What would you say if one of your friends said to you, why you were Christian, most people haven't really thought about the answer to that question.

And my experience has been the best thing we can do is tell our story.

When you do, it does unlock something and enters into a conversation about faith.

And we don't have to have the answers to everything.

But we should all be able to be prepared to give an answer if someone asks us to give a reason for the hope that we have. Welcome everybody, this is Simon Gilbo with Inspired. And for those of you that are new to us, inspired, is just all about telling great stories of triumphant hope through difficult times, overcoming challenges, whatever people are going through, want to be real, want to be authentic, and I love it how I've got, well, I'm blessed to have mates from all sorts of different spheres

of jobs and experiences that get to stir us where we are at. So this week, I'm really thrilled

to have with me, Phil Knox. Hi, Phil. Hi, Simon. So great to be with you. Yeah, brilliant,

mate. I've been looking forward to this. So Phil is the head of mission to young adults, the Evangelical Alliance. So we had your, I suppose, your boss, Gav several months back. And Phil's got a shared passion with Gav and his own sort of passion for this generation for local church. He loves learning. He's got a degree in law and also in mission evangelism. You're married to Danny. You've got two sons, Caleb and Joss. And, well, we've bumped and, you know, across piles of various conferences and overlapped in preaching stuff. But I'll be honest, Phil, I don't really have a clue about your backstory. So go on. Let's go, Let's go right back and yeah great about how you came to faith in your context. Thanks Simon

yeah brilliant and really have a clue about your backstory. So go on, let's go right back and, uh, yeah, great.

About how you came to faith in your context. Thanks, Simon. Yeah, brilliant. I mean, I was born in

1983, so you can age, age me there. And I was born in in Sheffield, two amazing Christian parents

who just, who my real backstory is fascinating. Actually, my grandfather became a Christian during the war on the Isle of Isler off the west coast of Scotland,

which is known for its whiskey.

And the army chaplain led him to the Lord and basically said,

if there is enough evidence for being, a human court for being a Christian,

would there be enough evidence to convict? And he was really convicted by those words. And those words have kind of resonate for our family. He became a Christian there, went back from the war, and led his whole family to faith. And as a result of kind of that, my uncle's an evangelist, my dad led many people to the Lord. And kind of, so I grew up in an amazing Christian family. I recognized the moment I became a Christian was I was about six years old. I was even more excitable then than I am now. I was at a Christian festival and someone just basically told me the good news of Jesus and that I could be friends with God. I could be forgiven for the things I'd done wrong. I already needed forgiving. I knew that at six. But I could always go to heaven when I died. And this just, I thought

this was the best news ever, recognized making a decision then in a marquee in Peterborough. And

then kind of, I think throughout my teenage years, kind of, you know, you obviously have the

opportunity to kind of turn away from that or make your faith kind of, you know, you obviously have the opportunity

to kind of turn away from that or make your faith your own. And I really recognize a number

of different moments, a teenager choosing to say, no, this is for me. But the rubber really hit the

road for me, Simon, when I was, I was 21 years old. I was at university. I was studying law.

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