Pastor Wayne continues by asking: So, what does your testimony say? When people see you, what do they think of you? What memorials have you set up in your life? There is three of them that you can build on: (1) your salvation (the day you believed and how you believed), (2) your baptism (you were buried in the likeness of Jesus’ death and raised in the likeness of Jesus’ resurrection), and (3) in church membership (aligning yourself with fellow Believers in the body of Christ serving the Lord). You have your new life, born again of the Spirit, and as you live the Christian life, you’ll bring glory to the Lord. Your life should be a testimony to the greatness and the love of Jesus Christ. You don’t quit, no matter what. In this life, the worst that can happen to you is that Jesus takes you home to Heaven; that is the eternal perspective. Jesus said in John 14:1-3, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Devil, what are you going to threaten us with … going home with Jesus? We need to get ourselves back to our foundational beliefs that our whole walk, service and life is to be with the Lord, now and for eternity. The bottom line is that we get there! So, rejoice in the fact that God has chosen you to be a testimony and a witness through each and every trial that you go through. Do not be an excuse for someone not to come to Christ, saying “if that is what a Christian is, then I want nothing to do with Christianity”. Every Christian is a “lifestyle” evangelist. You don’t just get out and preach the Word, but you live the Word. You live your life with the joy of the Lord, so people see you and want what you have also. We have the abundant life and victory because God gives them to us. God supplies and provides for all our needs. God answers our prayers. Do not allow your life to be someone’s excuse for not accepting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Not everyone accepts Jesus. Jesus was God incarnate and preached about repentance, baptism and the kingdom of God being at hand, but did everyone during the Lord’s earthly visit get saved? No. Some will harden their hearts and reject the gift of God. But, just because one person tells you “no” to Christ, doesn’t mean stop giving your testimony. Go on to the next person because you do not know who the Holy Spirit has prepared their heart in advance to hear and be saved. Dust off your shoes and keep witnessing your testimony. It won’t be perfect; only Jesus was perfect.
Know that as a Christian, you are going to meet opposition from unbelievers and they will attack your character and reputation as a disciple of Jesus because the light of Christ exposes sin. People who do not know the Lord will provoke you. But, whatever they say about you doesn’t affect you in one-minute detail, because you have a personal relationship with the Lord, who does know you. Don’t ever forget that. Stay with Him and hold on tight to Him as you obediently fulfill His Great Commission. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The prodigal son fell into the pigpen through sin, but didn’t stay in the pigpen of depravity. He acknowledged his sinful lifestyle, got up, got out of the pigpen and return to his loving Father, admitted his sin, sincerely repented of his sin and asked for forgiveness that he did not deserve. Christians stumble and fall to temptations of the flesh, distractions of the world and deceptions of the devil, because nobody on this side of Heaven is perfect. James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Child of God, acknowledged any sinful lifestyle, get up, get out of that sin and return to your loving Father in Heaven, admitting your sin, sincerely repenting of that sin and ask for forgiveness that you did not deserve. 1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Nobody is on a pedestal, but God is on the throne in Heaven.
You are not going to save evil with your testimony, but submit yourself to God and evil will flee. Stay away from sin, evil and wickedness towards God and His creation. Resist diligently, work on your walk with the Lord, and share the Gospel to a world that so desperately needs to hear your testimony.
In Christ, Brian
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