The Secret to Being a World Changer: Practical Steps of Faith

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Check out Virtue, our website for Christian women.

Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. or standing there holding the laurel leaves that will be placed on your head as you're declared the winner. And so for us as Christians, it's like we're in this race and we're tired in these attacks and obstacles and challenges. And look ahead. Look unto Jesus.

He's the one we run this race for. We do it so we can stand before Jesus one day and hear Him say, Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. As Pastor Greg Laurie has said, a good description of a Christian life is long obedience in the same direction. It can be rewarding at times, daunting at times. It can remind us how weak we are in and of ourselves. But where we are weak, He is strong.

Glad you're along today. You're on a new beginning as Pastor Greg brings the finale of his inspiring series, World Changers. We're learning how we can impact the culture around us.

And today it gets very practical. Let's grab our Bibles now. We're going to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. And the title of my message is The Secret to Being a World Changer. This is my last message in this series that I have enjoyed exploring. Going through the great heroes of faith of Hebrews chapter 11.

And now in chapter 12 a lot of the loose ends are pulled together. And here before us is the secret of the world changer. So let's read together Hebrews 12 starting in verse 1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

We'll stop there. So what is the secret to being a world changer? What is the motive that will keep us going even when we are at times discouraged in the race of life?

Here's the answer. It's Jesus. We do it for Jesus. We keep running for Him because one day we will stand before Him and we'll see Him face to face. Let me take you back again to verse 1. It says, Therefore, or another way of putting it, in light of what we have just learned from these heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, because of this example, therefore let us run with endurance. I'm going to share with you six principles about being a world changer.

Number one. World changers are in good company. World changers are in good company. Verse 1 says, You are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

We look back at Hebrews 11. Here are all these great people of faith. They ran the race of life so well. Hey they weren't perfect. They messed up. They had flaws.

We pointed this out. But yet they changed their world. The world changers of Hebrews 11 opposed the Pharaoh and they counseled Nebuchadnezzar. They passed through the Red Sea. They shouted down the walls of Jericho.

They shut the mouths of lions. They both called down and walked through fire. Now the author of Hebrews is saying, listen, run like they did. They set the pace. They have provided an example that we should follow. Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us run.

Point number two. World changers are in a race for their life. World changers are in a race for their life. Verse 1. Let us run.

One of the reasons I think Paul may be the author of Hebrews is because Paul often used the analogy of running in other writings like Philippians and 1 Corinthians and Galatians. And in 1 Corinthians 9 and 24 Paul said, Remember in a race everyone runs but only one person gets a prize. So run in such a way that you will win. And we are in the race of life.

But this is very important. You are not my opponent. I am not competing with you. You are not competing with me.

Listen. My competition if you will, my opponents are the world, the flesh, and the devil. I am running with fellow Christians. We are running together.

Point number three. World changers run light. World changers run light.

Verse 1. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and run with endurance the race that is set before us. Ask yourself this question in the race of life.

And I am speaking of the Christian life. Is there someone or something that is slowing you down? See if I am running a race and someone is hanging on to me and I am dragging them is that a productive relationship for winning a race?

No. If I am trying to have an appetite for the things of God and someone is feeding me something that dulls my appetite is that a good thing to eat? So periodically I have to take stock of my life and ask myself of certain relationships.

Is this a good relationship for me? You need to run the race with godly people that spur you on. Not with ungodly people that slow you down. So look for godly friends.

And even more be a godly friend. Lay aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets you. Ask yourself the question. This thing is it speeding me up or is it slowing me down?

This thing that I am doing is it building me up or is it tearing me down? World changers run light. Point number four. World changers run hard. They run hard.

Verse two. Let us run with endurance a race that is set before us. The word that is used here for endurance is the Greek word Oopamone. I am told that is how it is pronounced.

I don't speak Greek. But it is a word that means perseverance, endurance, steadfastness, or staying power. Another translator put it as heroic endurance. This is a steady determination to keep going. Because sometimes in the race of life it is just hard. And you are just a little bit tired.

Or maybe really tired. And the Oopamone, the perseverance presses on. Sometimes we start off with a burst of energy. Then we start slowing down.

And some even abandon the race altogether. Years ago I went out on a bike ride. My wife is really good on road bikes and I wanted to sort of do it with her. So I went and got myself a bike and I got the whole outfit.

