Speaker 1: Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily
Speaker 1: Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your
Speaker 1: past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,
Speaker 1: and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.
Speaker 1: Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?
Speaker 1: And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown
Speaker 1: people are more open to an invitation to go to
Speaker 1: church than at any other time of the year. Don't
Speaker 1: go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't
Speaker 1: know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,
Speaker 1: a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to
Speaker 1: that church service and they come to know Christ, You're
Speaker 1: going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be
Speaker 1: the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if they come to Christ, would
Speaker 1: you let me know about it. I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they
Speaker 1: found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick
Speaker 1: dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us here today. On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 2: the Audio Broadcast Ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we
Speaker 2: continue in a series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.
Speaker 1: There are seven.
Speaker 2: Words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours
Speaker 2: on the Cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment
Speaker 2: in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now,
Speaker 2: here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called
Speaker 2: the Word of Trust.
Speaker 1: Some of you know that growing up, my mother was
Speaker 1: both a librarian and a Christian bookstore manager. So I
Speaker 1: learned from an early age to really love books. I
Speaker 1: began to read them voraciously, began to collect them. Today,
Speaker 1: my library, my personal library, has over twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: volumes in hardback paperback, and I have another thirty thousand
Speaker 1: volumes in ebooks, so I've got about a fifty five
Speaker 1: thousand volume library. In some periods of my life, I
Speaker 1: was reading the book a day. He said, how do
Speaker 1: you do that? You read big print in big pictures, Okay,
Speaker 1: really tiny, tiny books. And in my library of about
Speaker 1: fifty five thousand books, as I said, I have several
Speaker 1: volumes that are interesting that are collections of the last
Speaker 1: words of people of famous people. They're dying words, and
Speaker 1: I read them in that Well. The books are supposed
Speaker 1: to be serious, some of them are actually kind of funny.
Speaker 1: I thought i'd share a couple with you. The last
Speaker 1: words of a guy named James Rogers. He was a
Speaker 1: criminal and he is about to be executed by a
Speaker 1: firing squad. And they asked, right before they shot him,
Speaker 1: do you have any final requests? He said, yes, a
Speaker 1: bulletproof vest. Famous last words. General John Sedgwick was a
Speaker 1: Union commander in the Civil War. He was killed on
Speaker 1: the battlefield looking at the enemy while saying, quote, those
Speaker 1: freedericks couldn't hit an elephant at this day. Another famous quote,
Speaker 1: Pancho Villa. Everybody knows who he is, you know, famous
Speaker 1: Mexican leader Pancho Villa's last words were, don't let it
Speaker 1: end like this. Tell people I said something, all right.
Speaker 1: Today we look at the most famous last words ever,
Speaker 1: the last words of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now
Speaker 1: we have been for seven weeks looking at the seven
Speaker 1: statements that Jesus made on the cross while he was
Speaker 1: being crucified. And as I've told you that as a pastor,
Speaker 1: I have stood at the bedside of many many people.
Speaker 1: As they said their final words. Last words are important.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to Jesus Christ, the last words
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ are extremely important. And today we come
Speaker 1: to the last word of the last words, the very
Speaker 1: last thing before Jesus died on the cross. The Bible
Speaker 1: says it like this in Luke chapter twenty three. If
Speaker 1: you are new here today, you can take the message
Speaker 1: notes outside of your in your program and take them out.
Speaker 1: All the verses in the Bible are there on this text.
Speaker 1: It says this, Luke twenty three. By this time it
Speaker 1: was noon. Now Jesus has been on the cross for
Speaker 1: six hours. It says, by this time it was noon.
Speaker 1: But darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock.
Speaker 1: Now circle the word darkness. We'll come back to that
Speaker 1: in a minute, because this is the word of trust,
Speaker 1: and you really need to learn to trust in the
Speaker 1: darkest hours of your life. When darkness fell across the
Speaker 1: whole land until three o'clock. Now, we don't know why
Speaker 1: it got dark. Maybe just God brought cloud cover over,
Speaker 1: maybe a storm. It just got dark. It's not normally
Speaker 1: dark in the middle of the day. That's usually the
Speaker 1: brightest time but the light from the sun was gone,
Speaker 1: and suddenly the thick veil hanging in the temple was
Speaker 1: torn a part. There's a symbolism behind that we're not
Speaker 1: going to get into about making God accessible to us.
Speaker 1: But it says then Jesus shouted. So the final words
Speaker 1: that Jesus says, he shouts out, Father, I entrust my
Speaker 1: spirit into your hands. This is what he shouted. I
Speaker 1: entrust my spirit, Father, into your hands. And with those
Speaker 1: words he breathed this last breath. Now, when the captain
Speaker 1: of the Roman soldiers that would have been a centurion,
Speaker 1: a captain of a captain, was overseeing a hundred soldiers.
