Big God, Bold Mouth - Thomas Barr

Well in 1981, the filmmaker Paul Devlin was in high school applying to a bunch of universities and he kept getting rejected. And so finally, Harvard was his tipping point. Harvard sent him back the rejection letter and he said, I've had enough. So he drafts a response letter to all these institutions, or for all these universities that have rejected him. And it was so loved that it was that year published and reprinted in the New York Times. It's amazing, it reads this. Dear sir or madam, having now reviewed the many rejection letters received in the last few weeks, it is with great regret that I must inform you. I am unable to accept your rejection at this time. This year, I applied to a great number of fine colleges and universities and of course, received many rejection letters. Unfortunately, the number of rejection letters that I can accept is very limited. It is for that reason that I am forced to reject the rejection letters of many qualified institutions. This was not an easy task. See you all in the fall, Paul. I want one of you to try that with Deloitte this year. I reject your rejection, boldness in the face of rejection. How amazing is that? Before I started dating my now wife, Audrey, I had probably been on two first dates

over the course of four years. So the idea of calling her frightened me to death. So I do what most guys do, I phone a friend. I call one friend, thinking about doing it. I said, can I text her? He said, no. He said, you must call, there is only one way. That's a sermon for some guys. There is only one way. I said, okay, fine. I hang up. I dial another friend, do I have to call? He said, you have to call. I said, tell me I'm not a coward. He said, you're not a coward. I said, I'm not a coward. So I hang up the phone and I dial Audrey. Hello, Audrey. Hi, Thomas. I was wondering if you would maybe sometime like to go on a date with me. To which she replies, no. To which I reply, I reject your rejection. That would be amazing, that didn't happen. But I guess conceptually it did because we ended up together. Rejection, it is brutal. But it is also inevitable in life. You will experience resistance and rejection in some form or fashion in life.

And if it not for dating chemistry or academic competency, I bet you've experienced rejection for your Christianity. Have you? I remember when I was in college, shortly after becoming a Christian, I was playing video games with a friend. And finally I checked the time and it's seven o'clock and I go, oh bro, I'm going to Crewe, which was a ministry on campus. I'm going to Crewe, you wanna come? And he goes, no, that sounds boring. I was like, oh man, do you really think I'm a boring friend? I remember trying to share the gospel in college with 200 fraternity brothers. Interesting dynamic. And I remember just the corner of the room was just laughing at me. But I don't blame him. I was trying to like compare God to a cheeseburger and it was honestly a bad illustration. But I remember being laughed at and feeling that. I remember working in landscaping on a golf course before I entered ministry with some rough and tough Mississippi men. And my friend and I were working there and it was quickly revealed that we were Christians. Not because we wore like I heart Jesus T-shirts or snapbacks that says praise his name. Simply because we just like didn't say some of the words they said.

And like we had very different views of sexuality. The way they talked about girls, we weren't laughing. We were like, don't know. And then simply put, we just wouldn't smoke their weed at lunch. But I remember they loved poking fun at our God. They loved to get the whole room laughing at us for our faith in Jesus. I remember one time I was talking to the mechanic and finally we're having somewhat of a deeper conversation and I started asking him, hey, what's your relationship like with God? And finally he goes, ta-ta-da, quit that. He said, I'd rather have hell than your God. So don't talk to me about that. I remember my first week in DC and meeting my first neighbor. I lived in one of those, like five unit apartments on Capitol Hill and my neighbor's coming in as I'm coming out. I'm like, this is great, I get to meet a neighbor. And he's like, hi, I'm like, hi. He's like, hi, I'm so-and-so. I said, hi, I'm Thomas. He says, this is where I work. And I say, dang it, I gotta play my cards early. He says, what do you do? I say, I work for a church. And I remember he just. Thought about it for a second and he goes,

