Israels Role In The End Times (With Greg Laurie)

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] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] good morning to everybody [Applause] and that's exactly where we're going to talk about what jesus taught about israel in the end times so let's turn in our bibles to two passages today we're going to go to matthew 24 and we're going to eventually end up in first thessalonians chapter 5 matthew 24 1st thessalonians chapter 5. let's pray lord as we look at your word we know that it speaks with clarity and accuracy this is not iffy this is not maybe this is absolute you look at the future with complete understanding and you reveal it to us now help us to be ready for what is ahead help us to be ready for your return and i pray for any person here or listening or watching who does not yet know you help them to be ready before this day is over we commit this time of bible study to you now in jesus name we pray amen well we've been looking together in this little series in this series we're looking at the life of christ from all four gospels but we've taken a little time to slow down here in matthew 24 as we look at the words of jesus about the end times and as i've said before the bible is the one book that dares to predict the future okay now other books that predicted the future but none with 100 accuracy that's the difference and surely god wants his people to know about bible prophecy because he has dedicated 30 of his scripture to it for example the old testament features more than 100 prophecies of the coming of christ and through these prophecies we know jesus was the messiah because he fulfilled every one this is how believers can be so confident now that christ will come again to this earth and set up his kingdom because he promised he would because five times more frequently than he promised he would come the first time he promises to come again the second time jesus said i will come again but why study bible prophecy some people say well it's all so confusing and i can't sort it out well then study it a little more because there's a blessing promise to the person who reads and hears and keeps the book of revelation and certainly that would be applicable in principle to all teachings on end times events because i think the more we know about the next world the better we will live in this one and by the way bible prophecy is not given to scare us but to prepare us let me say that again bible prophecy or the study of it is not there to scare us it's there to prepare us these are signs of the times that christ told us we should be looking for now we've dealt with a number of them but i've saved what i believe is the most important for last and we're talking now about the miracle of israel the regathering together of the jewish people back in their homeland again the bible said this what happened as a sign of the end in fact over in ezekiel 37 god was very specific he said he would take israel from among the nations where they've gone then he said he would gather them from every side in their own land then he said he would make one nation in the land those are very pointed prophecies god promises that the jewish people would be scattered and regathered that's happened god promised they would return to the land of israel that's happened but even more god promised that they would become a nation again that too has happened god promised that jerusalem would be their capital that too has happened so there's a lot that has already happened but there are still some things yet in the future that jesus deals with here in matthew 24 and elsewhere number one after israel regathers as a nation a new world leader will emerge identified as the antichrist or the beast and he's going to make a covenant with the jewish people and rebuild their temple this will be the third temple secondly there's going to be a large force from the north of israel identified as gog that will attack her we'll talk about that more in a moment also the battle of armageddon is going to happen there in the middle east in the valley of megiddo which is part of israel finally christ will come back and set foot on the mount of olives so here's the mind-blowing thing to use 60's vernacular for a moment these words given by christ on the mount of olives are speaking about when he'll come again to this same location because his foot will set down on this mountain so now we come back to the question of his disciples what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world and jesus tells them to look to israel as he put it to learn the parable of the fig tree let's read about it matthew 24 verse 32. now learn this parable from the fig tree says our lord when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves you know summer is near so you also when you see all of these things notice near at the doors assuredly i say to you this generation will by no means pass away to all these things take place we'll stop there now israel is compared to more than one occasion in the bible to a fig tree in hosea 9 10 god says i have found israel as the first fruit of a fig tree joel and jeremiah also refer to israel as a fig tree so jesus is telling us that the rebirth of israel is a sign of the end but listen not just a sign it's the super sign you know when you go to the mcdonald's or a place like that you might ask them to supersize it well this is the super sign that god has given the regathering of the jews over in ezekiel 37 i referred to it but god said in verse 11 to ezekiel that he was to go to a