Well, it is lovely to be back with you here at Brunsfield in Edinburgh.
It's a bit of a pity that some of you get a soaking in the way in.
! But as I was driving through from the west, I'll plead guilty because it just followed me
! All the way here. But it's going to brighten up this afternoon. It is good to be here. My name is
John McKinnon. I'm involved principally in two ministries. My local church-based ministry
has very much been about the revitalizing of small churches that they might once again
just focus with laser-light precision on making known the good news of Jesus Christ.
And so I went to Calderwood Baptist Church in East Kilbride when it was a small church,
and God in His grace has just been building and strengthening and growing that church.
And He gave me a great heart for revitalization. And so under God's grace, we were able to go on
to be involved in the revitalization of Deniston Baptist Church, and of Kilmarnock Baptist Church,
and of Bells Hill Baptist Church. And now I spend a lot of my time on the Isle of Bute,
Rothsey, Dundawater, for those of you who are familiar with the West Coast expression,
and I'm involved there in the revitalization of that little church on that island.
And the other part of my ministry is given over to the ministry that was formerly known
as the Word One-to-One. Now that might be news for you. The Word One-to-One has changed its
ministry name. Nothing has changed about using the Word One-to-One in terms of our app. So John's
Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, still very much there and still very much available,
and encouraging God's people just to open up God's Word with family members, with friends,
with fellow students, with colleagues, with those we meet in our day-to-day living,
and making known the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. But because as a ministry we've been
expanding and we're developing a number of other resources, the ministry name is now Make Known.
And simply we want to make known all that God has made known. And so that's the ministry name
for what used to be the Word One-to-One. The Word One-to-One is still very much available,
and if you watch very closely fairly soon you will see a number of other resources coming down the pipe.
And in all of that I hope you see a theme that my heart is driven by one message, a message that is all
powerful, a message that has the ability to transform, to radically transform, not just individual lives,
it does that in the most beautiful and powerful way, but in actual fact to radically transform
entire churches and to radically transform entire communities. And so my life is driven by one
purpose, to make known the good news of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I get encouraged and I
get excited when I hear about lives that have been changed. Last Sunday morning I was getting up to
go and preach on the Isle of Butte and a friend of mine from Belfast. I don't know how well you know
Belfast, but it's from Rathcule in Belfast. And Rathcule in Belfast is a pretty tough area. In actual fact
it was an area that was plagued through the troubles. It was an area that's high in terms of the crime rate.
It's an area that's high in terms of drug use and abuse. And I got a little video WhatsApp. In actual
fact I get eight videos, one after the other after the other, from a little friend who ministers there
in Rathcule. Every single video was a video of a baptism. A baptism of people from Rathcule.
If you were to see these videos, some of the folks had faces that were lived in. You know what I mean?
Some of them had a face like a melted wellie, right? They had been through life in all its hardships,
in all its challenges. They had abused themselves in so many different ways. And they had been,
you know, involved in all manner of activity that was totally and utterly destructive for them.
Not all of them, but many of them. And when you saw them in their baptism, what you were witnessing
is just the testimony to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the gospel that we've been singing
about to transform lives. And it was the most beautiful start to a Sunday morning. Through the week,
I got another message. Message from a friend of mine. I'd preached in his church, a little place called
Royston, not in Glasgow, but Royston just outside Cambridge. And many of the people that worship in that
area, they all travel up to the big churches in Cambridge. But he ministers very faithfully there
in Royston. And it's not an easy place to minister in. And a couple of years back, I preached and I
trained a number of his members on how to take John's gospel and just to share the word of God with
those that didn't know Jesus Christ. He calls the word one-to-one, which is really just John's gospel,
or the Acts of the Apostles. He calls it the best book in the world. Why does he do that? Because he
was writing to tell me that over the last year, he saw eight different people all come to a living
faith in Christ through individual members of his church, just actually believing, is the word of God
true? Actually believing that just by reading this word with others, there is power not in who we are,
not in what we might do, but there is power in the message of the cross, in the word of God,
in the good news of the gospel to utterly transform lives. And he was writing to tell me about the eight
new people. There's nothing significant in eight baptisms in eight new people. It's just a real
blessing to small churches that are seeing people come to a living faith in Jesus Christ.
