Speaker 1: You know, none of us can earn our way into
Speaker 1: heaven because the eternal life is a free gift when
Speaker 1: you 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. And now here's the final
Speaker 1: part of a message called Saving Grace.
Speaker 2: The A and grace stands for available to everyone.
Speaker 3: It's available to everyone.
Speaker 2: God doesn't play favorites, regardless of your background, regardless of
Speaker 2: your status, regardless of your sin, doesn't matter whether you've
Speaker 2: been a religious person, are a non religious person, or
Speaker 2: you have any religious background at all. In Romans fourteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: he says the promise is not only for those people
Speaker 2: that live under the law of Moses. It is for
Speaker 2: anyone who lives with faith like Abraham. Now, who are
Speaker 2: these people who live under the law of Moses? Jews?
Speaker 2: Jewish people. The Jewish people were given the Law of Moses.
Speaker 2: Moses was their leader, and they were given the ways
Speaker 2: of God to do the right thing before the rest
Speaker 2: of us were given them. By the way, have you
Speaker 2: ever thought about why are the Jews called God's chosen people?
Speaker 2: God just loved them more than he loves the rest
Speaker 2: of us. No, they were chosen for a purpose. What
Speaker 2: was the purpose? They were chosen to spread the message
Speaker 2: to everybody else, to tell the world that there is
Speaker 2: one true God. That's what they were chosen for. They
Speaker 2: were kind of like the missionaries to the rest of us.
Speaker 2: Now God has taken that task and given it to
Speaker 2: the Church, which includes Jews, Gentiles, on everybody.
Speaker 3: Else who put their faith in Christ.
Speaker 2: And God says it's available to anybody who opens up
Speaker 2: their heart with faith. Look at the verse on the
Speaker 2: back of your outline. Everyone who calls in the name
Speaker 2: of the Lord will be saved. Circle the word everyone.
Speaker 2: There are no quotas in heaven. It doesn't say, oh,
Speaker 2: really good people will be saved if they call the
Speaker 2: name of the Lord. Really religious people, no, really smart people. No,
Speaker 2: it just says anybody anybody who calls the name the Lord,
Speaker 2: who has faith in the grace of God.
Speaker 3: He says, will be saved.
Speaker 2: And the sad thing is that even though many people
Speaker 2: know that God offers his grace an unconditional gift to us,
Speaker 2: they still try to work their way to heaven. They
Speaker 2: think that something in their lives is making them good
Speaker 2: enough that they don't need to receive God's.
Speaker 3: Gift of grace through Christ.
Speaker 2: Now you may have done some really nifty things in life,
Speaker 2: but if you think they're going to get you into heaven,
Speaker 2: forget it, because Heaven is perfect and you're not. And
Speaker 2: the only way you're gonna get into Heaven is by
Speaker 2: receiving God's gift to you, receiving it by faith, which
Speaker 2: is available to every person. The see in grace stands
Speaker 2: for grace comes through Christ. Grace comes through Christ. John
Speaker 2: chapter one, verse seventeen says the law was given through Moses,
Speaker 2: but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Why through
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus Christ the only way to heaven?
Speaker 2: Why not Buddha, Why not somebody else? Why only Jesus Christ?
Speaker 2: Because he paid the price of admission. He's already paid
Speaker 2: for your salvation. Nobody else has done that one on
Speaker 2: the cross.
Speaker 3: He paid for your sins.
Speaker 2: Now, grace is free, no doubt about that, But it
Speaker 2: is not cheap. It cost Jesus Christ's life. He paid
Speaker 2: for your ticket. Now the law tells me when I
Speaker 2: do wrong, it says you blew it. But grace says,
Speaker 2: here's how to get back on track. You're forgiven. Let's
Speaker 2: get going in the right direction. Romans five point fifteen says,
Speaker 2: many people have received God's gift of life by the
Speaker 2: grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. Now in the Bible,
Speaker 2: the favorite description for somebody who has grace, who has
Speaker 2: accepted God's grace. The favorite description for a believer, a Christian,
Speaker 2: is the term in Christ. Those two words in Christ.
Speaker 2: That phrase in Christ is used over one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty times in the New Testament. It refers to somebody
Speaker 2: who has found salvation through the grace of God being
Speaker 2: in Christ.
