The Power of Testimony

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your faithfulness to us. Lord, I pray that this morning as we open your word, you would make us more like you. That we would see you and we would see your work in our lives and that we would hear your call towards following you to a deeper place. Lord, as Pastor Cameron prepares to give the word this morning, I ask that you would give him a portion of your spirit that he might be in line with your heart for us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Good morning, church, how are you? Good, it's good to see you all. One thing that Pastor Luke didn't mention as he was talking about that merchandise is that he designed it, he put all of the, he put the store together, he worked really hard on all of that and we really appreciate all the hard work that he did and so you can honor him in the design of that 'cause that was really a great effort and we really appreciate that.

And I did make him put the hat on and I did make him twirl this morning downstairs. It was both the beginning and the end of his modeling career, it's over now.

Jeff's clapping, we thank you. Oh no, we're so appreciative for the gifts that God has entrusted to us. We talked last week or the last few weeks about mission and broadly the topic of evangelism. We wanna talk a little bit more about that today and talk roughly, it went in a couple, like the spirit took it in a few different tangential directions this morning, earlier this morning. So we're gonna see if we stay on topic this morning or if we don't, I'm not exactly sure but talk broadly about the role of testimony, our personal testimony, the work of God in us that becomes the content of our gospel proclamation to others.

So the point there being is like just as Pastor Luke was just talking about how, like in the Thanksgiving event and how we had explained to you the kind of the change in the way that was happening this year in opposed to how it's happened in years previous and how the fundraising for that has gone. And someone asked in first service, just hey, how is that? We weren't here last week, how is the fundraising going? How is that all going? We were able to share with thankfulness that the Lord had blown it out of the water in terms of like the funds being raised, far exceeding, far exceeding the goal. And speaking to us, I believe, feel this from the spirit, hear this from the spirit, saying like I'm preparing you for something that you can't see, but that I'm preparing you to provide or that I'm preparing you to be able to step into faithfully. And so year over year, we always come to this place

Where we're seeking to provide these meals for our community with a sense of thankfulness and a sense of thankfulness for God's provision to do that. And this year is no different, but what happens, and listen, we need to think of it in this way, is that year after year after year after year after year, God shows himself to be faithful to us and on our behalf

So that one of the reasons is so that we can carry the year after year, year after year, even generation after generation faithfulness of God with us as we walk into places where the future is unknown.

And so God's faithfulness in the now is like the trampoline or the bouncing off point for the place that we step into where we can't see the future and we don't know, but what we do know is that God has shown himself to be faithful time and time and time and time and time and time again. And so we walk confidently with a testimony of God's faithfulness to us and for us, so that we walk confidently into a future that is unknown, but with a God that we know, with a faithfulness that we've experienced, with a provision that has never failed, right? That is the power of testimony. That is the power, that is the truth of being able to look back upon what God has done and carry the truth of what God has done into both the current state of our lives and the current relationships, as well as the future that is unknown, but we are confident in because of who goes before us, because of who goes with us. This is a thing that is not just applicable

Or that doesn't just exist for us. We have Jesus and we trust in Jesus and we believe in Jesus and the Spirit is in us by faith and so we move forward confidently, but this is something that even the people of God, the nation of Israel has always stood on the promise of God's past fulfilled faithfulness and promises. It is all throughout the Psalms we see, we see scriptures like this. The first one says, "My mouth will tell "of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long. "Though I know not its measure, "I will come and proclaim mighty acts, oh sovereign Lord. "I will proclaim your righteousness and yours alone. "My mouth will tell of your righteousness, "that my mouth, my life becomes a bullhorn "becomes a loudspeaker of God's long-term righteousness "and faithfulness." King David said in Psalm 66 verse 16, he said, "Come and listen, all you who fear God,

"let me tell you what he has done for me." Now this is, I mean, there are lots of scriptures like this, but if you were to say, Cameron, I want you to pick one scripture that becomes the foundation for why God has created, God makes a testimony in each of your life and then sends you out to use it for his glory, it would be something like this. Come and listen, all you who fear God, let me tell you what he has done for me.

