Rick Warren - Ignoring the Naysayers - Part One

Hey, everyone, you're in the right place. You're tuned in

to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, where Rick Warren brings you

uplifting messages from God's Word every day to help you

grow deeper in faith and live with purpose. Well, today

we're beginning a powerful series called Toolbox for Life, where

Rick teaches four essential skills 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 every

follower of Jesus needs. Now, let's join Pastor Rick for

part one of a message called Ignoring the Naysayers.

You know, there are thousands of self help books in

print today that will tell you this. They'll say all

you need to succeed is desire and determination. There are

thousands of books that will say all you need in

life to the success is desire and determination. And I'm

here to tell you that's just not true. It's just

not true.

I know a lot of.

People have desire and determination and have not succeeded in

life because it's partially true. Of course, you need desire,

of course you need determination, But you need more than that.

You need the tools, and you need the skills. To

succeed in life. For instance, a farmer can pray all

he wants for a giant corn crop, but he plants

the wrong seed, if he uses the wrong fertilizer, if

he doesn't give it the proper amount of water, if

he doesn't use the right harvester, it's not going to

be a big crop, no matter how hard he prays

and how sincere he is. And if I'm growing a

crop of wheat and I use a tomato harvester, it

won't work. And if I'm growing grapes and I use

a corn harvester, it won't work. You got to have

the right tools in life to succeed, and you've got

to have the right skills in life to succeed. Now,

this is not what I say, it's what the Bible says.

If you look on your outline, the top verse is

going to be the theme verse for the next eight weeks.

It's Ecclesiastes ten to ten from the Bible. It's one

of my life versus, and it says this, If the

axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength

is needed, but skill will bring success. I want you

to circle the word skill, and I want you to

circle the word success and draw a line between the

two of them. You have to have the skills of

success in order to succeed in life. It's not just

good sincere desire and determination and you know, I'm you

know I want to succeed.

You have to have the skills. Now, let's go back.

I'm actually going to call this a toolbox for life,

because that's kind of what it is. It's a toolbox

for life. Part of my job, as your pastor who

loves you, is to equip you, vat you and give

you the life skills that you need to be all

God wants you to be in all you want to

be in life. Now, the Bible says if an axe

is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength is required.

In other words, if you're chopping wood and you got

an axe, you got a dull axe. It takes more effort,

far more effort to chop the wood. But if your

axe is really sharp, it's just not as hard. And

then it says skill will bring success. What that verse

is saying is work smarter, not harder. I know a

lot of people in life who work harder than me.

But it's not about working hard. It's about working smart,

and it says if you sharpen your axe, then it

won't take as much effort for you to succeed in life.

You'll have the right skills. Now, anytime you come to church,

like right now, you're sharpening your acts, because I'm going

to teach you some skins.

That will help you succeed in your life.

When you're in a Bible study, when you're in a

small group, when you take a course, a class, you're

never wasting your time when you're sharpening your acts because

skill will bring success. Now, one of the skills, and

I'm just going to start with this, and doesn't have

to be the most important. It's just the one I'm

going to start with in this series of eight life

skills that you need is learning how to deal with

the negative people in your life, the naysayers that want

to keep you from succeeding. Now, what is a naysayer? Well,

I put a definition there on your outline. Look at this.

This is from Webster's dictionary. A naysayer is a person

who says something won't work or isn't possible. A cynic

who habitually expresses pessimistic views. How many of you have

ever met a naysayer in your life, raise your hand.

Don't look at him, just raise your hand. Okay, you

may be married to a naysayer, look get them, Okay.

As a person who's always saying it won't work, it

isn't possible, it can't be done, that's a naysayer. Now,

everybody who's accomplished anything in life had naysayers in their life.

