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. So let's get started with part one
Speaker 1: of a message called God Can Use Anybody.
Speaker 2: Now the greatest joy in life. Nothing compares to the
Speaker 2: thrill of This is the thrill of being used by
Speaker 2: God for a purpose greater than yourself. Nothing else comes close.
Speaker 2: If you've never actually had this feeling, the feeling that
Speaker 2: you were being used by God and in that moment
Speaker 2: you knew it and you are being used for the
Speaker 2: purpose that God created you. If you haven't ever felt that,
Speaker 2: I feel sad for you because you're missing out on
Speaker 2: the Literally, nothing else compares to this feeling. When you
Speaker 2: have this feeling, when you know that I'm in the
Speaker 2: moment and I'm being used by God for a purpose
Speaker 2: bigger than me, you just go, this is it. This
Speaker 2: is why I'm alive. I get it now, I understand.
Speaker 2: This is my place in life, this is my identity,
Speaker 2: This is my niche. I know why I'm here, I
Speaker 2: know why I'm was made. See, you were made for
Speaker 2: far more than just living for yourself. Oh no, If
Speaker 2: you just live for yourself, you're gonna live a very
Speaker 2: frustrated life, a very unfulfilled life, and eventually a very
Speaker 2: bored life because you're not a big enough cause.
Speaker 3: To live for. You need something bigger than.
Speaker 2: Yourself that pulls you out of yourself, that makes you
Speaker 2: bigger than yourself, greater than yourself. Where you go, I
Speaker 2: know this is what I was made for. If you
Speaker 2: think that the purpose of life is to get into education,
Speaker 2: then get job, then make money, then retire and then die, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: you were made for far more than that. Your life
Speaker 2: is far more significant than your career, far more significant.
Speaker 2: Oh no, you were made for something of eternal consequences,
Speaker 2: and God wants to use you. You were shaped to
Speaker 2: serve God. So today, as we continue in the Miracle
Speaker 2: of Mercy series, I want us to look at the
Speaker 2: idea that God can use anybody, anybody because of his mercy.
Speaker 2: And let's start with the Book of Romans, chapter six,
Speaker 2: verse thirteen. The Bible says this, give yourselves completely to
Speaker 2: God every part of you, because you have been brought
Speaker 2: from death to life.
Speaker 3: We talked about that at Easter last week.
Speaker 2: And now you want to be used by God for
Speaker 2: good and for his righteous purposes. Now the problem is this,
Speaker 2: a lot of people secretly fear that God could never
Speaker 2: use them. They say, oh, yeah, God could use her,
Speaker 2: God could use that guy. God could bless that person.
Speaker 2: But God's not gonna do that with me, and they
Speaker 2: either feel disqualified or they feel unqualified. They feel disqualified
Speaker 2: because I know my past. I know the mistakes I've made,
Speaker 2: I know the sins I've committed. I know all stuff
Speaker 2: that didn't work right in my life, and so there's
Speaker 2: no way God's gonna use me. God can use a
Speaker 2: lot of other people, but I'm disqualified because of some
Speaker 2: poor decisions I made in my past.
Speaker 3: You're dead wrong. You're dead wrong on that.
Speaker 2: And some people don't feel disqualified, but they feel unqualified.
Speaker 2: I don't have her talents. I don't got that guy's gifts.
Speaker 2: I don't have that ability. I don't have that education,
Speaker 2: that background, I don't have that you know, whatever, opportunity.
Speaker 2: And so I'm either disqualified or I'm unqualified to be
Speaker 2: used by God. Now we only have to look at
Speaker 2: the life of the apostle Paul, Paul, Saint Paul to
Speaker 2: blow up both of those myths. They're just not true.
Speaker 2: They're lives. Their lives. God wants to use you in
Speaker 2: ways you have not even imagined. Now, when you go
Speaker 2: through history, nobody has ever been used more by God
Speaker 2: in all of history than this guy named Paul. He
Speaker 2: personally almost single handedly spread Christianity all over the Roman Empire.
Speaker 2: He was an amazing guy, planted churches everywhere. He wrote
Speaker 2: about half of the New Testament part of the Bible.
Speaker 3: He is an amazing man. And it would be very.
