Rick Warren - How Much You Matter to God—Part One

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. Okay, here's part one of a message

called how Much You Matter to God?

Now.

One of the purposes of the Miracle of Mercy series

is to help you've better understand what God is really like.

Most people have poor misconceptions of God. They don't understand

fully deeply the mercy of God, that God always acts

in mercy toward us.

Every good thing in your life.

Is because of the mercy of God. You wouldn't be

alive if it weren't for the mercy of God. The talents,

the gifts, the abilities you have are gifts of the

mercy of God. The fact that all of the good things,

the relationships that happen in your life, the fact that

you're going to go to Heaven one day is only

due to the mercy of God.

Without that we would have nothing.

Now, the Bible says in Titus chapter three, if you

pull out your message notes all the verses were gonna

look at this weekend or on your notes. Titus chapter three,

verse five says this Jesus saved us not because of

the good things that we did, but because of his mercy.

His mercy he washed away our sins and he gave

us new life through the Holy Spirit. Now, God is

such a god of mercy. He came to earth in

human form, as a form of Jesus Christ. He came

in human form to show us his mercy. He came

on a mission of mercy, and that mission of mercy

was to save us. In fact, Jesus says it like

this in Luke chapter nineteen, verse two. I have come

to seek and save those who are lost. Now this

is the ultimate expression of mercy.

Jesus said. The whole reason I came to earth.

Why we have Christmas, while we have Easter, while we

have everything that exists, is I came to seek and

save those who are lost. The ultimate expression of mercy.

Mercy seeks, Mercy takes initiative, Mercy makes the first step.

Mercy saves.

And by the way, this is the reason Saddleback Church exists.

The whole reason we have Church is because of this verse.

We exist to seek and to save those who are lost.

That's the whole purpose of Saddleback Church. Now, I want

you to circle the words saved and the word lost.

Saved and lost. In God's eyes, there are only two

kinds of people. There are only two distinctions that matter.

There are saved people and there are lost people. Every

one of us are in one of those categories. We're

you've saved or were it lost? And ultimately, no other

human distinction matters. Gender doesn't matter, doesn't matter whether you're

female or male. Race doesn't matter, doesn't matter what your

culture is, what your language is, what your background is.

It doesn't matter what your religion is. Your wealth doesn't

matter in terms in God's view. Your education doesn't matter.

God doesn't distinguish people by their IQs, by their abilities,

by their looks, by their talent, or anything else. God

says there are two kinds of people in the world.

There are people who are saved and there are people

who are lost, who have not yet been saved by God.

Now maybe you're thinking, well, I'm not in the saved,

so I must be in the lost. Don't consider that

to be a put down.

It's not. In fact, it's a compliment.

Both of these phrases, saved and lost, imply somebody loves you.

Both of these phrases saved and lost, imply you have

enormous value. Both of these phrases saved and lost are

actually compliments. They're saying you matter to God, and he

knows whether you're in this condition or in this condition.

You're valuable.

You're worth seeking, you're worth saving, You're worth finding their

expressions of love. I want you to write this down

on your outline. Lostness implies value. Lostness implies value. If

I'm spiritually lost, it doesn't mean I'm not valuable. No,

you're incredibly valuable to God, so valuable that Jesus Christ

came to Earth to seek and.

To save you.

Lostness implies value. You see invaluable things are misplaced, but

valuable things are lost. In other words, nobody loses a toothpick.

You may misplace a toothpick, you may misplace a paper clip,

you may misplace a kleenex, But you don't lose a

kleenex because it's not that valuable, And so you don't

go seeking and saving the kleenex because it's not valuable enough.

Let me give you example.

This is a paper Mate flair pin. I think it

costs nineteen cents. It's about the cheapest pen you can get.

I have used this type of pen for over thirty

five years. I have signed hundreds of thousands of books

with this bluepen. People try to give me mont Blancs

and all these other I wouldn't use them.

Why I'd lose them. These I can.

Lose one hundred a day and it doesn't matter. And

so if I'm traveling internationally, we always take a stack

of about fifty of these flair pins because I can

lose two or three in an hour. But because they're

so cheap, it doesn't matter to me. I don't even

consider them lost. I consider that's my donation whoever I

left it behind to Okay, and so while I could

have a much more expensive pen, this is Rick Warren's

pen of choice. Now, somebody should pay me a product

promotion for that. Okay, all right, I bought it. You

should try it too. Okay, But it's cheap, and so

I don't lose these, I just misplaced them. Now, this

is my wedding ring. If I lost this, it would

be a real loss because it represents over forty years

of commitment to the same woman, and she gave it

to me and I love her, and if I lost it,

it would not I wouldn't misplace my wedding ring.

