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September 19, 2024 3:00 am

Never Lose Hope | Where to Find Hope

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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September 19, 2024 3:00 am

A story of Jonah's rebellion and God's mercy, illustrating the importance of a relationship with God and the power of second chances. Pastor Greg Laurie shares his study of Jonah, highlighting the prophet's struggles and God's ultimate plan for redemption and forgiveness.

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Jonah faith hope God relationship Jesus sacrifice
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Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the back story of the music group for King and Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-bone family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.

Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at harvest.org. There's a whole generation of young people today. They've been described as the hopeless generation. But the answer is still the same. It's still a relationship with God.

We're surrounded by so many ways to entertain ourselves. Pastor Greg Lori says don't be distracted from the real source of hope. Don't put your hope in technology. Don't put your hope in any human solution. Don't put your hope in money. Don't put your hope in religion. Put your hope in Jesus Christ. Don't lose hope. We live in the information age.

If we have a question, the answer should be just a mouse click away. The trouble is, for every question, you'll find a million answers on the Internet. And yet with all that information, depression and hopelessness are at an all-time high.

Is there just no way to find hope, or have we just been looking in all the wrong places? Today on A New Beginning, as Pastor Greg Lori continues his study of Jonah, we'll find hope in the same place Jonah found hope. So Jonah was called to preach to the city of Nineveh. And I pointed out a very wicked city.

Very wicked people. He thought, no, I'll just run away from God and I won't have to do this thing He's calling me to do. And of course he got on this boat and a great storm came. And all of these non-believing sailors who spent a lot of time in the open waters started to freak out.

They had never seen a storm of this kind before. And they correctly understood this storm was from some god in their mind. They believed in many gods. It was from some god. So in their estimation, some god out there was ticked off. And they wanted to know which god it was. So they said, everyone call on your god. They called on all these gods. No god was responding.

The storm was getting worse. And they said, what about that stranger below the deck? Oh that some god.

We don't even know who he is. Get him up here and tell him to call on his god. Jonah is brought up on deck and he says, yeah I am a Hebrew. I serve the Lord and my god sent this storm. And if you throw me overboard the storm will stop. And we read that they didn't want to do that. So verse 12 it says, the sailors rode even harder to get the ship to the land but the storming sea was too violent for them and they couldn't make it.

So they ultimately threw them overboard. And this to me is just a classic example of how sometimes in our own strength we try to get ourselves out of our problems. You know a problem comes we say, no problem. I will take care of this.

Some phone call to a friend or I will have a resolution or I have some shortcut or some hack or some way to resolve this. And then your problem gets worse and worse. And you realize this is something you need to cry out to God about. And sometimes I think people can become Christians by just good things they do. Well I will just get rid of some of the bad things in my life.

They were throwing cargo overboard. And I think sometimes people think well maybe if I just clean my life up a little bit. Maybe if I don't cuss quite as much.

Maybe if I am a little nicer to people that will be better. But you know this is not about just cleaning your life up a little bit. Being a Christian is realizing there is no other way for you to be forgiven of your sin but through Jesus Christ. And you have to admit that only He can do this for you. And Jonah said, you've got to throw me overboard. God was saying, I want a sacrifice.

I don't want a bunch of stuff. I want a sacrifice. And they threw Jonah over. And of course the fish swallows him. We will get to that in a moment. And God was satisfied with the sacrifice.

Why do I bring this up? Jesus used this as an illustration of what happened to him on the cross. He said, people ask for a sign or a miracle. No sign will be given but that of the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish or the sea monster.

So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words Jesus is saying, you want a miracle? You want a sign? You want to be dazzled?

Here it is. I will die on a cross for the sin of the world. I will rise again from the dead.

That is my sign to you. So if you want to be forgiven of your sin you believe because I am the sacrifice. Jonah was the sacrifice. And by the way he lived to tell the story. So there is even a resurrection element in the story. I find it fascinating also that verse 16 of chapter 1 of Jonah says, the sailors were awestruck by the Lord's great power and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. So despite Jonah's lousy witness these men still believed. Sometimes even when we are messing up God can still use us.

