A New Beginning presents a great book to show you how to easily share the gospel by Pastor Greg Laurie. The book is called Tell Someone You Can Share the Good News. And I wrote it with this thought in mind. I acted as though I were sitting down with an individual and sharing truths I've learned about evangelism. And it's something that is really important to me.
And I want to share what I've learned with you in this book, Tell Someone. Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org.
Sometimes the ones you help the most hurt you the worst. Life is always give and take, but sometimes givers get taken. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the right attitude according to God's word. People are going to curt you in life.
Sometimes you'll be hurt by people that you tried to help. And the only way you can deal with this is keep short accounts and forgive them. Even if they don't deserve your forgiveness, forgive them anyway. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.
Of ancient grace, how sweet the sound. Again, you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when I begin. We sometimes think forgiveness is something we do for the person who wronged us. Frankly, they may not know or care.
No, forgiveness is something we do for ourselves. As Pastor Greg Laurie has said, forgiveness sets a prisoner free. Us. And today on A New Beginning, we look to the Psalms for important encouragement on biblical forgiveness. We follow David as he was facing mortal danger from an enemy.
Yet his behavior is a model for us to follow. Have you ever wondered? How long? You will live. I read an article the other day that said AI, artificial intelligence, now can tell us how long we will actually live.
They base that on your medical history, place of residence, working hours. They'll tell you effectively the date of your death. I'm not so sure I'd want to know that actually. And I read about this uh young millionaire. who is trying to extend his life.
He's 45 years old. He's spending $2 million a year on anti-aging regimens. He follows a strict diet, sleep wind-down ritual, exercise regimen, and a round of daily supplements. He undergoes countless medical tests, and his goal is to. Get to the biological age of 18.
Then he will move back in with his parents again. And so, no, but he actually said that he felt. The length of his life was not up to God, it was up to him.
Okay, we'll see how that works out. You know, the Bible says it's appointed unto a man once to die, and then comes the judgment. God has an appointed day for birth and death. We have everything to do with that little dash in the middle, but. Then there are people that break all the rules.
They don't follow an exercise regimen like Pearl Cantrell that made it to the ripe old age of 105 years.
So she was interviewed, and by the way, she also had 17 children, and so she was asked, How did you make it to 105 years? She said, It's very simple. I eat bacon every day. I like Pearl Cantrell. Then I watch a news program about a guy who made it past 100.
They asked him what his secret was. He said, I eat a hot dog every day.
So, you know. Really You can live a healthier life. I'm not advocating living an unhealthy life, but ultimately, it's all in the hands of God. God determines the length of your life. And here in Psalm 31, verse 14, David writes, I am trusting you, O Lord.
Saying, You are my God, and my times are in your hands. My times are in your hands, or as another translation puts it, my future is in your hands. And by the way, David did not write these words. laying on the beach somewhere or Having a nice little glass of iced tea. No, he wrote this when he was on the run.
He was being hunted down by King Saul because after David had been anointed to be the next king of Israel, and Saul realized who his successor was, he made it his mission in life to destroy this young man. I mean, David was going from shepherd boy. To the king of Israel. And it was not going to be an easy road. In fact, I think David might have thought more than once: you know what?
It actually was a lot better when I was just tending the sheep. Back then, I knew who my real enemies were: lions, bears, ultimately, Goliath. But now he's dealing with a different kind of enemy. He's entering into the world of politics and intrigue. He's dealing with this man, King Saul, that wants to destroy him.
And this is where he's writing these words. At one point, he said of his life: there is but a step between me and death. In other words, because of The fact that he was a fugitive and running for his life meant that he did not know if he would make it another day. But then he says, But my times are in your hands. You know, David was going to become not just a king, but the greatest king in the history of Israel.
You know, they still speak of David in Israel today. The Israeli flag, what is it? The star of what? David. One of their defense systems is called the sling of David.
There's a folk song that's still popular in Israel today that they teach little children with the lyrics David, David, Melek, Israel, Hi, Hi, Vekayan, which means David is the king in Israel. But the most significant thing about David is that he would be in the royal line of the Messiah. And in fact, Jesus Christ would identify himself as the son of David. The reason that Mary and Joseph went and had their baby in Bethlehem after that decree was given by Caesar was because it was the boyhood home of David, and that's who their genealogy trace back to. And the Bible uniquely describes David as a man after God's own heart.
Actually, that verse is found in Acts chapter 13, where Paul says, describing what happened to David, God removed King Saul, and then the Lord said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do. How could David be a man after God's own heart? When he was guilty of gross sin. We know David committed adultery with Bathsheba.
We know he tried to cover it up. We know ultimately he played a role in the murder of Bathsheba's husband, Uriah. Yet, God describes him as a man after his own heart.
Well, the answer to that is found in the book of Psalms. You see, this is a man who had a heart toward God. When he sinned, he owned it and he repented of his sin, and ultimately, he did do. Everything God wanted him to do, not flawlessly, but faithfully.
Now, he first came into the public consciousness when he took down the nine-foot six-inch giant of a man known as Goliath. They're in the valley of Elah. Goliath had been coming down into the valley day after day and challenging Israel, saying, Send me a representative of your people and he'll fight me. I represent the Philistines, he'll represent Israel. Whoever wins this battle, that will be the winner.
