Speaker 1: Are Heaven and Hell real places?
Speaker 2: And what are they like?
Speaker 1: Today? On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry
Speaker 1: of Rick Warren, we begin a series called Eternal Realities,
Speaker 1: Heaven and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the
Speaker 1: Bible says about heaven and Hell and how you can
Speaker 1: be absolutely certain you'll go to Heaven. Okay, let's get started.
Speaker 1: Here's part one of a message called the Reality of Hell.
Speaker 3: This week, I was sitting laying back in a dentist's chair.
Speaker 3: My mouth is wide open. There are all kinds of
Speaker 3: utensils in my mouth. And the technician leans over and says, so,
Speaker 3: what happens after I die? I said, it all depends
Speaker 3: on how much you hurt me. I said, I do
Speaker 3: know this. We don't need dentists in heaven.
Speaker 2: Now. You may need them in Hell, but we won't
Speaker 2: need them in heaven.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to know the answer to that question, what
Speaker 3: happens after I die?
Speaker 2: And so for the.
Speaker 3: Next two weeks we're going to do a little mini
Speaker 3: series on heaven and Hell. I'm calling it Eternal Realities. Now,
Speaker 3: the Bible tells us that everything you see is temporary,
Speaker 3: and what you don't see is what's going to last.
Speaker 3: The eternal realities are things you don't see.
Speaker 2: The things you see.
Speaker 3: Right now are all temporary. If their material or they're physical,
Speaker 3: they're not going to last. Your body is not going
Speaker 3: to last, that's obvious. This building's not going to last.
Speaker 3: The trees and even mountains eode. Everything that's material fades away.
Speaker 3: But the things that are going to last, the things
Speaker 3: we can't see. We can't see God, we can't see
Speaker 3: the angels, can't see the God's holy spirit, we can't
Speaker 3: see heaven. The Bible says those things are going to last.
Speaker 2: For now.
Speaker 3: Our text today is out of Second Corinthians, chapter four
Speaker 3: and five. If you have a Bible, you can open
Speaker 3: the Second Corinthians four verse sixteen. Let me read it
Speaker 3: to you out of the contemporary English version. It says this,
Speaker 3: our bodies are gradually decaying and becoming weaker. Anybody want
Speaker 3: to give a testimony on that? Yeah, okay, our bodies
Speaker 3: are gradually decaying and becoming weaker, but our spirits inside
Speaker 3: of us are growing stronger each day. Now, these little
Speaker 3: troubles that we face here on earth are getting us
Speaker 3: ready for an eternal glory that will make all of
Speaker 3: our troubles seem like nothing.
Speaker 2: Now, listen to this.
Speaker 3: The things that are seen don't last forever, but the
Speaker 3: things that are not seen are eternal. And that's why
Speaker 3: we keep our minds on the things that we cannot see.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm calling this series Eternal Realities. Now, our
Speaker 3: bodies are like tents that we live in here on earth.
Speaker 3: Some of us have big tents.
Speaker 2: But when these tents are.
Speaker 3: Destroyed, God will give us each a new place to live.
Speaker 3: And our new bodies and our homes are in heaven
Speaker 3: and they will last forever. Now, these physical tints that
Speaker 3: we now live in right now are heavy burdens, and
Speaker 3: we've grown not just because we want to leave these
Speaker 3: bodies that are going to die, but because we want
Speaker 3: to exchange them.
Speaker 2: For bodies that will never die.
Speaker 3: God is the one who makes all of this possible,
Speaker 3: and he has given us his spirit to make certain
Speaker 3: that he will do it.
Speaker 2: So always be cheerful.
Speaker 3: Now, as long as we are in these earthly bodies,
Speaker 3: we're going we are away from the Lord. So we
Speaker 3: live by faith, not by what we see. I can't
Speaker 3: see God, I can't see Heaven. I can't see angels.
Speaker 3: I can't see all the spiritual reality, so he says,
Speaker 3: we live by faith.
