Tell Someone: You Can Share the Good News

By Greg Laurie

Understand, this book is not written to make you feel bad or condemn you if you have not engaged others with the gospel message. This book is written to encourage and inspire you.

Even though pastor and author Greg Laurie is a “gospel-presenting professional,” in this book he tells stories of his own failure and success. The most important things you will find here are biblical principles that you can apply yourself. Taken from the life and witness of Jesus, and tested over Greg’s forty years of ministry, in both one-on-one experiences and large-scale evangelistic arena and stadium events, these ideas are intended to mobilize every person in the church to “Tell Someone” about Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781433690129

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie, the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, one of the largest churches in America, has written more than seventy books. Featured on the syndicated radio program A New Beginning and on a weekly television show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, he serves on the board of directors of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He and his wife, Cathe, have two children and five grandchildren.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Greg Laurie

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-9014-3

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 248.5

Subject Heading: WITNESSING \ EVANGELISTIC WORK \ CHRISTIAN LIFE

Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version® (nkjv). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked nlt are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked niv are from The HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Scripture quotations marked Phillips are from The J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Scripture quotations marked msg are from The Message. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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This book is not written to make you feel bad or condemn you if you have not engaged others with the gospel message. This book is written to encourage and inspire you.

I want to share some stories from my own life of both failure and success in my attempts to share my faith. But the most important things you will find in this book are biblical principles that you can apply in your life. I have put these principles to the test over forty years of ministry in both one-on-one occasions and large-scale evangelistic events in arenas and stadiums.

If you will take the time to read this book from beginning to end, I believe that as you apply these biblical truths, you will be able to not only share your faith, but also bring others to Christ.

Introduction

In some ways, I was not meant to be.

You see, I was conceived out of wedlock. I was not planned by my beautiful, hard-partying mother, as she met up with some man in Long Beach, California. They had an alcohol-fueled night of passion together and never really had a relationship beyond that. When my mother found out she was pregnant, she quickly married another man she was involved with at the time, and his name was listed on my birth certificate as my biological father.

But here’s the good news, for me at least: though not planned by my mother, my life was indeed planned by God, just as yours was. So, you see, I was meant to be!

This was just one in a string of one-night stands and failed marriages that littered my mother’s life . . . and mine. Most of the guys my mom was attracted to were similar: barfly types. Usually he had one too many shirt buttons undone, was fast-talking and loose-living. When it was all said and done, she married and divorced seven times, with a lot of guys in between.

But inexplicably, one of the men my mother married was different from all the rest. His name was even different: Oscar Felix Laurie. He did not hang out in bars, like the other men my mom was attracted to, but worked for the Bar Association as an attorney. He was a voracious reader, educated, hardworking, and did not even drink or smoke. I don’t know what my mom saw in him!

Oscar was known for his honesty and personal integrity. He was a well-respected attorney practicing on the East Coast and was well on his way to a judgeship. Oscar did not just marry my mother. He also adopted me and was the only man in my tumultuous childhood who ever treated me as a father should treat a son.

Out of the blue, my mom left him one day. She picked me up at school in New Jersey and we drove to the airport. Destination: Honolulu, Hawaii. I was excited to be going to Hawaii for the first time, and I asked, Where’s Dad?

He’s not coming, she coldly responded. And that was the end of her marriage to Oscar. There, waiting at the airport in Honolulu, was the next man my mother would marry. I would not see Oscar for the rest of my childhood. I was a broken-hearted little boy.

Something snapped in me after that and I became very cynical and closed off. This new man my mom married owned a bar on Waikiki Beach and was the meanest drunk I have ever seen. He almost killed my mother one night in an alcoholic haze, hitting her on the head with, as I recall, a wooden Don Quixote statue.

Fast-forward ten tumultuous years to the day my life changed for time and eternity.

Though only seventeen years old, I felt like I was already seventy. In addition to living with my mom for all of her escapades, I had made a string of bad decisions in my teen years that made my already troubled life worse. I had become fed up with the way I was living. I was searching for truth and purpose—and the very meaning of life itself. For me, finding that truth was a process of elimination.

Clearly, it was not to be found in the adult world I was exposed to. From my mother, I learned that alcohol did not solve any problems. In fact, it created new ones. I quickly became disillusioned with the drugs I used in my pursuit of some kind of inner peace, so I knew the answer wasn’t there either.

Enter the Jesus Freaks

There was a group of outspoken Christians on our campus that we laughingly called the Jesus freaks. They would talk about God as though He were their next-door neighbor and would carry Bibles wherever they went. I openly mocked them, but secretly respected them.

My friends warned me to steer clear of them, lest I end up converted. I laughed at such a suggestion, saying, The last thing I would ever be is a Christian!

Famous last words.

One day, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to check them out a little more closely. I should mention there was a girl involved too. She was talking between classes with someone I knew. Though she was not a beauty queen by any stretch, there was something about this mystery girl that drew me in. She had something I did not see in the other girls—a wholesomeness.

I walked up to her and my friend, who were chatting, and then I saw—tucked under her arm with a couple of textbooks—a Bible! I thought to myself, What a complete waste of a cute girl! Why would anyone carry a Bible openly? But I have to admit, I was intrigued. Sure, there were other pretty girls on campus, but for some reason, I could not suppress my curiosity about this particular one.

One day at lunchtime, I decided I would track her down and find out more about what she believed. I found her on the front lawn of our high school, sitting with her Christian friends for a Bible study. I was close enough to eavesdrop on what they were saying, but not so close that others would think I was joining their ranks. That, of course, would have been social suicide.

As I looked around at their smiling faces, I felt pity for them. Why can’t they be cynical, angry, and mad at the world—like me? I wondered. But watching them as they sang songs about Jesus Christ, I had to admit they did seem happy. There were even a couple of them that used to be buddies of mine in elementary school who had their lives clearly changed for the better.

Then I tried a thought on for the first time: What if the Christians are right? What if God can be known in a personal way? I quickly dismissed these crazy thoughts, but I came back to them again. What if?

For the most part, I don’t remember what the speaker said that day, except for one statement that hit my heart like a lightning bolt from Heaven. His statement was, Jesus said, ‘You are either for Me or against Me!’ I looked around at the Christians and thought, They are surely for Him. And since I was not one of them, I wondered, Am I against Jesus Christ?

Mind you, I always believed Jesus was out there somewhere. After all, Jesus was my God of choice when catastrophe hit. I would call out to Him when trouble struck, not sure if He was listening. I had seen all His movies, and liked them!

As a child, living with my grandparents while my mom was living her partying lifestyle, I would be taken to the church they attended on Sundays. None of what I heard there really connected with me, and I would draw cartoons on the church bulletin while the preacher droned on. My grandmother had a picture of Jesus hanging on the wall of her house that I would often stare at. I would think to myself, It would be nice to know Him! between bites of cereal and Felix the Cat cartoons on TV. But it had never occurred to me that I could know Him in a personal way until that day on my high school campus.

And that was the day I put my faith in