Sermon February 21 "Making Christ Known through Our Testimony"

On Sunday we discussed the role of our own personal testimony in fulfilling our mission of making Christ known. Our scripture texts were from Psalm 40:1-8 and Acts 22:3-16.

One of the most powerful ways that we share Christ with others is through the narrative of our own experience with Jesus. Our unique stories of encounter and redemption have the potential to speak into the suffering and difficulty of others. Through the vehicle of our story the Spirit speaks to others who need to hear that Jesus loves them not as a theological concept but rather as an actual event in our lives.

The conversion of Saul (depicted above in Michelangelo’s painting of that name) is the story of the most famous testimony in the world. It’s a story that Paul owns in Acts 22. With no shame he told of his evil and murderous ways as he persecuted “the Way.” Then Jesus interrupted him on the way to Damascus. He became Christian who was told by Christ to preach Jesus to the world. So he did.

Who he was. Where Jesus met him. How Christ changed his life.

The three essential components of a testimony. But a testimony is not relegated only to our conversion. Any experience of God’s work in one’s life is just a new chapter of a testimony that will grow until we reach glory.

That’s the picture we get in Psalm 40. “I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit… and placed my feet on a rock… Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”

The Psalmist says where he was, tells how God met him with deliverance, and how his life was changed. All of this with idea that this deliverance was part of his story that he would tell so that many would "see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." That should be the hope of our own testimony. Your testimony is a story that should be shared because it is good news.

However simple or boring we may think our own experiences with God are (hey, none of us have a testimony like Saul/Paul), God wants us to share those experiences with others. At our Sunday evening service I passed out worksheets to encourage folks to write down and outline their own stories of God’s work. We heard some great testimonies that night! Here’s what the worksheets said:

Where you were… (the trial)
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city… I persecuted followers of this way.” Acts 22


Where Christ found you… (the redemption)
“He lifted me out of the slimy pit; out of the mud and mire.” Psalm 40


How your life was changed… (the new life)
“Therefore, if anyone was in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians

Ask God for opportunities to share your story with others. Watch his kingdom grow through such a simple thing.

Pastor Scott

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Sermon February 14 "Making Christ Known through Our Words"

Two Lucan New Testament passages were the focus of this sermon on making Christ known through our words. Luke 8:1-9 is where we read the parable of the sower. And in Acts 17:16-34 we find the story of the Apostle Paul in Athens as he waits for Timothy and Silas.

Last week we looked at “letting our light shine” as a means of making Christ known. But To let our light shine without telling people why it shines is like being in a boat and throwing a life preserver to a person drowning in the ocean- and then driving off in the boat leaving them there. They may no longer be drowning. But they’re not saved.

Paul tells the church in Rome, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?”

That is why Jesus told the parable of the sower. We’re the farmer. The seed is the gospel. Every person you see is the soil. And eternity hangs in the balance; salvation on the one side and damnation on the other.

Our culture tells us that religions are simple different paths up the same mountain. But Peter in Acts 4 says this of Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." We are not responsible for the soil of the human heart. We are simple responsible to sow the seed of the gospel wherever we find ourselves.

That’s what Paul did when he found himself in Athens. He shared Jesus with those people. They called him a “babbler” as he spoke of the resurrection. That word “babbler” in Greek is the word “spermalogos”. Sperma- seed. Logos- word. They were accusing Paul of spreading seeds with his words! That is what we are called to do.

Paul spoke into the reality of the agnostic pluralism of the Greek culture there in Athens using their own idols and poets as the spring board for his proclamation. The result? Some scoffed and rejected him. Some said they would be interested in hearing more. And some believed the gospel and were saved. The path, the rocky ground, and the fertile soil.

At the end of this sermon there was an invitation to place your faith and trust in the only name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved as we prayed this prayer together:
“Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner in need of salvation. I believe you died my death for me on Calvary. I believe you rose again to give me eternal life. I give my life to you. Give your life to me. Amen.”

