Rick Warren - Standing Courageously for the Truth Part Four

Hello, and thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.

Today we continue a teaching series called Uncommon Courage. In

these lessons, Rick is going to share biblical inspiration that

will help you get the courage you need to follow

God's calling for your life. If you'd love to help

the kids you know learn God's work, then stay with

us because in just a few minutes we're going to

tell you about God's big plans for me and easy

to understand storybook Bible by Pastor Rick Warren. You can

take a sneak peek right now by going to Pastorick

dot com while you listen to today's message, or if

you want, you can just text the word daily to

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's the

word daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick with the final part of

a message called standing Courageously for the Truth.

If I claim to be a Christian, then I must

believe that every single life is sacred. It doesn't matter

if they have mental retardation, it doesn't matter if they're

severely deformed. Every life is precious. God gave them them

their life. He'll know when he wants to take them home.

God is God, and I'm not. That's not a popular opinion,

but it's the truth.

And if you're going.

To courageously stand for the truth, you have to believe

in the sanctity of life. Don't call yourself a Christian

because that's what Jesus taught, that's what you Every life

is valuable from the moment that God planned you, which

was before you even popped out of your mom Now

the next one's even more controversial, and it is the

sanctity of sex is part of the Christian worldview. The

sanctity of sex is this sex, It's real simple, is

only for marriage. I don't like that one.

I don't like that. Well, I may not like it.

It's not my opinion. It's in the owner's manual. Now,

let's just remember who thought up sex. It was God's idea.

What a god, I mean, what a god. God could

have made sex. God could have made reproduction with no

pleasure attached to it. God created those nerve endings. It

was God's idea, and he created it to bond a

husband and wife.

Together.

When a man and woman have sex together, it releases

oxytocin in both of them. That oxytocin is the bonding

chemical that binds a husband and wife together. It brings

emotional commitment. When a woman nurses a baby, it releases

oxytocin in both the mom and in the baby. It

is a bonding agent. That's why there's no such thing

as casual sex, because when you ask casual sex, it

releases oxytoasted in you, which is a bonding element. Whether

you like it or not, there's a bonding thing. That's

why people get hurt, why people get broken hearts, when

people are cheated on. It bothers them. Why because it's

not just physical. That's nonsense. It's not just physical. It's

emotional and it's spiritual. You see, sex isn't bad, Sex

isn't dirty, Sex isn't wrong.

Sex is holy.

And the sanctity of sex is that God designed it

for the creation of all of us and to bring

husbands and wives together and to be a model of

the union between.

Christ and the Church.

And I don't have time to go into all the

spiritual implications of sex, but let me tell you they're

about that long it's not just physical.

Now.

The Bible says this in Hebrews thirteen, verse four. Marriage

should be honored by all, whether you ever get married

or not, you need to speak well of marriage. Marriage

should be honored by all, Even single people should honor it,

and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge

the adulter and all the sexually immoral. Now this isn't popular,

but let me just be clear about it. God's instructions

have never changed. Pre marital sex. It's unacceptable to God.

It always has been, it always will be living together

without getting married, and the commitment of marriage and the

blessing of God is unacceptable to God. Always has been,

it always will be. Adultery is unacceptable to God. It

always has been, it always will be. Pornography and the

objectification of a woman's body this unacceptable to God. It

always has been, it always will be. I want you

to listen to this. Attraction is not a sin. Action

is a sin. You can't control all your attractions, but

you can control all your actions. I noticed that when

I married Kay thirty seven years ago, I still found

other women attractive. Big shock. But I've never acted on him.

And Kay Warren is the only woman I've ever known.

Attraction is not a sin. Action is a sin. Have

I been attracted other women? Of course I'm a man.

I mean a real man. I mean a manly man. Okay,

uh huncle vernon love man, Okay, I mean just Have

I been attracted to other women besides my wife? Of

course I have, but I don't act on it. Have

I ever gotten mad and had an impulse to slug

some in the face, Yes, but I don't act on it.

