The Refreshing Power of Sharing Your Faith: Reignite

Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.

If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.

You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. We all have our personal testimony, our story of how we came to Christ and our life changed. But Pastor Greg Laurie says, take care to tell it right. Don't make your past sound better than your present. I've heard some people say, you know, I used to party, I had money, I had everything, I was great. But then I came to Christ.

Now it's all of a sudden kind of a downer. Like wait, don't talk about what you gave up for Jesus. Talk about what Jesus gave up for you. When people hear what Jesus has done for us, they'll see what Jesus can do for them. That's the essence of sharing the gospel. But what has Jesus done for us? If we've lost sight of how our life has changed, it may be time for some soul searching before we go out soul winning. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us reignite the passion in our hearts and ignite our afterburners in our efforts to share Christ with those who need to meet Him.

Today's study is from the series called Refresh. John 4 verse 3 we read, Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but He needed to go through Samaria. And He came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Therefore Jesus was tired from his journey and he stopped by a well. It was around the sixth hour.

That would be 12 o'clock noon. And a woman of Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, would ask for a drink from me a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God, who it is that says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. This is a perfect example of how to build a bridge to a person. Now this wasn't a moral woman as the story reveals. She had been married and divorced five times and she was living with some guy at the moment. This is a woman who was ostracized from the rest of the community. She would not have been an educated woman. She didn't know what the Bible said.

And so she was living this life that was in opposition to what the Bible teaches. But Jesus does not start with that. He appeals first to her spiritual thirst. So often we want to go right to the lifestyle of the person we are talking to. And I think in effect get the cart before the horse. We do need to get to that and I will talk about that in a moment.

Because I believe in telling the truth to people. However Jesus starts by building a bridge. Jesus starts by appealing to her spiritual thirst.

He reaches out to her. Bringing me to some points now that you might want to write down. The first point is simply this. If you want to evangelize Jesus style, that is what I am going to call this Jesus style.

Because that is what it was. If you want to evangelize Jesus style it begins with the burden. Again verse 4, He needed to go through Samaria. As a matter of fact He did not need to go through Samaria.

It was actually way out of the way. He was leaving His country. He was going effectively to another country that was populated by people that were known to be the enemies of Israel. So Jesus leaves His comfort zone if you will. Jesus leaves His people.

Goes to this other place. Not just to a woman who was a Samaritan but in a moral woman who was a Samaritan. So when you want to share your faith effectively it starts with a God given concern. You have to care about the soul of a person who is not yet a believer. Second point if you want to evangelize Jesus style you need to use tact. I already touched on this earlier. Paul used tact there on Mars Hill.

We should do the same thing. Isaac Newton said quote, tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy. End quote. And that is a very great way to say it. Now the woman isn't fully getting what Jesus is saying. And now she starts to effectively argue with Him bringing me to my next point.

To share the gospel Jesus style we must adapt to the situation. John 14, 15 the woman said to Him, sir give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. She is being sarcastic. Oh yeah you have water to drink.

Oh sir give me this water that you are talking about. Jesus effectively calls her out. He says in John 4, 16, why don't you call your husband to come here. She says, well I have no husband. Jesus says, that is true.

You have had five husbands and you are living with some dude right now. She is like whoa how did he know that. She says, sir I perceive that you are a prophet. See there will come a moment when you are engaging someone. You appeal to their spiritual thirst but they might ask you a question like well look I am living with my boyfriend or girlfriend or you know I am doing drugs. Would I have to give that up to follow Jesus? You might say, well I don't want to say you know yes that might turn them away.

No you need to tell them the truth. Yes you need to give that up to follow Jesus Christ. You see sin is keeping you from God.

Now I don't start with those issues but I am not going to avoid them when I get to them. They need to know that sin separates them from God. But the solution is a relationship with Jesus. The problem is sin.

The solution is Jesus. And so Jesus engages her and tells her what she needs to do. Acts 3 19 says, repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord. See we need to tell people they are sinners and that they need a Savior.

Listen to this. The Bible says if you confess your sins He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Next point. If you want to do evangelism Jesus style you don't deal with everyone in the same way. See Jesus dealt in a certain way with the woman at the well and then He dealt in an entirely different way with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is in John 3. The woman at the well is John 4. Nicodemus is a religious devout man. John 4 is about an irreligious sinful woman.

