In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of worship and prayer and how easily it can be lost. He uses the example of Aaron allowing permissiveness among the people, which led to them engaging in sinful behavior. The preacher emphasizes the need for strong leadership and the danger of losing the sense of God's presence. He concludes by referencing the book of Revelation and expressing his urgency to score a goal in injury time, symbolizing the importance of making the most of the time we have left.

Very good evening to you. Welcome. Welcome to this church. Welcome to Kedwick and Bucky. I want to read you a few verses from the Hundred Psalms. Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name, for the Lord is good and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. And as we gather here tonight, we do so as proof of God's continuing faithfulness to his people. Because the inception of this first ever Kedwick and Bucky Convention is a convention which has been born out of the grace of God. And for more than a year now, we have stood back and we have watched the marvelous way in which the Lord has led us and guided us to this great event tonight. All the honor and the praise belongs to him, not to man. And that's why our opening hymn, a great hymn of Charles Wesley, being in the Methodist Church, seems to express it all. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great redeemer of praise. 168, 168. I did omit to mention at the beginning a very special welcome to those who are in the overflow in the hall. I'm sorry you can't see us. We can't see you, rather, but you can see us. And I hope you can hear us and you will feel, even though you're separated by a wall, so much part of our meeting this evening. We're so glad you've been able to join with us and you're with us in our worship and in the opening of this convention. I'm delighted to welcome Reverend Alan Horner, who is chairman of the Methodist Synod in Scotland, and he is going to lead us in our opening prayer. Let us pray. Almighty God, we worship you. You are the maker of the heaven and of the earth and us. We belong to you because you have made us, and we rejoice to be part of your creation, part of your purpose, part of your great plan. But we are yours not only because you have made us, but because in Christ you have redeemed us. And we come tonight rejoicing in that, because through him we have come to a new awareness of the heaven above and the earth beneath and the sea around our shores. We praise you because we know who has created these things, because we know you through Jesus, and we thank you in his name for what he has revealed of you and for what he has done for us. We thank you that through him we come to you. You have not only revealed yourself, but you have reconciled us to you. You have spoken the word of mercy and of pardon. You have given to us a new beginning, and because of that we praise you, and we join the great company of your people around the world who praise you for that reason. Whatever the denomination to which they belong, whatever the language in which they speak, whatever the dress that they wear or the building in which they gather, we thank you that we are all one in Christ Jesus. And tonight we praise you not only because we are one with them around the world, but one with all your people through the ages who bear testimony to your power through Christ. We thank you for him who is our Redeemer and our Savior. We thank you for the record that we have in the scriptures of his words and of his deeds, of his sacrifice and of his resurrection, and not least that he sent his Holy Spirit. We thank you for the coming of the Spirit at the first Pentecost, and we thank you for the experience of the Spirit in the ongoing story of the Church, and we thank you for the Spirit in our midst tonight. We thank you because that Spirit binds us together in fellowship and enables us to discover the will and purpose of God more gloriously, and gives to us the power to fulfil that will and purpose with joy. And we pray that tonight we may be open to the Spirit, to his leading, to his guiding, and to his blessing. And we ask it not just for this hour in which we gather, but we ask it for this whole time of convention, of gathering together, that we may know surely that the Lord is in the midst, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. May there be freedom for your people in fellowship, in sharing, in discovery, in encounter, in dedication, in offering. We come praising you and giving you thanks. Let your blessing, we ask, be upon us, and upon all who pray for us, and for all who gather with us. We ask our prayer in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, Lord of our lives, Lord of the Church, Lord of heaven and earth, even Jesus. Amen. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, everybody. Thank you. Do any of you feel hot in here? So do I. I can stand anything but heat. I've requested, it's possible, if windows can't be opened, doors are opened. I remember in Chicago some years ago, when I was a minister there, on a day when the temperature was just on a hundred degrees. I went out to the park, and I saw a dog chasing a cat, and they were both walking. That's how I've been feeling in the last few minutes. So thank you very much if you can cool it off. It is an immense privilege to be here. From the very beginning, when I heard of this convention being inaugurated, I sensed it was a move from heaven, and the Holy Spirit was at work. And I've been excited ever since. The program and the preparation of it are wonderful, and there's been a lot of prayer behind it. We're really believing for great things here. I only want to make a lot of the Lord Jesus, and I myself will say, to be honest with you, that as a speaker here, I have in my heart a deep need of him tonight, and I believe he's going to meet with me. And what I want to say comes from that base of crying to God. One great prayer, which I'm going to read to you in a minute, the main phrase of it is this, I beseech you, show me your glory. That's what I long for. And somehow I sense that you share that longing too, though you might not express it in those words. I would love to hear you sing a chorus, which, when I speak during the week, I'll make it a chorus we'll have each time. Open my eyes, Lord, I would see Jesus. It's number 181. How many of you know this chorus? How many of you don't know it? Oh, it's quite a good choir. 