Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, and welcome back to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Rick continues in his series called Connecting with God, the
Lord's Prayer. In this series, Rick shows us what it
means to be truly spiritually connected to God and to
each other through the power of God's love and God's word.
And now here's Rick with the final part of a
message called You've got to Get Connected.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Number three. Here's the third oneer.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
The third metaphor is a vegetable or a tree metaphor.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's like being.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Attached to a vine. He says that being spiritually connected.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jesus says, he's trying to explain it to us.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
He says, it's like being attached to a vine, like
a grape vine, or a tomato vine, or any other
kind of vine, a fig vine on a tree, if
anything like that. Now, it's interesting that Geesus right before
he goes across. You figure, whatever he's going to say
to the people who are following him right before he
goes across is going to be most important. And he
(01:08):
says this in John fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Fifteen and sixteen.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
He's giving his last minute instructions to the people who
have following him and of all the things he could
tell him, here's what he says.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Live in me and I will live in you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It has to stay attached to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
The vine in the same way, you cannot produce fruit
unless you live in me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's saying.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Now this is so important. Not only do you need
the support like in a building, and not only do
you need the life blood like being in a body.
He said, You're not gonna have any fruitfulness, any productivity
in your life if you're out there on your own.
You've got to stay connected. You've got to stay connected.
(02:06):
Look at this next verse on the back of your outline.
God's spirit joins himself to our spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's that connection.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
He joins himself to our spirit to declare that we
are God's children.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You say, I don't get that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Listen, when this happens to you, When you experience a
spiritual connection for the first time, you know it, and
all of a sudden, God no longer is some distant idea.
You know, God Israel. There's not an atheist in the
world that convinced me that God isn't real. Why because
I talked to him. I just talked to him a
couple of minutes ago. I talked to him just like
(02:47):
I'm talking to you. I've been a friend with Jesus
Christ now for well over forty years. Nothing could sway
me of that. Why because I have a connection. It's
not just about what the Bible says, It's not just
what happens in the church. I have a connection to
Christ and that connection is so real, and I want
(03:11):
you to have that kind of connection to God. It
is the deepest prayer of my heart, as your pastor
and as somebody loves you, that you will have that connection,
that you go. Well, there's no way I could not
not believe in God. I'm connected to him all the time,
and I talk to him and he speaks to me,
and I hear him, and I hear his voice not
(03:31):
in an audible way.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
God doesn't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I mean, you know, we get radio signals and TV
signals through the air, and don't understand that God doesn't
have to visibly put a sign out there. So he's saying,
I want you to be connected, and I want you
to be joined to me, And he says, a disconnected
branch write this down, can't bear fruit in plants, A
(04:01):
disconnected branch can't bear fruit. You not only don't have
the support, you not only start to wither and die,
but you don't have any productivity in your life if
you're not spiritually connected. He says, you got to be
connected at fruit. You know, I grow vegetables every spring,
and I grow a lot of plants and fruit and
all kind of stuff. If I cut them off, obviously,
(04:23):
those branches aren't going to produce any tomatoes or anything else.
All the different kinds of peppers. They've got to be
connected in order to produce fruit. What kind of fruit
up here on the screen. The fruit of the spirit
is this?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
There are nine.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Qualities love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self control. I don't know about you, but I'd like
to be more loving. I'd like to be more joyful.
I'd like to be more at peace no matter what
happens to the economy. I'd like to be more kind
to people who are mean to me. I'd like to
(04:59):
be a good person, not a bad or an evil person.
I want to be faithful, not unfaithful. I'm gonna keep
my promises. I'd like to be gentle. When people are
not very gentle and they're rude and crude, of course,
I'd like to have more self control.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
He says, that's called the fruit of the spirit. And
here's the point.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The evidence that you are spiritually connected is you see
those nine things in your life. If you are not
seeing your self grow in love and more joy, and
more peace, and more patience and kindness and more self
control and more all these things, guess what it means.
