Rick Warren - Choosing My Standards—Part One

Well, hello, and welcome to Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren. Today,

Rick's going to kick off a new series called Building

My Life on Values that Last. In these inspiring lessons,

Rick shows us practical ways to apply the Biblical principles

of trust, self control, balance, respect forgiveness, moral purity, fairness, honesty,

and love. Now, here's Pastor Rick with part one of

a message called Choosing My Standard.

What are your values? Your values are your core beliefs

that shape everything you do in life. There are a

lot of people who say, you know, it really doesn't

matter what you believe, But that's just not true, folks.

It is not true. It does matter what you believe

your beliefs. Let's get this. Your beliefs determine your behavior,

and your behavior determines what you become. So the kind

of person you are, if you look at his foundation,

is based on the things you've chosen to value. In

other words, your convictions in life determine your conduct, and

your conduct determines your character. So whatever you want to

be in life, you better figure out quick what your

values are because they determine your stress level, your success,

your salvation, and many many other things. Now, if you

want to build a lasting life of success and significance,

you must build it on lasting values. And that's what

we're going to look at in this series. Now, one

thing that basically everybody in our society agrees with today,

whether you're liberal or whether you're conservative, Democrat, Republican, independent,

whether you are religious or irreligious, a Christian or an

Unchristian or an atheist, or whatever be'st the majority of

people say that our society today is in a stage

of spiritual or not spiritual, but moral decline. There's a

decaying of values in our society. Many studies, many surveys

say that over eighty percent of Americans say that the

number one problem in America now is not the economy,

but it's the decline and decay of moral values. George

Gallup just recently did a poll and discovered that Americans

today are more interested in values than at any other

time in the past sixty years. It's a very very

hot item. In fact, I asked my researchers who helped

me with studying for messages to go. I said, go

out and find me. Just see if there are any

current articles in magazines, not religious ones, but just secular

magazines that deal with the concern about the moral decline

and decaying and values in America. Just find some recent ones,

and they came back with three hundred and fifty articles.

I thought i'd read you just a few of the titles.

These are out of all the major national magazines. These

are the titles. Is the US morally in trouble? Can

we save our culture? The character deficiency syndrome? Fighting to

fill the values gap? The decline of a nation, a

nation of liars, the moral obtuseness in America living in

the new dark ages, a nation of finger pointers blaming

everyone else. How moral deprivation breeds kids with attitudes, morals

and mixed signals. The People magazine sin Pole, I'd like

to read that one the new dangers of relativism shifting

realities are moral makeover, the spiritual void, and drug use

when winning is the only thing signs of hope amid

moral decay. Why is common courtesy less common? Beyond materialism?

The sexual revolution reconsidered faultiness, the lack of responsibility in

our society, and how in disregard for the truth has

become epidemic in America. And what we discovered is that

every single national magazine has devoted at least one cover

to this issue of values and moral decline in the

last two years. Now, this crisis can be seen in many,

many areas. I've just listed five of them. There, politics, business, entertainment, education,

even religion. FI said, take some time right now and

write down the current scandal in each of these areas.

You'd be able to do it because of this crisis

that's going on. Now, what is the cause of all

of this? Why is there so much concern about this

in our society? Well, we're today We're going to look

at the cause of moral decline, the cause of why

people aren't building their lives on values, the cost of

it to our families and ourselves. And we're going to

look at the cure. And the next week we get

into all of the problems. This is just I mean,

all of the solutions. This is just the the introduction.

What is the cause of the crisis of values in

our society? Two words? Would you write this down? Truth decay?

Not truth decay, but truth decay. And the fact is

we no longer value the truth, excuse me, in America.

Instead we value two other things. We value Convenience is

it easy, and we value pragmatism. Does it work? Today

people really don't care about the truth. In fact, some

people even question is there such a thing as truth?

