Witness Protection Program
March 9, 2014 Evening Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: We must be diligent to protect our Christian witness.
Focus Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:23
Supplemental Passage: Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)
Introduction: The United States Federal Witness Protection Program, also known as the Witness Security Program or WITSEC, is a witness protection program administered by the United States Department of Justice and operated by the United States Marshals Service that is designed to protect threatened witnesses before, during, and after a trial. [Wikipedia] If the government goes to such great lengths to protect a witness, why shouldn’t we go farther to protect our spiritual witness?
I. Christian Liberty
a. Christ has fulfilled the Law for us. We are no longer subject to it, but obey it because of our love for Jesus
b. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. (Galatians 3:24-25)
c. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)
II. Christian Witness
a. “Should I” rather than “Can I”
b. How will what you do affect someone who wants to walk with the Lord?
c. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved. (1 Corinthians 10:32-33)
III. Christian Responsibility
a. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! (Rom 6:15)
b. For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. (2 Corinthians 1:12)
c. We must be careful to walk in such a way as to be considered a reliable witness for Jesus
Invitation:
