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 are people who have chosen to give monthly to Harvest to keep the gospel moving forward. In our lifetime, let's do this together. Just go to Harvest.org and trade it for heaven. That's God's trade-in deal, and it's here for you.
Do you realize how harsh the light really was? Well, it's sort of a picture of life without God, blinding, confusing, and glaring. Well, here on National Sunclasses Day, Pastor Greg Laurie shares how seeing life through the lens of God's truth changes everything. Today on A New Beginning, from a Harvest Crusade message, Pastor Greg takes us to Jesus' answer to the question, What good thing must I do to have eternal life? You know, sooner or later, everybody gets around to asking the big questions of life, such as, What is the meaning of my life? Why am I here on this earth? Why do I exist? And what should my purpose in life be? And that's because as human beings, we all have a desire to make a mark, to achieve something.
We want our lives to count for something greater than ourselves, and that's because God wired us that way. We're pre-wired for something more. It goes back to your childhood. You're always wanting that something more. When you're a little kid, it's maybe a toy. Then you get a little older and it changes. What does that express?
And the only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys, right? Oh, this relationship will do it, we think. Oh, this degree might do it.
Or maybe this house will do it. Or this experience, or whatever it is, and we seek and we search. And that's why people seek after fame. They're saying, I want to be noticed. Listen, you are noticed. You're noticed by God. You're loved by God. And your life can have significance.
The Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts. I'll tell you what that is deep down inside of you. You're yearning for God. That's really what you want.
You may not have known that. It's God that you're really looking for. And guess where you find the answer? You find it in this book called The Bible. The Bible.
B-I-B-L-E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. This is the user's manual of life you've been looking for.
People are searching everywhere, probably somewhere in their house. There's a dust-covered Bible waiting to be opened with the answers. I want to tell you a Bible story. Who wants to hear a Bible story?
Raise your hand. This is the story of a wealthy, affluent man. He's often referred to as the rich, young ruler. So he's affluent, probably has a BMW chariot. He comes to Jesus.
He's holding a lavender, low-fat, oat, milk latte. So Jesus and this affluent young man have a conversation. What Jesus says to this young man still applies to young men and young women today. It applies to all people today. It's found in Matthew 19.
We read these words. Someone came to Jesus with this question. Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? Jesus said, why do you ask me? What is good? Only God is good. But to answer your question, if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.
And the young man said, which ones? Jesus said, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not testify falsely or lie. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.
The young man said, I've obeyed all of these commandments. What else must I do? All right, Jesus said, I want you to sell everything that you have, give the money to the poor, you know, have treasure in heaven, and then you can come and follow me. Listen to this. When that young man heard that, he went away sad because he had many possessions.
So I'll stop there. So something was missing in this life. He says, where can I find eternal life? What do I need to do to get eternal life? Jesus says, keep the commandments. Now, why did Jesus point this young man to the Ten Commandments?
Because by keeping the commandments, you can go closer to God. No. Au contraire. That's French for snails with garlic. No, that's escargots. Excuse me.
No, that's not it at all. Actually, to find eternal life, you have to believe in Jesus. But Jesus said, check out the commandments because the Ten Commandments weren't given to make me righteous. They were given to show me how messed up I am. They were given to show me I need God. The Ten Commandments, what are they?
Have no other gods before them. Don't make any graven images. Honor your father and mother. Don't lie. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery.
The list goes on. And every one of us in this place right now and everyone watching and listening has broken the commandments. There are some listening that may have broken all of the commandments. Even murder. Don't say you're one of those people that'll freak out people around you, OK?
But I want to tell you this. Even if you killed someone, God would forgive you. See, there was a thief on the cross. Remember when Jesus was crucified?
There was a man on each side of him. We call them the thieves. The word in the Greek speaks of a serious criminal. So he was probably a murderer.
Guilty of a capital crime. So here's Jesus hanging on the cross and Christ says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. His first statement from the cross of Calvary. This man turns to Jesus as criminal.
