Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Today we're starting a series called the Miracle of Mercy.
Speaker 1: Rick's gonna show us how God's mercy can lift your guilt,
Speaker 1: heal your wounds, and transform the way you live. So
Speaker 1: let's jump right in for part one of a message
Speaker 1: called Easter Means It's a new Day of Mercy.
Speaker 3: Now this week, all around the world, literally hundreds of millions,
Speaker 3: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of
Speaker 3: people are going to get up in the dark before
Speaker 3: daylight and go out to attend an Easter sunrise service.
Speaker 3: Easter is the only holiday that we celebrate at the
Speaker 3: break of dawn. Why is this because it was at
Speaker 3: the break of dawn on a brand new day that
Speaker 3: we heard the news that Jesus Christ had raised from
Speaker 3: the dead, and it changed everything. Now it's Easter, so
Speaker 3: let's just start with the Easter story. Look up here
Speaker 3: on the screen, let me read you part of the
Speaker 3: Easter story. Early on Sunday morning, as the new day
Speaker 3: was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary went.
Speaker 2: Out to see the tomb.
Speaker 3: This is where Jesus had been buried after dying on
Speaker 3: the cross three days earlier. Suddenly there was an earthquake
Speaker 3: when an angel moved the giant stone away from the
Speaker 3: opening of the tomb. This is one of these walk
Speaker 3: in kind of tombes, not under the dirt tomb, and
Speaker 3: then sat on the stone. Now, the Bible says, the
Speaker 3: angel's face shone like lightning, and his clothes were brilliant white.
Speaker 3: And when the Roman guards saw this happen, they shook
Speaker 3: with fear and fainted. Well, I guess so, so then
Speaker 3: it says, then the angel spoke to the women who
Speaker 3: had gone up there. I don't know, to bring flowers
Speaker 3: or whatever. Don't be afraid. I know you're looking for Jesus,
Speaker 3: who was Crucifer, but.
Speaker 2: He isn't here.
Speaker 3: He's been raised from the dead, just as he said
Speaker 3: would happen. So you know, come on in see for yourselves.
Speaker 3: There's no body in this tomb. So the women get
Speaker 3: to walk into this tomb. The big door has been
Speaker 3: moved the stone, and then the angel says, now go
Speaker 3: quickly and tell his followers that Jesus has raised from
Speaker 3: the dead and that he's headed to Galilee, and that
Speaker 3: he'll see all of you there. So the women ran
Speaker 3: quickly from the tomb. Now they're scared, but they're also
Speaker 3: filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the
Speaker 3: angel's message to the disciples. Now here's where it gets interesting.
Speaker 3: As they were going, they run into Jesus. Okay, that
Speaker 3: would be a little do do do do do do
Speaker 3: do do do.
Speaker 2: Do, And I love Jesus' response.
Speaker 3: Good morning, says Jesus, like as if nothing's happened.
Speaker 2: Good good morning.
Speaker 3: Now the women came close to him, they touched his body.
Speaker 3: In other words of goo, this is not a ghost.
Speaker 3: We're not having some apparition here, this is not a vision.
Speaker 2: This is not some.
Speaker 3: Kind of emotional you know, we're imagining this in our mind.
Speaker 2: Virtual reality. You know.
Speaker 3: They came close to him, they touched his body, and
Speaker 3: then they worshiped him.
Speaker 2: Then Jesus said to them, don't be afraid.
Speaker 3: Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee and they
Speaker 3: will see me there. And as you know the rest
Speaker 3: of the story, Jesus hung around Jerusalem for another forty days.
Speaker 3: He didn't just like appear on Easter Sunday morning and
Speaker 3: go back to heaven. No, he was hung around for
Speaker 3: the next forty days and actually met with people, had meetings,
Speaker 3: preached one time, spoke to a group of five hundred people,
Speaker 3: had dinner, cooked the disciples breakfast one time out by
Speaker 3: the Sea of Galilee. And that's why by within a
Speaker 3: few years, about half of the city of Jerusalem had
Speaker 3: become Christians. Because in a city about two hundred fifty
Speaker 3: thousand people, one hundred and fifty twenty five thousand people
Speaker 3: had become believers.
