TITLE: THE ANATOMY OF A TESTIMONY
SCRIPTURE: GALATIANS 6:10-17
When God began to reveal Himself to the world, He did not send down bookshelves filled with outlines – theologies – lectures - he began with a story. As a matter of fact, He created a huge picture of His love, which is creation, and then placed a man and a woman inside that picture. Adam and Eve were the first recipients of God's story!
The Bible is filled with the most powerful stories, I prefer saying narratives we will ever read or hear, but it isn't just a storybook!
• It is God's testimony to each of us
• Now we are all part of God's story
If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you are the reason that He sent His Only Begotten Son to Calvary 2000 years ago!
• If you are a believer, then you are also a part of God's story
• As Christians we are to repeat the story of God's love to others who need to hear
• That includes the nations around the world
• That includes the neighbor across the street
• That includes the stranger you just met
Let’s take a look at I JOHN 1:2-3 “FOR THE LIFE WAS MANIFESTED, AND WE HAVE SEEN IT, AND BEAR WITNESS, AND SHEW UNTO YOU THAT ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH WAS WITH THE FATHER, AND WAS MANIFESTED UNTO US; THAT WHICH WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD DECLARE WE UNTO YOU, THAT YE ALSO MAY HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH US: AND TRULY OUR FELLOWSHIP IS WITH THE FATHER, AND WITH HIS SON JESUS CHRIST.”
• In this passage we find that John, who walked with Jesus, was now sharing that story with his readers
• He was testifying, announcing the Good News of Jesus to those who would listen
Did you catch the word - Testify? One of the TV programs that I grew up with was Perry Mason. If I heard the swearing-in of a witness once, I heard it 100 times. 'Do you solemnly swear that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God'?
• What does that tell us?
• That I watched too much TV?
• Yes, but it tells us something about giving testimony
• We are to tell the truth!
There is something else we need to understand about testimony. It is about what we know to be the truth. Not what we think or what we have heard. It is all about what we know! That's exactly what God expects from each of His followers - to simply share what we know - to testify to others of what God has done in our lives. to what we have seen Him do in our lives.
• We don't have to have the Bible memorized or be able to answer every question that someone might have about God
• We only have to be willing to share the story of what God did in our life!
• Just tell what you know about the Lord
• All of us know something about the Lord and what He has done in our lives
• Tell your Story
If you are a Christian, your testimony — the story of how God stepped in and changed you through His Son — is a direct reflection of the undisputable, life-changing power of the gospel. It’s one of the most effective tools in our evangelism toolbox. Before you got saved, there was an “old you” who was caught up in sin and didn’t know or have a relationship with the Lord. But now you have been changed by the goodness and mercy of the Lord. You can glorify God and magnify His message by telling others about how He changed you.
• II CORINTHIANS 5:17 -- “THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE: OLD THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW”
“Old things have passed away.” The “Old” refers to everything that is part of our old nature —
• Natural pride
• Love of sin
• Reliance on works, and our former opinions
• Habits and passions
Most significantly, what we loved has passed away, especially the supreme love of self and with it self-righteousness - self-promotion - self-justification.
• The new creature looks outwardly toward Christ instead of inwardly toward self
• The old things died, nailed to the cross with our sin nature
Along with the old passing away, “the new has come!” Old, dead things are replaced with new things, full of life and the glory of God. The newborn soul delights in the things of God and abhors the things of the world and the flesh.
• Our Purposes are fresh and different
• Our Feelings are fresh and different
• Our Desires are fresh and different
• Our Understandings are fresh and different
• We see the world differently
The Bible seems to be a new book, and though we may have read it before, there is a beauty about it which we never saw before, and which we wonder at not having perceived. The whole face of nature seems to us to be changed, and we seem to be in a new world. The heavens and the earth are filled with new wonders, and all things seem now to speak forth the praise of God.
• There are new feelings toward all people
• A new kind of love toward family and friends
• A new compassion never before felt for enemies
• A new love for all mankind
• The things we once loved - we now detest
• The sin we once held onto - we now desire to put away forever
• We “put off the old man with his deeds”
• We put on the “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness”
We must realize we are not the same anymore. GALATIANS 6:15-16 - “FOR IN CHRIST JESUS NEITHER CIRCUMCISION AVAILETH ANYTHING, NOR UNCIRCUMCISION, BUT A NEW CREATURE. AND AS MANY AS WALK ACCORDING TO THIS RULE, PEACE BE ON THEM, AND MERCY, AND UPON THE ISRAEL OF GOD.” We are a new creature. We must realize there has been a transformation that has taken place. When a person, by faith, accepts the finished work of Jesus Christ as atonement for their sin, they are born again.
• At that moment they begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
• At that moment they are given a new life
• At that moment they become a new person!
Remember, it isn't about what we have done, but it is all about what God has done. So what is left for me is simply to realize that I am no longer the person I used to be. I am a child of God! ROMANS 6:11 - “LIKEWISE RECKON YE ALSO YOURSELVES TO BE DEAD INDEED UNTO SIN, BUT ALIVE UNTO GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” It is up to me to 'Reckon' or conclude that we are no longer servants of sin, but we are now to be servants of the Lord.
• This isn't presumption on our part, but it is a realization of what being a child of God means in a very practical sense
• Our testimony will never be what it needs to be until we realize that we are no longer what we used to be!
• We have been born again
• We are new creations in Christ
• We need to start living like it!
Let me run back to Perry Mason - sharing your testimony is much like being called to take the witness stand in court.
• Witnesses are bound by law and an oath to tell the truth about what they know and what they have seen
• What would happen if the witness took the stand, was asked for his or her testimony, but never opened his or her mouth?
• I’m not sure the judge would be pleased with that type of response!
