Are You a World Changer? - I

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Share this message with someone who needs to hear it. Faith does things. Abel offered a sacrifice. Noah prepared an ark.

It comes down to this. A faith with no works is a faith that does not work. As James said, faith without works is dead. Pastor Greg Laurie urges us to let our faith fuel what we think and do. Faith doesn't just talk about it. Faith doesn't live in the realm of theory. Faith lives in the world of activity.

It does things. And we're glad you're joining us today here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. Pastor Greg will begin today's message in just a moment. On your favorite social media platform, Labor Day Weekend, September 4th through September 7th. Invite a friend to tune in for a message of hope from evangelist Greg Laurie.

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Details at Harvest.org. Faith is such a broad, encompassing word. We might be fans of a sports team and have faith they can win. Some people talk about having faith in themselves. We pledge our love to our spouse and promise to remain faithful. But faith, as the Bible describes it, is at the very core of our relationship with God. And it gives us the power to do His work.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us how our faith can empower us to literally change the world. You know, I don't know how it is in your house, but my wife and I are always, well, I don't want to say fighting. Let's say we are disagreeing over the temperature of the room. My wife likes it warm and I like it cool.

And sometimes I will be sitting around and I am breaking down into complete sweat. And I have dropped four pounds and I go over to the thermostat and it is set at like 78 degrees. And I will turn it back down to an appropriate setting of, you know, 61. No. Not really. I like 70.

70 is pretty good for me. You know, she wants it warmer. I want it cooler. So we go back to the thermostat again and again.

Why? Because the thermostat controls the temperature of the room. So I have a question for you. Are you a thermostat or are you a thermometer? You are thinking, I am a person. What are you saying? I don't understand the question.

Well it comes down to this. A thermometer is affected by its surroundings. Depending on the temperature, the mercury in the thermometer goes up or down. In contrast a thermostat influences its surroundings. Unlike the thermometer the thermostat controls the heat or coldness around it.

So with that in mind are you a thermometer or are you a thermostat? Let me put it another way. Are you changing culture or is culture changing you?

Let me put it even another way. Is the world changing you or are you changing the world? Well we start a brand new series and we are calling it World Changers.

And it is based on Hebrews chapter 11. And the title of my message is, Are you changing the world or is the world changing you? And we are going to look at the stories of great men and women who serve God and in effect change their world. And we are going to see after learning about them how we can change ours.

I mean maybe it is a tall order to change the whole world. But what about your world? What about your sphere of influence?

What about your friends and your family and your neighborhood? You can have an effect there. You can be the change agent. You can be the thermostat. You can be the world changer. How do you do it?

You do it through faith. A number of years ago I was in New York City and they had sort of a pop up rock and roll hall of faith. It was temporary. And I went down to see it. They had some pretty interesting stuff. John Lennon's piano had he composed Imagine On.

It is all white. They had Jimi Hendrix's couch. I would have been more impressed if they had Jimi Hendrix's guitar. But they had his couch.

And I think he sat on that couch and wrote some of his songs. They had you know videos playing of rock stars doing their things. Well when you think of rock stars I want you to apply that thinking to rock stars of faith really here in Hebrews 11. These are people that change the world. People like Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Sarah, Joseph, Moses.

The list goes on. In fact Hebrews 12 starts with these words. Seeing that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Now that cloud of witnesses that the author of Hebrews is referring to. And by the way we don't know who wrote Hebrews. The Holy Spirit did. But it may have been through the apostle Paul. But we don't know the author.

But anyway that cloud of witnesses that he is referring to are the folks talked about in the hall of faith in chapter 11. These were ordinary people like you and me that changed their world. They discovered the secret of staying on top. It is not talent or opportunities or status. It is faith in God. And notice these people were not perfect.

In fact far from it. They failed often. They are not heroes in the hall of faith because they were great people. They are heroes in the hall of faith because they had faith in a great God. And we can have faith in the same great God.

