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. Well,
Speaker 1: today we begin teaching a 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 on your life. If you'd love to help
Speaker 1: the kids you know learn God's word, 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, here's Pastor Rick with part one of a
Speaker 1: message called standing Courageously for the Truth.
Speaker 2: And this morning, I want us to look at the
Speaker 2: courage to stand for what you believe. A lot of
Speaker 2: Christians have a hard time speaking up for Jesus in public.
Speaker 2: That's not a new problem two thousand years ago. The
Speaker 2: Bible says this in the Book of John, chapter seven,
Speaker 2: no one had the courage to speak favorably about Jesus
Speaker 2: in public. I wonder if that's true of you. Do
Speaker 2: you have the courage to speak publicly about Jesus favorably
Speaker 2: or are you an Arctic river Christian frozen at the mouth.
Speaker 2: Even Saint Paul sometimes needed encouragement to be courageous in
Speaker 2: what he believed Acts Chapter eighteen. The Bible says this,
Speaker 2: one night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision.
Speaker 2: Be afraid, keep on speaking, and do not be silent.
Speaker 2: If ever there was a message that you need in
Speaker 2: today's culture, God would say this to you about your faith.
Speaker 2: Don't be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent.
Speaker 2: Everybody else is speaking up about what they believe. Everybody
Speaker 2: else is telling you their worldview. Why should Christians cower
Speaker 2: and cowardice? Why is it important to courageously stand up
Speaker 2: for what you believe? Why is it important courageously speak
Speaker 2: the truth? Well, look on your outline. Jesus said this
Speaker 2: in Matthew ten. If you stand up for me against
Speaker 2: world opinion, I'll stand up for you before my father
Speaker 2: in heaven. Well, that settles it right there. Jesus, you
Speaker 2: stand up for me on earth, all stand up for
Speaker 2: you in heaven. I want that to happen for you,
Speaker 2: and I want that to happen for me. He said,
Speaker 2: what if I don't do that? Well, the next verse,
Speaker 2: Jesus says this, it's here on the screen. But if
Speaker 2: anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that
Speaker 2: person before my father in heaven. Do you realize how
Speaker 2: important it is that you not be a coward about
Speaker 2: your faith? Jesus said, if you deny me here on earth,
Speaker 2: I will deny you in before my father in heaven.
Speaker 2: God says, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed
Speaker 2: of you. Now. To stand courageously for what you believe,
Speaker 2: for your convictions, for the truth when it may not
Speaker 2: be quote politically correct, you have to know first what
Speaker 2: the world believes, and then you know what God says
Speaker 2: is the truth. What we're talking about here is called
Speaker 2: a worldview. Your worldview is the belief that you base
Speaker 2: your life on. Everybody has a worldview. Everybody has a worldview.
Speaker 2: It is the beliefs that you hold to make your decisions.
Speaker 2: It is the lens by which you view life. You know,
Speaker 2: there's a thing on the internet now called Instagram where
Speaker 2: you can share pictures with other people. And the cool
Speaker 2: thing about Instagram is it gives you about thirty different filters.
Speaker 2: So you can take a lousy photo that you took
Speaker 2: and using a filter make it look professional. Now, what's interesting.
Speaker 2: It's the same picture, but when you look at it
Speaker 2: through a different filter, it looks differently. This is why
Speaker 2: we have arguments. This is why there's conflict in the
Speaker 2: world because everybody uses a different filter. Everybody has a
Speaker 2: different viewpoint. Everybody has a different worldview. And you could
Speaker 2: take five people with five different worldviews and see them
Speaker 2: see the same event, and they're all going to see
Speaker 2: something differently because they're looking at it from from their worldview.
Speaker 2: Your worldview includes how you see God. Your worldview includes
Speaker 2: how you see yourself, how you see others, how you
Speaker 2: view your past, your present, your future. Your worldview includes
Speaker 2: how you see sex, money, time. Your worldview includes how
Speaker 2: you see good and evil, problems and pressures. It influences
Speaker 2: everything in your life. And as I said, everybody has
Speaker 2: a worldview, and every time you make a decision, you
Speaker 2: access the worldview database in your mind, and you decide,
Speaker 2: because I believe this, I'm going to do this. If you,
Speaker 2: for instance, in your worldview, believe the world was going
Speaker 2: to end next week, you would act very, very differently
Speaker 2: than you are right now. Now, it's how you decide
Speaker 2: what you decide. Your worldview influences every choice you make.
