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Pastor Rick Warren
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 two of a message called the Word of Trust.
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I have a father in heaven who loves me. This is the first thing you need to remember when you're going through a dark day. And that's why Jesus starts his last statement on the cross with the word Father. With the word Father. Now, remember a couple weeks ago we talked about that when Jesus was taking the punishment for every sin of mankind on himself, he cries out, my God, my God. Remember that. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's the only time in the Bible when he doesn't call God Father. And that was because he was separated, taking all of our sins on himself. When Jesus taught us to pray, he said, you're to pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven. That blew everybody's mind. Because up to this point, every faith, every religion taught that God is distant. God is big, he's powerful, he's cosmic, he's mighty. He may be merciful, but you certainly don't call Him Father. But Jesus changed it all. He blew the stereotypes. And he said, when you talk to God, you talk to him like he's your daddy. In fact, the word he used in Aramaic, abba, literally means Daddy papa. It's the first word every Middle east child learns. Abba, dada, papa. It's easy to say. And so Jesus told us, when you pray, start with praying, Father. And when Jesus is dying on the cross, his last words there, he starts with the word Father. Now the judgment period for sin is all over. He's now reconciled to God. He's not talking some impersonal force, some uninterested, distant deity. He's talking to Father. The Bible says this, John 16:28. Jesus said, I came from the Father and I entered the world. And now I'm leaving the world and I'm going back to the Father. So what do we know about God since he wants us to call Him Father? A lot of people have a problem with this. Cause they had bad dads and their dad was distant, their dad was demeaning, their dad was destructive. Their dad was, you know, detached. Is that the way our Father in heaven is? No. The Bible tells us that God is a caring father. He's a consistent father. He's a close father, and he's a capable father. And he loves you more than you can even possibly imagine. The Bible says in Psalm 103, verse 13, as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord, that's God, has compassion on those who honor him. I don't know what you're going through today. You may be having a financial crisis, a physical crisis, a conflict in your marriage. I don't care. I do care, but, I mean, I don't know what you're going through. But I would say this. You have a heavenly Father in heaven who is close, caring, competent, capable and consistent. And he cares. And if you're going through the dark days, you need to get your eyes off the pain and onto the Father. Father, that God, who knows everything that's going on in your life, sees everything that's going on in your life, cares about everything that's going on in your, has the power to change everything in your life and will help you if you will trust him. I want you to write this down in your outline. God loves me more than I do. That's probably a shock to some of you. God loves me more than I do. Did you know that? You don't love yourself as much as God loves you. God loves you more than you love you. Because God is love. God is the essence of all love. It all came from him. And no matter what you are facing right now, you need to say, I have a father in heaven who loves me. That's how he starts. But he doesn't just love you. And here's the second thing you need to remember. It's in this sentence. Not only do I have a Father in heaven who loves me, number two, my Father can be trusted. My father talking about in heaven, the God of Heaven, he can be trusted. Now, you may have had a physical father who couldn't be trusted. And inconsistent fathers produce insecure children. I talked to a guy one time, he said, I didn't know from week to week whether my dad was gonna slug me or gonna hug me. I didn't know just whether he was drunk or not or whatever. Whatever mood he was in. Inconsistent fathers produce insecure children. But your heavenly Father is not only one who loves you, he's one you can trust. You can trust him. And this is the word of the trust. Jesus says, father, I entrust my spirit. I entrust my life into your care. That's why I call this the word of trust. Now, one of the greatest decisions you're gonna have to make in life is this. Who are you going to trust? You gotta make that decision. Who are you going to trust? Who are you gonna trust with your life? Okay, let's just throw out some options and let's vote. How many would say, I think I'll trust Congress? I don't see any hands going up on that one. Okay, since they're in the bottom of the barrel right now with credibility. How about I think I'm gonna trust. How about