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. We want to have a biblical worldview. So many voices around us telling us what to think, what to believe.
Pastor Greg Lori says, resist that. Don't just go with your emotions because your emotions can mislead you. Don't just go with your heart because your heart can mislead you. Certainly don't go with culture because that will mislead you. Go with the Bible.
It will never take you in the wrong direction. Learn to think biblically. We live in the information age.
Facts and figures fly at us faster than we can absorb, and opinions, suppositions, rumors and innuendos come screaming at us from every form of media, especially social media. Where do we find an escape? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Lori points out our respite is right in the pages of God's Word. Not only do we find solace, we find a soothing salve of Scripture. Today let's ponder on things above. We are in a brand new series right now that we are calling Worldview.
And I will explain it a little bit more in a few moments. But the title of my message is The Biblical Worldview on Salvation. So I want you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 is our text. And sometimes people ask me, Greg, what happened to your hair? But after that they do ask that. But after that they will say, why do you do these crusades? Because you know honestly they are a lot of work. There's months of prayer and planning and more prayer and more work and money and more prayer that is involved.
Our team works tirelessly putting in hours and hours. Why do we do this? It is a very simple answer. We do this so people can be saved. So people can be saved from their sin because when it is all said and done there is nothing more important than people coming into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you agree with that?
I hope you do. Nothing. You know sometimes we will say no the most important thing is feeding people who are hungry or clothing them or it is helping people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol to get off of the substances they are on or maybe to put their marriages back together. All those things are very important. But the most important thing is having people change their eternal address from a place called hell to a place called heaven.
And here is the thing. If that happens I believe all these other areas of life will sort themselves out. If you put Christ at the forefront of your life He can heal your marriage no matter what you are going through.
If you put Christ at the forefront of your life He can restore you and you don't have to be into the influence of any drug or any other thing. So this is why we do what we do. And I love the word saved. Saved. Salvation.
Because that is exactly what happens. And by the way that is a biblical word. It is used many times. In fact in Romans 10 9-10 it says, If you will declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe, and you are justified, and it is with your mouth you profess your faith, and you are saved. When Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost he said to the people gathered, be saved from this perverse generation. Then later on in Acts 2 we read, The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Then in Acts 2 21 it says, Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Hebrews 7 25 says, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him. It is a perfect description.
Because that is what it is. You are being saved. It is a phrase we would use if a lifeguard rescued a person. Or if a firefighter ran into a burning building and brought someone out we would say they were saved. And when we go and share our faith and someone believes in Jesus literally if they put their trust in Him they are being saved in the truest sense of what that word means. Well we are in this new series. We are calling it World View. And the objective of this series is to help us to learn how to think biblically. See everybody has a world view.
There is no question about that. And your world view is influenced by many things. It is influenced by culture. Your upbringing. Your education or lack thereof. The books you read or the lack of books you read.
The media you expose yourself to. And a world view is comprehensive. It will affect every area of your life from your personal morality to how you spend your money to your politics to how you vote even.
It affects everything about you. And so what we want to have is a Christian world view. And more specifically we want to have a biblical world view. The only way to have a biblical world view is by studying and memorizing Scripture and spending time in it each and every day.
So we run everything through a biblical grid and we ask ourselves the question what does the Bible say about this. Because sometimes people have an emotional world view. They base their views on how they feel. And you don't want to do that because your emotions can mislead you. You know sometimes people will say, well I just go with my heart. Because the heart wants what the heart wants.
What the heck does that even mean. Let me tell you something about your heart. The Bible says it is deceitfully wicked above all things.
Who can know it. So don't just go with your heart because your heart can mislead you. Don't just go with your emotions because your emotions can mislead you. Certainly don't go with culture because that will mislead you. Go with the Bible. It will never take you in the wrong direction. And to think biblically.
C.S. Lewis said and I quote, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Son has risen not because I see it but because by it I see everything else. That is how we have to view life. Through the lens of Scripture. Through the eyes of a follower of Jesus Christ. And I want to talk about the biblical view of salvation. But let me take a quick poll. How many of you would describe yourselves as being saved? Raise your hand. Ok. That is almost everybody.
Very good. That is very important that we are saved. Again what does it mean to be saved.
So I want to kind of drill down a little bit into this because we throw the word around but do we understand it. Back to Romans 10 again. If you will declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you will be saved for it is with your heart you believe and you are justified and it is with your mouth you profess your faith and are saved. So one of the great benefits of salvation is God justifies us. So what does that mean.
