In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to worship together and read from the book of John, specifically chapter 3. The speaker shares how these verses had a profound impact on their life and emphasizes the importance of knowing Jesus personally rather than relying on religion. They highlight the power of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection, and invite the audience to respond to this message. The speaker also shares a personal anecdote about being woken up by a monk for church, illustrating the importance of being alert and ready for worship.

More than anything, more than anything, I love you, Jesus, more than anything. More than anything, more than anything, I love you, Jesus, more than anything. Okay, welcome to Dartford Christian Fellowship. Thank you. Good morning. Last time I stood here it was before you prayed for me to be an elder. I said that was my last chance to sort of, I don't know, prove myself. Or if I blow it now, you can always change your mind. Well, now you can't change your mind. But if you do, we're going to have this video service videoed so that it can be kept for posterity. And if you want to get rid of me after that, then feel free. Okay. Can all those people who do babysitting just stand up? Ooh. Those people who do babysitting. Now there's lots more than that. All right, be honest. This is an anointed ministry, okay? Without this, the church could not function. All right? And I thought this was a good enough, an opportunity, a good enough opportunity to just say thank you very much for all that you do. Because without it, house groups couldn't function, elders' meetings certainly couldn't function, house group leaders' meetings, all sorts of meetings couldn't function, couldn't they? Can we have a real round of applause for those people who do babysitting? Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. And in his hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord and praise his name. Proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples. The Lord reigns. Let the earth be glad. Let the distant shores rejoice. The Lord reigns. Let the earth be glad. Let the distant shores rejoice. The Lord reigns. Let the distant shores rejoice. Well, it's great to be here, isn't it? Worshipping God together and taking part with other believers in this service, this meeting this morning. If you've got a Bible, if you could turn to John's Gospel in Chapter 3. John's Gospel, Chapter 3, and I just want to read the first few verses up to verse 8. These verses changed my life completely some years ago, and I want to read them and then share how these verses did exactly that. John Chapter 3, verses 1 to 8. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you're a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. How can a man be born when he is old, Nicodemus asked? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Everyone who is a Christian has got a story to tell. And every story is different, but it all leads us to the same place, to Jesus. And I was one of those who, unlike many people here, was taken to church as a very young child. In fact, my earliest memories are of sitting in a church in front of an enormous organ, which when it was on 100% power, almost blew me from the fourth row into the back row. And to the left of where we sat, and we always sat in the same place, my parents always took me to the same part of the church, we always sat there, on the left was this big stained glass window. And it was a rather unusual window because in the window was a picture of a man hanging on a cross, nothing unusual about that. But what was unusual was that this man looked very much like the people we'd see today. In other words, he didn't have the flowing white robes, long hair, blue eyes, but very much like a normal person. And I used to remember looking at that lovely stained glass window and thinking, well, why did he come? Why did he die? What has that window, commemorating something that happened 2000 years ago, possibly got to do with us today? What relevance has it got? And I asked this question, even as a young child, and there was no answer. I couldn't relate that happening with my own life lived today. When I carried on going to this particular church, I've got to admit I was very bored in the meetings. The singing was nothing like we experience here. There were some good people in that particular place, but my own hunger and desire to know things wasn't really met there. Well, when I was about eight years old, I was asked if I would like to sing in the church choir. And I thought, well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? That would be a bit of a change. I'd be near the front of the building. But what particularly motivated me, I'm sorry to have to confess this, was that we were actually paid. Every wedding that we sang at, we received so much money. And then every three months we received so much money just for being in the choir and attending this church. And what was particularly exciting was when you had eight weddings on a Saturday. I used to come home feeling like a