Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rick Warren, and Merry Christmas. Christmas is going
Speaker 1: to be here very soon, and Jesus said in Luke
Speaker 1: fourteen twenty three, go out into the highways in the
Speaker 1: countryside and urge everybody you find to come in so
Speaker 1: that my house will be full. Who are you thinking
Speaker 1: of to bring to your church? Whoever it is. I
Speaker 1: want to challenge you to be a light at Christmas
Speaker 1: and invite them to services at your church.
Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 2: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so
Speaker 2: glad you've joined us Today. We're continuing a powerful series
Speaker 2: called radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots. And in this series, Rick
Speaker 2: will show you how to grow deep in your faith,
Speaker 2: stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created
Speaker 2: you to be. Well, let's get right to Rick for
Speaker 2: the final part of a message called Radical Hope.
Speaker 1: Now, what is God doing in your life while you're
Speaker 1: going through what you're going through right now? While you're
Speaker 1: going through what you're going through, God is doing three
Speaker 1: things behind the scenes. You might write these down. Number one,
Speaker 1: God uses trials. Number one to test my faith. God
Speaker 1: uses trials problems to test my faith. These trials, it says,
Speaker 1: are only to test your faith, to show that it
Speaker 1: is strong and pure. And of course testing not only
Speaker 1: test it, it strengthens us. The way you build muscle
Speaker 1: is you test your muscle, and when you lift weights
Speaker 1: or you exercise, you're testing the limits of your muscle,
Speaker 1: but you're also strengthening in at the same time. So
Speaker 1: God is testing your faith. The second way God uses
Speaker 1: trials is to purify my motives. To purify my motives,
Speaker 1: and that's the next part of the verse. It says,
Speaker 1: your faith is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold,
Speaker 1: and your faith is far more precious to God than
Speaker 1: mere gold. Now what' you're talking about here? He's talking
Speaker 1: about refining. You all know that the way metals are
Speaker 1: refined is they put them in a big container and
Speaker 1: they heat up the heat to hundreds of degrees and
Speaker 1: the metal melts and then it burns off all the impurities.
Speaker 1: That's how you refine metal is you heat it to
Speaker 1: an extreme temperature and the dross has burned off the
Speaker 1: you know, and all of a sudden, what's left is
Speaker 1: twenty four gold. All the impurities get burned out. God
Speaker 1: is much more interested in your character than your comfort.
Speaker 1: He's much more interested in preparing your heart for heaven
Speaker 1: than providing temporary comfort right now. So you need to
Speaker 1: understand that when the heat is on in your life,
Speaker 1: God is burning off the impurities. Are you feeling the
Speaker 1: heat these days? Are you feeling the pressure? Is the
Speaker 1: heat on in your life? God is burning off the impurities.
Speaker 1: He is purifying your motives so that you will be
Speaker 1: of pure gold and ready for heaven. Now, what happens
Speaker 1: when we get in a tough time. We start praying
Speaker 1: for God to change the circumstance, and God says, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can do that, but I'm much more interested in
Speaker 1: changing you. Because I said, God's goal here on earth
Speaker 1: for you is not to make you comfortable. God's goal
Speaker 1: here on earth is to change your character to get
Speaker 1: you ready for heaven. So why would he just make
Speaker 1: your life easy? That doesn't teach you any character these problems.
Speaker 1: He says, test your faith and purify your motives. And
Speaker 1: when the heat is on, you need to stop saying God,
Speaker 1: change the circumstance. He can do that, but first he's
Speaker 1: going to change you, and the sooner you learn that
Speaker 1: the better God is trying to change and develop your character.
Speaker 1: Why for the third reason, trials are used to test
Speaker 1: by faith, to purify my motives, and number three, to
Speaker 1: prepare me for rewards. Did you know that the problems
Speaker 1: here on earth God uses to actually prepare you for
Speaker 1: eternal rewards in heaven. And here's what he says. You're
Speaker 1: being tested as fire tests and purifies gold. So if
Speaker 1: your faith remains strong after being tried by these fiery trials,
Speaker 1: when the heat's on in your life, it will bring
Speaker 1: you much praise and glory and honor. Usually when we
Speaker 1: read the phrase praise, glory and honor, we're thinking about Jesus,
Speaker 1: but in this verse it's talking about you. Says God
Speaker 1: wants to give you praise and give you glory and
Speaker 1: give you honor. On the day when Jesus Christ is
Speaker 1: revealed to the whole world, God is saying, I am
Speaker 1: allowing this problem for your benefit, for your long term
Speaker 1: reward of praise and glory and honor. See, the problem
Speaker 1: with heaven is that heaven is perfect, so we have
Speaker 1: nothing to compare it to on earth. There is nothing
Speaker 1: perfect on earth. No relationship is perfect, no event is perfect.
