For America's 250th birthday, Greg Laurie recommends a great film about the man behind the spiritual awakening of our nation. Just as surely as George Washington is our founding father, George Whitfield is our spiritual founding father. Two Georges played a role in founding the United States.
So find out more about George Whitfield in this film that's called A Great Awakening, and we'll send it to you for your gift of any size. Available on DVD at harvest.org. You know, last fourth of July As we celebrated 250 years as a nation, There was a riot in Newport Beach. Thousands of people descended on this city. To tear things apart.
Well, next Saturday, thousands of people are going to return to Newport Beach to give glory to God as we have another baptism, right? Do you know that uh Since we started these Jesus Revolution baptisms, we have had 10,000 people get baptized. Can you believe that? Amazing. I want to welcome all of you that are here tonight.
I want to welcome the 200,000 people watching online. I want to also welcome the 600 radio stations across The fruited plain of the United States of America carrying the Harvest Crusade as well. Welcome to all of you. Why don't we all just Calm our hearts for a moment. Because we're going to see what God has to say from his word.
Let's pray.
Now, Lord. Speak to our hearts. I know that there are people here. I know that there's a person here. who is so empty.
who is so lonely. Who was searching? Who thinks about the afterlife and wonders what will happen to them when they die? And I pray those questions will be answered tonight. And most importantly, I pray that they will come into a relationship with you.
Their creator. who loves them. You who sent your own Son, Jesus Christ. to this earth to walk among us. to live our life.
to breathe our air. to die our death. And then to rise again from the dead. May this be the night where everything changes for them. We commit this night to you now.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I heard a story about a Man from Chicago. who was tired of the cold. and decided to go down to Florida where it was a lot warmer.
His wife was on a business trip. And she was going to meet him one day later.
Well, he landed and he got in his hotel room and he wanted to send her a text and let her know he arrived safely. But the thing is, is his wife had just changed her phone number. He memorized it and he sent a text to her. But the problem is he got one digit wrong.
So instead of his text going to his wife, it instead went to an elderly preacher's widow. whose husband had died the day before. Her family was gathered there at her home, and they heard her let out a loud shriek, and she fainted. And they came into the room to see what happened, and they saw her phone, and they picked it up because she got this message from her husband. Dearest wife.
Just checked in. Everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow. P.S. It sure is hot down here. And uh That's just a joke.
But the afterlife is not a joke, and that's what I want to talk about.
Sooner or later, every thinking person gets around to asking the big questions such as what happens to me After I died. You know, the statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of every one person will die. No one escapes it. And then we ask the question: but after death, what is there?
Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? There's only one person who died and came back. to tell us what happens, and his name is Jesus. He knows.
And Jesus has a lot to say about the afterlife. He has a lot to say about how much he wants us in heaven. And frankly, He has quite a bit to say as to why he does not want us to end up In that place called hell. In fact, Jesus spoke more about hell than all the other preachers of the Bible put together because he's seen it and he doesn't want anyone uniquely created in God's image to end up there. Here's what Jesus says: He wants us to join Him in heaven.
In John 14, Jesus says, Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my father's home. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And when everything is ready, I will come and get you.
And you will always be where I am. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. And I love it because Thomas, sometimes they call him doubting Thomas, had no idea what Jesus was talking about. And so he, I don't know if he's raising this, and I have a question. Yeah, Thomas.
What's up? Oh, we don't know where you're going and we don't know the way. I'm glad Thomas asked that question because then Jesus said, and it's right here in the front of this stage: I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but through me. Listen, heaven. is a real place.
Heaven is a prepared place. for prepared people. The Bible describes heaven as a country. The Bible describes heaven as a city. The Bible describes heaven as a paradise.
I think sometimes when we think about heaven, we imagine we're going to just sit around on clouds and pluck harps and watch fat little baby angels hover above us. But heaven's a real place. I mean think about a city. Think about the best city you've ever been to. Heaven is that a thousand times more.
