A New Beginning

Reading, writing, and arithmetic: the three Rs as they're called. The three Rs of revival are remember, repent, and then repeat. Listen to this: if you want to see a revival, then do revival-like things.

Start your day reading the Word of God whether you feel like it or not. Take more time to be with God's people in worship. Take more opportunities to pray. Leave your comfort zone and share your faith.

Ever been behind the wheel on a long road trip? The endless miles of highway can be fatiguing. We can actually feel sleepy at 65 miles per hour. Sometimes we go through life at 65 miles per hour, but spiritually speaking, we've practically fallen asleep.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how to wake ourselves up spiritually and how that'll have an effect on our culture as well. He's explaining the biblical prescription for a societal spiritual awakening.

Greg Laurie: So we're talking about the Jesus Revolution. You know, it's interesting in the days of the Jesus Movement, we didn't call it the Jesus Revolution. It was Time magazine that came up with this idea. They called it a revolution. We didn't call it that, but in many ways, it was a revolution.

What is a revolution? Generally, we think of upheaval, radical change, like the French Revolution. But the word revolution also means turning around and returning to something. I think that's really what we need in America. We need to turn back to God.

I can't think of a time in our nation's history for the years I've been alive and maybe even before and studying history when America has been more divided than we are right now. We love to point our fingers. We point our fingers at Hollywood and all the junk they turn out, and they do deserve some blame, of course. Or we point our fingers at Washington, DC.

But when a nation is breaking down, God does not point his finger at the White House; he points his finger at his house, at the church. Because revival, as we pointed out last time, is what the church needs to experience. A spiritual awakening is what America needs. A revival is what the church needs.

I quoted this verse last time: 2 Chronicles 7:14. It's really God's prescription for revival or restoration. It applies to any person or any nation where God says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

So I want to talk about prayer and revival because that's really what needs to happen. We need to start praying like we've never prayed before. Revival is getting back to the Christian life as it was meant to be lived. Revival is sort of like being in love for the first time or in the bloom of first love.

In fact, the Bible even compares our relationship with God to that of two newlyweds or someone in a first-love relationship. In fact, in the book of Ephesians, Jesus talks to the church there and says, "I know you guys are active. I know you're busy. You're doing a lot of great stuff. But here's my issue with you: you've left your first love."

Now, how many of you are in love with somebody right now? You're in love with somebody. Okay, now how many of you are married? Okay, how many of you are in love with your spouse? I better see the same amount of hands go up. How many of you are not married yet but you're in love with somebody? It's okay. Are you with them? Are you with them here? Have you told them yet? Do they know, or is this the first time they're hearing it?

When I was a kid in school, I was always falling in love with girls that never knew I existed. I'd have crushes on girls, and so maybe there's someone you think, "I wonder if that's the right one for me." So you write their name and your name together, and you play around with their last name as your last name if you're a girl.

That's the kind of things that people that are in love do. You've got the butterflies in the stomach, and you're nervous, and your mouth goes dry, and all those things that speak of a new love. And then you get married. Okay, and then things change.

As I've said, marriage is a three-ring circus: there's engagement ring, wedding ring, and suffering. No, that's a joke, but sometimes it's that way. But I bring this up as an illustration because this can be like our relationship with God. When you first come to Jesus, you're all excited. You're all fired up. You want to go to every church service. You can't go to too many church services.

You can't wait to get up in the morning and hear what the Bible has to say to you. Prayer, man, you just love to pray. You're always praying. In fact, sometimes you pray too long, which isn't the worst thing a person can do. Sharing your faith, that just comes natural. You're always initiating conversations about Jesus Christ.

But the thing is, as time passes, we start taking these things for granted, and it's possible to sort of leave our first love. You don't lose it, but you can leave it. So speaking to people who've left their first love, Jesus says, "Remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works quickly."

So the three Rs of getting right with God, or we could say the three Rs of revival, are remember. If there was a time in your life as a Christian when you had more fire for God, you had more passion for Jesus, remember it as a point of reference. Then repent. Literally repent. Change your direction. That's what repent means. It means go in the opposite direction.

