Well, I hope this is not overly confusing, but I'm going to reverse the two addresses this morning. The first one will be on the mission-focused life, and the second one on 1 Samuel 14. And I hope the reason for changing will become obvious by the time we reach 1 Samuel 14. Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5. We'll read the first 16 verses. As you're turning in your Bibles, just let me say what a pleasure it is for me to be here. When you're a stranger to a congregation, you never quite know what you're going to expect. And what has struck me since Ryan collected me at the airport yesterday was just how warm-hearted and kind this congregation is. I say that I hope not to flatter you, but I was saying to Ryan as he collected me from the hotel this morning that when I come to a congregation like this I'm often reminded of Augustine. Many people know something of Augustine's conversion. They know perhaps that his mother Monica prayed for him for many years. They know about his growing disillusionment with the immorality that he had been practicing for many years. They understand the dissatisfaction with the various philosophies that he had given himself to. And then they know, of course, the great encounter in the garden when he hears this little child saying, tolle lege, tolle lege, pick up and read. And he goes into his room and he picks up the Bible and he opens it at the end of Romans 13. But what people often don't know or perhaps don't really appreciate was that in the confessions he speaks about the impact on his life of the kindness of Bishop Ambrose in Milan. Ambrose's kindness to this inquiring, brilliant rhetorician, Aurelius Augustinus, had a profound impact on him. So, brothers and sisters, be encouraged. Practice the kindness which is the fruit of the Spirit. Practice that generosity of heart that impacts people as they come among you, unbeknown to you perhaps. May it please the Lord to use that kindness, that open heartedness to prepare people's hearts to hear the gospel of his grace in Jesus Christ. So thank you very much for the warmth and generosity of your welcome. Matthew chapter five. Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The whole of our Lord Jesus Christ's life from womb to tomb, we might say, was a life of mission. And that life of mission didn't end with his resurrection. Thank you, Chris. Even now, at the right hand of his father in heaven's glory, our Savior is interceding for his church. and he is orchestrating the worship of his church and the witness of his church. So the whole of our Lord Jesus Christ's life can, I think, be defined as a life of mission. Remember how he said, I have come into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. The winning of lost judgment deserving hell bound men and women, boys and girls. Lay on the heart of our savior Jesus Christ as he came into the world to fulfill the will of his father to save a people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. And because the whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ was a mission-focused life, that means that every Christian believer, because of their union with Christ, and because of the replicating ministry of the Holy Spirit who comes to overlay on our lives the principal pattern that mark the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means that for every Christian believer, our lives, no less than his life, are to be mission focused lives. And the question I really want to ask this morning is very simply this. What exactly is a mission focused life? We saw last night that The gospel shaped life is lived out of our adoption by God's grace into his family as his sons and daughters. We saw that that adoption is nourished in communion with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw that that life of adoptive communion with God is shaped and styled by a life of obedience to God. God has, in Jesus Christ, come to us, not only to rescue and redeem us, though He has come gloriously to do that, but He has come to make His Son the firstborn among many brothers. God would have His glory in heaven populated with creaturely analogues of His Son, Jesus Christ. And the great question, I think, that at least bears down weightily on my own soul is this. If my Savior's life was a mission focused life and if at the right hand of the Heavenly Father, he continues to exercise that mission focused life. What does that mean for me? What does that mean for you? What does it mean for anyone who has been savingly united to Jesus Christ and who is being replicated by the ministry of the Holy Spirit into the likeness of the mission focused Savior at the right hand of the Father in heaven? And perhaps the best way to begin thinking about that, and we're really going to be thinking exclusively almost about verse 16 of Matthew chapter 5, is to ask ourselves, what was the shape or pattern of the mission-focused life of our Lord Jesus Christ while he was on earth? And there are three things just in a preliminary way I want to note with you before we look more substantively at the 16th verse. There were three aspects of our Lord Jesus Christ that shaped and defined the mission focused reality of his earthly ministry. We saw, first of all, as we did last night, that his whole life was an obedience shaped life. You see, bearing witness to God and to the gospel of his grace came, as we shall see in a few