Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.
Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Everybody has faith. For instance, when you go to a restaurant, you're applying faith and hoping that that food is prepared properly. But then someone comes along and says, oh, have faith in God. And we say, whoa, faith in God, that's insane. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says, since we all apply faith anyway, let's put our faith in God Almighty, who loves and cares for us.
There is no safer place to put your faith than in God Himself. God's plan for His children includes blessings, joy, and contentment. It also includes some challenges and trials along the way. But that plan also provides the tools to navigate those tough times we face. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us understand one of the most important tools we've been given. Faith is the key that will help us see a way when there seems to be no way. Today, Pastor Greg helps us put our amazing faith into practice.
Let me start by saying something you might find surprising. Everybody has and lives by a form of faith. Now some might say, no, I don't have faith. I'm not a man of faith. I'm not a woman of faith.
No. Everyone has faith. Everyone applies faith.
Listen to this. Even the atheist has faith. Now I didn't say they had faith in God. They have faith in something. I'm not sure what. Maybe they have faith in themselves.
Wow. That'll be disappointing. Or maybe they have faith in a political system.
That'll be even more disappointing. Or faith in whatever. But they have faith. And by the way I think it takes more faith to be an atheist than it takes to be a Christian.
To not believe that there's a creator and someone who's in control of all the things around us. But everybody has a measure of faith. And when we bring the word faith up I think the problem is we make it too mystical.
When in fact we act in faith every day. For instance when you go to a restaurant and you order you're hoping that that food is going to be fresh. You're hoping that it will be prepared properly.
When you board a 747 that weighs over 300,000 pounds that it's going to somehow get up in the air and take you to the place you want to go to. You're applying faith when you do that. Hey when you step into an elevator you're applying faith in hopes that all the cables are working and they've done their due diligence and all the checks on it and so forth.
When you go down to the drugstore and you fill your medications you're trusting that pharmacist knows what they're doing and they're going to put the right pills in the right bottle. But then someone comes along and says so have faith in God. And we say whoa faith in God.
That's insane. Listen to this. There is no safer place to put your faith than in God himself. So question what is faith and how does it work? What is faith and how does it work? Number one faith is belief plus action. Faith is belief plus action. Hebrews 11 one gives an excellent definition of faith where the author says faith is a substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. So faith isn't just believing something. It's acting on that thing one believes in.
See you can have mere intellectual assent towards something. In other words say I believe this is true. As the Bible says the demons believe and tremble. And as I pointed out in an earlier message the devil believes God is real. The devil believes the Bible is true.
The devil believes Satan is coming back again. But he has not submitted himself to that. He is not following the Lord but it's an acknowledgement of the truth of it. No real faith in God is faith plus action. Belief plus action. Number two faith does things.
If you have real faith you will do something with it. Going back to Hebrews 11 that talks a lot about faith. And by the way I've written a book about this called World Changers based on Hebrews chapter 11. When we look at the various people mentioned in that account and what they did with their faith. But in Hebrews 11 we read Abel offered a sacrifice.
Noah prepared an ark. Abraham obeyed etc. They all did things because a faith with no works is a faith that does not work.
Let me repeat that. A faith with no works is a faith that does not work. Everything in our life revolves around faith. We're saved by faith. We're told over in Ephesians, for by grace you've been saved through faith not of works lest any man should boast. Not only as Christians are we saved by faith but then we live by faith.
The Bible says the just shall live by faith. So not feeling. Because if you build your Christian life on your emotions you're going to be riding a roller coaster. Sometimes we're up.
Sometimes we're down emotionally. But faith as steady as she goes as we believe the Word of God regardless of our emotions. Now I know it's very easy to talk about faith and tell people to have faith. I heard a story about a woman who went to her pastor and said, Pastor my husband scares me. He actually said to me that if I keep coming to your church he's going to kill me. And the pastor said, now ma'am don't be afraid. The Lord is with you and the Lord will protect you and it'll be ok. And then she came back a week later and said, Pastor again my husband said if I keep coming here he's going to kill me again. Just trust the Lord.
He's in control. She came back a week later and said, Pastor my husband just said to me if I keep coming to this church he's going to kill you. The pastor paused for a moment and he said, you know there's a great church on the other side of town you might like to start attending. See the point is it's easy to tell someone else they have faith. But then when you have to apply faith it can be a different situation right. My third point is faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening.
Again faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. Look God can do what he wants where he wants through whomever he chooses to do it through. But it's interesting how the Lord chooses to do his work through people. God could have sovereignly parted the Red Sea without Moses playing any role.
