Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries recommend a great new children's book by Sally Lloyd-Jones called Jesus Our True Friend. You have kids and they need to hear the story of Jesus. And I bet you struggle at times trying to read Bible stories to your children. This is a great tool, so order your copy of Jesus Our True Friend Stories to Fill Your Heart with Joy, written by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org.
Being disciplined by God is an indication you're a child of God. Pastor Greg Laurie says sometimes the challenges we face may be the Lord's hand of correction on us.
So if you try to do sinful things as a Christian, and you find it hard, but you're always the person that gets caught, that means God loves you. And it might be something that seems like the worst case scenario. It actually can be the very thing that brings you to your senses. Day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.
Amazing graves now sweet the sound. But can you hear all the ancients are singing? This is the day, the day when life begins.
Sometimes seatbelts are uncomfortable. They're confining. They need constant adjustment. and they can rub a person the wrong way. But in a traffic accident, they can literally save your life.
Sometimes we chafe under the corrective guidance of God, but in the end it's for our own good and may save our life. Today on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us recognize and realign ourselves with God's plan. as we study the wrong way to respond from the life of Jonah. This is the day, the day when life begins.
You know, we've been having a lot of storms here in Southern California. Have you noticed that? More than normal, like storm after storm after storm. And I'll tell you that I have a surefire way to get it to rain. I just washed my car.
I tell you, it works every time. And then, somehow, in the bird community, and I think they have a community. Because I hear them talking every morning. There's that first random bird, then the others join in, and then the crows kick in a little bit later, and they're talking. I think in the bird community, the message goes out, Greg washed his car.
We need a direct hit. You know what I'm talking about, right? And they don't just bring out a sparrow, they call in the seagulls for my car. And I don't know how birds communicate, they probably tweet, I would think, but. That's what they do for sure.
But the weird thing about storms is they seemingly come out of nowhere. And that can be true of life as well. A storm can come suddenly. And it can be some kind of an event. By storm, I'm using that as a metaphor for.
Something big, it might be a hardship, it might be a problem, it might be an anxiety, it might be a tragedy, but it's something that comes. Pretty quickly Seemingly out of nowhere, it has great impact on you. It might be a painful health problem. It might be the effects of age. It might be a stroke.
It might be a heart attack. Or it might be if you're younger, the challenges that younger people face. We'll talk about that in a few moments. Problems with your parents, problems with your peers at school, problems with teachers, problems with being left out of things. It might be your storm is dealing with rebellious children.
For others, your storm might be dealing with weird parents. I don't know. But everybody has their own storm they deal with. And we cannot control. External circumstances.
We cannot control what people say to us or say about us. We cannot control everything that comes our way, but we can control our reaction to it.
Well, I bring that up because here in the book of Jonah, it's a story. of a man who ended up in a storm. And he ended up in the storm because he was running from the will of God. He was called to preach to a city called Nineveh. And he refused.
He doesn't want to go. And he's on this boat. And he's headed as far from Nineveh as he can humanly get. And the following happened, Jonah chapter 1, verse 4. And the Lord hurled, I like that.
This is the New Living Translation, by the way. The Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart. Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hole.
So the captain went down after him and said, how can you sleep at a time like this? Get up and pray to your God. Maybe he will pay attention. to us and spare our lives.
So the Lord sent a powerful wind. The Lord sends a mighty storm to get the attention of the prodigal. profit. And as I pointed out recently, we all have our storms in life, and there are three kinds of storms we face as Christians. protecting storms, perfecting storms, and correcting storms.
Number one, there are protecting storms. This happened when Jesus performed his miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. And the people wanted to make him king, and he immediately dispatched his disciples to get on the boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. And it is key that he said, Let's go to the other side. He did not say, let's get into the boat and drown in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.
If he had said that, I would never have gotten into that boat. But he did say, let's get to the other side. He did not promise them. calm waters, but he promised them a safe arrival. But that was a storm that was protecting them well from themselves.
the adulation, the praise, the power. And would have come their way if they ruled and reigned over the people, but Jesus as king would have certainly destroyed them. He was protecting them. Number two, there are perfecting storms. These are when we just go through trials and hardship in life that God allows.
Sometimes these events seem random. But they never are. Because we already learned in Romans 8:28 that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. 2 Corinthians 4:17 says, Our present troubles are quite small and won't last for very long, yet they produce for us an immeasurably great Glory that will last forever.
So we don't look at the troubles we see right now. Rather, we look forward to what we don't see yet. For the troubles we see now will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.
So if you're looking at trouble right now. Or you're in a storm right now, just remember. It's not going to last forever, and something is going to come out of it in immeasurably great glory.