So we have an illustration. Kathy tell us your story. Remember that after you became a Christian you fell away from the Lord and you were with your friend.

Was it Jeannie? Yeah. So tell them what happened.

Ok. So I was a disobedient girl. I had accepted Jesus into my heart and had felt my sin was forgiven and I was happy and I was doing well for about six months. After about six months due to just lack of fellowship and I wasn't going to church and I didn't really have any Christian friends I got kind of worn down and I went back to my old ways. This is part of my testimony I'm not very proud of. But for about six months I kind of wallowed back and all the stuff that I was doing before and I was super unhappy.

And Christians would even come up to me and kind of try to say hey you know let me tell you about Jesus and I go I already tried that. You'll get over it. It'll it'll wear off. But I never could deny. How old were you at this point Kathy?

I was probably 14, 15 years old. And so at that point I didn't want to think about the way in which Jesus had forgiven me of my sins. I just wanted to just forget about that and just live my life.

But I was really unhappy. And so after about six months it was my birthday and we went down to Laguna Beach and I will admit we were high. We had been smoking pot and I felt so empty inside.

It was my birthday but I wasn't happy and I was sitting on the beach with my friend Jeannie. And I saw these people come walking by on the beach and I don't know if they were really carrying Bibles but they looked like Bibles. They were black books and I it jogged my memory to when I was once walking with the Lord and I said to Jeannie I said you know there was once a time in my life when I kind of did that too. And I I was going to church and I carried my Bible and you know what I felt clean and forgiven and that God was there and and I had joy and all of that had left because I had gone back to my old ways and and as I was sharing with her the reality of what I had once experienced. I didn't know this but Jeannie sitting next to me who had never never heard the gospel before looked at me and she she said well what did you do. And I said well I just remember praying a really simple prayer asking God to forgive me of my sins.

And I felt this weight just come off of me like all the stuff that I'd ever done and and I was like one of these days I'm going to get back to that one of these days you know. And Jeannie looked at me and she goes why would you wait. I was like I don't know.

I don't know why I would wait. She goes well tell me again what did you do and what what was the prayer that you prayed. So the best I could recall I told her what what I had prayed to she goes can we do that right now. And I'm like here we are high sitting on the beach in Laguna and I'm like I I'm I'm not I'm the worst person to tell you right now what to do and and yet she was so insistent about praying this prayer herself and so we prayed together and and we felt our just everything cleared up our heads cleared up and we were like we looked at each other. Can you believe we just did this and we were super happy and it felt that same sense of forgiveness and joy and and she became my best friend and finally I had a Christian friend to help me walk and we started going to church and got together with a group of friends on campus and went to Bible study and you know I just goes to show you can be disobedient and kind of a bad place and if you tell the truth about who Jesus is people will respond. It's just amazing. So you led yourself back to the Lord.

That's a great story isn't it. So my point is is like Jonah was messing up but even when he was messing up God still worked through him and these other guys believe and Kathy sort of illustrated that with their friend Jeannie even though she was messing up God still worked through her. So God can use us even when we're not exactly where we ought to be. Think how effectively God can use us when we are where we ought to be. And so Jonah is thrown over the side and God brings in his super cool custom design watercraft.

Jonah 1 17 the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside of the fish for three days and three nights. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hi 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. We're following the saga of Jonah the rebellious prophet. And as Pastor Greg picks up the story Jonah is stuck inside the great fish where he's been now for three days and three nights. So let's look now at the prayer of Jonah in the belly of the beast. I'm reading from Jonah chapter 2 verse 1.

Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish. He said, I cried out to the Lord of my great trouble and He answered me, I called you from the world of the dead and Lord you heard me. You threw me into the ocean depths and I sank down to the heart of the sea. I was buried beneath your wind in the stormy waves. Then I said, oh Lord you have driven me from your presence.

How will I ever again see your holy temple? I sank beneath the waves and death was very near. The waters closed in around me. Seaweed wrapped itself around my head.

I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was locked out of life and I was imprisoned in the land of the dead. But you oh Lord my God have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death. When I lost all hope I turned my thoughts once again to the Lord and my earnest prayer went out to you in your holy temple. Those who worship false gods and turn their backs in God's mercies will fail but I will offer sacrifice to you with songs of praise and I will fulfill all of my vows for my salvation comes from the Lord alone.