Speaker 2: Not by what we see.
Speaker 3: Now, we'd rather leave these bodies and be at home
Speaker 3: with the Lord, in other words, in heaven. But whether
Speaker 3: we're with the Lord or whether we're away from him,
Speaker 3: we still try our best.
Speaker 2: To please him.
Speaker 3: After all, Christ will judge each of us for the
Speaker 3: good or the bad that we do while living in
Speaker 3: these bodies. Now, the point that Paul is making here
Speaker 3: in Second Corinthians is that spiritual realities are more real
Speaker 3: than physical realities, that these are the things are going
Speaker 3: to last forever, and we need to focus on those things.
Speaker 3: First Corinthians thirteen twelve, and the Amplified says this.
Speaker 2: In fact, let's read it aloud together.
Speaker 3: Right now, we are looking in a mirror that gives
Speaker 3: only a dim reflection of reality. But one day we
Speaker 3: shall see reality face to face.
Speaker 2: Now, for the next two weeks.
Speaker 3: We're going to look at the reality of heaven and
Speaker 3: the reality of Hell, two of the eternal realities that
Speaker 3: God wants us to understand. What are the realities of life?
Speaker 3: One of the realities of the universe. Well, they're all
Speaker 3: found in this book God's Word that I've been teaching
Speaker 3: now for about thirty five years, and this morning I
Speaker 3: want us just start before we actually look at the
Speaker 3: text and the subject, I want us to look at
Speaker 3: five spiritual realities. And we've covered these many many times,
Speaker 3: but let's just go back and review. The first reality
Speaker 3: of life is this. God made you to love you,
Speaker 3: and he wants you to learn to love him back.
Speaker 3: That is the first and foremost reality of life. That
Speaker 3: God exists, and he made you to love you, and
Speaker 3: he wants you to love him back. You see, you
Speaker 3: were made How many times have I said this? You
Speaker 3: were made by God and you were made for God.
Speaker 2: And until you understand that, life isn't going to make sense.
Speaker 3: Because it's all about God and it's all for his glory.
Speaker 3: And God made you and he made you to love you.
Speaker 3: You were created as an object of God's love. And
Speaker 3: if God hadn't wanted to love you, he wouldn't have
Speaker 3: made you. There has never been a person made that
Speaker 3: God doesn't love. And not only does he love you,
Speaker 3: He's given you the capacity to learn to love him back,
Speaker 3: to get to know him back. And that's the first
Speaker 3: purpose of life, to learn to love God back. The
Speaker 3: Bible says, all of the great commandments, Jesus say. To
Speaker 3: summarize the first one, love God with all your heart
Speaker 3: and soul and mind and strength. And love your neighbor
Speaker 3: as yourself. Those are the two first great commandments. So
Speaker 3: it's all about love. And so God says, I made
Speaker 3: you to love you, and I want you to learn to.
Speaker 2: Love me back. First reality of life.
Speaker 3: In fact, God says this in the Book of Jeremiah,
Speaker 3: chapter thirty one, verse three.
Speaker 2: It's up here on the screen.
Speaker 3: He says, I have loved you with an everlasting love,
Speaker 3: and with unfailing love. I have drawn you to myself.
Speaker 3: God says, I'm trying to draw you to me. I
Speaker 3: want you to get to know me, and I want
Speaker 3: you to understand how much I love you. And he
Speaker 3: wants you to know and love him back. Now, the
Speaker 3: second great reality of life is this. You were made
Speaker 3: to last forever. You were made to last forever. One
Speaker 3: day your heart's going to stop, and that's going to
Speaker 3: be the end of your body. But it's certainly not
Speaker 3: going to be the end of you. The Bible says
Speaker 3: that you and I, as human beings, were created in
Speaker 3: the image of God, which means God put in us eternity.
Speaker 3: In fact, the Bible says this in Ecclesiastes three elevens.
