A New Beginning for a World Changer: Putting the Past Behind

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. Have you ever wished you could start all over again? Well, in a way you can, because 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold all things that become fresh and new. It's a spiritual reset button. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie explains how he can have a clean slate before the Lord. You don't have to be crippled by your past anymore.

You can put it behind you. You too can have a new beginning. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins.

If our lives are filled with guilt over the things we've done, we may wish we had some kind of regret etch-a-sketch, where we could turn things upside down and give it a shake and see those regrets disappear. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the Lord will allow us to leave the past behind. When we come to Him, He'll give us the clean slate we long for.

Our lesson today comes from a study of how Moses led God's chosen people into the promised land. This is the day, the day when life begins. Well, we are back in our World Changer series and the title of the message today is A New Beginning for a World Changer. How many people here would like to have a new beginning? I think we all feel that from time to time.

Yes. Well, this is a message that talks about that. You are going to turn to two passages.

Hebrews 11 and Exodus 12. You know, for me it is always a great thing to start something fresh. You know, the first day of spring.

I love that. I love it when with our watches and our clocks we spring forward. You know. I hate it when we fall back. Because all of a sudden it is like dark at 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

You know. You lose all that sunlight. It is like getting a whole new part of a day when we spring forward. I like the way everything looks after it rains. Even people with dirty cars get a car wash on that day. Or if you are an artist, I like to sit down with a clean sheet of paper.

I just met a professional cartoonist who is a Christian and we were visiting for a while. We had two pieces of paper and he had a bunch of cool pens and we were just drawing back and forth. It was so fun. You know, when you are an artist you love to do that.

A blank sheet of paper. And also what is great is the second chance after you have failed. And I would also add the end of a great trial where you can have a fresh start or a new beginning. That is what we find before us here in Exodus chapter 12. Moses the world changer was about to change the world for the captives of Egypt, the nation, Israel.

He was going to lead them to a new beginning and a new land. And the way he did this all was by faith. And that is the theme of Hebrews 11.

It is great men and women of God who had courage and took risks and changed the world around them. And they all did it by faith. So we read about Moses in Hebrews 11 verse 25.

It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons. But did you see before this was going to happen Moses himself needed a new beginning because he had crashed and burned. But God gave him a second chance at the burning bush.

You know the story. He killed the Egyptians. He went into exile for 40 years.

The Lord spoke to him and recommissioned him to service again and gave to Moses and ultimately to the Jews a new beginning. It comes down to this. When you have been changed you want to see others be changed as well.

Let me turn that around. If you don't want to see others changed how much have you really been changed? Jesus said this in Luke 7 47. To whom much is forgiven that one loves the much more. I mean if we can wrap our mind around what God has done for us and how much He has forgiven us.

He has taken all that sin and removed it from our lives. And because of that we should have an eagerness and an excitement and a passion to tell others what God has done for us. And Jesus also said over in Luke 12 48, From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.

And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Do you realize the great privileges that you have right now as you sit there and hear this message? First of all you live in the United States of America. A free country. That is why so many people want to come to our nation.

And we have freedoms here that many other nations do not have. And then after that we are in a church where the Lord is honored. We are led in worship by these gifted people that love the Lord.

And we hear the Word of God on a regular basis and we see people coming to Christ. And so we look at all this and it is a privilege. And to whom much is given much is required.

So God has given this to us and with this knowledge, with these privileges come responsibilities. Well the Jewish people. They were living as slaves under the Pharaoh. Now through Moses the answer to their prayers had finally come. The problem was Pharaoh was not cooperating. Instead of releasing the Jews he dug in his heels and said in Exodus 5 to who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go.

I don't know the Lord nor will I let Israel go. Oh yeah. You have got your God. Well I am God. And I will take God on.

Wow. Careful now what you wish for. Because if you get in a fight with God you are going to lose. Just know that. If you are fighting with the Lord you are going to lose. If you are running from the Lord you are going to lose. As it has been said, your arms are too short to box with God. You remember old Jacob that we looked at in this series got into a wrestling match with an angel who quite possibly was Jesus himself and he lost. The Lord maybe humors us from time to time.

Like when I used to wrestle with my sons and wrestle with my grandchildren. I let them win. I am humoring them. They think they are really winning but they aren't. So you think you are prevailing.

Listen. God will bring that wrestling match to a close. And this is what was going to happen to Pharaoh. Careful what you wish for.

You might get it. I have told you the story before of a couple that were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary and it also happened to be their 65th birthday. So a genie appeared. True story. And offered to each a wish. The wife said, oh genie I love my husband so much but I have always wanted to go to a beautiful island in the South Sea.

My wish genie is that I would be with my husband on a white sand beach looking at the aqua waters. Poof. There they were. The husband is going, wow this thing works. So he thinks about it for a moment. He looks over at his 65 year old wife. He says, genie my wish is I had a wife that was 30 years younger than me. Poof.

