Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is
Speaker 1: the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren. Hey, we're so
Speaker 1: glad you've joined us today. We're continuing a powerful series
Speaker 1: called Radicalis Developing Spiritual Roots, And in this series, Rick
Speaker 1: will show you how to grow deep in your faith,
Speaker 1: stay grounded in God's word, and become everything He created
Speaker 1: you to be. So let's join Rick right now for
Speaker 1: the final part of a message called Radical Love.
Speaker 2: The Book of Titus says the free gift, it's free
Speaker 2: gift of eternal salvation is offered to who who everyone.
Speaker 2: Notice there's no mention of religion there say this is
Speaker 2: only offered to this religion or to that religion, or
Speaker 2: to this group or to that group or that nationality.
Speaker 2: It says, this is offered to everyone, the friends. I
Speaker 2: don't really care what your religious background is. You may
Speaker 2: be Catholic, Protestant, you may be Jewish, you may be
Speaker 2: Muslim or Mormon, or Buddhist or Baptist or Hindu. You
Speaker 2: may be atheist or agnostic. I don't really care what
Speaker 2: your religious background is. Jesus still died for you. The
Speaker 2: free gift of eternal salvation is offered to everyone. Doesn't
Speaker 2: matter at all what your religious background is, because it's
Speaker 2: not about religion. It's about a relationship to Christ. Look
Speaker 2: at the next verse. It makes no difference who you
Speaker 2: are or where you're from. If you want God and
Speaker 2: you're ready to do as he says, the door is open.
Speaker 2: He says, there regardless of your ethnic background, regardless of
Speaker 2: your economic background, regardless of your educational background, doesn't matter
Speaker 2: who you are, what you've done, or who you've done
Speaker 2: it with, or how long you did it. sCOD says,
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in that. It's all about whoever believes
Speaker 2: on Him shall not perish. He says, it's about what
Speaker 2: I've done for you. It's not about what you do
Speaker 2: for me. It's amazing grace for every race. Jesus is
Speaker 2: an equal opportunity savior. How do I accept this offer?
Speaker 2: Whoever believes in Him shall not perish. We'll notice the
Speaker 2: next verse. The Bible says this, If you confess with
Speaker 2: your mouth Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your
Speaker 2: heart that God raised him from the dead, that's what
Speaker 2: Easter is all about. You will be saved.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The problem with that verse, we don't understand the meaning
Speaker 2: of the word lord, because we don't. We're not in
Speaker 2: a feudal system today. We're in a democracy in America.
Speaker 2: We elect our presidents and our congressmen and our senators.
Speaker 3: So we're not in a.
Speaker 2: World of kings and queens and lords and ladies and
Speaker 2: your lordship. We don't have vassals and counts and serfs
Speaker 2: and knights and pages and lords. So the word lord
Speaker 2: is not a word that we use it frequently in
Speaker 2: our language. So what does it mean when I say
Speaker 2: I'm going to confess Jesus is my lord. What's the
Speaker 2: modern component to it? The modern comparison is, Jesus is
Speaker 2: my manager, my CEO, the chairman of my board. He's
Speaker 2: my boss, he's my supervisor. He's calling the shots.
Speaker 3: In my life.
Speaker 2: Jesus is sitting in the driver's seat in my car.
Speaker 2: Jesus is the pilot of my plane. He is directing it.
Speaker 2: When you say Jesus is lord, the best description of
Speaker 2: that is you put on a sign that says I'm
Speaker 2: under new management.
Speaker 3: I'm under new management.
Speaker 2: See, before I opened my life to Christ, I was
Speaker 2: managing my own life. Wasn't doing a very good job
Speaker 2: of it because I was managing my own life. So
Speaker 2: I kept hitting a bunch of dead ends. I had
Speaker 2: broken relationships, had a lot of stress, a lot of worry,
Speaker 2: a lot of difficulty. I had a lot of regrets
Speaker 2: in my life, unnecessary tension. I really wasn't quite sure
Speaker 2: of what my purpose in life was because I was
Speaker 2: managing my own life. And at one point I said, Okay,
Speaker 2: time out. I'm not doing that hot a job. Whether
Speaker 2: I think, I'm gonna go with God because he made me,
Speaker 2: He loves me, he created me, He knows what will
Speaker 2: make me happy more than I do.
