Review / Introduction:
How to Fearlessly Give Your Testimony:
- Tell about your life Before Christ. (Acts 22:1-5)
- Identify their Language. (Acts 22:2)
- Identify their Merit. (Acts 22:3)
- Identify with their Truth resistance. (Acts 22:4)
Identify with your listener(s):
- Tell how you Came to Christ. (Acts 22:6-11)
- Reveal how you Recognized the truth. (Acts 22:6-7)
- Reveal your own Foolishness. (Acts 22:8)
- Reveal the Name of your salvation. (Acts 22:8)
- Tell how Christ Changed you. (Acts 22:12-21)
- I see things New. (Acts 22:13)
- I have a new Purpose. (Acts 22:15)
- I have Peace with God. (Acts 22:16)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:35-00:38
If you're visiting with us today, what kind of a church is this?
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Well, our church can be summed up in four statements.
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We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
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We lift high the name of Jesus in worship.
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We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
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And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
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And we're seeing all of those today.
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So I want you to grab your Bibles.
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You're going to need them coming to this church.
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The Bible is our middle name.
01:10-01:12
Harvest Bible Chapel. Acts chapter 21.
01:14-01:14
Open up there.
01:15-01:20
As we continue this series, if you are visiting with us, we're going through the book of Acts.
01:20-01:32
And just to get you caught up, we have the apostle Paul in Jerusalem in the temple, falsely accused, ironically enough, of being anti-Jewish.
01:34-01:38
So a mob is stirred up and tries to kill Paul.
01:38-01:44
They drag him out of the temple, and Paul is rescued/arrested by Rome.
01:46-01:53
We get to verse 37, "He is now in their custody." Are you there? Acts 21.37.
01:56-02:10
as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, "May I say something to you?" And he, the tribune, said, "Do you know Greek?
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Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the the assassins out into the wilderness?
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Paul replied, "I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.
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I beg you, permit me to speak to the people." And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing under steps, motioned with his hand to the people.
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When there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, Stop there for a second.
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So Paul is in the barracks and your Bible says that the tribune mistook Paul for the Egyptian.
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Who is the Egyptian?
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Well, a little history, you can do a little further study.
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Very fascinating group.
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But this Egyptian was the leader of a group called the Saqqari.
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They were actually a terrorist group.
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that they attacked not only Romans, but Jews who were sympathetic towards Rome.
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And their name, the Sakari, the name of this terrorist group literally meant "dagger," because this is what they would do.
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They would go to these big festivals, like Passover, or one of these Jewish feasts, or in the temple, they'd go to one of these things, and they'd get in the crowds, and they'd pull out a dagger and assassinate people, and then just blend right in with the crowd, either panicking or mourning. Some of them would actually assassinate someone, and then, "Well, what happened here?" And they're like freaking out. They're the one that just did it, but they were so good at this stealthy assassination, and for some reason this tribune thought that because the festival was going on, and The mob was all fired up about Paul. They're like, "Oh, you must be the guy!" That was like their modern-day, like, Osama bin Laden kind of thing.
04:15-04:23
And, uh, "Aren't you the, this Egyptian terrorist?" So when Paul spoke, that's why the Tribune was shocked that he knew Greek.
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He said, "Do you know Greek? Obviously you're not this, you know, wild, uh, terrorist that I thought you were." So Paul asked for a chance to speak to the crowd.
04:36-04:42
And I want you to see here when we go through this passage, that Paul didn't preach a sermon.
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And you're going to see in the text, Paul didn't even teach doctrine.
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I want you to listen to me very closely.
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You ready?
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Doctrine is extremely important.
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Why is he talking like that?
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Because there's somebody that's going to leave here today saying, "Pastor Jeff said doctrine is not important." So I'm going to do the whole sermon like this.
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How long are you going to last?
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I'm really not.
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But listen, doctrine is important, right?
05:19-05:21
Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
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Doctrine is important. It is.
