Speaker 1: Hello, and thanks for joining us here on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 1: Today we continue a teaching series called Uncommon Courage. In
Speaker 1: these lessons, Rick is going to share biblical inspiration that
Speaker 1: will help you get the courage you need to follow
Speaker 1: God's calling for your life. If you'd love to help
Speaker 1: the kids you know learn God's work, then stay with
Speaker 1: us because in just a few minutes we're going to
Speaker 1: tell you about God's big plans for me and easy
Speaker 1: to understand storybook Bible by Pastor Rick Warren. You can
Speaker 1: take a sneak peek right now by going to Pastorick
Speaker 1: dot com while you listen to today's message, or if
Speaker 1: you want, you can just text the word daily to
Speaker 1: eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four. That's the
Speaker 1: word Daily to eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Right now. Now, here's Pastor Rick with part three of
Speaker 1: a message called standing Courageously for the Truth.
Speaker 2: Most of you know that I did President Obama's inauguration prayer.
Speaker 2: What most people don't know is four years earlier, I
Speaker 2: did the inaugural prayer at the start of Bush's inauguration
Speaker 2: just wasn't controversial, so nobody even noticed. Besides Billy Graham.
Speaker 2: I'm the only guy who's prayed for both the Republican
Speaker 2: and a Democrat president. But both times I was told,
Speaker 2: don't use the word Jesus, don't say in Jesus name.
Speaker 2: So what do you think I did? I mean, really,
Speaker 2: in fact that the last inauguration I used, I quoted
Speaker 2: in four different languages, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and English. I
Speaker 2: just want to make people sure I believe in Jesus,
Speaker 2: that's my God. Now what's the result of these four
Speaker 2: world views? Materialism money is God and hedonism, pleasure happiness
Speaker 2: as God and individualism I'm God and socialism the government's God.
Speaker 2: It should be in control. I summarize the damage like this.
Speaker 2: We have the crumbling of our culture, crisis in our schools,
Speaker 2: controversies in our courts, corruption in our businesses, chaos in
Speaker 2: our government, carnality in our churches, confusion in our families,
Speaker 2: and conflicts in our personal lives. Anytime we don't go
Speaker 2: by the owner's manual, we're the ones who get hurt.
Speaker 2: You see, we don't really break God's laws. They break us.
Speaker 2: I mean One of the laws that God established in
Speaker 2: the universe is called the law of gravity. I could
Speaker 2: be up on the entire state building and say I
Speaker 2: don't believe in the law gravity. It doesn't matter whether
Speaker 2: I believe it or not. It's still in effect. I'd say,
Speaker 2: I don't believe in law of gravity. Fine, you don't
Speaker 2: believe in it, It's still in effect. And I could
Speaker 2: jump out of the top story of the Empire State
Speaker 2: Building and as I'm coming down about fifty floors out,
Speaker 2: somebody sticks their head out the window and says, how's
Speaker 2: it going, Rick, And I'd say, well, so far, so good. Okay.
Speaker 2: And that's where most people are today. They are ignoring
Speaker 2: the laws of God. And he says, how's it going,
Speaker 2: So far, so good. You can run from God the
Speaker 2: rest of your life, but then you can't run anymore.
Speaker 2: One day there will be a day of accountability. And
Speaker 2: when I hit bottom, when I hit the pavement law gravity,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to break the law gravity. It's going
Speaker 2: to break me. I always hurt myself when I ignore
Speaker 2: what God says to do. Now, what is the biblical
Speaker 2: world view? The answer is everything in this book. That's
Speaker 2: why God gave us the Bible. This is the correct
Speaker 2: God's biblical world view, and there's a lot to study
Speaker 2: in it. But today, because we're talking about courage, I
Speaker 2: just want to mention to you the three most controversial
Speaker 2: parts of a Christian worldview, because these are the ones
Speaker 2: you need the courage and to speak up about. You See,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of things in the Bible nobody
Speaker 2: has a problem with. There's a there's a lot of
Speaker 2: things in the Bible where nobody is upset or it's
Speaker 2: controversial or politically in confect because and you don't need
Speaker 2: the courage to do those things. For instance, the Bible
Speaker 2: says you must help the poor. Nobody disagrees with that.
Speaker 2: The Bible says you must care for the sick. Nobody
Speaker 2: disagrees with that. The Bible says you must tell the
Speaker 2: truth and be fair in all your business dealings. Nobody
Speaker 2: disagrees with that. The Bible says you must respect everyone,
Speaker 2: no matter what they believe or do. Nobody disagrees with that.
Speaker 2: You must love everybody, You must take care of the environment.
