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 gonna discover how not to
Speaker 1: only understand grace, but how to experience it and the
Speaker 1: joy that it brings. And right now, here's part one
Speaker 1: of a message called Living in God's Amazing Grace.
Speaker 2: I want us to just review the benefits of grace.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that we're saved by grace. But the
Speaker 2: only way to heaven is the doorway through grace. And
Speaker 2: if you're gonna get to heaven, that's the only way
Speaker 2: you're gonna get there. You can't earn it, you can't
Speaker 2: work for it, you can't buy it. It's just by
Speaker 2: God's grace. The Bible says, for by grace, you are
Speaker 2: saved through faith. And even that is not of yourselves,
Speaker 2: it is the gift of God, not of work, So
Speaker 2: no one can boast if you could work your way
Speaker 2: to heaven. Can you imagine how boring heaven would be.
Speaker 2: Everybody would be bragging about how they got there. Well,
Speaker 2: I did this, Oh yeah, but I did this. The
Speaker 2: Bible says we're just simply saved by grace. But more
Speaker 2: than that, we're forgiven by grace. The Bible tells us
Speaker 2: in Isaiah forty three, I forgive your sins for my
Speaker 2: own sake. We don't deserve it, but God says I
Speaker 2: forgive you. The Bible says that we're sustained by grace.
Speaker 2: Weppians two thirteen says God is always working in you
Speaker 2: to give you the will and the power to do
Speaker 2: what He's called you to do. God will never ask
Speaker 2: you to do anything that He doesn't give you the
Speaker 2: ability and the power to do. And that power and
Speaker 2: ability is called grace. Then the Bible teaches that we're
Speaker 2: healed by grace. It says that he heals our broken
Speaker 2: heart and binds up our wounds. The Bible says we're
Speaker 2: liberated by grace. We talked about that how you don't
Speaker 2: have to live under the rules and regulations of legalism.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, come to me if you're tired and weary,
Speaker 2: and I will give you rest, not a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of other chores to do. He says, I will give
Speaker 2: you rest. And if your Christian life is not a
Speaker 2: life that says it's a life of resting in Christ,
Speaker 2: it means that I'm moving back into that legalistic background.
Speaker 2: The Bible says that we're given talents by grace. God
Speaker 2: has given us each the ability to do something well,
Speaker 2: and we're to use it for him. A scripture tells
Speaker 2: us in Romans twelve, the Bible says God uses us
Speaker 2: by grace, that we're kept saved by grace. And we
Speaker 2: talked about that. That how you cannot lose your salvation
Speaker 2: because it's a gift. If you worked for your salvation,
Speaker 2: then obviously the moment you stopped working for it, you'd
Speaker 2: lose it. If you had to earn your salvation, then
Speaker 2: the moment you stopped earning it, you'd lose it. But
Speaker 2: since it's all by grace, it's on the basis of
Speaker 2: what Jesus did, you'd have to lose it by what
Speaker 2: he didn't do. But he did it. All the Bible
Speaker 2: says that he said on the cross, it's finish, it's
Speaker 2: paid in full, and so he keeps us saved by
Speaker 2: his grace. The verse there in Jude one twenty four
Speaker 2: says he is able to keep you from falling. You
Speaker 2: don't have to keep yourself saved. And then we're transformed
Speaker 2: by grace. The Bible says we're transformed by the renewing
Speaker 2: of our mind. The Scripture says in two Peter three eighteen,
Speaker 2: grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
Speaker 2: The more you grow in grace, the more you're gonna
Speaker 2: grow spiritually. So the bottom line really is this, It's
Speaker 2: all by grace. That's the bottom line. Everything that God
Speaker 2: does in you, everything that God does for you, and
Speaker 2: everything that God does through you, he does by grace.
Speaker 2: Listen to this. Robert Lewis Stephenson said, there's nothing but
Speaker 2: God's grace. We walk upon it, we breathe it, we
Speaker 2: live it, and we die by it. It makes the
Speaker 2: nails and axles of the universe. Everything is by God's grace.
Speaker 2: We wouldn't even have our own lives if it weren't
Speaker 2: for God's grace. Now that's what we've looked at for
Speaker 2: ten weeks. But you know, it would be a tragedy
Speaker 2: if we had gone through this entire series and some
Speaker 2: of you had still never received it, had never really
Speaker 2: opened your life up to receiving the grace of God.
