Show Notes
There is a hunger for the Gospel! Reboot the Gospel in your own personal life, and in the lives of those you care about who don't know about Jesus and how He can transform them and give them eternal life.
View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, it's my privilege to introduce our guest this morning. David McFarland's not a stranger to our congregation. I invite him. He's one of our outside elders. He's a delight to have. He's got a great sense of humor. He's born in South America, Uruguay. And he's come and been a great blessing to the church and to me as a pastor. He's encouraged all of us, and he's also helped at different moments. Say, this is what you need to do, Paul. This is what you need to do here. He's really given me some good insight. So, David, thank you so much.
A great blessing to us, to the church in Canada. He served in four different congregations and he spoke in six continents. So let's welcome David McFarland.
[00:01:18] Speaker B: I'm putting that in my notes.
Oh, dear me. Well, praise the Lord. Thank you so much for letting me come.
My grandfather was a scratch golfer.
How many of you play golf? Anyone? Yeah, he. Absolutely passionate golfer, loved golf, was very good at it. And it's clearly not genetic.
I was so frustrated with my caddy. I said, you're the worst caddy in the world.
I had a frustrating game, and the caddie looked at me and said, sir, I'm not the worst caddy in the world. That would be too much of a coincidence.
Well, golf is an easy game in theory, isn't it? In theory.
My grandfather used to apparently tell the story of a man who retired. He was an executive, as my grandfather was retired. And so he goes to his eye doctor and says, I love playing golf. I retired so I could play golf. And I hit the ball, and I no longer can see where the ball goes. I keep losing them. Would you please give me stronger glasses? The doctor does a test. He says, I can't give you stronger glasses. You got the strongest ever. And the guy said, that's ridiculous. I want to play golf. I'm retired. And then the doctor, I have an idea. I have an old man who's nearly 90, who got eyes like an eagle. He's got nothing to do during the day. He can go with you. He can see anything, and you could play together. So that's what they do. And so the executive goes. And he's retired executive. He's going to tee off. Are you watching? The old man said, yes, I'm watching. I'm watching. And he hits a ball. And the old man goes, I see it, I see it, I see it, I see it. And the guy said, great. Where did it go? I forget.
Okay. That joke hits home a little at my age anyway.
But the goal of golf in theory is very easy, isn't it? A little white ball, you get in a hole and you just do it 18 times.
But the goal of the church and the goal of Christianity is also straightforward.
It's all about simply getting the gospel.
All about the gospel. And the tragedy is like the old man, we can see the wall, see the wall and then, oops, I forgot. We can take the gospel for granted. We can forget that it is the power of God to change lives. We can forget the difference that he has made in our life. And we get complacent. And we need to have a gospel to reboot. A gospel reboot.
And. Oh, okay, if you could put them on the back wall, that would help me.
Yep, that would be good. Okay, so I'm going to go back one slide.
There we go. A gospel reboot. I think that we need to do that right now. A gospel reboot. Why do we need a gospel reboot? Well, as you saw on the other slide, we're at a point where, where society has been steadily moving away from the gospel. How many of you would say that that's true? We're less Christian than we were in Red Deer.
Than we were. Yes. And so fortunately, sadly, that is true. It's been moving away. When I came to Canada, which was a long time ago, and by the way, I love Canada. This is the best country in the world. I feel privileged to be here, just grateful to be in this wonderful country.
When I came to Canada, when you shared the gospel with some of those 50 years ago, all you needed was a putter to get the ball in the hole because the ball was already on the green.
But now people have gone so far away from the gospel that you need a driver from the fairway to get the ball onto the green. I hope that made sense to you. It was brilliant, bordering on genius.
And I wrote a book on humility.
How the three greatest men in the world and how I met the other two.
You bring out the worst in me. Okay, just so you know.
But the fact is that the society has moved away from the gospel and in fact it's turned against the gospel and there's a lot of opposition in lots of areas. An attack on the gospel. On Wednesday, a 31 year old man, Charlie Kirk, was shot.
You saw it on the news, I imagine. He was at Utah Valley University and he was shocked. There was 3,000 people there. Now, I don't want to make any comment about a political Stand. But we do know he was a born again Christian with a Christian wife and children.
