Rick Warren - God Can Use Anybody—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. So let's get started with part one

of a message called God Can Use Anybody.

Now the greatest joy in life. Nothing compares to the

thrill of This is the thrill of being used by

God for a purpose greater than yourself. Nothing else comes close.

If you've never actually had this feeling, the feeling that

you were being used by God and in that moment

you knew it and you are being used for the

purpose that God created you. If you haven't ever felt that,

I feel sad for you because you're missing out on

the Literally, nothing else compares to this feeling. When you

have this feeling, when you know that I'm in the

moment and I'm being used by God for a purpose

bigger than me, you just go, this is it. This

is why I'm alive. I get it now, I understand.

This is my place in life, this is my identity,

This is my niche. I know why I'm here, I

know why I'm was made. See, you were made for

far more than just living for yourself. Oh no, If

you just live for yourself, you're gonna live a very

frustrated life, a very unfulfilled life, and eventually a very

bored life because you're not a big enough cause.

To live for. You need something bigger than.

Yourself that pulls you out of yourself, that makes you

bigger than yourself, greater than yourself. Where you go, I

know this is what I was made for. If you

think that the purpose of life is to get into education,

then get job, then make money, then retire and then die, no, no, no, no, no,

you were made for far more than that. Your life

is far more significant than your career, far more significant.

Oh no, you were made for something of eternal consequences,

and God wants to use you. You were shaped to

serve God. So today, as we continue in the Miracle

of Mercy series, I want us to look at the

idea that God can use anybody, anybody because of his mercy.

And let's start with the Book of Romans, chapter six,

verse thirteen. The Bible says this, give yourselves completely to

God every part of you, because you have been brought

from death to life.

We talked about that at Easter last week.

And now you want to be used by God for

good and for his righteous purposes. Now the problem is this,

a lot of people secretly fear that God could never

use them. They say, oh, yeah, God could use her,

God could use that guy. God could bless that person.

But God's not gonna do that with me, and they

either feel disqualified or they feel unqualified. They feel disqualified

because I know my past. I know the mistakes I've made,

I know the sins I've committed. I know all stuff

that didn't work right in my life, and so there's

no way God's gonna use me. God can use a

lot of other people, but I'm disqualified because of some

poor decisions I made in my past.

You're dead wrong. You're dead wrong on that.

And some people don't feel disqualified, but they feel unqualified.

I don't have her talents. I don't got that guy's gifts.

I don't have that ability. I don't have that education,

that background, I don't have that you know, whatever, opportunity.

And so I'm either disqualified or I'm unqualified to be

used by God. Now we only have to look at

the life of the apostle Paul, Paul, Saint Paul to

blow up both of those myths. They're just not true.

They're lives. Their lives. God wants to use you in

ways you have not even imagined. Now, when you go

through history, nobody has ever been used more by God

in all of history than this guy named Paul. He

personally almost single handedly spread Christianity all over the Roman Empire.

He was an amazing guy, planted churches everywhere. He wrote

about half of the New Testament part of the Bible.

He is an amazing man. And it would be very.

Difficult to argue that anybody has ever been used more

by God than this guy named Paul. And yet Paul

had an amazing past that wasn't very very good. And

in Second Corinthians four, now this book is called Corinthians

because he's writing to a church in.

A Greek city called Corinth.

If you're writing to us, it'd be called Second Californians.

But this is called Corinthians because he's writing to people

who live in the city of Corinth, Greece. And in

Second Corinthians, chapter four, he gives us the five secrets

of being used by God. And if you want God

to bless you, you want God's power in your life.

You want to see God.

I want to know that my life stands for something,

that it matters, that I'm fulfilling the purpose.

I was created for. I want my life to count.

I don't just be a spot on the planet and

then boof, I die and that's it. Then you need

to understand these five secrets. Let's get right into it

and we'll just go through the passage, verse by verse. Now,

the first principle. If you're writing this down, it's in

verse one. Here's what you're write down. Never forget. Here's

the first secret. Never forget. It's all because of God's mercy.

Never forget it's all because of God's mercy. Now, last

week I gave you a definition of mercy. Mercy is

undeserved forgiveness and unearned kindness. Undeserved forgiveness and unearned kindness.