the media? I think I'm gonna build my life on what the media says. How about I'm gonna trust my life to popular opinion? No. How about I'm gonna trust my life to my emotions? Oh, that's a good one. How reliable are they? Your emotions lie to you all the time. You know, one of the simplest things that'll help you be a lot happier is this. Realize you don't have to believe everything your mind tells you. Not everything you tell yourself is true. A lot of times you tell yourself things are worse off than they really are. A lot of times you tell yourself they're better off than they really are. You lie to yourself all the time and your emotions lie to you all the time. So I would not highly recommend that. Who are you gonna trust with your life? I wanna make a recommendation. I recommend that you put your trust into someone who, A, knows everything, B, will always put your interest first, and C, will always tell you the truth, even if it hurts. Now, there's one person who's always gonna do that. God. Because he's perfect. And I wanna suggest that you always put your trust in him. Father, I entrust. I'm going to trust you with my life. I'm going through this dark period right now. I don't know which way I'm going. I don't know which way is up. I don't know where I'm gonna be in the next five days, much less five months. But I'm gonna entrust my spirit into your care. Psalm 33, verse 4. And the Bible says this. For every word of the Lord holds true and everything he does is worthy of our trust. Friends, you can't say that about anybody. You can't say that about me. Your pastor. I love you, but you can't trust everything I do. Cause I'm a fallible human being. You can't trust any human being to always do the right thing. But you can trust God. I saw a bumper sticker the other day and it said this. God said it. I believe It. That settles it. Okay, fine. I'm gonna make a new bumper sticker that says, God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not. Because truth is not based on whether I believe it or not. I could say I don't believe the moon's made of rock. It's still made of rock. I could say I believe the moon's made of cheese. Doesn't matter what I believe. What matters is the truth. God said it. That settles it. Whether I believe it or not, I'm gonna put my trust in your word. Now, when Jesus says this, father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. This word entrust in Greek, it's paretithemai, parity, thimae actually means to deposit. It's the word that they would use for a safety deposit box. You know what a safety deposit box is? You go to a bank, you rent a box, and you put your most valuable property in that box for safekeeping. And in that safety deposit box, it's locked, it's safe, it's secure, and nobody's gonna get at it. And you've made a deposit in that safety box. That's what this word means, to entrust. You say, God, I'm gonna take my life. I'm gonna take the good, the bad and the in between, the ugly, the beautiful, every part, and I'm gonna entrust it. I'm gonna deposit it in your safety box, and I'm gonna put my life, which is valuable, there for your safe keeping. The point is this. Whatever I give to God, I can trust him to take care of. I can give stuff to other people, and I can't always trust them to take care of it. But that's one of the things that God says in this verse. I have a track record of faithfulness. And he says, I want you to make a deposit in the safety deposit box in heaven.
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And.
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And I want you to trust me with stuff. So here's the question. What do you need to entrust to your heavenly father? What do you need to trust or entrust to your heavenly father? You say, well, I don't know. Well, let me give you a little hint. Anything you worry about, that's what you need to entrust to your heavenly father. Anything you worry about. You worried about your health, you need to entrust that to your heavenly father. You worried about your future, you need to entrust that to your heavenly father. You worry about your marriage or getting married or having a baby or raising the kids or a new job, you need to entrust anything you worry about needs to be entrusted to your heavenly Father. I've told you this before, worry is practical atheism. It's acting like there's no God, no heavenly Father who loves you and can be trusted. Every time you worry it's a warning light, you stop trusting God. It is an evidence of unbelief. It's a failure to trust. Now, the most difficult time to trust God, of course, is when you're in pain. Remember, Jesus is on the cross. He's just had six hours of torture on the cross and hours and hours of torture before that. He's in enormous pain. Loss of blood, loss of sleep, no water, dehydrated, bleeding to death. And in his worst pain, he says, I entrust. And that's when you're in pain that you need to trust the most. Paul knew this. Look at the next verse. It's up here on