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: All right, let's get started with part one of a
Speaker 1: message called being an Agent of Mercy in the World.
Speaker 2: Now, we've talked many, many times that God has five
Speaker 2: purposes for your life. He wants you to know and
Speaker 2: love Him. That's called worship. He wants you to belong
Speaker 2: to his family that's called fellowship. He wants you to
Speaker 2: grow spiritually and become like Christ. That's called discipleship. He
Speaker 2: wants you to learn how to serve other people and
Speaker 2: not be self centered. That's called ministry. And he wants
Speaker 2: you to share the good news with other people. That's
Speaker 2: called your mission in life. Now, mercy has application for
Speaker 2: every one of those purposes. The Bible tells us that
Speaker 2: when you show mercy to other people, it's an act
Speaker 2: of worship. It shows you love God. The Bible says
Speaker 2: that when you show mercy, it builds fellowship. It brings
Speaker 2: people together. The Bible says that when you show mercy,
Speaker 2: you become more like Christ, you grow spiritually. The Bible
Speaker 2: says that when you show mercy, it's a service to
Speaker 2: other people. It's a ministry. And the Bible says that
Speaker 2: when you show mercy, it is a form of your
Speaker 2: mission of sharing the good news, and so you fulfill
Speaker 2: your purpose in life. One of the ways you do
Speaker 2: that is by showing mercy to other people. I want
Speaker 2: us this weekend, in the last message in this series,
Speaker 2: to look at mercy as a witness, specifically being an
Speaker 2: agent of mercy in the world. When I was a
Speaker 2: little boy, I dreamed of being a secret agent. There
Speaker 2: was a show on television called The Man from Uncle.
Speaker 2: Does anybody remember this show? You're extremely old if you
Speaker 2: remember this show. Okay. There was another one called I Spy.
Speaker 2: Does anybody remember that movie I Spy? Yeah? And of
Speaker 2: course it was James Bond. And I was just obsessed
Speaker 2: with this idea of being a special agent or a
Speaker 2: secret agent. And even as a little boy, in like
Speaker 2: the third and fourth grade, I read all these books
Speaker 2: on the FBI and on the CIA and on inter
Speaker 2: Pol because I always thought how cool would it be
Speaker 2: to be chosen to be an agent that represented something
Speaker 2: really significant in the world. Well, God has chosen you
Speaker 2: to be a significant agent in the most significant cause
Speaker 2: in the world, which is called the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 2: And God wants you to be an agent of mercy
Speaker 2: in the world. And it's one of the ways that
Speaker 2: we actually share our faith. Now, Jesus said in next
Speaker 2: chapter one, verse eight. He said this right before he
Speaker 2: went back to heaven after he resurrected from the dead.
Speaker 2: He said, you will be my witnesses. Now, what is
Speaker 2: a witness. Well, if you go to courtroom, witness is
Speaker 2: somebody who just tells what they saw happen. It's not
Speaker 2: the job of the witness to convince the jury. It's
Speaker 2: not the job of the witness to be the prosecution.
Speaker 2: It's not the job of the witness to be a defense.
Speaker 2: The witness just says, this is all I saw, this
Speaker 2: is what happened to me. And when Jesus says you'll
Speaker 2: be my witness, you're the only one who can be
Speaker 2: the witness for you, because nobody else knows how God
Speaker 2: has worked in your life. Besides you, you're the authority
Speaker 2: on you. I can't be your witness. Nobody else can
Speaker 2: be your witness. Only you can tell what's happened to you.
Speaker 2: And when you tell that, that's called your story or
Speaker 2: your testimony. Just like in court, people give a testimony. Now,
Speaker 2: a lot of people think, well, I only have one testimony. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: You've got hundreds of Christian testimonies. Anytime God has done
Speaker 2: something in your life, you've got a story about it.
Speaker 2: That's called the testimony. If God has helped you overcome
Speaker 2: worry and fear, that's a testimony. If God has helped you,
Speaker 2: you know, manage your anger better, that's a testimony. You
Speaker 2: may have a testimony about your health, how God helped
Speaker 2: you through a difficult health crisis. You may have a
Speaker 2: testimony or a story about how God helped you when
Speaker 2: you're in a financial crisis, or how God saved your marriage,
Speaker 2: or how God put back a relationship. You literally have
Speaker 2: hundreds of testimonies, and the one you share is just
Speaker 2: the one whichever relates to the person you're talking to.
Speaker 2: You are the authority on you, and to be a
Speaker 2: witness simply means I share what God has done in
Speaker 2: my life. You don't have to know a lot of scripture.
