The Gospel is Only Good News If It Gets There on Time: Everybody Needs Jesus

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. Frangelism, F-R-A-N, F is for go to your friends. R, go to your relatives.

A, go to your associates. N, go to your neighbors. Frangelism, go into all of your world and preach the gospel. And we're so glad you're joining us today here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie, featured speaker of the Harvest Crusades, where people are brought face to face with the hope of Christ. Today, as Pastor Greg continues his practical series called Tell Someone, we'll get some easy to follow instruction on sharing the hope of Christ more effectively.

If you've ever felt you needed some help in this area, help is on the way today. Hopefully your Bible is open and ready to join Pastor Greg in our study. This is the day, the day when life begins I was probably about two weeks old in the Lord. I had just put my faith in Jesus Christ and I heard the pastor say we should go out and share our faith with others. Well, I thought, man, I have two weeks of Bible knowledge in my head.

I'm ready for anything. So I went out on the beach of Newport and I was a young kid. I was around 17 at the time. I had long hair and I was looking for someone to talk to. So I found a middle-aged woman about the age of my mother. I thought she might be nice to me somehow. So I walked up to her and I was very nervous.

You know when your voice sort of shakes and you can't control it when you're nervous? So I walked up and said, hi, how you doing? She's like, you having a nervous breakdown son? No, everything's good. Can I talk to you like about God and stuff?

She says, okay. So I sat down and I was so new at this I hadn't even memorized the contents of the little booklet I was carrying around with me. So I pulled out this little booklet and I literally started reading it verbatim. The four spiritual laws.

Copyright 1964. Law one, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Law two, you're a sinner. And I'm just reading through this booklet.

At this point I'm thinking almost like I stepped outside of myself and I said, Greg, what are you doing? Are you crazy? This woman isn't going to listen to you. You shouldn't even be here. And I'm thinking this is just a train wreck.

This is horrible. And I just kept reading because I wanted to get it over with and be able to at least say I shared my faith today. So I went and I get to toward the end of the booklet and I'm relieved because we're almost done. I didn't even want to make eye contact with this woman knowing that she would surely be rolling her eyes. But not at all.

She was actually listening. And I got to the end of the booklet and there's a question you should ask. Is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? So I read that then I realized, oh that was a question.

Is there any good reason why you should not accept Jesus Christ right now? And she looked at me and said, no. And I looked back and I went, no. Wait.

No. Does that mean ma'am you want to accept Jesus Christ right now? She said, yes. I was like, great.

You see I hadn't planned for success. So I said to her, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. I saw the pastor do that. She closed her eyes.

I'm frantically searching this booklet. What do I do now? And I found a little prayer and I let her in the prayer and to show you how I was still lacking in faith as I'm leading her in this prayer and she's praying it out loud after me I'm thinking this isn't going to work. But as I was done with the prayer we said, amen. We both opened our eyes and she said, something just happened to me. And I looked at her and I said, something just happened to me too.

Now if she would have challenged me with one hard question I would have crashed and burned on the spot. But here's the reason I bring this story up. To show that here I was a very naive young kid who just took a little step of faith and said, Lord use me. And I saw how God could work through my life. And if God could do that through someone who knew as little as I knew at that point, surely God could work through some of you who have known the Lord five, ten, fifteen years. You have attended countless Bible studies. You have read the Bible for all these years.

You have more inside of your head than you think you do. And we are told in Scripture of course to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But another thing we need to understand is there is a blessing in this. Proverbs 11 30 says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that wins souls is wise. God would not have said that if you were not able by the power of the Holy Spirit to win souls.

Then over in Daniel 12 3 it says, those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky and those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever. So I want to talk to you about the who as in who should be sharing their faith and then the who should we be sharing our faith with and the where we should be sharing our faith and finally the when as in when should we be doing it. Number one who. Who should be telling others about Jesus?

Real simple answer. You and me. We are all called to do this.

We already covered that. Now here is the next question. Who should we share the gospel with? Everyone.

Everyone needs to hear the gospel. There are no exceptions. I don't care if the person is affluent or impoverished or if they are handsome or not as attractive or young or if they are old or if they are a man or if they are a woman.

It really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what race they are, what social economic background they are. Everybody needs Jesus. Are we agreed on that? Everybody needs Jesus. Let me tell you something about every person walking this earth right now without even knowing them. I know this is true.

Number one. Everyone walking this earth is empty. They are empty inside. The Bible teaches that God effectively created us with a void in our life. It tells us that the creation was made subject to emptiness.

