The Testimony of the Redeemed
Psalm 40:1-3a
I have watched that 2 minutes of film about 20 times this week. It makes the hair on my neck stand up. It was not meant to be a Christian film or have a Christian message but I tell you that is as powerful, as convicting, as biblical and as relevant as anything that ever came out of the mouth of Billy Graham.
I want to pick that video clip apart and give you a message God spoke to me.
When Johnny Cash started singing, in this clip, it was just so dry and so lifeless.
The words were good, that was not the problem.
But the record executive asked, “Have you guys got something else?”
I tell you the world is asking the same question of the church… have you got something else, something new, something that doesn’t smell like moth balls?
See Johnny Cash was singing a song that was on the radio on county and gospel stations. Every artist was singing it. It was on the radio 10 times a day by several singers. And they were all singing it just like Jimmy Davis.
The record executive said, “we’ve already heard… that song. Just like you sung it, J-U-S-T- L-I-K-E Y-O-U S-U-N-G-I-T!!!
In the world today… people need the gospel, but they are immune to the song the church is singing.
They feel like they have heard it just the way we sing it.
Johnny asked, “What’s wrong with the way I sing it?”
And the executive said, “I DON”T BELIEVE YOU!”
I think that is the problem the world has with the church and the song we are singing…
They don’t believe us
I think they believe if we really believed it…
It would change us and the way we live
If I had played a little more of the video, you would have seen Johnny sing another song for the record executive… ONE HE WROTE… Fulsom Prison Blues… and you could hear it was different… it wasn’t flat, it wasn’t just singing words, it had passion, it was HIS HEART BEAT…
and it was HIS song.
The record guy heard something that would sell, something new, something original, something the public would believe. They cut that record that night.
Listen, Johnny Cash could not come in there singing tired renditions of other people’s songs. The world does not want imitations.
The words of that record guy still make me tingle…
“Alright, let’s bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was laying out in that gutter dying and you had time to sing one song… one song people would remember before you was dirt… are you telling me you would sing that Jimmy Davis song we’ve all heard, or would you sing something different, something you wrote, cause I’m telling’ you right now, that’s the kind of song people really want to hear… that’s the kind of song that truly saves people.”
The world wants something new, SOMETHING YOU WROTE… YOUR SONG… “that’s the kind of song people really want to hear… that’s the kind of song that truly saves people.”
In this clip the record guy was wrong about one thing. Johnny asked, “Is it the gospel or how I sing it?”
And the guy said, “Both.”
The problem is not the gospel. The gospel is still the power of salvation. The gospel is still true and still relevant.
The problem is how we sing it.
Most Christians make one of three mistakes with their song…
SING = (testimony) (story of what God has done and is doing in their life)
1. They don’t sing or don’t sing well.
They try to sing some song they heard… but they don’t really know. (Roman Road)
Imagine you are at the record store in 1957 trying to get a friend to by a great new record. He asks, “How does it go?” and you say… Love me tender….all my dreams fulfill…. Love me tender… and I always will.
Do you think they would buy the record?
Some can’t sing well or they don’t sing at all.
2. Some don’t have a song so they sing someone else’s song.
Does anyone here want to drive to Richmond and pay
$25-$35 to watch some fat, balding guy in a jump suit sing Elvis songs?
Well, the world does not want to hear you sing someone else’s song either.
They want to hear you sing YOUR song… something you are passionate about.
TELL YOUR STORY..
what has God done for you?
What were you like before
How has He changed your life
Some are trying to tell their story like they heard someone else do it
You have a unique story, that is what people need to hear
“That is what truly saves people.”
3. Some sing their song… but the same song they have been singing for 20 years.
I know, some will say, “well the song doesn’t get old.”
Yes it does… maybe not to you, but it does to others.
Your song, your testimony is alive, changing, growing, and that is what they want to hear about.
They don’t want to hear about what God did for Moses or David or Paul
They don’t think that applies to their life.
They want to know what God is doing in 2008.
Mick Jagger still packs out concerts coming to hear 65 year old men singing songs they have been singing for 40 years.
Because the songs take the crowd back to when they were young. It makes them think they still are.
But they are not going to go to a concert watching any other 65 year ole band singing Rolling Stones songs.
And the world doesn’t want to hear you singing your OLD song of what God did for you back in 1955, or 65, or 75, or 85.
They want to hear you singing about what God is doing NOW… TODAY.
Most Americans believe God helped Moses, Daniel, Paul and the others in the bible.
They just don’t think God is doing much today.
They need to hear a song of what God is doing NOW.
Listen to the song of the Psalmist, in Psalm 40
It is a good example of how to sing your song…
Don’t memorize this
Sing your song
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the Miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 3 And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear and trust in the Lord.
1. What I was like Before I found Jesus
I was in a horrible pit, a desperate situation that I was powerless to change.
I was in miry clay… I could not move, I was stuck
Your song has to make them identify with your pit
2. I called out to Jesus
“He heard my cry”
What was your cry, what did you say?
Your song should be like the blues and let them feel your despair
3. He delivered me from my hopeless situation.
How did he lift you out of the pit
What did He use to pull you out of the miry clay
4. What God has done for me since.
“set my foot on a rock…”
What rock did he set you on? What have you learned in following Him?
“and established my goings”
How have you sensed God’s plan and leading?
5. WHAT HAS HE DONE LATELY?
“He put a new song in my mouth”
New is up to date, new every day, recent, growing
How are you growing in your relationship with God?
We’re going to end by watching the clip again. This time you will hear it differently.
I hope this time God will use it to excite you, to challenge your and to speak to you.
Maybe God will say to you… “You are still in the pit, still in the miry clay”
You need to come today and surrender to Jesus, let him lift you up and save you.
Maybe God will say to you… You need to start singing. You have not ever sung your song, or maybe you need to sing it better.
Maybe God will say to you… You need to sing YOUR OWN song
Maybe God will say to you… You need to sing A NEW song, you need to be experiencing something new that you can sing about.
As soon as the clip is over, Dot will begin singing our hymn of invitation
You make whatever decision God leads you to make.
I began and ended this sermon with a clip from “Walk the Line”, a movie about Johnny Cash
The clip was at about 24 minutes where Johnny and his band go to audition for a record executive.
The clip is POWERFUL !!!!!!!
I also have a powerpoint presentation for this sermon. Email me at rhpendleton57@gmail.com for a copy
