Speaker 1: No matter what you do in life, somebody's gonna not
Speaker 1: like it. There's nothing that you can do that everybody
Speaker 1: is going to like.
Speaker 2: Does everybody agree with that? You can't make everybody like you.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing you can do that can make everybody
Speaker 1: like you. So you may as well do the things
Speaker 1: that God likes rather than the things that other people
Speaker 1: like because they aren't gonna matter in eternity. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna suffer, if you're gonna have people who oppose you,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna have people's disapproval, you may as well
Speaker 1: have the disapproval for doing the right thing rather than
Speaker 1: the wrong thing. That's just logic. Because somebody's gonna disagree
Speaker 1: with you no matter what you do. You can't avoid disapproval.
Speaker 1: Now we come to the fourth step. And here, this
Speaker 1: is important. Recognize the source of the opposition.
Speaker 2: And it's Satan. It's not other people.
Speaker 1: It's not co-workers, it's not some other political party, it's
Speaker 1: not some other nation, it's not some other religion, it's
Speaker 1: not some competitor, it's not some person who just doesn't
Speaker 1: like you. The real source of the pressure you feel
Speaker 1: to cave in, to not have integrity, the pressure you
Speaker 1: feel to be quiet and to not stand up for
Speaker 1: what you know is the right thing, that pressure's not
Speaker 1: coming from other people, it's really coming from Satan. In
Speaker 1: Revelation chapter 12 verse 10, Satan is called, quote, the
Speaker 1: accuser of the Christians. That's his job. His number one
Speaker 1: job is to put you down. Now follow me on this.
Speaker 1: Satan hates God, obviously. And so he hates anything God
Speaker 1: has created. And what he hates most of all are
Speaker 1: God's children. And so Satan hates you. He doesn't just
Speaker 1: hate God, Satan hates you. You know, you've heard that phrase,
Speaker 1: God loves you and has a good plan for your life. Well,
Speaker 1: Satan hates you and has a bad plan for your life.
Speaker 1: And so he hates you.
Speaker 2: Now, follow me on this.
Speaker 1: Satan wants to hurt God, but he can't. He can't
Speaker 1: hurt God, but he does have access to you, and
Speaker 1: he can hurt you. And the quickest way to hurt
Speaker 1: a parent is to hurt his kids. Quickest way to
Speaker 1: hurt a mom's heart is to hurt her children. Quickest
Speaker 1: way to hurt a dad is to hurt his children.
Speaker 1: And so Satan can't get at God, so what's he
Speaker 1: wanna do? He wants to get at you. He wants
Speaker 1: to hurt you. And there is an unseen spiritual battle
Speaker 1: going all around you, and this pressure to make your
Speaker 1: life miserable and to make you cave in and to
Speaker 1: keep you from doing the right thing, it's not coming
Speaker 1: from other people, really. You gotta look beyond that. They're
Speaker 1: just pawns. They're just tools. They're just weapons. And a
Speaker 1: lot of times they don't even know, most of the
Speaker 1: time they don't even know they're being used. But the
Speaker 1: real issue is this spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6, 12 says this.
Speaker 1: We're not fighting against human beings, which is why you
Speaker 1: don't win this in the ballot box. We're not fighting
Speaker 1: against human beings, but against wicked spiritual forces.
Speaker 2: In the heavenly realm. Now let me explain this.
Speaker 1: You need to understand that Satan knows it's stupid to
Speaker 1: attack Jesus Christ directly.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 1: Because he was the only perfect person who ever lived.
Speaker 1: How do you attack Jesus? I mean, the savior who
Speaker 1: taught love and grace and peace and joy and forgive
Speaker 1: other people and died, gave his life for others, how.
Speaker 2: Do you attack Jesus?
Speaker 1: So he knows rather than attacking Jesus directly, He wants
Speaker 1: to attack those who follow him. And today he uses
Speaker 1: the media, and he uses music, and he uses comedies,
Speaker 1: and he's doing anything he can to ridicule those who
Speaker 1: follow Jesus. And they say, hey, they're out of date.
Speaker 1: They're on the wrong side of history. They don't know
Speaker 1: what they're talking about.
