Elements of An Effective Testimony

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Yeah.

Lord, that's why the Bible says of death.

Oh, death wears your sting.

Because death got arrested on that day.

It no longer has power over us.

We don't fear it.

We don't live in light of it because we're people of life.

And so, Lord, infuse into us an understanding today that's proportional to the life that you create us to live with.

This is Zoe life that is all through the Bible.

This is what you created us for.

You've given us everything, and we give it back.

Increase our understanding of all that you've given us in Christ and because of Christ, and let us live in the fullness of that reality.

Now, Holy Spirit, illuminate the scripture so it's not just words on a page, it is life.

It's like honey on our tongue and it's like beauty coming out of our life.

This is what we're here for.

We're asking you for that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 26.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

If you remember 14 years ago, we were going through the book of Acts.

Uh, took a little break for uh uh uh advent and then we took a little break.

And usually we kick off the year and just kind of do some uh different topical things, but today we're back in the book of Acts, and we're in Acts chapter 26, and I want to talk to you about the elements of an effective testimony.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

Elements of an effective testimony, and I want you to listen carefully, okay?

Uh when I say an effective testimony, that doesn't mean you have to have some big hairy, oh, I was a crack addict and I murdered 14 people, went to prison, I got out and I got saved.

Uh that's an effective testimony, but also an effective testimony is a testimony that says, you know what?

I grew up in church, I believed the gospel when I was a little kid, and I lived it ever since.

It doesn't, hey, if it's glory, then it's really glorifying.

No, no, an effective testimony is not about the the the proportion of your sin, it's just about uh uh the reality of your conversion, as you'll see in Acts chapter 26.

Acts 26 · chapter mention

Now, let me give you the context.

When we left off, if you remember, Paul was on trial because he was talking about the resurrection and he was telling the Gentiles, you guys can be Christians too.

You don't have to become Jews to be a Christian, you can come just like you are.

Translation don't take a shower to take a bath.

You come just like you are.

If you're filthy today, you come to God just like you are, all right?

And the religious people lost their mind.

They were like, dude, you can't do that.

And Paul's like, this is the gospel, this is relationship with God.

Y'all are just preaching religion.

And so now he's had to go from this person to this person.

Now he has to go appear before the king, a guy named Agrippa.

And if you're looking for a name that no one has, that's it, ladies.

So if you're pregnant with a son, the name Agrippa is available, okay?

That is the context.

And here's what I want to do.

Look at me.

I'm gonna read the entire chapter, but I'm gonna do something different today.

I'm gonna read it in sections.

I'll read the first section, talk about that point, read the next section, talk about that point.

Basically, there's four components, uh, four elements of an effective testimony.

Let me just, and the first element is a past.

A past.

Here's what the Bible says Acts chapter 26, verse 1.

Acts 26:1

So Agrippa said to Paul, You have permission to speak for yourself.

And then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense.

He said, I consider myself fortunate that it's before you, King Agrippa.

I'm going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews.

Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.

They have known for a long time.

If they're willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I have lived as a Pharisee.

And now I stand here on trial because of my hope and the promise made to God, made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, and they earnestly worship night and day.

As for this hope, I am accused by the Jews, O King.

Why is it thought incredible that by any of you that God raises the dead?

I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

I did so in Jerusalem.

Uh I not I did so in Jerusalem, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them and I punished them often in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme in raging fury against them.

I persecuted them, even to foreign cities.

Now we'll just pause right here.

Here's the first component, the first element of an effective testimony.

Number one, you have to have a past.

If you do not have a past, then you don't need Jesus and you don't need the gospel, okay?

You you've always had it together.

You're better than everybody else, so you should leave right now and beat the Methodist to the golden corral because you don't need to hear this today.

But if you're like a guy I saw at an airport one time, you wear a shirt under your clothing that says, I have a past, period.

You don't have enough time, period.

Then this is for you, okay?

Because by the way, I followed the guy into an airport bar and just said, dude, I got an hour and 12 minutes for my flight.

I'd love to hear something about your past.

We stopped at ex-wife number four.

Because I was just like, dude, how many times have you been married?

Yes.

Yeah.

Now, by the way, he said, You probably think I'm a bad person.

I don't think you're a bad person.

The cross told me you're a sinner before I ever saw your t-shirt.

And I'm just curious how sin manifests in your life.

He goes, I leave them before they can leave me.

I said, Oh, you got a little orphan in you.

He goes, I don't know what that means.

But if I feel that they're fixed to leave me, I I cut tail and run.

I said, Wow, okay, well, I gotta go get on my flight, but thank you so much for just sharing.

