The Verdict - Baptismal

I want to introduce you to my friend Marie. Now, Lord Jesus has done some wonderful things for her. She's had a difficult life to this point, and the opposition that we had earlier is her fault, because she is the mother.

Marie, come and tell us what the Lord has done for you. She's written it down here. She's not used to speaking to less than 2,000 people.

So, we're glad that she's honoring us this evening. You try, my love. When I'm moving around with Simon, I do not know the Lord.

One day they asked me if I'd like to go to the tab with them, so I did. When I came, I met a lot of Christians. They seemed really nice people.

I felt they were life in the tab. I'd never felt so good. I started to go to Bible studies with Marina, and that really helped me to understand more.

Then Tim said one night about joining the Alpha group. I went there and got on really well with Dick, Molly, and Andy, Andrew, and Stephanie. After a few weeks, they all prayed for me and helped me to become a Christian.

Now, I'm doing so much with my life. I love going to the Bible studies and reading my Bible on my own and spending time with family. Jesus has helped me all the way to be a good mom.

I know that he is there, and I need to talk to him. I know that giving my life to the Lord was the best thing I ever did. I gave him all my sins.

It's not worth living without the Lord. I never had a life before. Now, I'm a Christian.

I have never felt so good. I've got Jesus, who loves me very much. I know that Jesus died for me, and I must live my life for him.

I know that I'm doing the right thing by giving my life to him and being baptized. Esther, you can speak in the language God gave you right at birth, and tell us what the Lord's done for you, dear. I've come through the youth groups of this church, and when I was 12, my best friend was hassling me to become a Christian.

So I said a prayer to shut her up, but nothing really changed. When I was 14, 15, my social life really took off, and I lived for Saturday night with my increasing group of friends. This was a huge change to my younger school years when I was a loner, though not through choice.

I was wanting to get out and try new things and be different, but at the same time was semi-scared of anything unknown. At that time, I dated a lot of people. Because by the time I got to college, things were going well, but I knew everything about me was Jekyll and Hyde.

My life was inconsistent. I looked at my friends and thought they were pathetic when drunk, but saw things in a different light when I was. I knew I did believe in God and Jesus, and that everything in the Bible was true.

But I knew any good feelings I had towards God would fade, and then what would I be left with? Despite my fast-paced social life, I still got lonely to a worrying degree. I saw Jesus as a friend, but at the same time knew enough about what the Bible teaches to know that at some point I would have to put my life under God's authority. I had gained a bad reputation through my many boyfriends, which was not justified, but realized that people think what they like, so pretended to myself that I wasn't hurt by words.

However, towards the end of college, I did get hurt when a boyfriend had to go back to Europe, and we had argued prior to him leaving. I can remember feeling overwhelmed by sadness and calling out to Jesus in tears, saying how I couldn't handle this without his help, and I very definitely felt his presence beside me, comforting me. That summer, I had agreed to help on an Oasis Christian mission.

Halfway through, there was a communion service. I had never taken communion before. When the leader handed the bread and wine directly to me, I knew I couldn't take it or pass it on, so I ran out the room.

A friend I had made that week came out after me. We talked about everything that seemed relevant to me. I knew Jesus was telling her what to say, because it was perfect.

I knew that if I didn't make a decision about God there and then, that I wouldn't for some time and would regret it. So I said to Jesus that I wasn't satisfied with how I had run my life, and that I was sorry because I knew that hurt him too. I know that he loves everyone so much that he died on the cross to take the punishment for everything we have ever done or thought wrong.

He then rose from the dead and is alive today, and believing in him is the only way to get right with God the Father. I asked Jesus to be my master and friend. I also asked that I would never have to doubt that at that moment I had become a Christian.

Jesus has kept all his promises to me 100%. Over the last three years, I've learned a lot about Jesus and myself, and how much I can depend on him. I became a youth leader for a non-church youth group, which I really enjoy and find very challenging.

My current job is likely to end in a few weeks, and I don't know what the future holds, but I know God will help me to get another job when the time is right. I recently read a book called Stormy and was really challenged. She was talking about forgiveness.

She said, Forgiving someone doesn't make what they did right, but it sets you free. I've found that to be true. Forgiveness is not a feeling, it's a choice.

It's not easy, but Jesus gives you the strength to leave the past behind. Become the person he wants you to be, and that's where true peace and happiness is. Becoming one of God's children.