Speaker 3: He sent his son to die for me. He wants
Speaker 3: me to live with him in heaven.
Speaker 2: I think I'll let him be the manager of my
Speaker 2: life under new management. That's what it means to say,
Speaker 2: Jesus is the lord of my life. He says, if
Speaker 2: you'll do that, if you'll say that, and then if
Speaker 2: you will believe in your heart God raised him for
Speaker 2: the dead. Notice it doesn't say believe in your head,
Speaker 2: believe in your heart. Why because a lot of people
Speaker 2: miss heaven by eighteen inches. They got it up here
Speaker 2: in their brain, but they don't have it here in
Speaker 2: their heart. In other words, they have an intellectual understanding
Speaker 2: of Jesus, but they have no heart or emotional commitment.
Speaker 2: So he just said, oh, I believe in Jesus.
Speaker 3: Isn't enough.
Speaker 2: Oh I believe Jesus died on the cross. I believe
Speaker 2: he rose fer sins and I mean to shoot the
Speaker 2: devil believes that. But you're not going to find him
Speaker 2: in heaven of Americas.
Speaker 3: Say, oh, shoot, I believe Jesus was who he said
Speaker 3: he was.
Speaker 2: Our whole calendar split into AD and BC by the
Speaker 2: life of Christ. But that's not enough. What does it
Speaker 2: really mean to believe? The word here in Greek and
Speaker 2: the original translation means it's pistevo or pastuo. It means
Speaker 2: to trust in, to cling to, to rely on. It
Speaker 2: means to have a relationship with That's what God wants,
Speaker 2: is a relationship with you. I could mention a bunch
Speaker 2: of famous people that I could say I know that person.
Speaker 2: You would know who I'm talking about, But I don't
Speaker 2: really know them. I don't know what makes them tick.
Speaker 2: I don't know their internal workings. I certainly don't have
Speaker 2: an intimate relationship with him. But I know Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I've known him for forty years. He's my best friend.
Speaker 2: I talked to him all the time, just like I'm
Speaker 2: talking to you. In fact, I was talking to him
Speaker 2: about you just a few minutes ago. And I don't
Speaker 2: have to close my eyes and I don't have to say
Speaker 2: the e. Now I've developed the friendship that I can
Speaker 2: hear God speak to me in my heart and I
Speaker 2: in my head, and I can talk to him. And
Speaker 2: you can do this too. God sent Christ not to
Speaker 2: give you a religion. God sent Christ to give you
Speaker 2: a relationship. In fact, what did Jesus come to do?
Speaker 2: Look on the screen. Jesus said this. I didn't come
Speaker 2: to judge the world, but to save it. Now, that's
Speaker 2: a whole, big different picture of God than most people have.
Speaker 2: Most people think God sits up in heaven waiting to
Speaker 2: catch you doing something wrong just so he can judge you,
Speaker 2: just so he can tell you what you did wrong,
Speaker 2: just so he can put you down, just so we
Speaker 2: can tell you should have done this, you should have
Speaker 2: done that, you must do this, you shouldn't have done that,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't have done that. Friends, that's not God, that's
Speaker 2: your parent. Don't confuse an unpleasable parent with God. A
Speaker 2: lot of people take their idea of their parents and
Speaker 2: put it on God and think God is unpleasable. God
Speaker 2: is not mad at you, He's mad about you. God
Speaker 2: so loved the world that he sent his son to
Speaker 2: die for you. Nobody's ever sent anybody to die for
Speaker 2: you except God. That whosoever believes in him. That's the
Speaker 2: great gift. I did not come to judge the world,
Speaker 2: but to save it. And it really doesn't matter what
Speaker 2: you've done. You know, over the many years here at Saddleback,
Speaker 2: over twenty thousand adults have said, I confess Jesus is
Speaker 2: my Lord. I believe in my heart. I'm opening my
Speaker 2: life to Christ. I'm stepping across the line. I'm becoming
Speaker 2: a part of God's family. Over twenty thousand people just
Speaker 2: in this church, over one thousand of them have come
Speaker 2: across his stage and told their stories. And those you've
Speaker 2: been here for years know that you've heard the most
Speaker 2: amazing stories you've ever heard of life transformation. Only God
Speaker 2: can make those changes. I thought this Christmas we'd put
Speaker 2: the testimony on video. Leo was a Cuban mafia in Miami.
