G'day everyone, this is Josh Williamson. I am coming to you from the streets of Woodridge in Queensland, Australia. Now, Woodridge is one of those communities that has a high crime rate. In fact, it has one of the highest crime rates in our state. It has low employment, it has a lot of poverty and a lot of grief in the community. And yet, despite all those things, there are many people in Woodridge who would say that they love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem is, the majority of people would honour Jesus with their lips, but in reality their heart is far from Him. What I want to do now is I want to take you with me as I share the gospel on the streets of Woodridge. I want you to listen in and listen over my shoulder as I talk to people about Christ and His salvation. The first group that I speak to today is actually a group of about five young people. Young people who go to church, young people who say they follow Jesus. But as you listen to their story, as you hear them speak, you will discover that they have no assurance of salvation. They have very little understanding of the gospel, and they think that you have to be perfect to get to heaven. This is an all-too-common response and expression of faith in this community. People seem to think that they must do something to merit God's salvation. So listen in now as we share the gospel with them, pray for us as we regularly evangelize this community, and pray that God's kingdom will advance in Woodridge and that His glory will be shown and this community will be transformed. Well guys, we're out here today at Woodridge and we're chatting to people about what they believe in regards to Jesus, God, religion, etc. Now I noticed you're holding a Bible. Do you believe the Bible? Of course. Is the Bible God's word? That's great. Now, it's a well-used Bible. Is that your Bible or a friend's? It's my auntie's. She's a Christian? Yep. Now, do you read your Bible? As much as I can, yes. That's great. What about you guys? Do you guys all read your Bibles? Yes. That's a collective yes from about five of us here. Now, let me ask you a question. I want to give you a scenario. It's not that scary a scenario. Imagine we're here in Woodridge. Woodridge hasn't got exactly the best reputation when it comes to peace and safety. It has a bit of a violent reputation at times. Imagine someone comes past, plunges a knife in my back. I'm dying out. I've got three minutes to live and I'm not a Christian. What would you say to me so that I might go to heaven when I die? Repent, okay. Ask for forgiveness. Would you guys say anything? We'll pray for you. Pray for me? That's great, I'm bleeding out, so please do pray for me. Call the ambulance. Okay, the ambulance isn't going to get here in time. I'm not doing well. I'm going to die in two and a half minutes now. I'm not a Christian. How do I become a Christian? How do I go to heaven? You welcome God into your heart. Okay, so what's that mean? Like, I don't know how to say it. Everyone knows of the Lord. It's well known. So I just have to say I believe in God and that's good? And say you welcome him into your heart? It says in the Bible, Romans 10 verse 9. What does it say? It says that if you confess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in our heart that God will raise you from the dead, then thou shalt be saved. That's a great Bible verse, isn't it? Yes. So let me ask you a question. Let's say I've got longer than three minutes left to live, and you're sitting down with me as a non-Christian, and I say, tell me about Jesus. Tell me how can I get to heaven? What must I do to be saved? Would you tell me just to believe in God, say a prayer, or what? Does that mean if we're not the Christians... I'm not the Christian, you're helping me become one. Um... I would... I don't know, like, tell you about the way that the Lord works? Okay. Can you give an example? reading a Bible verse. These are big questions to think about, isn't it? Because all followers of Jesus are called to go and tell people about it. We talk about that which we love, don't we? And if we love the Lord Jesus, then surely we're going to want to tell everyone about it. So let me ask you a question. Do you guys think you'll go to heaven when you die? I don't know. Don't know? No. No? I don't know. I don't know? No. No? No. Why don't you think you'll go to heaven? Because you have to be perfect to be in heaven and we never know when Jesus is going to come. Okay, what about yourself? Why didn't you think you'd go to heaven? Because I'm not perfect. You're not perfect? What about yourself? Yeah, I'm not perfect either. Yeah, what about you guys? It's kind of hard to explain. Hard to explain? Because I sinned. Now what would you do if I told you the Bible actually says we can know for sure that we're going to heaven? Would that be amazing news? In John chapter 14, I'm sure you're familiar, you've got a Bible there. In John 14, Jesus begins to talk about heaven. And he says to his disciples, Hey, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man can come to the father but by me. But before that, he says, here's the way to heaven. He says, believe in God. Believe also in me. So Jesus says, if you would trust in him, you can be assured of heaven when you die. Now you guys said something, you're not perfect. You know what? That's true for all of us. No one is perfect. I'm certainly not perfect. And I'm a preacher. Okay. We're still perfect in God's eyes. Well here's the thing, we all make mistakes. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means every single person is guilty. I mean think about it, what is sin? Sin is breaking God's rules, yeah? So lying, stealing, lust, hatred, blasphemy, failing to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength. We're done if we start looking at that. We're not perfect people, that's true. Do you think God should punish wrongdoing? I would if I was God. Yeah, I think we all agree that, you know, if someone committed a murder here in Woodridge, we'd expect the judge to judge them and put them in jail, wouldn't we? Absolutely. And God's even better than the best judge in our society. And he says, if we do anything wrong, then we deserve death and hell. That's bad news for us, because that's what we all deserve. But here's the good news. We can't be perfect. But Jesus is perfect, yeah? See, our sin, our wrongdoing says we should die. But what did Jesus do? You guys know this? He sacrificed his life for us. Exactly. He sacrificed. He died on the cross in our place. I mean, it's like watching the footage. Did you guys watch The State of Origin the other night? Yeah. New South Welshman or Queenslander? Queenslander. Okay, see it's further proof you're not perfect, because I'm an East South Welshman. But here we go. But here's the thing, when you watch the footy, and you see in the football a player get injured, at that moment a reserve player, a substitute, comes onto the field and plays the game in the place of the injured player, doesn't he? And that's what Jesus did. You know, we deserve to die because of our sin, but Jesus came onto the field, he stepped into this earth to live the life that we could never live. He lived a perfect life. And he went to the cross, not because of anything he did, but because of the wrong we did. And he went to the cross, he died for our sins, he was crucified, dead, buried, and on the third day rose again. And now because he's done that, we can be assured of heaven when we die. Not because of what we do, not because we're perfect, but because of Jesus. That's why Jesus says, believe in God, believe, trust also in me. So the Bible says this, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. You heard that verse before? It's on 316. If you believe in Him, you will have eternal life. You will have heaven when you die. You can be assured of it if you're trusting in Jesus and Jesus alone. So the Bible says turn from your sins and trust only in Christ. And if you trust only in Him, you can be assured of heaven. So trust in Jesus and Him alone and you can have 100% confidence that when you die, you'll go to be with Him. That's the only confidence we can have. Now guys, it's been great chatting. It's been awesome hearing some of your story. Sorry to hear you're all a bunch of Queenslanders, but hey, God's grace covers a multitude of sins. But anyway, hey guys, good chatting here. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day, yeah? Well there you go guys, you have now heard the gospel shared with a group of young people on the streets of Woodridge. It was a truly amazing conversation that, you know, we were joking around, we were laughing, but at the same time we were sharing the serious truth of the gospel. Now the amazing thing was that once the recording finished, once we switched everything off, the group shook my hand and thanked me for taking the time to talk to them. They all took gospel literature. They all wanted to learn more about Jesus. And once again I was able to reiterate to them the truth of the gospel. I shared with them from 2 Corinthians 5 21 and explained how that it was Jesus who has made sin for his people. that he on the cross took the punishment we deserve. And because of what he did, we can now be counted as perfectly righteous. Not because of our works, not because of our efforts, but only because Jesus loved us and gave himself for us. I explained once again that they must trust in Christ, and Christ alone. And they all said thank you very much for sharing. They seemed open, they seemed willing to receive. They took an invite to a local church that we're working with today, and they all said that they would attend. Please pray that those young people would come to the knowledge of the truth, that the Father would draw them to the Lord Jesus, and that they would bow their knee and come to a true and saving faith. Guys, thank you very much for listening. I do hope this has been an encouragement to you. I hope it spurs you on in your witness for Jesus. I hope that by listening to this you are better equipped and encouraged to declare the gospel in your locality and into the people in your community. Until next time, this is Josh Williams encouraging you to look to Jesus, to trust in Him, and to bring glory to Christ in all that you do.