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But we're talking today, what we see Paul doing is sharing your testimony.
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So while it is important to share, "This is what the Bible says," biblical truth, what we're talking about today is something else that is important to share, and it is just simply this, "Hey, this is what happened to me." That is your testimony.
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"This is what happened to me." And if you know Jesus Christ, you have an incredible story of life transformation.
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So if you're sitting here today and you're like, "Well, I know Jesus, but I don't really have a testimony," then you don't know Jesus.
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If you don't have a story...
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Remember, we talked about this earlier, Jesus turns you from a dead person into a live person.
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And if you don't have any story that goes with that, whether you were discipled in your home, or you were living in sin, or whatever the story is, if you don't have a story of turning from your sin and turning to Christ, you have to ask yourself, "Do you really know Christ?" Because if you know Christ, you have been transformed.
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And if you know Christ, you are a witness.
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We spent at this church an entire year talking about one verse.
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Two years ago, we spent the entire year talking about Acts 1.8.
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Remember that?
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"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses." Right!
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Jesus said the purpose of God's Holy Spirit coming upon His people was so that we would be witnesses for Him.
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So if you're a Christian, you are a witness.
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You're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, but you're a witness.
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And today we wanna talk about being a witness for Christ, sharing our testimony.
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And a lot of times we talk about this immediately, somebody says, "Oh, I just, I hear what you're saying, "but I don't know enough to share." And I would encourage you to share what you do know, because as we see with the Apostle Paul, there's something that you can share that you know better than any other person on the planet.
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And that's your story.
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That's all we're gonna see Paul do here in this passage.
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He's like, "Hey, here's what happened to me." You can do that, can't you?
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You know your story, you know it better than I do to say, "Hey, here's what happened to me." All right?
08:10-08:13
We've got a lot to cover, we're going to go through it rather quickly.
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This material would merit another listen through sometime this week.
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But how to fearlessly give your testimony.
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We're going to look at this passage as Paul gives his testimony.
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Now, when we went through Acts 9, we actually covered these events, and we're not going to be looking as much at what happened to Paul, as much as we're going to be looking at how Paul shared his testimony in this context.
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You're going to see his defense circles around his actions and his motives.
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Paul is being accused of being anti-Jewish.
09:00-09:24
So you're going to see as he gives his defense, he's saying, "I'm certainly not anti-Jewish." But you need to see as we're talking this year, you know, Proverbs 28, "One, the righteous are bold as a lion, or a thief this year I will not fear." The apostle Paul, his zeal to share was more powerful than his fear for safety.
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And you need to get that.
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Paul wasn't at the old folks' home here.
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You know, Paul wasn't at some kindergarten class telling the good news of Jesus to a bunch of children.
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Who was Paul sharing his testimony with in this passage?
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A group of people that just tried to rip him apart, literally.
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Let's be honest, how many of us would have been like, the heck with those people?
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They just tried to kill me, I'm out of here.
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And Paul's like, I'm begging you, can I share some things with these people?
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He was begging for the opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ to a group of people that just tried to kill. So I want you to get the principles here and I want you to apply them to your story. So how to fearlessly give your testimony? It's simple. Number one, tell about your life before Christ. Tell about your life before Christ. Look at chapter 22. That's exactly where Paul starts. He says brothers and fathers hear the defense that I now make before you and when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language that's Aramaic Hebrew dialect they became even more quiet and he said 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.
11:11-11:21
I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.
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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." Stop there.
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When you share your testimony, when the opportunity comes to share your testimony, here's where you start.
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about your life before you came to Jesus Christ.
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Jot these things down before we get to the sub points. These are extra bonus.
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I'm not going to charge any extra for these ones. But use the context as a bridge.