Speaker 2: Difficult to argue that anybody has ever been used more
Speaker 2: by God than this guy named Paul. And yet Paul
Speaker 2: had an amazing past that wasn't very very good. And
Speaker 2: in Second Corinthians four, now this book is called Corinthians
Speaker 2: because he's writing to a church in.
Speaker 3: A Greek city called Corinth.
Speaker 2: If you're writing to us, it'd be called Second Californians.
Speaker 2: But this is called Corinthians because he's writing to people
Speaker 2: who live in the city of Corinth, Greece. And in
Speaker 2: Second Corinthians, chapter four, he gives us the five secrets
Speaker 2: of being used by God. And if you want God
Speaker 2: to bless you, you want God's power in your life.
Speaker 3: You want to see God.
Speaker 2: I want to know that my life stands for something,
Speaker 2: that it matters, that I'm fulfilling the purpose.
Speaker 3: I was created for. I want my life to count.
Speaker 2: I don't just be a spot on the planet and
Speaker 2: then boof, I die and that's it. Then you need
Speaker 2: to understand these five secrets. Let's get right into it
Speaker 2: and we'll just go through the passage, verse by verse. Now,
Speaker 2: the first principle. If you're writing this down, it's in
Speaker 2: verse one. Here's what you're write down. Never forget. Here's
Speaker 2: the first secret. Never forget. It's all because of God's mercy.
Speaker 2: Never forget it's all because of God's mercy. Now, last
Speaker 2: week I gave you a definition of mercy. Mercy is
Speaker 2: undeserved forgiveness and unearned kindness. Undeserved forgiveness and unearned kindness.
Speaker 2: When somebody forgives you don't deserve it, that's mercy. When
Speaker 2: somebody shows you a kindness and you can't pay him back,
Speaker 2: that's mercy. God treats you with mercy every second of
Speaker 2: your life. And the first thing you need to remember
Speaker 2: is that everything God does in you, he does by mercy.
Speaker 2: Everything God does for you he does by mercy. Everything
Speaker 2: God does with you and by you, he does by mercy.
Speaker 2: Everything God does through you to make a contribution in
Speaker 2: the world, he does by mercy. It's all because of
Speaker 2: His mercy. We haven't earned it, we haven't deserved it.
Speaker 2: It's just his mercy. And you never get over this,
Speaker 2: and you never forget it. And in verse one, Paul says,
Speaker 2: this God, in his mercy has given us this ministry,
Speaker 2: and this work to do. Ministry is a work to do.
Speaker 2: Work to do is ministry. That's why we do not
Speaker 2: become discouraged, and we never give up. Now, don't get
Speaker 2: all wigged out by this word ministry. Some of you
Speaker 2: think that's a churchy word, and ministry is what ministers do. Now, No,
Speaker 2: ministry just means any time you use your talents that
Speaker 2: God gave you to help somebody else. When you use
Speaker 2: your talent to help somebody else, that's ministry. It's not
Speaker 2: something you do in church, it's something you do.
Speaker 3: In the world.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a ministry. Every person is a minister. God
Speaker 2: wants every person to be a minister. Not everybody's a pastor.
Speaker 2: That's a different thing, but everybody is a minister. The
Speaker 2: word ministry in the word service of the same word.
Speaker 2: So if you're an accountant that you're good at accounting
Speaker 2: and you help people with accounting, accounting.
Speaker 3: Is your ministry.
Speaker 2: If you could be a truck driver, and truck driving
Speaker 2: could be your ministry.
Speaker 3: You could be a.
Speaker 2: Salesman and selling a product that actually helps people, then
Speaker 2: that's a ministry. You could be an attorney and have
Speaker 2: a ministry. You could be a school teacher, a childcare worker.
Speaker 3: Anything that you do. When you use the talents and the.
Speaker 2: Gifts the abilities God has given you help other people,
Speaker 2: that's your ministry. So your job can be your ministry
Speaker 2: if you're doing it because you love God, and he says,
Speaker 2: God in his mercy, has given us this work to do,
Speaker 2: given us this ministry. Now, you were created to make
Speaker 2: a contribution with your life. You weren't made to just
Speaker 2: take up space. You weren't made to just live for yourself.
