Rick Warren - Ignoring the Naysayers - Part Three

Hey, everyone, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's

Daily Hope.

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Where Rick Warren brings you uplifting messages from God's Word

every day to help you grow deeper in faith and

live a life with purpose. Today we're continuing in a

powerful series called Toolbox for Life. In this series, Rick

teaches us four essential skills that you need to succeed

wherever God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,

at school, or in your community. These are tools that

every follower of Jesus absolutely needs. And now here's the

final part of a message called Ignoring the Naysayers.

Isaiah eight thirteen.

I want us to read this verse aloud with great enthusiasm. Okay,

read it with me. Do not fear anything. Accept the

Lord Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you

fear Him, you need fear nothing else. If you fear God,

you're not gonna be afraid of anybody else, because you

know God's going to take care of you. You don't

if you're afraid of people. The bigger God gets in

your mind. The smaller people's opinion get in your mind.

The bigger people's opinion get in your mind. The smaller

God appears. So the starting point if you want to

be a leader is you got to get a big

vision of God because that will shrink all the problems.

The bigger God feels in your life, the smaller your

problems are. The bigger God is, the smaller the opinions

of other people. He says, the Lord, almighty God is

a great God. He is an almighty God. And he said,

you know, if I fear him, I don't fear anybody else.

If I'm in other words, if I'm worried about his opinion,

I don't have to worry about anybody else's opinion. Because

the bigger your vision of God you get, the smaller

problems get. If you're the biggest God in your life,

your life sucks. Sorry, Why get out of bed in

the morning because you don't have a whole enough for reason,

anything bigger than yourself to live for. Are you kidding me?

You think you were put on this earth to live

for you?

Really?

You think God created the entire universe and then went

to all expensive making you so you could live for

your petty little life.

Not a chance. You were made for something far, far,

far far bigger.

So you got to start with getting a big vision

of God and the people who are putting you down.

The people are negative, people are telling you can't be done.

They're not God.

They may be good, they may love you, you may love them,

but they're not God. Remember they're not God. By the way,

let me just ask you this question. Who am I

allowing to play God in my life? Who are you

allowing to play God in your life? This is a

word for that. It's called idolatry. You've made somebody's opinion

an idol, and you're not going to be all got

to want you to be. They may be good, but

they're not God.

Okay. Number two.

Second thing David did and you got to do this too.

If you're going to ever be a leader, if you're

going to succeed in life, don't get distracted by the negativity,

by the people who say it can't be done, by

the people who tell you you're not the person, you're

the wrong guy, you're the wrong woman. Don't get distracted.

Good illustration of this is the story of Neemiyah in

the Bible.

Neemiah was not.

A pastor, he was not a Presu's a businessman, and

Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonians.

You know where that is, Iraq.

They moved him over there for seventy years, and after

seven years they let him go back home. When they

went back home, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and

it was defenseless because all the walls had been torn down.

Niamyah got a big idea businessman said this, I'm going

to rebuild my city, and I'm going to start with

rebuilding the wall for the protection of our city. Businessman goes,

I'm going to rebuild our city. It's crumbling, it's fallen apart,

and we'll start with the wall.

Now. Of course, there was.

An instant opposition because the enemies of Israel and Jerusalem

didn't certainly didn't want them to be defendable, so they're

trying to oppose them. Would you write this down? Every

opportunity comes with opposition. You can count on that one.

In life as a leader, you realize that every opportunity

comes with opposition.

I've never done.

Anything in my life that wasn't opposed by somebody. With

every opportunity comes opposition. Opportunity plus opposition equals God's will.

So Neamiahs enemies are trying to do everything they can

to stop the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem by

this godly good businessman. And the first thing the enemies

try is they try ridicule, and people will try to

use ridicule in your life to stop you from doing stuff.

And they tried to use ridicule. That didn't work, so

then they tried. The second thing they tried was rumors,

and people will do that in your life to stop you.

They'll spread rumors about you at work, they'll spread rumors

about you on the internet.

They'll spread rumors about you to try to stop you.

That didn't work, so then they actually threatened Neamayah and

they said, you know, if you keep this project up,

we're going.

To kill you.

Now we're getting serious. But that didn't stop Neamayah. He

was diligent, determined, and not distractable.

And try it, try it.

I'm just going to keep doing what I know God's

told me to do. And finally, but when they couldn't

use rumor or ridicule or threats, they said, let's just

slow him down with discussion. Let's just see if he'll

meet with us and just discuss it. Now, they didn't

really want anything to happen except the discussion to slow

down the project. And four times they come back to

Neamiah and they keep saying, Hey, come on, let's just

talk about this.

And here was.

Neemia's response there on your outline, verse three and four

of THEMI six. So I replied to these enemies by

sending this message to them, I'm doing a great work.

I'm doing a great work. I can't stop to come

and meet with you. In other words, why would I

allow myself be distracted? Four times they sent the same message.

Notice how persistent they are, and each time I gave

them the same reply, I'm doing a great work.

I don't have time to discuss it with you. Now,

I want to warn you.