millionaire. It was actually very boring because every wedding seemed to be exactly the same. The same songs were sung. The bride's mother would cry more or less in the same part of the service. And we devised a few little things to make it more interesting for us. I'm sure completely unknown to those who were getting married. One was this very fact of the bride's mother crying. We used to try and spot when she would be crying. Now sometimes she'd walk in the church actually crying, you know, actually walk in the building. Other times there was one part in the marriage service where she would be sort of straight-faced up to that moment. And then suddenly tears would start trickling down. We thought, right, there's another one who we spotted. But also, again to make it more interesting for us, at one part of the wedding service, the bride and bridegroom would walk past us up to the front of the building and they would kneel down. And we weren't far away from them. And if you look very carefully at the soles on the shoes of the bridegroom, you could often see the price tag was... You can see how spiritual we all were. The price tag was still in place. And you could often read it. We used to think, wow, is that all he thought the wedding was worth, you know? So that was how we spent our time. Looking back I was amazed at the hymns that were often sung. Fight the good fight with all thy might. Oh God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Another great classic hymns. And really that was the experience of my time in that particular church. Until I left the choir and went up to the older part of the choir. And at the age of 16 I was given the opportunity to go and stay for a few days on a monastery. How can you imagine that? The invitation was to go and stay there. Again, I was highly motivated because you didn't have to pay anything to stay there. But you had to work on the farm attached to the monastery. And I thought, well if you're going to find God anywhere, you're going to find him in a monastery. I mean, where else is God going to be? This is where people have turned their back on the world so-called. They've given all their money away. They're all dressed exactly alike. They're spending all day talking to God and talking about God. And I thought, you know, maybe I'm going to find God here on a monastery. So I'll never forget, I was only I think about 17 at the time, 16 or 17. We drove down into this beautiful part of the countryside. Quite isolated. We drove through these big gates and we arrived. And one of the monks was there to meet us. I think he was called Brother Adrian. I can't remember exactly. But he was there to meet us. He said, right, well it's nice to see you all. He said, we're going to show you each to your different rooms where you're going to be staying. And he said, you don't have to pay anything. Provided you work at least half a day on the farm attached to the monastery. I thought, great. And he told us some of the jobs we could be doing. Driving a tractor. I thought, well that's going to be wonderful. But I didn't get that job. Shoveling dung. Somehow at 16 that appealed to me. I can't think why. Didn't get that job either. I got the most boring job that exists in the agricultural world. Which was namely this. I was taken to a field. An enormous field. You couldn't even see the edges of it. Where there were rows and rows and rows and rows of strawberry plants. I was given a little hole. My job was to work my way all along the outside of one row, loosening the earth. And when I reached the end of that row, which was about 100 meters long. Turn around. And come back the other side of the row. Loosening up all the earth. It really was the most exciting job. I've never been so bored in my life. But to make it more interesting. We were given a monk to work with us. Obviously he wanted to keep an eye on us. Make sure we were doing the right job. So there I was. And I started working along the side of the road. He was working opposite me. So I said to him, tell me. Because I was really curious. What made you become a monk? And he said, I'm afraid we're not allowed to talk about our past. I thought, wow. What's this man done? Am I working opposite a reformed murderer? The hose looked pretty sharp. Well. Those who know me. Now. I was even worse in those days at asking questions. And it wasn't much longer. Though I said to him, tell me. Have you done any interesting jobs in the past? Have you worked in a school, factory, office, building site? Do you know? He said, I told you. He said, we're not allowed to talk about our past. And he got a bit angry, you see. So probably what seemed like half an hour. But it was probably five minutes later. Because I really wanted to get some conversation going. To break this deathly silence and boring job. I asked him again whether he'd ever worked in a school. And he got very angry. And he actually swore at me. I looked at him. I thought, this is incredible. I mean, here's a fellow all dressed up in these nice brown habit, as they call them. Nice hood. Big white thick pyjama core type thing around the middle. And they all