This is MY Story
CCCAG August 5, 2018
Scripture- John 9
Intro:
Today I want to speak to you about the power of your testimony
Most of you have heard my testimony. I got saved out have some pretty significant sin. Most people that knew me knew that I've been a wild child for quite a long time. My childhood was surrounded by drugs and partying and I carried a lot of that into my adult life.
After I accepted Christ, I wanted to tell everybody about it. Many of my friends were immediately alienated by my newfound faith and zeal. My family didn't know what to do with me. Most of them were backslidden Lutherans who had no idea what real faith in God looked like.
What I learned was that very often when we come to faith in Jesus Christ the first Hardships we have or the first persecution we feel comes from those closest to us. In my case my whole family thought I went nuts.
My mom thought it was just a phase I was going through being a first-time parent.
My brother wouldn't even talk to me.
My grandparents held an intervention in my boy hood room at my mom’s house trying to explain to me that Jesus is actually the Lord and not whatever kooky religion I got involved with.
Everyone who was closest to me try to talk me out of my newfound faith.
I remember those days because in one sense they were very lonely- I lost all of my old friends. What helped is that I had such a fire for God and hunger for his word and for his presence that it helped me through that difficult time until my faith grew strong enough to stand up to the questions and mockery of my former friends and of my immediate family.
As we watched the video portraying the events of John Chapter 9 we see the main character in this section of scripture is not actually Jesus. It is the man that Jesus heals.
The man born blind is the subject of John 9 and he is going through the same thing that many of us will go through in life after we accept Christ, try living for Christ, or after Jesus elevates us to a new position in him.
The main subject of John 9 is that
This man’s testimony about Jesus is being challenged.
That’s going to be the subject that we explore today
What I want us to walk away with today is this idea-
Your testimony about how God has saved you and changed you is the most valuable thing you own.
It’s your story about the greatness of God in your life.
In fact, your testimony should reflect that no matter what happens in your life- you reflect His goodness and His power at work- even through hardships, whether they be persecution, sickness or tragedy.
And that brings us to the first thing I want to address this morning from John 9-
I. Why God allows hardship
This last week I got an email from Lee Henschel saying that the pastor who was supposed to submit his article for the Blair Free Press was unable to do it this week and he asked if I could do an extra one. The guidelines to write an article for that newspaper or to submit between 250 and 300 words on any subject you want to talk about as long as it's Christian or religion based. I got the email I was studying for this message and praying and mulling over in my mind the subject of human suffering as it relates to our life with God. I wrote a very brief article about it for that newspaper, but in all honesty the subject of human suffering and god's sovereignty could be a PHD level dissertation that would require hundreds of paid pages to appropriately discuss.
Don't worry, I'm not going to do that to you this morning. But I would do you want to give us a couple of things to think about regarding suffering hardship or persecution as it relates the idea that God loves us, cares for us, and is personally leading us through this life and how it affects our personal testimony that we show the world.
A. 1st thing- Hardships soften us
Zech 7:12 (Speaking about the rebellious) They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.
There is a great deception the enemy puts into our lives. It’s one of his greatest deceptions before we know Christ and it even works after we come into salvation.
That deception is that we need to be strong in our own strength.
Many of you know what I'm talking about because it’s so obvious in our culture-
We Revere the hero that through an act of extraordinary courage saves the day
We admire the person that through overcoming incredible odds still fulfills their dreams
We build statues to the people who face down the giants of their culture or their world and overcame despite incredible persecution and suffering.
These people are able to accomplish the impossible because they fortified their minds, bodies, and souls to a singular ideal or goal and then went all out to see it get done.
I'm not necessarily saying that is always a bad thing.
However, it is a bad thing when we think we did it all in our own strength. This becomes a source of pride for us and it hardens us from giving God the glory that he deserves.
Some of the hardest people in the world are those who are self-made. Some of the most difficult people to witness to are those who are very hard workers and have been very successful in life.
I’ve done door to door witnessing in every part of a city you can think of- the ghetto and the rich areas. What I have found- You will never have as many doors slammed in your face or receive as many threats as you will on the rich side of town.
