A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: You know you're being revived when you obey the word of God. It's not enough to just be a hearer of the word. You need to be a doer of the word. That's a real passion for the word of God.

Guest (Male): The cares and distractions of life can take us away from God. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the Bible lays out clear steps we can take to bring us right back.

Greg Laurie: So we need to listen carefully, but it's also about doing, applying it, obeying.

Song: This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Oh can you hear what the angels are singing? This is the day the day when life begins.

Guest (Male): Imagine assembling a complicated piece of furniture without the instructions. You wind up with extra screws, a wobbly chair, and maybe a bruised ego. Well, that's a good picture of life without the Bible. God's word is our instruction manual, keeping us from poor decisions and the devil's smooth sales pitches.

Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us how to build a life where the pieces fit together because they all came straight from the manufacturer.

Song: This is the day the day when life begins.

Greg Laurie: We're in Nehemiah, which is the story of the children of Israel returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. So now the walls of Jerusalem are completed.

They've rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in a record 52 days. Amazing. Now, look at what happens. Go over to Nehemiah 8 verse 1. The people assembled with a unified purpose at the square inside the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey.

And on October 8th, Ezra the priest brought the book of the law before the assembly, which included the men and the women and the children old enough to understand. He faced the square inside the Water Gate, from early morning to noon, and read aloud to everyone who could understand. All the people listened closely to the book of the law. And when they saw him open the book, they rose to their feet. I love this.

So now they're having a Bible study and a revival breaks out. And these are some signs of revival. When I say revival, I mean these are signs that you're spiritually alive. Signs that you're flourishing spiritually. Signs that you are the kind of Christian you ought to be. Number one, you're having revival when you're hungry for God's word.

Look at verse one. They asked Ezra, the priest, to bring out the book of the law of Moses. They asked, "Hey, man, would you give us a Bible study?" So Ezra enters the story again. Now, Ezra was a part of the beginning of the story of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. He led the first wave of the Jews back where they rebuilt the temple, but his task had been completed. God raised up Nehemiah to come back and rebuild the walls. And so Ezra had been, I don't want to sound like back burner, but he hadn't been in the narrative at this point. And God brings him back again.

They're saying, "We want to see Ezra again." He, you know, he's the one we need now. Reminding us that we all have a part to play in the work of God. And Ezra is an older guy now. He might have thought, "Well, no one wants to hear from me anymore, you know." They're saying, "Ezra, bring back Ezra." So he's back here now bringing the word of God to them. You may feel like your best days are behind you. Hey, Moses didn't even get started until he was 80 years old.

Who knows what God could do? You know, when as people get older, you know, they start thinking about retirement. I was just talking to someone here, and he says, "The word retirement is not in my vocabulary. Why would I retire? I love to." He's actually a foreman, he has a construction company, and he says, "I love to get out there and talk to these people about Jesus Christ. And I have ministry opportunities every day. And I love that." As you get older, you may have new opportunities. Hopefully, you've acquired some wisdom with the passing of the years that you can pass on to others.

Ezra, God still wants to use Ezra. So now he's the one bringing the message to the people and they listened closely to what he was saying. You know, a preacher can tell when you're paying attention. I don't know if you know this, but I can see you.

All of you. I see all of you. And there are tell-tale signs, maybe what I'm saying is not connecting. When you yawn. Yeah, that's a big one. Even when you do the cover-up the yawn, I can even I know those too, you know. Or you stretch your arms out, or you look at your watch, or you start hitting your watch. These are not good signs. Or I like the one where you act like you're praying when you're sleeping. I know you're not praying. You can fold your hands.

And look, there's no excuse for boring preaching. I don't know how some people can take the living, powerful, action-packed word of God and somehow make it sound boring. But they managed to do it. Even the way they read it bores me. I don't know why that is.

There's no excuse for it, but there's also a place for listening well. For giving your attention with intention. The story is told of President Calvin Coolidge, who attended church one Sunday. He came home after, and his wife said, "Well, Cal, what did the preacher have to say?"

President Coolidge said, "Well, he preached on sin." She said, "Well, what did he have to say about it?" He says, "I think he was against it." He wasn't paying attention. So we need to listen carefully. Number two, you're having revival when people spontaneously and passionately worship God. Look at verse six. Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people said, "Amen, Amen." And they lifted their hands, and they bowed down and worshiped with their faces to the ground. I like that. Amen.

It's a good thing to say amen. Say amen right now. Go. There you go. Amen just means so be it. I agree. It's an affirmation. The people are saying, "Amen." This is a beautiful scene. These people just can't get enough of God's word. Look at verse three. He faced the square inside the Water Gate from early morning to noon and read aloud to everyone, and the people were standing. That means they stood for six hours listening to the message. So don't complain if I go five minutes over sometime.

He's going long today, don't you think? Think how long he went. But the people loved it, and they wanted to hear what he had to say. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Paul preaching. What a privilege it must have been to hear the Apostle Paul preach in person. And he had a lot to say, and he kept going on and on. It was getting late. And there's one guy named Eutychus up on an upper level of the building near the window, who fell asleep and fell out of the window and died.

