We have all heard many people in our lives give their personal testimonies. Some were delivered out of a life of drugs; some out of the occult; some out of lust; and yet others right out of the gates of hell themselves.
Tonight, we are going to be talking a lot about these testimonies. You will notice three things about all real testimonies.
1. They will always involve a personal encounter with Jesus Christ;
2. The people who have those encounters always end up being more excited about God than they have ever been about anything in their entire lives; and
3. The people I just described will always have a faith in the Lord that seems unwavering – even in the toughest of trials.
I have heard people say that we should believe in Jesus ‘just in case he happens to be true.’ I would say that is a belief born out of fear, not out of faith. I also think that any type of belief that is not born out of faith in the Holy One is of absolutely no value to us at all.
Engineers always seem to be among the hardest to convince of Jesus, because they devote their entire life to seeing the proof of their work. Concepts just don’t seem to interest engineers on the whole.
There was an engineer in upstate New York who was working on a classified long-range submarine during the late 1970’s. His wife gave birth to their only child, just to find out within three months that the little girl had a digestive disorder and would soon die.
The father was walking through the woods one day and cried out to God that if He were real, He would heal the baby and then the man would be willing to at least talk to God about believing in Him.
A week later, his wife came home and said they needed to take the baby to a church service that night. The preacher at the service was an ex Harley rider who was now a Southern Baptist preacher.
During that service, the wife started crying and told her husband their baby was being healed as they sat there. She then got on her knees and began praying at their pew. Well, the husband quite embarrassed about this public display of emotion asked the usher to forgive her when they came to her aid.
They said that he should also start praying. He refused to pray. Two days later, the doctors called and said the little girl was dying and she could go home now with her parents for her last days.
When she was home, the wife threw away all the medicine and grabbed the baby food and started feeding the baby. She kept it all down and very quickly started to gain weight. A week later the doctor told the parents that he didn’t understand what was happening, but whatever they were doing, they should keep doing.
Later that day, the engineer went for his daily walk through the forest behind their home, and he felt God in his heart saying, “I did My part, now let’s talk.”
The engineer is now a Baptist preacher and the daughter is the song leader in their church. I heard this man give this testimony on TV, yet the power of the spirit was powerful as it was with this gentleman. It was a most awesome testimony.
Tonight, I have invited a friend of Keith’s to give his testimony. I have not heard it, but I have heard that it is an awesome testimony in itself. Kim, would you please come onstage?
AFTER KIM’S TESTIMONY
One thing we will all agree on. None of us want to be where Kim came from, do we? But that testimony shows that God can go anywhere to do His wondrous work, and He can reach down to anyone, no matter where they are or what they are doing.
I have told some of you how God called me as a child to preach. I grew up with that desire in my heart, but the older I got, the more isolated I became from Jesus.
Throughout the years, I kept feeling pulled to preach, but every time I felt that, it seems the deeper I would step into sin and away from the Lord.
Finally, God let me get sick. He let me get very sick; to the point where I knew I was dying. I went to doctor after doctor, and they would send me to specialist after specialist. None of them could help me.
One specialist said I had an "acute resperitory ailment". I asked him just what that meant, and he said he didn’t know what was wrong with me, but that my lungs were slowly deteriorating. He asked me if I believed in a "higher power". I said I did, and he advised me to go to it because they could not help me.
I KNEW THEN THAT I WAS DYING!
A funny thing happens when you get to that point. You forget about everything ’you’ want and you start to focus on what the Lord wants. I told Diana that we needed to get "square with God" before I died, so we started going back to church.
The more we got involved in church, the better I began to feel. Eventually, we got involved in Small Groups, which I was part of the leadership team; we were both on the leadership team for the Prayer Minsitry; and I just kept getting better and better.
Finally, I met a pastor one day who led me into studying for the ministry, and then something else happened - - -
God showed me a clear vision that I went through all that I had gone through all because of my obstinance; all because I was focusing on me instead of Him.
What are you focusing on today? Is what you are focusing on really ’you’ and on what makes ’you’ happy? If it is, you must realize something, and that is by only following what makes you happy, you will never be happy.
I have told some of you about my wife Diana’s brother. His name is Mike. For those of you who have not heard this, I want you to listen very closely.
Diana’s mom and dad used to fly from Florida to Arizona to spend a few weeks with us every summer. There was a time when they left that Diana and I felt very compelled to start praying that her dad would accept Christ and become saved.
We started praying that God would do whatever it took to get her dad to receive Christ as Savior. We have since learned that one should be very, very careful when praying a “whatever it takes” prayer, as when God answers it, it will probably be in a way that you are not prepared to deal with. Such was the case with us.