Speaker 2: Because so many people had seen Jesus.
Speaker 3: It would be strange if you were the you know,
Speaker 3: the Roman centurions who crucified Jesus, and you're walking down
Speaker 3: the street one day and there comes that guy walking
Speaker 3: towards you. He's back, that would be that would be strange. Now,
Speaker 3: why is Easter important? Because it proved that Jesus Christ
Speaker 3: was telling the truth. Jesus Christ made outrageous claims, claims
Speaker 3: that no good man would make, claims like I'm the
Speaker 3: Son of God, i am God in human form, i
Speaker 3: am the only way to Heaven.
Speaker 2: I'm the Way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 3: Now, lots of people throughout history have claimed to be God,
Speaker 3: and Napoleon and a lot of other things. But this
Speaker 3: difference is Jesus was the only one to prove it.
Speaker 3: A lot of people claim to be God. Jesus said,
Speaker 3: I'm going to prove it. I'm going to let them
Speaker 3: put me to death. I'm going to die for the
Speaker 3: sins of the world, and three days later, I'm going
Speaker 3: to raise myself back to life, which is exactly what
Speaker 3: he did.
Speaker 2: And that's split history and the And now every.
Speaker 3: Time you write a date, any date in history, you
Speaker 3: are using Jesus Christ as a reference point. In fact,
Speaker 3: your own birthday, the number of days, the month, and
Speaker 3: the year of your birthday is from in relationship to
Speaker 3: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the most important
Speaker 3: event in history. It's split history. God came to earth,
Speaker 3: died for the sins of mankind, and this weekend, about
Speaker 3: two point three billion people in the world will be
Speaker 3: celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, it happened at
Speaker 3: the dawn of a new day. But this Easter, I
Speaker 3: want to talk about a new day in your.
Speaker 2: Life because the Bible says this.
Speaker 3: If you pull out your message notes inside your program,
Speaker 3: look at the second verse there on the outline Luke.
Speaker 3: Chapter one says, this a new day will dawn on us.
Speaker 3: A new day will dawn on us because our God
Speaker 3: is loving and merciful.
Speaker 2: Circle the word merciful.
Speaker 3: This Easter, we're going to start an eight week spiritual
Speaker 3: growth emphasis called the Miracle of Mercy, because most people
Speaker 3: don't understand how merciful God really is, and that's why
Speaker 3: they're afraid of God. That's why they avoid God. That's
Speaker 3: why God is distant to them. They don't understand the
Speaker 3: mercy of God. When you understand the mercy of God,
Speaker 3: your anxiety will decrease and your peace of mind will increase.
Speaker 3: Your stress will go down, and your stability will go up.
Speaker 3: Your frustration in life will be diminished, and your satisfaction
Speaker 3: in life will be increased. So let's just start with
Speaker 3: the definition of mercy because we're going to look at
Speaker 3: it now for several weeks there on. Your outline, mercy
Speaker 3: is really here's a definition for you. Undeserved forgiveness and
Speaker 3: unearned mercy.
Speaker 2: That's the way God treats you.
Speaker 3: Undeserved forgiveness, when somebody forgives you and you don't deserve it,
Speaker 3: that's mercy. And when somebody shows you a kindness that
Speaker 3: you have not earned. That's called mercy, and the Bible
Speaker 3: says that God wants to show you mercy. Now, you're
Speaker 3: going to need mercy every single second of your life.
Speaker 3: The ere you breathe is from the mercy of God.
Speaker 3: The water you drink is from the mercy of God.
