A New Beginning presents a great new marriage book from Pastor Greg Laurie. I've written a brand new book called Am I Doing This Right? God's Design for Relationships That Last.
So maybe I'm talking to someone out there with a strong marriage. I think if you get this book, it'll strengthen what is there. I might be talking to somebody that has a marriage that is unraveling. I think this book can really help you.
So order your copy of Am I Doing This Right? Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org. Lord why? Why is this happening? To me, when crisis or challenge hits, our lives are full of uncertainty.
Pastor Greg Laurie says, don't let what we're uncertain about affect what we're certain about. You know, life is full of questions. And even after we become Christians, we still have questions. I can be honest with you and say, I have questions for God. But one day, all of my questions are going to be answered, and yours are going to be too.
Isn't that great to know? Day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Of ancient graves now sweet to sound. But can you hear when the angels are singing?
This is the day, the day when I begin. More than 80% of Generation Z kids say they're stressed out. Four out of five. One in three adults lose sleep over their finances. and nearly three-quarters fear the future.
Is that the way God wants us to live? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us a biblical antidote for the anxiety that grips our hearts. We'll follow the example of a reluctant warrior in the Old Testament. and see how the same God that gave him courage can give us courage. I want to look.
of what Jesus has to say to the person who is afraid. And that person might be you. You might come here to church today filled with fear. or anxiety. And this is a story of a man who was afraid, and Jesus came to him.
This man's name was Gideon. And Gideon was hiding from his enemy, the Midianites. And in his encounter with Christ, his life was changed. He went from being fearful to being faithful, from hiding to fighting, from panic to purpose. And man, you want to talk about things being upside down?
Against the backdrop of Gideon's life, we have the book of Judges that introduces us to him. And in Judges 17:6, it says that in those days, Israel had no king, and whatever seemed right in the eyes of the people, they did. Everyone did what seemed right in their own eyes. If we were to put that in the 60s vernacular, we would say everyone was doing their own thing. And that's really true of our culture today.
Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes.
So God raised up 13 judges to judge his people through these difficult times. times. And Israel was going from bad to worse. And when you contrast the book of Joshua, which that's a book of conquest. Judges is a book of defeat.
Joshua is about the adventures and exploits of Israel as they obeyed God and entered into the promised land, while Judges is a book of unbelief and disobedience. And so everyone's doing what they want to do. And what happens? Jesus shows up. Jesus always shows up.
No matter what you're going through, he will show up in your life. When things are going great, and when things are not going so great. I think it's important for us to call on the Lord in the time of trouble. But it's also important for us to give thanks to Him when He's gotten us through the time of trouble. I like what it says in James 5:13.
If anyone is among you who is in trouble, let him pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
So, probably right now, you're either in trouble or things are going reasonably well. If you're in trouble, pray. Absolutely pray. But if things are going well, just remember to give God thanks for that.
So it's around 1256 BC. And Israel is reaping the consequences of bad decisions they made earlier. They were to drive out the inhabitants of the land. They were to destroy them, but they. Half did the job.
And the Midianites were left and they grew stronger. And now as time has passed, the Midianites are dominating, even terrorizing the people of Israel. You know, it can happen in our own lives too. We'll deal with a certain problem in our life, but we won't deal with it completely, like a tree. You know how trees sometimes start tearing things apart as the roots spread through your yard, so you've got to remove that tree.
But you can't just chop the tree down. You got to take the roots out too. You got to take the stump out as well. Otherwise, it will come back again with a vengeance. And that's what Israel was facing as things they should have dealt with earlier were now coming back to haunt them.
But the Lord shows up and he brings deliverance to them through a man named Gideon because Jesus meets fearful people where they are.
So we're introduced to Gideon in Judges chapter 6, starting in verse 11. Read along with me. The angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at. Oprah. Which belonged to Oprah Winfrey.
No, I threw that in because you were thinking that. Of the clan of Abiziar, Gideon the son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you. Kind of a funny scene. Here's a guy hiding from his enemies.