Then repeat. Do the first works quickly. Listen to this: if you want to see a revival, then do revival-like things. So instead of overly mystifying it, just get back and do those things you used to do. Don't wait for some emotion to overcome you. Just start your day reading the Word of God whether you feel like it or not. Take more time to be with God's people in worship. Take more opportunities to pray. Leave your comfort zone and share your faith.

It's interesting that one of the great awakenings that happened in America that I mentioned last time was what is called the Prayer Revival in New York City. It started as a prayer meeting on Fulton Street in New York, and it started very small, but then the stock market crashed and everyone basically was freaking out and calling on God.

When things are going well, when the economy is good, like it is right now, we might say, "Well, we don't really need God all that much." Oh, trust me, we need God. We need God badly. But maybe we're just not willing to realize how desperate the situation really is.

What is revival? Charles Finney, who was a part of one of the great revivals, said, "Revival is nothing more or less than a new beginning of obedience to God." Billy Sunday, a great evangelist, talked about revival and he said this: "They tell me a revival is only temporary. So is a bath, but it does you good."

So it's a good thing when it happens. Revival is not only returning to one's first love in Jesus, but it's also waking up from sleep. Often in the Bible, lethargy, laziness, and sleep is used as a picture of a person that is complacent in their relationship with God. In Romans 13:11, it says it's more urgent right now, the day of the Lord is closer than it's ever been. Time is running out, so wake up because our salvation is so close.

The funny thing about going to sleep is you don't always know that you're asleep. Others do because you're snoring, right? But sometimes when my wife and I are dozing off, she likes to watch, how do I put it delicately, boring things on TV, which actually helps because I watch things that get me too stimulated. She'll say, "Turn that off," and then she likes to watch a show called, I don't know if you've ever seen it, The Great British Bake Off.

Ever seen that show? It's so boring. And so I fall asleep, and Kathy will say, "Are you sleeping?" and I don't know why, but I deny it. "No, I wasn't sleeping." Why do we deny it when we're sleeping? Someone calls us at three in the morning. "Were you sleeping?" "No, I just woke up, thank you very much." So that's how it can be sometimes spiritually. You don't realize that you're spiritually asleep.

Guest (Male): Emails, phone calls, and social media messages from listeners are so encouraging to us, and they let us know the effectiveness of these studies.

"Pastor Greg, I've been a born-again Christian for over 30 years. Every time I listen to you, I learn new verses, and you teach me new things about the Lord and my own faith. I'm encouraged now to go and spread the gospel with others. God bless you and keep up the good work."

When we hear from you, it's not only a blessing, it also confirms that the program is touching lives. Would you consider sharing your story? If so, call Pastor Greg at 866-871-1144. That's 866-871-1144. Well, Pastor Greg is pointing out today how a spiritual awakening in the culture depends on revival in the church.

Greg Laurie: Revival is getting back to the Christian faith that was lived out in the first century. It's been said that revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented, he shows up himself. I want to say that again: revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented, he shows up himself.

And periodically, we have to rescue Jesus from modern-day Christianity. It gets all caught up in religious stuff and ritualistic stuff and all kinds of things that have nothing to do with Jesus. This is why we called it the Jesus Movement and the Jesus Revolution. Everything, it's about Jesus. And when we're focused on Jesus, everything seems to find its right place.

So God wants to send a revival. One person wrote it down this way, and I quote: "If all the sleeping people will wake up, if all the lukewarm people will fire up, if all of the dishonest people will confess up, if all the disgruntled people will cheer up, if all the estranged people will make up, if all the gossipers will shut up, if all true soldiers will stand up, if the dry bones will shake up, if all the church people will pray up, then we can have a revival." I like that.

So here's point number one if you're taking notes: if you want to see a revival, you need to confess your sin, humble yourself, and pray. You need to confess your sin, humble yourself, and pray. And in a moment, we're going to look at a passage of Scripture where that happened, where God's people began to pray like never before.

