Scotland 2009 - Evangelistic Rally - Part 1

And on behalf of Teen Challenge, Strathclyde, the Haven Kilmachome and Inverclyde Initiative, we are the steering committee for this occasion, this outreach, this mission. I'd just like to give you all a very warm welcome. To thank you for coming from wherever you've come and for whatever reason you've come, just to thank you for coming and to give a welcome and a thanks specifically for those who have come from far as well as near and especially those who have come from New York and America because that's pretty far. I think we give them a clap. Now in case you're not all that enamored by Americans and some Scottish people are a wee bit like that, you know, but you might think well we're okay. Well in many ways we are okay, but there's a lot of ways in which we're not okay and this mission team has come to be supportive of us in what we do and I'll touch on that in a minute. But just specifically I'd like to thank Teen Challenge Duns for coming through here. The Teen Challenge Duns boys, stand up. And the Haven lads, stand up and join them, Haven boys. And I should say just everybody else, you'll stand up in a minute when we get singing. So everybody welcome and the message is God's love's for all and if you're local, if you're Christian, if you're half Christian, if you're pagan, if you're not Christian at all then welcome here tonight and this is going to be a good place to be for the next two or three nights. Now the event is it's part of a Christian outreach event. Now Christianity is alive and kicking in our country and in our town. No, it's alive and it's kicking but it is at a pretty low ebb nationally and it's under attack from many quarters and in many ways. There are pockets of life indeed, there are lights in the darkness but there is secular humanism, materialism and many other isms. They're the order of the day and also there's a great lack of an eternal perspective and we make no apology at all to fill Greenock Town Hall with people who have an eternal perspective and ask people in who have no eternal perspective and let them know that there is a message of love and a message of hope and for us Times Square Church, Pastor Carter Conlon and a team of over 200 have come here to share this message of love. Times Square is an international, I'm going to say multimedia, I don't know if that's the right word but you know they're a big church, maybe about 8,000 or 10 and so this auspicious hall, Times Square fills this three times in a Sunday sort of idea but we're really happy to have them here. Now Pastor Carter and his team have come here at no expense, to us a little expense and I'd just like to take a moment to think about people paying money to come to Greenock from America not for shopping. We sometimes go the other way around don't we? Some folk used to fly to America to shop and they've come because of a burden in their heart and they've come to Greenock to share with us, to support the Christians here in their desire, to support with a servant heart. They've paid a lot of money to be here. Now there's no collection going to be taken in the service, they're free for everyone and tell your neighbors and all those who missed tonight, tell them to come tomorrow night and there is no collection because the gospel is free and God's love is free and our brothers and sisters from America, amen, amen. My brothers and sisters from America have demonstrated that by paying their way and there is a wee stall here tonight to buy tablet and cards that have been made at the haven for a donation to the haven but there is no collection for the gospel message and the preaching of it and we rejoice that God's love has been brought to us freely and they've brought a blessing with them, God's love and we've been blessed already by them. Now it's a Christian outreach event and there are teams visiting prison, sharing in the prison, there are teams going into schools, sharing in the schools where we have access and where we're welcome, there are teams going into old folks homes visiting there, the choir is singing in the mall and sharing God's love there, their testimony is there and last but not least there's work teams building a new wing at the haven, men helping to erect an extension that we're putting up at the haven which is a residential center for recovering drug and alcohol abusers, not far from here that some of you might know about and if you don't know about it come and ask me and I'll soon tell you. Now just especially a welcome to Pastor Carter Conlon and the team from America who have come over here to share with us, I just emphasize they've come to share in the burden that we have, the pastor himself has a real burden for Greenock that God placed in his heart which is pretty amazing to me and I just want to tell you briefly a personal anecdote on that point. He was here a year ago, preached in this town hall and said God had given him a burden to be here and he came up to the haven and shared with the boys in chapel from a 1600 audience to a nine drug addict audience and told the story of the prodigal son, the prodigal son, prodigals were prodigals till we find the love of God and after he finished telling the story he was looking out the window down over the valley and he said turn to Greg here and he said this is church, this is church and folks tonight you've come to church where God is and his spirit and his people that's where the church is and whether you're a recovering addict or an addict who hasn't started to recover yet or you're a mature Christian or you're a backslidden Christian or a wayward Christian and many of us through the ups and downs of our life come into these categories, tonight there's an opportunity to come and to be blessed and his words touched my heart and I shared a bit with him and showed him some of the sites and so on, he'll maybe