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Sign up at harvest.org. The life from the truth as they have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Glad you're along today here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. And just before our study gets underway, as we've been mentioning, this weekend is big. It's a huge one-night evangelistic event, SoCal Harvest, this Sunday. And Pastor Greg, whether our listeners are in Southern California or elsewhere, this is their opportunity to invite someone who needs to hear the gospel.
Well Dave, you actually could call it America's Harvest, because this isn't just for Southern California, though the event is based there. It's going to be national. Frankly, it'll be international, because we're going to use every media platform available. It'll be on all of our Facebook pages. We'll have partners and friends that we'll work with, and they'll cross a post the event live. It'll be on YouTube. It'll be at harvest.org. And we're working with some partner radio stations. And so it's going to be in a lot of places. So here's the thing you need to understand. This is an event that from the moment it starts, to the time it ends, is designed to present the gospel and confront a person. And I mean that in a good way, not a bad way. It's direct.
It's straightforward. When I give a message at SoCal Harvest, I'm preaching for a decision. I'm going to tell them who Christ is, what Jesus said, how to come into a relationship with him, and then I'm going to give them the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ. And so we weren't even going to do it this year because of the COVID lockdowns and so forth, but we just decided to go for it. But instead of three nights, we're doing one night. We have amazing music from our friends for King and Country and Phil Wickham, and a few surprises, and then a message for everybody. And let me just add one other thing. For those of you that have the opportunity to attend this in person or watch it, this is going to be different than any SoCal Harvest you've ever been to before.
I would describe it as more of an immersive experience. There'll be elements of our cinematic crusade that you remember that we call the Russia Pope woven in to the live event. It's just going to be cool. What can I say? If possible, make plans to come to Southern California if you're outside of our state. And if you're in this state, definitely make plans to join us at Angel Stadium on October 3rd for the one night SoCal Harvest. What do our listeners need to do right now, right this very minute, to prepare for this weekend? Three things.
You've probably heard me say this before, but some folks are new to our broadcast, so this might be something you've not heard. Pray, invite, bring. So start by praying. You know, Jesus said the harvest is great, but the laborers are few.
And he said, pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into the harvest. So pray, but don't just pray that other people would be sent. Pray that you would be sent, because God wants to use you. You know, the Bible says, how will they hear unless someone tell them?
How will they tell them unless they are sent? God's looking for people to speak through. So pray. Pray for a person that you know that is not yet a Christian, and pray that God will soften their heart and open their spiritual eyes. And then invite. Now you extend the personal invitation.
Hopefully you've earned a little credit with them, so to speak, as a friend. You've been there for them in times of need, and now you're saying, listen, this is the most important thing to me, my faith, and I want you to come to this event, or watch this event, or however you choose to connect them to what is happening. I read recently that 85% of the people out there who are not believers would be willing to talk about faith issues with their friend if it was important to their friend.
So it's important, if it's important to you, it'll be important to your listener. So pray, invite, invite. And then this is the key, maybe. Bring them. Don't send them, bring them. So if you're in California, you say, I'm gonna come pick you up, and I'm gonna drive you to the event. Maybe we'll get dinner before or after or whatever, but I'm gonna bring you to this event, and then while you're at the event, you're praying for them, or you send them that link. And you're saying, I'm gonna be watching too.
Let's talk about it afterwards. Or you're watching it together. You know, there's a Harvest app for your TV, for the Apple platform, for the Roku platform.
You can put it up there on your big screen and watch it in your front room or on a tablet together or however you choose. But this is an event that will be available on every kind of platform out there, and I hope that you'll utilize it, because you know what? People need to hear the gospel. And we hope our listeners will not only remember this event in prayer and, of course, remember it by bringing somebody who needs to hear this message, but we also hope they'll remember it with their support. Isn't that right?
Yeah, that's right, Dave. You know, these are very expensive events to undertake. They cost a lot of money.
