Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Let me ask you a question. Are you eager to make a difference in the spiritual lives of others? When you give to Harvest, you become a part of our mission to make God known through unique avenues like television, radio, and large-scale evangelistic events. Support us today at harvest.org slash donate, and help us to continue to spread the gospel around the world. How do you build hope?
Well, here's something that might surprise you. Hope grows in the garden of adversity. We may wish it was the opposite. Why not let our hope grow in a time of pain-free serenity?
Pastor Greg Laurie says that's not God's design, and Father knows best. Hope actually gets stronger when things get harder, but you must turn to God, not turn away from God. Are you hopeful, or are you hopeless?
When the alarm goes off early so we can get up and work out, it's easy to wish we could strengthen our muscles while we lie there in bed, but we know it doesn't work that way. When it comes to growing strong in our faith, sometimes we have to exercise our faith, and sometimes that comes at the most painful, distressing times of life. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us get through the toughest times of our lives.
Today we'll see our faith grows as we lean hard on the Lord. Here before us in John 11 is a story of a loved one dying. It's a story of severe grief that accompanies the death of someone you love. It's also a story of how Jesus reacts in such situations, and it tells us how God can actually be glorified through difficult circumstances, but it's also a hopeful message, so we will remember that no matter what we're going through, God is going to be with you.
He'll give you the strength you need in your hour of need, not necessarily before, never after, but He'll give you what you need when you need it. This is a story of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Now these people were personal friends of Jesus Christ, and He would go to their home in Bethany when He would be going into Jerusalem. Whenever He went into Jerusalem there was conflict.
There was drama. There were things going on, so He'd go hang out with His friends first. And by the way, Martha was a killer cook, and I'm sure He loved her food, as did His 12 buddies.
He took with Him everywhere He went. So He'd just show up, and Martha would whip Him up a feast, and Jesus liked to spend time in their home. And it could be accurately said that Mary, her sister Martha, and their brother Lazarus were personal friends of Jesus Christ.
I think that's an important thing to note. And so as our story picks up, hardship has come their way. Sickness has invaded their home. John 11. Now a certain man was sick. Lazarus of Bethany. The town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was then Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sister sent to Him saying, Lord, behold, He whom you love is sick.
Now look at this. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Therefore, therefore, when He heard that He was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Huh?
What? And finally Jesus comes strolling into town and He's days late. Not only has He missed healing Lazarus.
Lazarus has died and He missed the funeral. So as He arrives in Bethany, Martha goes up to Him and says the following. John 11 verse 20, Then Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. And Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died.
But now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You. Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said, read my lips.
No. He didn't say that. But He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
So here comes Jesus greeted by Martha with this statement, Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died. Allow me to loosely paraphrase that. Jesus, you kind of blew it. You really led us down here.
We were bragging on you to our friends, telling them all how awesome you are. And you don't even show up. You even missed a funeral.
You could have done something. But then there's this spark of faith in there too. And Martha does say, yet I know that whatever you ask of God, He'll give it to you.
Okay. So she's very upset with Jesus. Have you ever been upset with God? Have you ever not agreed with what God did in your life?
Have you ever been disappointed with God? Maybe saying something like, where were you Lord when my parents divorced? Where were you when my marriage dissolved? Where were you when my child went prodigal? Where were you when my loved one died? Where were you when you let me buy a cat in a pet shop?
Why did you, why? I have to throw crazy stuff in every now and then. I know this is an intense message folks.
So I'll throw in wacky humor here and there. But you know, where were you Lord? We feel that way. And we cry out to Him. And I want to say this.
Mary and Martha were doing the right thing. We all have our anxieties and we all have our concerns. Don't separate yourself from God and isolate yourself from other Christians.
Be with them and go to God in prayer with your concerns. Listen. With your complaints. With your frustrations.
And say, Lord I don't get it. And I don't like it. But I believe in You. And I believe You're in control.
And I love You. But I still don't like it. It's okay. It's just honesty. It's just honesty with God. There's nothing wrong with asking God why. You don't necessarily expect an answer. But you can ask God why.
You know if the Lord did tell us why things happen the way they do do you think it would ease your pain and heal your broken heart? I mean imagine for a moment if you were saying, God I don't understand this. Why? Why? He says you really want to know. Yes I do. Yes I do. You ready for it? Yes.
Here it is. The reason that happened was so this would take place. Boom.
What would you do? I don't agree. That's not right. That's messed up. You probably wouldn't agree with it.
So I don't even think knowing the answer would help you. God says my ways are above your ways. My thoughts are above your thoughts. So we should live on promises not explanations. And we shouldn't spend too much time asking why. Why?
