Speaker 1: You know, none of us can earn our way into
Speaker 1: heaven because eternal life is a free gift when you
Speaker 1: accept Jesus as the Lord of your life. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, and today Rick Warren
Speaker 1: continues a series called Good News about Grace. You can't
Speaker 1: truly understand the Christian life until you understand grace. It's
Speaker 1: at the heart of your faith and your relationship with God.
Speaker 1: And in this series you're going to discover how not
Speaker 1: to only understand grace, but how to experience it and
Speaker 1: the joy that it brings. Okay, here's part one of
Speaker 1: a message called Sustaining Grace.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: The Bible tells us that God always finishes what he
Speaker 3: starts always. The first verse on the top of your
Speaker 3: outline today says this God, who began the good work
Speaker 3: within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished.
Speaker 3: I want you to circle the word will on your outline.
Speaker 3: It doesn't say God might finish it. It doesn't say
Speaker 3: God hopes to finish it. It says God will finish it.
Speaker 3: What does that mean?
Speaker 2: It means if you have really given your life.
Speaker 3: To Jesus Christ, if you've opened yourself up to God
Speaker 3: and say, Christ be number one in my life. You
Speaker 3: are going to make it to heaven. There's no doubt
Speaker 3: about it. Case closed, done, deal, finished product. You are
Speaker 3: gonna make it across the finish line because it doesn't
Speaker 3: depend upon your performance. It depends upon God's sustaining grace.
Speaker 3: The only question is how you finish the race, because
Speaker 3: you know as well as I do, that some people
Speaker 3: finish a race poorly while other finish people finish a
Speaker 3: race well. Now, as your pastor, I don't want to
Speaker 3: just get you into heaven. I don't want to just
Speaker 3: get you across the finish line. My goal is to
Speaker 3: help you finish the race of life well. I want
Speaker 3: you in enjoy life, the abundant life, to figure out
Speaker 3: what God made you here for and put you here
Speaker 3: for and do it. And God says I will help
Speaker 3: you finish the race. Now, how can we be sure
Speaker 3: we're gonna finish because of God's sustaining grace? Now, what
Speaker 3: is saving or sustaining grace? Sustaining grace is the power
Speaker 3: to keep on going when I feel like giving up?
Speaker 3: Do you ever need that? The power to keep on
Speaker 3: going when you feel like giving up? Sustaining grace is
Speaker 3: the power to do the right thing when you don't
Speaker 3: feel like doing the right thing. Now, there are many
Speaker 3: pitfalls in the marathon race of life. We're gonna talk
Speaker 3: about them this morning. But regardless of what you go through,
Speaker 3: no matter what you face this next year, you can
Speaker 3: count on God's sustaining grace being there. We'll get the
Speaker 3: next verse on your outline first Peter five eleven.
Speaker 2: Read it with me.
Speaker 3: My purpose in writing is to encourage you and to
Speaker 3: assure you that the grace of God God is with
Speaker 3: you no matter what happens. Circle that no matter what happens,
Speaker 3: God's sustaining.
Speaker 2: Grace is going to be with you. It's going to
Speaker 2: be there.
Speaker 3: Now, there are three things in life that can cause
Speaker 3: you to stumble.
Speaker 2: That can cause you to get cast off to the
Speaker 2: side of the race.
Speaker 3: It can cause you to not finish well in life,
Speaker 3: and god sustaining grace says, I will help you in
Speaker 3: each of those three situations. Number one, I can count
Speaker 3: on God's sustaining grace to help me keep on standing
Speaker 3: when I'm tempted, because temptation is the first thing that
Speaker 3: causes us to stumble. The Bible says in first Peter
Speaker 3: five eight. Watch out for the attacks from the devil,
Speaker 3: your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion,
Speaker 3: looking for some victim to devour. In other words, Satan
Speaker 3: wants to eat your lunch. Okay, And he says, take
Speaker 3: a firm stand against him. Circle that firm stand, and
Speaker 3: so be strong in the faith. Now you may not
Speaker 3: realize this, but the moment you become a believer, a
Speaker 3: battle starts in your life because you're no longer Satan's property.
Speaker 3: He's taking his hand off you and now you're in
Speaker 3: God's hands.
Speaker 2: But he doesn't like that.
Speaker 3: And there's a battle for your life every single day
Speaker 3: of your life, and you are forced with moral choices.
Speaker 2: Am I gonna do right or wrong?
Speaker 3: Good or bad? Am I going to be selfish? Or
Speaker 3: am I gonna be unselfish? And those moral choices are
Speaker 3: called temptation. Now, the Bible says we are all tempted.
