The Secret to Sharing the Gospel Effectively | Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Let's all pray together. Father, we ask now as we open your word that you would speak to us.

We believe that it's alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Help us to know, Lord, how to share our faith more effectively. And Lord, teach us more about what it means to be empowered by and filled with your Holy Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Hey, grab your Bibles. Turn to Acts chapter 2. We're in a brand new series based on the book of Acts and it's simply titled The Upside Down Life.

And the title of my message for you right now is The Secret to Sharing the Gospel Effectively. Let me ask you a question. Let's say that you've got a brand new car and there's nothing like a new car. You've got that new car smell. Everything is nice and clean and shiny and you're driving down the road, you're enjoying your new car, and at the end of the week, all of a sudden you're having a mechanical problem. Your car is sputtering. Your car completely stops. You have to have it towed back to the dealership and you demand an explanation. You say, I just bought this car and it broke down already. What is wrong? So the dealer gets in the car and he turns on the ignition and he says, um, you're out of gas.

What? Yeah, you have to put gas in your car. And our Christian life can be like this. Sometimes we sort of run out of gas. Speaking of that, my wife, whenever she borrows my car, gives it to me with so little gas in it, literally she's driving around running on fumes. We could take the same idea and apply it to charging something like your cell phone. I don't know about you, but I can barely make it through a whole day without my cell phone going dead. So I plug it in and recharge it periodically. You got to keep your cell phone charged, right?

I have a friend who has an electric car and we drove up to Los Angeles from Orange County and it drove incredibly on the way up. But on the way back I noticed that the air conditioning just shut off and other features were shutting off. I said, what's going on? He says, well, I should have fully charged it before we left. It's shutting down because the battery's really low.

You say, why are you talking about this? When your battery is low, when things are shutting down, if you find yourself losing momentum, maybe it's because you need a recharge or you need to be filled and refilled and filled again with the Holy Spirit. And that's what we're going to look at in our message today. We're going to look at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a group of believers gathered together on the day of Pentecost there in Jerusalem. And this outpouring of the Spirit on this day set the church into motion. Now what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I think sometimes it means that we're going to have an emotional experience.

And maybe you will and maybe you won't. It would be nice if every day we could just sort of get zapped before we get started and just be filled with all kinds of energy and passion. But I think being filled with the Spirit may not even affect you emotionally.

It's something that we ask for and that we live by by faith. But these believers on the day of Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit. And really you could retitle the book of Acts not the Acts of the Apostles but change it to the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is mentioned 56 times in this book. And the Holy Spirit is a personality. The Holy Spirit is not an it. He's not a force. Trust the force Luke.

No, no. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit has a will and a purpose and a work that He wants to do in your life and mine. Let me just tell you a few things about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Number one, the Holy Spirit has come to bring us to Jesus. In John 16 verse 8 Jesus says, When He has come, speaking of the Holy Spirit, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. Notice it says when the Holy Spirit has come He will convict or convince the world of sin. Not sins plural.

Sin in general. In other words He'll come to show us that we are sinners in need of a Savior. Now once the Holy Spirit does that work of convicting in our life it's up to us how we respond to it. You might be watching right now and God's Holy Spirit might be making you aware of your sinfulness, of your spiritual depravity, of how you're separated from God. He doesn't do that to drive you away in despair. He does that to bring you to Jesus. To show you there's a solution. There's a way to be forgiven of your sin. There's a way to have a fresh start. But the Holy Spirit comes to convict or convince us of our sin and bring us to Jesus.

Now listen to this. According to the Bible the Holy Spirit can be insulted. He can be lied to.

He can be resisted. And He can even be blasphemed. And by the way there's only one unforgivable sin according to Jesus and that's the blasphemy of the Spirit. So what does that mean? To blaspheme the Spirit means you are rejecting the primary work that the Holy Spirit has come to do which is to bring you to Jesus. The only unforgivable sin is the outright rejection of Christ. So the Holy Spirit comes to bring us to Jesus.

