Rick Warren - Leave It In God's Hands - He Sees Your Pain & Hears Your Cry

I don't know what you're going through today. You may

be having a financial crisis, a physical crisis, a conflict

in your marriage. I don't care. I do care, but

I mean, I don't know what you're going through. But

I would say this. You have a heavenly Father in

heaven who is close, caring, competent, capable, and consistent. And

he cares. And if you're going through the dark days,

you need to get your eyes off the pain and

onto the Father. Father. Father. That God who knows everything

that's going on in your life, sees everything that's going

on in your life, cares about everything that's going on

in your life, has the power to change everything in

your life, and will help you if you will trust him.

When you are going through your darkest day, there are

four truths you need to remember. Number one, first thing

to remember is I have a Father in heaven who

loves me. I have a Father in heaven who loves me.

This is the first thing you need to remember when

you're going through a dark day. When Jesus taught us

to pray, he said, you're to pray like this, our

Father who art in heaven. That blew everybody's mind because

up to this point, every faith, every religion taught that

God is distant. God is big, he's powerful, he's cosmic,

he's mighty, he may be merciful, but you certainly don't

call him father. But Jesus changed it all. He blew

the stereotypes. And he said, when you talk to God,

you talk to him like he's your daddy. In fact,

the word he used in Aramaic, Abba, literally means daddy, papa.

It's the first word every Middle East child learns, Abba. Dada, Papa,

it's easy to say. And so Jesus told us, when

you pray, start with praying, Father. And when Jesus is

dying on the cross, his last words there, he starts

with the word, Father. Now, the judgment period for sin

is all over. He's now reconciled to God. He's not

talking to some impersonal force, some uninterested, distant deity. He's

talking to Father. The Bible says this, John 16, 28,

Jesus said, I came from the Father and I entered

the world and now I'm leaving the world and I'm

going back to the Father. So what do we know

about God since he wants us to call him Father?

A lot of people have a problem with this because

they had bad dads. And their dad was distant, their

dad was demeaning, their dad was destructive. Their dad was,

you know, detached. Is that the way our father in

heaven is? No. The Bible tells us that God is

a caring father. He's a consistent father. He's a close father.

And he's a capable father. And he loves you more

than you can even possibly imagine. The Bible says in

Psalm 103, verse 13, as a father has compassion on

Psalms 103:13

his children, So the Lord, that's God, has compassion on

those who honor him. I want you to write this

down in your outline. God loves me more than I do.

That's probably a shock to some of you. God loves

me more than I do. Did you know that you

don't love yourself as much as God loves you? God

loves you more than you love you because God is love.

God is the essence of all love. It all came

from him. And no matter what you are facing right now,

you need to say, I have a father in heaven

who loves me. That's how he starts. But he doesn't

just love you. And here's the second thing you need

to remember. It's in this sentence. Not only do I

have a father in heaven who loves me, number two,

my father can be trusted. My father, talking about in heaven,

the God of heaven, he can be trusted. You can

trust him. And this is the word of the trust.

Jesus says, Father, I entrust my spirit, I entrust my

life into your care. That's why I call this the

word of trust. Now one of the greatest decisions you're

gonna have to make in life is this. Who are

you going to trust? You gotta make that decision. Who

are you going to trust? Who are you going to

trust with your life? Who are you going to trust

with your life? I want to make a recommendation. I

recommend that you put your trust into someone who, A,

knows everything, B, will always put your interest first, and C,

will always tell you the truth even if it hurts.

Now there's one person who's always going to do that. God.

Because he's perfect. And I want to suggest that you

always put your trust in him. Father, I entrust. I'm

going to trust you with my life. I'm going through

this dark period right now. I don't know which way

I'm going. I don't know which way is up. I

don't know where I'm going to be in the next

five days, much less five months. But I'm going to

entrust my spirit into your care. Psalm 33, verse 4

Psalms 33:4

in the Bible says this. For every word of the

Lord holds true. And everything he does is worthy of

our trust. Friends, you can't say that about anybody. You

can't say that about me, your pastor. I love you,

but you can't trust everything I do because I'm a

fallible human being. You can't trust any human being to

always do the right thing. But you can trust God.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day and it

said this. God said it. I believe it, that settles it. Okay, fine.

