Rick Warren - Restoring Grace—Part One

With Verbal's last-minute deals, you can save over $50 on your spring getaway,

so whether it's a mountain escape, city break, or a week at the beach,

there's still time to get great discounts.

Look your next day now.

Average savings $72, select homes only.

There's a moment right before Home Repair goes wrong.

When you say, what if I try this?

That's when things start getting tricky.

Next time, just leave it to the experts.

Book with Crop Metcalf today and save $90 on an HFAC Precision tune up.

Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible Teacher for the Daily Hope Podcast.

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 coworker, a neighbor, a relative.

And if you bring them to that church service and they come to know Christ,

you're going to 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, rickatpasterrick.com.

That's rickatpasterrick.com.

I would love to hear from you.

God bless you and happy Easter.

You know, none of us can earn our way into heaven

because eternal life is a free gift when you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life.

Hey everybody, this is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

And today, Rick Warren continues a series called Good News About Grace.

You can't truly understand the Christian life until you understand grace.

It's at the heart of your faith and your relationship with God.

And in this series, you're going to discover how not to only understand grace,

but how to experience it and the joy that it brings.

And right now, here's part one of a message called Restoring Grace.

You know, your relationship to Jesus Christ is like any other relationship.

It has to be maintained.

No relationship ever stays the same.

You're either growing closer to the Lord or you're drifting away.

You never just stand still.

You don't just become a Christian and then that's it.

You're either having your heart grow warmer every day

or it's growing colder.

Now, we've all known Christians who are no longer walking with the Lord.

They've fallen away.

At one point, their hearts were warm and on fire for God.

But today, they're nowhere to be found.

And we all know the struggles in our own heart.

That we face temptations.

We face ups and downs.

We face days that we think, I don't know if I want to be a Christian today.

The good news is that God offers to us restoring grace

that when we blow it, when we walk away, when we stumble,

when we fumble, God says, you can come back to me.

And we can pray the prayer that was prayed in lamentations.

It's there on your outline, chapter 5 verse 21.

Read it with me.

Restore us, O Lord, and bring us back to you again.

Give us back the joys we once had.

Now, that's what I want to talk about this morning.

How do you get the joy back in your Christian life?

You may have been a believer for months, years, or even decades.

But it may have gone a little stale in your life.

And maybe you're just not as close to the Lord as you used to be.

How do you get the joy back?

That's what we're going to look at.

First, I want to identify four common causes of why people fall away from the Lord.

Now, there are many, many reasons why people might be what you call backslide.

Are they're not walking with God anymore?

But in Mark chapter 14, the Bible tells us the story of there's a moment,

right before Homer Pair goes wrong.

When you say, what if I try this?

That's when things start getting.

Tricky.

Next time, just leave it to the experts.

Book with Crop Metcalf today and save $90 on an HVAC Precision tune up.

There's a moment right before a Homer Pair goes wrong.

When you say, what if I try this?

That's when things get really...tricky.

When it comes to heating, plumbing, and electrical, just leave it to the experts.

Crop Metcalf handles everything.

From regular home maintenance to worry free repairs, book today at serviceexpress.com

and save $90 on an HVAC Precision tune up.

It is Ryan C. Crest here.

There was a recent social media trend, which consisted of flying on a plane with no music,

no movies, no entertainment.

But a better trend would be going to chumbacacino.com.

It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket.

Chumbacacino has over a hundred online casino style games,

all absolutely free.

It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane.

So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacacino.com.

Sponsored by Chumbacacino.

On the night Jesus was betrayed and arrested.

And in that story, we have an example of four common causes of why people fall away.

As you know, the story Jesus had been in the upper room with his disciples,

12 disciples.

They had had the Passover together, which he turned into the Lord's Supper.

And then he shocked all the disciples by announcing,

one of you is going to betray me.

Well, this shocked everybody.

One of the 12 was going to be the guy who turned Jesus in, who was the traitor.

And they all began to say, Lord, is it me?

Is it I?

Did I do it?

And Peter in his typical foot in mouth,

Braggadocia's way says, they're on your outline in verse 29.

He says, Lord, everybody else may stumble in their faith, but I will not.

You can almost hear the swagger in his voice.

All these peons, Lord, oh sure, they may cop out, but not me.

I would never deny you.

Now, this is the first reason people backslide, overconfidence.

Overconfidence.

We begin to think that we can handle everything on our own.

We begin to think that we're so strong that we would never fail.

We begin to say, oh, that would never happen to me.

Listen, anytime you hear about somebody else's stumbling,

and you say, that could never happen to me, you were setting yourself up for a fall.

Because given the right situation, any of us in this room is capable of any sin.

The Bible says, the heart is deceitful.

That means we lie to ourselves as much as lying to others.

I can't even figure out why I do what I do, much less figure out why you do what you do.