Number two. Once we come to Jesus the Holy Spirit seals us. It's sort of like if you want to purchase something. Let's go back to that car analogy. Maybe you found a car in the lot that you liked and you said, I want to buy that car and I'll be back in a few days to pick it up. Well they're not going to hold the car for you. They'll say, well you're going to have to put a deposit down because someone else may come along and want to buy that car.

So as an issue of good faith to show that you're serious about this purchase you put a down payment on the car. In the same way the Holy Spirit wanting to let you know that God is serious about His commitment to you is placed in our life as a down payment if you will. In fact in Ephesians 1 13 it says when you believed in Jesus God identified you as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit whom He promised long ago. The Spirit is God's guarantee that God will give us the inheritance He promised us because He has purchased us to be His own people.

And this is a beautiful thing because here's another thing the Holy Spirit does. It reassures us that we're children of God. So once the Holy Spirit has brought us to Jesus and He has sealed us He reassures us that we belong to God. Because Romans 8 16 says the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Listen I know right now I am a child of God. Not because I deserve to be but because I have been forgiven by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit assures me of this now. In fact the Bible says over in 1 John 5 13 these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you are children of God. Do you know you're a child of God?

Are you sure right now if you were to die you would go to heaven? If you're not certain of that I'll tell you how to get right with God in a few moments when I bring this message to a close. So the Holy Spirit brings me to Jesus. The Holy Spirit seals me. The Holy Spirit assures me I am a child of God. And then the Holy Spirit teaches me. Jesus said in John 14 28 the Helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send on my name will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I said to you. It's such a cool thing that you can open up the Bible and the Holy Spirit illuminates passages of Scripture to you.

They sort of jump off the page. I can also think of times where I'll be speaking or maybe talking with someone one on one and suddenly a passage will jump into my brain. I don't remember ever memorizing that passage but there it is. That's because the Holy Spirit has brought it to my remembrance. The Holy Spirit teaches us. Here's another thing the Holy Spirit does.

He helps us to pray. And we need help in our prayers don't we? Sometimes we're facing a problem. We're facing a conflict.

Some kind of a challenge. And we don't know how to pray. Here's what Romans 8 26 says. The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. When we don't know what we should pray for or how we should pray the Holy Spirit prays with us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying because the Spirit pleads for us as believers so we will be in harmony with the will of God. Sometimes you're so burdened and you just say, oh Lord, I don't know exactly how to articulate this prayer.

I just put it in your hands. The Holy Spirit knows. The Holy Spirit will bring it to the Father.

Here's another thing the Holy Spirit does. He leads us. He leads us in life. Sometimes we're not even aware that He's leading us.

But He is. Romans 8 14 says for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. And so that's why every day when we get up in the morning we should ask the Holy Spirit to fill us. And that brings me to my seventh point about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to empower you and fill you again and again and again so you have spiritual gas in your tank. So you have the charge you need. Here's what Ephesians 5 18 says.

Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. But be filled with the Holy Spirit speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. And by the way that phrase be filled speaks of something we should do continuously. So again I don't just get filled once.

I get filled again and again and again. And God wants to do this in our lives right now. Now what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Well we're looking at the day of Pentecost. This is a one off event.

We never read of the phenomena that we see on the day of Pentecost happening again like the mighty rushing wind and the flames of fire on the heads of the apostles. This was a special event. Coming back to cars again. When you start the ignition there's the explosion if you will that gets the car started. You don't keep turning it over and over again once the car is started.

You put it in a drive and off you go. So the day of Pentecost was like the explosion that set the church into motion. It was a one time event. But there's a lot of things we learn about our lives as followers of Jesus from what happened on this important day. So let's read now together from Acts chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 2 to 7.

