Handling Hardship & Difficult People | Responding to Persecution

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Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. What should our reaction be to someone who hassles us, harasses us, criticizes us, mocks us, because we believe in Jesus? Bless those that persecute you. Each of us is born with something commonly called the fight-or-flight response. If our safety is threatened, our skin gets flushed, our pupils dilate, and our heart rate speeds up, it's your body's way of getting ready to respond. But when someone persecutes us, we often feel that same urge to respond. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says the way we respond makes all the difference in the world.

And we'll see Jesus taught us a way to respond that furthers the kingdom. The title of my message is, I hate squirrels and seagulls. Not really, but it could be, and I'll tell you why. Because I do hate squirrels and seagulls. Now I really have not had an issue with squirrels for most of my life until recently. When I put a little bird feeder in our backyard, and the birds were enjoying it, and then the squirrels decided it was theirs too. And the squirrel kept climbing on it, and it kept falling off the tree, and it kept rehanging it, falling off the tree.

Finally it rolled a few times, he basically destroyed it. And so I googled squirrel-proof bird feeders, and I found one, and I hung it. And next thing I know, the squirrels, they're eating the bird seed.

They're very clever and very resourceful, I have to say. So then I searched for a special kind of bird seed that birds like and squirrels hate. It's supposed to be really spicy. So I put the bird seed in, next thing I know, there's a squirrel hanging upside down, eating the spicy seed.

He probably enjoyed it. I like this, a little more tabasco please, you know. And so I, basically the squirrel is winning.

You know, what can I say, it's an ongoing thing. So, but seagulls too, basically the thing that squirrels and seagulls have in common is, they're thieves. They take things that don't belong to them, right? You're gonna head down to the beach, some of you, and lay out your blanket, and get your food maybe that you brought with you. And you better be careful, because if you're on the water, the seagulls are coming, we're squirrels riding them. I'm telling you, riding them, come in, swoop in, grab your food, grab your small little weird dogs that some of you have.

They take things that don't belong to them. That reminds me of a story of years ago when we took our oldest son Christopher to SeaWorld. He was just a little guy, so we paid the admission price, which was not cheap. And then we walked in and he saw the dolphins in a pool and he wanted to feed them. Well, they're clever there, you pay money to buy little fish to feed the dolphins. So I paid the money and he got the little fish, he got one to the dolphin he was bringing out the second. Out of nowhere, a seagull swoops down, grabs the fish, out of his hands flies off.

He said, I hate those seagulls, dad. So we spent a little more time in the park and we sat down to eat lunch and he ordered, as I recall, a chicken. I mean, not just a piece of chicken, a good part of a chicken carcass, if you will. And he's eating it. Out of nowhere, here comes a seagull, grabs the chicken, flies off with it.

I mean, came down to our table and took it. I thought, isn't that like cannibalism or something? Is that even right in the bird community? Someone should send out a tweet and say it's inappropriate.

I don't know. And so then we're leaving and he wants to feed the dolphins again. Again, I bite some more fish, again the seagull steals the fish. And finally, as we're in the parking lot, there was a final act of injustice from the seagulls.

Specifically targeted toward Christopher, a direct hit right on his jacket. He shook his fist and he said, I hate seagulls. I say, Greg, what does this have to do with a Bible study? Nothing. God bless and goodbye.

No. So here's the real title of my message. Handling hardship in difficult people. Maybe you felt as though the whole world is against you. Or at least seagulls and squirrels are against you. Or maybe there have been people that have given you a hard time. How should a Christian react when they're attacked for what they believe?

How about this? What if someone hurts us? Should we forgive them even if they don't deserve it? Well, there's answer to these questions and more in the text before us. We're reading Romans chapter 12, verses 14 to 21. Let's look at it together. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind, one toward another, and don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Don't be wise in your own opinion. Repay no man evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

And if it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, don't avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. We'll stop there. Powerful words.

If you're taking notes, here's point number one. We should bless those who are against us. We should bless those who are against us.

Verse 14, bless those who persecute you. We all know people that give us a hard time because of what we believe. It could be a spouse. It could be a coworker. It could be a boss.

It could be a professor or a teacher in a classroom. It could be an internet troll that continues to harass you when you post about what you believe. But make no mistake about it, persecution is alive and well. The Pew Research Center did an extensive global survey and came to this simple conclusion. Christians are the most persecuted religion and people in the world. Nobody even comes close to facing the persecution that followers of Jesus Christ face globally.

