Speaker 3: Hello, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. I'm
Speaker 1: really glad you're here. Today we're continuing our series from
Speaker 1: Psalm twenty three called Living in the Goodness of God.
Speaker 1: It's all about how God's goodness meets you right where
Speaker 1: you are and brings hope even in difficult seasons. Today
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear part two of a message called why
Speaker 1: you don't need to fear the future.
Speaker 2: Another picture I think of when I think of God's
Speaker 2: goodness and mercy will follow me is a mother of
Speaker 2: a toddler. And any mother of a toddler knows how
Speaker 2: many messes a toddler who's just learned to walk and
Speaker 2: make in forty five minutes. And if you go to
Speaker 2: the house of a mother of a toddler, she is
Speaker 2: walking behind that child picking up all the messes, picking
Speaker 2: up all the messes that they're making. You have no
Speaker 2: idea how many messes you created in life that God
Speaker 2: cleaned up. Because God's goodness and God's mercy were following you,
Speaker 2: and you made a flippant decision, and it was a
Speaker 2: stupid decision, but you made it, and you went going
Speaker 2: on not realizing the chaos you left behind, and God's
Speaker 2: goodness and mercy are right behind picking up your messes.
Speaker 2: God has picked up more messes in your life than
Speaker 2: you could possibly even imagine.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 2: Because He's good and he's merciful. He gives you what
Speaker 2: you need and he doesn't give you what you deserve.
Speaker 2: Mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Speaker 2: If you're take an O circle that word all, because
Speaker 2: God's goodness, in God's mercy is.
Speaker 3: Not just some days. God doesn't say, okay, on Monday,
Speaker 3: was it?
Speaker 2: Friday, will have goodness, And on Tuesday and Thursday we'll
Speaker 2: have mercy. And on Saturday and Sunday you're on your own. No,
Speaker 2: He is always merciful every moment of every day. He
Speaker 2: is always good to you, every moment of every day.
Speaker 2: And when you fully understand that God is never not
Speaker 2: good to me and God God is never not merciful
Speaker 2: to me, when you face your future, all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: your fear level goes down and go so what don't
Speaker 2: you don't know what's gonna happen next week, much last,
Speaker 2: next year, or in the next ten years. But if you
Speaker 2: know this, God's goodness will be with me and He'll
Speaker 2: be bringing good even all the bad stuff.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: God's mercy will be with me. He's gonna be forgiving
Speaker 2: me no condemnation with all the bad stuff.
Speaker 3: So what are you worried about? What are you afraid of?
Speaker 2: Fear comes when you fear punishment, or fear comes when
Speaker 2: you fear you won't have what you need when you
Speaker 2: get there, you don't have. You know all the resources
Speaker 2: you need. God's goodness and God's mercy will be with
Speaker 2: me all the days of my life, says all of
Speaker 2: the days. Now you say, well, I don't always feel
Speaker 2: God's goodness in my life. I don't always feel God's
Speaker 2: mercy every.
Speaker 3: Day of my life. Who said anything about feelings?
Speaker 2: Feelings are unreliable, Feelings come and go. God is not
Speaker 2: a feeling. God is always good to you, whether you
Speaker 2: feel it or not. And God is always merciful to you,
Speaker 2: whether you feel it or not. It's based on who
Speaker 2: he is, not how you feel. Everything, Absolutely everything in
Speaker 2: your life you owe to the goodness and mercy of God,
Speaker 2: and it's going to follow you all the days of
Speaker 2: your life. If the Lord is your shepherd. Now here's
Speaker 2: the third reason you don't need to fear the future.
Speaker 2: God's goodness is watching over me. God's grace is working
Speaker 2: in me. Here's a big one. God's glory is waiting
Speaker 2: for me. God's glory is waiting for me. And I
Speaker 2: will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. That's heaven. Now,
Speaker 2: if you're taking notes circle that life and goodness and mercy,
Speaker 2: you'll follow me all the days of my life. And
Speaker 2: I'll dwell in the House of the Lord forever. That's
Speaker 2: the little word that connects today with tomorrow. Even after
Speaker 2: you've lived a life of blessing here on earth, it's
Speaker 2: not the end.
Speaker 3: Friends.
