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

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 part one of a message called

what to Do when you get a second Chance. God has a mission for

every life. God doesn't create anything without a purpose. And just as every

plant, every rock, every animal has a purpose. If you're breathing,

God has a purpose for your life. It's called your life Mission. You

weren't put on this planet to live for yourself. No, no, no,

you have a far bigger purpose in life than simply to make money,

retire and die. You weren't put on this planet to take up space,

to breathe, to use resources and die. God has a plan and a

purpose. He has a life mission for your life. Now in this series,

we're using the life of a prophet in the Bible called Jonah. Small

book, only four chapters, and actually Jonah did the wrong thing. He

ran from his life mission for much of his story, but he finally gets

it right in the end. So we learned from both the right things he

did, but we also learned from the wrong things that he did. Now

on the screen, as we looked at each chapter, and this is the

chapter three in this session, chapter one, we looked at Jonah rebelling and

running from God and his mission. If you missed that message, we talk

about ten truths you need to know about your life mission that we learn from

the life of Jonah. And when you run from your life mission, it

always causes problems, causes storms for other people. Then in Jonah chapter two,

we see Jonah repenting and returning to God and his mission, and that's

where he prays he's swallowed by this large fish that God had made taken to

the bottom of the ocean, and in the bottom of the ocean, he

cries out to God. And we talked about what to do when life feels

hopeless, when you've hit bottom. Now we come to chapter three, and

in Jonah Chapter three, we see Jonah restarting and running with God on mission.

And so now we're going to look at what happens when you get a

second chance. Now we ended the last chapter where this giant fish that God

had custom made for Jonah spits him up back out on the ocean on the

beach and Jonah Chapter three, verse one starts with one of the most important

verses in the Bible, and it says this, then the word of the

Lord came to Jonah a second time. Circle that a second time. God

is the god of second chances. God loves to give us second chances,

third chances, fourth chances. He gives us many many chances because of his

grace and his mercy. Now, after Jonah's rebellion, if you've been with

me the first two weeks on this message series, does Jonah deserve to get

another chance? No way, If you were God, would you give Jonah

another chance? Probably not. But God loves to give second chances. God

delights in showing grace. God delights in showing mercy. In fact, I

made a short list of people who God gave another chance. I could have

spent this entire message just sharing with you the names of people in the Bible

that God gave a second chance to. But let me just show you a

representative short list of You think, well, God would never give me a

second chance. Well, let me show you what he did. Dude,

Jacob cheated on his brother, cheated out of his cheated his brother out of

his family inheritance. God gave Jacob a second chance. Moses murdered a man.

God gave Moses a second chance. Rehab was a prostitute. She gets

a second chance and ends up being in the family tree of Jesus. God

uses her. Samson wasted his talent and ended up in prison. God give

him, gave him a second chance. David committed a adultrey and had the

husband of the woman he had affair with murdered. God gives him a second

chance. Peter denies Jesus Christ at his arrest right before the Crucifixion. He's

been with Jesus three and a half years. When they say, don't you

know this guy goes, I don't even know. The guy totally denies,

Jesus cops out at the last second, and then Zachias. Zachias was a

hated, dishonest businessman. Nobody likes Zachiaz, and yet Jesus gave him a

second chance. Now, God gives everybody chances over and over and over and

over. And that's what I want us to look at. What to do

when you get a second chance from God? You know, I want to

start with a true confession. I hate golf. Okay, I really don't

like it at all. I don't like it for two reasons. One,

it takes too long. I don't have time to go spend hours and hours

on that. And second and more important is you can play your entire life

and never get any better at it. That is so frustrating that you play

it and play it and play it and you still just don't get any better.

But my brother loved golf, and when my brother was alive, I

love to play golf with my brother because it was so much fun. It

gave me a chance to be with him. The one thing I do love

about golf was a term that I learned in playing golf, and it's called

a mulligan. Now, if you don't know what a mulligan is, a

mulligan is when you get another shot because you've made a poor one, and

so you get a do over and it's not counted on your scorecard. I

love this idea. It's called a mulligan. We ought to live in the

mulligans of God. The grace of God when he gives us a chance to

do over, to start over, to try again, and to give it

our best shot, and he just shows us mercy. He shows us grace.

