Speaker 1: Hi, this is Rick Warren, Bible teacher of the Daily
Speaker 1: Hope Broadcast. Did you know that because of Easter, your
Speaker 1: past can be forgiven, you get a purpose for living,
Speaker 1: and you can have a home in heaven. That's good news.
Speaker 1: Where else can you get that kind of news? Nowhere else?
Speaker 1: And did you know that at Easter, studies have shown
Speaker 1: people are more open to an invitation to go to
Speaker 1: church than at any other time of the year. Don't
Speaker 1: go to church by yourself, but bring somebody who doesn't
Speaker 1: know Jesus Christ, a family member, a friend, a coworker,
Speaker 1: a neighbor, a relative. And if you bring them to
Speaker 1: that church service and they come to know Christ, You're
Speaker 1: going to be making a friend for eternity. It'll be
Speaker 1: the most important investment you can ever make in their lives.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if they come to Christ, would
Speaker 1: you let me know about it. I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: that story that you brought somebody to Easter and they
Speaker 1: found Jesus. You can write to me Rick at Pastorrick
Speaker 1: dot com. That's rickat Pastorrick dot com. I would love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. God bless you and Happy Easter.
Speaker 1: Hello and thanks for joining us. Today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren and
Speaker 2: today we are continuing in a series called the.
Speaker 3: Miracle of Mercy.
Speaker 2: Rick will show us how God's mercy can lift your guilt,
Speaker 2: heal your wounds, and transform the way you live. Okay,
Speaker 2: and here's part two of a message called Easter means
Speaker 2: It's a new day of mercy.
Speaker 1: So what happens if I ask God for mercy when
Speaker 1: I've messed up? You might write this down. God's mercy
Speaker 1: forgives me and frees me. He does two things. He
Speaker 1: forgives me and he frees me. Forgiveness takes care of
Speaker 1: my past guilt, and freedom gives me the power to
Speaker 1: change in the future. I'm forgiven from my past, so
Speaker 1: i can get on with my future. So many people
Speaker 1: are stuck in the past and they can't get on
Speaker 1: the future because they can't let the past go. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: I want to forgive you and I want to free you.
Speaker 1: This is the very thing Jesus said he came to do.
Speaker 1: And Isaiah sixty one, Jesus quotes this, I was sent
Speaker 1: to announce freedom to all held captive and forgiveness to
Speaker 1: all who've been imprisoned. Now he says freedom for captives
Speaker 1: and forgiveness for those who've been imprisoned. Now, He's not
Speaker 1: just talking about people in a little physical prison. He's
Speaker 1: talking about the emotional prisons that we lock ourselves up in.
Speaker 1: What holds you captive, what's got you locked up inside?
Speaker 1: What has enslaved you, what has imprisoned you. Some of
Speaker 1: you right now, in a crowd this size, you are
Speaker 1: imprisoned with regret and you just can't forgive yourself over
Speaker 1: that thing that happened in the past. And you're in
Speaker 1: a prison of regret, some of you over things you've done.
Speaker 1: Some of you are in a prison of resentment over
Speaker 1: things that people have done to you. And they hurt me,
Speaker 1: and I'm never gonna let them go, and I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna forgive them.
Speaker 3: And I'm never gonna let another.
Speaker 1: Man get close to me because he hurt me, And
Speaker 1: you're in a prison of resentment. Some of you are
Speaker 1: in a prison of envy. How come my husband isn't
Speaker 1: like her husband, how come my kids aren't like their kids?
Speaker 3: And you're in a prison of envy.
Speaker 1: Some of you are in a prison of worry, and
Speaker 1: you worry constantly, and it makes you sick and tired,
Speaker 1: and you get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Speaker 1: And some of you are in a prison of addictions
Speaker 1: and secret sins and secret habits.
Speaker 3: What does Jesus have to say to all of this?
Speaker 1: Look of the next verse John Chapter twelve, Jesus said,
Speaker 1: I have come to save the world and not to
Speaker 1: judge it. I love that verse. I've come to save
Speaker 1: the world and not to judge it. You know what,
Speaker 1: I want to be like Jesus. It's not my job
Speaker 1: to judge the world. Jesus didn't. I came to save it.