And he was having a rally telling people about Christian values and so on. And there were 3,000 people gathered there. And someone with a rifle shot him and killed him, murdered him literally in front of his wife and his children. The New York Times said this. For many, the assassination represented an attack on the values of millions of conservative Christians. It's an attack on the Christian faith is how they saw it. And if some consider him a Christian martyr, I wouldn't go that far. But somebody else said he died for what he believed in the gospel. There is opposition to this gospel. It's controversial to many it is offensive in today's culture. And the tragedy is also that the church in many ways has walked away from the gospel of as well.
Unfortunately, I spoke at a Baptist church, I speak in lots of different denominations and I happen to be in a Baptist church who at one time were known to be lovers of the gospel. And after I'd spoken, it was a banquet and I was a speaker and I gave the gospel as I often do. And the lady, one of the organizers, layperson, said to me, that's the first time I've heard the gospel clearly presented in the church in decades, decades. So we're in church, we've been intimidated by the culture, we feel offended and so we try to hide the culture. We become submarine Christians. We come up on Sunday and submerge the rest of the week.
And it's tragic, tragic to see this happening. We need, and that's my title, we need a gospel reboot. We need a gospel reboot. We do so today. The good news is, the good news is that there is a hunger for the gospel in our culture. In spite of the opposition, in spite of the offensive, in spite of people turning against the Christian faith, which by the way is nothing compared to what happens in the rest of the world where they really persecute Christians. We have it easy compared to the rest of the world.
But today there is a hunger in the world for the gospel. Even here in Red Deer they tell us that Gen Z, those are born between or Gen Z, I guess. I'm in Canada between 1997 and 2012. That's the age group.
There's a resurgent of interest in Christianity, search for community connection and deeper spiritual engagement. The younger generation, it seems to have skipped a few generations suddenly are looking for purpose and meaning and they believe that it's spiritual and they're more open to the gospel than ever. How many of you saw the movie the Jesus Revolution. Did anyone see that movie? Anybody see that movie? Anybody see that? Okay. Okay.
Kelsey Grammar was representing Greg Laurie. Greg Laurie is a pastor who is around in the Jesus movement. And he still pastors a church, Harvest Church in Los Angeles. And he reports that just now, right now, he says, in the past 24 months, we have baptized in Los Angeles. We have baptized over 10,000 people.
10,000 people. One church. One church. That's right.
You see, we're believing a lie that people are not reachable. They are reachable if we present the gospel the right way. And then he said, on one day, we baptized 2,100 people.
So I want to tell you that we desperately need to do a gospel reboot because we can't keep doing what we're doing. The world needs to hear what we have, and we need to take a stand for what we are. Back to Romans.
Okay, so here In Romans, chapter 1, verse 16, it says this.
And by the way, the book of Romans is about the gospel. It's about what we believe and why we believe what we believe. Paul the Apostle wrote it to the center of the biggest empire of his day, the center of all wisdom and knowledge and everything and power and money. And he wrote this important document to them, the book of Romans. And in it there's this verse that I believe encapsulates the entire message of the book of Romans. It's this verse 16. For I am not ashamed of the gospel. There's a word for I am not ashamed of the gospel. Because it is the power of God to bring salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.
You see, I'm not ashamed of this gospel.
You see, Paul knew firsthand the power of this gospel. In Acts, chapter nine, we find that Paul had been persecuting the Christians. He didn't believe in Jesus and Christianity. He was out there throwing them in jail, thinking they were wrong. He was against them. He was on the other team. He fights. And then in Acts, chapter nine, he suddenly comes face to face with Jesus and he realizes that he was wrong and he repents and he turns to God and he finds that God can transform people.
I love the gospel because it transformed me.
I was born in South America, in Montevideo, grew up in Uruguay and Argentina. And as a kid, we did not have faith. We were supposed to be Scotch Presbyterian, but my dad preferred the Scotch to the Presbyterian.
I always tell that joke, and it's always true.
And so with no religion to speak of, and one day I went to a small church, seeking answers, had a number of people witness to me. And my life was transformed in a church much smaller than this one in a city of grano in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when I was 23 years old, a mixed up young man, brought up in a dysfunctional home, very dysfunctional, and committed my life to Christ.
