Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hello, and thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Rick Warren, and today we are continuing in a series called The Miracle of Mercy. Rick will show us how God's mercy can lift your guilt, heal your wounds, and transform the way you live. Right now, here's the final part of a message called "How Much You Matter to God."

Pastor Rick Warren: When you are saved, when you move from category A—lost—to category B—saved—all of a sudden, you get your potential back. That God-given potential that's been being wasted like the coin that was lost, that can't do any good while it's lost.

Matthew 11:28, Jesus says this: "Come to me, all you who are weary and worn out from carrying too much. Learn to trust and rest in me, and you'll recover your life." Question: What have you lost that you'd like to recover? What have you lost that you'd like to recover? Like the woman lost a coin. You say, "Well, I've lost my strength. I'd like to get it back. I've lost my joy. I'd like to get it back. I've lost my dream. I've lost my hope. I've lost my innocence. I've lost my reputation. I've lost my confidence." I could go on with a hundred or two hundred other things.

Jesus came not only to rescue us from ourselves, but to recover what we've lost. And what is that we've lost? We've lost our potential—the potential that we have when we're connected to God. As a boy, I was a coin collector. So let me make a couple observations about coins. When a coin gets lost, it doesn't know it's lost. It doesn't know it's lost. It could be hidden under the sofa for the next 30 years and it doesn't know enough to know that it's lost. It's oblivious to the fact that it needs recovering. It needs recovery. Some of you say, "I don't know that I needed recovery." The coin doesn't know it's lost.

And number two, a coin is helpless to do anything about it. That coin that's lost that fell off on the ground can't jump back up on the table. Somebody bigger than it has to pick it up and put it back in the proper place. Now, both of those things are true of human beings. We can't save ourselves, and half the time we don't even know that we need to be saved. We don't even know that we need recovery. But everybody needs recovery, and everybody needs rescuing, and everybody needs salvation.

So I can't save myself, but God can because He can do anything. That's when John Newton wrote, "I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see." Amazing grace. What is amazing grace? It's mercy. It's the mercy of God. Joel chapter 2, verse 25 is one of the great promises of the Bible if you've lost something that needs to be recovered. God says, "I will give you back what you have lost in the years when the locusts have eaten all your crops."

Now, you're not a farmer, so you're not planting a crop. Well, let me ask you this: What's eaten your lunch? What's eating you up? What are the locusts? By the way, you know what locusts are called today? Grasshoppers. That's what locusts are—they're grasshoppers. And grasshoppers can destroy a field of corn in about two hours. If a swarm comes in, they can eat the whole thing down to the stalk in about two hours.

And when a swarm of locusts comes in and starts eating away at your profitability, starts eating away at your confidence, starts eating away at your beauty, starts eating away at your plans, your dreams, your hopes—who's going to restore that? There's only one person that can. You can't. I can't. But God can. And that's part of salvation. "I will give you back what you lost in the years when the locusts ate all your crops."

Some of you are saying, "You know what? I've been lost for so many years. It's a little late for me." It's not too late. "I will give you back the years that were lost. I will make the next years count more than all the ones previously." Like the woman who finds her lost coin, salvation helps me recover my potential.

And then the third story, the one about the lost son. What does that teach us about salvation? It teaches us this: Salvation reconnects me to God. Remember the father in the story is a representation of God. The loving father is a representation of your heavenly Father. Salvation reconnects me to God, and the Bible word for this is the word reconciliation. When a husband and wife end their conflict, that's called reconciliation. When two nations end their conflict, that's called reconciling or reconciliation.

And the Bible says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17 and 18: "Anyone who connects to Christ becomes a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything becomes new. God has done it all; He's the Savior. He sent Christ to make peace between Himself and us." That's the reconnecting. That's the reconciling. That's the tearing down the barrier between you and God. You say, "I pray; I feel like my prayers are bouncing off the ceiling." Well, they may be if you haven't been saved, if you haven't been reconciled to God, if you haven't had that reconnection made.

