Handling Hardship & Difficult People | Relief From Our Burdens

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Sign up at harvest.org. Is there someone you can think of right now that has hurt you? It's time to forgive that person. We can carry those wounds around with us forever.

That's certainly our choice. But today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that weight only adds to our pain. Here's the reason you forgive, so you don't have to live in a prison of bitterness and anger.

You need to let it go, because when you forgive someone, you set a prisoner free yourself. You're the one that will be free. You might be surprised to know that we put a man on the moon before anyone ever invented a suitcase with wheels. In the 60s, everyone grabbed the handle and lifted.

But in the 70s, roller bags emerged and people thought, why carry the load when you don't have to? But so many of us are carrying the burden of long ago offenses when we don't have to. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us find relief. We'll see the path forward is outlined clearly in the Bible. Why don't you grab your Bible. Turn to Romans chapter 12.

The title of my message is, Handling Hardship in Difficult People. Maybe you felt as though the whole world is 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? And what should our relationship to government be as followers of Jesus Christ?

Do we submit to its authority no matter what government tells us to do? Well there's answer to these questions and more in the text before us are 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.

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. 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. Point number two if you're taking notes weep with those who weep. 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. Point number three try to get along with people as much as it's possible. Try to get along with people as much as it's possible. Verse 18 if it is possible as much as it depends on you live peaceably with all men.

You might underline if it's possible. You know why? Some people are impossible to get along with. They just are. They're cantankerous. They're mean. They always have to have their nemesis.

Their adversary. That's just the way they're kind of wired and you try to resolve a problem with them. You try to diffuse the tension with them and it escalates and they're always in a fight over something. Well do what you can do but it's not always possible.

At least do your best to try to get along with people. Point number four when you're hurt or avenged let God settle the score not you. When you're hurt or wronged let God settle the score not you. Verse 19 beloved do not avenge yourselves but rather give place to wrath for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. Our job is to forgive.

God's job is to avenge. See when someone hits us we want to hit back. If someone hurts us we want to hurt them. We want to pay back.

We want to settle the score. You say I don't get mad I get even. Well if you're a Christian that's not the way you should live. Don't avenge yourself. God says vengeance is mine. I'll repay sayeth the Lord.

Bless your enemies. And listen if anybody knew what it was like to be mistreated it was the apostle Paul. He was beaten imprisoned even stone in love for dead. I would say no other leader in the first century suffered more than him. Yet it's Paul that says to us never pay back evil to anyone.

So it's no small thing. And he modeled this as well. Remember when he was arrested with Silas for preaching the gospel. So this Roman jailer was especially cruel.

He beat Silas and Paul. Tore their backs open with a whip. Then he fastened their feet in stocks and put them in the deep recesses of this filthy horrible dungeon. And then we read at midnight Paul and Silas began to sing praises to God. You might say they brought the house down because an earthquake came and literally the walls shook. And this jailer realized he was he was dead because back in those days if you lost your prisoners you would be executed by the Romans.

Maybe even your family would be executed. So he pulls out his short Roman sword. He's getting ready to thrust it into his chest. And Paul says wait wait wait. Don't kill yourself.

We're all still here. And that Roman jailer so hardened by his own sin previously gets down on his knees and he says to Paul and Silas Sirs tell me how can I be saved. Now Paul could have said go ahead and kill yourself you dog after what you did to us. You deserve it.

Now Paul extended grace to this man. Is there someone you can think of right now that has hurt you. Maybe it's a parent. It could be a mother, a father. It could be a child, an uncle, an aunt. Some other person that has caused you great pain.

And you've carried this weight of this pain from your childhood into your adulthood and it affects you to this very day. And I'm saying to you it's time to forgive that person. You say Greg you don't know what you're talking about. Actually I do because I've had a lot of people do a lot of crazy things to me over the years.

And trust me I've had to apply this principle. But even more than what I've done or haven't done the Bible says you've been forgiven in Christ therefore you should forgive other people. You say but Greg they don't deserve it. Well do you deserve it? No you don't. And here's the reason you forgive. So you don't have to live in a prison of bitterness and anger. You let it go.

And the immortal words of Frozen. Let it go. Let it go.

It's heating you up inside. It's ruining you. Maybe you're even passing that on to your children or to other people. You need to let it go because when you forgive someone you set a prisoner free yourself.

You're the one that will be free. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We continue to hear from so many who've been touched by Pastor Greg's film Jesus Revolution. My husband and I took my 86 year old father to see the movie. Before it started I handed him some tissue. He asked why and I told him he would probably get emotional during the movie because that was the era of his salvation when most of our family was saved.

Dad chuckled at me but when the movie was over he had used up all the tissue. Thank you Greg for a great movie. What an encouragement to hear how the Jesus Revolution film continues to impact lives. Do you have a comment to share with Pastor Greg? If so email him greg at harvest dot org. That's greg at harvest dot o-r-g. Well Pastor Greg is offering some very practical counsel today in his message from Romans 12 called handling hardship and difficult people. Let's continue.

