Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Narrator: Are heaven and hell real places? And what are they like? Today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren, we bring our series called Eternal Realities, Heaven and Hell, to a close.

In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible says about heaven and hell and how you can be absolutely certain you will go to heaven. As we wrap up, here's the final part of a message called How to Be Certain You're Going to Heaven.

Pastor Rick Warren: Look at the next verse. This is a very important verse. It's got some heavy-duty theology terms in it, but I will explain them. It says, "We are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Now, circle the word justified and the word redemption, because those are the two things you've got to have in order to get into heaven. So, let me explain them. What does it mean to be justified? The Bible says Jesus Christ, when he died for you, justified you. What does that mean?

Well, justified means just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it means. Justification, justified means just as if I'd never sinned. It's more than forgiveness. It means it's forgotten, it's wiped out, it's like it's didn't even happen.

Let me give you an example. Let's say while we're in here in church, some kids go out and they take tire irons and they beat up my car. They just tear it to smithereens. And security catches them and brings them in here. And I say, "Now, you know you guys, God's forgiven me a whole lot and so I need to forgive other people." So, "I'm going to forgive you for what you've done for me."

"I'm going to forgive you for what you've done." And then I say to you guys, "You guys, I want you all to forgive them, too." And you say, "Okay, we forgive them." Now, they would be forgiven, but they'd still feel bad, because everybody knows. Everybody knows what I've done.

A lot of people feel like that. They go, "Yeah, I know God's forgiven me, but I still feel bad about it, because everybody knows about it." What they need is to be justified. If I were to have some pixie dust or fairy dust and I sprinkled it over you, or I waved a magic wand and all of a sudden that incident was totally erased from your memory, then it would be justified, just as if I'd never sinned.

Remember the movie Men in Black? They'd hold up that little thing, and, you know, the guys would forget everything that they knew? Those guys were justified by Will Smith right there, okay? Justified by Will Smith or Tommy Lee Jones, okay? That's what it means. Just as if I'd never sinned. You don't even remember it.

Then it says, "Through the redemption of Christ Jesus, came by Christ." What does it mean to be redeemed? What does the word redemption mean? That's an old slave trading term. And the word redemption means to buy somebody's freedom. You purchase somebody's freedom.

Let's say you're a slave. This is years ago and you're standing on a block and you're going to be auctioned off as a slave. And I raise my hand and I say, "I will pay $100,000 for you." And so I buy you, "Okay, sold to Mr. Warren." And you come off that auction block expecting to have to be my slave, and I say, "Okay, you're free to go."

"What?" "Yeah, you're free to go." "But you just bought me." "Yeah, but I paid to set you free." "You're kidding." "No, I paid to set you free." That's called being redeemed. I am your redeemer. I have paid to set you free.

The Bible says that's what Jesus Christ did for you. You said, "Well, I'm not a slave to anything." Oh, yeah, you are. You're a slave to far more things than you realize. Pastor Tommy talked about this a couple weeks ago. A lot of you are slave to the fear of death. You're scared to death to die. You don't even want to talk about it.

A lot of you are slave to your past. You're stuck in the past. You can't let go of that regret, that shame, that guilt. You're a slave to guilt. A lot of you are slave to people who've hurt you, and you can't let go of that hurt, and you're bitter, and you're angry, and you hold on to it, and you're resentful, and you're a slave to somebody else who hurt you.

You may be a slave to the expectations of other people, and you have to act a certain way because that's what cool is. And you have to do it the way they do it at work, or they do it at school, or the way they do it in your neighborhood. You may be a slave to the approval of your parents.

And maybe they've even died years ago, and you're still trying to prove that they were wrong. You can be a slave to worry. You can be a slave to fear. You can be a slave to loneliness. You can be a slave to depression, to boredom, to bitterness, to guilt. Oh, you're a slave to a lot of things that you don't realize you are.

You're a slave to habits you can't change. You think, "I don't like this about me. I wish I could change, but I can't," because you're a slave to it. And you've tried to change, but you can't. And you say, "I want to. I don't like this about me. I want to change." You're a slave. Jesus said, "I came to set you free."

In fact, he said this, "When you know the truth, the truth will set you free." And then he said, "I am the truth." He came to set you free. Did you know that God gave us a picture to symbolize both redemption and justification, redeemed and justified? It's called baptism.

