The Refreshing Power of Sharing Your Faith, Part 2 | Sunday Message

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.

Welcome back to Harvest at Home. The title of my message is The Refreshing Power of Telling Others About Jesus. Why don't we pray. Father, we know that you love the world so much that you gave your only begotten son. We know you're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And we also know, Lord, you've called us to go and preach the gospel to all the world and we know you reach people through people. So as we look at what your word says about sharing our faith, speak to us, we pray.

In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Okay, well, how many of you out there are fishermen? I'm not much of a fisherman myself. Years ago I was in Alaska and I went on a little fishing trip for king salmon.

I was with very seasoned fishermen who knew what they were doing. I didn't even know how to beat my hook. Well, anyway, well, we're all just waiting for a bite and one friend of mine kept saying, I just got a hit. I just got a hit and he hadn't got a hit. And I asked the guy who was with us, our guide, how will you know when you get a real bite?

He says, you'll know. And it's like almost right after that, whoom, my pole moved and I start reeling away and I got a big king salmon on my line. I was so excited and I worked it, this went on for a while, for maybe 20 minutes, I'm reeling away. Finally, we get that fish right at the side of the boat and the guide gets his net in there and he misses it and the fish breaks away. And then, of course, when you tell someone that story, no one believes you because we all talk about the one that got away.

But in my case, that really happened. But I'll tell you a story about a fisherman who got a beast of a fish. It's called a muskellunge fish.

Ever heard of those? So this guy is testing an outboard propeller on his little boat on a lake in Ohio. And as he's cruising along, he sees this massive muskellunge fish right near the surface. So he casts his line in the direction of the fish. A couple of times, the fish disappears. So the guy goes back to testing his motor. Half hour later, the fish appears again.

It's right near the surface. So this guy grabs a leather glove, gets right behind the muskie, grabs it behind the gills, and is wrestling it onto the boat. The fish was so big, another fisherman nearby came and helped him get this beast of a fish on his boat. And when it was all said and done, it weighed more than 53 pounds. Had he caught it properly, if you will, with a rod and a reel, it would have set the record.

This is what it looks like. A 53-pound muskellunge fish. In fact, in this photo, this one isn't even as big as the one that the guy caught.

So this is what makes me laugh. This fisherman was interviewed afterwards, and how did you pull this off, catching this fish with a glove by hand? And his response is, well, I was at the right place at the right time, and I guess I was just fool enough to grab it. You say, Greg, what are you talking about? Is this a message on fishing?

Yes, it is. It's a message on fishing for men. Jesus said, follow me and you will be a fisher of men. A literal translation of that is, catch men alive.

I suppose we need to be at the right place at the right time and be fool enough to grab it. I want to talk to you in this message about how to lead a person to Christ. Now, as you know, we're in a series we're calling Refresh. And last time we talked about the refreshing power of sharing your faith, and this is a part two to that message. And you'll remember I pointed out to you that when you reach out to others, when you put your focus on others, it spiritually refreshes you. Remember, Jesus said, given it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, running over with the same measure you give, it shall be given back to you. Jesus said it's more blessed, or literally, happy-making to give than it is to receive. There's a happiness in giving the gospel out to others. And of course, over in Proverbs 11, 25, it says, he that refreshes others will be refreshed himself. So I want to help you share your faith. Now, last time I mentioned, if you know John 3.16, you're armed and dangerous. I'm putting it on the screen again. And I would love you to just say this out loud after me.

You can see the words right there on the screen. John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That is the gospel in a nutshell. You know that.

You can go out and cause some trouble in a good way. So let's, in this message, talk about the who, the where, the why, and the when of telling others about Jesus. Let's start with the who. Who is called to go into all the world and preach the gospel? Short answer, we are. I am.

You are. Jesus said in Matthew 28, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and 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. By the way, in the original language, that is addressed to everyone, not just preachers, not just pastors, not just missionaries. It's addressed to students. It's addressed to athletes. It's addressed to men. It's addressed to women. It's addressed to older people. It's addressed to younger people. It's addressed to older people who think they're younger people. The point is, it's for everyone.

No one gets off the hook, if you will. We're all called to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, where are we to preach the gospel? Again, everywhere. Into all of the world.

