How to Be a World Changer: Impact the World Around You

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If you would like to know how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. World changers are often not appreciated, but instead they're persecuted. Now that's not a promise we usually claim, is it? Because who wants to be persecuted? Who wants to be mocked?

Who wants to be laughed at? Has that happened to you lately? Pastor Greg Laurie brings important encouragement to those of us who face opposition for our faith. We have a message that must get delivered. Hold your ground and be a man or a woman of faith because you, in effect, are changing the world because you reflect Christ. Believers are called to go forward for Christ, onward Christian soldiers. Then why are there so many Christian retreats?

Shouldn't there be some Christian charges? Seriously though, we're often more comfortable staying in our bubble than marching onto the battlefield. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us be people who impact the culture around us. Pastor Greg says we're called to be world changers. Important principles on making sure we impact the world and not vice versa. We're going to discover now ten principles about how you can be a world changer.

So if you're taking notes, here's point number one. World changers have an active, not a passive, faith. I'll say that again for emphasis. World changers have an active, not a passive, faith. Listen. The more you use your faith, the stronger it grows. Jude 1.20 says this. You see, dear friends, build yourself up in your most holy faith by praying on the Holy Spirit, staying in the center of God's love, keeping your arms open, ready for the mercy of our master, Jesus Christ. Notice the emphasis there is on faith doing things. Faith is praying. Faith is staying. Faith is keeping. Faith is active.

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

Listen to this. A faith that has no works is a faith that does not work. James says faith without works is dead.

Bringing me to point number three. The faith we need as a world changer grows stronger through testing. If you have real faith in God, your faith will grow stronger through adversity and difficulty, not weaker. We are told in James 1 when all kinds of trials and temptations crowd in on you, brothers, don't treat them as intruders, but friends realize they have come to test your faith and produce in you a quality of endurance.

All right. Where do we get faith? Point number four. We get it by reading and understanding the Word of God. Romans 10, 17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we want to be looking into the Word of God. And then point number five. Listen.

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

It will be done as you desire. See, she put her faith into action. She was persistent with her faith and Jesus granted her request and commended her for her faith. But yet we also read Jesus could do no mighty works in the hometown He lived in of Nazareth because of their unbelief.

No miracles were done there. We can stop the work of God in our life by unbelief. Unbelief is the thief. Hebrews 11, 6 says without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

Listen. What God did in the lives of people years ago He can still do in the lives of people today. God wants to do something fresh in our generation.

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

He wants to work in your sphere of influence. These men and women took risks and God bless them. Let's read a little more about them. Hebrews 11, 33 to 35 it says, That brings me to principle number six. World changers are indestructible until God is done with them.

World changers are indestructible until God is done with them. So stop worrying about when you are going to die. That is in the hands of God. The Bible says it is appointed unto a man who wants to die and then comes to judgment. It is going to happen at the appointed hour.

If you are freaking out about it and stressing about it all the time you are wasting a lot of energy. You will live as long as God wants you to live. Not a day longer. But then again your life will not be cut short if God wants it to go on longer. You are indestructible until God is done with you. Principle number seven. World changers are never alone.

World changers are never alone. Verse 33. They quench the power of fire. Now this is probably alluding to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego the king. This is Nebuchadnezzar now who preceded Darius who gave a decree that everybody should bow before a giant gold statue that he had erected. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being good Jewish boys and believing what the Bible said were not going to have another God before the Lord. And they refused to bow. And the king was outraged. And he threw them into a fiery furnace. In fact the flames were so hot that they killed the men who were putting them in. After they were dropped in the furnace the king looks.

He can't believe his eyes. He is probably rubbing them and saying, wait I threw three people in the furnace and I see a fourth one. And they are walking around. Who was this mysterious shadowy figure walking with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace as though it were a walk in the park on a Sunday afternoon? It was Jesus walking with them.

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

Do you feel abandoned? I want you to know that God is there and that God cares. And Jesus says, lo I am with you always even to the end of the world.

Here is another principle. World changers apply their faith. They apply their faith. Look at verse 35 of Hebrews 11. Women receive their loved ones back to death. This is probably a reference to Elijah raising the widow's son to life again.

So Elijah was a great prophet of the Lord right? And he went to a woman, a widow. She had very little money. She had a son. Her most prized thing on earth. Her beloved boy. And he asked her if he could crash at her house if you will. If she could put him up. And so she let him stay and she would feed him from the meager supply of food that she had.