Now, Finally, we have correcting storms, and that's what Jonah was in. He brought this storm on himself, and God actually sent it because he loved Jonah. It's hard for us to believe. God would allow a hardship in our life because He loves us. It seems that we would want to protect our children from all difficulties.
But remember, the Lord is wanting us to mature in our faith. And one of the marks of God's love for us is discipline. Because the Bible says he disciplines the one that he loves.
Now, being disciplined by God is an indication you're a child of God.
So if you try to do sinful things as a Christian, And you find it hard, you're always the person that gets caught. Are you that person? You always are the one that gets caught. That means God loves you. God loves you so much, He says, I'm not going to let my child get away with that, and I'm going to get their attention.
And it might be something that seems like the worst-case scenario. It actually can be the very thing that brings you to your senses. So that's what's happening. He's using a storm in the life of Jonah because he loves him, not because he's mad at him. God doesn't get ticked off at us and throw things at us.
He already took care of that at Calvary. He poured his judgment on his own son who died in our place.
So when the Lord disciplines us, it's not to get us back.
Well, maybe it is to get us back, not to repay us for our evil, but to get us back into fellowship with him. To restore us, because what did David say? You restore my soul.
So, are you running from God? Maybe the Lord has told you to do a certain thing and you've said no. You know, you were raised in a Christian home and you're running from that. I don't want these values. I don't want to live this way.
I want to live my way. My parents don't know what they're talking about. Even God doesn't know what he's talking about. And off you go. All right, how's that working out for you?
Because the Lord will give us the freedom to make our own choices, and I'll also allow us to experience the repercussions of those choices. And Jonah was finding out it's a really bad idea to run from God. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody, you can watch our Sunday services on a special broadcast that we call Harvest at Home. It's streaming on the Harvest Plus platform.
So download that app right away, Harvest Plus, and you can enjoy being a part of our extended church family every Sunday.
Well, as Pastor Gray continues one of his top 10 most requested messages, Getting Through the Storms of Life, he's joined now by several members of his family and members of his home church congregation in Southern California.
So we talked about Jonah. Anything pop into your minds that you want to Good question, Rig. You know, one thing to really Oh, it's Tim Hardy. They let me in over here. Hello, Tim.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, when you were talking about, you know, that Jonah, really what he was doing and how we can apply it to our, he wasn't listening to the word of God. God was speaking to him, and he was refusing to listen to that. And today, the thing that was just sticking out to me, you know, is we have our young adult ministry, that's them that are cheering me on over.
Is that today in our culture, it's feelings or truth, you know, for the Christian, you know? And so there's so many that are going, you know, I have this feeling in me. I have this drive or this tendency. And culture is saying, go with that. Go with your feeling.
And it's so dangerous. You know, just like Jonah, that's where all the storm started. You know, and so we have a choice to make. Are we going to Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 it? You know, are we going to trust in the Lord with all of our heart?
Are we going to lean on our own understanding? And, you know, that's where all the problems started for Jonah. And that's so many problems that are happening in culture today are coming out of that, leaning on our own understanding. For sure. You know, you talk about problems.
I mean, we all have problems, we all have storms. And you know, when I think you're really young, you have those problems. And you get a little older, you have different kinds of problems. And you get older, and they're always coming.
So, Brittany, tell us, what are young kids facing right now? Like, what would be their storms? A kid going to school today. They're getting ready to walk onto campus. What kind of storms are they bracing themselves for?
I think we can all collectively agree the junior high experience is just like one big storm. And so for us, I feel like I'm like, oh, I don't know what to do. You know, it's new for us as parents. Just bringing them here and like getting Riley plugged into like her youth group has been so good. And honestly, she doesn't always want to come.
Like, oh, there's a Friday night game night. She's like, I don't really want to go, but I'm like, no, we're going to go. And she always ends up having fun. And so she's getting fellowship, but they're telling her the word of God. She's hearing who she is and God.
So she, you know, she has, she's starting to have that foundation. And it doesn't mean that it's not hard. It's going to be hard until, you know, it's so hard for us. But. I feel like that's made the biggest difference for her and has given us tools to use to help equip her through this time.
You know, Jonathan, when you guys were little kids, I remember, you know, there'd be a point where, well, Dad, we don't want to go to church. I'd be like, interesting, get in the car.
So it's like. You still do that sometimes. I still do that. Here I am. He's a pastor and I still have to do it, right?
But you know, it's because sometimes parents will ask me, well, what about if my kids don't want to go to church?