Pascal had it right when he said quote there is a God shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill end quote. Number two. Everyone is lonely. Do you know what the top words are that are Googled late at night? The top words that are entered into Google late at night are this. Porn. Lonely. Suicide.

Doesn't that say a lot? Porn. Pornography. Lonely.

Suicide. See people are searching for answers right now. I read about a retail chain that just commissioned their survey by a team of psychologists because the chain wanted to know how to reach their key customer demographic generation Y. That is everyone born after 1981. They interviewed 800 people.

The results were so startling they went back and reinterviewed another 800 people. And these results provided an alarming picture of an increasingly lonely and lost generation. They said the average Facebook usage for generation Y is six and a half hours a day. They concluded that this is a large group of people that had a number of friends but an increasing sense of loneliness. By friends I mean Facebook friends. By the way those people on your Facebook page they are not your friends.

Number three. Everyone feels guilt. Now they may deny the existence of guilt. They may say I don't feel guilty. But they do feel guilty because they were made in the image of God.

Now you can harden your heart to a point where I suppose you don't feel it. But initially there is guilt in us because our conscience is working. And the Bible says the reason we feel guilt is very simple. We are guilty. We have sinned against God.

In fact we are told in Romans 2.15 they demonstrate that God's law is written within them by their own consciences telling them that what they are doing is right or not right. Number four. There is a universal fear of death. Everyone has it. Oh some have a lot of outward bravado and they say I am not afraid to die.

They are. And the Bible speaks of those who are held by slavery by the fear of death. Death is the fear of the unknown. It has been said there are two unchallengeably true things of every person. We all want to be happy. We are all going to die. So let's sort of sum it up. Here is what I know about every person.

No matter how wealthy, powerful, beautiful, famous, poor, weak, or ordinary. They are all empty. They are all lonely. They all feel guilt and they are all afraid to die. So I am called to bring the gospel to those people.

Who am I called to bring it to? Whosoever. Jesus said in John 3.16, For God so loved the world. Let's say that together. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You guys know John 3.16 well.

I am impressed. You know what? You are armed and dangerous already. You got John 3.16 memorized. You can do some serious damage to the kingdom of darkness and for the kingdom of God. We need to be prepared to share the gospel with everyone. But what if that person who needs Jesus the most is not really a friend, more of an enemy? Well Pastor Greg answers that question in just a moment.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You know my uncle Fred Jordan had one of the first Christian TV programs out there. It was called Church in the Home.

I remember watching it as a little boy when I was living with my grandparents. Well we have Church in the Home for you every weekend. It's called Harvest at Home and you can find it at Harvest.org. We have worship and a message from God's Word. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is passing along practical insight on how we can share the hope of Christ most effectively.

And he continues his counsel now. Number three, where should we share the gospel? Where should we share the gospel? Simple answer, wherever.

Wherever. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's what Christ said.

Let's personalize it. Go into all of your world and preach the gospel. Go into your family and preach the gospel. Go into your workplace and preach the gospel. Go into your neighborhood and preach the gospel.

Go to your campus and preach the gospel. Go into all of your world. Think of it this way. We call it frangelism. Frangelism.

It's a simple way to remember. Frangelism. F-R-A-N. F is for go to your friends. R go to your relatives. A go to your associates. N go to your neighbors. Frangelism.

You know someone named Fran out there right? Take the gospel to them. That's what we are called to do. Now maybe you have a neighbor that really irritates you. And you don't want to take the gospel to them. In fact there might be someone you are thinking of right now that you sort of think of as an enemy. Well I don't want to share Jesus with them.

Wait a second. Wouldn't that be the perfect person to share with? Did not Jesus tell us to love our enemies? And wouldn't that not be an amazing way to turn an enemy into a potential friend? It was Abraham Lincoln that said quote the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. End quote.

And that's true. But listen. If you don't want to take the gospel to someone you dislike you are not alone. The prophet Jonah comes to mind.

Remember him? God told him to go to the nation of Nineveh and to preach to them. And Jonah flat out refused.

Why? Well the Ninevites were the enemies of Israel. And they happened to be known for their exceptional cruelty. They were almost like the precursors to the Nazis.

In some ways even worse. They would not only kill the people that they conquered but they would skin them alive. And they would take their skulls and stack them up as monuments to their horrid accomplishments. This was a city that was so wicked God said it is like they are an overflowing trash can.

