Come Rescue Us: Phil Robertson & Greg Laurie (Classic Crusades)

hey everybody thanks for watching our YouTube channel we're constantly updating it with new content and never-seen-before content so if you want to get the latest from harvest hit the subscribe button [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] amazing glaze [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Southern California [Applause] [Music] well your goodness never stops your kindness [Music] you are good and I'm dead because you are good in our shop [Music] you are [Music] most [Music] you're [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I got is healing I'm sure in time you [Music] Oh [Music] there's no [Music] you know it [Music] sure [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and if not [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] enough stand with arms high and heart abandoned in awe of the one who gave it up I stand my soul Lord do you serve [Music] it's your what you sing that with us tonight stand with arms high and harder [Music] our standard my soul Lord to you surrendered all hits your [Music] [Applause] [Music] stand with arms high hard abandon stand my soul you serving [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] welcome to the final night of the Southern California harvest crusade with Greg Laurie who's excited to be here tonight at the big a [Applause] [Music] meet the Robertson clan they turn duck calls into a multi-million dollar empire but running a family business is tough when the family just wants to run wild bow-bow yeah but I did bone bone bone bone bone bone bone find you a meek gentle kind spirited country girl if she knows how to cook and she carries her Bible and she loved eat bullfrogs now there's a woman so I'm saying [Music] [Applause] robertson feel welcome hey good to be in California man you are like you're a Cajun rock star here fill well all I can tell you California folks Jesus number one you know feel like we have a lot of duck dynasty fans here and we watched your family on TV we've gotten to know your family of course there's uncle sy your boys Jase Willie and Jeff and now Alan who let us in prayer tonight as well the clean shaven Robertson and you know it's an amazing thing I think your season premiere had eleven point eight million viewers and the next show eclipsed that one and you know when if we had a show on television and had a positive family to look at maybe in the old days we had fictitious ones like you know the Andy Griffith the show or the Little House on the Prairie but you're a real family why do you think duck dynasty has become so popular I think finally America is beginning to look around and say how much of this vile evil wicked stuff are we going to take let's get back to loving God and loving each other for crying out loud I think a lot of people be surprised by your up ring and I've been reading your book happy happy happy could you just say that one time for us everybody happy happy happy hear that that's on you talk about your upbringing in Louisiana you were raised in the 50s but in a way it seemed more like the 1850s in the 1950s it was hardcore was like a log cabin you went out and hunted for food that's how you survived right we had no bathtub no hot water unless you set the tub out in the yard and let the Sun warming up we pretty well lived off the land times were hard we were poor but I never heard anyone say we were poor and we never call on the government to help us out yeah that's good so you met miss Kay in high school how old was Miss when he was 14 California are you young bucks out there y'all listening if you married these girls at about 16 they'll pick your ducks if you wait to the 20 they'll pick your pocket I'm kidding so you met in high school you got married after you graduated then you went to Louisiana Tech you played football and you were the starting quarterback in your junior year beating out a pretty well-known quarterback Terry Bradshaw well I weighed my options and someone said well why didn't you go ahead and play pro football since you played ahead of Bradshaw but I waited and I said let's see how shall I make a living shall I make a living running from large violent men or shall I go chase ducks I thought it less stressful to chase ducks California yeah you've got a lot of your duck calls here you bet you wait you should tell us them in your book you talk about the different sounds at different duck calls make give us a little demonstration of teal here that's a teal here's a mallard [Laughter] what's that little orange one do oh that's not there this cause you dog are done fetch up get my dog now after you graduated from high school you went and bought a honky Tonk and your life started going downhill I think some free people would be surprised to know you were into drugs sex and rock and roll he just did it all I went from sex drugs and rock and roll until I was 28 years old I heard the good news Jesus when I was 28 and I decided to make a change in my life and now I'm rich and famous that worked out pretty well hey California you know what miss Kay told me the other day she said feel I've been poor with you and been rich with you rich is better now when you were kind of in the throes of drinking and getting in fights and all that your wife miss Kay showed up with a preacher no scuse me I have that wrong your sister showed up with a preacher and so this preacher is trying to convert old Phil Robertson how that go I basically ran him off at the time and he remarked that he didn't think I was ready at the time my little sister was handing out tracts up in the front where there where the bar was and she got into a little rau with the people there they were about half drunk but the bottom line is I ran him off about a year later I sat down and listened to what he had to say and he preached to me Greg what you're going to preach tonight to these folks in California right and my lap my life has changed forever best thing that ever happened to me that's right absolutely so Phil you you spent the first twenty seven years of your life without God you finally