How Has Christ Changed Your Life?

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Standing, take out your Bibles and turn to the 22nd chapter of the book of Acts.
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And we're going to read one verse to open the service, or open the sermon portion, and then I'm going to pray.
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So, Acts chapter 22, verse 22.
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Paul has just given his testimony before the Jewish people.
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And it says in verse 22, up to this point, or up to this word, rather, they listened to him.
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Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the testimony of the faithful.
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I thank you for the opportunity to have heard a testimony and now to hear the testimony of the Apostle Paul.
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I thank you, Lord, that we have times of encouragement with believers, and we know, Lord, that sometimes when we give our testimony in the midst of unbelievers, the response is not positive and it's not applause, but it's hatred.
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And yet, Lord, we are called to give that testimony before all men.
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Amen.
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So I pray, Lord, today that you would help me to preach, that you would keep me from error, and that your Spirit would speak through me and touch and open hearts.
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And Lord, if there are those here who do not know the Lord, that it would be used to draw them to Him by way of regeneration.
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And Lord, for those who do know the Lord, that this would be a time where our hearts are brought into closer conformity to our Savior.
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For your word tells us that that is what we have been called to, what we have been predestined to, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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A few days ago my wife called me.
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I was up here working at the church and she said that her car would not start, would not even turn over.
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I was thankful Ashley's car did run, so she was able to take her where she needed to go.
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I didn't have to leave to come home right away, but later that night I came home and when I got home I began to investigate what was wrong with the car.
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And as my wife suggested, I thought it was a dead battery, but as I reached in to begin the process of plugging the jumper cables into the battery, I reached down and touched the negative wire and everything kicked on.
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It was the lights came on, the car began to ping because the key was in the ignition.
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And so it wasn't that the battery was dead, but that there was no connection to the battery.
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It had somehow shaken loose through driving and the connection was gone.
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Almost exact same thing just a few days later happened to Cody's truck.
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Battery wouldn't work.
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We thought it was the battery walked out and the wire had come loose.
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And once it was properly connected to the power, the vehicle came to life, ran like it was supposed to, but while it was disconnected, it did not run.
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Well we come to this week in our study of the book of Acts and we're going to focus on Paul giving his testimony before a Jewish mob who is seeking to have him arrested and killed.
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Paul goes back into his past, he proclaims to the Jewish people what Christ had done for him and he explains that apart from Christ, he had been a zealous Jew who was zealous for the law, but he had no power.
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And he had no peace.
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He had no Christ.
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He was not connected to the only one who could give him life.
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And now Paul has been connected to Christ by the gift of regeneration, by having been born again.
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And now his life has been changed and he was ready to proclaim to all who could hear about the Christ who changed his life, the Christ who changed his heart, the Christ who came in and gave him life.
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Without Christ, Paul was dead.
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As dead and again looking back at the illustration of the cars, as dead as those cars were without being connected to that battery, that's where Paul was.
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He was a man zealous for the law.
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He was a man zealous for his tradition.
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He was a religious man.
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You all realize you can be religious and not saved, right? I mean you can be really religious.
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You can be so religious that you strap a bomb to your chest and walk into a crowd of people.
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I mean you're so committed to your religion, but you're as lost as anyone.
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In fact, sometimes even more lost because your religion has clouded your eyes.
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It has put a veil over you.
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We had yesterday morning, I was working in my garage and Jennifer came in and said, well the Jehovah's Witnesses came by again and I got excited.
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I ran out to see them and they were already gone.
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I said, why did you let them go? Well I shared the gospel with them.
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Okay, well you know, you shared the gospel with them, that's fine.
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But I like to help, at least come watch.
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But you know, you've got religious people coming to your door, whether they're two guys with white shirts on ten speeds or whether it's an older man and woman coming with a Jehovah's Witness New World Translation.
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You've got these people coming to your door and they are sucked into the cult of religion that they're in, but they're lost as anyone.
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They're just as lost as the man down there sucking on that alcohol or that person sucking on that pipe of cocaine or whatever.
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Those sixty people that Ocean Way just, I don't know if you all saw this on the news, there were sixty arrests in one day within four miles of this church.
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And it was all drugs and it all, within right here.
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And the people walking to your door with that New World Translation are just as lost as those sixty people that are on drugs.