Just do you have a pass?

How can I pray for you?

He said, just pray that I could find a good girl and settle down and stay.

I said, When a woman loves you, do you feel threatened by it?

He goes, Oh, absolutely.

If they're terrible to me, if they're dysfunctional, if they abuse me, if they make my life a live in hell, that's home for me.

I said, You grew up in a very conflictual home, didn't you?

He goes, I did.

How'd you know?

Read a book one time.

Anyway, yeah.

So the first element of an effective testimony, if you have, is you have to have a past.

Everybody tries to act like they don't have a past.

The worst people about their past is church people.

Y'all are like, oh no, no, Pastor.

I went to vacation Bible school when I was two.

I got saved, I stopped eating boogers, and I've been good ever since.

Now, I'm not saying you glorify your past, I'm just saying this.

It's one thing to have a past, that's another thing for everybody to know it.

Look at verse 4.

Paul says this my manner of life for my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews.

And not only is it known by everybody, they have known it for a long time.

Okay?

And so he has a past.

Everybody knows about it.

Down in verse 11, he says, I tried to make them blaspheme.

And this is what he his past was, he persecuted Christians.

He was a mean, he was like a religious terrorist before ISIS or Al-Qaeda, there's the Apostle Paul.

Before he's the apostle, this is what he did.

He persecuted Christians.

And so he said, I tried to make them blaspheme.

Here's what it's a big deal: wounded soldiers slow an army down.

I'm kind of a nerd, so I watched documentaries.

I was watching a documentary a couple months ago about the war.

And they said that this one German division, they didn't try to kill people, American soldiers.

They wanted to wound you so it slow the entire army down because your whole platoon or whatever, and they wanted to kill everybody.

That's wicked right there.

I thought about that when Paul said I tried to make them blaspheme.

Paul's Paul's past is known to everybody, and he's okay with it, but because of where he is now.

Let me make that distinction.

Paul's past is known to everybody, and he's not bothered by that.

Why?

Because of where he is and who he is now.

You said, What's the big deal?

The glory of your present should always eclipse the shame of your past.

If not, you will always fear your past.

The glory of your present, this is why Paul could say, Oh man, who I used to be is known to everybody.

I can't, I can't hide it.

I don't have the energy to hide that, okay?

Now let me just say this, because some people, if the glory of your present life doesn't eclipse the shame of your past, uh then you'll always kind of fear your past.

And look at me.

Here's the way you do not compensate for your past.

If you were, say, um, oh, what's a good word?

If you were a little wild, a little loose, a little less disciplined over here, look at me.

When you come to faith, being a legalistic Christian doesn't make up for that.

Does that make sense to anybody but me?

Say amen.

Because I get around some people, they're like, oh, I'll tell you what, blah, blah, blah.

And the first thing I think is, how are you at forgiving yourself?

The first element of an effective testimony is a past.

The second one is a conversion experience.

This is what Paul gets to in verses 12 to 18.

Let's pick back up reading.

He said, In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and the commission of the chief priest.

At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when he had and when all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

And I said, Who are you, Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

We'll just stop right there.

Here's a second element of an effective testimony.

First one is you have to have a past.

Secondly, you have to have a conversion experience.

This is why Paul, his past doesn't have power over him, because he had a moment where he went from who he used to be into who only God can make him to be.

We use words in the church like got saved, got converted, you know, got right with the Lord or whatever, made peace with the man upstairs.

I've heard it all.

I prefer a conversion experience, but here's why.

Because a lot of people in church have never had a conversion experience.

You've had what I call two of the worst kinds of experiences.

Uh this hadn't happened because here's one of the worst kinds, the first worst kind of experience.

It's what I call an agreement experience.

An agreement experience is where you hear something new that you agree with, and you're like, oh man, yeah, that's truth, that's truth, that's truth.

But your life never changes.

There's no conversion.

You just agreed with some new information and you're like, oh yeah, yeah.

And you you can even hear it and agree with it and go out and tell other people about it, and you've never been changed by it yourself.

So the first kind of bad experience you could have is what I call an agreement experience.

The second one is what I call a stimulating experience.

This is where your emotions are stirred, your heart is stirred.

You're like, I'm gonna never do that again, blah, blah, blah.

But your life has never changed.

And so uh a lot of people confuse a conversion experience with an agreement experience or a stimulating experience.

If that's you, if you're like, you know, I don't know what's ever happened to me.

Let me give you some weird advice.

One of the things that God says to Paul down in here in about verse 14, he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Then he says, This it's hard for you to kick against the goads.