Speaker 2: Who disagrees with that? We're going to keep our world going.
Speaker 2: We might disagree and how but these are things there's
Speaker 2: no controversy. But there are three aspects of the Christian
Speaker 2: worldview that are hated by this world, and most Christians
Speaker 2: clam up because they're afraid to even stand up in
Speaker 2: the areas that are controversial. They are the areas of sanctity.
Speaker 2: Sanctity means something is holy. Now, what a lot of
Speaker 2: people do is they want to pick and choose the
Speaker 2: parts of the Bible. They want to believe. I like
Speaker 2: this part, and I'm gonna believe I don't like that part,
Speaker 2: so I'm not gonna believe that that's a non Christian worldview.
Speaker 2: That's syncretism. I'm gonna pick this part, but I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna pick this war. I'm gonna pick this over here,
Speaker 2: in this over here, and put these together make my
Speaker 2: own little religion. That's called syncretism. Now, when you try
Speaker 2: to do that, pick God's truth, it's very presumptuous because
Speaker 2: you're saying I know more than God. I don't want
Speaker 2: to do this part of the Bible, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to do this part of the Bible, and I
Speaker 2: don't want to do this part. But I'm going to
Speaker 2: believe that Jesus can save me and die for my sins.
Speaker 2: Oh really, why do you believe that part and not
Speaker 2: the other things? He said, I mean, why don't you
Speaker 2: just deny that part too, the part about being saved
Speaker 2: by grace instead of earning your way to heaven. Truth
Speaker 2: is always true. It's never a lie. It's as if
Speaker 2: it was true ten thousand years ago, it'll be true
Speaker 2: ten thousand years from today. Because truth doesn't change. Opinions
Speaker 2: change all the time, science changes. Nothing is more irrelevant
Speaker 2: than a ten year old science textbook. Now, the truth
Speaker 2: that science discovered doesn't change, and the truth that's in
Speaker 2: God's word does it change. If you're going to be
Speaker 2: a courageous person, you've got to build your life on
Speaker 2: the stuff that doesn't change. Not popular opinion, not the
Speaker 2: current viewpoint, not whatever is cool or hip or whatever.
Speaker 2: But you've got to build it on eternal truth. Where
Speaker 2: do you need to stand for truth today? Let me
Speaker 2: mention three very controversial areas. Number one, where you're going
Speaker 2: to need courage today to speak up and stand up
Speaker 2: for the truth. Number one is the sanctity of life,
Speaker 2: and the sanctity of life is this, God has a
Speaker 2: purpose for every unborn baby. God has a purpose for
Speaker 2: every unborn child. Now think about this. God planned your
Speaker 2: life before you were born. In fact, God planned your
Speaker 2: life before your parents is born. In fact, the Bible
Speaker 2: tells us this is the Christian worldview that before God,
Speaker 2: God created the universe, he thought of you. Now there
Speaker 2: are accidental parents, but there are no accidental babies. There
Speaker 2: are illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate babies. You
Speaker 2: may not have planned that child or God. Your parents
Speaker 2: may not have planned you, but God planned you. And
Speaker 2: God is bigger than human mistakes. In fact, God is
Speaker 2: bigger than human sin. In fact, God already knows every
Speaker 2: sin I'm going to ever do it, and he goes,
Speaker 2: I'll fit that into the plan too. He doesn't cause sin,
Speaker 2: but God is so big he could say, I can
Speaker 2: even take your mistakes and make it part of the plan.
Speaker 2: And so God takes even the mistakes we make it.
Speaker 2: He says, I've got a bigger plan than you have,
Speaker 2: So just trust me on this. Psalmone thirty nine says this,
Speaker 2: you Lord made all the delicate inner parts in my body.
Speaker 2: In other words, God says, this isn't an accident. God
Speaker 2: designed the way you would look, and you knit me
Speaker 2: together in my mother's womb. God is taking responsibility for
Speaker 2: your conception and your development. He says, your workmanship is marvelous.
Speaker 2: You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
Speaker 2: in the dark of the womb. Did you know that
Speaker 2: God was watching every moment of your development when you
Speaker 2: were still inside your mother?
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope Rip will be
Speaker 1: back in just a moment with the rest of today's lesson.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for Pastor Rick's free email devotional
Speaker 1: at pastorick dot com. That's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: The Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.
