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HARVEST 2000 - PRESTONWOOD BAPTIST CHURCH
DALLAS, TEXAS
Saturday, 11 November 2000
This is a text only page, designed to be quickly reloaded
as the crusade evening progresses.
The Crowd gathers
5:00pm Welcome to Plano, Texas 2000 Harvest Crusade live from Prestonwood Baptist Church. People are beginning to line up. It's raining and very cold, but the thought of hearing
Audio Adrenaline and ATS, as well as the wonderful preaching of Pastor Greg Laurie compels the die-hards to line up for the best seats.
5:15pm The crowd gathers as this event is about to get underway! Thousands of young people have gathered together here tonight to hear Greg Laurie present an exciting message about the Gospel, as well as two headlining bands, All Together Separate and Audio Adrenaline. People are beginning to line up. It's raining and very cold, but the thought of hearing Audio Adrenaline and ATS, as well as the wonderful preaching of Pastor Greg Laurie compels the die-hards to line up for the best seats.
5:30 pm Let the crowd in! The excitement grows as the crowd rushes in to this 7,000 + seat facility at Prestonwood Baptist Church. Kids of all ages are anxiously moving toward their seats as the stage lighting is set for this event. At this recently built auditorium with an elevated stage and two balcony areas, all seats have a fantastic view to hear Pastor Greg and the bands. People are beginning to pack this facilty, as this free event looks like it will be standing room only.
6:10 pm Pastor Jack Graham Address the crowd.
"Welcome to Harvest 2000." Pastor Jack welcomes all the young people to the event, and thanks God for all of the people making it out tonight to see Harvest 2000. Pastor Jack mentions that Prestonwood Baptist has services every Saturday night at 6:00 pm and encourages the crowd to come back for the Saturday night service, as well as other events which Prestonwood will be holding in the future. He prays for the event, as the crowd quiets in reverance to God. They pray for the event, the lives that will be changed tonight, and for God to be glorified through this gathering tonight.
Sing Praises to the Lord!
6:15 pm All Together Separate (ATS) takes the stage. Praise is given to the Lord as ATS sings "Open Up the Doors!" and follows with "I See The Lord". After a brief word from lead singer Dex, the band closes with "I Give My Life". Thank you ATS for that great worship.
6:40 pm Pastor John Collins, Crusade Director, from Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California welcomes the crowd, and encourages them in their singing along with ATS and soon with Audio Adrenaline. Pastor John thanks the crowd for making this event a success, and notes the hard work that the Prestonwood Baptist Church has done to put on this event. He notes the excitement over this event, and hopes that this will be just the beginning of a continued excitment in this area to hear the Word, and to come out to hear the Gospel. Pastor John briefly reflects on the success the crusades have had in other events in brining people to hear the Gospel, and how the people are an integral part of it's success. He encourages the crowd to sit back, relax, and truly listen to the Holy Spirit moving in this place tonight.
6:45 pm Excitement grows as Pastor John throws some of the crusade T-shirts and hands out CD's to the crowd. At the risk of being mugged on stage for these great crusade souveniers, he anxiously tells the crowd "I'm all out of stuff, but you can get more in the back after the event". The crowd cheers. Pastor John welcomes the headline band Audio Adrenaline.
6:50 pm The band cranks it up! Audio Adrenaline opens their set with "It's my Father's House!" The lead singer, Clark Stewart, takes off through the crowd, singing amongst them. Always involving the crowd, Clark gets the crowd fired up! Evan, a local 10 year old boy, sings along with the lead singer by singing "house", in "It's My Father's House".
7:00 pm The crowd rushes the stage! As the lead singer asks for volunteers, and hundreds of kids stampede to be first. Five, then five more are selected as volunteers to help the band. Then a 50 year old man, and a 60 year old woman are brought to the stage. The volunteers jump to the tune as Audio sings "I Get Down, and He Lifts Me Up!". The entire building is full of kids jumping to the beat!
7:10 pm Clark addresses the crowd, and gives glory to Jesus. "Get excited about Jesus' Great Commission!", to go out to preach the Word in their schools, their jobs, and to their friends ... to spread the Good News about Jesus Christ ... to demonstrate how Jesus changed their lives, and can change others' lives. The band finishes with "Hands and Feet".
7:15 pm Pastor Jack Graham comes out and introduces Pastor Greg Laurie, and asks the crowd to take a moment to sit down, and to listen to the message that Pastor Greg Laurie will be bringing to Prestonwood tonight.
The Gospel is Preached
7:17 pm Pastor Greg notes his enthusiasm with being in the home state of the next President of the United States! The crowd cheers! He notes his amazement with the ongoing election saga in Florida, and the confusion surrounding the election, but that he believes Govenor Bush will win.
7:20 pm Pastor Greg opens up with an amusing story about a zoo who's gorilla died and the Zookeeper who told a guy that they would pay him a lot of money to dress up in a gorilla suit until they could find a replacement gorilla. The man agreed, and really started to get into the job. He started swinging from a tree, and one day swung too far and ended up in the lion's cage. As the lion neared, he yelled "HELP!", and the lion exclaimed, "Shut up stupid, or you'll get us both fired!"
