A New Beginning

Greg Laurie: We all have a place we don't want to go and people we don't want to talk to. Am I right?

Guest (Male): Today, Pastor Greg Laurie points out Jonah's reluctance to preach to Nineveh because he didn't care for the people who lived there.

Greg Laurie: We all have our Ninevehs. We all have places we don't want to go and people we don't want to talk to. And if you're really honest, you might even admit, "I don't want to bring them to Jesus Christ because then I'll have to see them in church." I hope that's not your attitude.

Guest (Male): Some people are so easy to get along with, you can't not like them. Then there are others. Let's just say there are others. How eager are you to share Christ with those who are less likable? How about someone who makes you uneasy, someone who intimidates you, or someone whose lifestyle is so unlike yours? Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us see how God's love can help us go where our comfort zone leaves off.

Greg Laurie: All right, let's grab our Bibles and turn to the book of Jonah, chapter three. The title of my message is "The Message That Brought a Spiritual Awakening." Jonah chapter three, starting in verse three: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim the message that I give you."

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, crying out, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, took off his royal robes, and dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. Then the king sent nobles with a decree through the city saying, "Not one person, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all the violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us."

Now look at this: when God saw what they had done, how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. What did they do? They repented. What does it mean to repent? It means to change your direction. We can say, "I'm sorry for my sin," and go do that sin again.

It would be like walking up to someone and slugging them in the face. "I'm really sorry. I don't know why I did that. Maybe I need coffee or something." Then ten minutes later, after your cappuccino, you punch them again. Now they're saying, "What's wrong with you?" "I don't know, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'm sorry, I'll never do it again." You punch them again and you punch them again. After a while, they're not going to believe anything you say.

So we say, "I'm sorry for my sin," and we go and do it again. I sit in church and I'm already planning on the sin I'm going to do after church. I'm already thinking about it. No, that's not repentance. Repentance means I'm sorry enough to stop because the Bible says godly sorrow produces repentance. These people literally repented of their sin, and this is a stunning spiritual awakening—an entire city turning to God.

It is worth noting that they specifically turned from their sin of violence, which they were known for. Remember, I told you in an earlier message how the Ninevites were. They were out of control. They were known for their atrocities. They would pile up skulls as monuments to their massacres. They would take people and tear the skin off of their bodies and hang it on walls. They were crazy people. The first thing they did is they turned from the violence that they were engaged in at that point. Incredible.

What did he say? "Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown." It just goes to show that no one is beyond the reach of God. If wicked people like this could be reached, certainly someone you know could be reached, or someone like you could be reached. You say, "I could never become a Christian. I'm just so wicked." No, God can save anybody. Or, "I have someone I know; I can never imagine them coming to faith." No, God could reach them as well. No one is beyond the reach of God, and we should never give up giving this message.

Here's something that I find really amazing: we are the first generation that could literally fulfill the Great Commission in our lifetime. Did you know that? We're the first generation that's ever lived on planet Earth that could literally fulfill the Great Commission. What's the Great Commission? It's to go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

How is it that we're the first generation that could do it? Because there are more mobile devices in the world today than there are people. There are people in Africa that have greater access to data than they do to clean drinking water. Everywhere people have these mobile devices—phones and tablets, etc. Now, with the technology that we have, we can get the gospel out like we never could before.

So it's time for us to seize the moment. I just spoke at the National Religious Broadcasters event. These are folks that are engaged in Christian radio, television, podcasting, movies, and all kinds of exciting things. I encouraged all of them: use your platforms for the gospel. Get the gospel in what you do and invite people to Jesus Christ.

So we say, "Well, that's good for them, but what about me?" Well, you have your sphere of influence too. I know the world's a big place, but guess what? We all have a Nineveh. We all have a Nineveh. What does that mean? We all have a place we don't want to go and people we don't want to talk to. Am I right? So many of you think about sharing the gospel with them and it's like, "I don't even want to talk to them." If you're really honest, you might even admit, "I don't want to bring them to Jesus Christ because then I'll have to see them in church."

I hope that's not your attitude. I've told you before my mother was married and divorced seven times. After I became a Christian, I had a full-time ministry evangelizing my mother's ex-husbands, and it wasn't always a lot of fun. The easiest one was Oscar Laurie. He adopted me; he lived in New Jersey. I had the privilege of going back and seeing him after I became a believer with my wife, Cathe, and our oldest son, Christopher, and we had the great joy of leading him to Christ.