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Notice that Paul's Jewishness was under attack. That's why his starting point was talking about his Jewishness. Use the context as a bridge. Aaron and I know a guy who came to Christ because of a fish sandwich. He was on break at work and it was he was part of a religion that doesn't eat meat on Fridays but only fish and a Christian friend of ours was talking to him. You know what are you gonna have for for lunch or whatever? Well I can't eat I can't eat meat I can and only eat fish.
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Talking about that religious rule led into a whole discussion about Jesus Christ and the Bible.
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And this man ended up coming to Christ, he and his whole family, because of a fish sandwich.
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But that's where he was, and that's where this man met him to share the Gospel.
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That's what Paul does here.
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He uses the context as a bridge.
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You want to talk about Jewishness?
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Also, a couple other things I want you to jot down. When you share your testimony, keep it short.
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You don't want to give every single little detail. Like, let me give you my testimony.
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I was born in a log cabin that I built with my own hands, and it was somewhere around nine months that I really was starting to crawl and stand up on my own, and even taking a few steps, and how long is this going to take and they're giving me their life story but they're telling it in real time don't do that because they're going to miss the point of what you're trying to share so keep it short also when you give your testimony glorify God not yourself don't make it like star of this show right here. It's a story about how God rescued you from hell. He is the star. So glorify God. All right, so tell about your life before Christ. On your outline, identify with your listeners. Identify with your listeners. You see Paul did this beautifully here in the passage. The first thing, identify their language.
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Identify their language. When you're sharing your testimony, you're going to to identify with your listener or listeners and the first thing you need to do is identify their language. That's why Paul switched from Greek to Hebrew.
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Do you notice in the text that immediately caught their attention?
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Immediately. As soon as he started speaking their language they all shut up like whoa hang on a sec. This guy's not quite who thought he was. He's addressing us in our own dialect. This is a key principle. When you are giving your testimony, you have to speak the language of the people to whom you are speaking. I've shared the gospel in schools, in prisons, in retirement homes, and it's always the same message, but it's always different presentations. Things like use of slang, things like kinds of details I think you can understand sharing the gospel in the prison and sharing the gospel to a group of senior citizens takes a slightly different approach in rolling out the same information.
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But you have to identify their language.
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Letter B, identify their merit.
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Identify their merit.
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Why don't you look at verse 3 again, this is so key.
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Again, these are people that just tried to kill Paul, and what does he do?
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He turns around and he compliments them.
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He looks for something to compliment them on.
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He says, do you see that at the end of verse 3, talking about himself?
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He says, "Being zealous for God, as all of you are this day." Now, the gospel itself is offensive.
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People need to know that they're sinners by nature, but when you share your testimony, you share the gospel, but in this context your testimony, look for a point to commend people on.
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I can tell that you're a very religious person. Would you say that?
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It seems to me right now that you are, you're in a period of your life where you're really seeking to understand who God is. Is that a true statement? You seem like somebody who desires to know the truth. You sound like somebody who would be open-minded to hear what the Bible might have to say, identifying their merit.
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Then letter C, identify with their truth resistance.
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Paul certainly did that, didn't he? You don't put yourself on the pedestal.
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You're saying, "Look, I was just like you." So important. "I was just like you. I understand where you're coming from. You know, you know, I used to think like you did. I understand you think this, you think the gospel, you think it's dumb and you think that people that, you know, these are Jesus freaks. You know what, I used to think like that. Paul totally identified with these people. Like, yeah, you know what? I was like, I was worse than you. I I was seeking them out, getting them handcuffed and dragged into prison." He's like, "I can identify exactly where you are.
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When you share your testimony, you've got to identify.
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Identify their language, identify their merit, and identify with their truth, resistance.
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When you share the gospel, you're not talking down to them as if you are some, you know, exalted, enlightened person.
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and let me explain some things to you, little pagan boy.
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You're not talking down to them, you're coming alongside them.
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Say, "Look, I understand. I understand. I've been there." So tell about your life before Christ.
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Secondly, pretty obvious, tell how you came to Christ.
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Tell how you came to Christ.
