Mercy for Difficult People | P. Julian Gamba

In this message, we learned that true spiritual maturity is not measured by how we treat good people, but by how we respond to difficult people.

We all have people in our lives who irritate us, disappoint us, or hurt us. But God calls us to respond with mercy, patience, and grace.

Through James 2:13, we learned:

“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

In this message we learned:

✨ Mercy looks beyond behavior.
 ✨ Hurt people often hurt other people.
 ✨ Mercy refuses to live offended.
 ✨ True strength is learning to control our emotions.
 ✨ We are called to extend the same grace we have received from God.
 ✨ Mercy refuses gossip and unnecessary conflict.
 ✨ Jesus is our model of mercy.

👉 Mercy forgives faster, speaks less, loves more, and responds like Jesus.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Mission Orlando's podcast. We hope that through this word you will get closer to Jesus. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you new messages every week. Have a blessed day.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Amen. Amen. So this whole month we've been talking about the miracle of mercy. So turn it to the person next to you and say the miracle of mercy. And as as promised last week, today we're gonna talk about mercy for difficult people. Okay, so this is not for you, it's for someone else. Mercy for difficult people. And I want to invite you to go to James chapter 2, verse 13. James chapter 2, verse 13. It says, Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. But before I go ahead, I found something that it's supposed to be funny, but I need your help. Okay? So smile to the person next to you, come on, practice, pretend, help me out, pretend this is funny, okay? Thank you. One person helping. Okay, so two hunters in the woods, and suddenly one of them collapses. He he doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are a little glassy. Then the other hunter he gets his phone out and he calls 911. When he calls 911, he says, My friend is dead. What can I do? He screamed, and the operator on the other side he said, Well, first, calm down, I can help you. First, make sure he's really dead. So there's a silence. He says, Okay. And a gunshot in the back. Boom. Then he gets the phone back and he says, Okay, now what? Okay. Mercy is love in action. Mercy is love in action. So we we all have difficult people in our life, people who probably like offend us or disappoint us, people that are complicated, critical, negative, or simply people that are hard to love. Do we have some people that are hard to love? But you know, let me be honest. Sometimes the greatest miracle is not healing the sick, but keeping your patience with certain people. Sometimes that's the biggest miracle that we need to have is to control our temper, our character, to keep our patience in the middle of a difficult situation. So Jesus in Matthew 5, 7, he said, Blessed are the merciful. Because true spiritual maturity sometimes is not measured by how we treat good people, but how we treat difficult people. That's how we measure our uh growth and our maturity in Christ. So very few people know how to respond to difficult people. We all know how to respond to like good people. When they're nice to you, you you can say, like, oh, thank you, and you smile back. But when you know difficult moments arise, that's when our true character is tested. So I found this phrase that I've found so true. Those who do not master their emotions end up being mastered by them. So that that's the that's the the true challenge is to master our emotion and to allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our uh character, of our temper. Because we all have one, right? Turn to a person next to you and say, you have one. You have a temper. So I'm gonna go briefly, really fast, going through a couple of different things that I want to mention today, and then I want to finish with uh something, a different take. So, number one, mercy looks beyond the behavior, and and we talked about this last week too. We when when we have mercy, when we're merciful, we look beyond the behavior. Because you know, sometimes people tend to be difficult. For me, like the toughest thing in my patience is when I'm making a line and I have a Colombian right behind me. You only know, you know, if you're Colombian, you know. Because here in America, you you do the line in a normal way, there's a separation for like two feet, right? Between the sometimes you actually have to ask, is this the line? Because people are like so far away. But then you go to South America, you go to Colombia, and there's no line, there's no space, there's no space, it's just so crowded. So the person, if you move a little bit, the line moves a little bit, the person behind you, they tell you, like, hey, the line moved. It's like, yeah, one inch. Where do you want me to go? So for me, that's a really that's a real test of my patience. Like my wife knows. Leaving the plane when when you exit the plane here in America is so cool. Everyone just sits, they they wait for their turn. They the person in the first row knows that he's leaving first. And if you're in the last row, they know they're leaving last. In Colombia, I think that they have faith. You land, and the person in the last road, road 34, he gets his bag, he's ready to leave. Like you have a whole bunch of people to that you have to wait for, right? So that's a real test of my patience. Oh my goodness. When that happens, my wife knows and she starts praying for me. And we we need to understand that people have their own life, their own agenda, and sometimes it's not that they wanna maybe react or be mean