Right where you're sitting. I didn't know there was a God. I didn't know there was this gospel. I wondered, but I said, what have I got to lose? And maybe that's you this morning. What have you got to lose? I tried all sorts of things to fill the emptiness and the anger and the brokenness and the stuff that was in my heart. I tried everything else, I think. And sitting there, I said, what have I got to lose? And that's you. And I. I said, God, I don't know if you're real, but if you are, I need you in my life right now. And I prayed a prayer that I'm going to pray with you a little later. And when I prayed that prayer, it began to change my life. The Chinese have a saying that every long journey starts with the first step. The first step for me and the first step for you is to say, God, I need you in my life today. Come in. And that's what we're going to be doing in a few moments time, just so that you know, and his life will change.
And I love the gospel because it changed me and it's changed hundreds of other people that I know. I remember one Sunday I was in the lobby of a church I was pastoring. I pastored in Ontario, in British Columbia.
And a young girl who had given her life to Christ the weekend before came to me with a bigger smile.
Her smile was so big her teeth nearly fell out. And she was smiling. I have a terrible sense of humor. Okay. She was smiling and she came up and she said, pastor, this has been the best week of my entire life.
And I just thought that's what the gospel's about. Taking broken people and healing them. Taking people with no hope and giving them a sense of purpose. Taking people that feel they're nobodies and giving them a dignity because God loves them so much. He died on the cross for them. God wants to take people and he lifts us up out of the miry clay and he just makes a difference in our lives. And I love the gospel. I love the gospel. Absolutely love the gospel. So why should we listen to the Apostle Paul? Why should we listen?
In chapter one, he begins the book of Romans by saying, paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. Set apart for the gospel of God. He was all about the gospel that we're talking about. He was a servant, which is a word for slave, meaning that he had given his life to the gospel. He believed in it with all his heart. He was an authentic Christian. We need more of those.
And on top of that, he said he was called.
Called, a lot of people are called. But he obeyed. He actually followed. He was an apostle, which means he was a messenger and it was about the gospel. And then he goes on to say that it's not a new religion. You see, the Romans, part of their strategy for taking over the world was instead of going against all the different religions, they would embrace all the different religions. And in fact, if you go to Rome and maybe some of you been, there's a huge building called the pantheon. And they would have all the gods up in the ceiling of all these different countries that they went to and all the different religions and philosophies and so on that they were there. And so, so he says to them, this is not a new religion, this is something new. And he says the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures regarding his son, who was to his earthly life a descendant of David. A descendant of David. So Paul is saying, hey, this religion's been around forever.
David lived thousands of years before and it's mentioned he was prophesied in, in Genesis, sorry, in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that this descendant of David would be the Messiah, the Savior that God was sending. In fact, go back to Genesis 3:15, and right at the very beginning of the Bible thousands of years ago, God promises to bring a savior.
Like this is not a new religion. It's been around for thousands of years, says the apostle Paul. And the heart of this message is Jesus Christ.
Verse 4, he says, and who through the spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we receive grace, through him we receive grace. Grace is unmerited favor. We don't deserve it, but God loves us so much, he gives it to us. Wow. I was in London, England this week. I flew back on Wednesday and I met with a fellow who I know and he believed that getting to heaven was, you just do enough good works.
And I said, no, no, no. He said, we don't mean the church. I said, no, no, no. I said to him, if you believe that good works is how you get to heaven, then don't go to the church. Join the Kiwanis, join the Rotary Club. They do good works.
But if you really want to go to heaven, you need Jesus to get there.
Jesus Christ, the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. The Bible says in 1833, 1833, in the United States, there was a man by the name of Great George Wilson. And he robbed the mail and he shot a guy in the process. They put him on death row. And president at that time, way back in 1833, was Andrew Jackson. And he gave a pardon, he wrote a presidential pardon to pardon this guy George.
And you see, George had committed the murder.
He was rightfully being imprisoned.
And the law said that he had to be executed. But this was grace. They were offering something he didn't deserve. And that's what we are offered, something that we don't deserve. God wants to forgive us if we turn to him. But the problem with George, this guy, George Wilson, is that he chose not to receive the pardon. He chose to be executed. So they said, a pardon that isn't received is invalid. We need to receive that grace that God offers us.
So why do we need a savior? In Ephesians Paul, this very same author says, as for you, you were dead in your sins and transgressions and sin.
You see, some people think that to get heaven you have to have a perfect score. But I played golf a few times and I have nothing close to a perfect score.
And in life, I don't have a perfect score either. If getting to heaven means a perfect score, none of us are going to make it.
None of us are going to make it. We can't. That's why God does something for us we cannot do for ourselves. That's why we need a savior who's willing to reach out to us if we're willing to receive Him.
