Greg Laurie - ReEnvision: Reflecting on the Past (01/27/2018)
- Watch
- Donate
- Become Partner
Pastor Greg Laurie reflects on 40 years of Harvest Christian Fellowship, highlighting bold steps of faith that have guided the ministry from small beginnings to global impact. Drawing from Matthew 14 and Peter's walk on water, he urges believers to keep exercising faith actively—like a muscle—through obedience, gospel preaching, and flexibility in methods while staying inflexible on biblical truth and evangelism. The message celebrates God's faithfulness and calls us to thank those who've tried for Christ, even through failures, trusting Him for the future.
Celebrating 40 Years – More to Come
Fantastic. So are you enjoying yourself? Huh? Yeah. There is more to come. There is much more to come. We are going to have some more worship in a little bit. A medley of some of the great worship songs bringing us up to where we are today and what we are singing right now. And of course we have the rest of our weekend still planned.
Tomorrow morning Bob Coy will be here. In fact Bob is here. Bob why don't you come out. Bob is in the back room. And Bob come out and say hello. Bob Coy. Bob Coy. Oh that's that's very funny Greg. Actually Greg was in the back and he said hey why don't you come out and say hi. I go no Greg I'm not not really ready for prime time. You know and he said he said what is it your hair? And I said just give us a preview. Give us the the signature. Here let me do you and tell me if this is that game. She cheated. See the thing is see see here's why. Go. Go. And you always do. Yes. I don't do here's why. I don't do that. I've never done that. You just did it. You just did it. I did you doing me. I didn't do you doing me. I don't even do me doing me. See I'm doing you doing me. See you. See you. Wait. Here's why. Here's why. No. I'm looking forward to teaching the Bible tomorrow. God bless you. Thank you. Oh my.
Actually wherever we go we are constantly doing that. We go out to order a meal in a restaurant and we start riffing on each other. It is insanity really. But we have a lot of fun. And you are going to hear a great message from Pastor Bob tomorrow morning at all the services. And then also our special musical guest tomorrow morning is Phil Wickham. And so that is going to be great. And then Phil will be back with us tomorrow night for a special concert that starts at 5 o'clock.
Looking Ahead – Mobile Theater and New Film
And that is where I am going to focus a little bit on the future. What we have planned. I hope you guys before you leave tonight you go out and check out our mobile theater. It is a big old giant truck sitting out there. It is customized. And the inside it has a movie theater inside of it. And we are going to drive that all around the United States. And we are going to have it there at church services on Sunday morning and midweek studies. And people can go on and watch a video of Harvest America.
So we are going to show you a video for our upcoming event there. It is going to be held in Philadelphia this year. Also we are going to show you a trailer or a preview of our upcoming film we have been working on now for three years called Hope for Hurting Hearts. This has been filmed all around the world. Literally. We shot part of it in Rome. We shot part of it in New York City and Hawaii.
It tells the story of Jeremy Kemp whose wife died of cancer. Nick Vujicic who you all know of course was born without limbs. Our own story about our son going to be with the Lord. It will be narrated by Dr. James Dobson. It is going to be really, I think, a very helpful film for people that are hurting. And so we will show you a little bit of that tomorrow night. And Phil will do a full-blown concert tomorrow night.
So our time is limited on Sunday morning. But tomorrow night we are going to cut them loose. And also I wanted to mention that this whole bunch of singers and players are going to come up for a grand finale in just a few minutes. So we will look forward to that.
Time for the Word – Bring Your Bibles
But let's grab our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14. What? What happened? You are all talking. I came for the music. What is that? I came for the music. You came for the music. What am I chopped liver now? Isn't it? What is that? You didn't bring your Bible? What is happening? How many of you brought your Bibles? Thank you. Oh. A lot of iPads and iPhones and Android phones. Interesting.