responded to the gospel and now you're gonna go back and raise your boys and the way of the Lord and you did a great job of that but you know even when we train our children and the way that they should go they can still go astray in your oldest son Alan who led us in prayer was he the first of your two sons to go prodigal that is correct other words what all of you have children just remember when we come out of our mother's womb so we don't have any sin because we don't know what sin is you're too little - you're a baby but when we get in junior high going into high school along in there all you parents should know your children are going to sin they're gonna make mistakes what you have to do parent it's teach them train them and above all love them and discipline them it will save you a lot of grief yeah down the road even when you do that they are going to sin and my son Alan ended up in New Orleans got in a scrape with a guy who like to beat him half to death with a tire - and he decided because a police officer came up there and said son you ought to go home back to your mama and daddy so when he came back we did like Luke 15 I said come on back al let's have a good meal here we love you and later on he turned out to be a preacher of the gospel so that's the way it works praise God for that so your youngest son Jeff he got into drugs and drinking I think I you're another of your sons Willie was a youth leader and he was telling you I think that Jeff was showing up a church with whiskey on his breath and sort of live in that double life and Willie was so concerned he wanted to stage a family intervention I think Allan put that together so what happened to Jeff and tell us about that family intervention we had a Robertson family intervention unbeknown to Jeptha the youngest one he didn't know this was going to happen we got him down on my house and all of his brothers and Miss Kay and I we sat down with him and we had us one of them come to Jesus meetings and we let him know we were loved him and we let him know that we were concerned for him and he cried and he said dad what took you and mom so long to rescue me from what I was doing and I told him I said Jeff we were just giving you time to see the error of your ways so I put him under house arrest for three months and after three months he came out on the other side and now he has Jessica the one you see on television for great little kids three three girls and a boy and all of my sons are godly and their daughter-in-laws and everybody happy happy happy yeah that's right you got to be patient California yeah now Phil there's some people here that are in the same boat JEP and Alan were in and they need to be rescued tonight that message of the gospel changed our life why should someone who's here tonight maybe they're here because they like your TV show maybe they were drugged by a friend whatever it is that got him here they're not a Christian yet they're checking it out they're thinking about it why should they put their faith in Jesus Christ like you then listen California you have two problems that you cannot fix you cannot solve it one of them is sin and we all sin and the second one is physical death heart attack gunshot car wreck we all are going to die all of us are going six feet deep listen what God has done through Jesus you're counting time by him it's 2013 years since Jesus got here what did he do died on a cross to remove your sin first problem sob three days later he was resurrected from the dead the only way you're gonna get off planet Earth is through Jesus period that's right fulfill need to move on that tonight that's right we're gonna give them that opportunity and at the end of your program I love the way that you always have a prayer and y'all pray together and I think wouldn't you all like you have Phil lead us in a prayer right now so they'll pray for us tonight I pray for each one here I pray father that you will open their hearts to the gospel father we have made a mess out of the United States of America we're in debt up to our eyeballs and we're running around killing each other kidnapping and killing our own children we're slaughtering ourselves father I pray that here tonight for all the ones who have not come to Jesus I pray father that they put the faith in what Jesus did on a cross 2,000 years ago so that all of their sins every rotten filthy thing they've ever done would be removed and on top of that father understand and know that one day when all this ends they're dead coal body can be raised from the dead and they can live forever father I'm looking forward to the day when all I do is chase ducks in heaven and they ain't a game warden anywhere thank you Father for giving us a great hope to live beyond the grave and above that father thank you for giving us all peace of mind when we come to Jesus with the help of your spirit you give us I pray for these California folks father be with them I love them and I know you love them father you've proven that by sending Jesus and it's through him I pray for everyone here amen Thank You Phil Wallington god bless him in now great I'll tell you what he's a lot of fun [Applause] [Music] I was born in 1952 in Long Beach California my mother was stunningly beautiful she was a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe but she seemed to be trying to find her purpose on life in a relationship with the man she was married in divorce seven times and had a lot of boyfriends in between my mom also was a raging alcoholic and when I say an alcoholic I'm talking about full-blown passed out drunk pretty much every night so I had to grow up quickly because I in some ways had to be a parent to my own mother it got me searching for answers at a very early point of my childhood I don't remember a lot of what was said that day but a guy got up and spoke and he made this statement Jesus said you're either for me or against me I looked around at the other Christians and I thought well I'm not one of them does that mean that I'm against him I've always believed in God whenever I was in trouble I called out to Jesus I'd seen all of his movies