The video is about the importance of being prepared to start a conversation about the gospel in quick moments of life. The speaker shares a personal testimony of being saved from a life of sin and how God gifted him in personal evangelism. He provides a simple tool with three steps to initiate a conversation with someone, even in brief encounters. The speaker emphasizes the need to understand the principle of walking with God and having a pure heart in order to effectively share the gospel.

Glad to be a part of things today. I had a phone call. I'm not sure when it happened or what the timing was on things. But of course, sir, you're coming to the front. We're having an alter call later. Perfect. Both this morning and this evening, I am not sure why they chose me, given that the topic that they've asked me to speak on is in regards to one that I don't particularly feel personally gifted at, and that is in regards to personal evangelism. I don't want to imply by that comment that I don't think it's my role to have any measure of personal evangelism. But I do feel in myself, I know myself well enough that I'm just speaking of myself for this moment. I am much more comfortable standing in front of a group of 200 or whatever is here today, 150, whatever it is, far more comfortable. I'm not even nervous. It doesn't make me nothing, just absolutely normal to me. But if you put someone in front of me and ask me to speak to them, if you've spoken to me on a one-on-one basis, you'll notice I have a hard time making eye contact. I'm looking everywhere. I'm thinking about everything else. I can't hardly talk to somebody. It's just weird. I'm just that way. Now, I know you're saying, that's impossible. That's ridiculous. Well, I would say the very same thing about somebody who has no trouble talking to somebody one-on-one. I just, I'm not good at it. I don't mind it. I can do it. It is not a preference. So that was kind of maybe funny in a sense that they approached me to do something on something that I just feel awkward about. But I acknowledge immediately that it is a role and a call of every person to understand this principle of personal evangelism. And by the way, your mailbox on your way out today, or perhaps you've already noticed, has a little booklet in it provided by the missions committee wanting to encourage the body here in regards to this issue of personal evangelism. We made much this morning and talked about the idea of friendship evangelism and drawing alongside people and getting to know them and long-term commitments and reaching into their homes and families in some ways, building bridges and etc., sharing the gospel. Excellent. However, there's also times when we just have quick moments. You know, you meet somebody in a restaurant or you're passing at a bus station or whatever the situation. You're sitting beside somebody and you know and they know. You may not even ever know their first names, but a conversation is about to begin. It could be an airplane ride or whatever the case may be. It may be a brief encounter. You have no time for long-term investment in a friendship. It's just a moment. And it's good to have some tools or something in your mind, some way to begin an approach to start a conversation. And that's what the premise of this little booklet is about. How to take just those quick moments of life, the passing by times of life and start a conversation. And the person who wrote this, there's a foreword in here that explains. Their background is very, very interesting. They were steeped in sin and dealt with gambling and pornography and prostitution and with the mafia. And it's very interesting background. God saved this person and gifted them particularly in regard to personal evangelism. And he's outlined here just a very good tool, just three steps. If you want to put it down, break it down into there and just some simple ideas, places to put some hooks on how to start a conversation. Everybody has one of these because we want the missions committee goal is to encourage everybody in this regard. And I'm meant to do that as well this morning. And I'm going to take a little bit of a different tact. I want to talk more, if you will, even take a step backwards or I don't know if to say this talk on more general terms. But I want to speak this morning to the issue of who does God use? I don't know if we consider this too often. And I think it's good. It would encourage us in regards to this whole area of evangelism to just answer this question in a rather, hopefully relatively succinct way and hopefully a profitable way. Let's just pause and pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity just to be together, to share in your work, to share in the moment. We ask, oh, God, that you would just bring a measure of work of your spirit into our hearts, that you would speak to us, that you would stir us. Father, that you would bring us from just from where we are to where we need to be. God, we just ask that you would open our ears, open our eyes, make us receptive. Father, sometimes we get in a mode, in a motion of routine and ritual. We come as it were with our spiritual arms crossed and we've got everything figured out and we need nothing more of you and we don't seek you. And Father, we just pray that you would graciously deal with us, handle us today, break us out of our ritual and routine and teach us, speak to our hearts by your spirit. Father, we pray there would be conviction, there would be understanding, there would be edification, enlightenment. God, we pray you would do something in our midst. To that end, we commit our way and ask your blessing on us in Jesus' name. Amen. Who does God use? Well, I want to just jump right in. I'll just start. I've got a little, what else would you do if you're preaching, but I've got three headings, really. Every time I now say I have three headings, I think of Randy Carney. He once asked me, why do preachers always have three headings? I don't know, Randy, but