Rick Warren - Standing Courageously for the Truth

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

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

today we begin teaching a 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 on your life. If you'd love to help

the kids you know learn God's word, 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 part one of a

message called standing Courageously for the Truth.

And this morning, I want us to look at the

courage to stand for what you believe. A lot of

Christians have a hard time speaking up for Jesus in public.

That's not a new problem two thousand years ago. The

Bible says this in the Book of John, chapter seven,

no one had the courage to speak favorably about Jesus

in public. I wonder if that's true of you. Do

you have the courage to speak publicly about Jesus favorably

or are you an Arctic river Christian frozen at the mouth.

Even Saint Paul sometimes needed encouragement to be courageous in

what he believed Acts Chapter eighteen. The Bible says this,

one night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision.

Be afraid, keep on speaking, and do not be silent.

If ever there was a message that you need in

today's culture, God would say this to you about your faith.

Don't be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent.

Everybody else is speaking up about what they believe. Everybody

else is telling you their worldview. Why should Christians cower

and cowardice? Why is it important to courageously stand up

for what you believe? Why is it important courageously speak

the truth? Well, look on your outline. Jesus said this

in Matthew ten. If you stand up for me against

world opinion, I'll stand up for you before my father

in heaven. Well, that settles it right there. Jesus, you

stand up for me on earth, all stand up for

you in heaven. I want that to happen for you,

and I want that to happen for me. He said,

what if I don't do that? Well, the next verse,

Jesus says this, it's here on the screen. But if

anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that

person before my father in heaven. Do you realize how

important it is that you not be a coward about

your faith? Jesus said, if you deny me here on earth,

I will deny you in before my father in heaven.

God says, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed

of you. Now. To stand courageously for what you believe,

for your convictions, for the truth when it may not

be quote politically correct, you have to know first what

the world believes, and then you know what God says

is the truth. What we're talking about here is called

a worldview. Your worldview is the belief that you base

your life on. Everybody has a worldview. Everybody has a worldview.

It is the beliefs that you hold to make your decisions.

It is the lens by which you view life. You know,

there's a thing on the internet now called Instagram where

you can share pictures with other people. And the cool

thing about Instagram is it gives you about thirty different filters.

So you can take a lousy photo that you took

and using a filter make it look professional. Now, what's interesting.

It's the same picture, but when you look at it

through a different filter, it looks differently. This is why

we have arguments. This is why there's conflict in the

world because everybody uses a different filter. Everybody has a

different viewpoint. Everybody has a different worldview. And you could

take five people with five different worldviews and see them

see the same event, and they're all going to see

something differently because they're looking at it from from their worldview.

Your worldview includes how you see God. Your worldview includes

how you see yourself, how you see others, how you

view your past, your present, your future. Your worldview includes

how you see sex, money, time. Your worldview includes how

you see good and evil, problems and pressures. It influences

everything in your life. And as I said, everybody has

a worldview, and every time you make a decision, you

access the worldview database in your mind, and you decide,

because I believe this, I'm going to do this. If you,

for instance, in your worldview, believe the world was going

to end next week, you would act very, very differently

than you are right now. Now, it's how you decide

what you decide. Your worldview influences every choice you make.

All your choices are based on it. Now here's the problem.

You are profoundly influenced by the worldviews of others. Most

of your worldview you don't even you didn't even pick

up consciously. In fact, most of your worldview you've never

even thought about. It's unconscious, it's unspoken. You don't even

think about how I you've never sat down and written

out your philosophy of life. I guarantee you none of

you have ever done that, written out your philosophy of life.

But it's your worldview, and a lot of your worldview

you picked up not from the word. You picked it

up from the world. And you were influenced by your

parents' worldview, and your peers worldview, and your friend's worldview.

Everything in life is supporting a worldview, and a lot

of times you pick it up with not even realizing it.

Every time you read a newspaper article, there's a worldview

in that article. Nothing is fair and balanced. Everything in

life is biased because everybody has a perspective. Everybody has

a filter. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the way

we're wired. You just need to understand, well, that's the

filter they're coming from. It's why people argue because we

see things differently from our worldviews. And so every time

you listen to a song, it has a worldview. Every

time you watch a movie, it has a worldview. Every

time you read a newspaper or a magazine article, it

has a worldview. Every time you have a conversation, a

worldview is being communicated there, and you pick up a

lot of worldview from the world that isn't the truth.

