Speaker 1: You know, we really live in a world that's full
Speaker 1: of competing beliefs and values and choices, and what you
Speaker 1: believe shapes how you live and ultimately who you become.
Speaker 1: But the good news is God hasn't left us to
Speaker 1: figure it all out alone.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: In fact, today, on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, we're going
Speaker 1: to continue our series Reframing Your Worldview, where Rick Warren
Speaker 1: unpacks powerful truths from God's Word to help you see
Speaker 1: life clearly and live it with confidence and purpose. So
Speaker 1: let's jump right in for part two of a message
Speaker 1: called how do I Know What's True?
Speaker 3: Here's Rick immorality, immaturity, here's another one.
Speaker 2: Unreality.
Speaker 3: Unreality is when people stop believing in truth, they'll believe anything.
Speaker 2: They'll believe things that are unreal.
Speaker 3: They become very and they put their faith in all
Speaker 3: kinds of things except God. I know people who are
Speaker 3: more committed to trusting crystals to get well than God.
Speaker 2: And it's just a rock. It's a rock.
Speaker 3: But when you give up the idea that there is
Speaker 3: absolute truth, then you start believing anything. I know people
Speaker 3: who will believe in tarot cards before God, or tea
Speaker 3: leaves before God, or astrology, before God or palm reading
Speaker 3: before God.
Speaker 2: It's like, I'll believe.
Speaker 3: Anything except God. And we fall into this world of
Speaker 3: unreality and we, you know, we accept things that aren't true.
Speaker 3: And today there's this blurring of truth and we find.
Speaker 2: It in the media.
Speaker 3: We find it in what we call docu dramas, and
Speaker 3: what that is is fiction disguised as nonfiction docu drama.
Speaker 3: And we have people who write, you know, biographies and
Speaker 3: then just make up stuff. You know, we all know
Speaker 3: that happened. Just there was this big flap over James
Speaker 3: Fry who wrote a book A Million Little Pieces, became
Speaker 3: the number one best seller in America for about three weeks,
Speaker 3: and it was this biography of all these things that supposedly.
Speaker 2: Happened to him.
Speaker 3: And then they found out that he just made it
Speaker 3: all up. It wasn't true, and everybody got upset that
Speaker 3: this guy would would write.
Speaker 2: Truth, write fiction and claim that it was true.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm going, well, why isn't anybody upset about da
Speaker 3: Vinci Code?
Speaker 2: Because in the Da Vinci.
Speaker 3: Code, the very first thing on the first page he says, now,
Speaker 3: this is a novel, but it's based on all these
Speaker 3: true facts, and every one of them has been trueven false.
Speaker 3: I saw a big two hour documentary on the Discovery Channel,
Speaker 3: and when nobody's upset about that the da Vinci Code. Why,
Speaker 3: Because it's okay to lie about Jesus, It's okay to
Speaker 3: lie about the Catholic Church. It's okay to lie about
Speaker 3: Mary Mangalene because that's politically acceptable. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you've noticed this or not, but even the reality shows
Speaker 3: are getting more unreal.
Speaker 2: Have you figured that one out?
Speaker 3: I mean, but it's amazing to us how much we
Speaker 3: worship on reality when we let go of truth. Now,
Speaker 3: I don't want to put down actors. I mean, I've
Speaker 3: got friends who are actors in Hollywood. It's a it's
Speaker 3: a good profession, and you need people who are actors
Speaker 3: to do you know, fantasy and to do drama. And
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a good profession. But they're certainly not
Speaker 3: heroes their entire life. They make a living faking it.
Speaker 3: Think about this. They're not actually making the world a
Speaker 3: better place like school teachers or you know, uh, you know, parents,
Speaker 3: paramedics or or doctors, are you know, police or soldiers?
Speaker 3: Why are we making heroes out of people whose whole
Speaker 3: goal in life is to create illusions.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that's not.
Speaker 3: A valid profession it is. I'm just saying they're certainly
Speaker 3: not heroes. People jump on goofy beliefs.
