Why I Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ | Guest Speaker Christopher Alam

let's give a big what LifeChurch welcome to for the very first time to Idaho Christopher alone [Applause] thank you pastor for a kind words can we all stand up together have word of Prayer father we honor you we glorify this morning Lord Jesus you are the same yesterday today and forever you are the unchanging one I thank you Lord that when you died upon the cross you wore upon your own self all our shortcomings our failures our sins and our diseases and by your stripes we have been healed and through your blood we have redemption Lord Jesus I ask you that tonight you would touch our hearts touch the hearts of those who need you need to know you heal those that are sick to miracles in this place and Lord for everything you do we covenant to give you all the glory all the honor and the praise because you alone are worthy in the name of Jesus please be seated I'm greatly honored to be here first time in Idaho the only thing I only the only thing I knew about Idaho were the French fries and McDonald's but they always talked about Idaho potatoes you know so now I'm in Idaho and it's much nicer than I thought it would I thought the only group potatoes here but they got beautiful mountains and it's so nice I really I was always also thinking it would be very very cold but it's colder in Pennsylvania than here so it was good to be here with you all praise God praise God amen well my name is Christopher Elam I live in Lancaster Pennsylvania in the heart of Amish country but as pastor said I'm not Amish but I'm at least in my family some Jordan but I grew up in Pakistan and I've lived in the United States for about twenty-five years and like pastor I went to Rhema but that was 1981-82 you know long time ago a few more years I'll get to have be qualified to be called the Ancient of Days but that was you know thirty thirty thirty my goodness it's 38 years ago I went to buy schools but it's good to be here with you all amen let's can can I have some water if I could have a bottle right here I'll keep it right here for some time oh thank you thank you thank you it's good it's good I'll just keep it right here in case I get thirsty praise God I want to read to you from the book of Galatians if you have your Bibles and I'm reading from verse 13 and here the Apostle Paul shares his story he gives his testimony in a nutshell all of us have the story have a story and this was his story and it says and you know what makes it fascinating if someone's someone's story is very different to your somebody is from a part in a place on the other side of the earth and it's very different so it becomes fascinating and Paul talks about his background in verse 13 in the latians one do you understand my funny accent are you okay alright okay for he have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jews religion above many mind equals in mine own nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father's so he's talking about his background what he's basically saying is that he was a Jew but he was also a zealous Jew he was Ellis to the point that when the Jews were persecuting the church Paul was in the forefront of that the other thing was that he said he was zealous for the traditions of the fathers which is very interesting because faith always looks forward but religion always looks backwards religion looks at is more interested in holding on to the relics the traditions of the past religion is actually a museum faith is a venture so so he was he was zealous for the traditions of the Father but then something happened it says here verse 15 but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace he says three things there firstly says it pleased God you know I am a Christian today because it pleased God I thought that I was worthy that Jesus should receive me in fact to get a hold of me he really had to go to the bottom of the barrel and scrape me up from there I really cannot say that I you know I have I had done anything remarkable or significant in my life that I was a good person because of which God loved me the Bible says that we you know that that Jesus died for us when we were sinners so I'm here because it please God I was minding my own business when somebody told me about Jesus and God got ahold of me and you know I was twenty-one years of age I had never seen a Bible never made a Christian I didn't know anything about Jesus and somehow God in His mercy got ahold of me so we are here because it please God amen we could have been somewhere else but we are worshiping God because it pleased him then he says who separated me from my mother's womb Paul lived his life with a sense of destiny he understood his purpose he he understood the reason why God had put him on this planet and that is the key the secret to happiness the the secret to true contentment and happiness it it never comes from how much you own or how much money you have in the bank but it comes from knowing the purpose that God has for your life and discovering that purpose and and living in that purpose that gives you joy and that gives you true happiness and I'm a missionary I spent half of my year in Africa and places you know sometimes very primitive places but I'm happy and content doing it because not because of what it gives me in worldly terms but because that is my purpose that is why God created me I've done a lot of things but it is in doing that that I found my purpose and so I'm content and happy doing that and and happiness and contentment is something that everybody is looking for and you'll find it only when you fight the purpose for which God put you on this planet and then it says and he called me by His grace his the interesting thing when