The Gospel is Only Good News If It Gets There on Time: Fear of Success

Today's episode of A New Beginning is brought to you by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God.

Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free e-books designed to help you grow in your faith. As believers, we know we have the hope of heaven.

But some of our friends and loved ones may not have that same hope, and it breaks our heart. We want them to know what we know. We want them to know the relief of having their sins forgiven.

We want to know they're going to heaven. Well, today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie provides some powerful practical instruction in personal evangelism. He'll lead our study of some principles that will help us show them the way. It's a good time to take some notes. Well, the title of our series is, Tell Someone.

Subtitle. You Can Bring Others to Jesus. And we are told in Scripture, of course, to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And don't be put off by facades. I know people come up like, oh, I have it all together and I don't need your gospel. They may even say that to you. They're lying to your face.

Don't be put off by that. You know, as a young kid, I always wanted someone to tell me about Jesus. I used to hang around in the fun zone in Newport Beach, California. And you know what? If you go there today, it looks the exact same. Same weird little Ferris wheel and other rides. And I would lean up against the wall and I was a tough kid or so I thought.

I'd have my hair hanging in my eyes, you know, looking really angry. And I remember I would see Christians out there handing out literature. They would be talking to people. Read this. Read this.

And I would be leaning up against the wall. In my heart I was saying, talk to me. Talk to me. And for some reason they skipped me. They bought my bad guy persona and kept walking. But occasionally someone would thrust a little religious booklet on my face.

We called them tracts. They would say, here read this. And I would grab it out of their hand and crumple it up like I didn't care. Shove it in my pocket.

You know what? When I got home I would take those things out of my pocket and I would put them in a drawer. Sort of like my God drawer. Anything to do with religion went in that drawer. I had literature from Christians. I had literature from Jehovah's Witnesses, from Mormons, from Hare Krishna.

You name it. I had literature from them. And every now and then I would pull this drawer out and empty it on my bed and try to make rhyme or reason out of it.

I needed someone to show me the way. And sometimes we don't want to share our faith because we have a fear of failure. No question. We have a fear that someone will ask the question we don't have the answer to. Or they will laugh at our face or yell at us or worse.

Maybe assault us. But I suggest there may be another reason that we don't share our faith and this might surprise you. I think one of the reasons we don't share our faith is a fear of success. Does that make sense? A fear of success. Now what?

What am I like stuck with this person now? Well in a way yes you are. Let's go back to what the Great Commission is. It is to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

That is Mark's version right? But Matthew's version is go into all the world and make disciples of all nations teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo I am with you to the end of the world teaching them. And so I am to go and make disciples. Not just leave people in prayer and say bye God bless. But to disciple them.

What does that mean? It means help them get up on their feet spiritually and help them to grow in their newfound faith. And some of us don't want to do that because it is a downright inconvenience.

Because there might be things that you are doing in your life that you know if you had a new Christian around you would have to stop doing. Oh man that means I can't like gossip after church anymore. That is the best part. The complaining on the way home. I got the new believer so I have to talk about this stinking sermon.

How meaningful it was to me. Oh I can't disengage during the worship. I have this new Christian next to me and they are sort of observing my conduct.

Maybe I should set a good example. Oh I can't drive like a lunatic today because I have a new Christian in the car. Yeah maybe that is exactly why you need a new Christian in your life so you start behaving like the Christian.

You are not behaving like. See you are going to help them and they are going to help you. This is why fulfilling the Great Commission is not only for the nonbeliever that comes to faith but it is for us as well. So here is my question to you. Are you a bridge or a barrier to people coming to Christ?

You are one or the other. Are you a bridge or are you a barrier? Are you a stepping stone or are you a stumbling block? God wants you to be that stepping stone. He wants you to be that bridge.

Now listen. Jesus said that we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And sometimes people cringe when they hear that. They say, well you know I am not really into preaching. I don't like preaching.

