Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. We are so glad you're here with us today. We're going to continue our series called The Keys to a Blessed Life.

Now, in these messages, Rick walks through Jesus's Sermon on the Mount and shows us how to live a truly hopeful and purpose-filled life. All right, now, here's the final part of the message, Your Ministry of Mercy.

Pastor Rick Warren: You know, there's a famous story about President Abraham Lincoln's mercy, that after the Southern States were defeated by the Northern States in the Civil War in America, 150 years ago, President Lincoln spoke to a crowd in Washington, D.C. from the balcony of the White House. And he was laying out how his plan for reconstruction.

And at the end of his speech, a very famous senator from Iowa, whose name was James Harlan, shouted out, "And what do we do with the rebels? What do we do with these Confederates who had started this whole war in the first place?" And the unmerciful crowd shouted back, "Hang them! Hang them! Hang them!"

And what was interesting in this famous story is that Lincoln's youngest son, Tad, who was 11 at the time, was standing next to him, and he said, looked up at his daddy and he said, "No, daddy. No, papa. No. Not hang them. Hang on to them. Hang on to them."

And Lincoln grinned at his 11-year-old son and he said, "That's it. Tad's got the answer. We're not going to hang them. We're going to hang on to them." And that is mercy.

Number five. A fifth way to show mercy is to be kind, the Bible says, to those who offend me. Be kind to those who offend me. You have probably noticed that the verbal attacks on Christians are going up in our society. Have you noticed this?

And it's increasing, and people are taking slurs at Christians and potshots at Christians and being attacked like never before in America. And there are a lot of groups pushing anti-Christian agendas today, because we represent a barrier.

And the barrier is we hold on to what God's truth is. And we say, "Sorry, God's truth is God's truth." And we just have to follow God's truth. As Peter said, "We must obey God rather than men." And so, this these attacks are going up.

What are you supposed to do with these people? These people who are offensive? I remember turning on the TV one time and hearing a well-known comic, a well-known comic using very blasphemous and very vulgar terms as he ran through The Purpose Driven Life and made fun of God, not of me, but of God.

And I sat there and I thought, "Now, Lord, what what would be my response to this guy?" Because obviously, he's not hurting me, but he certainly is offending you. And it just came into me, I am to be kind to those who are offensive.

You see, the problem today is this whole idea of culture war is you've got to decide whether you want to win the argument or win them to Christ. And you've heard me say this before, you can't you don't ever make a point, you don't get across your point by being cross.

You've got to you've got to just say, "I'm more interested in winning them to Christ than I am in winning the argument." Let me give you an an example of why we ought to be kind to those who offend us.

First Timothy chapter one, Paul gives his own life as an example. Even though I once was a blasphemer, there are plenty of those in our world. And a persecutor of Christians, and a violent man. He said, "I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief." That's the key: realize they're acting in ignorance and unbelief. "I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for others who would believe on him and receive eternal life."

You see, if you'd lived in Paul's days, you probably wouldn't want to be very interested in being kind to those who offend you. You wouldn't be interested in being kind to Paul. He was persecuting Christians, he was attacking Christians, he was throwing Christians in jail. And yet he said, "I was shown mercy so that I could come to Christ, and then my life would be an example to others."

Jude chapter one makes it even clearer, verses 22 and 23. "Show mercy to those who have doubts." And really some translations say, "Show those who disbelieve." He's talking he could say show mercy to atheists. "Show mercy to those who have doubts. Save others by snatching them from the fire." One more for Jesus. "Show mercy to them while being careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins." In other words, we're to avoid sin, but we are to love everybody. That's how we show mercy.

Now, let me give you two more, and these last two, you have probably never ever considered as acts of mercy. But Jesus taught that they were acts of mercy, and even quotes Hosea 6:6 in both, saying, "The reason you don't get this is because you don't understand the full meaning of mercy." So let me give you two more.

A sixth way that you can practice your ministry of mercy this week is this: build bridges of love to the unpopular. Build bridges of love to the unpopular. There are people in your circle, people who live on your street that nobody wants to hang out with. People who you work with, that everybody tells a joke behind their back.

They may have those quirks, or they may have a a a different lifestyle, or they may have a different belief system, or they may have a different religion, or they may dress differently because of their culture or whatever. But they're not on the in-crowd. They're not popular. They're they're the outcast.

