The Second Coming (With Greg Laurie)

bible is the one book that dares to predict the future not once not twice but hundreds of times with 100 percent accuracy the words of jesus the seven churches speak from behold the white house saying jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the book of revelation let's all turn in our bibles down of revelation chapter 19. the title of my message is the second coming heard a story about a traveling salesman that was out on the road he had a really long hard day he returned to his hotel room sitting at the edge of his bed he took off his shoe and just let it drop to the ground with the big thud and then it dawned on him oh my you know it's late at night there's someone below me i might have woken them up so he very carefully and quietly took off his second shoe and put it on the floor a half hour passes there's a knock at the door and the salesman opens the door and they're standing before him as a man with dark circles under his eyes and he said would you just let the other shoe drop so i could get some sleep you know many ways the world today is waiting for the other shoe to drop so to speak and that's what's happening here in revelation 19 the other shoe is dropping if you will as jesus christ is now visibly returning to the earth and what we call the second coming this is the event the church has been praying for for centuries in the lord's prayer christ taught us to say to the father our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven that is effectively a prayer for the return of christ and now here in revelation 19 we see this prayer is being answered before our very eyes you know newspapers have a certain kind of type they say for mega events and guess what it's called it's called second coming type they use it for special events it's much larger than the normal type this is the type that was used when the japanese attacked us at pearl harbor this is the type that was used when president kennedy was assassinated in dallas this is the type that was used when the world trade center was attacked and it's interesting they don't call it mega event type they call it second coming type why do they call it that because they're actually acknowledging there is no bigger event that is coming to the world than the second coming of jesus christ by the way it's not just christians that believe this i read a gallup poll that said 66 of the american people believe that jesus christ is coming back to this earth in the future and that poll was taken quite a long time ago i wonder if that percentage is not higher with all that is going on in our world right now make no mistake about it christ is coming again and at the second coming jesus is going to come back to this planet he's going to judge his enemies he's going to set up his kingdom and he'll rule over the earth for a thousand year period that is called the millennium satan's heyday will be over and he'll be chained up for a thousand years by the way the second coming of christ is mentioned many times in the bible it's mentioned 1800 times in the old testament and 300 times in the new testament specifically one verse and 25 mentions the lord's return in the bible it's referred to in 27 old testament books and also in 23 new testament books listen to this for every prophecy about the first coming of jesus christ there are eight prophecies about the second coming so clearly this is a theme in the bible that is repeated over and over again the great british preacher c.h spurgeon once said quote the sound of his approach should be as music to our ears end quote in fact i think your reaction to the imminent return of jesus is a real barometer of your spiritual health i think if you're right with god and you love the lord and you're walking with jesus and if you don't what i don't know what i mean by that i'll tell you uh at the end of my message how you can come into a relationship with jesus christ but if you don't have this relationship with god this can be sort of a scary subject and i'm addressing right now in revelation 22 20 uh we read these words he who testifies to these things says yes i am coming quickly and then john responds even so come lord jesus and that should be the response of every believer even so come lord jesus thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven you know after jesus was crucified and rose again from the dead now he was going to ascend to heaven and we read over in acts chapter 1 verse 11 that the angels told the disciples as christ was ascending why do you stand here gazing up into heaven this same jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come again in like manner as you saw him go into heaven so know this jesus christ is coming again the incarnation without the coronation would be like the east without the west it's repeated over and over one of the more familiar passages is matthew 24 also known as the olivet discourse when christ speaks of this and he says immediately after the tribulation of those days and remember there's going to be a great tribulation period that lasts for seven years so the second coming is at the end of the tribulation period so jesus says as this is happening the sun will be darkened the moon will not give her light the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven will be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory no it doesn't say greg laurie great glory i actually think i'll be there though and if you're a christian i think you'll be there as well i'll tell you why i believe that in just a few moments but the second coming happens at the battle of armageddon and the battle of armageddon is at the end of the tribulation period so the question may arise what