Tonight, Father, we pray that you would give
us ears to hear what the Spirit is
saying to us, this church, and how we
might live a life that is filled with
disciplines, that we might be ordered, and that
we might be equipped and well able to
be servants of yours.
There's no greater joy than to be used
by you, Lord.
And so, Lord, use us now, in Jesus'
name, and all God's people said, Amen.
Church, grab your Bibles tonight as we pick
up in our series, the Disciplines of Life,
and turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter
28, as it is the theme of our
series, Matthew chapter 28.
And while you're turning there, you're going to
want to stop off at Matthew 13.
Matthew 28 and Matthew 13, the theme being
found in Matthew chapter 28, verse 18, Jesus
said, As he spoke to his disciples, All
authority has been given to me in heaven
and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
Make followers of the Lord Jesus to every
nation.
Now listen to this, Baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world.
A disciple is a disciplined believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And tonight, we look at the discipline of
disdain.
You say, What is that word?
Well, predominantly, it's an old English word that
we need to be very familiar with, disdain.
But as we get ready for it, the
launch point for our study tonight is found
in Matthew 13.
Look at verse 53.
Now, it came to pass when Jesus had
finished these parables that he departed from there.
And when he had come to his own
country, he taught them in their synagogue so
that they were astonished and said, Where did
this man get this wisdom and these mighty
works, the miracles that Jesus did?
Verse 55.
Is this not the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary and his
brothers, James, Joseph and Simon and Judas, not
the Judas who betrayed him?
This is his brother, stepbrother, Judas and his
sisters, Joseph and Mary clearly had at least
two girls after the birth of Jesus.
Are they not all with us?
Where then did this man get all these
things?
So they were offended at him.
And Jesus said to them, A prophet is
not without honor, except in his own country
and in his own home.
What an amazing statement.
Verse 55 is the launch point for the
discipline of disdain.
What does it mean to experience disdain?
Well, listen, the American Dictionary defines disdain as
the looking upon or the treating of another
with contempt.
The word means disgust or to scorn someone.
The word means to think of someone unworthy
of notice or of your response or your
consideration.
The word also means a feeling of contempt
for anything valued as worthless or unworthy.
They looked that is those who were in
Jesus's neighborhood.
I'll put it that way, who when they
saw his ministry began, they said, wait a
minute, there's a contradiction here.
He is able to say these tremendous things
and do these mighty miracles.
But here's the part they tripped over.
And I wonder if you trip over this
tonight.
Is this not the carpenter's son?
That is a statement of disdain.
That's not a compliment.
They are mocking Jesus.
And you know that from his Christmas birth,
the scandal that surrounded the fact that Mary
was found to be pregnant with child.
And his whole life was surrounded by gossip
and innuendo and attack.
And I love the fact that the son
of God came into the world in such
humble settings and grew up under such a
scrutiny of critique and criticism, which is awesome
to me.
He is the most cursed name on earth.
Think about it, Jesus.
He is the most despised name on earth.
His name can generate wars, Jesus.
And yet at the same time, it is
the most worship name.
He is he is the most attractive and
his name can spawn great peace in your
life.
And for that matter, salvation and eternal life.
He is the dividing point for all of
mankind.
The Bible spoke about his coming and he
came and the Bible speaks about all of
his ministry and he ministered and what he
ministered to us was his love, faithfulness, kindness,
God's heart toward all of us, no matter
who we might be or whatever kind of
sins we've racked up in life.
It is the Bible that says that God
will forgive you if you come to him.
It's amazing to me.
It's awesome to me to think that somebody
would look at Jesus with disdain and scorn.
And yet people do that today.
And honestly, I've got to tell you, I
am increasingly amazed.
This is the fun part about, I think,
kind of getting older.
You young people tonight, listen up.
It seems to me that when I hit
like 45, things began to settle in.
I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior
on the on a way to a party
when I was 19 years old.
That was 1877.
And as I was going down to the
beach, I pulled into a church service.
It happened to have been at Calvary Chapel
Costa Mesa and heard the gospel presented and
changed my life that night forever.
And from that moment, my walk with God
began.
And all along the way, I've got to
tell you, all along the way, God has
never forsaken me.
He's never abandoned me.
I have forsaken him.
I've abandoned him.
There's times when I wish I would have
been more I'm loyal to him.
And I wasn't.
I wish there were times when I would
have been more faithful to his command.
And I wasn't.
But he's never abandoned me.
And Jesus said, I'll never leave you or
forsake you.
And that is true.
But I've got to tell you that as
you grow older with Jesus, when I hit
about 45 years of age, and I don't
think it's the age that matters.
I think it's the experience with Jesus that
matters, that there becomes a settling in of
what it means to be a Christian.
And you can kind of enter into that
rest that the book of Hebrews talks about,
where people are fretting and worrying about things,
and you don't.
You begin to realize that God's in control
for reals, that you don't have to panic.
And you see the world going nuts around
us.
My goodness, I saw on the news tonight,
just coming here, that in one year of
2010, the year 2010 in Mexico, along our
borders, more people died in Mexico with the
drug war, the drug cartels.
