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. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie shows how the early church turned their world upside down with their commitment to the gospel. And we can too. What are you passionate about? Some people are passionate about sports. Other people are passionate about food. That's what fires them up.
Other people, it's politics. Listen, it's fine to have an interest in all of these things, but make your primary passion about Jesus Christ. That's it. Don't lose that. 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. Christianity is a worldwide faith. Some say over 31 percent are Christians the world over. Yet if you rewind history, Christianity began in a small geographic area on the other side of the globe with just a handful of followers.
How in the world did they reach the world? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us some good insight from the book of Acts that will help us encourage one another in the faith and reach our world in our time with the love of Christ. This is the day, the day when life begins.
All right. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. We are in our book of Acts series and the title of this message is, Better Together. I heard a story about a genie that appeared to a woman. True story. The genie said, Whatever you want I'll give to you and I'll grant to you as many wishes as you want.
Pretty good deal. So the woman replied, Well genie, my wish is that my husband's eyes should only be on me during all waking hours. The genie said, All right.
What else do you want? She says, Well, I don't want him to be concerned with anything else in life except me. In fact, she said, I don't even want him to sleep without me right by his side all the time. Okay. The genie says, What else? She said, Actually, I want him when he wakes up in the morning to see my face first. All right. Anything I show? One more thing.
I don't want him to go anywhere without me. So genie said, Boom. You are a cell phone. She was turned into a smartphone. It is funny. We call these things smart phones.
Right? I think they have actually made us more stupid. In many ways I read an article in Inc. Magazine with this headline, We lost.
The gadgets won. And among other things, the article points out that the average smartphone owner unlocks their phones 150 times a day. 85% of smartphone users check their phones while speaking with friends and family. Have you ever done that? That's rude, by the way.
You want someone saying, I just want to share this. It's so important. Yeah. Yeah.
And I just say, yeah. Okay. Wait. Are you listening? Yeah. I am listening.
I am listening. Wait. No. No. You are not listening. Put the phone down.
We all have done that haven't we? And I think not only have smart phones made us more stupid they have made us relationally dumb. I think social media in many ways is making people antisocial. Because you know social media back in the day on Instagram might be pictures of what you had for breakfast or you might see a random cat video or other fun things. And now it is like people ranting.
Ranting about whatever it is they are upset about. And then there is the effect that it has on young people. Facebook has 2.8 billion monthly users. And they recently, this is a news story, they recently did an internal research program. They wanted to find out what their users were really thinking and how Facebook and Instagram was impacting them. And they discovered that 30 percent of young girls who use Instagram it makes them feel worse about their bodies if they were already having insecurities. Teenagers blame Instagram for increases in their rates of anxiety and depression. Another presentation found that among teens who felt suicidal 13 percent of British users and 6 percent of American users trace their suicidal feelings to Instagram. So this is horrible.
Now girls let me just say something. Even the people you see don't look like those pictures. Ok. Because they are using filters and effects to make them look thinner or taller or whatever it is they are doing. That is not the real person. But this is the problem. Social media is not very social at all. In fact Americans have probably never been more disconnected. I read an article that was done that came to the conclusion that Americans have never felt more alone. And this article describes Americans as the loneliest people in the world. That article first appeared 30 years ago. If that was true 30 years ago how much more true is it today? Cigna a global health service company recently released this article where they interviewed 20,000 people.
And here is what they concluded. Number one. Half of Americans report sometimes are always feeling alone. Number two. Only half of Americans have meaningful in person social interactions on a daily basis. And number three. Generation Z is the loneliest generation and is in the worst health than any other generation. So we have a problem.
So what is the solution? Number one. We need God.
And number two. We need each other. It is as simple as that. We need God and we need each other. God wired you that way.
You are built for community. You are not meant to do life alone. In fact the first thing that God said was not good was the aloneness of man back in the book of Genesis. It says in Genesis 2 18 it is not good for man to be alone. Proverbs 27 17 reminds us as iron sharpens iron so one person sharpens another. Ecclesiastes 4 9 says, two are better than one.
If either one of them falls down one can help the other up. I read an article from the Harvard Women's Health Watch. And I always read the Harvard Women's Health Watch. No.
I just came across it. And it said quote, dozens of studies have shown that people who have satisfying relationships with family, friends, and their community are happier. They have fewer health problems and they live longer. End quote. And that is so true. Because God has wired us that way. And this is where the church comes in you see. Because the church is an oasis of hope in a desert of hopelessness. And that is why every one of us needs to be a part of the church. You will be happier when you are a part of the church. And you will even be healthier when you are part of the church. Physically Time Magazine did a cover story with the headline, Benefits of Faith and the Church. And here are their observations. Heart surgery patients who draw comfort from their faith have a significantly higher survival rate than those who do not.