Wow. What a beautiful prayer that is. And the belly of the beast. And notice how he was beginning to lose hope. Verse 7 of Jonah 2.

When I had lost all hope I turned my thoughts once more to the Lord and my earnest prayer went out to your holy temple. You know studies have revealed that when a person loses hope they can become despondent enough to sometimes even consider taking their life. Many psychologists have said that people who were suicidal it started with hopelessness. And there is a whole generation of young people today they have been described as the hopeless generation. And they are wondering what is my life all about? What is the purpose of my life? What is the meaning of my life? And I think honestly all the social media has just absolutely exasperated the problem and it is creating problems and challenges that maybe no other generation in history has faced.

It is incredible actually. But the answer is still the same. It is still a relationship with God. So it comes down to this. What you put your hope in. Don't put your hope in people. People will disappoint you. Parents will disappoint you. Children will disappoint you.

Friends will disappoint you. Don't put your hope in technology. Don't put your hope in any human solution. Don't put your hope in money. Money will fail you.

Money will disappoint you. Don't put your hope in religion. Put your hope in Jesus Christ. Don't lose hope. You can kind of understand why he was starting to lose hope.

Imagine you are in the gut of a whale or a great fish wrapped in seaweed and you are thinking I am not getting out of here alive unless God does a miracle. There is an acronym I heard for hope. H-O-P-E-H. Hold. O. On. P. Patient. E. Expectation. Holding on with patient expectation.

Hope. And now we see that God gives second chances. Go to Jonah 2 verse 10. The Lord spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah on the dry ground and the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time saying, Arise and go to Nineveh that great city and preach to it the message that I gave you. Jonah probably wondered if God would ever use him again.

The Lord was certainly under no obligation to do so. But remember all of this happened to Jonah because he was loved by God. And this should give hope to any person here that feels like they need a second chance in life. God gives second chances. And third chances and fourth chances and fifth ones.

And as high as you can count He will keep giving you another chance. God gave a second chance to Adam and Eve our first parents. They were strictly warned to not eat of the forbidden fruit. But you know what happened.

They did. Sin entered into the world and God could have said, That's it. I am starting over again.

But yet what do we read there? In the book of Genesis they heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the day saying, Adam where are you? God was still longing for fellowship with His wayward son. King David was given a second chance after his adultery and murder, which he did to cover up his adultery. He was confronted by the prophet Nathan and he repented.

He was given a second chance. Samson had so much going for him. Samson was like a superhero. But he was for real. He could do these incredible feats of strength that God gave to him.

But you know how he fell into sin and he got involved in all kinds of immorality and ultimately he was captured by his enemies and his eyes were gouged out. But the Bible says in Judges 16 verse 22 about Samson, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again. And by the way that is my life verse. I quote it often. Lord you promised in Scripture the hair of his head grew again. Let it be unto me now.

But it hasn't worked so far. Oh it grows. But it grows in all the wrong places right? It never grows out of your head.

It grows out of your ears. I will stop there. But God gave him a second chance. Finally Simon Peter failed miserably. Of course he denied the Lord three times. Yet after Christ grows again the message was sent out. Go tell the disciples and Peter he is risen again. Why end Peter?

Because he failed the most miserably. God gives second chances. So I love how this story just says, And the whale vomited Jonah on dry ground. So here is Jonah repentant and regurgitated. Believing and barfed. Righteous and roughed. Victorious and vomited. And what did he look like?

I mean when you are inside of the stomach of some sea monster or fish or whale all those gastric juices you know. But he was probably ghostly white. And so he starts walking into Nineveh. Forty days in Nineveh will be overthrown.

They are saying whatever you say dude you are scaring us. I mean he was a scary looking sight. But God gave him a second chance. Back to Nineveh.

It was Nineveh or bust. Back to the illustration of Jesus when He said the story of Jonah is like the story of the cross. You know sometimes people will say yeah you know what if you would show me a miracle I would believe.

If you could prove this to me I would believe. You know Jesus performed a lot of miracles. He restored sight to the blind.

