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[0:00] I did, earlier in the week, change the running order of the addresses.

[0:13] ! This afternoon it is the Gospel-shaped life, living a mission-focused life.! On 1 Samuel 14 and then tomorrow the Gospel-shaped life, living by the leading of the Spirit.

[0:42] Romans 8, 13 and 14. We saw last night that the Gospel-shaped life is a life that is nourished in communion with Jesus Christ.

[0:58] Not exclusively with Jesus Christ, we have communion with the Father and with the Spirit. But Jesus Christ, as the mediator of the new covenant, is the one in whom and by whom we draw near to God.

[1:15] And it is in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we have communion with Him. Not to the exclusion of the other members of the Godhead, but there is in an eminent way, as John Owen puts it, by way of eminency, we have communion with the one who Himself is the grace of God.

[1:43] And this morning we considered for a short time that obedience is the shape and style of the Gospel-shaped life.

[1:56] A Gospel-shaped life shows itself, manifests itself in a life of unqualified obedience to God.

[2:08] And now I want to consider with you that the Gospel-shaped life is a mission-focused life. First of all, reading in Luke chapter 19, very familiar words that you will know, Jesus' encounter with Zacchaeus.

[2:26] Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. Now notice those key words, he was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus.

[2:41] He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.

[2:54] So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycawort tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

[3:16] So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

[3:29] And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

[3:44] And Jesus said to him, Today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.

[3:56] For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Matthew chapter 5, again, very familiar words, verse 13.

[4:11] Jesus said to his disciples, You are the salt of the earth. But if the 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.

[4:26] 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.

[4:38] 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.

[4:50] And give glory to your Father who is in heaven. And then finally, just one verse in Acts 10, 38.

[5:03] Peter has been sent by the Lord to the house of Cornelius to evangelize him, to lead him to faith in Jesus Christ.

[5:16] And as Peter begins his sermon, he speaks of the goodness of God and the good news that God has come to proclaim through Jesus Christ.

[5:30] He is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed.

[5:41] How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went about doing good.

[5:52] Jesus' life from womb to tomb. And no less now that he is ascended and seated on the throne of heaven.

[6:07] Was a life of mission. I have come. I have come. I have come. He said. You will notice those words at the conclusion of his encounter with Zacchaeus.

[6:18] I have come. To seek and to save that which was lost. If you are going to make sense of me. If you are going to understand me in any meaningful way.

[6:30] You will need to understand this about me. The reason I have come. The reason I have come. Is to seek and to save that which was lost.

[6:43] The whole of our Lord Jesus Christ's life was a life of mission. He had come to win lost, judgment deserving men and women and boys and girls back to God.

[7:00] His mission life was woven and was indeed the fruit of his obedience to his heavenly father. He had been commissioned by his father.

[7:15] The father gave him for the life of the world. And in obedience to the father he has come to give his life for the life of the world.

[7:29] And because that was absolutely and principally true of the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot but also be true for everyone who is united to Jesus Christ.

[7:44] The Holy Spirit was given in a unique way to the Savior. In order to form and forge on his holy pristine humanity.

[7:57] The life of faithful, undeviating, loving obedience to the heavenly father. And what the Holy Spirit first perfected in the Son of God in our flesh.

[8:14] He comes to replicate in us. John Calvin calls it the Holy Spirit's ministry of replication. He comes and he takes that pristine pattern that was first edged in the life of the Savior.

[8:30] And he comes to overlay that pattern on our lives. That we might be creaturely analogues, creaturely reflections of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[8:45] The life of mission that so marked indelibly the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is a life that is to mark indelibly everyone who is united, savingly to Jesus Christ.

[9:00] We also have been brought in union with Christ to share in that mission. We are his body.

[9:12] And from the glory of heaven at the right hand of the Father. He continues to exercise his mediatorial mission. To be the Savior of the world.

[9:25] And the question I simply want to ask this morning is this. What exactly is a mission focused life? What exactly is it?

[9:37] What do we mean when we say that we are called to a mission focused life? Or maybe it's better to ask the question in another way.

[9:48] What was the shape or the pattern of the mission focused life of our Lord Jesus Christ? Because what the Spirit first accomplished in the Lord Jesus Christ in our humanity.

[10:03] He comes to replicate in us. Well as we saw earlier today. First of all it was an obedient shaped life.