The same scenario happens every day in the “Court Of Public Opinion” -- your everyday world. There comes a time when you will have to do more than –
• Wear your favorite Christian T-shirt
• Wear a cross necklace around your neck
• Carry your Bible around at work or school
Sooner or later, you will have to open your mouth and speak. You have to testify.
• You have to tell what Jesus has done in your life
• I PETER 2:9 lovingly explains -- “BUT YOU ARE A CHOSEN PEOPLE, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, GOD’S SPECIAL POSSESSION, THAT YOU MAY DECLARE THE PRAISES OF HIM WHO CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS WONDERFUL LIGHT”
When Jesus works in someone's life, they should simply share that story with others.
• When Jesus healed the Blind Man -- ST. JOHN 9:24-25 -- “THEN AGAIN CALLED THEY THE MAN THAT WAS BLIND, AND SAID UNTO HIM, GIVE GOD THE PRAISE: WE KNOW THAT THIS MAN IS A SINNER. HE ANSWERED AND SAID, WHETHER HE BE A SINNER OR NO, I KNOW NOT: ONE THING I KNOW, THAT, WHEREAS I WAS BLIND, NOW I SEE”
• When Jesus Forgave the Samaritan Woman -- ST. JOHN 4:29 – “COME, SEE A MAN, WHICH TOLD ME ALL THINGS THAT EVER I DID: IS NOT THIS THE CHRIST?”
• ST. JOHN 4:42 -- “AND SAID UNTO THE WOMAN, NOW WE BELIEVE, NOT BECAUSE OF THY SAYING: FOR WE HAVE HEARD HIM OURSELVES, AND KNOW THAT THIS IS INDEED THE CHRIST, THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD”
The disciples were simply ordinary men who told people the extraordinary story of Jesus working in their lives. That was what Jesus wanted them, and wants us, to do! ST. JOHN 15:27 “AND YE ALSO SHALL BEAR WITNESS, BECAUSE YE HAVE BEEN WITH ME FROM THE BEGINNING.”
• But let's be honest, sometimes we are ashamed to tell our story
• Because our lives don't always match what we know God has done in us
• Instead of having a good "testimony" we get sidetracked, and we become ashamed of our testimony
GALATIANS 6:1 - is about a testimony, it begins with a believer losing his testimony. “BRETHREN, IF A MAN BE OVERTAKEN IN A FAULT, YE WHICH ARE SPIRITUAL, RESTORE SUCH AN ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS; CONSIDERING THYSELF, LEST THOU ALSO BE TEMPTED.”
• If anything will mess up our testimony getting trapped in sin will certainly do it!
• How can we not be ashamed?
• How can we develop and deliver a powerful testimony of what the Lord has done in our lives?
• How can we witness and share that testimony with others?
Your test is part of your testimony. Your struggles and problems are for a reason. Sometimes they are the result of making decisions in the flesh instead of in the Spirit. In ROMANS 8:5 we are told that “THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE FLESH HAVE THEIR MINDS FIXED ON THINGS OF THE FLESH, BUT THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE SPIRIT HAVE THEIR MINDS SET ON THE THINGS OF GOD.” I will admit it first, I have made plenty of fleshly decisions in life, so have You, so let’s stop pretending, let’s keep it real. When we slip into making decisions without seeking the Lord, we often make mistakes that lead to difficulties.
However, not all of our problems are the result of not seeking and hearing from God.
• Sometimes our Faith is being tested
• I CORINTHIANS 10:13 - “NO TEMPTATION HAS OVERTAKEN YOU EXCEPT SUCH AS IS COMMON TO MAN; BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL, WHO WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE TEMPTED BEYOND WHAT YOU ARE ABLE, BUT WITH THE TEMPTATION WILL ALSO MAKE THE WAY OF ESCAPE, THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO BEAR IT”
• When we go through difficulties, keeping a steadfast faith in God with a heart of Praise and Thankfulness, is how we grow spiritually
• Problems of the past prepared you and me to deal with the struggles of today
• And going through today’s issues will prepare you for the problems of tomorrow
Keep your focus on the cross. GALATIANS 6:14 - “BUT GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY, SAVE IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME, AND I UNTO THE WORLD.”
• It's about what Jesus did, not us!
• Sometimes people begin to think that they are the ones responsible for their salvation
• Nothing could be further from the truth
TITUS 3:5 “NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, BY THE WASHING OF REGENERATION, AND RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST.” If we are saved today --
• It isn't because we were good
• It isn’t because we are so righteous
• It isn't because we are walking the straight and narrow path
• It is only because of what Jesus Christ did for us on Calvary
That's why Paul said, "GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY, SAVE IN THE CROSS.” If we want a powerful witness, we must focus on the Power. There is a personal benefit as well.
• The more we focus on the cross the less we focus on the stuff that weighs us down and holds us back
• That's what Paul was talking about when he said - “THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME AND I UNTO THE WORLD"
• The more we focus on God's purposes the less we focus on the world
The anatomy of a testimony.
• When you’re brave enough to tell your story, you can motivate someone to change their life
• Your story has the power to change their perspective and open up a new world of possibilities
• You could be the reason someone stops making bad choices and finally turns their life around
--The Williams Brothers Said it Best –
I am, a living testimony
I could have been dead and gone
But Lord you let me live on
I am, a living testimony
And I, I thank the Lord for keeping me alive
--I am a living testimony that all things are possible with God
--Everything about my life is a living testimony of the power of God in my life
--I wonder are there any living testimonies in the house this morning
--Anybody know you could have been dead and gone – but you are a living testimony
--Anybody ever been down and out – but you are standing today as a living testimony
--Anybody ever been counted out – but here you are today a living testimony
--I am a Living Testimony