But instead the Lord said to Moses, hold up your staff and watch what I will do. God could have brought fire down from heaven without Elijah praying but he directed the prophet Elijah to pray and fire came down. Listen to this Jesus could have healed everyone everywhere during his earthly ministry.
He didn't have to lay hands on that person and have this other person touch him and speak to a word to even another person. He could have just said on the count of three everyone's healed and boom they would have all been healed. But no we see him working in the lives of people that called out to him and applied their faith.
Because again faith can make the difference between something happening or not happening. We think of blind Bartimaeus who heard that Jesus was coming his direction. So he cried out Jesus son of David have mercy on me. And someone said shh don't bother Jesus.
And he yelled even louder. Jesus son of David he cries out have mercy on me. And Jesus touches and heals Bartimaeus.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil right. That's not in the Bible but it's kind of true. Bartimaeus was the squeaky wheel wasn't he. But then there are those that were more quiet in their faith like the woman we looked at recently who had the physical ailment of constantly bleeding and she reasoned if she could touch the hem of the garment of Jesus she would be healed. And she was and Jesus commended her for her faith.
Well speaking of women with faith we're going to look at another woman now who had what I would describe as amazing faith. Important note she was not one of the disciples of Jesus. She did not have the privilege of walking and talking with him day and night and hearing his great teachings and seeing his powerful miracles.
She knew nothing of that. In fact she lived in a different country but she had heard of Jesus. She was a sinful woman with a great great need and she rallies with amazing faith for her daughter to be delivered from the power of demons causing Jesus to say in Matthew's account of the story we're going to read here from Mark oh woman great is your faith. I mean that's a pretty big deal when Jesus calls you out in a positive way and says great is your faith.
I mean think about it. Jesus Christ was an expert on the subject of faith. Was he not? Jesus of course was God incarnate. He created all things. He's known every person he's ever called from Abraham to Moses. From Sarah to Ruth. From Elijah to Elisha. From Peter to John. Yet he specifically comments on the faith of this woman.
It's something we need to look at. It's something we need to admire and it's something we need to emulate because it was amazing faith. This woman had a problem as I said her daughter was possessed by demons and she needed to get to Jesus and hell or high water would not stop her.
She was the mother who would not give up. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. In a new book Pastor Greg Laurie recalls his friendship with Dr. Billy Graham. 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 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 I read somewhere that what young people want and need from older people is first they want to be loved and you want to be loved and the Bible says God loves you. God loves you. God loves everyone here tonight. 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. The new book Billy Graham The Man I Knew from Pastor Greg Laurie.
Yours for a gift of any size at harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg is presenting a message today called Amazing Faith. Here's Pastor Greg now to dig into today's scripture. Let's read now from Mark chapter 7. I'm going to read verses 24 to 29. And by the way I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre.
Underline that because I'm going to come back to it. He didn't want anyone to know what house he was staying in but he couldn't keep it a secret. Right away a woman who had heard about him came and fell at his feet. Her little girl was possessed by an evil spirit and she begged him to cast out the demons from her daughter since she was a young man. The demons from her daughter since she was a gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia Jesus told her first I should feed the children my own family the Jews. It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs. She said well that's true Lord.
But even the dogs under the table are allowed to eat the scraps that fall from the children's plates. I love the response of Jesus. Good answer he said. Now go home for the demon has left your daughter. And when she arrived home she found her little girl lying quietly in bed and the demon was gone.
If you're taking notes here's a major point. This woman had an unexpected and an amazing faith. Again she had an unexpected and an amazing faith.
Why is it unexpected? Because she was a non-Jewish woman from a pagan background. Verse 26 says she was a gentile born in Syrian Phoenicia. More to the point she was a Canaanite.
They say well so what. Well remember the Canaanites were the enemies of Israel. Remember when God directed Moses to lead the Israelites through the wilderness and they came to the promised land. And what was the promised land? It was the land of Canaan. What was the first city to fall? It was the city of Jericho. A Canaanite city.
We think well that's so sad that they went and took that territory from these people. No the Canaanites were wicked people. The Canaanites were known historically to sell their children into prostitution. The Canaanites would take their little babies and offer them as sacrifices to their false gods.
And God gave them warning after warning after warning. So this woman is connected to the Canaanites. So the Israelites and the Canaanites. Let's just say they didn't get along very well right.
And here's another interesting thing. She lives in Tyre where Jesus went to see her. Now Tyre is not in Israel. Effectively Jesus is leaving the country to go visit this woman.
