The Jesus Revolution & Evangelism: Gospel Communication

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by some special friends of this ministry. Pastor Greg? I wanted to say a special word of thanks to the Harvest Partners who make this ministry possible. Next time you're online, check out Pastor Greg's personal blog.

Go to harvest.org. If ever there was a generation that needs to be engaged with the Gospel, it is this generation. Our culture has lost its way, and today Pastor Greg Laurie says the good news of God's forgiveness has never been more needed and available. So don't tell me the day of evangelism is over because the Gospel still works. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

People need Jesus, and they'll always need Jesus. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

Oh, can you hear when the angels are singing? This is the day, the day when life begins. We can send a text to someone on the other side of the planet at practically the speed of light.

Through social media, videos can circumnavigate the globe as the event happens. It's an exciting time for communication, and there's nothing more important to communicate than the hope of Christ. And just when the world has so much capability, it also has so much need. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie says it's time we all do our part to get that message out.

This is the day, the day when life begins. Evangelism is never going to be passé. It's always going to be something God wants us to do.

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. But you know, America was a much different place 30 years ago. George H.W. Bush was the president. Home Alone and Pretty Woman were the top movies in the theaters. The top TV shows were Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and The Cosby Show. My, how things have changed.

The top songs on radio were Ice, Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, You Can't Touch This by MC Hammer, and Vogue by Madonna. And the Internet was just coming into its own. Social media did not exist yet. And so this new technology was coming. Email was just beginning.

Texting was still in the future. And so we were able to go around the nation and around the world and share the gospel. So some things have changed, but some things have not changed at all. Of course the need of humanity hasn't changed. The solution to that need, which is the gospel, never changes. And every generation is looking for answers. And I look at this young generation today and I think to myself, if ever there was a generation that needs to be engaged with the gospel, it is this generation.

And we're going to do everything we can to engage them. Consider this. The U.S. suicide rate has increased 30% since the year 2000, and it's tripled for young girls. Opioid deaths have increased three times in teens in the last 20 years as well. From January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2013, this is a staggering statistic, there were 3,567,000 suicide attempts in emergency department visits from people 10 and older. Three million people tried to take their lives.

And in just seven years, that's 3.5 million attempted suicides. Now don't tell me the day of evangelism is over because the gospel still works. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. People need Jesus and they'll always need Jesus.

So we want to keep that in mind. Always. You know in the church we get excited about a lot of things. Some people get excited about the latest conference. Oh this conference was so amazing.

Did you go to this conference? Others might get excited about a new building program. Oh we got our new building up. Others might get excited if their candidate got elected. You want to know what God gets excited about?

If I can use that verbiage of God. God gets excited. Heaven gets excited when people believe in Jesus. The Bible says there is joy in heaven over one sinner that comes to repentance.

I mean think about that for a moment. Every time a person churns from their sin and puts their faith in Jesus Christ, there is a shout of praise in heaven. There must be a lot of praising in heaven.

Because you think of all the people that come to the Lord each and every day. I mentioned the Great Commission. Let's go to our text now. Matthew 28.

Let's read it. This is a very important statement that frankly we all should commit to memory. Jesus says, Matthew 28 verse 18, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Notice the word therefore. As I have told you before whenever you see the word therefore find out what it is there for. He is drawing upon what has been said.

What was just said. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So go therefore. Because He has this authority. We are His representatives.

So we go therefore. And what do we do? Make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father. And of the Son. And of 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. There is one more version of the Great Commission if you will. That is in Mark 16 verse 15 where Jesus simply says, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. So to pull it all together. The Great Commission is to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Led by the Holy Spirit to bring people to Christ. Then to disciple them.

This is where a lot of people miss a key element. It is not just to proclaim the gospel. It is to lead people to Christ and disciple them. Get them up on their feet spiritually.

Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo I am with you to the end of the age. I believe if we would just obey the Great Commission we would experience personal revival.

Why do I say that? Because when you get your eyes off of yourself for a moment. And think about somebody else that is lost and separated from God. And leave your comfort zone and seek to share your faith next to being a Christian.

This is one of the most joyful fulfilling things we can do. And this is why the devil doesn't want us to do it. If there is one thing Christians and non-Christians have in common it is this. We are both uptight about the gospel. Satan is uptight with us sharing the gospel. We are uptight with sharing the gospel.

So non-believers they don't want to hear it. Don't talk to me because like we were saying earlier they think you are going to shove it down their throat. They think you are going to be judgmental and mean. We should never be that way. Listen.

