Rick Warren - How Should I Live in This World Part One

You know, we really live in a world that's full

of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you

believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.

But the good news is God hasn't left us to

figure it all out alone.

No.

In fact, today, on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going

to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren

unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see

life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. And

now let's get right to Pastor Rick with part one

of a message called how Should I Live in this World?

Your worldview is the way you look at the world.

It's the beliefs that you base all of your decisions on.

Your worldview is how you see life, how you see death,

how you see yourself. Your worldview it's how you see

God and others, and money and sex, and the past

and the president and the future and every area of life.

Everybody has a worldview, whether they realize it or not.

It's often unclarified, it's often unspoken, but everybody has a worldview.

Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is a worldview. It

is a way of seeing the world, and actually there

are seven major worldviews. We talked about that in the

first week of the series. If you base your life

on a faulty worldview, the results are disastrous because every

idea has a consequence.

Every idea has a consequence.

Even the silly ideas of life waste your time, and

that wastes your life. So there's a consequence to literally

everything you do.

Now.

In the first week, we talked about how it's not

enough just to be sincere, and we talked about a

number of different questions that why does it matter why

I believe or what I believe? You can be sincere

and be sincerely wrong. If I have a glass up

here and it's filled with what I think is water,

and I'm sincere about it, I can drink it. If

it's poison, it'll still kill me. No matter how sincere

I am. I made it on a false assumption. I

based my decision on wrong or untrue data. So during

this series we looked at five different questions. The first

question was why does it matter what I believe as

a major difference in your life? Then we looked the

second week at how do I know what's true?

And how do I know what's real?

We looked at five signs of truth, the ka in

our society, and five ways that you can know the

truth that you can actually test it. Is this really true?

Is this really real? Does it square with reality? Then

the third week we looked at where did I come from?

Which is a major implication in your worldview. The Bible

says that God made it all, created everything. The Bible

tells us that God thought of human beings first but

made us last, and that you were uniquely made. You're

not an accident, and you're made in God's image and

God has.

A plan and a purpose for your life.

Then the next week we looked at how did the

world get so messed up? And the fact is we

live on a broken planet. And we looked at the

reason for that, which is our own sinful choices. And

the result is we live in a broken planet where

nothing works correctly. Nothing's perfect, no marriage, no person, no help,

nothing is perfect on this planet.

We looked at why God.

Is even allowing the broken planet to go on for

a little bit longer than the rationale behind that.

Then the next week we looked.

At what's the solution, what's the solution to all of

the problems in the world. And we looked at a

number of the major different solutions that have been offered

that have all failed, because, honestly, the heart of the

problem is a problem in the heart.

It's inside me.

And you can't change the world by making a law.

To change the world, that doesn't work. You have to

change people on the inside. And we looked at how

God changes us on the inside, and how the five

things that Jesus did on the cross are what changes

us and they're the answers to the problems in our world. Now,

based on all that we looked at, I want to

come back and do this last final week on so what?

And then in other words, how am I supposed to

live in this world? Once I have a Christian world view?

How do I turn my creeds into deeds? How do

I have what I know affect what I do? How

does my belief How do my beliefs change my behavior?

In other words, what am I going to do about

what I know? How should I live in this world?

Well?

Fortunately God sent us a model on how to live

in this world. The very first verse there on your

outline one John twenty six says this. Anyone who says

he is a Christian should live as Christ did. Well, duh,

it's kind of obvious, and yet we don't do it.

We call ourselves followers of Christ, we call ourselves believers,

we call ourselves Christians, but we don't always live the

way Jesus did. Now the big question then, is, well,

if I'm to be in the family of God, I'm

to live as Jesus Christ did.

How do you do that?

What does it mean to live as Jesus did? Well,

if you've ever wandered that question, you picked a good

week to come to church, because I this week went

through everything written about Jesus Christ in the Bible, read

it all, and read every word that Jesus has said

that's recorded, and summarized it for you tonight. It is

summarized in ten mega truths, ten mega themes, ten values.

Well I'm going to give you tonight is cliff notes

on the life of Jesus Christ. This is the ten

things that Jesus did in his life that he wants

you to do in your life, which is how you

should live in this world. And we're going to look

at these ten truths, these ten values, and as we

look at them.

I think you'll probably be amazed.

Just like I was, at how counterculture they are, how

opposite of what the world says, Jesus says to do.

Jesus Christ is the perfect model for living and not

only showed us how to do it, he gave us

specific instructions. One of the things that's unique about tonight's

message is that every single verse on your outline is

a direct quote from Jesus. If you had a read

letter edition of the Bible where all the words of

Jesus in read, this entire outline would be in read

because they're all verses basically from Jesus Christ on what

it means to live? Now, how do I learn to

live like Jesus Christ? Well, you have to build certain

values in your life, and here they are Number one,

to live like Jesus means to live with discernment. To

live with discernment, Now what that means is you evaluate things,

You test things, you are discerning. You don't just automatically

accept what somebody tells you.

