Thank you.
And we eat Lottie Moon fried chicken.
And that is because of the generosity of men and women like yourself.
And so I want to say thank you.
I was a senior pastor at a church in the Raleigh-Durham area.
We were there for about 13 years.
And we were a very mission-minded church like yourself.
And so I knew Lottie Moon from this side.
But now serving 16 years overseas, I've experienced Lottie Moon on that side.
And I can attest that every penny goes to take the gospel to the nations.
And that's what we want.
Amen, church.
And so thank you for your amazing generosity.
I wonder, what would be some of the best news that you've ever heard?
And take just a moment and think about that.
What is some of the best news that you've ever heard?
Maybe it was finding out that you got accepted into the college you had applied for.
Maybe it was finding out that even though you dress like I did back then,
that a woman still wants to marry you.
Amen.
Maybe it's that job that you were hoping for and you got it.
Maybe it was that first child or grandchild.
But what is good news?
What is some of the best news that you've ever heard?
There's an old saying that good news spreads quickly.
And for you and I who know and love the Lord Jesus as disciples of Jesus Christ,
what we know is that there is loads of good news we'll experience in this world,
but there is no news better than the news of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
And that He loves us and has made a way for our salvation.
And so I want us to spend just a few moments talking about good news.
Good news.
Here's the reality.
Whether you live in Pickens or whether you live in Pakistan,
the good news is the same.
It is the news of Jesus Christ.
And so I want to invite you to turn in your Bible to John chapter 3.
John chapter 3.
And we're going to look at what for many of us might be a very familiar passage of Scripture.
But what a great way to start the new year to let the Lord remind us of good news.
I don't know what 2022 was like for you.
Maybe life was a mountaintop experience.
Maybe last year you were in a deep valley that you still haven't climbed out of.
And I just want us to be reminded as we launch into a new year
and as we think about taking the gospel to Pickens and beyond,
that we have good news.
John chapter 3.
And we'll begin in verse 1.
John chapter 3 beginning in verse 1.
And the Bible says this.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews.
And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God,
for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
And Jesus answered,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus said to him,
How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
And Jesus answered,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Now that which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
And so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus said to him,
How can these things be?
And Jesus answered him,
Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?
Truly, truly, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen,
but you do not receive our testimony.
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe,
how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
For no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through Him.
And whoever believes in Him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment.
The light has come into the world,
and people love the darkness rather than the light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light,
and does not come to the light,
lest his works should be exposed.
But whoever does what is true comes to the light,
so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, we thank You so much for Your Word.
We thank You that it is true and alive.
And Lord, just for these next few moments as we look into Your Word,
we humbly ask, Holy Spirit, that You would open our minds,
give us understanding of Your Word,
that we would understand truth.
We ask, Holy Spirit, that You would soften our hearts,
that we would be transformed and changed by Your Word.
For Your glory, we humbly ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Good news.
We often, as we share the gospel there in Birmingham, England,
Birmingham is a city of about 4 million people.
To put that in perspective,
the entire state of South Carolina has about 5 million folks.
We have about 4 million people in our city.
From all the research we've done as IMB in England,
in our major cities,
we would conclude very confidently
that the evangelical Christian population in our city is around 1%.
A little less.
It's 0.9%.
Now that means someone who believes the Bible,
believes it's true.
They believe Jesus literally died on the cross and rose from the grave.
They believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
And our city of 4 million people,
that would be one person out of 100.
In our downtown area there in England,
we have about 200 mosques.
That doesn't count Muslim schools,
Muslim bookstores.
We have Muslim TV stations, radio stations.
It is a very diverse culture.
I was telling the youth this morning
that there's an elementary school right by our house,
and in this one elementary school,
the children speak 40 different languages.
Can you imagine being a teacher in that school?
40.
40 different languages in one school.
The nations have come to our city.
It's an average,
but in our city,
every seven days,
four churches go out of business.
So think about that.
When you are back here next Sunday,
four churches where we live would have closed their doors.
On average,
we have about two church plants each week.