And we don't always know why we do what we do.

And so you should never say, well, I could never fall for that,

because that's called overconfidence.

And it's the first step in falling away.

Let me give you a couple verses you might want to write down.

First Corinthians 10-12, it says in that verse,

if you think you're strong, be careful because you'll fall.

Let him who standeth take heed, lest he fall.

It's a trap.

There's another one you might write down.

Proverbs 16 verse 18.

It says, there are proud attitude leads to ruin.

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before fall.

You've heard me say before that the way you spell ego, E-G-O,

stands for edging God out.

And whenever I get over confident, I get ego in my life.

I am edging God out of my life and I'm already backing away

and heading down the slippery slope of falling away from Christ.

Overconfidence.

The second cause of falling away is laziness.

Laziness.

And we see this too in the story of Peter's denial.

We get lethargic and we kind of slack off

and all those good habits that we used to do,

like praying every day and reading the Bible every day

and being on a small group or giving.

We start saying, well, maybe I don't have time for that right now.

When you do, it ought to be a warning light.

Because in the next scene, we see this happening to Peter.

He just got tired.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John, three of the disciples into the garden,

and he said, I want you guys to stay here and pray with me for a while.

Because this was the night he knew he was going to be arrested.

And the next day.

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing.

Victory Lane?

Yeah.

It's even better with Chamba by my side.

Race to ChambaCasino.com.

Let's Chamba.

No purchase necessary.

VTW Group.

Void we're prohibited by law.

CTNCs.

21 Plus.

Sponsored by Chamba Casino.

And he would be executed.

Crucified.

And so he says, can you guys just kind of be with me?

Watch and pray.

And he goes off and prays a little bit and he comes back in their sleep.

And he goes off again.

He comes back and they fall asleep again.

And Peter's problem is he just kept falling asleep.

And Jesus says in verse 37,

couldn't just stay awake with me one hour.

Now there's a principle here.

And the principle is when you get tired,

you're setting yourself up for major temptation.

Now let's agree on one thing.

It's more difficult to do the right thing than it is to do the wrong thing.

Would you agree with that?

Oh, it's easy to do the wrong thing.

In fact, the wrong thing is often the easiest thing.

And so if you really want to do the right thing in life,

it takes energy.

It takes effort.

It takes a lot of stamina.

And because you're trying to do the right thing all the time,

you're going to get tired emotionally, physically, spiritually,

in every area of your life.

And you're going to start to get tired.

Now if you don't know how to recharge yourself emotionally,

if you don't know how to recharge yourself spiritually or physically,

then fatigue is going to set in.

And fatigue should always be a warning light in your life.

Something's going wrong.

Something's out of order.

Because when you're tired, that's when you're most vulnerable to temptation.

I've talked a lot of people, Christians, who stumbled in major ways in their life.

And when you go back and talk to them, it was always seems to be during a time of great stress

when they were very tired and they were ignoring all the warning lights.

They didn't know when to take time off.

They didn't know when to double up their effort and prayer.

They didn't know when to get back in the Bible in a greater degree.

And they set themselves up because they get tired.

Fatigue lowers your defenses and it makes you vulnerable.

Here's a verse to write down.

Matthew 26.41.

Jesus said, watch and pray.

So you won't fall in temptation.

In other words, we've got to keep our guard up.

Because when we start letting it down in laziness,

we're starting on the slippery slope to falling away.

The third cause of falling away from Christ is fear of disapproval.

Fear of disapproval.

We're worried about what other people think.

We're afraid they'll reject this.

We're afraid that they won't accept this.

That they'll make fun of us or ridiculess or put us down or that we might be harassed.

And this is what happened with Peter.

After Jesus was arrested, notice it says in verse 54 of Mark 14,

Peter followed him at a distance.

Now get the picture here.

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing.

Victory Lane?

Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side.

Race to chambacasino.com.

Let's Chamba.

No purchase necessary.

VTW Group.

Voidware prohibited by law.

CTNC's 21 Plus.

Sponsored by Chamba Casino.

Jesus has been arrested.

And Peter decided he would follow him at a distance.

Just far enough back so that nobody would identify him with Jesus.

Let me ask you, do you ever try to follow Jesus at a distance?

Oh yeah, I am a follower of Christ but let's don't get fanatical about this.

Let's don't get radical.

I don't want to be red hot for God.

Somebody might think I'm in that case.

So I believe in Jesus.

Yes, but I want to follow him at a distance.

It's like that old statement.

If all of a sudden the outlawed Christianity

and they made it illegal, and you were arrested for being a Christian,

would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Would your neighbors know really that, oh yeah, they're Christians?

Or would they just know, you know, they're always gone on Sunday morning.

I don't know why.

One of the signs that you can know you're slipping away from Christ

is you start to become ashamed of Him.

You start to become ashamed.

You want to follow Him at a distance.

And you're ashamed maybe to put your Bible on your desk at work.

You're ashamed to do that.

You're ashamed to pray over a meal in a restaurant in public.

What might people think?

Well, they might think you're a believer.

You're ashamed to be seen with a group of other Christians.

Or you're ashamed to even be known as a Christian.

And so you try to keep it a secret.

Let me give you some verses on this.

Problems 29, 25.

It says, fearing people is a dangerous trap.

When you start worrying about what other people think, you're headed for trouble.

It's a snare.

And it's going to catch you.

Here's another one even more powerful, mark 838.

Jesus said there, if anyone is ashamed of me and my words here on earth,

he said, I will be ashamed of him before the holy angels and my father in heaven.

Did you hear that?

Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me here on earth,

I will be ashamed of you in heaven.

That's powerful stuff.

Jesus is saying there are no secret agents in God's army.

No closet Christians.

It's time to come out of the closet Christian.

See, a lot of Christians can talk about anything except Jesus.

They're what I call Arctic River Christians frozen at the mouth.

Here's an even more powerful verse, right?

This down, Revelation 21 verse 8.

And in that verse, it lists cowardice in the same category as murder and adultery.

That's how serious it is to be embarrassed.

And when you're worried about the disapproval of others,

you're on the slippery slope of falling away.

And then there's one other thing, convenience.

Convenience.

We want to have a faith, but we want it to be a comfortable faith.

We want it to fit our schedule.

Oh, sure, I want to follow Christ as long as it doesn't cramp my style.

Notice that what happened to Peter.

It says, Peter followed Jesus at a distance.

And then the second half of that verse, it says,

then he sat with the guards and warmed himself at the fire.

This is an amazing scene to me.

One of the 12, one of the original disciples.

Jesus is about to be executed.

And Peter is partying with the enemy.

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing.

Victory Lane?

Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side.

Race to chambacasino.com.

Let's Chamba.

No purchase necessary.

VTW Group, voidware prohibited by law.

CTNC's 21 plus sponsored by Chamba Casino.

He's sitting there in the crowd wanting to be one of the gang,

warming his hands by the fire.

The very men who are going to torture and execute Christ.

He's there sitting around a campfire with them.

He said, I just want to hang out.

I just want to be comfortable.

I want to enjoy life.

I don't want to be cold.

I want to be warm.

I want to be accepted.

I want to be a part of the gang.

I just want to be one of the boys.

I want to follow Christ when it's convenient.

But if it's not convenient, forget it.

I'm going to go back and hang out with the guys.

Now let me just give you a little warning.

If you try to enjoy the world's campfire, you're going to get burned.

You're going to get burned because you're not in the same kingdom.

You're not in the same world.

You're not in the same lifestyle anymore.

I've been in ministry now for over 25 years and folks I've seen it all.

And I've watched a lot of people flame out and I've watched a lot of people sidelined.

People who had big talk but nothing to back it up.

People who were supposedly strong Christians that today they can't be found anywhere.

Even in this church in 18 years I've seen this parade of short-term disciples

who walk with Christ as long as it's convenient.

And then they start to fall away.

And I have noticed a pattern when people fall away from Christ.

It is the same pattern I have seen at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times.

It always starts like this.

When a person is real active in a church and they start falling away the first thing they stop

is they're giving.

I've seen it hundreds of times.

The first thing they stop is they're giving.

Jesus said you're giving indicates your heart.

He says where your treasure is your heart will be.

It's a good thermometer.

It's a good EKG of your heart.

How's your giving?

Then the second thing that falls away always giving is the first thing that stops.

It says I'm getting into the world's way.

The second thing that stops then is prayer.

They stop praying.

And then the third thing is they stop attending.

Now what happens to those people?

What happens to a person who is a genuine Christian?

They really have committed their life to Christ.

But for one reason or another they've backslidden.

They've fallen away.

They're not walking with the Lord anymore.

How does God respond to those kind of people?

When a Christian sins does he lose his salvation?

When a Christian sins does he go to hell?

How does God respond?

He responds the way he always responds to his children by grace.

Look at the next verse.

Romans 8 verse 1 read it with me.

There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

Now notice I want you to circle the word no.

Circle that word no.

That word no is the strongest possible negative in the Greek language.

It means no, no, no, no, no, never, never, never, never, never, never.

Not in a million years.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Now this is not a promise for everybody.

It's not saying go ahead.

Anybody can do whatever they want to do.

And there's no condemnation.

It says for those who are in Christ Jesus.

It is Ryan C. Crest here.

There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music,

no movies, no entertainment.

But a better trend would be going to chumbacacino.com.

It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket.

Chumbacacino has over 100 online casino style games.

All absolutely free.

It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane.

So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacacino.com.

Sponsored by Chumbacacino.

