A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: There are many sentiments that people carry in life that are simply not biblical. Uh, one would be follow your heart.

Guest (Male): We don't usually learn theological truth in idle conversations over the water cooler. Pastor Greg Laurie says beware of those attitudes like follow your heart.

Greg Laurie: The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it? You see we need to follow God's heart, not our heart.

Guest (Male): Ever played the telephone game? You and some others gather in a circle, someone whispers a message to the first person who whispers it to the second and so on. When the last person reveals what he heard, it's obvious that the message got wildly distorted. Some people seem to play a game like that with their Bible knowledge. They rely on what they've heard the Bible says. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie takes us to the source to discover some things people said it said that it never said.

Greg Laurie: You know there are certain things that people believe to be true that are not true. We call them old wives' tales, right? And if you're an old wife, sorry, but this is the expression. Old wives' tales. And we've heard these from our childhoods as an example. If I drop a piece of food on the ground, if I pick it up before 5 seconds, uh, it's okay. It's often called the 5 second rule. Uh, that's not true because the bacteria transfers to food immediately. Here's another one we've all heard from our childhoods. Don't go swimming after you've eaten or you'll get cramps and you could even drown.

Completely not true at all. Okay? No science behind that. That tall tale is all wet. Okay? So that's not true. How about this one? If you're sick, you should eat chicken soup. It'll help you get better. That one is true. I love that. And I it seems for my life when I eat chicken soup, if I have a cold, it really does help and they've actually done research on this and found that it actually does help. Okay? And there are things believed about God and about the Bible that are not true. Here's a couple of easy ones.

God helps those who help themselves. The Bible says God helps those who help themselves. The Bible does not say that. Now the idea behind it isn't completely wrong. If I was applying it in this way, for instance, you know you need to go out and get a job and you need to work and be responsible. You can't just sit around on your lazy boy and binge on Netflix, right? Uh, because the Bible says God helps those who help themselves. Well, I have a better version. Say the Bible says if you don't work, you don't get to eat.

Okay? So go get a job. So I mean if you were to get really technical, God helps those who can't help themselves, right? Uh, because when we get to the end of ourselves, we really get to the beginning of God. Here's another one often quoted. You know the Bible says cleanliness is next to godliness. And that's usually what a parent says when they want their child to get clean, right? Now I'm all for soap and being clean, but the Bible does not say cleanliness is next to godliness. But there are many sentiments that people carry in life that are simply not biblical.

Uh, one would be well, God is angry at me and he wants to ruin my life. Some people think this. God just out to ruin everything that I planned for myself. You know that is so wrong. God's mad at me. God is not mad at you. God is mad about you. If there's one thing that's clear in scripture, it is this. God loves you. You see it from Genesis to Revelation. He says I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you. The Bible even says God is love. 1 John 3:1 says behold what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called God's children.

God loves you. God wants to bless you. God wants to give you a life that is worth living. Now let's take the flip side of that. And we hear people say God loves me and accepts me as I am. Right? This is usually said by someone that is probably doing something they should not do. Yeah, I know that I go out and I party and get drunk on the weekend, but God loves me and accepts me as I am. Well, I know that we're getting a divorce and we don't have a biblical reason, but still God loves me and accepts me as I am.

I know that I shouldn't do this, but God loves me and accepts me as I am. Other variations of this is no one is perfect. And one of my favorites, hey man, don't judge my journey. Yeah, I judge your journey a little bit. Especially because your journey might lead you to the wrong place. Fact of the matter is the Bible tells us that judgment begins in the house of God. A Christian is to be discerning and a Christian is to make judgments. When Jesus says, oh, by the way, their favorite verses are judge not lest you be judged and let him that is without sin cast the first stone, right?

That's our way of saying go away and stop talking to me, Christian, with your Bible. Now it is true Jesus said judge not lest you be judged, but a better translation would be condemn not lest you be condemned. But this idea of God loves me and accepts me as I am needs to be looked at. So is it true that God loves me and accepts me as I am? I would say technically the answer is yes. But now let me add another statement to it. God loves you and accepts you as you are, but he doesn't want to leave you that way.

