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The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Hey, I want to hear from you. Would you consider emailing me? You can reach me at gregatharvest.org. Again, that's gregatharvest.org.

And you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. God leads us one step at a time. And you need to take that next step before he'll reveal the following step to you. The Lord provides the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. Pastor Greg Laurie points out he lights the way just in front of us. Is the Lord leading you to do something?

Has he nudged you to go have a conversation with a certain person? Well, I don't know what I'm going to say. Don't worry about that. God just said go. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound.

Oh, can you hear when the angels are singing? This is the day, the day when life begins. Our lives read like a book, and so many of us want to flip ahead a few chapters and see where the story is going.

Or we want to peek at the last page and see our happily ever after ending. But the life of faith is one where we trust the Lord page by page. And today on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings good inspiration. We're in a popular new series called World Changers, studying the lives of those in the Bible who made an impact for the Lord. So we can do the same.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Hey, quick question. How many of you use GPS? Global Positioning Satellite? It's in a lot of cars now. Of course, it's in smartphones as well. People have been misled by GPS.

You know that, right? I have been. I have been using my GPS maybe going up somewhere in L.A. and I have got it programmed in and it is telling me just go up this freeway. And not that long ago my GPS said turn right at the next off ramp.

I am thinking, wow, I never did that before. And I obeyed it. I turned right. Now turn left, turn right, turn right, turn left. Then it said get back on the freeway. And I am like, what was that? There was no reason to do that. GPS is like trying to mess with my mind.

Right? I read an article that talked about GPS misadventures. A Bostonian woman was driving with her kids when she made a right turn directly on the railroad tracks at the direction of her GPS. And so her car is on the track.

She is thinking, is this right? And then her car stalls to make matters worse so she gets out of the car and her kids are safe and a train hits the car. So moral of the story. Don't always do what GPS tells you to do. Apple Maps, according to this article, actually directed several drivers onto an active runway at an airport. They were seeking directions at Fairbanks International Airport.

And here is where they ended up. Right onto the runway. Do not pull your car on a runway. You cannot outrun a 747.

Right? I read also about an elderly couple who got stranded for days again because they followed their GPS. It directed them to a back road and they spent two nights in the wilderness stuck. So again what does GPS stand for? Maybe get potentially stranded.

I don't know. But it can get you in trouble. But I need it because I have no navigational skills whatsoever. I am always getting lost. Now God has created certain animals with what we call a homing instinct or built-in GPS. One of the most amazing of all is the golden plover. It is native to Hawaii. And during the summer the plover migrates to the Aleutian Islands and they are around 1200 miles away from Hawaii. They are the adult plovers. The moms lay their eggs and then the little ones are hatched. And mom and dad leave. Do you see kids?

We are out of here. And they don't leave them like with little laptops with GPS or little smartphones. They don't even send them a tweet. Which I think birds should be able to send a tweet.

Don't you? And so they leave the little fledglings just hanging out on the Aleutian Islands. So what do they do? The little birds somehow know how to get to Hawaii. And they make that journey to a place they have never been to before.

It is amazing. Why? Because God has put a homing instinct in them. So listen.

The next time someone calls you a bird brain take it as a compliment. Right? Well now God has placed a homing instinct in us as well. Human beings. Uniquely made in the image of God. And we don't know what it is at first.

But we know this much. From the moment we are born we are on a quest. You know it starts with toys.

For girls it might be when I get this doll I know I will be happy. I remember I was thinking back what was my first thing I was excited about as a little kid. And I remembered it was Tonka trucks. Now back in the day when I was a little guy they were made out of metal. They are made out of plastic now.

A lot of them. Little metal Tonka trucks. We were going through a Sears and Roebuck catalog.

Kids that is before we had the Internet. Ok. And so you would look at pictures. And I would look at these trucks. Oh if I just had this Tonka truck I know I would be happy.

Then you know you get older and what is the old expression? The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. And you think it is this toy. It is this position. It is this relationship. It is that thing and then hopefully you discover what I am really looking for is a God. And I have a homing instinct for heaven. We have a homesickness for a place we have never been to before. Heaven.

God wired us that way. The Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes 3.11 he has placed eternity in the human heart. And once we figure this out. Once we realize that our ultimate destination as followers of Jesus is heaven. It can change the way that we live on earth.

Why? Because we develop an eternal perspective. And that simply means that I see things in light of eternity. I remember that things on earth, though pleasurable and fun at times, are temporal. And I realize there are eternal things. Things that matter even more.

So it changes the way I think and it changes the way I live. Well I want to look now at a world changer named Abraham. And he had an eternal perspective. He was called by God to leave his homeland, to leave his family, and go to an unknown destination.

He packed up his bags and left no forwarding address. Hence the title of the message. And he changed his world.

And man I tell you what. We need people who will change the world today. Our country is messed up.