seemed very nice people. And here he was, he lost his temper. And he swore at me. And in that moment of time, all I can say was, I had a crushing sense of disappointment. I really did. Because I thought, I would discover God here. And here was somebody working next to me, who was no different from me. In fact, probably even worse than me. And suddenly all the interest in the religious side of things all evaporated. Now I'm not saying that every monk was like that. I didn't know every monk. But all I can say is that this one particular individual really completely put me off. Any idea of God and religion at that time. The rest of the time at the monastery was interesting. I remember saying, you know, we have to attend the meetings. When's the first service? He said, right, the first service is tomorrow morning at half past five. I said, half past five? He said, oh yes, we'll come and wake you at five. And I remember, in the depths of sleep, in this little room, first morning. And suddenly the door was flung open. Bedclothes torn off. Get up, it's time for church. And this guy went along, this monk, each door, opening the door, ripping off the bedclothes and telling us all to quickly get up. And more zombie-like than anything else, we wandered into this tiny little chapel. We stood there. And all the monks all filed in. And not one of them, not one of them actually looked at us. I couldn't believe it. Their eyes were to the ground. They stood there. They went through the singing and everything else and they walked out. I thought, surely one's going to have a little peep, you know, to see who's standing on the other side of the building. But they didn't. Well, I then had to wait until breakfast. Very difficult, isn't it? Two hours, I think it was, until breakfast. Breakfast finally arrived. And we were told that we could go in, but it was a lesser silence. I said, what's a lesser silence? They said, a lesser silence is where you can only ask for things if it's absolutely essential. In other words, you can't say, it's a nice day today, isn't it? But you can say, would you please pass the cornflakes? Or after you, with the marmalade. So, it was incredible looking back. But there we were. Lesser silence, only the absolutely essential things. The evening meal was worse. It was a greater silence. That was very difficult for me. Greater silence. You weren't allowed to speak at all. So everything had to be done through sign language. Okay? And there were these great long tables. And if the salt was up the other end, you'd imagine, can't you? And you had to, by just waving and indicating what you needed. Well, as I say, I came away from there. And we had a great time. It was a lovely farm. Met some good people. But I didn't find what I was looking for. I didn't find God. Because I knew God existed. I've always believed in God. But I've never really known God. I wanted to know God. I didn't just want a vague belief. I wanted something that would change me. And my belief in God wasn't changing me at all. I was still the same person inside. At the same time, I was at school. And I was at this actual school we're in today. Dartford Boys Grammar School. And I used to sit in the choir. The choir used to be just in front of the stage. And we used to face the rest of the school. All the sixth form would be up in the balcony. The fifth form would be at the back there. And I made my way all the way through the school. The first year right through to the sixth year. Seven years I spent here. And it seems incredible that in those seven years, I didn't know God at all. And it was only when I came back here to Dartford Christian Fellowship worshipping here that I came back as a Christian. And yet I was aware that there were Christians at this school. And there was one fellow in particular who went all the way through the school with me. A fellow called Jim Meade. You've heard of him or know him. He was the same age as me. We went all the way through the school. And I used to watch this character because he played rugby. He went around with the other lads. But he never ever did I hear him swear. Never ever did I hear reports of him getting drunk at the weekend with the rest of the rugby team. And I remember one evening we found, I found myself alone with him in the sixth form common room. And I looked at him and said, Jim, can you just explain something to me? He said, yeah. He said, I noticed that you, although you join in with the rugby team and you join in with the others, I've never heard you swear. As far as I know you've never got drunk. Why are you different like this? He said, oh, I'm a Christian. I said, oh good, so am I, I'm a Christian too. He said, oh, how long have you been a Christian? I said, well, all my life. I mean, I went to church, I was born in England, I believe in God. Must be a Christian. I said, why do you ask how long have I been a Christian? He said, well, he said, as far as I can remember now, this is going back a few years, he told me how he'd become a Christian. He told me how Jesus had died for him and he'd asked Jesus into his life. I couldn't understand a word he was