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

Pastor Scott

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Sunday, February 7 “Making Christ Known through Our Actions”

Our focus passage this Sunday came from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:13-16. This is where Jesus calls his followers both salt and light. We also looked at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when they resisted bowing down to the idol created by the king of Babylon.

There was a shift on this particular communion Sunday. Whereas our mission to Know Christ” has to do with the internal strength of discipleship, “Making Christ Known” has to do with the external focus of mission. The first dynamic we discussed in making Christ known was action- how we live.

Jesus called his followers salt and light. Both salt and light impact their environments. Jesus calls his followers salt and light- environment impactors- because he was salt and light. The most basic and fundamental way we make Christ known is by being salt and light in a bland a dark world through our actions- the way we live our lives bears witness to the one who has impacted us.

We discussed two primary ways that we can be environment impactors- salt and light- for Christ.

1. Resisting the ways of this world.
Our three friends from Daniel resisted what the culture was doing. The result was not only encountering God in a unique way but allowing King Nebuchadnezzar to see God’s glory as well.

The Greek word “ecclesia” translated “church” literally means “called-out-ones.” Being called out from our culture means to resist the patterns of this world for the sake of God’s glory.

2. Pursuing excellence in all we do.
Whatever we do, we are to do with our whole hearts as unto the Lord, not for men (Colossians 3:23). To illustrate this we looked at some edited clips from the movie Chariots of Fire. Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell understood this concept of pursuing excellence for God’s glory.

In one scene he tells his sister that he knows God has called him to ministry in China, but that God also made him fast. “When I run, I feel his pleasure… and to win, to win is to honor him.” A life lived for excellence unto God is a life lived as salt and light and bears witness to Christ’s redemptive work in those who believe.

-Pastor Scott

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Sunday January 31 "Knowing Christ Through Prayer"

Psalm 77... a memory of a time of deep prayer. Matthew 11:25-30... Jesus prays spontaneously, teaches earnestly, and invites genuinely.

These two texts were the focus of this week's theme of knowing Christ through prayer.

We had the Ocean Springs Mardi Gras parade last Saturday. Thousands of people yelling to folks they don't really know, "Throw me something mister!"

That's the way we often treat prayer. Sometimes those prayers are answered. We catch the beads. We are grateful. We get ready for the next float to come by. Sometimes our prayers are not answered. No beads are thrown to us. We may get frustrated. We get ready for the next float to come by.

And so it goes. Prayer remains a mystery. Sometimes God answers it. Sometimes he doesn’t.

But we must understand a basic and fundamental truth. The purpose of prayer is not found in the results that gets but rather in the process of the prayer itself.

If we focus on prayer as the means to a result we are hoping for then we have missed the point of prayer all together. And such prayer can actually hinder our faith in God rather than deepen it. True prayer is the difference between yelling “throw me something mister” at a Mardi Gras parade and sharing what’s on your heart with a dear friend. The first may involve being heard, but the second involves being known. Prayer is the place where we come to know Christ more fully than anywhere else.

Jesus desire was to be known. And that is why he said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light.”

We come to Christ in our prayers. In our prayers we bring our hardships and burdens, our failures and shortcomings, our hope and our despair and we say “take this.” But our rest from these things comes not from leaving them there and waiting for a result, but rather hearing Christ say to us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Christ’s desire is not simply to answer our prayers but to be yoked with us step for step while he carries our burden. That’s what prayer is: the process of walking with Christ as he carries the weight of our lives.

We discussed 2 keys to resisting "Throw me something mister!" prayers:

1. Honesty

C. S. Lewis wrote, "In prayer we must lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

2. Listening

What distracts us from prayer? Perhaps the things that come flooding into our minds when we try to pray are not distractions to our prayer but the burdens we actually need to allow Jesus to carry with us.

Christ came that we might know him. Prayer is that place where he makes himself known.
And there in is the power of prayer. Not in its being answered but in its being heard.
Prayer is the place God meets his people.
Prayer is the place where Jesus takes our burdens and invites us to walk with him.
Prayer is the means of knowing Christ for who he is.
Prayer is where he leads us to knowing him more fully.

Pastor Scott

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