But there was another guy my mom married; I'll call him Eddie. He lived in Hawaii. This is the guy my mom ran off to after she left Oscar. One day I came out of my classroom and the car was loaded up with suitcases. I was just a little kid and I said, "Where are we going?" She said, "We're going to Hawaii." I was very excited. I'd never been to Hawaii at that point and I was in New Jersey in the winter. So it was very appealing. I said, "Where's Dad?" She said, "He's not coming."

I got off the plane in this gorgeous sunshine, and here stands a man I've never seen before. My mother says, "This is your new dad." I didn't even know this guy. Well, this guy was a crazy alcoholic and he'd drink and get violent. He'd hit my mother. They'd break big giant plate glass windows, break everything in the house. The police would be called. It was a horrible environment.

One night they were in a fight and he took a wooden statue and he hit my mom across the head, knocked her unconscious. I came out of my bedroom; there lies my mother in a pool of blood on the floor and he's holding this statue. He said to me—and I remember this—"It's just ketchup. Go back to bed." Even a dumb kid knew better than that. So I went and climbed out the window and ran to a neighbor and the police were called and we moved back to California.

Now I'm a Christian and I've led Oscar to the Lord, and I thought, "I'm going to go reach Eddie." I happened to be speaking in Hawaii at the Waikiki Shell and I found out he was living across the street from the Waikiki Shell. So I went to visit him. I looked at this guy and kind of that animosity welled up inside of me again, even though it had been years and years at that point. This is the guy that almost killed my mother.

He was just kind of the same old guy, just older and more hardened. I told him all about what Jesus had done for me. He listened. I said, "So I'm speaking across the street. Would you like to come?" He said, "No." "Well, would you like to ask Jesus into your life?" "No." Same old guy. So I beat him up so bad. I did, and he deserved it. No, I didn't.

So that wasn't a lot of fun. There were other guys my mom was married to I tried to lead to the Lord; that didn't work out so well. Then the last guy she married, I never had a real close relationship with him. I found out after my mom had died—and she recommitted her life to the Lord. I'm telling you my whole life story here. I'll get off this in a moment, but I'm making a point, believe it or not.

So I was able to help my mom come back to the Lord. Then this guy I didn't have much of a relationship with after that—I heard that he was very sick. Someone said, "You should go see him. He's going to die." Honestly, I said, "Well, I'm on my way to go speak somewhere. I can't do it. Maybe I'll go tomorrow." I was going to go talk to people about Jesus, and I was asked to go talk to him about Jesus. I didn't really want to talk to him about Jesus because that wasn't comfortable for me, you see.

So I was on my way to the airport and the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "You go talk to him right now." Okay, I'm like Jonah. I'm going in the opposite direction. I do a U-turn. I go over; I walk into the house. He's lying in a hospital bed in hospice care and I could see right there he's not long for this world. I sat down with him. I said, "I know we didn't have the closest relationship, but I've told you about Jesus before." I went over the gospel with him again. I said, "Would you like to accept Jesus into your life right now?" He nodded yes; he could barely speak. I led him in a prayer; he prayed that prayer with me.

So then I left and I was really thankful I'd done that. I get on the plane, I land. The moment I land, I turn my phone on and I get a text. He just died. I'm glad I did it. We all have our Ninevehs. We all have places we don't want to go and people we don't want to talk to, but we still need to do it. Because the message that Jonah gave is similar to the message we give. It's a message of hope and promise and forgiveness, but it is also a message of warning if we reject the hope and the promise and the forgiveness.

It's even in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." Okay, so there it is—a lot of hope. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, but listen: whosoever believes in him should not perish. See, the flip side of that is if I don't believe in him, I will perish. So there's hope and promise and forgiveness and a warning as well.

Another example is Romans 6:23. It says, "The wages of sin is death," but then it says, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." There are two sides of the coin. Here's the promise: "The gift of God is eternal life." Here's the warning: "The wages of sin are death." That's Romans 3:23. So the point of it all is, yes, I offer promise, but there's also a warning.

We have a message to deliver. Listen to this: if God could bring a mighty revival in Nineveh with no better representative than Jonah and no more gospel than he preached in their streets, surely God can do the same thing for America. I mean, if God could use a knucklehead like this with a message like that to have such an impact, surely he can use you and surely he can use me with the life-changing message of the gospel.

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Hey everyone, I want you to know about our app called Harvest Plus. Think of it as a Harvest version of Netflix. We have all of our resources in one place. We have our movies like *Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon*, *Johnny Cash: Redemption of an American Icon*, *A Rush of Hope*, and much more. Then we have our television program, daily devotions, and much more. So go and download the Harvest Plus app.

You've tuned in for one of Pastor Greg's most requested messages. As we continue, Pastor Greg is joined by several friends and family members from his home church.

