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. Let's go to the final
Speaker 1: part of a message called Liberating Grace.
Speaker 2: Romans eight thirty one says this, If God is for us,
Speaker 2: who can be against us? Now? Notice that God is
Speaker 2: not just with us. The Bible says God is for us,
Speaker 2: daies and gentlemen. That is the essence of the doctrine
Speaker 2: of grace. Grace can be summed up in four words.
Speaker 2: God is for us. God's on your side. God is
Speaker 2: not sitting up there in the heavens looking down on you,
Speaker 2: saying what can I punish next in their life? If
Speaker 2: you have received God's grace and you've become in part
Speaker 2: of God's family, then God is for you. Now if
Speaker 2: you're thumbing your nose to God and he's saying, God,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be my own God. I'm going to work
Speaker 2: my way into heaven. I don't need you. Well, of
Speaker 2: course God is not for you. But when you come
Speaker 2: in sincerity and honesty and humility and go God, I
Speaker 2: admit it. I'm imperfect. I don't stand a chance of
Speaker 2: getting into a perfect heaven except through you. Please show
Speaker 2: me your grace. God is for us. Now. Again, that's
Speaker 2: a hard thing to accept for some people because you
Speaker 2: were trained, you were customized, you were pro to think
Speaker 2: of conditional love, and all your life you just felt
Speaker 2: like you could never measure up. The l and relax
Speaker 2: stands for let God handle things. Let God handle things
Speaker 2: in my life. Now. That's very important because at the
Speaker 2: root of perfectionism is a desire to control. You See,
Speaker 2: you think that if you can just control things, then
Speaker 2: they'll be perfect. And so if I can just control
Speaker 2: my spouse, we'll have a perfect marriage. If I control
Speaker 2: my kids, they'll never get in trouble and always be safe.
Speaker 2: If I can control my career, my path will be assured.
Speaker 2: If I can control any other the people around me,
Speaker 2: then the world will be a better place. But as
Speaker 2: we've talked about many times, most of your life is
Speaker 2: out of your control and you can't control it. You see,
Speaker 2: that's attempt to play God. God is God and you aren't.
Speaker 2: And God can do a whole lot better job than
Speaker 2: you can. So what do you do when you can't
Speaker 2: control the uncontrollable things in life? First Peter five seven,
Speaker 2: It says, cast all your anxiety on him, because he
Speaker 2: cares for you. Now circle the word cast. Those of
Speaker 2: you who are fishermen know what it means to cast.
Speaker 2: When you cast a line, or if you're a fly
Speaker 2: fisherman and you're casting repeatedly, you're holding onto the line
Speaker 2: or you're holding onto the rodden reel, and there comes
Speaker 2: a point in the cast where you have to take
Speaker 2: your finger off the button of the line and you
Speaker 2: have to let it go. If you don't, there's no casting.
Speaker 2: The essence of casting is letting go. And to overcome perfectionism,
Speaker 2: you have to let go. You have to let go
Speaker 2: and let God do his thing. Now, if you want
Speaker 2: to live a long time, you need to memorize Proverbs
Speaker 2: fourteen thirty. Look at the next verse, read it with me.
Speaker 2: A relaxed attitude lengthens a man's life. Now I've already
Speaker 2: had you write down I don't have to be perfect
Speaker 2: for God to love me. I want you to write
Speaker 2: this down too. Things don't have to be perfect for
Speaker 2: me to be happy. Things don't have to be perfect
Speaker 2: for me to be happy. Things don't have to be
Speaker 2: perfect for me to enjoy them. There is no such
Speaker 2: thing as a perfect vacation. If you're waiting for one,
Speaker 2: you're never gonna enjoy one. There is no such thing
Speaker 2: as a perfect marriage. You married a sinner and she
Speaker 2: married a bigger one, so there's no perfect marriage because
Speaker 2: you got imperfect people. Who thinks you can put two
Speaker 2: imperfect people together and have a perfect relationship. There are
Speaker 2: no such thing as perfect kids. There is no such
Speaker 2: thing as a perfect body. There is no perfect church.
Speaker 2: There is no perfect job. The Bible says nothing is
Speaker 2: perfect except God's word. And if you're waiting for that
Speaker 2: perfect environment for you to enjoy life, it's not going
Speaker 2: to happen. You must learn to enjoy life in the
Speaker 2: middle of imperfection, in less than perfect circumstances. Have you
Speaker 2: learned to do that to love the moment in the
Speaker 2: midst everything does not have to be perfect for you
Speaker 2: to enjoy the moment. If you're walking down the beach,
Speaker 2: you can still enjoy the moment, even if you can
Speaker 2: hear the cars going by and you still have bills
Speaker 2: to pay. Learning to enjoy the moment in spite of
Speaker 2: the imperfections of life, Paul said it like this, I've
Speaker 2: learned to be content in whatever situation I am, he said,
Speaker 2: I've learned to be content no matter what state I'm in.
