How to Live a Successful Christian Life | Keeping Our Faith

We're glad you're joining us for A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast supported by Harvest Partners. Get more encouraging audio content when you subscribe to Pastor Greg's Daily Devos.

Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage.

Don't be afraid. Jesus wasn't the only one who walked on water. Remember? For a few moments, the apostle Peter walked on water when Jesus bid him, come to me. But when his faith turned to fear, his feet didn't float. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how we can keep our faith above water and let fear sink to the bottom. It's an encouraging message called How to Live a Successful Christian Life.

Good inspiration for the times of trial and challenge we face. We're starting a brand new series that we're calling Joshua Living in the Land of Promises because the Bible is filled with thousands of promises that God has made to you. The Bible describes them as exceedingly great and precious promises. As an example, God promises spiritual rest for all those who believe in him.

Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all you who are laboring and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you with rest. The Bible promises eternal life for those who put their faith in him because Jesus said in John 4, 14, if you drink the water I give, it will become a fresh bubbling spring within you, giving you eternal life. The Bible promises a rich and satisfying life to those who follow him.

Jesus said in John 10, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly, or as another translation puts it, that you might have a rich and satisfying life. See, the promises of God, they're sort of like gift cards. And I don't know about you, but I have a pretty good supply of gift cards I've never redeemed. I read recently that there are five billion dollars in unused gift cards. Wow. So I think every now and then I'll go through them and let's see what we have here.

And I find a lot of them are outdated. Oh, look, a Blockbuster card. Oh, here's a Radio Shack gift card.

I think there might be one Radio Shack out there somewhere. I'm not really sure, but they're not very effective. In contrast, the promises of God are not dated. They don't have an expiration date.

They're good forever, but you have to claim them. Just as you have to redeem a gift card, you have to claim the promise of God. And this is the thing with the Israelites. They had to possess their possessions. God gave to them this new land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the promised land, but they had to go into the land. They had to go in there and take possession of what God had already given them. But instead, they found themselves needlessly wandering around in the wilderness. It didn't take long to get from point A to point B, to get from Egypt to Israel.

It could have taken a month, two months on the outside if they took their time, but 40 years? No, they're going around and around in circles, and they had everything they needed. God provided for them. He delivered them from the power of Pharaoh. They prayed that God would send someone to do so, and the Lord raised up Moses, who led them out, and the plagues came upon Egypt, and they were delivered, and the Lord gave them the coolest GPS system of all time, a fire by night, a cloud by day. So when the cloud moved, you move.

When the cloud stopped, you stop. When the fire showed up and moved, you moved with it, and he fed them every day this amazing substance called manna. It's described as the food of angels. The Bible tells us it was sweet to the taste, and another verse says it was flaky like frost. It comes from the Hebrew words frosto flaco, not really, but this amazing substance outside of their tent every single morning.

They could scoop it up and eat it. They had everything they needed in life, but they soon began to complain against God and take what he had given them for granted, and we do the same, don't we? We take these blessings of God for granted, and we find ourselves in a wilderness, and so commenting on what this means to us, especially as believers living in the last days, Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 10 when he says, these things happen to them, that's the Israelites, as examples to us. They were written down to warn us, listen, who live at the end of the age. So these words are for last days believers, and he goes on to say, if you think you're standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no other from what others experience, but God is faithful. He will not allow that temptation to be more than you can stand, and when you're tempted, he'll show you a way out so you may endure.

Very important word. So these things are written for examples to us who are living in the end times so we can learn about how to possess our possessions and how to win in this spiritual battle. Now as we get into Joshua, there's a lot of war in there, some bloodshed, some big battles that we see, and we wonder why is such a place given in the Word of God to a record of the military victories and sometimes defeats of this army in the conquest of Canaan. Answer, because we too are at war. Right now we're in a big war, more than a political war, though it includes that, more than a cultural war, though it includes that as well, it's a spiritual war. It's been said conversion has made our hearts a battlefield. In Ephesians 6 Paul says we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against spiritual might and high places. Whereas a modern paraphrase puts it, we're not in some weekend war that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.

This is for keeps. It's a life-or-death fight to finish against the devil and his angels. So true. And we're living in a culture that opposes what we believe.

In many ways it's hostile to what we believe, especially as followers of Christ. And guess who else knows we're in a battle? And guess who else knows we're in the last days?

The devil. Because Revelation 12, speaking of the devil, says he's come down to you in great anger, knowing he has a little time. The devil knows his days are numbered. Therefore his objective is to wreck as much havoc as he can until that day.

