Speaker 1: Are Heaven and Hell real places? And what are they like? Today?
Speaker 1: On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of
Speaker 1: Rick Warren, we bring our series called Eternal Realities Heaven
Speaker 1: and Hell to a close. In these lessons, Rick shares
Speaker 1: what the Bible says about heaven and Hell and how
Speaker 1: you can be absolutely certain you'll go to heaven. As
Speaker 1: we wrap up, here's the final part of a message
Speaker 1: called how to be certain You're going to Heaven.
Speaker 2: Look at the next verse. This is a very important verse,
Speaker 2: got some heavy duty theology terms in it, but I'll
Speaker 2: explain him. Says we are justified freely by His grace
Speaker 2: through the redemption that came by Christ. Jesus. Now circle
Speaker 2: the word justified and the word redemption, because those are
Speaker 2: the two things you gotta have in order to get
Speaker 2: into heaven. So let me explain him. What does it
Speaker 2: mean to be justified? The Bible says Jesus Christ, we
Speaker 2: died for you, justified you. What does that mean? Well,
Speaker 2: justified means just as if I'd never sinned. That's what
Speaker 2: it means. Justification. Justified means just as if I'd never sinned.
Speaker 2: It's more than forgiveness. It means it's forgotten, it's wiped out,
Speaker 2: it's like it didn't even happen. Let me give you
Speaker 2: the example. Let's say while we're in here in church,
Speaker 2: some kids go out and they take tire irons and
Speaker 2: they beat up my car. They just tear it to
Speaker 2: smithereens and security catches them and brings them in here.
Speaker 2: And I say, now, you know, you, guys, God's forgiven
Speaker 2: me a whole lot, and so I need to forgive
Speaker 2: other people. So I'm going to forgive you for what
Speaker 2: you've done for me. I'm gonna forgive you for what
Speaker 2: you've done. And then I say to you guys, you guys,
Speaker 2: I want you all to forgive them too, And you say, okay,
Speaker 2: we forgive them. Now. They would be forgiven, but they'd
Speaker 2: still feel bad because I think everybody knows. Everybody knows
Speaker 2: what I've done, and a lot of people feel like that.
Speaker 2: They go, yeah, I know God's forgiven me, but I
Speaker 2: still feel bad about it because everybody knows about it.
Speaker 2: What they need is to be justified. If I were
Speaker 2: to have so pixie dust or ferry dust and I
Speaker 2: sprinkled it over you, or I waved a magic wand,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden that incident was totally erased
Speaker 2: from your memory. Then it would be justified. Just as
Speaker 2: if I'd never sin remember the movie Man in Black,
Speaker 2: they'd hold up that little thing, you know, the guys
Speaker 2: would forget everything that they knew. Those guys were justified
Speaker 2: by Will Smith right there. Okay, justified by Will Smith
Speaker 2: or Tommy Lee Jones. Okay, that's what it means. Just
Speaker 2: as if I'd never seen you don't even remember it,
Speaker 2: then it says through the redemption of Christ, Jesus came
Speaker 2: by Christ. What does it mean to be redeemed? What
Speaker 2: does the word redemption mean? That's an old slave trading term,
Speaker 2: and the word redemption means to buy somebody's freedom. You
Speaker 2: purchase somebody's freedom. Let's say you're a slave. This is
Speaker 2: years ago, and you're standing on a block and you're
Speaker 2: gonna be auctioned off as a slave. And I raised
Speaker 2: my hand and I say I will pay one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars for you, and so I buy you to
Speaker 2: say okay, sold to mister Warren. And you come off
Speaker 2: that auction block expecting to have to be my slave,
Speaker 2: and I say, okay, you're free to go. So what, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're free to go, but you just bought me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but I paid to set you free. You're kidding. No,
Speaker 2: I paid to set you free. That's called being redeemed.
Speaker 2: I am your redeemer. I have paid to set you free,
Speaker 2: and the Bible says that's what Jesus Christ did for you.