I do. And sorry to bring your name up in public. I'm sure you're embarrassed now. Very simply, I just want to answer the question, who does God use? And then hopefully you'll begin to see the connection between what I'm saying and the area of personal evangelism. And simply put, who does God use? First thing, a holy people. I want you to turn with me to Haggai chapter 2. If you have your Bible, even if you don't, turn with me to Haggai. Everyone's got their own pronunciation. I'll give you a couple hours to find the book. It's one of those books that moves around. If I'm not mistaken, I'm going by memory here, I think it's three from the end before you get to the New Testament. If I'm wrong, you can rebuke me later. Haggai chapter 2, verses 10 to 14. Who does God use? God uses a holy people. We're jumping into the middle of a context. We realize we're going to read a few verses to you. On the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai. This is what the Lord Almighty says. Ask the priests what the law says. If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil, or other food, does it become consecrated? Here's the question. If the priest is at the altar, the meat that's on the altar is consecrated meat. It's his meat because it sacrificed the Lord, if you know the law and how it all works. If you want to use the word, it is now holy meat. It's different than all the other cuts of beef, if you will. It's not because it's better. It's because of what it's been used for and the situation it's been used for. It's now consecrated meat. And he's now going to take that back to his residence, and it's now his. And he pulls up the hem of his garment, or he pulls his shirt tail out, and he flops that piece of hot meat off the altar, and he grabs a hold of it. And he's going to carry it now into wherever. He obviously does not do the laundry. He's got a hold of this meat in his shirt tail or what have you, and he's walking along, and the question is, supposing now this consecrated meat that is in the fold of his garment, and this garment happens to brush up against something else, and it touches some bread or oil or whatever, does the thing, here's the question, does the thing that it touched, does that thing become consecrated? Now, the meat is holy, and so by virtue of being near something holy and brushing up against it, does that thing become holy? That's the question. You know your Old Testament law, you know the answer. The priest answered, no. Holiness is not transferable. Holiness is not transferable. You cannot, you know this even in a New Testament sense, if you will, you cannot come in and touch somebody and make them become a Christian. Your holiness is not transferable. Here's the next question. Then Haggai said, if a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled? Second question. If now a person who is defiled comes in and touches something holy, and I scoop that meat off, does the meat become unholy? If a holy thing touches something defiled, does it become holy? No. If a defiled thing touches something holy, does it become unholy? People, I hope you know the answer to this question. The answer is emphatically yes. Absolutely yes. It becomes defiled. Haggai said, so it is with this people and this nation. And my sight declares the Lord, whatever they do, man, this is an amazing statement, whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled. Wow. Now, there is a principle of Scripture that we need to understand. It's from the character of God. And it permeates all the way through, if you will, into the New Testament. This is how it is to walk with God. If you live with a defiled heart, if you will, if you live with a defiled life, the very thing you do and you touch becomes defiled. And so what good, if I can back up and say, what good is it to give you four steps for personal evangelism, three ways that you need to personally... give you some tips on this or that, or tell you how to do this or that, unless you step back and you realize, you know what? Not a single one of us will amount to anything unless you understand this principle of walking with God. There is a little verse I want to point out to you in 2 Chronicles 15. I don't hear any pages rustling. I think you're waiting for it on the wall. The Spirit of God came to Azariah, son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said to him, Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. And that is such a great phrase. The Lord is with you only, if I can add that word, when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. Now, in a New Testament sense, that is not an ultimate forsaking. But in terms of usefulness, in terms of God choosing to pick you up and use you as a tool, you are not going to be used. If you are not with God, He is not with you. Now, I don't know if you realize that this is a very important principle of Scripture and something, if I can say politely, that we do not discuss and that churches today and God's people do not understand and do not seem to live by. And for some reason, and I don't know why that is, but we have started to think of things in wrong-headed terms. Just to illustrate it again in a simple way, not that you don't get the point, but if you take a glass of water, pure water, clean water, and you take the simplest amount of pure, unadulterated poison and you bloop one little drop into that cup of water, what happens to that cup of water? Would you want to drink that cup of water? Now, the thing that was pure has become defiled. And what's interesting is you cannot add more holiness in to get rid of the defilement. You cannot continue to add more drops of pure water and pure water and pure water and somehow eventually take the poison out. Once you're defiled, it's permanent. And everything you now touch becomes defiled. And believers who come into, let's just use an example, a Sunday school class to teach it, I'm not pointing any fingers, I'm just using illustration, a pastor who