moments, I trust, to our Lord Jesus Christ in the way of obedience. The mission of our savior was the overflow of his principal life of obedience to his heavenly father. The fabric of his life, the DNA of his life, was obedience to the will of God, to the revealed will of God. It's very remarkable to see how our Lord Jesus Christ's earthly life was shaped by his understanding of Holy Scripture. right at the outset of his public ministry when he finds himself confronted by the devil. We find our Lord remarkably plundering the book of Deuteronomy once in chapter 8, I think, and twice in chapter 6, and repelling the evil one with the very word of God, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. And we might ask the question, well, how did our Lord Jesus Christ get to know the Bible that well? He wasn't carrying around in his pocket a copy of the of the scriptures. How did he get to know the Bible that well that he's able in the midst of weakness to plunder the book of Deuteronomy and to know precisely how to repel the temptations of the evil one. Well, some people might think, well, that's a no brainer. He's the son of God. He's the son of God. But if our Lord Jesus Christ's knowledge of the Bible was due to the fact of him being the son of God, he couldn't be my savior. He would be a divinized man. He wouldn't have a humanity like my humanity. How did our Lord Jesus Christ know the scriptures? Well, the Bible tells us, doesn't it? In the third servant song, Isaiah chapter 50. Morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as one who is taught. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't excused the maturative, educative processes He had to diligently, morning by morning, week by week, year by year, imbibe the truth of God's Word. He had to store up God's Word in his heart that he might not sin against him. He wasn't excused the educative processes of humanity and his witnessing his whole life of mission was the overflow of that obedience to the Word of God that had so impregnated his holy humanity. But not only was it an obedience shaped life, it was a self-denying life. Remember Jesus' words in is that John 12, 24, except a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. For fruit to be realized, there has to be a death. And when our Lord Jesus Christ said to would-be disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. He was simply living out his own life of self-denial. I've come from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And even as he comes in the Garden of Gethsemane to feel the approaching unimaginable crisis of Calvary, and prays, Father, if it be possible, take this cup from me. Yet, nevertheless, not my will, but Your will be done. evidencing that self-denying spirit that ultimately brought forth life. You see, spiritual fruitfulness is not the result of acquiring gospel techniques. It's the fruit of dying. It's the fruit of dying. And we see in our Lord Jesus Christ that his whole life was shaped by obedience to the will of his father. It was shaped by self-denial. And thirdly, and this will be the launching pad for all that remains in this session, it was a life devoted to doing good. I'm always struck and intrigued by the way Peter evangelizes Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. You remember how Cornelius has this vision and he sends for Peter and Peter comes. You know the passage well. And as Peter begins to unpack the gospel to Cornelius, He says to him, you have heard of Jesus of Nazareth. What's the first thing Peter's going to say to him? You have heard how he went about doing good. Doing good. Doing good. And this is precisely what our Lord Jesus Christ is saying here to his disciples in verse 16 of Matthew chapter 5. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Now, I've often throughout the years found these words in Matthew 5, verse 16, challenging. Disturbing and humbling, if I'm honest, they've somewhat haunted me throughout my 50 or so years as a Christian. That they may see what your good works and then Give glory to your father who is in heaven. I want to think with you this morning. What does that actually say? What does it mean to live a mission focused life? It means our Lord is saying here that your good works which flow out as we shall see, that flow out of your redeemed, adoptive relationship to God, that your good works will so impact this godless world that there will be people who thereby give glory to your father in heaven. I want to notice four things with you embedded in this text. Notice, first of all, that mission is part of the family likeness. Look carefully at what Jesus says here. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Now, Jesus is going to develop in Matthew six in a striking way that the disciples relationship to God is the relationship of children to a father. Now, the fatherhood of God isn't a new covenant or a New Testament concept. But in Matthew, chapter six, there are more references to God as father than you find in the whole of the Old Testament. It is if Jesus is saying to his disciples, now, you need to understand this. This is the great reality that defines your life as a believer. God is now your father. You're in the family of the living God. This is the relationship that ultimately, principally defines you. God is your father. You are his children. Like me, you have become servant sons of the Most High. And it seems to me here that Jesus is saying to his disciples that the life of mission, the life of making known who God is and what God has done, has a principial familial mindset to it. This is how the family of God live in the world. We take our cue from the father who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And it seems to me as we read these words, we find our Lord Jesus Christ saying to his disciples, That the family likeness is patterned after the father. The father who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Who is it that's speaking these words to these disciples? It is the sent one of God. It is the apostle and high priest of our confession. It is the one who has come from the bosom of the father, sent by the father to be the savior of the world. And Jesus is saying to these disciples. You have come to be my disciples. And in you and through you, God is going to be at work. to bring men and women and boys and girls to himself, to give him glory. And that is the very heartbeat of the mission focused life. It belongs to the very essence of the family of God. Not only does it take its fundamental cue from the heavenly father who so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son in time and space that it takes its cue from the Lord Jesus Christ, who, as He lived out His earthly life, did so seeking the lost. Every time I read in the Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ being filled with compassion, I can barely bring myself to read any more because it's so humbles me and convicts me. The word is a it's a very rich word, Splachna, Splachnitzomai. It means in the very depths of his being, he saw the lostness of men and women. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. He saw them hurtling headlong to a lost and a ruined eternity. And it's as if his heart broke within him. But when I see the multitudes, I'm almost wanting to say, can you not just move out the way and let me pass through a little more quickly? One of my great heroes was a Scottish 19th century minister called William Chalmers Burns. Any of you heard of William Chalmers Burns? One of the great men who adorned the life of the church in Scotland. I think of the Christian church. When he was a young man, he was studying theology in Edinburgh under Thomas Chalmers. And one day he was walking through the busy streets of Glasgow, a great industrial city in the 1830s, 1840s. And his mother was walking towards him and she saw him about 20 yards in front of her and she was about to greet him. And suddenly he disappeared. He disappeared up an alleyway. And his mother wondered what had happened. And she turned into the alleyway and she saw her son breaking his heart, pouring out his soul to God. And she said, William, what ails you? And he said, Oh, mother, when I saw the multitudes posting hither and thither, heading for a ruined eternity, I could bear it no more. and had to turn aside and cry out to God that he would have mercy upon them. You see, that's the family likeness. Jesus saw the multitudes, he was filled with compassion. If you're anything like me, your perhaps greatest need is for the Lord to give you, as I pray he will give to me, an increasingly tender heart towards the loss. To see people as God sees them. Though I think if we could see people as God sees them, it would be unbearable for us in our humanity. Mission is part of the family likeness. And then secondly, we can see here in this verse that mission is first about being who you are. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works. Mission is first about being who you are. Now, we need to read these words in the light of verses 13 through 15, don't we? where Jesus is clearly speaking about his life shining through them to others. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Now, later in John's gospel, he will speak of himself as the light of the world. And by virtue of our union with Christ. His life. as the antidote to sinful putrefaction. His life as the light that disperses the darkness is to be mediated through us. Think of John 15, I am the vine and you are the branches. You see, only as we are united to Christ can his life be found in us and channeled through us to others. And so Jesus says, let your light shine before others. Mission is not first about cultivating techniques. It's about cultivating likeness to Jesus Christ. It's about living a life through which the life of Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit will be seen by the godless lost world around us. You see, a godly life not only gives credibility, to witness, but also power to witness. I'm going to come back to that. Our great need is not to be people who think we have answers to everything. I used to think as a young convert that if I didn't have answers to every question people asked me at university, the whole edifice of the faith would come crashing down. I really did. I would swat up books and have answers for whatever. And if on the odd occasion, because people don't think very much, someone would ask me a question, I don't know how to answer that. But what God blesses in witness It's not that we, and I'll return to this, that we have a well-stocked mind. Now, don't misunderstand me. It's important to have a well-stocked mind. But what God blesses, signally, is not a well-stocked mind, but a Christ-like life. And the third thing we notice here in this text is that mission is practiced in the doing of good works. Light will be seen, made evident in good works. We underplay the significance of good works. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Too often we downplay that, we say, no, we're saved by grace through faith. Absolutely we are. Absolutely we are. But the grace that saves us through the instrumentality of a faith is a grace that comes to transform us. and to make us new creations in Christ, who exhibit in our lives the likeness of the elder brother who went about doing good. Now, most of the time I just go about. But the Lord Jesus Christ went about doing good. Good works were not a program that Jesus devised. They were the overflow of his life. And they came in the way of obedience. Let me try and illustrate it from the Gospels. John chapter 4, Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. How does he end up encountering this woman in this most unlikely of places? Well, he didn't wake up one morning and thought, well, I think I'll head for Galilee today. And yes, I'm going to head for Galilee, and I'm going to encounter a woman at a well, and she's going to be thirsty for life, and I'm going to evangelize her, and I'm going to draw her to myself and bring her into the kingdom and family of God. That's not how it happened. Jesus leaves Judea. because of the exigencies of the time. He doesn't know what lies before him. He seeks to live out his life in obedience to his heavenly father. And so with his disciples, he makes his way. And John tells us he had to go through Samaria. Now, there is a geographical hardness. I've traveled that route many, many times. If you want to go from Judea north to Galilee, the quickest way is to go through Samaria. There's a geographical hardness, but there is an evangelistic hardness. The Gospel of John is full of double entendres, double meanings. I have a friend who's a remarkable Muslim convert who, amongst other things, has a medical degree from the University of Chicago, an MDiv from Dallas Seminary, a PhD in Persian poetry from Oxford, and a PhD from Cambridge in double entendres, double meanings in John's Gospel. And I said to him once, I said, brother, there must be about Oh, 20 double meanings in John's gospel. And he looked at me and said, well, there's about a hundred. Now, many of them are kind of hidden in the Greek texts. You don't really see them so much in the English, but here's one of them. Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why did he have to go through Samaria? Well, you could say, well, it was the quickest route north. Yes, but his heavenly father had a woman he wanted in his kingdom. And so Jesus goes there and he finds himself at the well of Sychar. He ends up doing good to this woman because he's walking in the way of obedience. It's as we live before God in obedience that opportunities to do good arise. If we're seeking to do good works, but we're not walking in the way of obedience, our good works will amount to nothing before God. Jesus happened across the woman. She'd been prepared for him, but he came across her in the way of obedience. Let me just say this again. Good works are not a program that Jesus devised. It was a lifestyle that he lived. And then fourthly, notice that mission is ultimately about bringing glory to God. That they may see your good works. and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Not that they will see your good works and think, my, you're a faithful Christian. You're a good Christian. You're a good representative of the church you belong to. No, they will see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Why is mission So vital. Well, again, you might be thinking, well, Ian, we know the answer to that. If people don't hear about a savior, they'll be lost forever. They will be separated from God. They will find themselves in the unimaginable horror of a lost and a ruined eternity, what the Bible calls hell. But that's not the reason, is it, why we engage in mission, is it? That would be utilitarian. The reason we engage in mission is that lost men and women might come to glorify God. Evangelism is necessary because God is not being worshipped. Yes, we want to see people rescued from a lost eternity. But that's not the primary impetus for mission. We want to see people one to Jesus Christ that they might become worshippers. You know, the only place in the New Testament where we're told God seeks anything is in John 4. God seeks worshippers. I really hardly know any of you here this morning. But if you have come to faith in Jesus Christ, that's God's grand design for your life, to bring you to be a worshipper of him, to find in worshipping the triune God, the joy of your heart, the overflowing delight of your inmost being. And if you're here this morning and you are not yet united savingly to Jesus Christ, I need to tell you this. The gospel, the good news of God, It's not simply that through Jesus Christ and through his sin atoning death and bodily glorious resurrection, your sin will be forgiven and God will become your father and he will rescue you from the prospect, the unimaginable prospect of a fire that will never die and bring you into his presence. I need to tell you that God's ultimate purpose is to bring you to worship him because that's what he made you for. That's what he made you for. This is foreign to so many people. They think worship, And yet, Augustine, going