A Crash Course on Evangelism and Discipleship

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Harvest at Home. We're doing a brand new series that we're calling Faith 101 and the title of my message for this service is A Crash Course on Evangelism and Discipleship. Okay, let's go back in time a little bit. I was a young man, 17 years old, a brand new Christian, and I heard my pastor say I should go out and share my faith. Well, I had a thimbleful of biblical knowledge, but I knew that I should tell others about what Christ had done for me.

So I went out on the beach of Newport armed with a copy of the Four Spiritual Laws, printed by Campus Crusade. I was looking for someone to talk to and I found a middle-aged lady that looked like she might not give me too hard of a time and I walked up to her. I had hair back then so try to use your imagination. I had sort of blonde surfer hair like this.

Here's a picture of what I used to look like so you can get a better visual. So my voice was shaking because I was nervous. And I said, hi there, could I talk to you a little bit about God?

And she looks up at me and says, sure. So I sit down and I was so new to all of this I hadn't even memorized the contents of this booklet so I just started reading it to her. The Four Spiritual Laws, copyright 1968, Campus Crusade for Christ, law one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I'm just reading through it. And as I'm reading through it, I couldn't wait to be done because I knew this was a failure. I knew I shouldn't have done it.

I knew it wasn't gonna work and I just was kind of rushing through it. I'd look up at her periodically. She was just looking at me and I got toward the end of the little booklet and a question was asked. Is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now?

I looked up at her. Oh, that's a question. Is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? She said, no. I looked back and said, wait, no. No means yes.

In other words, are you saying you want to accept Jesus Christ right now? She said, yes. I said, oh, great. Well, hey, let's pray. And she closed her eyes and I'm frantically searching this booklet for what do you do now?

I plan for failure, not success. I found a little prayer. I let her in that prayer. She prayed it after me, a prayer of asking Jesus to come into their life and she opened her eyes and she said, something just happened to me.

And you know what? Something happened to me too. I realized that God could use someone who knew very little to share the gospel. Well, I really started to enjoy talking to others about Jesus one on one.

I was never a public speaker kind of a person. I was more of a behind the scenes guy and I always had this secret fear that one day God was going to make me preach. I thought it was going to be a really random place like the supermarket when I'm checking out and the Lord will speak my heart and say, preach the gospel and I'll make a fool out of myself. And I never aspired to be a preacher.

Trust me when I tell you that. Well, as it turns out, he did call me to preach. Not far from that beach where I led that first lady to the Lord, I went down for a baptism being held by Calvary Chapel down in the days of the Jesus movement, you know, those big giant baptisms that would be attended by thousands of people. And as it turns out, I got the schedule wrong and I missed it and so I found a group of Christians sitting there in the sand singing some songs. Remember, I'm not a pastor.

I'm just a believer going to church. And I sat down with these other believers and there was no real leader and when the song was done, I had read something in the Bible I thought maybe I should share it. I said, hey, I want to share something with you and I shared my little thought from scripture and as I was talking, a couple of girls joined us and one of the girls said, pastor, can you baptize us? I said, oh no, I'm not a pastor. No, but could you baptize us? And then I just thought, well, why not? I mean, I'm a believer. They're a believer.

They miss the baptism. So I said, sure, come on. Now I'm walking down the beach with about 30 people behind me and I'm thinking, how did this happen?

This is way above my pay grade, which was zero actually. And so I took these girls down to the beach there at what is called Pirate's Cove Beach and I baptized them and I was so thankful to the Lord. He had opened this great door up for me and as I was done baptizing them, I walked up on the beach there and I saw some people had gathered up on the rocks and clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and he said, preach the gospel.

And guess what? I wasn't afraid and I proclaimed the gospel to these people and as I was doing it, it's almost like I stepped outside of myself and I'm looking at myself saying, Greg, are you crazy? You're not Billy Graham.

What are you doing? Well, I just kept going and before I knew it, I was saying to these people up on the rocks, and if you would like to ask Jesus to come into your life, come down here now and I'll baptize you. And people came and I baptized a couple more people.

What a day that was. Well, I bring all of this up because when we talk about sharing our faith or preaching, a lot of us get very uptight. There's one thing that believers and non-believers have in common. They're both uptight about evangelism. Non-believers are uptight about being evangelized and believers are uptight about evangelizing them.

