The Jesus Revolution & Evangelism: The Power to Change a Life

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Go to harvest.org forward slash virtue. The good news that can save people from their sins is the most important thing we have. Pastor Greg Laurie says we need to share it. It's power in the message of the Gospel, and that power will always be there. You know, when you share a smile with someone, it's not like they take it from you and you don't have it anymore.

Often, you both end up smiling. When you share a word of encouragement, both of you are the better for it. When you share the good news of God's love, it can touch both of you profoundly. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shares how the Gospel is at the very center of God's plan for mankind.

It's the one thing that can change the eternal trajectory of someone else's life. You know, one of the real traits of the Jesus movement was people were out everywhere sharing the Gospel. Now when is the last time you saw that? When you're out in a public place, an amusement park, down by the pier, out in a mall somewhere, and you just saw a bunch of people, maybe even carrying a Bible, engaging people in conversations about Jesus Christ.

We did a lot of that. So I became a Christian, as you know, at the age of 17, and I was going to church, and I heard the pastor say we should go share our faith. And I thought, well, I've been a Christian two weeks. I know so much about God now.

I better go out and talk to people. And I was, you know, my theological knowledge could have fit into a thimble. But I knew Jesus had changed my life.

I knew it was all true. And I wanted to go talk to somebody. So back then there was a little booklet out called The Four Spiritual Laws Put Out by Campus Crusade for Christ. And it's very simple.

It just asks questions. And so I was so new at this I hadn't even memorized the contents of the booklet yet. So I went out to the beach.

It was Newport Beach. And I was looking for someone to talk to, and I saw this middle-aged lady. And I thought, well, maybe she'll be nice to me.

Maybe she'll take pity on me. So I walked up to her, and I said, hi, can I talk to you a little bit about God? And she looked at me like, sure, sit down. So I sat down, and my voice was shaking.

You know when you get nervous and you can't stop your voice from shaking? And so I'm literally just reading this booklet to her. I hadn't even memorized it. As I said, so I just said, uh-uh, I'll just read this to you. The Four Spiritual Laws, copyright 1964, Campus Crusade for Christ. Law one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Law two, you've sinned. So I'm reading through this booklet. And as I'm reading through it I'm thinking, this is so not going to work. I'm crashing and burning right now, and I want this to be over with. But at least I can say to my Christian friends, I actually started a conversation about Jesus.

So I'm almost through the booklet. I looked up at her periodically. She's just looking at me.

No real reaction. I get to the end, and there's a question to ask a person, which was, is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? And I realized it was a question, so I asked her, is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? And she said, no. I went, okay.

What? No. I said, you mean you want to accept Jesus Christ right now? She said, yes. I'm like, excellent. Great.

Let's just pray. Bow your head. I had not planned for success.

I planned for failure. So she closes her eyes. I'm frantically searching this booklet for some prayer or something.

What do I do now? And I found a prayer. I let her in the prayer, and to show you how little faith I had, even as I'm leading her in this prayer, I'm thinking to myself, this isn't going to work. And as she's done praying this prayer of asking Christ to come into her life, she opened her eyes and she said, something just happened to me. And I'm like, whoa.

Something just happened to me, too. I realized that God could use an idiot like me. Now, I guarantee I could pick anybody in this room, and you would know so much more about the Bible, so much more about Jesus Christ, than I knew as a two-week-old Christian. But I went for it, and God blessed it.

And this is the thing. We way overcomplicate evangelism. We get all worked up about it and all stressed about it and overly nervous about it, and we don't understand that you can be used by God to share the gospel. And I remember there was just Christians everywhere doing this. We called them the Jesus Freaks. And I remember even before I was a Christian, we'd see the Jesus Freaks going down the beach. You know, they'd have their Bibles, and they're like looking for sinners. And we would all go in the water till they passed, because they would never come in the water for some reason. Maybe they didn't want to get their Bibles wet. So some of them should have figured out they should have had a surfing evangelism ministry and paddle out to where people are. So that was the way it was back then.

You say, well, that's great, man. I wish it was that way today. Why can't it be that way today? Last time I checked, the Great Commission is still in the Bible. You know what the Great Commission is.

We'll read it in a moment. But it's the words of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And the Bible tells us, how will they hear unless someone tells them? Listen, the primary way that God reaches people is through people.

So this hasn't changed. Therefore, why are we not doing it today? And yet I just read that there's a trend among millennial Christians to not do this. In fact, this poll that was done said 47 percent of millennial Christians agree, at least somewhat, that it is wrong to share one's personal beliefs with someone who is of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith. Now, how many of you guys up here on this stage are millennial age? Raise your hand up here.