You're not spiritually connected. Because he says, when you're connected,
(05:47):
you're gonna bear fruit. And the mark that you're not connected.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Is you're cut off. Somehow.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
You got disconnected from God, and you got disconnected from
the body, and you got disconnected from the plant.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And he says, I'm the vine and you're the branch.
He says, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Any any fruit in your life, some of your fruit cakes,
some of your fruit loops. Sometimes we're all a little
tooty fruity, but he's talking about this kind of spiritual
fruit in your life. Now he gives us the fourth
the fourth and really this is just a setup for
where we're going in the weeks ahead. Being spiritually connected
(06:28):
is like being born into a family. That's the fourth metaphor.
God says, I want you to understand how important this
is to be spiritually connected to a body, to a building,
to a branch, he says, and to being a baby
born into a family. Now, this of course, is my
(06:49):
favorite description of the church because it doesn't need any explanation.
We are God's family. You know, there's only two ways
to get into a family. Either be born into it
or you be adopted into it. Those are the two
ways you get into a family. And you know what
in the Bible, God does both for you. It's called
being born again and it's called being adopted into the
(07:11):
family of God.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
God does them both.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And the cool thing about it is in Roman law
during the New Testament, you could disown a child that
you birthed, but if you adopted a child, you were
forbidden to ever disown them. And God says, you are
not only born again into my family, but I have
adopted you, and there is no way I could ever
(07:36):
disown you.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That's a good one. That's good news.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You mean, no matter what I do, no matter what
you do, once you're born, you cannot be unborn. Once
you are born again, you cannot be unborn again. Now
you can grieve the father. Just like when I was
grown up, I often grieved my parents and the fellowship
(08:03):
was broken. But nothing I did could ever cause them
to disown me, because even if they said I disown you,
which they wouldn't do, everybody knows I was still their child.
Once you become a child in the family of God,
you are in. Now notice this verse, We're God's family
(08:23):
one timenty three fifteen. He says, I want you to
know how people who are members of God's family must live.
And then he tells us what that family is. God's
family is the Church. We are the family of God.
We are Church is not something you go to. Church
(08:44):
is something you belong to. You're You're welded in in
the building of the of the Temple of God. You're
grafted into the vine in the.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Tree of life.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You're born again and adopted into the family of God.
He's saying all these things. He said, you're joined into
the body of Christ. He said, these are all connection models.
What I want to do is I want to reposition
Christianity in your mind. Most people think Christianity is a
(09:20):
belief system. Well, there aren't beliefs involved in it. But
you know what, it's more than that. It's a belonging system.
It's belonging to the family of God. It's being a
part of the body of Christ. It's being built into
God's temple brick by brick. It's all of these connection terms.
(09:44):
And he says it's like being born into a family.
This verse Romans fifteen, you will all be joined together
and you will give glory to God. Notice, being conspiratually
connected is how you give glory to God. You will
all be joined together and you will give glory to God.
(10:05):
The father of our lord, Jesus Christ, Christ accepted you,
so you should accept each other, which will bring glory
to God. Now we've talked about this before. Acceptance and
approval are not the same thing. God accepts me no
matter what I do.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
He does not.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Approve of everything I do. Does it make sense? And
the Bible says you are to accept everybody no matter
what they do. It doesn't mean you are to prove
of everything they do.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Big difference.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And the Bible says that acceptance is love. Approval is
not love. Acceptance is love. He says, I will love
you because my love isn't based on what you do.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's based on who I am.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And that's why the Bible tells us that we are
to love everyone. I am not allowed to hate anybody,
no matter what they do or who they are. But
it doesn't mean I have to prove of everything that
they do or I do either. It's like being in
a family. You don't approve everything your sister did, did you,
(11:19):
But I bet you loved her, or your brother, or
your mother, or your son or whatever. He says, like
being born into a family. And he says, God gets
glory when we love each other. Now, this phrase each
other is used fifty eight times in the New Testament,
and the Bible says, you've heard me talk about this
(11:40):
fifty eight times. It says love one another. It says
pray for one another. It says care for one another.