Speaker 1: When the centurion, the captain of the Roman soldiers handling
Speaker 1: the execution, saw what had happened, he praised God. This
Speaker 1: guy is in no way a believer, but he praised
Speaker 1: God and said, surely, surely this man was innocent. And
Speaker 1: in the Book of Matthew and in the Book of
Speaker 1: Luke it adds, surely this man will innocent and the
Speaker 1: son of God. Now, as a Roman centurion, this is
Speaker 1: pretty amazing that a hardened soldier would look up and say,
Speaker 1: the guy we just crucified, surely he was innocent. Something's
Speaker 1: different here. As a centurion, he would have already have
Speaker 1: seen literally hundreds and hundreds of crucifixions. This is not
Speaker 1: a new thing. One of the tasks of Roman soldiers
Speaker 1: was to crucify people, and literally, in those days of
Speaker 1: the Roman Empire, they were crucifying hundreds a day. This
Speaker 1: is not a novel thing. They crucified criminals, they crucified
Speaker 1: political you know, figures and things like that. So he
Speaker 1: had certainly seen hundreds of crucifixions, but this one evidently
Speaker 1: is unlike any crucifixion he's ever seen. And this hard bitten,
Speaker 1: hardened Roman centurion, when he hears Jesus say the last
Speaker 1: of the seven phrases, he says, he must have been innocent,
Speaker 1: he must have been the son of God. Something's different here,
Speaker 1: something's unique. Well, what made this crucifixion so different from
Speaker 1: all the other ones? He had seen the seven things
Speaker 1: that Jesus had said on the cross that we've been
Speaker 1: looking at now for seven weeks. Nobody ever spoke like
Speaker 1: Jesus spoke when they were being murdered, when they were
Speaker 1: being crucified. This Roman centurion had heard Jesus say, Father,
Speaker 1: forgive them they don't know what they're doing. He's never
Speaker 1: heard anybody being hung on a cross forgiving the executioners
Speaker 1: who are crucifying him. And yet he heard that he
Speaker 1: had never seen anybody refuse the painkiller that Jesus was offered,
Speaker 1: which Jesus refused. He heard Jesus say the word of
Speaker 1: assurance to the repentant thief on the cross, dying by him,
Speaker 1: say today, you'll be with me in paradise. Nobody had
Speaker 1: ever said that on a cross. Nobody has ever said, Father,
Speaker 1: forgive them. Nobody has ever said the word of assurance,
Speaker 1: the word of love, the word of substitution, the word
Speaker 1: of victory, all the things we've been looking at now
Speaker 1: for seven weeks. And certainly nobody had ever shouted in
Speaker 1: his last breath on the cross, Father, I entrust my
Speaker 1: spirit into your hands. Nobody had ever said that before.
Speaker 1: This is very different, folks. People don't die like this.
Speaker 1: Normal people don't die this way. And Jesus actually gave
Speaker 1: us a model of how to die. I wrote it
Speaker 1: there on your outline. I don't want to cover it
Speaker 1: in detail. He was at peace that it was his
Speaker 1: time to die. He was at peace. He wasn't afraid
Speaker 1: to die. He died with no unreconciled relationships, which a
Speaker 1: lot of people do. He wasn't angry, he wasn't bitter.
Speaker 1: He knew where he was going. He's confident of heaven,
Speaker 1: and he trusted God with his future. I entrust my
Speaker 1: spirit into your hands. So, actually, there are three characteristics
Speaker 1: of jesus death. Why don't you write these down? First,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ gave up his life voluntarily. Voluntarily. You know,
Speaker 1: when the movie The Passion came out, there was a
Speaker 1: big debate who killed Jesus. Was it the Roman soldiers
Speaker 1: who killed Jesus? Was it the temple religious leaders who
Speaker 1: killed Jesus? Was it the crowd who killed Jesus? The
Speaker 1: fact is who took Jesus' life? The answer is Jesus
Speaker 1: gave his life. He gave it up. He came for
Speaker 1: the purpose of dying. He had said that from the
Speaker 1: very beginning. In fact, he said, nobody can take my
Speaker 1: life from me. He gave it willingly for you believe me.