Speaker 2: He was a drug runner, making a lot of money
Speaker 2: selling cocaine and then he found how to opened his
Speaker 2: life to Christ and it was revolutionized and changed. I
Speaker 2: want you to hear his story.
Speaker 3: Listen to this.
Speaker 4: I was born in Cuba and at the age of eleven,
Speaker 4: my parents brought us to the United States. We lived
Speaker 4: in the city of New Orleans, where I lived there
Speaker 4: for over twenty years. There I went to school, and
Speaker 4: in nineteen seventy seven, after having graduated from high school,
Speaker 4: I decided to move to Miami. This was the disco mecca,
Speaker 4: something that I was very involved in that was really
Speaker 4: my lifestyle. I met a man named Manny who would
Speaker 4: turn out to be my best friend. One night, as
Speaker 4: we went out, we walked into this club and there
Speaker 4: was this guy that was causing a lot of attention
Speaker 4: and had all the girls around him, and as we
Speaker 4: got closer, it turned out to be Manny's uncle.
Speaker 3: He invited us.
Speaker 4: To his table and we hung out that night, and
Speaker 4: it wasn't long before he offered us if we'd be
Speaker 4: interested in come to work for him. We would get
Speaker 4: on a fast boat and we will drive out to
Speaker 4: the open ocean where we will meet a mother boat.
Speaker 4: This boat would unload these big belts of drugs and
Speaker 4: we will hold them in and we would get paid
Speaker 4: big amounts of money. After a while, we graduated to
Speaker 4: wanting out to be distributing cocaine. And if we're making
Speaker 4: a lot of money running the boats, this kid of
Speaker 4: money duplicated and here we are money and I out
Speaker 4: there at the disco with more money in our pockets
Speaker 4: that we know what to do with. There was a
Speaker 4: lot of competition, and there was a lot of bloodshed,
Speaker 4: and the streets of Miami got very dangerous, and I
Speaker 4: found myself caught up in this business of money and blood.
Speaker 4: I would literally walk over their bodies and left person
Speaker 4: that I knew behind to die. I spent close to
Speaker 4: three or four years as a fugitive. Peace wasn't part
Speaker 4: of my life. Love wasn't part of my life. It
Speaker 4: was something that was foreign because you didn't trust anybody's
Speaker 4: During this time that I was hiding out, if you
Speaker 4: will in a bar, that I meet this beautiful girl
Speaker 4: that is ten years younger than me. I wasn't out
Speaker 4: to meet anybody. I wasn't out for a relationship, and
Speaker 4: I kind of actually ran away from her, even though
Speaker 4: there was a sense that there was something special about her.
Speaker 4: In nineteen eighty nine, the law finally caught up with
Speaker 4: me and I ended up doing close to five years
Speaker 4: in a federal institution in Tallahassee.
Speaker 3: I got out of.
Speaker 4: Prison and I did my time. While at a restaurant
Speaker 4: one night, I ran into Doris's stepfather and this is
Speaker 4: when he breaking the news that Doris has been waiting
Speaker 4: for me all this time, and she never gave up,
Speaker 4: and she invited me to come to church with her.
Speaker 4: Next day, he I'm sitting at church and I'm sitting
Speaker 4: by myself because she was part of the choir. I
Speaker 4: don't know how this came about, but next thing I know,
Speaker 4: I was up front, crying like a baby, giving my
Speaker 4: life to Jesus. I had a hard time understanding why
Speaker 4: will God receive me after the lifestyle that I lived,
Speaker 4: How he will love on me and accept me. That
Speaker 4: beautiful girl that I met that dark night in my
Speaker 4: life is today my wife. Come June sixth, it will
Speaker 4: be a fourteenth anniversary out of this love union. We
Speaker 4: have two beautiful children, Samuel or my little man, he's thirteen,
Speaker 4: and Teresa, my baby girl, she's seven. So, as I
Speaker 4: have shared this with you, I only had done it
Speaker 4: with one thing in mind, and it's knowing that if
Speaker 4: I went through all of these changes, and I did
Speaker 4: all of this and yet He received me, I know
Speaker 4: that doesn't matter what it is that you've done. Doesn't
Speaker 4: matter what it is that you have gone through, or
Speaker 4: even someone you love. Nothing that will hold you, that
Speaker 4: will keep you away from that will separate you from
Speaker 4: the love of our most wonderful creator, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: Now you may think.