This article pointed out this includes discrimination, verbal assault, physical attacks, and arrests. Every single day our Christian brothers and sisters suffer barbaric treatment and very difficult to live in nations if you're a Christian like China, North Korea, Russia, India, many Islamic nations. People are still hounded, tortured, executed for simply believing in Jesus Christ. Now some of you might hear this and say, well, that's a good enough reason for me to walk away because I didn't sign up for this. Okay. Well, bye. But it's also a good enough reason for some of you to double down on your commitment and realize that Christian faith is not only worth dying for, it's worth living for.

It's very important. 2 Timothy 3.12 says, All that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. By the way, that is nobody's life verse. In other words, you'll ask someone, what's your favorite verse in the Bible? What's your life verse?

They'll say, oh, I love Philippians. I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me. Another one might say, well, I love Jeremiah 29.11. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord.

Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. Then another says, well, I love the verse. All that live godly in Jesus Christ will suffer persecution. No one lays hold of that verse. Who wants to claim that promise? That statement is not in calligraphy on anybody's living room wall.

We don't post that on Pinterest or on Instagram with a little sunset behind it. That's something we wish wasn't there, but it is there and it's very true because every follower of Jesus will in time be persecuted in some way, shape, or form. It might be financial persecution, meaning you don't get that position because of your faith. It can be physical persecution. It can be marginalized, insulted, and mocked by others, but it is going to come.

So what should we do when it happens? Jesus said in Matthew 5-12, happy are the persecuted because the kingdom of God belongs to them. So when you're reviled and persecuted and lied about because you're my followers, wonderful. Be happy about it. Be very glad for a tremendous reward awaits you in heaven.

Let me just add this. Make sure you're persecuted for the right reasons. Sometimes Christians are persecuted not for righteousness' sake, but because they're idiots. They say offensive things, they're obnoxious, they're mean, they're cranky, and then when someone calls them on it, they'll say, oh, praise God, persecution for righteousness' sake. No persecution for just being weird, okay?

So get persecuted for the right reasons. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. I don't know if you know about this, but we have a weekend service called Harvest at Home exclusively for people that are tuning in literally from around the world. Listen to this. We even have Harvest groups where you can get into a small group with folks from all around this planet of ours and study the Word of God.

So join us this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. And now Pastor Greg continues with this practical message called Handling Hardship and Difficult People. So what should our reaction be to someone who hassles us, harasses us, criticizes us, mocks us, insults us because we believe in Jesus?

Verse 14, bless those that persecute you. What does that even mean? The Greek word for bless here means to speak well of. It's the same term from which we get our English word eulogy, to eulogize. This is when you're at someone's funeral service and you eulogize them, which means you say nice things about them.

I heard about a preacher that was doing a service for a man and he wanted to find just the right words to bring comfort to the family. And so he said, here before us we simply have this shell, and he gestured toward the coffin in front of the pulpit. And then he went on to say, but the nut is gone. He didn't mean it to come out that way, but actually that's theologically correct.

The shell is here, but the nut is gone. But seriously, when you speak at a funeral service, you'll say complimentary things about the deceased. I mean, what if we told the truth in funerals?

You know, because you've been to funerals and you're listening to people talk and you're thinking, is this the same person I knew? They've sainted this person. What if we got him and said this person was really a jerk, they were mean, they were selfish, they were stingy, they were hard to deal with. No, no, we'll say all these nice things about them and maybe some of those things aren't really deserved. That's what Christ is saying. This is what Paul is saying. When someone persecutes you, eulogize them, bless them, say nice things about them in return. Now that is usually the last thing we want to do, but that's what the Bible tells us to do. Point number two, if you're taking notes, weep with those that weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Look at verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Let's talk for a moment about what to do when you know someone who's in deep pain. Maybe it's a friend who just found out from the doctor they have cancer.

Maybe it's somebody else that just lost a loved one, even a child, and you wonder, what should I say to them? Sometimes, let's simplify it by saying less can be more. People don't always need a sermon. Believe it or not, that might surprise you coming from a preacher. They don't always need a sermon. Sometimes, they just need a friend.

They need someone to show a little compassion for them and weep with those that weep. You remember the calamities that befell poor old Job. He wakes up one morning.

He's a godly guy. He doesn't know the Lord's been bragging on him in heaven in front of the angels and Lucifer. But all kinds of calamities came on Job. One after another, he lost his livelihood. He lost his possessions. He lost his children. He lost even his health, so his body was covered head to toe in massive boils. Then his wife comes along and says, why don't you just curse God and die? Thank you for those encouraging words, Mrs. Job. Why didn't you die with everybody else?

