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're 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. All right, let's get started with part one of a message called Being an Agent of Mercy in the World.

Rick Warren: We've talked many times that God has five purposes for your life. He wants you to know and love him; that's called worship. He wants you to belong to his family; that's called fellowship. He wants you to grow spiritually and become like Christ; that's called discipleship. He wants you to learn how to serve other people and not be self-centered; that's called ministry. And he wants you to share the good news with other people; that's called your mission in life.

Mercy has application for every one of those purposes. The Bible tells us that when you show mercy to other people, it's an act of worship. It shows you love God. The Bible says that when you show mercy, it builds fellowship and brings people together. The Bible says that when you show mercy, you become more like Christ and grow spiritually. The Bible says that when you show mercy, it's a service to other people; it's a ministry. And the Bible says that when you show mercy, it is a form of your mission of sharing the good news.

You fulfill your purpose in life, and one of the ways you do that is by showing mercy to other people. I want us this weekend, in the last message in this series, to look at mercy as a witness, specifically being an agent of mercy in the world. When I was a little boy, I dreamed of being a secret agent. There was a show on television called The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Does anybody remember this show? You're extremely old if you remember this show. There was another one called I Spy. Does anybody remember that movie?

And of course, there was James Bond. I was obsessed with this idea of being a special agent or a secret agent. Even as a little boy in the third and fourth grade, I read all these books on the FBI, the CIA, and Interpol because I always thought how cool would it be to be chosen to be an agent that represented something really significant in the world. Well, God has chosen you to be a significant agent in the most significant cause in the world which is called the Kingdom of God.

God wants you to be an agent of mercy in the world. It's one of the ways that we actually share our faith. Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, right before he went back to heaven after he resurrected from the dead, "You will be my witnesses." Now, what is a witness? If you go to a courtroom, a witness is somebody who just tells what they saw happen. It's not the job of the witness to convince a jury. It's not the job of the witness to be the prosecution, and it's not the job of the witness to be a defense.

The witness just says, "This is all I saw. This is what happened to me." When Jesus says you'll be my witnesses, you're the only one who can be the witness for you because nobody else knows how God has worked in your life besides you. You're the authority on you. I can't be your witness, and nobody else can be your witness. Only you can tell what's happened to you. When you tell that, that's called your story or your testimony. Just like in court, people give a testimony.

A lot of people think they only have one testimony. You have hundreds of Christian testimonies. Anytime God has done something in your life, you've got a story about it. If God has helped you overcome worry and fear, that's a testimony. If God has helped you manage your anger better, that's a testimony. You may have a testimony about your health and how God helped you through a difficult health crisis. You may have a testimony or a story about how God helped you when you were in a financial crisis, or how God saved your marriage, or how God put back a relationship.

You literally have hundreds of testimonies, and the one you share is just whichever relates to the person you're talking to. You're the authority on you. To be a witness simply means I share what God has done in my life. You don't have to know a lot of scripture, you don't have to be a theologian, and you don't have to be able to quote the Bible. You just share what God's done in your life. Jesus did not say you will be my defense attorney. It's not your job to defend God.

Jesus didn't say you will be my prosecutor. It's not your job to convince people. That's God's job. That's the Holy Spirit's job. Your job is just to be a witness. "I don't know, this is what happened to me." Only you are the authority on you. Nobody can even challenge it because they're not you. You will be my witnesses. What's the best way to do that in today's world? As the world becomes more unkind, more mean, and more unforgiving, is the world becoming more loving or more self-centered?

It is more self-centered; there's no doubt about that. Is the world today more polite than ten years ago or more rude than ten years ago? It is more rude. We know that. The world is not getting more loving. The world is not getting more kind. Wars aren't going away. Racial violence, stress, and bigotry are not going away. Profiling prejudice isn't going away. Is politics getting closer or more divided? It is more divided. In an unkind world, in a mean world, our greatest witness is showing mercy because it's so unusual.

Showing mercy means thinking about the other person instead of thinking about myself. It's doing what's best for them rather than what's best for me. Every time you show mercy in the world, that's your greatest Christian witness because we're in a world that's very unmerciful and very unforgiving. We are in a world where you're taught to put down other people. In fact, one of the highest forms of humor is the put down. Some of the highest-paid comedians are those who know how to put down certain races or segments of society.

In those sarcastic and cynical jabs, they make their money. Coming into a very unkind, unloving, unforgiving, mean world, when people show mercy, people say, "That's what I expect a Christian to be. That's what Jesus Christ would do. He showed mercy." Jesus said in Matthew 5:7, "Show mercy to others, just as your father shows mercy to you." As we wrap up this campaign we've been in, I want to talk about how and where you do that. How do you show mercy and where do you show mercy?

