Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): 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 continue his series called Eternal Realities: Heaven and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible says about heaven and hell and how you can be absolutely certain you'll go to heaven. Let's jump right in with part two of a message called How to Be Certain You're Going to Heaven.

Pastor Rick Warren: No one will ever love you the way God does. This has to become the foundation of your life. You want to know why you've got so much stress in your life and no stability? It's because you've got a shaky foundation. Why you have so much stress in your life instead of a sense of satisfaction, a sense of significance, and a sense of success and stability? It's because you're building your life on something that can change.

Everything in life changes. Everything. Relationships change, jobs change, fame changes. One minute you're a hero, the next minute you're a zero. The way you look changes. And not all those changes are good. There's only one thing in life that won't ever change: God's love for you. It's never, ever going to change.

If you want stability in your life, you build it on the rock foundation of God's love for you. So that then you know no matter what happens, I know God has not stopped loving me. He's going to love me no matter what happens in my life. And that gives you the stability because it is the only thing in life that doesn't change. It has to become the cornerstone, the chief foundational cornerstone of your life. That's what produces a stable, significant, satisfying life. Build it on the rock of God's love.

What do you do when you're all shook up? Look at what the Bible says to do. It says here, "Come to Christ who is the living foundation of rock, the cornerstone on which God builds." 2,006 years ago, on the Easter weekend when Jesus Christ died and rose again on Easter Sunday, the Romans were so worried that somebody might steal the body of Jesus Christ and claim that he had resurrected. So they did a series of precautions.

They put him in this tomb. It was like a cave, and they rolled this huge stone in front of it that took tons of men to move. And then they permanently sealed it with the Roman seal, so it could never be broken. And then they posted guards outside of his tomb. The only time in history they posted living guards to keep a dead man in the tomb. But they did. Easter Sunday morning, the angel showed up, an earthquake, light comes, lightning comes down. The guys fall back in a faint. The seal is broken. The stone is rolled back.

The stone was rolled away not so Jesus could come out, but so that the skeptics could go in and see that he wasn't there. And that stone, the stone of the cornerstone of life, is the stone of God's love. You build your life on that, you're going to have stability. The first step to heaven is I've got to recognize God's love. No one's ever going to love me as much as God does.

The second step: I've got to receive God's gift. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God has a gift for you. That's why we give gifts at Christmas time, because God gave the first Christmas gift. He came to earth. If God had wanted to communicate to ants, he would have become an ant. If he wanted to communicate to cows, he would have become a cow. But God wanted to communicate to human beings, so he became one of us. He came into this world as a baby. He wanted to save us.

Nobody's afraid of a baby. So he comes as a baby, just like everybody else did. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It doesn't say he sent a good man. It doesn't say he sent an angel. It doesn't say he sent a prophet. It doesn't say he sent a moral leader or an ethical leader. It says he sent his son. He cared enough to send the very best. God came to earth in human form, and his name was Jesus Christ. That's why all of history is split into AD and BC. Every time you write a date, the reference point is Jesus Christ. God came to earth and it split history into AD and BC.

Look at what the Bible says in Romans 3. "Out of sheer generosity, God put us in right standing with himself, a pure gift." In other words, I can't earn this. It's just a gift. It's called grace. Grace is when God gives you what you need, not what you deserve. If we all got what we deserve, none of us would be here. I sure wouldn't be here. But God doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us what we need.

He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. He sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to clear that world of sin. When we were unable to help ourselves, at that moment of our need, Christ died for us, although we were living against God. Let's just go back to the basics again. This is a football. Let's go through the basics of life this morning. I don't want anybody misunderstanding this.

Basic number one: Nobody's perfect. I've spoken to hundreds of thousands of people all around the world. I've never met a single person in my life who claimed to be perfect. Not one. I don't measure up to my own expectations, much less God's perfect standard. Neither do you. So we've all made mistakes. We've all blown it. We all have things we regret, we wish we could do over. The Bible says it like this: "All have sinned." We've all done it.

God is not just a loving God. He's a just God. That means he wants to be fair. And when somebody breaks a law, there's got to be a penalty for it. We do this in America. You break man's laws, you pay man's penalty. You break God's laws, you pay God's penalty. You speed down the freeway, you're going to get a ticket. You shoot somebody, you're going to go to jail. When you break God's laws, you pay God's penalty. The Bible says all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death. That means I deserve to be punished for the things I've done wrong in my life.

