INTRO.- Do you have a testimony? Yes, whether you realize it or not. Every human has a testimony or is a living testimony.
ILL.- For example, let me name some people and you say the word or words that immediately come to your mind that reminds you of these people: Babe Ruth, Lance Armstrong, Lionel Richey, Oprah Winfrey, Mike Tyson, Sam Walton, Billy Graham, George Carlin, Abe Lincoln, Sonia Sotomayor, etc.
It's been said that what we do speaks so loudly that people can't hear what we're saying. True for me, true for you.
We all have a testimony. It can be both lived and spoken. And our living should match our speaking. If we say that we believe in Jesus Christ and worship Him, then it should be obvious from the way we live. But obviously, we don't always "walk the talk," as they say. Our actions speak louder than our words.
ILL.- A former schoolmate of Robert Ingersoll (agnostic) entered the legal profession. He married a lovely woman and was the father of two children. Then he began to drink. He sank to the lowest depths and lost everything.
One night a Christian worker found him lying drunk in an alley. He brought him to a mission. There Christ saved him. (we assume so) He was utterly transformed. He rebuilt his home.
One day he learned that Ingersoll was to give a lecture against God and the Bible. The converted alcoholic wrote to him, saying, “Old friend, would you tell the people that you are against the religion that came down to the lowest depths of hell and found me? Would you speak against the Saviour who stooped and lifted me, rebuilt my home and brought joy to my wife and children?”
Ingersoll read the letter that night before a large audience and then said, “I have nothing to say against a religion that will do this for a man. I am here to talk about a religion that is being preached, but not practiced by so many. You can find fault with the church, but there stands One supreme! No man can point his finger at Christ and find any fault with Him!”
This has always been the problem with Christianity: finding fault with the church or the people who make up the church! If we don't live like followers of Christ we will bring dishonor to the name of Christ. And we will keep people from coming to Christ.
Obviously, no Christian is perfect or will live the perfect Christian life, but we all must strive at walking in His steps as best we can! And this may mean giving up some things or some practices in order not to be a stumbling block to others.
What things do you do that could be a stumbling block to keep others from coming to Christ?
ILL.- I knew a Christian minister one time back in Iowa who smoked cigars. He did not apologize for smoking cigars because he liked them, however, he did not recognize that smoking was not a good Christian example in the world. WHAT SHOULD HE HAVE DONE?
PROP.- Let's think about Paul's personal testimony and how it relates to our lives. (two positives and a negative)
1- He did not preach a made-up gospel
2- He did persecute believers in the past
3- He did receive a call from God
I. HE DID NOT PREACH A MADE-UP GOSPEL
11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
ILL.- Fact or Fiction: Do Deer Whistles Work? Every year, somewhere between a million and two million drivers collide with large animals on our roads, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Around two hundred of these collisions are fatal. (That is, they are fatal to occupants of the vehicles. The fatality rate for the unfortunate wildlife is obviously much higher.)
If you live in the country, then you have probably heard about deer whistles or “deer horns." You may even have a pair of them stuck to your front bumper already. Deer horns channel air passing by a car through whistles that supposedly deliver a piercing sound to deer and scare them away. But, do deer whistles really work?
No, they do not. A research study of air-fed whistles was published in 2003. Basically, many deer horns make sound that falls outside of the audible range of deer. Even the whistles that do blow within the correct range of hearing may not sound much louder to deer than the oncoming vehicles themselves or the sound of a brisk wind.
What's the conclusion? Obviously, some things that are advertised don't deliver the goods!
ILL.- Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American writer of science fiction who also devised a self-help system called Dianetics, which was first published in 1950. Over the next three decades, Hubbard developed his self-help ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals he called Scientology.
Hubbard claimed that when he was four years old, he became the protegé of "Old Tom (medicine man)," a Blackfeet Indian shaman. In 1985, Scientologists claimed that members of Blackfeet Nation, Montana, commemorated "the seventieth anniversary of [L. Ron Hubbard] becoming a blood brother of the Blackfeet Nation. Tree Manyfeathers in a ceremony re-established L. Ron Hubbard as a blood brother to the Blackfeet Tribe. THIS SOUNDS PRETTY WEIRD TO ME!
Everything that advertises, doesn't deliver! And so with false or different gospels! There are many man-made gospels or man-made religions that don't deliver the goods!
We must cling to the Bible as the Word of God! We must to the Christ of it's pages. We believe He is the only Savior of the world and all other so-called gospels are only man-made religions!
II Timothy 3:14-17 "14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
II. HE DID PERSECUTE BELIEVERS IN THE PAST
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Paul had a negative past. He persecuted followers of Christ.
ILL.- In high school gym class occasionally our coach/teacher would make us box. He would pair us up with another guy about our size, have us put on the boxing gloves and go at it. Generally, we only boxed maybe one or two quick rounds.