Speaker 2: He said, well, I'm not a slave to anything. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you are. You're a slave to far more things than
Speaker 2: you realize. Pastor Tommy talked about this a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2: A lot of you are slaved to the fear of death.
Speaker 2: You're scared to death, to die, you don't even want
Speaker 2: to talk about it. A lot of you are slaved
Speaker 2: to your past. You're stuck in the past. You can't
Speaker 2: let go of that regret, that shame, that guilt. You're
Speaker 2: a slave to guilt. A lot of you are slaved
Speaker 2: to people who've hurt you, and you can't let go
Speaker 2: of that hurt. And you're bitter and you're angry, and
Speaker 2: you hold onto it and you're resentful, and you're a
Speaker 2: slave to somebody else who hurt you. You may be
Speaker 2: a slave to the expectations of other people and you
Speaker 2: have to act a certain way because that's what's cool
Speaker 2: is and you have to do it the way they
Speaker 2: do it at work, and they do it at school,
Speaker 2: the way to do it in your neighborhood. You may
Speaker 2: be a slave to the approval of your parents, and
Speaker 2: maybe they've even died years ago and you're still trying
Speaker 2: to prove that they were wrong. You can be a
Speaker 2: slave to worry. You can be a slave to fear.
Speaker 2: You can be a slave to loneliness. You can be
Speaker 2: a slave the depression, the boredom, the bitterness, the guilt,
Speaker 2: or you're a slave to a lot of things that
Speaker 2: you don't realize you are. You're a slave to habits.
Speaker 2: You can't change. I don't like this about me. I
Speaker 2: wish it could change, but I can't because you're a
Speaker 2: slave to it. And you've tried to change, but you can't.
Speaker 2: And you say I wanted to. I don't like this
Speaker 2: about me. I don't change. You're a slave. Jesus said
Speaker 2: I came to set you free. In fact, he said this,
Speaker 2: when you know the truth, the truth will set you free.
Speaker 2: And then he said, I am the truth. He came
Speaker 2: to set you free. You know, God gave us a
Speaker 2: picture to symbolize both redemption and justification. Redeem and justify.
Speaker 2: It's called baptism. I don't know if you've ever seen
Speaker 2: a baptism like they did it in the Bible times,
Speaker 2: where they put people under the water. It's the way
Speaker 2: we do it here, dunk people under water because that's
Speaker 2: the way Jesus did it. And when we baptize a
Speaker 2: person under the water, it's a picture of two things. First,
Speaker 2: it's a celebration of Easter. Jesus Christ died, was buried
Speaker 2: in the ground three days, and then later he arose
Speaker 2: on Easter sunnies. Every baptism is a celebration of Eastern
Speaker 2: so it's a symbol Now the waters. Nothing about the
Speaker 2: water's not holy, just water. So we take a person,
Speaker 2: we put them in the ground symbolize Jesus was buried
Speaker 2: in the ground. We leave them there three days, just
Speaker 2: seeing if you're listening, and then we bring them back up.
Speaker 2: It's a symbol of that's what Jesus did to make
Speaker 2: me just as if i'd never sin, and to redeem
Speaker 2: mecond thing it's a picture of is what happens in
Speaker 2: you when you put your trust in Christ. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: the old has passed away. I'm dying to my old
Speaker 2: way of life completely. It's dead, it's over, it's been
Speaker 2: washed away, forgiven. I'm being raised, and it's just as
Speaker 2: if I'd never sinned. Now why is that important? Because
Speaker 2: it's the only way you're gonna get into Heaven. Heaven's
Speaker 2: perfect and you're not. So you have to have somebody
Speaker 2: who makes you just as if you'd never sinned. That's
Speaker 2: the only way you get in. It's a gift to grace.
Speaker 2: He is your redeemer. Now here's the steps you want
Speaker 2: to go to heaven. You recognize God's love. No one
Speaker 2: will ever love me more than God does. Recognize God's lover.
Speaker 2: Receive God's gift that he gave his only begotten son.
