Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, you're in the right place. You're tuned in
Speaker 1: to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, where Rick Warren brings you
Speaker 1: uplifting messages from God's Word every day to help you
Speaker 1: grow deeper in faith and live with purpose. Well, today
Speaker 1: we're beginning a powerful series called Toolbox for Life, where
Speaker 1: Rick teaches four essential skills you need to succeed wherever
Speaker 1: God has placed you, whether it's at home, at work,
Speaker 1: at school, or in your community. These are tools every
Speaker 1: follower of Jesus needs. Now, let's join Pastor Rick for
Speaker 1: part one of a message called Ignoring the Naysayers.
Speaker 2: You know, there are thousands of self help books in
Speaker 2: print today that will tell you this. They'll say all
Speaker 2: you need to succeed is desire and determination. There are
Speaker 2: thousands of books that will say all you need in
Speaker 2: life to the success is desire and determination. And I'm
Speaker 2: here to tell you that's just not true. It's just
Speaker 2: not true.
Speaker 3: I know a lot of.
Speaker 2: People have desire and determination and have not succeeded in
Speaker 2: life because it's partially true. Of course, you need desire,
Speaker 2: of course you need determination, But you need more than that.
Speaker 2: You need the tools, and you need the skills. To
Speaker 2: succeed in life. For instance, a farmer can pray all
Speaker 2: he wants for a giant corn crop, but he plants
Speaker 2: the wrong seed, if he uses the wrong fertilizer, if
Speaker 2: he doesn't give it the proper amount of water, if
Speaker 2: he doesn't use the right harvester, it's not going to
Speaker 2: be a big crop, no matter how hard he prays
Speaker 2: and how sincere he is. And if I'm growing a
Speaker 2: crop of wheat and I use a tomato harvester, it
Speaker 2: won't work. And if I'm growing grapes and I use
Speaker 2: a corn harvester, it won't work. You got to have
Speaker 2: the right tools in life to succeed, and you've got
Speaker 2: to have the right skills in life to succeed. Now,
Speaker 2: this is not what I say, it's what the Bible says.
Speaker 2: If you look on your outline, the top verse is
Speaker 2: going to be the theme verse for the next eight weeks.
Speaker 2: It's Ecclesiastes ten to ten from the Bible. It's one
Speaker 2: of my life versus, and it says this, If the
Speaker 2: axe is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength
Speaker 2: is needed, but skill will bring success. I want you
Speaker 2: to circle the word skill, and I want you to
Speaker 2: circle the word success and draw a line between the
Speaker 2: two of them. You have to have the skills of
Speaker 2: success in order to succeed in life. It's not just
Speaker 2: good sincere desire and determination and you know, I'm you
Speaker 2: know I want to succeed.
Speaker 3: You have to have the skills. Now, let's go back.
Speaker 2: I'm actually going to call this a toolbox for life,
Speaker 2: because that's kind of what it is. It's a toolbox
Speaker 2: for life. Part of my job, as your pastor who
Speaker 2: loves you, is to equip you, vat you and give
Speaker 2: you the life skills that you need to be all
Speaker 2: God wants you to be in all you want to
Speaker 2: be in life. Now, the Bible says if an axe
Speaker 2: is dull and its edge is unsharpened, more strength is required.
Speaker 2: In other words, if you're chopping wood and you got
Speaker 2: an axe, you got a dull axe. It takes more effort,
Speaker 2: far more effort to chop the wood. But if your
Speaker 2: axe is really sharp, it's just not as hard. And
Speaker 2: then it says skill will bring success. What that verse
Speaker 2: is saying is work smarter, not harder. I know a
Speaker 2: lot of people in life who work harder than me.
Speaker 2: But it's not about working hard. It's about working smart,
Speaker 2: and it says if you sharpen your axe, then it
Speaker 2: won't take as much effort for you to succeed in life.
Speaker 2: You'll have the right skills. Now, anytime you come to church,
Speaker 2: like right now, you're sharpening your acts, because I'm going
Speaker 2: to teach you some skins.
Speaker 3: That will help you succeed in your life.
Speaker 2: When you're in a Bible study, when you're in a
Speaker 2: small group, when you take a course, a class, you're
Speaker 2: never wasting your time when you're sharpening your acts because
Speaker 2: skill will bring success. Now, one of the skills, and
Speaker 2: I'm just going to start with this, and doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be the most important. It's just the one I'm
Speaker 2: going to start with in this series of eight life
Speaker 2: skills that you need is learning how to deal with
Speaker 2: the negative people in your life, the naysayers that want
Speaker 2: to keep you from succeeding. Now, what is a naysayer? Well,
Speaker 2: I put a definition there on your outline. Look at this.
