What is Your Story?

Thank you, Kate, and good morning, everyone.

Very glad to have you with us, whether you're in the church here or watching online.

I want to begin by introducing you to Duncan Donaldson,

otherwise known as Dunkey or as Drunken Duncan.

I never met him, but he was a contemporary of my father who knew him fairly well.

Duncan lived in Airdrie and was known locally as a character, in inverted commas.

But he said that when he went into a pub, that everyone else walked out,

because they knew that when he got a few drinks in, he would turn violent, and he was very strong.

He reckoned he'd been in prison between 60 and 70 times.

And then one day he was walking past Airdrie Cross,

and someone handed him a Christian leaflet and said,

would you like to come to a gospel meeting?

And he thought, well, I might as well.

Well, and he went along, he got free tea and biscuits, he got a warm welcome.

He thought, well, I'll go back again next week.

Arrived the following Sunday and found the hall totally locked.

No one there.

And he thought, oh, no, they know my reputation.

No one's coming back.

It turned out he was an hour early.

So eventually everyone did arrive,

and he found out that people had been praying for him during the week.

And as he listened to the gospel message being preached,

there were tears streaming down his face, and he gave his life to the Lord Jesus.

And after that, he was completely transformed.

He became a well-respected, much-loved school janitor.

But what he loved to do above all was to tell his story,

particularly in the open air, but in halls as well.

Everywhere he went, he wanted to tell people what a difference Jesus had made in his life.

Here's how I was.

Here's when I met Jesus.

And here's what has changed in me now.

And I was reminded of Duncan Donaldson as I was reading this week

the story of the blind man in John 9.

Because in many ways, it's very similar.

As we go through the chapter, the blind man is just repeating again and again,

here's what I was.

I was blind.

Then I met Jesus.

Now I can see.

And that must be from God that the healing has taken place.

And what I want us to leave thinking about this morning,

we'll talk about lots of things as we get into the chapter.

But what I want all of us to leave thinking about this morning

is what is my story?

Do I have a story I can tell of what Jesus has done in my life,

the difference it makes to me of knowing him?

And if I do, am I prepared to go and to tell people about it?

Do I want to share it with others,

what the Lord has done for me and what he can do for them?

So we'll come back to that various points.

And at the end this morning, what is your story?

Are you able to share it with others?

But let's begin by just reminding ourselves of a bit of the background here.

We're looking at John's gospel.

So every time you're in John, what you have to think is,

what does this passage, what does this chapter tell us

that will help us to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God?

That is John's purpose in writing his book, and he's very focused.

Every chapter points us to Jesus as the Messiah and as the Son of God.

I think it's fairly evident how that applies to chapter 9.

We're in a section that extends from chapter 5 to chapter 10,

which is based around various feast festivals in Jerusalem

and Jesus attending them.

Chapter 9 is a little bit different from the chapters round about.

If you have a red-letter Bible or you have an app that shows you

the words of Jesus highlighted, that might be fairly evident.

In most of the chapters in this section,

there is some narrative,

but there is a lot of Jesus teaching.

He says a lot in almost all the chapters.

In chapter 9, Jesus speaks at the beginning and at the end,

and he doesn't feature at all in the middle.

What comes in the middle is a kind of crime scene investigation,

CSI, Jerusalem, if you like,

but it's a bit more Keystone Cops and Sherlock Holmes in the way it happens.

The Pharisees believe a crime has been committed,

actually several crimes.

Jesus has spat on the Sabbath.

He's molded clay on the Sabbath.

He's healed someone on the Sabbath.

And according to their rules, their regulations,

all of these things were not allowed.

They were sins.

Now, we will have our own view on that,

but that's the Pharisees' view,

and that is what they persist in as we go through the chapter.

And so they are trying to find something

that they can pin on Jesus

and can arrest him and condemn him.

And they go around talking to the people,

talking to the blind man,

talking to his parents,

desperate to get something

that they can say a crime has been committed

and there must be consequences for it.

And they become increasingly desperate

as they go along,

particularly because the blind man,

all he can say is,

I was blind,

I met Jesus,

now I can see

that must be a work of God.

They don't have any effective argument

against that.

The other backdrop to the chapter

is we are still in the Feast of Tabernacles.

We've been there since chapter 7,

and indeed the first part of chapter 10

is around the same time.

Now, we're possibly just after the end

of the formal feast,

but it will still very much be in people's minds.

