In this sermon, the speaker shares a powerful story of a man who was sentenced to prison for possessing a large amount of opium. The speaker visited the man in prison and prayed with him, leading him to accept Jesus into his life. Despite facing numerous challenges, including his wife leaving him and his brother being arrested for murder, the man's faith in Jesus remained strong. The speaker also mentions how the man's gang brothers, who were also arrested, came to know Jesus except for his own brother. The speaker emphasizes the transformative power of Jesus and shares how the man's brother eventually agreed to believe in Jesus after five years of staying off drugs. However, the brother initially hesitated because he believed that following Jesus would require him to give up his criminal activities and financial support for his family. The speaker concludes by highlighting the man's commitment to Jesus and his desire to live a life that aligns with his faith.

anything to do with us. Do you care about us? So he said, I believe you care about my brothers. So he said, you and I, we both love my brothers. And I said, yes, I do. But I wish you'd stop being so nice to me, because I hate everything you stand for. And my aim here in the world city is to get all your brothers away from you, so that they can follow Jesus. And he said, well, he said, we use different ways. He said, I use this way, indicating power. And he says, you use this way, indicating the heart. And he said, I beat them. I have them beaten up when they're on drugs. And he said, I can't change them. But he said, I've seen that Jesus can. So he said, I'm going to give them to you. Now you can't do this in the triad society, because you can't leave. It's God oaths in front of demons, that you can never leave. And you'll be cursed if you do. So this was extraordinary that he said he was going to give them to me. And I said, no, thanks, because I know that you want them back when they've got off drugs, because they're better fighters when they're not taking heroin. And I said, if they're going to follow Jesus, they can't follow you as well. So he said, okay, I'll give up my right to them. He said, I'll give you all the rotten ones. And he said, I'll keep the good ones. I said, that's fine, because Jesus came for the rotten ones. So over the next few years, he used to send along people. And we tell them about Jesus. And many of them came to live in our house. And we saw many delivered from the power of drugs until we couldn't contain them in our houses. And last year, he came to know Jesus too. It was very exciting, because eight years before that, when he saw an addict who had been freed, he said, okay, he said, if that man lasts five years, I've got to believe, because if he's changed, Jesus must be real. And after five years, we contacted him and said, now you've got to believe, because you promised that if he stayed up for five years, you'd believe. And he said, look, I simply can't afford to be a Christian. He said, I've seen the way you live. I've seen you Christians. And he said, none of you have very good jobs. You don't have good places to live in. He said, I've seen the way you work. I've seen the way you live. And he said, frankly, I can't afford it. He said, because if I'm going to follow Jesus, I'm going to do it good. And he said, I have to lie. I cheat. I steal. I take advantage of people. He gets a lot of his money from protection rackets and brothels, opium dens and so on. And he said, I need this money because I have to support all my brothers. You know, when they're murdered, he looks after their widows. He sends the children to school. Funerals are paid for. He's the sort of benefactor of the tribe society. And he said, I can't afford it. And last Christmas, he wanted to give me his children. He said, because they're out of control. He said, I'm going to give them to you and you can make them into good Christians. And I said, nope. What about you coming to Jesus? And he said, can't afford it. He believed, but he wasn't going to do it until he did it well. Well, it's a good story because a couple of months after that, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment for having a large amount of opium in his flat. And I prayed with him in the prison. They gave me two minutes. So I went in to see him and I said, I'm only allowed two minutes with you. No time to talk. We're going to pray. He didn't object at all. He just began to pray. He said, Jesus, I want to give up my whole life to follow you. He asked him into his life. He cried his way through a whole packet of tissues. He spoke in tongues. He prophesied. He spoke to me. I mean, the whole thing was sent on for an hour. They never came back for an hour. That was the best, I think, the best time in my whole life. You know, I've been waiting for him for 16 years. And the next day, somebody came to me and they said all that opium that was found in his flat belonged to someone else. Well, it's a long story, but we unwound the case and he got freed and he was baptized and he was freed. And he had a really bad time. All the way through his first Christian day, everything went wrong. His wife left him. His brother was arrested for murder. Ten of his gang brothers that were, were arrested for murder. None of none of whom were eventually found guilty, but they had to spend eight months in prison, which was frightening. But through this, actually each one of the ten came to know Jesus. All except for this man's brother. Now, this man used to be called Gogo. Gogo means big brother of big brothers. We now have renamed him New Paul. And New Paul's brother was the only one out of the ten who hadn't come to believe in Jesus. And I used to visit him in prison. I've got lots of lovely prison stories. You know, if you go to prison in the name of the Lord Jesus, there will always be miracles, because this is, this is one of the ministries which we're supposed to be doing. It's an anointed ministry. I've got so many prison stories, but, but this one is the sweetest. Ali couldn't believe in Jesus, you see, because during the time that the murder had been happening, he had been chanting Buddhist scriptures. He was a Buddhist monk himself, learning to be. And so every time I went to see him, he said he didn't want to talk about Jesus. So every time I went, I said that, you know, there are people all over the world, and some of you were here too. I said, they're praying for you in America. They're praying for you in England. They're praying for you in Hong Kong. They're praying for you in Australia and New Zealand. And we got all kinds of people praying. And I said, on Wednesdays you fast, especially Wednesday lunchtime. So I said, be encouraged, because in Jesus name we're praying for you. Well, one day I went to see him, and he believed. And he said he wanted to pray to receive Jesus, and he was baptized in the spirit behind the glass. You know, he couldn't talk to him direct. And later on he got off the trial, and they were all freed unconditionally. And we went out for a celebration meal, and I said to him, I just want to know why did you believe that time, and all the other times you, you didn't believe. Well, he said it was very strange. He said the prison governor came around, and he came with two guards on an inspection of the jail. And he walked past my cell, and he said, what's that smell? He said, there's a smell coming out of your cell. And I said, I can't smell it. And he said, what have you got in there? And he said, I haven't got anything in there. And the prison governor said, oh hen, oh hen, it's very fragrant, it's very sweet, and went off. And later on Ali spoke to the two guards, and he said, what did he mean my cell was smelling? And they said, yes, can't you smell it? They said, there's a real sweet smell coming out of your cell. What is it you've got in there? And he said, there's nothing in there. And they said, it's been smelling like that all day. And Ali went in, and then he remembered, it's Wednesday. And he believed. He said, I remember, all those people prayed on Wednesdays, all those people fasted on Wednesdays, and I believed in the Lord. I never heard of anyone being congratulated for a smell before. But he smelt the prayers of the saints. He smelt those fragrant offerings. That's terribly exciting, and I often pray that prayer. God, you know, St. Paul had a voice and a light, and this man met someone who told him a testimony, and that man read a book, and this one had a sermon, and you know the way to every man's heart. God in your spirit, find the way to this man's heart. It's a wonderful prayer to pray, and he always does a different thing. St. Paul to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. He wrote, out of the most severe trial, the Macedonian church, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. That was a poor church, but they gave as much as they were able, even beyond ability, for the privilege of sharing. And he commended that church, because he said, they did not do as I expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then to us, in keeping with God's will. And this is the principle I want to share with you. Just in case you're going to get it wrong, and think that you've got to give something up to the Lord, it's not true. You haven't got to give anything up to the Lord. Whatever made you think that, everything you have was given to you. That's the way round. How could we think we have to give anything up to the Lord?