But the answer was the same for both. They both needed Jesus. With the woman at the well Jesus engages her, draws her in, confronts her about her sin, and tells her the truth with Nicodemus who came to Jesus. At night Jesus effectively cut to the chase.

Nicodemus is the same teacher. We know you are a great man. No one could do the things that you do unless God is with them. Effectively Jesus says, listen buddy let's just get to the bottom line. You need to be born again.

So the point is we adapt to the person we are speaking to. Now after this woman at the well here is Jesus telling the truth. She says, sir I think you might be the Messiah. He goes, loose paraphrase, girl I am the Messiah. You are speaking with the Messiah. And then we read these words. John 4.28.

The woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the man, come see a man who told me all things I ever did. Could this be the Christ? That brings me to my final point. Telling your story or sharing your testimony is a powerful bridge for the gospel message. Again telling your story also known as your testimony. Now basically you just tell people how you came to faith. You know sometimes nonbelievers don't realize we weren't all born this way. You know people might think, oh Greg he's a preacher.

He probably was raised in a nice Christian home and learned the Bible from his youth. No. I've told you many times that's not the case. For 17 years of my life I lived with my alcoholic mother and went through her divorces, seven in total, and then I made my own foolish choices in the early days of my youth. And then I heard the gospel and gave my life to Christ. So you have a story. Everyone has a story and it's a testimony. So this is a way of kind of preaching to a person without preaching at them. Let me illustrate. Here's how I might use my story. I might say, well you know I was 17 years old. I was using drugs.

My life was empty. And I saw these Christians sitting on the front lawn of my high school campus singing about God. And I thought these people are crazy. These people you know fell off the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. What's wrong with these people? Why do they believe this?

So I'm kind of putting myself in the shoes of the person I'm talking to because maybe that is actually how they feel at the moment. But then I'll go on to say, but then I tried a new thought on for size. What if this is true? And I quickly dismissed it. It couldn't be true. There's no way it could be true.

But again I thought what if it's all true. And then a guy got up to speak and he said, Jesus said you're for me or against me. And I looked at the Christians and I realized I wasn't one of them.

And that was the day I prayed and asked Christ into my life. Now see I'm telling a story. I'm putting myself in the way I used to think, which may be the way the person I'm talking to is thinking at present. And I'm showing them the transition.

How I got from A to B. And in a way I'm preaching to them because I'm telling them what the preacher said. But I'm not pointing my finger at them. But I'm building the bridge. That's the point of a testimony.

It builds the bridge. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Right after a quick look at the way a new beginning touches the lives of listeners. Pastor Greg has been instrumental in my walk with the Lord. I came to Christ 11 years ago after having been an addict for 17 years. I just started hearing him on the radio.

My mom used to leave it on that station so that maybe I would hear something. Well, what I heard back then is still helping me today, along with all the things I've heard in between in every way, in every part of my life. He's helped me and I'm so grateful. Thank you, Pastor Greg.

God bless you. Wow, stories like that really move me. I think of this young lady as a little girl hearing our program and then she obviously made some bad choices in life, becoming an addict by her own admission, but coming back to the Lord. You know, the Bible says if you train a child in the way that they should go, they'll come back to it.

They'll return to it. And that's what happened with this young lady. And that's why it's so important to, when you're driving around with your kids in your car, great to listen to contemporary Christian music, great to listen to Christian radio, and can I just say, really great to listen to a new beginning, because the Word of God will not return void. So we're so thankful that our ministry has touched her back in her childhood into this present day. And that's why we do what we do. And we couldn't do what we do without the support of our listeners. Thanks so much for praying for us and for investing so this work can continue. You can make a generous year-end gift today at harvest.org. Well, Pastor Greg is offering some good encouragement today in his message called The Refreshing Power of Sharing Your Faith, Part 2.

Let's continue. Just a few tips about sharing your personal story. Don't glorify or exaggerate the past. Don't glorify or exaggerate the past. You know, some people, their testimony gets more dramatic with the telling.