So the Feast of the Tabernacles

had three aspects to it.

It looked back to how God had provided

for these lives in the wilderness.

There's a mention of Moses in this chapter.

It looks at the present

as a joyful harvest Thanksgiving ceremony,

and it looks forward to the coming Messiah.

And there are two particular themes to it.

One is light.

The knights are drawing in,

and there are four great lamps

lit in the temple

that lights up the whole city,

representing the light that God gives.

And the other is water.

It's the dry season,

and so there's a daily ceremony

where water is taken from the Pool of Siloam,

carried up the hill,

and put onto the altar.

And you'll see again both light and water

as we go through this chapter.

But let's get into John 9,

and we'll divide it into three sections.

So the first section is from verse 1 to verse 7.

I've called it a miraculous intervention.

This is the narrative

about the healing of the blind man.

We don't know much about this blind man,

but I think we can deduce a little bit

about his age from the passage.

He's got two parents still alive.

That's established.

And the parents say to the Pharisees,

he is of age.

Ask him what's happened.

Now, being of age in first century Israel

meant for a boy that he was at least 13 years old.

That was when a boy was deemed to become a man.

I'm not suggesting this man is necessarily 13 years old,

but I think we can take it from the fact

that his parents refer to him being of age,

that he was relatively young.

He may well have been a teenager.

That's speculation,

but I think we can assume he was probably

quite a young man.

And Jesus and his disciples come across him

as they're walking through Jerusalem.

Now, that wouldn't have been an uncommon thing

if in that day you were disabled in any kind of way

and weren't able to earn a living,

there was no social security,

so you were dependent on the goodwill of others.

Most disabled people,

whether blind or lame or whatever,

they would sit beside the roadside and beg,

and people would give them alms,

would give them money out of sympathy.

So it wasn't an uncommon sight,

but for some reason it attracted the attention

of Jesus' disciples.

And they asked a question

which we might find a little strange.

They said,

is this man blind because of his sin

or because of the sin of his parents?

Now, remember, he'd been blind from birth.

So a type was saying,

perhaps his parents had done something wrong,

and he is suffering the retribution for that.

Or even more surprisingly,

they're saying,

perhaps he did something wrong

before he was born,

before he even came into this world blind.

Perhaps he's done some kind of sin

and is being punished for that now.

Now, we won't go into theology of that.

It was something that might have been

quite a common view in that day,

although it seems strange to us.

But Jesus makes it clear

the reason he's blind

is not because of his sin

or his parents' sin.

He is going to be healed.

He is going to have his sight given to him,

and that will mean that his illness

will bring glory to God

as Jesus heals him.

I think maybe we need to take a little pause there.

Because when people suffer,

very often we ask,

why?

Whether it's ourself

or someone close to us,

we think,

well, why is that happening?

Now, usually there are no straightforward answers.

We can say that all suffering

is a result of being

in a sinful, fallen world.

And Christians are not exempt from that

in any kind of way.

I think we need to be very, very careful

about saying that people are suffering,

whether ourselves or others,

because of some sin of theirs

or because of something

someone else has done.

In some cases it will be.

It will be very obvious there's a connection,

but generally need to be very careful

about making that deduction.

What I think we can say

is that every suffering,

every illness,

is an opportunity

to bring glory to God.

Now, sometimes it can be

through miraculous healings,

through things happening

that confounds the medical profession

and can only be from God.

But other times,

it is not as spectacular as that.

When we suffer,

if we're Christians,

then that should draw us closer to God.

That should develop our Christian character,

help us to be more like the Lord Jesus.

We suffered in ways

that we never could know

or even imagine.

And as we develop as Christian,

as we become more like Jesus,

that brings glory to God.

Paul says in Romans 5,

suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance character,

and character hope.

And hope does not put us to shame

because God's love

has been poured out into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit

he has given to us.

So as we become more like Jesus,

as we suffer and grow in character,

that is glorifying to God.

We also can glorify God

through times of suffering,

through the example

that we set to others.

Through showing our faith

in the Lord Jesus,

and they can look at us

and they can say

in the face of the most difficult situations,

they still trust,

they still love Jesus.

In our church at the moment,

we have quite a lot of people

who are unwell.

Some acute,

some chronic,

some mental illness,

some physical illness,

some who are suffering

for other reasons.