Speaker 1: My job is not to judge the world. My jodge
Speaker 1: job is to point to the Savior. And there's only one.
Speaker 1: It's not me, it's not you, It's Jesus. Point to
Speaker 1: him in that way. Now, let me be clear. There
Speaker 1: is going to be a judgment day one day, no.
Speaker 3: Doubt about it. Bible is very clear about this that.
Speaker 1: At the end of time, every human being is going
Speaker 1: to give account of their life before God at the
Speaker 1: judgment day. But that day is only for people who
Speaker 1: reject the grace and mercy of God.
Speaker 3: God doesn't want to judge you.
Speaker 1: He wants to show you mercy, which is why Jesus
Speaker 1: came to earth, which is why he offers you mercy
Speaker 1: before the judgment day comes.
Speaker 3: It is his nature to be merciful.
Speaker 1: The only people are going to be judged on the
Speaker 1: judgment day are the people who have rejected the mercy
Speaker 1: of God. There's a verse in the Bible that says
Speaker 1: mercy triumphs over judgment.
Speaker 3: I'm glad for that verse. It means I'm not going
Speaker 3: to get what I.
Speaker 1: Deserve, and neither are you if you accept the mercy
Speaker 1: of God. And so Jesus says, I want to show
Speaker 1: you mercy now. Saddleback Church is literally filled with ten
Speaker 1: and tens of thousands of people whose lives have been
Speaker 1: radically changed by experiencing the mercy of God. I want
Speaker 1: you to just hear one example, and I want to
Speaker 1: introduce Nate, who's going to come and share here at
Speaker 1: Lake Forest.
Speaker 3: Would you give him warm and.
Speaker 4: Welcome, Happy sir everyone. My name is Nate, and I'd
Speaker 4: like to share with you how experiencing God's mercy changed
Speaker 4: my life in so many great ways. Growing up, my
Speaker 4: idea of God was that he was just a bully
Speaker 4: with a stick, waiting to punish me when I failed.
Speaker 4: I believe that my salvation was up to me and
Speaker 4: I had the work to achieve it. I was raised
Speaker 4: in a Midwest church, and any time the doors were open,
Speaker 4: my family was inside. Yet our lives were vastly different.
Speaker 4: At home, physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse occurred.
Speaker 3: Often.
Speaker 4: I felt the shame of being told I hate you
Speaker 4: by my mother and the neglect of a father who
Speaker 4: would not stop her from hurting me. This led to
Speaker 4: a pattern of escape, selfishness, and denial in my life
Speaker 4: that I eventually took into my marriage. It was a
Speaker 4: pattern of behavior. This pattern of behavior led me to
Speaker 4: resent my wife and family. I eventually sought approval outside
Speaker 4: of my marriage and I had an affair.
Speaker 3: The guilt of what I.
Speaker 4: Had done led me to celebrate recovery here at Saddleback Church.
Speaker 4: Yet I was still just trying to keep my wife
Speaker 4: from leaving me. I would eventually tell my wife about
Speaker 4: my fair right before I deployed to Afghanistan with the
Speaker 4: Marine Corps. While on deployment, I witnessed many horrors and
Speaker 4: became very depressed and angry. The anger led to constant
Speaker 4: fights with authority and eventually thoughts of suicide. I believed
Speaker 4: I was a failure as a husband, a father, and
Speaker 4: now as a marine. As passer Rick just talked about.
Speaker 4: I felt trapped and caught in a prison that I
Speaker 4: had created, and I saw no way out. I sat
Speaker 4: on my cot ready to take my life with pistol,
Speaker 4: and God reached to me through a photo of my son.
Speaker 4: I was not going to abandon him. I found encouragement
Speaker 4: through a copy of The Purpose Driven Life sent by
Speaker 4: a small group from Saddleback San Clemente. I read it
Speaker 4: every day and God would speak to me through passer
Speaker 4: Rick's words. When I got home, things were anything but smooth.
