Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Rick Warren: None of us can earn our way into heaven because eternal life is a free gift when you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life.

Guest (Male): Hey everybody, this is Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope. And today, Rick Warren continues a series called Good News About Grace. You can't truly understand the Christian life until you understand grace. It’s at the heart of your faith and your relationship with God. In this series, you're going to discover how not to only understand grace but how to experience it and the joy that it brings. And now here’s the final part of a message called Saving Grace.

Rick Warren: The A in grace stands for available to everyone. It's available to everyone. God doesn't play favorites regardless of your background, regardless of your status, regardless of your sin. It doesn't matter whether you’ve been a religious person or a non-religious person or you have any religious background at all. In Romans 4:16, he says, “The promise is not only for those people that live under the law of Moses. It is for anyone who lives with faith like Abraham.”

Now, who are these people who live under the law of Moses? The Jewish people. The Jewish people were given the law of Moses. Moses was their leader and they were given the ways of God to do the right thing before the rest of us were given them. By the way, have you ever thought about why are the Jews called God's chosen people? Does God just love them more than he loves the rest of us? No. They were chosen for a purpose. What was the purpose? They were chosen to spread the message to everybody else, to tell the world that there is one true God. That's what they were chosen for. They were kind of like the missionaries to the rest of us.

Now God has taken that task and given it to the church, which includes Jews, Gentiles, and everybody else who put their faith in Christ. And God says it's available to anybody who opens up their heart with faith. Look at the verse on the back of your outline. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Circle the word everyone. There are no quotas in heaven. It doesn't say, “Oh, really good people will be saved if they call on the name of the Lord.” Really religious people. No. Really smart people. No. It just says anybody. Anybody who calls on the name of the Lord, who has faith in the grace of God, he says, will be saved.

The sad thing is that even though many people know that God offers his grace as an unconditional gift to us, they still try to work their way to heaven. They think that something in their lives is making them good enough that they don't need to receive God's gift of grace through Christ. Now, you may have done some really nifty things in life, but if you think they’re going to get you into heaven, forget it. Because heaven is perfect and you're not. And the only way you’re going to get into heaven is by receiving God's gift to you, receiving it by faith, which is available to every person.

Guest (Male): The C in grace stands for grace comes through Christ. Grace comes through Christ.

Rick Warren: John chapter 1, verse 17 says, “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Why through Jesus Christ? Why is Jesus Christ the only way to heaven? Why not Buddha? Why not somebody else? Why only Jesus Christ? Because he paid the price of admission. He's already paid for your salvation. Nobody else has done that one. On the cross, he paid for your sins.

Now grace is free, no doubt about that, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus Christ his life. He paid for your ticket. Now, the law tells me when I do wrong. It says you blew it. But grace says here's how to get back on track. You’re forgiven. Let's get going in the right direction. Romans 5:15 says, “Many people have received God's gift of life by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ.”

In the Bible, the favorite description for somebody who has grace, who has accepted God's grace, the favorite description for a believer, a Christian, is the term in Christ. Those two words, in Christ. That phrase in Christ is used over 120 times in the New Testament. It refers to somebody who has found salvation through the grace of God being in Christ.

Now, let me explain it to you like this. Let's say this card represents my life. And let's represent this Bible, this Bible represents Jesus Christ. Now, in my life, there are a lot of things that I’ve done wrong that disqualify me to live in a perfect place like heaven. And there are things in my life that have ripped up my life. There are things that I’ve done wrong, things that I’m ashamed of that I don't want you or anybody else to know about in my past. I wish I could do them over.

There are things that have really hurt me deeply, where I’ve hurt others and they’ve hurt me. There are sins that I’ve committed. There are thoughts that I have thought. There are actions that have been hurtful to other people. And in many ways, I’ve ripped up my life and allowed others to rip it up, too. And then there are things in my life that I’ve done that I’m really ashamed of and I just made a total mess of my life.