We're going to look at a few principles of mercy and then spend most of the focus on the places of mercy. I want you to hear some stories and examples of how normal people are sharing mercy as a witness in their daily life. Let's look at some principles of mercy. Number one: If you want to build a lifestyle of mercy, start looking and listening for people's needs. That's the starting point. The needs of people in your neighborhood, at work, in your family, and people you hang out with at soccer games.

Mercy always begins with awareness. It begins with paying attention and noticing. If you care, you will be aware. If you don't care, you're not aware. The reason why we're not very merciful is not that you're a bad person or a totally mean person, it's that you are too busy. The number one destroyer of mercy in your life, the number one thing that keeps you from being merciful, is that you're just too busy. When you're too busy, you're moving from event to event and project to project.

You go from one thing on your schedule to the next and you're not paying attention to the people around you. If you're not paying attention, noticing, looking, or listening, you cannot possibly be merciful. But if you care, you'll be aware. The Bible says in Philippians 2:4, "Look out for one another's interest, not just your own." Mercy begins with looking, loving, and listening. Actually, attention is an act of love. When my kids were small, I remember I would be sitting on the sofa reading the paper.

Amy would come up to me as a little girl and she'd say, "Daddy." I'd say, "Yes, honey," while reading the paper. She goes, "Daddy." "Yes, honey." "Daddy!" "Yes, babe, what do you need?" She would pull the paper down, grab my face in her hands, and say, "Daddy, look at me." The highest form of love is not sex. It's attention. Attention is the highest form of love because attention says you matter to me. When you give people attention, you're giving them your time, and your time is your life.

You can always get more of other stuff. You can give people gifts, but you can always get more gifts. You can give people money, but you can always make more money. You can give people advice, but you can always give more advice. When you give people your attention, you're giving them a slice of your life that you're never getting back. When you give people attention, you're giving them the highest, most expensive gift that you could possibly give them: a slice of your life.

When you look them in the eye and pay attention, that is the highest form of love. I've talked to a lot of husbands and dads who say, "I don't get it. I don't understand my wife and kids. I buy them everything they need. I provide for them; they've got a great home and there are no physical needs. What more do they want?" They want you. They want your attention, and it is worth more than anything else you could possibly give them. When you look people in the eye and listen to them with your ear, you are showing mercy.

When you look at them and listen to them, you are paying attention, which is the highest form of love. In Matthew 10:21, one of my favorite verses, a young man comes up to Jesus. He's got a lot of problems. He asks some questions and the Bible says, "Jesus looked at him and loved him." If you love people, you look at them. When you look at them, you're showing love for them. Start by listening and looking for the people's needs around you. You just need to start practicing that this week if you want to develop a lifestyle of mercy.

Number two: Don't be offended by their sin. Don't be offended by the sins they do. Grace is messy. Grace and mercy are unconditional. They're unconditional love, which means it's not like go get your act together and then I'll like you. It is not clean up your life and then you'll be okay with me, or make everything right and then I will accept you. It is not live the way I think you ought to live and then you'll be fine with me. Grace is messy. Grace and mercy are unconditional.

If you're going to minister to people and show mercy to people, you can't be offended by them. Jesus wasn't offended by people, and he hung out with the worst kinds of sinners in that day: prostitutes, drunks, and corrupt business people. He was accused of guilt by association because he hung out with people who were corrupt, immoral, unloving, unkind, and manipulative. Yet he was not offended by their sin. The Bible says to look out for the needs of other people around you.

I can't look out for them if I'm looking down on them. You can't do it. If you as a Christian are looking down on anybody, you're not looking out for that person. If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and a legitimate child of God, you cannot look down on anybody. Nobody. I've often thought one day I'm going to do a series called Things That Jesus Did Not Say. One of the things Jesus never said was, "You don't have to love that type." He never said that kind over there you don't have to love.

He never said you don't have to love those kind of people because their politics, lifestyle, or moral vision suck, or because they are way off-base. If you're going to be an agent of mercy, the Bible says you have to show mercy to everybody. You have to look out for them and not look down on them. Jude chapter 1, verses 22 and 23 say, "Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering." If the guy says he is an atheist, his faith is wavering and I can't look down on him.

If he is an agnostic or doesn't know what he believes right now, his faith's wavering and I am to show him mercy. The Bible says show mercy to those whose faith is wavering, and rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. They're making bad judgments all the time. He says there are still others to whom you need to show mercy because of their lifestyle or whatever, but be careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins. Showing mercy doesn't mean I excuse everything and say it's okay.

It's not okay. If you're out there and you're addicted to things, that's not okay. Showing mercy doesn't mean I'm going to get addicted with you. If you are in corruption, it doesn't mean I say it's okay and no big deal. It is a big deal, but I still show you mercy. I don't get corrupted by it and I don't get myself involved in it. It's the difference between acceptance and approval. Jesus accepts me completely, but he does not approve of everything I do.