And so every week,
we have two less churches in England.
The Presbyterian church no longer exists.
The Lutheran church no longer exists.
The Methodists,
according to their leadership,
probably have five years left,
and the Methodists will be gone,
which is amazing to think
that John Wesley and Charles Wesley were English,
and the Methodist church will soon be gone.
The Church of England,
our state church,
loses 1,200 members a week.
They're saying it'll be gone by 2050.
Now, that can sound really discouraging,
but as I was telling the young people this morning,
there's a real positive to that,
and that is,
in our 16 years of living there in Birmingham, England,
I've never shared the gospel one time
with a person who had heard it before.
Every single person I've ever shared the gospel,
doesn't matter white, black, brown,
and in between,
every person we've shared the gospel with,
they've never heard it before.
We were studying the Bible with some ladies,
and one of the ladies in our group is named Deb.
Deb's 50 years old,
and she's white British,
been there her whole life,
50 years old,
and we were handing out Bibles around the table
to study the Bible,
and I handed Deb a Bible,
and she kind of touched it and looked at it,
and she said,
what's this?
And I said,
well, it's a Bible.
And she said,
really?
I said,
have you ever read a Bible?
She said,
no.
I said,
have you ever touched a Bible?
She said,
no.
Now,
think about that.
We're not talking China.
We're talking about England,
and in 50 years,
this woman's finger had never touched a Bible.
And so,
for her,
the good news is news that she's never heard before.
And by the way,
after two and a half years of studying the Bible,
Jesus saved Deb,
and she gave her life to Jesus.
And then,
shared with her 18-year-old daughter,
and her 18-year-old daughter gave her life to Jesus.
And Deb was the first person we had the privilege of baptizing
in the mission field.
I went back later and looked at the pictures
and realized I was wearing a University of South Carolina Gamecock shirt
when I baptized her.
I'll do the next one in a Clemson shirt.
Amen?
And we'll work our way around.
This,
listen,
in a city where only 1% of the population
believe Jesus,
good news is new news.
Good news is new news.
Let's just quickly,
let's look at the good news of the gospel in these verses
where we see Nicodemus
who comes and asks all the right questions.
And we're going to zoom in on two verses in particular.
And it's all about knowing Jesus Christ.
And here's what we learn.
Number one,
we see this.
In knowing Jesus Christ,
we experience the love of God.
In knowing Jesus Christ,
we experience the love of God.
Look what he says in verse 16,
a verse many of us are familiar with probably.
For God so what?
Loved.
For God so loved the world.
And what an amazing thought
that God loves every single person in Pickens County.
He knows their name.
He knows the number of hairs on their head.
He knows everything about them.
And he loves them.
We know there are a couple of different words for love in the Greek,
which this would have originally been written in.
And this word here, love, is akapao.
It's this idea of unconditional love.
Think about this.
And we've shared this a lot with folks there in England.
Just get your mind on this.
There's nothing you can do to make God love you.
Nothing.
See, Islam is a religion where you have to earn the love of God.
In Islam, you have to pray five times a day.
You can't eat pork.
You have to give a certain amount of money.
There are rules and regulations to somehow earn the love of God.
But the Bible says,
God so loved the world.
The word love means unconditionally.
There's nothing you can do to make God love you.
And there's nothing you can do to make God stop loving you.
Let me say that,
because I think sometimes as Christians we need to be reminded.
You know what?
It's great if you read your Bible every day this week, praise the Lord,
but God doesn't love you more for it.
And you know what?
If you mess up tomorrow, He won't love you any less.
His love is fixed on us in Jesus Christ.
Amen, church?
Let's don't forget that.
And His love is unconditional.
And so I can look at my neighbor.
We live on a cul-de-sac.
And on our cul-de-sac, we have 15 houses on our little cul-de-sac.
And out of those 15 houses, we have six nationalities.
So we have American, we have English, we have Indian, we have Pakistani,
Sierra Leone in Africa.
I mean, our little cul-de-sac of 15 houses is like the world.
And here's the thing, I can speak to my African neighbor from Sierra Leone
or I can speak to my Hindu neighbor from India
and I can equally tell them both,
Jesus loves you because His love is unconditional.
It doesn't worry about what country you're from,
how much money is in your bank account.
Jesus loves you.
And listen, church, that's good news.
That is good news.
But it's only in knowing Jesus.
Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, right?
No one comes to the Father but by Him.
The only way we experience the love of God is by knowing Jesus.
And when we say knowing, we don't mean knowing about.
I know a lot about our new king, King Charles,
but I can't say that I know King Charles, right?
It's the difference about knowing about.
There are a lot of people who know about Jesus who don't know Jesus.
And so we're talking about a relationship of knowing Him as Lord and Savior.
And so in knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the love of God.
Let me ask you, have you ever wondered or doubted if God loves you?
I have before.
I've thought before, God, if You love me, why is this happening?
I've even thought things like, God, I sold all my stuff.
And God, we went to the mission field.
And God, we did all this.
Listen, what do you mean a family member might have cancer?
What do you mean, Lord, there was a car accident?
What do you mean, Lord?
Lord, do You still love me?
And if or when we doubt the love of God, we look no further than Jesus.
Amen?
It's interesting, John 3.16, but 1 John 3.16 says this,
By this we know love that Jesus laid down His life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Hear that again.
By this we know love that Jesus laid down His life for us.
If I ever need to be reminded that Jesus loves me,
I need look no further than the cross.
For on the cross, I am reminded that Jesus loves me.
At the cross, you are reminded that Jesus loves you.
At the cross, we are reminded that Jesus loves everyone from Pickens to Pakistan.
For He says, at the cross, we experience the love of Jesus.
Secondly, we see this.
In knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the love of God.
But secondly, in knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the generosity of God.
We experience the generosity of God.
We know the verse.
He says, for God so loved the world that He what?
He gave.
God was generous.
And He gave.
And that word there is really interesting.
In Greek, it's when you give someone something that's solely for their advantage.
In other words, there's nothing you gain from what you give.
That the person who receives, they're the one who gets all the benefits.
And so there, the Bible is saying that in His generosity, we and we alone are the ones who reap the benefits of God's generosity.
And He is a good, good God.
Amen?
And He is generous.
We've been blessed to do mission work in Africa.
Christy and I, before we had kids, we lived with a Zulu family for a couple of weeks out in the middle of nowhere.
And it was an interesting time.
We just sat that first night.
We sat at the dinner table and stared at one another.
And fast forward a couple of weeks, and we're hugging and crying.
And the word there in Zulu, Maruti, is pastor.
And I said, Maruti, am I what you expected?
And He said, no.
And I said, if you don't mind me asking, what were you expecting?
And He said, I thought you would have a cowboy hat and a holster with pistols in it.
And He said, am I what you expected?
And I said, no.
And He said, well, what were you expecting?
And I said, I thought you'd be naked with a spear.
And He said, well, we were both wrong.
I said, we were both wrong.
Right?
But here's what you learned when you go to places like Africa.
Here's what you learned.
We partnered with a mission in Romania working with blind children up in the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania.
And here's what you learned.
That compared to 99% of the people in the world, we are rich.
We are rich.
We have been so blessed in these United States.
We are so blessed richly with what God has given us.
And can I just say, whether you know Jesus or not, whether you love Jesus or not,
your next breath is a gift from His generosity.
Everything we have comes from the Lord.
In fact, Jesus says this in Matthew.
He says, God causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good.
He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
God is good even to the atheist.
God is good even to the Muslim.
God is good even to the Gamecock.
Amen?
Some of you, right?
God is good.
And before we ever loved Him, He first loved us.
He says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died.
He is generous and He is good.
But we only experience the ultimate expression of His generosity
through knowing His Son, Jesus Christ.
That we might one day lavish and relish His generosity in heaven for all eternity.
Only by knowing Jesus Christ.
And so in knowing Him, we experience the love of God.
We experience the generosity of God.
