Finding Courage and Peace in Christ Amidst Trials

And if there's ever a time we need to take courage, it's right now here in L .A. County and all that's going on, as you heard, concerning the fires. And I believe today we need to take heart. We need to know that God is still on the throne today and continue to pray for all the first responders and everybody that has been affected by these fires. But I'm going to read a scripture in John 16, verse 33, and then we'll dive right into this message. It says this, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. So Jesus is very clear that. Peace comes from him. [00:00:17] (40 seconds)


Well, God bless you today. Again, we're talking about courage. And this morning. I want to talk about taking heart or taking courage to stand, to make a stand, to be able to stand for what you believe and to be able to stand for truth. I think it's critical in today's culture that we have some courage to stand. I know a lot of Christians that have a hard time speaking up for Jesus in public. In fact, this is nothing new. Thousands of years ago. Many believers had problems standing up for Jesus. In fact, the scripture tells us in John 7, 13. [00:02:18] (46 seconds)


So if you wonder if it's true or not, think about yourself. Do you have the courage to speak publicly about Jesus or do we become frozen at the mouth? What happens? Why don't we speak publicly about Jesus? Are we afraid? And even Paul is encouraged by the Lord when there's pressure and people are trying to get him to stop preaching about the name of Jesus, that the Lord speaks to Paul in the night. And he tells him in Acts 18, 9, one night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Be not afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. [00:03:10] (47 seconds)


And a worldview is the belief system. It is based on what people's opinions are. It's your way of how you look at things. It is the belief system that you hold on to and how you process your decisions. I'll make it more simple. It's the lens that you use to look at life and to make decisions. I'll use an illustration here. You know, all of us have these fancy smartphones and iPhones, and it's amazing how you can take a picture, but if you use the right filter, it'll look really professional. [00:06:34] (42 seconds)


This is what filters do when, you can take the picture down before I insult anybody else, it can make it look so professional. And this is why we have arguments. This is why there's debates in the world, because we all have different worldviews. We all have different filters that we're looking at life at, and the way we're looking at events. You can have five people that have five different views at the same event. Because they're using different filters. And this filter, or this worldview, could include how you look at God. [00:08:02] (38 seconds)


And here's the thing, your worldview influences every choice that you make, every decision that you decide or you choose. And here's the problem, you're profoundly influenced by the worldview of other people. In actuality, I will say this, we picked up a lot of our worldview, not consciously, but unconsciously. In other words, there's some things that you believe, and there's a belief system that you have, that may not be, you didn't pick it up consciously, even kind of unspoken. [00:09:21] (40 seconds)


Christian worldviews there's even believers in this house and in this setting right now that you don't have a word view you have a world view you have viewpoint that you picked up along the way and you've held on to them and I want you to listen to me very carefully as your pastor who loves you you may call yourself a Christian but if you don't base your decisions on the Bible and on the word of God you're going to have some devastating effects on your life it's going to be very destructive for you because you're basing your decision on a worldview and not on the words view [00:12:39] (44 seconds)


hedonism which happiness and pleasure is God and individualism I'm God I run my own life these three worldviews will destroy your life and so we have this happening in our culture today we have this crumble crumbling our culture we see this crisis in our school controversies in our course corruption listen to me in our business chaos in our government in our government in our government carnality in our churches confusion in our families and conflict in our own personal lives and yet God has given us an owner's manual it's called the word of God and it's there to help us [00:24:00] (45 seconds)


And there's two things that are going to help us today. I'm going to close with this, to live with this courage. Number one, you've got to look at God's word. You have to accept God's word as the ultimate authority in your life. It has to be. It has to be the only source of truth, because people will lie. Worldviews will lie to you, but not God's word. And so if you're going to build your life on something, build it upon the rock, which is God's word. Not people's opinion, not what people have to say, but I'm going to build my life on the truth of God's word. [00:41:19] (34 seconds)