Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, thanks for joining us today on Pastor Rick's
Speaker 1: Daily Hope.
Speaker 2: This is the place.
Speaker 1: Where Rick Warren brings you uplifting messages from God's Word
Speaker 1: every day to help you grow deeper in faith and
Speaker 1: live a life with purpose. Today we're continuing in a
Speaker 1: powerful series called Toolbox for Life. In this series, Rick
Speaker 1: teaches us four essential skills that you need to succeed
Speaker 1: wherever God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,
Speaker 1: at school, or in your community. These are tools that
Speaker 1: every follower of Jesus absolutely needs. And now here's the
Speaker 1: final part of a message called Ignoring the Naysayers.
Speaker 2: Isaiah eight thirteen.
Speaker 3: I want us to read this verse aloud with great enthusiasm. Okay,
Speaker 3: read it with me. Do not fear anything. Accept the
Speaker 3: Lord Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you
Speaker 3: fear Him, you need fear nothing else. If you fear God,
Speaker 3: you're not gonna be afraid of anybody else, because you
Speaker 3: know God's going to take care of you. You don't
Speaker 3: if you're afraid of people. The bigger God gets in
Speaker 3: your mind. The smaller people's opinion get in your mind.
Speaker 3: The bigger people's opinion get in your mind. The smaller
Speaker 3: God appears. So the starting point if you want to
Speaker 3: be a leader is you got to get a big
Speaker 3: vision of God because that will shrink all the problems.
Speaker 3: The bigger God feels in your life, the smaller your
Speaker 3: problems are. The bigger God is, the smaller the opinions
Speaker 3: of other people. He says, the Lord, almighty God is
Speaker 3: a great God. He is an almighty God. And he said,
Speaker 3: you know, if I fear him, I don't fear anybody else.
Speaker 3: If I'm in other words, if I'm worried about his opinion,
Speaker 3: I don't have to worry about anybody else's opinion. Because
Speaker 3: the bigger your vision of God you get, the smaller
Speaker 3: problems get. If you're the biggest God in your life,
Speaker 3: your life sucks. Sorry, Why get out of bed in
Speaker 3: the morning because you don't have a whole enough for reason,
Speaker 3: anything bigger than yourself to live for. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3: You think you were put on this earth to live
Speaker 3: for you?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 3: You think God created the entire universe and then went
Speaker 3: to all expensive making you so you could live for
Speaker 3: your petty little life.
Speaker 2: Not a chance. You were made for something far, far,
Speaker 2: far far bigger.
Speaker 3: So you got to start with getting a big vision
Speaker 3: of God and the people who are putting you down.
Speaker 3: The people are negative, people are telling you can't be done.
Speaker 2: They're not God.
Speaker 3: They may be good, they may love you, you may love them,
Speaker 3: but they're not God. Remember they're not God. By the way,
Speaker 3: let me just ask you this question. Who am I
Speaker 3: allowing to play God in my life? Who are you
Speaker 3: allowing to play God in your life? This is a
Speaker 3: word for that. It's called idolatry. You've made somebody's opinion
Speaker 3: an idol, and you're not going to be all got
Speaker 3: to want you to be. They may be good, but
Speaker 3: they're not God.
Speaker 2: Okay. Number two.
Speaker 3: Second thing David did and you got to do this too.
Speaker 3: If you're going to ever be a leader, if you're
Speaker 3: going to succeed in life, don't get distracted by the negativity,
Speaker 3: by the people who say it can't be done, by
Speaker 3: the people who tell you you're not the person, you're
Speaker 3: the wrong guy, you're the wrong woman. Don't get distracted.
Speaker 3: Good illustration of this is the story of Neemiyah in
Speaker 3: the Bible.
Speaker 2: Neemiah was not.
Speaker 3: A pastor, he was not a Presu's a businessman, and
Speaker 3: Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonians.
Speaker 2: You know where that is, Iraq.
Speaker 3: They moved him over there for seventy years, and after
Speaker 3: seven years they let him go back home. When they
Speaker 3: went back home, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed and
Speaker 3: it was defenseless because all the walls had been torn down.
