When Your Beliefs Are Belittled — Part 3

This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad that you found us today. And whether you're at home or in your car, we're so glad that you're here. And we pray that God will give you hope in times of difficulty. Rick is taking us through the Book of Daniel, and that's so we'll be equipped to handle whatever curveball life throws at us, even the most difficult trials. And let's get started right now with today's message of hope. Here's Rick with part three of a message called when you your beliefs are belittled.

There are lies all around you in this culture, worldview lies, cultural lies, moral lies, political lies, and on and on and on. The world is filled with lies, things that just aren't true. And so I have to learn the truth in order to discern the lies. The only way you're gonna know what's a lie in life. What's not true, what's false, what's fake is know the real thing. Do you know that the U.S. treasury Department, the way they train their agents to spot a counterfeit is they don't give them counterfeit bills and go, here, these are counterfeit bills, look at them. Cause there's a million different kinds of counterfeit. Now the way they train agents to recognize counterfeit is they give them fresh, clean, crisp $1 5, $10, 20, 50, $100 bills and say, study these, meditate on the real thing. And you know it so well, and you know the details of a true American dollar so well. You see a counterfeit, oh, that's fake. You can spot it right off the bat. They don't study the fake to know the fake. You study the real to know the false. You study the authentic to know the in'tauthentic. You study the true to know that's not right, that's false. You study what's right. What God says is right in order. Well, that's wrong. The reason why so many students today and so many adults today are falling for stupid ideas in our society that happen to be popular right now is cause they don't know the truth, they don't know the authentic. So they can't spot a phony, false, fake idea. But the more you know God's word, you're gonna go, oh, clearly that's wrong. That's a dead end. That'll destroy your relationship. That's not gonna work. You're gonna end up destroying yourself on that. That's a self destructive idea. And the more you know the truth the more you learn the truth, the more you can discern the lies. And if you don't know this, you know when a student comes home to parent and the student says, well, what about this? Well, you can't answer that unless you know the truth. So God says, I want you to learn in order to discern. And when you do that, then you can see what's false. The Bible says in Psalm 119, verse 104, your commandments, that's the Bible, give me great understanding. It's no wonder I can see and hate every false way of life. Why? Cause I know the authentic so well. I can see a phony and a fake a mile away. That idea is going nowhere. It's been around for 2,000 years, and it's wrong. So your commandments give me understanding. It's no wonder I can see and hate every false way of life. Now, those of you, your students, would you like to be smarter, more insightful, wiser than your teachers? The Bible tells you how, as a student, you can actually have more insight than your own teachers do. Okay? And it's this. Psalm 119, verse 99 says this. I am wiser and I have more insight than all my teachers because I continually meditate on your word. I'm not listening to what man says, what public opinion says, what culture says. I'm listening to what God says. And if it's true, it's always been true and it will always be true. The moon isn't gonna change into spaghetti next year. It will always be rock. And God says, build your house on the rock of God's truth. Now, in school, this indoctrination program, I told you, Daniel's having to learn all kinds of stuff he doesn't believe in. But that's okay. He's mature enough. He can handle it. He can learn his stuff. He can ace the test. He can graduate with honors. And Daniel is dedicated and he's diligent and he's discerning and he's disciplined and going through school, he's excellent and he's focused. And no matter what the professors throw at him, it's kinda like the moon in this color means this in your life. He's not anxious. He's not afraid. He's not combative. Okay, he's not combative. He's not cowardly. He's not backing off. He's not doubtful. Why? Because he knows God's word. Now, this is the key to wisdom. But to spend more time in God's word means you gotta watch Less tv. You gotta have more book time in God's word and less screen time. Okay? You gotta have less screen time. Students. Let me talk to students for just a minute. By the time you reach 18 years of age, if you're a typical American, you will have amassed over 30,000 hours in front of a screen. Video game, iPad, laptop, television. You will have amassed over 30,000 hours looking at a screen by the time you're 18. In contrast, you know how long it takes to read through the Bible? 