If you take out your message
notes inside your program. Today we're in part three
of unshakable, thriving no matter what they throw at you. We're looking at nine lessons
from the life of that great character in the Bible, Daniel. Starting at about the age of five, you're gonna spend the better
part of the next two decades getting an education. Hopefully that education
will continue learning the rest of your life. An education is a good thing. In fact the Bible has a lot
to say about the importance of you getting an education. The Bible says we're to
love God with our minds. That's in the great commandment. How do you love God with your mind? By using it. By developing it. By not wasting it. By educating it. That's one of the ways you
love God with your mind by learning all you can. The Bible's got a lot to say
about learning and education. Let me just show you a couple
verses, here on the screen. The Bible says in Proverbs 19:8, "Do yourself a favor and learn
all you can; then remember "what you learn and you will prosper." He says you're doing yourself a favor, when you get an education. Then remember it and you're gonna prosper. That's another word for success. You want to be successful in
life, get a good education. It's not by accident that in
almost every country of the world, the first school
and the first hospital were started by Christians,
started by the Church. The Church invented the hospital. We are a preaching,
teaching, and healing faith, that's why there's Christian schools and St. Mary's, St. Joseph's
Hospitals everywhere you look, because we believe in the
body, the mind, and the soul. God doesn't just care about your soul, he cares about your mind and your body. Now, your education
doesn't end with school. To be successful, you're
gonna be learning the rest of your life. Let me show you another verse. Proverbs 24:5 says this, "Wisdom brings strength,
and knowledge gives power." When I was driving into
the services last night, I heard an ad on the
radio and somebody said, "Knowledge is power." Do you know what that came from? Came from the Bible. The Bible was the first to
say that knowledge is power. If you want to be strong,
you want to be powerful, learn as much as you
can, get an education. Wisdom brings strength and
knowledge brings power. Later on I'm gonna talk to you
about the difference between wisdom and knowledge
because their both important but they're different. The Bible actually says that
getting an education is a good investment of your time
and your life and your money. In fact it's an investment in yourself. But the Bible also says
that you need to be careful about your education. You need to guard your
education because you need to learn the right stuff. Proverbs 4:13 on your outline says this, "Your education is your life, "so guard it well." Students, are you guarding your education? Say I don't know how to do that. We're gonna talk about
how to do that today. Parents and relatives are
you helping students that you know guard their education? Now last week, in the last
message, I talked about before every test, I mean before every blessing
there's always a testing. God tests you to see if you are
ready to handle the blessing the success, the influence,
the power, the blessing he wants to give you before
every blessing in your life, there's always a testing. God tests you with stress before he blesses you with success, before
he trusts you with success. He tests you and then he trusts you. We've been looking at the
nine common tests of life. They're all in the life of Daniel, and we looked at a major change and we looked at peer pressure. This week Daniel's still a
teenager, this is the last message on his teen years. We're gonna look at the test of challenges to your faith. Remember last week I told you
the background of the life of Daniel. The most powerful empire in
the world was the Babylonian Empire, which is in modern day Iraq. King Nebuchadnezzar was the
most powerful man in the world. He comes in and he crushes
Israel and they bring a nation. He destroys the city of Jerusalem. And he takes 25% of the Jewish population as prisoners of war. 25% of the country is
taken as prisoners of war and taken back to Babylon for
70 years they're held captive. One of those in that prisoner of war group is a young teenager named
Daniel, he's 15 years old. He has three good friends
that the Bible talks about in this book. He's in a brand new country. The Bible says that after these
prisoners of war were taken back that the King
Nebuchadnezzar decides that he's going to create an
indoctrination program for the prisoners of war. I told you last week they
give you a new identity, a new name, a new religion, you cannot even eat the
food you used to eat. Everything changes in your life, he says, "We're gonna make you Babylonians. "You're gonna forget God,
you're gonna forget the Bible, "And you're gonna do this," and he's gonna start a three
year indoctrination program and the Bible says in Daniel
Chapter 1 verse four and five, "King Nebuchadnezzar commanded this "Select young men..." These POWs, "and make sure that they are
well versed in every branch "of learning." This is gonna be like a
college degree here, he says, "I want you to teach these young men "all the language and all the
literature of the Babylonians. "They're gonna learn our culture. "They are to be trained for three years, "and then some will serve the King "after they graduate." So this is an indoctrination program. Now Daniel and his three best friends, actually get chosen for this program, and they're gonna be educated. Now they're probably
pretty excited about this, they were just prisoners of war, they're young teenagers in
a foreign country and all of a sudden the King picks them
for his top degree program. There was probably a
little bit of mixture of excitement and fear, kind of like when you went off to college, a little bit excitement,
a little bit of fear. It sounds pretty great. However, a lot of the courses
that they were gonna be taught were totally anti God. Because the Babylonian
culture was filled with polytheism and it was a
Pagan education system. In fact Daniel 1:4 in the
message paraphrase says this on the screen, "indoctrinate them in
the Babylonian lore," okay that's the myths and stuff, "of magic and fortunetelling." Huh? Do you want to be educated
in magic and fortunetelling? He says, this education
system was designed to produce psychics and fortune tellers. Why? Because the Babylonians
were incredibly superstitious. So they're gonna have to
learn a lot of stuff they obviously don't agree
with and don't believe. But God had prepared Daniel
and his three teenage friends. In verse 17 it says this, "God gave these four young
men an unusual aptitude "for learning the literature
and the science of that day." Now let me just pause on