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Religion is the opiate of the masses, says one socialistic dictator, who I hate to quote, but it really is.
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Because religion keeps people from Christ in a lot of ways.
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And that's what it was for Paul.
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Paul was a religious man who didn't have Jesus.
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And when Christ changed his life, he became a new man and his life became the life of that of a missionary.
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Because when Christ changes a life, everything in that life changes.
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Everything looks different.
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Your desires change.
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My old professor at school, he was a down-to-earth kind of simple guy, and he said, God gives you a new wanna.
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He said, because I used to want to do this, but now I want to do that.
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Now I want to serve Jesus.
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Now I want to go and tell people about Jesus.
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Now my life is filled with new wannas, and all the stuff I used to want to do, while my flesh still wanna does it, sometimes, now I'm having to kill the English language, though I still have this fleshly desire, the new wannas are there, and I seek to follow after those.
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And I don't do it perfectly, and I hope nobody here would claim they do either.
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But it is new, Jesus, the Bible says, the old has gone and the new has come.
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So this week we're going to look at Paul's testimony, and then I'm going to give you just a few points of application on the subject of the value of a testimony.
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Because I do think that what we see, and we've been in the book of Acts now for several years, we've been going verse by verse, we're going to sort of start taking a little bigger chunks as we get to the end.
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Because what we see is Paul giving his testimony several times in the next few chapters.
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Here he's before the Hebrew people, the next chapter he's before the Sanhedrin, after that he goes before Felix and Agrippa, and we see, over and over, we see these opportunities for Paul to share his testimony.
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So today I just want to focus on the subject of Paul's testimony.
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We're going to read, starting in verse 1, and we're just going to read down, I'm going to make some comments as we go, I'm not going to give a full exposition, but I'm just going to make comments as we read.
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It says, actually if you go back up to verse 37 of chapter 21, this is how Paul got into the situation.
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If you don't remember from last week, Paul was in Jerusalem, he was worshipping there, and he got caught by the Jewish people who had been looking for him, and he got drug out as it were a mob, and he was being beaten in public, and the Romans actually came to his defense.
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They see a guy being beaten in the street, and they want to come in and find out what's going on, so they come in, they take him, as it were, captive, and they take him to the barracks and they start to question him.
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This is where we pick up in verse 37, it says, and as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, that's the leader, he says, may I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? See that was an interesting thing, because Paul was not an uneducated man, and he's going to talk in a minute about his education, but he was a man who was multilingual.
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He was able to speak to the Hebrew people in their language, he was able to speak to the Greek people in their language, he actually wrote the New Testament, the books that he did write, in Greek.
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And this surprised the Roman leader, you speak Greek? And by the way, those of you who are in my Sunday school class have been studying Greek, see how important it is, it can get you out of a beating.
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That's a bad joke.
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No, it said, do you know Greek? And he did, and so he spoke to him, he says, are you not the Egyptians? See, they thought Paul was a man who was a terrorist.
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He said, are you not the Egyptian who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men to the, of the assassins out into the wilderness? There was a guy out who has been basically being a terrorist, who had been leading assassins across the countryside, and that's who they thought this was.
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They thought the Jews had caught this Egyptian assassin.
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They bring him in and they say, is this not you? We thought we got the guy, you know, you've been on all the wanted posters, as it were.
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No, it's not him.
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He's, Paul replied, I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.
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That's not a small town, guys, I'm a, I'm a, a Roman citizen, and I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.
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Now you think this group had just been beating Paul.
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This group had just been persecuting Paul, but Paul still wants to get out there and preach the gospel.
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I don't know about you, but I, personally, it might be hard if somebody's beating on me, or hurting me, or persecuting me, for me to really have that want to get back out there and love them, because that's what Paul wants to do.
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Paul wants to love people who hate him, but didn't Jesus tell us that, blessed are you when men hate you, and revile you, and persecute you, all because of my sake? That's where Paul is right now.
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He's being hated, he's being persecuted, but he still wants to do it.
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And Paul's standing on the steps, motioning with his hand to the people, and there was a great hush, and he addressed them in the Hebrew language.
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By the way, it's interesting that twice the language issue comes up, because when he spoke to the Greek people, he spoke in their language, so as to get an audience with them.
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Now, when he walks out onto the steps, and he begins to speak to the Hebrew people, he speaks in Hebrew to get an audience with them.