He was 90 years old. So careful. These things can backfire. How many of you have heard that joke before? Raise your hand.

How many of you liked hearing it again? Raise your hand. How many of you want me to use that joke again in the future? How many of you want me to use it in the same message? This message. Use it again. Really?

I will try. But that is kind of weird. So God gave to Pharaoh chance after chance to release the Jews. No plagues.

No judgments. He said, Moses just go in there and say let my people go. Well Pharaoh rejected that. So the Lord brought judgments. Ten plagues in total upon Egypt.

They included lice and flies and bugs and spiders and frogs and hail and it just got worse and worse. And the Bible says Pharaoh's heart got harder. Pharaoh's heart got harder. Finally it says, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Which if you recall means the Lord strengthened Pharaoh in the decision he had already made.

Now the Pharaoh knows he is outgunned or outplagued. So he tries to get Moses to compromise. He tries to deceive Moses. And he says, all right Moses go ahead and go worship the Lord.

Just don't go very far. Moses says, no we have got to go three days journey. All right. All right. Go worship the Lord your God but just leave your children. Moses says, we are not leaving our kids. They are coming with us. All right. All right. Go worship the Lord your God. Just leave your animals. And Moses says, listen, not a hoof shall be left behind.

You get nothing. And he made a clean break with the Pharaoh just like we need to make a clean break with the devil if we are going to follow Jesus Christ. But the Pharaoh still was resisting. So the Lord is going to bring one severe judgment on him.

The death of the firstborn. Now this might seem harsh, cruel, and even extreme on the part of God. But for all practical purposes the Pharaoh decided his own fate.

How so you might ask. Well Moses warned Pharaoh that he would be treated the same way he treated the Jews. If not he would reap what he sowed. God said in Exodus 4 22, say this to the Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son. So I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn. God was very direct.

Look. This is my son. You let my son go.

We are good. You don't let my son go then I am coming after your son. So he was deciding his own fate. He was going to get a taste of his own medicine. Jesus said with what measure or judgment you judge you will be judged.

And the measure you use it will be measured back to you. So Pharaoh drowned the Jewish baby boys and now God was going to drown Pharaoh's army. See a lot of times these things that we try to inflict on others come right back on us. The Bible tells the story of a wicked man named Haman. He hatched a plot to have the Jewish race exterminated. An unwitting Artaxerxes went along with this plan. And Artaxerxes was married of course to Queen Esther who was a Jew.

She ended up pleading for the Jewish people and they were spared. But Haman had gallows built to hang Mordecai, his enemy, the uncle of Queen Esther. And as it turns out Haman hung on his own gallows. So careful the trap you set for another may be the trap that brings you down. The thing that Pharaoh was doing to the Jews now would come right back on him.

The tensions are reaching a breaking point between Moses and Pharaoh. More from Pastor Greg's study in just a moment. It's reassuring to hear when a listener has been impacted by the ministry of Pastor Greg. My story with Pastor Greg goes back 25 years to a Promise Keepers Conference at the L.A.

Coliseum. And Pastor Greg was speaking at that conference. I sat through most of it but at the very end of that conference I made a commitment to live the Christian life. During that time a hunger began to come into my heart to study the Word. I began to be very convicted by some of the things that I had been doing. The music I was listening to, movies I was watching, the way I used my language. All those things began to change but yet I was still in a very difficult situation.

I was in my mid-thirties living in Southern California. And I was at the corner of Oso Parkway and the 405 and Pastor Greg had a message around lunchtime. I found his radio station and I was listening to him and he had a message about the battle between the flesh and the spirit.

And that message is exactly what I needed at that time. And so there's two events in a row where Pastor Greg came into my life. And that message that I heard at the radio really encouraged me and helped me to understand that I was going to be in a battle but that Christ had the victory in that.

And so here I am 25 years later. My wife and I are involved in ministry in our church. I just want to thank you Pastor Greg for being faithful, blessings to you and your ministry. When we hear from you, it's not only a blessing, it also confirms that the program is touching lives. You can leave a message for Pastor Greg at 1-866-871-1144.

Once again, that's 866-871-1144. Well as Pastor Greg has explained, God is about to render one more judgment on Pharaoh. And as Pastor Greg picks up the study, we see God had a plan to protect the Jews from that consequence. Now God gives instruction for the celebration of the first Passover. The Lord said, go three days journey into the land and you're going to have Passover and here's what it's all about. Exodus 12 starting in verse 1. While the Israelites are still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron.

From now on, the Lord says, this month will be the first month of the year for you. Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb, a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood, divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, and no defects.