I mean look at some of them. Gideon was a frightened farmer when the angel of the Lord came to him. He was hiding out from his enemy the Midianites that were oppressing the people of Israel. So he is hiding beside a wall and an angel appears and says, Hey Gideon you mighty man of valor. The Lord is with you. Gideon is probably looking around like, Are you talking to me?

I mean there is no way. He was anything but a mighty man of valor. At that moment he was afraid and timid but God saw him for what he could become.

Or you look at Moses. He was a fugitive from justice when the Lord spoke to him. Jephthah was an illegitimate son.

Unwanted by his family. So these are very ordinary people that God touched. And they ran this race and some of them ran it better than others. Some ran well from beginning to end.

Others ran well and fell and got up again and finished their race. See the people of Hebrews 11 are sinners just like you and me. But here is an interesting twist on the story. You will not find one single mention of any of their sin in this chapter. And if you go back and read the accounts of these folks there were sins.

In some cases significant ones. But yet in Hebrews 11 sort of this look back on their lives there is not one mention of sin. Abraham's mention. He lied twice about Sarah being his wife. His son Isaac did the same thing.

Sarah laughed at God's promise and then denied she laughed. Moses lost his temper and killed someone. David committed adultery and tried to hide his sin. Samson was very immoral yet they all make it into the hall of faith. So they didn't always collect metals.

Sometimes they collected scars. But not one word of their failure is mentioned in Hebrews 11. Why? Because they were forgiven and God gave them a second chance. Do you need a second chance in life?

Maybe you are feeling like you have messed your life up. But here is what I want to say to you. Your story is not over yet. Ok. And so there can still be redemption. You can still get up again and finish this race.

Just because you started well and you fell doesn't mean you can't get up and finish well. And we are going to see as we look at these people that some of them did that. And the way you are going to do it is through faith. 1 John 5 says, this is the victory that overcomes the world. Our faith. But you know we talk about faith.

Let's think about it a little bit more. Understand that faith is a lot like a muscle. The more you use a muscle, or another way to say it, the more you break down a muscle the stronger the muscle becomes. If you neglect your muscles they will not develop.

If you neglect them for too long they can even atrophy. I was at the gym a while back and I saw a guy. He is a big body builder guy. And I don't know why but he decided that he only wanted to build his upper body. So the guy has massive shoulders, arms, chest, you know six pack, the whole deal. And then he had legs like chicken legs.

They were just like. I am like seriously. Wow. Look at you. I mean it is like really don't ever wear shorts.

I wouldn't. But you know it is funny how I just want to build this part. I want to deal with the rest. And that is how some people are sort of underdeveloped. You use your muscle and you get stronger. Faith is the same way.

Use it or lose it. In fact over in Jude 1-20 it says, Dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right at the center of God's love, keeping your arms open and outstretched ready for the mercy of our master, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that is telling us that faith does things. Faith is active. He says be praying. Be staying. Be keeping. Do things with your faith.

Don't neglect your faith. For me it seems like a lot of people faith to them is like a four wheel drive vehicle. You know they make amazing vehicles now. And guys will go out and do a bunch of stuff. Aftermarket equipment you know.

They will raise them. Get giant tires. Giant wheels. Big winch on the front.

Huge lights you know. So when they pull up behind you you look in your rearview mirror. You are looking at the chassis of their car.

And so maybe they pull into a gas station, which they have to do a lot like every four minutes you know because they burn a lot of fuel. You pull up in your little Prius. Your wheels are this big. So you say, man that thing is cool. You do a lot of four wheeling and the guy is like, what are you kidding me? You know how much I spend on this thing? No way I want to take it out on the dirt.

Where are you going now? I am going to another car wash. You know it is kind of like all show and no go. Take that bad boy and use it for what it was designed for. And that is what faith is like for some people. You know we talk about it and we like to discuss it. But we don't use our faith. We treat faith like an egg. It is fragile. Don't drop it. I have discovered whenever I go to the market and if I have ten bags of groceries, if any of them contain eggs, you know if I drop one bag what is in the bag.

