Never Say Never | The Thrill of Spreading the Gospel

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Learn more and sign up at harvest.org. Jesus charged us with a responsibility to share the good news. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out it's the perfect time to do it. We are the first generation that could literally get the gospel to pretty much everyone.

So here's a challenge I have for you. Would you take the gospel to people who have offended you, or people you're not comfortable with, or people you don't even necessarily want to be with? Give them the gospel.

If you find a great restaurant or see a good movie, chances are you're not shy about mentioning it to someone else. We like to pass along helpful suggestions, but so many of us just don't feel comfortable in suggesting someone consider the hope of the gospel. We'll talk about that reluctance today on A New Beginning as Pastor Greg Laurie continues his studies in the book of Acts. We'll learn to follow the example of our first century forefathers and discover the thrill of spreading the good news. Grab your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 10.

We're back in our book of Acts series that we're calling The Upside Down Life, and the title of the message is Never Say Never. Think about this for a moment. We are the first generation that could literally fulfill the great commission in our lifetime. Think about that. Because of all of the technology that we have today, we could literally get the gospel to pretty much everyone on the planet.

But that's a big project. We can just stop and think about our own life and going into our own world. So the book of Acts. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that happened through the lives of ordinary people. It was the Spirit of God working through the Word of God in the hearts of the people of God, and it was said of them that they turned their world upside down. Well now in the book of Acts we have sort of a shifting of the gear, if you will, and there's a change in the strategy of the church. Well they now seem to get a better understanding of the simple fact that they were to take the gospel to everyone.

Everyone needed to hear it, not just the people that they were personally comfortable with. Also before I was here in Acts is a story of a man who was searching for God. He was a true seeker of God. And if a person is really seeking God, God will make himself known to them.

God promises in Jeremiah 29 13, you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart and I will be found by you. And the name of this man was Cornelius. And he was a centurion. And this is a pivotal moment with his conversion because now the church is going to leave not just bringing the gospel to their fellow Jews but to non-Jews or Gentiles as well.

To go out there and impact everybody. This reminds us that the early church was not perfect. They were people like us. They fell short of what God called them to do. They made mistakes. They had false doctrine.

They had division. They had issues that still infect the church today. And in some quarters of the church there was even prejudice where they were unwilling to go to people different than them. So God was changing the heart now of Simon Peter who at this moment is for all practical purposes leading the church along with James. And so Peter is being impacted by a couple of events that take place in his life. The first one is over in Acts chapter 9 verse 34 where he encounters a man named Aeneas.

He is in a non-Jewish city called Lod which by the way is modern Tel Aviv. And he is a paralytic. And so Peter goes to him and says Aeneas Jesus heals you.

Make your bed. And Aeneas got up and walked. And so that touched Peter's heart.

He is thinking wow this guy is not a Jew. And God just extended a miracle to him. And then there is also a story of a non-Jewish woman who was named Tabitha. She had died and her friends were in mourning.

Everybody brought the things that she had made for them. And Peter was so moved by this and God led him to raise her up from her bed. And he said Tabitha get up. So you see God is starting to change Peter.

He is starting to soften Peter's heart and get him ready. Now we are introduced to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 starting at verse 1. And by the way I am reading from the New Living Translation.

In Caesarea there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius who was a captain of the Italian regiment. He was a devout man. He feared the God of Israel as did his entire household. He gave generously to charity and was a man who regularly prayed to God. One afternoon around three o'clock he had a vision and he saw an angel of God coming toward him. Cornelius the angel said Cornelius stared in terror. What is it sir? Which by the way when an angel appears it is a good idea to call him sir. Right. And though Cornelius is a powerful leader of others he knows greater power when he sees it.

And the angel replies your prayers and gives to the poor of not going to notice by God. Now send some men down to Joppa to find a man named Simon Peter. He is staying with Simon a leather worker who lives near the shore.

Ask him to come to visit you. So we will stop there. Looping back now to Cornelius. He is a centurion. By the way it was not easy to become a centurion.

They commanded 300 to 600 troops. One of the historians of the day named Polybius described centurions as men who were not so much the venturesome daredevils as they were natural leaders known for their steadfastness and dependability in the heat of battle. So Cornelius he is a leader. He is an intelligent man. He is a level headed man.

He is a respected man. And like most Romans of his day he would worship Roman gods. They had many gods that they would bow before.

Jupiter, Mars, Venus. Many of them would even worship Caesar as a deity. So this was the world he lived in.

But he knew this was not the answer. Something about the Jewish people and their worship of the one true God fascinated him. They were monotheistic. They worshiped one God. He was polytheistic. He worshiped many gods. He was drawn. But he didn't really know how to believe quite yet. He was a true seeker and God was about to make himself known to this man. Now here is what I find interesting. An angel appears to him and says, go talk to Peter.