And think about it. If you went and heard a great band like for King & Country or Phil Wickham, you would pay admission to go to the concert. You'd do so happily, because who doesn't want to go and hear great Christian music? But there's no charge to a person who comes to a Harvest Crusade. This is sort of a tradition, if you will, that was established at our very outset. We wanted to make the gospel without charge. The Harvest Crusade, the so-called Harvest, is cut from the same cloth as the Billy Graham Crusade. And his ministry was cut from the same cloth as the Billy Sunday Crusades or campaigns or the D.L.
Moody campaigns. It's the idea of going to large venues, neutral venues—by neutral, I mean not a church sanctuary, we're in a stadium in this case—that a person can come to, but I don't want money to be a barrier. Yeah, we do receive an offering at the event, but it doesn't come close to covering our expenses. We need our friends to step into this with us and be a partner and invest in it, because they want to lay it for themselves, treasures in heaven. And I'll tell you what, I can't think of a better way to spend your money than on giving people an opportunity to hear the gospel. So for you that are listening, if you could help us financially, especially at this moment, it would mean a great deal.
Well, any other thoughts before we go on SoCal Harvest? Yes, Dave, I have a very important announcement to make, and what I need is echo and then fanfare following and then some applause. Are you ready? I'm ready.
Okay, here it is, people, listen. I need volunteers for the SoCal Harvest. And that means you. That means I am asking you to come and be a part of what God is doing on October 3rd in the Angel Stadium. Hey, have you ever been to one of these events?
There's nothing like it. This is an experience you want to have, to be used by God. You might be an usher, you might be a counselor, you might work at our merch table, you might do something else, but whatever it is, you matter, and we need you. And frankly, I'm depending on you. So Dave, why don't you tell them where they need to go to sign up and actually be a part of the SoCal Harvest on October 3rd in Angel Stadium?
Yeah, it's real easy. Just go to harvest.org slash SoCal. Again, harvest.org slash SoCal.
You'll get information on volunteering and also get more general information about SoCal Harvest coming up this Sunday. Well, it's time to dig into some of the most revealing insights the Bible gives us on the time of the Great Tribulation. Here's Pastor Greg. We're going through the book of Revelation together. And the title of my message is, What is the Mark of the Beast? Revelation 13 verse 16 says, He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads. And no one can buy or sell except one who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him, to this understanding, calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
So here's the thing. We wonder, why would anybody take the mark of the beast? And the answer is given to us in 2 Thessalonians chapter two, verse nine, which says, speaking of Antichrist, this evil man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and wonders. He will use every kind of wicked deception to fool those who are on their way to destruction. Listen, because they refuse to believe the truth. It's not that they haven't heard the truth. They refuse to believe the truth that would save them, so God will send a great deception upon them, and they will believe the lie.
They'll believe the lie. What is the lie that people in the tribulation period will believe? The lie is pretty much the same thing that goes back to the Garden of Eden. Satan was peddling this thing way back when. Remember our first parents, Adam and Eve, were there at the garden, there at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the snake comes to them, the serpent, the devil, and says, has God said you can't eat of every tree in the garden?
Go ahead and eat of this fruit, for in the day you eat, you will become as a god knowing good and evil. They ate of it, and then sin entered the world. But what is the lie that Satan was propagating? The lie is simply this. Don't believe the word of God. Believe something in its place. Hey, we believe the lie sometimes too. The devil will whisper in our ear, God doesn't love you.
Why do you even follow him? He's against you. That's a lie. Sometimes the devil will say, go ahead and do this thing. No one will ever find out. You'll get away with it. Well, that's certainly a lie.
He'll say, it'll be fun. And he'll whisper into our ears these things that are not true. And the only way to know the lie from the truth and to know good from evil is to have a good working knowledge of the Bible. All of us have been deceived by sin at some time in our life.
All of us have known something was wrong, but we went for it anyway, right? And if you did, that means you listen to the lie. You know, in life, some people believe the truth and some people believe the lie. As you know, I've written a book called Billy Graham, The Man I Knew. And one of the stories I tell in the book is about Billy Graham and a man named Charles Templeton.
You've heard the title of the book by Charles Dickens, which was A Tale of Two Cities. This is a tale of two evangelists. One was Billy Graham, who went on to change the world. The other was Charles Templeton, who has been mostly forgotten. In the late 1940s, Billy Graham and Charles Templeton were both evangelists for youth for Christ.
