How to Reach Our Culture with the Gospel | Sharing the Hope of Jesus

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 e-books designed to help you grow in your faith. The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But Pastor Greg Laurie points out the challenge of that message.

You know, people will talk about anything. Oh, I believe in this and I believe in a little bit of that and I believe in some of this other thing where I just made up a bunch of stuff and this is what I believe now. Sort of like an ABC religion. ABC, anything but Christ. How do we reach a culture like this? How do we tell them about Jesus Christ? As believers who want to share our faith, sometimes it would seem we're attempting to deliver a message many people just don't want to hear.

They think they don't need to hear it. Well, the truth is everyone needs the hope of Jesus Christ. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie reminds us God built us with a hunger for God.

People may try to feed that hunger with the things of this world, but sooner or later they'll come to realize their hunger is for something more. Let's grab our Bibles. Turn to Acts chapter 17. The title of my message is how to reach our culture with the gospel. So there was an event that was being held and a minister was asked to come and share just a few words, which sometimes is challenging for preachers because we can be long-winded, right? So the preacher got up to speak and he quickly went to us a lot of time which was five minutes and he was continuing to speak and now it's eight minutes.

Now it's nine minutes. So there was a moderator there. He cleared his throat hoping the preacher would hear and stop. Still the minister droned on. Then the moderator lightly tapped the gavel to get the preacher's attention. Still this preacher kept preaching. Now it's 20 minutes and it's ruining the entire event because they have other things that are going to happen. And now the moderator pounds down the gavel loudly and still the preacher is speaking.

The moderator couldn't take it anymore. He took the gavel and threw it at the preacher. It barely missed the preacher and hit an elderly man who had fallen asleep in the front row. The old dude woke up, saw the preacher but still speaking and then he said to the moderator, hit me again.

I can still hear him. We've all heard that preacher and sometimes we've been that preacher. Oh not behind a pulpit but we're the kind of person that when we come along people want to go in the other direction because here comes you or me with our message and it's the way we deliver it that drives people crazy.

So let's take a master class from a master communicator. The apostle Paul. Let's take a page out of his playbook on how to reach our culture with the gospel. And so Acts chapter 17 is the story of Paul bringing the gospel to the city of Athens. At this time Athens was sort of waning from its former glory but it was effectively the cultural and intellectual center of the world. It was the base of the great Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and many others.

Their thoughts and teachings still impact on many today as a matter of fact. So Paul's just sort of hanging around in Athens and he does what you would do when you're in a city like that. He went sightseeing. I've been to Athens. We went there as a part of a tour to Israel and walking in the footsteps of Paul. And I've actually spoken on Mars Hill where Paul addressed these people.

And so he's just checking things out. There's the great Parthenon. A temple built on one of their false gods. In fact there were false gods everywhere in Athens. It was said it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man. That's estimated there were at least 30,000 altars erected to various Greek deities like Zeus who was the king of all gods. And there's Athena the goddess of heroic behavior.

Epaphrodit the goddess of love and lust. Morpheus the god of dreams. Poseidon the god of sinking ships.

No not really. That was a movie about the Poseidon. Forget it. That was actually the goddess of storms and earthquakes. And then finally there was Nike the goddess of shoes.

We know that for sure okay. So all these various deities were there. And so Paul just kind of taken it in. He's walking around the city. He's absorbing the culture. And now he begins his message in Acts 17 starting in verse 16 we read.

And I'm reading from the New Living Translation. When Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles and spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there. And he had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. You might underline that.

I'm going to come back to it. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. Then he told them about Jesus and his resurrection. And they said this babbler has picked up some strange ideas. Others said he's pushing some foreign religion. Then they took him to the Council of Philosophers also known as the Areopagus and said come and tell us more about this new religion. You're seeing some rather startling things and we want to know what it's all about.

It should be explained that the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seem to spend all of their time discussing the latest ideas. I'd underline that. That's interesting.

Underline that. So Paul standing before the council addressed them as follows. Men of Athens I notice you're very religious. If you were to give this statement today you would say a people of America I see that you're into spirituality.

That's effectively what he was saying. And I was walking among your many altars and one of them had this inscription on it to an unknown God. You've been worshiping him without knowing who he is and now I wish to tell you about him. That's a powerful text and we'll stop there. You know we live in a unique time in American history. I would say the days of cultural Christianity are over. What is cultural Christianity? Well there was a time in the late 50s early 60s when many Americans would identify themselves as a Christian even if they were not. Church attendance was much higher. Biblical values were reflected even in television programs like Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver and things like that.