or say hurtful things, it's because they're uh living their own reality, and we gotta extend grace. That's that's mercy when we extend grace to whatever it is that people are going through. So Proverbs 19:11, it says, a person's wisdom yields patience, it's to one's glory to overlook an offense. So it is something that to admire when you're able to overlook an offense. And it's so hard to let go of an offense when you're driving and someone cuts you off. It's sometimes it's hard to just you know let go. But in reality, the Bible says here that it is to someone's glory. That's how you you yourself are building character, and that's how you can give glory to God too, by manifesting the Holy Spirit through you. So, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, it says, Be patient with everyone. Be patient with everyone. Turn to the person next to you and say, Be patient with everyone, especially with me. So before reacting, ask yourself, before reacting, because it's so easy to just react, but before reacting, ask yourself these three questions. Number one, what battle might this person be fighting? What is he going through? Sometimes, you know, uh, in if in the last few months I don't say hi to you in the last two months. If I don't say hi to you, please have some grace. As I said, I've been going through this thing, I've been taking this medicine, and it's uh it's a little difficult. But that has taken me to understand maybe other people are going through a battle, and that's why they're reacting like that. So I'm gonna ask myself that. Second, what pain might they be hiding? And three, what pressure are they living under? So we we're gonna kind of like put ourselves in the other person's shoes. Number two, mercy, and this is probably the main one. Mercy refuses to live offended. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you refuse to live a life that is offended. You you refuse to live as an offended person, as a victim of other people's uh reactions. You take control and you forgive and you don't allow the enemy to take control of your life. Proverbs 16:32, it says, Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Interesting. So it is it is better to take control of your own character than to take control of uh a whole entire city. So many people have so many things, but they don't have control over their own emotions. And here the Bible says it is more valuable, it is more pressure, more precious to take control of our own emotions. So this is the the key thought here. The true power is not controlling other people, it's controlling ourselves. So we have something called the Holy Spirit. We have a person that is with us right now, and he can help us when we feel weak. If maybe you you you have a strong temper, I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hand. We all know who you are. Sometimes it's hard to you know take control of your emotions, but you can ask the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will come upon you and he will transform your life. I could say this for you know as a testimony for my dad. Before getting to know Jesus, he he his temper was bad, he was difficult, he's very difficult, and all because he had a very tough, very tough childhood growing up, he never received a gift. It was very hard for him, so he was just reflecting on what he received, and he was always super mean, he was always grumpy, but then he met Jesus, then the Holy Spirit started changing something inside of him, and then he became the happiest person on earth just because the Holy Spirit was able to transform. So let me tell you: the Holy Spirit is with you, and he will change your character into a blessing. Amen. Praise Jesus, praise Jesus. So this is a decision that you make. When you live offended, you're giving other people control over your emotions. So I know there are difficult people, I know we all deal with people that are hard to love, but don't allow other people to control your emotions. Determine yourself to live a life that is not offended. So turn to the person next to you and say, tell them, I'm not gonna live offended. I make the decision to forgive. Number three, mercy gives grace to people. Mercy gives grace to people. Ephesians 4 2, it says, be humble and gentle, be patient with each other, make allowance for each other's faults because of your love. So we all know we have difficult people in our lives, and we all know that they're gonna probably respond the same way. Maybe it's a family member that it's always trying to uh put you down or say, you know, the same mean things. If you know that's gonna happen, then just give grace to that person because that person maybe is not gonna change. Sometimes we react in order to produce or induce a change in that person. But sometimes we gotta realize that it is not our job to change people, but it is our job to change ourselves. It is our responsibility to allow the Holy Spirit to change us, and that example would reflect into other people. Sometimes people will not change because of our advice. I I don't know if you have kids, you know this. I don't know how many of you I mentioned this last week. We say things in desperate moments, expecting desperate changes. Like you know, I mentioned my mom saying, one day I will leave, remember? Another one that my mom will do was like, you know what, I'm gonna leave. I'm never coming back. It will be like, uh, and then she will let she leave, but just to like you know, go get something and come back. And I remember me and my brothers were like, Oh my mom left.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Oh my gosh, it's because we're all bad and we're doing this again.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

