Hey everybody, you're listening to A New Beginning, which is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners.
If this program has impacted you, I'd love to hear from you. So just send an email to me at greg.harvest.org. Again, it's greg.harvest.org.
You can learn more about becoming a Harvest Partner by going to harvest.org. Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out sometimes believers try to share the Gospel with language the other person doesn't speak. Well say, hey, you, he, then let me say something to you. You're a sinner going to hell. You need to repent. You need to be washed in the blood.
Then you need to become a part of the body and be justified and sanctified. Am I making myself clear? They don't know what you're saying. You're speaking in different languages. We need to reach the culture that we're in. As believers, sometimes it seems we're living in some kind of weird upside-down culture, where right is wrong, up is down, and sin is to be celebrated. We feel disoriented, like aliens on a strange planet. Well today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out sometimes people may feel a bit disoriented when they talk to us.
He'll show us ways to find common ground, use common language, and capture their interest with our message of hope. Years ago we would go to a little restaurant for breakfast, my wife, Kathy, myself, and Jonathan. He was a very small little toddler, probably around two years old, still in a high chair. And so we'd order our breakfast and there was this one waitress that really thought Jonathan was just adorable. And she would come over, Jonathan, how are you today?
Hello, Jonathan. And she'd pat him on the head and hug him. And he looked slightly irritated, but he didn't say anything. He just had this look and he was muttering something under his breath. What is he saying?
Finally she left. I said, Jonathan, what are you saying when that waitress is hugging you and telling you how wonderful she thinks you are? He says, I'm saying go bye-bye. Go bye-bye. I think sometimes when we start talking people are thinking go bye-bye.
We don't want to be that person. 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. By the way, these are principles that I've been personally using for 50 years plus of preaching.
Though given in the first century they're completely relevant to us today in the 21st century because the answers to the problems of humanity are still the same. And so Acts chapter 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. 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's interesting.
Underline that. So Paul's standing before the council address them as follows. Men of Athens I notice you're very religious. If you were to give this statement today you would say 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 worshipping him without knowing who he is and now I wish to tell you about him. So how can we be better communicators in the time in which we live? How can we not be the person that comes down the street and have people say go bye bye. Okay so if you're taking notes here six principles on how to bring the gospel to our culture. 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 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.
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.
And that's so important so people know we live in the same world they live in. This is a powerful way to start. Jesus himself did this. Remember the woman at the well. She was ostracized from her community.
Had no friends to speak of. She'd been married and divorced five times and was living with some guy. And she comes to the well to draw water in the heat of the day and there sits Jesus a Jew in Samaria.
That was pretty unusual. And then he asked her a question. Hey could you give me a drink of water? She says why would you a Jew ask for a drink of water from me a Samaritan woman?
Don't you know Jews have no dealings with Samaritans? He said if you knew who you were talking to you would ask him and he would give you living water. And the conversation began. What was Jesus doing?
He was building a bridge. He could have started by saying hey you a moral woman harlot come here. Was she an immoral woman?
Yes. But what did Jesus do? He appealed to her inner thirst. Lady I know why you're married and divorced five times and living with some guy. I know that you're trying to fill a void in your life with men when really what you need is a relationship with God. He says to her if you drink of this water you'll thirst again.
Great way to start. So Paul does the same thing. Look at verse 28. He quotes one of their, we'll put it in quotes, secular poets. Hey you have a poet that says in him we live and move and have our being. And as one of your own poets says we are his offspring. See here's our problem is we try to talk to a non-believer in a cryptic christianese language that only we understand.
Well say hey you he then let me say something to you. Uncircumcised Philistine let me tell you something. You're a sinner going to hell. You need to repent. You need to be washed in the blood. Then you need to become a part of the body and be justified and sanctified.
Am I making myself clear? They don't know what you're saying. You're speaking a different language. You just told them to be washed in blood and be a part of a body. They don't know what that means.