And I'm reading from the New Living Translation. On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm and it filled the house where they were sitting. And what looked like flames or tons of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them ability. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. And when they heard the loud voice everyone came running. And they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

And they were completely amazed and they said, how can this be? So people from all around the world were gathered in Jerusalem. Many languages were represented. And now the outpouring of the Spirit takes place on the day of Pentecost.

Everyone heard God glorified in their own language. And it's a reminder to us that the gospel is for everyone. It's not just for the white man. It's not just for the black man. It's not just for the Asian man or woman or the Hispanic person. It's for all people, for all tribes, for all languages, young people, old people.

It's for everyone. In fact the Bible tells us in Revelation 7, 9 that when we get to heaven there will be people from everywhere up there. It says, I looked and there was a great multitude that no one could number from all tribes, peoples, and languages.

So amazing thing. But the critics standing nearby came up with their conclusion as to what was happening. They said, all these people are just drunk. Really?

Is that the best you can come up with? They're just drunk. It reminds us of the passage in 1 Corinthians 2.14. It says people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit nor can they understand it. You know nonbelievers just don't get it. And these people didn't get it at all. God was about to change the world with this group of 120 people that were gathered together.

How was God going to do it? Here's some takeaway principles. The first one is so simple, but let's not miss it.

Point number one. They were unified. They were unified. Verse 2.

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Understand these people are human beings just like you and I are. They had their disagreements. They had their squabbles. They had all of the issues that you and I have. But they understood this was a moment to be together.

They were gathered together in one place. These believers had no earthly power whatsoever. They had no armies. They had no money. They had no political power. They had no status. But they had Jesus. And Jesus had them.

They were together. Listen, I can't remember a time in my lifetime in America where we have been more divided. Not just in our nation, but also in our church. We're politically divided. We're divided over so many things. I fear that sometimes even in the church we are letting our political views overshadow our theological beliefs.

We're choosing a church that fits us more politically than a place where we're going to be fed spiritually. Listen, we are part of the family of God. And there's power when we pray together.

There's power when we work together. And Satan knows that. And that's why he divides us.

Or at least seeks to. And my response is to hell with the devil and his divisions. Let's get together. Let's pray together. Let's work together. Let's love one another.

Let's not divide over secondary issues. Let's get together for the gospel. What if God was ready to send a spiritual awakening to America but He was waiting for His people to get together? Don't forget 2 Chronicles 7, 14 God says, If My people, which are called by My name, will humble themselves.

Notice that's addressed to a group of people, not an individual. Humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways. Then God says I'll hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land. So there's this amazing phenomena on the day of Pentecost. Luke uses the word suddenly. Suddenly there was a noise like a violent rushing wind. And the way he phrases this implies that this was a supernatural incident.

Something unexpected. And the Spirit of God was poured out on the believers. But let me point out again as I alluded to earlier God fills us with the Spirit and then He fills us again and again and again. In fact as we go forward in the book of Acts a little bit we find them gathered together in Acts chapter 4. They have been told by the authorities to stop preaching the gospel.

So what do they do? They got together in a prayer meeting and said Lord give us even more boldness to preach the gospel. And we read in Acts 4 31 after this prayer the building where they were meeting shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and then they preached God's word with boldness. There is not a better example of what happens when the Spirit fills you than Simon Peter himself.

Less than two months before Pentecost Peter went into hiding with the other disciples. He outwardly denied the Lord and no doubt his faith was strengthened when he met the risen Christ. But this boldness, this courage, this is from the Holy Spirit.

And listen to this. The same Holy Spirit that filled Peter will fill you. Remember what Peter said on the day of Pentecost. This promise, speaking of the Holy Spirit, is to you, is to your children, and all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Let's read some more verses together. Acts chapter 2 verse 14.

Peter stepped forward with the other 11 apostles and shouted to the crowd, Listen carefully, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem. Make no mistake about it. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning. It's much too early for that. Now what you're seeing was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. Let me loosely paraphrase this. Hey people, these folks are not drunk.

