October 28, 2022 Show with Jimmy Contino on “Reaching Young Minds With the Gospel on the #1 College Campus for Lost Students”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century Gospel Minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the Church and the world today.

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Proverbs 27, verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have a view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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And now, here's your host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com. This is

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Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 28th day of October 2022.

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In fact, I would ask all of you to say an extra prayer for me today because today happens to be my precious late wife

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Julie's birthday, and I miss her dearly, and days like this, the grief can be more intense than it may typically be on other days, so I appreciate you lifting my name up to the

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Lord's throne of grace and prayer today. I am very happy to have as a first -time guest somebody that was referred to me by his father.

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Perhaps some of you may have heard me interview, not so long ago,

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Pastor Jason Contino, who is the associate pastor at Harborview Christian Church in Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York.

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I enjoyed that interview so much that he afterwards said, you should get my son on the program because he is involved in a very important church plant and mission work in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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So I took Pastor Jason Contino upon his suggestion, and today we have the honor and privilege of having

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Jimmy Contino on the program. He is a former president of the Fellowship for Christian Athletes at Elon University in North Carolina, who received his master's degree in Christian ministry at Southeastern Theological Seminary, and is now involved in planting

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Port City Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he is the student director working with youth, mainly focused on university students.

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And Jimmy is going to be addressing reaching young minds with the gospel on the number one college campus for lost students.

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And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you for the very first time ever to Iron Trip and Zion Radio, Jimmy Contino.

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Chris, thank you so much for having me. What an honor it is. It's an honor to have you on the program.

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We have a tradition here, Jimmy, whenever we have a first -time guest, and that would even include when

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I recently interviewed your dad, we have that guest give a summary of their salvation testimony that would include the kind of religious atmosphere in which they were raised, if any, and the kind of providential circumstances our sovereign

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Lord raised up in their lives that drew them to himself and saved them, and I would love to hear your story.

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Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thank you for that opportunity. So I was raised by two wonderful parents who you know,

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Christine and Jason. My mom was Catholic for most of my life and most of her life.

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She was raised in a Catholic home, and she raised my brother and I in the Catholic church. It was more of a traditional thing where we would go on Easter, Christmas Eve, and we went through our sacraments and all those kinds of things, and my dad was a former

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Jehovah's Witness. So he was a Jehovah's Witness from age 10 to 20, became agnostic right before he met my mother, and my dad was agnostic for most of my life.

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But I have two wonderful parents and a wonderful family, and we're all so close. But I pretty much left the

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Catholic church, the Catholic faith, gradually as I got older, and soccer kind of took replace of that and became my

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God for most of my life. Yeah, I played soccer at a high level from a young age, and you know, went over to England for a few trips and things like that, and ended up playing university.

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And soccer was my main focus, was my main God, and it wasn't until I was 19 years old until I met

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Jesus. And it's quite a long story, but a beautiful story, and I don't have to go into every detail, but when

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I was a freshman in college, I get a phone call from my dad saying that he started to go to church, and he wanted me to take a weekend off and come back to Long Island and come to church with him.

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And I was going to school at the time, Fairfield University in Connecticut, so I would just have to take the ferry down right over to Port Jeff there, and I could basically walk to church if I wanted to.

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So I told my dad, you know, church is not for me, as you know. I appreciate it, thanks, but no thanks. And that was kind of the end of the story, but I kept getting these phone calls from him inviting me to come back and come to church.

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So basically to get him to stop asking, I decided to go and check out his church.

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And I remember that was the first time I stepped a foot inside of a Christian church. I was 19.

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Now, in order to further entice you to go to church, did he happen to call one of the frequent diners at Amado's restaurant,

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Carlo Gambino, to put an order? Not that I know of, not that I know of.

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If anybody listening has no idea why I brought that reference up, after this live program is over, listen to my interview with Jimmy Contino's dad,

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Jason Contino, that was aired on August 24th of this year on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

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Just go to irontripandzionradio .com and type in the search engine

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Contino, C -O -N -T -I -N -O, and that interview will come up.

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But I'm sorry I interrupted you. Oh, that was all right. That's okay. Yeah, not that I know of.

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So I did decide to go back and check out a church. It was the first time I stepped a foot inside of a Christian church. And my view on Christians were that they were just people who put their hope in something in order to have an excitement about the afterlife.

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I didn't really think they were smart people necessarily. But as I checked out this church and heard the message for the first time,

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I was interested, to say the least. It really was my dad's transformation, coming to know

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Christ, where I began to really be challenged. For him, it was simply two

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Christians who asked him two different questions. The first one was, do you believe the Bible is the inspired word of God?

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And as he answered yes, he began to really dive into the scriptures pretty heavily and began to understand the biblical

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Jesus, not the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And then a few weeks later, he was talking to another guy that he was close with, and he asked him, if you were to die today, where are you going and why?

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And my dad was beginning to justify why he was a good cop at the time, a good detective, a good husband, a good father.

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But then he realized that what he'd read in the scriptures, none of that would amount to being good enough for God.

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And he realized, I need the blood of Jesus, don't I? And it was that that really helped him to see

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Christ and start to go to church. And for me, it was really seeing my father, who was now a new man, a man who would now sit down at the dinner table and read his

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Bible in the morning, a man who desired to pray, desired to go to church.

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My dad was never a very angry person, but he would get angry once in a while. And I remember anticipating when he would get frustrated about something, and I would say, why are you getting mad?

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And he would look at me and say, Jim, I'm not mad, I'm not upset. And just seeing him be radically transformed forced me to think, okay, there's either two options here.

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Either my dad has completely lost it, he's lost his mind, or the other option was he's found something of such great significance that I've missed my entire life.

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And for months and months, I began to challenge him and ask him questions. I began to go to the

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Bible studies that he was a part of and listen. And I began to realize these aren't just people who want to just have a hope for something in the future.

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They're smart people, and these people are very slow to speak and quick to listen with me.

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And it wasn't until I got to school my sophomore year, I transferred down to Elon University.

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And I was far away from home, and I was sitting in my bed September 13, 2017, and I was being challenged for over a year at that time on who

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Christ was, sitting through all these teachings and these Bible studies, talking to my dad. And I realized that all the questions that I was asking, all the challenges that I would bring up, all this nonconference, all this stuff, really it was just a cover -up to be able to sin.

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I knew that if I was going to accept Jesus as my Savior, I'd also have to accept him as my

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Lord and how I'd have to lay down my life of sin. And I didn't want to do that, quite honestly. It wasn't until September 13, 2017, where I was laying in my bed about 2 in the morning, and God made it very clear to me that he did love me and that he did send his son

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Jesus to die on the cross. And regardless of where I've been, what I've done, he did that personally for me.