God calls us to serve Him like I'm called to the ministry he doesn't call us on the basis of our qualifications of our or of our merits a lot of the people I preached to they know far more than I do they know more of the Bible than I do I have people say to me he said what you do is so easy I could I could do this also I said I'm sure you could you have a better pedigree than I am you know more than I do but the fact is that I'm doing it and not you and and that is you know and and that is and it's only because of the grace of God when God calls us he calls us because of His grace alone he calls us who are unqualified and he calls us by His grace and when we obey Him it is in that obedience that he qualifies us he anoints us with His Holy Spirit and and and sends us out to do so that was his story and then he says but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and call me by His grace to reveal his son in me then I might preach him among the heathen so God did all this chose him from his mother's womb gave him his grace called him for what not so that he should preach the gospel but to give him a revelation of Jesus Christ to reveal his son in me that I may preach him among the heathen so first comes that revelation of Jesus Christ in the inner man and once you have that revelation from that your ministry is born because you can only share with life-changing conviction the things that are a revelation to you the things that are real to you so this was his story and I want to use this as a springboard to share my story with you because what I want to share with you tonight is why I preach the gospel why do I do this you know I come from a Muslim background I didn't grow up in a Christian home and my dad you know on he died he used to wonder he said why are you giving her life preaching the white man's religion well why are you doing this and because my whole family you know that my dad was a general in the army I was an army officer and everybody I've got a cousin he lives in outside Boston he has two PhD from MIT everyone in my family are very high achievers and well-educated and very wealthy and I became the black sheep of the family over the years I found out I'm actually the only white sheep in the family that took me years to figure that out you know because I look at their lives I look at their broken marriages their estranged children I look at the circumstances of their life and then I I thank God for what I have but but they all wonder you know I mean they say you know he was such a nice guy I'm one uncle he said yeah what happened to you I mean why did you of all the things in the world why did you become a Christian and not only become a Christian but you are preaching the gospel why so I want to share with you why I preach the gospel and I can i should say i can divide my reasons into two categories the first category i would call it the spiritual reasons why i preach the gospel and the second category would be the personal reasons my personal reasons of teaching the gospel now the spiritual categories spiritual reasons they apply to all of us they are the same for all of us and and the spiritual reasons well the first one would be Jesus said in John 14 verse 6 he said I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by me so I should say the first spiritual reason I preach the gospel is because Jesus Christ is the only way to God now there are many religions you know I I have studied different religions and they all teach good things they all vary and differ and there's a lot of similarities and there's enough similarities there for people say well all roads lead to Rome have you heard that expression well they don't because you can get on this interstate here you could drive the rest of your life you will not end up in Rome you know so that's that's a fallacy to believe that you know you know all religions all philosophies teach good things but Jesus Christ is the only way to God I'm not talking about the best religion I'm talking about how do you get to know the father how do you get to know God and Jesus Christ he's the only one who ever said I am the way I am the truth I am the life no man comes to the Father but by me nobody Elvis ever made that claim to be the only way to God but Jesus Christ did and so if that is true then I must make sure make it my duty to make sure that those who do not know Jesus also hear about him and get to know him so that's the first spiritual reason the second spiritual reason is because Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel there he said in the book of Matthew chapter 28 he said he said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and we call it the Great Commission now it's not the great suggestion you know he didn't say if you feel like it or if you feel called but he said it's a commandment go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and but I remember when I first saw a Bible I was 21 years old began to read the Bible and I saw that verse and I said well he's talking to me so because I learned to take every verse I see in the Bible to take it personally so that's another reason another reason would be Matthew 24:14 Waits's and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached as a witness to every nation and then shall the end come that the Bible says that we must preach the gospel to every nation every people's group that's what it means earth lost means people's group hunt and then shall the end come so we must preach the gospel this is something that God has ordained that we should do so these are my spiritual reasons and these apply to all of us none of is exempt none of us is exempt everybody should be involved in it in some way or the other you might say well I'm not like you I'm not called to