Speaker 3: Niamyah got a big idea businessman said this, I'm going
Speaker 3: to rebuild my city, and I'm going to start with
Speaker 3: rebuilding the wall for the protection of our city. Businessman goes,
Speaker 3: I'm going to rebuild our city. It's crumbling, it's fallen apart,
Speaker 3: and we'll start with the wall.
Speaker 2: Now. Of course, there was.
Speaker 3: An instant opposition because the enemies of Israel and Jerusalem
Speaker 3: didn't certainly didn't want them to be defendable, so they're
Speaker 3: trying to oppose them. Would you write this down? Every
Speaker 3: opportunity comes with opposition. You can count on that one.
Speaker 3: In life as a leader, you realize that every opportunity
Speaker 3: comes with opposition.
Speaker 2: I've never done.
Speaker 3: Anything in my life that wasn't opposed by somebody. With
Speaker 3: every opportunity comes opposition. Opportunity plus opposition equals God's will.
Speaker 3: So Neamiahs enemies are trying to do everything they can
Speaker 3: to stop the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem by
Speaker 3: this godly good businessman. And the first thing the enemies
Speaker 3: try is they try ridicule, and people will try to
Speaker 3: use ridicule in your life to stop you from doing stuff.
Speaker 3: And they tried to use ridicule. That didn't work, so
Speaker 3: then they tried. The second thing they tried was rumors,
Speaker 3: and people will do that in your life to stop you.
Speaker 3: They'll spread rumors about you at work, they'll spread rumors
Speaker 3: about you on the internet.
Speaker 2: They'll spread rumors about you to try to stop you.
Speaker 3: That didn't work, so then they actually threatened Neamayah and
Speaker 3: they said, you know, if you keep this project up,
Speaker 3: we're going.
Speaker 2: To kill you.
Speaker 3: Now we're getting serious. But that didn't stop Neamayah. He
Speaker 3: was diligent, determined, and not distractable.
Speaker 2: And try it, try it.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to keep doing what I know God's
Speaker 3: told me to do. And finally, but when they couldn't
Speaker 3: use rumor or ridicule or threats, they said, let's just
Speaker 3: slow him down with discussion. Let's just see if he'll
Speaker 3: meet with us and just discuss it. Now, they didn't
Speaker 3: really want anything to happen except the discussion to slow
Speaker 3: down the project. And four times they come back to
Speaker 3: Neamiah and they keep saying, Hey, come on, let's just
Speaker 3: talk about this.
Speaker 2: And here was.
Speaker 3: Neemia's response there on your outline, verse three and four
Speaker 3: of THEMI six. So I replied to these enemies by
Speaker 3: sending this message to them, I'm doing a great work.
Speaker 3: I'm doing a great work. I can't stop to come
Speaker 3: and meet with you. In other words, why would I
Speaker 3: allow myself be distracted? Four times they sent the same message.
Speaker 3: Notice how persistent they are, and each time I gave
Speaker 3: them the same reply, I'm doing a great work.
Speaker 2: I don't have time to discuss it with you. Now,
Speaker 2: I want to warn you.
Speaker 3: That this trap of this being getting distracted is even
Speaker 3: bigger today because of a thing called the Internet. Or
Speaker 3: any of you familiar with this. Yeah, can you get
Speaker 3: distracted by the internet?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah?
Speaker 3: And there are plenty of naysayers online who would love
Speaker 3: to just hook you into an argument. And all they
Speaker 3: want to do is just get you in a discussion.
Speaker 3: And their whole identity is controlling for people that they
Speaker 3: can hook into arguments, and they get their joys out
Speaker 3: of being angry. And so you know, Billy Graham told
Speaker 3: me one time, he said, when you can wrestle with
Speaker 3: a pig, but only one of you is going to
Speaker 3: enjoy it, And it's true. You know, if you want
Speaker 3: to go take on these trolls who are just negative
Speaker 3: about everything and negative about what you believe and negative
Speaker 3: about what you do, well you're just gonna waste your time.
