January 7, 2025 3:00 am
The cultural definition of a family is quite broad and all-encompassing. It’s proudly inclusive. But when we get creative with what a family is, we get creative with how a family works. And if we get too creative, maybe it’s time to consult the Creator. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie gets us back to bedrock truth as laid out in God’s timeless Word. We’ll go back to the 10 Commandments and discuss how to honor God’s design for how homes can function best.
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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.
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A New Beginning presents something for the New Year from Pastor Greg Laurie. We want to help you get stronger in your faith and discover what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. To help you do that, we're offering a book called Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. I explore what the Bible says about discipleship and how we can grow in this area. And we'll send this book to you for your gift of any size.
Get your copy of Discipleship, The Road Less Taken at Harvest.org. It's very easy to critique a parent until you become a parent. And a lot of the things you said critically of your mom or dad, you'll realize in many ways they were doing their job right. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie speaks about the challenge of parenting and the Lord's command to treat our parents with respect. Honor them. Even when they say the thing you hate, parents say, which is, because I said so. Come on. And then you become a parent.
You go, hmm, now I think I understand. The cultural definition of a family is quite broad and all-encompassing. It's proudly inclusive. But when we get creative with what a family is, we get creative with how a family works. And if we get too creative, maybe it's time to consult the Creator. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie gets us back to bedrock truth as laid out in God's timeless Word.
We'll go back to the Ten Commandments and discuss how to honor God's design for how homes can function best. This time he's still at the penguins, but that we're wearing sunglasses and wearing Hawaiian shirts. And the officer said, I told you to take these penguins to the zoo yesterday. The man said, I did, and we're going to the beach today. Talk about missing the point.
And I think we're missing the point in so many ways in our culture today because we ignore God and we ignore the commandments that He gave us for our own good. These are guardrails. I went to Disneyland the other day with all my grandchildren. I'm going to have to finance that for sure. And one of the rides we rode was Autopia. You ever been on that? Those little cars.
I don't think they've improved those since the 50s by the way. But so you have these little things that hold you in line. So I was in the car with my granddaughter Allie. She was steering and I was hitting the accelerator.
And she's still figuring this out, which way to turn the wheel. But that rail held us so we did not go over the side and end up somewhere else, right? The Ten Commandments are like guardrails that God gives us for our own protection. As I've said, they're like the walls of protection around us to keep evil out.
And we disregard them and ignore them at our own peril. Now as we know there are two tablets. The first four commandments are in tablet number one. They have to do with our relationship with God. Commandment number one. The Lord says, You shall have no other gods before Me. And by the way, if nothing else, as a result of this Ten Commandments series, I want you to memorize the Ten Commandments and know them in order. Okay.
Let's work on that together. Commandment number one. Have no other gods before Him. Commandment number two.
No graven images and anything that is in heaven above or earth below. Commandment number three. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Commandment number four. Remember the Sabbath. They keep it holy. Now let's come to section number two.
Tablet number two. Commandment number five. Honor your father and mother. Commandment number six. You shall not murder. Commandment number seven. You shall not commit adultery. Commandment number eight. You shall not steal. Commandment number nine. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Or basically you shall not lie. And finally commandment number ten. You shall not covet. These are the Ten Commandments.
And I want to focus on commandment number five. To honor your father and mother. This of course starts with the marriage. Notice it's a father and a mother. A man and a wife. Not a man and a man. Not a woman and a woman. Not a man and two women. Not a woman and two men.
It's a man and a woman. This is God's template for the family and this is His order. And when we mess with it trouble will follow. It's been said a family can survive without a nation but a nation cannot survive without the family. And that is why the devil hates the family. Did you know he hates your family? Did you know Satan wants to destroy your family?
And he works on it it seems over time these days. And as you look at our nation today you can take almost every social ill that we are failing and trace it directly back to the breakdown of God's order for the family. For instance in 1960 fewer than six million children lived in single-parent families. Today 19 million children are being raised without a father. That's more than one in four without a father in the home. And this disregard of the fifth commandment is undermining our nation. And I can give you a lot of stats to support that statement.
Because you might say well that's just your opinion Greg. Well actually I can support this with a lot of data and show that the Bible is true and what it says. For instance did you know 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. We spent untold millions and millions of dollars fighting addiction and homelessness.
But how much money do we spend supporting the family because that is at the root of most homelessness and addiction. 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. A child from a fatherless home is 68% more likely to use drugs or alcohol.
Four more likely to become sexually active at an early age. And three times more likely to commit a violent crime. 85% of all youths sitting in prison came from a fatherless home.
Listen to this. Fatherless children are anywhere from 100% to 200% more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. Fatherless sons are 300% more likely to end up in juvenile institutions. Fatherless daughters who marry have a 92% higher divorce rate. Fatherless daughters are 111% more likely to have children as teenagers.
Wow. Maybe God knew what he was talking about when he said honor your father and mother. The assumption is we would do it God's way.
And we have not done it in many ways God's way in our nation and we're facing the consequences. Now let me say a word to single mothers. First of all God bless you.