He sent Christ to make peace between these two warring things. You've been at war with God because you've been acting like you're God. And when you surrender and say, "God, You're God and I'm not," then Jesus Christ makes peace between us and Himself. What did it take for Jesus to do that? Just coming to earth, dying on the cross, going through all that torture, all of that pain—and that shows how much you matter to God.

How do I connect to God's mercy? How do I do that? Here's the answer. You do the same three things that the young son says in the last story—this young rebel who blew half the family inheritance and then comes home with his tail between his legs and says, "Dad, just make me a servant." You do the same three things that this guy did. And the Bible tells us in this story in Luke chapter 15.

Number one: get fed up with my life. That's the starting point. You've got to get fed up with your life. Nothing happens until you become discontent with the way things are right now. And at some point you've got to go, "I'm not going to put up with this anymore. I don't like the way I've been living. There's got to be a better way to live than living with all this pressure, this stress, this fatigue, this drifting. God, you've got to help me. This is not what I want with my life."

I'm not going to put up with it anymore. I'm tired. I'm tired of the pressure. I'm tired of the pain. I'm tired of the stress. I'm tired of the disappointments I've had in life. I'm tired of the busyness. And say, "God, I'm fed up." I'm tired of pretending. I'm tired of faking it. I'm tired of my failures. I'm tired of my frustrations. I don't like how I'm living. In fact, the truth is, I don't even like who I am. And I don't like what I'm becoming.

Until something like that happens in your life, you're not going to be saved. You've got to get fed up with the way you've been living. I am fed up with being disconnected from God. I am fed up with being distant from my heavenly Father who loves me, created me, and has given me everything good in my life. You've got to get hungry. You've got to get thirsty. You've got to be desperate for a change. You've got to sometimes be in the pigsty and say, "I'm going home. I know it's embarrassing and I've really blown it, but I'm going home to my heavenly Father."

The Bible says this in Luke 15: "He wasted it all. He had nothing left. He got desperate and hungry, and then he finally came to his senses." Now, this is where transformation starts. I refuse to live the way I've been living one more minute. Jeremiah 29:13, God says this: "You'll find me when you get serious about finding me and you want it more than anything else." Not some casual churchianity. No, you're serious. I want it more than anything else. You see, the reason why most people never get connected to God, why most people live lost lives, is because they're happy to live without God.

They think, "It's not that bad. It's okay." But let me explain it to you. Let me try to think of an illustration or metaphor. It's kind of like if you were living an oxygen-deprived life. Let's say you had COPD or emphysema, and you can't breathe enough to really get your body full of oxygen. And you've got enough oxygen to just keep you alive. You're surviving. But you get winded on stairs, and you sure don't have enough oxygen to be brilliant, to be creative, to be innovative, to be energetic. You don't have enough oxygen to feel good. You don't have enough oxygen to live life to the fullest.

You're living an oxygen-deprived environment where it's like, "I'm barely getting by. I'm surviving. I'm alive. But that's it." Getting saved turns the full oxygen on in your life. Jesus said, "I've come that you might have life to its fullest." Let me give you another metaphor. It's as if Satan had taken your head and shoved it under the bathroom water, and you can't breathe underwater. And you're holding your breath, and he's got you held down there and he's holding it down and he's holding it down.

And Satan's going to hold your head under that water until you start fighting and you go, "No, I've got to breathe!" And then every ounce in your body says, "Enough's enough. You're not going to hold me under the water anymore, Satan. I'm going to breathe. I want real life. I want the life I was meant to live. I want to be connected to the Father who loves me. I want to be connected to the God who knows my potential. You want to destroy me; He wants me to live to my fullest. And I'm not going to take any more, and I'm going to fight." I get fed up with my own life.

After you get fed up, here's the second thing you do: you own up. I own up to my sin. Just admit it. God, I have made a mess. I've blown it. I've sinned. I've done what I wanted to do, not what You wanted me to do. I followed my way, not Your way. You be honest about your failures. You have the courage to face the truth about you. That's scary. You will know the truth; the truth will set you free. But first, it makes you miserable. So you admit the truth, and then the freedom comes out of that. I own up to my sin.