graveyard and as ezekiel stood there bodies burst out of the grave bones came together muscle was attached to the bone flesh was attached to the muscle and then god told him what it all meant he said son of man these bones are the whole house of israel they indeed say our bones are dry our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off therefore prophesy to them and say thus says the lord behold my people i'll open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves and bring you to the land of israel could god have been any more specific who would have thought such a thing possible during world war ii if you were a jew living in the warsaw ghetto fearing the nazis coming to arrest you could you believe such a thing could happen if you were one of those jews in one of those concentration camps set up by the nazis like auschwitz or treblinka of ravensbrook would you have ever thought that there would be a homeland for the jewish people again if hitler had continued in the pattern he was following we would have seen a great many of the jewish people wiped out but thankfully that war came to an end and thankfully the united states of america stepped in but now we look at that's worth clapping for we're americans [Applause] but to return to the homeland this seems unthinkable it seems impossible but god said this would happen and on may 14th 1948 a modern day miracle took place the establishment of the nation of israel david ben-gurion who is sort of like the george washington of modern israel made this statement on that day ezekiel 37 has been fulfilled and the nation israel is hearing the footsteps of the messiah end quote fascinating statement from a prime minister recognizing that prophecy was fulfilled on holocaust remembrance day january 27 of 2010 in auschwitz poland benjamin netanyahu the prime minister of israel made this amazing statement and i quote we have returned to our homeland from every corner of the earth the jewish people rose from ashes dry bones became covered with flesh a spirit filled them and they lived instead of their own feet as ezekiel prophesied then netanyahu went on to quote from ezekiel 37 so here is this modern miracle yet it's such a tiny little piece of land i mean you think of all the nations in the world and all the cities in the world why do we hear so much about tiny little israel did you know that israel at its widest point is nine miles wide the entire country is about the size of new jersey the nation israel is 154th among the nations of the world you could fit 32 states of israel in the state of texas that shows you how little it is yet you can hardly pick up a newspaper or go to a news website or turn on the television without some mention of the conflict today in the middle east and specifically israel and even more specifically jerusalem why is this the answer is quite simple israel is at the eye of the hurricane of the great events of the end times she occupies center stage in god's drama of the ages she and other players are behind the prophetic curtain and they're hitting their marks and like when you go to see a play and and all the performers are behind the curtain and they all hit their mark they get ready and as the curtain opens the play begins and this is what's happening all the players are hitting their marks no the curtain has not opened yet but it will soon and this was all predicted long ago by the hebrew prophets and those who have sought to eradicate or destroy the jewish people or their nation have paid a heavy price because god made a promise to abraham years ago and to his descendants and the lord said i'll bless those that bless you and i'll curse those that curse you look at the nations that have tried to destroy israel they lie on the ash heap of history today egypt assyria babylon rome and more modern times spain and germany and perhaps very soon russia one of the reasons that god has blessed the united states of america is because we have stood by the jewish people and we have stood by the state of israel now let me make a provocative statement it's true let me make a provocative statement america needs israel more than israel needs america now we've been a great ally for them and we've given them a lot of money and we've done a lot for them and god has blessed us one of the reasons god has blessed our country is because we've blessed them but we need them because we need the blessing of god and that's why i have great concern over the new tension that we have with the nation of israel today i hope that changes but israel has fought ever since her declaration as a state here 65 later she's 65 years later even longer now she's closing in on our 7 on her 70th anniversary she's still under attack pretty much on every border she is under attack by islamic extremists you have suicide bombers homicide bombers rocket and missile attacks genocidal threats from middle eastern neighbors and political pressure from europe and now even to some degree the united states you remember that ceasefire that israel had with the palestinians following 50 days of conflict more than 4 500 rockets have been fired from gaza into israel we told israel stand down let me ask this question what would we do if 4 500 rockets were fired at us from say canada because that's about how close things are you think america would just stand by saying that's cool no whatever now i think we would strike back and as the israelis defended themselves they uncovered a series of intricate tunnels that have been built underground and this is where the suicide bombers have been going through