Speaker 2: God would never accept me, Well, he accepted Leo. Only
Speaker 2: God can make changes like that. Now, let's review the
Speaker 2: greatest verse in the world. God so loved you, the
Speaker 2: greatest love that he gave his only begotten son, the
Speaker 2: greatest sacrifice. Nobody's ever made that kind of sacrifice for you,
Speaker 2: that whoever believes in him should not perish. That's the
Speaker 2: greatest offer. But have eternal life. That's the greatest gift.
Speaker 2: You know, you get a lot of gifts at Christmas
Speaker 2: that don't last six months, much less sixty years. Some
Speaker 2: of your gifts, most of your gifts you can't even
Speaker 2: remember what you got last year. This is a gift
Speaker 2: that will last forever, eternal life. Now what does that
Speaker 2: mean you say, was like going to heaven. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: it involves heaven. But eternal life is far more than
Speaker 2: just duration. It involves donation. It's a quality of life.
Speaker 2: In fact, there are three parts to eternal life. It
Speaker 2: begins the moment you open your heart to Christ. It's
Speaker 2: your past, it's your present, in your future. It's three dimensional.
Speaker 2: Now listen very closely. When you invite Christ into your
Speaker 2: life and accept this salvation, three things happen. You get
Speaker 2: your past forgiven, you get a purpose for living, You
Speaker 2: get a home in heaven. It takes care of your past,
Speaker 2: your present, your future, past forgiven, everything you've ever done wrong,
Speaker 2: wiped out purpose for living while you're here on earth,
Speaker 2: home in heaven for eternity. Where are you going to
Speaker 2: get a deal like that? Only God can make that
Speaker 2: kind of offer to you. And it is the free gift.
Speaker 2: And it's what Christmas is all about. Do you know
Speaker 2: why we give gifts at Christmas? It's because God gave
Speaker 2: us the first gift, the first gift of his son,
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, and we give gifts in response to that.
Speaker 2: The whole idea of gift giving started because God gave
Speaker 2: you the first gift. Now, how silly would it be
Speaker 2: to go Christmas after Christmas, after Christmas, after Christmas, after Christmas,
Speaker 2: after Christmas, and never open your biggest gift, God's gift
Speaker 2: to you, the whole reason for Christmas.
Speaker 3: God so loved the world that he gave.
Speaker 2: His son that if you will believe in Him, you
Speaker 2: will not perish, but have everlasting life, past, forgiven, purpose
Speaker 2: for living home in heaven.
Speaker 3: Look of what the Bible.
Speaker 2: Says, because Jesus was raised from the dead, we have
Speaker 2: been given a brand new life. That's the past completely,
Speaker 2: you know, wiped out. Get a new life, have everything
Speaker 2: to live for that's the present, and have a future
Speaker 2: in heaven. That's the future, and the future starts now.
Speaker 2: I wonder how many of these dimensions are you living
Speaker 2: in right now? Has your past been forgiven? Are you
Speaker 2: still caring around grilt, regrets, resentment, and grudges? Don't carry
Speaker 2: those into the new decade, leave them here, let them
Speaker 2: go the God. Are you living with a purpose in
Speaker 2: life or you're just going to be in drifting around
Speaker 2: being pressured? So you'll either live by purpose or live
Speaker 2: by pressure in life? How about heaven? Are you certain
Speaker 2: of your home in heaven? Are you afraid of death.
Speaker 2: I'm not afraid of death. I've been afraid of death
Speaker 2: for years. He says, I want to give you these things,
Speaker 2: and not only that, you become a part of God's family.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this, God's unchanging plan has always been
Speaker 2: to adopt us into his own family by bringing us
Speaker 2: to himself through Jesus Christ. Now follow me very closely
Speaker 2: on this. Everybody in the world is created by God.
Speaker 2: Everybody in the world is loved by God. But not
Speaker 2: everybody in the world is in the family of God.