Let me tell you what he has done for me. This is the power of testimony. The power of testimony is the work of God in his transformation of who we are and then our carrying of that story into the relationships and environments and circumstances and lives of people that we interact with all of the time. Why is testimony so powerful? Why can what God has done in your life or my life, why does that hold so much power? Well, like we said last week and I wanna be clear, but we're not saying the power is not in us, right? The power is not in anything that I have done, right? The power of testimony is not in the relational capacity that I have to tell it to a specific person. The power is always in the message of the gospel itself and in the person of Jesus himself, right? Never in, oh, I've built a great friendship with you and that is the thing that gets you to Jesus. No, it doesn't hurt it for sure, right? Strong relationship, strong friendship doesn't hurt it, but the reality is that the relational capacity of the witness is not as powerful as the message of the gospel itself.

What God has done in me, what God is doing through me, who God is in his nature and character in Jesus, okay?

But testimony is so powerful because testimony comes from the roots of our own transformation and transformation, true transformation is an undeniable reality in the world.

Meaning what I say is that when the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus Christ has transformed your life, there is no reasonable way that any reasonable person can deny that something has happened, that God has moved, that God has changed, all right? And what happens in a situation like that? Well, it's something, it happens something like this, maybe this is something that you can relate with on one side or another. You have a person in your life and you recognize that, wow, they, I mean, they're losing a lot of weight, their skin looks really healthy, they got a lot of, they seem to have more energy, they are slimming down, they're getting stronger, and you look at them and you're like, wow. Like, they are, they have changed so much.

They have like, their whole figure has changed, their body has changed, their attitude has changed, like, and what do you do when you see someone who's changed their physical appearance, like, dramatically over a period of time? Many of us who still stay, or who are maybe stuck in a untransformed state, we go to that person and we say, what do we say? How'd you do it?

What, how did you transform yourself like that? What, how is this possible that you did that? What does that do to the person who's been transformed? It gives them an opportunity to say what? Exactly what happened. I started to prioritize my sleep. I got eight to 10 hours of sleep every day. I drank 90 ounces of water a day. I cleaned up my diet. I went to the gym three to five times a week. I really put in the discipline. I really put in the hard work, right? And then you tell the story of all of the factors or ingredients involved in the trans, that were happening maybe behind the scenes or maybe they happened out in public. But that was undeniable, it was undeniable to the person that something had changed. And when the Lord has changed our lives, when the Lord has transformed our lives, when the Lord has truly taken what was dead and made it alive or truly taken what was in bondage and made it free or truly taken what was depressed and anxious and sad and given it joy, given us joy and peace, right?

That becomes a megaphone to others to ask the question, what has happened in your life?

What has changed? What has transformed? And listen, it opens the door for a conversation for you to say, well, boy, am I glad that you asked.

Let me tell you what has happened to me. Let me tell you what the Lord has done. Let me tell you what he brought me to, what he took me through. Let me tell you what happened there in the middle of all that. Let me tell you what's happening now. Let me tell you, let me testify to the faithfulness of the Lord. Say it, Larry, tell us what Jesus has done for you. Everything is wrong with me. I'm sorry I can't talk. Well, I'll come out of my last kidney surgery. Kidney didn't have the work. I was on dialysis three times a week. I can't play alcohol. My doctor called me last Monday and he said, you don't have to come to Dallas anymore. Your kidney's working down. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Dialysis port's out. No more dialysis ports going on going back there, right? It's out. Right, praise the Lord for his faithfulness in your healing, right? And listen, Larry's testimony of the Lord's miraculous healing of his kidney, right?

Is what you can carry in the midst of your own circumstance or even the coming circumstance of needing a miracle from the Lord, praying for a miracle from the Lord, praying for transformation, praying for healing, praying for the Lord to show up. Because what Larry can do and what you hear is the Lord was faithful here. And guess what? The Lord will be faithful next. And he will be faithful next. And he will be faithful next. And he will be faithful next. Becomes, it becomes a testimony to the transformational power of the Lord as he heals us. I don't remember what I was saying, but it doesn't matter.

Larry said it, right? The Lord showed up in that moment, okay? We can go home now.

Sorry, I remembered, so now I gotta say it. Yeah. Here's the thing though. I wanna tell you something, especially when it comes to transformation that you experience in the Lord, you will get asked.

When you are genuinely living a transformed life, it gets noticed and people begin to ask. And I want to warn you, pastorally speaking, that the asking isn't always positive.

Right? Sometimes they're like, man, you used to be normal. As if bondage and sickness, right? And darkness and sin and hardness of heart and addiction was normal.