Speaker 3: On the screen, he has planted eternity in the human heart.
Speaker 3: And that's why, no matter how good things are on
Speaker 3: this planet, there's still a longing in you, and at
Speaker 3: some point in your life you go, there's got to
Speaker 3: be more than this. And the truth is there is more, much,
Speaker 3: much more heaven. You're going to spend far more time
Speaker 3: on the other side of death than on this side.
Speaker 3: On this side you get sixty eighty one hundred years.
Speaker 3: On the other side of death you get trillions and
Speaker 3: trillions and trillions and trillions of years. This is the
Speaker 3: warm up back the preschool, the first lap around the race.
Speaker 3: But the real life is going to go on in eternity,
Speaker 3: and the Bible says that this side is getting ready
Speaker 3: for that side. Life is preparation for eternity. You were
Speaker 3: made to last forever, and He put eternity.
Speaker 2: In your heart.
Speaker 3: Now because of that, we have the third great reality
Speaker 3: of life. And the third great reality is that God
Speaker 3: is prepared to eternal places.
Speaker 2: Heaven and hell.
Speaker 3: Heaven is real and Hell is real, and there by
Speaker 3: the way, not just states of being. They're not just
Speaker 3: some kind of amorphous No body float in the clouds,
Speaker 3: wonder where it is.
Speaker 2: They are literal places.
Speaker 3: There is a real place called Heaven, and there is
Speaker 3: a real place called Hell. We're going to look at
Speaker 3: these for the next two weeks. The Bible tells us
Speaker 3: first that there's a real heaven. Jesus said this in
Speaker 3: John fourteen two and three. Up here on the screen.
Speaker 3: He said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Now,
Speaker 3: Notice heaven's not an accident. It is a prepared place.
Speaker 3: And he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you.
Speaker 3: Now first notice it's a place. It's not a state
Speaker 3: of being. It is an actual I'm going to prepare
Speaker 3: a place. And who is Heaven prepared for? It says,
Speaker 3: what for you? God is preparing it for us to
Speaker 3: be a part of His family. And he says, and
Speaker 3: if I go and prepare a place for you, I
Speaker 3: will come again and receive you unto myself.
Speaker 2: That where you may be.
Speaker 3: Also, he says, I where I'm going I want you
Speaker 3: to go to. And heaven is the presence of God.
Speaker 3: But it is a place. In fact, the Bible. He
Speaker 3: tells us a lot about heaven. We're going to look
Speaker 3: at it next week. But look at this verse Matthew
Speaker 3: twenty five thirty four. Jesus says this, come, you who
Speaker 3: are blessed by my Father, Take your inheritance. The kingdom
Speaker 3: prepared for you. See there's that word again. God prepared
Speaker 3: heaven for us. Since read it with me. The creation
Speaker 3: of the world. Notice that when God created the world,
Speaker 3: he was also creating heaven. God has been preparing heaven
Speaker 3: since the beginning of the world, says from the creation
Speaker 3: of the world, from the foundation of the world. Why
Speaker 3: because this is not your permanent resting spot, this is
Speaker 3: not your p abode. I'm grateful that we don't live
Speaker 3: forever on this planet. Why this planet's broken because the
Speaker 3: sin and suffering and sorrow and sickness and evil. Nothing
Speaker 3: works on this planet. There's nothing perfect on this planet
Speaker 3: except the word of God. No relationship is perfect, no
Speaker 3: job is perfect, no body works perfectly. Everything's broken on
Speaker 3: the planet because a sin. So I'm glad we don't
Speaker 3: have to stay on a broken planet. We're going to
Speaker 3: go to a place of perfection. And he said, we're
Speaker 3: going to spend eternity. There that heaven is a real place,
Speaker 3: but Hell is also a real place. And notice here
Speaker 3: on the scripture, here's what the Bible says, Jesus said.