but I never knew that Jesus could be known in a personal way that was the day Jesus Christ came into my life 1970 the last thing I ever planned on becoming was a preacher trust me when I tell you that but because God became real to me I wanted to share that with others people who are cynical like I was people who maybe were raised in broken homes like I was people who've been chewed up and spit out by this world like I was if God can use someone like me he can use anyone it's the message that's important [Music] my wife Cathy is my best friend and life she's my number one counselor I grow in my love for her really every day we've been married 39 years we have two sons once on earth and one is in heaven and we have five beautiful grandchildren [Music] well from my downtime I like to ride my Harley I surf when the water is above 70 degrees there's no one out competing for waves and I'm in the mood which means rarely but honestly one of the things I love to do more than anything else just hang out with my family and play with my grandkids sometimes I think we think of life like a movie you know maybe it's a tragic story but we'll say it's just a movie and the credits roll and we leave the theater but sometimes tragedy happens in our lives in real time and it certainly happened to us when our oldest son Christopher died in an automobile accident on July 24 2008 pain knocks at every door and just because I'm a preacher it doesn't mean that I get a free pass in the midst of this tragedy we have found hope what is hope one way to define it is in an acronym H ope holding on with patient expectation I have hope that I will see my son again in heaven and that is why I want to give this message to others because I believe there is hope in this hopeless world and people need to hear it you know it's been said if you preach to hurting people you'll never lack for an audience I think there's a lot of hurting people that need a message of hope today [Music] Wow what a great night it's been so far no one have talked to you about your soul I want to talk to you about the meaning of your life so I'm going to ask you to just listen really carefully because honestly your eternal destiny is hanging in the balance of what we're talking about the message I'm sharing this not original to me I'm just a delivery boy you know years ago I used to deliver newspapers as a kid not from a carpet from my supercool sting-ray bicycle with even a stick shift on it it was sort of a forerunner of my Harley I had my bags on there and I'd throw editions of the daily pilot newspaper as close to the front door as I could get of the person that was on my delivery route I was just a delivery boy my job was not to make the news my job is not to write the news my job was to deliver the news and that's what I am really still I'm just a delivery boy I'm just delivering a message from God to you you might say well Greg that's pretty presumptuous isn't it no not at all I want to tell you what the Bible says about your soul about the meaning of your life and how to get right with God let's pray for a moment now lord I pray that you will speak to every person here and I pray for those that have come who have never made this commitment to you help them to see their need for Jesus help them to believe in Jesus before this night is over we ask it in your name amen the title of my message is God in persue years ago we were doing one of our Crusades and we were staying in a hotel uh my son Jonathan was very little I think he was around three or four years old so he loved to push the buttons on the elevator he'd always run ahead of me and push the right button so we're walking down the hallway of a hotel and he ran ahead the elevator I said now Jonathan wait for dad I'm almost there I turned the corner to see the doors of the elevator closed with Jonathan alone I panicked I pushed every one of those buttons pushing pushing pushing finally the doors open no Jonathan I go down to the bottom floor go up to the front desk of the lobby I said ma'am my son is lost somewhere in this hotel please call security call SWAT call the Green Berets call the Navy SEALs you got to help me find my son she's like on the phone I'm sorry sir just I'm just like I've got to find him so I run back I push every button of every floor and when the doors open I yell out his name finally I found them I don't know five floors up he's just standing there you know Jonathan listen to dad don't run off I was in pursuit of my son and I want to tell you something failure was not an option listen to this God is pursuing you but wait he wants to pursue you to show you how much he loves you some of us have this concept of God who's chasing this down because he wants to give us some kind of a beating nothing could be further from the truth Jesus told a story to show us what God is like Phil alluded to it a few moments ago we call it the parable of the prodigal son what does God like he is like a father who lost his son God is like a father who misses his son God is like a father who longs for his son's return and God is like a father who when his son returns runs to him and throws his arms around him and kisses him God loves you and God will forgive you of any sin you have ever committed God is pursuing you tonight stop running from him I heard the story of a lawyer who was trying to deliver an important paper to a man who was determined to avoid him at all costs you see this man thought the attorney was trying to serve him with a subpoena so this guy managed to avoid that lawyer for years 14 years passed and this man the lawyer was pursuing was in a hospital dying of cancer and they ruled that lawyer up right next to him in another bed he was ill as well the man looked at that lawyer that had been pursuing him and he laughed and he said all right go ahead subpoena me the lawyer said subpoena you I was trying to give you a document that proved you it inherited 45 million dollars see that's us running from God I want to tell you a story tonight about a man who tried to run from God his name was Jonah now when you talk about Jonah what comes to mind Jonah and uh