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Hey everyone, welcome to Pastor

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Rick Warren's Daily Hope. Now

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we're going to continue our

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series today called Building My

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Life on Values That Last.

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And Rick will press on

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and show us how we

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benefit when we apply the

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biblical principles of trust, self-control,

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balance, respect, forgiveness, moral purity,

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fairness, honesty, and love to

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our lives. And now we're

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going to get right into it with Rick

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and part two of a message called Maintaining

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Moral Purity. Now one of

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the practical ways that you can do this if you want

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to get a pure mind in a polluted world is

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number three, monitor my media

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intake. That

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means you just don't indiscriminately allow

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garbage into your mind through movies,

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through books, through magazines, through media,

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through television, things like that. Proverbs

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15 verse 14, read it with me. The

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fool feeds on trash. That's

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amazing. That was written 2,000 years before television.

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But there it is. The fool feeds on

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trash. Now what you feed

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your body is just as important as what

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you feed your mind. In fact, it may

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be more important. What do you feed your

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mind? Do you just allow any thought into your mind? Or

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do you feed it good food? Could

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you live healthy on, say, a

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diet of Coke and Twinkies? No.

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No, you really couldn't. And

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yet the moral equivalent of a Twinkie

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is network television. I

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mean there's very little nutritional value in it. Oh,

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there is some. But a lot of it's just

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fluff and chemicals that you really don't need in

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your body. Listen

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to these statistics about television. You see, most

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people don't realize that in

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your life you will spend more

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time watching TV than you

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do any single thing else you do

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except sleep and work. lifetime,

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you will amass about nine and

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a half years of solid TV

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viewing. You'll spend nine

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and a half years of your life watching TV. Listen

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to these statistics. The TV is on in the average

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American home more than seven hours a day. By

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the time a child finishes high school, he will have spent

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18,000 hours with the TV and only 12,000 hours at school.

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By the time that a child, a preschooler,

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by the time he gets to kindergarten has

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already spent more time watching TV than he

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will spend in college. The

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average teenager watches 22 and a

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half hours a week. The average man, adult man,

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24 and a half hours a week.

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The average adult woman, 30 hours a week. Typical

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teenager watches about five hours of TV a

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day and in one year they will be,

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have been exposed to 14,000 plus sexual encounters

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on television.

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Now listen to these statistics from TV Guide. Over

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the course of a year, prime time TV depicts 14,313 incidences

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of sex, 23,000 uses of profanity, but here's the

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clincher. 91% of all sex

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portrayed on TV is sex

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outside of marriage. 91%. Now

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folks, I

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call that brainwashing because

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that has absolutely no correlation

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to reality. See,

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on television, it's, you're taught through

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exposure that the only good sex, the

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only really great sex is outside of

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marriage. In fact, you never see married

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couples or rarely see married couples going

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to bed together and enjoying it. It's

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almost always either of marriage as external,

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extramarital affair or prior to

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marriage between singles or whatever.

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That's just not reality. Now

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somebody's obviously got an agenda. If

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91% of all sex on TV is shown outside

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of what God says it should be reserved for.

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What's wrong with this picture? Therefore,

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you have to monitor your media intake

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or your cornea is going to develop

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your character. What

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you watch is going to determine what you are. So

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you have to monitor your media intake.

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You know, the AIDS crisis has actually

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put a damper on promiscuous or irresponsible

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sexual behavior, but it doesn't show up

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on TV. I mean, bed hopping is

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still the favorite indoor sport on television.

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One study of daytime TV concluded that,

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quote, sex is for the unmarried and

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the promiscuous. And then

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we wonder why there are 1 million teenage, illegitimate

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births every year in America.

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That's what we're feeding ourselves. Now,

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it is amazing to me what parents

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will let their kids watch, not just on TV, but

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movies. I mean, I talk to Christian kids, and they

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go, you saw that? You're kidding. Stuff

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that I wouldn't even go see. And

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their Christian parents are letting them go see it. I

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mean, it's amazing to me what parents themselves will go

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see. It's as if they're

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saying, well, I don't mind having all the garbage in

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the world. Take the worst perversions and let's just put

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it in my mind. See,

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the problem with television, the problem with media

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and a lot of things like this is

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that it lowers your resistance to

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understanding what's right and what's wrong. Because

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on television, sin is glamorized. Have

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you noticed that when people go to bed on TV,

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they never have warts, moles, or wrinkles. And

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then all of the, you know, the fat's in

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the right places. It's never in the wrong places. Television

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implies that everybody's doing it, and

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they're not. Television doesn't show the results of the sin.