Can we agree on that? And I have never had less confidence in a political solution than I have at this moment in time. America so desperately needs God. America so desperately needs to hear the gospel.

That is how we do these Harvest America events. America needs world changers. America needs you. It needs you to do your part. But I know it is a big order to say America. Let's just localize it and talk about your world.

Your sphere of influence where you can go out there and make an impact. Just like Abraham did. You want to change the world.

Start by changing your world. Abraham did that. Did you know that he is named 74 times in the New Testament. And there are only 11 chapters of Genesis devoted to the first 2,000 years of human history.

That is 19 earlier generations. But then there are 14 chapters dedicated to the life of one man who is Abraham. In fact one third of the verses here in Hebrews 11, which is really the hero's hall of faith, is devoted to Abraham and Sarah.

Man that is a lot of ink. And so God must have wanted us to know about this man. This great patriarch of the faith. So let's read some of what Hebrews 11 says about him. Let's start in verse 8. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country. Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob. His heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah also herself received strength and conceived seed.

And she bore a child when she was well past the age. Because he judged him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith. Not having received the promises but having seen them afar off. They were assured of them and they embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out they would have opportunity to return. But now they desire a better country that is a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them.

We will stop there. Ok. Why was Abraham a world changer? What did he do? Point number one if you are taking notes and you should be. Because I know you will never remember this stuff if you don't. Number one Abraham listened to God. World changers listened to God verse 8. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.

He went out not knowing where he was going. He listened to God. How can we listen for the voice of God? Pastor Greg answers that as he continues this message in just a moment. Many listeners write or call us to share how Pastor Greg's lessons are helping them minister to people in their own lives. Dear Greg, thank you for all your wonderful teachings. I listen to you on the radio in northern New York and have passed on your messages to all my friends and family. God has put me in an arena of influence because he knows that I'm not ashamed of the gospel or of the name of Jesus Christ. Your messages have given me great insight on how to speak the truth in such an interesting way that people begin to ask me questions. How fun and how wonderful is our Savior? I've ordered 20 of your books to place in my healthcare professional's libraries and also as an encouragement for folks who are scared in this season.

God bless you. It really is a privilege to bring these studies your way. Do you have a story that you'd like to share with Pastor Greg?

If so, would you take a moment to write us? Email him at gregatharvest.org. That's gregatharvest.org. Well, today we're learning from Abraham, the father of the faith. Pastor Greg continues his series called World Changers.

Let's listen. Now understand that Abraham lived in a super pagan culture. His family all worshiped false gods. They worshiped idols and he probably was an idol worshiper himself. Despite this, God hand picked Abraham and came to him in Genesis 12 one and said, get out of your country and from your family and from your father's house and go to a land that I will show you.

I find that interesting. God says, go to a land that I will show you. God doesn't tell him what that land is. He doesn't tell him where that land is. He doesn't tell him where he's going to live. Ultimately Abraham was headed to a heavenly destination.

But here's my point. God leads us one step at a time. I think sometimes there's like a detailed blueprint early in life. Lord, I need to know who I'm going to marry. Then I need to know where I'm going to live and what my profession is going to be. I need to know how many children I have.

How many grandchildren I'll have. Lord's like, I'm not going to tell you all that. He just leads us a step at a time.

And you need to take that next step before he'll reveal the following step to you. I never had a blueprint as to where I was going to go in life, especially after I became a Christian. It reminds me of the story in the New Testament of how God called Philip. Philip was having some meetings. He was preaching. People were coming to Christ.

It was awesome. And then the angel of the Lord came to him and said, go to the desert. I love that. Go to the desert. The angel doesn't say, go to the desert. There will be a guy from Ethiopia searching for God, reading from Isaiah 53.

So brush up on that. No. He just says, go to the desert. Philip could have argued and said, why should I go to the desert? I'm here.

We're having great meetings. This makes no sense. But he went in obedience. And now he's standing there in the desert under the blazing sun, sweating, thinking, okay, why am I in the desert?

Am I supposed to preach to lizards? I know I should have brought my sunscreen. And then he sees a cloud of dust in the distance. As it gets closer it is a large entourage of people traveling. And then he realizes it is a foreign dignitary.

He probably had those little flags of the country on his chariot with Secret Service guys running on each side of him. He realizes that this is a foreign dignitary from Ethiopia who went to Jerusalem searching for God and was reading out loud from Isaiah 53. And then Philip is just standing there like all alone in the desert. Hey. How is it going?

Just happened to be here in the desert and I think I know why. As that man reads from Isaiah 53, Philip says, do you understand what you are reading? And the guy says, no I don't.

Can you help me? Yes. As a matter of fact I can. And he climbed up in the chariot, shared the gospel with him, led the man to Christ and then went on his way rejoicing. Here is my point. God didn't tell Philip what was coming. He said, take that next step.

