The cure for haters

These are my sermon notes from Sunday, November 3rd enjoy: Hater is a term that has become popular in the past 5 years. Hater describes a person who is threatened by someone’s success. But this morning, I want to talk about Haters... A hater is someone that is jealous and envious and spends all their time trying to make you look small so they can look tall… (Tell you…) When you make your mark, you will always attract some haters... That’s why you have to be careful who you share your blessings and your dreams with because some folk can’t handle seeing you blessed… (Just ask Joseph…) But how do you handle your haters so that you won’t abort the blessings that God has for you…? How do you handle your haters so that you don’t miss the opportunities that have been scheduled for your life…? A team or a person that wins a lot at a particular sport will acquire over time a great number of haters. People don’t like someone who wins all the time, well as Christians we are going to eventually run into our share of haters. Those people who don’t understand God’s grace, and His love and mercy. They just know that as Christians we ruin everything for them. They can’t have fun doing the stuff they want to do because we won’t join in. I talk to person after person who says that being a Christian is too restricting. I tell them being a Christian is the most freeing thing you can ever experience. Or they get mad because it looks like so many Christians have such a great life. In all honesty we know people’s glory but we don’t know the story. You don’t know what people go through in trials and tribulations to get where they are and what they have. You don’t know how strongly God tested them before they arrived at the status that you see them at. Who do you belong to? I shared with you that there is no one of the face of this earth that does not want to have their feelings validated. Well, there is also no one on this earth that doesn’t want to fit in and belong. Fitting in is all most of us ever wanted, some want to be in charge and be leaders, others just want to fit in. Many times people want to fit in so badly that they compromise whatever morals, and beliefs they have to so that they fit in. John 15:18-25 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. V 18 Now, Jesus has taught us that we ought to hate our families, our mothers, our fathers and our own children and love Him. By that he meant that our love for them should be so great that all you know is we love Jesus, and seemingly we love our families and our possessions so much less that on a love scale it looks like hate. Now he is telling us that there are going to be times when the world hates us, and when that happens it is actually a good thing. If we are Christians we are Christ like and if you are Christ like you are going to face some ridicule and dislike at some point from non-believers and the world. v. 19 If you belonged to the world it would love you. That is a powerful statement, let’s think for a minute about just how much the world loves us. As a Pastor I often sit and think about this. In my day job, in my coaching am I becoming too well liked or loved by the lost? I want to be in the world, I want to be liked by others, we all do. But am I sacrificing any of my beliefs or any of my morals in any way that I am losing my benefit for God. IN other words, am I watering down my faith, am I sacrificing anything of the power of the Gospel just to get through the doors at any of the places I am able to speak? v. 20 No servant is greater than his master If they persecuted Christ, the person who came to offer eternal life then how much more are they going to persecute us as believers who can offer nothing more than prayer and advice. They treat us that way because they don’t know God. Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is the absence of light, and bad is the absence of God. They mistreat you because they don’t know God like you do. They don’t have the joy and the peace, and many of them don’t understand how much grace and mercy they really need. They don’t because they do not know any better. How do we combat this hatred? We honestly don’t have to, that’s the beauty of it. We don’t have to resist or fight on our own. We have the Holy Spirit which in this group of verses Jesus refers to with two different names. 1. Counsellor – which conveys helping, encouraging and strengthening work of the Holy Spirit. 2. Spirit of truth – that conscience you have deep down inside your gut that helps you decide what is right and what is wrong. The great thing is the Holy Spirit doesn’t just meet the needs of our hearts, it meets the needs of our heads as only the Holy Spirit can. As Christians, I mentioned last week that we honestly don’t have to ride around quoting the 10 commandments. There are times where temptation peaks its ugly head in and we need to be reminded of them but let’s look at them just briefly. 1 – You shall have no other gods before me 2 - You shall not make for yourself any idols 3 – You shall not misuse the name of the Lord 4 – You shall observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy 5 – Honor your father and mother 6 – You shall not commit murder 7 – You shall not commit adultery 8 – You shall not steal 9 – You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor 10 – You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife Now, I want to try to explain why being a Christian is freeing. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs or chew, and I don’t go with women who do. Even though I did marry a Georgia girl. Anyway. I don’t do any of those things I never have. As a Christian I don’t feel the pressure to do those things, I don’t cheat or dishonor my parents, or work or play on the Sabbath, I don’t murder or commit adultery or steal, I don’t lie and I don’t covet(though that is the toughest one isn’t it) I don’t take God’s name in vain and I don’t make idols for myself. It is not this list of commandments that keeps me from doing those things. It is not, a list of restrictions and rules. What keeps me from doing those things is the fear of damaging my relationship with Christ. That is what the world does not get. I love watching my friends as they change. I grew up with a lot of wild and crazy people. They would stay out all night drinking and hook up with different women all the time, and it was sad to watch. But, then most of them found the right woman, and soon they stopped all of that. They stopped doing any of that because it would damage their marriage. Or, some of them kept up a lot of that lifestyle until they were married and had kids. They found a relationship that they valued above all others. How much more would they change if we did a better job of exposing them to Jesus? The world is going to hate you because they want what you have. The freedom from all of the empty things that the world offers. If the world doesn’t hate you, then you probably look just like it and if that is the case you are more of a fan of Christ than a follower. Read Psalm 1:1-10 1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wickedor stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,and who meditates on his law day and night.3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,which yields its fruit in seasonand whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.4 Not so the wicked!They are like chaffthat the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.