Speaker 3: Everything you have for life is because God is a
Speaker 3: mercyful God. In fact, you would not be alive, you
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been born if it wasn't for the mercy
Speaker 3: of God. God made you because he wanted to love you,
Speaker 3: and he wanted to show you his mercy. And if
Speaker 3: God hadn't wanted to love you and show you his mercy,
Speaker 3: your heart wouldn't be beating right now, and you wouldn't
Speaker 3: be taken breath. Everything in your life is a gift
Speaker 3: of the mercy of God. Now, what I want to
Speaker 3: do this Easter is simply two things. I want to
Speaker 3: ask two questions. First, when do I need God's mercy
Speaker 3: in my life? And then second, what difference does it make?
Speaker 3: I mean, how's it going to change me? How does
Speaker 3: my life get better? What are the benefits? How does
Speaker 3: it transform me? And for this series, not just this week,
Speaker 3: but for the next six weeks, I went and I
Speaker 3: studied every single verse on mercy in the Bible. It
Speaker 3: took me about two months and I found about one
Speaker 3: hundred different examples of when God says he wants to
Speaker 3: show you mercy in different areas of your life. Today,
Speaker 3: I just want to look at three. When you are ashamed,
Speaker 3: when you are angry, and when you are afraid. These
Speaker 3: are three emotions we don't like. And guess what, God
Speaker 3: doesn't like him either, and he doesn't want your life
Speaker 3: being filled with being ashamed, with being angry, and with
Speaker 3: being afraid. So we're going to look at this today. Now,
Speaker 3: let's just get right into it. Jesus ministry was all
Speaker 3: about mercy. In fact, he showed mercy to everybody. There's
Speaker 3: no person he did not show mercy to. And what
Speaker 3: we're going to look at today is three stories of
Speaker 3: Jesus encountering people and show how this relates to your life.
Speaker 3: When you're ashamed, when you're angry, when you're afraid. All right, first,
Speaker 3: when I'm ashamed, you might want to write this down.
Speaker 3: I need God's mercy when I've messed up. I need
Speaker 3: God's mercy when I've messed up. Now that includes all
Speaker 3: of us, as particularly me. None of us are perfect.
Speaker 3: None of us bat a thousand. I stop being perfect
Speaker 3: at about the third breath of my life. I don't
Speaker 3: measure up to God's standard, much less my own standard,
Speaker 3: and neither do you.
Speaker 2: Now this is not really debatable.
Speaker 3: I've never met anybody who actually claims to be perfect,
Speaker 3: to have never made a mistake, to have never sinned.
Speaker 2: We've all made mistakes.
Speaker 3: We've all sinned, we've all flobbed, we've all had failures
Speaker 3: in our lives. The Bible says it like this, all
Speaker 3: have sinned. The Bible says if we say we have
Speaker 3: not sinned, that we deceive ourselves the truth that's not
Speaker 3: in us. In other words, we're just being self deceptive.
Speaker 3: Everybody else knows you don't have it together. You may
Speaker 3: as well admit it to yourself, okay, because you're in
Speaker 3: self denial if you think you're perfect. The Bible says,
Speaker 3: there's not a just man upon them the earth, who
Speaker 3: doeth good and sendeth not. In other words, nobody gets
Speaker 3: it right all the time. We all mess up, and
Speaker 3: uh James, Chapter three, verse two, look on the screens.
Speaker 3: The Bible says, we all stumble in many ways. Everybody
Speaker 3: want to agree with that one. Okay, have you ever
Speaker 3: stumbled with your words? Said something you wish man, I
Speaker 3: wish I hadn't said that, and you got a lot
Speaker 3: of trouble for it?
Speaker 2: Yep? Have you ever stumbled with your attitudes? Yep? Have
Speaker 2: you ever stumbled with actions? Yep?
Speaker 3: Have you ever stumbled with emotions and you have the
Speaker 3: wrong emotional response and your wife didn't like it?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we all stumble in many ways. Now, when you stumble,
Speaker 3: you get tripped up. You fall into a trap, and
Speaker 3: we get entrapped by the same sins, the same mistakes,
Speaker 3: over and over and over.
Speaker 2: I do you do? We all do.