Come on, no one would take him up on it. Then Goliath is coming up in the camp of Israel, right in their face. He's getting in their grill, as they say, right? Come on, who's going to fight me? No one would take him on until David.
Arrived on this scene. delivering bread and cheese to his brothers. Basically, a pizza delivery. And there, He heard the taunting of Goliath and said, I'll Fight him, and of course, he defeated him. And on the heels of that, he became a folk hero overnight, and he gained a huge following.
In fact, there were 300 men. Dedicated themselves to David to follow him wherever he went. And it was during this time now, as he's running from Saul, because once he becomes the hero. In the eyes of Saul, he becomes a big zero because he's a threat to the throne. And now, While he's running from Salt, he writes Psalm 31.
He writes Psalm 27 and he writes Psalm 54. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of today's message in just a moment. Hey everyone, I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place.
We have our movies like Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Casher, Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app.
Well, glad you're along today for Pastor Greg's message based in Psalm 31 called, Our Future is in God's Hands. Let's continue. Here's a little backdrop to the story now. We see that the Philistines are up to their old tricks. They attacked a little border town of Kilia.
And the farmers had just harvested their crops, and the Philistines stole their crops. And so these farmers of Keleah went to David, even though Saul was king, they knew Saul would do nothing about it. He was sort of a lame duck king at this point, but they knew David was a mighty warrior who was fearless. And they said, David, would you help us? And David prayed about it.
And the Lord said to him, Go. Take these Philistines on. And he went and conquered them in battle. And then, writing of that in Psalm 31:21, David said, Praise to the Lord, He's shown me the wonders of His love while I was in a city under siege. But now, This attack comes not from the Philistines, but from Saul.
Now, Saul and David were both believers in one sense. Saul seemed to be lapsed in his faith, but Saul had a good beginning. When God appointed him to be the first king, Over Israel, we read he was a humble man. We read that the Spirit of God came upon him. He had tremendous potential, but he messed up.
And in his own words and in an autobiographical statement, he said, I have played the fool and I've erred exceedingly.
So, because of his pride and his disobedience, God rejected him from being the king. You know, in life. It comes as a surprise sometimes to us as Christians to find that were opposed not only by the world, but sometimes by fellow believers. And it doesn't always make sense. You know, some Christian that you know or someone you had a friendship with may turn on you, they may criticize you, and that's what's happening to David.
Because consider this: not only was David going to ascend to the throne, but he married Saul's daughter, Michael.
So, Saul's his father-in-law who's trying to kill him.
So you think you have in-law problems?
So, this is the world he's dealing with.
So, he writes down these words in what I've described as David's diary, the book of Psalms, against Psalm 31. Look at verse 7. I'll be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have considered my trouble. You've known my soul in adversity.
Now, his army of three hundred multiplies to six hundred. Bringing me to my first point.
Sometimes the ones you help the most hurt you the worst. Sometimes the ones you help the most hurt you The worst. It might be a fellow believer, as I mentioned earlier. I've told you the story before of a. crab fisherman who had a bucket full of crabs and He was walking along with them and he didn't have a lid on it.
And someone noticed that. He said, Hey, how do you keep those crabs in that bucket? Don't they want to climb out? He says, Oh, yeah, there's no problem, though. When one starts to climb up, the others reach up and pull him back down.
That's called jealousy. And sometimes it happens among believers. But here, in the process or in the midst of all this, David has faced betrayal. By his father-in-law. And ultimately, by his own son Absalom.
Look, here's the bottom line: people are going to hurt you in life. And the reality is, you are going to hurt people in life as well.
Sometimes you'll be hurt by people that you tried to help. And the only way you can deal with this is to keep short accounts and forgive them. Even if they don't deserve your forgiveness, forgive them anyway. It'll help you sleep better at night. You know, we live in a culture that does not value forgiveness.
In fact, Forgiveness is seen as a sign of weakness. Our culture values vengeance and payback. Many operate by the old adage: don't get mad, get even. I mean, how many John Wick movies are there? I think there's four in total.
And how does it start? It starts when some bad guy kills his dog.
So John Wick seeks his revenge, right? We love that. Yeah, get them all. But forgiveness doesn't mean confusion. condoning bad behavior or dismissing it.
It doesn't even suggest necessarily reconciliation. It just means You forgive. You say, well, no, shouldn't we be reconciled to people? Yes, if possible. But the Bible says, as much as it's possible, live at peace with all men.
Some people, you can't live at peace with them. They're usually named Karen. I'm kidding. I know this is very upsetting if your name is Karen. I didn't choose the name.
I'm sorry about this. But it's kind of entered into our vocabulary now. But the thing is, some people, you just, you can't. Reconcile with them. But you can forgive them.
And they don't deserve your forgiveness, but you should forgive them for your own peace of mind. Forgiving someone means you're surrendering the right to get even, not giving them what they deserve. And that's another reason that David was a man after God's own heart, he was a forgiver. He had multiple opportunities to kill. King Saul, and he would not raise his hand against him, even though Saul was attempting to kill him.
