How to share the gospel with a stranger

“I first heard the gospel at 18, from an older lady I’d never met before.

She told me the good news of Jesus while I was pumping fuel into her car (I worked at a petrol station). She then said that I should go to a local church to learn more about Jesus.

We had almost nothing in common, and relationally she didn’t have a leg to stand on, but she trusted in the power of the gospel to save (Rom 1:16) and she understood that loving her neighbour meant going outside of her comfort zone for her neighbour’s salvation. As a result, I went to church, started reading the Bible, and God saved me…”

– Some real encouragement from ACL Council member Mike Taylor – at The Australian Church Record. Be sure to read it all – and then act.

North West Network, June 2018

The latest edition (June 2018) of North West Network, the newsletter of the Diocese of Northwest Australia (the largest diocese in Australia — by geographical size) is now available.

Download the PDF file and use it to inform your prayers on behalf of the people of the North West.

Here’s a snippet from the latest issue –

“Meet Ross, a visitor to the North West. In August 2017 he left Perth needing a break from caring for elderly parents and looking for direction in his wayward life.

Ross stopped in Geraldton and went to the Bluff Point Anglican Church. That Sunday he heard God speak to him from 1 Peter 2:13-16,

Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Ross realised he wasn’t holy. He was cut off from God because of his sin. A church family invited him to lunch and over the course of three days Ross became a Christian. He went from spiritual death to life knowing that God’s love and forgiveness came to him through Jesus Christ. This was life changing for Ross.

But that’s not the end. …”

– Read the rest of the story on page 2 of the June 2018 NWN.

John Piper interviewed at Dundonald Church

John Piper spoke at Dundonald Church in London last Sunday (03 June 2018).

Before the sermon, he chatted with Richard Coekin in this encouraging 13 minute video.

You can also listen to his sermon that day, “Enjoying God”.

GAFCON – Uniting and Reforming: Part 4 – Bishop Tito Zavala

“In the Anglican Church of Chile, we are very expectant for GAFCON 2018.

This event is much more than just a conference, it is the manifestation of a living movement of Anglicans, led by God, which seeks to change the world through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

We return to Jerusalem together this year, but what does this mean for us? …”

– GAFCON has published part 4 of their ‘Uniting and Reforming’ reflections from GAFCON participants. This one is from Bishop Tito Zavala.

30 years of Matthias Media

Here’s a real reason to give thanks to the Lord – Marty Sweeney asks Ian Carmichael about the first thirty years of Matthias Media.

Watch the video here.

Ploughing Concrete in Australia

At the recent Geneva Push conference in Melbourne, Greg Lee (Hunter Bible Church) delivered a strong encouragement to keep evangelism central – even if we live in a culture where most people see no need for God. Listen here.

A small-step antidote to dull, dry faith

“Perseverance. I have been struck recently by how much the notion of perseverance appears in the Scriptures.

Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise me, but it just isn’t one of the first things I think of when I contemplate what the Scriptures are about. Faith, hope and love, the promises and faithfulness of God—these are the things I first think of. Yet the theme of perseverance comes up again and again…”

– At The Australian Church Record, Meagan Bartlett shares something very helpful.

First MTC Men’s Prayer breakfast — a wonderful time

“A group of men from all over the Diocese gathered at Moore College early on Saturday morning for the first Men’s Prayer Breakfast…”

– Here’s some encouragement from Moore College. There’ll be a second Men’s Prayer Breakfast on Saturday 22 September,

Doing Outreach — for a Change

“Sorry about the whole Hell thing. I wasn’t real comfortable talking about Jesus. Hey, but at least you weren’t as hungry before you died.”

– The American Anglican Council’s Canon Mark Eldredge challenges Anglicans to share the gospel, and not just be nice people.

Related: Two Ways to Live.

Protect your church in one simple step

“There is a sad progression that begins with the people growing weary and ashamed of truth.

No longer able or willing to endure sound teaching, they get rid of the truth-tellers and accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Inevitably, they soon turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

All of this is laid out in chapter four of 2 Timothy.…”

– Tim Challies reposts an article he wrote several years ago.

Secured by Christ on the cross

To meditate on this Sunday:

“Everything that we know and appreciate and praise God for in all Christian experience both in this life and in the life to come springs from this bloody cross.

Do we have the gift of the Spirit? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Do we enjoy the fellowship of saints? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Does he give us comfort in life and death? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Does he watch over us faithfully, providentially, graciously, and covenantally? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Do we have hope of a heaven to come? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Do we anticipate resurrection bodies on the last day? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Is there a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness? Secured by Christ on the cross.