I look at that messed up, broken, damaged, scarred life and I think, there's no chance of this getting into heaven because it's certainly not perfect. But the Bible says that Jesus Christ takes my life with all the scars, with all the tatters, with all the mistakes, with all the guilt things in my life. And the Bible says that when I come to Jesus Christ and I say, “Jesus Christ, I open my life up to you and I want to accept your free gift of salvation,” that God puts me in Christ.

Now, when I'm in Christ, can you see my imperfections? Can you see them anywhere? Can you see the things that I’m ashamed of? Can you see the things that have ripped up my life and ripped up other people? No. All you can see when I’m in Christ is Christ. And so when God takes my life and he takes all of the pieces of it that are kind of messed up, not kind of, really messed up, and he puts me in the life of Christ, I get into heaven on Christ's ticket. When he looks at me with eyes of grace, he only sees the perfection of Jesus Christ.

Look at the next verse. Galatians 2:21. “Don't treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law,” in other words, by doing good, “then there was no need for Christ to die.” In other words, if you could be saved and could get to heaven on your own merit, believe me, the cross was a waste. And if you could have gotten to heaven without any help from God, believe me, Jesus Christ wouldn't have come and died on the cross for you because he wouldn't waste himself like that.

But there was no other way. You’re either going to get into heaven in Christ or you’re not going. Now, it's a free gift. You just accept it in faith. Grace is all that God does for me because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. Another acrostic is grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. It comes through Christ and only through Christ.

Guest (Male): E in grace stands for it is extended throughout eternity. Extended throughout eternity.

Rick Warren: Romans 6:23 says, well, let's read it out loud. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Now, I want you to circle the phrase eternal life. Because the results of God's grace are going to go on and on and on forever. Eternal life. That's one of the benefits of grace. Eternal life. You could say that grace is the gift that keeps on giving. And God saves the best for last and the best is yet to come. With Jesus Christ, it just keeps getting better and better.

The Bible says the free gift of God is eternal life in heaven. Now, have you ever thought about what is heaven really going to be like? The Bible tells us that heaven is going to be like four things. Number one, it's going to be a place of reunion where we are reunited with other loved ones who have accepted the grace of God through Christ. Two, it's going to be a place of reward where we are rewarded for the character that we developed and the way that we served other people here on earth.

Three, it's going to be a place where we are reassigned to do new work that we like to do based on our shape, based on how God has gifted us. We will be given new assignments that we love to do. And number four, it's going to be a place of release where we’re free from all pain, all suffering, all sadness, all sorrow, all grief, all depression, all loneliness, etcetera. It's going to be a wonderful place. And it is the gift of God. Now, there's one catch. You have to accept it.

As I’ve said, if you get a gift for you but you don't unwrap it, it's a worthless gift. Now, you need to realize that Jesus Christ makes this grace gift available to everybody, but it is also customized specifically for your life because God knows exactly what you need. One of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met is Peter Drucker. 90 years old, father of American management. Everything he writes is printed in the Wall Street Journal. He’s written dozens and dozens of books that are textbooks. A brilliant, brilliant man. Many of you know that he’s been a mentor to me for a number of years.

I asked Peter one day, “How did you become a Christian, Peter?” And he said, “Well Rick, when somebody first explained grace to me, I realized I was never going to get a better deal.” You’re never going to get a better deal than we’ve talked about today. So open your life to the grace of God through Jesus Christ. It's your only hope and it's free.

Now, I know you may be thinking, “If I come to God with all the ways that I’ve messed up my life, God's going to give me some big lecture. I’m going to feel condemned. I’m going to feel judged. In fact, I’m not going to feel good at all. If I come to Christ, I’ll just get all this rebuke and reproof and feel bad because I know how many times I’ve blown it and God's just going to say, 'I told you so.'” And if you think that, you are sadly mistaken. Sadly mistaken. That's what grace is all about. He says, “Come to me.”

In the Bible, there's a story of a woman who had numerous moral failures. I mean numerous moral failures. She’d slept around with anybody and everybody and she had what you would call a reputation. A real reputation. And in fact, one day some religious leaders actually caught her in the act in bed with somebody and brought her to Jesus and threw her on the ground in front of Christ expecting him to condemn her. And they say, “What are you going to do about this woman who's violated all kinds of principles of God?”