Speaker 2: You don't have to be a theologian, you don't have
Speaker 2: to be able to quote the Bible. You just share
Speaker 2: what God's done in your life. Now, Jesus did not
Speaker 2: say you will be my defense attorney. It's not your
Speaker 2: job to defend God. Jesus did not say you will
Speaker 2: be my prosecutor. And it's not your job to convince people.
Speaker 2: That's God's job, that's the Holy Spirit's job. Your job
Speaker 2: is just be a witness. I don't know this what
Speaker 2: happened to me, and only you are the authority on you,
Speaker 2: and nobody can even challenge it because they're not you.
Speaker 2: You are the authority on you. You will be my witnesses. Now,
Speaker 2: what's the best way to do that in today's world? Well,
Speaker 2: as the world becomes more how shall I say it, unkind,
Speaker 2: more mean, more unforgiving, let me ask you this, is
Speaker 2: the world becoming more loving or more self centered? Self centered?
Speaker 2: There's no doubt about that. Is the world today more
Speaker 2: polite than ten years ago or more rude than ten
Speaker 2: years ago? Yeah, more rude. We know that the world
Speaker 2: is not getting more loving, The world is not getting
Speaker 2: more kind. Wars aren't going away, racial violence and stress
Speaker 2: and bigotry is not going away. Profiling prejudice isn't going
Speaker 2: to ray. The politics is getting more close or more divided, divided.
Speaker 2: We know this, and so you might write this down.
Speaker 2: In an unkind world, in a mean world, our greatest
Speaker 2: witness is showing mercy because it's so unusual. Showing mercy
Speaker 2: means thinking about the other person instead of thinking about myself.
Speaker 2: It's doing what's best for them rather than what's best
Speaker 2: for me. Every time you show mercy in the world,
Speaker 2: that's your greatest Christian witness. Because we're in a world
Speaker 2: that's very unmerciful. We're in a world that's very unforgiving.
Speaker 2: We're in a world where you're taught to put down
Speaker 2: other people. In fact, one of the highest forms of
Speaker 2: humor is put down, and some of the highest paid
Speaker 2: comedians are those who know how to put down certain
Speaker 2: races or certain segments of society. And it is those
Speaker 2: sarcastic and cynical jabs they make their money. And coming
Speaker 2: into a very unkind, unloving, unforgiving, mean world, when people
Speaker 2: show mercy, people go, that's what I expect a Christian
Speaker 2: to be. That's what Jesus Christ would do he showed mercy,
Speaker 2: Jesus said in Matthew six thirty six, show mercy to others,
Speaker 2: just as your father shows mercy to you. So what
Speaker 2: I want to do is we wrap up this campaign
Speaker 2: we've been in is talk about how and where you
Speaker 2: do that. How do you show mercy and where do
Speaker 2: you show mercy? So just quickly, we're going to look
Speaker 2: at a few principles of mercy, and then we're going
Speaker 2: to look spend most of the focus on the places
Speaker 2: of mercy. And I want you to hear some just
Speaker 2: stories examples of how normal people are sharing mercy as
Speaker 2: a witness in their daily life. All right, So let's
Speaker 2: look at some principles of mercy. Let me give them
Speaker 2: to you real quickly. Number one, if you want to
Speaker 2: build a lifestyle of mercy, start looking and listening for
Speaker 2: people's needs. That's the starting point. Start looking and listening
Speaker 2: for people's needs, the needs of people in your neighborhood,
Speaker 2: the needs of people at work, the needs of people
Speaker 2: in your family, the needs that you hang out with
Speaker 2: at soccer games. Mercy always begins with awareness. It begins
Speaker 2: with paying attention, It begins with noticing if you care,
Speaker 2: you will be aware. If you don't care, you're not aware. Now,
Speaker 2: the reason why we're not very merciful is not that
Speaker 2: you're a bad person. It's not that you are just
Speaker 2: a totally mean person. It's that you are too busy.
Speaker 2: I said this several sessions back. The number one destroyer
Speaker 2: of mercy in your life, the number one thing that
Speaker 2: keeps you from being merciful, is you're just too busy.
Speaker 2: Because when you're too busy, you're moving from event to event,
Speaker 2: from project to project, from one thing on your schedule
Speaker 2: next thing on your schedule, and you're not paying attention
Speaker 2: to the people around you. If you're not paying attention,
Speaker 2: if you're not noticing, if you're not looking, if you're
Speaker 2: not listening, you cannot possibly be merciful. If you care,
Speaker 2: you'll be aware. The Bible says in Philippians two four,
Speaker 2: look out, look out for one another's interest, not just
Speaker 2: your own. As I said, mercy begins with looking and
Speaker 2: loving and listening, and actually attention is an act of love.