huh, aren't all you guys hypocritical creeps? And then he just walked away. And then I'm walking down East Capitol like, I don't think I'm a creep. Why mention all this? Because resistance and rejection are inevitable in the Christian life. Most of us started following Jesus and forgetting the fine print. He said, you will be hated. And if that reality is true, if resistance and rejection are inevitable, then the ultimate question is how? How do I respond to a culture that is resistant to my faith? How do I respond when people around me are saying, don't talk about him. Don't say his name. How do I live when my coworker says, stop, stop, stop, stop. I'd rather have hell than that God. What do you do? Well, this is exactly where we pick up in Acts four, because for the first time in the history of the church, they've experienced rejection, resistance. Look at verse 23 that we just read. When they, speaking of Peter and John were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them, which was, don't talk about Jesus.

Now you're left with a couple options. They've just had two days of craziness, healing, preaching, trial, threats. And now they're back with their friends and their friends are like, what happened? What's the news? And they said, we can't talk about Jesus or else. There's a couple options now. A, you can freak out. You can panic. B, you can pause the mission. You can say, well, I value not getting my head cut off more than talking about Jesus, so I'll just pause the mission. You can plan. You can be like, we can form a sneak attack where we get this guy killed and then he won't cut our heads off. You can get on Reddit. Did you read about this elder? Do you know what institution he went to? Supposedly there was a scandal there. We shouldn't even trust him. Reddit didn't exist then. They don't do any of those options. You know what they do? In the face of persecution, they pray. They pray. Look at verse 24. And when they heard it, the room, the group of friends,

lifted their voices out loud together to God. And then what follows is what we're gonna talk about today is the longest recorded prayer in Acts, which begs the question, why is it here? Like if the Christians were praying throughout Acts, then why did they stop here to record some long prayer? When you think about it, when you listen to someone pray, you find out two things about them. You find out their perspective of God and their priorities. You find out their perspective of God. If I listen to you pray, I see how you think about God, your perspective of him, and I also see your priorities. What I mean by perspective of, if I listen to you pray and God is like some handyman who comes in and fixes your problems only when things get bad, it reveals that your perspective doesn't see him as in control. But if you pray, oh God, would you save this person and heal this person, it informs me that you believe in a God, you have a perspective of a God who can heal and save. You see that? You learn about someone's perspective of God when they pray, but you also learn about their priorities. If I listen to you pray for a week straight and every day, it's, dear God, you're great. Would you please give me a smoking hot spouse?

Dear God, you're great. Would you please give me a smoking hot spouse? Dear God, you're great. Would you please give me a smoking, that reveals your priority. Do you see it? It reveals your perspective and your priority. And in the face of persecution, what is their perspective of God and their priority? This is the sermon right here. Point one, they have a big view of God. In point two, they have a bold mouth. They have a big perspective of God, but their priority is to have a bold mouth. So let's unpack it. First, they have a big God and it is what we need as we face resistance. Look how the prayer begins in verse 24. Sovereign Lord. First thing we see, he's owner. There is a place for daddy God and Abba Father, but you need room for a sovereign Lord, okay? That word sovereign literally means master of the house. It implies ownership. Everything belongs to him. Do you have this big of a view of God? Prayer continues. Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea and everything in them. The second thing, he's creator.

Everything doesn't just belong to God. Everything was made by God. If you ever get bored going on, is it the... Hubble telescope website, the crazy photos. I brought one. This is of a galaxy three times bigger than the Milky Way. That has nothing to do with your 9 a.m. meeting tomorrow. But the sovereign Lord made it and upholds it. Do you have that big of a view of God? My wife, Audrey, I found out on her honeymoon, she's never seen a big mountain. Like she had never seen something bigger than a hill in Georgia. And so we, this summer, went to Rocky Mountain National Park. Incredible. But the best part was watching her reaction. She goes, it's just like the photos. Can you believe it? God made that. And then she'd look at the squirrel. God made that squirrel. God made that acorn. Can you believe this? Here's a picture of the bumpy snailfish. It was discovered this past fall. Look how cute that thing is. No one knew about it until 2025, but it's been existing, its species has been around longer than your life.