You see, we're living in a world without hope, without hope I must. There we go. Without hope. In Ephesians 2:12, it says, Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, without hope and without God. In the world without Christ, the Bible said there is no hope.
Did you know that in Canada, 12 people die every day from suicide?
A wonderful country with educated people with lots of resources.
And 12 people every day, that's 4,500 a year, kill themselves because they have no hope.
On top of that, I read statistics that between 2016 and 2024, over 52,000 people have died through drug overdose. Some of them are suicides. Others are just looking for meaning and purpose in life, and they're trying drugs because they're desperate for some purpose and meaning in their life. And it destroys them. It destroys them. They need Jesus. We need to reboot the gospel because the country needs the gospel again and Red Deer needs the gospel again.
I love the gospel. Why do I love the Gospel? Because In Romans, chapter 4, verse 25, it says this. He died for our sins and rose again to make us right with God and filling us with God's goodness.
Isn't that something? He died for our sins.
He knew that we were sinners, and he still chose to die. And he rose again to make us right with God. He would make us right with God, filling us with God's goodness. We need God's goodness in our life.
There's a story told of the bridge over the River Kwai. It's a book. During the Second World War in Burma, the Japanese had control of Burma, and they were building a railroad over the River Kwai. And they used all the soldiers that they'd captured, the American troops and the British troops and so on. And it was a concentration camp. And these people were malnourished and treated like animals and put in cages, and they would work all day when they were starving. And one story is that they were digging, digging by hand to build this railroad over the River Kwai. And. And at the end of the day, they counted the amount. The guards counted the amount of shovels, and they counted. And there was one shovel missing. And so they put all the soldiers against the wall, all the prisoners, and they pointed machine guns at them and said, if you do not admit that you did this, we're going to start shooting you one at a time, one until you're all dead.
And one man, a godly man, chaplain, put his hand up and said, that was me. And they pulled him aside and they beat him with the shovels and they killed him, beat him to death.
Then they recounted the shovels and found out that there weren't any missing, that he had chosen innocent, totally innocent to die to save the lives of the others.
That's exactly what Jesus did.
He died so that you and I could have forgiveness, so that you and I could be reconciled with God.
It costs us nothing, but it cost him everything.
And this wonderful gospel eliminates this wonderful.
Okay, I apologize. I am the problem. Did you know that I'm pressing the wrong button?
I. I'm hoping there's an ejector button, and I go out through the ceiling.
You're not having me back again, Pastor Paul, are you?
He eliminates all guilt, including my mistakes.
Okay.
In Colossians, the same Apostle Paul says, having cancelled the charge of. Of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. He's taken all our sins, all our mistakes, all our failures, all my cuts and bruises, all the abuse that I've had in my life, the disappointment, the betrayals that I've had, that you've had in your life. Betrayals and hurt and anger and bitterness and. And sense of revenge. All the things that make up and eat us on the inside like a cancer. All the things that the Bible calls sins, and he took them upon himself.
It's like if you have an etchy sketch, an ecchi sketch, and you get your etchy sketch, and you put down all the mistakes you made and the sins and the feelings, and once you've covered the thing with all the black parts of your life, and then you are able to get the etchy sketch and say, God, I give you all this to you. Take it from me. And you shake the etchy sketch, and it cleans it all out.
And there are some of us here this morning who are suffering with guilt.
Some of you are being eaten away by anger and bitterness. And you're sitting here.
I'm here to tell you that we need a. You need a reboot of the Gospel, because this gospel promises to eliminate the past or give you a new beginning. Second Corinthians 5:17. My favorite scripture. If anyone is in Christ, not the first time, anytime you're in Christ. If anyone is in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come. Right now, this morning, the Holy Spirit is here, right here.
And you have an option. You can say, God, I want to get rid of that bitterness, that hurt, that anger.
And I'm willing to shake my ecchi sketch and say, God, I want a new beginning. And God, Holy Spirit, will blow like a wind through this place. And it'll be like all the dark clouds that you have in your life will be blown away by the wind of the Spirit.
And you will be healed right where you're sitting right now. Because the Holy Spirit is here.
Salvation is free to all. I love the gospel.
Salvation is free to all. Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's a gift that God gives us. A gift.
