Rick Warren - Will You Stand Strong For God Publicly Part Two

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.

I'm so glad that you found us today, and whether

you're at home or in your car, we're so glad

that you're here, and we pray that God will give

you hope in times of difficulty. Rick is taking us

through the Book of Daniel and that so we'll be

equipped to handle whatever curveball life throws at us, even

the most difficult trials. And now here's Rick with part

two of a message called will You Stand Strong for God? Publicly?

It's one thing to stand strong for God at church?

Will you stand strong for God at the website? Will

you stand strong for God at the job site? Will

you stand strong for God at the school, in the community,

on the golf course? Will you stand strong for God?

In public? Anybody can be a secret disciple, the secret

agent Christian? Or do you guys remember that old Lady

Claire all commercial, only her hairdresser knows for sure. Remember

that I think there are lady Claire all Christians. Only

God knows for sure, because nothing in their life gives

you any indication that they would stand strong for God publicly.

So Daniel's got a decision. Okay, you know I could

whimp out, I could, I could give in, I could

cave in wish do you think he shows? Well, let's

look at what he did verse ten up here on

the screen. Now, when Daniel learned that the new law

had been signed, what did he do? He went home,

knelt down to pray as usual in his upstairs room

with its windows wide open toward Jerusalem. In other words,

I'm not gonna hide this. This is public praying. He

goes where he's done every day four years. He goes

home to his house, kneels down to pray, goes in

his upstairs room when does wide open toward Jerusalem where

he had come from. And he prayed three times a day,

just as he had always done his entire life, thanking

and praising God. So this is exactly what the enemies

wanting to do. So Daniel's enemies go together to Daniel's

house to catch him praying and asking God for help.

So the say traps have caught him in a trap.

Now my question here is this, why is this guy

unafraid to do this? He knows the law can't be changed.

He knows that it says if you pray in public

against any to any God besides the Emperor, You're gonna

be thrown in a pit with a bunch of hungry lions.

Why is he not afraid? Why is he unafraid to

stand out? Why is he unafraid to speak up for

God at work? Because I know a lot of Christians

who are afraid to stand out work, and I know

a lot of Christians who are afraid to stand up

at work. And I know a lot of Christians who

are afraid to speak up about their faith at work.

They're not Daniels. They're not Daniels. Why is Daniel able

to do this? Well, I've looked at the text and

I'm just going to summarize it for you. Write these

three days. Here are the three reasons. And if you

want to have more courage in your life, if you

want to be a more courageous man of God, you

want to be a more courageous woman of God where

you work, you're going to need to do these same

things that Daniel did. Number One, he remembered that God

was faithful in the past. He remembered that God had

been faithful to him in the past in the tests

of life. Now, remember, he's already been through seven eight

major tests already, and in every one of those tests,

he won't back down. He stands for the truth. In fact,

every single one of the tests we've looked at before

really could come down to this question, will you stand

strong publicly for God? And every time Daniel goes yep, yep, yep, yep,

and yep, and he's done. He has a habit. So

he remembers God took care of me. When they said

you have to eat our kind of food. I didn't

do that, and God said, God took care of us.

When they said you got a bow down to the

statue of Nebukanezrat, I didn't do that. And God took

care of me when I had to deliver bad news

and say you're going to lose your kingdom, and I

could have lost my head for delivering bad news. And

all of these different tests, every single one of them,

he remembers that God had been faithful in the past.

When you start to get scared, like what will people

do to me at work if I stand up for

my faith or my values, or my morals or my ethics,

if I do what's right, I speak the truth, And

you start to get afraid, Remember how God has taken

care of you in the past. Second thing, second reason

he was unafraid. This is a second secret of courage.

He had a conversation with God three times a day.

He had a conversation with God three times a day.

That verse said he knelt down to pray as usual.

He prayed three times a day, just as he had

always done his entire life. Question, do you think if

you prayed three times, that you had a conversation with

God three times a day every day of your life

for eighty two years, you might be stronger in your faith?

Any possibility that that might have an impact on your confidence,

that you might be less and secure, that you might

be more immune to the disapproval of other people, that

you don't fear rejection. If you don't get anything else,

get what I'm about say, because this is the message

in a sentence. The secret of standing strong is kneeling often.

