Rick Warren - What to DO when People Criticize your faith Part 2

No matter what you do in life, somebody's gonna not

like it. There's nothing that you can do that everybody

is going to like.

Does everybody agree with that? You can't make everybody like you.

So there's nothing you can do that can make everybody

like you. So you may as well do the things

that God likes rather than the things that other people

like because they aren't gonna matter in eternity. If you're

gonna suffer, if you're gonna have people who oppose you,

if you're gonna have people's disapproval, you may as well

have the disapproval for doing the right thing rather than

the wrong thing. That's just logic. Because somebody's gonna disagree

with you no matter what you do. You can't avoid disapproval.

Now we come to the fourth step. And here, this

is important. Recognize the source of the opposition.

And it's Satan. It's not other people.

It's not co-workers, it's not some other political party, it's

not some other nation, it's not some other religion, it's

not some competitor, it's not some person who just doesn't

like you. The real source of the pressure you feel

to cave in, to not have integrity, the pressure you

feel to be quiet and to not stand up for

what you know is the right thing, that pressure's not

coming from other people, it's really coming from Satan. In

Revelation chapter 12 verse 10, Satan is called, quote, the

Revelation 12:10

accuser of the Christians. That's his job. His number one

job is to put you down. Now follow me on this.

Satan hates God, obviously. And so he hates anything God

has created. And what he hates most of all are

God's children. And so Satan hates you. He doesn't just

hate God, Satan hates you. You know, you've heard that phrase,

God loves you and has a good plan for your life. Well,

Satan hates you and has a bad plan for your life.

And so he hates you.

Now, follow me on this.

Satan wants to hurt God, but he can't. He can't

hurt God, but he does have access to you, and

he can hurt you. And the quickest way to hurt

a parent is to hurt his kids. Quickest way to

hurt a mom's heart is to hurt her children. Quickest

way to hurt a dad is to hurt his children.

And so Satan can't get at God, so what's he

wanna do? He wants to get at you. He wants

to hurt you. And there is an unseen spiritual battle

going all around you, and this pressure to make your

life miserable and to make you cave in and to

keep you from doing the right thing, it's not coming

from other people, really. You gotta look beyond that. They're

just pawns. They're just tools. They're just weapons. And a

lot of times they don't even know, most of the

time they don't even know they're being used. But the

real issue is this spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6, 12 says this.

We're not fighting against human beings, which is why you

don't win this in the ballot box. We're not fighting

against human beings, but against wicked spiritual forces.

In the heavenly realm. Now let me explain this.

You need to understand that Satan knows it's stupid to

attack Jesus Christ directly.

Why?

Because he was the only perfect person who ever lived.

How do you attack Jesus? I mean, the savior who

taught love and grace and peace and joy and forgive

other people and died, gave his life for others, how.

Do you attack Jesus?

So he knows rather than attacking Jesus directly, He wants

to attack those who follow him. And today he uses

the media, and he uses music, and he uses comedies,

and he's doing anything he can to ridicule those who

follow Jesus. And they say, hey, they're out of date.

They're on the wrong side of history. They don't know

what they're talking about.

They're fuddy-duddies.

They're bigots, and on and on and on. Here's what

the Bible says you should do. 2 Timothy 2. Stay

away from stupid and senseless arguments. These only lead to trouble.

God's servants must never quarrel. Instead, be kind to everyone,

including the opposition, and be patient with the opposition, and

be humble when you correct people who oppose you.

They've been trapped by the devil.

And he makes them obey him, but God may help

them escape. Now, what's he saying here? He's saying, those people,

they're just pawns. And see, if you don't have the

Holy Spirit in your life, you don't have God's power

in your life, you have no defense against Satan. He

could just whipsaw you this way and that. He can

master your moods. He can lead you into depression. He

can do all kinds of, he can make you angry.

You have no defense against Satan until you've got God's

Spirit inside of you. You're not strong enough, sorry, you're

just not. And so these people, they're just being used

as tools. And what you need to do is recognize

a source and treat the opposition the way Jesus did.

