Learn From Your Haters: Desperate Haters

"Desperate times calls for desperate measures."  This is exceptionally true when dealing with a hater who knows you're unstoppable.  Learn what haters do when they become desperate to stop you, and how to stand firm when haters are desperate to stop you.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Hey yo, what it do? My name is Christian, your back porch preacher, and you are listening to Sermons from the Back Porch. Thank you all for listening. And if you're new, right now I'm currently in what I thought was going to be the end of a four-part series, but unexpectedly, you know, God moves in the way God moves, and he wanted me to add an extra one. So right now when we're in number four, and I know I said it was four, but right after this one, it's going to be one more. So you've been following me. As we talked about haters, we talked about learning from our haters and figuring out the lessons that we can learn by the haters and how they move in our lives. The first one we talked about was sideline haters, the haters that be talking on the side will never participate. The second one we talked about was a hater that you have a bond with or a hater that you loved. The third one we talked about was powerful haters or haters who have more power than you. A fable. Now, some of y'all, well, some of us, I'm an 80s baby, so if you're an 80s baby, you grew up listening to this story or hearing this story even in school. But the story I'm going to talk about is the story of the little red hen. Now, this story is about a hen. And one day this hen is walking through the forest and she comes across some wheat seeds. So she's like, oh, cool, some wheat seeds. I can plant these and I can, you know, grow some wheat and make some bread. But she's like, who's going to help me plant these? The cat burst out and said, not I. The horse burst out and said, not I. And the cow also said, not I. So she was like, fine, I'm going to do it myself. So she plants the seeds. Later on, harvest comes, and it's time to harvest the seeds. So she asks aloud, who's going to help me harvest these seeds? Not I, said the cat. Not I, said the cow. And not I, said the horse. So she's like, fine, I'll do it myself. So she harvests the wheat. She got everything done, cutting the harvest and everything, and she's finally like, hey, I need to mill the wheat. Who's gonna help me mill this wheat? Not I, said the cat. Not I, said the horse. Not I, said the cow. So once again, she's like, fine, I'll take her down to the mill myself and mill it. So she takes it all the way down to the milling place and she mills it into flour. She prepares the flour, she prepares the bread and everything. And now she's ready to stoke the oven so she can set the fire to make her bread. So she asks aloud, Who's gonna help me bake this bread? Once again, not I said the cat, not I said the horse, and not I said the cow. So she's like, fine, I'll do it myself. So she gets the oven ready. She prepares the oven, she prepares her bread dough, everything. She gasted everything together, and she places this bread into the oven for it can break. Now, as this bread is baking, the smell of this freshly baked bread is in the air all throughout the forest. So everybody smells this bread being baked, especially the cat, the horse, and the cow. And right now I would like to pause the story. I'm gonna pause right here because this is where I'm gonna preach from. Just like that cat, that horse, and that cow, I believe humans have the instinct to where they can smell the success on other humans. Just like their bread, the smell of their bread in the air. It's something about you, something about your swagger, the way you move, or the way you're functioning and operating. And they can smell it on you. And once they smell that smell of success on you, they'll do anything to get a piece of it. To get as much of it as they can, or either do what they can to slow you down or stop you. And it's at this point where haters start to get desperate. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Desperate haters. And we're not talking about a specific hater in general, but what we're talking about today is gonna be the ideology of haters, the thought process of haters. What a hater does when he's or they are desperate to stop you, or desperate to put a stop to what you got going on. And they might not even be trying to stop you, because even at this point, you're in your success mode, you're smelling fresh, you got that new money smell on you, and they can smell that new money smell on you. So they can't stop you. But if they can at least get their hands in what you got going on, they can snatch as much of it from you as possible. So we're gonna talk about what what how they operate when they're at that level, and also what you can do when a hater starts moving towards you or moving desperately around you. Okay, and uh start this off. We're gonna go to the book of Matthew, chapter four. And we're gonna go through Matthew chapter four, verses basically, I'm gonna say one through eleven, but it's gonna be basically three through eleven. And we're gonna talk about Jesus, Jesus and his temptation, and we're gonna show you how well through how the devil was operating when he was tempting Jesus, we're gonna show you how desperate haters operate. So before we get to that, let's talk about that moment when haters become desperate. How can you tell when a hater is desperate? And how can you tell when a hater is going to