I would lose it. You only lose stuff that's extremely valuable.

I didn't when my son, my youngest son, died, I

didn't misplace my son. I lost him because my son

was priceless to me and it was a major loss

in my life something invaluable. You misplace something priceless or invaluable,

can't put a priced egg on it.

You lose that.

You know, this year, all of the airlines in America

together will permanently lose.

They do this every year.

Over three hundred thousand pieces of luggage happens every year.

I'm not talking about the ones you lose and then fine,

I'm talking about they permanently lose three hundred thousand pieces

of luggage a year.

Now.

Most of those are filled with worthless stuff, dirty clothes,

but some of them are filled with stuff that's priceless.

In fact, when a masterpiece in art is lost, a

price actually goes up. So when we talk about whether

you're saved or whether you're lost spiritually. Both of them

imply enormous value. It's not a matter of is one

more important or one more valuat than that.

They're not. They're just both incredibly valuable.

Now, what I want to do this weekend, as we

look at the mercy of God is ask three questions.

What do I lose when I am spiritually lost?

What do I actually lose?

I mean, you've heard people talk about, well, I'm saved

or I'm lost or whatever. What I actually lose? Now,

many of you you say I know the Lord. You

need to know what I'm about to teach you because

you don't need to know how to explain it to

somebody else. What do you actually lose when you're spiritually lost?

We're going to talk about that.

And then second, what does God's mercy do when I

am lost?

How does God respond to that?

And then third question I want to ask is how

can I experience God's mercy? How do I experience this

God's mercy? Now, fortunately, all of the answers to those

three questions are in the same chapter in the Bible.

It's Luke chapter fifteen. And in Luke Chapter fifteen, Jesus

tells three stories, the story of a lost sheep, the

story of the lost Coin, and the story of the

Lost Son. And in these three stories he tells us

the answers.

To these questions.

And actually this passage is often called by Bible scholars

the Lost and Found chapter of the Bible because the

word lost and the word found together are used ten

times in one chapter. So Luke fifteen is called the

what chapter, lost and Found chapter of the Bible because

it's the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin,

and the lost son, three different stories all saying the same.

Thing, You matter to God.

Now, in these stories, the shepherd and the woman and

the father all represent God. And in these stories, the shep,

and the coin and the sun represent you and me.

So let me just tell you the three stories real quick.

First is the story of the lost sheep. And Jesus says,

there's a guy, a shepherd who has a hundred sheep,

and every night he brings them back to the sheep

pen the sheep fold to lock them up for the

night so that they're safe from wolves and predatory animals.

And he counts them every night, and as they're coming back.

In ninety eight ninety nine, and then there's no one hundred,

and he realizes that one is missing, and he counts

them because they just like we say at church, we

count people, because people count.

Every life matters.

Every number represents a name, and every name has a story,

and every story is somebody that Jesus Christ died for.

And so the story of the Good Shepherd here is

he leaves the ninety nine saved sheep in the pen

to go out and search for the one that's lost,

and as long as there's there's one lost, he's gonna

keep reaching out. He didn't say, well, hey, I got

ninety nine saved sheep, forget the lost one.

No, they all matter. They all matter.

As long as Saddleback Church has one person who doesn't

know Christ, they all matter. We got to keep reaching

out to people. So he goes off and he searches

all night, and he finds the one lost sheep, and

he brings them back and puts him in the fold.

He's so happy he throws a party and everybody comes

to this party. Then there's the second story, and the

story is the story of the lost coin. And Jesus says,

there's this woman who has ten valuable coins and I

don't know if they're laying on a table or whatever,

but somehow one of them gets lost and she loses

it and she can't find it. Now, she didn't say, well,

you know, I got nine coins. They're all valuable. I'm

not gonna worry about this one lost coin. No, she

turns the house upside down and she's frantically searching, and

she's tearing the furniture apart and looking all over. She

does not give up until she finds the one lost coin,

and then she's happy about it, and she throws a

party and invites all of her neighbors and friends to celebrate.

That she's found her lost coin.

Then there's the third story that Jesus tells is the

story of the Lost Son. Sometimes this story is called

the Prodigal Son, and the story goes like this. There's

a wealthy man who has two sons, and one of

the sons, the younger son, is kind of rebellious and

comes to one day and says, Dad, this is really

boring living here at home. I'm leaving. I'm splitting. I

want you to give my half of the family inheritance

to me. Now, I'm not gonna wait till you die,

give it to me now. So the father gives the

younger son half of his entire wealth, and the son splits.

