Praise the Lord Saints of the Most-High God! Praise the Lord everybody! I love the Lord today and I hope and pray that each of you do as well. I am so excited to be in the house of the Lord today. I love being in the house of the Lord. I love being with the people of God! I just love loving Jesus. I just love having a personal, intimate, eternal relationship with God!

I would like to talk to you today about an unoriginal idea, yet one whose time has more than come. In fact, an idea whose time has almost passed. It was talked about by King David. It was talked about by King Jesus. It was talked about by the Apostle Paul. I come to you today talking about the same subject. I come to you today talking about witnessing.

· If we could all stand at this time in honor of the reading of the word of God.

Mark 8:38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

You may be seated

Definition of a witness according to Webster: Testimony; one who, or that which, furnishes evidence or proof; one who has seen or has knowledge of an incident; Verbal translation: To be a witness of or to; to give evidence; to testify.

We hear a lot about witnessing from the pulpit. But what do we really do once we hear the word? Too often we make up excuses as to why we can’t. Oh I just don’t feel like it. It’s not my bag. I can’t memorize scriptures. God hasn’t called me to witness. It’s the preachers job not mine.

On and on and on we go. We work harder trying to come up with an excuse than we would if we would just testify about God to others.

· If we have any Holy Ghost in us at all.

· If we have any love for God at all.

· If we believe in a literal hell at all

· We would quit making excuses and lay our all on the altar for Jesus.

· We would show our love for him and His creation by witnessing

But what does the word of the Lord have to say on the topic of witnessing? The first thing it tells us is that:

1. God Commands Us:

Let’s look at:

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

God was speaking to his disciples. Are we Disciples of Christ? If we’re not witnessing for Jesus we aren’t. He wasn’t just talking to the disciples in this passage. He was talking to all of us. If we claim to be Christians, He was talking to us. To be a Christian means to be Christ like. Jesus never said, “It’s not my bag”. I don’t ever recall reading the scriptures and Jesus saying that he couldn’t memorize scriptures. What He did say in the parable of the talents is that we need to use our talents, whether great or small for Him. We're not just to just sit on them, but we're to use them! In fact, He commanded his disciples to go forth and preach the whole gospel to the whole world.

If anyone here thinks that you’re not good enough of a Christian to witness, remember this. None of us are worthy of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. None of us live the kind of life we think we should. Sure, some of us may do a fairly good job. Hopefully, we’re getting better at serving God with each passing year. But none of us are perfect, so all witnessing will have to be done by imperfect people.

On the other hand, is anyone here ashamed of Jesus Christ? Remember Jesus said that if we’re ashamed of him before man. He’ll be ashamed of usbefore his Father. I’m not trying to beat anyone down. The devil will do that enough for all of us. But what I want to get through to everyone here is that we're to be a witness to others at any cost, and you may have noticed that I said “WE”, because I have to do it too!

It cost the disciples their lives! John was the only one to die a natural death, and he was boiled in oil and otherwise greatly tortured. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded in Rome. James was beheaded in Jerusalem. Thomas was speared while in India. Bartholomew was beaten, then crucified, and then beheaded. Andrew was crucified in Ethiopia. Mathew was speared. Phillip was crucified and stoned.

We forget sometimes what kind of price that Jesus paid for us. He suffered for us. He died for us.

· He came down from heaven when he didn’t have to.

· He suffered beatings, mocking, whippings, having His beard pulled out

· The cruel shame and horrible pain of the cross.

· Just because of His love for us, He who knew no sin became sin for us.

· He paid a price He did not owe.

· We owed a price we could not pay.

· And how have we rewarded Him for paying that price?

Praise God! Let’s just worship him right now!!!!

When you get right down to it there are only three reasons not to witness:

1. We're ashamed of Christ. We're too embarrassed to witness. WE won’t go to heaven if we're embarrassed of Jesus. Remember Mark 8:38

2. We're a coward. Revelation 21:8 says that the fearful will go to the lake of fire.

3. We just don’t believe in Christ, and that He says what He means.

Revelation 21:8 says that the unbelieving will go to the lake of fire.

Now let’s look at what Matthew has to say:

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

We say that we want Jesus to come back, that we’re tired of this old world. If we’re really tired of this world, if we’re really looking forward to the world to come, then we need to witness for Jesus!

This gospel is to be preached to all the world! Every nation is to hear the word. There are people in this nation that haven’t heard the gospel. What are we doing to witness? If we truly believe that we have the truth of original Christianity, and we do. What are we doing? Are we keeping this good news to our selves?

You may notice I repeatedly say “WE”. When I preach to you, I have to preach to myself as well. I’m required to be obedient to God’s word even more than you are as saints. God holds the preacher to a higher level of accountability than He does the saints!

2. If Love God, We’ll Keep His Commandments

It says in:

John 14:15, 21 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

If we Love God we'll keep his commandments. All of them, not just the ones that we want to obey. Heaven is for those people that love God. If we don’t love God enough to witness for him. I don’t know if we love him enough to go to heaven.

You have to love Him:

· More than your father or mother.

· More than your husband or wife.

· More than your son or daughter.

· More than houses and lands.

