The 1st Jesus Movement (With Greg Laurie)

hey everyone welcome to harvest at home we're starting a brand new series that we're simply calling upside down living i'll explain why in a moment and it's based on the book of acts so grab your bible or your tablet or your phone and go to acts chapter 1 we're going to be reading some verses together the title of this message is the first jesus movement i think we would all agree that our world is a mess right now we see global instability again things re-erupting in the middle east we all know what's happening in afghanistan the tragic loss of american lives over there 13 american service members lost their lives we see the re-emergence of islamic terrorism specifically a group now identifies themselves as isis k then we have the emergence of china as a major superpower come back home and we have the conflict we're seeing in the streets of america and then the breakdown of the american family which is at the root of so many of our social ills today you can almost take every social ill every societal problem in our nation and trace it directly back to the breakdown of the family and it's not just a breakdown of the family it's the redefinition of the family and in some cases the redefinition of what a man or a woman actually is we have immorality being promoted and pushed on us from every direction not just in media but in our classrooms pretty much everywhere we look around us we see a breakdown in our culture we're living in a time right now where it seems like wrong is being celebrated as right and right is being mocked as if it were wrong mindset of a verse from the bible isaiah 5 20. it says what sorrow for those who say evil is good and good is evil and darkest light and light is dark and bitter as sweet and sweet is bitter it seems like everything is upside down right now doesn't it and add to this the fact that we still have a global pandemic called covid with variants coming from it and there seems to be no end in sight what are we to do i think these are signs of the times reminding us that we're living in the last days and what we are to do is we are to watch and pray jesus talking about as the signs are coming before us reminding us of his imminent return he said watch and pray and jesus also said when you see these things begin to happen look up for your redemption is drawing near so we need divine intervention we need the lord to hear our prayers and help us we need well another jesus movement now when we think of the jesus movement or the jesus revolution as time magazine described it we remember long-haired kids with beards wearing sandals and beads and bell bottoms and we remember how bad america was in the late 60s and the early 70s and how god heard the prayers of his people and sent a great spiritual awakening in fact many believe it was the greatest awakening in american history and we need to see that happen again so i think as a point of reference we need to go back to the late 50s and the early 60s oh i don't mean 1960 i mean ad60 i'm talking about the first jesus movement i'm talking about the movement that christ himself started on this earth after he was crucified and rose again from the dead and by the way things were very dark when the first jesus movement happened mighty rome had pretty much beaten the world into submission and rome ruled with an iron fist immorality was rampant if he would go into a roman city there would be thousands of prostitutes roaming the streets looking for people to prey upon and if that wasn't bad enough you would open idolatry in spiritism and demon worship and add to this the fact that the religious establishment was almost completely corrupt sounds like a good time for divine intervention and they had their jesus movement because jesus himself appeared on the scene and began his public ministry fulfilling hundreds of prophecies in the old testament at first he was welcomed with great fanfare and open arms and his followers numbered in the thousands as he healed their sick and raised their dead and gave the greatest teachings that people had ever heard then suddenly or so it seemed everything just came off the rails jesus is charged falsely he's betrayed by one of his own disciples he sent to the religious leaders and then ultimately to pontius pilate who has christ scourged and then sent to a cross to be crucified but actually this was not an aberration everything was going according to plan god's perfect plan because history is his story in fact on the day of pentecost peter summed it up when he said in acts 2 24 this man speaking of jesus was handed over to you by god's deliberate plan and foreknowledge and with the help of wicked men he was put to death by being nailed to the cross but god raised him from the dead the romans unwittingly fulfilled bible prophecy because the old testament told us the messiah would suffer and die isaiah 53 written hundreds of years before jesus died told us that he would be beaten and you wouldn't even be able to tell he was a man psalm 22 written hundreds of years before crucifixion even existed has the messiah saying they pierced my hands and my feet again in the old testament we also read that the messiah is answering the question where did you receive these wounds he said i received them in the house of my friends yes jesus was wounded for our transgressions isaiah 53 reminds us it was all part of the plan of the messiah coming to the earth and dying voluntarily on a cross for the sin of the world but also to rise again from the dead and after his resurrection his followers were transformed into passionate preachers of the gospel so rome tried to stop this new movement of followers of jesus and they began to persecute the christians there was a series of persecutions that came starting with caesar nero ending with diocletian both roman emperors nero was so cruel and twisted he would take christians and cover them with