Rick Warren - What to Do When You Get a Second Chance — Part Three

Today I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like you were

the wrong person for the job, Like, what did you get yourself into

You didn't have the right experience or the right skill set? Well, I

know I have and you probably have too. This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,

the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Okay, today we're going

to continue with the series the Manifestation of Your Life Mission. Rick is showing

us that no matter how big the thing is that God is calling us to

do, we don't have to run away from it. We can actually run

toward it. This is such a good message, and I hope you'll invite

a friend to listen along with you as we discover how to embrace God's calling

on our lives and how we can live according to the purpose and plan that

He has for us. And now here's Rick with the final part of a

message called what to do when you get a second chance. Now you need

to realize that if you've had your last chance, you're not going to get

a warning. You're not going to get any more warnings. If you've used

up your last chance, there's not going to be any more warnings. Now,

the point is, let me make the point. There's going to be

times in your life when you see friends that you love, or family members

or coworkers that you care about, and you will see them about to walk

off a cliff and lose everything because of a dumb decision. Part of your

life mission is to warn them, to warn them, and if you don't,

you don't love them, because love warns. Now, when does God

expect you to warn people that you love when? Well, I went through

those over one hundred verses in the New Testament this week, and I made

a list of all things were supposed to warn people about. We don't have

time for that, but let me just summarize it in two categories. Write

these down. When am I supposed to warn people that I love? Number

one when they're not thinking wisely and number two when they're not acting wisely.

I'm supposed to warn the people I care about when they're not thinking wisely or

when they're not acting wisely. Now, this is not your whole life message,

but it is a part of it, just as warning was a part

of Jonah's life message. I was supposed to warn people when they're not thinking

wisely or when they're not acting wisely. Now, just in case you think

I'm making too big a deal about this, let me take you to another

guy, another prophet named named Ezekiel, not the football player. But here's

what the Bible says about Ezekiel Ezekiel thirty three one to nine. The Lord

said to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, warn your people by saying this, Someday,

I the Lord may send an enemy to invade your country. And I suppose

you, and suppose you people choose someone to stand watch and sound and warning

when the enemy is seeing combing. Okay, Now, if you ignore the

warning and you're killed in battle, it'll be your own fault because you could

have escaped if you just paid attention, in other words, to the warning.

But suppose the person given the mission of watching and warning fails to sound

the warning signal. In that case, he says, then I the Lord

will hold that person responsible for the death of those people. Now, Ezekiel,

I have appointed you to stand and warn, to stand watch and warn

the people of your nation. So listen to what I say, and then

warn them for me. And here's what God says. When I warn people

that they'll die if they keep sinning against me. You got to warn them

to turn from their sinful ways. But if you fail to warn them,

then I'll hold you responsible for their death. On the other hand, if

you do warn them and they ignore you, they'll die because of their sins,

but you will be innocent. Wow, now that whole passage makes me

ask myself and ask you two questions. Have you ever warned anybody about anything

spiritual? Have you ever warned anybody about a spiritual or a moral danger?

Or were you more interested in being popular than helping them? Were you you

are afraid of their disapproval, then you were in love with God and love

them enough to tell them the truth. You're about to walk off a cliff.

We live in a nation that is crumbling, that the culture is falling

apart. And if believers in Christ don't speak up, who's going to do

it? Here's the other question, Who is God going to hold you responsible

for one day? Because you said nothing and let them destroy their lives.

You just let them walk off the cliff and you said nothing. This is

important. This is not your whole life mission, but it is one facet

one factor in it. Now, there's one more thing that Jonah did and

This is a positive. So here's the number five. Okay, if I

know God's given me a second chance, and every day is a second chance,

and I'm going to live my life with profound gratitude. I'm going to

focus my life on God, not myself, and on making my mission a

priority, not everything else I was living for. I'm not going to delay.

I'm going to obey to day, and I'm going to accept my responsibility.

Sometimes I have to warn people I love because I love them, and

I do it in love, and I accept warnings in humility. Here's the

fifth thing. When God gives me another chance, expect God to use me.

This is good news. I expect God to use me. See.

God doesn't keep you alive for you to live for yourself. He keeps you

alive because He wants you to use you. God doesn't keep you alive.

He doesn't give you another chance just so you can retire and do nothing.

No, God keeps you alive because he has a plan and a life mission

that's still well in operation, whether you've done anything about it or not up

to this point. And he's saying, I want to use you. When

God keeps you alive, it means God's not through with you. God has

not finished with you. God has a plan. God wants to use you.

See Rick, you don't know what I've been through. It doesn't matter.

God only uses imperfect, broken people. If God only used perfect people,

nothing would get done because there are no perfect people. God only uses

ordinary, broken, imperfect people like me. I'm an ordinary, broken,

imperfect person and God uses me. And God says, I'm using you as

an ordinary, imperfect, broken person. See one of the problems. A

common mistake is we turn these people into the in the Bible into like superheroes.

There are no superheroes in the Bible. They're all just ordinary people,

ordinary women, ordinary men like you and me. Jonahs an ordinary guy.