The bars aren't even open yet. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. This is a fulfillment of what Joel said. And then Peter quotes from Joel. In the last days I'll pour my spirit out, and I'll flush, and your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your old men will dream dreams.

And on he goes. But I love the way that he based it on Scripture. Listen, whenever we see God working we should be able to back it up biblically. So whatever is happening in your life or in your church you should be able to say, This is that which was spoken of by, in the case of Peter the prophet Joel, you should be able to support what is happening biblically.

Now let's shift gears. Because God gives us His power for a purpose. It's not how high you can jump.

It's how straight when you hit the ground again. Let's go back to Acts 1a. It says, You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be witnesses unto me, and Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. God gave this power to the church so they could evangelize the world.

God wants to do the same through us. So let's talk now about how to share the gospel effectively. Let's go back to Acts 2. Start in verse 36. Peter gives this sermon. This is the first sermon of the early church.

A very important message. He says, Let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified to be both Lord and Messiah. Peter's words pierce their hearts. And they said to him and the other apostles, Brothers, what should we do? Peter replied, Every one of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promises to you, your children, all that are far away, as many as been called by the Lord our God. Verse 40. Then Peter continued preaching for a long time. That's an interesting verse. So therefore I'm going to give a three hour message because Peter did it.

No, I'm kidding. Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all of his listeners, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. And those who believe what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day about three thousand in all.

Wow. Three thousand. That's a lot of people to believe in one day. You know sometimes I hear people say, Well, I'm not into numbers and we're not into mass evangelism. Oh, well, God's into both. God's into mass evangelism. And I don't even really like the phrase mass evangelism.

But if you want to use it, I guess you can, evangelizing the masses. That's what Peter was doing. He was speaking to thousands of people and three thousand of them said they wanted to follow Jesus Christ. And then they were baptized as well. God's into numbers.

God cares about numbers. And we are not ashamed to tell you how many people have come to Christ over a given year or at least have made a profession of faith to follow Jesus Christ. But in the book of Acts we see what you might call mass evangelism. And we see one on one evangelism.

I'll talk about this in a moment. But Philip talking to the man from Ethiopia. One on one evangelism. Peter speaking to the masses on the day of Pentecost. Mass evangelism or what I like to call proclamation evangelism. We are standing up and proclaiming the gospel. And that's what we've done for over 30 years on what we call Harvest Crusades.

And we're doing it again on October 3rd this month at Angel Stadium for one night. And I'll step up to the podium and I will give a clear, direct, evangelistic message and I will call people to follow Jesus Christ. Did you know that over the last 30 years we have seen well over 500,000 people make a profession of faith to follow Jesus. Now do I believe all those people became Christians? No I don't.

Do I believe many of them did? Yes I do. My job is to proclaim the gospel. My job is to sow the seed.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit to determine where that seed ends up and what happens in the life of that person. But let's come back now to what Peter said and let's see if we can learn something about sharing our faith. Whether it's in a public setting speaking to a group of people or just you having a one on one conversation with someone about Jesus.

Point number one. Peter knew his audience. The fact of the matter is the people that Peter were speaking to witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus. Not all of them but many of them did. And even more there were some in the crowd that literally played a role in the actual crucifying of Jesus. So he's speaking to them. He quotes a lot of Old Testament scripture because this was largely a Jewish audience that knew the Bible.

That is not our culture today by the way. Our culture is more like the people Paul spoke to on Mars Hill in the city of Athens in Greece. These were people that worshiped many gods. And Paul walked around and took note of the fact that they were very religious and had many idols and he said, men of Athens I see you're very religious and his message was quite different in its structure than Peter's was. You see Peter was speaking to a biblically literate audience.

Paul was speaking to a biblically illiterate audience. And by and large in our culture today people don't know the Bible anymore. There was a time maybe 30, 40 years ago when you would say to someone or ask them, are you a Christian? I'm a Christian. Nowadays a lot of people will say, no I'm not a Christian.