Okay. Now, you've got to explain this to me. What's going on here? Is this true? Do you think this is true of people you know your age? Why is it true?

And should this be true? So I think that millennials are trying to enforce and activate their opinions and freedom of speech. But they're also so sensitive nowadays. And if you don't agree with what they believe, then they just start attacking you with harsh words and just discourage you. And so as a young Christian, it's very discouraging to share your faith. I mean I don't think it's wrong to share faith at all. But it's very discouraging nowadays with everyone being so sensitive over everything.

Yeah. So I think what we need to do is understand that evangelism is really communication with people. And when the Bible says go into all the world and preach the gospel, you can do that conversationally. You can do that on your social media pages.

You can do it on Instagram. You can tweet the gospel. Go into all the world and tweet the gospel. You know but I think the big issue is when we engage a person, you want to build a bridge to them. You might think because I'm a preacher I have a little pulpit like this that I take with me everywhere and I preach to everyone I meet. Well look when I speak in a study like this or in a stadium, you know it's a monologue and it's me talking to people. But when I engage non-believers, it's a dialogue. And I don't come with all the answers. I ask a lot of questions and I listen because I don't want to come off like a know-it-all. For starters I'm not a know-it-all and to the point I'm not better than anybody.

I'm better off but I'm not better. So you come in sort of a humility. And Jesus himself modeled this with the woman at the well.

He actually asked her for a drink of water. He comes to her in a humble way and he listens to her and then he engages her with the message of the gospel. So that's what we want to do.

But you know sooner or later you're going to have to get down to the bottom line. And the bottom line of the gospel is all of humanity is sinned. There's nothing we can do to get rid of that sin. God sent his son Jesus Christ to die for that sin and to rise again from the dead. And we will turn from our sin and believe in Jesus.

We can go to heaven. That's the gospel. So I know we're maybe reluctant to share that but there's power in the message of the gospel. And the power has always been there and the power will always be there. Because Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God and a salvation to everyone who believes.

And the word that he uses there for power is the Greek word dunamis which means dynamic dynamite power. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We send these daily studies out via radio, satellite and over the internet.

And we don't always know how these messages are touching lives. But when we hear the stories of our listeners it really is encouraging to us. Hi Pastor Greg.

You share the same birthday as my dad. Thank you for the online videos of your sermons. I was a prodigal child and I stumbled across your videos and decided to recommit my life to the Lord.

I've never felt better. You have brought me back in my faith and now I want to live right and serve the Lord. One of your videos about prayer helped me learn how to pray. I hope one day when this pandemic is over that I can visit your church in person.

Thank you. Do you have a story to tell of how Pastor Greg's teaching has impacted you? If so, why not email him at gregatharvest.org.

Again, that's gregatharvest.org. Well, we're talking about the importance of sharing the gospel today as Pastor Greg presents a message called The Jesus Revolution and Evangelism. Years ago I was at Billy Graham's house and I wanted to ask him a question and I said, Billy, if an older Billy could speak to a younger Billy what would he say? What advice would you give a younger you after all these years of preaching and sharing the gospel? And he said, I would preach more on the cross of Christ and the blood because that's what the power is.

So I never forgot that. So whenever I speak I always want to talk about the fact that Jesus died on the cross for the sin of the world and that his blood was shed for them. So if you want to really pay tribute to a guy like Billy Graham, do what Billy did.

And what did Billy do? He preached the gospel and he invited people to follow Jesus Christ. So listen. Evangelism is never going to be passé. It's always going to be something God wants us to do. Now we might find new and creative ways to do it but ultimately we never want to deviate from this calling God has given to all of us. And in Luke chapter 15 we're given a perspective of how God views those that don't know him.

We have three metaphors that are employed by Jesus to show how God loves people. We have a shepherd who lost a sheep. We have a woman who lost a coin.

And we have a father who lost a son. Have you ever lost anything of great value and you're searching for it because you've got to find it? The idea of a coin, a woman had a coin, is probably the idea of a wedding hat.

She would wear a headband sort of and it would have coins in it. So to lose a coin was not just losing a dime or a quarter. It was losing your wedding ring.

That was a big deal. So she searched until she found it. And then we have a father who lost a son and a shepherd who lost a sheep. Years ago I lost something of great value to me as a kid. I had a little parakeet and his name was Popcorn. I don't know why I named him Popcorn but that's what I called him. And so I was down in Balboa Island and I saw this guy who had a parrot on his shoulder. It just sat on his shoulder. It didn't fly away. And I asked the guy, you know, what's the deal with your parrot? He goes, oh he's tame.