I'd recommend it to anyone. I'll ask Inez to come up first. Inez is a rather enthusiastic member of our group, and is also involved with the Pathfinders.

So, Inez, tell us why you're going to be baptised tonight. I was brought up in a Christian home, which I'm grateful for. I went to Sunday school, girls club, and now a manor.

I don't know the exact date or day when I became a Christian, but it was when I was about 10. That's when I realised I wanted to follow God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that my sins can be forgiven.

So this is why I'm being baptised. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I really thought about baptism, and then it started up some classes for baptism, which I attended and decided that I really wanted to be baptised. I love God and want to follow him and obey his commands.

People's biggest fear is standing up in front of a large group of people, so they're doing very well tonight to stand up all the candidates, in fact, to do that. Alethea King is another key member of our youth group. She also helps with a crusader youth group, which meets on a Monday night, and many of them are here tonight to support her as well as others.

So over to you. I can't say a specific date when I became a Christian, as it was a gradual thing with many ups and downs. First time I made any sort of decision was in March 1988 when I was 10.

I was at Spring Harvest, which is a Christian holiday, and my younger sister had become a Christian. Well, I didn't want her doing anything I hadn't done, and so I decided I wanted to follow God as well. I prayed and told God I wanted to follow him, and so from then on, I called myself a Christian.

However, this decision didn't really change my life and didn't actually mean that much to me. On camps, I would be the good little Christian, but when I went home, it was a different story. I would always be fighting with my sisters and was very bad tempered.

When I was 15, I stopped going to church to fit in with a different group of friends at school. During this year, I had a lot of arguments with my parents because I wanted to go out and do all the stuff my friends were doing, so I started lying about where I was going and got into a lot of trouble. In the end, one of my closest friends got fed up with me never being allowed to come out, and she decided to completely ignore me.

I was very upset about this and not very sure what to do with myself, so as a last resort, I started going to Manor again and took one of the last places on a camp that was happening in a few weeks' time. The subject for the weekend was friendship, and so fit in very well with what was happening with my friend. I thought a lot about why such a close friendship had fallen apart and came to no conclusions.

Towards the end of the weekend, we had a prayer time, and I told one of the leaders about what was happening, and she prayed about it. I didn't think any more about it until the following Friday, when my friend invited me to her party and began talking to me again as though nothing had happened. It gave me a bit of a shock to realise that God had answered that prayer.

I kept going to Manor in church and went to the Bill Drake concert that was held here. It was then that I realised I really needed to make a commitment to God and stick to it. That night after the concert, I prayed and told God I was sorry for everything I'd done, and I wanted to follow him.

Over the next few months, I became closer to God, but I felt really guilty about all the times I'd lied to my parents. I knew God had forgiven me, but I couldn't seem to accept it. This prevented me from going any further in my relationship with God.

I went on another Manor camp in April 1994, when Nick Turnbull was the speaker. He was speaking on the past, present and future, and used an illustration that really helped me. We had to write down something that we'd done wrong and felt bad about.

Well, you know what I wrote down. We then nailed it to a wooden cross. The cross was then thrown away, along with all the things we'd written down.

It symbolised Jesus dying on the cross, and him taking everything we'd ever done wrong with him. He then raised to life, leaving all the wrong things behind. This illustration reminded me that Jesus had already taken care of what I'd done, and I felt I could now go on with God again.

Finally, I want to say that since coming to know Jesus, I have been secure in the knowledge that I always have someone who really loves me to fall back on, and to help me through any situation that may occur. I'm going to try and do everything Jesus wants me to, which is why I'm here tonight. It's exciting to know that Christianity isn't just for the young, isn't just for the old, but is for everyone.

Now, lastly, we have Wayne. Wayne's been with us now for about 18 months. We've seen a lot of changes with Wayne, one of them being from a long haircut to what you see now.

One Friday night, in fact, when some of us were just hanging around here when the church was empty, he came up here and just leant on the pulpit like this, sort of looking around. He says, Nick, what's it like to stand in front of 500 people and talk? Before I started going to church, I was an atheist, and I did all the things average non-Christian teenagers do. I thought religion was wrong because of all the suffering in the world.

I couldn't understand how there was a God. In May 1994, I sat next to a good friend of mine, Stephen Ford, in French lessons. I knew he was a Christian, and I asked him what church was like.