Universal truth? And they say, what I want to know

is does it work? And is it easy? And if

it works in my life? And if it's easy, I

don't care if it's true or not, that's good enough

for me. Now. In the generation that fought World War

War two, those people, when they did wrong, they knew

they were doing wrong, and they chose. They said, I

know this is wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway,

and they would do it. There was no disagreement what

was right or wrong or what was true. Today, though

it's very different. We have an entire generation of young

people and children who don't even know the difference between

right and wrong. And there are parts of our society

today say there's no such thing as right and wrong.

What may be right for you may be wrong for me,

and what may be right for me may be wrong

for you. So there are no standards by which you

can evaluate your life or evaluate your behavior. Now, what happened?

Why is it that in just one generation's time, we

went from general agreement on this is true. Today. If

I stood up and said this is true, and this

is true, and this is true, and this is right,

and this is wrong, there would be all kinds of

controversy about it. And it just happened in one generation.

What happened we were sold a bill of goods. We

fell for three very destructive philosophies that have replaced truth

in our society. You might write these down, and then

we're going to all explain the implications in your life.

The first of these destructive philosophies is individuality, our individualism.

An individualism says basically, this live for myself, that only

I can be the standard of my life. Only I

can judge what's really true, only I can judge what's right,

and only I can judge what's wrong. And you don't

have any place in telling me what's right or wrong

or true, because I basically am my own god and

I live for myself. And have you ever heard this phrase,

I've got to do what's best for me. That's called individualism.

I'm A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal of

executives across America discovered that when executives in America have

an ethical crisis about forty four percent of them say

I consult with myself, and only three percent say I

consult with God. See they're saying I set myself up

as the standard. Now, this is nothing new. Individualism has

gone on in nations for centuries, millenniums. In fact, thousands

of years ago, the nation of Israel fell prey to this.

If you ever want to read the dark ages of

the Nation of Israel, read the Book of Judges, because

it was a time of total chaos. Why was it chaos?

We'll look at this verse on your outline, Judge is

twenty one. In those days, Israel had no authority, in

other words, no king or anybody else. So the people

did read the rest with me whatever seemed right in

their own eyes. Does that sound vaguely contemporary? I'll just

do whatever I think is right. And if there are

no judges, there are no standard, there's no rule, there's

no law, there's no absolutes, then hey, I can do

whatever I want. Now that's an easy philosophy to hold

on to because it means I never have to feel

guilty because I don't have to marry up to my

standards or your standards anybody else. And if you say,

well this is right, then even well, that may be

right for you, but for me, I am an individual

and I run my own life. And that's the first philosophy.

The result of it in the nation of Israel was anarchy,

and that's going to be the result of if America

keeps going that way here, because I'm only thing that

matters is me. The second philosophy that we've bought into

is called secularism, and secularism can be summarized in three words.

God is unnecessary. Doesn't mean I don't believe there is

a God. Oh yeah, I believe there is a God.

I just don't need him in my life. And for

the last forty years, we have been systematically removing God

from every area of public life, out of the schools,

out of the government, out of the media, out of

the newspapers, out of all of the different areas is

the public opinion in life, and we've basically relegated God

to Sunday mornings. Oh. I believe in God, but it's

just he's just a little slice over there. And then

I really lived the rest of my life because God

isn't necessary. I've got it all together on my own.

You see, again, this has all happened in just forty years.

Forty years ago, most school rooms had the Ten Commandments

hanging on the wall a standard of moral authority. And

forty years ago, many, if not most school rooms, classes

began with prayer. And forty years ago, the majority of

people in America went to church. More people went to

church than didn't go to church. Now today that's exactly

the opposite. It's flip flopped. Obviously, there's no Ten Commandments

or prayer in schools, and the majority of people don't

go to church today than do. And the number one

purveyor of value used today is not God or Bible

or church or even parents. It's television. And so in secularism,

God's been removed from the mainstream. This has talked about

in the Book of Romans, Chapter one. It says they

exchange the truth of God for a lie, and they

worshiped created things rather than the Creator. That's called today, folks, materialism.

When you worship things instead of the God who created everything.