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And that was the first time in my life when the gospel really hit my heart. That was about five years ago. And I remember crying out to God, sobbing in my bed at the time, begging him to save my soul, and came to faith.

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And it was like the next day I was seeing in color for the first time and haven't looked back since. So that's the story on salvation, the shorter version, if you will, on how

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I came to know Jesus. Now, when did you have a burden upon your heart, a burden placed upon your heart, to begin to reach out to youth with the gospel?

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I would say, Chris, the next day I was sharing with my teammates what happened to me.

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I had a burden for them to come to know the love of Jesus. And I might have looked like a nut at the time, probably still do at times, but I was telling my teammates, guys, you're not going to believe it, but God is actually real, and sharing the gospel with them.

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I remember the first time I got to share the gospel with somebody and they actually came to faith was my best friend,

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Chris DeDome, who a few months after I came to faith, I was back at home for Thanksgiving break, and I get a knock on our door, and it was probably about 11 o 'clock at night, and that wasn't unusual for Chris to come by at that time.

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That was kind of how our relationship was. We'd hang out late, have deep conversations, and I remember opening the door, and my best friend looked wide as a ghost, and he sat down at our table and just started to pour his heart out about how he was struggling with alcoholism and how broken he was, and I remember being just so excited to share with him for the first time who

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Jesus was, and I poured my heart out, and I shared with him the gospel. And I was expecting

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Chris to fall over and give his life to Jesus, but instead he looks at me like I had three heads at the time, and I said, no, that's not it,

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Jim. That can't be it. So I didn't hear from him for two months, and then two months later I get a phone call and it says,

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Jim, I think you're right. I came to Christ, and he's been walking with the Lord ever since, leading AA meetings and all those things and internship with his church.

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But I've had a heart for university students specifically, I think, because I've seen the faith in university.

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I know what it's like to be living completely forced in as college and then also a life to be wrestling and fighting against sin and living by the

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Spirit. So I think university is a place where a lot of people, a lot of kids begin to be challenged.

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They're usually maybe lonely because they're far away from home, and their whole world is sometimes flipped upside down.

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And just knowing where I was when I came to faith, I have a heart specifically, I think, for youth, for young adults.

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And why did you enter into Southeastern Theological Seminary?

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Did you have aspirations to become a pastor, and is that still an aspiration? So I...this

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is kind of interesting. I was going to a church at the time when I was in school, and as I'm going to this church, my girlfriend and I at the time were attending, and I begin to really read the

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Bible on my own. And I start to understand a little bit more of Reformed theology, and I remember calling up my good friends at the time and saying,

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Hey, man, what's going on here? I'm reading in Romans 9. What's up with Jacob and Esau? You know,

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I'm just kind of freaking out. I kid you not,

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I read...I was going through Romans 9 so much that the page ended up falling out of my Bible because I just was trying to understand this, and my church at the time was teaching something a little bit different, you know?

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And he invites me to come out to Mercy Hill Church at the time. By the way, there's nothing that's just a little bit different if a church doesn't believe in the

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Reformed faith. Yeah, I might be being generous, but...

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So yeah, he invites me to come out to Mercy Hill, and I began to form a wonderful community there.

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And this is around the time that I'm graduating from school, and this is my best friend, or yeah, really close friend of mine from down there in North Carolina.

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And he invites me to come out to the church. I go to the church, and I graduate from school, and my plan was to potentially go be a federal probation officer up on Long Island.

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That was my plan. It was not to go into ministry. I figured, you know, if I'm going to go into ministry, maybe that would be later on down the line.

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I would love to do that, but I maybe didn't feel equipped and, you know, just felt like this might be a safer route to do something like being a federal probation officer.

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And the day before I was supposed to go into my interview, I get an email with them saying, we just got a new chief and we're freezing our hiring process.

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So that same friend, Daniel, said, hey, Mercy Hill has this opportunity to do a two -year residency program where you'd be able to focus specifically with university students and get a master's degree.

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So Mercy Hill partnered along with Southeastern Theological Seminary, and we were able to do a cohort where we would be able to receive a degree from Southeastern in a master's of arts in Christian ministry.

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So it was through that program, working at Mercy Hill for those two years, where I was able to be hands -on on campus and be sharing the gospel and doing a lot of evangelism on campus, reading

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Bible studies and things like that, and then where I would also be able to get an education at the time.

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Well, I just hope and pray that the

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Lord continues to use your passion for him and his gospel directed towards the youth and to every other human being that he, by his providence, places you in their path and that whatever his will may be, as far as pastorate positions or whatever,

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I will hope that you and your dad keep me updated on that progress. And how did you become connected with the church -planting work that we are going to be discussing today as our primary theme,

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Port City Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and also, perhaps before you tell that story, give us a little background on Port City Church.

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Yeah, absolutely. So Port City Church, we still haven't launched the church quite yet.

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We have about 60 people, that's including kids, that have moved their lives to different parts of the state and Canada to come here to Halifax.

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A little bit of background on that. Jeremy Dager is one of the pastors that we have,

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Jeremy Dager and Chad McDonald would be the two lead pastors. And Jeremy, a while back, well, he grew up in this area.

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He grew up a little bit in PEI, Prince Edward Island, and would spend a lot of his time in Halifax as a kid.

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And he's always had a heart for Atlantic Canada. And about nine years ago, it was about a year after he helped plant

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Mercy Hill Church, which I was a part of, where it was about a year after that where he began to be challenged and think, man, maybe

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I need to think about planting a church in Canada. And he brought that up to his wife, and his wife immediately said,

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I don't think that's a good idea, and they didn't discuss it until about nine years later, or, yeah, about eight years later.

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And they connected with SEND Network and partnered with another guy,

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Chad McDonald, and were looking at what would be a smart area to plant in Atlantic Canada.

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And they were looking at Halifax, seeing this is one of the fastest growing cities in Atlantic Canada.

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It's the largest city. It is a port city, so that's where we would get the name. So when you reach a port city, you technically would be reaching the world as people would be going out.

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Large international population. So they began to really have their affections, their hearts be stirred for this area specifically.

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And that's where they kind of were getting pushed. And for me personally,

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I was working at the church at the time when Jeremy, one of the executive pastors, was thinking about planting here in Halifax.

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And he pulled me aside and says, you know, Jim, I want you to consider moving to Halifax.

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You and your wife consider moving to Halifax to help us plant a port city church. And I said,

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Jeremy, thanks, but no thanks. My wife, it's kind of funny to joke about this, but when we were in school, she said to me,

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Jimmy, I'll move anywhere in the world with you. I'll go anywhere with you. I just don't want to go further north than North Carolina.