He doesn't fly away. And I thought, that's so cool. So at my house Popcorn would fly out of his cage when I called his name and landed on my shoulder. And I would walk around the house with him. So I thought, maybe I will do that with Popcorn. I will go down to Balboa Island with Popcorn and the parakeet on my shoulder.

And it will be just like the guy with the parrot. So I walked around the house for a while making sure he wouldn't fly away. Then I walked outside and Popcorn just flew up. I never saw him again. He's just gone. So I went for days.

I was walking up and down the street. Popcorn. Popcorn. People are thinking, that poor boy is hungry.

Give him some deed. And just the other day I drove by that same neighborhood and I rolled down the window of my car. Popcorn. And a really old bird landed on my windshield with a beard. No not really. But he's gone. And so I searched and I searched but I couldn't find him. And Jesus talked about the Father searching for lost people as like a shepherd looking for a sheep. Now you know sheep. I don't know if you have been around sheep very often. But in Israel sometimes we will see a flock of sheep. Everyone gets really excited. Because everyone wants a picture with a sheep in Israel.

Right? Or a little lamb even better. And I have always heard they are stupid. But now having seen them up close and personal they really are dumb animals. And look they have their purpose in life. They are excellent with mint jelly. And we can make sweaters out of their you know.

So it is great. But these are animals that literally cannot defend themselves. These are animals that cannot run.

They cannot fight. And they are incredibly dumb. I read an article a while ago that talked about a bunch of sheep. 1,800 sheep who died. And I thought what?

And I had to click it. You know what happened? And what happened was one sheep walked off of a cliff. This happened in Turkey. One sheep walked off the edge of a cliff and all the other sheep followed.

How stupid is that? So the one sheep goes to the edge of the cliff looks around and says, Ok single file. We are all going to die today. Let's go sheep.

It is not that bad. Let's go. Boom. And they all follow because that is how dumb sheep are. That is why the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray.

We are that dumb. So there is a shepherd who has 100 sheep and one goes astray. And he could have just said you know win a few lose a few.

Cost of doing business. No Jesus said that shepherd went and searched for the sheep until he found it. And he wrapped it around his neck and brought it home rejoicing. And then Jesus makes his point. And I tell you in the same way there is joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance. But really the crescendo of Luke 15 is the story of the prodigal son.

And that is the one that we all remember best. The story of the boy that left home, drug the family name to the gutter, spent his inheritance, messed his life up, got drunk, hung out with prostitutes, did everything wrong and one day he came to his senses and he returned home. And when the father saw him from a distance, and this is Jesus telling the story, when the father saw him at a distance he ran to his son, he threw his arms around him, he kissed him and said, This my son who is dead is alive again.

He who was lost is found. Jesus portrayed God the father as an older man willing to lose his dignity to get his son. Let me explain. In the first century culture old men did not run. It was considered undignified. Not to mention it is harder for old men to run.

Right? So because you would have to pull your robe up above your knees and in the story that Jesus tells, and if Jesus hadn't told it it would almost seem irreverent, he portrays the father as an older man missing his son running to get to him. And I think maybe one of the reasons, we can only opine on this, but maybe one of the reasons the father was running to his son is he knew that people in the village might stone him because he had disgraced the father, disgraced the village, disgraced the name of the Lord, and the father said, I have got to get to that son of mine before they kill that boy.

And he threw his arms around him and they are not going to kill the boy if the father's arms are wrapped around him. And that is us, you know. We are sinners and God says, I am going to get to you.

I am going to push any obstacle out of the way to get to you. And in the same way that the father loves us, we should love the world. Pastor Greg Laurie with insights today on the dynamics of evangelism and how it is reflected in the parable of the prodigal son. And there is more to come from this presentation called The Jesus Revolution and Evangelism. As you listen today to A New Beginning, you may have had an interruption or two, or maybe you tuned in late. Well, you can hear what you missed by going online to harvest.org. If you would like a permanent copy on CD, just call us at 1-800-821-3300. Again, the title of today's message, The Jesus Revolution and Evangelism.

And again, you can call 1-800-821-3300. And by the way, Pastor Greg goes into much more detail about the Jesus movement in his book Jesus Revolution. It's a great read.

And Pastor Greg, it talks about what we can do to help usher in the next spiritual awakening. That's right. You know, I was thinking about all the people who have stationary bikes in their home. Yes, why? Why have them? No one uses them.