No purchase necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law,

21 plus terms and conditions apply.

For a genuine believer in Christ,

you've put your trust in Christ.

You've accepted His grace.

There is no condemnation.

What's that mean?

It means you don't lose your salvation when you're sin.

Aren't you glad for that?

If you could lose your salvation every time you sin,

you'd lose it about once a minute.

And if, let's say you live for Jesus Christ your entire life

and five minutes before you die, you blow it and then you go to hell.

You would live in fear your entire life.

And if you felt that fear, you need to go and read the book of 1 John

about 15 times because it's written to say,

this is so you can know for sure that you have eternal life.

You see, if you were saved by your works,

then you could lose it by stop working,

but you're not saved that way.

It says there is no condemnation

when a Christian sins.

Now, notice it does not say there are no consequences.

It says no condemnation.

Oh, believe me, there are a lot of consequences

when I get out of God's will for my life.

When I blow it, when I intentionally don't do what God wants me to do,

when I ignore His will, oh, there are major consequences.

And same thing for you too.

Every time you disobey God, every time you ignore His will,

every time you don't follow His instruction, you lose.

You hurt yourself and you hurt other people.

And you lose big time.

When a Christian sins, what happens?

You lose your fellowship with Christ.

You lose your effectiveness on earth.

You lose rewards in heaven.

No doubt about it.

You lose rewards in heaven.

And you lose your joy here on earth.

The most miserable people in the world are not on believers.

It's believers who know better and act in like unbelievers.

But you do not lose your salvation.

Why?

Why doesn't God just kick us out when we...

It is Ryan C. Crest here.

There was a recent social media trend

which consisted of flying on a plane with no music,

no movies, no entertainment.

But a better trend would be going to chumbacaceno.com.

It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket.

Chumbacaceno has over 100 online casino style games

all absolutely free.

It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane.

So grab your free welcome bonus now at chumbacaceno.com.

Sponsored by Chumbacaceno.

Why didn't you say, okay, you had your chance.

You knew better and you still blew it.

You're out of the family, forget it.

Why doesn't God reject believers when we sin?

For five reasons.

And this is what grace is all about.

Number one,

because his love is unconditional.

His love is unconditional.

God says, not, he doesn't say, I love you if you're good,

a perfect or whatever.

He doesn't say, I love you because he just says, I love you period.

And some of you need to write this down on your outline.

God will never stop loving me.

God will never stop loving me.

Because I am a recipient of his grace.

Look at what the Bible says in Lamentations chapter three.

Read it with me, verse 22.

God's compassion never ends.

It is only his mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.

Circle the word never.

God's compassion never ends.

Hey, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

Pastor Rick has created a beautifully illustrated book

called Journey with Jesus.

And this book is stunning.

It's filled with beautiful photographs,

colored mosaics that depict the sacrificial journey Jesus made to save us.

Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.

Every year, Christians from all over the world remember the death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ by traveling to Jerusalem,

where they walk the path that Jesus took on the way to the cross.

That path is called the Via Dolorosa,

which literally means the way of suffering.

Now, since you may not be able to ever travel to Jerusalem,

I want to suggest a way for you to celebrate and reflect on

and pray about what Jesus did for you on the cross.

So I've created a brand new one-of-a-kind resource

that will take you through the fifteen stops

that the Bible tells us Jesus took on the road to Calvary

and his death on the cross.

Now, we're calling this resource Journey with Jesus.

Journey with Jesus is a deluxe, hardcover,

gift-edition book that's illustrated with really...

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing,

another checkered flag for the books.

Time to celebrate with Chamba.

Jump in at chambacacino.com.

Let's Chamba.

No purchase necessary, BGW Group,

Voidware Prohibited by Ma, CCNC, 21 Plus, sponsored by Chamba Cacino.

Beautiful photos, high quality glossy photos,

a mosaic tile artwork that reflect each of the stops

that Jesus made on his journey to the cross.

You're not ever going to forget this gift.

It's a great gift book to keep and to study over and over again

and to make a great gift for your family and your friends too.

Be sure to request your copy of Journey with Jesus

when you give a gift to help daily hope share the love of Jesus

around the world.

Just go to pastarick.com to get your copy of this great resource.

That's pastarick.com or you can just text the word hope to 70309.

Again, that's the word hope to 70309.

Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by pastarick's daily hope

and your generous financial support.

How to have fun anytime anywhere.

Step one, go to chambacacino.com.

chambacacino.com got it.

Step two, collect your welcome bonus.

Come to papa welcome bonus.

Step three, play hundreds of casino style games for free.

That's a lot of games all for free.

Step four, unleash your excitement.

Chamba casino has been delivering thrills for over a decade.

So claim your free welcome bonus now and live the chamba life.

Visit chambacacino.com.

No purchase necessary VGW group void for prohibited by law

21 plus terms and conditions apply.