Pastor Greg Laurie recommends a great film about the 40th President of the United States. We have a movie that's going to tell you the story of this man who changed the world. Ronald Reagan was a man who believed in Jesus Christ. You're going to be inspired by it in this brand-new film starring Dennis Quaid. It's called Reagan, and it's our gift to you for your gift of any size.
Available on DVD and digital download at harvest.org. We like that we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but Pastor Greg Laurie says few find what they're looking for. He explains why coming up. There has to come a moment in our life where we pass from money to meaning, from possessions to purpose, from mere success to significance. I mean, what a success anyway. In the eyes of God, success is serving the purpose of God in your generation. You can find success principles nearly everywhere in books, seminars, podcasts, videos, radio programs. But people who are successful often find it less fulfilling than expected.
A famous celebrity said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie identifies those things that offer enduring satisfaction from serving the purposes of God. Grab your Bible and turn to 1 Chronicles 28 and Ecclesiastes 1. So we're going to look at the words of David to his son Solomon who will now succeed him as the king of Israel. He's saying, Solomon, these are things that you need to remember.
But really, when you get down to it, these are truths that every believer should remember. Now David is at the end of his reign. He's done his job. He's completed the task that God set before him. And there's a powerful verse in Acts 13, 36 that said, For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his generation, fell asleep.
I love that. David, after he had served the purpose of God in his generation, fell asleep. Now, by the way, the phrase fell asleep means to die.
And that is only used of a Christian. And I love the fact that the Bible describes death for a Christian as falling asleep. I don't know about you, but I kind of like to fall asleep. So it's not something you dread when you're young. You don't like it so much. Right? But when you get older, something called a nap. That's nice.
Because when you get older, happy hour is a nap. But anyway. But here's the thing that's so important. He served the Lord in his generation.
Now I want you to take that same passage and remove the name of David and put your name in it. For Greg. For Kathy. For Jonathan. For Brad. For Susan.
For Sergio. I don't know. Any name you want to put in there. Mortimer.
Whatever name works. For this person, after he, she, served the purpose of God in their generation, they fell asleep. So here's my question for you. Are you serving the purpose of God in your generation? You know, we all have purpose in life, I hope. But the problem is a lot of people have not found their purpose in life. They think life is just about success or accomplishing something great or having everyone know their name or having more followers on social media or making more money or being whatever it is they think they should be to be a success. But long life is not the objective. Fulfilling God's purpose for your life is.
That's what we all want to focus on. Fulfilling God's purpose in our lives. Our lives are not measured by duration but by donation. There has to come a moment in our life where we pass from money to meaning. From possessions to purpose. From mere success to significance. I mean, what is success anyway?
There's so many different measures of it. But in the eyes of God, and that's all that matters to me, in the eyes of God, success is serving the purpose of God in your generation. So question, how can we best serve the purpose of God in our generation?
If you're taking notes, here's point number one. Focus on what God has given you, not on what He has not given you. Focus on what God has given you because sometimes we can be disappointed about one thing and we miss sight of all the great things that God has done for us.
Has the Lord not done great things for you? Remember that. Focus on that. We often forget this. Now he gives his final words to his successor Solomon.
And one day we too will give our final words. David says this in First Chronicles 28 verse nine, Solomon my son, learn to know the God of your father intimately. I would underline that. Know the God of your father intimately. Worship and serve Him with your whole heart and a willing mind. I guess I'd underline that whole verse. So here's point number two. Point number one was focus on what God has given you, not on what He did not give you. And number two, have an intimate relationship with God.
Here's David's advice. Let me just tell you kind of the secret sauce son. Let me tell you what kind of made Dad tick. What got me through all those hard times being chased by that lunatic Saul.
All of the problems I had to deal with throughout my life. Here's what kept me going. I knew God intimately and we need to do the same. Verse nine, know the Lord God of your father intimately. It seems so obvious.
It's like a no-brainer right? But a lot of people know about God but they don't know God. And I wonder if David could already see in his son a wayward bend. He could already see that Solomon was inclined to go in the wrong direction.