The Bible says in Luke 15, verse 17, 18, this young man, "He came to his senses, and then he said, 'I have sinned against God and you.'" That's called a confession. Now, circle the word "senses." When he came to his senses. You see, you say, "The way I've been living has not made sense. The way I've been living has been irrational. The way I've been living has been illogical. Disconnected from the God who made me and loves me? What's that all about? Thinking that I know more than God? What's the logic of that?"

I'm just going to come to my senses. I've got to have a moment of clarity. You will never be saved until you have a moment of clarity where first, you get fed up and then second, you own up. I'm not God. I've tried to be God. I've tried to do my own thing. I've wanted to be God. But you have a moment of clarity where you say, "I came to my senses." To stay distant from God is insane. It doesn't make sense. It's not smart. It's unsustainable.

I get fed up and I own up. And then the third thing I do—and this is what he did—is I offer up. I offer up myself to God. I want you to notice the change in the attitude from the thing that the young man said when he left his father to go to Vegas or wherever he went, and what the thing that he said when he came back to his father years later in a much more humbler attitude. In verse 12 of Luke 15, the son left home, he drifted away, he left in rebellion, saying this: "Give me my share." Notice he says "give me." It's all about me. Give me, give me, give me. It's all about me. I don't care about you, Dad. I don't care about our family. Give me. It's all very self-centered.

Now, years later when he comes back, here's what he said. He returned to the father saying, "Make me a servant." A little bit of different attitude. He leaves saying "give me"; he returns saying "make me." That, friends, is salvation. It's turning from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. Self-centered: Give me everything I deserve in life. Make me whatever You want me to be. That's salvation. If you haven't said that, you're not saved. You're still lost. You're valuable—so valuable that Jesus Christ died for you—but you're lost. You've got to move from "give me; it's all about me" to "make me, God, whatever You want to do with my life. Make me Your servant." That's a heart transformation from self-centeredness to God-centeredness.

Now, I want you to notice the father's response. In verse 23 and 24, it says, "Filled with love and compassion." You come to God after all those years that you've messed up. God's going to be filled with love and compassion. The father ran out to his son. He didn't even wait for him to come all the way back home. He runs out to meet him. This guy probably hasn't had a bath in a year. He's been living with pigs. He is very odoriferous. He stinks. He's dirty. He's smelly. He's got pig slop on him.

The father doesn't wait until he gets cleaned up. He runs out to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. And then he says, "Bring the best robe and put it on him. Bring the best signet ring, the family ring, which was the credit card of that day. So what he's saying is, bring out the best ring. He's saying, give the guy the Black American Express card. This is the guy who just blew half the family inheritance. That's mercy. And then he says, find the best beef that we've got on the ranch out here. We're having a barbecue; we're having a party. My son who was lost has been found. He's been saved. And that's what they do. Do you know the Bible says that they have a party in heaven every time one person steps across the line?

And God always takes the initiative. Look at this verse on the screen. Romans chapter 5, verse 2, "We throw open our doors to God and we discover at the same moment that He's already thrown open His door to us." He already took the initiative. He took it 2,000 years ago when He came and died for you. He paid for your sins before you were born. That's how much He took the initiative. He wants to rescue you.

Do you guys remember many years ago, there was this little girl who fell down this long deep pipe? It was like a culvert, and it took 36-48 hours to get that little girl... she's an adult, obviously, today. And the whole nation was transfixed when that little girl fell into that pipe and she was too lodged to get in or out, and they couldn't figure out what they were going to do. Can you imagine if the rescuers had showed up and said, "Hi, honey, are you down there?" "Yeah, I'm down here." "Well, we're here to rescue you." "Well, thank you, I'm doing okay. It's actually quite cozy here. I'm feeling a little safe and secure. So far so good." How many people do you know who are lost are saying, "So far so good"? How many people do you know who are lost who are saying, "It's actually not that bad"?

