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. Let's lean in for part one of
Speaker 1: a message called God's Mercy and My Failures.
Speaker 2: Because we are an imperfect people and we live in
Speaker 2: an imperfect world, we all experience failures in life. And
Speaker 2: the night that Jesus Christ was arrested before he went
Speaker 2: to the cross, two of his best friends had massive failures.
Speaker 3: Massive failures.
Speaker 2: Judas had the failure of betrayal and Peter had the
Speaker 2: failure of denial. Now they're actually the exact same sin.
Speaker 2: They both denied Christ, but they are just different expressions
Speaker 2: of it. And Judas rejected the mercy of God and
Speaker 2: later went out and killed himself took his life. Peter
Speaker 2: accepted the mercy of God and later went out and
Speaker 2: became the leader of the church. What I want us
Speaker 2: to do this weekend is look at God's mercy and
Speaker 2: your failures, and I want us to learn some lessons
Speaker 2: from the life of Peter in this massive failure that
Speaker 2: he had.
Speaker 3: And I want us to ask three questions.
Speaker 2: First, what causes personal failure in your life? And we're
Speaker 2: going to look and actually see that three things that
Speaker 2: Peter had in his life are the three most common
Speaker 2: causes of failure in your life. Financial failure, business failure,
Speaker 2: marriage failure, relational failure, and all the other areas of
Speaker 2: failure are caused primarily by three things. There are many
Speaker 2: other uns, but these are the three biggest ones. And
Speaker 2: then we're going to look at not only what Peter
Speaker 2: did wrong, but what he did right, and how do
Speaker 2: you recover? What does God want you to do when
Speaker 2: you've had a failure in your life? And then, most
Speaker 2: important of all, we're going to look at how does
Speaker 2: Jesus respond to our failures and how he shows us mercy.
Speaker 3: So let's get right into it.
Speaker 2: First, what causes our personal failure? Three things that Peter
Speaker 2: did wrong? And the first thing, if you're taking notes
Speaker 2: of this, we overestimate our strengths. This is a big
Speaker 2: cause of failure in your life. When you think that
Speaker 2: you're stronger than you really are, You think you can
Speaker 2: handle more, and you can think you can handle temptation.
Speaker 2: The story begins in Matthew chapter twenty six. Now they'd
Speaker 2: just had the Last Supper, where Jesus said, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be arrested, I'm going to die, but three days later,
Speaker 2: I'm going to come back to life, and I'll meet
Speaker 2: you in Galilee after that, And in verse thirty one
Speaker 2: of Matthew twenty six, Jesus says.
Speaker 3: This to disciples.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, tonight, every one of you will desert me.
Speaker 2: Talking to the twelve. It's his small group that's been
Speaker 2: with him for three and a half years. Every one
Speaker 2: of you will desert me. For the scripture says that
Speaker 2: when the shepherd is killed, the sheep will be scattered.
Speaker 2: But after I've been raised from the dead, this is
Speaker 2: in three days, I will go ahead of you to
Speaker 2: Galilee and I'll meet you there. Then Peter boasted, But Lord,
Speaker 2: even if everyone else fails you, I will never deny you,
Speaker 2: Jesus replied Peter. The truth is that before this night
Speaker 2: is over, and before the rooster crows at dawn, you
Speaker 2: will deny knowing me. Three times, Peter insisted, But Lord,
Speaker 2: I would never do that, even if I have to
Speaker 2: die with you. I will never deny knowing you. And
Speaker 2: all the other disciples vowed the same thing. They all
Speaker 2: made the same You may have never seen that, but
Speaker 2: they all said we would never do this. Lord Jesus said,
Speaker 2: you're going to do it tonight. He said, when they
Speaker 2: take me, arrest me, you're gonna fall to pieces.
Speaker 3: You can count on it. Now.
Speaker 2: Notice three times Peter says, I'll never deny you. I
Speaker 2: would never do that, and I would never deny knowing.
Speaker 3: You at all.
Speaker 2: Ever, this is overestimating our strengths. A lot of businesses
Speaker 2: fail from overestimating their strengths. A lot of battles are
Speaker 2: lost because armies overestimated their strength. A lot of people
Speaker 2: students flunk out of school because they overestimated their strengths.
