Rick Warren - Handling Opposition To Your Faith—Part One

Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.

We are so glad you're here with us today. We're

going to continue our series called The Keys to a

Blessed Life now. In these messages, Rick walks through Jesus'

Sermon on the Mount and shows us how to live

a truly hopeful and purpose filled life. Let's get started

with part one of handling opposition to your faith.

Have I told you lately that I love you? If

you have a Bible, open to Matthew chapter five and

bring out your message notes. If I asked you to

name the most persecuted group on the planet, you'd probably

name the wrong group because it's Christians. It's Christians. It

may surprise you that that's the most persecuted group on

the planet, because it is the most ignored, most unnoticed,

least reported, most overlooked news item on the planet. Without

a doubt. The International Society of let me get this right,

International Society for Human Rights. It's a secular organization. It's

not a Christian organization. Just recently let out a report

and it says, quote, eighty percent of all religious freedom

violations in the world today are directed against Christians. Now,

we're all aware that throughout history, for two thousand years, Christianity,

the Christian Church, and Christians in particular, have been persecuted.

We all know that for three hundred years it was

illegal to be a Christian in the Roman Empire. They

were feeding Christians to the lions, Nero was tarring them

and lighting them on fire. And for three hundred years,

first hundred years years of the Church, it was against

the law to be a Christian. We know about the

different cleansings throughout history, and the tortures and the burning

at the stake and all of those kind of things

for two thousand years. But what we don't know, what

you don't know, is that the worst persecution of Christians

in all of history is happening in our lifetime. It's

just not being reported now. Since the Resurrection two thousand

years ago, about seventy million believers in Jesus Christ have

died for their faith. About seventy million. Well, what is

shocking and what most people don't know is half of

that number, thirty five million, have died in the last

one hundred years. Right now. This past year, about one

hundred million followers of Christ lived in countries, whether the

state or the prevailing religion or the dictatorship, left one

hundred million followers of Jesus facing the threat of discrimination,

of persecution, of interrogation, of arrest, of imprisonment, of torture,

of even death. There used to be, for instance, about

one point three million Christians in Iraq. That was about

how many there were when the First Gulf War broke out.

Today there's less than one hundred thousand in the nation

of Iraq. The most current estimates in South North Korea

is that they're probably about seventy thousand Christians in prison

in North Korea right now, suffering in prison, and about

every ten minutes, two Christians die for their faith around

the world, hour upon hour upon hour upon day, upon

week upon months to every ten minutes. For the last decade,

you've never heard that. No one is reporting it. It

is the most underreported story on the planet. Now, what

are we supposed to do about our persecuted brothers and

sisters in christ These millions and hundreds of thousands in

refugee camps and displaced and having to move to other

nations and things like that. What are we supposed to do? Well?

The first thing we're supposed to do is be informed,

because nobody's going to tell you this. They're not going

to tell you the national reports that are coming out

of all these different organizations. Second, we need to pray.

The Bible says we are to pray for those who

are persecuted. Third, we need to give. You can give

online to help support families who have loved ones in prison,

or are being tortured, or have died because of their faith.

We can give, we can pray, we can learn, and

we can be advocates for freedom. Let me show you

a verse on the Bible. The Bible says this here

on the screen Hebrews thirteen three. Remember those who are

in prison as if you were in prison with them.

Remember those who are suffering, as if you were suffering

with them. That's what God tells us to do. Now.

Anybody who thinks that following Jesus Christ, being a follower

of Christ is easy, is sadly mistaken. Sadly mistaken. Being

a Christian, being a follower of Christ is not for whimps.

It's not for weaklings, it's not for the feinate of heart.

It's not for cowards. You must be willing to face rejection.

You must be willing to face criticism. You must be

willing to face disapproval. You must be willing to face

peer pressure. You must be willing to face harassments and

opposition if you truly live for Christ. Now the Bible says,

this look on the top of your outline two Timothy three,

verse twelve. Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants

to live right will have trouble from others. Circle the

word will. This is not an if, This is not

a mite. This is a guarantee. The Bible says, it

is guaranteed that if you stand for what's right, there

will be people who oppose you. If you stand for

what's true, there will be people who oppose you. If

you stand for what's good, evil will simply oppose you.

Now today we come to the last of the eight Beatitudes.

We've been looking at these eight blessings of Jesus, where

Jesus says, if you want to be blessed by God,

here's what you need to do in your life. And

we've looked at humility, and we've looked at generosity, and

we've looked at integrity. We've looked at how to reconcile

a relationship being a peacemaker. And in the last of

the eight Beatitudes, where Jesus says, if you want God's

blessing on your life, he deals with this issue of opposition,

of harassment for your faith, of persecution, and we're going

to look at what to do with it today. Now,

we're going to look at how to handle opposition to

your faith. And we're going to look at two things.

