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It's All How You Look at Things | God's View of Your Mountains

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie
The Truth Network Radio
January 22, 2025 3:00 am

It's All How You Look at Things | God's View of Your Mountains

A New Beginning / Greg Laurie

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January 22, 2025 3:00 am

When you’re driving clear across the country, you might encounter the Rocky Mountains. A huge mountain range. Pikes Peak alone jets up more than 14,000 feet into the sky. But when you fly over those mountains on an airliner, it kinda looks like the same ground you saw an hour ago but with more . . . texture. So it is with differing perspectives. And today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us God's reassuring perspective on our "mountain-sized" problems.

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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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Greg Laurie here. You've heard about these devastating fires that we're experiencing right here in our backyard in Southern California. These fires are moving so quickly and they're 0% contained. So what should we do? Pray. Pray for these firefighters. Pray for their protection.

But we need to step into this situation. So we've created the Harvest Relief Funds for situations exactly like this. If you would like to send some support to help people in need, you just go to our website harvest.org slash relief. We want to bring help and hope to people in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm reminded of the passage that tells us that God can bring beauty out of ashes. Thank you for your prayers. And let's pray that this fire is contained and stopped and that lives are spared. And most importantly, that people come to put their faith in Christ.

Thank you so much. Look at your problem. Look at your problem in the light of God.

It's all how you look at things. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Of ancient grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear of the angels are singing.

This is the day, the day when life begins. When you're driving clear across the country, you might encounter the Rocky Mountains, a huge mountain range. Pike's Peak alone jets up more than 14,000 feet into the sky.

But when you fly over those mountains on an airliner, it kind of looks like the same ground you saw an hour ago, but with more texture. So it is with differing perspectives. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us God's reassuring perspective on our mountain-sized problems. This is the day, the day when life begins.

Turning your Bibles to Numbers chapter 13. And the title of this message is, It's All How You Look at Things. Now maybe as you're listening to me, you are facing a gigantic problem. And as the days go by, your giant just gets bigger. For instance, it could be a challenge you're facing of some kind and you are paralyzed with fear.

Or it might be a giant, if you will, of some kind of a personal sin. A certain area of your life that you've fallen over and over again. You seem to get victory, you seem to conquer it for a week, maybe even for a month, and you fall back into it again. It could be pride, envy, gluttony, lust, or something else.

The list just goes on. Or in a related way, it could be a giant of addiction. You're trying to break free from the power of alcohol and you go well for a while without a drink.

And then you fall off the wagon and then you're back to square one. Or it might be drugs and you're just finding you cannot overcome this addiction. It's like a giant that taunts you day in and day out.

Or it could be a different kind of a giant. Maybe it's a husband that doesn't believe as you believe in Jesus Christ. And instead of getting closer, he seems to be getting further away from coming to the Lord. Or it might be a child that you raised in the way of the Lord.

They've hit those teenage years and they're starting to push back and some have even gone prodigal on you. This giant, if you will, is anyone or anything that seeks to control you, hurt you, destroy you, or torment you in life. So listen, I have some good news for you right now. God is bigger than your giant. God is bigger than your problem. So the key is if you understand and see God as you ought to, you will see your problems for what they are. Listen, if you have a big God, you have small problems. And if you have big problems, do you have a small God? Now I'm not in any way saying your problem may not be gigantic because it could be. But I'm just saying God is bigger than what you're facing. So if you have a big God, in other words, if you see God and His power and His glory and His ability to help you, you're going to see your problem with the right perspective. But if your problem looms so large that you can't even see how God could get you out of it, then the problem is your problem is bigger than your God and you need to change the way that you look at things.

That is why the title of this message is It's All How You Look at Things. Now we're in a series on the life of Moses and we're back in the book of Numbers. Now don't let that concern you because maybe like you, you didn't do well in school and the subject of math. Oh no, I hate Numbers. It's really not about numbers. It's actually a record of the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. And the book of Numbers has a lot to say to us today.

Here's a question. Why did the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years? You know it doesn't take even on foot 40 years to get from Egypt to Israel. The reason it took so long is because they effectively went around and around in circles because they weren't learning the lessons God wanted them to learn. I mean they had it made in the shade. Every day the Lord provided them with food.

