Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.
Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. If you're doing God's work, you'll be roundly criticized. But if you focus on your critics, you will not be doing what God has called you to do. If your eyes are on the opposition, then they're not on the Lord. Our hearts are easily influenced. That's why it's so important to choose who we listen to.
Pastor Greg Laurie says, choose well. Don't let the loudest voices be your critics. Let the loudest voice in your life be God speaking to you. When you're listening to the radio, you hear one station at a time.
There may be dozens and dozens up and down the dial, but your tuner helps you hear just one. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out there are voices of opposition calling to us as we walk with the Lord. We need an internal spiritual tuner that helps us hear just the voice of God.
We'll look to the example of Nehemiah and his wall builders today and learning how we can ignore our detractors. I heard about a monk that joined a monastery, and he took a vow of silence. He was allowed two words every year. So the first year passed, and he went into the abbot's office and was allowed two words. The abbot said, what would you like to say? And the monk turned to him and said, bed's hard. Another year passes by, he said nothing to anyone, and then he's allowed his two words. He goes and appears before the abbot again, and the abbot says, all right, what are your two words? And the man says, food's cold. Another year passes by, he appears again before the abbot, and the abbot says, okay, you're allowed your two words.
What are they? And the man says, I quit. The abbot said, well, it's no wonder. All you've done since you've gotten here is complain. That is true of some people. All they want to do is complain. They want to be critical. I think some people think it's some kind of a spiritual gift to be critical of others.
Hint, it isn't. You know, it's always easy to critique what someone else is doing, but my question to a person like this would be, what are you doing for heaven's sake? I mean, instead of tearing someone else down, what are you doing? Well, we're in the book of Nehemiah. We're looking at this book of rebuilding a wall.
Nehemiah was called by God to go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, and when you get down to it, everyone is either building the wall or in a way we're tearing down the wall. So I close with a series of questions last time. Are you a participator or are you a spectator? Are you a servant or are you a slacker? Are you a worker or are you a shirker? Let me put it another way. Are you a wall builder or are you a wall breaker? Are you a faith builder or are you a faith breaker?
See, it really comes down to one of the two. Some are doing the work of God. Others are standing on the sidelines and critiquing those that are doing the work of God. Let's kind of consider how Nehemiah got to where he was. He was the king's cup bearer. As you remember, that meant that he would taste the food before the king would eat it. He would drink whatever the king would drink, and this put him in close proximity to the king.
So he was not only in a place of influence, he also was in a place of affluence, and he had a significant role there, and he was living literally in the lap of luxury. But he was a Jewish man. And the Jews had been allowed to return from Babylon to their homeland again in Minnehat, and they had rebuilt the temple. But word came to Nehemiah that the walls were lying in rubble. They were charred. They were burned out.
It was an embarrassment. And Nehemiah was led by the Lord to go rebuild the walls again. You know, in a way, we are all building something. Some of us are building a marriage. I just talked to a couple, Mary and Jake, who just got back from their honeymoon. So they are building their marriage.
And I met some people after the first service who have been married many, many years. So they are continuing to build a marriage. But sometimes marriages break.
Sometimes families break. Sometimes things that are built need to be rebuilt again. So we are building. We are trying to do what God wants us to do. We want strong marriages. We want strong families. We want a strong church. We want a strong spiritual life.
But I have to warn you, the moment you start building is the moment you will also start battling. What does that mean? That means that Satan opposes what God loves. If God loves it, Satan hates it. Satan disapproves of what God approves.
And so we need to press on. Because God is in the rebuilding business. But Satan is in the tearing down business. And if you are doing the work of God you will face opposition.
In fact if you don't face opposition you might ask yourself the question, am I really doing the work of God? A story is told of the great evangelist John Wesley who was riding his horse. He would go from town to town and preach the gospel. So he is riding along and it suddenly occurs to him that it has been three whole days since he has been persecuted in any way. He thought it has been three days since anyone threw an egg at me or threw a brick at me. And he began to wonder if something was wrong with him spiritually. So he stopped his horse. He climbed off. He dropped onto his knees and said, Lord have I backslidden?
Have I done something to offend you that I have not been persecuted? Well there is some guy standing nearby who recognizes the preacher. He has a particular disdain for Wesley. So this guy picks up a brick and throws it at the preacher. It barely misses Wesley's head. And Wesley is all excited and says, thank you Lord.
I know I still have your presence. Okay I love that story. I don't think we should all be praying that people will throw bricks at us.
But I want you to know this. If you are doing God's work the bricks are going to start flying. So let's see what happened now in Nehemiah chapter 4 and I am going to read verses 1 to 3.
By the way I am reading from the New Living Translation. Sanballat was very angry when he learned we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews saying in front of his friends and the Samaritan army officers, what does this bunch of poor feeble Jews think they are doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by offering just a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap and charred ones at that?
Tobiah the Ammonite who was standing beside him remarked, well that stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked over the top of it. We will stop there. Here is point number one. I already said it in a way but let me say it more officially. When you build you will have to battle.
When you build you will have to battle. Two names keep popping up in our narrative. Sanballat and Tobiah. These are the initial opponents of Nehemiah and God's people. They have gone from minor irritation to a full blown rage. My friend James Merritt says there are two kinds of people in this world.
Some people are born again and some people are born against. You know some people are just contrary people. You know who they are immediately. They have that look on their face. Nothing pleases them. Nothing meets their standards and they actually like to go and make trouble in the lives of other people. Proverbs 4 16 says of these folks, evil people are restless unless they are making trouble. They can't even get a good night's sleep unless they have made life miserable for somebody.
Wow. Some of you are married to these people aren't you? Some of you work with these people. Many of us go to church with these people. And worst of all some of you are these people. If you are one of these people raise your hand.
No don't. You know what. Here is the thing. Here is the thing. I doubt if one of these people that is hypercritical would even know that about themselves.
These are the trash talkers and they are the wall breakers. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Whenever you reach out to us whether through email a letter or even a text message we read every word.
Hi Pastor Greg. I want to thank you for everything you do. If it wasn't for your messages I honestly believe my husband and I would no longer be married.
It's been difficult as my husband is in the military and we have a special needs child. One night when I was about to leave him he begged me to stay and watch your marriage sermons on YouTube. And so I did. And then he went to bed. Now when we go to bed we still watch your sermon videos but we don't use them to fall asleep of course. There's a lot I've obviously left out but I hope one day we can talk in person. In March we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary because of God and you. Thank you and God bless. How encouraging that Pastor Greg's teachings in God's word has helped to save this marriage. Have a story to share? If so would you let us know? Tell us your story by calling 1-866-871-1144.
Again that's 866-871-1144. Well today Pastor Greg is helping us be prepared for the opposition we may face as we do our work for the Lord. It's a message called Dealing with Criticism available at harvest.org. Number two if you're doing God's work you will be roundly criticized. If you're doing God's work you'll be roundly criticized.
Let me turn that around. If you're not roundly criticized are you actually doing the work of God? I've come to look at it as a form of confirmation that I'm on the right track. You know criticism can be demoralizing.
It can be painful. I mean Nehemiah had just started building this wall. When it comes to verse two what do these poor feeble Jews think they're doing? By the way there's more than a hint of anti-Semitism in that statement poor feeble Jews.
And so Nehemiah was going to press on and do what God had called him to do. It's not fun to be ridiculed is it? It's not enjoyable to be laughed at. I mean look at the way Hollywood portrays Christians. Hollywood. That's so full of virtue right.
Hollywood that's going to set the moral standards for all of us to follow. Don't get me started. But they love to portray us as Christians as fools and buffoons and racists and misogynists and you know fill in blank here. We're everything that is wrong with this world. And don't even start with the preachers. They're the worst of all.