And uh, yeah, Latino mom. The Americans are like, What? They do that, yeah. They do that. We we do that. It's not it's not for real. They say they leave they're gonna leave, but they they come back. Um so she came back 30 minutes, 20 minutes later. And and me and my brothers were, you know, we'll always say the same thing. We're like, oh my gosh, we're so bad. Okay, we're never gonna do it again. But then again, we'll we'll do it again, and she did that in order to cause a change in in us, but the real change came when she allowed the Holy Spirit to come upon her, and her example, her love changed us. So let me tell you, sometimes you cannot change people, but you can always change yourself and allow that the love of God to change other people through you. Number four, and this is key: mercy refuses to gossip. Say amen. Mercy refuses to gossip. I know when you're hurt or when someone does something to you, the first thing we want to do is tell others, number two, exaggerate. How many extroverts we have here? I am an extrovert, so when I tell a story, you you gotta add some emotions to it. You know, you gotta add some edge to it. So you fix it a little, a little bit here, a little bit there. You wanna probably get it out. You know, so sometimes people say, like, oh, I I've been going through this with this person. I just need to vent, I just need to talk to someone about it. So make sure that you're not gossiping because gossip is the total opposite of what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches us that if we have something with someone, we should go to that person and tell them, hey, this was not okay. I didn't like this. So we need to go first to that person, and then if it doesn't get resolved, we go to a third person who has the authority to fix it. So sometimes we see it in the family, you know, the kids complaining about each other and saying to the parents, and then the parents were we end up with this and we don't know what to do. And if we go one way, they say, Oh, it's because he's your favorite, and if we go the other way. But gossip is keeping those things to ourselves and giving the burden to God, giving probably like that pain, giving that hurt, giving it to Jesus because he's the only one that can do something about it. So do not gossip. Proverbs 17:9 says, Whoever will foster love covers an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. So you can be the one who unites friends, you can be the one who brings people together. So don't gossip, don't allow gossip in your life. And I want to finish with this. And it is mercy does not enter every argument. Today we feel that we can have an opinion about anything. Today we feel like that we are entitled to share our opinion. If we approve or disapprove this person or that person, if if we if we're the the judge over every person, but the reality is that not every battle is ours. We gotta choose our battles, and that's why again I wanna finish by saying the most difficult person. I wanna, and this is the little twist I wanted to give you. We all have difficult people in our life. Do you have difficult people in your life? Is the difficult person now the difficult person here next to you? No, I'm just kidding. We all have difficult people, but the most difficult person in my life is here this morning. The most difficult person in your life is here too, and it's yourself, it's me. I am the most difficult person because it's difficult to take control of my character, of my emotions, of my mind, of my words when things are not going the way I want to. But you can thank, thank God we have the Holy Spirit. Thank God today we have the Holy Spirit who can help us in our weakness. And as the Bible says, it says, May the weak say, I am strong. Maybe you know it's been difficult for you, you know, your your character. Some sometimes it's it's just out of our control. But let me tell you, we have a helper, we have the Holy Spirit, and He will take control of your character so you can enjoy your life and live a life according to Christ. Amen. Praise Jesus. So there's a book that I read a long time ago. It's called uh the temperate. Ah, now it went away. What is it? Yeah, some yeah. Ah, it just went away from me. Character controlled by the spirit. Let's call it like that. Let's call it that. Character controlled by the spirit. So in in that book, it's it's uh the author is Tim Lahaye. You can look it up, you you'll find it. It's a very, very good book. So he's a Christian scientist, and he came up with this theory of four main different temperaments, like characters. So I'm gonna read the four of them. So the first one is the sanguine, which is the more outgoing, more so that one talks first, thinks later, loves always. How many sanguines here? The second one is the choleric, which is the uh is strong to born to lead, driven to conquer, easily gets irritated, melancholic, feels deeply, thinks carefully, seeks perfection. Any melancholics here? Bless them in the name of Jesus, and then phlegmatic, the phlegmatic, it's calm under pressure, peace in every storm. Those those people that anyone like that? Like everything could go wrong, and they're like, no worries at all. I'm like, wow, that's impressive. I I want to be like that. So uh we all have a little bit of the four of them, we all have the four of them, but usually there are one or two that are more dominant in our in our lives. So the challenge is look into it, look into it, and ask the Holy Spirit, how can I how can you take control of my emotions, of my temper? Maybe you know, as my dad, he he was always like mad, he was yelling at us, but then the Holy Spirit came and he changed, he completely changed, and after that, he started giving us love. He was patient, he was kind with his words because that's what that's what the Lord does, that's what Jesus does, that's what the Holy Spirit does when he enters a person. So let me tell you, the Holy Spirit could take control of your character, of your family, could take control of your emotions, and you're not gonna be controlled by an emotion or by anger or by fear or by sadness. You're gonna be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit would lead you always correctly. Amen. Amen. Amen. I want to invite you to stand and Lord, thank you for this opportunity that we have to come before you. And today, in your own words, I want to invite you to just invite the Holy Spirit to come into your life and say, Holy Spirit, take control of my emotions, take control of my mind, take control of my thoughts, take control of my words. Lord, I don't want to be dominated by an emotion by other people. I want to be I want to be led by you, Holy Spirit, because we know that you always have the best for us, and today I surrender my life, I surrender my heart, I surrender my mind, Lord. Help me in my weakness. Help us, Lord, in our weakness. If sometimes we're weak with our character, if sometimes we get angry, we get stressed, Lord. Today we ask for the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Amen and amen. Amen. Praise Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

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