And some even felt that Templeton was the more effective of the two. Very handsome. Eloquent. Great communicator.
Intelligent. Billy was a great communicator as well, but he was a son of the south. In his own words, he would often say, I am a country preacher. Templeton was more sophisticated. But as time passed, Templeton began to doubt his faith. And he encouraged Billy to do the same. Templeton said to Billy Graham, you can't really believe the scripture.
It's not really reliable. And Billy continued to believe the scripture. But this did create sort of a crisis of faith in the life of Billy Graham.
And so one night, Billy was up at Forest Home Conference Center here in Southern California in the San Bernardino Mountains. Billy went out to a tree stump, and he took his Bible and he placed it on the stump. And he made a commitment to believe what the scripture said. And he said, Father, I accept this as your word by faith.
I'm going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts because I believe this is your inspired word. So Billy made a choice to believe what scripture said even when he had occasional doubts. Leaving that place, Billy went on to preach in Los Angeles at a tent that had been erected. And that basically was the launch of his international ministry. Meanwhile, Templeton walked away from his faith. He even wrote a book with the title Farewell to God.
But the story doesn't end there. My friend Lee Strobel told me the story of when he went to visit Charles Templeton, who was quite a bit older and was in very poor health. And Lee Strobel, who used to who used to work for the Chicago Tribune and was a well-known atheist who came to faith after watching how God transformed his wife, was researching a book he was writing. So he went to interview this famous atheist Charles Templeton. And he brought up the subject of Jesus Christ. And much to Lee's surprise, Templeton said of Jesus, he was the greatest human who ever lived. And then Templeton went on to say to Lee Strobel, and you know what? This may sound strange, but I adore him.
And I even would put it this way. I miss him. And then Lee told me he was really surprised when Charles Templeton began to weep. But the story continues on.
A little bit after that, Charles Templeton was on his deathbed. And his wife said that while he was there, he said to her, he saw angels. He said, they're so beautiful. I see them now. And they're waiting for me.
I'm coming. So thank God Charles Templeton, the evangelist who became the atheist and wrote a book titled Farewell to God, came back to God and believed. But Billy Graham never stopped believing.
You have the same choice before you right now. You can believe the truth or the lie. And every day when you go and watch television or you listen to music or you go on social media, the lie is hitting you.
The lie is hitting you. That's why you need to fill your mind and heart with God's Word to counteract that. So Antichrist. He emerges on the scene as a peacemaker. And he does something that wins him the approval of many Jewish people in Israel. He rebuilds their temple. Now as you recall, King David wanted to build a temple for the Lord because up to this point they would meet with the Lord in what they called the tabernacle or the tent.
But David wanted something fitting for the Lord. And as he drew up the plans for this temple, the Lord said no. So David's son Solomon ended up building this incredible temple which was ultimately destroyed and rebuilt by King Herod.
King Herod was not a devout man at all but he was a great builder and so that second temple became known as Herod's temple. That was the temple that was standing when Jesus had his public ministry. And one day Jesus pointed to that temple and He says, you see that temple? I'm telling you right now there will not be one stone left upon another. He said that temple will be dismantled. And they thought he's out of his mind. We've been building this temple for 47 years.
How could that happen? Well it did happen when Titus and the Roman legions came in and destroyed the temple and dismantled it stone by stone exactly as Jesus said would happen. So that is the second temple. But the Bible predicts a third temple.
That has not been built yet. So Antichrist will come and effectively erect this third temple and then he will commit what the Bible calls the abomination of desolation. Matthew 24 Jesus says, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
And so what is the abomination of desolation? This is after the third temple is rebuilt Antichrist erects an image of himself in it and commands people to worship this image. And so commenting on that 2 Thessalonians 2 4 says of Antichrist he opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshiped. So he is as God sitting in the temple of God whose coming is after the working of Satan and pretended miracles all of them lying wonders. This marks the second half of the tribulation. So again the first half of the tribulation Antichrist seems like a good guy bringing peace, rebuilding the temple. Then he commits the abomination of desolation erecting this image. And that brings the second half of the tribulation when he begins to hunt down followers of Jesus, hunt down Jewish people and a series of plagues come upon the planet and on it goes.