Right? If you don't notice that you drop one bag. Never the cans.

Who cares about a dented can. Never the bread. The bread can take it. No. It is always the eggs cracked.

And we treat faith like an egg. Well be careful. Don't breathe on it.

No. Use it. Get it out on the dirt. Put it into action. Watch what God can do with faith. In just a moment Pastor Greg points out how our faith grows. Think it is through times of blessing?

Wouldn't that be nice? He will explain in just a moment. Hearing about listeners who find Jesus because of the ministry of harvest is so encouraging. Pastor Greg, through your ministry I came to Christ. And because of that decision I have dedicated everything to God. Today I have the extreme honor of praying with my 13 year old son as he accepted Christ for himself. What a big day and I give glory and praise to the Lord. And Pastor Greg I pray you are blessed because Christ used you to save me. Now my son is saved and I couldn't be more blessed. If you have a story to tell of how these studies have touched your life or that of a family member, I hope you will contact us today. Call our special number 1-866-871-1144.

That's 866-871-1144. Well Pastor Greg is launching his series today called World Changers. We are talking about faith and how faith really only works when you put it to work. Now let's read about it. In Hebrews 11 we are going to read verses 1-10. There is more in the chapter. I encourage you to read the rest later.

We will come to it in time. But for now let's read these verses. Verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the world is reframed by the word of God, so the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and though he was dead he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken away, so he did not see death and was not found, because God had taken him. For before he was taken he had this testimony. He pleased God. Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear and prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place where he would go to receive his inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwells in the land of promise, as in a foreign country dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise, for he waited for the city, which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. I love that. All right. Let's break it down now.

Point number one if you are taking notes. Faith does things. Faith does things. So many verses here speak of how faith worked. Abel offered a sacrifice. Noah prepared an ark.

Abraham obeyed and later even offered up Isaac. It comes down to this. A faith with no works is a faith that does not work.

So these people use their faith. Listen. You can't run and stand still at the same time. If you are sitting you are not running, and if you are running you are not sitting.

How we all wish we could find some lazy boy we could sit in and still get the benefits of exercise. Well not such thing exists. And in the same way if we are running in the race of life we can't be sitting. So faith is getting out there and running this race. But what is faith? You know we tell people to have faith. Just have faith. Trust God.

They have a crisis. Well believe in the Lord. He will get you through. And then it happens to us.

And all of a sudden we are not so big on it because we are struggling with it. I heard about a woman who had a crazy husband and she went to the pastor and said, Pastor my husband tells me if I keep coming to the church he will kill me. The pastor says now don't be afraid. Have faith in God. The Lord will protect you.

So she came back again. Pastor my husband said again if I keep coming to this church he will kill me. Well just trust in the Lord.

The Lord will protect you. She came back many times giving this message. Giving this message to the pastor each time he reminded her have faith in God. Then one day she came and said, Pastor my husband just said if I keep coming to this church he is going to kill you. Then the pastor said you ought to look into that church on the other side of town that just started up.

It would be a good place for you to land. Yeah it is easy to tell others to have faith until my faith is tested. But listen to this.

Number two. Faith grows stronger through testing. Faith grows stronger through testing.

Even his muscle gets stronger through use. Being broken down and built up. The same is true of faith. James 1 says from the Phillips translation, When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don't treat them as intruders but friends.

Realize they come to test your faith and to produce in you a quality of endurance. Listen God will test your faith for your own good. I know you would like to have a trouble free life. I know you would like to have a temptation free life.

You say oh no here comes the trial. I don't want to be tempted but it has been said one Christian who has been tempted is worth a thousand who haven't been. It has also said Christians are a lot like tea bags. You don't know what they are made of until you put them in hot water. And maybe you are in hot water right now. The hot water of temptation.