It is usually a negative term too. You know when someone says something you don't like what do you say? Hey man don't preach to me. Preaching is seen as a bad thing. Don't preach. I don't want to hear your preaching. Someone will say, I don't want to preach to people. I believe I will just be a good example. And I believe my good example will win people to Christ.

I believe in lifestyle evangelism. I will just live it. I will be a better husband. A better wife. A better single person.

You know a better citizen. And as I live my life by a wonderful code that I find in Scripture people will be drawn to Jesus. Well to some degree there is truth to that. But Jesus did not say go into all the world and be a good example. He said go into all the world and preach the gospel.

I don't misunderstand me. I am not saying we should go into all the world and be a bad example. Nothing hurts our attempts at evangelism more than inconsistency or hypocrisy. I mean you know it won't be long when you are sharing the gospel with someone until they say this. Well the reason I am not a Christian is because there are so many hypocrites in the church. How many of you have heard that before? What do you say?

It is not true. Come to my church. There is not a single hypocrite. My response is well hey there is always room for one more.

Come on. Now I am not justifying hypocrisy. I am just saying that it is there. But we also know that a lot of times when people say that that is not a reason.

That is an excuse that you need to get past. But on the other hand we do want to live this for sure. Billy Graham once said quote we are the Bibles the world is reading. We are the creeds the world is heeding. We are the sermons the world is needing. Christians are walking epistles written by God and read by men.

Listen to this. You my friend are the only Bible some people are ever going to read. They are not going to pick this Bible up. They are not going to open it up to John 3 16. They are going to watch you. And I know it is a lot of pressure but they are going to make an evaluation about God based on you.

Well it is too much but it is heavy. Too bad. Deal with it.

You are his representative. That doesn't mean you are not going to make mistakes or fall short. But it means that we should do everything we can to be a good example. So this is not so much a choice of either being a good example or preaching. This is not either or. This is both and. I am to be a good example and I am to verbally engage people with the message of the gospel.

Both and. Jesus said we are to be salt and light in our culture right. He said we are the salt of the earth and we are the light of the world. Now salt doesn't mean that much to us today but in biblical times salt was valuable. Sometimes soldiers would be paid in salt. Hence the term.

He is not worth the salt. It was a valuable commodity. And it was used for multiple purposes. One of the things they used salt for was to rub into meat to stop the putrefaction process. They didn't have refrigerators back in those days needless to say. So to keep meat for a period of time they would rub salt into it. Our modern equivalent would be you know like beef jerky.

Little bits of beef you buy for like $20 a pack or something. So that is what salt did. So one use of salt was a preservative. And as a Christian I am a preservative. I am there to stop the spread of evil. So a Christian will speak up for what is right. A Christian will speak out against what is wrong. That is part of our role in this culture and in this world.

Wherever you go you stand as a representative of Christ. Do you find that a room will change when you walk into it sometimes? Maybe a bunch of people are standing around telling a dirty joke and they are getting to the punch line.

And so the punch line is. All of a sudden you walk in there. Your room gets quiet.

Hey how is it going? It is good. Good. They wait. Door shuts behind you. Then they go back to the joke. That is a good thing.

Why? Because a representative of Jesus Christ just walked through the room. What is sad is when you come up and you know the punch line to the joke. Sometimes we are trying to be so cool and fit in that we forget there are advantages to standing apart a bit as a representative of God. I was working out in the gym a while back.

It is hard to believe isn't it? And so as I am. I don't know what I was doing. Probably eating a donut or something. Some guy is cussing up a blue streak and a friend of mine walks over to him and says do you know who that is pointing to me? The guy says no. He says that is Greg Laurie and he is a minister. This guy just stopped.

Who? He looked at me and said pardon my French Reverend. Is that what that was?

It doesn't sound like any French I have ever heard. Now you might think I jumped down his throat. How dare you say those horrible things. I didn't even make an issue out of it.

You know why? I don't expect nonbelievers to behave like believers. I just know that is what nonbelievers do because I used to do it and that is what they are doing. And I don't want to make that the big issue and get the cart before the horse. I want to reach that person with the gospel. We will deal with that stuff later. But right now I don't want to come off as holier than thou or hyper judgmental.