Here's the good news. Everything you've ever done wrong in life has already been paid for. That's what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He took my sin and yours. In fact, he took all of the sins you haven't even committed yet. The things you're going to do wrong next week, next month, next year. Stuff you haven't even thought up yet. All those creative ways of sinning you don't even know about yet. They've already been paid for. That is called the good news. That's what the gospel is. It means it's already been taken care of. Already paid for.

On the back of your outline is one of the most amazing verses in the entire Bible. I call it the great exchange verse. And it says this: "God took the sinless Christ and poured into him all our sins, all the stuff we'd done wrong. Then in exchange, he pours God's goodness into us." God says, I'm going to take everything that Rick Warren's done wrong—all his meanness, all his rudeness, all his selfishness, all the times he's lied. I'm going to take everything Rick Warren's done wrong and put that on Jesus Christ. And he's going to pay the penalty so Rick doesn't have to pay for it. And then I'm going to take Jesus' goodness and put it on him so he can get into heaven.

Heaven is a perfect place, and you're not. And neither am I. I stopped batting a thousand a long time ago. No sin can get in heaven. If God let imperfect people into heaven, it wouldn't be perfect anymore. So somebody's got to take the penalty for it so I can get in on plan B. God came up with a plan B. He said, I'll come to earth and I'll pay the penalty, that way it's fair and it's just, but it also shows my love at the same time.

If there were any other way for you to get into heaven besides Jesus Christ coming and dying for you, God wouldn't have wasted the effort. He wouldn't have gone through all the effort if there was any other way. This is the only way you're going to make it. You can't earn it because you can't be good enough. You're not perfect. Yeah, you're better than other people. You're probably better than me, I have no doubt about that. But God doesn't grade on a curve. No, it's perfection, and none of us measure up.

You can't earn your way to heaven. You can't work your way to heaven. You can't buy your way into heaven. It's just a gift. It's a free gift. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He gave the gift to die for us so that I can go to heaven. That's pretty good news. And that's called grace. I just receive the gift of God's grace. It's just free. I don't deserve it. Never will.

Since salvation is by grace, then it is no longer by works. If it were by works, grace would no longer be grace. Do you know the difference between religion and salvation? Religion is man's attempt to get to God. We're talking about salvation—what God did for man. It doesn't matter what your background is. You may be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Baptist, Mormon, or Methodist. It doesn't really matter because that is not how you get to heaven.

You can summarize all religions in one word. It's the word "do." Everybody has their own different to-do list. In one religion, say you do these five things. Another one says, no, you do these ten things. Another one says, no, you do these fifty things. It's all about "do." Do these things, and then maybe God will like you. But the difference between religion and salvation, salvation is all based on the word "done." It's already done for you. It is a gift. It's done for you.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he stretched out his hands and one of the last things he said was, "It is finished." He didn't say, "I'm finished," because he wasn't. He was still alive, he had a lot more to do. He's still alive. I just talked to him a few minutes ago. He said, "It is finished." What does that mean? It means I've paid for all the bad things you've ever done. I've paid for all of the evil in the world.

This is what Jesus was agonizing over before he went to the cross. If you saw the movie *The Passion*, at the very start, Jesus is in this garden. He's praying the night before he goes to be crucified. And he's just in agony. Why? Not because of all of the physical torture he was going to go through, although that was great. It's because he's going to take all of the guilt of the world on himself. I feel bad enough just when I'm carrying my own guilt, much less yours.

Jesus said, I'm going to take the guilt for the whole world. Every rape ever committed, I'm going to take the guilt for it. Every murder, every molestation, every wife abuse, every evil thought, every evil action, every betrayal, every adultery, every lie, every theft. I'm going to take the guilt of the killing fields and the guilt of the Holocaust and the guilt of the genocide. And I'm going to take the entire guilt of the world on me. It's just a gift. It is finished. You can't add anything to it. It's only by grace.

The third step to knowing for sure you're going to heaven is to respond to God's offer. First, you recognize God's love. God so loved the world. Then you receive God's gift, that he gave his only begotten son. That's Jesus. Then you respond to God's offer. God's made an offer to you. It's an incredible proposal. He says this: That whosoever believes in him should not perish. That's a pretty incredible offer.

