Derek Maxwell from SGA tells us of their work
[0:00] Good evening and a warm welcome to the service this evening. Good to see those in the building and a warm welcome also to those who are online. Again, we're conscious of a number who are struggling with COVID and so we continue to pray for those who are struggling with COVID just now and we pray for their recovery.
[0:21] It's good to have Derek Maxwell with us tonight. Before you're alarmed at seeing me standing back up here, I'll only be here for a short while and then I'll hand over to Derek.
[0:32] And so we welcome you and it's good to have the Slavic Gospel Association back with us and we look forward to hearing about the ministry and what God will say through you this evening, Derek.
[0:44] The intimations I went through this morning and I won't take time to go through them. This evening we'll begin this time of worship and we'll sing to God's praise and we sing from Psalm 46.
[0:56] The words are on the screen and it's the last three stanzas of the Psalm. Psalm 46 from verses 9 to 11 and I'll read these verses in English.
[1:07] In English, unto the ends of all the earth, wars into peace he turns, the bow he breaks, the spear he cuts and fire the chariot burns. Be still and know that I am God, among the heathen I will be exalted, I on earth will be exalted high.
[1:23] Our God who is the Lord of hosts is still upon our side, the God of Jacob our refuge forever will abide. These three verses and we sing in Gaelic and remain seated to sing in Gaelic.
[1:37] These three verses and we sing in Gaelic.
[2:07] These three verses and we sing in Gaelic.
[2:38] These four verses and we sing in Gaelic. These four verses and we sing in Gaelic. These five verses and we sing in Gaelic. These three verses and I will sing in Gaelic.
[2:48] These three versions of Gaelic. These three verses and we sing in Gaelic. Each one of the pages and we sing in Gaelic.
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[16:32] Amen. We'll sing again to God's praise. The words on the screen. Though the nations rage, kingdoms rise and fall, and we are directed to the one who is the Ancient of Days.
[16:46] So we'll stand to sing to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[16:57] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[17:07] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[17:20] Amen. Amen. Amen.
[17:32] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. This broadest shall remain and ever stand.
[17:43] All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the ancient of days.
[17:57] Though the dread of night overwhelms my soul, He is here with me, I am not alone.
[18:11] Though His love is sure, and He knows my name. For my God is the ancient of days.
[18:25] Learn above Him, not before Him, all of time in His hands. For His broadest shall remain and ever stand.
[18:39] All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the ancient of days.
[18:51] Though I may not see what the future brings, I will watch and wait for the Savior King.
[19:06] Then my joy complete, standing face to face, In the presence of the ancient of days.
[19:19] Learn above Him, not before Him, all of time in His hands. For His throne it shall remain and ever stand.
[19:31] All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the ancient of days.
[19:44] For my God is the ancient of days. If you could turn in your Bibles, we're going to have a reading from the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians chapter 1.
[20:05] And we'll read the whole of this short chapter. So that's 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and the whole of the chapter. I'm going to read from the ESV tonight.
[20:16] But it's slightly different on the screen, but you'll be able to follow. Okay. Paul, Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians and God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[20:29] Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly remembering, mentioning you in our prayers. Remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor, of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[20:47] For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.
[20:59] You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word and much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
[21:17] For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
[21:48] Amen. And may God bless that reading of His word to us. And we're going to sing again now to God's praise, Mission Praise 757, the words on this screen, a hymn that speaks of peace in our souls as we trust in God.
[22:04] When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows I see wills roll.
[22:41] Whatever my lot you have taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
[22:58] It is well. with my soul. It is well. It is well.
[23:10] It is well. With my soul. For Satan should bough, the dead triumph should come.
[23:26] Let this blessed assurance control. That Christ has regarded my helpless instinct, that I have a good faith in God.
[23:49] For my soul. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul.
[24:01] It is well. It is well. With my soul. I see this.