That's how Hollywood presents us. And that is a form of persecution. And here's what Jesus said about that in Matthew 5. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted the prophets that were before you by the way in that statement that's found on the beatitudes by the way Jesus used the word blessed twice as he talked about persecution so the word blessed can also be translated happy so in effect the Lord is saying happy happy are the persecuted isn't why it's not such a happy thing when you are persecuted yeah but understand it's a confirmation you're a child of God just make sure you're persecuted for the right reason sometimes are persecuted for being mean or harsh or some other thing make sure it's for righteousness sake but critics they'll always be there critics run in packs critics engage in group think they feed off each other you've heard the expression birds of a feather flock together so critical people find each other and they can just get together and be critical oh the problem is they don't stay friends for long because after a while they turn on each other too you see they become cannibalistic they're resentful of your success they don't want you to do well because if you do well it may make them look bad and it's interesting because in chapter two there were two critics Sanballat and Tobiah but here in chapter four we have a whole new slew of critics that have joined them we have in verse seven Geshem the Arabs the Ammonites and the Ashtadites so this whole crew was mocking and criticizing the Israelites as they rebuilt the wall and the people were getting a little bit overwhelmed now how do you deal with criticism well first of all I always try to listen to it I always feel I can learn uh sometimes from my critics if they have my best interests in mind it's I think one of the first things you want to identify when someone is critiquing you is they are they trying to help me or hurt me see I have a group of people that I know and trust that I will talk to starting with critic numero uno Catherine Laurie my wife oh trust me I always know what she thinks right and I'll ask her what do you think of this what do you think of that I have a wider group of friends and I'll run things by them ideas by them plans visions whatever what do you think of this and they will give me their honest opinion and I value their honest opinion and I listen to what they have to say so that's one group of people but then there are people that they don't want to help you they just want to tear you down you know these are the people that hide behind a pseudonym online online and uh send out their missives from their laptop in their mother's basement and don't even have the courage to say to your face what they say behind your back or even say online I don't have a lot of respect for people like that or I love people that write anonymous letters I'm going to just tell you something if you write me an anonymous letter it's going to go in this circular file that's known as a trash can because if you don't have the courage to come up and talk to me why would I want to read your anonymous letter and you sign it concerned why don't you just sign it cowardly because here's what I find about people they'll they'll make a whole case over something that they dreamed up in their brain maybe has a little truth in it and if they would have just talked to you you could have said actually that's incorrect what you just said and this is not happening and the other thing is not happening oh and it blows their whole narrative so they love their little fictional narrative that they want to create and attack you and that's just the kind of world we're living in right now my friend Alan Redpath who great British preacher who's gone on to heaven but I remember he used to say to us if you want to be a preacher or a leader you need the mind of a scholar the heart of a child and the height of a rhinoceros and there's some truth to that you have to toughen up a little bit but others criticism was not from God at all it was meant to destroy them I came across an interesting quote from David Brinkley some of you may remember him from days gone by he was a journalist on television he made this statement quote a successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that have been thrown at him I like that he lays a firm foundation with the bricks that have been thrown at him take away truth don't let the loudest voices in your life be your critics let the loudest voice in your life be God speaking to you you say well Greg I don't I don't like criticism I don't want to hear criticism okay there's a way to live a criticism free life there is a way where no one will ever critique you at all you're ready for it you might want to write this down if you want to never be criticized at all say nothing do nothing and be nothing there it is so you're getting some of you're going sounds good to me okay go for it doesn't sound good to me you're gonna say anything if you're gonna do anything you will be critiqued for sure so let's see how they handled it point number three when you're under attack take it to the Lord in prayer when you're under attack take it to the Lord in prayer Nehemiah prayed about the criticism and he persisted in the rebuilding of the wall what I love about Nehemiah is he never stopped building the wall ever not even a coffee break he just kept building and building look at Nehemiah 4 verse 4 then I prayed hear us oh our God we're being we're being mocked may their scoffing fall back on their own heads and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land to not ignore their guilt don't blot out their sins for they have provoked you to anger in front of the builders and at last the wall was completed to half its height around the city for the people had worked with enthusiasm so what do you do when you're critiqued what do you do when you're attacked you take it to the Lord in prayer when the Israelites are griping and complaining about Moses what did he do he called on the Lord and he prayed about it when there was a threatening letter sent to King Hezekiah what did he do he laid it out on the ground and brought it before the Lord John the Baptist was beheaded what did his disciples do they went and told Jesus so when trouble comes your way call out to God because 1 Peter 5 says casting all your care upon him for he cares for you they say Lord I can't handle this this is too much for me to carry I just place it in your hands there's two things you