Speaker 2: They're fuddy-duddies.
Speaker 1: They're bigots, and on and on and on. Here's what
Speaker 1: the Bible says you should do. 2 Timothy 2. Stay
Speaker 1: away from stupid and senseless arguments. These only lead to trouble.
Speaker 1: God's servants must never quarrel. Instead, be kind to everyone,
Speaker 1: including the opposition, and be patient with the opposition, and
Speaker 1: be humble when you correct people who oppose you.
Speaker 2: They've been trapped by the devil.
Speaker 1: And he makes them obey him, but God may help
Speaker 1: them escape. Now, what's he saying here? He's saying, those people,
Speaker 1: they're just pawns. And see, if you don't have the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit in your life, you don't have God's power
Speaker 1: in your life, you have no defense against Satan. He
Speaker 1: could just whipsaw you this way and that. He can
Speaker 1: master your moods. He can lead you into depression. He
Speaker 1: can do all kinds of, he can make you angry.
Speaker 1: You have no defense against Satan until you've got God's
Speaker 1: Spirit inside of you. You're not strong enough, sorry, you're
Speaker 1: just not. And so these people, they're just being used
Speaker 1: as tools. And what you need to do is recognize
Speaker 1: a source and treat the opposition the way Jesus did.
Speaker 1: How did Jesus treat those who opposed him? Even on
Speaker 1: the cross, he's saying, Father, forgive them. They don't know
Speaker 1: what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. That's
Speaker 1: what it means to be Christlike. they don't know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. These people who attack me, they don't know
Speaker 1: what they're doing. The people who attack you, they don't
Speaker 1: know what they're doing. The people who put down Jesus
Speaker 1: and church and Christianity, they don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Father, forgive them.
Speaker 1: Now think about this. Jesus was lied to, lied about constantly.
Speaker 1: You can go make a list of all things they
Speaker 1: lied about Jesus in the Bible. They said he's a
Speaker 1: revolutionary here to overthrow Rome and take Pilate's place.
Speaker 2: Wrong. But they used that to get him to the cross.
Speaker 1: They said he's got a demon.
Speaker 3: Wrong.
Speaker 2: At one point they said he's a drunk and a glutton. Wrong. Wrong.
Speaker 1: They said, you know, he's the devil incarnate. Wrong. And
Speaker 1: how did Jesus respond to all those lies that were
Speaker 1: told about him?
Speaker 2: Look at the next verse, 1 Peter 2.
Speaker 1: When they hurled their insults at him, Jesus did not retaliate.
Speaker 1: When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted
Speaker 1: himself to God who judges justly.
Speaker 2: Look at this verse on the screen. I love this
Speaker 2: in the message. It says this. They called him every
Speaker 2: name in the book, and he said nothing back.
Speaker 1: He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right.
Speaker 1: This leads us to the fifth thing you need to
Speaker 1: do when you're under attack. Refuse to retaliate. Refuse to retaliate.
Speaker 1: You are most like Jesus Christ when you don't strike
Speaker 1: back at somebody who's hurt you. You're most like Jesus
Speaker 1: when you don't attack back in somebody who has attacked
Speaker 1: you with a personal insult or threat or statement.
Speaker 2: Or gossip or whatever.
Speaker 1: In this eighth beatitude, the last one, it says this,
Speaker 1: let me quote it to you again. Blessed are you
Speaker 1: when men shall revile you and persecute you and say
Speaker 1: all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Speaker 2: Rejoice and be exceeding.
Speaker 1: Glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so
Speaker 1: persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Speaker 2: That's the eighth beatitude.
Speaker 1: And he says this, you will be insulted, that means
Speaker 1: people are gonna say names, they're gonna call you names,
Speaker 1: they're gonna give you labels. You will be insulted, he
Speaker 1: says that's the first thing, he says you're gonna be persecuted,
Speaker 1: that means you're mistreated, you may be passed over, you
Speaker 1: may even be abused.
Speaker 2: And he said, and you're gonna be lied about.
