Greg Laurie: A New Beginning

Pastor Greg Laurie delivers a message on the power of forgiveness.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

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Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s the best way to chart a course for a successful Christian life over the long haul? We might ask someone who’s walked that path over the long haul. There’s no discounting the wisdom that comes with experience. Well today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie looks back over the past 50 years of ministry at his home church, Harvest Christian Fellowship. The Lord has blessed, but it hasn’t always been easy. So today he offers some good perspective for all of us on the path of faith.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

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Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever been caught in gridlock? Maybe you’re trying to get out of the parking lot of a large sporting event. You’re stuck. You can go forward, you can’t back up, you can’t go to the right or the left. Only thing you can do is...look up. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie takes us to a time of challenge in the history of the Israelites. They needed help. They were stuck. They looked up, and God came through. We’ll see what lessons we can learn for our own spiritual gridlock.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all gotten used to spam calls, right? We can sometimes see them coming. Maybe we don’t answer the phone. If we do, we have our way of ending the call as quickly as possible. When the Devil comes calling, some of us forget all those defensive techniques. We sit there and listen to his sales pitch. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie returns to our series in Joshua with some practical advice on saying no to our enemy no matter how tempting his offer.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special effects companies are masters at building small models of railroads or high rises or mountain ranges. But in the movie theater, they seem huge – they fill the screen! Could it be that our problems only LOOK big? Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see our challenges through the lens of faith. And we’ll see, whether our problems are small or big or incalculable, nothing’s too hard for the Lord. Glad you’re along for our series in Joshua.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kids learn early on the playground that if a bully is bigger than them, it’s good to have a friend who’s bigger than the bully. A bully who’s met his match is no longer a threat. Well as Pastor Greg just said, greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Our adversary is no match for our Almighty God. We stand in victory when we stand with the Lord. A good lesson on that today on A NEW BEGINNING as Pastor Greg continues his series: Joshua: Living in the Land of Promises.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes you pray... and nothing happens. You’re asking for something good, but God isn’t budging. What’s happening? You might be wrestling with God.

Maybe He’s been leading you to do something—and you’ve resisted... You won’t let Him into that one area of your life. You won’t break off that relationship that drains you spiritually. You won’t give up that habit that drags you down. You’re afraid to take that step of faith.

Remember Jonah? God said, “Go.” Jonah said, “No.” And God said, “Oh?”

If that’s you—you’re not alone. Even Jacob wrestled with God. His struggle began with resisting and ended with resting. He stopped fighting and started clinging—saying, “I will not let You go until You bless me.” Pastor Greg Laurie shares more in this message.

Notes:

Focus verse - Genesis 32
 
God’s plans are better than ours.
 
Have you ever prayed and prayed for something, and no answer came?
 
The Bible urges us to bring our needs to God.
Philippians 4:6 (NKJV)
 
Wrestling with God is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
“My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."
—Abraham Lincoln
 
Hosea 12:3 (NLT)
Even in the womb, Jacob struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God.
 
Hosea 12:4 (NLT)
Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him.
 
Jesus is the Passover lamb in Exodus; in Numbers, He is the bronze serpent lifted up.
 
A Christophany is an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament.
 
Jacob was wrestling with Jesus Himself.
 
Genesis 25:23 (NKJV)
And the LORD said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, …
And the older shall serve the younger."
 
Psalm 139:14,16
 
The meaning of Jacob’s name is
heel-catcher, contender, supplanter, grabber.
 
God does not just see you for what you are, but for what you can become.
 
God sees things differently than we do.
We see failure, God sees potential.
We see the past, God sees the future.
We see sin, God sees restoration.
 
Time showed that Jacob was a righteous man
and Esau was an ungodly man.
 
It’s not about how we start this race in life but how we finish it.
 
It was not an easy road for Jacob, and that was his own fault.
 
Hebrews 12:16 (NLT)
Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the firstborn son for a single meal.
 
When we get tired of praying, we start scheming, and we make a mess of things.
 
Rebecca sent Jacob to visit her brother, Laban.
On the way there, Jacob had an encounter with God.
 
All Jacob had to do was wait on God’s timing.
 
Jacob met his match in his uncle Laban.
The trickster met the trickster extraordinaire.
 
We reap what we sow.
 
Christians should try to live in peace with people.
Romans 12:18
 
God meets us at whatever level He finds us
and lifts us to where He wants us to be.
 
God will come to you in just the right way.
Hebrews 4:16
 
Read Genesis 32:24–30
 
Jacob was wrestling with Jesus Christ.
 
We need to get away from all the distractions of life and get alone with God.
 
When you get to the end of yourself, you get to the beginning of God.
 
Now, instead of fighting with God, Jacob is clinging to Him.
 
In surrender to God’s plan, Jacob found what he always wanted,
the very blessing he asked God for.
 
We win by losing.
Luke 17:33
 
Genesis 32:28 (NLT)
"Your name will no longer be Jacob," the man told him. "From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won."
 
"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."
—Corrie Ten Boom
 
Are you running from God?
The good news is God is running to you.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We don’t take our young kids to the shoe store to learn to tie their shoes. We don’t take them to the dentist to learn to brush their teeth. W e don’t take them to a nutritionist to learn to eat their vegetables. No, there are certain things parents teach their kids. It’s just part of being a parent. And today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out those things that go along with being a Christian parent . . . namely to pass along our faith . . . to train them up in the way of the Lord . . . to disciple them.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we go to a restaurant we’ve never been to before, do we test the chair before we sit down? Do we send the main course for chemical analysis before we take a bite? When we give our credit card to pay, do we follow the server to the register to make sure it’s not charged inappropriately? We exercise a certain amount of faith everyday. And coming up on A NEW BEGINNING. Pastor Greg Laurie helps us exercise our faith in the God of the universe, the One who loves us and only has plans for good and not to harm us.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Christian life has been compared to a race. And it certainly is that. But given the opposition we often face, it could also be compared to an obstacle course. It’s a tough assignment to “run to win” when our adversary is trying to trip us up and stop us in our tracks. Well today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie offers biblical advice on keeping our focus and priorities where they should be. God can give us the spiritual power, but we need supply the determination to succeed.

Looking for hope or know someone who is? Join Greg Laurie at the Harvest Crusade: Hope for America on November 16! Get event information here.

—

Become a Harvest Partner today and join us in knowing God and making Him known through media and large-scale evangelism, our mission of over 30 years.

Explore more resources from Pastor Greg Laurie, including daily devotionals and blogs, designed to answer your spiritual questions and equip you to walk closely with Christ.

Support the show: https://bit.ly/anbsupport

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.