[10:17] I have come from heaven not to do my own will. But the will of him who sent me. The mission focused life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wasn't something that he personally initiated.

[10:30] It was a mission committed to him by his Father. I have come from heaven not to do my own will. But the will of him who sent me. I have come as the servant of the Lord.

[10:42] To fulfill the commission that he has entrusted to me. The commission of being the Savior of the world. And the point I simply want to make.

[10:55] And hopefully I'll be able to elaborate on it in a short term. Is that the mission focused life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Was exercised within the context of his obedience to his heavenly Father.

[11:10] If you like mission was the overflow of his heart obedience to the will of his heavenly Father.

[11:21] So that's the first thing. The first note that we should take to mind and to heart. As we think about what exactly is a mission focused life. What is it I'm being called to.

[11:33] Through my union with Jesus Christ. The second feature I think that so clearly marks the mission life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:46] Is that it was a self denying life. His mission focused life. Was exercised in the midst of personal suffering.

[11:59] Doesn't he crystallize that for us in John chapter 12. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die. It remains alone. But if it dies.

[12:11] Death works in us. And you find this note carried on throughout the New Testament. Especially in the letters of Paul. Not exclusively but especially. Death works in us.

[12:24] But life in you. He writes in 2 Corinthians 4. And what we see in the life of our Lord Jesus. And in the life of his apostles in particular.

[12:36] Is that spiritual fruitfulness. And engagement in mission. Is not the result of acquiring gospel techniques. It's the fruit of dying.

[12:48] What gives power. What gives point. What gives purpose. What gives unction even. To our life of mission.

[13:00] Is our union with Jesus Christ. In his death and resurrection. Self. Denying. Living. Is an essential.

[13:13] Component if you like. In a life. That seeks to. Mirror in some creaturely. Analogical way.

[13:24] The mission focused life. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the third thing. And this I really want to focus on. The son. And hopefully you'll. See by the end.

[13:35] Hopefully. Why I'm doing this. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Was a life devoted. To doing good. That's why I read those words.

[13:46] In Acts chapter 10. Peter has gone to the home of Cornelius. And he begins to evangelize. And he says to him. You've heard about Jesus of Nazareth. How he went about.

[13:57] Doing. Good. Good. It's a very remarkable statement. That Peter makes. It's the first significant statement. That he makes to Cornelius.

[14:08] About the Lord Jesus Christ. He went about. Doing. Good. I would often. Not wander aimlessly. But I would wander at times.

[14:20] Through the streets of Cambridge. And often. I would be thinking about these words. And thinking. How different I am from my Saviour. I go about. But he went about. Doing good.

[14:33] I feel at times. Or felt at times. I was a bit like. Pooh bear. You know. Sometimes I sit some things. And sometimes I just sit. And I thought. Many a time.

[14:44] Ian. You're just going about. But your Saviour went about. Doing good. And it's in that context. That I have found.

[14:55] These words. In Matthew 5. Verse 16. That I want. Especially to. Reflect on. With you. This afternoon. Those words. In Matthew 5. 16.

[15:06] Words that have. Somewhat. Haunted me. Throughout my Christian life. In the same way. Let your light. Shine before others. So that they may see.

[15:18] Your good works. And give glory. And give glory. To your Father. Who is. In. Heaven. Here we find.

[15:29] Our Lord Jesus Christ. Teaching his disciples. His little flock. Who they now are. Because of their. Belonging to him.

[15:40] And what they are now to be. Who they now are. And what they are now. Called. To be. And he tells them.

[15:53] That God is their Father. And that's not a throwaway line. I think. In Matthew 5. And 6. The Lord Jesus Christ. Enumerates.

[16:04] On about. Eleven or twelve occasions. The fatherhood. The fatherhood. The fatherly. Relationship. That God has. With these disciples.

[16:15] Who are now. United to him. He wants them to know. That God is their Father. That they are living out. Their Christian lives. Their lives.

[16:26] Of discipleship. In fellowship. And in communion. With the one. Who is their Father. There are more references. To. The fatherhood of God.

[16:37] In those two chapters. Than in the whole. Of the Old Testament. Put together. It's as if. The Lord Jesus Christ. Especially in chapter 6. Of course. But it's as if. The Lord Jesus Christ. Is saying.

[16:48] Now. Do you get it? Do you get it? You are to. Live out. Your lives. Before. The face. Of the high. And the holy one. Who inhabits eternity.