We will stop there. So they were to offer to the Lord a healthy young lamb or goat and then they were to sacrifice that animal and they were to take the blood of the animal and put it on their doorpoles. So imagine a doorway right here. They were to take the blood from the lamb or the goat and put the blood on the left side, put the blood on the right side, and put the blood on the top of the door. And what does that remind you of? Jesus hanging there on the cross, the crown of thorns pressed on His brow, nails driven through His right hand and His left. And this is what Passover was pointing to. It is pointing to Jesus Christ. And really the Old Testament is pointing to the New Testament. It is one revelation from Genesis to Revelation. There is not an Old Testament God and a New Testament God. It is one God. And all of those Old Testament types and sacrifices all pointed to Jesus who would be the fulfillment of them as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You know people often misunderstand the ministry of Christ. They think He was like, you know, the original hippie or something. He came to give flowers out and get everybody to sing Kumbaya and give beautiful teachings. But then something went horribly wrong.

No. He came to give, yes, the greatest teachings ever given. He came to perform miracles, sure. But really the real reason He came was to die for the sin of the world and be the Lamb of God who would bear our sin. And that is why Scripture tells us that He is the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. Which means before there was a solar system. Before there was a planet called Earth and a garden called Eden.

And a couple known as Adam and Eve. A decision was made in the councils of eternity that God Himself would come to planet Earth and be born as a helpless little baby in a manger in Bethlehem. Then He would live a perfect life. And then He would die as our substitute on the cross.

And His precious blood would be shed. So what does Passover mean to us? Number one. That Passover is a new beginning.

If you are taking notes. That Passover was for them and for us a new beginning. God starts by making this a new beginning for the nation of Israel.

Verse 2. This month will be the first month of the year for you. That would be like us saying today we are starting the year over again because it hasn't gone so well.

Now that is what God was saying. We are starting the year over right now. This is a new beginning.

This is when it begins for you. Have you ever wished you could start all over again? Maybe in your marriage. Maybe in your relationship with your children. Or with friends.

Someone you have fallen out with. Well in a way you can. Because 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, If any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. All things become new. Or as the Wiese translation puts it which is a translation from the original Greek.

It goes as follows. Anyone who is in Christ is a creation new in quality. The antiquated out of date things which do not belong to the new life in Christ have passed away. Behold all things that become fresh and new. You don't have to be crippled by your past anymore. You can put it behind you. I love how the Lord just said it starts now.

It doesn't matter what time of the year it is. It can all change because of the blood of the lamb. Number two. The lamb they were to kill was to be the very best. It was a lamb that was to be chosen and carefully examined according to verse 3 with no defects. In other words don't bring a sickly animal. Bring the finest. The strongest. Why? Because we should give our very best to God.

Right? I heard about an old farmer. He was very stingy. He was a churchgoer. And he said to the preacher, I just had two calves born. I am going to give one of them to the Lord. The pastor said, Which one?

He said, I haven't decided yet. So a week passed and one of the calves got very sick and it died. And the old farmer showed up a day later with a dead calf draped over his arms and he said, Preacher I have bad news. The Lord's calf just died. Get it?

Oh it is dead. Might as well give this one to God. And that is what we often do. We give our leftovers to God. If Jesus Christ showed up at your house today for lunch would you give him leftovers?

Oh Lord welcome. Hey we have some food here. Devil's food cake. Probably not appropriate.

Here just eat this old burrito from three days ago. No. He would make a feast fit for a king just like Martha did when Jesus would show up in her home. But often in life we will give the Lord the leftovers. Oh yeah. Right.

Right. Pray. Well let's pray. Or read the Bible.

I am doing so many things I will get to that eventually. Oh give my finances to the Lord. Well I don't know. I don't really have any money left.

No. That is why the Bible says bring the first fruits of your increase. You do that first. Put God first and He will bless you. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. What you will eat. What you will drink.

What you will wear. Put God first in your marriage and you watch how it changes. Put God first in your finances and you watch how they will change. Put God first in your relationships. Put God first in your career. Put Him first.

Give the best. He gave His best to you. That is what the Lord said.

Bring your best. Pastor Greg Laurie with good insight today from our study called A New Beginning for a World Changer. And there is more to come as this message continues here on A New Beginning. And if you weren't able to hear all of the insight Pastor Greg presented today, you can catch up by listening to the program online at harvest.org or by way of our Harvest mobile app.

Again the title is A New Beginning for a World Changer. And you can arrange to have a CD copy of the message sent your way by calling 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call.

Again at 1-800-821-3300. Well we're pleased to have Sally Lloyd-Jones with us today. She's just released her new resource for the holidays called The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection. And we're happy to make that available to our listeners today. Pastor Greg. Sally, the Christmas story is obviously so familiar.

Maybe we've heard it so many times we stopped hearing it. And what I love about what you've written here is as I read it, I was just carried away with it. It was delightful. And you seem to have a way of coming at things not in the predictable way one always expects.

