You know, there is a very special group of people I want to introduce you to. They are a group of people who are passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed in this nation and beyond. Without them, harvest ministries could not even exist. We call them harvest partners. They're people who have chosen to give monthly to harvest to keep the gospel moving forward.
Will you become a harvest partner and help us fulfill the great commission in our lifetime? Let's do this together. Just go to harvest.org. Hey, everybody, Greg Glory here. Welcome to my podcast.
And I have with me my son Jonathan, who's wearing a watch from my youth that you must have fished out of some drawer and brought back to life. Yeah, this is one of, it was actually Christopher's. It was yours first, but it was Christopher's. And there's a box that has some of his stuff in there. And it doesn't work, but I really like it.
It's yellow and gray and that's basically an accessory. I've always liked watches with bezels, divers type watches. I've worn them from my youth. They're pretty classic. You go back to James Bond, what he was wearing in the original films.
That's right.
So we're going to talk a little bit about A new book that I've written called What I Would Tell My Younger Self. And I just had that thought one day: like, what would I tell my younger self? And I just started writing things down. Try not to do it in a sermonic way, but more just like, hey, here's just things I might say to myself.
So, so you're going to help me kind of walk through that concept.
So, if you, you know, the way you start the book off, it was pretty great. If you had a time machine, you'd go back in time, what is like the one thing you would tell yourself to do? And I was kind of thinking, like, whoa, what would I do? I thought, well, number one, I'd tell myself for sure, invest in Apple, NVIDIA, and, you know, Bitcoin, right? Go back in time, tell yourself to invest in those things.
Enjoy your metabolism because it's a limited time offer. Yes. For sure. It changes. It changes quite a bit.
Usually in your 30s. Yes. I have a friend, you know him, Steve Wolburn. I would say to him, Steve, when you hit your 30s, your metabolism will change because he eats anything he wants. Guess what?
He's in his 60s and his metabolism did not change, and that bothers me. He can still do more pull-ups than pretty much everybody I know, and he can still eat more. You double doubles it in-and-out burger. And I'll eat the single patty burger. Try and be consistent.
Yeah, your metabolism does change.
So enjoy, you know, it's been said, youth is wasted on the youth. And I think sometimes you don't get how great it is to be young. And I always remind my grandkids: you know, enjoy this phase of your life, it'll be over with soon enough. You know, one thing I thought you mentioned things you would invest in, I would say to a younger Greg, hey, you know, when Star Wars comes out and all those figures and their original packaging, if you don't open them, they will be worth thousands of dollars. Same with Barbie dolls.
And I have an extensive Barbie doll book. But the problem is, I opened all the Barbie dolls. No, I don't have any Barbie dolls. But, you know, certain things, I think it was a game, something Zelda. Yeah, Legend of Zelda.
It was worth an original $300,000 or some extraordinary.
Some of the Star Wars figure, like Boba Fett. He was the super rare one. He was really valuable. Yeah, he's cool. Character.
Yeah, he was cool. But you also talk about, you know, I would tell myself to wear sunscreen and floss my teeth. I will say, I think those were passed down to me because I've only had three cavities in my entire life. Wow. That's pretty good.
Big claim to fame there. And the other thing is, I am a connoisseur of sunscreens. I wear a sunscreen. I wear hats. You do a great job.
I hate being sunburned. That's the thing. I hate being sunburned. And so I try to. I didn't do that.
Like they say that when you get skin cancers today, it's probably due to burns you got when you were very young. And when I was a kid living in Newport Beach, I didn't wear any sunscreen. And I was out in the sun, and I'm fair-skinned actually. And so, boy, I got some severe burns. Years later, I was in Hawaii, and we were doing a crusade there, and I got really burned-like burned like a lobster.
And then it turned into an ice tan, and then it started kind of peeling off. But I noticed it was like there were little white spots.
So I went to a dermatologist and I said, What has happened? He goes, You burned the pigment out of your skin. Oh, okay. How do I get it back? He said, You know, it's gone.
What do you mean? I don't know. Yeah. That's not a summer. That's like you nuked yourself.
I nuked myself. Yeah, that's really bad.
So there's this practical things, you know. Yeah. But then there's real things. And I think I just start by saying there's a picture, we'll show it here, where I'm a little boy living in New Jersey with my father, Oscar, who adopted me and my mom. And he's kind of happy and he doesn't know what's ahead of him.
And I would say to that little guy, it's going to be okay. But 'cause he was gonna Go through a lot. I went through a lot of crazy stuff. You know, as I've said before. My mother, your grandmother, was married and divorced seven times.
She had a lot of boyfriends in between. She was a radical alcoholic. She would drink to excess every night. She would pretty much pass out every night. She would get into fights with her husbands.
And when I say fights, I mean fisticuffs, hitting, throwing things, breaking things, screaming and yelling. That's a lot of trauma for a child to go through. And so, you know, I went through all of that. There was a little bright spot in the middle of it where I was sent to live with my grandparents, your great-grandparents. Mama Stella.
And Daddy Charles. That's the South. They call them Mama, you know, or Daddy. And so they were great. My grandfather was a strict disciplinarian.
Sometimes I think he overdisciplined me, but it was, you know, there were rules in the house. There was great food in the house. My grandmother was maybe the greatest cook I've ever met. I mean, she made all the great southern food, fried chicken, okra, colored greens, you know, mashed potatoes. But her crowning achievement was her biscuit.