Speaker 2: You think God created.
Speaker 3: You to live for you.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, He created you for something much much bigger.
Speaker 2: And you are shaped to serve God and it's all
Speaker 2: because of his mercy. Now, there's a couple of benefits
Speaker 2: of understanding this. When you understand that God shows you
Speaker 2: mercy every moment of your life, and that he loves
Speaker 2: you unconditionally, and there's nothing you can do that God
Speaker 2: stop loving you, and even when you blow it, He's
Speaker 2: still going to show you mercy. It does a couple things. First,
Speaker 2: when I understand mercy, I don't have to.
Speaker 3: Prove my worth.
Speaker 2: That relieves workoholism, if you overwork, if you work too much,
Speaker 2: and you work work, work, work, work. You're trying to
Speaker 2: prove your worth through your work, and you think if
Speaker 2: I'm successful at work, then I'm worth more. I'm worth
Speaker 2: a lot, I'm worthwhile. Your worth has nothing to do
Speaker 2: with your work. It's the fact that you're a child
Speaker 2: of God. It's the fact that God made you and
Speaker 2: loved you and sent Jesus to die for you that
Speaker 2: shows your worth, not your work. Your value has nothing
Speaker 2: to do with your valuables. You have a lot or little,
Speaker 2: has nothing to do with how valuable you are. And
Speaker 2: so when I understand mercy, it takes me off the
Speaker 2: performance trap. I don't have to prove that I'm worthwhile
Speaker 2: to anybody because God loves me unconditionally, and if you
Speaker 2: don't love me, that's your problem.
Speaker 3: And I don't need your approval to be happy.
Speaker 2: Because God loves me and God is showing me mercy,
Speaker 2: I don't have to prove my worth. The other thing
Speaker 2: that happens when I understand mercy is I don't have
Speaker 2: to wallow in my mistakes. Now, we all make mistakes,
Speaker 2: we all sin, we all blow it, We've all made dumb, dumb,
Speaker 2: dumb decisions in the past, but you don't have to
Speaker 2: wallow in it because of God's mercy. Go. I know
Speaker 2: God is showing me mercy. Yes, it was wrong, it
Speaker 2: was dumb as stupid. I'm sorry. I repent. I want
Speaker 2: to turn away from it, but I'm not gonna be
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna dwell on it. It's not gonna hold
Speaker 2: me back. I'm not gonna be stuck in the past
Speaker 2: because God is showing me mercy. And I never forget
Speaker 2: that God has shown me mercy.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: I know what some of you're thinking said, but Rick,
Speaker 2: you don't know my past. You don't know the things
Speaker 2: that I've done that I'm ashamed of. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: It really doesn't matter now. Paul, who was, as I said,
Speaker 2: the most used person by God in history, had a
Speaker 2: terrible past, and he's brutally honest about you know what
Speaker 2: Paul was before he became a preacher, before he became
Speaker 2: a pastor, a church planter, he was an anti Christian
Speaker 2: terrorist and he went from village to village killing Christians.
Speaker 2: He was a murderer, the exact opposite of what would
Speaker 2: you expect being somebody that God could use. And let
Speaker 2: me just show you up here on the screen. Paul
Speaker 2: wrote a letter to a guy named Timothy. He was
Speaker 2: a young man who was a pastor in Ephesus, and
Speaker 2: he writes a letter to him, Timothy, and he says,
Speaker 2: I thank Jesus Christ. I think Christ Jesus because he
Speaker 2: trusted me and he gave me. It's a gift. He
Speaker 2: gave me this work of serving him, and God's given
Speaker 2: you a gift of serving him.
Speaker 3: He said.
Speaker 2: In the past, I spoke against Christ, he said, man,
Speaker 2: I even persecuted him. In fact, he said, I did
Speaker 2: all kinds of things to hurt him. But God showed
Speaker 2: me mercy. Your past does not preclude your future. Your
Speaker 2: past has passed. It's over. Okay, you messed up, fine,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what you've done. God says, I want to
Speaker 2: use you today because of my mercy. Look on your outline.