Speaker 1: No sunset is perfect. Nothing is perfect on earth, so
Speaker 1: we can't even imagine what a perfect place is like.
Speaker 1: All we can do is take the greatest experiences, the
Speaker 1: most pleasurable, enjoyable, wonderful, exciting, beautiful, creative experiences of life,
Speaker 1: and multiply that exponentially by a billion times. And then
Speaker 1: we still can't even compare. There's nothing to compare heaven to.
Speaker 1: But let me just tell you this, It's gonna be incredible.
Speaker 1: It's not sitting on white clouds in a white robe
Speaker 1: playing the harp, that's hell. I've told you that it's
Speaker 1: gonna be unbelievable. The Bible says no eye has seen,
Speaker 1: no ear has heard, neither hath entered into the heart
Speaker 1: of man. The wonderful things that God has prepared for
Speaker 1: those who love him you can't imagine. But you are
Speaker 1: gonna share in God's glory in heaven. And he says,
Speaker 1: how you handle the problems here on life as how
Speaker 1: God is preparing you. This is why Paul says this
Speaker 1: on the screen. Our suffering is light and temporary, but
Speaker 1: it is producing for us an eternal glory that is
Speaker 1: greater than anything we can imagine. He's saying, comparing the
Speaker 1: problems I'm going through right now is minuscule compared to
Speaker 1: the rewards I'm gonna receive for handling them correctly in heaven.
Speaker 1: He said, Here on earth, this is small potatoes. That
Speaker 1: gives me hope. I have hope because God chose me
Speaker 1: before I chose him. And I have hope that no
Speaker 1: matter how many mistakes I make, It's still going to
Speaker 1: show mercy to me. And I have hope that no
Speaker 1: matter what I may lose in life, I can't lose
Speaker 1: my salvation. And I have hope that God is going
Speaker 1: to protect me with his mighty power and make sure
Speaker 1: I get to heaven. And I have hope that God
Speaker 1: is preparing me right now for eternity, and even using
Speaker 1: the stuff in my life that I don't like, He's
Speaker 1: using it all for good. I know that some of
Speaker 1: you are just hanging on by a thread. I've talked
Speaker 1: to some of you, and you're worried about the future,
Speaker 1: and you're hurting over some relationships, and you may be
Speaker 1: even grieving over the loss of a loved one. Even
Speaker 1: in our grief, we can grieve with hope. Why we're
Speaker 1: not like unbelievers. We have a hope of eternal life.
Speaker 1: When we grieve at a funeral, we're not grieving for
Speaker 1: the person who's died and gone to heaven. We're grieving
Speaker 1: for ourselves because we're going to miss them. We grieve
Speaker 1: with hope after losing a love. When Stephen Curtis Chapman
Speaker 1: wrote the words to this song called with Hope, never
Speaker 1: have I known anything so hard to understand. Never have
Speaker 1: I questioned more the wisdom of God's plan. But through
Speaker 1: the cloud of tears, I see the Father smile and
Speaker 1: say well done. And I imagine you where you wanted
Speaker 1: most to be, seeing all your dreams come true. Because
Speaker 1: now you're home and free. We can cry with hope.
Speaker 1: We can say goodbye with hope because we know our
Speaker 1: goodbye is not the end. We grieve with hope because
Speaker 1: we believe, with hope there's a place where we see
Speaker 1: your face again. We have this hope as an anchor
Speaker 1: because we believe everything God's promised is true. So we
Speaker 1: can cry with hope. We can say goodbye with hope
Speaker 1: because we know that our goodbye is not the end.
Speaker 1: We grieve with hope because we believe, with hope there
Speaker 1: is a place by God's grace, there is a place
Speaker 1: where we'll see your face again. I want you to
Speaker 1: realize that God is working in your life even when
Speaker 1: you don't feel it, and He's doing these five things
Speaker 1: even when you don't feel it. And that's why Peter
Speaker 1: says in verse six, be glad, rejoice, have hope. It
Speaker 1: is not hopeless. It may be tough going for a while,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be worth it, and the future
Speaker 1: is secure and assured and guaranteed. Now these five things
Speaker 1: that I just shared with you from first Peter one,
Speaker 1: Theologians have a theological term for each of them. The
Speaker 1: fact that God chose to love me in advance, that's
Speaker 1: called predestination. The fact that God always treats me with
Speaker 1: mercy that's called regeneration. That we're born again through his mercy.
