[0:00] Thank you. All right. Let me just pop that back down over there for now. This song, which is his testimony, and that of Janet as well, number 142 in the purple book, the little purple book there.
[0:12] 142, Once I Walked in Darkness. We'll stand and sing together this scene. I walk in darkness, far away from Jesus.
[0:35] Seeking only questions, that the world will bid. Then my Savior found me, brought me to his presence.
[0:48] By his grace he saved me, and filled my life with joy. When I count the blessings which my Savior has bestowed, when I see his wonder and his majesty behold, then I know he loves me.
[1:12] Yes, I know he loves me. He has given everything for me. Now I know in heaven I will be with Jesus, sharing in the praises offered to my Lord.
[1:37] Lord, he came to save me, rescued me from evil, casting out the darkness to fill my life with joy.
[1:51] When I count the blessings which my Savior has bestowed, when I see his wonder and his majesty behold, then I know he loves me.
[2:08] Yes, I know he loves me. He has given everything. He has given everything. Amen. We're going to read together now from God's Word, from the Bible, and from Luke's Gospel in chapter 13.
[2:33] And if you have one of the church Bibles, one of the Red Church Bibles, that's page 1047. Page 1047. Luke chapter 13, beginning at verse 22, and reading through to the end of the chapter.
[2:53] Luke 13, verse 22, page 1047. Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem.
[3:07] Someone asked him, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? He said to them, make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to.
[3:23] Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, Sir, open the door for us. But he will answer, I don't know you or where you come from.
[3:36] Then you will say, we ate and drank with you and you taught in our streets. But he will reply, I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers.
[3:48] There will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.
[3:59] People will come from east and west and north and south, will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed, there are those who are last who will be first, the first who will be last.
[4:13] At that time, some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, leave this place, go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you. He replied, go and tell that fox, I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow and go on the third day.
[4:31] I will reach my goal. In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you.
[4:47] How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.
[4:58] I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We thank God for his faithful word.
[5:09] impostaries. Bow the commandments andgae Hodges and charitable Ride on, ride on in majesty, in glory come, ride on tonight.
[5:44] O Christ, your triumphs, let me be, your captive death and hope can sing.
[5:55] Ride on, ride on in majesty, the angel of the sky.
[6:06] Look how rich and and wantry night to see the approaching sacrifice.
[6:17] Ride on, ride on in majesty, your last and fiercest strife is nigh.
[6:29] The Father on his staff at throne, awaits his own, the loiterous Son.
[6:40] Ride on, ride on in majesty, in glory come, ride on tonight.
[6:52] Now you'll be there to mortal grave, then take no power, your love and praise.
[7:05] Please don't be seated. If you turn back please to Luke and chapter 13. Luke and chapter 13 where we read just a few moments ago.
[7:16] Verses 22 and following. As we've already noted and we've already sang, of course we know that today is what we call Palm Sunday.
[7:33] The day that we remember the Lord Jesus riding into Jerusalem, where the crowds greeted him, taking branches from the trees, making, as it were, a carpet before him, and where people cheered Hosanna and prayed, blessed be the Son of David, and so on.
[7:50] We look to those verses before. That closing week in the life of Jesus, that week that was leading up to the culmination, the very goal of his life.
[8:00] In fact, Jesus makes mention of that here in verse 32. On the third day I'll reach my goal. He's heading to that place where he will suffer and die for our sins.
[8:13] But that journey to Jerusalem began many, many months earlier. In fact, Luke tells us back in chapter 9 of his Gospel in verse 51, there, as the time approached for him, that's Jesus, to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
[8:32] He set his face for Jerusalem. He was determined to go, knowing what was ahead of him, knowing why he would suffer, knowing that he would die. And in fact, Luke, throughout the rest of his Gospel, keeps reminding us that behind everything that's going on is this journeying to Jerusalem.
[8:49] And so we have it here in verse 22 of Luke 13. Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Chapter 17 and verse 11.
[9:01] Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. Chapter 18, verse 31. Jesus took the 12 aside, told them, we are going to Jerusalem.
[9:14] So I want to pick up on this particular episode here in Luke and chapter 13, where Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. And notice what happens here in verse 23.
[9:28] Someone asked him, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? Over the weeks previous to this, we've been building up for the mission, this opportunity to invite and to speak to people and bring them along to hear the Gospel.
[9:44] And so we've been considering the sort of people that God uses to be his witnesses, the sort of people that God works through to bring people to faith in Christ. And we've seen that God uses a variety of people.