[24:14] I see this doing this. All this glorious thought. My sin not in part but the whole Is nailed to His cross And I beg no more Praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul It is well With my soul It is well It is well with my soul For me, be it Christ Be it Christ hence to live In Jordan, not the beach of gold
[25:17] No back shall be mine For in death was in life You will whisper your peace To my soul It is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul But Lord, it's for you For your coming we wait The sky not the great is our goal O trump of the angel O voice of the Lord
[26:17] Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul It is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul Well it's good to have Derek with us And I think Murdo's going to switch cables and switch computers just now So I'll pray for Murdo as he does that And for Derek as he prepares to come up Our Heavenly Father We thank you for your word to us We thank you for the passage that we've read Which gives us that assurance That Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come And we thank you for the hymn that we've sung That enables us to rejoice
[27:19] In the peace And the wellness The wellness The eternal wellness That there is in our souls When we are trusting in Christ We are conscious Lord That this world is a world Which is full of trouble And there is much unrest There is much raging amongst the nations But we thank you That you are the God who is in control The one who is the ancient of days And we look to you And pray that you would lead us We thank you Lord For Derek being with us tonight And we thank you for the work Of Slavic Gospel Association And we pray that as you Speak through him this evening As he shares your word And as he tells us of the ministry In different places We pray that you would give him That liberty, that freedom That sense of your presence And we pray that you would Enable us to learn Of brothers and sisters in Christ Who may be
[28:20] In much more difficult situations Than we find ourselves in And enable us We pray to To remember them in prayer And we pray For places as well Where there is no gospel witness At this time And we ask that you would be Bringing that gospel Through your people Across the world To all nations So hear our prayers We ask Lord That all would go well Now with technology As well As Derek Shares some slides And that you would Speak through him As we wait upon you And we pray these things In Jesus name And for his sake Amen Derek it's good to have you Again And I'm encouraged to see Answered prayer SGA is on the screen And so I'll hand over Now to you For the next part Of the meeting Thank you very much
[29:21] Thank you brother David Thank you for the welcome And the opportunity To be here It's wonderful To be back in your islands Again after A gap of a few years And it's wonderful To renew fellowship with you And isn't it wonderful We've just been singing there You know the grave Is not our goal Jesus Christ is coming again And what a hope we have And the gospel Is the power of God Unto salvation And we thank God For this wonderful message That's burning in our hearts That's so precious to us And the wonderful hope That we have in our reading As we had from the scriptures There in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 1 and verse 10 That we're free From the wrath to come We're delivered from the wrath To come And the Lord is coming again And we thank God For that wonderful Blessed hope That we have this evening It's a joy to share with you Again on the work Of Slavic Gospel Association As we serve God And as we're partners In ministry And reaching out To different countries With the word of God As God opens up The opportunity for us As a mission
[30:21] We have our four core ministries That we serve through There is training workers Where is our Bible school ministry Supporting leaders Where we're funding Church planters Publishing literature Is where we fund The publication of good Biblical material In different languages Distributing aid Is where we reach out To widows To orphans Refugees Those who find themselves In crisis situations And we thank God For the opportunities Of doing that Of course Training workers Is a big part of our ministry As we seek to equip A new generation Of Christian workers To serve God In their own nation And to reach out And plant churches For the glory of God This work continues And we thank God for it There in January We welcomed the new group Of students in Moldova This is the 15th group Of students And we praise God For 26 students In this group While this group Was settling in My colleague was over In Poland Welcoming the new group There 34 new students In the school In Poland And the work Has continued I think the great
[31:22] Encouragement for us In the mission school work Has been during The pandemic period For years We longed That the national church leaders Would get alongside us And teach the word of God But they refused to do that While we could travel And so if you could find A blessing out of the pandemic We believe this is one of them Because what happened was While we couldn't travel The national church leaders Stepped up to the mark Taught their own people The teaching continued The training was in place And God was blessing Their efforts And we rejoice in that And so as a mission We do plan to keep The national church leaders Teaching alongside us In the future As we plan to open Two new schools In September That will be one In Romania And one in the north part Of Serbia Amongst the Hungarian Speaking people And we rejoice That the work is developing And we're moving on With God's help As God opens up New doors of opportunity For us In the teaching ministry Then I want to move on now And bring you to
