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Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points to Moses as an example we can follow for prayer, bold, courageous prayer. Moses asked for the most audacious thing. He actually said to the Lord, I want to see you. Please show me your glory.
I love talking with you. I love our conversations together, but I actually would like to see you God and Moses saw God, and you can see God too. The Lord never advises us to approach His throne gingerly with reluctance and uncertainty. Even though He is God Most High, Hebrews invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points to the example of Moses, who showed us how to approach the Lord with uncommon courage and confidence.
We'll get some practical insight on taking our prayer lives to the next level. I have a message for you from a new series that we're doing called Water, Fire, Stone based on the life of Moses, and the title of my message is How to Have Friendship with God. Would you like to have friendship with the Creator of the universe? Talk about having friends in high places.
I'm telling you, it's possible. I want to talk to you about a man that knew God in a personal way, a man who had a friendship with God, and of course that man's name is Moses. Exodus 33, 11 says, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
What an amazing statement that is, and especially in light of the fact that it's in the Old Testament. Now in a few moments I'll talk about how we can have friendship with God and it's all a part of the New Covenant, as we might call it, that came as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Well we can all be friends with God, but in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, you didn't have that kind of access to the Lord, but Moses did. He was the friend of God, and one day in deep conversation, Moses and his friend, God Almighty, were talking, and Moses asked for three things from the Lord.
And if you're taking notes, you might want to write these three things down, because these are three things you should ask for. Number one, Moses asks the Lord for divine direction. He asks the Lord for divine direction.
Verse 13, now I pray if I have found grace in your sight, show me your way. Every believer should ask God to reveal his will to their life, and I believe God has a plan for your life. The book of James says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God and the Lord will give generously. So when you don't know what to do, pray about it.
Say, Lord, just give me wisdom. Romans 12 gives a really important insight into how to know the will of God. Paul writes and says, I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, present your bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Listen. And he goes on to say that you may know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So if you want to know the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, first, present yourself to God.
And that's something you do over and over, not just once. Number two, you have your mind changed as you read his word and you're being changed into the image of Jesus. And then the Lord promises he'll reveal his will. Notice also, he says, the good and acceptable will of God. God's will is good. Don't be afraid to ask God to reveal his will to you. Don't be afraid to say, not my will, but yours be done.
Never be afraid to commit an unknown future to a known God. God loves you. His plan for you is good. And if he says you can't do that, that's because he's keeping you from something that is bad. The Bible says, no good thing will he withhold from those that walk uprightly.
So his plan for you is good. I love what the Lord says to Moses, verse 14. My presence will go with you, and I will give you peace. The Hebrew here is vivid. It could be better translated, my face will go with you.
And what does that even mean? God says, you have my full attention. When I'm hanging out with my five grandkids, they always want me to watch them do whatever it is they're doing. Maybe it's a cartwheel. Maybe it's riding a skateboard.
Whatever it is. Papa, they say, watch me. Watch me. And I watch him and afterwards I give my approval. Oh, you did that beautifully.
That was great. They want to be affirmed. They want to be loved.
They want to be appreciated. Are we any different? We're saying, Lord, watch me. The Lord says, you have my full attention.
I'm looking right at you. By the way, aren't you glad God doesn't have a cell phone? You know how distracted people are with cell phones? And the Lord, what, what? He's scrolling through stuff. Now, the Lord, you have his full attention. He's watching you, but he's watching you with great love and with affection. And sometimes you think, oh, God is watching me.
And that's a negative thing. I heard a story about a thief that broke into a house. It was very dark. He's making his way around and suddenly he heard a voice pierce the darkness, which said, Jesus is watching you.
Who said that? He couldn't believe it. And another moment passes and again the voice says, Jesus is watching you. He's fumbling for his flashlight. He turns it on. And it's a parrot who says for the third time, Jesus is watching you.
The thief is laughing. Oh, and I was so scared. And then he follows the perch that goes down to the basin.
There's a doberman with his teeth showing. And then the parrot says, Sick him, Jesus. Wow. You know, first of all, don't ever name your dog Jesus, okay?
But it's a silly joke to make this simple point. That's how some people see God. Oh, sick him, Jesus. God is against me.
No. God loves you. God is for you. And God approves of you. Now, if you're living apart from him in sin, that's not true. But if you've asked him to forgive you of your sin, the Bible says, He has made you accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1.6 tells us that. You are accepted by God. You are loved by God. You don't have to earn that every day. It's done already, bought for you by Christ on the cross.
And so the Lord is saying, Buddy, I got your back. Okay. Don't worry. I'll go with you. You will have my full attention. Now, number two. Moses asks for confirmation. First he asks for direction.
Now he asks for confirmation. Verse 15. If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place. How will anyone know that you look favorably on us or on me and on your people if you don't go with us? Lord, the angels are great. Okay. But we don't want an angel.
We want you. I love that. Remember when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of Jesus early in the morning? She was not expecting to meet a risen Savior. She was going to show her devotion to him and undoing his dead body. And suddenly an angel is talking to her there at the tomb. And it's interesting because the angel engages her and says, Woman, why are you crying? And she says, Well, because they've taken away my Lord. And I don't know where they've taken him.