And just like any gift, you. You can't Earn it. All you need to do is open it. But if you leave it and don't open it, then it's no gift to you, but you can receive it today. A gift. We're living in a perfect, cynical world where people say, how can it be so simple? How can it be so free? Because God is amazing, that's why.
And this gospel is for anyone. It says in Romans 3:26, it says, God makes anyone right with himself who puts their trust in Jesus. God makes anyone, anyone. That's you. That's me. I remember 23. And it makes you right with God. Wow. If you try to say, well, I'll put my life together first. You'll never put your life together first. You need to come just as you are. I know a guy called Billy Graham who I had the privilege of meeting and working with. And they used to always sing that song when he asks people to come to Christ just as I am, without one plea. And we need to come to God just as we are, and find that God is going to meet you right today, right where you're sitting.
The gospel, you see, needs a response. It needs to be received.
If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's what you need to do. Right now, where you're sitting, do you declare, Jesus is Lord and I believe. I want to believe. And you will be saved. We need to respond right now. There's radio waves going through this building.
There are. And if you had a radio and you turn the dial, you could pick up the radio stations and is that where the gospel. Gospel is everywhere.
But it's up to us to tune our life to hear it.
And I pray that you this morning say, God, I want to tune the station of my life on salvation through Jesus Christ.
But let me now go on to the next. And by the way, if you're here this morning, I'm going to pray with you now, if you don't mind.
You don't mind, do you?
Okay, I'm going to pray with you, then I'm going to keep preaching, so don't be too disappointed.
But let me pray the prayer that I prayed when I was 23 that you can pray. And maybe you wandered from God. God loves you. The gospel is just for you. He loves you so much he died. He wants you to return your dignity. He wants to return your peace, wants to return your healing. And he wants to do it in moments like this.
Let's pray.
Jesus I pray for people that are sitting here that want a touch from you. This morning the pastor talked a moment ago about the woman who touched the hem of his garment.
Lord, I pray that right now they will say, jesus, I want you in my life right now. Lord, I ask forgiveness right now. I turn myself to you 100%. Lord Jesus, be my savior. Jesus, I've come back to you. Bring me the healing I need.
And when I walk out of this building, I'm going to walk out with my hand in yours. I'm going to be a friend with you for the rest of my life. This is my promise. In Jesus name, Amen. And I know that if you prayed that prayer with all your heart, that when you leave this building, it will be the beginning of a new direction in your life. So much.
Now, Acts chapter four says this.
It says, and by the way, if you prayed that prayer, there are people at the front at the information center, right, Pastor, there's an information center out there. And you just go up to the information center and say, they promised me something and give them something, okay?
They really are never having me back. Pastor Mark. Okay.
In Acts 4:12 it says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mankind where you may be saved.
John MacArthur, who died just recently, a great preacher, was asked on an interview once about his faith. And they said, that's offensive, that you think that people need Jesus and it's the only way that is offensive. To which he said, the Gospel is always offensive, has always been offensive or always will be offensive. It is because Jesus is the way. And Muslims can be saved, yes, if they turn to Jesus. Hindus can be saved. Yes, when they turn to Jesus. Atheists can be saved. Yes, when they turn to Jesus. Jesus loves them all, loves them all.
Now there was one more word, and that's where we're going next. And the other word was ashamed. So we'd like to reboot, reboot the sharing of the gospel.
Let's go back to Romans 1:16, which is where we started for. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God to bring salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. You see, Paul was coming with this message that was so simple, the message of the gospel, which is very simple. And there were all these fancy religions with all these impressive looking gods and all sorts of fables and stories and things and all the Greek philosophies and people gazing at their navels and all that sort of stuff.
And Paul decided that he was not ashamed. And there was a lot of opposition from the Jewish people, opposition from all sorts of people. But Paul says, I am going and I am not ashamed of this gospel. Maybe he was saying, I'm tired of being ashamed of the gospel. Maybe that's something for you. I'm tired of being ashamed of the gospel. Okay, I'm not going to be ashamed anymore. I am a follower of Jesus and that's a fact of life if you follow something else. But God bless you, but I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
And what makes us be not ashamed is love.
Love. You see, when I don't love, then I don't care.
But when I do care, then I'm going to do something about telling about the gospel. I will share the gospel. That's what I will do. Love makes us willing. Love makes us willing.
This is a picture of photograph taken when I was a little boy. Believe it or not, that little boy on the left is me.
And that is my mother. She was an English teacher. And there the ugly baby is my brother.