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So I knew in the back of my head, you know, there's no way we're going to Canada. We're not even going further north than North Carolina.

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And she doesn't like the cold, but I brought it up to my wife that day, and we began to pray and pray and cry and cry.

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And I mean, it's a long story, but over time, God truly began to do a work in our hearts.

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Back in 2017, there was a study done by the North Carolina Baptist Convention, where they were looking at cities in North America to see where there are more secular cities, where there wasn't much of a gospel presence in the city, and where the universities were in those cities that didn't have much of a gospel presence at the university.

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And what they were trying to do was they were trying to figure out where would be the most lost universities in North America.

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So they called this study the Forgotten City. This was done back in 2017. It was actually sitting here that I came to face.

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And they do this study, and the study was kind of forgotten about over time.

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But as Jeremy and Chad begin to think about where they want to plant, after they decided on Halifax, they decided to go back and look at that study that was done.

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And they find out the number one on that list was St. Mary's University in Halifax.

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And they figured, you know, we want to have a gospel presence on that campus to help get that name off that list because if we're going to be there, we might as well be doing gospel work on that campus.

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So they reached out to us and said, hey, would you be willing to come and specifically focus with university students in the area to help make that possible?

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And not that that's not happening on campus. That is happening, and there are other gospel -centered churches in the area.

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But through that, we really began to challenge and question, you know, is God leading us in that sort of a direction?

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And we began to ask the question, instead of asking the question, should we go? We asked, should we stay? And the more we began to ask that, the more we realized that we would be staying because of comfort.

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We would be staying because we love our friends. We would be staying because we love the warmth. We would be staying because we want to be close to family.

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And those aren't good enough reasons to not be sent by God to an area such as this.

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And we're going to pick up where we left off there when we return from our first break. If anybody has a question for Jimmy Contino about reaching young minds with the gospel, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence.

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Don't go away. We're going to be right back with Jimmy Contino right after these messages. I'm Dr.

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Joseph Piper, President Emeritus and Professor of Systematic and Applied Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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Every Christian who's serious about the Deformed Faith and the Westminster Standards should have and use the eight -volume commentary on the

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Joseph Moorcraft. It is much more than an exposition of the Larger Catechism. It is a thoroughly researched work that utilizes biblical exegesis as well as historical and systematic theology.

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Dr. Moorcraft is Pastor of Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, and I urge everyone looking for a biblically faithful church in that area to visit that fine congregation.

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For details on the eight -volume commentary, go to westminstercommentary .com, westminstercommentary .com.

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For details on Heritage Presbyterian Church of Cumming, Georgia, visit heritagepresbyterianchurch .com,

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We're now back with Jimmy Contino, and he is involved in planting

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Port City Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he's also the student director where he is working with youth, mainly focused on university students, who is addressing reaching young minds with the gospel on the number one college campus for law students.

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If you have a question, send it to Chris Ormson at gmail .com, chrisormson at gmail .com.

32:31

As always, give us your first name at least, your city and state, and your country of residence. Jimmy, how far along in the process is this actual church plant of Port City Church of Halifax?

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Right, so Chad and Jeremy have been in the works of this for the past couple years.

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I think our goal is to go slower in order to build a solid foundation instead of rushing things along and building quickly where it could collapse.

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We're trying to build a very solid foundation, so we have, like I mentioned, about 60 people who have moved their lives to Halifax, some who are here already.

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We've been meeting online for a while until we all were able to actually move here.

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We've been meeting for probably maybe six to eight months online.

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Before that, we've all been in contact in different ways, but in person, it's been about two to two and a half months of us continually meeting on Sundays, going through teachings, sharing meals together, and things like that.

33:41

So for those that do want to be a part of the launch team, that is possible as well.

33:47

But we do have people who are joining our core team to officially launch the church come

33:52

March. And tell us some more details specifically about the theology and doctrinal positions of the church, etc.

34:01

Right, so we would be a part of the Canadian National Baptist Convention. And basically what

34:09

I could say is the five of us who would technically be on staff would hold to a

34:16

Reformed view of the Bible. I would say we're a biblical church, a gospel -centered church, a praying church.

34:24

But that's the gist of what I would say about Port City. And could you repeat the convention to which it belongs?

34:32

Right, Canadian National Baptist Convention. Okay, that's the first time I'm hearing about it.

34:38

And well, if anybody will repeat this information later, God willing.

34:44

But if anybody has more information that they would like to discover about Port City Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, whether you have friends, family, and loved ones in or near there, or you're going to be vacationing there, or you live there yourself, go to portcitychurch .ca.

35:05

portcitychurch .ca. Now tell us more about St. Mary's College or University, I can't remember exactly the name.

35:15

But is this a Roman Catholic University? Is it a nominal

35:20

Roman Catholic University, as many are? And that would even include, sadly, evangelical colleges and universities in this day and age.

35:31

They have really drifted far from their roots and moorings.

35:37

So tell us about this university, where it has been determined it is the number one college campus for law students in North America.

35:46

Right, so it would fit into that latter category that you mentioned. I would say, historically, it was a

35:52

Roman Catholic University, St. Mary's University. And it would be historically

36:01

Catholic. And even some of the architecture of the buildings, you can tell, has a

36:06

Catholic atmosphere to them. There are chaplains at the university.

36:13

And there is a Catholic presence there. And wonderfully, actually, we've been able to have a solid relationship with the chaplains where they've allowed us to come in and use some of their spaces for some of the work that we're doing, which has been very, very encouraging.

36:35

It's about 7 ,000, a little over 7 ,000 students there at the university.

36:41

And about 118 countries would be represented on that campus.

36:49

So like any other campus, when you would walk on the campus, it would feel secular in those regards.

36:57

But I will say, I do see work being done there. I do see that God is reaching those students, and not just those students, but the other universities in the area as well.

37:10

Even just yesterday, I was on campus and came across a student who we ended up getting into a conversation.

37:16

He had a cross around his neck. So we began to have a discussion what the cross actually means, how the cross actually works.

37:24

And he told me that just two months ago, he began a relationship with Jesus and came to faith.

37:30

And now he's looking for a church. So it's just beautiful to see those things and very, very encouraging of somebody who's on that campus, very new to that campus, just learning the environment, especially coming from where I came from in North Carolina with the church that I was working with there.

37:49

It could oftentimes feel lonely, but God is absolutely moving here as well, which is awesome.

37:56

Amen. And I don't remember how this determination was made that you mentioned in the beginning of the program before the last break, but how was this college,

38:11

St. Mary's, how was it determined that they were the number one college campus for law students in North America?

38:20

Right. So this was done through the North Carolina Baptist Convention. It was basically a task force of individuals who put together this study.