Speaker 2: All your choices are based on it. Now here's the problem.
Speaker 2: You are profoundly influenced by the worldviews of others. Most
Speaker 2: of your worldview you don't even you didn't even pick
Speaker 2: up consciously. In fact, most of your worldview you've never
Speaker 2: even thought about. It's unconscious, it's unspoken. You don't even
Speaker 2: think about how I you've never sat down and written
Speaker 2: out your philosophy of life. I guarantee you none of
Speaker 2: you have ever done that, written out your philosophy of life.
Speaker 2: But it's your worldview, and a lot of your worldview
Speaker 2: you picked up not from the word. You picked it
Speaker 2: up from the world. And you were influenced by your
Speaker 2: parents' worldview, and your peers worldview, and your friend's worldview.
Speaker 2: Everything in life is supporting a worldview, and a lot
Speaker 2: of times you pick it up with not even realizing it.
Speaker 2: Every time you read a newspaper article, there's a worldview
Speaker 2: in that article. Nothing is fair and balanced. Everything in
Speaker 2: life is biased because everybody has a perspective. Everybody has
Speaker 2: a filter. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the way
Speaker 2: we're wired. You just need to understand, well, that's the
Speaker 2: filter they're coming from. It's why people argue because we
Speaker 2: see things differently from our worldviews. And so every time
Speaker 2: you listen to a song, it has a worldview. Every
Speaker 2: time you watch a movie, it has a worldview. Every
Speaker 2: time you read a newspaper or a magazine article, it
Speaker 2: has a worldview. Every time you have a conversation, a
Speaker 2: worldview is being communicated there, and you pick up a
Speaker 2: lot of worldview from the world that isn't the truth.
Speaker 2: You need to pick it up from the word, which
Speaker 2: is the truth. But as I said, most of the time,
Speaker 2: you haven't even thought about it. Recently, there was a
Speaker 2: national survey done and in this survey they discovered that
Speaker 2: sixty two of Americans claim that they are quote deeply spiritual. Okay,
Speaker 2: sixty two percent of Americans claim they are deeply spiritual.
Speaker 2: And then they ask these people how that deep spirituality
Speaker 2: affected their decision making, and here's what happened. Thirty one
Speaker 2: percent of Americans say I make my moral choices based
Speaker 2: on what feels right and comfortable. That's not too spiritual,
Speaker 2: But I make my moral choices based on what feels
Speaker 2: right and comfortable. Eighteen percent of Americans say I make
Speaker 2: moral choices based on whatever is best for me. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's another way. Fourteen percent of Americans say I make
Speaker 2: moral choices based on whatever causes the least conflict with others.
Speaker 2: These are the people pleasers. I go along to get along.
Speaker 2: Only sixteen percent said I make my moral choices based
Speaker 2: on what the Bible says, what God's Word says. What
Speaker 2: does that mean? It means most Christians a non Christian worldview.
Speaker 2: You may be a Christian, you may be on your
Speaker 2: way to heaven, and you don't have a Christian worldview.
Speaker 2: In fact, you could be a Christian and headed for
Speaker 2: heaven and actually have an anti christ or an anti
Speaker 2: Christian worldview because you got it from the world, not
Speaker 2: from the Word. Now, I want you to listen, really
Speaker 2: careful to me, as your pastor who loves you. You
Speaker 2: may be headed for heaven, but if you don't base
Speaker 2: your decisions on the Bible, on the word of God,
Speaker 2: You're going to have devastating results in your life. First
Speaker 2: life isn't going to make sense, and you're gonna go
Speaker 2: My life isn't working out. It isn't working the way
Speaker 2: I had intended it to. Why do I have all
Speaker 2: this stress? Why do I have all these problems? Why
Speaker 2: does everything's so messed up in my life? Because you're
Speaker 2: operating on the wrong operating system, it's going to mess
Speaker 2: up your life here on earth. You will have unnecessary
Speaker 2: problem if you accept the world's worldview. But not only that,
Speaker 2: you will miss rewards God has planned for you in heaven.