And I could go on in that vein, and nothing thrills my heart more than reading about it,
than hearing about it, than seeing people set on fire by the power of the gospel to transform them.
And I think that's what really made the Apostle Paul get up in the morning. I think he was just
driven by that same desire. I think it's something that God, by the Holy Spirit, puts in the hearts and
lives of believers. A desire that just drives us to want to make much of Jesus, to want to make him known.
When Paul went to Corinth, you can read about it in Acts chapter 18. When Paul went to Corinth,
it's a strange, it was a strange old city, Corinth. In actual fact, it was a pretty corrupt city.
It was a pretty, you know, sort of wealthy, and with that wealth, vast levels of corruption.
To Corinthianize was a byword for living a debauched life. And when he went there, he didn't have it easy
in ministry. When he went there, he started to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, to make known Jesus
from Scripture in the synagogue. But very quickly, they threw him out. And he actually moved this
beautiful, beautiful little story worth reading in Acts chapter 18. He actually moved out the synagogue
and moved into the house next door. And that's where he established the church in Corinth.
If you wanted to go to church in Corinth, people would say to you, it's just next door to the synagogue.
Right? And that's where he went. And what happened is that even though many, many people
were going to try and remove him from that city and to even remove him from planet Earth if they could,
Paul was given a wonderful reassurance from God that God had a plan, that God had a purpose,
and he was to preach on, and he was to plant a church in Corinth. And there in Corinth, God's hand,
his providential hand, would keep Paul, and he would establish a church. And he stayed there
for 18 months. And it was 18 months in Corinth, and they had Priscilla and Aquila working alongside him.
They had others who come in to help him. And they established a church there in Corinth
before he eventually had to move out. What happens is that sometimes churches that are well planted,
that are well established, that are going strong in the gospel, can suddenly start to take their eyes
off the main thing. When they take their eyes off the main thing, they start to become a little bit
bloated in their own pride. They start to make things that are of secondary significance,
of primary significance. And it's interesting that sometimes they start to adopt a little bit of the
culture in which they're planted. Corinth had a lot of Jewish people who loved the miraculous,
who loved signs. It's interesting when you look at it, that it tells us even in that passage that was
read for us, that the Jews loved signs. And if you read anything about Corinth, Paul actually had to
write four letters to them, two of them we still have. And if you read anything about it, there were so
many people that were drawn to the gifts. And they loved all the gifts. And they loved to sort of show
that they had a certain gift. You ever met people like that? I remember being in a church and this
guy came up to me and he said, you know, he gave me his name and then he told me all the gifts that he
had. Spiritual gifts. It was like a list. I've got the gift of prophecy. I've got the gift of this.
I've got the gift of that. I've got the gift of this. And I just looked at him and I just said,
brother, did the gift of humility pass you by? But I just consumed by the gifts. Not consumed by the
giver. Consumed by the gifts. And Corinth became like that. The Greeks, of course, they loved the
wisdom. They loved the philosophy. They loved the great debate. And Corinth, in actual fact, became a
lot like that. Some of the people at Corinth, if you read the early verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 1,
you'll find that they were a divided church. If you read on, you'll find that some of them were
saying, you know, I favor Paul and I favor Apollos and I favor this one and I favor that one.
And some in their self-righteousness, I favor Christ. They were a divided church. What do you do with a
church that's began to take its eye off the main thing? What do you do with a church that's divided
over secondary things? What do you do with a church that's beginning to lose its way?
Well, Paul knew exactly what to do. You bring them right back to first principles. You bring them
right back to the whole purpose of the church of Jesus Christ here on earth. It's interesting,
in verse 17, Paul said this,
Now, Paul actually did baptize Christmas. It tells us that in Acts, you know, chapter 18.
But his focus wasn't in who he was baptizing. His focus was in making Jesus known. And listen to this,
not in words of eloquent wisdom. Friends, when I remind us today as we unpack this text
about the importance of keeping the gospel front and center, I want you to hear me very clearly.