Speaker 2: I respond to his offer that whos whoever believes in him.
Speaker 2: And then here's the fourth thing. I rely on God's promise.
Speaker 2: What's the promise? Shall not parry but have everlasting life.
Speaker 2: That's quite a promise. Did you know that you were
Speaker 2: made to last forever? One day your heart's gonna stop.
Speaker 2: That'll be the end of your body. But it's not
Speaker 2: gonna be the end of you. God made you in
Speaker 2: His image, and you were made to last forever. And
Speaker 2: God says, I want you spending forever with me, not
Speaker 2: apart from me. I want you forever with me in eternity.
Speaker 2: But here's the bottom line. If you want to spend
Speaker 2: eternity with God in heaven, you got to build a
Speaker 2: relationship with him now on earth. You can't just thumb
Speaker 2: your nose to God and say I'm gonna ignore God
Speaker 2: my entire life and then at the end go, oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, I'd like to come spend eternity with you. No,
Speaker 2: you develop a relationship with him now. You say, but Rick,
Speaker 2: even if I put my trust in Jesus Christ, how
Speaker 2: do I know that I'm gonna make it in I mean,
Speaker 2: what if something happens me now and when I die
Speaker 2: that I really blow it and I don't get in. Well,
Speaker 2: you don't understand, Grace. It's not up to you to
Speaker 2: be sure. It's God who makes sure you may make it.
Speaker 2: Look at the next verse. The Bible says this, we
Speaker 2: are now members of God's own family. In other words,
Speaker 2: when we put our trust in Him and God has
Speaker 2: reserved for his children, it's like me going out and
Speaker 2: making a reservation for us for dinner. God has reserved
Speaker 2: in advance for his children the priceless gift of eternal life.
Speaker 2: It is kept in heaven for you, and God will
Speaker 2: make sure circle that you don't have to make sure.
Speaker 2: God will make sure that you get there safely to
Speaker 2: receive it because you are trusting him. Now, what does
Speaker 2: that mean? God will make sure? It's like this? When
Speaker 2: my kids were little, we once took a trip and
Speaker 2: we went to the Grand Canyon. Now, what if I
Speaker 2: had said, okay, kids, we come up to the edge
Speaker 2: and I don't want them falling off, and we're going
Speaker 2: to take this trip and we're going to hike down
Speaker 2: this trail down several thousand feet into the Grand Canyon. Well,
Speaker 2: they're scared, so they want to put their hand in
Speaker 2: my hand. But more than that, I'm going to put
Speaker 2: my hand on their hand because I don't I want
Speaker 2: them falling. I don't want them falling away, falling off,
Speaker 2: falling down. And so I grabbed their hands and we're
Speaker 2: walking down in the king. About halfway down, my kids go,
Speaker 2: I don't think I need Dad's help anymore. I can
Speaker 2: make this on my own. I don't really need my father.
Speaker 2: And they want to pull their hand out of my hand.
Speaker 2: They want to wiggle and squirm and let go. But
Speaker 2: because I love them and I want to protect them,
Speaker 2: I'm not letting go. They may want to let go
Speaker 2: of my hand, but I'm not letting go of theirs. Now, listen, today,
Speaker 2: you say I'm gonna put my trust in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I know there's not a snowballs chance in hell I'm
Speaker 2: gonna make it to heaven by doing good because I'm
Speaker 2: not good enough. I've already blown it. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: So Jesus Christ, I'm gonna put my hand in your hand.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put my life in your hand. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: trust you, and you grab onto God's hand today. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna guarantee you this. There will be times in your
Speaker 2: life you're gonna want to let go of God because
Speaker 2: it right now, it's kind of inconvenient to be a
Speaker 2: follower of Christ. Right now, it's kind of crimping my style.
Speaker 2: I don't really want to do the right and ethical thing.
Speaker 2: I want to do the easy thing. And there are
Speaker 2: going to be times when you'll want to let go
Speaker 2: of God's hand, But He's never letting go of yours.
