Hi Everyone

Present today Pastor Jarryd, Daniel, Mike, Di, Maree, June, Peck.

I opened with portions of Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.

For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.

And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord! (Ps 27:1-6, 14)

I spoke of how downcast we can get when gospel conversations don’t go the way we predicted. Some people divert their eyesight to pretend they can’t sere or hear you, some place their hand up in defiance, some verbally abuse, and some just give sarcastic answers to make you give up. These are all Satan’s ways of disrupting the gospel message, and to discourage the evangelist. But we never need to be downcast, for He is our light and our salvation; we have nothing to fear. At any time we can dwell in the house of the Lord through prayer, and it is prayer that connects us to His safe arms. 

I shared a conversation I had with a gentleman down at the waterfront. He didn’t care what happened after he died. He didn’t want to talk to me, and was making every effort to put me off my stride. I persevered, but inside I was getting angry with him. I was thinking ‘come on, wake up!’. I ended the conversation by telling him ‘every day there are over 150,000 people that die, and today might be yours. So I would encourage you to read the tract with an amount of sobriety’. It didn’t sound that bad, but it was done with an attitude of bitterness in my heart that I later had to repent of. If I had just prayed for help and calmness at the time, I wouldn’t have walked away grumpy. 

We prayed that we would be bold enough to talk to people, to love them enough to tell them the truth, and humble enough to ask for God’s strength when we are struggling.

Today’s outreach was delayed a week, as the usual 3rd Saturday was in the middle of a swathe of storms that had smashed Wellington, and other parts of the country. Today was dry, but there was a cool wind.

Down at the shops my $1m gospel tracts were being gobbled up, but no one wanted to stop and talk. I just had to pray that the tract would do the talking for me. I did finally manage to get a few to engage with me…

Rania: I spotted a group of 4 college girls standing around giggling about whatever college girls giggle about. They were in the middle of the shops. I don’t normally approach girls, but as there were plenty of people milling about, I deemed it was safe. I decided to change tact, and pulled out the Living Waters tract printer on my phone. I ‘printed’ out the IQ test tract. Like all who see this in action, they were all gob-smacked. I took them all through the test, and like everyone else, they failed miserably, getting all of them wrong, even after I gave each of them three chances. I gave all of them a tract, and used that as a springboard to one other thing you can be sure of but get wrong – that all good people go to heaven when they die. Three of the girls suddenly realised they had to be somewhere else, leaving Rania to face the music. 

Rania was very humble, but also very nervous. I said that all I wanted was for her to be honest. She failed the Good Person Test. I asked her what she will say to God when He asks why He should let her into heaven. She said because she tries to be good…then stopped and said ‘Oh’. I told her that even if she was perfect from now on (which is impossible anyway), there was still the sins of the past that she would have to pay for, to keep her out of hell. How was this going to happen? She thought for a long time and then shrugged her shoulders. I then asked her how would she feel if someone paid her hell punishment for her. She said that would be great. So I gave her the beautiful gospel of Christ coming to earth and taking our hell punishment for us. She understood that she would need to place her faith in Christ for the forgiveness of her sins. At that stage, the other three girls returned from their urgent appointment. I thanked them for their time, and encouraged all of them to read the tract, and praying that the others would not try to steal the seed of truth from Raina.

Yops: This gentleman was sitting alone at the bus stop. I gave him a $1m tract. He said he would go to heaven when he died. Why? Because he gave his heart to Jesus. I asked him why he would do that. He said because it was the thing to do to help him turn his life around. I asked him if he did turn his life around, what happens to all the bad things he has done in his life. He said that Jesus has forgiven them. I asked him why he would do that. I said that he wouldn’t ask a judge to forgive him for all the bad things he did, so why would he do this with God? It may sound a bit nit-picky doing this, but I have heard of lots of people who ‘give their hearts to Jesus’, but have no understanding of His sovereignty or justice. He said he put up his hand at church and was prayed a prayer to accept Jesus. It took all my strength to not roll my eyes. I asked which church told him that, and he said is was Arise Church. My heart sank at hearing this. Arise is a cesspool of seeker-sensitive heresy, and is currently in the media for all the wrong reasons. It made sense that Yops was extremely naive about heavenly things. I didn’t want to discuss what was going on there, or even let on that I knew what his ‘church’ was like. I just wanted Yops to hear the gospel. 