It's hard for you to kick against the goads.

Uh, you think, well, what is I don't know what that is.

How can I understand it?

A goad is like a sharp stick that you would use, like a cattle prod to get an animal to go where you want it to go.

So if you're here today and you've never had a conversion experience, here's my weird advice to you pay attention to the goads in your life.

Pay attention to the sharp stick that God is using to get you going in a certain direction.

Because He's not punishing you.

Look at me, He's inviting you.

He is setting up circumstances to where you're like, man, why?

It seems like we all have one option.

Maybe that one option is God's will for your life.

A conversion experience.

Well, what do you mean?

There's three things that are universal for every conversion experience.

Now, not everybody comes to faith the same way.

I know a lady came to faith.

She said, she would go to this church, this African-American church.

She loved the singing.

When the preaching would start, she would get up and leave.

She said, I was so under conviction, I didn't want to hear the Bible being preached.

And she goes, I would walk back to my houseboat.

I was living on a houseboat, and it would feel like the Spirit of God was so on me.

I I felt someone was following me.

I would turn back and look.

It was so overwhelming.

She got on a houseboat, she's laying in her bed.

She, by the way, she just recovered from was recovering from an abortion.

And she says, I was laying in my bed and I looked over and I had a uh it's like I Jesus was standing in the corner of my bedroom on his haunches, just looking at me, smiling.

And she said out loud, I'd rather die.

She went to sleep, she goes, I woke up the next day.

I slept so long.

And I was laying there in bed, and I just thought, I give up.

And so she said, This was her sinner's prayer, I give up.

That's all she said.

She went to a church and tried to explain to somebody, hey, I gave up and gave my life to God.

They're like, Well, did you pray the prayer?

You know, would you like to pray the center's prayer where you ask Jesus in your heart?

You know that's nowhere in the Bible, right?

I hate to crush your little formula for Baptist growth.

It's nowhere in the Bible.

Because here's what the church has done.

The church has taught people, listen carefully.

The church has taught people how to be Christians.

We don't teach the gospel and let the efficacy of the Holy Spirit convert you.

We teach you what to say, how to do it, and you and you just oh, okay, this is what we're doing.

Here we go.

Be careful.

Because the church in America is full of people who had a close encounter of the worst kind.

It was their idea.

There was no Holy Spirit bringing them to the end of themselves.

But but here's the thing: despite, hey, my testimony is not like that.

My wife has a great testimony.

My wife's the kid that grew up in church, like, hey, I we were dating.

I was like, you never partied, you never had this, you never that.

And she's like, nah, never really interested me.

And my first thought was, You are way too good for me.

Because that was not my testimony before I came to faith.

So here's three things that are universal for every conversion experience.

Number one, God appears to you.

It's verse 16.

God appears to you.

You say, What do you mean?

He said, Who are you, Lord?

He said, I am Jesus whom you're persecuting.

But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

Not only am I appearing to you now, but I am going to appear to you more in the future.

So the first element that's universal of everybody's conversion experience is that God appears to you.

Without God revealing himself to you, there is no conversion, okay?

He appears to us to make us two to make of us two things.

Number one, a servant, and secondly, a witness to the gospel.

To make you a servant, that's what the Bible says right there, okay?

He says, Rise up, stand on your feet.

I've appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and a witness.

Let's just stop right here, drill down a little bit.

I've appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and a witness to the gospel.

Sometimes you have to serve the gospel, and sometimes you have to witness to it.

Do you understand the difference?

Sometimes, like if you're sharing the gospel with somebody and you're always witnessing, you're a witness to the gospel.

You're talking about it, you're talking about it, you're talking about it.

And this person's like, Yeah, whatever, dude.

I appreciate that.

That's really good for you.

Doesn't really apply to me.

I don't really care.

You need to stop trying to witness to the gospel and serve the gospel.

Sometimes I serve the gospel when I walk into the kitchen and it's dirty and I clean it up without waiting there like this.

Notice anything?

I took Windex and cleaned the door of the microwave.

I put a cup of vinegar and water in there and ran it for a minute, and then I cleaned the inside of the microwave too.

And she walks in and gets something and goes, that looks good.

And walks out.

Ungrateful hussy that I'm married to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

See, see, it's easier.

Look at me.

It's easier to witness to the gospel than it is to serve the gospel.

Because when you serve the gospel, you put yourself under the requirements of the gospel.

One of the requirements of the gospel is you have to forgive everybody.

You can't withhold forgiveness.

You're the biggest hypocrite in the world if you do that.

See, God appears to you.