to get into the nation so you have all that going out on but now we have the emergence of this new terrorist army we've never seen anyone like them before who identify themselves as isis they're gaining ground in iraq they're closing in now on baghdad they're solid fighting ownership of half of syria last tuesday isis captured a strategically located power plant in libya and is closing in on the country's oil fields and listen to this australian intelligence just gave a warning that isis has enough material to build a weapon of mass destruction according to this warning they say that isis has gained enough radioactive material to build a large dirty bomb add to this the fact that this is the richest terrorist group in existence today taking in millions of millions of dollars they capture territory they seize assets they capture people and sell them as slaves they kidnap people and take in ransoms and sometimes kill them anyway and then they butcher people and they have set their sights on christians in particular beheading them even crucifying them they kidnapped 88 christians from libya last week alone last month the jihadist captured ethiopian christians and executed them in february they beheaded 21 christians and these enemies of israel and really enemies of america have one thing in common they are radical islamists and the objective of a radical islamist is to establish what they call a caliphate they do this through jihad which is their struggle they want a world that is ruled by sharia law a system of government and many muslim-controlled countries have today sharia law is basically the rule by the koran which is the bible of islam they go about accomplishing this in one of two ways it's either conquest or infiltration either they take territories over as isis is done or they infiltrate in england today there are actual portions of the country that are under sharia law because so many muslims have moved there that's the fact i'm going to take a drink of water for a second if you don't mind that's really a weird awkward moment wasn't it out of this effect that many of these islamic extremists are at war with themselves you have two main branches of islam today sunni and shia the sunnis comprise about 90 of muslims and the shia make up the remaining population isis for instance is sunni and iran is a majority of shia muslims so though they hate each other there's only one group they hate even more and that is the nation israel and they all want jerusalem now this is fascinating to me because jerusalem is right there at the eye of the storm and this is exactly what god said what happened in the last days not washington dc not moscow not beijing not norco or irvine jerusalem this is what god said what happened zechariah 12 3 god says i'll make jerusalem and judah like an intoxicating drink to all the nearby nations that send their armies to besiege jerusalem on that day i will make jerusalem a heavy stone and a burden for the world jesus said in luke 21 20 when you see jerusalem surrounded by armies then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived and one of iran's leaders came out and said recently quote we must spare no effort in liberating holy jerusalem and cutting off the hands of the infidels from this holy site end quote so here we see nation the nation of israel we gathered we see jerusalem as their capital now after ezekiel 37 is ezekiel 38. is that not a profound insight come on but that's important because ezekiel 37 says the jews will be scattered the jews will be regathered the jews will have a homeland again that has all happened what happens in ezekiel 38 we read about a large force from the north of israel attacking her this force is identified as gog they come from the land of mega now get out any map and look to the north of israel and you'll find the nation of russia now is russia gog they very well could be but here's where it gets even more interesting one of the allies that marches with gog against israel is identified as persia who is persia well it's modern iran there are iranians today that still identify themselves as persians in fact iran only took on that name back in 1935 up to that point they were known as persia now this is fascinating because if russia is gog there has been no alliance to speak of between the russians and the iranians until fairly recently and they've pulled closer together and we i read recently that uh the russians are building two nuclear facilities in iran with an additional six more to come this is why prime minister netanyahu said to win the war with isis and to not disarm iran is to win the battle and lose the war now listen iran makes no secret of their desire to destroy israel i ran supreme leader ayatollah khamenei recently tweeted yes he tweets he recently tweeted this statement quote israel must be annihilated is that clear enough uh one of iran's leaders said quote the destruction of israel is the idea of the islamic revolution in iran and it's one of the pillars of the iranian islamic regime we cannot claim we have no intention of going to war with israel i came across an interesting video that will roll right now this is an animation that was produced by iran and it was shown on iranian television and this is assimilation and animation of what an attack against israel would look like coming from iran we have these rockets raining down on tel aviv they're very specific you can see with their targets we have the military base here uh and also a missile launch site the international bank of israel there in tel aviv they also have the