When somebody forgives you don't deserve it, that's mercy. When

somebody shows you a kindness and you can't pay him back,

that's mercy. God treats you with mercy every second of

your life. And the first thing you need to remember

is that everything God does in you, he does by mercy.

Everything God does for you he does by mercy. Everything

God does with you and by you, he does by mercy.

Everything God does through you to make a contribution in

the world, he does by mercy. It's all because of

His mercy. We haven't earned it, we haven't deserved it.

It's just his mercy. And you never get over this,

and you never forget it. And in verse one, Paul says,

this God, in his mercy has given us this ministry,

and this work to do. Ministry is a work to do.

Work to do is ministry. That's why we do not

become discouraged, and we never give up. Now, don't get

all wigged out by this word ministry. Some of you

think that's a churchy word, and ministry is what ministers do. Now, No,

ministry just means any time you use your talents that

God gave you to help somebody else. When you use

your talent to help somebody else, that's ministry. It's not

something you do in church, it's something you do.

In the world.

Everybody has a ministry. Every person is a minister. God

wants every person to be a minister. Not everybody's a pastor.

That's a different thing, but everybody is a minister. The

word ministry in the word service of the same word.

So if you're an accountant that you're good at accounting

and you help people with accounting, accounting.

Is your ministry.

If you could be a truck driver, and truck driving

could be your ministry.

You could be a.

Salesman and selling a product that actually helps people, then

that's a ministry. You could be an attorney and have

a ministry. You could be a school teacher, a childcare worker.

Anything that you do. When you use the talents and the.

Gifts the abilities God has given you help other people,

that's your ministry. So your job can be your ministry

if you're doing it because you love God, and he says,

God in his mercy, has given us this work to do,

given us this ministry. Now, you were created to make

a contribution with your life. You weren't made to just

take up space. You weren't made to just live for yourself.

You think God created.

You to live for you.

No, no, no, He created you for something much much bigger.

And you are shaped to serve God and it's all

because of his mercy. Now, there's a couple of benefits

of understanding this. When you understand that God shows you

mercy every moment of your life, and that he loves

you unconditionally, and there's nothing you can do that God

stop loving you, and even when you blow it, He's

still going to show you mercy. It does a couple things. First,

when I understand mercy, I don't have to.

Prove my worth.

That relieves workoholism, if you overwork, if you work too much,

and you work work, work, work, work. You're trying to

prove your worth through your work, and you think if

I'm successful at work, then I'm worth more. I'm worth

a lot, I'm worthwhile. Your worth has nothing to do

with your work. It's the fact that you're a child

of God. It's the fact that God made you and

loved you and sent Jesus to die for you that

shows your worth, not your work. Your value has nothing

to do with your valuables. You have a lot or little,

has nothing to do with how valuable you are. And

so when I understand mercy, it takes me off the

performance trap. I don't have to prove that I'm worthwhile

to anybody because God loves me unconditionally, and if you

don't love me, that's your problem.

And I don't need your approval to be happy.

Because God loves me and God is showing me mercy,

I don't have to prove my worth. The other thing

that happens when I understand mercy is I don't have

to wallow in my mistakes. Now, we all make mistakes,

we all sin, we all blow it, We've all made dumb, dumb,

dumb decisions in the past, but you don't have to

wallow in it because of God's mercy. Go. I know

God is showing me mercy. Yes, it was wrong, it

was dumb as stupid. I'm sorry. I repent. I want

to turn away from it, but I'm not gonna be

I'm not gonna dwell on it. It's not gonna hold

me back. I'm not gonna be stuck in the past

because God is showing me mercy. And I never forget

that God has shown me mercy.

Now.

I know what some of you're thinking said, but Rick,

you don't know my past. You don't know the things

that I've done that I'm ashamed of. It doesn't matter.

It really doesn't matter now. Paul, who was, as I said,

the most used person by God in history, had a

terrible past, and he's brutally honest about you know what

Paul was before he became a preacher, before he became

a pastor, a church planter, he was an anti Christian

terrorist and he went from village to village killing Christians.