I think we want to remember that. We want to interact with people because we are not always the best representative of Jesus Christ. In just a moment Pastor Greg gets real candid and recalls a time when he wasn't the best representative of Christ. It is a funny story. We love to hear stories of how lives have been changed through the teaching of God's word.

Like this one. Dear Pastor Greg, back in the summer of 1986 and after graduating from college I was certain that I had made the wrong choice for a major and a career. Though I was a believer I felt as if God had abandoned me. My first job out of school included an hour long commute and a difficult work environment.

It was so disappointing that I cried on my first day home. While driving each morning I was drawn to your biblical teaching on the radio. There was something fresh and new to me in the way you shared the scriptures. Your broadcasts gave me biblical truth and hope to get through each challenging day ahead.

I was grateful then and I'm grateful for your broadcasts today. Thank you Pastor Greg. We appreciate hearing how Pastor Greg's teachings are reaching people and if you have a story to tell of how these studies have touched your life I hope you'll contact us today.

Send an email to greg at harvest dot org. That's greg at harvest dot o-r-g. Well today Pastor Greg is offering practical help in sharing the good news sensitively, compassionately, but accurately. Let's continue now with his message. The gospel is only good news if it gets there on time. Not long after I'd been a believer. Well actually excuse me this is a little bit later after we started our church and I was a pastor. I was the weirdest looking pastor you ever saw. I became a hippie after I became a preacher.

This is true. When I came to Christ I had kind of long blonde hair. But when I started going to church I grew my beard out really long. I had a beard going down to here.

I'm not making this up. I had hair going down to past my shoulders. And so I went out to get some pizza with a friend who was a musician.

And we're waiting for our pizza to come. And I've always been a prankster and a goof off. I still am actually. I'm just a lot slower now that's all.

But it's still in my heart. So we went out to get this pizza and we're waiting and my friend gets up to go to the restroom and I'm looking around the restaurant. I see this guy sitting at a table next to me and I recognize this guy from elementary school. You know how some people as they get older they just look the same?

They just get bigger. That was him. He's just a big version of what he used to look like. I said excuse me is your name Paul? He said yes it is. He said I'm Greg Laurie. He goes whoa Greg what happened to you? I had this long hair and beard. I go oh yeah I grew my hair out.

Yeah wow. And guess what else Paul? I said I'm a Christian now. Are you really?

You were always getting in trouble in school limping off to the teacher and being sent to the principal's office. Yeah Paul I'm not that way anymore. I serve Jesus now. And guess what else Paul? I'm not just a Christian. I'm a pastor of a church.

His jaw dropped to the ground. What? They let you become a minister? What is this world coming to? So Paul I have to tell you that Christ has changed me and I love to preach the gospel and teach the Word and I hope one day you'll come to believe in Jesus. And he said well Greg thank you Greg and thank you for telling me that. It's nice to see you. Nice to see you Paul. I was feeling very good about myself.

What a great witness I am I thought. Well my friend's still gone in the bathroom and our pizza arrives. Then I had this devious thought. You know those red pepper flakes that they have in pizza restaurants? I thought it'd be really funny to cover his side of the pizza in solid red pepper flakes. So I pull out the thing. Not even thinking about the guy I just talking to.

And Paul said I heard his voice say haven't changed much have you Greg? I thought it was only appropriate that I spin the pizza around and eat the hot pizza. Kind of my equivalent of eating crow. Ah. Embarrassing. It's really a sad thing when a non-Christian has a better idea of what a Christian ought to be and then some Christians have.

And he sort of thought gee if you're really a Christian Greg maybe you shouldn't do that to your friend. Uh you're right. And you know what I say if you mess up if you're a hypocrite just say you know what I'm I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. I apologize. That's actually a good thing.

So I've not always been the witness that I should be. But we want to be salt in the culture. Another thing that salt does is it stimulates thirst.

It stimulates thirst doesn't it? They know this in the movie theaters. What is the deal with popcorn prices?

