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. Effective communication begins with a burden. And God wants to put a burden on your heart for people because we have a big job in front of us to get the gospel out to our generation. Today on a new beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie offers some of his best information on reaching out and bringing people to Jesus Christ.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you want to reach people, you have to care about people. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
But can you hear all the angels are singing? This is the day, the day when I begin. In May, church leaders from 57 countries were invited to attend the European Congress on Evangelism in Berlin, Germany. It was hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. and Pastor Greg Laurie was one of the featured speakers for the gathering.
Today on A New Beginning, we eavesdrop on his message, The Gift and Calling of the Evangelist.
some truly world-class insights on sharing Christ and together all doing our part of the great commission. Busy day, the day when life begins. Great to be with all of you. Let's have a word of prayer before we begin. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to be encouraged.
Our task is daunting. But you've given us all the power we need to fulfill the great commission.
So we pray that you will speak to us from your word. And may we be set on fire. To reach Europe and, for that matter, all of the world with the only message that can change the human heart: the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
You can all be seated.
So I came to Christ. When I was 17 years old, I wasn't raised in a Christian home. My mother was an alcoholic. She was married and divorced seven times. She had a lot of boyfriends in between, too.
She was a beautiful woman. I'm not exaggerating when I say my mother was a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe. She was a magnet to men. And so she was also a raging alcoholic. And so I grew up in this life.
I had to become the adult in the relationship. uh taking care of her so she didn't kill herself. And at a very early age, I was asking the big questions of life: like, what is the meaning of my life? Why am I here? And I was searching.
And when I was 17 years old, I was on my high school campus and I was walking along, and I came across a group of Christians. We called them the Jesus Freaks. And that wasn't a compliment, by the way. And so I sat down close enough to sort of eavesdrop on their conversation. I can promise you the last thing I was thinking about doing that day was becoming a Christian.
But as I looked at them, I saw the love that they had for each other. I saw the joy that they had. And I even knew a few of them from my old party days, so I knew these people had been changed by Christ. And then a man got up to speak. He was an evangelist named Lonnie Frisbee.
He had long hair and a beard. He sort of looked like Jesus a little bit. And there, the movie has been made about it, by the way, called Jesus Revolution. He got up and spoke, and I don't remember most of what Lonnie said that day, but I remember one statement that stayed with me. He said, Jesus said, 'You're either for me or against me.' I looked around at the Christians and I thought, well, I'm not one of them.
Uh but Before Jesus, what does that even mean? And then he said, If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, get up and walk forward, and I'll lead you in a prayer. And some kids got up and walked forward, and I hung my head down. My hair was hanging in my eyes. Use your imagination on that.
And And I thought, there's no way I could ever do this. And before I knew it, I was up there and I prayed that prayer. With the other kids, and that was the day that Christ came into my life.
So I walked smack deb into the middle of a spiritual awakening. It was called the Jesus movement, also called the Jesus Revolution, because a man named Chuck Smith was willing to overcome his hang-ups and his cultural beliefs and let God work in his church. And he opened the door to what we had called back then the hippies, with the kids with long hair, coming in, and a spiritual awakening happened as a result.
So I came to this church. I was hearing the word of God taught. And I heard him say one day, you should all go out and tell others about Jesus Christ. I'm like two weeks old in my faith.
So I went out on the beach there in Southern California, and I had a little copy of a booklet called The Four Spiritual Laws. You ever heard of that little booklet put up by Campus Crusade for Christ? I hadn't even memorized the contents of it yet. I was so new at this.
So I found an older woman, about the age of my mom, sitting on the beach. And I approached her and I said, Hi, I'd like to read something to you and talk to you about God. Would you be okay with that? She said yes.
So I sat down and literally just reading from the booklet: Law One: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Auntie Page, I just read page after page. And I finally come to this page that says, Ask the question: Is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? Oh, I realize that's a question, so I looked up. She said no.
I went, okay, look now, wait. Does that mean yes? She said yes.
I had not planned for success. I was planning for failure. And so, in the most reverent tone I could muster, I said, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Because I saw the pastor do that. I'm frantically searching through this booklet.
What do I do? Is there a prayer? And I found the prayer. I prayed this prayer out loud. She prayed it after me.
And after we were done praying, she said, something just happened to me. And I said, yeah, something happened to me too. I realized that God could use someone like me. who knew so little. But I just took a little step of faith.
And many of you in this room. Are given the gift of an evangelist.
Now, we're all called to evangelize. We got our marching orders from Christ and the great commission that we've heard repeated many times through the sessions here. Matthew 28, Mark 16, Jesus says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And in Matthew's version, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and 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.
That's the great commission. We understand it. But for many of us, unfortunately, the Great Commission has become the Great O mission. We're not doing it, but you're called to do it, and I thank God for you. We have a big job in front of us to reach this generation.
Billy Graham said, and I quote, we're not responsible for the last generation. We're not responsible for the next one. But every generation is strategic and we are responsible for our generation. It was said of David after he died that he worshiped and honored God and served God in his generation. That's our job.