Probably what the Romans would consider a terrorist. Says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
Listen to me. No matter what sin you have committed, God will forgive you tonight if you'll ask for his forgiveness. Notice Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. How long does it take to become a Christian? You know, sometimes people say, I'm in the process of converting.
In the process? You're either a believer or you're not a believer. It doesn't take years to become a Christian. It doesn't take months to become a Christian. It doesn't take days.
It doesn't even take hours. You can believe in Jesus just like that. It's happened for some of you already. You just have started to believe. And this young man said to Jesus, I've kept all of these commandments ever since I've been a young boy. Jesus looked at him and loved him. It would have made more sense if we read Jesus looked at him and smacked him.
Said, what you talking about Willis? You have not. And there might be somebody here that says, I've kept all the commandments. I live by the Ten Commandments. Oh yeah, what are they?
I'm not sure, but I do keep them. I read recently that a survey was done and more people knew the names of the four Beatles than the commandments given by God from Mount Sinai. John Paul, George Ringo, they know that. But they don't know these commandments.
We've all broken the commandments. But God loved this young man and God loves you. I want you to know that there is a God in heaven who loves you. A God in heaven who has a plan for your life.
A God in heaven who longs for a relationship with you. Well, this kid, you know, he didn't he didn't want to give up anything. Now, by the way, Jesus never told any other person to get rid of all their stuff. He just said it to this guy. And I think it's because this young man was possessed by possessions.
That was in effect his God. That's what Jesus said to him. But sometimes people ask the question, if I become a Christian, will I have to give anything up? I'm going to be honest with you.
The answer is yes. Yes, give up your emptiness and replace it with fulfillment. Give up your misery and replace it with forgiveness. Give up hell and trade it for heaven. That's God's trade in deal.
And it's here for you. Yes, there is an afterlife. And according to the Bible, there are two destinations in the afterlife.
Heaven or hell. Some of you are saying, you know, I kind of liked everything until you said hell. How could a God of love send someone to hell?
Listen to me. God doesn't send anyone to hell. That's why he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross and absorb God's judgment in your place so you don't have to go there. You see? If you end up in hell, you'll have no one to blame but yourself on that final day. You'll have to practically climb over Jesus to get there.
C.S. Lewis, the great writer, once said, and I quote, The gates of hell are locked from the inside. See, we have to make a choice. You choose in this life where you will spend the afterlife. You choose in this life if you want to find meaning and purpose in life or if you don't.
You choose in this life if you want to go to heaven or if you want to go to hell. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Well, today we're considering the story of the rich young ruler and Pastor Greg's message from a recent harvest crusade.
Let's continue. I know some of you have come here with skepticism, and I'm glad you came, quite frankly. And I'll tell you, when I first was exposed to the gospel, that's what I'm sharing with you.
This is called the gospel, which means good news. The first time I heard it, I thought it can't be true. I was 17 years old. This is 10 years ago. Plus 40 more.
It's literally over 50 years ago. I'm 17 years old. I'm in high school. I'm using drugs. I'm throwing my life away. I'm making a lot of bad decisions. And the Jesus movement was happening, and all these young people were talking about Jesus and carrying Bibles around, and I thought, these Christians, these Jesus freaks are crazy.
They're like one taco short of a combination plate. There's something not right in their heads. One day I went to one of their meetings. It was on the front line of my high school campus where they're having a little Bible study. They're singing their little songs about God.
And I'm sitting at a distance. I'm thinking, look how pathetic they are. Look how deranged they are.
Look at how happy they are. And then I just tried a thought on first size. And the thought was this. What if they're right? What if Jesus is real?
What if I could have all of my sin forgiven? And I quickly dismissed it, and I thought, no, that can't be true. But then I thought about my own life, though I was only 17. I was raised in the home of an alcoholic woman, my mother, who was married and divorced seven times. I had seen the alcoholic, fueled, affluent lifestyle that she lived. I knew that wasn't the answer.