Speaker 3: Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or kids in
Speaker 3: your neighborhood that need to know God loves them and
Speaker 3: has a good plan for their lives. You can help
Speaker 3: them get closer to God by encouraging them to read
Speaker 3: His word. That's why we're so excited to tell you
Speaker 3: about a very special resource just for kids called God's
Speaker 3: Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook Bible by Pastor
Speaker 3: Rick Warren. This two hundred and twenty three page hardcovered
Speaker 3: children's book includes forty well loved Bible stories to help
Speaker 3: kids engage with God's word. Each Bible story has an
Speaker 3: introduction from Pastor Rick that helps young readers understand the
Speaker 3: Word of God and has a closing thought with a
Speaker 3: practical step boys and girls can take to discover God's
Speaker 3: Big Plans for them. Their eyes will light up as
Speaker 3: they turn the beautifully illustrated pages and really start to
Speaker 3: get what God wants to say to their young hearts
Speaker 3: and minds. God's Big Plans for Me is so much
Speaker 3: more than just a book filled with cute pictures of
Speaker 3: Bible characters. It's a fun and effective way to introduce
Speaker 3: children to God's everlasting truth. This book may a great gift.
Speaker 3: You'll want to get a copy for every child in
Speaker 3: your life. And today, when you give a gift to
Speaker 3: help Pastor Rick's daily hope take the certain hope of
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ around the world, We'll send you a copy
Speaker 3: of God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible to say thanks.
Speaker 3: To get your copy of this great resource, just call
Speaker 3: eight hundred six hundred five zero zero four or go
Speaker 3: to Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred
Speaker 3: six hundred five zero zero four or Pastorick dot com.
Speaker 3: Thanks In advance for your support. Your gift to Daily
Speaker 3: Hope helps us share the hope of Christ with people
Speaker 3: around the world.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope once again. Here's
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: Psalm one thirty nine says this, You Lord made all
Speaker 2: the delicate inner parts in my body. In other words,
Speaker 2: God says, this isn't an accident. God designed way you
Speaker 2: would look, and you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Speaker 2: God is taking responsibility for your conception and your development.
Speaker 2: He says, your workmanship is marvelous. You watched me as
Speaker 2: I was being formed in utter seclusion, in the dark
Speaker 2: of the womb. Did you know that God was watching
Speaker 2: every moment of your development when you were still inside
Speaker 2: your mother. That's how much God loves you. That's how
Speaker 2: much God cares about you. God says, I was watching
Speaker 2: every second of your development from the point of conception on.
Speaker 2: In fact, I had you in my mind before your
Speaker 2: parents conceived you. I conceived you, I thought you up.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't exist if God didn't want you alive. And
Speaker 2: he says, I watched every moment in your mother's womb.
Speaker 2: You saw me before I was born. Every day of
Speaker 2: my life was recorded in your book, and every moment
Speaker 2: was laid out before a single day had passed. Now
Speaker 2: in the Book of Proverbs, the Bible says that we
Speaker 2: responsible people are to speak up for those who cannot
Speaker 2: speak up for themselves. And the group that cannot speak
Speaker 2: up for themselves more than anybody else, are the unborn.
Speaker 2: God says you are to speak up for the sanctity
Speaker 2: of life. And as a Christian, if I claim to
Speaker 2: be a Christian, then I must believe that every single
Speaker 2: life is sacred. It doesn't matter if they have mental retardation,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter if they're severely deformed. Every life is precious.
Speaker 2: God gave them them their life. He'll know when he
Speaker 2: wants to take them home. God is God, and I'm not.
Speaker 2: That's not a popular opinion, but it's the truth. And
Speaker 2: if you're going to courageously stand for the truth, you
Speaker 2: have to believe in the sanctity of life. Don't call
Speaker 2: you yourself a Christian, because that's what Jesus taught, that's
Speaker 2: what you Every life is valuable from the moment that
Speaker 2: God planned you, which was before you even popped out
Speaker 2: of your mom Now the next one's even more controversial,
Speaker 2: and it is the sanctity of sex is part of
Speaker 2: the Christian worldview, and the sanctity of sex is this sex.
Speaker 2: It's real simple is only for marriage. I don't like
Speaker 2: that one. I don't like that. Well, I may not
Speaker 2: like it. It's not my opinion. It's in the owner's manual. Now,
Speaker 2: let's just remember who thought up sex. It was God's idea.