See, and again, if you're constantly witnessing to the gospel and people aren't responding, then you need to maybe put yourself under the responsibility of the gospel by serving the gospel.

Also, notice in verse 16, he says this.

He says, I've appeared to you.

Uh uh appointed you as a servant and a witness to the things in which you you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

Uh don't don't don't miss this, okay?

Because some of you are bored with Christianity because all you focus on is what God has already revealed to you.

You've lost sight of what He will reveal to you down the road, and you're forfeiting the right to be trusted with it, okay?

He says, To the things which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.

Here's what I'm saying: God always has more to reveal to us than we can comprehend.

So if you and I get stuck in yesterday's revelation, you're gonna miss today's reality.

God doesn't just appear to you once in conversion, he appears to you on a He says, Hey, I I did this back here, okay?

You've seen me, but there's some things in which I will appear to you in the future.

If you're running out of things to pray, I'm gonna encourage you to pray this.

Lord, would you appear to me as it relates to this thing that I'm going through right now?

Would you give me some revelation around this?

I remember one time praying with some preachers.

If you want to get sleepy, pray with preachers.

And so I'm just trying to pray the Bible.

I said one time, Lord, we need revelation.

You've appeared to us before.

Would you would you appear to us as it relates to this and show us your will and crucify our will?

And after we were done, one of the guys said, Hey brother, that was kind of charismatic.

You okay?

And I walked away, had this compelling thought.

I have a lot around preachers.

I'm lonely.

And I don't want pity, I just like and he said, Well, uh, did you read a book recently?

Yes, how not to kill people you want to kill.

Super helpful for moments like this.

Yes, he appears to you.

Look at me.

I don't care what your past is, he appeared to you, that's how you got converted.

And he says, Hey, I didn't start this process and leave you alone.

Philippians 1 6 says this, he who begat a good work in you will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus.

Julian talked about it last Sunday.

I think that that that's what the gospel is.

Here's the second experience that's universal to every conversion experience.

God delivers you.

God delivers you.

It's verse 17.

He says, I appear to you in the things you've seen me in which I will appear to you.

Verse 17, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles.

He delivers you.

Notice that God sends, he does not send Paul to a people he hasn't been delivered from.

Unless and until you've been delivered from people, you will fear them.

Some of you women need to get delivered from your kids.

Uh-oh.

Did you feel that?

Some of you women did this.

Look at my mouth.

You went, mmm.

That's not stating about your kids.

It's not stating about you or your parenting.

You gotta get delivered.

You gotta, I used to say to my girls, oh, be it be as mad at me as you want to be as you need to be, for as long as you need to be angry.

That doesn't bother you.

No.

Just don't sin in your anger.

Matter of fact, I I said this a couple weeks ago, I'll say it again.

You should never tell your kids don't be angry.

That's a dumb thing to say.

Because all they're gonna do is go in their bedroom and be angry at you behind your back.

You should say, Oh, be angry, but don't sin.

You're capable of that.

Well, I'm 12.

Well, you're more than capable of that.

So what do you mean when you say God delivers you?

He says, Hey, I'm sending you to these people.

He says, I delivered you from your people and for the Gentiles.

In the last service, we ordained Ian Weber, our student pastor, and I reference this part of Acts 26.

I said, Hey, hey, Ian, you got to be delivered from church people.

Because they're great, but they will turn on you in a nanosecond, Ian.

And Mr.

Howdy, sir.

The most positive human I've ever met in my life.

Somebody asked me after the service, is he that way all the time?

Yes.

He's that way first thing in the morning.

He walks by my office.

I'm just on my second cup of coffee, going, okay, I like people, I like people, I like people.

And he walks by, howdy, sir.

And I'm like, oh golly.

It's real.

It's real.

He said, God says to Paul, I've delivered you from your people and from the Gentile.

I've delivered you from church folk and people who don't go to church.

Why?

Because with deliverance comes freedom.

And God created you and I to be free, not to fear people.

Ask yourself right now, who's the one person I so I most don't know how to talk to right now?

And you should remind yourself, hey, I've been delivered from that person.

Like I said to someone this past week, is there an awkward conversation you and I need to have?

And he said, Yeah.

And I said, Are you ready to have it?

And he said, No.

I said, okay, I don't want to overwhelm you.

He goes, What do you mean you don't want to overwhelm me?

I said, My wife says sometimes I can be overwhelming.

And he said, Okay.

And I said, I'm I'm I'm it's not like I'm more spiritual, I'm more free.

I said, I just don't mind awkward conversations.

If I screwed up, I'll own it.

