Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Pastor Rick Warren: 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. Up next, here's part one of a message called The Reality of Heaven.

Pastor Rick Warren: Now the truth is a lot of times we're just not too excited about Heaven. I mean, we're much more interested in Earth than we are about Heaven. And really, that's too bad. Because we have been sold a bill of goods about Heaven. The fact is the reason we don't get excited about Heaven is, we have a faulty image of it. We don't realize how cool, how exciting, how incredible, how so much better than Earth it's going to be.

Pastor Rick Warren: I like Earth, do you like Earth? I like Earth, I love the sunsets, I love the sky, I love the water, I love the weather, shoot, we live in California, I mean, come on. Uh, you know, my idea of winter is I put on socks, this is an incredible place. We, we live in paradise. And I like this place a lot in spite of the fact that it's broken, that nothing actually works the way it ought to work, no relationship is perfect, nobody is perfect, except mine. Uh, no, uh, you know, no weather is perfect, nothing is perfect on this planet because sin has broken the planet.

Pastor Rick Warren: But this is all we know, so we can't understand how cool Heaven really is. And as I said, most of our ideas are are warped because they came from Hollywood. Now, let me just say it again, I've told you many times, when you get to Heaven, it's not going to be all white, you're not going to have wings, you're not going to be an angel, you're not going to be a little chubby cherub, you're not going to wear a white robe, you're not going to float on clouds, and you're not going to play a harp. As I've told you many times, to me that would be Hell. I can't think of anything more boring than to be in a colorless place having to play a harp. Uh, I, oh, just that would make me not want to go to Heaven.

Pastor Rick Warren: So tonight, we're going to look at the real thing. And honestly, there's so much material, I'm going to get, I'm going to hit you with a ton of verses that, uh, I can't even cover it all, there's so much and sometime we'll come back and just do a series on this. Now, notice there on your outline, the Bible says this in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1. "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven." Circle that, the realities of Heaven. Not, not what Hollywood gives you, not the bill of goods that you've seen by artists and, uh, what people have tried to think up, "Set your sights on the realities of Heaven, where Christ sits at God's hand in the place of honor and power."

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, in this weekend, we're going to look at the realities of Heaven. And specifically we're going to look at these five questions, um, what is Heaven? Uh, where is it? What is Heaven like? How do we get into it? And, uh, what should we do if we're going to Heaven? So let's just get right into it, we've got a lot of material to cover. First, what is Heaven? Well, the Bible tells us three things. Number one, it's where God lives and rules. It is where God lives and rules. Through the Bible, it's called the dwelling place of God, the house of God, it's it's it's called the city of God. 31 times Jesus calls it the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Heaven, actually, he calls it the kingdom of Heaven, because it's where God not only lives, but he rules. And the Bible says in Psalm 123 verse 1, "Lord, I look up to you, up to Heaven where you rule." It's where God lives and rules.

Pastor Rick Warren: Number two, it is a real place. Now we talked about this last week, let me just cover it again, it's not a state of mind, it's not a state of being, it's not some disembodied condition where you're going to float around without a body, it's not Nirvana, it's not nothingness, it's not a dream-like state, it's not something intangible and ethereal, it's not a feeling, it is a real place. In fact, the Bible says that in Heaven there are streets, there are trees, there is water, uh, there are homes, uh, it it uses a lot it it hints and and in all likelihood, there's going to be animals there. There are many scriptures that, uh, that allude to the fact that animals will be there. It is a physical place, and you will have a physical body. It's not just some kind of floating around in outer space, which sounds pretty boring to me.

Pastor Rick Warren: Uh, Jesus said this up here on the screen in, uh, John 14:2, he said, "There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I'm going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so," notice he says, "I'm going to prepare a place, not a state of being, a place, if this were not so, I'd tell you plainly." Heaven is a real place, it's not a state of mind. And, in fact, notice there on your outline, Jesus said in Matthew 6:20, "Store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven." And then he tells us this, "Where moths or rust can't destroy it," you know, moths eat away clothes and rust destroys away metal, uh, "and where thieves can't break in and steal it." Now, if Heaven were just a a state of mind, a being, a a consciousness, you couldn't store anything up there. But he says you can store up treasure in Heaven. Now, we're going to come back to that because he says it about five times in the New Testament. But it's where God lives and it's a real place.

Pastor Rick Warren: And number three, this is the the cool thing, Heaven was designed for us. It was designed for you and for me, specifically designed for us. This is such an amazing thing that God not only designed the Earth for us, so we could live and it could sustain life, but he also designed Heaven for us, not for himself, but for us. Notice the Bible says, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance," I mean something I've been planning to give my kids, "Take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for," who? You, circle the word you. "Heaven was prepared for you. And it was prepared for you from the foundation or the creation of the world." We talked about this last week, uh, when God started thinking up Earth, he also started thinking up Heaven, because we're not meant to live here. This is not all there is. And if the only thing you get this week is is this, that there's more to life than here and now, there's more to life than just this life.