saying. I mean, I understood the words but I couldn't understand what he meant. He asked Jesus into his life. How can somebody who's died come into your life? It was almost nonsense, it was meaningless, but somehow it got lodged in the back of my mind. This fellow whose life was different had had an experience with God that I'd never had. Well, I went all through this marvellous establishment and I came to the end of my time here and decided now I've got to think about a job. What shall I do for a job? I need a job with nice long holidays. I need a job with short hours. Well, there's only one job you can do, isn't there, with nice long holidays and short hours and that's teaching. Sorry, teachers. No, it's very hard work, really. But that's how I viewed it. I mean, what a terrible way to go into a job with that attitude, you know, have the longest free time and make sure you're paid for the holidays as well. And I had to go to a college. Where to go? I mean, many colleges offer you teacher training courses and I wrote off to all of them and one of them had rowing as part of their activities and on that basis alone I chose that college. I don't think I ever actually went rowing at the college all the three years I was there. How I got through the interview when they asked me why I chose this college I really don't know. But anyway, it was up in a place called Norwich in East Anglia and I remember going up there and I arrived at the station and I began to be just a little bit unsure of myself. I'd never really been away from home. I was a young, fairly immature individual and I was met there at the station by a fellow with a big van. He said, are you one of the first years? I said, yes. He said, I'll take you up to the college. I'm going to jump in the back. We were all squeezed in the back with our suitcases. I'll never forget, as he was driving along we must have been talking about what was college going to be like. He turned around and he looked at me it seemed. He looked at me and said, now you're going to see what life is really like. I thought, oh. Life is really like, you know. Never been a very brave person and thought of facing, well, who knows what I was going to face. I probably uttered a prayer and the only prayer I really prayed in those days was God help me. It's a prayer most people pray, isn't it, when they're in trouble. They never say God thank you, but God help me. Call out on God like an ambulance service, you know. God, I'm in difficulties, come and help me. And when you get helped, forget him. Just, he's there at your beck and call whenever you need him. And that was the sort of God I had. I believed in him and he was going to come to me when I needed him and that was about it. We arrived at the college and on the first day we were taken into a hall and we, brand new first years, all young looking and spoken to by the principal. And he said, now at the end of this, he said, he said, around the edge of this hall you'll find different clubs and societies that you can join. So, as soon as the talk has finished, he said, I want you to just feel free just go and join any club and society. And he also said, if any of you have got any problems, physical, emotional, intellectual, mental, spiritual, psychological, he said, feel free to come and talk to either myself or the chaplain, the college chaplain. I thought, right, I'll remember that. Meeting was over and we started going around the outside of the hall. Rowing club, well I better join that, that's where I came to the college. Film club, massive long queue to join the film club. Cheap film every Friday night. Went all the way around, badminton club, I can't play badminton, rugby club, too small. Walked all the way around and I was just about to go out and I noticed this tiny little like a bit of card, it said Christian Union. And behind this desk were two pale faced, long haired girls looking out. And I saw this word Christian Union and I thought, wait a minute, they're looking for me. I mean, I'm the obvious person for a Christian Union. I mean, let's face it, I've been in a church choir, I became the head choir boy. I've stayed on a monastery. I've sung in more weddings than anybody else probably in the whole college put together. If anybody's got a passport for the Christian Union, I've got it. So I walked along, I said, can I join? Yes, there was nobody queuing up by the way to join the Christian Union. Wrote my name down. They said, right, Gareth? They said, yes, we will. Would you like us to come and fetch you for the first meeting? I thought, I feel a bit like a dog, can you fetch me? I said, no, no, no. I said, don't worry, I shall be there tomorrow at half past one, room whatever it was, I'll see you there. So the following day, wondering what I was going to, I walked into this room, the Christian Union this was. There weren't many people, they were all sitting on the floor. I was used to sort of pews, and for 15 years of going to a church, I'd never ever opened a Bible. Never ever opened a Bible. I didn't really know my way around it at all. And as I walked in, there was one fellow there, he said to his friend across the room, he said, hey, I got a great blessing last night from 1 Peter chapter 3. I thought, what are these people talking about? 