I'm gonna make a new bumper sticker that says, God

said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not.

Because truth is not based on whether I believe it

or not. I could say, I don't believe the moon's

made of rock, it's still made of rock. I could say,

I believe the moon's made of cheese. Doesn't matter what

I believe, what matters is the truth. God said it,

that settles it, whether I believe it or not. I'm

gonna put my trust in your word. Now when Jesus

says this, Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands,

this word, entrust, in Greek, it's paridithemi. Paridithemi actually means

to deposit. It's the word that they would use for

a safety deposit box. You know what a safety deposit

box is. You go to a bank, you rent a box,

and you put your most valuable property in that box

for safekeeping. And in that safety deposit box, it's locked,

it's safe, it's secure, and nobody's gonna get at it.

And you've made a deposit in that safety box. That's

what this word means, to entrust. You say, God, I'm

gonna take my life, I'm gonna take the good, the bad,

and the in-between, the ugly, the beautiful, every part, and

I'm gonna entrust it, I'm gonna deposit it in your

safety box. And I'm gonna put my life, which is valuable,

there for your safekeeping. The point is this, whatever I

give to God, I can trust him to take care of.

I can give stuff to other people and I can't

always trust them to take care of it. But that's

one of the things that God says in this verse.

I have a track record of faithfulness. And he says,

I want you to make a deposit in the safety

deposit box in heaven. And I want you to trust

me with stuff. So here's the question. What do you

need to entrust to your heavenly father? What do you

need to trust or entrust to your heavenly father? You say, well,

I don't know. Well, let me give you a little hint.

Anything you worry about, that's what you need to entrust

to your Heavenly Father. Anything you worry about, You're worried

about your health? You need to entrust that to your

Heavenly Father. You're worried about your future? You need to

entrust that to your Heavenly Father. You're worried about your

marriage or getting married or having a baby or raising

the kids or a new job? You need to entrust.

Anything you worry about needs to be entrusted to your

Heavenly Father. I've told you this before. Worry is practical atheism.

It's acting like there's no God, no Heavenly Father who

loves you and can be trusted. Every time you worry,

it's a warning light. You stop trusting God. It is

an evidence of unbelief. It's a failure to trust. Now,

the most difficult time to trust God, of course, is

when you're in pain. Remember, Jesus is on the cross.

He's just had six hours of torture on the cross

and hours and hours of torture before that. He's in

enormous pain. Loss of blood, loss of sleep, no water, dehydrated,

bleeding to death. And in his worst pain, he says,

I entrust you. And that's when you're in pain, when

you need to trust the most. Paul knew this, look

at the next verse. It's up here on the screen.

Paul says, I'm suffering here in prison, but I'm not

ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom

I trust. And I am sure, that's confident, I am

sure that he is able to protect and keep. That

means put in the safety deposit box. I am sure

that the one I trust in, he's able to protect

and keep what I've entrusted to him until the day

of his return. That's what it means to trust God. God,

I'm gonna trust you to do what I can't do.

I'm gonna trust you. And the point is that he

does the keeping. Now, you know, sometimes I talk to

people who say, you know, I would follow Jesus Christ,

but I don't know that I could be consistent. I'm

afraid I would kind of flake out. I'm afraid that

I'd get weak and I'd walk away. I'd like to

be saved. I'd like to have experienced salvation in my life.

But I'm not afraid that I can keep my commitment.

Let me let you in on a little secret. You

don't do the keeping. He does it. He does the keeping.

You put your life in the safety deposit box. He

turns the key. He keeps it safe. It is not

your job to keep yourself saved. It is God's job

to keep you saved. to make sure that you make

it to heaven. And God will save whatever I put

in that safety deposit box. Now, a lot of people think, well,

you know, but what if I let go? I've told

you this story before. One time we went to the

Grand Canyon, and the family, we were there, and Matthew

and Josh were little boys, and we walked up to

the edge, and I grabbed ahold of both hands. And

my boys were both They have this adventuresome spirit. I

think they get it from their mother. But they were

risk takers. And they always wanted to get closer to

the edge than I would want them to be. Now,

they're squirming and they let go of my hand. Do

you think I'm gonna let go of theirs? Not a chance. Why?