Let's localize it. Go into all of your world and preach the gospel. Go into your sphere of influence with the message of Jesus Christ. Number three, why are we to do this?

This is important. Why are we to do this? Because God's primary way of reaching people is through people. And the primary way we do that is through the verbal articulation of the gospel. You say, well, I'll just be a good example and I'll be a model of what it means to be a Christian and that will be my form of evangelism.

By all means, be a model. By all means, be a good example. In fact, to be honest, if you're not going to be a good example, I would rather you did not preach the gospel. So be that godly example, but that, in effect, earns you the right to articulate your faith. The primary way God brings people into the kingdom is when they have had the gospel verbally articulated to them. In 1 Corinthians 1, 21, Paul writes, And the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom, did not know God.

It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those that believe. There is power in this message being communicated to a person. Number four, when are we to share the gospel? Answer, all the time. All the time.

You know, the Bible says, be instant in season and out of season, or a modern translation puts it this way, be on duty at all times. Now, I have an illustration for this of when God called upon me at a very unusual moment. So I was in a department store, this is some years ago, and I had to go to the restroom.

Yes, preachers have to go to the restroom, too. So I took my seat in the stall, trying not to visualize this, and I'm there, and there's someone in the stall next to me. He clears his throat, someone next to me, whatever. And then I hear a voice say to me, hi. Now look, I don't know about you, but I don't talk to people in restrooms.

My objective is to get in and out as quickly as possible. He says, hi. I didn't really know what to do. I said, hi. Then a moment goes by, and I hear this voice say, were you supposed to meet me here? I'm like, what's going on here, what?

What? Were you supposed to meet me here? No. No, I wasn't supposed to meet you here. I'm like, who is this person? I'm getting kind of irritated, and then suddenly it occurred to me, what if the Lord wants me to share the gospel with this guy? But wait, in a bathroom?

Could God use you in a bathroom? And then he says, well, do you have something for me? I'm thinking, what is this guy, what is going on? And I said, what is it you're looking for? He says, some drugs.

Ah, I get it. So the guy was wanting to make a drug buy. He thought his drug dealer was going to meet him in the bathroom. And I said, well, I've got something better for you than drugs. He said, what?

He's very interested. I said, a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Again, I'm thinking, I can't do this in a bathroom. This, well, I was doing it. And then this is what the guy says, I already tried that.

You already tried that? You already tried accepting Christ? Yes, the man says. I said, well, did you go to church?

Yes, he said. I said, where did you go to church? He said, I went to Harvest Christian Fellowship.

Well, that's a church I pastor. I said, really? Did you? I said, do you know who I am?

He said, no. I said, I'm Greg Laurie, the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship. And then he said, oh my God. I had to laugh.

It was hilarious. I said to him, buddy, God must really love you. He said, you're pastor into the bathroom where you were trying to make a drug buy. I want to talk to you afterwards. So I waited for him.

It was in the sock section, as I recall. So he comes out of the restroom. He was easy to identify. He was a guilty looking guy. And I just said, the Lord loves you.

Stop running from him. And I prayed with him and he recommitted his life to the Lord. So you never know what God will call upon you. When are we to present the gospel?

Whenever an opportunity arises. Okay, point number five. How are we to share the gospel? Now this is where the rubber meets the road. And frankly, this is where it falls apart for many people. They just don't know how to get started.

And even more, once they've got started, they don't know how to finish. They don't know how to make that invitation for a person to come to Christ. So we're going to look at John chapter four together. A very familiar story of Jesus and the woman at the well. And here we see Jesus as the master communicator. Yes, he was God walking among us. Yes, he was the savior of the world. He was the Messiah. But he also was the greatest evangelist of all time. And he models for us how to engage people with his message. The Bible says of Jesus, the common people heard him gladly. That simply means Jesus never spoke over anyone's head. When he communicated, people understood him. It was Albert Einstein who once said, quote, You should speak in such a way that your grandmother would understand, end quote.

I like that. Let me expand it. We should speak in such a way that a child could understand. I want children to understand what I'm saying. Sometimes I get letters from kids, you know, eight, nine years old, that will watch Harvest at Home.

