SPEAK FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ...
Sermon
FAITH IS FOR SHARING
They can't refute it!
Fatigue is one of the products of modern society: We tend to either get excited about the wrong things, or we don't get excited about anything. Perhaps an appropriate contemporary paraphrase of Matthew 6:25-34 would be, "Don't get excited about food and drink to keep you alive or clothes to cover your body. Surely there is more to life than this. Those who are without God get excited about such things, but you should not, because your heavenly Father already knows your needs and will take care of you. Instead, get excited about God's Kingdom and his righteousness and your other needs will be met as well."
When was the last time anyone in your church got excited about the Kingdom of God? How did the people respond? Usually, we're more concerned about keeping things quiet than we are about stirring things up, regardless of the motive. Once, while thumbing through a religious periodical, I saw a cartoon that I will never forget. It showed a drawing of a huge gothic cathedral with the doors closed and padlocked. On the doors hung a sign which read, "Do not disturb!"
Hundreds of books line the shelves of bookstores and libraries telling people how to achieve peace of mind. But, although the presence of Jesus does, at times, bring quiet and calm, more often he brings an uproar. At one point in his early ministry our Lord said,
You must not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a son's wife against her mother-in-law; and a man will find his enemies under his own roof. [Matthew 1O:34-35 NEB]
The message of the gospel about the power of Christ to change a human life is by its very nature controversial, because people just naturally resist change and agents of change. Most of us would rather settle for our old familiar second-best lifestyle than venture with Christ into a far more excellent way of life. Many of us could qualify for that whimsical epitaph, "Come weal, come woe, my status is quo." We simply don't like for people to make waves. We like things the way they are.
But whenever the Spirit of Christ is released in a person's life or let loose on a congregation, things begin to happen: Broken relationships are healed as reconciliation takes the place of alienation. The fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, begin to emerge. And people catch fire for the Lord! No one can deny that something is going on - the earth may not quake, a sound like a mighty wind may not be heard, tongues of fire may not appear, and people may not speak in strange languages - but it could be described as a "second Pentecost." And at times like these you can either respond favorably or negatively to Christ, but you will find it hard to ignore him. There is something about the activity of Christ that causes us to choose sides.
The clergy have a share in this reluctance to get excited about the gospel as well. In an address to a group of clergy, Dr, Ira Galloway once said,
The problem of the local church is not the radical fundamentalist or the radical social activist. We probably don't have enough of either one of these to stir us up as much as we ought to be stitied up.
The real problem is the great majority of laity and clergy who want to 'play it safe; to go to church and not be the church.' The same pastors who object to the Lay Witness Mission program are also afraid of getting their people involved in social action. If you are in the mniistry to play it safe, then for God's sake, get out.1
Last fall, I was involved in an evangelistic emphasis in my congregation that really stirred them up. It was such an exciting experience that I just had to share it with a group of my fellow ministers. But I could tell by the expression on their faces that many of them weren't really interested.
A college co-ed went out on a blind date, and you know how those usually turn out! Her roommate was curious enough to wait up for her, and when she returned, she asked, "Well, how did it go" "Just awful!" the coed replied, "I had to slap him six times!" "You had to slap him six times!" the roommate exclaimed, "What's the matter? Did he get fresh?" "No," the co-ed answered, "I thought he was dead." And I have preached in congregations like that, where I wanted to go around and slap a few faces - just to see if they were still alive.
It is far easier to cast out the "demons" of negative opposition than to "resurrect the dead." After all, the ability to get excited about anything, no matter how trivial, is a sign of life. I would much rather attempt to counsel a person who expresses outright opposition to the gospel than one who doesn't seem to care one way or the other. Negative energy can be more easily transformed into positive energy than can enthusiasm be created where there is none. Sometimes, the person who "shakes us up" serves a useful purpose by arousing us from our complacency. To the church at Laodicea, the Lord said that because they were neither hot nor cold, neither on fire for him or against him, he would spew them out of his mouth as we would lukewarm coffee.2 We either like it steaming hot or over ice, but very seldom do people prefer it lukewarm.
The Apostle Paul's life was certainly anything but lukewarm. At first he was on fire for the Jewish faith, a Pharisee and a zealous persecutor of the early church. But on the road to Damascus, Saul encountered Christ and received a new name and a new purpose in life. And then he became just as much a Christian zealot as he had previously been a Jewish zealot. He was either hot or cold, either for Christ or against him. He was anything but complacent.