Not everything that I feel like doing, I do. You know,

I noticed when we started this Daniel plan that when

I started trying to get healthy, I was still attracted

to the bad stuff that wasn't good for me. Well,

I was expecting all those attractions to go.

They didn't.

Let me tell you, you know, whatever attractions you got about anything,

you're going to have in the rest.

Of your life.

Now, if you're guilty of any of these sins, saddle

back to your church, because we're all forgiven sinners. Okay,

we are all forgiven sinners, all right, So welcome to

the club. Welcome to the club. You can find forgiveness here.

There is the sanctity of life. There's the sanctity of sex.

And there a third one. This one's most controversy of all,

right now, it is the sanctity of marriage. And the

Bible is very clear about marriage. One man and one

woman for life. That is God's intended original design. He

even made the body parts to fit together, and they

have a purpose in fitting together. One man and one

moment for life. That's God's intended design. He said, for Rick,

what about all the polygamy in the Bible. I mean

there were guys in the Bible had multiple wives. Listen

very closely to me. I talked about this in forty

days in the word Bible interpretation. Not everything the Bible

reports the Bible approves. Not everything reported in the Bible

is affirmed in the Bible by God. If you take

this book and you say, Holy Bible, it's amazing.

It's called holy.

It's harder to find a book that's got more violence,

more incest, rape, molestation, murder, jealousy, greed, violence. Why do

we call it the Holy Bible? Because this one tells

the truth. If this were a human book, it wouldn't

tell all the worts and flaws of the heroes. It

just give biographies about all their good things, they did

their great exploits. But the Bible, when it talks about

Abraham and Moses and Davy, it tells us all their weakness. Says, well,

you know what, they blew it just as much as

we do. They make as many mistakes, their families were

as messed up as ours are, and they had as

many problems and addictions as everybody else.

It tells the truth.

The Bible gives examples that there's example of scripture where

people had slaves, and yet the Bible is clearly against slavery,

well all the way back in the very first books

of the Bible. And then Jesus repeated them and says,

I came to abolish, to eliminate slavery, to release your breast.

And so just because you read something in the Bible

of violence or some sexual deviation or something else, doesn't

mean the.

Bible approves it.

It's just reporting the brokenness of humanity. Now here's what

God says about marriage, Matthew nineteen. Jesus said, from the beginning,

in other words, from the very beginning of creation, the Creator.

Made male and female.

This is the reason a man is to leave his

father and mother and be united to his wife, and

the two become one flesh, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and they

are no.

Longer two but one.

And therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will be

back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.

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pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.

Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or kids in

your neighborhood that need to know God loves them and

has a good plan for their lives. You can help

them get closer to God by encouraging them to read

His word. That's why we're so excited to tell you

about a very special resource just for kids called God's

Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook Bible by Pastor

Rick Warren. This two hundred and twenty three page hardcover

children's book includes forty well loved Bible stories to help

kids engage with God's word. Each Bible story has an

introduction from Pastor Rick that helps young readers understand the

Word of God and has a closing thought. With a

practical step, boys and girls can take to discover God's

Big Plans for them. Their eyes will light up as

they turn the beautifully illustrated pages and really start to

get what God wants to say to their young hearts

and minds. God's Big Plans for Me is so much

more than just a book filled with cute pictures of

Bible characters. It's a fun and effective way to introduce

children to God's everlasting truth. This book makes a great gift.

You'll want to get a copy for every child in

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You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's

Pastor Rick Warren.

Jesus said, from the beginning, in other words, from the

very beginning of creation, the Creator made male and female.

This is the reason a man is to leave his

father and mother and be united to his wife, and

the two become one flesh physically, spiritually, emotionally, and they

are no longer two but one. And therefore what God

has joined together, let no one separate. You know, there

are many issues in life where people of goodwill can disagree.