He leaves, and he moves to Vegas. And our son

set's stripping downtown Jerusalem. And there he wasted his substance

in riotous living. In other words, wine women, in special

emphasis on women. And he's partying hardy, and he's having

a fun time, and he's having a lot of blasts.

Got a lot of friends, friends as long as you've

got plenty of money. But eventually he runs out of money.

And when he runs out of money, he runs out

of friends, and all of a sudden he ends up

on the skids. He can't get a job anywhere. He

ends up feeding slop to pigs and living in the

pig sty, in the pig pen.

This is not a good.

Thing for a Kosher Jew okay, to be living and

eating or with a pig. And so he's there in

laying there in the pig sty, in the slop. He

has a moment of clarity, He comes to his senses.

He goes, what in the world am I doing? He goes,

I'm thinking about home, He said, the servants who work

for my Dad, are better treated than this.

I know what I do.

I'm going to go home and say to my dad, Dad,

I'm not worthy to be your son anymore. I blew

half the family inheritance, and I am a big mistake.

I have sinned.

Just make me one of your hired servants, and I'll

just serve you, because your hired servants live better than

I'm living out.

On my own in rebellion.

And the loving father instead says, oh, are you kidding me?

He grabs him in a big hug. He kisses him,

he hugs him, he welcomes him home. He says, bring

the best robe, put it on him. He says, bring

the signatory, which is like the credit card, give it

to him. Find the best head of beef, and we're

gonna have a barbecue tonight. And he throws a party.

He says, my son has been lost and now he's found. Now,

did you notice any common denominator between the three stories?

What is it?

There was a party exactly. I was actually gonna call

this sermon, come to the party, because God wants to

throw a party for you in his So let's look

at God's mercy and what it has to do with

being lost or saved. Now, to be lost in God's

use means to be spiritually disconnected from God. If I'm

not connected in a daily relationship, in a vital connection

with God, I don't have a relationship with God. I

am spiritually lost. So what happens when I am lost?

What actually do I lose? Well, these three stories that

Jesus told in Luke fifteen, The Lost Son, the Lost Coin,

the Lost Sheep. Give us five things we lose. You

might write these down so you can explain them to

other people. What actually what do I lose if I'm lost?

Number one, I lose my direction. I lose my direction.

And we see this in the story of the Lost Sheep. Now,

no sheep intends to get lost. It just wanders off.

It's natural for people, I mean for sheep to get

lost on a warm spring day, you know, sheep. They're

not intentionally trying to get lost. They just go that

looks a little better grass over there. I'll wander over

there and munch around a little bit. That even looks

a little better over there. And you wander over there

and taste a little bit of that, and hey, I

think I see some water down there, And you wander

over there, and pretty soon the sheep is lost. He

didn't intend to get lost, just naturally wanders. It is

human nature in us the same way as with sheep.

Humans do this too. You know, as a kid, I

often wandered off. In fact, my parents would have heart

attacks for all the times I wandered off on vacations

and things like that. And I wasn't being rebellious. I

wasn't being quote sinful. I just was wandering off. And

you know, we'd go out camping, I'd go, hey, there

goes a butterfly, and I start following the butterfly, and

then well, there, that's kind of interesting.

I think I like to.

Climb that, and climb that. For reason, Where's Rick? I

don't know where is he? And I would just by

nature wander off. And that happens to us too. The

Bible says in Isaiah fifty three, verse six, all of

us have strayed away like lost sheep. We've left God's

path to follow our own paths, our own ways, and

we always get lost when we follow our own ways.

If you are following your.

Plan for your life right now rather than God's plan,

You're lost, okay, And if you're following your plan, you

lose your direction. You lose your direction. What I've discovered,

and I've talked to countless numbers of people, most people

are drifting through life. That's why I wrote Purpose Driven Life.

They don't have any purpose, they don't have any direction,

they don't have a vision, They're not clear in their destination,

they don't know where they're going. I couldn't tell you

how many hundreds of people have told me over time

the phrase, you know, rick, I have no idea where

I'm going with my life. That's called drifting. You lose

your direction. And we do this naturally as human beings,

just as sheep do it naturally as sheep. We lack direction,

we lack purpose, we lack meaning, and a lot of

times doesn't mean we're going slow. You can be going

very fast and not knowing you know the direction. It's

like that famous World War Two pilot who radioed into

control and the home base said where are you?

And he said, I.

Don't know where I'm am, but I'm making record time.

And we do this a lot in life. We think

that speed is direction. Now you can have a lot

of speed in your life and absolutely have no idea

where you're headed. We wander off, we lose our direction.

Number two, the second thing we lose is we lose

our protection. We lose God's protection in our life. And

we find this in the story of the Sheep the

Lost Sheep. Sheep are very vulnerable. They're pretty defenseless animals.