Speaker 2: This psalm is building to a crescendo. I will dwell
Speaker 2: in the House of the Lord forever. That's a big ending,
Speaker 2: that's a big inning. That means I don't have to
Speaker 2: fear death. And that's the number one fear people have,
Speaker 2: because death is not the end. It's a transition. It's
Speaker 2: a transfer. We're going to heaven. God saves the best
Speaker 2: for last. If you love and know Jesus, if the
Speaker 2: Lord is your shepherd, it just gets better and better.
Speaker 2: Because even if I have a tough life here on earth,
Speaker 2: I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever,
Speaker 2: where there is no more sorrow, no more suffering, no
Speaker 2: more sin, no more sickness, no more sadness, no more problems,
Speaker 2: no more pain, no more pressure.
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: With Jesus, it keeps getting better and better. The best
Speaker 2: is yet to come. Now this is so important. Next weekend,
Speaker 2: I'm going to spend an entire message just on this
Speaker 2: on heaven, and I'm gonna answer all the most common
Speaker 2: questions because just like with angels, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: myths about Heaven, misconceptions, lies, legends that just aren't true. Now,
Speaker 2: I just this weekend want to ask one question, and
Speaker 2: is this what makes heaven heaven? Why is it so different?
Speaker 2: What makes heaven heaven? Well, there are a lot of
Speaker 2: things that are different about heaven, but the biggest one
Speaker 2: of all is this. It's the home to God's full glory.
Speaker 2: The home to God's full glory. And God's glory is
Speaker 2: all the good things that He does for you. It's
Speaker 2: his character. It's based on who he is. Now we
Speaker 2: can see a glimpse, a little glimpse of God's glory
Speaker 2: right now when you look at the heavens. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: the heavens declare the glory of God. You look at
Speaker 2: all the stars. Whooah, God is pretty big. God's pretty powerful.
Speaker 2: You look at the sun and the moon. When you
Speaker 2: look at all of the tens of thousands of plant
Speaker 2: varieties and animals, and the varieties of animals and species
Speaker 2: that God created, you see the glory of God. That
Speaker 2: God is a creative God. When you see the beauty
Speaker 2: of the sunrise and a sunset and a waterfall, you
Speaker 2: see the glory of God, the.
Speaker 3: Glory of God.
Speaker 2: We see a small glimpse of it here, even on
Speaker 2: a broken planet. There's a lot of beautiful stuff on
Speaker 2: this planet. The Bible says that I can see God's
Speaker 2: glory in you, just a glimpse, because you carry the image,
Speaker 2: the image of God in you. It's broken, but you
Speaker 2: carry that in. You can see God's glory in me.
Speaker 2: But the Bible says, one day when you get to heaven, Oh,
Speaker 2: now you're going to see the full glory, the full goodness,
Speaker 2: the full greatness, the.
Speaker 3: Full beauty of God.
Speaker 2: You don't see it now, you just see a speck
Speaker 2: we get we see through the glass darkly. So we're
Speaker 2: gonna look at that in detail. But let me just
Speaker 2: show you a couple verses. The Bible says this in
Speaker 2: Isaiah sixty three, verse fifteen, Lord, look upon us from heaven,
Speaker 2: where you live in your holiness and glory. God's complete
Speaker 2: glory is in heaven, unhindered by anything. And then the
Speaker 2: Bible tells us that in Acts chapter seven, Stephen was
Speaker 2: the first guy who was killed for his faith, for
Speaker 2: following Christ. He was the first Christian martyr. And as
Speaker 2: they were stoning him, throwing stones at him, and he
Speaker 2: was dying in Jerusalem, it says as Stephen was dying,
Speaker 2: he looked up toward Heaven. He got a vision as
Speaker 2: he's dying in his final moments, and he saw God's glory.
Speaker 2: Why because God's glory is complete in heaven. Bible tells
Speaker 2: us that when Jesus was resurrected, it says this, Jesus
Speaker 2: returned to his glory in heaven. One day you will too.
Speaker 2: You're gonna see God's glory. Now we cannot even imagine
Speaker 2: the details of heaven. I can share some of the stuff.
Speaker 2: We get little glimpses. We get a little sneak peaks
Speaker 2: of what heaven is like.