How did Jesus treat those who opposed him? Even on

the cross, he's saying, Father, forgive them. They don't know

what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. That's

what it means to be Christlike. they don't know what

they're doing. These people who attack me, they don't know

what they're doing. The people who attack you, they don't

know what they're doing. The people who put down Jesus

and church and Christianity, they don't know what they're doing.

Father, forgive them.

Now think about this. Jesus was lied to, lied about constantly.

You can go make a list of all things they

lied about Jesus in the Bible. They said he's a

revolutionary here to overthrow Rome and take Pilate's place.

Wrong. But they used that to get him to the cross.

They said he's got a demon.

Wrong.

At one point they said he's a drunk and a glutton. Wrong. Wrong.

They said, you know, he's the devil incarnate. Wrong. And

how did Jesus respond to all those lies that were

told about him?

Look at the next verse, 1 Peter 2.

When they hurled their insults at him, Jesus did not retaliate.

When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted

himself to God who judges justly.

Look at this verse on the screen. I love this

in the message. It says this. They called him every

name in the book, and he said nothing back.

He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.

This leads us to the fifth thing you need to

do when you're under attack. Refuse to retaliate. Refuse to retaliate.

You are most like Jesus Christ when you don't strike

back at somebody who's hurt you. You're most like Jesus

when you don't attack back in somebody who has attacked

you with a personal insult or threat or statement.

Or gossip or whatever.

In this eighth beatitude, the last one, it says this,

let me quote it to you again. Blessed are you

when men shall revile you and persecute you and say

all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Rejoice and be exceeding.

Glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so

persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

That's the eighth beatitude.

And he says this, you will be insulted, that means

people are gonna say names, they're gonna call you names,

they're gonna give you labels. You will be insulted, he

says that's the first thing, he says you're gonna be persecuted,

that means you're mistreated, you may be passed over, you

may even be abused.

And he said, and you're gonna be lied about.

And he said, people will say all things that are

false against you to discredit you, to dishonor you. And

I've learned they'll even say them on TV. And he'll

do all of these things. The world loves to find

fault with Christians. And if they can't find anything to

find at fault with you, you know what? They'll make

stuff up. They'll just make it up. Now, here's what

the Bible says.

Romans 12. verse 17 and 18. Never pay back evil

with more evil. If it is possible, as.

Far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Now,

you know what I love about the Bible? It always

tells the truth, and what it tells there is, if

it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live

at peace with everyone. There's some people you just can't

live at peace with. Don't look at them. but you

know who they are. If it is possible, as far

as it depends on you, you try to live at

peace with them. Some people you just can't live at

peace with. They're just gonna keep poking, poking, poking, poking, poking.

And he says, and never avenge yourselves.

Leave that to God who has said, I'll be the

judge and I'll take care of that. Now I told

you earlier, You don't need anybody's approval to be happy.

Let me give you the second great truth that'll change

your life. You need to write this down. Anytime I react,

I give control to that person. Anytime I react to

somebody who's poked me, I give control to that person.

And you don't want to do that. You don't want

to give up control.

And so you can't control what other people do, but

you can control your reactions.

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Have you ever said, you make me so mad? You

just then admitted who's in control. Not you, they are.

When you say, you make me so.

Mad, you say, I don't wanna be bad. I really

don't wanna be mad, but you make me mad. You

have the power to control my emotions.

Oh, really? then you're a pretty weak person if somebody

can make you mad. It's your choice.

You should only get mad when you choose to get mad,

and there are some things you should get mad about.

One of them is not personal insults.

You make me so mad means I'm allowing you to

control my happiness. Anytime you react, anytime you retaliate, anytime

you seek revenge, you've just handed control to your enemies.

to the person who's opposing you in any area of life.

Don't do it. George Washington Carver, that great African American

who studied all of the uses of peanuts, he once said,

I will never allow another man to control my life

by making me hate him.

Good word, good word.

1 Peter 4.19 says this. Those who suffer according to

God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and

continue to do good. Now, there's something really important here.

