You know, there is a very special group of people I want to introduce you to. They are a group of people who are passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed in this nation and beyond. Without them, Harvest Ministries could not even exist. We call them Harvest Partners. They're people who have chosen to give monthly to Harvest to keep the gospel moving forward. Will you become a Harvest Partner and help us fulfill the great commission in our lifetime? Let's do this together.
Just go to harvest.org. You know, it's been said that when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks the loudest is the one that got hit. When the truth of the gospel confronts someone who's resisting God, Pastor Greg Laurie says we can often expect a contentious response. That crumpy neighbor, that co-worker, they always have the questions, always with the challenges, always with the arguments.
And you're thinking, what is wrong with this person? They're so far from God. Are they?
Or are they closer than you realize? The Lord is clear. He doesn't want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. That includes everyone in your household, everyone in your neighbor's home, everyone at your place of work. Well, fine.
How does that happen? Well, that's where you and I come in. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out some biblical steps towards sharing the message that saved our lives.
It's not as daunting or intimidating as it seems. Pastor Greg has practical help today. I read about a fisherman who was testing his outboard propeller in a lake in Ohio. And there in this cove, he saw a giant muskellunge fish near the surface. And this guy, you know, he cast his line in and the fish didn't bite. And so he left. He didn't know where it went. And he came back a little bit later looking for it.
And it was back. And so he trolled toward it. And he realized, what if I just reach down and grab this thing? So he puts on this big leather glove and he reaches on and grabs this massive fish and starts to pull it out of the water. It's so big he can't handle it.
Another guy in a boat comes over and helps him muscle this giant muskie into his boat. And the fact is this thing weighed over 50 pounds. In fact, if he had caught it with a proper rod and reel it would have been a record. But he did it by hand. So it actually became a newspaper article. And they interviewed him and asked him about it. How did you catch this by hand? And he said, quote, I was at the right place at the right time and I was full enough to grab it.
I thought, hmm. That sort of applies to evangelism. At the right place at the right time and be full enough to grab it. Jesus said, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. And so we go fishing for people and sometimes you just grab it. You just go for it.
You never know when that moment will come. So I want to talk to you about how to lead others to Jesus. And here's my first point if you're taking notes. Number one, telling your story that is your personal testimony is a powerful bridge for the gospel message. Everybody has a testimony including you. And when you tell your story it's not about you, it's about him. You see, your story is just a bridge to get to the most important story.
And the most important story is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now every generation needs to hear the gospel. My generation, the baby boomers, need to hear it. And then of course there's the millennials. And so much is said about baby boomers and millennials. People from Gen X are feeling left out. Sorry Gen X, you need the gospel too. But now we hear so much about Generation Z, Gen Z, right? And they've been described as the hopeless generation.
They need to hear the gospel as well. And now on the heels of Gen Z is what is called the alpha generation. Generation alpha. I don't care if it's baby boomers or millennials or busters or Gen Z or alpha or whatever else they're going to come up with.
The answer for every generation is the same. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It never changes.
Ever. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Psalm 145 says, Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts.
Let them proclaim your power. The same message that changed the world of the first century is the same message that will change the world of the 21st century. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. There's power in the message of the gospel. But here's the heartbeat of the gospel. It's the cross of Jesus Christ.
That's where the power is. Sometimes in our attempts to cross over, we don't bring the cross over. And a crossless message is not the gospel. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2 1, When I came to you, brothers, I didn't come with eloquence or superior wisdom. For I am resolved to know nothing else among you except Jesus Christ, in Him crucified.
And then Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Listen, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. If I don't give this message as God gives it in scripture, you have a powerless message. Paul said, The message of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who believe it is the power of God. Listen to what I'm saying to you right now.
What I've shared with you in this message, and I'm sure you've heard these things before, but what I've shared with you, if you will take these truths and implement them, you are already armed and dangerous in a good way. To use these truths to share with others. Now, how do you close the deal? How do you get from A to B?
How do you land the plane? How do you actually lead a person to Jesus Christ? Listen, it's not as hard as you think. You've got to pop the question. And what is that question? Let me ask you something.
Would you like to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life right now? We're very reluctant to do that. Why? Because we're afraid, they'll say no.
And they may. Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? No. Okay. Well, I'll pray for you.
And just know that wherever you are, you can call on the name of the Lord. But what if they say yes? Are we really afraid of failure, or are we afraid of success? Like, what do I do now if the person says yes? It's sort of like popping the question when you get married. There's a lot of creative ways that people propose.
Some people might, you know, have a plane pull a little banner. Will you marry me? I have a friend who proposed to his girlfriend underwater. They were scuba diving.
He had one of those underwater tablets. Will you marry me? Or it was more like. And she said yes.