Speaker 2: This is from Webster's dictionary. A naysayer is a person
Speaker 2: who says something won't work or isn't possible. A cynic
Speaker 2: who habitually expresses pessimistic views. How many of you have
Speaker 2: ever met a naysayer in your life, raise your hand.
Speaker 2: Don't look at him, just raise your hand. Okay, you
Speaker 2: may be married to a naysayer, look get them, Okay.
Speaker 2: As a person who's always saying it won't work, it
Speaker 2: isn't possible, it can't be done, that's a naysayer. Now,
Speaker 2: everybody who's accomplished anything in life had naysayers in their life.
Speaker 2: The Right Brothers when they were starting inventing the first
Speaker 2: playing people, it'll never work. You can't fly, human beings
Speaker 2: can't fly. When Moses going across the desert, the people
Speaker 2: is saying, we're going to die in the desert. We're
Speaker 2: not going to make it to the Promised Land. When
Speaker 2: people said we're going to the moon, people say, and
Speaker 2: you can never go to the moon. Anything great that's
Speaker 2: ever been done has always had naysayers. Now, let me
Speaker 2: just start by saying this. The naysayers in your life,
Speaker 2: they're not bad people. They're not bad people. In fact
Speaker 2: that they are their sayers in your life who love you,
Speaker 2: and they're naysayers in your life who actually want what's
Speaker 2: best for you.
Speaker 3: They're just mistaken.
Speaker 2: And the reason why they're mistaken and they say it
Speaker 2: can't be done and you can't do it, and is
Speaker 2: because they don't know what God has said to you.
Speaker 2: God gave you a dream. I've always wanted to do this.
Speaker 2: God gave you a vision. God gave you a mission.
Speaker 2: God gave you a purpose, and he didn't give that
Speaker 2: dream to somebody else.
Speaker 3: So somebody else isn't going.
Speaker 2: To understand that dream like you do, so they're going
Speaker 2: to tend to be negative about it. My life is
Speaker 2: a testimony of ignoring naysayers. Everything I've done in my life,
Speaker 2: people said, can be done.
Speaker 3: You know it's not going to happen. You won't do it.
Speaker 3: I don't believe it will happen.
Speaker 2: And I have just ignored those naysayers and gone ahead
Speaker 2: and done what God told me to do. But they're
Speaker 2: not bad people. They just don't have the dream you've
Speaker 2: been given. You know, thirty five years ago, when Kay
Speaker 2: and I were finishing my masters and then my doctorate
Speaker 2: in seminary, we were in Texas and I felt like
Speaker 2: God said to me to start a church. And I
Speaker 2: talked to Can and said, you know, I really feel
Speaker 2: in my heart, honey, that we're supposed to move to
Speaker 2: southern California and start at church with no members, no money,
Speaker 2: no building. I don't know anybody there, and I've never
Speaker 2: been a senior pastor.
Speaker 3: What do you think now? My wife was not a naysayer?
Speaker 2: Actually, Kay said, well, and this is the exact quote.
Speaker 2: It scares me to death. But I believe in God
Speaker 2: and I believe in you, so let's go. I've often
Speaker 2: wondered how would history be different if my wife had
Speaker 2: said no, you wouldn't be sitting here today. There would
Speaker 2: be no peace plan, there'd be no purpose driven life.
Speaker 2: There'd be a saddleback in sixteen locations if my wife
Speaker 2: had said no, Naysayers can actually stop the will of
Speaker 2: God if we listen to them instead of listening to God.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people are good, godly people and they still don't
Speaker 2: get it. You know, the Bible advises many times in
Speaker 2: scripture that if you're going to make a major decision,
Speaker 2: you should talk to godly people. You should talk to
Speaker 2: wise people who've been following Lord longer than you have
Speaker 2: get their advice. And so, when I was thinking about
Speaker 2: moving to Southern Californian start this church, I called up
Speaker 2: a guy that I had deep respect for. He was
Speaker 2: a businessman in the Midwest. He was actually a billionaire,
Speaker 2: but he's a really strong devout Christian. I'd actually been
Speaker 2: on conferences with him where we spoke together, and I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call this guy up. So I called this
Speaker 2: guy up and I said, I think God is calling
Speaker 2: me as I just said, to go to southern California
Speaker 2: start a church with no members, no building, no support.
Speaker 2: I've never been a senior pastor, but I think this
Speaker 2: is what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 3: What do you think now?