Thirdly, we see this church in knowing Jesus Christ.
We experience the mercy of God.
And knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the mercy of God.
Look back at your Bible and look at verse 17.
He says, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.
That we are not under condemnation.
Jesus did not come to condemn the world,
but that through Him the world might be saved.
And so we see that in Jesus we experience the love of God.
We experience the generosity of God.
But we experience the mercy of God.
Jesus does not come to condemn,
but He comes to save.
And praise the Lord for that.
That we are not under condemnation.
Mercy literally means this.
Mercy is when we do not receive what we justly deserve.
That's the definition of mercy.
Let me say that again.
Mercy is when we do not receive what we justly deserve.
So let me give you an example.
This was many years ago when we were living in North Carolina.
And it was a community about the size of Pickens.
And so kind of everyone knew one another,
or at least knew a bit about one another,
as it might be here.
And Christy and I were driving on a back road,
heading to church one evening.
And all of a sudden, I look in the rearview mirror,
and there are blue lights.
There's a North Carolina State Trooper.
And I see the blue lights.
And I told Christy,
oh, we need to pull over so he can get around us.
And the oddest thing happened when I pulled over.
He pulled over.
And so I thought, oh, he must be lost.
I'm happy to share with him how to get to wherever he's going.
And I'm looking in the rearview mirror.
I've never had a speeding ticket in my life.
I'm looking in the rearview mirror,
and I see the State Trooper get out.
And he was notorious in our community.
His name was Dumas.
Is that right?
And Dumas, picture Goliath,
but with a State Trooper hat on.
This guy is massive and kind of, you know, hardcore.
And I look at Christy, and I'm like,
it's Dumas, pray.
And Christy's like, I'm not the one who was speeding.
Why should I pray?
And that wasn't helpful at all in the moment.
And so I roll down my window,
and I'm going to be honest with you,
I'm really nervous,
and I've got my hands on the steering wheel,
cut the ignition off.
And he walks up, and he looks in,
and he says, license and registration.
And so I hand him the license and registration.
He walks back to the car.
He's back there, feels like, for about three days.
He comes back up to the window,
hands me my stuff back,
and he says, can I ask you a question?
And I'm thinking, he's about to say,
do you know how fast you are going?
And he says, can I ask you a question?
And I said, yes, sir.
He said, aren't you the pastor at Somerset Baptist Church?
And if Christy wouldn't have been there,
I might have said no and asked Jesus to forgive me later.
But I couldn't get away with it.
I said, yes, sir, I'm the pastor.
He said, you go into a funeral?
I said, if you give me a ticket, it might be my own.
And he started laughing, and I kind of, he broke a little bit.
We had a nice little chat.
And he said, this is what he said, it'll always stay with me.
He said, were you speeding?
I said, yes, sir.
He said, did you break the law?
I said, yes, sir.
He said, do you deserve a ticket?
I said, yes, sir.
And then he looked at me and said, I'm not going to give you what you deserve.
He gave me a warning.
And at that moment, I would have given him a kidney.
I was that happy.
See, that's mercy.
What he showed me was mercy.
Don't miss this church.
I deserved it.
I broke the law.
But he did not give me what I deserved.
That is mercy.
The Bible says, none are righteous, no, not one.
The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Here's the reality.
All of us deserve hell.
The Bible says in James, if you've broken one commandment, one part of the law,
you've broken the whole thing.
The whole thing.
And so we all deserve hell.
But mercy is that in Jesus, we do not get what we justly deserve.
And what we receive is grace.
And grace is when we receive what we do not justly deserve.
And the picture of that is heaven.
For one thing I know for sure, when we get there, none of us deserve to be there.
But it's by the grace of a loving Savior that we'll be there.
And so in Jesus, we experience the love of God, the generosity of God.
But we experience the mercy of God.
Someone asked me recently if I believe in a literal hell.
And I said, I wish I didn't.
But as I read this book, and as I just look at this book,
and I just set aside my prejudices and my desires,
it just seems like this book says there is a place called hell.