You know, get the gospel out to our generation. The Christian life is like a race, as we know. And if it is, it's like a relay race where we hold the baton of the gospel. Billy Graham carried it for his generation and many others with him. They passed it on.
Now we're carrying it, and then soon we will pass it on to the next generation. And empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can do this. Listen to this. When Jesus said there in the Great Commission, Lo, I am with you even to the end of the age, that was a special promise in the context it's given in, saying that. Christ will be with us in a special way as we share the gospel.
That's not to say that he's not with us all the time. Jesus said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. But it is to say that Jesus will be with you in a special way when you're telling others about Jesus. There's something energizing and life-giving about sharing the gospel. Have you seen it?
You show me a church where there's no evangelism, and I'll show you a church that is stagnating. The church has a challenge before us. We're either going to evangelize or we're going to fossilize. New believers are the lifeblood of the church. New believers need older believers in their life to stabilize them.
Older believers need younger believers in their life to energize them. We need each other, and so we don't want to neglect this great commission. Um Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his presentation in just a moment.
So many listeners have commented on the encouragement they receive from these daily messages, like this one. Pastor Greg, I love to listen to your podcast. I learned so much. And your style of delivering the good news is light-hearted and fun.
However, I know you take your responsibility of preaching the gospel very seriously. Thank you so much for not only what you do, but how you do it with love and humor. And by the way, I've watched and listened to you for a number of years, and your jokes never get old. God bless you. It's so great to know that listeners are hearing these messages and God is using His Word to touch hearts.
How have Pastor Greg's studies impacted your life? Would you let him know? Send an email to Greg at harvest.org. That's Greg at harvest.org. You've joined us for an important talk from Pastor Greg Lorry today to a group of Christian leaders in Europe, a talk called The Gift and Calling of the Evangelist.
So, I want to look briefly with you in Acts chapter 17. This is the story of the Apostle Paul bringing the gospel to his generation of the first century. And although many things have changed, a lot of things are still the same from generation to generation. I once heard Billy Graham say, one thing is true of every person. It doesn't matter where they live, if they live in America or the UK or in Africa or in Asia, wherever they live, everyone is empty inside.
We've been created effectively with the hole in our life. The Bible says the creation has been subject to emptiness. We're all empty inside. Number two, everyone is lonely. Even when you're in a crowded room surrounded by people, you're still lonely.
It's really a loneliness for God. Thirdly, everyone is guilty. That we have a guilt inside for the wrongs we have done, and that's because we are guilty. And lastly, everyone is afraid to die.
So, I don't care who you're talking to. They may be at the top of the cultural ladder, or wealthy, or poor. Everybody is effectively the same inside and the same principles that transformed the first century can transform the 21st century. Nothing has changed.
So we're looking at what? Paul did to reach his culture. Have you heard of Mark Zuckerberg? He created Facebook. And he's now head of a company called Meta.
And he said that right now, A lot of people don't have enough friends and the answer is AI, artificial intelligence. He says AI will do a better job being a friend to you than anyone you know. And so we need more AI in our life. I read that 75% of Gen Zers think AI partners have the potential to replace human companionship. According to a survey that was taken recently, Google searches for the statement, feelings for AI and also, I fell in love with AI, have skyrocketed 132%.
What is this saying? This is a search for God, people. Artificial intelligence isn't going to fill that void. People are searching for God, and as the scripture asks, how will they hear unless someone tells them? And how will they tell them unless they are sent?
How beautiful are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good peace. Look at your feet for a moment. I'm not kidding. Look at your feet.
Some of you are wearing sandals. You shouldn't be. Your feet are not attractive. I'm kidding. I shouldn't have sold your feet, but...
Our feet are beautiful. A better translation of that verse: how beautiful are the feet of those that bring the gospel. It means to be in full bloom. When we're sharing the gospel, we're in full bloom like a beautiful flower.
So here's Paul. He's going to Athens. Athens at that time was the intellectual and cultural center of the world. It was the base of the great philosophers like Socrates and Plato, Aristotle and many others. And so Paul walks around the city, and he notices that there's all these altars erected to various gods and deities.
And he sees that something there is missing, that they have a a God for everything, but just in case they miss one, they put up one altar that said to the unknown God.
So with this in mind, Paul now addresses these people. I'm going to read a number of verses. I'd encourage you to read along with me if you have Acts 17 open in front of you. And by the way, the title of my message is The Gift and Calling of the Evangelist. Acts 17, verse 16.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles. And he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. He also began to debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. I'll talk about them in a moment.
When he told them about Jesus and the resurrection, they said, this babbler has picked up some strange ideas, and others said he's pushing some foreign religion. And then they took him to the council of philosophers and said, come tell us more about this new religion, because you're saying some rather startling things and we want to know what it's all about. It should be explained that all the Athenians, as well as the foreigners in Athens, seem to spend all of their time discussing the latest ideas.
So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows. Men of Athens, I see that you're very religious. And I was walking among many altars. I came to one of them with this inscription: to the unknown God. You've been worshiping him without knowing who he is.