Speaker 2: Galatians Chapter one. Paul says this. He says, you know
Speaker 2: what I was like, You know before I followed Christ.
Speaker 2: He goes, how violently I violently persecuted Christians.
Speaker 3: He said, I did my best to get rid of them.
Speaker 3: He killed people.
Speaker 2: But he said, then something happened for it pleased God
Speaker 2: in his kindness. That's mercy, in his kindness to choose
Speaker 2: me and call me. In a circular word, choose and call.
Speaker 2: Because God has chosen and called you. I'll talk about
Speaker 2: that in a minute. In his kindness, God chose me
Speaker 2: and called me before I was born. What undeserved mercy?
Speaker 3: Now? Paul says this.
Speaker 2: When God made me, before even made me, he decided
Speaker 2: what he wanted me to do with my life. He
Speaker 2: knew how he was going to use me. And even
Speaker 2: already he knew all the stupid things that are gonna
Speaker 2: He's gonna know all the people I murdered. He's gonna
Speaker 2: do all he knew already in advance, all the sins
Speaker 2: I was gonna commit, and yet he still chose me,
Speaker 2: and he still called me.
Speaker 3: That's mercy. The same is true with you.
Speaker 2: God has a calling on your life. Some people say, well,
Speaker 2: I'm called, and they think, oh, like to be called
Speaker 2: as like for pastors or priests or nuns or missionaries
Speaker 2: or like religious type people. No, no, no, everybody is called
Speaker 2: by God to serve him, and everybody is chosen by
Speaker 2: God to serve him. You're shaped for service. You're created
Speaker 2: to make a contribution with your life. And before you
Speaker 2: were born, God already knew every dumb thing you were
Speaker 2: gonna do. In fact, God already knows all the dumb
Speaker 2: sins you're gonna commit in the future that you haven't
Speaker 2: even done yet.
Speaker 3: He already knows all those things.
Speaker 2: But in his mercy, it doesn't disqualify you from serving him.
Speaker 2: That's called mercy. And God says, I'm gonna use you
Speaker 2: in spite of the fact that you are broken. God
Speaker 2: has never ever, ever used a perfect person, because there
Speaker 2: aren't any except Jesus Christ. If God only used perfect people,
Speaker 2: what would get done in the world. Nothing, not a zip, nothing,
Speaker 2: Because there are no perfect people in the world. God
Speaker 2: only used flawed people. God only uses marred people. God
Speaker 2: only uses broken people, weak people, sinful people, people.
Speaker 3: Who don't have it all together.
Speaker 2: Everything that gets done that's good in the world is
Speaker 2: done by less than perfect people. That's because the mercy
Speaker 2: of God. So you never forget that God wants to
Speaker 2: save you. He created you, he loves you, and he
Speaker 2: wants to use you all because of his mercy. I
Speaker 2: went through the Bible this week and I made a
Speaker 2: list of famous people that God used in spite of
Speaker 2: what you might consider to be a weakness. Okay, Abraham.
Speaker 2: Abraham was really, really old. He was like ninety years
Speaker 2: old when God start using him, and nothing really kicked
Speaker 2: in till he was like a hundred. Okay, So some
Speaker 2: of you they, well, I've wasted a lot of time.
Speaker 2: Well not as much as Abraham did.
Speaker 3: Okay. Abraham.
Speaker 2: Jacob was a chronic liar, and God used him, and
Speaker 2: he ran away from every difficult situation. Joseph was abused,
Speaker 2: He was abused. Gideon was poor, he was the poorest
Speaker 2: kid in his family. Samson was a reckless codependent. God
Speaker 2: used him. Rehab was a prostitute, and yet Rahab shows
Speaker 2: up in God's Hall of fame. In Hebrews chapter eleven
Speaker 2: as a great woman of faith. He used her in
Speaker 2: spite of her mistakes. Jonah was fearful and reluctant. Elijah
Speaker 2: was suicidal. Naomi used by God, was an elderly widow.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah had chronic depression and God used him. He was
Speaker 2: called the weeping prophet because he cried all the time. Really,
Speaker 2: David had an affair and then had his mistress's husband killed.