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Television gets me to laugh at things that really,

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God says, aren't funny. And

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because of the media, shock,

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jock, radio, television,

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movies, billboards, magazines, it's

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pretty difficult today to keep your mind. mind pure. Would

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you agree with that? I find

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it very difficult. Regardless

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of your past, you say, I want to be pure

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from here on out. What do I do? Make

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a commitment to God's standard, manage my mind,

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monitor my media intake, and then, by

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the way, there are a couple of verses there that would

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be good for you to memorize and say his prayers. Psalm

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119.37 says, keep me

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from paying attention to what is worthless.

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Good verse to put on your TV right there. And

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then Psalm 101.3, I will refuse to

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look at anything vile and vulgar. Number

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four, if I want to

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be pure in a polluted world, I have to

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minimize the opportunity for temptation. That

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means don't place myself in a situation where I

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know I'm going to be tempted. I

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minimize the opportunity for temptation.

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Now, what does that mean? It means

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if you don't want to get stung, you stay away from

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the bees. It means if I don't want to get burned,

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I stay away from the fire. It

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means if I have a problem with alcohol, I don't

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go to bars to eat pretzels. You

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know, I find another place to

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eat pretzels besides the bar. You

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know, just use a brain. Now,

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there are three ways that you can minimize

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temptation in your life. Here they are. You

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might write these down. Number one, recognize what

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tempts me. Recognize

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the situation and know the

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situations that turn me on, that stimulate

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me, that get me thinking in other

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directions. 1 Corinthians 10,

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12 says, be careful. If

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you're thinking, oh, I'd never behave like that, let this

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be a warning to you, for you too may fall

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into sin. You say, be

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alert, be wise, be aware. You need to

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know the early warning signs of temptation so

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you can bail out early. Now,

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here is a common myth. If you've been

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a Christian for any period of time, people tend

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to think, the longer I'm a believer, the less

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I'll be tempted. That is not true. In

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fact, the longer you're a believer, the more Satan's going

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to throw at you because he wants

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to get you defeated. Now,

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it's not a sin, as I've already said. It's not a sin

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to be tempted, it's a sin

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to give in to temptation. The Bible says Jesus was

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tempted. And

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if you're thinking, oh, I would never be

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tempted, or I would never give in to

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that temptation, who are you kidding? The

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Bible says the heart is deceitful. That means

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my heart, your heart. It

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means we don't even know the motives we often have.

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We can't understand ourselves half the time, much less anybody

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else. And

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given the right circumstances, I,

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Rick Warren, am capable of any

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sin. And so

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are you. And so are

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you. If you don't think so, you're in

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trouble. Because the Bible says, let him who

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stands take heed, lest he fall. If you

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think, I got this all under control, and

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I could never be tempted, you're

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not living one day at a time. And

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you're getting set up for a major fall. Now

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one of the big threats in our society today

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is honestly business travel. Satan,

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I think, works overtime when you're away from home.

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You're alone in a strange city. Nobody knows you.

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You're lonely in a motel room. Who's to know

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what you watch, think, do, or whatever? So

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you have to set up some standards for yourself. Like one

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of the things I used to do when I traveled a

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lot was when

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I would go in, first I would try to travel with a companion,

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a fellow companion who, you know, I'm not traveling

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alone. And then second, when I go into a

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motel room, I'm tired at the end of the

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day. First thing, I just call up the front

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desk and say, I want you to unplug all

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those spice channels or whatever. Third thing

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I do is I pull out a framed picture of my

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wife and kids and sit it right there on the TV. They're

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all just kind of smiling at me, you know.

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Then I call them every night, you know, to kind

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of make those connections back at home. But

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know what tempts you. The second thing

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is choose your friends carefully. And

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that's the next verse. First

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Corinthians 15, 33 says, bad

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companions ruin good character.

