Rev. Ron Sumners
May 16, 1993
When the word WITNESS is said it conjures up pictures in our mind of button-holing someone and presenting Gospel tracts; going door to door to convince people about the love of Jesus and feeling uncomfortable because we know that we haven't earned the right or serving as a missionary in a foreign land. If we'll be honest and leave our false piety on a hook outside where it belongs, we'd admit that to most of us, WITNESS is a very frightening and negative word. We are afraid of it? Why? Isn't that what we are supposed to do? Don't good Christians go into the fields and reap the harvest for the Master? Isn't our whole purpose in life to GO out and witness in the name of Jesus? Yes, but not first! I feel that much of our fear of witnessing and our failure when on occasion we do choke down our fear, stems from a misunderstanding of what a witness is. We, in the business of being "Holy Men" have helped to perpetuate this misunderstanding. We have preached and taught and led people to believe that witness is something that we DO.
We have always looked at the Christian experience in terms of doing, either positively or negatively. A Christian, in our interpretation, is one who reads the Bible, loves their neighbor, prays, carries food to the sick and visits the shut-ins. A Christian is seen as one who does not drink alcohol, does not practice illicit sex, does not curse, does not play cards, does not mix bathe, does not dance and unless you live in Virginia, Kentucky or North Carolina where tobacco money is a major source of tithes and offerings, does not smoke. And along with this view that Christianity is basically something that is expressed in doing or not doing, we have made WITNESS action verb.
If we look at the Old Testament and the New Testament we find an interesting fact about how the writers of the Bible saw the word WITNESS. In
Numbers 35:30 it is a noun; Proverbs 14:5 it is a noun; Proverbs 14:25 it is a noun; Matthew 24:14 it is a noun; Acts 22:15 it is a noun; John 1:7 it is a noun and John 3:11 it is a noun. Almost without exception the word WITNESS is a noun or a predicate nominative used with a verb of being. The purpose of this grammar lesson is to show you that the Biblical writers knew what too few of us ever discover: OUR WITNESS IS FOUND BASICALLY IN WHO WE ARE! We cannot witness unless we first are a witness!
If you claim to be a Christian you are a witness. The problem for the Kingdom of God is that we can be a negative witness for Christ by presenting a negative picture of our Savior to the world. And some people who sit in pews every Sunday present a very unattractive witness because of who they are.
When God revealed Himself to Moses, He said, "I am." This can be translated correctly as "I am what I am”" or "I have always been what I am" or " will be what I always have been.” One Negro preacher said that God is the "Great I Is!" It is not good grammar but it is great Theology. GOD IS!
And God always IS. God is a God who acts in history, but His essence is not found in His actions but in His being. GOD IS, and that is the basis of all existence and all DOING. Because God is everything else is!
If we are going to be witnesses to the Truth revealed through Jesus Christ, we must first find out who we are. If we believe that we are made in God's image then our primary purpose in life is not to DO in His name, but to BE in His name.
I said all that to say this: before you can begin to share Jesus Christ with someone else, you need to be sure of your relationship to Him. And we must all ask the question that Moses asked God; "Who am I, that I should go?"
If someone was to ask you, "What is your purpose in living?", what would your answer be? The responses would vary. Some might say that their purpose is to be happy. Some might say that their purpose is to do the will of God. But there is something more basic than anything that we might name. Your purpose is to find your being in God, to have fellowship with Him. So, before you cart witness you must have yourself grounded in the existence of God. Before you can go and DO in His name, it is fundamental that you have fellowship in His BEING.
All the witness training in the world will be a waste of time unless you realize that you can't DO unless you first ARE. The sharing of our Faith is not the presentation of data. It is the sharing of an experience that has changed who we are. And you cannot share an experience that you have not had!
So why witness? Why don't we just BE what God wants us to BE and wait for the people to flock to us? Because, if we have grounded ourselves in God we are compelled to share that relationship with others. We only know of God because He chose to reveal Himself to us. We only have salvation because He came to us with the gift. If we are in God (In Christ) we have to be revealers too. We can do nothing else because it becomes a part of who we are. And there are people who are searching for that presence in their life. They desperately want to know who they are.
He is Mr. Country Club. He is so cool ice will not melt in his mouth. He wears a polo shirt and polo socks and blows his nose on a Christian Dior handkerchief. He drives a BMW and does lunch with all the right people. But deep down under the mask he wears, he asks, "Who am I?"
They are Mr. and Mrs. Socialite. They see the world through a hazy blur of self-indulgence. "Let the good times roll" is their creed and pleasure is their goddess. But down deep, when the party is over and they are faced with the person in the mirror the question is, "Who am I?"
She is a gossip. Because her life is so empty she must fill it with speculation about others. But, after she has made the last phone call of the day and assassinated the character of as many as possible she is faced with the terrible void in her heart. She doesn't know who she is. Her life only has meaning as she speculates about the "real" lives of others.
They are Mr. and Mrs. Nobody. They always have been. They are the invisible ones. They are the ones we look straight through as we go to embrace our Christian Brothers and Sisters. They live lives of quiet desperation and stand at intersections with cardboard signs that say, WILL WORK FOR FOOD. Their question has always been an unanswered, "Who am I?"