And so when you put this project together and wrote these words, what was your objective? Well I love the idea that really, you know, where does Christmas begin? If we think it begins on Christmas morning, we've missed this incredible lead up. Because Christmas begins even before the world was made in God's heart. Because he knew all along everything. And he went ahead and made it all knowing that even though we would break it, he would send his rescuer to save us and redeem everything and make everything more beautiful for having been so sad. And I think right now we're in a time where we need to hear that especially. That Christmas isn't just about Christmas Day. Christmas is about every day.

Because God can come into the darkest place and bring life. Yeah and I think, you know, with the coronavirus, we're going into our first Christmas with COVID-19. Children have been dramatically affected by this.

In many cases not being able to go back to school. Their whole life has been upended. But you know, you can't cancel Christmas. I mean maybe we won't have all of the pressure and the shopping issues and all the things that can kind of clutter Christmas that we've had in the past. But maybe in a way we'll see it with new eyes and get back to the essential message of why Jesus came to this earth in the first place. I think that would be an amazing good coming out of such suffering. Because I think this year we're all longing for going back to normal, whatever that is. But perhaps what we're going to go back to is something more amazing. And we'll come out of this time being changed so that we don't just go back to normal. We move on with a clearer view of, you know, what this life is.

Because what's really happened is everything that we relied on has been taken away. And I heard someone say this funny thing that God sent us all to our rooms to think about things. Which is kind of funny.

But kind of in my own experience, very true. You know, I started this time thinking, oh, I'm just going to get lots of things done. I'm going to finish this. I'm going to finish that. And very soon, like I'm sure many of us realized, well, that might not be the best use of this time.

If I just do everything as normal, what have I learnt? And maybe this is an opportunity that, you know, if we have the luxury of being able to be well during this time, perhaps there's an opportunity here. And so I hope Christmas for Children this year is much more amazing than ever. Because it will address fears that they have in their hearts, you know. And wasn't that the message of the angels to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night? Fear not. Of course, then again, angels often said fear not because I think when angels appeared, people were afraid. I mean, an angel's a magnificent being. But we need to hear that fear not message maybe more than ever, don't we? Yeah.

I don't remember the number. Maybe you remember this. But I always think it's funny that when, you know, whenever God shows up or there's an angel or something, they don't say, hello, how are you? Or God loves you. They always say, don't be afraid. And that's the thing they say most. And it's kind of comforting because it's not surprising to God that we're scared. We're very scared. We're little sheep.

We don't know. And we get very scared. But he knows. He knows that. So that's to me, that's a big comforting message of Christmas. Don't be afraid.

That's right. So if you want to bring that comforting message of Christmas to not be afraid to your family, to your children, we are offering a resource we've never offered before. It's called the Jesus Storybook Bible, a Christmas collection, beautifully written, amazing illustrations, and a little button you can push on various pages to hear the voice of actor David Sashay read to you scriptures.

This would be quite expensive if you went out into a store and purchased it. But we are offering it to our listeners for your gift of any size. We ask you to send a generous gift because it helps us continue on to bring this radio broadcast, Teach the Word of God, Proclaim the Gospel. And for your gift of any size, we'll rush you your copy of the Jesus Storybook Bible Christmas collection written by our friend Sally Lloyd-Jones.

Yeah, that's right. And we hope you'll contact us today. And thanks so much for your investment in touching lives, especially here as the holidays approach. And if the Lord is leading you to support this outreach on a regular basis, ask about becoming a Harvest Partner. You can write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Greg comes back with more insights on Passover and how it relates to our walk with the Lord here in the 21st century. Be sure to tune in.

And before we go, here's Pastor Greg once again from today's message, A New Beginning for a World Changer. You ever watch that show on TV called Fixer Upper? I like that show. Chip and Joanna Gaines, and they're Christians, by the way.

You probably knew that. And they'll go to these old homes. It seems like most of them are in Waco, Texas. And sometimes it's a young couple getting their first house. Or it might be a retired couple. And they'll go and look at this old house and give them choices.

Which one do you want? And they'll pick one of the homes. And then, you know, Joanna, who's an incredible designer, comes up with these amazing plans. And then Chip's the builder.

And so they work together. And then they do the reveal. And they'll take that old home. And in front of it, they'll have a giant photograph of the way their home used to look. And then they'll get on each side and pull it apart for the great reveal. And there's a new home.

And you can't believe it's the same place. And then they'll show you what they did. And they'll flash back to the way it looked before. And it seems like Joanna Gaines is very fond of shiplap. She uses that a lot, you know, which is sort of a white paneling.

Which does look great, I have to say. But so it's a whole new thing. God can do that for your life. See what's messed up, and it's broken down, and it's falling apart. It can become new and fresh in Jesus Christ. You too can have a new beginning.