that's right we all think of that whale and because of that we may dismiss his story as a fairy tale or a myth but listen it's a true story it was validated by no one less than Jesus Christ himself who said as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish or the whale the Bible doesn't say it was a whale the great fish actually the technical translation would be a sea monster whatever that beast was as Jonah was in the belly of that great fish three days and three nights so a lie the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights so Jesus validated it heard a story about a young girl was out sharing her faith on the street corner the little crowd gathered and a man was standing in the back who was an atheist and he thought he was going to humiliate this young girl so while she's talking about her faith in Jesus he interrupts and says very loudly excuse me young lady I have a question she said yes sir you stand there and you talk about the Bible do you believe the Bible oh yes sir she said I believe the Bible every word of it is true oh you said the atheist then you must believe and the stories that are in the Bible oh yes I believe all those stories oh really so do you believe in this story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale she says well yes sir I believe that story the Bible teaches he was swallowed by a great fish or maybe a well oh well let me ask you how is that even possible she said well I don't know when I get to heaven I'll ask him then the atheist said well what if he's in Hell she said well then I guess you could ask him I don't know so God used this big old fish to swallow Jonah how many animal lovers do we have out there if you're an animal lover raise your hand you know a lot of lot of animal lovers out how many animal haters do we have oh I hope we don't have many you know it's funny when I was a kid I had two aspirations I wanted to either be a professional cartoonist or I wanted to own a pet shop that was sort of my fallback plan I have always loved animals ever since I've been a little kid started with my collecting of reptiles I had every kind of reptile imaginable in fact I was so into reptiles I actually thought about becoming our herpetologist that is defined as a nerd no not really it's someone who studies reptiles I had lizards and I had snakes I had all kinds of snakes I had pythons and I had boas and I had gopher snakes and king snakes and you name it I had it then I went into my rabbit phase I had rabbits guinea pigs mice rats hamsters then it went into my bird phase I had finches parakeets cockatiels lovebirds and a parrot then I went to my dog phase I had a couple of poodles I was too young to know what I was doing they were given to me sorry uh I had a calling one of the dumbest animals that ever lived he was the opposite of Lassie I had a springer spaniel two German Shepherds one of the one of them the greatest German Shepherd of all time in a few months then I went to my Fish Face I had angelfish and Oscars and sober dollars but I never had a cat never because why would you have a cat really I mean when you call it cats as they cat come you call it duck your boy comes running up like you call it cat cat looks at you like you seriously think I'm coming to you but you're joking right I've got all these animals and I might that I'd been bitten by many animals I've been bitten by parrots rabbits hamsters I've been bitten by many things I was even bit by a monkey once little spider monkey along to a friend of mine I reach down to pet him on the head that was a big mistake that little monkey clenched onto my finger I pulled my hand back in peed he's hanging on my finger blood squirting out everywhere not a good thing I'm looking forward to the day when Christ comes back in establishes his kingdom and the Bible says the animal kingdom will be subdued the wolf will rump of the lamb the leopard will sleep with a kid calf and lion will eat from the same trough and a little child will lead them I've even read stories about how animals save people's lives I read about a dog that dialed 9-1-1 when its owner fell ill that's amazing apparently the owner taught his dog Bell to bite his cellphone if he had a diabetic seizure which the dog did another man I read about was saved by his dog when his SUV plunged 40 feet he was packing out too far from his driveway he told his dog named honey go get help the dog ran half a mile to a friend's house and brought them back maybe that's why dogs are getting their own TV network now if you heard about this I'm not making this up there's a whole channel now dedicated to dogs its programming geared toward dogs I'm kind of wondering what that would be exactly they're close-up shots of fire hydrants toilets I don't know but it keeps the attention of a dog they'll never be one for cats of course do you think that cat would watch it but here's my point these animals are so amazing and God use this creature to swallow the man that tried to run from the Lord it doesn't matter if there was a fish in existence now like this fish that existed dead all we had to know is it existed once but it's a man running from God here's what it says Jonah 1 the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of a meat I saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me but listen to this but Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord he went down to Joppa and he found his ship going to Tarshish and he paid the fare and went down to it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord have you ever tried to run from God maybe you thought God was out to ruin all of your fun now God was out to mess your life up nothing can be further from the truth the Bible tells us that God is good the Bible says give thanks to the Lord for he is good in His mercy endures forever and God's plans for you are better than your plans for yourself he says in Jeremiah 29:11 I know the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope jesus said I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly in other words Jesus is saying I came that you might live a life that is full and