Speaker 4: My issues with combat grew along with my consequences of
Speaker 4: my infidelity. This eventually led to separation from my wife
Speaker 4: and almost a divorce. I was a liar all my life,
Speaker 4: and when I told my wife about being suicidal, she
Speaker 4: just thought I was manipulating her. God used the time
Speaker 4: of separation to show me the extent of his grace
Speaker 4: and mercy. He showed me that his love was not
Speaker 4: bound to my acts, but stood apart from them. That
Speaker 4: he sent his son to die on a Cross in
Speaker 4: spite of my sin. I had accepted Christ as a child,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't until an adult at the bottom of
Speaker 4: at the bottom of my barrel, that I understood and
Speaker 4: accepted Christ in me. His forgiveness of my sin freed
Speaker 4: me from all condemnation. I still struggle with doing what's right,
Speaker 4: but now I have a new power that comes from
Speaker 4: God's mercy. In closing, I'd like to say say to
Speaker 4: you that no matter who you are or what you've
Speaker 4: done or been through, God is waiting to show you
Speaker 4: his mercy. He wants to forgive you from your past
Speaker 4: and free you for your future. Just say yes to
Speaker 4: Him today. Thank you for letting me share.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're ashamed of, but let me
Speaker 1: show you how God responds to it, what Jesus does
Speaker 1: when I mess up. Look at these next verses, Psalm
Speaker 1: chapter eighty six. Oh Lord, you are so good and kind,
Speaker 1: You're so ready to forgive, so full of mercy to
Speaker 1: all who ask your aid. If you come to God
Speaker 1: with your habits and your hurts and your hang ups,
Speaker 1: He's not going to scold you. He's going to save you.
Speaker 1: It's good news. He's ready to show mercy. And even more,
Speaker 1: look at this verse from the Bible Hebrews chapter four.
Speaker 1: Jesus understands every weakness of ours. Well, you don't know
Speaker 1: my weaknesses, but he does. Jesus understands every weekness of
Speaker 1: ours because he was tempted in every way that we are.
Speaker 3: But he did not sin.
Speaker 1: Jesus had the same temptations you and I do. He
Speaker 1: just didn't sin because he was God. So when ever
Speaker 1: we're in need, we should come bravely before the throne
Speaker 1: of our merciful God. That's a poetic way of saying,
Speaker 1: you need to come with confidence in prayer and go, God,
Speaker 1: I need help. Come before the throne of God, your
Speaker 1: merciful God, God, I need your mercy. And you just
Speaker 1: come confidently, and he says, there we will receive a
Speaker 1: stern warning and a spanking. Oh that's the reviled substandard
Speaker 1: perversion translation right there. He says, there, we will receive
Speaker 1: what circle that word. We will receive mercy and find
Speaker 1: what grace to help us in our time of need.
Speaker 1: When you come to God and you've really messed up,
Speaker 1: and go God, I've messed up.
Speaker 3: He's not stern, he's sympathetic.
Speaker 1: This is going to change your whole view of God,
Speaker 1: and it's why you don't need to run from him. Now,
Speaker 1: that's just one of the ways you need to see
Speaker 1: God's mercy in your life. Let me give you a
Speaker 1: couple others. The second is when you get angry. Now,
Speaker 1: almost all anger in our lives comes either fear or frustration.
Speaker 1: Anger is a warning light that says you're afraid.
Speaker 3: Are you frustrated?
Speaker 1: And when you don't have all your needs met, you
Speaker 1: tend to get angry. And the more needs that go
Speaker 1: unmet in your life, the more angry a person you become.
Speaker 3: So write this down.
Speaker 1: The second thing, I need God's mercy when I'm missing,
Speaker 1: when I don't have what I need, when I don't
Speaker 1: have what I need. Now, the fact that life is
Speaker 1: none of us have all that we need. None of
Speaker 1: us have everything we need within ourselves. We're all finite,
Speaker 1: we're incomplete, We're broken people with weaknesses. We all have
Speaker 1: things we lack in life. You don't have all the
Speaker 1: talents that you need, you don't have all the abilities
Speaker 1: that you need. In fact, God did that intentionally. God
Speaker 1: gave us different abilities so we would need him and
Speaker 1: need each other. If you had everything to meet your
Speaker 1: needs and yourself, you wouldn't need God, you wouldn't need
Speaker 1: other people. So you don't have all the abilities you
Speaker 1: need in life. You just don't have them. On top
Speaker 1: of that, we all have disabilities. Yeah, we're all disabled
Speaker 1: in different ways. You have some mental disabilities. You can't
Speaker 1: think in certain ways that other people can mental disabilities.