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That's what Paul does. Look at verses 6-11.
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He says, "As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me." Sidebar here, how great do you think that light was if it was that bright at noon?
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It wasn't that bright at three in the morning or, you know, dawn. He said it was noon and he was...
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Wow. All right. Where were we?
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Verse 7, "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.' And those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
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And I said, "What shall I do, Lord?" The Lord said to me, "Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do." 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.
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So tell about your life before Christ, identifying with your crowd.
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Secondly, tell how you came to Christ.
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First of all, let A reveal how you recognize the truth.
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See, you bridge this with the truth resistance.
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You know, I used to think like you, and I hated Christians, and I hated the church, whatever your story is, I used to think like you, now we build that bridge.
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But here is how the lights came on.
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This is the moment that I recognized the truth.
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I've shared this with you before, a couple of years ago. Do you know what the moment was for me?
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It sounds so dumb, but this is the moment that the lights came on for me.
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It was a little insert, a little story that was in a Bible that I had.
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I think I still have it somewhere.
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But this little insert, just this little story about this man on Christmas with the birds in the barn.
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Do you remember that story?
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Okay, so this guy, just real quick, if you don't know the story, this guy, he thought, I'm just gonna give you this short choppy version of it, but this guy he thought, you know, church and Jesus and all that stuff was dumb. His wife was a devout follower of Christ and her husband was just always like, "Man, that's so dumb, and what was Christmas?" And she's like, "Why don't you come to, why don't you come to church with me?" He goes, "I don't really get the point of it." And, and so she goes to church, and while he's there, home, he's looking out the window, it's bitter cold, as it is in December around here, and he sees some birds birds flying outside of his barn. And he thinks to himself, those birds are going to freeze to death. I've got to get them in the barn where it's much warmer and I can rescue them.
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But every time he went out to shoo the birds into the barn, the birds would take off. He's like, well, I'm going to have to try to outsmart the birds here. And he left a trail of breadcrumbs and that didn't work. And he tried all kinds of things to get these birds into the barn, but he just couldn't get them in. And he went back in the house and was staring out his window. Again, the birds flying around the barn but couldn't get in the barn.
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And he looked at these birds and thought, "There's nothing I can do for them." He says, "They're scared to death of me." And then he thought, "You know, if I could become a bird for five minutes, they wouldn't be scared of me. I could speak their language and I could lead them straight to safety." And when the guy thought that, he heard the bells from the church ringing and it just hit him.
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That's why Jesus Christ came to the earth. God became a man to lead us to salvation. When I read that story, the lights came on for me. I was like, I get it now! It makes sense, doesn't it? Okay, I get it now! Like, wow, I just never really understood it until I read that silly story. I don't even think that story's true. But I'll tell you what, the lights came on when I read that story.
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That's why I like to share that story. Reveal how you recognize the truth.
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Secondly, reveal your own foolishness. Again, this keeps you off the pedestal.
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You're a sinner in need of grace, just like the person you're addressing. It's humility, right?
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Here's the thing, maybe if you identify with them and their foolishness, maybe they'll identify with you when you say, "You know, I realized how wrong I was.
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I realized how miserable I made myself in my sin." I shared this with you relatively recently in my own testimony.
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When I was at a crossroads in my life, should I receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?
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that there was a strong temptation to go back to the life of sin that I was living at the time.
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When somebody said to me, "Do you have any idea how much God loves you?" And I remember hearing that, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
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And I thought to myself, "How foolish am I?" God would love me so much that he would come to this earth and he would be spit on and humiliated and beaten within an inch of his life and then nailed to a cross to pay the penalty for my sin and I'm debating on whether I want to follow a God like that? How foolish! And instead I'm considering embracing this sin which which never brought happiness, by the way.
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Sin always brings misery.
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It isn't a hard sell, right?
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When I was living for my sin, I was miserable inside.
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That's one of the good things about sin.
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It's not a hard sell.