And I'm not doing or saying anything that is anti-intellectual. And I can appreciate teaching
some of our older young people, odd phrase that, apologetics. But here's the truth. We can make a case
for certain things about God and about Christ and never actually share the gospel.
And the most important thing you and I need to do is be a people who know how to articulate
the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and the good news of the gospel.
And so the reality is Paul's not writing in an anti-intellectual way. This is the guy who wrote
Romans. And he's writing to the Corinthians. It didn't come with lofty speech and powerful words
of wisdom. But have you read Romans? This is the guy who wrote Ephesians. And yet he said,
I didn't come with lofty words of speech. Have you ever read about the supremacy of Christ
in Colossians? It's the same guy that wrote it, right? He's not anti-intellectual. But he knows
something. He knows the simplicity and the power of the simple message of the cross of Jesus Christ.
And he knows that nothing cuts through the hardness of an unbelieving heart more than the message of the
gospel applied in the power of the Spirit to a person's heart. Nothing. Nothing. And that's what he
came to do. And it's incredible when you look at it, he says, because the word of the cross is folly to
those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God. I want to ask you,
how did you get saved? And I'll guarantee you that somewhere in your life, the word of God applied by
the Spirit of God was working in conviction in your heart. I will guarantee you that the word of God
and the Spirit of God were working to convince you of the reality of the eternal God made known to us in
Jesus Christ. I'll be convinced that the word of God and the Spirit of God were speaking into your heart
and life, showing you that by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, your life could be transformed.
And the same word of God and the Spirit of God was showing you that you're going to be welcomed into
the family of God and be part of the body of Christ. It's always how God brings people to himself.
And what's happening here is that Paul has just taken this church at Corinth back to first principles.
And he says,
the power of the cross, the gospel message preached, the power of the gospel message shared is the power
for the transformation of individual lives, of corporate lives, of entire communities.
And for some, the message of the gospel, the message of the cross is foolishness and the perishing.
And for others, it's the message of salvation. And it's always that way. There are only two ways to live.
You either live for God or you live in rebellion against God.
If I were to say to you, what is the gospel? I wonder what you, how you would answer that.
Well, let me just encourage your hearts just as we think a little bit about that this morning.
The gospel is first and foremost a message from God.
That's what it is.
It's a message from God.
You and I would know nothing about the gospel.
You and I would know nothing about God unless God chose to make himself known.
Unless God chose to reveal himself.
Unless God chose to show us who he is.
We would know absolutely nothing
unless God made himself known.
And the gospel is a message from God.
It's a message from God and it's so powerful in every facet.
Because in actual fact, it shows us that the God who is the creator and sustainer and maker of this world
and therefore the creator, sustainer and maker of each one of us
is a God who in this message tells us very clearly that he is for us and not against us.
That it's his desire in and through Jesus Christ
to in actual fact reconcile us to himself.
It's a message from God.
That's what the gospel is.
It's a message from God and it's a message for man.
It's a message for mankind.
To think about it, you know, sometimes people say,
if only I could see who God is.
If only I could, you know, get a little bit of insight
into something of his attribute and his nature and his character.
If only, you know, he would give me some sign
or if only I could intellectually grasp hold of it.
And God says in his gospel,
I have a message and the message is for you.
So the gospel is a message from God and it's for man.
And you don't have to read God's revelation of himself for long
before you discover that it's all about Jesus.
And that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
That's what he's doing.
God is in Christ making himself known.
Alistair was preaching last week about what it is to be in Christ.
And we've sang today in Christ alone.
This is the gospel.
It's a message from God.
It is for man and it's all about Jesus and it is good news.
But here's the thing.
It is a message that must be shared.
And the interesting thing is that they in the church at Corinth,
they were beginning to get caught up in the different wonderful gifts.
Every good and perfect gift is a gift from God.
But they were beginning to get caught up in all the different things that God pours into our hearts.
And they were more interested in the things that God was going to give them and bless them with
than they were in actually taking this message which is from God for mankind,
all about Jesus, good news, and sharing that message with others.
