Special Message: How to Be a World Changer

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast. I'm Greg Laurie and welcome back to Truth Network.

See you next week. Maybe we think of ourself as zeroes, but the truth is God can make us into heroes. Hebrews chapter 11 is basically the heroes hall of faith. It's a collection of a very interesting group of men and women that went out and changed their world. They were ordinary people just like you and me, but they did extraordinary things. They faced adverse circumstances like we do, but they rose above them. Above their circumstances and changed their world. It was said of the first century church, they turned their world upside down. By the way, that was not meant as a compliment. I think in many cases, for some Christians, the world is turning us upside down instead of us turning our world upside down.

So I want you to discover how you can be a world changer. It's not because they were great people that they're included in the heroes hall of faith. It's because they had faith in a great God.

I mean think about some of the people that made the cut. Gideon was a frightened farmer when the angel of the Lord called him to be a mighty warrior to deliver Israel. Moses, he was a fugitive from justice when the Lord called him at the burning bush. And we think of so many others who were called and were such flawed individuals. Think about Abraham. We think of him as the father of faith, but yet we know that he lied about his wife twice.

Quite a lack of faith in his part, I might add. His son Isaac did the same thing. Sarah, she makes it into the heroes hall of faith, yet she laughed at the promise of God.

Then she denied it. I already alluded to Moses. He lost his temper. He killed a man. David makes it into the heroes hall of faith. But he committed adultery. And then he tried to cover it up and effectively committed murder. Samson also made it in to Hebrews 11 and he was very immoral. Listen, these winners didn't always collect medals. Sometimes they collected scars.

But not one mention is made of their failures in Hebrews 11. I find that interesting. So here's what we learned from that is God was seeing them for what they would become, not just what they were. Maybe you've messed up in life. Maybe you feel like your story is over.

That's not true. God can change your story. God can change the narrative, the trajectory that your life is taking. And if we learn nothing else from Hebrews 11, we see that God can use flawed people. So let's read Hebrews 11 verse one and get a definition of the operative word in all of their lives, which is faith. Hebrews 11 one says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We're gonna discover now 10 principles about how you can be a world changer.

So if you're taking notes, here's point number one. World changers have an active, not a passive faith. I'll say that again for emphasis. World changers have an active, not a passive faith. Listen, the more you use your faith, the stronger it grows. I've been to a gym.

I haven't been to one since the coronavirus started. But back when I was going to the gym, I remember this one guy. He'd work out. He had a sculpted physique, you know, just bulging biceps and abs and everything was going right with this guy. But for some reason, I don't know why, he had the skinniest little legs you've ever seen. It was like this massive upper body and like chicken legs.

I don't know what he thought. Well, legs don't matter. I won't work out my legs. And that's how it can be with some of us.

We work out in some areas, but we don't work out in others. So here's the thing you need to understand. Faith is like a muscle.

The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. But some of us treat our faith like a fragile egg. Oh, it's an egg. Don't drop it.

I'm telling you, Murphy's Law guarantees it. I'll always drop the bag that has the eggs in it, right? So eggs are fragile. We think faith is fragile, but it is not fragile. Faith is given to us to use, to stretch, to flex, to develop. And the more you use your faith, the more faith you will have. If you neglect your faith, it will atrophy. If you use your faith, it will grow stronger. Listen to this.

Use it or lose it. Jude 1.20 says this. You see, dear friends, build yourself up in your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying in the center of God's love, keeping your arms open, ready for the mercy of our master, Jesus Christ. Notice the emphasis there is on faith doing things. Faith is praying. Faith is staying. Faith is keeping.

Faith is active. Big trend right now is four-wheel drive vehicles. Half of all vehicles that are sold have four-wheel drive capacity.

That's nice. If you live in Montana or Colorado, a lot of these people don't do any four-wheeling. But then they'll jack their vehicle up and put huge wheels and tires on it, you know, and when they pull up behind you at the light, you're looking at their chassis and your rearview mirror. And maybe you'll talk to one of them as they're putting gas in it and say, wow, that's an amazing vehicle. Do you do a lot of off-roading?

They'll say, are you kidding? On this thing? Oh, wow, you don't off-road at all?