That this trap of this being getting distracted is even

bigger today because of a thing called the Internet. Or

any of you familiar with this. Yeah, can you get

distracted by the internet?

Oh yeah?

And there are plenty of naysayers online who would love

to just hook you into an argument. And all they

want to do is just get you in a discussion.

And their whole identity is controlling for people that they

can hook into arguments, and they get their joys out

of being angry. And so you know, Billy Graham told

me one time, he said, when you can wrestle with

a pig, but only one of you is going to

enjoy it, And it's true. You know, if you want

to go take on these trolls who are just negative

about everything and negative about what you believe and negative

about what you do, well you're just gonna waste your time.

You do not have to defend everything you do. You

don't have to defend everything you believe to every troll

out there on the internet who cares what they think anyway. Now,

I know I'm digging a little deep here for some

of you, but some of you have the personality that

you cannot stand to be missing understood, and you just

feel you have to correct it because you can't think

possible that anybody in the universe might misunderstand you, and

so you feel duty bound to explain everything you believe

and everything you do. And you actually think that people

who oppose you that it's just a matter of misunderstanding,

and that if you would just or able to explain

it to them very clearly, then obviously they would go, oh,

thank you, you're right, and you have this feeling that

if I just explain what I'm doing, then this person

who's negative about it will all of a sudden become

positive about it. They'll agree with you. No, they won't.

I hate to bust your bubble, but they won't because

most of the time, all of us, every human being,

uses what's called motivated reasoning. You use it about ninety

five percent of the time. I do, everybody does. Motivated

reasoning is based on emotion, not based on logic. You

think you're logical, You're not nearly as logical as you

think you are. You make decisions emotionally and then you

look for logic to back it up. People do this

with accepting Jesus Christ. They have an emotional fear of

recepting Christ, and then they look for logical reasons to

back it up. But the real reason is emotional. It's emotional.

It's a fear. It's a fear of loss of control.

It's a fear I'll lose my freedom. It's a fear.

Are you kidding? Who do you think created you?

But we make emotionally based decisions motivated reasoning. And if

somebody doesn't want to like you, they're just not going

to like you. Some people don't want to like you.

I hate to tell you that, and all the explanations

that you give is not going to change their mind.

In fact, if somebody has three reasons you're wrong and

three reasons they don't like you, and then all of

a sudden you show them how logically those reasons are wrong,

it doesn't make them happy.

It makes them matter, and.

All of a sudden they have to go find three

other reasons because you've just blown that, and you actually

made them mad, more mad because you have exposed that

they've made a decision based on emotion, not based on logic.

Some misunderstandings about you. Not everybody's going to understand you,

and some misunderstandings that people have about you are not

going to be corrected until we get to Heaven. In heaven,

it's all going to be laid out. All the truth

will be being plain. Your motivations, your reasons, and all

that kind of stuff. It'll be plain to everybody. And

that's why Jesus said this, Matthew ten, verse six, twenty six.

Don't be intimidated by these naysayers. Eventually everything's going to

be out in the open, and everyone will know how

things really are, So just have the.

Faith to wait for that day.

Don't feel like you have to spend all your time

defending why you do what you do, or what you

do or who you say it to, or what you

believe you don't you don't. One day it'll all come out.

Everybody's going to know how things really are. Have the faith,

the wait for day, and really, what matters is not

what other people think of you. It's only what matters

is what God thinks of you. Okay, Number three the

third key, realize they're not God. Don't get distracted. Number

three Never attack back, never never never never never never

never never never, never attack back to a naysayer. Just

leave it all in God's hands. Don't be a smart mouth,

don't be sarcastic, don't retaliate.

Now, let me show you some verses on this.

Let's read Proverbs eleven twelve allowed together, read it with me.

It is foolish to speak scornfully of others. Oh, stop

right there, it's foolish to speak scornfully of others. Then

God would consider a lot of people on the internet

fools because they're speaking scornfully all the time about others.

People of other political persuasions, people of other religions, people

who have other music taste, people who don't like the

sports team you like. It says there it is foolish

to speak scornfully of others. If you're smart, you will

keep what yeah, quiet quiet. So as I said, God

would say, there are a lot of foolish people in

the world, and particularly on the Internet. And if I

join those people in dissing somebody else, I'm a fool.

At that moment, I'm a fool. It is foolish.

I am a fool when anytime I speak scornfully about anybody.

There's no wiggle room in that verse. And I could

show you twenty or thirty others that say the same thing.

So just put a zipper on your mouth and stop

speaking scornfully of other people, even when they attack you.

Now, let me give you a little secret.

Some of those naysayers in your life who tell you

can't be done, who are negative all the time, who

don't they're always commenting on your marriage and your looks

and your kids and you know whatever. Those people some

of them are not that bright.

They aren't. They're just not that bright.

It's any fool can criticize it. You know, it takes

genius to build a building. Any fool can criticize it.

It takes genius to create a piece of art. Any

fool can criticize it. It's a genius to great to

make a great movie.

Any fool.