Think of the most beautiful paradise you've ever visited. That's just a glimpse of what heaven will be like. It's a real place for real people to do real things. And Jesus said, I've gone to prepare a place for you. But the question is.
How can I know that I will go to heaven? Heard the story of the great evangelist Billy Graham, who preached in this stadium in 1985. I was here, I remember. I even had hair then.
So Billy was visiting a city to hold one of his crusades. and he needed to send a letter. Snail mail. Can you imagine when people used to actually send letters?
So he didn't know where the post office was, so he was walking downtown and he saw a young man there and he said, Excuse me, young man, can you tell me where the post office is? Little kid said, sure, it's right over there. You turn right there and turn left there, and that's it. And then Billy says, you should come to the stadium tonight, to our crusade, and I'll tell you how to get to heaven. And that young boy said to him in response, well, actually, why should I do that?
You don't even know how to get to the post office. I'll tell you how you can get to heaven tonight. But one thing is sure, everyone's going to die. The Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die.
Now we don't know when that will come. but it's going to come. For some it comes very late in life. For others, it comes earlier than expected. Every second, people step from time into eternity.
Every minute, more than 100 people die. Every day, 175,000 people leave this life and enter into the afterlife. No one escapes it. Even the great. Steve Jobs.
Before he died, he said, and I quote, no one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it, even Steve Jobs. And the title of this message is.
What happens one minute after you die? What happens one minute? after you die. If you're a Christian, I'm going to tell you. What happens one minute after you die?
You go immediately into the presence of God in heaven. That's the promise of the Bible. How many of you have? Here tonight, have a loved one that is in heaven right now. Raise up your hand.
That's a lot of you. That's who they are. And if you're a Christian, you'll see them again. Your loved one is not just a part of your past, they're also a part of your future. But yes, the Christian goes into God's presence.
The moment you take your last breath on earth, you take your next breath in heaven. When you close your eyes on earth, you open them in heaven. The Apostle Paul said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. That's what happens to the Christian. But what happens to the non-Christian?
What happens to the person who has not put their faith in Christ? They too enter into the afterlife.
Now, I don't know about you, but before I was a believer, I believed when a person died, they simply ceased to exist. That they were just no more. And honestly, that kind of freaked out my little 16-year-old brain. How can I simply cease to exist? The great author Ernest Hemingway summed it up this way.
He said, Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness. to nothingness. That's a pretty bleak view. It's also an untrue view. We don't go into nothingness, we all enter into eternity.
But what happens to the non-believer? The Bible says it is appointed unto a man once to die, and then comes the judgment.
So, you're going to enter the afterlife. You decide in this life. where you will spend the afterlife. I heard a story about a man who was walking through A cemetery. And he came upon a gravestone.
And inscribed on the gravestone were these words, pause now, stranger, as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you shall be.
So prepare for death and follow me. The man was overheard to say, To follow you is not my intent until I know which way you went. Which way are you going to go? There's only one of two destinations in the afterlife. And tonight I want to look at a story from the Bible, from the book of Daniel, about a young king who thought he had.
many, many years ahead of him, and he was a position of power. And prestige. He could do whatever he wanted. His name was Belshazzar. He was a young king.
Maybe the first Gen Z king. And he had a grandfather named Nebuchadnezzar, who was one of the most wicked kings who ever lived. He was the king of Babylon. His grandfather Nebuchadnezzar went out of his way. to do evil things against God's people.
It was That king uh Nebuchadnezzar who sent Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fiery furnace, three courageous young Hebrew boys. He erected an image of himself and commanded everyone to worship it. But God got hold of him and changed him. And then he wrote a letter to his entire kingdom saying that he had put his faith in the one and true God. Nobody is beyond the reach of God.
Not even you. I think of two friends of mine that you would never think would become followers of Jesus. One is named Michael Francis. And the other is named Alice Cooper.
So Michael Franzes Was being groomed to be the next godfather, the next dawn, if you will, of the Colombo crime family. He was a guy who earned a lot of money for the mafia and finally he was arrested and he was sent to prison and they put him in solitary confinement. How are you going to reach a guy who's in the mafia, the cosa nostra? How will a guy like that ever come to faith in Christ?