Why are you still here? He was really down. He had three friends who heard about what happened. They showed up in Job chapter 2, verse 12 to 13. It says, when they saw Job from a distance, they scarcely recognized him. Wailing loudly, they tore their robes and threw dust in the air over their heads to show their grief. They sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights.

No one said a word to him because they saw his suffering was too great for words. That's called weeping with those who weep, you see. I think we always feel like we have to have the answer because we're Christians. There's a Bible verse for that.

Maybe there is, but there's a time and place for everything. When I was a young pastor, I've been a pastor, by the way, for 45 years. Can you believe it?

It's a long time. I started when I was five. I was a very little, very small little pastor. But I was cute.

No. You should have met me back then when I was a 21-year-old pastor. I was awesome. I was skinny. I could eat anything and never put on weight. I had long hair.

I just had hair, which was good. I had the answer to every question. No matter what you said to me, I had a verse for that. I had an answer for that.

But now with all this time that has passed since then, I realize, well, I still love verses. But I also understand sometimes people don't need to hear any sermon from me. It just needs someone to show a little compassion. Here's the reality. Sometimes we say things to help people, and we can end up hurting people. Did you know that? That's why you have to carefully choose your words.

Because trust me, I've heard it. When our son went to be with the Lord, my son I mentioned who was there at SeaWorld being attacked by seagulls. There's no seagulls in heaven, I can assure you that. They're all going to hell.

With the squirrels. But I can't support that biblically. My emotions got the best of me. But when our son went to be with the Lord, I had a lot of people try to say things that would help me. And some things helped and some things didn't help as much. I learned a lot about what it was like to be on the receiving end of those things.

I was always the guy saying the things, now I'm listening to those things. And sometimes we're trying to encourage a person and we say actually the wrong thing. Someone will say to you if you've lost a child or your husband or your wife, well there's a reason for everything.

What does that even mean? How is that supposed to help someone? How about this one, well whoever said life was fair, awesome, go away now. Someone actually said this to me, well you know what Greg, if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger.

You know I might kill you, okay, so I'm stronger so I'll kill you. No, not really. But you understand that we throw out these trite little sayings on understanding that sometimes they just need someone to say I'm so sorry, I'm praying for you. You remember when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he went first to the Garden of Gethsemane. And there he was in great anguish as he considered what was still ahead. Oh sure, the whipping, the crucifixion itself. But I think the most difficult thing Christ had to grapple with was the knowledge that he was going to have to bear all the sin of the world. Mark 14 says he took Peter, James, and John with him and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress and he said my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. I mean imagine this is Jesus. Jesus was filled with horror and deep distress and his soul was crushed with grief even to the point of death. What did he say to his disciples?

I could really use a sermon now. Does someone have a killer devo to lay on me? No, no, he says stay with me.

That's all he wanted. I could use a little companionship. Stay with me. Watch and pray.

They fell asleep. But Jesus just needed someone with him at the moment and that's what people often need so we need to weep with those that weep. But now this verse continues on. Rejoice with those that rejoice. Now actually I think that may be harder than weeping with those that weep. Something bad happens to someone you care about. You say I'm so sorry. I'm praying for you. I care about you.

And then they come back and they say no, everything's good. I got a good report. By the way, I just got a huge promotion.

I'm making five times the money that I was making last week. And you say oh praise God. What? You're like jealous.

You should have given me that position. Or maybe you and your spouse have been unable to have children and someone says oh guess what, my wife's pregnant. Oh great.

Or you're single and your friend just said guess what, I'm getting married. Oh wonderful. It's not so easy to rejoice with those that rejoice sometimes. But we're to weep with those that weep and we're to rejoice with those who rejoice. Such practical encouragement today here on A New Beginning.

Pastor Greg Laurie is presenting a message from Romans 12 called Handling Hardships and Difficult People. You know Pastor Greg, I did a search for movies that people had watched over and over and over again. And there were a lot of surprises on the list. Some of the movies are just so bad. They're either just silly movies or they're movies that are so offensive I wouldn't sit through them once. But there's a recent movie that people have seen in theaters repeatedly four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times. And I know they'd like to be able to see it in their own homes. And we're talking about... We're talking about the Jesus Revolution film.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, it exceeded everyone's expectations. I read an article just the other day with a headline, Why are so many people going to see Jesus Revolution? And the person writes and just asks this question, What is it about this film? And I think the reason it's connecting is it's not a big budget film like, you know, Top Gun or Avatar or something like that. It's a powerful story, beautifully told, amazing performances. But I think the reason it connects and resonates is because it's a true story of real people.