So someone stops Paul. "Oh, Paul, Eutychus just fell out of the window." They all rush out to pour Eutychus, laying there on the ground dead. Paul prays for him and raises him from the dead. And then Paul does what any self-respecting preacher would do next. He finished his sermon.

"Well, you're not the Apostle Paul, Greg." I know that, but I'm just saying that that's a real passion for the word of God. That's why I always encourage you to read along. And people sometimes say, "God never speaks to me." Hey, read the Bible, and he will.

Six times in this chapter, the word "understanding" is used. Verse 3: "He read aloud to everyone who could understand." And all the people listened closely. They understood. They listened. They paid attention. Here's another point. You know you're being revived when you obey the word of God.

It's not enough to just be a hearer of the word. You need to be a doer of the word. Jesus said at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, "Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the storms came and the floods came and beat upon that house, and it stood strong. Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the storms came and the floods came and beat on that house, and it fell." See, it's all about listening, but it's also about doing, applying it, obeying. And this is what we see the people are doing. They're applying what they're hearing. They obey the word of God. Nehemiah 8:8, they read from the book of the law, and he explained it, the people understood it.

Then Nehemiah and Ezra, the high priest and scribe, and the Levites were there, said, "This is a sacred day before the Lord." And the people began weeping. You know, sometimes we need to weep over our sin. People will say, "Oh, I go to church to be lifted up, not to be beaten down." Really? I go to church to hear truth. And sometimes I need to be told the truth, and it isn't so comfortable.

See, my job as a pastor is to comfort the afflicted, but it's also to afflict the comfortable. It's like going to a doctor. It'd be like saying, "I want a doctor that will only give me good news. He'll never tell me anything negative." Well, if that doctor won't tell you the truth, he's not following his Hippocratic Oath, which is to do no harm. He has to tell you. And it's hard, because I have friends who are doctors, and I've talked with them about how difficult it must be to give someone bad news. To say, "I'm sorry to tell you, you have cancer," or, "I'm sorry to tell you, you have this condition." But how wonderful it must be to come with good news. "But there's this treatment," or, "This is the thing you need to do next." And this is what a doctor has to do. They're there to help you be restored to health.

And the same is true of a preacher, but really the same is true of a Christian. We want to help people hear the truth, and some people need to be sad before they can be happy. And by sad, I mean they need to see their sinful condition, be sorry for it, and mourn over it or cry over it. Jesus said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Or another way you could translate it is, "Blessed are the sad, for they will be happy." So sometimes you have to be sad before you can be happy. And hear the truth, and deal with the problem, and then ask God to forgive you of your sin. So they are crying over their sin. But after they cry over their sin, then they begin to rejoice because God has forgiven them.

And that's a great thing that comes. Verse 9 says, "Don't weep on a day like this. It's a sacred day before the Lord." And they went away to eat and drink and they were to have a festive meal and share gifts of food and celebrate with great joy. So Nehemiah says, "Okay, enough crying. You've cried already. God forgave you. Stop. Now let's rejoice."

"Let's have a meal together." And it's funny because over in Nehemiah 8:10, it says, "Go celebrate with festive rich foods and sweet drinks." I don't even know what that means. Maybe the modern equivalent would be no tofu. Nothing healthy. Let's eat pizza and hamburgers and enchiladas, and let's drink original Coke. No Diet Coke.

I don't even really like Coke personally, but I'm just pointing out, "Let's celebrate, let's have a good time." The result of having your sin forgiven is joy. The Bible says, "Blessed are happy is the man whose sin is forgiven."

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Greg Laurie: You know, I've heard people describe a trip to Israel as seeing the Bible actually come to life. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie, and I've been to Israel many times, and I've led a lot of tours, and I have to say that's absolutely true. Listen, when you're walking on the same stones that Jesus himself walked on, that's something that's enriching to your faith. It's not just a travel experience, it actually energizes and enhances your study of the Bible. Think of it this way, it's a vacation with a purpose. And we're going to be taking a tour of Israel, April 6th to 15th, 2027. You can find out more at israel.harvest.org.

Guest (Male): Step right into biblical history. Join Pastor Greg for a tour of the Holy Land, April 6th through 15th, 2027. Get details at israel.harvest.org.

Guest (Male): Well, we're in Nehemiah chapter 8 today as Pastor Greg presents his message called Never Give Up.

Greg Laurie: So the people now are rejoicing over the fact that God has forgiven them of their sin. See, doing what God wants you to do is the way to be happy.

I think sometimes we think, "Oh, man, doing the sinful things, that's where the happiness is." Now let me say something that might surprise you. It can be fun to sin. How many of you have ever sinned? Raise your hand. I want to make sure. Wow, you are a wicked bunch of people. My hand was up too. Okay. How many of you have ever had some fun sinning? Raise your hand up. Don't lie. All of you have, to a certain degree.