Speaker 2: I expected this guy to go, oh, Rick, I admire
Speaker 2: your deep faith. You are really a man of God.
Speaker 2: This is really God's good to bless us. You know
Speaker 2: what he said, He said, that's the stupidest.
Speaker 3: Idea I've ever heard. That's the exact word. Now.
Speaker 2: I will tell you that about fifteen, maybe twenty years later,
Speaker 2: he called me said that was the stupidest advice I
Speaker 2: ever gave, because clearly God wanted to saddleback church and
Speaker 2: they wanted to use you to start it. So even
Speaker 2: the good guys get it wrong. Sometimes these are not
Speaker 2: bad people. They just don't see the perspective that you
Speaker 2: see now. For every person who goes after their dream
Speaker 2: in life. There are nine people who are scared to
Speaker 2: death to do it. All they can see is the problems.
Speaker 2: All they can see is the negatives, and they're like
Speaker 2: giants standing in the way that scare them to death.
Speaker 2: So how do you face opposition and negativity? This is
Speaker 2: one of the first skills you have to learn as
Speaker 2: a leader, how to not let negativity get you down.
Speaker 2: You have to learn this if you're going to be
Speaker 2: a leader in life. So how do you learn that? Well, fortunate,
Speaker 2: we got a story in the Bible that tells us
Speaker 2: and teaches us the skill. It's the story of David
Speaker 2: and Goliath. You know, this story of this little shepherd boy,
Speaker 2: young boy who's out tending sheep and Israel is fighting
Speaker 2: its big enemy, the Philistines. And the Philistines had a
Speaker 2: guy who was literally a giant.
Speaker 3: He's like eight or nine feet tall. He's just a big, big.
Speaker 2: Man, and he was scaring everybody to death, and he
Speaker 2: was taunting the enemies, and David says, I'll.
Speaker 3: Take him on.
Speaker 2: But long before that happened, David had to face for
Speaker 2: other giants. And that's what I want us to look
Speaker 2: at today, not David and Goliath, but what gave him
Speaker 2: the courage to take on Goliath because the four giants
Speaker 2: he faced before Goliath were all naysayers. They were people
Speaker 2: who didn't believe in his ability, didn't believe in his competence,
Speaker 2: didn't believe that God was working in his life, and
Speaker 2: he had to struggle with those before he could go
Speaker 2: face Goliath. So get at your pencils, and let's look
Speaker 2: at four kinds of naysayers in your life, and then
Speaker 2: how to handle the negativity of the people who tell
Speaker 2: you can't do it. Okay, if you ever needed to
Speaker 2: take notes, this is a good week take notes, Okay,
Speaker 2: So write this down.
Speaker 3: Number one.
Speaker 2: The first negative or naysayer that David had to face
Speaker 2: was actually his own dad, And so write this down.
Speaker 2: His dad held him back. That's the first names there.
Speaker 2: And oftentimes a parent will be somebody who holds you
Speaker 2: back and keeps you from becoming all God wants you
Speaker 2: to be. In Verses twelve to fifteen, all these verses
Speaker 2: are in Samuel seventeen.
Speaker 3: It says this now.
Speaker 2: David was the youngest of Jesse's eight sons, and his
Speaker 2: three older brothers enlisted in Saul's army. Saul was the
Speaker 2: king of Israel at the time, but David was held
Speaker 2: back to care for the sheep in Bethlehem circle. The
Speaker 2: phrase held back, Have you ever been held back by anyone?
Speaker 2: Of course you have, of course you have. This is
Speaker 2: the first barrier to your dream. When somebody holds you back,
Speaker 2: it's a delay. Now, some of you have been held
Speaker 2: back because of your age. Some of you have been
Speaker 2: held back because of your gender.
Speaker 3: You're a woman.
Speaker 2: Some of you have been held back because of your race.
Speaker 2: Some of you have been held back because of your ethnicity,
Speaker 2: or the color of your skin, or the language you speak.
Speaker 2: You may have been held back because you weren't as
Speaker 2: educated as somebody else. You weren't promoted because you didn't
Speaker 2: have something that somebody else had.
Speaker 3: You all remember this. In school.
Speaker 2: There were people who were more athletic than you, There
Speaker 2: were people who were more musical than you, there were
Speaker 2: people who were more academic than you, and you felt
Speaker 2: held back.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I am as your pastor, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: The fact is everybody in this room has faced some
Speaker 2: kind of discrimination at some point in time, and there
Speaker 2: are naysayers who will tell you can't do it. You're
Speaker 2: not the guy. You're not the right person, You're not
Speaker 2: good looking enough. You were held back because of your appearance.