gets up to preach a message, a person who goes to speak to their neighbor, somebody who wants to share the gospel with somebody at work. Can I just remind you of a principle that we don't seem to live by or think about too much? You are useless unless you are holy. Because the moment you pick up and you use a Bible verse, a holy thing, you defile it, if you will. And it becomes as nothing to the person who heard it. Now, I know that this sounds awkward to some people, but I got to tell you something. There is something wrong with a church, with a people who are willing for whatever reason, ladies, some of you, and I'm not saying this because I know, I'm saying this because you're female. Some of you have bitterness that you have hung on to for 20 years or more. There are things you can recount in your past. You know your husband, your child, whatever. You know, and you can immediately respond to it. You feel you're backed it up. You just know, and you walk around with this in your heart, and you think that God is going to use you. You have been defiled, and you carry that, and you know it. Gentlemen, some of you, and I'm not pointing any fingers, but I know you because you're gentlemen. Some of you have looked at things you should not be looking at. Some of you have broken your covenant of marriage by virtue of who you are. And you carry that around, and you walk around as if you have been defiled. And now you come, and you teach a Sunday school class, and you say, Oh, these kids today, they're so unruly. It's not the kids who are unruly. It's that God will not give you peace in a classroom where you are defiled. You are not a holy thing. And you come, and you do a holy thing, and you just defiled it, and now it's just human. It's just effort. And churches function this way, not necessarily this church. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just saying entire congregations function on the level of just humanity because they are defiled. They are not right with God. They are not right with each other. And they go through the motions of church, and we say, Why is no one getting saved? Well, the pastor, he doesn't preach a proper sermon. And if he would just talk about the blood, and we have all our reasons that are 42 things, and we're going to solve this problem and that problem and somebody else. And you'll notice how quick you are to say, All the other people who have the problem and never once stop and say, It's me. And I need to be right with God. And if I could get right with God, and if I knew that there was nothing in me between me and you and me and God, God says, I'm ready to use you. You are now ready to be my witness. And one of the reasons that we know nothing of real personal evangelism or effectiveness is because we're not effective. Because we've been defiled. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers. I just came here to have you search your hearts. And I'm asking you to ask God to search your heart. Do you know there's something if you're conscious of something? Then by all means, you've got to deal with that thing. If you're unconscious of something, then by God's grace, get on your face. And if you know there's nothing in your heart, there's nothing in your heart. Praise the Lord. Come under the blood. Take His forgiveness. Get up off your knees and carry on. But God uses a holy people, a people who are set apart. I want to tell you that God uses a praying people. You want to be effective in personal evangelism? Tell you what? I don't care. This is so simplistic. This is so, if I can politely say this, this is so biblical that we don't know what to do with it sometimes. This is so basic and fundamental that we skip over it. We think somehow that this really isn't a piece of the puzzle. I don't know how to emphasize this enough, but people, we will never be effective in regards to evangelism unless we know what it is to pray. We will never be effective in regards to evangelism unless we know what it is to pray. Now, sometimes our prayer meetings aren't prayer meetings in the ultimate sense. If you want to turn with me to Acts chapter 2, I'm sure you can find the book of Acts without too much effort. Acts chapter 2, I want to tell you something about, just point out quickly something about the early church. Something about the early church that you already know because this verse is so common, if you will, so well known. Speaking of the early believers, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. This is not necessarily a recipe for what every church should look like or how every body should behave. This is an explanation of what the early church did. This is just an explanation of how they behaved and how they functioned. This is what they did and they devoted themselves to prayer. So now consider with me that that was their lifestyle of devoting themselves to prayer. Consider the early church. What happened when they were persecuted? Did they petition the government? They prayed. What happened when Peter went into prison? Did they come before the king and plead his case? They prayed. What happens when they had good times? They prayed. What happens when they were starting to be killed and put into prison? They prayed. What happens when they got together just as a group and just for themselves? They prayed. Everything they did was in prayer. And if you look at the book of Acts, you'll see they were unstoppable. There was something going on in their midst that was unbelievable, that it was supernatural. And everywhere they went, they would find somebody else who wanted to hear the gospel. And talk about personal evangelism. They were not trying to come up with some way to get these people interested in the gospel. These people were coming to them. These people were saying, come and tell me more, tell me about this thing. And they would go to them and in the midst of telling to them, they'd hear, oh, we need to go over here and tell these people. And it was just, they couldn't