Speaker 3: Everybody is tempted. You never will outgrow temptation. The Bible
Speaker 3: says even Jesus was tempted. It says he was tempted
Speaker 3: in all points like as we are, but he never sinned. Now,
Speaker 3: the good news is this, if Jesus was tempted and
Speaker 3: he never sinned. Then it means it's not a sin
Speaker 3: to be tempted. Does that make sense. It's not a
Speaker 3: sin to be tempted. It's a sin to give in
Speaker 3: to temptation. Some Christians when they're tempted to go, oh no,
Speaker 3: How could I have ever thought that one like, oh no,
Speaker 3: I'm some evil We could mean bad nasty person because
Speaker 3: a thought went to my mind. You cannot control all
Speaker 3: the thoughts that go through your mind, but you can
Speaker 3: control and you can choose to not dwell on them.
Speaker 3: In other words, I've said this many times. You can't
Speaker 3: stop the birds from going over your head, but you
Speaker 3: can keep them from building the nest in your hair.
Speaker 3: And so Satan gives you all kinds of ideas and
Speaker 3: you don't have to feel intimidated or embarrassed or ashamed
Speaker 3: of that. He just puts those ideas in your mind.
Speaker 3: It's when you dwell on them that then they become wrong,
Speaker 3: They become sin. Let's just take one air temptation, sexual temptation.
Speaker 3: God made you to be a sexual person, a sexual being.
Speaker 3: He either made you a man or a woman, and
Speaker 3: he gave you sexual feelings.
Speaker 2: Now, those feelings are not wrong. They're not bad.
Speaker 3: They're not even sin, unless you use them in a
Speaker 3: wrong way or apply them to a wrong person. Many
Speaker 3: people misunderstand and confuse attraction with lust the same thing,
Speaker 3: or they even confuse arousal with lust.
Speaker 2: They're not the same thing.
Speaker 3: If a man is sitting outside the good looking woman
Speaker 3: walks by and he goes, wow, that is one good
Speaker 3: looking woman. That's not lust, that's attraction. That's arousal. And
Speaker 3: he says, wow, look at what God's made there. That's
Speaker 3: not lust. If you're a woman and you see a
Speaker 3: good looking hunk of a man and you go you're
Speaker 3: attracted to him. You may even be aroused. You go, wow,
Speaker 3: look at that good looking man. I mean people say
Speaker 3: that about me all the time.
Speaker 2: You know that certainly is not sin. What is lust.
Speaker 2: Lust is not arousal. Lust is not attraction.
Speaker 3: Lest is when you take a thought and you begin
Speaker 3: to dwell on in your mind and you begin to
Speaker 3: mentally have an affair with that person, You begin to
Speaker 3: fantasize that person, you begin to imagine what would it
Speaker 3: be like with that person. That's when you've crossed the line.
Speaker 3: But it is not a sin to be tempted. It
Speaker 3: is a sin to give into temptation. One Corinthians ten thirteen.
Speaker 3: Let's read it aloud together. The temptations that you have
Speaker 3: are the same ones that all people have. But you
Speaker 3: can trust God. He will not let you be tempted
Speaker 3: more than you can stand. When you are tempted, God
Speaker 3: will also give you a way to escape. Then you
Speaker 3: will be able to stand it. This is called God's
Speaker 3: sustaining grace. Now, this is a terrific, fantastic promise. It
Speaker 3: says here God will never allow more temptation on you
Speaker 3: than He puts.
Speaker 2: In you to bear it up.
Speaker 3: When you say, oh, I just couldn't help myself, you're
Speaker 3: not telling the truth.
Speaker 2: I just couldn't help myself.
Speaker 3: Because God says, I will provide the sustaining grace to
Speaker 3: always give you a way of escape. It may mean
Speaker 3: turn the channel, it may mean run out the door,
Speaker 3: it may mean change the way you're thinking, but he
Speaker 3: will provide a way of escape. Now, I know this
Speaker 3: verse says that God gives us the ability to handle temptation,
Speaker 3: and he says they're the same ones that everybody has.
Speaker 3: We all in this room have the exact same temptations.
Speaker 3: They're common to human beings. Now, the good news is
Speaker 3: if temptations are common to man, that means that they
Speaker 3: are common solutions. You see, I've heard this so many times.