That's why there'll be more people at the beach and

at the mountains today than worshiping their tan than they

are in church worshiping God. And we hear about all

of these uneducated tribes in some dark forest. So we say,

isn't it sad that these tribes they get a little

piece of wood and they carve it into an idol,

then they bow down in front of it and they

worship it. How uneducated. But Americans have idols too that

we worship. The only difference is our idols have chrome

on them, okay, And they have a little thing out

on the front of the hood that says, this is

how much I paid for this car. And a lot

of people worship their boat, their house, their career, and

anything that is created, rather than worshiping God. So God

is unnecessary and I live for myself. The third philosophy

that we've fallen prey to is called relativism. Relativism, now

that doesn't mean you have bad relatives sty at your

house for weeks. You can summarize relativism in two words.

It's the words no absolutes, no absolutes, And the idea

behind relativism kind of goes like this. You know, what's

true for me may not be true for you, and

what's truth for you may not be truth for me.

Therefore what's right for me may not be right for you.

What's right for you may not be right for me,

And nobody can say what's right or wrong because all

truth is relative and it just you know, it's kind

of vague out there. Now. Again, that's a great way

to live if you don't want to have any guilt,

because then you say, well that's your standard. Well my

standard's this, And if I don't measure up to God's standard,

will I just lower the bar a whole bunch And

then I say, oh, look, how great I am. Now

this is a problem, and it comes up in a

lot of familiar phrases. For instance, have you ever heard

this one? It doesn't matter what you do as long

as you're sincere, And it doesn't matter what you believe

as long as you're sincerely believe it. Are you familiar

with this? And it doesn't matter what you believe as

long as you're sincere. And whenever I hear that, I

want to go, oh, really, have you thought through the

logical extension that oh really, it doesn't matter what you

believe as long as you're sincere. You can be sincerely

wrong and be sincere. I mean, let's say this, let's

say this, cup, I think this cup is filled with

water for me to drink, but it's really filled with

sulfuric acid, just kidding. And I could drink that thinking

it was water but sulfuric acid, and I would be

sincerely dead. It does matter what you believe. How about this.

Let's say after church, you're gonna go get on the

freeway and you go up what you sincerely believe is

the on ramp to the freeway, but the truth is

it's really the off ramp. Now is sincerity enough to

keep you from having an accident? No? Does the truth

matter in that situation? Absolutely it does. Because you're getting

ready to have a major collision that may take your life.

It takes more than to sincerity. And so while you're

driving up this on ramp, which is really an off

ramp the freeway, some guy's coming off the off ramp.

He rolls down his window and he's irately yells to you,

wrong way. And if you believe in relativism, you say, well, now,

who are you to tell me what's wrong? Who made

you the judge of my life? I mean, it may

be true for you, but it may not be true

for me. I mean, for you, this may be an

offramp for me, it's an on ramp. Okay, So don't

be so judgmental and narrow minded. And you know, let

me tell you something. When people tell you the truth,

they're not judging you. They're being kind, they're being kind.

And there are very few people who will level with

you today and say, look, you're blowing it. You go

down that train, you're gonna miss it. You're gonna heading

for a major head on collision. And when people go

through a major crisis, like you know, should I move

in with this guy, or should I get a divorce,

or should I you know, take drugs or in any

kind of ethical crisis, and people already and go, well,

you know, you just whatever's best for you. They don't

love you, because people who tell you the truth are

those who love you. They're not judging you, they're just

telling you the truth. Now, there's another phrase that relativism uses,

and it goes like this, there are no absolute truths

in life. There are no absolutes. Have you ever heard

this one? Any of you ever heard this one? Yeah?

Most of Yeah. Whenever somebody says to me there are

no absolutes. In fact, that was in a class one

day as a high school student, and the teacher stood

up in a philosophy class. He said, there are no

absolutes in life, And I said, are you absolutely sure? Now, folks,

let me tell you something. Don't ever let anybody con

you with pseudo intellectualism, with statements like it doesn't matter

what you believe as long as you're sincere and there

are no absolute truths. That, folks, is not only illogical,

it's irrational. In the first place. It's illogical because that

statement in itself is an absolute There are no absolutes.

