Speaker 1: Are Heaven and Hell real places? And what are they like?
Speaker 2: Today?
Speaker 1: On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of
Speaker 1: Rick Warren, we continue his series called Eternal Realities, Heaven
Speaker 1: and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible
Speaker 1: says about heaven and Hell and how you can be
Speaker 1: absolutely certain you'll go to heaven. And now let's continue
Speaker 1: with the final part of the message called the reality
Speaker 1: of Hell.
Speaker 2: Now, what is hell like? Well, think about this. If
Speaker 2: it's total separation from God, then it's the exact opposite
Speaker 2: of everything God is. And we know, for instance, that
Speaker 2: God is love, that is his nature. God is love.
Speaker 2: What would it be to live without God completely? It
Speaker 2: means no love. Now, the Bible says there is no
Speaker 2: fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear. The
Speaker 2: opposite of love is fear. You know what it means
Speaker 2: to live without love in your life. It means you
Speaker 2: are scared to death all the time. Hell, it means
Speaker 2: you're lonely all the time. That's hell. One of the
Speaker 2: big myths about hell is that you know, in hell
Speaker 2: it's just gonna be a big party for all of
Speaker 2: the people who like to party. Friends you're not gonna
Speaker 2: see no one would see anybody else in hell. It's
Speaker 2: total separation from God and everybody else. There are no
Speaker 2: relationships in hell. There are no friends in hell. It's
Speaker 2: total a looneless. I think of that movie where the
Speaker 2: guy some space movie where he's in space on a
Speaker 2: space walk and somebody snips the thing and he floats
Speaker 2: off into eternity by himself. That would be hell. To
Speaker 2: spend the rest of eternity all alone and all afraid
Speaker 2: because there's no love, there's no friendship. You won't see anybody.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't see anybody in hell. And by the way,
Speaker 2: there's another myth that Satan is gonna be in charge
Speaker 2: of Hell. Wrong. By the way, Satan's not in hell
Speaker 2: right now. You may not know that. The Bible says
Speaker 2: he on earth. Satan's not in Hell yet, He's going
Speaker 2: to be sent there, And when he's there, he's not
Speaker 2: gonna be in charge of it like another kingdom. He's
Speaker 2: gonna be punished, and nobody else is gonna see him.
Speaker 2: He's not gonna see anybody else. Now. God is love,
Speaker 2: so it's no love there. God is light, so hell
Speaker 2: is complete darkness. God is good so there's absolutely nothing
Speaker 2: good in hell. God is life, so that means it'll
Speaker 2: be eternal death. God is gracious. That means there's no
Speaker 2: place of grace there. Friends, you don't want to choose hell,
Speaker 2: and I hope after today you will never again say
Speaker 2: to ever anybody go to Hell. I don't want anybody
Speaker 2: to go to hell, no matter how much they hurt me.
Speaker 2: And I hope you'll never again tell a joke on hell,
Speaker 2: because it's no joke. I beg you to accept the
Speaker 2: good news. So how do I avoid hell? Is there
Speaker 2: a way for me to absolutely know for certain I'm
Speaker 2: going to heaven the good news? Yep, you can absolutely
Speaker 2: confidently know that you're going to heaven. The Bible tells
Speaker 2: us how to do it. Now, notice the next verse,
Speaker 2: how do I settle my destiny? John says this in
Speaker 2: one John five thirteen. I write this to you who
Speaker 2: believe and the name of the Son of God, that's
Speaker 2: the door. Jesus. I'm writing to you who believe in
Speaker 2: the name of the Son of God, so that you
Speaker 2: may know, not guess, not wonder, not hope, that you
Speaker 2: may know was settled and absolute knowledge that you already
Speaker 2: have life. Yes, eternal life circle. The word no, God says,
Speaker 2: I don't want you guessing. If you go out to
Speaker 2: the mall today and you ask somebody, hey, where are
Speaker 2: you going when you die, they're gonna say, well, I
Speaker 2: hope I'm going to heaven. Friends, Hope's not enough. It's
Speaker 2: too important. It's too important to not know for certain.
Speaker 2: You see, only a fool would go all through life
Speaker 2: unprepared for what we know is inevitable death. Do you
Speaker 2: know a recent statistic? This is amazing. The recent statistics
Speaker 2: shows that the mortality rate in the world is one
Speaker 2: hundred percent. You're gonna die, so am I someday? I
Speaker 2: don't know when. Hope, it's a long time from now,
Speaker 2: but you're gonna die. Uh. And it's one of Only
Speaker 2: a fool would go all the way through like on, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know I need to decide this, but I'll put
Speaker 2: it off. I'll put it off and put it off.