There was sort of a respect for certain bedrock values. That is not the case today. Our culture today is more biblically illiterate than it has ever been. It's shocking how little people know today about the Bible. There was a time in our public schools where the Bible would even be taught as literature.

Not as the book given to us from God but at least telling people you need to have a general understanding of scripture. No those days are gone as well. So our culture our nation is a lot more like Mars Hill than any other time. Mars Hill was the place where the philosophers would speak and trade in the latest ideas of the time. They were a completely secular culture.

We're becoming more of a secular culture. There were two primary streams of thought at this time. The teachings of the Epicureans and the Stoics. Epicureans and Stoics and people still believe in these philosophies today. Let's start with the Epicureans. They believed in the pursuit of pleasure.

Sound familiar? Their belief was there was no order really to the universe. There's no God. No absolutes. No future judgment.

So you might as well live for the moment. They were effectively the party animals of the first century. Their philosophy would be hey we're all going to die so let's just eat drink and be merry and enjoy the moment. I think our modern equivalent would be the playboy philosophy. The pursuit of hedonism.

Casting aside all absolutes or codes and just do whatever you want to do. And we all know people and some of us used to be these people who live for pleasure. You live for that buzz. You live for the rush. You live for the experience. You live for the excitement. It reminds me of going to an amusement park where you spend a lot of time waiting in lines. And then you get on the ride and the ride's over so quickly and then you go and get in another line right. And some people spend their entire life waiting to get on the ride. Waiting to have the pleasure.

And there's a deadness to all of it. As the Bible says she that lives for pleasure is dead even while she is living it. It's been said the cure for hedonism is an attempt to practice it. That is why so many people who become rich and famous especially quickly burn out. Or they find themselves addicted to drugs or alcohol. Or you hear that they're into their second third fourth marriages. Or they're taking their own lives because they have chased after their dreams and they've realized their dreams. And sadly in many cases their dreams have turned into nightmares.

Living a life for pleasure is in reality a pleasure free life. So those are the Epicureans. Then there's the Stoics.

They were more disciplined. They believed that God was in all things. God was in nature. God was in the trees and in the ocean and in the sky and then the animals.

Everything. Sort of a new age belief before it was called that. So this is the audience if you will that Paul is addressing in his day. As verse 21 says they spent all their time discussing the latest ideas. Sort of like an ABC religion.

ABC anything but Christ. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home. It happens every Sunday at Harvest.org and on our brand new app Harvest Plus which is available on your mobile TV devices. Download it now and you can watch Harvest at Home with Christians from around the world as we worship together and study God's Word.

So again join us for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org or on Harvest Plus. Well today we're discussing the challenge of reaching our world for Christ. Pastor Greg's message is titled how to reach our culture with the gospel.

You know people will talk about anything oh I believe in this and I believe a little bit of that and I believe in some of this other thing where I just made up a bunch of stuff and this is what I believe now. And so here's Paul now with this challenge that's not unlike the challenge you and I face every day. How do we reach a culture like this?

How do we connect to people like this? How do we tell them about Jesus Christ? Because really as the Bible says there's nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes says history merely repeats itself. It's all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

How true is that? It's just a repeat of it in a new way. Malcolm Muggeridge once said quote all new news is old news happening to new people.

Right? So things are not as different today as you think they are. I think these first century principles apply to us in the 21st century. So how can we be better communicators in the time in which we live? Point number one effective communication begins with a burden.

Effective communication begins with a burden. Look at verse 16. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was greatly distressed that the city was full of idols. He was greatly distressed that the city was full of idols. The word used here for distressed means seizure, spasm, or outburst. So this is a visible reaction from Paul. You know if you're upset by something someone might say hey you don't have a seizure man. Paul was kind of having a spiritual seizure. He was just grieved to see the absence of the living God and in his place every conceivable substitute. And I wonder if you ever feel that way.

I know I do. You know when I look at a news site it's so frustrating to me to see the evil in the world. The horrible things that people do to people.

The wrong ideas that people fall for. The tragedy of so many human lives. And then we look at all these idols. All these false gods. I would say for us today for us celebrities are false gods. You know what are they up to?

What's the latest thing? What do they just post? Oh wow look at how they look here and they're using all these filters. They don't even look like the people they are. And I think people sort of put these people on pedestals and these ideologies etc. But I want you to remember something. When you look at people doing godless things they are not the enemy. The devil is the enemy. I think we forget this sometimes.

And sometimes even in our world of politics you know we get really worked up. They're so evil. They're so bad.