[9:58] Sometimes we think that it must be an evangelist or a minister or a missionary, somebody particularly gifted in that way, or somebody who has the great gift of the gab and able to speak. But what actually we've seen over and over again is that the Lord has used the most unusual evangelists.
[10:14] We saw the very beginning of how he used a young slave girl in a foreign land to speak of God. Four starving lepers at the gate of a city.
[10:25] We saw how he uses faithful parents to be those that lead their children to faith. And last week we looked at how God even used a disobedient prophet, a one who had turned his back and rejected God, and yet the Lord used him.
[10:40] Unusual evangelists. Their only qualification was that they knew the Lord personally. That was the only qualification that they had. They knew something of God. They had faith in him.
[10:52] We've seen that ultimately, as Christians, we have been given a command by God, by the Lord Jesus Christ, in fact. We've called it the 11th commandment, because previously we were looking at the 10 well-known ones.
[11:05] The 11th commandment we find in Matthew chapter 28, verse 20. Go and make disciples of all nations. It's Christ's command to his disciples and his command to us.
[11:18] But of course, one of the greatest challenges we face, one of the things that we're most fearful of in speaking for Jesus, in sharing the gospel or inviting people to Christian events, is what if they ask me a difficult question?
[11:30] What if they ask me something that I don't know the answer to? What if they talk to me about things which I just have no understanding of, or I'm not able to answer? Well, that's why I want us to come here, to this journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, and to a tricky question that is asked of him.
[11:50] Someone asked in verse 23, Lord, are only a few people going to be saved? As he presses on to Jerusalem, as he's determined to go there, not to be sidelined, not to be taken away from the goal, here is someone with a question.
[12:09] How is he going to answer it? How is he going to answer it? Of course, so often, Jesus was asked questions, wasn't he? Asked questions which were often red herrings, to trip him up by the Pharisees and religious leaders.
[12:24] They wanted to get him into trouble. They wanted to get him to say things, which would mean that he would somehow betray himself, or get him in trouble with the authorities. And so they used to think up, I think they must have had committee meetings, think up what is a really hard question we can give to Jesus.
[12:41] When is he going to trip him up about paying taxes, and all sorts of things like this? Perhaps the motivation behind this question may be a red herring. It may be somebody asking something, not really genuinely wanting to know the answer, but maybe trying to show off, or look for some recognition, or some approval.
[13:02] As I say, whenever we speak for Christ, whenever we seek to share Jesus, we too will be questioned, almost inevitably, by the people we talk to. And some of those questions will be smoke screens, or red herrings.
[13:17] But some of them will be genuine. Some of them will be genuine, perhaps arising from their childhood, when perhaps they were brought up in a Christian home, or in Sunday school, or whatever. For some of them, those questions may be concerning losses that they've felt and experienced, which they still bear very much upon their heart.
[13:36] For some of them, there will be genuine stumbling blocks for them coming to faith, genuine reasons why they just find it so hard to put their faith in Christ and follow him, preventing them from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
[13:50] Now, Jesus doesn't answer this man's question, does he? Not in the way he wants him to. It may be that he considered that his question was in fact not genuine, but just something of a bypass meadow, a red herring.
[14:05] We know that answering questions is something that politicians particularly do very badly. Don't they? Because whenever they are interviewed, whenever they are spoken to, maybe you do this, I do this when I watch them on the news, and they ask a direct question about something to do with finance, whatever.
[14:23] And they go on this long spiel, and this great elaborate answer, and never seem to actually answer the question. Now, Jesus isn't doing that here. He's not trying to avoid a difficult question.
[14:35] He's not being political. He's not trying to just give something which is going to be more popular. It's not because he doesn't know the answer to the question. But rather, the Lord Jesus shows him and speaks to him and reveals to us that there's a much more important question, a basic question, an essential question that needs to be asked first of all before anything else.
[15:01] And so he took the opportunity of the question to bring and reveal a greater truth. And so what I want us to be encouraged by as we look at this is that when we are questioned by people about our faith, not to be afraid, not to be scared that we do not have the answer, but rather to take it as an opportunity to reveal something which is much more important, to point to something which is much more essential.
[15:26] You see, it's only of theoretical value to know whether few people will be in heaven or many. But it's of much more practical value, much more eternal value to know whether I am going to be saved and in heaven.
[15:41] That's the important thing. That's the essential thing. Not who, whether they will be or how many will be, but will I be? See, it's within human nature, isn't it, as well at times to sort of argue over the little things.
