Greg Laurie - The Sinner's Prayer

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Father, you've said when two or more are gathered together in your name, you're there in the midst of them. Now, as we open up your Word and talk about matters of eternity, the meaning of our lives, I pray that you will speak to people's hearts, not only here in the stadium, but to those that are watching online and listening on radio and other mediums all around the world. Speak to them, Lord, as only you can. We commit this night to you now. In Jesus's name we pray, amen.

We have packed Angel Stadium to capacity, and we have people outside. We have people outside as well who weren't able to get in tonight, so we're very excited to have all of you here tonight. But I want to talk to you as an individual and some things that God has to say to you. But first, I want to start with a story about a guy that needed some work. He was looking for employment and he heard they were hiring down at the local zoo. So he went down and said, "I heard you were hiring here. Maybe a janitorial position is open".

And the zoo keeper said, "Sir, I'm sorry, we just filled that position. But noticing you're kind of a big dude, and I don't want you to be offended by what I'm about to say, but our gorilla died the other day. And we've ordered a new gorilla, he's on his way, but we need somebody to take his place temporarily. So here's what we're asking. If we had a custom gorilla suit designed just to fit you, would you be willing to pretend to be the gorilla for the next week or so until the real gorilla arrives"?

And when they told him how much they would pay, the guy quickly agreed. So the next day he felt kind of foolish there in his gorilla suit in the gorilla cage. He thought, "No one's gonna believe I'm an actual gorilla," but people were believing it, they were enjoying it. By day two he's beating on his chest. He's kind of having fun. By day three he's swinging back and forth on the vine, really enjoying this whole masquerade, pretending to be a gorilla, and he got a little too excited and swung a little too far and landed right in the lion's den. And a lion starts walking toward him and he thinks, "Oh no, if I cry out for help, everyone will know that I'm a fraud, but if I stay silent, this lion will attack me".

The lion got closer and closer, and finally the guy in the gorilla suit cried out, "Help"! And the lion said, "Shut up or you'll get us both fired". You know, there's a lot of people pretending to be something that they actually are not. There are a lot of people that say they are Christians who actually are not Christians. Seventy-four percent of Americans say they believe in God, sixty-three percent identify themselves as Christians, but are they really Christians? You know, the Bible says, "Check up on yourself. Are you really Christians or are you just pretending to be Christians when you actually aren't at all"?

Now, I know most of you in this stadium are believers, you are followers of Jesus, but some of you are not and you might be wondering, "Why would I want to even become a Christian? They're not the most popular people around, obviously. And what's in it for me"? Well, let me just answer that for a moment. If you become a Christian, you will discover the meaning of life. Because everyone gets around to asking, "Why am I here on this earth? Why do I exist? What is the meaning of my life"? And when you put your faith in Christ, you'll find the answer to all those questions because God created you to know him.

And so, you'll discover the meaning of life if you become a Christian. If you become a Christian, God will forgive you of all of your sins. Some of you are wracked with guilt. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the things that you've done, the people you've hurt, the devastation you've caused, but God can forgive you of your sin and remove your guilt. The Bible says, "If we will confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". And if you become a Christian, and this is the most important one of all, you will know that you will go to heaven one day.

That's the most important, what matters more. Every one of us is going to enter into the afterlife. The statistics on death are really impressive. One out of every one persons will die. And so, the question is: Where are you going to spend the afterlife? Well, if you put your faith in Christ, you can know for sure that you will go to heaven when you die. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father but by me". Your life will go from hopelessness to hope, from black and white to color when Christ comes in your life, and let me tell you how I became a Christian. It was the last thing on my mind.

Age 17, 1970, going the wrong way in life. I was raised in an alcoholic home. My mother was married and divorced seven times, had a lot of boyfriends. She was living the partying, drinking lifestyle. She drank to excess every night, basically passed out. I had to grow up fast. I had to take care of her. In many ways, I was more the parent in the relationship and I didn't want to follow in her footsteps. Before I knew it, I was in high school. I was partying with all my friends, drinking, getting drunk, and I'm thinking, "I don't even enjoy this. Why am I even doing it"? But then the whole drug culture came along and we were told drugs would make us more aware.

And there was some truth to that because as I began to experiment with drugs, I became more aware of how empty I was inside. So, it was almost like a process of elimination. I didn't want to live the lifestyle of my mother and the other adults I knew. I didn't wanna live this druggy lifestyle that I had found myself in. Where was the answer? Well, I transferred from one high school to another because on the school I was transferring to, they had a strong drug culture, meaning that the people in charge kind of looked the other way, and so I went there to change. But instead of finding a drug culture, I found a Jesus culture.

On my first day of school, some of my friends said, "Greg, watch out, we have a lot of Jesus freaks in this campus". And I said, "The last thing Greg Laurie will ever do is become a Jesus freak". Famous last words. And of course, I heard the gospel for the first time in a way that I understood and I prayed what is sometimes called the sinner's prayer. Some people say, "Well, there's no sinners prayer in the Bible".