Hoping they don't see him. And an angel shows up and says, mighty hero. The Lord is with you. He's probably looking like he's talking to someone else.
Well, you're talking to me? me a mighty hero? The Lord is with you. And then Gideon says, well, if the Lord is with us. Why has all of this happened to us?
And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say the Lord brought us out of Egypt and now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites? And the Lord said to him, Go with the strength you have to rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you. We'll stop there.
What a powerful text that is. Heard the story of a mother that was reading Bible stories to her little girl. And as she heard the great stories of the heroes of the Bible, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Esther, and others, she said, Mommy, it seems like God was more exciting back then. You know, and you might wonder: why can't I see something like I see in the Bible? You know, you hear things that have happened in the past.
Oh, the Jesus revolution. I hear about that. Why can't we have that in our generation? And maybe we're starting to have that right now. Because God is certainly at work.
Or you might say, well, God's working in that person's life. Why isn't He working in my life in the same way? God healed that girl. God provided for that guy. The Lord got this other person out of that crisis.
But I'm still sick and I still need this provision and I'm still facing a crisis. And that's what Gideon was saying: Lord, why? Why is this happening to me? It's interesting. You know, life is full of questions.
And even after we become Christians, we still have questions. I can be honest with you and say, I have questions for God. Unanswered questions. But I've learned in life that I cannot live on explanations, but rather on the promises of God. But one day, all of my questions are going to be answered, and yours are going to be too, when we stand before God.
And 1 Corinthians 13 says, Right now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely as I am known by God. Isn't that great to know? So Gideon says, why? And God responds with who?
As in, you got the wrong question, buddy. Don't be asking why. Be asking, who should I turn to?
So Gideon says, Why is this happening? God says, I am with you. I'm with you. That's the answer I'm giving to you. You are not alone in what you are facing, and Christ appears to him.
Now remember we're calling these Christophanies. That's a theological term. for an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. The first Christophany we looked at together was in the book of Genesis when Abraham offered his son Isaac in obedience to the Lord and the angel of the Lord appeared who was none other than Jesus Christ. Then we looked at Jacob wrestling with an angel which turned out to be Jesus because he said afterwards, I've wrestled with God and I've seen God face to face.
Than Joshua, who encountered the angel of the Lord, or actually Jesus, before he went into battle against Jericho. And here we are now with Gideon having an encounter with Jesus. You say, Well, Greg, you're wrong because the Bible says an angel of the Lord came to him.
Well, actually, it says the angel of the Lord came to him. The angel. That's different from an angel.
Now, if an angel were to appear right now, Be pretty awesome. Angels are magnificent creatures. And they are surrounding the life of the believer, and they are actively involved in our lives. And in fact, the Apostle John had an angel appear to him, and he bowed down to worship it, and he was strictly forbidden to do that by the angel. But this encounter is different because first it's identified as The angel of the Lord, and then the narrative shifts, and we find Gideon calling him the Lord.
And also, this angel or the Lord says, I am sending you.
So he uses the first person pronoun, assuming divine authority.
So it's not an angel, it's Jesus. And Jesus is commissioning Gideon to lead the people of Israel into battle. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone, I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix.
We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash, the Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app.
Well, Pastor Greg has just taken us to the moment when the Lord had commissioned Gideon for battle. But Gideon isn't quite on board. Gideon's thinking, you got the wrong guy. Are you kidding me? I'm the last guy you should choose to do this.
Look at verse 15. But Lord Gideon replied. How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest of the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I'm least of my entire family. Another translation put it this way, I'm the runt of the litter.
So not too long ago I was thinking about buying a dog. My wife is not in favor of this. And she hates sweeping up after dogs. But I was looking at a possible dog because we have friends in the church. They have a chocolate lab and it just had a litter.
