Leaving a Legacy of Hope — Part 2

Hi, I'm Rick Warren, and Merry Christmas. Christmas is gonna be here very soon. And Jesus said in Luke 14:23, Go out into the highways in the countryside and urge everybody you find to come in so that my house will be full. Who are you thinking of to bring to your church? Maybe it's a friend or a neighbor or maybe your accountant or the person who rings up your groceries at the local market. Whoever it is, I wanna challenge you to be a light at Christmas and invite them to services at your ch.

Hey, everyone. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, sharing your faith with the next generation. Well, it's one of the most important things you can do. And we're so glad you're here, because today, Rick is continuing in his Leaving a Lasting Legacy series. Rick gives you some very special tools to help you share the biblical principles of faith, hope, love, and generosity with the next generation. All right, well, let's hear what Rick has to say in part two of a message called Leaving a Legacy of Hope.

The Bible says this. Romans 8:11. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. So just as he. That's the spirit, raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same spirit. Just as much as Jesus rose on Easter resurrection day, one day God's gonna resurrect you. When you die, you put your trust in Christ. You're going to heaven. Not only that, later on in this verse, it says, you're gonna get a new body. I like that. When I get to heaven, I am going to be so hot.

Psst.

I mean, you know, you're just gonna go holy. Is that Rick? Good night, man. He must have been on trim spa or something. You know, no termination. I'm going to live forever. Regardless of the problems you go through, this is not all there is. Now, friends, I know the difference in this one. As a pastor, I have stood at the gravesides of hundreds of families, and I know the difference. I've looked into the eyes of people with hope and. And those without. And those people who have no hope in Christ, who have no faith, who have no assurance of eternal life when it comes to the funeral. That's the acid test of what they believe. And they fail because I have seen the terror in their eyes. You don't want to be there when you say, this is all I have. It's over. I will never see this person again. It's done. That's all there is to life. And I've seen that terror and I've compared it to the hundreds and thousands of other people that I've seen at funerals of a believer who they know this is just a transition step. They're going into real life. The get ready stage is over now. They're going to be with God for eternal eternity and I'm going to be reunited with them one day and I will be with my loved ones again.

And.

And there is hope. And it's a homecoming. It's not leaving home at death for a believer. It's going home to a place with no problems. If you don't have that hope, you have a reason to be hopeless in this world. A few brief years with a lot of problem and pain and then you die. And that's it. That's not much to hope about. The fact is, in Jesus Christ, I live a life with no condemnation. I'm forgiven no matter what I do. A life of no domination. I'm set free. I don't have to stay the same. I can change. And I'm not the same man I was 30 years ago. I'm just not. And I'm glad for that. And I'm not the same man I'm going to be 20 years from today because God is still changing me for the good and for the better. And then I live a life with no termination. I'm going to live forever. This is what gives us hope. The fourth reason why I have hope, no matter how hopeless it seems, is I am able to live a life with no limitation. And that means I will share in God's glory. Not only am I going to live forever, but when I get to heaven, I'm going to have unlimited access to all of his resources. Unlimited access. The Bible says that as a child of God, I have an inheritance that is coming to me, just like a human father gives a human inheritance. Now, if you were the son or the daughter of Bill Gates, you would probably stand to reason that you were going to receive a large hefty inheritance. But you have a father who is wealthier than Bill Gates. Your heavenly Father has prepared an inheritance for you as one of his children. And the Bible says this in Romans 8:16. God's Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God's children. And since we are his children, we will share his treasures. That means his inheritance. For everything God gives to his son, Christ is ours too. That is one of the most amazing verses in the entire Bible. Everything that God has given to his son, Jesus Christ, he said he's Giving to you also. That is limitless, no limitation. You're going to share in his glory. You will have in heaven, you have unlimited access to, to the unlimited resources of God because God created you to be his child. He wants you to be his child. But you must choose to be his child by asking him to accept you and his family. Everybody's created by God, but not everybody is a child of God. You have to choose and say, lord, I put my trust in you. I accept what you did for me. Jesus Christ on the cross, I believe in you and I want to love you and trust you. And when you do that, you become a child of God and you're going to have an inheritance one day. That is, everything that's given to Jesus is going to be given to you. That's amazing. Now, any parent is going to want to know that the child is responsible before they give the inheritance. And oftentimes parents test their children in small amounts before they are given a a larger amount. The same is true with you spiritually and your Heavenly Father. This life is your test. That's why you're here on earth. This life is your test. And God is testing you to see what you do with littler amounts before he trusts you with more in eternity. He's testing and watching to see what do you do with that little bit of talent. To see whether you're going to be responsible enough to get greater talents in heaven. He's trusting you to see how do you handle the little bit of wealth he's given you? How do you handle the little bit of relationships he's given you? How do you handle the little bit of opportunities that he's given you? If you're doing good with it, guess what? The Bible says you will be trusted with more in heaven. To whom much is given, much is required. And the Bible says if you're faithful in little things, you will be faithful in much. The question, what are you doing with what you've been given? This is a test. This life is a test. And that test, that God is testing you to see what he can trust you with in eternity right now involves problems. Yeah, they're part of the test. How do you respond to problems? Do you take them to God or do you just try to solve them yourself? Pressures. How do you respond to pressure? Do you take it to God or do you try to handle it yourself? Pain. How do you handle pain? You gripe and complain, or do you take it to God? Suffering and sorrow. Yes, those are part of the test, too. They're part of the test too. And there is real suffering in this world, folks. Now, there are some religions that actually teach that suffering is an illusion. Buddhism believes it's all an illusion. No, it's not an illusion. It's real. When a child gets run over by a car, that's real. When somebody gets cancer, that's real. When a woman gets raped, that's real. It's not just in her mind. It's not an illusion. There is evil in this world. Very real evil. Sometimes I make bad choices and it hurts others. Sometimes other people make bad choices. It hurts me. It is a very reality. It's not an illusion. And the Bible says we on this planet will suffer. In fact, look on the back. The outline says this. Romans 8. But if we are to share his glory in eternity, we must also share his suffering. Now, God did not exempt his own son, Jesus Christ from suffering. Why would he exempt you? You're not going to ever have a problem. Free life. This is a test. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. That is no limitation that I will share God's glory. So even though right now the Bible says creation groans, the earth groans because it's been broken. We groan because of the pains in our lives. God's spirit groans for us. But we know that we have hope. Why? Because we know it won't last. Because we know the end of the story. And we know we'll be rewarded in heaven. And this gives us hope. I know how it's going to end. I've read the last chapter of the book. And we win. Not only is it a life without limitation, it it's a life without miscalculation. And that means this. I have a purpose. Nothing happens by accident. There is no miscalculation. No miscalculation in my life. That means I make mistakes. But God doesn't. I make mistakes all the time, but God doesn't. And God doesn't make mistakes. But he uses mistakes. Would you write that down? God uses my mistakes.