[32:22] Central Asia Because as you're aware We work in three distinct regions Across the world As a mission We serve God In Central and Eastern Europe We also serve In Central Asia And then in Far East Russia So as you look at the map You see the large green country That is Kazakhstan There are five countries In Central Asia You have Kazakhstan Below it is Kyrgyzstan Then you have got Tajikistan Uzbekistan And Turkmenistan I want to share with you Two projects That are very much alive In Central Asia As God continues to help us To reach this part of the world Right now First of all I want to share with you Our partnership with Transworld Radio As we serve God In providing radios And SD cards Now we launched this project Just last year Of Sending Little Missionaries And Sending Little Missionaries Consists of providing radios But also uploaded SD cards With Bible readings Sermons Testimonies Songs And ministry
[33:22] To people And of course The wonderful thing is About the SD cards That if there's no radio reception People can still listen To the word of God Whenever they want to Wherever they want to And that's a wonderful blessing And we thank the Lord for that And already God is using This project in a wonderful way When we launched it We initially wanted to provide 500 little missionaries God made it a thousand God has made it now Almost 1500 And it continues to grow And we thank God For the team that's on the ground In Central Asia Who are distributing These little missionaries To believers That they'll be edified In their faith But also to non-believers That they will have The opportunity Of hearing the glorious message Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ One lady shares her testimony And I want to share this With you this evening How God wonderfully met with her And there's some sound here And maybe we could have that As we listen To this lady's testimony I came to Christ
[34:24] Through the radio I can't read the Bible At home Because if my husband Finds out about the faith He could kill me Or seriously hurt me But I've got the SD card With the programs Recorded on it So I listen to them secretly I really like them Well we thank God For fruit from this project And sending these little missionaries Please pray for this It's wonderful What God is doing Through this project The second missionary project I want to mention In Central Asia Is Bibles for the Nations And so as we seek To provide Bibles We seek to provide A set of Bibles And here you can see That there is an adult Bible And a children's Bible And we want to provide Bibles For families in Central Asia The family unit Is very precious It's very strong And of course It was instituted by God And we want to reach families With the word of God By providing an adult copy And also a children's copy Across Central Asia Wonderful what God has been doing
[35:26] Because just a few weeks ago In a country That's on our news quite a lot In a printing press In that country Bibles were being printed And uploaded Into this truck To make a long journey Right into Central Asia And in this truck There were Kazakh Bibles There were also children's Uzbek Bibles And there were some Tajik Bibles as well We praise the Lord The word has come through That the Bibles have reached Their destination safely Now they will be distributed To believers Who will give these Bibles Out to four people That they have been praying For four families And to reach them With the word Of the living God Already as a mission In partnership With Bible Mission In Germany We have provided The Bibles in Kazakh Uzbek And Tajik language Now our current Bible project Is Russian You might ask the question Well why are you printing Russian Bibles For Central Asia Let me explain to you When we go to Central Asia You need to We discover that There are over 35 Different people groups
[36:27] Different languages Spoken in Central Asia And while we have helped To provide for Kazakh Uzbek And Tajik Which are the three Main languages In Central Asia It would be almost impossible To have God's word Translated and published Into all the languages Russian is a common language People will understand Sufficiently To be able to read The Bible In the Russian language And so With the Lord's help God has been working And as you look At the screen In a certain country These Bibles were arriving Just there on Friday And what a wonderful sight To see all these Bibles Russian Bibles Ready for distribution Into certain countries That God is helping us To serve them in And do pray For the word of God As we reach families With God's word Pray for sending Little missionaries Into Central Asia As well That we will see These countries Powerfully reached For God In this day of opportunity While the doors
[37:28] Are still open And we can move forward With God's word And of course You know when we think Of President Putin And all that is happening In Ukraine We thank God For what he's doing In Russia And across other nations Right now And we praise God That he is building His church We pray that families Will be reached With the word of God At this time The other project I want to mention to you Is Project 70 If you've read Our literature You'll not have Missed this one Project 70 Is all about Marking a special Milestone In Slavic Gospel Association That was 70 years Of God's faithfulness And we praise God For 70 years How God has helped us This milestone Was marked In the year 2020 And of course We had planned Many activities Here in the UK And Ireland To mark This special milestone And we had launched A project For the different Countries as well Well you know What happened in 2020 I don't need to remind you Which resulted