The secret of standing strong is kneeling often. The more

you kneel in prayer, the more stronger you're going to

stand when the heat's on in your life. The secret

of standing strong is kneeling often. He had a conversation

with God three times a day every day for eighty

two years. He knows God, he's not worried about what

other people think or might even try to do, and

God has been faithful to him in the past. Then

there's a third thing that kept him to be from

being shaken by this. He wasn't shaken by it at all.

He just goes home and does what he's done for

the last eighty two years. He doesn't even, you know,

WinCE about this new law. And the third reason he

was unshaken is he knew the rewards were greater than

any risk. Is it risky to break a law? Yes, well,

there might be punishment, yes. Could he even lose his life? Yes,

But as Peter and the Apostles said to the Sanhedrin,

we must obey God rather than men. Now, friends, this

is an important text because as America continues to change,

there's gonna be some laws that you just can't abide by,

and you're gonna have to decide, Okay, I'm not gonna

be like Peter and Apostles. We must obey God rather

than men. What is Daniel doing here. He's doing passive

civil disobedience, that's what he's doing. He said, I can't

obey that law. My number one allegiances to God. I

can't put anything before God. Thou shalt have no other

gods before me. This is passive civil disobedience. He said,

I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna throw open my windows,

and I'm gonna pray in public. Who opened the windows?

Daniel did. He's not hiding, He's not going Ooh, I

might get in trouble. Ooh, I might get put in jail.

Ooh I might something might bad might have I could

lose my job, somebody might look at me crossways. He

knew that the rewards of doing the right thing were

greater than the risks, and that doing the wrong thing

would be devastating. He was not shaken. Now, I want

us to look at the benefits of standing for God.

Let me just say this, any time if you struggle

with fear, listen to what I'm about sight. Anytime you

want to defeat a controlling fear in your life, any

kind of fear. Anytime you want to defeat a controlling fear,

and you're like, maybe the fear of disapproval, or the

fear of witnessing or whatever. What you need to do

is minimize the negative possibilities and maximize the benefits of

doing the right thing. You need to get your eyes

off of Well, this could happen, This could happen, This

could happen. I could lose my job, I could lose

my salary, could lose my reputation, I could lose Stop minimize,

minimize the negative possibilities. This is an act of faith,

and maximize all the benefits. I got a letter a

few weeks ago from a person who said, you know, Rick,

I feel guilty and yet worried about the fact that

I know I'm supposed to be a witness at work,

but I have never ever told anybody at work that

I'm a believer, that I'm a Christian, that I love Jesus,

never told anybody, and I've never invited anybody at work

to church. Never. And this person said, I have mixed

emotions in this. I feel, you know, fearful that what

would happen if I did that. I might lose my job,

I might get demoted, not get promoted, and on and

on and on. But I also then come home and

feel bad about me because they said in the letter

it said, shall I dare say it? I feel like

a coward, and said there I said it, I feel

like a coward and said, can you help me on this? Well,

that's what this text is all about. How do you

stand strong publicly for God? And one of the ways

you do it is you start focusing on what are

the benefits? Okay, So if I don't want to be

shaken when people start coming against me for my faith,

as happened with Daniel, it's going to happen to you.

I doubt you're gonna be thrown into the lions then,

but you can be ostracized, and you can be gossiped about,

and there are a lot of things going to happen

to you. And we know people who are losing their

businesses because a standing firm on a Christian value that

they hold to. How in the world do I stay strong?

How do I not be shaken when society is changing

around me? You remember the benefits of doing the right thing?

You remember the benefits of standing for God. I'm going

to go through these real quick, so right quickly. Number One,

standing for God is a victory over fear. Every time

you stand for God at work, in the community, with

your neighbor, with a friend, you have a victory over fear.

I don't have time to get into this in detail,

But let me give you three or four things right quick.

About fear number one, I wrote them down there. Fear

is just a feeling and it cannot last. Write that down.

Fear is just a feeling, and it cannot last. You know,

whenever you have a feeling, particularly negative ones, you think

you're going to feel that way for the rest of

your life. When you're depressed, you feel, I'm going to

be depressed the rest of my life. No you're not.

When you're afraid, I'm going to be afraid the rest

of my life. No, you're not. When you're grieving, I'm

going to be in grief the rest of my life. No,

you won't. Emotions, by their very nature cannot and do

not last, whether they're good ones. Happiness is happiness last.

