Who is God? | Following God's Path

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. Following Christ involves not only what we do, but how we think. Coming up today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us make some adjustments. What you believe matters.

What you think matters. This is why Paul writes in First Timothy 4 16, watch your life and doctrine closely. Your life and doctrine. So I want to take some time in this series that we're calling Timeless, to offer sound theology without apology. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound.

Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. If you're on a long road trip, you've got to map out your course. If you don't know where you're going, how do you know when you get there? As we travel the road of life, serving the Lord, heaven bound, we need to make sure we're on course. If we ignore the direction of scripture, we may discover we're on the broad road that leads to destruction. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us recalibrate what we know and what we do with what we know.

Glad you're along today. This is the day, the day when life begins. So we're starting a brand new series today that we're calling Timeless, because with culture shifting, it's good to know that God's Word never changes, and we're going to discover some foundational truths together. Well, let's grab our Bibles and turn to Psalm 139.

Psalm 139, and the title of this message is, Who is God? So I heard the story of a little girl that grabbed a piece of paper and some crayons, and she sat down to draw. Her mother asked, honey, what are you drawing? She said, I'm going to draw a picture of God. Mom said, honey, nobody knows what God looks like.

A little girl said, they will when I'm done. What does God look like? What is God like? Is He a smiling God, or is He a frowning God? How does He look at you, and how does He look at me? Does He approve of me?

Does He disapprove? Because the Bible refers to God as a Father, that's a point of entry for us, to sort of try to wrap our mind around the infinite. I'm the finite trying to comprehend the infinite. I'm trying to grasp the almighty God, but yet the Bible presents Him as a Father.

And it's interesting because in the Lord's Prayer, which is a temple for all prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Now, I wonder, what kind of Father did you have growing up? Well, I had a lot of them, seven. And none of them really treated me as a Father except one, Oscar Laurie, who adopted me. But my time with him was so short, so when I thought of the idea of a Father, I really had no point of reference.

But that's not true for many of you. Many of you had a great dad, still have a great dad. Your dad was just a perfect representation of what God is like. He was there for you. He cared about you.

He was everything a good father should be. Others of you, maybe didn't have that experience. Maybe your father left. Maybe your parents divorced. Even worse, maybe you were had a bad dad.

And he hurt you in some way. And so, you sort of transfer that over to God. Well, my father on earth is this way. Therefore, my Father in heaven must be the same way. No, you have to look at God the Father in an entirely new way.

What is He like? Well, to answer that question, we have Jesus Himself. Who's a better expert on God the Father than God the Son? So, Jesus told us a story. We often call it the parable of the prodigal son. And if Jesus Himself had not told this story, we might even think it's a little bit irreverent. Let me explain. Jesus presents God as a father who has two sons.

One of their sons goes astray, drags a family name to the gutter, consorts with hookers, drunkenness, everything you could do wrong. This kid did wrong. And one day He came to his senses and said, I will return and go to my father and say, Father, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just give me a job.

I'll do whatever you need done because I'm starving to death out here. And Jesus telling this story says, while that son was a great way off, returning home, the father saw him and ran toward him with compassion and threw his arms around him and hugged him and kissed him and said, rejoice with me. This my son who is dead is alive again. And then he said, let's have a barbecue. So it was a celebration and a party. Why is that in a reverent presentation of God potentially? Because in the culture of the day, it was considered undignified for an older man to run. Older men did not run.

Not to mention the fact that it's hard for an older man to run, right? So this father, this father, according to Jesus, was willing to lose his dignity, so to speak, to get to his son as quickly as possible to show his love to that wayward boy. I love this picture because it shows us what God really is like. So we're going to talk about God the father in this message, which is a part of a new series that we're calling Timeless. And our next time together, we'll look at who is God the son. Then we'll look at who is God the Holy Spirit. Then we'll discover the truth about heaven and hell. And finally, the Bible, the user's manual of life. These are things that are important to us because there's so many fads and trends in culture that come and go. And these are truths that are timeless because God is timeless.

God says in Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. I find that very comforting, don't you? And we need to be reminded of these things because you forget things. You especially forget things as you get older.