Speaker 3: You do not have to defend everything you do. You
Speaker 3: don't have to defend everything you believe to every troll
Speaker 3: out there on the internet who cares what they think anyway. Now,
Speaker 3: I know I'm digging a little deep here for some
Speaker 3: of you, but some of you have the personality that
Speaker 3: you cannot stand to be missing understood, and you just
Speaker 3: feel you have to correct it because you can't think
Speaker 3: possible that anybody in the universe might misunderstand you, and
Speaker 3: so you feel duty bound to explain everything you believe
Speaker 3: and everything you do. And you actually think that people
Speaker 3: who oppose you that it's just a matter of misunderstanding,
Speaker 3: and that if you would just or able to explain
Speaker 3: it to them very clearly, then obviously they would go, oh,
Speaker 3: thank you, you're right, and you have this feeling that
Speaker 3: if I just explain what I'm doing, then this person
Speaker 3: who's negative about it will all of a sudden become
Speaker 3: positive about it. They'll agree with you. No, they won't.
Speaker 3: I hate to bust your bubble, but they won't because
Speaker 3: most of the time, all of us, every human being,
Speaker 3: uses what's called motivated reasoning. You use it about ninety
Speaker 3: five percent of the time. I do, everybody does. Motivated
Speaker 3: reasoning is based on emotion, not based on logic. You
Speaker 3: think you're logical, You're not nearly as logical as you
Speaker 3: think you are. You make decisions emotionally and then you
Speaker 3: look for logic to back it up. People do this
Speaker 3: with accepting Jesus Christ. They have an emotional fear of
Speaker 3: recepting Christ, and then they look for logical reasons to
Speaker 3: back it up. But the real reason is emotional. It's emotional.
Speaker 3: It's a fear. It's a fear of loss of control.
Speaker 3: It's a fear I'll lose my freedom. It's a fear.
Speaker 2: Are you kidding? Who do you think created you?
Speaker 3: But we make emotionally based decisions motivated reasoning. And if
Speaker 3: somebody doesn't want to like you, they're just not going
Speaker 3: to like you. Some people don't want to like you.
Speaker 3: I hate to tell you that, and all the explanations
Speaker 3: that you give is not going to change their mind.
Speaker 3: In fact, if somebody has three reasons you're wrong and
Speaker 3: three reasons they don't like you, and then all of
Speaker 3: a sudden you show them how logically those reasons are wrong,
Speaker 3: it doesn't make them happy.
Speaker 2: It makes them matter, and.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden they have to go find three
Speaker 3: other reasons because you've just blown that, and you actually
Speaker 3: made them mad, more mad because you have exposed that
Speaker 3: they've made a decision based on emotion, not based on logic.
Speaker 3: Some misunderstandings about you. Not everybody's going to understand you,
Speaker 3: and some misunderstandings that people have about you are not
Speaker 3: going to be corrected until we get to Heaven. In heaven,
Speaker 3: it's all going to be laid out. All the truth
Speaker 3: will be being plain. Your motivations, your reasons, and all
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. It'll be plain to everybody. And
Speaker 3: that's why Jesus said this, Matthew ten, verse six, twenty six.
Speaker 3: Don't be intimidated by these naysayers. Eventually everything's going to
Speaker 3: be out in the open, and everyone will know how
Speaker 3: things really are, So just have the.
Speaker 2: Faith to wait for that day.
Speaker 3: Don't feel like you have to spend all your time
Speaker 3: defending why you do what you do, or what you
Speaker 3: do or who you say it to, or what you
Speaker 3: believe you don't you don't. One day it'll all come out.
Speaker 3: Everybody's going to know how things really are. Have the faith,
Speaker 3: the wait for day, and really, what matters is not
Speaker 3: what other people think of you. It's only what matters
Speaker 3: is what God thinks of you. Okay, Number three the
Speaker 3: third key, realize they're not God. Don't get distracted. Number
Speaker 3: three Never attack back, never never never never never never
Speaker 3: never never never, never attack back to a naysayer. Just
Speaker 3: leave it all in God's hands. Don't be a smart mouth,
Speaker 3: don't be sarcastic, don't retaliate.