pitch and set him on fire to light his garden as he would ride his chariot around diocletian was so certain that he had eradicated the christian faith uh from the earth he even had a special commemorative coin struck with these words on it quote the christian religion is destroyed and the worship of the roman gods is restored end quote famous last words ultimately mighty rome was reduced to ruins and yet today the church still marches on persecution did not weaken the church it strengthened the church and it caused a church to spread out around their area and ultimately around the world proclaiming the gospel today we name our children after apostles and our dogs after emperors here's caesar come on get your food that's the way it works out what is rome remembered for it's remembered for what caesar salad and little caesar's pizza a nice place to visit on vacation but the church is alive and growing around the world and by the way where the church is heavily persecuted it's growing i've read many accounts of how the church is blowing up in a good way in iran even though the government tries to suppress it many people are coming to christ the same thing is happening in afghanistan so god is at work through followers of jesus christ all around the world so let's think about these first century believers that turn their world upside down why am i calling this upside down living because there is a statement made in acts chapter 17 verse 6. it's a critical statement given by the religious leaders about the growth of the church when they said paul and silas have turned the rest of the world upside down and now they're disturbing our city i love that they've turned the world upside down by the way that that was not a compliment that was a criticism you could almost call it a couple salt now i don't know if that word exists i think maybe i coined that word maybe someone else has used it before me a couple assault accomplice salt is what you might call a backhanded compliment as an illustration i went to the fair here in orange county not long ago with my family and levi lusko and his wife jenny and their family so we went to that event where you ring the bell you know you pick up the big hammer and then you crush it down on the little spot and hopefully you ring the bell so levi went first he's younger stronger than i am boom he hit it he did not ring the bell then i went i took the same hammer brought it down i rang the bell then we did it again he could not ring the bell second time i rang the bell and levi grudgingly said well you have old man strength that's a couple of salt oh you have strength thank you old man strength come on really and we do this all the time we we try to compliment someone but in a way we kind of insult them for instance when you say to someone that arrives on time while you're actually on time you're implying that they're not usually on time or how about this one you're a really good driver for a woman that that's not that side insult i don't even know if that's accomplished here's another one you look great for your age i've heard that a few times you look great for your age here's even another why you're so pretty why are you still single what is that are they a second class citizen because they're not married yet couple assaults so the religious leader said these people have turned the world upside down and now they're disturbing our city my prayer is that the church will disturb more cities my hope is that more christians will create a disturbance there's a bible commentator named g kimball morgan who made this statement and i quote organized christianity which fails to make a disturbance is dead end quote you should be making a difference you should be turning your world upside down fact of the matter is wherever paul went there was either a conversion or a riot never a dull day with these followers of jesus and they did not have modern technology at their disposal thomas did not tweet paul didn't have a tv show a peter didn't use social media but yet in a relatively short period of time these disciples changed their world they permeated their culture there's tertullian uh a christian leader from many years ago that was a contemporary of these early followers of christ and he made this statement speaking of the church quote we have filled every place among you cities islands fortresses towns marketplaces the very camp tribes companies palaces senate the forum we've left nothing to you but the temples of your gods end quote i love that tertullian is pointing out at the church infiltrated they permeated everything even in the palace of caesar there were christians and this is what we need today we need christians to go out and make a difference we need more christians involved in the arts making great films creating graphic design we need christians in politics electing godly men and women to places of authority because the bible says when the righteous rule the people rejoice we need christian doctors we need christian lawyers we need christian business people we need believers to go out and let their light shine in this culture today and that's what happened in the first century because every believer understood they were called to do their part they took risks they left their comfort zones we see their fearless preaching their expectant prayer and their willingness to obey god but listen to this the book of acts is simply a picture of normal christianity it's normal christianity now as we read it would say i don't know if that's normal that seems pretty radical to me fact of the matter is it's normal and if it seems radical it's because we have a deluded virgin we should be living like these first century believers impacting our culture now historically looking back the book of acts was written over a 30 year period from around 80 33 to 63. of course there's a lot of miracles and a lot of amazing events but it's over 30 years i