You are going to get the answers to all of your questions. Why didn't the angel just give him the gospel? Because the job of angels is not to preach the gospel. That is our job. Our job is to preach the gospel. How can they believe in him unless they have heard about him?

How can they hear unless someone tells them? Ask Paul in Romans 10 14. So here we have Cornelius and the Lord is getting them ready. Meanwhile back in Joppa we have Simon Peter. God is prepping him. He is getting these guys ready to meet each other.

It is going to be an explosive moment in church history and in the strategy of the church. Peter is sitting on the rooftop of the home of a guy named Simon the tanner. That doesn't mean that he lay down and got tans all the time. That means that he had hides of leather and such.

So he was a leather worker if you will. Peter is hungry. By the way I don't know about you but I am not a good hungry person. I am the person who gets hangry.

Sometimes I will start getting irritable and my wife will throw a sandwich at me to calm me down a little bit. When I go to a restaurant you know and by the way I eat lunch at 11 o'clock sharp. I am one of those people that eats early. Is there anybody else that eats an early lunch? Okay some people oh lunch. I didn't even know it was lunch time.

I am counting down the minutes till lunch time from nine in the morning pretty much after I have breakfast. And so you know when you go into a restaurant you sit down and you are looking for a server and one finally shows up. They take your drink order.

Okay I will have water, iced tea, whatever you have. And then they disappear for like a month. Where do they go? Where do they go? And then they reappear again and you finally get your order in and then a little bit of time passes and here comes the big platter with your order. You are so excited and they walk past your table at someone else's food. Then you start thinking wait didn't they get seated after us? Has anyone ever else thought these things? Is it just me? Yeah. And so you are getting hungrier and hungrier and in my case hangrier and hangrier. And finally your order arrives. And it is the wrong order.

They got it wrong. Or it is cold. Right? So you know Peter is hungry. He is just sort of laying there sitting there. And God is getting him ready for this big moment. Acts 10 now. Go over to verse 9. The next day as Cornelius' messengers were nearing the city.

Peter is up on the flat roof to pray. It is around noon. He is hungry. He was hungry.

Not hungry. And while lunch is being prepared he fell into a trance. And he saw the sky open and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners. And in the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles, and birds. And then a voice said to him, get up Peter.

Kill and eat them. Verse 14. Never Lord Peter declared. I have never in all of my life eaten anything forbidden by our Jewish laws.

The voice spoke again and said if something God says is acceptable don't say it isn't. Ok we will stop there. Ok this would be like a very health conscious person having a sheet or a sail or a picnic blanket if you like. Lowered from heaven with all of the foods that you are not supposed to eat. You know In-N-Out burger. Chipotle burritos. Nachos with extra cheese. Pizza. By the way I just named all of my favorite foods literally right there.

You just heard them all. And you know in St. Edo I can't eat that. I am into healthy foods. Or it would be like me having a sheet lowered from heaven filled with wheat germ and kale and tofu and things of that nature right. But the idea here is this is not about food. This is about people.

This sheet with all of these critters that were on it is a metaphor that God is giving to Peter and he is saying leave your comfort zone and go to a new group of people specifically the Gentiles. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everyone I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a harvest version of Netflix.

We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon. Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon. A Rush of Hope and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions and much more.

So go and download the Harvest Plus app. Well we're talking about the importance of sharing the gospel today as Pastor Greg presents his message from Acts 10 called Never Say Never. You know we're in a time in the church now where I've I see I don't think division is ever necessary but I see people dividing over really small things. Second tier.

Even third tier things. And your group gets narrower and narrower. It's down to pretty much us four and no more and I'm not sure about you other three right. And this is not the time to divide. This is the time to unify and get back to our primary mission that God has given to us. When a secular culture sees a divided church they don't care about what we say.

And here's what Paul reminds us of in Ephesians 4-3. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit. Finding yourselves together with peace. And so make every effort to get along with people.

Make every effort to not divide from people. And it's interesting that this happened in a place called Joppa. Does Joppa ring a bell with any of you Bible students? Of course you remember the story of Jonah. And God called Jonah to take God's message to the people of Nineveh who were renowned for their wickedness and cruelty. And Jonah flat out refused and he got a boat going in the opposite direction from a little place called Joppa. I've been to Joppa. It's a seaport in Israel.

And it's a beautiful little spot actually. And so there at Joppa Jonah ran from God. You know the rest of the story. A great storm came and he was thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish. Ultimately he repented and was given a second chance and went to Nineveh and preached to them. And a great spiritual awakening broke out. But it's interesting it's Joppa. Joppa is the place where God was directing Jonah and now Peter to go to people they were not necessarily comfortable with.