Then all the soldiers, times two, U.S.
losses and coalition losses since 1990 in the
Gulf War, all the way to now, just
in one year in Mexico, along our borders.
Violence and mayhem.
And you look at these things, and there's
a temptation to panic.
But then Jesus said, as the last days
approach, there's going to be great lawlessness and
great violence in the earth.
And we're seeing that everywhere.
But I got to tell you, when you
think about what's happening, there is a settling
in of peace in the midst of the
storm.
And what brings me great comfort is to
understand that even now today, that as a
Christian, if you take a stand, listen up,
everybody, if you take a stand for what
the Bible says, you're going to be marked,
labeled and ridiculed and disdained by people.
And I got to tell you something, in
this culture, that should be a badge of
honor to every one of us.
We should get in line to get criticized
by this cockeyed goofball culture of ours.
We claim to know all the answers, but
why are we having so little success?
We claim to be so brilliant and enlightened,
but we have more disruption and more disconnect
than ever.
What's going on?
The truth of the matter is that when
we reject God, when we disdain God, we
suffer for that.
The Bible says in Luke chapter six, verse
26, woe to you when all men speak
well of you.
Listen to this.
For so did their fathers to the false
prophets.
Every one of us want people to speak
well of us.
Listen, let's be honest.
I'll confess it for you.
You want people to speak well of you.
Here's the thing for you to get people
to speak well of you.
That's impossible because listen, let's be, you can
please everybody in this room tonight.
What is today?
Wednesday night.
Tonight's Wednesday night.
Hey, my brain's on a fast track, man.
So you can have everybody speak well of
you tonight, but listen, 24 hours from now,
it can be a different story.
If you go about in this world, trying
to please people, you will upset a lot
of people.
The truth is, if you go about life,
trying and willing to please the only one
who matters, and in all honesty, I'm not
saying this as a fudge factor, but if
you live to please God, then you'll probably
wind up knowingly or unknowingly blessing a lot
of people throughout life as you seek to
please God.
The very thing that you want to accomplish
in the eyes of people to a good
degree, you can only do that through the
Lord, but don't ever become someone who is
bound by people's opinions because all of our
opinions change constantly.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29, 25, the
fear of man is a snare.
Man, is that not true?
Can I hear an amen to that?
Oh, what's people going to think?
He ever thought about what are people going
to think?
Oh, if I do this, what will they
say?
It's called peer pressure.
And it's very destructive.
Peer pressure, it's native to our hearts, but
the more confident we become in God, the
more liberated we'd be from the opinions of
men.
And so tonight, as we look at the
discipline of disdain, we'll give you five things
to consider.
Number one, jot it down, and that is
identifying disdain.
To identify rejection, scorn, and mockery.
The Bible says Jesus said it in John
15, 18.
Now listen to this.
Some of us really need to hear this.
He says, if the world hates you, you
know that it hated me before it hated
you.
If you were of the world, that is
of its fiber.
The word means if you were woven into
it, if you had your tentacles or your
claws, in our case, our feet sunk into
the earth, he says the world would love
its own.
The world would love you because you know
what?
You're not causing any ripples.
You're just a little lemming like everybody else.
And you say yes when you're supposed to
say yes, and you say no when you're
supposed to say no, and you don't ask
any questions.
Oh, students, I know we have students in
here.
You want to, listen, off the record, you
want to drive your professors nuts.
You're supposed to say yes.
Ask questions a lot in class.
Remember when you're a little kid growing up,
you drove your mom nuts when you'd say,
how come?
Why?
How come?
When, you know, mom would say, because, like,
that's an answer.
Because why are you doing this?
Because, listen, out there in the world, shake
it up, man.
When somebody says something in class, ask them,
can you explain what you mean by that?
Oh, man, you'll stump them.
It may be above their pared grade, but
ask it anyway.
Ask it.
So Jesus said in John 15, 19, if
you are of the world, the world would
love its own.
Yet, because you are not of the world,
but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you,
a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, Jesus said, they will
also persecute you.
Disdain.
Listen, Christian, being disdained by this world is
native to Christianity.
It's normal.
It's normal Christianity.
When the world says, hey, what are you
doing wearing a cross around your neck?
You can't do that on the job.
And what's that?
You, you want a Bible?
Keep it off your desk.
We've all heard that stuff.
You can't do this.
You can't do that.
We've all gone through that.
The world will disdain or reject or refuse
us.
Why?
Because Jesus is being refused.
Jesus is being rejected.
And it's absolutely enigma to me because why
would someone refuse Jesus?
Honestly, let's be, let's be honest about this.
Why would someone today?
I don't care if you're an atheist.
Why would somebody today say, I can't handle
Jesus.
I can't mention his name.
You can't have his nativity up, or you
can't have his cross on the mountain and
you can't have a Bible.
And why what's the problem?
What here's what I love to ask.
What has Jesus ever done to you?
Because listen, people have always upset people.
It's very normal for somebody to come back
and say, I'm not going to be a
Christian because I had a pastor who upset
me.
Well, get in line.
We've all had that happen.
Well, I can't be a Christian because my
dad was a Christian and he beat my
wife or beat, beat my mom, beat my
mom.
Hey, him beating your mom has nothing to
do with Christianity.
He was just shooting his mouth off and
living godlessly.
It doesn't mean he was a Christian.
Remember that just because somebody says they're a
Christian doesn't make them a Christian.
What's that old saying?
It was really cute 50 years ago, but
going to Winchell's donuts.
Remember Winchell's is okay.
Scratch that.
Going to Krispy Kreme, going to Krispy Kreme
doesn't make you a donut.
And that is an absolute truth.
Listen, you can say you're a Christian.
It doesn't make you a Christian.
Are you following Jesus?
That's what makes you a Christian.
Big difference.
But this was Jesus's experience to be disdained.
And he's telling us tonight, you can identify
disdain.
It's going to come to you.
If you're going to live godly for the
Lord, you will be attacked is what the
Bible teaches us.
In first Corinthians 411, the Bible says to
the present hour, says Paul the apostle, we
both hunger and thirst.
This is the apostle Paul.
Think of that for a moment.
The apostle Paul to the present hour, we
hunger and thirst and we are poorly clothed
and beaten and homeless.
And we labor working with our own hands
being reviled.
We bless being persecuted.
We endure being defamed.
We entreat.
And we have been made as the filth
of the world, the obscuring of all things
until now.
This is the apostle Paul.
His face and his, his name adorns churches
around the world.
And he's saying, yeah, sign up for the
ministry, be a Christian.
You'll be rejected homeless, beat up and next
sign up.
Wow.
But disdain is a badge of honor for
the believer.
And to identify it is to know this,
that it will come from the world who
does not know God.
It will come from the world that doesn't
know God.
And here's the truth.
Don't raise your hand right now, but how
many of you are Christians who live with
or married to someone who's not a Christian
and you go home and you are mocked,
you're ridiculed, you're attacked, you're tested.
I want to encourage some of you tonight,
because I know that there are especially women,
wives in this church.
There are many wives who go home to
unbelieving husbands and they make fun of them
and they mock them.
And that's a tremendous thing to go home
to.
In fact, you come to church for a
lot of reasons, but one of them is
just to get relief.
And that's a that's a tragic thing.
But listen, the Bible says that by your
godly actions, you may just win your spouse
to the Lord.
And the constant probing, you know, old J.
Vernon McGee.
Well, he's not old anymore.
He's dead and he went to heaven.
So he's very young and doing fine.
He said, if you take a rock and
you throw it into a pack of dogs,
the dog that yelps the loudest is the
dog that got hit.
And when you go home or when you
go to class or when you go to
work and the and the co-workers or
the family say, oh, went to church Sunday,
huh?
Did you?
Hey, did you worship you, Jesus?
They will mock and ridicule and make fun
of you.
Understand this.
The person that's usually spouting off the loudest
is the person who's actually really thinking that
what you believe in may actually be worthy
of their faith, but they're testing to see.
If it's worthy of their affection and worthy
of their attention, and so you will become
the brunt of their criticism and their attack
to see if it takes the shot.
This is a good thing.
It doesn't feel like a good thing.
I know it doesn't feel like a good
thing.
I'm sure when Jesus was attacked and spit
on, mocked and ridiculed that it didn't feel
good.
Jesus Christ, though God and human skin, he
had our feelings.
We forget about that.
We think that he snapped his finger and
he didn't feel the ridicule, mockery or the
disdain.
No, quite the opposite.
He felt everything that you and I feel
hyper.
So tremendous.
When he was rejected, it hurt him the
most.
Why?
Imagine, look, if a stranger rejects you, what
do you care?
If a friend rejects you, it hurts.
If a family member rejects you, it hurts
all the more.
If a husband or a wife rejects you,
it hurts tremendously.
Can you imagine if your own creation that
you understand and love and under and concluded
that it was worth you leaving heaven and
coming to earth to die for them?
Turns and spits in your face literally.
And mocks you.
With ultimate disdain.
You want to talk about pain and suffering,
you and I don't even know what that's
like.
Is he not love?
And love rejected of that magnitude?
I can't even can't even fathom that it's
beyond my world.
Identifying disdain.
Yes, it comes from the world, it will
be absolutely painful.
But God uses this, it's not unusual for
the believer.
In Psalm two, listen to this.
In Psalm two, verses one to three, it
says, why do the nations rage and the
people plot a vain thing?
What's a vain thing that the people plot?
The kings of the earth set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together.
What are they doing against the Lord and
against his anointed?
That's Messiah saying, let us break their bonds
and pieces and cast away their cords from
us.
That is amazing to think that they would
reject.
The world rejects God tonight and Jesus, the
one who loves them.
How could Jesus suffer under disdain?
And the answer is he considered the source
of the attack that it was coming from
the spirit of the world.
Identifying disdain is something that you and I
need to do.
Matthew 27.
Listen to this.
You can just listen as I read this
to you.
Matthew 27, verse 39 says, and those who
passed by Jesus, blaspheming him.
Wagging their heads, that is a very naughty
thing to do in the Middle East, in
Israel.
It's a physical gesture and saying, you who
destroy the temple and build it in three
days, save yourself.
If you are the son of God, come
down from the cross.
Listen.
Likewise, the chief priest also mocking with the
scribes and elders says he saved others himself.