[38:29] In that much of our activity In the UK Was cancelled Or postponed But Project 70 Continued God had led This project Very powerfully On our hearts And Project 70 Was that God Would send 70 missionary families And SGA Would support 70 missionary families During 2020 One missionary family For every year That the mission existed Now when the pandemic Hit you know We wondered If this could Really happen But we kept praying We kept trusting The Lord And I'm delighted Tonight to be here With you And I'm delighted To tell you That it's not 70 missionary families That God sent But God sent 80 missionary families And the Lord Has been wonderfully Providing for these Missionary families All over different Countries where we serve Now this project Has really developed In three regions It really developed In Far East Russia In Central Asia And also in one country In Europe Country Ukraine And so when we put Our Project 70 missionaries
[39:29] With the missionaries We were already supporting In Ukraine Slavic Gospel Association UK is supporting 35 missionary families In Ukraine Ukraine is a population Of 44 million 73% will consider Themselves to be orthodox But the Evangelical Church Is an expanding church In Ukraine The denomination That we serve with Had 900 churches During the 90s And into the year 2000 But just before The war And the invasion Took place They had almost 3,000 churches That gives you Some indication Of the growth And what God Has been doing In this country Not only has The Evangelical Church Been expanding But it's a missionary Minded church They're sending Missionaries All over the world With the gospel Of Jesus Christ Let me introduce you To a couple Of our Project 70 Missionaries In Ukraine Here is Dennis Who is one of our Missionaries Serving God In the city of Kharkov Which is in the North East of Ukraine
[40:29] Close to the Russian border This was one of the Countries that was First shelled And bombed On the 24th of February When the war Began And Dennis Has been greatly used Of the Lord Has been blessed To plant a church The church was growing He was a drug addict But God saved him Transformed him And he became A wonderful missionary And we were glad To be supporting him Of course the tragedy Is what is happening In that city Like many other cities And towns Across Ukraine tonight We bring you to Another one of our Project 70 missionaries In Moripol Gennady Who has been serving God And just planted a church Outside this city And we understand That at least 90% of this city Is totally destroyed And there are still believers Within this city That is surrounded By the Russian military At this time We thank God For his faithful servants Some of them Have been able To escape the cities And continue to serve God In other locations
[41:30] And yet when we consider Ukraine tonight And all that has been happening We thank the Lord For what he is doing Pastor Igor Bender Is the vice president Of the churches That we support And he shared with us Recently He said people Are getting converted He shared how he was At the ordination service Of a young man One Sunday morning Ordaining him Into the ministry This is just Very very recently And at the end Of the service An elderly couple Left their seat And walked to the front To repent And that's In the culture Of these countries That's normal They will repent Before the congregation But that morning Igor was very touched By the high emotions Of the congregation He couldn't understand What was going on And after the service He discovered That the elderly couple Who had walked to the front To repent that morning Were the parents Of the young man Who had just been ordained Into Christian ministry There were a couple Who were hard And hostile To the gospel
[42:30] But God reached them And God is saving people Across Ukraine tonight Many are coming to faith In Jesus Christ And also in the bordering Countries where refugees Have left the country And people are joining The church Babies are being dedicated New couples getting married God's grace and power Are evident in Ukraine And friends It's true to say That church is very much Alive in Ukraine tonight Yes There's destruction There's devastation Our hearts break For what is happening In that country To many people That are so precious to us But today God is working By his spirit And here's a young couple Getting married The church was bombed But they found A little space Where they could have Their little marriage And the pastor Was the father of the bride They tried to keep life Going as best As they possibly can And they seek to continue To worship the Lord And in Carnival Where it was Surrounded by Russians
[43:31] And the people Were suffering a lot And of course The Russian military Have left the town now They are gathering To worship the Lord The church building Has been destroyed Or badly damaged You can see in the picture But they're meeting outside They're doing this In Bukha They're doing this In Irpin And other places as well Because their hearts Desire to worship The Lord that they love They want to get together As the people of God Regardless of what The situation Or circumstances are like Because they love Jesus And they want to be together To worship the true And the living God And we thank God For the normality That is returning To a certain degree How is Slavic Gospel Association Helping in Ukraine?