Speaker 2: Now, let me show you some verses on this.
Speaker 3: Let's read Proverbs eleven twelve allowed together, read it with me.
Speaker 3: It is foolish to speak scornfully of others. Oh, stop
Speaker 3: right there, it's foolish to speak scornfully of others. Then
Speaker 3: God would consider a lot of people on the internet
Speaker 3: fools because they're speaking scornfully all the time about others.
Speaker 3: People of other political persuasions, people of other religions, people
Speaker 3: who have other music taste, people who don't like the
Speaker 3: sports team you like. It says there it is foolish
Speaker 3: to speak scornfully of others. If you're smart, you will
Speaker 3: keep what yeah, quiet quiet. So as I said, God
Speaker 3: would say, there are a lot of foolish people in
Speaker 3: the world, and particularly on the Internet. And if I
Speaker 3: join those people in dissing somebody else, I'm a fool.
Speaker 2: At that moment, I'm a fool. It is foolish.
Speaker 3: I am a fool when anytime I speak scornfully about anybody.
Speaker 3: There's no wiggle room in that verse. And I could
Speaker 3: show you twenty or thirty others that say the same thing.
Speaker 3: So just put a zipper on your mouth and stop
Speaker 3: speaking scornfully of other people, even when they attack you.
Speaker 2: Now, let me give you a little secret.
Speaker 3: Some of those naysayers in your life who tell you
Speaker 3: can't be done, who are negative all the time, who
Speaker 3: don't they're always commenting on your marriage and your looks
Speaker 3: and your kids and you know whatever. Those people some
Speaker 3: of them are not that bright.
Speaker 2: They aren't. They're just not that bright.
Speaker 3: It's any fool can criticize it. You know, it takes
Speaker 3: genius to build a building. Any fool can criticize it.
Speaker 3: It takes genius to create a piece of art. Any
Speaker 3: fool can criticize it. It's a genius to great to
Speaker 3: make a great movie.
Speaker 2: Any fool.
Speaker 3: You can teach a chimpanzee to criticize. So he's saying, here,
Speaker 3: don't I don't attack back. Some of these naysayers in
Speaker 3: your life. They're not that bright, and you, with your
Speaker 3: brilliant wit, could put them in their place quite quickly.
Speaker 2: Don't. Don't.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'll hear somebody will say something about me, and
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I could shoot that one down fast enough.
Speaker 3: And I have this little witty repartee that I could
Speaker 3: give back that would just slay them. But I never
Speaker 3: never use it. Never Why Because the Bible says don't retaliate.
Speaker 3: The key is to respond like Jesus. First Peter, chapter
Speaker 3: two says this. When they hurled their insults at Jesus,
Speaker 3: he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no
Speaker 3: threats back. Instead, he entrusted himself to him. This is God,
Speaker 3: to God who judges justly. I want you to write
Speaker 3: this down on your outline. I am most like Jesus
Speaker 3: when I stay silent under attack. I am most like
Speaker 3: Jesus when I stay silent under attack. And I just
Speaker 3: put it in the hands of God and realize, one
Speaker 3: day it's all going to even out. God's going to
Speaker 3: settle the score. The truth will come out. All the
Speaker 3: nasty stuff that's been said about you that's false will
Speaker 3: be worthless, and what will matter is what God said
Speaker 3: about you. And actually, when you respond the way Jesus,
Speaker 3: your critics, your attackers, your naysayers actually help you. Let
Speaker 3: me show you how this works. You're trying to do
Speaker 3: the right thing. Somebody criticizes you from the outside for
Speaker 3: your motivation or your method or whatever, and instead of
Speaker 3: you retaliating, you say, God, bless you go in peace.
