Everyone Needs to Know God

A New Beginning presents a great book to show you how to easily share the gospel by Pastor Greg Laurie. The book is called Tell Someone You Can Share the Good News. And I wrote it with this thought in mind. I acted as though I were sitting down with an individual and sharing truths I've learned about evangelism. And it's something that is really important to me.

And I want to share what I've learned with you in this book, Tell Someone. Yours for a gift of any amount at harvest.org. Everyone. There are no exceptions. The young, the old.

The old that think they're young. Everybody needs to know Jesus. Listen. I know something about everybody walking the face of the earth today. That is common To every human being, no matter if they're young or old, or if they're male or female, or if they're famous, or if you've never heard of them before, or if they live in America or another part of the world, it doesn't really matter.

These are things that are universally true of every person. I don't care how together they look on the inside, how beautiful or handsome they may be, how affluent they may be. You think, oh no, this isn't true of them. No, what I'm about to tell you is true of them and everyone else. Number one, everyone is empty.

Everyone is empty. All humanity is crying for something. The problem is they don't know what it is. Pascal had it right when he said there is a God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill. And it really is an emptiness for God.

This is unique to mankind. God has effectively pre-wired us for something more. Ecclesiastes says that God has placed eternity in our hearts. And we see this played out in so many ways every day, looking at people that supposedly should have it together yet are so empty. Keith Urban, a country music star, had to go to rehab for alcohol issues and felt it saved his marriage.

And he made this statement in an interview: Playing massive stadiums is not going to fill any hole in me, end quote. And that's true. No thing, whatever it is, is going to fill that hole. The Bible teaches the creation was made subject to emptiness, not by its own choice, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope. Romans 8:20, everyone is empty.

Number two, everyone is lonely. The Beatles sang of it years ago. All the lonely people. Where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

You know, you can feel it sometimes in a crowded room surrounded by family and friends. Loneliness sweeps over you. And it's a loneliness that a man will not feel, nor will a woman, nor will children, nor will friends. It really is a loneliness for God. The lead singer of one of the world's most successful rock bands committed suicide, and on a note clipped to his shirt were these words: I am a lonely soul.

And that's true of everyone. Everyone is empty. Everyone is lonely. Number three, everyone feels guilt. Everyone feels guilt.

The head of a mental institution said, quote, I could release half of my patients if I could find a way to rid them from their sense of guilt. And you know why everyone feels guilt? Because we're guilty. Because we've broken God's commandments.

Now some may deny this. Actress Angelina Jolie said in an interview, and I quote, I don't believe in guilt. I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person and don't judge people in life. I think you should live completely free, end quote. Really?

Free from all restraints, no rules, no laws, no sense of right or wrong. No, the Bible says in Romans 3: we are all guilty. Everyone is empty, everyone is lonely, everyone is guilty, and finally, everyone is. is afraid to die. Deep down inside, death frightens us.

The Bible even speaks of those who are held in slavery by their fear of death. It's been said there are two unchallengeably true things of every person. We all want to be happy, and we're all going to die. There are no exception to this. Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computers and very successful man, one of the most successful companies in all history, in fact, has had his own health struggles and has come quite close to death's door.

And he said in an interview with Fortune magazine, quote, life is short and we're all going to die. It's really true, you know. Woody Allen famously said, I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens. But of course, Woody will be, as will every person.

But Jesus Christ has the answer to the emptiness, the loneliness, and the guilt, and the fear of death because everyone needs Jesus. They may act like they don't, but they really do.

So, how are we supposed to reach people like this? We need to cross over. That's how.

Now, what do you think of when you hear the word crossover?

Well, maybe you think of an artist in one genre of music crossing over to another and having a hit. They call that a crossover hit. Or you might think of a certain kind of vehicle.

Now they build these certain kinds of cars or actually built on a car platform with SUV features. And that's because usually your family is getting bigger and you don't want to give in and actually get a van. Because vans are kind of lame. You may give it a name and call it your swagger wagon, but you know what it is. It's a van.