I hope and pray that we don’t go through any of the tribulation, much less the bad part. But if we do, are we going to take the mark of the beast if they threaten to kill our children for refusing to take it?

· If they threaten to kill our spouses?

· If they threaten to kill us?

If we won’t be a witness for Jesus, I think that we’d wimp out and take the mark as well. We have to be brave to witness. How many people were burned at the stake or otherwise killed during the “Inquisition” for their witness? Millions that’s how many. In Spain alone it’s estimated that two million died in that country for their faith. The vast majority didn’t even have but a drop of truth compared to what we have. But they died for their beliefs. Are we willing to die to ourselves to do no more than witness? It says in:

John 21:15-17 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

We look at this passage as if it were written to a minister, a disciple, or an apostle, and it is. But hear this scripture: (The Apostle John speaking about Jesus)

Revelation 1:6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

So the former passage pertains to us as well as the disciples. We're all kings and priests unto the Lord!

So what are we to feed the sheep?

· The good news of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

· The whole word of God and not just a partial gospel.

· The love of God toward people.

· Our personal, intimate, eternal, relationship with God.

We just need to get them in the doors so that the love of God through his people can be manifested unto them, so that they can feel the love of God in their hearts. And that will only happen when you witness to people. But who are we to witness to? We’re to:

· Witness to the poor and needy.

· Witness to the dirty and stinky.

· Witness to the drug users

· Witness to the gang bangers

· Witness to the street people.

· Witness to the winos

· An on and on and on the list goes!

· We’ll even witness to the rich and powerful if given half a chance.

· We need to be like the old Nike tennis shoe commercials and “Just do it!”

Let’s just praise God again!

3. How Do We Witness:

A. WITH WISDOM

Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

· Are we wise in our actions and words every day?

· Do we live the life of Christ before men or the life of the devil?

· Are we the same everyday or are we wishy-washy Christians?

People will see our lives as we live it. If we aren’t living it 100% for God they’ll know it. The beginning of wisdom is the “fear” or “reverence” of God. We show our “reverence” for God by how we live our lives every day. If we have no fear of God why should the lost. We need to live a holy life before God and man. We can’t compromise our walk with God even a smidgen in order to be accepted by the world!

How do we approach a person to witness to them? Are we to grab them by the throat and say “Give your life to God right now you filthy stinking sinner or God’s going to strike you dead with a lighting bolt!” I don’t think we’ll win any souls that way. It just doesn’t work; in fact, it might even be hazardous to our health! We need to:

· Be a friend to them.

· Show what God has done in our lives to them.

· Have smiles on our faces.

· Be a real Christian!

People have seen enough self-righteous hypocrites. We need to be a light to them. Don’t wait for God to straighten them out first. If he does that first, what does he need you for? Get them in church first, and then get them to the Altar! We can work on the rest later. It says in:

Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Once we get them in the door, we need to love them into the kingdom, not shove them into the kingdom! Visitors will fall in love with the people first, and fall in love with Jesus second. We need to have the love of Jesus in our hearts, and that love needs to be manifested to our guests so that they can see Jesus through our deeds, and our words. Hopefully then, they‘ll want to have a personal, intimate, eternal relationship with God!

Another way we witness to people is:

B. THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

God's given us the power as well as the commandment. God will not call us to do something that he hasn’t given us the power to accomplish. We're all called to witness, of that there's no question. If we have the Holy Ghost, we not only have the calling, but we have the power to witness. It says in:

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Some may say that you can’t memorize scriptures. I say that this scripture says otherwise. We may not be able to memorize them easily, but we can memorize them. If we'll just continually read our bibles through every year, the scriptures will get more familiar to us. The Holy Ghost can’t bring it to our remembrance if we haven’t heard it or read it. Remember, We have power through Christ to witness. It says in:

Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

One last point can be made here. We need to be prayed up at home as well as church. We’re at home or work a lot more than we’re at church. If we’re praying on a continual basis; we’ll be a far more effective Christian, as well as a far more effective witness.

Another way we witness is:

C. WITH KNOWLEDGE

1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

Take heed to the doctrine, imagine that! Most churches these days say that you don’t need doctrine. It’s probably because they haven’t been taught any. You may think sometimes we preach doctrine too much. We don’t, we probably preach it too little!

We need to hear the teaching of doctrine if we’re going to be saved. How would you know how to be saved if no one taught you doctrine? How can you lead someone to God if you don’t know biblical doctrine? Some churches preach that we don’t need doctrine, just believe in Jesus and we’re saved. That’s doctrine in and of itself; very incomplete doctrine, but nevertheless its doctrine.

All doctrine is: is the scriptural teaching of the bible relating to any given subject addressed in our bibles. We need to know:

· Why we need to be baptized in name of Jesus and not in the titles “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”.

· Why we need to be baptized in the Holy Ghost.

· Why we don’t go certain places.

· Why we're to be faithful to church.

· We need to know what we need to do in order to be saved!

