Speaker 1: Hello, and thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren,
Speaker 1: and today we are continuing in a series called the
Speaker 1: Miracle of Mercy. Rick will show us how God's mercy
Speaker 1: can lift your guilt, heal your wounds, and transform the
Speaker 1: way you live. And now here's part two of a
Speaker 1: message called how Much You Matter to God.
Speaker 2: Now, there's a third thing that we lose when we
Speaker 2: are spiritually lost, and it's found in the story of
Speaker 2: the Lost Coin. And it is this, I lose my
Speaker 2: potential when I'm disconnected from God. That's what it means
Speaker 2: to be spiritually lost. When I'm disconnected from God, I
Speaker 2: lose my potential. My potential to do great and good
Speaker 2: things in the world are dramatically limited when I'm disconnected
Speaker 2: from God. Now I'm holding right now an American quarter. Okay,
Speaker 2: this coin right here, during its lifetime will pass through
Speaker 2: thousands and thousands of hands. In fact, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: scientists tell us the dirtiest thing you own is money
Speaker 2: because no telling how many people have handled it, uh,
Speaker 2: and and all of the places that it's been and
Speaker 2: you know, they've even done some tests and sometimes find
Speaker 2: actually you know, like drug powder on on on on
Speaker 2: coins that have been passed through uh for for you know,
Speaker 2: drug sales and things like that. Now this coin, uh
Speaker 2: as I said, will be passed through thousands of hands,
Speaker 2: and it has great potential for good. Coins put together
Speaker 2: can do a lot of good uh I mean this coin,
Speaker 2: you know, and given enough of them, you could feed
Speaker 2: a family with with these coins, you could you could
Speaker 2: build a business with these coins. You could you could
Speaker 2: save a life, you could create beauty, you could have enjoyed,
Speaker 2: pay for enjoyable experiences. You could leave a leg. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of good things you could do with these coin.
Speaker 2: But it can't do any of those good things if
Speaker 2: it's lost. If it's lost, it can't do anything good
Speaker 2: and make a good impact because it's just lost. Now,
Speaker 2: if I lose this coin, a lost coin isn't worthless.
Speaker 2: It's just wasted. Do you understand the difference. It's still
Speaker 2: worth a quarter is still worth a quarter, okay, twenty
Speaker 2: five cents. It hasn't lost any of its value, but
Speaker 2: it has lost its potential to do good, and it
Speaker 2: has lost its ability to make a difference. Its worth
Speaker 2: is wasted when it is lost now. God made you
Speaker 2: to do great things, far greater than you could ever
Speaker 2: possibly imagine you if God showed you what he could
Speaker 2: do with your life, if you gave him one hundred
Speaker 2: percent of your life and live for him all the time,
Speaker 2: it would blow your mind. Because you have listened to
Speaker 2: so many tapes from your past where people say you
Speaker 2: can't do that, you shouldn't even try that, Who do
Speaker 2: you think you are? What makes you think you could
Speaker 2: do that? And everything in society has told you to
Speaker 2: limit your vision, to limit your dreams, to limit your expectations,
Speaker 2: to not expect so much, and on and on. You
Speaker 2: have no idea what God could do through your life
Speaker 2: if it was completely placed in his hands, and then
Speaker 2: he could do all kinds of things. Only your creator
Speaker 2: knows fully what you're capable of. You don't even know
Speaker 2: fully what you're capable of, because there's parts of you
Speaker 2: you don't even know about that you don't even understand.
Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is that if you're disconnected from God,
Speaker 2: you are spiritually lost, then you lose all that potential.
Speaker 2: You can't be what God wants you to be if
Speaker 2: you're not even connected to God you'll miss what God
Speaker 2: has planned for your life, and that's a wasted life.
Speaker 2: The Bible says it like this in one Corinthians two nine.
Speaker 2: No one has ever seen or heard or even imagined.
Speaker 2: In other words, you can't even think of how great
Speaker 2: this is, even imagine the wonderful things that God has
Speaker 2: prepared and arranged for those who love him. Now he's
Speaker 2: not just talking about an eternity. He's not just talking
Speaker 2: about Heaven. He's talking about here and now. You can't
Speaker 2: even imagine what God could do with your life it
Speaker 2: was if it was totally given to him. Every moment
Speaker 2: of your life. You lose your direction, you lose your protection,
Speaker 2: and you lose your potential. Number four, The fourth thing
Speaker 2: I lose when I'm spiritually lost is I lose my happiness.