Why?

Because he already knows them before we even do them. He knows the mistakes you're going to make 20 years from now. And so he just fits them into the plan. God doesn't cause evil. The Bible says God can. God do. Is there anything God can't do?

Yes.

God cannot do evil. God is incapable of evil. But there's evil in the world. And so we make choices. But God can use even that. Even the bad choices. There's no miscalculation. Notice what the Bible says one of the most famous verses, Romans 8:28. We know that in all things. In all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who've been called according to his purpose. Nothing comes into my life by accident. If you are a believer, everything in your life is fulfilled, Father, filtered. Even when the devil tried to hurt Job, God said this much and no further. It's not an accident. There is no miscalculation. Now, what does that mean, if all things are working together for good? If I love God, it means this. There is no plan B in your life. You might write that one down. There is no plan B for my life. You're still on plan A. You mean in spite of all of the bloopers and mistakes? Yes. In spite of that abuse? Yes. In spite of that divorce? Yes. In spite of that unfaithfulness? Yes. In spite of that abortion? Yes. In spite of. You name it. God says, I knew it was coming. He didn't plan it, but he knew it was coming. So he plans to bring it for good use in your life if you.

Give it to Him.

This is not a promise for everyone. It's for those who are in Christ. That phrase that Paul uses 167 times to define a believer, it all fits into his plan. Well, no wonder believers can be the most positive, confident people on the planet. Why do we have the most hope? I'm forgiven. No condemnation. I'm free. No domination. I. I'm going to live forever. No termination. God is going to share with me all of his resources, no limitation. And he has a purpose for my life that even if I screw it up, mess it up, he's still going to use it. Is that good news? That is good news. That means no matter how badly I messed up my past, and it means no matter how badly I mess up the future, I. God's purpose is bigger than my problems, and he'll still use it for good. If I just say, God, please use it, the good, the bad and the ugly in my life, please use it for good.

And he will.

He'll use it for good in my life. Now, that verse, as I pointed out before, doesn't say all things are good.

It's not.