that verse for just a minute, what that verse says, is that God never asks you
to do something he doesn't give you the ability to do. Let me say it another way. God will never put more
on you than he puts in you to bear it up. These guys had already
passed two important tests. Major change and peer pressure
and they came out with flying colors. Now God gives them an even bigger test and that test is this. Can you study in a Pagan
school and not lose your faith? And if they pass this one
they're gonna get promoted again. Every time you pass a
test, you get promoted. Now the problem as I said with
this Babylonian school system is that it's totally unGodly. They're gonna learn all kind
of myths and all kinds of superstitions and not one god but multiple gods
and all kinds of occultic practices and false science and falsies and bad logic and reason. Not everything the
Babylonians believed was bad. In fact the Babylonians
gave us some stuff. The Babylonians were the
first to discover the planet Jupiter. Without a telescope. They were great students of
the stars but it wasn't for scientific reasons it was
for religious reasons. It wasn't for astronomy,
it was for astrology. You see the Babylonians
believed that there were many many kinds of Gods and that they spoke to
us every day in omens by what color the planets were. So if the moon was this color,
then one of the gods was saying this to you, and if
Jupiter was another color then the god was saying this, you know the zodiac? They invented it. They invented astrology. So it wants about
astronomy, a legit science, it was about astrology, a fake religion. They believed that God spoke
through all of these stars and stuff like that. You've got your mystics
and your physics and your fortune tellers and your star gazers, and that's what they're gonna learn. So they're gonna be trained
to be like fortune tellers. This is not really that good of a program. Now, as I said, you did
learn some stuff from the Babylonians for instance, the 60 minutes of your watch, the reason we have 60 minutes
an hour is because the Babylonians thought the number
60 was a magical number. So they divided up an hour in 60. We talked about 360 degrees in a circle. That's Babylonian because
it was a root of 60. They thought that was a magical number. So even til today we still
have some of the leftovers of why things are the way
they were from this society. Now in verse 18 the Bible says this, "When the three year
training was completed," they had to learn all this
phony stuff as well as some good stuff, "When the three year training
was completed, the chief "official brought the young
men to King Nebuchadnezzar." All the POWs. "The King talked with each
of them, and none of them "impressed him as much
as Daniel, Hannaniah, "Mishael, and Azariah." That's his three best friends. So they were appointed to his
regular staff as advisors. Now get this, they're 15 years
old when this thing starts. They go through three year... They're only 18 years old
and now you're an advisor to the most powerful man in
the Kingdom, in the world. This is what you call
graduating with honors. (audience laughs) This is not magna cum
laude, this is over the top. You go from a 15 year old
POW to three years later 18, you're an advisor to the
most powerful man on earth. The leading empire at that day and time. That's pretty heady stuff. And it says, "So they were appointed to
his regular staff as advisers! "And in all matters requiring wisdom, "and balanced judgement, the
king found that the advice "of these young men," Daniel and his three friends. "To be ten times better than
that of all the magicians "and enchanters in his entire kingdom." That's called excelling in your education. What I want to talk to you today about is how do you do that? Whether you're a student
now, or the education for the rest of your life. How do you learn what the
world wants to teach you without losing your faith? That's an important
thing you need to know. You're education actually is
only as good as the content you learn. You can go to school all your
life, but if you're learning phony, fake, false,
unscientific, untrue content it's not gonna help you. This has happened of course in
our country here in America. In 1962 and 1963 the Supreme
Court in three major rulings took the Bible and prayer out
of school, in 1962 ans 1963. Up to that time for over 300
years, the Bible had been the primary textbook in public education, right there along with McGuffey's
reader and a few others. The Bible was the primary
text book for education in America, it's what
made our country great. In fact, maybe you don't know this, everyone of the ivy league
schools were started by Pastors to train Pastors. All of education starting
in America was Christian when it started, every one of them. Harvard, started by
Pastors to train Pastors. Yale, started by Pastors to train Pastors. Princeton, started by
Pastors to train Pastors. Every single one of the ivy
league schools were started by Christians to train Christians. The only exception is Cornell. So the Supreme Court takes
300 years of the Bible all of the sudden out of the public schools. Now, a lot of people thought
maybe this is a good idea. Maybe they're just taking
religion out of schools and really church should teach religion and schools shouldn't. So we'll just take it out. The problem was they didn't
just remove a religion. What they did is they
took out Christianity and they replaced it with
another religion called Secular Humanism. Now you say, "Well Secular
Humanism that's not a religion." Oh yes it is. It's definitely a religion. Like Buddhism, it's a religion without
a god but it's religion. The founder of modern
education was John Dewey. He was a very famous humanist
and he called humanism our common faith quote our common faith. In 1933 when a group of
educators got together to write the humanist manifesto which
Dewey and many many other famous educators signed, in that document, Secular Humanism is called a religion. Julian Huxley, a very
famous atheist of that day, called Secular Humanism
religion without revelation. In other words without
a Bible, without a text. In fact in 1961, two years earlier, the Supreme Court had
actually ruled in a decision that Secular Humanism is a religion. The Supreme Court called it a religion. So they just took out
Christianity and put in another religion. Now what that means is that for the last years since, today
it's not uncommon if you grew up in public education like I
did, and you probably did too. That during your years of
education they're gonna be probably some people
who belittle the Bible, attack your beliefs,
contradict your values, ridicule your faith, laugh at your moral stance,
your values and your ethics, they're gonna laugh at that, and today, opposition to
the Christian world view has increased so much, that they've now made movies about it. Lots of movies about it. Let me just show you a