He doesn't want to do what God says to do. God gives them a

turnaround. He goes and does what God tells him to do. He doesn't

even do it correctly, not even with the right attitude. But God still

uses it. And this is expect God to use you is the is the

fifth thing. This is why Jonah was in such a sour mood because he

knew that God was going to use him and he didn't want to be used.

He's going I don't want these people to have a spiritual revival. I

don't want these people to repent. I don't like these people. I'm prejudiced

against them. They're not my political background. They're my enemy. And you're

telling me go and warn them, which means you don't really want to do

this, And because if you want to to do you wouldn't even warn them.

And second, if you're telling me to go warn them, then you're

they're gonna listen to my warning and they're gonna actually get forgiven. That sucks.

And that's why he's got this sour mood because he doesn't want any of

this. He knows what God's going to do. Now, what happens next

is flat out miracle because the city responds to Jonahs' seven word sermon. That's

all it is, seven words sermon. In forty days, nineveh will be

destroyed. Wow, what a sermon, and is the biggest spiritual revival in

history. The largest city in the world turns to God. Look up here

on the screen. Here's what it says. The Ninevites believed God, and

they humble themselves, putting on sackcloth. What cyclone? This cloth? They

make sacks out of burlap. It's burlap. They put on sackcloth from the

greatest to the least as a symbol of their humility. And when the news

reached the King of Nineveh, this is the ahead of the Assyrian empire.

He rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with

burlap sackcloth, and even the king sat down in the dust. Then the

king proclaimed to public fast, and he says, no human or animals to

eat or drink anything. Let each of us and even our animals be covered

with sackcloth. Then let us all pray urgently to God, and let us

turn from our evil ways, and let us stop all our violence. Who

knows God may yet relent with compassion and turn from his fierce anger, so

that we will not perish folks. That is a greater miracle than a fish

swallowing Jonah, the king of Assyria, the empire, and the entire city

of the large Sadian world turning to God in humility. That's bigger miracle right

there. And I want you to notice I went through that pretty quickly.

Five things that they did, because these five things that they did are the

pathway to personal revival and national revival, and we need both of them in

our world today. Here's what they did. Number one, they humble themselves.

Number two they fasted, Okay, they proclaimed a public fast. Number

three they prayed urgently. Okay, they prayed urgently. Okay. Number four

they turned from evil and the bad things they were doing. And number five

they said, let's stop all violence. Would that change our society if we

did those things? Hello? I mean, just imagine for fifty years Ninevah

has been the world's largest city. They're so proud. Then why in the

world did they respond to a seven words sermon and everybody turns to God instantly?

That's an incredible miracle. Why were they so receptive even though Jonah's message

was unloving and short. Because God had prepared their heart? And how had

God prepared their heart the way He prepares every heart? Through pain? Through

pain? Now you wouldn't know this, but the largest city in the world

turns to God because they had had pain in just a few years before that.

You have to know a little bit about archaeology and ancient history to know

this. So let me read this to you. You see, when this

happens, when Jonah's going there, the Syrian Empire had been dominant for hundreds

and hundreds of years. It's like the British Empire, the Roman Empire,

the American Empire. Okay, but now they're in decline and the empires in

decline, and they're losing battles against the Meads and the Persians, which is

Iraq and Iran, and they had domestic riots inside the city going on at

this time. In seven sixty five BC, they had a seven year famine.

This is right when Jonah is in the time. Seven sixty five that

began a seven year famine. Seven sixty three BC, it was a total

eclipse of the sun. We actually even know it was on June fifteenth,

and that scared the entire ancient world because that was like a prophecy of like

doom is coming. In seven sixty two, Nineveh had a massive earthquake.

It sits on a fault and they had a massive earthquake in the city.

In seven sixty one, the Tigris River, which is right by Nanava,

flooded the city. So they've had total eclipse, floods, enemies, riots,

fires, earthquakes. These disasters happened right before Jonah has arrived. God

is for paring their hearts, and Jonah three to ten says this, when

God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he

had compassion. Uh, that's what he wanted to do, and he did

not do what he had warned he would do. Because of this revival,

the Assyrian Empire's demise, the destruction of the Syrian Empire was postponed one hundred

years, and Ninevah was not destroyed until about six twelve AD by the Means

and the Persians. It went for another hundred years. Does this remind you

of a culture that's been dominant seems to be decaying and if they had a

revival, God might give them another one hundred years. Nineva finally fell in

six twelve eighty. This revival where an entire city comes to God, was

so famous in the ancient world. I mean, everybody knew this. This

is not just in the Bible. Everybody knew this story of Jonah and ninev

In fact, twelve hundred years later, Mohammed tells the story of Jonah and

the revival in Nineveh and writes it in the Koran, the Muslim book.

He didn't know that the story of Jonah and the fish and the revival in

Nineva. It's not just in the Bible, it's in the Koran, because

everybody in the ancient world knew this for hundreds and hundreds of years. Nothing

had ever happened like it. He was just an ordinary guy who says,

okay, I'll do it, and he didn't even do it very well.