start to become desperate? So to demonstrate, to show when a hater becomes hater, we're gonna take a little step back into Matthew chapter 3, the last couple of verses, about 13 through 17. And in these verses, we have Jesus at his baptismal. He's being baptized by John the Baptist. And at this baptismal, the heavens have split cracked open. A spirit of God descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. And also you can hear the voice of God saying, This is my son with whom I am well pleased. And this is a very validating moment in Jesus' ministry. So one indicator that you can tell when haters are going to start become desperate in your life is when your success starts to feel validated. Well, how can you tell when your success is feeling validated? Well, your success starts to feel validated when the things you're doing start to feel natural. You know, those first-time jitters are gone, those nervous hesitations are gone. The point where you usually overthink, but now you just it's clockwork. You go in, you do what you do, and it's natural to you. Also, it feels natural, and it's at that point where problem solving feels less like problem solving. Like the problems are going to are gonna come, but instead of getting frustrated and bothered and getting in your feelings about the problems, you think logically, you don't overthink. You prepare, you plan, you prepare, and you take care of what needs to be done. And it's all natural. So that's the moment of validation. When you start to feel natural, and problem solving feels less like problem solving and more like task delegating or task problem task solving. So since we're know we're at that point where our success is feeling validated, we have that new money smelling us. Let's talk about what the haters are gonna do. The desperators, what what are they gonna do now that you smell like new money? I'm gonna talk about three tools that desperators use. And I made a rhyme so we can remember them real easy. The first one, temptation, the second one, intimidation, and the third one, participation. Alright, so let's get into it. The first tool a desperate hater is gonna use is temptation. Let's see that in action. We see that in action in Matthew chapter 4, verses 3 and 4. In three and four it says the tempter approaches Jesus. Now, prior to 3 and 4, Jesus was in a in basically in the wilderness. He was fasting. He'd been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. He's been alone basically by himself. Now he's alone and he's hungry, and the devil comes to him and he's like basically, he says, Turn this stone into bread if you're the son of God. And we can see from that offer what the devil is trying to do. It's a blatant, a blatant temptation. Jesus is hungry, his flesh is hungry, he's tired most likely. He's been by himself for 40 days, meditating, praying. And right now, he really needs something to eat. His body is weak, his body most likely is on the verge of shutting down, and he really needs something to eat. So here comes the tempter, tempting him. And he tempts him basically on what his flesh is needing. His flesh is desiring at that time. He's hungry, and since he's hungry, it's the perfect time to tempt him with food, tempt him with bread. And that's the purpose of temptation. Temptation, the main purpose of temptation is to distract you from your goal by offering something that's pleasing to your flesh. Its goal is to take your attention away from your goal, to take your attention away from what you're called to do or what you're planning to do. And the temptation may not stop you completely in your tracks, but the goal of temptation is to procrastinate you. Because as long as you're in that temptation, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. If I can procrastinate you with temptation, I can procrastinate you. It works damn near every time. It's been working. If you go back, if you go back to learning from your haters one, we talked about Nehemiah. We talked about how the devil has a foul on you. He knows what floats your boat, he knows what rocks your ship, he knows what wets your appetite, he knows what salivates your tongue. Everything that has a stronghold on you, every trick that had the stronghold on you, he has that NFL. And when he's desperate, he's gonna throw it at you. The more money you get, the more you smell like money, the more temptation you're gonna get. The more people that's gonna come in to try to take it from you, the more people is trying to come in to please you, and they're gonna be eye-pleasing, and they're gonna be temptation that you haven't broken yet. Because as long as you have not broke their stronghold on you, the temptation is gonna be there, it's gonna come up over and over again. Just like a an addict trying to recover or get off of whatever substance they're on. It's a lifetime thing. And no matter how many years they're gonna skate, once they get into a pressure, their thought or their desire for whatever they're addicted to is gonna come back. And that's what temptation does. It's steady clicking in your head. It's gonna steady clicking your head, especially when you're in a successful mode. It's gonna steady come back at you. Old boy who used to do that thing, you like gonna come back. Old girl with the when it does that thing, your favorite is gonna come back. You're gonna get all these DMs. Hey, big head, what you doing? What you doing? What you gonna buy me? What you gonna do this for? You gonna do this for me? And also, this can be