I heard about an elderly couple that were getting ready to go to bed and the wife said to the husband, honey, I would just love an ice cream sundae, but we don't have any ice cream. Would you get some for me? He says, sure, dear, I'll go get it. Write it down. You always forget.

Okay, I got it. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. All right. Don't forget. Write it down. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce.

Oh honey, I want whipped cream. Write it down. I got it, dear. I got it. Vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, chocolate sauce with the cherry on top. Write it down. Oh, you always forget.

Okay, I got it. Vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and the cherry. Okay, so he goes and comes back like an an hour later, and throws a ham sandwich on the bed. She says, I told you to write it down, you forgot the mustard.

It's nice to go see now when you do it with somebody else, right? But we forget things, don't we? Things that we should remember, we forget. You ever blank out on what your own phone number is?

What's your number? Uh, wait, how'd I forget that? There's little things that remind us, like I wear this ring on my finger to remind me I'm married. There's also been a woman living in my house for 50 years that reminds me of, well, but you know, it's a reminder Jesus gave his communion, to jog our memory, if you will. He said, take this bread and this cup and receive it in remembrance of me until I come again. So these are things to be reminded of, and the Bible is filled with reminders. In fact, the Bible is filled with repetition, not apology, because we often forget what we ought to remember, and we remember what we ought to forget.

Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3.1, we need to have our memories refreshed. In short, we need to think, and there is no more important place to think than when it comes to our faith, when we come to this issue, because we need to think about what we believe, because what we believe about God will affect how we view our life. It will affect how we view others. It will affect how we live in this world. What you think about God has everything to do with how you live your life. This is where your world view is formed. How you view God will determine how you will view the world. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Whenever you send us an email, letter, or post a comment on social media, we read every word. Pastor Greg, I loved the movie, Jesus Revolution. I'm also thankful that you helped lead my mom to Jesus just two weeks before she suddenly died.

Through it all, God is good. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? If not, why not drop him an email and tell your story? Send it to Greg at harvest.org. Again, that's Greg at harvest.org. Today, Pastor Greg is launching a new series called Timeless, Unchanging Truth in a Changing Culture.

Let's continue. 2,000 years ago, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, asked this question, what is truth? And we're still asking that question today. Now, past generations always felt that you had to look to a source outside of yourself for absolute truth, namely God and the Bible. That's how we determine what was moral or immoral, what was right or what was wrong. But a new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University shows that 58% of Americans that were surveyed no longer believe that. So almost 60% of the American public do not believe there is absolute truth anymore. That is to be determined by what the Bible teaches. Instead, they say it's up to the individual to decide what is true and moral. So your opinion, my opinion, doesn't matter.

Every opinion is valid. And this is even more shocking. They've found that evangelicals are almost as likely to reject absolute moral truth as to accept it. In other words, 46% of evangelicals did not believe there was absolute truth. Houston, we have a problem.

Because an evangelical, by definition, is someone that believes what the Bible teaches. And instead, now we trust our heart. I trust my heart. I follow my gut. I let my feelings help me to decide what I should do. I think this, I feel that, I believe.

I believe that for every drop of rain, a flower grows. Stop pushing your dog around in a stroller and eating tofu and listen. Snap out of it. We have to think biblically and therefore logically instead of emotionally. It's time to put our thinking caps on. God wants us to think, not just feel. Our feelings subject themselves to what is true, not develop your worldview based on how you feel about a certain thing. Isaiah 1.18, God says, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Or another way to translate that is, come let us argue this out. We need to live biblically. And we can't take our cultural cues from what society is telling us right now. Romans 12 says, don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Philippians translation puts that same verse, don't let this world around you squeeze you into its own mold. Listen folks, we're living in a time where so much of our culture is out of alignment with what God says.

And it seems to be moving in that direction more quickly than I can remember in my lifetime. And you know what I think what it really comes down to? Is I think it's all a search for God. It's a search for meaning.

One of my favorite scenes in the Jesus revolution film is when Lonnie Frisbee, played by Jonathan Rumi, meets Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer for the first time there in Chuck's kitchen. And Chuck's trying to figure out the whole hippy culture and kids using drugs and free love and all this. And Lonnie says, well Chuck it's a search. Chuck says, a search for what? Lonnie says, it's a search for God.

This generation is searching for God and they're being given wrong answers. They think something will fix this. If I have this surgery it will be fixed. If I use this drug it will be fixed.

If I have this experience it will be fixed. But it's not a search for something, it's a search for someone. We need to look to scripture. Not to shifting culture for absolute truth.

That's how I know what right and wrong are. It's called theology and we neglect it at our own peril. Now I don't want you to be put up by the word theology. Because we need to go theologian. I'm no theologian, aren't you? What is a theologian? Technically, a theologian is someone that studies God through scripture.

What are we doing right now? We're studying God through scripture. You're theologians. Maybe you're junior theologians. Maybe you're a beginning theologian. But you're someone who is studying God and wanting to know more about him. Experience is never the basis for theology. Sound theology is the basis for experience. So I go to the scripture first.

C.S. Lewis gave this warning years ago. Quote, if you do not listen to theology that will not mean you have no ideas about God.

It will mean you have a lot of wrong ones. End quote. Well said. But some people will say I don't care about doctrine. I just love Jesus.

Well that's a sweet sentiment. But you might end up loving the wrong Jesus. One of the warnings of the last days is false Christs would come. False truths will come that look like truth but they're not truth at all. That's why you need to be grounded biblically in what you believe.

I mean take it into life. How would you feel if you got in a plane and you're taxiing down the runway and the voice of your captain comes over the intercom. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to flight 232 with direct service to Honolulu, Hawaii. By the way, I'm not so sure about this whole fuel thing. You know some people are into fuel. I just say hey all roads lead to Hawaii. I want out of that plane right now. How would you feel if you're on an operating table and the doctor said I don't even know what's wrong here but let's just start cutting and see what happens.

No let's not. And yet we would laugh at those illustrations but yet in the most important things of life our eternal destinies and God himself will treat it sort of casually in effect making up our rules as we go. This is why Paul writes in first Timothy 4 16 watch your life and doctrine closely.

Persevere in them because if you do you'll save yourself and your hearers. Your life and doctrine. So what you believe matters.

What you think matters. So I want to take some time in this series that we're calling Timeless to offer sound theology without apology. Some great insights are coming our way in the days ahead here on A New Beginning. I hope you'll make plans to join us each day as Pastor Greg Laurie presents this new series. And Pastor Greg as we start the series let's take a moment to speak to the person listening who doesn't know the Lord personally. You know they've never made a decision for Christ. What would you say to them? I'd say that's the most important decision you're ever gonna make in your life. So I want you to stay tuned because I'm gonna tell you how to make that decision in just a few moments. All right, well the title of today's message is Who is God?

If you missed any part of this presentation just go to harvest.org and look for that title Who is God? Well Pastor Greg we're excited about the new movie Fame talking about the dangers of fame and yet everybody wants to be rich and famous these days. You know I've never taken one of those celebrity home tours like they have up in Beverly Hills. You buy a map and you drive by the stars' homes but I've seen pictures of a few stars' homes from the street and all you see really is a tall hedge or a wall. It may be a beautiful home but it's closed off from the rest of the world. They live in a bubble. They may have dozens of bedrooms and their own tennis courts and home theaters and hair salons and bowling alleys but it's because they can't go out in public. They're sort of under house arrest, you know? They're prisoners of their own fame. Yes, you know it's been said careful what you wish for, you might get it and you know so many think oh one day if I was rich and famous and et cetera I'd be happy, no you won't be.

I can just tell you right now I could quote so many sources and I have a lot of them in my new book on fame that I'll tell you about in a moment but I could quote so many sources to prove my point just from culture, just from the celebrities themselves. Then we go to the scripture. The Bible tells the story of Nicodemus. You all know that in John chapter three, Nicodemus was famous. He was the guy people went to for spiritual answers but one day Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.

It was literally Nick at night and why did he come at night? Because he didn't want anyone to see him because he's the famous dude who's supposed to know everything and he didn't but he saw something in Jesus that attracted him. He knew Christ had the answers he was looking for and as the conversation begins Christ actually says to Nicodemus, you are the teacher in Israel and you don't know these things? He was the teacher, he was the man, he was the rock star, he was the movie star, he was the guy with more followers on social media if we were to put it in today's terms but he knew that something was missing so he came to Jesus and that's what so many people discover. It seems like they either try to go to the wrong things to fill that void after they've had a degree of fame like drugs or alcohol or just buying everything imaginable and getting themselves in financial trouble or whatever else they're pursuing or they turn to God.

