Discover the profound themes of love and service in today’s world as Pastor Rick Warren highlights the spiritual thirst we all experience and the importance of serving others. Drawing inspiration from the life and mission of Mother Teresa, this episode emphasizes that simple acts of kindness can transform lives and bring spiritual satisfaction. Join Pastor Rick as he challenges us to look beyond our self-centeredness and learn the true meaning of service in fulfilling the thirsts in our communities.
00:00:02 Introduction to Seven Greatest Words of Love
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 Humanity.
SPEAKER 02 :
Have you ever gone thirsty to save the life of somebody else? I kind of doubt that. But Jesus did. And Jesus, what he’s doing here, the suffering he’s going through on the cross is called redemptive suffering. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He didn’t deserve to be punished. He hadn’t sinned. He’d lived a perfect life. So what is he doing? He’s suffering for the benefit of somebody else, you. He’s suffering for you. He’s suffering for you. This is redemptive suffering. He’s paying for your ticket to heaven. And this shows how much God loves me. Romans 5.8 says this. God demonstrates his own love for us. And that while we were still sinners, we’re still rejecting God, Christ died for us. Dying on the behalf of somebody else. You know, back in 1987, there was a young man in our church named Rhett. Rhett was a friend of mine. He had just graduated from high school, Mission Viejo High School. He was 19 years old. He was gonna start Saddleback College in the fall. And he went back east to make a visit of some family. And in August of that year, August 16th, he got on a flight and he started flying out of Detroit. Interestingly enough, on the flight right behind him, there were planes backed up in Detroit, was my brother. And my brother watched this flight take off. It was called Northwest Flight 155. Some of you remember that. And it took off, but in a few minutes later in the horizon, all of a sudden it stalled and it plummeted and it crashed. And it killed 155 people just out of the Detroit airport. And my brother was on the plane right behind it, watched it happen. And Rhett was killed. I did his funeral at Mission Viejo High School. But on that flight, when they started going through the wreckage and 155 people killed, they found one lone survivor. It was a four year old little girl. Little baby girl. Her name was Cecilia. She was from Tempe, Arizona. And they couldn’t figure out how she had lived through this Flight 155 crash. Only one, four year old girl. And they didn’t know until they asked her. And she explained in her own terms how her mommy, her mother and her father and her brother were all killed in the crash. How her mommy, when they realized they were going down, took off her seatbelt, turned around in front of her, got down in front of her seat and wrapped her in her arms like this to protect her. And the only reason she was saved because it’s her mother gave her life for her. That’s exactly what Jesus did for you on the cross. He covered you with his love. He covered you with his blood. He covered you with his arms, saying, I love you this much. And he gave his life for you so that you didn’t have to die for your sins. You know this theme, I thirst, I don’t know if you know it, but it was the life theme of Mother Teresa. It was Mother Teresa. In fact, in every one of the homes for the dying that Mother Teresa opened in her lifetime, in every one of them hung a picture of Jesus on the cross with simply the words underneath it, I thirst. It was in every home that Mother Teresa started, I thirst. Because she said, that is the goal of our ministry. That is the goal of our ministry. Even every home for dying. Let me show you what she said about this. Watch this on the screen.
SPEAKER 03 :
The aim of our congregation, the aim of our existence, is not just to do that work. The aim is to satiate the thirst of God, the thirst of Jesus on the cross, for love for souls. And so, who are the nearest to Him? The poorest of the poor. That hunger of Christ on the cross, that thirst of Christ on the cross, we satiate by our love in action.
