Learn From Your Haters: Religious Haters

Some folks hate so much that it becomes part of who they are.  They wake up hating, go about their day hating, and can't sleep because they're too tormented from hating.  Don't become this type of person. Find out how not to be consumed by haterism.  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Hey yo, what it do, what it do, what it do. My name is Christian. I am your back porch preacher, and you are listening to Sermons from the Back Porch. I thank you all for listening. If you've been listening to me or if you're just new, I'm currently at the end of a series entitled Learning from Your Haters. Now the series, it started off being just a series of a four-part series, but I had to include one more part. And even though I didn't want to, I was ready, actually, honestly, to be honest with y'all, I was ready to get off this sermon series because series aren't usually my thing, but you know, I got the word in this direction, so I had to go flow in this direction. Since I flowed in this direction, I have to continue to flow in this direction. So what I thought was going to be four-part series ended up being a five-part series, but it's still gonna be a good series. Because if you've been listening previously, I've been talking about learning from the haters that come into your life. We talked about sidelining haters, the people who are on the side and usually aren't contributing anything. We also talked about haters you have a bond with, or haters you love. You also talked about haters in powerful situations, powerful haters, haters who have more power or more influence than you. And we also talked about how haters move when they get desperate. But I think this last one is most likely the most important one. So I understand why God wanted me to go this direction and end in this one. Because the hater that we're talking about today is you. Yes, you. The hater that we're going to discuss today is you. And I know what you're saying already, you already have it in your mind. I ain't no hater. Ain't no hating bone in my body. You can't call me no hater. But if we be honest and truthful about it, we all have had our hating moments. Or as Mary J. Blodge would say, our moments of hateration. Or moments where we find ourselves disliking somebody or disliking a certain group of people or something. And it's not like we force ourselves to it. Sometimes we just naturally fall into it. We just, you know, find ourselves disliking somebody. And when we get usually when we get into that moment where we dislike our somebody, we find ourselves in moments of hateration or moments of hating, we check ourselves. We pull ourselves out of that hateration by exerting something positive. Some folks might say, you know, at least they're doing their thing, you know, or they might say, you know, if they like it, I love it. But to deter ourselves from being haters, we invoke love. We invoke positive. We end with on a sweet note, let's say it that way. So we do that so we don't come into a pattern where we're constantly hating somebody or constantly focusing on the negative that another person or another group of people have, because the more you focus on it, the more you dwell in it, the more you become a hater. Because you're focusing on that negative, or you're focusing on that thing that you hate about them so much that you become blind to the positive of a group of people or whatever that you're hating on. And if you're at that point where you're failing to see the positive, or you're failing to see something good, or you're failing to have compassion for somebody else, then you're that person's hater. And sometimes you have to check yourself, sometimes you have to check other people. Sometimes you might hear some of your friends talking about somebody else, or they might be talking down about somebody, they may be talking indirectly against somebody. You have to let them know hey, you being a hater right now, you really showing yourself to be that person's hater. So we don't dwell into that because if we dwell into our hating, it consumes us. And I know you see people out there who are consumed by their hatred. And for the sake of this sermon, we're gonna call those type of haters religious haters. Now, when I say the word religious haters, I'm not saying that as in they hate religion. I'm describing haters who hate so much that it becomes a part of their lifestyle. It becomes a part of their brand, it becomes who they are. They seek out like-minded haters who hate the same way they hate. They form clans and they form packs, and they usually get together, then that's their way of life. They avoid the people they hate, they have this negative view and negative stereotype of the people they hate. And no matter what goes on, or no matter what happens, they will always have this negative claim because they're so indwelled in their hate, they've been so indoctrinated in their hate that that hate has become a part of who they are. And the thing about a religious hater, it's real easy to become a religious hater. All you have to do is have unchecked hatred and closed-mindedness. When you have unchecked hatred, it grows. You fall deeper into that hatred, you fall deeper into that mode where you're constantly hating somebody, and it becomes who you are, it becomes your personality, it becomes your type, it becomes your creed, so must to say. So that unchecked hatred, and then also that closed-mindedness, that refusal to see things from another person's point of view, or that thing where you always see this other person or this other group of people