No, I'm on my way to the car wash to just keep it really clean. See, here's the sad thing. You have a vehicle that is designed for four-wheel drive capacity, and you're not using it. And the same is true of us. God has given us his faith to use, but we don't use it. We neglect it.

We have it in our little display case. Our faith is all show and no go. But world changers have an active, not a passive faith. Point number two, world changers do things with their faith. They do things with their faith.

Here in Hebrews 11, we read these words. Abel offered a sacrifice. Noah prepared an ark. Abraham obeyed. Abraham offered up Isaac. You see, they did things with their faith.

Listen to this. A faith that has no works is a faith that does not work. James says faith without works is dead. Bringing me to point number three. The faith we need as a world changer grows stronger through testing. I don't know about you, but most of us don't like to be tested, do we? It's been said Christians are a lot like tea bags.

You don't know what they're made of until you put them in hot water. Maybe you're in the hot water, if you will, of temptation right now, or the hot water of some kind of testing, and you're saying that this is trying my faith. I don't know if I can get through this. In fact, I'm starting to lose my faith.

Listen to this. The faith that cannot be tested is that faith that cannot be trusted. If you have real faith in God, your faith will grow stronger through adversity and difficulty, not weaker.

We're told in James 1, when all kinds of trials and temptations crowd in on you, brothers, don't treat them as intruders, but friends realize they've come to test your faith and produce in you a quality of endurance. All right, where do we get faith? Point number four, we get it by reading and understanding the word of God. Hebrews 10, 17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So right now, you are building your faith. That is, if you're listening to me, pay attention.

Are you listening? If you are, and you're thinking about what Scripture says that can strengthen and build your faith, the more I read the Bible, the stronger my faith can become. So we want to be looking into the word of God.

And then point number five, listen, this is a big one. Faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. Let me repeat that for emphasis. Faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. We see so many instances in this of Scripture. There was one woman that was praying for her daughter, and Jesus answered her prayer, and then he said to her, woman, great is your faith.

It will be done as you desire. See, she put her faith into action. She was persistent with her faith, and Jesus granted her request and commended her for her faith. But yet we also read Jesus could do no mighty works in the hometown he lived in of Nazareth because of their unbelief. Jesus would go to some cities, and miracles would happen. Demons would come out of people.

The blind would receive their sight, and the deaf would hear again, and lepers would be cured. But he goes to Nazareth, and they're like, ah, Jesus, we remember him when he was knee high to a grasshopper, or should we say a locust. Yes, we remember him working at the carpenter's shop with Joseph. And we knew that kid.

Well, so what? That kid was God incarnate who was the Messiah, but they didn't appreciate that about him, and so they doubted him immediately. Well, no miracles were done there. We can stop the work of God in our life by unbelief.

Unbelief is the thief, and you see in Scripture how God worked through people, exercising their faith to produce amazing things. God could have parted the Red Sea by his own power. He didn't need Moses to hold up his stick.

That's all it was, a staff. He didn't need Moses and his stick. The Lord could have done it, but he said, Moses, hold up your staff and see the work of the Lord. God could have also done many things like bring fire down from heaven on the altar when Elijah was facing off with the prophets of Baal. He didn't need Elijah to call for that fire, but the Lord wants us to exercise our faith. The Lord wants us to be a part of this process.

So you need to call out to him. The Bible tells the story of a man named Bartimaeus. He was blind, and Jesus was coming through his town, and someone said to Bartimaeus, Jesus is coming. So Bartimaeus, he says, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. They, shh, don't bother Jesus. So what does he do?

He gets louder. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus turns like, whoa, who's this guy? You know, you've read that verse in the Bible that says, the squeaky wheel gets oil. That's not a verse in the Bible, but it's the same.

It has some validity. Bartimaeus was a squeaky wheel. Jesus turned to him.

Okay, what do you need? I want to be healed of blindness, and Jesus healed him. You see, faith being used again, and that is the definitive principle of Hebrews 11. These people use their faith.

Hebrews 11, six says, without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him. Listen, what God did in the lives of people years ago, he can still do in the lives of people today. God wants to do something fresh in our generation.

Let me personalize that. God wants to work in your life. He wants to work in your home.