And we too, as Christians, knowing the Lord's return is near, should be doing as much good as we can and reaching as many people as we can with the gospel until that day. So look, this is not a choice of fighting or not fighting. You're either going to fight or you're going to lose. You're either going to gain ground or you're going to lose ground. You're either going to advance or you're going to retreat. So it's your choice. Well, I don't know, man. I'm a pacifist.

I drive a Prius with my cat. This battle is going to rage to the final day. You might wonder, does it come a point where you just stop being tempted? No. Heard about a younger believer who asked an older believer, will there come a time in my life when I'm no longer tempted by sin? Will that actually happen? And the old man says, no, until you're dead.

So that's pretty much how long it's going to go. So we need to make these choices and put the past behind us. I'll tell you this. For me, the easiest thing was to give up drinking and drugs. As a kid, I dabbled in these things. I never got into hard drugs, but I did things I shouldn't have done.

You've seen it in the Jesus revolution film, right? But I already knew that was a dead end street. I already knew I wanted to stop doing that, but I didn't know what I was going to do with my life.

And it was shortly after I wanted to close the door in the old life that I heard the gospel for the first time. But some people aren't able to make a clean break with these things. There are people that struggle with addiction throughout their life, or they grapple with certain sins.

And I don't condemn those people. I understand it can be hard. And one man or one woman's struggle is not necessarily another's. And then sometimes you have a struggle that you overcome, and then 20 years later it's a struggle again, right? This is life, okay?

This is what we're going to face in life, but we need to hang on there. But I want to say this. There is no sin that needs to control you.

There is no addiction that should have a stranglehold on your life. The Bible says, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. You can be free. But when you sin, and you will sin, and I will sin, we need to ask God to forgive us. As we turn from that sin, acknowledge it, repent of it. The Bible says that we will confess our sin.

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We need to accept God's forgiveness. Sometimes people say, well, I need to learn to forgive myself. They're probably the same person that drives the Prius. Notice I always go back to that same voice. This is the voice that people that I think are odd. You know, man, they're kind of like that.

They start every sentence that way. So, I have to forgive myself. You can't forgive yourself.

Where did whoever gets such a silly idea? You don't have the ability to forgive yourself. But God can forgive you.

So, instead of forgiving yourself, you need to walk in the forgiveness of God. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We're thrilled when we hear from listeners that join us from every background, every location, every age. Hello, Pastor Greg. My nine-year-old son loves to listen to our local Christian radio station in his bedroom to hear you preach and teach.

Your messages have built him up, and he's repeated some of the things he's heard you say. Thank you for being a godly role model in his life and sharing your gift of evangelism with the world. Keep up the Jesus work. We love you and your ministry very much. If you have a story to tell of how Harvest Ministries is reaching people in your family, would you let Pastor Greg know? Call 1-866-871-1144. That's a special number, 1-866-871-1144. Well, Pastor Greg is launching a new seven-part series in the book of Joshua today called Joshua Living in the Land of Promises.

Let's continue. Going back to the Israelites, when God delivered them from Egypt, the Lord said, I'm going to send a series of plagues upon Egypt to get the Pharaoh to listen. The Pharaoh didn't listen. Finally, the Lord said, I'll bring my judgment upon your firstborn, Pharaoh. You tried to kill my firstborn when you gave the command to drown the Jewish baby boys. I'll bring the same judgment on you if you don't repent.

Pharaoh didn't repent. So now the judgment of God came upon the land of Egypt over the firstborn, and the Lord said to his people, the Jews, you slay a lamb, the Passover lamb. You take that blood, you apply it on the top of your door, on the right and to the left, and when I see the blood, I'll pass over that home, right? And what is that a picture of? Jesus. He's the Passover lamb. Think about the blood.

On the top of the door, on the right and the left, does that remind you of anything? The cross that Christ hung from, the crown of thorns on his head, the spikes through his hands and his feet, and so in the same way, we have to apply the blood. They had to put the blood in their homes or the judgment would have come upon them too. We need to apply the blood in our life. You say, what does that even mean?

What it means is, you say, I believe you shed your blood for me. I accept that. I accept your forgiveness, and I'm gonna walk now as a forgiven person, okay? As the Bible says, of the believers in the book of Revelation, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb.

You see, we have to take practical steps as well. A while ago, I was given a large container full of pretzels with peanut butter in them. Now, I'm not a huge peanut butter person, but there's something about pretzels and peanut butter together I like. I think it's a salty and sweet, so I ate one, then I ate two, then I ate 10, then I ate 20, then it was handfuls.

