Message 2 – Sunday

Lindsay smiles and greets us all in English. He says he’s going to preach in English this evening and prays, asking God to help him do it. Then he gets straight to it, “If your life is in the plan of God,” he says, “it will be full of confrontation, challenges, tests and suffering.” This might not seem like the best way to win the hearts of young people to Christ, but by the authority of the anointing of God, the truth does not crush us or discourage us, but rather it sets us free and gives us hope for our lives.

He declares that we shouldn’t run from what God wants to do in our lives, because the power of the true gospel of Jesus will bring restoration to the lives of many and true revival to the world. God changed the whole world with only twelve men. There are 500 present this evening. If each one is prepared to give his life wholeheartedly to Jesus, together they can accomplish more than what has ever been done before.

Lindsay uses the example of Joseph, the son of Jacob, to explain the work of God that needs to take place in our hearts if we want to represent Him and carry the gospel. Joseph dreamed about who God would make him one day, but he needed to go through something first before he could attain it. Those that have answered the call of God must accept what God wants to do in them first, before they can be powerfully instrumental as His servants. Nothing could stop the plan of God for Joseph, even though many things happened to him to deter him from the course. His own brothers even tried to kill him, but Reuben, the oldest, intervened and saved his life. God’s protection was upon Joseph, despite the trials he had to endure, because He had his life under His control. If we have been redeemed, we must hand over our lives to God while we are on this earth so that He may do what He wants to do with them. We belong to Him!

After Joseph was captured by his brothers, they sold him into slavery. Thereafter, he was falsely accused by his master’s wife, who tried to seduce him, and he was thrown into prison. He fled from temptation and kept his eyes on the plan of God. He knew what he would suffer if he took the path of righteousness, but he trusted God to deliver him from his trials. We must not allow an attractive young woman or man, or anything else which the world offers us that seems so irresistible, to rob us of the plan of God for our lives. Even while Joseph was in prison and suffering for something he did not do, his heart was not spoiled. It remained pure before God as he waited patiently for his deliverance, because he knew what God had asked of him and planned for him. If we compromise, we will find we no longer have the approval and protection of God, and we will fall. But if we flee from temptation and persevere in the will of God, we will triumph. In the plan of God victory is certain!

Lindsay now reflects on his own life and the deliverance of God that he experienced. He says that he spent 27 years in the world and he hates what it does to people, especially young people, because it only robs, kills and destroys. But after being miraculously saved and born again, he loves all the lost people of the world. His life’s purpose is to preach the good news of Jesus and to see souls saved, as his was. He believes that if you preach a mixed gospel, one that is not pure, you don’t actually need God because you rely on yourself. But if you preach the pure gospel of Christ crucified, one that demands your very life, you need God every day. You need the cross of Jesus to change you and make you more like Him.

He opens the Bible to 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4 and reads: “For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.” Lindsay believes that there are many men and women of God present in this place this evening, but that God needs to approve of our hearts first before he can entrust us with carrying the message of the cross to the world. This means we need to be approved by the testing of our faith. We should not preach to please men, but to glorify Jesus. We should not simply preach, but show our lives worthy of Jesus.

Lindsay confesses that in past times when he preached, the more he tried to please men, the more they sinned and fell away from God. We are not under pressure to perform, or under condemnation because of our faults and weaknesses. Jesus only wants us to see ourselves for who we really are and discover how we need to change. This is the only way we can grow in God and be approved to preach the gospel. Joseph allowed the work of God to happen in his life and his faithfulness to God, despite what he had to go through, ended up saving his entire family. We all need to be so careful of all the things that come to take us away from God’s plan and steal the deposit He has put in our hearts. If we do not guard this precious investment God alone has placed in us, we can so easily lose the wonderful reward that He has in store for us. We need to see how privileged we are to have been chosen by God and make sure we do not lose out on the inheritance He has promised His children.

When God touched Lindsay’s heart, he was deep in sin, addicted to alcohol and drugs, living only for the empty pleasures of the world. He could never have guessed that one day he would preach the gospel, let alone in English! He has had to endure many tests and trials, but through it all the grace and provision of God has saved and kept him. When he decided in his heart to take his cross, that it was the only way to live a pure and holy life before God, he knew what he would face. He knew what he would have to lose. But he decided to take that road because God showed him so clearly that it was the only way. There is no shortcut to heaven. Before the gospel of the cross challenged his life, he thought he was on the narrow road and the rest of the world was on the wide road. But God showed him that as a Christian, we can choose to take a narrow road or a wide road. Lindsay realised that he was on the wide road and it was time to take the narrow road. It was time to lose his life that he considered so precious and hand it over to Jesus, so that He could do the work in his heart that really matters; that which enables us to walk in the will of God and to really know our Saviour.

Now Lindsay issues a warning to everyone. “The last days are here. There is no time to lose.” He boldly declares that God will use the young people present more powerfully than they can imagine, more powerfully than He has used the men of God present tonight… if they are willing to choose this narrow road and continue to serve God with all their hearts, even as He does the deep and often painful work in them. “If you open your heart wide and see everything God has for you, you will throw away everything of the world in your life with great joy!” Lindsay exclaims. He says today he can thank God for all the hard times he went through, which he didn’t understand at the time, because he knows what he is today is by the grace of God.

Lindsay admits that perhaps his words are not enough to convince us that this life of obedience, surrender, sacrifice and suffering is the right way; that it is the way, the truth and the life that Jesus is for all those who would deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. But he has faith that the Lord will show us, and by his Spirit testify to our hearts, that this is the true Christian life. He doesn’t want to tell people to come to the front to be prayed for just for the sake of a prayer. But if there are people present who want to be like Joseph, who want to keep their eyes fixed on what God has shown them, who are ready to let go of their own lives and persevere through the difficult times when God is working in their hearts, then they are welcome to come forward. The Elders can pray with them and we can trust God to give them the faith to choose the narrow road and to become true servants of Jesus, who gave His life for them.

It is evident by the response many have been touched by the simple but powerful message of the gospel this evening. Young people pour forward to offer their lives to Jesus and to seek for his guidance and blessing, as they dedicate themselves to take the narrow road of the cross. Jesus has been glorified in this place this evening. For many, it is the start of a new life in the service of Almighty God. As we rise to sing His praises, our hearts are filled to overflowing with gratitude for what Jesus is doing in the lives of young people. He is preparing a generation that will carry the Good News of Jesus to the world!

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