Pastor Rick Warren: You're going to spend, how many times have I said this, 80 years on this planet, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, but that's about it. And really, that's a good thing because you don't want to live in an imperfect place forever, you want to live in a perfect place forever. So you're going to spend 80 at the most 100 years here on the Earth. You're going to spend trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions gazillion gazillions. I'm going to make up a word someday for the infinity, to infinity and beyond, you're going to live in eternity. And God says, "I designed it for you." Friends, this is such an amazing expression of the love of God. The Bible tells us that God created the entire universe because he wanted a family.

Pastor Rick Warren: He wanted a family. And he wanted a family that would live with him forever. Now, he wasn't lonely, God has never been lonely because God is fulfilled in himself, and he's in relationship to himself because God is love, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. So he wasn't lonely, but he said, "I want to express my love by creating human beings. I'm going to make them in my image." They're not gods, you're never going to be a god, you're going to be a human, you're not going to be a god in Heaven, you're not going to be an angel in Heaven, you're going to be a human being in Heaven. But God said, "I wanted to make these human beings so that I could adopt them in to my family." Look at some verses here on the screen. Ephesians 1:5, "God's unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ, and this gave him great pleasure." You were planned for God's pleasure, we talk about that in the Purpose Driven Life book.

Pastor Rick Warren: That God said, "I want you to be a part of my family." Now, there's a word for God's family. Look at this next verse. It's, um, second First Timothy 3:15, and it says there, "God's family is the church." God's family is the church. We are, the church is the only thing that's going to last. God's family is the only thing that's going to last. One day this Earth's going to burn up. And the only thing that's going to last is people who are a part of God's family, who've chosen to be a part of his family in faith and in obedience. Now, the Bible says this here on the screen, First Peter 1:4, "God has reserved a priceless inheritance," that's Heaven, "for his children. And it is kept in Heaven for you," all the things he's got planned for you, "pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay."

Pastor Rick Warren: So, what is Heaven? It's a place that he's preparing for his family. Oh, and by the way, another analogy in scripture, the Bible calls the church the bride of Christ. And it's like he's saying, "I'm preparing this place for my bride. I want to give her the best." And he says, "My family and my bride," he said, "this is what I'm preparing for you to spend eternity with me forever." And the Bible says this up on the screen, "This is God's purpose that when the time is right, he will gather us all together from wherever we are in Heaven," those who've already died, "or on Earth," those who haven't died yet, "to be with him in Christ forever."

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, notice it says forever. You've heard me say this before, you were made to last forever. That's why you're made in God's image. And the implication is, you're going to last forever, one of two places, Heaven or Hell. And as we talked about last week, you get to choose which door you're going to go out. My way or God's way, Jesus' way, Jesus said, "I am the way." Hebrews 13:14 says, "For this world," let's read this verse together, "For this world is not our home. We are looking forward to our city in Heaven, which is yet to come." You see, once you become a part of God's family, there's a whole lot more to life than just here and now. And really, this world is not my home, I'm just passing through.

Pastor Rick Warren: I think every believer should be given a green card. Because this is not your ultimate citizenship. Your ultimate citizens, you're only here on Earth, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years. God says, "Your ultimate home is in Heaven." Now, that's what Heaven is, it's a real place, it's where God lives and it was designed for us. Now, the question then is, where is Heaven? And the answer is, we don't know. All we know is this, you can write this down, it's out of this world. Okay? We know that. It's out of this world. We definitely know that it is not on Earth. Heaven is not a place on Earth, regardless of what the song says. Heaven is not a place on Earth, it is out of this world. And that's why the Bible says in many places like Psalm 52, 53 verse 2, "God looks down from Heaven, it says, at people on Earth to see if there are any who are wise and who worship him."

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, while we don't know the location of Heaven, it's a specific place, we don't know the location, but we do know the way. Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me." And the Bible says this up here on the screen, Romans 3, "God has shown us a different way to Heaven, not by being good enough," which none of us can be good enough to get into a perfect Heaven, "and trying to keep his laws, but by a new way promised in scriptures a long time ago." Okay, so, what is Heaven like? Now, this is the one we really want to know the answer to. And the Bible says that Heaven is a mystery. It is a mystery. And part of it is, we just don't have the mental capacity to understand other dimensions when we live in a three-dimensional world. We live on a planet that rotates around the sun and has a 24-hour, you know, rotation, and so we have a concept of time. If we weren't living on this planet, you wouldn't have the same concept of time that you do as you do in space.