It was so bad. I was walking around with a brown paper bag wrapped around it. It was getting out of control, and so I realized, I'm not gonna stop until I eat all of these pretzels, so I didn't know what else to do. I went over to the toilet, poured them in, and flushed it.

Kathy came out into the kitchen. Where are those pretzels with the peanut butter? I said, I flushed them down the toilet. She didn't believe me. She thought I ate them all.

I'm telling you, I flushed them down the toilet. I know that seems extreme, but sometimes you have to take extreme steps. Let's say you're struggling with drinking. I get tempted by drinking all the time in my wine cellar at home. Why don't you get rid of the booze? Well, how do I do it? You pour down the toilet, flush it.

If you don't flush it, the dog might drink it and get drunk, so flush it. You have drugs, get rid of them. Well, could I sell them?

No, that's drug dealing. Don't do that. My point is, get rid of it. Oh, I get tempted by porn on my phone. Well, get another phone.

Get a flip phone for Pete's sake, but take practical steps. We make it all so mystical. Just do what you gotta do. You can stay in the wilderness. You can wander around in circles, or you can enter into the land of promises. Now, why did most of these Israelites not make it into the promised land? They focused their attention on the obstacles instead of their objective. Again, they focused their attention on the obstacles instead of the objective. So, I left this part out. Early on, after they were released from Egypt, they came to the point of entry of the land of Canaan.

It was called Kedesh Barnea. Say they thought, let's send spies in. 12 spies, check this thing out before we go in. Honestly, they should have just gone in.

The Lord said, I've given you the land. Let's send 12 spies in. So, 12 spies go in. They return later. 10 bring a negative report.

Two bring a positive report. The people had a choice. Believe the majority or the minority. The majority said, oh, we can't go in. The people that live in the land, they are gigantic. We felt like grasshoppers in their sight. And then the two that brought the minority report, Joshua and Caleb, said, yeah, true things are big, but check out this cluster of grapes. It took two of us to carry them out.

You see that image of Joshua and Caleb carrying the cluster of grapes as the symbol of tourism in Israel today. So, yes, the obstacles were big, but God was bigger. But they didn't listen.

They listened to the negative report. So, it comes down to how you look at things. Listen, when you fix your attention on the obstacles rather than the objective, fear will always eclipse your faith. So, you have a choice. You can go into the land.

You can stay out of the land. Let's read what happens next. Joshua chapter one. I'm reading verses one to four from the New Living Translation. After the death of Moses, the Lord's servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun. Moses' assistant, King James calls him Moses' servant.

He said, Moses, my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I'm giving them. I promise you what I promised Moses. Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you. From the Negev Wilderness to the south of the Lebanon Mountains to the north, from the Euphrates Rivers in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites, no one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you.

We'll stop there. Are those not powerful words? So if you're taking notes, here's point number one.

Greg is a very handsome man. Seriously, that's the first point. No, it isn't. Okay, the first point is this. To succeed in the spiritual life, you must overcome fear and admit you need help.

Let me say that again. To succeed in the spiritual life, you must overcome fear and admit you need help and lots of it. Look at how many times God tells Joshua to have courage. Verse 6, be strong and of good courage. Verse 7, only be strong and very courageous. Verse 9, have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage.

Don't be afraid. Why do you think the Lord said this so many times to Joshua? Probably because he was afraid.

I mean, think about it. He had to take the place of Moses. Talk about a hard act to follow. Moses, the great law giver.

Moses, the man of God. That's a lot to contemplate. I can think of times in my life when I was overcome with fear. I remember when I was a 22 year old man and I found out Kathy was expecting and we had our first son, Christopher, and we brought him home from the hospital and it suddenly dawned on me, I don't know anything about parenting.

I mean, literally nothing. Because I didn't have a father growing up and my mother wasn't really parenting me as well. I've never shared this before, but I was actually raised by wolves. That's the next movie, Jesus Revolution 2, Raised by Wolves.

It's coming to a theater near you. But I was not parented so I'm now supposed to be a dad to this boy, but God helped me. He was with me as he will be with you, right? I remember the first time I shared the gospel. I was terrified by the idea of going up to a total stranger and engaging them in an evangelistic conversation. But I felt led by the Lord to do it and I found this middle aged woman on a beach and I read the contents of a little booklet to her verbatim.

I hadn't memorized him yet. And much to my shock and delight she accepted Christ. But I was afraid.

I remember when I was invited to pray at a Billy Graham Crusade held at Anaheim Stadium, now called Angel Stadium, in 1985. I was so excited. And I was really nervous. And I'm up on the stage and I knew when I was supposed to go up and pray. And the moment came and I was just sitting there frozen. Cliff Barrows, Billy's long time assistant, yelled over to me, get up there man.