Speaker 2: You know, when my kids were small, I remember I
Speaker 2: would be sitting on the sofa reading the paper and
Speaker 2: Amy would come up to me as a little girl,
Speaker 2: and she'd say daddy, and I'd say, yes, honey, and
Speaker 2: I'm reading the papers because Daddy, yes, honey, Daddy, yes, babe,
Speaker 2: what do you need? And she would pull the paper down,
Speaker 2: grab my face in her hands and say, Daddy, look
Speaker 2: at me. Why Because I've told you this before. The
Speaker 2: highest form of love is not sex. It's attention. Attention
Speaker 2: is the highest form of love. Why because attention says
Speaker 2: you matter to me. Attention. When you give people attention,
Speaker 2: you're giving them your time, and your time is your life.
Speaker 2: You can always get more of other stuff. You could
Speaker 2: give people gifts, but you can always get more gifts.
Speaker 2: You can give people money, you can always make more money.
Speaker 2: You can give people advice, you can always get more advice.
Speaker 2: When you give people your attention, you're giving them a
Speaker 2: slice of your life that you're never getting back. So
Speaker 2: when you give people attention, you're giving them the highest,
Speaker 2: most expensive gift that you could possibly give them, a
Speaker 2: slice of your life. And when you look them in
Speaker 2: the eye and you pay attention, that is the highest
Speaker 2: form of love. I've talked to a lot of husbands
Speaker 2: and dads. I don't get it. I don't understand my
Speaker 2: wife and kids. I buy them everything they need. I
Speaker 2: provide for all. They've got a great home. There's no needs,
Speaker 2: physical needs. What more do they want? They want you.
Speaker 2: They want you. They want your attention, and it is
Speaker 2: worth more than anything else you could possibly give them.
Speaker 2: When you look at people in the eye and you
Speaker 2: listen to them with your ear, you are showing mercy.
Speaker 2: And when you look at them and listen to them,
Speaker 2: you are paying attention, which is the highest form of love.
Speaker 2: In Matthew ten, verse twenty one, one of my favorite verses,
Speaker 2: a young man comes up to Jesus. He's got a
Speaker 2: lot of problems. He asked the questions, and the Bible
Speaker 2: says Jesus looked at him and loved him. If you
Speaker 2: love people, you look at him, and when you look
Speaker 2: at him, you're showing love for them. So start by
Speaker 2: listening and looking for the people's needs around you. You
Speaker 2: just need to start practicing that this week if you
Speaker 2: want to develop the lifestyle of mercy. Number two, here's
Speaker 2: the second principle of mercy. Don't be offended by their sin.
Speaker 2: Don't be offended by the sins that they that they do.
Speaker 2: You know, grace is messy. Grace and mercy are unconditional.
Speaker 2: They're unconditional love, which means it's not like, go get
Speaker 2: your act together and then I'll like you, go clean
Speaker 2: up your life and then you'll be okay with me.
Speaker 2: Go make everything right and then I will accept you.
Speaker 2: Go live the way I think you ought to live,
Speaker 2: and then you'll be fine with me. No, no, no,
Speaker 2: you just grace is messy. Grace is unconditional. Mercy is unconditional.
Speaker 2: And if you're going to minister to people, if you're
Speaker 2: going to show mercy to people, you can't be offended
Speaker 2: by them. Jesus wasn't offended by people, and he hung
Speaker 2: out with the worst kinds of sinners quote in the
Speaker 2: day that day, the prostitutes, the drunks, the corrupt business people.
Speaker 2: He hung out with those people. In fact, he was
Speaker 2: accused of guilt by association because he hung out with
Speaker 2: people who were corrupt, and he hung out with people
Speaker 2: who were immoral, and he hung out with people who
Speaker 2: were unloving and unkind and manipulative, and yet he did
Speaker 2: not he was not offended by their sin. Let me
Speaker 2: just say this. The Bible says to look out for
Speaker 2: the needs of other people around you. I can't look
Speaker 2: out for them. If I'm looking down on them, you
Speaker 2: can't do it. And so if you, as a Christian,
Speaker 2: are looking down on anybody, you're not looking out for
Speaker 2: that person. If you claim to be a follower of
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, you claim to be a legitimate child of God,
Speaker 2: you cannot look down on anybody nobody. I've often thought,
Speaker 2: one day I'm going to do a series called Things
Speaker 2: that Jesus did Not Say. I thought that would be
Speaker 2: a good series Things that Jesus did not say. And
Speaker 2: one of the things Jesus never said was you don't
Speaker 2: have to love that type. He never said that. He
Speaker 2: never said, oh, that kind of over there. You don't
Speaker 2: have to love those kind of people. Their politics suck,
Speaker 2: their lifestyle sucks, their moral vision sucks. No, you don't
Speaker 2: have to love them because they're way way off base. Sorry.