He was a murderer, the exact opposite of what would

you expect being somebody that God could use. And let

me just show you up here on the screen. Paul

wrote a letter to a guy named Timothy. He was

a young man who was a pastor in Ephesus, and

he writes a letter to him, Timothy, and he says,

I thank Jesus Christ. I think Christ Jesus because he

trusted me and he gave me. It's a gift. He

gave me this work of serving him, and God's given

you a gift of serving him.

He said.

In the past, I spoke against Christ, he said, man,

I even persecuted him. In fact, he said, I did

all kinds of things to hurt him. But God showed

me mercy. Your past does not preclude your future. Your

past has passed. It's over. Okay, you messed up, fine,

doesn't matter what you've done. God says, I want to

use you today because of my mercy. Look on your outline.

Galatians Chapter one. Paul says this. He says, you know

what I was like, You know before I followed Christ.

He goes, how violently I violently persecuted Christians.

He said, I did my best to get rid of them.

He killed people.

But he said, then something happened for it pleased God

in his kindness. That's mercy, in his kindness to choose

me and call me. In a circular word, choose and call.

Because God has chosen and called you. I'll talk about

that in a minute. In his kindness, God chose me

and called me before I was born. What undeserved mercy?

Now? Paul says this.

When God made me, before even made me, he decided

what he wanted me to do with my life. He

knew how he was going to use me. And even

already he knew all the stupid things that are gonna

He's gonna know all the people I murdered. He's gonna

do all he knew already in advance, all the sins

I was gonna commit, and yet he still chose me,

and he still called me.

That's mercy. The same is true with you.

God has a calling on your life. Some people say, well,

I'm called, and they think, oh, like to be called

as like for pastors or priests or nuns or missionaries

or like religious type people. No, no, no, everybody is called

by God to serve him, and everybody is chosen by

God to serve him. You're shaped for service. You're created

to make a contribution with your life. And before you

were born, God already knew every dumb thing you were

gonna do. In fact, God already knows all the dumb

sins you're gonna commit in the future that you haven't

even done yet.

He already knows all those things.

But in his mercy, it doesn't disqualify you from serving him.

That's called mercy. And God says, I'm gonna use you

in spite of the fact that you are broken. God

has never ever, ever used a perfect person, because there

aren't any except Jesus Christ. If God only used perfect people,

what would get done in the world. Nothing, not a zip, nothing,

Because there are no perfect people in the world. God

only used flawed people. God only uses marred people. God

only uses broken people, weak people, sinful people, people.

Who don't have it all together.

Everything that gets done that's good in the world is

done by less than perfect people. That's because the mercy

of God. So you never forget that God wants to

save you. He created you, he loves you, and he

wants to use you all because of his mercy. I

went through the Bible this week and I made a

list of famous people that God used in spite of

what you might consider to be a weakness. Okay, Abraham.

Abraham was really, really old. He was like ninety years

old when God start using him, and nothing really kicked

in till he was like a hundred. Okay, So some

of you they, well, I've wasted a lot of time.

Well not as much as Abraham did.

Okay. Abraham.

Jacob was a chronic liar, and God used him, and

he ran away from every difficult situation. Joseph was abused,

He was abused. Gideon was poor, he was the poorest

kid in his family. Samson was a reckless codependent. God

used him. Rehab was a prostitute, and yet Rahab shows

up in God's Hall of fame. In Hebrews chapter eleven

as a great woman of faith. He used her in

spite of her mistakes. Jonah was fearful and reluctant. Elijah

was suicidal. Naomi used by God, was an elderly widow.

Jeremiah had chronic depression and God used him. He was

called the weeping prophet because he cried all the time. Really,

David had an affair and then had his mistress's husband killed.

That would, I would think, disqualify you. Okay, you would

think that one. But but David wrote the Book of Psalms,

and God used him in a great way. John the

Baptist was eccentric, to say the least, if you know

anything about him. Peter was impulsive and had serious anger

management problems. You got a problem with your temper, doesn't matter.

God wants to use you. Martha worried a lot. You're

a worry wart. God wants to use you. The Samaritan

woman had several failed marriages.

God used her.