Speaker 2: What a god, I mean, what a god. God could
Speaker 2: have made sex. God could have made reproduction with no
Speaker 2: pleasure attached to it. God created those nerve endings. It
Speaker 2: was God's idea, and he created it to bond a
Speaker 2: husband and wife together. When a man and woman have
Speaker 2: sex together, it releases oxytocin in both of them. That
Speaker 2: oxytocin is the bonding chemical that binds a husband and
Speaker 2: wife together. It brings emotional commitment. When a woman nurses
Speaker 2: a baby, it releases oxytocin in both the mom and
Speaker 2: in the baby. It is a bonding agent. That's why
Speaker 2: there's no such thing as casual sex, because when you
Speaker 2: have casual sex, it releases oxytosin in you, which is
Speaker 2: a bonding element. Whether you like it or not, there's
Speaker 2: a bonding thing that's why people get hurt, why people
Speaker 2: get broken hearts, when people are cheated on, it bothers them.
Speaker 2: Why because it's not just physical. That's nonsense. It's not
Speaker 2: just physical. It's emotional, and it's spiritual. You see, sex
Speaker 2: isn't bad, Sex isn't dirty, Sex isn't wrong, Sex is holy.
Speaker 2: And the sanctity of sex is that God designed it
Speaker 2: for the creation of all of us, and to bring
Speaker 2: husbands and wives together and to be a model of
Speaker 2: the union between Christ and the Church. And I don't
Speaker 2: have time to go into all the spiritual implications of sex,
Speaker 2: but let me tell you they're about that long. It's
Speaker 2: not just physical. Now, the Bible says this in Hebrews thirteen,
Speaker 2: verse four. Marriage should be honored by all. Whether you
Speaker 2: ever get married or not, you need to speak well
Speaker 2: of marriage. Marriage should be honored by all, even single
Speaker 2: people should honor it, and the marriage bed kept pure,
Speaker 2: for God will judge the adulter and all the sexually immoral.
Speaker 2: Now this isn't popular, but let me just be clear
Speaker 2: about it. God's instructions have never changed. Pre marital sex.
Speaker 2: It's unacceptable to God. It always has been, it always
Speaker 2: will be. Living together without getting married, and the commitment
Speaker 2: of marriage and the blessing of God is unacceptable to God,
Speaker 2: always has been, it always will be. Adultery is unacceptable
Speaker 2: to God. It always has been, it always will be.
Speaker 2: Pornography and the objectification of a woman's body is unacceptable
Speaker 2: to God. It always has been, it always will be.
Speaker 2: I want you to listen to this. Attraction is not
Speaker 2: a sin. Action is a sin. You can't control all
Speaker 2: your attractions, but you can control all your actions. I
Speaker 2: noticed that when I married Kay thirty seven years ago,
Speaker 2: I still found other women attractive, big shock. But I've
Speaker 2: never acted on him, and Kay Warren is the only
Speaker 2: woman I've ever known. Attraction is not a sin. Action
Speaker 2: is a sin. Have I been attracted other women? Of
Speaker 2: course I'm a man. I mean a real man. I
Speaker 2: mean a manly man. Okay, uh huncle vernon love man, Okay,
Speaker 2: I mean just Have I been attracted to other women
Speaker 2: besides my wife? Of course I have, but I don't
Speaker 2: act on it. Have I ever gotten mad and had
Speaker 2: an impulse to slug some in the face, Yes, but
Speaker 2: I don't act on it. Not everything that I feel
Speaker 2: like doing, I do. You know. I noticed when we
Speaker 2: started this Daniel plan that when I started trying to
Speaker 2: get healthy, I was still attracted to the bad stuff
Speaker 2: that wasn't good for me. Well, I was expecting all
Speaker 2: those attractions ago. They didn't. Let me tell you, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever attractions you got about anything, you're gonna and the
Speaker 2: rest of your life. Now, if you're guilty of any
Speaker 2: of these sins, saddle back to your church, because we're
Speaker 2: all forgiven sinners. Okay, we are all forgiven sinners, all right,
Speaker 2: So welcome to the club. Welcome to the club. You
Speaker 2: can find forgiveness here. There is the sanctity of life.
Speaker 2: There's the sanctity of sex. And the third one, this
Speaker 2: one's most controversy of all. Right now, it is the
Speaker 2: sanctity of marriage. And the Bible is very clear about marriage.
Speaker 2: One man and one woman for life. That is God's
Speaker 2: intended original design. He even made the body parts to
Speaker 2: fit together, and they have a purpose in fitting together.
Speaker 2: One man and one moment for life. That's God's intended design.
Speaker 2: He said, for Rick, what about all the polygamy in
Speaker 2: the Bible. I mean there were guys in the Bible
Speaker 2: had multiple wives. Listen very closely to me, I talked
Speaker 2: about this in forty days in the word Bible interpretation.
Speaker 2: Not everything the Bible reports the Bible approves. Not everything
Speaker 2: reported in the Bible is affirmed in the Bible by God.