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And he begins in verse 1 of 22, Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.
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And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.
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They, okay, this guy has something to say, and he's speaking to us in our language.
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And he said, I'm a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, that is Jerusalem.
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Educated at the feet of Gamaliel, Gamaliel was the great Jewish teacher, and he's known not only in scripture, he's known in extra-biblical literature as being one of the most prolific, one of the most sought-after teachers in the ancient world.
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This was a teacher par excellence, and this was Paul's teacher, this was his mentor.
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So you guys know Gamaliel, yes, he was my teacher.
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I learned at his feet.
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According to the strict manner of the law of our fathers being zealous for God, as all of you are this day, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priests and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.
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For 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.
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You all know this story.
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You go back into the earlier chapters of Acts, you remember the apostle Paul, he stood by while Stephen was being stoned.
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He held the coats of those, or the tunics of those who were going out to stone Stephen, and he gave his approval to that.
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And I honestly, I tend to think, I try to think about Paul and his life, and sort of try to get into the mind of the apostle Paul, I think that stayed with him.
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The fact that who he was, and how far God had reached down to save him.
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That's right.
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He says at one point, I am the chief of sinners, and it is true.
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I think one of the most damaging things that happen in people's lives are when they think that they are somehow worthy of God's grace.
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They somehow deserve the mercy of God.
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We do not deserve God's mercy, we deserve God's wrath.
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And when we begin to think we deserve God's mercy, it no longer becomes mercy, because mercy is undeserved.
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Grace is undeserved.
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And I think that's why Paul always had in his mind who he was before Christ.
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And so he tells the story, I was zealous, and I was persecuting Christians.
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Then verse 6, as I was on my way, and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me.
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And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, Who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
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Now those who were with me saw a light, but did not understand.
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The voice of the one who was speaking to me, 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.
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And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand of those who were with me, and came into Damascus.
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Now I want to make a quick point, and I promised myself I wasn't going to chase a rabbit here.
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So forgive me for just a minute to reference something.
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Because I don't know how many of you guys talk to atheists, and I don't just go out looking for atheists.
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Sometimes they find me, and sometimes we just happen upon one another.
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But atheists tend to find any place they can in the Bible to attack its veracity, to attack its truthfulness.
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And one of the places that often they go to is right here in Acts 22.
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Because, in Acts 22, verse 9, it says, And they that were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him who spake to me.
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That's King James.
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If you notice, I changed translation only for this reason.
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Because in the King James Bible, it does say, They heard not the voice.
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But if you go back to Acts chapter 9, and look at verse 7, it says in the King James version, And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
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So in the King James translation, you have in the 9th chapter, it says they heard a voice.
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And in the 22nd chapter, it says they did not hear a voice.
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Well, there you go.
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The Bible's strong.
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We can fold up and go home.
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I mean, that's the argument.
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This is one of the arguments of the atheists.
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They'll come in, and they'll say, Well, here's where it says something here.
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Here's where it says something there.
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And here's where I have something to say.
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The word that is translated here in the 22nd chapter of the book of Acts is the word akuo, and it means to hear with understanding.
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And I believe that the easy way to understand this is what the Apostle Paul is saying is they heard something but did not know what they heard.
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They just simply did not understand.
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And that could simply be the way you understand if you use the King James Bible and you read it that way.
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As long as you're understanding it as Paul is intending it, that's fine.
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But if somebody comes up to you and says, Well, here's a place where the Bible contradicts itself, you can say there is no necessary contradiction.
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The only person who's making it a contradiction is you because you're misinterpreting it.
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You're understanding it wrong.
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And that's why, like I said, in the ESV, which is what I used to preach out of, it simply translates it as did not understand because that is a sense of what the word akuo meant.
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But I just want to point that out because, like I said, it may seem like I'm chasing a rabbit that really didn't have anything to do with testimonies, but that is one of those things that if you go out witnessing, you can go online and you can Google lists of Bible contradictions.
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And there are people that spend their whole life trying to find something wrong with the Bible, and they come up with lists of all kinds of foolishness, and every one of them has an answer, and it's usually not that hard.
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It's just one of those things that we have to deal with if we're speaking to the lost.
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Now sometimes Christians only speak to each other, and you never hear these things because you're talking in an echo chamber.
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You never go engage the lost, so you're never going to hear any of these objections.