go to Africa fine don't go to Africa go to your neighbor or or whoever you know I mean this is a big city and there's plenty of people here so you know this is your field right so you know so everyone all of us should be involved in some way or the other no so those are the spiritual reasons now I get to the personal reasons the first personal reason why I preach the gospel is I preach the gospel because of what Jesus has done for me you know I grew up in a Muslim home my family we had direct descendents from Muhammad the Prophet of Islam and I should say the first eight years of my childhood were happy and then something happened and my parents split up and my mother left and until she died last year I had very little to do with her I met her a few times but you know whatever happened she left when I was very small and my father married another woman and this lady was very very cruel so I remember from the next day after she came to her house all I remember for those five years from 8:00 until 13 was that I was physically you know abused and beaten up by her if not every day almost every day I was beaten up with the hockey sticks and cricket bats I mean whatever she could get a hold on I was severely beaten so by the time I was 13 I kind of despaired in life I got tired of being beaten up and I didn't know what to do and one day I read in the newspaper that the Air Force had a program they were taking little kids my age that a special cadet program and they would take you and give you military training education then when you turn 17 you'd be done you you you begin basic flying training and then you turn you into a fighter pilot so I applied and there were about 10,000 people who kids who applied and I applied and my reason for applying was not so much because you know I wanted a career in the Air Force as a fighter pilot I just wanted to get out of the house so and they were about as I said there were about 10,000 applicants and I think they were taking 30 or 31 people and I came in as number 26 or 27 so I got in and I remember I reported for duty they gave me a haircut and gave me uniforms and that's how I dress for the next five years and so now I thought that I would be happy you know getting away from my family from my dad from my stepmother I'd be happy but I was not happy I mean I was miserable I was a thousand miles away from them but I was unhappy and miserable and I couldn't understand why now I understand it took me years to figure this out and that was being in the ministry ministering to people who were hurting and it took me years to realize that you see once that spirit of rejection and bitterness gets into you and becomes a part of you it doesn't matter where you go or how far you go away from the people who hurt you and torment you or even if your tormentors they leave this world and they die now the problem is you it's inside you and that will determine how you respond to people and even well-intentioned people you'll feel rejected by them and and yeah and you you become very sensitive you get hurt and rejected and that's what was happening to me I wish I understood it then but I I didn't I understood as a grown up but that's what was wrong with me and I didn't know what was wrong with me nobody understood why I was that way so by the time I was 15 I was suicidal I just wanted to end it all I wanted to die I felt like nobody loved me nobody wanted me I had nothing to live for why don't just end it and die but what prevented me from killing myself was that islam teaches that suicide is a cardinal sin that if a person commits suicide he goes straight to hell and hell is forever it's eternal and that there are no mitigating circumstances once and then also I knew that I was sinner I knew that one day I would stand before God and I'd be judged and that there's a heaven there's a hell and I would go to hell I mean I just knew it and I didn't believe this whole thing like people you know people in the Western world like to say well once you die it's over well if it's over why do you live a good life what difference does it make what kind of person you are if it's all over anyway it's all for nothing what's the whole point but I believe in eternal life I believed in God I believe there was a heaven and a hell and I knew that when I died I'd go to hell and I was afraid of going to hell and so that kind of kept me alive I somehow you know I didn't know what would happen but I just you know you kept on hoping then I was seventeen when I was seventeen the country went to war and the president came on the radio and he used the magic word jihad jihad means the holy war and and we were taught that if you die in a holy war all your sins are forgiven and you were welcomed by God you go into heaven now just imagine how warped my thinking was here I'm 17 years old and when you're 17 you're thinking of college and your future and I just had a death wish I looked at this as a window of opportunity I'm going to go to war I'm going to get killed this life will be over and I'm going to go straight to heaven so I spent a whole month fasting and praying reading the Quran trying to purify myself as I understood then I'm cleansing and purifying myself and of course then there was total hostilities it was fighting and I was not a fully trained fighter pilot I was I just had basic training so but I could use small arms rifles and machine guns so I volunteered for ground operations and I went to war and all I can say is that I saw horrible things and and let me tell you no human being is designed by God to see and to go through things that people see in war it is no human being is designed by God to come through those things and so here I was only a 17 year old kid and then when the war ended I find myself in a