Speaker 2: I notice, he says, I've learned. You see, I, by nature,
Speaker 2: am not a contented person. I, by nature am discontented,
Speaker 2: and so are you. It is not human nature to
Speaker 2: be content. It's something you have to learn. And of course,
Speaker 2: we live in a society called it's filled with consumerism
Speaker 2: and an entire industry called the ad industry, which is
Speaker 2: designed to create discontent in your life. So you'll buy
Speaker 2: their product and you see things on TV and you think,
Speaker 2: how in the world did I live without that? My
Speaker 2: life is incomplete until I get that product, use that service,
Speaker 2: have that experience, look like that model, et cetera. You
Speaker 2: have to learn to be content. It's learned we know
Speaker 2: Paul was a Southerner, the apostle Paul, because he says,
Speaker 2: I thank God for you all. The A in relax
Speaker 2: stands for act in faith, not fear. Act in faith
Speaker 2: not fear. Now, remember how you got into God's family
Speaker 2: in the first place. In Ephesians two eight, it says,
Speaker 2: read it with me, for it is by grace. You
Speaker 2: have been saved through faith. Now listen, that's the only
Speaker 2: way you're gonna ever get saved by grace. If you
Speaker 2: don't get saved by grace, you're not saved. There's no
Speaker 2: other way to get into Heaven except by grace. You'll
Speaker 2: never be good enough, you'll never be perfect enough, you'll
Speaker 2: never earn enough. You can't buy you into it. If
Speaker 2: you don't go in by grace, you're not going in.
Speaker 2: But it's a free gift of God. It's by grace
Speaker 2: through faith. I put my faith in God's grace. That's
Speaker 2: how you get into the Christian life. Now listen, this
Speaker 2: is very important. The way you got into the Christian
Speaker 2: life is the way you continue the Christian life. The
Speaker 2: way you became saved is the way you continue to
Speaker 2: be saved. The way you became a believer is the
Speaker 2: way you continue as a believer by grace through faith.
Speaker 2: Notice the next verse. So, then just as you received
Speaker 2: Christ Jesus the Lord as Lord, continue to live in
Speaker 2: him the same way. You're not saved by grace and
Speaker 2: then live by works. A lot of people think that,
Speaker 2: you see, they think, well, I'm saved by God's free gift,
Speaker 2: and now I have to really work hard as a
Speaker 2: Christian to keep God's approval in my life. No, you don't.
Speaker 2: How were you saved by promising to be perfect? No?
Speaker 2: How do you live the Christian life by promising to
Speaker 2: be perfect? No? How were you How did you come
Speaker 2: into the Christian life by keeping the Ten Commandments and
Speaker 2: promising to obey every rule? No? How do you live
Speaker 2: the Christian life by keeping the ten Commandments and promising? No,
Speaker 2: it's by grace through faith. Now, listen, you need to
Speaker 2: understand that literally everything in your life is a gift
Speaker 2: from God. Everything in your life, your own life. You
Speaker 2: wouldn't be alive if it weren't for the grace of God.
Speaker 2: The air you breathe is a gift of grace. The
Speaker 2: mind that you have is a gift of grace. Your
Speaker 2: ability to hear and see right now is a gift
Speaker 2: of God's grace. You wouldn't have it. You certainly didn't
Speaker 2: earn it. Everything that God does in your life he
Speaker 2: does for one reason grace, grace. God teaches you by grace.
Speaker 2: God forgives you by grace. God guides you by grace,
Speaker 2: not because you deserve it. God uses you by grace.
Speaker 2: God gives you gifts and talents by grace. God blesses
Speaker 2: your life by grace. God gives you friends and family
Speaker 2: and freedom by grace. Absolutely nothing in your life did
Speaker 2: you earn. He said, Wait a minute, I earned my salary,
Speaker 2: I earned my income, I earn my Where do you
Speaker 2: think you got the ability to make that money? The
Speaker 2: ability came from God. And if He hadn't given you
Speaker 2: the ability in the hands, in the brain, you wouldn't
Speaker 2: even do that. Everything in your life you owe to God.
Speaker 2: It's all all all by grace. Now, understanding this truth
Speaker 2: is one thing. It doesn't guarantee that you'll live by it.
Speaker 2: Because if you were a perfectionist before you became a believer, then,
Speaker 2: as I said, after you become a believer, the tendency
Speaker 2: is to take all those perfectionistic tendencies and put them
Speaker 2: on God and make God the unpleasable parent. And he's
Speaker 2: the one who always nags at you, rather than your
Speaker 2: conscience or culture or something else. Some of you have
Speaker 2: been living in the prison of perfection perfectionism for a
Speaker 2: long long time. But today you're going to get clemency.
Speaker 2: Today is your day of pardon. Today is the day
Speaker 2: you're gonna be set free. The jail door is going
Speaker 2: to be unlocked, and you're going to be told from
Speaker 2: God's word you can walk out a free person that
Speaker 2: you don't have to live under. Are in the prison
Speaker 2: of perfectionism anymore, because grace is available. But the only
Speaker 2: way you'll be able to walk out that prison door
Speaker 2: is to have faith, not fear, to trust in God's grace.