Who made it? Not Chad GVT, the sovereign Lord. Here's Quad God. Who made Quad God? Not Snoop Dogg. This God. Who made you? Who made all creation? Your T-shirt may say made in USA, but you and all of creation have an invisible tag on it that says made by God and made for God. And if I could just push you for a second, the fact that God is owner and creator ought to both comfort you and challenge you. It ought to both comfort you and challenge you. What do I mean? Comfort in the sense that it means if you belong to God, you don't belong to your mean boss. If God's your owner, they don't own you. It gives you a comfort in the midst of chaos when someone's taking advantage of you that I don't belong to the powers at play. Do you see the comfort that gives? But it also challenges you. Why? Because you did not vote to exist. You did not choose to be born. You did not choose to be created. Therefore you don't get to choose where meaning is found. So to construct an identity or find a meaning

because it works for you, but it's away from your design is to self-destruct. It's like a dog trying to be a bird. He can strap wings on its back and tuck its hind feet back. But in the end, when it jumps, it's gonna smoke the ground. And if you try to construct an identity or a meaning apart from how you were designed, self-destruction. The prayer continues. Verse 25, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit. The next thing is he's revealer. He's owner, creator, and revealer. If you just take the subject and the verb of the sentence of this prayer, they're just saying, God, you spoke. God spoke. The Christian is not a deist. We do not believe God created in seven days, clocked out, cashed in his 401k, bought a house in Cabo, and now just sits on the couch watching sitcoms. No, he's a revealer. From the start, he has been beckoning with his creation, revealing himself, saying, know me, find your purpose in me, find your joy in me. He's a revealer. I'll put it plainly. If you wanna know God exists, look into nature. That's Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, or look into morality. Morality points to a moral judge and source.

If you wanna know God exists, look to nature. If you wanna know what God thinks, what he sounds like, how he talks, he's spoken. So read. Don't rub a crystal ball or look to the stars. He's spoken. But if you wanna know what God looks like, he's revealed himself in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. If you wanna know what God looks like, look at Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. If you've ever wanted to know how can I comprehend God, look at that man. There's a point in a commentary on this passage that my wife and I have been loving this week, is the commentator is trying to describe this, and he offers an illustration of a mom praying with her son at night. So imagine a mom and her son praying on the edge of the bed at night. Mom's praying, she finishes the prayer, and then the son looks up at her and says, mom, I think I like you more than God. And she's like, oh, don't say, what? Oh, no. But what do you mean? And, And he said, because I can hug you and I can't hug God. And I love the commentator goes on to say, oh, would you see in the gospel? In Jesus Christ, God became huggable.

Isn't that beautiful? In Jesus Christ, he became seeable. If you wanna know what God is like, look at him. And that's why they moved to quoting Psalm 2 in this prayer because Psalm 2 is about God revealing his anointed or his Christ or his appointed son who would rule over all the nations, but it's also about God ruling. So the fourth thing is he's ruler. Do you have a big view of God that sees him as ruler? These people do. Look at their prayer. Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples plot in vain and the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. And then they're like, wait, that's Psalm 2, but that just happened. Verse 27, for truly in the city, there were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the Jews to do what your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. So they're praying. Remember, group of friends in a room praying, seeing the bigness of God. And they bring into mind the crucifixion, the cross of Jesus Christ. Why? Because at the cross of Jesus Christ,

everything looks out of control. Think about it. You have the person who's supposed to being king, being ruled. You have the innocent one being treated as guilty and the guilty people are getting away with it. Everything looks out of control, right? This is supposed to be the king. This is supposed to be the savior and he's dying. That doesn't make sense. But these people have such a big view of God that they see that and say, oh, that was right on script. You weren't off script. You weren't reactive or responsive. This is exactly what you predestined, what you pre-planned. The point is the purposes of God always win. Human responsibility and choice and God's predetermined plan both exist, surprise. Where they meet is probably somewhere in eternity as Charles Spurgeon used to say, but they both exist. But the point is, no matter what, the purposes of God always win. God will take what looks like a loss, tallied up as a loss, Christ is on the cross, and make it the ultimate win. He takes what looks like the game losing play and makes it the game winning play. Do you see it? This is the ultimate trick play. The flea flicker, the hook and ladder,

