Hope is On the Way | Finding Hope in Christ's Sacrifice

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. Coming up today on A New Beginning, he offers biblical encouragement. If ever there was someone who had reason to be hopeless, it was Jesus. He left the glory of heaven to come to earth. He was tempted like us, felt pain like us, felt betrayal like us. The world he created turned against him, and he was sentenced to the death of a common criminal.

How's your day going? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points to the hope found in Jesus' sacrifice for us, a message Pastor Greg has been sharing in his harvest crusades for 30 years. This is the day, the day when life begins. When we started our crusades, things were a lot different. George Bush was president, not George W. Bush, but George H. W. Bush, his father, and Home Alone and Pretty Woman were the movies showing in the theaters. The top TV shows when we started our first crusade were Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The Cosby Show. My, how things have changed.

The top songs were Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, You Can't Touch This by MC Hammer, and Vogue by Madonna. The Internet was just coming into its own, and social media did not yet exist. America Online had just launched, and the way you access America Online, which is a way to read this new thing called email, was through a modem, and the cutting edge technology was a 56K modem.

So you would start it anyway. You've got mail, right? How many of you remember that? You're old. And we did our first crusade. Well, a lot has changed since then, but other things haven't changed. The basic need of humanity hasn't changed, and the answer to the need of humanity has not changed either because God never changes.

Jesus says he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And the gospel is still the answer. And I'll tell you what, we have a generation before us right now that is looking for those answers. Do you know that experts have described this young generation today as the hopeless generation?

Wow, what a title. According to one article I just read, it said, quote, decades ago, young people had few real worries. The biggest issues were getting a driver's license, passing the next exam, going to a party on the weekend, or finding someone to take them to the mall. But the age of innocence is gone. The stats are sobering. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the leading cause of death for people ages 15 to 19. More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, strokes, pneumonia, influenza, chronic lung disease combined. The U.S. suicide rate has increased 30% since the year 2000, and it's tripled among young girls. These young kids are dealing with depression.

They're dealing with anxiety. And the one thing that seems to permeate is, as I've already said, a sense of hopelessness. But we have that hope. We have it. And we need to deliver it. We need to tell others there is hope in this world. There is purpose. There is meaning. And that is the focus of a good part of Romans 15.

So if you're taking notes, here's point number one. We as Christians should be very hopeful. We as Christians should be very hopeful. Romans 15, 13 says, Paul speaking, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, and that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You should be a hopeful person, but not just some hope, having overflowing hope. That's what abounding hope is.

And sometimes we lose our hope. The story, of course, is in the Gospel of Luke of those two downhearted disciples on the Emmaus road. In their mind, Jesus had failed in His mission. He had been crucified. He was gone. They had pinned their hopes to Him, thinking He would overthrow the tyranny of Rome, but now He just went and died.

What a disappointment, they thought. And as they're walking along this road, leaving Jerusalem to Emmaus, a stranger joins them. They don't know who this guy is, but it turns out it's Jesus walking with them. And Jesus says to them, hey guys, what's up? What's been going on?

Why the long faces? You look sad. He said, don't you know what's been going on? Haven't you heard about Jesus? Jesus says, no, tell me about Him. So now they're telling Jesus about Jesus.

And by the way, they're not doing a very good job. Because they said, well, we hoped, past tense, hoped He would have been the one to deliver Israel, but it's been three days since He died, and then Jesus gave them a guided tour of all of those Old Testament passages that pointed to Him. And as He's talking with them on the road, they're having the hope return, and they're feeling a little bit better, and they get to the end of their journey, and it's time for dinner. They said, hey, come and join us. They still don't know it's Christ. And He says, no guys, I gotta go.

No, no, no, you're not going anywhere. You come and have food with us. So they sit down at the table, they break bread, and boom, they realize it's Jesus, and He disappears.