Point number five. Submit to the power of government and pray for them. This is not popular today but this is what the Bible says. Look at Romans 13 verse 1. Everyone must submit to governing authorities for all authority comes from God and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. Listen God establishes governments and those that are in power, presidents, vice presidents, senators, congressmen, governors, mayors, whatever that role is they've been placed there by God. Listen if you voted for them or not and you're commanded in Scripture to pray for them.

Now listen. We are living in really politically charged times right now. And I think when we isolate and allow ourselves to become so partisan in the way we view things we are not thinking like Christians. Don't think like a political pundit. Think like a follower of Jesus Christ.

We are part of a bigger and more important kingdom than even the United States of America. We should seek to influence everyone we come into contact with with the message of the gospel including those who are in positions of power. But what if government asks us to do something that is contrary to what the Bible says? You say yeah like paying taxes. I don't think it's biblical to pay taxes.

All right. You're going to have a prison ministry soon but you're going to be an inmate. So if that's what you feel called to do more power to you on that. Should a Christian pay taxes?

Very simple answer. Verse seven. Pay your taxes.

There you go. And government fees to those who collect them and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. Even Jesus was asked this question. Someone said to him should we pay taxes to Caesar. He said someone give me a coin. So a coin was given to him and on that coin is the image of Caesar much like we would have Lincoln or Washington on our coins.

He says whose image is on this coin. They said Caesar. He said all right give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and give to God that which belongs to God. But what if the government passed a law tomorrow that it was no longer legal for you to pray publicly. Would you still pray? Well this very thing happened to Daniel the prophet.

And this was a little plot that was hatched by some people that hated him. And they knew he had a habit of praying every day openly. So they got King Darius to unwittingly sign a decree that no one could pray to any god except him for a period of 40 days.

And it became a law. No more praying unless your prayer is to the king. So what did Daniel do. Go into hiding. Hide his prayers. No he prayed like you always did. He was arrested.

You know the story. Thrown into a den of lions preserved by the Lord. And then the people that hatched the plot they ended up being fed of the lions and they were eaten.

They made a nice lunch for the lions. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told to bow down before a golden image and worship it. They refused. They were sent into a fiery furnace. God preserved them. The apostles were told you can't preach anymore by the religious authorities.

And their response is very straightforward. They said in response to that we must obey God and not men. So look we still have the freedom in America to pray openly. Let's take advantage of that freedom. We still have the freedom in America to assemble like we are right now without fear of authorities coming in and arresting us. Let's enjoy this freedom and not take it for granted. We still have the freedom in America to openly proclaim the gospel on the airwaves, in stadiums, on street corners.

Wherever you want to do it. Let's take full advantage of that freedom and not even for a moment take for granted the great privileges we have in the United States of America. And I'm here today to announce my candidacy for the, not kidding. Sounds like I'm making a political speech. I'm not. That's the last job I'd ever want.

Not that anyone would elect me but I'm just saying that is a tough job. But let me bring this to a close now and say this in closing. We've talked about suffering and being mistreated. No one was more mistreated than Jesus Christ himself. Betrayed by one of his own. Largely abandoned by his own disciples.

Treated horribly by the religious and the Roman authorities. Beaten, scourged and nailed to a cross. Why did he go with that plan?

He could have gotten out of it at any moment. Peter wanted to save him with his sword. Jesus said put the sword away. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

By the way with one word to heaven I could have legions of angels come and deliver me right now. Jesus could have got out of that situation so fast but he went through with it. No one took his life from him.

He laid it down. I quoted that verse earlier. Greater love has no man than this than he laid on his life for his friends. Jesus died willingly.

Why? Because he knew that was the only way to satisfy the righteous demands of God the father that we've all sinned against. He died in our place on the cross.

He died as a substitute for us. Why did he do it though? The answer is found in the book of Hebrews that says for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame and now he is set down on the right hand of God. The joy set before him.

What was that? It was the knowledge that you would be a believer. That I would be a believer. That we would be believers. That we would come to faith in him and have our eternal addresses changed and because of that he went through with it and died in our place and rose again from the dead.

And Jesus who did all of that stands at the door of your life right now and he knocks and he says if you'll hear my voice and open the door I'll come in. Maybe some of you are just living a life that is so sad. You sort of followed in the footsteps maybe of your parents and bad things have been passed on from that generation to your generation. And you find yourself in the process of passing them on to the next generation.

Your children or grandchildren. You are bitter. You are angry. You are trapped in some addiction. You are carrying around all this hatred toward others. This bitterness.

Don't you want to put that behind you? You can become a new person in Christ. Old things passed away.

Everything becoming fresh and new. You say but Greg you don't know what my life has been like. I was dealt a bad hand.

Well maybe you were okay. But God can make all things new. He can make all things new for you. But you must come with your broken life. With the mistakes you've made. With the sins you've committed and say God I'm sorry for that and I need a fresh start. I need a new beginning.

I need a relationship with you. And I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Do some of you need to do that right now?

If so I would like to give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ and have all of your sins forgiven and forgotten. Imagine that. Forgiven and forgotten all.

Just a slate is clean. Everything is gone. Just like that.

God can do that. You know when you are in a document on your computer and you say I don't want this anymore and you highlight the text. You hit delete. Boom it is gone. Where does it go?

