Just Do It: Showing New Believers How to Follow the Lord

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Visit our website and learn more about Harvest Partners at harvest.org. God calls us all to practice discipleship, to step out of our comfort zone and help someone begin to walk with the Lord. Just do it.

Enough talking about it. Just do it. Go lead someone to Christ.

Help get them stabilized and do it again. God has given each of us a job. It's an important job. But we probably spend a lot more time at the job that's printed on our business card than engaged in the job God has given us. God didn't put us here to be the vice president of this or the regional director of that. Pastor Greg Laurie points out today our main job is to show others how to know the Lord. Today on A New Beginning, some practical insight on how to do that job well.

The job is discipleship, and we've all been called to that privilege. You know, when I first became a Christian, I really didn't fully understand what I'd done. I went forward at a little Bible study in my high school campus, as I've told you many times, and I prayed this little prayer. I didn't know what was ahead of me. I didn't know what was going to happen to me.

But I believed what I heard. And not long after that, a guy comes up to me that I don't know from Adam's house cat. He says, hi, my name is Mark, and I saw that you went forward and prayed to accept Jesus the other day. I was kind of like resentful.

Yeah, so? No, but hey, I want to help you. I want to take you to church. I'm like, no, that's okay. I don't want to go to church.

No, no, I really want to take you to church. And I have to tell you something about this guy Mark. Mark wasn't a cool guy.

He wasn't the kind of guy I would have normally hung around. But he was so doggone persistent. And he wouldn't take no for an answer. And the best way, let me take you to church.

Finally I said, okay. But he didn't just take me to church. He introduced me to other Christians.

He had me over at his house for dinner with his mom and his dad. We're just kids at this point. I'm talking to Christians. I'm asking questions.

No question was too ridiculous to ask. Here's what Mark was doing. He was discipling me. And if he had not done that I fear I would have fallen through the cracks. Because a lot of times after a person accepts Christ they don't know what to do next. And so he helped me in that transition. And what Mark did for me we need to do for others.

Because that's what the great commission is again. It's to go into all the world and preach the gospel and then make disciples of all nations. Listen. If you're following Jesus as a real disciple you will be leading others to Christ.

Let me reverse that. If you're not leading others to Christ are you really following Him as you ought to as a disciple? Here is our commission.

Again. Matthew 28. Verse 16. Go therefore says Jesus and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given to you.

And lo I am with you even to the end of the age. So here is our job. Here is discipleship simplified. I have told you what a disciple is. Now let me tell you what a disciple does. Or what it means to make disciples of others.

Our objective is to go lead others to Christ. Establish them spiritually. And do it again and again and again. Basically it is wash, rinse, repeat. Evangelize, disciple, stabilize, repeat.

Do it over and over again. But somewhere along the line we have sort of separated evangelism from discipleship. And they are one and the same. We are not just called to invite people to Christ. But then we need to take these new believers under our wing and help them get up on their feet spiritually. So here is a few things a new believer needs.

Number one. They need assurance. They need assurance. They need to be reassured that God loves them and God has forgiven them and that their name is written in the book of life. One passage everyone should commit to memory is 1 John 5.13 where John writes, I write these things to you that believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. Reassure a believer of that. Because remember in the Garden of Eden Satan attacked Adam and Eve.

You remember how he attacked? He said to them, did God say what you really thought God said? And He will do that in the life of a new believer. And for that matter older believers sometimes too right? Are you really saved? Do you think Christ has really forgiven you? It is not based on how I feel. It is based on what God has done. New believers need assurance.

Number two. New believers need protection. They need protection.

When you are holding a little baby you have to hold them carefully and hold them in the proper way and support them and anything that could harm them. You put yourself in the way of that thing and new believers need protection as well. Galatians 4.19 says, My dear children, I feel as though I am going through labor pains for you again and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your life. New believers are vulnerable to their emotions as well as being vulnerable to false teaching. Old friends will try to drag them down. Old girlfriends and old boyfriends will materialize out of nowhere. Temptations will come that maybe they have never experienced before.

