March 6, 2016

Being a sermon series this morning. We're actually concluding a sermon series for many weeks. I've preached about the gospel and the essential nature of the gospel and this morning work including it by talking about the fact that the gospel is wonderful and in as I thought about that fact, I realized that better than having me preach a sermon where I made all these points about the gospel being wonderful. I really wanted us to hear from individuals and I want us to see and learn and hear the way the gospel has work and lives to work. It's wonderfulness. Now, we still have a couple of special testimonies that they're going to share this morning. Jean Easton is going to come and share her testimony and just a few moments and then Andy Newton is going to share his testimony. But we also wanted to quit some of the kids in the church and and and add to the variety of folks that we're hearing from a little bit this morning. So my son will interviewed some of the kids and ask them the question. What is one thing that's wonderful about Jesus, you know, when it first or like what But then they come up with with good answers. And so I want to start by having us enjoy this video and then I'll make a few comments about a verse and then introduce Our Testimony speaker. So what's this?

The good word of the truth is we might pass a Mike around and all of us might be able to easily begin to say you don't hear something that's wonderful about Jesus wonderful about the gospel his continual Grace in our lives with his presence through friends and family and and church and loved ones even his challenge at times for us all to correct things in our life our demonstrations of his love. There's a great verse in 1st Peter. I think I don't have my clerk of this morning. So I'm going to depend on the board there to Klickitat. Thank you. First Peter 1:12 is where we've been preaching of that chapter and this verse says it was revealed to them speaking of the prophets in the It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit Sent From Heaven even angels long to look into these things. I'm always amazed by the last part of that verse where Peter says look even the prophets in the Old Testament that they began to understand is the Holy Spirit open their eyes that even what they were doing was all about Christ and his coming and this gospel that's now being preached through the church and then he has that little comment even angels long to look into this the language there is this sort of peering the sort of gazing and so they're kind of leaning out long and what is the heavenly father doing with this plan through his son Christ. What is the gospel? How do we we fully understand that it's amazing what God is doing the original Greek. There is the same word. That is transfer. Lust in other passages so these angels are just mesmerised. They they are gripped by the beauty of the Gospel. They long to see the gospel more fully revealed to me. That's an amazing truth. And again when I thought about this sermon, I thought you know what I want to hear from individuals about how the God for his work in our lives and in their heart how how God has blessed them and work through them and we have so many folks who could share that sort of testimony that it's exciting but I was excited to invite Jeannie said I'm going to buy her to come up now she's going to take the stage and I need to be practical here. Which Mike is the right might guy. So we Sissy working my guess. So there's a mic for Eugene and I'll lay it right here and what you do with it as you please with jeans going to share her testimony. If you going to be up here you want me down there you can pick you can be like me and run around and get your Fitbit Fitbit points up while you're preaching. How are you can preach up hear your mic is hot you want on the stand?

I thought you might be like a Vegas singer. You don't care your mind a little bit and no way. I'm going down to sit down and shut up. We're going to we're going to hear from GE, and she's going to share her testimony, and then when she's done and the news is going to come and share he is and then I'll come back up. So, thanks. Since I first start share my testimony because everybody runs up and down now, I'm not doing that.