Speaker 2: If you take this book and you say, holy Bible,
Speaker 2: it's amazing. It's called holy. It's harder to find a
Speaker 2: book that's got more violence, more incest, rape, molestation, murder, jealousy, greed, violence.
Speaker 2: Why do we call it the Holy Bible? Because this
Speaker 2: one tells the truth. If this were a human book,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't tell all the worts and flaws of the heroes.
Speaker 2: It just give biographies about all their good things they did,
Speaker 2: their great exploits. But the Bible, when it talks about
Speaker 2: Abraham and Moses and Davy, it tells us all their
Speaker 2: weakness as well. You know what, They blew it just
Speaker 2: as much as we do. They make as many mistakes,
Speaker 2: their families were as messed up as ours are, and
Speaker 2: they had as many problems and addictions as everybody else.
Speaker 2: It tells the truth. The Bible gives examples that there's
Speaker 2: example of Scripture where people had slaves, and yet the
Speaker 2: Bible is clearly against slavery. Well all the way back
Speaker 2: in the very first books of the Bible, and Jesus
Speaker 2: repeats them and says, I came to abolish, to eliminate slavery,
Speaker 2: to release your preast.
Speaker 1: This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy that
Speaker 1: you've chosen to study along with us today. Now, if
Speaker 1: you'd like to receive ricks free daily devotional, go to
Speaker 1: Pastorrick dot com and sign up right now. Rick will
Speaker 1: be back to close out our time today. But first,
Speaker 1: the Bible says children are a gift from the Lord.
Speaker 1: Do you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or kids in
Speaker 1: your neighborhood that need to know God loves them and
Speaker 1: has a good plan for their lives. You can help
Speaker 1: them get closer to God by encouraging them to read
Speaker 1: God's word. That's why we're so excited to tell you
Speaker 1: about a very special resource just for kids called God's
Speaker 1: Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook Bible by Pastor
Speaker 1: Rick Warren. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.
Speaker 2: In Matthew nineteen fourteen, Jesus said, let the little children
Speaker 2: come to me, and do not hinder them, For the
Speaker 2: Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. How do
Speaker 2: we bring children to Jesus, well, the best way is
Speaker 2: to read the Bible with them. You know, when my
Speaker 2: kids were growing up, I could always see their excitement
Speaker 2: about Jesus grow every time we read stories from the
Speaker 2: Bible together. Now I see that same excitement when I
Speaker 2: read the Bible with my grandchildren. I love teaching them
Speaker 2: at such an early age that God created them for
Speaker 2: a purpose, that they are not an accident, that they
Speaker 2: matter to God, and that He has a special plan
Speaker 2: for their lives. So I'm excited to tell you that
Speaker 2: I've teamed up with a very gifted children's illustrator to
Speaker 2: prepare an new Bible for children. It's called God's Big
Speaker 2: Plans for Me Storybook Bible. Your kids will learn from
Speaker 2: God's Word in ways that are easy to understand, and
Speaker 2: long after they learn to read on their own, this
Speaker 2: Storybook Bible is going to keep on encouraging them to
Speaker 2: trust in God's promises. The God's Big Plans for Me
Speaker 2: Storybook Bible contains forty well loved Bible stories that will
Speaker 2: help your kids learn how to apply God's Word to
Speaker 2: their lives. Each story is beautifully illustrated, it's incredible, and
Speaker 2: includes an introduction from me that encourages them to discover
Speaker 2: God's great purpose for them. It's fun, it's effective, it's entertaining,
Speaker 2: it's challenging, it's captivating. It's a great way to introduce
Speaker 2: children to God's eternal truths. Now, I'll send you this
Speaker 2: Bible for Children, God's Big Plans for Me Storybook Bible,
Speaker 2: just as a way of saying thanks when you give
Speaker 2: a gift today, Hope Today, we depend on your gifts.
Speaker 2: I want you to have this as my thank you
Speaker 2: gift to you. I hope you'll get a copy for
Speaker 2: all the children in your life, your kids, your grandchildren, nieces, nephews,
Speaker 2: even children you know in your neighborhood. They'll all love this.
Speaker 2: We've had nothing but one hundred percent great feedback from
Speaker 2: people who have seen the God's Big Plans for Me
Speaker 2: Storybook Bible.
Speaker 1: To get your copy of this great resource, just call
Speaker 1: eight hundred six hundred five thousand and four or go
Speaker 1: to Pastorick dot com to get yours. That's eight hundred
Speaker 1: six hundred five thousand and four or pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Be sure to join us next time as we look
Speaker 1: into God's word for our daily hope. This program is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial
Speaker 1: support