By the way this is the only time Jesus ever left the nation of Israel. Tyre is 25 miles north of Galilee. Sidon is 25 miles beyond that. It's a long way on foot. No Uber. No skateboards. No bicycles. No motorcycles. No anything.
You did everything on foot. That's a long way to go to reach a person. Especially someone who's not even Jewish and has been raised in a pagan culture.
It made no sense. The disciples are thinking wait what are you doing? You're leaving Israel? Lord you're really popular right now. You're trending on Twitter. Your Instagram account is blowing up. You have so many followers. Jesus is like that's interesting. I have an appointment with someone I'm going to Tyre.
Why? Well they didn't understand why but they were about to see why he was doing this. He wanted to reach this woman. Listen she needed a miracle and Jesus was going to bring it to her. This is a good reminder that as Christians we need to go where people are.
Again let me say we want to go where people are. This is why here at Harvest Ministries we're always trying to find creative new ways to reach unexpected people in unexpected places. And so here is the Lord reaching this woman.
By the way Jesus did not say the whole world should go to church but he did say the church should go to the whole world. So he went out of his way to reach her. Now I mentioned she was pagan which means she worshipped false gods. She probably worshipped the goddess Ashtart which was the goddess of fertility. Clearly she was disillusioned with these gods.
They had not helped her because they're not real. And if that wasn't bad enough now her daughter has become severely demon possessed. I'm sure there's some cause and effect between all those little idols in the home.
Those false gods and this demonic activity in the life of the daughter. And it's a reminder for us that as parents we have a direct influence on our children. Listen to me moms and dads. Your children are watching you. Little eyes are watching and little ears are listening. They listen to what you say but more importantly they watch what you do.
Be a good example. For instance let's say you drink in front of your kids and then one day your kids have a problem with alcohol and you wonder why. Or you fight with your spouse right in front of the kids. Sometimes even asking the kids to dig sides in the argument which is always a horrible idea.
And then you're shocked when they have those same issues in their life or whatever it is. You know the Bible talks about the sins of the parents being visited on the children. By the way that's not describing some mystical curse that's passed on from generation to generation.
That is simply talking about a repeated behavior of sin that can be passed on. As an example if the parents are divorced chances are far higher that the children will end up divorced. If the parents have issues with alcohol use chances are far higher that the kids will have them. Those are negatives.
Listen to this. If both mom and dad attend church regularly chances are far higher that the children will attend regularly. So not only can we pass sins onto our children but we can pass blessings onto them as well. I heard the story of a father and his young son who were climbing a mountain. And they came to a very difficult place on the trail. And the dad was thinking about which way he should go. And as he was deciding his little boy standing behind him said, choose the right path dad.
I'm coming right behind you. Listen to this. The primary spiritual responsibility for raising your children is not on the church. It's not in Sunday school. It's not in a Christian school.
It's in your home. You be the godly example. You be the godly leader. You read the Bible to them before they go to bed at night.
You pray with them and you model what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Because it's a lot easier to build a child than it is to repair an adult. Let me say that again. It's a lot easier to build a child than it is to repair an adult. Listen the cure for crime is not in the electric chair. It's in the high chair.
Start early. The Bible says bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And in that verse it's implying not only should you put parameters in the child's life and use strong standards to raise them in but it also implies create a thirst in them. So live a life with the Lord that will make your child desire that same relationship with Christ.
And that's the mom here. She's like I've got to get my daughter to Jesus. I don't really know that much about Jesus but I know he has the power to deliver her and so she's bringing her daughter to the Lord.
By the way she doesn't come with demands. She comes begging for mercy. In Matthew's account of the same story we find her saying have mercy on me. And here in Mark's account verse 26 she begged him to cast out the demons from her daughter. Now look at the response of Christ.
And this by the way is from Matthew 15 23. But he answered her not a word. He answered her not a word. She's pouring out her heart. She's begging.
She's pleading. He's literally gone out of his way to leave the country to be with her and she comes with a request and he doesn't even respond. Have you ever talked to someone and they don't really respond at all? They're just not interested in what you have to say. They don't make eye contact or you start pouring your heart out and they pull out their phone and start scrolling through social media or they're ghosting you on social media not responding to you. Well that is not actually what's happening.
It looks like that's what's happening but it isn't. Jesus knows this woman has amazing faith. Jesus wants to draw this faith out and He wants to put it on display so we can all learn from it. So He sort of puts up a hurdle if you will but He knows this woman can easily clear this hurdle.