the Philly special, the fumble rooski. How about the cross of Jesus Christ? Because they thought they were putting the son of God to death, but he was putting sin to death. He was putting death to death. It's the ultimate trick play. They thought they were tackling the quarterback to the ground, but the ball was in the end zone because the purposes of God prevail. Why are they praying this? Because it gives them perspective. If God was in control then when Jesus was being rejected, surely he's in control now when we're being rejected. If God could take the worst day in human history and turn it into the most beautiful thing ever known to man, oh, he can take my tiny little bad day and turn it into something good. Do you see that? I'm gonna be honest with you. I do not know God's predetermined plans for your life. And if I told you I did, you should probably run. But I do know even if you can't see his plans or what his hand is doing, you can trust his heart. As the old poet, Dora Greenwell wrote in 1873, I love this. I tell myself this often when life looks out of control. I am not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned. I only know at his right hand is one who is my savior. You can trust him because the one in control is for you.

Or see the more modern quote of John Piper. This one's great. God is always doing 10,000 things in your life and you may be aware of three of them. Does that hit you in the face or what? For the one person looking at that one thing, God, I can't believe you're doing this. How about those 9,999 other things he's doing for his glory and your good? It really comes down to three options when you think about your perspective of God. You can have no view of God, you can have a small view of God, or you can have this big view of God. No view, small view, or big view. No view, you can think God doesn't exist and I honestly don't care if he does. But to that person, I would say, do you really think human history is just nosediving? You don't believe that. You deeply want the pin of the story of humanity to be in someone's hand. You don't want no view of God. to the person with a small view of God. If God is just your maintenance man that comes in to help you with your problems whenever it gets bad, you need a God who can control, not who can just come in and fix. So you need this big view of God, who is owner, creator, revealer, and ruler.

And these people do, and that's why their first prayer request is simply look. Verse 29, and now, Lord, look upon their threats. It's, the word is literally gaze upon. God, would you fix your eyes on our situation? It's brutal, it's bad, would you just see it? This is scary, we need you to see it. I love the Greek word used there for look is rare in the New Testament, and it's only used about God. In other words, there's a looking that only God can offer into your life. And so I don't know what your struggle is or where you're experiencing resistance, but the God of the universe can offer you a look, eyes that a spouse or a counselor can't. That's their first prayer request, but then their second prayer request turns us to the second half of their prayer, because it reveals their priority. Look what they pray, verse 29. Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. They could have prayed for judgment. God, would you strike down those guys with lightning? Rescue? They could have prayed for comfort. God, would you just bring us some Turkish delights and a beer? But they don't.

They pray for proclamation. They pray for a bold mouth. They pray for evangelism. And that's part two of the talk is that they want bold mouths. They had them, we need them. We ought to be evangelistic. Christianity is both contemplative and communicative. It's both. What does it look like for us to have a bold mouth? Well, let's just learn from them. First, speak. They pray to continue to speak your word. They're just asking, God, we wanna talk about your gospel. I love that they call themselves servants. They're servants who speak, not consumers who keep quiet. One of the most common objections to evangelism or having a bold mouth for the gospel is this. That's not for me. That's not for me. That's his job who gets paid to do it, but that's not for me. Barna has been asking people since 1993, is it the Christian's responsibility to share their faith? In 1993, 89% said, yes, it is. In 2018, only 64% said yes. In other words, something's happened in discipleship where we no longer see it as necessary to talk about it.