We, as Christians, must share who we are with the world so people can discover who they are under God. Many of the people you associate with every day are crying out for that peace and assurance of knowing who they are. Maybe even some of you who sit here every week!
Once we have found out who we are, what do we do? It is marvelous to bask in God's Glory but we cannot live on Mountain tops. Too often today people want a goose-bump religion where they stay on a continual spiritual high. There are those high moments for us. But they must not be sought for the experience itself. If they don't equip us for the hard work of building the Kingdom of God, they may have been just mere emotionalism. After all, the lost of the world don't live on the Mountain Top. When we find that our life is grounded in God and originated from God we are compelled to follow what we know to be God's purposes. The essence of this is giving ·back to God what He has given you. What can you do? What talents do you have? Whatever it is, it is a part of who you are and must be offered back to God as a living sacrifice.
Before we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, we have to feel good about who we are and how we are. If you hate yourself; you'll be unable to love God or anyone else. Someone has said, "If you can't accept the design, you'll have a hard time accepting the designer." this is true. Many of us live our lives with the "1F ONLYS." IF ONLY I were pretty. IF ONLY I were talented. IF ONLY I were tall. IF ONLY God hadn't short changed me in this or that way. You cannot live your live positively and redemptively with the "IF ONLYSI" God made you especially the way you are and you are beautiful and good!
Eric Green was a trainer for a major college football team. Rick had always wanted to be a ball player and football his passion, but he could not play. Rick was born with a club foot. He was only four feet tall and was a hunchback He had a lot he could have complained about. But he never caught the IF ONLYS. He did what he could do without lamenting about what he couldn't do. He was not only the best trainer that the team had ever had, but through his infectious optimism he inspired the players on the team to do their best. And by letting Christ live through him, he won many of the players to Faith in Christ. A newspaper man was interviewing the quarterback of the team after a big win and during the interview Rick reached up and gave the quarterback an enthusiastic pat on the back. The reporter seemed a bit rattled by Rick's physical appearance and asked, "How tall is that little guy?" The quarterback replied, “About ten feet tall!"
You must ·accept yourself before you can be a witness. Then you have to give what you have for God to use.
There was a great big man who joined a local church. When I say big, I mean BIG. He was 6'8" and weighed 300 pounds. The pastor nearly drowned trying to baptize him! The man went to the pastor and said, "I ain't too talented . I can't sing or teach but I want to do something in the church". The pastor thought and said,
"Why don't you be the official church greeter?" So, he did.
When people got out of their cars this man-mountain came to greet them. He was impossible to get around. But the people didn't mind because he really made them feel welcomed. He made them feel important. He kept candy and chewing gum in his pockets and the children would reach up with eager little fingers to claim their prize. There was an appreciation day at the church and everyone was given a flower bud and asked to pin it on the person who had meant the most to them. This big man sat on the back row with tears in his eyes and his whole 6'8" covered with flowers!
Whatever your gift, whatever your talent, if you offer it up to God, He will bless it with His acceptance and approval. It will become a source of blessing not only for others but for you as well. God will make it something great!
WHO ARE YOU? HAVE YOU ACCEPTED YOURSELF AS GOD MADE YOU? HAVE YOU GIVEN YOUR GIFT BACK TO HIM?
Sabrina was a beautiful little girl. Her skin was a deep ebony and her teeth shone like pearls in the sunlight. She was eleven when I met her. She should have been jumping rope, playing with dolls or getting ready for her first real party. She should have been running and laughing with the natural high that comes with childhood; .but she wasn't. Sabrina was a resident at Hazelwood Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky where I served as a student chaplain. She was 36" long. She had been confined to a bed all her life. She could not hear or walk or talk and was profoundly retarded. You see, Hazelwood was a Hospital for profoundly retarded persons, the kind of people that 70 years ago they called "monsters." At first being around Sabrina made me very uncomfortable, until I learned that it was me and not her that caused that feeling. I was ashamed of how little I had done with my wholeness!
I visited her daily and she would beam when I entered the room. Those pearly whites seemed to glow like neon lights. If God never gave me anyone else in this life to love me, I know that she did! She ministered to me. As I told all my fears and frustrations to the safety of those deaf ears; she smiled. When I told her that I wasn't at all as self-assured as I pretended to be and that most of the time I was just a frightened little boy; she smiled. When I shared my joys and victories; she smiled. When I shared my hurts and pains; she smiled. That little girl, that little castaway, one of the greatest "IF ONLYS" in the world, ministered to me like no one ever has. I didn't have to play games with her. There were no petty jealousies, no competition, no hidden agendas, no lies, no deceit. Our relationship was one of BEING. All she could do was be there! And all I could do for her was be there! But it w enough! I She used the life that God had given to her to its highest potential. When Sabrina turned 12, she died. I was there with her. She faced death just like she had faced life; by just being there. It came and she accepted it with no more "IF ONLYS" than she had in life. Her smile in death was no less bright than her smile in life. For the rest of the world, she was a little, black, retarded, helpless creature. For me she WAS, and because she WAS my life has not been the same. IT MATTERED THAT SHE WAS!!! An in 1973 she entered into God's presence and ran and danced in His. Holy illumination: And God said to her, "Well done my good and faithful servant."
Are you a witness? Because you ARE, are there people whose lives will never be the same? Does it really matter that you ARE? Who are you?
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