Speaker 2: A lot of spouses fall into affairs because they overestimated
Speaker 2: their strength. I can handle this. It's just a harmless
Speaker 2: little office flirt. There's nothing going to happen from it.
Speaker 2: I can handle this. Beware of thinking this could never
Speaker 2: happen to me.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: First Corinthians ten, verse twelve says this, if you think
Speaker 2: I'm strong, I can handle this, I'd never fall for
Speaker 2: that temptation. Then be careful, for you could easily fall.
Speaker 2: To the Bible says, one of the reasons we have
Speaker 2: so many fails in our lives. In our lives is
Speaker 2: because we think we're stronger than we really are. Don't
Speaker 2: be naive, don't be self confident. Don't none of us
Speaker 2: are exempt. Given the right situation, I am capable of
Speaker 2: any sin.
Speaker 3: So are you.
Speaker 2: Given the right situation, you are capable of any sin,
Speaker 2: and so am I. And the Bible says, the heart
Speaker 2: is deceitful and we should stop kidding ourselves now. I
Speaker 2: don't have time to go into this in detail. But
Speaker 2: not only do we have failings in our life because
Speaker 2: we overestimate our strengths, but also we misuse our strengths.
Speaker 2: You see, you tend to guard your weaknesses. You know
Speaker 2: what you're weak at. You know what's you're weak at. See,
Speaker 2: I gotta stay away from that because I'm.
Speaker 3: Weak at that.
Speaker 2: But you don't pay any attention to your And when
Speaker 2: you don't pay attention to your strengths, they become weaknesses too.
Speaker 2: In fact, write this down. An unguarded strength is a
Speaker 2: double weakness. An unguarded strength is a double weakness. The
Speaker 2: very area you think, man, there's no way I'd mess
Speaker 2: up on that. You're setting yourself up. The Bible says
Speaker 2: for failure, there's a sense of pride there the very
Speaker 2: area you may have just had a major victory, maybe
Speaker 2: exactly where you stumble next. You know, Sometimes it's after
Speaker 2: a big success that then you have the failure. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it's after you've been to a very strong spiritual crisis
Speaker 2: and you came out of it and you actually made it,
Speaker 2: that you let your guard down. Jesus was tempted in
Speaker 2: the desert immediately after his baptism, which was a big experience.
Speaker 2: Peter had his biggest failure denying Christ right after the
Speaker 2: Last Supper, which was a very intimate, important, powerful experience. Ever,
Speaker 2: presume that you know where temptation is going to come from.
Speaker 2: We overestimate our strengths. Second reason we fail, this one's
Speaker 2: even bigger. We fear the disapproval of others. You may
Speaker 2: not realize it, but this causes more problems in your
Speaker 2: life than almost anything else. We fear the disapproval of
Speaker 2: other people. Every time you make a decision based on
Speaker 2: what other people would think, you are sowing the seeds
Speaker 2: for failure in your life.
Speaker 3: Because when you.
Speaker 2: Worry about what will other people think, when you fear disapproval,
Speaker 2: when you fear disapproval, you go with the flow, even
Speaker 2: when you know it's the wrong thing. You go with
Speaker 2: the flow because you know, go along to get along.
Speaker 2: And you're become a people pleaser, and you become a coward,
Speaker 2: and you make commitments that you can't possibly keep simply
Speaker 2: because you're trying.
Speaker 3: To make everybody happy.
Speaker 2: Now we see this as the second reason Peter stumbled
Speaker 2: in his in his denials in Matthew, chapter twenty six,
Speaker 2: verse fifty eight. In sixty nine and seventy, the Bible
Speaker 2: says this, after they had left the last supper in
Speaker 2: the upper room, Peter followed Jesus at a distance.
Speaker 3: Now there's a problem right there.