I had already dabbled in drugs myself. I knew that wasn't the answer. Where was the answer?
Could it be this? Jesus? And a guy got up to speak.
His name was Lonny. And I don't remember most of what he said, but he made one statement. He said, Jesus said, you're for me or you're against me. I looked around at the Christians.
I thought, well, I'm not one of them. Does that mean I'm against Jesus? I mean, I've always believed Jesus was out there somewhere. He was my God of choice in times of crisis.
I'd seen all of his movies. But no Jesus? And then he said, if you want to believe in Jesus, get up right now and walk forward.
And some kids got up and walked forward. And I thought, there's no way I could do it. I had my hair hanging in my eyes.
Use your imagination. I thought, no way. Couldn't do it.
Never. Next thing I knew, I'm standing up there praying with these other kids. And that was the day that Christ came into my life.
And that was the greatest day of my life. And this can be your night when you come to Christ. So you might ask, well, what is the meaning of life?
You raise that question. Well, the meaning of life is to know the God who created you. And start a friendship with him and discover the plan that he has for you. Why are you here on this earth? You're here to walk with the Lord. And it will give you purpose and hope in this life. And hope for the afterlife.
So maybe you would ask, well, what do I need to do? How can I believe in Jesus? Okay, if you haven't listened to anything else I've said, listen to this. Number one, to have your sin forgiven, you need to realize you're a sinner. Yes, you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible says.
What does the word sin mean? It means to cross a line. So I've got a little line right here.
This is the edge of this little stage. If I cross this line, that's not going to be good. And so when you cross the line, you break a commandment. We've talked about the Ten Commandments. You've sinned. Have you ever told a lie? Never told a lie. You're lying right now. You've told lies. We've all told lies. Have you ever hated someone? Have you ever had lust in your heart?
Have you ever stolen anything? Everyone has broken these commandments. And the Bible says if you offend in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. So just own it. Accept it.
Stop excusing it. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners.
But then realize this. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross for you. The Bible says, why would we get sinners? Christ died for us. Jesus said, for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. In 1766 Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father but by Me. He is the way to the Father. That's how it works. Coming back to that young man, that rich young ruler.
His question. What good thing must I do to have eternal life? Listen, there is no good thing you can do to have eternal life.
You'll always fall short. Sometimes people think, if I live a good life, maybe I'll get to heaven. No matter how good of a life you live, you'll never be good enough to get to heaven.
But listen to this. Heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for forgiven people.
And you can be forgiven of all of your sin right here, right now. Eternal life is a gift from God. So if someone gets you a gift and you really want the gift, what do you do? You open the gift. I love the way women open gifts and men open gifts.
It's very different. When you give a gift to a woman because they're civilized, they'll actually read the card you give them first. They'll read it. They might even be touched by what you wrote. We gave a little birthday gift to someone the other day and say, oh, thank you so much.
You're welcome. Then they'll carefully undo the ribbon. They might even say, I'm going to save this ribbon for later.
Oh, great. They'll undo the wrapping paper and be delighted by the gift. That's a woman opening a gift. Give a gift to a man. He opens the card. He's not reading it. He just opened it to see if there's money or a gift card in there. Wrapping paper, a mere obstacle to a man. Plow through it.
Right? I don't care how you open the gift. God's offering you a gift tonight. Just reach out, take it, open it, enjoy it. It's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. There's nothing you can do to get it.
You don't deserve it, but it's a gift to you. Then you must repent of your sin. See, this is what the rich young ruler was unwilling to do. He would not turn from his sin. The Bible says God has commanded people everywhere to repent. What does that even mean? To repent means to change your direction.
It's sort of like a military term where it means like an about face, right? So I've been going away from God. Now I'm going toward God. Repent of your sin. Then you receive Christ into your life.