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, the Bible says this in Job chapter 11, "Can you understand the mysteries surrounding God Almighty? They are higher than the Heavens and deeper than the grave. So, what can you do when you know so little, and these mysteries outreach the Earth and the ocean?" When I was a little boy, uh, we lived in Northern California, and one time we took a family vacation into Southern California, and my dad was trying to explain to me what Disneyland was going to be like. What a waste of time. You can't understand Disneyland until you go. And when you get there, you're going, "Whoa," the very first time. Now, the hundredth time you're going, "It's a small world after all," you know. Uh, but the first time you go and you're a little kid, you're going, "This is Heaven." And and, you know, no matter how well my dad tried to describe it, he could not, uh, you know, communicate to me how cool Disneyland was going to be.

Pastor Rick Warren: There are some experiences in life that are simply indescribable. You just can't describe it. I mean, the when my wife has tried to describe to me the feeling she felt when she saw her three children for the very first time, the second after they were born, uh, you know, I had my own feeling as a dad, I was there, but she had a different feeling having carried those babies inside of her. That is an indescribable feeling. And there are some things in life you simply have to experience. And and all the art and all the songs and all of the writing and poetry and everything, uh, can't can't describe what Heaven's really like because the truth is, there's really nothing on Earth to compare Heaven to. We are a poor carbon copy, a a Xerox, we're an imitation of something much, much greater, more fulfilling, more beautiful, more exciting. And the Bible tells us this there in First Corinthians 2, "No eye has ever seen and no ear has heard, and no mind has has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."

Pastor Rick Warren: Now, I know many of you are kind of like me, I've got a pretty fertile imagination. I can think up some pretty big things. I people have accused me of being a dreamer or a visionary. And I, I do have a pretty vivid imagination. And God says, "Rick, you think of, use your imagination to think of the greatest thing you can think Heaven could be, and I can top that." So, all I can do is take the five or ten top peak experiences in my life, throw them all together, and multiply them by an exponential factor of a billion and go, "That must be what it's like to be in a perfect place." So, I don't really know and even the things that I'm going to share with you today, uh, are just a pale explanation of what Heaven's like.

Pastor Rick Warren: But the Bible does give us some very important information on on, uh, Heaven. And I'm going to throw a ton of verses at you because I, I want you to see what it is. And I'm going to give you five things that will not be in Heaven and there are five things that will be in Heaven. And since I was going to cover all these verses, I even wrote them down for you there. What's not going to be in Heaven and what is going to be in Heaven. So, let's run through a bunch of verses together. The first thing that's not going to be in Heaven is no sickness. Look at this verse up here on the screen. The Bible says, "Everything in the Heavens has a body and so does everything on Earth. But each one is very different. Now, these earthly bodies will die, but the bodies that are raised will live forever. Our ugly and weak bodies," how did he know that, "will become beautiful and strong." Anybody want to say, "Yay, God," on that one? Yay, God. Okay? It says our our ugly and weak bodies are going to become beautiful and strong. Eat your heart out Brad Pitt.

Pastor Rick Warren: The Bible says that there won't be any sickness in Heaven. Why? Because you're going to get a new, perfect body. You will have a body in Heaven. Just like you got a body. When Jesus arose and came back to Earth, and he walked in, and he actually walked through doors a couple of times, walked through walls, and so it's kind of go there's a kind of a Star Trek thing to it, that you know, you can dematerialize and go here and there, but he also sat down and ate a couple of meals. So, I know we're going to eat in Heaven because Jesus did with his resurrected body. The only thing is, your stomach's never going to growl there. And you'll never have gas. And because you will never have any needs in Heaven. And when you eat, it will eat simply because of pleasure. You just want to eat, but you're going to get a perfect body. Now, the Bible says this up here on the screen, "Just as each of us now has a body like Adam's," that means we have a human body, uh, "so someday we shall have a body like Christ." And we get a little for knowledge of that. If you want to study this more, you can go and look at the kind of body Jesus had after he rose back from death. But we're going to have a perfect body, so that means no sickness.

Pastor Rick Warren: Second thing, no sadness. Look at this verse. The Bible says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Pastor Rick Warren: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said, "You've got to love God with all your heart." That's worship, "and love your neighbor as yourself." That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment. And then Jesus said, "Go make disciples," that's evangelism, "baptize them into the family of God," that's fellowship, a sign of fellowship, "and then he said, 'Teach them to obey everything I've taught you.'" That's discipleship. And we call that the Great Commission. We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, a great community.

Pastor Rick Warren: You know, I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. And we want people to know that God's Word is filled with hope and truth and the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single one. You know, as well as I do that the Word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives. So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on the website, whether you listen on a radio station or whether you listen through a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family. And I need your help. We could not do this without your support. We're 100% listener funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us? And let, write to me, let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me. So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. And God will bless it and God will bless you. And we'll get to Heaven and we'll thank God for all the people who are going to be in Heaven because you cared.

Pastor Rick Warren: Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, just go to PastorRick.com. That's PastorRick.com, or you can text the word HOPE to 70309. That's the word HOPE to 70309. And really, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Hey, be sure to join us next time when 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.