Okay, so we're in a new series. We're calling it Faith 101 and the title of this message is A Crash Course on Evangelism and Discipleship. Let's remember a point from our message last time.

It was simply this. If you want to be a successful Christian, you must read, study, and love the Word of God. Because failure or success in the Christian life depends on how much of the Word of God you get into your life on a regular basis and how obedient you are to it.

Now point number two. To be a growing Christian, you must go into all the world and preach the gospel. We call it the Great Commission. There's two variations of it. One is in the gospel of Mark, the other is in the gospel of Matthew. Mark's gospel simply states it this way. Mark 16, 15, Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone. Matthew's version states it this way in Matthew 28, and that's our text for this message, by the way.

We read in Matthew 28, verse 16, then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. That's the Great Commission, to go into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations. Preach the gospel and make disciples. Where is Jesus calling us?

Into the world. Who is supposed to do this? All of us. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to preach the gospel. So here's point number one. We are commanded by Jesus to share our faith.

Let me say that again. We are commanded by Jesus to share our faith. Now, we call this the Great Commission, but honestly, for some, it's become the great omission. The commission of the church is not to wait for the world to show up. The commission of the church is to go to the world. Jesus did not say the whole world should go to church, but he did say the church should go to the whole world.

Point number two. These words are directed to every follower of Jesus Christ. Listen to me, Christian. I'm talking to you right now. I'm talking to men and women. I'm talking to boys and girls. I'm talking to students and businessmen and homemakers and construction workers and surfers and guitarists and skateboarders and nerds that hang around playing with computers all the time. I'm talking to everyone.

Put down your junk food nerd and listen to me. God wants you to preach the gospel. Put down that thing that distracts you and take up this word that God has given you and proclaim it to other people. Actually, in Matthew's version, when he says where to go, the implication is everyone is supposed to do it. Not just the so-called professionals, the pastors, the evangelists, the missionaries. Everybody is supposed to do it. We are all called to go to all people everywhere. Let me say that again. We are all called to go to all people everywhere. So here's my question for you. Are you doing your part to fulfill the Great Commission? Understand that these words of our Lord were given before his ascension.

What does that mean? Christ died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. He had a period of ministry following his resurrection. And then he ascended.

He went into heaven. These are in effect his final words. Last words matter. When someone gives you their final words on their deathbed, so to speak, you should listen. These are the final words of our Lord to all of us. So it's a big deal to him and they should be a big deal to us. Point number three.

This one might surprise you. To not share the gospel can be a sin. You might say, Greg, you've gone too far. Well, understand that sin has many definitions. There's a sin of commission and sin of omission. A sin of commission is when you break a commandment, when you cross a line, when you do a wrong thing. A sin of omission is when you don't do a right thing. The Bible says to him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. So how could failing to share my faith possibly ever be a sin?

Let me illustrate. Let's say that you were in a house that caught fire and you rushed out to save your own life, but you knew there were other people in there. Innocent people who could not get out and you didn't lift a finger to help them. You didn't even call the fire department.

You just walked off and acted as though it didn't happen. Is that wrong? Yes, it is. That's even a criminal act. Or let's say you're a doctor and you run a series of tests on a person and you realize that they have a condition that should be treated with the course of antibiotics.

Or perhaps a simple surgery will fix it. But you're uncomfortable telling people bad news. It's kind of awkward for you. So you don't tell them anything and you say you're good to go.

Go on your two month vacation and enjoy yourself. You're an irresponsible doctor. Okay, so those are illustrations that say how much worse is it for me to know the way to heaven, the way for a person to be forgiven of their sin and find the meaning and purpose of their life and not tell them. You see, that's how not sharing the gospel could potentially be a sin. Let's remove the word preach and let's remove the word evangelism for a moment and let's put a different word on the table.

Instead of me saying you need to evangelize, let me say to you, you need to make a recommendation. Now we do this all the time. Like maybe you're in a town you've never been to before and you see a restaurant and you wonder, is this a good restaurant? So you go to Yelp and you read what a bunch of strangers have to say about that restaurant and what you should even order.

They might even post photos. Oh, well let's go in here. There's a lot of great recommendations. So obviously the recommendation of a person carries weight. I am opinionated about everything. I mean, I'll have an opinion about what you should order in this restaurant, if you're in this place where you should go.