I became more interested in it, and finally, when I got the guts up, I asked Stephen if I could go with him one day. At this point, I was in a bit of a shock because I never thought I'd ever go to church by my own choice. When I walked in the tab, there was a buzz about the atmosphere that was different to anywhere else I'd been.

Something was really special. I found services interesting rather than spiritual. At a youth service, I actually felt God was with me.

This is a very weird feeling. It was through something the youth preacher touched on, and that was that God loves us, and no matter what we do, he will always be there for us. I couldn't understand that because of all the bad stuff I've done.

I cannot say I was a Christian then. I still did all the old things I used to, but I knew there was a bigger purpose in life than I'd originally thought. Then, at last year's manor camp, I felt God in my life much more.

I still found it very hard, but it was progressing. On this camp, we read parts of the Bible, and I realized that it is relevant to every day, even though I still find it hard to read it. On the last night, I was in such an excellent mood.

There was a purpose to life, and the genuine friendship I'd experienced that week by manor, and the fact that they liked me for who I was, not who they wanted me to be, was such a new experience to me. Becoming a Christian was a process, then, rather than an event. Over the following year, I had ups and downs which I had to think through.

I really started coming closer to God on the run-up to my GCSEs, including the revision. I started to pray more and make God a focus in my life. I don't like revising, which I don't think many people do, but I prayed to God to help me through it, and he did.

A good friend of mine, Becky Paris, gave me a verse that really helped me through them. I came out of better grades than I've ever imagined, and I know I couldn't have got through my exams without him. I found this year's manor camp a big boost to my faith.

It taught me to bring God into my life more concerning with the problems I encounter, and it really makes a difference. Over the previous month, God has given me the confidence to do RE at Worthing Sixth Form. I knew it would challenge my faith, but I do believe in thinking about my faith rather than just swallowing it from someone else.

I'm really interested in youth leadership, and I was asked to be a leader at Crusaders about a month ago, and I believe God has guided me and helped me in that. I'd like to thank many people, but I've managed to narrow it down. Above all, I'd like to thank God for everything he's done for me.

I can't describe it, really, but there you go. But to Nick, Tom, and James, Colin, Will Richards for being brilliant friends, and believe it or not, role models. To Stephen Ford for introducing me to church, and with the tact that he handled me, it didn't turn me away from the idea of church.

To Martin Smith, who, by example, has shown me how important it is to really think about our faith, and has given me the encouragement to do so myself. To Nick Turnbull, who has been a good mate to me, not just a leader, he's helped me a lot. I want to thank my parents for never blocking my way to church, and for always being really happy for me in whatever I do.

To finish on, I would like to tell you a passage in the Bible that really helped me to overcome initial doubts. It's in 2 Corinthians 14, 16, I think. Therefore, we do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Cheers. I want to read to you this little passage, which Jesus is engaged in giving an explanation as to why he came on earth.

It's in the Gospel of John in chapter 3. And here's Jesus talking to a man who perhaps should have known a little bit more about him than he really did. John 3, verse 13. Jesus says, no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man.

It's another name for Jesus. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, must be lifted up. That everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

If you've got your Bible open, read with me verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. Well, over the past year, it might just have come to your notice, unless that is you're an astronaut and have been on location, that a certain trial has been going on in America.

A great trash novel come to life as somebody has described it. And I suspect that many of us will remember exactly where we were when the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced. It will be something that's etched into our minds for the whole of the rest of our lives without wanting to be too dramatic about it.

Dinner was being got ready downstairs. Upstairs, I had two children screaming and splashing in the bath and a baby with a nappy disgorging. And yet all I wanted was to be alone with the radio and just to hear the verdict that was going to be announced.

And if you remember, we went through the preliminaries, seemed like a bit of a waste of time, really, but I suppose it had to be done. It gave the judge his moment of glory anyway. And then after two or three minutes, which seemed more like a half an hour, he handed over to the clerk of the jury for her to announce the verdict.

And my mind got taken to one verse in John's gospel, which we read, and one phrase in particular. This is the verdict. See, the Bible portrays life in terms of a courtroom drama all the way through the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Certainly this book of John has a lot about a trial, a trial that is going on. God is the judge. We are in the dock.

Like OJ, we face one of only two possible verdicts. We are either guilty or we are not guilty. The judgment is perfectly just.

It doesn't matter how much money you have. It won't help you one little bit. And there will be no trial by media.

There will be no media hype at all. They will also be on trial. And so listen to these words of Jesus again.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And that should cause us to gasp the verdict that we are all together guilty.

