Rick Warren - How to Handle Insults and Ridicule

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Summary

In this message from the «Building a Better Future» series on Nehemiah (Part 6, focusing on Nehemiah 4), Rick Warren addresses handling opposition when pursuing God’s will. Opportunity and opposition go hand-in-hand («Opportunity + Opposition = God’s Will»). Using Nehemiah’s experience rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall, Warren outlines five common tactics of opposition through ridicule (attack character/identity, accuse evil motives, exploit prejudices, make up lies, predict failure) and five biblical responses: pray honestly to God about hurts, confidently trust God, take the moral high ground, tithe to make God your defender, and remember eternal rewards. He encourages persistence in serving God despite criticism, especially during Saddleback’s historic transition.

Opposition Is Inevitable When Building a Better Future
This week we continue our study in building a better future, and we’re learning from the greatest builder in the Bible, a man named Nehemiah. There will be people who don’t understand what you’re trying to do, what you’re attempting to do, or how you expect to do it in building a better future. But even if they do understand it, there will be many people who will oppose you, and that’s what we’re going to look at this week. I’ve often said there is no opportunity without opposition. In fact, here’s a little equation: opportunity plus opposition equals God’s will. Opposition is actually part of God’s will in your life.

Now, I could describe my past 41 and a half years as your pastor in the same way Paul says it in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verse 9. He puts it like this: «There is a great opportunity here for an effective work, even though there is also much opposition.» Those two things, opportunity and opposition, go together. If you’re going to build a better future, if you’re going to make something of your life, not everybody’s going to like it; not everybody’s going to agree with it. In the same way, whatever your dream is, whatever your goal is, whatever your ministry objective is that you have, and whatever vision you have for the future—for building a better life and building a better future—you can expect different kinds of opposition. Nothing is easy in this life.

Now, one of the greatest tests of character is going to be how you handle opposition in life, and God is watching your response. Do you panic under pressure? Do you become discouraged and quickly give up when anybody expresses anything they don’t like about your goal or they look at you the wrong way? Have you quit on your God-given dream simply because somebody disapproved of it, criticized it, or, heaven forbid, made fun of it?

The «International Bucket Committee» and Biblical Warnings
You know, I think one of the largest groups in the world today is the International Bucket Committee, and these are the people who feel it’s their responsibility and duty to toss cold water on every dream, idea, or project that God puts in your heart. They are going to oppose everything or anything simply because there’s something wrong with every idea, and they feel they’re put on this planet to point out what’s wrong with it. Their favorite word is «no, ” and their favorite phrase is, „You can’t do that.“

Now, one of the reasons Nehemiah’s story of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem is in the Bible is to teach us how to effectively handle inevitable opposition when it happens in your life. God wants you to be prepared to handle disapproval, to handle criticism, to handle opposition, yes, and even to handle harassment for your life and for your faith, for what you believe and what you do.

Let me show you some verses about that before we actually go to the book of Nehemiah because God warns us repeatedly about this. In 2 Peter 3:3, he says this: „It’s important for you to understand that in the last days scoffers will make fun of you.“ Did you get that? Scoffers are going to make fun of you while they do every evil thing they desire to do, so you can count on it. Philippians chapter 1, verse 29 says this in the New Living Translation: „For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.“ Some of you are going, „Oh, I’ve never heard that part.“ The privilege of trusting Christ, believing in him, yes, but I didn’t know about the privilege of suffering for him. It’s part of following Jesus.

2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 12 says this: „Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others.“ So mark it down; you’re going to have opposition in life, sometimes from friends and family, sometimes from strangers, and sometimes from culture. Here’s one more verse before we look at Nehemiah: 2 Corinthians 2:11 says this: „So we must be aware of Satan’s schemes so that he cannot outwit us.“ That’s what we’re going to do today: we’re going to look at Satan’s schemes to discourage you with opposition.

Five Common Tactics of Opposition (Nehemiah 4)
Now, as we come today to Nehemiah chapter four, we’re in part six. In chapter four of Nehemiah, we learn two important things that we need to know in building a better future. First, we learn the five most common ways that people will try to oppose your dream, your goal, or criticize your work, your life, your ministry—criticize what you believe. We learn those five ways they’ll oppose you, and then we also learn in Nehemiah four five ways that God wants you to respond to those who oppose you.

So first, I want you to notice there on your outline, take out your message notes, and notice the five ways the opposition tried to stop Nehemiah’s work. Okay, let’s look at this for a moment: they tried to stop Nehemiah’s project of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, the capital city. It is inevitable that you’ll encounter each of these in your lifetime also.

Now, I summarize them at the top of your message outline. In verses 1 and 7, the opposition tried to use rage to stop the work. In other words, they got angry; they got furious, so they attempted to intimidate the builders with anger. You’ve probably had that happen in your life, people who tried to manipulate you or bully you with their anger and rage. That’s a typical way of trying to control people—using anger, using rage to manipulate or bully. Then in verses 1 through 5, it says they tried to use ridicule to stop the work. It says they mocked the builders; they made fun of the builders of the wall. You’ve probably had that too; they derided them, they scoffed at their project, and the Bible tells us that they used sarcasm to belittle them. So they used rage, and they used ridicule.

The third way they opposed Nehemiah was in verses 1, 2, and 12: the opponents tried to use racism and resentment to stop the work. Now, specifically, they stirred up old prejudices against the Jews, who were the ones rebuilding the wall, and they used some anti-Semitic slurs because they resented what the Jews were doing. Now, when that didn’t work and the rage didn’t work, and ridicule didn’t work, these things didn’t work, they used resistance, and that is in verses 7, 8, and 10. They used physical resistance to try to stop the work. They literally attacked the capital city, Jerusalem, and verse 8 says they all made plans to come and fight against Jerusalem and to bring about confusion there. So they used resistance.