tel aviv airport another nuclear site this is their vision this is their objective this is what they want to do in fact the general of their army said they can by themselves destroy israel i say let them try they're going to be in for a big surprise things are not going to go the way they hope they would go because that's not what the bible teaches the bible says iran will have hostility toward israel the bible says iran will be one of the allies to march with gog against israel but god is going to intervene and turn back this army into a great miracle and after this miracle of turning back this army uh the bible says they're going to burn the weapons from that conflict for seven years it makes me think this could happen before the tribulation begins nobody knows with absolute certainty but here's what we do know a large force from the north identified as gog will attack israel but then god intervenes destroys much of the invading force and a great spiritual awakening breaks out in the nation of israel among the jewish people they start turning to jesus as their messiah now here's where it affects you and it affects me because right now we are living in a time where god is working primarily outside of the nation of israel you see i don't know about most of you but chances are you're not jewish by birth you're what they call a gentile as am i and we as gentiles have been grafted into the promises of abraham isaac and jacob god gave us the scriptures through the jewish people god gave us our messiah through the jewish people but right now by and large most jews do not believe in yeshua as hamashia jesus as the messiah but after this divine intervention many of them will turn to god now listen to this i don't think this revival can break out until the full gathering of the gentiles takes place just say i don't even know what you're talking about listen to this first romans 11 25 paul says i want you to understand this mystery dear friends so you will not feel proud and start bragging some of the jews have hard hearts but this will last only until the complete number of gentiles come to christ the complete number of gentiles come to christ to me this is saying that god is waiting for those last people to believe even that last person to believe and then we're caught up to meet the lord in the air before this revival breaks out can you imagine if you found out that today in our uh sanctuary there is in attendance the last person god is waiting for to believe so the church can be raptured would you be tempted to apply a little pressure on that person who are they where are they we don't know but that person will believe and we're caught up to meet the lord in the air as you can see these things i have shared are very current they're very relevant and they're happening before our eyes so what am i supposed to do how am i supposed to live as a follower of jesus how should this impact me in day-to-day living as i said earlier bible prophecy is not given to scare us but to prepare us how should i be prepared that brings us to our second passage turn over there with me if you would first thessalonians 5. i'll read just a couple of verses actually a few first thessalonians 5. therefore writes paul let us not sleep as others do but let us watch and be sober for those who sleep sleep at night those who get drunk get drunk at night but those who are of the day should be sober putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation all right so the teaching of christ's imminent return is a real litmus test of where you were at spiritually i think if you're walking with god and your life is right with him when you hear christ could come back at any moment it excites you it motivates you it thrills you but i think if you're not right with god hearing that christ could come back at any moment frightens and alarms you so if you're living as you ought to live you welcome this and you can say with the apostle john even so come we sing it together come lord jesus come that's the heart cry of the man of the woman that is walking with god so there's three things we are to do according to the verses that we just read in thessalonians we need to wake up we need to sober up and we need to suit up wake up sober up suit up let's deal with the first one we need to wake up for six let us not sleep as others do i read a pretty good definition of sleep in the encyclopedia britannica by the way that's a book it preceded google and so i looked up the definition of sleep and here's what they say quote sleep is a state of inactivity with a loss of consciousness and a decrease in responsiveness to events taking place end quote that's a pretty good definition of sleep isn't it and that's a pretty good definition of some christians in the church today a state of inactivity with a loss of consciousness and a decrease in responsiveness to events taking place there are people in the church that have gone asleep don't forget that these words are directed not to non-believers but to christians god is saying to you he's saying to me wake up be alert because some of us aren't for some there's a state of lethargy passiveness even a laziness god says wake up some of us are sleepwalking instead of walking in the spirit i don't know about you but after i have a good meal i get sleepy right sometimes if i eat something like mexican food i go into what i like to describe as a food coma you're out and one of the easiest ways to get sleepy is to eat a lot so here's where it gets interesting you know we sit here in this church and we hear the word of god taught over