They stink to high heaven. So God says to Jonah go to Nineveh and preach to them. Jonah didn't want to do that.

Why? Because he was a patriotic Israelite. And the Ninevites were the enemies of Israel. And he reasoned if I go to them they might repent and God will spare them. But if I don't go to them they won't repent and God will destroy them.

And that is one less enemy we have to deal with. So he got in a boat going in the opposite direction instead of going to Nineveh as God commanded. He went to a place called Tarshish. He chickened out. Jonah was the original chicken of the sea you see. So here is what happened. God said go.

Jonah said no. God said oh. And he swallowed by this sea creature and there inside of the belly of this beast he saw Pinocchio.

No wrong story. So for three days and three nights he defied God. Seaweed wrapped around him. Fish smacking him in the face.

Humidity like you can't believe. He refused to break. Finally said I can't take it anymore.

All right. Lord I'll do what you want me to do. And the Lord directed the great fish to regurgitate Jonah on the shores of Nineveh.

Talk about having a dramatic entrance. You know you're some Ninevite down at the beach catching some rays. Checking out the surf. It's really nice. All of a sudden whoa. What is that? A boat? What is that? Like a whale thing.

It's huge. And he comes up. Hey everybody. Jonah here. 40 days in Nineveh will be overthrown. Whatever dude. You stink so bad.

Just keep your distance. So Jonah began his little ministry warning the people. So Jonah was repentant and now regurgitated. He believed. Now he was barfed. He was righteous. And yes he was roughed.

That's right. Right at the place he did not want to go to. So here is my question to you.

Is there someone that the Lord has been nudging you to share the gospel with and you have been saying no? One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Hadassah. She was the great beauty queen. As it turns out in the nation of Persia the queen was thrown out. So the king wanted a new queen.

He thought hey best way to do it. Let's find the prettiest girls in the kingdom and I will pick one of those. And so all the beautiful young ladies were brought into the palace there and some were selected to be sort of presented to the king and they went you know to the whole treatment and got all the beauty treatments and so forth.

And they are finally brought out. And the one that shined above all the others was the Jewish girl Hadassah. I think it wasn't just her outward beauty.

I think it was that inner quality too. And we know her better as Queen Esther. So she became the queen. Now if this was a fairy tale it would have ended with these words. And they lived happily ever after.

There might have been a couple of talking animals or something. But this isn't a fairy tale. This is a true story of the nation of Israel. Suddenly a villain emerges more sinister than any child story would produce. He has a plan to exterminate the Jews.

His name was Haman. He gets the king to unwittingly sign a decree that if you are Jewish you will be put to death. Not realizing as he signed it that the king was effectively sentencing his own beautiful queen Esther to death as well. Well Esther didn't know about it man. She's living in the lap of luxury. She's being pampered. She's up there in the palace. And so her uncle Mordecai wants to bring it to her attention. And he goes and stands outside of the palace. He's covered in sackcloth and ashes like hello Esther. Things are not so good out here for us and your people. And someone says your uncle Mordecai is out there and he's all dirty.

Well here send him some clean clothes. Talk about missing the point. So Mordecai sends her a message. And here's what he says. If you keep quiet at a time like this deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place but you and your relatives will die. Listen who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this.

Let's paraphrase. Esther this is your wake up call. You're in a position to potentially save your people. Now if you don't do it God will find someone else.

So you say well Greg that's nice. What does that have to do with evangelism? Did you ever stop and think that you are where you are right now because God put you there? Because maybe you don't like your circumstances. You don't like the people that are around you. You don't like your neighbors. You don't like the people you have to work next to.

You have trouble with that. Did it ever occur to you that maybe God has put you where you are at this moment for such a time as this. Pastor Greg Laurie with a pivotal question about where we are and how God might want to use us.

God has a plan for each one of us. Pastor Greg will have a final comment from today's message when today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Our current studies are a part of Pastor Greg's series called Tell Someone and because of the importance of this information Pastor Greg has developed an online training course that corresponds with the series. It's a six week course that comes to you a lesson per week via email and it's absolutely free. At the end of six weeks you can be fully equipped and ready to share your faith just as Jesus has commanded us all to do.

Learn more about the free Tell Someone training course by going to harvest.org. Pastor Greg when we hear objections to the faith how do we know if they really are stuck on a particular fact or idea and they're in search of an explanation or if they really don't even want to talk about religion and are just in search of an exit from the conversation? Well you know that's a hard question to answer because sometimes people will hide behind so-called intellectual arguments but they really want you to talk to them.

