At least 100,000 people gathered at AT&T
Stadium in Arlington, Texas, for Harvest
America 2016 on Sunday evening, according
to Pastor Greg Laurie, and thousands of them
responded to the California pastor’s invitation
to pray to accept Jesus into their lives.
“I know a few things about you,” Laurie, senior
pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship
megachurch in California, told the cheering
crowd in his message titled, “The Good, the
Bad, and the Ugly,” which was also
livestreamed to thousands of host locations across the country .
You’re empty, you’re lonely, you feel guilty and
you fear death, the pastor told the gathering,
which according to The Dallas Morning News was “the largest evangelical outreach in North
Texas since Billy Graham drew 255,000 people
to Texas Stadium.”
The Rev. Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy
Graham Evangelistic Association, tweeted
before the event, “Near Arlington, TX
tomorrow? Take your friends & anyone who
needs a relationship with Jesus Christ to
#HarvestAmerica with @GregLaurie.”
We’re all born empty, Laurie continued,
pointing out that the Bible says no matter what
you get, you’re going to be empty from the
inside. It’s no wonder that the most Google-
searched terms during the nights are “porn,
lonely and suicide,” he added.
Everybody feels guilt because “you have a
conscience, and because you’re guilty,” he
said, explaining that the Bible says we’ve all
sinned.
Our fear of death is actually the fear of the
unknown, Laurie added. But we will all die, and
pass over to the other side.
He shared the story of a Samaritan woman,
found in John 4:3-10: “So he left Judea and
went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to
go through Samaria. So he came to a town in
Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground
Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the
journey, sat down by the well. It was about
noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw
water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a
drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to
buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.
How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do
not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered
her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is
that asks you for a drink, you would have
asked Him and He would have given you living water.'”
Laurie then told attendees, “My mother was like
this woman at the well.” He added that he was
able to lead his mother to Jesus about a month
before she died.
The pastor also talked about Nicodemus, who
is mentioned in John 3:1-7: “Now there was a
Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a
member of the Jewish ruling council. He came
to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that
you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing
if God were not with him.’ Jesus replied, ‘Very
truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of
God unless they are born again.’ ‘How can
someone be born when they are old?’
Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be
born!’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no
one can enter the kingdom of God unless they
are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives
birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.'”
Just because you’ve got a cowboy hat doesn’t
mean you’re a Texan, Laurie said. Going to a
church doesn’t make you a Christian either, he
said. Nor does reading the Bible, he added,
stressing that there has to be a moment when
you put your faith in Jesus.
Religious beliefs are not enough, as religion is
an attempt of humans to reach God, but
Christianity is God’s initiative to reach humans,
Laurie said, adding he’s not a religious person
and nor does he want to become one.
Laurie briefly explained what the Gospel is.
We’re all sinners and separated from God, and
can never reach God on our own, he said. But
God loved us so much that He sent His Son to
this Earth on a rescue operation. Jesus walked
on our shoes, and He lived our life, and then He died our death. On the third day, He rose again
from the dead. If we turn from our sin and ask
Christ to come into our life, we can know we’ll
go to Heaven.
“I hope you’re born again tonight. I hope this
is the night your life changes,” he told the
crowd, and said, “Heaven is not for good
people, it’s for forgiven people.”
Pastor Laurie led people to pray to invite Jesus
into their hearts, and then encouraged those
who prayed to leave their seats and come to
the ground in front of the stage. Thousands
came forward to proclaim their decision.
After the message, Dr. Robert Jeffress, the
pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, tweeted:
“Praise God for the thousands of lives forever
changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ tonight
at #HarvestAmerica!”
Pastor Laurie spoke to The Christian Post a few
days before the event.
“When I speak, I’m not so much addressing a
crowd, I think of an individual,” Laurie told CP.
“It’s hard to wrap your mind around a crowd
of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60 thousand people — in fact
you can’t. So what I do is I think about that
person that is cynical that didn’t even want to come in the first place … Though I’m speaking
to a crowd in reality, I direct my remarks as
though we were having a conversation — me
and that person that’s in attendance.”
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