It’s Time for Another Jesus Revolution! | Sunday Message

Hey there. Thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you.

If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Alright, let's grab our Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3, and the title of my message is, It's Time for Another Jesus Revolution.

How many of you agree with that? It's time. So if you watch the news like I do, or you read a news feed, you know that America is at the crossroads right now. Literally, our nation is unraveling before our very eyes. Why?

Because we have rejected what God says in His Word. You know, the closest parallel time that I can think of to today would be the late 60s, early 70s. Yes, I've been around that long. I was born in 1952. Elvis was still singing. Marilyn Monroe was on the screen. You know, Ike was president.

You probably never even heard of Ike. And all these decades that have come and gone since then, I look at today, and I especially look at this young generation today, and it reminds me a lot of what was happening in the late 60s, early 70s. We have a drug epidemic that is sweeping our nation. A big issue that is a problem today is fentanyl. And there are 300 fentanyl deaths every single day. But this whole drug revolution, this whole stupid mentality propagated in the 60s of turn on, tune in, drop out, that's where it all started. And we basically smoked a lot of marijuana and took LSD.

Here's what I find ironic. Those are the two most popular drugs again right now. Pot use is up so much now. More people smoke pot than cigarettes. It's become really mainstream with edibles and all of the things legalized in many states.

And now experts warn of a cannabis use disorder that causes psychosis and addiction. So our young people have all of this happening to them. And then you add social media. That's like pouring gasoline on a fire.

So everything is amplified. In many ways, it's not as bad as it seems, but it's right there in your face. Self-harm among young people is up 334%. Overdose is up 119%. Anxiety up 94%. Depression up 84%.

The U.S. suicide rate has increased 30% since 2000 and tripled for young girls. This generation needs help. So here's what I want to say.

We're not gonna take this lying down. We are gonna stand up and do everything we can here at Harvest to reach this generation. I know other churches are doing this too and I applaud everyone that is. All I can speak for is this church. We're gonna do everything we can to change this course and call people to Christ and pray for a mighty spiritual awakening to sweep our nation and beyond. Now we don't decide when a revival happens.

God does. We can make it happen. We can organize it, but we can agonize for it in prayer. We can prepare the ground.

Maybe I should restate it. We can prepare the ground. Get our hearts ready. Revival starts with you.

It starts with me. It starts with us as a church, but it begins right where we are. I was having a conversation with Pastor Chuck Smith some years ago and for those of you that don't know Chuck, he is called the father of the Jesus movement. And he was just that man that God used and I'm gonna show you a scene from the Jesus revolution film that will explain it in many ways to you, but he was a man who was willing to take a risk.

But he was right there at the epicenter of this great awakening. And I once asked Chuck, Chuck, do you think we'll ever see another Jesus movement? He paused for a moment and he said, would you stop asking me stupid questions? No, he didn't say that. No, he should have said that because I always was asking him questions. He said, Craig, I'm not sure if we're desperate enough.

Now that was some years ago. I think we may be desperate enough right now where we're really gonna start seriously praying about this. Psalm 85 says, will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? It's a prayer of the psalmist, Lord, revive us again.

I love these words from Habakkuk chapter three verse two where he says, I've heard all about you, Lord. I'm filled with awe by the amazing work you have done in this time of deep need. Revive your work as you did in days gone by. So I know you that are younger, you think, well, that's cool, but that was then and this is now.

Your prayer should be, Lord, do it again. It's our responsibility, as those who are now older, to pass this on to the next generation. In Joel 1-3 it says, tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children and their children the next generation, my generation. One of our theme songs was Forever Young.

Just isn't work anymore. We've gone from acid rock to acid reflux. You know the Who, the great band The Who, you know that song talking about my generation.

They've updated it to talking about my medication. See, that's, and you know the Beatles. How many of you have heard of the Beatles? Well, the Ringo Starr is out touring right now.

He's in his 80s and instead of singing I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends, he's singing I Get By With A Little Help From The Pens. So these are the jokes, Hans. No, but seriously, you know, we've had our day and now it's time for the next generation to have their own spiritual awakening.

Here's what's amazing. The Jesus movement was not a political revolution, though some called for that. Some are calling for it today. It was not a moral revolution. It was a Jesus revolution. In fact, it's, of all things, it was Time Magazine that dubbed it Jesus Revolution.

This is an original copy of the magazine. We didn't call it that. We called it the Jesus movement, but Time saw it was more than a movement. They saw it was a revolution, and the word revolution means upheaval, change.

It means turning around and rotating a revolution. I'm gonna demonstrate a revolution. Get ready. This is gonna be exciting.

Pray don't fall. Here we go. Revolution. That's a revolution. Thank you. Returning to something.

That's what it is. And so what are we returning to? We're returning to New Testament Christianity. We're returning to the faith that was given to us from the Lord, practiced by the early church. So this great movement happened.

