How to Lead Others to Jesus | Biblical Evangelism

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 ebooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Every generation needs to hear the gospel. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the antidote for the universal sickness of sin. The same message that changed the world of the first century is the same message that will change the world of the 21st century. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Ever heard of planned obsolescence?

Products are built to last only a limited time so that, yeah, you got to get a new one. Well, the Lord designed the message of the gospel to be everlasting. It never goes out of style.

It's never obsolete. It speaks to the needs of our hearts, no matter the date on the calendar. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie explains how to share that timeless message most effectively. Today, an evangelist speaks on evangelism. You know, the Bible tells us to be on duty at all times, or as the King James puts it, be instant in season and out of season.

I mean, anytime, anywhere, God may call on you to share the gospel. So a number of years ago, I had to go to the bathroom. I hope that doesn't shock you.

But yes, I did. I went to a department store and I walked in, try not to visualize this, I took my seat. And I'm there in the stall and I hear someone clear their throat in the stall next to me. Okay, someone next to me.

And then I hear a voice say, hi. First of all, I don't talk to people in bathrooms, okay. I don't know what the deal is with girls. Do you want to go with me to the restroom? Let's go. And five girls will go in the restroom.

Guys will never do that. If we see each other in the restroom, hey, how's it going? Let's get out of here, you know.

But girls, it's all different deals. So I'm in this restroom, in this stall. This guy says hi.

That's weird. And I said, hi. Like it was not a friendly hi.

It was like, don't talk to me, hi. Moment passes and I hear that voice say, were you supposed to meet me here? I'm thinking, what is going on here?

I said, no. And then it dawned on me, who knows what's happening here? Well, what is this guy looking for? I said, who is supposed to meet you here?

He said, a drug dealer. Oh. And then it occurred to me, would God use me to share the gospel in a bathroom stall? Or does the Holy Spirit say, I'm not going in there, okay?

You're on your own. I don't know. I thought, why not? Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.

I think that includes bathrooms. So I said, I have something better for you than drugs. The guy says, what?

I said, a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He says, oh, I already tried that. I'm thinking, why am I talking to this guy? It's weird.

I already tried that. He said, I said, oh, did you really? Did you ever go to church? Oh, I went to church, he said. I said, where did you go to church? He said, Harvest Christian Fellowship. I said, do you know who I am? He said, no. I said, I'm Greg Laurie, the pastor at Harvest. He said, oh my God. So it's a true story, people. So I said, God must really love you to send your pastor to you when you're trying to make a drug buy at a bathroom.

Right? So I said to this guy, you need to get right with God. I'm going to talk to you, but I'm done with this bathroom evangelism. I'll meet you outside.

So I went out and I'm just waiting. I didn't know what the guy looked like. He was easy to spot.

He was a guilty looking guy. So he stood there and we prayed and he recommitted his life to the Lord. You never know when God will call on you, right?

You have to be ready. You know when Jesus ministered to people during this earthly ministry, he never dealt with any two people in exactly the same way. The way that he spoke with the very religious and moral and educated man Nicodemus is different than the way he spoke with a woman caught in the act of adultery. And I was different than the way he addressed Zacchaeus, the tax collector in Jericho.

And that was different than the way he dealt with the woman at the well. But really we see how Jesus would adapt. There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to evangelism.

You need to pray for wisdom and discernment. The apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians 9. He says, I become a servant of everyone so I can bring them to Christ. Listen, I try to find common ground with everyone so I can bring them to Christ.

Find common ground. So the woman at the well, as we already saw, initially was cynical when Jesus is there and he greets her. She comes to draw water in the middle of the day and he says, would you give me a drink of water? And she said, why would you ask a drink of water from me?

Don't you know Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? Jesus said, if you knew who was speaking with you, you would ask him and he would give you living water. And then she said, what are you talking about? And then she goes on to say in John chapter 4 verse 25, we know the Messiah is coming who's called Christ and when he comes he will tell us all things. Jesus says, I who speak to you am he. Let me paraphrase it.