Speaker 2: So as we conclude this series, I want to ask
Speaker 2: again the question, how do I get it? You said, Rick,
Speaker 2: this sounds like a good deal. I want to be saved, forgiven, sustained, healed, liberated,
Speaker 2: given talents used, kept, save, transformed and matured. How do
Speaker 2: I get it? How do I receive the grace of God? Well,
Speaker 2: the Bible says, in three simple words, by trusting Christ.
Speaker 2: By trusting Christ, God made it so so simple that
Speaker 2: nobody could say it was too hard to understand. It's
Speaker 2: not here twenty three steps and four pathways and eight
Speaker 2: guide roads, and you know, thirty two rituals to go through.
Speaker 2: He just says, by trusting Christ, that's it. That it's
Speaker 2: as simple as just putting my faith in him. The
Speaker 2: Bible says this first in John one seventeen. Read it
Speaker 2: with me. The law was given through Moses, but grace
Speaker 2: and truth came through Jesus Christ. And look up here,
Speaker 2: all of grace, all of what we've just talked about
Speaker 2: for ten weeks is wrapped up in a person. He
Speaker 2: is the source. Grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: If you don't get it through Christ, you don't get it. Now,
Speaker 2: what's he saying here. He's saying that you don't get
Speaker 2: God's grace. That's his power and ability to do the
Speaker 2: right thing, to make it in life, to be sustained,
Speaker 2: to become what God meant for you to be in
Speaker 2: the first place. You don't get grace through religion. You
Speaker 2: don't get grace through ritual, not even baptism or communion.
Speaker 2: You don't get grace through rules. You don't get grace
Speaker 2: through religion. Rules relation are regulations. But you do get
Speaker 2: it through a relationship. Look at the next verse, let's
Speaker 2: read it. Now. We rejoice in our wonderful new relationship
Speaker 2: with God all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: has done in dying for our sins, making us friends
Speaker 2: of God. Now that's what you call having friends in
Speaker 2: high places, folks. You become a friend of God how
Speaker 2: by becoming in relationship with Christ his son. Now circle
Speaker 2: the word relationship, because he says that's how we get
Speaker 2: the grace we need to live. But I also want
Speaker 2: you to underline the phrase in dying for our sins,
Speaker 2: it says that this grace came to us because of
Speaker 2: what Jesus has done in dying for our sins. Now,
Speaker 2: grace is free. All you have to do is accept it.
Speaker 2: It's free to you, but it's not cheap. It cost
Speaker 2: Jesus his life. In fact, grace is the most expensive
Speaker 2: commodity there is. Jesus died on the cross to pay
Speaker 2: for it. And Jesus never wants us to forget that.
Speaker 2: He never wants us to forget the sacrifice that he
Speaker 2: made so that we could experience the grace of God.
Speaker 2: So he gave us a reminder. He created a symbol communion.
Speaker 2: But the Bible says that this is a symbol of
Speaker 2: what Jesus did so that we could have his grace.
Speaker 2: What happened when Jesus died on the cross, What really
Speaker 2: took place when he hung there two thousand years ago?
Speaker 2: That makes something so significant that we celebrate it and
Speaker 2: we remember it with a symbol. Two thousand years later,
Speaker 2: when Jesus died in the cross, he did three things.
Speaker 2: You might want to write these down. Three things Jesus did.
Speaker 2: Number one, he paid the penalty for sin. That means
Speaker 2: my penalty for my sin has already been taken care of.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like getting get out of jail free card,
Speaker 2: if you remember monopoly. That's what grace is. One day
Speaker 2: you're going to stand before God and he's going to say, obviously,
Speaker 2: you blew it from your sins. Somebody has to pay
Speaker 2: for those sins, either you or somebody else. And Jesus
Speaker 2: did it. He paid the penalty of sin, and so
Speaker 2: I can be forgiven for that. The second thing he
Speaker 2: did is he broke the power of sin. What that
Speaker 2: means is Jesus now gives us the power to change
Speaker 2: the habits and the hurts and the hang ups in
Speaker 2: our lives that mess us up. The penalty of sin
Speaker 2: is paid for. The power of sin is broken, and
Speaker 2: the presence of sin will be obliterated. One day we're
Speaker 2: going to go to heaven and there ain't gonna be
Speaker 2: any sin there, and He's guaranteed it because of the Cross.
Speaker 2: It's guaranteed. Now, there's a lot of mystery and misunderstanding
Speaker 2: about taking communion. Most of us come from many, many
Speaker 2: different backgrounds, and the question is often What should be
Speaker 2: my attitude when I take the Lord's Supper? How should
Speaker 2: I feel when I remember the death of Jesus Christ?