Speaker 2: On the bandwagon.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this in Second Thessalonians two twelve. Since
Speaker 3: they refuse to trust truth, they're banished to their chosen
Speaker 3: world of lies and illusion. We believe illusions and lies
Speaker 3: all the time. We believe the illusion that having more
Speaker 3: will make me more happy, or having more will make
Speaker 3: me more secure, or having more will make me more valuable.
Speaker 2: But those are all illusions. They're just not true.
Speaker 3: And when you give up the truth, you tend to
Speaker 3: start buying into illusions. Now, let's get personal in your
Speaker 3: own life. Here's a question to ask yourself. Where am
Speaker 3: I faking it? Where am I faking it? Where am
Speaker 3: I pretending to be something that I not really am?
Speaker 3: You need to know that because when you're in those
Speaker 3: areas that you're faking it, you're not exactly what you
Speaker 3: appear to be.
Speaker 2: That's called truth decay.
Speaker 3: And it's gonna rot your heart, just like tooth decay
Speaker 3: rots your teeth. When you're not being truthful on reality, immorality, immaturity.
Speaker 3: Here's a fourth area of truth decay illegality, illegality. What
Speaker 3: I mean by that, I'm saying, if there's no standard
Speaker 3: or right or wrong, then everything can be considered legal,
Speaker 3: because all law is built on an idea that there
Speaker 3: are things that are right and there are things that
Speaker 3: are wrong. If there is no right or wrong, if
Speaker 3: there is no truth, there are no laws. And if
Speaker 3: there's nothing legal, nothing illegal, then you can go around
Speaker 3: and talk to you know, arguing about what the.
Speaker 2: Meaning of is is.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter if you murdered somebody because you
Speaker 3: can get off on a technicality. When murderers go free
Speaker 3: because of technicalities in a culture that's called truth decay,
Speaker 3: doesn't matter what the truth is. What matters is the technicality.
Speaker 2: That's truth decay.
Speaker 3: See nobody at INRON or TYCHO or MCI or any
Speaker 3: of those mammoth organizations that that you know collapsed after
Speaker 3: the bubble. None of them started out by saying, let's
Speaker 3: figure out a way to rip off five hundred billion
Speaker 3: dollars of investors' money. Nobody woke up one morning and
Speaker 3: said it, Inron, let's just think up the big lie
Speaker 3: that'll steal a ton of money, waste it, and then
Speaker 3: we'll go bankrupt.
Speaker 2: No, how did it start.
Speaker 3: All of those scandals inron tychon, et cetera started when
Speaker 3: they started cheating at the edges in little ways. They
Speaker 3: started telling what we call white lies, as if lies
Speaker 3: have color. A lie is a lie, is a lie
Speaker 3: is a lie is a lie, and it's false and
Speaker 3: it's never going to be true no matter how you
Speaker 3: color it.
Speaker 2: A lie is a lie.
Speaker 3: And when truth goes out the window and there's no
Speaker 3: standard of right or wrong, then you go after anything anything,
Speaker 3: It becomes legal. I don't know if you saw about
Speaker 3: this guy, Nathan, who was just sentenced in Maryland to
Speaker 3: seven and a half years in prison for defrauding and
Speaker 3: stealing money out of the state pension plan.
Speaker 2: And they caught him and put him.
Speaker 3: In prison for seven and a half years this week
Speaker 3: thanks to Here's who he had to thank for his
Speaker 3: next seven and a half years in prison.
Speaker 2: His three former mistresses. They were getting even.
Speaker 3: And I wrote this down, this quote from the US prosecutor.
Speaker 3: He said this, when we look for white collar criminals,
Speaker 3: we know that if their life is a lie, then
Speaker 3: it's not confined just to their personal life. If they're
Speaker 3: lying to their wives, there's a huge but they're also
Speaker 3: lying to their colleagues, their board of directors, and the auditors.
Speaker 2: You see, some of you.