So here's a challenge I have for you. Would you take the gospel to people who have hurt you? Would you take the gospel to people who have offended you? Would you take the gospel to people who have mistreated you? Or people you're not comfortable with?

Or people you don't even necessarily want to be with? Let me illustrate it from my own life. As you know my mom was married and divorced seven times. And she was an alcoholic and went from husband to husband. And there were a lot of boyfriends in between.

And I went along. Her name was Charlene. I was on Charlene's wild ride.

You've heard of Mr. Toad's wild ride. I was on Charlene's wild ride. And so after I came to Christ I pretty much had a full-time ministry sharing the gospel with my old dads.

I'll put them in quotes. Some were successful. I was able to share the gospel with Oscar Laurie the man who adopted me and whom my mom left. And I was able to lead him to the Lord toward the end of his life.

That was fantastic. Well my mom leaves Oscar who was like a great dad. Though he was not my biological father he treated me as a father should treat a son. He taught me things. I stole something once as a kid. And he took me down to the jail and introduced me to prison. We got people in jail.

And the problem was I thought it was kind of cool and that didn't work so well. But thankfully I didn't go into life or crime. He gave me an allowance. He was a good dad.

A real functioning dad. And one day my mom leaves him abruptly. I get out of my classroom and the Cadillac is loaded with a bunch of luggage and we are on our way to Hawaii to meet my quote new dad who I had never heard of before. So I land in Honolulu and here is this guy I have never seen before.

They take me to his home. And they took my room that I had in New Jersey and literally recreated it in Hawaii. It is like my same room.

Same stuff in my room. But it wasn't my room. And the whole thing was bizarre.

Well he too was an alcoholic and a violent drunk. And one night they got in a fight and he took out a wooden statue and hit my mother. Knocked her unconscious.

She landed on the floor. I came out of my room as a little boy and saw my mom lying in a pool of blood and he was holding the statue up in a menacing way. And I remember it. It was such a weird statement. He said go back to bed.

She is fine. It is just ketchup. Well I knew what it was. And I climbed out the window of our house and went to a neighbor and the police were called. But she left him. Understandably.

So now fast forward. I am a Christian. I am a pastor. And I am preaching in Honolulu. And someone comes up to me and says hey your dad is very sick.

I don't know how long he is going to live. Maybe you should go talk to him. And I said no thank you.

Why did I say no thank you? Because he hurt me. Because he hurt my mother. I had a hard heart against this man.

Even as a Christian I wanted nothing to do with him. And the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said go talk to him. So I went. And I sat down with him and I told him all about Jesus and what Jesus had done for me.

And he was like yeah well that is good. Well I am preaching across the street here. Literally across the street from where you live at this place called Waikiki Shell. Would you like to come? No. He wanted nothing to do with it.

But here is my point. I have never converted anyone. My job was to obey God.

And I went to him and did what God wanted me to do. Is there a guy like that in your life right now? Maybe it is your father. Maybe it is a stepfather. Your mom. A stepmother.

Somebody else that you are so hard against right now. Go to them with the gospel. That is effectively what Peter was being commanded to do. And so he obeyed the Lord.

Unlike Jonah who went the wrong way but got rerouted and eventually got it right. Peter did immediately what God called him to do. Go to Acts 10 verse 24. They arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for him and called together his relatives and close friends to meet Peter. Peter entered his home and Cornelius fell to the floor before him in worship. Peter pulled him up and said stand up. I am a human being like you. Cornelius got up and they talked together and went inside where the others were assembled. And Peter said you know it is against the Jewish laws for me to come into a Gentile home like this but God has shown me that I should never think of anyone as impure so I came as soon as I was sent for.

Tell me now why you sent for me. Such an amazing story. God is getting both of these guys ready. The Roman centurion bows before him which is pretty amazing. I mean the centurion, an officer in the Roman army. The occupier is bowing before the occupy.

The Jewish people. And this was a great act of humility but it was really an act of worship. Peter says get up on your feet man.

I am just an ordinary human being just like you. But now Peter is getting it. Okay okay Lord I think I have got to figure it out. I am putting two and two together.

This sheet. All the weird creatures. Kill and eat. This is the Gentile. I am supposed to go to Gentiles.

I got it. All right Lord. And Peter preaches the gospel to Cornelius and the result was he is converted.

Think of what God can do to the life of one person. Pastor Greg Laurie with great encouragement today on what God can do if we follow his leading. There is more to come in this message here on A New Beginning.