clip from one, watch this. - [Voiceover] Name? - Weaton, Josh Weaton, Philosophy 150. - You might want to think
about a different instructor. - Come on man it cannot be that bad. - Think Roman Colosseum,
people cheering for your death. - I am Professor Radison and
this is Philosophy 1-5-0. I would like to bypass
senseless debate altogether and jump to the conclusion which
every sophomore's already aware of, there is no God. All that I require from
each of you, is that you fill in the papers I've just
given you with three little words, God is dead. Mr. Weaton, is something wrong? - I can't do what you
want, I'm a Christian. - If you cannot bring yourself
to admit that God is dead, then you will need to
defend the antithesis. - I think of Jesus as my friend. - You think Jesus is God? - I don't want to disappoint him. - So your acceptance of this challenge, may be the only meaningful
exposure to God and Jesus they'll ever have. - And to me, he's not dead. I don't want anyone to get
talked out of believing in him just because this professor
thinks they should. - Mr. Weaton, are you ready? - We're going to put God on trial. - Do you think you're
smarter than me, Weaton? Do not try to humiliate me
in front of my students. In that classroom, there
is a god and I'm him. - This experiment is over. You get to decide who the
most important person in your life is, me or Professor Radison. - I have to do this thing. I feel like it's something
that God wants me to do, I can't just turn away from it. - You just want to ensnare
them in your primitive superstitions. - What I want is for them
to make their own choice. That's what God wants. - You have no idea how much
I'm gonna enjoy failing you. - Then who are you really looking to fail, me or God? - Now there are gonna
be some people who try, some, maybe a few, who try
to get you to doubt the Bible or deny your faith or whatever. If you're a freshman in particular, Secular teacher or atheist
professor can be pretty intimidating. What most students and even most adults don't know, something you do need to
know when that happens, is two things. Reality, reality check right here number one, the actual number of real
atheists in the world is minuscule. It's actually quite small. According, go look this up, according to the Encyclopedia
Britannica right now today that in the world about 2%
of the people in the world are atheist. The actual number of atheists
in the world is actually quite small outside of
Europe, Manhattan, and college universities. (audience laughs) Teachers who have tenure,
they can believe whatever they want, but, not only that, every study including
Encyclopedia Britannica has said, you can go Google this, that since 2000, the number of atheists in the
world has actually shrunk. Since 2000. It's not getting bigger,
it's actually shrunk. In fact it has shrunk zero
point one seven percent since the year 2000. The other thing that every
Christian student needs to know is this, that the world is actually
getting more religious not less. The future of the world is not Secularism. Nothing points to that. It is actual the opposite,
it's getting more religious. Let me put this in perspective. There are about 15
million Jews in the world. About half of them live in America, and about another half live in Israel and a few scattered around the world. There are 600 million
Buddhists in the world. There are 800 million Hindus in the world. There are 1.5 billion
Muslims in the world. And there are 2.3 billion
Christians in the world. One out of every three
people on this planet is a Christian, they
follow Lord Jesus Christ. I have spoken three times
at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It's a gathering of all of the
brainiacs, the intellectuals of Europe, the bankers of Europe, and they're very Secular and
the last time I was there it kind of shocked them when I said, "You may not like this, "but the future of the
world is not Secularism. "We're not becoming more Secular. "We're becoming more religious. "In different religions." Islam and Christianity are
the two fastest growing religions in the world. Islam is growing through birthrate, Christianity is growing
through conversion. So you're gonna have to learn
how to live in a pluralistic world of people who disagree with you, but it's not gonna be
primarily Secularism. Since though, public schools, particularly
universities are the seed bed, or the primary
bastion of unbelief. I want us to look today at
how do you excel in school? How do you really graduate
at the top of your class, just like Daniel and his did. When you don't agree with a lot of stuff that's being taught. Many schools today are wrong
about a lot of the important stuff in life, like your identity, your sexuality, your purpose in life, the meaning of your life, and all of these kinds of things. One of the reasons is because
one of the big ideas held in a lot of schools is the idea
that all truth is relative. That what's right for
me, what's true for me, may not be true for you, and what's true for you
may not be true for me. No opinions are relative. But truth is truth. If it's true, it's always true,
it's true a thousand years ago, it'll be true a
thousand years from today. Gravity will not change in
the next one hundred years. There's a truth to gravity. If it's true, it's not new,
it's been around forever. But this idea that truth is
relative and some professors particularly in universities
will go so far to say and you might even hear this, "There is no absolute truth." Now whenever anybody says
that to you you said say are you absolutely sure? (audience laughs) Because they just did a
self refuting statement. It's nonsense, illogical, it's irrational. You can't even say that. Because it violates the point itself. There is no absolute truth. You've just stated an absolute. (audience laughs) So it's nonsense. Nobody can live that way
even if you did believe it. Nobody believes that
everything is relative. If that was true, no body
would stop at a red stop light. Oh that's not true for me right now. (audience laughs) No, you always stop at a red light, or you get killed, it's just not true. There's stuff that's
always absolutely true, and stuff that's always
not absolutely true. So today in a Secular
education the idea is, it's okay for you to think you're right, it's just not okay for you to
think somebody else is wrong. Well there are some things
that are always right, and there's some things
that are always wrong. I could say the moon is
made of silica, rock, or I could say the moon
is made of peanut butter and the moon is made of spaghetti. Those are not equally valid ideas, and yet some people say all
ideas are equally valid. That's nonsense. All ideas are not equally valid. If that were true, you