I don't even really know what a Christian is. There was a time maybe 30 or 40 years ago when you would reference Bible stories like Adam and Eve in the Garden or Noah's Ark or even talking about Jesus and they would understand what you were referring to. Today people are oblivious of so many of those things. So you have to adapt to your audience. You need to adapt to the person you're speaking with and make it understandable to them. Don't assume your listener knows what you're talking about. This is why I think it's a good idea to get to know the person you're speaking with. When I speak in a crusade it's effectively a monologue. It's me speaking. There might be an occasional person that yells back at me but it's mainly me saying what I want people to hear. But when we're engaging evangelism with individuals it's a dialogue. It's give and take. It's listening and getting to know people.

You know if you really want to get a conversation going ask someone about themselves because everyone's favorite subject is themselves. Point number two, knowing this audience Peter adapted to this situation. He adapted. He understood. He had to pivot now and make it understandable to the group of people that he was speaking to.

And that's what we need to do as well. The apostle Paul said, I become all things to all men. In fact in 1 Corinthians 9 he says, I become a servant of everyone so I can bring them to Christ. When I'm with the Jews I become as one of them so I can bring them to Christ. When I'm with the Gentiles I who do not have the Jewish law I try to fit in with them as much as I can so I can gain their confidence and bring them to Christ.

Paul says, I try to find common ground with everyone that I might bring them to Christ. You see it just starts with caring about people. Listen to this. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Let me say that again. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So just start with some compassion.

Take an interest in the person you're speaking with. Number three. Peter's message was effective because it was scriptural. There's a lot of verses in his message. He quotes Joel 2 28 to 32. Apparently from memory. In verse 25 he says, David said, and he quotes Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. You know he didn't have like the scroll of Joel that he's rolling out. Let's see.

Where is it now? It was in his heart. It was in his mind. And he quotes freely from it. And that's why we should commit this scripture to memory. Listen to this. Any Christian worth their salt should be able to stand up in a moment's notice and articulate the gospel in three minutes or less.

Let me say that again. Any Christian worth their salt should be able to get up in a moment's notice and articulate the gospel in three minutes or less. Just stand up and say, here's what the gospel is. Here's what I believe about Jesus. You say, well, let's see you do it.

Okay, I'll take a shot at it. You would say to a person, listen, there is a God in heaven who loves you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life, but here's the problem. You're separated from God by your sin because you and I have broken His commandments.

We've crossed the line, but here's the good news. 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, on a rescue mission for you. And Jesus died on the cross for your sin. And He took God's judgment upon Himself. The fact is Jesus paid a debt He did not owe because you owed a debt you could not pay.

If you will turn from your sin and put your faith in Christ, you can be forgiven and find the purpose and meaning of your life on earth and of the absolute confidence that you will go to heaven. We should all be able to do that. And as we do it, we want to quote Scripture.

Why? Because Isaiah 55 says, God speaking, as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void. It shall accomplish what I please.

It will prosper at the place where I send it. There's no power in Greg's words. There's a lot of power in God's word. That's why I quote Scripture. How many of us can remember seeing Billy Graham holding this Bible? He'd hold it like this sometimes, sort of fold it back and point to it.

The Bible says, he'd say it over and over again, the Bible says, the Bible says, and we should do the same. You know, it's interesting that the Bible is referred to as the sword of the Spirit. So I've got a sword down here. I don't always carry a sword around, but happen to have one for this occasion. This is a replica of a Roman sword. So this would be the sword that Paul is referring to, the Roman short sword for close battle. So what Paul is saying is the word of God is like a sword. So what do I do with this sword? Well, the sword can be a defensive weapon, but the primary defensive pieces of armor are the breastplate and the helmet and the shield. But the sword, this is when I'm attacking.

This is when I'm stepping in and I'm gaining ground. It's an offensive weapon. And the same is true of the Scripture. I use the sword of the Spirit.

