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.
Speaker 2: The way you live.
Speaker 1: And now the final part of a message called God's
Speaker 1: Mercy and My Failures number four.
Speaker 2: When we failed, he shows us mercy when we're down.
Speaker 2: He shows us his mercy when we're down. He doesn't
Speaker 2: beat us up, he doesn't pile on, he doesn't add
Speaker 2: to our guilt. He doesn't add scorn and shame and
Speaker 2: a scolding. He saves us. And when you have failed,
Speaker 2: he doesn't just come in and go let me tell
Speaker 2: you how bad you've done. No, he shows mercy when
Speaker 2: we're down. And there's a beautiful example of this. It's tender.
Speaker 2: It's a very tender example in John chapter twenty one.
Speaker 2: Here's the story. This is a couple weeks after the resurrection.
Speaker 2: So it's about like now, we're two weeks after Easter,
Speaker 2: So right about now, two weeks after Easter. You know,
Speaker 2: I told you Jesus was around for forty more days,
Speaker 2: it says. Two weeks later, Jesus appeared again to the
Speaker 2: disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. Seven of the disciples
Speaker 2: were there, and Simon Peter said they hadn't seen Jesus yet.
Speaker 2: Simon Peter said, I'm going fishing. Friends, that's a statement
Speaker 2: of depression. I'm going fishing. Okay, Peter's gone. I haven't
Speaker 2: recovered from this trauma. It's only two weeks out since
Speaker 2: my biggest failure in life. All I'm going to do.
Speaker 2: All I need to do is go back and do
Speaker 2: what I used to do before I've started following Jesus
Speaker 2: three and a half years ago. I was a professional fisherman.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go back all things I know how
Speaker 2: to do, Just go fishing. I'm down, I'm discouraged, I'm
Speaker 2: not feeling good. I'm going fishing. Anybody want to go
Speaker 2: with me? And the other guys go, sure, we'll go
Speaker 2: with you. So Peter said, I'm going fishing. We'll come
Speaker 2: to They all said. So. They went out of the boat,
Speaker 2: but even though they fished all night, they caught nothing.
Speaker 2: He ever felt like that. I've been looking for a
Speaker 2: job for how many months? I've fished all night. I've
Speaker 2: caught nothing. I've been looking to get married for so long.
Speaker 2: I've fished all night, I've caught nothing. I've been waiting
Speaker 2: for this ship to come in. I fished all night.
Speaker 2: I've gotten This is called a failure. These are professional fishermen.
Speaker 2: If anybody should catch fish, it's professional fishermen. We fished
Speaker 2: all night, We've caught nothing. This is a failure. They
Speaker 2: got another failure in their life. Now, at dawn, the
Speaker 2: disciples saw a man standing on the shore, but they
Speaker 2: couldn't see that it was Jesus, and he called out.
Speaker 2: Jesus called out, friends, have you caught any fish? Not
Speaker 2: a thing? They replied, At least they're honest about their failure.
Speaker 2: Then Jesus said, throw out your net on the right
Speaker 2: side of the boat and you'll get plenty of fish.
Speaker 2: So they did what Jesus said to do, and they
Speaker 2: instantly caught so many fish they couldn't even draw in
Speaker 2: the net because it was so full of fish. Now,
Speaker 2: you may have fished all night and caught nothing, but
Speaker 2: God can do more in five minutes in your life
Speaker 2: than you can do in fifty years of planning. They
Speaker 2: had fished all night and caught nothing. You've been planning
Speaker 2: this dream of years for so long, and it just
Speaker 2: has gone nowhere. Well, it says, when they did what
Speaker 2: Jesus said to do, they caught more than they could
Speaker 2: possibly handle. God can do more in your life in
Speaker 2: a few seconds. If you'll just obey him, then you
Speaker 2: can do on your own schemes and plants. Caught all
Speaker 2: these fish, and it was just so full a fish.
Speaker 2: Then John, one of the disciples, said to Peter, it's
Speaker 2: the Lord. Well done. Okay, okay. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: we followed this guy's advice from shore. We don't really know.