Jesus accepts you completely, but he does not approve of everything you do. Jesus accepts everybody else, but he does not approve of everything they do. There's a fine difference. We are to love people and we are to accept them, but it doesn't mean that everything I do is right, or everything you do is right, or everything everybody else does is right. 1 Peter 4:8 says, "Most importantly, love each other deeply. Love has a way of not looking at other's sins." Love has a way of not looking at other's sins.

The first point said look out for people's interests, and this point says don't look out for people's sins. There's some stuff you should pay attention to: their needs, hurts, and interests. And there's some stuff in people's life you shouldn't pay attention to. Love covers a multitude of sins. We are to look out for their interest, but we're not to look at their sins. Ephesians 4:2 says, "Be patient with each other, making allowances for each other." Cutting each other some slack is called mercy.

If every Christian in America would practice the following principle, it would change America overnight. If every Christian in the world would practice it, it would change the world overnight. Don't expect unbelievers to act like believers until they are. That is so simple and logical, but we often don't do it. We want to expect everybody to act like Christians when they're not even Christians. That isn't going to happen. You can try to make a law to make non-believers act like believers, but it won't work.

The Bible says they don't have the power to change. I couldn't do the right thing until I got God's power in my life. A lot of things I wanted to change in my life I couldn't change until I got Christ in my life. Then I had the power to change. To ask a non-believer to have the same moral standards as a believer is nonsense. First, they don't understand it and second, they don't have the power to do it. You didn't either until you got Christ in your life. That's like getting the cart before the horse.

That's why it's really nonsense where there are Christians out there trying to get all of these moral laws put into society to force people to act in Christian ways before they even have the power to do it. The book of Romans says the law is powerless. It doesn't have the power to change people's lives. Only grace and mercy change people's lives. The law has never changed anybody. We could make a law that outlaws bigotry. Is that going to turn a bigot into a lover? No. Only Jesus can do it on the inside.

You can't be offended by people's sins if you're going to show them mercy. If you're going to win them to Christ, you just have to love them where they are. In Matthew chapter 9, it talks about Matthew, who was one of the disciples. Matthew was a tax collector. In those days, tax collectors were part of the most hated profession in the Roman Empire because Rome told them what to collect and anything they got above that, they could keep.

It was extortion. A tax collector could come to you and say you owe this much money and you had no alternative but to pay it or get thrown in jail. He would give a little bit to the government and keep the rest. Every tax collector was corrupt. Jesus goes to a party with tax collectors. Matthew invited Jesus to dinner with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners. The Pharisees, the religious legalists, were indignant and asked why the teacher ate with such scum.

When Jesus heard this, he said healthy people don't need a doctor, but sick people do. He added, "Now, go and learn the meaning of this scripture: I want you to be merciful, not to offer sacrifices. For I, Jesus, have come to invite sinners to me, not those who think they're righteous." I didn't come for people who think they're well. I came for people who know they're sick, broken, and have problems. I've come to invite sinners to me, not to those who think they're righteous.

The religious Pharisees couldn't understand that. They wondered why he was acting cozy with crooks and riffraff. Jesus was a party animal; they actually accused him of that in the Bible. But Jesus was not looking for their approval. He was looking and listening to the needs of other people. He was going to where the needs of other people were and he wasn't offended by their sins. You can't help someone you're offended by. You have to show mercy.

Guest (Male): What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Rick Warren: Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives according to five specific purposes. He said you have to love God with all your heart, that's worship, and love your neighbor as yourself, that's ministry. That's called the Great Commandment. Then Jesus said go make disciples, that's evangelism, baptize them into the family of God, that's fellowship, and teach them to obey everything I've taught you. That's discipleship. We call that the Great Commission.

We believe at Daily Hope that a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will produce a great Christian, a great church, a great company, and a great community. I started Daily Hope so I could spread the good news about Jesus, not just across America, but all around the world. We want people to know that God's word is filled with hope and truth and the power that we need to follow him every day is available to every single one. You know as well as I do that the word of God changes lives. It's alive, it's active, and it breathes new life and new love into all of our lives.

Wherever you listen to this, whether on the website, a radio station, or through a podcast, you're a part of the Daily Hope family. I need your help. We could not do this without your support. We're 100% listener-funded. Would you continue to pray for this broadcast and would you continue to support us? Write to me and let me hear from you. I absolutely love reading the stories that are sent to me. Write me, pray for me, and support this ministry. God will bless it and you. We'll get to heaven and we'll thank God for all the people who will be there because you cared.

Guest (Male): If you'd like to support Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, just go to PastorRick.com. That's PastorRick.com, or you can text the word HOPE to 70309. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people everywhere. Be sure to join us next time when 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.