Circle the phrase according to God's will. You're not gonna

hear this in some places, but this is what the

Bible says. Some suffering is God's will. Those who suffer

according to God's will, sometimes suffering is God's will. Now,

there are people out there who say, no, God never

wants you. God wants everybody to be a millionaire. God

wants everybody to have a Rolls Royce. God never wants

anybody to have cancer. God never wants any problems in

your life. And any problem, no, the Bible says sometimes

suffering is God's will for your life.

Why?

It makes you more like Jesus. It deepens your faith.

It brings you rewards in heaven. It builds your character.

It brings you closer to him. It teaches you to

worry instead of worship. There's so many benefits that suffering

can happen. You may be going through suffering right now.

And it may be God's will. Now, it may not be.

Let me teach you something. I've never taught this to

you before. There are three kinds of suffering in the world.

There's common, there's carnal, and there's Christian suffering. Common suffering

is suffering that's common to everybody. Doesn't matter if you're

a Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Mormon, a Jew,

a Jehovah's Witness, a Christian, Catholic, atheist, whatever, everybody suffers

certain things. When a hurricane comes into town, it just

doesn't pick on Christians. It doesn't just pick on Buddhists

or Hindus or Jews or Muslims. That's common suffering. It's

the suffering that we have in the world that we

all share in common with everybody. And the Bible says

we as Christians are to help everybody in common suffering.

The second kind of suffering is carnal suffering. That's suffering

you bring on yourself from your own sins. If I

go out and I live a very loose, immoral life,

and I get a STD, a sexually transmitted disease, that's

my fault. That's not God's fault, it's not anybody else's fault,

it's my fault. And a lot of the suffering in

my life is because I made bad decisions, like I

spent way more money than I made, and now I'm

way over in debt, and now I'm going bankrupt. That's

not God's fault, that's my fault. That's carnal suffering, it's

suffering because of sin. But not all suffering is from sin.

The Bible says sometimes suffering is Christian. It's not carnal,

it's not common, it's Christian. It's suffering according to the

will of God, because God is more interested in your

character than your comfort. You're not taking comfort to heaven,

but you are taking your character, and in heaven, you're

gonna have comfort the rest of your life. Now it

says those who suffer according to God's will should commit

themselves to God, the faithful creator, and just keep on

doing good. You throw this arrow at me, you throw

that arrow at me, you throw another arrow at me.

I'm just gonna commit myself to God and continue to

do good. I entrusted to God, I lay it in

his hands. You need to let God be your defender

and not waste time defending yourself. And that takes faith.

And when you do that, God smiles. Now, the sixth

thing you need to do when you face opposition, and

this is the most important one of all, This is

what makes Christians different from everybody else on the planet,

because nobody else does this. Number six, when I'm persecuted,

when I'm harassed, when I'm oppressed, respond with a blessing.

What?

Yeah, you return good for evil.

You not only refuse to retaliate, there are a lot

of people who refuse to retaliate, but the Bible says

if you're gonna be a follower of Jesus, you actually

do good to those who do bad to you. You

bless those who hurt you. And he says, you respond

with a blessing. Romans 12, 21 says this. Do not become,

do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You don't make the world brighter by blowing out everybody

else's candle.

Okay?

Do not become overcome evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now Jesus gets very, very specific. And I'll just be

honest with you. As your pastor, I hate this next verse.

I wish this next verse was not in the Bible.

I'm just telling you. I don't like this verse. I

wish I could take an exacto knife and cut it

out because it's so.

Hard to do. But here's what Jesus said, Luke 6.

Love your enemies.

You gotta be kidding me. Do good to those who

hate you. Now it's overkill.

Bless those who hurt you. Come on.

Bless those who hurt you. And pray for those who

hurt you.

Come on, Lord. I mean, come on.

And if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the

other cheek. I wanna be that kind of person for Jesus.

I wanna be that courageous. I want to have that

brave heart courage where I will not cave in to

what's wrong no matter how much pain they throw at me.

That I will not retaliate, but what I will do

is respond with love. Here's an amazing thing. If you

begin to do these six things at work or with

somebody who doesn't like you, number one, God will be pleased.

God's going to smile. That's my girl. That's my boy. Second,

you're going to get blessed. It says it over. That's

the eighth beatitude. You'll be blessed. And here's an interesting thing.