We have been found guilty as charged. So let's look at the verdict revealed first of all, and then the verdict reversed. It used to be thought that good people went to heaven and bad people went the other way.

That was until the film Casper came around, and now it seems that everybody goes to heaven, good or bad alike. Actually, we've had a working philosophy. This is the way, as one undertaker said, I've been in this job 25 years and we've never buried a sinner yet.

Bad people, though, don't go to heaven. But here's the shock of the Bible. Neither do good people.

None of us are up to it. For all have sinned, the Bible says, absolutely everybody. You can't play the race card.

We're all in the same boat. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Life is not neatly divided between the good guys and the bad guys.

We're all pretty mixed up. But to some degree or another, we are all guilty. We have fallen short of the standards and values that God has set for us as our maker.

A few years back now, I was reading a divorce petition, as sometimes I have to do. The man who'd come to me was a very decent man. He was quite distraught, as you might imagine.

And he handed over the bit of paper that his wife, Solista, had sent to him. I'll never forget the first sentence. It read, my husband is a very selfish man.

And I thought to myself, I just hope Ann never gets a side of this. That really could be said of any of us, couldn't it? Selfishness is our problem. Oh, most of us learn a few social graces.

It's true. Even then we're rather difficult to live with, aren't we? And God is quite clear that he won't have selfishness messing up his heaven, just as it's messed up his earth. But there is one piece of evidence which really clenches the verdict, according to Jesus, that we are all guilty.

And that is our reaction to the coming of Jesus himself into the world. That's what he says, isn't it? Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. It's as though we're all like a tribe of cavemen.

We spend all our lives underground. We're in the cold. We're in the dark.

Our bodies and eyes are adjusted to these cold, dark conditions. And there we live out a low-level existence while we've never known anything else. And then one day a stranger enters our cave and he's bearing a lighted flaming torch.

And what do we cavemen do? Well, some run. Some shield our eyes. Some scream, put it out, put it out, you maniac, you idiot.

You're going to hurt us with that light. It's going to burn our eyes. We're going to burn our fingers.

Everyone will see us. We'll be exposed. Put it out.

Well, that's the picture Jesus uses, isn't it? Light has come into the world, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Christ styles himself as the light of the world.

If you look at his life, you'll understand why. He was always a very disturbing person to have around because he put his finger on things in people's lives that needed to be changed. He exposed them as he exposes us today.

And that, he says, explains the reluctance of people to come to him. In his own day, there weren't very many who chose to follow him. And in ours, too.

Most people want to avoid God. We don't want anybody meddling in our lives. Not even, perhaps not especially, the Son of God.

At least we like to keep our options open, even if we don't at the time want to do anything specific. Evil or wrong. I read a quote from Oliver Stone, the film director.

He said this, I don't want integrity to block my creative growth. At a lower level, we often don't want to have to tell the truth, do we? Because it might be inconvenient. It might land us in trouble.

We prefer the darkness. Now, that means we try and avoid Jesus. We may not go out of our way to insult him, like a drunk who wandered off the street into our elders' meeting on Thursday.

But we probably will want to ignore him. And I wonder what hurts us most. When people insult us to our face, or when they ignore us and just pretend we don't exist.

I don't think, really, there's much in it, is there? Now, why is it such a serious thing to ignore Jesus Christ? Well, my job here is just to explain the Bible. It's just to explain the words of Jesus. It's not my job to offer my own views.

But the reason it is such a problem to ignore Jesus, according to him, is that if you reject him, you're rejecting his father, God. And what is more, you are rejecting God's solution to your problem. We have this problem that our deeds are evil, according to Jesus.

We don't want to come into the light. How are we going to get over that problem? Only, actually, by having our lives united with Christ in some way. That's the verdict revealed.

I wonder if you've ever thought about your life in those terms. I wonder if you've ever thought of your life as being characterized by selfishness. Perhaps, just recently, you've thought to yourself, oh, I wish I hadn't said that.

I wish I hadn't done that. Not just because of the trouble it's landed you in, but because there is something fundamentally unsatisfactory about your life, and you know it, and you don't like it, and you want it changed. Well, if you do, there's some good news for you.

Let's look at the verdict reversed, secondly. Many people say they don't come to church because when they do, it makes them feel guilty. And you might be sitting there and feeling rather uncomfortable now, and thinking that all of your worst fears are being realized, and you just wonder how long it's gonna take for the preacher to be through.