There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible from God to you. They're like blank checks waiting for you to cash. And over and over in Scripture, God says, if you'll do this, I'll do this. With every promise, there's a premise. God says there are promises about your finances. God says, I'll bless your finances, if you'll do this, I'll do this. There are promises about your relationships, your marriage, your kids. There are promises about your health. With every promise, there's a premise. The promise of heaven is whosoever believes on him should not perish.

Notice who this offer is to. The Bible says the free gift of eternal salvation is offered to everyone. Everyone. That means you and me and everybody. One's nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. Such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and he is equally available to all. Jesus Christ is an equal opportunity savior. It's amazing grace for every race.

I don't really care what your ethnic background is. Doesn't really matter what your economic background is. It doesn't even matter what your religious background is. Jesus Christ still died for you. In life, it doesn't matter so much what you've been. What you've been does not matter as much as what you're becoming. That's what matters in life. I've been a lot of things in life. Some things I'm proud of, some things I'm not proud of at all. My past is past. What matters is what I'm becoming right now.

How do I accept God's offer of eternal life in heaven? God says he will accept us and acquit us—declare us not guilty for all of the things we've done wrong—if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we can all be saved in this same way by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we've been like. There's only one way you're going to get into heaven. It says right there: By trusting Jesus Christ. Trusting.

What does it mean to trust Jesus Christ? It means more than just know about him. It means to trust him. The word there in Greek is the word *pisteuo*. It means to trust in, to cling to, to rely on, to adhere to. It means to commit yourself to. And I begin to trust God in every area of my life. Begin to trust him with my finances. Begin to trust him with my relationships. And I begin to trust God with my future and my dreams and my ambitions. And I trust God with my talent. And I begin to trust God with my problems. I learn to trust him in every area. That's what it means to really believe. Not just a head knowledge.

A lot of people know about God, they just don't know God. I believe in Hitler. I believe he existed, but I'm not a Nazi. I believe in Stalin and Khrushchev and Marx, but I'm not a Communist. I believe in bin Laden, but I'm not a member of Al-Qaeda. But I believe in Jesus, and that's different because I trust him. Why? Because I know him. You don't trust somebody you don't know. So you've got to get to know him.

It's the difference between your head and your heart. I know a lot of people. I know a lot of famous people. For instance, I know Bill Gates. I know Bill Gates. We've spoken on the same program together. I've sat on a couch and explained the peace plan to him. I know Bill Gates, but I don't really know him. It's not like he's a close personal friend where I know what makes him tick. I'm not on his inner circle. I don't know him enough to trust him.

That's why I have an Apple. Just kidding. Actually, I'm a PC guy. But you don't trust somebody you don't know. It's not like the way I know my wife. There, I know that woman. I know her inside and out. I've been married to her for 30 years. I know what she's thinking before she thinks it. Because I love my wife and I really do know her, not just know about her, I know what makes her tick. In fact, I know what makes her ticked. I really know her.

That's what it means to know God. I know God just like I'm talking to you. I talk to him all the time just like this, and you can too. It's not just for pastors, anybody can talk to God that way. It's knowing him personally. Having a relationship. That's what it means to trust God. A lot of people are going to miss heaven by 18 inches. They got it here in their head, but not here in their heart. You can go to church your entire life and still miss heaven because you know about God. You may have a religion, but you don't have a relationship. God says, no, I want you to learn to trust me.

Guest (Male): Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you were just as blessed as I was from today's broadcast. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message.

Pastor Rick Warren: When I started Saddleback Church over 40 years ago with just a handful of people in our living room, I also began writing a simple devotional just for the people in our church to help them start each day with hope and with truth and with peace that comes from Jesus Christ. That little devotional grew and grew and grew, and today Daily Hope is one of the largest email devotionals in the whole world. And each day people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's promises and finding fresh strength in his word to face whatever comes their way.

It's absolutely free. We don't have any charge for this. Every day you'll get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you can listen to on the go. In a world that's more distracted and uncertain than ever, I want to help you start your day centered on what never changes. And what never changes is God's love, his unconditional love for you and his promises to you.

If you'll just spend just a few minutes a day in the morning with the Lord, it can bring so much more clarity, more purpose, more peace to everything that happens in your day. Particularly psychologists have said that what you do with the first five minutes of your day pretty much sets the tone. You were never meant to go through life alone. I want to personally invite you to just sign up for the Daily Hope devotional. Do it today. I think it's going to bring fresh encouragement to your walk in God.

Guest (Male): If you'd like to sign up for the daily devotional, it's easy. Just go to PastorRick.com. That's PastorRick.com. 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.