Too Good to Keep to Yourself | The Importance of Sharing the Gospel

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Sign up at harvest.org. We got to get out there with the message of the gospel because only the gospel can change the course of a life. You know it's true because it happened to you. Certain words can be freeing, like you're forgiven, or the debt has been canceled, or you've been found not guilty. The gospel includes all those words. We've been forgiven of our sin because Jesus paid our debt and took our guilt upon Himself.

Those words of freedom can't be kept to ourselves. And today on A New Beginning, as Pastor Greg Laurie continues a series called Relentless Grace, we'll see the importance of sharing that good news with those who need freedom. Here in Romans 9, we're going to read a little of Romans 8, but we're going to touch on Romans 9. We have the apostle Paul who was burdened for his fellow Jews. He was a Jew. He came to believe in Jesus as his Messiah, and he had a heart for his other Jewish brothers and sisters who had not believed yet.

He wanted them to come to Christ. And so we'll talk about that burden that he had in a moment, but look at Romans 8. Let's read verses 38 to 39. For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, nor our fears for today, or our worries for tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love, no power in the sky above or on the earth below. Indeed, nothing and all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.

What an amazing statement that is. Nothing in human experience can separate us from God's love because verse 38 says, neither death nor life. Nothing in the spiritual realm, not Satan, not any demon, can separate you from God's love because verse 38 says, neither angels nor demons. Nothing in time, yet the future or the past will separate you from God's love because he says again in verse 38, neither our fears for today or our worries about tomorrow. In fact, nothing in all of creation will separate you from God's love because Paul says in verses 38 to 39, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love, no power in the sky above or the earth below.

Nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Jesus. So that is Romans 8. Now we come to Romans 9.

Paul shifts gears. And in some ways, the subject is so different it almost seems to not fit, but when you really think about it, it fits perfectly. Paul goes from the joy and victory of Romans 8 to the sorrow and burden of Romans 9. While he was focused on Christ in Romans 8, he's rejoicing, but now that he focuses on lost people in Romans 9, he's weeping.

And Paul makes an amazing statement. He basically says he would be willing to go to hell if other people could go to heaven. Let's read Romans 9 verses 1 to 3.

Again, I'm reading from the New Living Translation. With God as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief. For my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters, I would be willing to be forever cursed, that is, cut off from Christ if that would save them. This is an amazing statement from Paul. Again, he's effectively saying, I would go to hell if others could go to heaven. I'm so thankful we don't have to trade our salvation for someone else's.

I'm so thankful the price has been paid by Jesus at the cross for my salvation, for your salvation, and for the salvation of any other person who believes. But it shows how much Paul cared when he said, I would give up my own eternal hope if my fellow Jews would believe. He reminds us a lot of Moses. Of course, Moses was directed by the Lord to take the Jewish people out of captivity in Egypt and lead them to the promised land. Well as they are on their way there, the Lord summons Moses to Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.

And there on tablets of stone, the finger of God wrote those great commandments down. Now Moses left Aaron in charge. Aaron was like the worst babysitter of all time because literally all hell broke loose under Aaron.

It was really irresponsible. It reminds me, years ago Christopher, our oldest son, was watching his younger brother Jonathan. I don't remember his exact age. I think Christopher was probably around 14 and Jonathan was around 4. And so we said, now you know, take care of your brother and we will call and check on things.

And we drove an hour away. So I called the house expecting Christopher to answer and Jonathan answers. Hello. Hey Jonathan, I get Christopher on the phone. He is asleep. Ok. Go wake him up right now. Like you know it seemed like an eternity.

A few seconds go by. He comes back and picks up the phone. He won't wake up. I said ok go over there and shake him really hard. He came back a few moments later. He won't wake up. I said Jonathan go hit your brother in the face as hard as you can. Now he is 4 years old.

How much will it hurt? He did it. Christopher is still asleep. When Christopher fell asleep he really slept. So then I said go pull his hair.

That didn't work either. So I said and you know Jonathan can't get up to a sink at this point. I said go get a cup, fill it with toilet water and throw it on his head. Time went by. It seemed like an hour.

It was probably a minute. He won't wake up. I am like oh my gosh there is a 4 year old kid wandering around our house with no supervision. So we immediately head home and a friend of ours called the police department. They show up at our house. They bang on the front door.