66 books in one volume takes about 80 hours. Now, by the time you get to 18, you're ready to go off to school. College. If you do go off to college, you will have watched 30,000 hours of screen time and you have not read through the entire Bible. It only takes 80 hours. Is it any wonder, as they said last week, if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. You got to know the word of God. Here's a verse about this. Look on the screen. Proverbs 15, 14. A wise person is hungry for truth while. While the fool feeds on trash. Hmm. You might wanna put that on your television. Right there. Okay. Just paste it right on there. Okay. The fool feeds on trash. So what I'm saying to you, who are students and even adults, you need less Facebook and more face in the book. Okay? All right. Somebody should tweet that. Warrenism right there. Okay? You need less Facebook and more face in the book. All right? A wise person is hungry for truth while the fool feeds on trash. Okay? Number four, the fourth thing, to excel at your education and you're gonna be learning the rest of your life. This is important while you're out of school too. Choose believers as my best friends. The reason Daniel makes it through this three year indoctrination process is he's not alone. He's got his three best friends who are helping him go together. They got a small group. Choose believers as your best friends. Now, God wants you to have non believers as friends too. So I'm not saying don't have unbelievers friends. You should have unbelievers as friends. Why? God wants you to love everybody. God wants you to show kindness to everybody. God wants you to be able to help everybody. God wants you to be able to share the good news with everybody. If you don't have any non Christian friends, who you gonna share the good news with? So God wants you to have non believer friends, but your best friends, the ones you hang out with the most. The ones you spend time with the Most should be strong, strong believers. Why? Cause if I come up here, is it easier for me to pull you up or for you to pull me down? There's no doubt about that. It's always easier to pull people down than to pull them up. You wanna make sure the people you hang out with the most are pulling you up, that they're building you up, not tearing you down. So you wanna choose unbelievers as your best friends? Let me ask you a question, all of you students and adults. How do you Wanna be different 10 years, 10 years from today? What kind of woman do you wanna be different than you are right now, 10 years from today? What kind of man do you wanna be than you are right today? You know, without even knowing you, I can predict the kind of person you're gonna be in 10 years if you'll just tell me two things. Number one, tell me the people you spend the most time with and tell me what you're reading, because that's gonna determine your future. Who you hang out with and what you fill your mind with is gonna determine your future. We worry about food pollution and air pollution and water pollution. Do you ever worry about mind pollution? The garbage you allow in your mind. Garbage in, garbage out. The books you read and the friends you choose are gonna determine your future and where you go. So you gotta choose your best friends to be strong believers. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says this, look at this verse. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Anybody wanna give a testimony of that? Every one of us have been pulled in the wrong direction by friends, that we're foolish. Now, some of you who are students, you're getting ready to start school. And my question to you, some of you are actually gonna start a new school. You're gonna go off to college. You're gonna go to high school, you're gonna go to junior high. And my question to you would be this. How do you intend to select your friends? How do you intend to select your friends? Well, I know what the typical answer will be, because what we normally think, well, I'm just gonna go on the campus and I'll meet some people and we'll become friends. No, your friendships are too important an influence in your life to leave them to chance. You need to be intentional about your friends. You need to be strategic about your friends. You need to be wise about your friends. You don't just say, well, whoever I happen to hang out with, I'm in the dorm. This is my roommate. They become my best Friend. No, that's not smart enough. That's not good enough. You should decide in advance the kind of friends you want to have. You need to choose friends. You need to get into church where you got a friend, and you need to find a Christian teacher at your school. There are literally hundreds of thousands of good, godly Christian teachers in public education. These are good people. They're godly people. They love the next generation. They love learning. And you need to find, on every campus, you'll find a Christian teacher, at least one. And you need to go to them, get to know them. They would be glad to be your friend. They would be glad to encourage you. You just need to find them, identify yourself. Say, hey, I'm a believer. I heard you're a believer. Can you just be an encouragement to me while I'm going to school? Teachers, coaches, counselors, administrators, they're there. They're there and they wanna help you succeed and maintain your faith at the same time. So you just need to find that person. Now, I also recommend that you go form a Christian group or join a Christian group at the college or the campus you're part of. And you know, if you can't form a formal club, don't worry about it. Don't form a formal club. Just say, you know, we're gonna meet at lunchtime over here under this tree and just get together with other Christians on campus. So you support each other. Choose your friends wisely. Now, the Bible also says there's some people you need to stay away from. Look at this verse. Proverbs 14, verse 7. Stay away from fools or you won't learn a thing. That's pretty clear. Stay away from fools or you won't learn. Like the guy who goes, wow, wow. Yeah, man, wow. You know, it's real clear you're not gonna learn a lot from that guy.