Some of those public attackers will become private seekers. I

know this from experience. I've had people, very well-known people,

attack me publicly. and because I refused to engage them

but only responded with love and blessing, and I said,

may God richly bless you in every way, that then

quietly they would come around and start asking about, what's

with you? How do you do that? How do you

show love in the face This is not the normal

response I was expecting. I just want to remind you

that the worst persecutor of the church became the greatest apostle, Paul.

And Nicodemus, who was a part of the Pharisees who

were trying to put Jesus on the cross, later came

Jesus at night and says, tell me about this born

again thing.

And they'll come around. If you respond correctly, some of your.

Opponents will actually become your partners if you do it correctly.

Now let me just close with some personal questions. If

they made it illegal to be a Christian in America

and they threw everybody who followed Jesus in prison, would

there be enough evidence to convict you? Would there be

enough evidence to convict you if they made it illegal

for being a Christian? Is there any difference in your life?

Or are you just wimping out, keeping your head down?

When people say insulting things about Christians and you're in

that group, do you wimp out and say nothing? Or

do you say, you know, I can see how you

see it that way, but that's not always true. Do

you just wimp out and keep quiet? Let me ask

it this way. What is your faith costing you? When

your brothers and sisters around the world are sometimes standing

at the point of a firing squad for this or

getting tortured and limbs cut off and all kinds like that,

while it costs so much others their lives, we have

it so easy. What is your faith costing you? Let

me ask it this way. At what cost would you

stay faithful to Christ? Somebody put a pistol to your head?

You say, would you stay faithful to Christ?

Well, yes, I would.

Then why are you so ticked off and worried about insults?

Why is you so worried about disapproval? That's certainly not

as harmful as a shot in the head. If you're willing,

you're not really willing to live. You're not ready to

live until you know what's worth dying for. You gotta decide,

what am I willing to lay it on the line for?

What is more important to me than even life itself?

What is worth buying for? Until you know that, you're

not ready to live. Jesus paid a price for you.

And he says there's a price to be paid for

following him. Popularity on earth is not part of the

guarantee of being a Christian, it's not. But reward in

heaven is a guarantee. And it was Jim Elliot who said,

he is no fool who gives up what he cannot

keep for that which he cannot lose. You just gotta

decide what's more important to you. Popularity or the smile

of God? Now I wanna end with two statements of Jesus.

They're here on the screen. Mark 8 verse 38 says this.

Mark 8:38

Jesus said, if you are ashamed of me, And my commands,

that means my commands about life, about sexuality, about finances,

about reconciliation, about race. If you're ashamed of me and

my commands in this godless and sinful generation, I will

be ashamed of you when I come back in glory

with the holy angels. He also said this in Matthew

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. But, For those who declare publicly that they

belong to me, I will do the same for them

before my Father in heaven. What we need is an

army of brave men and women risk takers. We should not, parents,

we should not be depending on Disney to teach our

little girls how to be brave.

Or our little boys or anybody else.

They should see bravery in their mothers and bravery in

their fathers, courage in their moms and dad so when

they grow up, they know how to stand for something

rather than fall for anything. But it starts with courage

in the parents. Let's bow our heads. Would you pray

this prayer in your heart? Dear Jesus, I wanna care

more about what you think than what other people think

of me. I ask you to take away my fear

of disapproval. I don't wanna be a weak people pleaser.

I wanna be a God pleaser. Take away my fear

of rejection. And when I feel that urge to be

quiet and not speak up, Help me to not be afraid,

to not be embarrassed, to not be ashamed, to not

be shocked, but to in love speak the truth. Help

me to care more about your approval than anybody else's. Say,

dear God, I wanna become a brave man of God

or I wanna become a brave woman of God with

the courage of my conviction and the integrity of my

heart to live for you no matter what. Thank you

for having the courage to die for me. Thank you

for accepting me into your family. If you've never invited

Jesus Christ in your life, say, Jesus Christ, come into

my heart and life right now and fill me with

your love. Replace my fear with your love. I want

to follow you from this day forward.

In your name I pray.

Amen.