When Mama Stella was getting older, I took your mom, Kathy, I said, Kathy, watch Mama Stella make the biscuit. We can't let the biscuit die with Mama Stella. She watched her. And Kathy is a great cook. She couldn't master that biscuit.
It's just buttermilk. Yeah. And salt, flour. Right. And some kind of oil they used.
Maybe some olive oil or something. No, it's not olive oil. Maybe vocola or something. Anyway. But just the way she mixed it, and then she put it in a very hot oven, and it was a work of art.
Maybe it was shortening or maybe it might have been lard. Because did they have a kind of farm that they had? You said they had chickens. You would kill the chickens. Great story there.
Yeah, well my grandfather had a house up in the desert. Uh, Yucca Valley, and and it was, we would go up there sometimes on weekends. There was no electricity, and so he'd heat up the little pot belly stove and had an outhouse. I felt like I'd gone back to the 1800s. I'm just a little kid, you know, going to an outhouse at night when it's pitch dark out, no street lights, yeah, slightly terrifying, not the greatest smelling place either.
But uh, so we'd have chicken for you know, dinner, and my grandfather would kill the chicken. I mean, people live in farm sink, of course, that's what you do, but yeah, you know, I'm I'd never seen that before. I have chickens, we have five, we have five, and I had some eggs from your chickens, yeah, and they were good together pretty good. They're weird-looking, though, yeah, they're blue. We have some chickens called they're weird-looking silkies.
We have two silkies, then we have like a gray one, and they're a little obnoxious. They make noise what they look like, but you know, they're weird-looking, but they do their eggs, they are great. I love eggs, it's like God's vending machine. I woke up this morning, and there's five eggs in my sink that Brittany brought in from. Tending to the chickens.
It's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's amazing. They lay one egg almost every day. Wow.
So, yeah. But I would tell my younger self, you know, I'm going to go through a lot of chaos. Yeah. My mother, she left Oscar, and it was so abrupt. I mean, I was getting out of school one day in New Jersey.
And The cars loaded up with our luggage, and this was a scene in the Jesus Revolution film that people have seen that film and. I said to my mom, what's happening? She says, we're leaving. I said, where are we going? She said, Hawaii.
I was very excited because I'd only heard about Hawaii. I'd never been there. I said, where's dad? She said, he's not coming. And we we flew and landed in Honolulu.
and there at the airport was this man she had married. And I'd never seen him before. And she said, That's your new dad. And she just expected me to shift from Oscar, who treated me. How many times do you think she said that?
This is your new dad. You said she was married and divorced. Seven times. I know at that moment, that's when something snapped in my little kid head. How old was I?
10, 11, but I just thought, I'm done with this. I'm not calling, I think I ended up calling him diddly, which was my way of calling him something. Diddly squat. That's what he was. He was that.
He was not a good man. No. He was a drunk like my mother. Uh he had this interesting little bar in Waikiki Beach. called Davey Jones Locker.
You walked upstairs. It's fair. You walk downstairs to go, and there's a giant window, which is a window into the swimming pool. And so he ran this locker. All the people, the well-known people of Waikiki, would go there.
Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan and the Duke, and other celebrities.
So it was kind of cool, but this is the world we lived in. But they would drink at night, they would get in fights, and one night. I heard a lot of screaming and a loud thud that came out of my bedroom. And there's my mom laying on the floor in a pool of bud, blood. He's standing over her.
Holding a statue, and I even remember it was one of those Don Quixote statues. They're very popular in the 60s. They're kind of these tall wooden statues. You kidding with it. She's laying, I think she could have died.
And he said to me, it's just ketchup. I'm like, okay, I'm not stupid. I climbed out the window, went to a neighbor, and we left him. But it was just one trauma after another. But I would say, coming back to my point, it's going to be okay because.
You know, there was a little ray of light in the middle. I would live with my grandparents, and they had a portrait of Jesus on the wall. I still love this. a depiction of Christ. And I would just, as a little kid, stare at it and I would think about it.
And I would. There was something in me. That wanted to know Jesus. In fact, I even invented my own imaginary friend. Who I called him, I called him Mr.
Nobody, and I would pull the covers over my head at night and I would talk to him. And I think in my way I was reaching out to God as much as I knew of God. And of course, I later came to know Jesus Christ.
So, because I think there's some young people listening to this, and when you're young, everything seems so big. You know, the first breakup with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, you know, that your body's going through changes so quickly. New school, you're moving. And I was always in new schools. I was basically, my name was New Kid.
Because my mom, we were constantly moving for a number of years in my childhood. You know, whatever it is, it seems almost like the end of the world, but I would just say to a young person, it's going to be okay, you're going to get through it. And God. had his hand on me even though I didn't know him yet. He was guiding me, and he was ultimately guiding me toward him.
And one verse I really love is Jeremiah 29:11, where God says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future. And to hope, another way you can translate that is an expected end. God has a plan. And we need to know that he loves us and And of course, you know, you were raised in a Christian home. We told you this from your childhood.
I didn't have that advantage. But my mother, in her weird way, engaged in what I would call pre-evangelism. She showed me the world and all of its evil She took care of some of the process of elimination for you. It was. And I just so didn't want that.
Life. And the strange thing is, you know, kids rebel, right?
So you raise a kid in a Christian home and they don't want to go to church, they don't want to go to a youth group. I was raised in the opposite of a Christian home, and I began to rebel in a different direction. I was looking for something good, something pure, and something wholesome. Because I saw so much depravity with her and with some of the guys she got involved with. I saw things no little boy should see.
