

in your life because you're going for my purpose. That's

a great thing. That's a great news. And then he

says this, and Mark chapter 8, Jesus says, if you

Mark 8 · chapter mention

insist on saving your life, you're going to lose it.

In other words, you're going to go with your plan,

you're going to go with God's plan. If you insist

on saving your life, you'll lose it. Only those who

give away their lives for my sake and the good

news will ever know what it means to really live.

He's saying, you know, your plan is going to lead

you to frustration. You're going to lose it. By the way,

how's that going for you? You've been going on your

plan for your life. How's that working out for you?

You totally fulfilled? You totally satisfied? Life's everything you want

it to be? God says, no, no. You go with

my plan, then you're going to know how to really live.

But you can't go with your plan and God's plan

at the same time. You got to decide which one

you're going to go for. Your purpose in life or

God's purpose in your life? You were made for so

much more. And he says, only if you give your

life away will you ever know what it means to

really live. What's he saying there? You're not ready to

live till you know what's worth dying for. Do you

know what you'd die for in life? If you don't,

you're not really ready to live. You know, after the resurrection,

first tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions

of people became followers of Jesus Christ. Of course, as

I said, now billions today This scared the Roman Empire

because millions of people were becoming followers of the resurrected

Jesus Christ. There were just too many eyewitnesses and it

scared them to death. So the Roman Empire started what

was called the Great Persecution. And for the first 300

years of Christianity, it was illegal to be a Christian.

And if you made the decision to say, I'm going

to become a follower of Christ, you were more likely

to be fed the lions in the Colosseum or crucified

yourself or beheaded. It meant ultimately probably certain death. People

were signing their own death warrant by saying, I'm going

to become a follower of Christ. Why did they become followers?

Because of the hope. All the things we've just covered.

You know, all but one of the original 12 guys,

original disciples, every one of those guys were murdered except one, John.

Stephen was stoned to death. James was beheaded. Peter was

crucified upside down. Paul was in prison in Rome, and

then he was executed. I want you to listen to

the last words of Paul right before he goes to execution.

He says, I He says, I fought the good fight.

I finished the race. I've kept the faith. You know

what baffled the Roman Empire was how unafraid Christians were

to die. Paul says it like this, for me to

live is Christ and dying is even better. He says,

you know, either way I win. If I'm alive, I'm

just gonna live my purpose, the purpose that God created

me for. If I die, I just get to go

to heaven sooner. I can't lose. What do you do

with a guy like that? Now, you know, today, American

media doesn't report this, but about a quarter of a billion,

about 250 million of those Christians live in lands where

they are persecuted for their faith. In fact, about 90,000

Christians are killed every year right now. In fact, for

the last 10 years, it's been over a million people believers,

Christian believers have been killed in the last 10 years,

over 1 million. People go, why am I a Christian?

Because I know there's more to life than just here

and now. That leads me to the sixth thing of hope,

and it's this. Here's the sixth reason we have the

most hope, because we have an eternal home waiting for us.

We have an eternal home waiting for us. We know,

as followers of Jesus, that death is not the end.

It's just a transition to better things. In fact, you're

going to spend far more time on that side of

eternity than on this side. Here on this planet, you

get 60, 70, 80, at the most you're going to

get 100 years on this planet. But on the other side,

those who know the Lord, who've accepted salvation, it's trillions

and trillions and trillions and trillions of years of freedom.

You know, the last of the 12 disciples to die

was a guy named John Actually, the Romans tried to

poison him. He was the only one not martyred, but

the poison didn't work. So they exiled John to a

prison colony on an island called Patmos in the middle

of the Mediterranean. And he actually lived to be quite

an old man on the island of Patmos in this prison.

And by himself there, in his old age, he wrote

the last book of the Bible, which is called the Revelation.

And it is a vision of what heaven is like.

Do you know someone who's graduating this year? Maybe it's

your son or daughter, a grandchild, or perhaps a neighbor

or family friend. As you celebrate this important milestone and

they begin the next phase of their journey, they need

to know that God created them, loves them, and has

a plan for their life. That's why Pastor Rick created

a special resource just for graduates called The Purpose Driven

Life Selected Thoughts and Scriptures for the Graduate, filled with

inspirational scripture, biblical wisdom from Pastor Rick, and beautiful imagery.

This unique hardcover gift book provides a priceless reminder of

the bountiful life God has planned for your graduate, and

it will inspire them to seek his unique plan and

purpose for their life. Don't miss this opportunity to minister

to the graduate in your life today. We'll send you

a copy to say thanks when you give a gift

to Daily Hope to help share the hope of Jesus

Christ with people around the world.