keep up. And the church was growing by leaps and bounds because God was at work in their midst because they were a holy people. And they were praying people. Do you not realize that one of the reasons that a church functions one of the reasons that people get stirred in their souls that they are ungodless. They are, sorry, they are godless. They are far, far away from anything to God. No interest in the things of God at all. One day they wake up and they say, I think I should go to church or whatever the case may be. Something inside them stirs. It's not always the case, but I'll tell you what. When God's people are praying, God moves. I remember shortly after we had some measure of prayer here, consecrated, concentrated prayer at this church some time ago, a couple years ago. We had a week or so where we set aside some time. I don't know if you remember that. Shortly after that, I noticed that there were people in the congregation on a Sunday morning who had never been in church before. I thought, that's very interesting. We just began to pray for our town, spent some time in that, and now these people are here. One of the men happened to be sitting beside me. I turned to him and I said, Hello. And I introduced myself and I took a big gulp because I'm going to speak to somebody one on one. And I said, So, what brings you here? Who are you? Are you from in town? I just, you know, small talk, try to build a bridge quick and whatever. Do you know what he said to me? He said, I've never been in church in my life. I have no idea what you just did today. I don't understand any of it. I don't get what's going on. I said, that's very interesting. Why did you come here? He said, I have no idea, but I woke up this morning and something inside me said, I need to go to church today. And I argued with myself and I said, I don't know. I don't think I need to go. I don't know. I've never done this before. And he got up his nerve and he found a church and he walked into our church. Do you want to know something even stranger? I'm looking to see if he's here this morning before I embarrass myself. Somebody from this congregation moved somewhere in town and is living directly next door to that man and began a relationship with that man. Do you think that God is working in somebody's heart? Do you think? Well, what do we do? We've been praying that God would come in, that God would come and do something in our midst and God brings somebody right to our door. That is personal evangelism. That's what God does. He moves through a praying people. I don't know if you know too much about fasting. Fasting is not something people talk about a whole lot. But I want to tell you something. Fasting, in our culture, in our age, people talk about it on sometimes a medical level or there's reason for detoxification and all these things and that's great. There's nothing wrong with that. But that's not biblical fasting, if you understand what I'm saying this morning. It's not the same subject. Fasting is something that our North American church almost knows nothing of or very little talks about. Can I just put a bug in your ear? Can I just have you consider something? Can I just throw something out there and let you do with this what you will? Have you ever considered fasting to get alone with God? Have you ever said this town needs God? Have you ever said the young people in this church need God? Have you ever said my neighbors need God? I have no idea how to reach them. I am inept. I am scared. I have nothing to say. I don't know what to do. If you can't talk to your neighbors about God, then talk to God about your neighbors. And get on your knees and skip a meal. Simple. Just skip a meal. Just say to your wife, to your kids, whatever the case, I'm not going to be at dinner tonight. I just need to be alone with God. And all you're saying, and if you don't have to tell her, don't tell her, it's nobody's business. It's not for you to feel great. This is for you to say to God, you moving in my life, you moving in my family, you moving in this town, you doing something in this church, is more important to me than food. You are my food. If I never have another meal for the rest of my life, and I die, and all I have is Jesus, that's all I need. And that is all I want right now, that you would come. It doesn't have to be extravagant. Some people fast at great length. If you want to fast for a week or a month, that's none of my business. That's your prerogative. You can read what you need to do. Not everybody can do this, I realize. It's an entirely different level. If you're medical issues and diabetic and all, you can't. But fine, God knows that. And whatever level you take this to and what you do, that's your business. But I'll tell you something, if you know nothing about fasting, where is the church today? And we say, why is nothing happening here? We need another program. We need evangelism on this. No, we don't! Maybe we do ultimately, but can I just say, we need to get back to the Bible and be very simplistic about this thing. And why jump ahead and say, we're trying to fix this problem when we haven't begun at the beginning? We are no good for personal evangelism unless we are a praying people. And we know what it is to seek God for souls. So much of our prayer meeting is all about Aunt Lucy's big toe and somebody's operation and things that will heal all by themselves if we never even pray for them. And it's very little about souls and about God gripping the hearts of people and making them realize the calamity of dying in their sin and opening their eyes to their need and the glory of this cross. That's foolishness to them. How will they ever understand that unless God explains it? I don't know what you know about this little country of Uganda. I am not African. I think you can pretty much tell that. And I'm a little bit sheepish to mention anything about this because there's people here who know more about the world of Uganda perhaps than I do. It's a