BLISS Part 8: How To Handle Opposition To Your Faith

Blessed: [MARKARIOS]
Extreme happiness
Blessing
BLISS

God’s way to happiness isn’t about circumstances,
it’s about our attitude toward circumstances.

Matthew 5:10 NLT
10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

Matthew 5:11-12 NLT
11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

1 Peter 1:7 NIV
7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Persecution brings about Purification, which brings about Praise

2 Types of Persecution
Violent oppression
Silent repression

Hebrews 13:3 NIV
3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Opposition makes me more like Jesus

John 15:18-27 NLT
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the one who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’ 26 “But I will send you the Advocate —the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. 27 And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.

John 5:20 NIV
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

1 Peter 4:14 NIV
14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Opposition makes me more like Jesus
Opposition deepens my faith

You might think that this list is all about oppression, but this list is really all about resilience.
~David Curry

Isaiah 43:19 NIV
19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

We don’t pray for God to take the hardship away, we pray, he gives us the grace to stand.

1 Peter 3:14 NIV
14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”

Acts 7:55 NIV
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

Your enemy is Spiritual,
not Personal.

Satan hates you, and he has a plan for your life too.

Ephesians 6:12 NIV
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

2 Timothy 2:23 NIV
23 Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

1 Peter 2:23 NIV
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Luke 23:34 NIV
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Matthew 5:11-12 NLT
11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

Mark 8:38 NIV
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”