It says serve one another. It says greet one another,
it says help one another, it says encourage one another.
If you could do a whole Bible study through the
New Testament and find those fifty eight one anothers those
(12:00):
are your family responsibilities?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Are you doing those?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
That's why you cannot be all God wants you to
be without being in the family of God. Would you
write this down somewhere on your paper there. I cannot
fulfill God's purpose by myself. I cannot fulfill God's purpose
for my life by myself. It is absolutely impossible. Because
(12:28):
the number one thing God wants you to learn on
life is how to love Him and love other people.
And that means you've got to be with other people.
You can't do it on your own. You just can't
be a monastery monk or a guru up at the
top of a mountain. You've got to be with other
people because the most important thing is learning how to love.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's all about connections.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And that's why in our church family, to be a
member of Saddleback Church, we ask people to sign a
covenant and those of viewer members of out of that
signed the membership covenant.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And you remember when you read that one thing.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
That says, I promise to love the other people in
my church family.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Now you don't have to.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Like them, but you gotta love them. You know, some
people are kind of hard to like. Oh anybody you
don't feel that way, right, Some people are hard to like,
but you do what.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
You gotta love them.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
What is love giving a person what they need, not
what they deserve. That's love, giving them what they need,
not what they deserve. When people hurt, you guess what
it just means. They're hurting. They're massively hurting themselves. So
you give them what they need, not what they deserve.
He says, being born into a family, So have you
(13:48):
committed yourself to a spiritual family. You're not to join Saddleback,
but just find one. There are hundreds of good spiritual
families in South Orange County. We're not in competition with
a single other church. We're all on the same team.
In fact, many of the pastors of other churches are
my best friends. I've been in a small group with
(14:09):
one group of pastors that started nearly twenty years ago.
We're not in any competition with any other church. The
competition with Saddleback Church is not other churches.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's recreation because.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
On the weekend they're not at our church or any
other church. They're out wrecking creation. It's the world of
flesh and the devil. That's the enemies. That's the competition.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
We want every church, Every church in.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Orange County could have six thousand people and we still
wouldn't be reaching everybody. It'd be like two aunts are
arguing over who's gonna eat the elephant. You know, when
I started Saddleback a long time ago, I went and
I visited all the churches in the saddle Back Valley,
and I added up all the number of chairs of
every church and figured that if we filled every church
(15:03):
three times on Sunday, we would still be reaching about
five percent of the population. We want every church to grow,
So just find a spiritual family. They don't have to
be saddleback. Saddleback maybe too big, or maybe you think
I'm too ugly, I don't care. Just find a church
and say that's gonna be my spiritual home and get connected.
(15:26):
Don't just attend, get connected. Plenty of good ones. You know,
for centuries, because we are a family, Christians called each
other brother and sister, and they talk about sister so
and so and brother so and so. They did this
for centuries. We just dropped it in the last generation.
(15:47):
It's really funny because this week I called up Joseph
Lowry and he's eighty seven years old, and on the
phone he kept calling me brother Warren, Well, brother Warren,
how are you doing I'm just doing fine, brother Lowry.
How sister Lowry doing. How's sister Kay doing? There's nothing
(16:11):
wrong with it. The Bible says we are brothers and
sisters and the family God. Maybe we've got to get
back to calling each other brother and sister.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Here's the point.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
A disconnected member feels unloved. A disconnected member feels unloved.
Now what does God want from us? And why are
we going to do this series on getting spiritually connected?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well? Because of this next verse? Let me read it
to you. I beg you brothers and sisters. Here's the word.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I beg you, brothers and sisters, to be completely joined together.
That means really connected, not just a God, but to
each other.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We completely joined. Do you know what these talking about are?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
The word for this is koynanea and cooinnania is the
word for fellowship. It means being as committed to each
other as we are to Jesus Christ. See most people
know John three sixteen. They don't know first John three sixteen.