What is heaven gonna be like? Well, in a word,

it's indescribable. It's indescribable. You and I trying to understand

what heaven is like would be like a mosquito trying

to understand the internet. We don't have the brain capacity.

You see, here on planet Earth, we're limited by three dimensions.

There are far more than three dimensions. There are dimensions

we don't even know about. But we know it's gonna

be incredible. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to

be amazing. Why? Because look at the earth. This is

a broken planet. This is a fallen planet. Nothing works

perfectly on this planet. And yet there's still a lot

of beauty. Sunrises and sunsets and skis and mountains and

trees and these beautiful flowers and the beaches and all

of the beauty that God created on earth. And this

is an imperfect planet. Imagine what a perfect place is

going to be like with all the sights and the

sounds and the colors and and the smells where it's

absolutely perfect, and the taste that are there. You know,

the problem with most people in heaven is because you

have a TV vision of heaven. And on television and movies,

they always predict, show heaven as, first place, it's totally white. Now,

why would God who created all the colors make heaven

so boring as all white? And then you're walking around

in fog up to about your knees. And you're wearing

a white robe and you've got angel's wings and you're

playing a harp. That would be hell. If that's heaven,

I don't want to go. I'd rather just stay here

and surf. Thank you. That's not at all what heaven's like.

But the devil wants you to have this vision of

heaven like so boring. We're all the same. The Bible

says this about heaven. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. No eye

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

has ever seen. no ear has ever heard and no

mind has ever imagined the wonderful things that God has

prepared for those who love him, for those who love him.

You know, I'll be honest with you folks. I've been

a pastor here now for four decades. I have walked

tens of thousands of people personally through their pain and

their sorrow and their suffering and their sadness. and their sickness.

And the more that I see the earth with all

of its abuse and the affairs and the assaults and

the rapes and the violence and the racism and the

prejudice and the war and all of the bad things

that we see, the evil, the terrorism, The more that

I see of that in the world, in our broken planet,

and the more that I have friends and family who've

gone ahead of me into heaven, my mother and father

are there, my older brother is there, I have a

son in heaven. The older I get, the more heaven

sounds like a good deal. And the more I look

forward to it and the more I'm ready for it.

I'm certainly not afraid to die. Now, this is why

the resurrection gives us hope. These six things. Why we

have more hope than anybody else on the planet. First,

I am completely forgiven of everything I've ever done wrong.

I'm going to go to bed tonight with a clear conscience,

knowing that even the sins that I commit tomorrow and

next year and in 10 years, if I'm still here, that...

They've already been forgiven and paid for by Jesus Christ.

I am completely forgiven. Then I know that I'm not

afraid to die because I'm just not afraid to die.

Then I have God's spirit inside me who gives me

the power to make changes in my life I could

never do on my own. Habits and hurts and hangups

and stuff that I don't like about myself that I

never could change. Now I have God's spirit inside of

me to give me strength to make these changes. I

know that God will never stop loving me. It doesn't

matter what happens in my days ahead. I know one

thing for sure. God will never, never, never stop loving me.

I know that I'm living the purpose that I was

created for. And I know that one day I'm going

to heaven without any doubt. I don't have any question

about that. I'm absolutely certain. I'm going to heaven. You

know what my prayer is for you? Is that you

would have that confidence. If you were to die tonight,

are you certain you'd go to heaven? You go, well,

I kind of hope so. Hope isn't good enough. You

need to be certain. You need to be certain. And

God wants you to be certain. God, I can help

you develop that certainty today. I guarantee I can. And

if you were to stand before God tonight and God

says to you, why should I let you into my house?

Why should I let you into my home for eternity?

Do you know the password? Do you know? He said, well,

I tried to be a nice person. Wrong answer. You

can't be good enough to get into a perfect place.

Heaven's perfect and I'm not and neither are you. You

need a savior. That's what Jesus came to do. If

Jesus didn't need to die on the cross for you,

then it was a total waste of his blood. There's

only one way. Before Jesus went back to heaven, he

said to his followers, let not your heart be troubled.

In other words, don't get discouraged. You believe in God,

believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if

I go and prepare a place for you, I will

come again and receive you unto myself that where I

am there you may be also and Thomas said Lord

we don't know where you're going and we don't know

the way and Jesus said I am the way I

am the truth I am the life no one comes

to the father except through me I'm betting my life

that Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, is not

a liar. What are you betting your life on? My

prayer for you is that you will simply open your

eyes and you will today have a moment of clarity

that maybe you've never ever seen before. You may be thinking, well,

it's a little late for me. It is never too

late to give your brokenness to God. And we're all broken.