But this book also says that it's not God's will that any should perish,
but that all would come to a knowledge of eternal life.
And God is patient, and it seems like it is a real place,
but God has made a way through Jesus Christ.
And can I tell you what?
If I did not believe that hell was real,
I would be on the first plane back to America tomorrow.
For there would be no other reason to do what any of us do.
Like, we haven't seen our daughter in nine months.
I don't say that to get sympathy.
It's just the reality of the missionary life.
My son will be leaving for university next year,
and we won't see our kids.
Our kids will be 4,000 miles away,
and that doesn't fill my heart with joy.
But if people are really dying and going to hell church,
they need to hear the good news.
Amen?
But you don't have to get on a plane to find people who are dying and going to hell.
You walk across the street at McDonald's,
and I'm sure it's full of people who don't know Jesus.
Amen?
May the Lord find us faithful where He places us.
Last thing is this.
In knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the love of God,
the generosity of God, the mercy of God.
But finally, in knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the salvation of God.
In knowing Jesus Christ, we experience the salvation of God.
Look back at verse 16.
And He says that whoever believes in Him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
And He picks this theme up again in verse 17 where He says,
It did not come to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be what?
Saved through Him.
That word saved is precious.
It's the Greek word sozo.
And it means to save and to protect.
To save and to keep.
Like Jesus saves us, and then He keeps us.
He saves us and He keeps us.
And wherever we go, Jesus is with us.
Amen, Christian?
Wherever we go.
In the Great Commission, He says,
And lo, I go with you to the end of the age.
It's a promise.
Years ago, when I was pastoring,
we were taking a mission trip, I believe to Romania.
And I was really encouraging our deacons to get on board.
We had about 12, 15 deacons maybe.
And a couple of them, our older guys were farmers.
And one of them's name was Elwood, a saint of the Lord.
And I remember saying,
Elwood, man, I would love for you to go to Romania with us.
And he said, well, I can't.
I said, well, if you don't mind me asking, why not?
What's holding you back?
And he said, because Jesus won't go with me.
I said, Elwood, what do you mean Jesus won't go with you?
He said, well, it's in the Bible.
I said, well, if you don't mind, enlighten me.
He said, well, he said, did Jesus say in low I'll go with you?
I said, yes.
He said, well, we'd be getting on a plane to go over there.
I said, yes.
He said, well, if I'm on a plane, I'll be high and Jesus will be low
and I don't want to do that.
That's a bad hermeneutic.
By the way, we couldn't get Elwood on a plane for nothing.
Jesus says, look, I've come and now I'm sending you that the world might know
that salvation in Christ is full and free.
You don't have to earn it to get it and you don't have to work to keep it.
He says, we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
It's what I'll tell my Muslim friends that as Christians,
we don't earn our salvation through good works,
but we do good works because of our salvation.
Because that's who we are as people of faith.
And knowing Jesus, we experience the love of God,
the generosity of God, the mercy of God, but the salvation of God.
The Bible says there's no other name under heaven in which men must be saved.
There is no plan B.
We were singing that beautiful hymn about a fountain that flows with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And right by our house, there's the largest Hindu temple in Birmingham.
It's probably 10 minutes from our house.
And the first thing you'll notice as you go into the temple,
it feels vaguely familiar, the building does.
And that's because it used to be a church.
And it's now one of the largest temples in our city.
And so as you walk around the room, there are idols,
these massive idols all around the room.
And Hindus come in and they ring the bells to wake up the gods.
And they'll give them offerings and make their prayers.
And where the pulpit used to be,
there's now a 10-foot statue of Krishna with about eight arms coming out.
And we've been there often.
And when we have volunteer teams come, we've taken them before.
And in the back of the room at the Hindu temple, there's a fountain.
And the fountain, instead of water coming out, is milk.
And when you go to the temple, you'll see the Hindus come in.
Our landlords are Hindu.
And the Hindus will go there to the temple and they'll have empty jugs.
And the Hindu priest has blessed the milk.
