When Your Beliefs Are Belittled — Part 2

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I'm so glad you're here. Today we're gonna continue our series called Unshakeable. 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 now here's part two of the message called when your beliefs are belittled. Here's Rick.

So how do you excel in your education when relativism is actually a fundament, a position of humanism? Well, let me give you six things. You need to write these down, and even if you've gone through school, you're gonna need to share these with students, children, grandchildren, and you're gonna need them the rest of your life, even at work. Okay? Here's how you excel in your education or even in your business. Number one, decide in advance to stand for God. You decide in advance to stand for God. The time to choose your loyalty is before the test happens, before you go back to school, before you go back to work. Jesus said in the world, you will have tribulation, not might, you will. So count on it. It's a guarantee. Should not be surprised that your faith is gonna be tested at school or your faith is gonna be tested at work or anywhere else. The Bible says in two Timothy 2, 13, look up here on the screen. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus might. No, not might. Will suffer persecution. If I'm not suffering any persecution in my life, guess what? It just means I'm not living a godly life. It means I'm living such a chameleon life that people don't even know I'm a Christian. And so I'm not suffering anything. If you live a godly life, you stand for truth, then you're gonna suffer some harassment, okay? So no big deal. It's gonna happen in your life. Parents, you need to prepare your students for this. You should expect your faith to be challenged during your two decades of school. At some point now, you need to be prepared for that test in school. During your education, you're gonna have a lot of tests. You got geography tests, sociology test. You got math tests, English tests, on and on and on. But the most important test you'll ever take during your education, the most important test is the test of your faith. You can fail social studies, but you can't fail at your faith because it has eternal implications. That's the big test that you need to be prepared for. And the truth is, when Christian students Go to school and they're faced with these harassments. You really got three choices. You can take a dive, you can withdraw to survive, or you can determine to thrive. Those are the three options you've got as a student. You can take a dive, go, forget it. I'm just dropping my faith. I'm not gonna try to defend it. I'm gonna walk away from my faith once I go to high school or college or whatever. You take a dive or you can withdraw to survive. That's where you pull back and you compartmentalize your life. Go, I'm not gonna let this life affect this life. This life. And God doesn't want them compartmentalized. Your education's part of your life, the Bible says. Or you can determine to thrive, which is what Daniel did and his three friends did. And they excelled at their education because they were prepared. They didn't let phony ideas blow em away. They just learned. It's kinda like eating fish. You eat the meat and throw away the bone. And that's with an education, you go, that's legitimate, that can help me. That's true. That's obviously scientifically accurate. That's a bunch of baloney. Like all ideas are equally valid, stuff like that. And so you start with deciding advance to stand for God. Daniel chapter 1, verse 8 says, Daniel made up his mind. In other words, he resolved, he decided in advance, made up his mind not to defile himself. So the starting point for you as a student or in any area of your life is to make a commitment and say, I'm gonna protect my mind, I'm gonna protect my body, and I'm gonna protect my heart while I'm trying to do the best I can at this education, at this job or whatever. And you set and you decide boundaries. Now how do you excel? How do you go to the top of your class in education? How do you become a great student? Well, the Bible says, look at the next verse. Proverbs 1, verse 7, start with God. Start with God. The first step in learning is bowing down to God. That's a humble attitude. Only fools thumb their nose at such wisdom and learning. You start with God. He's the foundation of all truth. He's the source of all knowledge and wisdom. And Paul told Timothy in one Timothy, he said, you know, Timothy, the problem with a lot of people is they know a lot, but they don't know. The most important thing is that they don't know God. You know a lot of other things. You could have so many degrees, they call you Dr. Fahrenheit. I've been to school most of my life. Okay, when I add up, okay, 12 years, you know, primary school, high school, then, you know, four years for a bachelor's degree, and then three more years for a master's degree. And then it took me about nine years to do my doctorate. And I'm going, man, I've been in school my entire life. And so I'm very pro education. But the Bible says, start with God. Only fools thumb their nose at such wisdom and learning. See, one day, you're gonna stand before God at the end of your life, and that's the final exam. The final exam is when you stand before God at the end of your life. It's far more important than an exam any teacher gives you. And at that final exam, God is not gonna say, hmm, how'd you do in social studies? Let me see your penmanship. Thank God he's not gonna ask that one. Some of us, you know, you have to have a degree in hieroglyphics to read our what you're reading. He's gonna say, did you know me? Did you get to know me? Proverbs 15:33 says this on your outline. Reverence for the Lord is an education in. In itself. Why? Because God invented everything else. He invented biology, he invented physics, he invented anatomy, he invented social studies, he invented geography, he invented art, he invented music. God thought it all up. And so the more you get to know God, he says, reverence for the Lord is an education in itself. History is his story. God knows the beginning, God knows the end. No professor knows that history is his story. So you decide in advance. Number two, second key thing is this. Never stop learning. Never stop learning. One of the slogans of our staff at saddleback for now 36 years is this. All leaders are learners. You can't be a leader if you're not learning. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop learning, you stop leading. Growing businesses require growing businessmen. Growing churches require growing pastors and staff. Growing organizations require growing leaders. The moment you stop growing, your business, organization, ministry, or whatever stops growing. All leaders are learners. The months you stop learning, you start dying. You start dying. You should have a lifelong thirst for learning. And so let me ask you, those of you who are adults or those of you who are students, what's the new skill you're gonna learn this next year? If you're not learning, you're dying. What's the new skill? You say, I intentionally wanna learn this this next year? You oughta know that. You oughta be intentional about never stopping. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:15, Wise men and women, wise women are always learning, always listening. For fresh insight, circle the word learning and circle the word listening and draw a line between them. I want you to notice the connection between listening and learning. You're never learning when you're talking. You learn when you're listening. Right now, I'm not learning anything. I learned as I was preparing for this, but I wasn't learn. I'm not learning anything. Right now. I'm talking. If you're listening, you might be learning something. So if that's true, you're not learning unless you're listening. One of the most important things you need to learn is the skill of listening. There are books on it, There are courses on this. You can learn to become a better listener. Parents. One of the best things you can do for your children, your students, is teach them the skill of listening. Because the better listener you are, the better learner you will be. Some of us don't know how to listen well, but the most skilled listeners are the best learners. Now, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2, 15, study circle that word study to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that isn't ashamed. The Bible says God wants you to study. He wants you to be a student. We talk about being a disciple of Jesus Christ and discipling men and women. Do you know what the word disciple means? It's the Greek word for student. A disciple is a student. A student is a disciple. I'm a student of Jesus Christ. I'm a disciple, but I'm a student of Jesus Christ. It just means I'm a learner. And so the Bible says, study to show yourself approved to God. God loves it. When you learn, then you are a workman that's not ashamed. You know, sometimes I'll talk to some adults, and within 15 minutes, I kind of realize they haven't cracked the book since graduation. Cause it shows. I mean, when they finish school and they go, thank God I don't ever have to read a book again. And it shows. It shows. When I was 14 years old, I started reading two books a week. At some points in my life, I was reading a book a day. And I have now over 35,000 volumes in my library. Why? Because the people you hang out with and the books you read will determine where your future's gonna be. So the Bible says, study to show yourself approved to God. Proverbs 19, verse 8. Those who get wisdom do themselves a favor. And those who love Learning will succeed. You are actually doing yourself a favor. The more you learn, you wanna succeed in life. I want you to succeed as your pastor. I love you. I want you to succeed in your relationships. I want you to succeed in your career. I want you to succeed in your finances. I want you to succeed in every area of your life because that brings honor and glory to God. The Bible says those who get wisdom and love learning are gonna succeed. Are gonna succeed. Now, it's important to know the difference between wisdom and knowledge. They're both important, they're both essential to success, but they're very different. And if you're gonna succeed in life, you need to get knowledge and you need to get wisdom. But they are not the same knowledge. I wrote the definition on your outline there. Knowledge is information that you gained from education or experience. And from education experience, you learn more information. You know more. The more you know, the more background you've got to accomplish the tasks and solve the problems and things like that in your life. Knowledge, information, wisdom. Write this down. Wisdom is seeing and responding from God's viewpoint. Wisdom is seeing and responding from God's viewpoint. Seeing your relationships from God's viewpoint and responding to them from God's viewpoint. Wisdom is seeing your finances from God's viewpoint and responding from God's viewpoint. Wisdom is seeing your career from God's viewpoint and responding from God's viewpoint. You can get knowledge in a book. You get wisdom from God. God is wise. Some people have a lot of knowledge. They have so much knowledge, but they're not wise. And that's why their relationships fall apart. You can have multiple PhD degrees and go through multiple divorces and go bankrupt and have all because you're not wise. You. You have knowledge, but you don't have wisdom. Knowledge comes from your education. Wisdom comes from God. God is the source of real wisdom. And one of the things that happens when you get wisdom, we'll talk about this in future things, is you start understanding the meaning of things. That's when you become wise. The meaning of things. You see a lot of people go and they get a high school degree and maybe even a college degree, maybe even a postgraduate degree. And they're still asking things like, who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I headed? What's the meaning of my life? Is there any significance to me? Does my life matter? What's my