Theologian Nels Ferre once said, "We live in an age that is mostly hopeless because it is sick and tired of false hopes."3 People are growing weary of traveling up and down dead end roads that look glamorous but lead nowhere. They are tired of broken promises and shattered dreams. And if you feel that you don't know enough about the Bible or Christian theology to share your faith with others, then cheer up! People are sick and tired of experts. They are blaming the so-called "experts" for our present social unrest and political scandal and economic uncertainty. This is why anything that speaks of too much glamor, Madison Avenue polish, and expertise may well be regarded with suspicion by the average person.
Usually, when a local church wants to do something in the area of evangelism, they think in terms of getting a good preacher or evangelist to fill their pulpit for a week. And the crowds gather in response to the reputation of the speaker and the quality of advertising that has gone into the preparation for his coming. But it has been my experieuce that although an effective evangelist may attract overflow crowds to a particular church, it is when ordinary laypeople begin to talk about their faith in Christ that long-lasting results are achieved.
Theologians and preachers and other religious leaders often talk in terms of theories and generalities, but the witness speaks from his or her own personal experience. Not everyone is called to be a preacher, or a teacher, but each of us is called to be a witness to the Christ in our lives. We are a privileged people in that we can look into the very face of God with the eyes of faith. But that privilege also carries with it the responsibility of telling others about what we see. Thus the writer of time first letter of John states, "It was there from the beginning; we have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this we tell." (1 John 1:1 NEB). What he is saying is that this faith is real - it is tangible proof of God's power and love - he has touched our lives in an undeniable way in the person of Jesus Christ.
Someone once said, "If you ain't heard nothin', if you ain't seen nothin', if you ain't felt nothin' - then, you ain't got nothin'." The best motivation for sharing one's faith is to have a faith worth sharing. I wouldn't want to buy a Chevrolet from an automobile salesman who personally drives a Ford or a Plymouth. And, although we as witnesses aren't in the business of selling a product, but of telling the Good News, who would want to hear it from us unless we'd experienced it personally? How can we expect others to get excited about the Kingdom of God if we aren't?
A group of elderly gentlemen were gathered on some park benches discussing various remedies for arthritis. From a distance the entire group seemed to buzz as one after another shared his thoughts on the subject. "Some folks say that this will help," commented one. "I've heard that this can ease the pain," said another. "They say that this will help," volunteered still another. But the entire group grew strangely quiet when one man said, "Well, this is what worked for me ..." The whole world will sit up and pay attention if only we will share with others our experience of the One who has straightened out our tangled lives.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of trying to argue a person into the Kingdom of God. A lot of so-called atheists know more about the technical contents of the Bible than you or I. And no one could hope to answer all of the questions that theology and philosophy have raised in the past three thousand years! Our purpose is not to be an expert on the Bible or theology, but to tell the story about what Christ has done and is doing in our lives. When you speak from personal experience, there is no way that others can discredit you.
My good friend, Robert G. Tuttle tells in his book, One Man's Journey, of an attempt to counsel a person who came to him terribly disturbed Dr. Tuttle said to the man, "I cannot tell you to trust God. It would not mean anything to you. But I can share what He has done in my life."4 When you can talk about what Christ is doing in your life, it opens the door, even if ever so slightly, to the possibility of his doing something in the life of the person who hears your story. It gives the other person hope.
Dr. William Holmes Borders has been the pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, for many years. To hear him preach can only be described as an experience. I had the experience of hearing Dr. Borders address a group of United Methodist ministers a few months ago. Dr. Borders, who never had the opportunity to attend seminary, got up to address this gathering of mostly seminary graduates, and he began with these words, "You don't know what a privilege it is for me to have the opportunity to talk to you. Most of you have been to seminary and are experts in the area of Bible scholarship and theology, while I am not. But I am here tonight to tell you about what the Lord has done in my life, and you're going to listen, because I'm the expert on that subject ..." Needless to say, we all sat up and paid attention.
Speak from experience: They can't refute it! It was because he spoke from his own experience that an ordinary blind man who had been healed by Jesus could literally confound the Pharisees who sought to trick him. He refused to get bogged down in their theological controversy and spoke instead from the reality of his own experience. The Pharisees were trying to get this man to say that Jesus was a sinner motivated by evil forces.
So for the second time they summoned the man who had been blind and said, "Speak the truth before God. We know that this fellow is a sinner."
"Whether or not he is a sinner 1 do not know, the man replied, "All I know is this: once I was blind, now I can see." [John 9:24-25 NEB]
He was speaking from his own personal experience and none of time religious leaders could argue with those results. Once he had been blind, but now he could see!
