Pastor Rick Warren invites you into the significance of transformation through faith, as he unravels the powerful story of redemption that dates back to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Through the narrative of justice served yet transcended by mercy, join us in understanding why accepting Christ’s sacrifice reshapes not only our beliefs but our actions. Engage with compelling reasons to turn away from sin, embrace gratitude, and share the good news as we unpack the profound truths of the cross and what they mean for our journey today.
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 the final part of a message called The Word of Substitution.
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There’s a well-known story, you’ve probably heard it before, about two friends in New York who went through law school together. Happened a number of years ago. It was in the papers. But after graduation, these two law school graduates went different paths. One of them became a respected federal judge. The other became a cocaine addict and then later a cocaine pusher and dealer. Got addicted, became a criminal to support his expensive habit. One day, the second guy was arrested for his fraud. He got caught in his expenses and he’s sent to court and it just so happens he ends up in his friend’s courtroom. The guy he went to law school with. And everybody wondered if the judge would be lenient to his friends. But surprising, without explanation, the judge did two things. First, looking at his friend and realizing all the lives he had ruined through his pushing of drugs, he levied the heaviest fine allowed by law on his friend. Justice demanded. The heaviest fine. And then, without explanation, he steps out from behind the judge’s podium. He took off his judicial robe and he paid that outrageous fine out of his own bank account. What happened in that scene is both justice and mercy were satisfied at the same time. Now this is what was playing out on the cross for you. When Jesus cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God is playing the judge, the attorney, the advocate. He’s playing every single part of the role and he’s paying your debt. He’s the judge because he’s perfect and he goes, sin has to be judged. Somebody’s gotta pay for this. You can’t just get off scot-free. That’s not fair. He’s the judge, but then he’s the advocate. He’s your attorney, and he’s arguing to himself, going, yeah, this person, I really want them to be forgiven. I want them to be, Scott, he’s the advocate for you on your behalf, and then he pays your debt. He’s the whole show. You see, salvation has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with God. He did it from the beginning to the end. He’s judge, jury, penalty, and forgiver. All at once, justice and mercy together. Here’s what the Bible says, Galatians 3.13. Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. And when he hung on the cross… He took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. He’s the judge. He’s the attorney. He’s the bailiff. He’s paying the fine. He’s serving the time for you. He’s paying the ticket. He’s going to death sentence. He’s taking the death penalty for you. We learn from this. God is holy, sin is ugly, and salvation is costly. It costs Jesus his life. Now, based on that, what should be my response? What should be your response? This is an event, remember, that splits history into AD and BC. There’s no more significant event in history than what I’m talking about right now, this and the resurrection. It’s why we have everything in the calendar is dated BC or AD because of this event. What should be my response to what Jesus did for me? Four things, write these down. Number one, I turn from sin, I turn from my sin, and I trust Jesus to save me. That’s the first thing I do. There’s no snowball’s chance in hell I’m getting to heaven any other way, otherwise Jesus wasted his life. I turn from my sin, because it’s ugly, and I trust Jesus to save me. Romans 3.22, the Bible says this. We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we can all be saved in this same way. No matter who we are, Or what we’ve done. I don’t know about you, I like that verse in the Bible. I’m glad that verse is there. No matter who we are or what we’ve done, we can all be saved in the same way. Now here’s what I want you to do. I want you to think in your mind, it shouldn’t take very long, of the thing you’re most ashamed of doing in your life. That one came right to you, I’m sure. Jesus paid for that one. It’s already been paid for. You can stop hanging yourself on a cross because Jesus hung himself on a cross for it. You can stop beating yourself up because Jesus allowed himself to be up for it. That’s double jeopardy. You don’t have to pay for something he’s already paid for. The very thing you don’t want anybody to know about in your life and the very thing that you’re most ashamed of, you’re most embarrassed about, the most regret, yeah, I paid for that too. I paid for that too. That’s how much Jesus loves you. So I turn from my sin and I trust Jesus Christ to pay me. I do wanna say this. Look at the next verse, Hebrews 11, 26. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there’s no sacrifice for our sin is left. Jesus isn’t gonna come back and die again. If Christ’s sacrifice is rejected, what Jesus Christ did for you, friend, I hate to tell you this, but the truth is, there’s no hope for you. You don’t have any hope if you reject what Christ’s sacrifice did for you. There’s no other way. If you don’t accept Jesus as your advocate, your attorney, he becomes your judge. He says like Burger King, well then have it your way. Okay, you reject it, fine. Why in the world would you wanna come live with me when you reject me? Why would you want to spend eternity in my home called heaven when you reject what I did for you on the cross? I turn from my sin and I trust Jesus to save me. Number two, second thing I do, I live in a state of gratitude. I live in a complete state of gratitude once I understand the full magnitude of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross. I could not help but be grateful for a God who would love me that much and suffer for me that much even when I was thumbing my nose and turning my back and rejecting him and saying, I’m going to be my own little God. Romans 5, 11. Now we can rejoice. in our wonderful new relationship with God. Circle the word rejoice, that’s gratitude. Now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus has done for us. Notice, you didn’t do anything, he did it for you. What our Lord Jesus has done for us in making us friends of God. I just wanna ask you a very logical, very rational, non-emotional question. How could you not love someone who died for you? How could you not love someone who loves you that much? What’s the logic in that? What’s the reason in that? How could you not be grateful every single day for the rest of your life when you realize what he’s done for you? How could you not want to praise him, want to know him, want to learn about him, want to grow in him, want to be like him, want to serve him, want to share him, want to tell other people about him? How could you not do that when you realize what he did for you and how much he loved you? Jesus Christ deserves your eternal gratitude and your eternal love. So I turn from my sin and I trust him to save me, and then I just start living a life in gratitude. I’ll tell you this, when I get interviewed by the media, they never get this. The media think that I serve God out of duty, or that I serve God out of guilt, or that I serve God out of fear, or that I serve God out of pressure. I don’t do it for any of those reasons. I do it out of gratitude. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart. And if he never did another thing for me, I owe him my life. And I will serve him because of what he did for me. It’s as if Jesus is hanging on the cross and he says, if this doesn’t break your hard heart, nothing will. Nothing, nothing will break the hardness in your heart. Number three, the third thing that I do is that when I’m tempted, I remember what my sin cost Jesus. When I’m tempted, and of course you’re gonna be tempted the rest of your life to do wrong things. When you’re tempted, you remember what your sin cost Jesus. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. The ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. So I remember what my sin cost Jesus. And finally, number four. The fourth thing that I do is I tell others the good news. Friends, this is why Saddleback Church was started. To tell other people the good news. Can you imagine keeping such life-changing news a secret? If somebody died for you, wouldn’t you want to know about it? Friends, this is why we do everything we do. It’s why we do the peace plan. It’s why we do the Daniel plan. It’s why we do celebrate recovery. It’s why we do small groups. It’s why we do worship services. It’s why we go on mission trips. It’s why we send kids to camp. We do it for this. We don’t do it for any other reason. We do it for this. For Jesus’ sake. He gave his all for us. And we give our all back in return to him in deep gratitude and love. Jesus died for everybody and he wants everybody to know it. If you had the cure for cancer and you didn’t share it with your neighbor and they had cancer, they oughta put you in prison for that. It’s criminal. It would be criminal to have a life-saving solution and not tell it to the person who’s dying next door. Is anybody gonna be in heaven because of you? You’re going to heaven. Is anybody else gonna go because of you? The Bible says this in 2 Peter 3, 9. God is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone. Notice that. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone, but he wants all people. That means Muslims, Jews, Christians, Catholics, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics. He wants all people to to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act. That’s called repenting. Friends, the typical Southern California resident is at home right now, sitting there watching TV, totally unaware of what Jesus Christ did for them. Oh yeah, they know Jesus died on the cross. They know A, B, and B, C. They know Easter and Christmas. They don’t know what we just talked about. that person must be reached with the good news. It’s the motivation behind everything we do. The good news is only good news if it gets there in time. And if that person who’s sitting at home right now dies without knowing Christ, then for that person, Jesus’ death on the cross was a total waste. Total waste. Everybody needs Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus. And love leaves no choice. And as long as I’m pastor of this church, we’re gonna keep reaching out. We’re gonna keep growing. We’re gonna keep starting new campuses. We’re gonna start new services. We keep building bigger buildings. Why? Because everybody, there is no person that God does not want in heaven. He wants them all there. But they gotta hear the good news and they’ve gotta respond and accept it. And as long as there’s one person within driving distance of Saddleback Church who doesn’t know Christ, we’re gonna keep spending our time, our energy, our effort to get the good news to everybody. You see, Jesus was separated from God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So we could be united with God. Jesus was left alone. so we could be lifted up. Jesus was executed so you could be exonerated. His punishment paid for your pardon. His humiliation leads to your liberation. He was abandoned. so you could be adopted into God’s family. He was rejected so you could be redeemed. And he was reviled so you could be reconciled. That’s how much God loves you. He was forsaken so we could be forgiven. Let’s bow our heads. Do you realize the seriousness of what Jesus Christ did for you? How could you not want to respond in gratitude and love? Let’s settle this issue if there’s anybody here who hasn’t settled this issue. Man, this is the time. God is holy, sin is ugly, and salvation is costly, but it’s free to you today. You just reach out and accept it. You can’t earn it, you can’t deserve it, you can’t buy it, you can’t bargain for it, you just accept it. It’s a free gift of grace. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. You’re never gonna get a better deal. And you’re going to trade your guilt for his forgiveness and your shame for his strength. And you’re going to exchange his death for your life. So pray this prayer in your heart. And you better mean it. Dear God, I am humbled by what we’ve talked about and learned today. That you not just created me, but that you sent your son to die for me? When I didn’t even know about it, when I was alienated and I was distressed and I was condemned by my own words and actions, you took the initiative. God, you are a pure God and you are holy and you are right and you always do what’s right. But you also are gracious. And I thank you Jesus Christ for sacrificing your life for me. I am so sorry for my sins. I’m sorry for my aloofness. I’m sorry for my apathy. I’m sorry for pretending like I was God. How stupid was that? You are God and I’m not. And so I wanna take these steps in deep gratitude today. I wanna turn from my ownership of my life to you being the manager of my life. I wanna turn from my sin and I wanna trust you, Jesus, to save me. I humbly ask you to forgive my sins and accept me into your family I want to live in a state of gratitude the rest of my life. And when I’m tempted, help me to remember what my sin cost you. And Lord, today I recommit myself to sharing the good news with others. I know people who if they don’t get this word, your death is going to be wasted on them. Help me this fall to bring somebody to church as often as I can to look for people to invite, to look for people to share the good news with. Help me to realize that you died for them too. Thank you, Jesus, for being separated from God so we could be united to God. I want the rest of my life to be dedicated in gratitude to you. And I humbly pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Hey, if you’ve just prayed along with Rick to accept Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you. Just email rick at pastorrick.com. 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.