I started from scratch with Yops, taking him through the law to show him how sinful he was. Then judgement after death – he would have to give an account for everything to God on Judgement Day, ending up being thrown into hell. The only way for him to avoid hell was for Jesus to take his punishment for him, upon the cross. It was faith in Him alone that would save Yops – any reliance on self would end up in tragedy. I asked him if he understood what I was saying, and he was staring into space nodding. He said it made sense now. I told him that he wasn’t saved by giving his heart to Jesus – he was saved by believing by faith that Jesus gave His heart and His life for him. I asked him if he had heard anything like this at his church. He said no, never. So I subtly said that it might be a good idea to find another church that speaks the truth. His bus turned up, so I gave him a couple of other resources as he hopped on, and shook his hand. Lord, I pray you will cause the scales to fall from his eyes, that he may see you as you really are, and flee from the clutches of hirelings!

 Moleli: This Pacific Island gentleman was walking past, so I offered him a $1m tract. He stopped and laughed. I asked him if he thought he would go to heaven when he died. Most Pacific Islanders have some knowledge of the Christian faith, as missionaries have been going there for over 200 years. He thought he would go to heaven because he was a nice person and tried not to do anything wrong. He said his English was not very good, and that he was in a hurry, so I walked with him. I took him through the law slowly, but it was hard to get the message across. He stopped at the money machine, so I gave him a Good Person tract to read, telling him that it explains things better.

Sam: I passed him by the TAB (betting agency), and it looked like he was going to go in. I offered him a $1m tract and said that he might be better investing in this. He laughed, and said he would put it all on a horse. When I asked him the million dollar question, he sobered up pretty quickly. He said he would probably go to heaven, because he was cleaning up his act and being good. I tested him to see how good he really was, and he turned out evil like the rest of us. I said that these were some of the things he would be judged on, so would he be guilty or innocent? Guilty. Should he be rewarded or punished? Punished. Is punishment heaven or hell? Hell – but God is forgiving. I asked him to try that in a court of law – yes judge I did rob a bank and shoot a guard, but I ask that you forgive me – would he? He said no, never. I told him that God is infinitely higher than an earthly judge, and He will punish evil-doers. And no amount of asking for forgiveness or cleaning yourself up can take away the wrath that is waiting for him.

But then I asked him what would happen if someone paid his fine for him – walking into the courtroom, telling the judge that he gave up everything to keep you out of prison. The judge can legally let you go, even if you are guilty, because the fine has been paid. This is what Christ had done for you – you did the crime, Jesus paid your hell fine in His life’s blood. You need to accept that by faith, and that it was nothing you could do to save yourself. Sam said he understood. I asked when he was going to start believing this. He said he had a lot on his plate at the moment, but would remember what we talked about. I told him that this is the most important message he could hear, as so many people die each day, and today could be the one assigned for him. By then it will be too late to repent and believe the gospel. He said OK, and I gave him a Good Person Tract to keep him focused. Please pray for Sam!

Next door above the mower shop,  there was an interesting banner:

I asked the owner of the mower shop (who is a Christian), what they were all about. He said they were a very private bunch of people. He has said hello on many occasions, but they won’t engage with him. I looked online on my phone, and its seems they are yet another entity posing as a church, and just like the Forward in Faith Church in the mall, are full of fake apostles, fake prophets, fake bishops, fake signs and wonders, and rank heresy. And just like that other church, its’ doors stay locked, and it’s members keep to themselves. Both proclaim they preach the gospel, but I guess only to themselves, because I don’t ever see their doors or blinds open, or any of them out and about. They have an awesome mission field right outside their door, but sadly, they don’t seem interested in seeking after them. It makes our presence down here even more important!

Daniel was telling me he had a long discussion with a couple of Mormon missionary women. He said he enjoys talking with Mormons, as he knows a lot of history behind the faith. They ended up admitting to him that Jesus wasn’t God’s Son, so Daniel was able stress that if that was the case, then His sacrifice was worthless. It turned out that Pastor Jarryd, and others in the team each had a long discussions with them too, so a lot of seed was scattered and water sprinkled their way. We just pray that God will give the increase!

So it was an awesome morning, with all of us able to have good gospel conversations. We give all the glory to God, and leave their eternal future in His hands!

Blessings

Craig.