situation that Here I am I had nothing to live for nobody wanted me I just wanted to die yet I was alive and thousands and thousands of young people the best years of the youth they died or were maimed for life and I couldn't understand you know it didn't make sense to me that you know parents who loved their children and their children come back in a in a body bag in a box you know I it just didn't make sense to me and so I began to work through these things plus I had my own pain to deal with so I came to a point when I didn't know whether there was a God or not or if he was there whether we even cared for what's going on here down here and anyway so I kind of so at that time I left the Air Force I was commissioned into the Army I was an Army officer over 17 18 years of age I was with an infantry battalion up in the mountains I came down and I didn't fit into I just didn't fit in so I left the army when I came to civilian life I didn't fit in there either so I was back in the army so you know I really I was drifting I had no sense of direction and then one day in December 1975 and you know those were the days there were people there was flower power and hippies and people smoking drugs and all that and they all used to pass through Pakistan on the way to India coming from Europe coming from America and they you know they would pass through going to India and Nepal where they were they were you know drugs were plentiful I never used drugs never and so but you know I saw all that so one day I was walking down the street I was actually going to an electric store to buy something and then I looked across the street and I see this tall white man he was maybe six foot six he was very tall slim white man and he seems to have this look of pure peace and joy in his face and I had never seen that kind of look in anybody's face and it was and these pieces of paper out to people and he was smiling and I looked at him and I was thinking this man has something that I have never known I got to cross the street and find out what he is smoking so so I you know I so I crossed the street and I and I asked him I said sir who are you and where are you from and he said I'm from England I'm a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm travelling around the world telling people about Jesus now what I didn't know that he was the second son of the wealthiest Christian in England a great philanthropist to get millions of dollars to missions he was their son and God had called him and he was going to India but he had stopped in that city for one night and he had prayed his friends told me later on I found her and they heard him crying out to God in his room he was saying God just give me one soul one person who will follow you and then he did the unthinkable that you don't do in a Muslim country but he was ignorant you know he didn't know nobody told him how dangerous it was or he went on the street began to hand out tracts and there I come and so I asked him I said sir who are you and and and so he said I'm from England I'm travelling around the world and I'm telling people about Jesus Christ the moment he said Jesus Christ all I can say is that something got me I don't know what it was and I began to pour out my story to him and and he began to tell me he said you know what he said if you ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart he will set you free that's all I mean and you know I've never seen a Bible never been to church never met a Christian and you know I was an educated person and and you see here's the difference between Westerners and Easterners Westerners everything has to be logical you hear something and you have to filter it through your logic it has to add up to and to has to before and and if it doesn't make sense you reject it all together right and that's how most people are I don't believe in this because of this you know they have they tell a lot of people will tell you what they don't believe in but they don't know what they do believe in it that's their problem but that that's the problem with Western society people have a lot of things that don't believe in but very few things that they actually believe in well we we Stiller's what we do if something grabs your heart that's it now that's both for good and bad works both for good and bad but when he you know when he began to talk about Jesus something got me and I thought man this is what I have been waiting for my whole life this is what I don't understand this but this is this is it so he said he want to receive Jesus I said yes how do I do that he said we'll just close your eyes and pray after me so I closed my eyes you know we Muslims we are used to you wash your hands and feet and wash your face and you face Mecca and you put a cap on your head then you bow out you do prayer thing he said no you just have to stand close your eyes and just repeat after me and the words were it was some you know it was one of those Jesus people he said hey man Jesus you know something like that and I thought you don't talk to Jesus like that you know he says then I kind of you know so he said come into my heart set me free and you know and then he said amen amen it was a short prayer then he said open your eyes open my eyes and suddenly it felt like a huge like I'd lived my whole life carrying a huge boulder and that had been lifted off that was the first thing this the second thing was as if my whole life had been in black and white and now everything was in Technicolor I was so happy I I I remember I went home and just praising God and singing and my my friends thought I was crazy and I thought you not like that what have they done to you and let's go out to the club and we used to do terrible things you know so my friends and I don't feel like going