“I’m a good person, I don’t anyone any harm, I go to church, I’ll get into Heaven.”

“Won’t I?”

Hi, Bill here, 223 nationalities. 

on the road to the day of Pentecost, which, of course, is a week on Sunday, Pentecost Sunday.

233 nationalities. I have it on my car. I have it on most of my T shirts and sweatshirts, I don’t have it this one I’m wearing today, the old Scottish Thistle is on this one. But all the rest of them, I have got my logo, if you like, 223, on everyone. Consequently I have a lot of interesting conversations with people. For instance, in the morning, motorway cafe,  somebody says. Is that your Mini outside with 223. What’s that about? Carpet fitter comes in and says, “What’s 233 about on your car? I’m in a restaurant, some guys are talking, I interject with them, and then one of them says after a few mos, “What’s 223 about on your polo shirt.” So I have a lot of conversations, a lotta chats about 223. So if you follow me online, then you’ll know what 223’s about, if not, go back to my very first video on  about the 4th of October or somewhere about there.

 Anyway. The 233 Conversations are about God, and this next month, just about start a whole heap of conversations about God over the next six or seven weeks. But one of the ones that usually comes up is people start talking to me and they say, ‘Oh I go to church, I’m a religious person. ‘

And I say, yeah, but are you a Christian?” 

Well, I was baptised. 

“Yeah, but are you a Christian? “

Well, my mom and dad brought me up to go to church. 

I say “yeah, but are you saved, do you know you’re born again?”

 Well, I’m a church member.

 And I says, ‘ but, you know, it’s one thing to have an institutional or a religious faith,  It’s another to have a personal faith, so when you’re praying and you say, “Father,” you’re talking to the Lord for yourself.” 

So, for instance, I had a conversation with somebody a few days ago, and they said. They went to church. 

I said, “That’s very good.”

But they said that they had never had communion. I said, “so you go to church? All these years and never had communion, a person of your age.”

I tried to be gentle.

 This is well, I just, I don’t take communion. 

I says, “You don’t know the Saviour, do you?”

 And they says, No, I don’t.

 I said, “So, you’ve gone to  a church all these years, baptised an infant, but you’ve never made a personal confession of faith yourself?”

 No!

So, you see, you can have a Christianity as a religion. You can enjoy singing the hymns, listening to the preaching, singing the psalms, enjoy the community of faith, but never really know the Christ of the church, never know the Christ of Calvary.”

 You know, parents do good by their children don’t they? They try and bring us up right, send us to Sunday school, they send us to Church youth clubs, they get us baptised, all these things to try and point is in the right direction with some moral background, moral teaching, but there was a guy came to Jesus one night and he was a religious man, like many, he had a belief in God, things about God, but Jesus said, youve got to be born again. And Jesus had a discussion with him. So he had an institutional or religious faith, but he didn’t have a personal encounter or personal faith with the Lord himself. 

And then on another occasion, Jesus was talking with a woman about spiritual things, and she liked to debate whether people should worship in this building or on this mountain, in this place etc.

Jesus talked about having a relationship with God very personal, one that satisfies the deepest needs of the human soul. And it seems to me that Jesus was able to talk to people from whatever background they were from, whatever questions they had, in order to bring them to a place of spiritual awakening and being born again.

It  means exactly what it says, it means, being born again, it means a whole new heart, a whole new start, a new life, the old is past, and God says, Behold, I make all things new. I’ll give you a new heart, your sins and your iniquities I’ll remember them no more.

 I said to this person that I was talking with the other day. “ Suppose you were to die tonight,”and I got this question from a Presbyterian by the way, I thought it was a great question, I said, “if you were to die tonight, and God was to ask you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you say?”

 Well,  I’ve gone to church all my life. I’ve been a good person. I don’t do anybody any harm. 

I said, “So you don’t need Jesus, then, do you? Because you see Jesus died for our sins. He died so that we could have a personal relationship with God, so we could have a new life. so that we could call God Father, and it seems to me you’re talking about good works, having a religious belief, but you don’t know the Saviour. You think you can get into heaven because you go to church because you’ve been christened and not because Christ died on the cross and shed His blood for our sins.”And they said,” I know, I know what you’re saying.” 

 “People know they should use toothpaste, but they don’t. And it’s only when you apply the toothpaste, it does your teeth any good? It can sit in the tube all it likes. And it’s the same with the things of God. You can have a head knowledge about the things of God, but unless you apply it personally to your own heart and life and tell God, thank you for Jesus, thank you for your love for me, personally.. Then you have a belief in God, and you may be a righteous person. But is your heart right with God. Or do you compatmentalize your faith? As in ,that’s my religious life, and this is my life. But when a person comes to Christ, Christ died on the cross for our sins, we give him our life, we give him our heart, we give him our hopes, our dreams, our failures, our past. And he takes care of us in the future.” He said, “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am they may be also. “

So as we journey to this year on 223 conversations with 223 nationalities I’m hoping to speak to a lot of nationalities over the next few weeks. And we’re posting little videos, short ones, so they won’t take up too much of your time because time is precious, very precious. Three score years and ten, I’ve got a birthday coming up. 9th of June on which I’m going to be 66. 

Hey, an old 66. 

There you go, bless you, you have a good day. Nice to talk with you about being born again and having a personal relationship with God not just an institutional one regardless or nationality.

Think about it. 

Nicodemus went away and thought about it. 

The woman at the well, she went away and talked to friends about it. 

Their hearts were changed. 

God Loves You.

 God bless you.