The hot water of difficulty. And your faith is being tested. Know this God won't give you more than you can handle but you can handle more than you think you can. I can handle it.

Actually you probably can. And if the Lord gave it to you, you can handle it. And if you couldn't handle it, well He wouldn't have given it to you. He will give you what you are ready for.

Take Abraham. The Lord started by just saying leave your country. Later on He said I want you to take your son and lay him on the altar. We will talk about what that meant later. But He started with a simple test and went on to a harder test. Jesus yes He told Peter to walk in the water but before that He said just move your boat in the water to deeper waters. So the point is He didn't go for the hard thing in the beginning.

He let him build up to it. You are going through a series of tests in your Christian life of faith and each one is going to make you stronger and then you are going to get stronger. Yes the tests will get harder but you are going to get even stronger because God is whipping you into shape for greater challenges and greater opportunities. Everything is preparation for something else. But sometimes we sort of wimp out.

Oh I can't handle it. You know when young Jeremiah was ready to drop out of the race God said to him in Jeremiah chapter 12. So Jeremiah if you are worn out in the foot race with men what makes you think you can race against horses? If you can't keep your wits during times of calm what is going to happen when trouble breaks loose like the Jordan in flood?

In other words hey man toughen up. You want to run with the horses then don't get worried when you are just in a foot race with somebody else. And by the way if you want to be a world changer hang around with other world changers.

Hang around with other people that get this. You know hang around with people that have faith and want to trust God and want to obey God because if you hang around with people who are having the world change them it can drag you down. So that is what God was saying to Jeremiah. It is time to step your game up because faith is not just a feeling. It involves our emotions. Faith is even more than a scent to what is written in a book though.

It is based on the book. Faith is obeying God in spite of feelings, circumstances or consequences. Let me say it again. Faith is obeying God in spite of your feelings, circumstances or consequences.

That is great. By the way what is faith? I mean really can you define faith?

Well Hebrews does. Verse one faith is a substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. So we will say that is what faith is. What does that mean? I have no idea but that is what it is.

Do we really understand what that is saying? The New Living Translation puts it this way. What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

It comes down to this faith sees invisible things. I see dead people. No not that kind of thing. That is a line from a film. Forget it.

Ok. It sees invisible things. Faith sees what could be. Oswald Chambers said and I quote, faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen. End quote. That is good.

So you know you can see a problem. But can you see a solution? Faith sees solutions. Pastor Greg Laurie with excellent insight on faith today as he launches his series called World Changers. And he has one more comment from today's message before we wrap up for the day here on A New Beginning. Today's message is titled, Are You a World Changer?

Mention that if you'd like a permanent copy of the full presentation. Just call us any time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or look for that title online at harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg we're so happy to be making available your new book that dovetails with our current series. It's called World Changers. If someone hears that God can use them to be a world changer, they may think, who me? Sorry, wrong number. You definitely meant to call someone else. But a lot of great men and women of the Bible thought the same thing.

Yeah that's really true Dave. And one of the people I talk about in my book World Changers is Gideon. When the Lord called Gideon, he was hiding from his enemies.

You see Israel was under great pressure from their enemies, the Midianites. So he's literally hiding behind a wall threshing his wheat when an angel of the Lord appears to him and says, hey Gideon, you mighty man of valor, the Lord is with you. I think he might have looked over his shoulder and thought, you talking to another Gideon? I'm the opposite of a mighty man of valor.

I'm a scared man right now, hiding from my enemy. But here's the interesting thing. God doesn't just see you for what you are. He sees you for what you can become. You know we might look at a blob of clay. He sees a beautiful vase or vase, depending on how you wanna pronounce it. We see a piece of charcoal. He sees a refined diamond. We see a blank canvas.

He sees a finished painting. And so the Lord knew that Gideon was going to become that mighty man of valor. And you know how he was gonna do it? He was gonna step out of his comfort zone. He was going to obey God. And he was gonna take a bold step of faith. So I talk about that in the book, and a lot of other people, men and women, that did the same.