Speaker 2: That's a major problem following Jesus at a distance. But
Speaker 2: he followed Jesus at a distance to the courtyard of
Speaker 2: the High priest Palace, and he went in and he
Speaker 2: sat down with the guards, the Roman guards, to see
Speaker 2: what was going to happen to Jesus. He's being being arrested,
Speaker 2: He's going to be tortured. Peter wants to know what's
Speaker 2: going on. As Peter was sitting in the courtyard. A
Speaker 2: servant girl came up to him and said, you, you know,
Speaker 2: I recognize you. You You were with Jesus of Galilee,
Speaker 2: weren't you, but standing there in front of everyone? Now
Speaker 2: that's the operational phrase, standing there in front of everyone.
Speaker 2: Peter denied it. I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: He said, now, think about this Jesus. Peter is just
Speaker 2: spent three and a half years with Jesus Christ, the
Speaker 2: Son of God. He's lived with him for three and
Speaker 2: a half years, and the first time the rubber hits
Speaker 2: the road, he's in the clinch. He's in the crisis.
Speaker 2: He denies us, I don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: He's more worried about what other people think than he
Speaker 2: is about identifying with Christ. How many times have you
Speaker 2: had the opportunity to admit you were a Christian at
Speaker 2: work or somewhere else, and you said nothing because you
Speaker 2: were worried about what other people think. And this thing
Speaker 2: actually happens in our life all the time, not just
Speaker 2: with witnessing about our faith, but in so many areas
Speaker 2: you stumble and you have failures because you are thinking
Speaker 2: more about what somebody else thinks than about what God thinks.
Speaker 2: He said, I don't even know the person now. Peter
Speaker 2: struggled with people pleasing his entire life. I could give
Speaker 2: you many examples in his life. One time Paul had
Speaker 2: to actually rebuke him and say, hey, Peter, you know
Speaker 2: you're acting this way with this group over here, and
Speaker 2: you act this way with this group over here. You're
Speaker 2: trying to please everybody. You can't do that. Before we
Speaker 2: go on, let me just ask you some consider some questions.
Speaker 3: Personally.
Speaker 2: Are you following Jesus at a distance? You say, you know,
Speaker 2: I want to be a follower Jesus. I just don't
Speaker 2: want to get too close to him. I don't want
Speaker 2: to be a radical. I don't want to be a fanatic.
Speaker 2: I want to follow Jesus at a distance. That is
Speaker 2: a setup for failure. It's trying to have a foot
Speaker 2: in both worlds. It doesn't work that way. The Bible
Speaker 2: tells us that Peter was just sitting around waiting for
Speaker 2: something to happen. Do you find yourself doing that, sitting
Speaker 2: around waiting for something to happen. That's a setup for
Speaker 2: failure in your life. And then Peter was worried about
Speaker 2: what other people thought. Let me ask you this, whose
Speaker 2: opinion matters to you more than God's? Whose opinion matters
Speaker 2: to you more than God's? And you're more worried about
Speaker 2: what they think than doing the right thing or saying
Speaker 2: the right thing. When you let anybody else be more
Speaker 2: important than God in your life, they become your God.
Speaker 2: And that's called an idol, and that's a setup for failure.
Speaker 2: More important even than that of whose opinion matters to
Speaker 2: you more than God?
Speaker 3: Is this question?
Speaker 2: Have you ever asked yourself why the opinions of other
Speaker 2: people matter so much to you? Have you ever even
Speaker 2: asked yourself that Why you cringe at any criticism, why
Speaker 2: you hate it so much? Why it just turns your
Speaker 2: stomach in a nod if somebody disagrees with you. Have
Speaker 2: you ever asked yourself? Why am I such a coward
Speaker 2: when it comes to being different?
Speaker 3: Why do other people's opinion.
Speaker 2: Matter to me so very very much that I'll even
Speaker 2: do the wrong thing in order to please somebody maybe
Speaker 2: I don't even like. Have you even asked yourself why
Speaker 2: that happens? Why it matters to you so much? Socrates said,
Speaker 2: the unexamined life is not worth living. I say the
Speaker 2: unexamined life is a setup for failure because the part
Speaker 2: of me that causes me the most trouble is the
Speaker 2: part of me that I don't know about. And when
Speaker 2: I live in denial of an area of my life,
Speaker 2: I don't know why I do what I do. If
Speaker 2: I'm in the dark about why I do what I do,
Speaker 2: I'm never going to grow out of it. I'm going
Speaker 2: to be stuck in that rut the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: And the same thing is true with you. The part
Speaker 2: of you that causes you the most problem are the
Speaker 2: parts of you.