I'll do worst I have to do is repent or apologize.

And I'm gonna do that to the day I die.

And he said, So just like that.

I said, just like that.

See, God delivers you.

It's hard to be bold with or obedient towards people who still have power over you.

Here's a third universal experience of all conversion experiences.

God appears to you.

He delivers you thirdly, God sends you.

It's verse 17 and 18.

That's where he says, Hey, I'm delivering you from your people, for the Gentiles to whom I'm sending you, to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of sin to God, they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Nobody is converted for the purpose of doing nothing.

Nobody.

Nobody is converted for the purpose of doing nothing.

God sends us to people with a past like ours in order to open their eyes.

Not to win arguments, but to simply open their eyes.

That's all you got to do.

You're not there to tell people they're blind.

You're there to live in such a way that they want to open their eyes, look to a different lens, and see the world a different way.

Four things happen when people get their eyes open.

Number one, they turn from darkness to light.

It just happens.

They don't have to try, they just do.

Secondly, they turn from the power of Satan to the power of God.

Yes, I had a conversation with someone recently that's not a believer.

And he said, What's the biggest difference in you and me?

I said, You live under, you live in the in the kingdom of darkness.

I live in the kingdom of light.

Over here, this kingdom is ruled by Satan.

This kingdom is ruled by God.

He's like, Come on, bro, that's super negative.

I said, it's also super true.

And he looked at me and he said, Wait a minute, what are you saying?

And I said, Yeah.

Yeah, the Bible talks about in Ephesians 2 that there's this spirit that's at work in those who are disobedient.

Life is not flesh and blood by nature.

Matter of fact, if you can touch it, it's not your enemy.

And he's like, So you're saying I'm in the kingdom of darkness that's ruled by Satan.

No, no.

That's what the Bible teaches.

He's like, huh.

And I said, I'm not mad at you.

I said, see, with this kingdom over here, the kingdom of God comes capacity.

You don't have capacity over here.

You can promise your wife you're going to be different, but you you'll be different, you'll be gooder or better for a little bit.

But over here, you're ruled by your appetites.

Over here, you're ruled by your understanding.

So you don't think you're better.

Oh no, I'm not better than you.

One of the godliest men in the Bible, his name was Paul.

He referred to himself as a chief among sinners.

If there's Paul right there, there's Neil right there.

Okay.

Thirdly, they receive forgiveness of sin.

They receive forgiveness of sin.

Why is that a big deal?

Because forgiveness is found nowhere else.

You cannot get forgiveness by going to a church and telling some guy your sins and him giving you a list of things to do to absolve yourself.

If that was true and if that worked, Jesus is the most unnecessary person who's ever lived.

But, because that's not true, and Jesus did die on the cross in your place and for your sins, you can be forgiven.

If you're sitting here earlier when I started talking about a past, if you're thinking, dude, if you knew mine, look at me, you can be forgiven.

God is not up there in heaven looking down and you're going, I can't wait to throw you in hell.

No, no, you can be forgiven.

There's only one place to get it.

Here's the fourth thing that happens when your eyes are open.

You get a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.

You get a place just right out of the Bible.

And a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

That's what verse 18 says.

New life in Christ comes with life together in Christian community.

Whether that's this church or another church, find you a church.

Lady stopped me after the first service and she said, Man, I'm 40 years old, I'm finally growing up, and you're helping me grow up.

I said, Glory to God, keep growing up.

Because it's called sanctification.

What happens?

Don't judge this church or any other church on one or two Sundays.

Okay?

Plant yourself and stay.

And if something's said or done that you don't like, come to the person that said or did and say, Hey, I didn't like that.

I got a problem with that.

Wonderful.

Let's have a beautiful, awkward conversation.

You see, here's what happens.

If you go to a church that teaches the Bible consistently and faithfully in a language you understand, what will happen over time is you'll find yourself growing without even trying.

It's called sanctification.

It's about this God that begins to work in you.

He continues it to the day of Christ Jesus all the way to the end.

Let's start reading in verse 19.

We'll pick up the story.

Here's a third element of effective testimony: a consistent life.

Verse 19 says this.

It says, Therefore, O King Agrippa, now Paul's, he's explained to him, hey, I used to be a guy that terrorized Christians, but this was what happened.

I had a conversion experience on the Damascus Road.

And now he's saying, Hey, I live out.

I'm not perfect, but I'm consistent.

Therefore, O King Agrippa, verse 19, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but I declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

To this day, I've had the help that comes from God.

And so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

This is when I say a consistent life, here's what I mean.