And you know, we're laughing way too much, okay? He hasn't got any better as he's got older.
And this is a true story. We lived in the north of Argentina for six years. A place called Tucuman. And very hot.
And so dad worked for Shell, the oil company and he took us swimming a hot day, it's tropics, the tropics are very hot. And he took us swimming the Pilcomajo river. And there are piranhas there and alligators called Kaiman. But the locals told us they weren't there that day.
And true story, we went. And my mother who was very reserved, very prim and proper, very. She'd make a perfect Canadian, very reserved, prim and proper lady, cared about what other people thought, you know, wanted to do everything right. And she brought her little picnic basket to have this lunch we were going to have on the river. A lot of other families also there with their families because of the hot day. And my mother puts it all out. My dad picked up my brother like that in diapers and took him into the river and he sat him on a rock in the river in his diapers. And then he took me out a little further swimming.
And then as I'm out there swimming, suddenly we hear yah.
And we look and it's my mother, my reserved Canadian like mother.
And she is running like a mad woman falling on the rocks, blood running out of her.
She had a dress we Were poor people. And she broke her dress and she was falling down. The people on the bank look at her. Crazy lady, loca, loca, loca, Ooh.
And she's falling down, yelling and screaming. And we looked, and what had happened was that my little brother had lost his balance on the rock, or he'd been. Saw a leaf going past or something, and he fell into the water. And he was being taken. He was drowning, going towards where the alligators were.
And my mother saw it, and she went to save his life. Later on in life, I kind of wish he hadn't done that.
But just take a moment to think about this.
What would make my mother do that?
She cared what people thought.
Could. She could have said, well, we pay lifeguards, they should be looking after.
Why should I have to do that?
The lifeguards, we pay them to do it. Or maybe there isn't such a thing as drowning. Maybe it'll all work out in the end.
Or I don't know what else she could have said, you know, I've got two. Two kids and the other one's better looking.
But she didn't. Why didn't she do that? Why did she suddenly not care what other people thought?
Because it's called love.
Love.
When you love lost people, you do whatever it takes, and you don't care what people think.
You don't care. And she saved my brother's life.
Crazy, crazy one.
My mom, by the way, nearly lost her leg. There were no penicillin.
She got a gangrene, nearly had it amputated. Somebody managed to get penicillin from the States at the last moment. And we saved her leg and, yeah, had a wonderful mom.
You see, love makes us willing.
That is why I'm so eager to preach the gospel also to you. In Rome, he was excited about preaching the gospel.
You see, if we're going to reboot the gospel, it starts not in the head, but with the heart.
This is what Jesus wants me to do.
I love Jesus. He loves me. And he loves lost people as much as he loves me.
Wow.
So how can I not be ashamed? And by the way, telling people at work that you're a believer is a good thing. They might make fun of you.
I was an executive with American Express, and they'd call me Reverend behind my back.
But often they'd come to my office and say, you're kind of religious. I'm going through a divorce. I don't know how to handle it because they knew I was a Christian.
Now, when you tell people that You're a Christian, then all of a sudden the pressure's on to actually live like one and actually does you a lot of good.
So I'm getting towards the end of the message. Ah, the end of the message.
I preach for the Pentecostals here in Edmonton.
Not in Edmonton. In Silver Lake. I think they have a camp. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Yep.
Okay.
What's it called?
Yeah, yeah, it's a big camp. Yeah, Big camp. That's it. And I was there for a week. I was aware for their speaking and all of that.
And I talked about how reaching people for Christ and living out the gospel really isn't rocket science. And it caught on. And for some reason they kept saying, it's not rocket science, it's not rocket science, and it isn't. So I'm going to give you three simple things that we can all do. All of us can do. It's really easy so that we're not ashamed of the gospel, so that we do a gospel reboot. Number one is pray.
Pray.
If we start praying, pray for your friends, your neighbor, your unsaved loved ones. Start praying and praying with your heart, like with all your heart.
We have a member of our family that I prayed for 40 years before she came to Christ.
So pray. Number two is care.
Just be nice.
What a.
Whoa. That is creative. Be nice.
A Christian. A nice.
In other words, go out of your way to be nice to people and to be friendly and to invite them over.
Most of the ministry in the Bible happened around meals, and it wasn't a suis chalet.
All right, Reds.
No state in Maine. No, it was in their homes. And we've lost the ability.