And I can look at quite a lot of them

and I see an example they set

that it would be good for me

and others to follow.

whether it's those who are suffering

or those who care for them.

There are some quite remarkable people

in this church

and we thank God for them

that in times of difficulty

and suffering

would point us to Jesus

and would show the difference

that knowing Christ makes

when we go through difficult times.

So even in our suffering,

God can be glorified.

Now I've covered that very quickly.

If you want to talk about it more later on,

speak to me or to Archie or to Graham

or to another Christian you know.

So we've got to the point

where the disciples have been talking to Jesus

and then Jesus approaches the man.

But before he does that,

he has a little bit of explanation for us.

And this links us back to chapter 8.

You remember, I think it was probably

about three weeks ago now

that Graham was talking about Jesus,

the light of the world

and that we need to recognize

that we're lost

and to follow the light.

Well, Jesus again says,

I am the light of the world

and he's about to demonstrate that

in a physical as well

as in a spiritual sense.

But he says,

I'm only here for a while.

The night is coming.

I think that probably refers

to his crucifixion.

While I'm here,

I have to do God's work.

And so saying that,

he goes up to the man,

he makes something out of the mud

from the clay,

puts it in the man's eye

and sends him down

to the pool of Siloam.

I suspect there's a lot of symbolism in this.

The clay that the Lord uses

perhaps is symbolic of the fact

that all of us are made from the earth,

from the dust as Adam was to begin with.

John points out the pool of Siloam

means sent

and Jesus sent the man

and he himself had been sent

into the world.

Lots of symbolism there,

but let's not get too caught up in that.

What we see here

is the most remarkable miracle.

Imagine you are the blind man.

You go out that morning as normal

to beg,

to look for sympathy from people

and hope they'll give you some money.

You meet this man,

perhaps you hear a bit of the conversation

saying,

was he a sinner before he was born?

And that might seem a bit strange.

Jesus comes

and apparently without any explanation

puts the mud in his eyes

and sends him away.

It wasn't like the case of Bartimaeus

where Bartimaeus called out to Jesus

to have mercy.

There's no sign

that this man even really knew

who Jesus was.

And yet Jesus sends him down to the pool

with the mud on his eyes.

He washes his eyes

and he can see.

And what an amazing thing

that must have been for the man.

Blind all his life,

he meets Jesus

and he's able to see.

And we can rejoice

in the miracle

of what God does there

and in the miraculous ways

God changes people's lives

today as well.

This man really had

a story worth telling.

Let's move on.

And the main section

of the chapter

I've called

a malicious interrogation.

On the face of it,

the Pharisees were saying,

well, we're just trying

to enforce the law.

In practice,

what they were doing

was trying to trap people

into condemning Jesus

and ultimately

to arrest him.

And when they can't do that,

they eventually take it out

on the man

who had been blind.

So there are a number

of conversations here.

We'll just go very quickly

through what they are.

So it begins,

the man born blind,

he goes home

and the people are wondering,

what's happened?

Is this really the person

we knew

who sat begging

beside the road

or is it someone else?

And the man says to him,

no, it's me.

Jesus put mud in my eyes.

I washed it off.

Now I can see.

So the people then

go to the Pharisees.

I guess if you've got

a religious problem

as this might have appeared to be,

you go to religious people.

And they went to the Pharisees

and told them what had happened.

And the Pharisees

saw an opportunity here

perhaps to get at Jesus.

So again,

they go to the blind man

and they ask him

about the healing

and he explains again

very simply

what had happened.

And they say to him,

well, what do you deduce

from that?

And he said,

this man must be a prophet.

Now in the Old Testament,

most of the miracles

of healing

were in the times

of the prophets

like Elijah

and Elisha.

That was why

he might have deduced

that Jesus

was a prophet.

They still not satisfied.

They think,

well, maybe it's not

really the same person.

So they go to his parents

and ask them.

Parents are really cowardly.

They confirm

as their son,

but they're not willing

to go beyond that

because of what

the Pharisees

might do to them.

So they fob them off

and say,

well, he's of age.

Go and ask him.

The Pharisees go back

and have a slightly

longer conversation

with the man.

He gets, I think,

a bit irritated with them

and he says,

well, why do you keep

asking me these questions?

Do you want to become

Jesus' disciples too?

And that really annoys

the Pharisees

and they end up

sending him

out of the temple.

They excommunicate him

in the religious terminology.