I don't know if you've ever seen a baptism like they did it in the Bible times, where they put people under the water. It's the way we do it here, dunk people under water, because that's the way Jesus did it. And when we baptize a person under the water, it's a picture of two things.

First, it's a celebration of Easter. Jesus Christ died, was buried in the ground three days, and then later he arose on Easter Sunday. Every baptism is a celebration of Easter. So, it's a symbol. Now, the water, there's nothing about the water, it's not holy, it's just water.

So, we take a person, we put him in the ground to symbolize Jesus was buried in the ground. We leave him there three days. Just seeing if you're listening. And then we bring him back up. It's a symbol of that's what Jesus did to make me just as if I'd never sinned and to redeem me.

The second thing it's a picture of is what happens in you when you put your trust in Christ. The Bible says the old has passed away. I'm dying to my old way of life completely. It's dead, it's over. It's been washed away, forgiven. I'm being raised, and it's just as if I'd never sinned.

Now, why is that important? Because it's the only way you're going to get into heaven. Heaven's perfect, and you're not. So, you have to have somebody who makes you just as if you'd never sinned. That's the only way you get in. It's a gift of grace. He is your redeemer.

Now, here's the steps. You want to go to heaven? You recognize God's love. No one will ever love me more than God does. I recognize God's love, I receive God's gift that he gave his only begotten Son. I respond to his offer that whosoever believes in him. And then here's the fourth thing. I rely on God's promise.

What's the promise? "Shall not perish, but have everlasting life." That's quite a promise. Did you know that you were made to last forever? One day your heart's going to stop, that'll be the end of your body, but it's not going to be the end of you. God made you in his image, and you were made to last forever.

And God says, "I want you spending forever with me, not apart from me. I want you forever with me in eternity." But here's the bottom line. If you want to spend eternity with God in heaven, you've got to build a relationship with him now on Earth.

You can't just thumb your nose to God and say, "I'm going to ignore God my entire life," and then at the end go, "Oh, by the way, I'd like to come spend eternity with you." No, you develop a relationship with him now. You say, "But, Rick, even if I put my trust in Jesus Christ, how do I know that I'm going to make it in? I mean, what if what if something happens to me now and when I die that I really blow it, and I don't get in?"

Well, you don't understand grace. It's not up to you to be sure, it's God who makes sure you make it. Look at the next verse. The Bible says this, "We are now members of God's own family." In other words, when we put our trust in him. "And God has reserved for his children." It's like me going out and making a reservation for us for dinner.

"God has reserved in advance for his children the priceless gift of eternal life. It is kept in heaven for you. And God will make sure." Circle that. You don't have to make sure. "God will make sure that you get there safely to receive it because you are trusting him."

What does that mean? God will make sure. It's like this. When my kids were little, we once took a trip, and we went to the Grand Canyon. Now, what if I'd said, "Okay, kids, we come up to the edge, and I don't want them falling off." And "We're going to take this trip, and we're going to hike down this trail down several thousand feet into the Grand Canyon."

Well, they're scared. So, they want to put their hand in my hand. But more than that, I'm going to put my hand on their hand, because I don't want them falling. I don't want them falling away, falling off, falling down. And so I grab their hands, and we're walking down in the canyon.

About halfway down, my kids go, "I don't think I need Dad's help anymore. I can make this on my own. I don't really need my father." And they want to pull their hand out of my hand. They want to wiggle and squirm and and let go, but because I love them, and I want to protect them, I'm not letting go. They may want to let go of my hand, but I'm not letting go of theirs.

Now listen. If today you say, "I'm going to put my trust in Jesus Christ. I know there's not a snowball's chance in hell I'm going to make it to heaven by doing good, because I'm not good enough. I've already blown it. I'm not perfect." So, "Jesus Christ, I'm going to put my hand in your hand. I'm going to put my my life in your hand. I'm going to trust you."

And you grab on to God's hand today. I'm going to guarantee you this. There will be times in your life you're going to want to let go of God. You can say, "Right now, it's kind of inconvenient to be a follower of Christ. Right now, it's kind of crimping my style. I don't really want to do the right and ethical thing. I want to do the easy thing."