If God has a better life for you, why in the world would you stay stuck in the rut? Last verse. Right now, God is ready to welcome you. Today, He's ready to save you. Now, I told you that these three stories are all about how much you matter to God, how valuable you are to God. How do you determine something's value? Close with this. It's real simple how to figure out what something is worth. What is somebody willing to pay for it?

How much is your house worth? Not what you think it is. It's only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. And if nobody's willing to pay for it, it's not worth that much. You can put a price on it. You might have a rare stamp. What's it worth? It's worth whatever somebody's willing to pay for it. And if nobody's willing to pay for it, then it's not worth any more than that. How much are you worth? Jesus says you're worth dying for. You want to know your value? You look at the cross. You're lost, but you're valuable, and Jesus says you're worth this much.

The most famous verse in the Bible, last verse, John 3:16, God so loved the world—He loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him may not be lost, may not perish, but have eternal life. Today's your day. Let's bow our heads.

You may have gone to church all of your life. This may be the first time you've been in a service. You may be religious or you may say, "I have no religion." It doesn't really matter who you are or what you've done or what your background is. You matter to God. And God says there are only two kinds of people in life: those who have been saved by His mercy and those who have not yet been saved by His mercy, who are still lost.

And like the lost sheep and coin and son, we lose our direction, we lose our protection, we lose our potential, we lose our happiness, and we lose our home in heaven, but we do not lose our value. And because of that, Jesus Christ came to earth for you. Today, I invite you to accept the mercy of God. Pray this prayer: Dear God, I accept Your mercy today. I need You to rescue me from myself. There are things in my life I don't like, and I can't change them. I need You to recover my potential. You've promised to give back what I've lost in the years that the locust ate.

Lord, I need You to recover the things that I've lost. And Jesus Christ, I need You to reconnect me to God. I don't want to be at war with God. I don't want to be in conflict with God. I want to be at peace with God. And so today, I'm saying I'm fed up with my life. You said that when I get serious about finding You, that I will find You when I want it more than anything else. I want this more than anything else. I want to be right with You, God. I'm fed up with my life, and I want to own up to my sin.

I've often gone my way than Your way. I've pretended I was God. I've done things that violated my conscience, much less Your laws. And today, I offer up myself. And I want to switch from saying "give me, give me, give me" to "make me." Make me a servant. I want to be what You want me to be. Thank You that, like that heavenly Father, You're filled with compassion, and You run out and You throw Your arms around me and You love me. And I humbly ask You to accept me into Your family. In Your name, I pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): Did you just pray with Pastor Rick to accept Jesus? Well, if you did, congratulations. And if you email Rick at PastorRick.com and let us know that you prayed that prayer, we're going to send you some free materials to help you on your spiritual journey. And now this really is one of my favorite parts of the broadcast: letters from our listeners. Here's Rick.

Pastor Rick Warren: I want to thank all of you who've taken the time to write me and to share your story. I absolutely love these stories. Your letters and your notes really encourage me. Here's a note from a listener that I just want to share with you. It said, "Pastor Rick, I want to thank you for your ministry of the Daily Hope podcast. They've been especially helpful as my wife and I are working through a painful time in our marriage and healing our relationship. It's a blessing to be challenged to love the Jesus kind of love and to build up trust once again where it's been broken.

You know, as I work through a very busy time of year, I stream your podcast and find myself praying and nodding all day long." Now, I hope you're nodding in agreement, not nodding off in sleep. "Your preaching speaks directly to my heart, and I'm praying for the courage to rebuild the trust and love, to love her the way that God built me to love her. Thanks again for your work and the transformative change it brings out. I truly don't know where I'd be without Daily Hope podcast. Sincerely, Nathan."

Thanks for writing, Nathan. I want you to know that I'm going to be praying specifically for you and for your wife and for your marriage. It means a lot to me to know that these broadcasts are helping you through a difficult time.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Rick. And if you'd like to let Rick know how much this broadcast has meant to you, how it's blessed you, please send him an email at Rick@PastorRick.com. That's Rick@PastorRick.com. Rick looks so forward to reading those emails. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God's word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Daily Hope Ministries and your generous financial support.