So I don't have to do something to earn the love of God. I have the love of God. It is extended toward me even as a sinner. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, the Bible says. Jesus says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So he loves me, but he doesn't want to leave me the way that I am. The classic example is the story of the prodigal son. He sinned against his father. He came to his senses. He decided to return home. And the father saw him and ran toward him and threw his arms around him and kissed him and hugged him and said rejoice.

This my son who was dead is alive again. He who was lost is found. And then he said get this kid a bath and some clean clothes because the boy had been hanging out with pigs. He didn't smell right. He needed to clean his life up. He needed to learn that cleanliness is next to godliness, right? So this is us. We come to Jesus with all of our sin, with all of the things that are wrong and God says I love you. I accept you as you are. Now repent of your sin and live a new life and I'll give you the power to do that from my Holy Spirit.

So that's a commonly believed idea. And then the Bible even says keep yourself in the love of God. That doesn't mean do things to earn God's love. But what it means is stay in a place where God can actively show his love toward you. Stay away from things that would separate you from God. Okay? Here's another one that we've all heard. Follow your heart. Just no matter what in life, just follow your heart. It's similar to God loves and accepts me as I am. Variations of this idea would be the heart wants what it wants.

What what does that even mean? The heart wants what it wants or listen to your heart and you will find the truth. Now when we use this phrase heart in English in our culture today, we're primarily speaking of our emotion. Uh, in Hebrew culture when the Bible says love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul and mind, it didn't make that kind of a distinction. Uh, it would include your mind as well as your heart, but it will say follow your heart. In other words, follow your emotion. And we use this phrase about our heart all the time.

If someone is uh, very emotional, we will say oh, they wear their heart on their sleeve, right? If we're sad, we say I'm heartbroken. If we're insensitive to the needs of others, we'll say you are so heartless. And then we wonder why someone doesn't care. We say where's your heart? Well, maybe they should check their sleeve cuz that's the last place they left it, right? Then there's countless songs about the heart. Bruce Springsteen had a hungry heart. Billy Ray Cyrus had an achy breaky heart. Maybe that's why Tony Braxton sang Unbreak My Heart because Billy Ray gave her an achy breaky heart.

And then the Bee Gees sang how can you mend a broken heart, especially an achy breaky heart? But then Celine Dion reminds us that the heart will go on even if it's achy breaky and it's been broken, right? Okay, so should we follow our heart? No. Why? The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it? You see we need to follow God's heart, not our heart. And as we fill our minds with the word of God, our mind changes and our heart changes. Ezekiel 36:26 God says I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

And then we're told in Psalm 37:4 take delight in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. When you get your life aligned with God's will, when you get your prayers in sync with what God wants for you, he will give you the desires of your heart because the desires of your heart will change. But if you just say follow your heart and follow your emotion, you can get into a lot of trouble.

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, well, 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 6 to 15 20 27.

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 6 through 15 2027. Get details at israel.harvest.org. Well, today Pastor Greg is presenting a fascinating message called Things Jesus Never Said. Glad you're along for our series in the book of James.

Greg Laurie: There's another thing people believe. Trust your gut. Just trust your gut. I don't know. I'd like to trust my gut. I don't know. My gut gets me into trouble. Maybe I'm hungry in the evening and I'm driving home and and my mind says you should just have a nice salad. The gut says Taco Bell, right? The gut. Trust your gut. Now sometimes we're maybe having a conversation with someone and we get a sense. You could call it intuition. Like I don't know if this person is on the up and up. I don't know if I trust that person and there's some value there.

We have certain insights maybe, but the Bible doesn't teach us to trust our gut cuz our gut or our emotions can get us into trouble. Uh, in Proverbs 16:25 we read there as a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. So instead of trusting our gut, we need to trust in the Lord. That's what the Bible teaches. Proverbs 3:5 says trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not into your own understanding and all of your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

Here's something else Jesus never said. We need to love ourselves. Love ourselves. You need to love yourself more. The problem is you don't love yourself enough. So untrue. You love yourself. I love myself. When someone takes a picture and you're in the picture, who do you look for first? And then what do you say? Don't post that. Why? I look fat. Don't post it. Let me Photoshop it quickly. You know what's our favorite form of photography? Selfies. You know we love ourselves already. So this is pretty much an established fact. In fact, we love ourselves too much.