And but but I hope that my story is something that will provide inspiration for other young people who are facing horrible things, maybe worse than I face. But to know that God loves them and God has a plan for their life in this simple message. You're going to get through it, and it's going to be okay. Yeah, I think your story provides hope because you know, I've heard the stories of grandma, and I knew since I was a little kid, and of course, as I got older, you shared more about her story. And thankfully, grandma, in like the last couple years of her life, started coming to church and you invited her, and she started coming on Sunday mornings.
I remember she was making her way all the way from Costa Mesa to Riverside, not a close drive. And she was very sick at that point. Yeah, she was getting dialysis three times a week. Wow. Because all those years of drinking and smoking caught up with her.
And when she was 70, I'm 72 now. When she was 70, she looked like she was. Yeah, she was very weathered. She was very sweet to me. Yeah.
And Christopher, of course, we never saw that side, fortunately. But she ended up putting her faith in Christ and becoming a Christian and attending church regularly. It was so cool. She wanted to be a good grandmother. And I think she was very proud.
And she never said to me, I'm sorry. She never said to me, I love. Love you, but at the same time, in her way, I know she did love me. And I know she was sorry. But I think there's just a different generation.
Yeah. There's a different generation. I don't know if that was maybe something she experienced, you know, with Daddy Charles and Mama Style. I didn't get that effect. Who knows?
Who knows? She's sort of broken inside. But you're. Go ahead.
Well, I had to care for her. I had to, I loved her because I realized if I didn't take care of her, nobody else would. The guys came in and out of a revolving door. And I thought, you know, I want to keep her alive. I want to keep her going forward.
And then, when I became a Christian, I wanted her to come to Christ. And so. You know, I had, in some ways, I felt like I was the adult in the relationship. Not always. I did stupid kid stuff too.
I got in trouble. One time they wanted to expel me from school for creating disturbances in the classroom. And she went down and said, Well, I'll sue you if you expel me. Yeah. So I stayed in school.
It's crazy. That was crazy. What did that one teacher say about you? Was it at Harbor where they said, I wish someone would bury Greg Laurie in the dirt up to his head? And what was it?
Yes. Well, um, There was a, I had a teacher who I tormented. His name was misses mister Robinson. And he was actually a really good man, and I just gave him such a hard time. And he took it from me, and he shouldn't have.
Well, there was a teacher next door, a class next door, and she heard about my antics. And so she said to her class once, I would like to take Greg Lorry, bury him in the sand up to his neck in the blazing sun, and let the ants eat him alive. That's like a compliment. Oh, I love a kid. That's like, I love that.
That's amazing. The kids told me, you know what she said about you? What? And then when they said it, I said, oh, that's cool. Oh, yeah, that's assault today.
She'd go to prison for saying that today, right? That is crazy. But another teacher wrote in my report card. Greg spends too much time. Staring out of the window and daydreaming and drawing cartoons.
If he continues to do this, he will never amount to anything. It's so funny how you remember things like that.
So, you know, I give my teachers a lot of trouble. Yeah. But I think coming back to your childhood and your upbringing, it provides hope because my childhood. You were the idyllic father. You were present.
You were loving. You were gracious and generous and present and a godly example. And mom, too. I remember coming down in the morning and seeing, you know, both of your Bibles open, you know, and it was always to a new page when I would come down every morning. It was like, it was clear you had a personal relationship with God.
And you were able to demonstrate a love to me and to Christopher that you were not shown as a child. And the only place I think you could learn to do something that you weren't taught as a child is you were shown this by God. And he redeemed your story. He redeemed your life. And I think of that picture, that memory that you've shared when you're sitting in front of the Christmas tree and grandma's passed out from drinking and it smells of smoke and alcohol and you're sitting there and you're contemplating and thinking, it's got to get better than this.
This can't be all there is at such a young age. You were able to do that for Christopher and me. You were. Able to give us the Christmases and the life and the experiences. And we're so thankful for that.
And now I'm able to do that with my son and my kids. And well, I learned from you. I learned so much of it from you. And I'm so thankful. But it just, I think your message gives hope because it shows even though these things happen to you, it does not have to define you.
And you don't have to repeat these things to your family, right?
So often we see Patterns of neglect and patterns of alcoholism. Oh, it's in my blood, and so I'm destined to do this. No, you're not. No, no, you're not. God can change your life, He can transform you, He can make you a new creation.
And that's what He did for you. And you know, that's what He did for me too. Because, like, you rebelled, I also rebelled. Yes, I went into all the predictable things that a preacher's kid does, pretty cliche. And but God got a hold of me, and He's He's made me a new creation.
And I'm thankful that God doesn't just stop with you, but He continues on. Yeah, I think that people do excuse behavior because they say, Well, you know, it runs on my family. It's even something called a generational curse is talked about. There's this curse on our family. And look, the Bible says the sins of the parents can be visited on the children.
I don't think that's a mysterious mystical curse. I think it's repeated behavior. And studies show that if you come from a divorced home, you have a far higher chance of. Divorcing. If you come from an alcoholic home, you have a far higher chance of becoming an alcoholic, etc.
So, you know, the statistical cards were stacked against me. I should have been divorced multiple times and a drunk. Alcoholic. I don't drink at all. I hate it.
I hate drinking. I hate the effects of alcohol.
So I don't drink. And Kathy and I have celebrated. Over 50 years of marriage, is it 51 or 52? I think we're coming on 52. But anyway, God can break.