It's just a converted life is consistent to and experiences three things.

Number one, God's vision for their life.

That's verses 19 to 21.

God's vision for their life.

He says very plainly, he says, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Do you know that God has a vision for your life?

We talk about, we call it a plan.

A more biblical word.

Plan's good, but vision is better.

Everyone of you in this room, God has a vision, a plan for your life.

Here's the problem with that.

You have a plan as well.

You have a vision.

I have a vision.

I was in college, I was a speech communication major.

I wanted to be one of the guys on Sports Center.

My senior year, I had offered to go to Purdue on what's called an assistantship where you teach freshman-level speech and you work on your master's.

And my professor was like, Oh, your personality, man, you could be network.

I'm like, oh, don't tease me.

In my senior year, I roomed with a guy named Joey Butler, who would get up every morning, sit on the edge of his bed, reach over in the drawer and get a pack of red man chewing tobacco, load up, and then pray out loud at me.

Yes.

Yeah.

He would say things like this.

Now, Lord, you and I both know Neil's running.

He's a called man and he's running because he loves money too much.

Now get over there and ruin him, God.

And I'd be getting dressed, and I'd be like, hey, boy, I'm right here.

I'm not talking to you.

Shut up.

And I remember thinking, you're a toothless hick from Mississippi who chews tobacco.

What are you talking about?

And he walked over and put his hand on my shoulder one time and he said, You and I both know that God's got his hand on you.

And I'm going to pray that God kills you or you conform to his will.

And he walked off.

Went to class.

I saw him on campus later that day, and he was like, He came up to me in the cafeteria that night.

I'm not making any of this up.

He came to me in the cafeteria that night and he said, Hey, by the way, that girl I saw you talking to today, she's not an oak of righteousness.

She's a squash.

You shouldn't date her.

Hey man, don't be sitting, don't be gossiping about.

I'm not gossiping, I'm telling the truth.

She ain't got what it takes to be married to somebody.

I'm not in ministry.

I don't want to be in ministry.

The phoniest people I know are in ministry.

I would never do that.

Yeah, you will.

You might get killed.

And here's the thing.

Here's the thing, Richard.

Deep inside I knew he was right, and it scared me.

Because my vision was manageable.

God's vision for your life is unmanageable.

And it's scary.

It is like, oh, well, I don't know about this.

See, here's the thing about a consistent life: it involves God's vision for your life.

Secondly, God's help.

Verse 22, Paul says to these people, to this day, I've had the help that comes from God.

You should experience, not all the time, but consistently throughout your life, you should experience God's help.

Every once in a while, you should say out loud to your kids, hey, when's the last time we as a family experience God's help?

For us, it happened this past week.

My youngest, my baby girl, is a senior at Stanford.

She was last semester.

She called me and she said, Dad, I just realized this is first week class.

I don't need this one class I took for my degree or my minor.

I got a minor in psychology and a major in biblical studies.

I don't need it.

I'm not driven.

I said, drop class.

Your dad was a Kegel dropping class.

I never failed a class, but I dropped many.

And she goes, Okay, I said, so you check your you're you're you don't need it for your major or your minor.

My wife, the educated one, said, Do you need it for your degree plan?

Oh she drops the class, but we find out a week later.

Oh no, no, you need a two-hour class to fulfill the requirements of your degree plan.

And so she has a petition to get into this two-hour psychology class.

We don't hear nothing for a week.

Kevin, about day four, my truck is gassed up and I'm ready to go to Birmingham.

I tell you what about God?

Who needs to be all?

And my wife is like, hey, and again, this is uh God's help.

You know, God doesn't need men or brute force.

Nothing appeals to the orphan in me more than jerking with my kids.

That's not a boast, that's a confession.

That ain't good.

The next day I was praying, and very gently the Lord just said, Hey, I've loved her longer than you and better than you.

I got this.

Back up.

Don't call her, don't text her, don't give her advice.

Just shut up.

Yes, I know.

All you homeschool parents, we don't let our kids say shut up.

Email me.

Look at me.

Clear as a bell, God said, just shut it.

I don't want to hear it.

Shut up.

Let her struggle a little bit.

I got this.

And I was like, okay.

Three days later.

Now that three days.

I was like, uh Lord, you said you got this.

Now, if I had it, he was what three days later she texts.

Hey, professor just emailed me and I got in the class.

Let me catch up.

We're good to go.

Great.

Here's the third thing that a consistent life experiences.

Uh, is this sexy?

Write it down.

Biblical doctrine.

Yes, look at verse 20, light apart verse 22.