No one can pinpoint it exactly. Probably 1969, 1970, and all these people started coming to Christ. It was happening all around the country, but the epicenter was California. I want to see it happen again in California.

Because our state is so lame right now. I want something good to come out of California. You know what the number one export of California is right now? Californians.

I know this because I've gone to the places they're all going to. I just did a crusade not long ago in Boise, Idaho. There were so many Californians that have moved there. I said to them, my job is to preach to the Californians and take them back with me home again.

They were very excited about that. But wouldn't it be great if we had a new export? Another Jesus revolution.

Lord, do it again and do it here. We would pray. God has given us a tool. A tool that we've never really had before. And it's a really amazing tool.

It's called a movie. And John Irwin, who's become a good friend of mine, came to me around seven years ago. And we had lunch and he had this magazine with him. He's in his thirties. He's a great filmmaker. He's made films like Jurassic Park, Jaws. No, he didn't make those movies. But he made I Can Only Imagine. How many of you have seen I Can Only Imagine? Great film.

Woodlawn, I Still Believe, American Underdog. Very talented Christian guy who makes films. So his little film studio called Kingdom Story Company has become a part of Lionsgate, which is a major Hollywood film studio. And so he came to me seven years ago and said, I want to make a movie about this story, this Jesus movement. And he heard that I was around back then. I said yes. I told him my story.

We got to know each other. He tried to make it. There were things that interrupted it and it wasn't made as quickly as we were hoping it would be made. But now seven years later, it's done.

It's being refined right now, but the movie is done. And I think the timing is 100% perfect for where we're at right now. To his eternal credit, Pastor Chuck Smith stepped out of his comfort zone. He let that crazy guy come preach in his church. And before you knew it, Christian music was beginning.

Chuck Smith and Lonnie Frisbee were like nitro meeting glycerin. It was an explosive result. God used both of them. And you know, we're so divided in America. We're even divided in the church. And we're divided over second and third tier issues. And it's time for us to come together and pray together and work together and do something to change what's happening. There's an old country preacher named Vance Havner that once said, if we're too busy using our sickles on each other, we'll miss the harvest. And I think sometimes we're debating all these things when there's a lost world out there. And of course, the late 60s, early 70s was a time of division as well. It's so bad right now that I read that 43% of Americans think we're headed toward a civil war.

This is crazy. We need God and we need another spiritual awakening. One writer put it this way, and I quote, if all the sleeping people will wake up, if all the lukewarm people will fire up, if all the dishonest people will confess up, if all the disgruntled people will cheer up, if all the estranged people will make up, if all the gossipers will shut up, if all true soldiers will stand up, if all the dry bones will shake up, if all the church people will pray up, then we can have a revival. Well said.

Right? When we look at the breakdown in culture, we're quick to point the finger at Hollywood. It's Hollywood's fault. Or it's because of these politicians in Washington, D.C. And they may all play a role in it to some degree. But when God sees the breakdown of a nation, he doesn't point his finger at the White House.

He points it at his house. Second Chronicles 7 14, God says, if my people, which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then God says, then I will hear them and I will answer this prayer and I will forgive their sins and heal their land. You know, we all gravitate toward the heal the land part.

Yes, Lord, heal our land. God says, my people. That means you. That means me. That means us. Oh, they're all so evil. Look at the horrible things we're all doing.

Yeah, maybe it's true. What about you? Do you need to humble yourself and seek his face and turn from your wicked ways?

Do I need to do that? That's the prescription for revival according to Scripture. Now, if you're taking notes, here's point number one of my message. The Holy Spirit was at work. The Holy Spirit was at work.

There was a sense of expectancy in those services back in those days. No one was ever late for church, right? Sometimes we're late for church. We arrive late.

We leave early. No, there's a sense of what is God going to do? And this is what set the early church into motion. It was the Holy Spirit. God's Holy Spirit wants to work in your life.

The question is, do you want him to work? The Bible says that we should quench not the Spirit. So to quench means to extinguish something.

Like extinguishing a fire. Like when you go out camping and the camping trip is done and you extinguish the fire. It sort of reminds me of the beach. My favorite time of going to the beach is right after I arrive and right when I leave.

Right? The beach seems like such a great idea. When you get there you lay out your towel and you get out your book. And then you've got your sunscreen. You've got your sunglasses.

And this is going to be great. And five minutes pass and the whole beach is empty and some person comes and sets their towel right next to yours. It's like an entire beach. Towel right next to yours. And it even touches your towel.

I think that's against the law. And then it starts getting hot and you're sweating. Now another person sets up their little fort and now people are putting tents up on the beach. Full blown tents. They set a tent up in front of you. And of course that guy is having a conversation on his cell phone on speaker. So you're hearing the whole conversation and it's getting more crowded. And then the seagull flies off with your lunch and then they come back for your small poodle.

