After Jesus Revolution | Pastor Greg Laurie Tells the Story of His Father

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. I think most of you have heard my story and if you've seen the Jesus Revolution movie, maybe you have some questions. You saw my mother beautifully played by Kimberly Williams Paisley, but there were references to my dad, who she was leaving, and you wonder, well, what happened with all of that?

So that's a true story. We were living in New Jersey and Oscar Laurie had adopted me. He was not my biological father, but he was the only man my mom married.

She married and divorced seven times. He was the only man who ever treated me as a father should treat a son and I really loved him. So one day I was getting out of school and I saw that our car was loaded up with our luggage and I said to my mom, what's going on? She says, we're leaving. I said, where's dad?

She said, he's not coming. That was the last I saw of Oscar Laurie for the rest of my childhood. So in the film you see a very young Greg constantly sketching and indeed I was an artist and I was always drawing throughout my childhood and he's drawing this little stump with the word Rapoolalot under it. That's the Laurie motto.

It's on our family crest and it means it buds afresh. So let me now finish the story. What happened in real life? I already told you in another post that my mother came to Christ later in her life. So what about my dad who adopted me? So I was a young pastor. Our church was just beginning.

I was in my very early 20s. My son Christopher had been born and I wondered whatever happened to my dad. So I found someone that worked for the Bar Association because he was an attorney and she tracked him down.

This is before Google. So I get his number and I call his office in New Jersey where he's now living. He's remarried, has a new family and I called his office. I said, hi, is Oscar Laurie in? And his secretary said, no, he's out at lunch.

Can I ask who's calling? I said, yes, it's Greg Laurie. And she said, how do you spell your last name?

I said, the same way he spells his, this is his son. I quickly got a call back and Oscar said, Greg, it's so good to hear from you. Well, as it turns out, I was going to New York and I was going to be preaching there in Central Park. And I said, maybe we could meet. He goes, yes, come and stay at our house. I didn't think he'd want me to come stay at his house, maybe just have lunch.

Come stay at our house, please come. And so I preached in Central Park. I was there with Kathy and my son Christopher. We got on a train, arrived in New Jersey. He was waiting for us.

And, you know, he looked just like I remembered him. So we spent the night catching up on all that had happened in my life since then. Well, Oscar had remarried, a woman named Barbara, beautiful woman, great cook.

She made us a fantastic Italian meal, sausage and pasta, all that good Italian food. And so she asked me, Greg, tell me how you became a Christian. And it's so funny because my dad's sitting on the other end of the table. Remember, he's an attorney, so he's been in many courtrooms. He's literally sitting like this, just listening, not reacting.

Barbara's reacting to everything I'm saying. He's just sitting like this, listening. And so I thought, wow, I don't think he loves what I'm saying. He was a very intelligent man. He would read thick books.

He would read a history book in one week and then move on to another, always reading, always learning, really an intellectual man, a very good man and a moral man, I might say. And so he listens to this conversation. And then afterwards, as we're getting ready to go to bed, he goes, Greg, will you walk with me in the morning?

Now I left out one thing. As it turns out, he had had a heart attack just two weeks before I called him and he almost died. He blacked out behind the steering wheel and ran into a pole. So now he's on heart medication. He has to walk every morning. So he said, will you walk with me in the morning?

I said, sure, dad. So I get a knock on my door at six in the morning, New Jersey time, three o'clock in the morning, California time. I roll out of bed. I'm wiping the sleep out of my eyes.

The brisk New Jersey air envelops us as we're walking along. And my dad says, Greg, I listened very carefully to what you said last night about Jesus. I said, right. And he said, I want to accept Jesus Christ into my life right now.

Boy, did I wake up fast. I said, uh, what? He says, yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ right now. I said, well, dad, let me go over it one more time. Okay. So I went over the whole thing again. He says, yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ right now.

What do I need to do? I said, well, we need to pray. Now, remember we're walking the whole time.

We're walking through a park. He drops to his knees. I wasn't going to drop to my knees, but since he did, I did too. So we're on our knees and I lead him in this prayer to ask Christ to come into his life. It was incredible.

One of the most amazing conversions I've ever seen. Right after we prayed, he said, Greg, pray for my heart. Pray God heals my heart. I said, well, I don't know if God will heal your heart, but we can pray. So we pray for him to be healed. After we're done praying, he says, Greg, my doctor's not far from here.

His office is right over there. Let's go see him. I want to tell him my heart is healed. I said, dad, we don't know if your heart's healed. Well, let's go see my doctor. So we go into his doctor's office, a nice Jewish man. And he says to the doctor, doc, this is my son, Greg from California. He's a preacher. And I just prayed and asked Jesus to come into my life.

And my heart is healed. I'm thinking, oy vey, what is this doctor thinking? The doctor says, now ask her. We don't know about that.

We have to run some tests on you first. They ran tests on my father. The heart condition that he had was gone. God had actually healed him. I had 15 more years with my dad. He grew spiritually. He worked with the Gideons, distributing Bibles. He became an elder in his church.

Just one of the most amazing things I ever have seen. And so in the movie, you just see Greg longing for his father. But in real life, Greg found his father. And Oscar then explained to me the family crest, Laurie.

It's a Scottish name. It means that buds are fresh. And it's a tree that's been cut down blooming again. And that really was a picture of my life. It had been cut down through all the things that happened to me as a child. But it grew again when I became a follower of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you some more stories of other characters in the film in our next time together.