38:30

It began in 2016. It ended in 2017, I believe, or maybe it would have been going on a little bit past then.

38:38

But it was done through the North Carolina Baptist Convention. They paid for the study. And what they did was they were trying, like I mentioned earlier, they were trying to discover where the most lost universities were in North America.

38:51

So what they did was they were focusing on cities, specifically cities where there would be not much of a gospel presence in that city, and then looking at those campuses and seeing if there was much of a gospel presence on that campus, whether there's organizations or not and things like that,

39:11

Christian organizations or not. So I'm not too sure on the details of certain parts of that study, but from my understanding, that's how it was determined.

39:25

Yeah, that's basically what they were doing. All righty. We have, let's see, we have an anonymous listener.

39:37

The anonymous listener says, I've been having difficulty hearing the program due to technical issues, but from what

39:49

I have heard, I am very encouraged to see about what God is doing there in Nova Scotia.

39:55

My question is, what is the typical reaction to a student in Nova Scotia who does not know the

40:05

Lord when you present the gospel to him or her? Is there argumentation?

40:11

Is there appeal to typical leftist answers to questions about eternal issues?

40:21

Is it more of a pleasant indifference? Can you give us more specific answers?

40:29

Yeah, that's a great question, and hopefully you can hear the answer. I think that we would be surprised that if we are intentionally sharing the gospel, going about our day eager to share with people what

40:46

Christ has done on the cross, I think we would be surprised to realize that there are a lot more people actually ready to have that conversation.

40:56

I think a lot of it has to do with the approach. If you go up to somebody and just begin to just preach at them without actually having a discussion with them, you're usually going to get more of a negative response, right?

41:08

So I do think that a lot of it has to do with the approach. What I've realized is that especially at a university, we would say it's very hard to share the gospel at the university.

41:20

I would say that it's actually a lot easier to share the gospel on a university campus.

41:25

Not that it's not scary or intimidating or anything like that, but students, specifically university students, are being challenged on their beliefs all the time.

41:38

They're in the classroom. They were raised a certain way. Now they're being challenged to think outside the box and all these kinds of stuff.

41:46

I don't think it's that uncommon for them to come across people who would have different views than them.

41:54

For me, my specific approach, when I was at Mercy Hill, we had an evangelism coordinator who we brought in to work with our college team who impacted my evangelism immensely.

42:07

He would go on campus with us and model for us what it looks like to go share the gospel. I've taken a lot of what

42:12

I've learned from Josiah Roethlisberger over there at Mercy Hill. But even something as simple as going up to somebody and saying, hey, we're on campus today.

42:23

We're going around to different students and we're asking them if they would be willing to have a conversation about a relationship with Jesus.

42:30

What I've realized is about 50 % of the time or more, students are actually willing to have that conversation.

42:36

That might be a surprise. It might not be. But to me, that was a surprise because I always figured people don't want to talk about Jesus. They don't want to get into a difficult conversation.

42:43

Students are willing to get into those conversations. And what you do when you present it that way of saying, hey, we're on campus today, asking people if they want to have a conversation about a relationship with Jesus.

42:53

Would you be willing to have a conversation with us? What you do is you set the tone for that conversation for the rest of that conversation.

43:01

So if the conversation starts to drift in another direction, you can always say, hey, you know, when we approach you, you agreed to have a conversation about a relationship with Jesus.

43:08

We don't want to do that. That's okay. We can move on. That's totally fine. You know, we're not going to force you to have the conversation.

43:15

But that's what we're here to do. Usually, you know, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm willing to have that conversation. There are times where people are pushy or will push back.

43:26

What I've realized personally is usually the pushback isn't because, isn't because, like I mentioned earlier in my own testimony, that they really need more evidence or are really asking these specific questions.

43:39

The reality is is that our hearts do not want God. They don't want God. It's that our hearts naturally want sin because we are all depraved.

43:50

And I think being able to keep the focus of the conversations on the gospel and not steering off in all these other directions lets the gospel change people's hearts and lives and don't expect nonbelievers to start acting like believers and start believing things of the

44:10

Christian faith before they even can understand the gospel. So that would be, I hope that gets on the question.

44:17

If there's anything else I missed we can address it. Well, I just know that something very important about what you said is something that I have to constantly remind myself about and most people

44:31

I know who are Christians have to remind themselves about it too is that we have to remember not to expect an unbeliever to act, behave, think and speak like a

44:43

Christian. And very often I find myself and so do friends of mine and other brothers and sisters in Christ have shared with me that they have a problem with frustration, anger and impatience with people that they know because they are acting in some way that is an unbiblical, ungodly manner that has placed an additional tension upon the relationship that I or anyone who is having this experience has with others.

45:24

And one of the reasons that we go through this anger and frustration or anxiety or a host of other emotions is because we are forgetting that we cannot expect an unregenerate heart to behave like a new heart that has been given by Christ.

45:45

Absolutely. Absolutely. And being reminded constantly of where you came from especially if you came to faith later in life for most that have come to faith later in life you know where you were.

45:59

I remember very clearly where I was before I met Jesus and it's dark.

46:05

It's a dark place whether you realize it or not. And it has to come from a regenerate heart and getting somebody to vote vote right is not going to bring them into heaven.

46:17

Getting somebody to change their views on abortion is not going to save their soul. Although those things, you know, although you know, biblical truths are vital they're not, the gospel is the focal point and that's what's going to stir the pot and get people to then agree with the scriptures.

46:39

Amen. And tell us about some of in regard to anecdotal experience tell us about some of the encounters that you've had with some of these young people.

46:53

Yeah. Yeah, I yeah, I've had it's still very new we've still only been here for two months but we have had some very interesting conversation and conversations

47:05

I stopped a couple weeks ago I spoke to two brothers and what

47:10

I was doing was I was going on campus and I was basically saying hey,

47:15

I'm new to the area and what we're doing is we're actually helping start a new church here being very honest very transparent, very honest with the students and said hey, we're just trying to understand the spiritual climate of St.