They said, you want to come see the puppies? She said, Kathy said, don't buy a puppy. But I went over and I'm playing with the puppies and they're so adorable. And some were black and some were dark brown. And I said, Oh, I like this one.
Oh, that one's spoken for.
Okay. I like this aggressive one.
Now that one's already been bought now. What about this one? That one's already spoken for.
Well, what's left? And they show me this one kind of sad little puppy. He would sit there, sort of fall over, not really, but he wasn't the pick of the litter. He was the runt of the litter, literally.
Now, I wish I could tell you, but I bought that puppy, and he's a wonderful dog. I didn't buy him, I didn't want him. I don't know who ended up with him. But let me just say, even he would be better than any dog with the word oodle in its name. How many of you own some kind of an oodle, a labard oodle, raise your hand?
Get out. No, don't.
Okay, now let me give you my opinion. And it's not a criticism as much as it's an observation. Because I've wondered what is with these oodles, what's with the labardles and all the rest of them? Because they all seem to have the same collective personality. They're very active.
They run around a lot. They don't always seem to obey their owner.
So I did a little deep dive and why is this happening? I'm not the only one who thinks it. They say the Labrador, very affectionate, loyal dog. Poodle, very intelligent dog.
Something weird happens when you put it together. Oh, but Greg, they're hypoallergenic, duly noted. Still. Anyway, I digress.
So, because I know I'm offending people right now, there's no point in going on. But you probably know I'm right. But Gideon was the runt of the litter. But that's okay because God seems to go out of his way to use unexpected people to do unexpected things. God loves to do the extraordinary.
through the ordinary. For a lot of us that were never the ones chosen. You weren't the homecoming queen. You weren't the pick of the litter, so to speak. I remember when I would engage in sports and High school and before, I just always wanted to do well in athletics, but I never did.
I know what it's like to be picked last for the team. I literally was always picked last for the team. I'll take him, I'll take her, I'll take him, I'll take her. Then at the end there's me and a three-legged dog there. It's just like, I'll take the three-legged dog, all right.
All right, we'll take Lori. We had Lori last time.
Okay, Greg, you can be first base. You want me to play first base? No, we want you to be first base. We're going to slide into you with our cleats. That's what we actually want.
Though I was really honored recently. to be chosen to be a model on the cover of a magazine. They wanted to use my hands. They said, can we use your hands? Because there are hand models.
Did you know that?
So they photographed my hands, and then I found out the name of the magazine, Old and Decomposing. Look for it at your newsdown. Those are my hands on old and decomposing. These are my own jokes, people. What do you want from me?
I write my own material, obviously.
So Gideon says Who am I? And I love the Lord's response. Who am I? Verse 15: the Lord says, That's not the issue. It's who am I?
Not who are you? Who cares who you are? Who am I? and I'm going to be with you. And the Lord calls him a mighty hero.
Hey, mighty hero! The Lord is with you. I think Gideon felt more like a pathetic zero than a mighty hero. But God doesn't just see you for what you are, He sees you for what you can become. You know, we see a vacillating Simon.
God sees a rock like Peter. We see a hate-filled, persecuting Saul of Tarsus. God sees a powerful. Apostle Paul. We see a frightened Gideon.
God sees a military leader. And he chooses him. I mean, to call Gideon a mighty hero, that would be like seeing some kid who can't throw a football and saying, hey, Tom Brady, let me ask you a question. The other day I was throwing a football with my granddaughter, Stella. I don't know what's happened.
I can't properly throw a pass these days. It's just sort of flying around, and she threw a perfect spiral to me. I said, where did you learn that? She said, Papa, you taught me.
So, somehow, in a moment of lucidity, I taught her how to throw a spiral, and I can't throw one anymore. And my hands are decomposing. This is a bad situation. But I still write my own material. I digress, but the point is: you know, hey, Tom Brady, far from it, or finding some kid who's failing in class and saying, Einstein, come up here.
It's kind of a joke, but it wasn't a joke. God sought him for what he would be. But before public victory, We have to obey God at home.