You can teach a chimpanzee to criticize. So he's saying, here,

don't I don't attack back. Some of these naysayers in

your life. They're not that bright, and you, with your

brilliant wit, could put them in their place quite quickly.

Don't. Don't.

Sometimes I'll hear somebody will say something about me, and

I think.

Oh man, I could shoot that one down fast enough.

And I have this little witty repartee that I could

give back that would just slay them. But I never

never use it. Never Why Because the Bible says don't retaliate.

The key is to respond like Jesus. First Peter, chapter

two says this. When they hurled their insults at Jesus,

he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no

threats back. Instead, he entrusted himself to him. This is God,

to God who judges justly. I want you to write

this down on your outline. I am most like Jesus

when I stay silent under attack. I am most like

Jesus when I stay silent under attack. And I just

put it in the hands of God and realize, one

day it's all going to even out. God's going to

settle the score. The truth will come out. All the

nasty stuff that's been said about you that's false will

be worthless, and what will matter is what God said

about you. And actually, when you respond the way Jesus,

your critics, your attackers, your naysayers actually help you. Let

me show you how this works. You're trying to do

the right thing. Somebody criticizes you from the outside for

your motivation or your method or whatever, and instead of

you retaliating, you say, God, bless you go in peace.

May God graciously give you his grace. And then you

know what happens. God goes, that's my boy, that's my girl,

and he gives you more power, He gives you more anointing.

And so the way you get more power, more annointing,

more blessing in your life is refused to retaliate. And

then actually those negative people actually help you because God

sees you're responding in the right way, and he just

gives you more blessing. I can trust that guy with

more blessing. I can trust that woman with more blessing.

I most like Jesus when I stay silent under attack.

Number four.

Fourth thing is focus. Stay focused on God and his promises.

Don't focus on the problem. Don't focus on the people.

Don't focus on the naysayers. Stay focused on God and

his promises. Become a promised person. Learn the promises of

the Bible. There's about seven thousand of them in the Bible.

Promises of God to you. First Samuel, chapter thirty says

this verse six, bitter people spoke against David and talked

of stoning him. This is later on in life when

he is king. Bitter people spoke of David and talked

to stoning him. But David found his strength in the television.

Oh that's the reviled substandard perversion translation.

All right, David found strength where in the Lord. In

the Lord.

When somebody's being a nastier, you don't go gossip about

them to somebody else in the office.

Just find your strength in the Lord. The Lord.

I know you love me, I know you have a

plan for my life. I'm gonna trust you. Look at

these last verses p Someone eighteen, verse six, David says,

the Lord is for me. The Lord is for me,

so I won't be afraid. What can mere mortals do

to me? You know what people can dislike you and

it won't harm you. You need to understand this. You

don't need anybody else's approval to be happy, and you're

probably not gonna get it if you haven't got it

by now. You don't need anybody approval to be happy.

You're as happy as you choose to be. You don't

need your parents approval, your brother's approval, your sister's approval,

somebody some friend's approval. You're as happy as you choose

to be. Says the Lord's for me. I'm not going

to be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?

They have their opinions, So what some one nineteen forty

one and forty two Show me, David praise how much

you love me?

Lord?

You love me, Lord, so it doesn't matter if somebody

else doesn't love me. Show me how much you love me, Lord,

and save me according to your promise.

Have you been saved?

God has a promise to save you he's a Save

me according to your promise. Then I can answer those

who insult me because I trust in your word. Some

one nineteen, verse eleven says, I've banked your promises in the.

Vault of my heart. That's what you need to do.

Instead of banking all the negative things people have said

about you in your heart or in your mind, you

need to bank the promises of God in your heart

and in your mind. What God says about you is

what matters and the other doesn't. Now, David says, save

me according to your promise. Have you been saved? What

is the promise of God? The promise of God is

this Romans ten thirteen. Whoever calls in the name of

the Lord will be saved. That's promise. Have you ever

called in the name of the Lord. If you haven't

done it, you need to do so right now. Let's

bow our heads and clothes, and if you call in

the name of the Lord, you will be saved.

So why don't you pray in your heart? Say I

don't know what to pray, Well, I'll pray a little

prayer and you can follow me in this. Just say

me to God. I just say.

God, I realize I can't save myself. Just say, God,

I realize I can't save myself. I can't forgive my

own sins. I can't even solve my own problems. So

I need you to save me. Jesus Christ. You came

at Christmas to be the savior of the world. So

as much as I know how, I say, Jesus Christ,

I ask you to be my savior. Be my manager,

call the shots in my life. Help me to care

more about what you think and say than what the

naysayers think and say. Dear God, give me your vision

and purpose and dream for my life. Jesus Christ, fill

my life with love so that I don't react to

all of the naysayers and all the negativity around me.

Make me a positive person with your love. Jesus Christ,

come in and save me today. I humbly ask this

as authentically as I know how, in Jesus's name, I

pray this.

Amen.

Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept

Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.

Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. And now, this

is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.

This is letters from our listeners. And now here's Rick.

Friends, if you're having trouble staying consistent in your Bible

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Pastor Rick, I've been a Christian all my life, but

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