could pick up your phone, dial any phone number and get home. (audience laughs) The fact is in the entire universe, there's only one and only one
number that will get you home. Every other number you dial
will be a wrong number. Some things are wrong,
and some things are right. You just say well I can dial
any number and get home. It doesn't work that way. I mean I could say Jesus is God, Rick Warren is God, Bruno Mars is God. (audience laughs) Those are not equally valid ideas. One might have a better
likely hood than others, but some things are gonna
be right, and some things are gonna be wrong. So how do you excel in your
education when relativism is actually a fundamental
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, grand children,
and you're gonna need them the rest of your life, even at work. 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 2 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. 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 tests, 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. 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, just 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 effect 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 then excelled at their
education because they were prepared. They didn't let phony
ideas blow them away, it's kind of like eating fish. You eat the meat and throw away the bone. That's within 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
in advance to stand for God. Daniel Chapter one Verse eight 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. You set and you decide boundaries. 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 1:7, "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 first 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, they don't know God. You know a lot of other things. You could have so many degrees
they call you Dr. Fahrenheit. (audience laughs) I've been to school most of my life. When I add it up, 12
years in primary school, and high school, then four years for bachelor's
degree, and then three more years for a master's degree. Then it took me about nine
years to do my doctorate and I'm going man I've been
in school my entire life. 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
any exam any teacher gives you. And at that final exam,
God is not gonna say, "How'd you do in social studies? "Let me see your penmanship." Thank God he's not gonna ask that one. (audience laughs) Some of us, 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 itself." Why? Because God invented everything else. He invented biology, he invented physics, he invented anatomy, he invented social studies,
he invited geography, he invented art, he invented music, God thought it all up. 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 thing. 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 a learner. All leaders are learners. The moment you stop
learning you stop leading. Growing businesses require
growing business men. 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 want to learn this this next year. You ought to know that,
you ought to be intentional about never stopping learning. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:15, "Wise men and women "are always learning, "always listening for fresh insights." 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'm not learning
anything right, 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 you 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 Bibles say 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, we talk about one of the
purposes of our church is discipleship, and
disciplining 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. Sometimes I'll talk to some
adults and within 15 minutes, I kind of realize that haven't cracked a book since graduation. Because it shows. 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
you're future's gonna be. The Bible says "Study to show
yourself approved to God." Proverbs 19:8, "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 want to 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. It's important to know the
different 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 or 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 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 because you're not
wise, 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. 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 maybe even a college degree,
maybe even a post graduate 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? Whats 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 want to be wise in life. Number three, steep myself in God's word. If I want to excel in my
education, you want to 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 take a teabag 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. (audience laughs) You got to 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. 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. 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 to fast
in life, you're missing all the details of life, in your life. That's why you're relationships are hard, and other things are hard. You've 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 everyday 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 for this message
for all of our students, and if any of you adults
want to, I'll send it to you, just email me, I have created a guide called resources, to keep you strong. When you're going through
school, or at work, and in this guide that I
just created this week, it has the top Bible verses
in the Bible you need to know. The top ten you need to
memorize and other ones you need to know, and you need to have these
to excel in your education, excel in your career. The top Bible verses, and
then I gave second a list of books that I suggest you read, and then third, I created
a spotify playlist of songs that you should
listen to when you're under attack, at work, or at school, and when you're faith is
being tried and being tested, you listen to these songs. If you want that list just write me PastorRick@Saddleback.com and I'll email them to you. By the way anybody whose
watching at the campuses or online, same thing. Just write me PastorRick@Saddleback.com. The alternative to success
in life is failure. You don't want to be a
failure, you want to succeed in whatever area you
chose 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,
and 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 want to be successful
and prosperous in your life? Study God's work continually,
meditate on it day and night, and then obey it, that will make you wise and
with wisdom the Bible says come 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? Most people if I say
the word meditate think well that means you put
your mind in neutral, you sit in a lotus position, you contemplate the lint
in your navel and you go, "Umm" No, no, no, no, no.