And I love what they said. They said, did not our hearts burn within us while He walked with us on the way? Luke 24, 21. How did Jesus restore the hope of these disciples? He restored it through the Scripture. You show me someone that has lost hope, and I'll show you someone that is not reading the Scriptures. Because reading God's Word bolsters our faith, and it renews our hope.

Let me say that again. Reading God's Word bolsters our faith, and it renews our hope. Romans 10, 17 says faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And out of that springs hope that keeps us going.

Romans 15, 4. Whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. So number one, we of all people who are followers of Jesus should be filled with hope. And number two, we are to be heralds of this hope to those who need it. We're to be heralds of this hope. A herald is someone that announces something. Verse 16, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God at the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Now here's an interesting thing. Saul of Tarsus, raised in a good Jewish home, very devout, a member of the Sanhedrin, which was sort of like the Jewish Supreme Court of the day, schooled under the legendary Rabbi Gamaliel. He had everything going his way. You might even describe him as a Jews Jew. And then he comes to believe in Jesus and he would think the logical thing would be to call this man, this scholar, this expert, to his fellow Jews to bring the Gospel. But instead the Lord says, no Paul. He changed his name from Saul to Paul. I want you to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. So that was his primary mission.

Gentiles were non-Jews. So God took Paul out of his comfort zone to a people he probably really didn't want to go to. The Lord did that with Jonah too. Jonah was not as cooperative as Paul.

Jonah drug his feet the whole way and wasn't happy about it even when the Lord said a spiritual awakening. But Paul embraced it and went at this mission with abandon and with great passion. And his greatest joy was that people believe. Look at Romans 15 verse 18. I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Paul says, yet I dare not boast about anything except what Christ has done through me, bringing the Gentiles to obey God by my message and the way I worked among them.

This is interesting. Paul could have boasted about a lot of things. I mean it would have been easy to brag if you're Paul. You could have said, hey, I'm Paul, the greatest theologian in all history. It was true.

He never said anything like that. Or, hey, I'm Paul. I wrote more of the New Testament than any other apostle. Peter, are you listening? Or you could have said, hi, I'm Paul. I've established churches. How about this?

The ultimate trump card. Hi, my name is Paul. I've been to heaven and I've come back to earth. I was caught up under the third heaven and saw glorious things. Those are not the things he boasted of at all. Here's what he boasts in. He boasts in the fact that God had allowed him to share the gospel and lead people to Jesus Christ and even more had seen them completely changed by Jesus. Look at verse 18 of Romans 15, bringing the Gentiles to obey God by my message. You see, Paul understood that his calling was to tell people about Jesus, seek to lead them to Christ and get them on their feet spiritually. And by the way, that's your calling and my calling as well. The great commission is to go into all the world and preach the gospel, but it's also to make disciples of all nations, Jesus said, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

Teaching them. So our job, our calling, our mission is to tell people about Jesus and get them up on their feet. And here's the thing, young believers need old believers in their life and older believers need younger believers in their life.

We need each other. Younger believers need older believers in their life to stabilize them and older believers need younger believers in their life to energize them. You want to see a bunch of cranky old people complaining, getting together, moaning and groaning about their aches and pains? Get some young people in there, mix it up a little bit, bring a little life into this conversation. Older folks need that in their life. Are you listening to me, grumpy people?

But kids, younger people, you need older folks in your life. We need each other. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. You know, when you've walked in the very land where Jesus himself walked, you'll gain a whole new appreciation for the truth of scripture.

Hey, everybody. Greg Laurie here, inviting you to the Harvest Ministries Israel tour, April 9th, 1924. This will be an unforgettable journey through biblical sites and a unique opportunity to grow in your own faith. Listen, spots are limited. Be sure to sign up as soon as possible at Israel.Harvest.org.

Again, it's Israel.Harvest.org. Hope to see you there. And now Pastor Greg continues his study called Hope is on the Way. Important insight from the final chapter of Romans.