That is a word we may use and repeat but we don't necessarily understand it. One aspect of justification means that God has forgiven you of all of your sin. But even more He has removed all of the evidence of your sin as well. Now that is important because we have all done things we wish we had not done.
Right. We have all said things we wish we had not said. But God can forgive us of our sin if we repent of it. And not only does He forgive us but then He forgets our sin. God says in Hebrews 10 17, I will never again remember your sins and lawless deeds. Now let's understand God is omniscient.
Which means He knows all things. So it is not like God is literally forgetting things but it means that He is choosing to not hold those things against you. Sort of like when you are having conflicts with your spouse and marriage and they bring up something you did like 30 years ago. Remember that time you said this to me.
Seriously. That was 30 years ago. Can you just let it go? See that is what it means to forgive and forget that you don't keep an account of all those things and bring them up over and over. So God says I choose to no longer remember that thing that you did that was a sin against me and affront to me. I love this passage in Jeremiah where God says, there will come a day when you will look high and low for a sign of Israel's guilt. You will find nothing. Search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah's sin.
You will find nothing. These people that I have saved will start out with a clean slate. That is what God does for us. That is what it means to be saved.
I have a clean slate. My sin is removed. Now if that is all salvation was. If that is all justification was that would be more than enough. No wonder the Bible calls it so great a salvation in Hebrews 2-3.
But that is not all there is. Because in addition to that God has placed the righteousness of Jesus Christ into my spiritual bank account so to speak. The Bible tells us in Philippians 3, 9, being found in Him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith. You see I am a righteous man.
You say, well Greg I don't know. You know I saw how you drove earlier today. Wait. I didn't say I always do righteous things. But I am positionally righteous before God.
And this is true of every Christian. Because the day I believed He removed my sin. He forgave my sin. He forgot my sin.
He removed every trace of my sin. And in the place of that He put the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that is what it means to be justified. We know salvation is a gift from God.
So what does it mean to work out our own salvation? Well Pastor Greg answers that next. We really enjoy hearing when Pastor Greg's teaching and preaching touches lives. Pastor Greg I wanted to give a shout out to you. Since my mom and dad are with Jesus you have been that pastoral parent that I needed through the years.
You are like a friend who reaches out their hand and says, come with me. I will take you to someone who loves you, Jesus. Every time I hear your sermons it would help me understand the heart of God and His word which is something I needed so much. I appreciate your vision to know God and make Him known. Thank you Pastor Greg. If your life has been changed because of Harvest Ministries would you let Pastor Greg know? Just drop him an email. Greg at Harvest.org.
Again that's Greg at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is giving us a correct view of sin, salvation, and our standing before God. We are developing a biblical world view. Let's continue.
Here's the problem. We know these things. We say these things. But do we live like saved people? Because sometimes you don't see the impact of one's salvation on a person's lifestyle or on their choices. They will say, oh yes I love the Lord, but they will do things that seem to contradict that. They will say, oh yes I am saved, but you wonder are they really saved? And I think if a person has really met God there will be evidence in their life. If a person has really come into this encounter with Jesus Christ you will see the results.
And this is sort of a transitional moment of what I am talking about here where I want to talk about working out your salvation, which will bring us to our text in Philippians. And here is an illustration that will help us to understand it. I read recently in USA Today that there is a lot of lottery tickets that have never been claimed. In fact this article said there were 46 million dollars waiting for people that bought a ticket and technically won some of that money but never received it because they never brought their ticket in. They missed the deadline.
And they say this happens every year. They have millions of dollars that is never collected. A few years ago there was a 25 million dollar prize here in California that went unclaimed. And by the way this is not an endorsement of the lottery. In fact I hope you don't spend your money on lottery tickets.
But I am using this merely as an illustration. I read about a man in Pennsylvania who read about time running out on a 20 million dollar lottery prize. And he wondered, wow I wonder if I bought that ticket. Apparently he had bought quite a few.
So he went through a bunch of old boxes and sure enough he found the winning ticket and brought it in one day before it expired. And in many ways God has given us something well far greater than a lottery ticket. But far more than millions and millions of dollars in salvation. So what I want to do is I want to take hold of or live out what God has given to me. So let's look at Philippians 2 verse 12. Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and do of His good pleasure. Work out your own salvation.
What does that mean? It means only you can work out your salvation. Wouldn't it be nice if you could hire someone to work out for you? You say, you know what I don't want to work out. Why don't you go work out for me? But you can't do that. You have to go work out for yourself. So work out your own salvation. This is not something someone else can do in your place.