For instance, like if you're out late at night and you want to get something that's maybe around nine or 10 o'clock. Hey, if you live in California, you need to go to In-N-Out Burger. Okay, I'm sorry for the rest of you that don't have In-N-Out Burger, but it's the best takeout burger on earth. And I have found this with In-N-Out Burger is I only like it late at night.

It's sort of like a guilty pleasure. I went there for lunch the other day and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. Same burger. But there's something about, oh, it's 10 o'clock and I shouldn't be eating, but let's go to In-N-Out Burger and let's get it animal style. I don't want to explain what that means, but that's the way to order it. Animal style. There are no animals involved except the patty for the cow.

But they do a different thing. It's kind of spicy. And then I'll get chopped peppers. So that's what I'll order. Or I might go to Taco Bell and I say, oh, make sure you order this at Taco Bell. Or if you're going to Disneyland and you ask me, Greg, where's a good place to eat at Disneyland? Two word answer.

You ready for it? Corn dog. That's right. Corn dog. Forget all the restaurants there and all the money you'll spend. Disneyland is one of the best. Corn dogs anywhere.

You can get one on Main Street and over at California Adventure. But this is not a commercial for food. But the point is we perk up when we hear things like that. Oh, I'm going to go try that.

Wait, I just gave you recommendations. Now, take that idea and apply it to sharing the gospel. How about if I say to somebody like this, here is the best thing that you can do for life and eternity. Believe in Jesus Christ. Wait, we're willing to talk about hamburgers, but we're not willing to talk about Jesus?

You get what I'm saying? You'll tell people, oh, watch this on Netflix. Oh, go check this movie out.

We recommend all day long. You won't recommend for Jesus? So go into all the world and make a recommendation. Call it what you like.

You need to tell other people. Now, notice that in Mark's version of the Great Commission, the words of our Lord are go into all the world and preach the gospel. He did not say go into all the world and be a good example.

I'm not suggesting we should be a bad example. Because the fact is by being a good example, it earns me the right to share my faith and nothing works more against us than being a bad example. But to the point, he did not say go into all the world and be a nice person.

He said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Why is this important? Point number four. That's three.

Let's add one more. Point number four. The primary way people come to Jesus is through hearing the gospel. The primary way people come to Jesus is through hearing the gospel.

First Corinthians 1 21 says, since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God, listen, through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe. Understand the word preaching doesn't mean you have to project. We think of preaching in a negative way. If someone's saying something to someone else they don't like, they'll say, hey man, don't preach at me. Like that's a bad thing.

Actually the Bible says it's a good thing. But you don't necessarily have to do it loudly. You can do it quietly. You can whisper the gospel. You can share the gospel conversationally. You can tweet the gospel. You can do it so many ways.

The idea here is just communicate it, just do it. Romans 10 14 says, how can they call on Him to save them unless they have believed in Him? How can they believe in Him if they've never heard about them?

And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? Go into all of your world and preach the gospel. Go into your family. Go into your workplace. Go into your neighborhood.

Go into all of your world. I think of it this way. I call it frangelism. You might be saying, Greg, you mispronounced it. It's evangelism. No, I'm calling it frangelism.

F-R-A-N. These are the people we are to preach to. Fran, you're telling me only share the gospel with people named Fran?

No, it's an acronym. F for friends, R for relatives, A for associates, and N for neighbors. Who do I preach the gospel to? My friends, my relatives, my associates, my neighbors.

In other words, everyone. Even take the gospel to your enemies. Jonah was called to bring the gospel to a city called Nineveh, filled with the enemies of the nation of Israel. And he did not go at first, as you know. He was reluctant.

But when he did go, a great spiritual awakening broke out. Do you have a neighbor that really irritates you? Go to them with the gospel and tell them how much Jesus loves them. President Abraham Lincoln once said, quote, The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. End quote.

I love that. So go to your enemies. Go to your frenemies. Go to your friends. Go to your neighbors. Go to your parents. Go to your children.

Go to your weird cousins that you only see occasionally at family reunions. Go to everyone you can and share the gospel. And we have a tool to put in your hands that we've talked about already. It's called a rush of hope. It's a cinematic crusade.