[15:56] Most of the problems that we have are over the little things in life. Most of the problems that we have in church, not this church, of course, because we're close to perfection here, but in other churches, of course, the churches that you visitors come from, we have problems.
[16:10] And the problems we have are, of course, what colour shall we paint the wall? It's not over the great things of Christ's nature, his humanity, his deity, the cross.
[16:21] The reason we fall out is about the fact that actually you took the last boiled egg or something as trivial as that. It's thought that there was a great debate within the medieval church as to how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.
[16:37] We just love to talk about things which are meaningless. We love to discuss things. That's why the English are so good. They always talk about the weather, don't we? Anybody you see, it's always the weather, whether it's raining, whether it's sunny, whether it's cloudy, whatever.
[16:51] It's so that we can avoid the real issues of the day. And as people we speak to, often when they question us, they're avoiding the real issue. They're just bringing something which is a smaller issue, something which they think they can perhaps get away with, an excuse for not thinking about the things of God and the things of Christ.
[17:12] The real issue of the day, dear friends, is not Brexit, it's not terrorism. The real issue of the day is not the NHS and it's not education. The real issue of the day is this. Am I right with God?
[17:24] Am I right with God? That's the real issue of the day because that's the primary, most important matter. And so the answer that Jesus gives to this man here teaches us the importance of not being sidetracked into, as it were, Red Herring Street, but rather he teaches us the essential matters that we are to focus on when we share and speak with people.
[17:47] How are we to speak to them? How are we to talk to them? What are we to point them to? And the first thing we see is this, that Jesus emphasizes that there is a way to be saved.
[17:58] A way to be saved. Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. There's a narrow door. A doorway to salvation. A doorway to life.
[18:09] A doorway. There's a way to be saved. And he uses this phrase here, make every effort. It's one of those words again that would come from the sporting arena.
[18:21] Strive. Work hard at. Push yourself to the limit. You can imagine an athlete in the Olympics straining every muscle. Do you watch them when they do the slow motion 100 meters?
[18:34] And you can see that the veins and the muscles bulging as they're straining to push themselves. To get every ounce of speed. Well that's what Jesus says here.
[18:45] There's a way to be saved and we're to do everything we can to make sure we get there. To make sure we manage to get through that narrow door. We're to give all our energy, all our effort to this one thing to make sure that we are saved.
[18:58] Now he isn't saying save yourself. He isn't saying make every effort to save yourself. In other words it's by your own good works, it's by your deeds, it's by your religion, it's by your efforts, it's by your charity that somehow if you really, really work hard enough you can be saved.
[19:18] You can be right with God and make yourself right with God. He's not saying that at all. But he's saying the matter of being saved is so, so important. You cannot give yourself any rest until you've got this sorted.
[19:31] You cannot be distracted into anything else until you know that you've passed through that narrow door because there is a way to be saved and it must take wholehearted, complete commitment.
[19:47] Just imagine for yourself that you're a sailor caught in a terrible storm far at sea. Imagine that the waves are so huge that they are overflowing, the boat.
[19:59] They're gushing in and the bowels of the boat are filling up and filling up with water. There's all sorts of wreckage that's strewn across the deck because the whole of the boat is breaking up.
[20:14] It's barely afloat. It could go down at any moment. One more huge wave and it would sink with you and the crew within it. Would that be the time that you think, let's get the cards out. Let's have a game of poker together.
[20:27] Or let's have a meal and sit and chat together. Or I think I'll just go and have a lie down and hope it all goes away. No! You can imagine what would happen. You'd be there with buckets at the pumps and you'd be straining and working and everybody pulling together.
[20:43] For as long as it took, you'd fight and fight and fight until at last either the ship was sunk or that you were in safety. The greatest problem that we face, dear friends, in the world today, certainly in the West and in the UK when we seek to speak to people of Christ is this, indifference, disinterest, complacency.
[21:08] That's the general attitude of many people that we have and we need to stress to them that this is an urgent thing. That being a Christian and not being a Christian is not a matter of just, it's a nice type of life or turning over a new leaf but there is a way to be saved and we must be saved.
[21:27] But we see Jesus says something else here and he stresses this. He calls for this immediate, earnest action because he says there is a day to be saved. Verse 25, once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you'll stand outside knocking and pleading, so open for us.
[21:47] It's clear that that open door of salvation, that open way into the presence of God to know him, that door's not always going to be open. It's going to be shut.