If you want to win some be winsome. Be nice about it. Share the gospel with a smile on your face. Care about the person you are talking to.

And build that bridge. So many times Christians burn bridges instead of build bridges. And the objective is not to win the argument.

It is to win the soul. Because I have seen some Christians who are very knowledgeable and they come in with both gospel guns loaded. And they unload them on the non-believer and tear down their arguments and humiliate them. And the non-believer says, what a jerk. I never want to talk to a Christian again.

You could have done a lot more if you just would have showed a little compassion and love. And let them share for a while and say what they think and now you can respond appropriately with the message of the gospel. But this is the great commission.

But sadly for many the great commission is the great omission. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. So many listeners have commented on the encouragement they receive from these daily messages.

Like these posts on social media. Pastor Greg, 20 years ago I gave my life to Jesus after listening to you on the radio. God bless you always. Pastor Greg, God bless you all from Seguin, Texas. Thanks for being there for us. If it wasn't for your ministry Pastor Greg, I would have lost hope when my husband passed away last year.

Thank you so much for all you do. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? If these daily studies in God's Word have encouraged you, why not drop him a comment? Email him at gregatharvest.org.

Again that's gregatharvest.org. Well Pastor Greg is pointing out today how the great commission has been given to all believers. We're all to pass on the good news.

And we're getting some practical insight today on doing just that. Now let me say something that might surprise some, but I believe it's true. I believe to not share the gospel can actually be a sin. And you might say, well Greg you're going too far.

Well wait, hold on. What is a sin? There's different definitions of sin because there's different kinds of sin. One definition of sin is to cross a line. So if I'm told don't step on the black carpet and I step on the black carpet, I just cross the line.

That's called a trespass. So when I break a commandment or I do what God tells me not to do, I just cross the line. That's a sin. That's a sin of commission. But then there's a sin of omission. The sin of omission is not doing what I should do.

The Bible says to him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. So if I'm walking down a street and there's a house on fire and there's a crowd of people standing outside and someone says there's a child on the second floor of that house and I just walk by and maybe take a shot. You know, go off, post it on Instagram.

What a jerk I am. I mean, you know, hopefully I'll call 911. Maybe I'll be a hero and try to run in and save the child. But to walk by with complete indifference, that's almost criminal. In the same way if I really believe the Bible and I really believe what the Bible says about the afterlife, that there really is a heaven and there really is a hell, if I really believe the gospel, which effectively says Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father, and I really believe if a person rejects Christ they will spend eternity separated from him, and I don't even try to engage a person in a conversation, that could be the sin of omission, you see.

So we don't want that to happen. And I think also we miss out on a great blessing. Here's how it spiritually revives you. When you get a new believer in your life, it can reinvigorate your faith.

Listen to this. A new Christian needs an older believer in their life to stabilize them. An older Christian needs a younger believer in their life to energize them, you know. So, you know, if you've known the Lord for a long time and you just hang around with other people that have known the Lord for a long time, you go to church, you go out afterwards, maybe you argue theological minutia, but when you have a brand-new believer that's hearing this all for the first time, man, it's going to change you.

First of all, you're going to have to mind your Ps and Qs. Because if you have a brand-new Christian and you're driving to get lunch after church, you might drive the speed limit for the first time in years. You might think about what you're going to talk about over lunch, not that normal conversation that you have where you complain about things or argue about things, but you might actually talk about things that would interest the new believer. And then they'll ask you questions and you may not have the answers.

Then again, you may have a lot more answers than you think. See, God does not give us this truth to hoard and to keep to ourselves. He gives us this truth to share. And Jesus said, If you give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together, running over, with the same measure you give, it will be given to you.

When you're a generous believer in every way, that includes with your finances, that includes your evangelism, that includes everything, where you're a giving person, God will replenish your supply. And I think when you're around a new believer and they're asking you questions, well, it reminds you of things you've forgotten. Don't you ever share something with someone, and as you're sharing it, you get re-excited about it again? Because you're telling them what Jesus did and what it was like when you first came to Christ and how your life was changed.

And as you're sharing your story, you're getting all fired up about it. That's why you need to do it. It's not just for the lost people, folks. It's for us. It's for us, too. It's sort of like going to Disneyland with kids or adults. You know, when you go to Disneyland with adults, it's not always that much fun, especially if they're older adults, because, first of all, they're going to complain about the admission price, which is somewhat justifiable. What is it, like $1,000 now? And then, you know, you walk in and now they have these little things.