181, open my eyes, Lord, I would see Jesus. Verses from the word of God in Exodus chapter 33, and then we'll just sing that chorus unaccompanied, if we just have a note. But our hearts and our eyes bowed before God. I think, um, Exodus 33 from verse 12. Moses said to the Lord, see thou says to me, bring up this people, but thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy sight, show me now thy ways, that I may know thee, and find favor of thy sight. Consider too, that this nation is thy people. And he said, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to him, if thy presence will not go with me, do not carry us uphead from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in thy sight, I and thy people? Is it not in thy going with us, so that we are distinct? I and thy people from the others, all other people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, this very thing that you have spoken, I will do. For you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. Moses said to him, I pray thee, show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you. And will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face. For men shall not see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock. And I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. This is the word of the Lord. Now let's sing quietly together. Open our eyes, Lord. We would see Jesus. Be still and know that he is God. Speak, Lord, in the stillness while we wait on thee. Touch our hearts, listen in expectancy. Speak, O blessed Master, in this quiet hour. May I see, may we see thy face, Lord, and feel, and feel thy touch of power. Dear Lord, help me to make much of you, and answer our prayers. For your name's sake. Amen. I suppose it would be right to say that in the last, what, two years, more people have heard the message of the gospel than ever before in history in this country. Through Billy Graham, Louis Fallow, and many others from this country also. There has been a tremendous impact made in the name of the Lord. And it's been wonderful, of course. And there's been a tremendous response in people who have found Jesus as saviour. But, without discrediting anything that has happened, we are just turning the corner. Society goes on as it was, only was. Drugs, drink, racial tension, Belfast, Southern Ireland, I mean, South Africa, you know the list well enough. And I have to ask myself, what have we as Christians, what are we doing about it? Evangelism is one thing, very necessary. It's the constant beauty of the church. But spiritual renewal and revival is another. And it's possible to have tremendous success in evangelism without ever touching renewal. The greatest evangelistic campaign leaves a city untouched. But revival sweeps through the whole community. As great American preacher Charles Finney defined revival this way, the renewal of the first love of Christians, resulting in the conversion of sinners to God. It presupposes that the church is backslidden, and revival means conviction of sin and searching of heart among God's people. Survival is nothing less than a new beginning of obedience to God, a breaking of heart, getting down into the dust before him with deep humility and forsaking of sin. A revival breaks the power of the world and of sin over Christians. The charm of the world is broken and the power of the sin is overcome. Truths to which our hearts are unresponsive suddenly become alive. Whereas mind and conscience may assent to truth, when revival comes, obedience to the truth is the only thing that matters. Note that last sentence, don't you? When revival comes, obedience to the truth is the one thing that matters. It was the clarion call of the New Testament Church, Acts 5, 29. We must obey God, whatever the price. We must obey God. And therefore this is a very, very personal matter for us all. It has been said that the worthwhileness of any movement depends upon its ability to mobilize every member of it to propagate what it believes. That's a pretty good definition, I think. Every Christian propagating what we believe. Nobody can reach everybody, but everybody can reach somebody. In the magazine, Christianity Today, I saw some statistics that quite shook me. We said that in the average church in Britain and in the States, of the total membership on the church roll, 5% don't exist. 10% can't be found. 25% never attend church. 50% have no missionary interest. 75% never attend midweek service and prayer meeting. 