the screen. Paul says, I'm suffering here in prison, but I'm not ashamed of it. For I know the one in whom I trust. And I am sure that's confident. I am sure that he is able to protect and keep. That means put in the safety deposit box. I am sure that the one I trust in, he's able to protect and keep what I've entrusted to him until the day of his return. That's what it means to trust God. God, I'm gonna trust you to do what I can't do. I'm gonna trust you. And the point is that he does the keeping. Now, you know, sometimes I talk to people who say, you know, I would follow Jesus Christ, but I don't know that I could be consistent. I'm afraid I would kind of flake out. I'm afraid that I'd get weak and I'd walk away. I'd like to be saved. I'd like to have experienced salvation in my life. But I'm not afraid that I can keep my commitment. Let me let you in on a little secret. You don't do the keeping. He does it. He does the keeping. You put your life in the safety deposit box. He turns the key. He keeps it safe. It is not your job to keep yourself saved. It is God's job to keep you saved, to make sure that you make it to heaven. And God will save whatever I put in that safety deposit box. Now, a lot of people think, well, you know, but what if I let go? I've told you this story before. One time we went to the Grand Canyon, and the family, we were there, and Matthew and Josh were Little boys. And we walked up to the edge and I grabbed ahold of both hands and my boys were both. They had this adventuresome spirit. I think they get it from their mother, but they were risk takers and they always wanted to get closer to the edge than I would want them to be. Now they're squirming and they let go of my hand. Do you think I'm gonna let go of theirs? Not a chance. Why? Because I am their loving father. And your heavenly father holds onto your hand once you come to Christ and you say, jesus Christ, I'm putting my hand in your hand. I'm trusting you today. He grabs on now. There are gonna be times in your life you wanna let go. God. It's not really convenient to believe in you right now. It's not really convenient to follow the word of God right now. It's not really convenient to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I wanna let go. You may wanna let go. He's never letting go. He is able to keep what you've committed. He does the keeping, you just do the trusting. Now while I'm on this, let me just cover a couple special occasions. People often ask about, and I don't ever get a chance to talk about it. People often ask me, well, what about babies and mentally, you know, ill or mentally incapacitated people who don't have the capacity to believe in Jesus Christ and can't commit themselves to Christ, where are they gonna go to heaven? Where are they gonna go when they die? The answer's real quick. Heaven. They're going to heaven. If a baby dies or someone who's mentally incapacitated dies, they immediately go to heaven. The Bible says Psalm 116, verse 6, the Lord protects the simple hearted. One example, I could give you a lot of these. When King David's baby, infant son died in two Samuel chapter one, he said, can I bring him back to me? Can I bring him back in? The answer is no. I will go to him someday, but he will not return to me. So if a baby or a child who has not learned the difference between right and wrong doesn't have the capacity to accept the salvation of God's grace, immediately goes into the presence of God, does that make sense? Okay, so there's one. Here's another question I'm often asked. What about people who were true believers and then later on in life stop believing? Are they gonna fall away? Are they gonna, you know, they kinda fall away from their faith here? What's gonna happen to those people? Maybe they go Join a cult or something. And what happens to them? The answer is this. They do not lose heaven. They do lose some reward in heaven. They do not lose their salvation. Now, let me explain it this way. I was born into my dad and mother's family, and I was in that family. And I had great fellowship with them with joy and love and had a great relationship with my parents. But let's say one day I had decided to become an international drug runner and I get involved in terrorism and acts of genocide and all kinds of things. The relationship would be strained. The fellowship would be broken. But I don't care if the fellowship's broken. I'm still their son. Nothing will ever make me not their son. If you have a child in your family and your child loves you and grows up and learns to love you, one day they get mad at you. They walk out of the house by their own volition. They walk out of the house, they're still your child. They can't. Once you're born, you can't be unborn. Once you're born again, you can't be unborn again. You are safe. Does that make sense? You are safe. You might lose the fellowship, and there might be strained fellowship between us. We're not talking to each other. But you're still my daughter. You're still