Speaker 2: If you're going to be an agent in mercy, the
Speaker 2: Bible says you have to show mercy to everybody. You
Speaker 2: have to look out for them and not look down
Speaker 2: on them. Here's what the Bible says, Jude chapter one,
Speaker 2: verse twenty two and twenty three. Show mercy to those
Speaker 2: whose faith is wavering. Okay, so the guy out there
Speaker 2: guy goes, I'm an atheist. Fine, you're faith's wavering. I
Speaker 2: can't look down on you. I'm an agnostic. Fine, you're
Speaker 2: faith wavering. I can't look down on you. I don't
Speaker 2: know what I believe right now. Fine, your faith is waving.
Speaker 2: I am to show you mercy. The Bible says show
Speaker 2: mercy to those whose faith is wavering, and then he says,
Speaker 2: and rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment.
Speaker 2: They're making bad judgments all the time. And he says,
Speaker 2: there's still others to whom you need to sho show
Speaker 2: mercy because of their lifestyle or whatever. He says, but
Speaker 2: be careful, then you aren't contaminated by their sins. In
Speaker 2: other words, showing mercy doesn't mean I excuse everything and
Speaker 2: say it's okay. It's not okay. If you're out there
Speaker 2: and you're addicted to things, that's not okay. And showing
Speaker 2: mercy doesn't mean O, I, hey, you know I'm gonna
Speaker 2: get addicted with you or you're in corruption doesn't mean
Speaker 2: I go, oh, it's okay, it's no big deal. No,
Speaker 2: it is a big deal. But I still show you mercy.
Speaker 2: I don't get corrupted by it. I don't get myself
Speaker 2: involved in it. He says, be careful, you're not contaminated.
Speaker 2: In other words, it's the difference between acceptance and approval.
Speaker 2: Jesus accepts me completely. He does not approve of everything
Speaker 2: I do. Jesus accepts you completely. He does not approve
Speaker 2: of everything you do. Jesus accepts everybody else, he does
Speaker 2: not approve of everything they do. And there's a fine difference.
Speaker 2: We are to love people, and we are to accept them.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't mean that everything that I do is right.
Speaker 2: Doesn't mean everything you do is right. It doesn't mean
Speaker 2: anything everybody else does is right. That's just not true.
Speaker 2: One Peter four eight says, most importantly, love each other deeply.
Speaker 2: Love has a way of not looking at other's sins.
Speaker 2: Isn't that beautiful? Love has a way of not looking
Speaker 2: at other's sins. Now, did you notice these first two points?
Speaker 2: The first one says look out for people's interests, and
Speaker 2: in this point says, don't look out for people's sins.
Speaker 2: In other words, of some stuff, you should pay attention
Speaker 2: to their needs and their hurts and their interests. And
Speaker 2: there's some stuff in people's lives you shouldn't pay attention
Speaker 2: to He says, don't overlook their sins. Love covers the
Speaker 2: multitude of sins. We're not We are to look out
Speaker 2: for their interests, but we're not to look at their sins.
Speaker 2: Ephesians four to two says this in the Bible. Be
Speaker 2: patient with each other, making allowances for each other another,
Speaker 2: cut for each other's false, cut each other some slack.
Speaker 2: That's called mercy because of your love. Now, I want
Speaker 2: to give you a principle right now that if every
Speaker 2: Christian in America would practice it, it would change America overnight.
Speaker 2: And if everybody Christian in the world would practice that,
Speaker 2: it would change the world overnight. Is this principle, Write
Speaker 2: it down. Don't expect unbelievers to act like believers until
Speaker 2: they are. That is so simple, and it's so logical,
Speaker 2: but we often don't. We want to expect everybody to
Speaker 2: act like Christians when they're not even Christians. That's it
Speaker 2: ain't gonna happen. You can try to make a law
Speaker 2: to make non believers act like believers. It isn't gonna work,
Speaker 2: because the Bible says they don't have the power to change.