[17:01] But he is. Your father. You are called. To live. As his servant sons. Or perhaps better. As his sons. Who are now his servants. That's the relationship.

[17:13] That is to define. And demarcate. Your discipleship. In this world. And I think. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Is telling his disciples.

[17:24] That. Christian mission. Has a familial. Mindset. That. That when we engage. In the service.

[17:35] Of the Lord. We do so. As children. To a father. Once we were the children. Of his wrath. But now.

[17:47] In Jesus Christ. We are the sons and daughters. Of his grace. And I don't think. We should. Ignore. The familial. Context.

[17:58] That the Lord. Jesus Christ. Is creating. For his disciples. He wants them. To know. That this. Great. And glorious. God.

[18:10] Is their father. And I don't think. Anything more. Transforms. How we go about. Living the Christian life. In general. In general.

[18:21] And in the Christian. Life. Of mission. And witness. And evangelism. In particular. But knowing. That we do so. Before one.

[18:33] Who is our father. In Christ. Who loves us. With an everlasting love. Who delights. In us. Who rejoices. Over us.

[18:44] With singing. As the prophet. As Zephaniah. Tells us. And so. The Lord Jesus. As it were. Creates. Or establishes. Or highlights. The context.

[18:55] The familial. Context. In which. And out of which. Christian. Service. Is to be lived. And then. He tells them.

[19:06] Let your light. Shine. Before. Others. You are. He has just said. The salt. Salt. Of the earth. You are.

[19:17] The light. Of. The world. And if we read. These words. In their context. There's surely. Little doubt. That. Jesus. Is speaking.

[19:28] About. His life. Shining. Out. Into the world. Through them. You see it. In different ways. Of course.

[19:39] In the gospels. I am. The true vine. And you are the branches. And. The life. Of the vine. Penetrates. And. And. Manifests.

[19:50] Itself. The branches. He wants. His disciples. To understand.

[20:01] That. The very. Core. And heart. Of their calling. As. His. Disciples. As. As. They share.

[20:12] With him. In this. Mission. Entrusted. To him. By the heavenly father. Is. A life. That will be.

[20:24] So. Lived. Before men. That they will see. Their good works. Good works. Amen. Now.

[20:35] In order. To. Show. That light. You need. First. That light. We need.

[20:47] Jesus Christ. Dwell. Within us. He. Is. Of the world. The world. It's. As he. By his spirit.

[20:58] Dwells. In us. That light. Can be. Shed. Out. From us. And. The third thing.

[21:09] And this is really. What I want to focus on. For the rest of our time. Is that. Jesus says. That will be seen. This light. That will be made manifest. Will be made manifest.

[21:20] And seen. In terms of. Good works. We were created. In Christ. Jesus. For what? For good works. Ephesians 2.10. We have his workmanship. Created in Christ.

[21:31] Jesus. For good works. For good works. For good works. For good works. For good works. God. Is displaying. To the cosmos. In. The transformed.

[21:42] Lives. Of his people. The grace. Of his son. Jesus Christ. The grace. Of his son. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And we read.

[21:54] As we did. In Acts. Chapter 10. About the Lord. Jesus. Going about. Good. Everywhere he went. He healed. The sick.

[22:05] He helped. The needy. He cared. For the dispossessed. And the poor. He listened. To them. He evangelized them. Doing good.

[22:19] Wasn't. A program. That Jesus. Devised. It was. An overflow. Of who he was. And if there's anything.

[22:30] I would want you. To take away. From this address. This afternoon. It's that. Doing good. A program. That Jesus. Devised. It was.

[22:41] An overflow. Of who. He. Was. The New Testament. And the Gospels. In particular. Illustrate that.

[22:52] In any number of ways. But one of the most dramatic. I think. Is in John. Chapter 4. Jesus. Recognizing. The. Increasing. Difficulties.

[23:03] That. Ministering. In. Judea. Are causing him. Leads. Judea. And. He heads.

[23:14] North. Back. Into Galilee. And John. Tells us. He had. To go through. Samaria. Now. John's Gospel. Full of.

[23:25] Double meanings. I have a friend. Who. Did a PhD. At Cambridge. Double. Entendres. And John's Gospel. And I said to him.

[23:36] Once. I said. He looked at me. He said. Twenty. There are about. A hundred. It's. It's. It's abundant. In.