Speaker 1: The fact that God has secured my future in heaven
Speaker 1: and has an inheritance for me, that's called glorification. The
Speaker 1: fact that God's power will protect me and I can't
Speaker 1: lose my salvation is called preservation. And the fact that
Speaker 1: God is preparing me for eternity is called sanctification. As
Speaker 1: your pastor, let me challenge you two ways. First, that
Speaker 1: you're gonna get serious about developing spiritual roots. You're not
Speaker 1: going to be a casual Christian. You're gonna be a
Speaker 1: committed one. You're gonna develop spiritual roots and learn the
Speaker 1: spiritual truths that give us hope, give us stability, give
Speaker 1: us confidence, don't blow us around when things get tough.
Speaker 1: But we stand firm because we are deeply rooted with
Speaker 1: radical roots in the hope and love of God. And
Speaker 1: how do you do that? How can you build spiritual
Speaker 1: roots by taking advantage of all the different ways to
Speaker 1: help you grow. We have daily devotional emails, we have
Speaker 1: a small group curriculum, We have all these different things
Speaker 1: that you can take advantage of to build spiritual roots.
Speaker 1: I want to challenge you to make a commitment to say,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be faithful at worship. If the doors
Speaker 1: are open on weekends, I'm going to be there if
Speaker 1: at all possible, so I can build spiritual roots. Make
Speaker 1: a commitment to worship. I'm going to be there as
Speaker 1: much as possible, And make a commitment to your small group.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be there as much as possible and
Speaker 1: be a part of that. The second thing I want
Speaker 1: to challenge you to do is challenge you to say
Speaker 1: and pray, God, help me to reach one more. For Jesus,
Speaker 1: the greatest thing you could do for somebody is help
Speaker 1: them settle their eternal destiny to get that reservation in heaven.
Speaker 1: Is anybody going to be in heaven because of you?
Speaker 1: I guarantee you this if you will start praying God,
Speaker 1: I want in my life to help at least one
Speaker 1: person get into heaven. I don't want to be in
Speaker 1: heaven and having brought nobody along with me. God, I
Speaker 1: want you to help me bring at least one person
Speaker 1: to you. You know what, if you pray that, I
Speaker 1: guarantee you God will answer that prayer. I guarantee you,
Speaker 1: and it'll make it so easy and so natural, and
Speaker 1: you won't be scared, and it'll be unbelievable, like falling
Speaker 1: off a log. If you will say I'm usable. There's
Speaker 1: a principle in the universe that whatever you need more of,
Speaker 1: you give it away and you get more back. For instance,
Speaker 1: if you need more energy, how do you get more
Speaker 1: energy sitting on a couch, eat and potato chips. No,
Speaker 1: you have to give energy away in exercise, and it
Speaker 1: is by giving it away you get more back. It's
Speaker 1: like when you give blood, God replenishes it in you.
Speaker 1: Whatever you need more time, you give some of your
Speaker 1: time away in service. God will multiply and you're life.
Speaker 1: You need more money, you give it away, and God says, given,
Speaker 1: it shall be given to you. If you're just couraged
Speaker 1: at the end of this year. If you're a little down,
Speaker 1: you're a little apathetic, you're a little exhausted, you're a
Speaker 1: little tired, you're a little under the weather spiritually. If
Speaker 1: you need hope, let me tell you how to get
Speaker 1: more hope. The fastest way to get hope is to
Speaker 1: give it to somebody else. The Bible says this same
Speaker 1: book First Peter, Chapter three. Always be prepared to give
Speaker 1: an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
Speaker 1: reason for the hope you have. I just gave you
Speaker 1: five reasons to give the reason for the hope you have.
Speaker 1: But do it with gentleness and respect. Did you know
Speaker 1: that in the Bible it never tells us to share
Speaker 1: our faith. Not once, it tells us to share our hope.
Speaker 1: Why because people are hungry for hope. And if you
Speaker 1: need more hope in your life, and you're feeling a
Speaker 1: little down and discouraged. You need to start witnessing. You
Speaker 1: need to start inviting somebody to church. And if you
Speaker 1: share the hope, you will see the hope in your
Speaker 1: life explode to a new level. If you've never opened
Speaker 1: your life to Christ, you need that hope in your heart.
Speaker 1: Do it now. That's bow our heads. Father. Only you
Speaker 1: are the source of real hope. All other false hope
Speaker 1: inevitably disappoints us. Forgive us for all the times we've
Speaker 1: put our hope in money, or luck, or the economy,
Speaker 1: or our secret or special plans or some business scheme.