You've just stated one, which means obviously that one's wrong.

Take that through now and think that through. You cannot

make an absolute statement that there are no absolutes. That's illogical.

But more than that, it's just pure irrational, because the

fact is, the whole world proves that the world is

built on things that you can depend on because they

are absolutely true. For instance, there is an absolute truth

called gravity. Are you familar with this one? What if

all of a sudden, say every eight or nine minutes,

God turned off gravity, cute, A'll be floating up in

the ceiling here. Okay, But one of the reasons we

build chairs is because you can depend on gravity to

pull you down as something needs to hold you up.

When NASA, NASA makes a rocket launch to the moon,

you know the moon's over here. They don't aim the

rocket toward the Moon. They aim the rocket way over here.

Why because the Moon is moving and so is the Earth,

and so they have to aim at a place where

there isn't even a moon yet, so that by the

time the rocket gets there, the moon's there. Now, how

do they figure that out? Because God has established the

entire universe on some universal laws that are always true

and can always be depended on, and you never have

to doubt that. Well, maybe one time it won't be true. No,

God always makes these laws true, and truth is ongoing now.

For instance, Let's say you got a bronchitis or sore throat,

and you get a prescription and you walk and say,

here's the prescription that the doctor gave me for my bronchitis.

Ten minutes later, the pharmacist comes back and gives you

medicine for schizophrenia. I don't need this. Well, you know

there are no absolutes, so I thought this medicine would

be as good as any other. In fact, you look

a little neurotic, And so I thought you could take this,

you know, and I know that there's a certain thing

that says only eighty mgs of this medicine, but I

thought three thousand megagram would be MG's would be exactly

what you need. So I know this is five times

over the limit of axilent dotes. It may kill you,

but I don't care, because it really means truth is evasive,

and it may be true for that doctor, but not

for me. So now, when you go to a pharmacist,

are you interested in absolute truth? Yes, you want just

the right amount of just the right medicine, because not

any medicine will do, and every medicine is not equal,

and every medicine is not valid, and every medicine is

not equally good for you. You want the one. See. Truth

is narrow, folks, that's why it's called the truth. And

God says, I want you to know the truth. I mean,

what if there were no traffic laws. What if, for instance,

let's say, stop signs meant stop whenever you feel like it.

What if the line in the middle road meant stay

on this side if you want to, we would have

no world. You'll all be dead even people, even philosophers,

who claim there are no absolutes in life, get very

interested in absolutes when they're being violated. For instance, if

all of a sudden, my neighbor says, I don't believe

there are any absolutes, so I start building an extension

to my house twenty feet onto his property. All of

a sudden, he's very there needs to be a law here. Well,

there cannot be any law unless there are some absolute

things that are right and wrong. So don't let anybody

con you, because we have been conned by individualism. Live

for myself, secularism, God is unnecessary. And relativism, which is

there are no absolutes. You see now in today's society

in relativism, which is the prevailing attitude. The highest value

in our society is tolerance, tolerance, because we value tolerance

more than truth. You don't want to say the truth

because you may hurt somebody, you may offend somebody. They

may disagree with you. And what we're supposed to do

is tolerate each other. The worst sin in our society

is to be intolerant. The worst labeled to be labeled

is to be labeled judgmental. You're narrow minded, you're judgmental,

you're intolerant. Now would you write this down. It's not

judgmental to tell the truth. It's not judgmental to tell

the truth. You say, well, I believe that this lifestyle

is the right way. Oh no, but I believe this

lifestyle is the right way. Well, God says this lifestyle

is the right way, and he's telling the truth. He's

not being judgmental, he's just telling the truth. It's not

judgmental to tell the truth. In fact, not only that, tolerance,

the word tolerance has been redefined in our society. Go

look up the word tolerance in a dictionary, and this

is what it used to mean. Tolerance used to mean

I will respect you and treat you with dignity even

though iviolently disagree with you. That's what tolerance means. I'll

respect you and treat you in dignity even though I

disagree with what you believe.

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