You know it's like I want some popcorn. Ok. We have small and it's like the size of a little Dixie cup. Ok. Then we have medium. It's a small little tiny bag. And then we have large. It's like the size of a trash bag you know.

And so you buy large because it's a better deal relatively speaking. And you go into the thing you say oh can I you know I spent so much money I have to finance this on the popcorn. Um can I just get a little cup of water. And they won't give you a cup.

You know we can't give our cups out. Ok I'll have a Coke. How much is that?

A hundred dollars. I'm not buying the stinking Coke. So you go on you're eating the popcorn it's salty. You go back you buy the hundred dollar Coke.

Salt stimulates thirst. If we're living as we ought to we will stimulate in others a thirst for Christ. One of the greatest compliments a Christian can have paid to them is when a non-believer has been observing you. And they say you know what I've been watching you. And there's something different about you. The way you work. The way you live. The way you treat your family. And you know what else I know you're going through a hardship right now and I see that smile on your face and I think how much easier my life is than yours and yet you have this joy.

I want to know what your secret is. Yes. You did your job. You've been salt.

You've stimulated thirst. Let's look at a text together Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. This is a story of Paul and Silas in a Roman dungeon. Prisons are bad today but man prisons in the first century.

Hell holes. And why were Paul and Silas put in prison? Because they preached the gospel. And they were put under the control of a Roman guard that was especially cruel. We read in Acts 16 verse 23. They were severely beaten and they were thrown into prison and the jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape so he took no chances but put them into the inner dungeon and he clapped their feet in the stocks but around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening.

Did you get that? They've been beaten. They've been whipped.

They've had their legs fastened in stocks spread apart to cause excruciating pain put in the most unsanitary horrific environment imaginable and at midnight Paul and Silas started singing praises to God and the other prisoners were listening. And by the way this phrase others were listening could be translated they listened with pleasure. You ever hear a song on the radio and you listen with pleasure? This is my favorite song.

You turn it up. Or a worship song. Oh I love that. I love that. I want to hear that again. They were listening with pleasure. I don't know if Paul and Silas have done like a little two-part harmony you know.

Probably not. It's just that they were singing songs to God at midnight and a mighty earthquake comes. Shakes the foundations of the prison. The walls come crashing down.

All the prisoners are free. The Roman soldiers see what's happening. He pulls out his sword his short sword used for a for a close-up personal contact and battle and he's ready to pierce it into his body because the penalty for losing a prisoner was death. He thought I might as well just kill myself right now. He's ready to thrust his sword into himself and Paul stops him and says stop don't kill yourself.

We're still here. How easily Paul could have said go ahead and kill yourself you dog. After the way you treated us. Paul didn't say that because Paul used to be Saul. And Saul of Tarsus was one of the most violent men who ever lived. He hunted Christians for sport. He enjoyed torturing them and executing them. So he knew what cruelty was all about. And he thought hey if God could reach a cruel guy like me he can reach a cruel guy like that. Don't kill yourself he said.

We're still here. And I love what happens next in the story. Acts 16 verse 30. So this hardened jailer could not believe his ears or his eyes. He was so moved by this and the powerful testimony of Paul and Silas rejoicing. Before this he was ready to believe they're right on the spot and he said what must I do to be saved.

Guess what just happened. They earned the right to preach the gospel by the way that they lived. And that's what we need to do. We need to earn the right to get the audience. We need to earn the right to start the conversation. But here's the key.

Once you've earned the right make sure you have that conversation. Because sometimes we just drop the ball here. We like live the life. We're godly people.

We're a fantastic representative of Jesus and someone else. So what is it about you? Well I just believe in good wholesome family values. Really?

That's lame. You believe in the bible and Jesus Christ has come and changed your life and that's why you have this new value system. Don't chalk it up to family values. Tell them what you really believe. Pastor Greg Laurie helping us approach our personal evangelism efforts strategically and appropriately. Good insight today on a new beginning from the series called Tell Someone. If you missed any part of today's study called the gospel is only good news if it gets there on time. You can hear a replay by going online to harvest.org.