Speaker 1: Forgive us for the times we've looked to other people
Speaker 1: to meet needs that only you can meet. Help us
Speaker 1: to always put our hope and trust in you. We
Speaker 1: need spiritual roots, Lord, radical roots that go deep into
Speaker 1: your love and truth and provide genuine hope, not false hope.
Speaker 1: Now you pray say this in your heart, Jesus, Thank
Speaker 1: you for choosing me and loving me before I chose you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for always treating me with mercy even when
Speaker 1: I blow it. Thank you Jesus for securing my reservation
Speaker 1: in heaven. Thank you for promising your power and protection
Speaker 1: while I'm still here on earth. And thank you for
Speaker 1: using everything in my life to prepare me for eternity.
Speaker 1: I want to place my hope in you, not in
Speaker 1: other things, and I want to trust you completely in
Speaker 1: your name, I pray Amen.
Speaker 2: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept
Speaker 2: Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Just email Rick at pastorick dot com. We'll send you
Speaker 2: free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. And
Speaker 2: now let's hear how lives are changing through Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: Here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1: I want to take a minute and tell you how
Speaker 1: important your support is to Daily Hope. Your generosity. When
Speaker 1: you give to Daily Hope, you're helping us take the
Speaker 1: message of Jesus Christ literally all around the world. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're familiar with the refugee crisis around the world.
Speaker 1: Literally millions of people have been displaced from their homes,
Speaker 1: particularly in the Middle East and in North Africa because
Speaker 1: of civil wars and violence. One of those places is
Speaker 1: South Sudan, where over two hundred thousand people are living
Speaker 1: in refugee camps. Now, when people are under tension and
Speaker 1: in transition, they are more open to the Gospel than
Speaker 1: in any other time. These people who are living in
Speaker 1: refugee camps right now need the hope of Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: and the Gospel. Now when you help Daily Hope Radio
Speaker 1: and Daily Hope brought We're not only broadcasting across America,
Speaker 1: but in places like South Sudan where the station airs
Speaker 1: our program three times a day. And we are told
Speaker 1: that many many people are coming to Christ in this
Speaker 1: war zone as they listen to these Daily Hope broadcasts.
Speaker 1: So thanks, thanks to you. Now let me just read
Speaker 1: you one testimony that we've received. Here's a note from
Speaker 1: a woman who's living in a refugee camp there in
Speaker 1: South Sudan. She said, my name is Joyce and I'm
Speaker 1: from the Central Equatorial State in South Sudan. I lost
Speaker 1: all five of my children and my beloved husband. This
Speaker 1: is in the civil war that was going on there,
Speaker 1: as well as our family possessions. During the recent fighting
Speaker 1: in the capital of Juba. She said, I had planned
Speaker 1: to commit suicide. There's somebody who needs hope. When I
Speaker 1: listened to Rick Warren's broadcast, the one called when you
Speaker 1: Feel Like Giving Up, I got inspired and I dropped
Speaker 1: the idea of taking my life that very night, and
Speaker 1: I'll continue to pray God to bless this great preacher
Speaker 1: and thank you for giving me hope. Joyce. We're happy
Speaker 1: to do that, and I want to say it's because
Speaker 1: of the listeners who are giving faithfully every month to
Speaker 1: Daily Hope. You realize that when you give to Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: you're helping reach people like Joyce. She was going to
Speaker 1: commit suicide in a refugee camp. Now. Isn't God amazing
Speaker 1: how when you just give what you can give, God
Speaker 1: takes it and he multiplies it and we reach out
Speaker 1: to people that none of us could reach on our own.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to do. I want you
Speaker 1: to pray for Joyce and today I want you to
Speaker 1: pray for all of the people who are in refugee
Speaker 1: camps and pray that we'll be able to continue to
Speaker 1: broadcast on these stations, taking the good news of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ and hope to people who need it the most desperately.
Speaker 1: It's your sacrificial giving, your prayer, support that makes this possible.
Speaker 1: So thank you for whatever you can do, and God
Speaker 1: bless you.
Speaker 2: My friends, If you'd like to help support Pastor Rick's
Speaker 2: Daily Hope. Generous friends of this ministry have provided a
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars matching grant, and that means that
Speaker 2: every dollar you give to help share the transforming love
Speaker 2: of Jesus through Daily Hope will be doubled up to
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars. Just go to Pastorick dot com
Speaker 2: or text the word hope to seven oh three to
Speaker 2: oh nine. Again, that's Pastorick dot com. Or text the
Speaker 2: word hope to seven oh three oh nine and thank
Speaker 2: you so much for your support. Be sure to join
Speaker 2: us next time as we look into God's word for
Speaker 2: our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's
Speaker 2: Daily Hope and your generous financial support