So, oh, I'll get one of those crossover vehicles. The problem with those a lot of times is they're a little too bumpy for a car and really don't have legit four-wheel features, but it's a crossover vehicle. Another way we use the phrase crossover is obviously to get from A to B. For instance, if I want to go over some railroad tracks, I look for the crossing, the crossover, the bridge over a lake or over a river, to cross over to get from here to there. We need to cross over to our culture today.

Here's the problem. We have a huge cultural divide. Where people probably know less about the Bible and Jesus Christ than any other time in history. The so-called millennial generation aged 18 to 29. is incredibly illiterate.

Biblically. They've, in many cases, been raised without biblical values, not even basic moral values, and so they're a nation adrift. A recent article was done on them in the USA Today, and it said that the 18 to 29-year-olds, 72% of them say they're more spiritual than religious.

Now, what that means is they don't believe in organized religion. They're kind of making up their own spirituality as they go. We live in a time where people are customizing God like He's an app on an iPhone. We borrow a little of this and a little of that. We'll pull some Hinduism, a little Buddhism, a touch of Christianity, and a large portion of New Age gobbly gook, shake it all together, and we come up with our own belief, our own concept of who God is.

And here's where the cultural divide comes in. Here's this entire generation adrift, and here come the Christians who are not connecting. Far too often, we believers come across has people who are narrow-minded, argumentative. condemning and holier than thou and unfortunately sometimes that's true so we need to learn how to cross over because far too often we are known more for what we are against than what we are for We're more adept at burning bridges than we are at building them. And so we need to figure out how we can connect to the culture today.

And of course, the problem is that. We feel we're no good at evangelism. Because we're afraid that if we tell our friends about Jesus, they won't want to be our friends anymore. And if we confront a stranger on the street, They're going to have questions we don't have the answers to. Or worse yet, they might laugh in our face.

I want to talk about those things as we enter into the 21st Southern California Harvest Crusade. Can you believe it's been 21 years? Amazing. And I'm going to share with you some tools found in the pages of Scripture that I believe, if utilized as you're relying on the leading of the Holy Spirit, can result in you leading people to Jesus Christ. Today, I want to talk to you about the why, the who, the where, and the how of evangelism.

In our next message, we're going to talk about the what of evangelism, i.e., what is this gospel that we are called to preach? In the third message, we're going to deal with the hard questions non-believers ask. and I am bringing in one of the leading apologists in our country today, Dinesh D'Souza. Dinesh has debated atheists ranging from Richard Dawkins to Christopher Hitchens on. College campuses around the country.

He's written a number of books, including one called What's So Great About Christianity. And I'm going to fire all the hard questions you have ever heard at Dinesh as he helps us learn how we can better articulate the gospel to people in our culture today. We'll deal with questions like, how can you be sure there's a God? How could a God of love allow tragedy, hardship, war? How can we know the Bible is true?

What about evolution? And so forth. Then in my last message, I want to deal with the how of bringing others to Christ. Why? Because God has called all of us to bring the gospel to our generation.

Proverbs 11:30 says, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that wins souls is wise.

So, God can use you to win souls. That's not only for an elite few. I believe that's for every follower of Jesus. And I'll explain why I believe that in a moment. If there's one thing that Christians and non-Christians have in common, it's this simple fact.

We're both uptight about evangelism. Christians are uptight about sharing their faith, and non-believers are often uptight. with being spoken to about God. I remember before I was a Christian, Uh We used to hide from the Christians. You know, we would be down on the beach on a Saturday, and all of a sudden, some church bus would pull up, and out would come all these weird people with big black Bibles, you know, dressed, you know, in long-sleeved shirts and long black slacks and little ties.

At the beach. You know, and they're what they're stomping along looking for comforts, and we just grab our boards and paddle out because the Christians would never go on the water. They didn't want to get their Bibles wet, I guess. Those Christians are smart. They would have come down in their board shorts and had surfboards and paddled out to us while we were stuck between sets, and they would have had a captive audience.

But you see, you know, you don't want to hear that kind of thing, and then the person who's bringing it knows maybe you don't want to hear it.

So there's this big divide between the two. We want to talk with you about how you can share your faith, how you can reach these people. But I have to tell you that evangelism has fallen out of favor with a lot of people today. Even in some churches, you will. Have them emphasizing other things instead of bringing the gospel.