John three sixteen says God so loved the world that
he gave his only son. You know that verse First
John three sixteen says, and because Christ gave himself for us.
(17:22):
We ought to give our lives for each other. Oh,
we forget that part that's being connected to our brothers
and sisters in the family of God. I beg you,
brothers and sisters, to be completely joined together by having
the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. Would
you circle purpose and would you circle completely joined together?
(17:48):
God says in that verse, I want you to be
connected to each other on purpose. He says, I want
you to be connected to each other with the same
thought and the same purpose. We call that a purpose
driven connection. It's right there in the Bible. I beg you,
brothers and sisters. You're not just asking for you, says
I'm begging you be joined together, be connected with the
(18:11):
same kind of thinking and the same purpose.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Now, let me just ask you one question. When this church.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Family, of all the places you could live, God brought
you here, When this church family has so much to
offer to you, do you think God wants you to
stay disconnected?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No? And my question to you is.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
This, are you serious about making your life count? Because
if you are, I will help you get there. What's
the first step? Last verse on your outline? The Bible
says this, First they gave themselves to the Lord, and
(18:59):
then by God's will, they gave themselves to us as well.
This is the starting point. First you gave your life
to Jesus, and then you gave your life to a.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Group of believers.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's the connection process. God, you're going to be my Lord,
and this is going to be my church family. If
not find one, you're going to be my Lord, and
this is going to be my church family.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
First they gave themselves to God.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
And then they gave themselves to us in the will
of God.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That's about our heads.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Father, I thank you so much that we don't have
to go through life on our own, disconnected, alone, lonely,
without friends, without you, without relationships, without love. Thank you
that you made us to be connected not just to you,
but to each other. And today we want to be
(19:58):
like that building where we support each other, that temple.
We want to be like the body where we draw
strength to nourishment and grow from each other. We want
to be like divine where we bear fruit because we're
helping each other out. And we want to be like
the family of God, whereas brothers and sisters, we love
(20:21):
each other through tough times and rejoice in the good times.
Thank you that you said it is not good for people.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
To be alone.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your life, would
you pray this prayer Jesus.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I want to get to know you.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I want to be spiritually connected to you, to your
plan and purpose for my life, and to your family.
And so tonight I take that first step of trusting
you in your name.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I pray Amen.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the
very first time, or you just recommitted your life to
Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.
There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me
Rick at Pastorick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed
that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.
And I'll send you some material that will help you
(21:22):
on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you.
God bless you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something
I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to
tell you how you can help support this ministry.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
according to five specific purposes. He said, You've got to
love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism, Baptize
them into the Family of God. That's followship, a sign
(22:01):
of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the
Great Commission. We believe it daily Hope that a great
commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so
(22:23):
I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just
across America, but all around the world. And we want
people to know that God's word is filled with hope
and truth, and the power that we need to follow
him every day is available to every single one. You
know as well as I do, that the Word of
God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it
(22:44):
breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.
So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on
the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or
whether you listen to a podcast. You're a part of
the Daily Hope family, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Need your health.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
We could not do this without your support. Now, you know,
I don't take any funds from this broadcast. We don't
have any giant, million dollar donor who's giving big gifts
to this. It comes from daily donations from listeners like you.
We're one hundred percent listener funded. Would you continue to
pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us?
(23:22):
And let write to me, let me hear from you.
I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me.
So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry,
and God will bless it, and God will bless you,
and we'll get to heaven. And well, thank God for
all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
just go to Pastorick dot com. Again, that's Pastorick dot com.
And really, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank
you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily
Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere.
This program is sered by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
(24:02):
your generous financial support
Hey there, and welcome back to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Today.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Rick continues in his series called Connecting with God, the
Lord's Prayer. In this series, Rick shows us what it
means to be truly spiritually connected to God and to
each other through the power of God's love and God's word.