little country in East Africa that if you've lived through the 70's you know where there's like killing fields and crazy horror show of Idi Amin. The country, some say, was the cradle of AIDS. I don't think anybody knows for sure. It was completely devastated. It was synonymous with horror and terror and it was the last place anybody would want to live. But get this. Do you know this? What's going on in Uganda? God's people were so oppressed that they were... I just want to share with you about prayer. That's all I'm talking about. They were so oppressed that they were being killed just because they were Christians. And they were meeting secretly and their secret meetings were being discovered. And so what some of them were starting to do just on their own as groups, I'm not sure all the detail how organized it was. They would go out into the wilderness where nobody would come and find them. This is the truth. I heard a testimony of a Ugandan. He said they would nestle down into the swamp where he knew the police would not bother to come. And he would bring themselves right down into the stinky water right up to their neck. All they could do just to keep their head above the water they would pull some bullrushes around and they would stay there and they would pray. It was the only safe place they could find. And one of the men said I just was in that swamp in that smelly water and I said God let me die here. This is not worth anything. But God if you would come and change this country if you would come that's all we need. And he said God I am not getting out of this swamp. I will die in this spot. This is what his testimony was. I will die in this spot until you come. Unless you come. And they prayed like that with that heart with that desire. I want nothing but God. When was the last time you were in a prayer meeting like that? That's all people wanted. God would you just come and do something touch people's hearts bring them to understand the gospel do a work in our lives we're doing our best here and look what we've created. We don't know what we're doing. Could you just come and do something because we haven't got a clue. Wouldn't that be a great prayer to pray and mean it? And while they prayed now look at it I'm in a Baptist church I did not grow up a Baptist but I grew up conservative and you'll have to forgive what I'm about to say if it bothers your sensitivities but God came to them in a physical way and while they were praying in that swamp they said something mysterious and so interesting happened they said a mist came down on the church meeting and they could hear each other crying they couldn't see each other they could hear each other crying through the swamp and in the darkness in the mid-morning and whatever and through the night and they could hear their voices and a mist came down and when the mist touched them they knew they were in the presence of God and immediately their prayers changed their hearts changed and they knew and the mist hid them from the police and they prayed on and they prayed on and they knew when this happened they knew God has heard us something began to happen in that country I don't know if you're aware of how different Uganda is today than it was then I think I could go on too much about this because it's so interesting I found this a testimony of a man Jackson Sinyonga I have no idea who he is he says we are seeing changes with the people at the highest levels of government this is present day Uganda people at the highest levels of government being concerned with moral standards and enforcing principles of God's word new government ministries have been established including the ministry of ethics and integrity Christians are being placed in the most sensitive positions laws are being rewritten to favor God's principles and word members of parliament are meeting weekly for prayer judges acknowledge prayer privately police often send prayer requests to churches first lady and her name I can't pronounce prays publicly and encourages all sectors of his government to hold morning and lunchtime prayer meetings every day from 5 to 6 am and again from 11 pm to midnight live intercessory prayer is broadcast across the nation on radio the AIDS crisis has been severe but they are now seeing many supernatural healings that the doctors cannot explain the crime rate has dropped 50% I'm just reporting the news I didn't make it up this is a small country and I don't know all the details and I don't know everything that's going on and I'm sure there's things that I can't tell you and I don't know what that does to you if that stirs your soul but I'll tell you what does that not make you realize how little we pray or how little we know what prayer is and how little we understand what it takes for God to move and we say oh well it's just our culture is so hard and people are saying oh we always have an excuse do you think that God can't move? who does God use? He uses the praying people He uses the holy people He uses the ready people He uses the ready people I sense by your restlessness this morning you're wanting me to close in prayer and I have another point I want to make I'm just going to read this verse to you Ephesians 6, 13-15 When you put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground and after you've done everything to stand stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace when you put the gospel shoes on when the gospel came to you by virtue of accepting the gospel you accepted a readiness you accepted a willingness you took up a cross and said to death, to me, to my plans, to my future and God, whatever you want me to do I want to do it there is a readiness that is implicit in the gospel you want to be effective in personal evangelism I'm just going to share with you something that that's me at the front of a group of school children I hesitate to use myself as an illustration I just am because it's fun to talk about myself in front of my church family we don't often do