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. All right, well,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear Rick's message today. Here he
Speaker 1: is with part one of a message called how Do
Speaker 1: I Know What's True?
Speaker 3: In a national Paul last month, seventy percent of Americans
Speaker 3: express concern about the quote decline in moral values in
Speaker 3: our society. I asked my researchers to do a little
Speaker 3: research on it. They came back with about three hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty articles on this issue decline in moral values
Speaker 3: in society just written in the last year. There is
Speaker 3: what we would call a crisis of credibility in our nation,
Speaker 3: and that is you can find corruption pretty much everywhere.
Speaker 2: You can find it.
Speaker 3: In politics, you can find it in business, you can
Speaker 3: find it in sports. You can find it in academics.
Speaker 3: You can find it in entertainment, you can find it
Speaker 3: in churches. You could probably give me an example of
Speaker 3: a scandal in every major sector of our society. Now,
Speaker 3: what is the cause of this quote decline in moral values? Well,
Speaker 3: I can say it in two words, truth decay, truth decay.
Speaker 3: Jesus said, you will know the truth, and the truth
Speaker 3: will set you free. Right, freedom comes from truth. The
Speaker 3: more you know the truth, the freer you are and
Speaker 3: your spirit, in your life and your family. Whatever the
Speaker 3: opposite is true. The more you give up on truth,
Speaker 3: the more you forfeit your freedom. Now, I intentionally chose
Speaker 3: this phrase truth decay because I think it exemplifies what's
Speaker 3: been happening in our society for the last fifty years. Slowly,
Speaker 3: little by little, imperceptibly at first, there has been an
Speaker 3: erosion of the value of truth in our society. We
Speaker 3: don't value truth like we used to. And if you
Speaker 3: don't stop that erosion, just like on your teeth, when
Speaker 3: it first starts, you don't know what's happening, you don't
Speaker 3: feel it, you can't see it, But that tooth decay
Speaker 3: is happening, and if you don't stop it, you lose
Speaker 3: your smile, you'll eventually lose your teeth. And the same
Speaker 3: is true. If we don't stop the decay of truth
Speaker 3: in our society, all kinds of problems are going to happen,
Speaker 3: even greater than the ones we're facing right now. The
Speaker 3: fat past fifty years, there has been a shift away
Speaker 3: from truth as the foundation of our society. Forty fifty
Speaker 3: years ago, people genuinely agreed on what is right and
Speaker 3: what is wrong. And if people didn't even do right,
Speaker 3: at least they knew right. They knew what they were
Speaker 3: doing was wrong. Now today many people claim they don't
Speaker 3: even know the difference between right and wrong. A lot
Speaker 3: of people even claim there's not even such thing as truth.
Speaker 3: How to even know there's truth? Maybe truth for you,
Speaker 3: but not truth for me, So there.
Speaker 2: Is no right or wrong.
Speaker 3: I was shocked this week when I read about a
Speaker 3: jury that deadlocked and they had to dismiss a case
Speaker 3: over a woman who cut off the arms of her
Speaker 3: eighteen month old baby.
Speaker 2: Shocking isn't in.
Speaker 3: A mari and they deadlock the jury deadlock because they
Speaker 3: said this woman didn't know the difference between right and wrong.
Speaker 3: Can you imagine that even happening in America. I was
Speaker 3: shocked when I read I just couldn't even imagine that happening,
Speaker 3: that a jury with deadlock over a woman saying, well,
Speaker 3: I don't know the difference between right and wrong. Now,
Speaker 3: this idea that there is no such thing as truth
Speaker 3: is called postmodernism or relativism. And here's the big idea
Speaker 3: between behind postmodernism. What's true for you may not be
Speaker 3: true for me, and what's right for you may not
Speaker 3: be right for me. Now that's a very convenient philosophy
Speaker 3: because it means I'm doing whatever I want to do.
Speaker 2: It basically lets me off the hook. Says there is no.
Speaker 3: Objective standard of behavior and I can do whatever I
Speaker 3: want to do. Now, when Jesus said you will know
Speaker 3: the truth, and the truth will set you free, he's
Speaker 3: talking about the truth will set you free, not a
Speaker 3: true not any truth, not the truth you make up
Speaker 3: for your own agenda, and I make up my own.