He knew she's going to be able to pass this test with flying colors. She had an amazing faith and she would not go home without an answer. What an example for us. Good encouragement today from Pastor Greg Laurie here on A New Beginning. His message title is Amazing Faith and there's more to come as this study continues. But if you missed any part of this study so far you can catch up by listening online at harvest.org.
Just look for that title Amazing Faith. Well Pastor Greg one of our station managers has really been enjoying hearing about your friendship with Billy Graham. His name is Rick McCleary. In fact he's probably listening right now. Hi Rick.
Hey Rick. He's general manager of 91.5 and 102.7 The Word in Saint Cloud in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. Can you say that like a DJ though? You're saying that say it like a DJ would say it. 91.5 The Word in Saint Cloud, Minnesota.
Much better. Well he texted me yesterday and let me let me read you his text. He wrote, I've been enjoying hearing Greg talk about Billy Graham. I surrendered my life to the Lord while watching Billy on a TV broadcast while living in Ventura, California. I was 18. It was during the Jesus people revival that swept through the country. I thought you could pass this on to Greg and thank him for sharing his stories.
Yeah. Well you know Billy that's an amazing thing because so in the 70s when the Jesus movement was happening some people thought that it was some kind of weird religious cult. But you know who got it? It was Billy Graham. I was a brand new Christian and I remember picking up a book in a Christian bookstore. I think the title was The Jesus Generation and Billy fully embraced it and because he was at that moment the face of evangelicalism and probably the most respected Christian in the world that really was a great shot in the arm if you will for all of us because we really were coming to Christ and our lives are being changed and of course then Billy went on to speak at the Xplo event there in Texas working with Campus Crusade and and that was one of the biggest things to happen in the Jesus movement in the early phases. So yes there's so many stories of lives that have been impacted by Billy Graham going back so many years and his ministry still continues on to this day but the reason I wrote this book Billy Graham the man I knew was because I wanted to show what he was like personally and I'm happy to say that he was the same man privately that you saw publicly. You know Dave it's been my privilege to meet a lot of famous people, a lot of famous preachers. I've shook the hands of four US presidents.
I've been in the oval office and prayed for the president two times. I've met movie stars and rock stars and and no one ever impressed me more than Billy Graham and I think it was because he was just so humble and so down to earth but yet his fame in many ways eclipsed all of them and but it never went to his head or to his heart and and he was always as he would describe himself a country preacher. It wasn't fake humility that's how he saw himself. I mean when you think of Billy Graham's story it almost reminds you of a bible story. You know you read of Gideon hiding from the Midianites threshing his wheat when an angel of the Lord calls him to lead a mighty army. You look at David keeping watch over his flock when the prophet comes to town and anoints him as the next king of Israel and you think of Billy a farm boy with aspirations to become a professional baseball player and just a normal red-blooded American southern boy who got hand-picked to become the greatest evangelist in human history and I think one of his secrets was he never lost sight of where he came from. He still was rooted as that simple boy Billy Frank who used to milk his dad's cows very early in the morning and had this humility about him that he carried to his last dying breath. Yeah well he was a man we all wish we knew personally and you'll get to know him in Pastor Greg's new book. It's an inspiring journey to walk through his story in Billy Graham the man I knew. In fact Ann Graham Lotz, Billy's daughter, commented about the book. She said this, in this page turner of a book I learn things about my father that I never knew.
Isn't that something? 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 a copy your way? Pastor Greg is making it available to thank you for your donation of any size and please know there are no churches or large organizations covering all the broadcast expenses. No it's only through the investments of listeners that these insights can come your way each day.
So thanks for being a partner with us. With your donation today be sure to ask for Billy Graham the man I knew. You can write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime, that's a 24-hour phone number, 1-800-821-3300.
Or go online to harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg give us the news about your new TV program called Harvest with Greg Laurie. So we've really expanded on television I would say quite dramatically. Wanting to reach new people, wanting to reach unexpected people in unexpected places like the Lifetime channel. It has a huge viewership. This is not what you would call a Christian channel. It's more of a secular channel. A mainstream TV outlet will be on the Lifetime the Lifetime network. Also will be on the Fox Business Network. Also on Newsmax. In addition to that we'll be on great Christian networks like Daystar and TBN.
If you want to find out more about air times go to harvest.org. Well next time we'll see what factors keep our prayers from being answered as Pastor Greg continues his practical series in Mark called The Gospel for Busy People. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.
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