Speaker 3: Then he that's God, will say to those on his left,
Speaker 3: depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal
Speaker 3: fire prepared for read it with me the devil and
Speaker 3: his angels. Now the Satan's angels are called demons.
Speaker 2: There. Satan rebelled against.
Speaker 3: God, and so God created a place. And notice that
Speaker 3: Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It
Speaker 3: wasn't originally intended for human beings.
Speaker 2: Did you get that?
Speaker 3: He said, I'm going to prepare a place for you.
Speaker 2: It's called heaven.
Speaker 3: But he said Hell was prepared for the devil and
Speaker 3: his angels. Now, if I choose to rebel against God,
Speaker 3: just like Satan did, and I choose to reject God,
Speaker 3: and I choose to say I'm going to be my
Speaker 3: own God, I'm going to do what I want to do,
Speaker 3: be what I want to be, say what I want
Speaker 3: to say. Then if I rebel like Satan, I go
Speaker 3: where Satan goes. But it's not originally planned for human beings.
Speaker 3: It was planned as a punishment for Satan and his angels.
Speaker 3: So there is a real heaven, and there is a
Speaker 3: real hell. Now here's the fourth reality. You get to
Speaker 3: choose where you'll spend eternity. You get to choose where
Speaker 3: you will spend eternity.
Speaker 2: It's your choice. Now.
Speaker 3: This is the same kind of choice that God gave
Speaker 3: to Israel in the Old Testament. Back in the book
Speaker 3: of Deuteronomy, God says this to the people of Israel.
Speaker 3: He says, today, I'm giving you the choice between a
Speaker 3: blessing and a curse. Now you'll be blessed if you
Speaker 3: obey the commands of the Lord your God, or you'll
Speaker 3: receive a curse if you reject me.
Speaker 2: You rebel against me.
Speaker 3: You say I'm going to be my own god, and
Speaker 3: you reject me and my commands. Let me show you
Speaker 3: another verse. In Deuteronomy, chapter thirty, verses fifteen nineteen. It
Speaker 3: says this, See, I have set before you today life
Speaker 3: and good or death and evil.
Speaker 2: He says, here's a choice.
Speaker 3: You can choose between doing good and life, or you
Speaker 3: can choose between doing evil and death. He says, if
Speaker 3: you obey my commandments by loving the Lord your God. See,
Speaker 3: that's the most important commandment. The most important commandment is
Speaker 3: that you learn to love God with your heart and
Speaker 3: soul and mind, strength, and by walking in His ways.
Speaker 3: He said, if you do that, then he says, you'll live,
Speaker 3: and you'll multiply, and I will bless you. But he says,
Speaker 3: if your heart turns away from Me to worship other things. Now,
Speaker 3: why would anybody worship other things besides God?
Speaker 2: Because we want to.
Speaker 3: You can worship life. You can worship your car. You
Speaker 3: can worship your career. You can worship status or sex.
Speaker 3: You can worship your salary. You can worship possessions or position,
Speaker 3: or power, or prestige or popularity. You can worship yourself.
Speaker 3: Everybody has a God, even atheists have a God.
Speaker 2: It may be themselves.
Speaker 3: But in you there is an in built wired desire
Speaker 3: to worship. And if you don't worship the true God,
Speaker 3: you're going to choose something else. And a false God
Speaker 3: is called an idol.
Speaker 2: And God says, you don't have any other thing before me.
Speaker 3: Anything you put before God in your life you worship.
Speaker 3: If you put your career before God, if you put
Speaker 3: making money before God, if you put having fun before God.
Speaker 3: Anything you put before God, becomes your God in your life,
Speaker 3: and you worship it. And he says, if your heart
Speaker 3: turns away from Me to worship other things and to
Speaker 3: serve them, he said, then you will perish. Therefore, he says,
Speaker 3: choose life. You get a choice. Choose life that you
Speaker 3: may live. And let me give you an example of this.