That sounded kind of creepy. Oh Greg are you suggesting we don't use biblical terminology? No I'm suggesting that you not assume that your listener understands the language you're speaking in. So break it down.
Speak in a way they'll understand. That's what Paul is doing. Paul is a brilliant intellect. The greatest of theologians. He knew Roman philosophy, Greek philosophy.
He knew it all but he breaks it down in such a simple way. He says I want to talk to you about the unknown God. So Paul now continues on with this message to these people. Telling them how to come into this relationship with God.
Bringing me to point number four. We must preach a biblical message. Okay yeah build a bridge to your audience.
Connect to them. But ultimately the power is not in a quote from a secular philosopher. The power is in the Word of God. That's where the power is. So we got to get to this.
If we don't get to this we've missed the point. God himself says of scripture Isaiah 55 11, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It will not return unto me void. It will accomplish what I please and prosper in the thing for which I send it. This book that is given to us from God is sufficient to meet our spiritual needs.
Second Timothy 3 15 says all scripture is inspired by God and it's profitable to teach us what is true. Make us realize what's wrong in our lives. It straightens us out. It teaches us to do what's right.
It's God's way of preparing us in every way equipped for every good thing that God wants us to do. And guess what? People want to hear biblical preaching today. They actually want to hear it. Christianity Today ran an article with the headline the hottest thing at church is not your pastor or worship leader. The article goes on to say what people are looking for when they come to church is preaching centered on the Bible. The conclusion was sermons that teach about scripture are the number one reason Americans go to church. The Bible. We want to hear it don't we.
We want to hear it don't we. People were pulled recently in another article and they were asked if they wanted longer or shorter sermons. Their answer longer sermons okay. Not boring sermons but they want to hear more of the word of God. Listen my job is not to make the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant. I just need to let the lion out of the cage and let the word of God do what it does best change lives.
So Paul's message was biblical. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hearing about listeners who are helped because of Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries is so encouraging. Hi Pastor Greg I want to send an enormous thank you. Jesus has been a rock in the unrelenting years of storms in my life and your daily podcast messages have played a large part in helping me. I appreciate your humor as it made me laugh on days that I struggled not to cry and your impactful practical messages picked me up on days I felt like I was on the floor. While the storms in my life have not subsided they are no longer hurricane status and more of a steady winter rain.
But I no longer feel like I'm drowning and can more easily breathe again. God bless you for your constant support and encouragement Pastor Greg. We're so blessed to hear comments like this. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? Why not drop him an email? Send it to Greg at Harvest dot org.
Do it today while you're thinking about it. Again that's Greg at Harvest dot org. Well today Pastor Greg is offering some important guidelines on sharing the message of the gospel effectively. He continues now. When you're talking to someone one-on-one and understand the word preach I know we're going to all the world and preach the gospel doesn't mean you have to yell. I've seen people yelling when they're talking to someone to someone and Jesus said stop that. Just calm down lower your volume and say it conversationally the word of God is still powerful even without an elevated volume. Just because there's power in this word and you you build a bridge you connect to the person. Listen if you want to win some be winsome. You know be a nice person. Be a friendly person. Be a loving person and then tell them what the word of God says and that's what Paul did.
Point number five. Our message must focus on Christ crucified and risen. Look at how Paul closes the deal. Verse 31. He's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he has ordained. He's given assurance of this to all of us by raising him from the dead. That's the message.
Okay guys I built the bridge. I'm giving you the word of God. Here's the bottom line. Jesus is the answer. That was true in the first century.
That's true in the 21st century. That's my message. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Jesus Christ crucified. Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Jesus Christ ascended and coming back again. You need Jesus. That's what we're telling people and that's what Paul did so powerfully.
One last point. After preaching Paul trusted God for the results. After preaching he trusted God for the results. Look at verse 32 of chapter 17. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked while others said we'll hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from them.