Christopher is still sleeping. They finally break open our garage door and come in with flashlights and Christopher wakes up to do cops looking at him. So he was not a good babysitter on that particular night.

But Aaron was even worse. His responsibility. Watch over the Israelites. So here comes Moses down from Mount Sinai and he hears this noise.

And it is a big party. And what does Moses see? A bunch of Israelites dancing around a golden calf naked. And Aaron sees Moses. Think of Moses with the tablets. He sees him and he says, I know this looks bad.

I can explain everything. And then one of the lamest excuses of all time Aaron says, look Moses I told everyone bring me your earrings and your rings and your grills and your everything. And we threw it in the fire and a gold calf just appeared. So what else could we do but strip off our clothes and worship it.

Yeah that is not working. Now God says to Moses, I am going to judge these people and destroy them. Now this is interesting because earlier Moses got frustrated with the Jewish people and he said, I want you to judge these people.

I am so done with them. Now this time God says, I am going to judge them. And here is what Moses says to the Lord that reminds us of Paul. He says to the Lord in Exodus 32, Lord please forgive their sin. But if not then blot me out of the book that you have written. Just like Paul.

Lord if this is what it would take, take my name out of your book so they can be spared. And in the original language there is an interesting pause there. It is not a word. It is actually a pause.

A sudden breaking off in the middle of a sentence. So the way Moses said it would have been like this, God please forgive their sin. But if not blot my name. It is like he has to think about it.

It is pretty heavy what I am about to say. Please forgive them of their sin but if not blot my name out of the book. Well Moses passed the test. The Lord was never going to judge him.

Moses had turned into an intercessor. This is what the Lord wanted him to do. And this is what the Lord wants us to do.

He wants us to care about people that don't know him. But we don't like to do this. We clam up. We are reluctant to do it. We don't like to share.

An unchallenged fact of the universe. We don't like to share in general. Think about to your earliest days a little child you know and you were told to share. You know take a little toddler. They are just sitting there on the floor and you give them a nice shiny new toy.

Here you go. They are so happy. They are playing with it.

And then you say share it. And they go from happiness to misery. They fight over it. They hit each other over it. Do we ever outgrow this?

Have you ever been to a Black Friday sale? People are assaulting each other at Target or Wal-Mart or wherever to get that flat screen or whatever they are fighting over. We don't like to share. It is not in our nature to share. We want it for us. And if they don't have it that is too bad for them. And we can be that way as Christians.

I don't want to share. Well God needs to change our heart so we have the heart of an intercessor. Listen. Stop looking at nonbelievers as the enemy and understand they are not the enemy. They are under the power of the enemy. The enemy is the devil.

And Scripture tells us in 2 Timothy 2.26, My prayer is that they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We really enjoy hearing when Pastor Greg's teaching and preaching touches lives.

Hey Pastor Greg. I just wanted to let you know, sir, that I'm a teacher and I listen to you on the way home. Normally after a very long day, listening to your voice and your wit and your humor helps relax me. And listening to the way you present the Word of God is very appealing to me because it speaks to my heart. A lot of your humor I will try and use in my classroom and I normally try and attribute it to you.

But sometimes I tend to claim it for my own. So please forgive me for that. But I just wanted to just call you and just tell you thank you so much. You've been a tremendous blessing to me and you've helped me, I think, be a better teacher by the way you present the gospel.

And you've reinforced the importance of what I do to help reach our young people because you're helping to reach young people and all kinds of people every day. Oh, and by the way, I absolutely love Jesus Revolution. Wonderful film.

Recommend that everyone go see it. Thanks a lot, Pastor Greg. How have Pastor Greg's teachings touched you and the people around you? Would you contact us and let us know? Call 866-871-1144.

That's 866-871-1144. Pastor Greg is presenting some important insight today on sharing our faith with others. One of our most pressing responsibilities as believers.

Let's continue now. Look I could talk all day to you about how to start a conversation about Jesus and answers to hard questions and other things. But none of that will matter if you don't have a concern and a burden for a person that is not yet a believer. You know the Bible tells us when Paul was on Mars Hill and he looked at all this crazy paganism and worship of false gods that his spirit was aroused, which means he was moved to anger. You know sometimes it is ok to get ticked off righteously. There is righteous indignation. Well you could look out at culture and say I am just sick and tired of people being ripped off. Especially young people. Turning to drugs. Taking their own lives at such young ages. Having their lives ruined. We have got to do something about it.