Speaker 1: And he said, people will say all things that are
Speaker 1: false against you to discredit you, to dishonor you. And
Speaker 1: I've learned they'll even say them on TV. And he'll
Speaker 1: do all of these things. The world loves to find
Speaker 1: fault with Christians. And if they can't find anything to
Speaker 1: find at fault with you, you know what? They'll make
Speaker 1: stuff up. They'll just make it up. Now, here's what
Speaker 1: the Bible says.
Speaker 2: Romans 12. verse 17 and 18. Never pay back evil
Speaker 2: with more evil. If it is possible, as.
Speaker 1: Far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Now,
Speaker 1: you know what I love about the Bible? It always
Speaker 1: tells the truth, and what it tells there is, if
Speaker 1: it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live
Speaker 1: at peace with everyone. There's some people you just can't
Speaker 1: live at peace with. Don't look at them. but you
Speaker 1: know who they are. If it is possible, as far
Speaker 1: as it depends on you, you try to live at
Speaker 1: peace with them. Some people you just can't live at
Speaker 1: peace with. They're just gonna keep poking, poking, poking, poking, poking.
Speaker 2: And he says, and never avenge yourselves.
Speaker 1: Leave that to God who has said, I'll be the
Speaker 1: judge and I'll take care of that. Now I told
Speaker 1: you earlier, You don't need anybody's approval to be happy.
Speaker 1: Let me give you the second great truth that'll change
Speaker 1: your life. You need to write this down. Anytime I react,
Speaker 1: I give control to that person. Anytime I react to
Speaker 1: somebody who's poked me, I give control to that person.
Speaker 2: And you don't want to do that. You don't want
Speaker 2: to give up control.
Speaker 1: And so you can't control what other people do, but
Speaker 1: you can control your reactions.
Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us today. You know, we love hearing
Speaker 4: how Daily Hope is encouraging people. We receive messages all
Speaker 4: the time from listeners and viewers sharing how their faith
Speaker 4: has grown through our messages, devotionals and videos.
Speaker 2: Right now, I'd love.
Speaker 4: For you to hear this quick story about how Daily
Speaker 4: Hope is making a difference in the lives of others
Speaker 4: just like you.
Speaker 3: Daily Hope's a daily reminder of God speaking to me
Speaker 3: on whatever subject Pastor Rick is talking about that day,
Speaker 3: whether it's something that I need to do or something
Speaker 3: that I need to focus on or just reminders. Sometimes
Speaker 3: they're just reminders of God's faithfulness to me. And if
Speaker 3: I don't start my day that way, my day goes right.
Speaker 2: In the dumpster. All the little things of the world
Speaker 2: just consume me.
Speaker 3: But if I started with Daily Hope and a reminder
Speaker 3: of where I'm a child of God and where God
Speaker 3: has me, then I can deal with those things.
Speaker 2: I'm not going.
Speaker 3: Into battle without the tools that I need to win
Speaker 3: the battle. There's times that Daily Hope just prompts me
Speaker 3: to read it, and then next thing I'm on the
Speaker 3: way to work and God's talking to me and I
Speaker 3: put it on my phone and listen to it going
Speaker 3: to work. Because sometimes you just need to hear it twice.
Speaker 3: You need to read it and you need to hear it.
Speaker 3: And it just settles into me a little bit better. Inevitably,
Speaker 3: when I get to work, I have three guys that
Speaker 3: work for me and we get into these discussions and
Speaker 3: I keep telling them, guys, Pastor Rick was talking about
Speaker 3: that in Daily Hope this morning. You need to read
Speaker 3: Daily Hope every day.
Speaker 2: It needs to be part of your life every single day.
Speaker 2: Would you like to sign up for Pastor Rick's email devotional?
Speaker 3: You can just scan the QR code or go to dailyhopetv.com.
Speaker 1: Have you ever said, you make me so mad? You
Speaker 1: just then admitted who's in control. Not you, they are.
Speaker 2: When you say, you make me so.
Speaker 1: Mad, you say, I don't wanna be bad. I really
Speaker 1: don't wanna be mad, but you make me mad. You
Speaker 1: have the power to control my emotions.
Speaker 2: Oh, really? then you're a pretty weak person if somebody
Speaker 2: can make you mad. It's your choice.