And so this is a dramatic scene that is taking place. It reminds us a little bit of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember them? They are in the book of Daniel. And King Nebuchadnezzar erected a giant golden image and commanded everyone to worship it. And they refused. And they were of course thrown into the fiery furnace which was no big deal because the Lord preserved them.
And they came out to tell the story. But a similar story as to what the Antichrist will do. Now we shift gears from Revelation 13 to Revelation 14.
We go from horrific things happening on planet earth to some amazing things happening up in heaven. So look at your Bible again. Revelation 14 starting in verse 1. John writes, Then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion. And with them 144,000 having his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of loud thunder.
And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps and they sang as it were a new song before the throne before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. These are ones who have not defiled themselves with women for the virgins. They are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. They've been redeemed from among men being firstfruits to God and the lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit and they're without fault before the throne of God.
So the 144,000. Remember them? We read about them earlier in the book of Revelation. And God had protected them in Revelation chapter 7. Wherever they went God watched over them. And they're proclaiming the gospel. Who are the 144,000?
They're Jewish people who have put their faith in Jesus as their Messiah. But now we see they're not on earth. They're in heaven. Notice it's not 143,999 that made it to heaven.
No. All 144,000 make it to glory. And that reminds us of the statement of Jesus in John 18.9, of those whom you have given me I have not lost one. God doesn't lose his children. Have you ever lost sight of one of your children?
Maybe in an amusement park or a supermarket. That is terrifying is it not? God never loses sight of you. He always has his eye on you because you belong to him. Now they have the mark of the Father in heaven not the mark of the Antichrist.
So all marks are not bad. Revelation 14 having his father's name written on their foreheads. The father's name. You know you have a choice as to who your father will be. You can either make God your father or you can be as Jesus said of your father the devil. You know when I was growing up I had a lot of dads.
I'll put that in quotes. My mother was married and divorced seven times and had a bunch of boyfriends in between and so there was my biological father and then there was other guys she met and she would literally say this is your new dad. And they were all very similar. These men my mother married.
The kind of guys that would hang around in a bar with maybe a few too many of their buttons on their shirt undone and kind of swinger type dudes you know. And I became very cynical even as a young man about a father. And then my mother married this guy in New Jersey whose name was Oscar Laurie. He was an attorney. He didn't drink.
He didn't smoke. I don't know what my mom saw in him. He was an honest man. A law-abiding man. A very moral man.
And I remember that he took an interest in me and cheated me as a father ought to treat a son. So one day when I was coming out of school there in New Jersey my mom had the Cadillac filled with all of our luggage. And I said what's going on? She says we're going to the airport. I said where are we going? She said to Hawaii.
I said oh that's so exciting. Where's dad? She said he's not coming. And I never saw Oscar Laurie after that until many many years later. So we land in Hawaii and here's a guy I've never seen before that my mom had married and she said this is your new dad. And this man was abusive and violent. In fact one night in a drunken brawl he hit my mother with a wooden statue and almost killed her.
And so I became very hard against all of these things. But later in life after I came to Christ I sought out Oscar Laurie who was still alive and had remarried. And I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with him and leading him to the Lord.
That's another story for another time. But I chose his name. I had a lot of names I could have chosen as my daddy. Oh I had all these names. I chose Laurie, which I was mocked for in school by the way.
I also went to military school where you go by your last name so everyone called me Laurie. But I carried that name with pride because of the man that gave it to me and the man that adopted me. I chose him because he chose me. He chose to adopt me. I chose to carry that name. In the same way we choose who our father will be.
You choose God as your father or by default you effectively choose the devil. This mark on the foreheads of the 144,000 is something that identifies them as God's children. It's sort of like an ID tag. Other people won't see it but the Lord sees it. And by the way God has put his ID tag on you. What does that mean? It means you belong to the Lord. Do you find that comforting?