[21:58] There's going to come a day when you shall not be able to be saved. You shall not be able to enter into the life and the salvation that God has and there's clearly going to be people shut out.
[22:11] Clearly going to be people shut out. Not every single person is going to heaven. That's Jesus' words here. Not every single person is saved. There's people who will have the door closed.
[22:24] There's a day to be saved. A time. Time is limited, isn't it? Time is so fleeting. It passes so quickly. We've only got a short time in this world, in this life.
[22:40] Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that God's time for men and women to be saved is now. 2 Corinthians 6, he writes this, as God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.
[22:56] For he says, in the time of my favour I heard you. In the day of salvation I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favour. Now is the day of salvation.
[23:07] This is the only day you and I are guaranteed off. And we're not guaranteed the whole of it, are we? Because we've only got up to 20 to 12. The door that Jesus opened, when he went to Jerusalem and died in our place, the door that Jesus opened will one day be shut.
[23:25] Either because God will call you in death to stand before him on that day of judgment. And we must all die. We can't escape that. Or, as Jesus promised, he will come again and bring this world as we know it to an end.
[23:42] And there will not be another chance, another opportunity. It's today, or it may be never. It's today, or it may be an eternity, under the very wrath and the separation of God.
[23:57] We need to speak to people urgently. Now that doesn't mean, dear friends, that we need to put ourselves under so much stress and strain that thinking that if I missed an opportunity, that's the end, and condemn ourselves.
[24:10] But as we have opportunity, let's take the opportunity. We have the opportunity of this mission that is coming up. Let's take it. Let's use it. Those people that we've sort of wanted to try to invite to or wanted to speak to, make use of the opportunity we have now.
[24:25] Realize the urgency, the importance of it. See, when Christ comes again, everyone will see him for who he is as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings.
[24:38] And they will see him and they will stand before him as you and I will as the judge of the living and the dead. But you see, for those who are unsaved, when that day comes, there'll be no further time.
[24:51] There'll be no further opportunity. That's what we find here Jesus is doing. He's warning us against a delay in being saved. He says there's a way and he says there's a day.
[25:02] He says don't delay in being saved. Notice what we read there in verses 25. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you'll stand outside knocking and pleading, Sir, open the door for us, but he will answer, I don't know you where you come from.
[25:19] Then he will say, we ate and drank with you and taught in our streets, but he will reply, I don't know you where you come from. Away from me, you evildoers. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[25:33] That's the reaction of those who are outside. That's the reaction of those who are unsaved. Those who fail to enter the door. Who did not think it important to act quickly enough.
[25:44] Who put it off again and again while the door was open, but forever now are locked out of the grace and salvation of God. Away from me, you evildoers.
[25:55] All their pleading falls on death ears. Only now, as the door is shut, are they making the effort to try and get in.
[26:06] Only now do they grasp the enormity of the matter. Only now do they see that what they thought so little of is so, so important. And notice that these people thought that Jesus should let them in late because they knew him.
[26:23] Look at verse 26. It said, We ate and drank with you. You taught in our streets. They were familiar with the teachings of Jesus. They'd been the people who'd heard him when he was in the cities and the towns and the villages.
[26:38] They'd come to him when he fed them with the food at the feeding of the 5,000. They can say, We ate and drank with you. They were happy to be associated with him in some measure, but they would not commit to Christ and trust in him as their saviour.
[26:55] In other words, they were nominal Christians. They were the churchgoer, perhaps maybe even like some of us here, who thought, Well, I go to church from time to time and I know about God and I've heard about God and I've heard about Jesus, so surely I'll be let in on the last day.
[27:14] Or else I was christened when I was a child or even baptized when I was older or I was married in church or actually, don't you know I'm English? Surely that's enough to be a Christian?
[27:30] But Jesus says all of these reasons, all of these excuses are inadequate. You can be close to Jesus, you can be right near to him, you can be in his very presence as we are here this morning and you can still be lost and locked out of heaven unless you enter in actively pressing in through the narrow door.
[27:54] So many people we meet will tell us that they're a Christian because they're good or they've never done anybody any harm or they've gone to church or they've been christened or whatever it may be. They'll come with those excuses and they'll even be able to say I've read the Bible and all sorts of things.
[28:09] But the real question is have they entered the narrow door? Have they really come to faith and salvation in Christ? Or have they hoped that all this accumulation of things will be enough to secure them an entrance?