Speaker 2: Maybe he saw something we saw. So we throw it
Speaker 2: over and we catch all these fish, and John goes,
Speaker 2: it's the Lord. Now. I love what happens next when
Speaker 2: Peter realized that he put on his tunic for he
Speaker 2: had stripped for work. Now get this, Peter is fishing
Speaker 2: butt naked. They've been fishing all night. He's out with
Speaker 2: the guys. He's not showing off or anything. He's not working
Speaker 2: on a tan obviously because they're fishing at night. He
Speaker 2: just doesn't want to get his clothes dirty, have to
Speaker 2: take it into the laundromat so while they're out fishing,
Speaker 2: he doesn't want to smell. He takes his robe off.
Speaker 2: He's laid it over on the side of the boat.
Speaker 2: They're all standing there. He's fishing naked. John goes, it's
Speaker 2: the lord's as When Peter realized that he put on
Speaker 2: his tunic fridge strip for work, jumped in the water
Speaker 2: and swam ashore, leaving the others in the boat to
Speaker 2: pull the loaded net to shore, for they were only
Speaker 2: out about three hundred feet now. When they got to shore,
Speaker 2: they saw that Jesus was cooking fish and bread over
Speaker 2: a charcoal fire. He's got a barbecue going on here. Okay,
Speaker 2: now Jesus can cook. I'd like to see that show
Speaker 2: on the Food channel. Yea chopped Jesus won again. We
Speaker 2: liked this meal better, okay. So Jesus, he's got a
Speaker 2: little barbecue going on here at the side of the
Speaker 2: Lake of Galilee. He's cooking fish and bread over a
Speaker 2: charcoal fire. Now, Jesus says, bring some of the fish
Speaker 2: that you just caught, graciously, not mentioning the fact that
Speaker 2: they would have never caught him without him, that they
Speaker 2: had caught nothing on their own. So Peter goes back
Speaker 2: aboard and dragged the net ashore, and it was filled
Speaker 2: with one hundred and fifty three large fish. And yet
Speaker 2: the net had not torn. Now that's another miracle, because
Speaker 2: if you know anything about the Bible, you know that
Speaker 2: they were constantly mending their nets because they were always breaking. Fact,
Speaker 2: when Jesus met them three and a half years earlier,
Speaker 2: they were out mending their nets. Now, Jesus says, now,
Speaker 2: come and have some breakfast. Jesus said, you deserve a
Speaker 2: break break today. I've got these little fish mcmuffins for
Speaker 2: you for breakfast. Fresh bread, fresh fish, freshman muffins, a
Speaker 2: little special sauce on the side. Here. Okay, come on,
Speaker 2: we're gonna have breakfast, Jesus said. Now they were sure
Speaker 2: it really was the Lord. Then Jesus served them circle
Speaker 2: that phrase. Then Jesus served them he's being kind, he's
Speaker 2: being loving, he's been merciful. He's cooked them breakfast. Then
Speaker 2: Jesus served them the bread and the fish. Now, this
Speaker 2: was the third time that Jesus had appeared to his
Speaker 2: disciples since he had been raised from the dead, and
Speaker 2: there were many other times after this. And now that's
Speaker 2: a beautiful tender story of the mercy of God. Let
Speaker 2: me ask you, let me put it in context. Let's
Speaker 2: talk about you. Let's say you just went through your
Speaker 2: worst day of your life as Jesus is arrested, tortured,
Speaker 2: and murdered. You've gone through the worst day of your life,
Speaker 2: and your best friend deserts you, doesn't show up, and
Speaker 2: more than that, denies you and pretends like they don't
Speaker 2: even know you. Two weeks later, would you cook them
Speaker 2: a nice breakfast? No, you wouldn't. That's mercy. That's mercy.
Speaker 2: He's showing how much he loves him even after their
Speaker 2: betrayal and denial. He cooks some breakfast you wouldn't cook
Speaker 2: somebody who just betrayed you, and you probably spit in
Speaker 2: the food if you did love good back at them.
Speaker 2: That's mercy. You see, God's mercy towards you is not
Speaker 2: dependent upon your performance. The Bible says it like this
Speaker 2: Lamentations three, twenty two and twenty three. The steadfast love
Speaker 2: of the Lord never ceases. In other words, it never stops.
Speaker 2: It never ends. The steadfast love. It's unchanging, it's never exhausted.