it you don't always know what goes on and it's just been fun and I want to tell you about it but I hope it does serve a point to illustrate what I'm saying this morning we came to Mount Forest about 10 years ago or so without any agenda we just were sent here by the faith mission to do whatever God gave us to do and we did not expect this we did not look for this but we ended up going into public schools with the gospel this is not what the faith mission does per se we are so broad-brushed we are just willing and ready this idea of our work is just to send people out and do whatever God gives you whatever that looks like every worker is different some people do prison ministry some do music ministry some this, some that whatever you are gifted and whatever God gives you that's the joy of working with our little mission and it so happened that Robin and I ended up doing this now I got to tell you something speaking about being a ready people we are just looking for where God wants us to go and we are praying about this and we are now in two schools this was a while back we are now in two schools and we began to ask God did you have anything else for us and we started to think up our own ideas and we are knocking on doors and talking to principals and every single door we talk to politely shut in our face I don't want to say, you know I sound like I'm being rude metaphorically speaking every door that we tried to go through closed that we tried to go through one day I got a phone call it was a principal from this school the principal said I understand that you do some sort of children's thing at public schools okay, yes would you be interested in coming to our school okay, now I got to tell you something when you are talking to a principal in an Ontario school and they ask you to come to bring your bible and do a kids club you are talking to God on the other end of the phone this is not an ordinary conversation and here we are praying God, what do you want us to do now, what am I going to say well, we're really busy and I'm thinking no, I you know, I'm not so sure and we you have no option God has just asked you to do something and you're going to do it and that's all there is to it and can I tell you something sometimes we miss opportunities for personal evangelism because we are not already people we are not waiting for the phone to ring I'm metaphorically speaking we're not expecting that the person to come to our door today is God's appointment for you I'm busy I'm trying to get out to the grocery store or the oil change or whatever is going on oh, hi, yeah hi, hi, yeah whatever, I got to go I got to it's North America and we need to settle down and say God, you set my agenda for today and if you interrupt me at the phone box at the post box and I end up talking to this neighbor for 20 minutes that is your agenda for me today and if it so happens that I'm able to throw in a hand grenade and they go home and it explodes because I said something from your word and they come back to me later so be it God, it is your agenda for me today I want to be a ready people and you are useless with personal evangelism because we're not ready we're not ready so this person phones me and says do you want to come like, duh turns out through the grapevine somebody heard about another club a mother heard about this club through a church that we went to and this whole big chain and this mother who happened to be on the board of family teacher whatever brought it up and everyone goes yeah, that's a good idea let's do that at our school and so the principal was obligated to phone me and ask us to come I gotta tell you what happened in this school this year was the hardest year we have ever had this year was the most challenging year we've ever had the kids come in with their lunch just to give you some idea what goes on we do this in five schools one of the they just eat their lunch and we do a bit of singing of course, you know good gospel songs we have some video it's very hard to take pictures at a public school we're not allowed to take a camera in on the age and stage that we live in in our culture not to get into details but it's kind of interesting you're not allowed to take a picture of a kid because if that child is up there and you're seeing that picture and you're the the father of this child and you've been looking for them and now you're going to hunt them down and find out in all this stage we live in I'm not allowed to take camera and we had permission to stay and all these kids had signed it's crazy so we have very few pictures because we're not allowed to do this anyways, here's my point I interrupted myself they do their lunch we play a few games we just have some fun with them and during our story time we just explain the gospel we work through a particular area of scripture and whatever we're chosen for doing and we just preach the gospel and every week it's the same story every week it's the same thing every week it's the same end of the line you need to be saved you're a sinner I'm not in those words but and we're just preaching to them and I tell you what we have had some of the best and this school especially has been in my heart because of the way that we got in I knew God has something for us this year everything changed the principle changed and he wanted nothing to do with us he would not support us he would not tell the kids about the club the principle before this it's just night and day I don't want details that are boring and whatever it's night and day our first club started we had 10 kids they won't make an announcement they won't fine we have 10 kids we had I don't know what 45 or something that we were used to getting hmm so what do you think we did? did we say well I guess this principle is going to try and shut us down I guess this isn't going to work this year we prayed there's a novel idea we prayed you know how many we had the next week? 9 you know what we did? we prayed you know how many we had the next