Well, I understand that reaction. You might respond, well, it sounds as though you Christians have a load of hang-ups. All of this groveling about how evil you are, how selfish you are, how wicked you are.

What you've got, really, is a low self-esteem problem. And that today is almost psychoheresy. You need to feel good about yourself.

That's the idea. Then you'll get through life okay. But I tell you, the Bible gives you a great freedom from all that.

The Bible says that we need to be free from the needs that we impose upon ourselves. We don't have to be stroking ourselves all of the time. The Bible says that self is a terrible tyrant.

It's so constantly demanding. It demands attention. It demands affection.

It demands admiration. It demands to be pampered. It demands to be recognized.

It demands to be praised. When we don't get these things, we get upset. And the Bible says that's a big problem.

And if you can be free from all that, you will be really free. And it'll be a wonderful thing to be free from the demands of tyrant self. The Bible never says that we're bits of worthless scum.

It does say that we are wicked, but it doesn't say we're worthless ever. The Bible says that we are infinitely valuable to God. We're his best work.

We were created to have a relationship with him as his own children. That means we must be very valuable. There was a banner attached to the O.J. trial which caught my eye.

A woman had it up by the courtroom. She said, guilty or not, we love you O.J. I thought that was wonderful. And the Bible really is God's placard to you and to me.

Guilty or not, I love you. And you can put your own initials in there. God doesn't want to condemn us even though we are guilty.

Somebody spotted a sign in Australia recently. It said this, trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law by order of the sisters of mercy. But God has no interest in prosecuting us to the full extent of the law.

He has no pleasure in bringing his full weight down upon us. And that's why he has taken extreme measures to retrieve the situation and to rescue our lives. And that is the good news of the Bible.

And you can believe and trust the Bible because obviously the Bible doesn't flatter us, does it? By what we've already said, it doesn't flatter us. It doesn't pretend that if we just try a little harder and make a few little amendments, we can be all right and we can save ourselves. I mean, we can't stand flattery, can we? I mean, we may enjoy it, but we can't stand it.

The Bible is honest. And that's why when the Bible says that Jesus didn't die for us because we're such wonderful people who are so liked by God, but rather Jesus died for us because we're such wicked people who are so loved by God, we can take that as being the truth, gospel truth. Jesus died for us because we are wicked people who are so loved by God.

And Jesus himself was the spearhead of God's rescue plan, God's way of getting the verdict reversed in our lives. And for that to happen, Jesus says, two things have to come together. Number one, light has to come into the world.

And number two, you have to come into the light. Light has to come into the world. Well, clearly again, he's referring to himself.

In verse 17 of John 3, he gives us God's mission statement. This is basically what God has done through sending his son. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

That clarifies why Jesus came, to save the world, to save your life. And with the full consent of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because father and son were in this together, they in their wisdom knew that the only way to satisfy justice and to save humanity was for Jesus to come, to take on human flesh, to take on human characteristics, to take on human nature, to die in our place. There was another publicized case of American justice or injustice earlier this year.

Concerned a man, Jesse Wayne Jacobs, who was executed for a murder that he never committed. He confessed to murdering, to shooting a woman when actually he was out on parole. But the prosecution had actually concluded that his sister killed the woman.

And he had confessed in order to protect her, which was also what he said later. The Supreme Court in January decided by a majority of six to three that the letter of the law had been followed and that man was to be executed. Now, when Jesus was executed, when he was on trial for his life, he said nothing in the dock.

Not like OJ because he was afraid of incriminating himself, but Jesus was afraid of saying something which would mean that he would be able to walk free. Because Jesus knew that he had to die if God's rescue plan to save you from your sins was to be fulfilled. God was doing what only God could do.

This is why we talk about amazing grace. Grace is really undeserved love, extraordinary love, unbelievable love. That Jesus died for you in your place so that you could be forgiven and you can go free.

That's why he came. That's why the light came into the world. But secondly, you must come into the light.

Verse 21, Jesus says, but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. Now, this wouldn't have been lost on Nicodemus who Jesus was talking to at the time because Nicodemus came to see Jesus under cover of darkness when all of his mates had gone to bed and they wouldn't see him following Jesus. You too must come into the light.

It's not good enough to be a secret disciple. Religion cannot be that private. That's why our friends have been baptized today.