tell you some of that himself but the welcome is that the man has been burdened by God. There's no fancy organizing committee, this is the best dressed I've been for a while and if you knew the other scallywags who are in the team who's steering it, there's no high profile, it's not, it's ordinary people who love the Lord and the team challenged ministry, there's a bus outside Denver Clyde Center tonight, last night, buses in various areas and this is the heart that the pastor's got when he's here and this is what you wish to share, we're not here to preach at anybody, we're here to share the love of God and give a welcome, so tonight experience it, connect with God and be blessed. It's not very formal, it's informal but it's going to be, it's going to be good, it's going to be glorious. Be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name, be lifted higher, to lift your name Jesus, You, our Lord of all You are stronger, You are stronger Sin is broken, You have saved me It is written, Christ is risen Jesus, You, our Lord of all You are stronger, You are stronger Sin is broken, You have saved me It is written, Christ is risen Jesus, You, our Lord of all Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, mighty God. Bless the Lord. I want to thank the steering committee and the Christian people in Greenock for being so hospitable and welcoming us with such open arms. I have a request, though, of you. Before we leave, if it's at all possible, I'd like all of the Scottish people only in this audience to stand and would you sing us one of your favorite Scottish hymns and sing it with the deepest brogue that you can come up with. Would you do that? One of those, you know, kind of, kind of hymns. I was getting some lessons last night in the deeper Scottish language and very much appreciated it. I doubt that I'll ever be able to speak it. But it's, you know, I find whenever I visit another country and when I'm preparing my messages in the morning for that evening, I hear the Bible being read to me in that brogue, in that language. God knows every accent. He knows every language, every kindred, every tribe. It all came from Him. It didn't come from us. It all came from Him. And I thank God for that understanding. I have a message tonight and tomorrow night, which I believe are prophetic. Now, here's what I mean by that. In these messages, you'll find the reason why the Lord has sent us here. The theme of this conference is only the truth will set you free. Now, we need to be set free from more things than we realize. And if you and I have a heart for truth, if we're willing to let the scriptures examine our hearts and prove us and to see if what we do and how we do it is really right, from the sinner to the dearest saint that is in this audience this evening, I do believe that God can speak so profoundly to your heart and take you to a place where He wants you to go. The hour is late and we're living at a time when Christ is coming back for His church very soon. We are called to be a testimony of His love in the earth and I'm believing God that the joy that you've begun to experience tonight is going to increase. Starting tomorrow night, you're going to hear five-minute testimonies of some of the people in this choir in particular that are singing to you tonight. There are some astounding testimonies in this choir. What you're hearing this evening is not a show. We never go anywhere to put on the show. These people are real. These are brothers and sisters in Christ who've had a marvelous, miraculous touch of God come into their home and their heart and because of that the Lord has given them this song, same kind of song that David the psalmist wrote about. I'm going to speak to you tonight from Luke chapter 15, very familiar to those story of the prodigal son, but in a way perhaps that you've never heard it before. I'm going to talk to you about the best of two bad situations. Some people say tonight, that's my life. You're already preaching my situation. I'm in the best of two bad situations, but you'll understand what that's about as we get farther into it. Let's pray together tonight. Father, thank you tonight Lord. God, I believe with all my heart that this is an ordained meeting of heaven. These services have been called by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God and Lord you have sent us here all the way from America to stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in the pivotal moment in the history of Scotland and in particular in this town of Greenock. Lord, there's something in your heart. There's something that you're doing that you want to accomplish at this time. God Almighty, would you help us to hear it? Would you help us to embrace it? Would you help us to move? Oh God, in the manner that you want us to live and have our being in our Christ. Father, I thank you for this with all my heart tonight. Let there be great Liberty to hear your word this evening. Give us gracious hearts. We ask it in Jesus name. We will go back to worship a little bit after this word that I share with you for I try to speak about 30 minutes, usually 35 minutes. I can't promise you that I'll hold to that, but I'll do my best in it. Now Luke chapter 15 is a story about a man who had two sons. One day the younger son came to his father and he said father. Give me what is rightfully mine my inheritance and he said I'm leaving this place. I'm I'm not staying here anymore. I've there's something about this place that I can't live here any longer and I used to wonder why would he leave the father's house in the first place? Now we know from the testimony of Scripture, for example in Luke 15 and verse 17 when he when he finally came to himself. He said how many hired servants and my father have bread enough to spare but I perish with hunger. Now this this son knew that his father was good to everyone under