And now here's Rick with the final part of a
message called You've got to Get Connected.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Number three. Here's the third oneer.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
The third metaphor is a vegetable or a tree metaphor.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's like being.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Attached to a vine. He says that being spiritually connected.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Jesus says, he's trying to explain it to us.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
He says, it's like being attached to a vine, like
a grape vine, or a tomato vine, or any other
kind of vine, a fig vine on a tree, if
anything like that. Now, it's interesting that Geesus right before
he goes across. You figure, whatever he's going to say
to the people who are following him right before he
goes across is going to be most important. And he
(01:08):
says this in John fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Fifteen and sixteen.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
He's giving his last minute instructions to the people who
have following him and of all the things he could
tell him, here's what he says.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Live in me and I will live in you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
It has to stay attached to.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
The vine in the same way, you cannot produce fruit
unless you live in me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's saying.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Now this is so important. Not only do you need
the support like in a building, and not only do
you need the life blood like being in a body.
He said, You're not gonna have any fruitfulness, any productivity
in your life if you're out there on your own.
You've got to stay connected. You've got to stay connected.
(02:06):
Look at this next verse on the back of your outline.
God's spirit joins himself to our spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's that connection.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
He joins himself to our spirit to declare that we
are God's children.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
You say, I don't get that.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Listen, when this happens to you, When you experience a
spiritual connection for the first time, you know it, and
all of a sudden, God no longer is some distant idea.
You know, God Israel. There's not an atheist in the
world that convinced me that God isn't real. Why because
I talked to him. I just talked to him a
couple of minutes ago. I talked to him just like
(02:47):
I'm talking to you. I've been a friend with Jesus
Christ now for well over forty years. Nothing could sway
me of that. Why because I have a connection. It's
not just about what the Bible says, It's not just
what happens in the church. I have a connection to
Christ and that connection is so real, and I want
(03:11):
you to have that kind of connection to God. It
is the deepest prayer of my heart, as your pastor
and as somebody loves you, that you will have that connection,
that you go. Well, there's no way I could not
not believe in God. I'm connected to him all the time,
and I talk to him and he speaks to me,
and I hear him, and I hear his voice not
(03:31):
in an audible way.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
God doesn't have to do that.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
I mean, you know, we get radio signals and TV
signals through the air, and don't understand that God doesn't
have to visibly put a sign out there. So he's saying,
I want you to be connected, and I want you
to be joined to me, And he says, a disconnected
branch write this down, can't bear fruit in plants, A
(04:01):
disconnected branch can't bear fruit. You not only don't have
the support, you not only start to wither and die,
but you don't have any productivity in your life if
you're not spiritually connected. He says, you got to be
connected at fruit. You know, I grow vegetables every spring,
and I grow a lot of plants and fruit and
all kind of stuff. If I cut them off, obviously,
(04:23):
those branches aren't going to produce any tomatoes or anything else.
All the different kinds of peppers. They've got to be
connected in order to produce fruit. What kind of fruit
up here on the screen. The fruit of the spirit
is this?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
There are nine.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Qualities love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self control. I don't know about you, but I'd like
to be more loving. I'd like to be more joyful.
I'd like to be more at peace no matter what
happens to the economy. I'd like to be more kind
to people who are mean to me. I'd like to
(04:59):
be a good person, not a bad or an evil person.
I want to be faithful, not unfaithful. I'm gonna keep
my promises. I'd like to be gentle. When people are
not very gentle and they're rude and crude, of course,
I'd like to have more self control.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
He says, that's called the fruit of the spirit. And
here's the point.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The evidence that you are spiritually connected is you see
those nine things in your life. If you are not
seeing your self grow in love and more joy, and
more peace, and more patience and kindness and more self
control and more all these things, guess what it means.
You're not spiritually connected. Because he says, when you're connected,
(05:47):
you're gonna bear fruit. And the mark that you're not connected.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Is you're cut off. Somehow.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
You got disconnected from God, and you got disconnected from
the body, and you got disconnected from the plant.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And he says, I'm the vine and you're the branch.