Because that is what I think of it as. An outfit. Which I didn't really like wearing. You know it is this little brightly colored deal with the little clicky shoes that you click into the pedals.

And then it has padding on the bottom. You feel like you need your diaper changed. Gee I got on my little bike and I am riding along. Very color coordinated.

Looking good. So we ride about 20 miles away. And I am just so full of energy. I pass everybody.

They are looking at me. Like what are you doing? I am way in the lead. This is so easy. Why do people say it is hard? It is easy.

Then we reach our destination. I am exhausted. It is so bad. One of the people had to push me back on my bike. Pushing me.

That is humiliating. Ok. And then to make matters worse after the race is all over I get on the phone and I am telling someone I rode 20 miles today. And my wife was walking out the door. I said, where are you going? She goes, I am going on a ride. What do you mean you are going on a ride? We just rode 20 miles.

Kathy says, I didn't even break a sweat. But sometimes we start with a great burst of energy. But we can't finish it. We need endurance. Where do we get it?

You are not going to like my answer. Where do you get endurance? The answer is found in James 1. Count it all joy brothers when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So let endurance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.

There is that word epimony again. The testing of your faith produces this strength. It is sort of like going to the gym. You tear your muscle down in order to build your muscle up. And sometimes someone might add more weights to your bench press or whatever you are lifting. Go for a higher weight. Oh I can't do it. No you can go higher.

Lower your reps if you need to. But you can go higher. And then you find you can do it. Then you move up again.

And that is the idea. God will put weights in our life. Things in our life. We say I don't want these weights.

I don't want this problem. But I want to be strong. If you want to be strong you are going to go through trials. Because when you go through trials you get stronger. Remember Joseph when we were first introduced to him?

He is sort of a pampered young man with a super cool shirt his dad gave him. He ratted out his brothers. And Joseph went through a lot of adversity including being sold as a slave by his brothers.

And being sent to prison after being falsely accused of rape. And Genesis tells us that when he was in prison iron entered his soul. So right now you are going through a hardship and it makes no sense to you. And you wish it would go away but God is toughening you up. He is giving you that steadfastness you are going to need.

Because he is getting you ready for something that is still yet to come. Listen, trials are like God's gym where he makes us stronger. As we run our race for Christ where we focus makes all the difference.

It can ensure we make it across the finish line. And Pastor Greg will explain where to focus in just a moment. Hey everybody Greg Laurie here inviting you to join me every weekend for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a church service. It's a worship service. It's a Bible study. And it's wherever you want it to be.

In your home, in your car, sitting on a beach, walking down the street, watching it on your phone. Wherever you are you can take it with you and be ministered to every weekend. Join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is presenting six principles regarding world changers. As he brings us the finale of his important series by that name.

And you can order the full series online at Harvest.org. Point number five, world changers don't live in the past. They don't live in the past. And I look to another verse for this, Philippians 3, 13 where Paul says one thing I do. Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are ahead.

I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You put your past behind you. When God forgives you He forgets your sins. He says your sins and iniquities, well I remember no more. So put your past sins behind you.

Listen to this. Put your past victories behind you. Some people are resting on their laurels. They are living in the past. There is a new day before us. A race to run so we press on because we have seen more than one race where the person who was in the lead position lost it.

Because at the last moment instead of going for that ribbon they turned over to see where their opponent was and boom their opponent got just a little bit ahead. And our former winner becomes second place. So don't look back.

Number six. World changers. Run the race of life for Jesus. This brings us back to the secret of being a world changer. Looking unto Jesus verse 2 says, The author and finisher of our faith, who with the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Now Paul is thinking of the Greek games. The Olympic games. That is where the Olympics started in Greece. And back in those days they didn't give out gold medals and silver medals and bronze medals.

Back in those days you would receive the laurel leaf wreath from the emperor. So the idea is ok you are in the last lap now and you are running and you are exhausted. You don't feel like you can go on another foot. And now in the distance you see the emperor standing there holding the laurel leaves that will be placed on your head as you are declared the winner. And so for us as Christians it is like we are in this race and we are tired of these attacks and obstacles and challenges. And look ahead. Look unto Jesus. This is who you are doing it for. There stands Jesus.

Not with laurel leaves. But with your crown that He will give you and all who love His appearing. That is why Paul said, I fought the good fight. I kept the faith.