Speaker 2: God never gets tired of loving you. The steadfast love
Speaker 2: of the Lord never ceases. His mercy. Mercy's never come
Speaker 2: to an end. God's never gonna say, Okay, I've had
Speaker 2: enough of your farres. That's enough forgiveness nine thousand times,
Speaker 2: not nine thousand and one. Okay, that's just one too many.
Speaker 2: I've had enough. His mercies never come to an end.
Speaker 2: It says his mercies are new every morning. You got
Speaker 2: the same old sins, but He's got new mercy for
Speaker 2: you every single morning. And that says, great is your faithfulness.
Speaker 2: God is faithful to you in his mercy. No matter
Speaker 2: what you do. Do you realize how faithful God's mercy
Speaker 2: is to you, Let me show you one of the
Speaker 2: most amazing verses in the entire Bible. Look up here
Speaker 2: on the screen Tewody two thirteen. If we are unfaithful,
Speaker 2: he God remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. God
Speaker 2: cannot deny himself. God cannot be unfaithful. And even when
Speaker 2: you're unfaithful, He will be faithful. You may give up
Speaker 2: on God, He's never going to give up on you.
Speaker 2: That's the mercy of God. You may be unfaithful to God,
Speaker 2: He's never going to be unfaithful to you. Now. The
Speaker 2: last point is the greatest miracle of mercy of it all,
Speaker 2: and it is this. He not only believes in us,
Speaker 2: praise for us, shows us mercy when we're down, doesn't
Speaker 2: get upset about it, not shocked. Number five, He uses
Speaker 2: our failures to build his church. God actually uses our
Speaker 2: failures to build his church. Jesus had told Peter, Peter,
Speaker 2: when you have turned back to me, strengthen and build
Speaker 2: up your brothers. He's talking about the brothers and sisters
Speaker 2: in Christ, the family of God, the Church. Use your
Speaker 2: failure to strengthen and build up others. Here's the rest
Speaker 2: of that story. There on the beach at Galilee, Verse
Speaker 2: fifteen John twenty one, after breakfast, Jesus asked. Jesus said
Speaker 2: to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love
Speaker 2: me more than these? Now? This is echoing back a
Speaker 2: statement where at the Last Supper Peter said, I love
Speaker 2: you more than all of these, and I would never
Speaker 2: never deny you. Everybody else right, but I would never
Speaker 2: do that. He said, Simon, do you love me more
Speaker 2: than these? Yes? Lord, you know I love you. Peter replied,
Speaker 2: Then feed my lambs, Jesus said, my flock, that's the church,
Speaker 2: the flock of God, the Church. Then feed my lambs,
Speaker 2: Jesus said. Then Jesus repeated the question, Peter, do you
Speaker 2: love me? Do you love me? Peter said, yes, Lord, yes, Lord,
Speaker 2: you know you know I love you. Then take care
Speaker 2: of my sheep. Jesus said, I want you to care
Speaker 2: about my family, the flock, the body of Christ, the Church.
Speaker 2: Take care of my sheep. Then Jesus asked the same
Speaker 2: question one more time, Peter, do you love me? And
Speaker 2: Peter was grieved that Jesus asked the question a third time.
Speaker 2: So he said, and I could hear the exasperation in
Speaker 2: his voice. Lord, Lord, you know I love you. You know everything,
Speaker 2: and you know that I love you. And Jesus replied,
Speaker 2: then feed my sheep. The way you show your love
Speaker 2: for God is by helping other people in the family
Speaker 2: of God. Why did Jesus ask this question three times?
Speaker 2: Do you love me? He was giving Peter the opportunity
Speaker 2: to make up for three denials. I will never deny you.
Speaker 2: I will never deny you. I will never deny you.
Speaker 2: And he did one, two, three times, and so he said,
Speaker 2: do you love me? Do you love me? Do you
Speaker 2: love me. Yes Lord, Yes, Lord, Yes Lord. Then feed
Speaker 2: my sheep, and let's go back to the beginning. Both
Speaker 2: Judas and Peter friends of Jesus. Both of them committed
Speaker 2: the same sin. They both denied Christ, exact same sin,
Speaker 2: just different experiences. They turned their back on him in
Speaker 2: a time of need. Judas became a trader. Peter became
Speaker 2: a teacher. Feed my sheep. Judas became a trader. Peter
Speaker 2: became a teacher. What are you going to become from
Speaker 2: your failure? What are you going to allow the failures
Speaker 2: in your life to make you traitor or a teacher?