Pastor Jeff, who does the midweek Bible study, didn't bring his Bible. And he was the one who said he came for the music, by the way. I want to share a few thoughts with you. Hey, I am a preacher. This is all I know how to do. Obviously I am never going to make it as a worship leader. So I am going to stick with this.
Principles That Have Guided Harvest – Faith and the Word
But you know, I was thinking a little bit, reflecting back, looking at all these old videos and photos, and putting that photo album together, and thinking more about the past more intentionally than I have had in a long time, I was trying to identify maybe some of the principles that have sort of guided us to where we are today.
And one word that sort of bubbles up for me. Well of course number one is Jesus. Let's just get that on the table. It is Jesus Christ. He has done this. He has done this. He is doing this. And we trust Him to continue to guide us.
But the other word that came to come up after that was the word faith. We have taken a lot of steps of faith over the years. And you know faith is something that moves. Faith is belief plus action. Faith is a living, restless thing. It simply cannot be operative. Inoperative I should say. You have got to use your faith.
In fact, faith is not unlike a muscle. The way you build a muscle up is through use. You effectively break it down and build it up. And if you do not use your muscles they will atrophy. And in the same way if you don't use your faith it can turn to apathy. And so faith must be used for it to continue to be active in your life.
And we have taken a lot of bold steps of faith. Well where does faith come from? It comes from the Word of God. It comes from studying and believing the Word of God. We are told over in Hebrews that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Excuse me. Romans 10:17.
So as we hear the Word of God our faith will grow. And that is why every week and really every service we offer theology without apology. You know we look forward to opening the Word of God and hearing what it has to say.
Flexible in Style, Inflexible on Truth
And really my hope and prayer is if we are meeting again in forty years. I don't think I will be at that meeting. That these principles would still be in play. Because I think that sometimes we are inflexible where we ought to be flexible. And then we are flexible where we should be inflexible. Does that make sense?
Ok where should we be flexible? We should be flexible in musical style for instance. You have seen a lot of stylistic changes in just the service tonight from something as basic as me leading a song a cappella to acoustic guitars. And as you see through the end of the worship how it has changed over the years. And that is a good thing.
And sometimes people don't want to change. No. We like this style. And we can only do this style. And they sort of get stuck in a rut. And they are living in the past. I think it is important to be flexible there.
But then there are areas where we must be inflexible. Where would that be? Well in the study of the Bible. We don't want to ever say, well we don't do that anymore. We used to do that. No, no. That is where we must be inflexible.
We have always followed the principles of Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47 that we have identified in an acronym that is simply WELL. W-E-L-L. It stands for Worship, Evangelism, Learning, and Loving. The church that changed the world. The church of the first century.
They were a worshiping church. It says in Acts 2 that they worshiped the Lord with gladness of heart. Number two, they were an evangelistic church. We read that the Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved. Number one, they were a learning church. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. And they were a loving church because that chapter goes on to talk about how they cared one for another.
So that is where we want to really be inflexible. Meaning we are going to continue to study the Word. And here is another area where we need to be inflexible. In other words we will keep doing this no matter what. And that is preaching the gospel. Preaching the gospel.
Keep Preaching the Gospel – It Never Goes Out of Style
Because this is really needed. You know a lot of churches aren't doing that today. They are not inviting people to Christ. They are not giving people an opportunity to come to believe in Jesus.
So not only do we believe that is important for us here at Harvest. But we have encouraged churches around the world to do this as well. I could tell you stories of when we have gone to do a crusade overseas in a place like Australia or New Zealand or another state. And how folks from our church will pay their own way to go over and help out and serve and share the gospel on the streets.
And pastors have said, where do you get these people? These people that would come so far and go on our streets and tell others about Jesus because these same people would say, well that wouldn't work in our community. And they find it does work in their community because the gospel never goes out of style. And God will always honor His Word.
So we need to take this faith and we need to use this faith. And if we don't use this faith then we will find that it will get weaker. And really when you get down to it faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening.