I finished the race. Henceforth there is later for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me in that day and not to me only but to all who love His appearing. Looking to Jesus. He is the one we run this race for. He is the one we sing to when we worship. He is the one we give to in our offering. He is the one that we seek to honor each and every day.

And He is the one that we will stand before one day. So we don't do this for applause. We don't do it for notoriety or fame.

We do it so we can stand before Jesus one day and hear Him say, Well done good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. So look to Jesus. Don't look to circumstances.

Don't look to people. People will disappoint. They won't have that encouraging word. In fact sometimes they will have a discouraging word. After you took a step of faith to serve the Lord they will question your motives. Challenge what you are doing while they do basically nothing themselves.

No you press on. As Corrie ten Boom once said, Look at people and be depressed. Look outside and be distressed.

Look at Jesus and be at rest. And Corrie knew what she was talking about because she had been sent to a Nazi concentration camp for hiding Jewish people in her home during World War II. And she lost her father and her sister in that camp called Ravensbruck. But yet she kept her eyes on Jesus and that kept her going.

And it will keep us going as well. Now we close with the greatest world changer of them all. Jesus Christ. Verse 3. Consider Him who endured such hostility against Himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Think of what Jesus did for you. Think of how He went to the cross for you. Not when you were worshiping Him or sitting in church with your Bible open on your lap. Or with your hands lifted in praise. He did this for you when you were shaking your fist in His face and taking His name in vain and breaking His commandments.

He did all of this for you. I mean think about what Jesus had to face. His own disciples effectively abandoned Him. Judas Iscariot, his friend, betrayed Him. And then He was beaten physically with fists to His face. His beard ripped from His face. A crown of thorns pressed on His forehead. His back ripped open with Roman whips. Then He was jeered and laughed at and spit on. And then He was nailed to a cross.

How easily Jesus could have said, You know what? Forget this. No one here appreciates me. I am not dying for these people.

They don't deserve it. But it was His love for us that kept Him going. And so when we read, For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross.

Guess what the joy set before Him was? It was you. It was me.

It was us. He did it for us because He knew there was no other way that we could be made right with a God that we had all offended. And I love this. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame. So look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. God finishes what He starts. He's going to complete the work in you. You say, Greg, I can't go on another day.

Yes, you can. Get your eyes off of yourself. Put a stop to your pity party and look at Jesus.

Well, people don't appreciate it. Okay, you're not doing it for people. You're doing it for Jesus. He's the one you'll stand before. He's the one that will give you the strength to do it.

Think of Simon Peter on the water. He sees Jesus walking. Lord, He says, if it's you, tell me to come. Jesus says, come on, man. I don't know if He said it that way. I'm just thinking He might have. And the Bible says, and Jesus said, come. I thought I would have been more like, come on, come.

Let's see what happens. Peter walks on water. Now, we can make fun of Peter for sinking, which happened after, but no other disciple walked on water besides Peter.

How did he do it? He was looking to Jesus. When did he start to sink? When he stopped looking at Jesus. When will you start to sink? When you take your eyes off of the Lord and put them on people or you put them on the church or you put them on circumstances or you put them on other things.

Get your eyes off of that stuff and look to Jesus. He'll never let you down and He'll keep you running in the race of life. He'll do it. But think of all He did for you. He died for you. He paid for your sins. And now He's actually asking permission to come into your life. He says, behold, I stand at the door and I knock and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. I mean, He is God. He could just say, I'm God, you're not.

I'm coming in. What are you gonna do? But no, He's a gentleman because He doesn't wanna force His way into anyone's life. He wants to come in your life. He wants to forgive you of your sin and you can put your sin behind you, you see. But God cannot forgive the sin that we will not confess. The Bible says that we will confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And as we close now in prayer, there might be some of you that would say, I don't know Jesus.

I'm not sure if my sin is forgiven. I don't have the confidence that I will go to heaven when I die, but I want it. Hey, He's just a prayer away.

He'll come into your life. Some of you might say, well, I've been discouraged and a little disheartened and I haven't been running the race, as you call it. I haven't been walking with the Lord. Maybe it's too late for me.

No, it's not too late for you. Get up and run again. Get back in the race. Come back to the Lord.