My wife says I never properly proposed to her. She said, but no, Craig, in the Jesus Revolution movie you did. That's not exactly the way it happened. You know, the sad thing is people will come to me and say, I love this scene from the Jesus Revolution movie. Is that exactly how it was? And they always pick the scenes that are a little different than the way it really happened.
Because in a movie, and you'll find this in all movies, you know, they'll take something that happened here and put it over there and compress time. And so in the movie, of course, I arrive at Kathy's parents' house. And I'm wet from baptizing people.
And I'm wearing my groovy bell bottoms. And I admit to Kathy, I've been an idiot. And then I'm telling her I want to spend the rest of my life with her. And she says, is this your way of saying you want to marry me? And then movie Greg says, what if it was? And then Kathy says, well, if you ever get in the way of me and my relationship with God, it's over.
And then finally, Greg proposes. And Kathy says, yes. And the actress who plays Kathy, Anna Grace Barlow, very talented actress, one tear comes out of her eye.
And John Irwin, the director, told me we did that take over and over. And every time the tear came out of her eye. So I asked Anna, I go, how do you do that? She says, I'm an actress. I can cry at will.
I thought, I'd hate to be your boyfriend. You say to the guy, hey, why didn't you buy me that dress? Uncute tear. You want to get a guy to do what you want him to do? Bring that tear, girl.
I'm telling you, it works. Amazing. So what really happened, this would not be interesting in a film. This would not be a great scene in a movie. In real life, I'm sitting at a table or having a meal, and I turn to Kathy and say, well, I guess we're getting married, huh? That's it. You want to see that in a movie?
I don't think so. But thankfully, she said yes anyway. All that matters is we pop the question.
It's like that guy with a musc-a-lunge fish. He reached out and grabbed it. And of course, if a person says yes, I tell you, I'm going to grab it. And of course, if a person says yes, I just lead them in a prayer. There's no magical prayer, by the way. I've had people come and say, tell me the sinner's prayer.
What is it again? It's not really an exact prayer. It's just based on principles of scripture, right? So I'll pray something like, pray this after me. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know you're the savior that died on the cross for my sin. I'm sorry for my sin. I repent of my sin. I ask you to come into my life right now and forgive me. You know, you've heard this prayer before. And it is such a joy to pray that with a person. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.
Hey, everyone. I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix.
We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash, The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and much more. Then we have our television program, Daily Devotions, and much more.
So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well today, Pastor Greg is offering some of his most practical insights on sharing the gospel effectively. It's a message called How to Lead Others to Jesus. I'm going to close with a story of a neighbor I used to have named Roy. So Roy lived in my neighborhood.
He had a serious heart ailment and had been discharged from the hospital and was literally sent home to die. So my neighbor came to me, another neighbor, and said there's a guy named Roy. You'll see him walking around a lot. And he went to one of your crusades.
You might want to have a conversation with him because he's going to die really soon. So sure enough, I saw Roy out there walking. I walked up and said, Hi, Roy. I'm Greg Laurie. He goes, I know who you are.
Right. Well, nice to meet you, Roy. I heard that you went to one of our crusades.
Yeah, I went to one. And I have a lot of questions. Okay. So he fires all these questions at me and my wife is there. Okay. And then I don't know if he was happy with the answers, but then I see him the next day. I have more questions.
Okay. He gives us all these questions. We try to answer them. So I get a copy of a book I wrote called Life Any Questions. And I gave it to Roy. Roy, why don't you read this book? The next day I see him, he says, I read the whole book and I have more questions. So on and on this goes.
And I feel like I'm making no progress with old Roy. And I'm beginning to wonder what's even going to happen. And so one day we're sitting in the house.
This has gone on for a couple of weeks, if not longer. And I'm, we're sitting at our table. We're having breakfast. We're actually having a little devotion together. And I look out my window and right in front of my window, there's Roy just standing there, standing there looking around. I thought, is he standing there on purpose? So I'll see him.
Or is this just the moment? And I felt directed by the Lord. This is Roy's day. So I walked out, walked across the street. I said, hey Roy, how you doing? And he said, yeah, I'm good. I said, Roy, let's talk a little bit more. And we did. And I said, Roy, I think it's time to settle this right now.
Would you like to accept Jesus Christ into your life? Roy said, yes. And we prayed together. The next day I see Roy. He's a different man.
He has a big smile on his face. He says, I was just singing Jesus Loves Me. I learned that when I was in Sunday school years ago. I found out that Roy went to his entire family, gathered them all and said, you're looking at a brand new Christian. His family could not believe the radical and immediate transformation that had taken place in his life. So glorious. So I didn't see Roy for a while.
Isn't that great? So I didn't see Roy for a while. And then one day, actually it was the evening, I got a knock at my door. It was that neighbor that originally told me to talk to Roy. He says, I have some sad news. Roy died last night. But hey, he went home to heaven. And I was able to see that happen.