Speaker 2: I lose my happiness. Now we find this in the
Speaker 2: story of the Lost Son. These three stories that Jesus told,
Speaker 2: one right after another, bam bam bam. And when the
Speaker 2: younger son chooses to rebel against his father, I'm leaving home.
Speaker 2: I'm striking out on my own. I want half of
Speaker 2: my family inheritance. Now I'm not going to wait. I'm impatient. Well,
Speaker 2: the Bible says that he went out and he wasted it,
Speaker 2: and then he lost all that God wanted to do
Speaker 2: in his life, and he lost his happiness. Luke, fifteen fourteen.
Speaker 2: The younger son wasted all he'd been given, and eventually
Speaker 2: he became miserable and lonely. Circle that word miserable. Eventually
Speaker 2: he loses it all. Now why was he miserable? Well,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you this. Nothing destroys happiness faster than conflict
Speaker 2: and relationships. And he had a conflict with his dad.
Speaker 2: Let me say that again. Nothing will destroy your happiness
Speaker 2: faster than conflict in relationships. It's almost a cliche when
Speaker 2: we talk about Hollywood that you can find all kinds
Speaker 2: of people there who are rich and famous and miserable.
Speaker 2: Why because many of them have not learned how to
Speaker 2: build lasting relationships, and they go through serial marriages, one
Speaker 2: right after another, in relationship one right after another, and
Speaker 2: on and on. They don't know how, and they have
Speaker 2: conflict in their relationships. Because when you're out of fellowship
Speaker 2: with God, you're going to be out of fellowship with
Speaker 2: other people. When you're in harmony with God, it gives
Speaker 2: you the peace to be in harmony with other people.
Speaker 2: And you can't be in harmony with other people long
Speaker 2: term without being in harmony with God. So this creates
Speaker 2: strained relationships. This creates disharmony, It creates tension in our lives,
Speaker 2: It creates some conflict, resentment, guilt, regrets, all these things
Speaker 2: in our relationships. You see, you weren't designed to live
Speaker 2: in conft to God. When God, your creator, made you,
Speaker 2: he wired you to be at peace with God. So
Speaker 2: when I fund my nose to God, said God, I'm
Speaker 2: going to be my own God, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: my own thing. I'm going to go my own way.
Speaker 2: I'm going to rebel just like the son did against
Speaker 2: his loving Father. And I'm going to go and do
Speaker 2: whatever I want to do and live my way instead
Speaker 2: of living your way. That creates conflict between you and
Speaker 2: your creator, and your body does not handle that very
Speaker 2: well at all. Do you feel close to God? But
Speaker 2: do you feel separated from God? Some of me saying, well, Rick,
Speaker 2: I used to feel close to God, but I don't
Speaker 2: feel close to God like I used to. Well, guess
Speaker 2: who moved? Okay, God didn't move, He's the unmovable. You moved.
Speaker 2: I've said this many times you're as close to God
Speaker 2: as you choose to be. Then if you're far away
Speaker 2: from God, he didn't move, you did, and you chose
Speaker 2: to move away from God. I lose my happiness. Then, finally,
Speaker 2: the fifth thing I lose is I lose my home
Speaker 2: in heaven. When I'm spiritually lost, I lose my home
Speaker 2: in heaven. Now, God allows people to rebel and to
Speaker 2: disobey Him on earth. He gives us a free choice.
Speaker 2: God gives you the freedom to say, I don't want
Speaker 2: to worship God. I don't want to love God. I
Speaker 2: don't want to live for God. You don't have to
Speaker 2: live for God. You live for yourself. You're the entire
Speaker 2: rest of your life. You don't have to love God.