1 Peter chapter 3, I got a great blessing? I thought, maybe these are what they call Jehovah's Witnesses. You know, sort of talking about the Bible. And I actually turned around and made my way out of the room, or started to, and somebody put their hand on my shoulder and said, hey, Gareth, come on, there's some refreshments afterwards. The lust of the flesh pulled me back into the room, and I sat through this meeting in which a woman stood up to speak. Now again, I'd never been to a church where a woman was the main speaker. I think she was either a nun or a former nun, and she spoke about heaven. But she spoke in a way that for the first time in my life, I began to think about heaven. Now, I'd sung about heaven in almost every hymn, but I'd never thought about heaven. I'd never asked myself, well, if there is a heaven, am I going there? And if I'm not going to heaven, am I going there? And seeds started to be planted in my mind, you know, about Jesus. Going back to when I sat here, when I talked to Jim all those years ago in the sixth form. Heaven, am I going there? Is there a heaven? And I started going to the Christian Union. Now, I wasn't a Christian, but I got labelled as one of them, which I didn't enjoy at all. I remember going into the dining hall one day, and I heard someone say, oh, look, old Bolton's joined the God Squad. He's very good at mechanics, and looks after my vehicle. So I bought a car since I've been there. And there were refreshments after every meeting. But I hadn't actually joined up and become a member of anything. I was just going around with the people who were there. But I was beginning inside me to get very restless. Every meeting I was going to, people were speaking, and sometimes people would actually make an appeal. You know, they'd actually ask people if they wanted to give their lives to this living God, Jesus Christ, and I used to get very embarrassed, and I felt myself going really red, and felt every eye was looking at me, and just wanted to run out. Really, I just wanted to run out. And I used to think, if there's going to be a meeting, another one like this, I'm not going to go anymore. So I didn't like it at all. Well, I was still going along to the Christian Union. I was also going along to the College Chapel. And one week, I should never forget this, we had a speaker at the College Chapel. There are some people, fanatics, who believe this book. This was at the College Chapel. He said, they believe it, they believe it. They believe in Adam and Eve, and in Jonah. He said, you can't believe everything. Part of it is myth. Part of it is legend. Part of it's just man's imagination. And I sat there and I thought, well, that seems to make sense. Yeah, I mean, Adam and Eve in the 20th century. Jonah. He said, you can believe this book, cover to cover. And you can believe the cover. It's a holy bible. He said, it's black and white. It's not grey. This is God's inspired, infallible word. And I sat there thinking, yeah, yeah, I believe that. I got back to my room that night, and I thought, now wait a minute. You know, the Christian Union fellow said this was God's word, you can believe it all. But do I believe the Christian Union, which is just a society connected with a college student's union, or do I believe what they say in the chapel? What do I do? I thought, I know what I'll do. I'll go and see the college chaplain. He's a man of all wisdom. And if we have any problems, intellectual, emotional, psychological, go and see him. So I arranged to see this fellow. Never forget this, knocked on his door. And I had a few little concerns about him. He seemed to spend most of his evenings with me heavily. I always seemed to have a cigarette with him. And although I wasn't a Christian, I remember thinking now, is this the way a chaplain should behave? Anyway, I don't know, he seems a nice enough guy. Everybody likes him, he likes everybody else, you know, sort of set up. So I walked in, knocked on the door, walked in, and there was clouds of smoke. I said, are you there? Are you there? Yes, yes, come in, Gary. You always call me Gary for some reason. He said, now, what's your problem? And I got all worked out what I was going to say. I was going to say to him, can you believe the Bible? But that's not what came out. It was unbelievable. I sat down there, and I said, can you tell me if I'm a Christian? And he looked at me. He looked at the floor, the ceiling. He said, what's your problem? And I said, well, do you believe in God? I said, yeah, I believe in God. He said, well, good. Do you go to church? I said, yeah, I go to church. He said, well, then, as far as I'm concerned, you're a Christian. I said, oh, good. Because in here, in here, I knew there was a big emptiness. There was a big, what one philosopher has called a God-shaped blank. I said, okay, well, look, can you tell me one thing? Because I've heard people say at the chapel that you can't. I've heard people at the Christian Union say you can. Can you