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Because people that are living in it really deep down aren't miserable.
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One time at the prison, I don't know if you were there that night or not, but we were sharing the gospel and this guy was just like, "Oh, you think I should give my life to Jesus?" And I'm just paraphrasing him.
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some of his salty language but let's just say he thought it was foolish to follow Jesus Christ and he was pretty belligerent about that like you know Jesus Christ you know yeah you think I just follow so I just said to the man well okay how's your way working oh how's your way working you think I'm an to follow the God who would die for me.
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But you found a way that's so much better as you sit here in the prison in your striped pajamas.
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That's better.
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You should write a self-help book.
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I didn't say that, but I thought it.
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But the point is, what I did say to the guy, I said, "Well, how's your way working out for you?" All of a sudden you could just see he was like, kind of put his head down.
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I could read his expression. The answer was, "Not so good." "Not so good." "But reveal your own foolishness." And let her see, "Reveal..." This is also huge.
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"Reveal the name of your salvation, Jesus." "Reveal the name of your salvation." Do you see how clear Paul made it?
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It wasn't generic.
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Like, "I found religion!" Well, that's nothing impressive. Religion's everywhere.
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Don't tell people that, "I found religion." Or even making it generic to say, "Well, you know, I just kind of prayed to God," or worse yet, "I accepted that there is a higher power." Generic, generic, generic, generic.
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What did Paul say? He said, "I met Jesus." There's a name. Jesus. He has a name.
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And in case you haven't read your Bible, God's pretty serious about the name.
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Philippians says it's the name that is above every name.
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We saw in Acts 4.12, there's no other name that's been given by which we can be saved.
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Jesus, the name, specific, no ambiguity whatsoever.
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Paul made sure that these listeners knew this life change was about Jesus Christ.
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So tell how you came to Christ, and finally today, tell how Christ changed you.
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Tell how Christ changed you.
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Look at verse 12. Paul's continuing his testimony.
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We've studied this.
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"And one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 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.
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And He said, "God of our fathers appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth.
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For you will be a witness for Him to everyone of what you have seen and heard." And now, why do you wait?
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Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.
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When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance.
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And I saw Him saying to me, "Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me." 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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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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He said to me, 'Go, or I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" Okay, so first, what was my life like before Christ?
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Am I identifying with the listeners?
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How did I come to Christ?
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And finally, this is so key in your testimony, tell how Christ changed you.
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Quick summary of Paul's story here, as he tells how Christ changed him at conversion, he was briefly at Damascus, that's Acts 9.20.
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Then we know from Galatians 1.17 that he spent three years in Arabia.
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Then he went back to Jerusalem where he was praying in the temple, fell into a trance.
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That was an apostolic experience to receive revelation.
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And after witnessing in Jerusalem, Acts 9.28, unbelieving Jews tried to kill him, and he was whisked away back to his home in Tarsus.
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Do you remember that?
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Like, why don't you just go back home for a while?
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And God revealed to Paul that he would be the apostle to the Gentiles.
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And what Paul was doing in sharing his testimony here was just sort of flipping everything back on his audience.
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He said, you know how, look, I'm Jewish and I've been zealous and you're zealous and we're zealous and we're zealous.
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And by the way, God told me to do this.
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And I was just, I was just obeying what God told me to do.
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Like, how can you argue with that?
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I'm just doing what God told me to do.
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Oh, Christ changed you.
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People have to know, listen, people have to know that the gospel works.
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They have to know that.
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They have to know that Jesus can change everything.
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They have to know that there is a second chance at life.
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That no matter how badly I've blown it, No matter how horribly I've messed things up, there is a God who forgives and restores.
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So tell how Christ changed you.
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Here's three things you want to talk about.
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Number one, I see things new.
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I see things new.
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It's important that you point out when you're sharing your testimony that you're not a perfect person.
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You're coming to Christ, it's not perfection, But it's a new direction.