You need to pick it up from the word, which

is the truth. But as I said, most of the time,

you haven't even thought about it. Recently, there was a

national survey done and in this survey they discovered that

sixty two of Americans claim that they are quote deeply spiritual. Okay,

sixty two percent of Americans claim they are deeply spiritual.

And then they ask these people how that deep spirituality

affected their decision making, and here's what happened. Thirty one

percent of Americans say I make my moral choices based

on what feels right and comfortable. That's not too spiritual,

But I make my moral choices based on what feels

right and comfortable. Eighteen percent of Americans say I make

moral choices based on whatever is best for me. Okay,

that's another way. Fourteen percent of Americans say I make

moral choices based on whatever causes the least conflict with others.

These are the people pleasers. I go along to get along.

Only sixteen percent said I make my moral choices based

on what the Bible says, what God's Word says. What

does that mean? It means most Christians a non Christian worldview.

You may be a Christian, you may be on your

way to heaven, and you don't have a Christian worldview.

In fact, you could be a Christian and headed for

heaven and actually have an anti christ or an anti

Christian worldview because you got it from the world, not

from the Word. Now, I want you to listen, really

careful to me, as your pastor who loves you. You

may be headed for heaven, but if you don't base

your decisions on the Bible, on the word of God,

You're going to have devastating results in your life. First

life isn't going to make sense, and you're gonna go

My life isn't working out. It isn't working the way

I had intended it to. Why do I have all

this stress? Why do I have all these problems? Why

does everything's so messed up in my life? Because you're

operating on the wrong operating system, it's going to mess

up your life here on earth. You will have unnecessary

problem if you accept the world's worldview. But not only that,

you will miss rewards God has planned for you in heaven.

Oh you get into heaven, but because you missed it,

because you were operating not on what the Word says,

but what the world says, You're gonna miss so many

of the rewards that God had planned for you to

enjoy for eternity. So as we start this series on

uncommon courage, we need to look at standing courageously for

the truth and to live with courage. You've got to

learn how to clarify your worldview.

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

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

You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional

at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.

The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.

Do you have kids, grandkids, kids, 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 makes a great gift.

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

your life. And today. When you give a gift to

help Pastor Rick's Daily Hope take the certain hope of

Jesus Christ around the world, We'll send you a copy

of God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible to say thanks.

To get your copy of this great resource, just call

eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four or go

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

six hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.

Thanks in advance for your support. Your gift to Daily

Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people

around the world.

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

Pastor Rick Warren.

You are continually bombarded by the worldview of other people.

As I said, you get it in classroom, you get

it at business, you get it in articles, movies, songs.

It's all around you, but you may have never identified

actually what those worldviews are. So before we look at

a Christian worldview what God says is the truth, I

want us to look at the four most popular anti

Christian worldviews. They're all around you, and maybe you've never

identified them, but I want you to write these down.

These aren't all there. I could give you one hundred

different isms, but let me give you the foremost popular

isms in America. The first worldview is materialism. Materialism is

the worldview that what matters most is money. That is

the materialism worldview. What matters most is money, that life

is all about the acquisition of things. And the way

you judge or measure your success is by how much

wealth you've got. And if you've got a lot of wealth,

you're very successful, and if you have little wealth, you're

not successful. These people who are materialists have bumper stickers

that say he who dies with the most toys wins.

But this is really a stupid philosophy of life. Because

you didn't bring anything into the world, you're not going

to take anything out of the world, and you're going

to leave it all here. So you think that the

purpose of your life is just to pile up a

pile and then leave it. No, you were made for

more than things. Now, Jesus has a very opposite opinion,

and he presents a very different worldview. In Luke Chapter twelve,

Jesus says this, a man's life does not consist in

the abundance of his possessions. In other words, your possessions

don't determine how valuable you are. Your valuables don't determine

your value. Your net worth doesn't determine your self worth.