The Right Brothers when they were starting inventing the first

playing people, it'll never work. You can't fly, human beings

can't fly. When Moses going across the desert, the people

is saying, we're going to die in the desert. We're

not going to make it to the Promised Land. When

people said we're going to the moon, people say, and

you can never go to the moon. Anything great that's

ever been done has always had naysayers. Now, let me

just start by saying this. The naysayers in your life,

they're not bad people. They're not bad people. In fact

that they are their sayers in your life who love you,

and they're naysayers in your life who actually want what's

best for you.

They're just mistaken.

And the reason why they're mistaken and they say it

can't be done and you can't do it, and is

because they don't know what God has said to you.

God gave you a dream. I've always wanted to do this.

God gave you a vision. God gave you a mission.

God gave you a purpose, and he didn't give that

dream to somebody else.

So somebody else isn't going.

To understand that dream like you do, so they're going

to tend to be negative about it. My life is

a testimony of ignoring naysayers. Everything I've done in my life,

people said, can be done.

You know it's not going to happen. You won't do it.

I don't believe it will happen.

And I have just ignored those naysayers and gone ahead

and done what God told me to do. But they're

not bad people. They just don't have the dream you've

been given. You know, thirty five years ago, when Kay

and I were finishing my masters and then my doctorate

in seminary, we were in Texas and I felt like

God said to me to start a church. And I

talked to Can and said, you know, I really feel

in my heart, honey, that we're supposed to move to

southern California and start at church with no members, no money,

no building. I don't know anybody there, and I've never

been a senior pastor.

What do you think now? My wife was not a naysayer?

Actually, Kay said, well, and this is the exact quote.

It scares me to death. But I believe in God

and I believe in you, so let's go. I've often

wondered how would history be different if my wife had

said no, you wouldn't be sitting here today. There would

be no peace plan, there'd be no purpose driven life.

There'd be a saddleback in sixteen locations if my wife

had said no, Naysayers can actually stop the will of

God if we listen to them instead of listening to God.

Sometimes people are good, godly people and they still don't

get it. You know, the Bible advises many times in

scripture that if you're going to make a major decision,

you should talk to godly people. You should talk to

wise people who've been following Lord longer than you have

get their advice. And so, when I was thinking about

moving to Southern Californian start this church, I called up

a guy that I had deep respect for. He was

a businessman in the Midwest. He was actually a billionaire,

but he's a really strong devout Christian. I'd actually been

on conferences with him where we spoke together, and I thought,

I'm gonna call this guy up. So I called this

guy up and I said, I think God is calling

me as I just said, to go to southern California

start a church with no members, no building, no support.

I've never been a senior pastor, but I think this

is what I'm supposed to do.

What do you think now?

I expected this guy to go, oh, Rick, I admire

your deep faith. You are really a man of God.

This is really God's good to bless us. You know

what he said, He said, that's the stupidest.

Idea I've ever heard. That's the exact word. Now.

I will tell you that about fifteen, maybe twenty years later,

he called me said that was the stupidest advice I

ever gave, because clearly God wanted to saddleback church and

they wanted to use you to start it. So even

the good guys get it wrong. Sometimes these are not

bad people. They just don't see the perspective that you

see now. For every person who goes after their dream

in life. There are nine people who are scared to

death to do it. All they can see is the problems.

All they can see is the negatives, and they're like

giants standing in the way that scare them to death.

So how do you face opposition and negativity? This is

one of the first skills you have to learn as

a leader, how to not let negativity get you down.

You have to learn this if you're going to be

a leader in life. So how do you learn that? Well, fortunate,

we got a story in the Bible that tells us

and teaches us the skill. It's the story of David

and Goliath. You know, this story of this little shepherd boy,

young boy who's out tending sheep and Israel is fighting

its big enemy, the Philistines. And the Philistines had a

guy who was literally a giant.

He's like eight or nine feet tall. He's just a big, big.

Man, and he was scaring everybody to death, and he

was taunting the enemies, and David says, I'll.

Take him on.