and over again this is one of the easiest places to go to sleep because you take it in and you take it in and you're not applying it and you find yourself becoming lethargic you find yourself becoming passive no the fact is we should take these words in and they should impact our life and the way that we live and we should be looking forward to the lord's return but sometimes we become sermon connoisseurs instead of fishers of men paul says [Applause] paul says be ready for the lord's return you remember the anticipation you had when you were a little kid for christmas day if you believed in santa you believe he was gonna somehow get his large frame down your little chimney eat the cookies that you left out for him and then deposit presents uh underneath your tree so you look forward to that by the way there's there's life has been described this way there's four faces of life phase number one you believe in santa claus face number two you don't believe in santa claus phase number three you become santa claus in phase number four you look like santa claus and clearly that's where i am now uh i put on a red jogging suit the other day and kids started climbing up on my lap and telling me what they wanted for christmas it was humiliating anyway so but as kids you know i can hardly wait till santa comes and that's how we should be as we think of jesus i can hardly wait until he comes again you're looking forward to it it's not a miserable repressive repressive confining way to live it's a happy joyful purposeful way to live so you need to wake up number one number two you need to sober up sober up verse 8 let those who are of the day be sober having spent the first 17 years of my life around alcoholic people i think i have a pretty good working knowledge of what drunk people look like i watch them all drink every single night there are different ways that different people react to alcohol some people are described sometimes as a happy drunk and laughing everything's funny they think they're funny they aren't but then there are people that just get tired maybe they fall asleep then there are those mean drunks they get angry they start screaming they turn violent by and large i had a lot of those mean drunks around me and so i've seen the effects of alcohol and the problem with the person that's drinking is they don't think they are coming under the influence they think they're maintaining well but actually they aren't and so god is saying don't be drunk and this can be taken quite literally don't get drunk don't be under the influence of this spirit but instead be filled with the holy spirit that's what the bible says don't be drunk with wine because that's a waste but be filled with the holy spirit here's a amazing thought if you drink you can get drunk if you don't drink you won't get drunk simple as that so i don't drink oh greg you're really missing out am i i don't think so i think i've seen the devastating effects of alcohol on far too many lives and i don't need to go down that road i don't want to be under the control of anything or anyone but jesus christ and i'm happy with that i'm not missing anything having said that if you don't drink you won't get drunk i have to confess to you i have been pulled over for a dui absolutely true in fact it was on new year's eve a number of years ago i'd spoken at church and i was driving home and chp came up behind me they lit me up and this cop i don't know why he did it he uses like his loudspeaker pull your car to the side of the road you know it's the lights and the loudspeaker and i pull over and and he actually says to me put your hands on this steering wheel and do not move i'm just like comes walking up i roll down my window yes officer have you been drinking sir uh water had a little bottled water no i mean have you been drinking alcohol officer i've not been drinking alcohol he says get out of the car so i get out of the car and he actually has me walk the little line and walk in the line he takes out a pencil he says follow this with your eyes i'm looking back and i'm getting nervous i've drunk nothing i'm nervous what if i fail the test and what if somebody drives by and says hey look it's pastor greg getting pulled over for a dui god bless you pastor greg that's good i like the way you did that do that again god bless you pastor greg i like that that's very friendly that's very frank well done let's give her a round of applause well he was finally convinced i had not been drinking i did tell him i'm a pastor and i just preached a sermon he let me go but here's the thing there's other things we can be intoxicated by besides alcohol or drugs and by the way let me just say i am so against the legalization of marijuana on so many levels such a mistake look i can speak from my own personal experience i used to smoke marijuana as a kid i pretty much got stoned every single day for about two years of my life and i lost my motivation i was just a typical amen what's up guy and i saw what it did to me and what it did to my friends and there's no question it's a gateway drug and there's no question it's going to have a destructive effect and the marijuana of today is far more potent than the kind we were smoking back in the 60s and 70s this is a bad idea okay bad idea but having said this little you know soapbox there but having said that we don't want to be under the influence of any of this junk but there's other things we can be intoxicated by you ever buy something new and get kind of a rush you buy it you know endorphins are released that's why they call it retail