Right? You will remember that yourself. So they need to be protected and just as in the parable of the sower Jesus talked about the seed sown on the roadside eaten by the birds and He said, These are they that hear the Word of God but Satan comes immediately and snatches it away. The new believer doesn't know what is happening but we do. So we need to help them. And number three. They need food.

They need food. So when you are a new believer you are hungry for the Word of God. Can you remember the first time you read the Bible as a new Christian? Now if you were raised in the church it was familiar but perhaps it came alive to you. But if you were more like me and you weren't raised in the church and you started hearing these things for the first time. I am just a kid.

17 years old. And I am reading these things in the Bible that relate to me as a 17 year old. And I still relate to them as a 40 year old with added years. And so it is relevant to you in your youth. It is relevant to you in your middle age. It is relevant to you in your old age.

Number four. New believers need an example. They need to see what a Christian looks like. You see some things are taught and some things are caught. As Paul said in 2 Timothy 3.10.

There is no 3.10. He says to Timothy, You have observed my teaching. Listen. My conduct. My aim in life and my faith. So it is not just my teaching. It is my conduct. It is my aim in life. It is my faith. You have seen an example.

And let's be honest now. Here is one of the reasons we don't want new believers in our life. We don't want to change our behavior. See because if I take a new believer with me to church and we go to lunch after and they are with me.

I can't gossip. If I have a new believer with me I will probably drive the speed limit. And I will probably talk about the message and do things that Christians ought to do already.

Maybe we don't want that added pressure in our life. But we are missing out not only on helping them but on helping ourselves. Pastor Greg follows up on that in just a moment. You will see how new believers need long time believers to show them the way. But long time believers need new believers just as much.

More on that in 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. Hey Pastor Greg. I stumbled onto your daily Bible studies one morning while listening to the radio. I became so interested in the way you explained the Bible.

But then the station went off the air. I searched and was able to find your Google podcast and now listen to you every day. The way you explain the Bible stories has finally let me connect with the Lord in a way I've never been able to before. I grew up attending Christian school and church.

And I've always believed in God. But I'm thankful to your ministry because it was like someone finally turned the lights on and connected the dots. After all these years it took someone across the country from me to finally explain things in a way I can understand. I appreciate you.

And thank you for turning on the lights. We're so grateful to hear of the changed lives through Harvest Ministries. And if you'd like to download Pastor Greg's podcasts you can do that through Google, Apple or Spotify. Or go to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg is pointing out the importance of taking part in the discipleship process. Showing a new believer what it means to live for the Lord. Let's continue.

And I think this is an important thing to have a new believer in your life because they will energize you. You know someone asked me in an interview recently, what do you like to do in your spare time? I had to think about that. What do I do in my spare time? I don't have a lot of spare time. But I thought well I ride my Harley occasionally and very occasionally at this point. I surf once in a blue moon.

So what do I do? And I thought for a moment, I thought, I know what I do in my spare time. I hang out with my grandkids. They looked at me like, yeah what else?

That's kind of it. I really like to hang around with my grandkids. Because you know what? They energize me. You see. I like to be with them. And I don't make them enter my world. I don't sit them you know behind the computer and say, kids study these commentaries and give me some points.

No. I enter their world. I sit down and watch cartoons with them. I know all the characters' names on SpongeBob SquarePants.

Right. And we go get ice cream and we go to the playground and I watch them play and we talk together. And then we have interesting spiritual conversations too.

Last night we had a really interesting one. My granddaughter Allie was asking me about her rabbit that died. Will she see the rabbit again in heaven? And then she wants to know she will have a pet wolf in heaven.

All these great questions. I love them though. But that energizes me. See that is good for me.

And it is good for us. Because some grandparents have houses where they have a lot of breakable things. Well I don't want the grandkids over because we have breakable things. Can I make a suggestion? Get rid of the breakable things and invite the grandkids over.

Ok. And if it will help I will come over and just break those things and we will get. Is this one of them? Yes. Ok. Grandkids come on.

And in the same way if we have a life that is not welcoming of new believers something is wrong. They need you. But listen to this. You need them. Why?

Because you will discover things you take for granted. Oh yeah I am going to heaven. Oh yeah you know the Word of God is true. Oh yeah Jesus is coming back. Oh yeah yeah.