He's forgiving over and over and over and over and over. And you

say, well, that's not fair. It's not counting in his scorecard.

Of course, it's not fair. It's called grace. It's called mercy.

Now. The mulligan verse of the Bible is in Proverbs, chapter twenty eight,

verse thirteen, and that verse says this, a man who refuses to

admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them,

he gets what another chance circle that he gets another chance. He gets

a Mulligan. This is amazing grace of God that anybody who refuses to admit

his mistakes, you're never going to be successful. But if you confess and

forsake them, you get another chance. Another Mulligan verse in the Bible is

the next verse on your Outline, Lamentations, chapter three, and in chapter

three, Verse twenty two and twenty three of Lamentations, it says this,

the unfailing love of the Lord never ends. In other words, God's never

going to stop loving you. You can't make God stop loving you because his

love is based on who he is, not what you do. The unfailing

love of the Lord never ends. It is his mercy that has kept us

from complete destruction. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for his mercy.

His faithfulness is great, and his mercies begin afresh. Read it with me

every new day. His mercies are new every new day. And I want

you to write this down. Every new day is another chance from God.

You need to start looking at your life as every new day is another chance

from God. God is giving you a second chance, a one hundredth chance,

a one millionth chance. Every new day He's giving you another opportunity.

So then the big question is if every day of my life is really another

chance, it's fresh start. His mercies are new every morning. He's not

going to run out of mercy. Then what should I do when God gives

me another chance? Well, I'm glad you asked that question because in chapter

three of Jonah, Jonah does five things. When Jonah finally gets another chance,

he gets a mulligan, he does five things. These are the five

things you need to do when God gives you a second chance, which is

every new morning of your life, he gives you a second chance. He

gives us five specific things to do. All right, So let's get right

into it. Number one, When God gives me another chance, the first

thing I need to do is this, live with profound gratitude. I need

to live with profound gratitude. I need to wake up every day saying thank

you God, thank you that my heart is still beating. There's blood still

pulsing through my veins. I'm breathing, I can see, I can hear,

i can eat. I'm alive. Thank you God, you have given

me another chance. You've given me another opportunity. You've given me another moment

of mercy and grace your mercies. Do every morning, thank you, thank

you, thank you. You live with a profound sense not of duty,

but of gratitude, of gratefulness, of thanksgiving. I'll never forget. Probably

forty years ago I said something to a guy. I said, how you

doing? And usually what people respond to that I don't even remember because it's

meaningless, so I'm doing fine or whatever. But I asked this guy,

and I've never forgot it in about forty years, and said how you?

And he said, better than I deserve to be doing? And I thought,

Wow, couldn't we all say that one better than I deserve to be

doing? Because it's all grace. If I got what I deserved, I

wouldn't be here, neither would you. It's all the grace of God.

It's all a gift of God. Everything I have is a gift from God.

He said, well, I worked for it. Where'd you get the

ability to work? Where'd you get your mind? Where'd you get your body?

Where'd you get your freedom? Where'd you get your brain? Everything you

have is a gift from God, and it's all because of his grace.

I didn't work for it. I didn't earn it. It's because I'm doing

better than I deserve to be doing. So, the first thing you want

to do when you get a second chance, and you know you've gone through

the bankruptcy, or you've gone through the divorce, or you've gone through the

cancer, or you've gone through the scandal, or you've gone through the mess,

or you've gone through the depression, or you've gone through a one hundred

thousand different problems. You got another chance. God gave you another chance.

What do you do? The first thing you do is you start living with

the profound sense of gratitude to God for his goodness, for his grace,

and you demonstrate how you are thankful to God for giving you another chance.

Now, Jonah does this. In fact, he did it even before he

gets out of the belly of that great fish, while he's in the deep,

deep part of the ocean. We looked at this in our last session.