Speaker 2: You can just love yourself or what anything else you
Speaker 2: want to love. You don't have to love God because
Speaker 2: if God forced you to love him, it wouldn't be
Speaker 2: real love. So you were created in God's image and
Speaker 2: you were given the freedom to make choices. The problem is,
Speaker 2: that's our greatest blessing and it's our greatest curse because
Speaker 2: we make bad choices all the time, and we choose
Speaker 2: to love ourselves instead of love God. We choose to
Speaker 2: go our way instead of God's way, and we choose
Speaker 2: to do our thing instead of God's thing, and God says, fine,
Speaker 2: you may do it. You know you may. God is
Speaker 2: like Burger king, Have it your way, have it your way,
Speaker 2: and your entire life, God will say to you, have
Speaker 2: it your way, have it your way. But one day
Speaker 2: you're gonna die and you're gonna stand before God and
Speaker 2: he's gonna say, well, have it your way. You clearly
Speaker 2: didn't want me in your life on earth. Why in
Speaker 2: the world would you want me in your life in eternity.
Speaker 2: You clearly wanted to live separated from me on earth,
Speaker 2: so I guess you can live separated from me for
Speaker 2: the rest of eternity. It makes no sense to reject
Speaker 2: God's will, guidance, power, love, mercy in my life all
Speaker 2: my life and then want to die and go live
Speaker 2: in his house. That's illogical. If you don't like God, now,
Speaker 2: what would make you think you're gonna love him in
Speaker 2: eternity Heaven. God allows people to rebel, just like the
Speaker 2: Son was allowed to rebel against Father. But there are
Speaker 2: no no rebellion. There's no rebel in heaven. There are
Speaker 2: no rebels against God in heaven, and so one of
Speaker 2: the things you lose is you lose your home in heaven.
Speaker 2: Preparing for the next life is the most important thing
Speaker 2: you can do in this life, because you're going to
Speaker 2: spend far more time there than here now, Jesus said
Speaker 2: in Luke, chapter nine, verse twenty five, what good is
Speaker 2: it for a man to gain the whole world if
Speaker 2: he loses his soul? What good is it if you
Speaker 2: get your picture on the cover of Time magazine, or
Speaker 2: or you make a million dollars, or you know, you
Speaker 2: reach every goal on your bucket list, but you lose
Speaker 2: your soul because you're in rebellion against God. Let me
Speaker 2: ask you, what are you acting like? Is more important
Speaker 2: than eternity? What right now is more important to you
Speaker 2: than knowing and loving and please in God? Whatever that
Speaker 2: is is. You're God now. These three stories that I
Speaker 2: just shared with you, that Jesus taught actually tell us
Speaker 2: the reasons are the ways people get spiritually lost. For instance,
Speaker 2: like sheep, we can be lost by nature. It just
Speaker 2: comes naturally. You don't have to do anything. If you're
Speaker 2: a human being, it's naturally to get We naturally go
Speaker 2: our own way. We naturally want to be our own boss.
Speaker 2: We naturally want to ignore God. By human nature, we
Speaker 2: want to be God, and so we wander and we
Speaker 2: drift and we lose our direction. And so, like sheep,
Speaker 2: we can be lost by nature. But like coins in
Speaker 2: the Lost Coin, we can be lost by circumstances too.
Speaker 2: This one comes in too. In other words, here's a
Speaker 2: coin and it inadvertently gets kicked off the table, knocked
Speaker 2: off the table. Nobody meant to it, but it got
Speaker 2: knocked off the table. And of course in those days
Speaker 2: they didn't have tile floors or wooden floors. Often this
Speaker 2: dirt floor with straw on it. And if you not
Speaker 2: a coin off a table, how are you going to
Speaker 2: find it in a floor full of straw? I mean,
Speaker 2: that might take a long time, and so it's difficult
Speaker 2: to find. But circumstances can knock you off the table.
Speaker 2: Has an unfortunate circumstance separated you from God, you know,
Speaker 2: because of what we do through the Peace Plan, I'm
Speaker 2: often on the scene at some of the major disasters
Speaker 2: like Katrina and the earthquakes and fires and floods and
Speaker 2: stuff like that. And what I've noticed is that when
Speaker 2: a disaster hits an area, some people turn to God,
Speaker 2: and some people turn away from God. I don't know why,
Speaker 2: but it just happens. Some people turn to God and
Speaker 2: find comfort, some people turn away from God. Why they
Speaker 2: turn away from God, I don't know, because he's the
Speaker 2: only one who can give them comfort. But the point
Speaker 2: here is that coins can be knocked off and lost
Speaker 2: by circumstance. And you might have had some tough circumstances
Speaker 2: in your life that have caused you to turn your
Speaker 2: back on God. Don't do that. That's just not very smart.