And what are we going to do? We have got to get out there with the message of the gospel. Because only the gospel can change the course of a life.

You know it is true because it happened to you. I got a great little comment on my Instagram page the other day. Someone just said, Hey just wanted to say thank you on October 5, 2014 you delivered a message at Harvest America.

By the grace of God I was live streaming it from a small church in Puerto Rico. Through that message I invited Jesus into my life and he has totally changed my life. I hesitate to think what my life would look like today if it wasn't for your faithfulness to the call of God in your life. Thank you for being obedient.

Now I get to live every day of my life with the king of the universe because you helped introduce him to me. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh it is the gospel. We can all do that. We all should do that.

We all must do that. Let me close with an Old Testament story of four lepers. Now back in those days leprosy was a death sentence.

If you had leprosy you were going to die for sure. So there is a story of where the Israelites were under siege in their city. And the Assyrians had their camp not far away and everyone was starving to death. There was no food.

And these four leprous guys saying, Hey you know what? Why sit here and starve to death? Maybe we can find some food somewhere.

They actually said, Why sit here until we die? Let's just go out and see what happens. If they kill us they kill us. Maybe they will give us something to eat before they kill us. Who knows.

Let's go. So they wander off and they come to the camp of the Assyrians and much of their shock. It is empty. And the reason it was empty is because the Assyrians heard this loud noise that sounded like an approaching army. And they ran from the hills thinking it was the Israelites.

But in reality it was probably the angels of the Lord that they heard. But meanwhile the tents are all set up and the tables are all there and there is food as far as the eye can see. All kinds of amazing food out on all of these tables.

And so these four leprous guys are like chowing down. This is amazing. I love this.

Check this out. And all of a sudden it dawns on them. Wait. We can't do this. They actually said, This isn't right. This is a day of good news. And if we remain silent a judgment will come on us. Let's go tell the others.

So they returned back to the city and told the others. And everyone was able to eat. And that can be us.

That can be us here right now. We are feasting on God's Word. Learning more about the fact that God loves us and God is for us and God forgives us and God justifies us. And God works all things together for good that happened in our lives. And we are reflecting on these great truths and we are worshipping the Lord. And then we go outside of these walls and it doesn't even occur to us to talk to somebody else.

Well I am not really into evangelism. Are you into recommendation? You talk to people all the time about that movie you just saw. Or about your favorite TV show or this great song they have got to download. Or this great burger they have to try. This great place they have to go.

You recommend stuff all day and all night long. Can't you recommend that someone believes in Jesus today? The greatest way to show your love for someone is to tell them about Jesus Christ. Because He loves them.

And the greatest way I could show you I love you today is by telling you about Jesus Christ. Because there are some that don't know Him. Maybe in this room.

Maybe on one of our campuses. We are watched by people all around the country and all around the world when we do our services. I know because they comment on Facebook Live and other places.

Our website. And so I know that there are people watching and listening. And I don't know who these people are but I think about this guy in Puerto Rico. You know. Some guy I will probably never meet. Maybe I will.

I hope I do. That hears the gospel and it changes their life. And they are following Jesus. And so I am just saying to a guy like that. A girl like that. A young person right now that has literally been thinking about taking their life. You have even Googled it.

How do you do it? You are that despondent. Talking to someone who is older right now that doesn't even know what their life is for anymore. They have lost the will to live. Talking to somebody else right now that is in the throes of drug abuse or alcoholism and you don't think you will ever get free. Talking to somebody else right now who has a marriage that is falling apart. A spouse that has betrayed them.

Talking to an elderly person right now that is afraid to die and they don't know what is going to happen on the other side. And I am saying to all of you wherever you are. Jesus Christ is the answer. And He loves you. And how do I know He loves you? He proved it.

Jesus said, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. He proved His love tangibly. Not just with words. He showed it. And as I have often said it wasn't nails that held Him to that cross two thousand years ago. It was love for you.

And that same Jesus who died on the cross rose again from the dead three days later. And He stands at the door of your life and He knocks and He will cure His voice. And if you will open that door He will come in. Now you might ask, what do you mean open the door?

Is there like a little door in my heart here somewhere? No, no. I don't mean that. I am speaking metaphorically.

