My Secret Series

Life Verse (1) My Secret

1 Cor. 15:10

“But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.”

Shortly, we are going to begin a series entitled, Life Verse and during the course of this series, I am going to go over verses which can direct your life. Today though, I want to begin with a secret that I have had for a long, long time.

I have a secret I’d like to share. I have a confession that I want to open up about. It’s something that I’ve not been proud of but God has and continues to work in and through my life and opens my eyes to see how great he really is. Are you ready for my secret? Here it is…

I hate my testimony.

A number of years ago, I finally got out of the military and returned home. I was going to stay in Mississippi but I realized the job market wasn’t all that great and all I could pull was a job at the local Wal-mart store. That wasn’t my thing so I decided to return home.

I worked for a construction company for about 3 or 4 months before moving on. I finally got involved in at Grafton Christian Church. I enjoyed being back at church which was the first time I had returned in a long time. I was reacquainting myself with fellowship with believers.

My best friend, Paul and his dad were conducting a Youth Group, which I was, somehow, given the title Youth Group Assistant Leader. It was a title I didn’t earn and it was a title that I didn’t deserve. I sure as heck wasn’t living the Christian life. I had one foot in church, one foot in the world. I was trying though. In all honesty, I was simply struggling to make sense of God and why things occurred the way they did in my life.

Then, one day, right after church there was a group of young people going out to New York on a mission’s trip to feed and clothe the homeless. I got into the back seat of the van and just began talking with them. One of the individuals asked me, “Are you going with us?” I said, “No, I didn’t sign up.” Then the Missions Trip Leader said, “We just had someone cancel because they got sick so we have an opening.” So, I said, “Sure, I’ll go.” I raced home, got a change of clothing for my overnight stay in New York and went out with the group.

We arrived at our hotel and were briefed as to what we will and should expect when we go out and meet people. One of the first objectives we had was to unpack our things and then write out our testimony. They reasoned with us that writing out our testimony were to help us become familiar with it because in sharing what Christ has done in our lives, we needed to keep it short. So, our testimony should not last more than five minutes because we don’t have much time with these people.

My immediate thought was, “Only five minutes? How in the world am I going to share ALL that God has done in my life in less than five minutes? Sharing the news of Jesus and his work in my life would take years.” So, we went off to our rooms and then I began to work on my testimony. I got a piece of paper and a pen and I was ready to write.

Nothing came of it. I sat there while the other guys were making a mess of the room and goofing off. Finally, after several minutes, one of the guys looked over and asked me, “What are you doing?” I glanced up quickly and said, “I’m trying to work on my testimony.” And the other guys were like “Oh yea, we should probably work on that.”

I continued to look down at my blank piece of paper and try to formulate some thoughts but still nothing came of it. I had nothing to say. I know when and where I came to know Christ. I remember the event like it was yesterday. Despite my intimate knowledge, nothing came to me.

I ventured out with the rest of the group into the neighborhood to begin ministry. I was, of course, freaking out because I had no testimony to give. I was afraid someone would actually ask me, “What has Jesus done for you?” My response would be nothing because that is exactly what I had written down-nothing!