A New Beginning

Guest (Male): Doubt can erode our faith. Pastor Greg Laurie says better to take our doubts to God and let him set us straight.

Greg Laurie: Everyone deals with doubt in some way, shape, or form in their life. Like when tragedy hits and we ask why. When a child dies or a loved one gets cancer, we ask why. We find ourselves interpreting God in the light of the tragedy instead of the other way around.

Guest (Male): Bad things do happen, even to God's children. We see it in the Bible. Job's tragedies were mind-boggling. Joseph was sold into slavery by his own brothers. The disciples faced persecution and even martyrdom for their faith.

When we face challenges, how do we keep that from turning to doubt? Pastor Greg Laurie answers that today on A New Beginning from a study in Matthew. We'll see how doubt can often be a pathway that leads to real growth and a stronger faith.

Greg Laurie: We're starting a brand new series today and the title of it is Jesus and You, Jesus and You. I heard a story about a father and son that walked into a hardware store. There was a big old jar full of candy sitting out there on the counter.

The owner of the store said to the little boy, "Son, why don't you grab yourself a handful of candy? It's free." The little boy just looked up at his father. The store owner said, "Son, did you hear what I said? I said grab a handful of candy. It's free."

Again, the little boy looks up at his father. Finally, the dad reaches in, grabs a handful of candy, and they're walking out of the hardware store. The dad asks his boy, "Son, why didn't you grab that handful of candy? It was free." The little guy said to his dad, "Because Dad, your hand is bigger than mine." I like that.

That to me is a picture of God. Some people envision God as being stingy or cheap or wanting to withhold his blessings, but as we read the Bible, we find the opposite is the case. God loves to lavish his blessings on us. He wants to bless us even more than we want to be blessed.

I think it's an amazing thing that of all of the pictures Jesus could have chosen to show us what God is like, he chose to portray God as a loving father in what we call the parable of the prodigal son. That son of the father went out and drug the family name through the gutter and did all kinds of things he shouldn't have done.

Yet when he came to his senses and returned home, Jesus portrays his dad as someone who missed his son and ran to him and threw his arms around him and forgave him. That was a picture from Christ of God himself.

You want to know what God is like. Jesus just told you. He's like a loving heavenly father that longs for relationship and friendship with us. Not because he needs us. God doesn't need us. We have nothing to offer him that he is lacking, but he does it because we need him.

Because he loves us. That is why Jesus came. Jesus was God with skin on. Jesus was not just a good man; he was indeed the God-man. Jesus was God spelling himself out in language we could understand. God had a face. God came near.

There's never been anyone who has ever walked this earth more influential than Jesus Christ. We may gauge a person's influence by how many followers they have on social media or when someone is honored at an event, they're chosen to be the man or the woman of the year.

Every December, Time Magazine releases an issue pointing out who they consider to be the person of the year. Then every 10 years, they have the person of the decade. But there's only one person that divides human history in half, and that's Jesus Christ. That's how significant he is.

The name of Jesus is the most powerful in all of the universe. If you don't believe me, just say his name out loud in a crowded room. You'll get an immediate reaction. It's the name that is above all names. There's never been anyone like him before.

People want to know more about Jesus. 77% of American teenagers in a recent survey said they want to know more about Jesus. Three-quarters of millennials say they're searching for a sense of purpose in life. I go back to my own childhood.

As a young boy, I always had this fascination with Jesus. My mother was living her wild life, getting married and divorced and moving in with all kinds of guys in between. She left me with my grandparents for a period of time.

Both of my grandparents were from Arkansas. They were also from another century, but they were great grandparents and it was a very stable time of my life. I remember as a little boy sitting in the front room of my grandparents' home and there was a portrait of Jesus hanging on the wall.

You've probably seen this portrait before. As a little boy, I would just stare at that image of Jesus. It fascinated me. It interested me. I wished I could have known him, but I regarded him as obviously a historical figure from a long time ago.

I remember I went to a movie. Remember that movie called Ben-Hur with Charlton Heston? That's still I think one of the greatest movies and one of the greatest depictions of Christ. There's a scene in that movie where they show the crucifixion of Christ.

I remember as a young man, I was probably around 17, maybe 16, and I was watching this movie where they were doing a revival showing of it in a theater. It was actually made, I think, in the '50s. I'm watching this in the '70s and I was deeply moved by the crucifixion scene of Jesus in Ben-Hur.

They never showed the face of Jesus in the movie, so you just see the reaction of Ben-Hur as he looks in the face of Christ. That moved me deeply. I remember coming out of that theater and some guy walks by from my high school, and I knew him as one of those crazy Jesus freaks.