Nobody knows. It goes to the same place those single socks go that we all lose. Right there it is gone. Gone somewhere. Who cares where it is gone. It is gone. That is what God will do with your sin.

He will remove it. But you must say I believe Jesus died for me and I want to follow Him and know Him. You can do that right now. I am going to give you an opportunity to ask Christ to come into your life as we close in prayer. Let's all bow our heads and everybody praying with me please. Father I pray now for everyone here and also everybody listening and watching wherever they may be I pray that your Holy Spirit will speak to them and show them their need for Jesus and help them to come to you and believe right here right now. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. And if you would like to make that kind of change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will help you do that in just a moment before we wrap up today here on New Beginning. Well we're so pleased to be able to make available the DVD of the new movie Jesus Revolution.

So many folks have asked about that. And Pastor Greg I saw a comment on social media I wanted to read to you. This person says, okay so this guy came to our church. Second time here, friend led him to the Lord. When the guy was asked how he ended up at our church he said, I watched the Jesus Revolution preview. She says, he just watched the preview and he came to church and got saved. That sort of speaks to how extraordinary this movie is. And then I saw another Instagram post not long after and the person said, I'm waiting for it to come out on DVD. I will watch it until I'm sick of it.

Well that person's day is finally here, is it not? Yes, watch it till you're sick of it. That's a great way to promote it. I would encourage you to get other people to watch it with you. You know when I watch this movie with other people it's a whole different experience. You know I know when they're gonna laugh.

I know when they might tear up a little bit. I know what the most powerful scenes of the film are having seen in it many times. You know I was there, well first of all I live my life, okay so that was that. Then John Irwin, the director who also wrote the screenplay sent me the first draft of the script. Then I watched them film it and then I watched them edit it and score it, that is add music, and then edit it some more and some more and then finally the version and I've seen it with many many people, many audiences and it's just really exciting to watch people watch it. That's my joy now, watching people watch it and seeing how it impacts them.

We're so thrilled with this beautiful film that God has given to us. I could have never done this on my own. You know people have said, Greg why did you make a film about yourself?

Well actually I didn't. John Irwin came to me with this idea of wanting to make a movie about the Jesus movement and he had a copy of that Time magazine with the psychedelic image of Jesus on the cover where the words Jesus revolution on it. He said I want to make a movie about this and I said great. I told him everything I knew, everything I experienced and then I was really surprised when he came to me with the first draft of the screenplay and he had woven my life, my wife, Kathy, her life, the life of pastor Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee, and others into this narrative.

I didn't say make it about me, I just said let me help you with things I know from that time, but this is the way he envisioned it. So I'm honored, humbled by the fact that my story can inspire other people, but we want you to get a copy for yourself and it's available now on DVD. Now I know it's out there on streaming platforms and maybe you've already watched it, but listen I'll send you this DVD for your gift of any size and there's some extras here. Bonus content is on this DVD including a special message I shot on the beach as the sun was setting here in Southern California.

I pick up where the movie leaves off and I share the gospel, tell a person now to come to Christ, and even pray a prayer that they can pray. So you can order our special edition of the Jesus revolution film with all of this extra content and I'll send it to you for your gift of any size. Now listen we have to pay more for this resource than we normally pay so I'm going to ask our listeners to be extra generous when they order their copy of Jesus revolution and you can show it again and again and again and I know it will be a blessing to you and even the tool that may bring people you know to Christ. Yeah that's right so let us send you a copy of Jesus revolution on DVD and we'll also include a free streaming code. Get in touch with us today by calling 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg you've mentioned how someone can become a Christian with just a simple prayer. Yeah. Maybe somebody would like to do that right now.

Could you help them with that? Sure I'd love to a simple prayer is right in fact I would like to just pray a prayer and I would ask you to pray it after me right now. Pray these words Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I also know that you are the savior because you died on the cross for my sin and you rose again from the dead.

Jesus come into my life and forgive me of every sin I've ever committed. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer Lord and I pray all of this in Jesus name.

Amen. If you just prayed that prayer and meant it I want you to know on the authority of scripture God almighty has heard your prayer and he will answer this prayer. You are now a newly minted child of God so congratulations you've made the right decision and welcome to the family of God. I want to send you a special gift because of that prayer you've just prayed it's called the New Believers Growth Packet and in it is a copy of the New Testament in a very understandable translation called the New Living Translation.

It also is filled with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you've made to follow Christ and there's some other outstanding materials in this little packet I'll send you as well so order your copy today and let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah and to get that New Believers Growth Packet just get in touch and we'll be glad to send it right out it's free of charge you could call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click on know God. Hey everybody what are you doing this weekend? I'd like to hang out with you at Harvest at Home. When is Harvest at Home? It is a time of worship and Bible study exclusively designed for people that are viewing in from all over the place so you can be a part of our extended congregation at Harvest at Home. Join us this weekend Saturday and Sunday for Harvest at Home at harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg points out how we can be alert and prepared for the Lord's return. More insight from our study in the book of Romans. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding podcast was made possible by Harvest Partners helping people everywhere know God. Learn how to become a Harvest Partner, sign up for daily devotions and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org.