So the Lord says, here's your first test, Gideon. Before you lead the troops into battle, you've got to make a stand in your home.
So as it turns out, Gideon's father had erected an altar to Baal. The Lord showed Gideon he needs to tear the altar down. Which Gideon did. But the problem is, maybe it's a problem. I don't think it is.
He did it at night.
Now, some would say, well, he should have done it in broad daylight so everyone could see. Oh, he did it at night. It's his dad's altar. And then the people were so angry, they said, We should execute Gideon. And the funny thing is, this father was really moved by what he did and defended his son and got closer to the Lord as a result.
But he took a stand in his own home. And I appreciate that. And I think it's important for us to never give up on our families. But also to remember this the hardest people to reach with the gospel is your family. You know, and there comes a point where they don't need any more sermons.
They need you to live the sermon. But every one of us should do everything we can to point our family to Christ.
So if you're a kid living with your parents, Be the best Christian kid you can be, especially if they're not believers. Do your chores, be responsible, be respectful. And that's how you can win your parents to Christ. If you're a Christian woman married to a non-Christian man, be a godly, loving woman. That's how you're going to reach them.
The Bible even says you can do it without a word by the way that you live. And for a husband, if he is married to a non-Christian woman, he should love her as Christ loves the church. Even as we came to Christ because of his love for us. You can win that lady over in time, God willing. Don't give up on her.
But I would like to say a word to men. How many men are there out there? Raise your hand if you're a man. Get up that muscular arm of yours. Men God has called you to be the spiritual leader in your home.
Ladies You need to do everything you can to support him. as the spiritual leader in your home. You should be able to say, guys, along with Joshua, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Men, husbands, fathers, you should be reading the scripture to your children. You should be leading prayer.
You should be saying, We're going to go to church now. You say, But what if my kids say we don't want to go? Say, that's interesting. Get in the car, right? Be a man.
Be a leader. Set an example. Here's some interesting stats you might consider. A survey was done that found a mother and father attend church regularly, mother and father. 72% of their children will attend regularly when they're young adults.
That's pretty good. And chances are, your kids, when they're young adults, are going to do the same thing. But it goes on, if only the father attends. 55% will attend church regularly.
Sorry, ladies. If only the mother attends regularly, only 15% of the children will attend regularly. These are the stats, I didn't write them. But if neither mother nor father attends regularly, only 6% or main people. You see how important an example is.
You see how important that discipline is?
So, Gideon made a stand in his home.
Now it's time to go to battle. Yeah. Such good counsel for all of us. Pastor Greg Laurie is bringing us practical insights from our study of the commissioning of Gideon today, here on a new beginning. And there's more to come in this message.
You know, when it comes to leading our families, it's important to point out how crucial it is that we're following the Lord ourselves. We can't show the way until we go the way. Do you have a personal relationship with Christ? Pastor Greg, if the Lord is speaking to someone right now and they want to come to God to make a change. What would you say to them?
He is only a prayer way. Which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer, He will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want Him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray, Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner, but I know But I know that you're the Saviour.
who died on the cross for my sin. and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now. and I choose to follow you. From this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my as my God and my friend.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. And listen, if you have just prayed that prayer and you've meant those words sincerely. We want to welcome you into the family of God.
And let us help you get started walking each day with the Lord. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible, absolutely free. Along with some other helpful resources. They'll help answer your questions and get you started off right as you live for God each day. Just let us know you've prayed with Pastor Greg and that you want the New Believer's Bible.
When you call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call any time at 1-800-821-3300. or write a new beginning box 4000. Riverside, California 92514. Or go online to harvest.org.
and click the words No God. And then, thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue. Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly.
Online, you'll find us at harvest.org. And there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now. That's harvest.org. Or write us at a new beginning box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300.
We're here around the clock to take your call again at 1-800-821-3300.
Well, next time, more insight from the story of Gideon in Pastor Greg's series, Jesus and You. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.