his care. He knew this. He knew God was good. He knew that everybody there had provision. He'd heard the stories and perhaps he is adventured through the the estate of his father. People were speaking about how good the father had been to them and he knew that his father provided for all that were under his care in verse 12. He came to his father and when he came to his father, he must have had a knowledge that that his father would give him what he asked for even though there were tears in his father's eyes. There had to be tears in the eyes of his father. Can you imagine for a moment this this son was coming to his father and he's saying give me what is what is mine and send me from this house. I'm leaving father now. I know how many fathers you would feel. How would you feel if your son came to you or your daughter came to you and they were they were leaving you and they were leaving your care and you had great plans and you had great provision to carry out these plans and you knew that what was in your heart was better than anything that was in their heart. But yet they insisted and some of you have known the pain of this of watching your own children leave the house and heading in a path that you knew wasn't good and the anguish but yet something in the heart that he knew his father was so good and so kind that he wouldn't refuse him and he would give him it both his inheritance and he would give him his leave as it is to leave his house. The Lord is not a bully. He's not a condemner. He is gracious. You see in the book of Revelation. He stands at the door of a church that he rightly purchased with his own blood and he says in Revelation. I believe it's 320 said behold. I stand at the door and knock a very gracious God and surely if anybody had the right to kick a door down he had that right but yet instead of taking that right he knocks at the door. So the question now remains. Why did he go and why would he leave such a place now? I have a theory about this. It's a personal theory of mine, but I want to share it with you tonight. I don't believe he left because of his father. I believe he left because of his older brother. He had an older brother in this house. Let me tell you a little bit about this older brother versus 25 and 26. Tell us when his older son the older brother was in the field and when he came into nine to the house, he heard music and dance somewhat like you've heard this evening and it was unfamiliar with the sound of joy. Do you know that service to God can get that way? We can get to the point where we're actually unfamiliar with the sound of joy. Service to God can get that way. It can get laborious. It can get heavy. It can get mundane. It can become an unattractive place. It can be the kind of a place where we invite young people and we say give your life to the service of God as we have found him it but yet there's nothing of any particular appeal in this place that would cause these young ones to want to stay in the house of God. It was also angry verse 28 scripture says your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he's received him safe and sound and verse 28 says he was angry and would not go in and therefore his father came out and then treated him. He was angry when things in the father's house didn't go exactly as he thought they should and you and I can get that way. We can get to the point in our service to God where we know everything. We know how everything should go. We know how everything should be done and when it moves in the direction that we don't agree with I'm not talking about theological necessarily disagreements just practical disagreements. We can get to the point in the house of God where we're angry. When things don't go the way we think they should how many people does that speak about in our generation? Go to church and you're supposed to be worshiping God supposed to be raising our hands and or our hearts at least and thanking God for his goodness. Thanking God for the week. Thanking God for his provision. Thanking God for his salvation. But how many people on Sunday morning leave the house of God angry angry about the length of the service angry about the preacher's sermon angry about somebody who came to church angry about somebody who didn't come to church? Just angry leaving the house of God in anger and it happens constantly in the house of God. In verse 29 and 30 tell us actually the deeper root of this. He had a deep grievance and unsettled grievance in his heart against his father. It says he was angry verse 29 says he said all these years have served you. I've never transgressed any of your commandments. And yet you never even gave me a goat or a kid that I might make Mary with my friends. But as soon as this your son was come was devoured. You're living with harlots. You've killed for him the fatted calf. He had a deep grievance against God here. I am in your house. I'm serving you. I'm living for you the best that I know how and you've not given me any joy. I read about joy, but I don't have any joy and when I get together with my friends, it's not to worship. It's not to clap my hands. It's not to talk about the goodness of God and the father looked at this son and he said in verse 31. He said son, you are always with me and all that I have is yours. It's always been yours that son just didn't know what his real inheritance was. He was he had a grievance against God and he's angry in the house of God and he's he's working and he's laboring. He's he's like the Church of Ephesus in Revelation in the book of Revelation. Here's a church that started out. Well, and here's a church that is discerning. Here's a church that is proving preachers of the gospel who claim to be apostles, but are frauds and are rightly discerning them and they're laboring and their labor is becoming actually more intensive as time passes. But Jesus came to this