Text: I Samuel 10:26
Introduction: Last night at the New Members Fellowship Dinner I was sitting behind a group of young people and when one of them stood to introduce herself and began to talk about her accomplishments some of the others started to laugh and giggle, she turned pointed her finger and said haters, haters, haters. I want to talk about How to Handle Haters.
If you are over 40 let me explain that a hater is someone that is jealous and envious and spends all their time trying to make you look small so they can look tall.
“When you make your mark, you will always attract erasers. That’s why you have to be careful who you share your blessing with because some folk can’t handle seeing you blessed.
So how do you handle your haters so that you won’t abort the blessings that God has for you. How do you handle your haters so that you don’t miss the opportunities that have been scheduled for your life.
Narrative
In the text the people want a king because when they looked around they saw that the other nations had a king. They mistakenly thought that the only way to beat the other nations were to be like them.
Its dangerous to be like somebody else
If God wanted you to be like somebody else He would have given you what he gave them.
That’s why envy and jealousy does not make sense. It limits God because to want what somebody else has is to assume that what they have is the best that God’s got. You can miss something better that God has for you because you are concentrating on what somebody else has.
Grandmama used to say be who you is cause if you is who you aint then you ain’t who you is.
You don’t know what people have gone through to get what they have. If the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence you can be sure that the water bill is higher there.
Picasso- soldier becomes a general, monk becomes a pope, I was a painter so I became Picasso.
Imitation is Limitation
They wanted what God wanted but they wanted it their way. God intended them to have leadership but not like everybody else. God decides to give them what they ask for.
Chapter 9, when Saul is chosen and the ceremony is to take place they can not find Saul because he is hiding behind his baggage. To hide behind your baggage means you have to stoop down and look smaller than you really are. It gives you an inferiority complex and makes others look taller than you. But if you just stand up you will see that you are the equal to everybody else.
After the benediction Saul goes home to Gibea and is joined by a band of men some of whom have a problem with the blessing that Saul has received and they refuse to follow him and even disrespect him by not bringing him an offering. They feel that he does not have the look and could not do what he had been appointed to do.
Some people don’t like it that you can:
Come to church
Get your praise on
Shout in the aisle
Dance in the pew
Enter his gates with praise
Bless his holy name
Solos to the song
Inner circle
Receive compliments on your dress
His haters were not his enemies they were in the group that was suppose to be on his side. You can handle it when you haters are your enemies, but how do you handle the haters who you least expect to have to have your guard up against.
Saul ignored them
Show them that you have not surrendered all of your ghettofabulous ways-ignore them
Knock them into next week-ignore them
Bless them out-ignore them
Give them a piece of your mind and your foot-ignore them
Don’t let the enemy use them to distract you from the destiny that God has for you-ignore them
First flight out of Columbus in the winter always has to be de-iced before it can take off.
I. You Ignore Your Haters by Being Confident in Your Purpose
With a purpose you can focus without being distracted.
With a purpose you don’t get upset when you are not invited out with friends
Purpose does not mean having a job. You can have a job and still be unfulfilled. A purpose is having a clear sense of what God has called you to be.
Your purpose is not defined by what others think about you-I will always be trying to get stuff because the more stuff I have will improve what you will think about me (cars, house, money etc) but the problem is what you think will only last as long as the stuff last
Your purpose is not defined by how others think you can perform what you do. If I know its my purpose I don’t care what you think of the job I am doing. I don’t come to church to make friends, join clicks, get your number, because I am lonely- I know my purpose.
I been through too much to let you keep me from my purpose.
II. You Ignore Your Haters by Knowing Something About Them
KJV-The Children of Belial-proverbial term to describe worthless men
Here’s the appointed king in the company of some worthless, trifiling men
Who is it telling him he can’t do it, some worthless dysfunctional men
Why should I let somebody who can’t get it together keep me from having it together.
Before you listen to folk check out their history (marriage) can’t get along with their own husbands telling you how to get along with yours. Can’t keep a girlfriend tell you how to get a girlfriend.
Its not that they don’t like you they have a history of criticism.
They were not Belial, they were the children of Belial. They had taken on the behavior of the people that produced them.
Before you hook up with somebody you better go to a barbeque or a family reunion. Check out their mama, check out their daddy. Go meet Auntie Sue, Cousin Poochie because if there is dysfunction there its bound to show up in them.
III. You Ignore Your Haters by Remembering that What you Have is by Divine Perogative and Not Human Manipulation
The people wanted a king. They assessed their need and compared their need to what they thought Saul’s ability was. They look at his background, resume, and curricular vitae.
They saw where he was born but not where he was from, they saw where he was born in the natural, but not his home in the heavenlies.
What they missed was that Saul had not asked for the job. He was young, no military experience, still wet behind the ears, still had milk in the corner of his mouth but what he did have was FAVOR!
Car you could dream about
Applied for a job as a joke
House you did not deserve
Favor ain’t fair
God gives it to you at his prerogative so that he can get the glory
Don’t look at me, look at who is in charge of me. What I have I did not:
Earn it
Afford it
Education for it
If God let me have it why should I let you keep me from it.