And my point is this. Whoever you are, God can work. In fact, the Bible says that God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. So in a way, when God works through a super flawed person, like you and me, and not through a super talented person, he really gets even more glory.

Because people will say, well there's no way they could have ever done that, you know. And that's maybe one of the reasons the Lord chooses such people. Another character I talk about is David. And you know, you contrast David and Saul.

Saul was the first king of Israel. He was tall. He was good looking.

He was the man. He was the people's choice. But he wasn't God's choice. And he failed dismally. Well then there was David.

No one thought much of him, especially his father. But God put his hand on David, and he became one of the greatest leaders in the history of Israel, certainly the greatest king, and wrote so many of the Psalms, and we look to him today as an example of what to do, and honestly, what not to do as well. I talk about David in this book as well. So whoever you are, no matter how old you are, if you're a man, if you're a woman, listen to this, God can use you.

Here's the question. Are you willing to take a step out of your comfort zone? Are you willing to realize God's call on your life and the potential he has placed in you like Gideon did? If so, you need to order a copy of my brand new book, World Changers, and you can learn about Gideon, and you can learn about David and so many others.

And I'll send this to you for your gift of any size. Now as you know, here at A New Beginning, we always offer quality spiritual resources that will help you grow spiritually or help you share your faith, and this book certainly is no exception. And we want to encourage you to invest financially in our ministry so we can reach more people with the teaching of the word of God and the life-changing message of the gospel. So whatever you can do, please know it's really appreciated. And I'll look forward to getting you your own copy of my brand new book, World Changers.

Yeah, that's right. The book can help you impact your world and your investment in this ministry can help us impact the world as well. Think of how your donation could touch a life. Recently, we saw a social media post that said, my 73-year-old neighbor recommitted her life to the Lord after I put the Harvest app on her phone.

She's 73. So thank you, Harvest. Well, you know, it's the donations of listeners that make this ministry possible through radio, through Pastor Greg's Harvest at Home online services, through our mobile app, and through books like World Changers. So thank you so much for your donation today.

It really does change lives. You can write us at a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call us anytime 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

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Labor Day weekend. It's A Rush of Hope. Well next time, Pastor Greg tells us more about the faith of a world changer as we continue his World Changer series here on A New Beginning. We've talked about faith today and how God can use it to help us change our world.

And Pastor Greg closes for today with a final comment. So I look at the state of America right now. I look at the moral breakdown. I look at all the problems we're having.

I just want to wring my hands and say, I don't know what to do. Well wait a second. Look at it with faith now and say, could God change this? Could the Lord send a mighty spiritual awakening? Well start praying for that. You think someone you know that's not a Christian. You can't even imagine them ever being a Christian.

It's just the whole idea of them holding a Bible like it's never happened. Well it could happen. God can convert anyone.

Start praying for them. Take it to the next level. How are you gonna know if you don't try? Well I don't want to try and fail. Why not? I'd rather try and fail than not try at all.

Wouldn't you? That's faith. Faith takes risks. Faith will bet the farm on something.

Faith will say let's just see what the Lord will do. Or maybe you have a marriage you see that's coming apart. Maybe it's your marriage. And you say well I guess I just doomed. There's nothing I can do. What are you talking about? Put some faith in there and take action. Well what action should I take?

I don't know. Why don't you go apologize? Well I haven't done anything wrong. I already know you're doing something wrong by saying you didn't do anything wrong. You're probably the major part of the problem. Now come to think of it after listening to you say I didn't do anything wrong.

I don't have anything to apologize. Yes you do. Every husband does.

Just changing the temperature of the thermostat. You know come on. Every wife does. Everyone does.

Go to your spouse that you're estranged from or having friction with and say I'm sorry. Take action. Faith takes action. Faith doesn't just talk about it. Faith doesn't live in the realm of theory. Faith lives in the world of activity. It does things.