Doesn't say all things work out the way I want. It doesn't. It doesn't say all things have a happy ending. They aren't. But the Bible is full of examples where God used bad situations and brought good out of them. Did you know that? There's a lot to learn from the Bible, even in the boring parts. No, really, you know, some of those boring, like those lists of genealogies, those names. You're going, oh brother, you know, what am I supposed to get out of this? Today I got up to read this guy's son was this, and this guy's son was this and going, what is that all about? You know, if you knew the stories behind those names, there's enormous spiritual truth behind them. Let me just give you an example. In Matthew chapter one, we have the family tree of Jesus on Joseph's side. Now this is very important, the genealogy, the lineage of Jesus, because to the Jews, the Jews said the Messiah must. The Messiah, the coming Savior must come through the line of David. And in Matthew chapter one, it talks about how Jesus human lineage came through the line of David. And it says, this guy's son was this, and this guy's son was this, and this guy's son was this. But it's interesting. In the genealogy of Jesus, four women are mentioned. Now that's unheard of in Jewish culture because you always trace the family tree through the father, not the mother. But in Jesus family tree, it mentions four women. Totally breaks the stereotype and mentions four women. And when you look at the stories of those four women, it has even more importance. The first woman mentioned is a woman named Tamar. You know what Tamar is famous for? She was raped by her half brother Absalom. A very, very sad story in the Old Testament, and yet God brought good out of it. The second woman mentioned in Jesus family tree is Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute who found faith and became a great godly woman. And she's in the family tree of Jesus. The third one is a woman named Ruth. Ruth wasn't even Jewish. She was from the country of Moab. She was a Moabite who married a Jewish man illegally. Jewish men weren't allowed to marry outside of their faith. So her whole marriage was illegal, but she's in the family tree of Jesus. And then the fourth woman, oh yeah, Bathsheba, anybody heard of her, committed adultery with David and her husband is murdered. And it's not, I mean, it's like a plot on some TV show. What is the point? God brings good out of bad. And in every one of those situations, those heartbreaks that those four women went through, little did they know, God said, I'm gonna put that in my plan to bring the savior of the world into this planet. God is bigger than your problem. God is bigger than your sin. He's bigger than your mess ups. And he says, you have a life without miscalculation. There is a purpose for your life. And God says, I weave all of the strands of your life, the light strings and the dark strings and the many different colored strings in the tapestry of your life. And if your life is only one color tapestry, it would be pretty boring.

Thanks so much for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, your prayers and financial support have a huge impact on millions of people here and around the world. So we really appreciate that. Thank you. And now here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.

I want to take a minute and tell you how important your support is to Daily Hope, your generosity. When you give to Daily Hope, you're helping us take the message of Jesus Christ literally all around the world in the many places where there aren't missionaries or churches. These are called unreached tribes. Now, I'm sure you're familiar with the refugee crisis around the world. Literally millions of people have been displaced from their homes, particularly in the Middle east and in North Africa because of civil wars and violence. One of those places is South Sudan, where over 200,000 people are living in refugee camps. Now, when people are under tension and in transition, they are more open to the gospel than at any other time. These people who living in refugee camps right now need the hope of Jesus Christ and the gospel. Now, when you help. Daily Hope Radio and Daily Hope broadcast, we're not only broadcasting across America, but in places like South Sudan, where the station airs our program three times a day. And we are told that many, many people are coming to Christ in this war zone as they listen to these Daily Hope broadcasts. So thanks. Thanks to you. Now, let me just read you one testimony that we've received. Here's a note from a woman who's living in a refugee camp there in South Sudan. She said, my name is Joyce and I'm from the central Equatorial state in South Sudan. I lost all five of my children and my beloved husband. This is in the civil war that was going on there, as well as our family possessions during the recent fighting in the capital of Juba, she said I had planned to commit suicide. There's somebody who needs hope. When I listened to Rick Warren's broadcast, the one called when you feel like giving up, I got inspired and I dropped the idea of taking my life that very night. And I'll continue to pray God to bless this great preacher and thank you for giving me hope, Joyce.

We're happy to do that.

And I want to say it's because of the listeners who are giving faithfully every month to Daily Hope. Do you realize that when you give to Daily Hope, you're helping reach people like Joyce? She was going to commit suicide in a refugee camp. Now, isn't God amazing how when you just give what you can give, God takes it and he multiplies it and we reach out to people that none of us could reach on our own? Here's what I want you to do. I want you to pray for Joyce. And today I want you to pray for all of the people who are in refugee camps and pray that we'll be able to continue to broadcast on these stations taking the good news of Jesus Christ and Hope to people who need it the most desperately. It's your sacrificial giving, it's your prayer support that makes this possible. So thank you for whatever you can do and God bless you, my friends.

Now, in order to get God's word out to the world, very generous friends have pledged a matching grant to Daily Hope. And that means any gift you give will be doubled up to $100,000. You can give right now by going to pastorrick.com or you can just text the word hope to 70309. Again, that's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70 309. And thank you so much for your support. 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.