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- [00:00]
Rick Warren
Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher for the Daily Hope broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter your past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news. Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else. And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown people are more open to an invitation to go to church than at any other time of the year. Don't go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't know Jesus Christ. A family member, a friend, a co worker, a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to that church service and they come to know Christ, you're gonna be making a friend for eternity. It'll be the most important investment you can ever make in their lives. And by the way, if they come to Christ, would you let me know about it? I'd love to hear that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they found Jesus. You can write to me rickastorrick.com that's rickastorrick.com I. I would love to hear from you. God bless you and happy Easter.
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Announcer
Thanks for joining us here today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love. There are seven words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours on the cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called the Word of Trust.
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Rick Warren
Some of you know that growing up, my mother was both a librarian and a Christian bookstore manager. So I learned from an early age to really love books. I began to read them voraciously, began to collect them. Today my library, my personal library, has over 25,000 volumes in hardback paperback. And I have another 30,000 volumes in E books. So I've got about a 55,000 volume library. In some periods of my life, I was reading a book a day. You say, how do you do that? You read big print and big pictures, really tiny, tiny books. And in my library of about 55,000 books, as I said, I have several volumes that are interesting, that are collections of the last words of people, of famous people. They're dying words. And I read them. And while the books are supposed to be serious, some of them are actually kind of funny. I thought I'd share a couple with you. The last words of a guy named James Rogers. He was a criminal and he was about to be executed by a firing squad. And they asked right before they shot him. Do you have any final requests? He said, yes, a bulletproof vest. Famous last words. General John Sedgwick was a Union commander in the Civil War. He was killed on the battlefield looking at the enemy while saying, quote, those Confederates couldn't hit an elephant. At this, another famous quote. Pancho Villa, everybody knows who he is, you know, Famous Mexican leader Pancho Villas last words were, don't let it end like this. Tell people I said something. All right, today we look at the most famous last words ever, the last words of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now, we have been for seven weeks looking at the seven statements that Jesus made on the cross while he was being crucified. And as I told you that as a pastor, I have stood at the bedside of many, many people as they said their final words. Last words are important. And when it comes to Jesus Christ, the last words of Jesus Christ are extremely important. And today we come to the last word of the last words, the very last thing before Jesus died on the cross. The Bible says it like this in Luke chapter 23. If you are new here today, you can take the message notes outside of your, in your program and take them out. All the verses in the Bible are there on this text. It says this, Luke 23, by this time, it was noon. Now, Jesus has been on the cross for six hours. It says by this time it was noon. But darkness fell across the whole land until 3 o'clock. Now circle the word darkness. We'll come back to that in a minute. Because this is the word of trust. And you really need to learn to trust in the darkest hours of your life when darkness fell across the whole land until 3:00. Now, we don't know why it got dark. Maybe just God brought cloud cover over, maybe a storm. It just got dark. It's not normally dark in the middle of the day. That's usually the brightest time. But the light from the sun was gone. And suddenly the thick veil hanging in the temple was torn apart. The There's a symbolism behind that we're not gonna get into about making God accessible to us. But it says then Jesus shouted. So the final words that Jesus says, he shouts out, father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. This is what he shouted, I entrust my spirit, father, into your hands. And with those words, he breathed his last breath. Now, when the captain of the Roman soldiers, that would have been a centurion, a captain, was overseeing 100 soldiers. When the centurion, the captain of the Roman soldiers handling the execution saw what had happened? He praised God. This guy is in no way a believer, but he praised God and said, surely, surely this man was innocent. And in the book of Matthew and in the book of Luke, it adds, surely this man was innocent and the Son of God. Now, as a Roman centurion, this is pretty amazing that a hardened soldier would look up and say, the guy we just crucified, surely he was innocent. Something's different here. As a centurion, he would have already have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of crucifixions. This is not a new thing. One of the tasks of