47:28

Mary's University. Would you be willing to fill out a nine question survey and have a discussion and it's very similar to just a method of sharing the gospel those questions are meant to push and challenge certain things and as we're walking through the survey with these two brothers there you can tell when somebody's eyes and heart begin to just have a change and I wouldn't say if these two came to faith in that moment but what happened was they said hey, we we would love to get together we would love to meet up with our friend who who actually says that he's a

48:08

Christian and they tell me they go our friend, our friend you're not going to believe he doesn't he's actually not having sex until he's married so I start to laugh you know, these guys are are you know, think how how crazy that would be but some of those some of those questions that I would ask that is hey, have you ever had a point in your life where you could say for sure that you had a right standing with God and and questions like that that might be worded a little bit differently a question that somebody may have not been challenged with in the past begins to stir affections and I could tell that for these two brothers it began to happen with both of them at the same time it seemed like so that was just very encouraging for me just just being on a campus early on yeah and one of the things that I have even encountered speaking to people much younger than myself is that it's an interesting phenomenon it is counterintuitive to what a lot of Christians may think there are a significant number of young people who can easily recognize when a church is using seeker -sensitive tactics and gimmickry in order to lure them in and I'm not saying that they would use those terms those terms that are usually just found in evangelical

49:45

Christian discussions as far as seeker -sensitive and so on but they those that are being drawn

49:57

I have found in greater numbers than I ever would have thought of or dreamed or expected when they visit a church that is putting on a rock concert performance or they are using gimmicks to appeal to young people from the world the tastes of those that are not even

50:23

Christian typically in order to lure people in so that their numbers grow in whatever congregation that may be and I have heard complaints about that and have even had a young woman who is now saved praise be to God but she actually contacted me because she regretted that she did not want to continue attending a church that I recommended to her

50:51

I recommended it to her not because I had personal knowledge of it I just knew that it was a confessionally reformed church in a very prestigious major reformed ministry recommended the congregation as being close to where this young lady and her husband live and she said

51:13

Chris I really appreciate you giving me the recommendation but I really feel very uncomfortable there it doesn't seem like it's a real worship experience going on it seems like it's a show and this is even before this woman believed she was born again wow so in fact when we return from the break

51:40

I'm going to have you comment on that and if it resembles at all what you have experienced at least with some of the people that you've encountered or spoken with but we have to go to our midway break right now folks and please listen to the commercials and write down as much of the contact information as you can for as many of our advertisers as you can so that you can more frequently respond to our advertisers hopefully you'll be at times purchasing the products they are offering using the services they are offering visiting the churches that they're promoting supporting the parachurch organizations that are advertising but when you can't do those things

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Before I return to Jimmy Contino and more of our discussion on his labors with Port City Church of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and bringing the gospel to young people, especially on college campuses, and even more specifically on the number one college campus for law students in North America, we just have a couple of very important announcements to make.

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RJ in White Plains, New York, who says, although I was having technical difficulties hearing you earlier,

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I can hear you now fine. And by the way folks, that is something unfortunately happening.

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It's not something that happens all the time or even frequently, but our internet provider is having problems and so we are bearing the brunt of their problems.

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And I apologize for that, but the full recording, uninterrupted, will be available shortly on the

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Iron Sherpins Radio website in the archive. But our listener says, have you had any nasty reactions from kids on the college campus as we have seen on the news, not only to just Christians, but to anybody who is even remotely conservative?

01:13:52

Yeah, I think that, again, as I mentioned earlier, it has to do with the approach not to steer away from truth at all.

01:14:01

But if people can see, if students can see that you're being loving and you actually care about them and you're actually going to be, like James says, slow to speak and quick to listen and ready to get to know the students over just trying to have them hear from you alone,

01:14:19

I think that you're going to realize a little bit of a different response from those students.

01:14:26

So has there been that? Absolutely. There are students who, if they know that you're a

01:14:31

Christian or they know that you are more conservative, are definitely not happy with that response.

01:14:37

But I think there's power in the way that you respond in those moments.

01:14:44

And for me, my focus is discipleship. My focus is to build relationships with students and not just get them to an event or get them to some sort of thing going on, but my focus is to build relationships with those students, get to know them, and get to be able to show them how the gospel actually is a reality, a true reality, and important for their lives, not only on earth, but before eternity as well.

01:15:15

So that's just what I would say to that. Yeah, and unfortunately, sometimes you have situations where people who hate

01:15:26

Christ, hate his word, hate the biblical morality that is found within the pages of Scripture, they're not even going to give you an opportunity to say anything.

01:15:38

As soon as you approach a stage, a platform, or a microphone, sometimes, I'm not saying that this always happens, obviously, but sometimes that kind of thing is just shouted down these days, and it's such a shame that college campuses are no longer considered, far too often anyway, places where students can be exposed to debate and the exchange of different ideas seriously considered.

01:16:10

People are afraid of the truth, and they hate the truth, and they just want to drown it out before anybody has any kind of opportunity to present it.

01:16:21

Right, and I would say that sometimes, sometimes, yes, it is persecution. Other times, it could be that we're not handling a conversation as Christ -like as we should be as well, but I absolutely agree,

01:16:40

I mean, that does happen. For me, personally, I haven't, you know, been standing behind a microphone at a university, able to preach a sermon on campus where I would receive that pushback, but that pushback,

01:16:50

I think, for those that do receive that, for those who are preaching Christ, let that be such an encouragement to you, that the

01:16:58

Holy Spirit is with you in those moments, leading you and guiding you, giving you the words to say as Christ, you know, shared with His disciples.

01:17:07

When you go before the synagogues and the authorities, you know, the Holy Spirit will give you the words to say, and relying on Him, trusting in Him in those moments, and I would say

01:17:16

God is absolutely saving His children. It just is happening.

01:17:23

I remember almost a year ago when I was on campus down in North Carolina, and I was training a student in evangelism, and we went up to a kid, and we started, we asked him, you know, very similar approach, asking him if he would be willing to have a conversation with us, and as we're sitting down, neither me or my buddy who was sharing the gospel had any, you know, polished presentation on the gospel.

01:17:48

All that was said was, we were having a conversation with the kid, and he began to share.

01:17:54

He was raised in church, but walked away, and out of nowhere, my buddy who I was sitting with, a university student who

01:18:01

I was discipling, had grown. I was far away from God, and I came back, and man,

01:18:06

Christ died for me, and it's been the most beautiful journey. You should come back, and we watched as this kid broke down in tears, and accepted

01:18:13

Christ in that moment, and so I would just, I would just say that as an encouragement.

01:18:18

There's times like that. There's also times where there is, there is an intense pushback, and if I could just say one more quick story.

01:18:27

When I was in school at Elon, I used to go and speak with Jehovah's Witnesses every Wednesday evening, and a student came by and simply said, what are you guys doing?

01:18:36

This is worthless, and began to walk off. Well, I approached that student, and we began to have a relationship, and we began to talk, and we began to meet weekly for the next two months, and we began to sit, and I got to be able to share the gospel, and talk with him, and he was wrestling with so many different things, and for two years,

01:18:53

I didn't hear from that kid, and I get a phone call around Christmas time, two years later, and I answer the phone, and hey, who's this?

01:19:01

Hey, this is Wallace. This is, you know, Wallace from Elon. Jimmy, I just want to let you know that I came to faith, and I want to thank you for not giving up on me.