Right? You used to be normal. Now you're like weird. You're like uncomfortably kind and joyful.

You're not just happy, you're joyful. And it's clear that you are no longer living in bondage, like that God has given you freedom. You're literally light on your physical feet and we can see it because you're light on your spiritual feet. God has set you free. But you're kind of annoying to be around.

I'm so glad you noticed. Thank you. That is what I wanna hear, right? Maybe that becomes part of our prayer.

Is that the Lord would set us so free that the Lord would break off the chains from our life, illuminate the dark places of our heart so significantly that more people ask us, why are you so weird? Then the other being like, yeah, you've never, you're the same person you were when I met you 10 years ago. I hope not.

I hope not. That doesn't feel like a compliment to a people who desire continual transformation to the spirit of the Lord. That yeah, you're the same person you were 10 years ago.

I want people to notice, to see, to experience that man, once I was blind,

But now I can see. That's what transformation, when we talk about transformation, that's what we talk about.

And don't say this, is that when true transformation, when true transformation happens in our lives, and then we take what was, we take what was done in us and through us, in Jesus, and we share it with someone else. We share what, simply what God has done in us. What God has set us free from, what God has healed or redeemed in our lives. When you speak boldly about having been with the spirit and power of Jesus, there is very little that others can say in opposition to your transformation. When you're living a transformed life and then you proclaim to transform life, it leaves people without an alternative answer other than the truth that you have expressed.

This is exactly what happened like the first couple chapters of the book of Acts. You see Acts chapter two, the spirit comes at Pentecost, it gives boldness to those who are expressed faith in Jesus Christ that go out to be his witnesses. Peter and John go on this rampaging healing, campaigning in the name of Jesus, and all of the religious people who have no sense of the authority and power of Jesus. They're like, yeah, guys are getting pretty weird at this Jesus stuff, right? This transformation through the power of Jesus name, so much so that the religious leaders dragged Peter and John in front of them, and you're like, you're gonna give us an explanation why you two boys were once good God-fearing Jews, but now you're walking around all this place proclaiming forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, and you're healing the sick and the leperous, and you're casting out the demons, and you're bringing healing to people. Like, I wanna know what's going on here. We wanna know what's going on here. And sometimes that same sentiment happens to us, right? Like, we've been transformed, we boldly speak.

No, Jesus has changed my life, man. He is setting me free. He has given me joy, right? He has broken off the chains of addiction. Like, no, you tell us what really happened. I wanna know the workout plan, right? I wanna know the workout plan. I don't wanna know all that hippy-dippy Jesus stuff. You tell me what actually happened, okay? 'Cause that can't possibly be the answer.

In Acts chapter four, verse 13 and 14, Peter and John give them their answer. It says in reference to the leaders that were questioning them, when they saw the courage, this is the same word as boldness that we talked about last week. The many meanings of that word, right? When they saw the courage of Peter and John, this is awesome.

This makes me really sad that I spent a lot of money on a seminary education.

And realize that they were unschooled ordinary men. They were astonished. And they took note that what? These men had been with Jesus.

These men had been with Jesus. But listen, but since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing that they could say.

In the presence of the transformed, there is nothing that an unbelieving world can say, other than Jesus.

Jesus. I told you, I just completely blew up my notes for service, it's happening again.

But let's talk about this reality here, okay? Let's talk about this reality when it comes to testimony, when it comes to the power of what God has done in us.

Testimony, see if I say this, right? Testimony is what happens on the other side of circumstances that God has redeemed and brought purpose. Testimony is what happens in what you have and what you hold when you are on the other side of circumstances, life, a season, experiences, or whatever, that God has redeemed and transformed, okay? And the proclamation or the telling of your testimony

Is one of the ways that God brings purposeful redemption to a story that you once thought or you once sat in being like, God, what are you doing?

What is the purpose of this? Why am I going through this? Why is this happening? Why, I can't, what is going on? Because how universal of an experience is it

For us to sit in circumstances, trial, a day, a week, a month, years of pain, wondering how this is ever going to be something good.

How is this ever going to be something that is good? This feels only bad.

And I don't see any way out of it or any way forward. We've all been there, we may be there, right?