church. It's red letter in the book of Revelation and he said but you've you've lost your first love. You've lost something of my heart. It's what I you had my heart at one time, but you lost my heart and because of that he said you're in great danger of your testimony being removed. Your candlestick is your testimony. It's that call of God to be light in the dark and time to be hope in a hopeless situation. He said you work and labor and work and labor and there was not one criticism as it is of the labor and the work and the desire to be theologically clean and pure, but he said you've you've lost your first love. You've forgotten something. My theory is that the younger son not here. This knowing that his older brother would inherit the keeping of his father's house and that he would have to serve under this man's joyless religion. He left and he said anywhere would be better than here. I think it's a tragedy in our generation. So many young people are leaving the house of God because they can't serve you say they don't leave because they have problems with God they leave because they have problems with those who have inherited his work in the earth. That's the point this evening. They don't have problems with God. They know God loves them. They know God is good. They don't have a problem with God. They have a problem with those who inherit his house in the earth. And so this boy heads out and he drifts so far away from the heart of his father that he begins to feed that which he has been taught is unclean now for a Jewish boy to feed pigs. It doesn't get any lower. It doesn't get any dirtier. It doesn't get any darker. He's been taught all his life that these are unclean animals, but yet he's out there enabling them to survive. I think of the young people in this town that have probably been to church at some point or they've had some religious training. Scotland has had an incredible history of the touch of God. There have been missionaries, powerful preachers of the gospel raised up, even are preached in this particular hall. Missionaries have gone all over the world and there was something at one time that was so attractive in the house of God. Yet our brother David says tonight that the spiritual life is at a low ebb in this country. Is it possible that God wants to speak to the church first? Is it possible that my heart, your heart have to be examined by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God that we have to allow the word of God to touch us and find out what happened to us? Is it possible that if the Christ of the Bible were walking through the candlestick as it is of the testimony that we have here tonight, is it possible that he's got something to say to us that we need to hear? And so this boy drifts out. I think it breaks my heart when I think of the young men and the young women who have had a chance to be in the house of the Lord and they are out in the streets prostituting themselves, taking all kinds of drugs, whether they're sniffing it or injecting it into their veins involved in drinking and violence and immorality and hopelessness and darkness and it breaks my heart and it should break yours to think that one teenager would commit suicide. In these counties that are surrounding us, it shouldn't happen as long as the Church of Jesus Christ is alive. As long as the testimony of God is alive, there should always be a place that these young people can go and not find an older brother that's angry, but find the love of a father, find the love of God that they so needed and so longed for. Verse 16 said he got so hungry in that place that he turned to the people around him, but they were so selfish that nobody would give him anything. And so his head one more time looked up and he said in my father's house, the one thing I do know is that everybody has provision and I'm starving to death and I'm telling you in the spirit tonight that young people's heads are beginning to rise again. They're beginning to look in this community. We are at a moment. We're at a moment in history when the youth of our societies and our towns are beginning to come to their senses one more time beginning to say there's nothing out here. The endless parties, the empty sex, all of the things that we're involved in, all of this hog trough where we've been feeding ourselves is left us empty and it's so selfish. There's nothing here but selfishness and nobody here can give me what I want. And they're beginning to look towards the house of God again. I'm speaking prophetically to you tonight because I know in my heart why God has sent us here. Young people are coming home by the hundreds. It's happening in New York City now. We have 800 young people coming to the church now on Friday night. No church background, not raised in the house of God, but a deep, deep hunger for the things of God. And I'm telling you as Christ is alive, God is meeting them in those services supernaturally and sovereignly. They're coming in and they're a mess. A lot of these kids are violent and angry, but they're coming in and they're not meeting an angry older brother. They're meeting a God who loves them with a passionate love. They're meeting the God who loves them so much that he came to this earth as a man, walked among us, and went to a cross with his own blood, paid the price for their redemption. That's who they're meeting in the house of God. Praise God and their lives are becoming miracles. Miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle. I wish I could bring the whole bunch of them into this hall tonight and let them share what God has been doing. Coming in in the most hopeless of situations and we're watching God touch them, setting them in their right minds. And suddenly they're wanting to go to the mission field. Suddenly the word of God is filling them. Suddenly they're becoming, as the scripture says, a new creation