And then Jesus finds him

and explains

what's happening

and who he is.

So that's the story.

What I particularly want us

to notice from it, though,

is how the blind man's

understanding increases

as time goes on.

As he tells this story,

he becomes more confident in it,

but he also becomes

more aware of how this

must be God at work

in his life.

So to begin with,

he is just stating

the facts.

There was this man

called Jesus.

Verse 11,

they're following along.

There's a man called Jesus.

He told me to go

to the pool of Siloam

and wash off the mud.

I did and I saw.

So we start with the man,

Jesus.

He knows nothing about him.

At this point,

he hasn't even seen him

because the only time

he encountered Jesus,

he was blind.

We then have

the first

interrogation

by the Pharisees

and then in verse 17,

as I mentioned a minute ago,

the man says,

he's a prophet.

So he's gone from,

this was a man

I'd never met before.

I know his name was Jesus,

but nothing more.

And he's deduced,

this must be a prophet

because of what

he's done.

If we jump forward

to the end

of the second interrogation

in verse 33,

the man says,

if this man

were not from God,

he could do nothing.

So we've gone from,

he's a man called Jesus,

he's probably a prophet,

and he could do nothing

if he wasn't from God.

And then Jesus comes

and talks to the man,

explains that he is

the son of man,

and then in verse 38,

the man says,

Lord,

I believe

and worships

Jesus.

So he goes from,

I met this man

called Jesus

to,

Lord,

I believe

in you.

As he tells

this story,

as it sinks in

exactly what

the Lord Jesus

has done

for him,

he begins to realize

more and more

how special

this man

Jesus

is.

He's a prophet,

he's from God,

he is the Messiah.

That was what Jesus

implied by calling himself

the son of man.

And by the end,

he is a true disciple

of the Lord Jesus.

Can we come back

to our stories?

If you have a story

to tell,

to begin with,

it can be quite difficult

to speak to people.

But like this man,

the more you tell it,

the more people

you explain

what Jesus has done

for you to,

the more confident

you will become

in talking about

the Lord Jesus.

And as you do

and as you

read the Bible,

as you learn more

about and from Jesus,

then your faith

will also grow.

And you'll begin

to understand

more and more

about who Jesus is

and exactly

what it is

that he has done

for you.

I think that is

one of the great

lessons from this chapter.

If you know Jesus,

if you have an experience

of Jesus

in your life,

tell people about it,

think about what

he's done,

and then you'll

grow in your faith

and in your confidence

in sharing it

with others.

Let's look at the last

bit of the chapter

which I've called

a momentous insight.

Momentous meaning

really important

or significant.

I think it is

that.

So we're looking

particularly

at verse 39.

Jesus said,

For judgment

I have come

into the world

so that the blind

will see

and those who see

will become blind.

We'll have a very

clear example

of the blind seeing here.

Not just physically,

but as the man's eyes

spiritually were open

and he came to know

and to recognize

who Jesus was

and to worship him.

The reference

of the seeing

who become blind

I think is fairly clear

and they got it

is fairly clearly

a reference

to the Pharisees.

Jesus says,

You're not going to

see because you

should be able to see

but you've chosen

not to.

They had chosen

darkness

rather than light.

The people who knew

the Old Testament

knew what God

had said in the past

knew what God

had done

in the past

chose instead

to reject

God's Son.

To get so caught up

in petty arguments

of what you couldn't

or couldn't

could or couldn't

do on the Sabbath.

That they lost sight

of the fact

that here was

a wonderful thing

God's Son

with us

working among us

healing

and drawing people

to God.

They were

sighted

but they chose

to be

blind.

The saying goes

there is none

so blind

as he who

will not

see.

Can I put it

a different way

using words

from Tim Keller?

Now some of you

may know

that Tim Keller

passed away

earlier this weekend.

Tim Keller

was a minister

in the United States.

He for many years

had a big church

in Manhattan

in New York

which he planted.

He found a church

planting movement.

He was a co-founder

of the Gospel Coalition

and he was a well-known

Christian writer

and theologian.

Also I believe

a very humble man

of great integrity.

He'll be

much missed.

I'm going to quote

three things

from him

this morning.

And here's the one

that particularly

relates

to this passage.

Tim Keller

says there is

no blindness

so deep

and incurable

as the one

we don't

acknowledge.

There is no

blindness

so deep

and incurable

as the one

we don't

acknowledge.