She didn't realize she had invited a world changer into her home. The great prophet. And it is a great principle because the Lord kept providing for her and she always had what she needed. And it just illustrates the principle of putting God first in your life.

And honoring him through your giving and he takes care of you. Well one day the widow's son died. She actually blamed Elijah for it.

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

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

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

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

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

We might even deal with depression. And these are human beings that God worked in and God can work through you as well. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Pastor Greg Laurie talks about his new book Billy Graham the Man I Knew. Billy said to me I'm just a country preacher. He was just a country preacher but God elevated him. And he had packed events, thousands of young people. And when he spoke those kids listened.

You could have heard a pin drop. Are you forgiven? Are you sure of it? Are you certain that God has forgiven you? Well that's why Christ died on the cross and that's why he rose again. So that you might be forgiven. You say do you believe in instant salvation? I certainly do. Now is your moment.

Write this instant. Who could have ever thought that that lanky farm boy would go on to be the greatest evangelist in history? So I write about that and a lot more in this new book I've written called Billy Graham the Man I Knew. Get to know the country preacher who some millions come to Christ. Let Pastor Greg introduce you to Billy Graham the Man I Knew.

A brand new biography available for your gift of any size at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is presenting a message called How to Be a World Changer from Hebrews chapter 11. Now we come to another group of world changers. Now they too had great faith. They too trusted God. But they didn't walk through fires. They didn't part the Red Sea. And they did not have their dead restored. In fact they suffered greatly and many of them died.

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

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

Let's read about them. Hebrews 11 verse 35. Wandering over deserts and mountains and hiding in caves and holes in the ground. But they earned a good reputation because of their faith. None of them received all that God had promised.

God had something better for them and for us. World changers are often not appreciated but instead they're persecuted. According to Jewish tradition Isaiah was sawn in half with a wooden saw. That's alluded to here in Hebrews 11. Even today around the world Christians are persecuted.

Understand this. Religious groups are persecuted. But no group is persecuted like the Christian.

All the studies that have been done on this topic bear that truth out. Christians are the most persecuted people in the world today. And we know that our brothers and sisters suffer living in nations like China and North Korea. And in certain Islamic nations where they're not allowed to practice their faith. But the Bible does say all that live godly in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.

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

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

And it affects everything around it says something. Just be a loving Christian. Be a nice person. Make sure when you're persecuted you're persecuted for the right reasons. I've seen some Christians who are obnoxious and they're intrusive and they're overbearing. And they're argumentative and they're arrogant. And then when people reject what they say they say thank God I'm being persecuted for righteousness sake. Hallelujah. No you're being persecuted because you're a jerk.

No be persecuted for righteousness sake because you reflect Christ. A world changer is someone who changes the temperature of a room. I open by asking the question are you a thermostat or are you a thermometer? A thermostat sets the temperature. The thermometer tells you what the temperature is.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a puff of smoke that appears for a moment Scripture says and vanishes away. Then there's the afterlife. And I want to ask you this question in closing. Are you ready for the afterlife? Let me put it another way. If you died today would you go to heaven?

You say well I hope so. I have faith in the good Lord and the man upstairs and I've lived a good life. And well that's all nice but he doesn't want to just be the good Lord or the man upstairs. And a good life isn't going to get you to heaven because heaven is not for good people.

That might surprise somebody right now. Heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for forgiven people. You see you can live a good life and not go to heaven. I'm not going to get to heaven because I'm a preacher. I'm not going to get to heaven because I've done X amount of good things.

I'm going to get to heaven because I've put my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord who died on the cross for me 2,000 years ago. And here's my question to you. Have you done that? See being a Christian is not just saying well I'm going to read the Bible now and go to church and say Christian things. No.

No. Being a Christian is having Christ himself come and take residence in your heart. The Bible says for as many as received him he gave them the power to become sons.

Sons and daughters of God. Have you received Christ? You say what do you mean received Christ? I mean have you said to God I'm a sinner and I know Jesus is the Savior and I want him to forgive me of my sin and come and live in my life.

If you've not done that you can do it right here right now. He stands at the door of your life and he knocks and he says if you'll hear his voice and open the door he'll come in. Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die you will go to heaven?

Would you like him to fill the big hole inside of you maybe you've been trying to fill with other things? He's just a prayer away. In a moment I'm going to pray and I would ask you if you want Christ to come into your life to pray this prayer with me. Again as I pray pray this prayer. You could pray it out loud right here. Let's all pray.

Pray these words. Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner. I know that I've fallen short of your glory. But I thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and to rise again from the dead. I turn from my sin. I repent of my sin. And I ask Jesus to come into my life right now to be my Savior and Lord.