Speaker 3: Are falling for what I call the Titanic myth. The
Speaker 3: Titanic myth was that if we compartmentalized.
Speaker 2: The stuff, we can't sink.
Speaker 3: Until the Titanic came along. Ships had one giant hull,
Speaker 3: and if it got breached, the whole hall would fill
Speaker 3: up with the water.
Speaker 2: And the thing would sink.
Speaker 3: And so the Titanic was called unsinkable because they compartmentalized
Speaker 3: the hall. This has never been done before, and so
Speaker 3: the theory was, we can take on a little bit
Speaker 3: water in our ship and still not sink because we'll
Speaker 3: compartmentalize the hall, and therefore some of it could be
Speaker 3: breached and it can actually fill up with the water,
Speaker 3: but it won't.
Speaker 2: Sink the whole ship. And they were wrong.
Speaker 3: If you were compartmentalizing your life, you're in for a
Speaker 3: disaster eventually of Titanic proportions. And if you say, well,
Speaker 3: I got this little thing fling going on over here,
Speaker 3: but I got it compartmentalized, or I got this little
Speaker 3: thing over here at work. That's I know it's wrong,
Speaker 3: but I got it compartmentalized. And it's not that a
Speaker 3: sink my ship or my family or my reputation. And
Speaker 3: I got this thing over here, but it's compartmentalized. As
Speaker 3: your pastor who loves you and cares for you as
Speaker 3: a friend, get out of that as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: Please, I'm telling you, for your own.
Speaker 3: Good, get out of it as quickly as possible. Why
Speaker 3: Because when you compartmentalize your life, there's a word for that.
Speaker 3: It's called a lack of integrity. The word integrity comes
Speaker 3: from the word integer. Remember from math class. That means one.
Speaker 3: It's one digit and integer, it's oneness. And integrity means
Speaker 3: your entire life is integrated, not compartmentalized. You cannot have
Speaker 3: integrity if you're life it is compartmentalized. Well, this is
Speaker 3: my sex life, this is my family life, this is
Speaker 3: my work life, this is my church life, here's my
Speaker 3: pornography life.
Speaker 2: And here no, no, if.
Speaker 3: You got it all, you got it all compartmentalized. You
Speaker 3: do you lack integrity? Integrity is what you see is
Speaker 3: what you get your authentic it's one big stew and
Speaker 3: you act towards your kids the way you act towards
Speaker 3: your your friends, and you don't act different at parties,
Speaker 3: and you don't act different at church.
Speaker 2: You are the same youth.
Speaker 3: You're not wearing a mask, you're not a hypocrite, you're
Speaker 3: not a fake or a phony. You're the same with everybody.
Speaker 3: That's integrity. And when truth happens to decay in my
Speaker 3: life and I start trying to close it off with well,
Speaker 3: that'll we'll just make that a little segment over there,
Speaker 3: and that may get take on water. But it's okay.
Speaker 3: You're in trouble. The Bible says in Proverbs twenty nine
Speaker 3: to eighteen, when there is ignorance of God, crime runs wild.
Speaker 3: It's interesting to me that in nineteen eighty they outlawed
Speaker 3: putting the Ten Commandments in school rooms, which were standards
Speaker 3: of moral truth accepted by Jews, Muslims, Christians, and even
Speaker 3: people who aren't Christians are religious innoight. But they took
Speaker 3: the Ten Commandments out of classrooms, off the wall, and
Speaker 3: since that time, violence against teachers, violence in schools, Columbine, Oregon, Kentucky,
Speaker 3: all those things have happened since then. Of course, there's
Speaker 3: no connection at all between that. When truth is given
Speaker 3: a sideline and there are no absolutes, than anything becomes possible.
Speaker 3: And it says there. Look, it says truth decay. When
Speaker 3: there is ignorance of God, crime runs wild. Truth decay
Speaker 3: has not stopped. Eventually, anarchy happens. And friends, I've been
Speaker 3: in plenty of countries around the world that I could
Speaker 3: give you examples of that one. Well, let's get it
Speaker 3: back to you personally. Ask yourself this question, write it down.
