Rick Warren - Standing Courageously for the Truth Part Three

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. Now, here's Pastor Rick with part three of

a message called standing Courageously for the Truth.

Most of you know that I did President Obama's inauguration prayer.

What most people don't know is four years earlier, I

did the inaugural prayer at the start of Bush's inauguration

just wasn't controversial, so nobody even noticed. Besides Billy Graham.

I'm the only guy who's prayed for both the Republican

and a Democrat president. But both times I was told,

don't use the word Jesus, don't say in Jesus name.

So what do you think I did? I mean, really,

in fact that the last inauguration I used, I quoted

in four different languages, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and English. I

just want to make people sure I believe in Jesus,

that's my God. Now what's the result of these four

world views? Materialism money is God and hedonism, pleasure happiness

as God and individualism I'm God and socialism the government's God.

It should be in control. I summarize the damage like this.

We have the crumbling of our culture, crisis in our schools,

controversies in our courts, corruption in our businesses, chaos in

our government, carnality in our churches, confusion in our families,

and conflicts in our personal lives. Anytime we don't go

by the owner's manual, we're the ones who get hurt.

You see, we don't really break God's laws. They break us.

I mean One of the laws that God established in

the universe is called the law of gravity. I could

be up on the entire state building and say I

don't believe in the law gravity. It doesn't matter whether

I believe it or not. It's still in effect. I'd say,

I don't believe in law of gravity. Fine, you don't

believe in it, It's still in effect. And I could

jump out of the top story of the Empire State

Building and as I'm coming down about fifty floors out,

somebody sticks their head out the window and says, how's

it going, Rick, And I'd say, well, so far, so good. Okay.

And that's where most people are today. They are ignoring

the laws of God. And he says, how's it going,

So far, so good. You can run from God the

rest of your life, but then you can't run anymore.

One day there will be a day of accountability. And

when I hit bottom, when I hit the pavement law gravity,

I'm not going to break the law gravity. It's going

to break me. I always hurt myself when I ignore

what God says to do. Now, what is the biblical

world view? The answer is everything in this book. That's

why God gave us the Bible. This is the correct

God's biblical world view, and there's a lot to study

in it. But today, because we're talking about courage, I

just want to mention to you the three most controversial

parts of a Christian worldview, because these are the ones

you need the courage and to speak up about. You See,

there are a lot of things in the Bible nobody

has a problem with. There's a there's a lot of

things in the Bible where nobody is upset or it's

controversial or politically in confect because and you don't need

the courage to do those things. For instance, the Bible

says you must help the poor. Nobody disagrees with that.

The Bible says you must care for the sick. Nobody

disagrees with that. The Bible says you must tell the

truth and be fair in all your business dealings. Nobody

disagrees with that. The Bible says you must respect everyone,

no matter what they believe or do. Nobody disagrees with that.

You must love everybody, You must take care of the environment.

Who disagrees with that? We're going to keep our world going.

We might disagree and how but these are things there's

no controversy. But there are three aspects of the Christian

worldview that are hated by this world, and most Christians

clam up because they're afraid to even stand up in

the areas that are controversial. They are the areas of sanctity.

Sanctity means something is holy. Now, what a lot of

people do is they want to pick and choose the

parts of the Bible. They want to believe. I like

this part, and I'm gonna believe I don't like that part,

so I'm not gonna believe that that's a non Christian worldview.

That's syncretism. I'm gonna pick this part, but I'm not

gonna pick this war. I'm gonna pick this over here,

in this over here, and put these together make my

own little religion. That's called syncretism. Now, when you try

to do that, pick God's truth, it's very presumptuous because

you're saying I know more than God. I don't want

to do this part of the Bible, and I don't

want to do this part of the Bible, and I

don't want to do this part. But I'm going to

believe that Jesus can save me and die for my sins.

Oh really, why do you believe that part and not

the other things? He said, I mean, why don't you

just deny that part too, the part about being saved

by grace instead of earning your way to heaven. Truth

is always true. It's never a lie. It's as if

it was true ten thousand years ago, it'll be true

ten thousand years from today. Because truth doesn't change. Opinions

change all the time, science changes. Nothing is more irrelevant

than a ten year old science textbook. Now, the truth

that science discovered doesn't change, and the truth that's in

God's word does it change. If you're going to be

a courageous person, you've got to build your life on

the stuff that doesn't change. Not popular opinion, not the

current viewpoint, not whatever is cool or hip or whatever.

But you've got to build it on eternal truth. Where

do you need to stand for truth today? Let me

mention three very controversial areas. Number one, where you're going

to need courage today to speak up and stand up

for the truth. Number one is the sanctity of life,

and the sanctity of life is this, God has a

purpose for every unborn baby. God has a purpose for

every unborn child. Now think about this. God planned your

life before you were born. In fact, God planned your

life before your parents is born. In fact, the Bible

tells us this is the Christian worldview that before God,

God created the universe, he thought of you. Now there

are accidental parents, but there are no accidental babies. There

are illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate babies. You

may not have planned that child or God. Your parents

may not have planned you, but God planned you. And

God is bigger than human mistakes. In fact, God is

bigger than human sin. In fact, God already knows every

sin I'm going to ever do it, and he goes,

I'll fit that into the plan too. He doesn't cause sin,

but God is so big he could say, I can

even take your mistakes and make it part of the plan.

And so God takes even the mistakes we make it.

He says, I've got a bigger plan than you have,

So just trust me on this. Psalmone thirty nine says this,

you Lord made all the delicate inner parts in my body.

In other words, God says, this isn't an accident. God

designed the way you would look, and you knit me

together in my mother's womb. God is taking responsibility for

your conception and your development. He says, your workmanship is marvelous.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

in the dark of the womb. Did you know that

God was watching every moment of your development when you

were still inside your mother?

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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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 hardcovered

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 may a great gift.

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

your life. And today, when you give a gift to

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

Pastor Rick Warren.

Psalm one thirty nine says this, You Lord made all

the delicate inner parts in my body. In other words,

God says, this isn't an accident. God designed way you

would look, and you knit me together in my mother's womb.

God is taking responsibility for your conception and your development.

He says, your workmanship is marvelous. You watched me as

I was being formed in utter seclusion, in the dark

of the womb. Did you know that God was watching

every moment of your development when you were still inside

your mother. That's how much God loves you. That's how

much God cares about you. God says, I was watching

every second of your development from the point of conception on.

In fact, I had you in my mind before your

parents conceived you. I conceived you, I thought you up.

You wouldn't exist if God didn't want you alive. And

he says, I watched every moment in your mother's womb.

You saw me before I was born. Every day of

my life was recorded in your book, and every moment

was laid out before a single day had passed. Now

in the Book of Proverbs, the Bible says that we

responsible people are to speak up for those who cannot

speak up for themselves. And the group that cannot speak

up for themselves more than anybody else, are the unborn.

God says you are to speak up for the sanctity

of life. And as a Christian, 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

you 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, and 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

have casual sex, it releases oxytosin 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 is 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 ago. They didn't. Let me tell you, you know,

whatever attractions you got about anything, you're gonna and 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 the 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 as 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 Jesus

repeats them and says, I came to abolish, to eliminate slavery,

to release your preast.

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

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

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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.

Be sure to join us next time as we look

into God's word for our daily hope. This program is

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