Speaker 2: Have you been living in a prison of perfectionism, a
Speaker 2: self imposed prison? Have you been robbed of your joy
Speaker 2: and your freedom? Or you can walk out today. One
Speaker 2: of the symptoms of perfectionism is constant fatigue because you're
Speaker 2: always trying to control everything, and it's tiring trying to
Speaker 2: be the general manager of the universe, holding all those
Speaker 2: strings together, to keep all the balls in the air. Well,
Speaker 2: one day you realize it's not up to me. I
Speaker 2: can relax, I can let go, and I don't have
Speaker 2: to try to make things perfect in order to prove
Speaker 2: my worth. Now you can live in a self imposed
Speaker 2: prison of perfectionism, or you can take step five and
Speaker 2: find liberation and freedom today. Exchange my perfectionism. Exchange my
Speaker 2: perfectionism for God's peace. You see, perfectionism destroys peace. You're
Speaker 2: gonna live with one or the other, perfectionism or peace.
Speaker 2: Now here's the offer. This is an offer that Jesus
Speaker 2: Christ makes and it's still valid today. It's an offerer
Speaker 2: you really can't afford to refuse. Matthew eleven, Jesus says,
Speaker 2: are you tired, worn out, burnt out on religion? Come
Speaker 2: to me, Get away with me, and you'll recover your life.
Speaker 2: That's real recovery. Recover your life, and I will show
Speaker 2: you how to take a real rest. Learn the unforced
Speaker 2: rhythms of grace. I love that message paraphrase. Learn the
Speaker 2: unforced rhythms of grace. What a deal. Now listen, let
Speaker 2: me wrap it up with this. God is perfect, and
Speaker 2: because God is perfect, he expects his children to be perfect.
Speaker 2: Here that yes, God is perfect and he expects his
Speaker 2: children to be perfect. Jesus even said it, Jesus said,
Speaker 2: be he perfect even as I am perfect. But he
Speaker 2: also knows there's no chance you're gonna be perfect. He
Speaker 2: knows that's impossible, and so he came up with grace.
Speaker 2: And that's why God sent Jesus, because Jesus was perfect,
Speaker 2: and we get in on his perfection. You can either
Speaker 2: try all you want to, or you can just accept
Speaker 2: the perfection of Christ and say, let me in on
Speaker 2: his ticket. Now, as you read the Bible, you read
Speaker 2: God's perfect standard of perfection, and you read many things,
Speaker 2: and then you go, there's no way I could measure
Speaker 2: up to that. There's no way I can keep all
Speaker 2: those principles, follow all those rules. There's no way I
Speaker 2: could be the kind of person that God says a
Speaker 2: perfect person is. But you don't have to worry, because
Speaker 2: He's already taken care of that, and by grace, he
Speaker 2: has been the perfection for you. So I invite you
Speaker 2: to receive God's offer today through Christ. Christian living is
Speaker 2: based on grace not guilt. You see, you're going to
Speaker 2: fail a lot in life. You're going to fail many
Speaker 2: responsibilities that you've been given. You're going to fail to
Speaker 2: live up to the expectations that other people place on you.
Speaker 2: You're gonna let them down. Huh. Shoot, you're going to
Speaker 2: fail your own expectations. And of course you're going to
Speaker 2: fail measuring up to God's standard of perfection. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: all of sin and fallen short. But you don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about that if you receive God's grace. In fact,
Speaker 2: there's only one failure you ever need to worry about.
Speaker 2: It's the failure of Hebrews twelve fifteen the last verse.
Speaker 2: Be careful that no one fails to receive God's grace.
Speaker 2: So I invite you to receive it right now. Let's
Speaker 2: bower heads. Why don't you pray a prayer like this
Speaker 2: in your mind? Dear God, I need your grace. I
Speaker 2: realize I'm not imperfect. In fact, I'm far from it,
Speaker 2: but I want to enjoy your unconditional love. Thank you
Speaker 2: for your grace. I put my trust in your grace today,
Speaker 2: and I ask you to make me a part of
Speaker 2: your family, Make me your child, not because I deserve it,
Speaker 2: but because of your unconditional love. Help me to be
Speaker 2: believe that You're for me, not against me, and help
Speaker 2: me to let you handle things in my life, to
Speaker 2: relax and to cast my cares and anxiety on you. Lord.
Speaker 2: I know from today that it's just putting my faith
Speaker 2: in your grace that saves me, and so I do that.
Speaker 2: But I also ask you to help me to put
Speaker 2: my faith in your grace to live the life that
Speaker 2: you meant for me to live. And I am tired
Speaker 2: and I am worn out, but I come to you today.
Speaker 2: Help me to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. In
Speaker 2: Jesus' name, I pray Amen.
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