Speaker 1: You should only get mad when you choose to get mad,
Speaker 1: and there are some things you should get mad about.
Speaker 2: One of them is not personal insults.
Speaker 1: You make me so mad means I'm allowing you to
Speaker 1: control my happiness. Anytime you react, anytime you retaliate, anytime
Speaker 1: you seek revenge, you've just handed control to your enemies.
Speaker 1: to the person who's opposing you in any area of life.
Speaker 1: Don't do it. George Washington Carver, that great African American
Speaker 1: who studied all of the uses of peanuts, he once said,
Speaker 1: I will never allow another man to control my life
Speaker 1: by making me hate him.
Speaker 2: Good word, good word.
Speaker 1: 1 Peter 4.19 says this. Those who suffer according to
Speaker 1: God's will should commit themselves to their faithful creator and
Speaker 1: continue to do good. Now, there's something really important here.
Speaker 1: Circle the phrase according to God's will. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: hear this in some places, but this is what the
Speaker 1: Bible says. Some suffering is God's will. Those who suffer
Speaker 1: according to God's will, sometimes suffering is God's will. Now,
Speaker 1: there are people out there who say, no, God never
Speaker 1: wants you. God wants everybody to be a millionaire. God
Speaker 1: wants everybody to have a Rolls Royce. God never wants
Speaker 1: anybody to have cancer. God never wants any problems in
Speaker 1: your life. And any problem, no, the Bible says sometimes
Speaker 1: suffering is God's will for your life.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 1: It makes you more like Jesus. It deepens your faith.
Speaker 1: It brings you rewards in heaven. It builds your character.
Speaker 1: It brings you closer to him. It teaches you to
Speaker 1: worry instead of worship. There's so many benefits that suffering
Speaker 1: can happen. You may be going through suffering right now.
Speaker 2: And it may be God's will. Now, it may not be.
Speaker 1: Let me teach you something. I've never taught this to
Speaker 1: you before. There are three kinds of suffering in the world.
Speaker 1: There's common, there's carnal, and there's Christian suffering. Common suffering
Speaker 1: is suffering that's common to everybody. Doesn't matter if you're
Speaker 1: a Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Mormon, a Jew,
Speaker 1: a Jehovah's Witness, a Christian, Catholic, atheist, whatever, everybody suffers
Speaker 1: certain things. When a hurricane comes into town, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't pick on Christians. It doesn't just pick on Buddhists
Speaker 1: or Hindus or Jews or Muslims. That's common suffering. It's
Speaker 1: the suffering that we have in the world that we
Speaker 1: all share in common with everybody. And the Bible says
Speaker 1: we as Christians are to help everybody in common suffering.
Speaker 1: The second kind of suffering is carnal suffering. That's suffering
Speaker 1: you bring on yourself from your own sins. If I
Speaker 1: go out and I live a very loose, immoral life,
Speaker 1: and I get a STD, a sexually transmitted disease, that's
Speaker 1: my fault. That's not God's fault, it's not anybody else's fault,
Speaker 1: it's my fault. And a lot of the suffering in
Speaker 1: my life is because I made bad decisions, like I
Speaker 1: spent way more money than I made, and now I'm
Speaker 1: way over in debt, and now I'm going bankrupt. That's
Speaker 1: not God's fault, that's my fault. That's carnal suffering, it's
Speaker 1: suffering because of sin. But not all suffering is from sin.
Speaker 1: The Bible says sometimes suffering is Christian. It's not carnal,
Speaker 1: it's not common, it's Christian. It's suffering according to the
Speaker 1: will of God, because God is more interested in your
Speaker 1: character than your comfort. You're not taking comfort to heaven,
Speaker 1: but you are taking your character, and in heaven, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have comfort the rest of your life. Now it
Speaker 1: says those who suffer according to God's will should commit
Speaker 1: themselves to God, the faithful creator, and just keep on
Speaker 1: doing good. You throw this arrow at me, you throw
Speaker 1: that arrow at me, you throw another arrow at me.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna commit myself to God and continue to
Speaker 1: do good. I entrusted to God, I lay it in
Speaker 1: his hands. You need to let God be your defender
Speaker 1: and not waste time defending yourself. And that takes faith.