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Now, if I'm here at the front, and I asked one

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of these people in the front row to come over here,

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here and give me a hand, is it easier

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for me to pull people up or is it

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easier for them to pull me down? Sure,

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it's always easier to be pulled down. That

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means you need to choose your friends wisely because

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if they're pulling you down, guess who's going to

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win? So

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your best friends better be people who pull you

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up, not pull you down. And

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if you have a bunch of bad friends who are pulling you down,

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you're going to fall. You better have

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more friends who pull you up than pull

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you down and your closest friends should not

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be people who are pulling you away. It

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is a well-known fact, for instance, that most

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affairs occur between couples who already know each

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other. Yeah,

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that means you better make sure

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that your closest friends are as

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committed to their marriage as

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you are committed to yours or

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you may be setting yourself up for some unnecessary

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temptation. The

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third thing to do is to establish

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some protective guidelines, just some common sense

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rules about what you will and will

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not do with a person of the

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opposite sex. The

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Bible says in Ephesians 5.3, but among

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you there must not even be a

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hint of sexual immorality. It's

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not even a hint. So you

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set up some practices, maybe even

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in your office. You know, offices

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are great places for budding romances

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and affairs because when you go

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to the office, everybody looks

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nice and smells nice.

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Now, when you go home, you know, you

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kind of let it all hang out. You

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know, you got the beard belly and the

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t-shirt with the holes in it and you're

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burping and, you know, and then you go

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to the office and you're looking fine, feeling

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fine, you know, smelling fine,

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talking fine, you know, and then

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you go, you know,

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look at the comparison here. So,

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you know, at Saddleback, for instance, we have 80 staff members

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at Saddleback Church in our office. We have a

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set of standards called Saddleback Guideline. lines about

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how we relate and don't relate to people

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the opposite sex in our own office just

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for protection. Number five, you

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want to remain pure in a

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polluted world if you're married, maintain

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my marriage. I

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need to learn to maintain my

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marriage. That means that a growing

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relationship with my spouse will reduce

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the pull and attraction of

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adultery or any other kind of relationship.

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Ecclesiastes 9 9.

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Read this verse with me. Enjoy

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life with your wife whom you

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love. Now circle the word enjoy.

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God wants you to enjoy your spouse,

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not endure your spouse. Okay?

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Now that means putting some effort

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back into your relationship. You know

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the problem why people get tempted

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after they're married? Because we stop

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dating in our marriage. All

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the things that we did before we were married, after

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a few years we get too busy and we

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stop doing those things that keep the spark, the romance

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going. Now women, I

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need to explain something to you about men. And particularly

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those you are married, you're wondering what happened to

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my husband. He's not the same guy I

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married. Men tend to be these kind of

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hunters. They have this,

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they're kind of goal oriented, achievement oriented,

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and when a guy gets out of

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school, like high school or college, the

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first thing he's thinking is, I got

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to get me a woman. Okay?

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I need a woman in my

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life. He instinctively knows he, something's

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missing there. I got to

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get a woman. So he pursues the hunt and

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he wooze you and he spends

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intense amount of effort trying to

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win this woman. Now

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during this stage, men do really

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strange things like read poetry

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and you know go to

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operas, you know things that no normal man

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would ever do. You know they just Just

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you know, they do these things and and

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they call and talk for hours on the

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phone. You know a man who does that

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Okay, and they're they hang on

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every word you say You

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know and they're just and you're going wow.

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This is great, you know now

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the moment you get a ring on your finger

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you say I do and the marriage

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is Put together the

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man now. He's not being selfish. You just

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understand. He's not being selfish in his mind. He's

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thinking mission accomplished Okay,

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and now he is as as a

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natural Gold-oriented

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guy as a male. He's now thinking

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what's the next hunt and usually it's

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now I've got to provide for the

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woman And so he

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takes all the energy and effort that

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he spent wooing you and getting you

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now He turns all that onto

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the job and he says I

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got a hoof it I got a hustle I

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because I got to provide for this woman that

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I love and the kids that are gonna come

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along too And so all the energy he spent

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wooing you is now spent Providing for you and

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he's and he takes all that energy and he

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attaches it to his business Now

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the woman is going Where's

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the opera? Well

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with the poetry the flowers the candy she's

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thinking bait and switch Okay

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That's what she's thinking bait and switch,

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okay And and he that's

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not an it at all when on the other hand He's

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thinking the same thing bait and switch because he's thinking

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you know before we got married. She couldn't keep her hands

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off me Now

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she doesn't have any time. Well, I got a

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headache, you know Guy

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was getting ready to go to bed one night and he

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said to her wife. His wife said here, honey Here's to

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aspirin. She said what's that for? He says for your headache.

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She said I don't have one. He said gotcha Yeah

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So God's

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Word when you need it the most.

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You can also use them to minister

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to others, give one to a friend

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and write a personalized note of encouragement

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on the back. And if a scripture

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really speaks out to you, frame it.

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Why not put them in places where

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you can read them during the day

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for encouragement? This set of scripture cards

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