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As I heard one evangelist say, he said, I'm not who I want to be, but I thank God I'm not who I was.
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I like to point that out to people.
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Say, look, I'm far from perfect.
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But one of the biggest evidences of transformation, one of the biggest proofs of repentance is a transformed mind, transformed vision.
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That was so obvious in my life.
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Because before I came to Christ, I saw people as annoying.
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I wanted little to do with most people, unless there was something I think I could get out of you for my benefit.
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But other than that, I really didn't have time for people.
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But when I came to Christ, something radical changed.
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Did I see people now instead as eternal souls who need Christ?
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a way that I didn't view people before.
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So just as Paul literally went from being blind to seeing, there's certainly a sense in which that happens when we come to Christ.
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He gives us new vision.
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I see things new, let her be.
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I have a new purpose.
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Paul certainly pointed that out.
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Coming to Christ immediately meant a new purpose for him.
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Everyone's looking for that.
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Everyone's looking to be a part of something bigger.
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Good news, God has a purpose for you.
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God has a plan for his people.
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He took me from the gutter to standing here giving a sermon today, which every time I get up here and speak, I can't believe it's happened.
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This is the longing of every heart to have a higher purpose, to have a higher meaning in life.
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And Jesus gives that.
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And finally, I have peace with God.
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I have peace with God.
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Look at verse 16 again.
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"Now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name." Talking about baptism, the public proclamation of Christ.
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Baptism follows salvation. Baptism doesn't cause salvation, but it is a major step in your walk.
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You know, in the first century, when you got baptized, you were actually marking yourself for persecution.
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That's why baptism was a call for fearlessness.
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And church, we're planning our first baptism service here.
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And if you're sitting here today and you have not been baptized, I just want to echo what he says in verse 16, "Why do you wait?" If you haven't taken the step of identifying with Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, if you haven't taken the step to publicly acknowledge, to say, "Look, you know what? I have given my life to Christ.
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I am His and He is mine and there is no turning back.
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I'm living for Him now.
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If you haven't taken that step, what are you waiting for?
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The time is now.
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You need to see me, call me, email me, but take this step and let the world know that you're going to fearlessly follow Jesus Christ.
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as we talk about sharing your testimony.
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Again, sharing your testimony isn't hard content.
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It's simply your story.
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This is my life before Christ, this is how I came to Christ, and this is how Christ changed me.
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That's not the hard part.
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The hard part is the fear to speak up.
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But remember, the righteous are bold as a lie.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, your word is so clear how you've called us to be witnesses for you.
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Father, to our shame, we've all been guilty of hiding, of sidestepping an opportunity, because we're afraid.
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We're afraid people might think we're weird.
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We're afraid people might not want to be our friend.
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We're afraid of being labeled.
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Your word tells us that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers. How in the world could we be ashamed to call him ours? So Father, I pray for the fearlessness that your word promises, that the righteous possess.
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I pray, Father, just as that lion roars, it can be heard over five miles away.
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I pray, Father, that we would roar out our testimony.
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Every opportunity you give us, let us tell people the awesome things that Jesus Christ has done in our lives.
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The way He's transformed us and given us a new purpose, washing away our sins.
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Let us not shrink back. Let us go forth boldly for the limited time and opportunities that we have, even to people that would hate us. Let us glorify your name by being bold and fearless witnesses.
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We pray these things in the name of your son. The incomparable name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior forever. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 21:37-22:21
How did Paul defend himself against these accusations? How do you know when to defend yourself or ignore false accusations?
Why is it so important to identify with your listeners when giving your testimony? Specifically, how can YOU do that when sharing?
Why is it important to recognize some point of merit of your listeners (Acts 22:3)? What effect does this have on your listeners?
How much specific detail should you share about your past sin? Why?
Breakout Questions:
Each of you, using these principles, share your testimony in 3 minutes or less (time each other!). Cover these three areas:
My life before Christ
How I met Christ
How Christ changed me