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Telling Your Story
1 John 1: 1-9
They tell me that being a “preacher’s kid” can be difficult for a young
child. I heard an older preachers wife tell the story that one day she
told her son to go and wash up for supper. He replied that his hands
didn’t look dirty and she began to explain to him that there were germs
living in all the dirt he’d been playing in.
He looked up at his mother and got this really disgusted look on his
face. He said, “Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear
around this house! And I’ve never seen either one!”
At that young age, that little boy wasn’t sure he was comfortable
believing in something that he hadn’t seen. A lot of people are like
that.
Remember how Thomas reacted to the news that Jesus had risen from the
dead? John 20:25 tells us: ‘”…he said to (the other disciples), ‘Unless
I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails
were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’”
Because of that one statement he has been hung with the moniker
“Doubting Thomas” But his only struggle was having difficulty believing
in something he had not seen and touched. And we identify with that more
than we would care to admit.
Turn with me to the book of 1 John and tonight we will be reading the
first 9 verses of the book. (Read Text)
Here in John’s first letter we find the Apostle John saying: “YES… I
have seen, I have heard, I have touched this Jesus AND that’s what I’ve
been preaching about.”
John says that he believes so strongly in this Jesus that he was
proclaiming “to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may
have fellowship with us….”
Now, I have heard my whole life that we would be more faithful, more
trusting, more evangelistic if we, like the Apostle John, could claim to
have seen and touched and heard Jesus. You’d think that it would be
easier for us to convince people about Jesus if we ourselves had
actually seen and touched Him.
What we all too often overlook is that the Gospels repeatedly point out
that even when people personally saw the miraculous power of Jesus, they
still rejected Him. Even when they heard from the lips of those who had
personally seen Jesus they still would not believe. Being an eye-witness
to Jesus did not make it easier to convince people to become Christians.
And secondly we were called to live a life of faith, and according to
the Hebrew writer if we saw Jesus there would be no need for faith. We
read in Hebrews 11 that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen.”
Our community is filled with people who are unchurched and they aren’t
necessarily looking for miracles and appearances of Christ. You see
there are people in our community that have not necessarily rejected God
- they’ve rejected “church.”
You see the question that we have been called to answer with our lives
is not “Is Christianity true?” what we have been called to answer is
“Does Christianity work and how can I experience it?”
In other words, just like the people in John’s day the unchurched today
want to hear about what you’ve seen, what you’ve touched, what you’ve
heard. What difference does this whole church and Christianity thing
make? How does it make your life better?
It’s like a woman who ran an ad in the local paper: “Lost 50 pounds!
Selling my fat clothes – they’re in good condition, sizes 18-20.”. She
was bombarded with phone calls, but nobody wanted to buy the clothes –
they all wanted to know how she had lost the 50 pounds.
You see, the callers wanted to know about something that had changed her
life hoping that this something could change their lives too!!! That’s
what the unchurched are really looking for. They want to know if Jesus
really works in your life.
Now, there are 2 ways I can think of that can help your friends decide
if this Jesus works in your life:
1st they can hear your story?
I believe this is vital to the life of any church, to be filled with
people who have a story of what a difference Jesus has made in their
lives. Most other churches have people share their testimony on a
regular basis, but in the churches of Christ we have been guilty of
staying away from that and I think that it has hurt us. We never talk
about it so we never think about it? So let me ask you tonight
Why did you become a Christian?
How has being a Christian changed the way your life has turned out?
Why are you a Christian? (WAIT)
There are so many of us who have never given much thought to those
questions. They never give much thought to why they are Christians or
even to why they first became Christians. They simply go thru the
motions of going to church and Sunday school and Bible studies and youth
activities… but they often times they don’t consider why they do them.
Christianity has become a habit, and even though it may be a good or
even great habit it is still a habit. And a habit is something we can do
with out thinking. That’s why many of us have a hard time explaining to
others why they should love Jesus like they do, because we are not so
clear ourselves.
So, the first way is to help people understand how Jesus has worked in
your life, and we do that by knowing our story .
The second way you can convince them Jesus works is if they can see
Jesus in your life.
On the way home from church a little girl who said, “Mom, I’ve been
thinking.”
The mother said, “Oh! About what?”
The girl replied, “Well, my teacher this morning said God is bigger than
we are. Is that true?”
“Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied.
“He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?”
Again the mother replied, “Yes.”
“Well,” said the girl. “If God is bigger than us and He lives in us,
wouldn’t He show through?”