don't think a miracle happened every day but i think what you see is believers living by faith doing what god has called them to do these weren't perfect christians they made mistakes they have their little divisions they have their disagreements they have their problems they're their challenges but despite that they made a huge difference and turned their world upside down why can't we do the same thing the author of the book of acts of course is the holy spirit speaking through dr luke now we remember luke because he has his own gospel and what's unique about lucas he was not one of the disciples that walked with jesus he came along later and apparently he was hired by a well-to-do christian who had the name theophilus so theophilus underwrote luke's research project to get the story of what happened in the life and ministry of jesus and luke with a great attention to detail and with a beautiful poetic pen gave us the gospel we call luke and now here's a second writing also sponsored by theophilus called the book of acts but the difference between the gospel of luke and the book of acts is in this particular document that he wrote luke was part of the story he was in on the action he was an eyewitness to what was happening by the way the name theophilus means lover of god so this book wasn't just written for theophilus it was written for all of us for all of you who love god we have the book of acts and i might add it's an unfinished book it never really ended in a way chapters are still being written i'm not suggesting we write new chapters and insert them in the bible to the book of acts but i'm simply saying we should not put a period where god has put a comma the work continues on the work of the church and the world today i could sum up the book of acts this way it's a spirit of god working through the word of god and the hearts of the people of god let me say that again it's a spirit of god working through the word of god in the hearts of the people of god so let's read now some verses from the book of acts and then i will give you my first point let's read acts chapter 1 verses 1 to three and by the way i'm reading from the new living translation luke writes in my first book i told you theophilus about everything jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the holy spirit during the 40 days after he suffered and died he appeared to the apostles from time to time and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive and he talked to them about the kingdom of god let's stop there here's point number one if you're taking notes before you can change the world you yourself must be changed before you can change the world you must first be changed look at verse 3 during the 40 days after he suffered and died he appeared to the apostles now when we think of the apostles we think of peter james john matthew and later paul we put them on pedestals they they seem like superhuman individuals but they were ordinary people just like you and me we say oh no they were living breathing saints they didn't make any mistakes oh they made mistakes and the bible is honest about the mistakes they made but they were saying she got that part right what is a saint i heard about a sunday school teacher that was talking to her class and she said class can any of you tell me what a saint is one of the little girls thought about how she would see those apostles and stained glass and how the light would come through so the little girl said a saint those are people that the light shines through and that's true that's really what he's saying is and by the way you're a saint if you're a christian i'm a saint and not because i've performed a miracle and i've been canonized because the word saint is just another word for believer or follower of jesus christ but here's the thing we need to understand these weren't perfect people they were ordinary people but god did extraordinary things through ordinary people listen the disciples greatness was not because of who they were it was because of god's hand on them first corinthians 1 26 says isn't it obvious that god deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks god chose those nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of the some buddies how true is that god seems to go out of his way to choose unexpected people to go to unexpected places to do unexpected things i read an article about some individual that paid 1 million dollars for a fender stratocaster now that's way too much money to pay for a fender strat uh you can go out and find one of those guitars for around six hundred dollars to maybe fifteen hundred dollars so why did this guy pay so much for this guitar well it's because it was the guitar that bob dylan played at the 1965 newport folk festival so prior to that uh dylan was known for playing an acoustic guitar in his little harmonica right and all of a sudden dylan comes out with a fender stratocaster he plugs it in and and plays like a rolling stone that would later be declared by rolling stone magazine as the greatest rock song ever written and all the folk purists thought this was an abomination and they were so angry so it became a historic event and that guitar that dylan played at the newport pop festival sold for one million dollars maybe that makes a little more sense than some guy who paid 380 000 for a burned guitar how would a guitar get burned well jimi hendrix played it at the monterey pop festival he had just finished playing the song wild thing and he took his guitar off put it on the stage put lighter fluid on it and set it on fire and then picked up pieces of the guitar and threw them into the audience and a part of that dismembered guitar ended up in someone's hands who later sold it to someone for 380 grand so it's not about the value of a burned guitar it's not about the value of the guitar that uh is called a finished fender stratocaster the value is in who played it