What do you need to remember when you're feeling pressured

peer pressure? And what do you need to do when

you're feeling peer pressure, when you're feeling harassed or put

down or ridiculed or maligned or criticized or whatever for

your faith? What do you need to do? Now, let

me just be real honest. In America, you're not being persecuted.

You're not, but you are being pressured and there is

subtle pressure to conform and to be like everybody else

in America. You're not going to face violent oppression, You're

just not going to, at least not in the foreseeable future.

But you are going to face not violent oppression, but

silent repression. And this is the subtle thing for you

to just shut up and keep your mouth shut and

not say what's true, and not stand up for Christ

and not be a public witness, and to just blend

in and to fit in. And the pressure to conform.

You feel it all the time. I could give you

a thousand ways that you do this. When a boss

pressures you to do something that you know is dishonest

or unethical and you don't want to do it. There's

the pressure to conform. When people are standing around the

water cooler and they're all telling dirty jokes and you go,

I really shouldn't be participating in this, and the pressure

is to stay there and to smile and smirk and

laugh and not walk away. You will invite it to

some events you just can't go to as a Christian.

A single guys, there are some bachelor parties you can't

go to. In fact, nobody should go and do them.

And you know it. And yet if you say I'm

not going and say why because I'm a Christian, you

will be put down. You will be harassed. You will say, oh,

you're out of date, or you're no fun, or you're

a fuddy duddy, or you have no freedom and all

of these there's enormous pressure on you. To do that.

Feel pressure to be silent when people are praising moral

choices that the Bible says is wrong, and you go, what,

you don't think that's okay. You don't think that's okay.

You don't think that's okay, and you don't think that

over there is okay. What's wrong with you? You're on

the wrong side of history. Let me just tell you something.

History is often wrong. Remember Hitler, New York Times and

other magazines actually praised him in the thirties. History is

often wrong. It's not important to be on the right

side of history. It's important to be on the right side.

It's important not to be popular. It's important to stand

with the truth. So you'll be pressured to be quiet.

You'll be pressured when you're standing around and somebody says,

you know, all Christians they just and they make a

derogatory remark, they're all bigots, they're all this or this

or that, and you will have the pressure to stay quiet.

That is harassment for your faith. What should you do, Well,

there are some things you need to do in this

some things you need to remember. First. Let's look at

three things you need to remember. Write these down when

you feel pressured for your faith because you love Jesus

and other people don't. The first thing you need to

remember is this opposition can make me more like Jesus.

That's a good thing. Opposition can actually make me more

like Jesus, and it makes me more like Jesus. Because

Jesus experienced opposition, he experienced it in great quantities. Obviously.

The Bible says in John fifteen, verse eighteen to twenty.

When the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.

The world would love you if you belong to it,

but you don't. Jesus says, I chose you out of

this world. That's why this world will hate you. No

servant is ever greater than his master. So since they

persecuted me, they will persecute you. Now follow me on this.

If you're gonna grow up and be like Jesus Christ,

God wants you to become like him and the way

you think and act and feel, then you're gonna have

to go through everything Jesus went through. Were there times

when Jesus was lonely? Yes? Were there times when Jesus

was tempted to be discouraged? Yes? Were there times he

was fatigued and worn out. Yes, were there times when

Jesus was tempted. Yes, were the times he was maligned, criticized,

and lied about. Yes, what makes you think God would

spare you when he didn't spare his own son. Of

those things, You're gonna go through the exact same thing

as I said. Christianity following Jesus is not for weaklings.

It's not for whims. It's not for fuddy dudies. And

people who don't have any backbone, don't have any spine.

And Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Remember,

Jesus was hated by many people. He was loved by sinners,

but he was hated by people who didn't like goodness.

Evil always hates goodness, and the Bible says this on

the screen John three nineteen, The light from heaven came

into the world. That's Jesus. He said, I am the

light of the world. But people love their darkness more

than light because it hides their evil actions. You know,

if I've been sitting in the dark for ten hours

and you come in and you turn on a big

spotlight on me, that's not comfortable. That's very uncomfortable. When

you've been living in the dark all your life and

somebody comes and turns on the light. Guess what. It

doesn't feel good at first, and on second thought, you

see what a mess room is. Jesus said, I'm the

light of the world, and he said this, you're the

light of the world. It's still true today, he said,

people still loved darkness more than the light. You know,

you may have never thought about this, but it may

shock you to realize that if Jesus came and walked

on the earth today, we'd crucify him today. Our culture

would crucify Jesus today. We're no different than any other culture. Why,

because darkness can't stand light and evil can't stand goodness. Now,

what that means is this, even if you were perfect,

there are people who aren't going to like you. Some

of you have this myth in your mind. If I'm

just more winsome, if I'm just more likable, if I'm

just more perfect, then everybody you'll love me. Jesus was

perfect and people hated him. So you're never going to

get to the point where everybody loves you and likes you.