So let me ask you a question. What shape is your spiritual sword in? Is it polished from daily use as you study the Scripture on a regular basis and sharpened on the anvil of experience as you have applied its truth and obeyed it in your life? Or is your sword rusty or dull by disobedience? So keep your sword sharp. Keep your sword ready.

And really what I'm saying is know the word of God. Have it close to you on hand. It's falling over. There's no room down here.

There we go. Keep your sword ready. Keep the word of God hid in your heart. Listen, when you're sharing your faith, you don't have to carry around a large Bible.

You can't. But sometimes people sort of freak out when you pull Bibles out. Have you ever noticed that? Maybe you're on a plane. You're flying and you have someone on your right and left and you're talking.

Everything's fine. You reach into your briefcase or your backpack. You pull out a Bible. You start to read it.

People visibly recoil. It's like you brought a rattlesnake out of your bag. Whoa. What's that? Is that a Bible? So there's a symbolic power in the Bible. I remember some years ago we were doing a crusade here in town.

And on our poster it said So Cal Harvest. And it was a picture of me just holding up the Bible. Just like this. That's all it was. In fact it didn't even say Bible on the Bible. So in effect I'm just holding a book up.

It could have been any book you can think of. But there was a symbolism in somebody holding up a book and it offended some people. And so people complained. And the mall where it was displayed asked if they could take this down.

It became a national news story. People are offended by someone holding up a book. But there's power in the symbolism of the Bible. But there's even more power in the words in the Bible. So you can carry a Bible if you want. It's good to carry a Bible in your briefcase or in your backpack, in your purse. But the best place to carry the Word of God is in your heart. And as you're talking with someone you just tell them what the Scripture says. You say well you know what Jesus said. For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.

And whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. There's power. There's power in those words. Use the sword of the Spirit.

Peter's message was powerful because he used Scripture. You say well Craig whatever person doesn't believe that your sword is real. So let's come back to the sword analogy. And I say to someone this is the sword. And they say well I don't believe your sword is real.

Really? Or you say this is the Word of God. They say I don't believe in the Word of God. I suggest stab them with the sword.

I don't mean literally. I say quote the Word of God. They'll feel it. Sometimes when you're quoting Scripture to people it may not impact them in the immediate moment. But it will come to them later. Three o'clock in the morning like a little time bomb detonating in their heart and in their mind. Where they realize wow I remember that thing that that person said. That's the power of the Word of God.

Listen to this. Peter's message was effective because it was Christ-centered. It was effective because it was Christ-centered. Look at Acts 2. Verse 22 he says, Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 32, this man, speaking of Jesus. Verse 36, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Peter spoke of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the core of our message. Paul said I don't want to know anything else among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Listen to what I'm saying here. When you're sharing your faith remember there is power in the message of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul says it is, speaking of the gospel, the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. See I've heard messages that are supposedly evangelistic that never mention the cross. Sometimes in our attempts to cross over we don't bring the cross over.

I've told you before. I once asked Billy Graham this question. Billy if an older Billy could speak to a younger Billy what would you tell yourself to speak more on? And without hesitating Billy said I would preach more on the cross of Christ in the blood because that's where the power is.

I never forgot that. When I'm interviewed as we go into one of our crusades I'm often asked the question what are you speaking on this year? What is your theme?

And we always have a theme but you know what? I'm speaking on Jesus. And ten years ago I was speaking about Jesus. And thirty years ago when we started these crusades I was talking about Jesus.

And if I'm around ten years from now I'll still be talking about Jesus. That's my message. You need Jesus. Whatever your problem is you need Christ. Tell me what you think you want. I'll tell you what you really need. It's Jesus. Tell me what you think you need.

I'll tell you what you really want. It's Jesus. And Peter proclaimed Christ.

Here's another important point. Peter's message was effective because he called sin, sin. And he told people to repent. The people come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They realize that they need God and we read in verse 38 of Acts 2. Peter said repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins.

And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have to tell people they're sinners. I know some people are uncomfortable with that. I know some preachers are uncomfortable with that. Well this is what the Bible says.