And even more, he extended grace to the grandson of Saul, the son of Saul's son, Jonathan. And that boy's name was Mephibosheth. And Jonathan was a bright light in this dark place. Because Jonathan and David became close friends. And even though Jonathan was really the heir to the throne, He understood that God had called David to that role, not him.
And so David forgave, and I think that's so important. You know, sometimes you hear people say today, I'm just, I'm mad at the church. I'm mad at the church. The church hurt me. I've heard that far too many times.
But to me, That is an excuse, okay? What do you mean the church hurt you? I went to church and I had a bad experience.
Okay, so now you're mad at the entire church of Jesus Christ around the entire world because you had a single bad experience in church? Maybe it wasn't them, maybe it was you, I don't know. Maybe you did have a bad experience, but now you're never going to go to church again. Are you sure that's not an excuse? That would be like saying I went to a bad restaurant and I had a bad meal and I'm never eating in a restaurant again.
I don't think that's going to happen. Or going to a doctor. I didn't like the way this doctor treated me, or he didn't do what he should have done properly, so I'm never going to a doctor again. Listen to this. Jesus Christ established his church, and one day you're going to need the church.
more than you realize. I have a friend. who lost his daughter in a tragic automobile accident. Actually His name is David. We played tennis that morning.
And his sweet little daughter, Named Yvette. was cheering me, not her father, on in the game. She wanted me to win. I love that. And then we were going to have lunch that day, and I got a call expecting him to tell me where we were going to go to lunch.
and he gave me the tragic news. There had been an automobile accident. He and his daughter were in a car and it flipped upside down.
So I went to the hospital. And I'm there in the room, and there he is. His daughter has died. And he doesn't know this yet. And though I'm a pastor, I didn't know what to say to him.
And I was just dumbfounded. We were all so stunned, and someone got a call into Pastor Chuck Smith. And in comes Chuck, And I remember what he was wearing, an old white t-shirt. and white pants splattered with paint because he was painting that afternoon. He left what he was doing, came straight to the hospital, and it was like a master class.
On what a pastor does. He walked into that pain. He walked into that difficult situation. He sat down, and he was going to be the one now to break the news to David. and his daughter had died.
And Chuck handled it so beautifully. I remember he said, you know, David, when When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to the father, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And David, your daughter is with the Lord right now. And then he just went on to minister to him.
Now, there's no easy way to deliver a message like that, but he did it in such a compassionate way. And I thought, thank God for pastors, you know. When you need one, you need one. And they come in representing the Lord. It's so easy to critique pastors and critique leaders.
And I'm not saying we shouldn't be critiqued, but I'm saying maybe we don't realize the important role they play in the world today. And we should thank God for them and pray for them instead of be so quick to criticize them.
Now, I know it sounds self-serving because I'm a pastor, but I'm not really saying this about me. I'm saying this about pastors in general. I know so many pastors, and any pastor that messes up, you better believe it's going to be a story in the news. And you're going to hear every detail about how that pastor failed, and it does happen, but you never hear about the thousands that faithfully serve God for their entire life. That's not a sizzling headline.
We want to hear. All the sordid details or all the horrible things they might have done. And I think because then non-believers can say, Oh, you see, they're all hypocrites. I hate the church. I'm against the church.
And on and on it goes. But there's nothing like the church. And the church steps in where other people don't. We step into so many situations where there's crisis, where there's need, we're there on the ground. Christian relief organizations.
I think of our church on Maui, how we were able to immediately extend help because of the generosity of people around the country that came to our Harvest Maui Relief Fund. And we were able to help them with food and with clothing and with house payments and the basic necessities of life.
So it's so important. Get over your. anger and stop criticizing the church. and find out how you can be a vibrant part of it because God has established it. Pastor Greg Laurie.
With great insight today from our study in Psalm 31. And there's more to come from this study here on a new beginning.
Now, before we go any further, Pastor Greg, let's speak to the person who wonders where they fit in to God's plan. God's plan for the church and God's plan for them personally. They find comfort in their future being in God's hands, but they wonder what they can do to begin a life of faith.
Well, they just need to hear more. They need to hear what the essential gospel message is. And I've got a great resource for you. We've set up a webpage that's called knowgod.org, k-n-o-w-g-o-d.org. You go there.
I have a video presentation of how you accept Christ, lead you in a prayer, and then it links to other spiritual resources that will help you grow spiritually.
So just go to knowgod.org. Do it right now. All right. And then, thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue. Your investments have eternal benefits.
Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online, you'll find us at harvest.org, and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now. That's harvest.org. Or write us at a new beginning box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.
Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call, again at 1-800-821-3300. Yeah, it's not a good idea. Hey everybody, you can watch our Sunday services on a special broadcast that we call Harvest at Home. It's streaming on the Harvest Plus platform.
So download that app right away, Harvest Plus, and you can enjoy being a part of our extended church family every Sunday.
Well, next time, good encouragement for anybody with problems. Know anyone with problems? Pastor Gregg points to good reassurance from Psalm 31. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurin. This is a day, the day when life begins.