Let me say that again. Faith can make the difference between something happening and not happening. Look, God is the one that does the work. But He works through people. And He is looking for people to take steps of faith.
Getting Your Feet Wet – Like Peter on the Water
Let's go back to that story where the Israelites were crossing the Jordan River. He said, get your feet wet. Now could God have sovereignly parted the water just like He did the Red Sea so they could have walked through? Of course. But He said, no you get that ark up on your shoulders, the ark of the covenant, and you walk through those waters. You get your feet wet. He wanted them to put their faith into action.
And throughout the years we have had to take bold steps of faith. When we started at All Saints Church way back in the early seventies I was 21 years old. And I had only been a Christian for four years. You know how fast I went through my sermons that I had? I didn't have that many. And so from that point on to the present day it was like on the job preparation and studying to give these messages out.
And as this little Bible study grew I was looking for someone to take it over. I thought, well get a 21 year old do. How can I pastor this flock of people, many of them very old like they are in their thirties. I am not qualified. I tried to find others to take it over for me. Nobody would. And I realized that God was calling me to be the pastor of this flock.
And we outgrew that church. And we started looking around for a property. We found this church that is part of our Sunday school structure now up in the hill. And so we made the move. And I was told when we left that church that this thing is going to fall apart if you leave. And you are going to fail. And it is never going to work. But we took a bold step of faith. We left with 300 people. And we arrived with 500 people. I don't know where we picked up the extra 200. They showed up.
And then as our church grew and we were having multiple services like double Sunday night services. Then we moved down to Riverside Municipal Auditorium that we used to call Riverside Municipal Microwave Oven because there was no air conditioning. Then we went to Raincross Square and started holding our Sunday night services.
And we realized we needed a building. So we bought this piece of land that we are sitting on right now. And we erected this building and it cost one million dollars to build this building. Now one million dollars is a lot of money. But back then it was really a lot of money. It was like fifty million dollars. Or more perhaps. There was just no way. And we were told this will never work. It is not going to happen. We took a bold step of faith and the Lord honored it.
Bold Faith Steps – From Local to Global
And then take our crusades. You know we were told well crusades are over with. Billy Graham is the last guy that will ever be able to do those. And people don't want to go to crusades anymore. They don't want that kind of a thing. Well the last time I checked the primary way that God reaches people is through the preaching of the gospel. That doesn't go out of style. So why would we back off on that?
So we took a step of faith. And the Lord blessed as we started there at the Pacific Amphitheater. And the next year we went to Angel Stadium which has changed its name multiple times. Angel Stadium. Anaheim Stadium. And so forth. Edison Field. And now it is Angel Stadium again.
But you know we went there and then people said well this will only work in California. This wouldn't work anywhere else. Then we did one in Oregon. They said well it will only work in California and Oregon. It would never work in the South. Then we did it in Georgia and we went to North Carolina. Well okay fine. But it would never work in the East Coast. They would never go for this. Then we went to New York and went to Madison Square Garden and Philadelphia.
Well okay fine. It is an American thing. It would never work outside of the United States. So we went to New Zealand and we went to Australia. Well okay maybe America and Australia and New Zealand. But you know the gospel is the gospel. And it always works. It always will work.
And then Pastor John Collins had the craziest idea I had ever heard. He said let's do a thing called Harvest America. And he was all the media out there and let's go to thousands of churches on one day. It was so insane I loved it. So we started planning it. We presented it to people. See you just get together in your church. You get the live video. Oh that won't work. Now people won't come to church so they'll watch a live video feed. No. We know it works. Because we are using it in our church. And we are not the only church doing it. Many others are using it. No. No. People won't. It won't work.
And I even had pastors say, You are crazy. Do we even try this? Well we did it. And it was one of the largest evangelistic events in American history. But you kind of take steps of faith or nothing will happen.