This is something you must do for yourself. It's a personal choice. But Paul throws in an interesting thought here in verse 12. Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not only in my presence but more in my absence. So basically Paul is writing to the believers here in Philippi from a prison.
He's been arrested. And he can't go and be with them as he was in the past. And so he misses them and they miss him. So basically he is saying, now guys I am not with you but I still want you to work out your own salvation. I think the New Living Translation is helpful here where Paul says, dearest friends you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you. But now that I am away you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives.
So here is what Paul is saying in effect guys. You need to grow up spiritually. You can't build your spiritual life on me. Don't even for a moment think you guys can go into spiritual cruise control if I am not personally there for you because it is God that works in you.
Not Paul. I am not doing the work in your life. God is doing the work in your life. Now I bring this up because sometimes we can allow people to take the place of God in our life. I am not going to church if so and so isn't speaking. I only go when He speaks. Well I am not going to do that because I don't know that person.
I only like this person. And we can become far too willing to put a person in the place of God. We can allow our hearts as one said to become idle factories. A husband chooses to not go to church because his wife doesn't go anymore. Or maybe the kids don't go to church because their parents don't go anymore. Listen you need your own relationship with God. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You say but Greg my parents were hypocrites or I saw a hypocrite in church. Yeah get over it.
Grow up. Put your faith in Christ and follow Him. So Paul is saying it can't be all about me being there with you because I won't always be there with you. But the Lord always will be there with you. So work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
As I misunderstand this Paul did not say work for your own salvation because salvation is a gift of God. And by the way this is a gift that grows more valuable with the passing of time. Isn't it interesting how things that were so valuable on the day you received them have no value now.
And that which didn't have as much value has become more precious to you now. For instance you may have gotten a gadget. Oh it was the cutting edge gadget. You were so excited when you got it. But now as you look at that cassette player it makes a nice doorstop. It's a nice nostalgic item you know or eight track player or whatever it is. See it is outdated. But maybe that little drawing your child did for you that you just put away in a box has become more precious to you with the passing of time.
Salvation is like that. The longer we live the more valuable we see it is. It's not that it becomes more valuable.
It always was. But we are just discovering the value of it. Because the salvation God gives us saves us from our past, our present, and our future. First it saves us from our past. The sins we have committed.
The wrongs we have done. It's removed. It's taken away. It's erased.
We have been given a clean slate as I pointed out. But now it saves us from our present. The power of sin in my life.
I have God's power to overcome it. And lastly it saves me from a future judgment. So that is why the Bible calls it such a great salvation. You see the value of it more and more with the passing of time. And so Paul says, work out your salvation.
Don't work for it. It is a gift to you from God. Ephesians 2 says, by grace you have been saved through faith.
Not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Pastor Greg Laurie with insights on the gift of salvation, but how we need to work it out in our lives. And there's more to come from this message here on A New Beginning, a message called The Biblical Worldview on Salvation. Well Pastor Greg, as we've talked about salvation, maybe some have never said yes to God's free gift of eternal life. But that invitation is open to everyone, isn't it?
That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon in the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way. Maybe you're out in a riptide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you're in trouble and you see a lifeguard call out for help and the lifeguard will rescue you.
The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin. You need help. Jesus will save you. He will rescue you. But you must call out to him.
And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer. So let me just lead you in a simple prayer and you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you'd like and this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you.
Just pray this. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in you. Be my Savior, my Lord. Be my God and my friend. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send 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 are 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, we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us any time 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300.
Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. You know, Pastor Greg, we hear from people all the time who tell us how these daily studies have impacted their lives. So many have found the Lord and been encouraged through this teaching.
That's right. And we hope our listeners might pray about making an investment so these studies can continue. Yeah, it's really true, Dave. You know, and even a little bit helps. You know, people need to hear the Gospel so badly. They need to hear the teaching of the Word of God. It changes everything because it changes us. And I'm so passionate about it and I'm called to do it and I'm thankful for it.
But I can't do it alone. So I'm going to ask folks that are listening, if you think more people need to hear the Gospel, if you believe more people need to hear the teaching of the Word of God, then perfectly consider investing in Harvest Ministries and maybe even become a Harvest partner, which means you're someone who stands with us every month in your faithful giving. And that opens up a lot of new opportunities for us. So thanks for that.
Yeah, that's right. And we really are thankful for your partnership. You can reach us any time day or night at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or just go online to Harvest.org. Hey everybody, I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at Harvest.org and on our brand new app, Harvest Plus, which is available on your mobile TV devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's Word. So again, join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. Well next time, more insight from Pastor Greg's message called The Biblical Worldview on Salvation. Join us here on a new beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.