Well, just take them to church anyway, you know, it because you're the parent and they're the child and you need to help them. And they're not always thinking clearly at certain points in their life, you know. And, you know, sometimes when you're younger, you're going through this thing, this trial, this hardship, and you think, this is so hard. How am I ever going to get through this? But, you know, when you've lived a few years and you look back on those things, like, what perspective would you give to someone saying, okay, look, when you've been around for a while and you see how faithful God is, here's what I've learned about the promises of God getting you through the storms of life.
Well, I think one thing that I could definitely say, looking back on the storms that I've been through. I wouldn't have missed what I've learned through those storms. You know, as I've allowed the Lord to bring me to where I am now, I can look back and say, thank you. Thank you for what I learned. Thank you that you were so close.
Thank you that I realized that the things that I thought I needed and the things that I was holding on to that you might have taken from me, you showed me that what I really desired was not those things, but it was more of Jesus. It was something that was lasting and something that was eternal, and those things would have never been that anyway. You know, I think that as you get older, you. You yeah. You start losing things, you start losing your eyesight, you start losing your fitness, you start losing your looks, you start losing all the time.
Not too capable of being a little bit more difficult. Just little by little by little, you say goodbye to everything if you live long enough. You're gonna say goodbye to it all. And it's funny because you were reading in 2 Corinthians 4, you were talking about this light and momentary affliction. But the verse right before that says, We don't lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
And although, I'm not as strong as I once was. I don't have the memory that I once had. And I certainly don't have the eyesight that I once did. I know that my inner self, you know, God has been transforming me and conforming me. I know more of His Word.
I know more of who He is and what He's like. I have a greater. The reality of his love in my life is even deeper and greater.
So, yeah, you know, storms, we don't like them, but we learn so much. And if we yield to the pressure of his hand, you know, he's the potter, we're the clay. You just yield to the pressure of his hand. He's making something beautiful out of all of us. And it's ultimately, we're being conformed into the image of Jesus.
That's right. Very good, Captain. Today, on a new beginning, insights from Pastor Greg Laurie, along with his wife Kathy, Pastor Tim Harding, and Pastor Jonathan Laurie and his wife Brittany. and Pastor Gregg will come back in a moment to close our study time.
Well, Pastor Gregg, somebody may be listening right now who's been facing some difficult challenges. Maybe they don't particularly count themselves as religious, but boy, they could sure you some help about now. Yes, sometimes God will let us go through hardship so He'll get our attention. The psalmist said, Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word.
So, maybe something's happening in your life that's caused you to look up, as in looking up to God, and you're saying, Help. Listen, that's not a bad place to be. In fact, that's a really good place to be. It's been said: when you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God. Do you feel like you're at the end of yourself right now?
Then why don't you pray? In fact, I would like to lead you on a prayer. Maybe you've never prayed before. You don't even know how to start praying. That's okay.
Prayer is just talking to God. Let me lead you in a simple prayer. You could pray it after me, in fact. And this is a prayer where you're asking God to Enter into your situation, but more significantly, you're asking Christ to enter into your life. See, that's what being a Christian is.
It's having Christ living inside of you. It's a relationship, not some religious thing.
So if you would like a relationship with God, If you would like God to walk with you through your times of difficulty, You could pray this prayer. after me right now. Just pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus. I'm scared.
And I need your help. And I'm asking you to enter my life. I'm asking you to forgive me of my sin. I know that you died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. But I want to receive you now.
as my Saviour and my Lord.
So I invite you into my life. and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer. And thank you for answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed that prayer along with Pastor Gregg and you've meant those words sincerely, the Lord has heard you and has forgiven you of your sin. and we want to welcome you into the family of God. Let us help you begin living for the Lord each day.
Pastor Gregg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible. It's in an easy-to-understand translation and has scores of helps to get a new believer started.
So get in touch and we'll send you the New Believer's Bible free of charge. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. or write a new beginning box 4000. Riverside, California, 92514.
Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. 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 help 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, nine two five one four. or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300.
Well, next time we focus on the way Jonah tarnished his testimony as God's prophet. and will learn to avoid those things that diminish our testimony to those around us. But before we go, Pastor Gregg closes our study time this way. Why don't we pray? Father, we're thankful to be here tonight, and now we pray if we're going through a storm, and some are.
Just, Lord, help us to realize storms don't last forever. And you said, let's cross over to the other side. And we're gonna get over to the other side. We're gonna get over to the other side of this storm in particular, but most importantly, we're gonna get over to the other side in heaven. And that is our hope.
our heavenly hope. Our blessed hope, and then again, you might come for us before we die. And we'll be caught up to meet you in the air.
So, Lord, help us to walk closely with you and worship you. And we ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. This is the day, the day when life begins.