If you're standing here on the line, you'll be on the ride in two days. It's like, you know, I don't even want to know that. That makes it miserable for me. And, you know, so you're tired and, you know, it's a whole different experience.

A lot of critiquing things. Oh, you know, this is so fake and all that. Go with the kid. Just go with the kid. And see Disneyland through the eyes of a child.

It'll be a whole new experience for you. They're excited. They want to go on the crazy rides. They want to have fun.

It's a magical place for them. And I think in the same way, when we only hang around older believers and we never engage new believers, we can actually begin to find ourselves in a place of complacency and a place of dullness. And actually what we need is a new Christian in our life that will revive us again. And I think this is part of discipling.

I'll tell you something. I kind of broke all the rules the way I came to Christ. And by that I mean normally you share the gospel with someone. You either lead them to the Lord and you bring them to church and they come to Christ.

Then you follow up and you help them grow in their faith. None of that happened for me. No one invited me to anything. I wouldn't even have people give evangelistic booklets to me out on the streets.

They would give them to people around me and skip me. What was that all about? I actually wanted them to. I think it was sort of this look on my face. I don't know what it was. Must have intimidated people.

Can you imagine? Anyway. So you know my story. I saw the Christians meeting on the front lot of my high school campus. I sat close enough where I could eavesdrop on their conversation.

No one invited me to the meeting. But I heard the gospel. And I heard enough to understand I needed Jesus. And I went forward and prayed and asked him into my life. Now I could have gone the wrong direction.

I could have fallen through the cracks. But thank God someone followed up on me. And his name was Mark. He came up to me maybe a few days later and said, Hi, is your name Greg? I said, yeah. He says, I saw that you accepted Jesus Christ the other day. I was like, yeah, so?

Because I didn't really know what had happened to me. I'm like, yeah, so? Yeah, I did.

What about it? Well, you need to start going to church. No, that's okay. No, you need to come to church with me. No, I don't really want to go to church with you.

Yeah, whatever. Where do you live? I'm going to come pick you up. No, I don't want to go to church with you, I said. No, you need to come to church.

Come on. And he was so persistent just to make him stop, I said, okay, here's my address. He shows up at my house. I did not want to go to church. Now, so all I'd known of Christianity literally was a Bible study of like 25 young people. I'd not been in a church pretty much my whole life. Maybe when I was a little boy with my grandparents.

But I don't remember a lot about that. So I go to this church. It's Calvary Chapel. It's in the middle of the Jesus movement.

There's people everywhere coming out of the windows practically worshiping God. And I literally walked in and it kind of freaked me out. There was too much love in one place. And you have to understand the way I was raised, my mom never hugged me.

I'm not saying this to elicit sympathy, but if you feel bad for me, go ahead. But she never hugged me. She never said I love you. So literally I was in a home where there was no affection, no I love yous. And I walk up and a complete stranger comes up.

Some girl, God bless you brother, I love you. And she hugs me. I'm like. It's like I didn't want to be hugged. I didn't want to be in this place. And it was so packed out. There was no seats and I was glad.

And I started to walk away. And someone in the front row recognized me because they went to my high school. They said Greg, come sit with us. And I walk in and they're singing happy, happy, happy, happy. Where does this happy feeling come from?

Jesus. I'm like why are they pointing up? What's up there?

What's happening? And I sat in the front row and I thought oh man. And I was very uncomfortable. And then a guy walks out. He's old. He's bald. And I'm thinking oh really?

His name was Chuck Smith. I thought I don't want to listen to some adult. I don't like adults.

Because all the adults I've been exposed to were not very good examples to me. And this guy comes out and he brings his Bible. Oh brother, this is going to be so boring. And he opens up the Bible and it just comes alive.

And I'm like drinking it in. And you couldn't get me out of the place after that. I went every night of the week to every Bible study they had. This guy Mark.

He said now I want you to come home and meet my parents. I'd never been around a Christian family. My mom was married and divorced seven times. We didn't sit around a table and eat a meal and have a prayer followed up by a Bible study. You kidding me?

She'd be passed out on the floor. That was my life. So I'm sitting in this house. We have our little meal. We have prayer.

They say grace. I'd never done that before. And afterwards let's have a Bible study. And they're talking about things in the Bible and I'm drinking it in. I'm like a sponge. I'm like SpongeBob SquarePants. No, not like that. But I'm just taking it in. I'd never heard this before. My life was changed.