Well, while he was in solitary confinement, a prison guard took pity on him and gave to Michael a Bible. He said, hey, you may want to start reading this. And therein what was called the hole Michael Francis began to read the Bible. And God began to speak to his heart. He also had a little radio, and he tuned in some guy named Greg Laurie, who was on the radio near his prison.
And he made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.
So God changed him, just like a Nebuchadnezzar. Then I think of Alice Cooper. At one point, Alice was the number one rock star in all of the world. He had everything you would want. He had fame.
He had fortune. And he started to use drugs. In fact, he told me this story of how he had a ruck of cocaine the size of a softball, and he was snorting it one day. And he says, and blood started to come out of my eyes. He says, I don't know if it was a hallucination or if it was really happening, but I called out, God, help me.
And God heard his prayer. and came into the life of Alice Cooper Real named Vincent Fernier. And he never looked back, and he was free from addiction from that point on. Only God can do that. No, it is beyond the reach of God.
But Belshazzar, the boy king, he decided to Mock God. He gave a command. Hey, you know, when we conquered the people of Israel, We took all of those special little goblets and things they use for their worship. Let's bring them out and let's fill them with booze and let's give toast to the false gods of Babylon. That'll be awesome.
One of them said, we've got to fight for the right to party. No, that's a beastie voice, but still. They're having this big old giant party. going out of their way to openly mock God And the Bible tells us that while they were doing this A hand began to write on the wall. And that hand sent them some heavenly graffiti.
In Daniel 5, we read there was the fingers of a human hand writing on... The large wall of the palace. And when the king saw the disembodied hand riding away, He became white as a ghost, scared out of his wits. His legs went limp. And his knees knocked.
I love that description. He went as a ghost. His knees were knocking. original translation of the language. would imply that he lost control of his bodily functions.
How shall I put it? He may have pooped his pants. He was so scared. He didn't know what it meant. And there are people today that think they can mock God.
They think they can just do whatever they want and there'll never be any consequences. I'll steal this and no one will ever know. I'll lie about that. I'll never get caught. I'll have sex with this person and nothing will ever come of it.
I'll try this drug just one time. and it will have no effect on me. I read a story about a young man. Who never had used drugs before. And one night, he took what he thought was a single Percocet pill.
And it was actually a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl. and he never woke up. And that's what this boy king thought. Hey man, I can just defy God, but the Bible warns us, it says. Listen.
Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. I remember before I was a Christian, I used to mock Christians. I thought, what is wrong with these people?
Why would they carry a Bible openly and walk around and talk about Jesus? Have these people lost their minds? And on my high school campus at the age of 17, I was using drugs at that point, making a lot of bad decisions. I came upon a group of these Jesus freaks, as we called them, singing songs about Jesus, sitting on the front lawn of my high school campus, and I sat down to just laugh at them. As I looked around at their faces as they sang their songs, I thought, I have to admit, they look pretty happy.
And then I just tried a new thought on First Eyes. What if actually... What they believe is true. I dismissed it. There's no way it can be true.
Then that thought came back, but what if it's true? And maybe you felt that here tonight as you watched this incredible evening with this amazing worship and all these people singing. And for the first time you thought, whoa, what if this is all true? Listen, it is true. God is real.
Jesus Christ is here and he can change your life tonight. It's all true. It's all true. Jesus says, don't be afraid, only believe.
So there was that handwriting on the wall. The king didn't know what to do. and enter grandma. The wife. of Nebuchadnezzar.
His grandfather. Walks into the palace. She looks at him and says, don't you remember the story of how your grandfather came to believe in God? And you ignored this, you whipper snapper. You went out of your way to, she didn't say whip or snapper.
That's what old people sometimes say. You went out of your way to defy God. And I know there's one man who can interpret this heavenly graffiti, this writing on the wall. Enter the prophet Daniel, and the hammer drops. And the Bible says that Daniel walked in there and he looked at Belshazzar, and he says, You have not praised the God that gives you the breath of life, who controls your destiny.