Speaker 1: You have emotional disabilities, and that's and they keep coming
Speaker 1: up over and over in your relationships, and you fall
Speaker 1: on the same traps and you have the same arguments
Speaker 1: in the same conflict because of your emotional disabilities. You
Speaker 1: have physical disabilities. Have you noticed that your body isn't
Speaker 1: perfect looked in the mirror lately? Your back doesn't always
Speaker 1: work right. Parts other parts don't always work right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well so we're all we intentionally don't have it all
Speaker 1: in ourselves.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: This is because God wants us to be dependent. See,
Speaker 1: in America, we think independence is the highest priority.
Speaker 3: But dependence is not a bad word.
Speaker 1: Dependence is just another word for trust, and trust is
Speaker 1: another word for faith. And God wants you to learn
Speaker 1: to depend on him. Why it makes God happy? God
Speaker 1: happy when we depend on it. It's just like if
Speaker 1: you're a parent. You are happy when your children trust you.
Speaker 1: You are happy when your children depend on you, because
Speaker 1: it shows confidence in you. It shows that they believe
Speaker 1: in you. You give him a promise, they believe you're
Speaker 1: going to keep it. God gets joy out of having
Speaker 1: us be dependent upon him. Now, if you don't depend
Speaker 1: on God in your life, and you only depend on yourself,
Speaker 1: you're going to have a pretty small life. You're going
Speaker 1: to have a frustrated life because you don't have enough
Speaker 1: in you to meet all your needs. You could not
Speaker 1: possibly meet all your needs. So you grow up being frustrated, disappointed,
Speaker 1: and angry because you can't meet all your needs. There
Speaker 1: are needs in your life only God can meet, and
Speaker 1: you try to meet him, You're going to just be frustrated, angry, resentful,
Speaker 1: and disappointed. Now, in John chapter five, we have another
Speaker 1: story of Jesus showing mercy to a disappointed man, and
Speaker 1: the story goes like this.
Speaker 3: In Jerusalem, near.
Speaker 1: The sheep gate, there were many gates into the city walls,
Speaker 1: and this one was called the sheep gate because that's
Speaker 1: where the sheep.
Speaker 3: Went in duh.
Speaker 1: And near the sheep gate there was the pool of Bethesda,
Speaker 1: which was surrounded by five covered porches. So there's this
Speaker 1: pool and there's like a portico around it, a colonnade
Speaker 1: around it.
Speaker 3: Now, a large crowd.
Speaker 1: Of all sorts of disabled people would lie by the pool.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we are a crowd. A large
Speaker 1: crowd of disabled people awaited live by the pool, waiting
Speaker 1: for a miracle.
Speaker 3: Now, there was a legend.
Speaker 1: It wasn't true, but there was a legend that everyone,
Speaker 1: once in a while, an angel would stir up the water,
Speaker 1: and whoever was the first to get in the pool
Speaker 1: in the water while it was still moving, would get what.
Speaker 3: They needed and be made whole.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people blue sick. They're sitting by
Speaker 1: this pool waiting for it to be stirred. Now, one
Speaker 1: poor man had been waiting by the pool for thirty
Speaker 1: eight years. That's a long time to wait for a miracle.
Speaker 1: He's been waiting for his unmet need to be met
Speaker 1: for thirty eight years. What unmet need in your life?
Speaker 1: Have you been waiting to see met for thirty eight years?
Speaker 1: And you keep expecting somebody else to meet that need
Speaker 1: or something else to meet that need, and it's not happening.
Speaker 3: What have you been waiting on to meet aug he's you.
Speaker 1: Know, if I could just get married, all my needs
Speaker 1: would be met. Anybody want to give a testimony on
Speaker 1: that one. Yeah, okay, well don't. This guy is clearly
Speaker 1: I nearly lost control there.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: When this guy's disappointed, I mean he's upset, he's frustrated.