out to do and doing those nasty things they say what are you sick no I'm not sick so what's wrong I said you know I asked Jesus to come into my heart and and he won't let me do these things and they have you become Jesus have you been my Christian I said I don't know because I don't know what Christians believe I don't know whether what I have become I mean I I just gave my life to Jesus and Jesus is in the Quran you know he's one of the prophets I said Jesus is in the Quran and I asked him to come to my heart and I didn't know he could come into people's heart and live there but but he did that and so anyway so well after a few days I was in the army mental hospital and and when I was in the mental hospital I began to preach and share and then there was one of the staff there he got saved anyway so the doctor he decided we should part company so anyway so they released me and then I was I'm cutting along story short I was under house arrest and then I escaped from there then I was on the streets preaching because God called me to preach the gospel and I was on the streets handing out tracts preaching the gospel for months and then I was arrested and I was in prison and they said you'll come out of prison either in a casket they kept me under terrorism charge I would come out either in a casket or if I go back to Islam I said well I'm not going back to Islam and but it took a little bit less than a year it was a terrible place you know prison prisons there are not like prisons here so after almost a year I came out of prison and then they tried to coerce me you know force me go back to you know to renounce Christ and I refused to do that then they said they would execute me so I left my home with 75 cents in my pocket I lost everything I trusted God went to Afghanistan Soviet Union Turkey Belgium and then I went to Holland then I ended up in Sweden where I got scholarship to go to a Bible School and then I was I applied for political asylum and I got refugee status there they're started my life all over again I got married met my wife in church got baptized with the Holy Spirit and continued my ministry and that was like you know it has been 44 years since I gave my life to Jesus and now today as I stand before you I preached in close to 80 countries where we see about a million people come to Jesus every year you've seen 1,500 churches started through our ministry preaching the gospel all over the world but I can say two things the first thing is when I look back at my life and as I'm telling you the story of my life of my past it really honestly seems to me I'm talking about somebody else not about me because what I am is so different to what I used to be that's the first thing and and the second thing is really in the light of that there's a scripture which says if any man be in Christ Jesus he's a new creature old things are passed away all things have become new and I can tell you that verse is totally true because that's what God has done in your life so that is the first reason that is why I believe that Jesus Christ is a total life changer it's not just a story it's not just a religion but he is actually a life changer Jesus Christ he is the changer of the lives of those who come to him because he took me when I was in the pit I was suicidal nothing to live for some of the horrible things I saw in my life he took me out and you know I have no PTSD nothing of that sort I'm a completely whole person and it's only because of the goodness and the grace of God hallelujah so that's the first reason I preach the gospel because of what Jesus has done for me the second reason I preach the gospel is because of what Jesus has done for other people and I can tell you many many many stories of people you know from the past 43 years preaching the gospel and many nations I can tell you but but but let me let me tell you this one story a few years ago I was preaching in the town of chase' in Zambia a very very poor Township in Africa and I'm preaching there and I was in a field and we had maybe seventy eighteen ninety thousand people packed together we don't know how many are there where those people packed together so I'm preaching there and they you know now I have a huge PA system in fact I've actually doubled my PA output I've got I used to have ten speakers I have twenty speakers now I just acquired them and these are big speakers and and and when I'm preaching you can hear me four or five miles away I'm not making this up you can hear me I mean when I'm preaching you can hear me now the reason I have that is because I want to make sure everybody in town hears about Jesus whether they like it or not so I say because this you know there's always people or we don't like Christians we don't like these preachers I'm not going to go to his crusade fine I'll come to your house you know and you cannot shut me out because I permit from the police so we have our permit and you know and so so I've actually doubled my PA system anyway so I'm preaching and about a mile and about one mile away one and a half kilometres which is a mile away they lived their family in that Township you know tens of thousands of people and this family had two children there was a girl who was about eleven and her baby brother who was nine now the little boy he had contracted spinal meningitis when he was 2 years of age that had left him paralyzed from his chest on so you know he was kind of on his bed paralyzed and the parents for some reason they didn't believe in God they didn't like Christians they didn't like preachers and they were really angry at Christianity and they used to go leave their kids and go to the bar local bar to drink every night and so they used to say to the girl that look after your baby brother mom and you're going