I find that fascinating. You would think she would say, Wait, what? You're like an angel and you just asked me a question? Yeah, whatever, an angel. Well, they've taken away Jesus. All she could think about was Jesus. Jesus isn't here. I don't know where his body is, Mr. Angel.
And then what happens after that? Jesus appears and says, Mary. You see Moses didn't want an angel. He wanted the Lord himself to go with him.
And that's what we should all want. And God reassures his friend Moses in verse 17. The Lord replied favorably to Moses, I will indeed do what you've asked and look favorably on you and I know you by name. Loose paraphrase, buddy.
You got it. The Lord was drawing him out. This is always what God wanted to do for Moses. But Moses was learning how to pray and how to be persistent and how to keep going to the Lord again and again and again. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.
Join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well, today we're learning to follow the example of Moses and approaching the Father confidently and expectantly. Pastor Greg continues his message now. Now Moses goes to the next level. Moses goes for the gold.
He figures, hey, man, I'm on a roll. God's answering my prayers. And Moses asked for the most audacious thing.
It's really unprecedented what he asked for. He actually said to the Lord, I want to see you. Verse 18. Please show me your glory. Another way to state it, I want to see you, God. I love talking with you. I love our conversations together. But I actually would like to see you.
And by the way, that is a good thing to want to see God. A.B. Simpson. No relation to Homer Simpson, I don't think. He's a commentator from days gone by. He made this statement and I quote, Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling, now it is His word. Once His gifts I wanted, now the giver alone. Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone. End quote.
I love that. So Moses is saying, I just want to see you, Lord. And what did Jesus say?
Blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. He wanted to see the Lord. But of course, if He saw the Lord, He would have died on the spot.
The story is told of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He was in outer space. And he famously said, I looked and I looked and I did not see God. If Yuri had taken his helmet off, he would have seen God really fast. But I think all of us should want to see God. And when I say see God, I mean know Him of course. But one day we want to see God face to face. So the Lord works out a super sweet deal for Moses.
Check this out. Exodus 33. I read him from the New Living Translation. The Lord replied, I will make all My goodness pass before you. And I will call out My name, the Lord, to you. I will show kindness to anyone I choose and mercy to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at My face for no one can see Me and live. The Lord continues, stand here on the rock beside Me. As My glorious presence passes by, I will put you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed. Then I will remove My hand and you can see Me from behind, but My face will never be seen.
Like what? This is insane. It is so beautiful. The Lord is saying, you are My friend. I am going to cut a special deal for you Moses. I am going to let you do something no one has ever done before. And what Moses then saw, I can't even imagine.
The apostle Paul died and went to heaven and came back to earth again. And he said, what I heard and saw is, it is indescribable. It is unspeakable.
I can't even put it into words. We are in awe of such a relationship. We think, oh man I wish I knew God like that. But here is something that might surprise you. Did you know that your friendship with God as a Christian is even closer than the friendship that Moses himself had with God?
You say, how is that possible? Because Moses was in the old covenant. And though this was a very special relationship he had with the Lord, you if you are a Christian are in the new covenant.
And you go, what are we even talking about new covenant? When Jesus died a new covenant was established. He fulfilled all of those Old Testament sacrifices and types in himself. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world.
Coming back to Mary who was hanging on to Jesus after he appeared to her. He said, stop clinging to me for I must ascend to my God and to your God, to my Father and your Father. No Jew in the Old Testament called God Father. Lord in the New Testament we can all call him Father because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Lord was saying to Mary, Mary listen now he is your God and now he is your Father and you can call on him. And so we can have this friendship with God. And it is interesting because Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all things I have heard from my Father. I have made known to you. And Moses saw God.
And you can see God too. You may remember the story of Stephen in the book of Acts. He became the first martyr of the church. A courageous young man that would not back down from his faith. And he stood before the religious rulers of that day known as the Sanhedrin.
Sort of the supreme court but a religious group as well as a political group. And he proclaimed the gospel to them and they rewarded him by taking his life through stoning a horrible way to die. And as his life was draining from him we read that Stephen full of the Holy Spirit gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing at the place of honor at God's right hand. Stephen saw his glory. Moses saw his glory. And one day we will see his glory.
Do you have a loved one who has died and gone to heaven who put their faith in Christ? They have seen his glory. They are seeing his glory. And one day you will see it too. But until that day we need to walk with him in friendship with him. So in closing I am asking are you a friend of God?
You say I hope so. Well listen to this. If you are not a friend of God you are by default an enemy of God. Not a frenemy. An enemy of God. The Bible says before we are believers that we are living in sin and we are enemies who need to be reconciled to God. The Bible describes people that don't believe as enemies of the cross. And the Bible also says a person that loves this world is not a friend of God. But they are the enemy of God. So I don't think you want to be an enemy of God do you? I think you want to be a friend of God. I have told you my story before of how I became a Christian. But there was one statement that hit my heart like a lightning bolt from heaven.