Well, there actually is a sinner's prayer in the Bible and it's in the story that Jesus told us, found in Luke chapter 18. Jesus says, "Two men went into the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee," that would be a religious leader, "the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and he prayed this, 'God, I thank you I'm not like other people: cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I'm certainly not like this tax collector over here! I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of my income.' And the tax collector stood at a distance, he dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'"

Now, Jesus offers his conclusion. "I tell you, that sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those that exalt themselves will be humbled, and those that humble themselves will be exalted". We'll stop there. So, God sees things differently than we see. We look at the outside. God looks on the inside. The Bible says that people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks on thoughts and intentions. And we're such a culture that's absorbed with the way that we look. I mean, every time I turn around, I'm reading a new article about someone who dies taking a selfie, right? They're at the edge of a cliff or standing on the railroad track.

"I want to get this selfie, yeah". Crazy. And when someone takes a picture and you're in the group of people, you always want to see it first. You say, "Don't post that. I don't like the way I look. I look too fat," right? We put so much emphasis on the way that we look, $16 billion a year is spent on cosmetic surgery in America. And that's Newport Beach alone, it's really, I'm just kidding. The mayor of Newport Beach is here. He's probably not happy with me. But this is funny, a study showed that babies as young as one day old were drawn to more attractive faces.

So you say, "What"? Yeah, a baby wants to look at an attractive face. So if you want to find out if you're attractive or not, look at a baby. If they turn away, you are unattractive. If they smile, maybe you're okay, right? Things are not always as they appear. God sees things differently than we do. Two men are praying. One appears to be devout and religious. The other appears to be wicked and sinful. But actually, things are not as they always appear.

My son, Jonathan, had an older brother. Still has one. His name is Christopher. He's been in heaven now for 16 years and he took Jonathan to a church, a church of recovering addicts. And Jonathan was a clean-cut kid. Jonathan dressed well, he put on a clean shirt, and he goes to this church and he was kind of shocked by the people that were attending. The guy that greeted them in the front had a patch over his eye and a skull and crossbones tattooed on his head, right? And so, this is kind of a rough bunch and Jonathan's kind of judging them. Even though he's not walking with God at this point in his life, like his brother Christopher was, he's kind of judging these guys because of the way they looked on the outside because they look like the way they used to look, you could tell where they had come from.

But then as it, the service went on and he saw these people worshiping God, it dawned on him. They're the ones that are pleasing to God, not me. And sometimes we think, "Oh, I'm a good person, and, I go to church, or, I read my Bible and I do these certain things, I've been baptized". Those are all great things and every Christian should do them, but sometimes we can be good on the outside and not be right on the inside. We think by living a good life we will find ourselves getting to heaven. But you're not gonna get to heaven by living a good life at all.

If you wanted to sum up all the religions of the world, you could do it in one word: do. "Do this and maybe you'll get to heaven," "Do that and maybe you'll reach Nirvana," "Do this other thing and maybe God will accept you," but Christianity can be summed up in one single word: done. Salvation is done. It's given to you as a gift from God, purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross when he bore the sin of the world and he said, "It is finished". Let me tell you something that might surprise you. There's gonna be some bad people in heaven and there's gonna be some good people in hell. I know I lost some people just then. Like, "What are you even talking about? I thought heaven was for good people".

No, heaven is not for good people. Heaven is for forgiven people, you see. Forgiven people. There could be a good person in hell, meaning that they lived a good life, they thought they were moral, but they fell short of God's standards. But there could be a bad person that makes it into heaven because if they will admit their sin and ask Christ to forgive them, he will. Listen, no matter what sins you have committed, God will forgive you tonight if you'll admit those sins and turn your back on them and start to follow Jesus Christ. It's true. Think of that man we call the thief on the cross.

Remember Jesus was crucified between two criminals? Actually, the crimes he committed were probably far worse than stealing. He probably was a murderer because Rome would not crucify a thief, but they would certainly crucify an insurrectionist or maybe he rebelled against Rome. I don't know what he did, exactly, but he was being crucified for it. And as Jesus is hung on the cross, the whole crowd begins to mock him, saying, "If he's really the Son of God, let him save himself". And that thief joined in with the other thief and said the same thing to Jesus, and then Jesus gave a statement that changed everything. The first words of Jesus from the cross were, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".

And the hardened heart of that criminal melted and he realized that Jesus was the very Son of God, and he turned to Jesus and said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom". And Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise". A bad person got in to heaven. You see how it works? And God can do that for you. Because when you become a Christian, you become a different person on the inside. The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he is an altogether different kind of person. Old things pass away; behold, everything becomes fresh and new". I love it when it rains. Everything is clean, everyone gets a free car wash, you might even see a beautiful rainbow. And that's what happens when you put your faith in Christ.

So I mentioned the sinner's prayer. So here's this guy that says, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner". Here's the prayer I lead people in. I don't always pray it exactly the same way, but this is the gist of the prayer, and this is the prayer that I will lead you in if you choose to pray it with me. It starts with these words, "God, I know that I'm a sinner". "God, I know that I'm a sinner". That's what this man said. He said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner". And a better translation of that would be, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner". So this guy was a mega sinner, a sinner on steroids, if you will, and he knew it.