But there is one big danger in speaking from experience and that is falling prey to the temptation to make our experience of Christ the rule of validity for everyone. A story was once told about the town drunk who fell into an old dry well near the outskirts of town. Because no one could hear his cries for help, he had to spend the night at the bottom of the well. During the night, in the midst of the darkness amid loneliness, he had a profound religious experience. The next morning after he was rescued he came running into town to tell others of his newly acquired faith, shouting "Come, fall down my well ... Come, fall down my well ..." Sometimes we get so preoccupied with trying to get people to see things our way that we neglect to point them to the One who is the Way. Sometimes we are so busy trying to impress people with our grasp of the truth that we fail to point them to Christ who is the Truth. Sometimes we are so concerned about trying to convert people to our way of life that, we neglect to point them to the Lord who is the Life. In such instances we are majoring on time minors and witnessing more to our own particular point of view than we are to Christ. There are some people whom I doubt I will ever see eye-to-eye with theologically or philosophically. But that doesn't mean that I am free to discredit them as non-Christians. If Christ can use me, I know that he can use them! The only thing that really matters is whether or not Christ is living in your life amid making a difference in the way you live.
In the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was said to have caused quite a stir when he preached the reality of Christ and the Resurrection. It certainly was hard for anyone to ignore him or his message, because not only did he know what he was talking about, he knew Who he was talking about. We are never going to be able to convince the world that our gospel is worth hearing or that our Lord is worth receiving until we personally become excited about Jesus. In order for the message to have integrity - in order for it to be convincing - it mnust first be embodied in our lives. The Word must become flesh in you and me if we are to sing the Lord's song in a strange land.
If you can't preach like Peter,
If you can't pray like Paul,
Just tell the love of Jesus,
And say he died for all.5
Remember the man who said of Jesus, "All I know is this: once I was blind, now I can see," And none could deny the reality of his experience.
FOOTNOTES
1 Ira Galloway, The North Carolina Christian Advocate, January 24, 1974.
2 Revelation 3:14-15.
3 Nels F.S. Ferre, The Extreme Center, Word Books, 1973, p. 20.
4 Robert G. Tuttle, One Man's Journey, Tidings, 1974.
5 "There is a Balm in Gilead," No. 212 in The Methodist Hymnal, The Methodist Publishing House, 1966.
Fatigue is one of the products of modern society: We tend to either get excited about the wrong things, or we don't get excited about anything. Perhaps an appropriate contemporary paraphrase of Matthew 6:25-34 would be, "Don't get excited about food and drink to keep you alive or clothes to cover your body. Surely there is more to life than this. Those who are without God get excited about such things, but you should not, because your heavenly Father already knows your needs and will take care of you. Instead, get excited about God's Kingdom and his righteousness and your other needs will be met as well."
When was the last time anyone in your church got excited about the Kingdom of God? How did the people respond? Usually, we're more concerned about keeping things quiet than we are about stirring things up, regardless of the motive. Once, while thumbing through a religious periodical, I saw a cartoon that I will never forget. It showed a drawing of a huge gothic cathedral with the doors closed and padlocked. On the doors hung a sign which read, "Do not disturb!"
Hundreds of books line the shelves of bookstores and libraries telling people how to achieve peace of mind. But, although the presence of Jesus does, at times, bring quiet and calm, more often he brings an uproar. At one point in his early ministry our Lord said,
You must not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a son's wife against her mother-in-law; and a man will find his enemies under his own roof. [Matthew 1O:34-35 NEB]
The message of the gospel about the power of Christ to change a human life is by its very nature controversial, because people just naturally resist change and agents of change. Most of us would rather settle for our old familiar second-best lifestyle than venture with Christ into a far more excellent way of life. Many of us could qualify for that whimsical epitaph, "Come weal, come woe, my status is quo." We simply don't like for people to make waves. We like things the way they are.
But whenever the Spirit of Christ is released in a person's life or let loose on a congregation, things begin to happen: Broken relationships are healed as reconciliation takes the place of alienation. The fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, begin to emerge. And people catch fire for the Lord! No one can deny that something is going on - the earth may not quake, a sound like a mighty wind may not be heard, tongues of fire may not appear, and people may not speak in strange languages - but it could be described as a "second Pentecost." And at times like these you can either respond favorably or negatively to Christ, but you will find it hard to ignore him. There is something about the activity of Christ that causes us to choose sides.
The clergy have a share in this reluctance to get excited about the gospel as well. In an address to a group of clergy, Dr, Ira Galloway once said,
The problem of the local church is not the radical fundamentalist or the radical social activist. We probably don't have enough of either one of these to stir us up as much as we ought to be stitied up.