Another study recently reported that 47% of millennials agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share your faith. But notice this passage. It's not just the popular preachers asking for boldness to speak. It's the group of friends. It's everybody. And notice throughout Acts, it's not just the leader standing up and preaching. It's the everybody's, men and women, all kinds. And then when you look into the early church, I have nothing against the evangelism method of bringing your non-believing friend to hear someone like myself present the gospel, but that just simply didn't exist in the early church. Because if you would have brought a non-believer to church, they could have murdered the whole church. You didn't know if you were accidentally bringing a Roman soldier who was trying to kill Christianity. The scholar on the early church, Michael Green, writes this. He says, 80% or more of the evangelism in the early church was done by ordinary Christians, just explaining their life to their friends and family. Evangelism is not about preference. It's about necessity and obedience. What do I mean by necessity? You have to speak the gospel in order for someone to be saved. Paul says, how can someone believe if he doesn't hear?

And how can someone hear if no one talks? Therefore, it's necessary to speak because someone needs to hear in order to believe. And therefore, you must speak for someone to hear. But it's also obedient. You don't make disciples and be my witness. You don't make a disciple by being like, wear this t-shirt. Okay, you're a disciple. No, you communicate, you teach. He said, be my witness. A witness by definition talks. Imagine being a witness of the risen Christ. Just think with me for a second. Being a witness of the risen Jesus Christ. Oh, it's you. You're not a ghost. What? Can I see the scars? Oh my. Can you eat this thing? Oh, oh, you're not a ghost. And he's just like, be my witness. Tell people about this. Oh, absolutely. If this is real, this means my sins are forgiven. This means my hope is secure. This means my small little problem at work is nothing compared to the story you're writing. Oh my goodness, all my dreams come true.

Here you are. And then imagine two months later, you're in the marketplace. Someone comes up to you. Hey bro, have you heard about this Jesus stuff going down? Like supposedly some guy claimed to be divine and like everyone went nuts. The Jewish people were going nuts, the Romans were. They put him on a cross and then he died, but then supposedly he was in a tomb. And I'm not joking. I didn't read this on like some crazy news source. I actually heard he rose from the dead. Have you heard about this? Do you know anything about this? And imagine if you heard that and responded, yeah, I don't talk about that. I can give you a guy's card who does, but the weather looks nice today. I think the rain may help the snow go away. Yeah, I don't really talk about that, but you can talk with this guy about that. To say this is not for me is to misunderstand discipleship. If you're a witness, witness. You see it? So speak. Number two, speak Jesus. They pray to speak your word or speak God's word and acts that your word is more specific

to the gospel message. One of the most common evangelism objections is this. I don't have all the answers. You heard that one before you said it? That's okay. Neither did they. Remember the last chapter, they were uneducated, ordinary men. Your job is not to be an answer book, but an arrow. Not an answer book who has every answer to every weird Bible question, but an arrow that points people's sick souls to Christ. Be an arrow. Speak the simple gospel about Jesus. It is a unique message. There's nothing like it. It's not all roads lead to God. It's God's come to us in Jesus Christ. A unique message of good news. It's good news, not bad news. It's the greatest news. The unique message of good news about Jesus Christ. It's about him that is grounded on evidence. People actually saw him. There is evidence of the empty tomb. And if you don't know what to say, here's my greatest evangelism hack. My biggest hack of having a bold mouth. Ask questions. I love getting in an Uber and asking.

So what do you think about Jesus Christ? I don't even tell them I'm a Christian and then they just go on a ramble, ramble, ramble. It is the biggest hack in the world is just to get the other guy talking. And then when the time comes in a gentle manner, you just say, hey, here's what Jesus says about himself. Have you considered this? So ask. Speak the simple gospel about Jesus. Invite the spirit to help. But I would say just start the conversation. Our job is to be an arrow, not an answer book. That's number two. Number three, speak Jesus boldly. I don't mean bigly or extroverted or violently screaming on the street corner. This past fall, I got to go to London for the first time and immediately wanted to go to Westminster Abbey. So we get there. I've been in London for three hours. This is my first taste of it. And I see a street preacher. We're walking by one and he's really getting after it. And I can just feel his gaze on me. And I'm wearing a shirt that says something beach. And I can feel his gaze follow me. And he just goes loud into the microphone. See you in hell, beach boy. And I was like, well, first off,