Speaker 1: If Jesus had not wanted to die on the cross,
Speaker 1: because he was God in human form, he would not
Speaker 1: have happened. In fact, there's what he said. Look, up
Speaker 1: here on the screen. John chapter ten, verse eighteen. Jesus said,
Speaker 1: no one can take my life from me. He'd done
Speaker 1: all kinds miracles. He could certainly do a miracle to
Speaker 1: come down off the cross. I lay down my life voluntarily,
Speaker 1: for I have the authority to lay it down when
Speaker 1: I want to, and also the power to take it
Speaker 1: back again. So the death on the cross is not
Speaker 1: a tragedy. It was Jesus' choice. He did it voluntarily.
Speaker 1: If he hadn't wanted to die on the cross, he
Speaker 1: would not have died on the cross. And we talked
Speaker 1: the last few weeks why he had to do that.
Speaker 1: But it was a voluntary decision. Jesus was in no
Speaker 1: way a victim, and he was not being victimized. He
Speaker 1: was in complete control of the situation. And nobody could
Speaker 1: do anything to Jesus without his permission. Literally, he had
Speaker 1: the last word, with his last word and the things
Speaker 1: that he said on the cross. So Jesus gave up
Speaker 1: his life voluntarily. The second thing write this down. He
Speaker 1: gave up his life confidently, confidently. In other words, he
Speaker 1: shot outed the word Father, I entrust my life. I
Speaker 1: entrust my spirit into your hands. Now he shouts. Now,
Speaker 1: let me say this to you. I have been around,
Speaker 1: as I said, a lot of people as a pastor
Speaker 1: in for forty years. I have been at the bedside
Speaker 1: of many people as they took their last breath. And
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, dying people don't shout. I've
Speaker 1: never ever heard one dying person shout. They whisper. Not
Speaker 1: one in my entire life have I ever heard shout.
Speaker 1: Because in their dying moments, they don't have the strength,
Speaker 1: and usually they whisper out a few words at the
Speaker 1: very end, and normally, certainly, and it's crucifixion where you're
Speaker 1: having extreme torture and extreme punishment, and in the last
Speaker 1: as of crucifixion, a normal person wouldn't have had the
Speaker 1: strength to even shout out beyond a weak groan. Now,
Speaker 1: when Jesus shouts out the final on the cross, he's
Speaker 1: not shouting out in anger. He's not shouting out in bitterness.
Speaker 1: He's not shouting out in fear. He's not shouting out
Speaker 1: in despair. He's not shouting out in defeat. He is
Speaker 1: shouting out in victory. It is a shout of confident, convinced,
Speaker 1: rock solid trust. Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands,
Speaker 1: and he says it at the top of his voice.
Speaker 1: It's a shout of victory, and it's a shout of trust.
Speaker 1: He gave his life up voluntarily. He gave his life
Speaker 1: up confidently. And the third thing, Jesus gave up his
Speaker 1: life trusting God. Trusting God. Now, when Jesus says this phrase,
Speaker 1: the very last of the seven things, he says on
Speaker 1: the cross, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.
Speaker 1: I entrust my spirit. This is actually a quote from
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. In fact, it's a quote from Psalm
Speaker 1: chapter thirty one, verse five. And not only is it
Speaker 1: a quote from thirty one, verse five, it's a phrase
Speaker 1: that every single Jew would know by heart, because this
Speaker 1: is the bedtime prayer of every Jewish child. You know,
Speaker 1: we teach our children. Now I lay me down to sleep,
Speaker 1: I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if
Speaker 1: I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my
Speaker 1: soul to take. That is taken from this phrase that's
Speaker 1: taken from Psalm thirty one. Now I lay me down
Speaker 1: to sleep is actually just a paraphrase of Psalm thirty one.
Speaker 1: Without a doubt, Mary probably taught this to Jesus as
Speaker 1: a little baby boy, every Jewish child, in fact, Jews
Speaker 1: would regularly pray this as the evening prayer at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. You say, Father, I am entrusting
Speaker 1: my life. I'm entrusting my spirit. I'm committing myself into
Speaker 1: your hands, and I'm going to bed. It's a common
Speaker 1: Jewish prayer. And Jesus uses what he has been saying
Speaker 1: every night since as a little boy as his last
Speaker 1: words on the cross. Now, what's going on here? I
Speaker 1: want you to write this down. He focused on the Father,
Speaker 1: not his pain. And in a minute, when we get
Speaker 1: into what to do in your dark days, that's one
Speaker 1: of the things you need to learn how to do
Speaker 1: that when you are in pain and when you're in
Speaker 1: your darkest days. Jesus is in his darkest days. He's
Speaker 1: in the on the cross. It is literally physically dark.
Speaker 1: He focuses not on his pain, but he focuses on
Speaker 1: the Father. And he has no fear, and he has
Speaker 1: no regrets. He has just trust into thy hands. I
Speaker 1: commit my spirit into your hands. I entrust my life. Now,
Speaker 1: this phrase that we're looking at today has been said
Speaker 1: by Christians ever since, for two thousand years. It's very
Speaker 1: very common. A lot of Christians throughout history have phrased
Speaker 1: used this phrase when they're facing danger, when they're facing persecution,
Speaker 1: when they're facing discouragement and death. The Latinists in manus
Speaker 1: to us, in manus tuus domine commendo spirit unum into
Speaker 1: your hands. I commit my spirit Father, and that is
Speaker 1: that's a phrase that has been used for literally thousands
Speaker 1: of years. In fact, the very first Christian martyr, the
Speaker 1: guy named Stephen, who was stoned to death in Jerusalem
Speaker 1: for following Jesus, he says a version of what Jesus
Speaker 1: just said here, and he says, as they were as
Speaker 1: they were killing him. Uh, Stephen says, Lord Jesus received
Speaker 1: my spirit, and that's the last thing he prayed. By
Speaker 1: the way, while I'm talking about this, Uh, the idea
Speaker 1: of last rites, that's not in the Bible. It's not
Speaker 1: in the Bible. It so it's a tradition added many
Speaker 1: many years later. Nobody in the Bible received last rites,
Speaker 1: none of the apostles, none of the disciples, nobody received life.
Speaker 1: You don't need last rights to get into heaven. It's
Speaker 1: a tradition that was added hundreds and hundreds of years later.
Speaker 1: It's not in the Bible, but Jesus says it's his
Speaker 1: last words. I'm committing into your hands, God, my spirit.
Speaker 1: Now what do we learn from this last statement of Jesus. Well,
Speaker 1: every single word has an important truth. And that's what
Speaker 1: I want us to look at right now when you
Speaker 1: are going through your darkest day. There are four truths
Speaker 1: you need to remember. Write these down. Number one first
Speaker 1: thing to remember is I have a father in heaven
Speaker 1: who loves me. I have a father in heaven who
Speaker 1: loves me. This is the first thing you need to
Speaker 1: remember when you're going through a dark day. And that's
Speaker 1: why Jesus starts his last statement on the cross with
Speaker 1: the word father. With the word father. Now, remember a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago we talked about that. When Jesus
Speaker 1: was taking the punishment for every sin of mankind on himself,
Speaker 1: he cries out, my God, my God. Remember that, My God,
Speaker 1: my God, why have you forsaken me. It's the only
Speaker 1: time in the Bible when he doesn't call God father,
Speaker 1: and that was because he was separated taking all of
Speaker 1: our sins on himself. When Jesus taught us to pray,
Speaker 1: he said, you're to pray like this, our Father who
Speaker 1: art in heaven. That blew everybody's mind, because up to
Speaker 1: this point, every faith, every religion, taught that God is distant.
Speaker 1: God is big, he's powerful, he's cosmic, he's mighty. He
Speaker 1: may be merciful, but you certainly don't call him father.
Speaker 1: Jesus changed it all. He blew the stereotypes, and he said,
Speaker 1: when you talk to God, you talk to him like
Speaker 1: he's your daddy. In fact, the word he used in
Speaker 1: Aramic abba literally means daddy, papa. It's the first word
Speaker 1: every Middle East child learns, Abba, Dad, dad, papa. It's
Speaker 1: easy to say. And so Jesus told us, when you pray,
Speaker 1: start with praying Father. And when Jesus is dying on
Speaker 1: the cross, his last words there he starts with the
Speaker 1: word Father. Now the judgment period for sin is all over.
Speaker 1: He's now reconciled to God. He's not talking some impersonal force,
Speaker 1: some uninterested, distant deity. He's talking to Father. The Bible
Speaker 1: says this John sixteen twenty eight. Jesus said, I came
Speaker 1: from the Father, and I entered the world, and now
Speaker 1: I'm leaving the world and I'm going back to the Father.
Speaker 1: So what do we know about God since he wants
Speaker 1: us to call him father. A lot of people have
Speaker 1: a problem with this because they had bad dads and
Speaker 1: their dad was distant, Their dad was demeaning, their dad
Speaker 1: was destructive, their dad was, you know, detached. Is that
Speaker 1: the way our father in heaven is No. The Bible
Speaker 1: tells us that God is a caring father. He's a
Speaker 1: consistent father. He's a close father, and he's a capable father,
Speaker 1: and he loves you more than you can even possibly imagine.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in Psalm one three, verse thirteen, as
Speaker 1: a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord
Speaker 1: that's God has compassion on those who honor him. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're going through today. You may be
Speaker 1: having a financial crisis, a physical crisis, a conflict in
Speaker 1: your marriage. I don't care. Well, I do care, but
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know what you're going through. But
Speaker 1: I would say this, you have a heavenly father in
Speaker 1: heaven who is close, caring, competent, capable, and consistent, and
Speaker 1: he cares. And if you're going through the dark days,
Speaker 1: you need to get your eyes off the pain and
Speaker 1: onto the Father Father, that God who knows everything. That's
Speaker 1: going in your life, sees everything that's going on in
Speaker 1: your life, cares about everything that's going on in your life.