For instance, they may have great social programs in the community. They're volunteering service to help with cleaning up areas that need help, or maybe building homes or giving food out or clothing. And these are great things. And by the way, we do all of those things here at Harvest and more. But they will sometimes do this in the place of evangelism.

They'll say, This is our outreach program. I'm all for those things. We need to do those things.

However, if in the doing of these things we leave the gospel out, it is a fateful omission. We need to engage people. After all, even if I feed them or I clothe them or if I even house them and I've done nothing for their soul, then I have completely missed the point. There was an interesting article in USA Today a few days ago about a man that. Used to be an evangelist, he said he was at least, and now he says he's a recovering evangelist.

He says he used to engage people in what he called bait and switch methods. He said he would engage a person with a purpose of bringing the gospel to them.

Now he's changed his approach. He says it's all bait, no switch, and he thinks others should do the same. He advocates promotion by non-promotion, evangelism by attraction, simply letting one's life speak for itself. He says, just live the life. And let the spiritual chips Fall where they will.

Well, that sounds nice. But I suggest to you that is unbiblical. I mean, let's take this as an analogy for a moment and illustrate it. Let's say that I'm a scientist. I know that's hard to imagine.

But I'm a scientist who has cancer. Therefore I am feverishly working to find a cure for myself and for others I know. One day, after a lot of effort on my part, I come up with a cure. It's a single pill. You take one time and your cancer is instantaneously removed.

Now, what should I do about that? Try to make the most money I can and take my sweet time in getting this new product to the market that could save lives. How about befriending cancer patients and never letting them know that I myself have been cured, but just that I'm a caring scientist? But I don't want to confront them about this. I'll just let those mortality chips fall where they will.

Well, I would suggest to you that would be the epitome of selfishness.

Some could even say it's criminal. The correct answer would be if I were to find a cure for cancer, To get it to as many people as possible as quickly as I could. If that's true of that, how much more true is it of the gospel message? For it is a cure even more significant than the cure for cancer, as wonderful as that would be.

Now in doing so, that does not mean we need to engage people in a rude... Or abrupt way, or see them as mere notches on our belt, nor does it mean that I should be unnecessarily offensive. But what it does mean is, I should lovingly yet boldly engage people with the gospel message.

Now, why is it important that I am. confront people with the gospel message. You want the short answer? Here it is, because people who do not believe in Jesus will go to hell.

Now, sometimes we dance around this and we don't want to think about it, but this is clearly taught in the pages of Scripture. How many of you believe what I just said? Raise your hand. You know, now that's not, you don't yelp, that's not a yeah. No!

No, I know what you're saying. You're saying you're agreeing with what the Bible says, but. Yeah. What's wrong with you? But Here's the thing.

As I acknowledge it, I say, yes, the Bible is true. But it It's a very sad thing. And I don't want it to happen. But to say that this is not true is to deny clear biblical teaching. Why?

Because Jesus spoke more about hell than all the other preachers in the Bible put together.

Now, some would think that Jesus, the very personification of love and grace and mercy. would never talk about something as horrid as hell. But the reality is Because Jesus. Was the embodiment of love and mercy. He spoke about it because he knew of its reality.

The same Jesus that spoke of heaven with all of its glories also spoke of hell with all of its horrors. He would have never said these things if they were not true. In fact, most of the biblical teaching on the topic of hell comes from Jesus Christ himself. Of the 40 parables that Jesus told, more than half of them deal with God's judgment of sinners. Here are just a few statements of Christ on the subject of hell.

Matthew 7, 13 to 14. Jesus says, Enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there are that go in by it. But narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it.

Matthew 25, 41. Then the king will say to those on his left, Away with you, you cursed ones, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. Matthew 25:46, and they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteousness into eternal life. And finally, this statement about those who will stand before God on judgment day without Christ, Revelation 20:15, anyone not found. recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

So make no mistake about it. Hell is a real place. for real people. An endless hell can no more be removed from the New Testament than an endless heaven can.

Now, of course, the question. will arise, well, how could a God of love send someone to hell? is undoubted an inconsistency on the part of God. The fact is, because he is a God of love, And also a god of justice, he invented hell. But not for people.