That's eastern meditation. Long before eastern
meditation was invented, God invented biblical meditation. 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? Can I see your hands? The rest of you are liars. (audience laughs) If you know how to worry, you
already know how to meditate. (audience laughs) 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? It starts off you know
one guy didn't like me, keep worrying about it
pretty soon the whole world thinks I suck. (audience laughs) 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 and 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. There are lies all around
you in this culture. World view 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. So I have to learn the truth
in order to discern the lies. The only way you're gonna
know it'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
US 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. Because there's a million
different kinds of counterfeit. No, 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 inauthentic. 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 to go 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 because 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, when a student comes home to
a parent and the student says well what about this? Well you can't answer that
unless you know the truth. We've got courses on it, like foundations, over 25,000 people have taken
foundations in this church. You might want to take a refresher course, on that. 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, because I know the authentic so well, I can see a phony and a fake a mile away. That idea is going no where. It's been around for 2,000
years and it's wrong. Your commandments give me
understanding, it's no wonder I can see and hate
every false way of life. Now, those of you that are 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. It's this, look up here on the screen, 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. That's okay. He's mature enough, he can handle it, he can learn this 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 kind of 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. (audience laughs) You gotta have more
book time in God's word, and less screen time. 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, iPod, iPad, laptop, television, you will have amassed over 30,000 hours looking at a screen by the time you're 18. In contrast, do 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 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've got to know the word of God. Here's a verse about
this, look on the screen, Proverbs 15 Verse 14. "A wise person is hungry
for truth, while the fool "feeds on trash." Hm. You might want to put that on
your television right there, okay, just paste it right on there. The fool feeds on trash. So when I'm saying to you who
are students and even adults you need less Facebook, and more face in the book. (audience laughs and claps) Okay? Alright? (audience applauds) Somebody should tweet that
Warrenism right there. You need less Facebook
and more face in the book. A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash. 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. Azariah, and all four of the guys,
Hananiah, and Melcure. Not Melcure. (audience laughs) Never mind. I've had the flu for the last three days, I've got a 101 fever right now, so don't hug me after church
because you don't want to get what I've got, but I did not want to miss this message. Choose believers as your best friends. God wants you to have non
believers as friends too so I'm not saying don't
have unbelievers as 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 are 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 spent time with the most, should be strong strong believers. Why? Because 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 then to pull them up. You want to 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 want to choose
believers as your best friends. Let me ask you a question, all of you, students and adults, how do you want to be
different in 10 years? Ten years from today, what
kind of woman do you want to be different then you are right now. Ten years from today, what
kind of man do you want to be than you are right today. Without even knowing you, I can predict the kind
of person you're gonna be in ten 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 chose are gonna determine your future, and where you go. So you gonna chose your best friends to be strong believers. First Corinthians 15:33 says
this, look at this verse. "Do not be mislead, Bad company
corrupts good character." Anybody want to give a testimony of that? Everyone of us have been pulled
in the wrong direction by friends, that were foolish. Some of you who are students
you're getting ready to start school in just a couple weeks. My question to you, some of
you are actually gonna start a new school, you're gonna go off to
college, your gonna go to high school or 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 say, 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 who
ever 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. By the way if you're going off to college, you should ask Saddleback
for a church recommendation to the city you're moving to, and you should know where
you're gonna go to church even before you go. Not get there and six
months later going I haven't found a church yet. No you need to find one now. You need to chose friends,
you need to get into church, 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. Saddleback Church, we probably have 500, maybe up to a thousand
members who actually teach 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 and 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 believer, I
heard you're a believer, can you just be an
encouragement to me while I'm going to school? And they will be glad... In fact let me just do this, if you are a... You're a christian and you
have taught or do teach in a public education system,
I want you to stand up right now so we can just thank you. You're a public school teacher. Just stand up and let us thank you. Look at this. (audience applauds) Look at this, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. These men and women, teachers, coaches, counselors, administrators, they're there. They're there. And they want to help you
succeed and maintain your faith at the same time. So you just need to find that person. I also recommend that you
go form a Christian group or join a Christian group at the college or campus you're a part of. If you can't form a formal
club, don't worry about it, don't form a formal club, just say 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. 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." (laughs) That's pretty clear. Stay away from fools or
you won't learn a thing. Like the guy who goes wow. Wow. Ya man, wow. That's real clear, you're not gonna learn
a lot from that guy. By the way, the Bible says stay away from
fools or you're not gonna learn a thing. So if you want to excel in your education, stay away from foolish friends. How do you know a foolish friend? Here's the answer, I'll
talk about this in another session, too. 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 tweet able. They're 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. 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 and the