Isn't that interesting? Secondly the blood pressure of people attending church is lower than those who don't. Thirdly people with faith who attend church on a regular basis experience less depression than non-church attenders.
And on it goes. So it is not only good for you spiritually. It is not only good for you emotionally. It is actually good for you physically to be a part of the church. So I bring this up because here in Acts 2 we are looking at the birth of the church. The church that Jesus started. The church that Jesus established.
He only started one organization if you will when He walked our earth and it was the church. By the way the word church means called out once. It is not about a building.
It is not about a cathedral. The church is when God's people gather together. Because Jesus said when two or more are gathered together in my name I am there in the midst of them. The church is a place to find accountability. The church is a place to be spiritually fed. The church is a place to hear the Word of God. The church is a place to discover and then use your spiritual gifts.
And the church should be your family because we really are your family. So let's consider now the story here before us of what the early church looked like. The church that changed the world.
The church that was accused of churning the world upside down. I am reading from Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47. And I am reading from the New King James Version. Just to get context remember this is on the heels of the day of Pentecost. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out. And 3,000 people have come to believe in Jesus after Simon Peter delivered the inaugural message of the church.
Acts 2 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship. The breaking of bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believe were together. They had all things in common. They sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as everyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.
Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix.
We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well Pastor Greg is taking us to the early days of the church. It was an exciting time as scripture says the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.
Let's continue. So what can we learn from this church? If you're taking notes here's point number one. They were a learning church. They were a learning church.
Now let me apply this to you personally. If you want to be a growing Christian you need to be a learning Christian. There's always so much more to learn.
I've been a Christian well pretty long now over 50 years. And you know you would think that I know a lot and I know some things but I've discovered that I have so much still to learn. And then there's a problem as you get older with forgetting things you've learned right.
So it's a process of learning new things and being reminded of old things that maybe you have forgotten. And the Apostle Paul after years of walking with the Lord said, look I am pressing on because I have not reached perfection. Pressing on toward the mark and that should be the objective and the attitude of every follower of Jesus Christ.
These people were studying the Word of God. To those of us who are called to preach and teach the Bible Scripture says in 2 Timothy 4 2 preach the Word. Be persistent whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct.
Rebuke. Encourage your people with good teaching. Then Paul goes on to say for the time will come when people will no longer listen to right teaching.
They'll follow their own desires and look for teachers who will tell them whatever they want to hear. So our focus at this church for 50 years now has been on teaching the Word of God. We offer theology without apology.
Pretty much whatever we're doing we're going to get around to opening up the Bible and see what it has to say. That is our focus. That will always be our focus. Now that is not always the focus.
I am glad you agree. That is not always the focus. Some churches are focused more on worship.
Maybe focused more on having an emotional experience. And then other churches are focused perhaps on entertainment. And another church might be focused more on politics. But our focus should be on the Word of God.
This first century church did that. So there is a need for strong biblical preaching. But there is also a need for good listening.
Good listening. You know it is easy to not pay attention. You remember those old Peanuts cartoons and when the parents spoke it was like wah wah wah. They never had the voices of the parents.
Just the kids. And sometimes that is how things can sound to you. You can tune something out. You are not paying attention.
You need to give your attention with intention. The fact of the matter here in verse 42 when it says continued steadfastly this speaks of passion. They were living in a first love relationship with Jesus and they had burning hearts. And let me ask you this. What are you passionate about? I mean seriously I know the default answer.
Jesus. Ok. Maybe. We will see. I will go check out your social media. And then I will see what you are really passionate about. What do you post most about?
What do you talk most about? Some people are passionate about sports. Sports. I have never cared that much about sports. I am sorry to tell you this. I may have to turn my man card in. But I just never cared that much.
You know never having a dad growing up. I just never really got into the sports vortex. And I know a lot. And there is nothing wrong with loving sports and enjoying sports.
But is that your primary passion? Other people are passionate about movies. Or this new series on Netflix. Have you seen this?
You have got to watch this. And you know you will be talking about whatever. But the moment that topic comes up they get all fired up. Other people are passionate about food. Food.
Everything is food. You know. And that is what fires them up. Other people it is politics. Man they are not even interested in the conversation until you get to politics.
Now they come to life. Listen. It is fine to have an interest in all of these things. But make your primary passion about Jesus Christ.
That is it. Don't lose that. It is not that these other things are bad things. But if one of these things takes the place of Jesus and your passion is channeled in a different direction it actually can be a bad thing. So these people listened. They listened to what the Word said. They continued with passion in the apostles doctrine.
And that is the way we should be as well. We must come with a desire to hear the Word. Number two. It was a loving church. So number one they were a learning church. Number two they were a loving church.