Guys honestly can you say that Jesus show thru your life? You are
probably quick to say, well yes, but how do you know if Jesus is showing
thru? (WAIT)
Turn with me to Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
I believe that the Spirit led Paul to give believers a check list of
sorts to see how we are doing. Now Paul is not saying that we walk
around and check others with this list, this is a personal exercise.
Paul says if you show these qualities in your life, people will see
Jesus in you.
So how do you check yourself? Let’s just look at the first fruit on the
list? The first fruit of the Spirit is having joy. Well, honestly do you
feel joy. Now this is not happiness, happiness comes from things and
outward experiences; your children clean up their rooms without being
asked, your husband remembers your birthday without being reminded, you
find a great deal on boneless chicken breasts at Piggly Wiggly.
The fruit of joy comes from your relationship with God, and is from
inward experiences. Do people see you being filled with joy? When people
are around you do they see you being at peace? Contented with your life?
Or do they see you as one who complains about things instead?
The reason that I said joy is inward is because if you are breathing
there are going to be times when you complain. In fact, let’s take a
poll. How many of you have complained at least once this week? Come on
raise your hands if you have complained this week.
Ok. So we all complain when life gets uncomfortable or someone has
chapped our hide, but some people seem to have developed that trait of
complaining down to a fine art.
I once knew a man that reminded me of a rose. He did beautiful things
for the church. He’d worked with the youth; he’d been actively involved
in outreach for church, worked with missions. He was extremely talented.
He was just like a rose – so much was beautiful about him. But roses
have thorns, and so did he. Whenever you were around him all he did was
complain. He complained about the preacher, the elders, the song leader,
the way the church did this or did not do that. He never seemed to be
happy. He had no joy in his life.
He was just like a rose. There was so much that was beautiful about him.
But being around him was like holding on to the stem of a rose that
loaded with thorns. He had no joy in him and that made him really
uncomfortable to be around.
Do you know someone like that? Are you like that?
People will complain a lot about how things are going at work, or at
home, or at church? They might say “Well you don’t understand my
situation. You don’t understand the type of people I have to deal with!”
And truthfully we don’t. No one really ever understands what other
people have to go thru in their life and what effect it can have on
their outlook on life. But I do know that joy isn’t so much a by-product
of life as it is a choice that we make.
A young college student sold magazines door to door one summer. He was
lame from a boyhood accident and walked with difficulty. At one house
where he stopped, the lady of the house quickly turned him down. As he
turned and walked away she noticed his handicap and called out, “I’m
sorry, I didn’t realize you were crippled; I’ll buy a magazine.” He
responded by saying, “I’m not selling sympathy; I’m selling
subscriptions.” “Well,” she responded, “doesn’t your being lame color
your life?” “Yes,” he replied, “but I choose the color.”
And that’s the way it is with us to belong to Jesus Christ: we get to
choose the colors in our lives. And because we belong to Jesus we have
the opportunity to choose the brightest and most cheerful colors because
we have a reason to do so.
Now there are some people that just come naturally by these traits of
love and joy and patience and long-suffering. But for most of us this
can be a struggle at times. The reason we can show these fruit of the
Spirit in our lives, even when we’re faced with difficult situations and
people around us, is because Jesus shines in our lives and brightens up
even the darkest corners.
John wrote: “… if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies
us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
You see Jesus has the power to just light up our lives so that the
vibrant colors can truly color our lives. And when people see that in us
they see Jesus.
Now, let me close quickly with this thought. John wrote that “We
proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have
fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)
When we talk to people about our faith, it is easier to invite them to
church than it is to share our faith and introduce them to Jesus. This
isn’t a condemnation… it’s just a fact of life. And because it’s easier
for us to do that, we often forget that our main goal should be to bring
these friends of ours to “fellowship with the Father and with His Son,
Jesus Christ.”
If we’re not careful, we can get into the mindset that our goal is to
bring people into this building so that we can pay the bills. So that we
can fill the seats. So that we can make Jeremy feel really good and stay
for 20 years.
Having people come in the door is a great thing. Having them join in
fellowship with us a wonderful thing. But let us never be deceived into
thinking that church can be a substitute for a relationship with God.
And so, you should not only invite people to church, but you should also
find ways of inviting them to Jesus by your story and by your life.
Jesus should show thru in what you say and what you do so that others
will know who it is you have fellowship with.
You have all heard the phrase “You may be the only sermon someone
hears.” Well if that is true what is your story saying?
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