out with your friends so they go to the bar and drink and come back late evening they did this almost every night so and so I'm I'm starting my crusade on Tuesday night and mom and dad go to the bar and this boy they didn't have a television so he's laying in bed though and through the open window he can hear me preach so here's me preach on Tuesday night here's me preach on Wednesday night Thursday night when the parents leave he says to his sister he says could you please carry me on your back because African women carry their children on the back could you please carry me on your back to where this man is because I know his Jesus is going to heal me tonight tonight is my night I know his Jesus is going to do it tonight and and she said but you know it's far it's right next to my school it's very far away and she said no but please and she said mom and dad will be angry is there I know I asked dad and that got really angry but now they're they're gone for a few hours if you if you pick me up yeah but you are almost as big as me you're heavy I cannot carry you and he began to cry he pleaded and bad he says he says you know what this is my only chance because otherwise I'll be like this the rest of my life I'll end up as a beggar on the streets and and I promise you because you'll just have to carry me one way because I'm going to walk back I just I just know you know let let me tell you there's some things money cannot buy faith is the only currency that is recognized in heaven and so so anyway she sees her brother crying and so she cries and so anyways she picks up her brother brother on her back piggyback and they begin to walk they step out of the house now in those African townships those poor townships firstly the roads are not paved you've got big potholes if or sharp stones everywhere the second thing is that there's no streetlights they have these tall posts about a hundred feet high you'll have them maybe half a mile apart you know but there's it's like pitch dark and they say there's nothing as dark as an African night you step out it's dark you see nothing you can't see even two feet ahead of you so she begins to walk with her brother then she falls into a hole somewhere and and she falls and she you know she hurts it herself and he gets hurt and and she says I don't know if I can do this and he says please please please carry me this is my only chance and we have already come so far so she picks him up and cause and by the time they reach the field they had fallen so many times so I remember they were both cut in on the head all the skin was gone from their arms and the elbows and the knees were they were skinned and bleeding and they had scratches and cuts on their faces all over their bodies and they were bleeding but they made it to the field and that night jesus healed that little boy and he that little boy he he got up and and and he began to walk and the people got excited someone picked him up put him on the platform he looked at the crowd he got scared he was speechless I said what was wrong with you and he was crying and I said who brought him and then next things I won't push the little girl on the platform and she looks at the crowd she begins to cry and I said what happened then I heard the story and I told my team I said you know the way we look at crowds here we are in Africa I've been doing this for 32 years and people look we never see individuals we see mass like it's like a sea of humanity I said that's the way we are used to seeing the crowds but I said but sometimes God lifts up an individual out of the crowd so we come face to face with that individual and then we realized that this is not about crowds but it's about people that Jesus died for people and I said here we are in one of the poorest townships in Zambia in the Western world people probably don't even care because these people are so poor and I'm a little paralysed African boy what can he contribute to society I said I live in America where a person's worth is measured in how much money he has in the bank and this boy is worth nothing but Jesus cares and Jesus cares so much that he will go past a million people and touch this little boy because he has faith I said that's why we're here and we spend all this money on this crusade I flew from the US my team came from Zimbabwe but we are here and it's the only person who was touched is this little boy it would be worth it and you know I think of the little boy often how old he must be today and what he's doing and he has a life and and he has a future and I can tell you so many stories I mean another you mind if I tell you about another person that is a you know there's a guy and someone someone brought this guy to my door in Sweden this was 1981 before I went to Rhema and and said well this young man from Algeria he's a Muslim like you used to be please tell him about Jesus and pushed him to the door and the lady disappeared so I said I said well welcome can I offer you some tea or coffee I said so you want to hear about Jesus and he was not he was actually interested in the lady and and so so so she dumped him on me and looked at his watch he said well I got time I said good so I began to tell him about Jesus and as I talked about Jesus he got interested so I gave a New Testament I said look why don't we do this read this read as much as you can and whatever you don't understand underlying those things and let's meet here tomorrow he came back the next day and he asked me questions he underlined a bunch of stuff and we did that every day so you know after we had kind of been through one of the Gospels and then one day he says he said you know what I don't want to discuss this anymore I said why he said this is already beginning to have an effect on my life just