Speaker 2: Everybody has faced this, and sometimes it will actually be
Speaker 2: people who love you, a husband, a wife, a mom
Speaker 2: or dad, a brother or sister, somebody in your family,
Speaker 2: a friend. David's dad wanted David to be a shepherd
Speaker 2: for the rest of his life, and yet David had
Speaker 2: already been anointed as king. Now, the first barrier in
Speaker 2: your success plan. Write this down is delay. Because when
Speaker 2: God gives you a dream, it never, never, never happens
Speaker 2: Instantly he gives you a dream, he says, this is
Speaker 2: what I'm going to do in your life, and then
Speaker 2: there's a time lapse. There's a waiting period. There's always
Speaker 2: a delay where God is getting you ready while he's
Speaker 2: getting the plan ready for you. This is the first barrier,
Speaker 2: the delayers in your life who hold you back and
Speaker 2: keep you from moving forward. David's dad didn't think he
Speaker 2: was old enough or even experienced enough to go fight
Speaker 2: on the battlefield with his brothers, or for that matter,
Speaker 2: even be king. Now, let me tell you a little
Speaker 2: backstory on this. The first king of Israel was a
Speaker 2: guy named Saul. He's king right now, before he's even dead,
Speaker 2: God tells Samuel, who is the prophet, the holy Man
Speaker 2: of Israel at that time, says, I'm going to tell
Speaker 2: you who David's, who Saul's successor is, and I want
Speaker 2: you to go anoint him as king. And he says,
Speaker 2: I want you to go to the town of Bethlehem
Speaker 2: to a guy named Jesse and ask for his sons.
Speaker 2: So Saul, I mean Samuel goes to Jesse and says,
Speaker 2: God's told me to come and anoint one of your
Speaker 2: boys is the next king of Israel. And so Jesse
Speaker 2: brings out his seven oldest sons parades them by Samuel.
Speaker 3: Not that guy.
Speaker 2: Now, God says no to that guy next, you know,
Speaker 2: and He's going no, no, no, no no. And he
Speaker 2: gets to the end. He goes, you got any other sons?
Speaker 2: And David's dad sought thought so little David. He goes, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: well I got the runt. I got the baby. He's
Speaker 2: out in the field playing with the sheep right now,
Speaker 2: and he goes bring him in and he brings him
Speaker 2: in and he says, Saul goes, I mean, Samuel goes,
Speaker 2: that's the guy, and he anoints him.
Speaker 3: As the next king. Now, David's just a young boy.
Speaker 2: There are many, many, many many years, and many many
Speaker 2: problems between when God tells David, you're going to be
Speaker 2: eventually the king of the entire nation and when he
Speaker 2: actually becomes king. There's always a delay. So his dad
Speaker 2: held him back. Now the second night, they say, or
Speaker 2: actually was the society around him, or the culture around him,
Speaker 2: or the conventional wisdom, the popular opinion write this down
Speaker 2: number two. Everybody else was afraid, and that fear kept
Speaker 2: held David back. Everybody was afraid of this guy, Goliath.
Speaker 2: The prevailing view in Israel there was that this giant
Speaker 2: who was on the opposing team, Goliath, was unstoppable, that
Speaker 2: he was unbeatable, and Goliath had created this climate of
Speaker 2: fear and culture of fear, and everybody said it can't
Speaker 2: be done. This guy cannot be taken down.
Speaker 3: He's just too big.
Speaker 2: And so everybody in the nation was discouraged because they
Speaker 2: say they got a secret weapon, they got this giant guy,
Speaker 2: and we have nobody. Now here's the second thing that
Speaker 2: will hold you back, and that is discouragement. The first
Speaker 2: is delay, and it could be a parent who holds
Speaker 2: you back and The second is discouragement. And that's when
Speaker 2: everybody around you thinks it can't be done. Everybody around
Speaker 2: you thinks it's impossible. Everybody around you is living in fear,
Speaker 2: and this can come. Discouragement can come from anywhere. Verse
Speaker 2: eight to eleven says this. In the Bible.
Speaker 3: Each day.
Speaker 2: Goliath would stand and shout at the ranks of Israel's army.
Speaker 3: Why do you come out here and line up for battle?
Speaker 3: Goliath says, choose one man.
