This is Pastor Rick's Daily Home, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

Well, today we continue with our series called The Keys to a Blessed Life.

In these lessons, Rick shares the practical steps found in Jesus' sermon on the Mount

that will help you live the hopeful and purpose-filled life God planned for you.

In just a few moments, we're going to tell you how you can go deeper in Pastor Rick's teaching

by getting his video-based Bible study for this series.

You can find out more by going to PastorRick.com or by texting the word daily to 800-600-5,000-4.

That's the word daily to 800-600-5,000-4.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with the final part of a message called Your Ministry of Mercy.

Matthew 9. The Bible says Matthew, who is one of the twelve disciples,

Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guest. Nothing wrong with that.

Then it says, along with his fellow tax collectors and many other notorious sinners.

Now, if you're in the IRS, I apologize to you today.

It's a little bit different today. You may be unpopular, but you aren't a notorious sinner if you are a tax collector.

But in those days, here's why tax collectors were considered notorious sinners.

They were allowed to skim whatever they could get.

So a tax collector for Rome could come in and say, you know, Caesar would say,

I want one denari from a rehousel. And the tax collector could come in and say,

I need ten denari from you. And you had no recourse. There was nobody to appeal to.

You had to pay it. It was like extortion. Then he could pocket nine and pass on one.

And so the worst job, the most unpopular job because they were all cheats.

They were crooks. They were swindlers. They were the tax collectors.

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