And they'll line up throughout the building and they'll come
and they'll fill that jug full of milk.
And they believe if they take it home and drink it,
it washes away their sins.
It washes away their sins.
And we've had opportunities there in the temple to be able to share with folks
that what we believe and what we know is this.
What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Right?
There is no remission to sin without the shedding of blood, the Bible says.
And so Jesus is not only our access to the love of God,
the mercy of God, the generosity of God,
but He is our only access to salvation, full and free.
And praise the Lord, He who the Son sets free is what church?
Free indeed.
We finish our sermons in England.
We've planted a couple of churches now.
And as we meet, we always try to end with a homework assignment.
And so I'm going to pretend like we're all English
and you're going to get a homework assignment.
I'm not going to ask you to say amen
because you're going to get it whether you want it or not.
Amen?
There you go.
So here we go.
What now?
I've got to go to work tomorrow.
That was a great sermon, but how does it connect to my work?
I've got school tomorrow.
What now?
Big deal.
And so here are a couple of questions I want to ask you to take away
and some homework for you.
First of all, number one,
who in my life needs to know Jesus in a personal way?
Who in my life?
So take a moment and think about that.
Who do you know?
Family, friend, co-worker, classmate, neighbor?
Don't say their name,
but who's someone you know that right now
they need to know the good news?
And here's what I want to ask you to do.
I want to ask you to pray for that person.
One thing moving overseas has taught me
is how little I appreciate the power of prayer.
James says,
the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And it's true.
So would you commit to pray this week for that person every day?
Second question.
This week, how can I share or show the love of Jesus to someone else?
It's your homework assignment.
So this week you have seven days.
I won't be here next week.
I'll be back in England.
But Daniel might quiz you to ask you what you did.
This week, maybe it's a neighbor who needs some groceries.
Maybe it's someone who just needs some weeds pulled from their garden.
Maybe it's a mom who just needs you to come and babysit
so she can just have some breathing space.
I don't know who it is or what it is,
but I want you to pray and ask the Lord,
Lord, what is something I can do this week
to share and show the love of Jesus?
And then lastly,
is there any aspect of the gospel that I'm not currently believing?
Is there any aspect of the gospel that I'm currently not believing?
So let me explain that.
So we just saw four aspects of the gospel.
Love, generosity, mercy, salvation.
And I'm speaking to Christians now.
Are there any of those things that you're just not believing?
Right?
And so maybe you're just thinking,
man, I just don't know if God really loves me.
I mean, just looking at how things are playing out at work or at my family,
like I've just really been struggling with the love of God.
Maybe it's the generosity of God,
and maybe you don't have what you wish you had,
what you would really desire,
and you struggle with believing that God really wants the best for you,
and you struggle believing that God doesn't give you certain things
because He knows it's best that you don't have them.
Maybe it's mercy.
The Scripture says there's therefore no condemnation, Paul says,
to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Maybe the enemy has you beaten down for sins you committed a decade ago.
Maybe the enemy whispers lies to you that you're not forgiven,
that you have been forsaken.
Are there aspects of the gospel that you're not currently believing,
that you need to come back to John and say,
no, no, no, it doesn't matter how I feel,
I know God loves me because it says so.
It doesn't matter what I don't have,
I'm blessed beyond measure because God says so.
I know that I belong to Jesus,
not because my good works are like they're of,
but because He says so.
Are there aspects of the gospel, Christian,
you need to come back to and ask God to help you?
I pray that this week,
you'll have opportunity to share and show to someone else
God's love, God's generosity, His mercy,
and that they would know salvation full and free in Jesus Christ.
There's a neighborhood not far from our home,
and we were trying to find a way to get into this neighborhood
and share the gospel.
It is what we would call in England a housing estate.
Think of like government projects.
There were 10,000 people in less than one square mile.
10,000 people, less than one square mile, no church.
So we began to pray.
We began to go and walk this neighborhood and pray over it
and ask God to open up an opportunity, and He did.
In the heart of the neighborhood, there was a public library.
And I saw a sign on the door that said,
Volunteers Needed.