I won't be there because I know a guy. That's not bold, that's big. And it's big and rude. What I mean by boldness is courage. It will take courage for you to talk about Jesus in your life. There is no coincidence that the Greek word for witness is martis, which sounds a lot like what word? Martyr. There comes a small death. Gratefully for us in this place, probably not a real death, but some small death to your reputation, to your friendship, to a family relationship, or to your career in talking about Jesus. And to you, I would just encourage you, the joy of knowing Christ and making him know will completely outweigh whatever cost that is. Whenever I was in college, like I said earlier, I was a part of a large fraternity, 200 to 300 guys. And every spring they would give a moment for senior speeches. And I remember two of them. I remember one time a guy who was really liked got up there and said, okay, guys, so many great memories with you. Love them all. The best advice I could give you is go to the party, make the friends, stay up late, fail the test. And I'm like, fail the test?

But then he gets to the point of faith, then he says, in faith, it's important, you should have it. But that's a private matter between you and God. And everyone kind of liked that. And I was like, huh. That was a complete misinterpretation of Romans 14. But then I remember another guy who everyone respected, not because he was the cool dude in the room, but because he had character. And everyone respected him. And he got up there and he said, hey guys, you mean so much to me. I've enjoyed these memories we've made, but I do have to be honest with you about the most important thing in my life. If I have a moment to be honest with you with this microphone, here's what I have to say is that forgiveness, freedom from shame, hope, real life, meaning, all of it's found in Jesus Christ. And I've found it and I want you to find it too. And the message of the gospel is not that we work ourselves to him, but that he has come to us. And he stands before all of us saying, believe in me. And remember, as he said that, there's like a group in one corner of the room that's like giggling and laughing at him for crying as he's talking about his faith. But in the other corner of the room, there's me with my hat pulled low

because tears are in my eyes, because that was the message I had been needing to hear my whole life. Oh, don't you see it's worth the cost for the joy of someone knowing Christ. Speaking boldly, pray for boldness when you need it. Fourth, we speak, God saves. This is the division of labor. We speak and God saves. Look at verse 30, grant us to continue to speak your word with boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. They open their mouths, God heals. They speak, God saves. One of the objections to evangelism and having a bold mouth is it won't work. Here's the answer, you don't make it work. You don't save the people, God does. You are not responsible for the results. You are responsible for the proclamation. There's usually two people in a sermon like this. There's two camps of people. There's one camp that loves part one, sovereignty of God. Yes, that's amazing, big God. But then we get to part two and you're like, no, we don't need to do that because God works it all out in the wash. But Acts confronts you and says, you must preach. How are they to believe if they don't hear and if no one talks, you must preach.

Don't throw out evangelism. But then there's another camp that loves this part. Loves, it's all about sharing your faith, but the idea that God is in control freaks you out. But I would just challenge you, you can't convert the person. He's the one who heals, he's the one who saves. I love this J.I. Packer quote. In the Bible, divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not enemies. They're not uneasy neighbors. They are not in an endless state of cold war with each other. They are friends and they work together. The fifth and final thing is to pray. Nothing will light your heart on fire for having a bold mouth like prayer. If you want a bold mouth, bend your knees to him. And I recommend just praying through these things we just went through. Pray to speak, pray for opportunities to talk. Pray to speak Jesus. Like pray that God would give you clarity in a compelling way to present Christ. Pray for boldness. You will face some resistance and rejection. And then pray for God to heal and save. He saves, we don't. But then look what happens after they pray. This is amazing. And when they had prayed,

