The Crowd gathers

6:55 - Welcome to the final night of The Greater Philadelphia Harvest Crusade at the First Union Spectrum! Tonight's musical guests include the Katinas, Jennifer Knapp and Tommy Walker and the Harvest Crusade Band. Pastor Greg Laurie will once again bring the gospel message.

There were 16,000 people in attendance last night at the Harvest Jam and 1,627 people young and old alike, registered decisions for Jesus Christ. What an awesome experience it was to witness hundreds of people filling the arena floor! We look forward to what the Lord will do here tonight.

Sing Praises to the Lord!

7:20 - The Harvest Crusade Band members are taking their places on the platform and are beginning to prepare to lead the crowd in worship. They begin with "No Greater Love". The crowd stands to their feet and claps and sings along with the band. The enthusiasm of this Philadelphia crowd is fantastic! They follow with "Mourning Into Dancing". Tommy Walker encourages crowd to remain standing and singing. Lyrics are displayed on two large screens above the stage - one on the right and one on the left, allowing everyone here to be able to view the lyrics, making it easy for everyone to participate in the worship. The next song is "I'm Not Ashamed", followed by "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever". Tommy Walker encourages the crowd to stand up again and sing along, no matter who you are what you've done. You can still sing the words to this song, "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever... think about His grace and how He sent down His Son to die for my sins.....". There is such an attidude of worship in this place. The presence of the Lord is truly evident here.

7:50 - Bob Shank introduces Pastor Joe Focht from Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia to open this evening's crusade in prayer.

Bob Shank introduces The Katinas! They open with "One More Time". The crowd is thorougly enjoying this group! They are 5 energetic brothers from Samoa -- currently living in Nashville. They close their set with "Lord Draw Me Close to You". They encourage everyone to join them with the words, "You are all I need, no one could take Your place, to feel the warmth of Your embrace, bring me back to You... You're all I want...You're all I've ever needed, help me know it's You I need."

8:12 - A short video is shown which explains how the expenses of a Harvest Crusade are met. These crusades are paid for by the donations of local churches, donations of local businesses and foundations, the sale of Harvest Crusade products and the offerings taken at these events. Greg Laurie and his crusade staff receive no honorariums for these events. The Harvest Crusade Band sings "Shout to the Lord" while the offering is taken.

8:20 - Bob Shank introduces Jennifer Knapp (Crystal Lewis was on the schedule for tonight's crusade, but she is ill and not able to be here - please keep her in your prayers). Jennifer was not scheduled to be here tonight, but thankfully she was able to return to Philadelphia to share again tonight! What a treat for all of us! She opens with her popular song, "Faithful/Whole Again". The audience response to Jennifer is fantastic! Her second song tonight is "In The Name". Bob Shank shares a few words about Greg Laurie and how important it is for the crowd to settle down and prepare themselves for the message that Greg will bring tonight. He re-introduces Jennifer to sing a final song just before tonight's message. She sings a beautiful ballad, "Faithful".

The gospel is preached

8:40 - Pastor Greg comes to the podium and welcomes the crowd to the final night of the Harvest Crusade here in Philadelphia! He shares a few words about last night's Harvest Jam. He thanks all the faithful servants who helped to bring all of this about. He shares that tonight's message is titled "Jesus and the Skeptic." He shares that by nature, he is a skeptical person. He shares that when he was growing up he would never be the 1st to try or do anything. He shares that when he first encountered Christians, he thought they were all a bit on the deranged side, or this was some kind of act that they were putting on. One day he went to one of their meetings on his high school campus. He said that he never intended that day that he would become a new convert. But it began to dawn on him that some of them in that crowd were old buddies who had changed. The guy who was speaking told them to come forward and receive Christ. The guy said that you are either for Him or against Him, and Greg certainly didn't want to be against Him.

Greg shared that changes started taking place in his life after he made that decision to follow Christ that day. The first thing he noticed was that the guilt was gone. The bitterness that had been building for years just melted away. The emptiness was gone, so was the loneliness. That skepticism gave way to belief. He says that is why he is speaking to you tonight. He says there is a big difference between Unbelief and Skepticism. Skepticism is open to believing; Unbelief is refusing to believe. Skepticism is honesty; Unbelief is stubbornness. Skepticism is looking for light; Unbelief is content with darkness. An unbeliever has no intention of changing or believer. They will offer up the well worn excuse but the fact of the matter is even when confronted with evidence to refute their non-belief, they reject it out hand. That is because they do not want to believe.

The text tonight is taken from the gospel of John, Chapter 20. Pastor Greg shares the story of Doubting Thomas, who missed the appearance of Jesus to the Disciples after His ressurection. Thomas, after learning of this had said, Unless I see in His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

When Jesus appeared again to Thomas and told him, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed."

No one could ever accuse Thomas of not "Thinking for himself." He certainly was an individual, not one to let others do his thinking for him. How easily Jesus could have ignored Thomas altogether, seeing he wasn't even present with the disciples when He appeared. But Jesus condescended to Thomas'doubtful conditions and lovingly offered him personal proof. Jesus does that with countless others, coming to you where you are, lovingly offering you personal proof of His love for you! Though we can argue the fact that Thomas should have been with the other disciples, there is nothing wrong with the fact that he wanted to know for himself. He did not always follow the crowd!

Greg says, "But the question is, 'Is He your God? Is He your Lord?' Quite honestly, there are a lot of people running around today who claim to be believers who really are not. They claim to follow Jesus Christ, but they really don't. You might protest, 'Hey man, don't judge me!"

Pastor Greg shares that Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers!' Pastor Greg says, "If you don't know Him now, He won't know you then. If you say 'No' to Him now, He will say 'Yes' to you then. If you say 'Come into my life, Lord' now, He will say 'enter into my Kingdom then." Pastor Greg shares, there is coming a day when every eye shall see Him. There is coming a day when every knee shall bow: But then it is too late! But it's not too late yet!!! The Bible says in Romans 10:9 "If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him frm the dead, you shall be saved, for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.."

You might say "Show me, and I'll believe." But Jesus essentially says, "Believe, and I'll show you." Pastor Greg says, "With as much faith as you can muster up tonight, just come to Christ. Come with your problems, come withyour sins. Come with your addictions. Jesus said 'Come unto me all you that labor...' Jesus does not say 'Clean your life up and come to me,' but rather 'Come to me, I'll clean your life up.' Jesus cleans His fish after He catches them." Pastor Greg invites everyone who would like to make that decision to follow Christ to come down onto the arena floor now. Hundreds of people are flowing onto the floor now to make a commitment to Christ. Pastor Greg prays with them and shares that there are many follow-up decision workers available to share with them and give them a New Believer's New Testament and encourage them in their new faith.

If you have also decided to turn your life over to Jesus Christ, please let us know by pressing the feedback button and e-mailing us. We will be happy to send you the same materials that are being handed out here tonight!

Thank you for joining us on the internet and God bless you. Remember, next week we will go to Rochester, NY for The Rochester Harvest Crusade, October 23-25 at the War Memorial Auditorium!

The work of the Holy Spirit