But before we do that, let's pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Your disciples said that to you one day, and you gave them an answer. You gave them what we call the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."

Lord, we want to know how to pray more. Lord, we want to pray more, but we don't pray as much as we ought to. We'll admit that. So give us a heart to pray. Teach us to pray. We ask it in your name. Amen.

Here's something to think about with sleep. You know, when I get sleepy is when I overeat. I get real tired. Think about Thanksgiving when we all commit the sin of gluttony nationally, right? So we eat turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy and sweet potatoes, maybe with melted marshmallows—at least we do that. And then you have biscuits or cornbread or muffins or rolls or something like that, and then, of course, pumpkin pie. I think it's a law you have to have pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

But I don't know about you, but I want to go into a coma afterwards. And then you wake up and what do you do? You go have a turkey sandwich or something like that. But so here's a funny thing about sleep. You know, it's not always just a bad thing. It can happen when you've been fed really well.

So, you know, you can come to church and be fed the Word of God and study the Word of God and actually, how shall I put it? I don't want to say overeat because I don't think you can overstudy the Bible. But let me say it this way: you can study the Bible without any application in your life or putting it into action.

See, if you just eat and you don't exercise, you're just going to become, well, spiritually obese. You'll be a real holy roller. We'll have to roll you out of the church, right? And so I think there has to be a place for understanding we need to give out what God has given to us. We're blessed to be a blessing.

But there are things that can hinder our prayer life. The Bible says that if we have idols in our heart, the Lord will not listen to us. So what's an idol? Well, you know, an idol can be anything. It could be a guitar, it could be a car, it could be a house, it could be your body. It could be some device that you have, a phone or whatever else. It could be a career. It could be so many things that you're more passionate about than God.

So the idea of not having another God before him is make God number one in your life. The first commandment is put God first and have no other gods before me, and then he says, "Don't make any graven images." So if we have an idol in our heart, God won't hear us.

Another thing that can hinder our prayer is unconfessed sin. Because the Bible says that if we have iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us. So I think it's really important for us to confess our sin. In fact, that kind of brings us to the text I want to look at: Nehemiah chapter 9. And this is a story of a massive prayer meeting that happened.

And this prayer meeting took place after the people of Israel who had been held captive in Babylon for 70 years were freed. And talk about idols, they were like in idol central. There were idols everywhere. In fact, the reason they ended up in Babylon is the Israelites kept taking God for granted and turning to these stupid false gods.

So the Lord said, "Okay, you guys want false gods and idols? I'll send you to a place where you have more than you can shake a stick at." After 70 years in Babylon, they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They were led by Nehemiah.

So after the walls were rebuilt and everybody was back in the land, a prophet priest named Ezra gave a powerful message. And after he was done speaking, the people prayed. So Nehemiah 9, verses 1-4, I'm reading from the New Living Translation:

"On October 31st, the people assembled again, and this time they fasted and dressed in burlap and sprinkled dust in their hair. Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors. They remained standing in place for three hours while the Book of the Law of the Lord God was read aloud to them, and for three more hours they confessed their sins and worshipped the Lord."

So don't talk to me about services going too long. I mean, check this out: for three hours they confessed their sins and worshipped the Lord, and for three hours they stood in place hearing the message. So that sounds like revival to me. So what do they do? They prayed with passion and they confessed their sins. The Bible says that if we will confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But the problem is people will say today, "Well, you know, I don't really think that's a sin. My opinion is this isn't a sin and that is a sin." Well, it's really not up to you or me to decide what a sin is. We determine what sin is by what God says. And actually, the word confess means to agree with God. And the way we know what God thinks about things is by reading the Bible.

So they read the Word of God, they heard the mind of God, then they knew what sins to confess. But I think sometimes we think of sins as just breaking a commandment, and sins are that. When you step over a line or you do a thing that the Bible tells you you should not do, like break one of the commandments.

Some preacher recently said he doesn't think we need the Ten Commandments anymore. I could not differ more from that. God gave us the Ten Commandments. They're written by the finger of God. Now, he wants us to go beyond them. Because in the commandments, Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount, "You've heard that it has been said, you shall not murder, but I say to you, if you're angry with your brother without a cause, it's the same thing."