Speaker 2: Should I feel guilty when I take communion remembering all
Speaker 2: the sins that I've committed? Should I feel guilty? The
Speaker 2: answer is no.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 2: Communion is not to make you feel guilty, because Communion says, remember,
Speaker 2: Jesus is already paid for all your wrongs, so you
Speaker 2: don't have to feel guilty anymore. That's grace. Should I
Speaker 2: feel grief? Should I feel when I take the Lord's Supper?
Speaker 2: Like this is like a funeral and it's something sad
Speaker 2: as I remember the death of Jesus Christ. Should I
Speaker 2: feel grief when I take communion? No, because Jesus didn't
Speaker 2: stay dead. Three days later, after they put him in
Speaker 2: a tomb, they said he's back. He didn't stay dead,
Speaker 2: So we don't serve a dead god, a dead savior,
Speaker 2: so we don't have to grief grief. So we don't
Speaker 2: have grief, we don't have guilt. What should the attitude
Speaker 2: be when we take communion? Gratitude? When I take these
Speaker 2: two elements that symbolize what Jesus did for me, I
Speaker 2: should be thinking, how could God love me like this?
Speaker 2: How could God love me this much? You see, the
Speaker 2: Bible tells us how much he loved us. Look at
Speaker 2: this verse. The Bible says in one John three point sixteen.
Speaker 2: This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: laid down his life for us. He laid down his
Speaker 2: life for us. That's what we should be grateful for now, Communion.
Speaker 2: The Lord's Supper is a symbol, but it's not for everybody. No,
Speaker 2: it's not for everybody. It's only for believers. It's only
Speaker 2: for those who've accepted that grace gift. But you can
Speaker 2: become a believer right now. There's nothing to stop you.
Speaker 2: When we take this, these symbols of bread and juice,
Speaker 2: and as we remember what they symbolize. I want you
Speaker 2: to say, Lord, by taking this in your mind, you'll
Speaker 2: be saying, I believe that Jesus died for me, and
Speaker 2: I accept his grace today. That's what you're saying, I
Speaker 2: believe that Jesus died for me, and I accept his
Speaker 2: grace today. Near the city of San Juan Campos in Brazil,
Speaker 2: there's a remarkable facility. It's a prison, and twenty years
Speaker 2: ago the Brazilian government turned it over to a band
Speaker 2: of Christians, and they said, you can run it, and
Speaker 2: you can run it on Christian principles. And so they
Speaker 2: cleaned up the prison and they renamed it Humanita, and
Speaker 2: with the exception of two full time staff members, all
Speaker 2: the work there is done by inmates. Families outside the
Speaker 2: prison adopted an inmate to do work with during an
Speaker 2: after's term. Recently, Chuck Colson went and visited this prison,
Speaker 2: and he says this. When I visited Humanita, I found
Speaker 2: the inmates smiling, particularly the murderer who held the keys,
Speaker 2: opened the gate and let me in. When I walked in,
Speaker 2: I saw men who were at peace with themselves and
Speaker 2: with God. I saw clean living areas. I saw people
Speaker 2: working industriously. The walls were decorated with biblical sayings from
Speaker 2: Psalms and Proverbs. He said, my guide escorted me to
Speaker 2: the notorious prison cell that was once used for torture.
Speaker 2: Today he told me that block houses only a single inmate.
Speaker 2: As we reached the end of a long concrete corridor
Speaker 2: and he put the key in the lock, he paused
Speaker 2: and said, are you sure you want to go in?
Speaker 2: Of course, I replied, impatiently. I've been isolation cells all
Speaker 2: over the world. Slowly he swung the massive door open,
Speaker 2: and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell. It
Speaker 2: was a beautifully carved crucifix by the humanita inmates. The
Speaker 2: prisoner Jesus hanging on the cross. He's doing time for
Speaker 2: the rest of us. My guide said softly. You see, folks,
Speaker 2: this is what the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
Speaker 2: is all about. Jesus has served your time. He paid
Speaker 2: your penalty. He was hung up for your hang ups.
Speaker 2: He died in your place. And when we take communion,
Speaker 2: we remember that Jesus took the punishment that we should
Speaker 2: have taken. The Bible says this and Second Corinthians eight.
Speaker 2: You are familiar with the generosity of Jesus. Christ, rich
Speaker 2: as he was, he gave it all away for us
Speaker 2: in one stroke. He became poor that we might become rich.
Speaker 2: You can spell grace. Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and
Speaker 1: listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you
Speaker 1: were just as blessed as I was. From today's broadcast.
Speaker 1: Right now, 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 to distracted and uncertain than ever,
Speaker 2: I want to help you start your day centered on
Speaker 2: what 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 psychologist 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.