[44:14] There are three ways We provide for refugees In bordering countries Distribute an aid To displaced people In Ukraine Reach besieged cities With vital supplies And cross connect Ukraine This is our linking system Where we're linking Ukrainian families To families in the United Kingdom Who want to host a family For at least six months And the information Is on our website Many are refugees tonight In the surrounding countries Of Moldova Romania Hungary Slovakia Poland We have all our teams In all of those countries Serving God We're providing the finance And they're reaching out To provide for the refugees One of our brothers in Poland Is Daniel with the glasses He's a church planter The tall chap beside him Is Igor Who worships and serves In his church He was a Ukrainian And Daniel with his team Are providing accommodation For refugees And that's wonderful And one couple Are Tatiana and Nikolai Tatiana and Nikolai
[45:15] Came from the east of Ukraine And Tatiana had Serious surgery for cancer On the 25th of February The war began the 24th She had to flee the hospital As soon as the surgery was over Because the hospital Was being bombed Her husband had some Medical training in the army To remove stitches So he removed her stitches And they made the journey To Poland And now Daniel Is helping them With cancer treatment And we're seeking To reach out To help these people And minister to them At this time But Igor the Ukrainian Is bulk buying food And loading it onto trucks And bringing that food Into Ukraine And across to Kharkov And some of these other areas That really need food supplies Then let me take you Into Ukraine And look at this building here Two things are happening Provision for the body And provision for the soul You can see a group of volunteers Here are packing food boxes These boxes will provide
[46:15] For a small family For about a week But in the other part Of this building The printing machines Because this was A literature factory Where Bibles and literature Have been printed for years And in the other part Of the building New Testaments And Christian literature Are being printed At the same time As these boxes Are being filled with food The two are brought together Bibles are put into the boxes With Christian literature For way of salvation And these boxes Are being transported Right across Ukraine Right over to the very eastern part And we rejoice That we're able To fund this project And to see this work Going forward Within Ukraine Also our missionary Our medical teams Are reaching out Into Buka Urban Harkov And providing medical care For the civilian population Who are suffering so much At this time We thank God For these Christians There are males And men focus well On the team And they're doing A wonderful work And we're glad To be supporting them
[47:16] And financing them In this ministry As they serve God Lastly Just to mention Two of our most recent projects In Ukraine One is Supporting another 120 missionary pastors For at least three years We want to keep them In Ukraine Because Ukraine Needs pastors And missionaries Right now And we're helping To provide the finance So they can stay In the country And secondly With Bible Mission In Germany We're seeking to provide 100,000 Bible sets In Ukrainian language To reach out To people Friends After the demise Of communism There was a huge hunger For God And for his Our friends on the ground Shared with us recently That in Ukraine Right now They cannot keep The flow of Bibles Going They cannot keep Enough Christian literature People are reaching Out for Jesus Pray that God Will continue to work In this country
[48:17] Yes We see it on our screens But my friends Wouldn't it be wonderful If you could Country of the light Of the gospel In our dark And continent of Europe At this time Let's trust our God Let's pray for our Ukrainian brothers And sisters As they serve God Faithfully That God will help them As you hold the ropes For them in prayer And pray for our Russian brothers And sisters That God will minister To them as well Strengthen them Equip them And wonderfully help God's people As they're faithfully serving And remember our 35 mission And remember us As we seek to And provide As best as we can At this time And in this day Of opportunity May the Lord Help us to continue To be faithful As we serve him You know Paul was writing To a young church When he was writing To the church At Thrasynaika And when you think Of the Ukrainian church It is relatively Speaking A young church And the growth