And I want to suggest to us that sometimes in our churches,
we actually can become more interested in all the other different things we're going to do
than we can about this message that is from God for man,
that is all about Jesus, that is good news,
and that God says to you and I,
Share.
That's the most purposeful thing you could do this week,
is share.
I don't know what your employment is.
I don't know what your work is.
And you should, as a believer in Christ,
do that to the very best of your ability.
Right?
But you know the funny thing is,
you know, that's not going to get anybody into glory.
But the simple sharing of a message from God for them about Jesus,
which is good news,
will and can.
It's amazing how we can make this far more complex than we need it to be, can't we?
You ever notice that, you know,
God, the creator of the world,
makes that which is incredibly complex so simple
when he shows us who he is in Jesus?
And then we take Jesus and we make him very complex?
Now don't get me wrong,
he's the eternal God, right?
So, you know,
there's nobody like him.
But his message is simple.
And his message is life transforming.
When I've shared with people how to use the word one-to-one,
how to just open up John's gospel and read it with a friend,
I've had people, believers, Christians,
who've actually said to me,
John, I can't do that.
And I push them a little bit.
I say, why can't you do that?
And they say, well, it's just too simple.
And they go, what's simple about that?
You know?
And what do you mean it's too simple?
And what they mean is they'd rather be involved
in some big sort of argument,
in some big debate,
and they'd rather try to be proving everything,
when in actual fact God says,
why don't you allow the power of my word,
the power of the gospel,
to speak into a person's heart?
Why don't you actually trust my word
to bring about salvation
in the same way that it did in you?
If you want to get more intellectual,
read Romans.
I don't care which one you read.
Just read God's word.
But at the end of the day,
look what Paul is saying to the church.
He's saying, I destroy the wisdom of the wise.
The discernment of the discerning I thwart.
Where is the one who is wise?
Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has God not made foolish
the wisdom of the world?
You know, that's part of the problem
with the gospel.
That's why it was a stumbling block
to the Jews.
And that's why it was folly to the Gentiles.
It's funny that believers
actually sometimes use
the same excuse
as unbelieving Jews and Gentiles do
about not sharing the gospel.
because we actually,
even although we say
the word of God is sufficient
to the salvation of souls,
the one thing we don't want to do
is open up the word of God
and share it with an unbeliever.
And Paul,
he's just running to a church
that's very broken
and he's taking them back
to the power of the word
of the gospel,
the power of the cross
that saved them.
And he said,
what do we preach?
We preach Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews
and followed to the Gentiles,
but to those who are called
both Jews and Greeks,
Christ,
the power of God
and the wisdom of God.
He says,
we preach Christ.
We show people Jesus.
We talk openly
about his life,
his death,
his resurrection,
his ascension,
his being seated
at the right hand of the Father.
This message from God
that is for us,
that is about Jesus,
that is good news
we share.
It's interesting because
as he starts to sort of
unpack this,
he actually sort of says
at verse 30,
and because of him,
you are in Christ Jesus
who became to us
wisdom from God,
righteousness,
sanctification,
and redemption.
And there's these wonderful
big theological terms,
righteousness in Christ Jesus.
You are in a right standing
with God.
Sanctification.
by the ongoing work
of the gospel
in the power of the Spirit,
you are being made
to be more like Jesus
day by day
by day
and then
redeemed.
In Christ Jesus,
there is now no longer
any condemnation,
but you are
completely free.
free.
And Jesus said,
you will know the truth
and the truth
will set you
free.
That's what we are.
It's incredible,
isn't it?
I stand today
a saved sinner.
I stand today
somebody who is
so undeserving,
who has not
with any merit
in myself
earned anything
that God
has given to me.
but I've heard
this wonderful
message from God
that was for me.
It's about Jesus.
It's good news
and it transforms.
That's what it does.
And now,
the righteousness
of God
is mine
in Christ.
I
am in a right
standing
before God.
Hallelujah,
right?
You've got no idea
how unmerited
that is.
I do,
right?
But I'm in a right
standing before God.
