Rick Warren - Handling Opposition To Your Faith—Part Three

Hey, everyone, Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.

We are glad you're with us today and we're going

to wrap up our series called The Keys to a

Blessed Life now. In these messages, Rick has been guiding

us through Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, showing us how

to live a truly hopeful and purpose filled life. And

today brings it all together. And now here's the final

part of handling opposition to your faith.

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 and 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 up to you again,

Blessed 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 day 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 going

to give you labels. You will be insulted, he says,

that's the first thing. He says, You're going to be persecuted.

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

you may even be abused. And he said, and you're

going to be light 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 I'm

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 just make it up.

Now here's what the Bible says Romans twelve, verse seventeen

and eighteen. Never pay back evil with more evil. If

it is possible, as far as it depends on you

live at peace with everyone. And 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, 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 in peace with. Some people you

just can't live in peace with. They're just going to

keep poking, poking, poke and poke and poking. And he says,

and never avenge yourselves. Circle that refuse to retaliate. Never

avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, who is said, all

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 will 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. 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 want to be bad. I really don't want

to be mad, but you make me mad, you have

the power to control my emotions. Oh really, then you're

a pretty weak person. 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 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 enemy, 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. One Peter four

nineteen 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 going to 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 that say, no, God never wants you.

God wants everybody to be a millionaire. God wants everybody

to have a Rolls roys. God never wants anybody to

have cancer. God never wants any problems in your life.

And any problem now, 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. There's so many benefits that suffering can happen here.

You may be going through suffering right now, and it

may be God's will now, that may not be. Let

me teach you sometime. 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, the Jew, 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 musselm. 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 sin. If I go out and I

live a very loose immoral life and I get a STD,

it's sexually transmitted disease. That's my fault. It'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 from sin. The Bible says, sometimes suffering is Christian.

It's not cardinal, it's 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. So you throw this arrow at me,

you throw that arrow at me, you throw another air

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 going

to 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 twelve twenty one 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, you 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. Okay, 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 exact knife and cut it out because it's so

hard to do. But here's what Jesus said, Luke, Sis,

love your enemies. You gotta be kidding me. Do good

to those who hate you. Now now it's overkilled. Bless

those who hurt you. Come on, bless those are great,

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 do not like

that verse. Sorry, I just don't. Can I just be

honest as your pastor? I wish it wasn't in the Bible.

What I'd like to say is stick it to your enemies,

you know, gossip about those who hate you. Uh you know,

give the finger to those who curse you. Okay, and

uh you know what, uh you know, write a dirty

article on the internet for those who you know who

don't like you. And if somebody slaps you on the cheek,

sock them. That's that's the Rick Warren standard version of

the Bible. Okay, that's what I really want to do. Okay, Well,

I don't want to take it. Takes far more courage

to do this. Any fool can fight back. Any whimp

can retaliate, any idiot can say something mean back. Even

parrots can be taught to curse. You. Don't have to

have any brains to curse somebody back. Now, he says,

love your enemies, do good to those hate you, Bless

those a Chursian pray for those who hurt you, and

they scaple on a cheek urn the other cheek? Is

that easy? No, Only by feeling being filled with God's

love but it is the most powerful form of witnessing,

and when you do that, you overcome evil with good.

Did you ever see that movie The Butler. It's a

good movie. It's a good movie. It's about a guy

who served I think six or eight presidents as a

butler in the White House, and it's talking about at

one point during the civil rights movement in America in

the nineteen sixties, there were a group of people from

the North who went down They were called Freedom Writers,

and they went down to the South to support civil

rights and equal rights for everyone and to fight racism.

And there's a scene in that movie where they are

teaching the Freedom Writers how to not respond with evil

when they're hit, when they're spit on, when they're cursed,

when they're pushed over, when people throw food on them.

And it's a very very powerful scene of non violent love.

And as I watched that scene, tears start coming down

my face and I thought, I want to be that

kind of person. For Jesus, I want to 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 it,

you number one, God will be pleased. God's going to smile.

That's my girl, that's my boy. The second you're gonna

get blessed. It says it over. That's the eighth beatitude.

You'll be blessed. And here's an interesting thing is 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 not 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 went 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 of like that. Well, it's costs

so much others their lives. We have it so easy.

What does your faith cost in you? Let me ask

it this way, At what cost? Would you stay faithful

to Christ? Somebody put a pistol to your head? He said,

would you stay faithful to Christ? Said? Well, yes, I would.

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

Why are 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 got

to 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 dying 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 Elliott who said he is no fool who gives

up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose.

You just got to decide what's more important to you

popularity or the smile of God. Now I want to

end with two statements of Jesus. They're here on the screen,

mark eight. Verse thirty eight says this. 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. But he also said this in Matthew chapter ten.

But for those who declare publicly that they belong to me,

I will do the same for them before my father

in heaven. God is looking for men and women of

courage in an age that has no courage at all.

Everybody's wimping out. Oh, just whatever's right for you. That's

the stupidest thing, really, you know, people say the moon

is made of cheese, the moon made rock. They both

can't both be right. There's some things that are always right,

and there's some things that are always wrong. God's looking

for men and women who aren't afraid to publicly identify

themselves as followers of Christ. So let me encourage you

this week to take a risk with your life, a

small step of faith. I want to challenge you to

be courageous this week in some small way about your faith.

I don't care how you do it. Just stop whimping out.

Be brave, be courageous, take a risk. It's the adventure

of a lifetime. He so what I do, I don't

care what you do. It might be when you go

out to lunch today or any other day this week,

when you sit down in that restaurant, you publicly bow

your head and you say a prayer with the people there,

and you don't care what other people think. It's a

public witness. It's honoring to God. You need to start

praying in public. Sorry, you need to start doing that.

Maybe you need to take your Bible to work and

sit it on your desk, or a Christian book and

sit it on your desk. And somebody says, why do

you have a Bible? And I said, well, why wouldn't

I I'm a Christian. That's it. That's all I need

to say. Take a small step of faith. If you

haven't been baptized, that's the first step of publicly identifying

yourself and say I want to publicly say I'm not

ashamed of Jesus Christ. 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. That's about our heads. Would

you pray this prayer in your heart, Dear Jesus, I

want to 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 want to be

a weak people pleaser. I want to 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 in love,

speak the truth. Help me to care more about your

approval than anybody else's. Say, Dear God, I want to

become a brave man of God, or I want to

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.

If you just prayed to receive Jesus congratulations, we would

love to send you some free materials to help you

along on your spiritual journey. Just email Rick at pastororick

dot com. That's Rick at pastorick dot com. Once again,

here's Rick.

You know, I just want to take a quick second

to say thank you everybody. Thank you for listening, for

sharing this broadcast, and for your faithful prayers and especially

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way to get the message of hope out to a

world that's desperately in need of Jesus Christ. Thanks for

listening today, everybody, and Please be sure to join me

next time as we look into God's Word for our

daily hope.

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