A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: I need to commit scripture to memory. You can do this. We can all do this. Some people say they can't memorize, just can't do it, no way, no how. I beg to differ. You remember lines from films. You remember the scores of Super Bowl games going back forever. 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.

Guest (Male): All the worthless things that get into our minds when we weren't paying attention. We can remember the words of TV themes, the words in the jingles of various fast-food restaurants, the words to songs on the radio, songs we don't even like. If we hear something often enough, it sticks. If we can't remember Bible verses, maybe we haven't read them often enough.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us write the truth of scripture on our hearts from his message called "The Bible and Revival."

Greg Laurie: So we're calling what we're doing here tonight "Jesus Revolution" because it's a look back at some of the great things that the Lord did in days gone by, the last great spiritual awakening in America. How many of you were around during the Jesus movement? Okay, a number of you. How many of you were not around? Okay, that's most of you. Well, you're around now, and we're having Jesus Revolution right here tonight.

Grab your Bible and turn to Acts chapter two and Psalm 19. 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 how we love to talk about the soon coming of the Lord. 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. There were home Bible studies, Bible studies on high school campuses, and Bible studies on college campuses. We couldn't get enough of the word of God.

Let's go over to Acts chapter two. This is when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the day of Pentecost and people speak in unknown languages, they speak in tongues. Then what happens after that? Acts 2:16, 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, 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? 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.

I need to read it, and I need to commit scripture to memory. 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 19:7. 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. "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 commandment of the Lord is 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, doesn't it? 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 even 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'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.

Number two, the word of the Lord revives us. Look at verse seven of Psalm 19: "The law of the Lord or the word of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." This word convert could be translated revive, restore, and transform. When you read God's word, you will be revived, restored, and transformed. Psalm 119 has the Psalmist saying, "Revive me according to your word." So God's word will revive you. You want to be a revived Christian, you want to be a spirit-filled Christian, then study the word of God because it will revive you.

Number three, the word of God gives incredible wisdom. Look at verse seven: "The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." This is an interesting phrase in the Hebrew because this word simple speaks of an open door. Sort of like your mind is an open door. This speaks of a person that just lets anything come in, anything go out. They're totally naive. They're open to everything, they're open to anything, they're closed to nothing. The Bible says it can make you wise so you don't be that person, so you have a person that learns to think logically, but that logic is built on scripture.

It's a funny thing. Sometimes people want to dismiss Christians as unthinking fools when in reality, I didn't really learn to think until I became a Christian. To be honest with you, I didn't even learn how to study until I became a Christian, not just the Bible but other books, to really think things through and get a biblical worldview. If you don't have a biblical worldview, nothing on this planet makes sense. If you think man is basically good, you must be having a lot of troubles right now. But if you believe what the Bible says, that man is not basically good, man is essentially sinful, separated from God, and that's why he does the things that he does, suddenly a lot of things start making a lot more sense.

So we need to not be that simple-minded person that just marches in lockstep with whatever is the trend or the thing that we're supposed to believe and start thinking for ourselves. God says in the book of Isaiah, "Come and let us reason together," says the Lord. Christianity is a reasonable faith, it's a logical faith. That's what this will do for you. The word of God will give you that kind of mind.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We're so moved to hear from listeners that join us from all over the world, from every background, every profession, every age, and in every circumstance of life.

Guest (Female): Hi Pastor Greg. I'm 16 and I've been through a whole lot in my life. I've been in foster care since I was six, and I've prayed to Jesus that he would let me be adopted by this family. It's finally happening. It's amazing to see that God answers prayers, and I see it in my own life. I know I'm young, but I'm ready to commit my whole life to Jesus. I didn't know how much I needed God until these past few weeks. I have a boyfriend who also loves Jesus, and he goes to church with me on Sunday mornings. I watched the Jesus Revolution movie with my boyfriend and his mother, and it made a tremendous impact on all of us. As I watched you be baptized at the end of the movie, my boyfriend and I realized that we also want to be baptized at Pirates Cove together. Anyway, thank you Pastor Greg, and I'm ready to take the next step with God.