Speaker 2: That's not the truth that sets you free. It is
Speaker 2: the truth that sets you free.
Speaker 3: Last week we talked about when I began this series
Speaker 3: on Worldview, about the sincerity myth. The sincerity myth says well,
Speaker 3: you know, it really didn't matter what you believe. If
Speaker 3: at least you're sincere, that's all it matters. And we
Speaker 3: talked last week about this and pretty much detail that
Speaker 3: you can be sincerely wrong.
Speaker 2: I have been sincerely wrong many many times.
Speaker 3: If after this service you decided to go out here
Speaker 3: and get on the toll road and you went up
Speaker 3: what you were thinking was the on ramp to the freeway,
Speaker 3: but it was actually the off ramp, you could be
Speaker 3: sincere about it, but you'd be sincerely wrong, and you
Speaker 3: would head into traffic and inevitably you would cause a
Speaker 3: collision and there would be damage to your car and
Speaker 3: most likely to you because you were sincere, but you're
Speaker 3: sincerely wrong. And if you were going up the off
Speaker 3: thinking it was the on ramp to the freeway, you're sincere,
Speaker 3: and some irate driver coming off the off ramp says to.
Speaker 2: You, wrong way, don't go this way, wrong.
Speaker 3: Way, it'd be kind of silly for you to say, Now,
Speaker 3: who are you to tell me?
Speaker 2: What's the truth?
Speaker 3: I mean, it may be right for you, but it's
Speaker 3: wrong for you, but it's right for me. See, postmodernism
Speaker 3: relativism is built on the idea there are no absolutes.
Speaker 2: Have you heard this one?
Speaker 3: There are no absolutes. Now, that is absolutely a stupid statement,
Speaker 3: because it's not only illogical, it's unreasonable. First place, when
Speaker 3: you say there are no absolutes, you're making an absolute statement.
Speaker 3: So it's illogical. Whenever somebody says there are no absolutes,
Speaker 3: I want to say, are you absolutely sure? Because you're
Speaker 3: actually stating an absolute It is an illogical statement. Not
Speaker 3: only that, it's just unworkable, it's unusable, it's irrational because
Speaker 3: the entire world operates on absolutes every single second of
Speaker 3: the day. When you go into a pharmacy to get
Speaker 3: a prescription filled, you know, oh, just give me anything,
Speaker 3: and the pharmacist doesn't say, well, I didn't have what
Speaker 3: you wanted, but this is kind of like it.
Speaker 2: And it'll do good. You know.
Speaker 3: I know it's for your back, but this is a
Speaker 3: good thing for your head. You know, you don't want
Speaker 3: the pharmacists to give you absolutely the correct prescription in
Speaker 3: the right dosage, and you don't want anything kind of
Speaker 3: kinda true.
Speaker 2: You want it to be absolutely true. When NASA shoots.
Speaker 3: A rocket off, they don't want to go near the moon.
Speaker 3: You know, closed, but no cigar. They want to hit
Speaker 3: the planet, they want to hit the moon, and they
Speaker 3: want to have it directly online. And there are thousands
Speaker 3: of absolute corrections that have to keep it on course.
Speaker 3: I mean, what if the law about stop signs was
Speaker 3: you don't have to absolutely stop, you just stop when
Speaker 3: you feel like it. Well, no, can you imagine what
Speaker 3: traffic would be like if we had no absolute traffic laws?
Speaker 2: What would that be? Total chaos?
Speaker 3: The whole world, every single day of your life, operates
Speaker 3: on absolutes.
Speaker 2: I mean, have you ever had to.
Speaker 3: Appeal to an objective standard.
Speaker 2: When you were playing scrabble.
Speaker 3: And somebody comes up and says, I'm telling you snicklfritzer
Speaker 3: is a real word.
Speaker 2: It's worth fifty.