Speaker 3: Am I cheating in the edges? Am I cheating on
Speaker 3: the edges?
Speaker 2: None?
Speaker 3: In the big areas of life? But just you're telling
Speaker 3: the little quote white lies. You're not being fully.
Speaker 2: Up up to snuff.
Speaker 3: That's illegality. Here's a fifth one, idolatry. Idolatry is a
Speaker 3: symptom in a culture of truth decay.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that? We idolize the wrong things.
Speaker 3: And when I don't know right from wrong, when I
Speaker 3: don't know the truth, then my priorities and my values
Speaker 3: and the things I worship get all out of whack,
Speaker 3: They get really messed up. And I idolize things like wealth,
Speaker 3: or I idolize success, or I idolize physical beauty, or I
Speaker 3: idolize athletic ability, or I idolize intelligence, or I idolize popularity,
Speaker 3: or I idolize cars and homes, I idolize the way
Speaker 3: your house is redecorated, or I idolize any number of different
Speaker 3: things which may not be wrong in themselves, but they
Speaker 3: don't deserve worship, They don't deserve to be top, to
Speaker 3: be number one goal in your life.
Speaker 2: And today, because.
Speaker 3: Truth the kay is taking place in our culture, we're
Speaker 3: actually flip flopping values and wrong things are now becoming
Speaker 3: right and right things are becoming wrong, and good is
Speaker 3: bad and bad is good, and black is white and
Speaker 3: white is black, and it's all messed up. We're just
Speaker 3: seeing this reversal. I mean, today, we turn criminals into
Speaker 3: celebrities and then we give them multimillion dollar book contracts
Speaker 3: and make a millionaires.
Speaker 2: And the worst crime you do, the more money you
Speaker 2: can make off of it.
Speaker 3: That's out a whack, you know. We you know, we
Speaker 3: kill unborn human beings. Forty four million Americans aren't here
Speaker 3: that would have been here because of abortion. So we
Speaker 3: kill unborn humans while protecting parasites and insects. What's the
Speaker 3: logic of that one or TV constantly mocks and ridicules
Speaker 3: marriage constantly mocks and ridicules it.
Speaker 2: So how is this working.
Speaker 3: It's all reversed and people are willing to worship anything
Speaker 3: except God. The Bible says this in Romans one twenty five.
Speaker 3: Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God,
Speaker 3: they deliberately chose to believe wise, they worshiped the things.
Speaker 3: That's called materialism. They worshiped the things God made, but
Speaker 3: not the Creator himself. Here's the question for you personally,
Speaker 3: what have I been idolizing? What have I been idolizing?
Speaker 3: What has become a little bit too important for me?
Speaker 3: It's not wrong, but it's just all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it's up there at the top of my life, like
Speaker 3: that's the number one goal of life. And I've been
Speaker 3: idolizing the wrong thing. I've been worshiping the wrong thing.
Speaker 3: One more and I'll just cover this quickly. Injustice is
Speaker 3: a sign of truth decay, because when there's no standard
Speaker 3: of right and wrong, no truth and no falsehood, you
Speaker 3: can get away with anything. And the Bible says in
Speaker 3: Isaiah fifty nine, our courts supposed people who are righteous.
Speaker 3: Justice is nowhere to be found. Truth falls dead in
Speaker 3: the streets, and fairness has been outlawed. Now, if that's
Speaker 3: the damage of truth decay in our society, in our businesses,
Speaker 3: in our families, in our lives, what's the solution we
Speaker 3: have to reverse the tide? And how do we reverse
Speaker 3: the tide? Not through politics, not through legislation.
Speaker 2: But by being people of the truth.
Speaker 3: The Bible calls it being salt and light, being people
Speaker 3: who stand for truth in a relati modern.
Speaker 2: Anything goes society.
Speaker 3: Now that brings up the question, then, how do I
Speaker 3: know what the truth is?