Guest (Male): Do you have a story to share with Pastor Greg? If so, would you let him know? Send him an email: greg@harvest.org. That's greg@harvest.org. We are learning what the Bible does for us on a practical level each day as believers. Pastor Greg is presenting his message, "The Bible and Revival."

Greg Laurie: Sometimes the question is asked, "Well, what do you do when you don't agree with the Bible?" Someone asked me that question a while ago. What do you do when you don't agree with the Bible? I said, "Well, change your opinion because you're wrong." I mean, what do you want me to say? "Oh, well, let's just edit that out."

I was just in the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C., which is an amazing place. It's a fantastic place that shows you how reliable God's word is, and I recommend everyone go and visit it. One of the things they had there was a copy of Jefferson's Bible. Thomas Jefferson, one of the Presidents of the United States, one of the ratifiers of the U.S. Constitution, a very important figure. But Jefferson had a Bible, and Jefferson was a man who believed the Bible had good moral messages in it, so he actually went through a Bible and cut out the parts about miracles and the supernatural and kept what he thought were the moral lessons of the Bible in it.

It's called Jefferson's Bible. Well, that's not how it works. You can't say, "I don't know if I really like this part, I think I'll just cut it out." No, all scripture, the Bible says, is inspired by God, so we don't want to do that. If you don't agree with the Bible, change your opinion because the Bible is right.

Number four, the word of God is right. Verse eight: "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." So it's going to help you to know how God wants you to live. It's going to show you the promises that God has for you. That's why you want to read through books of the Bible and ask yourself the question: is there a promise here for me to claim? Is there a victory here for me to gain? Is there a blessing here for me to enjoy?

My last point: keeping the word of God makes you happy. Psalm 19:8 says, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." That word rejoicing means just making you happy. You want to be a happy person, read the Bible. You want to be an even happier person, do what the Bible tells you to do. I would add to that, don't do the things the Bible tells you not to do.

Luke 11:28 says, "Happy are the people that hear the word of God and keep it." Oh, I know this goes against the logic of some. They think, "No, the Bible keeps you from happiness. It's a restrictive life. It's a miserable life. It's a tortured life." Nothing could be further from the truth. It's the exact opposite.

Life without the word of God, life without Jesus Christ is the miserable life. I know, I've been on both sides of the fence. Life without Christ is a restrictive life because you're bound with the power of sin. Life without Christ is a torturous life because you're tormented by your guilt for the sins you've committed. No, you want to be a happy man, you want to be a happy woman, you do what the Bible tells you to do.

One last thing. The Bible tells me how to get to heaven. The Bible tells me how to find the meaning of life. The Bible tells me what I should even be thinking about and living for each and every day. But most importantly, the Bible tells me about Jesus. That's the message of the Bible in a nutshell. It's Jesus.

He's in the Old Testament concealed. He's in the New Testament revealed. But from Genesis to Revelation, it's all about Jesus. The Old Testament is pointing to Jesus. The New Testament is showing all those things that Jesus fulfilled. It's all about this simple message: God loves humanity, humanity sinned against God, God longs for relationship with us, so He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross in our place and pay for all of our sin and rise again from the dead. If we will put our faith in Jesus, we can have eternal life and we can have a life on earth that is worth living.

So I ask in closing, do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? Because He's alive. We're talking about the Jesus Revolution. Jesus is still revolutionizing lives right now, and He can revolutionize your life. He can change your life, starting with removing that barrier that separates you from God, that is called sin.

Jesus is here with us in this place right now, standing at the door of our life and He is knocking. He is saying, "If you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in." I'm not just talking to the people in this room. I'm talking to everybody watching, everybody listening. Wherever you are, you can have a relationship with God right now. You can be forgiven of all of your sin, and Christ can come and live inside of you.

I ask you, if this were your last night on earth, would you go to heaven when you die? If Jesus Christ were to come back again, would you be ready to meet Him? I recently told the story of a young lady named Crystal, who heard the gospel on a radio broadcast of A New Beginning and asked Christ to come into her life. But the problem was Crystal worked at Planned Parenthood and she assisted in doing abortions on young ladies.