It was right outside of their tent. It was called manna. The word manna comes from the Hebrew krispokrimo and we get our English word krispy cream from it.

No, I made that up. But the Bible says it was sweet to the taste. It is described as the food of angels and it's hard for us to wrap our mind around it. But this amazing substance was there for them each and every day. But it wasn't very long until they started complaining. Complaining. We're tired of this manna.

We're tired of eating this manna. Every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then God set them up with the ultimate GPS system. A cloud by day.

A fire by night. You know you have GPS in your car or on your phone. You follow the directions. Turn right here. Turn left there.

Et cetera. And if you're like my GPS periodically it just makes no sense. Turn right on the next off ramp. You turn right. Turn left over here. Turn left here. Do a U-turn. Go around in circles five times. Get back on the freeway.

You're like what was that all about? But God's GPS was much clearer. Just like if the cloud moves, you move. If the cloud stops, you stop.

If it's nighttime and the fire moves and the sky, you go with it. So they had food to eat. They had amazing GPS to guide them knowing where they should go. And yet these people grew tired of it. And they started taking it all for granted. And they started complaining and they said, We remember the good old days back in Egypt. We miss eating our garlic and our leeks and our onions. Man, their breath must have stunk, you know.

Think about it. Oh, we miss it. Well, you know, we don't like this food. Besides, we're all on the keto diet.

And man, it doesn't work with that. We want meat again. And they start crying out to Moses. We want meat.

We want meat. And so forth. So God gave them what they wanted. I mean, you've heard of the expression, raining cats and dogs. It literally rained birds. Quail coming out of the sky. And these people were so anxious to have this meat, they didn't even take time to pluck the quail and cook them. They just grabbed these birds and bit into them. And the Bible says it turned bitter in their mouth. And offering a little commentary, Psalm 106, verse 15 says, God gave them their request, but sent leanness to their soul. Listen.

Careful what you wish for, you might get it. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey, everybody. I want to tell you about a major new ministry initiative that we have here at Harvest called the Harvest Discipleship Platform. So it's a major leap forward in our national ministry and we adapt teachings from the New Believers Bible.

Do you know about that? That's a Bible project I worked on years ago and they're all around the world. Well, we have excerpts from the New Believers Bible and also we have an online community of believers who are looking for what's next in their spiritual walk. So at Harvest Discipleship, you can find trusted Bible teaching in a community that cares for you and positive encouragement in your spiritual life. That sounds pretty good, right?

So become a part of the Harvest Discipleship Platform and you can do that by just going to harvest.org. Well, today, Pastor Greg is continuing his series of the most requested studies of the year. Our message title today, It's All How You Look at Things. I heard about a couple that were in their 60s. Both were 60, actually, and they were celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss and suddenly a genie appeared and said, You know, you guys have done so well in your marriage, 40 years. I'm going to grant to each of you a wish.

And he went to the wife first. What would you like? She said, Oh, I love my husband so much. I would like to be in an island in the middle of the South Seas surrounded by beautiful blue water. That's my wish, genie. And poof, there she was on this island with her 60-year-old husband that she'd been married to for 40 years. And then the genie said, Okay, what's your wish? And the husband looked over at his wife and said, I'd like a wife that's 30 years younger than me. And poof, he was 90 years old.

So careful what you wish for, you might get it. See, the problem with the Israelites is they had forgotten how miserable they were back in Egypt. They had forgotten the sting of the Egyptian whip. They had forgotten the fact that they cried out to God over and over again for someone to deliver them.

And God answered their prayer and sent them Moses and brought them through this wilderness and through the Red Sea and all of the rest. But yet, they just said, Man, we wish we had it like we used to have it. And you know, the devil will come and whisper in the ear of a Christian and say, Hey man, remember the good old days?

Remember that one party where this happened? And he'll bring back a few memories. And you know, all of us, if we're honest, would say that before we were Christians, had some fun when we were sinning. The Bible says there's pleasure in sin for a season.

It's a short-lived pleasure. But the devil isn't gonna remind you of the misery you experienced or the emptiness in your heart. He's not gonna remind you of the guilt that plagued you day in and day out. He's not gonna remind you of the time you almost overdosed. He's not gonna remind you of the time you contemplated suicide. He's not gonna remind you of all of the repercussions that came as a result of your sin. He'll just remind you of a few good times you had. So you say, Well, I'm gonna go back and do that stuff again. Warning, it'll turn bitter in your mouth, just like it did for the Israelites. It'll happen to you because now you see, you know better. You've tasted of the living water and you're no longer gonna be satisfied with swamp water.