The cycle of sin in your life. And so don't use that for an excuse. It can change. That's right.
You also say in your book, to put God first in your life. And that's really a secret to success. It is. Not just spiritually, but also. With your family, with your business, because putting God first, that completely transforms your perspective on everything.
Now, when maybe you lose your job, yeah, that's a bad thing. But if you're looking for the Lord through that process and you're seeking to glorify him and you're saying, Lord, you allowed this to happen, I'm dependent on you. Maybe the lesson that he's going to teach you in that season is more valuable than that job ever would have been. And so, and guess what? God is going to provide for you.
And maybe he's going to place you in something better. Maybe he's going to put you in something that's not as good, but you're going to be closer to God. That's a win, right?
So, putting God first. Jesus said, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
So, what were these things he was talking about?
Well, he was saying, don't be like non-believers. All they think about is what they're going to wear, what they're going to eat, what they're going to drink. But you should seek first the kingdom.
So, basically, he's talking about life in general.
Now, he didn't say, don't be concerned about those things, we need to be concerned. And when you're young, you're thinking about what your career path is going to be. You're going to think about if you're going to get married, you're thinking about a lot of things. And so, here's what I'm saying: put God first. And what does that even mean?
It means. Live by what the Bible teaches. Like, do what God tells you to do in His Word. Don't capitulate to the pure pressure of the culture to do the things that will destroy you. Put God first.
In a relationship, when you're looking for the right man or the right woman, even if it's a date. Look only, I would only look for a Christian. I wouldn't even entertain the idea of getting romantically entangled with a non-believer because the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with non-believers.
So, what fellowship or companionship does light have with darkness?
So, you put God first in your relationships. Ultimately, if you get married, you put God first in your marriage. And you become a parent, you put God first in your parenting and put God first in your career. You know, like, okay, I'm going to honor and glorify God. You know, I'm a preacher, that's what I do.
Okay, but there's many careers that people can pursue. If you're a doctor, be the best doctor you can be, be a godly doctor. I think of a doctor I know that will meet with people, and then when he's done with their appointment, he'll say, Let me ask you a question. If that door was the door to heaven and you were going to walk through it or the door to the afterlife and you stood before God, what What would you say to him as to why he should let you into heaven? Wow.
I said, Wow, you know, because that's a good lawyer, a godly lawyer, or be so that means be honest, absolutely, work with integrity. Yeah, work hard. I think Christians should be the hardest workers. Yeah, you know, and it earns you the right to be a witness. And so put God first in those things as well.
And just. And put God first in your finances. I'm a strong believer in tithing, giving a tenth of your income to the work of the kingdom of God, to your local church. I'm a strong believer in giving offerings above and beyond that. And I started giving when I could not afford to give.
I could not afford it. Kathy and I, before you were born, We were at poverty level. I mean, I could have qualified for any government program that was out there. But then, when Christopher was born, even though we could have justified Kathy getting a job, and I'm not against married women working, but I would say this: that we decided, I said, Kathy, I want you to stay home and be with Christopher. And I don't regret that.
We don't regret any of it.
So, what if our furniture was threadbare?
So, what if we didn't have all the latest clothes?
So, what if we didn't have the nicest, whatever? Those are yours. It cannot be replaced. And we spent them with him. And then, when you were born, we're a little better off.
But I always put God first, always have given.
So, just put God first, and you will be blessed in life. That's a very important principle. Yeah, that's great. And I think one of the best ways you can do that is base your life. On what the Bible says.
Have that be your foundation of truth. You know, today in culture, it's no secret that the big thing is moral relativism. You know, I heard about this when I was in school. I went to a Christian school, and the teachers would say, Oh, you know, there's coming a time when truth is going to be subjective. And, you know, it was already creeping in at that point, but now it's like we've fully arrived there.
Truth is relative. There is no absolute. It's just the only truth is your feelings. And everybody, of course, has different feelings about different things, different preferences. And everybody wants to make that an absolute.
We have arrived at this place where if it feels good, do it. And that is actually the law of the land. And so that, of course, has led to an uptick in depression and suicide and the breakdown in the family and really the breakdown of the social fabric of our country. And so it's all about, and I don't understand. It's all so sexualized.
There's such an emphasis on your sexuality. It's like. Really? You know, the Bible has a different way, and it's absolute truth, and it's God's word. And so, basing your life in scripture, reading what the Bible has to say about being a man, being a woman, being a wife, being a son, a worker, an employee, a business owner, the Bible has so much to say about every phase of life.
So, that's another point I make in my book: read the Bible every day. You know, you said you would see mom and I read in our Bibles. Yeah. Every day I open up the word of God. And I think Have you figured it all out yet?
What, the Bible? Yeah. Have you gotten to a point where, oh, I've read this before. It's so familiar. I feel like I've read through the Bible many times now.
And I always find something new where it's like, whoa, I didn't know that story. That's new. Or some new, the Lord shows me something completely new that I didn't see in the story before. It's amazing. And we forget things.
And we forget things. Yeah, so we need to remember. We often remember what we ought to forget and we forget what we ought to remember. Peter says, I write these things to stir up your memory.
So maybe you know. these things, but you need to be reminded of those things. And then you'll learn new things. I like how the psalmist writes, his mercies are new every morning.
So I think it's a discipline. And from the Bible reading, and I would also add Bible memorization. Memorize the Bible. When I was a very young Christian, age 17, I memorized certain portions of scripture. Psalm 1, for instance, I memorized it.