week? 8 we prayed you know how many we had the next week? 9 it went on like that for weeks and then of all things in the midst of this struggle we had a teacher a teacher come in and in the middle of our lesson always in the middle of our lesson always in the prime time the first week it happened I thought that's really odd maybe he doesn't realize what's going on I'm so naive second week I'm like wow that's really weird third week I'm like what is he doing? fourth week I'm like wait a minute he found a way he found a way to disturb the bible story time every single week one time he had to raise the basketball net right over the top of the kid full 5 minutes one time he decided he needed to move some equipment around he found the loudest stuff he could possibly I don't know what it was big long metal pipes like he was doing plumbing or something bang, clang, clang no attempt at any discretion just came in clunked him on the stage ka-clang on one of them rolls bling, ding, blang ding, dong, dong, dong bring some more ding, da, dong, ding da, dong, dong I'm like what is going on? oh I get it you hate us sweet and that's when I knew something's gonna happen here because the devil knows it too we just kept praying it's so funny because he doesn't know who we are he has no idea we have this little newsletter the thing that we send out in house amongst our workers and we take it to each individual prayer meetings and prayer groups that we have this teacher is being prayed for all the way from Nova Scotia to British Columbia she has no clue all of a sudden we had a day we start our club and we're like what's going on? there's 50 kids here I don't know what the number was it was easily that Robin can tell you details if you want details what happened? just like all these kids have their brand new permission form to come you have to have permission form to come signed by their parents what? next week same thing all of a sudden it was like we have so many kids in the club two of us we hardly know how to handle it anymore we're not complaining one lick he now comes in and he can't be heard when he disturbs us because the kids are louder than him teaching at this club two or three weeks ago child I've never seen before in my life I just got to the end of the lesson explained the gospel and we were talking about the crucifixion Easter is coming up and different things and I shut my book and I said ok it's time to throw your garbage out and come on back and whatever blah blah blah and this child come up and fought to the crowd everyone is going to the back and this child comes up to the front and waves her way I've never seen this child before I've never met her she never met me she just looked up at me with these big eyes just looking at me like and without just spontaneously any warning she just hugged me no words but the expression that I felt that she was saying to me was and I actually had to pry her away because you're not supposed to touch the kids and of course what are you going to do when she's touching you politely trying to peel this child back and not be rude and I just knew there's times in these meetings at this particular school when there is such a holy hush that comes when I'm telling the bible story the kids are dead silent and you just know God is speaking to them it's the most amazing club that we have do you know why? I think because we're a ready people I think because it was simply God set up this agenda for us now you're not called to this so I'm not trying to say this is what you should be doing and everybody go get to school and everybody that's not you don't do this I'm not telling you that I'm just using this hopefully as an example as weak as I am to try and illustrate what I'm trying to say as feeble as I can with an opportunity to talk about myself because it's fun my point is this when we are ready to do what God gives us to do He brings it to you He brings it to you do you know what happens? this is kind of corny but are you a ready people? are you a ready people? He brings it to you when you are a holy people when your heart is consecrated when the thing most important to you is God and His kingdom it's not your agenda it's not your bank account it's not your retirement fund it's not your cottage your car your family your boats or whatever it's not it's not your business it's not anything else it's God God is number one God is all I live for God is all that matters and all the junk in my life I have dealt with I have put aside and I walk and I live with God and I pray and I pray on and I pray for God to come and I pray for God to touch my family and this country and this nation and this church and my wife and husband and I just pray on to touch my kids and I don't know what I'm doing and God says now you're ready and I've got something for you to do talk to this person and you're sitting in Tim Wharton's last thing on your mind and all of a sudden somebody sits down beside you is this seat taken? and you're like no there's a hundred seats here why are you sitting here? and whatever's going on in your head and all of a sudden the light bulb comes on and you say oh God's just given me somebody to talk to and you'll memorize your little book here and you say let me ask you some questions I'd like to share my faith without starting an argument with you because you're walking with Him I was asked to speak to you about personal evangelism I have no method I have no do this step here step there step there flow chart tell you what just know God just walk with God and God will give you somebody to talk to let's pray Father we just ask your blessing on your word and what we heard this morning search our hearts and handle us make us hungry for something deeper with you that we would just know what it is to be used of you that we would see others come to know who you are to that end we just ask your blessing on us we pray in Jesus name Amen I don't believe there is a closing hymn I'm not mistaken I think we are dismissed