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.
We need to discover the gifts that God has given to us and use them. The Lord has some important work for each of us to do. And Pastor Greg Laurie points out, God has some special tools for the assignment. You are not a random person living a random life. God has created you with a purpose.
So you want to take those gifts and use them. Don't let them lie dormant. The Bible says, stir up the gift that is given to you. Day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning.
Amazing graves now sweetness town. But can you hear all the ancients of singing? This is the day the day when life begins. Would you walk all the way to work because you forgot to get in your car? Would you stand over a tub doing laundry like this 1910?
when the washing machine is sitting right there. When power tools are available, we use them.
Well today on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Lori points out that the Lord has made spiritual gifts available to each of us, the power tools, as it were, of serving the kingdom. And today we'll see just how important it is that we use them. Busy day, the day when life begins Question Have you ever received a gift that you really didn't like all that much? And that might be clothing.
Someone gives you a shirt or a dress. And then you immediately open it up and you don't like it and they ask you, what do you think? And you kind of have to not completely tell the truth. And so you say, well, I don't have anything in my wardrobe quite like this. and you're thinking this would be a great rag to wipe my car down with right And then you see them maybe a couple weeks later.
Hey, when are you gonna wear that shirt that I gave you? And, you know, if you're one of those people, just stop, please. You don't have good taste. I don't know how to help you understand that. Here's what I do: I will give someone a gift, and maybe I'll give them a shirt or a dress or something like that.
But I'll always put the receipt in and I'll say, if you don't like it, please return it because I want you to get what you want. But some people they want you to wear that ugly shirt no matter what. Or someone gives you a fruitcake. Hey, how did you enjoy the fruitcake? You don't want to tell them you gave it to the dog and he died.
The dog's dead. The fruitcake killed the dog. But maybe you have that gift and you don't know what to do with it, so you re-gift it. Just be careful that you don't re-gift the gift back to the person who gave you the gift. In the first place, right?
Well I bring this up because The Bible speaks of spiritual gifts. that God has given to each of us. And I can guarantee whatever gift God selects through you is going to be great. You're going to love it. You want to regift it.
But what is a spiritual gift? Spiritual gifts are different than natural talent, though that too is given to us by God. A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability to do something you would not normally do. Again, a spiritual gift is a supernatural ability to do something you would not normally do. The problem is sometimes Maybe God will give someone else a gift and you'll say, I wish I had their gift.
I remember years ago as a little kid, And I had a friend. who was given a toy for Christmas. And I don't remember what I received, but all I knew was I wanted his toy more than the toys I received.
Now this is early 60s.
So you have to understand tech was very basic in those days. His gift was a plastic skin diver. that you put batteries in. And you put him in the pool, and his legs kicked, and he sunk to the bottom of the pool, and bubbles came out. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
And I wanted that gift more than anything else, and we can be that way. Oh, I want their gift. I wish I could do what they're called to do, but we need to discover the gifts that God has given to us and use them, and we all have them if we're Christians. Because Romans 12, 5 says, we being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. Listen, you are not a random person.
living in a random life. God has created you with a purpose.
So you want to take those gifts and use them. Don't let them lie dormant. The Bible says, stir up the gift that is given to you. And uh, you know, God Called me to be a preacher of all things. And that is the last thing I aspire to.
I did graduate high school. In fact, I don't know if you know this, but I'm in the Harbor High Hall of Fame. Can you believe that? I actually went to an award ceremony. And I spoke and I said, Look, I should be on your hall of shame, okay?
I don't know how I ended up on your hall of fame, but I used it as an opportunity to share how I came to Christ at the campus. And I was driving by there a couple months later with one of my granddaughters. They said, Hey, you want to go see my picture on the hall of fame at Harbor Heights? And we went in and they wouldn't let me go in. You can't come in.
You're not a student here.
Well, I want to look at the Hall of Fame. Get out of what Cecil.