Speaker 3: Let's just suppose you were a drug addict and you're
Speaker 3: living in the gutter it's skid row in LA and
Speaker 3: your life has falling apart because you are hopelessly addicted
Speaker 3: to drugs and you're laying there on the side of
Speaker 3: the street by the gutter in your own vomit, and
Speaker 3: you haven't bathed in days or weeks, and your life
Speaker 3: is a mess.
Speaker 2: And let's just say I.
Speaker 3: Come walking by and I feel pity, I feel a grace,
Speaker 3: I feel love towards you, and I say, you know what,
Speaker 3: help you out?
Speaker 2: I tell you what.
Speaker 3: You don't deserve this, but I'm going to help you out.
Speaker 3: I'm going to show you grace.
Speaker 2: And here's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 3: I'm going to pick you up, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: take you home to my house, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: give you a bath, and I'm going to get you
Speaker 3: cleaned up, and I'm going to give you a new
Speaker 3: set of clothes.
Speaker 2: But that's not all I'm going to do. Here's what
Speaker 2: I'm going to do.
Speaker 3: I'm going to let you live with me at my
Speaker 3: house and you can become a part of my family.
Speaker 3: In fact, I'm going to adopt you, and I'm going
Speaker 3: to you can take the Warren name, and I'm going
Speaker 3: to pay off all your debts that you owe because
Speaker 3: you spend all that money on drugs. And I'm actually
Speaker 3: going to give you my credit card and you have
Speaker 3: access to the entire resources of the Warren family. You
Speaker 3: got my name, you got my credit. You can live
Speaker 3: in my house. You're a part of my family. And
Speaker 3: I'm doing this simply because I love you. You don't deserve it,
Speaker 3: you don't earn it, you don't work for it. I
Speaker 3: just love you and I want to show you you grace. However,
Speaker 3: if you live in my house as a part of
Speaker 3: my family, there are some house rules, and you got
Speaker 3: abide by these rules if you're going to live in
Speaker 3: my house and be a part of my family. And
Speaker 3: rule number one is this, we don't do drugs in
Speaker 3: this house. We don't do drugs at all. So if
Speaker 3: you're going to live here and have access to all
Speaker 3: these free privileges and resources, we don't do drugs in
Speaker 3: the warrant house. Now, let me ask you three questions
Speaker 3: about that. Is it reasonable for me to expect that
Speaker 3: person to abide by the family house rules. Yes, I'm
Speaker 3: just showing them grace. If they're going to live in
Speaker 3: my house, then they ought to live by the rules
Speaker 3: that I set up.
Speaker 2: It's my house. The same is true with you.
Speaker 3: Let's say if you were going to say, hey, Rick,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be gone for a month and I
Speaker 3: have a house that's down by the ocean, and Rick,
Speaker 3: you can come live in my house and use it
Speaker 3: for a month.
Speaker 2: And you say, but.
Speaker 3: There are a couple house rules. First, you may not
Speaker 3: jump up and down on the bed. Okay, is that
Speaker 3: as reasonable? No, it's your house, your house. You get
Speaker 3: to make the rules, and if I'm going to use
Speaker 3: your house, then I should abide by the rules. You
Speaker 3: lock up here, and this is what you do. You
Speaker 3: don't jump on the bed. Fine, that's reasonable. Now if
Speaker 3: I offered you to come and say come live at
Speaker 3: my house and you're on drugs and you reject it,
Speaker 3: and you say, thank you.
Speaker 2: For your offer.
Speaker 3: But I'm going to choose to live on skid row
Speaker 3: because the truth is, I love my drugs and I'm
Speaker 3: not willing to give them up. I'm not willing to
Speaker 3: give them up to be a part of your family.
Speaker 3: I'm not willing to give them up for all the
Speaker 3: other benefits because I love my drugs, and so I'm
Speaker 3: going to choose to live here on skid row in
Speaker 3: spite of your gracious offer. If you turn me down,
Speaker 3: would that be my fault?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: No, it would be your fault. And could if you
Speaker 3: blame me for being unloving? No, I had done the
Speaker 3: loving thing to offer to help you get out of
Speaker 3: the situation.