Which isn't that big of a loss. But you say I want to go home again. So the happiest moment is getting there and leaving right. But you know if you build a campfire on the beach you need to extinguish it. Sometimes God's Holy Spirit will nudge you. Why don't you do this? Why don't you say that?

Why don't you go here and we say no. That's quenching the Spirit. See God wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So I love how the Lord says don't do this instead do that. Hey don't get drunk. No brainer. Don't do that.

Don't waste your time doing that. But be filled with the Spirit. So we don't need the Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. Empowering us.

Filling us. Another earmark of the early days of the Jesus movement and I might add of the early church. Is there was a belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ is coming again. I believe that we are seeing signs accelerating right now. Reminding us that Bible prophecy is literally being fulfilled before our very eyes. I believe that the next event on the prophetic calendar will be the rapture of the church. That is when we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Now if you believe this. How many of you believe this? Raise your hand. So if you believe this it will affect you in the way that you live.

The Bible says he that has this hope, that is the hope of the Lord's return, purifies himself even as he is pure. Sort of like when you were a little kid. Maybe you got in trouble and your mother gave you this ominous warning. Just wait until your father gets home. So now you are dreading dad's arrival. Poor dad. He just wants to come home.

He is working. No. Wait until dad gets home. But let's say you were a good little boy or girl and you heard daddy's car pull up in the driveway. You run to greet him. See the idea is if I am right with God I get excited about and I look forward to the return of Jesus. If I am not right with God it might fill me with a certain sense of dread. And I want to shift gears now over to Revelation 3 because these are the words of Jesus to the church of the last days. The church living in that time before the return of the Lord. Revelation 3 verse 7.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write. These things sayeth he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts, he who shuts and no one opens. I know your works I have set before you an open door and no man can shut it. You have a little strength. You have kept my word and you have not denied my name.

Here is my third point. Jesus has given to us an unprecedented open door. Verse 7. He opens and no man shuts. The door in the Bible is a symbol of opportunity and the key is a symbol of authority. Paul talked about this in 2 Corinthians 2 when he says, I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Jesus because a door was opened to me of the Lord. See God opens doors.

And what does that mean? It just means a conversation you are having with someone. All of a sudden there is a moment. There is an open door. They bring up something and you want to go through that door with the gospel. And Jesus has the key.

He opens the doors. I am glad he has the keys. If I had the keys they would be lost by now. I am always losing keys. I lose everything. I have those little Apple AirTags on everything. The other day I lost my wallet and I tried to track down my AirTag. It started beeping. It was like right behind me on the chair. It had come out.

It is embarrassing. Jesus doesn't lose the keys. He wants to open these doors. God opened a door for Chuck Smith. He walked through it. Listen there are some things only God can do and there are some things only we can do.

God will open the door. Only you, Brenlee Brown. You fell asleep I saw that. No you didn't.

She is contemplating. Only you Brenlee. Only you Larry. In the church we want our doors open. We don't want to put up a wall where God has put in a bridge. We want to be a stepping stone not a stumbling block to people coming to Christ. It should never be difficult for people to come to Christ.

A couple may show up at church or living together outside of marriage. They should come and hear the gospel. Someone might come. They are strung out on drugs or booze. They need to hear the gospel. They might be gay. They need to hear the gospel.

They may dress in a way that makes some people uncomfortable. Our job is to call them to Christ. I don't say clean your life up and come to Christ.

I say come to Christ and He will clean your life up. That is what we are here for. As I have said so many times the church should be a hospital for sinners not a museum for saints. If you go to the ER at the hospital and say who are all these sick people? There are sick people at a hospital. There are people that need a doctor. That is what the church is.

We are here as a hospital for sinners. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was raised in a broken home. My mom was married and divorced seven times. She was a raging alcoholic.

She pretty much passed out every night from drinking. It was a home filled with constant domestic violence every single night. I went on a search when I was a kid. I thought there has to be more to life than what I am living.

I hated my life. I was looking for meaning. I was looking for purpose.

But I didn't know where to find it. Now it is the late 60s. The whole drug culture is erupting.

I am thinking maybe that is where it is at. I started smoking marijuana every single day. I started seeing my creative abilities just drain out of me. My personality was changing.

It was a very negative thing. Yes, it was a gateway drug that opened the door up to other things. So I experimented with LSD. One day I took acid or dropped acid as we used to say and I completely flipped out. I had a bad trip. We were in a car and we had a kilo of marijuana in the trunk.

That is a lot by the way. We weren't going to sell it. We were going to smoke it ourselves. That is how stupid we were.

The car spun out of control. I was flipping out and God got hold of me. Here is my last point in my message. God has given us the power and the resources we need. We are looking at this church of Philadelphia. The church of the last days. Jesus says, I have opened a door before you that no man can shut. Then he says in verse 8 of Revelation, through you of a little strength. By the way, that is not a negative comment about its weakness, but a commendation of its strength.