are we going to be doing as followers of jesus while this is happening i told you in my last message i believe we'll have been caught up to meet the lord in the air we'll be in heaven but what are we doing after the rapture and before the second coming revelation 19 verse 7 addresses that let's read it together let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb you might want to underline that phrase the marriage of the lamb has come and the wife has made herself ready and herb was granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and bright and the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints and then he said to me blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are the true sayings of god now imagine hearing this and john is just overwhelmed as the angel delivers this message to him and john says i fell to his feet to worship him and he said don't do that i am your fellow servant and of your brothers who have the testimony of jesus worship god for the testimony of jesus is a spirit of prophecy you know more than one occasion the bible compares the church to a bride and jesus to the groom in fact our lord used this illustration many times in his parables remember it's a story that he told of a man who was invited to a wedding but he refused to wear the garment that was given to him at the door that's a picture of people that think they don't need to believe in jesus to get into this great feast this great promise that god gives to us jesus told the parable of the ten virgins five were wise five were foolish the wise ones had oil in their lamps and remember uh there was a cry given out the bridegroom is coming see when we have weddings now a lot of it's about the bride right you know we all are there in our seats and then the theme is played the melody is played on the keyboards and we all stand up and we look back and there stands the bride dressed in white usually escorted by her father and she comes down the aisle and then she's joined to the groom but in biblical times there was almost a reverse of that everyone was waiting for the groom not the bride so in those days you didn't know when the groom was going to show up he might show up at three o'clock in the afternoon he might show up at three o'clock in the morning and there was an announcement given behold the bridegroom is coming and if you were asleep you'd miss it snooze and you lose so jesus use that picture to say we need to be ready for this great event that is coming and you know on your wedding day you want to look your best i mean guys come on you know you got to dress up uh hopefully rena talks or look your best you know don't show up with some funky soiled t-shirt with a hole in it and brides you you wouldn't like go through a drive-through restaurant on your way to your wedding like taco bell you don't want refried beans on your wedding dress now do you both of you want to look your best and now it's interesting because we read here in revelation 19 and verse 8 about this fine linen which is the righteous acts of the saints what does that mean here's what it doesn't mean it doesn't mean you have to live a perfect life to get to heaven because as i've said you before heaven is not for good people it's for forgiven people so when you've turned from your sin and you've put your faith in christ you now have the hope you will go to heaven and then when you get there we have the righteous acts of the saints in other words it's not what we've done to get to heaven but it's what we've done in light of the fact that god has called us to heaven and purchased our salvation you know we're not saved by human effort the bible says it's not by works of righteousness which we have done and one of the more familiar passages on this topic is ephesians 2 8 paul says by grace you've been saved through faith not of yourselves it is a gift of god not of works lest any man should both so we know that but that verse goes on to say the following for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus four good works that god has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them listen to this works don't save a man or a woman but there are good evidence that he or she is saved you can have works without faith but you cannot have faith without works he said what are you even talking about by works i mean evidence results let me ask you this question if you were arrested for being a christian would there be enough evidence to convict you now by evidence i don't mean by how many bibles you have i have a collection of bibles because i don't think i've ever thrown a bible away i've given some away so i have a stack of bibles on my desk going back decades of bibles that i use are all pretty beat up but that's not evidence that i'm a christian it's evidence i have a lot of bibles the evidence is found in the way that i live the evidence is found by the things that i say the evidence is found on what the bible describes as fruit spiritual fruit the bible says we should bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance and sometimes you'll see a person who says they're a christian but they're contradicting it by the way that they're living oh i'm a christian they'll say but they're getting drunk and partying the weekends away or maybe even other days of the week they say they're a christian but they're in an immoral relationship they say they're a christian and they're doing something else and you'll say hey man i don't really know if you're living a life that a christian should be living and of course they're going to push back and say this to you hey judge not lest you be judged right so you could just say well i don't know that i'm judging you think of me as a fruit inspector