But he sure got in under the wire, didn't he? Boy, he pushed that. There's lots of people like Roy out there, aren't there? You know Roy. It's your grandfather. Your dad. Your mom. That grumpy neighbor. That coworker. They always have the questions.
Always with the challenges. Always with the arguments. And you're thinking, what is wrong with this person? They're so far from God. Are they?
Or are they closer than you realize? We often think the pleasant people that politely decline our invitations might be closer than the argumentative people, when in reality, it may be the very opposite of that. You invite a person to the crusade, come to the crusade, oh I'd love to, but we're busy that weekend.
Okay. Want to come to church the next Sunday with me? We're busy that Sunday too. What about the next Sunday? We're busy.
What about busy? Okay. But they're nice. They're nice. I can see it's helped you. I can see you're a happier person. We think, oh they're so close.
I don't know how close they are. Then there's the person with the arguments. There's the person with the questions. And it doesn't stop.
Could it be that they're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit? You know it's been said that when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that barks the loudest is the one that got hit. Try it after church. Throw a rock at a bunch of, no don't. It's just an illustration. Don't throw rocks at dogs. But cats maybe, no don't. But the idea of throwing a rock into a pack of dogs, the barking is the idea of, they're fighting with you, but maybe God's working in their heart. You might be shocked if you just said, would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? Yes. You never know.
You never know until you pop the question. So I've got a challenge for all you guys this week. I want you to intentionally engage in gospel conversations with people.
Every one of you. And start with your testimony. Just tell them what Jesus has done for you. Then you beat a quick path to the story of Jesus. His death on the cross.
How He died for their sin. Then you extend that invitation. And what a great joy it's going to be for you. You can do this.
You really can. I know God's will for your life. You're always wondering, what's God's will for my life?
I know God's will for your life right now. God's will for you, for me, for us, is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. By the way, that word that Jesus uses there in Matthew 28, in Mark 16, it's a command.
He says, I command you to go into all the world and preach the gospel. You say, but Greg, how do you know that's God's will? Because the Bible says, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God wants people to be saved. And the way He reaches them is through people. How are they here unless someone tells them? Paul asks in the book of Romans. And how will they tell them unless they've been sent? How beautiful are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things?
You're commanded to go. Let's do it. But let me say this. It's a joyful thing to share your faith. As I pointed out earlier, it's life giving to you to tell others about Jesus, as well as life giving to the person who is hearing it.
God wants to use us. But let me close by saying this. Maybe I'm talking to a Roy, maybe literally a Roy, I don't know. But someone that doesn't know Jesus yet. And you're kind of like Roy with all the questions, but you're just waiting for someone to ask you, would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now?
I don't want to ask you that. Is there somebody listening to me, watching me right now, wherever you are, you're just waiting for someone to pop the question, if you will? Well, I'm popping it. Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? Would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die, you will go to heaven instead of hell?
It can happen for you because Jesus who died on that cross and rose again from the dead stands at the door of your life and He knocks and He says, if you'll hear His voice, and open the door, He will come in. So in a moment, we're going to bow our heads and we're going to pray. And I'm going to extend an invitation for anyone here, anyone watching wherever you are, to ask Christ to come into your life.
If you need to do this, if you want to do this, you can do it right here, right now. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'll speak to anyone here who does not yet know you. Help them to see their need for you.
Help them to see their need for you. Help them to come to you and believe we pray. Now when our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying together, maybe there's someone here that wants Jesus. You want Him to forgive you of your sin. You want to go to heaven when you die. You want that big hole in your heart filled.
It can happen right now. If you're ready to say yes to Jesus, pray this prayer out loud after me. Again, as I pray, pray this out loud after me. Pray this, if you would.
Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord, as my God and friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen. Such an important prayer. Pastor Greg Laurie leading people in making a change in their relationship with the Lord today here on A New Beginning. If you've just made that change, if you've just prayed with Pastor Greg and have meant those words from your heart, first of all, we want to welcome you into the family of God. And then we also want to help you get started as a believer. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible. It's full of practical study helps for new believers.
It'll help you get started on the right foot. We'll send you the New Believers Bible when you call us at 1-800-821-3300. Call any time, day or night, at 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.
Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. We're touching lives for eternity. And we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further.
Isn't that right? Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul?
Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son, or your daughter, or your mom or your dad, or your best friend?
Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well, listen, God says all souls are mine.
God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission.
Yeah, that's right. And you can make your donation right now at harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300.
That's a 24-7 phone number, 1-800-821-3300. Are you receiving Pastor Greg's daily devotions? Get these inspirational thoughts in your email box every day. Sign up free of charge at harvest.org. Well, next time, as Pastor Greg continues his series called Timeless, we'll consider the important privilege of discipleship. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.