Speaker 3: May God graciously give you his grace. And then you
Speaker 3: know what happens. God goes, that's my boy, that's my girl,
Speaker 3: and he gives you more power, He gives you more anointing.
Speaker 3: And so the way you get more power, more annointing,
Speaker 3: more blessing in your life is refused to retaliate. And
Speaker 3: then actually those negative people actually help you because God
Speaker 3: sees you're responding in the right way, and he just
Speaker 3: gives you more blessing. I can trust that guy with
Speaker 3: more blessing. I can trust that woman with more blessing.
Speaker 3: I most like Jesus when I stay silent under attack.
Speaker 2: Number four.
Speaker 3: Fourth thing is focus. Stay focused on God and his promises.
Speaker 3: Don't focus on the problem. Don't focus on the people.
Speaker 3: Don't focus on the naysayers. Stay focused on God and
Speaker 3: his promises. Become a promised person. Learn the promises of
Speaker 3: the Bible. There's about seven thousand of them in the Bible.
Speaker 3: Promises of God to you. First Samuel, chapter thirty says
Speaker 3: this verse six, bitter people spoke against David and talked
Speaker 3: of stoning him. This is later on in life when
Speaker 3: he is king. Bitter people spoke of David and talked
Speaker 3: to stoning him. But David found his strength in the television.
Speaker 3: Oh that's the reviled substandard perversion translation.
Speaker 2: All right, David found strength where in the Lord. In
Speaker 2: the Lord.
Speaker 3: When somebody's being a nastier, you don't go gossip about
Speaker 3: them to somebody else in the office.
Speaker 2: Just find your strength in the Lord. The Lord.
Speaker 3: I know you love me, I know you have a
Speaker 3: plan for my life. I'm gonna trust you. Look at
Speaker 3: these last verses p Someone eighteen, verse six, David says,
Speaker 3: the Lord is for me. The Lord is for me,
Speaker 3: so I won't be afraid. What can mere mortals do
Speaker 3: to me? You know what people can dislike you and
Speaker 3: it won't harm you. You need to understand this. You
Speaker 3: don't need anybody else's approval to be happy, and you're
Speaker 3: probably not gonna get it if you haven't got it
Speaker 3: by now. You don't need anybody approval to be happy.
Speaker 3: You're as happy as you choose to be. You don't
Speaker 3: need your parents approval, your brother's approval, your sister's approval,
Speaker 3: somebody some friend's approval. You're as happy as you choose
Speaker 3: to be. Says the Lord's for me. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
Speaker 3: They have their opinions, So what some one nineteen forty
Speaker 3: one and forty two Show me, David praise how much
Speaker 3: you love me?
Speaker 2: Lord?
Speaker 3: You love me, Lord, so it doesn't matter if somebody
Speaker 3: else doesn't love me. Show me how much you love me, Lord,
Speaker 3: and save me according to your promise.
Speaker 2: Have you been saved?
Speaker 3: God has a promise to save you he's a Save
Speaker 3: me according to your promise. Then I can answer those
Speaker 3: who insult me because I trust in your word. Some
Speaker 3: one nineteen, verse eleven says, I've banked your promises in the.
Speaker 2: Vault of my heart. That's what you need to do.
Speaker 3: Instead of banking all the negative things people have said
Speaker 3: about you in your heart or in your mind, you
Speaker 3: need to bank the promises of God in your heart
Speaker 3: and in your mind. What God says about you is
Speaker 3: what matters and the other doesn't. Now, David says, save
Speaker 3: me according to your promise. Have you been saved? What
Speaker 3: is the promise of God? The promise of God is
Speaker 3: this Romans ten thirteen. Whoever calls in the name of
Speaker 3: the Lord will be saved. That's promise. Have you ever
Speaker 3: called in the name of the Lord. If you haven't
Speaker 3: done it, you need to do so right now. Let's
Speaker 3: bow our heads and clothes, and if you call in
Speaker 3: the name of the Lord, you will be saved.