rich and meaningful meanwhile the devil and oh yes there's a devil as surely as Sarah's that God loves you there's a devil who hates you the devil wants to destroy your life jesus said if Satan the thief comes only to steal kill and destroy but Jesus has come to give life because God is good but sometimes we run from God we don't understand God our granddaughters have a little rabbit named fuzzy and every noon they'll pull them out pull him out fuzzy and my one of my granddaughter's little Allie Alexandra's their full name we'll play with buzzy now she's only two so sometimes she doesn't hold fuzzy the right way sometimes she kind of picks him up by the head you see and Buzz he's like oh no no you know it's oh no ally you got to support him when you hold him in and so the other day when I was returning fuzzy to his cage he lept out of my arms into the open cage I'm so happy to be home and that's how some times we see God oh it looks like a cage it was a bars well look that's one way to look at it bars keeping you in I think fuzzy the rabbit says those are the parts that keep Ally out I'm safe here but some following Jesus Christ I'm not gonna lie to you there are things that Bible tells us we should not do there are commandments that are put there for our own good not to keep you pinned in but to keep evil out of your life and God won't hold it away from you if it's a good thing the Bible says no good thing will he withhold from those that walk up rightly not only is God good but God is love you see these Ninevites these people Jonah was called to they were wicked that's why Jonah didn't want to go he was a patriotic Israelite he'd be like God coming to an Israeli today and saying go to Iran that great city and preach to that well maybe he would want to do that see Jonah's fear and it was effectively justified was that God would forgive Nineveh in his hope was God would judge Nineveh and destroy them and that would be one less enemy Israel had to worry about so he didn't want to go so God says that Jonah go to Nineveh Jonah's responses God they drink Gatorade in Nineveh I know where to go God said go Jonah said no God said oh listen the Lord will always have the last word but yet despite the wickedness of these people God loved them and graphic accounts are in historical records of the cruel treatment of captives from the Ninevites they would burn boys and girls alive they would torture adults they would tear this from their bodies and leave them to die in the scorching Sun yet amazingly God loved these people and was giving them a second chance and I want you to know that God loves you and no matter what sin you've committed he'll forgive you but you need to turn from that sin and I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do that just like 5756 people have done over the last two nights filling the field behind the stage you can make that commitment to follow Christ so Jonah got up and went in the wrong direction and he went down and that's where sin is always going to take you down we don't plan on going down but one thing leads to another doesn't it that flirtation that ruined the marriage that pregnancy that altered your life that pleasure that turned into an addiction think about these things especially you that are young the evening of your life is determined by the morning of it the end from the beginning these things that you don't think are our problem now turn into big things you ever seen a little baby rattlesnake they're actually kind of cute in a weird way everything's miniaturised they've got their little things and they've got their little rat alert and you might you look at it you know baby rattlesnake and you pick it up and hold it up and he bites you there dude Oh baby rattle or feeling light-headed huh drop for drop the venom of a baby rattler it's super potent and we'll take a cinema say oh it's just a little sin it's just one time I'll never do it again and little things turn into big things and that's what happened to Jonah I read about a rapper that had a number one hit and he was talking in an interview about the effect of instant fame his shows got bigger his partying became more extreme he says I got more messed up than ever all of a sudden he says you're you have this newfound attention I was hooking up with random females and the drug started getting stronger I always said I'll never do coke but I broke that I started doing a little bit of oxycontin that scared me his friends began to worry because he didn't respond to texts and calls they thought oh he's just too cool for us now but the rapper says I was alone smoking in my bedroom that's sin then it just takes you down sin will take you further than you want to go it'll keep you longer than you want to stay and it will cost you more than you want to spend don't go that way so a storm comes a big old gnarly storm and this was so hardcore this storm that even the sailors started to panic and they were used to rough seas they've never seen anything like it in a way this was a loving storm because God was allowing it to get Jonah's attention maybe you've had a crisis in your life recently maybe you had a close brush with death you got a scary call from the doctor about the tests that they just did on you or something that's happened to remind you of your mortality CS Lewis said quote God whispers to us in our pleasures he speaks in our consciences but he shouts in our fame penises megaphone to rouse a deaf world sometimes God can take pain or a storm if you will to get our attention and show us we need God actor Gerard Butler who starred in 300 and also Olympus has fallen had a close brush with death recently he was learning how to surf big waves and prep for his film chasing Mavericks he got hammered by a wave and he was pinned under water for nearly a minute now Butler is not a seasoned surfer he was panicking he thought he was going to drown fortunately rescuers got to him and they told him the last guy that went down at Mavericks had drown so he was fortunate to be alive and Butler says quote you know how people say when you're close to death you get a sense of peace well