He cannot save.
They're trying to provoke Jesus to do some
miracle to get off the cross.
And I'm wondering if just for a moment,
Satan wasn't catching on that the son of
God was dying on the cross for the
sins of the world.
Come down from there and then we'll believe
he saved others himself.
He cannot say, you know, the truth, the
truth is he saved others himself.
He would not save.
That's the truth.
Mocking.
Imagine hanging there, mocking your creation is mocking
you, slapping you in the face, spitting on
you and trying to provoke you.
And Jesus took the disdain.
Number two, we want to learn about the
discipline of disdain and that.
How do we handle disdain?
How do we deal with it?
Remember, disdain is that rejection mockery.
And it most often listen, Christian, I want
to encourage you.
And most often happens to you and I
when we are growing the most in our
relationship with Jesus.
Okay, listen, someone's going to get convicted by
this.
And if the shoe fits, then wear it.
God's speaking to you.
But listen, maybe some of you in the
same voice will be comforted by this.
If you're not growing in your relationship with
Jesus, you probably have no enemies.
Things are pretty cool.
It's easy going.
There's no ripples on your lake.
It's smooth sailing.
Everything's fine.
If you are growing and advancing in your
Christianity, there's going to be storms, there's going
to be activity, there's going to be attacks,
there's going to be hardship.
Again, that's native to the Christian life.
How do we handle disdain?
When it comes to us, it's to be
understood that it happens when we are growing
the most.
Come on, if somebody told us now, look,
I know you're a Christian, but you're not
going to I don't want you to say
anything about Christianity.
I don't want you to say praise the
Lord around here.
I don't want you to care.
You know, I'm saying that it's lay it
down.
And you just do that, then there'll be
no disruption, there'll be no cultural clash.
And the worldview of this age will prevail.
But if you stand like a Daniel, if
you stand like a Jeremiah, if you stand
like an Isaiah, if you stand like Paul,
and if you stand like Peter, there's going
to be a storm.
There's going to be something going on and
you're going to want to know how to
handle disdain.
David, King David nearly almost fell victim to
disdain the guy.
Don't you love David's life?
I want to be like David and not
all cases.
But like 90% of them in First
Samuel, chapter 25, you can read it later.
But in verse 10, it says, the navel
answered David's servants and said, Who's David?
And who's the son of Jesse?
Now let me insert this into the bulk
of the story.
In First Samuel 25.
You know what's going on?
David had been defending Israel with all of
his troops.
They're fighting battles, they're doing everything to preserve
the nation.
And his men needed food and care.
And Nabal was incredibly rich.
He had 10s of 1000s of sheep and
goats, super blessed guy.
He had a pretty famous white will she
became famous.
Abigail was his wife, he was an idiot.
And she was a knockout.
The Bible says she was a knockout.
It says that she was very, very wise
and beautiful to look at.
And Nabel was a rich, shrewd man and
a bitter guy.
So check this out.
You ever seen people like this?
David says, man, we need food.
And we we've learned we've come to know
some of Navel shepherds, have them have them
go home with you guys and ask Navel
if we can have some, some care.
And David's guys with Navel shepherds go to
Navel and ask, Hey, and very humbly, you
can read it later.
It's very sweet.
We are David's servants and my servant humbles
himself to ask you, my Lord, can we
have a lamb sandwich?
And Navel says, Who's David?
Well, I already knew who David was.
But he said, Who's David?
And then he goes on to say, if
I give David some food, then I got
to give everybody some food.
And David hears about it.
And David almost got hooked by disdain, when
they came back to David and they can
you imagine, they come walking up to David,
David, this guy kills giants on a weekend.
David.
David, he said that, basically, who are you
to ask him for something to eat?
And David says, Really?
That's what he said.
Well, we've been out here fighting the battle
and preserving the nation.
I tell you what, everybody get your swords
out.
That's what David said.
Get your swords out.
Polish those babies.
We're going to go cut Navel's head off
and all of his servants.
And they got on their metro or camels
or whatever they rode, and they rode to
Navel's house and Abigail heard about David's anger.
And she interceded, she got there before David
arrived to kill Navel.
And she said, David, listen, I humble myself
before you.
Don't, don't do this.
Don't do this thing and bring sin upon
your own hands.
And she caused David's anger to subside.
And David said, Wow, you are more righteous
than I am.
And he almost fell for it.
You guys listen, handling disdain without the Lord
governing our lives.
You know what happens when we don't handle
disdain?
It's called revenge.
And it's bad every time.
Why is it listen, everybody, why is it
that we think in our minds?
Well, what happened?
They said that?
Well, I'm gonna do you understand that's truly
I'm not joking.
It's borderline insanity.
When that happens, it's temporary insanity.
You go off, you snap, you fly off
the handle, we call it and you're going
to go settle the situation.
That's when people get killed.
And God's not in that.
You say, well, what am I supposed to
do?
Well, first of all, sit down.
Have you ever noticed that when people get
into a brawl like that, they're I mean,
I mean this with all due affection and
great accuracy.
They're fools.
Have you seen a fool in this folly?
What's that?
What?
Come over here.
Who do you think you are?
Everybody knows that is a fool in his
folly.