Why? Now Jesus is going to put things in perspective. Martha listen to me now. I am the resurrection and the life. And He that believes in me though He were dead yet He shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
Martha listen. Death is not the end. This is the promise of God for all of us. And this is why we as Christians have hope. Everything doesn't end when I leave this earth. Oh yes my physical life ends but I am a soul in a body and I live on in eternity. And one day heaven according to Scripture is going to come down to the earth. Heaven and earth will become one. God has a future and a hope for every one of His followers.
That's why we have hope in a seemingly hopeless world. Ok. Let's go back to John 11 verse 32. And when Mary came where Jesus was she saw Him falling down at His feet saying, Lord if You would have been here my brother would not have died. Therefore when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping He groaned in His spirit and was troubled. And He said, Where have You laid Him?
They said, Come and see. Now here is the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. Two words. Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, Oh see how He loved Him. You know men have a harder time in general than women expressing their feelings and emotions. Girls do it so well. We so admire you. We don't understand you. But we admire you. The way you are just talking and have 12 girls talking at the same time understanding each other. We are really perplexed when you all go to the bathroom together.
That makes no sense to men. I am going to the bathroom. Who wants to go? I will go.
And you all go. Guys would never do that ever. We are embarrassed if we see each other in the bathroom.
Oh hi. But girls. A girl will say to a girl, I love you so much. I love you. I love you.
I love you. Love love love. Guys are like. And we do feel love. We feel love for our brothers. We feel love for our wives. We feel love for a lot of people.
It is just harder for us to say it. That is all. So we will punch each other.
Love you bro. You know. Come on.
We are messed up. Let's just admit it. And it is really hard for a man to cry generally. For many men they will hold it back.
They will fight it. And some would even say it is not masculine to cry. For anyone who would say it is not masculine for a man to cry I have a two word answer. Jesus wept.
Jesus wept. Jesus of Nazareth was the most masculine man that ever walked this planet. He was the man. Even Pilate said, behold the man. He was the man. Don't forget he carried that wooden cross through the streets of Jerusalem. After having his back ripped open by a Roman whip he was tough as nails. Not this effeminate little scrawny Jesus you see in religious art.
That is not the Jesus of the Bible. He was strong. But he wept because it was heartbreaking. What was heartbreaking?
What was heartbreaking was what sin had done. Who was he mad at? Was he mad at Mary and Martha? I don't think so. Was he mad at the people mourning?
I don't really think so. I think he was mad at the grim reaper if you will. He was mad at death itself because this was never part of God's divine plan for us to die. We would have lived forever if our crazy first parents didn't eat the forbidden fruit. And by the way it wasn't an apple. The Bible never says apple. People say when Adam and Eve ate the apple there was no apple. It was a nectarine.
Don't you know? Actually we are not told. But because he ate that fruit sin entered the world. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit we would live forever. If Adam and Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit we would never age. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the forbidden fruit I would have hair right now and lots of it.
Beautiful hair. I was signing copies of my book after the service and some lady came up to me and said, I have to ask you how old are you? I said, well how old do you think I am? She said, well I don't really want to say. Well go ahead.
Take a shot. She says, 72. I'm like, what? Seriously?
She said, I told you I didn't want to say. Wow. That's all because of sin, aging, sickness, and of course death. And it has been a game changer. I feel like his messages are very fatherlike and easy to understand. His stories are really funny and it brings me a lot of peace throughout my day. I've been having a little bit of anxiety and it has totally helped me to just take a moment, re-center, and get close again with God in a way that I haven't been able to in a long time. I am so grateful that they have so much new content because I can always turn something on when it comes to Harvest or Greg Laurie. Thank you.
We're so blessed to hear comments like that. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? Why not drop him an email? Send it to Greg at Harvest dot org.
Again, that's Greg at Harvest dot org. And now Pastor Greg continues his message called Hope for Hurting Hearts. God can be glorified through human suffering and bring good out of bad. God can be glorified through human suffering and bring good out of bad.
Mary and Martha wanted a healing. Jesus wanted a resurrection. He wanted to do more than they wanted Him to do. You know there are many times God wants to do way more than you are asking for. The Bible says in Ephesians 3.20, He is able to do exceedingly above and beyond that which you can ask or think.
So don't limit God by your unbelief. Maybe you have a bill due. You need 942 dollars and 76 cents to pay it. So you go to the Lord. Lord I need this much money. Well would You provide it? Well don't limit Him and say, Lord if you want to throw in five extra grand I am good. You know whatever you want to do. Now I am sort of being a little humorous there but the point is He might want to do more than you are asking for. Say Lord here is my need.