reading this he said I've stopped drinking I've stopped smoking I don't know what's wrong with me I used to go to the disco dance with women I don't do that anymore man this is getting under my skin so I said well that's good I said that's the whole purpose of this book it should get under your skin I said so so what do you want to do he says man I want to receive Jesus I said I'm glad to hear that so I prayed with him then I baptized him and I remember when we baptized him when he came out of the water keeping a new shout in tongues I said that's one less thing to explain to him you know he came out because he was asking me questions for about everything I said this is one thing I don't explain he got it all ready and yeah and then he kind of disappeared from my life I went to Rhema and he died in traduce him to my friends in England and you know he was crying if you go away who will disciple me I said I have some friends in England send him there then years later years later I found out that you know he was Algerian he had married a Chinese lady from Malaysia figured that out and he had gone to Algeria and then he was back in England I just heard like sketchy details like that then one day I met a retired missionary in Sweden I was you know I lived great part of my life in Sweden so I was asking this retired missionary I said so brother what are you doing these days he was in the Middle East he said I go to the Middle East teach in Bible schools I said where's your next trip I said I'm going to Algeria I said Algeria I thought there was there were civil war there with I don't know hundreds of thousands of people massacred he said no the civil war has stopped and there is a revival in Algeria really then he said oh yeah he says this one area of Algeria there's a revival there and there's tens of thousands of born-again spirit-filled former Muslims and he says and the guy who leads the whole thing by the way he talks about you all the time I said really I said he said yeah yeah he talks about you he said he he that you he that he received Christ in your living room I said what's his name they said Yousef that's Arabic for Joseph I said oh yeah Yousef Chinese wife he said yeah that's him then he said he's leading that work he says if you read the reports their monthly reports it's like reading a page out of the book of Acts and so anyway the next year I was back in Sweden preaching at a conference and I'm and I'm sharing and there he is sitting I said Yousef is that you and it came up and we hugged and we both cried and I said I realized here's a guy who came from nowhere I led him to Jesus and today he's doing a work that has far surpassed the work that I'm doing he's doing a great work for God even the US Congress had him address them on how to deal with the Muslim world so I think of Yousef I think of people who I have met over the years and I think of what Jesus has done in their lives and I can tell you pastors who were other day.i I got on Facebook a message from a man he said I got saved in your in your meeting 20 years ago I'm pastoring a church of 900 people I'm traveling all over the world preaching the gospel so you know you have all these people so that's the second reason I preach the gospel I preached the gospel because of what I have seen Jesus do in the lives of other people hallelujah the third personal reason why I preach the gospel is because of a man called Jim Turner and when when I came out of prison I began to go to an Anglican Church and it was a Wednesday night and the pastor he was an Australian missionary he said brother on Sunday could you please sit in the back because I was eager I always sat in the front I said sure I'll sit anywhere you want me to but why he said because Sunday's communion sunday and I cannot give you communion because you're not baptized I said well pastor I've been to prison for my faith and I want to be baptized and he said I'm sorry I said why can't you baptize me he says I can't baptize you I said do you know if any other pastor who would baptize me he said no I said why then he began to explain to me he says Muslims view water baptism as the final break when you say you have received Jesus and you know they will try to convince you to come back and that kind of thing but when you got water baptized you have crossed the line of no return then they know he's gone he's not coming back again and that's why he says now you go to understand not all Muslims are like that but the real you know fanatics the fundamentalist they're like that he said the fundamental is what they'll do firstly they will kill the pastor who baptized the Muslim convert then they'll kill the Muslim convert then they'll attack his church they'll burn his church and attack his church people kill church people they'll be rioting then the police will come in it'll be in the newspapers it'll you know affect relations we are a minority in this country it'll affect our relations with the Muslim community and so we as pastors have decided we are not going to baptize any Muslim converts because it's just too much trouble so I come back ties you so I couldn't take communion because for me taking communion meant everything because taking communion I always believed this partaking of the body and the blood of Christ and so so I couldn't take communion and then I made this the Baptist missionary from Kansas pastor Jim Turner I had met him once or twice very briefly I didn't really know him he comes to me he says brother I heard you want to be baptized so you can take communion I said yes sir he said I can baptize you I said sir it's very risky if you baptize me because they could kill you and you're American and there could be an international incident he said no no don't worry he says I have been