Speaker 3: In the Bible.
Speaker 2: But the truth is, none of us can even understand
Speaker 2: how cool heaven is because we don't have the brain
Speaker 2: capacity for it. We live in a three dimensional world.
Speaker 2: Einstein proved there are many other dimensions we don't even
Speaker 2: know about that we're not even unaware of besides the
Speaker 2: three dimensions we live in. And for you to understand
Speaker 2: how great, how glorious, how beautiful, how incredible Heaven is
Speaker 2: would be like an ant trying to understand the Internet.
Speaker 2: You don't have the brain capacity. And every description pearly gates,
Speaker 2: streets of gold, those are so far in furi as
Speaker 2: to what Heaven's gonna be like. They're just metaphors. They're
Speaker 2: just metaphors. It's not gonna be white with clouds. You
Speaker 2: think of the greatest, most beautiful scene you've ever seen
Speaker 2: on earth, and multiply it by a trillion times, where
Speaker 2: there's no sin, no sadness, no sorrow, no suffering.
Speaker 3: That's heaven.
Speaker 2: We cannot imagine all the details of heaven, but we
Speaker 2: do know this, it will be glorious. Why because God's
Speaker 2: glory will be there in its full completion. Here's what
Speaker 2: the Bible says. Look on the screen. First, Grinthians two,
Speaker 2: verse nine. No eye has ever seen, no ear has heard,
Speaker 2: no mind has ever imagined.
Speaker 3: You can't even imagine what.
Speaker 2: God has prepared for those who love him. But surely
Speaker 2: I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Speaker 2: What am in the world are you afraid of? Why
Speaker 2: are you afraid of death? You're gonna be in a
Speaker 2: better place if the Lord is your shepherd. Now we
Speaker 2: don't get a full picture of what heaven is going
Speaker 2: to be like, but God does give us some little secrets,
Speaker 2: and they're scattered through the Bible. If you read the Bible,
Speaker 2: they're not secrets, but he does give us some hints.
Speaker 2: And one of the things God tells us is that
Speaker 2: because he is a good God, and he is a
Speaker 2: merciful God, and because he made you to love you,
Speaker 2: that his plan for you, This is for you. God's
Speaker 2: plan for you began at the very beginning of time,
Speaker 2: before he even created the universe.
Speaker 3: God thought you up, He wanted children.
Speaker 2: God thought you, and is God's plan for you, and
Speaker 2: he prepared this in advance. Is that He's going to
Speaker 2: share his glory with his children. WHOA That's just too
Speaker 2: hard for me to comprehend. Me an imperfect, frail sinner.
Speaker 2: God's going to share his glory with me. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: you too. We're going to cover this in depth in
Speaker 2: next week's message, so you don't want to miss that message.
Speaker 3: Roman's nine twenty three.
Speaker 2: Says this God wanted to reveal his abundant glory. God
Speaker 2: wanted to show how loving, how good, how kind, how
Speaker 2: merciful he is. God wanted to show it. And so
Speaker 2: he wanted to show his abundant glory, which was poured
Speaker 2: out on us. That's you, that's me. Who are the
Speaker 2: objects of his mercy? You, my friend, are an object
Speaker 2: of God's mercy. As a woman or as a man.
Speaker 2: You are an object of God's mercy. He doesn't give
Speaker 2: you what you deserve. God wanted to reveal his abundant glory,
Speaker 2: which was poured out on us, who are the objects
Speaker 2: of his mercy, and whom he has prepared in advance.
Speaker 2: He's prepared you in advance. He's already prepared this. This
Speaker 2: is talking about you, whom he has prepared in advance
Speaker 2: to receive his glory.
Speaker 3: One day. You're going to do that.
Speaker 2: This is a terrible, terrible, poor, inferior example of it.
Speaker 2: But what does it mean for you to share God's glory?
Speaker 2: Imagine a giant screen in front of a theater that says,
Speaker 2: you know, this movie is playing starring this person and
Speaker 2: co starring this person.
Speaker 3: In heaven.
Speaker 2: Imagine a giant screen that says, now playing for eternity
Speaker 2: starring Jesus Christ, co starring your name.
Speaker 3: WHOA.