Speaker 2: That would, I would think, disqualify you. Okay, you would
Speaker 2: think that one. But but David wrote the Book of Psalms,
Speaker 2: and God used him in a great way. John the
Speaker 2: Baptist was eccentric, to say the least, if you know
Speaker 2: anything about him. Peter was impulsive and had serious anger
Speaker 2: management problems. You got a problem with your temper, doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: God wants to use you. Martha worried a lot. You're
Speaker 2: a worry wart. God wants to use you. The Samaritan
Speaker 2: woman had several failed marriages.
Speaker 3: God used her.
Speaker 2: Zachius had been an unethical scam artist.
Speaker 3: God used him.
Speaker 2: Thomas had doubts, Timothy was timid, and Moses, David, and
Speaker 2: Paul were all guilty of murder in their past. So
Speaker 2: what's your excuse, Why why can you not be used
Speaker 2: by God? I want you to write this down on
Speaker 2: the screen. Here, write this down. Every saint has a past,
Speaker 2: and every sinner has a future. Every saint, that guy
Speaker 2: you think, man, he's a good guy. He's a good guy.
Speaker 2: That guy, he's a godly man. That woman she's a saint.
Speaker 2: Every saint has a past. They've messed up, they've flawed,
Speaker 2: they've fumbled the ball, they've screwed up all in the past.
Speaker 2: Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Speaker 2: That's because of the mercy of God. Doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: bad you've messed up. God says, I want to use
Speaker 2: you for good, and I want you to feel me
Speaker 2: using you in your life. In Ephesians, chapter two, verse ten,
Speaker 2: of the Bible says this, it is God himself who
Speaker 2: has made us. He made us what we are, and
Speaker 2: he's given us new lives from Christ Jesus, and long ago,
Speaker 2: this is before you were born. Long ago he planned
Speaker 2: that we should spend these lives in watching Telli. No,
Speaker 2: we should spend these lives and what helping others. That's
Speaker 2: your work to do, that's your ministry. When you go,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna use the talent, the ability, the background. I've
Speaker 2: got to help somebody else. That's what God plan for
Speaker 2: you to do. And when you look at what you're
Speaker 2: good at, that's what you're supposed to do, all right.
Speaker 2: So that's the starting point. Never forget it's all because
Speaker 2: of God's mercy. Here's the second key to being used
Speaker 2: by God. Be real. You must be real. Write this down.
Speaker 2: You got to be authentic. You've got to be genuine.
Speaker 2: You have to be yourself. You can't be somebody you're not.
Speaker 2: God did not create you to be somebody else. So
Speaker 2: many of us start off, all of us start off
Speaker 2: as originals, and we end up as being carbon copies,
Speaker 2: and we start trying to be like other people. God
Speaker 2: wants to use you as you. He doesn't want you
Speaker 2: to be somebody else. When you get to heaven one day,
Speaker 2: God say, hey, why weren't you more like Moses? Why
Speaker 2: weren't you more like your sister or your mom, or
Speaker 2: your brother or your dad. God's not gonna compare you
Speaker 2: to anybody else. He made you to be you, and
Speaker 2: if you don't be you, who's gonna be you? A
Speaker 2: lot of people think in order for God to use me.
Speaker 2: I've got to be somebody different than him. Now, you're
Speaker 2: dead wrong. You don't have to be somebody different. In fact,
Speaker 2: God made you to be you, and that's all he
Speaker 2: wants you to be. And so you've got to be real.
Speaker 2: You can't wear a mask. God does not use fakes.
Speaker 2: God does not use phonies. God does not use posers.
Speaker 2: God does not use pretenders. God does not use people
Speaker 2: who wear a mask and act one way over here
Speaker 2: and another way over here. He just wants you to
Speaker 2: be real. He wants you to be authentic. He wants
Speaker 2: you to be yourself. God made you to be you. Now,
Speaker 2: this is a problem because so many people are trying
Speaker 2: to be somebody or not, and they're trying to be
Speaker 2: somebody they're not either because they think somebody else wants
Speaker 2: them to be that way and they're living for the
Speaker 2: approval of others, or they actually think God wants them
Speaker 2: to be that way, and they well, you know, God
Speaker 2: would really love me more if I would act like this. No,
Speaker 2: God love is not based on how you act. That's mercy.
