A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: When you're a healthy Christian, you will desire God's word in your life. So if to you reading the Bible is a drag, that is not a good indication. I think a real indication of you being a spirit-filled believer is that you are hungry for God's word.

Guest (Male): Health is often tied to appetite. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out it's a very good sign if we have an appetite for scripture. Hungry people are healthy people.

Greg Laurie: God's word is a light for our path, food for our souls. It's our only offensive weapon in our suit of spiritual armor. And yet, in many homes, it is the most dusty book on the bookshelf. It contains the very keys to the issues of life, yet it's overlooked and forgotten. A well-used Bible that is falling apart is usually owned by someone who isn't. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the importance of digesting scripture.

The Bible. I can tell you I knew nothing about the Bible before I was a Christian. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. I'd never read the Bible for myself. I was completely ignorant of it. But on my high school campus, when the Jesus movement was happening, there were a lot of young kids walking around with Bibles.

These are kids I knew. Some of these kids I used to party with and hang out with, and I thought, "Why on earth would they carry a Bible publicly? That is so weird. It's so insane." We made fun of them. We laughed at them and thought they were all collectively one taco short of a combination plate or something.

So you know my story. I was walking across the front lawn of my campus. I saw the Christians singing their songs about Jesus, and I sat down close enough to listen in on what they were saying. For the first time, I heard the gospel. That was the day I accepted Christ into my life.

That weekend, I had planned to go and do some drugs. I thought, "Well, okay, I'm a Christian, and I'm just going to go do drugs as a Christian." That's crazy, isn't it? I was all alone and I was sitting on a rock and I was getting ready to get high. That same still, small voice that I heard on my high school campus spoke to me again. The Lord said, "You don't need that anymore."

I said, "All right, God, if you're real, you're going to have to prove it to me because I don't know if I believe this, even though I've prayed and asked you into my life." So I threw my little baggie of pot away and my little pipe, and I said, "Help me with this."

I went back to school the next Monday. I didn't know where to fit in. I didn't feel comfortable around my old druggy friends because they just got high every day, and I didn't want to be with them. But the Christians were a little too intense for me. A little too much "Praise the Lord, hallelujah," right? They were like, "Praise God, man. I love the Lord. Praise Jesus." I was like, "Okay, whatever."

I was sort of in that in-between spot. You know how that can be when you're a brand new believer. I'm walking across my high school campus and some guy yells out my name. I don't even know this guy. He shouts, "Greg!" I turn and he goes, "Brother Greg!" I thought, "Brother? Unless you're a brother from another mother."

He goes, "Bro," and I said, "Yeah." He said, "I got something for you, bro." I said, "What did you get for me?" He says, "This!" And he holds up this Bible, a really big Bible. It was suede. Back in those days, we covered our Bibles with fur and suede and all kinds of things. I don't know why. It had popsicle sticks glued together in the shape of a cross. "Bro, praise the Lord, read it. It's God's word."

He leaves and I'm so embarrassed by this Bible. I shove it into the pocket of my coat because I didn't want anyone to see that I was carrying a Bible. I decided to go over to my old friend's house where I basically went every day at lunchtime and got high. No wonder my grades were so low. You get high, your grades are low.

I went over to my friend's house. This Bible that was in my pocket, I pulled it out and I put it in the bushes in front of his house because I didn't want them to see it sticking out of my coat pocket. So I put my Bible in the bushes. I was a very bold witness for Christ, wasn't I?

I walk in and I hadn't seen these guys since I'd become a Christian. I walked in and they said, "Laurie!" That's what they called me. "How you doing, man?" I said, "I'm fine." And they said, "What have you been doing?" I said, "Nothing." "Where have you been? We haven't seen you." "I haven't been doing anything."

One of them said, "Hey man, we got some good pot. You want to get high?" I said, "No." They said, "Laurie, what's wrong with you?" I said, "There's nothing wrong with me. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do it."

I'm sitting there for a moment and I really sense the Holy Spirit saying, "Tell them about Jesus." I'm saying, "No way. I'm not telling anybody about anything." I'm just trying to keep it all inside. All of a sudden, the front door opens up and one of my friend's moms is there, the one who owned the home. She's holding my Bible.

She says, "Who does this belong to?" I'm thinking, "What is wrong with this woman? She has kids doing drugs in her house at lunchtime and she's alarmed by a Bible?" "Who does this belong to?" Like it was some weapon or something. Well, maybe it is. The sword of the Spirit.

Every eye in the room went to the Bible and they went back to me. They made the connection. I said, "That's mine." She said, "Why?" I said, "That's mine." One of my friends said, "Oh, Greg, praise the Lord. Are we going to be a Christian now?" I said, "No, I'm going to hit you in the mouth now."

