I was 28 years of age and living in Darwin. Despite growing up in a Christian family, and calling myself a Christian whenever I had to identify with a religion, I never went to church, read the Bible or prayed at all. 

My sister had given me an old laptop. On it, she was signed into her YouTube account. Her YouTube history contained a lot of Christian content and sermons from preachers like Mark Driscoll, John Piper etc. 

One morning, in September 2009, I woke up hungover and opened the laptop. 

For whatever reason, I saw a sermon and decided to click on it. Then I clicked on another, and then another. I was watching very ordinary talks – they were good but they weren’t new or flashy. Watching these sermons, I had this slow-dawning realisation that I wasn’t right with God. 

I was in trouble with God. 

As a result of that I called up Tim Booker, a former chaplain; we had been in Timor-Leste together with the Army. I called him up and he led me to Christ. Before this, I hadn’t watched a sermon online in my life. That day, I woke up hungover and disinterested in God, and that night I went to bed a born-again Christian.

My salvation story gives me great confidence in telling people the gospel.  

Sermons don’t save people

As the son of Peter Jensen, a former archbishop, people had tried to evangelise me. Growing up attending youth ministry programs and kids’ ministry programs, I would’ve heard the gospel presented every week of my life up until my early twenties. 

I’d been to several gospel events as an adult. Many, many times, in God’s kindness, other people tried to share the gospel with me – whether it was a taxi driver or someone in the pub. 

It doesn’t matter who the person is. It doesn’t matter if they’ve heard the gospel a million times. If they’re not a Christian, they haven’t understood the gospel. 

I want to encourage people to continue to think of creative ways for people to engage with the gospel. Consider different mediums to present the same thing. It could be a sermon link, a podcast, a tract, a book or an invite to a service or a course. 

At the end of the day, it’s not more information they need. It’s not about intelligence, it’s about the Spirit doing the work. Even though I had been brought up with the gospel, when I became a Christian it was clear that I had never understood it. 

Salvation is in God’s kindness, and in his timing. So don’t give up sharing the gospel with others.

Dave Jensen is the assistant director of Evangelism and New Churches.