And I'm so glad when I get a letter like that because I want the kids to understand. Maybe they don't understand everything I'm saying, but maybe they'll hear a joke or an illustration. We'll connect with them.

But I want to connect to those people. And as we're sharing the gospel, we want to connect with people and bring it to them in a way they can understand. That means we have to avoid what I call Christianese. Do you know what Christianese is? It's sort of verbiage we use that doesn't make sense to a non-believer. You walk up to someone who isn't a Christian and you say, Hey you, heathen, have you been washed in the blood, sanctified, and are you part of the body of Christ? Do you know how weird that sounds?

You just ask the person if they're washed in blood and if they're part of some body. All they know is they don't want to continue to have a conversation with you. You've got to communicate in a language that people understand.

And Jesus certainly did that. You know, sometimes people take that which is so incredible and so beautiful and they make it unnecessarily complex. Even worse, they make it boring. I can't stand boring preaching, can you? So we need to make it understandable. We need to connect with the person that we are talking to. The objective is not to win the debate. The objective is to win the soul. The objective is to not burn the bridge.

The objective is to build the bridge and Jesus did that so perfectly. Listen, everything doesn't have to be a sermon. You might be surprised to hear that from a preacher, but sometimes you just need to be a friend and make that initial connection. And try not to be a weird person. Try to be half normal if possible as you talk to people about Jesus.

Listen to this stat, it's interesting. 79% of unchurched people agree with the following statement. I don't mind talking to a friend about their faith if they really value it.

I mentioned this last time. I don't mind, says almost 80% of the public, talking to a friend about their faith if they really value it. So you can see there is an audience for what we have to say if we go about it in the right way. So when you're communicating with a non-believer, take the time to listen to them. Take the time to hear what they're saying.

Try not to cut them off. You need to discover something that is called tact. Tact.

Tact is the intuitive knowledge of saying the right thing at the right time. The apostle Paul used tact so perfectly when he presented the gospel to the people in Athens at a place called Mars Hill. It says where all the intellectuals would gather to debate and discuss the latest philosophy that was coming along. And so Paul stands up at this place called the Areopagus. In fact, I've stood at this very site where Paul stood and delivered a message.

And so it's very exciting to be in this place where such a historical moment happened. But here are all these people with all these different philosophies. And Paul had spent some time in Athens looking around the city and there was lots of idols in Athens. Lots of false gods and lots of altars erected to false gods. So Paul's looking at all of these altars erected to these false deities. And he comes to one that's erected toward the unknown god. I guess the people of Athens figured, well in case we miss one, we'll put this one up. To the unknown god. So Paul stands up before the people of Athens and all these philosophers and says, Men of Athens, I can see you're very religious and I was walking around your city and I saw this altar erected to the unknown god.

That's the one I want to talk to you about. He could have said, Men of Athens, you are a bunch of idol worshippers. You're pagans and you're all going to hell. Would that have been true? Yes, it would have been. But Paul wanted to build a bridge instead of burn one.

That was a good beginning. Some years ago I was in Hawaii and I was in a cab. The cab driver's name was Tom. So we're cruising along and there on the road was what they call a ghost bike. A ghost bike is a bike that's been painted white. Sometimes there's flowers in front of them to commemorate the fact that someone riding a bike was killed there. And unfortunately there were a few ghost bikes out on that particular day.

It was a very well used road there on the island, the big island of Hawaii. And I saw the ghost bike and I went, oh, a ghost bike, that's sad. And Tom the cab driver says, yes, I have a friend that was riding on this highway and was killed not long ago. So I said, well Tom, what do you think happens after we die?

And so Tom the cab driver told me his philosophy. He believed that you would come back as another life form and talk about it for a while. I didn't interrupt him. I didn't contradict him.

I didn't roll my eyes. I just listened to what Tom the cab driver had to say. So he finished his talk about what he thought happens after a person dies. Then Tom says to me, well what do you think happens after a person dies?

See, that's a give and take. And then I told him what the Bible says. I said, well I believe that if you're a believer in Jesus Christ you go straight to heaven. And I expanded on that a bit and after I was done Tom said, I like your version of the afterlife better than mine. I said, well Tom, it's not my version. It's God's version.

