No sermon sorry – that old wonder of technical difficulties!
Only 8 adults, mostly new people – all Christians. Then had one person come in off the street, he was sitting outside drinking and I invited him in, and I preached the gospel to him as if that was my intended message to all the Christians! He loved the message, and took my business card and a church card away with him.
We then prayed for him as a church and I preached on the free grace of God and how Christ has paid the complete price for all our sin and sickness and we can enjoy the righteousness of God. And also because it is free that we should welcome in people off the street no matter how different they seem.
I talked about respectable sins and disrespectable sins. Some slaves would be made to be cooks, treated well, almost as part of the family. Other slaves would be used as the family prostitute. One respectable, one disrespectable. Both slaves – both need redemption. Lazarus was dead and he stinketh – Jairus’ daughter was dead but could be mistaken for sleeping. You couldn’t mistake Lazarus for sleeping! Both needed resurrection.
Our sins might be “nice” ones or they might be “horrible” ones but we all need a Saviour so we should never be proud towards people who come who are obviously sinners and who stinketh and who are disrespectable because actually they need the same miracle we needed.
When I started to preach, the Lord said to me that the meeting was smaller but more significant and this is true because two ladies caught me at the end and want to join our church and our vision.
You know God didn’t say make crowds but make disciples, so I receive His Word that tonight has been more insignificant. The man who came in off the street said everyone made him feel so welcome even though he didn’t like large crowds (I know we are hardly a large crowd!!!)… afterwards I was discussing with my wife and every example I chose was relevant in his life, praise the Lord.
All in all a very positive night… tomorrow the Lord has told me the Holy Spirit is going to do special things. I cannot wait!
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