But long before that happened, David had to face for

other giants. And that's what I want us to look

at today, not David and Goliath, but what gave him

the courage to take on Goliath because the four giants

he faced before Goliath were all naysayers. They were people

who didn't believe in his ability, didn't believe in his competence,

didn't believe that God was working in his life, and

he had to struggle with those before he could go

face Goliath. So get at your pencils, and let's look

at four kinds of naysayers in your life, and then

how to handle the negativity of the people who tell

you can't do it. Okay, if you ever needed to

take notes, this is a good week take notes, Okay,

So write this down.

Number one.

The first negative or naysayer that David had to face

was actually his own dad, And so write this down.

His dad held him back. That's the first names there.

And oftentimes a parent will be somebody who holds you

back and keeps you from becoming all God wants you

to be. In Verses twelve to fifteen, all these verses

are in Samuel seventeen.

It says this now.

David was the youngest of Jesse's eight sons, and his

three older brothers enlisted in Saul's army. Saul was the

king of Israel at the time, but David was held

back to care for the sheep in Bethlehem circle. The

phrase held back, Have you ever been held back by anyone?

Of course you have, of course you have. This is

the first barrier to your dream. When somebody holds you back,

it's a delay. Now, some of you have been held

back because of your age. Some of you have been

held back because of your gender.

You're a woman.

Some of you have been held back because of your race.

Some of you have been held back because of your ethnicity,

or the color of your skin, or the language you speak.

You may have been held back because you weren't as

educated as somebody else. You weren't promoted because you didn't

have something that somebody else had.

You all remember this. In school.

There were people who were more athletic than you, There

were people who were more musical than you, there were

people who were more academic than you, and you felt

held back.

I'm sorry, I am as your pastor, I'm sorry.

The fact is everybody in this room has faced some

kind of discrimination at some point in time, and there

are naysayers who will tell you can't do it. You're

not the guy. You're not the right person, You're not

good looking enough. You were held back because of your appearance.

Everybody has faced this, and sometimes it will actually be

people who love you, a husband, a wife, a mom

or dad, a brother or sister, somebody in your family,

a friend. David's dad wanted David to be a shepherd

for the rest of his life, and yet David had

already been anointed as king. Now, the first barrier in

your success plan. Write this down is delay. Because when

God gives you a dream, it never, never, never happens

Instantly he gives you a dream, he says, this is

what I'm going to do in your life, and then

there's a time lapse. There's a waiting period. There's always

a delay where God is getting you ready while he's

getting the plan ready for you. This is the first barrier,

the delayers in your life who hold you back and

keep you from moving forward. David's dad didn't think he

was old enough or even experienced enough to go fight

on the battlefield with his brothers, or for that matter,

even be king. Now, let me tell you a little

backstory on this. The first king of Israel was a

guy named Saul. He's king right now, before he's even dead,

God tells Samuel, who is the prophet, the holy Man

of Israel at that time, says, I'm going to tell

you who David's, who Saul's successor is, and I want

you to go anoint him as king. And he says,

I want you to go to the town of Bethlehem

to a guy named Jesse and ask for his sons.

So Saul, I mean Samuel goes to Jesse and says,

God's told me to come and anoint one of your

boys is the next king of Israel. And so Jesse

brings out his seven oldest sons parades them by Samuel.

Not that guy.

Now, God says no to that guy next, you know,

and He's going no, no, no, no no. And he

gets to the end. He goes, you got any other sons?

And David's dad sought thought so little David. He goes, oh, yeah,

well I got the runt. I got the baby. He's

out in the field playing with the sheep right now,

and he goes bring him in and he brings him

in and he says, Saul goes, I mean, Samuel goes,

that's the guy, and he anoints him.

As the next king. Now, David's just a young boy.

There are many, many, many many years, and many many

problems between when God tells David, you're going to be

eventually the king of the entire nation and when he

actually becomes king. There's always a delay. So his dad

held him back. Now the second night, they say, or

actually was the society around him, or the culture around him,

or the conventional wisdom, the popular opinion write this down

number two. Everybody else was afraid, and that fear kept

held David back. Everybody was afraid of this guy, Goliath.