Okay, goodbye. But I mean this was not what I aspired to I wanted to be a graphic designer. I think my backup plan was a pet shop, maybe. Um But when God called me to preach, that was not a gift I had naturally, but it was a gift He gave to me in. He expects us to use the gifts he gives to us.
And He expects us to develop them, and He expects us to cultivate them, and He expects us to use them for His glory.
So this is the last message in our series we're calling upward, Inward, and Outward. And we're pointing out that these are three principles that should be constantly operative in the life of the Christian. Why am I here on this earth? Number one, I'm here for the glorification of God. Number two, I'm here for the edification of the saints.
Thirdly, I'm here for the evangelization of the world, upward, inward, outward. To review, number one, I'm here for the glorification of God. The Bible says whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Whatever you're called to do, if you work at In-N-Out Burger, flip those burgers for the glory of God. If you're a construction worker, then do that for the glory of God, right?
If you work in a bank, if you work as a secretary, if you're a professional athlete, whatever your field is, you're called to, do it for God's glory. And if you can't do it for God's glory, you might need another line of work, right? I should be able to write these words over everything that I do. Hallowed be thy name. If I can't say, hallowed be thy name before I go out that night to do whatever I'm going to do, maybe I shouldn't do it.
If I can't write, hallowed be thy name over my career choice, maybe I need a different career. If I can't write, hallowed be thy name over that relationship I'm engaged in, maybe I don't need that relationship.
So we're here to glorify God. Uh Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Um We really enjoy hearing when Pastor Greg's teaching and preaching touches lives. Pastor Greg, I want to thank you for leading me to Christ over the radio back in 2007. I was a meth addict at the time and could see my life ending soon because of the addiction.
God used you that morning as I listened on the radio, as I prayed the sinner's prayer along with you. Instantly I knew that I was set free. Since then I've studied God's word and have never turned back to drugs. God's presence means everything to me, and I consider myself a living miracle. Thank you, Pastor Gregg, for your faithfulness.
If you have a story to share, why not call us and give us all the details? Here's the number: 1-866-871-1144. 866-871-1144.
Well, we're focusing on the big issues of life today: the reason we're here, the job God's given us to do, and the tools He's made available to us. Pastor Gregg continues now. We're here for the glorification of God. Number two, we're here for the edification of the saints. And that takes us to Ephesians 4, because it says that God has given us in the church certain gifts.
Ephesians 4.11, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers. And their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. My job as your pastor is to teach the word of God. It's to feed you the word of God. but it's also to equip you and help you.
Discover the gifts that God has for you. And I can't tell you how much I love it when I see people grow spiritually. Yes, I. I love it when people come to Christ. You can't get tired of that.
But just the other day, I was talking to a young lady who came to Christ through our ministry, and she was saying things that. They were ministering to me. And she only came to the Lord like a year ago. And I said, look at you. Look at how much wisdom and knowledge you've gleaned from the scripture already.
And it's so wonderful when someone finds their gift and they begin to develop their gift. And so that's our job. That's why he gave us the church. And so we want to help people grow in their faith.
Now you might say, well, Greg, I'm not called to be a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist.
Well, I don't know about that.
Some of the most effective evangelists I've ever met are not pastors of churches. They're not missionaries. They're just regular folks that have a unique giftedness to tell others about Jesus. I've been with them out in public places and they'll start engaging strangers in conversations and I'll just stand back in amazement, you know, because I can only do it if I have a pulpit in front of me. In fact, I have a pulpit on wheels in my car I take with me everywhere.
I'll go to the market and I'll just push it along, you know, and get the bread and the milk. And then, if there's someone to preach to, I'll preach to them. No, the truth is though, you can be gifted as an evangelist and and not necessarily have a pulpit like this.