Speaker 3: You're afraid to look at.
Speaker 2: The parts of you that you are in denial about,
Speaker 2: the parts of you of why you act away and
Speaker 2: you maybe even never even asked, why am I so
Speaker 2: controlled by the opinions of other people? Why is it
Speaker 2: that I can't handle the disapproval of anybody else? It
Speaker 2: just makes me sick, It uspects me. I'll do almost
Speaker 2: anything to avoid somebody disapproving of me.
Speaker 3: Why does that matter so much? Until you figure.
Speaker 2: That out, you're going to keep stumbling and stumbling and
Speaker 2: falling and failing in that area. Now, the answer is
Speaker 2: the reason why you're worried about the fear of disapproval.
Speaker 2: Is there's always a wound behind that, a hidden wound
Speaker 2: is always behind the fear of the disapproval of other people.
Speaker 2: There's something that triggers in your mind, that fear. And
Speaker 2: maybe it was a rejection in the past. Maybe it
Speaker 2: was an unmet need that you had growing up. Maybe
Speaker 2: it was some hurt, Maybe it was a trauma that
Speaker 2: happened in your life, a pain or an injury, as
Speaker 2: I said, some kind of unmet need. But there's some pain,
Speaker 2: and it's a deep pain, and it's so deep it's
Speaker 2: hidden in you. I call it soul pain. The worst
Speaker 2: kind of pain is soul pain. That's the kind of
Speaker 2: pain you don't even know why you're in pain. You
Speaker 2: don't even know why you do what you do. That
Speaker 2: soul pain is always related to your identity. If you
Speaker 2: don't know who you are as a woman, if you
Speaker 2: don't know who you are as a man, you will
Speaker 2: be manipulated by the disapproval of other people the rest
Speaker 2: of your life. And you'll find yourself backing down when
Speaker 2: people say, are you a Christian? Well, yeah, and you
Speaker 2: won't stand up for what you believe, and you won't
Speaker 2: do the thing that's right because you.
Speaker 3: Don't know who you are.
Speaker 2: The Bible says in Proverbs twenty nine to twenty five,
Speaker 2: it is a dangerous trap to be concerned with what
Speaker 2: others think of you. But if you trust the Lord,
Speaker 2: you will be safe. He said, I'm already a goner.
Speaker 2: I've already fallen into the trap if I'm more worried
Speaker 2: about what other people think than doing the right thing
Speaker 2: or what God says is the right thing to do
Speaker 2: or say, or think or feel. Peter overestimated his strength.
Speaker 2: I would never do this. It'll never happen to me.
Speaker 2: I can handle this temptation.
Speaker 3: I know what I'm.
Speaker 2: Doing, adult can I can watch these kind of things.
Speaker 3: That it doesn't bother me. Who you kidding?
Speaker 2: I can go to these kind of places and it
Speaker 2: doesn't bother me.
Speaker 3: Who are you kidding?
Speaker 2: I can listen to this kind of stuff and it
Speaker 2: doesn't bother me.
Speaker 3: Who are you gidding?
Speaker 2: We all worry about air pollution, but we ought to
Speaker 2: worry about mind pollution. The stuff you allow in your brain,
Speaker 2: garbage in, garbage out. When we think you're strong and
Speaker 2: you're not. When you're worried about the approval of other people.
Speaker 2: You're gonna you're gonna have failures in your life. And
Speaker 2: then there's a third one that we see in Peter's life,
Speaker 2: and this one's the biggest of all we fail. One
Speaker 2: of the causes of personal failure is we speak without thinking. Hello,
Speaker 2: this may be the most common cause of all failure
Speaker 2: in your life. We put our mouth in motion before
Speaker 2: we put our mind in gear, and we speak impulsively,
Speaker 2: and we speak rashly, and we speak in haste, and
Speaker 2: we speak thoughtlessly, and we don't pause to consider the
Speaker 2: damage of what we're about to say, what it's going
Speaker 2: to do in the lives of other people, or even
Speaker 2: in our own lives. And we just speak impulsively. And
Speaker 2: the true reason is we don't think rationally. We think emotionally.