And in case you joined us a little bit late, we're on Labor Day weekend going to put out this hour-long movie that is beautifully done with fantastic music from For King and Country, Mercy Me, Jeremy Camp, and some special surprises. And a message that I will share telling people how to come to Jesus. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to get people to watch. To call them up. To text them. To email them. To post about it on your social media. If you look at the screen right now, you'll see our address, harvest.org.

If you go there, you can get downloadable social media graphics to post on your site as well. I would encourage some of you to have a watch party. What does that mean? It means invite people over to your home. Maybe provide a meal for them and then watch a rush of hope on the big screen or whatever screen you have. I don't know where you live right now, but you might be in a city or a state that's more open than another one is. And maybe you can have a theater you could rent. Or you could rent a drive-in theater. Or you could do a lot of things. Be imaginative. But the idea is get as many people as you can together to watch a rush of hope. And this is the idea. You want to follow up on that. You want to ask them, did you understand what was being said?

Would you like to know how to have a relationship with God? And my last message, I referenced the parable of the sower, where a sower goes out and throws seed. And in those days, they didn't plant neat little crops and have all the equipment we have today. They just threw the seed to the wind. And the seed went wherever it went. By the way, did you know that the word broadcast means to sow seed? So we're broadcasting the gospel. We're sowing the seed of the gospel.

But I need you to make sure that non-believers see it and you're there to follow up on it. Now, what is the gospel? We throw that word around a lot as Christians. What does it actually mean?

Well, I'm going to define it in a moment. But we want to get this one right. Because if we don't get the gospel right, everything else is wrong.

Point number five. We're not only to preach the gospel, we are to make disciples. Imagine for a moment if a doctor delivered a baby. And there's this little newborn. He gave him a little tiny box of Pampers with the little candles and said, here you go, son. It's a rough world out there, but somehow you'll make it.

No, a baby has to be nurtured and cared for and loved. Well, the same is true of a brand new believer. You've got to help them and you've got to, in short, disciple them. They're in Matthew's account of the Great Commission. It is to teach them to observe all things I have commanded you.

The idea of discipling is modeling for someone what it means to be a Christian and taking them through the basics of the Christian faith, getting them up on their feet spiritually, and encouraging them to do the same for someone else. Paul summed it up this way in Colossians 1-28. We proclaim Christ. We warn everyone we meet and we teach everyone we can, all that we know about him, so we might bring every man to his full maturity in Christ. So we want to help people grow up spiritually and be mature. I'll tell you, a great resource I can offer to you is the New Believer's Bible.

Now, you hear me mention this at the end of pretty much every message I give. Let me tell you what this is. This is published by Tyndale House. This is the New Living Translation, which is a very understandable translation of Scripture worked on by scholars. And it has hundreds of notes in it that I wrote with a new believer in mind or a young believer in mind. I'm going through the things that every Christian needs to know in a way that they can understand. It's almost as though we're sitting down over a cup of coffee and I'm just going through the basics of the Christian life with you.

I would encourage you to get a bunch of these and have them on hand and then hopefully get a new believer or a young believer in your life and do what you can for them. But somewhere along the line we've separated evangelism and discipleship and we should not do it because it's all part of the Great Commission. Think of Saul of Tarsus. He came to faith in Christ. Saul of Tarsus was a notorious Christian killer. He was hunting down followers of Jesus, torturing them, putting them in prison. And Saul of Tarsus was responsible for the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, Stephen.

But while he was on his way to arrest more Christians, who does he meet on the Damascus road? He meets Jesus who says, why are you fighting with me, Saul? And Saul believes in Jesus. So when it comes out that Saul's now a Christian, no one believes it. It would be like announcing, oh, Howard Stern just became a Christian and he's going to a Bible study now. Or, oh, Bill Maher, he's a strong follower of Jesus Christ. Or, hey, Lady Gaga's leading worship over here at this church service.

We'd say, what are you talking about? Unexpected people and don't think that God cannot reach any of those people. He could reach them and anybody else.

But people weren't believing it. So the Lord directs a man named Ananias to go to the newly converted Saul. It's recorded in Acts 9. And God says to Ananias, go visit Saul.

He's a brother and he's in prayer. So Ananias went and helped Saul and introduced him to people. Later on, a guy named Barnabas came along and encouraged Saul later to become Paul as well. Now we don't know that much about Ananias and Barnabas, but we know a lot about the Apostle Paul.