people who wanna, hey, you've been working hard. Why don't you just come kick it with us for a little while? You've been studying all you you go, okay. You've been studying all semester. One night ain't gonna hurt you. You can study for your finals once you get back. We can kick it tonight, study in the morning, and you'll be good for your finals. And that's what temptation does. It's gonna be there, it's gonna linger with you, it's gonna stay with you until you break it. It works every time, it's been working in the past, and it's gonna work in the future until you decide to break that stronghold, whatever that temptation is from you. So temptation is one. Number two, intimidation. Number two is intimidation. And for intimidation, let's go a little bit further into Matthew chapter 4. And that's going to be verses 5 through 7. Now, in verses 5 through 7, the devil takes Jesus and he takes him to the holy city, and he places him on the highest part of the temple in the holy city. And he says to him, If you're the son of God, throw yourself down. It's written, you know, the angels have command over you, lest you charge your foot against a stone. So if you hurt yourself, they're gonna come rescue you. You're the son of God. So if you throw yourself off his temple, you're not gonna hit the ground, you're not gonna die, because God got your back. And y'all see that intimidation. Intimidated. When haters start to intimidate, they like they like to use the word if. They say things like, no, if you really care about the community, why you start that business over in that neighborhood instead of over in our community? Or if you love me, you you'll do this for me. If you love me, you you'll do that for me. Or they'll say something like, If you really got money, like you really getting money, like you say you're getting money, put me on. Put me on. But they like to use that phrase, that if phrase, because that if phrase is designed to direct you. Just like temptation. The purpose of temptation is designed to force you to do something. And it forces you to do something by attacking your integrity, attacking who you are, attacking the logic behind what you're doing. And it's there, temptation. Another thing temptation does, it forces you to sabotage yourself by proving yourself. Just take a look at what the devil was doing. If Jesus would have had thrown himself off the temple, it would have accomplished nothing. It would have shown nothing. Only people who would have benefited were from the devil. Only people who probably would have solid was the devil. It wouldn't have proved anything. It would just have been a frivolous test. But that's the purpose of temptation. I mean, I'm sorry, the purpose of intimidation is to get you out of the will of God by testing your faith, testing your belief, testing your integrity. Especially with that word if. That if is a test word. If you do this, something will happen. That's a word that's going to test you. So they're basically trying to test you, or prove you, or make you jump. Just like somebody trying to fight you. They say, you know, if you're big, if you bad, like you say you is, hit me. Do something, make that move. They're trying to force you to move that hand, to move your hand. Because in most cases, they're already ready for you to move your hand. So once you move your hand, they're ready for the counteract. They're not waiting for the act, they're waiting for the counteract. So that's what intimidation does. Intimidation forces you outside your goal, outside your will of God, by belittling you, by testing you, and by testing your faith. So we have temptation, we have intimidation, and number three, is participation. For participation, let's go to Matthew 4, 8 through 11. Okay, in Matthew 4, 8 through 11, the devil takes him from the temple and puts him on top of a high mountain. And from this high mountain, he can see all the kingdoms of the world. Kingdoms as far as his eye can see. He can see everything. If you look at the thumbnail picture for this episode, you'll see how I picture it. Because I don't see the devil placing him in, you know, New Testament time. I see the devil snatching him up. He's bringing him to 2026, and he can see New York and Paris and Dallas and Houston and Shanghai and Bangladesh. And he can see all the new buildings and buildings. People of this world, and he can see the technology and transportation, and devil is showing him all this, and he's saying, 'All this can be yours,' Jesus. Everybody here will be saying your name, everybody here will be praising you and worship you. It'll be all about you. All you gotta do is bow down and worship me. And you see him trying to weasel his way in there. Then me, me, me, make it about me. Include me in it. And that's what the purpose of participation is. When a hater practices participation, they know there's no way of stopping you. There's no way of turning you around, there's no way of defeating you in this area that you're trying to get to. You are 100 in what you're planning to do. But if I can't stop you, I'm gonna hop on with you. I'm gonna latch on like a leech, and I'm gonna suck out everything I can, all the blessings I can, till I leave you dry. And that's the goal of participation. They can't stop you. So they try to hit your ride. And if you're an 80s baby like I am, I know you heard this phrase several times. In several different formats, but basically saying, if you let the devil ride, he's gonna want to drive. And it's perfect of temptation. All I want