He said to me, "Hey man, Jesus loves you," and he kept walking. Somehow at that moment in my little 17-year-old brain, I made a connection between historical Jesus or cinema Jesus and real Jesus. In other words, this guy had a relationship with Christ right now, causing me to ask the question: could I have a relationship with him?

That was a seed sown in my heart that eventually broke ground. Most of you have heard my story before, but Jesus then entered my world. I love the way that Jesus always had time for individuals. As you look at him in the gospels, you see him taking time for people from the most varied backgrounds.

He's in the city of Jericho and he stops suddenly, looks up in a tree and a little guy named Zacchaeus had climbed up there to get a better view of what was going on and more specifically a better view of Jesus. Jesus singles him out and says, "Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house for lunch."

We see him with that woman at the well getting water at 12 noon because no one wanted to have anything to do with her. Jesus takes time for her and opens up the truth of eternity for her. Then you see him in the previous chapter with the religious man Nicodemus.

You couldn't have two people any more different than each other than Nicodemus, the religious man, and the woman at the well. Then you see him with so many other people, with the little children even, opening his arms to them while the disciples were trying to drive them away.

But the first person I want to look at in this series, Jesus and You, is the cousin of Christ. We know him best as John the Baptist.

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Guest (Male): Well, Pastor Greg is launching a new series today called Jesus and You and continues with some insights about Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist.

Greg Laurie: John the Baptist recognized Jesus before either one of them was even born. Because they were both in the wombs of their mothers. John in the womb of Elizabeth, Jesus in the womb of Mary. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, John the Baptist, not born yet but very alive and already full of that unique personality that he had, the Bible says leaped in the womb.

So there was an immediate connection. Even the story of John is quite a miraculous story. Not on the level of Christ who was supernaturally conceived in the womb of a virgin, but John's parents were elderly, far past the age of bearing a child.

The angel Gabriel came and announced to them that they were going to have a son and his name would be John. He would be a prophet of the Most High and he would prepare the way of the Lord. When John emerged on the scene and began his preaching ministry, it was so significant many thought that he actually was the Messiah.

The ancient historian Josephus actually wrote more about John than he did about Jesus. John was a rockstar. John was a very popular figure. He would have had more followers on Instagram than Jesus. He had a short-lived ministry because his job was just to enter the scene and get the attention of the people.

He was hard to miss. He dressed in animal skins. His diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. He would have been the guy when you go out to order in a restaurant that would be problematic. There's always one of those people. "Excuse me, I'm lactose intolerant," and they have all these issues and they want to substitute everything for everything.

John would say, "Yeah, you got any locusts and wild honey here in this restaurant?" So you couldn't miss John. He wasn't dressed in the beautiful robes of the religious leaders and in fact, he called them out without any apprehension. He said in Matthew chapter 3 verse 7 they're a brood of snakes facing the judgment of God.

John's job was to prepare the way of the Messiah. He was to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness. So one day as he's baptizing people in the Jordan River, who shows up? Jesus himself. Jesus said, "John, I want you to baptize me." John says, "Baptize you? You should be baptizing me."

Jesus says, "No, John, you need to do this. Let this happen right now so we can fulfill all righteousness." So John baptized Jesus and you remember the amazing things that happened. The Holy Spirit came upon Christ in the form of a dove and there was a voice from heaven, the Father saying, "This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased."

There you see the Trinity in action. The Son being baptized, the Holy Spirit is manifested, the Father is speaking. Now John's job is done. As he himself said, "He must increase," speaking of Christ, "and I must decrease." He said to his own disciples, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

In other words, "Boys, we're done here. I want you to follow Jesus." And they did. Now the public ministry of Jesus is beginning. John is waiting because he, like most people of this time, had a misunderstanding of the role of Messiah.

It was their view that when Messiah came that he would overthrow the ruling power, in this case, Rome, and he would establish his kingdom of righteousness on the earth. But time is now passing. In fact, 18 months have passed and none of this is taking place.

John is wondering, "Wait, did I get something wrong? Did I misunderstand? Is Jesus actually the Messiah?" He finally finds himself discouraged and grappling with doubt. The title of my message is Jesus and the Doubter. So if you've ever entertained doubts, you'll connect to the story. Let's read about it, Matthew 11 starting in verse 1.

"And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the coming one or should we look for another?' Jesus answered and said, 'You go tell John the things that you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me.'"

We'll stop there. So where is John? He's in a dungeon. Why is he in a dungeon? He's in a dungeon because he called out King Herod, who was living an immoral lifestyle. John didn't pull his punches. It ticked off Herod, so he imprisoned this great man of God.

Here's a guy that loves to be out in the open air, fulfilling his ministry, trapped in this horrible little dungeon. He's hearing about Jesus, but he doesn't like what he's hearing. "Oh, that Jesus, he's hanging out with sinners. Hanging out with sinners? Oh, I thought that he was going to establish his kingdom."