Because I am their loving father. And your heavenly Father

holds onto your hand. Once you come to Christ and

you say, Jesus Christ, I'm putting my hand in your hand.

I'm trusting you today. He grabs on. Now, there are

gonna be times in your life you wanna let go. God,

it's not really convenient to believe in you right now.

It's not really convenient to follow the word of God

right now. It's not really convenient to be a follower

of Jesus Christ. I wanna let go. You may wanna

let go. He's never letting go. He is able to

keep what you've committed. He does the keeping. You just

do the trusting. Now while I'm on this, let me

just cover a couple of special occasions that people often

ask about and I don't ever get a chance to

talk about it. People often ask me, well what about

babies and mentally ill or mentally incapacitated who don't have

the capacity to believe in Jesus Christ and can't commit

themselves to Christ? Where are they going to go when

they die? The answer is real quick. Heaven. They're going

to heaven. If a baby dies or someone who's mentally

incapacitated dies, they immediately go to heaven. The Bible says,

Psalm 116, verse 6, the Lord protects the simple hearted.

Psalms 116:6

One example, I could give you a lot of these.

When King David's baby infant son died, in 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, he said, can I bring him back to me?

Can I bring him back in? The answer is no.

I will go to him someday, but he will not

return to me. So if a baby or a child

who has not learned the difference between right and wrong,

doesn't have the capacity to accept the salvation of God's grace,

immediately goes into the presence of God. Does that make sense? Okay,

so there's one. Here's another question I'm often asked. What

about people who are true believers and then later on

in life stop believing? Are they gonna fall away? Are

they gonna, you know, they kind of fall away from

their faith here. What's gonna happen to those people? Maybe

they go join a cult or something. And what happens

to them? The answer is this. They do not lose heaven.

They do lose some reward in heaven. They do not

lose their salvation. Now let me explain it this way.

I was born into my dad and mother's family. And

I was in that family and I had great fellowship

with them with joy and love and had a great

relationship with my parents. But let's say one day I

had decided to become an international drug runner. And I

get involved in terrorism and acts of genocide and all

kinds of things. The relationship would be strained, the fellowship

would be broken, but I don't care if the fellowship's broken,

I'm still their son. Nothing will ever make me not

their son. If you have a child in your family

and your child loves you and grows up and learns

to love you, one day they get mad at you,

they walk out of the house by their own volition,

they walk out of the house, they're still your child.

Once you're born, you can't be unborn. Once you're born again,

you can't be unborn again. You are safe, does that

make sense? You are safe. You might lose the fellowship,

And there might be strained fellowship between us. We're not

talking to each other. But you're still my daughter. You're

still my son. And the Bible says that. Look at

this verse. 2 John chapter 1 verse 7-8. Many deceivers.

2 John 1:7–8

There are people out there trying to mess everybody up

all the time. Many deceivers who don't acknowledge Jesus is

coming in the flesh have gone out into the world.

So he said, you know, not everything you hear out

there is true. Watch out. So that you don't lose

what you have worked for. Circle the phrase worked for.

Watch out that you don't lose what you have worked for. Okay?

But that you will be fully rewarded. Now, question. Do

you work for your salvation? Huh? No. So if you didn't,

this is not what he's talking about here. He's not

talking about salvation. Because you don't work for your salvation.

You don't earn it. It was all done for you.

You don't work for it. That's the difference between Christianity

and every other religion. Every other religion is a do

and they all have their list of do's and don'ts.

Christianity says done. It's already been done for you on

the cross by Jesus Christ. He did what we can't do.

So he's not talking about that. He's saying the rewards

that you're going to have in heaven, you could lose

some of those. Let me ask you, this one's very

personal to me. What about believers who commit suicide? Okay,

and in a moment take their own life. And the

answer is, if they were a true believer, they're going

to heaven. They're going to heaven. We'll say, isn't suicide

an unpardonable sin? The answer is no, it is not.