jesus said by their fruits you shall know them and if you're a real christian there will be spiritual fruit i.e results there will be works there will be evidence that confirms that you are a follower of christ now this is really important because something's going to happen in heaven that some christians don't know about it's called the judgment seat of christ and every christian will be present at the judgment seat of christ it happens after the rapture and it happens before the second coming now you might say wait wait i thought we weren't going to be judged well you won't be judged at the great white throne judgment we'll talk about that next time that is that judgment where the small and the great the rich and the poor every person stands before god and if your name is not found written in the book of life you're cast into the lake of fire this is not that judgment not only will a christian not be judged then but they will not even be present at that judgment in my opinion what i'm talking about is a different judgment that's sometimes called the bema seat or the judgment seat of christ and that is the judgment that we're going to stand before as followers of jesus christ describing this in second corinthians 5 10 it says we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether it be good or bad so think of this as more of an of an awards ceremony uh many of you who are watching may be very accomplished and you have doctorates hanging on your wall and your degrees and things that you've done others may have shelves lined with uh trophies and ribbons that you've won for athletic events when i competed in athletics as a kid i always seem to win the purple ribbon and by the way that was like the lowest ribbon you could win you know there would be the gold ribbon maybe or the blue ribbon and purple was given for just existing that was like what was given for the fact that you just were in the race and they acknowledged you lived that said i had a lot of purple ribbons i'm also reminded of when i was in school i remember that we had a teacher who would give us a star on certain papers or reports remember though some of you may have never seen them but you get them in the stationary store little gold stars silver stars blue stars and the gold star was the big one i never got a gold star in fact i just had blue stars which again just meant okay you turned it in it wasn't that great but once again we acknowledge your existence i literally went to a stationery store and bought a little box of gold stars and just put them on my papers because i wanted to see what it was like but you know we think about things like that where we're acknowledged for what we have done i know the trend in in kids sports today is to not keep score i know that because i have five grandkids and i've gone to some of their soccer games and they'll be out there playing and i'll say what's the score and someone will say we don't keep score but there are people always keeping score of course even if it's not official but this is the idea that there's there's no winners there's no losers everyone's a winner that sounds good it's not true it's not true in life and guess what it's not true in the bible in the bible there's winners and there are losers and guess what god wants you to be a winner in the race of life on more than one occasion the christian life is compared to running a race and paul writes in first corinthians 9 24 don't you realize that we're in a race and everyone runs in a race but only one person gets the prize so run to win run to win if you're competing in the olympics go for the gold if you're living as a christian go for the gold run to win and by the way i'm not competing with my fellow christians my competition is not with fellow believers my competition as a pastor is not with other churches he who has the biggest church wins no no because on that final day god is going to ask about my faithfulness he won't say well done good and successful servant he'll say well done good and faithful servant i'll be held accountable for what god has called me to do you'll be held accountable for what god has called you to do so we need to be faithful but we must do the best we can do my competition if you will is the world the flesh and the devil not fellow believers and know this there's coming today when rewards are going to be given out in heaven again this is like an awards ceremony think the oscars or the emmys i watched the oscars this year i have to admit i was pretty disappointed by a lot of things but uh generally in the old days at least there would be the big build up and the screen would be split with a tight shot of all the potential winners and they would say in the whittle and the winner is for the academy award for actor of the year actress of the year film of the year and then this is it and they would announce it and the person would jump up and then he would see everybody else and they would all be applauding you know they're mad you know they're upset with their actors oh that was a great choice it said to me no no one likes to lose and then the winner goes and gets their oscar their m.e their grammy whatever it is this is an awards ceremony where you would be rewarded for what you have done with the opportunities that god has set before you and if you are faithful there is a reward that will be given i want to come back to a verse i already read again ii corinthians 5 10 will appear before the judgment seat of christ that each one may receive the things done in the body whether it be good or bad whether it be good or bad this is an interesting phrase when it says bad it doesn't mean bad as in evil it actually means evil of another kind another way to translate it