Greg Laurie: Okay, the story of Jonah, you guys. Can you think of any illustration, anybody up here, of your own personal Nineveh—maybe a place that was hard for you to go to or someone that maybe was hard to talk to, but yet you did it and you're glad you did it? It's not always the easiest thing to do. Anything come to mind for anybody? Gabe is gesturing; he wants a microphone.

Gabe Velasquez: For me, it was my dad. We grew up in a tough situation. He left us at a young age and I remember walking in and seeing violence in my home. To me, it was like when I saw that, I wanted to physically harm him. I was little at the time, but I remember telling him, "You ever touch my mom again, I'll kill you." From that point on, he left us.

I just remember I did everything I could to learn how to fight, to learn how to do everything. For many years, I just had this animosity towards him. One day that moment's going to happen and we're going to meet and whatever's going to happen's going to happen. The Lord just started working in my mom, in my family, and we started going to this small Lutheran church in Fontana and my whole world started changing.

So years and years later—I mean, he would show up to our games, but he wouldn't come up. He'd watch us play football or baseball or whatever and I'd see him from afar and I just had that aggression in my heart. As I continued to go to church and learn music and learn the word, the Lord just kept saying, "You need to talk to him. You need to talk to him." I'm like, "No, I just can't."

I battled this for a long time. There was a moment where we were at Day Seven, we were doing worship on a Sunday night at Harvest and for some reason I'm like, "You want to come out and see us? My family's going to be here." I know he was hanging out with a biker gang and whatnot. So we get there and we're doing some sound check and I heard all these motorcycles. I'm like, "Oh, no."

So we're doing worship and whatnot, and it's a night where you were preaching and we did worship. I just remember being up there and afterwards, he came forward. He didn't come forward during the invitation, but we talked and he said, "I want to get right with the Lord." It completely changed my world. I had a chance to pray with him. It was a moment that I had for me that was my Nineveh. I was battling and battling and battling. I was going the other way, but it happened that night. He heard the word and you threw the seed out and God watered it and that night it just happened. We had a chance to pray and have been more of a friendship ever since then. God did some pretty amazing things that night.

Greg Laurie: That's a powerful story.

Guest (Male): Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie speaking with Pastor Gabe Velasquez about the way the gospel changes lives and how we need to reach more people with that message, even those outside our comfort zone. Pastor Greg, as we've talked about the gospel message today, maybe somebody's realizing they've never responded to that message. They want to have a real relationship with the Lord, but they just need a little help getting started. But they can enter into that kind of relationship today, can't they?

Greg Laurie: They can, and it's so simple. I think because it's so simple, people think, "It can't be that easy." Well, look, Jesus did all the heavy lifting. He carried the cross for you. He died on that cross that he carried. This isn't about what you do; it's about what he's done. But here's what the Bible says: whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

So let's just say that you're caught in a rip tide out in the ocean and you need help. There's a lifeguard at the stand and they see you. You've got to call out to them and let them know you need saving. The same is true when it comes to eternal life. Jesus is ready to save you. Will you call out to him? You say, "Okay, how do I do that?" You do it through prayer.

Prayer is just talking to God. So listen, I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer. If you pray this prayer after me, I believe God will hear it and answer it and Christ will come to live inside of you. Thousands of people have prayed a prayer like this over the years that we've been doing this radio broadcast and have seen their life change. There's no power or magic in a prayer; it's all about your commitment to Christ, but this is a way to call on the name of the Lord in this prayer.

So if you want Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, if you want to know that you'll go to heaven when you die, if you want to fill that big hole in your heart, just pray this prayer after me. You could pray it out loud if you like, or pray it in the quietness of your heart, but pray these words if you would.

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. I am sorry for my sin and I turn from it now. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my Savior and my Lord. Be my God and my friend. Thanks for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Listen, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that God has heard you and has answered it. The Bible says, "These things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." That you may know it's yours now. God has given it to you because it's the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Congratulations and welcome to the family of God.

Guest (Male): That's right. We want to help you begin your new relationship with the Lord on the right foot. Would you let us send you a free gift? It's Pastor Greg's *New Believer's Bible*. Scores of people have read this edition of God's Word. New believers love the study helps written just for them, and they appreciate that it's in an easy-to-understand translation.

We'll send it to you today; just ask for the *New Believer's Bible* when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can call anytime, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or go online to harvest.org. Then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.

Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry, to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly.

Online, you'll find us at harvest.org. There you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now. That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514, or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call again at 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, more solid insight on sharing the message God has given us, and we'll see how Jonah finally shared the message God had given to him. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.