is a ride. Just give me a ride. You don't have to give me the whole entire car. Just give me a ride. Because as soon as I get in the ride, I'm gonna start changing the radio station, I'm gonna start readjusting the seats, I'm gonna try to change your mirrors and my mirrors. I'm gonna do everything I can to take over to make this mine. And that's participation. Those are three tools that desperate haters use. Temptation, temptation to distract you and throw you off your goal. Intimidation is to force your hand by testing you or belittling you. And participation, hopping on for the ride, so they can take as much as they can. So how do we respond to these haters when they come at come at us like that? Let's look at let's look at how Jesus responded to to the devil when he started to hate him. Let's go back to temptation. Now the devil offers, Jesus say, turn this stone into a piece of bread for you, and you can eat. But by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Y'all see what Jesus did right there? He basically cast down a temptation by standing ten toes on the mission. See, I ain't got time for bread right now. I'm focused on what God is doing. And that's how you handle temptation. Be focused on the mission. Understand that the mission is more important than what's than what's tempting you. Yeah, you can go out and kick it the night before the final. But if you're trying to get that degree, and you know it's areas that you're struggling in, that you know you need to hunker down and study, or you're gonna fail the final, take the option of standing on your bit, your purpose, standing on your mission of getting your degree, kick it afterwards. Oh girl, old boy, and your DM, you ain't really supposed to mess with them anyway. And as you a man, you mess up on your mission, you're gonna lose your money and your girl. So you that temptation, cash to the side, you're gonna lose on both ends. But you have to constantly remind yourself of your vision, constantly remind yourself of what God is doing for you, how God is moving in your life, and that you can't mess this up. You can't afford to procrastinate, you can't afford to set this to the side for a little while while you play and have fun. Because you're still, just because you're a little bit successful, you smell like new money, or you smell like new bread, you still got work to do. So remind yourself of your goal, of your purpose when the temptations arise, and stay focused on what God calls you to do. And understand before I go to the next one, I'm not saying don't celebrate, but there is a time and a place to celebrate. So when it is time to celebrate, celebrate wisely and make sure you act wisely while you're celebrating. So don't think resisting temptation means, oh, I can't party or I can't have fun or I can't live life. You can still live life, but understand the goal, the mission, the main purpose is on the front for us, the front line. Doing what God calls you to do. So, how do we handle intimidation? Let's go down to five through seven. Remember intimidation? The devil was trying to get Jesus to throw himself off the temple. But Jesus replies to him in verse 7 of Matthew 4. He says, Do not test your Lord, the Lord God. And basically that's what you're doing when you're being tempted. You're testing God, you're testing God. And testing God ain't a good thing because you know, you're supposed to have faith. If you have faith, there's no reason to test God. If you have faith, there's no reason to try to prove that God is with you. And trying to prove that God is with you is eventually going to mess you up and it's going to lead you off the course of where you're supposed to be going and what you're supposed to be doing. So stand on the mission. When folks try to tempt you from doing something else than what God calls you to do, ask yourself who's more important? Them or God? Who is gonna bless you more? Them or God? If you do what they say, are you gonna get the blessings of God or are you gonna get whatever? God is God, and man, man be fed up. So that's your choice. Either you stand strong, stand firm, and stand on what God has told you to do and resist the intimidation, or you know, give in to the timidation and watch everything crumble. So that's how we deal with intimidation. And how do we deal with participation? Remember what participation is? Participation. The devil's trying to hatch on and ride with you. He's trying to cling to you like a leech. So what do you do? We can go to verse 10. Let's see what Jesus told the devil in verse 10. In verse 10, he tells him, Get thee behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. Go away, Satan. And those words are key. Get behind me, stay away from me. Cause that's what they've been doing. Like, okay. Let's unpause the little red hair story. Let's go back to that. Y'all remember where we was at in the little red hair story? You know, the bread was in the air, they could smell the bread. Well, here come the cat, here come the horse, and here come the dog. And they running back to get some bread. They running back, let me get a piece of bread, let me get a piece of the bread. But the hair ain't like, no. I planted these seeds by myself. I harvested these seeds by myself. I milled it and made the flour by myself. I put it in the oven by myself. So now that the bread is fresh and it's good and it's ready, I'm gonna eat this bread by myself. And you see how the Jesus and little red hen establish the pecking order of things, so to say. Because partitions