He wants to work in your sphere of influence. I heard about a mom who was reading exciting Bible stories to her little daughter, and one night, the little girl said, Mommy, it seems like God was a lot more exciting back then. Well, you know, maybe it's because we don't apply faith. These men and women took risks, and God blessed them. Let's read a little more about them. Hebrews 11, 33 to 35, it says, by faith, these people overthrew kingdoms. They ruled with justice. They received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions and quenched the flames of fire. They escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.

Women received their loved ones back from death. That brings me to principle number five. World changers are indestructible until God is done with them. World changers are indestructible until God is done with them. So stop worrying about when you're going to die. That is in the hands of God. The Bible says it's appointed unto a man who wants to die, and then comes the judgment.

It's going to happen at the appointed hour. So if you're freaking out about it and stressing about it all the time, you're wasting a lot of energy. You'll live as long as God wants you to live, not a day longer. But then again, your life will not be cut short if God wants it to go on longer.

You're indestructible until God is done with you. Illustration right here in Hebrews 11, verse 33. They shut the mouths of lions. Now, one biblical character comes to mind when we think of lions. Can you guess who it is? That's right. It's Esther.

No, not really. It's Daniel. We all know the story of Daniel in the lion's den. You remember Daniel was a prophet of the Lord and he was serving King Darius, who ruled Babylon. And Darius really leaned on Daniel for his counsel. He was a man of integrity, a godly man. And these other guys who were advising the king didn't like Daniel. It's like this guy is getting all the king's attention.

We've got to get rid of him. And they knew the only way they could get Daniel out of power was to find something connected to his faith, because Daniel had this amazing habit that we talked about last time. Every day he prayed. So they got the king to unwittingly sign a decree that no one could pray to any god except the king for 40 days.

And the decree was signed and it was a law. No more praying in Babylon. Daniel heard about that and thought, huh, interesting. And he went home and opened up his windows like he always did and prayed. He was arrested and he was thrown into a den of lions because he violated the king's order.

But I'll tell you what. The Bible tells us the king had a sleepless night despite the comforts of his palace. Meanwhile, Daniel slept like a baby in a den of hungry lions. He probably said, hey, Simba, come up here. I'm going to use your stomach as a pillow and, you know, Leo, I'm going to prop my feet up on you. And he went to sleep.

He slept like a baby. And it just reminds us of this simple fact. Better to be in a lion's den with God than anywhere else without him. He was better off in a lion's den than the king was in a palace. And Daniel said to the king, my God has sent his angel to deliver me. So my point is simply this. God wasn't done with Daniel yet and God is not done with you yet.

So you trust him. Here's another principle. Number six, world changers are never alone.

World changers are never alone. Verse 33. They quench the power of fire. Now, this is probably alluding to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, also in the Book of Daniel and Friends of Daniel.

It's a parallel story. The king, this is Nebuchadnezzar now, who preceded Darius, who gave a decree that everybody should bow before a giant gold statue that he had erected. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being good Jewish boys and believing what the Bible said, we're not going to have another God before the Lord. And they refused to bow. And the king was outraged and he threw them into a fiery furnace.

In fact, the flames were so hot that they killed the men who were putting them in after they were dropped in the furnace. The king looks. He can't believe his eyes. He's probably rubbing them and saying, wait, I threw three people in the furnace and I see a fourth one. And they're walking around. Who was this mysterious, shadowy figure walking with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace as though it were a walk in the park on a Sunday afternoon? It was Jesus walking with them.

And they were delivered. And Jesus is walking with you through your hardship right now. Do you feel all alone?

Do you feel abandoned? I want you to know that God is there and that God cares. And Jesus says, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Principle number seven, world changers apply their faith. They apply their faith. Look at verse 35 of Hebrews 11. Women receive their loved ones back to death. This is probably a reference to Elijah raising the widow's son to life again.

So Elijah was a great prophet of the Lord, right? And he went to a woman, a widow. She had very little money. She had a son, her most prized thing on earth, her beloved boy. And he asked her if he could crash at her house, if you will, if she could put him up. And so she let him stay and she would feed him from the meager supply of food that she had. She didn't realize she had invited a world changer into her home, the great prophet. And it's a great principle because the Lord kept providing for her and she always had what she needed. And just illustrates the principle of putting God first in your life and honoring him through your giving.