[49:17] Has been tremendous Over the past 20 years Now Paul was writing Here to this church And it was only About six months old And I think You know As your pastor Read down Through this chapter Tonight I think you'd agree With me That any minister Or pastor Would be delighted To have a church With people like this You know They were only Saved six months But they were doing Wonderful works For the Lord They were serving God They were passionate For the gospel They were reaching The unreached In their day And they were very Active for God Because in verse 3 We discover That they were A genuine church There was that Work of faith They were a laboring Church in verse 3 In verse 6 We find that They were a Bible church We read here That they'd received The word of the Lord They loved God's word It was precious I remember when I Started to travel With Slavic Gospel Association Many many years ago now I had to learn Some lessons Of the reverence That they had For the word of God In these countries And when you go
[50:17] To these countries You must not put Your Bible on the floor And sometimes You know We're maybe guilty Of doing that And the other thing I had to learn Very quickly was Never to put a Hymn book on top Of your Bible Because they have Such a reverence For the word Of God The inspired Word of God You know Friends The church in Ukraine Tonight They are a Bible church They have received The word Yes during communism Communism did its best To take the word Of God from them Not only a Bible church But a persecuted church Because in verse 6 We read That they had received The word of God In much affliction Of course the church In Ukraine Suffered persecution During communism And it's true to say The war in Ukraine Began in 2014 In the east of the country And in those eastern areas And Donbass region The believers have been Suffering much For the cause of the gospel There is persecution
[51:18] But in verse 6 We find that this church Was a joyful church With joy of the Holy Ghost And it's amazing As I speak with church leaders In Ukraine In right now Of course The situation Gets them down Of course They have difficult times But generally speaking The joy of the Lord Is their strength And they keep looking To the Lord Their faith is strong In the Lord This church here Was a model church We see that In verse 7 The word of God says So that you became An example To all the believers In Macedonia And Icai Saved six months But they were A wonderful example And then This is something Wonderful my friends We come to verse 8 And we find that This is a missionary church For not only Has the word of God Sounded forth from you In Macedonia and Icai But your faith in God Has gone forth everywhere So there's no need For me to say Anything Just like the Ukrainian church
[52:18] Sending missionaries All over the world This church here Was a missionary minded church But friends And I'll keep you all night And my eye is on the clock Let's come And see verse 9 and 10 What God did In the lives Of these people Who were converted For six months And how God Wonderfully transformed them Come with me To verse 9 And here we discover The word of God says And you have turned To God From idols They experienced Salvation They were a saved church The Bible says They turned from Their idols They were converted To God Now God's word Is very clear That everyone Who wants to Experience salvation There must be A turning In their lives You might ask The question tonight Why is a turning Needed in the life Let's turn to Isaiah 53 verse 6 What does God's word say All we like sheep
[53:19] Have gone astray We have turned Every one To his own way And the Lord Hath laid on him The iniquity Of us all All we like sheep Have gone astray A little boy called Johnny was having Difficulty with his Ma's in school And the teacher Decided to help him And she said Johnny If there were A hundred sheep In the field And one sheep Left the field How many would Still be in the field Johnny thought And he said There'd be none Oh the teacher Said Johnny Listen carefully If there was A hundred sheep In the field And one sheep Left the field How many would Still be in the field And Johnny said Miss there would Be none And she said Johnny you don't Know much about Mathematics And he said Johnny said Well miss you Don't know much About sheep And I was brought On a farm And you've Plenty of sheep Here on the island And isn't it true If one sheep Leaves the field They will all Leave the field You see my friends The word of God Is always perfectly right
[54:20] All we like sheep Have gone astray All of us And that's why There needs to be This turning In our lives To God Because we're Going away from God But we read here Concerning the Thessalonians They turned to God From their idols The question for us Tonight is this Have we turned To God It's not that We're planning to do it It's not that We're hoping to do it But have we done it If we're going to Experience salvation Then there must be This wonderful Turning To God Not only do we Find here that There's the Experience salvation But secondly Engaged in service Because the word of God Tells us here In verse 9 That they had Turned to God From idols To serve The living And true God You know friends I believe that After conversion There comes service True conversion Causes us