That's what it's all about. Being a Christian is having Jesus himself come and live inside of you. You don't have to be alone anymore. You can leave here with Christ in your life tonight knowing that you'll go to heaven when you die.
You folks that are listening on radio, you can do the same. The Bible says for as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God and daughters of God. Jesus said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.
So in a moment I'm going to pray, and I'm going to extend this invitation for you to have your life changed. I love it when it rains, don't you? Because after it rains, even people that don't wash their cars get a car wash. Everything's clean. Maybe a rainbow comes out.
I love rainbows. That's what happens when you believe in Jesus. It's like the rain. It just washes all your sin away, washes all your guilt away, washes all of your despair away.
The Bible says if any man is in Christ, he is an altogether different kind of person. Old things have passed away. Everything becomes fresh and new. That can happen for you tonight. So I'm going to pray, and then I'm going to invite you to believe in Jesus. Let's all pray. Father, I pray for every person in this stadium. I pray for every person listening wherever they are.
If they don't know you yet, I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict them and convince them of their sin and their need for Jesus and help them to come to you now and believe. We ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Thousands prayed along with Pastor Greg Laurie that night at the Harvest Crusade at Angels Stadium in Southern California. And today, here on A New Beginning, you can pray the same prayer Pastor Greg prayed with the many that came forward that night. God bless all of you. You're making the most important decision of your entire life, the decision to follow Jesus Christ.
That's right. So I'm going to lead you in a prayer, and I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer out loud after me. This is where you're asking Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your Savior and your Lord. So listen, you that are watching by television or online or you're listening on radio, you pray this prayer as well. God and heaven will hear this prayer.
All right? So pray this after me. Let's all bow our heads. Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross and rose from the dead. I turn from my sin tonight. I choose to follow you now as my Savior and my Lord, as my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
God bless you. And if you've just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely, the Lord has heard you and forgiven you of your sin. Just like those gathered in the stadium, this is your first day to walk with the Lord, and we'd like to help you along that journey. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believer's Bible. It's a great roadmap for new journeys of faith.
It answers common questions new believers have, and the layout is clean and easy to navigate. We'll send you the New Believer's Bible free of charge. Just ask for it by calling 1-800-821-3300. Call any time 1-800-821-3300.
Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click on Know God. Well, Pastor Greg, your message today from the Harvest Crusade was called What Are You Really Looking For? A great message full of good news. Yeah.
That's so relevant right now. What are your thoughts? I just think that people are on a search.
They always have been, and they always will be. You know, the Bible says God has set eternity in the human heart. And what that means is human beings uniquely created in the image of God have something inside of them that's reaching out for something more. No physical thing will satisfy this.
No experience will satisfy it. It's really a hunger for God. And we're all searching, and we'll continue to search until we find our way to Christ. The Lord says, Those that seek Me will find Me. So you heard a message where people found the answer they were looking for, and we want to keep bringing this message to as many people as possible. This searching generation, everything they need to know about life is found in a relationship with Christ. And we want to give them that message. So pray for us and support us financially if you can so we can reach more people who are searching for truth.
Yeah, that's right. It's an investment that pays eternal dividends. In fact, this is your invitation to become a Harvest Partner. Harvest Partners are close friends of the ministry who support this work each month. The amount is up to them, and we have some special ways to thank them for their generosity and consistency.
Find out more at harvest.org. Just click the word Donate up at the top. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call any time 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.
And one last thing. The Harvest Crusade is coming to Southern California July 19th. Thanks for praying for that event. Pastor Greg welcomes music guests Brooke Ligertwood, Carrie Job and Cody Carnes, We the Kingdom, and Chris Tomlin. You'll be able to watch online at harvest.org or on the Harvest Plus app. That's July 19th.
Make a note of it. And thanks for supporting this in prayer. Well, next time Pastor Greg returns to our studies in Joshua for good encouragement and insight from our look at the example of Caleb. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible Teacher, Greg Laurie.