Speaker 2: So why don't you pray in your heart? Say I
Speaker 2: don't know what to pray, Well, I'll pray a little
Speaker 2: prayer and you can follow me in this. Just say
Speaker 2: me to God. I just say.
Speaker 3: God, I realize I can't save myself. Just say, God,
Speaker 3: I realize I can't save myself. I can't forgive my
Speaker 3: own sins. I can't even solve my own problems. So
Speaker 3: I need you to save me. Jesus Christ. You came
Speaker 3: at Christmas to be the savior of the world. So
Speaker 3: as much as I know how, I say, Jesus Christ,
Speaker 3: I ask you to be my savior. Be my manager,
Speaker 3: call the shots in my life. Help me to care
Speaker 3: more about what you think and say than what the
Speaker 3: naysayers think and say. Dear God, give me your vision
Speaker 3: and purpose and dream for my life. Jesus Christ, fill
Speaker 3: my life with love so that I don't react to
Speaker 3: all of the naysayers and all the negativity around me.
Speaker 3: Make me a positive person with your love. Jesus Christ,
Speaker 3: come in and save me today. I humbly ask this
Speaker 3: as authentically as I know how, in Jesus's name, I
Speaker 3: pray this.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Hey, if you've just prayed along with Rick to accept
Speaker 1: Jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Just email Rick at Pastorick dot com. And now, this
Speaker 1: is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.
Speaker 1: This is letters from our listeners. And now here's Rick.
Speaker 3: Friends, if you're having trouble staying consistent in your Bible
Speaker 3: study and quiet time, one thing you can do is
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Speaker 3: every single day. Did you know that now each devotional,
Speaker 3: each daily devotional gives you a Bible verse and both
Speaker 3: a written and an audio teaching about that verse.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I mentioned this because that's exactly what one of my
Speaker 3: listeners has done. Marla wrote me, and she says that
Speaker 3: getting Daily Hope devotionals have helped deepen her relationship with
Speaker 3: the Lord and helped her be more consistent. Marla writes this, Hello,
Speaker 3: Pastor Rick, I've been a Christian all my life, but
Speaker 3: I felt lost for the past few years. But a
Speaker 3: friend of mine told me about your Daily Hope emails
Speaker 3: and I've been getting them for about a month now.
Speaker 3: I read them every morning, and my meditation and prayer
Speaker 3: practices have become more regular and definitely more meaningful. My
Speaker 3: relationship to God has grown because of you and the
Speaker 3: Daily Hope Ministry. I now listen to your podcast every
Speaker 3: day on my way to or from work, and I
Speaker 3: love it. So I felt compelled to tell you that
Speaker 3: I've gotten so much from your Creating Life Shaping Conversations podcast.
Speaker 3: They have really helped me as a mother, as a wife,
Speaker 3: as a boss, and as a friend. So I'm going
Speaker 3: to share them with my oldest daughter, who's nineteen. She's
Speaker 3: trying to find friends and find her way in college.
Speaker 3: So thank you, thank you, thank you well, thank you, Marla,
Speaker 3: thank you for writing. I'm so encouraged to hear how
Speaker 3: God uses Daily Hope to change lives and to help
Speaker 3: people just like you grow closer to Him. You know,
Speaker 3: I think it's great that you are sharing your Daily
Speaker 3: Hope podcast with your daughter, and I would invite all
Speaker 3: of our.
Speaker 2: Listeners to do this.
Speaker 3: I have no doubt that she is going to learn
Speaker 3: to lean on the Lord, and as she does that,
Speaker 3: she'll develop biblical discernment that means knowing which way to
Speaker 3: go and who to relate to, and it's going to
Speaker 3: help her find her way in college. Now, Marla mentioned
Speaker 3: the Creating Life Shaping Conversations podcasts. Some of you have
Speaker 3: heard that, some of you haven't heard it. They're part
Speaker 3: of a series called Talking About Stuff That Matters, and
Speaker 3: I think you'll find the whole series very helpful for
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Speaker 3: the most important things in life. Now you'll find the
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Speaker 1: Hey, if you'd like to let Rick know how this
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