American culture is predicated on the idea of being a tough rebel that throws a fist into the air to declare our independence from anything other than ourselves.
That's why when God is finally able to get ahold of us he has to take all that hardness, all that rebellion, all of that self-reliance, and break it away from us. He has to expose and soften our spirits so that we are able to be shaped into the image of Christ that he has for each one of us.
And that leads us to the next point of why God allows hardship in our life.
B. #2- Hardship serves to Mold us
Many of us came to salvation in Christ at an altar in a church. An evangelist or a pastor gave a Salvation call, the Holy Spirit convicted us, and we ended up kneeling and asking for God's forgiveness. At that point, our sins were forgiven, we died to our own life, and we became new creatures.
We have that promise in God’s word-
EZE 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
One of the most profound changes in the new believer will be an instant change in priorities and personality. I've seen it over and over again how God takes the person who surrenders to him and make them a new creation.
You may ask why God has to do that. Why can’t we just be the new and improved version of our old selves?
I would point you to the parable that Jesus told about pouring new wine into old wineskins.
In the Bible times you had to use a new wineskin to store or transport wine. What happens to wine is it ferments is at the gas is released would stretch that wineskin, usually made out of leather, until it was used.
Leather only can stretch so far, so when you tried to fill it again, the gases from the new wine would make the leather tear and you’d lose everything.
The same thing can be said about why God gives and molds with us a new heart. We need that newness to contain the fresh presence of God within us. Our old heart wanted nothing to do with God. Our old heart would have squirmed like a child in a doctor’s office about to get a shot. It wants nothing to do with the presence of God.
You can’t put new wine into an old wineskin.
Sometimes it still affects us after we get saved.
One of the things I’ve witnessed being on the platform is when the spirit of God really moves into a service- you usually lose a person or two. That’s because they have an old heart issue that is reacting against the new wine being poured out in the service.
Interestingly- it’s also when pastors get the most complaints (explain if time)
God wants us to have new hearts, and that is why he allows the fires of persecution and hardship to strip away everything that is not of Him, so that the Holy Spirit has a clean temple to operate in and through.
That bring us to the next point of hardship-
C. #3 Hardship separates us
The idea of separation our 21st Century church is almost a bad word. One of the reasons is that historically speaking, people who attended a more holiness centered church often practiced separation at the expense of never actually rubbing shoulders with people who are in sin.
Today we've gone to the opposite extreme- the church is so close to the world in behavior and belief that we are virtually indistinguishable from it.
The Apostle Paul gives an excellent analogy on how to view separation and why we practice it in regards to sinful things-
I Cor 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever
A few years ago there was a guy that I would occasionally work with who had a mild heart attack. The doctors went in and put a stent into one of his coronary arteries and he was back to work in a few weeks. When it came time to stop somewhere for lunch he drove us to Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Now this restaurant is not known for its heart healthy menu; in fact anyone who has had a heart attack in the past would probably get chest pain just breathing the air when you walked into the door.
I said, “Jim, you just had a heart attack- you can’t eat at Dickies. You’re going to cause your stent to fail and you’ll be right back in the hospital”
He needed to adjust his life to make sure he stayed healthy
This is the proper way to look at Biblical separation.
There are many things in this life that are not good for us spiritually.
While there are many things the Bible expressly forbids us to do, there are some of those gray-area things where we can either exercise Liberty, or we can exercise restraint.
That may look a little different for every believer but what our overriding goal should be is to glorify God in every portion of our life.
That’s the key to live a life that pleases God and a life He can use to make a Kingdom impact on this world.
What we do not use separation for is as a hammer to make other people feel as they are not as spiritual as we are. This has been the unfortunate consequence of the misuse of the idea of separation. It's one of the enemy’s subtle tools that causes pride to well up inside of us to the destruction of others.
The last reason God allows the hardships of pain, suffering, or persecution in our lives is to-
D. #4 Hardship Hardens us
The kind of hardening that I'm talking about here is not the same kind of hardening that keeps a person in a sinful condition.