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When we go out and speak to the lost, we hear these objections and we have an answer.
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The Bible says to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you.
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That doesn't mean you have to know everything about everything, but you better be ready to give an answer for why you believe in Christ.
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So let me move on from there.
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I just wanted to make mention of that because when I was reading it this week, I said this is important because it's come up in my conversations.
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Verse 12, and one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.
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And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.
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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, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
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And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized.
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Wash away your sins.
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Calling on his name.
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And when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me.
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And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
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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.
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And he said to me, Go, for I will send you away to the Gentiles.
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See this is Paul's testimony.
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He's saying, Look, I came here having been saved and my thought and my mind was this.
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They're never going to listen to me because they've seen what I've done.
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They've seen my past.
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They know how zealous I was.
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I was willing to stand over the death of an innocent man and hurrah his death.
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They will not listen to me.
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They won't believe me.
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And God says to Paul, He says, Go, go, for I am sending you far away to the Gentiles.
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And Paul becomes the apostle to the Gentiles.
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And here's where everything goes south.
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Because we read verse 22 as our opening text this morning.
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Paul is telling this story and I want you to know they didn't revolt when he mentioned Jesus.
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They didn't revolt when he said his life had been changed.
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They didn't revolt when he said he saw a light from heaven and he heard a voice of the Son of God.
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And he told the story.
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Why and when did they revolt? When he said, God sent me to the people you hate.
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God sent me to the Gentiles.
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And at that moment it says, up to this word.
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Up to what word? The word Gentiles.
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Up to this word they heard him.
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Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth.
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For he should not be allowed to live.
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Isn't it amazing that what caught the crowd so violent was their hatred of others.
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The hatred of the unlike me.
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The hatred of the Gentile.
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You think racism was bad in America? It was.
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But let me tell you something.
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Racism was as bad or worse in the first century between the Jew and the Gentile.
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The Jews would leave their country and they would go to a foreign country.
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When they come back they would take their shoes off and dust the sand off their shoes.
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As a way of saying, I want all of the Gentile taint off of me.
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They wouldn't eat in the house with a Gentile.
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This is what was so strange when the Apostle Peter received that message from heaven about going and eating with the Gentiles.
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Remember Cornelius? And he says, but I've never eaten anything unclean.
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And God said, do not call unclean what I have made clean.
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And he wasn't just talking about the food.
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Which I'm thanking God he did because I like pork sandwiches.
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But that ain't it.
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He was talking about the people.
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He was talking about the Gentiles.
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I have made them clean.
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Don't call them unclean.
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And see, that is the part that they couldn't take.
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You want to tell us about our Messiah? Well, we'll debate if he's Messiah or not.
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You want to tell us God changed your life? Well, we'll debate whether he changed your life.
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You want to tell us you were sent to the Gentiles? We're going to string you to a pole and beat you with a rod.
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That was too far for them.
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And as a result, he was taken.
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Well, I want to begin to move now to some application.
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Now that we've seen the Apostle Paul, we've seen his testimony.
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And as I said, he's going to give his testimony.
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It's going to expand.
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And we're going to look at some other parts of it as the weeks go by.
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It's going to expand.
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But as I was reading this this week and I began to think, well, how do I make application of this passage? And certainly, that's something I want to do is to apply this.
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How can we apply what we see here to our own walk with Christ? And it got me thinking about the value of testimonies.
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That's why I asked Ms.
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Sybil to come give her testimony this morning.
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Because it isn't something we do a lot.
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In fact, I don't know that we've ever done it since I've been the pastor on a Sunday morning.
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We've had some testimonies at baptisms.
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When people go to be baptized, they'll share their conversion.
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Some Sunday night, Mike and Mike sounds like a band.
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Mike and Mike gave their testimonies one Sunday evening.
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But it's not a normal thing for us.
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And I began to think why that is.
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And why don't we more hear from one another? Because there are some of you out there that I bet have never asked anyone else in this church, how has Christ changed your life? Now, I've talked to everybody.
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Because as one of the elders of the church, you come to join the church and you share with me your testimony.
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That's part of joining the church.
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But have you heard one another's testimony? Did you know before this morning that a gospel tract was what led Ms.
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Sybil and ultimately Mr.
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Richard to the Lord? What is a testimony? We often think of a testimony as someone testifying in court.