Can't we see

that in this passage?

These Pharisees

who should

have sight

who should be able

to understand

who Jesus is

yet they have

blinded themselves

with their own law

and they can't

acknowledge that.

They think

they are superior

they think

they are the ones

who see clearly

when in fact

they've been blinded

by themselves.

Let's challenge

ourselves on that

as well.

We look at

these Pharisees

and might say

well we are

not like that.

We know

Jesus

we follow

him.

But couldn't

the Pharisees

say we are

Moses

disciples?

On the face

of it

they were

good living

religious

people.

I wonder

whether many

of us

have blind

spots

in our

Christian life.

Things that

we wouldn't

want to

acknowledge

and yet

which are

going against

God's

way.

Perhaps

there are

works of

God we can

see round

about us

and we say

well I'm not

sure they

should really

do it that

way.

I don't

really approve

of that.

But God's

at work

and we

don't

acknowledge

it.

Tim

Keller

as I said

worked in

Manhattan

in New

York.

He went

to an

environment

where people

said you

have no

chance

as an

evangelical

Christian

preaching the

gospel.

You're

never

going to

reach

these

people.

They're

so

materialistic

and so

caught up

in themselves.

He ended

up with a

church of

more than

5,000

people.

And he

did that

partly by

respectfully

challenging

people about

their lifestyles

and their

attitudes.

So here's

something he

said.

He said we

want to

feel beautiful.

We want

to feel

loved.

We want

to feel

significant.

That's

why we're

working so

hard.

And that's

the source

of the

evil.

Talking to

respectable

New Yorkers,

people who

are pillars

of society

and saying

actually you've

got things

wrong.

You think

the way to

get on in

life, the

way to

succeed is

to work

hard and

to be seen

to be an

achiever.

You're

missing the

point.

The way to

get on in

life, the way

to really have

satisfaction in

life is to

follow Jesus

and to

know him

and to

live for

him.

Perhaps that's

a word for

us in

Edinburgh as

well as

in New

York.

Do we get

too caught

up in the

busyness of

life, in

our personal

ambitions, in

wanting to be

seen to be

good and

respectable?

And do we

sometimes miss

the point that

the key thing

is that we

know Jesus

and that

our lives

are with

him and

led by

him?

So the

answer that

Tim Keller

presents,

the third

quotation I'm

going to give

from a very

well-known

quotation you

may have

heard before,

Tim Keller

says,

we are more

sinful and

flawed in

ourselves than

we ever

dared believe,

yet at the

same time we

are more

loved and

accepted in

Jesus Christ

than we

ever dared

hope.

So two

things in

that quotation,

we are more

sinful and

flawed than

we ever

dared believe.

I know a

lot about the

sin in my

life.

You may know

a bit about

it too,

perhaps there

are things

you spot

that I

don't spot.

But how

much more

is there

that God

looks on

and sees

my sinfulness,

my putting

myself first

my going

against his

way and

not following

Jesus as

I should.

We're more

sinful and

flawed than

we ever

dare believe.

And yes,

says Tim Keller,

at the same

time we are

more loved and

accepted in

Jesus Christ

than we ever

dared hope.

Despite all

my sin,

despite all

my failure,

Christ loves

me more than

I could ever

hope could

ever understand.

He loved

me enough

to go to

the cross

on Calvary

and to

die for

me there

and to

take my

punishment.

And I'm

accepted not

just grudgingly,

not just

while your

sins are

forgiven,

and that's

it.

I'm accepted

as a child

of God.

I can come

to God as

my father,

knowing my

relationship

with him

has been

restored through

the Lord

Jesus.

Jesus.

And that

is the

story of

everyone who

has trusted

in Jesus.

And the

challenge for

all of us

is have

we come

to that

point?

Have we

recognised

the sin

that's in

our life

that we

have gone

our own

way rather

than God's

way?

And have

we accepted

the only

way back

to God

is through

Jesus?

And if we

have, if

we're

Christians,

let's just

think, where

do we stand

today?

Are we

in some

ways getting

blinded?

Are we

letting sinful

things that

maybe we

don't even

realise take

the place

of God

in our

lives?

And perhaps

we need to

come back

to the

cross and

to recognise

again all

that Jesus

has done

for us.

So the

question is

again, what

is your

story?

I suspect

some people

may be

thinking, well

I haven't

got much

of a story.