Okay?

By the way, how do you. The Bible says, stay away from fools or you're not gonna learn a thing. So if you wanna excel in your education, stay away from foolish friends. How do you know a foolish friend? Read the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs was written by the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon. It's full of proverbs, little tidbits of wisdom. They're all tweetable. And there are 31 chapters in the Book of Proverbs. So if you're a student or you're an adult, you can read through the Book of Proverbs in one month. Read a chapter a day, and here's what you do is you make two columns and you write, characteristics of a wise person, characteristics of a fool. And the Bible in the book of Proverbs tells you very clearly, this is what a fool does. And, and this is what a wise person does. And then you can know, I wanna hang out with group A and not hang out with group B. You need to read through the book of Proverbs and choose your friends wisely. By the way, I'll just throw this in for free for you as parents. I'll warn you, the Bible tells parents not to waste money on the student getting an education who doesn't want to learn. Look at this verse on the screen. The Bible says in Proverbs 17:16, it's senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool who has no heart for wisdom. Hello. Maybe you think, well, they just go off to college. Maybe they'll grow up. That's not a place to grow up because they'll give you all the wrong stuff. You wait until they have a heart for learning and a heart for wisdom, and then they want to learn. Then you can pay for their tuition. But don't waste the money on somebody who doesn't even interested in growing. It'll actually be worse rather than good. Because if you're not going to college to learn, there's only two other reasons. Sex and alcohol. So you're gonna pay for that. That's what kids go for who don't wanna learn sex and alcohol. Now, stay away from fools. There's lots of characteristics of fools in the Bible. Let me just give you 1. Here's 1. Ecclesiastes 10:3. Fools show their stupidity by the way they live. So it's easy to see that they have no sense. So that's kind of obvious, okay? Now, in contrast, here's what the Bible says to do. Psalm 1:1 2. The happiest people, the ones God blesses. You wanna be happy? You want God to bless your life? Okay, here's what you do. The happiest people, the one God blesses. Don't walk with those who suggest evil advice. Hey, let's go do this. It'll be a whole lot of fun. I don't know. Let's go do this. Don't walk with those who suggest evil advice. Don't stand with those who like to sin. And don't sit around with cynics who deny God. That's how you're gonna be happy. You're gonna have God's blessing. Now notice the way you get trapped by foolish or bad friends. There's a legitimate devolution. Devolution here of the levels of hanging out. It says, first you don't walk with them. Now, if you're walking with somebody across campus, you're not spending a whole lot of time with them. You're just kinda walking with them. But then all of a sudden, the walking with them turns into standing. When you're standing with somebody now you're hanging out and you're listening with him and he says, don't walk with this group. Don't stand with this group and don't sit around. Now you fully participating. You're sitting around with cynics who deny God, so don't do that. Okay, Number five, the fifth thing. Daniel did these things, and you need to do these things in your life to excel at your education. Stay connected to a church, a small group, and a ministry. All three of them are essential. A church, a small group and a ministry, okay? You need input, you need output, and you need support. You're gonna need support when you go for your education at every stage, because your faith is going to be tested. So the first thing you need is you need a church family for support. And you find a good church family like Saddleback, go, that's gonna be my family. And you get support. Hebrews 10:25 says this. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. Now, I want you to circle the phrase not give up. Because the reason why students lose their faith in college is they stop doing all the things that made them spiritually strong. They stopped going to church. They stopped being in a small group. They stopped being involved in a ministry. Let us not give up meeting together. Now, let's just face it, folks. Today because of the Internet, you don't have to come to church to watch the service. You can just stay home and watch online, stay in your pajamas, make a late breakfast or whatever. You don't have to come to church. But the Bible says, don't give up meeting together. Why? Because I don't have time to get into this. There are at least 10 things that happen when you actually come to a gathering that you don't get just watching online. You can get content watching online, but there are at least 10 other things you don't get unless you meet together. And so I would encourage you to not give up the habit of meeting together, going, well, you know, I'll go to church once a month and three times a month, I'll just watch it online. Well, well, you're hurting yourself. I'll do a whole message on this sometime about what you get when you get in a meeting, the face to face stuff and all of that that you don't get just watching a screen. So I would encourage you, don't give up the habit of meeting together. Say, you know, whenever the doors are open at church, I wanna be there. The reason why is I never know what I'm gonna miss. I can look back on my life and I can see times where if I had missed that service, my life would take on a radically different point in life. And I thought, man, what if I had missed that service? That was the one God designed for me. What if I just slept in that week? I would have missed something that actually changed the vector of the rest of my life. So if the door's open, I want to be there. Okay, you need to be. And it's kind of like this. Not only do you need a church, you need a small group. A small group's kind of like a campfire, and so is a church. In a campfire you got all these hot coals, and they're red hot and they're burning hot. But if you take one single coal out over here and you set it away, six feet away, in a matter of minutes, it cools, the fire goes out of it and it goes dark. Because that's the power of fellowship, of community. On the other hand, if I take that coal that's lost its fire, lost its heat, and I take it and I put it back in the fire where it's with the other coals, it gets hot again. Wow.

Some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now, this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast. This is letters from our listeners. And now here's Rick today.

I wanna tell you about Diana. Diana's a nurse and she helps people every single day when they're facing their most difficult times. Diana wrote me this. Listening to Daily Hope has not only helped me face challenges in my journey as a new nurse, but it's also provided me words of hope to impact the lives of all my patients and even their families. The toughest thing most of us deal with is the loss of a loved one. And learning more about God's love through Daily Hope has allowed me to share with many, many people about the hope and the trust and the love that we can find in our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful to God for using you as an instrument for bringing me and many others to a daily hope in Jesus. Well, Diana, I just can't thank you enough for writing me. I love receiving these testimonial letters and so I'm glad that your patients and their families that you take care of have somebody like you to walk with them through the tough times they go through when they are ill. Thank you so much for sharing God's promises with the people as they face their difficulties and even death. I want you to know that the promises of God are the best news that we can receive ever during our times of illness, and Daily Hope is here to support you in your ministry to others. God bless you.

You know, a great way to share the good news of Jesus is to share the Daily Hope messages with people who need to hear them. Just go to pastorrick.com click on the listen tab. There you'll find buttons where you can share the message by email, social media or WhatsApp. That's pastorrick.com be sure to join us next time as we look into God's Word for our Daily Hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.