Doctrine tells us these things. People will ask us why we do the things we do. We need to have a biblical answer for those questions. It says in:

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Do yourself a favor; study the things that your pastor teaches to see if they’re true. The Apostle Paul commended the Berean church because they searched the scriptures daily to see if the things that he taught them were true. We can’t just take the word of any man or woman. We need to seek the truth for ourselves. People will try to deceive us, to lead us astray. But if we know full biblical doctrine; we can disprove the deceivers. We need to know the truth in order to dispel false teachings to the people we witness to. It says in:

2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

This passage doesn’t just refer to “preachers”; it refers to all of us! When the Holy Ghost tells us to go to a person and witness to them. We need to be willing and we need to be ready. In fact, sometimes we need to witness to each other. It says in:

Titus 2:1-6

But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

Too many times these days we don’t set the right example to the young people. We don’t warn them when they’re treading on dangerous ground. We don’t exhort them to live Holy before God. The way we live before God and men is a witness unto itself. How are we witnessing to the world today?

Another way we witness to the world is:

D. TWO BY TWO:

Mark 6:7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Jesus sent the disciples out two by two and he had very good reasons for doing so. Let’s look at some of them.

Proverbs 11:14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.

It’s safer if you go out two by two. In times past even the most hardened criminal wouldn’t hurt a person that was out doing a work for Christ. People today have little or no respect for God, and as we all know, most bullies are chickens:

· If they see two people they aren’t as likely to cause problems as they would if there were only one.

· If one in your group were to somehow injure themselves the other person could help you.

It also makes sense from a spiritual standpoint, which is the emphasis in this scripture. Our partner can help keep us focused on the things that matter. It’s really of no concern to your salvation how many wives Methuselah had in his lifetime. Or how many dogs Jesus had as a child, nor are they mentioned in scripture, neither are they relevant to our salvation.

Remember, two minds are sharper than one; God can speak to both of us at the same time. He can bring the scriptures we need to mind at just the right time. It also helps if there are two of us when there are two of them. Remember, the bible says in:

Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellers they are established.

When dealing with someone from the bible. Sometimes it’s hard to remember everything that we need to use to guide them into all truth. Sometimes we’re witnessing to someone and there’s an individual from a less informed church that will stop and offer their two cents worth. If you have someone there with you, you can much more easily bring any false counsel to naught.

Again, it will help you to keep focused in on the subject at hand. Which is: Would you like to come to church? Once at the church, it’s would you like to have a personal, intimate, eternal relationship with God?

The apostles in the book of acts, and the disciples in the gospels (and remember there were much more than twelve at one time) all went out two by two. Who are we to go against the example which they set for us? Another way we witness is by:

E. BY PRAYER

Acts 13:2 As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

Whenever we’re going to go out and witness door to door. We need to have a time of prayer first. We need to pray for wisdom, understanding, a right spirit, and for holy boldness.

· Wisdom to be able to convince the lost of their need for salvation and that our church is the right place to make it right with God.

· Understanding, in that we need to keep in mind that all people don’t have the deep knowledge of God in the manner that we do. That they may not see the need for salvation in their lives. But understanding in that by being friendly we’ve planted a seed in their hearts for God, and created a good name in our community for our church. So that at later date they may see their need for salvation and remember our church.

· We need to pray for a right spirit in that all people are not necessarily even going to be friendly, but may in fact be very rude to us. In spite of their attitude we need to be humble and Godly before them. Our pride being hurt isn’t worth a soul going to hell over. Especially if it’s our soul…. Think about that for a second.

We also need to keep in mind that not all of our witnessing will be planned in advance. We need to be prayed up at all times. Jesus didn’t have to fast and pray before he could heal someone or cast out a demon. He never said come back in three days while I fast and pray so I can cast out this devil, or heal this child. He fasted and prayed on a regular basis. He was always full of the power of the Holy Ghost because of his regular communion with God. We need to do the same. Now let's look at:

4. Things To Avoid When Witnessing

2 Timothy 2:16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

If all the other person wants to do is talk smack or badmouth us, if they don’t want to hear what the bible has to say. We need to be smart enough to walk away before we become contaminated by their attitude, before someone retaliates in a non-Christian way.

2 Timothy 2:23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. 24 And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,

We need to try to stay away from the “What was Adam’s mother’s brother’s name?” questions. Don’t bad mouth them for asking them, but patiently change the conversation back to where it needs to go. Remember, we’re dealing with an eternal soul here. What we say and do could mean the difference between souls being in heaven or in hell forever!

Proverbs 14:25 A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.

We should never try to go beyond the knowledge we currently have when witnessing to a person. If we don’t know something, we should tell them we don’t know, but that we'll get back to them with the answer. This is why we should go out two by two for pre-planned witnessing. Giving someone a “half-truth” or even innocently, a “non-truth” is far more damaging to our church’s credibility than an “I don’t know” answer. Let's read:

Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

We should never argue with a person about the bible. We’ll teach them what they let us teach them. Maybe another time they’ll be more receptive to God’s word. If a person’s angry with us, they won’t hear a single word that we have to say.

In Conclusion:

There should be no doubt whatsoever that we’re all required to witness for Jesus. That we’re all responsible for spreading the gospel. Shepherds don’t beget sheep, sheep beget sheep. It’s not just the Pastor’s job it’s the entire congregation’s job too!