And God sent this message to you. And the message is: many, many, tekal, parson. And here's what it means: tekel means you've been weighed in God's balances, parson means divided. You've been weighed in God's balances. And now, your kingdom is going to depart from you.
In other words, you are a lightweight man. You're a spiritual lightweight. I went to see my doctor recently for a physical. I have to admit. I weighed more than I wanted to weigh.
And I think it's due to some chips I discovered recently at the market. I won't tell you the brand of these chips, but they're addictive. And they're kind of affordable too.
So I was enjoying these chips and I started to gain a little weight. And I said to my wife, I have to stop eating these chips. These are evil chips. And I even did a post on my Instagram page about these chips. I said, you know, I have to admit, these are really good chips, but I call them the evil chips.
And then I got a letter from the people that manufacture the chips. They don't know I'm in trouble. Oh no, they thank me. Thank you for talking about our chips. And by the way, we're a Christian company.
Oh, cool. And they sent me a box of their chips for free. Along with some amazing salsa that they made as well.
So I ate all those chips and I went back to the market to buy some more. And one of my grandchildren was with me and I grabbed the bag and she said, Papa, why are you buying the evil chips? I said, they're not evil chips. They're Christian chips, he sees. It's okay.
But I, you know, we weigh more than we want to weigh, and I also found out I'm an inch shorter. My doctor said you were this height. I think it was 5'9.5. I used to be 5'10.5, so I thought, great.
Now I'm Pat. shorter and I'm bald. What else, right? But you know If you follow Jesus Christ, You have his presence in your life. You have purpose in your life.
You have weight, so to speak, in your life. And it's interesting how Daniel said to the king. He gave you the breath you're breathing. Did you know that the breath you're breathing right now is a gift to you from God? The beat of your heart.
It's a gift to you from God. as well. And we think so much about our life and how long we're going to live. And we spend thousands of dollars trying to extend our lives. I heard about a tech multimillionaire who has spent millions of dollars trying to reverse his own aging.
In fact, in 2023, he went so far as to take His 17-year-old son's blood plasma and infuse it into his body because he believed that young blood would rejuvenate him. The problem is He moved back into his parents' house and just started playing video games, so it didn't have quite the effect. That's a joke.
Okay, so. But there's a new trend right now among young people, especially. You've ever heard about it? It's called looks maxing. Looks maxing, where people obsess over the way they look.
They try to reshape. Their body. Jesus said, What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Here's the problem. Belshazzar was a spiritual lightweight.
Does that describe you right now? Your life is passing by. You have no purpose. You have no reason for living. Maybe you're just living for pleasure.
And you're finding even that doesn't bring you happiness anymore. The Bible says she that lives her pleasure is dead while she's living. Because you don't know when you're going to breathe your last breath. You don't know when you're going to have the last beat of your heart. You don't know when you're going to give your last words.
Paul Walker from the Fast and Furious movies. Got into a car with a friend. And his last words were simply, I'll be back in five minutes. Tragically, he didn't return. The lead singer of a famous rock band, tragically, took his own life, and on a note clipped to his shirt.
He wrote these final words, I am a lonely soul. Does that describe you tonight? Are you a lonely soul? Do you find your life has no purpose? Armini.
I heard a story about a young man. who decided to take his own life. He decided he was going to go down to his bank and take all the money out and buy as much cocaine as he could purchase and overdose. And so that's exactly what he did. He had his cocaine, he's driving in his car.
And he says, I'm going to play some kind of dark music as I'm on my way to my own death. and he started turning the dial on his radio and he couldn't find the music he was looking for and he came upon a Christian radio station. And he heard an ad for something called a harvest crusade. And it's funny because just as he was hearing the ad for the crusade, he was driving by a place called the Pit in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the crusade was being held.
So literally he hears this ad, he sees this sign, that's where it's happening. He pulls into the parking lot, he gets out of his car, he walks into the crusade, he hears the amazing music, hears a message that I gave. and walked forward and gave his life to Jesus Christ. No one's beyond God's reach. No one is beyond the reach of God.