And God
has not left me there.
He said,
John,
you need this gospel
every day of your life.
He knows me
better than I know me.
He says,
you need this gospel
every day of your life.
And by this gospel
and the power of the Spirit,
I'm going to make you
more and more
and more like Jesus.
He says,
but I want you
to know something.
That's why Paul
was preaching
the power of the cross.
That's why Paul
was not willing
to empty the cross
of any of his power
because in that
substitutionary death
that Christ died for me
on Calvary's cross,
all of my sin
was nailed to him,
dealt with there,
and he purchased,
that's what that little word
redeem means,
he purchased my freedom.
So here's the beautiful news.
I am saved,
I am being saved,
and I will be saved.
Nothing can pluck me
out of his hand.
I am his.
Friends,
I only illustrate that
through myself
because that's the story
of every born again believer
in Christ.
That's your story
and that's my story.
There is one gospel
of which I sing.
That's your story
and that's my story.
That's our position.
And that's what he's writing
to the church at Corinth.
He's saying,
you're kind of losing sight
of things here.
You're making it all
about you
when it's really
got nothing to do
with you.
It's all about Jesus.
That's what it's about.
And sometimes we can,
we can do that
in every aspect
of church life,
can't we?
You know,
we can gather together
on a Sunday morning
and we can make the gathering
together about ourselves
or we can make it
all about Jesus.
So there's a number
of people that come
to church and they say,
well, you know,
I used to go to that church
but I don't go to that church
now because, well,
the worship just wasn't
doing anything for me.
And I think they weren't
worshiping you.
Stupid.
But that's their excuse,
isn't it?
It's like I just wasn't
doing anything for me.
What do you mean
I wasn't doing anything
for you?
Worship's not about
what it's doing for you.
It's about what your heart
is doing in extolling God.
And you could enter in
where they're playing
ancient old music
out of tune.
But if your heart's in tune
with the living God,
you can give it yee-haw.
But we make it about us.
We make it about us.
And sometimes we make
ministries about us as well,
don't we?
We make ministries
all about us.
We make things
about the believers.
And what happens is
sometimes we prioritize
so many ministries
that are about believers
that in actual fact
we'll lose sight of
where is the ministry,
where is the contact,
where is the connection,
where is the open door
to those who don't yet
know Jesus Christ?
Because I tell you what,
this is the place
they should find them.
And they should find them
as they come in
and they should find them
as we go out.
And Paul was rebuilding
a broken church here.
I'm not saying you're
a broken church,
that's not what I'm saying,
I'm just saying he was
rebuilding a broken church
at Corinth.
But how did he do that?
We learn a great deal
from how he did that.
He did that by bringing them
back to first principles
and that is the message
of the gospel,
the power of the cross
for the salvation of souls.
And he was reminding them
of what God was doing
in Christ through Paul
in that 18 months of ministry
that he had with them.
That's what he was doing,
he was reminding them of that.
And he was taking them back
to what it is
that they were involved in.
You know what I love about it?
He doesn't miss and hit the wall.
Look what he says there
at verse 26,
he says,
For consider your calling.
Brothers and sisters,
not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards.
Not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish
in the world to shame the wise.
God chose what is weak
in the world to shame the strong.
God chose what is low
and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing
things that are.
Friends,
that's been a big part
of my story.
A big part of my story
has been sometimes
just in the economy of God
to go into,
you know,
some of the great seats
of learning
in our country.
Both,
you know,
academic schools of excellence
and universities of excellence.
And sometimes I've went there
in absolute fear and trembling.
And I've went there
in fear and trembling
because I never went there
on any merit of my own.
In fact,
in fact,
I didn't like school.
Well,
in fact,
I hated school.
In fact,
I spent most of my life
trying to make up reasons
for me not to be there.
It's remarkable
that in the grace of God,
it was a teacher
who saw something in me
I never saw,
who prayed for my salvation,
even though I spent
a lot of my time
actually making arrangements
with teachers
not to be in class.
And I didn't just skip.
I just used to go up
and negotiate with teachers.