You might

be a

Christian, you

might know

Jesus as

your

saviour,

think, well

actually my

story is a

bit dull.

I trusted

the Lord

Jesus when

I was seven

years old and

my father led

me to the

Lord.

Not very

exciting, very

significant for

me, but

not the

most exciting

of stories.

Well if you

feel I've

not got much

of a story,

let me tell

you about

one other

person.

We're going

to sing one

of his hymns

in a few

minutes.

It's John

Newton.

It's quite

well known that

John Newton

was a slave

trader and

that he

lived a

very sinful

life, but

he had a

pious mother

who remembered

something of

what she had

said to him

and in the

midst of a

storm when he

feared for

his life, he

put himself on

the mercy of

God and his

life was

changed.

So that was

his conversion.

But if you look

at the story of

John Newton, it

actually took a

long time before

you could get to

the point where

he said, I was

blind, but now I

see.

He continued as

a slave trader

for several

years, at

first not

seeing any

problem with

it, laterally

being much

more convicted

about it.

He fell

several times

into moral

sin.

And it was

probably around

ten years

after his

conversion, a

process that

John Newton

went through

in getting to

know Jesus

and having his

eyes opened

and eventually

becoming a

clergyman as

well as a

hymn writer and

very influential

in the

abolition of

slavery.

And I think

for many of

us, our

story might

not be that

different.

We probably

don't have the

dramatic start

that John

Newton had.

But having

trusted the

Lord Jesus,

that is not

something that

immediately changes

everything for

most of us.

Sometimes it

did.

It seems for

Duncan Donaldson

it did

immediately.

But over

time, God

speaks to us

and draws us

to himself.

So if I look

back at my

own life,

there was a

period of

around five

years from

when I was

17 to when

I was 22,

which I would

mark as being

when I matured

as a Christian

and became

committed really

to the Lord

Jesus.

It started with

a holiday

club in this

church, the

first holiday

club we had.

I was a

very junior

helper.

At the end

of five years,

I was leading

my first trip

through Union

Mission, which

would have

been unimaginable

when I was

17.

In between,

there was

university.

And a series

of things where

God worked in

my life and

I can look

back and

say, I've

got a story

there of

what God

did for me.

And of course,

there are other

stories as we

go on.

And I would

encourage you,

if you're a

Christian, not

just to think of

the moment of

your conversion,

that's really

important if you

can identify it,

but to think,

what has God

done in my

life that has

been significant

and how can I

share that

with others?

We all have

a story, and

we have a

story that we

should be able

to share with

other people.

And if we

have a story,

don't be afraid

to tell it.

Yes, it's

difficult to

begin with.

I struggle

with it as

well.

But don't be

afraid to tell

your story.

People want

to hear.

People are

interested in

our story.

Some of them

might laugh at

us.

Some of them

might not be

interested.

But generally,

if you've got a

good story, that

is a really

powerful witness

to others

alongside telling

them about

Jesus.

So if you

have a story,

tell it.

But the

question also

this morning

is, do you

have a story?

Can you say,

yes, there

was a time

when I trusted

in the Lord

Jesus, when

I handed my

life over to

him, and

that has

really changed

and transformed

me?

If you can't

say, yes, I

have a story,

yes, I know

Jesus, then

please consider

this morning

what Jesus

has been

saying to

us, and

what the

story of

the blind

man signifies

to us.

Here is

someone who

can take

us from

blindness,

from sin,

who can

transform us

and can

help us

to know

God and

to have

confidence

in the

future.

Let's

make sure

that we

have a

story we

can tell

about God's

goodness to

us, and

let's make

sure that we

go and we

tell it.

Let's pray

together.

Father, we

thank you for

your word to

us this

morning.

Thank you for

the story of

the blind

man, the

very powerful

story and

the real

transformation

in his

life.

Once he

was blind,

then he

met Jesus,

then he

could see.

And we

thank you

that many

of us

have stories

that we

can tell

others about

how Jesus

has worked

in our

lives.

Help us

to be willing

to do

that and

to share

with others

how God

has been

good to

us.

And we

pray that

all of

us will

come to

the point

where we

do have

that story

where we

can say

Jesus is

my

saviour.

My life

has been

changed

through

trusting

in him.

We thank

you for

your presence

with us.

Pray for

your blessing

as we

continue

together

now.

In the

name of

the Lord

Jesus.

Amen.