I've heard some people talk and tell how they came to Christ. I hear them a few years later and, wow, a lot more stuff is in that story. Did you just remember that or are you embellishing it a little bit? You know, don't make your past sound better than your present. I've heard some people say, you know, I used to party. I had my used to party. I had money. I had everything. I had women.

I was great. But then I came to Christ. Now it's all of a sudden kind of a downer. Like, wait, your old life was miserable. Why are you making your old life some better than your new life?

Someone might be listening to you and thinking, I want your old life, not your new life. I love the way that Paul had perspective on his past. Paul was a very accomplished individual, very intelligent, but he dismissed all of it. He said in Philippians 3, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life.

Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ as my Lord, everything I used to think was significant is now insignificant. And then one translation puts it, it's dog dung. The word that Paul used is that rude word excrement. That stuff it's like poop compared, compared to what I have now. He says I've dumped it in the trash so I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him.

Isn't that beautiful? So don't talk about what you gave up for Jesus. Talk about what Jesus gave up for you.

I really don't care what you gave up. It's nothing compared to what God has done for you. Talk about how Jesus died on the cross for your sin. How He made the greatest sacrifice of all. It's not about you. It's about Him. And you tell your story only to make a beeline to His story. The greatest story ever told. So I have a new acronym for you. BLAST. B-L-A-S-T.

This sort of pulls together some of these things I've said to you. B. Build a bridge. So when we're talking to people about Jesus start by building a bridge.

I didn't say burn a bridge. Build a bridge. L. Lovingly enter their world. Enter their world. Take an interest in them.

That brings me to A. Ask questions. And listen. Don't interrupt them. Ask them lots of questions. S. Share your testimony.

We just talked about that. Tell them your story of how you came to believe in Jesus. And finally T. Tell them how to come to Jesus. Again. B. Build a bridge. L. Lovingly enter their world. A.

Ask questions. S. Share your testimony. T. Tell them how to come to Jesus. We're almost done.

But this is where it breaks down for a lot of people. How do you get the person from A to B? How do you get them to come to Jesus? You've shared your testimony.

You've shared the gospel. How do you pop the question if you will? It's a little bit like a marriage proposal. I've heard of some pretty amazing and creative marriage proposals. A friend that proposed to his wife underwater.

He had one of those little tablets you know you can write underwater and he wrote will you marry me. I've heard of people putting it you know skywriting will you marry me. My wife tells me I never properly proposed. She says we were out having dinner and I looked at her and we'd been going out for around I don't know two years at that point. And I said to her according to Kathy well I guess we're going to get married huh. And she says that was my proposal. No getting done on one knee. No will you marry me. Here's the ring. No just well I guess we're getting married huh. Well it's kind of weak but at least I said something. So you might ask how do I actually pop that question.

It's as simple as this. After you've shared all those things with the person you ask them this question would you like to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life right now. You need to be led by the Spirit but the Lord might direct you to ask this question at an unexpected time. Let me tell you a story about a man named Roy. My wife Kathy and I would go take walks in the morning and we came upon this older gentleman that was obviously struggling because he would walk and have to stop. And so we started talking with him. He said I think I've seen you on TV. I said yeah I've been on TV a few times. And are you a preacher.

Yes I'm a preacher. What's your name. My name is Roy. Well my name is Greg. Nice to meet you Roy.

How you doing. Well he says I have a heart condition and my heart actually will hurt but I'm exercising and I'm doing everything that I can to stay strong. And so I started to share the gospel with Roy. Roy is immediately defensive. All my whole family is Christian he says and they are always telling me to believe in Jesus.

But I have a lot of questions about the Christian faith. I said well Roy what are some of them. So he asks me a couple of the questions and I answer them.

And then we say nice to see you and that day is over. So the next day we see Roy again. He goes I have another question for you preacher.

Sure Roy fire. Hits me with a question. I gave him an answer. I see him the next day.

I have another question for you. This went on for kind of a long time. A few weeks actually with the questions from the skeptical Roy. I wasn't hopefully was going to believe necessarily but one day I'm sitting with my wife in our house and we're actually having a devotion together. We're reading the Bible and we're praying and I look out my window and literally right in my eye shot I see Roy just standing there. And I said Kathy I think this is Roy's day to come to Christ. So I walked out of my house. I walked up. Hey Roy how you doing.