[28:25] Jesus says they won't. It is only through the door of repentance and faith. Only through trusting Christ and turning to him as our Savior. Only by being born again of the Spirit.
[28:35] Only by that real, effective, conscious, transforming act that we've entered in to salvation. And look at this, dear friends, and it should make us weep.
[28:51] There will be weeping there and gnashing of teeth. Won't surely one of the worst sufferings of hell be people there who will hate themselves because they never trusted Christ when they had the chance?
[29:05] Won't some of the very pain that they continually have is that thought, if only I had listened, if only I had believed, if only I had taken the time.
[29:18] Surely that's the worst and most horrific part, I think. Kicking yourself for eternity. Angry with yourself for eternity. Annoyed and frustrated with yourself for eternity that you never ever when you had the opportunity came to Christ.
[29:38] Now is the day. Do not delay, says Jesus. And finally, we see here that Jesus tells us of those who may be saved.
[29:49] Those who may be saved. Verse 28 and following. First of all, when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, people from every age, from every time, will be there in heaven.
[30:03] People from every generation since creation have been saved and can be saved and will be saved. Old Testament believers and New Testament believers, all saved in the same way through the narrow door of faith in the living God, faith in the Messiah to come.
[30:19] That's what the Old Testament believers believed in, this Messiah who would come, the one who was pictured in the sacrifices in the temple, the one who came who is Jesus Christ, for he is the door. John chapter 10, I am the door.
[30:32] Whoever enters through me will be saved. They look forward to him coming, but we look at the fact he has come and put our faith in what he has done for us and what he has accomplished at the cross, what he has achieved in his resurrection.
[30:47] We see the power of the transformation he's brought in people's lives. People of every age and time. Today is the day of salvation. But we see people from every nation as well.
[30:58] And every race, verse 29, people will come from east and west and north and south, will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Salvation is not restricted to the west.
[31:11] Salvation in Christ is not a western religion, it's a north, south, east and west religion. It's not just for the descendants of Abraham, not for the Jews, but for the Gentiles only.
[31:22] It's a door that's open to the world. For every single person, whoever you are, whoever I am, whatever our colour, background, every nation.
[31:37] Because every nation is a sinful nation. Every person is a sinner. Every person is in need of a saviour, whoever we are, whatever our upbringing. The wonderful truth is that in heaven we're told, not that there are few will be saved, but a countless number.
[31:52] Revelation in chapter 7, John looks into heaven, before me was a great multitude no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne.
[32:06] Don't think for a moment that somehow as some people say, well I want to go to hell because my friends will be there. There's going to be a multitude in heaven and the terrible thing about hell is not that you'll be there with your friends, but there's the grim feeling of isolation and separation.
[32:24] Cut off from God and cut off from everything good that God gives us, including friendship, including love, including laughter, including joy. People of every nation, but people of every class as well.
[32:40] Verse 30, indeed there are those who are last who will be first, first who will be last. You may think you're not good enough to be a Christian, not good enough to receive the free gift of God's salvation.
[32:57] Dear friends, it doesn't matter who you are, the last will be first. Maybe because of your parentage, your education, perhaps because of the way other people have treated you, perhaps because of your low self-esteem, whatever it may be, you say, I'm the least, I'm the least worthy, I'm the least, there's no way that God could possibly love me, there's no way that God could possibly want to save me and make me his child.
[33:24] Yes, he does, no matter who you are because every single person from the least to the greatest is someone who has been created with the image of God, someone who's been created for the very reason and purpose to know God and to enjoy the fatherhood and the love of God.
[33:42] In fact, dear friends, let me say to you that if you think that you are unworthy of salvation, then you are the most worthy of salvation. If you think you're the worst sinner, then you're the best sinner to come to Christ.
[33:55] You see, it's only when we see ourselves as we truly are, as undeserving sinners before our holy God, it's only as we see ourselves as those who are hungry that will come and feast and eat of the good things of Christ, it's only when we see that we need forgiveness that we'll come to Christ and receive that forgiveness.
[34:10] But if this morning, let me say this to you, you're somebody who thinks that actually you're good enough for God as you are, think that you're acceptable to God as you are, you think you're one of the first, I'm not a bad person but a nice person, I'm a kind person, there's no way, surely, that I can be called a sinner, there's no way that I need forgiveness for my sins, then Jesus says, you will be last in the line.
[34:36] You will be outside the door, you will be cut off. And again, as we speak to people, we speak to many people who if they are not indifferent, then they are self-righteous.