01:19:10

I may have never gotten that phone call. I would have never known that that kid came to faith or not.

01:19:16

My job is not to save anybody. My job is to be prepared and to be obedient.

01:19:22

That is where success is found in evangelism. Are you ready to go out and proclaim the name of Jesus with gentleness and respect?

01:19:30

And are you going to be obedient to do that? are you prepared to do that? So that would just be my encouragement. Don't rely on your ability to save anybody.

01:19:39

Be prepared and be obedient. Now, that is extremely important, because it demonstrates one of the key differences in Reformed evangelism and evangelism outside of Reformed theology.

01:19:58

And I'm not saying that Reformed Christians do not forget the actual doctrines that they believe and base their faith upon, because we all can be anxious, even though Christ commands us not to be.

01:20:17

We can all forget that God's in control, at least temporarily, when we are facing a trial or when we are trying to witness to someone who is lost and we become so dismayed and discouraged and even become hopeless when they time after time after time reject the gospel that we are declaring to them.

01:20:43

We have to remember that all we can do is plant seeds and water them, and God is the one that gives the increase.

01:20:53

God is the one that saves souls. He is the author and finisher of the faith, and we should never allow what we are seeing and hearing on this earth to discourage us to the point that we give up, just like this person thanked you for not giving up, because we don't know who

01:21:18

God's elect are. All we do know is that his people are from every tribe and tongue and people and language, and that eventually, if not your evangelistic efforts, but somebody else that comes after you who is a faithful Christian declaring the word, those folks who are of God's elect will come with certainty, and it might not even be in your lifetime, but we can trust in the promise of Christ that his word shall not return void.

01:21:53

Is that not a great encouragement to you as you bring the gospel to the lost, brother?

01:22:00

That's my only encouragement in sharing the gospel. If it was on me, I would have no hope. I couldn't change my own heart.

01:22:07

I can't change anyone else's, and I'm just reminded of 1 Corinthians 3, 5 -7, as you're speaking, and Paul writes, you know, what then is

01:22:14

Apollos? What is Paul? Servant through whom you believe as the Lord assigned to each.

01:22:20

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither she who plants nor she who waters is anything but only

01:22:29

God who gives the growth. That's our only hope. There's so much greater encouragement to know that God is sovereign in salvation, and if you don't accept that sovereignty in salvation, you're going to drive yourself crazy trying to save your family, your friends, your kids, other people around you, but you can rest assured that God has his children that he is going to draw to himself, and Christ promises to raise them up in the last day, as John 644 talks about.

01:23:00

That is just, thank you for that encouragement, brother. That's wonderful. Yes, and remembering to trust in God's sovereignty over salvation should, it doesn't always happen, because like I said, even we who are

01:23:13

Reformed, like all humans, we're sinners, and we can forget the theological, the core theological teachings that we base our faith on, but if we are trusting in God's sovereignty, we are going to be less likely to fall into the trap of using man -made unbiblical methods and gimmicks to win people to Christ.

01:23:48

So many have softened the gospel message to make it more appealing.

01:23:55

They have removed the sting of sin and repentance and the threat of hell to those who reject the gospel from their message.

01:24:07

They wind up being satisfied with adding false converts to their numbers, and that only is going to bring havoc, wreak havoc upon a congregation eventually when you start filling the seats or the pews in your building with goats.

01:24:29

It's not going to be very long before that backfires, and you're even going to have people eventually appointed to leadership who are charlatans.

01:24:41

As my friend Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries has said, it's a great quote, what you win them with is what you win them to.

01:24:53

So, there is no benefit to anybody to deceive a lost person into thinking that they are safe and right with God.

01:25:07

It especially is a very harmful and cruel thing to the person, him or herself, who believes that they're safe in the arms of Christ and ready to leave this earth at any moment because they will be in his arms for eternity, and this person has never been changed at all to begin with.

01:25:29

Right, absolutely. I actually wrote that quote down when you mentioned that before the break, that's funny.

01:25:35

And I heard Votie Bauckham say something this past week, and hopefully

01:25:42

I did his quote justice, but basically he said throughout church history you would see that the main focus in the past was the table, where the bread and the wine would be placed, and the main focus of the church would be structured for the people to be focused on the table.

01:26:00

And then you move to the Reformation and you see the focus now becomes the pulpit, because that's where the

01:26:05

Bible is, and Scripture alone is where we understand the truth of God.

01:26:11

And then now we would see that it's no longer a table, it's no longer a pulpit, but we would say it's a stage.

01:26:18

And why is that? Because the church has gone from sacraments to the Scriptures to the show.

01:26:25

Not to say that if you have a stage in the church you're automatically making a show, but you have young men and women, and old, and young in all this, who truly desire to hear from the

01:26:36

Word of God, to grow in their faith, to be equipped for the work of the ministry, and we've allowed ourselves, the church has allowed themselves to be more concerned about putting on a pleasing thing to tickle ears and to draw people in, instead of focusing on the saints.

01:26:55

People know when they come to church what they're in for. They're assuming I'm coming to hear out of the Bible, usually, and let that be the driving force to exegete the

01:27:05

Scriptures, because truly God is saving and drawing people to Himself to then have them grow, not to just be saved, but to have them be molded into holiness.

01:27:21

We've been saved as a workmanship of Christ to live in holiness, and don't strip that away from those truly desiring to grow in their faith.

01:27:31

Amen. We have Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, who asks, what kind of competition do you have on the campuses there in Nova Scotia with false religion and cults?

01:27:47

So, that's a great question. I haven't dealt with, specifically on campus, any cults or false religions, but personally,

01:27:57

I mentioned to you earlier about my family's history, my dad being raised in Jehovah's Witness cult, and still, you know, extended family members in that organization.

01:28:08

And so, for me personally, I have a heart for those in cults, specifically Jehovah's Witnesses, and I've been meeting weekly with two

01:28:15

Jehovah's Witnesses here in Halifax, who've been kind enough to continue to meet with me, although they know where I stand.

01:28:26

I wouldn't say that that's a presence on the campus as much. I'm sure there are students who may conform to a specific cult or an organization.

01:28:37

Being here two months, I haven't come across that. When I was in North Carolina, we came across Hebrew Israelites, some

01:28:46

Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, who all have a presence on the campuses there. Wow, I would love to see an exchange between a

01:28:54

Hebrew Israelite and a Mormon. You have these two inherently racist religions.

01:29:03

I know that the Mormons have changed their public relations strategy and are no longer technically a racist religion, but the core of their existence is clearly racist.

01:29:18

They used to believe that blacks could not enter into the priesthood, sing in the choir, and that the highest level of exaltation they would receive in the afterlife is to be the slave of whites.