Speaker 2: Because that's a choice. God's not going to force you
Speaker 2: to love him. You must choose to love his son
Speaker 2: to get in his family, and he's not going to
Speaker 2: force you to do that. You see, when you were
Speaker 2: born physically, you automatically became a part of the human
Speaker 2: You didn't have a choice. Sorry, you're part of the
Speaker 2: human race, but you didn't become a part of any
Speaker 2: specific family till somebody chose to take you home from
Speaker 2: the hospital.
Speaker 3: You must choose to be.
Speaker 2: A part of God's family. Now, what would keep me
Speaker 2: from accepting this gift? Well, there are a couple things.
Speaker 2: One of them is feared. I wish somebody had told
Speaker 2: me a long time ago that I didn't have to
Speaker 2: have all my doubts answered and all my questions saw
Speaker 2: before I began a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would
Speaker 2: have done it a whole lot sooner. I just didn't
Speaker 2: understand that. You see, I've been a friend of Christ
Speaker 2: for over forty years now, and I read this book,
Speaker 2: the Bible. There's still a lot of stuff in here
Speaker 2: I don't understand. There's still things I have doubts about.
Speaker 2: I have questions about. In fact, I've made a list,
Speaker 2: and when I get to Heaven, I'm going to ask God, now,
Speaker 2: why did you do this? And why did you say this?
Speaker 2: And why did you do that? And you see, if
Speaker 2: I had been God, I wouldn't have done that. You
Speaker 2: ought to be glad I'm not God. I'm glad you're
Speaker 2: not God. But there are a lot of things I
Speaker 2: don't understand that I have doubts, I have questions about.
Speaker 3: So what.
Speaker 2: That didn't stop me from enjoying a relationship with Christ.
Speaker 2: There's not a single other area in your life where
Speaker 2: you have to have everything figured out before you enjoy
Speaker 2: the benefit. You certainly didn't understand what it meant to
Speaker 2: be a parent before you became a parent. I mean,
Speaker 2: you get on planes all the time. I doubt you
Speaker 2: understand how the physics of aerospace and aerodynamics. I certainly
Speaker 2: don't know how a multi ton engine can fly up
Speaker 2: in the air, but I still trust the plane to
Speaker 2: get me somewhere. You don't understand how all a plane works,
Speaker 2: but you trusted to get you somewhere. I don't understand
Speaker 2: how right now there are radio and TV waves coming
Speaker 2: through this auditorium and with sound and pictures, and they're
Speaker 2: actually going through your body right now. I can't prove it,
Speaker 2: but they are. But if I have a tuner, I
Speaker 2: can tune it in and it doesn't stop me from
Speaker 2: watching television just because.
Speaker 3: I don't understand how it works.
Speaker 2: I don't understand internal combustion doesn't stop me from driving
Speaker 2: a car. Shoot, I don't understand the chemistry of digestion
Speaker 2: or taste buds, but it stop doesn't stop me from
Speaker 2: eating a cinnamon. How about if I said I'm never
Speaker 2: gonna eat till I understand digestion, well, I'm never gonna happen.
Speaker 3: You don't have to understand it all.
Speaker 2: You just have to enjoy what you got and over
Speaker 2: the time, you'll get to understand it better and better.
Speaker 2: One of my favorite stories in the Bible is this
Speaker 2: guy comes to Jesus one day and he's just an
Speaker 2: honest guy and he says, Lord, my daughter's sick and
Speaker 2: I really she needs to be healed. And Jesus looks
Speaker 2: at the guy and says, do you believe I could
Speaker 2: heal her? And I love this guy because he's honest,
Speaker 2: he's authentic. He says, well, I want to believe. Help
Speaker 2: with my doubt. That's a classic answer, I want to believe,
Speaker 2: help me with my doubt. And Jesus says that's good enough, bam,
Speaker 2: and he heals her. Did you know that you can
Speaker 2: say that today, this Christmas, that gift that's been under
Speaker 2: the Christmas tree every year of your life and you've
Speaker 2: never unwrapped it, the gift of salvation. You can say,
Speaker 2: I want to believe, help me with my doubt, and
Speaker 2: Jesus will say.
Speaker 3: That's good enough.