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And a person testifies in court because they've witnessed an event.
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You're brought into court because you've seen something and you have to ascertain the truth by telling people about it.
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And often in Christianity, that's what we call witnessing, right? We talk about witnessing.
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What is witnessing? It's bearing testimony to what Christ has done in your life.
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A Christian testimony is a believer's account of how he came from being dead in sin to being alive in Christ.
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And I want us to consider three ways our testimony is valuable this morning.
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And this is how we're going to begin to make application and draw to a close.
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Three ways that our testimony is valuable.
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Number one, and I put blanks in your bulletin if you want to fill in the blanks.
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If you do, great.
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I know some of you like to do that.
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Number one, a personal testimony to the work of Christ in our lives is valuable in witnessing to others.
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That's number one.
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It's valuable in witnessing to others.
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But let me first say this.
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I believe that that is true.
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But let me say this.
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I want to begin by saying that when we witness, it's not about us.
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And that is where people get confused.
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So when I say your testimony is valuable in witnessing, it's not about you.
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It's about what Christ has done for you.
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So it's about him.
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And that does get confusing at times.
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Because evangelism is ultimately presenting the gospel.
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Evangelism is the gospel.
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And evangelism is sharing the gospel.
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And it should have as its focus the work of the Redeemer.
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Not necessarily the work of the redeemed.
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We didn't do anything.
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We were the recipient.
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But that doesn't mean that our testimony has no value.
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It's immensely valuable because when we're proclaiming Christ as Paul did, we're proclaiming what Christ has done for us.
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And there are some things that sharing our testimony can accomplish.
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And I see it in this text.
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A testimony can aid in getting a hearing with someone.
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Paul uses his...
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And again, he uses his language to talk to the Romans.
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But then he turns around and uses his language to talk to the Hebrew people.
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And by doing so, he is, in a sense, as he says in other places, being all things to all men.
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He's addressing them in their ways so they will understand and they will hear.
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One of the things that sometimes when I'm sharing the gospel with someone, I'll say, when I was lost, I didn't care.
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And when I was lost, I didn't worry about my life because I didn't care about what was happening later.
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I thought I was going to live forever.
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And by sharing that with people, sometimes that puts a light bulb.
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You know, I think that way too.
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Especially young people.
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Young people have this immortal disease where they think they're immortal.
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They're going to live forever.
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And so, by sharing with them where I was, it can sometimes help them understand where they are.
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A testimony is not about glorifying past sins.
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That often does happen.
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In fact, I've seen it.
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I've been to churches where a guy gets up and he wants to give his testimony.
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He spends 45 minutes talking about how much he used to love drinking or love lusting or love having extramarital affairs or all kinds of stuff.
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And he spends 45 minutes talking about all the fun he used to have.
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And in five minutes, about how Jesus changed my fun.
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You know what I mean? He really does.
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He spends five minutes talking about Jesus.
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45 minutes talking about his carousing lifestyle that it seems like he's trying to get back to.
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Some people make their testimony all about their old life.
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It's not.
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Your testimony is about your new life.
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That's key.
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So, while I might use my old life as a way to show a person where they are because this is where I was.
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I'm not going to stay there.
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God reached down into the muck of sin, the mire of sin.
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I was buried.
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I was dead in sin.
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I loved it and I didn't want anything but it.
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And God saved me.
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And that's what a testimony does.
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It points to the work of Christ in changing a life.
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God has the power to change a life.
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And I know he has that power because he changed mine.
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That's my testimony.
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That's it.
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I know God can change a life because he changed mine.
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So, presenting the gospel is more than sharing your testimony because it's not all about your experience, but your experience does matter.
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I think about the demoniac.
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Mike and I were talking about this just yesterday.
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Mike and I talk about the Bible a lot and I appreciate that.
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But we're talking about in Luke 8 where Jesus heals the demoniac.
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The Gerasenes, remember the guy was chained up and he'd break the chains and Jesus took the demons out of them and sent them into the herd of pigs.
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You remember the scene there? And Jesus, the man wanted to go with Jesus.
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He wanted to get on the boat and go with him.
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I mean, he just saved his life.
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He just saved his sanity.
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He just saved his soul.
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I want to be with you.
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And what did Jesus tell him? Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
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So, a testimony, a personal testimony can be useful and valuable in our witnessing.