But my point of bringing this up is I was establishing a conversation, a dialogue with a person. So let's see how Jesus did it in John chapter 4. Turn there with me if you would. And I'm starting in verse 3. We read, Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee, but he needed to go through Samaria. You might want to underline that phrase.

It's very important. He needed to go through Samaria. And he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Therefore Jesus was tired from his journey and he stopped by a well. It was around the sixth hour.

That would be 12 o'clock noon. And a woman of Samaria came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, would ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. This is a perfect example of how to build a bridge to a person. Now this wasn't a moral woman, as the story reveals. She had been married and divorced five times and she was living with some guy at the moment. This is a woman who was ostracized from the rest of the community. She would not have been an educated woman. She didn't know what the Bible said.

And so she was living this life that was in opposition to what the Bible teaches. But Jesus does not start with that. He appeals first to her spiritual thirst. So often we want to go right to the lifestyle of the person we're talking to. And I think in effect get the cart before the horse. We do need to get to that and I'll talk about that in a moment.

Because I believe in telling the truth to people. However, Jesus starts by building a bridge. Jesus starts by appealing to her spiritual thirst.

He reaches out to her, bringing me to some points now that you might want to write down. The first point is simply this. If you want to evangelize Jesus style, that's what I'm going to call this, Jesus style.

Because that's what it was. If you want to evangelize Jesus style, it begins with the burden. Again verse 4, he needed to go through Samaria. As a matter of fact, he did not need to go through Samaria.

It was actually way out of the way. He was leaving his country. He was going effectively to another country that was populated by people that were known to be the enemies of Israel. So Jesus leaves his comfort zone, if you will. Jesus leaves his people, goes to this other place, not just to a woman who was a Samaritan, but in a moral woman who was a Samaritan. So when you want to share your faith effectively, it starts with a God-given concern. You have to care about the soul of a person who is not yet a believer. Jesus overcame any kind of prejudice. Remember we talked about Jonah, and Jonah, it was hard for him because he didn't want to go to the Ninevites. He didn't want them to believe, and he went the other direction. But he ultimately obeyed God, and we had this huge spiritual awakening of 300,000 people.

My friend Craig Groeschel puts it this way. This is the mission statement of his church. Quote, we will do anything short of sin to reach people for Christ. I like that statement. We will do anything short of sin to reach people for Christ.

Craig is effectively saying, look, we'll do anything. We'll go way out of our way to reach people that don't yet know the Lord. Second point, if you want to evangelize Jesus-style, you need to use tact. I already touched on this earlier. Paul used tact there on Mars Hill.

We should do the same thing. Isaac Newton said, quote, tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy, end quote. And that's a very great way to say it. Here's a classic example of someone being tactful in the Bible. His name was Philip. By the way, he's the only man identified as an evangelist. Philip the evangelist. So Philip was having some great meetings. People were coming to Christ. Miracles were being performed. And an angel of the Lord says to Philip, go to the desert.

That's it. Go to the desert. He could have said, no thank you, I'll stay right here. But no, he goes to the desert. I wonder if Philip's thinking, what am I going to preach to lizards? What am I going to do in the desert?

Exactly. So he's just literally standing in the desert waiting for directions. And then he sees like this caravan coming his way.

It was a large caravan. As it got closer, he could see these were important people. In fact, what he was seeing was a man from Ethiopia that served under the queen. He was like a foreign dignitary.

If it was happening today, they'd have a stretch limo with the little flags of his country on the car with the Secret Service guys running on each side. So here comes a foreign dignitary, but he's in a chariot, not a stretch limo. And this man from Ethiopia is reading from Isaiah 53. Now he didn't have a Bible. They had a scroll. The very fact that he had a scroll says a lot about how important he was because everything was written by hand in those days.

There were no printing presses yet. He's reading the scroll of Isaiah, which was given to him. Apparently this important dignitary from Ethiopia went to Jerusalem searching for God. He didn't find God, but they gave him a scroll of Isaiah. So he's reading from Isaiah. As a sheep is led before his shearers and is quiet, so he opened not his mouth. He's literally reading aloud from the scroll. Philip is standing there saying, okay, Lord, I think I know what I'm supposed to do next. So the guy's cruising by. There's Philip.