I'll use myself as an illustration. When I was a kid I used to hang around by the pier in Newport Beach. I was going the wrong direction in life, I was on drugs, I was empty and I saw these Christians walking around handing out little booklets and I really wanted one of them to engage me but I had this tough guy facade that they apparently went for and they would walk by me and just look at me for a moment just give me this little booklet and walk off. No one would talk to me, I was literally saying would someone please talk to me so I never threw any of these things away. I went home and I had a drawer that was sort of like my God drawer if you will. Every piece of religious literature I was given went in this drawer so I had gospel tracts, information from the Watchtower Society, things that Mormons wrote, Hare Krishna writings, you name it, it was in there and every now and then I would pull this little drawer out, dump it on my bed and I would try to make sense of it and really I wanted answers but I needed someone to engage me and tell me.

Well listen, I've got a resource for you that's gonna help you tell people more about your faith and engage them in a way that will answer those intellectual questions but also point them to Jesus Christ. It's called Person of Interest written by J. Warner Wallace. What I love about this book Jim is you've illustrated it, you're a graphic designer and almost every page has an illustration of some kind so it really breaks it down in an understandable way. It's called Person of Interest, why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible and you described it to me as a kid's book for an adult.

Elaborate on that. Yeah the idea is I think we have become such visual learners and such visual consumers of media that all of us are trying to figure out ways that how do we, and in kids' books I love them because they are about 50-50 text to illustration. So I've written a few kids' books now so now I was thinking when I was writing this book I'm just no longer satisfied even as an adult with not being able to see the case. Like if I can make this visual, like if I tell you what, 82% of these scientists in the 15th century were Christians. Well if I showed you every one of them in a collection, you're going to go, wow that's really powerful.

I need to see it. So the numbers don't mean as much as actually seeing the faces of all the scientists. So we wanted to be able to provide something like a kid. And again, what we're doing is like you always say, sometimes the Bible's hard.

There are places in the Bible that need someone to translate them for us. I mean to make them accessible to us. That's what you do so well. We're trying to do something similar here.

Difficult concepts, how do we throw them in a way that we can catch them? Well if you want to get a copy of this, we're going to send it to you for your gift of any size. Whatever you send we'll use to continue our ministry here on the radio through A New Beginning. And the title of this book again is Person of Interest written by former detective J. Warner Wallace. You'll get so much out of this book personally. But also what a powerful tool in helping you share the Lord with others.

Through the convincing text and the practical illustrations, they'll begin to see the uniqueness of Christ and His plan of salvation. And we'll send you this brand new book, Person of Interest, to thank you for partnering with us so A New Beginning can continue coming your way each day. It's only through listener support that that's possible. So please contact us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24-hour phone number, 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, as we close, we return to the story of Queen Esther, who was put in the king's palace for such a time as this. Here's Pastor Greg. See, we can be like Queen Esther sort of living in a Christian bubble. And we're out of touch with people that don't know the Lord.

You know, we get up in the morning and we read our devotions and we listen to Christian radio and we all go to church and then we fellowship with other believers and we go and eat in a restaurant that's owned and run by Christians and we eat Christian food and then we put on our Christian clothes. I'm not putting these things down, but maybe our goal is to have no contact whatsoever with a non-believer. Man, talk about missing what God wants us to do.

And we're isolated from reality. That's where Esther was and she needed that wake-up call. So we all need that wake-up call and I wonder if there's somebody right now that God is telling us to speak to.

And we're gonna just stop for a moment right here and we're gonna pray about this because I believe if we stop and pray that the Lord will speak to our hearts and someone will come to mind that we need to be thinking about and we need to be engaging with the gospel. It might be your mother or your father. It might be your son or your daughter. It might be your cousin. It might be your neighbor. It might be a coworker.

It might be someone you come into contact with on a semi-regular basis. Let's pray right now about who the Lord would have us to go to. Let's pray. Father, you've called us to go out into our world and sometimes we're isolated and insulated and we are not permeating the culture as we ought to. And Lord, there might be someone right now that you want us to speak to. Maybe it's a server in the restaurant. Maybe it's a person that we see every other day.

Maybe it's a person we've not even met yet but you're gonna put it on our heart. Lord, help us to be obedient and responsive to your leading. We want to respond to opportunities that come for such a time as this. Help us to stop complaining about our circumstances. Instead, take advantage of them and reach people with the gospel. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.