Good morning. I also want to thank the Lord for the opportunity to be here and I get the chance to meet you all. I also read Ben's prayer letters and so I know some of you by name only. And so I'm I'm so glad that today I get the chance to meet you in person. I would like to do this morning is to give you the testimony of how I came to know Jesus as my saviour and then as a new Christian. And just because of where I was, who I was studying, some of the challenges that I had as a new Christian. And then also to tell you a bit about how the Lord's led us and the ministry that He's given us the privilege of being part of in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. So my name is Sandy. Uh, I pastor South Shore Baptist Church in Brooklyn, Nova Scotia, which is just a small part of Liverpool. Nova Scotia, which must have been settled by some English settlers way back because they named the the river that that Liverpool is on the Mersey. So some homesick Englishmen once the settled there. I grew up in Northeast Fife. The village I'm from is called three. Um. My mum raised me. She worked three jobs to provide for me, and I. It was through her influence that I came to know right and wrong. I that I knew that there were some things that I should not be doing and there were consequences if I did. And it was through her influence that I also went to church and went to Sunday school and I was exposed to the Bible that we. Because of that exposure. I was very much aware of my conscience. And I tried to make my conscience clear, but my conscience always bothered me. And then as a 13 year old, I read the Bible for myself and I think I got maybe to Genesis chapter six. And then I thought, well, I don't really understand. So I then started to jump around in the Bible, and when I came across a part of the Bible that convicted me made me feel guilty. I thought, Well, that can't be right because I'm a good person. So I would then go through these mental gymnastics to make it okay for me to be the way that I was, even though I felt guilty about it. And then I. I too, please. My mom. I joined the church when I was 14. But then during my teenage years, I just didn't believe anything. I. I believed parts of the Bible that agreed with me. I bet it was because they agreed with me, not because they were true. And then when I was 18, I had the opportunity to leave home and go to university, and that meant I was now free to live as I wanted. I could stay out all night if I wanted. I could try the places where I thought Satisfaction, Lee. And was disappointed that they were not satisfying. I lived the first year in halls of residence, and then I moved out into a flat with three others and one of them was an ecology major and he was going to save the planet. So even back then I he was a true ecologist and he was going to and he actually did I go to, um, Central Africa and do, uh, forestation plans there. But even though he was right into ecology, he also drove a very souped up VW Beetle. And it seemed like a contradiction. He was into this, but he wasn't into this. And then another of my flat, me, she was into politics. Why was she into politics? But that was also I could see through that that she was into it, but only because it furthered her rather than because it was a conviction she had. And then my other flatmate, she was a diplomat's daughter and she was very much a social butterfly. And I saw her through that as well. But even though I saw through them and I saw through in my opinion and you understand, I'm not justifying being a critic or being judgemental, but that's the way I was. And I could see through all of these students, they were all trying to be different, but in all trying to be different, they were all the same. And they all had things that they were doing, but it was just a surface thing. But I was the same. And then one day I was walking along Princes Street, and I was trying to shake off this melancholy, this introspection, the problems I was having with my conscience, the problems I was having with seeing three or four other people were doing, but not having anything that I was living for. And someone on the street offered me a gospel tract. And I didn't want to have anything to do with that. They were st preaching on the other side. So I had stayed on this side of the street and then someone called me and I thought, Oh. I didn't want this, but I was polite enough. I didn't want to just be rude. I was polite enough just to let him ask me the question. So he asked me, Do you believe the Bible? And I said yes. But that was hollow. What I meant was I believe the parts of the Bible that agree with me. And then he asked, Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I said, Oh, yes, I always have. But that also was hollow, because Jesus, though I knew about Him in my head, had nothing to do with the way I lived. And then he asked. So then he commented, It sounds like you need a commitment. And somewhere inside me, that was like a hook. It caught something in me. That's where you're at. You're not committed to anything. Just yourself. So he invited me to go to church with him that night. And I was on I was going somewhere else. So I said, I'll go do what I'm planning to do and then I'll come back and meet you and go to church with you. And I knew by his expression it was a yeah, right here. We're going to see you back. So I got indignant. It was like, I'm going to show you how good, how good a Christian I am. I keep my word. So I did the ad and I came back, met him, caught the bus and went to the church service. And the church service that night they met in a rented building. So that that was different. The people met me at the door and they welcomed me. And that was different. And then when we sang, the people sang from their hearts. That was different. And so this was all this was all new. And then the the preacher, he read the passage, a passage from the Bible. The passage that he read was Isaiah 53. And I, I had questions that arose from just him reading it. Who is this talking about? I hear the sheep that have gone astray. And how did this person that is talking about how were. Since the lead on him. And then he got up and he preached through that. And as he preached through the questions that I had asked were answered as he went through it and explained it. And then at the end of the service, I mean, this was interesting to me. At the end of the service, he gave an invitation. This was all so different. No, it wasn't simply. I'm being given information now. I'm being put in a place where I need to do something with this information. What am I going to do now with this