Hell was made for the devil and his angels. We already saw that reference.

So, really, if a person ends up in hell, it's because they've chosen that path. G.I. Packer said, and I quote, Scripture sees hell as self-chosen. Hell appears as God's gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose: either to be with God forever, worshiping Him.

are without God forever worshiping themselves. C.S. Lewis said, quote, there are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says, in the end, thy will be done. All that are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no hell.

End quote.

So. If this is true, and of course it is, how can we be passive about evangelism? How can we not be moved deeply by this and want to do something about it? Yes, we must reach out to culture with the message of Jesus. And my question to you is: when is the last time you did it?

Now, here's the thing. There's a place for using your personal story. There's a place for apologetics. There's a place for making that connection. But we can't miss this vital point.

Sometimes in our attempts to cross over, we don't bring the cross over. And the essential message that we as Christians have to proclaim to a lost world headed to hell is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sin and rose again from the dead and will forgive them if they will turn from that sin. and turn to him by faith. If we miss that, we have missed the whole thing. This is what we call the gospel.

And we're going to talk about this more in our next message. But Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, I want to declare to you the gospel which I have preached to you, and by this you are saved. And what is that gospel? He says that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

That's our message.

Alright, so. Why? Do we need to tell others about Jesus? Simple answer: because we care. We don't want them to spend eternity separated from God and hell.

And my question to you is: be honest now. Do you really care about non-believers? You know, a lot of times we don't. Because our attitude is, well. I'm good.

I'm going to heaven. That's their problem. Wait a second. Really? That's the attitude you're going to take.

Reminds you a little bit of old Jonah.

Now when we think of Jonah, we think of that whale. And that's part of the story, but that's not the focus of the story. The focus of the story of Jonah, the big message is: this was a guy that was called to go to his enemies with a message of the gospel, and he didn't go. God said, Go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to them. A judgment is coming.

Jonah said, No, and ran the opposite way. He caught a boat. going to another place as far as he could get from where God had called him To go. He chickened out. Jonah was the original chicken of the sea.

Why did he not go to Nineveh? Because as an Israelite, he hated the Ninevites because they were the avowed enemies of Israel. And he knew a little something about God. He knew that God had this tendency to be compassionate, merciful, and forgiving. And he was afraid if he proclaimed the gospel or.

Told Nineveh to repent, that they would repent, and God would spare them. And his reasoning was: hey, if I don't preach, God will judge them, and we'll have one less enemy to deal with. But you know the rest of the story. He eventually went, after some strong persuasion on the Lord's part, and he was swallowed by that whale and/or great fish. And he was vomited on the shores of Nineveh.

Talk about making a dramatic entrance, vomited out of a whale. Hey, how's it going? And he told them You're gonna be destroyed And much to well, I shouldn't say much to a surprise. Probably what he expected. They turned to God and they repented.

But here's the thing, we have to care. We have to go to people with the message of the gospel. D.L. Moody once said, winners of souls must first be weepers of souls. You have to see their situation for what it is.

And don't look at non-believers as the enemy. They're not the enemy. They're just like you used to be trapped by sin. Here's what Paul says about reaching them in 2 Timothy 2, 24. God's servant.

Must not be argumentative, but be a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the devil's trap where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands. You know what? People can tell if you care. I mean, you can have all the apologetics down and the great arguments and those super-duper opening statements, but if you don't care, it's not going to work.

You walk up and you're like mechanical and robotic about what you're doing. People are going to say, I don't need this. I'm not a statistic, I'm a human being. Do you care about me? For Pete's sake, a dog can tell if you care.

Certainly a person can.

So we need to do this with a great degree of compassion. The story is told. of a man who was condemned to death in England some years ago. His name was Charles Peace. He was guilty of double murder, among other things.

He was on his way to the gallows to be executed. To be hung. And a chaplain was walking beside him, mechanically going through his oft-repeated speech about the power of Jesus Christ to save from sin. Charles Peace, the condemned criminal, turned to this minister and said, do you really believe what you're saying right now? If I believe what you are saying, I would willingly, if necessary, crawl across England on broken glass to tell men it was true.

And we can say the same thing. Do you really believe what you say when you talk about the ability of God to forgive and the reality of hell? Do I really believe it? Number two. Who are we to bring this message to?

Who are we to bring this message to? Answer everyone. Who is called to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Answer. We are.

Jesus gave us our marching orders in Matthew 28 and what we call the Great Commission. He said, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. By the way, in the original language, these words are addressed to everyone. In other words, in the Greek... They're not Addressed to what we might call professionals.

Well, yes, that's for the preacher to do, and the evangelist, or the missionary. No, no, they're addressed to businessmen. They're just the housewives. They're addressed to students. They're addressed to the executive in the office and the guy on the work site.

They're addressed to everyone. In the church, we are all commissioned to do this. That means you. Number two, in the original language, they're a command, not a suggestion. It's not the great suggestion.

It's a great commission. Jesus is effectively saying, Look, I bought you with my blood, you belong to me, and I'm ordering you now, go out into the world and preach the gospel. That is a command. And if I am his disciple, this is what I need to do. But I want you to notice something else: it's not just preach the gospel, it's make disciples.

Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

So, what does that mean? It means that my objective as a Christian is not merely to proclaim Christ, but it is to the best of my ability with the help of the Spirit. To proclaim Christ, lead people to faith, and then disciple them. What does that mean? That means take them under my wing and help them to grow spiritually.

You know what a brand new believer needs more than anything else next to a Bible? They need a friend. And guess what? That friend doesn't have to be a theologian. They don't have to be a Bible scholar, they don't have to be an apologist, they don't have to be.

A person who is even that old in their faith. They just need to be someone who is walking with Christ because what a new believer needs to see is an example of what it is to be a Christian. They need to see a real Christian living in the real world.

Now that's one of the reasons we don't want to disciple people because I don't want them watching me Why not?

Well, I'm not perfect.

Well, I know no one is. But you are to be an example. I mean, think about this. What if all of the church were Just like you. What if every other Christian in the church read their Bible as diligently as you read your Bible.

What if everyone in the church Was as regular in attendance as you are? What if everyone in the church prayed like you pray? What if everyone was like you? If they were all like me, we'd have a church of bald people. What would it be like if it was like you?

See, you are to be an example. And here's the truth: when you're around a new believer, it kind of gets you on your toes spiritually because you realize you are being watched, you are being emulated, and you do want to be a better example. And check this out: it will revitalize you spiritually. Listen. to what I'm saying to you.

You are ordered by Jesus Christ to do this. If you are not doing this, I'm going to say something. There might seem Radical, but I believe it's true. If you are not doing what I have just said to you. That can be a sin before God.

Well, now you've gone too far, bold preacher. Really? There are sins of commission in omission, right? A sin of commission is doing what I should not do. Breaking a commandment.

Crossing a line. A sin of omission is not doing what I should do. Because I'm told in James 4, 17, Any person who knows what is right and does not do it, to him it is sin.

So let's use an analogy again. Let's go back to the guy who finds a cure for cancer. If I have the cure and I could give it to someone and they would be cured and I didn't share it, that to me is criminal. Oh, I'm walking down the street and there's a house on fire, and there's a little child in that house screaming for help. I've got to do something.

Either I've got to run in myself, or I've got to get someone to run in there. I've got to do something to save that child. If I don't do it, That is. Horrible, horrific. And that is the reality of what we're facing.

People are in a situation worse than. Needing a cure for cancer, worse than being in a burning house. Yes, as we pointed out, they're headed for hell.

So I've got to do something about it. But here's an alarming statistic: 95% of all Christians have never led another person to the Lord. 95%.

Now let me take a quick poll. I had an interesting response first service. How many of you? Let me define what I mean when I say lead a person of the Lord. How many of you have played a part?

And seeing a person make a commitment to Christ, and but don't raise your hand yet, I want to finish the question, okay? You've brought them to church, you've prayed for them, you've shared the gospel, which has resulted in them coming to Christ. How many of you? With that definition in play, have brought another person to Christ. Raise your hand up.

Wow, you guys are good. First service beat you a little bit. No, they did. I'm just kidding. But it was like that, and I was surprised.