back to Augustine, the opening paragraph of the Confessions, you made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts can find no rest till they find rest in you. And the highest and most blessed thing you will ever do in this life or in the life to come is to bow down and glory in God. In who he is. and in what he has done. The gospel is about bringing glory to God. That's the omega point, the ultimate purpose of evangelism. Now, what is our Lord Jesus Christ teaching his disciples here? He's teaching them that the essence of mission, the essence of witness, the essence of being light bearers in this world. It's not to be seen in programs that would have been foreign to the thinking anyway. It's to be seen in living lives. that make this world look at us and say, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. And that's why the Beatitudes prepare the way for the 16th verse. Jesus is speaking here about transformed character, the poor in spirit, those who mourn over their sin, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He is describing for us a word picture of a Christian. And he's saying this is the kind of life that will impact this fallen world. You know, we're concerned today, aren't we, at the increasing darkness that's covering Western civilization in particular. And the danger is that we can become almost defeatist. We hunker down. We draw up the drawbridge and we turn in upon ourselves and we keep the world at bay. Brothers and sisters, The early church was born into a world worse than this. No one's arresting you yet, tying you to a lamppost in Rome, covering you with oil and setting you alight to light up the streets of Rome in the dark. No one's feeding you yet to lions. And yet the church of Jesus Christ thrived. In the midst of all of that, now how did it thrive? Not because it engaged in campaigns. That would have been foreign anyway. There were no special evangelistic meetings. There were no crusades. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against these things in principle. But what impacted the world? The world had never seen people live the way these Christians were living. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. The best definition of evangelism I've ever heard. And you may want to disagree with me, and that's absolutely fine. J.I. Packer wrote somewhere. Evangelism is a Christian being a Christian in the world. We have such low expectations of Christian living. But Jesus says Christians are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Our lives are to be so countercultural, so dramatically different. Not because we try to be different, but because by the grace of God in our union with Jesus Christ, we are different. As I said to you last night, this is a special It is a special meaning for me because that's what the Lord used to bring me to Jesus Christ. Seeing a life I'd never seen before. A demeanor I'd never seen before, an attitude to other people I'd never recognized before. There was something about this young man's life that intrigued me and almost irresistibly drew me wondering Why is he like that? Why is he so different from everybody else? The gospel has come to make us new creations. If anyone is in Christ, new creation. Brothers and sisters, would anyone looking at your life this morning or my life say new creation? Would anyone looking at your life or my life as a husband, as a father, as a wife, as a mother, as a brother, a sister, a friend, would anyone looking, workmates, people in the factory, people at school, people at college, would people look at your life and say, new creation? I desperately think we need to rediscover what the New Testament understands by mission and evangelism. Let me try and illustrate what I mean. I think so often today we're intimidated by the apparent complexity of life in a multi-faith world. We're intimidated perhaps because we think, well, I don't know how to talk to a Muslim. I don't know how to talk to a Hindu. If I met a Richard Dawkins secularist, I wouldn't know what to say. If I met a passionate Darwinian evolutionist, I would be lost. And so often we become intimidated by the complexity of life in a multi-faith world. We think I've got no training in apologetics, the defence of the faith. I've never read Cornelius Van Til. I don't know what presuppositional apologetics is about. Now, don't get me wrong, it can be wonderfully helpful to read good books. I read them all the time. I remember the first time I read Van Til, I thought, wow. I remember witnessing to a fellow in Switzerland and he was a professed atheist. And I said, you know your problem. You know that God is, but you hold down the truth and unrighteousness. You're a rebel and you know it. You need to repent and believe the gospel. I've never thought of that. I thought, good old Vantill. You know, I'm not doing down. I'm an inconsistent presuppositionalist, in case you're wondering. I'm not an evidentialist, but I'm an inconsistent presuppositionalist. But you see, effective Christian witness is not dependent on having theological and philosophical training. Now that might sound strange coming from my loops. Spent 10 years at university, did various things like Ryan and others here. But effective Christian witness is not dependent on that. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples, you are the light of the world. You are. That's what you are. Let your light shine. Let your transformed life. My father, he died 16 years ago. My mother died. 34 years ago. I hope my mother died believing. I've got no evidence my father did. But one of my boys went to visit my father in hospital just before he died. I always found it hard to speak to my father. Found it very, very hard. Not with my mum, very close to my mother. My father was a typical Glasgow working man, you know, no nonsense and He had a family that was colorful, that covers a multitude of sins. I found it very hard to speak to my father, but I was so pleased one of my boys went to see him before he died. And I'll tell you why. Because if anything spoke to my father, it was the lives of my children. Now in the Lord's kindness I married the most wonderful of women and the Lord has been gracious to us with our children. And I think my father, this is my hope, that my father could see in my children that the gospel of Jesus Christ made a difference. That my children were different from the other children in the family. He said that to me once, your children are different. You see, these early disciples, they weren't educated, they hadn't gone to university. They were unschooled, remember Acts chapter four, the Sanhedrin were amazed that these unschooled men, where did they get this from? You see, the heart of effective Christian mission is a godly, do-gooding life. I don't know if you hear this in your country. I hear it regularly in mine. All these do-gooders. Oh Lord, raise up do-gooders. Jesus went about doing good. I want the church to be filled with do-gooders. You see, what God is most pleased to use for his glory and extension of his kingdom is not a well stopped mind, but a Christ like life. Now, you know, I'm not contrasting the two. In no sense, they're not mutually exclusive, but hopefully you get my point, because what the Holy Spirit blesses is not well constructed arguments and deep learning, but humble hearted, prayerful dependence on him. We are supernaturalists. Don't you love Benjamin Warfield's description of Christianity? He said, what is Christianity? Unembarrassed supernaturalism. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you recite the Apostles Creed here, but every time I do, I just love that phrase. I believe in the Holy Ghost. Now let me just say again, in case you're misunderstanding me, an educated mind and a spirit-dependent heart are not mutually exclusive. But the danger is we so de-spiritualize gospel witness that we think, well, you know, I don't have much education or I haven't read this. I haven't read John Calvin or John Owen or Aquinas. I haven't read the early church fathers. Brothers and sisters, Jesus said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. John Knox, a great Scottish reformer, was once asked to account for the remarkable success of the Scottish Reformation. It seemed It wasn't quite like this, but it seemed that almost in a day the nation was transformed. How do you account for it, Master Knox? And he said, God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance. God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance. The gospel shaped life is a mission focused life and a mission focused life is a Christ like life. That's God's great purpose. Our usefulness to the Lord depends in large measure because God uses means most often. Our usefulness to God depends in large measure on our likeness to Jesus Christ. And maybe you won't be able to answer many of the profound questions that people pose. But people can't argue against new creations. So, brothers and sisters, be unembarrassed supernaturalists. The next time, maybe later today, the opportunity arises to bear witness to Jesus Christ. Just pray, Holy Spirit, use me. Let my life in some small way give weight to the words that I speak. You ever wondered about the Samaritan woman? Back to John 4, I'll close with this. She goes back to her village and They see the transformation in our life and they come to Jesus. They flock around and they say to Jesus, this woman's testimony has persuaded us. What are we told in John 4 about her testimony? Woman of Samaria, give us your testimony." And she stands up and says, come see a man who told me all that I ever did. Not much of a testimony. How on earth could that persuade a village? Because they saw in her face the transforming power of the gospel. It wasn't her words as such. Her words were few. Come see a man in the Greek texts, eight words, some testimony. But they saw before their very eyes a new creation. And God used that to touch their hearts. Let us pray. Father in heaven, you have united us to your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we come this morning asking that his life, indwelling in us by his Spirit, will transform us and make us the men and women, the boys and girls that you have saved us to be reflectors of you and your grace and love and mercy and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness in this world. We pray, Lord, that you would use our lives for your glory. That we would be known as people who delight to do good. Show this world, Lord, in its fallenness, its lostness and its brokenness, show this world what the transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ is able to do with broken humanity. Help us individually, as families and as a congregation to show forth the grace of God. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.