Let's all bow our heads. Father, now we've heard your word and I pray for any here that do not yet know you. Help them to see how much you love them, Jesus. Help them to come to you. Help them to believe in you right now. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important word of prayer.

And if you'd like to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg would like to help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. You know, Pastor Greg, I remember some of the toys that we used to get for Christmas when we were kids. I remember the paddle with the ball attached with a rubber band and the rubber band was held on with a little staple that lasted about five minutes. And the paddle ball toy without a ball is just a paddle.

Oh, no. Because you know whose hand that's going to end up in, right? Oh, yes, right. A disciplinary toy. Exactly. Some toy that is, right? Well, we have a gift to recommend that there's no staples and it could last for generations, can't it? Yeah. Well, it could become a staple in your library, couldn't it?

There you go. Something to read to your children and your grandchildren written by Sally Lloyd-Jones who is with us in studio right now and it's called The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection. It includes stories, songs, and reflections for the Advent season. It just works out perfectly when you start out, I believe, in the beginning of December, right, Sally? And there's like a story a day and then there's like little buttons you can push and there's a song that's recorded and some part of the Christmas story read by David Sachet. What am I leaving out? And then right at the end there are some wonderful facts that talk about what Advent means, give you background on some of the carols we sing.

I just, I love it. I love all the, and the devotions are really short and very simple. They're a sentence. But they make it easy for a parent to read the story and not feel like they've got to sort of come up with some kind of application.

And it's, they're all open-ended. They're sort of encouraging the child to think about what God will do and also comforting. I think there's a lot of comfort in this about how God will look after them and loves them and will care for them and they don't need to be afraid. I'd love to do a little personal plug for the book if I could. If I'm going to give a gift to a new mom or to a new grandma, one of the things I always include is one of Sally Lloyd-Jones' books. And at Christmas time when we're all looking for something to give to someone, I wouldn't limit it just to the child that is in your home.

Maybe you don't have a child in your home, but you might know of a mother or a grandmother or a child in someone's home. This is an amazing gift of a book. And not only is it something I would give away, it's something I would keep for yourself. So buy two copies or give towards two copies, ask for two copies, because personally I have learned how to rephrase and retell Bible stories from the way Sally has done it. It's an incredible resource for parents to know how to speak to children and then I love having David Suchet reading it because it's going to give you a prompt on how to read books to kids too, putting in the proper pauses and emphasizing certain things and modulating your voice. So it's such an incredible resource, and I hope everyone listening will give their gift of any size and get their hands on a copy or two of these. Yeah, and once again it's called The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection.

And we'll be glad to send it to you to thank you for your investment in keeping these studies coming your way. It's a program that touches lives every single day. We recently heard this from a listener. Pastor Greg, your teaching is what made me come back to God. Thank you for leading people to eternal joy. And you know, this study couldn't reach as many hearts as it does without listeners who invest.

We're completely listener supported. So please send a donation today, and be sure to ask for The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection. You can write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-hour phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or just go online to harvest.org. And look for The Jesus Storybook Bible, A Christmas Collection.

And we'll only be mentioning this resource a short time longer. And then Pastor Greg, would you like to speak to those who'd like to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord? I would. You know, I received so many letters, Dave, from people from every walk of life, from successful businessmen to those who are incarcerated, to mothers struggling as they're trying to raise their children, to young boys and girls writing and saying they've made a commitment or a recommitment to Jesus. And maybe you need to make that commitment to Him right now. Let me lead you in a word of prayer. Yes, you can meet God right now. And I would just ask you to pray this prayer out loud after me. And this is where you are asking Christ to come into your life. Pray with me now, if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that I've broken your commandments, and I've fallen short of your standards. But I thank you that you have loved me and you have called me to yourself. So I turn from my sin right now, and I choose to believe in and follow you. Be my Savior, be my Lord, and be my God from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and loving me and accepting me. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Hey, let me just say, God bless you. You've made the right decision, and welcome to the family of God. And we want to follow up with you by sending something called our New Believers' Growth Packet to help you get started living as a Christian. Well, send it without charge if you prayed for the first time today to receive Christ. Just ask for the New Believers' Growth Packet when you call 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click on Know God. Next time, Pastor Greg points out the need for spiritual renewal in our land and how believers are called to serve. But we'll see if God sends us to do a job. He gives us the tools to get it done. Learn more next time on A New Beginning. 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.