But wait, doesn't the Bible say love your neighbor as you love yourself? So therefore the Bible's teaching you to love yourself. No. The Bible is saying it's obvious you already love yourself. Can't you love your neighbor as well? See the Bible actually teaches the opposite of loving yourself. It actually tells us that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind and put Christ first. Sometimes a variation of this is I'm trying to find myself. Usually before someone does something really stupid, they'll say I'm just trying to find myself.

Jesus says if you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself or dedicate yourself to me. He says if any man come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross and follow me for whoever will lose his life will find it. Here's another one. I deserve to be happy. I know what I'm doing is maybe not the right thing, but I deserve to be happy. Well, really? Well, the Bible even says it. No, it actually doesn't. Now it 's not that God wants you to be unhappy. God wants you to be happy in the right way.

I mean back in 8397 Augustine said everyone, whatever his condition, desires to be happy. So this pursuit of happiness is not unique to modern times. Mankind has always wanted to be happy. And the problem is we go about trying to find happiness in the wrong way. Oh, if I was famous, I'd be happy. Or if I had all this money, I'd be happy. Or if I did this or did that, I would be happy. And it's simply not true. When comedian Dave Chappelle was making millions of dollars, he said he was not happy. And he was quoted to say the higher up I go, the less happy I am.

And that's why it shouldn't be a shock to us when we read of some celebrity overdosing on drugs or going into rehab for the 30th time or sometimes tragically even taking their own lives. It's because they've climbed to the top and they found out there's nothing there. See when you don't have it, you may think yeah, one day maybe though if I won the lottery, then I would be happy. But then you find out no, that's not where it is. So it 's not wrong that you want to be happy. You just need to go about finding that happiness in the right way.

I deserve it. Do you deserve it? Let's not get into that. If we're going to talk about what we deserve, I'll be blunt with you. You deserve to be judged for your sin and so do I. So don't say to God I deserve to be happy. The Lord says really we're going to go there? Okay, let's take it another way. Can I be happy? The answer is yes. Does God want me to be happy again? The answer is yes. But you'll never find happiness by pursuing it. You'll find happiness by pursuing the Lord. Right? The Bible says happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

Luke 11:28 says happy are those that hear the word of God and keep it. So if you want to live a happy life, live a holy life, live a godly life and put the Lord first and you will find that happiness will come as a result. Here's another one. God wants me to follow my dreams. Well, not exactly. It's not bad to have a dream, but sometimes your dreams are not the best dreams. And sometimes you might get what you want and your dream might turn into a nightmare. So here's what it comes down to.

I want to find God's plan for my life. Listen to this. God 's plan for your life is better than your own. Put his will first. And that's hard for us to do cuz that goes back to my first point. God's against me. God hates me. Wrong. God loves you. God has a plan for you. It's a good plan. So understand that. Now coming back to my dream. Okay, I have my dreams. So dedicate your dreams to the Lord. Okay, Lord, this is kind of what I think I want. But I can tell you after living a few years that I can look back on my life and thank the Lord he didn't answer some of my prayers.

Right? Thank God for unanswered prayers. The Lord said no. God, you if you loved me, you'd love me. No, I love you and that's why I'm not letting you. And you'll know this one day when you get older and you look back in retrospect and realize my plan for you is better than your plan for yourself. Listen, God is omniscient. It's a theological word that simply means God is all knowing. God knows everything. He knows everything about you and me and all of us. In fact, the Bible even tells us in Psalm 147 verse 4 he determines the number of stars and calls them each by name.

Can you imagine that God knows all the stars? So in 2021 the James Webb Telescope was launched. The results are blowing the minds of astronomers and scientists. The space going infrared telescope captures previously unobservable planets, stars and galaxies right out to the edge of space and beyond. This is the creation of God that we've never seen before. And astronomers now estimate that there are 100,000 million stars in the Milky Way and outside of that millions and millions of other galaxies. And what did we just read? We read that God knows every star each with its own name.

But I'd run out of names fast if it was up to me. Uh, Rover, uh, Bob, Larry, Mary. I don't know. I mean every one of those stars has a name that God has given to them. So I bring this up because if God has named all the stars and all of the galaxies out there, does he not care about you? He does. In fact, if it concerns you, it concerns God. Psalm 56:8 says you keep track of my sorrows. You've collected my tears in your bottle. You've recorded each one in your book. So you can take a step of faith today knowing that God knows your tomorrow.