See, I hadn't read 1 Corinthians 13. I hadn't read anything. I was trying to hide the word of God. Since then, I've found it's much better to hide the word of God in your heart, not in the bushes. That was my first opportunity to share the gospel, which I failed miserably. But it was a reminder of the power of the Bible, the power of the word of God.

We've talked about things that we did back in the days of the Jesus movement. We talked about how contemporary Christian worship was born before our eyes and also how we loved to talk about the soon coming of the Lord. We talked about that recently. But one of the big things that was happening back in those days is almost everything we went to was a Bible study.

Every service that we would have, we would open up the word of God. Then there were home Bible studies and Bible studies on high school campuses and Bible studies on college campuses. We couldn't get enough of the word of God.

Let me quote for a moment from that Time magazine article we were referring to a moment ago. I would love to see something like this in Time again where they're talking about what was happening. Here's a direct quote.

"The Bible is true, miracles happen, God really did so love the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Bibles abound, whether the cherished fur-covered King James version or scruffy back-pocket paperbacks, they're invariably well-thumbed and often memorized." So a real earmark of that last great spiritual awakening in America was the Bible.

Let's go over to Acts chapter 2. This is when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the day of Pentecost. People speak in unknown languages; they speak in tongues. Then what happens after that? Acts chapter 2, verse 16. Peter stands up and says, "What you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, 'I'll pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.'"

Very important statement. Here's an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Supernatural phenomena is taking place and Peter stands up and says, "This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel." This makes a very important point. Everything that we do as Christians should be informed by the word of God. There should be a biblical basis for what we do.

So when we talk about making a decision or should we do this or should we do that, we go to the scripture. What does the Bible say? Does the scripture address this at least in principle, if not specifically? Peter was standing up and saying, "This is the biblical basis."

Sometimes in what some might call revival meetings or things where there's a lot of excitement and a lot of passion, sometimes things happen that, frankly, are not biblical. People will say, "This is a new work of the Holy Spirit. It's new." Listen to this. If it's new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new. We don't need a new thing. We want to do a biblical thing. When God pours His Spirit out, we want to have a biblical basis for what we're saying and doing, and that certainly is what happened there.

Then what happened after the Holy Spirit was poured out? This is a very important thing. They began to dig into the scripture. We don't read that after the Spirit was poured out, they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off. I bring this up because I've seen meetings sometimes on Christian television where people are screaming and writhing on the floor and yelling and making animal sounds. People say, "This is the Holy Spirit." I don't know what Holy Spirit it is, but I don't see anything like that in the Bible.

By the way, have you ever seen a chicken get its head cut off? I have. It happened to me when I was around five years old. I was with my grandparents and we went out to the desert. They had a house there with no electricity. We had to go to the outhouse. So when we were going to have a meal, my grandfather would chop the head of the chicken off and my grandmother would make chicken.

I'm five years old. I'm standing there. He takes this chicken, puts it on a stump, takes out a hatchet, and chops its head off. The body rolls off and it's running around spurting blood and flapping. The head is laying there on the stump. I'm thinking, "How does that body know where to go?" It's almost like the head is going, "Go right, go right, go straight, go straight." The chicken without a head is coming straight at me.

I still have nightmares about it today. I break out into a sweat when I go by Chick-fil-A. I'm serious. It's horrible. No, but the thing is that's how some people are. "Oh, this is the Holy Spirit. Let's just be crazy and insane." No, God gave that power to the church for them to change the world. He gave them power to be a witness.

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

Greg Laurie: I want you to know about our app called Harvest+. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash: Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more. So go and download the Harvest+ app.

Guest (Male): We're considering the central part God's word plays in the life of the healthy believer. Pastor Greg continues his message, "The Bible and Revival," from his series, "Jesus Revolution."

Greg Laurie: So what did the church do after the Spirit was poured out? Look at Acts 2, verse 42. "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and the breaking of bread and in prayer."

They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. They dug into the word of God. Listen, if you want to be a spirit-filled, revived Christian, you need to be digging into God's word each and every day because if you don't, you're going to fail spiritually.

One thing that will happen if you go to visit your doctor and you're not feeling well, first thing he'll ask or she'll ask is, "How's your appetite?" Why? Because hungry people are healthy people. That's how I know I'm healthy right now because I'm still thinking about pizza, and this is a problem.

That's a sign of health. So when you're a healthy Christian, when you're a spiritually revived Christian, when you are a spirit-filled Christian, you will desire God's word in your life.

If to you reading the Bible is a drag, if it's a drudgery, if it's something you dread, if it's something you do in a token way, that is not a good indication. I think a real indication of you being a spirit-filled believer is that you are hungry for God's word.

When I don't eat, I get kind of cranky. My wife figured this out a number of years ago. I'll just be in a bad mood, I'm sort of snippy. She says, "You're just hungry." "I'm not, I'm not hungry." "No, you're hungry." She'll throw a sandwich at me. It works every time. I catch it in my mouth.