The greatest things in life aren't things, but a lot

of people don't understand it. And the whole business of

life for many people is simply make money. That's the

number one goal of life. If your number one goal

in life is to make money, you are a materialist. Well,

I'm not a materialist because I'm not greedy. In materialism,

economics trumps everything else trumps It determines how I vote,

It determines how I act, It determines how I think.

Economics determines everything else in my life. If I'm a materialist,

because money matters most. Now, the second most popular anti

Christian worldview is not materialism. It's hedonism. Hedonism and hedonism

is the philosophy that whatever feels good is good. In materialism,

money is God. In hedonism, pleasure is God. The whole

goal of life is to be happy. The whole goal

of life is to have fun. The whole goal of

life is to be comfortable. The whole goal of life

is to party, to have thrills. And what matters most

to the hedonist is how I feel. If it feels good,

then it is good. It's got to be good because

it feels good, and the number one goal of life

is comfort. Now, hedonism can be anything. It could be

involved food, it could involve sex, it could involve sports,

it could involve a hobby, alcohol, it could involve drugs.

Things could be good or bad. It doesn't Many of

these things are good, but they're not the goal of life.

If you say my number one goal of life is

to be happy, you're a hedonist. God did not put

you on this earth for your number one goal to

be happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of living the purpose

you were created for. It is not the goal of life.

It's the benefit of life for doing the right things.

Holiness creates happiness. Now, a lot of songs today, popular

songs are really hedonism. I mean, when you hear a

song that says it can't be wrong because it feels

so right, that's hedonism. When I was growing up as

a kid, there was a song said, if loving you

is wrong, I don't want to be right hedonist. Okay,

in others, I don't want to do the right thing.

I want to do the thing that feels good, and

if it feels good, do it. That's the motto of

the hedonist. Now, you can be a hedonist and not

even know it. You can be a Christian and be

a hedonist. If your number one goal in life is

to make life comfortable, your hedonist. If your number one

goal in life is happiness, your hedonist. If your number

one goal in life is retirement, uh oh, you're a

hedonist because God did not put you on this earth

to do nothing. Now, there's nothing wrong with retirement, it's

just not the goal of life. You were made for

so much more than pleasure. You were made for so

much more than happiness. You were made for so much

more than thrills are fun or anything else. And just

because something is fun, and just because something is pleasurable,

doesn't make it right. Now, the Bible says this. In

Proverbs twenty one, Solomon wrote this, he was the wisest

man who ever lived. He's also the wealthiest man who

ever lived. And he concluded, are you addicted to thrills? What?

An empty life? Suit of pleasure is never satisfied?

Why?

Because for the hedonists, like for the materialists, there's never enough.

You ask a person how much money you need to

be happy? Just a little bit more? How many pleasures?

How many thrills do you have to be happy? Just

a little bit more? Whys pleasure doesn't last? No thrill lasts,

no happiness, no emotion lasts, whether it's good or bad.

It doesn't last.

Now.

In Hebrews chapter twenty five, it's up here on the screen.

The Bible says Moses chose to suffer with God's people

rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a

short time. Circle the phrase pleasures of sin and circle

short time A think. I love about the Bible as

it always tells the truth. It's honest. And the Bible

says sin is fun. Notice it says pleasure of sin,

sin is pleasurable. If sin wasn't fun, nobody do it. Okay,

Even the Bible admits it. Sin is fun. Is it

fun to eat things that are bad for you?

Yes?

Absolutely? Okay. Is it fun to stay up really late

even though you got to get up early next morning

you're going to be dead. Yes. There's a lot of

things in life that aren't good for you, and they

are a whole lot of fun, or they are a

whole lot pleasurable. The Bible says there is pleasure in sin,

but it says notice, it doesn't last. It's for a

short time, and with every kick there's a kickback. There's

always a payoff, and the cost of sin is far

greater than the pleasure of sin. Sin is fun, there's

no doubt about it. But the cost of it could

be your own soul. And the cost of it could

be a broken body, of broken mind, a broken heart,

a broken relationship. There's always a cost to sin. Galatians

six 't eight on the screen says this. Those who

live only to satisfy their own sin desires, that's hedonism,

will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those

who live to please the spirit will harvest everlasting life

from the spirit. Exodus twenty three, verse two. There on

your outline, do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

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

Pastorick 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 a 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 to Daily 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've 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

sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial

support