Pleasantly surprised, and I might add pretty proud of you as well. Because you're the exception. In fact, by you raising your hand, You know what that says? You're a freak. A Jesus freak, and I like it.

That's good. We need more like you. We need more like you. So yes. This is what we are called to do.

We are all called to bring the gospel. Sadly, for many, the great commission has become the great omission. Number three, where are we to preach the gospel? Where? Everywhere.

Mark Stots and what we're told. In his variation on the Great Commission, Mark 16:15, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Go into all the world. I know that's a daunting tusk. All the world, that's a big place.

Okay, let's localize it. Go into all of your worlds. Go to your sphere of influence. Go to your friends. Go to your neighbors.

Go to your family. Go to your enemies. Go to people that you know that do not know Jesus and tell them. the truth of who he is. Number four, how are we to do this?

How are we to do this? The primary way. that God reaches lost people is through verbal communication. If I were God, this is not what I would have done. If I were God, I'd have just rolled back to heaven, stuck my face in, and said, Hello, humanity, I'm God.

Let's just cut to the chase. Believe in me now, okay? Or, I might have raised up an army of mighty angels who could articulate the gospel so effectively. But no, God primarily chooses to reach people through people. Romans 10, 14 says, How will they call in him in whom they have not believed?

And how will they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? Not a preacher preacher. Just someone to proclaim it. In fact, sometimes preachers do the worst job of proclaiming it.

For starters, They talk weird. Friends, I want to just speak to you today. Will you not take the Savior's hand and be saved? Saiye, get out of here, you know? You're weird.

No, actually, they'll be reached more effectively through someone like you without all that. Strangeness. the preachers seem to acquire. It's through preaching. And when I say preaching, I don't mean you have to stand on a little soapbox and raise your voice and wave your hands.

No, preaching just means proclamation of truth. 1 Corinthians 1.21 says, In the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. A better rendering of that text would be through the foolishness of the message preached, or literally the preached thing. We'll talk in depth more about the preached thing next time.

But let's just simplify it by saying it's the essential gospel message. That's what we need to proclaim.

So let's. Conclude. I've eaten up all my time. I have no time left. I have five minutes left for my message.

That was the intro. No, I'm kidding. It's kind of the intro to the whole series, but let's just consider a few points before we close. Go to Luke chapter 10. and read a few verses to you.

That's the other problem with preachers, they talk too long. present company included. Luke chapter 10, hear the words of Christ. He says. Verse two.

of Luke 10. The harvest truly is great. But the laborers are few. Therefore, Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest. Few things come to mind from this text.

Number one, souls are of the greatest value to God, and they must be to us. Jesus talks about A crop? Here, that is very important to a farmer and all people in the first century. Every stock of corn was valuable. Not one was to be wasted.

Reminding us that humanity is of great value to God. Number two, God is looking for laborers to harvest the crop. Verse two: The harvest is great, the laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. You see, our job, if you will, is to proclaim the gospel in a biblical, compassionate, and clear way.

God's job is to convert people. I've never converted anyone, nor have you. That's God's job. But my Mission, my calling, my command is to go out and get this message to as many people as I possibly can. Because the laborers are few.

You see, a laborer is someone who gets out on the field and goes to work. Evangelism is work. Listen to this. Without God. Man cannot.

Without man. God will not It's written up here. On the screen. Without God, man cannot. Without God's help, I can't reach people.

I can't. Lead people to faith. But without man God will not. In almost every case you can think of, a person came to faith. Through the efforts of another person.

There are rare exceptions to this, I'll acknowledge, but they are exceptions, not the rule. In most cases, God reaches people through people. I mean, occasionally we'll hear of someone having a vision of Jesus, or God just comes to them in a rather direct way. But in most cases, it was a friend, it was a neighbor, it was a mom, it was a dad, it was a brother, it was a sister, it was a co-worker, sometimes a complete stranger. But whatever it was, it was someone that came and allowed God to use them.

And God wants to use you. And I know it's frustrating when you share the gospel and you don't see any results. Just like when you go fishing all day. and you don't get a bite. But when you get that bite, have you ever noticed how you get revived?