in Christ Jesus. So this young brother gets up and he heads home. And he views his father's house and his brother's religion as possibly little more than the best of two bad situations. And I think that's the way a lot of young people are coming home. It's not overly attractive, what they have seen in the house of God. And they view it as the best of two bad situations. In verse 20, Luke tells us, shows us actually. It must have been interesting. This older brother is out working, laboring. He's got a hole, probably he's in the field. He's doing his begrudging service to his father, just as usual. And suddenly one day he sees his father bolt off the front veranda and headed a full run down the road. He must have wondered, I wonder where my father is going. I've not seen him do this in a long time. Maybe he'd never seen it before. Maybe his father had done it, he just never noticed it. And suddenly, suddenly, his father's doing something that he's not doing. His father's involved in something he doesn't understand. Suddenly, as it is the spirit of God, has gone where he's not been willing to go. Suddenly something is transpiring that's outside of his understanding. And I only can help but wonder, how will he receive it when it finally comes his way? Will he be able to endure it? Did he ever join the party? You know the story, many of you. And I often wonder, did he ever, ever join the party? Or did he stay outside angry the rest of his life? How perplexing it must have been. And then the scripture tells us, the son comes home. And oh yeah, what am I supposed to do now? Oh yes, I'm supposed to be dirty, unclean, unworthy. God can't really use me anymore the way maybe I thought he could when I was young. I've wasted this inheritance of my life. I've made a mess of the family name. Everybody in town knows that I'm a scoundrel. And yet at the same time, I'm talking about my father, I'm talking about my family. And I've made such a mess of everything. And he's coming home, reciting as it is his mantra. Yes, this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to come home and I'm supposed to be a sinner. And I'm supposed to have my nose dragged in the ground. And I'm fully prepared for this. And as he's coming home, suddenly, the scripture says he was a long way off. A long way off from the full understanding of the heart of God in the text of scripture. And suddenly he sees this old man come running towards him down the road. I don't think there's a scene in scripture that more portrays the heart of God. Keep in mind this is red letter. This is out of the mouth of Christ himself. He's describing the heart of God. He's describing the work of God. And suddenly this boy sees what he's never really fully understood. Maybe that's why his father had to let him go without resistance. Maybe he had to come to an understanding of something he'd not fully appreciated. And as he's coming back down the road, he sees this old man come running towards him. Can you picture this in your mind? White robes or whatever he's wearing are flowing. His eyes, his tears are streaming down his face. And he comes to this boy. And the boy says, oh yeah, what am I supposed to say? Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father's not speaking to him strangely. He's not responding to what he's saying. Scripture says he fell on his neck and kissed him. How odd it must have seemed. This is not the way I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to have to hang my head and rehearse my sins for years to come. Yet he's not even responding to me. The father puts his arm around his son. They begin to walk towards the house together. And as they're walking towards the house, the first thing his father says is, bring the best robe. The best robe in the house of God is the blood of Jesus Christ. There's no greater covering. Cover him. This boy has been in a pig yard. This boy has been feeding pigs. This boy really stinks. He probably hasn't had a shower in months. He's a mess. His whole countenance is a mess. But the one thing that our father loves to do is he takes our mess and he covers it with the sacrifice of his son on Calvary. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. He covers us. He covers our lameness. He covers our sin. He doesn't say, okay, we're going to start writing a book and now you're going to stand in my house and just talk about how rotten you've been for the next 35 years of your life. No, he covers his sin. Covers it. And so this boy's coming down the road and the stink and the stench and all the evidence of where he's been is gone. He's now covered in the finest robe in the house of God. And then the father gives another command. Now this boy, he must have been perplexed. This is not what I thought the house of my father was. I didn't understand he was like this. The next thing he does, he commands. He says, take a ring and put the ring on his finger. And the son must have been dumbfounded. He was telling him, I'm not receiving you as a slave. I'm receiving you as a son in the full authority of my kingdom because the ring of the father represented the authority of the father's kingdom. No, I'm not bringing you back to grind your nose in the floor and for you to snivel and cry over what you've done. I'm bringing you back as a full son and daughter of God. I'm bringing you back in power and authority. I'm bringing you back with the authority to have a new life. The authority to stand and face hell itself and see everything that's ever raised against you destroyed. I'm giving you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the evil one and nothing shall by any means hurt you. I'm giving you the authority to condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. I've given you a righteousness that has come from me and nobody can take that righteousness away from you. I'm giving you the