Speaker 2: Because He loves you, and he will make sure you
Speaker 2: get into heaven. It's not dependent upon you, it's not
Speaker 2: by works, it's all by his grace, and he says,
Speaker 2: I will get you there. So what do I do now?
Speaker 2: Between now and when I die, Well, you get to
Speaker 2: know God a little bit better. You get to know
Speaker 2: to learn to love him. You learn to trust him
Speaker 2: with every area of your life, your money, your relationships,
Speaker 2: your family, your future, your career. You learn to trust him,
Speaker 2: and you learn God's purpose for your life and begin
Speaker 2: to fulfill the purpose you were created for. Now we
Speaker 2: can help you out with that last one. We know
Speaker 2: a lot about purpose here in this church. Now, focusing
Speaker 2: on yourself looking inside will never reveal your purpose in life.
Speaker 2: You were made by God and you were made for God.
Speaker 2: And until you understand that, life will never make sense.
Speaker 2: It is only in God that we discover our origin,
Speaker 2: our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny.
Speaker 2: There are three benefits of giving your life to Christ, past, president,
Speaker 2: and future. Look at this next verse out of the Bible.
Speaker 2: What a God we have because Jesus was raised from
Speaker 2: the dead. That's Easter. We've all been given a brand
Speaker 2: new life. That means just as if I'd never sinned,
Speaker 2: and we have everything to live for. That's a purpose
Speaker 2: and including a future in heaven. And the future starts.
Speaker 2: Now you get this, God says, when you give your
Speaker 2: life to me, your past is forgiven. You get a
Speaker 2: purpose for living. You get a home in heaven. What
Speaker 2: a deal. Nobody else can give you that past, forgiven,
Speaker 2: purpose for living, home in heaven. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you saw that movie The Passion, but there's a scene
Speaker 2: where Pilot, who's the Roman governor of Judea, he's standing
Speaker 2: with Jesus Christ and Jesus has just been beaten to
Speaker 2: a pulp and he's got crown of thorns on his head,
Speaker 2: and he's standing before an angry mob trying to decide
Speaker 2: whether to kill him or not. And Pilot asked the
Speaker 2: most important question in life, what shall I do with Jesus?
Speaker 2: That is the most important question in life because it
Speaker 2: will determine your eternal destiny. So I'm asking you right now,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna do with Jesus? What are you
Speaker 2: gonna do with Jesus? You're gonna either trust him or
Speaker 2: you gonna turn away from him. It has eternal implications.
Speaker 2: Now here's the cool part. And I wish somebody had
Speaker 2: told me this. I would have become a follower much
Speaker 2: much earlier. But I didn't understand this. I didn't have
Speaker 2: to have all my doubts resolved and all my questions
Speaker 2: answered before I started a relationship with Jesus. I wish
Speaker 2: somebody had told me that. I thought I had to
Speaker 2: have all my doubts figured out and all my questions
Speaker 2: resolved before I could start a relationship. No, Jesus had
Speaker 2: just come with your doubts, come with your questions. That's okay.
Speaker 2: You don't have to have it all figured out. I've been
Speaker 2: a follower of Jesus for forty years now, and when
Speaker 2: I read this Bible, there's a lot of things in
Speaker 2: here I don't understand. And I read it and I go, WHOA,
Speaker 2: that didn't make sense. I don't understand that, And I
Speaker 2: have doubts and questions and I go, WHOA, why would
Speaker 2: God do that? I wouldn't do that. If I were God,
Speaker 2: you ought to be glad. I'm not God. But that
Speaker 2: hasn't stopped me from having a forty year friendship with
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. I don't have to understand how everything works
Speaker 2: for me to enjoy it. I don't know how the
Speaker 2: TV works pulls color off out of the air, but
Speaker 2: I still watch TV. I don't know how I can
Speaker 2: be on a cell phone and my wife can be
Speaker 2: in Rwanda and I can talk to her. I don't
Speaker 2: understand internal combustion doesn't stop me from driving a car.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things I don't understand, but I
Speaker 2: still enjoy. I don't understand taste buds that didn't stop
Speaker 2: me from enjoying a hot buttered cinnamon rule. Let's just
Speaker 2: pause there for a moment. Oh baby, Oh baby, Oh baby.