And I don't think you can fully appreciate the good news until you know the bad news. And the bad news is according to the Scripture all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us have broken God's commandments. And then of course if I really want to get right with God Peter says I must repent. Repent means to change my direction. It's a military term.

It means an about face. So if I'm running from God I run toward God. Repent of your sin. Turn from your sins. Don't be afraid to tell people they have to repent. Don't be embarrassed to tell people they're sinners. You're simply giving them the gospel. But yet there's a trend among many young people who identify as Christians to not want to say these things. In fact I just read that more than 60 percent of born again Christians between the ages of 18 and 39 believe that Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed are all equal in regards to the path to salvation.

I'm sorry what that says to me is these people that were pulled do not understand what the Bible says. Jesus stands apart from every other religious leader, every prophet, every guru. The Bible says there is salvation in no one else. There's no other name given under heaven among men by which we must be saved. Jesus said it so clearly in John 14 six. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father but by me.

If Buddha or Mohammed or any other religious leader could get me to heaven then why did God send His Son Jesus Christ to come to this earth to suffer and die at a cross and effectively be murdered in cold blood? Answer, because there was no other way to satisfy the righteous demands of God. You see Jesus was not just a good man. He was the God man. And when He died on the cross with one hand He took hold of a holy God that we've offended. With His other hand He took hold of sinful humanity. And spikes were driven through those hands and He died for our sin.

Yes Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. If you see anything short of that you are not giving the true gospel. Here is a final point. The Holy Spirit will do His part. Make sure you do yours. The Holy Spirit will do His part. Make sure you do yours. Remember it is a work of the Holy Spirit to bring us to Jesus.

Right? It is my job to proclaim the gospel. The Bible says how will they hear unless someone tell them.

How will someone tell them unless they be sent. So we have to be the ones to tell people about Jesus. And the verse here. Verse 37 says, The votes were cut to the heart. Cut to the heart. This phrase appears only here in the New Testament.

And the word cut means to pierce or to stab. As though it were something sudden and unexpected. This is a conviction of the Spirit.

Only God can do this. So let's review. Number one, know your listener. Ask questions. Take time to talk to a person. Number two, adapt to this situation.

Make sure they understand what you are saying. Number three, quote Scripture. Number four, focus on Christ crucified and risen again. Five, call sin sin and tell them to repent. Six, ask them if they want to accept Jesus Christ.

And finally remember, conversion is God's job, not yours. I coined a little acronym that I call BLAST. B-L-A-S-T. B stands for build a bridge. L stands for listen.

A stands for ask questions. S stands for share your testimony. And T, tell them about Jesus. So our last thing we do is ask them would you like to accept Jesus Christ. Worst case scenario, they say no.

Best case scenario, they say yes. These people were overwhelmed with their own guilt and they said what should we do? Peter tells them to repent and believe in Jesus. Maybe I'm talking to somebody right now that feels the same way. So I've talked about sin. You're aware of the fact that you're a sinner. No one needs to convince you of that. You know that you need God but you don't know what to do. You don't know how to make that change.

Here's the answer. You come and say God I know I'm a sinner but I thank you for sending Jesus to be my Savior. I'm sorry for my sin.

I repent of my sin. I put my faith in Jesus Christ right now and ask him to be my Lord and Savior. Jesus says behold, I stand at the door and I knock.

If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Would you like Jesus to come into your life? Would you like to be forgiven of all of your sin?

Would you like to be certain that you will go to heaven when you die? If so, I want to lead you in a simple prayer. I would ask you to stop whatever you're doing and just bow your head and pray this prayer with me. This is a prayer where you're asking Christ to come into your life. So if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to start life all over again, if you want to fill that hole in your heart, if you want to find the meaning and purpose of life, pray this prayer with me. You can pray it out loud if you like. Let's all pray. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn now from my sin and I choose to follow you from this moment forward.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org. And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God.