What would happen if a city like la or Berlin, or Buenos Aires or

Manila or Hong Kong did the five things that the people in Nineva did,

we'd have revival. We would have revival. In this story, both Jonah

and the entire city get a second chance. Now, the fact that you're

still alive, let's get back to you. The fact that you're still alive

means God is still giving you a second chance. Okay, but you have

to pay attention to his warnings. You have to pay attention to his warnings

and then do these five things. Last verse on the screen Hebrews chapter three.

Warn each other every day. It's my job to warn you, it's

your job to warn me, and it's our job to warn each other.

Warn each other every day, because it's still today. In other words,

we don't know about tomorrow, but we're still here today, so we're gonna

warn each other today. We can't work on tomorrow. It's not here.

Warn each other every day because it's still called today, and so that your

heart isn't hardened against God by the sins de seat. We will share in

all that belongs to Christ. That's good news if we hold firmly till the

end. So if you hear God's voice today, listen and don't be stubborn.

So listen. I want you to listen to me because I love you.

If you wake up tomorrow morning, which I assume you will, but

it's just an assumption. If you wake up tomorrow morning, you realize that

every new day is another chance that God has given you, and you need

to do these five things that Jonah did. Start thanking God at the beginning

of the day. Thank you God for another day. I'm breathing, I'm

alive, I have a pulse. You've given me air. Thank God every

day. Start living your life of profound gratitude. Number two. Make your

life mission top priority of your life, not making money, not anything else.

Number three. Don't delay obey today. Whatever you've been putting off,

stop it. Number four accept your responsibility to warn other people that you love

when you need to, don't let them just walk off the cliff. And

number five, expect God to use you because that's why you're still here.

That's power. Heads. Father. I want to thank you that your mercy

is new every day because we all need second chances. I sure do.

Help us to remember that every moment of our lives is another chance from you.

Help us not to waste it. Help us to humbly accept warnings from

other people who love us, and help us to love other people enough about

them to lovingly warn them. Father, every one of us have had that

stubborn pride. But we can all hear you clearly right now. So we're

saying we want to be the kind of people that you want us to be.

Now, you pray, God, help me to be more grateful,

to live with an attitude of gratitude, profound gratitude for each new day that

you give me a chance. I want to make my life mission your top

priority, and the stuff I've been delaying on, I'm not going to postpone

it procrastinate anymore. Help me to care and love people more than I love

their approval. And when I need to warn somebody in love. Give me

the courage to do that because I don't want their life on my responsibility.

And most of all, Lord, help me to expect you to use me,

because that's why I'm here. I'm not here to live for me,

but for you, Jesus Christ. I want you to be the manager of

my life from here on out, and I want to follow you in your

name. I pray Amen. Hi everybody, this is Rick, and I

hope you enjoyed today's broadcast. You know, if you just prayed that prayer

for the very first time, or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again

today, would you let me know about it. There's something real about sharing

your commitment. So write me Rick at pastor Rick dot com and say,

Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I gave my life to Christ.

And I'll send you some material that will help you on your journey with

GAS and I'll also pray for you. God bless you. 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. You

know I really enjoy getting letters from you, and I'd like to thank each

of you who've taken the time to write me. Your letters and your emails

really do encourage me. In fact, let me just read one from a

listener that I can share with you. It says this, Dear Pastor Rick,

I'm a suburban public school teacher who works in the district with a great

socioeconomic and ethnic divide. I love the diversity of my student population, but

at the same time, these high school students arrive with all kinds of religious

and moral values, which of course impacts their relationships with others. Daily Hope

always gives me the compass I need to guide my day. I like how

your message is encourage respecting cultural differences while maintaining the truth. I think it's

important to foster relationships with others in the name of Jesus, Pastor Rick,

I listened to Daily Hope on my thirty five minute drive to work, and

although I can't mention God or Jesus in school, students are allowed to initiate

that discussion with me. So I'm refreshed and equipped daily because of your messages.

Thanks for the broadcast. I look forward to it every day. Sincerely,

Amy Well thanks for writing. Amy. Keep up the good work with

your students, and I'm glad that Daily Hope is encouraging and equipping you in

the calling that God has called you to do. And I want you to

know I'm going to be praying for you because you wrote to me. To

the rest of you, I just want to say, Jesus is able to

reach every person because he came to save all people. Jesus came for every

tribe and every nation and every culture on earth. In fact, the Bible

says in Revelation seventy nine that one day in heaven that every tribe, every

nation, every people in every ethnic group will be clothed in robes, standing

before the throne of God praising God in that day. That's why it's so

important to share this good news with not just our kind of people, but

with every kind of people. I tell people about Daily Hope all the time,

whether it's somebody I know or even just a casual conversation, because I

know when they listen, they're going to be filled with hope and it will

bless their lives. It's really easy. Just go to Pastorick dot com,

click on the listen tab. There you're gonna find buttons where you can share

the message by email, social media, or WhatsApp. You can share Jesus

by sharing Daily Hope. That's pastororreg dot com. We hope you'll 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. Will you