So, the challenge is to discover what your gifts are. Here's a description of a number of the gifts, not all of them, but a number of them. Romans 12 verse 6. In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. If God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out.
with as much faith as God has given you. If you're gifted serving others, serve them well. If you're a teacher, teach well. If it's encouraging others. or exhorting.
then be encouraging. If it's giving, then give generously. If God has given you a leadership ability, take that responsibility seriously. And if He has given you a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
So one thing that Paul mentions is the gift of exhortation. Let's contrast the gift of exhortation with the gift of teaching.
Someone who has the gift of teaching tells you how to do it.
Someone with the gift of exhortation makes you want to do it. It's sort of like a cheerleader. I was watching my granddaughter Allie played volleyball the other day. She's very good. And they have, you know, the other girls will cheer.
They have a pretty deep bench, so they're rotating the girls in and out. And so when the other girls are on the sidelines, they're not just sitting idly by, they're cheering the others on. Go, go, go. And they have little cheers they've worked out. And I joined them in a couple.
No, I didn't. They would have. They wouldn't have liked that. Who's that 72-year-old man? Get him out of here quickly.
Okay, so An encourager. And I feel like our culture is so discouraging today. It seems like the whole world has become a live version of X. You know what X is? That's formerly Twitter.
And it's just a lot of people generally fighting with other people. And it seems like our culture has become this: you know, discouraging words. have a way of staying with you. When I got my surgery for hip replacement, I was sitting there in my little hospital bed, my super cool gown. Um feeling kind of vulnerable.
And they have all these things hooked up to you, and they're doing all these checks before you go into surgery. And the nurse was listening to my heart. And she said, Do you have a cardiologist? I said. No.
She said, I think you have a heart murmur. Immediately, I just, I knew I had one. I might be having a heart attack right now. I don't know. And then the anesthesiologist came in and the nurse said, Listen to his heart.
Anesthesiologist listened to it and said, He's fine. No, do you hear a murmur? There's no murmur. Oh, okay.
So then it went away immediately. You know what I'm saying though? The power of words, especially from a doctor or a medical official. Oh, wow, you know. Our words really matter.
You know, after President Lincoln was assassinated, They found that he carried out around a worn old newspaper clipping in his pocket. And what it said, it was an article from a paper that said: Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest statesmen of all time. Even President Lincoln, as great as he was, he's regarded as one of our greatest presidents, the greatest by some. Need an encouragement. He'd get down every now and then.
He'd just pull that out.
Well, someone out there likes me. Don't be a discourager. Be an encourager. In the book of Acts, we have the story of a man who literally had the nickname Mr. Encouragement.
His name was actually Joseph. But they nicknamed him Barnabas. We call him Barnabas, but that was not his given name. Because Barnabas means the son of encouragement.
So he was Mr. Encouragement. If they gave you a name, what would it be? Mr. Mr.
Or miss. Like what would be a word that would best describe you? Miss her excitement.
Some people are that way. Miss happiness. Or perhaps Mr. Bible. Boy, wherever that person goes, they're quoting the Bible.
Or would it be Mr. Critical. Or Miss Cranky. Or would it be Debbie Downer or Bobby Buzzkill? You know, certain people only see the negative.
They never see the positive. They're always criticizing. They say, well, I have this spiritual gift of criticism. No such gift. The Bible does not say God gave us apostles.
prophets, pastors, and Karens. There's no Karens. I'm sorry if your name is Karen. It's a fine name. But some Buddy hijacked your name and did something.
So I'm sure you are very encouraging Karen. Is there anybody named Karen here? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you, Karen.
You're not that way. Look at you, I can tell. Though you did seem a little critical earlier. No, no. Not really.
So, an encourager, that's a great thing. You know, Paul and Barnabas became friends. Paul was formerly Saul of Tarsus, right?
So, he comes to Christ. No one believes he's become a Christian because he's a Christian killer. But Barnabas, Mr. Encouragement, said, Oh, this guy's conversion is real. I'm going to take him under my wing and I'm going to introduce him to fellow Christians.