He says, that's what it's all about.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Any any fruit in your life, some of your fruit cakes,
some of your fruit loops. Sometimes we're all a little
tooty fruity, but he's talking about this kind of spiritual
fruit in your life. Now he gives us the fourth
the fourth and really this is just a setup for
where we're going in the weeks ahead. Being spiritually connected
(06:28):
is like being born into a family. That's the fourth metaphor.
God says, I want you to understand how important this
is to be spiritually connected to a body, to a building,
to a branch, he says, and to being a baby
born into a family. Now, this of course, is my
(06:49):
favorite description of the church because it doesn't need any explanation.
We are God's family. You know, there's only two ways
to get into a family. Either be born into it
or you be adopted into it. Those are the two
ways you get into a family. And you know what
in the Bible, God does both for you. It's called
being born again and it's called being adopted into the
(07:11):
family of God.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
God does them both.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And the cool thing about it is in Roman law
during the New Testament, you could disown a child that
you birthed, but if you adopted a child, you were
forbidden to ever disown them. And God says, you are
not only born again into my family, but I have
adopted you, and there is no way I could ever
(07:36):
disown you.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
That's a good one. That's good news.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You mean, no matter what I do, no matter what
you do, once you're born, you cannot be unborn. Once
you are born again, you cannot be unborn again. Now
you can grieve the father. Just like when I was
grown up, I often grieved my parents and the fellowship
(08:03):
was broken. But nothing I did could ever cause them
to disown me, because even if they said I disown you,
which they wouldn't do, everybody knows I was still their child.
Once you become a child in the family of God,
you are in. Now notice this verse, We're God's family
(08:23):
one timenty three fifteen. He says, I want you to
know how people who are members of God's family must live.
And then he tells us what that family is. God's
family is the Church. We are the family of God.
We are Church is not something you go to. Church
(08:44):
is something you belong to. You're You're welded in in
the building of the of the Temple of God. You're
grafted into the vine in the.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Tree of life.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You're born again and adopted into the family of God.
He's saying all these things. He said, you're joined into
the body of Christ. He said, these are all connection models.
What I want to do is I want to reposition
Christianity in your mind. Most people think Christianity is a
(09:20):
belief system. Well, there aren't beliefs involved in it. But
you know what, it's more than that. It's a belonging system.
It's belonging to the family of God. It's being a
part of the body of Christ. It's being built into
God's temple brick by brick. It's all of these connection terms.
(09:44):
And he says it's like being born into a family.
This verse Romans fifteen, you will all be joined together
and you will give glory to God. Notice, being conspiratually
connected is how you give glory to God. You will
all be joined together and you will give glory to God.
(10:05):
The father of our lord, Jesus Christ, Christ accepted you,
so you should accept each other, which will bring glory
to God. Now we've talked about this before. Acceptance and
approval are not the same thing. God accepts me no
matter what I do.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
He does not.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
Approve of everything I do. Does it make sense? And
the Bible says you are to accept everybody no matter
what they do. It doesn't mean you are to prove
of everything they do.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Big difference.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And the Bible says that acceptance is love. Approval is
not love. Acceptance is love. He says, I will love
you because my love isn't based on what you do.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
It's based on who I am.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
And that's why the Bible tells us that we are
to love everyone. I am not allowed to hate anybody,
no matter what they do or who they are. But
it doesn't mean I have to prove of everything that
they do or I do either. It's like being in
a family. You don't approve everything your sister did, did you,
(11:19):
But I bet you loved her, or your brother, or
your mother, or your son or whatever. He says, like
being born into a family. And he says, God gets
glory when we love each other. Now, this phrase each
other is used fifty eight times in the New Testament,
and the Bible says, you've heard me talk about this
(11:40):
fifty eight times. It says love one another. It says
pray for one another. It says care for one another.
It says serve one another. It says greet one another,
it says help one another, it says encourage one another.