Speaker 2: I'll put it off. Friend, you don't know if you're
Speaker 2: gonna drop dead tomorrow. I could walk out of here
Speaker 2: and have a heart attack in the next hour before
Speaker 2: the evening services. I'm not guaranteed next week, next month,
Speaker 2: next year, much less next hour. Why would you put
Speaker 2: off something you know is inevitable and could come at
Speaker 2: any time. You need to settle this today. And when
Speaker 2: we finished today, we're gonna pray a prayer that I
Speaker 2: want everybody to pray, so that everybody here knows for
Speaker 2: sure you're going to heaven because God is paid for
Speaker 2: everything possible for your ticket. It's already been paid for
Speaker 2: by Jesus Christ. So he says, I want you to
Speaker 2: trust me, and I want you to know that you
Speaker 2: can know absolutely certainly of eternal life. So how do
Speaker 2: I settle it? Well, your ticket to heaven is in
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Look on the back of your outline first
Speaker 2: John five eleven and twelve. Let's read it aloud together.
Speaker 2: God has given us eternal life, and this life is
Speaker 2: in his son. He who has the Son has life,
Speaker 2: and he who does not have the Son of God
Speaker 2: does not have life. That's about as clear as you
Speaker 2: can get now, friends. This is why Christmas and Easter
Speaker 2: are so important. If Jesus hadn't come at Christmas, and
Speaker 2: he hadn't died on the cross and then come back
Speaker 2: to life three days later on Easter, we wouldn't be
Speaker 2: having this discussion. We would all be hopeless. There would
Speaker 2: be no hope for us. Heaven is perfect and we're not.
Speaker 2: But God came up with a plan and as a
Speaker 2: plan that somebody would die for all my sins and
Speaker 2: all your sins, and he would do it himself so
Speaker 2: that we, by his grace, could go to heaven. And
Speaker 2: that's why Christmas and Easter are so important. Look at
Speaker 2: this next verse. The cross is the answer to our problem,
Speaker 2: it says in Colossians one two twenty one to twenty two.
Speaker 2: At one time you were separated from God, and you
Speaker 2: were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things
Speaker 2: you did were against God. In other words, God, I'm
Speaker 2: going to run my life. Nobody has the right to
Speaker 2: tell me what's right or wrong. Nobody has the right
Speaker 2: to tell me what to do. I'm going to make
Speaker 2: my own choices, he says. You know, you rebelled just
Speaker 2: like Satan did. But now God has made you his
Speaker 2: friends again. And He did this through Christ's death in
Speaker 2: the body, when he died on the cross, so that
Speaker 2: he might bring you into God's presence. What's God's presence heaven?
Speaker 2: And when he brings you in, how are you going
Speaker 2: to be it? Says, as people who are holy with
Speaker 2: no wrong and of which God can nothing of which
Speaker 2: God can judge you. He said, I'm going to wipe
Speaker 2: the slate clean. This is the etcho sketch verse of
Speaker 2: the Bible. You make all the mess, you turn it
Speaker 2: upside down, you shake it, and it comes up clean
Speaker 2: and pure again. He says, that's what I'm going to
Speaker 2: do in your life. Now. The most famous verse in
Speaker 2: the Bible is John three sixteen. And you know, each
Speaker 2: week here to saddleback, we we memorize a verse. So
Speaker 2: John three point sixteen is going to be our memory
Speaker 2: verse since it's a little bit longer. Many of you
Speaker 2: have already got this one down, but we're going to
Speaker 2: take two weeks on this one because this one is
Speaker 2: a little bit longer than some of the ones you
Speaker 2: were doing. But let's read it together. Remember you say
Speaker 2: the verse, the address at the beginning, at the end,
Speaker 2: So let's read it aloud. John three sixteen. For God
Speaker 2: so the world that he gave his only begotten son,
Speaker 2: that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have
Speaker 2: everlasting life. And where's that verse found? John three sixteen,
Speaker 2: Chapter three, Verse sixteen. Now this is the verse that
Speaker 2: you see the guy with colored hair standing in the
Speaker 2: end zone holding up at all the ball games. John
Speaker 2: three sixteen. It's the most important verse in the Bible.