I didn't experience it it was violent and it went on and on it was absolutely terrifying and quote yeah that could happen and maybe that's happened to you well these sailors are freaking out they're calling out to their gods none of them have the right God I think a lot of times when we're in trouble what will call out to God I'll tell you I used to a one day when I was a kid probably around 16 years old it was with somebody we went down and bought a kilo of marijuana not to sell we were gonna smoke it all ourselves we put it in the trunk of our car we're cruising down Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach and it was raining that night one of my friends was driving suddenly the car starts to fishtail and I'm in the backseat and I'm seeing the headlines in the morning newspaper drug dealers die on Pacific Coast Highway and I said God if you get me out of this I promise I'll serve you suddenly the car corrected itself and we got home safely and I said thanks God see you next crisis you ever done that before oh god if you get me out of this one I promise I'll follow you and he does and you forget your promise that's what these men were doing they were crying out to their gods but none of them had the right guts so they cast lots they figure out the culprit is this stranger who's on the bottom deck sleeping they wake him up it's Jonah they're saying what's going on with you we figured out this storm came because of you Jonah said well I'm a Hebrew I worship the Lord God of heaven who made the sea in the land there blown away they had heard of the God of Israel the God in parts oceans the God who sends food from heaven the God who raises the dead and they're saying to him you're running from a God like that nothing is more pathetic than being busted by a non-christian especially when they're right here we had that happened a non-christian says I thought you were a Christian well I am then why are you doing that well good question that happened to me years ago I had become a Christian and I'd started a church and I had real long hair and a beard duck dynasty style and I was sitting in a pizza restaurant and I looked over at the table next to me and there's this guy I recognized from elementary school his name was Pauly said excuse me is your name Paul said yes it is you know if some people don't change they just get like bigger you know he just looked like himself so I looked very different it's a Paul it's Greg Laurie goes man I didn't recognize you under all that hair use your imagination I said well Paul how you been he says I've been good about you and I said why I've been good I've changed a lot Paul you see I become a Christian and not only am i a Christian Paul but I'm the pastor of a church he looked at me like I was crazy said Greg you always used to get in trouble you're always smart enough to they teach you you're always doing pranks to other people I can't believe your kitchen oh yes I am I'm serving the Lord hallelujah because okay that's great Greg well thank you Paul good to talk to you as feeling so good about myself while we're waiting for our pizza to come and it finally arrives oh I was with a friend who went to the restroom for a moment I forgot all about Paul and I thought it would really be funny to take the red pepper flakes and pour them on my friend side of the pizza some when he took his first fight it would be really hot so I'm laughing pouring the red pepper flakes on his side of the pizza and Paul says haven't changed much have you Greg it's kind of right about that sometimes we're like Jonah we blow it we've lost our testimony we're not being the representative of Jesus we ought to be let me just say something if you're looking for a hypocrite free church please don't join it you'll ruin it okay every Christian is going to be inconsistent at times so let me apologize for us if we've not to been the best representatives of Jesus Christ but check this out Jesus did not say follow my people he said follow me Jesus will never be a hypocrite you follow him honestly the whole there's too many hypocrites in the church line is nothing more than a shallow excuse why would you run from a god like this they asked him sometimes the unbelievers have a better idea of what believers should do then some believers have I read a two story about a part of that was being built in Texas a local church started to campaign with petitions and prayers to stop it work progressed in this far until a week before opening and lightning struck and burned the bar down the bar owners sued the church saying they were responsible because of their prayers the church denied any responsibility and there was no connection they said between our prayers and the fire it went to court the judge read the plaintiffs complaint and the defendants reply he said I don't know how I'm going to decide this but it appears from the paperwork we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that does not that's interesting so these non believing men are saying did Jonah why would you run from a god like that that's a good question why are you running from God he just wants to love you he just wants to forgive you and so the Lord had a custom-made watercraft to take care of this problem Jonah said you throw me over the side of this boat the storm will stop and they did and he was swallowed by this great fish and now inside of the fish he stubbornly refuses to pray why did God do this because Jonah was a prodigal son and God loves his kids so much he's not gonna let them go it's like my son Jonathan I was gonna find my son it was like Phil Robertson told us about his son Alan and his son Jeff he loved his sons and his son Jeff said dad I was waiting for you to rescue me and that comes back to that picture of God who loves you and misses you and I wonder if we have any prodigal here tonight what is the prodigal it's someone that knows what is right and does not do it maybe you were raised in the church maybe you've been living a double life you've been putting on quite a performance everyone thinks you're a strong Christian but you know what's up you know what you're really