That's how it can be. The reason you're not feeling that well, the reason you're kind of cranky, the reason you're kind of depressed, the reason you're lethargic is you need a meal. I don't just mean food. I'm talking about you need the word of God.

That's why you need to take time every day to open up God's word and read what it has to say to you. The word of God is powerful, and I'm amazed at how I've read certain verses many, many times over the years, but how they'll just jump off the page and come alive for me.

You know what I'm talking about? That verse that's sent from heaven and it's just exactly what I needed to hear in the given moment. How's that going to happen if I don't open up the Bible? I can't just hold it up to my head and pray it all just makes its way in there. I need to read it. I need to commit scripture to memory.

I memorized scriptures when I was a 17-year-old kid that I still remember today in my 30s times two. They're still with me, those verses, like Psalm 1. "Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or 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'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. His leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he does shall prosper. Blessed is that man." I learned that so many years ago. It's still with me. It still helps me.

How about 1 Corinthians 10:13? "There is no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God who is faithful will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it." I'm not doing this to impress you. You can do this. We can all do this. "Oh, no, I can't remember anything." Give me a break.

You remember lines from films. You remember lyrics from the lamest songs of all time. You remember the scores of Super Bowl games going back forever. You remember all that trivia. Don't tell me you cannot remember the word of God. You just take time to get it into your mind and get it into your heart and that will never be time that is wasted.

Let's go over to our second passage, Psalm 19, and we'll close with this. This is just the word of God telling us why the word of God is important. By the way, these were originally songs. They were set to melody. This one even has a certain cadence to it that sounds a lot like a song.

Psalm 19, verse 7: "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward." It sounds like a song. It's beautiful poetry, but it is actually also the inspired word of God.

Here's just a few takeaway thoughts. Number one: the word of God is perfect. When we say the law of the Lord, we could replace that with the word of the Lord or the Bible. Because it's just referring to God's written word. The word of God is perfect because this phrase means that it is flawless; it is without any flaw of any kind.

This is important because we live in a time where things are constantly changing. Culture changes, fashion changes, music changes. Everything is changing before our eyes. Something that's cool today will not be cool tomorrow. Trust me, I've lived long enough to see all of these fads come and go. All you have to do is look at your yearbook photo. Does anyone ever look good in a yearbook photo? You look back and you think, "What was I thinking? Why was I wearing that?"

These things change. Also in the news, when you get a newspaper, it's dated already. A newspaper from this morning, things have happened this afternoon, and they're happening right now because I get them on my newsfeed. Even despite that, there's so much fake news out there. You don't know what to believe, but here's the good news. In the Bible, there's no fake news. There's just good news that you can depend on because the word of the Lord is perfect.

As you open up the word of God, it can be fresh to you each and every morning. The Bible says His mercies are new every morning. The word "perfect" means it's whole, it's complete, and it's sufficient. Everything you need to know about God is found in the Bible. You don't need to go anywhere else. It's one-stop shopping right here. This is God's message to each and every one of us. 2 Timothy 3 says all scripture is breathed by God.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie with good insight today on A New Beginning on the vital importance of God's word in the life of the believer. Today's study is from his powerful series called "Jesus Revolution." The movie "Jesus Revolution" is Pastor Greg's personal story of coming to Christ, set against the backdrop of the Jesus movement. It's now available for streaming on many platforms.

One of the most powerful truths in the Bible is how eternal life is available through Jesus Christ. No matter what we've done, the Lord can forgive us, and He offers us a brand new life. Pastor Greg has more to say about that.

Greg Laurie: Becoming a Christian, it doesn't take years, it doesn't take months, it doesn't take weeks, it doesn't even take hours. It can happen in a moment. The Bible describes it as turning from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. But before that happens, the Bible says you need to have your eyes open.

Here's the amazing thing. It's just like in a flash, a light goes on and you say, "This is all true." That's how it happened for me. I just heard the gospel and all of a sudden I realized, "This is all true." Maybe you've realized that as well. Let me ask you, would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like Him to forgive you of your sin? Would you like this relationship with God we've been talking about today? If so, why don't you just pray a simple prayer with me?

You could pray it out loud if you like, but say this to God: "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. Jesus, I turn from my sin and I choose to follow You from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and friend. Thank You for hearing this prayer, and I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen."

If you just prayed that prayer, I want to send you at no charge what we call a New Believer's Bible. Here's Dave to tell you more. And let me just say, congratulations. You've made the right decision.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And we're eager to send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It's the perfect resource for someone who's new to the faith. It explains the basics of walking with the Lord and answers many of the questions new believers often have. More than 10 million copies are in print, and we'll send it to you free of charge if you'll just contact us and request it.

Call us at 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 "Know God."

Thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue. Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online, you'll find us at harvest.org. There you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now. That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at 1-800-821-3300.

Next time, more about the importance of God's word and memorizing key passages as part of our spiritual growth plan. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.