Okay hold on now. Here's what the Bible teaches. They are a sinner under the captive of Satan. Now granted they're doing evil things.

What they're doing is wrong. But we're not supposed to hate sinners. We're supposed to love sinners. Hate the sin sure but love the sinners. Don't forget Jesus was called the friend of sinners.

2 Timothy 2 26 says pray that they'll come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap for they've been held captive by him to do whatever he wants. Don't forget you used to be one of them. How were you reached? By someone yelling at you?

By someone hating you? No I'm sure it was the love of God that got through to you right? Someone show God's love. Satan is the enemy. Sinners are not the enemy.

They're they're under his control and we're praying that they'll be set free. You know it's interesting the phrase that Paul uses there for people being held captive it means they're caught alive. Caught alive. The only other time that phrase is used in the New Testament is when Jesus says follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. Or a better translation would be follow me and you will catch men alive. So here's the choice.

They can either be caught alive by the devil if you will or caught alive by Christ through our evangelistic efforts. And I think we often sort of want to withdraw from culture. Culture is evil. I don't watch tv. I don't go online. I don't go to movies. I only go to Christian restaurants and I eat Christian food. And I have a Christian pillow and Christian slippers. And I listen to Christian radio and only watch Christian television.

Okay no it's fine to have these assets out there but we need to reach the culture that we're in. Paul went into their world. The Areopagus Mars Hill was sort of the town square. He just went right there in the epicenter of everything.

Said hey I was walking around your city. I was checking things out and I saw that you have all these gods you worship. But there was one altar erected to the unknown god. I think the idea was hey in case we miss one god let's just erect this to the god we missed right. I want to talk to you about the god you don't know about.

Bringing me to my second point. Paul was culturally relevant. He was culturally relevant. It's called reading the room. Paul quotes one of their secular philosophers to build a bridge to his audience. He says I want to talk to you about the unknown god. I notice that you're very religious or as I said we might say today you're into spirituality. So you know this is a great way to start. And I do this all the time. You know I do this when I preach. I do this one-on-one.

I try to find a little bridge to walk over with the person I'm speaking to. I have a book called Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus. Now I know that's a weird name for a book okay. So you know I've done some other biographies on Johnny Cash, Steve McQueen, Billy Graham. So this one is about these rock stars that are known by many people and what happened in their lives spiritually.

And this co-author I work with and I were able to dig up some really interesting things about people that are in the public eye who actually encountered Christ. I'm not saying all of these people are Christians. Some of them are.

Some of them aren't. But basically my premise of this book is to show that no one is beyond the reach of God. So here's like John Lennon as an example. Of course part of the Beatles. And everyone thinks John Lennon was the most anti-Christ guy that ever lived. Because after all he wrote the song Imagine.

Imagine there's no heaven, no hell below you, above you only sky, etc. He said we're more popular than Jesus. Speaking of the Beatles. Well some things happened toward the end of Lennon's life many people don't know about. And there was a moment in his life where he actually professed faith in Jesus Christ. Now granted it did not last but I explored that.

What actually happened to this guy? And there's a lot of other things in there that you'll learn about people that have come to Christ. And I also deal with present day pop stars as well. Many of whom have made professions of faith. I start the book with these words. There'll be three surprises when we get to heaven. Number one some of the people we thought would be there won't be there. Number two some of the people we never thought would be there will be there.

Number three will be there. So because sometimes people misunderstand I think when I do things like this. Why are you talking to that person? And why are you doing this film here?

And well what is this all about? I'm trying to build bridges. I don't want to just talk to Christians. I want to talk to non-believers and tell them about Christ.

Because someone did that for me. They came to my high school campus and they shared the gospel and kind of entered my weird little world. And I heard it and I understood it and I believe and I want to do that for other people as well. Good insight from Pastor Greg Laurie today here on A New Beginning.

And he comes back to close our study time in prayer in just a moment. Now Pastor Greg mentioned his book Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus. You can find out more about that book by going to our online store at harvest.org. Just click the store icon at the top of the page Lennon, Dylan, Alice and Jesus. You'll find it's a fascinating read. But listen if you've never come into a relationship with the Lord we'd invite you to do that today.