Speaker 2: I don't have to understand the chemistry of digesting to
Speaker 2: eat a steak. I don't have to have all my
Speaker 2: doubts figured out to come to Jesus. I wish I
Speaker 2: had known that. In fact, every time I get a
Speaker 2: doubt or question, I just write it down one day
Speaker 2: when I get to it, and I'm gonna say, now, God,
Speaker 2: explain this to me. Why did this happen? Why do
Speaker 2: you do this and all of that? Why did you
Speaker 2: do it this way? You don't have to And the
Speaker 2: other thing you don't have to have is you don't
Speaker 2: have to have great faith. Now I just have a
Speaker 2: little faith. It's not the size of your faith that matters,
Speaker 2: it's the size of your God. You put a little
Speaker 2: faith in a big God and you get saved. You
Speaker 2: don't have to have a lot of faith, just a
Speaker 2: little faith. Now, everybody's got faith. You have faith. He
Speaker 2: use it all the time. You have faith when you
Speaker 2: said I'm in that chair that would hold you up.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of faith. You had faith when you
Speaker 2: go out on the freeway that you're not gonna get killed.
Speaker 2: You have faith all the time, and you just put
Speaker 2: some in God and not just other things. You know.
Speaker 2: My favorite story in the Bible is this guy comes
Speaker 2: to Jesus and he's got this daughter who's about to die.
Speaker 2: She's sick and she's dying. And he comes to Jesus
Speaker 2: and he says, Lord, I need you to heal my daughter.
Speaker 2: And Jesus says, do you trust me? Do you believe me?
Speaker 2: Do you trust me? And I love this guy. He's
Speaker 2: very honest, very authentic. He goes, you know, I want
Speaker 2: to believe. Help me with my doubts. I like that.
Speaker 2: I want to believe, help me with my doubts. Jesus says, man,
Speaker 2: that's good enough, and he heals a child right there.
Speaker 2: You can do that. I want to believe you can
Speaker 2: do it today. I want to believe. Help me with
Speaker 2: my doubts. A little bit of faith, not a lot,
Speaker 2: just a little bit of faith. I was talking to
Speaker 2: guy the other day. I said, would you like to
Speaker 2: receive God's gift of eternal life? And would you like
Speaker 2: to respond to his offer to be just as if
Speaker 2: you'd never sin? He goes, Oh, yeah, I said, do
Speaker 2: you know what to pray? Goes n'ah, I go. Would
Speaker 2: you like for me to help pray? Yeah? So I said, well,
Speaker 2: just pray something like this. Dear God, I don't understand
Speaker 2: it all. Dear Jesus, I know I need you. Thank
Speaker 2: you for loving me, Thank you for dying for me.
Speaker 2: Help me to understand it more, help me trust you.
Speaker 2: I want to learn to trust you in every hour
Speaker 2: of my life. Make me just as if i'd never sin.
Speaker 2: I so, you can do that? He goes, I can
Speaker 2: do that. So we bowed our head and prayed. You
Speaker 2: can do that right now. Don't leave here without knowing
Speaker 2: for sure you're going to heaven when you die. Let's
Speaker 2: bow our heads, and now as we close, would you
Speaker 2: just pray this simple prayer in your heart, in your mind,
Speaker 2: you have to say it aloud. God knows your thoughts.
Speaker 2: You've seen every thought you've ever had to say this.