01:29:34

But it would be interesting to see an encounter with black racists and those with a white racist religion at its root.

01:29:46

One thing before we go to our final break, especially since we already mentioned that St.

01:29:54

Mary's is the campus that you're primarily working on, there is really, when it comes to eternity, no difference in a nominal

01:30:10

Roman Catholic who has no gospel at all and a traditionalist right -wing religious

01:30:19

Catholic who has a false gospel. They are both antithetical to the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the

01:30:28

Council of Trent, and the declarations and anathemas from that council centuries ago after the

01:30:37

Reformation to counteract the Reformation. They are still in existence no matter how liberal

01:30:46

Pope Francis is and how much he may even deny crucial tenets of the

01:30:52

Roman Catholic religion. What he has said in regard to his leftist and apostate ideas, he has never said ex cathedra.

01:31:04

He has not pronounced these things as dogma. So a Roman Catholic can actually believe that the pope is lost, but they still view him as the vicar of Christ, which is actually an insane concept.

01:31:18

But how much of a conflict have you seen thus far with those who are either defending the

01:31:31

Roman Catholic Church out of knowledge of what they teach and believe in practice, and also those that are just doing so with a sentimental reason?

01:31:43

There are people who never go to church, or perhaps they go to Christmas Eve mass and Easter Sunday mass, and that's it, but they have a sentimental connection to it.

01:31:54

That's where their family raised them. They hate to think that their families were deceiving them and that their families themselves were deceived.

01:32:06

So has there been any significant Catholic conflict in what you're doing there?

01:32:13

Great question. It's funny you mention that. Being raised a Catholic, although I mentioned to you that I would have claimed to be agnostic for those years leading my teenage years, still if somebody asked me what

01:32:25

I would identify as, I probably would have said Catholic, just because it's ingrained in you as a Catholic to not deny that identity.

01:32:32

It has such a hold on you. You see that quite a bit, especially in the Northeast where I'm from, and I would say it's less in the

01:32:41

South, but then more up here in Halifax. You come across people who would say, oh, I'm Catholic, and you ask them the last time they went to church, you know, seven, eight years ago.

01:32:50

So you mentioned there were those two categories. I would say there's also a third category where there are people who are saved

01:32:58

Christians who are still attending a Catholic church, and that's where I personally would say if you're a saved believer, you believe that you're saved by grace through faith alone, by the blood of Christ, and it was sufficient on that cross that he died for your sins.

01:33:17

He does not need to be placed on the sacrificial table again every time you take the bread. If you believe in the biblical gospel, it's time for you to leave the

01:33:26

Catholic church. It would be time for you to leave. And I would say on campus,

01:33:31

I have met those students. There have been students here who would, as you discussed them, who would say they go to the

01:33:40

Catholic church, and they would affirm the biblical gospel. They would not agree with the Council of Trent saying that if you believe that you're saved by faith alone, let you be in anathema.

01:33:48

They would say you're saved by grace through faith, and the works are a result of your salvation.

01:33:55

If that, and I come across that on campus, and my encouragement to those students, if there's any in St.

01:34:00

Mary's listening right now, my encouragement to you would be it would be time for you to leave the

01:34:06

Catholic church, and just due to a multitude of reasons. So I've come across some of that on campus where there are students who would just say, yeah,

01:34:16

I'm Catholic, have not attended church in years, and if you really ask them about their beliefs, they know they wouldn't affirm

01:34:23

Catholic beliefs, but it's still an identity for them. And then others who

01:34:28

I would say quite often I've actually come across within some of the Catholic organizations there, where they would say they would affirm a biblical gospel, and though they disagree with many things of Catholic church, it's still an identity that they're holding on to, and Christ says to lay down your identity and pick up your cross, so.

01:34:46

Amen. Yeah, that's what I've come across. I was raised Roman Catholic, eight years of Catholic school.

01:34:51

I was an altar boy, and I know that you are not going to be doing anyone any good, not yourself or your

01:35:00

Catholic loved ones, by staying in the Roman Catholic church. How on earth can you participate in the true ordinances or sacraments of Jesus Christ while you're there?

01:35:13

It's an abomination for you to take the mass. It's an idolatrous and false teaching, and so many of the things that are going on are pure idolatry, and you cannot continue to participate in that or even just be indifferent towards them while you're sitting there if you choose not to participate.

01:35:38

You're still there, and your presence gives a seal of approval to those witnessing you on that religion, and I'm not saying that there are not, as you just mentioned, there are true

01:35:51

Christians who are Catholic, but they are truly Christian in spite of the false and damning teachings of Rome, not because of them.

01:36:00

They somehow have heard and believed the true gospel, and they either do not know that Rome is in contradiction to that gospel, or they think that they can remain there as some kind of a good influence.

01:36:16

They think they're going to be the next Martin Luther or something, and that's not going to happen. And let's keep in mind,

01:36:23

Trent occurred after Luther and the Reformation, so there were things going on in the

01:36:32

Catholic church that were idolatrous and damning, but they weren't defined as things that were required to be believed.

01:36:40

Many of them, I'm not saying all of them, there were certainly things that were dogma prior to Trent that were false and damning, but the entirety of the

01:36:53

Reformation was placed under a curse by Rome after the Reformation, so that argument of trying to be the second

01:37:02

Luther is really not going to wash. But anyway, we're going to our final break right now.

01:37:10

If anybody has a question, please send it in as soon as possible while we still have time.

01:37:16

Our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Jimmy Contino.

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Sunday worship service. It's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant.

01:48:55

It's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement. It's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people in healing.

01:49:03

We're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our Lord Jesus Christ in fellowship, play, and together.

01:49:09

Hi, I'm Pastor Bob Walderman and I invite you to come and join us here at Linbrook Baptist Church and see all that a church can be.

01:49:15

Call Linbrook Baptist at 516 -599 -9402. That's 516 -599 -9402.

01:49:23

Or visit linbrookbaptist .org. That's linbrookbaptist .org. We have CJ from Lindenhurst, Long Island, New York, who has a question for you,

01:49:32

Jimmy. He says, are there any theologically sound churches that can rally beside you and behind you when you are involved in these evangelistic efforts?

01:49:43

And are there also solid Christian schools in that vicinity? Great question.

01:49:50

So we have partnered alongside some other churches in the area, some other gospel -centered churches in the area, which has been super encouraging.

01:50:01

Like I mentioned earlier in the podcast, the gospel is being preached.

01:50:07

It is being preached here and we're very, very blessed to come alongside some other churches here in Halifax, in Nova Scotia, some other

01:50:17

CNBC churches, Canadian National Baptist churches. The church seems to be dying out, but again, it is super encouraging to know that there are co -laborers here in the gospel.