my son. And the Bible says that. Look at this. Verse 2, John, chapter 1, verse 7, 8. Many deceivers. There are people out there trying to mess everybody up all the time. Many deceivers who don't acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh have gone out into the world. So he said, you know, not everything you hear out there is true. Watch out so that you don't lose what you have worked for. Circle the phrase worked for. Watch out that you don't lose what you have worked for, okay? But that you will be fully rewarded. Now question. Do you work for your salvation? Huh? No. So if you didn't, this is not what he's talking about here. He's not talking about salvation. Cause you don't work for your salvation. You don't earn it. We talked last week. It was all done for you. You don't work for it. That's the difference between Christianity and every other religion. Every other religion is a do. And they all have their list of do's and don'ts. Christianity says done. It's already been done for you on the cross by Jesus Christ. He did what we can't do. So he's not talking about that. He's saying the rewards that you're gonna have in heaven. You could lose some of those. Let me ask you. This one's very personal to me. What about believers who commit suicide, okay? And in a moment take their own life. And the answer is, if they were a true believer, they're going to heaven. They're going to heaven. Well, say, isn't suicide an unpardonable sin? The answer is no, it is not. It is not. In fact, the Bible says there's only one sin that is unforgivable, only one in the entire. And it isn't suicide, by the way. In fact, some of the greatest saints in history in the Bible were suicidal. Some of them were very depressed, in despair. Some wished at low points that they'd never been born. David in the Bible, Jeremiah in the Bible, Job in the Bible all said, I wish that I had never been born. That's pretty depressed. And they were great believers. And there were three people in the Bible who actually asked God to kill them, to take their lives. Moses asked God to take his life. Elijah asked God to take his life. Jonah asked God to take his life. That's pretty depressed. He said, God, just kill me. Just kill me. If you feel that much in despair, you feel that depressed, do not carry it by yourself. It's not a sin to be sick. It's not a sin to feel depressed. The Bible says there's only one unforgivable sin. Only one. It's called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? It means rejecting God's grace and rejecting Christ all the way up to death. It means to die, rejecting Christ. So let me put your mind at ease. Cause some of you think, have I ever committed the unpardonable sin, the unforgivable sin? You wonder about that. Okay, number one, if you've ever worried that you committed a sin, you haven't. Because if you had, you wouldn't worry about it. Okay? So if you worry I've done the one unforgivable sin, you ain't done it, friend. Sorry. The fact that you're worried about it, you're concerned about it, means you still have a conscience. So if you've ever worried about it, you haven't done it. Second thing is, if you're alive, you haven't committed the sin. Cause you can only commit it by dying, rejecting Christ. So if you're alive, you cannot commit the sin. You can only commit it by dying, saying, forget you, God, and I croak and I die. Does that ease up anybody's mind a little bit here? Okay, you can't do it without dying. Now, number three, let's go to the third great news. When I'm going through dark days, I have a Father in heaven who loves me. And when I'm going through dark days, I remind myself that I have a Father in heaven who can be trusted. He doesn't just love me. I can trust him with every area of my life. And I shouldn't worry. I should commit it, entrust everything I'm worrying about to him. Number three, my father is taking care of things I can't see. This is the third thing we learn from this passage is that my Father in heaven is taking care of the things that I can't see.
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Pastor Rick Warren says that every word Jesus spoke was important and has life changing power. The words that Jesus spoke during his final hours on the cross hold the key to finding fulfillment in your life, career and relationships. That's why Rick put together a powerful seven session study kit called the 7 Greatest Words of Love. Get it now and unlock the full meaning and amazing blessings of Jesus. Last words before his resurrection. Words of forgiveness, assurance, love, trust and more. And this is a life changing bible study with seven video sessions and a workbook. Just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70309. Again, that's the word hope to 70309. And really, thank you so much for your support. It means so much to us because your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people all around the world. We hope you'll 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.