And this is a facet of your ministry that's often overlooked. Building a bridge of love to the unpopular is what I call premeditated mercy. Now, you often think, when I say premeditated, you think of premeditated murder. But I'm saying premeditated mercy involves intentionally building friendships with people who don't have friends, and intentionally building friendship with people who are unbelievers, and intentionally building friendships with people who seem on the edge, or are are not as loved or as accepted in the mainstream because of their religion, their lifestyle, their looks, or whatever.

Now, why does God want us to build bridges of love to the unpopular, and specifically to unbelievers? Because you cannot win your enemies to Christ. You can only win your friends. And before somebody's going to accept Christ, they've got to have a bridge to Christ. And before they want to know is Jesus credible, they want to know are you credible? And before they know Jesus is their friend, they want to know, "Will you be my friend?"

And long before anybody comes to Christ, somebody's got to befriend that person. You cannot win an enemy to Christ. You must win them to yourself before you win them to Christ. You must become a friend. That's an act of premeditated mercy. Here's a good example of it. Matthew chapter 9. The Bible says, Matthew, who is one of the 12 disciples. Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guest. Nothing wrong with that. But then it says, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners.

Now, if you're in the IRS, I apologize to you today. It's a little bit different today. You may be unpopular, but you're not a notorious sinner if you are a tax collector. But in those days, here's why tax collectors were considered notorious sinners. They were allowed to skim whatever they could get.

So, a tax collector for Rome could come in and say, you know, Caesar would say, "I want one denarii from every household." And the tax collector could come in and say, "I need 10 denarii from you." And you had no recourse. There was nobody to appeal to. You had to pay it, it was like extortion. Then he could pocket nine and and pass on one. And so the worst job, the most unpopular job, because they were all cheats, they were crooks, they were swindlers, were the tax collectors.

And and they were right out there along with, you know, prostitutes and lepers, and they didn't have drug pushers in those days, but that kind of of level of people that everybody despised. So it says, Matthew invites Jesus and his disciples to his dinner, as his dinner guest, along with all of these people of ill repute, his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners.

The Pharisees, that's the religious leaders, they were indignant. "Why does your teacher eat with such scum?" they asked his disciples. And when he heard this, Jesus replied, "Healthy people don't need a doctor. Sick people do. Go learn the meaning of this scripture." And he quotes Hosea 6:6. "I want you to be merciful. I don't want your sacrifices, for I've come to call sinners, not those who think they're already good enough."

Now, follow me on the logic on this. The Pharisees are attacking Jesus for hanging out with the wrong crowd, and Jesus says, "You know what your problem is, guys? You don't understand the true nature of mercy." Why? Because they thought mercy was simply forgiving people and helping people who needed help. No, no, for mercy also includes building bridges of love to the unpopular. And Jesus says it here. He says, "I'm going to a party, and I'm going to a party with people that nobody wants to hang out with, the ill repute, the unpopular, the fringe, the negative, the criminals, the riffraff. I'm going to go to a party," Jesus says. Why? "Because I understand mercy, and you don't. And you don't."

And he says, "Go learn the meaning of Hosea 6:6." Now, I want you to notice because it's got a lot of truth in here. It says, "Matthew invited." Circle that word invited. Question. When was the last time you invited unbelievers for dinner? That's an act of mercy. When was the last time you invited have you ever had any notorious sinners in your home, besides you? Besides you.

You want to be merciful? Now we're getting where the rubber meets the road. Do you even have any close unbelieving friends? Do you? If you don't, you're not like Jesus. The problem is, the longer you are a Christian, the more you tend to hang out with other Christians, and the fewer non-believing friends you have. How do you expect the good news to get out if you don't have any friends who are unbelievers? And you're not inviting them over for dinner? If you're not, you don't understand what mercy is all about. Jesus says, "Go learn the scriptures."

Now, notice it says, "Matthew invites these quote riffraff, these unpopular, the non-loved people of society over for dinner." And it says, "The religious people are indignant." I want to warn you that if you truly, listen, if you truly begin to live a life of mercy, the moral and the political legalist will criticize you. They will attack you. And they will get mad at you. Why? Because they did with Jesus.

It wasn't it wasn't the the riffraff of life that disliked Jesus. It was the religious people because he hung out with the wrong crowd. It's like a Democrat hanging out with Republicans. Or a Republican actually having Democratic friends for dinner. Or another religion, or another lifestyle, or someone who is involved in some kind of sin you totally disagree with.