[23:47] Double meanings. And here. And here. And here is one of John's. Double meanings. Jesus had. To go through Samaria. Now. There was a geographical. Hadness. It was the most.

[23:58] Direct route. Some wouldn't take it. Because it was. Samaria. But. Many Jews would have taken it. Because it was the. The swiftest. Quickest way. From the south. To the north.

[24:09] There was a geographical. Hadness. But there was also. An evangelistic. Hadness. And I little doubt. John is expecting us. To. To pick up on that. Jesus had to go through.

[24:20] Samaria. Why? Because God. Had set his heart. On saving. And bringing to himself. A woman. Who was lost.

[24:31] Lost. And because. Jesus. Was. Who he was. And because. He was. Living out.

[24:42] This. Life. Of. Obedience. To his heavenly father. In the way. Of obedience. He encounters.

[24:53] This woman. At. The well. As I can. It's not. Programmed. It isn't planned. He didn't wake up. In the morning. What will I do today?

[25:05] I think I'll go and evangelise Samaria. I think I'll go to Jacob's well. You never know who you might meet there. There was nothing planned, there was nothing programmed.

[25:20] He was a man who went about doing good within the context of living a life of obedience to his heavenly father. And this encounter, if you like, came in the context of the overflow of who he was.

[25:40] And I think that, I think, I believe that one of the great needs in evangelical Reformed Christianity today is to recognise that mission and evangelism is not ultimately programmatic.

[26:10] How did the early church turn the ancient world upside down? Not by having seminars on evangelism.

[26:24] Not by devising programs. So don't get me wrong, I'm not against programs. And I'm not against seminars. Not at all. But what was it? They lived transformed lives.

[26:38] The gospel came with such power to them. It wasn't just another layer, an evangelical layer, on their lives. It transformed all that they were.

[26:50] And the world was encountering people who came from another realm. And the evangelism of our Lord Jesus, the mission that he committed himself to and gave himself to, was the overflow of his life.

[27:14] Wherever he went, he was ready and prepared in the will of his Father and in the midst of the providences of life to seize the moment.

[27:27] And that's where I've failed so dismally in my own life over the years. A few years ago, when I was still in Cambridge, I had been working in the university library and I came out of the UL and was walking down West Road and this very well-dressed gentleman stopped me and asked me for direction to Keyes.

[27:52] And I told him how to get there and I said, oh, I said, you sound American. Yes, he said, I am. I said, where are you from? And he told me and he said, are you a professor here?

[28:06] Oh, I said, no, no, I'm not a professor. I'm the minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church. Ah, he said, my grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. I said, well, that's just wonderful.

[28:18] That's just wonderful. He said, thank you very much. I said, you're very welcome. He walked away and I continued walking down West Road. Perhaps I'd taken five steps.

[28:33] When I heard, not an audible voice, but as if it were an audible voice, is that the best you could do?

[28:45] I'm the minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church. And I stopped and I had to repent. You know, when the man said to me, are you a university professor?

[29:01] I should have said, no. God has called me to tell the people of Cambridge about the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[29:11] Do you know of the saviour, Jesus Christ? And the best I could come up with was, I'm the minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church. That is a reflection of the overflow of my life.

[29:29] But when the Lord Jesus encounters this woman at the well, you'll notice, you'll know well how the passage unfolds. It's one of those gripping narratives that you can't just wait.

[29:43] Every time I read it, and I've read it hundreds of times, you almost can't wait to find out what's going to happen next. Step by step, the Lord gently evangelises the woman.

[29:58] Step by step, he starts where she is, leads her on, brings her into the light, go and call your husband, there will be no salvation in the darkness.

[30:10] And the woman who's had five husbands, and who's now on her sixth live-in lover, is going to find Jesus to be her seventh and last man.

[30:25] It's in the midst of a life that does good, and that is contoured and shaped by unyielding obedience to his heavenly Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ engages in mission.

[30:44] And the fourth thing that verse 16 impresses on us is that these good works, our Lord is saying, will bring others to give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

[31:02] The good works that you do will ultimately give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Why is evangelism, the winning of men and women and boys and girls to the Lord Jesus Christ, why is evangelism so vital?

[31:19] So that they will glorify God. God. We don't evangelise and engage in mission to see people added to the church, or to see people rescued from hell and fitted for heaven, true though that be.

[31:37] It's all about bringing people to glorify God. Now, all of that is in a sense preliminary to this. The best definition of evangelism I have ever come across, and you can put me right later if you think I'm overstating the case, is the definition Jim Packer gives.