If you could do a whole Bible study through the
New Testament and find those fifty eight one anothers those
(12:00):
are your family responsibilities?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Are you doing those?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
That's why you cannot be all God wants you to
be without being in the family of God. Would you
write this down somewhere on your paper there. I cannot
fulfill God's purpose by myself. I cannot fulfill God's purpose
for my life by myself. It is absolutely impossible. Because
(12:28):
the number one thing God wants you to learn on
life is how to love Him and love other people.
And that means you've got to be with other people.
You can't do it on your own. You just can't
be a monastery monk or a guru up at the
top of a mountain. You've got to be with other
people because the most important thing is learning how to love.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
It's all about connections.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
And that's why in our church family, to be a
member of Saddleback Church, we ask people to sign a
covenant and those of viewer members of out of that
signed the membership covenant.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
And you remember when you read that one thing.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
That says, I promise to love the other people in
my church family.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Now you don't have to.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Like them, but you gotta love them. You know, some
people are kind of hard to like. Oh anybody you
don't feel that way, right, Some people are hard to like,
but you do what.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
You gotta love them.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
What is love giving a person what they need, not
what they deserve. That's love, giving them what they need,
not what they deserve. When people hurt, you guess what
it just means. They're hurting. They're massively hurting themselves. So
you give them what they need, not what they deserve.
He says, being born into a family, So have you
(13:48):
committed yourself to a spiritual family. You're not to join Saddleback,
but just find one. There are hundreds of good spiritual
families in South Orange County. We're not in competition with
a single other church. We're all on the same team.
In fact, many of the pastors of other churches are
my best friends. I've been in a small group with
(14:09):
one group of pastors that started nearly twenty years ago.
We're not in any competition with any other church. The
competition with Saddleback Church is not other churches.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
It's recreation because.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
On the weekend they're not at our church or any
other church. They're out wrecking creation. It's the world of
flesh and the devil. That's the enemies. That's the competition.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
We want every church, Every church in.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Orange County could have six thousand people and we still
wouldn't be reaching everybody. It'd be like two aunts are
arguing over who's gonna eat the elephant. You know, when
I started Saddleback a long time ago, I went and
I visited all the churches in the saddle Back Valley,
and I added up all the number of chairs of
every church and figured that if we filled every church
(15:03):
three times on Sunday, we would still be reaching about
five percent of the population. We want every church to grow,
So just find a spiritual family. They don't have to
be saddleback. Saddleback maybe too big, or maybe you think
I'm too ugly, I don't care. Just find a church
and say that's gonna be my spiritual home and get connected.
(15:26):
Don't just attend, get connected. Plenty of good ones. You know,
for centuries, because we are a family, Christians called each
other brother and sister, and they talk about sister so
and so and brother so and so. They did this
for centuries. We just dropped it in the last generation.
(15:47):
It's really funny because this week I called up Joseph
Lowry and he's eighty seven years old, and on the
phone he kept calling me brother Warren, Well, brother Warren,
how are you doing I'm just doing fine, brother Lowry.
How sister Lowry doing. How's sister Kay doing? There's nothing
(16:11):
wrong with it. The Bible says we are brothers and
sisters and the family God. Maybe we've got to get
back to calling each other brother and sister.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Here's the point.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
A disconnected member feels unloved. A disconnected member feels unloved.
Now what does God want from us? And why are
we going to do this series on getting spiritually connected?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Well? Because of this next verse? Let me read it
to you. I beg you brothers and sisters. Here's the word.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I beg you, brothers and sisters, to be completely joined together.
That means really connected, not just a God, but to
each other.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
We completely joined. Do you know what these talking about are?
Speaker 3 (17:02):
The word for this is koynanea and cooinnania is the
word for fellowship. It means being as committed to each
other as we are to Jesus Christ. See most people
know John three sixteen. They don't know first John three sixteen.
John three sixteen says God so loved the world that
he gave his only son. You know that verse First
John three sixteen says, and because Christ gave himself for us.