Speaker 2: He loves you no matter what you do, good or bad.
Speaker 2: So his love isn't based on that. But a lot
Speaker 2: of people are living for the expectations of other people.
Speaker 2: They're living for the approval of other people. And you've
Speaker 2: just got to be real. Now, if you try to
Speaker 2: be somebody that you're not thinking that's gonna please God
Speaker 2: or your boyfriend or anybody else for that matter, three
Speaker 2: things are gonna happen in your life. First, you're always
Speaker 2: going to be under stress if you try to be
Speaker 2: somebody you're not, You're always gonna be understressed torush your life. Second,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have the fear of being exposed. What if
Speaker 2: people find out what I'm really like? And then third,
Speaker 2: you're gonna end up manipulating people because you're afraid of
Speaker 2: being who God really made you to be. Now this
Speaker 2: is in verse two. We're going through this chapter together,
Speaker 2: and the second key Paul says in order to be
Speaker 2: used by God is you've got to be real. You
Speaker 2: gotta be yourself. Verse two he says this, we don't
Speaker 2: try to trick anyone. In other words, we're not manipulators,
Speaker 2: we're not phonies or fakes. We're not trying to manipulate others.
Speaker 2: We don't try to trick anyone, and we don't twist
Speaker 2: the word of God. Instead, we teach the truth plainly,
Speaker 2: showing everyone who we really are, circle the word really,
Speaker 2: who we really are. God wants you to show people
Speaker 2: who you really are. Then they can know in their
Speaker 2: hearts what kind of people we are in God's sight.
Speaker 2: He's saying, you gotta be real, Paul Goes, I've got
Speaker 2: nothing to hide. I'm completely transparent. What you see is
Speaker 2: what you get. Now, let me say it again. You
Speaker 2: don't have to be perfect for God to use you
Speaker 2: in a great way, but you do have to be authentic.
Speaker 2: You have to be authentic and you got to be
Speaker 2: real and you can just what you see is what
Speaker 2: you get. You know, you're looking at a very flawed man,
Speaker 2: very flawed.
Speaker 3: If you don't believe it.
Speaker 2: I ask my staff, ask my family, ask my neighbors,
Speaker 2: ask me. If you've been around here in any length
Speaker 2: of time. You probably know my weaknesses because I talk
Speaker 2: about them all the time because i want you to
Speaker 2: know that I know what they are. I'm more aware
Speaker 2: of my weaknesses than anybody else, and so I talk
Speaker 2: about them because I just want you to know that
Speaker 2: God uses weak people. I actually think imperfections in a
Speaker 2: pastor are a good thing. Because then you go, well,
Speaker 2: good night. If God uses that guy, maybe you.
Speaker 3: Could use me.
Speaker 2: If God uses somebody who's got as many problems and
Speaker 2: messes up, and then maybe God could use me too.
Speaker 3: You see, people.
Speaker 2: Don't actually grow from your strengths. They grow from your weaknesses.
Speaker 2: If you go out and only try to show your
Speaker 2: strengths to the world and you go, here's all my strengths,
Speaker 2: will people go, well, goodie for you. And when you
Speaker 2: share your strengths, it doesn't make other people feel close
Speaker 2: to you. It makes them jealous, mad, envious, or angry
Speaker 2: or whatever, and go, who do you think you are.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, when you get up and you
Speaker 2: talk about here's where I blew it, Here's where I
Speaker 2: made a mistake.
Speaker 3: This is my weakness. You know.
Speaker 2: Here, here's the real deal. Then that actually causes people
Speaker 2: to draw closer to you, and it makes it makes
Speaker 2: intemacy much better in a relationship when you reveal your
Speaker 2: weakness is not your strengths. A lot of people are
Speaker 2: in marriages that are terrible because people are trying to
Speaker 2: hide their weaknesses even from their spouse. That doesn't work.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work. So you gotta be real. Now, Let
Speaker 2: me give you the upside of this. This is a
Speaker 2: little secret that I've learned because I stopped trying to
Speaker 2: fake it. I don't know, decades ago. And you know
Speaker 2: just what you see is what you get. And if
Speaker 2: you don't like that, well sorry. But when you live authentically,
Speaker 2: when you live real, when you're not trying to fake it,
Speaker 2: it gets better every year. Your life gets better every year.