Speaker 1: And when you do that, God smiles. Now, the sixth
Speaker 1: thing you need to do when you face opposition, and
Speaker 1: this is the most important one of all, This is
Speaker 1: what makes Christians different from everybody else on the planet,
Speaker 1: because nobody else does this. Number six, when I'm persecuted,
Speaker 1: when I'm harassed, when I'm oppressed, respond with a blessing.
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you return good for evil.
Speaker 1: You not only refuse to retaliate, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who refuse to retaliate, but the Bible says
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be a follower of Jesus, you actually
Speaker 1: do good to those who do bad to you. You
Speaker 1: bless those who hurt you. And he says, you respond
Speaker 1: with a blessing. Romans 12, 21 says this. Do not become,
Speaker 1: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Speaker 1: You don't make the world brighter by blowing out everybody
Speaker 1: else's candle.
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 1: Do not become overcome evil, but overcome evil with good.
Speaker 1: Now Jesus gets very, very specific. And I'll just be
Speaker 1: honest with you. As your pastor, I hate this next verse.
Speaker 1: I wish this next verse was not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you. I don't like this verse. I
Speaker 1: wish I could take an exacto knife and cut it
Speaker 1: out because it's so.
Speaker 2: Hard to do. But here's what Jesus said, Luke 6.
Speaker 2: Love your enemies.
Speaker 1: You gotta be kidding me. Do good to those who
Speaker 1: hate you. Now it's overkill.
Speaker 2: Bless those who hurt you. Come on.
Speaker 1: Bless those who hurt you. And pray for those who
Speaker 1: hurt you.
Speaker 2: Come on, Lord. I mean, come on.
Speaker 1: And if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the
Speaker 1: other cheek. I wanna be that kind of person for Jesus.
Speaker 1: I wanna be that courageous. I want to have that
Speaker 1: brave heart courage where I will not cave in to
Speaker 1: what's wrong no matter how much pain they throw at me.
Speaker 1: That I will not retaliate, but what I will do
Speaker 1: is respond with love. Here's an amazing thing. If you
Speaker 1: begin to do these six things at work or with
Speaker 1: somebody who doesn't like you, number one, God will be pleased.
Speaker 2: God's going to smile. That's my girl. That's my boy. Second,
Speaker 2: you're going to get blessed. It says it over. That's
Speaker 2: the eighth beatitude. You'll be blessed. And here's an interesting thing.
Speaker 1: Some of those public attackers will become private seekers. I
Speaker 1: know this from experience. I've had people, very well-known people,
Speaker 1: attack me publicly. and because I refused to engage them
Speaker 1: but only responded with love and blessing, and I said,
Speaker 1: may God richly bless you in every way, that then
Speaker 1: quietly they would come around and start asking about, what's
Speaker 1: with you? How do you do that? How do you
Speaker 1: show love in the face This is not the normal
Speaker 1: response I was expecting. I just want to remind you
Speaker 1: that the worst persecutor of the church became the greatest apostle, Paul.
Speaker 1: And Nicodemus, who was a part of the Pharisees who
Speaker 1: were trying to put Jesus on the cross, later came
Speaker 1: Jesus at night and says, tell me about this born
Speaker 1: again thing.
Speaker 2: And they'll come around. If you respond correctly, some of your.
Speaker 1: Opponents will actually become your partners if you do it correctly.
Speaker 1: Now let me just close with some personal questions. If
Speaker 1: they made it illegal to be a Christian in America
Speaker 1: and they threw everybody who followed Jesus in prison, would
Speaker 1: there be enough evidence to convict you? Would there be
Speaker 1: enough evidence to convict you if they made it illegal
Speaker 1: for being a Christian? Is there any difference in your life?
Speaker 1: Or are you just wimping out, keeping your head down?
