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Our Future Is in God's Hands | Setting Ourselves Free

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
December 11, 2024 3:00 am

Our Future Is in God's Hands | Setting Ourselves Free

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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December 11, 2024 3:00 am

We sometimes think that 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.

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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.

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Pastor Greg Laurie recommends a great film about the 40th President of the United States. We have a movie that's going to tell you the story of this man who changed the world. Ronald Reagan was a man who believed in Jesus Christ. You're going to be inspired by it in this brand-new film starring Dennis Quaid. It's called Reagan, and it's our gift to you for your gift of any size.

Available on DVD and digital download at harvest.org. Sometimes the ones you hope 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 hurt 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. 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 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 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. The Bible says it's appointed unto a man wants 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. There's 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 the little children with the lyrics, David, David, Melech, Israel, hi, hi, Vekion, 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 there 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 gonna fight me. No one would take him on until David arrived on the 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 that 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 Saul 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. We love to hear stories of how lives have been changed through Pastor Greg's teaching like this one. I was just listening to the pastor this morning talking about I can do all things through Christ with strength in me which is crazy you cannot say that about anything else and I was a drug addict for 10 plus years and I prayed many days for God to help me and get me through this and it wasn't my timing it was God's timing and it was perfect and I'm almost two years sober today and I got baptized July 14th. You can do all things through Christ and he will strengthen you. I believe that if you're in trouble and you need help and you honestly cry and pray after God and ask Jesus to come into your heart you will change for the better you'll be content you'll love life you'll love God you'll love your friends have a good day God bless you love you.

Do you have a story to share? If so why not call us and give us all the details. Here's the number 1-866-871-1144.

It's a special number for this purpose 866-871-1144. 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 Kelia and the farmers had just harvested their crops and the Philistines stole their crops and so these farmers of Kelia 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 we're 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.

Again 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 300 multiplies to 600. 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 them 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 is 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 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 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 in 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 is 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 that his daughter had died.

And Chuck handled it so beautifully. I remember I remember he said, you know David, 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 gave to our Harvest Maui Relief Fund. And we were able to help them with food and with clothing and with house payments and and the basic necessities of life.

So that'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 web page that's called knowgod.org. K-n-o-w-g-o-d dot o-r-g. 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 let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation. It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right Pastor Greg? Yeah it's really true Dave and I believe it's so important because you know the gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives because when a person believes in Jesus according to scripture they pass from darkness to light from the power of Satan to the power of God and then of course that changes the course of their future.

That impacts their children and their children's children. The gospel changes everything and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord. Also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about I encourage you to make a financial investment in A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries. Yeah that's right and we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.

It can make a real difference not just for today or this week but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well next time good encouragement for anybody with problems. Know anyone with problems? Pastor Greg points to Good Reassurance from Psalm 31. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible feature, Greg Laurie.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-11 05:37:12 / 2024-12-11 05:46:12 / 9

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