Speaker 3: Seven points, And you say, I'm sorry, I'm never is. Well,
Speaker 3: it may not be true for you, but it's true
Speaker 3: for me. It is a word. I use it all
Speaker 3: the time. And so what you do is you appeal
Speaker 3: to an objective standard called the dictionary, and if it's
Speaker 3: not in the dictionary, it's not a word, no matter
Speaker 3: how many points you thought you were going to get
Speaker 3: for it. Now, in postmodernism and in relativism, what's happened
Speaker 3: is that people now value tolerance more than they value truth.
Speaker 3: The supreme value in our culture has become tolerance. It's
Speaker 3: more important to be tolerant than it is to be truthful.
Speaker 3: In fact, if you are truthful, then you are considered intolerant.
Speaker 3: And how dare you say that something is always right
Speaker 3: and something is always and wrong wrong, Because that's intolerant
Speaker 3: and that's being judgmental. And actually, we have even redefined
Speaker 3: the word tolerance.
Speaker 2: Tolerance used to me.
Speaker 3: We may totally disagree on something, but I still treat
Speaker 3: you with respect because you're human being. You're made in
Speaker 3: the image of God. And although we may totally disagree
Speaker 3: on politics or morality or all whatever, we're still going
Speaker 3: to treat each other, you know, politely.
Speaker 2: That's tolerance.
Speaker 3: Now, the word now means tolerance means all ideas are
Speaker 3: equally valid. Well, that's nonsense. All ideas are not equally valid.
Speaker 3: If I say the moon is made out of rock
Speaker 3: and you say the moon is made out of Swiss cheese,
Speaker 3: that is not an equally valid idea. And if I
Speaker 3: say the Sun rotates around the Earth and somebody else
Speaker 3: says the Earth rotates around the Sun, those are not
Speaker 3: equally valid ideas. And if I say the Earth is
Speaker 3: flat and you say it's round, those are.
Speaker 2: Not equally valid ideas.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of things in life that are
Speaker 3: absolutely true, and there are a lot of things in
Speaker 3: life that are absolutely false, and they will always be true,
Speaker 3: and they will always be false. Truth is not new.
Speaker 3: It has been around forever. Now we discover it, like genomes.
Speaker 3: We now know that we're made up of DNA. But
Speaker 3: that's not a new truth. It's just new to us.
Speaker 2: God knew it all along. And so truth is I mean,
Speaker 2: it is discovered.
Speaker 3: But today if anybody dares to say this is always right,
Speaker 3: then they are accused of being intolerant and judgmental. It's
Speaker 3: not judgmental to tell the truth. If you're in an
Speaker 3: accident and I come by on the car and I
Speaker 3: see you, and you're laying on the side of the
Speaker 3: road bleeding the death, and I walk up.
Speaker 2: To you and I say, man, you need a doctor.
Speaker 2: You're bleeding to death.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna say, well, I don't want to hear
Speaker 3: that you're being judgmental. That's not judgmental. It's just the truth.
Speaker 3: You're bleeding the death. You need help. So today, as
Speaker 3: we do part two in this series on Worldview, we're
Speaker 3: going to look first at the damaging effect of truth
Speaker 3: decay in our society, in our families, and actually in
Speaker 3: our personal lives, what it does to our personal lives
Speaker 3: when we let go of truth. And then we're going
Speaker 3: to look at the five ways that you can know
Speaker 3: the truth. So, what happens when we throw out truth
Speaker 3: for tolerance, when all of a sudden we value tolerance
Speaker 3: more than the truth. Well, all kinds of things happen.
Speaker 3: Then there are actually six signs of truth decay. You
Speaker 3: can see them in our culture, you can see them
Speaker 3: in business, and actually you can see them in your
Speaker 3: own life. These things happen when you start giving up
Speaker 3: on truth. Number one, if you want to write this down, immaturity.
Speaker 3: Immaturity happens when we give up on the truth and
Speaker 3: we value truth more than tolerance, our tolerance more than truth.
Speaker 2: You know, in many.
Speaker 3: Ways, our society is getting more and more immature.
Speaker 2: You can see it on television shows. And one of
Speaker 2: the ways you can see it is we.
Speaker 3: Are less willing to accept responsibility, which is a mark
Speaker 3: of maturity.
