Pastor Rick's Daily Hope

Guest (Male): Hey everyone, welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren. We are glad you're with us today. And we're going to wrap up our series called The Keys to a Blessed Life.

Now in these messages, Rick has been guiding us through Jesus's sermon on the Mount, showing us how to live a truly hopeful and purpose-filled life. And today brings it all together.

And now here's the final part of handling opposition to your faith.

Pastor Rick Warren: You are most like Jesus Christ when you don't strike back at somebody who's hurt you. You're most like Jesus when you don't attack back and somebody who has attacked you with a personal insult or threat or statement or gossip or whatever.

In this eighth Beatitude, the last one, it says this. Let me quote it to you again. "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." That's the eighth Beatitude.

And he says this. You will be insulted. That means people are going to say names, they're going to call you names, they're going to give you labels. You will be insulted. He says that's the first thing. He says you're going to be persecuted, that means you're mistreated, you may be passed over, you may even be abused.

And he said, and you're going to be lied about. He said people will say all things that are false against you to discredit you, to dishonor you. And I've learned they'll even say them on TV.

And they'll do all of these things. The world loves to find fault with Christians. And if they can't find anything to find fault with you, you know what? They'll make stuff up. They just make it up.

Now, here's what the Bible says. Romans 12, verse 17 and 18. "Never pay back evil with more evil."

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." You know what I love about the Bible? It always tells the truth. And what it tells there is, "if it's possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." There are some people you just can't live at peace with.

Don't look at them. But you know who they are.

"If it is possible as far as it depends on you," you try to live at peace. Some people you just can't live at peace with. They're just going to keep poking, poking, poking, poking, poking.

And he says, "and never avenge yourselves." Circle that. Refuse to retaliate. "Never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God who has said, I'll be the judge and I'll take care of that."

Now I told you earlier, you don't need anybody's approval to be happy. Let me give you the second great truth that will change your life. You need to write this down.

Anytime I react, I give control to that person.

Anytime I react to somebody who's poked me, I give control to that person. And you don't want to do that. You don't want to give up control. And so, you can't control what other people do, but you can control your reactions.

Have you ever said, "You make me so mad?" You just then admitted who's in control. Not you. They are. When you say, "You make me so mad." You say, "I don't want to be mad. I really don't want to be mad, but you make me mad. You have the power to control my emotions." Oh, really? Then you're a pretty weak person if somebody can make you mad.

It's your choice. You should only get mad when you choose to get mad, and there are some things you should get mad about.

One of them is not personal insults. "You make me so mad" means I'm allowing you to control my happiness. Anytime you react, anytime you retaliate, anytime you seek revenge, you've just handed control to your enemy.

To the person who's opposing you in any area of life. Don't do it. George Washington Carver, that great African-American who studied all of the uses of peanuts, he once said, "I will never allow another man to control my life by making me hate him."

Good word. Good word. First Peter 4:19 says this. "Those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good." Now, there's something really important here. Circle the phrase, "according to God's will."

You're not going to hear this in some places, but this is what the Bible says. Some suffering is God's will.

Those who suffer according to God's will. Sometimes suffering is God's will.

Now, there are people out there who say, "No, God never wants you. God wants everybody to be a millionaire. God wants everybody to have a Rolls-Royce. God never wants anybody to have cancer. God never wants any problems in your life. And any problem." No, the Bible says sometimes suffering is God's will for your life. Why?

It makes you more like Jesus. It deepens your faith. It brings you rewards in heaven. It builds your character. It brings you closer to him. There are so many benefits that suffering can happen in your life. You may be going through suffering right now, and it may be God's will.

Now it may not be. Let me teach you something I've never taught this to you before. There are three kinds of suffering in the world. There's common, there's carnal, and there's Christian suffering. Common suffering is suffering that's common to everybody. It doesn't matter if you're a Baptist or Buddhist or Methodist or Mormon or Jew, a Jehovah's Witness, a Christian, a Catholic, atheist, whatever. Everybody suffers certain things. When a hurricane comes into town, it just doesn't pick on Christians. It doesn't just pick on Buddhists or Hindus or Jews or Muslims. That's common suffering. It's the suffering that we have in the world that we all share in common with everybody. And the Bible says we as Christians are to help everybody in common suffering.

The second kind of suffering is carnal suffering. That's suffering you bring on yourself from your own sin.

If I go out and I live a very loose, immoral life and I get a STD, a sexually transmitted disease, that's my fault. That's not God's fault. That's not anybody else's fault. It's my fault. And a lot of the suffering in my life is because I made bad decisions, like I spent way more money than I made, and now I'm way over in debt and now I'm going bankrupt. That's not God's fault. That's my fault. That's carnal suffering. It's suffering because of sin. But not all suffering is from sin. The Bible says sometimes suffering is Christian. It's not carnal, it's not common, it's Christian. It's suffering according to the will of God.