Speaker 2: And while I say you need to say me to God,
Speaker 2: Dear Jesus, to say that in your mind, Dear Jesus,
Speaker 2: I don't understand it all. But I want to thank
Speaker 2: you for loving me, and I want to thank you
Speaker 2: for coming to earth for me. And I want to
Speaker 2: thank you for giving your life for me so I
Speaker 2: can go to heaven. I want to accept your free
Speaker 2: gift to forgiveness your grace. I know I can't earn
Speaker 2: my way to heaven, and so I want to learn
Speaker 2: to trust you with every area of my life. Would
Speaker 2: you make me just as if i'd never send and
Speaker 2: help me to know your purpose for my life so
Speaker 2: that the rest of my life is the best of
Speaker 2: my life. Amen. Now there's one last verse, and you
Speaker 2: can look up here on the stage, and it's talking
Speaker 2: about what it's going to be like in heaven. There
Speaker 2: will come a day when you're gonna die, and God
Speaker 2: says I will take you into heaven if you put
Speaker 2: your trust in my son, and it says this, we
Speaker 2: wait for that day. There will come that day when
Speaker 2: God will give us our full rights as his children,
Speaker 2: including new bodies He has promised us. Did you know this?
Speaker 2: Bodies that will never be sick again and will never die. Woo,
Speaker 2: I get a new body. You don't have to look
Speaker 2: at this one anymore. And I'm not gonna have to
Speaker 2: look at yours either. There will come a day when
Speaker 2: there will be no more sorrow, no more suffering, no
Speaker 2: more tears, no more tragedy, no more death. We're gonna
Speaker 2: be with God forever eternity and celebrate.
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 letter from one of our
Speaker 1: listeners friends.
Speaker 2: Today, I want to tell you about a guy named Chris.
Speaker 2: I found out that he shares daily hope with his
Speaker 2: family and his friends and his coworkers as often as
Speaker 2: he can, and then he has seen a ripple effect
Speaker 2: as they all shared daily hope with other people. Let
Speaker 2: me read you a portion of what he wrote to me,
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, I first encountered Daily Hope when a coworker
Speaker 2: forwarded the daily devotional to me years ago. My friend
Speaker 2: was sending the devotionals each morning to an email list
Speaker 2: of about fifty or twenty people. By the way, that's
Speaker 2: a good idea for you to do too. And when
Speaker 2: my friend retired from our company, he passed along the
Speaker 2: email group list and I continue the tradition of sending
Speaker 2: the devotionals each morning. That email group grew to about
Speaker 2: thirty five or forty people. Now. I recently retired, so
Speaker 2: I passed the email group to another coworker in order
Speaker 2: that they can continue the ministry. Each morning, I wake up,
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick, and I come to my quiet place just
Speaker 2: to listen and to journal your messages for the day. Now,
Speaker 2: depending on what the message is all about, I often
Speaker 2: forward it to many individuals for them to enjoy or
Speaker 2: to ply it in their own personal life and faith journey.
Speaker 2: My entire family now listens to you and Daily Hope ministry,
Speaker 2: and it spreads all over through them as they forward
Speaker 2: it to people in their circles of influence. I can't
Speaker 2: thank you enough, Rick, for all that you've done in
Speaker 2: my life and to strengthen and grow my faith in Christ.
Speaker 2: Daily Hope without a doubt has changed the way that
Speaker 2: I approach every new day. You know, Chris, all say
Speaker 2: is wow. I love how you are exponentially sharing Daily
Speaker 2: Hope with your coworkers and with your family. You know,
Speaker 2: you're actually an evangelist. You are partnering in God's eyes
Speaker 2: with me to help spread the good news of the Gospel.
Speaker 2: And the good news is too good to keep to ourselves.
Speaker 2: We have to share it now. Anybody can do this.
Speaker 2: Anybody can do this, and it's an easy way to
Speaker 2: give other people hope through deepening their faith. So if
Speaker 2: you don't know what to say, just forward on some
Speaker 2: of the things you've heard me say and God will
Speaker 2: use you to make a difference in people's lives. You know,
Speaker 2: if God is blessing you through Daily Hope, would you
Speaker 2: share your story with me? Write me rickat Pastorrerick dot com.
Speaker 1: Please join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 1: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support