God did the same for Abraham. Let me ask you. Is the Lord leading you to do something?

Has He nudged you to go have a conversation with a certain person? Well I don't know what I am going to say. Don't worry about that. Take the next step of obedience. God just said go.

No roadmap. Have you ever watched that cartoon Dora the Explorer? How many of you have seen it? I hope you watched it with kids. Some of you are watching that as an adult. But I have four grandchildren. Well five altogether.

Four granddaughters I should say. And they like Dora. Unfortunately I know the theme song now. I know the names of the characters. And basically here is the plot of every Dora cartoon.

Dora the Explorer. She goes out with her little friend, her pet monkey, Boots, because he wears red boots. They go get lost. Every time they get lost. And they are being tracked by a fox named Swiper who wishes harm.

And I am thinking what kind of parenting is happening here. You know. Where is Dora? She is lost again being chased by a fox.

But don't worry. She has got that monkey with her. But fortunately for Dora she has her talking map. Actually it sings. It has its own little theme song.

And the map leads her home and that is basically every single Dora adventure in a nutshell. Well Abraham didn't have a singing map. He certainly did not have a monkey named Boots. But what he had was a directive from God. And he went. God said go. By the way this is before we had the written word. There was no Old Testament. Certainly no New Testament.

No Torah. So we would assume that God probably spoke audibly to Abraham and told him to go. And we might think wow I wish God would speak audibly to me. Wouldn't it be great if he could get up every morning and the Lord would just speak to you audibly. Or send a text even.

Text from God. Hey Greg here is the plan for today. At this hour be here.

At that hour be there. Do this and do that. Thank you Lord. But that is not how he speaks to us. But you know the fact is God speaks to you all the time. The question is are you listening.

Listen to this. The average New Testament Christian knows more than the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. The average New Testament Christian knows more than the great patriarch Abraham.

You say how so. Because Jesus said of those born among women there has never been a greater than John the Baptist. John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. But then the Lord went on to say, But he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John. That is us.

Least in the kingdom. Whoever we are. Why would I be greater than John the Baptist for this simple reason.

I know the big picture. I know that the Bible is pointing to the arrival of Messiah. The death of Messiah. The resurrection of Messiah. And the return of Messiah.

I see it all. The new is in the Old Testament concealed. The old is in the New Testament revealed.

Let me say that again. The new is in the Old Testament concealed. The old is in the New Testament revealed. So as a part of the New Covenant, which we all are, because of the death and resurrection of Christ, I see it all now.

But here is the point. God does speak. But if you want to hear God speak, open this book. You are not going to hear God if you don't open the Bible and say like young Samuel, speak Lord, your servant is listening. See it is up to us to determine if we are going to pay attention to what the Lord says. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they know my voice and they follow my voice.

World changers are always listening to hear the voice of God. So God told Abraham to make a clean break with his past and his family. God was commanding him to leave his people, his family, everyone that he knew, just leave them all together.

Why? Because they were detrimental to his spiritual growth. His environment was not conducive to him growing spiritually. So the Lord said, you have got to cut them loose buddy. Separate yourself. You know if you want to be a happy person and a blessed person, there are certain things you should do. And there are certain things you should not do. Psalm 1 says, blessed or happy is the man or the woman who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly or stands in the way of sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful. You want to be a happy person. Don't hang around ungodly people.

Now look. You can't control your entire environment. You may have a family that has ungodly people in it. You may be in a workplace with people that don't believe. You may be in a classroom around people that don't share your faith and so forth.

I am not saying you can change that. But there is a difference between who I am around and who I choose to spend time with. Spend time with godly people. Find godly friends that will build you up in your faith and increase your appetite for spiritual things. Not people who drag you down and decrease your appetite for spiritual things.

God said, cut them loose. But then happy people are also known for what they do because someone continues, but his delight is in the word of the Lord and in it does he meditate day and night. So don't do these things and hang around godless people.

But do this thing. Tell you the word of God and spend time with godly people. Practical insight today from Pastor Greg Laurie.

As a part of his series, World Changers, we're learning how to be the kind of people who impact our culture. And Pastor Greg will have a final comment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. And for a permanent copy of this study, get in touch and mention the title No Forwarding Address. You can call us anytime around the clock at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Pastor Greg, when God wants to use us, does he reveal his plan in small increments? You know, many of our listeners know that you found Christ while you were in high school. Is it a good thing God didn't reveal to you that you'd be speaking to millions of people in a long-running crusade ministry and doing weekly online church services for hundreds of thousands every week? Would that have maybe freaked you out?

