Utah's Hope

The time to buy a fire extinguisher is before a fire starts. The right time to put on your seatbelt? When you first get in – before the car accident. The time to prepare for a crisis? When things in your life seem just fine. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us strengthen our faith for those seasons when our passion has faded and our spiritual tank has run dry. It's in those moments we realize how much we need a good, strong spiritual foundation.

The Harvest Crusade is coming to Angel Stadium on July 11! Stay updated on all important event details. 

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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.

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Your kids are living in digital worlds, but are they safe? More importantly, is anyone bringing light into those spaces? Jonathan Ober and Frank Kuligowski are stepping into VR Chat and the metaverse to meet isolated, searching people right where they are. Discover how to navigate online gaming safely as a family and, through Christian gaming, reach a subculture desperately looking for real connection.

Show Notes and Resources

• Learn how to connect with people and build relationships in the metaverse, a growing digital space. Go to jesusfilm.org/metaverse
• Get Connected: Want to learn more about digital missions? Reach out to [email protected] or jump directly into the Cru Gaming Outreaches
• Don't miss the boat on romance! Secure your spot on the Love Like You Mean It Marriage Cruise. Head over to lovelikeyoumeanit.com before June 30, 2026, and use promo code COUNTDOWN27 to score exclusive stateroom discounts!

• Thanks to the Christian Standard Bible for sponsoring this episode. Learn more at CSBible.com.
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Some of the costliest financial mistakes are made in isolation.

When big decisions come our way, pride and pressure can convince us that we need to figure everything out ourselves. But God designed us to walk in community, and His wisdom often comes through trusted voices. Seeking wise counsel is not a sign of weakness—it is a key part of faithful stewardship.

Have you ever faced a financial decision that felt heavier than your confidence could carry?

Maybe it was whether to buy a home. Perhaps it was changing careers, helping aging parents, navigating a difficult season in marriage, or deciding how to prepare for retirement. In those moments, the questions come quickly:

And often, beneath all of those questions is the assumption that you should be able to figure it out by yourself.

But God never intended for you to walk through life’s biggest decisions alone.

One of the clearest themes in Scripture is that wisdom often comes through community. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”

That is not only a proverb about leadership. It is a principle for everyday life—including our finances.

Sometimes we think wisdom is found only in personal research, spreadsheets, calculators, or online content. Those tools can certainly be helpful. But biblical wisdom is more than information. It includes discernment, humility, perspective, and the willingness to receive insight from others.

That is why Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”

Notice the contrast: foolishness is not always recklessness. Sometimes it is simply refusing to listen.

Wisdom begins when we acknowledge that we may not see the whole picture. And that takes humility.

Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

To fear the Lord means recognizing that God is God and we are not. We submit our plans, our preferences, and even our financial assumptions to Him. We stop asking only, “What do I want to do?” and begin asking, “Lord, what would You have me do?”

That kind of humility also opens us to receive the people God may use in our lives.

Sometimes that person is a mentor who has walked through a season you are now entering. Sometimes it is a trusted friend who knows you well enough to ask hard questions. Sometimes it is an older believer whose experience can spare you from avoidable mistakes. And sometimes it is a professional advisor who brings technical expertise shaped by biblical values, such as a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA®).

But ignoring wise voices can have destructive consequences.

Scripture gives us a sobering example in Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.

In 1 Kings 12, when Rehoboam became king, the people asked him to lighten the heavy burdens placed on them. At first, he sought counsel from the older men who had advised his father. They urged him to lead with humility and serve the people.

But Rehoboam rejected their wisdom.

Instead, he turned to younger voices that echoed his pride and ambition. Their advice was simple: be harsher, be stronger, demand more.

He followed their counsel, and the result was devastating. The kingdom was split in two. What began as a leadership decision became a national tragedy.

Why? Because Rehoboam preferred affirmation over wisdom. He chose voices that told him what he wanted to hear instead of what he needed to hear.

That temptation is still with us today.

Father’s Day feels weird, or even stings, when the chair at the table is empty—or when your stepkids pull back because they’re still hurting. Ron Deal talks with the widowed and remarried Brian and Debbie Doyle--about grief, holidays, and blending families with adult children. If you’ve ever worried about stepping in or stepping too hard, this conversation gives you permission to move with patience, empathy, and faith.

Show Notes and Resources

• Free blended resources 
• Look for a live or virtual small group to join 
• Iron Sharpens Iron 
• Get the Smart Stepdad or The Smart Stepmom 
• Give a donation to help strengthen blended families 
• List of Smart Stepfamily Therapist Providers 

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"For a good time, call home!" Pastor Ted Cunningham outlines the benefits of marriage, and encourages young adults to consider marrying sooner rather than later. He offers great advice for couples of all ages to help keep the joy in your relationship. 

Receive Ted Cunningham's book Fun Loving You for your donation of any amount, and receive a free audio download of this program!

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Dr. Greg and Erin Smalley emphasize that a strong marriage rests on friendship! Author and speaker, Becky Harling discusses how a past breast cancer diagnosis reshaped her priorities toward intentional friendships. She highlights bringing fun and adventure back, expressing gratitude, avoiding complacency, practicing wise vulnerability, and setting boundaries to prevent over-functioning or controlling behavior, including tighter safeguards around opposite-sex friendships. Greg and Erin also encourage reminiscing and flirting. In a listener question, they advise a husband navigating his wife’s perimenopause to stay curious and educate himself.

Friend-Wise: Practical Ideas for Richer Relationships

Marriage Assessment

Understanding Menopause

Hope Restored

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Discover the nine characteristics of a person who is experiencing the favorable hand of God.

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Notes:

Luke 17

God gives us biblical principles to free us from our three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
 
The freedom that the world offers is slavery.
  
Read Luke 17:1–2 (NKJV)
 
Your Influence Is Never Neutral.
 
Matthew 12:30 (NKJV)
"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

You cannot impress people and bless people at the same time.
 
Parents, your greatest mission field is inside your own home.  
 
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (NKJV)
"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
 
Luke 17:2 (NLT)
It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin.
 
1 Corinthians 10:31–32 (NLT)
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don't give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God.
 
1 Corinthians 10:33 (NLT)
I, too, try to please everyone in everything I do. I don't just do what is best for me; I do what is best for others so that many may be saved.
 
1 Corinthians 11:1 (NLT)
And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
 
Repent!
Turn from the shortcomings and follow God’s will.
 
Ask God to forgive you and to strengthen you so you won't fail.
 
Luke 17:3 (NKJV)
Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.
 
Luke 17:4 (NKJV)
And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him.
 
Forgive As You’ve Been Forgiven.
 
Proverbs 27:5–6 (NKJV)
Open rebuke is better
Than love carefully concealed.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
 
Luke 6:37 (NKJV)
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
 
To forgive means to release someone from a debt.
 
Luke 17:5 (NKJV)
And the apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
 
Luke 17:6 (NKJV)
So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.
 
The Right Faith
 
We don’t need more faith; we need a deeper understanding of what faith in God can accomplish.
 
Read Luke 17:7–10 (NKJV)
 
It’s Not Always About You.
 
Jesus is the central figure in all human history, in all of creation.
 
Acts 20:22–23 (NLT)
And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
 
Acts 20:24 (NLT)
But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.
 
Matthew 6:3–5 (NLT)
When you give to someone in need, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
 
When we obey God, it’s liberating, it’s freedom, and it’s revolutionary.

The Harvest Crusade is coming to Angel Stadium on July 11! Stay updated on all important event details.