However some men joined him and believed among him Dionysius the Areopagite a woman named Damaris and others with them. Now this is really interesting to me. This is the apostle Paul.
And what happens? He preaches to these people and a handful respond. Wait you're Paul. I mean don't you always have a lot of people believing? No.
Peter had 3,000 on the day of Pentecost but look the response of people is up to God. It's not up to me. I don't believe in trying to manipulate people into believing or arguing them into believing because if they can be argued in they can be argued out.
If they can be manipulated in they can be manipulated out. Jesus says no one comes to me unless the father draws him. So what I do is I share the gospel. I'll ask a person perhaps if I'm feeling prompted by the Lord would you like to accept Jesus Christ into your life right now? And if they say no I don't grab them by the throat. I don't pressure them.
You gotta just pray this prayer with me. I leave it in the hands of God. And sometimes people believe and sometimes they don't. Sometimes God wants me to sow a seed and that's it. Sometimes God wants me to water a seed that someone else sowed. And other times God gives me the privilege of reaping where others have watered and sown. As Paul said one sows another waters.
God gives the increase. It's up to God. Not up to me.
Not up to you. But look at how they reacted. Some mocked. It was a joke to them. The word used here for mocked means they sneered and burst out laughing.
Wow. That was an indication they were perishing. The Bible says the preaching of the gospel is to them who are perishing foolishness. Some will mock. I used to mock Christians. I laughed at them.
I thought they were stupid and foolish. I was in the south years ago and I drove by a little town. I saw the sign. The town was called Mocksville.
I thought I should have been born there. Because I've always been a mocker. I make fun of things. And so I made fun of the Christians. But then I sat down and listened and I stopped mocking and started believing. So some mocked. Some delayed. They said we'll talk to you about this another time.
You'll meet people like this. Well I'm interested but not now. I don't want to do it now. I don't want to go to church with you now. I don't want to pray with you now. Okay. They can have that response.
But sometimes you need to kind of press on a little bit more. And you need the Lord to lead you. This was based on my mother's response. Every time I brought the gospel up to her she would say I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it.
I don't want to talk about it. One day I woke up. I felt so led of the Lord to go talk to my mother about her soul.
And so I got in my car and drove over. She was kind of surprised. Well what are you doing here? Mom I want to talk to you about your soul.
Your relationship with God. She said I don't want to talk about it. I said today we're going to talk about it. And I'm glad I was persistent. Because that was the day she recommitted her life to the Lord.
And a month later she was in heaven. So sometimes people say I don't want to talk about it. But they do want to talk about it. So you need to be sensitive to the leading of the Lord. And sometimes they say I don't want to talk about it. And they don't want to talk about it.
And by continuing to push it you could actually hurt what you're trying to do. Okay so some delayed. Some mocked. And finally some believed. One of them was named Dionysius the Areopagite. He was one of the judges of Athens. An intellectual. A ruler of his day. He became a believer. Another woman named Damaris. She was disillusioned with the emptiness of the worship of false gods. And she too believed. So it wasn't what we would call a great response.
But hey it's what it was. And it we read of the words of Jesus when he says pray that the Lord would send out laborers into his harvest. It's not Greg's harvest. It's not your harvest. It's his harvest. So we say Lord you just reach those people.
The Bible says as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. So we just say Lord it's in your hands. I'm going to proclaim your gospel. I'm going to do it lovingly. I'm going to do it carefully. I'm going to do it in a way that's understood by the person I'm speaking to. And I'll leave the results in your hands. Let me close with this acronym.
SHARE. S-H-A-R-E. Every one of those letters stands for something and it sort of sums up what we've just read. S stands for sensitive. Be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Paul's message began with the burden that God gave him to reach the people of Athens. So be sensitive. H. Honor and respect others. Don't come off as holier than thou. As I said earlier the objective is to build a bridge not burn the bridge.
So honor and respect others. A. Arouse the interest of your listener. Say something that they might have an interest in.