Speaker 2: I couldn't do the right thing until I got God's
Speaker 2: power in my life. I tried a lot of things
Speaker 2: I wanted to change in my life that I couldn't
Speaker 2: change until I got Christ in my life. Then I
Speaker 2: had the power to change. To ask a non believer
Speaker 2: to have this same moral standards as a believer is nonsense. First,
Speaker 2: they don't understand it. In the second, they don't have
Speaker 2: the power to do it. And I didn't either, and
Speaker 2: you didn't either until you get Christ in your life.
Speaker 2: That's like getting the cart before the horse. That's why
Speaker 2: it's really kind of nonsense. Where there are Christians out
Speaker 2: there trying to get all of these moral laws put
Speaker 2: into society, to create moral laws to force people to
Speaker 2: act in Christian ways before they even have the power
Speaker 2: to do it. The whole Book of Romans says the
Speaker 2: law is powerless. It doesn't have the power to change
Speaker 2: people's lives. Only grace changed people's lives. Only mercy changes
Speaker 2: people's lives. The law has never changed anybody. We could
Speaker 2: make a law that says we outlaw bigotry. Is that
Speaker 2: going to turn a bigot into a lover? No? Only
Speaker 2: Jesus can turn a bigot into a lover. Only he
Speaker 2: can do it on the inside. You can make a law,
Speaker 2: but it isn't going to turn a bigot into lover.
Speaker 2: Is just not going to do it. So don't expect
Speaker 2: unbelievers to act like believers until they are. And you
Speaker 2: can't be offended by people's sins if you're going to
Speaker 2: show him mercy, if you're going to win them to Christ,
Speaker 2: you just have to love them where they are. Here's
Speaker 2: a good example of that in Matthew chapter nine, talking
Speaker 2: about Matthew, who was one of the disciples followers of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Matthew was a tax collector. In those days, tax collectors
Speaker 2: that was the most hated profession in the Roman Empire
Speaker 2: because Rome said to the tax collectors, here's what you want.
Speaker 2: We want you to collect, and anything you get above
Speaker 2: that you can keep. So is extortion. And so a
Speaker 2: tax collector could come to you and say you owe
Speaker 2: this much money, you had no alternative but to pay
Speaker 2: it or get thrown in jail. He would give a
Speaker 2: little bit to the government and keep the rest. They
Speaker 2: were all Every tax collector was corrupt. And Jesus goes
Speaker 2: to a party with tax collectors and matt It says
Speaker 2: that night Matthew invited Jesus to dinner with his fellow
Speaker 2: tax collectors and many other quote notorious sinners end quote.
Speaker 2: Now of the Pharisees, that's the religious legalist. They were indignant.
Speaker 2: Why does your teacher eat with such scum, they asked,
Speaker 2: that's very loving. Okay. When Jesus heard this that comment,
Speaker 2: he said, Hey, healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick
Speaker 2: people do. And then he added, now go and learn
Speaker 2: the meaning of this scripture. I want you to be merciful,
Speaker 2: not to offer sacrifices for I. Jesus have come to
Speaker 2: invite sinners to me, not those who think they're righteous.
Speaker 2: And I didn't come for people who think they're well.
Speaker 2: I came for people who know they're sick, who know
Speaker 2: they're broken, who know they have problems. I've come to
Speaker 2: invite sinners to me, not to those who think they're righteous. Now,
Speaker 2: the religious pharis he's the legalists. They couldn't get understanding.
Speaker 2: Why is this guy, you know, acting cozy with crooks
Speaker 2: and riff raff. He's going to all these parties. You
Speaker 2: know there's a bunch of drunks and gluttons, and you
Speaker 2: know he's Jesus is a party animal. Actually accused him
Speaker 2: that in the Bible he's a party animal. But Jesus
Speaker 2: was not looking for their approval. What he was doing
Speaker 2: is he was looking and listening to the needs of
Speaker 2: other people. He was going to where the needs of
Speaker 2: other people were, and he wasn't offended by their stins.
Speaker 2: You can't help somebody you're offended by it. You got
Speaker 2: to show mercy.
Speaker 1: What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something
Speaker 1: I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to
Speaker 1: tell you how you can help support this ministry.
Speaker 2: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives
Speaker 2: according to five specific purposes. He said, you've got to
Speaker 2: love God with all your heart. That's where and love
Speaker 2: your neighbors yourself. That's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment.
Speaker 2: And then Jesus said, go make disciples. That's evangelism. Baptize
Speaker 2: them into the Family of God. That's fellowship, a sign
Speaker 2: of fellowship. And then he said, teach them obey everything
Speaker 2: I've taught you. That's discipleship. And we call that the
Speaker 2: Great Commission. We believe it daily hope that a great
Speaker 2: commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great commission will
Speaker 2: produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company,
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