Speaker 2: Oh you get into heaven, but because you missed it,
Speaker 2: because you were operating not on what the Word says,
Speaker 2: but what the world says, You're gonna miss so many
Speaker 2: of the rewards that God had planned for you to
Speaker 2: enjoy for eternity. So as we start this series on
Speaker 2: uncommon courage, we need to look at standing courageously for
Speaker 2: the truth and to live with courage. You've got to
Speaker 2: learn how to clarify your worldview.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Rick 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, kids, nieces, nephews, or kids
Speaker 3: in your neighborhood that need to know God loves them
Speaker 3: and has a good plan for their lives. You can
Speaker 3: help them get closer to God by encouraging them to
Speaker 3: read His word. That's why we're so excited to tell
Speaker 3: you about a very special resource just for kids called
Speaker 3: God's Big Plans for Me. It's a storybook Bible by
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick Warren. This two hundred and twenty three page
Speaker 3: hardcovered children's book includes forty well loved Bible stories to
Speaker 3: help kids engage with God's word. Each Bible story has
Speaker 3: an introduction from Pastor Rick that helps young readers understand
Speaker 3: the Word of God and has a closing thought with
Speaker 3: a practical step boys and girls can take to discover
Speaker 3: God's Big Plans for them. Their eyes will light up
Speaker 3: as they turn the beautifully illustrated pages and really start
Speaker 3: to 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 makes 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: You are continually bombarded by the worldview of other people.
Speaker 2: As I said, you get it in classroom, you get
Speaker 2: it at business, you get it in articles, movies, songs.
Speaker 2: It's all around you, but you may have never identified
Speaker 2: actually what those worldviews are. So before we look at
Speaker 2: a Christian worldview what God says is the truth, I
Speaker 2: want us to look at the four most popular anti
Speaker 2: Christian worldviews. They're all around you, and maybe you've never
Speaker 2: identified them, but I want you to write these down.
Speaker 2: These aren't all there. I could give you one hundred
Speaker 2: different isms, but let me give you the foremost popular
Speaker 2: isms in America. The first worldview is materialism. Materialism is
Speaker 2: the worldview that what matters most is money. That is
Speaker 2: the materialism worldview. What matters most is money, that life
Speaker 2: is all about the acquisition of things. And the way
Speaker 2: you judge or measure your success is by how much
Speaker 2: wealth you've got. And if you've got a lot of wealth,
Speaker 2: you're very successful, and if you have little wealth, you're
Speaker 2: not successful. These people who are materialists have bumper stickers
Speaker 2: that say he who dies with the most toys wins.
Speaker 2: But this is really a stupid philosophy of life. Because
Speaker 2: you didn't bring anything into the world, you're not going
Speaker 2: to take anything out of the world, and you're going
Speaker 2: to leave it all here. So you think that the
Speaker 2: purpose of your life is just to pile up a
Speaker 2: pile and then leave it. No, you were made for
Speaker 2: more than things. Now, Jesus has a very opposite opinion,
Speaker 2: and he presents a very different worldview. In Luke Chapter twelve,
Speaker 2: Jesus says this, a man's life does not consist in
Speaker 2: the abundance of his possessions. In other words, your possessions
Speaker 2: don't determine how valuable you are. Your valuables don't determine
Speaker 2: your value. Your net worth doesn't determine your self worth.
Speaker 2: The greatest things in life aren't things, but a lot
Speaker 2: of people don't understand it. And the whole business of
Speaker 2: life for many people is simply make money. That's the
Speaker 2: number one goal of life. If your number one goal
Speaker 2: in life is to make money, you are a materialist. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm not a materialist because I'm not greedy. In materialism,
Speaker 2: economics trumps everything else trumps It determines how I vote,
Speaker 2: It determines how I act, It determines how I think.
Speaker 2: Economics determines everything else in my life. If I'm a materialist,
Speaker 2: because money matters most. Now, the second most popular anti
Speaker 2: Christian worldview is not materialism. It's hedonism. Hedonism and hedonism
Speaker 2: is the philosophy that whatever feels good is good. In materialism,
Speaker 2: money is God. In hedonism, pleasure is God. The whole
Speaker 2: goal of life is to be happy. The whole goal
Speaker 2: of life is to have fun. The whole goal of
Speaker 2: life is to be comfortable. The whole goal of life
Speaker 2: is to party, to have thrills. And what matters most
Speaker 2: to the hedonist is how I feel. If it feels good,
Speaker 2: then it is good. It's got to be good because
Speaker 2: it feels good, and the number one goal of life
Speaker 2: is comfort. Now, hedonism can be anything. It could be
Speaker 2: involved food, it could involve sex, it could involve sports,
Speaker 2: it could involve a hobby, alcohol, it could involve drugs.