He says I'm okay I'm just stopping my heart's hurting a little bit. I said Roy I'm going to ask you a question. We've had a lot of talks about the questions you have.

Yes. Here's my question for you Roy. Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now. He said yes I would. It was a moment. So I said let's pray and I prayed with Roy. It was a beautiful thing. So I gave him a Bible and then I would see him after that and I knew his family. They were all Christian and they were all very excited. I heard that Roy had come to Christ so I'd see him the next day and he goes I was just remembering some of the songs I used to sing in church when I was a little boy. And then I saw him the next day and he says my heart's hurting right now but I'm just thinking of how much pain Jesus went through as he died on the cross. Roy was like growing in his faith.

It was amazing. And then for a few days we didn't see Roy out there walking. And one day we get a knock on our door. There's a young man standing there and he says I'm Roy's grandson.

I said yes. He says I'm sorry to tell you that my grandfather went to be with the Lord. But I want to thank you for sharing the gospel with him. And he loved the Lord and we had such great times together after he had committed his life to Christ. And I was so thankful I popped the question.

Maybe I can close by popping the question to you. And I'm talking to somebody right now that needs Jesus. And the problem is is no one has ever told you how to actually become a Christian. But let me tell you in the simplest way I can. Let me go back and remind you of something I already said. You're a sinner.

Don't take it personally. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. We've broken God's commandments.

We've fallen short of His glory. God loved you so much He sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins. And then Jesus rose again from the dead. And Jesus is literally standing at the door of your life and He is knocking and He is saying if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in.

So here's my question. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life right here right now? It's as simple as a prayer. I'll lead you in the same prayer I led Roy in some years ago.

Simple prayer where you will just say Lord I want Your forgiveness. I want to have my spiritual thirst satisfied. I want to know that when I die I will go to heaven. If you want Jesus to come into your life. If you want that void in your life filled.

If you want your guilt taken away. If you want to go to heaven when you die. If you want to find the meaning and purpose of life pray this prayer with me right now. I'm going to pray it and you can pray it out loud or you can pray it quietly in your heart. But would you pray with me? Just pray these words. Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner but I know that You are the Savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus I choose to follow You from this moment forward. Be my Savior and Lord. Be my God and my friend. In Jesus name I pray.

Amen. Such an important prayer for those making a decision for the Lord. And as you've listened to A New Beginning today if you've prayed along with Pastor Greg Laurie we want to be the first to welcome you into the family of God. And second let us help you get started off right. We want to send you our New Believers Growth Packet.

It'll help answer some questions you might have and lay a foundation for your faith. And we'll send it free of charge. Just ask for the New Believers Growth Packet as you write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime. Again dial 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click the words Know God. And then we're so excited about making a wonderful video resource available for you and your family. Have you heard of the television series called The Chosen? It's the first multi-season series about the life of Christ. And it's also, get this, the highest crowd-funded TV series or film project of all time. It's a series that portrays Christ through the eyes of those who met him and walked with him.

And it's powerful. The cinematography is stunning and the acting is really first-rate. And how accurate is it to what we read in Scripture? Well, the show has biblical scholars from a variety of denominations reviewing scripts to ensure historical and biblical accuracy. The Chosen helps you see what it's like to live life side by side with Jesus as he encounters needy people who need a touch of the Master's hand. Pastor Greg says this is the best portrayal of the life of Christ he's ever seen on film.

And we want to make season one of the critically acclaimed series called The Chosen available to you on DVD. What a great Christmas present, especially for those who need to meet Christ personally. It can be a Christmas gift with an eternal purpose. It's our thank you gift for your donation right now. That's an investment in changed lives through a new beginning and through our large evangelistic events.

We heard this from someone who just attended SoCal Harvest a few weeks ago. I listened with my heart instead of my ears, and it became clear I need Jesus in my life. Not tomorrow, not five minutes from now, but right now. Well, your investment helps people have a moment of decision like that, so we hope you'll make a donation today. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call anytime around the clock at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, as Pastor Greg's series called Refresh continues, we'll learn of the refreshing power of God's Word. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. A New Beginning is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If this show has impacted your life, share your story, leave a review on your favorite podcast app, and help others find hope.