Hey, how's it going? I'm Philip just standing in the middle of a desert waiting for you actually. Philip says to him, do you understand what you're reading?

The man from Ethiopia says, how can I unless someone shows me the way? And he invited Philip into his chariot. Philip steps into the man's chariot, and we read that Philip explained to him what that text means. By the way, Isaiah 53 talking about a lamb before her shearers being quiet, so he opened not his mouth is speaking of the death of Jesus, who was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So Philip explained the meaning of Isaiah 53. And I love the way this story ends. We read that the man from Ethiopia went on his way rejoicing, Acts 8, 39.

But here's the important thing. When Philip saw this man reading from Isaiah 53, he says, do you understand what you're reading? And the man said, how can I unless someone shows me the way? This is what people are looking for. They're not going to say to you, show me the way to come to Jesus in most cases. They're waiting for you to initiate the conversation. They're waiting for you to talk to them about God. When I was a kid, I was searching for God. Now if you would have asked me, Greg, are you searching for God?

I probably would have said, no, but I'm searching for truth. But in reality, I was searching for God. I tried to find truth through alcohol and partying. I knew that was not the answer. I tried to find it through drug use. I smoked a lot of weed and took LSD and all of that. And I knew that was not the answer.

I was searching and I remember I would hang around in Newport Beach at night. I would lean against a wall there and there would be Christians walking around handing out religious literature. And they would look at me and walk right by me. Occasionally they would give me something to read, but they wouldn't engage me. And I remember thinking, as a 17-year-old kid, why won't you talk to me? Because they bought this facade, this image I put out, where it looked like I was saying, I don't care.

But I did care. People hide behind facades, but they really are waiting for someone to enter their world and show them the way. Will you be that person? Will you know people like this?

Are you going to see someone like this before the day is over? So just as Philip entered the world of the Ethiopian, so Jesus enters the world of the woman at the well. He says, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. He's using the well as a metaphor for life. You'll be thirsty if you drink of this water again. You could write that over many wells of life, if you will. You could write it over the well of materialism, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. You could write it over the well of fame, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again.

You could write it over the well of so many things, even religion, if you drink of this water, you'll thirst again. Now the woman isn't fully getting what Jesus is saying, and now she starts to effectively argue with him, bringing me to my next point, to share the gospel Jesus style, we must adapt to the situation. John 14, 15, the woman said to him, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw it. She's being sarcastic, oh yeah, you have water to drink?

Oh sir, give me this water that you're talking about. Jesus effectively calls her out. He says in John 4, 16, why don't you call your husband to come here? She says, well, I have no husband. Jesus says, true that. No, he didn't say true that, but he said, that's true. You've had five husbands and you're living with some dude right now. She's like, whoa, how did he know that?

She says, sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. See, there will come a moment when you're engaging someone, you appeal to their spiritual thirst, but they might ask you a question like, well, look, I'm living with my boyfriend or girlfriend, or you know, I'm doing drugs, would I have to give that up to follow Jesus? You might say, well, I don't wanna say, you know, yes, that might turn him away.

No, you need to tell him the truth. Yes, you need to give that up to follow Jesus Christ. You see, sin is keeping you from God.

I don't start with those issues, but I'm not gonna avoid them when I get to them. They need to know that sin separates them from God, but the solution is a relationship with Jesus. The problem is sin, the solution is Jesus, and so Jesus engages her and tells her what she needs to do. Acts 3.19 says, repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, and times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord. See, we need to tell people they're sinners and that they need a savior.

Listen to this, the Bible says if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. So it comes down to this, if you fess up to your mess up, Jesus will clean your mess up. Next point, if you wanna do evangelism Jesus style, you don't deal with everyone in the same way. See, Jesus dealt in a certain way with the woman at the well and then he dealt in an entirely different way with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is in John 3, the woman at the well is John 4. Nicodemus is a religious, devout man. John 4 is about an irreligious, sinful woman, but the answer was the same for both, they both needed Jesus. With the woman at the well, Jesus engages her, draws her in, confronts her about her sin and tells her the truth. With Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night, Jesus effectively cut to the chase. Nicodemus is a teacher, we know you're a great man, no one could do the things that you do unless God is with them. Effectively, Jesus says, listen buddy, let's just get to the bottom line, you need to be born again.