They want to tell you that they are following Jesus Christ. Jesus says, you've got to come into the light as well. You've got to come into the open.

You've got to out, as it were, for me. Jesus, when you come to him, just demands one thing. There are no qualifications in terms of age or sex or race.

That's why he says, whoever lives by the truth comes into the light. There are no restrictions. You don't need to be religious.

You don't even need to be good. You don't need to have a clean record. You can come into the light.

You can follow Jesus Christ. But you have to be willing to let him deal with the things that spoil you. You have to let him take away your faults.

You have to allow him to dispose of them. When the O.J. saga, farce, whatever, began, you may remember that there was that car chase around the freeways of L.A. It was a strange chase because it was all at low speed and it was all televised. It provided, again, wonderful live drama for the TV companies.

And O.J. drove around for hours, followed by the cops, O.J. and his now famous Ford Bronco, that white car that he has. Now, maybe you feel a bit like that as far as God is concerned. You feel that God is following you around.

Wherever you go, you can't get away from him. There are Christians everywhere. Your circumstances are arranged so that you can't ignore God.

He's after you. Well, I hope he is. I really hope he is.

What you've got to do is to pull over. And when you pull over, and when you allow him to catch up with you, and when you put your life into the hands of Jesus Christ, you will find that not only does he lift the bad things out of your hands, the things that spoil your life, but he will load you up with a whole pile of good things, much better than the things that you have to give up. And you find that you begin to experience for the first time in your life God's forgiveness, both received and given to others, as Esther was saying.

God's peace, God's wisdom, God's guidance, God's compassion. The list is endless. I was reading a story in the Times this week, actually, about Gloria Gaynor, that big soul star.

And she said that before she was a Christian, she was sure people just liked her because she could sing. And her one dread was that one day she'd wake up with a bad throat and she wouldn't be able to sing and nobody would ever like her again. And her story now that she's become a Christian is this.

Only Christ has been able to give me security because his love is eternal. Security, another thing that God has to offer through Jesus Christ if you will come into the light. You've heard what God has done about the problem that he has diagnosed in your life, the problem of sin, the problem of selfishness.

He has sent no one less than his own son to do nothing less than die an agonizing death on the cross for you. Now you've got to do something in return because now you are a member of the jury and you have a verdict to make. For some, tonight will have all been a bit of a whirl and you'll go away perhaps not being able to sleep for several hours just trying to work out what it is that was going on because you'd never reckoned on God getting involved in the lives of ordinary people before.

But you've had so much evidence tonight that you can't just dismiss that. However, perhaps you've got a little bit of thinking to do. You've got some more hours of questions and reading the Bible, that's always a good way.

But for others, you've heard enough. Rather like the O.J. jury, you know what your verdict is. There are only two sides to come down on.

Are you going to come into the light and openly follow Jesus Christ or are you going to stay ignoring him away from God and in the dark? Perhaps you just like to think about that for a little while, a few moments anyway. Let's make your response before God. If you do want to follow Jesus Christ tonight, it'll be the best day of your life as one or two of the candidates were saying, the best thing we've ever done.

And that's what we're going to sing, an old hymn now. Oh happy day that fixed my choice on thee my savior and my God. But please just don't go away without telling somebody.

It will help you immensely if you tell someone. Maybe the friend you've come with, the person who was baptized. That would be a wonderful way of sealing their evening if you go and say, I want to be a Christian too tonight.

Or if you didn't come with a friend, you can come and see me. I'd be delighted to talk to you anyway or Tony. But please do come and say, yes, I want to be a Christian.

And we'll try and help you. And we'll give you a booklet which you'll find helpful. And we'll try and get you together with some other people who have just become Christians.

And then you can look at what the Bible says together and begin to grow in your faith together. And that, again, would be a great help to you. So don't go away without saying something to one of us, please.

But however you go away, we're glad to have had you. May God bless you as you've been with us this evening. Let's sing 499, oh happy day that fixed my choice.

Oh happy day, oh happy day, that fixed my choice. Father, we praise you for your love to us through the Lord Jesus. And thank you for the joy you brought into our lives when we knew that you loved us and you died for us.

It doesn't really stand in comparison with anything else we've ever been through because it was so much greater. So Father, may we all know that joy. Thank you for tonight.

Be with those who've been baptized. Give them a good week ahead when they know your presence with them. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, and may we all sense the presence of God with us in the days that are to come.

In Jesus' name, amen.