Jesus defended her dignity. He protected her. In front of the whole crowd, he said, “All right, anybody who is here without sin, you can cast the first stone.” And of course, since there was no one in the crowd that was perfect, they all began to slowly walk away. Then in the privacy of that one-on-one encounter, Jesus looked at this woman who was filled with guilt and he said, “Where are your condemners?” And she said, “They’ve all gone, Lord.”

Jesus said to her two very profound things. He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Now go and sin no more.” That's all he said. No long lecture, no big lesson. He just said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” Jesus said, “I didn't come to condemn the world, I came to save it.” And if you are expecting to come to Christ and be filled with a whole bunch of condemnation, you missed the boat. You haven't heard the story. You don't understand grace.

So you come to Christ. In fact, the Bible says this, the last verse on your outline, Isaiah 30, verse 18. “The Lord longs to be gracious to you.” Do you see that? God wants to be gracious to you. It is in his nature to bless undeserved people. He’s waiting for you to accept his grace. He enjoys being gracious. He is not mad at you. His heart's broken for you, but he wants you to come home.

Now, you say, “Wait a minute. Does grace just mean that I can accept God's gift and just keep on living anyway that I want to, thumbing my nose to God?” Of course not. There are two very profound statements. He says, “I don't condemn you.” And then he says, “Now just stop doing it. Go and sin no more. Let me help you change.” He’s not saying, “Oh, just keep on doing whatever's destroying your life, whatever's opposing the laws of God.” He says, “Go and sin no more.”

God's amazing grace is available right here and right now today. That's why he brought you here. You're not here by accident. He brought you here. If you have never received that saving grace gift, what are you waiting on? Let's bow our heads.

In the coming weeks, we’re going to look at God's restoring grace and sustaining grace and liberating grace. But first, you’ve got to settle the foundation, saving grace. So why don't you pray this prayer in your heart? Dear God, I realize that I could never be perfect enough to earn a place in your perfect heaven. I realize that the only way I’ll get in is by your grace. Forgive me for thinking that I could be good enough. Forgive me for my pride that thinks I could earn my way into heaven.

Thank you that you give me what I need, not what I deserve. Thank you for your forgiveness and I ask for it today. Jesus Christ, thank you for paying for my salvation on the cross. By faith, I accept your grace today. And I want you to guide my life from this day forward. In your name I pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): 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. And now here’s Pastor Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

Rick Warren: Today I want to share a letter from a new listener, Sherman, who's in Tennessee. He writes that he and his wife use Daily Hope to study God's word together. Here's what he wrote: “Just recently, a friend of mine turned me on to your Daily Hope devotional and also gave me your CD series on the Lord's Prayer. And wow. Together my wife and I now listen to Daily Hope podcasts. We take notes, we pray, we have great conversations about all the biblical teachings that we get from you. And we both look forward to that time of being encouraged and challenged and instructed. Now I know, Pastor Rick, that it was through the giving of other people that made it possible for me to hear the Daily Hope teaching. And so now I want to make an eternal investment myself by giving to this ministry so that others may be blessed and impacted in the same way that my wife and I have been.”

Well Sherman, I’m so glad to hear that you and your wife are studying the Bible together. Nothing will do more for your marriage. It’ll not only help you grow in faith, it will strengthen your marriage. And thank you for your financial gift. Without your help, we wouldn't be able to keep on reaching more and more people around the world with the good news of Jesus. We wouldn't be able to disciple them through the Daily Hope podcast. Because of your prayers and your financial support, we're able to partner, working together to reach the world for Christ. So I’m so grateful for you and for your prayers and your financial support. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Hey, if you’ve been encouraged by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and you’d like to support us, please consider giving a financial gift. Really generous friends of the Daily Hope ministry, they’re going to match your gift up to $10,000. So please don't wait. This special matching grant offer ends at the end of this week. So please go to PastorRick.com or simply text the word HOPE to 70309. Again, PastorRick.com or text the word HOPE to 70309. And all of us here at Daily Hope thank you so much for your support. Your gift helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Be sure to 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.