And I mean that with all of my heart because you have your work cut out for you. I don't know how you ended up as a single mom. Maybe your husband died. Maybe your husband walked out on you. They do that sometimes.
Guys can be creeps right? Maybe you got pregnant outside of wedlock and you felt a lot of shame and embarrassment over that. But thankfully you did not go get an abortion. You carried the child to term. And I thank you for doing that. I am thankful my mom did that. Because she got pregnant out of wedlock. A one night fling.
Voila. Greg was conceived. And this was the 50s when it was very controversial to have a baby when you weren't married. But thankfully I was born. But you see I understand how this can be. I was raised by effectively a single mom. I'm sure she was married and divorced seven times.
But these guys it was like they were coming through a revolving door. So there was never a stable father figure. And so the reason I bring this up is because it's hard for you right now. And we want you to know that God's heart goes out to fatherless children. Psalm 68 the Lord says he promises to be a father to the fatherless.
You know if you're a single mom take advantage of other men. Godly men that you will meet in the church. Sometimes a coach can make all the difference in a child's life. It could be a teacher. It can be a youth pastor. A Sunday school teacher. Just somebody else. A positive male role model for those people.
Let us help you. But this assumes that it begins with a strong and happy marriage. Is that even possible today? J. Paul Getty one of the richest men who ever lived said he would give all of his fortune for one happy marriage. But we've seen so many unhappy marriages. We think is this even possible to have one in these days. You know sometimes some people have been married for a while.
They take each other for granted. Heard about a couple that were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. So a bunch of friends and family were gathered and the husband said to the wife, dear I'm going to take you for our 25th wedding anniversary to Australia.
She was so excited. She says I've never been down under. Kangaroos.
Koala bears. It's going to be amazing. Honey if you're going to do this for 25 years of marriage what are you going to do on our 50th anniversary.
Says that's when I'll pick you up. So that looks that's not good. You know millennials are not getting married at the same rate that baby boomers did at an early age.
Maybe it's because so many of them come from broken homes and they don't want that to happen to them. So the question is can a man and a woman fall in love and be married and live happily ever after just like the fairy tales tell us. Okay hate to discourage you but the answer is no. You will not live happily ever after but you can live happily even after if you do it God's way.
Yes you can. You might say well Craig what qualifies you to talk to us about marriage. I've been married for 46 years.
Mic drop. Okay now that that sounds like I'm bragging. I married a wonderful woman and it's God's blessing on us and just doing what His Word says. But I had the statistical cards stacked against me with my mom married and divorced so many times. But I don't care what hand you've been dealt in life and what your parents did or what your grandparents did. Now it's about what you're going to do and I'm telling you if Christ enters the narrative He can change your story and He can change your future but you need to ask Him to come and take control.
He can do it. 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 we're in Exodus 20 today and Pastor Greg is basing his insights on commandment number five, honor your father and mother. It's a message from our top 10 series called The Family Matters. Let's talk a little bit about marriage and let me say this to you who are married. There's a lot I could say to hopefully encourage you in your marriage but let me give you one biblical principle from Ephesians 5 verse 21.
It says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So my point is put the needs of your spouse above your own. Wives this means you submit to the loving leadership of your husband. Husband that means that you bow to the needs of your wife.
See if you go into a marriage saying that person is going to meet all of the needs of my life you're going to be really disappointed. No person can do that. There's no perfect man walking around who can do that. Well there was one but he's taken sorry I'm married.
But no I'm kidding. No there is no perfect man. There's no perfect woman. And we have this false idea of what a person can do for us.
And we need to be realistic. A word to you who are singles. Don't look for the right person as much as you should focus on trying to be the right person. See the idea is I go into a marriage not saying how can you fulfill me. I go into a marriage saying how can I fulfill you. How can I love you. How can I put you first in my life.
So some girls sometimes will say well you know this guy I'm going out with I'm going to marry. He's rough around the edges and he has a lot of problems but I'm going to fix him. Probably not.
Probably not. In fact I have to warn you he might get worse. So you won't fix him at all. Don't go into a marriage thinking you're going to change a dude. Okay. Because he might be far worse than you thought he was going to be. You want to start by looking for a godly man or a godly woman.
That's why and I don't really know why I have to say this but some people miss this memo. You should never become romantically involved with a non-believer. Ever.
Why? Because the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with non-believers for what friendship does light have with darkness or righteousness with unrighteousness or Christ with the devil. And here's what happens. You might say well I'm going to win him to the Lord. We'll get married and I'll bring him to Christ. I believe this is something God wants to do or you go out with non-believing guys or girls and you call it missionary dating.
Let me tell you what's going to happen. Instead of you pulling them up they might end up pulling you down. See when the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together understand what a yoke is.
I'm not talking about eggs now okay. A yoke is a wooden device that's put over to oxen and they would be pulling your wagon or you'd be plowing your field with them. So if you put a yoke on a strong ox and a weak ox will that affect the performance? Yes.