Speaker 2: It's your choice. The fact is God is building his
Speaker 2: church on people who failed. God has only used failed
Speaker 2: people because there aren't any non failures in life. And
Speaker 2: in Matthew sixteen eighteen, Jesus said this, Now, I say
Speaker 2: to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock
Speaker 2: I will build my church and the powers of Hell
Speaker 2: will not conquer it. Now, some of you know this
Speaker 2: is actually a play on word in the original Greek manuscripts,
Speaker 2: because the word Peter is the word petros and the
Speaker 2: word rock is the word petra. They're very different. He
Speaker 2: said you are Peter, Petros. But you're going to be Petra,
Speaker 2: the rock on which I'm in my mercy gonna build
Speaker 2: on the faith, your faith and on your failures. Petros
Speaker 2: Peter literally means a stone. It means a small rock.
Speaker 2: It means a pebble. So so Peter really was a pebble.
Speaker 2: He was a stone. That's his name. Stone rocks in
Speaker 2: a pebble. Petra means a giant rock, a boulder. It
Speaker 2: can mean a cliff of rock, it can be a
Speaker 2: mountain of granite. It's a rock at Gibraltar. Rock that's
Speaker 2: a Petra. And Jesus is saying to this guy who's
Speaker 2: just had this enormous failure just a few days earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you've been unstable, you've been foot in mouth, you've been impulsive,
Speaker 2: you've denied me, you've been a little stone. But you're
Speaker 2: gonna be a rock at Gibraltar because of my mercy
Speaker 2: and pasted and we're going to go on and I'm
Speaker 2: going to build my church on your failures. God wants
Speaker 2: to build his church on your your failures. He wants
Speaker 2: to use you the same way he used Peter. So
Speaker 2: let me end with two questions. Number one, what failure
Speaker 2: have you had that God wants to use in this church.
Speaker 2: What failure have you had that God wants to use
Speaker 2: to build his church. If you've had a failed business,
Speaker 2: you should be helping businessmen because you know what it's
Speaker 2: like to have a failed business. If you've had a bankruptcy,
Speaker 2: you should be helping people who are going through bankruptcy.
Speaker 2: If you've had a failed marriage, you should be helping
Speaker 2: people save their marriages. If you've had an abortion, you
Speaker 2: should be helping women who are struggling with that decision
Speaker 2: right now. If you've had a failure in any other
Speaker 2: area of your life, if you've had an addiction, you
Speaker 2: should be helping people who haven't have that addiction. God
Speaker 2: wants to use your failures to build his church. Don't
Speaker 2: waste your failures. Last week we talked about not wasting
Speaker 2: your pain, and I said, you're gonna have pain, don't
Speaker 2: waste it. If you've been abused, use it to help
Speaker 2: people who've been abused. If you've been raped or molested,
Speaker 2: use it to help people who've been raped or molested.
Speaker 2: If you've been abandoned or betrayed, help people who have
Speaker 2: been abandoned or betrayed, and on and on. God wants
Speaker 2: to take your greatest failure and turn it into your
Speaker 2: greatest success. God wants to take your greatest hurt and
Speaker 2: turn it into your greatest ministry. Chuck Colson went to
Speaker 2: prison and then founded Prison Fellowship, an enormous ministry that
Speaker 2: helps prisoners all around the world. What failure, dous God
Speaker 2: want to use in your life? The second question, are
Speaker 2: you going to respond to your failure like Judas or
Speaker 2: like Peter? Now that's your choice. Judas had a break down,
Speaker 2: Peter had to break through. Judas gave up. Peter looked up.
Speaker 2: Judas rejected the mercy of God. Peter accepted the mercy
Speaker 2: of God. Judas lived in condemnation. Peter lived in celebration
Speaker 2: of the mercy of God. Judas ended up taking his
Speaker 2: life in despair. Peter ended up living his life on purpose.