You check it out.

You don't automatically accept the world's values. You're not sucked

in by popular culture. And just because it's mentioned on

some talk show, or it's on the cover of People magazine,

or people think it's hip or cool or you know whatever,

that it's okay. No, you check it out. You are discerning.

You evaluate everything and you ask things like is this

the truth? Does this square with reality? Is it God's

world view? Or is it just the most passing fad.

Paul once says in the Book of Romans, he says,

don't become so comfortable with your culture that you fit

in into it without even thinking.

And that's what Jesus is saying here.

He says, I want you to think about the kind

of life you're living.

You need to be discerning.

Now, notice here Jesus in John chapter seven says this,

don't be nitpickers, but use your head and heart to

discern what is right, to test what is authentically true.

Now I'm saying here, I don't want you to be

a cynic. I don't want you to be a skeptic.

I don't want you to be a nitpicker, a legalistic

crank who runs around talk about how everything's awful in

the world. I don't want you just criticizing everything. But

he says, I do expect you to use your brain

God gave you a mind, and you are to use it,

and you are to be discerning and not just automatically

believe everything.

That you hear or see or experience in life.

He said, don't be a nitpicker, don't be a cynic,

but use your mind.

Let me give you an assignment sometime. I want you

to go back.

And read through the first four books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John. Those are the books that tell the most

about Jesus. And as you read those gospels, find out

how many times Jesus uses the phrase watch out. It's

one of his favorite phrases. Jesus says watch out, and

I'm not gonna spoil all the fun for you, but

he tells you a number of things to watch out for.

For instance, did you know that Jesus says, watch out

for people who can take into court just one of

the things he says to watch out for. And if

you watch out for the things Jesus says to watch

out for, you're gonna be a lot wiser now. Depending

on your translation, it may say beware, it may say

be careful, it may say guard yourself. But he's just

saying you need to be discerning. You don't just let

things flow into your mind. The problem is we are

bombarded now by media. You know, radio, tell uh, you know,

Internet and iPods.

And you know, on and on and on.

We've got media around us, billboards and movies and everything

is constantly hitting us. And after a while, you kind

of let your guard down and you start letting stuff

into your mind that you wouldn't even agree with, that

you know is wrong, and you just let it in

because there's so much media. For instance, have you ever

found yourself singing a song with words that are the

exact opposite of your values? It's got to catchy tune

and you're you know, you're going, you know, well, I

want to get drunk and sleep around tonight.

I go, I'm a pastor. I probably shouldn't be singing that.

You know, it's I got to.

Catch you tune and you and what's happening, somebody's putting

their worldview in my mind because it's got to catch

you tune or you you know, today we have a

thing called entertainment, and I just want or what's so

entertaining about it? A lot of entertainment is watching people

do do stuff that you know is wrong and you'd

never do it yourself, you know, go sleep around with

somebody else's husband or wife, or you know, get drunk

and shoot up a bunch of people. Or we watch

stuff all the time that you would never do yourself

and call it entertainment. And so Jesus just says, you

just need to be discerning and know what you're allowing

in your mind. I mean, let's just take a little

survey here of intelligence. How many of you believe everything

you read in the newspaper?

Yeah, I knew you were smart. How many of you believe.

Everything you read in magazines, you hear on the radio,

you watch on the TV, and you see it movies.

Yeah?

How many of you would say I believe everything God

says is true?

Okay, here's the question.

Why do we spend more time listening, watching, and reading something.

We don't believe than something we do. HM.

Next point, I mean, you got it right. I don't

have to drill it in right, get it good. Live

with discernment. The Bible says this. Look at that next verse.

The Bible says, make sure that the light you think

you have is not really darkness. See a lot of

times you may be thinking, oh, I'm doing the right

thing here, but you may be operating off the world's

value system that's so been programmed into your mind through radio, television, movies,

and books. You're brainwashed and you just automatically think, well,

it's the right way to do it. And so he says,

make sure that the light you think you have is

not really darkness. Be discerning. Second thing, if you're going

to live like Jesus Christ, you got to learn to

live with integrity. With integrity. Now, what is integrity. Most

people do not understand this word. In fact, if you

ask them to give you a synonym, they say, well,

integrity means being honest, it means telling the truth. Well, yeah,

that's part of it. Telling the truth is part of integrity.

But integrity means a whole lot more than being honest.

What integrity means is wholeness. Wholeness I mean it's all together.

It comes from the word integral, integrated integer or integua.

One unit in mathematics. It means it's all the whole.

It's the opposite of compartmentalizing your life. What integrated or

integrity means is your life is all the same that

you don't act one way with one group of people,

like this is how I act at church, and this

is how I act with my you know, golfing buddies.