Speaker 2: If you only get one verse, you want to get
Speaker 2: this one, because this one is your ticket to heaven. Now,
Speaker 2: notice it says again, let's read it again. For God
Speaker 2: so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
Speaker 2: that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have
Speaker 2: everlasting life. Now notice I've underlined six words, God's only son, perish,
Speaker 2: eternal life. And the first letter that g os p
Speaker 2: e l. That's the gospel, and what is gospel. Gospel
Speaker 2: is the Old English word for good news. That's all
Speaker 2: it means. The gospel is good news. When you hear
Speaker 2: about gospel music, that means music that's about what Jesus
Speaker 2: did for us. When you hear about gospel preaching, it
Speaker 2: means somebody's teaching what Jesus Christ did for us. That
Speaker 2: God's only son came and gave his life for us
Speaker 2: so that we would not perish but have everlasting life.
Speaker 2: And we're going to memorize this verse together over the
Speaker 2: next two weeks. Let me summarize what that verse teaches
Speaker 2: in four words ab CD, and again listen as if
Speaker 2: your life depends on it, because it does. This is
Speaker 2: how you walk through the door named Jesus to get
Speaker 2: into heaven. Ab CD. A is admit. The first thing
Speaker 2: I do is I admit I need a savior to
Speaker 2: get to heaven. Now that means I admit I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: Heaven's perfect and I'm not. I admit I've blown it,
Speaker 2: I've made mistakes, I'm flawed, I've sinned, and we just
Speaker 2: did admit it. We own up to it. Now this
Speaker 2: is a hard one for some guys. Why because of pride.
Speaker 2: So there's one thing that'll keep you out of heaven
Speaker 2: your ego, your pride, your unwillingness to say I need
Speaker 2: God in my life because people say, well, I'm a
Speaker 2: self made man. I've noticed that a self made man
Speaker 2: tends to worship his maker. That's deep, you, guys, that's
Speaker 2: really deep. And in order for you to get to heaven,
Speaker 2: you have to humble yourself. You have to admit God
Speaker 2: is God and I'm not and I need a savior.
Speaker 2: I can't earn my way to heaven. I can't pay
Speaker 2: my way to heaven. I can't be good enough to
Speaker 2: get to heaven. I need a savior. Now, believe me,
Speaker 2: if you didn't need a savior, God wouldn't have wasted
Speaker 2: the time sending Jesus to die on the cross. If
Speaker 2: there was any other way for you to get to heaven.
Speaker 2: Don't you think he would have done a less painful
Speaker 2: way than come himself and die on the cross for you.
Speaker 2: There was no other way for you to get into heaven.
Speaker 2: And so first I admit that I need a savior. Second,
Speaker 2: the bee is I believe that Jesus died for me.
Speaker 2: I believe that Jesus died for me, and believe means
Speaker 2: more than head knowledge. It means I trust in, I
Speaker 2: rely on, I surrender to, I commit myself to. It's
Speaker 2: more than head knowledge. Look at this verse up here
Speaker 2: on the screen. Romans ten to nine says this. If
Speaker 2: you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you
Speaker 2: believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 2: that's what Easter is all about. You will be saved. Now,
Speaker 2: what does it mean to confess you the mouth Jesus
Speaker 2: is Lord. I mean we don't have lords and ladies today.
Speaker 2: We don't kings and queens and vassals and counts. We're
Speaker 2: gonna have a feudal system. We're a democracy. So what
Speaker 2: does it mean? Jesus is lord. Lord is just the
Speaker 2: old English word for boss, master, the guy in control.
Speaker 2: It means to say, Jesus, you're the chairman of the
Speaker 2: board of my life. Jesus you're the CEO. You're the boss.
Speaker 2: You call the shots. I'm putting on a sign over
Speaker 2: me that says under new management. That's what it means
Speaker 2: to make Jesus the lord of your life. Say I'm
Speaker 2: under new manager. I'm no longer calling the shots in
Speaker 2: my life. Jesus Christ, you are the manager, the lord
Speaker 2: of my life. So I admit I need a savior
Speaker 2: to get heaven. I believe that Jesus died for me.
Speaker 2: I confess him his Lord, and see I commit myself
Speaker 2: completely to him. I commit myself completely. Say, Lord, I
Speaker 2: want to do your plan for my life. I want
Speaker 2: to do the purpose you put me here on earth
Speaker 2: to do, not my purpose. I'm gonna go not my
Speaker 2: way anymore. I'm gonna go Jesus way. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: God's way. I'm gonna go the way that God created
Speaker 2: me to go, I commit myself to you. Now that
Speaker 2: commitment you need to do it publicly. You need to
Speaker 2: make a public commitment to Jesus Christ. I mean, how
Speaker 2: about if I said to my wife, honey, I'm committed
Speaker 2: to you, so let's get married, but let's don't tell
Speaker 2: anybody about it. What kind of commitm would that be?