Speaker 2: Most of the time when you talk, you're not thinking
Speaker 2: about what you're talking about. You're not thinking rationally. You're
Speaker 2: not thinking what's the unintended consequence of what I'm about
Speaker 2: to say. You never stopped to say, Lord, do you
Speaker 2: want me to say this? You're not asking God, is
Speaker 2: this the right thing to say at the right time,
Speaker 2: in the right way. Now, you just say whatever you feel.
Speaker 2: People say well, I just say whatever I feel. Is
Speaker 2: if that's a mark of courage, No, that's a mark
Speaker 2: of immaturity. Children do that, they say whatever they feel.
Speaker 2: Adults need to learn to have a governor on their mouth.
Speaker 2: And so when you feel envy, you speak an envy,
Speaker 2: And when you feel jealousy, you speak in jealousy. And
Speaker 2: when you feel insecure, you say things that reveal your insecurity.
Speaker 2: And when you're frustrated, and when you're angry, you say
Speaker 2: things in anger. And when you're afraid, you say things
Speaker 2: in fear, not even thinking about the consequences. The reason
Speaker 2: why we have so many failures in our life is
Speaker 2: because we speak without thinking.
Speaker 1: Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick. And now this
Speaker 1: really is one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: Letters from our listeners.
Speaker 2: Here's Rick, Hi, everybody, today, I want to share with
Speaker 2: you a special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily
Speaker 2: Hope has helped her with deep anxiety. But then she
Speaker 2: also shared about what happened as she began to share
Speaker 2: Daily Hope with her parents. She writes this, Pastor Rick,
Speaker 2: a couple years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My
Speaker 2: company had a merger and all the senior management were
Speaker 2: changed overnight, and I was among them. At the same time,
Speaker 2: my long term relationship ended. Then a couple months later,
Speaker 2: my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in
Speaker 2: shock and I fell into a deep depression from all
Speaker 2: these changes. In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack.
Speaker 2: But then I found your teaching on Daily Hope, and
Speaker 2: it just seemed that you understood every emotion that I
Speaker 2: was going through, emotions that I didn't even know how
Speaker 2: to verbalize to other people. But it was Daily Hope
Speaker 2: that helped me get out of bed every morning and
Speaker 2: gave me the strength to get through each day. Through
Speaker 2: your teaching on Daily Hope pastorrect, I was able to
Speaker 2: experience God's love.
Speaker 3: And power like never before. You know.
Speaker 2: I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents
Speaker 2: who don't speak English, and they accepted Jesus too.
Speaker 3: That's amazing, Delia.
Speaker 2: I am so grateful for you and the team at
Speaker 2: Daily Hope because it has become the morning routine that
Speaker 2: I can't live without now. Delia, you have been through
Speaker 2: more pain than I can possibly imagine, some very very
Speaker 2: challenging times, and I'm sorry, I really am.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we experience multiple traumas at the same time, and
Speaker 2: when that happens, that's when we really need the hope
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ. And I'm so glad you experienced that,
Speaker 2: that you found God's love and found God's power. And
Speaker 2: what a blessing that you translated the daily hope devotionals
Speaker 2: for your parents and then they accepted Christ. That's amazing.
Speaker 2: I am celebrating with you that they are now in
Speaker 2: the family of God. It's stories like yours that just
Speaker 2: encourage me and keep me going. So thanks so much
Speaker 2: for taking the time to write and share your story.
Speaker 2: And by the way, anybody else listen. If you have
Speaker 2: a story, please write me. I would love to read
Speaker 2: it and love to share it if I can with others.
Speaker 2: You'll encourage other people with your story. God bless you.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Rick, And if you'd like to let
Speaker 1: Rick know how much this broadcast has meant to you,
Speaker 1: how it's blessed you, please send him an email at
Speaker 1: Rick at pastorick dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Rick looks so forward to reading those emails. Be sure
Speaker 1: to join us next time as we look into God's.
Speaker 3: Word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your
Speaker 1: generous financial support.