It's absolutely amazing.
When we handle disdain properly, we yield to
the Lord.
David reacted in self-defense.
And that sounds good.
But Abigail interceded, she went out and David
was spared from sinning.
Proverbs 26, four says, do not answer a
fool according to his folly, lest you also
be like him.
Good verse.
Next one.
Proverbs 16, 32.
He who has who is slow to anger
is better than the mighty and he who
rules his spirit than he who takes the
city.
Calm down.
Take a walk.
Call out to God.
Isaiah 40, 31.
Great verse.
Isaiah 40, 31.
Well known.
But those who wait on the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
That is the strength and the power from
the Lord that causes us to handle disdain
properly.
Also, James 1, 19 says, So then, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to
hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.
Think about that for a moment.
Take that verse and just kind of meditate
on that for a second.
If we're slow or I should say swift
to hear, we'll be slow to react.
You know, the old saying, you got two
ears and one mouth, you're supposed to be
listening twice as much as you're talking.
So you be listening, be listening.
And the Bible says, wait and listen a
little longer and watch out before you open
your mouth.
Be slow to wrath.
Why?
Because the moment you open your mouth, this
is sad.
We've all known everyone.
We all know this.
As soon as you open your mouth and
something comes out of it.
Oh, this is fun.
Something comes out of it.
It's out.
Did you know, in theory, anyway, there's people
debate if it's.
We know it's true to a degree, but
how far?
And that is this sound theoretically travels forever.
Now, you would say, no, I've had some
classes, Jack, in physics, and I know that
over time, the sound wave begins to dampen
out and it goes flat.
That is true to the observable eye or
to an oscilloscope or something like that.
That is true.
But theoretically, sound continues on.
And that's the whole basis behind radio telescopes
that listen out into space for distant conversations
of some worlds that once were.
I mean, don't laugh.
You're paying for this right now.
If your tax dollars.
And so theoretically, when I said something 16
years ago on a Tuesday at two o
'clock in the afternoon, that sound that is
that we're still going.
And now that's really great.
If I was saying God bless you all
and to all a good night or hey,
you'll own a ticket out of my lane.
It's going out there.
Kind of scary to think, huh?
Let's just move on.
We don't dwell on that too long.
The discipline of disdain also requires that you
and I be surviving disdain.
We're going to be attacked.
How do I survive, Pastor Jack?
Well, how do I get through this?
Let me first tell you how not to
not to survive disdain.
This is what you don't want to do.
Poor Peter.
We always use him for the example, but
he's so good for us to learn from
what not to do, how not to survive
disdain.
Matthew chapter twenty six, verse thirty three.
It says Peter answered and said to him.
Now, this is a very heated moment, energized
moment.
He says, even if all are made to
stumble because of you, I will never be
made to stumble you.
And Jesus said to Peter, assuredly, I say
to you that this night before the rooster
crows, you will deny me three times.
See, everybody else.
Jesus was laying it down.
And Peter says, well, listen, I'm not going
to leave you.
I'll never deny you.
Be careful for anyone.
You know, I know it comes from great
intentions and you mean well when somebody says,
well, I'll never sin.
I'll never fail.
I told some guy recently here at this
church, he did a really great job at
something, and I said, listen, that was really
awesome.
Let that go to your heart, not your
head, because the moment it goes to your
head, it's over.
You won't be able to get your head
through the door in here and then you'll
self destruct.
Take it to the heart.
Don't let it go to your head.
Big different.
Eighteen inch difference can save you between heaven
and hell.
What's going on in here and what's going
on in here is never not always the
same thing.
And Peter's going, oh, never.
These bums, they'll deny you, but not me.
And Jesus, can you imagine the shocker Rooney
that he gave to Peter?
He's out there boasting away.
And Jesus says, I tell you, I put
you in on something, Peter, before the rooster
crows this night, you will deny me three
times, not two times, three times.
Three times was a confession of absolute truth.
And what did Peter say three times?
I don't know him.
And what happens as soon as he says
it the third time, the Bible says the
rooster crowed.
And Jesus was being held in the praetorium
courtyard, and he turns over and he looks
at Peter at that last moment of rejection.
Can you imagine?
What do you think?
How do you think Jesus looked at Peter?
I think I actually know.
It doesn't say, but I think I know.
I think the same attitude in Jesus at
that moment and his face looking at Peter
is the exact same attitude in the face,
though you'll never imagine this in the garden
of Eden when the Lord said, Adam, where
are you?
Where are you?
I don't think God said, Adam, where are
you?
Get over here.
I don't think he did that.
I think God's heart was broken.
Adam, where are you?
And I think Jesus, without saying Peter, what
in the world are you doing over there?
I think when Jesus looked at Peter, I
think it communicated, where are you?
Where are you?
And the Bible says that Peter went out
and wept bitterly.
How in the world can he survive such
a thing?
He survived such a thing because of God's
grace, the awesome grace of God.
You don't want to falter at dealing with
disdain by trusting in your own resources and
abilities.
You'll fail every time.
I can take care of this one.
You guys, we do this all the time.
We don't want to admit it, but we
do it.
I'll take care of it.
Be careful when we're strong in something or
we think we can do this.