Speaker 3: It's no big deal. We all get caught in the
Speaker 3: same old traps. We mess up. Now, the question is
Speaker 3: how does God respond to me and you when we
Speaker 3: mess up? Well, the answer is he shows mercy. Let
Speaker 3: me show you an example that tells this story John
Speaker 3: chapter eight. This is one of the books the Four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
Speaker 3: and John tells the story of Jesus, and there's a
Speaker 3: story of the humiliated woman.
Speaker 2: And it goes like this.
Speaker 3: One day Jesus was teaching a crowd outside the temple,
Speaker 3: and some Pharisees brought a woman who was caught in adultery. Now,
Speaker 3: Pharisees were religious scholars, they were legalists, they were judgmental,
Speaker 3: they were hypercritical, and everybody hated him. They were self righteous. They,
Speaker 3: by the way, hated Jesus. Common people loved Jesus. It
Speaker 3: was the religious people who hated Jesus. And the Pharisees
Speaker 3: hated Jesus. And they're trying to trap him. They bring
Speaker 3: this Jesus is teaching to a large crowd. Pharisees bring
Speaker 3: a woman caught in adultery. Now they put her on
Speaker 3: display in front of the whole crowd, and then Jesus.
Speaker 2: They said to Jesus, this.
Speaker 3: Woman has been caught in the act of adult tree.
Speaker 3: The law of Moses, said the stoner capital punishment. What
Speaker 3: do you say. Now, they're trying to trap Jesus into
Speaker 3: saying something that.
Speaker 2: They could use against him.
Speaker 3: Now, before we read the rest story, I want you
Speaker 3: to notice a few things. First, if you're taking notes,
Speaker 3: circle the word caught caught in trap. Caught caught and trap.
Speaker 3: There are two traps being laid here. First, the embarrassed
Speaker 3: woman is caught in a wrong relationship. And second, they're
Speaker 3: trying to catch Jesus in a wrong reaction. What do
Speaker 3: you get caught up in? It trips you up over
Speaker 3: and over and over. What do you get caught up
Speaker 3: in that keeps causing you to stumble? You know, you
Speaker 3: can get caught up in an unhealthy relationship. You can
Speaker 3: get caught up in a bad business deal. You can
Speaker 3: get caught up in a secret habit that nobody knows about.
Speaker 3: You can get caught up in an addiction. You can
Speaker 3: get caught up in materialism thinking that money is the
Speaker 3: whole purpose of life. You can get caught up in
Speaker 3: trying to live to please other people. You're living for
Speaker 3: the approval of others. That's a huge trap that a
Speaker 3: lot of people stumble into and get caught up. They
Speaker 3: live their entire lives for the approval of other people.
Speaker 3: You can get caught up in competition. This woman is
Speaker 3: obviously caught in a wrong relationship. Now here's what happens.
Speaker 3: In verse eight six. It says they were trying to
Speaker 3: trap Jesus into saying something that they could use against him.
Speaker 3: But Jesus, I love this. Here's all this crowd here
Speaker 3: the Pharisees. Jesus stooped down and started writing in the
Speaker 3: dirt with his finger. Huh, he's doodling in the dirt. Okay,
Speaker 3: he's he's writing in the dirt with this way.
Speaker 2: He won't even.
Speaker 3: Dignify this accusation against this woman. Now, they kept badgering Jesus,
Speaker 3: demanding an answer. Finally Jesus stood up and said, okay,
Speaker 3: here's my answer. If any of you has never sinned,
Speaker 3: then you may throw the first stone. This is a
Speaker 3: very famous story, and it says then he stooped down
Speaker 3: again and continued writing in the dirt.
Speaker 2: I love this scene.
Speaker 3: Now, nobody actually knows what Jesus is writing in the dirt,
Speaker 3: because the Bible doesn't tell us. For centuries, scholars have
Speaker 3: debated what Jesus was writing.
Speaker 2: In the dirt.