Hearing to the deaf. He cured people of leprosy which was incurable. He even raised people from the dead. And so He says you know you guys want a sign. Here is a sign I am going to give you. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The effective sign He gave and the message He gives is I died on the cross for your sin. That is the greatest thing I could do for humanity. And I rose again from the dead three days later. Maybe you have tried to make some changes in your life. You are like the sailors throwing stuff overboard. Well I will just clean my life up a little bit.

No. You don't clean your life up and come to Christ. You come to Christ and He will clean your life up. You come with your problems. You come with your sins. And you realize you can't save yourself any more than a drowning man can save himself. You have to call out for help and He will forgive you of all of your sin.

And Jesus is ready to do that now. And I wonder if there is someone here that needs a second chance. You have messed up.

You have done things you know you shouldn't have done. Maybe even as a Christian. And you want to get right with God.

This is the perfect time to do it because we are going to pray in just a moment. But there might be somebody here that maybe you are a little bit like Kathy was when she was compromising and then realized what she was missing and she wanted to come back again to the Lord. Or maybe you are a person who is hearing this for the first time. You are hopeless. Some of you have even contemplated suicide.

Some of you have maybe even attempted it. I don't know what you are going through right now but I am telling you your situation is not hopeless. And God can come into your life and change your whole story.

And it can happen so quickly for you. But you must call out to Him because He has everything you are looking for in life. And Jesus who died in that cross for your sin and mine and rose again from the dead is standing at the door of your life now and He is knocking and He is saying if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in. If you have never asked Jesus to come into your life you can do it right now.

And if you need to come back to the Lord again because you need a second chance you can do that as well. Why don't we all pray together. Father thank You for loving us so much.

You never let us go too far and You keep chasing after us ready to forgive, ready to pardon, ready to give a second chance. And I pray for any person here that needs that or someone who doesn't even know You yet. Let this be the moment wherever they are that they come to believe in Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. An important prayer from Pastor Greg Laurie.

And if you want to follow through on what Pastor Greg suggested and make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, he wants to help you with that before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. So stay with us. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially, those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We are definitely a listener supported ministry.

It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help.

It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300.

Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. And then Pastor Greg, just before we go, would you mind praying with the person listening who wants to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord? I'd be happy to, Dave. You know, as you've been listening to this today, maybe you've heard another voice. By that I mean, yeah, you've heard me say a few things, but you heard God's voice speak to you deep in the recesses of your heart. And it suddenly dawned on you, this is what I need. Or to state it more accurately, this is who I need. I need Jesus and I want Jesus.

But maybe you don't know how to make that connection. Let me help you. God is only a prayer away. He stands at the door of your heart and he knocks and Jesus says if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he'll come in. Let me help you open the door, so to speak, of your heart as you invite Jesus to be your Savior and Lord. So here's what I would like you to do. I'd like you to stop what you're doing and I want you to pray a prayer after me. I'll lead you in this prayer and as you pray it, God will hear you. Pray this after me right now if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner and I am sorry for my sin and I need your forgiveness right now. Would you come into my heart and my life as Savior, as God, as friend? I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and accepting me and for giving me. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. I know that was a relatively short prayer. Maybe you felt something as you prayed it.

Maybe you felt nothing. That doesn't really matter because God's word says these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. It doesn't say, so you may think you have it or you may hope you have it if God's in a good mood.

No, that you can know it. And I want you to know if you pray that prayer in a minute, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come into your life. So congratulations. You're now a Christian. Now continue to follow the Lord. Yeah, and to help you, we'd like to send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It's an easy-to-understand translation with hundreds of helps specifically for those who are new to the faith.

It'll answer many of the questions you might have and get you started in your new relationship with the Lord. So get in touch and ask for the New Believer's Bible. We'll send it free of charge. Just call 1-800-821-3300. That's our 24-hour phone number, 1-800-821-3300.

Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, next time, as Pastor Greg continues our up-close look at the life of Jonah, we'll focus on the evangelism side of Jonah's story. Pastor Greg offers a message called How to Reach Our Culture. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-09-19 04:57:41 / 2024-09-19 05:07:48 / 10

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