Talk to them. R. Reveal sin. You know you come to a point where you've said all these things.
You've built all your bridges. You've told them God loves them. But you've got to tell them they're a sinner. And you have to define what a sinner is. And I always include myself when I call someone a sinner. I'll say you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. We're all sinners. Because sin means to miss the mark.
You fall short of God's standard. So you have to tell them that as well. Reveal sin.
And E. Explain the way of salvation. Tell them how to do it. Tell them how to believe in Jesus.
Tell them how to come into a relationship with him. Share. S. Be sensitive. H. Honor and respect others. A. Arouse the interest of your listener. R. Reveal sin.
E. Explain the way of salvation. Oh listen. God can use you. Oh God will use you. But will you say, Lord here I am.
Use me. Let me come back to a point I raised earlier. How do you become a Christian? You admit to God you're a sinner. And you ask Jesus Christ to come and live in your heart and life as your Savior and Lord. And he can do that right now because he stands at the door of your life and he knocks.
And he says if you hear his voice and open the door he will come in. If you've never asked Jesus to come into your life you can do it right here right now. Let's pray. Father speak to every heart. And if there's anyone here if they don't know Jesus yet let this be the moment they believe. If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin I want you to just pray this simple prayer after me.
Just pray these words. 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. Today will mark the day when many first became believers in Jesus Christ. Pastor Greg Laurie praying a prayer with those who are asking Jesus to be their Savior today. And if you've just prayed that prayer and you've meant those words sincerely we want to help you begin to live this new life of faith. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible. He'll mail it to you at no charge and it'll help answer some of the questions you might have and get you started off right as you walk with the Lord. So ask for it when you call us at 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime. Again that's 1-800-821-3300.
Or write A New Beginning, box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well Pastor Greg I was looking over your credentials and there's one that seems unexpected, let's say.
Let me read these to you. So Greg Laurie, husband, father, grandfather, pastor, author, evangelist, filmmaker, social media person, cartoonist, radio speaker. Was there a surprising one in there? Did you notice that?
Did you pick up on that? Yes, I heard that cartoon sound effect and it's so funny because before I did any of these other things I started out as a cartoonist. My sole purpose in life as a young man was to be a professional cartoonist. I drew every day. I was a cartoonist for the school paper. I would submit my cartoons for publication. I had characters developed.
I had story lines. I just drew constantly and then the unexpected happened. I came to Jesus Christ.
So I thought well what do I do now? Well I'll just be a Christian cartoonist I thought. And I started drawing little gospel booklets that are called tracks. My first one was called Living Water and then I did a comic book and I did other things and I was loving it but then God began to open doors for me to share my faith just with people one on one. And before I knew it I was speaking at a little bible study and before I knew it I was preaching and before I knew it I was pastoring the church. But you know one thing that's kind of interesting Dave is I continued to do freelance graphics when our church started to be able to take care of my family. It was my version of what we might call tent sewing. You know the apostle Paul had a trade that he did as he was also a preacher and that was my version of it and it was something I always loved and then as the years passed I continued to draw more for my own entertainment and the entertainment of my grandchildren and a few other people that I would do caricatures of. But recently I've returned to my cartooning roots and we've started doing some animated cartoons featuring characters I developed when I was very young probably around 18 years old. Ben Bourne again and his little buddy Yellow Dog and I've been having a blast working on these cartoons because even though it is work and there's a lot involved in producing an animated cartoon I would also say when I work at it I almost feel like I'm at play a little bit.
You're cheating. Yeah. Well we're excited that we're actually releasing some new episodes of the adventures of Ben Bourne again and Yellow Dog. There's quite a number of episodes that our listeners can log on and watch right now isn't that right? That's right if they go to our app it's called Harvest Plus and I strongly recommend that all of our listeners download this app. It's chock full of amazing spiritual resources and we're constantly adding to it.