1 Corinthians 10, 13. And I still Come back to those verses today. And the funny thing is, I memorized them in King James.
Now, I'm just a 17-year-old kid, and I started reading the King James Bible. Old English. But there was something about it that stuck in my memory, like someone, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners, or sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in it doth he meditate day and night, and he'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that will bring forth fruit in his season. His leaves shall not wither, and whatsoever he does will prosper.
I don't know if it's the doth and the readeth or whatever it is, but those things kind of help your brain remember them, retain them. That's good. But to this day, I'll reflect back on these passages.
So, you know, how shall a young man cleanse his way? The psalmist says, by taking heed according to your word. And also he writes, your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. Mm-hmm.
So scripture memorization there. Big things. And memorize the Bible. Memorize lots of the Bible. I remember a conversation they had with John Irwin.
the director, he directed the House of David. Uh he directed Jesus Revolution. Of course. And there was some contest he entered where, if he memorized a certain, like, I think it was an entire book of the Bible, he would go to six flags. Oh, wow.
And so he did it. That's great. And I think, hey, you know, that's still a pretty good investment. Yeah. But I can't emphasize enough.
Read your Bible every day. And from your Bible, you form a biblical worldview. You know, we're because so you go, what should we do in this situation?
Next question: What does the Bible say? Yeah, that's right. You know, everything you need to know about God is found in the Bible. That's good. Pretty much everything you need to know about life is found in the Bible.
So read your Bible every day. Yeah, I feel like that is just an absolute fundamental to the Christian faith. Maybe number one is reading the Bible. Because it's like prayers right there, but yeah, that would be another one. It's doing this one, don't do the doom both.
Of course, of course. But it's because when I pray, I talk to God, and when I read the Bible, he's talking to you. Exactly. Yeah, I've got a friend. You know him.
He owns a jiu-jitsu Academy. He's like a seven-time world champion, undefeated. I could take him. Yeah, I bet you. I could.
Right now, bring him in. Yeah. No, I could. Take him to lunch. And he's kind of a smaller guy.
He's not super intimidating when you look at him, but he is an absolute beast. His name is Hoffa Mendez and great guy. He comes to our church. And he has a class that he offers called The Fundamentals. And I was talking to him, and he was just talking about how.
You never outgrow the fundamentals. Wow, okay. You never outgrow those things. And this is true across all sports. You go talk to Michael Jordan when he was in his heyday, or Kobe Bryant, or whoever else, and they're all going to tell you: no, it's all about that free throw.
It's all about getting your, you know, your runs in and your drills and all that stuff. You never outgrow those things. And some may think, well, I've been a Christian for 10, 20 years. I've read the Bible. I know the Bible.
I don't need to come back to it. I pray. I have prayed. I don't need to do that. You never, never outgrow these things.
You never outgrow reading the Bible. You never outgrow praying. You never outgrow giving. You never outgrow going to church. There's a big thing lately with people wanting to leave the church.
Oh, the church is imperfect. And I experience God out in nature. I experience God, you know, when I'm out surfing or with I'm, you know, you can encounter God and have fellowship with God in all those places. Yeah, but it's not a replacement for church. It isn't.
Do not forsake the gathering of the brethren. You know, there's accountability, there's community. And you know what? When you come up with some crazy thought about God, the church is important to be there to help you correct that. That's right.
No, God is not a flower. God is not, you are not God. And so it's so important that people stay plugged into the church.
So read your Bible. Every day, pray, that's a big one. Of course, turning your worry into prayer, right? Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. Worry is such a big thing, and I feel like prayer is the greatest solution to it.
Because, again, just like we were talking earlier, put God first in everything when you're praying. And you're worrying about something, you're taking this thing that you're concerned about. You're saying, God, I don't have the answers, but you do. God, I don't understand this, but you do. I trust you.
You are good. Therefore, I can rest in that. And it's just completely, it's a complete mindset shift. And I think that's really important. And I think the things that you worry about.
Change with The phases of life. You know, when you're a kid, a little kid, really little kid, you worry about.
Well, you're afraid of the dark. Yeah. You're afraid of monsters under the bed. I'm still afraid of monsters under the bed. I check.
I found one once. No, not really. But why'd I say no, not really? Yeah, I found one.
So, you know, those little childhood fears. But then you get a little bit older. And you're in the you know, you're afraid of not fitting in, not being popular, not being accepted. Then you get a little bit older. You know, you're a young adult.
Wow, what is my career path gonna be? Am I gonna find someone to marry? And and then you get, you know, maybe in your In your middle age, oh, have I reached my goals? Am I a failure? And then you fast forward to older age and you worry about, man, I don't want to lose my mental ability.
I want to remain mobile. I don't want to be a burden on other people.
So, worry, you're always going to have worry in life. And Philippians gives us this great solution where Paul says, don't worry about anything. Pray about everything. Then, this promise, and the peace of God that passes all human understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. And the word he uses there for guard, it's a picture of a Roman sentry, like a Roman guard.
Like you have an armed guard there, uh, guarding, so Sergeant P. says guarding your heart if you do what? Don't worry about it, pray about it.
So I suggest when worry hits, and it does, and it will. Turn your worry into worship. Turn your panic into prayer. Just the moment the worry comes, I just pray about that right now, Lord. I just specifically take that fear and I turn it into a specific petition to you.
And I bring up before you right now. And even as you say that to the Lord, you can sense it lifting. You know, the Bible says, cast all your care upon him. And the word used for cast means to throw it on him. Like just throw it on Jesus.