And see, God has given us the Ten Commandments and some people say, "Well, I live by the Ten Commandments. That's all the religion I need". Really? What are the Ten Commandments? They don't know. Well, let me tell you some of them. You shall not have any other gods before him. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. You shall not lie. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. Every one of us have broken those commandments and the Bible says, "If you offend in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it". So, you're a sinner. You have to take responsibility for your sin. Another definition of the word "sin" means to miss a mark. Think of an archery contest and the objective is to get your arrow into the bull's eye, or at least hit the target.

So one person may fire ten arrows and all ten of them hit the target, but none of them hit the bull's eye. Then I may fire ten arrows and none of them hit the target. I hit a cow over here. I hit a tree over there. See, we both missed the mark and maybe I miss the mark more than you miss the mark, but it doesn't matter because if you fall short of God's standards, you have sinned. Jesus said, "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect". Someone says, "Well, what, are you, perfect"? No, that's where Jesus comes in. That's why I need Jesus. I have to admit my sin. Every sinner needs a Savior. Broken people need healing, captives need freedom, hopeless people need hope, and the guilty need forgiveness. We need a Savior.

So when I lead people in a sinner's prayer, I say, "Pray this after me. God, I know that I'm a sinner and I'm sorry for my sin, and I know that you are the Savior". A sinner needs a Savior and Jesus is the Savior of the world. Jesus will save you from your sin tonight. The Bible says, "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved". And I love the word "saved". We save it for dramatic situations, like, maybe, when a firefighter rushes into a burning building and brings someone out, maybe a child, and we say, "The firefighter saved the life of the child," and, certainly, that is the appropriate word to you.

We all know that there was an assassination attempt on President Trump and, miraculously, he was only wounded. He himself said this. He himself said, "It was God himself who stopped the unthinkable from happening". And then he said, "I stand here today because of the grace of God because I shouldn't be here". He knows that God saved him. By the way, if President Biden had been shot, I would be saying the same thing about him because we don't want to see violence against people running for office in our country. We decide with ballots, not bullets in America.

But I am thankful God spared President Trump's life. But another man died that day, as you know. He's a firefighter. His name is Corey Comperatore. And as the bullets began to fly, he threw his body over the family that was with him, his daughters and his wife, and he was shot and killed. He took the bullet for them, he saved them. And Jesus took the bullet for you at the cross when he died for the sins of the world. Jesus came to pay a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. A sinner, that's you, that's me, needs a Savior, that's Jesus. And what does he save us from? He saves us from hell. Oh, yes, hell.

You know, sometimes people say, "I don't like all these hellfire and brimstone preachers". Really? I haven't heard any lately. Where do you find them these days? Seems like we wanna skirt the subject of hell. But Jesus spoke more about hell than all the other preachers in the Bible put together. Hell is real and the last thing that a God of love wants is for any man or any woman to spend eternity separated from him in this place called hell. Hell is isolation. Hell is separation. And there are people that say, "I don't want God in my life. I don't want God involved in anything I say or do".

And one day, when you pass into eternity, you'll get what you wanted. You didn't want God? You won't have God. You don't wanna go to hell. That's why Jesus died on the cross for you, so you don't have to. He's a Savior and a Savior will save you from a future judgment if you put your faith in him tonight.

You say, "Well, I'll just, you know, clean my life up and come to Christ". You don't clean your life up and come to Christ. You come to Christ and he'll clean your life up. You come as you are. You come with your sins. You come with your weaknesses. You come with your addictions. You come with your questions. You just come to Jesus.

Jesus says, "Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". Just, you come to him and you watch what God will do. So when I lead people in what I call the sinner's prayer, I have them pray, "God, I'm sorry for my sin. Thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin and rising again from the dead". And then I have that person pray, "Jesus, come into my life right now and be my Savior and my Lord". And that's what this is all about. Christianity is a relationship with Christ himself living inside of you.

Sometimes people will say, "I need a little religion". Listen, friend, you don't need a little religion. You need a lot of Jesus and he wants to come into your life right now. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and I knock, and if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I will come in". You asked the question tonight, "Greg, do I have to give up anything to become a Christian? Do I have to give up anything to follow Jesus"? As a matter of fact, you do. You have to give up hell for heaven, emptiness for fulfillment, hopelessness for hope. It's God's trade-in deal and it's here for you now.

Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, but I know that you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Jesus, come into my life right now and be my Savior and my Lord. I choose to follow you from this moment forward.

There's no magic in this prayer. You could pray this prayer and not mean it, and absolutely nothing would happen. But if you really wanna know God and you pray that from the depths of your heart, I am telling you that God in heaven will hear this prayer and he will answer this prayer, and Christ will come into your life tonight and everything will change for you. You can take that to the bank. You have God's Word on it in the very Word he's given to us, the Bible.