Girl, you're talking to him. I am the Messiah. And it dawns on her. This is the Messiah and she believes right on the spot and she goes into her town and she shares her story. John 4 28, the woman left her water pot, went her way into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all things that I ever did.

Could this be the Christ? So I want to talk to you about how to lead others to Jesus and here's my first point if you're taking notes. Number one, telling your story that is your personal testimony is a powerful bridge for the gospel message. Telling your story. This woman only minutes old in her faith immediately goes out and tells others. And listen, you have a story to tell.

Now I know some testimonies are more dramatic than other testimonies. I have a friend that attends church here. His name is Michael Franzese and Michael used to be in the Colombo crime family. The mafia as we call it. And he was being groomed to become the next Don, the next godfather if you will of this family. He lived a life of crime.

He lived a crazy life that you just see in the movies and God got hold of him when he was in prison in solitary confinement and Michael committed his life to the Lord. Well that's a pretty radical testimony. I've talked to guys not even that long ago who are gang bangers and served time in prison as well and they talk about how Jesus has changed them. And then you talk to someone who was a drug addict or an alcoholic or had some other issue and you say wow I don't have anything to compare to that.

I was addicted to ding dongs in the third grade but I mean you know. But listen, your story's valid. Everybody's story's valid. Not everyone is a criminal. Not everyone's a gang banger.

Not everyone's a drug user. Some people live nice moral lies that one day they just discovered they were sinners who needed a savior. Everybody has a testimony including you. Here's your testimony in a nutshell without even knowing you. As that one man who was healed by Jesus said, once I was blind but now I see.

That's your story. So that story is powerful and people believed because of this woman's testimony. Look at John 4 39. Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified.

He told me all that I ever did. Your personal testimony. Remember the courageous believers in the book of Revelation who overcame the devil and how did they do it? Answer from scripture.

They overcame him by the word of their testimony and the blood of the lamb and they did not love their lives until the death. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. It's such a blessing to hear from listeners who take time to express their appreciation. Pastor Greg, I stayed up until midnight when Jesus Revolution dropped on Netflix. Since I'm a night owl, I watched it all the way through till almost 2 a.m. I loved it and especially the music.

In fact, I spent more time today listening to the soundtrack, which is really great. Thank you, Pastor Greg. Do you have a story to tell? If so, would you email Pastor Greg and let him know? Send it to Greg at harvest dot org. That's Greg at harvest dot org. Well, Pastor Greg is presenting a message today called how to lead others to Jesus.

Great practical insight. Let's continue. Next point, when you share your testimony, don't glorify or exaggerate your past. Don't glorify or exaggerate your past. I bring this up because I've heard some people share testimony and then 10 years later I hear it again and I'm like, wait, it's a little different. It's a little more dramatic and I don't remember all that stuff.

Did you just remember that or are you sort of exaggerating? Be accurate in your testimony. The key is don't glorify the past.

I've heard some people share their testimony and their past sounds more interesting than their present. They'll be talking about all the old life, man. We party. We had so much fun and all the stuff we used to do. Then I came to Jesus.

They even talk like that. Wait, what? I came to Jesus and I carry the old rugged cross. We don't party anymore.

We go to bed at seven o'clock after reading our Bible for four hours straight. Your old life sounds better than this life. So you're missing it. Let me tell you what your old life was. You were separated from God. You were empty. You were lonely. You were afraid to die and you were headed to a certain judgment. Paul summed it up perfectly when he described his old life when he said in the book of Philippians, those things I used to think were so important are gone from my life compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ as my master.

Everything I once had going for me is insignificant. Dog dung. I've dumped it in the trash so I can embrace Christ and be embraced by him.

It's a modern translation. Dog dung. We all know what that is, right? People were talking about poop. Yes, I use the word poop in church.

And that is the word that Paul used. Excrement. My old life compared to my new life, it's like excrement.