She said one day she was in that room and she was reassembling the body parts of a baby that had been aborted. She thought of something that I said in my message, which was, if Jesus were to come back again, would you be ashamed to be doing the thing that you're doing? It dawned on her, "Yes, I would be, and I believe I would be left behind." So Crystal turned from her sin and put her faith in Jesus Christ.

Well, listen, that can happen for any person, no matter what you're doing, no matter what sin you've committed, no matter how bad it is. God will forgive you. But Jesus is coming again, and He could come back tonight. I hope that you would not be one of the ones who would be left behind. You say, "Well, what do I do?" You need to admit your sin. You need to ask Christ to come into your life, and He'll do that for you right here, right now. In a moment we're going to pray, and I'm going to extend an opportunity for anyone here that has joined us who may not yet know Jesus Christ, an opportunity for you to ask Him into your life, ask Him to forgive you of your sin, so you can find this relationship with God we've been talking about, and so you can know with certainty that you'll go to heaven when you die.

When I was just a young kid, I heard this message. I didn't understand a lot of it, but I understood a little. I understood that God loved me. I understood that Jesus wanted to forgive me. I understood that my life could change. So I took that little step of faith and I prayed that little prayer. Little did I know what would happen in the months and the years and the decades following. But I'm telling you it can happen for you right here, right now. Your whole life can change. Your story can change. Your future can change, and your past can be put behind you. But you must come to Jesus and believe in Him.

If you need to do that, do it right now. Let's all pray. Father, I pray for every person here, every person listening, every person watching, wherever they are. If they don't know Jesus yet, if they don't have a relationship with you, I pray this will be the moment it happens. I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict and convince them of their need for Christ and bring them to yourself now, we pray. Amen.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. If you'd like to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord before today's edition of A New Beginning wraps up in a moment, Pastor Greg will help you with that. So please stay with us.

Ever start your day off wrong? Things started badly and just kept going downhill. A lot of it has to do with your focus, where your mind is centered as the day starts. Why not plug into Pastor Greg's daily devotions? They're free of charge. It's good encouragement to keep your eyes fixed on Christ. You can read each day's devotion or listen to the audio version. Your choice. Sign up today, free of charge, at harvest.org. Pastor Greg, just before we go, would you mind praying with the person listening who wants to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord?

Greg Laurie: I'd be happy to. As you've been listening to this today, maybe you've heard another voice. By that I mean you heard me say a few things, but you heard God's voice speak to you deep in the recesses of your heart. It suddenly dawned on you, "This is what I need," or to state it more accurately, "This is who I need. I need Jesus and I want Jesus." But maybe you don't know how to make that connection. Let me help you.

God is only a prayer away. He stands at the door of your heart and He knocks, and Jesus says if you'll hear His voice and open the door, He'll come in. Let me help you open the door, so to speak, of your heart as you invite Jesus to be your Savior and Lord. So here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to stop what you're doing, and I want you to pray a prayer after me. I'll lead you in this prayer, and as you pray it, God will hear you. Pray this after me right now if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life.

Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I am sorry for my sin and I need your forgiveness right now. Would you come into my heart and my life as Savior, as God, as friend? I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and accepting me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

I know that was a relatively short prayer. Maybe you felt something as you prayed it, maybe you felt nothing. That doesn't really matter because God's word says, "These things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." It doesn't say so you may think you have it or you may hope you have it if God's in a good mood. No, that you can know it. And I want you to know if you prayed that prayer in faith, Jesus Christ the Son of God has come into your life. So congratulations, you're now a Christian. Now continue to follow the Lord.

Guest (Male): To help you as you follow the Lord, we'd like to send you an important resource. It's Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It features so many helps that will answer many of the questions you might have and get you started in your new relationship with the Lord. So get in touch and ask for it. We'll send it free of charge. Again, it's the New Believer's Bible. Just call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime day or night. Again, it's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org and click the words "know God."

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. We hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue.

Greg Laurie: It's really true. 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. 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): We really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us anytime day or night at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org.

What part does our knowledge of the rapture play in ushering in the next great move of revival and spiritual awakening? Pastor Greg explains next time. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.