It is quite unnerving to see a grown-man sobbing uncontrollably.

This is what I saw as I went to visit a gentleman in hospital who had been told that he had only days to live. He was in constant tears because he was scared about what would happen to him when he died.

Facing death without any assurance in salvation is dangerous and terrifying.

And yet so many people are in this very situation, numb to the reality of their coming judgement by Jesus as they will meet him at their death.

When I met with this man in hospital, I asked him if he believed that Jesus was the Lord of the universe, and if he had asked Jesus to forgive him. The man nodded his head and said, “yes.”

But he was crying because he didn’t think that believing this was enough to gain salvation from Jesus.

I then turned to one of my favourite parts of the Bible, where the two criminals being crucified with Jesus were in conversation with him, in Luke 23.

One of the criminals rejected Jesus, but the other simply asked Jesus to “remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus’ response was “truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

There was nothing that the criminal who followed Jesus could do except tell Jesus that he trusted in him as his Lord, and to simply surrender himself to Jesus’ rule.

And it brought an immediate and significant result: forgiveness, forever.

And with this, I told my friend on his deathbed that if he also had said these things to Jesus, then the assurance Jesus gave to that criminal was already his to enjoy.

And then the man stopped crying, and he never sobbed again. He enjoyed certainty for eternity.

What about you? Are you scared of dying? Why don’t you come to Jesus right now and enjoy true peace and comfort?

Have you ever stopped to think about what you get out of church?

After all, we encourage people to carefully evaluate whether their investment of time or money or emotions is returning a good dividend.

So, if you had a membership with an organisation that didn’t give you sufficient benefits, then you might decide to leave and join elsewhere.

But church is very, very different.

That’s because the Christian church is the ultimate service organisation.

At its heart is Jesus, who is the ultimate example of the greatest servant of all, giving his life for those of us in his church.

And our response must be to serve, too.

Sometimes, when you’ve been coming along to a church for a while, it’s easy to start to feel less connected with what’s happening around the place.

My experience with joining a new church many years ago as a parishioner (not as the minister) was that it was only when I got myself ‘on the roster’ that I really felt that this new church was now my church.

If you’re new and you’re not yet ‘on the roster’ then we’d love you to be part of the action.

And if you’re a regular who has fallen off the roster for some reason, then you’re invited to jump back on, if you’re willing and able.

After all, as we read in 1 Corinthians 12, we are all members of the one body, and that one body has many different parts.

And as we look to the inspiration of Jesus as we seek to serve each other, we may well find that as we give to others we then get a whole lot more out of church than we did before!

For, we all have a part to play, and as we play that part, we all feel more a part of the place!