it's because dylan played the guitar or jimi hendrix played the guitar if i play the guitar it would go down in value if eric clapton picked up that same guitar and recorded a song on it it would be a collector's item i bring all this up to simply say this thing jesus did not call these apostles because they were great they were great because jesus called them it's not the instrument it's the one who holds the instrument and god can take you despite your flaws and shortcomings and use you for his glory and to their eternal credit these disciples later to be called apostles left everything to follow jesus he was crucified they were devastated he resurrected again from the dead and their lives were never the same and this is what luke is saying in acts chapter one verse two he appeared to the apostles from time to time and prove to them he was actually alive it says he was seen by them and that's an interesting word that is used here because the word scene means to eyeball something have you ever seen something you thought i can't believe my eyes that's how the disciples felt when they saw jesus again remember i pointed out to you that isaiah speaking prophetically said jesus would be so beaten and his body is so traumatized you wouldn't even be able to tell he was a man and the disciples thought we'll never see him again we'll never talk to him again ah but he was alive and he appeared to them he's still carried in his body the marks of the crucifixion and his hands and feet he appeared first to mary magdalene there in the garden outside of the tomb then he appeared after that to simon peter then he appeared in the upper room to thomas who had been doubtful up to that point and jesus said go ahead thomas put your hands into the wounds in my hands and all thomas could say was all my lord and my god jesus appeared again to two disciples walking on the i'm walking on the emmaus road then he appeared again to simon peter uh by the sea of galilee and told peter to go feed his sheep on another occasion he appeared to 500 people at one time so for 40 days jesus was just showing up here showing up there everywhere you look jesus would turn up with some words of encouragement for all of them so they're saying we saw we eyeballed him we know he was alive but listen to this before they could change the world jesus needed to first change them in first john 1 verse 1 john writes we proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning who we have heard and who we have seen we've seen him with our own eyes we've touched him with our own hands and he is the word of life listen if i want someone to follow jesus i must first be a follower of jesus so i can show them what a living breathing christian looks like as i've often said you're the only bible some people are ever going to read a christian is a walking epistle written by god and read by men so be a good example i mean think about this let's say you went to a dentist and he was missing most of his teeth and he said sorry some of my teeth are missing from decay and neglect but i can fix your teeth would i go to that dentist how about this would i go have a trainer in a gym who was morbidly obese and needed help getting up or here's another one would you take voice lessons from someone who's saying out of pitch no if you're going to teach me how to sing you better know how to sing if you're going to teach me how to get in shape you better be in shape if you're going to fix my teeth you better have a great set of teeth yourself and if you're asking people to follow the jesus you follow you need to be a good example the apostle paul said follow me as i follow jesus christ point number two this early church they had a job to do and so do we let's go back to acts chapter one look at verse seven he replied jesus speaking the father alone has the authority to set those dates and times and they're not for you to know but you will receive power after the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in jerusalem throughout judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth listen those words are not just given to those first century believers we're still called to tell people about jesus everywhere this statement of christ was prompted by a question from the disciples when they said lord has the time come for you to free israel and restore your kingdom see here's what was going on many of the people including the disciples had a misguided notion about jesus they thought as messiah he was coming to establish the kingdom of god on the earth then that's why it seemed like an aberration or a mistake when he was crucified if they had read their bibles more carefully they would have discovered messiah was coming first to suffer and die for the sins of the world and later to return back to the earth and establish his kingdom so basically they're going back to original settings okay lord we're so glad you're alive again are you going to establish the kingdom and and jesus is effectively saying guys will you get over that i'm not establishing my kingdom on the earth right now so the disciples asked lord when are you going to establish your kingdom and jesus says in response in acts 1 verses 7 to 8 the father alone has the authority to set those dates in times they are not for you to know jesus is effectively saying guys will you get over this already i'm not going to going to establish my earthly kingdom right now that's coming later stop focusing on when i am returning and instead focus on what you are to do until i return let me say that again because it applies to us stop focusing on when jesus is returning and instead focus on what you and i are supposed to do while we await his coming people still ask today when is jesus coming why has christ not come back yet and then there is the occasional misguided person who will say they know the exact date of the return of christ or it's going to happen in this month don't