Point number three. We are to be examples of this hope to those who are watching us. We are to be examples of this hope to those who are watching this. Romans 15, 18. Bringing the Gentiles to obey God by my message and by the way I worked among them. Paul understood he was not just called to preach the gospel. He was also called to live the gospel. Christians are walking epistles written by God and read by men. What does that mean? That means you're the only Bible some people are ever going to read.

You're it. You're the Bible to them. They're going to literally form an opinion about God based on what they think of you.

Well, that's a little pressure, man. Yeah, I know. But you are his representative as I am. So what has your Bible opened up to? Has it opened up to John 3.16? That's the message you're giving out.

Or is it the verse, you know, Lord by now he stinketh. I mean I don't know. But the idea is you're an example. You can't escape the fact you're an example. All you're going to determine is if you're a good or a poor example.

But you are an example. So Paul says, hey, you know I lived this. You know I lived it out. He wrote elsewhere in the book of Romans. We loved you so much we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel but our lives as well. You are witnesses of how holy, righteous, and blameless we were among you. Another thing I would add to this is Paul gave the whole gospel to them.

Not just part of it. In verse 19 he says, I fully preach the gospel of Christ. Here's a problem we have today. Sometimes we edit the gospel.

And by that I mean we leave out things we think will offend people. But if we're going to give the gospel we need to give the whole gospel and nothing but the gospel. So help us God.

Right? So any gospel that promises the hope of heaven without a warning about hell is not the gospel. Any gospel that offers forgiveness from God without telling you you need to repent of your sin is not the gospel. And the essential message of the gospel is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's our message. That's a message we need to convey.

Point number four. Paul took the hope of the gospel everywhere and anywhere. Paul took it everywhere and anywhere. Verse 20 of Romans 15. I've made them. I aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named.

Lest I should build on another man's foundation. Paul went to some really unusual places to bring the gospel to them including Mars Hill. Which was actually sort of like the public forum in Greece which was the intellectual center of the world at that time.

And there at Mars Hill various people would get up and give their ideas and philosophies and Paul took the gospel right there. You know as I think back over the Crusades we've been all over the United States and around the world. We've been to New York City. We have been there a number of times. We went to Madison Square Garden and saw the Lord pack it out.

It was fantastic. We've been to Chicago. Philadelphia.

Of course Dallas. But we've been to some unusual places like Wollongong Australia and Newcastle Australia. I had never even heard of Wollongong when I got an invitation to go over there and hold a Crusade. Some of our most successful Crusades were in places where they should not have necessarily been successful. Like Seattle. One of the most unchurched cities in America. Someone said there's more dogs in Seattle than Christians. And yet I remember that not only was our attendance great but the percentage of response was far higher there than it normally is. In other places. So that was exciting.

We went to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. I had more than one person warn me. One said, Greg Los Angeles is the graveyard of evangelists. You don't want to come up here and do it.

It won't work out. Well the Lord blessed. I remember that the attendance was so strong they had to shut the doors. And so many people went on the field to accept Christ the fire marshal locked up the gates so no more could come.

I don't think that has ever happened before. Amazing. So one time we even did a harvest outreach in Disneyland. Do any of you remember that? We took the whole park over. And on every stage we had a Christian band with an evangelist. And we saw many people come to Christ throughout the day and into the evening. So you know we have tried to go to places one would not normally go to.

Point number five. We are to be helpers so others don't lose hope. We are to be helpers so others don't lose hope. Romans 15 verse 25. But before I come I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there. For you see the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a great debt to them since the Gentiles received the spiritual fruit of the good news from the believers in Jerusalem. They feel it is the least they can do in return by helping them financially.

You have heard the expression put your money where your mouth is. You know it is one thing to say I love you. You are my friend.

But your friend doesn't have any clothes on their back or they are hungry. Hey man. Love you. Bye.

No wait. If you are their friend, if you love them, help them with food. Help them with clothing.

Help them financially. And so we say I love the gospel. I want the gospel to go out.