book of Proverbs tells you very clearly this is what a fool does and this is what a wise person does. Then you can know I want
to hang out with group a and not hang out with group b. You need to read through
the book of Proverbs and chose your friends wisely. By the way, I'll just
throw this in for free for youth parents. I 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 they will 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's not 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 want to learn. Sex and alcohol. Stay away from fools. There's lot of characteristics
of fools in the Bible, let me just give you one. Here's one Ecclesiastes 10:3, "Fools show their stupidity
by the way they live. "It's easy to see that
they have no sense." That's kind of obvious. Now in contrast, here's
what the Bible says to do. Psalm 1 Verse one and two, "The happiest people,
the ones God blesses," you want to be happy, you want God to bless your life, here's what you do, "The happiest people,
the ones 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. Yeah 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 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 kind of 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 them, and he says don't walk with
this group don't stand with them don't sit around now
you're fully participating. You're sitting around
with cynics who deny God. So don't do that. 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. 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 you're
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 stop going to church,
they stop 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 ten
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 ten
other things you don't get unless you meet together. So I would encourage you
to not give up the habit of meeting together going
well I'll go to church once a month and three times a month
I'll just watch it online. 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. I would encourage you, don't
give up the habit of meeting together say you know
whenever the doors are open at church, I want to 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've taken a radically different point in life. 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've missed something
that actually changed the vector of the rest of my life. So if the door's open I want to be there. 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've
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 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. If you're life has gotten
cold, you're not spending enough time in fellowship. You've gotten out here
in the world by yourself, and your heart has grown cold
because you're mailing it in. You're calling it in, you're
not going to the meeting, you're not in the fellowship. The Bible says where two or
three are gathered in my name I'm there with them. So you need a support
system, you need a church, you need a small group,
and you need a ministry to give something back
because that's where you develop your muscles. For students, those of
you who are students, we have this in spades
for you at Saddleback, it's called Saddleback student ministries. I want you to just watch this, what's going on in this
church with literally thousands of Daniels, young men and women, watch this. - I grew up with Saddleback
throughout all my life. I started with the children's
ministry in elementary school and went up to junior
high ministry and then high school ministry. - Weekend services are super fun. All the college kids get together and go, and we all get to hang out
afterwards and eat food and just be in fellowship with each other. - HSM is so cool, they have such a good vibe for students, especially when new kids come. - [Voiceover] They always meet
and greet and they always ask are you new here and they get time to know you. - I first decided to join a
college ministry small group because I wanted CM to seem
just a little bit smaller and I wanted girls to be in
fellowship with week to week. I signed up and I got a
wonderful group of girls that I didn't even know, but I
consider them my best friends now, and we've been
through so much together. - All my friends were want
to get into a life group and we were really close
with some older people that wanted to be our leaders. - Life group is absolutely amazing. I would not be here today with out it. - I have a person that I can
always go to if I'm in trouble or someone who I can
keep accountability with. My life group leader
is a role model to me, and it's just awesome. - They're really influential in my life because they just speak
into it in such a great way. - [Voiceover] When I was in my
life group it was so full of love and so supportive and encouraging. - My leaders have really
really pushed me to serve in the church more and to
live my life for Christ and I've been just serving a
bunch of different ministries doing what I can to help His kingdom. Being a part of student
ministries has helped me find my identity in Christ, and encouraged me to
continually honor God with every aspect of my life. - Now if you're a student, you're in a phase of life,
you're gonna be a part of a group and if you're not a part of a good one, you're gonna be a part of a bad one. At Saddleback we have
JHM, Junior High Ministry, we have HSM, High School Ministry, we have CM, College Ministry, and they do this all the time. Literally, those three
ministries, the student ministries of Saddleback are bigger than
any school in orange county. So if you want to meet good
students who are trying to do the right thing, Daniels, young Daniels, you need to be a part of HSM, or JHM, or CM, College Ministry. If you want to be a part of a ministry, inside your program there is a flap and we had this flap last
week, it's got an error on it. You might want to open it
so I can correct the error. It says join the fun
Saddleback Student Ministries, it says for adults, and for adults. The first one should say for students. Because the first two blanks
are for if you're a student and want to join in, and the last three are for
adults if you want to join in on how to be a part of that. You need to be a part of a church family. By the way we're doing
class today, class 101, membership class 201, which
teaches you how to meditate. If you haven't taken that class, it teaches you how to
meditate on God's word. And there's free child care of
course at all of our classes this afternoon at all of our campuses. Now here's what the Bible
says first Peter 2:15, "It is God's will," you
want to do God's will, here it is, "It is God's will that
you live such a good life, "that it silences those who
foolish condemn the Gospel "without knowing what it can do for them." The best antidote to a
skeptic, a critic, an attack at school, is just live a good life. You don't need to get
engaged necessarily trying to defend it all because a
lot of times people who are really angry, just want to be angry. They don't want to be
convinced, they don't want to be changed, in fact, the deeper someone is
emotionally, being anti Christian, it just means the more they're hurt. They hurt. They're acting out of
emotion, not out of logic. The deeper they react, the more they have a hidden hurt in their life, and so all your logic
isn't gonna change them. But live such a good life