that I've learnt? And I stood there thinking, wow, this is this is just your feelings. You know, it's just your feelings. And then I thought, what are other people going to think? But through that time that we were standing singing the invitation hymn. This. Fitted. What I had experienced from the Bible when I read it as a 13 year old. Do you remember how I had to go through all that mental gymnastics to excuse myself to rationalise away the guilt that the Bible caused because it condemned me for my sins? This answered that this was how God had made an atonement for my sins. He had made it in Jesus dying on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. So all of this time I had known about the cross. But it was as if I had been scrabbling in the dirt, building my own little sand castle, completely oblivious of what he had done. And so in the third verse of the song, I said, I need to respond. So I went, and the man who met me on the street, he went through the gospel with me. And that night, I trusted Jesus as my saviour. And though the guilt was gone, the weight was lifted. I can remember walking into my classes on Monday morning thinking like I was walking on air. It was such a blessing. And my life started to change. I no longer wanted to Carsons, where nobody told me that I needed to stop, that. I just didn't want to anymore. I didn't want to party. I didn't want to do those things anymore. So my you remember the ecology major who was going to save the planet? He also wanted to save me from being involved with a cult. And I was really concerned and asked, encouraged me to get counselling because of what I'd become involved in. I followed the Lord and believer's baptism. And then I, I my course was done and I moved away from Edinburgh and I was first I worked in a cattle market and then I worked with a shepherd on the island of Iona. And during that time on Iona, I only had my Bible to to read and to learn and grow. And through that, the Lord started to prompt me with what I was to do with my life. So. In three different passages. Mark. Chapter 16 I go. You therefore preach the gospel to every creature. Um. I Jeremiah Chapter one verses eight and nine. That's the passage where Jeremiah is called and the Lord says to him, say, no, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all the I shall send the in whatsoever. I command thee that shot, though speak, be not afraid of their faces, for I am with me to deliver this if the Lord. And I really wondered, is God calling me to preach through that? And so I prayed about it and asked the Lord to confirm this. And then He confirmed it with a third Scripture passage that He was calling me to preach the Gospel. That meant that my desire to study the Bible. Now I actually should act on that. And I tried different places to go to study places that I thought were the places I should go. And it came to a critical Dave where something had to come into place and it didn't come into place. First time it was a visa. Second time it was funds. And then the third time. Well, there was something significant. Significant happened before the third time after those two bad experiences, I thought, well, maybe I should. Just get a regular job and save up. So I thought I would take a short commission in in the Marines and that. I was advised not to do that. Then I applied to the Fife Police. And I went through the selection process. Part of it was an application, part of it was an aptitude test. And then the third part, they actually sent a sergeant to our house and he interviewed me. So if you've ever seen an interrogation, it was like an interrogation where he's asking and then based on your answer, he'll follow up with an even more probing question. Well, he found out that I was a Christian, and then he wanted to find out what made me take. How would I respond to social issues of the day and. Then he found out that I wanted to study the Bible. So he asked me if you had the choice right now to join the police force or go to Bible College? Which would you choose? And I had I couldn't see joined the police force. So a week later, I got the Dear Joanne letter. Dear Mr. Edgar, we are no longer considering you as a constable in your application. And that really was what the Lord used to break me. I was trying to get the Lord to rubberstamp my plans. And at that point I told the Lord. It doesn't matter if you never want me to go to college to study the Bible. I just want your well. And then another week later I got an application form I hadn't requested, giving me a scholarship to study a graduate degree in in the Bible. They allowed me credit for my undergraduate degree in biology and allowed me to go into study. And that was where I met my wife. My wife is from Nova Scotia. She was studying a degree in music. And that was also I can remember the very place on the road where I was cycling to work and I was really burdened because I wanted to get married, but there wasn't anybody I could marry. And I told the Lord, it doesn't matter, Lord, if you never want me to get married, I just want your will. And I had peace then. And just let the Lord take care of that. And so he moved me to the United States, my wife from Nova Scotia to the United States to make that happen. And I praise him for that, too. So then we came back to Scotland. Our children were all born here. And then, um. We emigrated to Canada in 1997 and we had different roles as pastor or interim pastor in different ministries in that province. And then more recently, the Lord gave us the privilege to serve so sure, Baptist Church. South Shore Baptist Church has about 30 people who attend regularly. And in nine 2017. They bought a building. And the funds came in from different churches to help them with the deposit. And then they had a small mortgage of $74,000, Canadian dollars. And this year. Uh, we hope to pay that off. So, five years, the Lord has done amazing things. In going into that ministry and answering the Lord's call to pastor there. He's given me these five things to encourage me when it seems like there is a particular battle or I'm facing things that are discouraging to me. First of all, Matthew 1926, that Scripture passage says with God. With man or with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And so I need to go into ministry expectantly. I expect too little from the Lord. I need to go into this trusting him to do the ministry. It's His power that does it. And that's the same here today. We need to trust him to do the unexpected, to do what we cannot do. Secondly, the second thing that I have written down I can keep coming back to and to encourage me is Luke 1710. I'm to consider myself. So this is how I am to view myself as a minister, as a pastor. And to view myself as an unprofitable servant. I'm to say this to myself. I'm not in this for the accolades to get something, to use it for myself in some way. It's God's church. They are his sheep. It's his ministry and his glory. Number three. I, I am to go into the Ministry to fulfil the Great Commission. Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. That my my work I would work and home to lead the church is intentionally to have relationships to give the gospel is to be intentional to help believers change to become more like Christ. Number four. The fourth emphasis in going into the Ministry of Social Baptist Church is to have a Ministry of Intercession. It is a skill to grow in. It's more than just a tool. It is delighting in Christ, but it is also a pattern to follow. And then number five. The Lord is my primary audience and to see what He says, because seeing what He says pleases him. All right. I also told you that there were some things that happened when I was a new believer that were especially encouraging or helpful to me. That might be helpful to you. I was a biology student. And. I was a biology student in my second year, the year that I trusted Christ as my saviour. That was February, and at that time I was studying a course called evolutionary zoology. So guess what? We were studying. And I had never questioned evolution before. I in school. I did well in biology and it never really questioned where it all came from. I'd never really thought about what I was being taught. But now there I was, a new creature in Christ. I was new on the inside. I did question. And it became obvious to me that the the way that you age the rocks. So the layers of strata, the way that you age those rocks, are the fossils you find in them. And the way that you define how old the fossils are are by the rocks you find them and so that circular reasoning so that really wow really that's what's going on here. And then I. I a friend had a yacht and he took me to the IO with me and the IO of me has sea cliffs, and so I of me is in the river forth has sea cliffs, and there's lots of puffins and other birds there. But you can lie on the edge of those sea cliffs and look all the way down to the water. But then you can also look down through the water. The sea cliffs continue on. And as I was lying there watching, I could watch the SEALs coming into the cliff and hunting and feeding and doing whatever they're doing. And one of the things that biology would emphasise is reductionism, that everything comes down to the molecules, that life started in molecules forming bigger molecules, that we are just a bunch of molecules. What's actually happening in your body right now is neurochemicals are causing light signals to fire and all of that kind of stuff. So I'd always approached my view of life with that kind of view. Wow. Isn't that fascinating? All comes down to these tiny little molecules that makes it all work. And those tiny little molecules are important. They do make it all work. But there's someone who has made all those tiny little molecules who's designed them. And that day, looking down from that sea cliff, it really gave me more of a view of this didn't just happen. There is design. All fingerprints of designer all over this. But I was still struggling. Do I do I really see that I believe in creation? And then you remember that time that I said I was a shepherd or helping a shepherd. The way that I got back from Iowa and I was on the bus back through Mobile. And when you're coming up through MO, you can see all these razed beaches. So you're looking over against this mountain that comes out of the sea and every so many feet you'll see a raised beach. So it'll come up and then there's lots of rocks will come up and there's lots more rocks and so on. And it made me realise how a raised bitches formed. Well, that means that those mountains were lowered at one time or the water was higher at one time. Wow. That that would be evidence. That the flood is real. The way that the land is now, it's not always been this way. And so that also was another part of what was working in my heart to make me come to the point. Do I believe what God says about how he's made everything or I do? Or do I believe what man says and keeps adjusting about the origin of everything? And Hebrews. Chapter 11, verse five says It is through faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. It's. It's a statement of trust. Who do you trust? Do you trust what man says or do you trust what God says? The second thing that really might be helpful, I. As a new Christian. I. I had not experienced biblical separation before. And going door to door helped me realise that not everybody who goes to church is born again. And that people who go to church, you're not born again. They don't have that view of the Bible. They don't have that understanding of salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. And I was really struggling, though. Do you actually take a stand and see that we're not going to be part of that? With with the ecumenical movement and with churches like that. And I through that time because I had come to understand something about how science was telling me the wrong things. I then became a student of history and wanted to understand more of history, and especially the history of what had taken place in Scotland. And believers from previous centuries here in Scotland. And I came to understand that though it wasn't something that had been around in my generation or in churches in Scotland at that time, that it had been that there was a separation from unbelief in church history in Scotland at the time of the Covenant course. And that really encouraged me then that this this is not so off the wall. Encouraged me then to go back to the Bible and what the Bible says about our responsibility as believers to separate from religious organisations that are unbelieving, that don't preach the gospel. Okay. I that in a long nutshell is is my testimony. And if you have any other questions, I'd be glad that I answer them after. Should I close in prayer? Gracious. Father, thank you for the opportunity that we have today to meet in Jesus name and to come boldly into your presence. We pray, Lord, that you would help us in our hearts to glorify and worship you this morning. I pray, Lord, that through all this talk about me and what you have done and in me and for me, that you would receive the glory. That you would encourage us to walk with you and to trust you. In Jesus name. Amen. All right. You've got about 15 minutes.