Speaker 3: Now, let me explain it to you like this.
Speaker 2: Let's say this card represents my life, and let's represent
Speaker 2: the Bible. This Bible represents Jesus Christ. Now, in my life,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of things that I've done wrong
Speaker 2: that disqualify me to live in a perfect place like heaven.
Speaker 2: And there are things in my life that have ripped
Speaker 2: up my life. There are things that I've done wrong.
Speaker 2: There things that I'm ashamed of that I don't want
Speaker 2: you or anybody else to know about.
Speaker 3: In my past.
Speaker 2: I wish I could do them over. There are things
Speaker 2: that have really hurt me deeply, where I've hurt others
Speaker 2: and they've hurt me. There are sins that I've committed,
Speaker 2: there are thoughts that I have thought. There are actions
Speaker 2: that have been hurtful to other people. And in many
Speaker 2: ways I've ripped up my life and allowed others to
Speaker 2: rip it up too. And then there are things in
Speaker 2: my life that I've done that I'm really ashamed of.
Speaker 2: And I just made a total mess of my life.
Speaker 2: And I look at that messed up, broken, damaged, scarred
Speaker 2: life and I think there's no chance of this getting
Speaker 2: into heaven because it's certainly not perfect. But the Bible
Speaker 2: says that Jesus Christ takes my life with all the scars,
Speaker 2: with all the tatters, with all the mistakes, with all
Speaker 2: the guilt things in my life. And the Bible says
Speaker 2: that when I come to Jesus Christ and I say,
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, I open my life up to you, and
Speaker 2: I want to accept your free get the salvation that
Speaker 2: God puts me in Christ. Now, when I'm in Christ,
Speaker 2: can you see my imperfections? Can you see them anywhere?
Speaker 2: Can you see the things that I'm ashamed of? Can
Speaker 2: you see the things that have ripped up my life
Speaker 2: and ripped up other people?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: All you can see when I'm in Christ is Christ.
Speaker 2: And So when God takes my life and he takes
Speaker 2: all of the pieces of it that are kind of
Speaker 2: messed up, not kind of really messed up, and he
Speaker 2: puts me in the life of Christ, I get into
Speaker 2: heaven on Christ ticket and when he looks at me
Speaker 2: with eyes of grace, he only sees the perfection of
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. Look at the next verse Galatians two twenty one.
Speaker 2: Don't treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if
Speaker 2: we could be saved by keeping the law, in other words,
Speaker 2: by doing good, then there.
Speaker 3: Was no need for Christ to die.
Speaker 2: In other words, if you could be saved and could
Speaker 2: get to Heaven on your own merit, the cross was
Speaker 2: a waste. And if you could have gotten to heaven
Speaker 2: without any help from God. Believe me, Jesus Christ wouldn't
Speaker 2: have come and died on the cross for you because
Speaker 2: He wouldn't waste himself like that. But there was no
Speaker 2: other way. You're either going to get into heaven in
Speaker 2: Christ or you're not going. Now it's a free gift,
Speaker 2: you just accept it in faith. Grace is all that
Speaker 2: God does for me because of what Jesus Christ did
Speaker 2: for me on the cross. Another crost is grace is
Speaker 2: God's riches at Christ's expense. It comes through Christ and
Speaker 2: only through Christ. E in grace stands for it is
Speaker 2: extended throughout eternity, extended throughout eternity. Romans six twenty three says, well,
Speaker 2: let's read it aloud. The wages of sin is death,
Speaker 2: but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ.
Speaker 3: Jesus our Lord.
Speaker 2: Now I want you to circle the phrase eternal life,
Speaker 2: because the results of God's grace are gonna go on
Speaker 2: and on and on forever, eternal life. That's one of
Speaker 2: the benefits of grace, eternal life. You could say that
Speaker 2: grace is the gift that keeps on giving, and God
Speaker 2: saves the best for last and the best is yet
Speaker 2: to come, and with Jesus Christ. It just keeps getting
Speaker 2: better and better. The Bible says, the free gift of
Speaker 2: God is eternal life in heaven. Have you ever thought
Speaker 2: about what is heaven really gonna be like? The Bible
Speaker 2: tells us that heaven is going to be like four things.