So he's trying to provide a corrective measure here Solomon. Now what I'm telling you, know the God of your father. You're going to be given a lot of power, a lot of authority. And I'm telling you as an authoritative figure in your life you need to know the God that I know as your own in an intimate way. Number three, you need to serve God with a whole heart and a willing mind. Serve God with your whole heart and a willing mind. When a person really knows God they'll want to serve God. And I'm going to tell you one of the greatest joys I know as a Christian is serving the Lord. I love to serve the Lord and it's always to me been a great privilege that God would use me in any way shape or form be it in a one-on-one conversation with someone or speaking to a group of people or whatever it might be to think that the creator of the universe would tap me.
He would say I want you to go here. I want you to say that. To think that God would use each and every one of us. Now some people say oh it's I'm tired serving the Lord and I've burned out in ministry. Well I've been preaching now for pretty much 50 years and I'm not burned out. I've never been burned out. Do I get tired in the work of the Lord?
At times yes. Do I get tired of the work of the Lord? Never.
Never. It's a privilege. It's a joy. In fact the Bible says in Nehemiah 8 10 the joy of the Lord is your strength. I think when you don't have an intimate relationship with God that's when you burn out in the work of God. See when you have this intimate relationship with God your service is the natural overflow of that. You're looking for opportunities.
You're looking for ways to do something to make a difference. But David is very clear when he says that you need to do with your whole heart. And you can serve the Lord wherever you are. You can serve the Lord as a Christian doctor, a Christian nurse, a businessman, a computer programmer, an attorney, a police officer, someone serving in the military, someone working on the construction site, someone doing this, someone doing that, a musician, an artist, whatever it is. There's a place for all of your gifts to be used for God's glory.
And by the way David had personally modeled this. Enabling him to say know the God of your father. Parents could you say this to your kids? Know the God of your dad.
Know the God of your mom or to your grandparents. Let me put it another way. Could you say to your children or grandchildren follow God just like I follow God? Well no one could say that.
No you should be able to say that. In fact Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. And that doesn't mean I do it perfectly.
We all fall short. But the reality is he had this intimate relationship with God. He's effectively saying Solomon you've seen your dad do it.
Now you need to do it. So we need to model this. And Solomon would soon ascend to the throne and be the new king. And David was giving to Solomon a beautiful gift and legacy. Now with Solomon's to own and run with or to forget.
But to make it even better. The Lord himself now appears to Solomon. And that happened in First Kings chapter three.
I didn't have you turn there but I'll just read it to you. First Kings chapter three. The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. And God said what do you want? Ask and I'll give it to you. Imagine if God came to you in a dream tonight and said that. Hey what do you want?
Ask it and I'll give it to you. I was telling this Bible story to my granddaughters the other night. Stella and Lucy. Before they went to sleep I said Lucy what would you ask God for if he would give you anything you want? And Lucy said lava crunch chocolate cake from Domino's.
I'm like what? You have to understand she really likes sweets okay. You've never met a child that likes sweets more than Lucy. You've heard of a heat-seeking missile. She's a sweet-seeking missile. Just if you have any candy hidden somewhere on the top shelf she'll find it somehow.
She was kind of kidding or I don't know maybe she wasn't but she said that. But imagine if the Lord said I'll give you whatever you want. Here's a blank check.
You fill it out. What do you want? Wow you know you think of relationships or possessions or position. What would you ask for? Solomon replied well Lord you were wonderfully kind to my father David because he was honest and true and faithful to you. Which is a tribute to David. And you've continued this great kindness to him today by giving him a son to succeed him. Lord you've now made me king but Solomon says I'm like a little kid. I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to do it. So Lord I'm asking you to give me wisdom. And the Lord said that was an excellent answer. Because you have asked for wisdom and you've not asked for riches or even a long life or even the death of your enemies I'm going to give you what you asked for. I'm going to give you so much wisdom that you'll be the wisest man alive. And not only that but I'm going to give you riches and honor as well.
I love that. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hearing from listeners whose families have been touched by Pastor Greg's teachings is very encouraging.
Hi Pastor Greg. 33 years ago I was able to attend one of the Harvest Crusades with my now wife. And that night you taught me a lot of things about Jesus and where my life is going.