It shows the flaws of the people in the movie. And I think that people connect because there's so many storylines woven together. There's a story of a young Greg with his alcoholic mother and the struggles they had. There's a story of Pastor Chuck and Lonnie Frisbee, the hippie evangelist who came together opposite to Tracting, Nitro meeting Glycerin, Lenin meeting McCartney, Jobs meeting Wozniak, an explosive reaction, and something amazing happened. It's also the story of Greg and Kathy, and it's a love story.

This is what people may not know. This is a beautiful love story of two teenagers that fell in love. In fact, I want to play a scene.

Now, unfortunately, you can't see it, so use your imaginations. This is one of my favorite scenes in the film. So Greg and Kathy have conflicts, which is true in real life.

It shows us arguing with each other. And so they've broken up at this point. So Greg had gone to Kathy's father at this point in the story and asked for permission to marry his daughter, and Kathy's father said no, and Greg's disillusioned and discouraged, and then him and Kathy break up. But then Greg comes to his senses, and he realizes he loves Kathy, and he wants to marry her. So he goes to her house. Now, he had just baptized some people down at Pirate's Cove in Newport Beach, so he was wet when he walked into the house. He had friction with Kathy's dad up to this point, but now Kathy's dad has had a change of heart.

I'm giving away plot details of the movie here, folks. But Kathy's father has had a change of heart toward Greg because Kathy's father went and sat outside one of the services at Calvary Chapel and was moved by it. So Greg comes to the front door, and he knocks. Kathy's father answers, and now Greg has his encounter with Kathy where he's trying to put this relationship back together again.

Listen to this. Hey. Hi. Hi, Greg. Hi.

Good evening. Sorry to barge in so late. I, uh, I did not know how wet I was until just right now, and your hard-work floor is, oh, I'm so sorry.

And you're not wearing any shoes. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. You're right about that. But I just, I gotta tell you something. I've been really stupid lately. Obviously, you know that.

I'm sure you've heard. I'm so sorry that I pushed you away and I hurt you. It was so dumb. It was really dumb. Really dumb? It really was.

The dumbest. Yeah, but I wanted to ask you if you still mean what you said the other day about what you want with us. Because I got really big plans, Kathy. Hopes and dreams. I've got goals. And I want to do it with you.

Together, you and I. Because I get you. I need you.

I want you. And I... Love you. Yeah. Like, a lot. So what?

What is this? Is this your way of proposing to me? Oh, um... Um... Uh... What would you say if it was? I would say that if you ever get in the way of me and God, it's over between us. So is that your way of saying yes? Yes.

Ah, and that's true in real life. She said yes. Thank God for that. But Kathy and I in real life are going into our 50th year of marriage. Wow, congratulations. Well, thank you very much. And so, listen, it's a beautiful love story, among other things. It's a beautiful salvation story. It's a story of conflicts and resolution. It's a story of Jesus at work in the lives of so many people.

It's probably your story as well. So many people connect with different characters, different aspects of this film. And I want you to have your own copy of it so you can see that scene I just described as well as hear it. I'm offering to you for the first time the Jesus Revolution film on DVD.

Now, I know it's out there on streaming platforms, and maybe some of you have already seen it in a theater, or maybe you've watched it at home, but listen, the reason you want this DVD is so you can now watch it when you want to watch it and show it to who you want to show it to. And it has special bonus content, including a presentation of the gospel I did complete with a prayer where a person can accept Christ into their life. You can use this movie as an evangelistic outreach. And listen, kids love it.

Young people love it, especially the love story of Kathy and Greg. So get your own copy of the Jesus Revolution film. I'll send it to you for your gift of any size. Now, let me add that we had to pay more for this particular film than we normally would pay for a resource that we would offer you. So I'm gonna ask you to be extra generous in what you send to us here at Harvest so we can continue to teach the word of God and preach the gospel. So order your own copy of the Jesus Revolution film on DVD right now.

Yeah, that's right. And we can send it your way as soon as we hear from you. And we'll include the DVD along with a free streaming code. And thank you so much for your partnership that allows these daily studies to come your way each day. This film is a keeper, and we want to make sure you get one of the first copies on DVD. So call us today at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Do you carry some painful memories, memories of something someone said or did to you? Well, next time, Pastor Greg points out how to have that burden lifted. It's a message on the freedom that forgiveness offers. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.