I used to say,
look,
you know,
if I'm not here,
it's going to be better
for the class.
It's going to be better for you.
It's going to be better for me.
Why don't I just not turn up?
You mark me as present.
You know,
I'll go and do what I'm doing.
And,
you know,
everybody wins.
And I had arrangements
with teachers.
Now,
this is not great
for your academic achievement.
But in actual fact,
that's what I did.
So as soon as I was
the legal age
to get out of school,
they threw me out.
And that meant
that I had to go
and find a job
because I didn't have
a lot of academic qualifications.
And that meant
that I went to work
in the printing industry.
And that meant
that I was there
for six and a half years.
And in that time,
I got saved.
And in that time,
I discovered
that God had given me
something I was
completely unaware of.
It was called a brain.
And in actual fact,
you can use this,
you know,
to learn wondrous things
about who he is
because he's made himself known.
And in actual fact,
if you study him,
you're studying
the greatest of all
there is to study.
And you can learn
what it is
just to realize
that he has spoken.
And he's spoken a message
that's from him
and it's for mankind.
And you can,
you know,
make that good news known.
Well,
that was all fine
until people started
opening up the doors
to private schools.
I've conducted assemblies
where members
of the royal family
have been sitting there
and I've been opening up
God's word
and thinking,
what is going on here?
Why am I here?
I've been in universities
where guys were kind of like,
you know,
studying things.
I had no concept
even what this field
of study was.
But I was speaking
at their university mission.
And it's not an
anti-intellectual thing.
They're incredibly bright people.
But here's the interesting thing is,
you can be super bright,
you can study that
all your life,
and yet if you never consider
the gospel of Jesus Christ,
you will die
and perish
for all eternity
in your sinful rejection
of the living God.
And so I knew
I had one simple thing to do.
And my simple thing to do,
and let me just read
this little bit again,
was that according
to worldly standards,
I was certainly not wise.
And I was certainly
not powerful.
And I was certainly
not of noble birth.
But I did have a promise
from God
that God in His grace
sometimes chooses
that which is foolish
in the world
to shame the wise.
God in His grace
sometimes chooses
that which is foolish
in the world's eyes
to open the eyes
of those whose
intellectual blindness
is keeping them
from the living God.
From those who are weak
to shame those
who think they're strong.
Those who are low
and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing
things that are.
And I say that,
my friends,
because sometimes
in church we think
that the people
that are going to be
the gospel front and center
people are the people
like Graham and Craig
and others.
No, no, this is all of us.
God chooses all of us.
God chooses every single
one of us
to be His mouthpiece.
God chooses every single
one of us,
not to be preachers
and teachers,
but to be those
who share the Word of God.
God chooses every single
one of us.
God chooses every single
one of us.
And what I love about this
is that God's Word
looks deep into our hearts
and He says,
because in the presence
of God,
no human being can boast.
We can.
This is all of God.
It's all of grace.
It is all of God's grace.
And our message seems
incredibly simple,
but I'll tell you this,
it's incredibly powerful.
And because of that message,
you are in Christ Jesus.
Because of that message,
what He says to us
in His Word
is let anyone who boasts
boasts in the Lord.
If you get any boast,
it's just the fact
that you're known by Him.
It's just the fact
that you know Him.
It's just the fact
that He's made you His child.
It's just the fact
that He's called you
to be someone
who knowing this good news
can share that good news
with others.
We don't have to do it
with lofty speech and wisdom.
We can follow in the footsteps
of the Apostle Paul.
We can decide to know
nothing among us
except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified.
We can go in weakness
and in fear
and in much trembling.
We can go when our speech
and our message
are not in plausible words
so we don't sound
that eloquent and clever.
We've just got a simple message.
But we're faithful
in sharing it.
But here's the thing.
Those words come
in the demonstration
of the Spirit of God
and of power.
And our faith
doesn't rest
on the wisdom of men
but it rests
in the power of God.
So every single day in life
I'm just looking
for an opportunity
to share Jesus.
Why do I want to do that?