can always pass on to Jesus are you ready for this two things you can always pass on to Jesus criticism listen and praise criticism and praise because one can deflate you criticism the other can inflate you praise and both are not helpful for you spiritually so someone attacks you Lord I don't know what to do about that I just present that to you someone praises you Lord you know I'm not that person I give that to you because I want to continue to be used by you if we give the Lord credit for anything good we can also give to him the control over the bad but if you focus on your critics you will not be doing what God has called you to do if your eyes are on the opposition then they're not on the Lord Nehemiah could see that people are starting to be demoralized he could see the fear on their face you ever see someone when they're really afraid he could see it and he says to them in Nehemiah 4 14 I looked over the situation I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said don't be afraid of the enemy now underline this phrase remember the Lord underline that remember the Lord who is great and glorious and fight for your brothers your sons daughters wives and your homes you see he knew they needed to be encouraged and so he says guys remember the Lord you know remember has been a word that's used throughout history as sort of a battle cry when young men and women are taken into the Israeli army they go to Masada which was originally built by King Herod as a sort of winner getaway and it was also a place where over a thousand Jews were killed by the Romans 2,000 years ago and so it's something they used to inspire Israelis that as they're defending their country and they take them up to Masada and they say remember Masada during the Mexican-American war the battle cry was remember the Alamo during World War II the battle cry was remember Pearl Harbor and we as believers need to remember the Lord remember God's in control what does it mean when we say remember the Lord it means God has been faithful in your past and it will be faithful in your present it'll be faithful also in your future so remember him Pastor Greg Laurie with good reminders today to take it to the Lord when we're criticized and remember the Lord for all the times he's brought us through well Pastor Greg we're making available your new book Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus the spiritual biography of rock and roll yeah let me ask you this what is it that drives your interest in cultural icons especially in the music industry I've always been a fan of pop culture always been interested in it you have to understand that God has called me to be an evangelist and evangelist builds bridges to the culture he lives in or she lives in take Paul on Mars Hill recorded in act 17 at that time Athens was the cultural and intellectual center of the planet it also was a city that had thousands of altars erected to various idols various gods that they worship so Paul went sightseeing and took in the sights and sounds of Athens and the Bible says his spirit was disturbed and so he got up in front of the people in the town square there effectively the Areopagus and began to speak to them but it's interesting how we started he said men of Athens I perceive that you are spiritual one translation says religious we might say today I see you're into spirituality then Paul quoted their own poets to build a bridge to the message that was based on the gospel so I take this concept and I use it in my preaching I'll often start one of my evangelistic messages that I would do one of our events that we call harvest crusades and I might start by quoting a movie star quoting a rock star quoting a billionaire saying something that lines up with what the Bible tells us as an example I would quote actor Jim Carrey who would say I wish everyone could be rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they would realize that's not the answer now I'm not basing my message on what actors or rock stars say but I use that to build a bridge to my listener and then I tell them what the Bible says okay so now shift gears over to this book I've written titled Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus so I'm exploring the lives of these people who have had it all who've been there done that and bought the t-shirt and in some cases have been the t-shirt and I'm showing through their lives that the things this culture offers are not really going to meet the deepest needs of our life success isn't going to do it a new record isn't going to do it global fame isn't going to do it a bunch of cars or a mansion that won't do it a bunch of girls that won't do it no they need Jesus and I tell the stories of those that found the answer they were looking for and became believers people like Richie Furet, Carrie Livgren of Kansas, Alice Cooper, Dion Demucci, Roger McGuinn of the birds and many others and then I also tell the tragic stories of those that did not find the answer and how their lives ended like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse and Chester Bennington and the list just goes on so it's a book that shows what happens when you make the right and the wrong choices but ultimately it's a book that I think will offer hope and say to you there is no one that you know that is beyond the reach of God yeah yeah that's right and maybe you've been looking for some help and reaching out to someone who seems so far from God maybe the things of this world have captured their attention well this can be such a great resource read it for yourself and then pass it along to someone who needs this message again it's called Lennon, Dillon, Alice, and Jesus and we'll send it to say thank you for your investment in spreading the gospel through Harvest Ministries and A New Beginning we're completely listener supported and we're so thankful for your partnership so call us today at 1-800-821-3300 we're here to take your call around the clock again that's 1-800-821-3300 or just go online to harvest.org well next time more encouraging counsel for Pastor Greg about facing our opposition as we do our work for the Lord join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. A New Beginning is a podcast made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know God if this show has impacted your life share your story leave a review on your favorite podcast app and help others find hope
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-04-16 23:12:01 / 2023-04-16 23:22:08 / 10