We're all broken. Would you like to begin a life

of contagious hope? God has been preparing you for this

entire moment. And so what do I do? The Bible

says this, Romans chapter 10. If you confess with your

Romans 10 · chapter mention

mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead. That's what

Easter's all about. You will be saved. Confess with your

mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord.

What does it mean to say Jesus is Lord? It

means to say he's God and I'm not. God is

God and I'm not. Lord means you have a right

to lead me because you are my creator, you are God.

God is God and I'm not. That's what it means

to say Jesus is Lord. He's the manager. He becomes

the CEO of my life. I put on a sign

that says I'm under new management. Jesus is my Lord.

He is God in my life. I'm going to invite

you to pray a simple prayer with me, but it's

a very different kind of prayer because I don't want

you to bow your head and I don't want you

to close your eyes. I want you to keep your

eyes wide open. What I'm going to do is I'm

going to put this prayer on the screen up here.

And I wanna invite all of us to read this

prayer aloud together. And there's nothing magical or mystical about

these words. What really matters is the attitude of your heart.

If you mean it, it's important. If you don't mean it,

doesn't mean anything. But this prayer begins with the word,

dear God, today. So let's read this prayer aloud together.

Just look at the screen and make this, keep your

eyes open, make this your prayer. Let's read it aloud.

Dear God, Today, I accept all that Jesus did for

me on the cross. Thank you for forgiving everything I've

done wrong. Thank you that I don't have to fear death.

Please put your spirit of love and power in me.

Thank you that you never will stop loving me. I

want to live for the purpose that you created me for.

I trust you to take me to heaven when I die. Now,

if you didn't mean that, it didn't mean anything. But

if you sincerely meant it, this is a big deal.

This is called the moment of salvation for you. In fact,

let's congratulate the people who meant this and prayed it

for the very first time. Congratulations. Welcome. Welcome to the family. Hi, everybody.

This is Pastor Rick. Because of the generous support of

many of you Daily Hope listeners, we're able to offer

Daily Hope devotionals for free worldwide. In fact, today I

have a note from Paul in Kenya that shows how

God is at work through the Daily Hope devotionals. Paul

wrote me, he said, I'd like to sincerely thank you

for the free gift of your Daily Hope devotionals. May

God receive all the glory. For some time now, your

inspiring and encouraging messages, along with scripture references, have helped

me push through some really tough times and get closer

to God. However, Paul writes, the best part is that

my faith in God has now grown to the point

that he recently gave me the strength and wisdom to

accept his free undeserved gift of grace and salvation by

accepting and confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I feel like a new being today. And I yearn

to keep growing more and more in God's word and

in wisdom, surrendering my life to his will alone. So

please hold my hand in this journey to the glory

and honor of God through Christ Jesus. Paul, without a doubt,

I will hold your hand as you journey with Jesus.

There is no greater decision. that you could have made

than believing and receiving Jesus Christ. So congratulations. You're my

brother in Christ. And I want to encourage you to

be on the lookout every day to see how God

guides you, how God directs you. It's an exciting journey.

And by the way, keep studying his word every day.

Get a Bible and read it every day. I'm so

thankful that Daily Hope Devotional is helping you to do

just that. Now, the Daily Hope Devotional is helping many,

many people, just like Paul, all around the world to

grow closer to God. And it's free. If you're not

getting it, I want to encourage you to go to dailyhopetv.com

and sign up today.

Do you know someone who's graduating this year? Maybe it's

your son or daughter, a grandchild, or perhaps a neighbor

or family friend. As you celebrate this important milestone and

they begin the next phase of their journey, they need

to know that God created them, loves them, and has

a plan for their life. That's why Pastor Rick created

a special resource just for graduates called The Purpose Driven

Life Selected Thoughts and Scriptures for the Graduate, filled with

inspirational scripture, biblical wisdom from Pastor Rick, and beautiful imagery.

This unique hardcover gift book provides a priceless reminder of

the bountiful life God has planned for your graduate, and

it will inspire them to seek his unique plan and

purpose for their life. Don't miss this opportunity to minister

to the graduate in your life today. We'll send you

a copy to say thanks when you give a gift

to Daily Hope to help share the hope of Jesus

Christ with people around the world. Thank you.