Speaker 1: When people say insulting things about Christians and you're in
Speaker 1: that group, do you wimp out and say nothing? Or
Speaker 1: do you say, you know, I can see how you
Speaker 1: see it that way, but that's not always true. Do
Speaker 1: you just wimp out and keep quiet? Let me ask
Speaker 1: it this way. What is your faith costing you? When
Speaker 1: your brothers and sisters around the world are sometimes standing
Speaker 1: at the point of a firing squad for this or
Speaker 1: getting tortured and limbs cut off and all kinds like that,
Speaker 1: while it costs so much others their lives, we have
Speaker 1: it so easy. What is your faith costing you? Let
Speaker 1: me ask it this way. At what cost would you
Speaker 1: stay faithful to Christ? Somebody put a pistol to your head?
Speaker 1: You say, would you stay faithful to Christ?
Speaker 2: Well, yes, I would.
Speaker 1: Then why are you so ticked off and worried about insults?
Speaker 1: Why is you so worried about disapproval? That's certainly not
Speaker 1: as harmful as a shot in the head. If you're willing,
Speaker 1: you're not really willing to live. You're not ready to
Speaker 1: live until you know what's worth dying for. You gotta decide,
Speaker 1: what am I willing to lay it on the line for?
Speaker 1: What is more important to me than even life itself?
Speaker 1: What is worth buying for? Until you know that, you're
Speaker 1: not ready to live. Jesus paid a price for you.
Speaker 1: And he says there's a price to be paid for
Speaker 1: following him. Popularity on earth is not part of the
Speaker 1: guarantee of being a Christian, it's not. But reward in
Speaker 1: heaven is a guarantee. And it was Jim Elliot who said,
Speaker 1: he is no fool who gives up what he cannot
Speaker 1: keep for that which he cannot lose. You just gotta
Speaker 1: decide what's more important to you. Popularity or the smile
Speaker 1: of God? Now I wanna end with two statements of Jesus.
Speaker 1: They're here on the screen. Mark 8 verse 38 says this.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, if you are ashamed of me, And my commands,
Speaker 1: that means my commands about life, about sexuality, about finances,
Speaker 1: about reconciliation, about race. If you're ashamed of me and
Speaker 1: my commands in this godless and sinful generation, I will
Speaker 1: be ashamed of you when I come back in glory
Speaker 1: with the holy angels. He also said this in Matthew
Speaker 1: chapter 10. But, For those who declare publicly that they
Speaker 1: belong to me, I will do the same for them
Speaker 1: before my Father in heaven. What we need is an
Speaker 1: army of brave men and women risk takers. We should not, parents,
Speaker 1: we should not be depending on Disney to teach our
Speaker 1: little girls how to be brave.
Speaker 2: Or our little boys or anybody else.
Speaker 1: They should see bravery in their mothers and bravery in
Speaker 1: their fathers, courage in their moms and dad so when
Speaker 1: they grow up, they know how to stand for something
Speaker 1: rather than fall for anything. But it starts with courage
Speaker 1: in the parents. Let's bow our heads. Would you pray
Speaker 1: this prayer in your heart? Dear Jesus, I wanna care
Speaker 1: more about what you think than what other people think
Speaker 1: of me. I ask you to take away my fear
Speaker 1: of disapproval. I don't wanna be a weak people pleaser.
Speaker 1: I wanna be a God pleaser. Take away my fear
Speaker 1: of rejection. And when I feel that urge to be
Speaker 1: quiet and not speak up, Help me to not be afraid,
Speaker 1: to not be embarrassed, to not be ashamed, to not
Speaker 1: be shocked, but to in love speak the truth. Help
Speaker 1: me to care more about your approval than anybody else's. Say,
Speaker 1: dear God, I wanna become a brave man of God
Speaker 1: or I wanna become a brave woman of God with
Speaker 1: the courage of my conviction and the integrity of my
Speaker 1: heart to live for you no matter what. Thank you
Speaker 1: for having the courage to die for me. Thank you
Speaker 1: for accepting me into your family. If you've never invited
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ in your life, say, Jesus Christ, come into
Speaker 1: my heart and life right now and fill me with
Speaker 1: your love. Replace my fear with your love. I want
Speaker 1: to follow you from this day forward.
Speaker 2: In your name I pray.
Speaker 1: Amen.