Speaker 2: Number One, it's gonna be a place of reunion where
Speaker 2: we are reunited with other loved ones who have accepted
Speaker 2: the grace of God. Reunited with loved ones who have
Speaker 2: accepted the grace of God through Christ. Two it's gonna
Speaker 2: be a place of reward where we are rewarded for
Speaker 2: the character that we developed in the way that we
Speaker 2: served other people here on Earth. Three it's going to
Speaker 2: be a place where we are reassigned to do new
Speaker 2: work that we like to do, based on our shape,
Speaker 2: based on how God has gifted us. We will be
Speaker 2: given new assignments that we love to do. And number four,
Speaker 2: it's going to be a place of release where we're
Speaker 2: free from all pain, all suffering, all sadness, all sorrow,
Speaker 2: all grief, all depression, all.
Speaker 3: Loneliness, etc.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a wonderful place and it is
Speaker 2: the gift of God. Now there's one catch. You have
Speaker 2: to accept it. As I've said, if you get a
Speaker 2: gift for you, but you don't gift a gift and
Speaker 2: you don't unwrap it.
Speaker 3: It's a worthless gift.
Speaker 2: Now you need to realize that Jesus Christ makes this
Speaker 2: grace gift available to everybody, but it has also customized
Speaker 2: specific for your life.
Speaker 3: Because God knows exactly what you need.
Speaker 2: One of the most brilliant people I've ever met is
Speaker 2: Peter Drucker nineties years ninety years old, father of American Management.
Speaker 2: Everything he writes is printed in the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2: He's written dozens and dozens of books that are textbooks.
Speaker 2: A brilliant, brilliant man. Many of you know that he's
Speaker 2: been a mentor to me for a number of years.
Speaker 2: I asked Peter one day, how did you become a Christian? Peter,
Speaker 2: and he said, well, Rick, when somebody first explained grace
Speaker 2: to me, I realized I was never going to get
Speaker 2: a bigger, a better deal. You're never going to get
Speaker 2: a better deal than we've talked about today. So open
Speaker 2: your life to the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: It's your only hope and it's free.
Speaker 2: Now I know you may be thinking, you know, if
Speaker 2: I can God with all the ways that I've messed
Speaker 2: up my life, God's gonna give me some big lecture.
Speaker 2: I'm going to feel condemned. I'm going to feel judged.
Speaker 2: In fact, I'm not gonna feel good at all if
Speaker 2: I come to Christ. I'll just get all this rebuke
Speaker 2: and reproof and feel bad because I know how many
Speaker 2: times I've blown it. And God's just gonna say I
Speaker 2: told you so. And if you think that you are
Speaker 2: sadly mistaken, sadly mistaken, that's what grace.
Speaker 3: Is all about. He says, come to me.
Speaker 2: In the Bible, there's a story of a woman who
Speaker 2: had numerous moral failures.
Speaker 3: I mean numerous moral failures.
Speaker 2: She'd slept around with anybody and everybody, and she had
Speaker 2: what you would call a reputation, a real reputation. And
Speaker 2: in fact, one day some religious leaders actually caught her
Speaker 2: in the act, in bed with somebody and brought her
Speaker 2: to Jesus and threw her on the ground in front
Speaker 2: of Christ, expecting him to condemn her. And they said,
Speaker 2: what are you going to do about this woman who's
Speaker 2: violated all kinds of principles of God? And Jesus defended
Speaker 2: her dignity. He protected her, and in front of the
Speaker 2: whole crowd, he said, all right, anybody who is here
Speaker 2: without sin, you can cast the first stone. And of course,
Speaker 2: since there was no one in the crowd, that was perfect.
Speaker 2: They all began to slowly walk away. Then, in the
Speaker 2: privacy of that one on one encounter, Jesus looked at
Speaker 2: this woman who was filled with guilt, and he said,
Speaker 2: where are your condemners? And she said they've all gone, Lord,
Speaker 2: And Jesus said to her two very profound things. He said,
Speaker 2: do I condemn you?
Speaker 3: Now? Go and sin no more.
Speaker 2: That's all he said, No long lecture, no big lesson.
Speaker 2: He just said, neither do I condemn you, Go and
Speaker 2: send no more. Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn
Speaker 2: the world. I came to save it. And if you
Speaker 2: are expecting to come to Christ and be filled with
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of condemnation, you missed the boat. You
Speaker 2: haven't heard the story, You don't understand grace, so you
Speaker 2: come to Christ. In fact, the Bible says this the
Speaker 2: last verse on your outline Isaiah thirty, verse eighteen.