I'll get Daisy. Thank you for the privilege of sharing a 10-minute testimony. I told the Lord and a long time ago that I would be willing to share my testimony for as long as I live. I would have promised that we've been hearing about some countries if you shared the gospel you'd be arrested and in some religions, you would even be killed. So please don't keep it a secret. Hold it dear to you. I'll guarantee you there is someone in your area influence that it's looking for the gospel. They're looking for something to make their life better and what can be better than the good news. Now, unfortunately, there are those out there who have taken the true gospel and they have corrupted it and they've added a lot of rules to it. They made a religion out of it. And then they attempt to tell you how to live out. Your life is a Christian and Jehovah's Witnesses Mormons, there's many groups out there but I happened to be born into the Jehovah's Witness teaching and so is the third generation. I was busy of doing all the things that they said to do and I converted velphoro thing over there. I converted him and we were busy and doing all the do's and all the dogs that were expected of us. We can celebrate Christmas and couldn't celebrate Easter and Valentine's Valentine's Day Mother's Day Father's Day. We couldn't vote we couldn't believe in going to war and we didn't take blood transfusions and that was the most difficult one for me because I have Rh negative blood. Has positive in the baby the only hope for that baby would be a complete transfusion at Birth and I shudder to think that I signed papers that would relieve the hospitals and doctors of all responsibilities my babies died, but you see I believe 100% that I was in the truth and that if I had disobeyed and taking a blood transfusion then my baby is nor I would have had the hope of eternal life. I'm thankful. They were born normal. A lot of couples lost their baby. We did things like a 10-5 meetings the week regularly at the Kingdom Hall. We were out there knocking on doors something that everyone is expected to do from a child on to death. and this false gospel that we were preaching from door-to-door. It's not anything new. In fact the in the early church. The apostles was warning them not to follow the following All the gossip the false gospel in 2nd Corinthians 11 for it. And it says if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus or if you receive a different Spirit from the one that you received or if you receive a different gospel for the one you accept that you put up with it well enough in other words, they were being warned way back then not to follow a different gospel. Sure, we believe in the father. We believe in the son. We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus was the son of God, but we redefined their personage until there was nothing like the true gospel, but when you're shown scriptures to believe something you don't realize how twisted those scriptures can be and how they're taken out of context the word that you convinced that you are truly a following the Bible Well, I was one of the lucky ones. I inherited library from one of my Jehovah's Witness relative and I decided I wanted to find out what all those books before I store them away in the Attic. So I started with the oldest book written somewhere around 1874 and I continue to read those books up to the current books and I began to realize how many times they had changed their interpretation of scripture. And reading the current book, sometimes they would quote from the older Publications. And now I had those older Publications and in my heart. I thought I was reliving what Jehovah God had done among these people. I didn't realize I was getting an education. So I would go to the older Publications and look up those quotes and when I did I found out and they even took things out of context and I finally realized that I was following man-made religion and not Jesus Christ at all. So in the. Of 2 years I had said in my way out of this organization and I kept notes all this time of no idea that was going to happen. Well, I one thing led to another and I decided not to continue going to those meetings and Bill was perfectly willing to stop because he was tired of waiting on Armageddon. Anyhow, that's the last war of our Wars that you think is going to happen continuously and well first the true gospel after all we've been taught that all churches are false another devil. Where do I find it? What does it look like from Earth? I believe so I began to search out all the denominations and find out what the difference is. We're in all of the churches. And as I was studying one after another I took note of my sister-in-law to radical change in Behavior. Now we had always been friends. I've known her since she was a little girl Bill sister and she was raised Catholic and all of a sudden she was going around with this big smile on her face and she had a joy in her heart and she was talking about the Bible and I've never known her to read the Bible before she was listening to Christian radio program is in the heart and she kept her Joy, even when she had crisis to hit her family and seemed like she always goes having a crisis but she still had this joint. I knew she had something that I was searching for but at that time, I didn't know it was it was Jesus in her and so I kept taking note of her and watching her and see what was going on. I kept reading and studying and chief said that she told me later. She said, you know Jean I had an urge in my heart to come and tell you About my Born Again experience, but she said I thought you knew so much about the Bible and I didn't know that much and I couldn't answer questions that I couldn't quote scripture and you see that smile a lot of Christians hesitate to share their faith. They think they have to know a lot but all you have to know it's just the simple gospel. And so I'm so thankful that she finally got up enough courage to come and share Jesus with me because I'd had not understood the percentage of Jesus the way that she was explaining to him and then she challenged me to come and hear a guest speaker coming to town. Well, I tried to get Bill to go with me that he was headed up to here and religion by that time. He was not going to step foot inside of any church anywhere at any time. So I got a teacher friend to go with me and that night. I heard the love of Jesus sermon like I had never ever heard before.

My heart was open. I received the truth Jesus Christ in my heart. I knew that he was the truth. He instantly put that into my heart. And isn't that what he said it John 14:6. I am the way I am the truth the life and no man comes to the father except by me. It's not Jesus Plus in organization is not Jesus plus anything else. It's just Jesus and Jesus only that gives us eternal life. So I went home that night with a joy. I was totally changed person when we got in the house Bill said well and I just started laughing. I felt like a ton of been taken off my shoulders after all that search and nice friend Nancy. She was sitting there laughing because she was so excited at my new friend Joy Bill said he already go to church

So finally he wanted to get in on the joy and the he did and now we realize we needed to go to church. So as we started visiting some Churches in my Suite is helping me find some Churches and I'm so thankful that her son is here this morning because he came here for a long time some years ago. He and his damn it was because of her guiding them.