Speaker 3: People come to me as pastors say, you know, Rick,
Speaker 3: my situation was unique, and because it was a unique circumstance,
Speaker 3: then it must be okay for me to bend the
Speaker 3: rules a little bit and just kind of ignore what
Speaker 3: God says, because God would understand that in my situation,
Speaker 3: this is a very unique pressure. And God says, no,
Speaker 3: it's not. You don't have any unique temptations. They're the
Speaker 3: same common temptations at all of us have, So don't
Speaker 3: use that excuse. And he says, God will make a
Speaker 3: way of escape. God sustaining grace helps me stand firm
Speaker 3: when I'm tempted. More than that, number two, God sustaining
Speaker 3: grace helps me keep standing when I'm tired, because sometimes
Speaker 3: I'm not tempted. Sometimes I'm just tired. Now, would you
Speaker 3: agree with me that life is often exhausting? You get
Speaker 3: I mean, some of you look pretty exhausted this morning.
Speaker 3: You just gotta waggled in your eye, you know, and
Speaker 3: you just gotta know wormed your way in. It requires
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of strength, a lot of
Speaker 3: energy just to live life, especially especially when you're trying
Speaker 3: to do the right thing rather than the easiest thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, now, there are a lot of people in life.
Speaker 3: They don't try to do the right thing at all.
Speaker 3: They just want to do whatever is the easiest thing
Speaker 3: in life. That's what I'm gonna do. Well, that's no
Speaker 3: problem at all. You can just coast through life. You
Speaker 3: always do the easiest thing. But when you're coasting, you're
Speaker 3: always going downhill. You're always headed down when you coast.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, when you try to do the
Speaker 3: right thing, even though it's not the easiest thing, that
Speaker 3: requires energy, that requires effort, that requires strength, many of
Speaker 3: you are the only believer where you work, and it's tough.
Speaker 2: Do you ever get tired of doing what's right? Sure?
Speaker 3: Sure you do, because it's tough moving against the flow,
Speaker 3: swimming upstream, when all the cultures go on this way
Speaker 3: and you're trying to do the right thing, it's tough.
Speaker 3: It's tough being the only person in an office when
Speaker 3: you know a bunch of them starts saying, let's tell
Speaker 3: some dirty jokes. And you go, ah, I don't think
Speaker 3: I'll be a part of that part. And so the
Speaker 3: more you try to do what's right, the more energy
Speaker 3: it's going to require. And yet God says, let us
Speaker 3: not grow weary in doing right, for we will reap
Speaker 3: harvest of blessing if we do not give up. But
Speaker 3: where do you get the power to do the right
Speaker 3: thing when you don't feel like doing it and when
Speaker 3: you're dead tired? I mean, sometimes I don't want to
Speaker 3: be nice to my family. I want to be cranky.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I don't want to be nice to a clerk
Speaker 3: that's a jerk. I want to be grouchy, and sometimes
Speaker 3: I want to be rude back to people who are
Speaker 3: rude to me. Where do you get the energy to
Speaker 3: do the right thing? Well, look at this verse second
Speaker 3: Corinthians one. It is God who gives us the ability
Speaker 3: to stand firm. For Christ, there's that word again, stand firm.
Speaker 3: He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as
Speaker 3: his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Now,
Speaker 3: I want you to circle the word Holy Spirit, and
Speaker 3: then I want you to circle the phrase stand firm
Speaker 3: and draw a line between them, because those two go together.
Speaker 3: The key to the ability to not getting tired and
Speaker 3: giving up doing the right thing when you know it's
Speaker 3: the right thing to do is have the Holy Spirit
Speaker 3: in your heart. It's he who energizes you, not you
Speaker 3: and your own power. Now look up here just a minute.
Speaker 3: The reason why some of you are tired all the
Speaker 3: time is because you are trying to live the Christian
Speaker 3: life and that doesn't work. You're trying to be like Jesus.
Speaker 3: You're trying to do good, You're trying to keep the
Speaker 3: Ten Commandments, You're trying to be a person of integrity.
Speaker 3: You're trying, trying, trying, and you get tired. And people say, oh,
Speaker 3: it's so hard to be a Christian today. It's not hard.
Speaker 3: It's impossible. The only perfect person who ever lived was
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ. He's the only on one who ever lived
Speaker 3: the Christian life perfectly.
Speaker 2: And what you need to do is, rather than trying
Speaker 2: to be like Jesus, let Jesus be Jesus in you.
Speaker 2: Let Jesus be Jesus through you.
Speaker 3: Stop trying, trying, trying, trying, trying, try and trying, and
Speaker 3: just start trusting, trusting, trusting. The key to the Christian
Speaker 3: life is not trying. It's trusting. It's not psych yourself up.
