A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: One day, God is going to accomplish the ultimate makeover when the Bible says we shall be like him.

Guest (Male): We know our sins and shortcomings all too well. We know we're far from perfect. But coming up, Pastor Greg Laurie says there's a better day coming.

Greg Laurie: Everything you've ever struggled with will be gone. The sinful nature, gone. Your doubts, gone. Your pain, gone. Everything gone. The ultimate makeover because God sees you for what you can become.

Guest (Male): If you really believe Jesus could come back at any moment, would it change how you live today? That's what Pastor Greg Laurie explores on this edition of A New Beginning.

It's not about guessing dates or decoding headlines. It's about being ready. Pastor Greg offers some fresh perspective and a helpful reminder that Jesus isn't coming back for a perfect person, just a prepared one. So open your Bible now and join us for a hopeful look at the signs of the times.

Greg Laurie: All right, well let's grab our Bibles. We're going through the epistles of John: first, second, and third. The title of my message is "Signs of the Last Days and Why You Shouldn't Panic." All around us are signs of the times pointing to the fact that Jesus is coming again.

So here's point number one: The return of Jesus Christ should cause us to want to live godly lives. 1 John 3:2: "Beloved, now we're the children of God. It's not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know when he's revealed, we'll be like him for we'll see him as he is. Everyone that has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure."

Makeovers are very popular these days. They do home makeovers. There's TV shows dedicated to the theme of making your home over. Then they do wardrobe makeovers and changing your appearance. One day, God is going to accomplish the ultimate makeover when the Bible says we shall be like him.

There's coming a day when we will see Jesus Christ face to face. At that moment, everything you've ever struggled with will be gone. The sinful nature, gone. Your doubts, gone. Your pain, gone. Everything gone. The ultimate makeover because God sees you for what you can become.

I don't know if you've ever seen the amazing sculpture of David. It's one of the most magnificent things I've ever seen. It's gigantic. It's hard to believe that a single man did that out of a single slab of marble. In fact, the piece of marble that Michelangelo sculpted David out of was considered flawed by other sculptors who rejected it, but Michelangelo chose it.

As he was walking around it and looking at the slab of marble, he said to one of the workers, "I see David." The worker said, "I don't see anything. I just see a slab of marble." Michelangelo said, "Yes, but I see David." See, he saw what he could make out of the slab of marble. And God sees what he can make out of you.

You see flaws, especially if you have a magnifying mirror. Those are scary, aren't they? I shaved the other day—that's a good clean shave. I looked in the magnifying mirror. Oh man, this is sad. Right half my face was a full beard. No, it wasn't that bad, but you realize you didn't see as clearly as you thought you did.

So we see the flaws. God sees them too, but he also sees the potential. He sees what you can become. In the same way, as we think about the last days, we should be thinking about what we should be doing. Sometimes we get caught up in the minutiae of prophetic events and their order, and we argue about this and that, and we miss the big picture.

The big picture is if I really believe Jesus Christ could come back at any moment, it should affect the way that I live. He that has this hope purifies himself even as he is pure, or cleans himself up. Let's say you had a very important guest coming over to your house for dinner tonight, and they were going to arrive at five o'clock. You would have your house spic and span.

You would have everything organized. You would have everything ready for this important guest that was coming to your home. So as we wait for Christ, we want to clean our life up if necessary and get rid of anything that doesn't belong there. Romans 13:12 says, "The night is almost gone. The day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes and put on the shining armor of right living."

If we really believe Jesus is coming, we will not be sinless, but we should sin less. Let me say that again: If we really believe Jesus is coming, we will not be sinless, but we should sin less. Look at 1 John 3: "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him."

Hold on now. Are you saying if I'm a real Christian waiting for Christ to come back, I should not sin? Well, not exactly, because earlier in 1 John 1:8, we read, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." So clearly we sin. Even after we're Christians, we sin.

What is John saying here—that if you are abiding in him, you will not sin? In the original language, it's explained. It would better be translated, "Whoever habitually sins" or "Whoever practices sin." It's not a person that sins; it's a person that lives in sin, that practices sin, that is unapologetic about sin. Maybe they even celebrate that sin.

John is saying you can't live that way and call yourself a true believer. The theological term for it is antinomianism. If you're looking for a name for your new dog, you might do that. Let's name him Antinomianism. Antinomianism, sit! But it's an interesting term. It's basically the mentality that says, "I'm a Christian, I'm saved, I'm forgiven, therefore I can do whatever I want."