Here, you carry this for me, Lord. And, you know, he will bear your burdens. He says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
So, yeah, don't. Don't let worry control your life. Excessive studies have been done. And have revealed that excessive worry can actually Shorten your life and disease your nervous system. Can lead to heart attack and other areas.
And so. I remember reading a story about a woman named Pearl Cantrell that made it past the age of 100. He said, What is your secret? She said, Well, every day I eat bacon. I like that.
I like that works. I don't know if I'm advocating that, but I do. Her cortisol levels were very low. Her cholesterol levels, however, skyrocketed.
Somehow they balanced out.
Somehow. But you know what? Don't you think everything's better with a little bacon? Of course, of course. Allie, your daughter once said to me, she's eating some bacon and eggs.
She said, Pop, I'm a vegetarian now. I said well Uh Allie, you're eating bacon. You can't be a vegetarian if you eat bacon. She goes, Well, I just like pig meat. Yeah, yeah.
That's hard to beat. I like pig meat, too. That's all good. Carnitas, baby back ribs. I could go on.
Yeah. I think.
Well, let's make that a point, a chapter in the book. Eat bacon every day. Eat bacon every day. That could be a subpoint for you. Read your Bible and eat bacon every day.
Yeah. Eat bacon while you're reading your Bible. Just don't drip all over the Bible. Yeah, you know, all things are lawful. Not all things are profitable.
Eating bacon every day. Oh, no. You go on in your book and you talk about having an attitude of gratitude, being thankful. It's actually a command in scripture. This is God's will for you who are in Christ Jesus that you would be thankful in all circumstances.
That is a tall order. I mean, when you think about Job, right? Job, what he experienced, what he went through. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Is that possible to have that mentality without a relationship with God, without having that eternal perspective? I don't think it is.
Well, you know, again, studies have been done. It's so funny how the science always confirms what the Bible says. Yeah, it catches up. But I've read that they've found that having an attitude of gratefulness and thanksgiving is actually better for your mental health.
Now, and physical health. Yes. Physical health, too. Right. But what do you, if you're not a Christian, what or who are you thankful to?
Well, thank you, what?
So I think clearly you need someone to thank, and that someone is God because everything that you have has been given to you by God. And it's easy to be thankful when the times are good, when the bank account's doing well and the stock market's positive. And sometimes we forget to be thankful in those times. Yeah, I think of Jesus and the 10 lepers. Only one came back to say thank you to him.
We need to be like that one. But it's easy to be thankful when the times are good, but what about when the bottom drops out? What about when times are bad? How can you be thankful? Yeah.
Well, the Bible says, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever. It doesn't say give thanks to the Lord when you feel good. And often we are facing hardship. I don't think we have to thank God for the calamity. No, no.
But give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. He's in control. Yeah. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
So I'm thanking God that he's on the throne. I'm thanking God He's in control. I'm thanking God he's promised that all things will work together for good according to his glory. And so ultimately, God will take everything that happens in his life, in our life, and use it for His glory and our ultimate good.
Now, when I say ultimate good, it's not always your temporary good. And I think sometimes Christians think, because of Romans 8:28, which I quoted. That whatever, okay, this bad thing happens, and now this bad thing is going to turn into a good thing because it says all things work together for good. No, read the next verse.
So, Romans 8:28, we know that all things work together for good to those that love God and are the called according to his purpose. Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed into the image of his own dear son. Here's a big picture.
So, God allows bad things to happen in our life that are inexplicable. He will use them for his glory and for your ultimate good. And what is the ultimate good that God desires is that we're conformed into the image of Jesus. He wants to prepare us ultimately for heaven.
So there are times in life where something will happen that makes no sense, and later you'll understand why it happened. There was a girl. that I met when I was a brand new Christian. And she's a pretty girl and a very sweet girl and a godly girl. And I asked her to go out on a date with me.
I think she did maybe once. She let me borrow her Volkswagen van, which was nice because I was driving this old Corvair that had retread tires. You know what a retread tire is? Yeah, they're on the semi-trucks now, right? Yeah, yeah.
So it's basically a tire that's going bald and they glue tread on it.
So they would come off anyway. She would let me drive it, and I kind of wanted her to be my girlfriend. She said no. And You know, so later I met your mother because that was the one God had chosen. But this other girl.
So let me borrow her van.
So she's a very nice girl.
So I appreciate that.
So that was not God's will for her. That was not God's will for me. But when you're young, Well, no, I think this is the one, Lord.
Well, no, it isn't.
So then you look later and go, oh, I get it now.
So there are things like that in life, but then there are things that happen. That don't make sense after they happen. They don't make sense 10 years later. They don't make sense maybe the rest of your life, but you'll get to heaven. And realize that God ultimately used it for his glory and your good.
So just give thanks, have an attitude of gratitude. That's right.
I think of two people. I think of Johnny Erickson Tata, who is a quadriplegic, and how she is able to use her story and her affection and love for God has grown. After her accident, and you've interviewed her a number of times, and just absolutely incredible.
Someone who endured one of the greatest difficulties is so thankful to the Lord. And she's had cancer on top of it. This woman has suffered like very few people have suffered, but she honors and glorifies God, and she's been an inspiration to people around the world. And she has even talked about how she's thankful. That it happened to her because it brought her closer to God.
That is an eternal perspective that you're not going to find anywhere else.