Speaker 1: Has the power to change everything in your life and
Speaker 1: will help you if you will trust him. I want
Speaker 1: you to write this down in your line. God loves
Speaker 1: me more than I do. That's probably a shock to
Speaker 1: some of you. God loves me more than I do.
Speaker 1: Did you know that you don't love yourself as much
Speaker 1: as God loves you. God loves you more than you
Speaker 1: love you because God is love. God is the essence
Speaker 1: of all love. It all came from Him, and no
Speaker 1: matter what you are facing right now, need to say
Speaker 1: I have a father in heaven who loves me. That's
Speaker 1: how he starts. But he doesn't just love you. And
Speaker 1: here's the second thing you need to remember. It's in
Speaker 1: this sentence. Not only do I have a father in
Speaker 1: heaven who loves me. Number two, my father can be trusted.
Speaker 1: My father talking about in heaven, the God of Heaven,
Speaker 1: he can be trusted. Now, you may have had a
Speaker 1: physical father who couldn't be trusted, and inconsistent fathers produce
Speaker 1: insecure children. I talked to guy one time. He said,
Speaker 1: I didn't know from week to week whether my dad
Speaker 1: was gonna slug me or gonna hug me. I didn't know,
Speaker 1: just whether he was drunk or not or whatever whatever
Speaker 1: mood he was in. Inconsistent fathers produced insecure children. But
Speaker 1: your heavenly father is not only one who loves you.
Speaker 1: He's one you can trust. You can trust him. And
Speaker 1: this is the word of the trust. Jesus says, Father,
Speaker 1: I entrust my spirit, I entrust my life into your care.
Speaker 1: That's why I call this the word trust.
Speaker 2: That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And
Speaker 2: now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
Speaker 2: from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, today, I'm going to share with you a
Speaker 1: special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily Hope has
Speaker 1: helped her with deep anxiety. But then she also shared
Speaker 1: about what happened as she began to share Daily Hope
Speaker 1: with her parents, and she writes this, Pastor Rick, a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My
Speaker 1: company had a merger and all the senior management were
Speaker 1: changed overnight, and I was among them. At the same time,
Speaker 1: my long term relationship ended. Then a couple months later,
Speaker 1: my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in
Speaker 1: shock and I fell into a deep depression from all
Speaker 1: these changes. In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack.
Speaker 1: But then I found your teaching on Daily Hope, and
Speaker 1: it just seemed that you understood every emotion that I
Speaker 1: was going through, emotions that I didn't even know how
Speaker 1: to verbalize to other people. But it was Daily Hope
Speaker 1: that helped me get out of bed every morning and
Speaker 1: gave me the strength to get through each day. Through
Speaker 1: your teaching on Daily Hope pastorrect, I was able to
Speaker 1: experience God's love and power like never before. You know.
Speaker 1: I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents
Speaker 1: who don't speak English, and they accepted Jesus too. That's
Speaker 1: an amazing Delia. I am so grateful for you and
Speaker 1: the team at Daily Hope because it has become the
Speaker 1: morning routine that I can't live without. Now, Delia, you
Speaker 1: have been through more pain than I can possibly imagine,
Speaker 1: some very very challenging times that I'm sorry, I really
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Sometimes we experience multiple traumas at the same time,
Speaker 1: and when that happens, that's when we really need the
Speaker 1: hope of Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad you experienced that,
Speaker 1: that you found God's love and found God's power. And
Speaker 1: what a blessing that you translated the Daily Hope devotionals
Speaker 1: for your parents and then they accepted Christ. What that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I am celebrating with you that they are now in
Speaker 1: the family of God.
Speaker 2: Did you know that you can start every day with
Speaker 2: hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick, Well, you can when
Speaker 2: you sign up to receive his life changing Bible study
Speaker 2: teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to Dailyhope
Speaker 2: Radio dot com and sign up for this free Daily
Speaker 2: Hope devotional. Be sure to join us next time as
Speaker 2: we look into God's Word for our daily hope. This
Speaker 2: program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your
Speaker 2: generous financial support.