Peter's Walk – Real, Active Faith
Just a quick little look at this very familiar story. The story of Peter walking on the water. One of my favorites. It is Matthew 14. And they are out in the Sea of Galilee and a storm comes. They are freaking out. They think they are going to drown. Jesus shows up walking on the water.
Verse 28 says, "And Peter answered and said, Lord if it is You, tell me to come to You on the water." Jesus said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
But when he saw the wind was boisterous he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, "Lord save me." And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him and said, "Oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?"
You know Peter is often used as an example of what not to do and what not to say. But I have to point out that our hat has to be off to him in this amazing display of faith. You want to talk about getting your feet wet? Peter was willing to get his whole body wet. To walk on the water to Jesus.
This was real, active, put everything on the line, muscular, go for broke faith. And I love it. I mean it just seems like this was the most irrational thing one could possibly do. But faith is the refusal to panic. Faith has no back door. There was no safety net.
Peter was not wearing those little water wings. You know the little toddlers you inflate them. Just in case it didn't work out he would still float. I mean he was either going to walk on the water or he was going to sink.
But this was not presumptuous. Peter said, "Lord, if it is You tell me to come." And Jesus said, "Come." And he went and he walked on the water.
How was he able to do it? He looked at Jesus. And I will tell you what. When you look at Jesus amazing things can happen. When you focus on Jesus and do it for His glory God can do miraculous things.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus – Lapses Happen
Years ago Jonathan, our youngest son, we were over in Hawaii and he wanted to try scuba diving. Well I am a certified scuba diver. I dive rarely. But I said, Well let's go get you a lesson. So he took a lesson and learned how to use the regulator and the mask and the weight belt and the whole deal.
So the day came for his dive. And I went out with him and the instructor who was going to go out with Jonathan said, "Now you know how to dive." He said, "Oh yes I am a certified diver. And don't worry about me." He said, "Okay. Fine."
And so we got in this little boat. We went out and it was a really, really choppy day. I mean the boat was pitching back and forth. And it was really not a good day to go diving. But I didn't want to show Jonathan my panic because I am a certified scuba diver. So I was trying to act as though I was cool. But I really wasn't cool. I was like, This is scary.
And so Jonathan is out there and he gets his mask on and is regular. And you know you fall backwards into the water and then you breathe. And we fell in. And Jonathan starts to panic. He is panicking in the water. I am looking at him. I am kind of panicking a little bit.
And this instructor was so great. He said, "Jonathan, look at me. Look at me." And then he said, "Remember your training." So Jonathan is looking at him. And I am looking at him. "Breathe. You have a regulator. You can breathe underwater. It is okay."
So you start to breathe. And you get underneath the water surface. And it is okay. And that is the same thing that is happening to Peter. Here is Peter. You know he is doing well. He is looking at Jesus. And the moment he takes his eyes off of Jesus he begins to sink. It was a lapse of faith.
It says when he looked down in verse 30 and saw the waves churning beneath his feet he lost his nerve and started to sink. And we will have lapses of faith. Have you ever had a lapse of faith? Well I have. I don't mean that I have ever doubted my salvation or doubted the Bible. But there are times when I go through situations and I wonder how I am going to get through them.
Of course one of those was when the Lord called our son Christopher to heaven. I know he is in heaven. I know that I will see him in heaven one day. But then there is day to day living. And sometimes I think he is gone and I will never see him again.
And you know what I do when that happens? I preach the gospel to myself. I need to hear the gospel as well as preach the gospel. Sometimes I am in my car and I will actually preach. I will ask, "Greg, Laurie, you listen to me you idiot. Jesus Christ died on the cross and He rose again from the dead. And He said, I am the resurrection and the life. And he that believes in Me though he were dead yet shall he live. You will see your son again." I will say that to myself. And I believe it.
I encourage all of you to believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts. You know, believe what you believe because it is true. And Peter lost sight of things. So what did he do? He called out to Jesus, "Lord save me. Lord save me." I mean you know, help. And that was the right thing to do.