This is how I act at work, and this is

how I act at home, and this is how I

act over here when nobody knows it's me, and you

wear different masks and you fake it and you pretend

and you play roles and you're a hypocrite. That is

a lack of integrity. It's when you segment your life.

You know, you can be honest and still lack integrity.

Why because you could be an honest in one area

and have another area of your life you're in total

denial about.

That's all you ripped messed up.

And just because you're honest in one area doesn't mean

you have integrity because that's involving every area of your life.

You don't compartmentalize your life. You remember a few months

ago we talked about the Titanic myth that before the Titanic,

all of the boats made had one integrated hull. They

were all, you know, one unit, and so that if

a boat, our ship ran into an iceberg, it knocked

a hole in it.

The water came in and it sunk the ship.

So the Cannick was supposedly unsinkable because they got this idea,

we'll just compartmentalize the hole and we'll put it into segments.

And therefore, if the ship happened to run into an iceberg,

it could theoretically take on water in a certain number

of compartments, but it wouldn't sink the ship. Now that

sounds logical, But friends, a hole in the boat is

a hole in the boat.

Is a hole in the boat. It's going to sink eventually.

It's like, let's say you and I are in a

rowboat outfishing and I pull out, you know, a drill

at my end, and I start drilling a hole in

the boat.

You go, what are you doing? I said, well, it's

my end of the boat. I'm not hurting you. You know,

this is not your you know, this is just my

own thing. He said, Oh, he's going to sink the

whole boat. A hole in the boat's going to sink

the boat.

And you may be saying, well, I'm drilling a hole

right now, but it's not going to sink my family,

or it's not going to sink my business.

It's just one.

Little segment of my life, you are dead wrong. And

when you compartmentalize your life into you know, this is

my reading life, and this is my secret life, and

this is.

My business life, you are setting.

Yourself up for a lack of integrity because it's not

all integrated.

Now.

It's not easy to live a life of integrity today

because everything in society teaches us to put our lives

and segments pta over here, and this over there, and

this over here. I saw it just this week, in

two very extremes. I got up at four forty five

in the morning to fly up to San Francisco, got.

Back at midnight. That night, I had meetings.

With five different groups of CEOs in the city of

San Francisco, a bunch of tech CEOs from the Silicon Valley,

and a bunch of financial CEOs and different groups like that.

But before I went and had those meetings with the CEOs,

I went over to San Quentin to speak to the

prisoners and to celebrate the completion of the first forty

days of purpose at San Quentin Prison, and the inmates

there that had completed it, we you know, signed all

our books and you know, had a great time with them,

and I met with a warden and they've allowed forty

days of Purpose will be repeated every.

Quarter, four times a year in San Quentin.

Five thousand prisoners, over six hundred on death row, and

we're going to do forty days of purpose there and

they are going to allow a celebrate recovery into San

Quentin prison.

So it's a terrific thing.

So I'm over here with you know, these these convicts,

and then I finished that speaking to them, and I

go over to meet with CEOs, and you know what

I discovered. It doesn't matter whether you're a CEO or

a convict, you still have to struggle with integrity. Doesn't

matter if you're a professional or a prisoner, or you're

an investor, or you're an inmate, you still got a

struggle with this issue of bringing all your life into whole.

Now, let me be clear, integrity is.

Not if you have to be perfect have integrity.

Who's gonna have it? Nobody?

Because there are no perfect people on this planet. Nothing's

perfect on Earth. So you don't have to be perfect

to have integrity. You just have to be exactly what

you appear to be. That I the way I talk

with you is the way I talk with my kids,

and the way I talk with my kids is the

way I talk with my friends, and the way I

talk with my friends is the way I talk with strangers.

And I don't act different ways with different groups of people.

You know, what you see is what you get. Now,

here's what the Bible says. Jesus said in Luke eleven

thirty six. If you are filled with light, in other words,

you're not hiding anything with no dark parts. That means

there are no corners of your life, no little segments

that you said, okay, God, you can have every air

of my life except this area my pornography, or my

drug addiction, or my little relationship or whatever. If if

you are filled with life with no dark parts, then

your whole life circle, that whole life.

Will be radiant. What's he's saying there.

The result of integrity is illumination. He says, when you

have integrity, you shine like a star in a dark world.

And that's why God wants us to live with integrity.

Look at the next verse. Jesus said, you are the

world's salt to make it tolerable. And if you lose

your flavor, what will happen to the world. God says

Christians are to be salt in the world. Did you

know there are two primary purposes for salt. One is

as a preservative. It keeps things from rotting. That's why

they put it on meat, salt pork and jerky and

stuff keeps the meat from rotting. And the other is

it's for seasoning, makes it taste better. Why does God

leave Christians in the world once they become saved. Why

didn't he just take them on to heaven. He leaves

us here on this planet to be preservative. The world

doesn't spoil, it doesn't go rotten, and he leaves us

here for seasoning to make it taste better. And the

only way you can do that is if you have integrity.

Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

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