Many of them don't turn to God but some do. There's actually some well-known celebrities who are walking with Jesus Christ and talk about their faith publicly. People like Chris Pratt, Mark Wahlberg and others but I interview two very significant people for this new film, the title of the film is Fame and I interview Alice Cooper, he's a living legend. Even the rock stars look up to Alice Cooper but he's one of the most down-to-earth guys and he has a strong faith in Christ and he's gonna say things that I guarantee will surprise you. Well, let me just play something for you. Here's a scene from the Fame film where Alice Cooper answers my question, who is Jesus Christ to you?

Check this out. He's the core of everything. He's life itself. None of us deserve redemption but Christ on the cross, he knew your name. He knew my name and that made me go, how can I not believe in this? If the Lord is knocking at your door, answer it.

It's the best thing that you could ever do. So those are just some of the things you'll see in this brand new film called Fame. I also interview baseball great, Daryl Strawberry. We have a lot of amazing stories and other things in this film that you're gonna love. It's visually beautiful and it's gonna just show the emptiness of life without God and ultimately, the answer is Jesus and we also have a book that you can order right now. The book is called Fame and it deals with a lot of these things I've talked about and much more and we'll send that to you for your gift of any size to keep our ministry on the air here at A New Beginning and continue to reach people with the gospel and make more films like this one you're gonna see very soon called Fame. So Dave, tell them where they can see the film. Yeah, the movie premieres this weekend at our new Harvest Media platform at harvest.org and also other streaming platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Amazon Fire and Google Play.

It's free to watch. So mark your calendar for October 20th through 22nd and of course, the book called Fame is a provocative look at the dangers of fame and of pursuing the world's value system. It's a look at how to follow God's plan instead, the plan that offers real satisfaction and peace. We'll be glad to send a copy of the book your way to thank you for partnering with us so Pastor Greg can continue to bring the gospel through this radio program, through books and film and so many other forms of outreach. So get in touch with your donation today by calling 1-800-821-3300.

Call anytime 24 seven 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning, box 4000, Riverside, California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Pastor Greg, if somebody listening right now knows that they need to ask the Lord to forgive them of their sins, could you help them with that right now? You know what Dave, I'd love to do that. It's an amazing thing to me that over the years, I've heard so many stories of people who have come to know Christ listening to this broadcast and they'll say things like, I prayed that prayer with you at the end of the program. One guy wrote me and said, I pulled my car over to the side of the road and prayed that prayer and Christ came into my life.

Just incredible. And I'd like to lead you in that same prayer. Look, I don't have some super special prayer. It's just a basic prayer based on scriptural principles of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. So listen, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to know that you are a child of God, if you want the Lord to forgive you of your sins, just pray this prayer with me. You might even pray it out loud.

You can repeat it after me if you like. Just pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from that sin. But I know that you died on the cross of Calvary for my sin and rose again from the dead.

So forgive me, Lord. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I want you to be my savior. I want you to be my friend. I want you to be my God. Thank you for hearing my prayer and answering my prayer.

In Jesus' name, I ask this. Amen. I know. Some of you are saying, oh, that's so simple. It is simple. It's not simplistic.

It's simple. Yet it's profound, isn't it? To think that God Almighty just heard that prayer and has answered that prayer and that Christ has come to live inside of you. You might say, well, Greg, I didn't have an emotional experience.

This is not about an emotional experience. This is about the fact of what happens when a person believes. Jesus said it this way. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. When you prayed that prayer, you were in effect putting your faith in Christ.

You were choosing to believe in Jesus. Now I wanna help you start growing spiritually. So I have something to send you at no charge.

It's my gift to you. It's called the New Believer's Bible. So the New Believer's Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pack but let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.

Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, you can get it by calling us anytime around the clock at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. Well next time, more practical insights on the nature of our almighty God. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at harvest.org.