We prayed that prayer daily for 90 days, kneeling down in front of our sofa. On the 90th day, something happened.
Diana’s brother Mike lived in Port Charlotte, Florida. He had a wife and a small baby boy. On a holiday, he went over to a friend’s apartment to watch the football game. That is something that most of us have done many times, isn’t it?
But Mike never came home. One day stretched into two days and soon it was a week. Mike and his car were missing. That was not like him at all. By the end of the week, the entire family was living their own brand of hell.
Anguish covered their every thought and devastation clouded their hearts. About the 8th day, Diana called her dad one evening and talked for several hours. One of the first things she did was tell him that she didn’t call to talk about Mike, but she called to talk about Jesus.
During that long call, there were many tears shed. Hearts were breaking and I had no power to heal them. Several times, I had to brace Diana so she would not fall as she talked to her dad, Bill.
About an hour and a half into the conversation, she led her dad in a prayer and he received Jesus that night. God had answered our prayers, hadn’t He? But He did it in a way that we were not prepared to handle.
The very next day, they found Mike. He had been murdered by his friend that fateful day as he watched the football game on TV. To make a very long story short, they found that the man had kidnapped and raped a young lady the previous week, and they found him in Indiana.
They extradited him back to Florida and charged him first with the kidnap and rape, then followed it up with separate charges of first degree murder. The man is in jail for the rest of his natural life.
But that is not the end of the story. Diana flew to Florida to be with her family, as did her sister in Michigan. They ran into a woman there that said Mike had been saved recently, too.
To us, death is tragic, but I am sure that to God, death is just a doorway to get us home. When a Christian goes through that doorway, we might miss them very much, and we might suffer a broken heart, but we can also rejoice in the fact that for them, the race is over and they are now at the Table of Grace with our Lord Jesus.
Now, let me put one last paragraph into this story. There are many things that I look up to my wife for, and many reasons I respect her, but even if there weren’t any of those, there is one thing she did that would make me feel in absolute awe of her.
It took awhile, but Diana finally had submitted her heart to the Lord enough to receive His wonderful blessings. Those blessings came in the ability to start praying for the man who killed her brother.
I know how I would hope I could handle that myself, but in truth, I am not sure I am strong enough to do what she did. I hope and pray that I never have to go through that, or have to find out just how weak I really am. But when I look at my wife, I am one Christian man who is astounded at how righteous my wife is. I always admire those who walk the Christian walk and not just talk about it.
When we talk about personal testimonies, we need to understand that we are really talking about making a decision; and making that decision before it is too late to do so.
I spoke to a gentleman in Arizona who had been in church all his life. He was a very unhappy man, yet considered himself to be a saved Christian. He had always been very active within his church, and everyone just loved him so much. He was a proud man, too. But I could see something that troubled me about him. I tried every way I knew how, but I could not get this man to talk to me about his salvation without getting angry, so eventually I stopped.
The day came when he was dying. He called for me, and when I sat beside his bed, he began crying. He was scared. He was scared of dying because he had finally realized that he had a very deep relationship with the church, but not with Jesus.
He said he always got mad when I broached the subject because he knew deep inside that he did not know Jesus personally, but didn’t want to take an honest look at it. This man did receive Jesus before he went through that doorway to eternity.
But there are many more in churches all around this country who are just like that man was, and have not humbled their hearts yet to receive Christ. They will tell you they have, but they know they haven’t – not really – not fully. There might even be some in this church, I don’t know.
Will the Victory Singers please come back onstage?
We have tried to make a point tonight that our end day is quickly approaching. Some of you may not be where you should be in relation to Jesus Christ. You might think that membership in this church will do it for you – but it won’t. You might think that you are safe because of all the good things you have done for others – but you aren’t.
See, there are two things a person must do before they can really consider themselves saved and safe. One is to put your pride aside and become like a child in your heart – not wanting anything on this earth but the love of Jesus. And when your heart is that humble, you must tell Jesus just how much you want Him as your Savior.
God’s holy Word talks a lot about the fruits of a Christian. We all know what a Christian should be like, but if we were to be honest and gauge ourselves, how do we stand up to that measure? Do we show Christ in everything we say to others and in all that we do, or do we show “ourselves”?
Nobody can do it but you, my friends, and if you don’t do it, it won’t get done. If you don’t make it home tonight, where will you end up – Heaven or hell? Is that what you want?
We are going to go into an invitation now, and I don’t want you to think about what I am saying to you, but concentrate on what God is saying to you. I urge you to please don’t ignore Him any longer. Listen to Him before you find yourself in the situation where it is simply too late to make the real choice.
When you put your faith in God rather than in yourself, you will start to see the pure blessings of Heaven open up in your lives.
INVITATION