Speaker 2: She goes, Hey, buster, you ashamed of me? You won't
Speaker 2: tell anybody about me. If you won't tell anybody about me,
Speaker 2: then you're not really committed to me. A private commitment
Speaker 2: is no commitment at all. You got to make it public.
Speaker 2: So I stood up one day in public and I said,
Speaker 2: I do in front of a bunch of people, and
Speaker 2: I wear a ring everywhere I go. And this says,
Speaker 2: ladies don't even think about it. And I'm sure so
Speaker 2: many ladies do think about it. What fantasy world am
Speaker 2: I living in? You know? But the point is I
Speaker 2: was because I'm proud of my wife and I love her,
Speaker 2: and I am committed to my life till death do
Speaker 2: us part. Now, what is the wedding ring of the
Speaker 2: Christian life? Well, there are two ways, baptism and joining
Speaker 2: a church. Now being baptized. Join a church doesn't make
Speaker 2: you a believer. It shows that you are. It's a
Speaker 2: wedding ring. This ring doesn't make me married. It just
Speaker 2: shows that I am. Jesus said this. Look up here
Speaker 2: on the screen. He said, if anyone acknowledges me publicly
Speaker 2: here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before
Speaker 2: my father, which is in heaven. But if anyone denies
Speaker 2: me here on earth, I will deny that person before
Speaker 2: my father in heaven. Are you ashamed of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 2: Saybody know you're a believer? Does anybody know you've stepped
Speaker 2: across the line? Have you been baptized? If you haven't
Speaker 2: been baptized, what are you waiting on? We baptize after
Speaker 2: every single service here at Saddleback Church. We've baptized over
Speaker 2: twenty thousand believers in the last ten years who publicly say,
Speaker 2: I'm not ashamed to say I'm a believer in Christ.
Speaker 2: It's my coming out party now. In a lot of churches,
Speaker 2: they have come forward invitation alter call Billy Graham style.
Speaker 2: Will they invite people to publicly come forward? Here at
Speaker 2: this church, for twenty eight years, we've used this little
Speaker 2: card and every week. We invite people on the back
Speaker 2: of the card to check I'm committing my life to Christ,
Speaker 2: or I'm recommitting my life to Christ, or i want
Speaker 2: to be baptized, or I want to join the church
Speaker 2: or whatever. And this is a way of doing it.
Speaker 2: It's a way of making it public. Jesus said, if
Speaker 2: you're ashamed of me, then I'll be ashamed of you
Speaker 2: in heaven. But he said, if you're a stand up
Speaker 2: in front of me publicly, I'll stand up for you
Speaker 2: in heaven. Another way you can stand up publicly is
Speaker 2: join a church. Now, friends, it didn't matter which church
Speaker 2: you join, as long as it's a good Bible teaching church.
Speaker 2: I could give you one hundred really good churches. I
Speaker 2: could recommend within twenty five minutes. The Saddleback. We're not
Speaker 2: in competition with any church. We're all on the same team.
Speaker 2: These guys who passed these other churches, they're my good friends.
Speaker 2: I'm actually in a small group with a bunch of them,
Speaker 2: so we're not in competition. Just find a church. If
Speaker 2: not Saddleback, you need to choose one and just say
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna tend there, I'm gonna join it. What
Speaker 2: is joining a church means saying I'm not ashamed to
Speaker 2: say I'm a part of the body of Christ. One
Speaker 2: day you're gonna stand before God. You're gonna stand before
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, your savior, who died on the cross for you,
Speaker 2: and there'll be nail prints in his hands, and he's
Speaker 2: gonna say, now, what did you do with your life?
Speaker 2: He's not going to be interested in hearing. Well, you know,
Speaker 2: I joined the country club. Yeah well, I joined the PTAH.
Speaker 2: Yeah well, I joined a sewing group, Yeah well, I
Speaker 2: joined I joined Save the Whales. Yeah, I joined any
Speaker 2: other social or service organization. He's going to say, did
Speaker 2: you join my family? Did you join the body of Christ?
Speaker 2: My body? Did you join my church which I died for?
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, you joined everything else and you didn't
Speaker 2: join my body, my family that I'm going to take
Speaker 2: with me forever. What were you thinking? I admit, I
Speaker 2: believe I commit. My public expression of that commitment baptism
Speaker 2: and being a part of church. That doesn't save you.
Speaker 2: It just shows that you are. It's not the rute,
Speaker 2: it's the fruit. And then d I depend on God's promise.