authority of a son and a daughter in the house of God. Then he tells his servants, he said, bring out the shoes and put them on his feet. Son, we're gonna go places together. I've got a journey I'm about to take you on because now you know me. Now you know my heart. Now you know what I do. Now you know the work of the Father. Now you know what the Father's heart and the Father's house has always been about. It's reaching the poor, the oppressed, the addicted, the lost, the wounded in heart, the spiritually blind, the nobodies, the nothings, the people in jail, people who have no hope, they have no helper, the fatherless, the widow, the addicted, the afflicted. This is the work of God. This is what I do and now you know it. Now you know it. My son, my daughter, you now know what my work is. Then he calls them in to his house, gets the musicians together and says, strike up the band. This is a good day. We're going to have a party in the house of God because there was music and dancing. I've been in Jerusalem. I've seen these kind of celebrations in the presence of a holy God. Hallelujah. Now the brother can't handle this. It's not his concept of God. He's been so long doing things a certain way. He just can't handle this. And I want to say to you in the church in Greenock, you are going to have to make a decision. Sons and daughters are coming home. You can join the party or you can stay outside. I say this with a kind and a loving heart. But you do have a choice you have to make. You can stay outside in anger, stay outside and say this is not right. Stay outside and say this is not the way things should be done. I don't know if the older brother ever entered the house and started maybe to clap his hands and give God thanks. And started to rejoice that God would give the same righteousness to this young man that he felt he had gotten because of his loyalty and his service. I think he failed to understand that righteousness is free. It's given by God. Christ himself said I didn't come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners. I came to save them. I praise God for that with all of my heart. If that's not the case, I wouldn't be here tonight. I'd have no recourse. I'd have no chance. I would have no life in Christ. To know Christ is to enter into a supernatural life. Supernaturally forgiven. Supernaturally empowered. Supernaturally changed. Supernaturally led. Supernaturally given giftings that is not possible for ordinary men to possess. He changes us from image to image Paul says in glory to glory just as we behold him as our eyes are fixed upon our Christ. He changes us and makes us into a new creation. I wish we had time tonight for everybody on this platform. Hard to picture the last man who sang here tonight to us with a gun in his mouth going to end it all until the Lord said give me one more chance in your life. Hard to picture that because he's a new creation. The Lord has touched him. Hard to picture Kim who sang Jesus I love you tonight as beaten up and left her dead on the side of a road somewhere. Nobody and nothing in this world wanted her until Jesus came to her. The song she sings comes from a heart that has found Christ. That knows Christ. And thank God that we've refused to muzzle that in the house of the Lord. Refused to take that appreciation and love for the miraculous salvation of our God and somehow pile a ton of heavy religion on top of it and take the life and take the joy out of her heart and cause the youth and the young people to look and see nothing at all that's attractive in the house of God. I've not come to chastise anyone tonight and I've not come as anybody's instructor but I've come as one that God has sent to wash your feet as the church of Jesus Christ to walk beside you for this short moment in history and to say to you would you consider something? Would you consider that your ways may not have been the ways of God? Would you consider that you might have fallen short just a bit in the work that God has commissioned you to do? Would you consider opening your heart? Would you consider would you consider letting the heart of the Father be given to you again? The scripture says that all heaven rejoices over one sinner that comes to Christ. There is this incredible rejoicing that probably far eclipses anything we've experienced in this this hallway tonight. There's a joy that is deeper, it is farther, it is more pure and one day we'll be there and the scripture says that there'll be multitudes of all nations tongues, kindreds, tribes standing at the throne of God and I do believe that that will be a celebration such as you and I can't even in our natural minds understand on this earth, but we can have a part of it because heaven rejoices every time someone who doesn't know Christ comes to him. For all the young people that are here tonight and anybody else like Brother David talked about those that are not given to God they've not come to Christ through the cross you don't have a personal relationship with him yet you may have had a lot of truth spoken to you but you've never given your life to him it's never been an attractive prospect for you and then others who have just gotten so despondent in trying to serve this angry God that can never be pleased that you sit in the house but you have a deep grievance in your heart against God I serve and serve and serve and yet there's no joy in my life I want you to know tonight that the Father is running to you he's willing to embrace you he's willing to give you new life he's willing to give you joy and I promise you he'll break every bondage of hell that has ever come into your heart, he'll break it all you have to do is believe him it's not a matter of doing things it's a matter of believing you believe him, he's made great promises the Apostle Peter said it's by the promises of God that we become partakers of the life of