is good for nothingness or worthlessness so i i'm a christian this is not about if i get to heaven or not in fact this judgment happens in heaven again this is a reward given to faithful service so god's going to look at the good and the bad and are there things in my life where i just wasted opportunities jesus said if salt loses its saltiness it's good for nothing you ever order a coke and it's flat that's worthless or how about the person that walks into a coffee place and orders a soy decaf latte in my opinion that's pretty much worthless they probably have a cat i don't know why i'm even saying that but my point is simply this i mean come on man half the fun of a drink like that is the espresso that's in it but or at least esteemed milk not soy but the idea is this is something that is good for nothing and i wonder when we stand before god if we will not be questioned about what we did with our time so much time is wasted every single day and guess what it's wasted on it's wasted on one of these you probably have one most of the population does a cell phone and this cell phone consumes so much of our time did you know that kids spend eight to 12 hours a day on a cell phone and teenagers spend around nine hours a day and adults spend 4.5 hours a day on cell phones and you know how it works you just open it up in the morning and you just start scrolling scrolling through instagram scrolling through twitter checking your facebook page going over to pinterest whatever it is you look at and before you know it you've burned up so much screen time and you've actually wasted so much time it's a big waste of life in many ways and i think we need to make a conscious effort to put these devices down and and to spend time with each other talking to each other listening to each other not checking our phone or even our watch that will beep or vibrate no but talk with each other and most importantly we need to spend time with the lord as you know i've written a book called billy graham the man i knew and billy graham was asked the question if he had any regrets in life and his response was yes he wished he had spent more time praying more time studying the bible he wished he had spent less time traveling and taking speaking engagements and then he said i wished i'd spent more time telling the lord how much i love him the bible says be still and know that i am god because one day i'm going to be held accountable for what i did with my time but it may not just be a waste of time but its missed opportunities the evil of complacency the evil of neglect let me illustrate let's say you're walking down the street and a house is on fire and you stop and you pull your phone out not to call 9-1-1 but to take a picture then you keep walking i mean maybe you could be a hero and rush in and try to save someone at the very least call 9-1-1 but if you were to just take a picture and keep walking when human lives are in danger that's not just neglect that's criminal neglect let me illustrate it another way let's say you're a medical researcher a scientist and you have cancer and so you go into the laboratory and you spend years doing experiments and doing everything you can to trying to find a cure for cancer and one day you succeed and you take this shot or gulp this pill or whatever the treatment is and instantly you're cured of your cancer then you keep it to yourself and don't tell anyone else is that a bad thing it certainly is i think you know where i'm going with this in the same way here we are as christians we found something even better than a cure for cancer as wonderful as that would be we have found the meaning of life on this earth and the hope of the afterlife with faith in christ and knowing we'll go to heaven yet we never share that with anyone so i'll stand before the judgment seat of christ and he'll want to know what did i do with my opportunities did i leverage them did i use the influence that god gave me did i address my sphere of influence i i know i'm supposed to go into all the world and preach the gospel but did i go into all of my world and preach the gospel did i reach out to people that i know how did i use my resources how did i spend my money these things all will be reviewed at the judgment seat of jesus christ and i think we'll be in for some surprises because we probably think that the winners are going to be all the super christians out there billy graham will have so many crowns he won't even be able to carry them all or people like elizabeth elliott or corey ten boom or someone like johnny erickson tada with all that she's dealt with in life how she'll be rewarded and i have no doubt that those saints will all be rewarded but we might be shocked when there is a sweep of the awards at the judgment seat of christ by some woman named mod freaking binder have you heard of her well she doesn't exist he's just some person i made up but i imagine mod freaking binder as a elderly little lady she never wrote a book she never preached in the crusade uh you don't even know her name but while all the others were doing their work she was doing hers while billy was preaching in stadiums mod fur combiner was on her knees praying she'll be rewarded remember this judgment is not about success as we like to define success it's about faithfulness to the lord so this is all happening up in heaven well our honeymoon is coming because we're now joined to christ as his bride now it's time for our honeymoon where are we going niagara falls hawaii tahiti actually we're coming we're coming back to planet earth with our bridegroom jesus christ know this at the rapture god gives us a first class round trip ticket yes i'm going up but i'm going to come back down again look at