Let me define fun. The Bible says there's pleasure in sin for a season. "Oh, this is, you know, forbidden. I shouldn't do this." Kind of this excitement, but it's very short-lived. And then the repercussions come. And then the consequences come. Sometimes consequences that can last for a lifetime because of your so-called fun. So we think, "Oh no, the fun and the happiness in life is in sin," when in reality, it's the opposite. The fun, if you will, the happiness in life is in obedience to God. That's what the Bible is telling us. You can have a happy life without sin, without sex outside of marriage, without drugs or alcohol, without selfishness. This is what God wants.

Now, this was a great work of God and they had a revival. Did it last? Yes, for a time. Did it last forever? No, no revival does. Billy Sunday, the great preacher, was once asked if he thought revivals lasted. His response was, "No, neither does a bath, but it's good to have one occasionally."

See, we need to be revived again and again. We need to be refreshed again and again. We need to recommit our life to Christ again and again. The Bible says, "Be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." In Ephesians 5.

And that word "be filled" is a command. So God says, "I command you to be filled with the Holy Spirit." And also in the Greek, it speaks of something that's continuous. So the Lord is saying, "I command you each and every day to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again and again." Being filled and refilled. Can you imagine buying a car, driving it for maybe a week and a half, and then it stops running? Take it back to the dealership. "What's wrong with this car? It stopped running." "Have you recharged it?" "No." "Did you put gas in it?" "No." You see, you've got to recharge your electric car. You've got to gas up your car. And in the same way, I need to be recharged. I need to be refilled, and I need to do it again and again and again. That's how you live in a continuous state of revival and relationship with God.

That's what the early church did. Acts 2:46 says, "They worshiped together in the temple each day. They met in homes, and met for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity. And they were praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all of the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved."

One thing that's mentioned there is the Lord's Supper. We also call this communion. This is where we take the bread and the cup, which are reminders of the death of Jesus Christ. Why should we receive communion? Number one, in remembrance. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." It's a reminder that we should return to again and again and be reminded of what Christ did for us on the cross. I have a wedding ring that I've been wearing for over 50 years. It reminds me that I'm married. I also have a woman living in my home that reminds me as well.

I don't take this ring off. I don't know if I could take it off because I've gained weight since I got married. I would need the jaws of life at the fire department to probably get it off, but I don't want to take it off, and I don't need to. But it's a little reminder. And so communion is a reminder of what Jesus did for you. He laid his life down for you. He sacrificed himself on the cross for you, so you could be forgiven of your sin. But then number two, communion is a time of examination.

It says in 1 Corinthians 11:28, when we receive the elements of communion, "Let a person examine themselves." So it's a moment where I say, "Is my life right with God? Am I walking with the Lord as I should? Have I been spending too much time down in the plane of 'Oh no'? Have I been making compromises? Have I been doing or saying things I should not be doing? Is there an unconfessed sin in my life?" This is the time to deal with that. So examination. "Let a man examine himself." But it's also a time of anticipation because we're told we should receive the elements of communion until He comes. So when Christ comes, we won't have communion after that, but until that day, we do it in anticipation of His return.

But let me say one final thing about communion, and that is this is for Christians only. You might say, "Well, I think, you know, a little ritual will do me some good." Not this ritual. Because the Bible says if you receive these elements in an unworthy manner, you eat and drink judgment to yourself. What does that mean? It means that I'm taking something that represents the sacred, and I'm almost mocking it by not believing in what it represents, or specifically, who it represents.

So when I receive communion, I want to believe in the one that it represents. I want to have a relationship with him. And so if you've never asked Jesus Christ to come into your life, this is the time to do it. Say, "Lord, I know I'm a sinner, and I believe Jesus died for my sin, and I want this happiness and purpose in life I've been hearing about, and I want to know that I'll go to heaven when I die." Jesus, come into my life and forgive me, and then you'll have that joy and that happiness the Bible promises. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in."

If you would like Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, just pray this prayer after me, right where you are. Just pray, "Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, but I know you are the savior of the world who died on the cross for my sin. I'm sorry for my sin. I turn from it. I repent of it, and I ask you to come into my life and forgive me of all of my sin. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen."

Guest (Male): Hopefully, you prayed along with Pastor Greg Laurie just now and entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you did, we'd like to first of all say, "Congratulations. You've just made the best decision of your life." And we'd also like to help you in your decision by sending you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It'll help answer the questions you might have and help you build a solid foundation for your relationship with the Lord. You can request it free of charge when you call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry.

Greg Laurie: Yeah.

Guest (Male): We're touching lives for eternity.

Greg Laurie: Mhm.

Guest (Male): And we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further, isn't that right?

Greg Laurie: Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul? Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son or your daughter, or your mommy or your dad, or your best friend? Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable.

Well, listen, God says, "All souls are mine." God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the Kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And you can make your donation right now at harvest.org. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number. 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, don't miss the finale to Pastor Greg's studies in Nehemiah, a message called Finishing What You Start. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.