A study called Never Say Never. Pastor Greg we have considered the importance of sharing the gospel today and no doubt there is someone listening who needs to come to the Lord today. What would you say to them? I would say that is the most important decision you are ever going to make in your life. So I want you to stay tuned because I am going to tell you how to make that decision in just a few moments.

All right. Now hopefully you heard every word of what Pastor Greg presented today but if an interruption or two got in the way why not catch what you missed by listening online at harvest.org. Again the message is called Never Say Never or subscribe to our podcast by going to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any of the other podcast apps. Well Pastor Greg do you have any idea how many people have viewed the Ben Born Again, The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog at this point?

Dave I am happy to report that well over a million kids have seen these cartoons. Now we are putting them on all of our platforms, on our social media platforms, on our television program and streaming app and by the way if you have not downloaded the Harvest Plus streaming app do that immediately. You can download it for your phone, for your tablet, on your tv set.

Our movies that we offer are in 4k. We have our cartoons on there. It is just a fantastic app.

So easy to navigate. It is sort of like a Harvest Netflix if you will with all of our content. We have a very large library too and so a lot of kids have seen these cartoons and we are producing more and we are excited about the response to them. Well some parents they may not know what a great resource this is in bringing spiritual values right into their home. I mean a cartoon you think oh yeah that is fun for the kids and at least it is wholesome, it is safe and all that kind of thing but these kids really learn spiritual principles and not only is the cartoon series conveying those principles we have a new resource that expands upon the spiritual growth of these youngsters.

That is right Dave. These cartoons always have a Bible story in them. They have scriptures in them and we explain the truths of the Bible to the kids in a way that they can understand and we also do that in this new resource we are offering.

Now maybe you have heard of this before but this is a reboot, a refresh, a redo, whatever you want to call it. It is a brand new version of what we call the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. So this is basically a resource designed to help children get grounded in their faith. After a child has asked Jesus to come into their life, Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog tell them the things they need to know. Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog tell them how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to know the will of God, how to resist temptation and much much more. It is engaging, it is understandable, it is biblical and it is new and it is something we want to get into the hands of as many kids as possible and that is where you come in because as you invest in our ministry and in this new resource and sort of the Ben Born Again universe if you will you become a part of this in reaching kids and you know maybe you have children, maybe you have grandchildren or you have nieces or nephews, you have your neighborhood kids, you know there's just kids out there that need to hear the truth of the gospel and so many of them are not hearing it. They're not being taken to church as they should be. They're not being exposed to God's word. So let's get God's word to them.

Let's drop it right in their lap. You could order more than one of these and have them on hand to give to kids. So our resource this month is the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book designed for elementary age children and we'll ask you to be generous so we can continue to reach this young generation with the only message that can give them the meaning of life on earth and prepare them for the afterlife and that would be the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yeah that's right and we hope you'll get in touch right away for this new Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. It features the new Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog design. It helps kids get well grounded in the Lord.

It's engaging and understandable but more than that it's biblical. When you give be sure to ask for the new Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. And then if you'd like to make a change in your relationship with God today Pastor Greg has some additional thoughts to share. Maybe as you've been listening to this message you've thought I wish I could come into this relationship with God.

I just don't know how. Let me tell you how you can come into a relationship with God right here right now. First of all you need to recognize you need God. You need to admit you're a sinner. I know some people choke on that word but the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But then you need to recognize that Jesus Christ the Son of God died on the cross for your sin. The Bible says while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And then you need to believe in Jesus. Jesus put it this way for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You might ask how does one believe in Jesus?

To believe means to put your faith and trust in Christ and Christ alone and to receive him into your life as your own friend savior and Lord. The Bible says for as many as received him he gave them the power to become sons of God. Would you like to receive Christ and by that I mean would you like to ask Jesus to enter into your life and be your savior your friend your Lord if so you can just pray this prayer after me. It's a simple prayer you can pray it out loud if you would like or you could pray it in the quietness of your heart but if you want Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin if you want to go to heaven when you die or maybe you want to make a recommitment to the Lord just pray this prayer after me now.

Pray these words if you would Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin I turn now from my sin and I ask you to come into my life and forgive me of all of my sin thank you for loving me thank you for hearing this prayer and thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus name I pray amen. Hey if you just prayed that prayer I want to congratulate you and say welcome to the family of God. Yeah that's right and listen we want to help you get started living for the Lord. Let us send you a copy of Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible.

It's in an easy to understand translation with hundreds of helps that'll guide you into building a strong foundation for your faith. We'll send it free of charge if you prayed with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime 24 7 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. Well next time more insight on the importance of sharing the gospel even with those outside of our comfort zones. Join us here on The 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.