revelation 19 verse 11. now i saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat in him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself and he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of god and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen white and clean followed him on white horses wow what a powerful passage that is look at verse 11 he's called faithful and true this is in contrast to the devil who was unfaithful and he lies jesus said in john 8 44 to the pharisees you belong to your father the devil and you want to carry out your father's desires he's a murderer from the beginning and he is a liar and he is the father of lies no our lord is faithful and true but of course not everyone thinks that for the non-believer god is never fair in what he does and when men go out and break god's laws that he gives us for our own protection and then they face the inevitable consequences they shake a fist in the face of god and blame him but the fact is he's faithful and true and god keeps his promises think about it jesus said i'll never leave you or forsake you jesus said my peace i give to you not as the world gives give i unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid has the lord not kept his promises to you well he's going to keep all of his promises including his promise to come again because they said in john 14 3 i go to prepare a place for you and if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again to receive you unto myself that where i am you may be also now i want to point out something judgment is not god's happy place do you have a happy place usually a person has something they'd like to do you know with some people that's when they're eating another person when they're exercising i don't understand that but they say there's this release of endorphins when you run at least they experience that i i've never met an endorphin uh the only time i think i've had an endorphin released is actually what i was eating but we have our happy place things we like to do i think some people think that judgment is god's happy place oh yeah i've been waiting for this i can hardly wait no it's the opposite of that remember we read in scripture that god is not willing that any should perish and also we read god takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked here are some things we learned from the verses we just read in keisha taking notes number one the second coming of christ will be public and it will be seen by everyone the second coming of christ will be public and it will be seen by all there'll be no mistaking it when it happens people will not say was that just a really bad storm no everyone will know because jesus said as the lightning shines from the east to the west so will the coming of the son of man be number two the second coming of christ will be accompanied by sadness and weeping yes it's a happy day for heaven but it's a sad day for earth israel will mourn as they realize that jesus was their messiah zechariah 12 10 says a look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son they will grieve bitterly for him as for our firstborn son who has died and jesus is coming to bring righteous retribution and vengeance let me say that again jesus is coming to bring righteous retribution and vengeance now i know some people don't like the idea of a vengeful god they want to think of him as a loving god he is a loving god he is a forgiving god he is also a holy god and a righteous god and in this instance he is a vengeful god some would say oh no god it is too good to punish sin now listen god is too good to not punish sin romans 12 19 says this beloved do not avenge yourselves but rather give place to wrath for it is written vengeance is mine i will repay says the lord now think about it we all read of horrible injustice it happens in this world wicked acts of violence perpetrated on people and innocent little children and we think they can't get away with this and those people never get arrested they're never incarcerated they never face the ramifications for their sin they escape the long arm of the law but listen they will not escape the long arm of the lord there's a final judgment and everything will come out and this is that day now again i want to distinguish between the rapture and the second coming two stages of the lord's return the rapture is at the beginning of the tribulation or i should say before it the second coming is at the end of the tribulation in the rapture he comes before judgment and the second coming he returns with judgment in the rapture jesus comes for his people in the second coming he returns with his people and the rapture he comes as a thief in the night and the second coming everyone will see let me say a word about us being there with the lord we're returning with the lord he's returning with mighty armies because the bible says when christ who is our life shall appear we shall see him as he is and we'll be with him in that day so we're coming back with the lord when he returns to the earth again now notice he rides a white horse in verse 11. a white horse now think about when jesus came into jerusalem he he wrote a little donkey a little different than that than a white horse you know we think a donkey and now a white horse well this is how we expect him to come on a beautiful white stallion on that first entry of jesus into jerusalem on palm sunday they said hail him hail him hail him and it was only days later that they said nail him nail him nail him but now he is returning as the risen lord and it's interesting it's a white stallion if you've been with us in this revelation series you may recall that revelation 6 has the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the