You've tasted of what it is to have a relationship with God and you're never gonna be satisfied living that old life again. So they've eaten of this quail, this bird. It turned bitter in their mouth and now they've come to the very brink of the promised land.

They're poised to enter in. So they send in 12 spies, 12 spies to check things out to see what was ahead of them. And that's where we pick the story up here in Numbers chapter 13. I'm gonna read from verse 25.

And by the way, I'm reading from the New Living Translation. After exploring the land for 40 days, the men or the spies returned to Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken back from the land. So these guys came back with a cluster of grapes that were gigantic. It took two of them to carry the grapes back. Imagine how big the peaches would have been. How about the watermelons?

Those would have been gigantic. So they bring back this incredibly large fruit. Verse 27, this was their report to Moses. We arrive in the land you sent us to see and it is indeed a magnificent country, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And here's some of the fruit as proof. But the people living there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. And I'll drop down to verse 30 of Numbers 13.

But Caleb tried to encourage the people as they stood before Moses. He said, let's go at once to take the land. We will certainly conquer it. Oh, but the other man who had explored the land with them answered, we can't go against them. They're stronger than we are. So they spread discouraging reports about the land among the Israelites.

The land we explored will swallow up any who go there. All the people were huge. We even saw giants, the descendants of Anak, and we felt like grasshoppers next to them. And that's what we looked like to them. And all the people started to weep aloud and they cried all night. And the voices rose in the great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron. They wailed, we wish we had died in Egypt or even here in the wilderness.

Oh man, this is incredible. So 12 spies go in. 10 of them give a discouraging report to give an encouraging report.

It all comes down to how you see things, how you look at things. First there was the majority report from the 10 spies. You see, their problem was they did not see God for what he is, they only saw problems. Listen, God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. God promised he would give them the land, but they ignored what his word said and put their eyes on circumstances, on obstacles, on challenges, on giants, and ultimately on defeat. That's because they had a small God and thus they had big problems.

But then there's the minority report. This is basically Joshua and Caleb. They saw the same obstacles. They saw the same challenges, but they also saw opportunities and great victories if they would go into the land. So here's what it comes down to. It's all how you look at things. We all face problems. We all face obstacles.

We all face challenges and we all face giants. But can you see them in the light of who God is? Don't look at God in the light of your problem. Look at your problem in the light of God. Again, he's bigger than your problem. . Good encouragement from Pastor Greg Laurie today on having a heavenly perspective on both the opportunities and obstacles that come our way. Important counsel today here on A New Beginning. You know, Pastor Greg, you touched on our mission here at Harvest Ministries in A New Beginning just a moment ago. It's knowing him and making him known. We're all about showing people how to come to know God, how to come into a relationship with God. 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, that's right. And listen, we want to help you get started in this new relationship with the Lord. Would you let us send you something? It's free of charge. It's Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. Scores of people have read this edition of God's Word. New believers love the study helps written just for them, and they appreciate that it's an easy-to-understand translation. Well, we'll send it to you today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Or write to us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. And then let us take a moment to thank you for praying for this ministry and for supporting it through your generous donation. It's an investment in kingdom business. Isn't that right, Pastor Greg? Yeah, it's really true, Dave, and I believe it's so important because, you know, the gospel saves lives. It saves eternal lives because when a person believes in Jesus, according to scripture, they pass from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. And then, of course, that changes the course of their future.

That impacts their children and their children's children. The gospel changes everything, and thousands and thousands of people respond every single year. Thanks to the Lord, also thanks to you for your investment in this ministry, enabling us to reach people wherever they are. So if this is something you care about, I encourage you to make a financial investment in A New Beginning and Harvest Ministries. Yeah, that's right, and we really do appreciate your support. Thanks for partnering with us today.

It can make a real difference, not just for today or this week, but for eternity. So get in touch with your support today by calling 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, more insight on life's opportunities and obstacles and how the pathway to happiness is viewing those events from God's perspective. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-22 05:22:36 / 2025-01-22 05:31:34 / 9

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