Speaker 2: Don't do that. There are outside forces around you that
Speaker 2: don't want you to be connected to God, that don't
Speaker 2: want you to know God. There are people, there are things,
Speaker 2: there's satan, there's values, there are events that can pull
Speaker 2: you away from God. Then the third way we can
Speaker 2: be lost is like the son, and I can be
Speaker 2: lost by my own choices. He chose to leave home,
Speaker 2: he chose to turn his back on the loving Father.
Speaker 2: This young kid just goes. I think I know more
Speaker 2: than my dad does. A lot of people think I
Speaker 2: think I know more than God does. So I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna do what I want to. I know what will
Speaker 2: make me happy more than God does. So I'm going
Speaker 2: to do what I say to do rather than what
Speaker 2: God says to do. And we make choices so I
Speaker 2: can lose all of these things. But the one thing
Speaker 2: all three stories point out is this, and write this down.
Speaker 2: I don't lose my value. I may be lost spiritually,
Speaker 2: but I have not lost my value. I may have
Speaker 2: lost my direction. I may have lost my protection, I
Speaker 2: may have lost my potential. Okay, I may have lost
Speaker 2: my happiness. I may have lost my home in heaven,
Speaker 2: but I have not lost my value. And that's why
Speaker 2: Jesus said, I've come to seek and to save that
Speaker 2: which is lost, because you are valuable. You're worth saving.
Speaker 2: You're worth Jesus said, dying on the cross, for I
Speaker 2: came to seek and save those who are lost. As
Speaker 2: I said earlier, in art, when you lose the masterpiece,
Speaker 2: the value actually goes up. So here's the bottom line.
Speaker 2: Let them stand. So far, we're all disconnected from God.
Speaker 2: We're disconnected from God by our nature, by our circumstance,
Speaker 2: and by our choices. And when we're just connected from God,
Speaker 2: we lose those five things that we just went over.
Speaker 2: But the good news is a because of God's mercy
Speaker 2: and That's what we're talking about in this series. Because
Speaker 2: of God's mercy, Jesus came to earth to seek and
Speaker 2: to save that which is lost. He's not waiting on us.
Speaker 2: He takes the initiative to seek and to save the lost.
Speaker 2: So what does God's mercy do when I'm lost? In
Speaker 2: other words, how does his mercy save me? Now you've
Speaker 2: heard this word many many times, salvation, and you'll hear
Speaker 2: people say, well, I'm saved or before I was saved,
Speaker 2: And you hear this phrase all of time. What does
Speaker 2: that mean to be saved? What is salvation? Well, it's
Speaker 2: a big word and it's like a multifaceted diamond. And
Speaker 2: there are many, many, many, many many other words in
Speaker 2: the Bible to describe salvation. Besides the word salvation, the
Speaker 2: Bible uses words like forgiveness, the Bible is where like freedom.
Speaker 2: The Bible uses words like fulfillment, pardon, peace, power, redemption.
Speaker 2: In these three stories we find three additional words, and
Speaker 2: they are the word rescue, recover, and reconnect. And each
Speaker 2: of these stories shows us an aspect of salvation. So
Speaker 2: why don't you write these down? What happens when I
Speaker 2: am saved? How does God's mercy save me, and what
Speaker 2: happens well, Number one, Salvation rescues me from myself. Salvation
Speaker 2: rescues me from myself. And you know what, I need
Speaker 2: to be saved from me more than I need to
Speaker 2: be saved from anything else. I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: realized this, but you are your biggest problem. Not other people.
Speaker 2: You are your biggest problem. I talked to a guy
Speaker 2: the other day and he hid been through like eight
Speaker 2: or nine relationship failures, and he said, I don't understand.