In Jonah chapter two nine and ten, the last verses we looked at

in our last session. Jonah told God he's still in the middle of the

problem. I will sing my thanksgiving to you, and i will sacrifice to

you, and I'll do what I've promised you to do. Why because salvation

comes from you Lord. Then God ordered the fish to split up Jonah onto

the beach, and it did. Now in that verse. Again, we've

covered this before, but I want to reinforce it. Three ways you express

deep gratitude to God. Write these down three ways. Number one, I

sing my thanks to God. That's first thing, Jonah says, because I'm

going to sing my thanksgiving to you. Singing is a spiritual act of being

grateful to God. You don't have to be on key, you don't have

to have the right note. You just make a joyful noise. Psalm ninety

two, verses one and two says it's good to say thank you to the

Lord. It's good to say thank you the Lord and to sing praises to

him every morning, tell him thank you for your kindness. So every morning

you get up and you start singing. The hills are alive. No,

No, you just say thank you God, thank you. Really cool day,

glad to be alive. My paulse is still going, thank you.

I'm profoundly grateful for another chance, another opportunity, another day. I sing

my thanks to God. Number two, I give my offering in thanks to

God. I realize that everything I have comes from God, and I give

part of it back to Him as a symbol of gratitude. Going I realize

it all comes from you. You don't really own anything. It wasn't yours

before you were born. It's not going to be years after you die.

You only get to use it. God owns everything in the world. He

loans it to you for about an eighty year period. What you think you

own is really on loan. You're just a steward, you're a manager.

You don't really own anything because you didn't known it before you were born.

You're not going to own it after you die. You're not taking it to

heaven. So it's all God's. But he loans it to you, and

the Bible says that we give part of it back to him. It's called

tithing as a result to say, God, I just recognize it all comes

from you. I wouldn't have any of this if it weren't for you.

Now, the Bible says, and saw fifty verse twenty three, God says,

the people who honor me are those who bring me an offering. Why

to show thanks. God doesn't need your money, He doesn't need my money.

God owns it all. So what does he want. He just wants

your thanks. This wants your gratitude. He wants to demonstrate. A gift

is a demonstration of gratitude, says The people who honor me are those who

bring me an offering to show thanks. And I save those who obey me.

So I sing my thanks to God, and I give my offering and

thanks to God. The third thing I do is I commit my life to

God's mission for me. I commit my life to God's mission for me.

When God gives you another chance, he doesn't want you to just go out

and keep using it to live for yourself. He wants you to use it

for his purpose. Romans chapter six, verse thirteen says this ourselves completely to

God, every part of you, for you are back from death and you

want to be tools in the hands of God to be used for his good

purposes. So I sing thanks to God, I give an offering and thanks

to God. I commit myself and say, God, I want my wife

to honor you. I want to fulfill what you put me on earth to

do. Now, these three things that Jonah did, we do them every

week at Saddleback Church. Every single weekend. We sing thanks to God.

We give offerings back to God as a saying thank thanks God, and we

commit ourselves. We recommit ourselves every week saying God, really, I belong

to you, and so whatever you want to do with my life, that's

cool, whatever you want. That's how I say thanks to God. So

that's the first thing you want to do when you've been given a second chance

from God. You tell God how grateful you are. God. I'm alive.

I made it through that crisis, that scandal, that problem, that

sin, that relational hell, and I'm still here and You've given me another

chance, and I am so grateful God for your goodness. That's the first

thing Jonah does. Now here's the second thing Jonah does. And here's what

you need to do when you're given a second chance, which is literally every

day of your life. Number two, make my mission my top priority.

Make my mission my top priority. When God gives me another chance. Maybe

I've really messed it up, I've really just blown it. But whatever God

wants me to do with the rest of my life, that's what I'm going

to focus on now. After I've been given a second chance, it's not

the time to keep on doing the wrong stuff. It's not the time to

keep on doing what I've been doing, being selfish, thinking about me,

thinking about what I want, what I need and only and not even thinking

about God in my life. No, no, this is not the time

to keep living the way I want. Now I make the focus. If

God's given me a second chance, if I'm still alive, he didn't put

me here to continue living selfishly. He's given me another chance to live for

him. He's given me another chance to make my life mission the mission he

has for my life my top priority. Tewod Corinthians, chapter six, verse

one says this, do not let the grace that you receive from God be

for nothing. God has shown you mercy. God has shown you grace.

God has let you off the hook so many times. He's forgotten sins.