I woke you up. I was terrified. But you've got to face your fears. There are things that you're scared of. Are you afraid of something right now?

Is something terrifying you? Maybe it's a job you've been asked to do. Maybe you're starting your family.

Maybe you just got married. Maybe there's some other thing that's frightening you right now. Remember what God said to Joshua. Joshua 1 5. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage. And that's his word to him and it's his word to us. Jesus said don't be afraid. I'm the first and the last. I'm the living one.

I was dead and I will lie forever. I hold the keys of death in Hades. Don't be afraid says Jesus. Jesus also says fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don't let fear cripple you. Great encouragement from Pastor Greg Laurie today on A New Beginning. His message titled How to Live a Successful Christian Life, and there's more to come. We've talked about the promises of God today Pastor Greg and now we don't have to fear what the Lord is our God.

Let's speak to the person who's never made a decision for the Lord. They can make a change today. Can't they? They can come to the Lord right now.

They can and it's so simple and I think because it's so simple people think oh it can't be that easy. Well look Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died in that cross that he carried.

This isn't about what you do. It's about what he's done, but here's what the Bible says. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

You say well okay how do I do that? You do it through prayer and if you pray this prayer after me I believe God will hear it and answer it and Christ will come to live inside of you. So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died in the cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord.

Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah that's right and listen we want to help you get started in this new relationship with the Lord.

Would you let us send you something? It's free of charge. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. Millions have read this edition of God's Word. New believers love the study helps written just for them and they appreciate that it's in an easy to understand translation. We'll send it to you today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300.

You can call anytime 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Well we're so excited for you to see the new animated series called The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. So Pastor Greg you've drawn countless cartoons over the years. Take us to that moment when you first saw The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog come to life through animation and hearing those characters speak.

Take us to that moment when that was first unveiled for you. Yeah well it's been very interesting to see how it happens because now with that computer technology you can take a character and completely create him. So when we took my original drawings of Yellow Dog and then they were reimagined a little bit by an animation studio that we're working with you have a fully dimensional Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. We had to figure out like what do his pants look like what kind of shoes does he wear what does he look like if he's looking up if he's crouching down if he's jumping if he's running if he's happy if he's sad if he's angry all of those things are played out. So now we have a fully computerized model of Ben Born Again and now we get to that part we can start animating him and putting him against animation backdrops which are very important as well. Then you add music which is a very important part of creating the scene and then you have sound effects and then you have of course their voices and we have a very talented voice actor who actually does both Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog so no kidding yeah he's very skilled he does all of these voices and many more and and all of it comes together and then it becomes that animated experience that we've all come to enjoy and so it was very exciting even when I saw just sketches of how he was going to look but when I saw a fully animated version I have to say I was very excited about that and I'm really excited to introduce this to a lot of people because this is something we've never done before this is brand new but we like to try new things as I've said before we'd like to go to unexpected places to unexpected people with an unexpected message so the Lord is blessed as we've done these films and we've been able to reach entirely new audiences around the world especially with the Jesus Revolution film and we've just launched a special platform called Harvest Plus it's sort of like our Harvest content meets Netflix it's very easy to navigate and you can watch all of our documented films now we're going to have a whole section for kids featuring the Ben Bourne Again animated adventures it's actually called The Adventures of Ben Bourne Again and Yellow Dog and we're working on new ones as well but you can watch them right now if you just go to harvest.org or download that Harvest Plus app you can have it on your phone on your tablet on your TV at home and you can start watching this content it's there on demand there's no charge for it I encourage you to watch these cartoons with your kids or with your grandkids and it can be a great way to start a conversation about Jesus. Oh absolutely and you know what kid doesn't like a good cartoon and what parent or grandparent doesn't want good values taught to them while they're watching so find The Adventures of Ben Bourne Again and Yellow Dog using the Harvest Plus app or at harvest.org and we hope you'll partner with us so we can continue reaching out with the gospel in innovative new ways it's more expensive than you might imagine to produce an animated series so your investment couldn't come at a better time and Pastor Greg would like to thank you tangibly with a little gift a copy of the redesigned Living Water Tract it comes in comic book form and was the first thing Pastor Greg drew as a new believer way back when we'll send it to say thank you for your donation you can call us at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org well next time Pastor Greg highlights more practical principles for living a successful Christian life join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher Greg Lauren Hey everybody thanks for listening to A New Beginning this is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners so for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner just go to harvest.org