Now, there's people that can learn how to cope, certainly. They can learn how to get through life, but she is actually saying she is thankful this has happened to her because God has used it to. Bring it closer to himself. And also, now she's using it to minister to other people. The other one, of course, is Nick Voyachic, a young man who's born without arms and legs and just similar story.
Incredible adversity, incredible difficulty growing up. But his dependence on the Lord and his relationship with God has grown because of ultimately this difficulty. Yeah, Nick just radiates joy and they will bring him into assemblies and school campuses. And here you have young kids who are bummed out, they're upset because they didn't get enough likes on their post or they're getting bullied or whatever it is they're facing. And those are real things.
I'm not making light of them. But then they look at a man with literally with no arms and no legs, radiating joy and talking about how Jesus Christ is in his life. And it just brings perspective. Before he says a word, his life is a sermon. Absolutely.
So these are people that have taken their disability. And they've turned them into an ability, a supernatural ability in many ways that opens a door for them. That others would not walk through.
So, you know, you have a choice in life when bad things happen to you, and they will. You can become better or better. That's your choice. You can become bitter, you can become mad at God, mad at the world, mad at everyone and everything. Or you can just say, I want to be better.
I want to honor God and I don't want to waste my pain. You know, when your brother Christopher died 16 years ago, it was the worst. event to my life. And I still don't really understand it. And if I had anything to say about it, I would change it, but I don't, and I can't.
But I determined I as did you and your mother, that we would not waste our pain. And so God has opened doors for us to help others. who have lost loved ones. And they'll listen to us because we too have lost a child. And so, you know, and I do find a joy.
And I do find a blessing in helping people where before it happened, you know, if I heard someone just had a child die, I mean, I'm a pastor, I would call them, I would reach out to them, I would meet with them. But reluctantly.
Now I find that I'm willing to walk right into it. Not because I like it or enjoy it, but because... I know I can maybe help a little bit. And I can say to them, you're going to survive this. Because when you lose a loved one, especially a child, you feel like your world has ended.
And I want to say you can live through this. Absolutely.
It's different to lose a brother, though, isn't it? It is different. It is different. It's harder in a different way. As a father, I think, you know, if you're comparing pain, there's no point because it's different for everybody.
But yes, it's the worst thing that's happened to me as well, losing Christopher. But it's also something that rocked my world enough for me to reevaluate my priorities and recognize I need to do something that I've been putting off for a long time. And that was putting my faith in Christ. Shortly after that, God completely changed everything about my life. I reconnected with a friend from high school, Brittany.
We ended up getting married. We have children together now. And God's blessed me. He's called me into ministry. I got to pastor here.
I got to work alongside you.
So God has restored what the locusts have eaten. And I do believe that God could have done this any number of ways. I've actually had people say it to me. It really bugs me.
Someone said, God allowed Christopher to die so that you could become a Christian. And it was like that really ticked me off because I believe God could have gotten my attention any number of ways. He could have allowed me to get a DUI, go to jail. He could have allowed me to suffer some calamity similar to Johnny or whoever, where, man, now I have to call out to God. He could have done it any number of ways.
We don't know Why God allowed that to happen with Christopher. And like you said, all we can really do is choose how we react. And I chose that I was gonna put my faith in the God. that saved my brother and brought him to heaven. And I want to be able to see him again.
And the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if I turn. For my sin, which was drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, all the crap that you had gone into. And um He he changed my life and he Put a burden on my heart to help serve alongside you and do ministry, and now he's put that on my heart, and I love it, and I'm so thankful. But, um, It's just a matter of perspective. What are you going to do with this?
Why? You can go, Pastor Chuck shared with you. Greg, don't go to the cesspool of whys and what-ifs. You know, it's so easy to dwell there and to think about those things. But I'm thankful.
I am thankful I'll see Christopher again. I'm thankful I'll see grandma in heaven. I'm thankful, most of all, I'll see Jesus face to face. I'm leading my children in that as well and trying to minister to them and lead them in the ways of the Lord like you did, carry on that legacy. And so, you know, as we talk about gratitude, we talked about prayer, we talked about reading the Bible.
Something that you've demonstrated so well, and it's Not always the common thing lately. I feel like we, every time we turn on the TV or we go on social media, there's some new scandal, there's some new thing. It's so important that we live our lives with integrity, that we're the same person in the church, as we are in the workplace, as we are in the home. I love, you know, when your mentors, Billy Graham. Had the Modesto Manifesto, and he had, what was it, Never Be Alone with a Woman.
Don't inflate your numbers. Don't exaggerate your numbers that your evangelistic outreaches he was doing. And don't disparage other preachers. Is there more to it? Yeah, there's more, but those are some of the main ones.
And I've tried to live by that and do those very things. And, you know, I got to know Billy quite well. And I can tell you privately, he was the same person he was publicly. I would even say he was more impressive privately than publicly. Not that he wasn't impressive publicly, obviously he was.
But he was just such a nice guy. And he was such a caring person. And when you would sit down with him and have a conversation, you know, I always wanted. To ask him questions. I always had a million, Billy, let me ask you, when you met Goldamair, Billy, when you did that, you know, and all these things I'd ask him.
And he would answer, but then he would say, well, tell me about yourself. And he really took an interest in other people, but he did live a godly life. And I think that's so important, you know, that no one's going to live perfectly. But we don't want to contradict what we've said by the way that we live. And, you know, it's been said there are five gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
And you. You know, and you're the only gospel that some people are ever going to read. And you know, so coming back to an earlier point, suffering.