One day I boxed a boy in my class named Tommy Reed. Tommy was a pretty studious guy but a boxer, he was not. I wasn't either but I was better than Tommy Reed. Every time I hit him in the head he fell to the mat we were standing on. I must knocked him down at least a half dozen times. BOY, WAS I ON A HIGH! I thought I was a boxer!
But you remember the old saying, "What goes around, comes around"? That's like "Whatever you sow, you reap."
Well, another time I got into a boxing match with a guy in our class who was much bigger than me. I don't know recall if he challenged me or I challenged him, but it was a dumb move. I wasn't in that match very long before he hit me in the head and nearly knocked me down and out! My head was swimming. I'd had enough of that!
The apostle Paul had a negative past. He picked on true believers! Did you ever make fun of anyone? Or did you ever make fun of a Christian before you ever became one? If so, it will come back to haunt you. If you go picking on God's people He just might make you one of them! That's what God did with Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. Once a persecutor, now a preacher of the gospel!
The worst of what Paul did was to persecute Christians. In fact, he was so zealous for law of Moses that he thought Christians were spreading a false religion and he wanted to kill them. He probably thought he was doing God a favor, but otherwise, he was a good man. He was faithful and devout Jew! Better than most people of his day.
We all have a past; good, bad or otherwise. And probably one of the worst things we can do is to persecute people no matter what the reason. They could be Christian. They could be a different race, a different religion, a different sexual orientation, from a different country, etc. PEOPLE DO PICK ON PEOPLE. But we must not be guilty.
ILL.- For example, even though I don't agree at all with the gay lifestyle, I don't hate people who choose that lifestyle. I hate their thinking, their sin, but I don't hate them. You can't help someone if you hate them. And Jesus never hated the woman caught in adultery as recorded in John 8. What a lesson for us!
We must treat all people with courtesy, fairness and love. If we don't, how can our light shine for Christ?
Another thought about our past, we must get over it! It doesn't make any difference what a person has done in the past, God can forgive them and use them. Often, however, we allow the dark clouds of our past to hinder and hamper us in life.
Philippians 3:13-14 "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
We all need to get over our past (regardless of how good it was or how bad it was) and press on for Christ! And we all need to let people get over their past and not remind them of it!
III. HE DID RECEIVE A CALL FROM GOD
ILL.- Elaine and I have been getting lots of phone calls lately from someone that won't leave us alone. GUESS? It's a Suddenlink sales person or telemarketer. And it's the same guy every time and he just won't leave us alone! He's trying, of course, to sell us on the total Suddenlink package by getting us to buy their telephone service. He's a persistent cuss and I haven't given in to him yet!
The apostle Paul received a call from God, however, he didn't know about it or recognize it for a long time.
15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man. 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
Paul was a grown man before he ever recognized his call from God. That was God's plan for his life, however, most of us waste a lot of time before we ever recognize God's call to follow Him.
ILL.- For example, our own Bill Vaughn didn't confess his faith in Christ and wasn't baptized until he was in his 70's. I'm sure that now Bill would probably testify that he knew God was calling him but he just wouldn't give in and surrender to the Lord.
This is why it is so important that we raise our children in the faith by bringing them to Sunday School, Church, youth meetings, etc. We all know that if we hear the message of the gospel early in life our chances of giving our lives to Christ are much greater than if we haven't been raised in the church.
What does this say about kids today? Whew! There are so many that probably have never even seen the inside of a church house, let alone heard the gospel message! SO VERY SAD!
ILL.- One morning, a grade school teacher asked her class how many points there are on the compass. She was surprised when one little boy raised his hand and said: “Five.” On being questioned, the boy counted: “North, south, east, west, and where I am.”
Personally, I think God's compass is pointed at every child on planet earth! I think that God wants all children to know Him! God prefers for people to accept His son Jesus at an early age in life. WHY? So they can serve Him all their lives. And because young people are easier to reach, teach and train early in life!
BUT WHAT IF THEY'VE NEVER HEARD THE GOSPEL AND HAVE NOT BEEN RAISED IN A CHURCH THAT PREACHES CHRIST? God have mercy on them.
Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
II Tim. 3:14-15 "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."
There's another aspect to the call of God. Since we know John 3:16, that in essence God has called and is calling all people to accept his love offer in Jesus, then we must do something about it.
God is calling all people to Christ and salvation, but how does He do this? HE DOES THIS THROUGH HIS PEOPLE. He does this through us! We all need to allow ourselves to be God's telemarketers for the gospel. We need to be open to opportunities to point people to Christ! People cannot accept what they do not know about!
CONCLUSION------------
Paul's testimony: He persecuted the believers before His conversion, he was called by God, and ended up preaching the gospel.
Now, what's your testimony? Where did you come from, where are you going and what are you doing now? That's the important thing about your life. What are you doing now that counts for Christ? God help us to live for His glory!
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
