WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Well, good morning. It's a great privilege and pleasure for me to be with you here this morning to share something from what God has to say. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:18.000 One of the great voices of the 20th century was Francis Schaefer, writer, apologist, teacher. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.000 He would begin his classes in seminary with the following line. One of his students told me this. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:31.000 He said, gentlemen, what you are called to do is not difficult. It is impossible. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Anyone called to work of gospel service, whatever that work entails, is called to do the impossible. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:52.000 Proclaiming the gospel, sharing the gospel, teaching and equipping the people of God is not difficult work, but it is impossible work. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:00.000 The impossible work that we are looking at this morning concerns one man called Paul and another man called Titus. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:08.000 It occurs in a place called Crete. Now the audience is characterized in this following way. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:18.000 If you look at the letter to Titus in the pew Bibles at page 998, 999, it opens up and you can see the whole letter on these two pages. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:27.000 So in chapter one, the audience is described in this way. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own said, 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:36.000 Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy glutton. This testimony is true. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:42.000 Now that's the audience. The apostle Paul is giving the young man Titus a clear commission. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:52.000 He says, Titus, what you are to do is to call out and to equip a people who are a model of good works, 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:02.000 who are zealous or eager to do good works, who are ready for every good work, and who are devoted to doing good work. 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:09.000 Now the people are described in such a way that they are unfit, unfit for doing anything that is good. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And in this short letter to Titus, you see this phrase time and time again, good works, good works, good works. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:27.000 Now the Bible makes it quite clear that Christians are not saved because of anything that they have done quite the opposite. 00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:37.000 We are saved despite what we have done. We are rescued, redeemed, renewed based upon what Jesus has done, his work, and not ours. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:48.000 But the Bible is equally insistent that if you call yourself a Christian, that your lives should be characterised now by that which is good, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:03:01.000 and that the work of God in your life is to equip you, to enable you to prepare you, so that your life is now categorised or characterised by good work. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:10.000 Now Titus, centcrete, is called to this impossible task, and you ask the question, how can he do the impossible? 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:23.000 How can you do the impossible? How can we do the impossible? And the answer of course is, we can't. He can't. You can't. And I can't. But God can. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Let me give you a bit of context, because two key events have occurred that make the impossible possible. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.000 Now I'm a great student of history. I came to this country 28 years ago to study the history of the Scottish people. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:48.000 I had studied the American history and so much shorter, so I needed to come to a country that had longer history than our own, so I came here. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.000 So I've had a great desire, a great love of history, and I now, I went to that source of all knowledge, the internet. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:02.000 Last night, and I typed in the question, what are the most important events in the history of the world? 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:12.000 I got an interesting list of events. They gave me 25. They said the most important event, they, the internet whoever created this list, 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:20.000 the most important event in human history was the digital revolution, the smartphone that you have in your pocket, the computer that you have on your desk. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:28.000 The second most important event was the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I'm very interested in the assassination of JFK, 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:33.000 but to say that that's the second most important event in human history might be slightly exaggerating. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:42.000 The third was the launch of Sputnik and the space race. The fourth was the Cold War. The fifth was the Second World War. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:54.000 You scroll down the list, the Reformation, Martin Luther in the Reformation comes in at number 15, the Black Death, the bubonic plague that hit Europe in the 14th century, that was 19. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:05.000 You come down to 21 and you have the life of Muhammad. Only at 22 do you have a mention of Jesus that 22nd on this list, remember the assassination of JFK was number two, 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:15.000 the life of Jesus was number 22. The Bible's list is quite short. The Bible doesn't give you a list of 25 significant events, but rather gives you two. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:26.000 These two events in the history of God's redeeming plan and purpose make the impossible possible. Let me just tell you what those two events are. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:40.000 The first event was in fact the life of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, that God became a human being, that he came down to live and to die and to rise again. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:49.000 Now the whole of the Old Testament is written to preview and to plan and to prepare for this great coming of Jesus. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:58.000 That's why the Apostle Paul puts it in chapter two of Titus, for the grace of God has appeared. He's arrived, he's come. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:06.000 The incarnation of Jesus has changed human history, but the second event is this, not long after. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:16.000 The arrival of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus was followed not long after by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost event. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Acts chapter two, if you're not familiar, read that second chapter of Acts and you see that the Holy Spirit was poured out. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:32.000 Now Jesus has no beginning, he has no end, he always is. The Holy Spirit has no beginning, he has no end, he always is. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:45.000 And yet in the history of this world, at one place, at one point in time, Jesus Christ became a human being, he lived a perfect life, he died a sacrificial death and he rose triumphant from the dead. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:55.000 The Holy Spirit was poured out so that the people of God could hear the gospel in their own language, that they could respond to the gospel. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:03.000 And apart from these two world events, we would not be here this morning. You would not be here, nor would I be here. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:14.000 And the impossible now becomes possible, not because of what you can do, what I can do, what we can do, but because of what God has done. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:23.000 And with you this morning, I'd like to look at that command or that trustworthy saying, the apostle, the apostle says in verse eight of chapter three. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:34.000 The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:39.000 These things are excellent and profitable for people. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:52.000 But to understand this trustworthy saying, and you might find it interesting that as you read through these three letters, first and second Timothy and Titus, the pastoral letters, five times Paul says, 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 this is a trustworthy saying. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:08:09.000 It's as if he's highlighting or underlining certain key truths that you and I must take note of, not just take note of, take to heart and express in our lives. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:14.000 But how can we be devoted to good works? 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:29.000 If you look just a few verses back, Bill read from chapter two at the end of chapter two through chapter three, and chapter three captures the transition that takes place based on those two events. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:31.000 Jesus, Holy Spirit. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:40.000 Verse three of chapter three says this, for we ourselves, how easy it is for us to point fingers. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:51.000 How easy for us is to look down on others or condemn or criticize others, and Paul or Titus could easily have done that here. 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.000 The Cretans were not good people. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:55.000 They were not upright people. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:56.000 They were not honest people. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 They were not people of integrity or industry. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:10.000 So it would be quite easy to make it seem as if I, they are good, I, we are good or they are bad. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:28.000 But Paul says, for we ourselves, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:37.000 The gospel is a message that comes to you and to me and places us in the same category. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.000 It doesn't place some on one level and others on another. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:47.000 But Paul is saying Titus, you and me were just like they are. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:54.000 God by His grace has taken us from where we were and has placed us to where we are. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:58.000 So in the Christian life, there is no scope for boasting. 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:04.000 There is no room for thinking that you or I are any better than anyone else. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.000 We aren't. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:15.000 The only thing that we can say is that we have received and we have accepted and we have benefited from the grace and goodness of God. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:38.000 So as we look at the world today, do we find ourselves tempted to condemn or tempted to find fault or tempted to criticize and tempted by implication to be satisfied with ourselves or to think that something of ourselves is commendable whereas something of others is condemnable? 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:43.000 The apostle Paul says there's no scope for that because we were in the same boat. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:45.000 We were living the same lives. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:52.000 What we see in this audience in Crete was what was characteristic of our life. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:58.000 Verse 4 says there was a change because Paul and Titus were no longer there. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:04.000 And if you're a Christian this morning, you are no longer what you once were. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:09.000 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:23.000 The Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus, the arrival of Jesus, the appearance of Jesus transformed our lives, our hearts, our body, our mind, our soul, our eternal destinies have been transformed. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:29.000 And Paul is able to say in three simple words what the message of Jesus is. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:33.000 He saved us. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:36.000 He saved us. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:39.000 I didn't save myself. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:41.000 You didn't save yourself. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:42.000 You didn't save me. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:43.000 I didn't save you. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:45.000 We couldn't do this for ourselves. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:48.000 But he did the impossible. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:54.000 And if God has done the impossible in your life, does that not give you comfort? 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.000 Does that give you encouragement? 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.000 Doesn't that give you hope that if he's done the impossible in your life, then he can do the impossible in the lives of others. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:05.000 You might be the only Christian in your family. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:08.000 And you might think to yourself, there is no hope. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:12.000 There is no, there's no, they just get impossible. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:22.000 God cannot change the way my family thinks, the way my sister, the way my parents, the way my children, you might just simply conclude that it's impossible. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:27.000 Well, the apostle Paul says, Jesus, he saved us. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.000 And notice this. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.000 He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:34.000 That's a good thing. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.000 Because we don't do that. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.000 We don't do works in righteousness. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Only God is righteous. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.000 Only God is perfect and pure. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:48.000 So that if it came down to what we did, that truly is impossible. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.000 We cannot live. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.000 We cannot do. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.000 We cannot act. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:57.000 We cannot respond to God in a way that he is worthy. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:12:59.000 He is worthy of all praise. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.000 He is worthy of all love. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.000 He is worthy of all glory and worthy of all honor. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:10.000 And we constantly fall short of his standard. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.000 We fall constantly short of his expectation. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:21.000 Works not done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:28.000 So the message of the gospel is the impossible has now become possible because of what Jesus has done. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.000 He's appeared. He's lived. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:32.000 He's died. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:35.000 He's risen again from the dead. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:38.000 He lived the life that we haven't lived. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:41.000 He died the death that we deserve to die. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.000 He was raised triumphant from the dead. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Conquering death. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:47.000 Conquering sin. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.000 Conquering evil. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:53.000 But that's only one half of the equation. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:57.000 Because you'll notice as we continue reading in verse 5, 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:01.000 he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:06.000 but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.000 and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:17.000 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:24.000 It was John Wesley who was converted at the beginning of what became known as the Great Awakening. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:31.000 The Great Awakening was a time in the history of the church where the cause of the gospel was at a very low ebb, 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:35.000 where immorality was at a very high level. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.000 At that time, God did a remarkable thing. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:49.000 God changed the hearts and lives of key people in key places and gave them a desire to proclaim the good news of Jesus. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:56.000 John Wesley's favorite text was the words of John chapter 3 and verse 7, 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:00.000 where Jesus said, you must be born again. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:05.000 And Wesley put it this way, he said, the two great Christian truths are these. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:15.000 Justification, what God has done for us, and regeneration, what God has done in us. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:20.000 So the work of Jesus on the cross is what God has done for us. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.000 He paid the price, he satisfied the debt, he took our place. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:30.000 But the work of regeneration and renewal is what God does in us, 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 what God does in our hearts and what God does in our lives. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:42.000 And the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to understanding what we now are in Christ. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:48.000 We are no longer what we once were, we are not yet what we will be, but we are never the same. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:59.000 Because the work of the Holy Spirit is this, that the Spirit takes that which is dead and brings life from the dead. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000 Think of the resurrection, Jesus was dead and buried. 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:08.000 That is characteristic of our lives before we came to know Jesus. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:13.000 If you're not yet a Christian, that is characteristic of your life this morning. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:21.000 You're alive, yes, your blood is coursing around your veins, your brain activity, your living. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:23.000 But spiritually speaking, the Bible says we're dead. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:26.000 We're dead in sins and transgressions. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:34.000 We need to be made alive, alive again, made new, regenerated and renewed. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:38.000 Now only the Holy Spirit can do this. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:46.000 So you go back to those two great events, the arrival of Jesus, the incarnation, and the event of Pentecost, the pouring out of the Spirit. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:17:02.000 So in order for you or I to be saved, it requires all of God, all of His effort, all of His plan, all of His power to transform and to renew us. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:07.000 Wesley went on to describe what regeneration looks like. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:25.000 He said, the love of the world is changed into the love of God, pride into humility, passion into meekness, hatred, envy, malice, into a sincere, tender, disinterested love for all mankind. 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:45.000 So the gospel message of Jesus comes to you through the power of the Spirit, and the Spirit comes into the hearts and lives of dead people, makes them alive, and makes them new, makes them whole, so that now instead of living lives that are characteristic of evil, 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:55.000 lives are now characteristic of good, instead of living lives that are characterized by selfishness, lives are now lived characteristic of selflessness. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:07.000 So when Paul in Titus chapter 2, 11 says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce on godliness and worldly passions. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:11.000 So when the Holy Spirit is at work, you now begin to say no. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:24.000 We're previously all you wanted to do was say yes, and likewise the opposite is true, and to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:34.000 The Holy Spirit, when He renews, when He regenerates, takes you and me, and instead of saying no to God, we now say yes. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:44.000 Instead of saying yes to ourselves, we begin to say no. We begin to think differently. We begin to act differently. We begin to live differently. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:19:00.000 The impossible, now possible. The Cretans, who were once liars, evil beasts, lazy glutton, these are people who can be zealous or eager, who can be equipped and devoted to doing that which is good. 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:13.000 And it's all down to God. It's all down to the work of the Son on the cross and the work of the Spirit in the heart and in the life of the believer. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:24.000 In the 18th century, before the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield, the England and Great Britain was described in this way. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:30.000 It was described as a moral quagmire and a spiritual cesspool. 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:38.000 The gambling was so rampant that the country was described as one vast casino. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:51.000 Drunkiness, immorality, the statistics say that 97% of those who were born poor in workhouses died as children. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:02.000 One observer commented that morality had collapsed to a degree that was never known in any Christian country. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.000 All of a sudden, God pours out His Spirit. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:15.000 People like Wesley, people like Whitfield, people like Jonathan Edwards, their lives are transformed and through their ministries, the world is transformed. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:22.000 John Wesley, who becomes a preacher of the gospel, it's estimated that he preached 40,000 times. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:30.000 If you're good with math, to preach 40,000 times, you have to preach 800 times a year for 50 years. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:38.000 That's a lot of sermons. It's estimated that he covered 250,000 miles on horseback. That's a lot of miles. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:47.000 And he constantly proclaimed this message that alone can save, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He lived, died and rose again, 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:53.000 and that the Spirit Himself must take that which is dead and make alive. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:04.000 So the Spirit regenerates and the Spirit renews and the Spirit is poured out richly upon us through by the grace of our Savior. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:11.000 We are justified, we are renewed, we are sanctified, we are made whole, we are made new. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:21.000 So that's a context. Liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttonies, now made a people who are eager to do what is good. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:25.000 But we're no longer in Crete in the first century. We're here in Edinburgh. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:31.000 The same message is being proclaimed. The same Son, the same Spirit is at work. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:40.000 But what is characteristic now of your life? Is your life a life that is characterized by good works? 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:45.000 Paul doesn't describe what these good works are. He doesn't give us a list. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.000 But he says these things are excellent and profitable for people. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:22:01.000 We live in a country where possibly 95, 96, 98% of the population has no meaningful connection with Jesus Christ. 00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:07.000 So the number of Christians are few and the number of those who don't believe are many. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:15.000 But that gives you a unique opportunity because if there are few who believe, those who do believe should stand out. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:22.000 Those who believe, those who are Christians in Crete should stand out. Why? Because they're no longer liars, they're telling the truth. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:28.000 They're no longer evil, they're doing what's good, they're no longer lazy, but they're zealous, they're eager to do what's right. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:33.000 So the Christian in Crete should shine and stand out in such a context. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:39.000 The Christian in Scotland, the Christian in Edinburgh should stand out against that backdrop. Why? 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:46.000 Because we're now a people who have an eagerness and a desire to do not what we want, but what God wants. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:51.000 Not what does us good, but what does other people good. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:57.000 So the work of the Gospel begins on the inside, begins in the heart. 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:05.000 But that transformation of heart and that transformation of life is seen on the outside. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000 A couple of hours ago this morning I was preaching in Edinburgh Prison. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000 Now in Edinburgh Prison the problems are more obvious. The doors are locked. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.000 I mean, I'm pretty sure if you wanted to leave right now you could leave. 00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:25.000 When I was preaching two hours ago you can't leave, you just can't get up and go because you're in a prison, the doors are locked. 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:30.000 You look at the guys and you can see that there are problems, they've had problems in their lives. 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.000 And yet the same Gospel comes with the same power. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.000 There's no Gospel for good people and Gospel for bad people. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:40.000 There's only one Gospel because there's only one type of people. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:43.000 We are a people who need help. 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:50.000 We need God to do for us and in us what we cannot do for ourselves and what we cannot do in ourselves. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:57.000 So whether I'm preaching at the clue where I'm normally based or here in St. Columbus or in Edinburgh Prison, there's no different message. 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:02.000 It's the same message. It's the same Gospel, it's the same Jesus, it's the same Holy Spirit. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:12.000 So the Apostle Paul could say to Titus and Crete or he could say to Timothy and Ephesus or wherever or whoever, the message is the same. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:25.000 The challenges are the same, but the opportunities are great because if you have come to know Jesus and if you have been made new and made alive by the Holy Spirit, 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:37.000 your lives should now be a testimony of the grace of God, a testimony of the power of God, and the lives that you now live should speak. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:45.000 There are very few people today I would suggest in Scotland that will naturally seek out a church service, there may be some, 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.000 but most people are not queuing to come to church. 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:57.000 But ask yourself, wherever God places you, home, community, work, study, what are people hearing? 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:04.000 What are people seeing? What are people observing in your life? What testimony are you giving? 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:13.000 Now of course all of our testimonies are flawed and limited, but if we come to know Jesus, if we've come to experience His salvation, 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:20.000 if we've enjoyed this new life and this new beginning through the Spirit, one thing must be true. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.000 We can never be the same people again. We can never live exactly that same way. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:31.000 We can never have the same attitudes, the same actions, the same desires, the same interests. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.000 Why? Because God has taken up residence in our lives. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:44.000 He's given us new hope, new direction, new priorities, new motivations, new desires, and new interests. 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:55.000 So no matter what God has called you to do, go into that impossible situation, into that situation at work or into your home life 00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:03.000 or into your community and say to yourself, God, you're calling me to do the impossible, but I'm persuaded you've already done the impossible. 00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:09.000 You've done the impossible in my life and you can do the impossible through my life. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:16.000 If you're not yet at that point where you recognize who Jesus is or what Jesus has done for you, 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:21.000 let me just tell you this, that He's come for people just like you. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:28.000 He's come for people whose lives are not complete, whose lives are not sorted. He's come for people who need help. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:36.000 He hasn't come for the good. He's not come to make good people better. Jesus himself said he's come to call, not the righteous, 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.000 but he's come to call sinners to repentance. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:47.000 So if you've come to this point and you think maybe I'm not on the right road, maybe I'm not going in the right direction, 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:55.000 maybe my life to this point has not satisfied me and when I stand in front of God it will not satisfy him. 00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:02.000 Maybe God is speaking to you today and reminding you that you need Him to do the impossible in your life, 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:10.000 to save you, to renew you, to give you hope, to give you forgiveness, to give you grace, to give you mercy. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:17.000 All is readily available and richly available through Jesus Christ our Savior. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:27.000 And then you can join the ranks of those who are now eager, equipped, ready and prepared to do that which is good. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:36.000 Be careful to devote yourselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:43.000 We have unique opportunities of serving the living God. God has placed you where He has placed you for a reason. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:54.000 The good work that you can do, only you can do it. Only you can testify to the grace of God in your life with word and with action. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:01.000 And just see how God continues to do the impossible. Let's pray. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Father, I thank you for your work for us and your work in us. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:15.000 We thank you for the arrival of Jesus into this world, that He lived that perfect life and died that death of sacrifice. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:24.000 It's our prayer that He would be at work today, in this place, in our lives, at the Holy Spirit whom He has poured out. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:32.000 Richly would continue that work of regeneration, that work of renewal, that work of transformation. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.000 Lord, we are not capable of doing this ourselves, let alone doing this for others. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:43.000 But you are more than able to do the impossible in our lives and through our lives. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:47.000 Lord, you know some of the challenges that each one of us is encountering. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:53.000 You know some of the heartbreaks and some of the concerns that are on our minds right now. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:00.000 And so often we conclude that the situations that we find ourselves have no easy answer, if any answer at all. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:03.000 So give us that faith to trust in you. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Give us that hope to look beyond our circumstances to you, our God. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:12.000 And give us love. Give us love for Jesus. Give us love for one another. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:15.000 Give us love for the gospel and for your Word. 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:23.000 And enable us to be a people who are dedicated, devoted, eager, and ready to do that which is good. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.000 You get all the credit. You deserve all the glory. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:30.000 And all the praise is yours through Jesus. Amen.