Did I get something wrong? See, the problem was he was looking at things BC, not before Christ, but before Calvary. Before Jesus would wear many crowns, he would first wear the crown of thorns. Before there would be the throne, there would be the cross.

It was after Christ died and rose again they all understood. Those two disciples who were discouraged on the road to Emmaus, leaving town after Christ was crucified and happened to be joined by Jesus himself incognito, said this: "We had hoped," past tense, "he would have been the one to deliver Israel."

In other words, "Yeah, he didn't quite measure up. He let us down." Then Jesus is like, "What's wrong with you guys?" Then he took them through the scriptures, pointing them to all the passages that showed that this was always part of the plan.

That Messiah would suffer. Messiah would die for the sin of the world. Messiah would rise again from the dead and Messiah would return one day. That one day is still in our future. But don't be too quick to judge these guys because we can do the same thing.

Sometimes we misunderstand God and his word. Like when tragedy hits in the life of a godly man or woman and we ask why. When a child dies or a loved one gets cancer, we ask why. "Why did God do this to me?" We find ourselves interpreting God in the light of the tragedy instead of the other way around.

John is effectively saying, "Lord, why haven't you helped me?" So he's doubting. Everyone deals with doubt in some way, shape, or form in their life. Happens to our kids, doesn't it? Especially when they get in those teen years and all of a sudden that sweet little child that loved your little devotions that you did every night for them and hung on daddy's or mommy's every word is saying, "Yeah, I don't know if I believe the Bible is true, Dad. I'm not so sure if I believe all these things."

We freak out feeling that we have somehow failed as parents. You're not failing. This is a child going through growth and they have to learn these things for themselves. That's why listening to them is important. This is why taking them to church is important.

I've told you this before, but it's very interesting. A survey found that among parents who attend church regularly, 72% of their children will also attend church when they become adults. Now, when only the father attends church regularly, 55% of the children will remain faithful in their adult years attending.

But if only the mother attends regularly, only 15% of the children will remain faithful in going to church. But if neither father nor mother attends church regularly, only 6% of the children will remain faithful in church attendance.

Listen, you have a very limited period of time with your children. From birth to those teen years to ultimately they become young adults. It goes just like that. Don't waste that time. Take the time to make church, Bible study, prayer a priority in your home because before you know it, the window's shut and that time is gone.

That's why youth ministry is so important. That's why I encourage all of you who especially have younger kids, especially as they get in those pre-teen and then of course the teen years, get them involved in youth ministry. I see parents who are slackers.

"Oh well, let's not go to church today. Let's just go to the beach. Well, let's not make these things a priority." You're setting an example that's going to be followed by your children. Set a good one.

So John is dealing with doubt. He's wondering what is going on here. Listen to this: sometimes we need to go through the foyer of doubt to get into the sanctuary of certainty.

Guest (Male): Such good encouragement today here on A New Beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie and his message called Jesus and the Doubter. Maybe doubt or the challenges of life have kept you away from God. Could this be a turning point? Pastor Greg, if you would, speak to the person who's facing some difficult times. They don't think of themselves as being close to God, but they could sure use some help right now.

Greg Laurie: Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardships so he'll get our attention. The Psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word." So maybe something's happening in your life that's caused you to look up, as in looking up to God and you're saying help.

Listen, that's not a bad place to be. In fact, that's a really good place to be. It's been said when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God. Do you feel like you're at the end of yourself right now? Then why don't you pray?

In fact, I would like to lead you in a prayer. Maybe you've never prayed before. You don't even know how to start praying. That's okay. Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you in a simple prayer. You could pray it after me in fact. This is a prayer where you're asking God to enter into your situation, but more significantly, you're asking Christ to enter into your life.

See, that's what being a Christian is. It's having Christ living inside of you. It's a relationship, not some religious thing. So if you would like a relationship with God, if you would like God to walk with you through your times of difficulty, you could pray this prayer after me right now. Just pray these words if you would.

Lord Jesus, I'm scared and I need your help. And I'm asking you to enter my life. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sin. I know that you died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. But I want to receive you now as my savior and my lord. So I invite you into my life and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and thank you for answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Listen, if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, the Lord has heard you and has forgiven you of your sin. We want to welcome you into the family of God.

Let us help you begin living for the Lord each day. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible. It's in an easy-to-understand translation and has scores of helps to get a new believer started. Get in touch and we'll send you the New Believer's Bible free of charge. Call 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words "Know God."

Then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially. Those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We are definitely a listener-supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that helps us be here with these programs.

If you've partnered with us, thank you. If you have yet to partner with us, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us.

You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Next time, more biblical encouragement to help us in our times of doubt. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.