Or, "You've heard in the law, you shall not commit adultery"—that's one of the commandments—"but I say to you, if you look on a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery." So he wants us to go further than them, but he certainly doesn't want us to do away with them. But they help us know what right and wrong are.

But then there are other kinds of sins. Not just sins of commission, but sins of omission. The sin of omission is when you don't do what you should do. The sin of commission is when you do what you should not do. Again, the sin of commission is when you do what you should not do, break a commandment, cross a line. The sin of omission is when you don't do what you should do because the Bible says, "If we know to do good and we don't do it, it's sin."

We don't think of sin that way. "Well, I didn't think lustfully today and I didn't cut anybody off from the freeway and I didn't cuss once and I didn't lie and I didn't steal, so I guess I haven't sinned." And the Lord led you, "Why don't you go over there and share the gospel with that person right now?" "There's no way I'm going to do that." Wait, could that be a sin?

Could that be the sin of omission? If the Lord spoke to your heart and said, "Put down the cell phone and pick up my Word," and you said no, could it be a sin to not obey God? To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. So there's a lot of things that can qualify as sin. So I think we have to acknowledge that in our life.

That is why in the Lord's Prayer, which is a template for all prayer, he shows us we should ask God to forgive us of our sin every day. Go back to it again: "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sin as we forgive those who've sinned against us."

Just as surely as you need daily bread—and that just means you need everything from God; bread means food, clothing. It's funny, back in the sixties, we used to call money bread. "Hey, man, you got any bread?" Okay, but that's really true. Bread just means everything, everything you need in life you ask God for it. But then forgive us our sin. So just as surely as I need to ask God for his provision, I need to also ask God for his forgiveness.

Guest (Male): Good insight from Pastor Greg Laurie today on the importance of confessing our sins and how that sets the stage for humble, effective prayer. Now, as you've joined us today here on A New Beginning, maybe you're sensing the reality of sin in your own life. But Pastor Greg, we're all about showing people how to come to know God, how to come into a relationship with God and have their sins forgiven. Someone can enter into that kind of relationship today, can't they?

Greg Laurie: They can, and it's so simple. And I think because it's so simple, people think, "Oh, it can't be that easy." Well, look, Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that he carried. This isn't about what you do; it's about what he's done. But here's what the Bible says: whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

So let's just say that you're caught in a riptide out in the ocean and you need help, and there's a lifeguard at the stand and they see you. You've got to call out to them and let them know you need saving. And the same is true when it comes to eternal life. Jesus is ready to save you. Will you call out to him?

You say, "Well, okay, how do I do that?" You do it through prayer. And prayer is just talking to God. So listen, I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. And if you pray this prayer after me, I believe God will hear it and answer it, and Christ will come to live inside of you.

Thousands of people have prayed a prayer like this over the years that we've been doing this radio broadcast and have seen their life change. There's no power or magic in a prayer. It's all about your commitment to Christ, but this is a way to call on the name of the Lord in this prayer. So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, just pray this prayer after me. You could pray it out loud if you like, pray it in the quietness of your heart, but pray these words if you would:

"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. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now. And I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen."

Listen, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible 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." That you may know it's yours now. God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Congratulations and welcome to the family of God.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right. And listen, would you let us help you get started living this new life? Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. There are more than 10 million in print. It's in an easy-to-understand translation with so many helps specifically for those who are new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge. Get in touch for your copy of the New Believers Bible. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click "Know God."

Also, don't forget this moment in history gave birth to the film called Jesus Revolution. It's actually Pastor Greg's personal story, set against the backdrop of the Jesus Movement. It's now available for streaming on many platforms. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially, those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We are definitely a listener-supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that helps us be here with these programs.

So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, well, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300.

Well, next time, more insight on the important role of prayer as we seek to bring revival to the church and to our individual lives. More from Pastor Greg's series Jesus Revolution. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.