And so here's my point. God wants to use you to be an Ananias to a Saul. He wants to use you to be a Barnabas to a Paul. He wants to use you to be an Andrew to a Peter. He wants to use you maybe behind the scenes to help someone that needs to grow in their faith.

Don't be overwhelmed by this. Discipling someone just means to show them what a Christian looks like. Maybe this is one of the reasons we don't want a new believer in our life because we don't want them to examine us. Oh, this is how a Christian drives. Oh, this is what a Christian watches on TV. Oh, this is what a Christian does in their free time. I don't want them judging me.

No, you need to be an example for them. Let me tell you something. After I accepted Christ at the age of 17 on my high school campus, I was really oblivious to what I had done. The school bell rang. Lunch was over. I did not realize what had just happened to me. Nobody was there saying, oh, Greg, here's a new believer's Bible. Why don't you read this? No one was there to say, Greg, why don't you come to church on Sunday with us?

No one was there to do anything. I just walked away not really sure of what I had done. But thank God there was a guy named Mark who came up to me a day or so later, said, hi, is your name Greg? I said, yeah. He said, my name is Mark. Okay. He said, hey, I saw that you went forward and prayed to ask Christ into your life the other day at our lunchtime Bible study. I was sort of defensive, and I said, yeah, what of it?

He goes, well, I think that's great. Okay. Well, I want you to come to church with me, Mark said. I said, I don't want to do that. No, Greg, I want you to come to church. I don't want to go to church with you, Mark.

I really don't. And he goes, okay, where do you live? I'm going to come pick you up. No, I don't want you to come to my house and pick me up.

I don't want to go to church with you. Well, Mark wouldn't take no for an answer. Next thing I know, he's at my house picking me up, and he takes me to church. Mark introduced me to the church. He introduced me to his Christian family.

He took the time to explain the basics to me. In short, he began to disciple me, and I could have fallen through the cracks. And there's a lot of people that do fall through the cracks. Will you be a mark to one of those people? Will you fulfill the Great Commission and disciple someone? Listen, there's another reason we should seek to fulfill the Great Commission. Do it for your own good. See, God has given us these blessings that we experience as Christians to share, not to be hoarded.

You are blessed to be a blessing. You ever see those shows on TV of people who hoard stuff? And they have like floor-to-ceiling newspapers from days gone by, and they usually have a lot of cats.

I don't know why the cats and the newspapers go together, but they often do. But this is crazy. Now, I'm sort of a micro hoarder.

I don't have my home filled with all those things, but I do save a lot of stuff. And we can be this way with our faith. Oh, I just want to hear another Bible study, and I just want to grow more and learn more. That's good.

Do that. But it's not designed for you to keep to yourself. The gospel is designed for you to share.

And one of the great things about sharing is it helps in your own spiritual growth. Say, I don't get it. Well, what would it be like if you only ate and you never exercised? You literally sat in a giant chair, and you never moved.

I have a friend who has this weird thing. It's like a pod. And it's sort of like a massage chair meets a pod.

And you lay in it, and it closes up on your arms and on your legs, and all these rollers are going back and forth. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's great. I have to admit.

I was in it for one week. No, not really. But, you know, we want to just get into our little Christian pod, bring me a meal now, and I'll eat my meal. You need to get out of your pod, and you need to get to work, and you need to take what God has given you to other people. And if you don't, listen to me, you will stagnate spiritually.

You have a choice. You can evangelize, or you can fossilize. And if you only take in and you never share your faith, it's detrimental to you spiritually.

Listen to this. A new believer needs an older believer in their life to stabilize them. An older believer needs a younger believer in their life to energize them. Take cartoons as an example. I like to watch cartoons with my grandkids. Generally, when they're not around, I don't watch cartoons. But when they come over, they say, Papa, can we watch a cartoon? I'll enter into their world, and I'll laugh at the cartoons and enjoy them, but I'm enjoying them because they're enjoying them. I'm seeing them through the eyes of a child. And what happens when you have a new believer in your life is you begin to rediscover truths you've forgotten about. As they're discovering them for the first time, you're saying, wow, that is amazing, isn't it? I don't know if I'm as appreciative to God as much as I should be for what He has done for me.