So the point is, we adapt to the person, we are speaking to. Sometimes when I'm sharing the gospel, I start by chumming. You know what chumming is?

It's getting some bait and things in the water to get the fish biting. So instead of just going in with a full gospel press, I might just kind of allude to it, talking to a non-believer and I might just mention, oh, I was just reading in the Bible about that very thing you just mentioned or wow, God answered a prayer for me recently. I was talking to a young lady the other day and she was not a believer and she told me she's going in to get surgery. And I said, would you mind if I prayed for you? And she said, please. And I prayed for her. And I prayed for her in the name of Jesus. See, it's pretty rare you're gonna find even a non-believer saying to you, I don't want you to pray for me because they acknowledge probably that there's a God out there.

So it's a good way to get a conversation started. I have a friend, his name is Steve Wohlberg. He's a pastor of Court Church in Los Angeles. So Steve is very effective at sharing the gospel.

Not only in the pulpit but out of the pulpit as well. I've been with him on many occasions. Sometimes we'll write Harleys together and wherever you are, you can be sure it's only a matter of time till Steve asks this question. And I'll even do it in his voice because he has a very interesting way of speaking. He'll say, has anyone ever told you that there's a God in heaven who loves you? Now I've been with him when we've been in line in a coffee shop with 10 people behind us and he tells that to the barista. I've been with him in restaurants where he says it to a server. I've been with him where he says it to random people on the street. And there's a lot of reactions to that statement. Again, has anyone ever told you that there's a God in heaven who loves you? Some people say no, what's your order?

Others say they don't even know what to say and sometimes people will respond. So we're in a Mexican restaurant. There's me and Steve and as I recall, two other pastors.

We're all writing Harleys. We're getting ready to order our tacos and the pastors are having a theological discussion about something as pastors do. And I'm sitting there kind of listening to another conversation and then Steve turns to the server and says, has anyone ever told you that God loves you? So I just watch, like prayed, Lord open this man's heart.

This guy was like genuinely touched. He says no, no one's ever told me that. Steve says well there is a God in heaven who loves you and he starts sharing the gospel. The pastors are still having their theological discussion oblivious to what is happening. A few more months pass by and Steve is literally leading the server to the Lord. The server prays, these pastors still didn't notice and the pastor goes away, excuse me, the server goes away. I turn to the pastors and I said, did you just see what happened? Steve just led that server to the Lord and this reminds me of the church a little bit.

You know, we're having our discussions, our political debates, what do you think about this? It's time to lift up our eyes and look, the harvest is great but the laborers are few. You know, you think one day I'd like to go in the mission field and cross the sea to tell people about Jesus. Hey, why don't you start by crossing the street? There are opportunities in front of you each and every day. We need to be looking for them. Now, after this woman at the well, here's Jesus.

Tell her the truth. Jesus said, sir, I think you might be the Messiah. He goes, loose paraphrase, girl, I am the Messiah. You're speaking with the Messiah. And then we read these words, John 4.28. The woman left her water pot, went away into the city and said to the man, come see a man who told me all things I ever did, could this be the Christ?

That brings me to my final point. Telling your story or sharing your testimony is a powerful bridge for the gospel message. Again, telling your story, also known as your testimony. Now, basically you just tell people of how you came to faith. You know, sometimes non-believers don't realize we weren't all born this way. You know, people might think, oh, Greg, he's a preacher. He probably was raised in a nice Christian home and learned the Bible from his youth.

No, I've told you many times that's not the case. 17 years of my life, I lived with my alcoholic mother and went through her divorces, seven in total, and then I made my own foolish choices in the early days of my youth, and then I heard the gospel and gave my life to Christ. So you have a story, everyone has a story, and it's a testimony. So this is a way of kind of preaching to a person without preaching at them. Let me illustrate.

Here's how I might use my story. I might say, well, you know, I was 17 years old, I was using drugs, my life was empty, and I saw these Christians sitting on the front lawn of my high school campus singing about God, and I thought these people are crazy. These people, you know, fell off the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. What's wrong with these people? Why do they believe this? So I'm kind of putting myself in the shoes of the person I'm talking to, because maybe that is actually how they feel at the moment. But then I'll go on to say, but then I tried a new thought on for size.

