Untitled Sermon (19)

I first want to say thank you to Mr. Bobby for inviting me here and letting me speak to you guys. My goal in this talk is pretty simple. The main question in my talk is “what is a testimony”? I honestly have not heard many sermons or talks on the specific meaning of what a testimony actually is, and I also have been having this question recently so I sought to dig into the scripture and see what a testimony is. I found a few examples that will help us see what the Bible says on the nature of a testimony. The first example I want to speak on is the first time the word for testimony is used. This is found in Exodus 16. For context, God had already brought the Israelites out of Egypt and they are now in the wilderness. In the wilderness, the Israelites began to complain that there is no food. God heard their complaint and brought down quail for them to eat along with a type of food that the Israelites were unable to identify. Moses said then that it was bread that the Lord was giving them and this was called manna.God would provide for the Israelites in the wilderness and verse 34 is God telling Moses to set a jar of manna and they placed it before the testimony to be kept. The testimony here is debated in this verse but I think it brings the same idea. Some say it is the 2 tablets that had the 10 commandments and Some say that it is indirectly referring to the ark because the ark contained the 10 commandments which is the testimony. No matter what, the 2 plates of the 10 commandments are the main testimony. These plates also were a binding testimony because they were a witness to the Covenant God made with Moses and Israel. They were also a witness to show the power of God. The manna was to be set by the testimony to also be a witness to future generations that the Lord was faithful. So we see a testimony here is a witness to things that God has done or promised in the lives of the Israelites.  In the next example, we will see a person giving a testimony of what God did in the past, namely David. In Psalm 136, David’s main message is that God’s love endures forever and he gives a list of things God had done to show, or give a witness to His love. I won’t go over every verse here but I will give a summary. Verses 4-9 speak of God being the creator, giving creedence to the creation account in Genesis. In verses 10-16 is David speaking about God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and leading them through the wilderness. In the final section of the Psalm, David speaks of God striking kings and also remembering those in their low estate. This shows us that a testimony also involves recounting the works of the Lord in the past generations. The manna and the commandments were both testimonies to the current and future generations and David’s testimony was from the past. Therefore, we can have a testimony of what God has done in our lives and also what God is currently doing in our lives and finally trusting that God will keep His promises in the generations to come. Now lets go to the New Testament, beginning with John the Baptist in John 1, verses 6-8 which say “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.” Here we see John the Baptist being a witness to the light. The light here is Christ, John is being a witness to Christ. Notice that all of these examples have one common theme, they are about the Lord. The main goal of a testimony is to tell of the Lord, if a testimony does not have the Lord at the climax then there is an issue. Now, you can have things about yourself in a testimony but every testimony has to speak of the Lord’s action or actions. I have one more example of a testimony in the NT, namely Paul’s testimony in Acts 22. I think in order to get the fullness of the testimony, I will read the whole thing, mainy verse 3-21 and it says: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. 4 I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, 5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.

6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.

12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

17 “When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ 21 And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” [1] Notice the order in which Paul does this. He starts off with him peresecuting Christians, he begins with his sin and then he moves on to the climax, which is when Christ came to Him on the road to Damascus and brought him to Himself. This should be every persons testimony if they are a Christian: I have sinned against the Lord, but He came and saved me from my sin. Paul’s testimony format is what we also should follow, it may not be the same events and God may use a different way to save you but this should be a base for how we share our testimony. Paul also is speaking to non-believers here. This shows that a testimony has multiple purposes, one of course is to glorify God. Another is that it can be used as a defense for Christ against Non Christians and lastly it can be used as an encouragement to believers. My final definition of what a testimony is especially when regarding salvation is: A witness to the work of God to Christians or non christians, especially a witness to the saving us from our sins and also the continual faithfulness and love of God. With that definition, I will now give my testimony of how God saved me from my sins.

So, to start off my testimony, I was born in South Dakota and moved to Texas when i was 1 or so. 4 years after that my parents found out that I had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which is a muscle disorder that makes your muscles weaker over time. Resuming, About 4-5 years later, I started playing little league baseball and began to really like it and was my passion, I played for a few years and i wanted to keep playing until i got too weak to play. I stopped playing at 13 and was mad at God and i stopped caring about almost everything. In My sophomore year in high school, my grades began to go down a lot and I was at my lowest point mentally and emotionally. I could not imagine a live without living out what i wanted to do. I began having anger issues and I let that anger control me for a long time and led to sin and lust as well was a big sin in my life at the time. I was a miserable sinner. I began lying about my situation and my sin to my friends and others. This went on for about a year and a half and in august of 2020 Christ led me to a Bible study in my hometown that my brother started and at first, I wanted nothing to do with God but then I began to enjoy being in fellowship with others because I didn’t have many friends at the time. I began to listen to what was being said and one night i was convicted with these two verses. Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” and James 2:10: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” This convicted me of how serious God is about sin and I realized I was on the road to hell and needed a Savior to save me. Later, on a fall night in 2020, I had enough of doing things on my own and going my own way and Christ led me to repentance and faith in Christ, and I was saved. I believe that my justification was all because of Christ because he is the one that drew me to himself, convicted me of sin, and brought me to faith. After my justification I can look back and say that Christ was working that whole time to bring me to faith. It wasn’t me having the ability to come to him on my own without Him, God was the one that initiated it and He is the one that brought it to fruition. So my testimony is a witness to Christ’s work in me that resulted in my justification. I do also want to say that justification is not the end, we as Christians must be involved in the process of sanctification, killing sin continually and seeking to obey the Lord’s commands. God is the author of our justification and our sanctification, so we cant do either one without Christ. With all that said, I would be doing a disseservice if I did not give the gospel message. Just like Paul gave a testimony to the gospel of Christ, we must also as Christians give a testimony of the gospel of Christ. The Gospel is this: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and he called them good. He then created Adam and Eve who were sinless and were in the right relationship with the Lord. However, they sinned against God and therefore they were separated from God and earned for themselves eternal punishment. Because of this sin, we are also affected by sin. We also have sinned and are guilty before God, therefore we owe a sin debt and the amount required/owed for the debt is eternal punishment. But Christ came and paid the debt when He died, he took on our punishment, on the cross after he lived a perfect life. He then rose from the dead. He does all of this as a gift that is only received by repentance (which is a hatred of sin so as to turn from them) and faith which is a resting upon Christ. If you put your faith in him you will be forgiven and in union with the Lord.