Oh, and so sick of it. And then it's like, you're good for two more hours now. Yeah, yeah. Gotta bite. How about when you see someone come to Christ?

It's so glorious. But listen to what he also says. He says, pray. The Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. This phrase send out is interesting.

The Greek word is even more forcible, it means to push them forward and thrust them out. Praying, Jesus is saying that the Lord of the harvest would thrust out laborers into the harvest. Lord, just shoot them out there, inject the culture. with these believers. Pray.

So we'll say, okay, I'll pray. Lord, send out laborers into the harvest. You know what God would say to you? How about you?

Well, I'm praying for others right now. No one can honestly pray this work should be done who is not willing to help do it. Yeah, pray for others, but pray for yourself that you would be a laborer in the harvest, that you would be a part of the work that God wants to do. You know why? The laborers are few.

Guess what? The critics, there are many. The so-called experts, there are many. The observers are many. The laborers, they're few.

We need labourers. Talking specifically about our crusade, we need help on every level. ranging from people that are Functioning as new believer counselors to folks that are helping as ushers to people that are. Helping out and just bringing people to the crusade, people that are praying. There are so many areas of need that we'll tell you more about.

In the future, but here's all I'm asking you for today: I'm asking you to pray about being one of these laborers. about being one of these people. That will serve the Lord. But before we get to that prayer, I want to. Give an invitation because it would be an omission on my part.

to talk at length about why people need Jesus. And not give someone an opportunity to believe in Jesus. Because maybe you've joined us today for what we could describe as a family conversation. And you're sitting here saying, oh, wow, he's talking to them about going out and telling people about Jesus. That's interesting.

Guess what? You need Jesus, because you know why? You're empty. You're lonely. You're guilty.

And you're afraid to die. You know that about yourself. Jesus has the answers. to all these issues and more. But you have to be willing to turn from your sin and believe in Him and follow Him.

And Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again from the dead, is here with us right now, standing at the door of your life. And He is knocking, and He's saying, If you will hear His voice and open the door, He will come in.

So, if you've never asked Jesus to come into your life, if you don't know for certain that you'll go to heaven when you die, I'm going to give you an opportunity to get right with God right now. Let's all bow our heads, if you would. praying for a moment.

Well our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life today, If you want him to forgive you of your sin, If you want to go to heaven when you die, If you want your guilt taken away. If you're ready to say yes to Jesus, would you just lift your hand up right now, wherever you are? Just lift your hand up and I'll pray for you. God bless you.

God bless you. Over here on the side, up in the balcony. Hey, if you're outside, obviously I can't see you, but raise your hand too. If you're outside in the amphitheater, Raise your hand up if you want Christ to come into your life. If you're up in our court building watching the screen, I want you to raise your hand too, if you would, please.

Saying, I want God's forgiveness, just wherever you are, just lift your hand up. God bless each one of you.

Now, all of you that have lifted your hand, I want you to stand to your feet. And I'm going to lead you in a prayer of commitment. Just stand up right now. Don't be embarrassed. You're here with family and friends today.

You stand up. Yeah, that's right. Stand up. Many are standing, by the way, so you won't be the only one. Just stand up.

You want Christ to come into your life. You want your sin forgiven. You want to go to heaven when you die. Stand to your feet right now. Outside in the amphitheater, stand to your feet.

You up in the court building, stand to your feet, and I'm going to lead you in a prayer. Up in the balcony, stand up. God bless you guys. Anybody else stand now? I'm going to lead you into prayer.

Anybody else? Stand to your feet now. This final moment. If you want to make this commitment to Jesus, stand up. God bless you.

Anybody else? Anybody else? All right, all of you that are standing, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. And this is where you're asking Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin.

So again, as I pray, pray this out loud after me, right where you are. Pray this now, Lord Jesus. I know I'm a sinner. But I thank you for dying on the cross. and rising again from the dead.

For me. I turn from my sin now. And I ask you to come into my life. And be my Savior. And my Lord.

Am I God? Am I friend? Thank you for calling me. and accepting me. and forgiving me.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. God bless each one of you that prayed that prayer. God bless you guys. Amen.

And that's it.