It’s never a mistake to follow Jesus’ example. In fact, that’s implied in the definition of “follower” or “disciple.” We’re walking in the footsteps of Jesus. And today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie takes us to the dramatic moment when Jesus had a confrontation with the Devil himself. It was the moment the Savior of our souls crossed paths with the accuser of the brethren. But Jesus chose to make it a teaching moment for all of us as believers who encounter the scourge of temptation.

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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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I John 1:8 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Given that . . . given we’re all in this boat together . . . what do we do now? How do sinners like us find forgiveness for our sin, relief for our guilt, and re-establish a relationship with a Holy God? That’s the subject on the table today on A NEW BEGINNING as Pastor Greg Laurie launches a brand new series. We’ll see how we can access that second chance Jesus offers.

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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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Jesus is still saying what He said 2,000 years ago: "Follow Me." And He doesn't mean only on Sundays, but every day. Pastor Greg Laurie shares how we can put Jesus first in our lives and move away from things that pull us down.

Notes:

Luke 5
 
Social media is stealing hours you can never get back.
 
The algorithm is designed to capture your attention and never let go-
 
Who or what are you following?
 
You will become like the people you follow.
You will reflect their values, or lack thereof.
 
It’s time to follow Jesus.
 
Social media influencers want your attention.
Jesus wants your heart.
 
Jesus is here for you.
He says, “Follow Me.”
 
The bible challenges you to check on yourself. Are you really a Christian?  
Or are you just pretending to be one? (2 Corinthians 13:5)
  
Acts 11:26 (NLT)
It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.
 
To call the believers Christians was a mockery.
It meant “little Christs.”
 
Matthew 7:22 (NKJV)
“Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?”
 
Matthew 7:23 (NKJV)
And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
 
John 14:15 (NKJV)
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
 
Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?
 
Read Luke 5:27–32
 
Luke 5:28 (NLT)
So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.
 
Why did Matthew change so quickly?
 
Jesus simply looked at him and said two words, "Follow Me.”
 
Luke 5:31 (NLT)
Jesus answered them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do.”
 
God will come to us in a way we can understand.
 
To the military man Joshua, Jesus came as a general.
To the combative Jacob, He came as a wrestler.
To the astrologers, the Wisemen, through a star in the heavens.
 
Psalm 18:25 (NIV)
To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
 
Psalm 18:26 (NIV)
to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
 
If you are drowning in guilt and shame,
Jesus offers you forgiveness and relief.
 
If you feel like you don’t belong,
Jesus makes room at His table.
 
God does not turn people away because of who they are.
He comes to them because of it.
  
Luke 5:27
Later, as Jesus left the town, He saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at his tax collector's booth and said, "Follow Me.”
 
Tax collectors collected exorbitant taxes from each person daily.
Often, they skimmed off the top or charged more than was required and pocketed the profit.
 
Matthew was considered a traitor, a turncoat, a backslider, and a collaborator with Rome.
 
The people who put up the biggest fight are often closer than those who don’t fight at all.
 
Jesus knew that Matthew wanted a relationship with God.
Jeremiah 29:13
 
Matthew couldn't bring himself to leave that tax booth and go to Jesus.
 
Most non-Christians say they have never had a Christian explain the gospel clearly.
 
The word used for saw, means to gaze intently upon, to stare, to fix one's eyes constantly upon an object.
 
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. A people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
 
Matthew bolted at the chance to follow and serve Jesus.
 
“Follow Me” means to walk the same road.
 
Following Jesus is not just something we do on Sunday.
 
Jesus wants to be a part of everything you do and everywhere you go.
Romans 13:14
 
How do we follow Jesus?
Through prayer and Bible study.
 
Start the day with the Bible.
End the day with the Bible.
 
Joshua 1:8 (NLT)
Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
 
“Follow Me” also means to "Follow with Me," meaning companionship and friendship.
 
Matthew happily jumped at the chance of a lifetime.
Luke 5:27
 
Matthew knew the cost and willingly paid it.
 
An old Scottish preacher called this “The expulsive power of a new affection.”
 
When a person really meets Jesus Christ, they cannot leave the old life fast enough.
 
Matthew lost a career but gained a destiny.
He lost his material possessions but gained a spiritual fortune.
  
Matthew was so excited that he decided to throw a party for Jesus.
Luke 5:29
 
Jesus sees you for who you are, and He sees you for who you can be.
 
The Bible says, “Today is the day of salvation.”

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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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Imagine a local food pantry to feed the hungry and less fortunate. They collect donations from far and wide. There are shelves full of food reaching to the ceiling. Great! But if they never distribute any of that food, what a crime. Some believers have a heart full of compassion and a head full of knowledge about the Christian life, but it never gets distributed. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us all reach out and share.

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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

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Would you walk all the way to work because you forgot to get in your car? Would you stand over a tub doing laundry like it’s 1910 when the washing machine is sitting right there? When power tools are available, we use them. Well today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that the Lord has made spiritual gifts available to each of us – the power tools, as it were, of serving the Kingdom. And today we’ll see just how important it is that we use them.

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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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It’s about time to pay the credit card bills from this past Christmas. Sadly, often those bills last longer than the gifts did. Ouch. But that’s how it is, right? The things of this world promise a lot of joy, but the joy expires before the cost. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us reevaluate our priorities, and set our focus on the eternal. A life lived for eternity experiences joy that never fades, and the price has been paid.