The hardening we are talking about here brings to mind the idea of a Potter finishing a work of clay and then taking it and putting it into a kiln.
A properly formed lump of clay is useless until it goes through the fire.
The same thing can be said about a blacksmith who has heated the metal until it glows and has pounded it into whatever he wants to it be. Take the example of a sword- The Blacksmith alternates times of fire and times of cooling to harden his creation so that it is ready to face battle and serve its purpose.
God will take us through these kind of situations through our entire lives. He will have times when were in the fire and he will have times when were in the water. His blacksmith hammer is always pounding us into a perfect representation of who he means us to be in Christ. This hardness is not one that is born of rebellion; it is a firmness of conviction that no matter what we will stand firm for who and what we believe.
Amen?
That’s a very brief summary of why God allows suffering in our lives- it’s to cause our testimony to endure the test of time.
However, you will find that your testimony will come under attack, often by those close to you.
That brings us to our second point about our testimony-
II. People will doubt
In John Chapter 9 we see the reaction of the religious crowd of Jesus’ day to the Miracle of sight given to a blind man.
Disbelief.
In their line of thinking-
Jesus couldn't have possibly healed this man because he wasn't involved with us.
Don't you understand that if God is going to move he's going to move through me and not you?
After all those people over there aren't true followers of God like we are. Therefore, there is no possible way that God could be involved with this man in any way.
This is either fake or this is of the devil. These were the only 2 options that the Pharisees could see.
But that's very true in life. Very often the most critical people you'll find are in the church.
Those who are critical in the church are often the people who have gone without a legitimate and honest experience with God for the longest time.
These are people who have forgotten or have actually never experienced how it was to be forgiven. They would rather cling to a form of religion deny the power. These are some of the most dangerous people in any church because they think since God isn't doing a new thing in their life that he can't do a new thing in someone else.
This last week I visited my old church for Pastor Ron’s funeral and got to talk with several people who told me that the new pastor who is the son of the old pastor was facing a lot of criticism because of his focus on ministering to people that society has forgotten. These people do not want their nice clean pretty church invaded by these rotten smelly sinners.
I want to ask you a question today. Is this you?
I want to tell you something about the day we are living in- it was prophesied by Jesus himself in Luke 14. For the sake of time I’m going to quickly to paraphrase the parable a bit-
Jesus compares Himself to a king. The timeframe eluded to in the parable is right before the rapture.
Jesus the king invites everyone to His wedding banquet.
However he finds that-
The rich want to enjoy their riches more than they enjoy the King, so they don’t come
Others have new possessions they enjoy more than the King, so they refuse to come
Others have relationships that are more important than coming to the King’s table, so the refuse to come.
The King is angry and tells his servants-then go to the gutter- bring in the homeless, bring in the prostitute, bring in the homosexual, bring in the person with that tattoos and weird piercings, bring in those that are the rejects of their society- bring in any that will come so that my house is full.
The lesson for us this morning-
The last days church will not be full of respectable, middle class, white families. It’s going to be the broken, the lame, and the sick that God changes into glorious examples of His power in people’s lives.
These are the people whose authentic testimonies will show the world the Glory of God and will bring many into HIS Kingdom.
I don’t want myself or our church to be so dry, so stale, or so set in the way things used to be that we can't discern when God might want to do a new thing?
Brief Prayer
All of this is leading to the point of our testimony- the reward we can look forward to receiving not only in this life, but in the life to come.
III. You will see Jesus
At the end of the story in John Chapter 9, the man comes face to face with Jesus. Up until this point he hasn't seen the one who has healed him. Open to this point he only knows a name.
Up until this point he is only seen darkly as through a mirror
But now he sees face to face.
Let me ask you a question as we close
Do you want to see Jesus?
Do you want to see Jesus on this side of eternity
change lives,
heal the brokenhearted,
redeem the worse of sinners,
and see Him change lives?
Do you want your testimony about Jesus to be one that glorifies Him?
Do you want others to gain a testimony of how Jesus took them out of darkness, and into light?
If so I would ask you to stand
If time- Bring to the altar for personal prayer.
Conclusion
Altar Call