The real problem is the great majority of laity and clergy who want to 'play it safe; to go to church and not be the church.' The same pastors who object to the Lay Witness Mission program are also afraid of getting their people involved in social action. If you are in the mniistry to play it safe, then for God's sake, get out.1
Last fall, I was involved in an evangelistic emphasis in my congregation that really stirred them up. It was such an exciting experience that I just had to share it with a group of my fellow ministers. But I could tell by the expression on their faces that many of them weren't really interested.
A college co-ed went out on a blind date, and you know how those usually turn out! Her roommate was curious enough to wait up for her, and when she returned, she asked, "Well, how did it go" "Just awful!" the coed replied, "I had to slap him six times!" "You had to slap him six times!" the roommate exclaimed, "What's the matter? Did he get fresh?" "No," the co-ed answered, "I thought he was dead." And I have preached in congregations like that, where I wanted to go around and slap a few faces - just to see if they were still alive.
It is far easier to cast out the "demons" of negative opposition than to "resurrect the dead." After all, the ability to get excited about anything, no matter how trivial, is a sign of life. I would much rather attempt to counsel a person who expresses outright opposition to the gospel than one who doesn't seem to care one way or the other. Negative energy can be more easily transformed into positive energy than can enthusiasm be created where there is none. Sometimes, the person who "shakes us up" serves a useful purpose by arousing us from our complacency. To the church at Laodicea, the Lord said that because they were neither hot nor cold, neither on fire for him or against him, he would spew them out of his mouth as we would lukewarm coffee.2 We either like it steaming hot or over ice, but very seldom do people prefer it lukewarm.
The Apostle Paul's life was certainly anything but lukewarm. At first he was on fire for the Jewish faith, a Pharisee and a zealous persecutor of the early church. But on the road to Damascus, Saul encountered Christ and received a new name and a new purpose in life. And then he became just as much a Christian zealot as he had previously been a Jewish zealot. He was either hot or cold, either for Christ or against him. He was anything but complacent.
Theologian Nels Ferre once said, "We live in an age that is mostly hopeless because it is sick and tired of false hopes."3 People are growing weary of traveling up and down dead end roads that look glamorous but lead nowhere. They are tired of broken promises and shattered dreams. And if you feel that you don't know enough about the Bible or Christian theology to share your faith with others, then cheer up! People are sick and tired of experts. They are blaming the so-called "experts" for our present social unrest and political scandal and economic uncertainty. This is why anything that speaks of too much glamor, Madison Avenue polish, and expertise may well be regarded with suspicion by the average person.
Usually, when a local church wants to do something in the area of evangelism, they think in terms of getting a good preacher or evangelist to fill their pulpit for a week. And the crowds gather in response to the reputation of the speaker and the quality of advertising that has gone into the preparation for his coming. But it has been my experieuce that although an effective evangelist may attract overflow crowds to a particular church, it is when ordinary laypeople begin to talk about their faith in Christ that long-lasting results are achieved.
Theologians and preachers and other religious leaders often talk in terms of theories and generalities, but the witness speaks from his or her own personal experience. Not everyone is called to be a preacher, or a teacher, but each of us is called to be a witness to the Christ in our lives. We are a privileged people in that we can look into the very face of God with the eyes of faith. But that privilege also carries with it the responsibility of telling others about what we see. Thus the writer of time first letter of John states, "It was there from the beginning; we have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this we tell." (1 John 1:1 NEB). What he is saying is that this faith is real - it is tangible proof of God's power and love - he has touched our lives in an undeniable way in the person of Jesus Christ.
Someone once said, "If you ain't heard nothin', if you ain't seen nothin', if you ain't felt nothin' - then, you ain't got nothin'." The best motivation for sharing one's faith is to have a faith worth sharing. I wouldn't want to buy a Chevrolet from an automobile salesman who personally drives a Ford or a Plymouth. And, although we as witnesses aren't in the business of selling a product, but of telling the Good News, who would want to hear it from us unless we'd experienced it personally? How can we expect others to get excited about the Kingdom of God if we aren't?
A group of elderly gentlemen were gathered on some park benches discussing various remedies for arthritis. From a distance the entire group seemed to buzz as one after another shared his thoughts on the subject. "Some folks say that this will help," commented one. "I've heard that this can ease the pain," said another. "They say that this will help," volunteered still another. But the entire group grew strangely quiet when one man said, "Well, this is what worked for me ..." The whole world will sit up and pay attention if only we will share with others our experience of the One who has straightened out our tangled lives.