I'll take care of it.
No, Lord, we need you.
Now, our absolute role model and how to
survive the ultimate survival training comes from Jesus
himself.
In Matthew 27, 27, the Bible says, then
the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to
the praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around
him.
You guys, that is a horrible moment.
That's a horrible sight.
And they stripped Jesus and put a scarlet
robe on him.
And when they had twisted a crown of
thorns, they put it on his head and
a reed in his right hand, and they
bowed the knee before him and mocked him,
saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
Then they spent on him and took the
reed and struck him on the head.
Those barbs on that.
Crown of thorns was wicked, and they took
that staff and.
Among other things, they did.
How did Jesus survive such a thing?
He absolutely listen, church, because in our lifetime.
It will happen to each and every one
of us at some point in some degree,
Jesus.
Yielded his life completely into the hand of
the father without any reservation.
In absolute dependence, and he took what came
according to the father.
And in every one of our lives, every
one of us, you may be here today
saying I'm not a Christian.
It's not going to come near.
It will happen to you.
It's native to life, except for the Christian.
We've got hope.
If you don't know Christ, you have no
hope.
There'll be that phone call.
There'll be that blood test.
There'll be that lump.
There'll be that news, and your world will
be rocked to the core.
It happens to all of us.
It's coming.
If it hasn't happened already, it's coming to
us.
It could be globally.
My goodness.
Do you see what's going on in Australia
today?
Unbelievable suffering.
Things that are going on.
It could come nationally, globally.
Personally, maybe you're fit.
It doesn't matter.
Your foundation will be shaken.
And in that moment of shaking, how will
you survive?
You'll have to trust in God.
And I'm grateful for you being here tonight
because you have seen fit to invest in
your faith.
The Bible says in Romans 10, 17, faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word
of God.
That's what's going on right now.
Your faith will be strengthened and encouraged.
It's supernatural.
It's amazing.
The Bible says in Matthew 26, 67, that
they spat on Jesus's face and they beat
him and others struck him with their palms
of their hands.
By the way, palms, that word means in
Greek, open-handed, a slap.
If you've ever been in a fight, it's
much better to get punched than it is
to get slapped.
You can much more endure a punch than
you can a slap.
A slap can kill you.
Horrible.
They slapped him and they said, prophesy to
us, Christ, who is the one who struck
you?
Remember, he was blindfolded.
Jesus took it.
You see, Jack, what are you saying?
I'm saying this, are you and I willing
to submit to mistreatment by other people for
Jesus' sake?
This is very unheard of in our culture
to even talk about.
But you guys, most of the church today
on the earth is suffering under some form
of persecution right now.
In John 16, 33, Jesus says, these things
I have spoken to you, that in me
you will have peace, but in the world
you'll have tribulation.
Be of good cheer.
Amazing, huh?
Be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world.
See the focus?
Are you guys with me?
You're so quiet tonight.
You see the focus?
Because let's be honest, we are the map.
When I say we, not only Americans, but
Southern California, we kind of give, we kind
of given birth to this culture of amusement.
We're really famous for it.
You know what amusement means, yes?
Amuse.
Muse is, this is to muse.
Think, meditate, pour yourself into something, to muse.
I'm musing on this issue.
To amuse is to unplug your brain, to
have nothing, cricket sounds, no thoughts, nothing going
on in there.
Amusement parks.
That's what it means.
You use your brain, you get to the
place, you have your thinking.
Your thinking gets clouded when you pay a
hundred bucks to get into the place.
And then you get greeted by a rodent.
I mean, that ought to tell you right
there from the start.
What's wrong with this picture?
And as soon as you walk through the
gates, you go, come on, you don't go
and just, I'm serious.
Take a camera and go.
It's true.
And it may be that you realize, I
don't know.
I just, I'm broke.
And you kind of go into this zone
of amusement, a place, a park where you
do not think that's what the word means.
It does a park.
Yeah, I'm not joking.
I'm serious.
Amusement park, a park where nobody thinks that's
the meaning of it.
Why do we do that?
Because we don't want to, we don't want
to be too close to reality where we
live here.
Okay.
We don't want to be too close to
reality.
Freaks us out.
We don't have to do with it.
Something happens and we look at it and
go, um, let's go to a movie movie.
Let's go to a movie.
Right.
Is that not true?
Something happens in, uh, oh, well, um, put
on some music, turn it up loud.
That's what we do.
What's wrong.
That's wrong, man.
That's scary.
That's how you get to people when someone's
being raped or shot at or something.
And the community just looks the other way
and turns up the radio.
That's how, and that's what Germany did when
the Jews were being destroyed by Hitler.
The church just turned up the organ music.
So they couldn't hear the Jews being carted
away to Auschwitz and Dachau.
Just sing louder.
And we have this, and it's a danger.
Are we willing to be mistreated for Jesus's
sake?
Now let me define something right here right
now, because in my flesh, I can't do
that.
I'm confessing tonight, my own weakness.
I, I can't do that on my own.
Maybe some of you, and I'm not mocking,
I'm honestly saying some of you are so
sweet natured that if somebody were to, uh,
make fun of you or somehow push around,
I, I, you guys, I have been raised
and trained to eliminate the issue.