I've dumped it in the trash. So don't make your past sound better than your present. And when you tell your story, it's not about you, it's about him. You see, your story is just a bridge to get to the most important story.

And the most important story is a story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, a big challenge we have in sharing our faith is overcoming the language barrier. Because sometimes Christians engage in what I like to call Christianese.

It's our own unique language that is not understood by a non-believer. Example, you walk up to someone who isn't a Christian and say, hey you, uncircumcised Philistine, come here. You're a sinner and you need to repent and you need to be sanctified and justified and washed in the blood and become a part of the body of Christ. You're going to freak them out. Because first of all, they don't know what you mean when you say, be part of a body and then get washed in blood.

Wait, blood? What are you talking about? I'm not suggesting we not use biblical terms, but I am suggesting we understand that people today are largely biblically illiterate. I thought they were biblically illiterate when I started years ago. Oh man.

It's even worse today. This is illustrated by a recent episode of Jeopardy. You know Jeopardy the game show? And so here are these very intelligent, well-read contestants that go on this show. And they were asked this question.

All three contestants were stumped by this question. Here it is. Matthew 6-9 says, our Father who art in heaven blank be your name. So the answer is what does that say?

Our Father who art in heaven what? There you go. You'd all do well in Jeopardy.

Hey. But three contestants didn't know the answer. Now there was a time where people would know the answer to that even if they weren't Christians because they knew the Lord's Prayer. There was a time when they would teach Bible as literature in schools. But today we have a culture that is largely biblically illiterate. Here in America only 6% of us hold a biblical worldview.

That's why we're doing this series that we're calling Timeless. We want to help you develop a biblical worldview. And this is despite the fact that 87% of American households have one of these. A Bible. But very few read it. Much less believe it. A survey of graduating high school seniors revealed 12% of them believe that Joan of Arc was the wife of Noah. This is not a joke. The question was asked was Joan of Arc the wife of Noah?

Answer yes. We don't know the name of Noah's wife. But it wasn't Joan. That's for sure. People also thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.

That'd be an interesting ceremony to do. Sodom will you take Gomorrah? They thought that. And then also this is the strangest of all. A good percentage of them believe that Billy Graham gave this sermon on the mount.

Just we're about 2,000 years off people. And Billy Graham was a great preacher but no that one goes to Jesus. A sermon on the mount. You know I think we're living in a time very similar to what Paul dealt with in act 17 where he went to Athens. Athens Greece. And at that time Athens was the cultural and intellectual center of the world. Base of the great philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and many others.

And there were two primary groups that Paul was addressing there on Mars Hill. They were the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans followed the teaching of Epicurus and they believed in the pursuit of pleasure. They thought there's no order to the universe, no God, no absolutes, no judgment.

So you might as well live for the moment. They were the party animals of the first century. And their descendants are among us today. People that have an Epicurean philosophy. It's all about partying. It's all about the weekend. It's all about the pleasure.

Anything goes. But then there were the Stoics. In contrast to the Epicureans they were more disciplined. Almost had a sort of Buddhist like worldview. They believed that God was in all things.

He was in nature. He was everywhere. It was sort of a new age type belief. And so here is Paul trying to relate to these people. So when you walk through Athens there are all these altars erected to various deities. In fact it was said in that day it's easier to find a god in Athens than a person. And Paul walked around and looked at all these altars and he saw one erected to the unknown God. They figured in case we miss one we'll just, this is to the unknown God. So he stands up in a place called the Areopagus, Mars Hill. Sort of the place where all the philosophers would meet. He said men of Athens I perceive that you're really spiritual. And you have an altar erected to the unknown God.

That's the one I want to talk to you about today. That's our culture today. Nobody knows anything about the Bible.

Very few people know anything about Jesus. So that's the culture we're addressing. But every generation needs to hear the gospel. My generation.

The baby boomers need to hear it. And then of course there's the millennials. And so much is said about baby boomers and millennials. People from Gen X are feeling left out. Sorry Gen X.