That night changed my life forever. I want to thank you for all of the messages that you give this coming weekend. We get to baptize our seven-year-old granddaughter. My son has been a youth pastor for years. What you did for me 30 some years ago has led our family to go and work in the ministries and I can't say thank you enough. We appreciate hearing how this family has been impacted by Harvest Ministries. If you have a story to tell would you consider writing Pastor Greg an email? Send it to Greg at Harvest dot org.
Again that's Greg at Harvest dot org. We have a front row seat as the mantle of leadership is passed from David to Solomon revealing principles for serving the purpose of God. Pastor Greg continues.
Point number four. If you want to serve the purpose of God in your generation put God first in your life in your life and everything else will find its proper order. Put God first in your life and everything else will find its proper order because Solomon asked for the right thing the Lord gave it to him. This is Matthew 6 33 illustrated when Jesus says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Prior to making that statement the Lord said don't be like non-believers all they think about is what they're going to wear what they're going to eat what they're going to drink I would add where they're going to live what they're going to drive etc. He says but seek first God's kingdom. Now that doesn't mean don't think about those things. You've got to make a living.
You have to have somewhere to hang your hat. These things are fine in their proper place but what Jesus is saying is put God first and that's exactly what Solomon did. And this is really what prayer is all about. The objective of prayer is not getting God to do what I want him to do. It's getting me to do what God wants me to do.
Right. Because Jesus says in John 15 if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done to you. A more expanded translation would say Jesus speaking if you maintain a living communion with me and my word is at home with you you can ask it once for yourself whatever your heart desires and it will be yours. Just like that blank check. But wait.
Don't miss the condition. If you maintain a living communion with me says Jesus and my word is at home in you. See when I'm reading the Bible my desires are going to change from lava crunch cake from dominoes.
They're going to change from things like that to things that really matter. Well I'll start praying for things like well Lord actually what I'd really like is to be more like you. Or Lord what I'd actually like is to be have more wisdom in my life. Or what I'd really like Lord is for you to use me somehow.
Your desires change because you're getting in sync with the will of God. Oh man. Solomon was set up for success. But somehow he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
He had everything going for him. His dad was David. He was given the kingdom. He was given the throne. God himself appears to him in a dream and gives him all this wisdom. And what does Solomon do?
He immediately starts to compromise. He was not serving the purposes of God in his generation. First of all he compromises relationship with God. He dedicates a temple which he did build by the way with a beautiful prayer. Then he turns to the people and says now let's all remember to obey the commands of God and do what God tells us all to do. They're all like amen.
Yes we'll do it King. But Solomon was more of the do as I say not do as I do approach. Yeah everybody let's obey God. But he immediately began to disobey God because one of the first things he did out of the gate was he married a non-believer. 1 Kings 3 tells us he made an alliance with Pharaoh and married one of his daughters. Before you know it he's offering sacrifices to her false gods because one thing always leads to another. And the point we made earlier in one of our messages from the House of David series is it's always a bad idea to make deals with the devil because you're going to lose. See Solomon was unequally yoked together with a non-believer.
You say I don't even know what that means. Okay so the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with non-believers for what fellowship does light have with darkness? The idea of a yoke. Think of a yoke of oxen. So if I'm plowing my field and I have a strong oxen on the left and a dead one on the right is that going to affect my plowing?
What direction do you think my plow will pull toward? The strong living ox or the dead one that we're dragging along? Literally when a believer and a non-believer come together in marriage you have someone who's spiritually alive and someone who is spiritually dead. What direction do you think the marriage will pull toward? The believer or the non-believer. Another translation of 2 Corinthians 6 14 says don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership. That's war.
Is light best friends with dark? See it's much harder to pull someone up than it is to be pulled down. I could gesture to someone here in the front row who's even smaller than me and I could try to pull you with my massive strength on my dad. Not so much. But I could try to pull you up here and it would be very difficult.
But even if you're smaller than me because you have gravity on your side a good yank would pull me right off the stage. And that's the way it is with a believer and a non-believer. They effectively have gravity on their side and to prove the point what happens does the daughter of Pharaoh worship at the altar of Solomon before the Lord God?