So you need it as much as they need it, because we often forget things that really matter. Now, I keep saying preach the gospel. What is the gospel?

We way overcomplicate this, people. The gospel, literally defined, is good news. The gospel teaches that we're all separated from God by our sin. The gospel teaches that there's nothing we can do to satisfy the righteous demands of God on our own. The gospel teaches not that I'm good, but that I'm bad, and I'm separated from God. But the gospel also teaches that 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, and He rose again from the dead, and if I will turn from my sin and ask Christ to come into my life, He will forgive me, He'll fill that hole in my heart, He'll give me the purpose and direction in life I've been seeking, and best of all, He'll give me the absolute assurance of heaven for the afterlife. That's the gospel.

We need to share that with people. Point number six, we need to seek to lead others to Christ. We need to seek to lead others to Christ. Now, the Bible does teach that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. No man comes to the Father unless the Spirit draws him.

That's true. But God reaches people through people. And I think one of the reasons we've never led another person to Christ is we have not asked them the question. We can call it popping the question. Let's apply it to marriage. I've heard of a lot of imaginative proposals that have taken place. One that I'm reminded of is of a friend of mine who went out snorkeling with his, well, not his fiancé, just his girlfriend at that point. They were underwater, and he had one of those little underwater tablets, and he wrote out, Will you marry me?

So that's very imaginative. Now, my wife says I never properly proposed. She says that we were sitting in a restaurant, and I looked at her and I said, Well, I guess we're going to get married, huh?

I thought, Really? I said that? She said, Yeah. I said, Wow. Well, at least I said something. I didn't do a very good job of it.

But thankfully she said yes, and we've been married 46 years now. So, hey, maybe there's something to that. I don't know. But my point is simply this.

You've got to ask the question that's awkward for you to ask, but do it anyway. And here's the question. Ready for it?

Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? I was in a restaurant a while ago with some friends, and we had a waitress come and take our order. And she said, You guys are all pastors, aren't you?

Yes, yeah, we are. And so she said, What are your church services? And I said, Well, they're at this time and this time. She goes, Okay, okay. And so she's taken our order, and I don't normally do this, trust me, but I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit. I said, You know, I'm glad you want to know when our church services are, and I'm glad you want to come to our church, but you don't have to wait till Sunday to get right with God.

Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? And she said, Yes, I would. She's standing there, you know, like with her little order book. And the good news is the owner of the restaurant is a Christian who attends our church, so I knew she wouldn't get in trouble. I said, Why don't we pray right now? She said, Pray here? Yeah, let's pray. You want to pray and ask Christ to come into your life?

She said, Yeah. So we prayed, and right there the Lord came into our life. And this is my point, you never know when the Lord will prompt you to ask that question, and I trust that a lot of us are going to be asking this question next weekend as a rush of hope is shown. After it's done, you turn to your neighbor, you turn to your family member, you turn to the person that you invited to watch, and you say, Did you understand what he said? Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now?

And I'm telling you, if they say yes, get ready for one of the greatest blessings you've ever experienced in life. There's great joy in sharing your faith. Jesus said, There's joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance. Let me close now with a question for some of you. Now I've been talking to Christians about sharing the gospel. Let me talk to someone that's watching that is hearing this all for the first time, and let me ask you this, Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? Say, Well, yeah, what do I need to do? You need to admit you're a sinner and acknowledge the fact that you're separated from God, and then you need to believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin and rose again from the dead, and you need to ask him into your life.

You see, only you can do that. I can't do that for you, but I can lead you in a prayer where you ask him into your life to be your Savior and Lord, and in a moment I'm going to pray, and I'm going to ask you that want Christ to come into your life to pray this prayer with me. So again, if you want your sin forgiven, if you want to know that when you die you will go to heaven, if you want that big hole in your heart filled, if you want your guilt taken away, if you want this relationship with God I've been talking about, I want you to pray a simple prayer with me right here, right now, and as I pray this prayer, you can pray it out loud if you like, you can pray it in your heart quietly, but you pray this prayer. The Bible says, Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The Bible says, For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That's what you're doing right now. You're believing in Jesus. Just pray this prayer with me right now. In fact, pray this prayer after me. Pray these words if you would.

God, I know that I'm a sinner, but I believe that Jesus Christ 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, Jesus, from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord.

Be my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D dot org.