trust this book? He said, oh, easy question to answer. He went over to his shelf, and he got down a Greek New Testament, which, needless to say, was all Greek to me. He opened it up. He said, see that verse there? I said, yeah. He said, contradicts that verse there. I said, oh. He said, do you see that verse there? I said, yeah. He said, oh, so the Bible's full of contradictions and I'm a Christian. He said, that's right. Great. He said, look, I'll give you an example. He said, do you know it says in the Bible, this was the example he gave me, he said, do you know it says in the Bible that they walked through the Red Sea, that there was a mighty wind that parted the waves and the Israelites walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. I said, yeah. He said, well, do you know, it wasn't called the Red Sea. It was called the Red Sea D and one of the E's got dropped out in translation over the years. He said, do you know why it was called the Red Sea? I said, no. He said, it was called the Red Sea because it was so shallow that reeds could be seen growing up through it. So what actually happened was, that day there happened to be quite a strong wind and they sort of paddled their way through, there was a few little waves and they made their way through right to the other side and as it got written down I said, you wait till I tell the President of the Christian Union. So I met the President of the Christian Union and I said, hey, I've got some news for you. You know, you say you believe the Bible. How about this one? I told him the story and he went, hallelujah, praise the Lord. I said, why are you saying hallelujah, praise the Lord? He said, that must mean that God drowned the Egyptians in six inches of water. And I realised that as soon as you start taking scissors to the Bible you give yourself many, many problems and everybody cuts in a different place and you end up with nothing. It's far easier to believe what God's word says. Well by now I was getting extremely confused as you can imagine and I was really, I remember sitting down one evening in my little room in college I sat down on the edge of the bed I said, God, are you really there? God, is it true what they're saying? Because God, I want to know. My life's in a mess. I won't tell you all the things I got involved in at college but many of the things I knew were wrong and what worried me was not only was I not living up to my own pathetic little standards but much less was I trying to ever beginning to attain God's holy perfect standard. Things were wrong. I just didn't know what to do. I went out for a cycle ride in fact I rode down to the city of Norwich about three miles away and as I was riding I went past these advertising boards you know these big advertising boards and past one it said drink a pint of milk a day rather dates me that advert doesn't it drink a pint of milk a day another one says something like Guinness is good for you and next to it in huge letters were these words Jesus said to him I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. I thought what's that doing there? drink a pint of milk a day Guinness is good for you Jesus said you've got to be born again. Anyway I carried on cycling you're not going to believe this I cycled past the railway station where there were adverts for cheap day return fares, London, Norwich and then on the little board next to it Jesus said I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again and in one week that same verse appeared in six different places. I thought what's happening? I thought hey you can't believe in God and coincidence can you? either you have a God who plans or things just happen by chance and I believed in a God therefore I believed in this plan and I got back to my room and that evening I thought I'd better read these verses we'd all had to buy a bible for some reason I'd never opened it got it down from the shelf it was covered in dust at the beginning of what I was saying this morning there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a member of the Jewish ruling council very religious man wasn't he Nicodemus? member of the Jewish ruling council about as religious as you could get wait a minute I thought that rings a bell he came to Jesus at night sure enough it was night time there I was lying in my bed with a little bedside light on reading these verses and what happened? he said to Jesus we know you're a teacher who's come from God for no one could perform the miraculous signs you're doing if God were not with him I thought sure Jesus obviously came from God everybody knows that he did miracles yeah I agree with all that what does Jesus do? totally ignores what Nicodemus has said looks straight at Nicodemus and I believe looked right into his heart and said I will not perform the miracle of God unless he is born again and what can I say to you? I mean how can I describe it? the verse came up off that page it had been in psychedelic fluorescent lights it couldn't have been more powerful it hit me between the eyes I thought I'm not born again I'm no more a Christian for all my religion than Adolf Hitler or anybody