Finally, in verse 12, the fifth way that’s common in opposition is they tried to use rumors to stop the work. They started a whisper campaign to create fear and discourage the builders through gossip. Now, that happens a lot today, of course, on social media; we’re in a cancel culture, and people are whispering, gossiping, and rumors spread faster than they ever have in world history.

Focus: Handling Ridicule and Insults
Now, in future messages, we’re going to look at some of these different opposition tactics, okay? Rage and resistance and the things we just talked about, but we’ll look at them in depth. Today, I want us to focus on just one of those tactics, and it’s a tactic that I’ve discovered really discourages people from doing the right thing: it is the fear of disapproval. It’s ridicule; it’s being insulted; it’s worrying about what other people think.

The fear of ridicule is a powerful tool to manipulate you, and so, as your pastor, I want us to focus on how that happened in Nehemiah’s life, and we’re going to look at what you do when you are insulted or ridiculed. You know, we all naturally hate being disapproved of. We hate being criticized; nobody likes it. We don’t like to be rejected; we don’t want to be insulted; we don’t want to be made fun of; we don’t want to look bad. In fact, it’s human nature to do almost anything in order to avoid being ridiculed. That’s probably one of the worst feelings you could feel: shame and ridicule. That causes us to end up being people-pleasers instead of God-pleasers, so we all need to know how to handle insults and ridicule. That’s what we’re going to look at today from Nehemiah chapter four.

Now, it’s obvious in today’s culture that we are increasingly becoming more rude, more strident, more impolite, more polarized and divided, more harsh, and more disrespectful. You turn on any TV channel, and you’ll quickly find people shouting at each other, insulting each other, belittling each other, demeaning each other, and demonizing each other. Now, in Nehemiah’s story, we realize that these tactics that we’re seeing in our media today are not new; instead, they’re thousands of years old.

Five Forms of Ridicule Used Against Nehemiah
So here are five ways I want you to write these down: five ways that people are going to try to stop you from doing God’s will using ridicule. These are five forms of ridicule that are in the story of Nehemiah that still work today to keep people from being all that God wants them to be. Okay, let’s go through them.

Number one: first, people will attack your character and identity when they don’t agree with what you believe, what you do, or what you say, or what you think. They will attack your character and identity.

Number two: people will accuse you of evil motives.

Number three: people will exploit prejudices against you.

Number four: people will make up lies and stories.

Number five: people will predict your failure.

Five Biblical Responses to Opposition and Ridicule
Now, having said all that, showing you five ways that people will try to stop you when you’re trying to do anything great, the question becomes this: How do I respond to all that? How should I handle criticism? How do I handle ridicule? How do I handle insults? How do I handle when people oppose me and what I think God wants me to do in life?

Fortunately, that’s the rest of the story in Nehemiah. Nehemiah left us a model that we can use today; you can use it this afternoon. So any time you feel under attack as a Christian, you feel attacked at school, you feel attacked at work, you feel attacked in your neighborhood, or anywhere else you’re being opposed, remember to do these five things that Nehemiah did in Nehemiah chapter four. Write these down:

1. Tell God how it upsets me when someone criticizes me.

2. Confidently state that my trust is in God.

3. Be better than those who insult me.

4. Make God my defender by tithing.

5. Remember I’ll be rewarded forever.

Application to Saddleback’s Transition and Eternal Perspective
Saddleback is at a historic transition, moving from the first pastor to whoever God is going to lead to be the next pastor. And you know what? God is letting you be a part of this historic transition period! Why of all people did God have you in this church now at this historic time? Why not 20 years ago or 40 years ago? He chose you to be here in this historic time for this privilege because you have something to offer. God has shaped you in a way that this church needs your talents, your abilities, your thoughts, your ideas, your ministry, your service, and your gifts.

I want the rest of our lives, however much time God gives us, to be the best of our lives.

Now, right now, while I’m looking at you—no matter what campus you’re at—I want every purpose person at every campus to raise your right hand right now, okay? Everybody at every campus, raise your right hand, and I want you to say the words, „I do.“ Okay, ready? „I do.“

Okay, now those of you just raised your hands and said, „I do, ” I’m ordaining every one of you as founders of Saddleback Church. It may be the most significant thing you do with your life because it’s going to outlast your career, your hobbies, and everything else.

And I want to close by asking you to remember the last verse on your outline: 1 Corinthians 15:58: „So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the work of the Lord.“ Always be enthusiastic about the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do in service for the Lord is ever worthless; it’s going to matter for eternity, and you’re going to be rewarded for eternity.

Closing Prayer
Father, forgive us for worrying about what other people think. Forgive us for being manipulated by the disapproval of others. Lord, we admit that it hurts when we’re criticized, or we’re misunderstood, or people think we’re kooky because we follow you, or whatever they believe. Help us to realize that what matters is not their approval but yours. I thank you for the example of Nehemiah. I thank you that he shows us these five ways that have been around for 2,500 years that are still being used to manipulate people today. And yet he gave us an example of coming to you in prayer and all the five things we need to do.

I pray that every one of us will take all five of these steps this week… Help us to remember that and practice it this week.

While heads are still bowed, if you’ve never invited Christ into your life, say, „Jesus, come into my life. I want to know you; I want to trust you. I ask you to forgive me for the things I’ve done wrong and give me a brand new life and a new start in life. I’m saying yes to you today.“ In your name, I pray, amen.