[55:21] To serve The living And the true God And to serve him Means to worship him To obey him To consecrate oneself To be his Devoted servant And note here That we're to serve The living God You know many Many have A dead God They do not feel The power of his Holy Spirit Moving upon their Hearts and lives He never fills Them with joy God is unreal To them And maybe that Describes Maybe you tonight Dear friend Maybe you've got A form of religion Religion without Reality As the Bible Makes clear to us A form of godliness But denying The power Thereof But a true convert Turns to the living God who is Everywhere He's the living God He's the only God And my friends When we turn To the Lord When we experience Salvation When we serve The Lord Then we are
[56:22] Transformed by The power Of God We are changed We're a new Creation And we're Serving The living And the true God You know friends Tonight we can Serve God By consecrated Christian living Paul writing To the church At Rome He said I beseech you Therefore brethren By the mercies Of God That you present Your bodies A living sacrifice Holy acceptable Unto God Which is your Reasonable service And be not Conformed to this Word But be ye Transformed By the Reunion Of your minds That you might Know what is That good And acceptable And perfect Will Of God You know No one can Fully estimate The power And influence Of a godly Life A young American teacher Was employed In a Japanese Government school And they told him That he was never To mention Christ Or Christianity To the students And he kept His promise But his life Was so pure And godly That the students Began to seek The secret Of his life
[57:23] And after a few Months a large Group of students Give their hearts To Christ Whom they started To follow and serve And some people May struggle To speak fluently On a platform And that may be true But living godly lives Become a wonderful Witness For Jesus Christ And you know My friends The people we meet Tomorrow They need to meet Godly lives Lives that are Consecrated to Jesus Lives that out of them Flow the love of Christ And the power of God We can serve God Well by giving him Our time You're trying to get People to do things Today in Christian service Maybe you dear friends In North Horse Are very different To most people But what we'll hear So often is I don't have time To serve Jesus You know my friends If our attitude is We don't really understand What God has done for us If we say We haven't time To serve Jesus Friends We have missed it I remember hearing Of a young lady Who was teaching A class of children Sunday school
[58:25] Deprived children And her life Got rather busy And she came To the Sunday school Superintendent And she handed in A resignation And she said That she didn't have Time and strength To teach the class anymore When she became Pressed The first thing That she gave up Was her opportunity To serve God Dear friends When we stand Before the Lord And we will stand Before him It's what we've done For God Is going to last And going to count They experienced Salvation They were Engaged in service They were expecting The saviour The word of God Tells us here In verse 10 And to wait For a son from heaven Whom he raised From the dead Jesus Who delivers us From the wrath To come You know friends Tonight Jesus Christ Is coming again Sometimes So often people Will say to me What's this world Coming to I know what this world Is coming to Because every day I live It's one day closer To the great event When Jesus Christ
[59:26] Will come again I wonder tonight Are you waiting And watching For the Lord's return You remember John In the Isle of Patmos And the Lord came And the Lord said to John Behold I come quickly And John replied And he said Even so come Lord Jesus He's coming He's coming soon He's coming as a thief As the word of God tells I wonder tonight Are you expecting His return I remember hearing A dear servant of God And every night Before he'd pull The curtains He would look into The sky and the stars And he'd say Lord I'll be asleep But I'm ready In the morning First thing When he'd pull the curtains He'd look out And he'd say Lord I'll be busy today But I'm ready Are you ready I wonder tonight Have you experienced Are you engaged In service Are you expecting The saviour May God bless His word To all of our hearts May we live In the light Of his word May we walk
[60:27] Close to Jesus And serve him Maybe dear friend Maybe in this meeting Your service for God Has been disappointing Let's start tonight Let's give all we have And let's live this one For the glory Of our God Amen Shall we pray Dear Lord We thank you For this time In your presence We thank you For your word And we thank you For the truth Of it It blesses our hearts Dear God And we thank you For all who have Experienced salvation Engaged in service And expecting the saviour But Lord As our faces differ So do our needs And we pray That you'll come to us By your Holy Spirit And minister to us Just where we are Right now And help us To be honest Before you And to meet afresh With you In Jesus name We pray Amen