There's no healthcare plan in the Bible, so people of

Christians can disagree on that. There's no defense plan in

the Bible. So Christians can disagree on that, there's no

economic recovery plan in the Bible. So Christians can disagree

on this. But on the sanctity of life, and the

sanctity of marriage and the sanctity of sex, these are

non negotiable. If you call yourself a Christian, you need

to line up with what God says is the original

intent of all three of these things. And you not

only need that, you need to have the courage to

stand for it. These are clear and they're non negotiable.

You say, who says, God says, not me. God says. Now,

let's close, and let me give you some up. How

to live with courage? How do I live with uncommon courage?

There are two things you need to do to live

with uncommon courage.

All right.

Number one, I need to accept God's word as my authority.

I need to accept God's word as my authority. Why

because it's the only source that will never lie to you.

It will always tell you the truth, even when I

don't like it. It tells me the truth. The truth

will set you free. It makes you miserable, but it

eventually makes such free. I mean, I don't I mean,

as somebodys I rick, you're stuck up. I don't want

to hear that. But if I need to be humble,

I need to hear somebody say you're stuck up first. Okay,

So first the truth makes you miserable, then it sets

you free. Okay, some of you are miserable right.

Now, just admit it. Okay, all right, here's the point.

If you're gonna have courage in life, you're gonna be

a person of courage, a woman of courage. You're gonna

be a man of courage. You need to build your

life on a rock that never changes. If you build

your life on the opinions of others, on popular opinion,

you're gonna frequently have the ground pulled from underneath you.

That gives you no stability and no courage. But if

you build your life on God said it, I believe it.

That settles it. Then you're going to build your life

on the word of God. God said it, I believe it,

whether I understand it or not. Hebrews six, verse eighteen.

God has given us both his promise and his oath,

and God says, I'm keeping my oath. And these two

things are unchangeable. See truth never changes. These two things

are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.

God will never lie to you. That's why you need

to hear what he says about marriage and sex and

these other things. Therefore, we who have fled to Him

for refuge can take new courage. Circle the word courage,

for we can hold onto his promise with confidence. Where

do I get courage by building my life on truth

that doesn't change again. You will build your life either

on the world or the word. You're going to build

your life on what the world says, what's popular, what's

politically correct, or you're going to build your life on

the word. Now a lot of things. When you say

stuff it's unpopular, you say reck. Why do you say

stuff that's unpopular? Because I fear God's disapproval.

More than yours.

I only got to live with you for sixty eighty years,

but I'm going to be an eternity for heaven, and

I don't want to be ashamed and embarrassed that I

whimped out and I denied Christ. I have been in

the hot seat more than any of you, I'm sure

on a public level, because as I'm on these interview

things like Larry King and The Today Show and Good

Morning America and Oprah Winfrey, and they'll ask me questions

about these controversial issues.

I want to be like you.

I wanted people to like me, and every bone in

my body wants to compromise and not say the truth.

But I fear God's disapproval more than I do public disapproval.

So I'm gonna tell the truth. Second thing, you're gonna

like this one. How do I develop more courage? Spend

personal time with Jesus. The more time you spend with Jesus,

the less you're gonna be intimidated by the opinions of others.

And the more time you spend with Jesus, the less

other people's disagreements are gonna matter to you. Acts four thirteen.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John, these

were uncommonly courageous men. This is the city council that said,

we're gonna kill you, We're gonna threaten you, We're gonna

put you in jail if you keep talking about Jesus.

When they saw the courage of Peter and John, and

they could see that they were unschooled, ordinary men. That

none of the disciples had advanced degrees. They didn't have PhDs,

they didn't have college high school, they didn't have grade

school degrees.

These were just common fishermen.

They said, how can these people who are uneducated but

they have such enormous courage, It says they were astonished,

and they took note that these men had been with Jesus,

circle that ben with Jesus. The more time you spend

with Jesus, the more courage you're gonna have. And when

you spend time with Jesus, you pray and you talk

to him. And in Acts four thirty one, after they

had prayed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and

they spoke God's word without fear. I love it, they amplified, says,

they spoke God's word with freedom and boldness and courage. Now,

what I've talked to you about this weekend isn't easy.