as wrong. No matter what they do, no matter what opinions or view they have, it's automatically wrong because you believe it opposes your view, or it opposes what you believe. So if you have unchecked hatred and you are closed-minded, that's the perfect environment to foster a religious hater. And if you keep in that, the more you keep in there, the more you dwell in that state, you are going to become somebody who's controlled and somebody whose lifestyle is embedded with hate. So today, today, we are going to look at a religious hater. We're going to see what a religious hater is, we're going to see how we can identify religious haters. And we're also going to talk about how not to become a religious hater. So, in order to get this done, let me drop you off into a setting. Now, the hater we're going to talk about today, in my opinion, is one of the biggest haters in the Bible. And that hater goes by the name of Jonah. Now we're going to meet Jonah in chapter 4, verse 1 of the book of Jonah. We're going to start off with Jonah being frustrated. Jonah being angry. Jonah is in the desert on a plateau in a desert overlooking the city of Nineveh. And he is upset and he's angry and he's highly upset. He's so furious that he's so upset and angry that he wants to die. So if we read into the first chapter, well, chapter four of Jonah, he tells us why he's upset. That's a weird thing to be hating for. You're upset and you're angry because God is being gracious and God is being compassionate. So we can see right now, Jonah is at his peak of being a religious hater. He's at the pinnacle of religious hating right now. He's in a desert, he's hot, he's sweating, he's burning up, and he's just staring at a city so mad that he wants to die. So let's see what got Jonah to this point. In order to see how Jonah got to this point where he's upset and burning up in the desert, let's go back to the first chapter of the book of Jonah. Now, in this first chapter, we can get a backstory of why Jonah's so upset right now. Because in that first chapter, God gives a command to Jonah. He says, Hey, go, hey, Jonah, go to the city of Nineveh and preach against the evil that is in that city, because their evil has come up before me. So let them know. So preach against that evil that's there. So Jonah was like, Yeah, nah, I ain't going there. I'm gonna go to Tarshish and say it. So Jonah hops on the ship, pays his fare, and he tells the people, hey, sell me to Tarshish. So while they was on their way to Tarshish, a great storm came through and hit the ship. And it was a powerful storm hit the ship. It was knocking all their cargo and everything off the ship, and it was a mess. So the crew people, they're trying to figure out why it just happened to us and what is going on. So they cast lots, basically, in a way, saying they're like throwing dice to figure out, hey, whoever gets the bad deal, that's the issue or the problem. So they wake Jonah up so they can cast lots and see, hey, what's going on? And every time they're casting lots, the lots tend to show up. Hey, Jonah is the issue why this is happening. So eventually Jonah confesses, hey, yeah, this is me. I'm a Hebrew, and I'm supposed to be going to Nineveh under the direction of God because he told me to go to Nineveh, but instead I don't want to do that. I'm like, that I'm going to Tarsus instead. So, Jonah, and he's also emotionally eradicated at this point because he's so much in a state of hating that he would rather die than go to Nineveh. So he's like, you know, just throw me off this ship and everything will be taken care of. Y'all ain't got to worry about anything else. Just throw me off the ship. So the crewmates were like, the crewmates were like, well, we don't really want to do that. You know, that's that's killing a man, you know. So the crewmates are like basically praying to God, you know, hey, is there anything else that we can do besides throwing this man over the over the boat? Because, you know, that's killing a man. We don't want to kill nobody. So while they're praying and while they're trying to figure out other options they can do, Jonah was like, I'll throw myself off. So he just whoop, throws himself into the sea. So while he gets thrown into the sea, he gets swallowed and taken down by this great fish. Cause really he was at the point of drowning. He was almost about to die from drowning. But this fish really, really came through and saved him. So now he's not at the point where he's drowning, he's in a belly of a great fish. So while he's in this great fish, he's praying to God for forgiveness. And he's praying, you know, let me get out of this and now, you know, do what I'm supposed to do. So the fish spits him back up and he's on dry land now. So having this second chance of redemption, second chance to make things right, he makes haste to Nineveh. He's running towards Nineveh. He gets there as fast as he could. And he gets there and he preaches this sermon. He's like, Hey y'all, word from the Lord, he said he's gonna destroy this place in about 40 days because y'all ain't acting right. Y'all need to get y'all sh together, or everything can be torn down. And then he bounces. So the people of Nineveh, they hear this, and they take heed to it. They're like, yo, he God is serious. This is a serious guy. We need to change our ways. Even the king was like, hey, we're gonna make a decree. Ain't nobody eating nothing. We're gonna fast, we're gonna get this right, we're gonna change our ways, we're gonna get straight before God. And that's what they did. The Ninevites, they changed their ways, they cleaned up their act, and