Yes. You know, it's interesting, Dave, early on in my ministry, I got a little glimpse of my future. And it's a story I've told before, but I went down to a baptism at Coronado Mar State Beach. This is early 70s, and I was a little bit late, and I had missed the baptism. Now, I have to point out, I wasn't a pastor at this point. I was just a person attending church. And so I'm sitting there wondering how I got the time wrong, and I noticed a little group of Christians sitting around singing a song.

So I went over and joined them, and we sang along, and I realized there was no leader. And after we'd finished our song, I just felt prompted by the Lord to share something from the Word. Again, understand, I'm not a Bible teacher at this time. I'm just someone going to church, but I read something in Scripture I thought might be relevant, so I shared it. And as I was speaking, some people joined us who apparently got the time wrong and the baptism as well, and they leaned over to me and said, Pastor, we missed the baptism. Could you baptize us? And I said, oh, I'm not a pastor. I'm just a Christian. And I felt prompted by the Lord to baptize these people. I thought, why not? Because what is a great commission?

It's to go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. I thought, I don't see why I can't baptize them. So I took them down to the beach, and I never really studied the technique of baptism.

I just attended them. And so I'm thinking, wait, do you hold their nose? How long do you keep them under the water? The whole thing was perplexing to me. But I baptized them, and after I was done, it crowded and sort of gathered up on the top of the rocks.

This is like a natural amphitheater down at the Corona-Nomar State Beach called Pirate's Cove. And so I looked up, and this little crowd had gathered, and the Lord spoke to my heart, and he said, Preach the gospel. Understand, I had never spoken publicly before. I preached the gospel, and before I knew it, I was inviting the people I was preaching to to come down and accept Christ. And I would baptize them, and sure enough, some people came down, so it was like the Lord gave me a glimpse into my future. But it was still the distant future.

That type of thing did not happen for me until much later. So sometimes the Lord will sort of put a little seed in your mind or your heart, that sort of a dream, a dream of what can be in your life. And so you know, in a sense, where you're going, but you don't know how you're gonna get there.

You don't know how it's gonna be accomplished. And here's what I've learned, Dave. God has always led me one step at a time. Sometimes what looks like an accident is actually providence.

Let me illustrate. I was scheduled to take a flight back from Colorado, I believe, and my flight was delayed, so I had to change over to another flight. And so I'm flying home, and I went to the restroom. Yes, pastors, go to the restroom. And the flight attendant said, are you Pastor Greg Laurie?

And I said, yes, I am. She said, I'd like to talk to you. And so I came out of the restroom afterwards, and she said, I was praying you would be in this flight because I follow you on social media. I saw you were in Colorado, so I prayed you would get in this flight. Well, what happened was my flight was canceled, and I ended up on her flight, so God answered her prayer.

And then I was able to minister to her because she was very troubled and going through a very difficult time. But the point is this. Sometimes we don't even know what's next, but what might look like an interruption is divine intervention.

So here's my simple point. God leads you a step at a time. Be faithful in the little things, and He'll give you bigger things to do. So I write about that and a whole lot more in my brand new book that I'm calling World Changers. It's about ordinary men and women that did extraordinary things because they were willing to take bold steps of faith, and God has given to every Christian faith and it's up to us how much we use it. So this book will inspire you and encourage you to go out and change your world, and I'd love to send it to you for your gift of any size.

And when you order this book, just be reminded of the fact that we'll take your gift and use it to reach more people with a life-changing message of the gospel because it's America's only hope, and for that matter, it's the world's only hope. So were you still a pretend pastor in 1978 when you married me and my wife? No, I was real then. I was actually ordained, so don't be alarmed.

Your marriage is official and legal. So I may have looked like a pretend pastor, and then I had long hair and a beard then, or had I cut some of it off. No, you had long hair, beard, yeah.

You had a lot of hair, a lot of hair. It's all gone now. We've got wedding pictures, yeah. Let's show them on the radio right now. On the radio? Yeah.

In living color. Yes, look at your radio right now. We're showing one of the photos.

Yeah, and I'm real glad it is radio and not TV. So can we send you a copy of Pastor Greg's new book called World Changers? It's our thank you gift for those who make an investment right now so these daily studies can continue. You know, it's only through listener support that these daily teaching opportunities are possible, so thank you for your generosity.

And be sure to ask for World Changers when you give. You can write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call us any time, day or night, seven days a week at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Greg continues his insight from Abraham, the father of the faith. But before we go, Pastor Greg shares one more comment about hearing the voice of God.

I think the fact is God speaks, so we just don't always like what he says. I remember hearing Pastor Chuck Smith tell the story of his grandson, who said to his mom one night, Mom, God never speaks to me. And his mom said, now, son, God speaks to you all the time. And he said, well, Mom, I never hear him. And then his mom said, well, you know what, son, when you do something wrong and you feel guilty, that can be God speaking to you. There was a pause, and then he said to his mom, Mom, God speaks to me all the time. I suggest to you God speaks to you a lot. The question is, are you listening? This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.