In fact, I'm going to go on the road with this guy and do ministry with him, which they did. And we read in Acts 14, 22 that Paul and Barnabas confirmed the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith that we through much tribulation must enter the kingdom of God. And this is why the church is so important. Because in Hebrews 10 it says, We should gather together. And consider one another and provoke each other to love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting or encouraging one another daily, even as we see the day of the Lord approaching.
So, this is something we should all do. Then there's the gift of giving. Mentioned in Romans 12.8. If your gift is giving, then give generously.
Now look, every Christian should give. And if you don't give to the work of God, you're missing out on the blessing. Because Jesus said it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. But this is not that. This is not just a believer giving.
This is a supernatural gift of giving. And I've met people that have this gift. It's not always money. It's other things. people with extraordinary gifts of hospitality.
People that are always there for you in some way, shape, or form. And so Paul says if your gift is giving, then Be generous and give well. And then there's a gift of showing kindness, verse 8. If you have a gift for showing kindness, do it gladly.
Some people have a supernatural ability to show mercy and compassion and kindness to those who are in need. You know, when you go to a hospital room. You know, I go as a pastor. I try to have the right things to say, but I've met people that do a much better job than I do. Because they walk up to that person and they take their hand.
Maybe they stroke their hair. They help them. They'll feed them. They'll do what that person needs. And I'll just look at that and I'd say, that is not my gifting.
My wife is that way. She's so nurturing and helpful and I'm over preaching a sermon somewhere, right?
So this is a gift from the Spirit and it's a great gift. And if you're in a hospital room, you'd really appreciate somebody who has that gift of showing kindness. But ultimately, The purpose of all of these gifts is so we will grow up spiritually. Ephesians 4:15. We need to speak the truth in love that we may grow up.
As every joint supplies and every part does its share. for the growth of the body.
So this is something we all want to do. Yeah. Pastor Greg Laurie, with insights on the gifts God makes available to us. and how we need to put those tools to work. And there's more to come here on a new beginning.
But before we can discuss how we can serve God as believers, We should talk about the rich privilege of becoming a believer in the first place.
So many long to have peace with God, but they don't quite know how to go about it. Pastor Gregg, the Lord is ready to welcome people who come to Him, isn't He? That's right. The Bible says, Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
So, think of it this way. Maybe you're out in a riptide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you're in trouble, and you see a lifeguard. Call out for help, and the lifeguard will rescue you. The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin, you need help.
Jesus will save you, He will rescue you, but you must call out to Him. And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer.
So let me just lead you in a simple prayer, and you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you'd like. And this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you. Just pray this: Lord Jesus. I know I'm a sinner.
and I know you are the Saviour. Who died on the cross for my sin? and rose again from the dead.
Now, Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in you. Be my Savior, my Lord, be my God and my friend. I choose to follow you. From this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ Himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send you. It's called the New Believers Bible.
So, the New Believers Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believers Growth Pact. But let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible. Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way, free of any charge, if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today.
Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us any time 24-7. Again, 1-800-821-21. Yeah. or just go online to harvest.org and click No God.
You know, Pastor Greg, we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives.
So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching. That's right. And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue. Yeah, it's really true, Dave. You know, and even a little bit helps.
You know, people need to hear the gospel so badly. They need to hear the teaching of the word of God. It changes everything because it changes us. And I'm so passionate about it, and I'm called to do it, and I'm thankful for it. But I can't do it alone.
So I'm going to ask folks that are listening: if you think more people need to hear the gospel. If you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God, then Preparefully consider investing in harvest ministries and maybe even become a harvest partner. Which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving. And that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us.
So, thanks for that. Yeah, that's right. And we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us anytime day or night at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.
Or just go online to harvest.org.
Well, next time, more good encouragement about using the spiritual gifts God gives us as we look upward, inward, and outward. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lorish. Do you feel the bad? The day when life begins.