Think of it as sort of a Harvest version of Netflix. We have our films that we have done like Steve McQueen, The Salvation of an American Icon, Johnny Cash, The Redemption of an American Icon, A Rush of Hope, and other films but then we have our podcasts, we have the radio show you're listening to right now, we have daily devotions, we have all of the messages that I do at church, our tv program, and we have the Ben Bourne again cartoon. So you can go and watch them together with your whole family and I think you'll find that the kids will love them but the adults will love them too because I'm always putting in gags and fun things for older folks.
So if you're not just cartoons to entertain, they have a purpose and the ultimate purpose is to point us to Christ and to reinforce biblical truths. For instance we have one that's called Never Kiss a Jellyfish Goodbye and really what it's about is how to resist temptation and it's based on a true story involving my grandson Christopher when he was out on the ocean and his mom called him in and he came in and his face was all red and she said, honey what happened to your face? He said, mom me and my friend were out in the ocean playing with the jellyfish and when you called me in I kissed him goodbye. She couldn't believe he did this, she told me this story and I thought okay that's going to be in a cartoon. So what happens now is instead of my grandson Christopher, it happens to Yellow Dog where he's out in the ocean and he's in the ocean to Yellow Dog where he's out in the ocean and he kisses a jellyfish goodbye. So here's a little audio sample of what happened to Yellow Dog after he did that.
Ow, this hurts. Yellow Dog, how did a jellyfish get on your face? Oh, well, I was swimming the shore and thought I'd just give this little guy a kiss goodbye. Yellow Dog, you never kiss a jellyfish.
Well, in case you're wondering, they do not taste like jelly. Oh, but he was just so cute I couldn't resist. Like the time you kissed a jellyfish?
I couldn't resist. Like the time you kissed that dolphin goodbye? And when you hugged that octopus?
Yeah, or pet that electric eel or hugged that puffer fish. Do you see a pattern here? When you embrace the wrong things you get nothing but pain and suffering. You know what, you're right. Well, Pastor Greg, I know there's quite a team actually working on the adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog and what our listeners may not know is if they support us here at Harvest, especially our Harvest partners, they're part of the team that make this possible.
Is that not right? 100% true, you are part of the team and it takes a team. It takes a lot of people working together. You know, I have a heart to reach people of all ages, but I really care about kids and I think kids are so often ignored. You know, whenever I meet people at church and they have a little child with them, I'll always take time to engage the child one-on-one, talk to them a little bit. And you know, kids really notice that and so I'll draw them maybe a little cartoon or I'll do a funny little voice or a sound effect or just something to engage them. And so what we're doing with these cartoons is we're doing it in an entertaining way, in an engaging way, but also in a biblical way. Coming back to that cartoon that we're calling Never Kiss a Jellyfish Goodbye, the theme of it is resisting temptation because the devil brings his temptation in attractive packages.
So we're talking to the kids about the pressures that they're facing and how they can resist temptation to do the wrong thing in their life. So when you support us here at Harvest, you're helping us to reach the next generation, to reach your kids, to reach your grandkids with a life-changing message of the gospel. So if you care about bringing the gospel to this generation, I encourage you to be generous this month and we're going to send you a new resource that we just developed called the Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. It's designed for little kids.
It's sort of a way to get the kids grounded in the basics of the Christian faith. Again, a brand new resource that we'll send to you for your gift of any size. But I'm going to ask you to be generous because it enables us to try new things to go places we've never been before with the only message that can change the human heart of both older folks and younger folks.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. So listen, get in touch with us and make a one-time donation or become part of our team as a Harvest partner and we'll thank you by sending this new Ben Born Again New Believers Growth Book. And thanks so much for being an important part of the work of Harvest Ministries. You can call us 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, we'll see how important it is to run this race of life with our eye on the prize. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie. Thanks for listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for daily devotions and learn how to become a Harvest partner at harvest.org.