Uh, and, and so I can't do that
unless Jesus controls my heart.
When Jesus said, for example, if someone strikes
you on one cheek, turn to them the
other, the context is a religious persecution.
They're attacking you for being associated with Jesus.
I need strength to do that.
I need the grace of God to pull
that off in my life.
I'm more, are you familiar?
Remember when Paul, I'm more like Paul in
this area, when Paul was smacked, remember when
Paul was speaking and he didn't know he
was speaking to the high priest and Paul
responds and says, well, the Lord, you know,
deal with you, you whitewash sepulcher.
I mean, that was radical language for Paul
to say, he called this guy a graveyard
and the, and the, and the guard slapped
Paul in the face.
He go, what'd he hit me for?
I'm a Roman citizen.
And he says, you just called the high
priest, uh, a tomb.
And he says, well, I didn't know anything.
Cause you see Paul going, I didn't know
he was a high priest.
I have to pray God that's more like
me.
I need to not be like that in
the religious context.
And here's the book of the month.
If you don't come here on Sundays, the
book of the month is Fox's book of
martyrs.
It's about this very thing we're talking about
right now.
God's grace.
I'm so grateful for this.
Hope God's grace shows up in that moment
of absolute challenge where you, you know, that
thing in your life where you don't have
the strength to handle that thing, whatever it
is, God's grace shows up and says, I'll
take it from here.
You thank you God, because I'm about ready
to snap.
Now, please don't misunderstand me.
And I've had Christians actually say this and,
uh, it's amazing to me.
Well, you know, um, if somebody breaks into
my home and tries to kill my wife
and kids, Jesus says to turn the other
cheek.
Hey lady, if you live in that house,
I'd move out now.
That's not what it means.
If they all come in with machine guns
and they say, deny Christ, or we're going
to machine gun you down.
That's different.
God's grace will be there powerfully.
But if some lunatic breaks into your house
at two o'clock in the morning or
that matter, two o'clock in the afternoon
to attack your wife and kids, the Bible
is very clear.
You take the guy out and call the
call nine one one.
I mean, I don't, I don't mean take
the guy out to lunch.
I mean, take him out.
Some of you are going where, where do
you take him?
The Bible says, if a man does not
provide for his home, he's worse than a
non-believer.
But when it comes to a religious context
and you're being disdained for the glory of
God, that's different.
God's grace will be there.
Number four, overcoming disdain.
The Bible says a lot to the believers,
to us Christians of our relationship to Jesus,
who we are as Christians.
We're the bride of Christ.
That's amazing.
We are the sheep of his pasture.
The Bible says we are the beloved of
God, the children of God.
It's amazing.
Overcoming disdain.
Think about this.
Overcoming disdain is literally guaranteed to the Christian.
When we are being mocked, ridiculed and scorned,
the Bible guarantees victory for us.
I think when God really has control of
our hearts, when those that are attacking us
and ridiculing us, there's a deep sense of
sympathy toward our attacker.
They're blind and they don't understand.
It's what the spirit, when Jesus said, Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do.
Didn't Stephen echo that same thing in the
book of Acts?
Father, forgive them, they know not what they
do.
Where'd he learn that from?
From the spirit of God.
There's sympathy.
Overcoming disdain.
Listen to this quote.
When the Lord calls us into his ministry,
there are no losses.
There will be defeats and there'll be setbacks.
We will lose some battles, but the war
and the victory has already been decided in
our favor.
And that's a beautiful truth.
In first Samuel 17 verses 40 to 43,
you know the story.
David is there.
He's a young man.
It's come to see his brothers at the
war.
They've come to the Valley of Elah and
Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out
every day for 40 days.
He's taunting Israel.
He's this grotesque, freakish-looking, massive human being,
a son of Anak.
He's got six fingers and toes on each
foot and hand.
He's a weirdo.
The Bible says that his spear was as
a weaver's beam.
That's 135-pound spear.
How can a man throw 135-pound spear?
That he was about nine feet, six inches
tall.
That's freakish.
Can you imagine Shaquille O'Neal going, whoa?
And he's mocking Israel.
And David is just a young man.
And the Bible says in first Samuel 17
that David says, I can't take this.
I'm going out there.
And he goes out.
He gets five smooth stones in his sling.
He goes out there.
And the scripture says, and I'll read it
to you.
First Samuel 17, 42.
It says, when the Philistine looked about and
he saw David, he disdained him because he
was only a youth.
He was ruddy.
The word ruddy means red.
We assume that he had reddish-tinted hair.
Some Jews, Hebrews, have reddish-tinted hair.
Does it mean they have reddish-colored skin?
Could be.
We don't know for sure.
But he's ruddy.
He's reddish-like, reddish.
Hmm.
Sunburn?
We don't know.
But it says that he was handsome.
The word has also been translated smooth skin.
He's a boy.
And Goliath's and he looks, what are you?
What is that?
And David's standing there.
And he starts cursing David, the Bible says.
And as he's cursing David, David says, oh
yeah, you know what?
Don't you love this moment?
You know what?
I come to you in the name of
the Lord.
And David runs toward Goliath.
He runs toward him.
Can you imagine if you and I now
look, you say, how do you do that?