it silences those who foolishly condemn the
Gospel without knowing what it can do for them. Saddleback Student Ministries
is filled with young Daniels. Last week you heard a story,
I want you to hear one more this week, I want you to
give a warm welcome to Jenna Dulla. Would you give her a warm welcome? (audience applauds) - Alright, hey Saddleback,
my name is Jenna Dulla and I'm so excited to be
here this weekend to share my story with you. Just a little background on me, I'm going into my junior year
at Cappa Valley High School. I'm involved with student
government, the track and field team, and have a schedule
full of AP courses. I've been a Christian my whole
life, attending Saddleback for the past three years now with HSM, experiencing the absolute
joy and power of God's love through weekend services
and my three unforgettable trips to summer camp with
my incredibly small group. After seeing God's work
in the lives of my friends and family, I finally decided
to go all in with Christ and was baptized with my
two best friends at camp right before my freshman year. I continue to grow in my
relationship with Jesus, despite a few minor bumps in the road, but being all in for Christ
seemed relatively easy, until an experience at
my high school tested and strengthened my faith in ways
I never could have expected. There are a lot of Saddleback
students that go to my school and they came up with
this great idea to get the word out about our high schooL
ministry and our student run HSM service by posting a
sticky note on every locker in our school with a kind
phrase such as you are loved, or the information to our
service times that weekend written on it. The volunteers worked for
hours writing and posting notes all over the school early in the morning, so that they'd be the
first thing students saw when they walked onto campus that day. Heading into that day I knew
there would be people that would be annoyed with the
notes on their lockers, but never expected the
magnitude of what erupted when 5th period AP European
History rolled around. Being surrounded in my
class by close friends and a teacher who weren't believers,
I already felt outnumbered. Knowing my teacher and
classmates would have a strong opinion to share. My teacher spoke out about
how offensive the sticky note project was and how we had
somehow broken the law. Breaching a scared barrier
between teachers and students, and religion. He then proceeded to inform
the class of what he believed our team's intentions were, convincing some of my other
classmates and even friends that we had done this
to glorify ourselves, and to promote only
Christian groups on campus. Another student chimed in
calling Christians hypocrites for promoting and
accepting only our beliefs. Now I know most of you are
adults but I know for a fact that each and every person
in this room remembers or is currently experiencing high school. Just trying to slide by
in the back of the room, maintaining as little interaction
with teachers as possible. Now being the typical sleep
deprived, shy AP student we all know too well, I rarely had any reason to
speak out in class anyway. This wasn't one of those moments. I knew I couldn't stay
quiet for much longer. Throughout his entire rant, I
was deeply hurt and confused with the assumptions he
had made about my friends, and our goal with the sticky notes. I felt he was demeaning all
the hard work and passion we had behind the project, all for the sake of influencing
my peers to take his side. Before I knew it my hand was up in the air and I was shaking like a Chihuahua. (audience laughs) I stood seemingly alone in a
room full of people intentioned but it was then that I
realized that I've never felt God's presence more. Knowing that something
big was about to go down, my friends urged me to give
up and let him continue, warning me of what he or my
other classmates might think of me if I spoke out. I informed my teacher in
class of the real goal behind the post it note project and
explained that we had asked for permission from all the
necessary faculty and staff members to even carry the idea out. Before I could go any
further, my teacher stopped me and brought up all kinds of
legal issues that could arise from the commotion and
controversy that we had stirred up that morning. I later explained to my
friends that were in the class the specifics of the project, yet most of them still
remained unsupportive of my speaking out. I was shocked, thinking they
would understand how important the project was for me, and that it even brought me to
speak out against a teacher. Something I've never been known to do. I left class that day with
a feeling of unfulfillment. Like I hadn't done
enough to prove my point. Yes I felt petrified and
empowered yet judged, a combination of all of these
feelings at the same time and I wish I could tell you
that after this my teacher and peers had a change of
heart and that they all came to service that weekend
and came to know Christ. (audience laughs) But that day is still yet to come. But you want to know
what the crazy part is? The one feeling I never
have about that day is regret. How can I feel regret or
shame for doing something that honored God? I didn't immediately see the
results and effects that I had expected after speaking
out and standing alone in my faith, but the impact that has
been made in my life is clear as day. I decided this summer at
camp to put my life fully in God's hands and to
trust that he will provide. Committing my life to full
time ministry in the future. I don't know what that looks
like and how it will all work out yet but I know that
even when I'm frustrated with people who disagree
with me and dismiss my faith that my church is a second family, ready for me to run to them. This experience has only
encouraged me to chase after God even more and to
pursue his plans for me no matter how strong my
earthly desires to fit in and give in to temptation may seem. I've broken my shy and insecure
old habits and have become a person that no longer sees
the fear in sharing Christ with others. I now realize how important
the other Christians in my life are as well, and how they're
encouragement has impacted my high school journey so far. To my life group leader of
three crazy years, Emily McCoy, and all of my life group friends, I thank you for your love
and support and helping me step outside the box
and strengthen my faith. I'd also like to thank John
O'Mullins for encouraging me to get up here and for
giving me the opportunity to speak to you today. But most importantly I'd
like to thank all of you who are here today for allowing
me to share my story with you. This is such a loving and
inspiring community of people that I can't wait to be a part
of for the rest of my life. We have a God that is so for us, there's nothing that can
possibly stand against us. Thank you. (audience applauds) - Great job. Fantastic. Great job. My favorite thing that
Jenna said was she goes, "I was shaking like a Chihuahua." (audience laughs) You all know that feeling, if you've ever had your
faith tested you go I am scared to death, now listen. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is doing the right thing
while your scared to death. (applause) That is a courageous woman, that is a Daniel right there. We need more Daniels with courage. If you're not afraid,
you don't need courage. If you're not scared,
you don't need courage. Courage is what you do