Speaker 2: The other reason that keeps us from making that acceptance
Speaker 2: of God's gift Christmas gift us is actually hurt. Because
Speaker 2: when we get hurt, and everybody gets hurt in life,
Speaker 2: we typically build walls around us and we say it,
Speaker 2: I'm never again gonna let any woman hurt me. I'm
Speaker 2: never gonna again let any man hurt me. I'm never
Speaker 2: gonna again let anybody get close to me. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna get suckered. I'm not gonna And we build up
Speaker 2: these walls, and sometimes we even build up barriers against God.
Speaker 2: Now God hadn't hurt you. Other people have heard you.
Speaker 2: We say, well, my brother died, so you get mad
Speaker 2: at God. Or I had a friend who died in
Speaker 2: the war, so you get mad at God. God didn't
Speaker 2: cause that. Most of it happens in the world is
Speaker 2: not God's will. That's why I were to pray Thy
Speaker 2: will be done on earth. Most of the things that
Speaker 2: happen is my will, your will, and the will of
Speaker 2: other sinful people, and all the problems God's going. Why
Speaker 2: are you guys doing that? Now you can stop it,
Speaker 2: real simple, take away your free will and everybody else's.
Speaker 2: But he wants us to have a choice. Maybe you've
Speaker 2: been hurt in a marriage, Maybe you've been hurt in
Speaker 2: a business. Maybe you've been hurt by a friend who
Speaker 2: betrayed you. Maybe you've been hurt by religion, maybe by
Speaker 2: a church maybe you've been hurt by Saddleback Church, this church.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you've been hurt. But let
Speaker 2: me give you a little friendly advice. Don't ever let
Speaker 2: the sins of other people keep you from God.
Speaker 3: That's stupid. God didn't hurt you.
Speaker 2: Don't ever let the sins of other people keep you
Speaker 2: from God. You know, Kay went shopping this week for
Speaker 2: Christmas shopping. When she came home, she'd been to Macy's
Speaker 2: and I was interested that the cover of the Macy's
Speaker 2: bag says.
Speaker 3: A million reasons to believe.
Speaker 2: That's interesting at Christmas, a million reasons to believe. But
Speaker 2: you know, the truth is, you don't need a million
Speaker 2: reasons to believe. You only need one reason to believe.
Speaker 2: God loves you. He made you, he created you, he
Speaker 2: loves you. He sent his son to die for you,
Speaker 2: and he did it all because God so loved you.
Speaker 3: It's bow our heads.
Speaker 2: Father, I want to thank you for your amazing love
Speaker 2: for us, for your grace. I thank you that you
Speaker 2: love us even when we don't deserve it. Thank you that,
Speaker 2: even when we don't feel it, that you are consistent
Speaker 2: when we're inconsistent. And Lord, there are people here today
Speaker 2: who know about you, but they don't really know you.
Speaker 2: They don't have a friendship with you like I do.
Speaker 2: They don't have a personal relationship with you. You seem distant,
Speaker 2: detached to them. So today I pray that they will experience,
Speaker 2: not just know, but experience your love completely and receive
Speaker 2: your Christmas gift. Now you pray, just doesn't matter what
Speaker 2: you say. Just say yes to God. Say yes. You're
Speaker 2: confessing Jesus as the lord of your life. He said, Well,
Speaker 2: I them know what to pray. Okay, I'll say some words,
Speaker 2: and if this makes sense to you, you say me too.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 2: Dear God, I haven't talked to you in a long time,
Speaker 2: maybe never, But I thank you for loving me, thank
Speaker 2: you for wanting me, thank you for creating me. I
Speaker 2: admit that I often take your love and the good
Speaker 2: things you've done in my life for granted, and I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: and I want to be more grateful this Christmas. I
Speaker 2: want to accept the Christmas gift of your son, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it all, but as much as I
Speaker 2: know how, I want to open my life to you.
Speaker 3: I want to be under new management. Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I need you to be my savior because I know
Speaker 2: I'm not perfect and I could never get into heaven
Speaker 2: on my own. So I want to ask you to
Speaker 2: forgive my past. I ask you to give me a
Speaker 2: purpose in the present, and I ask you to give
Speaker 2: me a home in heaven in the future. And I
Speaker 2: want to learn to trust you and love you. Amen.
Speaker 1: Wow, thank you Rick for that amazing message. You know
Speaker 1: people are being transformed by these messages every day, but
Speaker 1: that's only because of your partnership with us. In fact,
Speaker 1: here's Rick to share some important news with you.