In other words, this is a church coming back to life. I remember when I got COVID. How many of you have had COVID?

Isn't it fun? Anyway, I got it way back when. Way back when. I got it so far back it became a news story.

I have no idea why. But I got COVID and I remember that I didn't know what it was going to be like. I was feverish and I was lethargic and I was tired.

Usually I have a lot of energy. I remember I thought I am better now. I got up and that wasn't better. I just wanted to sit there. Finally my strength started to return and I got stronger and stronger.

Next thing you know I am eating donuts. This is the picture here. It is a sick person coming back to life. It is a church coming back to life again. An awakened church getting back to its roots.

This is what we all want to do. But it starts individually. Just think about you. Was there a time in your life where you were stronger spiritually than you are right now? If there was you can return to that. We can talk about revival all day long. We can talk about an awakening in America all day long.

But it starts with you as an individual. What did you used to do when you were a younger Christian? I would just bet you read your Bible every day. I would just venture to say you probably had a prayer life. I bet you were regular at church.

I bet you shared your faith. Do you still do those things? See sometimes we have a breakdown in the basics and we wonder what is going wrong. It is not rocket science people. We need to get back and do those things again.

Listen if you want to see a revival do revival like things. Let's say that I am talking to a married couple. Let's see.

None of you have your spouses here. I will use you as an example Gabe. Gabe has a wife named Tiffany. Let's just say that you came to me and said Greg we have lost the spark in our marriage.

Tiffany said all Gabe wants to do is play the guitar and sing. I would say well you guys listen. Instead of waiting for the emotion why don't you go back and do the romantic things you used to do when you first started going out.

Just go back and do them. We don't feel it. It doesn't matter if you feel it.

Just do it. Emotions will catch up. Same can be true of our relationship with God. I am waiting for some big massive encounter with God. Some emotional experience. That may happen. It is great when it does.

But often it is just getting back and doing those revival like things again and then I will personally have spiritual revival. Let me close with this. Greg, me, that guy up on the screen. It is a movie version of me. But the story is true. I knew nothing about God. All literally I knew about Jesus was I had seen his movies and I liked them.

That was it. No one had ever shared the gospel with me. No one ever read the Bible to me for the most part. Then I heard the gospel for the first time from that guy Lonnie that you saw portrayed on the screen.

In that moment I gave my life to Christ. The statement that got my attention and turned me around was when Lonnie said Jesus said you are for me or against me. I looked around at the other Christians and thought they are definitely for him. I am not one of them. Does that mean I am against God? I didn't want to be against God.

I just didn't know what it all meant. I thought the Christians were all a little bit crazy. Maybe we are. But maybe we are the most sane people in the room. The world is going crazy. That is the truth.

I try to thought I am for size. What if it is true? What if Jesus is real?

What if he can change my life because of my upbringing? The cynicism I developed as a result. I quickly dismissed it. There is no way it is true.

No way it could work for me. Thought came back but what if it is true? I responded it can't be true. Then Lonnie said if you want to accept Christ get up and walk forward right now.

It is different than the movie. I know I did it before the baptism. In real life I walk forward. It is okay. I got saved. That is all that matters. That was the day I walked forward and gave my life to Jesus. I want to close this special Jesus revolution service with an opportunity for you to believe in Jesus. Your life can be changed by Christ just as surely as mine was.

Just as surely as every person on this platform has had their life changed and the people sitting around you. Jesus died on the cross for your sin. He paid the price for all the wrongs you have done. He will come and forgive you and come and live in your heart. If you have never asked Jesus to come into your life you can do it right here right now.

Let's pray. Father we pray for anyone that has joined us. If they don't know you. If they don't have a relationship with you. If they are not sure they are going to heaven when they die.

Would you speak to their hearts and help them come to you right now. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we are praying. Maybe there is somebody here that would say I want a relationship with Jesus Christ. I want Him to forgive me of my sin. I want to know that when I die I will go to heaven.

Pray for me. I am ready to say yes to Jesus today. If that is your desire. If you want Christ to come into your life. If you want Him to forgive you of your sin.

If you want to go to heaven when you die. Wherever you are lift your hand up and let me pray for you. Raise your hand up high where I can see it and I will pray for you today. God bless you. God bless you. Anybody wherever you are raise your hand up. Let me pray for you. God bless you. God bless you. Some of you watching the screen. They are at Harvest Orange County.

Harvest Kumalani. You crazy people sitting outside in the courtyard. We love you. You can raise your hand as well. Now I want every one of you that has raised your hand. I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me. Say Lord Jesus I know that I am a sinner. But I know that you are the Savior that died on the cross for my sin. I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord. As my God and my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering it. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.