Zachius had been an unethical scam artist.

God used him.

Thomas had doubts, Timothy was timid, and Moses, David, and

Paul were all guilty of murder in their past. So

what's your excuse, Why why can you not be used

by God? I want you to write this down on

the screen. Here, write this down. Every saint has a past,

and every sinner has a future. Every saint, that guy

you think, man, he's a good guy. He's a good guy.

That guy, he's a godly man. That woman she's a saint.

Every saint has a past. They've messed up, they've flawed,

they've fumbled the ball, they've screwed up all in the past.

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

That's because of the mercy of God. Doesn't matter how

bad you've messed up. God says, I want to use

you for good, and I want you to feel me

using you in your life. In Ephesians, chapter two, verse ten,

of the Bible says this, it is God himself who

has made us. He made us what we are, and

he's given us new lives from Christ Jesus, and long ago,

this is before you were born. Long ago he planned

that we should spend these lives in watching Telli. No,

we should spend these lives and what helping others. That's

your work to do, that's your ministry. When you go,

I'm gonna use the talent, the ability, the background. I've

got to help somebody else. That's what God plan for

you to do. And when you look at what you're

good at, that's what you're supposed to do, all right.

So that's the starting point. Never forget it's all because

of God's mercy. Here's the second key to being used

by God. Be real. You must be real. Write this down.

You got to be authentic. You've got to be genuine.

You have to be yourself. You can't be somebody you're not.

God did not create you to be somebody else. So

many of us start off, all of us start off

as originals, and we end up as being carbon copies,

and we start trying to be like other people. God

wants to use you as you. He doesn't want you

to be somebody else. When you get to heaven one day,

God say, hey, why weren't you more like Moses? Why

weren't you more like your sister or your mom, or

your brother or your dad. God's not gonna compare you

to anybody else. He made you to be you, and

if you don't be you, who's gonna be you? A

lot of people think in order for God to use me.

I've got to be somebody different than him. Now, you're

dead wrong. You don't have to be somebody different. In fact,

God made you to be you, and that's all he

wants you to be. And so you've got to be real.

You can't wear a mask. God does not use fakes.

God does not use phonies. God does not use posers.

God does not use pretenders. God does not use people

who wear a mask and act one way over here

and another way over here. He just wants you to

be real. He wants you to be authentic. He wants

you to be yourself. God made you to be you. Now,

this is a problem because so many people are trying

to be somebody or not, and they're trying to be

somebody they're not either because they think somebody else wants

them to be that way and they're living for the

approval of others, or they actually think God wants them

to be that way, and they well, you know, God

would really love me more if I would act like this. No,

God love is not based on how you act. That's mercy.

He loves you no matter what you do, good or bad.

So his love isn't based on that. But a lot

of people are living for the expectations of other people.

They're living for the approval of other people. And you've

just got to be real. Now, if you try to

be somebody that you're not thinking that's gonna please God

or your boyfriend or anybody else for that matter, three

things are gonna happen in your life. First, you're always

going to be under stress if you try to be

somebody you're not, You're always gonna be understressed torush your life. Second,

you're gonna have the fear of being exposed. What if

people find out what I'm really like? And then third,

you're gonna end up manipulating people because you're afraid of

being who God really made you to be. Now this

is in verse two. We're going through this chapter together,

and the second key Paul says in order to be

used by God is you've got to be real. You

gotta be yourself. Verse two he says this, we don't

try to trick anyone. In other words, we're not manipulators,

we're not phonies or fakes. We're not trying to manipulate others.

We don't try to trick anyone, and we don't twist

the word of God. Instead, we teach the truth plainly,

showing everyone who we really are, circle the word really,

who we really are. God wants you to show people

who you really are. Then they can know in their

hearts what kind of people we are in God's sight.

He's saying, you gotta be real, Paul Goes, I've got

nothing to hide. I'm completely transparent. What you see is

what you get. Now, let me say it again. You

don't have to be perfect for God to use you

in a great way, but you do have to be authentic.

You have to be authentic and you got to be

real and you can just what you see is what

you get. You know, you're looking at a very flawed man,

very flawed.

If you don't believe it.