But then there's the afterlife. And if you don't put your faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says you'll stand before God. The Bible says, the books are opened, and the book is opened, and whoever is not found written in the book of life is cast into the lake of fire. I know. I know what you're thinking.
How could a God of love send someone to hell? Listen to what I'm saying to you. God doesn't send anyone to hell. Hell was not created for people. According to Jesus, hell was created for the devil and his angels.
The gospel is a universal declaration that hell is not God's desire. For anyone. That's why Jesus came and died on the cross for your sin. He faced the hell you should have faced, that I should have faced, because we've all broken God's commandments, but he died in our place. And we have this giant cross here on this stage to remind you of that: that Jesus died on that cross because he loves you.
He died on that cross for your sin. And it wasn't nails that held Christ to that cross 2,000 years ago. It was love for you. It was love. For me.
And as Jesus bore the sin of the world, he cried out these words: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus sent her to the darkness so you could walk in the light. Jesus died so you can live. He did that for you. I love how the Apostle Paul put it.
He said, He loved me and He gave himself for me. God loves you. I was talking to a man the other day. And I said to him, I wanted to just tell you that Jesus Christ loves you. And he said in response, I go straight to God.
Sort of implying that he doesn't need Jesus Christ. Then my wife, who was standing there, said, But Jesus is God. See, the only way you can approach God is through Jesus Christ because you're separated from God by your sin. We all are. You say, oh, hey man, I'm not that bad.
There's people a lot worse than me. But listen, God does not grade on the curve, He grades on the cross. And one sin is enough to keep you out of heaven. The Bible says if you offend in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it. But I'm a good person.
I won't even argue with you about that. You may be a good person, relatively speaking, but listen, you're not good enough. Because you're not perfect. And nor am I. That's where Jesus comes in.
Because I could not satisfy God's righteous demands, because I could not be good enough to get to heaven. Christ came to this world and walked among us and died on the cross and rose again from the dead. And now he'll forgive me of all of my sin. And that can happen for you here tonight. as it's happened for thousands of people.
over these many years.
So what do you need to do? to go to heaven. If you haven't listened to anything else I've said, just hear me for these last few moments. What do you need to do to know that you will go to heaven when you die? Number one, you need to realize You're a sinner.
And you're a sinner that needs a savior. You've sinned, we all have. And you need to call out to him. Years ago, I was with my son Jonathan, who you met earlier. Uh he's now 40.
But then he was just a little boy, maybe three years old. and we were out body surfing. And I was helping him catch waves. And I got... into this little riptide.
But the weird thing is, it wasn't that far from the shore.
So I'm like in this riptide, and there's the shore, but I can't get my feet on the ground. And I'm holding him aloft, keeping him above the water. And I'm thinking, I'm kind of in trouble here a little bit. And I see a lifeguard. She's on her lifeguard stand.
She sees I'm in trouble and she's starting to come down to rescue me. And I thought, I don't want to be rescued by a lifeguard like 10 feet from the shore. I was too proud. to call out for help. Thankfully, I got my footing.
She's about halfway to me. I said, I'm okay. Thank you. Thank you. But that's how we can be.
We're too proud to say we need help. Too proud to call out to God. But the Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord, they'll be saved. But you have to admit you're a sinner. And then, number two, you need to realize that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sin.
Jesus said, For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Understand he did that for you. Thirdly, you must repent of your sin. What does it mean to repent? It's a military term.
It means to do an about face, right? You've been going this way away from God.
Now you're going to walk toward God. Turn from your sin, repent from your sin. and then you must receive Christ into your life. Jesus does not say, admire me. He says, follow me.
Being a Christian is when Christ Himself comes and lives inside of you. Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if you will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. Is Christ living in your heart right now? You might say, well, I'm not sure. Hey.
I think if he was living in your heart, you'd know. Hey, let's just say if someone moved into your house in the middle of the night. Do you think he'd be aware of that? I think so. I'm not suggesting he'll move into your life without your permission, but my point is...