Speaker 3: Some people think he wrote the Ten Commandments down. I'll
Speaker 3: tell you what I think. It's just my opinion, just
Speaker 3: a guess. I think he was writing the secret sins
Speaker 3: of the accusers, and they were reading their own sins
Speaker 3: in the dirt. And I think he was writing judgmentalism, arrogance,
Speaker 3: self righteousness, hypercriticalism.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, it could have been anything.
Speaker 3: Spousal abuse, tax evasion, lying at work, pornography, it.
Speaker 2: Could have been anything.
Speaker 3: But I think he was actually Jesus, being God, knew
Speaker 3: what their secret sins were, and I think he just
Speaker 3: started writing it on the ground. And then he stands
Speaker 3: up and says, Okay, now, which of you have never sinned,
Speaker 3: you may cast the first stone. He's going right to
Speaker 3: the heart of the matter.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: One of the things I want you to notice is
Speaker 3: that in the public situation, Jesus protected this woman's dignity
Speaker 3: as she made a mistake. Of course, she cheated on
Speaker 3: her husband, that's not right, but Jesus protects her dignity
Speaker 3: in front of the judgmental accusers, and later on in
Speaker 3: privacy of one on one he's going to deal with her.
Speaker 3: He's going to deal with her sin very gently, but
Speaker 3: he protects her dignity. And I don't want to spend
Speaker 3: a lot of time on this, but I just want
Speaker 3: to say this. If you call yourself a Christian, if
Speaker 3: you claim to be a follower of Jesus, you must
Speaker 3: treat every person with dignity. Doesn't matter who they are.
Speaker 3: They may have a different religion, they may have a
Speaker 3: different political persuasion than you. They may live a different lifestyle,
Speaker 3: they may be involved in all kinds of gross sin,
Speaker 3: evil what can mean, bad and nasty stuff. But you
Speaker 3: still have to treat him with dignity, because that's what
Speaker 3: Jesus did. Jesus accepted everybody. He didn't approve of what
Speaker 3: everything they did, but he accepted everybody. Jesus accepts me.
Speaker 3: He doesn't approve of everything I do. Jesus accepts you.
Speaker 3: He doesn't approve of everything you do, but he treats
Speaker 3: you with dignity. And he treated this woman with dignity.
Speaker 3: And so he says to the guys, okay, if you've
Speaker 3: never sinned, you can throw the first stone now in
Speaker 3: verse nine. When the accusers heard this, they began to
Speaker 3: slip away, one by one, beginning with the oldest, until
Speaker 3: it was just Jesus and the woman. So all accusers
Speaker 3: they skid out, all they leave. Now, why does it
Speaker 3: say beginning with the oldest. I'll tell you why, Because
Speaker 3: the older you get, the more you are aware of
Speaker 3: how much you've messed up.
Speaker 2: Okay, And the older you.
Speaker 3: Get, you just get tired of pretending you just got okay.
Speaker 3: I admit it. I'm messed up. Okay, I don't have
Speaker 3: it all together. When you're young, you try to fake
Speaker 3: it and pretend like you've got it all together. When
Speaker 3: you get old, you just go, look, okay, I am
Speaker 3: what I am? I messed up a lot. And so
Speaker 3: the oldest start leaving. Nobody is more self righteous than
Speaker 3: a college student because they think they got it all
Speaker 3: down because their professor told the the truth. And it's
Speaker 3: gonna take a few years of real life to figure
Speaker 3: out life doesn't always work the way your professor told you, right,
Speaker 3: And so you know, the longer you live in life,
Speaker 3: the more you cut people a little slack. Doesn't that
Speaker 3: make sense? Okay, So the oldest one, they read their
Speaker 3: sin on the ground and they're they're leaving. Now Jesus
Speaker 3: is just left with this woman and now, in a
Speaker 3: one on one situation, what's he gonna do? At this point,
Speaker 3: Jesus stood back up. I remember he's doodling in the dirt,
Speaker 3: and he quietly said, dirt, where are your accusers?