It is not. In fact, the Bible says there's only

one sin that is unforgivable, only one. It's called blasphemy

against the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? What is

blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? It means rejecting God's grace

And rejecting Christ all the way up to death. It

means to die rejecting Christ. So let me put your

mind at ease. Because some of you think, have I

ever committed the unpardonable sin? The unforgivable sin. You wonder

about that. Number one, if you've ever worried that you've

committed a sin, you haven't. Because if you had, you

wouldn't worry about it. Okay, so if you worry I've

done the one unforgivable sin, you ain't done it friend, sorry.

The fact that you're worried about it, you're concerned about

it means you still have a conscience. So if you've

ever worried about it, you haven't done it. Second thing

is if you're alive, you haven't committed the sin. Because

you can only commit it by dying, rejecting Christ. So

if you're alive, you cannot commit this sin. You can

only commit it by dying, saying, forget you, God, and

I croak, and I die. Does that ease up anybody's

mind a little bit here? You can't do it without dying. Now,

number three, let's go to the third great news. When

I'm going through dark days, I have a Father in

heaven who loves me, And when I'm going through dark days,

I remind myself that I have a father in heaven

who can be trusted. He doesn't just love me. I

can trust him with every area of my life. And

I shouldn't worry. I should commit it and trust everything

I'm worrying about to him. Number three, my father is

taking care of things I can't see. This is the

third thing we learn from this passage, is that my

father in heaven is taking care of the things that

I can't see. We only see the physical things in life.

We only see the material things in life. But we

know that there's a lot of things going on in

life we can't see. Just because you can't see it

doesn't mean it's not real. And God is taking care

of the things that you can't see. So when you're

in your dark days, you can't see the solution. When

you're in the dark, you can't see the antidote. You

can't see the solution, the problem that's solved. And while

you're waiting, God is working. And what you need to

do is trust. While you're waiting for that job, while

you're waiting for that answer to prayer, while you're waiting

for that change, while you're waiting, God is working. And

that's why you need to trust. I entrust my spirit.

Circle that word, my spirit. That implies that you're far

more than a body, and of course you are Life

is far more than material or physical. You're made in

the image of God, which means you have a spirit,

you have a soul. Now the Bible says that here

on earth, there's an unseen battle going on for your

soul between good and evil. Let me give you a

couple examples where you have to trust. Job says it

like this. When he, talking about God, when he is

at work in the north, I don't see him. And

when he, God, turns to the south, I catch no

glimpse of it. In other words, I don't see God

with my physical eyes, but he says, he, God, knows

the way that I take. And when he has tested me,

I will come forth as gold. That dark spot you're

in right now, this is a test. And although you

cannot see God, he can see you. And God can

see what you cannot see. And you can trust God

that he loves you that he cares for you, that

he can be trusted, and that he's taking care of

the things that you cannot see. Paul says the same thing,

2 Corinthians 4. Our light and momentary troubles are achieving

for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So,

he says, we fix, by the way, what does that

part mean? He's saying that the problems you're going through

right now God's purpose is greater than the problem you're

going through. And what you need to do is get

your eye on God's purpose rather than your problem. That's

what it means. Father, I entrust myself to your care.

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an

eternal glory, a greater purpose that far outweighs them all. So,

he says, here's the solution. We fix our eyes not

on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For

what is seen is temporary. but what is unseen is eternal.

One last thing you need to remember when you're going

through dark days. These are all four important, and the

fourth one is this. My Father can handle anything I

put in His hands. My Father can handle anything I

put in His hands. He loves me, He's trustworthy, He's

taking care of things I can't see, and he can

handle anything I put in his hands. That's the last

part of the phrase. Father, he's a loving father, I entrust,

he's trustworthy, my spirit, he handles the spiritual stuff we

can't even see in the spiritual world, I entrust it

into your hands. This phrase, into your hands, is a

beautiful expression of care and security. So I just end

with this, and you can write this down real quickly.

How big is God's hands? How big are they? How

big are his hands? We'll write these down. Number one,

God's hands are big enough to bless me. God's hands

are big enough to bless me. Jesus often put his

hands on people to bless them and in Isaiah 62

it says, the Lord will hold you in his hands

for all to see a splendid crown in the hands

of God. They're big enough to bless me. Number two,

God's hands are big enough, they're strong enough to keep

me eternally secure. God's hands are strong enough to keep

me eternally secure. If I put my life in that lockbox,

in that safety deposit box, it ain't going anywhere. Jesus

said it like this, very important verse. Follow me on it.