Well, that is not true. That's unbiblical. That's what John is dealing with here. He says if that's the case, if you're living comfortably in sin without any desire to repent, then you don't know him. Again, that's antichrist. In other words, it's "instead of Christ" thinking.

It would be like joining a gym. So you get the best outfit possible. You get the ultimate shoes. And you get the giant water bottle. What's the thing with these giant water bottles? They just get bigger and bigger. They're made of metal. They weigh 30 pounds. I saw someone the other day carrying a big Sparkletts bottle on their shoulder just in case I get dehydrated for four minutes.

Drinking fountains still exist. There is water out there somewhere. But no, we have to carry the giant water bottles. I digress. So you've got the outfit, you've got the shoes, and then you're in the gym and you take selfies of yourself. Selfie, selfie, selfie. Please, if you go to a gym, don't take selfies of yourself. How many of you do that? No, don't raise your hand because you would raise your hand.

#FitForLife. Shut up. Just shut up and work out and get out. Please. But what if you joined a gym and then you just ate donuts? You go in, but you ate donuts at a place next door. So you're getting in shape, just the wrong shape.

You're in more the shape of a pear. In fact, people are calling you the Lord's pear. You don't like that so much, do you? Well, that would be antinomianism. In other words, "Oh, well, I belong to a gym. That's all I need. I have membership in a gym." No, you've got to go to the gym and you've got to work out. You've got to do what you've got to do to get in the right shape.

There are people that say, "Well, I'm a Christian. I prayed that little prayer at a Harvest Crusade 10 years ago. I'm going to heaven. Now I can live like hell." Doesn't work that way. If you're a true Christian, you'll want to walk with Christ. You'll never be sinless, but you should sin less and purify yourself, clean yourself up, as you wait for him to return.

We need to be rooted in Christ as we await his return. John says, "Whoever abides in him," 1 John 3:6, "does not sin"—sin habitually again. Abide in him. So it comes down to this: One thing takes the place of another. You let go of something when you find something better to take its place. You don't overcome sin by trying harder; you overcome it by loving Jesus more.

Abiding in Christ is the golden key to spiritual growth. We're always looking for the shortcut to spiritual growth. "How am I going to become a greater man or woman of God?" Well, that's a good thing to think about and want to be. But there's no shortcuts. It's literally every day getting up and putting one foot in front of the other and walking with God.

As one person put it, "long obedience in the same direction." There's no shortcut. It's going to take time. But what better way to spend your time than walking with the Lord? Every day I get up, I'm going to read the Word of God. Every day I get up, I'm going to pray. Every day I get up, I'm going to want to be more Christ-like. It's being a vital part of the church.

It's regularity. It's consistency. Abide means to sink your roots deeply into something. It means to stay in a given place, to remain or to continue. Let's say I planted a tree in my front yard, and I watched it start to grow and watered it. And I think, "Yeah, this would be better in the backyard." So I dig it up, take it to the backyard, plant it there.

Leave it there for a couple days. "Oh man, it was better in the front yard." I pluck it up again, pull it back, put it in the front yard. "Oh, I don't know, I'm going back to the backyard." After four or five times of doing this, that tree is dead because you've not let the tree get rooted. We uproot ourselves. "I'm here, now I'm going to move over there. Now I'm going to read the Bible, now I'm not going to read the Bible. I'm going to pray, I'm not going to pray. I'm going to be in this church, I'm going to be in that church, I'm going to be in another church."

You're not abiding. You know, as the great Lebowski reminds us: The Dude abides. The Dude needs to abide. You need to sink your roots deep in Christ, and that is the secret to spiritual growth. Psalm 1 sums it up perfectly: "Blessed or happy is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the word of the Lord, and in it does he meditate day and night. He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in his season, and whatever he does shall prosper."

It's all there right in Psalm 1. He doesn't walk in ungodly counsel. He doesn't let this culture tell him how to live or how to think. But instead, his delight is in God's word. And then he meditates in it day and night. Now to meditate means to fill your mind with it biblically.

Now in Eastern mysticism, to meditate means to empty your mind while wearing Lululemon. But while you have your giant metal bottle of water next to you. But to meditate in the Bible means to fill your mind with the Word of God. In God's word, he meditates day and night. And he's like that tree planted by the rivers of water.