therapy now go get some retail therapy you know you got that thing on sale you know i think a lot of times it's a thrill of the hunt don't you think you look and you look and you look you're so excited then you get it and you're looking at yeah whatever and you move on to something else right and people can live that way they can just be obsessed with getting this next thing and they can be distracted jesus actually gave us this warning in luke 21 34 take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness listen and the cares of this life and that day come upon you unexpectedly the cares of this life it's not always the bad things that mess us up it's the good things that become the most important things then they turn in to bad things because you're more concerned about all the affairs of life and you don't think about the next life you're all concerned about things you can hold in your hand you don't think about those eternal things to be sober does not mean to be miserable now some christians they're just downers okay and they think it's spiritual you know someone tells a joke i'm not laughing man the bible says be sober you know shut up you're just learning how to interpret scripture it doesn't mean you have to be debbie downer what it means is you need to be clear-headed that's what the word sober means clear-headed you're thinking clearly be sober wake up sober up one last one suit up verse say put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation listen here's the bottom line the moment you became a follower of jesus christ you entered in to a spiritual battle the devil didn't want you to believe in the first place now he's going to do everything he can to stop you from moving forward spiritually ephesians 6 12 says we're not fighting against people made of flesh and blood but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world against those mighty powers of darkness who rule the world against wicked spirits in the heavenly realm so use every piece of god's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil so after the battle you'll still be standing firm so you might say well i don't like to fight well then you're gonna just get beat down that's all because you're in this battle if you want to be or not so you have to make a choice you're either going to win or lose you're either going to have victory or defeat you're either going to gain ground or lose ground you're going to progress or regress that's up to you but here's what god says suit up put on the armor what do you put on paul picks out two pieces in particular and paul certainly knew a lot about roman armor because he spent a lot of time chained to roman soldiers so you know when you're sitting chained to someone for days on end you start talking so hey tell me how that armor works there was the breastplate that the soldier would wear in the battle the breastplate was important because it protected the vital organs and so put on the breastplate of faith and love not the breastplate of feeling see our life as a follower of jesus is a life of faith not emotion emotions come and go and if you allow your fickle feelings to control you you're going to crash and burn you got to stand on the word of god put on that breastplate and keep it on every day and then the helmet of salvation now what does a helmet do it protects your head and in the same way we put on this helmet of salvation and it protects our mind why because you will stop and if you stop and think you'll recognize that almost every temptation you've ever given into started as a thought am i right started as a thought you know you're just maybe you're in church or you're leaving church all of a sudden there's a little and it's impure thought thought of doubt thought of pride whatever it is boom thought and you say well i know that's not true or i know that's wrong but i might just try it out for fun i'll just let that thought come in okay now that thought starts taking root in your heart and now that thought is becoming an issue it's been said sow a thought reap and act so an act reap a habit sow a habit reap a character so a character reap a destiny see it started with a thought though that's why you need to protect your mind you say well i don't get what you're saying don't let those thoughts in in the first place as it has been said you can't stop a bird from flying over your head but you can stop him from making a nest in your hair in my case he better bring his own materials is there no hair up here i can't stop the thought from coming my way or even knocking on the door of my imagination but i don't i don't have to open the door and invite invited in that's why the bible says i should bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of jesus christ you know on my computer because i save all kinds of pictures i take endless photos of my grandchildren what can i say i just have so many and i don't ever throw a photo away even if it's blurry if it's of someone i care about i keep it so i have all these photos i have way too many photos am i and you know every now and then i'm working on something like maybe a sermon uh and it's in a document and i go save and a little thing comes up memory full oh no what do i do i have to empty the trash first of all on my computer that helps but maybe i have to throw some stuff away memory full it says and you know if you have a computer you can upgrade your hard drive that's great if you have the kind i have you can't i'm not going to say what it is apple but um okay so there it is memory full no room wouldn't it be great if the