Speaker 2: You see, when there's no right and wrong when there's.
Speaker 3: No standard of true and false, then we all act
Speaker 3: in response irresponsible ways. I just be a kid. I
Speaker 3: can act like a juvenile. I can blame other people
Speaker 3: for my problems. There's no right or wrong. I can
Speaker 3: be disorganized. I can put past the buck. I can
Speaker 3: expect other people to take care of me, which is
Speaker 3: what immature kids expect. I expect the government or anybody
Speaker 3: else to solve my problems because I'm not responsible.
Speaker 2: That's immaturity. And I can change my mind.
Speaker 3: I can one day believe this, and one day believe that,
Speaker 3: and the next day believes something else, because there is
Speaker 3: no truth. The Bible says this in Ephesians four. Let
Speaker 3: us be no longer like children, forever changing our minds
Speaker 3: about what we believe because someone else has told us
Speaker 3: something different, or has cleverly lied to us and made
Speaker 3: the lie sound like truth. Makes you think of the
Speaker 3: rumors you believed in junior high school. One person would
Speaker 3: tell you one thing, and you believe that till somebody
Speaker 3: else told you something else, and then you believe that
Speaker 3: till somebody else told you something else, and.
Speaker 2: The gossip went on and on and on.
Speaker 3: Have you ever noticed how often teenagers changed.
Speaker 2: Their minds even in just getting dressed.
Speaker 3: Have you ever noticed the chaos and a nursery Have
Speaker 3: you ever worked there?
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 3: Because they can change their minds all they want. All
Speaker 3: you do is change the diapers. Do preschoolers automatically keep
Speaker 3: their rooms in order?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Why, they're immature, they're irresponsible. Well, when we become as
Speaker 3: a society like that, here's what happens.
Speaker 2: Look upon the screen.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Proverbs twenty nine, verse eighteen, a
Speaker 3: nation without God's guidance is a nation without order?
Speaker 2: Why? Because we're acting immaturely.
Speaker 3: You see, the ability to know the difference between right
Speaker 3: and wrong is a mark of maturity. It's what every
Speaker 3: parent hopes for as you're growing up. Your parents wanted
Speaker 3: you to learn the difference between right and wrong so
Speaker 3: they didn't have to tell you, so that you, on
Speaker 3: your own could make decisions going, I know this is
Speaker 3: always true, and I know this is always wrong, and
Speaker 3: so I'm going to make the right decision now in
Speaker 3: each of these areas, I'm talking about society, but I
Speaker 3: want to make it personal.
Speaker 2: Too, So let me give you a question to write down.
Speaker 2: This is a question about immaturity.
Speaker 3: Ask yourself, where or when do I act childish? When
Speaker 3: do I act childish? When do I tend to be irresponsible?
Speaker 3: When do I tend to pass the buck? In what
Speaker 3: areas of my life? Do I tend to blame other people?
Speaker 3: Do you blame other people for your own unhappiness? The
Speaker 3: truth is you're as happy as you choose to be,
Speaker 3: and when you blame others, you are being irresponsible, and.
Speaker 2: That is a mark of truth.
Speaker 3: The number two, not only immaturity, but immorality is a
Speaker 3: mark of truth.
Speaker 2: To kay immorality. Now, when I say the word.
Speaker 3: Immorality, most people think of sexual immorality, but that's only
Speaker 3: one kind. Immorality just means no morals. It means I
Speaker 3: do whatever I want to do, and if there is
Speaker 3: no standard or right or wrong, then anything goes. The
Speaker 3: Bible tells us back in the Book of Judges that
Speaker 3: there was no king, there was no ruler in Israel,
Speaker 3: and it's that everybody did what was right in their
Speaker 3: own eyes. In other words, everybody did their own things.
Speaker 3: Sounds like our culture today. If there's no standard or
Speaker 3: right or wrong, anything goes, and with there's no truth,
Speaker 3: then I become the center of the universe, and I
Speaker 3: get very concerned about myself involvement. I'm preoccupied with me.