Speaker 2: It's all your choice, And just fifty days after Peter's
Speaker 2: biggest failure, God chose him. Peter, that guy, the screw up,
Speaker 2: the mess up, the guy who denied Jesus in his
Speaker 2: deepest hour of pain. He chose Peter to be the
Speaker 2: guy to preach on the day of Pentecost. On the
Speaker 2: first day of the Christian Church and three thousand people
Speaker 2: were saved in baptized. That is the mercy of God.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't like a year after the failure. It's
Speaker 2: fifty days after he screwed up. He's standing in front
Speaker 2: of everybody preaching on Pentecost at the birth of the
Speaker 2: Christian Church. That is the mercy of God. That's power heads.
Speaker 2: Would you pray this prayer God. I've had a lot
Speaker 2: of failures in my life, and like Peter, I've overestimated
Speaker 2: my strength. And I said I'd never do that, but
Speaker 2: I did, and I feared the disapproved of other people.
Speaker 2: And I've been quiet, and I've been a coward, and
Speaker 2: I've denied you when I could have spoken up for
Speaker 2: you at work, when I could have told other people
Speaker 2: about your love, and I was more worried about their disapproval.
Speaker 2: And I've fallen into that trap. And Lord, of course,
Speaker 2: many many times I've spoken without thinking, and my tongue
Speaker 2: has gotten me in a lot of trouble. I want
Speaker 2: to do the right things that Peter did. I don't
Speaker 2: want to brush it aside and rationalize my failures. I
Speaker 2: want to grieve them. And I'm coming to you saying Lord,
Speaker 2: my heart's broken and I'm sorry, and I have a
Speaker 2: contrite spirit, and I'm a little more humble than I
Speaker 2: used to be. And I'm coming to you with a
Speaker 2: repentant heart saying I'm sorry and forgear me for the
Speaker 2: times that I've isolated myself and tried to handle everything
Speaker 2: on my own and not want people to know about
Speaker 2: my pain. Help me to let my small group support me,
Speaker 2: Help me to build that social that support network. Now,
Speaker 2: to get in a small group now before the next
Speaker 2: crisis comes. And then, most of all, Lord, I cast
Speaker 2: myself on your mercy, and like that giant boulder, I
Speaker 2: just let it go. I just drop it. And today
Speaker 2: I'm dropping my anxiety. I'm dropping my insecurity. I'm dropping
Speaker 2: my fears, the regrets, the shames, all of the things
Speaker 2: that Satan pulls that trigger on and whips me around with.
Speaker 2: I cast myself on your mercy. I don't deserve your
Speaker 2: forgiveness or your grace, but you are a forgiving God
Speaker 2: and you love to show mercy. Thank you that you're
Speaker 2: not shocked by my failures. Thank you that you're praying
Speaker 2: for me right now. Thank you Jesus that you believe
Speaker 2: in me, that you know my name, that you give
Speaker 2: me encouragement, not discouragement. Thank you that you show me
Speaker 2: mercy and you fix me breakfast when I'm down. Thank
Speaker 2: you that your mercy's never come to an end, that
Speaker 2: they're new every morning, not even tomorrow morning. You'll have
Speaker 2: new mercy for me. You are a faithful God. Great
Speaker 2: is your faithfulness. And God wants you to use my
Speaker 2: failures to build your church. I don't want to be
Speaker 2: a trader. I want to be a teacher. And I
Speaker 2: want you to turn this little stone into a rock
Speaker 2: of Gibraltar. And I humbly ask this in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen, Hey, did you know that the number one attribute
Speaker 1: of God in scripture is his mercy? It is and
Speaker 1: he wants to be merciful too. Jesus said, blessed are
Speaker 1: the merciful, for they will be shown mercy Matthew five, p.
Speaker 2: Seven.
Speaker 1: Now you can dive deeper into our current study with
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Miracle of Mercy study kit. Through his six
Speaker 1: session video and workbook study, he'll show you the five
Speaker 1: marks of mercy. You'll discover how mercy forgives the fallen,
Speaker 1: helps the hurting, is patient with difficult people, is kind
Speaker 1: to its enemies and cares for the loss. And as
Speaker 1: you grow in mercy, you'll experience the blessing God promises
Speaker 1: to the merciful. The Miracle of Mercy six session video
Speaker 1: study kit is perfect for both personal and small group
Speaker 1: study time, so please be sure to request your copy today.
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