Be careful not to fall into the trap of trying to argue a person into the Kingdom of God. A lot of so-called atheists know more about the technical contents of the Bible than you or I. And no one could hope to answer all of the questions that theology and philosophy have raised in the past three thousand years! Our purpose is not to be an expert on the Bible or theology, but to tell the story about what Christ has done and is doing in our lives. When you speak from personal experience, there is no way that others can discredit you.
My good friend, Robert G. Tuttle tells in his book, One Man's Journey, of an attempt to counsel a person who came to him terribly disturbed Dr. Tuttle said to the man, "I cannot tell you to trust God. It would not mean anything to you. But I can share what He has done in my life."4 When you can talk about what Christ is doing in your life, it opens the door, even if ever so slightly, to the possibility of his doing something in the life of the person who hears your story. It gives the other person hope.
Dr. William Holmes Borders has been the pastor of Wheat Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, for many years. To hear him preach can only be described as an experience. I had the experience of hearing Dr. Borders address a group of United Methodist ministers a few months ago. Dr. Borders, who never had the opportunity to attend seminary, got up to address this gathering of mostly seminary graduates, and he began with these words, "You don't know what a privilege it is for me to have the opportunity to talk to you. Most of you have been to seminary and are experts in the area of Bible scholarship and theology, while I am not. But I am here tonight to tell you about what the Lord has done in my life, and you're going to listen, because I'm the expert on that subject ..." Needless to say, we all sat up and paid attention.
Speak from experience: They can't refute it! It was because he spoke from his own experience that an ordinary blind man who had been healed by Jesus could literally confound the Pharisees who sought to trick him. He refused to get bogged down in their theological controversy and spoke instead from the reality of his own experience. The Pharisees were trying to get this man to say that Jesus was a sinner motivated by evil forces.
So for the second time they summoned the man who had been blind and said, "Speak the truth before God. We know that this fellow is a sinner."
"Whether or not he is a sinner 1 do not know, the man replied, "All I know is this: once I was blind, now I can see." [John 9:24-25 NEB]
He was speaking from his own personal experience and none of time religious leaders could argue with those results. Once he had been blind, but now he could see!
But there is one big danger in speaking from experience and that is falling prey to the temptation to make our experience of Christ the rule of validity for everyone. A story was once told about the town drunk who fell into an old dry well near the outskirts of town. Because no one could hear his cries for help, he had to spend the night at the bottom of the well. During the night, in the midst of the darkness amid loneliness, he had a profound religious experience. The next morning after he was rescued he came running into town to tell others of his newly acquired faith, shouting "Come, fall down my well ... Come, fall down my well ..." Sometimes we get so preoccupied with trying to get people to see things our way that we neglect to point them to the One who is the Way. Sometimes we are so busy trying to impress people with our grasp of the truth that we fail to point them to Christ who is the Truth. Sometimes we are so concerned about trying to convert people to our way of life that, we neglect to point them to the Lord who is the Life. In such instances we are majoring on time minors and witnessing more to our own particular point of view than we are to Christ. There are some people whom I doubt I will ever see eye-to-eye with theologically or philosophically. But that doesn't mean that I am free to discredit them as non-Christians. If Christ can use me, I know that he can use them! The only thing that really matters is whether or not Christ is living in your life amid making a difference in the way you live.
In the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was said to have caused quite a stir when he preached the reality of Christ and the Resurrection. It certainly was hard for anyone to ignore him or his message, because not only did he know what he was talking about, he knew Who he was talking about. We are never going to be able to convince the world that our gospel is worth hearing or that our Lord is worth receiving until we personally become excited about Jesus. In order for the message to have integrity - in order for it to be convincing - it mnust first be embodied in our lives. The Word must become flesh in you and me if we are to sing the Lord's song in a strange land.
If you can't preach like Peter,
If you can't pray like Paul,
Just tell the love of Jesus,
And say he died for all.5
Remember the man who said of Jesus, "All I know is this: once I was blind, now I can see," And none could deny the reality of his experience.
FOOTNOTES
1 Ira Galloway, The North Carolina Christian Advocate, January 24, 1974.
2 Revelation 3:14-15.
3 Nels F.S. Ferre, The Extreme Center, Word Books, 1973, p. 20.
4 Robert G. Tuttle, One Man's Journey, Tidings, 1974.
5 "There is a Balm in Gilead," No. 212 in The Methodist Hymnal, The Methodist Publishing House, 1966.