And he takes care of you. Well, one day the widow's son died. She actually blamed Elijah for it.

I should have never invited you here to stay at this house. And this happened because of you. Elijah is like, God, let me just take care of this, all right? And the Bible tells us that he went to that boy and he carried him up to his little apartment. And he raised the boy from the dead.

Listen, even death does not stop a world changer. Now, when we think of Elijah, we think, oh, he's a rock star. He's a biblical legend. Elijah calling fire down from heaven. Elijah stopping the rain. Elijah raising a boy from the dead. That's all true.

But guess what? Elijah was a dude like you. In fact, the Bible even says in James 5 17, Elijah was as human as we are.

Yet he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall and none fell for three and a half years. Here's something to remember about Elijah. After he had his great contest with the prophets of Baal, a Mount Carmel, he fell into a deep funk.

He was deeply depressed and actually didn't even want to live any longer. And that brings up another point. Even world changers get depressed at times. Again, they're not here in Hebrews 11 and the heroes hall of faith because they were great people. It's because they put their faith in a great God and think about the weakness of so many of them. And so we all have our moments of sadness.

We might even deal with depression. And these are human beings that God worked in and God can work through you as well. Now I want to shift gears and bring this message to a close because now we come to another group of world changers. Now they too had great faith. They too trusted God. But they didn't walk through fires. They didn't part the Red Sea and they did not have their dead restored. In fact, they suffered greatly and many of them died.

So how does this work? Were they losers in the hall of faith while the others were winners? Not at all, because we don't decide how long of a life we will live. We don't decide what circumstances we'll have to face.

We just decide how we will react to them. The first group of world changers that I talked about glorified God through escaping like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The second group of world changers glorified God by enduring.

Let's read about them. Hebrews 11 verse 35. Others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. They were jeered at. Their backs were cut open with whips. They were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning. Others were sawed in half. Some were killed with the sword and went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy.

Wandering over deserts and mountains and hiding in caves and holes in the ground. But they earned a good reputation because of their faith. None of them received all that God had promised. God had something better for them and for us. Point number nine.

I'm almost done. World changers are often not appreciated, but instead they're persecuted. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw. It's alluded to here in Hebrews 11. Even today around the world, Christians are persecuted.

Understand this. Religious groups are persecuted, but no group is persecuted like the Christian. All the studies that have been done on this topic bear that truth out. Christians are the most persecuted people in the world today. And we know that our brothers and sisters suffer living in nations like China and North Korea and in certain Islamic nations where they're not allowed to practice their faith. But the Bible does say all that live godly in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.

Now that's not a promise we usually claim, is it? Because who wants to be persecuted? Who wants to be jeered? Who wants to be mocked? Who wants to be laughed at? Has that happened to you lately? People have made fun of you.

They make jokes about you when you walk into the room. Oh, here comes Holy Joe. Oh, here comes Mr. Spiritual. Oh, don't preach to us, you know, and they put you down because of what you believe. But I'm saying to you, hold your ground and be a man or a woman of faith because you, in effect, are changing the world. The very fact that you walk into a room and they identify you first and foremost as a Christian and it affects everything around it says something. Just be a loving Christian.

Be a nice person. Make sure when you're persecuted, you're persecuted for the right reasons. I've seen some Christians who are obnoxious and they're intrusive and they're overbearing and they're argumentative and they're arrogant. And then when people reject what they say, they say, thank God I'm being persecuted for righteousness sake, hallelujah. No, you're being persecuted because you're a jerk.

No, be persecuted for righteousness sake because you reflect Christ. A world changer, and I talk about all of this in my new book, World Changers. A world changer is someone who changes the temperature of a room. I open by asking the question, are you a thermostat or are you a thermometer? A thermostat sets the temperature. The thermometer tells you what the temperature is.

Do you set the temperature in the room or do you merely reflect it? Let me put it another way. Are you changing the world or is the world changing you?