That's just not going to happen. The other thing we

learned from this verse is that opposition means that you're

doing something right. You're obviously being like Jesus in that moment,

and he said, if they did like me, then they're

not gonna like you. The Bible says it isn't one

Peter four fourteen. If you're abused because of Christ, count

yourself fortunate. Why he says, it's the spirit of God

in you and His glory in you that brought you

to the notice of others. So you say, when you're criticized,

when you're judged, when you're ridiculed, when you're slighted, He's going, congratulations,

consider it a confirmation and a compliment. If nobody has

ever criticized you for your faith, what is that saying

about your faith? You don't have any If being like Christ,

the Bible says over and over, will bring criticism. If

you're never criticized, I should ask myself, then, how much

like Christ? Am I? What's wrong with me? Why is

nobody noticing my faith? I don't know if you you've

noticed this, But the more positive you are, the more

negative people dislike you. And if you get up in

the morning and you're really positive, if somebody wakes up

in there grumpy. They don't want you to be positive.

They want you to be negative too, and that happens.

So the first thing I need to realize is that

Jesus was criticized. Jesus was maligned, he was attacked. So

the more I'm like Jesus, it just means it's a sign,

it's a symbol, it's a confirmation and a compliment. Second

thing you need to remember this opposition will deepen my faith.

Opposition will actually deepen my faith. It's how your faith grows.

It's like the way you grow a muscle. A muscle

is grown not by sitting in a chair and eating popcorn.

A muscle is grown by stretching it, by straining it,

by testing it. If you've ever gone to a gym

and worked out, and obviously many of you haven't, then

you know that the way you grow a muscle is

by straining it, by stretching it, by pressuring it, by

putting tension against it and having weight pulling the opposite direction.

You're never going to grow any muscle if no weight's

ever pulling in the opposite direction. So opposition strengthens your faith,

It deepens your faith. You have no opposition in your life,

then you have no growing faith. And it is without

a doubt that the strongest believers in the world right

now are those who are having their faith tested the most.

The strongest believers aren't in America, the strongest believers where

people are holding the gun and saying renounce Christ and

convert to whatever we are, or die, which is happening

right now in Syria every single day. That's where the

strongest believers are. It comes from the opposition. One Peter

four one seven says this, these troubles that you're going

through will prove that your faith is genuine. Just as

gold is purified by fire and heat. Circle that phrase,

fire and heat. Just as gold is purified by fire

and heat, so your faith, which is far more precious

than gold, must also be purified by fire. By this fire,

and when the heat's on and when you're holding your

feet to the fire, so it may endure. And he says,

what happens when opposition deepens my faith? He says, then

here's the result. You'll receive praise. You'll receive praise, you'll

receive glory, and you'll receive honor. On the day when

Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Your rewards

are coming one day. If you stand the heat, if

you stand the fire, if you let opposition deep in

your faith. It makes me more like Jesus, and it

deepens my faith. And the third thing it does, opposition

will give me eternal rewards. No opposition, you miss out

on those rewards in eternity. Now we come to the

last of the eight beatitudes, which we've been studying now

for many, many weeks. We've been studying this for a

long time. And in the last one, Jesus deals with

how to deal with opposition, and he says this, God

blesses those who are persecuted because they live for Me. Now,

I want you to underline a circle, because they live

for God. It doesn't just say God blesses those who

are persecuted for any reason. Okay, it says God blesses

those who are persecuted because they live for God. The

Kingdom of Heaven will be theirs. That's quite a guarantee.

You will be blessed when, not if, when people insult

you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of

evil against you because of me. Notice three different things there.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,

for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who

were before you. And he says, I'm gonna bless anybody

who's persecuted because they live for God. Notice, you don't

get rewarded for being rude. You don't get rewarded for

being obnoxious. There are people out in the world who

live very self righteous lives, and they're looking down on

everybody and putting everybody else down. And when you put

other people down, and guess what, they're gonna put you down.

And if you live a self righteous, nuisance, rude life,

when you get persecuted, you're not a martyr. You're just

a jerk. He's not saying you get rewarded for being

a jerk. There are people out there who are pushy,

they're nuisances, they're rude, and I said, they're self righteous.

They think they're better than everybody else. He said. Now,

you don't get rewarded for that. You get rewarded for

being like Jesus, he said, And the Bible tells us

that when you share your faith, you're to do it

with gentleness and you're to do it with respect.

What a great message from Pastor Rick today. There's something

I always take away from his message. Here's Rick to

tell you how you can help support this ministry.

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