Speaker 2: I depend on God's promise. And when I depend on
Speaker 2: God's promise. What is the promise that whosoever believes in
Speaker 2: him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, in
Speaker 2: order to remember that promise, God gave us two symbols,
Speaker 2: baptism and communion, and he said, I want you to
Speaker 2: remember this what I've done for you, what it cost
Speaker 2: for me to get you into heaven. You couldn't get
Speaker 2: to Heaven on your own, So I came to earth
Speaker 2: and died on the cross. And if you'll put your
Speaker 2: trust in me, you walk out through this door named
Speaker 2: Jesus immediately into the presence of God into Heaven. And
Speaker 2: you're going to celebrate. And by the way, you do
Speaker 2: not want to miss next week, because next week we're
Speaker 2: going to cover all what heaven's all about. And it's
Speaker 2: a whole lot more interesting you think it is. Heaven
Speaker 2: is not boring, not at all. You think about the
Speaker 2: greatest things we've ever done here on earth, and you
Speaker 2: think about a billion times better than that, and that's
Speaker 2: what Heaven's going to be. Let's bow our heads. If
Speaker 2: you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ, you do
Speaker 2: this this moment. I'm going to lead you in a prayer,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to ask everyone here to pray it
Speaker 2: in their heart. Let's just say this, Dear God, you
Speaker 2: are God and I'm not. And I admit it, and
Speaker 2: I'm humbling myself and I'm letting go of my pride,
Speaker 2: and I'm saying I realize, I admit that I need
Speaker 2: a savior to get into heaven. I know that I
Speaker 2: could never be good enough. I know that I've done wrong,
Speaker 2: I'm flawed, I've sent and I need a savior to
Speaker 2: get me into heaven. Thank you God that you so
Speaker 2: loved the world that you gave your son Jesus for me,
Speaker 2: that if I would believe in you, I could receive
Speaker 2: eternal life. So, Jesus Christ, I believe that you died
Speaker 2: for me. And today I commit myself to you. I
Speaker 2: want to change, I want to repent. I want to
Speaker 2: be what you want me to be, not what I
Speaker 2: want to be. And I commit myself completely to you
Speaker 2: to follow you, to trust you, to serve you, to
Speaker 2: know you, to love you. And I'm going to depend
Speaker 2: on your promise that you've said whoever believes in him
Speaker 2: should not perish, but however lasting life. I want that
Speaker 2: assurance so that there's no doubt in my mind that
Speaker 2: I've committed myself to you and I've trusted you for
Speaker 2: my salvation. Thank you for dying and for loving me.
Speaker 2: I pray this in your name Jesus. Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept
Speaker 1: Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. We'll send you
Speaker 1: free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. Right now,
Speaker 1: here's Pastor Rick with a special message.
Speaker 2: You know, when I started Saddleback Church over forty years ago,
Speaker 2: just a handful of people in our living room, I
Speaker 2: also began writing a simple devotional just for the people
Speaker 2: in our church to help them start each day with
Speaker 2: hope and with truth and with peace that comes from
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Well, you know that little devotional grew and
Speaker 2: grew and grew, and today Daily Hope is one of
Speaker 2: the largest email devotions in the whole world. And each
Speaker 2: day people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's
Speaker 2: promises and finding fresh strength in His word to face
Speaker 2: whatever comes their way. Here's the best part. It's absolutely free. Okay,
Speaker 2: we don't have any charge for this. Every day you'll
Speaker 2: get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you
Speaker 2: can listen to on the go. Now, you know, in
Speaker 2: a world that's more distracted and uncertain than ever, I
Speaker 2: want to help you start your day cidered on what
Speaker 2: never changes, and what never changes is a God's love,
Speaker 2: his unconditional love for you, and his promises to you.
Speaker 2: You know, if you'll just spend just a few minutes
Speaker 2: a day in the morning with the Lord, it can
Speaker 2: bring so much more clarity, more purpose, more peace to
Speaker 2: everything that happens in your day. Particularly, a psychologists has
Speaker 2: said that what you do with the first five minutes
Speaker 2: of your day pretty much sets the tone. So, friend,
Speaker 2: you were never meant to go through life alone. I
Speaker 2: want to personally invite you to just sign up for
Speaker 2: the Daily Hope devotional. Do it today. I think it's
Speaker 2: going to bring fresh encouragement to your walk in God.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to sign up for the daily devotional,
Speaker 1: it's easy, Just go to Pastorick dot com. That's pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to join us next time as
Speaker 1: we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This
Speaker 1: program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support