Okay, so Paul and Silas were arrested for preaching the gospel. The Roman jailer was especially cruel. He whipped them, put their feet in stocks. And it's just a hellhole. We can't even imagine how awful that person was.
And then we read this great verse. And at midnight, Paul and Silas sang praises to God, and the other prisoners listened. And the word used there for listen means. means they listened with pleasure. Like when your favorite song comes on the radio.
Do favorite songs even come on the radio anymore? Are songs even played? I don't even know. We all listen to our music through Spotify or other ways. Anyway.
They listened with pleasure. And then a great earthquake came, the wall shook, and the Roman jailer thought, okay, that's it. I'm going to be put to death for losing these prisoners. He literally had his sword out. Paul says, don't harm yourself.
We're here still. And then he says, What must I do to be saved?
Okay. What made the Roman jailer's heart change? It was the testimony of Paul and Silas in the midst of suffering, giving glory to God. And then he wanted to know more, and he became a believer.
So I think when we live lives of integrity, when we practice what we preach. It earns us the right to preach the gospel. Yeah, it talks about too how that jailer tended to the wounds of Paul and Silas. He began to take care of them when they had the upper hand. The whole part of the first part of the story, he's got the upper hand.
He's afflicting them. He's abusing them. And now an earthquake happens. They're freed. That, you know, they're able to run away.
They could have ran, but they said, don't, you know, stop. We're all here still. And that was the thing that led him to salvation. It's amazing. And it completely changed his heart.
And so sometimes we. Have the upper hand in a situation, someone wrongs us, and hey, we want to turn the other cheek the other way, you know, and you know. an eye for an eye, right? And afflict them. But What Paul and Silas did is a great testimony of what can happen when you turn the other cheek and they were gracious.
Yeah, I would add, you know. That Forgiving, keep short accounts. People are going to hurt you in life. And you can go through life with that anger at them, And it can eat you up inside. Uh What is that expression?
It says um Unforgiveness is like Eating the rat poison and waiting for the rat to die. You know, it's killing you and. You know, coming back to research.
So, studies have been done on forgiveness, and they've said there's power in forgiveness. In fact, one study said it's the queen of all virtues. And this is written from a secular perspective, not from a biblical one. that it's it's the queen of all virtues to just forgive. Because when you forgive someone, you set a prisoner free.
Yourself.
So I think you are going to be hurt in life. Yep. But don't hold grudges. Just forgive.
Well, they don't deserve it.
Well, actually, you don't deserve it. Yeah, and how about the part where Jesus says in the Lord's Prayer: help us to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We're called to forgive people as we have been forgiven. And that's a tall order. Jesus also talks about how if you do not forgive those, your Father will not forgive you.
Have fun wrestling with that verse for a little bit. I remember I was dealing with unforgiveness and I asked you How to manage this. And you gave me a really good insight that helped me. You said, forgiving doesn't mean you have to make yourself vulnerable again and again and again. It means you release them of that debt.
Because this person had wronged me and I kept making myself vulnerable.
Okay, I'm gonna come back to the table and pretend and hit the reset button and hope that this works out. And it wasn't. And it hurt and it hurt and it hurt. And you said, you don't have to keep doing that, but you do need to release them of that debt. That really helps.
Helped me understand what forgiveness was.
So we're all called to do that.
Well, Jesus, hanging on the cross, gave seven statements, and his first statement was. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
So there was like how's that for forgiveness? Yeah, he was crucified between two criminals. We call them the thieves, but they were probably guilty of a greater crime, probably murder or probably insurrection. And so at first. At first, they're mocking him along with the crowd at the foot of the cross.
He said he's the Son of God. Let him save others. Let him come down from the cross, they're saying. Jesus says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then immediately, one of those thieves believed.
And said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's what can happen, you know, you forgive. And that's a powerful testimony to somebody else. And I think this is something we must do for our own peace of mind. And it's a powerful testimony to a watching.
Well, you think it affected the thief on the cross? It affected the centurion who oversaw the crucifixion. And then we fast forward to the book of Acts when Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church, he, of course, repeated and was reflecting the forgiveness that Jesus shown. And who was affected there? A young man named Saul, who would soon become Paul.
Was it Stephen's forgiveness and his mercy that he demonstrated in that spot that changed Saul's heart or potentially pushed him that direction? We don't know for sure. Paul obviously went on a rampage after that, but it was something that certainly had some effect on him. Oh, yeah.
Well, he ultimately, you know, Jesus came to him on the road to Damascus. Saul saw, he says, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? And he says, I am Jesus. And so I think no questions.
Stephen's testimony prepared the heart of Saul to finally believe in.
So forgiveness, that's a big one. Forgive people. Yeah, that's good.
Well, listen, Jonathan, it's been great. Thanks for asking me those questions and joining me. And thank you for joining us as well for this podcast. And we're going to pick this conversation up again in the future. Talk about more things that I would tell my younger self.
So, until next time, God bless you. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening to my podcast. Before you go, I wanted to let you know about the important work we're doing here at Harvest. You know, we've had the same goal these last 50 years, which is simply this: we want to know God and we want to make Him known. And we do that in a lot of ways: documentary films, animation, radio, television, large-scale evangelistic events, and more.
If you want to be a part of what we're doing to fulfill the great commission, you can support us with whatever you can give at harvest.org/slash donate. Again, that's harvest.org/slash donate. And thanks so much.
Whisper: parakeet / 2025-07-02 14:39:54 / 2025-07-02 14:41:35 / 2