My God and my friend. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie with those making a decision for the Lord today. And if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely we want to welcome you into the family of God. And we'd like to help you get started in living the life of faith. Let us send you something called our New Believers Growth Packet.

It'll answer many of the questions you might have and help you build a strong foundation for your faith. So ask for the New Believers Growth Packet as you write a new beginning. Box 4000 Riverside California 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime around the clock.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. Well this is such an important time here at the ministry because Pastor Greg has just released a book he's been working on a long time. It's the biography called Billy Graham The Man I Knew. It's such a revealing journey through the life of the greatest evangelist who ever lived. You know Pastor Greg you described when Billy himself came to the Lord through the preaching of a country evangelist named Mordecai Ham.

What a great name, Mordecai Ham. You mentioned that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association still has the decision card that Billy completed the night he made that commitment. That's right. Man that's a piece of history right there. Yeah it really is. They not only have that decision card but they have a whole building called the Billy Graham Library. And if anyone is ever in North Carolina in Charlotte you really should go visit it. You know presidents have their libraries but this is amazing because it's like an interactive place to go to. There's incredible exhibits they take you through his life from his childhood growing up on the dairy farm along with his brother Melvin. They have Billy in this tent revival days and then on through all of the things that he did around the world. And it presents the gospel as you walk through and there's places where you can see the Bible he used his briefcase. And yes that decision card of when a very young Billy Frank walked forward at the invitation of evangelist Mordecai Ham.

Who had set up his tent there in Charlotte North Carolina. And who could have ever thought that that lanky farm boy would go on to be not only the greatest evangelist of his lifetime but in my opinion the greatest evangelist in history. And you know Billy said to me many times and in interviews as well I'm just a country preacher.

Understand that was not false humility. That was Billy just telling the truth. He was just a country preacher but God elevated him.

I remember that he used the illustration if you see a turtle on a fence post you know he didn't get there by himself. And Billy was the first to acknowledge that God placed him in the place that he was in. And God gave him special gifts that were unique. And he had this ability to connect with people and it was throughout his entire life in ministry. From the early passionate fiery Billy preaching for the youth for Christ and then it is crusade in the tent there in Los Angeles that launched him into a global ministry.

To the older Billy elder statesman Billy and finally the lion in winter if you will the grandfatherly Billy. And he always connected with this audience I can think of times I was with him. I was with him in Atlanta Georgia and he did a crusade there. In fact he introduced me to Jimmy Carter former president at that point. And that's kind of an interesting thing to be introduced to Jimmy Carter by Billy Graham. That's exactly what happened but Billy was quite a bit older at that point. And they started doing these youth nights where they were using contemporary Christian bands which was sort of a departure from the tradition of the Graham Crusade. And some of the team members weren't all that thrilled about it. I thought it was a great move and he had packed you know events thousands of young people. What I found fascinating is these great bands would play like DC Talk or an artist like Michael W Smith. But when Billy walked out there and by the way dressed in his suit not changing the way he dressed not trying to be Mr.

Cool. He was the coolest of cool because he was him. He was an authentic Billy Graham and he walked out there he got the greatest applause of the night. And when he spoke those kids listened you could have heard a pin drop. So he had this ability to connect from the beginning to the middle to the end of his ministry. I remember seeing him in New York at his final crusade and Flushing Meadows there. And I remember he just looked at the crowd and said God loves you. And then he would turn to another part of the crowd and say God loves you. And it wasn't as intricate as his early messages. But in its simplicity maybe it was even more powerful because he lived what he preached. There weren't two Billy Grahams.

He was the same in private that he was in public and he was the godliest man I've ever met. Well our listeners will want to get to know him better by way of your new book Billy Graham the Man I Knew. It belongs in everyone's library. In fact Ann Graham Lotz, Billy's daughter, commented about the publication, in this page turner of a book, I learned things about my father that I never knew. Greg Laurie has done a masterly job of setting my father's life in historical and cultural context. I pray that Billy Graham the Man I Knew will draw readers to the gospel where they'll find the love of God that he preached so fervently and faithfully.

So can we send you this book? Billy Graham the Man I Knew is our thank you gift for helping to keep this program coming your way with a donation. That donation is really an investment in a changed life.

It's an investment in someone's eternity. So write today to 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. Next time we spend the half hour with Pastor Greg recalling the life of Billy Graham, reflections on his friendship with Billy, and how he meticulously researched Billy's life for this new book. Join us next time here on The New Beginning.