Speaker 2: Is there a way to know the truth? Absolutely?
Speaker 3: Yes, there are at least five ways that you can
Speaker 3: know the difference between what's true and what's untrue, what's
Speaker 3: real and what's unreal. And we're gonna talk about that,
Speaker 3: but it starts with an attitude of openness. An openness
Speaker 3: it says, I want the truth more than anything else.
Speaker 3: I want the truth even if it's uncomfortable. Remember that phrase,
Speaker 3: you can't handle the truth. I want the truth even
Speaker 3: if it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: That is an openness. I'm amazed, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I've been this last year speaking in a lot
Speaker 3: of different secular type groups a lot of intelligent people,
Speaker 3: smart people, And I'm amazed at how many people think
Speaker 3: they are open.
Speaker 2: Minded, but really aren't. They really aren't.
Speaker 3: What actually happens is if you're intelligent, the more intelligent
Speaker 3: you are, the more you tend to be secretly proud
Speaker 3: of your intelligence, and you go, I'm smart, I'm really smart.
Speaker 2: I'm really, really, really smart. And that's called arrogance.
Speaker 3: And when you get arrogant about your smartness, your intelligence,
Speaker 3: you actually start closing your mind down. And I meet
Speaker 3: people all the time who are They think they're open minded,
Speaker 3: you start talking about God, they freeze up. They are
Speaker 3: closed to even the possibility of it. They're closed to
Speaker 3: that possibility, not even open to it. Jesus said this,
Speaker 3: look up here on the screen John seven point seventeen.
Speaker 3: He said, if anyone chooses to do God's will, he
Speaker 3: will find out whether or.
Speaker 2: Not my teaching comes from God.
Speaker 3: He said, Okay, you want to know if I'm telling
Speaker 3: the truth or not. He said, you must have an
Speaker 3: attitude of openness. And you say, God, if there is
Speaker 3: a God, I want to know you. It's not closing
Speaker 3: myself to that possibility, saying if there is a God,
Speaker 3: I want to know you, Jesus. If he's telling the truth,
Speaker 3: I want to know the truth. It may be difficult
Speaker 3: for me to hear, but if it's true, I want
Speaker 3: to know it. I am opening myself up. That's the
Speaker 3: required attitude, because you can't share truth with a closed mind.
Speaker 3: I remember I did this about thirty five years ago.
Speaker 3: I got down on my knees. I was up in
Speaker 3: the mountains at a camp, nobody in the room, and
Speaker 3: I prayed a simple prayer like this. I said, God,
Speaker 3: if there is a God, I'm open. If you exist,
Speaker 3: if you're real, I want to know you're real. And
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ, if you can change my life, you can
Speaker 3: give me a better life. If there is a purpose
Speaker 3: my life, I want to know it. And so God,
Speaker 3: if you're real, I want you to make yourself real
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 2: You know what happened? Nothing?
Speaker 3: Nothing, I mean, no no bright light shone down, no
Speaker 3: angels came in the room. And I didn't hear the
Speaker 3: Hallelujah chorus. You know my hair didn't turn white like
Speaker 3: Charles you know Heston's or you know you know, nothing happened.
Speaker 2: I didn't get a quiver in my liver. No goosebumps.
Speaker 3: I didn't get emotional, I didn't cry nothing.
Speaker 2: It was just okay. That was the turning point in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 3: Why Because finally I was open to the possibility and
Speaker 3: I was no longer biasing myself against God, and I said, God,
Speaker 3: I want to know the truth, even if it's inconvenient.
Speaker 3: And that was the turning point in my life because
Speaker 3: it had nothing to do with emotions. It was a simple, logical,
Speaker 3: rational decision. If there is a God, I don't want
Speaker 3: to miss out on it, and if he has a
Speaker 3: plan for my life, I certainly don't want to miss that.