Speaker 2: Where are your accusers? Is there no one left here
Speaker 2: to condemn you?
Speaker 4: And the woman says, no, no one, Lord, she said,
Speaker 4: And then Jesus said neither do I condemn you.
Speaker 3: Neither do I condemn you. Now go on and leave
Speaker 3: your sinful ways. He says, you're better than this, you
Speaker 3: know better than this.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 3: That's all he needed he did, That's all he's gonna say.
Speaker 3: He didn't pull out a ten point sermon on adult tree.
Speaker 3: He just goes, hey, I don't condemn you, but you're.
Speaker 2: Better than this. Go on now and don't do this anymore.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 3: This is why I love Jesus, because what Jesus did
Speaker 3: when I come and I messed up, he does what
Speaker 3: he did with that woman. He didn't condemn her. He
Speaker 3: didn't condone her. He didn't say it's okay. It wasn't
Speaker 3: okay for her to cheat on her husband.
Speaker 2: He didn't condemn her, he didn't condone her. He changed her.
Speaker 2: That's what it's all about.
Speaker 3: And that's what he does in your life when you
Speaker 3: accept his mercy. He doesn't condemn you, he doesn't condone
Speaker 3: what you've done.
Speaker 2: He just changes you. And that makes all the difference.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I am encouraged after
Speaker 1: that message. And let's keep the encouragement going with a
Speaker 1: letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: Here's Rick.
Speaker 3: Have you ever taken a step of faith with no
Speaker 3: idea what's next? Well, with the help of Daily Hope,
Speaker 3: Nicole did just that. She wrote this note to me, Hello,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick. A close friend of mine suggested I listened
Speaker 3: to Daily Hope four years ago, and while I had
Speaker 3: faith and I loved the Lord, I was lost. But
Speaker 3: Daily Hope rescued me. My relationship with Jesus grew in
Speaker 3: ways and I never knew possible. I was soon baptized,
Speaker 3: and over the next four years I grew in boldness
Speaker 3: and in faith in the Lord, and I even left
Speaker 3: a high powered and high salaried position to follow a different,
Speaker 3: purpose driven path with the Lord's guidance. It's been a
Speaker 3: literal step forward in faith without knowing the next steps,
Speaker 3: certainly not something I was capable of years ago. And
Speaker 3: already God is showing me his goodness. You know, as
Speaker 3: my husband explores his own relationship with Jesus again, your
Speaker 3: ministry is literally a God's sin. Your ability to teach
Speaker 3: the good news and ways that are easy to understand
Speaker 3: and apply, it is just amazing. We also follow your
Speaker 3: suggestion to find a good local church, So thanks for
Speaker 3: all you do for believers and those who are seeking
Speaker 3: Christ around the world. Rick, You're loved and appreciated and
Speaker 3: no doubt a vessel of God's grace and mercy. Signed Nicole. Well, Nicole,
Speaker 3: I'm so glad that you've grown in your relationship with
Speaker 3: Jesus and you've taken the important step of getting baptized.
Speaker 3: What an important step this is, finding a church home,
Speaker 3: really listening to the Lord, and living a purpose driven life.
Speaker 3: All of that happens when you take time to listen
Speaker 3: to God's word. I love how your friend shared daily
Speaker 3: hope with you, and now you've shared it with your husband.
Speaker 3: You know, any of you can do this. Anybody can
Speaker 3: do this. You can share daily hope with your friends
Speaker 3: and with your relatives and with people you don't even know.
Speaker 3: And well, then watch how God brings life to others
Speaker 3: through his word.
Speaker 1: You know, I share Pastor Rick's daily hope all the time.
Speaker 1: And whether it's a friend or someone you meet in
Speaker 1: a restaurant, everyone needs hope and encouragement from the Bible
Speaker 1: every day. So tell the people you know in love
Speaker 1: about daily hope. Hey, be sure to join us next
Speaker 1: time when we look into God's word for our Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 1: your generous financial support.