"Things are not always as they appear." Pastor Greg shares with the crowd how many things appear to be one thing, and yet are actually another. Recent polls show that many people claim to be Christians yet are really not. Many don't even know the name of the Gospels. "Are you pretending to be a Christian? ... By their fruit you shall know them."
Many people think that going to church makes them a Christian, yet, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a donut shop makes you a police officer ... Only Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, only believing in Jesus Christ will save you from your sin and can make you a Christian. The world says 'Do' in order to make it to heaven, and Christ says 'Done'. Jesus was already victorious on the cross. Jesus already died for your sins."
"Praying doesn't make you a Christian. Praying to God, repenting, asking for forgiveness, and accepting Jesus into your heart, that makes you a Christian."
"Making changes in your life doesn't make you a Christian. Many people fake a conversion to make you believe they are a Christian, when nothing has changed in their heart. They can makes changes in their life and yet they are not a Christian."
"You can keep the Ten Commandments and not be a Christian." The Bible illustrates a story of the rich young ruler, like the dot-com millionaires today. The rich young ruler kept all the Commandments, yet walked away from Jesus a non-believer when He said to 'Sell everything you own, and follow Me'.
"Being in contact with spiritual things, can actually harden your heart, rather than soften it" Coming to church, praying, all these things, can actually harden you to the message of the Gospel, rather than open your heart to it, if you don't accept Jesus as your Savior.
"Doing the right thing doesn't make you a Christian." 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells of how man misses the mark, the mark that God has set for humanity, and how man cannot hit the mark. Only Jesus was perfect, only Jesus can meet God's standard, only Jesus is Holy."
"What do I have to do to be a Christian?"
#1 "Realize that you're a sinner." Note that their are sins of omission and sins of commission. Sins of omission - sins where you don't do what you should do. Sins of commission - sins that you do that you know you shouldn't do.
#2 Repent from those sins, repent meaning to turn from those things.
#3 Recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross for you, and that He shed His blood for you!
#4 Acknowledge Him before people. Christ said "If you deny me before people, I will deny you before My Father and the angels in heaven, but if you acknowledge Me, I will acknowledge you before My Father and the angels in heaven."
Pastor Greg shares, that the Bible says "Today is the day of Salvation", and in a moment, I'm going to ask you to get up out of your seats, and to stand down here in front, and make a public acknowledgement of Jesus Christ. "Maybe you need to come back to the Lord, you've allowed things to push out your relationship with the Lord, and you need to come back to Him, you too can come to Him tonight."
Pastor Greg prays for, and with, the crowd. "Maybe you need Christ tonight. Maybe you need to make a commitment or a recommittment to Christ tonight." While Pastor Greg prays, he asks for those who want to ask Jesus into their lives, to raise their hands. Hands all over the sanctuary are raising to ask for Jesus. Many hands are raised saying 'Yes' to Jesus tonight ... Amen.
The work of the Holy Spirit
8:00 pm Pastor Greg invites those who raised their hands to make a public acknowledgement of Jesus, by coming forward to pray with him, to pray to Jesus to ask for His forgiveness, for His cleansing, and for Him to change their lives. Many people are standing up, moving forward, and coming to pray to Jesus.
Pastor Greg shares how he was one of the last ones to come forward when he accepted Jesus, and how others may be wanting to come to Jesus, that they should come now, come to meet Jesus. All Together Separate sings "He Knows My Name", inviting people to come to Christ. Hundreds of people, mostly kids, move toward the front of the sanctuary to meet Jesus.
Pastor Greg leads them in a prayer of forgiveness, where hundreds are inviting Christ into their lives. They pray together and they are saved! Praise God, they are saved! The crowd cheers at the excitement of seeing hundreds come to Christ, and they welcome their new friends into the Family of God!
Pastor Greg offers a New Believer's Bible to each of the people who made a commitment to Christ tonight. Those who accepted Christ, move to meet counselors, who are standing by to meet with them, and to give them their new Bibles.
The Crusade Closes
8:20 pm Pastor Jack comes to the stage, and thanks Pastor Greg and the Harvest Crusade Team for coming to Plano to put on this event. He notes that "This is why Prestonwood Baptist built this facility, for people to come to Jesus." Pastor Jack asks the crowd to rally behind the Harvest Crusades by giving to the expenses of this event. He goes on to voice his desire to have a 50,000 person Crusade in Plano or the Dallas area of Texas. He then prays for this event, for future events in this area, and for the funds given tonight to go toward the furthering of the Gospel.
8:25 pm All Together Separate comes out during the offering and sings a beautiful ballad "It Will Be Worth It All". Then Pastor Jack takes the stage and thanks the musicians and Pastor Greg for coming out to the event this evening. He closes the event, and invites people to come out every Saturday night at 6 pm to join in great worship and praise to the Lord.
8:30 pm The Dallas 2000 Harvest Crusade ends.
If you would like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, click
HERE.
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