Speaker 3: The Lord longs to be gracious to you. Do you
Speaker 3: see that God wants to be gracious to you.
Speaker 2: It is in his nature to bless undeserving people. He's
Speaker 2: waiting for you to accept his grace. He enjoys being gracious.
Speaker 2: He is not mad at you. His heart's broken for you,
Speaker 2: but he wants you to come home. Now, you say, well,
Speaker 2: wait a minute. Does grace just mean that I can
Speaker 2: accept God's gift and just keep on living any way
Speaker 2: that I want to thumbing my nose to God?
Speaker 3: Of course not. There are two very profound statements.
Speaker 2: He says, I don't condemn you, and then he says, now,
Speaker 2: just stop doing it, go and send no more.
Speaker 3: Let me help you change.
Speaker 2: He's not saying, oh, just keep on doing whatever's destroying
Speaker 2: your life, whatever's opposing the laws of God.
Speaker 3: He says, go and send no more. Now.
Speaker 2: God's amazing grace is available right here and right now today.
Speaker 2: That's why he brought you here. You're not here by accident.
Speaker 2: He brought you here. If you have never received that
Speaker 2: saving grace gift, what are you waiting on?
Speaker 3: Let's power heads.
Speaker 2: In the coming weeks, we're going to look at God's
Speaker 2: restoring grace and sustaining grace and liberating grace. But first
Speaker 2: you've got to settle the foundation saving grace. So why
Speaker 2: don't you pray this prayer in your heart? Dear God,
Speaker 2: I realized that I could never be perfect enough to
Speaker 2: earn a place in your perfect heaven. I realized that
Speaker 2: the only way I'll get in is by your grace.
Speaker 2: Forgive me for thinking that I could be good enough.
Speaker 2: Forgive me for my pride that thinks I could earn
Speaker 2: my way into heaven. Thank you that you give me
Speaker 2: what I need, not what I deserve. Thank you for
Speaker 2: your forgiveness, and I ask for it today. Jesus Christ,
Speaker 2: thank you for paying for my salvation on the cross.
Speaker 3: By faith. I accept your grace today, and I want
Speaker 3: you to guide my life from this day forward. In
Speaker 3: your name. I pray 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. And
Speaker 1: now here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of
Speaker 1: our listeners.
Speaker 3: Today.
Speaker 2: I want to share a letter from a new listener, Sherman,
Speaker 2: who's in Tennessee, and he writes that he and his
Speaker 2: wife used Daily Hope to study God's Word together.
Speaker 3: Here's what he wrote.
Speaker 2: Just recently, a friend of mine turned me on to
Speaker 2: your Daily Hope devotional and also gave me your CD
Speaker 2: series on the Lord's Prayer and Wow.
Speaker 3: Together.
Speaker 2: My wife and I now listen to Daily Hope podcast.
Speaker 2: We take notes, we pray, We have great conversations about
Speaker 2: all the biblical teachings that we get from you, and
Speaker 2: we both look forward to that time of being encouraged
Speaker 2: and challenged and instructed.
Speaker 3: Now I know, Pastor.
Speaker 2: Rick, that it was through the giving of other people
Speaker 2: that made it possible for me to hear the Daily
Speaker 2: Hope teaching, and so now I want to make an
Speaker 2: eternal investment myself by giving to this ministry, so that
Speaker 2: others may be blessed and impacted in the same way
Speaker 2: that my wife and I have been. Well, Sherman, I'm
Speaker 2: so glad to hear that you and your wife are
Speaker 2: studying the Bible together. Nothing will do more for your marriage.
Speaker 2: It will not only help to grow in faith, it
Speaker 2: will strengthen your marriage. And thank you for your financial gift.
Speaker 2: Without your help, we wouldn't be able to keep on
Speaker 2: reaching more and more people around the world with.
Speaker 3: The good news of Jesus.
Speaker 2: We wouldn't be able to disciple them through the Daily
Speaker 2: Hope podcast. Because of your prayers and your financial support,
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Speaker 2: for Christ. So I'm so grateful for you and for
Speaker 2: your prayers and your financial support. God bless you.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've been encouraged by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope
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