they became, you know, back in good standard with God. And this is the point where this would be an awesome book, an awesome story about redemption. But however, remember, Jonah is a religious hater. So while the Ninevites are getting their lives together, getting everything straightened out, reconciling with God, Jonah, he done set himself on top of the hill where he can see the city of Nineveh, and he done built up a little shelter and everything, and now he's waiting for the destruction to come. And he's sitting there waiting and waiting in the desert, waiting for God to destroy the city because he's so sure that God is going to destroy the city because he hates the Ninevehites so much that he has no faith that they'll change. So he's in the desert, waiting, waiting, and he's waiting for this destruction to come. Now Jonas said 40 days, so he had to be there at least 40 days in the desert under this rinky dink shack, sweating and burning, waiting for destruction that's never coming. So now we see why Jonah is so upset in the beginning of chapter four. He's upset because the people that he believed deserved destruction actually received mercy. So now we see Jonah as a religious hater. We see why he has so much hate in his body. We see what he's hating on and how and what his hate has caused him to do. Let's see how God responds to Jonah's hating. We see that while Jonah is out in the desert sweating in the heat, God allows a plant to grow. This plant grows real tall and huge, and it gives Jonah some shade. So while Jonah is upset, waiting for the destruction to come upon Nineveh, God grants him a little bit of shade so he can cool off. Now, overnight, worms attacked that plant that Jonah was resting under. And when he woke up in the morning, their plant had withered and dried. So now he's back in the heat, and now there's a strong hot wind blowing against him. He's dehydrated, he's hungry, he's down in his desert, so much so down that he nearly passes out. And Jonas is still upset, and he's upset and mad. So God's tempt responds to Jonah. He says to him, If you're upset about this tree that withered away in 24 hours, you care so much about this tree that grew and withered away in 24 hours, then why can I care? I not care about these people who have changed their ways. So that's a look at being a hater, being a religious hater. You see how Jonah was so deep and dwelled in this hating that it messed him up. One thing he did, it corrupt his mission. It corrupts who he is as a prophet. He had a charge from God, and he hated the Ninevites so much that he disobeyed their charge. He hated the Nineveh so much then rather than admitting, hey, I messed up, I'm supposed to be in Nineveh, but I went to Tarshis. Y'all just go ahead and take me to Nineveh and everything will be okay. He threw himself off a boat, off a ship. And hate can do that to you. Hate will corrupt your mission, hate will corrupt who you are. So much so that the only way to get you back on track is destruction. Like literally, Jonah hated the Nineveh so much that he nearly died twice. He died one time, he nearly died one time drowning when he threw himself in the sea. And now here he is, almost bigging himself to the point of death in a desert, waiting on a destruction that never is going to happen. So one thing being a religious hater can do, it can destroy your mission. It can destroy whatever you're trying to build yourself up to be, whatever you're trying to build yourself up to doing. One thing about a religious hater, you can't hide being a hater. Now, religious haters, they can work with the people that hate, they can work with the group of people that they associate with, or they can even move about with them. But eventually, their true colors are going to show, their true ideologies are going to show. No matter how much you try to be in society or in. With somebody you hate, eventually it's going to show that you don't like this person, that you don't see this person in a positive light. And others around you are going to see that. And once they see that, they're going to realize hey, this is this, whatever you're doing isn't something I want to be attached with. Nobody wants to be somebody who hates somebody so much that they make that hatred a part of their life. And that what Jonah was doing at the time, he was he made hate a part of his mission so much that he disobeyed God, and he disobeyed God to a point where he would rather die than be on the right path. He'd rather die than do what God called him to do. That's how much he hated the Ninevites. So if you're not careful and you allow yourself to become a religious hater, that hate will corrupt and even destroy your mission. And not only that, it'll also diminish your success. See, the book of Jonah, it would have been a powerful book. Let's look at it this way: one man with one sermon changed one city. If it were left at that point, it would have been a powerful book. It would have been a powerful book about redemption. Even when you go against God, all you have to do is repent and ask for forgiveness. Once you get that repentance, then get back on your ground and do what you're supposed to do. It would have been a great story for that. But because Jonah was so much of a hater, instead of ending in a triumph, we end his book with him burning up in a desert, damn near about to pass out, waiting for a city to be destroyed that's not going to be destroyed because they took heed to God. So that hate is always going to be a tag on Jonah's ministry. No matter the greatness of what he did, he did the great thing. He survived being swallowed by