And sew a place for Jehovah's Witness doing her Duty stop us going into a church. So she did what she was supposed to do she reported us and now we had to get this fellowship and we got a visit to our daughter even though he had been in it now I get kicked out of something you're not in. But we had committed to terrible crime of going to church you see so we were disfellowshipped and my the members of my family who were Jehovah's Witnesses that meant they could no longer speak and if they did then they too would be disfellowshipped and so many families have been divided among the eight million Jehovah's Witnesses because of their disfellowshipping rules. but we were thankful that we found the joy of a Christian fellowship and I felt the urge in my heart to write this book and I named it a Jehovah's Witness finds the truth. I put all those notes that I had accumulated when I was doing my research plus my testimony and I put it in the book and went through three printings and it's out of print now, but you can still read it on our website tutors for Christ. Org and you can read it for free and then I was invited along with three other former Jehovah's Witnesses to be on the John Ankerberg Show. It's a national television show had five program mayo and all these phone calls and it's like getting under unexpected pregnancy. Do you know you've got to take care of your baby? So here I had a baby in my lap. I had to take care of it. So I had to learn how to do ministry fast. We ended up needing support groups in her home and we had that been going on for years. And I'm just so very thankful that for Ministry we still get calls and I'm thankful that we continue to minister to people as they come to us and tell us why they left Jehovah's Witnesses. We have a beautiful young lady and two sons in the audience today that some of you have met that's also less Jehovah's Witnesses and their dear friends and we just appreciate them so very much and where it says the test the spirits to see where these things are. So this is something that I encourage you to get the gospel down patch. You've heard it for weeks.

So get that gospel down pad in your spirit, and then when anything strange comes along and you need to test it, you know that you're doing the scriptural thing test to see what it is. Thanks or so. Thank you for listening.

That's a hard act to follow.

Is Gina was saying we do all have to be prepared to share the gospel. I've been asked to share my testimony many times. Typically it is a very long procedure because I'm in a foreign country and it may be translated to three different time. So I just have to have a little snippet in order to the fill 30 minutes, but truly being able to share the gospel is just telling your story and everyone in this room has a story we've all had highs and lows in life. And certainly that that's true for everyone and if you've not had any Lowe's I can pretty well promise you you will so just be prepared to allow God to use those experiences to share your story because it's true when you have joy and it shines to Lost World just would like to start by telling my story by quoting one of my favorite scriptures. It's out of Revelation, which of course is referring more to Christ return. However, well I'll just read it. It's Revelation 21:5 and it says he who was Seated on the throne said I am making everything new then. He said write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And for me and my personal life, that's what the gospel does everyday it renews me. It makes everything new and I've got several pivotal moments in my life that have really made that apparent and obvious both to me and I think the others that have known me for any length of time. I was raised in a Christian Home Southern Baptist. So way more conservative than here for certain and my father was a deacon and we attended Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington and each Wednesday. They had prayer meeting. That's what they used to call it and we had the little checkered tablecloth and the cheesy spaghetti dinner and then the kids went to choir and all that good stuff. So it was a Wednesday evening and my father had walked up from his job downtown Lexington and he began having a heart attack and they rushed him off. The hospital and that was the last I ever saw my father and it was a really difficult time for me. But because I have been raised even at the young age. I understood. What heaven was and I understood that that's where my father was and my mother remarried and I had a great stepdad. However, eight years fast forward. My mother finds out that she has brain tumor in the course of a week from diagnosis to her death. And at that point, I was just devastated because Ed 69. I was just all my knees praying praying for a miracle because I knew that the gospel had multiple stories of Miracles of Christ it done I needed and wanted one desperately my life and that was for the survival of my mother. Unfortunately Miracles don't always come in the form that we wish them to come. We don't have the ability to see the entire timeline as our Lord and savior dies and he knows what's best but it sure didn't feel like it in the moment at that point. I was really leaning on my stepdad only to find out that my step dad wasn't really interested