Verse 42. They continued in fellowship. The breaking of bread and prayers and continued to do this together. Now as we grow in our faith we will want to do it with other believers. Gathering around the Word of God.
And the Lord loves it when we talk about Him together. There is a fascinating little passage over in Malachi 3.16 that says, Those that feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard. The Lord listened and heard. So the idea is that the phrase listened and heard can be translated to prick the air.
So you hear something and all of a sudden you tune into it. The idea is that God bends down to us not to miss a single word. So we are talking about whatever and suddenly someone says, You know the Word of God or the Bible or Jesus. All of a sudden the Lord says, Oh wait. What are you saying? I am really interested in what you are saying.
For instance if I am talking to an adult and one of my grandchildren comes up and says, Papa I hear that and I am going to tune out whatever is happening around me and put my attention toward one of my grandchildren. God likes it when we talk about Him together. Fellowship is praying together. Fellowship is serving together. Fellowship is suffering together. Fellowship is being blessed together. Fellowship is serving together. In fact the stronger your vertical fellowship the stronger your horizontal fellowship will be. By vertical I mean the closer you are to God the closer you will be with God's people. And if you are not as close to God as you need to be you will probably want to spend less time around godly people.
So this is something that is so important. Now I know sometimes people say, Well I don't know the church you know. It is so full of hypocrites.
Hey there is always room for one more so come join us. You have heard me and others say many times don't try to find the perfect church because when you find it you will ruin it right. The church is made up of imperfect people. We all fall short.
We all make mistakes. But that is an excuse when you say the church is full of hypocrites. Sometimes people say, Well I don't know when I go to church I feel judged. Let me say something that might surprise you. Maybe you need to be judged a little bit. Now let me explain.
Let me explain. Jesus said, Judge not lest you be judged. Every non-believer knows that verse. And they also know this verse, Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.
Right. But what does it mean when Jesus says, Judge not lest you be judged. Does it mean we should not make evaluations about people or situations. We should not make judgments of any kind.
Well it can't mean that. Because the Bible says judgment begins at the house of God. A literal translation of what Jesus said would be, Condemn not lest you be condemned. So if you went to a church and you were condemned that is wrong.
And I apologize for that if that happened. But if you went to a church and someone called you out because of a sinful thing you were doing you were doing. That is not condemnation. That is love. Now there is a right way to do it. There is a right way to do it. Because you know some people they are so holier than thou and they are arrogant and condescending.
Now we are not talking about that. But I am saying if there is someone that loves you enough to say, I am concerned about you spiritually. That is a true friend. Because the Bible says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
See a true friend will stab you in the front not the back. Right. The Bible says, Open rebuke is better than secret love. So we do need to be accountable to one another. I think this is one of the reasons people church hop. Because people get their number. Hey man I see you are still doing this thing.
Why are you doing that. I am feeling called to another church. Then they end up in the other church and people find out. Then they move to another church.
It reminds me of a story of a guy who was stranded on an island out in the middle of the ocean. They finally came and rescued him. Saw that he had three buildings that he had built. Three. And so they asked him, well three buildings. What are these buildings? He says, well the first building that is my house. Ok. What are the other two buildings? Well the next one that is my church.
Ok. Your house. Your church.
What is the third building? He says, that is a church I used to go to. The church a place to develop a consistent theology. A place to develop friendships.
A place to grow together. Pastor Greg Laurie with important insight on the role the church should play in our daily lives. We are learning a lot from this new series on a new beginning called The Upside Down Life based in the book of Acts. Now as important as it is to be a part of a good church, it's not church membership that gets us to heaven. It's only through a relationship with Christ that we can know we're going to heaven when this life is over. Do you have that assurance? Pastor Greg, it's just not a good idea to assume everything's just going to work out ok, is it?
No, this is one area of your life you want to be sure about. Where you're going to spend eternity. The Bible says these things we write to you that you may believe on the Son of God and that you may know that you have eternal life. Listen, I know I have eternal life.
I know I'll go to heaven one day and I hope that doesn't sound boastful and if it does I'm boasting on what God has done for me, not on what I've done for God. The reason I know these things is because I've turned from my sin and I've put my faith in Christ you see and if you do the same you can have the same hope. You just need to call out to the Lord an adventurous sinner and ask Jesus Christ to forgive you and come into your life. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Will you call upon him right now? I'm going to pray a simple prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer after me if you would. So if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to know for certain that Christ is living in your life, then pray this prayer with me. Just pray these words.
Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner but I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord, as my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer and I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. And listen, if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and you've meant those words sincerely, the Lord has forgiven your sin and you're now a Christian. And we want to help you get started in this new life of faith. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible.
