Hymn7 #197

“Go preach my Gospel,” Saith the Lord,

Bid the whole earth my grace receive,

He shall be saved that trusts My Word.

He shall be damned that won’t believe

I’ve never heard a sermon about what we want to talk about today.  The word is “Witness.”  Want to encourage us to come away from all our preconceived ideas.  Like to encourage us to leave our baggage about witnessing and see what Jesus is saying.   Starting in Acts 1:22, “Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.”

In verse 7, He tells us, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The thing that impacted my mind when I read this passage, is, “As sure as ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, ye shall be my witnesses.”  When I studied what this meant I didn’t think I was prepared to fulfill this command.  God’s will is that the message of the Gospel is to go forth to the uttermost parts of the world.  Remember this and meditate on it.  I have nothing to say to anyone until my life witnesses to His.   I’ll confess my biggest challenge and burden is to feel like I’m witnessing and shedding the light in public places. Proverbs says to “Acknowledge the Lord in all my ways…”  I struggle with this “Ye shall receive power from me and I will dwell in you. That power is the only energy that will allow you to witness to every part of the world.

Don’t know how you feel about Pendleton, IN. but we can witness where ever we’re at.  I believe that the witnessing to every part of the world is being fulfilled today. 

I’d like to talk about Jesus.  I feel like I fail Him in so many ways by not acknowledging Him in everything.  The bad news about witnessing is that in the Greek it is translated to mean, “Martyr.”  I don’t think we are prepared to “witness.” To be willing to testify to the truth of the Gospel and live and speak the truth to the giving of our lives.

Many of our meeting places are in shops, schools, barns etc.  It doesn’t matter.  We worship God where He takes us.  We don’t need hardwood floors to worship.  Don’t think I ever consciously thought that maybe I should go to town, work, jails etc to witness to the Gospel. If we knew the authorities knew about this meeting and would come and take lives before this day was over, would we be here? When our lives become a testimony to the truth we are willing to witness, to put our lives on the line to witness.  We don’t know about getting out of our comfort zones until we have worshiped with the persecuted church.  We will never be true witnesses until our lives and heart witness to Him.

Isaiah 43. God is calling us to be witnesses to Him in this chapter.  That there would be men and women, sons and daughters called to His heart.  How does God feel about my witness?  No matter where we are in life Jesus is calling us to be witnesses to His light.

Verse 7 of Isaiah 43, “Even every one that is called by My name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”   I was only created for His glory!  Even nature witnesses to God. I think, “Why me Lord, I’m just an ol’ farmer?” But every soul was created for His glory. We must be a new creation that glorifies Him in every way.  Jesus says, “I am not going to take you out of this world but I am going to keep you from this world.”  We get hung up on other stuff, but could we live somehow more to witness for Him?

Verse 9, “Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.”  If we are witnesses of Him then it’s going to have to be of Him.  He says I am the way the truth and the life.  When I witness of Him, that testifies of Him.  The Bible is all the library we need!

Verse 10  “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” We hear about a lot of other god’s but there is no other Savior.  An idol is anything that keeps me from witnessing about my Lord

Verse 11, “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no savior. “  Has He shown Himself to you?  Jesus was born in a barn.  No advertisement campaign, but a band of rag tag folks who would listen to Him.

Verse 12 “I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.   If I am going to be a witness unto Jesus but I don’t witness to the power of His resurrection then I’m witnessing to a dead Jesus.  That my life would be a witness to a resurrected Lord.  We’ve been given power over death.  We have power over death and life because we’ve been given that trust.  We’ve been given power over deception because he says we can know the way.

Romans 6:4, 5  “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”  Don’t know if you’ve been baptized or not.  If not you need to be, and you can be baptized today.   Am I walking in newness of life?  Can anyone tell?  Do folks see anything in me that witnesses to Jesus?

Justified!  When I received the blood of Jesus I am justified.  My old sins are like they never were.  If there is no witness have we really been justified?

Our brother in opening talked about “sleeping on things.”  Here’s what came to me in the night. “To walk in newness of life, the old man is not only dead but destroyed.  What came to me in the night was that this old man has not been martyred.   Romans 6:6  “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”  This old man must be crucified, burned at the stake and buried.  We play with fire, talk out of one side of our mouth about being a Christian, while walking after the old man.   Nail that old man to the stake!  If you don’t have the power and the promise of the witness then you have nothing but the abiding wrath of God.  I must be dead to the old man and alive to Christ!  Let’s martyr the old man!

Romans 12 is where the rubber meets the road.   Verse 1 “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  If you kill a sacrifice and lay it on the alter it will stay there. A living sacrifice will keep raising back up.  “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”  Our testimony will not be hidden, if we deceive ourselves.   Others are watching - children, neighbors etc. 

So Monday morning what will our testimony be to those around us?   Verse 1 of Romans 12… “Not slothful in business…”   What’s that got to do with witnessing for Jesus?  Your life touches lives every day.  Had an episode this summer and I haven’t even apologized yet.  I see this man a couple times a year.  He showed up on the scene and hadn’t done his job right. I just blew up at the man.   I don’t know where he goes to church or what he believes, but I’m sure he’s not interested in coming to my church. I destroyed my testimony in just a few minutes.  The old many was not crucified and rose up.  If I don’t read the Word and pray when I wake up in the morning I can expect some kind of explosion.

Slothful in business… (Verse 11) What is our business? Am I ashamed to testify to the truth of Jesus?  God is watching this whole scene and he knows where I’m at.  Col. 3:2 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”If ye then be risen with Him seek those things which are above. (Matthew)

Verse 20 of Romans 12,  “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. “  How do we bless our enemies?  Feed him, give him to drink.  When that overwhelming power fills my life and controls me, then I can pray for and bless someone who abuses me. 

I Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:”  He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light and He’s still calling

Verse 13 of  I Peter 2   “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; “   Verse 17  Suggests we even pray for Obama.  Verse 18, Speaks of servants of God… Freedom to life and living the freedom.  God bless us!

Raymond Oyler; We’ve been to school today and had a pop quiz.  I know I didn’t pass.  Just because we didn’t pass doesn’t mean we give up. 

We heard about martyrs today and I thought about Steven in Acts. He had a bold witness. Not arrogant but bold and he was martyred for it.  The day is coming when we are going to be witnesses. There’s a couple books, the Foxes book of Martyrs and Martyrs Mirrors.  Like to read what the Bible says about martyrs.  Heb 11:37-40  “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.   And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

I worked with a man on a construction job.  After service he would walk on the beach and witness for Christ in his suit, then later returned to the beach dressed very immodestly.  Talk about speaking out of both sides of the mouth.  

We all need things in life to sustain us, but sometimes we become obsessed with them. 

Science testifies of the creation.

Hymn #36

Lord dismiss us with Thy blessing        

Fill our hearts with joy and peace!   

Let us each, Thy love possessing, 

Triumph in redeeming grace;

O refresh us,   

Traveling through this wilderness