Tag Archives: Calvary Chapel

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – New Every Morning

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Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.—Lamentations 3:22–23

Sometimes I will run into people I knew years ago, and they will say, “Hey, Greg, we remember the old days back at the tent [at Calvary Chapel]. Those were good days, weren’t they?”

“Yeah, those were great days,” I will say. “So anyway, where are you going to church now?”

“We don’t go to church. We’re still living off the tent.”

They need to get current. That was then, this is now. For some people, it is all about what God did thirty years ago or twenty years ago. But I am interested in what God is doing today. And I want to see what He will do tomorrow. The past is interesting to me only to the extent that I can learn from it so I don’t make mistakes that I have made there. I can also remember some great things that God did and pray that He will do them again.

There’s a place for remembering, but let’s not be crippled by past victories that stop us from doing what God wants us to do today. The Bible says that His mercies are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22–23).

That is why Paul could say, “Forgetting those things which are behind . . .” (Philippians 3:13). If anyone could have rested on his laurels, it was Paul. He had a pedigree that didn’t stop (see Philippians 3:4). And if anyone could have been crippled by his past, it was Paul. Before he was the great apostle, he was the notorious Saul of Tarsus, the Christian killer. But Paul wouldn’t allow himself to be crippled by past sins or to be distracted by past victories. Nor should we.

God wants to do a fresh work in your life today—and He wants to do another one tomorrow.

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Faithful in the Little Things

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If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. —Luke 16:10

When I was a young Christian attending Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, I would listen to Pastor Chuck Smith and some of the other pastors and think, That is what I want to do. I want to serve the Lord like that. I want to speak.

I had been a believer for about three or four months when I went to see Pastor Chuck one afternoon. I sat down in his office and said, “I’ve been listening to you speak. I want you to know that I want to be used by God. Whatever you want me to do around here, I would be happy to do it.”

I was kind of hoping he might say, “Greg, why don’t you teach for me Sunday morning?” or something like that. Instead, he suggested that I talk to Romaine, another pastor at Calvary Chapel. (Romaine was a former drill sergeant in the Marine Corps.) So I went to Romaine’s office and told him, “I want to be used by God.”

“You do?”

I said, “Yes, I do. I want to serve the Lord.”

“That’s great,” he said. “See that broom? See that tree? Start sweeping.”

There was a pepper tree on the church property, which I believed had only one function: to drop leaves. I would sweep under this tree, and one minute later, there would be two hundred more leaves. I would sweep it up. Two hundred more leaves. That was all I did for weeks, even months. I just swept that tree and did little things around the church. But that was good. They were testing my faithfulness. Do you want to be used by God? Then be faithful in the little things.