If you begin to live a life of mercy, you will be criticized. This is a motivation behind much of the criticism that I get. Why? Because I make friends with a lot of different people. I have friends who are Muslims, and I have friends who are uh Jewish, and Mormon, and Buddhist. I have friends who are atheist. I have friends who are gay. I have friends who are all kind I spent, when I'm not at Saddleback, I spend most of my time usually speaking to groups that I totally disagree with.

Why? Because I'm practicing the ministry of mercy. And Jesus hung out with people who were different than him. This is the motivation. Now, they come to him and they say the Pharisees say, "Why do you hang out with this scum?" You know, let me ask you this, who's the socially unacceptable group in your circle?

By the way, they call them scum, anytime you use a putdown or humor against somebody else, you are being unmerciful. Now, Jesus wasn't afraid of guilt by association for two reasons. He knew who he was and he knew what his mission was. He knew who he was. He didn't need the approval of Pharisees. He knew exactly who he was. And he knew his mission to seek and to save that which is lost.

And if you know who you are, you don't need the approval of the legalist. You don't need the approval of the critics. You don't need the the approval of the self-righteous who set them up as jury and judge on your life. You do what Jesus did. You go have parties with people in order to win them and love them and share the good news and show mercy.

Jesus says to all these guys, "Go learn the meaning of mercy," when they accuse him of guilt by association. Then number seven, one more. And this one's going to surprise you too. Jesus taught that to have a ministry of mercy, you must value relationships over rules. You must value relationships over rules.

Now, if you're a rule keeper, that just grates all the wrong ways. And particularly if you're in the HR department and you have policies and procedures. Jesus would say, "Put people before policies. Put people's needs before procedures. Put relationships before rules and regulations." He would say, "Choose love over law."

Let me give you a very important and insightful incident. Matthew chapter, by the way, look at this verse up on the screen. Romans 13:10 says, "Love is the fulfillment of the law." So if you're doing the loving thing, it's genuinely for their benefit, not yours, for their benefit, you're doing the right thing.

Now, look at Matthew chapter 12. Here's another time Jesus has a run-in with the legalist Pharisees. Another time Jesus was talking walking through some grain fields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry. So they began to pick some grain and eat it. Now, some Pharisees saw this. These religious leaders and they protested, "Your disciples are breaking God's laws by harvesting grain on the Sabbath." Okay? They're they're rule keepers.

But Jesus said, "Haven't you ever read what King David did when he and his soldiers were hungry? He went into the house of God, that's the temple, and there he ate the holy bread, the consecrated bread reserved for the priests." Then Jesus says to the Pharisees, "You would not have judged these innocent men," talking about his disciples, "if you knew the real meaning of scripture, 'I want you to be merciful. I don't want your sacrifices.'"

There it is again, he quotes Hosea 6:6 for the second time. "For I am the Lord of the Sabbath." Now, get this. The Pharisees come and say, "Your disciples are breaking the law, the Jewish law that says you can't harvest grain on the Sabbath and they're they're harvesting grain." And Jesus said, "Wait a minute, they're hungry. They're hungry. I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." And he's saying here, "I put love before the law, I put I put people before procedures, I put relationships before rules and regulation."

He says, "You guys don't get it because you don't understand the meaning of mercy." He says, "I want you to go and read that scripture. If you knew the real meaning of the scripture, I don't want your sacrifice, I want your mercy, then you wouldn't have a problem with the disciples picking some grain on the Sabbath. They're hungry."

Now, I want to dare you to do something very risky this week. Not pick grain on the Sabbath. But I want to dare you to commit an act of premeditated mercy with one of these categories. Yes, there is a tension. Yes, there is a tension between mercy and personal responsibility. Yes, there is.

But I have personally decided that if I'm going to err, I'm going to err on the side of being too gracious, too merciful, and too forgiving. Because if you're going to err, that's the side I would rather err on. Does that make sense? You say, "Wait a minute, Rick. Can you go, can't you just go overboard on mercy?" Absolutely, you can. Jesus did. It's called the cross.