There's a Mexican lady in the States. Came into the states and didn't speak any English.
Menial jobs. The neighbor was a Christian. And the neighbor took the initiative. Key is to take the initiative. Being nice is take the initiative is not be. Yeah, you got it. And so she invited the lady over to a meal and then gave her a gift.
A gift. And got to know her. And.
And the lady. Eventually the little Mexican lady went to church with her and gave her life to Christ. And they asked, how did you come to Christ? And she said, well, this lady was so nice. And when I sat at the table and she was helping me and feeding me lovely food, I thought, with this lady, there must be a God that can do this.
And she saw God in this woman who was nice.
And as that consequence, she gave her life to Christ and the wonderful News is that we can all care. Number three, and this is the last one, is we can share. We can share the story of how we came to Christ.
There we go. And it's quite simple.
I can start praying, I can start caring, I can start finding ways to share. You offer Alpha. Alpha is an amazing program. Invite people to go to Alpha or go to that women's program that's coming up. I'm sure they give the gospel in there. All right.
Okay. I think that we need a revival.
Okay.
Okay. This is my last scripture. And you can say, oh, okay, so how do we do a gospel reboot? Or why do it? This is. I'm coming to the end. Okay. In Romans, chapter 1, verse 17, it says this.
For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness by faith. From first to last. As it is written, the righteous will live by faith. This is a very important part of the Bible in the book of Romans, because a guy called Martin Luther Saul read this and realized for the first time that you get saved not by good works or doing things, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that it's a faith gift to be received, which is what I've been saying all morning. Okay? The free gift.
A guy called John Wesley, an Englishman, went to America to try to save the natives.
He failed. He was a disaster. He didn't know Jesus. He was doing it because he wanted to earn his way to heaven. And he was on a ship coming home with Moravians and he sold the. These people believed in the Bible. And somebody read the introduction to the Book of Romans from Luther with this passage that we looked at here. And the essence of the passage is this. You're not saved by good works, but you're saved by faith. Faith is what saves you. And all of a sudden he realized that it wasn't about doing things, it's about receiving Jesus and about giving your life to Jesus Christ. And as a consequence, John Wesley life was changed. And he got so excited about the faith that he started the Methodist churches all over the world. And he started what's called the Great Awakening. And a revival started just like we read about happening in Los Angeles right now. This one happened back in the 1800s, way back then. And it was a revival that swept through England, swept. Swept to the United States at a time when people were against Christianity, believe it or not. And it was called the Great Awakening. And some people think that he was the most significant leader in the 18th century. The most significant leader in the 18th century. So my point is simply This.
I think that we need a reboot of the gospel. I think we need a revival. How many of you think that?
Okay, let me try this side.
How many of you think we need a revival?
How many on this side think we need a revival? Come on. Come on. Yes, that's right. Yes.
And the wonderful thing is that we have what we need, which is the gospel. So let's go do it.
[00:44:35] Speaker A: Let's stand.
Thank you, David, for sharing the good news about Jesus. Amen.
And do you know that you are all good news? If you are a Christian, you are a living letter and they are reading you. That's what they're doing.
And let's live in such a way that they can clearly see Jesus. Amen.
Let's not mess it up for people.
Their eternal salvation is at stake.
I was so shook up. I was gone not this past week, but the week before. And I read a text of scripture. I've read it many times, but it really hit me with impact. It says in the first book of Corinthians, they that do not love the Lord are accursed.
What that means is people who don't love God, they're under the curse of sin.
They're in a state of. They're in a cursed state. How many would like to live in a cursed state?
I started meditating on. Sometimes you got to think about scripture. I thought, wow, that's terrible to live in a state where you're cursed.
That's where people are living and apart from Christ. They're going to stay in that cursed state.
But when they come to know Jesus and you come to love him, you move from a cursed state to being free.
I want to be free.
I want to be free.
Let's pray.
Thank you, David. Lord, we thank you, Jesus, we thank you that we love you this morning.
And you have blessed us, not because we deserved it, but because of your great love.
And I pray, Father, that you will allow us to be passionate, devoted, unashamed of who you are and what you've done.
Help us, Lord, not to be arrogant or proud or haughty, but, Lord, to be walking humility and kindness and gentleness and goodness.
But Lord, help us not to back down and not to be ashamed of who you are and not to be ashamed that we are your children.
And we're going to bring your name to others.
And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you go this morning.