in keeping my brother and I and so about three weeks after my mother's passing. We ended up going to live with an aunt who had only met one time in my life. So life was a real struggle for me at that time and my face was really being stretched. However, I never got to a point where I didn't believe that God existed. I knew very much existed. I just particularly wanted him to come down with skin on as Christ did so we could kind of punch it out. I was very angry at God and at that point in my life. I didn't want to ever hurt anyone. But I was very interested in hurting me and I took on a very unhealthy lifestyle of drugs and alcohol and truthfully should be dead. First time I should be there were there were many other times. However, the Lord saw fit to send a female into my life who was a polar opposite of who I was I couldn't even understand. What does this girl have any interest in me in and she used to tell me Well girls like to date the bad boy that don't really want to marry one, but they think it'd be fun to date once and so that's how I ended up with my lovely wife for 35 years. And and she totally open my eyes. She had grown up in a family where church was not the norm, but she got herself to church. and so she very much wanted Church to be a part of our marriage and I wasn't ready to return back to church and weather for the right reasons or not. It was more male pride than anything. I didn't want my lovely wife showing up at church and people got us. She's so I went back to church the very first time I did God spoken to me and it totally changed my life. I've been raised in a Christian home. There's young people in this room. You may be growing up in a Christian home, but there will be challenges that your face as you grow up and Scripture God's word has truth. It's the only thing that's true in this world. And I really pray that you will hold on to that and in times of need but moving on and we're happily married for many years. I I feel like I'm I'm kind of back in to where God wants me to be and we were very active at Southland Christian and we loved our home church and it things were going great and I was on a business trip in a hotel And one evening, I was 35 years old and I had a massive heart attack and I found myself in coronary care and being told that I probably wasn't going to live through the night. And all I kept thinking about water my two kids and how I did not want them growing up being angry at God and I didn't want him to make the same mistakes, but it was because of my anger that I had actually seen what the gospel really meant in my life personally. All of that. I'm so anyway, I end up having bypass surgery cardiac defibrillator. I even beat Dick Cheney to the draw and nobody even knew what a defibrillator was until Dick Cheney got one then it was on the news and everybody understood but I was 35 years old and I can remember people coming to see me in the hospital and they didn't understand the joy either they were like, how could you be so happy? This is happened to you and your life and I was just bubbling over with joy because of my heart. But even today people say how could that have been the highlight of your life? It helped me to totally recognize what Reckless abandon for Jesus was. I had nothing to lose. I had no control over the situation and it opened up my eyes. It was just shortly after all of that happened that the door opened for me to go into Ministry and I spent 10 and a half years working at Southland Christian Church in their missions Ministry. Now, you have to fully understand that all the damage that occurred my heart. I was told that I would be a cardiac cripple that I should start drawing MediCare at 35 that I'd be lucky if I could get to the mailbox on any given day. Since that has occurred I have been to China 22 times. I have been to Mozambique. I've been to Ethiopia. I have been all over the world and gotten to share the love of Jesus and gotten to share the story of the Cross and it's not complicated. It is not complicated. It is very easy. You simply share Christ has changed your life and you share the story of the Cross and and people listen and they understand and like I say most of the time when I've gotten a chance to share it's been Translate it two or three times. So I always have to trust that is being translated correctly cuz I don't know the language is but it is truly a wonderful thing to be able to share your faith and I encourage each of you just as Gene did don't waste a day of opportunity be prepared to share your story wherever you go God's renewing my life everyday through his words through prayer and it's all because of the gift of the Cross and he continues to renew it three years ago. He called me away from Southland and had me start a brand-new Ministry mini-stroke Journeys, which is it's all about taking short-term Mission teams out, so he's never done with you. Never ever ever done and I'll just close with this verse if you'll allow me to. And I stayed on time so that's good. I usually don't and it's Psalm 105. So we're going back in time at this point and it says its first one give praise to the Lord Proclaim his name make known among the nation's what he has done. That's all you're charged to do. But if you'll do that, you'll have it. Thanks for letting me share and