Really? Because you talk about a new believer. You share these truths with them. And they cared for the first time and they are so excited and you rediscover it. The first time a child tries ice cream. I remember our son Jonathan I gave him ice cream when he was a newborn. Kathy was slightly horrified.

I think she was still nursing him. I gave him ice cream. Why did you do that? I said but he smiled. And he had a little baby. I gave him a little. He went mmm.

You know so I enjoyed that. I got to see that for the first time. First time a child sees snow. The first time a child walks on the sand. The first time a child discovers something and that you take for granted.

It goes in that wonderful. See they need you to stabilize them. You need them to revitalize you. Because we begin to take these things for granted as I said.

And don't perhaps enjoy them as much as we ought to. And new believers are the lifeblood of the church. And they are also the lifeblood of older Christians. Some churches grow by church transfer growth. Most of their congregants come from other churches. Harvest grows primarily from new convert growth.

And that is the best kind of growth by the way. And we want to see people that don't know the Lord come to the Lord. That is our passion.

So discipling. We are all called to do this. Nobody gets off the hook nor should anyone want to get off the hook. Because this is a privilege. But it is also a responsibility. And I think sometimes the reason we don't do it is because we are afraid of failure.

Or we are afraid that we won't do a very good job at it. Listen. You know what a new believer needs more than anything else? They just need a friend. They don't need a Bible scholar. If you are a Bible scholar all the better.

But they don't need that. They just need someone to show them what a real living breathing Christian looks like. And if you will take that new believer under your wing not only will you help them but you will help yourself. We are all called to do this.

But if we are honest a lot of us just don't. And I think we need to ask God to help us because He has commanded us to go. But what did Jesus say? All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations. Wait. I don't get the therefore. All power has been given unto me.

Therefore all the resources you need are given to you. So go. Just do it.

Enough talking about it. Just do it. Go lead someone to Christ. Help get them stabilized and do it again. And if you haven't done that find someone who is new in the faith and help them out. And get them into your small group. And bring them into your life. And help them learn what it means to be a Christian.

And you watch them grow spiritually. And it will have a revitalizing effect on your life. This message on A New Beginning is the final presentation in Pastor Greg's series called, Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. And if you missed any part of what Pastor Greg shared today, you can catch up by listening again online at harvest.org.

Look for the message called, Just Do It. And then a word about a brand new resource we're making available. Pastor Greg is here to introduce the book and Shannon Bream, our special guest. Shannon is an attorney. She's a journalist. And the chief legal correspondent with the Fox News Channel. She's married to Sheldon Bream. And she's written a number of books. And her newest book, The Women of the Bible Speak.

The wisdom of 16 women and their lessons for today. So Shannon, thanks for being with us. I'm sure you're very busy. I see you on TV all the time. I kind of feel like I sort of know you. But it's great to actually speak with you. I feel the same about you guys too. So it is nice to meet.

Great to meet you too. Hey, I wanted to just read a little excerpt from the beginning of your book. Because I thought it sort of set the stage for what you're writing about.

So I'm quoting from you now. For many of us, 2020 was a year filled with pain. Physical, financial, emotional, and mental. We felt isolated, kept away from our loved ones, and disconnected from our houses of worship and the sense of community they provide. There were adversities we could not have imagined we'd face in our lifetimes.

Hardships piled up, one on top of the other. And yet, there was hope. There was refuge. There was inspiration and healing. Throughout the Bible, women are at the center of some of the most critical events. They were bold and brave, finding courage in the moments when everything hung in the balance.

They were voices of truth and reason. And then you write, you can watch these women come alive as we dig into their lives significantly. So, Shannon, it's an interesting thing to me. A lot of preachers try to be political pundits. And here you are, a news correspondent, a journalist, an attorney who deals with these issues every day as a part of your work. And yet you write a book about Bible stories, and specifically about women of the Bible.

I think that's really cool. And what motivated you to pick this as your topic at this particular point in time? Well, Pastor, thank you. And I'm certainly no theologian. And I leaned on a lot of people in my life who are folks like you that I could call up and say, hey, what does this word mean in Greek?