I bring Him before you but I know you can do exceedingly above and beyond that which I can ask or think. Here is the thing about hope. You think how do you get hope? How do you build hope? Well you need sunshine, lollipops, rainbows, and a couple of unicorns right.
They are not real by the way. But don't tell that to little girls. But the point is we think all the good times, all the happy times will bring hope.
Not really. Here is something that might surprise you. Hope grows in the garden of adversity. Hope actually gets stronger when things get harder. You see that doesn't make any sense to me. Well listen the Bible says this in Romans 5 3, we glory in tribulations, which means we are happy when things are hard.
That is not easy. Knowing that tribulation produces perseverance or endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. You see when a Christian suffers and still glorifies God it reassures the rest of us that there will never be a valley so deep that God will not get us through it. It reminds us that our faith is real. It will sustain us in our hour of need.
When you are going through hardship that is when you are going to find out how real your faith actually is. Ok. I have been saying these things for years. I have been telling these things to other people. Now it is time for me to get on this little bridge called faith and put my full weight on it. And I had to do that. And that bridge did hold me up because everything God says in His Word is true. And my faith grew stronger and my hope burned brighter.
And it can happen for you as well. But you must turn to God. Not turn away from God. See that was the smart thing about Mary and Martha. They went to the Lord. And that is where you need to go with your pain right now. And I am asking you in closing.
Are you hopeful or are you hopeless? I talked about the hopeless generation. They have probably more materially than any generation that has ever existed. They are very you know iPads.
I am talking about the pets have iPads now you know. Everybody has all these great things. And so many of them are just you know they have a high suicide rate.
What is going on? I think it is because there are all these bright shiny dazzling things and they quickly see the emptiness of all of it and they are wondering is there more to life than this. Well there is but it is not in stuff.
It is in a relationship with God. You know when you are young you say well I am not that happy now but one day when I graduate from high school I will be happy. I will be fulfilled. Then you graduate. Well I need to graduate from college.
I need to do that. Well I need to get married. Then you get married and you are like huh. Maybe I need to get remarried. So you get divorced.
And I am not making light of that by the way but I am using it as an illustration. So you remarry again. Oh maybe I made the wrong decision. I will get remarried again. Then you say well kids. We need kids. If we had kids we would be happy. Then you have kids.
Then you say if we can get rid of these kids somehow we will be happy. Have you ever noticed it is always just a little beyond your reach. That is because it the thing you are looking for isn't out there. It is not a thing you hold in your hand. It is having Christ in your heart. That is what you are wired for.
That is what you are looking for. I will close with this verse. And this verse is 25 chapters so be patient.
No it is just one verse. Proverbs 10 28. The hopes of the godly result in happiness. But the expectations of the wicked are all in vain. So if you are a believer and you have your hope in Christ it will result in happiness.
But if your expectations are in other things it is all in vain. Jesus has what you are looking for. He will forgive you of all of your sin and give you hope if you are young, if you are middle-aged, if you are 72, or if you look like you are 72. Or you are 85 or you are 95. Whatever your age.
The answer is the same. We need Jesus. And I am going to close by offering an invitation to anybody here that may not have a relationship with God yet.
Because listen to this. Life without Jesus is a hopeless end. But life with Jesus is endless hope. You have heard of the endless summer.
I am talking about endless hope. It doesn't stop for you in a relationship with God. Jesus died on the cross for you 2000 years ago. He died in your place and bore your sins. And He rose again from the dead three days later. And now He is here standing at the door of your life and He is knocking. And He is saying if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in. Have you asked Christ to come into your life yet?
If not why don't you do it right now? You will find the hope you are looking for. He is just a prayer away. Let's all pray together. Father thank You for Your love for us. Thank You for Your Word to us.
Thank You that You can give us hope in a seemingly hopeless world. And now I pray for any person here watching, listening, wherever they may be if they don't have a relationship with You. If they don't know that their sin is forgiven would You help them to see their need for You today?
Help them to come to You and believe in You we ask. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. And if you'd like to do just that, if you'd like to make a change in your relationship with the Lord today, Pastor Greg will help you with that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Stay tuned. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.
Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online you'll find us at harvest.org and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now.
That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at 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 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 cure 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 forgiving 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 something that'll help you build a strong foundation for your faith. It's Pastor Greg's popular New Believers Bible.
It'll answer many of the questions you might have and get you started off right in your new relationship with the Lord. So get in touch and ask for it. We'll send it free of charge. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime. That's at 1-800-821-3300. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well next time, some great encouragement coming with a message called Hope is on the Way. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