Why? Because one guy just said, I'm going to go help that guy, Greg. And he took me under his wing.

And because he did that for me, here I sit today. And you know, here's the thing. We all know the great rock star preachers, if you will. The Billy Grahams of the world.

Thank God for them. But you know, a lot of times it's the unsung heroes that play a key role. Someone who's so secede in the life of a Billy Graham. Or someone that follows up on someone.

That stands in the gap for someone. You don't have to be a theologian to do this. And by the way, you know more than you think you know. I already said that.

But you really do. Because you sit in church all the time and you hear all these Bible studies. It's going in your heart and it's going in your mind. And when you try to help someone, it'll start coming to your memory because the Holy Spirit will bring it to your memory. So I'm telling you, you can be used by God to share the gospel. Pastor Greg Laurie, with important insights today on the need for all of us to share the good news with those around us.

It's just too important not to. And here at A New Beginning, we want to help you. You'll find a host of resources at our website. One in particular is our free online course on evangelism called Tell Someone. Many believers feel under-equipped to share their faith effectively. Well, that can change with the help of this free online course. Find out more at harvest.org.

Again, harvest.org. Pastor Greg, many of us, I think, have been on sort of a news diet. Watching the news can just cause so much stress and disappointment. The world is a mess. It sure seems like God may be up to something. You think?

Yes. I sure pray and hope so because I'll tell you what, our nation needs a healing. I cannot remember a time when we've been more divided. The only parallel would be late 60s with all the riots and racial division and issues of that time. I would say it's as bad today. I would say it's maybe even a little bit worse today because, you know what, Dave? Back in the late 60s, we didn't have social media.

We didn't have Twitter. We didn't have all these platforms where fuel could be thrown onto pre-existing flames, and I think everybody just needs to step back, and I'm talking now primarily to Christians, and we need to live and behave as followers of Jesus Christ because, really, we should seek to be bridge builders, not bridge burners. We need to be peacemakers, not troublemakers, and I think we need to really pray that God would heal our land. Now, I know I've quoted this verse many times, but, man, it is so clear and really gives us the prescription for the healing of a nation, and it, of course, is 2 Chronicles 7, 14, where the Lord says, If my people, notice he points his finger at his people. When a nation is in trouble, God doesn't point his finger at the government. He points his finger at his people. He says, If my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and churn from their wicked ways, then God promises, I'll hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

We need a healing, and it's happened before, and it can happen again. The last great spiritual awakening in American history was known as the Jesus Movement, or the Jesus Revolution. Some historians believe not only was it the last great revival, some even believe it was the greatest of all the revivals.

Here's what I do know. I came to Christ in 1970. I walked into the epicenter of the Jesus Movement, and I saw amazing things, and my life was impacted, and a whole generation was impacted. The nation was impacted, and I wrote a book about it, and the title of that book is Jesus Revolution. And I might also add that I co-wrote it with a lady named Ellen Vaughan. Ellen Vaughan was also the co-author of my autobiography called Lost Boy, a very gifted writer in her own right, and she helped me put this book together.

She did extensive research so you can understand the backdrop of the Jesus Revolution. And I think as you read this book, you're gonna say, wow, this reminds me of right now. And so here's what we're saying.

Lord, do it again. As scripture says, will you not revive us again that your people may praise you? So we need another spiritual awakening. I don't think we can organize it, but I think we can agonize for it in prayer, and I don't think we can make it happen, but I think we can prepare the ground for the work of the Spirit. And I think reading this book will inspire you because, you know, it's been said, the fame of revival spreads the flame of revival. So learn about the fame of revival.

Learn about what God did in the last great spiritual awakening in America, and let's pray that it'll happen again. I wanna send you this book, Jesus Revolution, at no cost. All I ask of you is that you would send a gift to help us continue to preach the gospel and teach the Word of God. So for your gift of any size, I'll rush you a copy of my book, Jesus Revolution.

Yeah, that's right. It's an inspiring look at what happened during the 60s and 70s and how it can happen again. In fact, the subtitle of the book is How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today.

And along with the book, we'll even include the brand-new study guide that helps you dive even deeper into the insights Pastor Greg presents. So to thank you for your generous donation right now, we hope you'll ask for Jesus Revolution. You can write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call us anytime 24 hours a day at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Greg brings us more insight on how personal evangelism plays an important part in bringing a spiritual awakening to our culture. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.