doing listen you can fool all of the people some of the time you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can't fool God any of the time prodigal it's time for you to come home tonight to return to the Lord [Applause] that's why I'm going to ask you in just a few moments to get up out of your seat and walk down here and stand in this backfield and make that recommitment to Christ or maybe that first time commitment to Jesus so now the Lord gives Jonah a second chance Jonah 3 says the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time get up and go to the great city of Nineveh deliver the message of judgment I've given you this time the Lord or Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh the end of this city he shouted to the crowds forty days from now and Nineveh will be destroyed the people of Nineveh believed God's message and from the greatest to the least they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow I love well that says the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time I have good news for you tonight folks God gives second chances and he gives third chances and he gets fourth chances and as many as you need Jonah said forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown well that's not a very hopeful message is it well in a way it is because he was giving them a warning sort of like a parent warning their child you do that one more time there's gonna be a punishment okay I'm warning you one last time and then there's a punishment now if you're a grandparent you say if you do that again there's a punishment then they do it again if you do it again there's a punishment they do it again you just keep saying it because basically grandparents don't punish their grandchildren we let the parents do that we just fill them full of sugar and give them back to you that's our job to spoil our grandchildren but you see sometimes we don't listen to what God says but God was giving to them another chance I believe God wants the United States of America to turn back to him I believe the only hope for our great country is to turn back to God and turn from our sin we need a spiritual awakening in America again we've had four Great Awakenings we're due for another I tremble to think what will happen at our country if God does not send a spiritual revival let's pray for that this is one of the reasons we're doing this event we call harvest America September 28 and 29 in Philadelphia that's basically a month from today so you can tune this thing in you can pull it down to your computer to your tablet device to your smartphone and you can watch it you can watch it in your front room you can have it in your church you can have it in a theater but I hope that you'll all pull down that signal that we send from Philadelphia once our nation's capital as we proclaim the gospel it's the only hope for America today God was warning Nineveh and God is warning America he sane turned back to me now that's his message [Applause] listen I'm no prophet and I've never been swallowed by a fish though I've swallowed a few fish called sushi but I have a message and here it is there's only one hope in this life that can turn it around there's only one lifeline that God has dropped from heaven for us to be forgiven of our sins it's a son Jesus Christ who was born in that manger and dying on the cross and rose again from the dead three days later who now stands at the door of your life and knocks and if you'll hear his voice and open the door he'll come in Jesus said it best right in the front of this platform I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me that's your answer that's your hope it's your only hope so I have a message of good news maybe I need to give you the bad news first the bad news is is every one of us have sinned the bad news every one of us have fallen short of the glory of God you say no Greg I don't really think that I'm a sinner I think I'm a good person have you ever read the Ten Commandments God says you shall not lie you shall not steal you shall not take the Lord's name in vain you shall have no other gods before me have you ever had another God before the true God have you ever lied have you ever sucked no I haven't you're lying right now you've broken those commandments you'd say well okay I've broken a few but some have broken more than me okay true but one of those Commandments being broken is enough to keep you out of heaven the Bible says if you offend in one point of the law you're guilty of all of it we're guilty that's the bad news the good news is Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sin the good news is Jesus absorbed the wrath of God the Father that should have come upon me Jesus Christ came to pay a he did not oh because we owed a debt we could not pay and if you'll believe in him and turn from your sin you can be forgiven and you can have a second chance tonight and I may give you that opportunity in just a moment so check it out the people of Nineveh turned to God this is one of the greatest revivals in human history if Nineveh could turn around certainly the United States can turn around and I hope that we will but let's start with you tonight [Applause] maybe you've been running from God it's time to throw on the brakes friend it's time to come back to the God who loves you it's time to come back home again I told you that story already of that prodigal son that ran away but Jesus said when he was still a great ways off his father saw him in ran to him I love the picture of the father running you know it was considered undignified in that culture for an older man to run not to mention it's just hard for an older man to ride I know there's some experience I've tried running I've had my friends who run say Greg just hang in there and the endorphins will be released and you'll get the runner's high I have never got a single endorphin release I've never had this runner side just a runner's pain but that older man that father willing to lose his dignity if you will ran to his son and threw his arms around him and that's what God will do for you tonight as you come to him where as