And it is when Lonnie who was the preacher that day said on my high school campus, Jesus said you are either for me or against me. Another way of putting it he was saying you are either God's friend or God's enemy. I looked around at the Christians and I thought well they are the friends of God. They have a relationship with God. They know the Lord.
They are for him. And I am not one of them. Does that mean that I am against God? Well the last thing I wanted was to be against God. So that was the day I believed.
And maybe this will be the day you believed. By the way when I went to that meeting on the front line of my high school campus I was not invited by anyone. In effect I was eavesdropping on their time of worship. And maybe some of you have joined us like that. Someone told you to tune in and you are checking it out. And you are thinking I don't know. Could this even be true?
And if it is true would it work for someone like me? Well number one it is all true. Everything I am saying to you is true. Not because I said it but because the Bible says it. And Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life. It is all true.
Number two. You can come into our relationship with God. You can have your sin forgiven. And you can go to heaven when you die.
You say no Greg. That is too good to be true. No it isn't. It is true.
And it can be true for you right now. Jesus died on that cross for your sin. You see we talk about intercession. Moses stood in the gap for the people of Israel. Jesus stood in the gap for you and died in your place. With one hand he took hold of a holy God. With the other hand he took hold of sinful humanity.
And spikes were driven through those hands and he bled and died on the cross for your sin. And if you will turn from your sin and believe in him you can be forgiven just like that. And know without any doubt that you will go to heaven when you die.
And you too can see the glory of God. You too can have friendship with God right here right now. Maybe I am talking to somebody that has no friends to speak of. You are lonely.
You are isolated. You are hurting. You think no one cares about me. Oh that is not true. God cares about you.
I think a lot of other people do too. But I know this much. God loves you. And God has a good plan for your life. But he won't force it into your life. You need to reach out and ask him to come and be your Savior. Your God. Your Lord.
And yes your friend. Jesus who died on that cross for your sin and rose again from the dead. Stands at the door of your life now and he knocks.
And he says if you will hear his voice and open the door he will come in. That is what it means to be a Christian. It is having Christ live inside of you.
And in a moment I would like to extend an opportunity for you to believe in Jesus. An opportunity for you to be forgiven of all of your sin. If you want Jesus to come into your life. If you want to go to heaven when you die. If you want your sin forgiven.
If you want to be ready for the Lord's return. If you want to start this friendship with God. Stop what you are doing and pray a prayer with me right here right now. Again I will lead you in a simple prayer. And I want you to pray this after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. You can pray it silently if you like. But offer this prayer to God and he will hear you.
Just pray this if you will. Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner. But I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering it. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie. Closing in a word of prayer. A prayer with those who are making a decision for the Lord today.
And if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg. We would like to follow up with you and help you as you begin to live the Christian life. We would like to send you our New Believers Growth Packet free of charge.
It will answer the questions you might have and get you started off on the right foot. Just ask for it as you write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us any time 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300. Again 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org. And if you would like a permanent copy of today's study you can call that same number for a CD copy of the message called How to Have Friendship with God. Again that's 1-800-821-3300. Or stream it from our website at harvest.org.
Or use our Harvest mobile app. Someone has said 2020 will go down in history and we ought to just leave it there. And it's been a tough year. And Pastor Greg couldn't have chosen a better time to release his new film A Rush of Hope. You know hope, it seems to be in short supply these days doesn't it?
A famous cardiologist wrote these words. Hope is the medicine I use more than any other. Hope can cure nearly anything. Let me ask you a question. Do you find yourself without hope for your life?
For your future? It's been said that man can live 40 days without food. About three days without water.
About eight minutes without air. But only one second without hope. I have hope for the nation.
I have hope for our world and I have hope for you. A Rush of Hope. The new film from Pastor Greg Laurie. A cinematic crusade. Available now on DVD.
Exclusively from A New Beginning. And Pastor Greg this isn't just a movie for fun. This is an evangelistic tool. People can use this DVD to help them share Christ.
That's right. This is a tool you're going to be able to use again and again and again. You can invite someone over and say watch this movie with me.
It's not longer than an hour. And then you can talk to them about how they can come into a relationship with God. What a great tool to have in the holiday season. Especially as we're having our first Christmas in the middle of a pandemic. So not only will we send you this DVD copy of A Rush of Hope. We'll also send a special information piece that shows you how to host a watch party. That simply means that it tells you how to put an event on at your house using this film.
Inviting people over from your neighborhood or from your family or your workplace or wherever you want to do it. Wherever you can show a DVD you can do this. And also we have a downloadable version as well that you can show on a tablet device or a computer or even a phone. We also in the special offer that we have right now have a little evangelistic booklet called A Rush of Hope.
Find answers to life's most important questions. And so all of this is in the special resource that we want to send you for your gift of any size. Yeah that's right and we can't overstate how important your support is right now. As we come to the end of the year we're poised to reach out further than we ever have before. And your investment right now will help change lives.
So thank you for your support and we'll show our appreciation by sending the DVD of A Rush of Hope along with all of the bonus resources. So write today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.
Or go online to Harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg continues our studies based on the life of Moses. It's a look at the blessings the Lord has in store for His children. Be sure to tune in for A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. 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.
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