It's in an easy to understand translation and there are scores of features to help a new believer build a solid foundation for their faith. So get in touch and ask for the New Believers Bible. We'll send it to you free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300. You can call us anytime.
Again, 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, we're excited about the new animated cartoon series called The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. And Pastor Greg, you've mentioned before that you've drawn many cartoon strips over the years, especially when you were younger.
That's right. Now you've gone through the process of producing this cartoon series for TV and social media. Are you a little surprised at the work involved and what it takes? Yeah, it is a lot of work, especially due to animation. I mean, I can sit down with a felt pen and I can create a cartoon and a strip in a short period of time, maybe a little bit longer if it has multiple panels. But animation, my goodness, I had no idea all that went into it.
But it's been a fascinating journey to learn about it as well. So first we had to determine how tall has been born again and how tall is his dog, Yellow Dog, compared to him and what does his voice sound like? So we had to find a voice actor and I think we found a very talented young man who does both Yellow Dog and Ben's voice. But we're introducing new characters now, a female character, a cat and another character named Willy.
Hold the phone, hold the phone. Greg Laurie's producing a cat? Oh yeah, you know, so funny. The other day I was speaking out a thing and a lady came up to me very serious and she said, I need to talk to you about your hatred for cats. I said, I don't hate cats. I actually like cats. I just do that, I think because people almost expect it from me now. I mean even you have to admit they're rather aloof. She goes, yes they are.
I said, that's my whole point. So I'm introducing a new cat and his name is Hopkins the cat and he's literally based on a cat that lives in my neighborhood. This cat walks around like he owns the place. It's sort of like it's Hopkins world and we just live in it and he'll come to my door waiting expecting me to answer the door and give him his little bowl of milk. He'll lap it three times and then walks off aloof as ever but he always comes back and I really like this cat so he's inspired me to introduce a cat into the cartoon strip that will become the nemesis of Yellow Dog.
Yellow Dog does not like this intruder Hopkins the cat but Hopkins is going to have some funny moments and even some insightful moments and he'll be a good addition to the universe of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. I'm also introducing another character named Willie. So there's a lot coming, a lot of twists and turns, unexpected things but some of these characters I came up with back in the 70s. Others I came up with when I was just a boy in elementary school and some are more recent to kind of create this little universe of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. Well from this universe we have a brand new product that we're making available, a resource that I think our listeners, especially parents, will really find interesting.
Yeah that's right Dave. It's called the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book and I wrote this actually years ago for kids. You know we give out the New Believers Bible to those who are adult age, even young adults, but I wanted something just for the kids so I actually hand drew everything. I wrote all the words, drew the cartoon characters and it's gone through different versions and now we have a brand new version featuring the latest Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog designs as seen in the cartoons and I think this is a great resource to put into the hands of a young person so they can understand the basics of the Christian faith.
Dave I was just talking with someone who's an older gentleman and I was going over the basics of the Christian faith and it just amazes me how so often people don't know the very foundational teachings of what the Bible says and this is what we build our lives on. This is our foundation and I find myself coming back again and again to these basics because if you neglect them you're going to have a lot of trouble. So with kids we try to make it fun, understandable, even entertaining. They'll even laugh but at the same time they're learning what the Bible says so we're reintroducing a brand new version, a refresh if you will, of the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book for Kids and so you might want to order one or two or three of these to have to use with your children or to give to other children or you may just want to support this endeavor because you see we want to reach people of all ages and I have a heart for young people.
I always have had that heart. You know I started out very young myself then I became a dad now I'm a grandfather and I want to take the truths of scripture and make them understandable to little kids. You know often I'll have people tell me that we listen to you on the radio or we listen to your podcast on the way to school and my kids love it. Often I'll have little kids like eight years old, seven years old that want to meet me and I just met a couple at church just last Sunday and this little kid says I want to get a selfie with you.
I think you're too young to even know what a selfie is and he's getting a selfie with me but this little kid listens to me and he's connecting to what is being said. That's one of the reasons I use a lot of illustrations and I use humor to engage these kids and that's why I'm returning to cartoons and animation to seek to engage a whole new generation of people that maybe haven't heard the gospel. Again something we've been saying a lot lately is we want to reach unexpected people and unexpected places with an unexpected message. So often we're so busy reaching older folks we forget the little kids and I remember they're there listening to our conversations and they're listening to the program as you're listening to it. I want to talk to them. I want something for them.
So kids listen to me. Tell your mom or your dad or your grandparents to get you the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. You're going to love it. Yeah that's right and be sure to ask nicely.
See please that goes a long way. Have your mom or dad go to harvest.org. They can find out more there or they can call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again it's called the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book.
Just call 1-800-821-3300. Well next time more insight on how we need the church and the church needs us. More from our studies in the book of Acts. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. 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.