Christ, it's in faith in these promises of God, not what I do for God, it's what God has done for me I shared it with a young man at the haven a year ago what did this young man, what did he have to do? he had to let his father put the robe on him you have what do you have to do tonight? you have to receive salvation by faith in the finished work on a cross two thousand years ago, when Jesus Christ died he paid the penalty for your sin if you come to him by faith he will forgive your sin and he will cover you what else did he have to do? he had to put out his hands and let the servants put the ring of authority on his finger, if you keep your fist closed, if you hide them behind you, you can't put the authority, you've got to receive it and you receive it by faith just like your salvation, God I believe that you're going to change my life, then he had to lift his feet and let them put shoes on his feet and just as Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 6, Lord I'll go, I'll tell other people I'll do whatever you want me to do, but I won't do it out of obligation, I'll do it out of a heart of love because I know how much you love me, why have we come to Greenock, Scotland, why have 230 people come from New York City, not out of obligation we've come out of the love of God, God is doing something here he's doing something profound in your town I believe people have been praying for this moment and we're only here to tell you it's come, we're not the ones who are creating this, God has already started, started before we got here he's doing something, we're just here to tell you what he is speaking to us about this town in New York City I see heads rising everywhere I feel it I was on the top of one of the highest peaks in the town today, I was in prayer and I feel something in my spirit, I feel the heads of people lifting again considering again the house of the father don't be surprised when people start coming to church suddenly as things get worse and as despair comes into a society remember God had to allow this boy to go into this despair so he would consider his ways, as we see economic hardship touching our societies and increasing daily we see despair, despondency and violence on the increase, there are young people and older people lifting their heads and considering again the house of God I beg you my brothers and my sisters be the heart of the father when they come, be the father don't be the older brother be the father now God almighty I thank you with all my heart tonight Lord Lord this is a divine moment in Greenock this is a moment that you have ordained even before the beginning of time you knew this day was going to happen it's a day of good tidings it's a day of great blessing oh God almighty I ask you in Jesus name don't let anybody go to hell tonight in this meeting don't let anybody choose to walk away from a holy God oh God almighty God almighty save to the uttermost those who need to know you as saviour and lord now tonight I'm going to ask you those that have gathered here and you don't know Christ as your saviour and others that you once knew him but you've fallen far far away, you've gone into a far far place very distant from the heart of your father you've taken the inheritance of life of even maybe some scriptural assurance of your eternal salvation, you've taken this inheritance but you've gone very far from God with it, and tonight you have the courage and the humility to say God my ways are not right, you've examined my heart, and lord Jesus Christ like the prodigal son did I'm just going to get up and come home and I'm going to trust you to embrace me I'm going to trust you to kiss my neck and cover me if I've lived in shame if I've kept hidden sin in my life I'm going to trust you to cover me, I'm going to trust you to empower me and put shoes on my feet that I can walk with you and be an extension of your heart in this community I'm just going to choose as you do to love the unlovable and reach what was once unreachable and touch what is untouchable I'm going to walk with you Jesus if that's in your heart tonight we're going to stand in just a moment I'm going to ask you to make your way to this altar and just come in humility and say lord God I've heard you tonight I'm asking you to change me I'm asking you God to do what only you can do in my life I promise you, I promise you on the authority of the living Christ that you won't leave this place the same as you came in well you don't need to feel some kind of a radical jolt in your body for God to come to you you and I simply have to agree with his ways and when we agree with God his kingdom begins to move inside of us and we begin to change I do live personally a life and I believe my wife can attest to this tonight of joy, I have a great joy in God but this great joy that the lord has given me doesn't come because I preach to thousands the great joy I have comes every time I'm talking to a young person that I see moving towards God every time I'm able to reach somebody that previously has been unreachable, every time I have an opportunity to lead somebody to Christ, one on one, that's the greatest joy of my heart and it will become yours as well it won't be just all about church anymore, it will be all about people praise God we are seeing in New York City right now I think I'm safe to say anywhere from 30 to 100 people coming to Christ every week now every week every week multitudes are starting to come to Christ, the more that God gives us his heart for people are we negating doctrine? No, not in the least are we preaching soft? No many of the messages, if you're listening online they're very deep, they're very penetrating they really do challenge, but the end result is joy the end result is the breaking up of this hard ground and hearts now that God can show his life into the end result is the ability last Sunday night