first is a white horse and that's antichrist reminding us that antichrist comes on the scene trying to present himself as jesus christ or as the messiah remember anti doesn't just mean against it also means instead of but he he's a false messiah and remember antichrist in revelation 6 had one crown but jesus wears many crowns remember our lord wore a crown of thorns when he was crucified now he wears many crowns as he returns on his white stallion this is air horse one returning to the earth again you know sometimes people wonder what did jesus look like you think of all the films you've seen that present jesus and we've seen him presented in so many ways and people wonder what his skin color was what his hair color was how tall he was isn't it interesting that in all the bible not one gospel author not one person stops to just say oh by the way jesus was like around 5 10 he had dark hair or whatever now one person describes it maybe that's because god knows our propensity for idolatry and knew that we would worship an image of him but here we actually have a description of the appearance of jesus but it is symbolic three things stand out his eyes his head and his robe first there are his eyes verse 12 his eyes are like a flame of fire now this conveys judgment this conveys righteousness as he is looking at you you know when you meet someone you look them in the eyes you shake their hand i always taught my sons you know when you meet someone for the first time you stand up you firmly shake their hand you say nice to meet you some people don't want to make eye contact at all they say the eye is the window to the soul well now you're looking into the eyes of jesus imagine that for a moment his penetrating gaze cuts through every mask of hypocrisy because he sees the heart we read when jesus saw matthew and called him in the gospels he saw right through him or literally he gazed right through him so here are the eyes of the lord who sees everything and then there's his head verse 12 on his head were many crowns he has many crowns because he rules many kingdoms because he is lord of all god is sovereign over the entire universe he's the all-knowing all-powerful ruler who is also a loving compassionate savior and then there's his robe verse 13. he is a robe that's dipped in blood and his name is called the word of god his phrase dipped in blood could be better translated spattered in blood reminding us that when he came the first time he came to die for the sin of the world now he is coming to judge the world and return again and he speaks his enemies out of existence with just a word from his mouth the same voice that creates and stops storms and summons angel speaks and now that judgment has finally come now you would think when christ is returning and these forces that are engaged in battle with each other in the battle of battle of armageddon the kings of the east that we already read about and the forces of the antichrist suddenly christ appears christ is returning you would think that they would turn from their sins here he is the lord returning to planet earth you think they would just say god forgive us no that's not what they do at all look at verse 19 i saw the beast that's the antichrist the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on his horse and on his army so they take what little strength they have left and point it toward christ and attack him and now this final judgment comes revelation 19 verse 20 then the beast that's the antichrist was captured with him the false prophet that's the antichrist sidekick slash religious guru leader both of them are taken who work signs in this present and they were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone the antichrist the false prophet are immediately judged these two are so wicked they go directly to the lake of fire now those who have died rejecting christ will wait for that final judgment the great white throne judgment that i will talk about later this is amazing amazing stuff that john's watching he's just overwhelmed and then we read in verse 10 that he fell at the feet of this angel that's delivering this message and the angel says hey man we didn't say amen but he said see that you don't do that i'm your fellow servant and of your brothers and then he makes this amazing statement that testimony of jesus is a spirit of prophecy so the angel is saying hey don't do that well we're in this together this is all about jesus and then he gives us very important message that shows you why we've studied the book of revelation and why we need to know more about prophecy in the bible why because the testimony of jesus is a spirit of prophecy listen to this if you have gone through this series with us and your heart has not been moved closer to god if you can live in sin breaking god's commandments with abandon and yet say oh i believe in the imminent return of jesus houston we have a problem the idea is if you really understand bible prophecy it should affect you in the way that you live as it says in first john he that has this hope that is the hope of the lord's return they will purify himself even as he is pure so hopefully uh studying these things has impacted you spiritually because ultimately the book of revelation and remember revelation not revelations there's only one the book of revelation unveils truth that's what it means unveiling it unveils our future it unveils us to us but most importantly the book of revelation unveils jesus here's jesus it's all about jesus it's all about a relationship with jesus christ so let me see in closing if you're a christian there is a judgment seat you will appear before again not about whether you get in heaven or not because