when you have the character to do something you are flat
out shaking like a Chihuahua. And you go I'm scared to
death, but I'm gonna speak up here at the water cooler at the office. I'm scared to death but I'm
gonna speak up right here on the football field, or on the golf course. I'm scared to death, that is courage. And God honors that. I'll never forget when I
was in high school and I had an AP class and we had a teacher who
was a little avant garde and the first day he came
in and he just started railing on Christianity and
the Bible and he had all of these excuses and arguments. You know you're a freshman I'm just going, "Well makes sense. Maybe I'm wrong," and you start to doubt yourself. You're going maybe this isn't right. Now what I didn't know because
a teacher can seem pretty impressive on their own
turf, especially if you're the student. What I didn't know is
that every single excuse, and every single argument,
and every single false logic that he gave could have
been easily disproved by any adult who knew the
standard answers to those arguments, but I didn't know them. He wasn't nearly as impressive
once I got a little older and I go well that's a dumb
idea and that doesn't work, and that doesn't work. Don't be fooled by attacks that Christianity is anti intellectual. That's just nonsense. Until the last 150 years, practically every
scientist was a Christian. Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler,
Newton, and on and on, on and on and on, DaVinci, these people had a faith in God. They were men of God, that's why they were
studying God's creation. It's only in the last 150 years we've had quote non believing scientists. People like Voltaire,
Voltaire's very famous skeptic, agnostic, atheist. Voltaire made a very famous
statement when he said 100 years from today, the
Bible will be a buried book. No not quite. It's still the number one best
selling book in the world. Best selling book of all time. By the way when Voltaire
died, his home became headquarters for the French Bible society. There's a lot of people
trying to rewrite history. It's just not true. Okay number six, the last thing. If you want to excel at
your education and still not lose your faith, remember that God will reward me. Remember that God will reward me. God has promised Jesus has
promises repeatedly over and over that you will receive
great rewards in eternity for every time you are
harassed for your faith, when you are criticized,
you were insulted, you were shunned, you were made fun
of because you stood for the Bible and biblical truth. The Bible says you're gonna be rewarded. Jesus said it like this in
the sermon on the mountain. "Blessed are you when people insult you "and persecute you," at
work or school or wherever. "persecute you, falsely say
all kinds of evil against you "because of me. "Rejoice and be glad because great is your "reward in heaven." You're gonna be rewarded for
ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. "for great is your reward in
heaven, for in the same way "they persecuted the prophets
who were before you." You're in the same category
as Daniel and Azahiah, and Jeremiah, and Moses
and all those other guys. I told you in the last session that Daniel was one of the only two
men in the entire history of the world besides
John who wrote the book of revelation, who God
trusted enough to show how history is gonna end. How the world is gonna end,
and he gave them visions. It's in this book, it's
in the book of Daniel. He trusted him because
he had tested him in all of these areas. I want to just show you an
encouraging little scene in the future, that's
going to happen, God says, look up here on the screen,
Philippians chapter two verses nine to 11. "God has given Jesus the
name that is above every "other name," by the way
have you noticed that you say Jesus, it like freezes people up. Lets talk about Jesus, boy, everybody just gets... Nobody ever says Oh Buddha. God has given Jesus a
name that's different than any other name. You talk abut Jesus people get nervous. "God has given Jesus a name
that's above every other name "so that one day," this is
gonna happen in the future, "at the nae of Jesus, "every knee will bow, "in heaven and on earth, "and every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ "is the Lord." Now imagine this scene
at the end of eternity, end of history. Everybody who's ever
lived is gonna be kneeling before Jesus Christ. And everybody is going to
be saying Jesus is Lord. Some of them in praise
because they've said it all their lives, and some of them in judgement to themselves because they've denied it all their lives. And I just want to say to
those of you who are students, that on that day, in
that crowd of billions who will be on their knees
saying Jesus is Lord, all of your teachers and all
of your professors are gonna kneel and say Jesus is Lord. On that day all of your
friends who made fun of you are gonna kneel and on that
day say Jesus is lord.. On that day every rock
star, every athlete, every celebrity, Lady Gaga
they're all gonna be on their knees saying Jesus is Lord. Every politician and every world leader will be on their knees
saying Jesus is Lord. Freud and Stalin and Marx, and Darwin, and everybody else will be on their knees. Plato and Aristotle saying Jesus is Lord. And every atheist who refused
in their pride to admit it now will be on their knees
saying Jesus is Lord. So don't worry. God wins in the end. History is His story. And you don't need the
approval of other people to feel good abut yourself. God, the father, made you. Jesus died for you. The spirit lives in you, you
don't need their approval. Let's bow for prayer. (audience applauds) Would you pray this? Dear God, I want to excel in my life, in my education, in my life, in my career, and I don't want to lose my faith. So I'm deciding today
in advance of the test, because I know it's gonna come. I'm deciding in advance to stand for God, I'm making up my mind like Daniel did, not to defile myself. Help me to remember that
reverence for the Lord is an education in itself. Help me to never stop learning. Help me to value knowledge and wisdom, help me to get them both. Help me to see and respond
to life from your viewpoint. And because I know that it comes from you, help me to steep myself in your word. To spend time everyday reading the Bible, thinking, meditating, about the Bible, and doing what it says, that I might be prosperous and successful, as you've promised. God I want to learn the truth
in order to discern the lies that are all around me. Help me to chose believers
as my best friends. And to not hang out with
people who pull me down. Help me to stay connected,
I want to be connected to a church, to a small group, to a ministry for input for output, for support. And when I feel all alone, help me to remember that even
when I'm attacked that you are going to reward me for eternity. That I don't need other people's approval, that I am deeply loved by you. And Jesus Christ I'm not
going to wait until that day, that's gonna happen eventually, I'm saying it today, Jesus
Christ you are the Lord of my life. You're the boss, the
CEO, you're the manager, you're in control, you call the shots, you're the chairman of the
board, you're not just resident you're president of my life. You are my Lord, and I want to thank you for loving me. In your name I pray. Amen.