You need the gospel too. But now we hear so much about Generation Z. Gen Z right. And they've been described as the hopeless generation.

They need to hear the gospel as well. And now on the heels of Gen Z is what is called the alpha generation. Generation alpha. I don't care if it's baby boomers or millennials or busters or Gen Z or alpha or whatever else they're going to come up with.

The answer for every generation is the same. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It never changes.

Ever. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Psalm 145 says, Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts.

Let them proclaim your power. The same message that changed the world of the first century is the same message that will change the world of the 21st century. Paul said in Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. There's power in the message of the gospel. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie has been pointing out how the gospel changes lives.

And so many of us would say amen to that. But Pastor Greg, maybe somebody is listening who just isn't sure about the gospel. They're not sure where they stand with God. And they're wondering if they go to heaven when they die.

Well, that's a great question. And I guess let me take it a step further. I know that is the most important question you can ask. How can a person know they're going to heaven? Let me say at the outset, I believe I'm going to heaven. In fact, I'll take it a step further. I know I'm going to heaven. You say, Greg, isn't that kind of arrogant?

Not really. Because I know this because God has made a promise to me and I've believed that promise. The Bible says we write these things to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. I've believed on the name of the Son of God. Thus I know I'll go to heaven when I die. Here's my question to you. Do you believe on the name of the Son of God? Is there any more important issue than that?

I can't think of one. So I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. And this is a prayer where you will be asking Jesus to forgive you of your sin and you'll be asking him to be your own Savior, friend, Lord. It's a prayer only you can pray.

Pray these words if you would. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. But I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose from the dead. Jesus, come into my life. I want to believe in you. I want to follow you.

I want this relationship with you. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sin and rising again from the dead. And I thank you that you've heard this prayer. And I believe you've come into my life. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. I want to help you grow in your faith. I want to help you grow spiritually.

So I have a free gift for you. It's called the New Believer's Bible. So the New Believer's Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ.

There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pack. But let me get this New Believer's Bible into your hands as quickly as possible. Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, we can send it out to you right away if you'll call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime around the clock. Again at 1-800-821-3300.

Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, Pastor Greg, you have a brand new devotional book for the holiday season. It's full of 25 devotions that take us day by day right up to the day of Christmas in the month of December. Tell us about this book and your hope for what it will accomplish in our lives.

Yeah, I'd be happy to. So let me read to you a little bit from the introduction of the book. Cue Christmas music. When the Son of God was born to Mary and bet the hymn of Judea, everything changed. Through time and eternity, nothing would or could ever be the same. Christmas changed everything. And that's because Christ changes everything and all the politically correct scholars and woke writers and all the newsrooms and universities of the world can't change that truth. It is the hinge of history. When God himself entered the world in human form, when the great creator of the universe became a baby boy, planet Earth was transformed forever.

And so are we. So that just gives you a sense of what this book is all about. The title of the book is Heaven's Light Breaking, and basically it's 25 devotions, one for every day of the month of December.

Hey, if you get it before you can even read it in November. You can read it whenever you want, but specifically it's designed to be read in December as you make your way to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. What your focus ought to be, the things that should be at the forefront of your heart and mind as we think about the birth of Jesus Christ. And we want to send you a copy of this brand new Christmas devotional, Heaven's Light Breaking, for your gift of any size. And when you send this gift, it ensures that we will continue to come your way on this radio broadcast that has probably become a part of your life that's called A New Beginning. So order your copy of this brand new Christmas devotional called Heaven's Light Breaking. We're looking forward to sending you a copy. Yeah, that's right. It's a beautiful hardcover book, and we have it waiting for you right now.

It's easy to make the arrangements. Just call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call right now anytime 24 7 1-800-821-3300. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514.

Or go online to Harvest.org. Again, the title, Heaven's Light Breaking. Well, next time, more solid counsel on sharing the good news most effectively. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. 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.