Because see, here's the thing: doctrine, we treat doctrine like it's a four-letter word in the church.

Doctrine is basically the essential core teachings of Christianity.

Where do you get biblical doctrine?

Look at the last half of verse 22.

He said, To this day I had the help that comes from God.

And so I stand here testifying, both the small and great.

Hear the next phrase.

Every preacher in America should be made to memorize this, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass.

Translation, nothing new.

No.

What did they say would come to pass?

Verse 23 says that Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim the light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

So what biblical doctrine is there?

Number one, the atonement.

That Christ would suffer.

The atonement means Jesus died in your place and for your sins.

Your sins have been paid for.

You don't have to pay God back.

Secondly, the resurrection.

This is what he says.

He's that Christ must suffer and by being the first to rise from the dead.

That's the resurrection.

The resurrection is the receipt that confirms God's acceptance of Christ's payment.

Thirdly, salvation.

This is why what he means when he says that he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

Basically, you can change because of the first two.

Because of the atonement and the resurrection, anybody can be changed.

Anybody can have a conversion experience.

Now, here's the last part.

You still with me?

Say amen.

Verse 24.

And as he was saying these things in defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're out of your mind.

Your great learning is driving you out of your mind.

But Paul said, I'm not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly, for I am persuaded that none of these things that has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?

I know that you believe.

And Agrippa said to Paul, In a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian?

And Paul said, Whether short or long, I would to God that no, that not only you, but all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.

What are you saying?

Here's a fourth uh essential uh element of an essential testimony, effective testimony.

It's just a shared focus.

It's just a shared focus.

Religious people don't believe on the basis of what they prefer.

Let me say that again.

Religious people do not believe certain things on the basis of what they prefer.

That's what Festus is.

That's why Festus, he just left the house of Matthew Dillon and he comes over and no, no, not that Festus.

You got this all wrong.

And Paul does not back down.

Remember, he's been set free from his people, the Jews and the Gentiles.

He just basically says, Hey, no, here's the truth.

And then he has the guts to turn and speak to the king.

Talk about speaking truth to power.

He's like, hey man, I you're you're familiar with Christianity.

I think you believe.

And he goes, You think you're going to convince me, persuade me in a short time?

Paul says, Whether short or long, okay?

I want everybody.

Now I got a call this week from a friend or a text.

I was driving to the med center to pray with one of our people for a surgery.

And uh I got a text.

Can you call me right now?

I'm driving in traffic.

I'm 90.

It's a parking lot.

I'm like, no.

Uh uh.

So I called him later, later that morning.

Called, he said, Yeah, I'm reading a book by David Platt.

I was like, put it down.

That man's gonna ruin you uh in the best of ways.

And he said, Yeah.

He said, I think I've realized that some things that I was taught as a kid weren't true.

And I said, Hey, a part of spiritual maturity is not just learning, but unlearning.

And he said, Yeah, I was taught that general revelation means that people in other countries, like in Africa, the old man in Africa has never heard about Jesus or never heard the gospel, that he gets to go to heaven because of general revelation.

I said, That's not true.

General revelation, by the way, that's a big phrase, basically means that, like the Bible says in Romans chapter 1, about verse 18 to 20, uh, that what may be known about God is obvious because God has made it obvious in what has been made so that men were without excuse.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Translation, look at me.

The Bible teaches that creation testifies to the reality of God.

That's called general revelation.

You can't look around, you can't eat chocolate, you can't drink good wine, you can't watch a baby be born and not go, there's a God in this world.

Man, we're not here by we didn't get here just because some hiccup in the stratosphere.

There's a creator that created all of this.

That's what general revelation says.

And it robs people of excuses, like I never heard, or I don't know.

And he ends the phone cover, we're talking, and he says, Okay, uh, then he says this, okay, if that's true, shouldn't we just be going around telling everybody?

And I just let it hang in the air.

And I said, My work here is done.

Yes, yes, this is Paul, okay?

Hear this and we'll be done.

He says, whether short, good, because uh Agrippa says, Hey, you think you can convince me in a short time?

You can persuade me to be a Christian?

And Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.

What would it be like if everybody became like you are spiritually?

That's the big statement in here, at least for me.

It's like, whoa, whoa.

Here's Paul's vision, and I'm done.

Everybody a Christian, nobody a prisoner.

Everybody a Christian, nobody a prisoner.

He's in chains, he's in court, he holds except for these chains.

I wish that everybody.

Oh, you think you can persuade me?

I hope.

I wish you could be like me except for these chains.

That's my prayer for our church.

I've been praying this all this week.

Everybody a Christian, nobody a prisoner.