Because God is more interested in your character than your comfort. You're not taking comfort to heaven, but you are taking your character. And in heaven, you're going to have comfort the rest of your life.

Now it says those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to God, the faithful Creator, and just keep on doing good. So, you throw this arrow at me, you throw that arrow at me, you throw another arrow at me. I'm just going to commit myself to God and continue to do good. I entrusted to God. I lay it in his hands. You need to let God be your defender and not waste time defending yourself.

And that takes faith. And when you do that, God smiles.

Now, the sixth thing you need to do when you face opposition. And this is the most important one of all.

This is what makes Christians different from everybody else on the planet because nobody else does this. Number six. When I'm persecuted, when I'm harassed, when I'm oppressed, respond with a blessing. What? Yes, you return good for evil. You not only refuse to retaliate, there are a lot of people who refuse to retaliate.

But the Bible says if you're going to be a follower of Jesus, you actually do good to those who do bad to you. You bless those who hurt you. And he says, you respond with a blessing. Romans 12:21 says this. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

You don't make the world brighter by blowing out everybody else's candle. Okay? You do not become overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. Now Jesus gets very, very specific. And I'll just be honest with you as your pastor, I hate this next verse.

I wish this next verse was not in the Bible. I'm just telling you, I don't like this verse. I wish I could take an X-Acto knife and cut it out because it's so hard to do. But here's what Jesus said. Luke 6, "Love your enemies." You have to be kidding me. "Do good to those who hate you." Now, now it's overkill. "Bless those who curse you." Come on. Okay. "Bless those who curse you and pray for those who hurt you." Come on, Lord. I mean, come on. "And if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek." I do not like that verse. Sorry, I just don't. Okay, I'll just be honest as your pastor. I wish it wasn't in the Bible. What I'd like it to say is, "Stick it to your enemies." "Gossip about those who hate you." You know, "Give the finger to those who curse you." Okay. And, you know what, write a dirty article on the internet for those who don't like you. And if somebody slaps you on the cheek, sock them. That's the Rick Warren Standard Version of the Bible. That's what I really want to do. Okay?

Well, I want to tell you, it takes far more courage to do this. Any fool can fight back. Any wimp can retaliate. Any idiot can say something mean back. Even parrots can be taught to curse. You don't have to have any brains to curse somebody back.

Now, he says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who hurt you, and if they slap you on the cheek, turn the other cheek." Is that easy? No. Only by being filled with God's love, but it is the most powerful form of witnessing. And when you do that, you overcome evil with good.

Did you ever see that movie, *The Butler*? It's a good movie. It's a good movie. It's about a guy who served, I think, six or eight presidents as the butler in the White House. And it's talking about at one point during the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1960s, there were a group of people from the North who went down, they were called Freedom Riders, and they went down to the South to support civil rights and equal rights for everyone and to fight racism.

And there's a scene in that movie where they are teaching the Freedom Riders how to not respond with evil when they're hit, when they're spit on, when they're cursed, when they're pushed over, when people throw food on them, and it's a very, very powerful scene of non-violent love.

And as I watched that scene, tears started coming down my face. And I thought, I want to be that kind of person for Jesus. I want to be that courageous. I want to have that brave heart courage. Where I will not cave in to what's wrong, no matter how much pain they throw at me. That I will not retaliate, but what I will do is respond with love.

Here's an amazing thing. If you began to do these six things at work, or with somebody who doesn't like you. Number one, God will be pleased. God's going to smile, "That's my girl. That's my boy." Second, you're going to get blessed. It says it over, that's the eighth Beatitude, you'll be blessed. And here's an interesting thing. Some of those public attackers will become private seekers.

I know this from experience. I've had people, very well-known people, attack me publicly, and because I refused to engage them but only responded with love and blessing, and I said, "May God richly bless you in every way." Then quietly they would come around and start asking about, "What's with you?" "How do you do that? How do you show love in the face?" "This is not the normal response I was expecting."

I just want to remind you that the worst persecutor of the church became the greatest apostle, Paul.

And Nicodemus, who was a part of the Pharisees, who were trying to put Jesus on the cross, later came to Jesus at night and says, "Tell me about this born again thing." And they'll come around if you respond correctly, some of your opponents will actually become your partners. If you do it correctly.

Now let me just close with some personal questions.

If they made it illegal to be a Christian in America and they threw everybody who followed Jesus in prison, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Would there be enough evidence to convict you if they made it illegal for being a Christian?