He's already been there. He's getting things ready for you. So don't follow your dreams. Follow the Lord who has a better plan for you than your own.

Guest (Male): Good encouragement and clarification today on A New Beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie's message is titled Things Jesus Never Said. And there's more to come as this study continues. Uh, Pastor Greg mentioned the care and concern of God along with his omniscience, the fact he knows everything. When such a resourceful God cares for us, we ought to let him. And the first step toward that is to make sure we have a personal relationship with him. Have you ever made that decision in your life? Pastor Greg, what would you say to the person listening who just doesn't know if they have?

They can't think of a time when they made a deliberate decision to become a Christian. It's just not a good idea to assume everything's going to work out okay, is it?

Greg Laurie: No, this is one area of your life you want to be sure about where you're going to spend eternity. The Bible says these things we write to you that you may believe on the son of God and that you may know that you have eternal life. Listen, I know I have eternal life. I know I'll go to heaven one day. And I hope that doesn't sound boastful. And if it does, I'm boasting in what God has done for me, not in what I've done for God. The reason I know these things is because I've turned from my sin and I've put my faith in Christ, you see.

And if you do the same, you can have this same hope. You just need to call out to the Lord and admit you're a sinner and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and come into your life. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Will you call upon him right now? I'm going to pray a simple prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer after me if you would. So if you want to know that you're going to heaven when you die, if you want to know for certain that Christ is living in your life, then pray this prayer with me.

Just pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner, but I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord, as my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, the Lord has forgiven your sin and you're now a Christian. And we want to help you get started in this new life of faith. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It's in an easy to understand translation and there are scores of features to help a new believer build a solid foundation for their faith. So get in touch and ask for the New Believer's Bible. We'll send it free of charge. Just call 1 800 821 3300.

You can call us anytime 1 800 821 3300 or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, Pastor Greg, we have so many people who help us. They they help by praying for us. They help by investing, by being partners with us. In fact, we've got a group called Harvest Partners who help on a regular basis.

Greg Laurie: Mhm. Yeah.

Guest (Male): When they give, let me ask you an insider question. When they give, how is that money used?

Greg Laurie: That's a great question. So the answer is it goes into our ministry, which is quite diverse. It goes into our crusade ministry. And by the way, we just wrapped up a crusade in July at Angel Stadium and we saw the Lord work. We saw people committing their life to Christ as they have for 35 years. It's absolutely amazing. It goes to our radio broadcast. It goes to reaching people through our television ministry and other opportunities that come our way. I have to tell you we have some amazing opportunities uh, in this coming year. And I'll tell you more about them as we get closer to it.

But what a great time to be bringing the gospel. I'm so thankful as we have just celebrated our 250th birthday as a nation that we have the freedom in the United States of America to preach the gospel and to teach the word of God. Never take that freedom for granted. It really is a privilege. That 's why so many people want to come to our country, the land of the free and the home of the brave. We truly are blessed by God. And we want to continue to take advantage of that freedom that we have in America and declare the ultimate freedom that people can have in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Freedom from the power of sin, freedom to live a new life glorifying God. So stand with us if you would and invest in our ministry so you can share in the fruit of what we're doing in the months in years to come. And in advance let me say thank you. And one way you can do that is by becoming a harvest partner. Harvest partner is someone that just stands with us on a monthly basis and gives to our ministry. Man that makes such a difference. So thank you if you're a harvest partner. And for those of you that have not become one yet, would you prayerfully consider it?

It would really make all the difference, honestly. So thanks again and God bless you all.

Guest (Male): And you can get started by calling us at 1 800 821 3300. Call anytime 1 800 821 3300 or write A New Beginning box 4000 Riverside, California 92514 or go online to harvest.org.

Greg Laurie: Did you know that we put our services that we do on Sundays online? It's called Harvest at Home. And you can be a part of our extended congregation no matter where you are. And people watch from literally all around the world. So if you want to watch Harvest at Home or view it later if you like, just download the Harvest Plus app and then join us for Harvest at Home.

Guest (Male): Well, next time more insights on the reliable wisdom found in God's word as we continue our studies in the book of James. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.