And on the cross with arms outstretched, he says, "I'm doing this to be merciful. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." That is the most over-the-top example of mercy ever. He let them beat him, whip him, scourge him, spit on him, put a crown of thorns on him, and he never retaliated. He absorbed every one of the blows. And then, what's his response? "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." Like Paul says, "I was ignorant and unaware of what I was doing."

Can you go overboard on mercy? Yes, you can. Look at the cross. It's way, way, way overboard. Maybe you've never accepted God's mercy to you. The Bible says in Titus 3:5, "It is not by works of righteousness as we have done," we talked about that last week, "but according to his mercy he has saved us." The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence for there we will find mercy. Mercy and grace to help us in our time of need." If you haven't accepted the grace and mercy of God, you need to do so today.

Now, I want us to close in a little bit different way today. I want you to bow your heads right now, but I want you to keep your eyes open, okay? So if you'll bow your head and keep your eyes open so you can look at your message notes. And what I want to do is I want to end by asking you to consider some personal application questions and then doing something about it in these seven areas of how do I be merciful?

So, I'm going to ask you a question, and next to each of these numbers, I want you to write down an initial, just a first initial of a person that you're thinking about, okay? So number one, how do I be merciful? Be patient with people's quirks. I want you to write down who has irritating quirks that I need to be patient with this week? Now, nobody's going to see this except you, but you can just write down the first letter of their name. Who has irritating quirks that I need to be patient with this week? Write down a name.

Number two. Who around me is obviously hurting that I could help this week? Can you write down a name? Can you write down an initial? If you can't think of anybody who's obviously hurting around you, it means this: you're not paying attention. It means you're so wrapped up in yourself, you can't even see the people around you who are hurting.

Okay, how about number three, the third one. Give people a second chance. Who do I need to give a second chance to? This may be tough for you, but this is the ministry of mercy. Who do I need to give a second chance to? Write down an an initial, first initial of somebody. You can use this later on this week.

Number four, do good to those who hurt me. Who has hurt me that I could do good to? Who has hurt me that I could do good to?

Number five. I am to be kind to those who offend me. Who offends me? Maybe it's a comedian, maybe it's a politician, maybe it's somebody, but you can write down a name. Maybe it's somebody close to you. Who offends me that I should start praying for? Who offends me that I should start praying for rather than just being offended by them? Maybe if you're close enough you could be kind to them.

Number six. Build bridges of love to the unpopular. Who's the outcast, who's the unpopular person that I could build a bridge of love to? Who is the outcast or unpopular person I could build a bridge of love to? At work, in my community, at the soccer games, here at church, anywhere.

And then number seven. Who is an unbeliever I could invite over for dinner in the next two weeks? Just like Matthew did. Who's an unbeliever that I could invite over for dinner in the next couple of weeks? Then invite him to church. This, friends, is your ministry of mercy.

Pastor Rick Warren: Heavenly Father, your word convicts all of us. And as I look at these seven things, I think of lacks and faults, and weaknesses in my own life. And I pray that rather than just hearing the word, we would do something about it. Give us the courage to be merciful. Give us the courage to this week to do radical, premeditated acts of mercy. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Such a great message from Pastor Rick today, and I hope you were just as encouraged as I was. Once again, here's Rick.

Pastor Rick Warren: Hello, everybody. This is Rick, and I have just returned from Amsterdam where I was at a conference where we had over 6,000 church leaders, pastors from all around the world. Literally 140 nations came to Amsterdam for a week of training where we were teaching them about the Good News of Jesus Christ, and more importantly, how to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and help finishing the task around the world in the next 10 years. That's the goal to get the gospel to every person in the world in the next 10 years by 2033, which is the 2000th birthday of Christianity.

And you know what was most exciting to me is that people came to me from all around the world. Like I said, 140 nations and said, "I listen to Daily Hope every day. In Kazakhstan, in Bhutan, in Bolivia, in uh Namibia." On every continent I heard time and time again, "Pastor Rick, the word of God is changing my life." Friends, that's what Daily Hope is all about. And for me, since I get your letters, and I love to read your letters, and I love to hear your stories, but to be face to face with about 6,000 people who were listening to Daily Hope on a regular basis and hearing how it's changed their lives and influenced their ministries, it just makes me want to say to all of you who pray for this ministry, and all of you who support this ministry, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers, for your gifts, for your support. You're making a difference. When you get to Heaven, you're going to meet people in Heaven who've come to Christ because you prayed and because you gave.

Guest (Male): Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.