believe those people jesus says no man knows the day or the hour when the son of man will return not even the angels only the father in heaven our focus should be on what we should be doing as we await his return and what is it we should be doing as we await the return of christ verse 8 you will be witnesses telling people about me everywhere you can't escape it it's the great commission given to us in matthew 28 also in mark 16. jesus says go into all the world and preach the gospel making disciples of all nations teaching them to observe everything that i have commanded you and lo i am with you even to the end of the age you know it's a funny thing when it comes to the subject of studying bible prophecy sometimes folks miss the point by the way you remember i taught on the book of revelation not that long ago it's now out in a book simply called revelation a book of promises you know as as we designed this uh i i spoke to uh our our designer lead designer his name is josh huffman very talented guy i said i want it to be a bright hopeful happy cover usually when you see a commentary on the book of revelation it's black and red and ominous looking i said no this is a hopeful book it tells us that god is in control or the story of a man and by the way you can get this book from us now at harvest ministries for your gift of any size but i heard about a man that was not a great bible student and he had been reading revelation and he was talking with some other better educated theologians and telling them he understood revelation they said you don't understand revelation no one understands revelation it's a mystery it's an enigma no one can understand it this man said no i i understand that they said no you don't he said actually i do all right explain to us the book of revelation and this guy said the book of revelation tells us we win in the end that is not a bad summation but sometimes we can become sort of obsessed with things that we think are fulfillments of bible prophecy that actually are not and we forget the fact that bible prophecy is not given to inflate our brains but to enlarge our hearts if we really understand what bible prophecy is about it should cause us to want to live godly lives no the lord is not late in returning to planet earth he's being patient here's what ii peter 3 9 says the lord isn't really being slow about his promise as some people think he's being patient for your sake he does not want anyone to be destroyed he wants everyone to repent see god's waiting for more people to believe i remember back in the early 70s when i became a christian everyone was talking about jesus returning we were praying lord come back aren't you glad jesus didn't answer our prayer because i bet there's a lot of you right now that are watching me that have come to christ since 1970. the lord is waiting and i believe there may be walking this earth somewhere a person who is the last one to believe before the lord calls this church home to heaven and what we often call the rapture of the church when the lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout the voice of the archangel the dead and christ will rise first and we which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds so we will forever be with the lord but what if you knew who that last person was man it'd be tempting to apply a little pressure like can you believe in jesus like now so we can go to heaven imagine you could be talking to someone share the gospel with them leave them to christ and boom we're all in heaven i just woke up a bunch of people with that clap good you need to pay attention here's what we know god is waiting for more people to believe so jesus lays out for the early church his battle plan on reaching people and it's the same battle plan we should follow today again acts 1 verse 8 you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in jerusalem throughout judea and samaria to the ends of the earth there it is so it's jerusalem judea samaria and the ends of the earth so apply this in your life jerusalem is your home you start at home and by the way the hardest people to reach of the gospel are your family because they've known you all your life and now you believe in jesus i remember when i became a christian it was not well received by my family it took me years to reach my mother well over 30 years before she actually prayed and committed her life to christ even jesus did not reach his family before he died and rose again from the dead we read that his family would show up and they would say he's lost his mind we need to take him home again we read that jesus could do no miracles in his hometown of nazareth because of their unbelief because the people said messiah we've known jesus since he was a little boy is this not the carpenter's son the hardest people to reach are your family but start there start with your spouse if you're married start with your mom your dad your grandparents your children your extended family that's your jerusalem then you go to your judea now you're sort of leaving your comfort zone it's not just your home your judea would be maybe your workplace your sphere of influence the people that follow you on social media now you go out to your judea your larger circle and you share your faith and then finally you go to people everywhere jesus says samaria and the ends of the earth by the way to say to a jew that they should go to samaria was not appealing because as you know there was a conflict between the samaritans and the jews and you remember when jesus went to the woman at the well who was a samaritan she asked the question why are you a jew talking to me a samaritan don't you know jews and samaritans have nothing to do with each other and that was largely true but what did jesus do he went out of his way to reach someone way out of his comfort zone if you will are you willing to do that jonah was actually called to preach to