Not a prisoner to your past, not a prisoner to fear, not a prisoner to consequences, not a prisoner to anything, not a prisoner to addiction.

Nothing has power over you to lock you up when God came to set you free.

Everybody, this pray this for our church this week.

Everybody a Christian, nobody a prisoner.

And look at me.

You can't just pray it.

Okay.

You gotta open your mouth and speak it to them.

Understand that?

Everybody a Christian, nobody a prisoner.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.

So questions come up on the screen.

That's for your contemplate contemplation and consideration.

Don't try to write them down.

You can take a picture.

We believe that Christianity engages your mind and your emotions.

So just take a moment, think about what God said to you.

Lord, we uh that's our confession, it's our desire, that our life is proof.

Our life is proof of conversion, not perfection, but progress.

Because sometimes when we get transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, some of that stuff follows us because it doesn't follow us, it doesn't have the power to we go back and bring it with us.

So I don't want to be on those preachers that makes it sound like it's a clean break and you never know.

So deliver us from beating ourselves up today and shaming ourselves.

Help us to understand, though, that we have a place among those who are being sanctified.

That's the church capital C.

That's why we gather on the first day of the week to say, I want to better understand who God is and who I am because of who God is in this Christianity thing.

And that's when those besetting sins begin to lose their power over us.

Because we're being sanctified, we're being set apart, we're becoming more and more like Jesus and less and less like that old person we're embarrassed of.

So I pray for anybody that's really a Christian, they've been converted, but they struggle with some besetting sins.

God, just remind them hey, I'm not here to shame you.

103rd Psalm tells us you don't treat us as our sins deserve.

And for that, we're grateful.

Let's just find a place among those who've been sanctified and let sanctification have its way with us.

Lord, thanks for your word.

It's so rich, it's so thick and dense and full of goodness.

We want to just eat it up today and be nourished by it this week.

This is our prayer.

We pray in Christ's name, and everyone said.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks for your presence today.

Uh, if you're our guest today, I just I'm super glad you're here.

You're always welcome, okay?

Uh, I I don't care if you believe, don't believe.

I was walking in my neighborhood and met a guy, and I was trying to explain our church to him, and I said, Hey, listen, I got people in my church, they ran out of gas, some put it in the ditch, and some drove it off a cliff.

And he's like, Yeah, I can relate to that.

So if you've done any of those three, I want to be your pastor.

I'm being serious.

I don't care if you drove it off the steepest cliff ever.

I'm gonna stand there with you, help you get out of the records and say, I think God has a plan for your life, okay?

Let's walk together with this.

But if you're our guest, here's why we ask you today.

If you text the word welcome, that number on the screen behind me gives us a record of your presence.

We'll shoot you a text back.

We're not gonna show up.

We don't do that.

We just want to help you take the next step spiritually, okay?

And it may be you got questions, you want to sit down to a cup of coffee or a meal that I buy or one of our pastors buys, we're glad to do that, okay?

We always have stuff going on in life of our church.

We make you aware of it by way of our video announcements.

So check out the screens.

Here's what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Neri's Promise is continuing this spring.

Every first Tuesday of the month from 5 to 6 p.m., you have an opportunity to join in God's work there.

From playing with kids, leading a Bible study, sharing the gospel, and being the hands and feet of Jesus right here in our community.

It makes an eternal impact for the kingdom.

Whether you've been many times before or not at all, come with fresh eyes and anticipation for God to do great things.

Attention, all adults 16 older.

The varsity has been rescheduled for February 13th.

Join us in the gathering room from 10:30 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

for a wonderful time of fellowship, fun, and community.

The cost is$10 per person.

Finally, men of the church, it's time to mark your calendars.

Join us for the Men's Ministry Golf Scramble on March 20th at the golf club at Cinco Ranch.

Whether you're a seasoned golfer or just looking for a fun day of fellowship, this is the perfect opportunity to connect with other men in the church while enjoying a great round of golf.

More details will be coming soon, so stay tuned.

But for now, save the date and get ready for a fantastic time on the course.

If you have any questions about the sermon, email them to Blake at Grandparkway.org.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

I was picking up people to be on my foresome for the golf scramble during the announcement.

Sorry.

Uh picking out the good golfers in the crowd.

Uh, we'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So if you would stand to your feet, hold your hands out.

God is a God not just of conversion, but of helping and sending.

He loves to help you.

That's why Jesus said crazy things in the gospels like if your earthly father, even though they're evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more your heavenly father.

Depart now and live and love in the how much moreness of your heavenly father.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.