I ask my staff, ask my family, ask my neighbors,

ask me. If you've been around here in any length

of time. You probably know my weaknesses because I talk

about them all the time because i want you to

know that I know what they are. I'm more aware

of my weaknesses than anybody else, and so I talk

about them because I just want you to know that

God uses weak people. I actually think imperfections in a

pastor are a good thing. Because then you go, well,

good night. If God uses that guy, maybe you.

Could use me.

If God uses somebody who's got as many problems and

messes up, and then maybe God could use me too.

You see, people.

Don't actually grow from your strengths. They grow from your weaknesses.

If you go out and only try to show your

strengths to the world and you go, here's all my strengths,

will people go, well, goodie for you. And when you

share your strengths, it doesn't make other people feel close

to you. It makes them jealous, mad, envious, or angry

or whatever, and go, who do you think you are.

On the other hand, when you get up and you

talk about here's where I blew it, Here's where I

made a mistake.

This is my weakness. You know.

Here, here's the real deal. Then that actually causes people

to draw closer to you, and it makes it makes

intemacy much better in a relationship when you reveal your

weakness is not your strengths. A lot of people are

in marriages that are terrible because people are trying to

hide their weaknesses even from their spouse. That doesn't work.

It doesn't work. So you gotta be real. Now, Let

me give you the upside of this. This is a

little secret that I've learned because I stopped trying to

fake it. I don't know, decades ago. And you know

just what you see is what you get. And if

you don't like that, well sorry. But when you live authentically,

when you live real, when you're not trying to fake it,

it gets better every year. Your life gets better every year.

When you're real, when you're honest, when you're the real deal.

When you fake it, when you wear a mask, when

you pretend, it gets worse every year. You get more

stressed out, and the more you hide, and the more

you pretend, and the more you wear a mask, and

the more you're not in touch with who you really are,

the worse it actually gets. Now, do you know the

number one barrier that keeps you from being used by God?

The feeling his power and his presence in your life

and God using the number one reason is your fear

of being real. It's the fear of being real because

you think, you know if I really be who I am?

What if you feel don't like me?

Why am I.

Afraid to tell you I am? Because if I tell

you who I really am, you may not like me,

and I'm all I've got and I'm up a creek

without a paddle, and that's no good. And so we

live behind walls and we fake it till we make it,

and we wear these masks, and we live with lives

of insecurity. Now, the antidote to your insecurity, all those

secret fears and all those things that where you don't

want to show people who you really are. The antidote

is to get God's spirit of mercy in you. And

when you get God's spirit of mercy in you, and

you realize God loves me unconditionally. God is never going

to stop loving me. God's mercy is going to be

with me, no matter whether I do it right or

do it wrong, how many mistakes I make. He's not

going to get tired of forgiving me. When you realize

that God truly loves you unconditionally, then you realize you're

a child of God, and that liberates you to be

who God made you to be. In Romans chapter eight,

verse fifteen, Paul says it like this. The spirit we received,

this is the spirit of God, the spirit of mercy.

The spirit of mercy that we receive does not make

us slaves again to fear. It makes us children of God.

Now that verse says that there's two ways you can

live in life. You can live either under the bondage

of a spirit of fear, or you can live free

as a child of God under the mercy of God.

And you can make the decision.

You can say, I'm gonna be stuck and I'm gonna

I'm gonna be enslaved by fear and I'm gonna I'm

not gonna let people see what I really like.

Or I'm gonna live as a.

Child of God because of his mercy, and I know

He's gonna love me no matter what.

Hey, did you know that the number one attribute of

God in scripture is his mercy? It is and he

wants to be merciful too. Jesus said, blessed or the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. Five seven. Now you

can dive deeper into our current study with Pastor Rick's

Miracle of Mercy studykit. Through his six session video and

workbook study, he'll show you the five marks of mercy.

You'll discover how.

Mercy forgives the fallen, helps the hurting, is patient with

difficult people, is kind, to its enemies and cares for

the loss. And as you grow in mercy, you'll experience

the blessing God promises to the merciful. The Miracle of Mercy.

Sixth session video study kit is perfect for both personal

and small group study time, so please be sure to

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