You buy it, you use it for the first week, then you hang stuff on it afterwards, because they're usually in the garage. Am I right? That's just about right. But theoretically, they can use those things and pedal for hours and not go anywhere.

No. Myself, I'd rather pedal a short time and go a lot of places, but that's just me. When it comes to trying to usher in revival, how can we make sure that we're not pedaling for years and not getting anywhere? Well, you know, in the high-tech versions of these now, you can get little screens attached to them, and you can have scenery you look at that's been pre-filmed, or you have a coach on there telling you to ride harder and all that. But still, you're sitting on a bike and going nowhere.

I think it's much better to go somewhere. So instead of spinning our wheels or living in the world of theory, how about some practical steps? I think there are practical things that we can do to bring about a personal revival as an example. In the book of Revelation, we have the church of Ephesus, a passionate, fiery church. They had great discernment.

They were being used by God, but something was drifting, and Jesus identified it. He said, you know, I know the things that you do. I know that you have discernment, but here's my issue with you. You've left your first love. And then he says, remember from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works quickly. So it's like the three R's of personal revival. Remember, repent, and repeat. First you remember.

Here's the question to ask yourself. Was there a time in my life as a follower of Christ where I was more passionate about Jesus? Was there a time when I had a greater hunger for the word of God?

Was there a time when I was sharing the gospel with people more? So remember, it's a point of reference. Now I repent. I turn from that, and I repeat.

He says, do the first works quickly. I think we overly mystify revival, and we don't understand that there's simple steps we can take to make it better. I've told this story before, but some of our listeners may not have heard it. It's about a lady that wanted to divorce her husband in the worst way.

So she went to a divorce lawyer, and she said, I want to divorce my husband, but I don't want to just divorce him. I want him to suffer. I want him to feel pain. So what should I do?

This attorney was a crafty one. He says, I'll tell you what. For the next six months, smother your husband with affection. Affirm him.

Tell him how much you love him and appreciate him. And then at the end of six months, we'll drop the bomb and serve him with divorce papers. She says, I'll do it. So for the next six months, she told her husband how much she loved him, how much she loved being with him, how much she cared about him, how much she admired him. And the attorney called six months later and says, all right, let's draw those papers up. Let's get that divorce going. She said, divorce? Are you kidding?

We're going on our second honeymoon. Now here's my point. What did she do? She did something she didn't necessarily want to do, but as she did it, let's just say her emotions caught up with it. She did what was right.

She did what she probably should have been doing in the beginning. So in the same way with revival, we're waiting for some emotional experience. Oh, Lord, send a revival. Well, how about if you just start doing revival-like things?

And then all those things will sort of synchronize together. So I talk about that and a lot more in my book, Jesus Revolution. It's my story of how I saw firsthand. I had a front row seat to the last great spiritual awakening in the United States of America. Some historians say it was the greatest of all the revivals, but I'll tell you this much.

It was the greatest revival I saw, and it's the only revival I've seen, and I pray I'll see another before I go to heaven. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great if we started seeing thousands of people come to Christ in our nation? Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could see people of different races coming together? Wouldn't it be amazing if we could see marriages healed?

Wouldn't it even be more amazing if we could see people in different sides of the political aisle set their differences aside and work together? God can work in our nation. God can send a spiritual awakening.

We need to pray for it, and we need to prepare for it, but maybe we just need to start taking some practical steps. Get a copy of this book, Jesus Revolution. You'll find out what those practical steps are, and I'll send it to you for your gift of any size. So whatever you send, I'll send you in return a copy of Jesus Revolution. Some of you can give more, some not as much, but whatever you send, be assured it'll be used to get the gospel to people and teach them the Word of God.

So thanks in advance for what you can do. Get your own copy of Jesus Revolution. Yeah, we have it here waiting for you. The subtitle is How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. And we'll drop it in the mail to thank you for your investment so that these teachings can continue each day and so we can keep reaching out and changing lives. You know, more than 150,000 people made decisions for Christ through Pastor Greg's teaching last year, and that was in spite of all the COVID restrictions.

It's such a good investment, an eternal investment. So thank you for your donation today, and we'll send you Jesus Revolution. And by the way, as a bonus, we'll include a copy of a brand new study guide that goes with it.

It'll help drive the points home, and you can study this with your family or a small group fellowship. So write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here, personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a Bible study. It's a worship service. It's church in your home. Maybe you're not able to get out to your church right now. If so, join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world.

Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well, next time we'll see how this information age is such an important time to share the most important information we have, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Learn more from Pastor Greg's series, Jesus Revolution, next time here on A New Beginning.