Well, now it's my turn to tell you my story. And I want to begin on the 24th of February, 1980. It was just after my 12th birthday. I stood before the congregation in the Baptist Church in which I had been brought up, attending with my parents and my older and younger brothers. That evening was one of the most significant evenings of my life. in a few minutes I was to be baptized. And I had in my hand a piece of paper. On it were words that had been carefully typewritten with two fingers on my mother's old manual typewriter. Here it is, the very piece of paper. And I read from it with shaking hands. I have been brought up in a Christian home, but it is only recently that I have realized I am a sinner and that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. And I cannot go to heaven without God's love and forgiveness. I have asked Jesus to come into my heart and to help me through the temptations and difficulties of sin. Well, that was it. Very simple and basic testimony. but with all the ingredients of the testimonies that we've heard this evening. I'm a preacher now, so I have to unpack it. Five statements were made in that testimony. The first was, I realized I was a sinner. And that doesn't really convey the reality adequately. Some four or five months prior to that evening when I was to be baptized, the Lord began to work in my heart, convincing me that I was a sinner. Like many of you here this afternoon, I wasn't that bad a kid. After all, I had been brought up in a Christian home. I was only 11 years old. How much trouble can an 11-year-old get into? I expected a few more smiles at that point, but there we are. Okay, so I wasn't too bad, but the Lord showed me that my heart was deceptive above all things and desperately wicked. The Lord gave me a sense of my own sin, my disobedience to my parents, hatred at times of my brothers, the lies that I told, the unkind things that I did. All of these things began to prick my conscience and drive me to the conclusion that I was really bad, that I was a real sinner. The second statement I made was that I realized I cannot go to heaven without God's love and forgiveness. That was the reality. Not only was I a sinner, but I became convinced that God was just in condemning me to hell. I became absolutely convinced that hell was my destiny, that that was where I was going. Night after night went by, week after week went by, and the fear of hell gripped me. I longed to know the love of God. I longed to know the peace of God. I longed to be sure of His forgiveness, but all I was sure of was that I was a sinner and that I was going to hell. The third statement I made in that brief testimony was that I realized Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And that's such good news. I'd heard it. I'd heard it over and over and over again for years. But in 1979, the truth of it dawned on my soul. It dawned on me that that Jesus Christ died on the cross, not just for sinners generally, but that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me, that he died on that cross to take my sins, those sins that were condemning me to hell, those sins that, in God's justice, he had to deal with. And I knew, I knew that Jesus died there to pay the penalty for my sins, that the cross was the place of forgiveness, the place that I craved. The fourth statement that I made in that testimony was that I asked Jesus to come into my heart. Well, that was, and it still is, the language so often used, ask Jesus to come into your heart. And I used it. Now perhaps I should say what it meant to me, and I could say what it would mean to me now, but I want to convey to you that as an 11-year-old, this is what it meant for me to ask Jesus into my heart. It meant to have his presence. It meant to know that God was with me, the all-powerful creator of the heavens and the earth, to know that that his life was my life. And that by his indwelling presence, he would free me from the power of sin that gripped my life and prevented me from having any peace. And that with him living in me, I would have all the resources that I would need to live for him. From that moment forward, Charles Wesley's hymn, And Can It Be, that I should gain an interest in my Saviour's blood, became so meaningful to me. In the fourth verse, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. And so the fifth statement that I made in my testimony was that I asked Him to help me through the temptations and difficulties of sin. I knew I was weak. I knew I was ignorant. I didn't know very much and I needed His help. And on that night, That night, when I was to have been baptized, to be plunged into those waters bearing testimony to what Christ has done for me and publicly identifying with Him, I knew that I would become a target for the evil one, that he would seek me out. I had this real sense that I was in danger. and I needed God's help. I needed him with me, facing temptation. I needed him with me in the difficulties of sin. And what a blessing that evening was to me, that evening when I was baptised, the 24th of February, 1980. It was a means of grace to me. and has been so many times since. It has kept me, when I face temptation, knowing that I had declared that I belonged to Jesus and He was with me. How could I give in? How could I entertain sinning against such a Saviour? And over and over again, it would be a confirmation of the reality that for me there was now no condemnation, that Christ was mine and I was his. That day that I was baptised, my Sunday school teacher, Mrs Mills, gave me a card. Here it is. In it she wrote Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 6. Be strong and of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go before thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And so 42 years later, here I am, testifying to the grace of God in my life. If you don't know Jesus, he can be your saviour too. He can take away the sin, He can give you peace with God, He can be with you every day of your life, keeping you, guarding you, protecting you, enabling you to walk worthy of Him. This is my testimony and it's because of God's grace to me.