Standing courageously in an unpopular opinion is not easy to do.

But the rewards of it are enormous.

The rewards of standing courageously for the truth will last

forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and

ever and ever, and not millions, but trillions of years.

The last verse on your outline says this, do not

lose your courage, because it brings a great reward. That

reward is far greater than any disapproval you might have

to put up with. Let's bow our heads, Father. I

look out on our church family, and I see people

that I love, and I want them to be uncommonly courageous.

I want them to be people of the Word, not

people of the world who've built their lives on truth,

not on popular opinion. Now you pray God. I want

to be a person of courage. I want to be

a man of courage. I want to be a woman

of courage. I don't want to back down, wimp out.

I don't want to deny you. I don't want other

people to control what I say or think. And I

want to build my life on a biblical God's worldview truth.

So I make these two commitments today. First, Jesus Christ,

I accept your word as my authority. If you say it,

I believe it. That settles it, whether I understand it

or not. And you will be my number one authority,

your word. And Second, Lord, I want to spend time

with you every day. I want to get to know

you Jesus on a personal basis. I want to be

able to walk into a store or into a business

and be so full of joy and so full of

confidence that people go that guy's been with Jesus. I

want people to notice it in my countenance, in my face,

in my life. Not that I'm super educated, not that

I'm I'm super wealthy, not that I'm super beautiful. I

want them to notice God, I've been with Jesus that

I have been with you. I ask you to help

me to be fearless for the truth. In your name,

I pray Amen.

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that

you've chosen to study along with us today. Now, if

you'd like to receive ricks free daily devotional, go to

Pastorrick dot com and sign up right now. Rick will

be back to close out our time today. But first,

the Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.

Do you have.

Kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or kids in your neighborhood that

need to know God loves them and has a good

plan for their lives. You can help them get closer

to God by encouraging them to read God's Word. That's

why we're so excited to tell you about a very

special resource just for kids called God's Big Plans for Me.

It's a storybook Bible by Pastor Rick Warren. Here's Pastor

Rick to tell you more.

In Matthew nineteen fourteen, Jesus said, let the little children

come to me, and do not hinder them, For the

Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. How do

we bring children to Jesus?

Well?

The best way is to read the Bible with them.

You know, when my kids were growing up, I could

always see their excitement about Jesus grow every time we

read stories from the Bible together. Now I see that

same excitement when I read the Bible with my grandchildren.

I love teaching them at such an early age that

God created them for a purpose, that they are not

an accident, that they matter to God, and that He

has a special plan for their lives. So I'm excited

to tell you that I've teamed up with a very

gifted children's illustrator to prepare an new Bible for children.

It's called God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible. Your

kids will learn from God's word in ways that are

easy to understand, and long after they learn to read

on their own, this Storybook Bible is going to keep

on encouraging them to trust in God's promises. The God's

Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible contains forty well loved

Bible stories that will help your kids learn how to

apply God's Word to their lives. Each story is beautifully illustrated,

it's incredible, and includes an introduction from Me that encourages

them to discover God's great purpose for them. It's fun,

it's effective, it's entertaining, it's challenging, it's captivating. It's a

great way to introduce children to God's eternal truths. Now,

I'll send you this Bible for Children, God's Big Plans

for Me Storybook Bible, just as a way of saying thanks.

When you give a gift today, hope today we depend

on your gifts. I want you to have this as

my thank you gift to you. I hope you'll get

a copy for all the children in your life, your kids,

your grandchildren, nieces, nephews, even children you know in your neighborhood.

They'll all love this. We've had nothing but one hundred

percent great feedback from people who have seen the God's

Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible.

To get your copy of this great resource, just call

eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or go

to Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred,

six hundred five thousand and four or pastorick dot com.

There's only three days left to get God's Big Plans

for Me Storybook Bible, so don't wait. Be sure to

join us next time as we look into God's Word

for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor

Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.