He's forgiven sins. God has let you off took so many times. Do

not let the grace of God be for nothing. Like I'm just gonna abuse

it. I'm gonna take it for granted. I'm going to continue living to

be a selfish clod. No, No, now I focus my mission.

I focus on my life mission as my top priority. You know, the

harder you've fallen, the more you falled. The more you understand gratefulness,

and actually the more you are committed to your mission. You know who Paul

the Apostle is in the Bible, but he wasn't always some great Christian saint.

You know what Paul was before God got a hold of him. He

was a religious terrorist. He went around killing Christians. That was his job.

He traveled around the Middle East literally murdering, killing Christians. And he

thought that was his duty, that he was such a zealot, that Christians

should be all wiped out. And he was a religious terrorist. And one

day, while he's going to to the city of Damascus to kill a bunch

of Christians there in Syria, he has an encounter with Jesus Christ. Thereri

is in christ and Jesus shows up on the road Damascus says Saul, why

are you persecuting me? And he goes, who are you? Lord?

He goes, I'm Jesus, And he falls to his knees and he says,

my Lord and my God. And he makes a one hundred and eighty

degree turn. And now he's becomes the Apostle of Love, and he's given

a second chance after murdering a lot of people, and here's what he says.

In Acts, chapter twenty, verse twenty four, Paul says, I

don't care about my own life, not anymore. The most important thing is

that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me.

And what was that work? To tell people the good news about God's grace,

about God's mercy, about his willingness to give us another chance. Now,

this is the second thing that happens to Jonah. First, Jonah says,

I'm going to live in a sense of profound gratitude, and I'm going

to be grateful to God every day of my life for another chance. But

in Jonah chapter three, verse one and two, it says this. Then

the Lord spoke to Jonah again. Okay, here is he getting a second

chance. And he says, go to that great city Nineveh, and warn

them of their doom as I told you. In a circle the word warn.

We're going to come back to that in a minute. Says I want

you to go to the great city of Nineva and warn them of their doom

as I told you. For now, this is the exact same wording as

in chapter one. His mission has not changed. Jonah has gone through an

awful lot of problems. Since chapter one, he's been running from God.

He's been through all kinds of problems. He's been in the shipwreck a storm,

he's been thrown overboard, he's been swallowed by a great fish. He's

had all kinds of bad stuff happened in his life. But when he's given

a second chance, God says, up by the way, the mission hasn't

changed. It's the exact same thing I told you to do. It's what

I made you to do. It's what I created you do. It's what

I decided you would do with your life before you were born. Your mission

has not changed. No matter what you've been through. No matter how many

problems you've had, how much stress you've gone through, how many losses you've

had, how many sins you've committed, hadn't done one thing to change your

life. Mission. What God created you for, what He designed you for,

is still in full force. I want you to write this down on

your outline. Circumstances may change me, but they never changed my mission.

What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. And now this really is one of

my favorite parts of the broadcast. Letters from our list. Here's Rick did

you know that you can listen to Daily Hope every day through our podcast.

Many of our listeners say they make this part of their quiet time each day.

You can actually download the podcast at Pastorick dot com and then you could

listen on the go whenever it's convenient for you. For instance, Debbie,

one of our listeners, says that she listens on her lunch break. Here's

what she wrote, Hey, Pastor Rick, your podcast is the perfect way

to just relax from a busy job and it refreshes, It fills my heart

with hope and energy, helps me be a light for Jesus and what is

sometimes a stressful and tiring day. And Debbie continues in the note, she

wrote, I recently came out of a two year period of depression and chronic

stress brought on by my mother's passing. I'm sorry, Debbie, and she

said, it took a long time to rebuild my confidence and hope and to

restore my daily connection with God. But the format of the Daily Hope podcast

is just perfect in that it's twenty five minutes of godly practice, biblical teaching

that I can absorb now having it available online for free, she says,

has been such a blessing. It's made such a significant impact on my personal

healing, and so I'm happily sending money to support this podcast because I know

it's a good soul and spirit food for anybody who listens to it. Bless

you and thank you for teaching me how God works through the pain that life

sometimes brings. You remain a spiritual lighthouse to me. Well, Debbie,

I know that God's going to continue to help you grow, help you learn,

and I'm blessed that He's using Daily Hope podcasts to do that in your

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