90% have no family worship at home. And 95% never win anybody to Christ. I wouldn't quite know how those statistics were brought at. They come from the States, probably their masters at statistics. But they hit me right between the eyes, and I think they display an absolute breakdown of New Testament principles of church growth. We must obey God. And of course, the secret of church growth is the release of the Holy Spirit in gifts and bread. And we shall be speaking on that subject, of course, among others, during the week. But in the light of all that, let me just, for a moment, put in the background of this chapter in Exodus, in which Moses comes through to God with this tremendous prayer, I pray thee, show me thy glory. See, the Lord has just said, my presence will go with you. Oh yes, says Moses, that's fine, wonderful, but I need more than that. You ever get down to Kedzik or to Spring Harvest or to Filey or anywhere else? And sometimes you come away, and indeed, not only going there, I mean, going to your own church sometimes. And you come out and say, wasn't there a tremendous sense of the presence of God in that service today? So what? What difference does it make? Or two or three are met together in thine aid, Jesus has promised his presence always. But oh Lord, I need more than that. I want to see your glory. Can I just take a moment then to remind you? Maybe you'd like just to look back with me one moment at Exodus 32. About, oh, three months prior to this particular incident, the Israelis had been delivered from Pharaoh's concentration camp in Egypt at the Passover, got through the Red Sea and set out on their journey, and had reached Mount Sinai already. They had been grumbling and complaining. They didn't like the diet, they didn't like the discipline, they didn't like the leadership. They longed for the good old days in Egypt. Fancy that. Forgetting all about the bricks, mortar, lashing and punishment. Forgetting all about that. Just the good old days. Wanted again. Longed for the leeks and garlics. I can never understand, I couldn't stand either of them myself. But that's what they wanted, and it was all past. No hope of recovery. Moses had gone up into the mountain to receive instructions about the tabernacle and its building, and about the commandments which the people had to obey. And he'd been there quite a long time, 40 days actually. And reading at 32, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron. Aaron of course was Moses' older brother. He was 83 at the time. Do you think at that age he'd have learned a bit of sense? They gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, Up, a mate of God, who shall go before us? For this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him. And Aaron said, Take off the rings of gold which were in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hands, and fashioned it with a graven tool, and made a molten cut. And they said, And said, These are your gods of Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt. When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast for the Lord. And he rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offering. And people sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play. Would you believe it? Of course Aaron's big mistake was he wasn't going to risk becoming unpopular. And he thought the easiest way to avoid that is to allow a bit of permissiveness. Let them take it easy. Don't let me just stand out against other people. He was afraid of strong leadership. Rather let everybody do what they like. So he opted out. And the people rose up, sat down to eat, and drink, and rose up to play. Does that touch a bell anywhere in you? I don't believe it in me. The easiest habit to lose is the habit of worship. The hardest habit, the hardest habit to create is worship and prayer. And it's the easiest habit to lose. And in less time than it takes to tell that whole race, I lost the sense of the presence of God. Does that ring a bell? How long have you been a Christian? How long have I? I won't leave you guessing. 60 years. Has it all been wonderful? No. Has the brain break down and failure? Often. The kind, the failure, primarily, to maintain a spirit of worship and prayer. Neglect of this means I just lose the consciousness of God. The Lord knew about this going on, and he knows about it in some way in you or us and in mine tonight. And he wants to deal with it, and I'm here. And the Lord said to Moses, I said, now watch it, listen carefully. Go down, for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They've turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it, and said, these are your God, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said to Moses, I've seen this people, and I hate to stiffen it. People, now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and I will consume them. But of you, I will make a great nation. God was putting this man to the test. Is he really fit to be a leader? Can I trust him with leadership? And God was even suggesting that he gives up Israel, and let God start all over again with Moses' family. What an attractive thing to have for Moses. Watch, and get rid of all my problems and all the awkward people, and get rid of them without handling any problem myself. And God will put me at the head of the nation, and my whole family, and I'll be known everywhere. Oh, I didn't get my name in today's magazine. Oh, bad. And the whole country will hum, here's the man at the top. He, God, is making a great thing. When you lose touch with God, and you lose touch with real worship, that's how you begin to think. How did Moses deal with that? That was God, what God was looking to see. Listen, Moses besought the Lord, he turned to prayer, and said, O Lord my, why does thy wrath burn hot against thy people whom thou hast brought out of Egypt? You notice that? Verse 7, the Lord said to Moses, go down, for your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, have threatened themselves. And immediately, Moses begins to argue with God, in prayer, and says, Lord, they aren't my people, they're