Well do you ever invest in it financially? Notice that Paul says in verse 26 they eagerly took up an offering. Then he later says they did it gladly. We need to understand it is a privilege to invest in the work of the kingdom. A privilege.

And it should not be a mere duty. And so this was something they enjoyed doing and they raised this money and sent it to the folks that were in need there in Jerusalem. Pastor Greg Laurie with good encouragement about supporting God's work. And you know we hope you might remember the work we're doing each day here on A New Beginning.

I'll pass along our contact information in a moment. Consider how God may be directing you to support this outreach. Well we're so happy to make available the movie Jesus Revolution on DVD. And you know Pastor Greg your story, your personal story, your dramatic story is told in the movie. You lived a tough childhood but that story has touched a lot of lives.

At what point over all these years did you realize your story was something to be thankful for because it helped you connect? Well I probably discovered that, well of course after I became a Christian and I began to tell my story I saw how it resonated with people. You know we all have a testimony. Our testimony is simply our story of how we came to Christ.

And everyone loves a story. You know people can argue with the facts. They can't argue with your testimony because you're an expert on you. You lived it.

You were there. And all of us have the same testimony. In effect we're like that blind man who was healed by Jesus in John chapter 9 and he sums it up this way. Once I was blind but now I see. So no matter what your background is once you were blind but now you see. I've been privileged to tell my story in a feature film expertly directed by John Irwin and Brent McCorkle.

And it's resonating with people. And you know when I was growing up as a kid coming from a divorced home I was more the exception than the rule. Most of my friends had moms and dads at home and I didn't.

And the funny thing is even as a kid though I had complete freedom some would say way too much freedom. I didn't go home at night for a family dinner. My mom was working so I went to a local hamburger joint and ordered the same thing every night. A hamburger, french fries and a vanilla malt.

It's the dream of a teenager. But after a while I got tired of hamburgers, french fries and vanilla malts. I would go over to my friend's house with a mom and dad there and eat the food. And eat the food I didn't even really like because I found it so novel to sit at a table with a family. Well now my story coming from a broken home is more the norm than the exception. So many come from broken homes.

To the point my mother was married to divorce seven times. So my home was perpetually broken. But God put my life back together again. God brought a message out of a mess.

He brought a testimony out of a test. As the Bible says he brings beauty out of ashes. So now I look back on my life.

Though I would not wish my childhood on anyone. I can see that Romans 8 28 came into play which says. All things work together for good to those that love God and are the called according to his purpose. So my story is a bridge to tell the bigger story. And that bigger story is the story of Jesus.

His life, his death, and his resurrection. And so that's what this movie is about. It's a sort of set the stage for you. Let's say we're in a volleyball game. And you know when you're in a volleyball game they set the ball up for you.

Maybe if you're toward the front to spike right on your opponent. It's almost like we've set the ball up. Now you got to just spike it. The film is here.

The heavy lifting is done. Pop it into your DVD player. Put non-believers in front of it.

Play it. And it even has a special presentation of the gospel at the end of it that I filmed. That you can then show them. And you will have an opportunity God willing to actually pray with those people. To accept Christ into their life.

Listen folks. This is the greatest most effective evangelistic tool we have ever offered in our history. And I really want you to have a copy. Now you can go pay retail for it somewhere. But you can get it from us for your gift of any size. But what that means is whatever you send will be used to get the gospel out.

And we do pay more for this resource than we pay for other resources we offer. So I'm going to ask you to be extra generous. Send your gift to support our ministry. And in return we'll send you your own copy of Jesus Revolution.

With a lot of special bonus content. Order one now. And we'll send it your way just as soon as we hear from you. You'll get Jesus Revolution on DVD along with a free streaming code. And thanks so much for partnering with us.

We're completely listener supported. You can call us anytime 24-7 at 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. Well next time, more great encouragement for the times of challenge when hope is in short supply. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, 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.