Because I want more stories
like my friend in Wrathcule
where he's got transformed
gangsters
and the most beautiful
teenage girl
brought up in a Christian home
all going into the pool
at the same time.
Because that's the power of God.
That's the message of salvation.
That's what God does.
I want more of my little friend
who faithfully ministers
in Royston
just outside Cambridge.
and he calls
the word one to one
John's Gospel
the best book in the world.
And why is it
the best book in the world?
Because
not in words
of eloquent wisdom
and yet if you read
John's Gospel
it's amazing.
But just its power
in reading it
with other people
can bring about
their salvation.
And he's got folks
that are entering
into the kingdom of heaven
whose eternity
is radically transformed
because of it.
And one more
just to encourage you
as we stop.
Got a little video
by WhatsApp
from a friend of mine
dear friend of mine
a lovely Christian family.
Two sons.
One son would go
with them to church
the other son
would go nowhere near church.
Those of us
are Christian parents
we know the hardship
of this
but one would go
nowhere near church.
Live for football
and live for
the weekend
and live for
the
just abusing the body
with alcohol
and with other substance.
But he ends up broken.
And he comes to his parents
because he knows he can.
Because even all the while
that they were disappointed
and everything else
they were still loving him
and still praying for him
and still longing
for that day.
That's what we've got to do
with those that are prodigals.
We just love them
and pray for them.
And he came to them
and he said
I need help.
Through a great friend
a Christian doctor
the Christian doctor
started to help him
physically
with the chemical
addictions.
But he said
I think you need
a greater help than this.
Notice what he just said
by the way
he's a GP.
But he didn't mind
saying to this young lad
I think you need
a greater help than this.
He says
why don't you and I
get together
and we'll read
John's Gospel.
Young man agreed.
We started to read
John's Gospel together.
Doctor
and the young man.
And the little video
he sent me
was of the same
young man
on a mission trip
to Bulgaria
with his father
and the doctor
being interviewed
in a church
in Bulgaria.
He's not fluent
in Bulgarian.
He was speaking
with the broadness
of a Glasgow accent.
He had a
interpreter
in Bulgaria
who was getting
her head around
the thickness
of a Glasgow accent.
and she was
sharing
his story
of transformation.
He was in weakness.
He was in all humility.
He was not one
who
would have wanted
to make a great
intellectual defense
of the faith.
but he was
sharing
something
very simple.
He was sharing
that the Gospel
is a message
from God
and it was
for people
like him
and it was
all about Jesus
and if you
trusted this Jesus
he could
transform your life
and he was
sharing how
he transformed
his life
and how
he was still
transforming
his life
and how
in Christ
he was justified
and being
sanctified
and redeemed
and he was
there in Bulgaria
sharing that
with the church.
Isn't it interesting
that Paul's way
of bringing
a church
like Corinth
back on track
was to bring
them back
to first principles
the power
of the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Friends
will you never
lose sight
of the simple
power
of this Gospel
message.
Let's pray.
Our gracious
Father
we do thank you
that in Jesus
Christ
you
reconcile
people to
yourself.
Our gracious
Father
we thank you
for the
message
of the Gospel
that is for
us
that is about
Jesus
that is good
news
and that you
call us to
share.
Would you
embolden us
by your Spirit
would you help
us to stop
making excuses
would you help
us to realize
that you take
people like
us
and you
delight
to work
through us
as we share
the good news
of the Gospel
with others
to bring
others
to a living
faith
in Jesus
and this
is how you
grow your
church
and Father
we thank you
that you will
build your
church
and the gates
of hell
will not
prevail against
them
and so we
ask that in
the power
of the Spirit
you would
enable us
to go
from this
place
and to be
a Gospel
people
amongst those
that you've
put us
amongst
and to be
faithful
in making
you known
we thank you
that we can
make you
known
because you
have made
yourself
known to
us
and even
although we
say
for that
we are
eternally
grateful
we don't
even fully
understand
what that
means
because for
all
eternity
the gratitude
of our
hearts
will be
poured out
in praise
and in
thanksgiving
and it all
be for your
glory
and your
glory alone
Amen
Thank you.