Speaker 2: That's what God has prepared because of his goodness and
Speaker 2: his mercy and his love and his grace.
Speaker 3: That's what he wants to do. Now.
Speaker 2: What are the implications of these three truths I mean
Speaker 2: for you right now, between now and when you go
Speaker 2: to heaven.
Speaker 3: What does all this mean?
Speaker 2: What does it mean that God's goodness is watching over you,
Speaker 2: and that God's grace is working in you, and that
Speaker 2: God's glory is waiting for you? What does that really
Speaker 2: mean for Monday morning? Well, what I just shared with
Speaker 2: you are the antidotes to your three greatest fears. And
Speaker 2: if you understand them, if you fully grasp what I'm
Speaker 2: trying to teach you this morning, you will be fearless.
Speaker 2: You will have a new level of confidence in your life.
Speaker 2: You certainly won't be anxious about the future because God's
Speaker 2: goodness and grace, and glory are all involved in your future.
Speaker 2: If you get anxious about the future, if you have
Speaker 2: a problem, you get nervous thinking about what's going to
Speaker 2: happen tomorrow. You need to take notes right now as
Speaker 2: if your life depends on it.
Speaker 3: Because it does. It does.
Speaker 2: Let me give you the three implications. How should I
Speaker 2: live knowing what God is like knowing God's goodness and
Speaker 2: grace and his mercy in my life? You want to
Speaker 2: write these three things down. This is how you live fully,
Speaker 2: and this is how you live fearlessly. Number one, I
Speaker 2: must stay grateful and generous because God is so good
Speaker 2: to me. God is generous with me, and God expects
Speaker 2: me to be grateful and generous with others the rest
Speaker 2: of my life. My first response to God's goodness, my
Speaker 2: first response to God's mercy should be gratitude, and my
Speaker 2: second response should be generosity. Let me show you some
Speaker 2: verses Psalm one eighteen, verse twenty nine. Give thanks continually
Speaker 2: to our Lord because he is so good and because
Speaker 2: his mercy will never run out.
Speaker 3: There's goodness and mercy right there.
Speaker 2: His goodness is good and his mercy will never run out.
Speaker 2: Continual mercy deserves continual thanks you need to develop for
Speaker 2: the rest of your life, andtitude of gratitude. Now, in
Speaker 2: one of the past messages in this series, I told
Speaker 2: you that there have been scientific studies, many, many, many,
Speaker 2: many scientific studies that show that gratitude is the healthiest
Speaker 2: human emotion more than any other thing. That if you
Speaker 2: develop the attitude of gratitude, if you walk around with
Speaker 2: gratefulness in your heart all the time, you're going to
Speaker 2: live longer. Studies of proven this, You're going to be healthier.
Speaker 2: Studies of proven this, you're going to be happier. Studies
Speaker 2: of proven this, grateful people tend to be more successful
Speaker 2: in life than ungrateful people. There are many, many, many
Speaker 2: benefits of the attitude of gratitude, and most of all,
Speaker 2: gratitude is an antidote to fear. Do you have panic attacks?
Speaker 2: Do you have fear? Do you have anxiety in your life?
Speaker 2: Do you have fears about the future. You cannot be
Speaker 2: grateful and fearful at the same time.
Speaker 3: It's impossible. You just can't.
Speaker 2: So when you're fearful at that moment, you're not being grateful.
Speaker 2: And when you are, when your life is filled grateful,
Speaker 2: you can't be fearful because they oppose each other. Why
Speaker 2: because fear. When I'm fearful, I'm focused on me. When
Speaker 2: I'm grateful, I'm focused on others and God, what they've
Speaker 2: done for me, what God has done for me. You
Speaker 2: get the focus off yourself, the fear and the anxiety
Speaker 2: will go down. Gratitude is one of the four antidotes
Speaker 2: to fearfulness in your life. The Bible says this Hebrews
Speaker 2: chapter twelve, verse twenty eight. We have been given possession
Speaker 2: of an unshakable kingdom. This is the kingdom of God. Okay, well, unshakeable.
Speaker 2: It means you don't need to be afraid of this.