a fish. He redeemed himself from disobeying God. He preached a powerful sermon in the city of Nineveh. At the end of it all, he's a hater. So we're going to end this by saying, we're going to talk about how not to be a religious hater. Let's talk about how to avoid being that type of hater. And one way to avoid being a hater is to check yourself. In Jonah chapter 4, verse 4, God asked Jonah, Does this anger make you well? In other words, how is this anger affecting your well-being? One thing we see in the book of Jonah, we see Jonah is emotionally erratic. Emotionally chaotic. Every time something bad happens to him, he's like, Well, I just might as well die. Oh, I'm so angry and upset, I might as well die. Oh, instead of doing this, I just might as well die. I just he's so controlled by hate that now he has no control over his emotions. He uses his emotions, basically, as fuel for his hate. Now you can see how much he hates, how much he's angry. He's so angry and so full of hate that he wants to die. And his emotions are all over the place. So Jonah in this whole book is emotionally unwell. The only thing he had compassion for throughout this entire book was that plant that died in 24 hours. He directly disobeyed God. He had no compassion for God. He had no compassion for the crewmates on his ship. Even when they were tossed and torn by a storm, he had no compassion for him. He rather throw himself off a boat than rectify the situation. He had no compassion for the Nineveh. He had no compassion for the Nineveh so much that he didn't even believe his own message, that he wanted his own ministry to fail just to see them destroyed. So did this anger and did this hate do him any well? No, he was emotionally erratic. He was failing and being disruptive at every turn, and nothing that he tried to do came into fruition. Even the good thing that he did was smeared because he was a hater. So evaluate yourself. Always evaluate yourself. Check yourself. Make sure you're in the right mind state. If your anger is in the right mind state, if your heart is in the right mind state, also evaluate yourself. Ask yourself about these feelings. Is what I'm feeling right now beneficial to me? Is what I'm feeling right now beneficial to society? Do I have any compassion towards these people that I say that I hate or I have hatred for? Do I want them to do better? Do I want, do I, can I see anything positive in this other person or in these people? And if you can't, then repent of it. Repent of it, change your mind, change your thoughts, and focus on positive things. Because if you can't focus on the positive about someone, then you're that hater. That person's hater. If all you can think about is the negative they think, the things that they do, the negativity that surrounds them, or the negativity that comes to you because of that person, then you're that person's hater. So in conclusion, hate is a virus. It's like a virus. If you don't do anything about it, it's gonna fester and it's gonna grow. Just like a sickness. If you leave a sickness unchecked, it's gonna get you sicker. And you guys can get you sicker and sicker and sicker until it destroys you from the inside. And that's what hate does, it destroys you from the inside. You might think you're justifying, justifiable and hating this person or hating these group of people or hating this, whatever it is that you're hating, but it's killing you from the inside. It's slowly destroying you. It's gonna destroy your well-being, it's gonna destroy your mental state, it's gonna destroy your relationship and your reputations, and before you know it, you'll be so indwelled by this hate that it'll become who you are. So instead of being a hater, do the right thing and love. And that's all I can conclude this with. Love. Love the people around you. Even as you, especially if you say you're a Christian, make sure you lead with love, cuz, like it says in 1 John 4.20, how can you love your brother that you see every day, but love God and you ain't never seen God? And it also says in the Bible that you know, nobody with hate in their heart can enter the kingdom of God. So as long as you have that hate in your heart, you're hindering your relationship with God, and you're hindering your blessings, and you're hindering greatness that can come towards you. So lead with love and all that you do, love. If you feel yourself hating, if you feel yourself about to become a hater, you kill that, you check yourself, enforce some positivity into it, and continue to love. And that, my friends, is the sermon. And if you're still here with me, thank you for listening. Make sure you hit me up, hit us up on Instagram at Instagram.com slash blessed nation media. We're um we just got on TikTok. So if you're on TikTok, make sure you hit us up on TikTok at Bless Nation Media. And it's Blessed Nation, B-L-E-S-S-E-D, Nation Media. Also, make sure you hit us up on the Patreon. And that Patreon is www.patreon.com slash sermons from the back porch. There at the Patreon, you can get an uncensored version of this sermon. And we also have some more things lined up. So we're trying to make a goal of at least 10 subscribers to our Patreon. Once we get to 10, then we'll start doing some big things. So make sure you like us, make sure you share us with your friends, let everybody else know what we're doing, and stay with us. So I thank God for what he's doing, and I thank God for all those who are listening to me. And that's it. So continue to listen. We'll be back next week. And no matter what you do, stay focused, don't get discouraged, and don't get distracted. God bless.