Not all of us have been there and are moving into a, have moved into a position of being like, oh, I have a testimony of what God has redeemed. We may have been there at bits and pieces, right? But you may still be over here in this place of being like, I got no idea what the purpose of this could possibly be. You know why? Because sometimes the purpose of the circumstances that God has redeemed or is redeeming in our lives do not exist for us. Sometimes the purpose of our redeemed testimony is so that the one who is in the middle of it like we once were, can hear of God's faithful healing over us. And in their life and in their story, God redeems our story in the midst of their healing.

That God uses what happened in us and his faithful redeeming of that for us to speak into the darkness of someone else's life and being like, let me tell you what I have seen and heard.

I was with Jesus. Let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you what he did. Let you tell me, let me tell you what he has done. Paul speaks kind of, I don't want to say vaguely about this, but he talks about how we receive comfort from the Lord so that we can then offer comfort in the same way we were comforted by him. He says this in 2 Corinthians chapter one.

He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort

Who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves were once received from God.

This is a critical ingredient to the power of testimony is that what God does in us becomes a part of the story that pushes redemption into someone else's life through the telling of what God has done in me.

Changes us. I would say this also 'cause we talked a little bit about this last week and I would like to go back to the very first slide that's on the sermon presentation there is this reality here. This was kind of like the, should be the foundational reminder for each one of us as we move to share our faith and our testimony with one another and it's this, it's this reality here. You cannot share your faith effectively with people that you do not love.

We cannot share our faith effectively or even share responsibly, not not responsibly, share effectively even our testimony with someone for whom God is not developing a heart of love towards, right? Like if we do not have a heart of love for people,

Not affection, not affinity for, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean, like, oh, they're great. I love them till I don't, you know? They're a lot like me.

They talk like me, they look like me, they act like me. They live near me, they speak like me. They appear like, they're like me. I love them. No, sorry, like, I remember we talked last week when the teachers of the law came to Jesus. Jesus, hey, just checking, what is the most important commandment in all of the law and the prophets? And what does Jesus say? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. All of the law and the prophets are summed up in this command, right? And for us to hear that is like, oh, good, our neighbors. Yeah, the people that like around me look like me, act like me, talk like me, all of that. And then, but then the question was asked, okay, Jesus, well, who is my neighbor?

And Jesus goes on to share a parable with them. The parable of, we talked about it last week, the Good Samaritan, right? The Good Samaritan, which was a demonstration of the vast difference between your neighbor. Who is your neighbor? Your neighbor is the person who is least like you.

Not the person who is most like you. Not the person who lives next door to you. Not the person that you have the most in common with. That the foundation for what it means to actually love someone is to be able to, to have God transform your heart through his word and spirit into someone who loves the people who are least like you and whom you are least likely to love.

Even Jesus himself says like what, I mean, what benefit is to you if you love those who love you?

That's easy, cheap discipleship. Everyone does that. Even pagans love the people that love them.

Those who have the spirit of God in them through faith in Jesus Christ love those who expressly hate them.

And this certainly would be a transformative thing, wouldn't it be? When the people that hate us, instead of returning fire for fire, what are we? Man, I love you.

Love you. Like just overflowing with this love feeling. Why, why do you love those people?

Why do you speak so kindly and gently to them? Why are you patient and kind? You're not rude, you're not boasting, you're not self-centered. You're not, you're not keeping a record of, well, because the Lord has transformed me in love. I love them. What do you? So the heart of our evangelism with someone else is love. But it's not a love that we can manufacture. It's not affection or affinity. To truly be able to love your neighbor in the way that Jesus describes what true love is of the person that is not like you, you must allow the spirit of God to transform the type of love that you have in you. Because that is not a natural love. That is a love that comes only from the Father. So if you wanna have a love that makes your witness effective, if you wanna have a love that proclaims the gospel in the spirit of Jesus, we must do the work beforehand to say, Lord, transplant my heart of stone with a heart of flesh that loves those who are around me. I wanna love them, Lord.

I said all that to say, the way in which we say our testimony or speak about God's work in our lives matters.

Even though we talk about proclaiming it boldly, proclaiming it courageously, proclaiming it freely and openly, is not a license to be a jerk.

Peter, in his epistle, was really clear about not only the necessity of being prepared to share the gospel, being prepared, which requires intentionality, right? Not only about being prepared to share the gospel, but he talks about the manner in which you share it matters also. First Peter, chapter three, verse 15. Says this, "But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone "who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." How'd you lose so much weight?