Speaker 1: You know, people are being transformed by these messages. In fact,
Speaker 1: here's Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: You know, no matter how bad things seem, you can
Speaker 3: always trust that God is active in your life, working
Speaker 3: things out for the good. While you are waiting, God
Speaker 3: is working. God always has your best interest at heart.
Speaker 3: He's a good God. Today, I want to give you
Speaker 3: the example from a note that I got from a
Speaker 3: young man named Tyler, who has seen how God is
Speaker 3: always there even when circumstances seem to be their worst.
Speaker 3: Tyler wrote me said, you know, Rick, I haven't had
Speaker 3: a close relationship with Christ. But then several events occurred
Speaker 3: in my life all at once. First my girlfriend broke
Speaker 3: up with me, and that was the biggest heartache that
Speaker 3: I could imagine for both of us. Then my friends
Speaker 3: left for college the same week, and third, my dad
Speaker 3: left for California to start.
Speaker 2: A new job, leaving me in.
Speaker 3: All of this hit me at once, and I was
Speaker 3: a complete mess. But with guidance from others and realizing
Speaker 3: this was a scheduled appointment from God himself, I found
Speaker 3: Christ through your Daily Hope podcast and through prayer and
Speaker 3: in going to church I finally found the joy in
Speaker 3: my life again.
Speaker 2: And I'm a changed person.
Speaker 3: Every day now, I listen to you, Rick, and I
Speaker 3: read my daily devotional, and I look at life with
Speaker 3: a whole new perspective. You know, before I was living
Speaker 3: for me, I wasn't living for God. But this journey
Speaker 3: has been so amazing. God is so good and the
Speaker 3: best part is that I can wake up every day
Speaker 3: knowing that He loves me and will listen to me,
Speaker 3: and that Jesus Christ will take my worries from me.
Speaker 3: I'm so thankful, Rick, that God woke me up and
Speaker 3: changed me into a better and healthier person that I
Speaker 3: am today, and I'm thankful for my savior, Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: So God bless you you well.
Speaker 3: Thanks Tyler, Thanks for writing that encouraging letter. You have
Speaker 3: experienced firsthand how much God cares for you, even in
Speaker 3: the smallest details of your life, and through this what
Speaker 3: was a very difficult season, he led you to Jesus,
Speaker 3: the greatest gift you could ever receive.
Speaker 2: So did you know that the.
Speaker 3: Bible says in Luke fifteen, right now, all of Heaven
Speaker 3: is rejoicing because you're a part of God's family. The
Speaker 3: Bible says they have a party in heaven every time
Speaker 3: one person steps across the line. And what that means
Speaker 3: that you and I are now brothers. Did you know
Speaker 3: that we're brothers in Christ and your church family are
Speaker 3: your brothers and sisters here to walk alongside you. So, Tyler,
Speaker 3: welcome to the Family of God. And as you grow
Speaker 3: in your faith, staying connected with a strong church community
Speaker 3: is so so important. I want you to surround yourself
Speaker 3: with people who will encourage you in the Lord, who
Speaker 3: will pray for you, who will help you they strong
Speaker 3: in your journey with Jesus. And just watch and see
Speaker 3: how God moves in your life as you faithfully follow
Speaker 3: Him into your future. By the way, you also mentioned
Speaker 3: that you listen to the Daily Hope podcast. For anybody
Speaker 3: who hasn't checked that out yet, it is completely free.
Speaker 3: It's completely available on all major platforms. It's on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 3: it's on Spotify, it's on wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: You can also listen anytime by just going to a
Speaker 3: Pastorrick dot com on the internet. Now, friends, we're able
Speaker 3: to share Daily Hope with people around the world because
Speaker 3: of your generosity listeners just like you, So let me
Speaker 3: just stay here. Thanks, Thanks a lot, Thanks for being
Speaker 3: a part of this community. Thanks for your contributions to
Speaker 3: care for other people so that they could get the
Speaker 3: word of God and build the hope that they need.
Speaker 3: And they can keep seeking God and He will guide them.
Speaker 2: God bless hey.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time when we look
Speaker 1: into God's Word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastorick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support