purpose? What's my meaning? Because those questions aren't solved by knowledge. The most fundamental, the deepest questions of your life are solved by wisdom, not by knowledge. And they come only from God. So you need to never stop learning. Now, this leads me to the third thing. If you wanna be wise in life, number three, steep myself in God's word. If I wanna excel in my education, you wanna graduate with honors, you need to steep yourself in God's word. Now, I intentionally chose that word steep, for a reason. Do you know what it means to steep a teabag? You know when you steep a teabag in tea, you know, you take a tea bag out of its thing and you dunk it in hot water and you kind of bounce it up and down, and you're steeping it and you can't do it fast. You can't go boom. And that's it. You're not gonna have any tea, okay? You gotta do it slowly and you bounce it up and down. And to steep, what that means is you're gonna soak that teabag, you're gonna saturate that teabag, and as it takes time, it doesn't happen quickly, it extracts all of the flavor of that teabag, okay? And that's what it means to steep. You extract all the flavor of that teabag. You can't do it rapidly. This is the same thing with God's Word. Now, I believe in speed reading. I'm a speed reader, but I never read the Bible with speed reading. I read it slowly, every single word. And I look at the Word. Why? Because the Bible says every word of God is pure. And so I read. If you read it fast, it's like flying a jet over the country. You don't see any of the details. If you walk across the United States slowly, you're gonna see a lot more details than if you ride in a car or do a train or take a plane. The faster you go, the fewer details you see. And if you're going too fast in life, you're missing all the details of life in your life. That's why your relationships are hard and other things are hard. You gotta slow it down. You gotta steep yourself in God's word. Time with God is of the essence. And you need to read your Bible every day. If you're a student or you're an adult, you need to read your Bible every day, and you need to memorize it. There are some verses you need to put in your mind so that they're there so that God can bring them to mind. When you're tempted or you need to answer something, you need to memorize it. Now, the alternatives to success in life is failure. You don't wanna be A failure. You want to succeed in whatever area you choose to live your life, and I want you to succeed. The next verse we're gonna look at is the clearest promise of success in the Bible. And if you're serious about succeeding in school, in work, in relationships, in any other area, you need to do this verse because it's the promise of success in the Bible. Joshua 1:8. God makes this promise to you. Study God's Word continually. Meditate on it day and night. That means all the time, so that you may be sure to obey all that is written in it. If you do this, you study, you meditate, and you do it. If you do this, you will be prosperous and successful. Is God a liar? No, he is not. This is a promise from God to you. You wanna be successful and prosperous in your life. Study God's Word continually, meditate on it day and night, and then obey it. That will make you wise. And with wisdom, the Bible says, comes riches, honor, and all kinds of other stuff, too. Now, when you say that word, meditate, what does it mean to meditate on the word of God? Biblical meditation simply means you think about a Bible verse over and over and over and over and over in your mind. Let me take a little test. Now, be honest here. Confession's good for the soul. How many of you know how to worry? See your hands. The rest of you are liars. Okay, okay. If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate. Because worry is just negative meditation. When you take a fear, when you take an anxiety or you take a problem and you think about it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, we call that worry. When you take a verse of the Bible and you think about it over and over and over and over and over, we call that meditation. God says the secret of success in life is wisdom. And the secret of wisdom is meditation on the word of God. The more you meditate on this, the wiser man you're gonna be, the wiser woman you're gonna be. And so you think about it over and over and over. And by the way, have you noticed when you worry about something, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger? You know, it starts off, you know, one guy doesn't like me, keep worrying about it. Pretty soon the whole world thinks I suck, okay? And, you know, it just gets all out of proportion when you think about God's word. It's steeping it. It's getting every ounce of nourishment, nutrition and flavor out of that verse. Now, I want you to write this on your outline. I must learn the truth in order to discern the lies.

Hey, thanks so much for joining us today here on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. You know, as we look at the unprecedented things going on in our world today, it is so clear that we need to be equipped with the biblical wisdom that gives us power to handle whatever life throws at us. So that's why Pastor Rick created a life changing Bible study called Unshakeable. And it's based on the book of Daniel. In these eight powerful video lessons, Rick will teach you how to handle life's most difficult trials and situations and how to thrive under extreme pressure, how to pray the kind of prayers that God answers. And this video study includes a workbook. It's perfect for individual or small group Bible study. Please request your copy today. When you give a gift to help Daily Hope take the Word of God to people around the world, you just go to pastorrick.com to get your copy. That's pastorrick.com or just text the word hope to 70309. Again, the word hope to 70309. And thanks so much for your support. Your gift to Daily Hope means so much to us because it helps us share the hope of Jesus Christ to people all around the world. 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.