Be ready for an answer. Be ready to give an answer. What has changed about you? You seem so patient and kind. You seem so free and different what has happened. I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you what happened. How are we sharing what has happened? Peter says with what? Gentleness and respect.

You can win an argument with people when it comes to the gospel. You can overcome every question that they have, every logical argument that they put.

You can take apologetic truths or methodologies or techniques or whatever, and you can win the argument with someone, and in the process, lose the soul.

As God is ripening the fruit of salvation in people's lives, we must be aware that our approach to them in the proclamation of the gospel can be, should be, needs to be bold, free, and courageous,

But in gentleness and respect. Because if we can't pick the fruit, we should be really careful not to be bruising it.

Now, here's a reality, it's like who then are the people that we should be like in intentional about proclaiming the gospel to. Who are the people? Well, clearly in scripture, Peter is a good example again, 2 Peter chapter three, verse nine, says that God does not wish that any would perish, but that all would come to life in Jesus. So that God's heart is not to like pick and choose certain people that get saved and discard other people that don't get saved, right? That God's heart is that none would perish, but all would have eternal life. It's God's heart, the universal offer of forgiveness to Jesus Christ as they accept Jesus, right?

So who are the people? Well, here's a classic strategy of evangelism, which I'll just tell you right now, I think is dumb.

Is this, you walk into a room full, I've been transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ, saved me, I'm ready to share my faith and share my testimony. I'm gonna walk with this people as group of people, maybe at work or maybe at the gym or wherever, and they don't know Jesus and I'm gonna walk in there and share my face of who should I share my faith with first? Let me see.

And a classic methodology would be to find who in the room? The leader of the room, right? You share your faith with the leader, then everyone follows. Go find the captain of the football team. You win the captain of the football team for Jesus, everyone else is gonna follow. Here's another really, here's a really, another one that happens all the time.

If you win the father of a household, right? Just evangelize the father. Just evangelize the father of the household and then everyone else will follow. Everyone else will follow, I get it, okay? But this is sociology.

It's sociology. It's not theology. And it is not the way that Jesus operated in the gospel.

God uses the circumstances of life, not a person's social position to ripen people to the gospel. Right, it is not a person's social position that determines whether or not they are ready to hear and respond to the gospel as we have sometimes been led to believe. If we look at the ministry and life of Jesus, he did not go after the social elites that they would then convert all of their powerful friends even though he had at many times access to them.

Jesus looked for, looked for, and sometimes just stood back and waited for those that God had already prepared to receive the truth of the gospel. Jesus went to the people who knew their plan for life, not working, not working. And he would consistently walk through large crowds of people pushing all around him, clamoring for his attention, and stop and give one person who he knew the father had made ready for salvation his undivided attention.

He left a whole crowd of people to go find Zacchaeus up in a tree because he knew Zacchaeus' heart was ripe for salvation. Zacchaeus was ready and eager to repent, was he not? That it is clear that the Spirit of God had done something in Zacchaeus' heart and life before he had even met Jesus because it's like as soon as Jesus was like, "Hey, Zacchaeus, go into your house today." He was like, "I'll repent, Lord."

I'm gonna pay back in abundance everything that I have stolen from people. Jesus turned to the desperate woman with the issue of blood in a crowd of people pressing in on him because he recognized that the circumstances of life have brought her to the place where she could seek healing and healing alone from Jesus. He talked at great lengths with Nicodemus who recognized the emptiness of his formulaic religion and was finally ready to submit his heart to the Spirit of God that he could see through the law, he just couldn't get there on his own.

In every single instance of a person right to the gospel, Jesus saw a strong readiness to abandon the life they knew for the hope that they could have in him.

And listen, Jesus also, he didn't just receive people who were ready for the gospel, he sent people away who weren't ready for it.

In Mark chapter 10, we see the story of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And what does Jesus say? Follow all the commandments. What does the rich young ruler say that Jesus, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got all that. I got it, I got it. What's next?

Jesus used the law in Mark chapter 10 to elicit the rich young ruler's prideful assertion that he was not sinful.

That he didn't, that he wasn't really in need of the salvation that Jesus was offering. Jesus said, so what did Jesus say to him? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I got all that, but what really do I need to do? And I'm not gonna presume to know what Jesus was thinking or saying or what Jesus was feeling, but what he said was sell all your possessions and give them to the poor and then come follow me.