And there are going to be times when you'll want to let go of God's hand, but he's never letting go of yours, because he loves you. And he will make sure you get into heaven. It's not dependent upon you. It's not by works, it's all by his grace. And he says, "I will get you there."

So, what do I do now between now and when I die? Well, you get to know God a little bit better, you get to know to learn to love him. You learn to trust him with every area of your life, your money, your relationships, your family, your future, your career. You learn to trust him, and you learn God's purpose for your life and begin to fulfill the purpose you were created for.

Now, we can help you out with that last one. We know a lot about purpose here in this church. Now, focusing on yourself, looking inside, will never reveal your purpose in life. You were made by God, and you were made for God. And until you understand that, life will never make sense.

It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. There are three benefits of giving your life to Christ: past, present, and future. Look at this next verse out of the Bible. What a God we have.

"Because Jesus was raised from the dead," that's Easter. "We've all been given a brand-new life." That means just as if I'd never sinned. "And we have everything to live for." That's a purpose. "And including a future in heaven, and the future starts now." Do you get this?

God says, "When you give your life to me, I your past is forgiven, you get a purpose for living, you get a home in heaven." What a deal. Nobody else can give you that. Past forgiven, purpose for living, home in heaven. I don't know if you saw that movie, The Passion. But there's a scene where Pilate, who's the Roman governor of Judea.

He's standing with Jesus Christ, and Jesus has just been beaten to a pulp and he's got a crown of thorns on his head. And he's standing before an angry mob trying to decide whether to kill him or not. And Pilate asked the most important question in life, "What shall I do with Jesus?"

That is the most important question in life, because it will determine your eternal destiny. So, I'm asking you right now, what are you going to do with Jesus? What are you going to do with Jesus? You're going to either trust him or you're going to turn away from him. It has eternal implications.

Now, here's the cool part, and I wish somebody had told me this. I would have become a follower much, much earlier, but I didn't understand this. I didn't have to have all my doubts resolved and all my questions answered before I started a relationship with Jesus. I wish somebody had told me that.

I thought I had to have all my doubts figured out and all my questions resolved before I could start a relationship. No. Jesus said, "Just come with your doubts, come with your questions, that's okay." You don't have to have it all figured out. I've been a I've been a follower of Jesus for 40 years now.

And when I read this Bible, a lot of things in here I don't understand. And I read it and I go, "Whoa, that doesn't make sense." I don't understand that, and I have doubts and questions, and I go, "Whoa, why would God do that? I wouldn't do that if I were God." You ought to be glad I'm not God.

But that hasn't stopped me from having a 40-year friendship with Jesus Christ. I don't have to understand how everything works for me to enjoy it. I don't know how the TV works, it pulls color off of out of the air, but I still watch TV. I don't know how I can be on a cell phone and my wife can be in Rwanda and I can talk to her.

I don't understand internal combustion. It doesn't stop me from driving a car. There are a lot of things I don't understand, but I still enjoy. I don't understand taste buds. That didn't stop me from enjoying a hot, buttered cinnamon roll. Let's just pause there for a moment. Oh, baby, oh baby, oh baby.

I I don't have to understand the chemistry of digestion to eat a steak. I don't have to have all my doubts figured out to come to Jesus. I wish I had known that. In fact, every time I get a doubt or question, I just write it down. One day when I get to heaven, I'm going to say, "Now, God, explain this to me. Why did this happen and why do you do this and all of that? Why did you do it this way?"

You don't have to and the other thing you don't have to have is you don't have to have great faith. No, you just have a little faith. It's not the size of your faith that matters, it's the size of your God. You put a little faith in a big God, and you get saved. You don't have to have a lot of faith. Just a little faith.

Everybody's got faith. You have faith, you use it all the time. You had faith when you sat down on that chair that it would hold you up. That was a lot of faith. You had faith when you go out on the freeway that you're not going to get killed. You you have faith all the time, you just put some in God and not just other things.

You know, my favorite story in the Bible is this guy comes to Jesus, and he's got this daughter who's about to die. She's sick and she's dying. And he comes to Jesus and he says, "Lord, I need you to heal my daughter." And Jesus says, "Do you trust me? Do you believe me? Do you trust me?"