01:50:32

So we're very blessed to have that. And I wouldn't say any theologically sound universities that I know of.

01:50:40

We have come alongside a school, Halifax Christian Academy, from kindergarten all the way through high school that we've been running some youth groups with, which has been so great.

01:50:54

So from my understanding, I would have to do a little more research on that for any universities here.

01:51:02

So yeah, that's what I got. We have Arnie in Perry County, Pennsylvania, who says, most of us here in America who are conservative and Bible -believing

01:51:14

Christians watch in horror on the news when we hear about the rise of leftist tyranny in Canada, which seems to be very severe in comparison to what we are experiencing here in the

01:51:30

United States, even as bad as it is here. Has Nova Scotia also been a part of Canada that has experienced the unfortunate, oppressive, dictatorial mandates and laws that are imposed upon Christians in the

01:51:51

Canadian area? I wouldn't say as a new church plant for us, we've experienced much, almost like persecution in that way.

01:52:02

But I will say I was actually with a student this morning, we were going out to help serve with a recovery group for alcoholics and drug addicts where they're going through a program for a year to Christian -based organization.

01:52:20

We're driving out and we were actually having this discussion and he was telling me that as bad as Canada is,

01:52:27

Atlanta, Canada would be worse in those regards. So again, being here still just two months, we haven't experienced much of that, but you walk around the city, you're going to embrace that environment for sure.

01:52:46

I just wanted to quickly, since you brought up people who are dealing with addiction problems for the second time,

01:52:57

I wanted to quickly plug a place where I myself was brought to recovery.

01:53:05

Before I was saved, I was a drunkard, I got saved and put the booze behind me and tragically, after 18 years of sobriety,

01:53:16

I back slid a number of years ago into a very serious level of drunkenness.

01:53:24

And thank God, I discovered Hebron Colony in Boone, North Carolina.

01:53:31

I wanted to plug this place, it's a wonderful place and it's also free of charge. So if anybody listening either is battling addiction themselves or they have a loved one who is, go to hebroncolony .org,

01:53:46

that's H -E -B as in boy, R -O -N, colony .org. And I cannot sing the praises of this place often enough,

01:53:55

I just wanted to throw that in there. Praise God, praise God. And I would also, if you don't mind me adding that if there's anyone from Halifax or Nova Scotia who is struggling with that or knows anybody, we've come alongside an organization called

01:54:12

The Helm, H -E -L -M, and they're just doing incredible work out there,

01:54:19

Christ -focused recovery and just meeting those guys and being a part of that has been such a joy for my soul.

01:54:29

So I just wanted to add that as well. Well, praise God. Well, I want to give you a few minutes of uninterrupted time to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today in regard to your church planning work, in regard to your evangelism to youth on college campuses, and anything else that you care to have our listeners most remember when this program is over.

01:54:55

I really, really appreciate that, Chris. Thank you so much for having me. Like I mentioned earlier, it's an absolute honor to be on your podcast.

01:55:05

I just, you know, since we just were discussing sin, I just want to encourage everyone listening that there's now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that is such a beautiful, beautiful truth.

01:55:19

I think one of the greatest encouragements I find is in Romans 5, where Paul says,

01:55:27

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

01:55:41

Lord. And I just, it's such a beautiful truth. He's such a far better Savior than we are sinners, and I take heart in that, and we can just rest assured that if we're going to make it, it's because of the blood of Jesus, and it's sufficient as a sacrifice to the

01:55:58

Father. So just take heart, and that's where we find our hope and our joy.

01:56:04

I would just mention quickly for anyone, any Christian who is desiring to share the gospel, which it should be all of us, you know, we can have all the strategies and all the things in the world that are going to get us, or that might be great strategies for sharing the gospel, but the greatest strategy is having

01:56:21

Christ be the ultimate joy of your soul. I think of even my parents, you mentioned my parents in the podcast, and I think of them, they've never gone through any specific evangelism training, but they share the gospel more than anybody

01:56:36

I know because they're just lit on fire for Jesus. Think about if you're reading a book or you're watching a show that you absolutely love, you know in the next conversation you get into, you're going to bring up that show or that book because it's just naturally going to flow out of your heart.

01:56:51

Let Jesus be the ultimate joy of your heart so that He naturally just flows out in conversation with others.

01:57:00

He says, if you love me, you'll follow my command. So the focus needs to be how we love Him more today than yesterday, and for our church specifically, there are so many, you know, just prayer, prayer, prayer is what we would ask of you.

01:57:14

Please, please pray for us as we preach the gospels here in Atlanta, Canada, in Halifax, and pray for the other gospel -centered churches in the area.

01:57:26

Pray for my wife and I as well, as it is hard being far from home and far from family.

01:57:34

And pray that, you know, students come to Christ and Haligonians come to Christ and that people would join our launch team and pray just that Christ and the gospel would be the center of our church, that we would not steer away from Christ and biblical truth.

01:57:53

And if you want to support our church, like I mentioned, prayer would be the primary way, but also as a new church plan we could always use financial gifts as well, obviously.

01:58:03

You can go to portcitychurch .ca, that's our website, portcitychurch .ca, and there's ways to give there, there's ways to join our launch team as well, our information of our church, our core values, all those things will be on that website.

01:58:20

But your prayers are greatly appreciated, and my encouragement is just continue to run the race of faith with joy, because the work has been completed on the cross.

01:58:30

It's done, it's finished, so praise God. Amen, and I have to ask you a question. Do you know

01:58:35

Pastor Bruce Bennett of Word of Truth Church in Medford, New York? No, I do not.

01:58:42

Obviously that church is not very far from Port Jefferson, where your dad ministers, but your voice sounds nearly identical to Bruce Bennett, and he is

01:58:55

God willing going to be back on the show very soon, but it's been uncanny listening to you the entire program, and I've been meaning to bring it up, and I've kept forgetting to say that, but if anybody's listening and they know who

01:59:10

Bruce Bennett is, and I'm assuming there will be people from Long Island listening, since you are the son of a

01:59:17

Long Island pastor, but if you know Bruce Bennett, you know that I am right. It's absolutely amazing.

01:59:24

That's great. Well, he has a beautiful voice, I must say. Well, thank you so much for doing such an outstanding job as my guest today.

01:59:31

I look forward to having you back on the program. I look forward to having your dad back on the program. I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write.

01:59:41

I hope you all have a safe and blessed and joyful weekend and Christ -honoring

01:59:46

Lord's Day, and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater

01:59:53

Savior than you are a sinner. Praise God. Thank you so much, Chris.