else I don't know Jesus I've not had a spiritual rebirth because it goes on to say that Nicodemus was thinking in physical terms he said well you know do I have to become like a little baby in mother's womb and grow up again Jesus said no we're not talking of physical things we're talking of spiritual things you need to be born again I closed the Bible put it back sat up and I can't remember if I said this out loud but this is what I said I said God if you are there I said I want you to change my life I said because there's a lot in my life that's wrong I know that my standards are poor I can't even live up to them much less up to your standards God I want a change in my life I want to come from darkness into light I want to know your presence I want to know your power I don't want religion which is just outside keeping a set of rules doing this and doing that I want a relationship that's going to transform me and so I said to God I said well if you are real come into my life and if you do I'm sure I didn't realise the significance of the words I said if you do I give all my life back to you forever Amen closed the Bible put it back switched off the light next morning I woke up what was the first thing I remembered the prayer I'd prayed the night before and I knew immediately and do you know I've never doubted it since I knew immediately that I was different it's very hard to put this into words it's rather like your life's a jigsaw with bits missing and these were the final pieces put into place it's as though like these curtains behind me here are drawn and suddenly they parted and I could see far beyond what I'd known up to then and it was as though my own life was attached with a massive chain to a rock a solid rock that was going to hold me and keep me I was different, I'd become a Christian it was fantastic and from that day to this we're talking now since the late 60s from that day to this I've known Jesus has been my saviour I've actually never doubted I know some people have gone through doubts and difficulties but God has given me that assurance every single day, every single moment that I belong to him I've let him down many, many times but he's never let me down and I just want to say as we finish this morning those who are here and those who are watching this on video I wonder do you know the Jesus that you've heard about today as the testimonies have been given as I've been speaking to you do you know the inside in fact you don't know Jesus if you're honest religion is the way to God religion is not the way to God all religions lead to the same place the judgment seat of Christ we're talking about a living relationship with a living God and that Jesus who I looked at at the stained glass window all those years ago I now know that he died there for me here today and for all of you and that his power is real and living that he rose from the dead and he can enter the life of anyone who receives him and as we finish this morning what are you going to do about this Jesus our gift of salvation you might say well how can I know this well it's already been mentioned you first of all have to come to the position of saying I'm wrong my life is wrong I've not only offended other people I've offended God and you've got to say I'm sorry forgive me the word that's used is repent that means to actually change your mind to decide I'm not going to go that way any longer I'm going to go this way I'm going to follow Jesus I'm going to give all my life to him are you prepared to do that I don't know everybody here this morning but I'm sure there are some here who've come in and you actually don't know Jesus well I'm going to close just in a few moments with a prayer and it's the prayer that I prayed roughly I can't remember it word for word when I became a Christian and if you know God's been speaking to you this morning you pray that prayer wherever you are you pray that prayer and if you are really sincere and honest and open to God I can assure you not on what I've experienced but on the authority of God's word that whoever receives Jesus receives him forever and that he accepts whoever you are, whatever you've done if you come in repentance and faith to God so let's pray and this is the prayer that I prayed and if you know today that you're not born again born again is not just an American expression it's not just something that goes with certain adverbs it's actually a phrase Jesus used it comes from the Bible and it's an experience that thousands have had millions over the years and I believe today God could be speaking or God is speaking to somebody about their need of Jesus you pray this prayer then this morning with me Father I thank you that you sent Jesus to die for me Lord you know my life has not been right there have been many failures many things have been wrong I've even failed in my own sight let alone failed in your sight forgive me Lord and please come and cleanse me take away all that's wrong all the dirt and live in my life make me a new creation and give me a living real hope for the rest of my days and help me to live for you I ask it in Jesus name Amen Amen