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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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Ever gotten up too quickly and felt a little light-headed . . . maybe lost your balance? When you lose your balance, it’s hard to walk a straight line. Spiritually, some believers let their lives get out of balance, and then have difficulty walking the straight and narrow path of faith. Well today on A NEW BEGINNING, some help from Pastor Greg Laurie on bringing our lives back into balance . . . back into harmony with God’s plan. It’s a prescription for healing what ails us spiritually.

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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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Some professions have specialty clothing . . . and it saves lives. Firefighters have “turnout pants and jackets” to protect against heat. Police officers wear kevlar vests. Soldiers have vests and helmets and boots. As we’ll learn today, Christian soldiers have specialty clothing, as well. But too many of us don’t know much about it. Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us get to know our six pieces of spiritual armor, and how we can use them in spiritual battle.

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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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Evangelism is a God-given calling every Christian must answer in obedience. In this message, Pastor Greg Laurie shares principles of a good "fisherman."

Notes:

Luke 5
 
There are right and wrong ways to go fishing.
And there are also wrong ways to share our faith.
 
The problem today isn’t that Christians are sharing the gospel the wrong way.
It’s that 8/10 Christians never share the gospel in any way.
 
Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.”
  
Do you want to know how to share the gospel effectively? Do you want to go fishing for men?
 
Read Luke 5:1–10
 
This is a story of how a miracle of Jesus touched the lives of three men,
Peter, James, and John.
 
This terrific trio accompanied Jesus on many occasions.
They were there at the transfiguration.
They were there when Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter.
They were there during His agony in Gethsemane.
 
Were they afforded these privileges because they were better than the others?
 
Maybe Jesus was essentially saying, “I need to keep my eye on you, boys.”
 
Peter’s misstatements were legendary.
 
There were never three men who had less promise or natural ability.
Yet they became three of the greatest missionary preachers in church history.
 
Luke 5:3 (NLT)
Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So He sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.
 
John 1:42 (NLT)
Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, "Your name is Simon, son of John--but you will be called Cephas" (which means "Peter").
 
Jesus looks at Simon and sees what he will become.
 
There was another time Jesus looked at Peter.
It was after Peter’s denial of Jesus.
That was a look of understanding.
 
It appears that Peter, James, and John had a spiritual lapse of sorts.
Or perhaps they were just unsure of what it meant to follow Jesus.
 
Peter, James, and John did not realize the potential Jesus had for them.
 
Jesus was making them into powerful spiritual leaders who would touch their world.
They had the privilege of writing the very scripture we hold in our hands.
 
Have you sensed God’s call on your life to do a certain thing and then not done it?
 
When Jonah ultimately stepped up to the plate, a national revival happened in the wicked city of Nineveh.
 
Not to respond to God’s call on your life can be an actual sin.
It is a sin of omission.
 
Luke 5:4 (NLT)
"Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish."
 
Luke 5:5 (NLT)
"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing."
 
Fishing at this time was back-breaking work because it involved laying out a great net in a semi-circle. It encompassed over 100 feet. Then it had to be drawn in hand over hand.
 
Luke 5:5 (NLT)
"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again."
 
Peter used an interesting term for Jesus when he called Him, “Master.”
It was a nautical term, "Captain of this boat."
 
Peter let down the net instead of the nets.
The result was that the net started breaking.
 
This was supernatural, and these fishermen all knew it.
 
Jesus gave Peter fish because that is what Peter understood.
 
It’s amazing how Jesus can reach the academic and the uneducated,
the certified genius and the little child.
 
Augustine lived for drinking, partying, and rampant immorality.
 
Weeping, Augustine heard the voice of a child repeating, “Take and read.”
Augustine saw this as God entering his world.
 
This is a reminder that no one is beyond the reach of God.
 
Peter is overwhelmed with gratitude and guilt as Jesus gives him a great catch.
  
God is not looking for self-confident people.
He is looking for people who are aware of their inadequacies and weaknesses.
 
When you encounter the Holy God, you realize how sinful you are.
 
Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now, on you’ll be fishing for men!”
(Luke 5:10)
 
The Lord said we can catch men alive.
Either we do it, or the devil does.
 
Luke 5:11 (NLT)
And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.
 
The word for followed signifies the “deepest inward attachment.”
 
#1 A fisherman needs to be patient.
 
The Bible compares evangelism to farming.
1 Corinthians 3:6–8
 
We live in a microwave society, but God often works like a slow cooker.
 
Ecclesiastes 7:8a (ESV)
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning.
 
#2 A good fisherman must persevere.
 
God doesn't grade us on our closing percentage.
He grades us on our obedience.
 
#3 A good fisherman must know to go to the right place at the right time.
 
#4 A good fisherman must have skill.
 
We learn effective skills through experience.
 
We learn to build a bridge rather than to burn it.
 
One of the best ways to share the gospel with someone is to listen.
 
Know the word of God.
2 Timothy 2:15
 
1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.
 
# 5 A good fisherman must know how to work with others.
 
Cooperation is the key to effectively sharing your faith.
 
God specializes in turning sinners into saints. 

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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.

On January 21, Harvest Riverside hosted the first stop of TPUSA Faith's Make Heaven Crowded Tour, a gospel-centered gathering calling people to repentance, faith, and bold obedience to Jesus. 

Listen in to Pastor Greg Laurie's full speech, where he encourages Christians to remember the urgent calling of evangelism and invites nonbelievers to receive Jesus Christ.

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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.

The old evangelist Billy Sunday said, “Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.” How many of us have our fingerprints on the doorknob, and wonder why we fell to the devil’s lures? Today on A NEW BEGINNING, Pastor Greg Laurie brings us good insight on the spiritual environment we’re living in. It’s a look at the spiritual battle being waged all around us, whether we realize it or not . . . and how we’re all combatants in the fight.

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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.