No does fear last. No, you have to invite it

back in the front door over and over and over

to keep it going. No, emotion lasts. Every single emotion,

the good ones and the bad ones, are temporary. So

when you're going through that situation, you do not trust

in your emotion because that's not going to be the

way you feel tomorrow or in two days. Fear is

just a feeling. It cannot last. Second thing you need

to know is this fear is uncomfortable, but it won't

kill me. When you are afraid, when you are panic,

you feel like you're going to die. Your heart is

palpitating and your sweating, and your heads get dizzy, and

you think I Am going to die. You have been

in those fearful situations, but you didn't. Fear is f

e a r false evidence appearing real. That's fear, false

evidence appearing real. It's not real. The fear is not

not real. Only Jesus is real. Doesn't matter how you feel.

Only Jesus is real. So fear is just feeling. It

can't last. Fear is uncomfortable. Yeah, it's uncomfortable, but it

won't kill you. And here's a third one. Fear grows

when I give into it, but it lessens when I

move against it. This is an important stuff that I'm

teaching you guys this weekend. Fear grows when I give

into it. Every time you give into fear and you

don't do the thing you fear, the fear gets bigger

and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and it

dominates and keeps pushing you further and back into a closet,

into a corner, into a trap. Now you can't argue

your way out of fear. There's only one way to

eliminate fear, and you're not You move against it. Fear

does not respond to reason because it's unreasonable. Fear responds

to action. You got to step into the Jordan River

and then it parts. Don't stand there, I'm waiting for

it to part. Then I'll step into the Jordan River.

I'm waiting. I'm waiting to wait in God. And you're

all afraid. You do the thing you fear the most.

I've told you this before every single major decision at

Saddleback Church in thirty six years. I was scared to

death to do. But I just did it anyway. Why

Because I happened to believe we should base our lives

on our commitments, not on our fears. And I'm not

gonna let fear dominate me. That's called courage, friends. Courage

is not the absence of fear. If you're not afraid

to do something, you don't need any courage. You're only

courageous when you do the thing you're scared to death

to do. While you're doing it. That's courage Are you

a courageous woman? When was the last time you moved

against the fear? You did the thing you feared the most?

Are you a courageous man? When was the last time

you did the thing you feared the most. I know

I need to reconcile with that person. I know I

need to go ask forgiveness. I know I need to

offer forgiveness. I know I need to tell that person

about Christ. Fear grows when I give into it, it lessens,

it dilutes it. You know, It's like when you open

the door and you realize the Boogeyman is a teddy bear.

Fear is always worse than the real thing because the

first place, the real thing doesn't last that long. Fear

you can just keep it going, keep it going, keep

it going by inviting it back into your life. So

every time you take a stand for God, you have

a victory over fear. That makes you more confident, That

makes you more courageous, that makes you more a person

of character like Daniel was. What I encourage you to

do is pray. Like the first Christians prayed. They were

in a lot worse situation. We were in those days

in Romans against Roman empires, against a lot. To be

a Christian, you announce your christians likelihood. You're going to

be fed alliance in the coliseum, or you're going to

be strung up and hung on across on the Appian Way,

which they killed millions, not millions, thousands and thousands of Christians.

So you're taking your life in your hand. And here's

what the first Christians pray it acts for twenty nine. Lord,

you know the threats people make, so help us as

your servants to speak your word without fear. You might

want to remember that verse. You might want to write

it on a card and put it on your desk

at work. Lord, you know the threats people make at work.

You know the threats they make. So help us as

your servants, to speak your word without fear. Standing for

God is always a victory over fear. Number two. Standing

for God builds my faith and character. Faith and character

are like a muscle, and the only way you develop

a muscle is put it under stress. That's what weight

training is all about. That your muscle does not grow

by eating bond bonds while you're watching. You know who

paid less for the dress or whatever, oh you, that's

one of my favorite shows. I'm sorry. The only way

you're gonna build muscle is put pressure on those muscles.

Stretch them, stress them, put a little tension on them.

That's how you get stronger. And every time you stand

for God at work, it builds your character. You become

more of a godly man, you become more of a

godly woman, and it builds your faith. Two Timothy one,

verse eight. You must never be ashamed to tell others

about our Lord? Are you ashamed to tell others about

our Lord? With the strength that God gives you, that's

called character. Be ready to suffer if necessary, to share

the good news. Standing for God is a victory of

and standing for God builds my faith and character. Every

time you do the tough thing, you grow in character,

You grow in confidence, you grow in strength, you grow

in wisdom, you grow more like Christ. You build your faith.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

Jesus told his disciples that they should live their lives

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