[32:03] What is evangelism? It is a Christian being a Christian in the world. That's what evangelism is.

[32:15] A Christian. Being a Christian. Those are the key words. Being a Christian in the world. A lot of books have been written in the recent past about how the church, the conservative, biblical, evangelical, reformed church is to engage with the world about them.

[32:42] How are we to make a mark for Christ in this godless, fallen, sinful, Christ-denying, gospel-rejecting world?

[32:57] How did the early church go about doing church? They lived in a world little different, perhaps even worse than ours. the Roman Empire was totalitarian.

[33:12] If you didn't bend the knee, who knows what would happen. How did the early church go about doing church? They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to the fellowship, and to the prayers.

[33:30] Acts 2.42 They devoted themselves. Luke couldn't have chosen a stronger Greek verb, proskateru. He couldn't have ransacked classical literature and not come up with a stronger verb.

[33:45] They devoted themselves to what? To the apostles' teaching. They seized every opportunity to sit under the ministry of the whole council of God. They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread, to the gathering of God's people as they remembered the Saviour who loved them and who gave himself for them.

[34:08] They devoted themselves to the fellowship. And that could mean generally, perhaps, simply they were men and women who understood that the Christian life was to be lived in community.

[34:23] Or it's perhaps even more possible that the word implies that they devoted themselves to caring for the weak, the poor, and the needy among them. And they devoted themselves, notice, not to prayer, but to the prayers, to those set times when the church would gather together to pray.

[34:46] And that's how the church in the ancient world made its mark on the world. doing church isn't rocket science. It starts with devotion, devotedness to God.

[35:02] That's what sanctification is. Being devoted to God. An hour and a Sunday won't cut it. Two hours, morning and evening, won't cut it.

[35:13] We need to seize every opportunity to hear the word of God and to be equipped by it. You know, in Geneva, in John Calvin's statement, you know, you can't compare with apples and oranges.

[35:25] But Calvin would preach and lecture and teach about eight times a week on average. Why were there so many opportunities? Because he knew that if the people of God, if the church was to be armoured and equipped and prepared to resist the world's diet of false illusions, it needed to be saturated in mind and heart with the word of God.

[36:01] Now I say all that because I think we need to recover what evangelism is. I just wonder at times if we have lost our way.

[36:14] Let me say again, maybe I'm putting in too many caveats, I don't mean we shouldn't be thinking through how best can we reach the community in which we live. I'm not saying that.

[36:25] I'm not saying we shouldn't have lunchtime services on the Tuesday or that we shouldn't have English classes to wisely and thoughtfully reach into the community and see people drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[36:41] I'm not saying anything against any of that. I won't be doing all of that and more. But I just wonder if as we seek to live out our calling as those who are united to Jesus Christ, the Christ who came to seek and to save the lost, I wonder if we have not become intimidated by the apparent complexity of the world in which we live, the complexity of living in a multi-faith society and world.

[37:15] Intimidated by the arrogance of the secularism around us. Let me try and put it a little more concretely.

[37:29] If someone were to ask you tonight, a neighbour, a fellow worker, a fellow scholar, if someone were to ask you, what exactly is the gospel? I hear this word gospel.

[37:40] What exactly is the gospel? What would you say to them? Where would you begin? Well, I suppose you would say, and rightly so, well Ian, it would depend on who asked me the question.

[37:58] Did they have a Christian background? Were they nominal or militant atheists? Were they Muslims? Were they Hindus? Were they Dawkinsian secularists?

[38:13] And I would guess that what you would say and what I would say would in measure depend on where our questioner was coming from. That's a given. But I wonder, however, if there is a danger abroad, a danger that expresses itself intellectually a little like this.

[38:45] I don't know much about Islam. I know very little about Hinduism. I really don't know much about atheism or secularism.

[38:56] religion. I've got no training in apologetics, in defending the faith. I don't understand presuppositional philosophy.

[39:12] And we become intimidated by the world around us, intimidated by the questioner. people. But do you have to be trained and well read to be an effective witness to your Saviour?

[39:29] Hopefully my good friend John Young is sitting thinking, where is he going with us? John was a member of our congregation in Cambridge, we loved having him there, and he knows that I try and think.

[39:43] It can be hugely helpful to read good books. Absolutely. It's vital to listen to insightful teachers. It's imperative we seize every opportunity to understand Islam better, and Hinduism better, and secularism better, and atheism better.