Tell me more about this passage. I learned so much through writing this book. Fox had come to me about the idea of doing a book on women in the Bible.

And I immediately jumped at the opportunity seeing what a wonderful open door that they have always allowed me to talk about my faith and to be able to spread God's word. And I'm super thankful for that. Last year was really, really difficult. It's not the year I would have picked to write a book with the pandemic and the presidential election. I covered the Supreme Court.

The untimely death of Justice Ginsburg meant we had a confirmation battle. But through that, I was working on this book the whole time and just felt blessed and encouraged. I grew up in the church. I knew these stories, but I didn't really know them and the details and the back story and so much of the history. And they really came alive for me in a new way, writing this book.

And I was really so encouraged. And I thought the problems of the women centuries ago are very much like the painful problems that women have now in 2020 and into 2021. We have the stories of women who were widowed, infertile, dealing with heartbreak and betrayal, illnesses that seem to have no cure and no hope. And I thought these are all universal problems that carry through time, just as we see God never changes over time. He's the same God who intervened in these stories. And when women made bad turns and bad mistakes and bad messes with their stories, because we wanted to include those in here, too, were all flawed. God could work through all of them. And I think he works through all of our stories now if we're willing to put our faith in him and to trust him with the process. Well, I want to thank you, Shannon, for writing this book, The Women of the Bible Speak, subtitled The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today. And you can order this from us here at Harvest that we'll send to you for your gift of any size.

Yeah, that's right. And as you can tell, it's full of substantial encouragement for Christian women, but really for all of us. And we'd like to send this to you to thank you for your investment in the important work of bringing people to the Lord and bringing people closer to the Lord.

In fact, we recently heard this from a listener. I've listened to your podcast for nearly three years. You helped me accept Jesus. I'm currently receiving cancer treatment, and your New Believer's Bible is what keeps me going. I read your devotions every morning. Well, you know, your investment helps us reach people like this. It's an investment in touching and changing people's lives. And with your donation right now, you can choose the amount.

We'll be glad to send you The Women of the Bible Speak. Just write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24-7.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here, encouraging you to join us this weekend for what we call Harvest at Home. It's worship. It's a message from the Word of God.

You can watch it with your family, in your front room, or you can watch it on the go, on your tablet, on your phone, or your computer. Take it with you. Take the Word of God with you and join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well, next time, Pastor Greg presents a practical study of the Gospel of Mark called The Gospel for Busy People.

But before we go today, Pastor Greg closes the final message in his discipleship series this way. I would like to have a prayer now where all of us would ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us a passion to do this. And I would ask that you would pray a prayer with me where you're asking God to empower you.

The Bible says, You will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be witnesses unto me. And that's what we want to be witnesses. We want to fulfill the Great Commission.

So we need this power. So let's pray for it in our lives right now. Let's all bow our heads. Father, I pray for everyone here. And I pray that we will seek to, well, just do this. That we'll take steps of faith and just initiate conversations and look for people new in the faith and do everything we can to help them. Not only for their sake but for ours. So we don't reach spiritual stagnation.

So we don't find ourselves going backwards instead of forward. But Lord, we can't do this on our own. We need help and we need power. And you have promised us power to be a witness and we are going to ask for it right now. Now everyone I am going to just lead you in a prayer. And I would ask you to just pray this prayer out loud after me. Again as I pray. Just pray this.

Lord Jesus. You have called me to go unto all the world. And preach the gospel. And make disciples. But I have not always done this Lord.

But I want to. So I need the power you offer. So fill me with the Holy Spirit. Give me a holy boldness.

Like I have never known before. Give me a burden for lost people. Give me a heart for those that are new in the faith. Help me to make disciples. Now Father you have heard that prayer and now we all pray that you will seal it with your power. And even today we will just sense you are leading and look for those opportunities.

They are everywhere. And what a joy. What a privilege it is to see people grow in the faith. The next thing to seeing them come to Christ is seeing them grow in their faith.

They become spiritually mature. Lord you have called us to do this. Help us to start doing it. And we commit ourselves to you. And we ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen. This is the day. The day when life begins. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to Harvest.org And to find out how to know God personally go to Harvest.org And click on Know God.