watching you and I know God's hand is on your life and if it means so much for you to take communion I'll baptize you because I don't want anything to hinder you from fully partaking or that which God has for you so he took me to the ocean and he baptized me in the presence of many witnesses a few weeks later I had two escaped and five six months later I was in Sweden in Bible School and then one day I get a letter from a senior American missionary in which he says pastor Jim Turner has been killed and they found his body in the mountains and I checked through my sources and of course I found out that he had been killed because he had baptized me you know I couldn't understand why an American missionary with three children the beautiful wife would choose to risk his life and to die so that an arab kid could take communion and i so every time now i take communion i I think of Jim Turner what it cost him so that I can take communion every altar call I do is like trying to pay off a debt that I know I can never repay let me just say this sometimes it costs us something to follow Jesus there is a price to be paid and now you you might say well I cannot relate relate to that that's unique for you that never happened to me but that's not entirely true because I know somebody who died for you the Bible tells us how he thought of you he looked at you how he was whipped and bruised and beaten how they crowned him with thorns and covered with his own blood covered with the spit of sinners he carried the cross to Calvary where he died for you so I know somebody who paid that kind of price for you I was not unique in that why don't we bow our heads together while your head is bowed I just want to ask you this one question that man he died for you upon that cross and so my question to you is this what are you going to do with the rest of your life are you going to live your life from today onwards in a manner that is a worthy response to the price that Jesus Christ for you that is my challenge to you are you going to live your life in a manner that is a worthy response to the price that he Jesus Christ paid for you or are you just going to walk away say if you if your heart says to me to you that I need to get right with God I need my sins forgiven then more than anything else I want to pray with you see if you say I need to make things right with God I need my sins forgiven would you just show me a hand wherever you are god bless you God bless you God bless you god bless you right anybody else let me see a hat but I don't want you laying in your bed tonight feeling regret saying to yourself that man stood there and poured his heart out and I just sat there thinking of what people would think of me it doesn't matter what people think of you because ultimately we stand before Jesus and he he died for you and for me nobody else ever did that for you but he did so if you put your hand up could you please stand to your feet please stand with me if you put your hand up nothing to be ashamed of nothing to be embarrassed about I did that one day and I remember when I did that it cost me everything I lost my family I lost everything my worldly things I went to prison nobody's going to do that to you this is America you will not go to prison they will not kill you but it does cost you something there is a price to pay anybody else say brother Christopher I need to get get right with God need my sins forgiven just stand up this is and I'm gonna do something I'm going to ask you to kindly leave your seat and come and stand in front of me I do that because Jesus was not ashamed to carry that cross for me and for you that's why I'm not ashamed to ask you to be bold and to stand up and make that walk from where you were seated and to come here please face me turn around and face me can you pull this platform back in a couple of metres a couple of yards please come and stand right here sir that's good thank you thank you just come and stand in front of me amen please come closer come closer god bless you bless you sir bless you miss you did the right thing takes a lot of guts to stand before people takes courage and the Bible says the cowards shall not enter the kingdom of God it takes courage praise God now we're going to pray together and when we pray every word that we pray is registered in heaven don't ever believe that God doesn't hear God does here Bible says he's a very present help in the time of trouble Pastor Mark would you please come and join me let's bow our heads together and close her eyes and lift up her hands to God lift up her hands to God thank you Jesus I want you to get your mind on Jesus and say after me say Lord Jesus I come to you this evening because you died for me upon the cross I thank you Jesus that when you were upon that cross you bore upon your own self all of my sins all of my failures all of my shortcomings you gave your life for me so tonight I give my life to you I open my heart wide and I ask you to come into my heart and live in me transform me do your work in my life Jesus from today you are my master you are my lord you're my god I will worship you and I will follow you and I belong to you thank you Jesus that my sins are washed away that I am washed in your precious blood thank you for cleansing me in the name of Jesus amen please put your hands on pastor mark [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Life Church Boise

Views: 4,268

Rating: 4.818182 out of 5

Keywords: Christian, God, Jesus, Christ, Christianity, Life, Life Church, Boise, Meridian, Idaho, Life Church Boise, Bible, Heaven, Real Life Starts Here, Mark Boer, Church, Church sermon, LC Boise, Word of Faith, Christopher Alam

Id: MwLOEDrqfzg

Length: 54min 49sec (3289 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019