If Christ is living in you, you will know. And if you don't know, it's possible he isn't there. And that can be resolved tonight where you say, Jesus, I want a relationship with you. Folks, I'm not here talking about religion. I'm talking about a relationship with God through Jesus Christ that you can have now.
He'll fill that hole in your heart that you've tried to fill with so many things this world offers. Things that you're told will make you happy. You've tried to fill that hole with possessions. or accomplishments. or maybe more followers on social media or a drug.
or drinking or partying or a relationship. Or a degree. Whatever it is. You were designed to know God. You were designed to have a relationship with Him.
You need to ask Christ to come into your life. And then. You must do it. publicly. Jesus said, if you will confess me before people, I will confess you before my Father.
But if you deny me before people, I'll deny you before my Father. Going back to that day on my high school campus. when I was looking at the crazy Christians. And I was sort of making fun of them. Then I tried that new thought on first eyes.
What if it's all true? What if I can know God? The guy who was speaking, his name was Lonnie Frisbee. How many of you saw the Jesus Revolution movie? Did you see that movie?
Okay.
Well, it's streaming live on YouTube if you want to see it. But Todd He stood up this preacher And he said, Jesus said, you're either for me or against me. I looked around at all those other kids and I thought, well, they're for 'em. Look at 'em. And I'm not one of them, does that mean I'm against Jesus?
I mean, I don't want to be against him. I never knew I could be for him. I never knew that I could know him. I always believed in Jesus as a historical figure. But now, for the first time, I realize Jesus is here.
Jesus wants to come into my life. And before I knew it, I was up there praying with those other kids. And that is the moment that Christ came into my life. And I have never regretted it. It was the greatest moment of my life.
And this can be the greatest moment of your life as well. No one else can do this for you. Only you can do it. And you must do it now. The Bible says today is the day of salvation.
You may never have another opportunity like this tonight. Would if this were your last opportunity to hear this message that we call the gospel, which means good news. And what if you heard this message and said, I don't care, don't bother me. I have things I want to do. I have my life that I want to live.
You're just like old Belshazzar, saying you can just live and do whatever you want. And then one day God says, Your numbers are up, buddy. It's over with. It could happen to anyone. We've all heard about the Titanic.
That magnificent ship. There was a cutting-edge technology of its day. Many said it was literally unsinkable. One person even said God himself couldn't sink this ship. It was filled with the most powerful and wealthy people.
Around at that particular time, and on its maiden voyage, you know what happened. It struck an iceberg, and the unsinkable ship sunk. But an interesting thing that happened as they were going through the icy ocean, a boat that was ahead of it called the Californian. Radio to the Titanic. And they said There's a lot of ice up here.
Be careful. And the operator, the radio operator on the Titanic, sent this message back: shut up. Shut up. I'm busy.
Some people say that to God. The Lord says, you need me. You need to turn to me. I want to come in your life. We say, shut up, shut up, I'm busy.
I'm living my life. Just like Belshazzar. The Bible says, harden not your heart if you can hear his voice. God is here. He's speaking to you.
And he's calling you. And tonight is the night where you can change your eternal address from hell to heaven. You are making the most important decision that you will ever make in your life. The decision to follow Jesus Christ. In a moment, I'm going to lead you in a prayer.
Now, I'm going to ask Tadaz, I pray that you would pray this out loud after me. This is where you're asking Christ to be your Savior, your Lord. It's not unlike a person who's drowning, calling out to the lifeguard, saying, Help. That's what you're saying to God. And you'll hear this prayer, and he'll answer this prayer.
So as I pray You pray this out loud after me, okay? Let's all bow our heads. Pray this after me now. Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner.
But I know that you're the Savior. Who died on the cross? and rose again from the dead. Jesus come into my life. I turn from my sin.
My sin. I repent of my sin. Thank you for hearing this prayer. In answering this prayer. Thank you that I am now a child of God.
Thank you that I am now going to heaven. Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. In Jesus' name I pray. Jesus name I pray. Amen.
God bless all of you.