Speaker 1: He's been laying by this stinking pool for thirty eight years.
Speaker 1: Why because he put his faith in something beside God.
Speaker 3: And you're gonna always.
Speaker 1: Be disappointed if you expect something else or someone else
Speaker 1: to meet a need in your life that only God
Speaker 1: can meet.
Speaker 3: And he's just disappointed.
Speaker 1: And imagine how discouraged he is, and how letdown he's
Speaker 1: been laying by this pool for years. He has missed
Speaker 1: most of his life. Imagine all the good things in
Speaker 1: life he's missed simply laying by this pool. No wonder,
Speaker 1: he's mad, No wonder, he's angry, no onody's frustrated his
Speaker 1: needs aren't being met, and he's just so disappointed. What's
Speaker 1: your secret disappointment? If we can do an X ray
Speaker 1: on your heart, what would it reveal is your deepest
Speaker 1: secret disappointment? Well, to be honest, Rick, I'm disappointed in
Speaker 1: my marriage is not at all what I thought was
Speaker 1: going to be, and I just settled for what it is,
Speaker 1: and I'm disappointed in it, or maybe say, you know,
Speaker 1: if I'm really honest, Rick, I'm disappointed in me. I
Speaker 1: thought by this time in my life i'd be further
Speaker 1: down the road, but I'm not. And life has not
Speaker 1: turned out the way I thought it was going to be,
Speaker 1: and I am disappointed in me. I'm disappointed in a child.
Speaker 1: I'm disappointed in my career. What does Jesus do with
Speaker 1: your disappointments? With your secret disappointments? He responds with mercy.
Speaker 1: This guy's been disappointed for thirty eight years, and here's
Speaker 1: what Jesus does verse six. When Jesus saw this man
Speaker 1: and he heard that he'd been lying there for such
Speaker 1: a long time, he asked the man, do you want
Speaker 1: to get well?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 1: This sounds like an obvious question here, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: I mean, of course I want to get well. I've
Speaker 3: been waiting for this.
Speaker 1: I put my faith in this pool, and I've been
Speaker 1: waiting for thirty of course, isn't it obviously he wants
Speaker 1: to get well. No, it's not a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are sick don't want to get well, because health
Speaker 1: means you have to change, and change is scary, and
Speaker 1: health means I have to take on responsibilities. I can't
Speaker 1: just blame other people. I can't just lay around. Health
Speaker 1: means I've got a I've got new things that are
Speaker 1: scary in my life. A lot of people don't want
Speaker 1: to get well. Do you want to get well? Do
Speaker 1: you want to get healthy in your relationships? Do you
Speaker 1: want to get healthy with God? Do you want to
Speaker 1: get healthy in your life? Do you want to get well?
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many people you know. As
Speaker 1: a pastor, I've probably counseled tens of thousands of people
Speaker 1: over the years about marriage, about their business, about bankruptcy, death, divorce,
Speaker 1: and you name it.
Speaker 3: I can't.
Speaker 1: I couldn't count the number of people that I've talked
Speaker 1: to who are in very unhealthy, very sick, very miserable
Speaker 1: relationships and aren't willing to change. And I go, well, man,
Speaker 1: why don't you just change? Well, Ricky, are you telling
Speaker 1: me to divorce?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: No, no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying change you change.
Speaker 1: You can't change anybody else. Let's just settle that one.
Speaker 1: You will never be able to change. Anybody else. You
Speaker 1: can't change anybody else. You can only change you. But
Speaker 1: when you change you, it changes the equation in a
Speaker 1: relationship and it forces change in the other person's life.
Speaker 1: So you can't change them, but you can't change you,
Speaker 1: and that will change the relationship. And when I say
Speaker 1: why don't you just do that, they start making up
Speaker 1: all these excuses and start giving me rationalizations and start
Speaker 1: blaming the other person for, you know, their problems. And
Speaker 1: that's exactly what this guy did. Now, Jesus asks the
Speaker 1: question do you want to get well? Straightforward question, yes
Speaker 1: or no, and the guy doesn't give him yes.
Speaker 3: Or no answer.