I do. 1 Corinthians 6 19 says you're not your own. You've been bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God with your life. In the Greek it's you're not your own property. You've been bought with a price. You know when I travel I'll take luggage on the plane and I have a little ID tag. So I was on a trip recently and I was getting off and I had my little piece of luggage that I was wheeling away and some lady comes running after me saying you took my suitcase. I said no ma'am this is my suitcase.
I know. She goes no it's my suitcase. Open it. And I open it up and it was filled with women's clothing.
I'm really glad she chased me down. And the problem was I didn't check the ID tag. And sure enough those two suitcases mine and hers were very similar. If I would have checked the ID tag I would have known the difference.
And I'm glad she told me because I did not want to wear women's clothing for my trip. So we have an ID tag on us. God can read it and the devil can read it.
And when he sees that ID tag he has to back off because you are God's property and the Lord will protect his investment. Pastor Greg Laurie with insights on the 144,000 and how they're identified as God's own. And there's more to come from this study here on A New Beginning.
But we know that many times interruptions can occur during the half hour. So you can hear anything you may have missed by going online to harvest.org. Just look for the study called What is the Mark of the Beast? Well as we've seen today Bible prophecy can be a heavy subject. And Revelation is very candid about the tribulation to come. But Pastor Greg your book Revelation a Book of Promises is a positive book isn't it? It's a hopeful book.
It's an inspiring book. Well I think it is because the book of Revelation is a hopeful book as well. And Bible prophecy is not given to scare us but to prepare us. And God gives us these things to give us hope. In fact Jesus said when you see these things begin to happen and those things he was speaking about were fulfillment of Bible prophecies happening in your lifetime. When you see these things beginning to happen Jesus says look up for your redemption is drawing near. That's why the Bible calls us the blessed hope.
And so there's something hopeful and wonderful and encouraging when we look at last day's events. And by the way God wants us to understand what is going on in the end times. And I say this because some people would say oh no one can understand Bible prophecy nonsense.
Of course you can. The very word Revelation means the unveiling. You see it's not God's desire to conceal but to reveal. And Jesus speaking of an event that's coming on the prophetic calendar called the abomination of desolation said let the reader understand. Paul talking about the event that we sometimes called the rapture said brothers I would not have you ignorant concerning these things.
So God wants us to understand them. And so I've just written a brand new book based on the biblical book of Revelation. And this book is going to be easy for you to understand.
I've written it in every man terms. It's like we're just sitting down over a cup of coffee and we're talking about end times events and I'm trying to help you understand what this means to you and how it applies in your life. So the title of the book is Revelation a Book of Promises. When we were designing the cover I said to the designer I don't want any flames on the cover.
I don't want it to be black with red type on it. Let's make it colorful and hopeful because that really is the message of Revelation. It's a hopeful message. Now obviously the book of Revelation talks about the tribulation period. It talks about the anti-christ. It talks about the mark of the beast. But that's not all it talks about. It talks a lot about heaven and what heaven will be like.
And it gives us a perspective on life on earth because we get an eternal perspective. So I hope our listeners will order a copy of this brand new book Revelation a Book of Promises. Yeah and we'll be glad to send one your way to thank you for partnering with us so these daily studies can continue.
It's only through listener support that that's possible. Your donation helps this insight continue to be heard here in your community for your benefit and the benefit of so many others. So get in touch today with your investment and we'll be glad to send you Pastor Greg's brand new book Revelation a Book of Promises. And by the way we're including a custom bookmark along with the book. It shows the timeline of God's end times events graphically.
It helps you see the order of events very clearly. It comes automatically with the book. You can write 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. Hey everybody Greg Laurie here. I'm happy to announce a one-night SoCal Harvest at Angel Stadium on October 3rd. At SoCal Harvest Pastor Greg Laurie presents a message of hope a compelling interactive experience and enjoy great music from for King and Country and film wake up. SoCal Harvest with Greg Laurie October 3rd 7 p.m. at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
Go to harvest.org slash SoCal. Well next time Pastor Greg brings us more revealing insights from our studies of the end times in the book of Revelation. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest Partner at harvest.org.
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