No. Solomon worships at the altar of the false God. That's how these things often go. So here's Solomon right out of the gate. Marries this non-believer. That's his first compromise. Now he literally goes into a full-blown backslide. He didn't do it overnight. It was just one thing leading to another. He compromised his morality. So it's not bad enough he marries this non-believing woman. Now he has 700 wives and 300 concubines. Oh really? 700 and 300 concubines.
You know how many mothers-in-law that is? I mean what is this guy thinking? He's out of his ever-loving mind.
He's like mad. And so that's the next step he takes down. Now that brings us to our next passage, Ecclesiastes.
So I told you to turn there right? Ecclesiastes one. Now Solomon describes what he did. It's almost like he's doing personal research on sin. It's like Solomon saying look I hear these things are bad. I hear God say they're bad.
But I don't know that personally because I've not experienced it. So for the sake of research I'm going to go and do everything God tells me not to do to find out if he's telling me the truth. That is the stupidest idea of all time. That's exactly what the wisest man did. That's why I titled this message the foolish wise man. So in Ecclesiastes 1 13 Solomon says I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.
He's going to try it all. First he says try something noble. I'll just apply myself to wisdom and knowledge. I will acquire great knowledge.
Well that's that's a good pursuit. He says in Ecclesiastes 1 16 he says look I'm wiser than all the kings that ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them. But you know I worked hard to distinguish wisdom from foolishness. Now I realize that it's like chasing the wind for the greater my wisdom the greater my grief.
Wow. I mean I think it's a good thing to pursue a good education to go to a college a university to get a degree. That's a fine pursuit. Of course that depends on what college you go to right. Because with a lot of colleges we have today with this crazy woke ideology that you're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on. Is that really setting your child up for success. You know I read an interesting thing of courses that are offered in colleges. I'm not making any of these up. At Appalachian State University in Boone North Carolina they have a course what if Harry Potter is real.
That's a good use of your money. Tufts University in Medford Oregon demystifying the hipster. That's a course demystifying the hipster. A college in Portland Oregon offers a course on juggling. What are you majoring in. Juggling. Right after I finish that Harry Potter course. And another university I just read about is offering a course on Taylor Swift. Oh man you're ready for anything.
You know about Taylor Swift Harry Potter and juggling. And you've demystified the hipster. So obviously you can waste a lot of money and a lot of time. But here's the real takeaway message. It's not that pursuing knowledge is bad. Pursuing knowledge without God is bad.
You want truth. Such good insight from today's study here on A New Beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie has been highlighting the practical principles David passed along to Solomon and Solomon's unfortunate response.
More to come as this study continues. Now pursuing God with knowledge starts by knowing God. Knowing him personally.
We have to come to the Lord and ask him to forgive our sins and welcome us into his family. Have you ever done that? Pastor Greg someone can enter into that kind of relationship today can't they? They can and it's so simple.
And I think because it's so simple people think oh it can't be that easy. Well look Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that he carried. This isn't about what you do.
It's about what he's done. But here's what the Bible says. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So let's just say that you're caught in a riptide out in the ocean and you need help and there's a lifeguard at the stand and they see you. You've got to call out to them and let them know you need saving.
And the same is true when it comes to eternal life. Jesus is ready to save you. Will you call out to him?
You say well okay how do I do that? You do it through prayer. And prayer is just talking to God. So listen I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. And if you pray this prayer after me I believe God will hear it and answer it and Christ will come to live inside of you. Thousands of people have prayed a prayer like this over the years that we've been doing this radio broadcast and have seen their life change. There's no power or magic in a prayer.
It's all about your commitment to Christ. But this is a way to call on the name of the Lord in this prayer. So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, just pray this prayer after me. You could pray it out loud if you like.
Pray it in the quietness of your heart. But pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now.
And I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible 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. That you may know it's yours now.
God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Congratulations and welcome to the family of God. Yeah yeah that's right and would you let us help you get started living this new life. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's in an easy to understand translation with so many helps specifically for those who are new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge so get in touch for your copy of the New Believers Bible.
Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime that's 1-800-821-3300 or write us at A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 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 anytime day or night at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 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 insights on Solomon's downward slide and the wise lesson he gives us at the end of it all. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
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