Maybe lots of conjecture about what was behind that. I don't know, Jesus will tell us someday. What I believe though is that Jesus said these things not to suggest that divesting his wealth would gain him eternal life, but because his refusal to do so revealed an unreadiness for a God other than his possessions.

And what does this say in Mark chapter 10? A man went away sad, sad indeed, sad indeed.

Perhaps we so seldom experience a harvest of salvation like we saw in the New Testament because we are more inclined to want to go save the people in our sphere of view rather than going to the people that God has already been ripening to the gospel.

Perhaps the greatest, one of the greatest issues that we have, that I've seen in the modern church

Is like a, no, I wanna save this person. This is the person that like, this person's important to me. Not a bad thing. This person's important to me. I wanna reach them from the gospel. So I go, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, here. This person that the Lord has actually ripened to the gospel comes up to us and we're like,

Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, right? We put horse blinders on our eyes, are both our physical eyes and our spiritual eyes to the people in our lives who are actually right to the gospel, but they just, we don't like have actually like a heart to offer them the gospel because they're just like not important to us. Don't look like us, don't act like us, don't talk like us, not our neighbor, or they're our neighbor, but not our buddy.

They're the biblical neighbor, but they're not our friend. They're not our family member, right? And we wanna save those people. The people that we like.

People that we wanna be around in heaven. Am I wrong? It's not wrong. And so we make huge efforts to avoid the people that God has clearly prepared through the circumstances of life to receive the gospel so that we can force our way into a person who is not willing to give up the God of his possession.

God has ripened the hearts of people around you. Jesus himself said in John chapter four, verse 35, "Open your eyes."

This is like, this is an admonition, okay? This, this, this, the, like the grammar here is like, hey, hello, anyone home? Open your eyes, look at the field.

It is ripe with a harvest. Here's a misconception that we often believe about sharing our testimony and sharing our faith.

And it's this one. You know, I have to have it all figured out. I need to be perfect.

I need to be like apex Christian. And once I have reached that place of being like the Christian that everyone wants to be like, then I will start sharing my faith. Before then I can't do that with anyone, can't. Now I will tell you anecdotally, as a person who has been following Jesus intentionally,

And like with all of my heart for like 30 some years, being a pastor for 20 years,

The closer I get to Jesus, the more I am aware of my need for him.

The more that the Lord transforms my heart through the power of the Spirit, right? The more I recognize how dark my heart is. How desperately in need of the grace of the Lord, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the power of God in my life.

Like the light begins to shine on the shadowy dark corners that you didn't even recognize were in your life as you grow closer and closer and closer and closer to Jesus.

And it's my assertion that the enemy who is the father of lies and whose native language is lies,

Plays on that reality and on that dynamic to convince us that because we are absolutely aware

Of the necessity of God's grace in our lives to continue to live in relationship with Jesus,

That we, you can't, what do you mean share your faith with that person? You are still, you still have, you still are not, you haven't arrived there yet. What do you think you're doing? You haven't gotten to the place of having been so transformed for so long in so many ways that you can reasonably or responsibly share your faith with someone, the enemy loves to say that. Loves to say that because what does it do? Because the reality is that as we get closer to the Lord, we become more and more aware of our need for Him. So it keeps us in a perpetual state of saying nothing to anyone about what God has done.

It's a way that the enemy takes our testimony and shucks it up because we could just continue to believe that we don't have the spiritual authority to share what God has done in our lives.

I will say this, you, because it's an important dynamic, you do not have to be perfect to share what the Lord has done in your life.

But that is also not the same thing as saying that you can do whatever you want

And still share the gospel effectively. Our lives, the word says, are living witnesses to the power of the gospel.

In the same way, Jesus says, Matthew chapter five, verse 16, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

That our lives must still reflect the active pursuit of a God who has transformed us. Living not in a facade of perfection,

But in a journey of sanctification that the Lord is continuing to do in us so that he can continue to do through us.

Share with you just these few things and then we're gonna end for the day.

'Cause many of us, all of us, every single one of you, has people in your life who you wish, desire, want to share the gospel with.