SPEAKER 02 :
That thirst on the cross, we associate it with it through our love in action. When you go to work on Monday, people all around you are gonna be spiritually thirsty. When you go home to your house, the people who live next door to you are spiritually thirsty. When you go to the grocery store or you go to the soccer game and everywhere you go, everybody around you is spiritually thirsty. Now, they don’t ever use that term. Nobody ever says, I’m spiritually thirsty. So let me give you a few synonyms for spiritual thirst. I’m really unfulfilled. I’m bored with my life. I’m super frustrated right now. There’s gotta be more to life than this. I’m in over my head. I’m hanging on by a thread. I’m about to go under. I’m ready to throw in the towel. I don’t feel like this is all there is to life. I’m unfulfilled. My life lacks meaning. I don’t know what’s missing, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. I can’t get no satisfaction. Everybody on this planet is spiritually thirsty and they don’t know it. And they’re looking to fill the void in their heart with things that aren’t gonna satisfy them, that aren’t gonna quench their thirst. They’re bored, they’re dissatisfied, they feel empty, they’re unhappy, they want more. They go, I gotta have more, I got money, I gotta get more, I gotta get more, I gotta get more, I gotta get more. Now what do we learn from the thirst of others, the people around us? Well, the Bible talks about this emptiness and spiritual hunger. The book of Amos chapter eight says this. The time is coming, God says, when I will send a famine on the land and people will be hungry but not for bread and they will be thirsty but not for water. They will hunger and they will thirst for a message from the Lord. And people will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, searching for the word of the Lord. Running here, going there, but they will not find it. They’re on this big search. Beautiful girls and fine young men. will grow faint and weary, thirsting for the Lord’s word. It’s like Hollywood celebrities. They’re beautiful people, but empty lives. They look good, they feel good, they have the goods, but they’re not living good. and they’re hungry and they’re thirsty for spiritual things and they don’t know what they really want so they try to find it in sex, they try to find it in fame, they try to find it in drugs, they try to find it in sports, they try to find it in a hobby, they try to find it in all kinds of other things which are very good or very bad but neither of them are going to satisfy that hunger. Now there are two things you need to remember this week when you go back to work or you go home or you go out in the community. Two things you need to remember about everybody you see. Write these down. Number one, I serve Jesus by serving others. They’re hungry and they’re thirsty. And when you serve their spiritual hunger and their spiritual thirst, it’s like you serving Jesus on the cross. I serve Jesus by serving others. The Bible tells us that one day on the judgment day, we’re going to stand before God. And in Matthew 25, it says this, Lord will say to Jesus, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? When did we see you Lord thirsty and give you something to drink? And he will tell them, I assure you that when you did it to the least, to the one of the least of these, my brothers, you were doing it to me. Now think about the irony of this fifth word on the cross where Jesus in his final moments is saying, I thirst. Who invented water? God. Every single drop of water was created by Jesus. He invented every rain, every river, every lake, every pond, the ocean. ice. God invented H2O, the inventor of water, the creator of water. Every drop on that universe, God created. Now, he’s hanging on the cross and he’s thirsty. He certainly could have just done a miracle. giving himself water, you know, caused it to rain. He could have done any kind of miracle he wanted to, to quench his thirst. But instead, get this, very important, Jesus, God, at this point, asks for human assistance. He says, I’m thirsty. Is that a mind blower? That the God of the universe who creates water, invents water, made all the water, says, I’m thirsty. I’m thirsty. Can anybody help me out here? I’m a little busy right now. I’m a little tied up. His hands are nailed to the cross. He can’t even get a drink himself. Somebody’s gonna have to put it on a sponge and stick it to his mouth. And he’s asking for human assistance. Now, imagine you 2,000 years ago being the guy who gives Jesus a drink of water. This guy in all likelihood was not a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ. He’s just a Roman soldier. Takes a sponge, sticks it on a hyssop stick, dips it in some pasta, and he offers water to the Son of God. Do you realize what a privilege that would be? What a privilege to be the person who, when the Son of God says, I’m thirsty, You meet that need? What a privilege that would have been. You have that privilege every single day of your life. Jesus said, in as much as you’ve done and unto the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. And when you help somebody in pain, when you help somebody across the street, when you give somebody some kind of answer to their need, any little thing, Jesus said, you’re doing it to me. I serve God. I serve Jesus by serving others. That is the privilege you have, the same privilege that man had at the foot of the cross you have every day when you help an elderly person, a young person, a mentally ill person, a confused person, a homeless person. When you help anybody, it’s the same thing, Jesus said. Now the second lesson we learn about spiritual thirsty people around you is that Jesus notices the smallest service. Jesus notices the smallest of services. It