And I love this guy. He's very honest, very authentic. He goes, "You know, I want to believe. Help me with my doubts." I like that. "I want to believe, help me with my doubts." Jesus says, "Man, that's good enough," and he heals the child right there. You can do that. "I want to believe." You can do it today. "I want to believe. Help me with my doubts."

A little bit of faith, not a lot, just a little bit of faith. I was talking to a guy the other day, I said, "Would you like to receive God's gift of eternal life, and would you like to respond to his offer to be just as if you'd never sinned?" He goes, "Oh, yeah." I said, "Do you know what to pray?" He goes, "Nah." I go, "Would you like for me to help pray?" "Yeah."

So, I said, "We'll just pray something like this. Dear God, I don't understand it all. Dear Jesus, I know I need you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for dying for me. Help me to understand it more. Help me trust you. I want to learn to trust you in every area of my life. Make me just as if I'd never sinned."

I said, "You can do that?" He goes, "I can do that." So, we bowed our heads and prayed. You can do that right now. Don't leave here without knowing for sure you're going to heaven when you die. Let's bow our heads.

And as we close, would you just pray this simple prayer in your heart, in your mind? You don't have to say it aloud. God knows your thoughts. He's seen every thought you've ever had. Just say this, and while I say it, you can just say, "Me too, God."

Dear Jesus, just say that in your mind. Dear Jesus, I don't understand it all, but I want to thank you for loving me, and I want to thank you for coming to Earth for me, and I want to thank you for giving your life for me so I can go to heaven. I want to accept your free gift of forgiveness, your grace. I know I can't earn my way to heaven.

And so I'm I want to learn to trust you with every area of my life. Would you make me just as if I'd never sinned, and help me to know your purpose for my life so that the rest of my life is the best of my life? Amen.

Now, there's one last verse, and you can look up here on the stage, and it's talking about what it's going to be like in heaven. There will come a day when you're going to die, and God says, "I will take you into heaven if you put your trust in my son." And it says this, "We wait for that day. There will come that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including new bodies he has promised us." Did you know this?

"Bodies that will never be sick again and will never die." Woohoo! I get a new body. You don't have to look at this one anymore. And I'm not going to have to look at yours either. There will come a day when there will be no more sorrow, no more suffering, no more tears, no more tragedy, no more death. We're going to be with God forever in eternity and celebrate.

Narrator: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you. Just email Rick at PastorRick.com. We'll send you free tools to help start your relationship with Jesus. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Pastor Rick Warren: Friends, today I want to tell you about a guy named Chris. I found out that he shares Daily Hope with his family and his friends and his coworkers as often as he can, and then he has seen a ripple effect as they all share Daily Hope with other people. Let me read you a portion of what he wrote to me.

"Pastor Rick, I first encountered Daily Hope when a coworker forwarded the Daily Devotional to me years ago. My friend was sending the devotionals each morning to an email list of about 15 or 20 people. By the way, that's a good idea for you to do, too. And when my friend retired from our company, he passed along the email group list, and I continued the tradition of sending the devotionals each morning.

That email group grew to about 35 or 40 people. Now, I recently retired, so I passed the email group to another coworker in order that they can continue the ministry. Each morning I wake up, Pastor Rick, and I come to my quiet place just to listen and to journal your messages for the day.

Now, depending on what the message is all about, I often forward it to many individuals for them to enjoy or to apply it in their own personal life and faith journey. My entire family now listens to you and Daily Hope Ministry, and it spreads all over through them, as they forward it to people in their circles of influence.

I can't thank you enough, Rick, for all that you've done in my life and to strengthen and grow my faith in Christ. Daily Hope, without a doubt, has changed the way that I approach every new day." You know, Chris, all I can say is wow. I I love how you are exponentially sharing Daily Hope with your coworkers and with your family.

You know, you're actually an evangelist. You are partnering in God's eyes with me to help spread the good news of the Gospel, and the good news is too good to keep to ourselves. We have to share it. Now, anybody can do this. Anybody can do this, and it's an easy way to give other people hope through deepening their faith.

So, if you don't know what to say, just forward on some of the things you've heard me say, and God will use you to make a difference in people's lives. You know, if God is blessing you through Daily Hope, would you share your story with me? Write me, Rick, at PastorRick.com.

Narrator: Please join us next time as we look into God's word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.