A Life Transforming Message

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,

Acts 18 · chapter mention

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

Acts 18 · chapter mention

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,

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

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.

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

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.