John 10, Jesus says, I give them, that's you, eternal life,

and they will never, circle the word never, never perish.

My Father has given them to me, and he's greater

than all, and no one can snatch them out of

my Father's hands. You cannot lose your salvation once it's

been given to you. Nobody can snatch you out of

God's hand. Even Satan can't snatch you out of God's hands.

You say, well, you can't be snatched out of God's hands.

Maybe you could jump out on your own. How big

do you think God's hand is? You think you can

get to the edge of it? and then fall off? No,

God's hand's so big, and you're in God's hands, there's

no way you can fall out of it. There's a

third thing you need to know about the hands of God,

it's this. His hands are scarred. Yes, the hands of

Jesus are scarred with the nail prints so that he

cannot forget me. Do you know that in heaven, you're

gonna have a perfect body? There will be no scars

in heaven. Aren't you grateful for that? No flaws on

your body in heaven? No warts, no pimples, no scars, none.

The only scars that will be on anybody in heaven

will be on Jesus. From his hands and his head

and his side and his feet. And they're going to

be there for eternity to always be reminders of us

of what it cost him to pay for our salvation.

The Bible says this, Isaiah 49, can a mother forget

the baby at her breast and have no compassion for

on the child she is born? The obvious answer is

of course not. The nursing mother could not forget her baby.

Though she may forget, he says, I'm not, God says,

I'm not gonna forget you. I have engraved you on

the palms of my hands. When you look at the

nail prints of the cross, Jesus says, this is how

much I love you. This is how much I love you.

I love you this much. I have engraved you on

the palms of my hands. God has a tattoo of you.

You get a tattoo of people you love. God has

a tattoo of you. I have engraved you on the

palms of my hands when they were nailed to the cross. Now,

I don't know what you're going through, but I advise

you to do this. Last verse. Paul says this. I

think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard

times that we went through in Asia. We were really crushed.

And we were overwhelmed. And we feared death. We feared

that we would never live through it. Some of you

feel that way right now. And we felt we were

doomed to die. And we saw how powerless we were. But,

here's the big change. But that was good. You know

the problems you're going through? Those are good. Why? For

then we put everything into the hands of God who

alone could save us. For he can even raise the dead.

give it to God. Commit it. Deposit it in the

safety deposit box. I mentioned earlier that Jesus was quoting

Psalm 31, the greatest psalm. And I mentioned that probably

Mary probably taught that Jesus it's like now I lay

me down to sleep. You know when I was little,

a little little boy, when I'd get scared at night

time I'd go in and I'd fall asleep on my

parents bed. I'd actually try to get between them. and

I'd try to fall asleep between my parents because I

felt safe there. And after I'd fall asleep, my daddy

would pick me up in his strong arms and his

big hands and he would carry me back to my

bed after I'd fallen asleep. And in the morning, I

would wake up and something amazing would happen. I would

be awake in my own bed. Why? Because while I

was sleeping, my father would carry me with loving arms

to where I belonged. And I've thought about that a

lot as that is a perfect picture of what it

means to die as a believer in Jesus Christ. One day,

you will go to sleep And your heavenly Father will

pick you up in his loving arms. And he will

take you to where you belong for eternity. And that's

what heaven is all about. Friends, this is a theme

that you need the rest of your life. It's not

something just to say when you're dying, Father, into your

hands I commit my spirit. It's something to say every

single day of your life. When you are fearful, Father,

I entrust my spirit into your hands. When you're angry, Father,

I entrust my spirit into your hands. When you're worried, Father,

I entrust my spirit into your hands. When you're depressed, Father,

I trust my spirit into your hands. When you're confused, Father,

I trust my spirit into your hands. When you're in

despair and you don't know which way to go, Father,

I entrust my spirit into your hands. When you have

a big decision, Father, I trust my spirit into your hands.

You need to use this theme every day the rest

of your life.