the people of nineveh they were the avowed enemies of israel and he didn't want to do it god wants you to reach people everywhere go outside of your comfort zone go even to your enemies with the gospel as we look at our own ministry and we've been doing this now for around 50 years first we reached our jerusalem and when we first started our church in riverside here's a couple of pictures of what it looked like back then that was our jerusalem then we went to our judea that was what was called the inland empire the area around riverside and then we planted a church in orange county and that's the larger area of orange county our judea and then we have our church on the island of maui called harvest kumalani so we start there and then we reach outside of that area and we reach the island and the other islands as well and then our samaria would have been the united states say you know reaching the rest of our nation and then the uttermost parts of the earth that's when we've gone global and god has opened up doors for us to reach people all around the world and i know this because i read comments uh from people who watch us in fact if you do me a big favor right now if you're watching on our youtube channel or my facebook page or or perhaps at harvest.org there's a place for you to comment tell me where you're watching from i know in the past i've seen people say we're watching from the philippines we're watching from australia we're watching from new zealand we're watching from japan or the united kingdom and on it goes singapore people watching from all around the world where are you watching from right now comment let us see where you're from but that's the idea we go first to the people closest to us and then the people around us and then we go wherever god calls us to go one final point then i'm done we need to be filled with the holy spirit to do what god has called us to do let me say that again we need to be filled with the holy spirit to do what god has called us to do look at verse 8 acts 1 one more time you shall receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you'll be witnesses for me telling people about me everywhere i mean think about it how is this ragtag group of individuals going to change the world there were 12 in total i watched a movie it's been around for a long time uh not long ago called the dirty dozen i'm not saying these guys were the dirty dozen but i'm saying that there were a flawed group of individuals we have some fishermen we have a tax collector we have others very ordinary people how are they going to do it i mean their leader next to jesus was simon peter if simon peter would be demoralized by the words of his servant girl in the high priest courtyard causing him to deny christ how could any of them go out anywhere preaching this message jesus answers the question you'll receive power after the holy spirit comes upon you the way they're going to do it and the way we're going to do it is with the power we don't possess naturally it's super natural power a power to do beyond what we have done before a power to change the world a power to be a witness a power to share your faith a power to turn the world upside down good news we'll read about this later when the holy spirit is poured out on those first century believers on the day of pentecost that same power that set the church into motion is available to you right now because we read peter saying in acts 2 39 this promise is to your children and to the gentiles and all who have been called by the lord our god what promise the promise of the holy spirit the word that is used here for power is noteworthy it's the greek word dunamis years ago there was a man named alfred nobel we know him best for the nobel peace prize but before he created the nobel peace prize he created an explosive substance known as dynamite but he didn't have a name for it at first he invented this this explosive device or this explosive substance and he went to a friend who knew greek he said what is the greek word for explosive and the man said it's the greek word dunamis and so nobel says okay i'm going to call it dynamite. so basically the bible is saying god is going to give you explosive dynamite power in your life from the holy spirit to do what he has called you to do this is real power people want power you know when guys get cars they like to get the most powerful engine so they can brag on it right you know what i have under this hood we like power we like horsepower we like manpower oh we like political power too just watch the news and you see people grappling for more political power god is talking about spiritual power power to change your life power to change the world one of the ministries we do at our church is into assisted living homes and there's a man that was teaching one of these studies his name is steve he was telling the older folks how god wanted to use them and he told them he's teaching from the book of acts how the early church impacted their world because they were filled with the holy spirit and he encouraged them to do the same so there's a lady 82 years old and she prayed every day for god to fill her with the holy spirit and that he would give her a boldness to share the gospel and so while steve was leading the study this lady raised her hand she said i have a praise report i've been praying for god's power in my life and i was able to lead an 85 year old gentleman to christ the other day isn't that great so this isn't just for 18 year olds this is for 82 year olds this is for everybody to go out into all of your world and preach the gospel and you can do this this is the message we're given to proclaim what is the gospel i've used that word a few times the word gospel simply translated means good news so i have some good news for you god loves you now i have some bad news for you you're separated from this loving god by your sin and when i say you i mean me