What if this is true? And I quickly dismissed it, it couldn't be true, there's no way it could be true, but again I thought, what if it's all true? And then a guy got up to speak and he said, Jesus said you're for me or against me, and I looked at the Christians and I realized I wasn't one of them, and that was the day I prayed and asked Christ into my life. Now, see, I'm telling a story. I'm putting myself in the way I used to think, which may be the way the person I'm talking to is thinking at present, and I'm showing them the transition, how I got from A to B, and in a way I'm preaching to them because I'm telling them what the preacher said, but I'm not pointing my finger at them, but I'm building the bridge. See, that's the point of a testimony.

It builds the bridge. Here's just a few tips about sharing your personal story. Don't glorify or exaggerate the past. Don't glorify or exaggerate the past. You know, some people, their testimony gets more dramatic with the telling. I've heard some people talk and tell how they came to Christ, and I hear them a few years later, and wow, a lot more stuff is in that story.

Did you just remember that, or are you embellishing it a little bit? You know, don't make your past sound better than your present. I've heard some people say, you know, I used to have it all, and I was partying, I had money, I had women, I was great, but then I came to Christ.

Now it's all of a sudden kind of a downer. Like, wait, your old life was miserable. Why are you making your old life sound better than your new life?

Someone might be listening to you and thinking, I want your old life, not your new life. I love the way that Paul had perspective on his past. Paul was a very accomplished individual, very intelligent, but he dismissed all of it. He said in Philippians 3, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life.

Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ as my Lord, everything I used to think was significant is now insignificant. And then one translation puts it, it's dog dung. The word that Paul used is that rude word excrement.

That stuff, it's like poop. Compared, compared to what I have now, he says, I've dumped it in the trash so I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him. Isn't that beautiful? So don't talk about what you gave up for Jesus. Talk about what Jesus gave up for you. I really don't care what you gave up. It's nothing compared to what God has done for you. Talk about how Jesus died on the cross for your sin, how He made the greatest sacrifice of all.

It's not about you, it's about Him. And you tell your story only to make a beeline to His story, the greatest story ever told. So I have a new acronym for you. BLAST, B-L-A-S-T. Now, I read a book recently called BLESS, B-L-E-S-S. And they had an acronym for reaching people with a gospel and I read through a little bit of this book and I liked it. But I thought, I am gonna come up with my own acronym.

So mine is BLAST, B-L-A-S-T. This sort of pulls together some of these things I've said to you. B, build a bridge. So when we're talking to people about Jesus, start by building a bridge.

I didn't say burn a bridge, build a bridge. L, lovingly enter their world. Enter their world, take an interest in them. That brings me to A, ask questions. And listen, don't interrupt them. Ask them lots of questions. S, share your testimony.

We just talked about that. Tell them your story of how you came to believe in Jesus. And finally, T, tell them how to come to Jesus. Again, B, build a bridge. L, lovingly enter their world.

A, ask questions. S, share your testimony. T, tell them how to come to Jesus.

We're almost done. But this is where it breaks down for a lot of people. How do you get the person from A to B? How do you get them to come to Jesus? You've shared your testimony, you've shared the gospel.

How do you lead them to Christ? This is back to the guy with the musk of lunch fish who said I was full enough to just reach out and grab it. Will you be full enough to reach out and pop the question, if you will? It's a little bit like a marriage proposal. I've heard of some pretty amazing and creative marriage proposals. A friend that proposed to his wife underwater. He had one of those little tablets, you know, you can write underwater, and he wrote, will you marry me? I've heard of people putting it, you know, skywriting, will you marry me? My wife tells me I never properly proposed. She says we were out having dinner, and I looked at her, and we'd been going out for around, I don't know, two years at that point. And I said to her, according to Kathy, well, I guess we're gonna get married, huh? And she says, that was my proposal. No getting down on one knee. No, will you marry me? Here's the ring. No, just, well, I guess we're getting married, huh?