Speaker 2: Let's be honest about this time of year. At the
Speaker 2: end of every year, there are so many ministries that
Speaker 2: ask for you to support them in the end of
Speaker 2: your giving. And you know what, we believe in every
Speaker 2: ministry that proclaims the name of Jesus, and we thank
Speaker 2: God for them. And I know it can be difficult
Speaker 2: to decide who to give to, So let me just
Speaker 2: give you some biblical foundations for giving, some simple guidelines
Speaker 2: for end of your giving. You might think of these
Speaker 2: three or four things. Number one, give to the ministry
Speaker 2: that God tells you to support. Go to God, pray
Speaker 2: to him, ask him, say God, who do you want
Speaker 2: me to support and you know what, I support you
Speaker 2: giving to whoever God tells you.
Speaker 3: To give to.
Speaker 2: And if it's not Daily Hope, I still support you
Speaker 2: to give to who God tells you to give to.
Speaker 2: So pray and ask God. Second, never give when you
Speaker 2: feel pressured. The Bible says in Corinthians that we are
Speaker 2: to never give under pressure or compulsion or under guilt.
Speaker 2: So if you ever feel guilty about giving, don't give
Speaker 2: because God tells you in the Word not to give
Speaker 2: at that time. Give because you want to give, not
Speaker 2: out of guilt or pressure. Number three, give to where
Speaker 2: you support and believe in the goals of that particular ministry. Now,
Speaker 2: every ministry has different goals. But if you believe in
Speaker 2: and have a heart for going to the last, the least,
Speaker 2: and the loss, this would be a ministry you should
Speaker 2: consider supporting and then finally give where your gift will
Speaker 2: be multiplied. For instance, at the end of every year,
Speaker 2: there is a donor to Daily Hope who offers to
Speaker 2: give a matching grant to apply to any donation that
Speaker 2: we receive before the end of the year. Now what
Speaker 2: this means is that for every dollar you are able
Speaker 2: to give this month the Daily Hope, it's going to
Speaker 2: be doubled. That donor will match it. That multiplies your gift.
Speaker 2: Like the little boy who brought his loaves and fishes
Speaker 2: to Jesus, and Jesus read the five thousand. If you
Speaker 2: give twenty five dollars to Daily Hope this month, the
Speaker 2: matching grant will match it at twenty five dollars. If
Speaker 2: you're able to give one hundred dollars, the matching grant
Speaker 2: will add another one hundred dollars. That multiplies your gift.
Speaker 2: I would consider that as a factor in where to
Speaker 2: give during this month. Now let me just say this.
Speaker 2: If you can't help us financially, that's okay, I understand,
Speaker 2: but I would ask that you pray for us. I'm
Speaker 2: so grateful for those of you who are a financial
Speaker 2: supporter of this ministry that monthly giving, month after month.
Speaker 2: It means so much to me, it means much to God,
Speaker 2: but it means so much for eternity to those who
Speaker 2: are hearing the good news for the very first time.
Speaker 2: And so you and I are partners together in reaching
Speaker 2: people for Christ all around the world. Closing, let me
Speaker 2: just ask you to continue to pray pray for me
Speaker 2: as I pray for you, and pray that God's word
Speaker 2: will be taught clearly, with compassion, with clarity, with simplicity
Speaker 2: in this new year, and then it will not only
Speaker 2: help you as you listen to these broadcasts, but it
Speaker 2: will help us reach people for Christ and disciple believers
Speaker 2: and build churches all around the world, especially in the
Speaker 2: tribes that have never heard the name of Christ. Thanks
Speaker 2: for your generosity, thanks for your prayers, and God bless you.
Speaker 1: All this month. Every dollar you give to help Daily
Speaker 1: Hope share the transforming love of Jesus with people around
Speaker 1: the world will be matched up to one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: You can give right now by going to pastor Rick
Speaker 1: dot com, or you can just text the word hope
Speaker 1: to seven oh three to oh nine. Again, that's pastor
Speaker 1: Rick dot com. Or just text the word hope to
Speaker 1: seven oh three oh nine and thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your self. Be sure to join us next time
Speaker 1: as we look into God's Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 1: your generous financial support