Then this amazing promise of answered prayer: If you abide in Christ, Jesus says in John 15, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you." Another translation of that same statement of Christ from an expanded Greek translation would go as follows. Jesus speaking: "If you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home in you, you shall ask at once for yourself whatever your heart desires, and it will be yours."

Wow! Whatever my heart desires? Yeah, that's what Jesus said. But what am I doing? I'm studying his word. It's at home in my life. I'm learning to think biblically. Thus I'll start praying biblically and asking for the things God wants me to have, and it will be mine. All of this comes from abiding in him. That's what we're called to do as we await the Lord's return.

So let me conclude this message. If you feel far from God, he hasn't gone anywhere. He's ready to forgive you, and this is about a relationship with him. Let's say, to illustrate, you are the worst boyfriend of all time. First of all, he was unattractive. He insulted you instead of complimenting you. He was always late. He chewed with his mouth open.

Everything you don't want a guy to do, this guy did. But there weren't any other prospects. So for some unknown reason, you stayed with this dude, right? And then one day, a really wonderful man came along. He was handsome, he was caring, he was complimentary. He loved you, he appreciated you.

Then one day he said, "Could I become your boyfriend?" and before he could finish the sentence, you said yes. Was it hard to break up with that old boyfriend? Easiest thing you ever did. Why? A better guy came along. That's us before we know Christ. We're living in sin. We've learned to put up with it. We don't even enjoy it anymore.

Oh sure, when we first started crossing those lines and we started breaking those rules and trying this and trying that, there was a little pleasure, but it was short-lived pleasure, and now it's just miserable. We don't like the parties anymore. We don't like that feeling of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs anymore. We don't like these so-called friends that could care less about us anymore. We don't like it, but we don't know what to do. And then Jesus Christ comes along and says, "Follow me," and we turn our back on it. It's as simple as that.

That was my life at the age of 17, 10 years ago—and a few more. But I was partying, I was drinking, I was doing drugs. And I hated it. And then I heard about Jesus. And then I heard the gospel. And then I believed and everything changed for me. Someone better came along.

Why are you living in your sinful lifestyle? You don't even enjoy it anymore and you know it. Why don't you just say, "I'm done with this," and follow Christ? Well, will I have to give up anything to follow Jesus? Yes! How about this: You'll have to give up hell so you can go to heaven. Does that seem like a good deal?

Give up hopelessness and replace it with hope. Give up hatred and bitterness and replace it with love and forgiveness. Give up emptiness and replace it with fulfillment. That sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Whatever you give up to follow Jesus will be more than made up for.

But you must say, "All right, Lord, I'm done running from you, I'm done fighting with you, I'm ready to follow you," and you'll be glad you did that. So in a moment, we're going to pray, and I'm going to give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus if you haven't done that yet. Maybe some of the things I've said today, you're hearing this for the first time. You've never heard this stuff before. Good. Glad you came. Now you need to respond to it.

Let's all pray. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will speak to the heart of every person here. Every person listening, watching, wherever they are, if they don't know you yet, let this be the moment they believe. While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, how many of you would say right now, "I need Jesus. I'm ready to ask Christ to come into my life"?

If you want Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to find the meaning and purpose of life, I want you to pray this prayer after me. In fact, let's all pray this prayer together. We'll all pray it in a show of support for those that are praying it for the first time. Just pray these words:

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now. I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): An important prayer, and perhaps the most important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie today here on A New Beginning. He's been praying with those making a decision for the Lord. And if you've just prayed along with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, we want to welcome you into the family of God. And we want to help you as you take your first steps in your walk with the Lord.

Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible. It includes an explanation of key biblical terms, and you'll find a list of Old Testament prophecies about Jesus and how they were fulfilled in the New Testament. We'll send it your way free of charge. Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 number, 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click "Know God."

You know, Pastor Greg, we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives. So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching. And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue.

Greg Laurie: Yeah, it's really true, Dave. And even a little bit helps. People need to hear the gospel so badly. They need to hear the teaching of the Word of God. It changes everything because it changes us. And I'm so passionate about it, and I'm called to do it, and I'm thankful for it. But I can't do it alone.

So I'm going to ask folks that are listening, if you think more people need to hear the gospel, if you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God, then prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries and maybe even become a Harvest Partner, which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving and that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us. So thanks for that.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us any time, day or night, at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, important insight on how we can resist our spiritual adversary and his clever deceptions. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.