Do we now enjoy new identities, so that we are no longer to see ourselves as nothing but failures, moral pariahs, disappointments to our parents—but deeply loved, blood-bought, human beings, redeemed by Christ, declared just by God himself, owing to the fact that God himself presented his Son Jesus as the propitiation for our sins? All this is secured by Christ on the cross and granted to those who have faith in him.”

— D.A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus (Crossway, 2010), 70-71.

David Robertson speaks with Dominic Steele at The Pastor’s Heart

Dominic Steele spoke with David Robertson on the latest The Pastor’s Heart podcast.

Fascinating and encouraging. Watch it here.

Grace Church Sydenham — encouraging news from AMiE

“This May Grace Church Sydenham will celebrate its 3-year anniversary. We’ve been meeting in an almost brand-new council youth centre, located in one of the largest council estate groupings in South London …“

– At The Anglican Mission in England website, Moore College graduate Tim Iles shares encouraging news from London. It’d be good to pray for them.

‘I’m on about Jesus’

“Archbishop Glenn Davies has put the furore over an Instagram post by star Rugby player Israel Folau in context, saying all people should turn to Jesus. …”

– Read it all at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Related: Two Ways to Live – the choice we all face.

Preaching the Word, rarer than we think?

There is nothing confusing or surprising about Paul’s dying exhortation to his younger partner in ministry, Timothy : ‘Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction’, 2 Timothy 4:2.

It is not confusing, Timothy is to see that his ministry revolves around the public, open proclamation of the Word, the Word which God breathed out, 2 Timothy 3:16.

Timothy was a Pastor at Ephesus and he would have been very familiar with Paul’s pioneering work there. When Paul rehearses his method in planting the church to the elders of the Ephesian church, he speaks of preaching, teaching, declaring, testifying and proclaiming, all Word proclaiming words.

The explanation and declaration of God’s revealed Word was at the heart of first century apostolic ministry and must be at the heart of twenty first century apostolic ministry.

This is not confusing, a pastor today exercises his pastoral role by preaching the Scriptures, by correcting, rebuking and encouraging the flock with this Word.

Cut the modern day Pastor and he must bleed Bible!

Neither is this surprising, because Paul has already reminded Timothy that it was this breathed out Word of God which, ‘gave him wisdom for salvation’ and is ‘useful for teaching rebuking correcting and training in righteousness’, 2 Timothy 3:15-16. The Bible is God’s word, it’s origin is God Himself, not to preach it therefore and preach our own ideas is perverse.

The faithful preacher must set about the task of explaining and applying a passage of Scripture, be it a verse, a paragraph, a chapter or a whole book, it will always be the Biblical text which is the focus of the preacher’s attention. This is unfortunately, rarer than we think!

Instead we may have preaching which takes the idea of the text and preaches the idea in isolation from the text. We may have sermons which are addressed to all sorts of contemporary issues, which tell much more about the issue than what God says in the Bible. We may have sermons about a theme which follows the theme through the Bible in a doctrinal way, ‘flipping preaching’, which does not settle down in one passage and explain and apply that passage to hearers.

One Pastor said recently, does this mean I have to expound a passage every week? No, but realise that the week you don’t expound a passage is the week the sheep will go home hungry.

Does this mean we never preach on topics? No, it does not mean that, it means that we will never take a topic and not expound a section of Scripture in relation to that topic.

Let me give an example. Recently in the light of that very emotional confession of Australia’s cricket captain Steve Smith, I might have preached a sermon on the topic of, Why the world is in such a mess.

I would preach on the dynamics of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve receiving God’s word, but the contrary voice of the Serpent tells the lie and the lie is believed. The reason the world is the way it is, is because a lie has been believed.

I would cross reference just once, to Jesus’ description of the Devil as a liar and murderer, John 8:44, to show that the contrary voice is always the voice of the Serpent. I would warn the church to always be aware of two voices, one which speaks truth the other the lie, don’t follow the lie! Steve Smith listened to the lie that, the end justifies the means, don’t you listen to the lie, which always causes us to doubt that the Word of the loving God, cannot be trusted.

I have thus preached on a contemporary topic of why the world is the way it is, I have done it from Genesis 3, probably in a series on these early chapters. The Devil speaks the crafty lie; our parents believe the lie; God judges the serpent, the woman, the man and the earth. Therefore trust the Word of God, rightly understood and don’t believe the Devil’s lies.

John Chapman would often say in critiquing a sermon, ‘the authority is in the text brother, preach the text!’

Do you make the text of Scripture the object of your explanation and application, thus feeding your sheep?

David Robertson is quoted as saying, ‘A preacher who does not preach the Bible is like a comedian who is not funny, you wonder, what is the point’.

– David Cook.

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