Speaker 2: To fight me, and if he's able to kill me,
Speaker 2: then we'll become your subjects. But if I kill him,
Speaker 2: then you will become our subjects and serve us. So
Speaker 2: he's saying, looks, let's don't even have a battle. Let's
Speaker 2: just do mono amano one on one, man on man.
Speaker 2: You pick your best guy, take your best shot at me.
Speaker 2: Whoever wins will own the country. Day after day Goliath
Speaker 2: taunted them, saying, this day I defy the ranks of Israel.
Speaker 2: When Saul, that's the king, and the Israelites heard this,
Speaker 2: everyone was deeply shaken and paralyzed with fear. Now, notice
Speaker 2: the situation here. One guy is creating a climate of
Speaker 2: fear in the entire country. It's demoralized everybody. They're gripped
Speaker 2: with anxiety, they're terrified, they're traumatized.
Speaker 3: Nobody is willing to do anything.
Speaker 2: They're all paralyzed by fear, hopeless, so frightened, they can't
Speaker 2: do a thing. They ever worked in an office like that,
Speaker 2: where everybody there's a culture of fear in an office.
Speaker 2: Everybody's so afraid of making a mistake that the big guy,
Speaker 2: the boss will can you will will you know?
Speaker 3: Fire you?
Speaker 2: And this climate of fear in grips so nobody has
Speaker 2: any new ideas. Nobody even tries anything in the office
Speaker 2: because everybody's afraid of losing their job, and they're all
Speaker 2: just trying to protect their turf.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a lot of places where people work and.
Speaker 2: People go, well, there's nothing we can do. This was
Speaker 2: the prevailing opinion. This was the conventional wisdom. This was
Speaker 2: the prevailing mood of culture. It's a problem too big,
Speaker 2: nobody can solve it. I want to tell you something.
Speaker 2: Conventional wisdom is often wrong. The majority is often wrong.
Speaker 2: Public opinion is often wrong. Majority doesn't make something right.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of things our culture believes that aren't right.
Speaker 1: What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know daily
Speaker 1: my hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick
Speaker 1: with a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 3: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: You know God often uses the hardship in our lives
Speaker 2: to prepare our hearts for his message that he wants
Speaker 2: to give us. And that's what a woman named Deanna
Speaker 2: believes happened. When her world just collapsed all around her.
Speaker 2: Deanna wrote to me and saying this, Pastor Rick, It's
Speaker 2: been on my heart to send you this.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I hit a very low valley in my life and
Speaker 2: I finally figured I must be doing life wrong. I
Speaker 2: had lost my job, I lost my husband, and I
Speaker 2: almost died from birth complications. I went from a high paying,
Speaker 2: high profile, white collar job to pick an up cigarette
Speaker 2: butts and vacuuming construction job sites to support myself and
Speaker 2: my son as a single mom. But I started listening
Speaker 2: to your Daily Hope podcast on the way to work
Speaker 2: and later listened to all that I could during my
Speaker 2: time vacuim me and cleaning. One day, on my way
Speaker 2: to work, driving up a mountain road and going around
Speaker 2: a corner, I heard you give a call to anyone
Speaker 2: who had not yet given their life to Jesus. And
Speaker 2: you know what, I prayed with you that prayer and
Speaker 2: Jesus has been in my heart ever since, and I
Speaker 2: am so grateful. It actually is bringing tears to my eyes. Deanna,
Speaker 2: did you know God created you just in order to
Speaker 2: love you, and He's so pleased to accept you into
Speaker 2: this forever family. In fact, the Bible says that the
Speaker 2: angels had a party in heaven when you opened your
Speaker 2: life to Christ and received Him into your life. And
Speaker 2: guess what, I'm celebrating with them right now. Welcome. You're
Speaker 2: now my sister and the Lord, and I'll see you
Speaker 2: in heaven, if not sooner.
Speaker 3: Now, I want to thank.
Speaker 2: All the rest of you who support Daily Hope because
Speaker 2: it's because of your support that Deanna was able to
Speaker 2: hear the Daily Hope messages while driving in a car.
Speaker 2: You know, when we get to Heaven, it's going to
Speaker 2: be really fun to meet all the people who are
Speaker 2: there because you helped share the Gospel with people all
Speaker 2: around the world through Daily Hope.
Speaker 3: So thank you friends.
Speaker 1: We sure hope you've been encouraged by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
Speaker 1: and if you have, would you consider supporting us, just
Speaker 1: go to pastorick dot com again, that's pastorick dot com.
Speaker 1: Hey be sure to join us next time when we
Speaker 1: look into God's Word for our daily hope. This program
Speaker 1: is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous
Speaker 1: financial support.