Cry Out to Jesus – He Saves
Another Hawaii story. It seemed to have a lot of Hawaii stories. I was over there with my friend Ricky Ryan who is a pastor. And we took Christopher, our oldest son, out surfing. He was very young. And this was a calm little spot. Not big surf. And we are paddling out and all of a sudden the biggest set of waves came in. I mean they were huge.
And once again I am afraid. But Ricky is a seasoned waterman. I am kind of looking over to Ricky. And as this one set of waves was crashing right in front of us, Christopher yelled out, "Dad, Dad what do we do?" I said, "We are okay son. We are okay. Just pray." And he said, "Oh Lord Jesus. Jesus."
That is what we all need to do. "Oh Lord Jesus. Save us." And Jesus grabbed Peter and pulled him up and said, "Oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?" And then they got up on the water and walked back to the boat.
You know, Peter could have failed. But listen to this. I would rather try and fail than never try at all. Try. Let's just see what the Lord has done.
So let me say a word to you. We have many volunteers here tonight. How many of you are serving the Lord here at Harvest in some volunteer capacity? Raise up your hand. Thank you so much. God bless all of you. Thank you.
How many of you are not volunteering or serving in any way? Raise your hand up now. Raise your hand. Why? Maybe you can join us.
But let me just say to you that have failed. You that have tried something for God and you failed. I have something to say to you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh yeah. Thank you. Thank you for trying.
Maybe it was that feeble attempt to share the gospel with someone and it didn't go so well. Maybe you started that home Bible study and no one came. Maybe it was someone that was sick and you prayed for them and instead of getting better they got worse.
I had a friend who asked me to pray for him once. He was nauseated. "Greg prayed for me" and I did. And then he got really sick and was throwing up. And afterwards he said, "Greg don't ever pray for me again." Sorry.
But to all of you who have tried and failed thank you for that. Because you tried. And you learn from your mistakes. You know next time I will do it this way. Next time I am going to change that. So failure can actually be a great teacher.
Often the doorway to success has entered through the hallway of failure. It has been said if at first you don't succeed what? I have a new version. If at first you don't succeed relax. You are just like the rest of us.
God will honor it. So we want to thank all of you for all that you have done. And let's continue to take bold steps of faith for Jesus Christ. Because I believe Christ is coming back soon. And I believe the days are short.
Someone might be thinking, Yeah you said that forty years ago. True. I don't deny it. But we are forty years closer. So we will talk about some of the things we are looking at in the future and how to live that way tomorrow night.
All About Jesus – From Beginning to End
But now let's have some more great worship. So this team is going to come back out again. And they are going to lead us in a chorus of great praise songs. And so is this not the greatest worship band ever? Come on. It is just like a big circle. You know. We start and we end. And I thought it is all about Jesus. Jesus Christ. From beginning to end. The same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ.
Styles change. Hairstyles change. But God never changes. And He is always worthy. And that is what we are here for. To bring glory to God.
So I am so glad we could have this night. Right? Yeah. Well, we have a lot more planned tomorrow morning, tomorrow night. I encourage all of you to come to everything. Just come to everything. And to me, it is just a little taste of heaven is what it is.
So let's just enjoy and reflect and refocus and look to what God is still wanting to do. I don't believe God is done with our ministry. I think in many ways we are just hitting our stride. Took us a while to get there. So we will just see what the Lord will do.
Let's close with prayer. Father, thank you for this great night. All these gifted people. I ask you to bless them that are on the stage, that are standing out there as well. All these servants of yours.
Lord, you have told us that if we are faithful in these little things, you will reward us with greater things. You have told us to not be weary in well doing for in due season. We will reap if we faint not.
And Lord, I pray that we will all reap that righteous reward in this life and in the life to come. So bless us now as we go our way and just have some fellowship. And then look forward to what you are going to do tomorrow morning and tomorrow night. Be glorified, we pray. We commit ourselves to you now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.