[34:48] They say, well surely, I'm a good person, I've lived a good life and I've never done anything wrong and all these things they can talk about, the money they give to charity, we need to point them that these things are not what saves.
[35:00] But actually, God wonderfully and justly counts us all on the same level. He looks at you and me and whoever we are from rich to poor and he says, you're all sinners, you've all fallen short. God's standard is that we should reach his righteousness, but if we reach 50% or 40% or 70%, we all fall short, we all miss the mark.
[35:27] We've got good news, dear friends, for Whitby. We've got good news for the people of the UK. We've got the answer to the deepest questions of the human heart.
[35:40] We've got breaking news of the greatest urgency that needs to be heard for a broken world. What have we done with it?
[35:54] What have you done with it? John Newton, wonderful slave trader who became a Christian and a minister, is quoted as saying that he expects to have three surprises when he gets to heaven.
[36:14] He'll be surprised at those who are there who he thought would never make it, never were worthy, never had trusted. He'll be surprised at those who are not there, those who thought they were going to be there and expected to be there because of something or another.
[36:31] And most of all, he'll be surprised that he will be there, that God has shown him grace and saved him. I don't do this very often, but it seems appropriate this morning as we've been thinking about these things and pressing home the urgency and the importance of trusting Christ now.
[36:50] I'm going to ask us to bow our heads in prayer. And if as we've been speaking and as you've been listening, you know that God has been speaking to you, you know that you are someone who needs to really come through that narrow door, you've been standing on the threshold and you've been looking in a little bit and you've been walking away and you've come back and looked in but you've never walked in, then now is the day to do it.
[37:18] To not put it off any longer. To not delay. It's far, far too important. You are far, far too important to put that off.
[37:31] So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to pray a prayer. A prayer which is a prayer that you need to pray in your heart to Christ to say, yes Lord, I want to come into that narrow door.
[37:44] And if you want to pray that prayer, then pray it. Pray it sincerely, not to me, not to anybody else, but between you and God. Pray that prayer. And if after this meeting you want to talk to me or somebody else you know is a Christian about praying that prayer, then please, please do that.
[38:00] So let us pray. O Lord, our God, before whom every one of us is an open book.
[38:15] Before every one of us, Lord, is known to you completely, entirely. we come, O Lord, again and ask that you would search us.
[38:27] Search us with your Holy Spirit to show us, Lord, just who we are and who you are. Show us those things in our hearts and lives, Lord, which are not as they should be.
[38:42] Show us that foolish self-confidence that somehow we will be good enough to be saved. we thank you for the wonderful message of the gospel of Jesus.
[38:55] We thank you it is a message which answers all the questions of life because only when we put you in perspective, when you are part of our lives, then we do see things as we should see them.
[39:06] Then we understand ourselves and the world as we should understand it. For you give us a whole world view. And so we do want to pray. We pray, O Lord, for those here this morning who have not trusted in Christ, who have not entered that door but have, as it were, stood on the outside and not stepped in.
[39:26] We pray, O Lord, that even now you would give them that faith and, yes, that repentance because it is turning away from our way to go in the narrow door. That, Lord, they might step in to that faith in Christ, step into that newness of life, step into the wonder of the riches and the treasures of the love of God in Jesus.
[39:46] we pray for ourselves who are Christians already that, Lord, you would help us to share this good news, to not be fearful or afraid. Help us, Lord, to take the opportunities you give us when people question us, to point them to Jesus and to the wonder of who he is and the urgency of trusting him.
[40:05] Give us the words to say, Lord. We pray for the mission and, again, for the opportunities we have there. Lord, please, will you be working in people's hearts even now?
[40:18] So I'm going to pray this prayer and if you want to pray it in your own heart to God, then please do pray it sincerely to him. Oh, Lord, my God, I thank you that you know me and you know how close I've come before now to trusting in you.
[40:41] but I've always walked away. I've always made an excuse. Lord, I do want now and I see now that I must be saved.
[40:56] I see now that I need your forgiveness and I need your grace to accept me and to make me your child. Thank you for giving your son to die for me.
[41:10] thank you that he took my sins and died in my place. Please forgive me. Please come into my life and give me a new heart to follow you.
[41:31] Give me a new understanding to know your will and to do it. I want you to be the God of my life.
[41:42] I want you to be enthroned in my heart and I want to follow you all the days of my life.
[41:58] Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
[42:12] The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[42:24] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.