Speaker 2: When you're real, when you're honest, when you're the real deal.
Speaker 2: When you fake it, when you wear a mask, when
Speaker 2: you pretend, it gets worse every year. You get more
Speaker 2: stressed out, and the more you hide, and the more
Speaker 2: you pretend, and the more you wear a mask, and
Speaker 2: the more you're not in touch with who you really are,
Speaker 2: the worse it actually gets. Now, do you know the
Speaker 2: number one barrier that keeps you from being used by God?
Speaker 2: The feeling his power and his presence in your life
Speaker 2: and God using the number one reason is your fear
Speaker 2: of being real. It's the fear of being real because
Speaker 2: you think, you know if I really be who I am?
Speaker 2: What if you feel don't like me?
Speaker 3: Why am I.
Speaker 2: Afraid to tell you I am? Because if I tell
Speaker 2: you who I really am, you may not like me,
Speaker 2: and I'm all I've got and I'm up a creek
Speaker 2: without a paddle, and that's no good. And so we
Speaker 2: live behind walls and we fake it till we make it,
Speaker 2: and we wear these masks, and we live with lives
Speaker 2: of insecurity. Now, the antidote to your insecurity, all those
Speaker 2: secret fears and all those things that where you don't
Speaker 2: want to show people who you really are. The antidote
Speaker 2: is to get God's spirit of mercy in you. And
Speaker 2: when you get God's spirit of mercy in you, and
Speaker 2: you realize God loves me unconditionally. God is never going
Speaker 2: to stop loving me. God's mercy is going to be
Speaker 2: with me, no matter whether I do it right or
Speaker 2: do it wrong, how many mistakes I make. He's not
Speaker 2: going to get tired of forgiving me. When you realize
Speaker 2: that God truly loves you unconditionally, then you realize you're
Speaker 2: a child of God, and that liberates you to be
Speaker 2: who God made you to be. In Romans chapter eight,
Speaker 2: verse fifteen, Paul says it like this. The spirit we received,
Speaker 2: this is the spirit of God, the spirit of mercy.
Speaker 2: The spirit of mercy that we receive does not make
Speaker 2: us slaves again to fear. It makes us children of God.
Speaker 2: Now that verse says that there's two ways you can
Speaker 2: live in life. You can live either under the bondage
Speaker 2: of a spirit of fear, or you can live free
Speaker 2: as a child of God under the mercy of God.
Speaker 3: And you can make the decision.
Speaker 2: You can say, I'm gonna be stuck and I'm gonna
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be enslaved by fear and I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna let people see what I really like.
Speaker 3: Or I'm gonna live as a.
Speaker 2: Child of God because of his mercy, and I know
Speaker 2: He's gonna love me no matter what.
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 or the merciful,
Speaker 1: for they will be shown mercy. Five seven. Now you
Speaker 1: can dive deeper into our current study with Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Miracle of Mercy studykit. Through his six session video and
Speaker 1: workbook study, he'll show you the five marks of mercy.
Speaker 3: You'll discover how.
Speaker 1: Mercy forgives the fallen, helps the hurting, is patient with
Speaker 1: difficult people, is kind, to its enemies and cares for
Speaker 1: the loss. And as you grow in mercy, you'll experience
Speaker 1: the blessing God promises to the merciful. The Miracle of Mercy.
Speaker 1: Sixth session video study kit is perfect for both personal
Speaker 1: and small group study time, so please be sure to
Speaker 1: request your copy today. When you give a gift to
Speaker 1: help Daily Hope share the certain Hope of Jesus with
Speaker 1: people everywhere, that's our way of saying thanks. Just go
Speaker 1: to pastor Rick dot com to get your copy of
Speaker 1: this great resource. That's Pastorick dot com. Or you can
Speaker 1: just text the word hope to seven h three oh nine. Again,
Speaker 1: that's the word hope to seven three oh nine. Be
Speaker 1: sure to join us next time as we look into
Speaker 1: God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored
Speaker 1: by Pastor's Daily Hope and your generous financial support