It's just too important to put it off. Pastor Greg what would you say to the listener who wants to make that change right now? What I would say is he's only a prayer way. Which means if you will call upon the name of the Lord right now through prayer he will hear your prayer and answer your prayer. Listen if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want him to forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you go to heaven when you die just pray this prayer right now after me. Just pray 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 and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and Lord as my God and my friend in Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Amen. And listen if you have just prayed that prayer with Pastor Greg and have meant those words sincerely the Lord has forgiven your sins and we want to welcome you into God's family and we want to help you get started living this new life. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible. It's been read by millions of people and they've enjoyed the scores of helps for new believers and the easy to understand translation. So get in touch for your free copy of the New Believers Bible. You can call us at 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime again at 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. Pastor Greg let me ask you what what do parents need to know about what kids are facing today? You know it's post COVID lockdowns quarantines all that on top of all the pressures the kids normally face on top of social media pressures and everything else. What would parents be surprised to know about the typical struggles the kids face? I think they would be surprised to know that their kids are really scared that they are dealing with the level of stress that is unprecedented and I'll tell you why.

Social media has amplified everything to another level and and of course they're dealing with self-worth issues. I was just taking my granddaughter to school and I told her because she was meeting with some friends and I know how strong peer pressure is in school especially in the teen years and I just said to her I want you to remember that you are a beautiful girl. You're very smart. You're very athletic.

You love the Lord. I'm so proud of you and don't ever worry about the approval of some other kid. I know it's really a big deal when you're in school. I know peer pressure is so strong but as you get older you really realize that it doesn't matter what other people think about you that much. So I think it's important to to affirm our children.

You know I think as parents so often we have to correct them. Hey clean your room. Wash your hands. Do this. Do that.

Why didn't you do this better? There's a place for that of course. It's called parenting but on the other hand there's a place for affirmation for for encouragement and and to reassure them. They need to know that God loves them and they need to know that you love them and that you're their biggest fan and you're their rooting for them and you need to take time for them. You know it's been said the greatest thing you can spend on your children is time and I know sometimes they'll say well I spend quality time with my children. Oh that's nice but actually kids need quantity time. Lots of it and so involve yourself in the lives of your little ones because before you know it they will be grown and they will be out of the house and they will have all those memories and I don't think you'll look back and say I wish I hadn't spent so much time with my kids. I wish I hadn't talked to them so often.

I wish I had worked out more or I wish that I would had other hobbies that I did instead of doing that or or even made more money. No you'll realize those times you spent with your children are gold. So take time with your kids. Affirm your kids.

Reassure your kids because they're living because they're living in a really scary world right now. And we have a resource that could really help them in that regard. It's tied in with our new animated cartoon series. The new resource is called the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book.

Tell them how they can put that into use in encouraging kids the right way. Yeah well the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book is a part of our our series that we're doing with these cartoon characters including animation. In fact we have an episode of Ben Born Again that's available on the Harvest Plus app that I hope you will all download and it's called Don't Be Afraid and it deals with fear.

And it was written to address the fears of young people. It's Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog and they're out in the ocean and a giant wave comes and they're both freaking out. In fact here's a little audio sample of it.

Outside Yellow Dog. Big set coming. Isn't there a beginner's course around here? Don't worry man don't be afraid. I'm not afraid I'm just very very very concerned. Come on we've got it. Oh we don't got it. Jesus help us.

That sushi is a little too fresh for me. Oh dude that was insane. Yeah well the next wave coming is from me waving goodbye to this ocean. So Ben asks Yellow Dog what are you afraid of and Yellow Dog describes his fears which includes vacuum cleaners cats and strollers and other things but eventually they get down to real fears that we all face in life and Ben points Yellow Dog to Christ and trusting in the Lord and when fear and worry encroaches that we pray. But we hope people will watch that. It's called Don't Be Afraid on the Harvest Plus app but back to the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. So this is a printed resource that we have developed. It takes the basics of the Christian faith the things that every Christian needs to know including children and presents them in a very friendly entertaining way. Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog are woven throughout the resource and it will be a blessing to your kids and your grandkids and I would like to send you one of these for your gift of any size and by the way whatever you send will be used for us to continue to reach young people and older people too of course but to reach all people with the message of the gospel and the teaching of the word of God so order your copy of the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. Yeah that's right we have it waiting for you so just get in touch with an investment in sharing the gospel and we'll say thanks by sending you the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book.

Just call us anytime 24 7 at 1-800-821-3300 that's 1-800-821-3300 or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg offers more how-to guidelines for sharing the gospel most effectively but before we go Pastor Greg closes our study in a word of prayer. Let's pray now Father use us to be your light in this dark world. There are so many people that don't know you.

They don't know anything about you and that seems like a bad thing but in some ways it could be a good thing because there's no preconceived notions. They're kind of like a blank slate and we have the answer. The powerful word of God. The life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Lord we want to give that message to as many people as possible. We commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.