Speaker 2: I can't lose this. You can't lose your salvation. Okay,
Speaker 2: it's unshakable. Therefore, let us be therefore, be grateful and
Speaker 2: use our gratitude to worship God the way that pleases Him,
Speaker 2: with reverence and awe. So you need to disdevelop a
Speaker 2: daily habit of being grateful for everything and anything in
Speaker 2: all things around you. Now, the second response, and this
Speaker 2: is also an antidote to fear, is not gratitude, but
Speaker 2: it's generosity. And God says, I want you to pass
Speaker 2: on others the same kind of goodness. I'm good to you,
Speaker 2: I want you to be good to others. I'm generous
Speaker 2: with you. I want you to be generous with others.
Speaker 2: I give to you, I want you to give to others.
Speaker 2: The Bible says this, Matthew ten, verse eight. You have
Speaker 2: been treated generously by God, so live generously, give as
Speaker 2: freely as you have received. Now this is interesting because
Speaker 2: scientific studies have also shown that the more generous you are,
Speaker 2: the less fearful you are. The more giving you are,
Speaker 2: the more at peace you are, the more confident you are,
Speaker 2: the less anxious, the less fearful you are. And the
Speaker 2: Bible actually confirms this that generosity is another antidote to fear.
Speaker 2: Because you get generosity, you get the you know, the
Speaker 2: focus off yourself and on helping other people. Here's a
Speaker 2: good example, Psalm one twelve, verse five to nine. Good
Speaker 2: will come to him. Let me stop right there, everybody
Speaker 2: who's listening to me right now? Do you want good
Speaker 2: or bad to come to you in life?
Speaker 3: Well? I want good to come to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, here's how you have good come to you. Good
Speaker 2: will come to him who is generous. Such people lend freely.
Speaker 2: In other words, Hey, you need my car, Take my car.
Speaker 2: You need a place to stay tonight, Stay in my place.
Speaker 2: You need some money for food. Here, here's some money
Speaker 2: for food. You need a babysitter. Let me babysit for you.
Speaker 3: What do you need?
Speaker 2: You need me to drive you to the doctor. Let
Speaker 2: me take you to the doctor. Name me bring over
Speaker 2: a meal. Your family sick tonight. Let me let me
Speaker 2: Generosity in every area of your time, your talents, your treasure,
Speaker 2: your money, your motivations.
Speaker 3: Generous with your praise, not sting with praise.
Speaker 2: Generous with compliments, not stingy with compliments. Good will come
Speaker 2: to him who is generous. Such people lend freely. They
Speaker 2: conduct their fares honestly. They will never be shaken. They
Speaker 2: don't fear bad news because they trust the Lord to
Speaker 2: care for them. They are confident and fearless. You want
Speaker 2: to be confident, fearless, become more generous. Man.
Speaker 1: I love hearing pastor Rick. What a great message. We
Speaker 1: also love hearing from our listeners. Here's Rick with a
Speaker 1: very encouraging letter.
Speaker 2: Let me close this broadcast by sharing a letter from
Speaker 2: a listener in Rome, Italy. Her name is Heitian and
Speaker 2: she says Pastor Rick, I've relocated to Rome, Italy, where
Speaker 2: I'm currently working at the World Food Program. I really
Speaker 2: love listening to your sermons and I also love reading
Speaker 2: your daily devotionals, which I share with many of my
Speaker 2: colleagues serving in the field offices in Africa and another
Speaker 2: hardship duty stations. They appreciate receiving the message very much.
Speaker 2: God bless you Heitian in Rome.
Speaker 3: Now did you get this?
Speaker 2: A message that is starting in southern California in the
Speaker 2: United States of America is being sent to Europe in Rome, Italy,
Speaker 2: and then it is being re sent out to other
Speaker 2: continents like Africa. That is the amazing age of technology
Speaker 2: that we live in today, and that's why your gifts
Speaker 2: go much further than they used to go even twenty
Speaker 2: or thirty years ago. Our ability to reach listeners like
Speaker 2: Heshan and her friends, not just in Europe but in Africa,
Speaker 2: is a direct result of your prayers and your support.
Speaker 3: For Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: So thanks so much, and by the way, join me
Speaker 2: next time when we continue looking into God's word for
Speaker 2: our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 1: your generous financial support.
Speaker 2: Where do you