could have happened way earlier. Just like the devil, did just like Jesus told the devil, get behind me. When I was starting at the bottom, you were behind me. You were away from me. When it looked rough, when it looked like nothing was going to come out of it, you were behind me, you were away from me. When I had to do all these things, grinding and producing and hustling and networking by myself alone, nobody was there. They were all away from me. But now that you smell like new bread, here they come. So if I didn't need you back when I was grinding and hustling on my own, why do I need your help now? I could continue to do what I gotta do without you. Picture it this way. Let's say you're building a house. You done laid the foundation, you done by yourself. Frame the house by yourself. Did all the plumbing, all the electrical work by yourself. Put up the drywall by yourself. So now your electricity, your plumbing, your work, and you got walls up. And here come a hater knocking on your door. And they just come in. You need to paint this room green right here. And this needs to be an accent wall right here. You can tear this wall down and do this. Let me decorate this for you. I know you did all this hard work, but let me decorate it for you. What does that look like? You done done all this hard work, this blood, sweat, and tears to get this to a point where you can start enjoying it and take your feet off and be a little less strenuous, a little less stressful. And now you want to come in and you want to do the easy part for me. And that's what participation looks like. That's what a participating hater is trying to do for you. They've been hating, they've been little belittling you, they've been testing you the whole rough ride. But now that it's smooth sailing, they want to catch a ride. Now that it's time to celebrate, they want to ride with you. Now that it's time, now that it looks like you're going somewhere, you look like you're taking off. Your ship is breaking the atmosphere. Now they want to catch a ride. So keep them behind you. Make sure you keep your haters behind you. Back in Nehemiah, remember Nehemiah? If you go back to the first one, he said, keep impeccable records. He kept impeccable records of all who helped him, all who went against him. So when he got to this moment where everything is successful, everything is going smoothly, he could take inventory. Oh, you're trying to jump on ship now. Remember when I tried to ask you for your help way back then, you wouldn't do nothing for me? Now you want to do something? Nah, I can't help you. Now I can't do nothing. And I'm not saying, you know, turn your back on people or turn your blind eye on people. But I'm just saying at this point in time where the ball is rolling, where the wheels are turning and everything is moving successfully, now is not the time to make new friends. Now is not the time to add new people unless they show they can serve a purpose in your life. So to wrap it up, when temptation comes, stand on the mission. Remind yourself of the mission. Remind yourself of what God is doing for you and what God is going to do. When intimidation comes, don't give in to the intimidation. Because if you give in to the intimidation, you fail. You lose faith, you're testing God. And when you test God, it shows you have a lack of faith. So don't give in to the intimidation. Stand strong on your faith. And when the participation tries to come in, make sure you tell them, get behind me. And finally, as we close, let's go to verse 11. When the devil left him, the angels came and ministered to him. So always have faith. As we close and as I leave you, always have faith that you're going to be reinsured. Once you resist the devil, resist him temptations, resist those that are trying to come against you. The right people who will come into your life to help you and benefit you will show up. The help that you need will show up. Once you resist that temptation, resist what the devil is trying to get you to do to get you to stop. God is always going to come through and make sure you're straight. Make sure you're prepared for the elevated level that you're going through. So don't get discouraged when a hater comes through. Don't get discouraged when they try to belittle you or they try to intimidate you. And definitely, don't be out here giving no free ride to no haters. And that, my people, my friends, is the word. If you're still here, I thank you so much for listening. Make sure you follow us on the Instagram. For the Instagram, go to Blessed Nation Media, B-L-E-S-S-E-D. Nation, N-A-T-I-O-N Media. It's Blessed Nation Media. And you can go from there. Patreon is kind of doing some weird things for me lately. So I believe the Patreon is www.patreon.com. If you listen to this on Spotify or Amazon music, you're probably listening to a censored version. But on patreon.com, you subscribe there. You can get the uncensored version. And there's going to be a lot more things coming up real soon. So make sure y'all hit up that Patreon, Patreon.com slash sermons from the back porch. Make sure y'all subscribe. And we'll go up from there. Once again, thank y'all for listening. Make sure y'all tune in next week for the final installment. Hopefully, unless God says different, it'll be the final number five of Learning from Your Haters. And it's gonna be good also. So as I leave, as I go home, get ready to lay down because I'm tired. Make sure y'all don't get distracted, stay focused, and don't get discouraged. God bless.