Roman soldiers was to crucify people. And literally in those days of the Roman Empire, they were crucifying hundreds a day. This is not a novel thing. They crucified criminals, they crucified political figures and things like that. So he has certainly seen hundreds of crucifixions, but this one evidently is unlike any crucifixion he's ever seen. And this hard bitten, hardened Roman centurion, when he hears Jesus say the last of the seven phrases, he says he must have been innocent, he must have been the son of God. Something's different here, something's unique. What made this crucifixion so different from all the other ones? He'd seen the seven things that Jesus had said on the cross that we've been looking at now for seven weeks. Nobody ever spoke like Jesus spoke when they were being murdered, when they were being crucified. This Roman centurion had heard Jesus say, father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. He's never heard anybody being hung on a cross, forgiving the executioners who were crucifying him. And yet he heard that he had never seen anybody refuse the painkiller that Jesus was offered, which Jesus refused. He heard Jesus say the word of assurance to the repentant thief on the cross, dying by him, saying, today you'll be with me in paradise. Nobody had ever said that on a cross. Nobody has ever said, father, forgive them. Nobody has ever said the word of assurance, the word of love, the word of substitution, the word of victory. All the things we've been looking at now for seven weeks. And certainly nobody had ever shouted in his last breath on, on the cross, father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. Nobody had ever said that before. This is very different, folks. People don't die like this. Normal people don't die this way. Jesus actually gave us a model of how to die. I wrote it there on your outline. I don't wanna Cover it in detail. He was at peace, that it was his time to die. He was at peace. He wasn't afraid to die. He died with no unreconciled relationships, which a lot of people do. He wasn't angry, he wasn't bitter. He knew where he was going. He's confident of heaven and he trusted God with his future. I entrust my spirit into your hands. So actually, there are three characteristics of Jesus death. Why don't you write these down? First, Jesus Christ gave up his life voluntarily. Voluntarily. You know, when the movie the Passion came out, there was a big debate. Who killed Jesus? Was it the Roman soldiers? Who killed Jesus? Was it the temple religious leaders? Who killed Jesus? Was it the crowd? Who killed Jesus? The fact is, who took Jesus life? The answer is Jesus gave his life. He gave it up. He came for the purpose of dying. He had said that from the very beginning. In fact, he said, nobody can take my life from me. He gave it willingly for you. Believe me, if Jesus had not wanted to die on the cross because he was God in human form, it would not have happened. In fact, here's what he said. Look up here on the screen. John, chapter 10, verse 18. Jesus said, no one can take my life from me. He'd done all kinds of miracles. He could certainly do a miracle to come down off the cross. I lay down my life voluntarily, for I have the authority to lay it down when I want to, and also the power to take it back again. So the death on the cross is not a tragedy. It was Jesus choice. He did it voluntarily. If he hadn't wanted to die on the cross, he would not have died on the cross. And we talked the last few weeks. But why he had to do that? But it was a voluntary decision. Jesus was in no way a victim, and he was not being victimized. He was in complete control of the situation. And nobody could do anything to Jesus without his permission. Literally, he had the last word with his last word and the things that he said on the cross. So Jesus gave up his life voluntarily. The second thing, write this down. He gave up his life confidently. Confidently. In other words, he shouted the word, father, I entrust my life. I entrust my spirit into your hands. Now he shouts. Now let me say this to you. I have been around, as I said, a lot of people as a pastor for 40 years. I have been at the bedside of many people as they took their last breath. And I will tell you this. Dying people don't shout. I've never ever heard one dying person shout they whisper. Not one in my entire life have I ever heard shout. Because in their dying moments, they don't have the strength. And usually they whisper out a few words at the very end. And normally, certainly in his crucifixion, where you're having extreme torture and extreme punishment, and in the last days of crucifixion, a normal person wouldn't have had the strength to even shout out beyond a weak groan. Now, when Jesus shouts out the final word on the cross, he's not shouting out in anger. He's not shouting out in bitterness. He's not shouting out in fear. He's not shouting out in despair. He's not shouting out in defeat. He is shouting out in victory. It is a shout of confident, convinced, rock solid trust. Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. And he says it at the top of his voice. It's a shout of victory and it's a shout of trust. He gave his life up voluntarily. He gave his life up confidently. And the third thing, Jesus gave up his life trusting God, trusting God. Now when Jesus says this phrase, the very last of the seven things he says on the cross, father, into your hands I commit my spirit. I entrust my spirit. This is actually a quote from the Old Testament. In fact, it's a quote from Psalm chapter 31, verse 5. And not only is it a quote from 31, verse 5, it's a phrase that every single Jew would know by heart. Because this is the bedtime prayer of every Jewish child, you know, we teach our children. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. That is taken from this phrase. That's taken from Psalm 31. The Now I lay me down to sleep is actually just a paraphrase of Psalm 30:31. Without a doubt, Mary probably taught this to Jesus as a little baby boy. Every Jewish child, in fact, Jews would regularly pray this as the evening prayer. At the end of the day, you say, father, I am entrusting my life, I'm entrusting my spirit. I'm committing myself into your hands, and I'm going to bed. It's a common Jewish prayer. And Jesus uses what he has been saying every night since as a little boy as his last words on the cross. Now, what's going on here? I want you to write this down. He focused on the Father, not his pain. And in a minute, when we get into what to do in your dark days, that's one of the things you need to learn how to do that when you are in pain and when you're in your darkest days. Jesus is in his darkest days. He's on the cross. It is literally physically dark. He focuses not on his pain, but he focuses on the Father. And he has no fear and he has no regrets. He has just trust. Into thy hands I commit my spirit. Into your hands I entrust my life. Now, this phrase that we're looking at today has been said by Christians ever since for 2000 years. It's very, very common. A lot of Christians throughout history have used this phrase when they're facing danger, when they're facing persecution, when they're facing discouragement and death. The Latin is in manus tuis. In manus tuis, Domine, commendo spiritum unum. Into your hands I commit my spirit, Father. And that's a phrase that had been used for literally thousands of years. In fact, the very first Christian martyr, the guy named Stephen, who was stoned to death in Jerusalem for following Jesus, he says a version of what Jesus just said here. And he says, as they were killing him, Stephen says, lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And that's the last thing he prayed. By the way, while I'm talking about this, the idea of last rites, that's not in the Bible. It's not in the Bible. It was a tradition added many, many years later. Nobody in the Bible received last rites. None of the apostles, none of the disciples, nobody received. You don't need last rites to get into heaven. It's a tradition that was added hundreds and hundreds of years later. It's not in the Bible. But Jesus says as his last words, I'm committing into your hands God, my spirit. Now what do we learn from this last statement of Jesus? Well, every single word has an important truth. And that's what I want us to look at right now. When you are going through your darkest day, there are four truths you need to remember. Write these down. Number one, first thing to remember is, I have a father in heaven who loves me.
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Announcer
That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
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Rick Warren
Hi, everybody.
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Delia
Today I want to share with you a special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily Hope has helped her with deep anxiety. But then she also shared about what happened as she began to share Daily Hope with her parents. And she writes this. Pastor Rick, a couple years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My company had a merger and all the senior management were changed overnight and I was among them. At the same time, my long term relationship ended. Then a couple months later, my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in shock and I fell into a deep depression from all these changes. In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack. But then I found your teaching on Daily Hope and it just seemed that you understood every emotion that I was going through. Emotions that I didn't even know how to verbalize to other people. But it was Daily Hope that helped me get out of bed every morning and gave me the strength to get through each day. Through your teaching on Daily Hope, Pastor Rick, I was able to experience God's love and power like never before. You know, I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents who don't speak English and they accepted Jesus too. That's an amazing. Delia, I am so grateful for you and the team at Daily Hope because it has become the morning routine that I can't live without now. Delia, you have been through more pain than I can possibly imagine. Some very, very challenging times. And I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry. Sometimes we experience multiple traumas at the same time. And when that happens, that's when we really need the hope of Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad you experienced that, that you found God's love and found God's power. And what a blessing that you translated the Daily Hope devotionals for your parents and then they accepted Christ. That's amazing. I am celebrating with you that they are now in the family of God.
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Announcer
Did you know that you can start every day with hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick? Well, you can when you sign up to receive his life changing Bible study teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to pastorrick.com and sign up for this free Daily Hope devotional. 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.