yours. I didn't bring them out of Egypt, you did. With great power, and with a mighty hand, why should Egyptians, and the whole world, say, why should they say, with what evil intent did bring them forth to slay them in the mountains? Lord, your glory is at stake in this situation. Your glory. Furthermore, not only your glory, but Lord, you've never broken a promise. Remember Abram, Isaac, Israel, thy servants to whom God did swear by thine own self, and did say to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I've promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever. Lord, your glory at stake, your promises you'll never break. And Moses laid hold of God in prayer, wasn't concerned about the position he had. And what happened? Verse 14, oh, it makes me almost want to hide. The Lord repented. What? The Lord repented of the evil? Does the Lord repent of the evil he taught to the nothing mattered except the glory of God. The character of God, the name of God, doesn't happen to me. I don't care if he makes me a leader. I want his glory here. I'm among many people who believe today that the coming of the Lord draws very near. Of course, you can't get into dates and times if he isn't a trouble. The society can't go on much like this much longer. You can't have terrorism. You can't have the things that are going on in our nation much longer. They're out of control. No political party can handle them. Only one kind of person can handle them, a true born-again spirit who wants the glory of God in his life. He's on fire for Jesus. And the Lord repented. I don't know what you think I'm writing this and prepared to read. It doesn't matter really. Yes, Jesus is coming soon. It'll be wonderful then. But it's the end. And millions of people will be ushered into a Christless eternity. One of my greatest friends in earlier days was the Rev. Colin Carr of St. Paul's, Portmouth Square, a great preacher. And I remember him preaching on the subject of hell. Don't often hear someone on that. And he said, when I was younger, I asked the Lord to show me what it would mean for someone to be put into a Christless eternity, into hell. And he said, the Lord never showed me. Because I believed, he said, that if he had, I'd have gone absolutely insane. I believe Jesus is coming soon. I believe the whole of civilization is absolutely beyond political answers. I believe there's only one thing that could be a mighty change in history. So the glory of God. It would be Christians whose concern is just one thing. Lord, give me your glory and your Bible. I prayed for that for 60 years. Never seen it. The nearest I've seen it was through the ministry of Duncan Campbell in the Hebrides. Completely spoiled by a crowd from across the Atlantic who came to report on it and write about it and write it up to take away the glory. But it was a tremendous ministry. He stayed with me in London for a while. As ever, I lived with a man of God. It was this Duncan Campbell. But I knew from inside and seeing him in that situation what it cost to have the glory. Could the Lord change his mind? Could the Lord really change, postpone his coming and let there be a great renewal and a great multitude of people at the last moment ushered into the kingdom for the glory of God and the discomfort of the devil? Lord, may I be among those, and may you be, who are prepared to pay the price of seeing God change his mind. Cutting a long story short, Moses went up to the mountain again, having come down, spoke to the crowd. Who is on the Lord's side? The truth battle, warfare, 3,000 people were lost their lives. Then Moses said in chapter 32, verse 30, You have sinned a great sin. Now I'll go up to the Lord and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. And Moses returned to the Lord and said, Perhaps the people have sinned a great sin that made God so cold. Now, Lord, if you will forgive their sin, if not, if not, if you can't, blot me. Blot me, I pray you, out of your book. Lord, I love them so much. I love them so much. I care for them. I long to see them really belonging to you. Blot me out. And the Lord said, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out. But go and lead the people to the place which I am supposed to do of. He was willing to pay the atonement price, but God didn't ask him. And then the Lord comes to see him in chapter 33. I've sent an angel before you. Drive out the Canaanites and so on. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I won't come up amongst you. And Moses talked to the Lord as a man talks to his friend, chapter 33, verse 11. And then he spoke to him again. Lord, I've found favour in your sight. Therefore I pray you, if that's so, show me a way that I may know you and find favour in your sight. Consider to know your people. The Lord said to him, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And Moses, daring, greatly daring, said, If your presence will not go with me, Lord, do not carry us up from here. How is that be known to anybody that we're different? That I and my people, is it not you're going with us because we're distinct, I and my people, from everybody else in the face of the earth? And I can echo that prayer tonight, Lord. Lord, your presence goes with me. I never forfeit that, none of us will. None of us will. Because it's that presence with us that makes it known to other people to whom we belong. Yes, the Lord said in verse 17, this very thing that you've spoken of I'll do. And then pressing it home, Lord, just one more thing, hold it one moment. Lord, I beseech you, show me your glory. And forgive the paraphrase. The Lord said, Brother, Moses, I can't do that. I'll make my goodness pass before you, proclaim