the place in which they were gathered was shaken. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Three things happened after they prayed like that. Place changed, people changed, proclamation continued. I wonder if we prayed like this, if this place would feel different, if it changed. I wonder if people would change. People walking in sin would be filled with the Holy Spirit. And I wonder if proclamation would continue. And I'm not talking up here, I'm talking in your life. Monday, 7 a.m. to Saturday, 10 p.m., proclamation continues. So in some, how is the Christian to respond to resistance with a big God and a bold mouth? A big God and a bold mouth. A big view of God and a mouth that is bold in proclaiming the gospel. So in the same way, Paul Devlin wrote that letter in 1981. Dear universities, I reject your rejection. Here's my attempt at our rejection letter. You ready for it? Sorry if it's corny. Dear world, with most love and respect, we reject your rejection. You can take our comfort, but you cannot take our Christ. You can lock us up, but you can't shut us up. You can threaten us, but the gospel will thrive. You can mock us, but the tomb is empty. You can try to bury Jesus as a thing of the past, but he's living and ruling and saving so fast.

And because he lives, we speak. We speak him to you today and tomorrow till he comes and makes all things new. How do you reject the rejection? You keep presenting him, boldly, with a big God and a bold mouth. Mark Dever, pastor down the street at Capitol Hill Baptist, has an incredible book on evangelism. And he begins by giving you an inspiring story of someone who lived this kind of life with a big God and a bold mouth. His name was John Harper, Scottish preacher. Born in 1872, became a Christian when he was a teenager and immediately was just excited about talking about Jesus. So much so he'd work in the mill by day and preach by night. Ended up starting a church in London. What began with 25 people, 13 years later, was 500. Along the way, he was married, had one daughter, and then his wife passed, so it was just him and his six-year-old daughter. He was asked to come preach in the United States, in Chicago, and so they boarded a ship from England to the States. And in the middle of one of the nights, he wakes up his daughter and tells her, sweetie, the boat has just struck an iceberg and the ship's sinking.

They were on the Titanic. And he told her, a lifeboat's coming to rescue you, hop on it. And so he sends her off. And the story goes that the day of and as it's happening, he's just walking around the Titanic saying, are you saved? Believe in Christ. Are you saved? Believe in Christ. Are you saved? Believe in Christ. And then supposedly, the story's told that a couple of years later, a man stands up in a prayer meeting and shares his testimony. And he says, I became a Christian the night the Titanic sank because I was floating on a piece of debris in the freezing cold Atlantic. And then a wave pushed another man over, floating on a piece of debris. And the man said to me, the man was John Harper, he said to me, man, are you saved? I said, no. He said, believe in Jesus Christ, and you will be. And the wave took him away. But then the wave brought him back. He says, are you saved now? He said, no, I'm not. He said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then after that, he sank into the ocean to his death. But that man said, sitting there, floating in the water with a piece of debris, with two miles of freezing cold water below me, I believed in Jesus Christ. I was his last convert. What is going to be the parting plea of your life? I sure hope it's not eat less calories. I sure hope it's not have more sex. I sure hope it's not travel to this place. Sure hope it's not watch this show. I sure hope it is believe in the Lord Jesus. What is the parting plea of your life? Oh, you want it to be that. My grandmother is very healthy, but she has had multiple meetings with me about her funeral, which is quite funny. She wants me to do her funeral, and she's like, I wanna talk about this. I'm like, but you're doing well. And we're sitting down talking one day about her funeral. Again, she's doing well, so this is quite humorous. And I'm like, okay, you have a beautiful, you're a beautiful gardener and incredible family. You want me to talk about that? No. Talk about Christ. Point them to Christ. Okay, but do you want me to talk about this thing or that? No.

Talk about Christ. Do you want me to talk about you? No. Talk about Christ. What is the parting plea of your life? I sure hope it is believe in this man. And even more important than your parting plea to the world is his parting plea to you. Jesus Christ is looking at you today and saying, come to me. I'll never leave you or forsake you. The most important thing about your life is how that message goes into your ears and whether it seeps to your heart or you reject it. He stands before you today and every day. Come to me. Come to me. I'll never leave you or forsake you. That's an invitation. Let's pray. Amen.