Is there any difference in your life, or are you just wimping out, keeping your head down, not? When people say insulting things about Christians and you're in that group, do you wimp out and say nothing?

Or do you say, "You know, I can see how you see it that way, but that's not always true."

Do you just wimp out and keep quiet? Let me ask you this way, what is your faith costing you? When your brothers and sisters around the world are sometimes standing at the point of a firing squad for this or getting tortured and limbs cut off and all kinds like that. While it costs so much others their lives. We have it so easy. What is your faith costing you?

Let me ask it this way. At what cost would you stay faithful to Christ? Somebody put a pistol to your head. He said, "Would you stay faithful to Christ?" "Well, yes, I would." Then why are you so ticked off and worried about insults? Why are you so worried about disapproval? That's certainly not as harmful as a shot in the head. If you're willing, you're not really willing to live, you're not ready to live until you know what's worth dying for. You have to decide what am I willing to lay it on the line for? What is more important to me than even life itself? What is worth dying for? Until you know that, you're not ready to live.

Jesus paid a price for you. And he says there's a price to be paid for following him.

Popularity on Earth is not part of the guarantee of being a Christian. It's not. But reward in heaven is a guarantee. And it was Jim Elliot who said, "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose." You just have to decide what's more important to you.

Popularity or the smile of God. Now I want to end with two statements of Jesus. They're here on the screen. Mark 8:38 says this. Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me and my commands," that means my commands about life, about sexuality, about finances, about reconciliation, about race. "If you're ashamed of me and my commands in this godless and sinful generation, I will be ashamed of you when I come back in glory with the holy angels."

But he also said this in Matthew chapter 10. "But for those who declare publicly that they belong to me, I will do the same for them before my Father in heaven."

God is looking for men and women of courage in an age that has no courage at all. Everybody's wimping out. "Well, just whatever's right for you." That's the stupidest thing. Really? People say the moon is made of cheese, the moon is made of rock. They both cannot both be right. There are some things that are always right, and there are some things that are always wrong.

God's looking for men and women who aren't afraid to publicly identify themselves as followers of Christ. So let me encourage you this week to take a risk with your life. A small step of faith. I want to challenge you to be courageous this week in some small way about your faith. I don't care how you do it. Just stop wimping out. Be brave, be courageous. Take a risk. It's the adventure of a lifetime. You say, "What do I do?" I don't care what you do. It might be, when you go out to lunch today or any other day this week, when you sit down in that restaurant, you publicly bow your head and you say a prayer with the people there.

And you don't care what other people think. It's a public witness. It's honoring to God. You need to start praying in public. Sorry, you need to start doing that. Maybe you need to take your Bible to work and set it on your desk or a Christian book and set it on your desk. And somebody says, "Why do you have a Bible?" And I said, "Why wouldn't I?" I'm a Christian. That's it. That's all you need to say.

Take a small step of faith. If you haven't been baptized, that's the first step of publicly identifying yourself. And say, "I want to publicly say, I'm not ashamed of Jesus Christ."

What we need is an army of brave men and women, risk-takers. We should not, parents, we should not be depending on Disney to teach our little girls how to be brave.

Or our little boys or anybody else. They should see bravery in their mothers and bravery in their fathers, courage in their moms and dads, so when they grow up, they know how to stand for something rather than fall for anything.

But it starts with courage in the parents. Let's bow our heads.

Would you pray this prayer in your heart?

Dear Jesus, I want to care more about what You think than what other people think of me. I ask You to take away my fear of disapproval. I don't want to be a weak people pleaser. I want to be a God pleaser. Take away my fear of rejection. And when I feel that urge to be quiet and not speak up, help me to not be afraid, to not be embarrassed, to not be ashamed, to not be shocked. But to in love speak the truth. Help me to care more about Your approval than anybody else's.

Say, "Dear God, I want to become a brave man of God." Or I want to become a brave woman of God. With the courage of my conviction and the integrity of my heart to live for You no matter what. Thank You for having the courage to die for me. And thank You for accepting me into Your family. If you've never invited Jesus Christ into your life, say, "Jesus Christ, come into my heart and life right now and fill me with Your love, replace my fear with Your love." I want to follow You from this day forward. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): If you just prayed to receive Jesus, congratulations. We would love to send you some free materials to help you along on your spiritual journey. Just email Rick at PastorRick.com. That's Rick at PastorRick.com. Once again, here's Rick.

Pastor Rick Warren: I just want to take a quick second to say thank you everybody. Thank you for listening, for sharing this broadcast, and for your faithful prayers, and especially your financial support. God is using you in a mighty way to get the message of hope out to a world that's desperately in need of Jesus Christ. Thanks for listening today everybody, and please be sure to join me next time as we look into God's Word for our daily hope.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.