Speaker 1: Here's what the guy says back verse seven, Jesus, you
Speaker 1: want to get well? And the man says, Sir, I
Speaker 1: have no one to help me get into the pool
Speaker 1: when the water is stirred.
Speaker 3: He didn't ask that question.
Speaker 1: While I'm trying to get there, somebody is all else
Speaker 1: always gets ahead of me. Jesus didn't ask that. Now
Speaker 1: see his angers coming out. He's missed out on all
Speaker 1: this stuff. But notice what he does. He blames other people.
Speaker 1: There's nobody to put me in the water. Who are
Speaker 1: you blaming for your unhappiness? Who are you blaming for
Speaker 1: your unhappiness? Well, if my husband, if my dad, who
Speaker 1: you blaming? You are as happy as you choose to be,
Speaker 1: because happiness is a choice, and if you're unhappy, it's
Speaker 1: your fault. Happiness is a choice. Nobody else can make
Speaker 1: you or keep you happy. Happiness is a choice. I
Speaker 1: think I've been in one hundred and sixty four countries,
Speaker 1: and I spent a lot of time in little villages
Speaker 1: with the poorest of the poor people, and they're extremely happy.
Speaker 3: Why.
Speaker 1: Because happiness is a choice, Who are you blaming for
Speaker 1: your unhappiness? And then not only did he blame others,
Speaker 1: he resented the success of others.
Speaker 3: He says, you.
Speaker 1: Know, while I'm trying to get there to down to
Speaker 1: the pool by the way, where are you trying to
Speaker 1: get Where's the there that you're trying to get there?
Speaker 3: While I'm trying to get.
Speaker 1: There that goal that you've got in your life, he says,
Speaker 1: somebody else always gets ahead of me. Have you ever
Speaker 1: felt that way? I just can't get ahead. Everybody else
Speaker 1: gets ahead of me. Why did he get the promotion?
Speaker 1: I should have got the promotion. Why'd she get engaged?
Speaker 1: I should have got engaged. How come they're having a baby.
Speaker 1: We've always wanted to have a baby. And you're not
Speaker 1: only blaming, you're resentful of the success of other people.
Speaker 1: This is not a very happy man here. He doesn't
Speaker 1: have what he needs, and he's responding with bitterness, anger, frustration, disappointment.
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus responds to him with mercy. And this
Speaker 1: is what he does. In verse eight. Then Jesus simply
Speaker 1: said to the man, stand up, stand up, pick up
Speaker 1: your mat, and start walking. When the man trusted Jesus,
Speaker 1: that's the key. When the man trusted Jesus, he was immediately.
Speaker 3: Able to walk again.
Speaker 1: What had become seemed impossible became possible when he trusted Jesus.
Speaker 2: Hey, did you know that the number one attribute of
Speaker 2: God in scripture is his mercy? It is and he
Speaker 2: wants to be merciful. Two Jesus said, blessed are the merciful,
Speaker 2: for they will be shown mercy Matthew five.
Speaker 3: Seven.
Speaker 2: Now you can dive deeper into our current study with
Speaker 2: Pastor Rick's Miracle of Mercy studykit. Through his six session
Speaker 2: video and workbook study, he'll show you the five marks
Speaker 2: of mercy. You'll discover how Mercy forgives the fallen, helps
Speaker 2: the hurting, is patient with difficult people, is kind to
Speaker 2: its enemies, and cares for the loss. And as you
Speaker 2: grow in mercy, you'll experience the blessing God promises to
Speaker 2: the merciful. The Miracle of Mercy six session video study
Speaker 2: kit is perfect for both personal and small group study time,
Speaker 2: so please be sure to request your copy today. When
Speaker 2: you give a gift to help Daily Hope share the
Speaker 2: certain Hope of Jesus with people everywhere. That's our way
Speaker 2: of saying thanks. Just go to pastorick dot com to
Speaker 2: get your copy of this great resource. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 2: Or you can just text the word hope to seven
Speaker 2: oh three oh nine. Again, that's the word hope to
Speaker 2: seven oh three oh nine. Be sure to join us
Speaker 2: next time as we look into God's word for our
Speaker 2: daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
Speaker 2: Hope and your generous financial support