Speaker 2: You couldn't blame me for being unloving.
Speaker 3: Now, let's apply that same logic to go into heaven,
Speaker 3: because I hear people all the time say, well, how
Speaker 3: could a loving God send people to hell? God doesn't
Speaker 3: send people to hell. You choose to go there. It's
Speaker 3: like they're two doors in eternity, and one goes to heaven,
Speaker 3: one goes to Hell, and the one that goes to
Speaker 3: Heaven says, you come to Jesus, this is the house rule.
Speaker 3: He's already paid for your ticket into heaven. He's already
Speaker 3: forgiven you. All you got to do is accept it.
Speaker 3: You just accept what He's done for you. It's a
Speaker 3: free gift of grace. You go to heaven, you want
Speaker 3: to go to hell, you just do your own thing.
Speaker 3: You say, I'm gonna be my own God. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: do what I want to do. I'm gonna be my
Speaker 3: own dead. I don't want God. Maybe I don't anybody
Speaker 3: telling me what's right or wrong. I don't want to
Speaker 3: tell anybodnybody tell me what to do.
Speaker 2: I want to run my own life.
Speaker 3: Now, if I choose to walk out this door, I
Speaker 3: certainly can't blame God. He's done everything possible for you
Speaker 3: to go to Heaven. He's already paid for it all.
Speaker 3: He's made it so easy. You just have to accept
Speaker 3: it by faith. And if I say thank you, no,
Speaker 3: I'd rather stick with what I love more, then that's
Speaker 3: not God's fault. That's my fault. It is a choice.
Speaker 3: Does God have a right question? Does God have a
Speaker 3: right to make house rules for his house? Well, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's his house, and in heaven he has a right
Speaker 3: to say you want to come to heaven.
Speaker 2: Here's how you get here. How do you get here?
Speaker 3: Not by earning it, not by working for it, not
Speaker 3: by being good, but simply by accepting the grace that
Speaker 3: his son did for you, by dying on the cross
Speaker 3: for you. And if I reject his condition for entering heaven,
Speaker 3: he's not being unloving. I'm just being dumb. He's not
Speaker 3: being callous. I'm just being illogical. And can anybody blame me?
Speaker 3: Can anybody blame God? If I choose to say, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go my way out of this door in eternity
Speaker 3: Now it's my choice.
Speaker 1: What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something
Speaker 1: I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to
Speaker 1: tell you how you can help support this ministry.
Speaker 3: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
Speaker 3: according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to
Speaker 3: love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
Speaker 3: your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
Speaker 3: And then Jesus said, go make disciples, that's evangelism, Baptize
Speaker 3: them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign
Speaker 3: of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
Speaker 3: I've taught you. That's discipleship, and we call that the
Speaker 3: Great Commission. We believe it Daily Hope that a great
Speaker 3: commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
Speaker 3: produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
Speaker 3: a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so
Speaker 3: I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just
Speaker 3: across America, but all around the world. And we want
Speaker 3: people to know that God's word is filled with hope
Speaker 3: and truth and the power that we need to follow
Speaker 3: him every day is available to every single one. You
Speaker 3: know as well as I do, that the Word of
Speaker 3: God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it
Speaker 3: breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.
Speaker 3: So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on
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Speaker 3: whether you listen to a podcast, you're a part of
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Speaker 3: could not do this without your support. We're one hundred
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Speaker 2: And let write to me, let me hear from you.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love reading.
Speaker 3: The stories that are sent to me. So write me,
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Speaker 3: bless it, and God will bless you and we'll get
Speaker 3: to heaven. And well, thank God for all the people
Speaker 3: going to be in heaven because you cared.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
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Speaker 1: or you can text the word hope to seven oh
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