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It's not all we do in witnessing, but it can be valuable.
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The second thing, a personal testimony to the work of Christ in our lives is valuable in encouraging other believers.
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One of the most precious things for believers to know, in my opinion, one of the most important things we should know about each other is how God saved us.
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Recently, we had a men's breakfast and when a lot of guys showed up, it really was just me and Lee and Cody and Mr.
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Andy.
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And Andy and I had an interesting opportunity to sort of share our testimony and it's very similar.
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And what was funny is we shared it and it was just a back and forth and it was so encouraging.
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I hope it was encouraging to him, but it was encouraging to me just leaving that day saying, here's a man who sort of dealt with some of the same things I did.
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And Christ brought him in a very similar way than the way he brought me.
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And so there was sort of a kindred there and it was encouraging to me to hear how God saved him and how it was similar to my own experience.
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And I think that we grew in love with one another.
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And I think that's what happens.
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One of the things that often goes missing in our fellowships is our conversations regarding how the Lord has worked in our life and how the Lord is working in our life.
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I mean, we're really good about talking about a lot of things.
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We can get together, we can talk about hobbies, we can talk about football, we can talk about baseball, we can talk about soccer, not really soccer, but we can talk about all kinds of stuff, right? Talk about woodworking, talk about karate, jiu-jitsu, all this stuff, all these hobbies that we have.
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And we can spend hours talking about those things.
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And we often never get around to having a conversation about how God has worked and is working in our lives.
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And that is precious and important part of our fellowship with one another.
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When was the last time as you were fellowshipping together with other members of the church that someone in the group bore witness to the work of God in their lives? And I don't say that to condemn.
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I say that to remind us that one of the most precious avenues for encouragement that we have is that testimony.
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Maybe not to how you were saved, but how God's working right now.
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God is working in my life to sanctify me right now.
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He's using this in my life right now.
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And I thank Him for it.
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Third and finally, a personal testimony to the work of Christ in our lives is valuable in times, and there's four D's.
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Difficulty, doubt, distress, and depression.
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Anybody in here deal with difficulty? Anybody deal with doubt, distress, and depression? There are times.
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I've shared in the past my own bouts with depression and anxiety.
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I can honestly say that one of the most important and valuable aids in these times has been my ability to look back at what Christ has done in my life and look back and hold to that anchor to the soul.
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That anchor that's held in that veil that I know my soul is bound in Him.
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And when depression comes, and when distress comes, and when difficulty comes, I look back at what Christ has done for me and know He has not abandoned me.
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He will not abandon me.
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And there is nothing that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate me from the love of God and Christ Jesus my Lord.
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That's what I look to.
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I think about the song, It is well with my soul.
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Maybe this is the one we should have done this morning, Mike.
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There's a verse in It is well with my soul that says this, It says, Though Satan should buffet, Means to beat.
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Though Satan should buffet, Though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control That Christ has regarded my helpless estate And has shed His own blood for my soul.
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My sin, Oh the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin not in part but the whole Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
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Praise the Lord.
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Praise the Lord.
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Oh my soul.
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That hymn writer is reminding himself, he is reminding himself that when trials come, he lost his child, he lost his wife.
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And he's reminding himself what Christ has done.
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Our personal testimony begins by asking a simple question.
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How has Christ changed your life? That's the most important question anybody could ever be asked or ask themselves.
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Not when did you say a sinner's prayer.
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Not when did you join a church or get baptized.
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But when did you have a life changing encounter with the living God through His Son Jesus Christ? Do you have a testimony? Has Christ changed your life? If so, you have a story to tell.
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One that can be valuable in witnessing, it can be valuable in encouraging other believers, it can be valuable in encouraging your own soul.
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But if you don't know how Christ has changed your life, a good question may be, has Christ changed your life? Maybe like Paul, you're living a life of religion.
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Maybe you're going through all the steps of religiosity, but as I said, you can be religious and still be lost.
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So I ask you today, has Christ changed your life? How has Christ changed your life? And if He hasn't, won't you turn to Him today? Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for the truth.
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I thank You for the reality that a life which is in Christ is a life that has been changed.
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I pray now, Lord, that as we move into a time for communion, that we would understand, Lord, what Christ has done to change us.
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And that we would appreciate ever more, Lord, His wonderful gospel, which does, is the power of God to save.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.