The prevailing view in Israel there was that this giant

who was on the opposing team, Goliath, was unstoppable, that

he was unbeatable, and Goliath had created this climate of

fear and culture of fear, and everybody said it can't

be done. This guy cannot be taken down.

He's just too big.

And so everybody in the nation was discouraged because they

say they got a secret weapon, they got this giant guy,

and we have nobody. Now here's the second thing that

will hold you back, and that is discouragement. The first

is delay, and it could be a parent who holds

you back and The second is discouragement. And that's when

everybody around you thinks it can't be done. Everybody around

you thinks it's impossible. Everybody around you is living in fear,

and this can come. Discouragement can come from anywhere. Verse

eight to eleven says this. In the Bible.

Each day.

Goliath would stand and shout at the ranks of Israel's army.

Why do you come out here and line up for battle?

Goliath says, choose one man.

To fight me, and if he's able to kill me,

then we'll become your subjects. But if I kill him,

then you will become our subjects and serve us. So

he's saying, looks, let's don't even have a battle. Let's

just do mono amano one on one, man on man.

You pick your best guy, take your best shot at me.

Whoever wins will own the country. Day after day Goliath

taunted them, saying, this day I defy the ranks of Israel.

When Saul, that's the king, and the Israelites heard this,

everyone was deeply shaken and paralyzed with fear. Now, notice

the situation here. One guy is creating a climate of

fear in the entire country. It's demoralized everybody. They're gripped

with anxiety, they're terrified, they're traumatized.

Nobody is willing to do anything.

They're all paralyzed by fear, hopeless, so frightened, they can't

do a thing. They ever worked in an office like that,

where everybody there's a culture of fear in an office.

Everybody's so afraid of making a mistake that the big guy,

the boss will can you will will you know?

Fire you?

And this climate of fear in grips so nobody has

any new ideas. Nobody even tries anything in the office

because everybody's afraid of losing their job, and they're all

just trying to protect their turf.

Sounds like a lot of places where people work and.

People go, well, there's nothing we can do. This was

the prevailing opinion. This was the conventional wisdom. This was

the prevailing mood of culture. It's a problem too big,

nobody can solve it. I want to tell you something.

Conventional wisdom is often wrong. The majority is often wrong.

Public opinion is often wrong. Majority doesn't make something right.

There's a lot of things our culture believes that aren't right.

What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know daily

my hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick

with a letter from one of our listeners.

Hi, everybody.

You know God often uses the hardship in our lives

to prepare our hearts for his message that he wants

to give us. And that's what a woman named Deanna

believes happened. When her world just collapsed all around her.

Deanna wrote to me and saying this, Pastor Rick, It's

been on my heart to send you this.

Thank you.

I hit a very low valley in my life and

I finally figured I must be doing life wrong. I

had lost my job, I lost my husband, and I

almost died from birth complications. I went from a high paying,

high profile, white collar job to pick an up cigarette

butts and vacuuming construction job sites to support myself and

my son as a single mom. But I started listening

to your Daily Hope podcast on the way to work

and later listened to all that I could during my

time vacuim me and cleaning. One day, on my way

to work, driving up a mountain road and going around

a corner, I heard you give a call to anyone

who had not yet given their life to Jesus. And

you know what, I prayed with you that prayer and

Jesus has been in my heart ever since, and I

am so grateful. It actually is bringing tears to my eyes. Deanna,

did you know God created you just in order to

love you, and He's so pleased to accept you into

this forever family. In fact, the Bible says that the

angels had a party in heaven when you opened your

life to Christ and received Him into your life. And

guess what, I'm celebrating with them right now. Welcome. You're

now my sister and the Lord, and I'll see you

in heaven, if not sooner.

Now, I want to thank.

All the rest of you who support Daily Hope because

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hear the Daily Hope messages while driving in a car.

You know, when we get to Heaven, it's going to

be really fun to meet all the people who are

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around the world through Daily Hope.

So thank you friends.

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