It'll pull in the direction of the weak ox. Let's say it another way. If you had a living ox and a dead ox would that affect what you're about to do?
Yes. And that's exactly what happens in a relationship when you have a Christian and a non-Christian. The Christian is spiritually alive because they've been born again. The non-Christian is dead in their sins.
That's what the Bible says. So you'll be pulled often in the direction of the one who doesn't believe rather than being pulled in the direction of the one who does believe. Let me illustrate it another way. Let's say I chose some person in the front row that was smaller than me and I said I'm going to pull you up on the stage. And I took hold of your hand with my massive strength.
I was able to get you up here. But the reality is you could probably pull me off this stage more easily because you have gravity on your side. So when you're in a relationship with a non-believer you have the new nature and the old nature and they only have the old nature.
So it's easier for them to pull you down than it is for you to pull them up. So look for a godly man. Look for a godly girl. Well the guy I'm going out with I think he's a Christian. Why do you say that? He says God a lot. I think we talked about that and taking the Lord's name in vain. You want more than that.
Look for a godly person. Point number two. This is for married folks now. It's not about you. It's about your mate. Ephesians 5 21 says submitting to one another in the fear of God. It could be better translated supporting one another in the fear of God. We're here to hold one another up and then children may come. And if they come now you want to raise them in the way of the Lord and to the children. The Bible says honor your father or mother which means to give weight to them. It gives respect to them.
Value them. You might say well Greg what if I don't respect my mom and dad because they didn't do a great job. Well let's just talk about the office of a parent. It's very easy to critique a parent until you become a parent.
And a lot of the things you said critically of your mom or dad you'll realize in many ways they were doing their job right. But honestly there are times when moms and dads blow it. Fathers abandon their children or they're harsh or austere. Mothers abandon their children.
Sometimes they don't have time for their kids or they're mean or there's other issues involved even abusive. And so you say I can't honor them. Well first of all just out of respect like you should honor the president or an elected official be they a mayor a governor or whatever it is because that's an office God has placed a person in. So there's a respect that goes with the office of parent. But sometimes honestly we need to forgive our parents because some of us have never done that and it affects us into our adult life. One expert said quote the psychological truth is that holding on to our past resentments towards parents robs us of our current peace of mind and our ability to experience satisfaction in the here and now relationships. And quote honor them even when they say the thing you hate parents saying which is I told you so.
Mom can I can I go out and do that's and so with my friends. No. And why not. Because I said so. Come on. No you can't go because I said so. Oh I want to go.
Everybody's doing it. And they'll say you'll understand one day right. And then you become a parent you go hmm now I think I understand. But it's hard to be a parent and we need God's help. Our kids to us are a gift from the Lord. Actually in Psalm 127 verse 3 it says children are a heritage from the Lord. A reward from Him.
That could better be translated a gift. Listen our kids are not ours to mold but to unfold. They're not ours to keep but to nurture. So do everything you can to raise your child in the way of the Lord. Pastor Greg Laurie with practical insights today on issues surrounding the Christian family. In fact the message title on today's edition of A New Beginning The Family Matters. It's one of the studies our listeners requested the most this past year. Oftentimes the dynamics between parents and children are often seen in the way we relate to our Heavenly Father.
He's the perfect parent but his kids are ever so human. God wants a close personal relationship with us but we need to come to Him and ask for His forgiveness for our sins. Pastor Greg what would you say to someone who wants to do that today right now?
I would say that God is just a prayer away. You know it doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months. Frankly it doesn't even take hours.
It can happen so quickly. It just starts with you saying to God I know I'm a sinner. I know that you love me. I know that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and pay for those sins and then to rise again from the dead and I want Him to come into my life. So here's my question to you.
Have you done that yet? Because Jesus who did die on that cross and rose again from the dead three days later is alive and standing at the door of your life right now and He's knocking and He's saying if you'll hear my voice and open the door I will come in. Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die you will go to heaven?
Do you want Christ to come into your life right now? If so why don't you just stop whatever it is you're doing and pray this prayer with me. You could pray it out loud. You can pray it in the quietness of your own heart but pray this prayer to God. Say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. I ask all of this in Jesus name amen. Listen if you just prayed that prayer the Bible promises that God has heard your prayer and has answered that prayer. The Bible says that we will confess our sin. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So God bless you.
You've made the right decision. The decision to follow Jesus Christ. Yeah yeah that's right and listen as you begin to live this new life we want to send you something to help you get started off right. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's an easy to understand translation plus hundreds and hundreds of study helps especially for those who are new to the faith.
Millions of people have been helped by this resource. So get in touch for your own New Believers Bible. We'll send it free of charge.
Just call us at 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. And Pastor Greg we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. Yeah. We're touching lives for eternity and we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further.
Isn't that right? Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul?
Well let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son, or your daughter, or your mom or your dad, or your best friend?
Well I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well listen God says all souls are mine.
God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission. Yeah that's right and you can make your donation right now at harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Well next time Pastor Greg offers more practical insight on God's plan for harmony in the home based on our study of the Ten Commandments. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.
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