Speaker 3: Work real hard and try to do your best and
Speaker 3: perform so God will smile at you. No, it's relaxed.
Speaker 3: Trust and let Christ live through you, and He will
Speaker 3: give you the power you need. Probably the man who
Speaker 3: was the most persistent man ever in the Bible was Moses.
Speaker 3: He had incredible endurance. How did he keep on keeping
Speaker 3: on in spite of the fact that he spent forty
Speaker 3: years waiting in the wilderness and then another forty years
Speaker 3: wandering in the wilderness leading a bunch of spiritual babies
Speaker 3: around the desert. How did he not give up? How
Speaker 3: did he not get tired and quit? The Bible says
Speaker 3: he had God's sustaining grace.
Speaker 2: In his life.
Speaker 3: That's how you keep on going when you're tired. Do
Speaker 3: you know how many years it took Noah to build
Speaker 3: the Ark? The Bible says, and twenty years. Can you
Speaker 3: imagine waiting one hundred and twenty years for anything? He said, well,
Speaker 3: I plan to be dead twenty years prior to that. Well,
Speaker 3: you know, in those days they lived a whole lot longer.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they didn't have preservatives in the food,
Speaker 3: or you know, they all took herbal life, or I
Speaker 3: don't know what they did, but you know there's something.
Speaker 2: They were they lived longer.
Speaker 3: But the point is is that Noah waited one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty years. How did he have the ability to
Speaker 3: keep on keeping on when he was tired? Surely he
Speaker 3: must have gotten tired building that arc. The Bible tells
Speaker 3: us in Genesis chapter six, it says, Noah found grace
Speaker 3: in the eyes of the Lord. God wants to give
Speaker 3: you his power to do it, to do what you
Speaker 3: need to do. Notice the next verse Philippians two thirteen,
Speaker 3: read it with me, for God is at work within you,
Speaker 3: giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose. Lotus,
Speaker 3: it says, will and power the Christian life is not
Speaker 3: a matter of willpower your willpower, but a matter of
Speaker 3: God's will and God's power in your life. And when
Speaker 3: God gives you the will and the power to do something,
Speaker 3: you'll be able to do it. God never asks you
Speaker 3: to do something he doesn't give you the power to do. Now,
Speaker 3: would you agree that God has more power than you?
Speaker 2: Obviously? For instance, God made the sun.
Speaker 3: Did you know that the sun produces more power in
Speaker 3: one single second than all of the human race have
Speaker 3: used throughout the entire history of the human race. More
Speaker 3: energy is produced in one second than we've all used
Speaker 3: throughout history. Did you know that the sun has enough
Speaker 3: energy to burn for thirty billion more years?
Speaker 2: And yet God made the sun. That's the kind of
Speaker 2: power he's got.
Speaker 3: And then he comes to you and he says, by
Speaker 3: the way, you need some power, or I will give
Speaker 3: you the will and the power.
Speaker 2: To handle it.
Speaker 3: You see, because God's power is not unlimited, he never
Speaker 3: gets tired. You know, when it says in Creation on
Speaker 3: the seventh Day God rested, it wasn't because he was tired.
Speaker 3: It was because he was finished. He had just finished
Speaker 3: with creation. The point is, God says, I will energize
Speaker 3: those of you who trust me. Now there's another way.
Speaker 3: God gives us his sustaining grace, not just when I'm tempted,
Speaker 3: not just when I'm tired. But God's distaining grace gives
Speaker 3: me the power to keep going when I'm troubled. When
Speaker 3: I'm troubled, in other words, when I have problems, When
Speaker 3: I have difficulties, Jesus said, in the world, you will
Speaker 3: have trouble.
Speaker 2: He said expected.
Speaker 3: Don't be surprised, don't be blown away by it. You're
Speaker 3: gonna have difficulties, you will have obstacles, you will have
Speaker 3: a situations that you cannot handle, and he says, I
Speaker 3: will give.
Speaker 2: You the power.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks so much for joining us here on Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick's Daily Hope. I've got some exciting news to share
Speaker 1: with you today. Some generous friends of Daily Hope have
Speaker 1: offered a ten thousand dollars matching grant, and that means
Speaker 1: whatever amount you give to help share the hope of
Speaker 1: Jesus worldwide is going to be matched up to ten
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Speaker 3: You know, I just want to take a quick second
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Speaker 3: I want to ask you to ask God about sending
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Speaker 3: at this point of the year, we have a donor
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Speaker 3: you give will be doubled. We get twice the bang
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Speaker 3: can maximize it through this matching gift. And I want
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Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
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