Hey, these world changers in category two, they suffered. And it doesn't seem fair, does it? And we feel that way in life where we think, why am I suffering? You know, why am I going through this when other people are not going through this? Why am I single when all my friends are married? Why can't we have children when one of my good friends has five children? Why did my child go prodigal and their children did not?

Why do I have this horrible illness while all of my friends are healthy? Why did my child die? The list goes on. I'm not speaking from a vacuum here. I've struggled because, as you know, our son went to be with the Lord in 2008. And I remember after it happened, I would look at so many people who had huge families and all their children were alive and I had two sons and one of my sons is taken from me and it was devastating and heartbreaking and I struggled with it. But I had hope and I have hope.

And that brings me to my last point. World changers have a reward waiting that will make it all worth it. We have a reward waiting that will make it all worth it because it promises restoration here for these people who've suffered. One day, all of our questions will be answered. One day, God will restore in heaven and in the next life what we have lost in this life.

Look at verse 35 of Hebrews 11. They place their hope in a better life after the resurrection. You know, we put all of our focus on this life. But there's an afterlife.

And that goes on forever. This life on earth, even if it's long, is relatively short, isn't it? The Bible says we spend our life like a story that's already been told.

It's a puff of smoke that appears for a moment, Scripture says, and vanishes away. Then there's the afterlife. And I want to ask you this question in closing. Are you ready for the afterlife?

Let me put it another way. If you died today, would you go to heaven? You say, well, I hope so. I have faith in the good Lord and the man upstairs and I've lived a good life. And well, that's all nice, but he doesn't want to just be the good Lord or the man upstairs. And a good life isn't going to get you to heaven because heaven is not for good people.

That might surprise somebody right now. Heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for forgiven people. You see, you can live a good life and not go to heaven. I'm not going to get to heaven because I'm a preacher. I'm not going to give a heaven because I've done X amount of good things. I'm going to get to heaven because I've put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord who died on the cross for me 2,000 years ago. And here's my question to you. Have you done that? See, being a Christian is not just saying, well, I'm going to read the Bible now and go to church and say Christian things.

No, no. Being a Christian is having Christ himself come and take residence in your heart. The Bible says for as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons and daughters of God. Have you received Christ? You say, what do you mean receive Christ? I mean, have you said to God, I'm a sinner and I know Jesus is the Savior and I want him to forgive me of my sin and come and live in my life.

If you've not done that, you can do it right here right now. I told you when we showed a rush of hope on all of our social media platforms, we saw thousands of people come to Jesus and you can come to Jesus right here right now. He stands at the door of your life and he knocks.

And he says, if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he'll come in. Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die, you will go to heaven? Would you like him to fill the big hole inside of you?

Maybe you've been trying to fill with other things. He's just a prayer away. In a moment, I'm going to pray and I would ask you if you want Christ to come into your life to pray this prayer with me. Again, as I pray, pray this prayer. You could pray it out loud right here. Let's all pray.

Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I've fallen short of your glory, but I thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and to rise again from the dead. I turn from my sin. I repent of my sin. And I ask Jesus to come into my life right now to be my Savior and Lord, my God and my friend. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Did you just pray that prayer? If you did, I want you to look on your screen right now. There might be a box.

If you're watching me on a computer or on a tablet or a phone, there's a box you can click. And by clicking that box, you're saying, I just prayed with Greg to accept Christ. I want to send to you at no charge this Bible. It's called the New Believers Bible, custom designed for someone like yourself who's making a new commitment to Jesus.

It's a very friendly, easy to understand translation filled with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will tell you more about what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a world changer. I'll send this to you. Please fill out that little form and let us rush you a copy of the New Believers Bible. If you're watching on a screen, maybe YouTube or through the app that we have on the Roku box or Apple TV, there's a phone number you can call.

Call that number. We have someone standing by who would love to talk to you and send you the New Believers Bible. So make that commitment a recommitment to Jesus.

You'll not regret it. God bless you. Thank you for watching. Let me pray for you before we go.

Then I have a final thing to say. Let's pray. Father, I pray for everybody watching right now. I pray if they're a believer that they will be a world changer. Help them to leave their comfort zone. Help them to take a bold step of faith. Help them to make a difference in their world because Lord, you have called us all to go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples. Help us to do that. We commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.