Speaker 2: I said, well, what do you think is the common
Speaker 2: denominator in all those relationships? It's you, buddy, okay, And
Speaker 2: you can go to another nine relationships and it's not
Speaker 2: gonna They're not gonna work out any better until something
Speaker 2: changes in you. You are your own biggest problem. It
Speaker 2: always will be your biggest problem. Your own fears, your
Speaker 2: own anxieties, your own misconceptions, the stuff you believe about God,
Speaker 2: about you, about life, about others. You are your own
Speaker 2: biggest problem. And a lot of times we need a
Speaker 2: savior to save us from ourselves, to rescue us one
Speaker 2: Timathy two five. The Bible says Jesus is the only one,
Speaker 2: the only one who can bring us to God. Nobody
Speaker 2: else can bring you to God. Did you see that
Speaker 2: Jesus is the only one who can bring us to God.
Speaker 2: He became a human being. He was God, came a
Speaker 2: human being and gave himself to rescue all of the circle.
Speaker 2: The word rescue. Now, I know some of you may
Speaker 2: be thinking, well, you know, Rick, I don't really need
Speaker 2: to be rescued from anything. Oh. Really, you have no
Speaker 2: pain in your life, zero pain, no pain in your life. Huh. Okay,
Speaker 2: you have no problems in your life, right, no problems. No,
Speaker 2: you have no pressure in your life. Your life is
Speaker 2: at total peace. You have no worries, you have no fears,
Speaker 2: you have no anxiety, you have no guilt, you have
Speaker 2: no regret, you have no resentment, you have no conflict.
Speaker 2: Oh no, No, you don't need any rescuing from anything
Speaker 2: except you're out of touch with reality, and you do
Speaker 2: need help from that, okay, because you have problems that
Speaker 2: you can't solve. If you could have, you would have,
Speaker 2: but you can't, so you don't. And there are things
Speaker 2: in you that you don't like about you and you'd
Speaker 2: like to change, but you can't. You need to be
Speaker 2: rescued and that's one facet of salvation. Jesus came to
Speaker 2: rescue all of us. Now, some of the problems you
Speaker 2: have in your life, you say, Rick, I've tried, and
Speaker 2: I've tried, and I've tried, and I've tried. Some problems
Speaker 2: will never be solved by trying. They're only solved by trusting.
Speaker 2: They're not solved by trying you trying harder. They're solved
Speaker 2: by you trusting God to do what he can do
Speaker 2: that you can't do, in ways that you don't have
Speaker 2: and in manners and methods that you don't even have
Speaker 2: access to. Salvation rescues me from myself. You got to trust,
Speaker 2: not try, Psalm fifty, verse fifteen. Trust me, God says,
Speaker 2: in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you.
Speaker 2: There's that word again. I will rescue you, and you
Speaker 2: will give me glory. He will set you free. So,
Speaker 2: like a shepherd going after the sheep who takes initiative,
Speaker 2: Salvation rescues me for myself. That sheep needs to be
Speaker 2: saved from itself. It just doesn't know enough how to
Speaker 2: get back to the pin on its own. Shepherd's got
Speaker 2: to get out there, said, come on, little lammy, we're
Speaker 2: going back this way and then pointing back in the
Speaker 2: right way.
Speaker 1: Hey, did you know that the number one attribute of
Speaker 1: God in scripture is his mercy? It is and he
Speaker 1: wants to be merciful too. Jesus said, blessed are the merciful,
Speaker 1: for they will be shown mercy Matthew five seven. Now
Speaker 1: you can dive deeper into our current study with Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick's Miracle of Mercy study Kit. Through his six session
Speaker 1: video and workbook study, he'll show you the five marks
Speaker 1: of mercy. You'll discover how mercy forgives the fallen, helps
Speaker 1: the herding, is patient with difficult people, is kind to
Speaker 1: its enemies, and cares for the loss. And as you
Speaker 1: grow in mercy, you'll experience the blessing God promises to
Speaker 1: the merciful. The Miracle of Mercy sixth session video study
Speaker 1: Kit is perfect for both personal and small group study time,
Speaker 1: so please be sure to request your copy today. When
Speaker 1: you give a gift to help daily hope, share the
Speaker 1: certain Hope of Jesus with people everywhere. That's our way
Speaker 1: of saying thanks. Just go to Pastorick dot com to
Speaker 1: get your copy of this great resource. That's Pastorick dot
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Speaker 1: seven oh three oh nine. Again, that's the word hope
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Speaker 1: us next time as we look into God's Word for
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