I'll turn it back over to Robbie.

episode

what what a blessing to hear first-hand about the gospel in the power of the Gospel in and Christ working in live sand and honestly, like I said earlier we can pass a Mike around and so many of us like they could share about the Lord working in our life and I just want to share a couple of thoughts as we we close here one. I love the fact that that both of our testimonies and besides the joy that the Lord brought into their life and into that that it was so simple that that when both of them took that step of faith and went back to church or went to hear a guest speaker that night the Lord touch their hearts that day the Lord spoke to them because they they had that openness. I to say maybe I need something more than myself. Maybe the maybe I could believe that the gospel isn't too good to be true. Maybe it's true. So if you're here this morning and you've never made that decision not to give your life to Christ. That's what I'm inviting you to do. I hope the Lord speaking to your heart and speaking to you through these testimonies into our time and worship and I want you to know how much the lord loves you and how it if you've not began a relationship with him. He Longs for that he Longs for you to say yes to him. He's he's inviting you to do that and if you ask yourself, how do I how do I do that? How do I get started? How do I maybe I'm not sure I'm ready to do it. How do I discover more about the Lord or how do I experience a little bit of that Joy? How do I test and see? You know, maybe I'm not sure. How do I put a little weight? Keep one foot back here in my life as it is a reach out and say, all right. I will I will test a little bit. I'm not ready just to jump completely. I think the way you test is you take a step and get closer to the Lord at and is you take a step of faith and get closer to Jesus Christ as you experienced him, you will experience his love and his Joy you will find him inviting you to be closer, you know how to speak or share this this past week and it stayed in my heart all week and it's a simple truth that I've always known but he spoke about the reality that you see in the New Testament in the gospels in the Life of Christ that in that culture there were people who were considered unclean like lepers. For example, I would have to Proclaim unclean as they went about a 13 ft radius. So that others would know that they had leprosy and they would stay away from them and end the religious culture that time had established this concept this conviction that that which is unclean will make me unclean So I am clean by default, but if I get next to that leper if I let that leopard get close to me. If I let other categories in the New Testament of Sinners get close to me, then it will make me unclean. So they developed this religion that said I'll keep my distance from those things that are unclean and Jesus came and did the opposite he came and turned their man-made religion on its head and when someone would be saying unclean unclean. Jesus said hey, come here. And got close to those lepers got close to the tax collectors and the prostitutes and all those that the culture was think I'll during clean. You can't be near them when he came to them. He healed them he was clean and he made what was unclean clean. Some ways that the simple truth maybe we've learned that in VBS and then Sunday school, but that really stuck in my heart this week when I thought about it because it's so easy to slip into that sort of Jewish or fair safe for mindset where we think we've got to protect ourselves from those things that are unclean and those people that are in clean so we'll keep our distance and instead. I believe we are challenged to believe in the cleanest of Christ to believe that yes. He's coming to our life and he's made what was unclean about us clean. That's what I've experienced. That's why I say if you want to test the waters step out there and get a little closer to Jesus because what you're going to discover is he sees what is unclean about you it is not hidden. He knows it. He sees it weather or whether you're saying unclean unclean whether you're owning it completely or not or whether like a lot of us you've learned how to keep that in and say I'm fine. Thank you. He sees what is unclean about us and he stepped close to us and invites us to get close to him because he wants to give us his Holiness. He wants to give us his righteousness. That's the gospel that Christ went to the cross and pay the price for our uncleanness for our sin and that he wants to give us that gift that if we will trust him if we walk by faith step close to him and believe what is true. What is priest about him believe what we heard this morning other people saying happened in their life, if we believe that about Christ if we will take that step of faith. He welcomes us and Embraces us and gives us the gift of his righteousness. Amen. That's what we celebrate. But that's why if we get her mind around it without a just stand up and worship any chance we get because Christ is that good and because the gospels that good and Grace is that real that you and I as soon as people who have broken as people who have uncleanness whether we admit it or not that we are people who've been given the grace of Christ his righteousness his cleanliness. And then he asked us to trust that reality and be people who go out like him. Reach Out sit next to become friends with Embrace those in our world that everyone else says unclean unclean stay away from them. We need to be the ones like Christ that comes right up next to them and prices them hugs them invite them into our lives gets into the messiness. And we trust that the power of Christ's righteousness is greater than sin. But the truth of the Gospel is more powerful than the lies of this world that there's nothing that can separate us or anyone who will accept it from the love of Christ.

It's okay. If you've not made that step this morning, I'm not the worship team to come forward as we prepare for our closing song. I'm inviting you to take a step of Faith closer to Christ. If you're ready to make that decision join us and trusting him join us and walking with him and to be honest there's days in which I step back there's days in which I depend on my own wisdom or my own faith or my own ability to say I'm doing pretty good. But what I keep discovering over and over again and again and again that the gospel is always true gospel is the deepest part of Christianity. It's not the most basic and then somehow I go deeper. I always come back to the gospel that Christ invites me that Christ covers my sin that he gives me the gift of righteousness and that my walk is a walk of depending on Christ of being in relationship with Christ. Even as you make that decision, they'll be times when you need Brothers and Sisters in Christ to help you and remind you and hold you accountable to step close again to remind you that you would step back. I need that. So it doesn't happen at once but it all starts with that first step. So if you've never made that decision I invite you during this song to make that decision. I'll be in the back. You can tell you not to come up in front of everybody and come to the back and find me there and and pray with me. Let me pray for you share that decision or if you just have questions I'll be back there will also have prayer team members will be some in the back end and one in the front two that if you just have a prayer concern you just want somebody to pray for you or with you. You can come to any of those pretty members and they would love to pray for you. You can pull me aside or another leader side after the service and ask questions. We we want to help you make that decision. Pure Christian. I pray you just celebrate that truth that Christ has given you his righteousness that he knows. What's unclean about you. There's nothing hidden from him and there's nothing that is Grace and love doesn't cover until he invites you even as a Believer to step closer this morning to give it to him. What's in your heart. What's on your mind? What weighs you down? It might be unforgiveness. It might be confusion. It might be struggle. Whatever it is. We can give it to Christ and he says I see that and I know that I saw it already. Just waiting for you to make that decision. And he gives us his grace is love. His instruction is wisdom. Please stand as we sing Our Song.