devil came with all of his impure thoughts all of his wicked thoughts and he came knocking on our door and all of a sudden a little sign pops up memory full no room for you filled with the word of god filled with the scripture filled with the promises of god memory full put on the helmet and protect your mind as we saying jesus is coming soon so wake up sober up suit up be ready here's what we're told over in romans 11 13 from a uh paraphrased translation the philips translation listen to this i love this why all the stress on behavior because they think you've realized the present time is of the highest importance it's time to wake up to reality every day brings god's salvation earlier the night is nearly over the day is almost on let us therefore fling away the things that men do in the dark let us arm ourselves to the fight of the day let us live cleanly as in the daylight not in getting drunk or playing with sex not in quarreling or jealousies let us be christ's men from head to foot and give no chance for the flesh to have its fling and that is an amazing translation especially that final part let us be christ's men and christ women from head to foot and give no chances for the flesh to have its fling let me close by asking you are you christ's man or woman are you ready for his return as i shared these things with you today do you think you know i'm not actually really positive i'm ready to meet the lord maybe you're doing something you should not be doing maybe you're playing with sex as the bible says you should not be maybe you're intoxicated all the time and or you're partying or whatever it is you're doing these things are keeping you from god it's time to let go of those things and to wake up and to sober up because jesus is coming soon are you ready he could come today he could come tonight i want to give you an opportunity to get ready as you listen to this message right now if you are not absolutely convinced that you're ready to meet the lord if you're not totally sure and if you were to die today you would go to heaven respond to this invitation i'm going to give now as we close in prayer your eternity hangs in the balance of what you do next let's pray father we've heard your word now i pray for those who do not yet know you we pray that your holy spirit will convict and convince them of their sin and that you would bring them to yourself now now when our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying how many of you would say craig i'm not sure if i'm ready for jesus return i need him in my life i need his forgiveness pray for me i'm ready to say yes to jesus 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'll go to heaven when you die wherever you are i want you to raise your hand up and i'll pray for you raise your hand up higher i can see it god bless you god bless you hands are going up god bless you anybody else raise your hand up you want christ in your life you want your sin forgiven god bless all of you anybody else raise your hand up now god bless you you're not sure that you'll go to heaven when you die but you want christ in your life raise your hand up let me pray for you god bless each one of you anybody else god bless while our heads are still bowed maybe some of you would say you know i'm not right with god i'm doing stuff i know i shouldn't be doing as a christian i've been doing some of the things you were talking about and i need to stop doing them i need to repent i'm ready to recommit my life to jesus right now because i want to be ready for his return pray for me if that's you raise your hand up if you need to come back to the lord raise your hand up even if i can't see you raise your hand up you're watching a screen you're wherever you are just take that little step god bless each one of you now i'm going to ask every one of you that has raised your hand if you would please i want you to stand up wherever you are stand up i'm going to lead you in a prayer stand to your feet stand up that's right others are standing do you need to be one of them stand up god bless wherever you are stand up if you're watching this screen stand up this is not between you and greg doesn't matter if i can see you this is between you and god stand up and i'm going to lead you in a prayer and god will hear this prayer wherever you are because it's a prayer to him anybody else you need to get right with god you want christ in your life you need to come back to the lord stand to your feet right now let me lead you in this prayer one final moment anybody else stand now god bless all of you standing now i want all of you standing to pray this prayer out loud after me again as i pray pray this out loud after me pray this now lord jesus i know i'm a sinner but i know that you're the savior and i ask you to forgive me of my sin thank you for dying on the cross and rising again from the dead i choose to follow you jesus from this moment forward thank you for calling me thank you for loving me thank you for accepting me in jesus name i pray amen god bless every one of you that prayed that prayer god bless you guys amen

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 79,915

Rating: 4.8794065 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Greg Laurie Sermons, bible study for me, bible study, youtube sermons, greg laurie, Greg Laurie Live, israel's role in the end times, israels role in the end times, isreal and the end times, israel and the end times, israel at the end of the world

Id: 3Q38IklL0IE

Length: 47min 54sec (2874 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2020