Speaker 2: Things could be good or bad. It doesn't Many of
Speaker 2: these things are good, but they're not the goal of life.
Speaker 2: If you say my number one goal of life is
Speaker 2: to be happy, you're a hedonist. God did not put
Speaker 2: you on this earth for your number one goal to
Speaker 2: be happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of living the purpose
Speaker 2: you were created for. It is not the goal of life.
Speaker 2: It's the benefit of life for doing the right things.
Speaker 2: Holiness creates happiness. Now, a lot of songs today, popular
Speaker 2: songs are really hedonism. I mean, when you hear a
Speaker 2: song that says it can't be wrong because it feels
Speaker 2: so right, that's hedonism. When I was growing up as
Speaker 2: a kid, there was a song said, if loving you
Speaker 2: is wrong, I don't want to be right hedonist. Okay,
Speaker 2: in others, I don't want to do the right thing.
Speaker 2: I want to do the thing that feels good, and
Speaker 2: if it feels good, do it. That's the motto of
Speaker 2: the hedonist. Now, you can be a hedonist and not
Speaker 2: even know it. You can be a Christian and be
Speaker 2: a hedonist. If your number one goal in life is
Speaker 2: to make life comfortable, your hedonist. If your number one
Speaker 2: goal in life is happiness, your hedonist. If your number
Speaker 2: one goal in life is retirement, uh oh, you're a
Speaker 2: hedonist because God did not put you on this earth
Speaker 2: to do nothing. Now, there's nothing wrong with retirement, it's
Speaker 2: just not the goal of life. You were made for
Speaker 2: so much more than pleasure. You were made for so
Speaker 2: much more than happiness. You were made for so much
Speaker 2: more than thrills are fun or anything else. And just
Speaker 2: because something is fun, and just because something is pleasurable,
Speaker 2: doesn't make it right. Now, the Bible says this. In
Speaker 2: Proverbs twenty one, Solomon wrote this, he was the wisest
Speaker 2: man who ever lived. He's also the wealthiest man who
Speaker 2: ever lived. And he concluded, are you addicted to thrills? What?
Speaker 2: An empty life? Suit of pleasure is never satisfied?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Because for the hedonists, like for the materialists, there's never enough.
Speaker 2: You ask a person how much money you need to
Speaker 2: be happy? Just a little bit more? How many pleasures?
Speaker 2: How many thrills do you have to be happy? Just
Speaker 2: a little bit more? Whys pleasure doesn't last? No thrill lasts,
Speaker 2: no happiness, no emotion lasts, whether it's good or bad.
Speaker 2: It doesn't last.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: In Hebrews chapter twenty five, it's up here on the screen.
Speaker 2: The Bible says Moses chose to suffer with God's people
Speaker 2: rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
Speaker 2: short time. Circle the phrase pleasures of sin and circle
Speaker 2: short time A think. I love about the Bible as
Speaker 2: it always tells the truth. It's honest. And the Bible
Speaker 2: says sin is fun. Notice it says pleasure of sin,
Speaker 2: sin is pleasurable. If sin wasn't fun, nobody do it. Okay,
Speaker 2: Even the Bible admits it. Sin is fun. Is it
Speaker 2: fun to eat things that are bad for you?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Okay. Is it fun to stay up really late
Speaker 2: even though you got to get up early next morning
Speaker 2: you're going to be dead. Yes. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: things in life that aren't good for you, and they
Speaker 2: are a whole lot of fun, or they are a
Speaker 2: whole lot pleasurable. The Bible says there is pleasure in sin,
Speaker 2: but it says notice, it doesn't last. It's for a
Speaker 2: short time, and with every kick there's a kickback. There's
Speaker 2: always a payoff, and the cost of sin is far
Speaker 2: greater than the pleasure of sin. Sin is fun, there's
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. But the cost of it could
Speaker 2: be your own soul. And the cost of it could
Speaker 2: be a broken body, of broken mind, a broken heart,
Speaker 2: a broken relationship. There's always a cost to sin. Galatians
Speaker 2: six 't eight on the screen says this. Those who
Speaker 2: live only to satisfy their own sin desires, that's hedonism,
Speaker 2: will harvest the consequences of decay and death. But those
Speaker 2: who live to please the spirit will harvest everlasting life
Speaker 2: from the spirit. Exodus twenty three, verse two. There on
Speaker 2: your outline, do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.
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: Pastorick 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 a 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 to Daily 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've seen the God's Big Plans For Me 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