Well, no one does that.
You don't run toward a lunatic maniac like
that.
You run away from a guy like that.
Unless God is in it.
David saw stuff that people didn't see.
And I think, I don't know, making this
part up right now, but maybe, maybe David
saw the shadow of his God on Goliath.
Maybe David didn't see much of Goliath because
his God was standing behind Goliath.
Maybe David was running towards his God and
Goliath was in the way.
And so he just takes off and then
he starts.
And you got to read the Bible carefully.
The rock did not kill him.
It says the rock sunk into his forehead.
There's no way that a kid can do
that.
Unless an angel is driving the rock.
And he just goes, falls back.
And David runs over, pulls out his sword,
a kid with a ginormous sword, Goliath sword.
And he puts it on Goliath's neck.
Can you imagine?
He's got to saw that head.
And the Bible says he took the head
and walked all the way to Jerusalem with
it, hanging onto the thing.
It was like, hey, look at that guy.
David was disdained by the enemy.
And God was in that.
Psalm 62 too says, he only is my
rock and my salvation.
He's my defense and I shall not be
moved.
Who wrote that?
David wrote that.
How does he know?
Oh, he knows.
And then finally, enduring disdain.
We end with this.
We endure it.
Enduring disdain.
The Bible says in first Timothy four, one
that in the last days, you guys, the
Holy spirit expressly says that in the last
days, some will depart from the faith.
How sad giving heed to deceiving spirits and
doctrines of demons.
The Bible says in the last day, second
Timothy chapter three, but know this, that in
the last days, perilous times will come.
The word perilous means the wearing out or
the wearing down for men will be lovers
of themselves.
Lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving slanders without self
-control, brutal despisers of good translation.
They will fight hook line and sinker against
you and the God that you love and
what you stand for.
And you and I are living in the
last days.
Jesus said in Matthew 24, 13, but he
who endures to the end, the same shall
be saved.
We are to endure disdain church family.
Listen, we're at a time.
I just want to share this with you.
You got to understand, please, when someone, if
you are being silenced for fear of someone
rejecting you, will you hear this?
The spirit of rejection against you is already
out there.
Understand this, please listen, it'll be victory for
you.
Regarding disdain, you don't need to be afraid
of it.
Know that if you live a godly life,
they are attacking Jesus that they see in
you.
They're not attacking you.
You and I are not even a blip
on the radar.
They're upset at the Jesus part they see
in your life.
And that's what causes people who are of
a different spirit to just come unhinged.
And when they begin to attack, when they
begin to ridicule, you've got to understand this
is a badge of honor.
The amazing thing, though, with us as Christians
is that we have great sympathy and love
for our accusers, our attackers and our accusers.
And we care more about their soul than
they care about their soul.
Isn't it weird?
They're content at being wrong about God.
We are right about God and we worry
and fret for their own safety.
Isn't it weird?
Isn't it strange that because of the Bible,
it teaches us that you and I desire
to pray for our leaders, that we might
live a quiet and peaceable life.
And yet our enemies do everything to stir
up and make this culture of ours anti
-God.
And they just notice, they just won't leave
God alone.
They're constantly taking a swing at him nowadays.
In the spirit of Babel, the spirit of
Babel is back.
If we could just build a tower tall
enough, we'll shoot God down.
That was the ministry of Nimrod.
And it's back.
But you're in the way.
And when you are disdained, it's because they've
seen Jesus in you.
So don't lose heart.
Don't give up.
All those who live godly shall suffer persecution.
Father, we thank you for your word, your
medicine tonight for us.
This is a spoon of B12 for our
blood.
And Father, tonight we ask you, Lord, in
Jesus' name, that you would settle in our
hearts this truth right here, right now, that
without the power of your Holy Spirit, we
will not survive.
Without the power of your Holy Spirit upon
us, we will not advance.
And so, Father, we ask you, Lord, this
evening, that you would manifest in each and
every one of our hearts, Lord, a refreshed,
renewing, refilling of your Holy Spirit to come
upon us, to strengthen us.
And Father, tonight, if there's a soul here
this evening that does not know the God,
the Lord, Jesus Christ, who died for them
on the cross and rose again from the
grave, that tonight that they would make that
decision.
Tonight they would say, Lord, forgive me of
my sins, and my life is really insignificant.
I don't even know why I'm living.
What's my purpose?
I see everything around me in life having
a purpose.
The clouds have a purpose even, the street
has a purpose, a light bulb has a
purpose.
But maybe tonight you're asking, Lord, what's my
purpose for existing?
And my friend, that's a great question.
In some respects, it's where it all begins.
You have been created in the image of
God.
You're a child of God, but you've fallen
far from God.
You were born, you and I were both
born wayward from the Lord.
And all of us need to come back
home.
And no matter what we've done in life,
he will forgive us of our sin.
That's what he says.
He delights in doing that.
So tonight, don't let anything keep you from
knowing his forgiveness, his love, his grace, his
joy, and his purpose for you.
And Father, we pray that you'd galvanize this
church for the remainder of this week with
all power, with all grace and all wisdom.
Thank you, Lord.
We praise you now in Jesus' name and
all God's people said, Amen.