And so went in, applied, and was accepted.
And the woman said, We would like for you to volunteer in our computer lab.
And I said, All right, what does that mean?
She said, Well, it's primarily senior adults who come in
who want to learn how to use the Internet.
And I thought, Oh, I can do that.
And so I started going every week, volunteering, getting to meet people.
And one day, a gentleman walks in by the name of Alan.
And Alan was 89 years old.
And so Alan comes in, and he has his Toshiba laptop.
And he says, Sir, my laptop is broken.
Could you fix it?
And I said, Well, I'm going to be honest with you, Alan.
Like, that's not what this is.
This is to kind of show you how to use a computer.
He said, Well, would you at least look at it?
I said, Sure.
So I opened the screen.
I hit the power button.
It comes on.
And he says, What did you do?
And I said, I turned it on.
He said, I had not tried that.
And he says, You're a genius.
And I thought, We're going to be good friends.
And so every week I would meet Alan to talk about how to use the Internet.
And started over week after week, drip, drip, hearing Alan's story.
Alan flew a Lancaster bomber in World War II.
Flew 15 missions over Germany.
Alan had been married for 40 years, but had been a widow for 30 years.
And Alan just never had children, had no family.
And Alan was an atheist.
Did not believe there was a God.
And so we just adopted Alan into our family.
And we began to feed him and go buy groceries for him and cut his grass,
have him over for Christmas morning.
And Alan just became part of our family.
And I wouldn't beat him over the head.
Alan knew what we believed.
And I would just share.
And this went on month after month, year after year,
sharing and showing the love of Jesus to Alan.
At the age of 94, five years, 94,
Alan is admitted to hospital, having some stomach problems.
He'd been in hospital then, actually what ended up being a couple of months.
And I would go visit him and spend time with him.
And went to visit him one morning.
And when I showed up, the only explanation I have is Alan was beaming.
There was something different in his countenance.
And I said, Alan, you look amazing.
Like, you look great.
Like, have they changed your medicine?
What's happened?
And Alan said, well, you know, for five years now,
you've been telling me about Jesus.
I said, yeah.
He said, well, last night,
I got down beside my hospital bed
and asked Jesus to come into my heart
and to be my Lord and Savior.
I said, Alan, that's amazing.
He said, yeah.
He said, and all morning,
I've been telling every nurse about Jesus.
And I've been asking every nurse if I could pray for her.
He said, the nurse who gives me a bath,
I prayed for her twice.
Ninety-four years old.
And for those of you who know Jesus,
I cannot wait to introduce you to Him in heaven.
Because He's a wonderful, wonderful old mate.
Don't give up, church.
Continue to share.
Continue to show.
Don't lose heart.
And leave the rest to Jesus.
Amen, church?
Let me pray for us.
Lord Jesus, we love You.
And we thank You for the Gospel.
We thank You, Jesus,
that in You we experience the love of God.
We thank You, Jesus,
that in You we experience the amazing generosity of God.
We thank You, Jesus,
that in You we are not condemned,
but we receive mercy.
And Jesus, we thank You
that because of Your obedience
to die on that old rugged cross,
that we can have salvation full and free.
And as we pray,
I just want to invite Pastor Daniel to come.
He's going to be up front.
And maybe this morning,
you've never known Jesus in a personal way.
Maybe you've known about Him,
but you've never known Him.
Maybe you just want to come and say,
Pastor Daniel,
could you share with me
how I can know Jesus in a real,
in a personal way.
Christian, maybe you're struggling.
Maybe as a Christian,
there are aspects of the Gospel
that you're just not believing right now.
And maybe you just need to come and say,
oh, I'm struggling in this area of my life.
Would you pray with me
that the Lord would help me?
But then maybe you have an Allen in your life.
Maybe we just need to all just surround
this altar and soak this carpet in tears
as we pray for the Allens in our life,
those who don't yet know
salvation in Jesus Christ.
The fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
As we pray, God moves.
However the Holy Spirit leads,
you come as we sing together.