the judgment will happen in heaven it's like a rewards an awards ceremony where you'll be giving rewards for your faithfulness to the lord but if you're a non-believer you will stand before the great white throne judgment and i'll talk about that next time it's going to be ominous and it's going to be final and there's no turning back if you get there listen there are no chances after death but there are thousands before you have an opportunity to get right with god so you don't have to face that final judgment because jesus already faced it for you when he died on the cross in your place he voluntarily willingly went to the cross and was nailed to it and bled and died for the sin of the world he bled and died for your sin i mentioned earlier about how you can have a relationship with god let me ask you do you know god in a personal way is christ living inside of you do you have his peace in your heart that passes all human understanding or do you find yourself just filled with fear and panic and anxiety and worry especially with all that's going on in the world and then you're afraid of death and then you fear the idea of the return of the lord that would indicate to me you don't have a relationship with him but you can have a relationship with him as i've said before being a christian is not becoming a religious person being a christian means you have a relationship with god almighty this is why jesus died this is why he rose again so you can know god not just know about god so you can know god the same jesus who died and rose again from the dead is alive and he's standing at the door of your life and he is knocking and he is saying if you will hear his voice and open the door he'll come in you're saying hear his voice like a literal audible voice probably not but there's sort of a tug a tug inside of you because what i have said is resonating with you it's making sense to you you're saying this is it this is what i've been looking for this is who i've been looking for it's jesus how could i have missed him all this time maybe you've looked at all the various religious ideas but you never once opened the bible maybe you've tried all the drugs you've tried all the parties you've tried all the things this culture says you should have to make you happy and you're not maybe you've even thought of taking your own life you're so despondent and here is jesus saying everything you need is found in a relationship with me and if you will come to me and believe in me i will forgive you of all of your sin and you can know that you'll go to heaven and you can know that you'll be ready for the return of the lord would you like christ to come into your life would you like him to forgive you of your sin would you like a relationship with him would you like to make a clean break with your past and have a new beginning it can happen for you right here right now i would like to lead you in a simple prayer a prayer where you will be asking jesus to come into your life to be your savior and your lord now i'll pray it but i would ask you to pray it out loud after me so if you want jesus to come into your life right now if you want to go to heaven when you die if you want to be ready for the lord's return or you want to fill that big hole in your heart you just need to ask christ to come in and i'll lead you in this prayer stop what you're doing if you can and pray this prayer you might even pray it out loud after me this is a prayer where you're asking jesus to come and live in your life pray these words lord jesus i know that i'm a sinner but i know that you're the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead now jesus i ask you to come into my life be my savior be my lord be my god and be my friend thank you for hearing this prayer in answering this prayer in jesus name i pray amen did you just pray that prayer i want you to know in the authority of god's word that god heard that prayer if you did and he answered it and god has forgiven you i have a gift i want to send you it's called a new believer's bible this is a special edition of the new testament and a very friendly translation called the new living translation it's filled with hundreds of notes that i wrote that will encourage you in your relationship with god these notes are very easy to understand it's almost like you and i are sitting down at a table over a cup of coffee and we're just talking about god talking about the bible talking about what it means to follow jesus i want to send you this bible at no charge now there's a number on the screen right now you can call that number and you'll talk to somebody who'll get some information from you and we'll send you this bible at no charge so you can get started on the right foot and following jesus christ for some of you that are watching on a tablet or a phone many of you watch our service on your phone i'm told there's a little box you can click as well and if you click that box on your phone or your tablet or your computer we can send you the same information so call the number on the screen click the box uh if you're on a device where you can click and we'll get your information and send you your copy of the new believer's bible

Channel: Pastor Greg Laurie

Views: 47,787

Rating: 4.9513679 out of 5

Keywords: harvest, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Greg Laurie Sermons, bible study for me, bible study, youtube sermons, Greg Laurie, Greg Laurie Live, the second coming of jesus christ, the second coming of jesus christ preaching, will jesus come back, will jesus come back again, will jesus come back on a white horse, christs return scripture

Id: mxs67JqXoOQ

Length: 46min 44sec (2804 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021