(17:22):
We ought to give our lives for each other. Oh,
we forget that part that's being connected to our brothers
and sisters in the family of God. I beg you,
brothers and sisters, to be completely joined together by having
the same kind of thinking and the same purpose. Would
you circle purpose and would you circle completely joined together?
(17:48):
God says in that verse, I want you to be
connected to each other on purpose. He says, I want
you to be connected to each other with the same
thought and the same purpose. We call that a purpose
driven connection. It's right there in the Bible. I beg you,
brothers and sisters. You're not just asking for you, says
I'm begging you be joined together, be connected with the
(18:11):
same kind of thinking and the same purpose.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Now, let me just ask you one question. When this church.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Family, of all the places you could live, God brought
you here, When this church family has so much to
offer to you, do you think God wants you to
stay disconnected?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
No? And my question to you is.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
This, are you serious about making your life count? Because
if you are, I will help you get there. What's
the first step? Last verse on your outline? The Bible
says this, First they gave themselves to the Lord, and
(18:59):
then by God's will, they gave themselves to us as well.
This is the starting point. First you gave your life
to Jesus, and then you gave your life to a.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Group of believers.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
That's the connection process. God, you're going to be my Lord,
and this is going to be my church family. If
not find one, you're going to be my Lord, and
this is going to be my church family.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
First they gave themselves to God.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
And then they gave themselves to us in the will
of God.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
That's about our heads.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Father, I thank you so much that we don't have
to go through life on our own, disconnected, alone, lonely,
without friends, without you, without relationships, without love. Thank you
that you made us to be connected not just to you,
but to each other. And today we want to be
(19:58):
like that building where we support each other, that temple.
We want to be like the body where we draw
strength to nourishment and grow from each other. We want
to be like divine where we bear fruit because we're
helping each other out. And we want to be like
the family of God, whereas brothers and sisters, we love
(20:21):
each other through tough times and rejoice in the good times.
Thank you that you said it is not good for people.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
To be alone.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your life, would
you pray this prayer Jesus.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I want to get to know you.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
I want to be spiritually connected to you, to your
plan and purpose for my life, and to your family.
And so tonight I take that first step of trusting
you in your name.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I pray Amen.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
You know, if you just prayed that prayer for the
very first time, or you just recommitted your life to
Jesus again today, would you let me know about it.
There's something real about sharing your commitment. So write me
Rick at Pastorick dot com and say, Rick, I prayed
that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.
And I'll send you some material that will help you
(21:22):
on your journey with Jesus. And I'll also pray for you.
God bless you.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something
I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to
tell you how you can help support this ministry.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
according to five specific purposes. He said, You've got to
love God with all your heart. That's worship, and love
your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism, Baptize
them into the Family of God. That's followship, a sign
(22:01):
of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the
Great Commission. We believe it daily Hope that a great
commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will
produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
a great community. You know, I started Daily Hope so
(22:23):
I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just
across America, but all around the world. And we want
people to know that God's word is filled with hope
and truth, and the power that we need to follow
him every day is available to every single one. You
know as well as I do, that the Word of
God changes lives. It's a live it's active, and it
(22:44):
breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.
So wherever you listen to this, whether you listen on
the website, whether you listen on a radio station, or
whether you listen to a podcast. You're a part of
the Daily Hope family, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Need your health.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
We could not do this without your support. Now, you know,
I don't take any funds from this broadcast. We don't
have any giant, million dollar donor who's giving big gifts
to this. It comes from daily donations from listeners like you.
We're one hundred percent listener funded. Would you continue to
pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us?
(23:22):
And let write to me, let me hear from you.
I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me.
So write me, pray for me, and support this ministry,
and God will bless it, and God will bless you,
and we'll get to heaven. And well, thank God for
all the people going to be in heaven because you cared.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Hey, if you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
just go to Pastorick dot com. Again, that's Pastorick dot com.
And really, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank
you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily
Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere.
This program is sered by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
(24:02):
your generous financial support
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