before you my name. I'll be gracious and show mercy, but, but you cannot see my face. For man shall not see me and live. But I'll tell you what, Moses, there's a rock, and I'll stand you by it. And as my glory passes by, I'll put you in a cleft of a rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I'll take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. Moses, you're asking too much. And here as I come to this convention, and I just maybe have already by the Spirit's power, created in some heart a great longing for more of God. Am I asking too much for you and for me? I beseech you, Lord, let us see embarking. Am I asking too much? Oh, no. Come with me into John chapter 17, our Lord's Prayer. John chapter 17. Do you remember it, of course? I've no time to expand it, just to say a word or two about it, but look. Here's the Lord Jesus praying. First six verses, he's praying for himself. Down to verse 20, he's praying for his disciples. And from then on, he's praying for us. When Jesus had spoken, his words lifted up his eyes to heaven. Father, may I thus come glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee, only to God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I glorify thee, O Lord, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now, Father, glorify thou me in thine own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world. Then he begins to pray for his disciples. Verse 8. I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them, and know in truth that I came from thee. And they believe that thou didst send me All mine are thine, and thine are mine. I am glorified in them, and now I am no more in the world that they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. For I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me. I have glorified them, none of them has lost, but the Son of man. Verse 14. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I don't pray that thou should take them out of the world, but thou should keep them from the evil one. Verse 20. He switches to pray not only for them, but for us. I don't pray for these alone, but also for those who believe me through their word, that they may be all one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Listen to this verse. The glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I am thou in me, that they may be perfectly one, so the world may know that thou hast sent me, and have left them even as thou hast loved me. Am I asking too much? I pray for those who believe in me through the word, that they may be all one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory, the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one, so the world may know thou hast sent me, and have loved them even as thou hast loved me. And a few weeks later, Jesus had risen, ascended to heaven, and received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and he came down and filled his people with the glory. And ever since then, the church has been possessed with the glory of God, what for? That we may be one, as we are one. I'm almost having to stop with a sense of shame. There are no less than 17 house group fellowships in this country, and most of them are breakouts from other churches, and none of them can agree with themselves. When? The devil's had a millennium and spitting the church from top to bottom. Ooh, he's getting very charismatic. Ooh, he's terribly reformed. Ooh, he speaks in tongues. Ooh, he's healing everybody. Ooh, he's even seen cats made bigger, and the tails put right. He's seen signs and wonders, signs and wonders, all right, all right. But the greatest sign and wonder is a Pharisee like Saul of Tartus being turned into Paul the Apostle. He's an unbeliever, being filled with the Spirit, and changed into the likeness of Jesus. You see, that's what happens. Listen to a verse in 2nd Corinthians, verse 17 of chapter 3. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And behold, and we always unveiled faith, beholding or reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another. But it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Oh, my friend. Verse 4 of chapter 4. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Beholding, reflecting the glory of God. I tell you, there's nobody else in the world, apart from a Christian, who can reflect the glory of God. Nobody. I was walking some few years ago with my daughter, who's been a missionary for 20 years or so in Central Africa Republic. About 8 o'clock at night it was, and the moon was shining, full moon, stars were shining, not a cloud in the sky. I walked along that lovely road that evening with my daughter as well, she makes you want to hold hand, and so we did. And she said, Daddy, isn't the moon shining brightly tonight? I said, Yes, isn't it? And then I said, No. How stupid can you be? She said, What do you mean? Well, you know, the moon doesn't shine. It's only a lump of lusty material stuck up there. But what it does is to turn its eyes heavenward and catch the glory and the light of the sun and reflect that light in the darkness of the world. And we in our churches have our programs and our seminars and our ideas, and we've crowded out the Holy Spirit and don't give him a chance. Do we believe that Christians can reflect the glory that the world may believe? People tell me today, we've lost touch with young people. I don't believe that. But I do believe something worse, we've lost touch with God. And when you lose touch with the glory, you lose everything. And you can sweat your heart out week after week, year after year, preaching, doing anything, but nothing happens. And the nation goes to hell. Of course, it's just a minute. It'll