The idea is just say to Jesus, alright I need you in my life. I am tired of running from you. I am tired of fighting with you. I didn't know you loved me. I didn't know you were for me. I thought you were against me. I didn't know that you loved to bless people.

I didn't know any of that. But I want to know you now personally and He will come into your life and forgive you of your sin. And if you have not asked Him in yet, ask Him in right here, right now. I am going to pray and I am going to extend an opportunity for you to put your faith in Jesus. And know that you will go to heaven when you die.

Let's all bow our heads. Father thank you for loving us so much that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross on our place. Lord Jesus thank you for coming and making such a great sacrifice. And then rising again from the dead three days later and you are here.

Ready to come into the heart of any man or woman who will call out to you. Help them to come to you and receive forgiveness from you now. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer.

And if you would like to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. You know Pastor Greg, Jesus Revolution came to theaters right around the time that there was some really wacky weather all across the country. Here in California there was so much snow in the mountains that people were trapped in their homes for days upon days.

And it was that way in many places across the country. I saw a social media post that said, help, we're trapped at home, but we want to see the movie. Can you help us? Not help, we need food. Help, we got to see the movie.

And we have some good news for those folks, don't we? Yes, you can see the movie. Listen, you can own the movie. You can watch it as many times as you want because we are now offering the Jesus Revolution film on DVD.

And that means that you can play it whenever you want to play it. And the great thing is don't just watch it for yourself. Show it to your family. Show it to your neighbors. Show it to your friends. Make it an evangelistic outreach because this film is real.

It's gritty. It connects with believer and non-believer alike. Actually we had some amazing reviews. You know the audience gave it a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And there's another website called CinemaScore that gave Jesus Revolution an A plus rating.

Now this is just a rating based on the entertainment value of the film and the audience response. So you can have your own copy. You can show it to whoever you want to show it to. But in the special edition of the Jesus Revolution DVD that we're offering you right now, there's a message that I filmed that presents the gospel and it has a prayer at the end that a person can pray to accept Christ. Listen, this is the most effective evangelistic tool we have ever offered in our history. I believe if you show this film to people that don't know the Lord, you will see people come to Christ as a result.

In a way the film does a heavy lifting. You just got to get other people to watch it with you. So now you can have your own copy and I'll send it to you for your gift of any size. Now I'm going to be honest, this resource costs us more than we normally pay for other resources. So I'm going to ask our listeners to be extra generous because we want to get a copy of this DVD to you. So get your copy of the Jesus Revolution DVD with bonus content for your gift of any size to help us continue to preach the gospel and teach the Word of God.

Yeah, that's right. Our mission statement is knowing Him and making Him known. And we're so thankful for your partnership with us.

Listener support is the only way we can continue to bring you these daily studies. So contact us today for your copy of Jesus Revolution on DVD and we'll include a free streaming code. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's 24-7 phone number 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. And then Pastor Greg, just before we go, would you mind praying with the person listening who wants to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord? I'd be happy to, Dave. You know, as you've been listening to this today, maybe you've heard another voice. By that I mean, yeah, you heard me say a few things, but you heard God's voice speak to you deep in the recesses of your heart. And it suddenly dawned on you, this is what I need. Or to state it more accurately, this is who I need. I need Jesus and I want Jesus.

But maybe you don't know how to make that connection. Let me help you. Pray this after me right now if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. And I am sorry for my sin. And I need your forgiveness right now. Would you come into my heart and my life as Savior, as God, as friend?

I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me and accepting me and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. I know that was a relatively short prayer. Maybe you felt something as you prayed it.

Maybe you felt nothing. That doesn't really matter. Because God's word says these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. It doesn't say, so you may think you have it. Or you may hope you have it if God's in a good mood.

No, that you can know it. And I want you to know, if you pray that prayer in a minute, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come into your life. So congratulations. You're now a Christian. Now continue to follow the Lord. And to help you, we'd like to send some resource materials your way. We call our New Believers Growth Packet.

It'll answer many of the questions you might have and get you started off right in your new relationship with the Lord. So get in touch and ask for it. We'll send it free of charge. The fastest way to connect is to go to harvest.org and click Know God. Or call us any time at 1-800-821-3300.

Again, that's 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, more from Pastor Greg's rewarding series in the book of Romans called Relentless Grace. We'll see how the gospel is a message that brings hope to every generation. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.