i mean all of us because the bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of god there's nothing i can do through good works or moral living or even religious rituals to reach god but the good news is god sent his son jesus christ to die on the cross for our sin remember i told you earlier it was god's plan jesus summed it up when he said for god so loved the world he gave his only begotten son and whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life the father sent the son and the son willingly went and died on the cross for your sin now if you will turn from your sin and believe in jesus he will forgive you have you been forgiven of your sin do you know that you'll go to heaven when you die are you ready for the lord's return if you would like jesus christ to come into your life if you would like him to forgive you of your sin if you would like to be ready for the return of jesus christ i'm going to stop right now and pray a simple prayer i'm going to ask that you would pray this prayer with me and if you will pray this prayer and mean it god will hear you and god will answer this prayer so if you want jesus to come into your life if you want him to forgive you of your sin if you want to go to heaven when you die if you want to fill that hole in your heart pray this prayer with me right now wherever you are just pray these words lord jesus i know that i'm a sinner but i also know you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin rose again from the dead i choose to follow you now jesus from this moment forward as my savior and lord as my god and friend thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer in jesus name amen did you just pray that prayer did you feel something emotionally sometimes people do sometimes they don't let me tell you what just happened to you if you just prayed that prayer with me christ himself has come to live inside of you the bible says these words we write to you that believe on the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life if you prayed that prayer in a minute god heard that prayer god has answered that prayer and you are now a child of god i'm going to help you get started on the right foot and following jesus so i have a gift for you it's called the new believer's bible this is the new testament with hundreds of notes that i wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you've made to follow christ now there's a phone number on the screen you can call that number and we'll send you your copy of the new believer's bible and if you're watching me right now on a computer or a tablet device there's a little box you can click as well and if you'll tap that box or click that box you'll be put in touch with us and we'll get your information and we'll send you your copy of the new believer's bible i have a final word i want to say to you but first a short song from our harvest worship band [Music] when i was broken you were my hero [Music] call my name [Music] you call my name [Music] [Music] now you call me [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thanks for watching harvest at home i have a final thing i want to share with you i talked about this power of the holy spirit that the early church had you can have the same power in your life to be a bold witness for jesus christ and say well what do i need to do to receive this power jesus gives the answer when he says if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him so simple just ask him you ask him for this power god loves to give gifts do you love to give gifts i love to give gifts to people and it's really hard for me to not show a person the gift i've gotten them like if i get them something for christmas i want to give it to them before christmas god is eager to give the gifts of the spirit to you he is eager to pour his holy spirit on you all you have to do is ask him so i would like to lead you in another prayer right now and this is for every christian watching me and this is a prayer where we will ask the holy spirit to fill us you could pray this prayer out loud maybe you're with a group of people watching maybe you're all alone but you pray this prayer god will give you this power to share your faith let's pray lord jesus pray this after me lord jesus fill me with the holy spirit give me a boldness such as i have never known before give me the courage to share my faith use me to change my world i receive that power now in jesus name i pray amen did you pray with me god heard that prayer well i didn't feel anything greg this has nothing to do with how you feel do you feel something when you put gas in your car when you go down or if it's an electric car when you plug it into the wall do you have an emotional experience every time you fuel your car no you don't but you fuel it over and over again right the bible says don't be drunk with wine but be filled with the spirit and that phrase be filled means constantly be filled so we need to pray every day lord fill me with the holy spirit god will fill you he'll refill you and he'll refill you again sometimes you'll feel something other times you'll feel nothing it's not about what you feel it's about the promise of god we just prayed for that power pray for that power again as you get up tomorrow pray for the power again for the next day and like that lady i mentioned earlier she prayed for that power to share her faith and she led an older gentleman to the lord i believe god will use you to do the same thanks for watching and until next time god bless you [Music] [Music] i saw like [Music] is [Music] still the miracle [Music] [Music] is my [Music] this testimony [Music] come together sons and daughters [Music]

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 10,085

Rating: 4.9157896 out of 5

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Id: Lha_N_GYqFQ

Length: 53min 50sec (3230 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021