Well, it's kinda weak, but at least I said something. So you wonder, how do you pop that question? It's as simple as this. After you've shared all those things with the person, you ask them this question. Would you like to ask Jesus Christ to come into your life right now? Now, as the great theologian Kenny Rogers once said, you need to know when to hold him, know when to fold him, know when to walk away, know when to run.

You need to be led by the Spirit, but the Lord might direct you to ask this question at an unexpected time. Let me tell you a story about a man named Roy. My wife Kathy and I would go take walks in the morning, and we came upon this older gentleman that was obviously struggling because he would walk and have to stop, and so we started talking with him. He said, I think I've seen you on TV. I said, yeah, I've been on TV a few times, and are you a preacher?

Yes, I'm a preacher. What's your name? My name is Roy. Well, my name is Greg. Nice to meet you, Roy.

How you doing? Well, he says I have a heart condition, and my heart actually will hurt, but I'm exercising, and I'm doing everything that I can to stay strong, and so I started to share the gospel with Roy. Roy's immediately defensive. Oh, my whole family's Christian, he says, and they're always telling me to believe in Jesus, but I have a lot of questions about the Christian faith. I said, well, Roy, what are some of them? So he asks me a couple of the questions, and I answer them, and then we say, nice to see you, and that day's over. So the next day, we see Roy again. He goes, I have another question for you, preacher. Sure, Roy, fire, and hits me with a question. I gave him an answer. I see him the next day. I have another question for you. This went on for kind of a long time, a few weeks, actually, with the questions from the skeptical Roy.

I wasn't hopefully was going to believe necessarily, but one day, I'm sitting with my wife in our house, and we're actually having a devotion together. We're reading the Bible, and we're praying, and I look out my window, and literally, right in my eyeshot, I see Roy just standing there. So we're standing there like this, and I said, Kathy, I think this is Roy's day to come to Christ, so I walked out of my house. I walked up, hey, Roy, how you doing? He says, I'm okay, I'm just stopping.

My heart's hurting a little bit. I said, Roy, I'm gonna ask you a question. We've had a lot of talks about the questions you have. Yes, here's my question for you, Roy. Would you like to accept Jesus Christ right now? He said, yes, I would. There was a moment. So I said, let's pray, and I prayed with Roy.

It was a beautiful thing. So I gave him a Bible, and then I would see him after that. I knew his family, and they were all Christian, and they were all very excited. I heard that Roy had come to Christ, so I'd see him the next day, and he goes, I was just remembering some of the songs I used to sing in church when I was a little boy, and then I saw him the next day, and he says, my heart's hurting right now, but I'm just thinking of how much pain Jesus went through as he died on the cross. Roy was growing in his faith. It was amazing, and then for a few days, we didn't see Roy out there walking, and one day, we get a knock on our door.

There's a young man standing there, and he says, I'm Roy's grandson. I said, yes, he says, I'm sorry to tell you that my grandfather went to be with the Lord, but I wanna thank you for sharing the gospel with him, and he loved the Lord, and we had such great times together after he had committed his life to Christ, and I was so thankful I popped the question. Maybe I can close by popping the question to you, because I know this is watched by people literally all around the world, and I'm talking to somebody right now that needs Jesus, and the problem is is no one has ever told you how to actually become a Christian.

Let me tell you in the simplest way I can. Let me go back and remind you of something I already said. You're a sinner.

Don't take it personally. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. We've broken God's commandments.

We've fallen short of his glory. God loved you so much he sent his son to die on the cross for your sins, and then Jesus rose again from the dead, and Jesus is literally standing at the door of your life, and he is knocking, and he is saying, if you will hear his voice and open the door, he will come in, so here's my question. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life right here, right now? It's as simple as a prayer. I'll lead you in the same prayer I led Roy in some years ago, simple prayer where you'll just say, Lord, I want your forgiveness. I want to have my spiritual thirst satisfied.

I want to know that when I die, I will go to heaven. If you want Jesus to come into your life, if you want that void in your life filled, if you want your guilt taken away, if you want to go to heaven when you die, if you want to find the meaning and purpose of life, pray this prayer with me right now. I'm gonna pray it, and you can pray it out loud or you can pray it quietly in your heart, but would you pray with me?

Let's pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I know that you are the savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my savior and Lord. Be my God and my friend. 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.org.