They don't have claws, they don't have sharp teeth, they

don't have fangs. They certainly can't run fast like gazelles

or other animals that can get ahead of the predators.

If you're a sheep, you're pretty vulnerable unless you have

a shepherd. If you've got a shepherd who can beat

off the wolves or scare away the bears or in

some nations actually lions or tigers or other animals, if

you're a sheep, you're kind of up for grabs. If

you don't have a shepherd, they're very vulnerable. And a

sheep that wanders off has no protection from the shepherd, so.

They're going to get hurt. They're going to get hurt bad.

And God says this is true of us in Zachariah

chapter ten, verse two. My people are wandering like lost

sheep without a shep, shepherd to protect them and to

guide them. Now, you know, the most famous chapter in

the Bible is Psalm twenty three that goes like this,

The Lord is my shepherd exactly, and Jesus was called

the good shepherd. We're the sheep, he's the shepherd. But

if you're not following the shepherd, you're on your own,

and you are defenseless in life, and you're gonna get

eaten up. You're gonna get eaten up. You lose your

direction and you lose your protection if you're not following

the shepherd, which, by the way, is why you get

stressed out. It's why you worry, it's why you have fear,

you have anxiety because you're trying to work this thing

all out on your own. You weren't meant to. You

know how vulnerable you are in this world, how close

you are to not making it financially, how close you

are to not making it in your health. You know

how vulnerable, how you know one phone call can turn

your world upside down. And when you are spiritually lost

and you don't you're not connected to your shepherd. If

you're a sheep, you lose your direction, you wander, and

you lose your protection whoever God, God is not protecting you.

If you're out here going your way instead of God's way.

God will protect you if you go his way. He's

not going to protect.

You if you go your way. Now you're on your own.

You're just you're wandering off one of God's great promises

Romans eight twenty eight. Here on the screen, we know

that God causes everything to work together for the good

of those who love God, and a call according to

His purpose. Now we've talked about this verse many times.

It doesn't say everything is good in life.

It's not. There's a lot of bad.

There's a lot of evil, there's a lot of harm,

there's a lot of suffering in the world.

Doesn't say it's all good.

It says God causes even the bad stuff to work

for good. Is this a promise for everybody? No, it's

a promise for those who love God. If you're not

following the shepherd, this isn't working in your life. All

things are not working for good in your life. If

you're ignoring God, all things are working for bad. You're

on your own. You're on your own. But when I

placed myself as a sheep under the Shepherd's care. Now

I get direction, and now I get protection, and even

the bad stuff that comes in my life, God says

I can use that. I can make it work for good.

But it's a promise for those who are under God's protection.

I don't know about you, but I am encouraged after

that message. And let's keep the encouragement going with a

letter from one of our listeners.

Here's Rick.

Have you ever taken a step of faith with no

idea what's next? Well, with the help of Daily Hope,

Nicole did just that. She wrote this note to me.

Hello Pastor Rick, a close friend of mine suggest that

I listened to the Daily Hold four years ago, and

while I had faith and I loved the Lord, I

was lost. But Daily Hope rescued me. My relationship with

Jesus grew in ways and I never knew possible. I

was soon baptized, and over the next four years I

grew in boldness and in faith in the Lord, and

I even left a high powered and high salaried position

to follow a different, purpose driven path with the Lord's guidance.

It's been a literal step forward in faith without knowing

the next steps. Certainly not something I was capable of

years ago, and already God is showing me his goodness.

You know, as my husband explores his own relationship with

Jesus again. Your ministry is literally a God's sin. Your

ability to teach the good news and ways that are

easy to understand and apply, it is just amazing. We

also follow your suggestion to find a good local church.

So thanks for all you do for believers and those

who are seeking Christ around the world. Rick You're loved

and appreciated and no doubt a vessel of God's grace

and mercy. Signed Nicole. Well, Nicole, I'm so glad that

you've grown in your relationship with Jesus and you've taken

the important step of getting baptized. What an important step

this is, finding a church home, really listening to the Lord,

and living a purpose driven life. All of that happens

when you take time to listen to God's word. I

love how your friend shared daily hope with you, and

now you've shared it with your husband. You know, any

of you can do this. Anybody can do this. You

can share daily hope with your friends and with your

relatives and with people you don't even know. And well,

then watch how God brings life to others through his word.

You know I share Pastor Rick's Daily Hope all the time,

and whether it's a friend or someone you meet in

a restaurant, everyone needs hope and encouragement from the Bible

every day. So tell the people you know in love

about Daily Hope. Hey, be sure to join us next

time when we look into God's Word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastori's Daily Hope and your

generous financial support.