could be so minor by comparison. In Matthew 10, 42, Jesus said this. If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded. Even if you’re just giving water to somebody thirsty, the Bible calls that ministry. See, we often think ministry is, oh, teaching the Bible, leading worship. No, no, no, ministry is, here, can I give you a drink? Would you like to sit down, put your feet up for a minute? Can I help you out? Can I do an errand for you? Can I bring you a meal? A cup of cold water, Jesus says, that’s ministry. He said, you’re gonna be rewarded in heaven for that. For slaking somebody’s thirst. Emotional thirst, physical thirst, mental thirst, spiritual thirst. Doing these simple things. Jesus notices the smallest service. You see, what I’ve discovered today is that everybody wants to do great things for God. Stop trying to do great things for God. The greatest things are actually the smallest things. It’s not the big things. It’s the little things that God notices and says, that’s my girl, that’s my boy. You’re feeding people, you’re helping people. You’re taking care of their emotional, physical, mental, spiritual needs. Nobody’s ever gonna know about it, but God says, I saw that. I saw you help that person across the street. I saw you do that kind word. I saw you give the pat on the back. I saw you take a moment when you didn’t have a moment. I saw you do that. It’s not the big things that are gonna get the credit. It’s do I care about somebody in pain in that moment and you’re never gonna know about it. Do I show kindness in the little things to a child, to an elderly person, to a lonely person, to a hurting person, to an irritating person. Now we’re meddling. Jesus notices the smallest of services. You know, I read this a while back. Doug Nichols, who was an American Christian, and he was living in India, and he was trying to share the gospel with people. He was trying to tell people in India the good news of Jesus Christ. He didn’t speak a word of any of the Indian dialects. And he wrote this, Doug Nichols. When I got tuberculosis in India, I was forced to stay in a sanitarium for several months. I didn’t speak the language, but I tried to give Christian literature in their language to the patients and to the doctors and the nurses, and not a single person accepted. Everybody politely refused my Christian literature. The first few nights I was there, I woke up around 2 a.m. coughing from my tuberculosis. During one of my coughing spells, I noticed an older, sicker patient across the room trying to get out of bed. He’d sit up on the edge of the bed, and he’d try to stand, but in weakness, he’d fall back into the bed. I didn’t understand what he was trying to do. He finally gave up exhausted, but I could hear him crying softly through the night. The next morning, I realized that he’d been trying to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, and the stench in our ward was awful. Other patients yelled insults at this man who’d soiled himself. Angry nurses moved him roughly as they cleaned up the mess. One nurse even slapped him. The old man curled up into a ball and he wept. The next night, I woke up again coughing and I noticed the same man trying to get out of bed. And like the night before, he fell back into his bed whimpering. So I got out of my bed and I went over to him. When I touched his shoulders, his eyes opened wide with fear. But I smiled, put my arms under him, and picked him up. He was very light due to old age and advanced TB, and I carried him to the toilet, which was just a filthy, small room with a hole in the floor. I stood behind him with my arms under his armpits as he took care of himself. And after he finished, I carried him back to bed. As I laid him down, he kissed me on the cheek. He smiled and said something in Indian I didn’t understand. The next morning, another patient woke me up and handed me a steaming cup of tea. He motioned with his hands that he wanted a gospel tract that I’d been trying to give out. As the sun rose, other patients approached me and each of them indicated that they also wanted the Christian booklets that nobody had been interested in before. Throughout the day, nurses and interns and doctors asked for my booklet about Jesus. Weeks later, A pastor came who spoke the language and he visited me and he told me that several people in the hospital had put their trust in Jesus Christ as a savior as a result of reading those booklets. So what did it take for me to reach these dear people with the good news? Not my ability to speak their language. Not my ability to give a persuasive presentation. I simply helped an old man to the bathroom. What are you willing to do to get people into heaven? Let’s just pause on that for a minute. What are you willing to do to get people into heaven? What kind of love do you really have for other people? who are physically, spiritually, and emotionally thirsty. Is anybody gonna be in heaven because of you? Are you willing to pick up an old man and take him to the bathroom? What are you willing to do? Jesus said, in as much you’ve done it unto the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Have you done it to anybody? Will you do it to anybody this next week? Will you show that kind of love? Are you so insulated in self-centeredness and my life and my goals and my problems and my needs and my family that I don’t have time to notice the people who are saying, I’m thirsty around me. We learn in the thirst of others that I serve Jesus by serving others. And we learn that Jesus notices even the smallest service. And the third thing, this is the hardest one of all, write this down. The most Christ-like service is to enemies.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 Seven 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.