That you desire to see come to salvation in Jesus. Could be the person that you share a bed with. Could be your child, could be your parent, could be a friend, could be a coworker. We all have them, right? What are we doing in situations like they're in relationship with or in that reality? We'll share a few things, okay? Not a comprehensive list, but a few things. Number one, pray that God would use the circumstances of life to ripen their hearts to the message of the gospel. Pray that God would use the circumstances of life to ripen their hearts to the message of the gospel. Circumstance, and here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying pray that bad things happen to them. It's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that God would leverage the circumstances of life to open their eyes to their need for him. Could be that sometimes God uses actually worldly good circumstances to reveal a person's need for him. We've had testimonies of people in here, people that we've baptized who have shared their testimonies, owned successful businesses, very profitable, beautiful family, everything going for them,

Lots of friends, healthy in all ways, feel empty inside. Everything's great, except the emptiness that I feel inside that can only be filled by Jesus, right? I give my heart and my life to him. So sometimes circumstances don't bring us to a place of destruction. They actually bring us to a place of blessing, and we realize that the blessing of the material world is nothing in comparison to the peace offered to us in Jesus. And so we can pray that the Lord would use the circumstances of life to ripen people to the gospel without simultaneously praying that something bad would happen to them, but also recognizing that sometimes bad things happen to people.

And that we should not, be careful here, panic in the midst of very difficult circumstances

In the lives of people that we love, thinking that we must save them real quick from these circumstances. Because if we don't save them from these circumstances, they might get mad at God and turn away. God uses the circumstances of life to ripen people

To their need for him, ripen people to the gospel. So let me tell you this church, do not get in between the hammer and the work.

Do not get in between the hammer and the work. You know what that means? You ever hit your thumb with a hammer? Right, it hurts. Do not try and flank the circumstances

That God is using to ripen people to the gospel, thinking that you're helping them get closer to the Lord. The Lord uses circumstances to megaphone his like, hello, hello, you hear me? It's a way in which he gets our attention when we refuse.

And here's the reality. Salvation for that person is nearer than you believe. Salvation for that person may be nearer than you believe. Sometimes when someone seems the furthest away from God is when God is about to drop a boulder on their life that turns them back to him.

The most perfect example is Saul of Tarsus, later named Paul, the apostle of the New Testament church to the Gentiles.

Dude was literally on his way to murder Christians. If you could not pick a person who is more,

Not about to respond to the gospel than Paul, wasn't further from God. The circumstances of his life so far away from what you would say is someone, oh, they're so close, they're so close, they're so close. You'd have looked at Paul and you'd be like, man, dude is light years away. Let's not even waste our time. And then the Lord does what? Drops a boulder on his life. Strikes him blind, physically blind.

I've never been physically blind. Perfectly, I would say a pretty rough circumstance if you ask me that God used to ripen his heart to the gospel, right? Bring him humble because what did Paul have to do to experience healing from the circumstance that God brought in his life? Hey, go ask that Christian guy to pray for you.

Those people that you have been persecuting because they've been proclaiming the name of Jesus, go ask him to lay his hands on you. He's gonna say Jesus' name. Gonna say my name.

What's this Jesus talking to him? Just say my name, you're gonna be healed. Then I got a job for you.

What? People are closer than we think. So prepare yourself to speak boldly the plain and true message of the gospel. Have a plan. This is what God did in me. This is how it happened. This is how I responded. This is what's come next. God has done it for me. God can do it for you. God healed my kidney. God will heal you. Right?

Finally, and we've said this already, do not abandon the harvest of those whom God has already ripened but are right in front of you.

Ask the Lord to take the blinders off your eyes, the people that he has ripened to the gospel that are in your life right in front of you right now that he wants you to share the testimony of your faith with but whom you have been ignoring or walking around or have not seen simply because you got your own plan about who you wanna save.

Perhaps God would do more to ripen the hearts of those on our hearts if we did more to reach the already ripe ones on his heart.

Do you join me in prayer? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have seen you do great things. We are witnesses, Lord, to your goodness. We are witnesses, Lord, to your salvation and transformation. We are witnesses, Lord, to the way you have worked throughout generations to draw men, women, and children to Jesus Christ. Father, we do not ever wanna forget the testimony of your saving power which has transformed us.

Lord, please continue to fully transform us so that we may have a story to tell that the world desperately needs to hear.

Father, so completely transform us that the world cannot help but ask, what's up with you?

And then, Lord, let us speak boldly and confidently since we have been with Jesus, what we have seen and heard and experienced, the freedom that you have given to us.

Lord, as we pick the ripe fruit of the harvest that you have prepared, Lord, make us faithful workers in that. In Jesus' name, amen.