you come back together so what do you need to do to get right with God well number one you need to admit you're a sinner I've already pointed out all of us have broken God's commandments all of us have fallen short of God's standards but number two recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you yes it's true Jesus died for the whole world Jesus said for God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but everlasting life he died for the world but listen he died for you I love the way the Apostle Paul personalized that when he said he loved me and he gave himself for me and Jesus loves you and he gave himself for you he died there in your place number three you need to turn from your sin the Bible uses the word repent he said well I haven't even tented yet why should I repin listen repent means to change your direction instead of running from God you need to run to God to repent is to acknowledge that the things you're doing a rung before the Lord their sins before God and being sorry enough to stop those things and turn to him and he'll give you the strength to live the life he has called you to live but then you must receive Jesus Christ in their life being a Christian is about a relationship you know I think there's a lot of people that know a lot about God but they don't know God you know I knew a lot about Phil Robertson before I met him I watched his show I read his book but it was really a lot different in the back there meeting Phil in person now I have a different sense of who he is he's really the same guy but I sort of know him a little bit now you see and we all do after listening to him but we know about people we see them from a distance though being a Christian is having Christ come and live inside of your heart you'll never be alone again he'll take residence inside of you and give you the strength to be the person he has called you to be you need to receive Jesus he says I stand at the door and I not know if you'll hear my voice and open the door I will come in he'll come into your life tonight but listen you want to invite him in he doesn't say behold I stand at the door knock and if you don't open it I'll kick it in because I'm God and you're not no he's the God who is pursuing us but he will not force his way into our life you have to in effect open that door through prayer and tell right Lord come in then he must do it publicly that's what thousands of people have already done this weekend thousands and thousands more have done it over the last 24 years we've been holding these harvest Crusades here at Angel Stadium jesus said if you will acknowledge me before people I'll acknowledge you before my father in the angels in heaven but he added if you deny me before people I'll deny you before the father and the Angels that's why I'm gonna ask you to make a public stand just a few moments and finally you must do it now do it now don't procrastinate don't put it off until tomorrow the Bible says now is the time today is the day of salvation tonight is your night some people think they can just keep putting this off and putting this off and one day my fear is your heart will get so hard you won't even hear God speak to you anymore you know there's another city in the Bible that God judged they're known as sodom and gomorrah there was no warning for them there was no Jonah barked out of a whale walking to their streets because they had gone beyond the point of no return there was still hope for Nineveh there's still hope for you be careful there is a point of no return where you can go too far jesus said it's the unforgivable sin the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit what does that mean it means that you reject the work the Holy Spirit has come to do which is to make you aware of your need for Jesus you say no to him in your heart can become irreparably hardened the Bible says he who has often reproved hardens his heart and it will be cut off and that without remedy listen the Holy Spirit is working on you some of you are saying you know what Grega I know I need Jesus I know I'm a sinner I know he'll forgive me I believe it's all true but he still want to party or I still want to have sex with my girlfriend right still want to do drugs and drink and I still want to lie and cheat and steal listen to know this is true and not act on it that's super scary because you could miss this opportunity to get right with God and then you'll be separated from him for all eternity friend there is a heaven for those that put their faith in Jesus and there is a hell for those that reject it well how could a God of love send someone to go listen God doesn't send people to hell you have effectively send yourself there by rejecting guns only offer up forgiveness through Christ God doesn't want you to go there he wants you in heaven your eternal destiny hinges on your decision you're gonna either say yes or no to Jesus right now we're gonna pray now I'm gonna give you an opportunity to make this commitment or recommitment to Christ if you haven't done it yet please do it tonight I promise you you will never regret it let's all pray father this is your word it's good news if we listen I pray for those that do not yet know you yet I pray that your Holy Spirit will convince them of their need for Jesus I pray that they'll see their sin and see the Savior and that they will come to you tonight and be forgiven and I pray for prodigal sons and daughters Lord that have been running from you help them to come back home tonight as you throw your arms around them and you say welcome home son welcome home daughter help them to come we pray and we ask it now in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 20,152

Rating: 4.8780951 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, greg, laurie, harvest christian fellowship, greg laurie, greg laurie sermons 2018, harvest crusades, harvest crusade 2018, evangelism sermon, preach the gospel sermon, jonah the gospel, the gospel according to jonah, jonah and jesus, bible study with me

Id: 3khNvRZy698

Length: 70min 51sec (4251 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2019