still be Saturday when we finish, but I just can't let you go. I'm terribly sorry, but I must just bring you to one last bit of the work. Oh, it's going right to the end, the book of Revelation. And so there'll be no more after this, I promise. But, you know, it's exciting to me. Forgive me, but I'm living on interview time. That's why I get excited. If you know what that is, I don't know. I don't know what your team is here. We've never heard of an Aberdeen, but I don't know here. Yes, I'm sure you have a football team. And I'm sure the referee adds so many minutes to the full time, to time lost to injuries, injury time. Ooh, and you should see the ball in injury time. Every minute counts. Can't be wasted. It's urgent. Because a goal scored in injury time can turn to defeat and victory. And I say, Lord, I just want to score a goal in injury time. It's urgent. I won't have much longer. And here, the last book of the Bible, is John, on the Mount of Patmos, simply preaching Jesus in prison. And he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a voice, a loud voice like a trumpet saying, write what you see in a book. Sent it to seven churches. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And on turning, I saw seven golden candles in the midst of the lampstands, one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe, a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword. And his face, his face was like the sun shining in full strength. As the living Bible puts that, his face shone like the power of the sun in unclouded prisons. And, says John, when I saw him, I fell at his feet, as though dead. No man can see my face and live. If I live, it is not for myself. I can't. But, this is telling me loud and clear, and telling you too, if you want to see Jesus really, you're prepared to die out altogether to yourself. To see him costs you everything. Worship, there is come one day that worship me, he shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Costs you everything. The question is, if I say, if I dare to say, Lord, I want to, tonight, here at Bucky, show me your glory. And he shines into my heart, and I see his face, and I fall at his feet as dead. Crucified, the life that is died out, is anointed by the Holy Spirit. And you take a company of people, well, you can't offend a crucified man. You can't, can you? Because he's died out to himself. He's concerned with the glory of God. No man shall see me and live. I saw him. I fell at his feet, as dead. That's what Jesus wants of Pritchard and Bucky. It's going to cost. You won't have your good programs. You won't have your face in your stories, your life, in magazines. You won't be reported well. You'll count for nothing in the eyes of people. In fact, in fact, you'll be called a fanatic and a fool. But, in your heart, there's a fire started burning that nobody can put out. And they're going to be with you and go with you right until you get to glory. And when people see, they'll begin to say, why does that girl react like she does? Why is it she loves as she does? Why is it the whole home has been transformed? Why is it there's a new sort of standard they've set up? I don't know. Why is it? What's the answer? It's not me, they would say, it's Jesus. Changing you and me into his likeness and reflecting the glorious thought. That's my prayer for Bucky. Not just my prayer for you, but my deep, deep longing for my own life. I am not going any further, except to say to you that you've been listening to a man who, in recent years, together with his wife, has had to face some issues that have seemed absolutely impossible. Her daughter lost her husband. The mission can't take her anymore because she's been injured in a car crash. She had a home, a job. She's gone to California where her family are. Oh, I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm just saying, Lord, thank you. Thank you for putting us to the test as a family. And in that test, Jesus is becoming more precious than ever. Please, please, let me see your glory. That the world may believe that people in Bucky may just cut out the secondary and cut out the unnecessary and turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. The things of earth transmitted in the light of his glory. And then, let's pray. A moment of silent prayer. Spirit of the living heart, fall afresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Break me. Melt me. Mold me. And fill me. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Yes, Lord. When we want your fullness in all that we have, your answer is to break. Lord, break us. Break down our pride, our conceit, our selfishness, all these things that are the opposite of Jesus. And Lord, have your own way with us. Jesus, fill now with your spirit heart full, that the streams of living water may flow. And this part of Scotland may begin to wonder what's hidden. And it may have company of Christian people who mean business for God. Hear us, Lord, right now. In Jesus' name. Amen. If the Lord has been speaking to your heart this evening, and you would like to speak to someone about the issues which have confronted you, then perhaps you will see in the congregation, people with badges, as counsellors, they are willing to spend time and talk with you after the evening meeting is finished. Let's stand to sing 149, what love divine or love's excelling joy of heaven to earth come down. 149. Down beside the piano. We bless you, O Lord, for the visitation of your power and spirit this night. And Father, as we go from this place, may we go to ponder on you, the marvel of your love and your glory. And may your grace, your mercy and your peace accompany us this night and always. Amen.