Now I wish to tell you about him.
Okay, so here's Paul. He's dealing with two primary Streams of thought. First we have the Epicureans. The Epicureans followed Epicurus, the philosopher. And basically, their philosophy was: live for the pursuit of pleasure, live for the moment.
It was a hedonistic worldview. Not unlike the pursuit of pleasure we see today in media, nightlife, and influencer culture.
So many of our young people. Think if they could be rich and famous and have more followers on social media, they would be happy. How many of you have heard of Avici?
So Evici was a superstar, a musical superstar. His real name was Tim Bergling, he was from Sweden. And uh so he did does electronic dance music. And thousands of people would come out to listen to Avici play the latest music. And he reached the top so quickly.
He was rich, he was famous, he had it all. But tragically, he took his own life by suicide. And his parents said of him, quote, he struggled with thoughts of meaning, life, and happiness. He wanted to find peace. It was just the modern version of being an Epicurean.
thinking that that's where the answer is. And you know, as we know, when you chase after pleasure, it's one of the least pleasurable things you can do. The Bible talks about the pleasures of sin for a season, but then comes death. Living a life for pleasure is really a pleasure-free life. And so that's what the Epicureans believed.
But then the Stoics were different. They were more disciplined. They believed that God was in all things. He was in nature. He was in the earth.
We might call it New Age mysticism today. I read an interesting quote from Elon Musk the other day, who said that he believed in God. They asked him, Elon, do you believe in God? He said, Yes, I believe in the God of Spinoza. I'd never heard of that before, and so I thought, who is the god of Spinoza?
So that's a statement that Einstein was quoted to say. And Einstein said, I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.
So the God of Spinoza, it's a distant God. It's an uninvolved God.
Well, that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible loves us. The God of the Bible cares about us. The very hairs of our head are numbered.
Now, in my case, that's not many hairs, but. For some of you with lots of hair, it's a lot of hairs to keep track of. God knows all about us. In Jeremiah 29, 11, he says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
So God really cares. But this is that distant God that the Stoics believed in, the God of Spinoza, so-called.
So, how do we reach this culture? If you're taking notes, here's my first point. Effective communication begins with a burden. Effective communication begins with a burden. Look at verse 16 of Acts 17.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. The word used here for distrust. means He had an outburst. He was grieved. to see all of these false gods.
We need to understand that We should love the sinner but hate the sin, not hate the sinner. And sometimes we forget that. You know, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you want to reach people, you have to care about people. And God wants to put a burden on your heart for people.
The Bible says of non-believers in 2 Timothy 2:26. We should pray they would come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they've been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. And that phrase held captive could be translated, they're caught alive by the devil. They're trapped by the devil. And we want to pray that God will turn the lights on, so to speak, and they'll see their need for Christ.
So you have to care about the people you want to reach. And Paul certainly cared. You've probably heard of the great British preacher C. H. Spurgeon.
He made this statement, and I quote. Speaking of reaching non-believers, he said, The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. If you can rest without them being saved, then they will rest too. Spurging continues, but if you're filled with an agony for them, if you cannot bear that they should be lost, you will soon find that they too are uneasy. Spurgeon concludes, I hope you get into such a state that you will dream about your child or your hearer perishing for lack of Christ and start at once to begin to cry, oh God, give me comforts or I will die.
Then Spurgeon says, then you will have converts.
So it starts with the burden. Um Today on a new beginning. Pastor Greg Laurie addressing an international audience of Christian leaders at the European Congress on Evangelism a few weeks ago. And our thanks to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for providing the recording of this talk. Yeah.
But maybe your burden is different today. Maybe the Lord has been speaking to you about your personal relationship with the Lord. Pastor Gregg, someone can enter into that kind of relationship today. Can't they? They can, and it's so simple.
And I think because it's so simple, people think, oh, it can't be that easy.
Well, look, Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that he carried. This isn't about what you do, it's about what he's done. But here's what the Bible says: whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
You say, well, okay, how do I do that? You do it through prayer. And if you pray this prayer after me, I believe God will hear it and answer it, and Christ will come to live inside of you.
So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Saviour. who died on the cross for my sin. I am sorry for my sin, and I turn from it now.
and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Saviour and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer. in answering this prayer, In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen. Listen, if you just prayed that prayer. I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible says, These things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That you may know it's yours now.
God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, congratulations And welcome to the family of God. Yeah, that's right. And listen, would you let us help you get started living this new life? Let us send you Pastor Gregg's New Believers Bible.
It's in an easy-to-understand translation with so many helps specifically for those who are new to the faith. We'll send it free of charge.
So get in touch for your own copy of the New Believer's Bible. Call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24-7. That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God.
And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially, those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We are definitely a listener-supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs.
So, if you've partnered with us, thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us, well, I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us.
You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write a new beginning box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514, or call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, that's 1-800-821-3300.
Well, next time, more from Pastor Gregg's compelling presentation to the European Congress on Evangelism. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Lord. This is the day, the day when life begins.