Speaker 3: I'm self centered. I worry about my pleasure, my goals,
Speaker 3: my getting ahead, and I don't really care about anything else.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this, and Ephesians four nineteen. They don't
Speaker 3: care anymore about right and wrong, and they've given themselves
Speaker 3: over to immral ways. Their lives are filled with all
Speaker 3: kinds of impurity and greed.
Speaker 2: Say, I don't care what.
Speaker 3: God says, if there's no right or wrong, I'm just
Speaker 3: doing what I want to do. I mean, if God
Speaker 3: says sex is only for marriage, well I'm sorry. God
Speaker 3: says that, I'm going to make up my own truth.
Speaker 3: I'll do what I want to do. See, here's how
Speaker 3: decay truth. Decay works. When you do something wrong, every
Speaker 3: time you do it, it gets easier.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you figure that out.
Speaker 3: First time you do something wrong, it really bugs you
Speaker 3: and you feel.
Speaker 2: Bad about it.
Speaker 3: All kinds of warning lights go off in your life.
Speaker 3: But the more you do something, it doesn't become it
Speaker 3: becomes easier and easier, and all of a sudden, it
Speaker 3: just doesn't bother you anymore that you're lying to your husband,
Speaker 3: or to your wife, or to somebody else. It just
Speaker 3: gets easier and easier. And the more immoral I means,
Speaker 3: without morals the society becomes the more they make fun
Speaker 3: of morality. Have you noticed this on television? I call
Speaker 3: it the south Park syndrome. Nothing sacred. We make fun
Speaker 3: of everything, including things that are true, things that are right,
Speaker 3: things that are good. The Bible tells us this, and
Speaker 3: proverbly fourteen nine it says up here on the screen, the.
Speaker 2: Stupid ridicule right and wrong.
Speaker 3: Now, how do you know when there's truth decay in
Speaker 3: your own life?
Speaker 2: You start rationalizing things.
Speaker 3: Now, ay, you've heard me say this before that when
Speaker 3: you rationalize, what are you doing? You are telling rational lies.
Speaker 3: That's what rationalized means. Rationalize is when you make up
Speaker 3: excuses in your mind what your heart tells you is wrong,
Speaker 3: and in your heart you know it's wrong, but you're trying.
Speaker 3: You want to do it anyway, So you rationalize. You
Speaker 3: make up a rational lies, an excuse in your mind
Speaker 3: to overcome what your heart is telling you.
Speaker 2: Don't do this, don't do this.
Speaker 3: So how do you know when there's truth k in
Speaker 3: your life? Here's the second question write down what am
Speaker 3: I trying to rationalize? What am I trying to rationalize
Speaker 3: in my life? And I'm not talking just about you know,
Speaker 3: you know, obvious sins, but just am I trying to
Speaker 3: rationalize my lifestyle? That I'm too busy, that don't take
Speaker 3: time to exercise, that I don't spend enough.
Speaker 2: Time with the kids. What am I trying to rationalize?
Speaker 3: And I do the yeah butts yeah, but that is
Speaker 3: a sign of truth, the kay in your life.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: What does it take to become more loving, live more peacefully,
Speaker 1: develop patients have self control?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick says, throughout all the years he's been a pastor,
Speaker 1: the number one question that he's been asked is wait
Speaker 1: for it. Why can't I change? You know, people really
Speaker 1: want to change, but they're stock and maybe you feel
Speaker 1: that way too. So in his book God's Power to
Speaker 1: Change Your Life, Rick lays out the groundwork for personal transformation,
Speaker 1: and then he offers biblical insights and simple steps for
Speaker 1: ten areas of growth that can take you from where
Speaker 1: you are right now to where you.
Speaker 2: Want to be.
Speaker 1: This book really connects you with the power to actually
Speaker 1: make the changes that you long to make. And as
Speaker 1: you apply the truth of God's Word by the power
Speaker 1: of His Spirit, your life will change and you'll get
Speaker 1: on track with God's wonderful purposes for your life. So
Speaker 1: be sure to request your copy of God's Power to
Speaker 1: change your life when you give a gift to Daily
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Speaker 2: Word for our daily hope.
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