You can stream the insight while you're online or download an mp3 for later. Again go online to harvest.org. Now to take this help a significant step further why not check out the online training course Pastor Greg has developed to coincide with this Tell Someone series. It's completely free. In this course you'll receive a lesson per week and it comes via email and at the end of six weeks you'll be better able to share your faith with confidence and with a firm grasp of the gospel message.

Sign up for free today at harvest.org. And then we're so happy to make available an outstanding new book called Person of Interest by author J. Warner Wallace. Jim Wallace is a retired cold case detective and he takes a look at the uniqueness of Christ the way an investigator would look at one of his cases, a case where there's no crime scene. It's fascinating and it's a great tool for helping us tell others about Christ. You know Pastor Greg you've mentioned how some believers are reluctant to share their faith but at the very same time they'll freely offer recommendations. You know they'll recommend a movie or a restaurant or an auto mechanic. So why not recommend that people consider the Christian faith?

Exactly. How would a resource like this book Person of Interest help in making that kind of recommendation? Well let me tell you how it would have helped an 18 year old Greg Laurie. I was a newly minted Christian. I heard the pastor say go share the gospel so I went out and I started telling people about Jesus. In fact I ran into one of my old friends that I grew up with and I was telling him about the Lord and what Christ had done for me and suddenly some guy steps into the conversation. I didn't invite him to step in but he came and barraged me with about four to five questions. I don't even remember what they were but all I remember is I didn't have the answers. I was humiliated.

I was embarrassed. My friend I was talking to didn't want to talk to me anymore and I went home and I realized I've got to study and prepare myself to answer questions that non-believers ask. We need to be equipped. You know the Bible says we should be able to give to every man an answer concerning the hope that is in us but with meekness and fear.

This is key. It's the way you deliver information. Sometimes Christians take data, information, facts that are all true and they deliver them with a sledgehammer. Sometimes they say put your gospel guns away. The objective is not to win the argument. It's to win the soul. The objective is not to burn the bridge but to build the bridge and if you want to win some, be winsome. Be a nice person.

Don't be a know-it-all. Maybe you know a lot more than that person but don't be the know-it-all and take an interest in the person you're listening to. The woman at the well. How easily Jesus could have just cut her off and said give me a break. No he listened to her. He engaged with her. He went back and forth with her. Same with the Pharisees.

Same with the Godemists. He took time for people and I think it's very important to deliver this information with compassion and Jay Warner Wallace is a former cold case detective. He knows what he's talking about but yet he delivers this with great passion and clarity.

So this is the book the 18-year-old Greg Lurie needed to equip him to share his faith with people he was talking to and this is the book that you need if you're 18 or if you're 80 you're going to learn as you read through it. It is so well researched. Footnotes galore at the end but then what I love about it because you're thinking oh this is some textbook I don't want to get this. It's illustrated all the way through because Jim is an illustrator. He's a designer so he's giving this to you in an understandable way so you effectively see it as well as read it. So this is a resource you're going to use time and time again and we want to rush you a copy of Person of Interest by Jay Warner Wallace.

Yeah that's right it's such a fascinating read. You'll uncover facts and perspectives on Jesus you've never heard before and it'll not only strengthen your understanding of the uniqueness of Christ it'll equip you so well in sharing your faith and we'd be glad to send you Person of Interest to thank you for your investment that we can put right to work keeping this programming coming your way. So get in touch today by writing A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or call 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org. You know sometimes we can't always make it to church but here's the good news church is coming to you it's coming to you on your tv screen or on your tablet or your computer or even your phone.

We do it every weekend and it's called Harvest at Home. We have worship we have a message from the word of God if you want to find out more just go to harvest.org and join us this weekend for Harvest at Home. Well next time more practical encouragement for our personal evangelism efforts for Pastor Greg's series called Tell Someone. Join us here on A New Beginning. Hey everybody thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner just go to harvest.org.