[40:04] But the point, maybe I'm making it very cool, the point I'm trying to make is this, effective Christian witness is not dependent on having theological and philosophical training.

[40:17] Jesus said to his disciples, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

[40:32] Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

[40:44] In other words, our Lord Jesus Christ is saying to his disciples at the heart of effective Christian witness in a godless world. His living a godly, Christ-honoring, do-gooding life.

[41:04] You see, what God is most pleased to use for his glory, and for the extension of his kingdom, is not a well-stocked mind, but a Christ-like life.

[41:15] Now, the two are not mutually exclusive, of course, absolutely not, but hopefully you get my point. What God promises to bless for the extension of his kingdom, it's not our informed intellectual capacities, but the Christ-likeness of our lives.

[41:36] Now, I'm somewhat disposed to that, because that's what brought me to faith in Jesus Christ. I have, as I said yesterday, I have no recollection of Albert Bogle witnessing to me about Jesus.

[41:50] None whatsoever. But I remember vividly to this very day the impact of his life upon me. What the Holy Spirit blesses is not principally or even principally well-constructed arguments and deep learning, but humble-hearted, prayerful dependence on him.

[42:23] It's God alone who unstops deaf ears. It's God alone who illumines sin-darkened minds. Now, let me say this again.

[42:34] An educated mind and a spirit-dependent heart are not mutually exclusive. Far from it. Absolutely far from it. But too easily, I think, we are guilty of de-spiritualising gospel witness.

[42:52] What I mean by that simply is that we underplay the mighty, sovereign, sin-vanquishing power of God, the Holy Spirit, as we open our mouths to testify to our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ.

[43:08] And too often we're more conscious of our inadequacies than of the grace and power of the one for whom nothing is impossible. gospel-shaped life is a life that goes about seeking to do good.

[43:28] And in seeking to do good, Caesar's the moment when the moment arrives and doesn't say, I'm the minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church. as we heard this morning regarding Brownlow North, we seize the moment and with a Nehemiah-like prayer, we say, Lord, blessed Holy Spirit, come, come.

[44:01] Is that not your great need and my great need as we seek to answer the question, what is the gospel? You know, your words may be few in stammering, but it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by my Spirit, says the Lord.

[44:23] There's a little booklet which perhaps some of you have read, if you haven't, it makes very uncomfortable reading. It's by a man called E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer.

[44:37] And almost right at the outset of that little booklet, you could read it in half an hour, it's stunning. He almost begins by saying the church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men and women and boys and girls.

[44:57] He's not against methods, he's not in veying against programs as such. But the church can often mask its unspirituality in a wealth of programs.

[45:20] God is looking for better men and for better women. Who knows what God might be pleased to do with a few simple words of testimony, backed up by a life in which Jesus Christ reigns in grace.

[45:36] Who knows? I love those two words. I'm going to spend some time tomorrow morning looking at Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14, where Saul was hiding in holes in the ground and in a pomegranate cave, trembling because of the Philistines, and Jonathan says to his hammerbearer, let's go up, let's go up and deal with these Philistines.

[46:04] Who knows? He's got no access to God's secret counsel. He doesn't know whether he's going to be cut down before he gets halfway up the hill.

[46:16] He says, who knows? When someone asked John Knox to account for the remarkable rapidity of the Scottish Reformation in 1560, he made this reply.

[46:34] God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance. What turned the world upside down? Christians living transformed lives.

[46:49] Men loving their wives as Christ loved the church. wives lovingly as co-heirs of the grace of life submitting to their husbands. Children obeying their parents in the Lord.

[47:03] Fathers and mothers raising their children in the nurture and admonition of Christ. Christians living with integrity in a world full of lies and deceit.

[47:16] Christian men and women in the midst of society living lives that made their neighbours perhaps uncomfortable but perhaps need some and ultimately many to ask, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

[47:36] So the gospel-shaped life is a mission-focused life and that comes out of the overflow of a life that like the Lord Jesus Christ goes about doing good.

[47:48] and who knows in the coming week, someone might say to you, thank you so much for that help. Why are you like that?

[48:04] And hopefully you'll not say, well, my church thought it would be good, we should try and help people in the community. And you do an Ian Hamilton, Minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church.

[48:17]  You say, let me tell you about the man who went about doing good. Let us do.