Week 6 Day 4-Witness


-W-
Day 4 Witness To Others (John 15:8-9, 16, 26-27)

8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love…
 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. …
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

    One way or another, we will be witnesses for Christ. We will either be good witnesses or bad witnesses. In week 4, we learned to be a witness by our personal testimony of how we were saved. In week 5, we learned how to be a witness through the A, B, C Plan of Salvation. Today we will learn how to be a fruitful witness, sometimes called “Lifestyle Evangelism”. A fruitful, lifestyle witness will eventually lead to a verbal testimony of how to be saved, but before we talk the talk, we need to make sure we are walking the walk.
    A fruitful witness begins with us bearing the fruit of the Spirit, with love being the first and foremost fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). The purpose of fruit is to reproduce; that is, to bear forth more Christians. Just as grape vines bear the fruit of grapes, Christians abiding in the vine should bear the fruit of other Christians.
    As our senses are five portals to the physical world, our senses should show us in a spiritual sense how we can be a fruitful witness that leads to the fruit of new believers.
         Verse 7. Resound the Sound. Hearing the word of God cleanses us (v. 3), gives us life, and prompts us to pray. To have a fruitful witness, we must hear and speak God’s word. Just as love is a fruit of God’s Spirit, a verbal witness is a fruit of God’s word. The word of God produces faith (“faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God,” Romans 10:17; “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?” Galatians 3:2, 5). Hearing the word of God produces fruit (Mark 4:20 says, “like seed sown on good soil, those who hear and accept the word will produce a crop”). Hearing the word of God produces a witness (Acts 4:20, says, “we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”). And as we see in today’s passage of John 15:7, hearing the word of God produces answers to prayer.
         Verse 8. Savor the Flavor. Pruning brings more fruit (v. 2); abidance brings much fruit. Matthew 5:13 says we are the salt of the earth, enhancing the flavor of the world around us. If you want to bear much fruit, abide in Christ’s love and “by this my Father is glorified”. Salt enhances flavor, preserves, and delays spoilage. In the spiritual sense, a fruitful witness will enhance the godly savor in the world, preserve that which is good, and prevent souls from perishing (John 3:15-16).
         Verse 9. Stay in Touch. As God loved Christ, so Christ loved us. Abiding in His love will lead us to touch others. Jesus physically touched the outcast (Matthew 8:3), the sick (Matthew 8:15), the blind (Matthew 9:29, 20:34), the fearful (Matthew 17:7), the afflicted (Mark 3:10), the deaf and dumb (Mark 7:33), the infants and children (Luke 18:15). He touched the dead (Luke 7:14) and was available to be touched by the unclean and the broken (Luke 7:39, 8:34). As fruitful witnesses, we are His hands to meet the tangible needs of people.
         Verse 16. Diffuse the fragrance. Professional wine connoisseurs inhale the aroma of the wine before tasting it. Sensing the fragrance of the wine beforehand gives a richer body to the taste. God’s Spirit precedes our fruitful witness. He chooses us (John 15:16, 19), calls us (Ephesians 4:1), and draws us (“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” John 6:44). 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 says we are fragrant to the saved, but foul to the lost. Like an aroma before the taste, Christ is at work around us. We should look for divine appointments He has chosen.
    Verses 26-27. Give light to their sight. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will give insight to your witness and receptivity to the message. Both Christ and Christians are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16, John 8:12, 9:5). We reflect His light, and a fruitful witness looks for ways to enlighten others to God. Like a torch to a darkened corner, our works shine to glorify God.
    A fruitful witness comes from being filled with the Spirit. We must seek to be filled by a good vertical relationship with God. A glass cannot be filled when it is not held vertically correct under a faucet. A glass cannot be filled at all when it is upside down, even if it is under the full force of the faucet. We too can be under the faucet of God’s Spirit, and not be “filled” with the Spirit. We have all of the Holy Spirit that we will ever have, but if we are not in a spiritual sense vertically aligned under God’s direction in our obedience and in our faith, then the Holy Spirit does not have “all of us”.
    The natural “fruition” of a fruit-bearing lifestyle with all of our spiritual senses (hearing, tasting, touching, smelling and seeing) will result in our being filled with the Spirit. We will bring glory to the Father and prove ourselves to be His disciples (John 15:8). Fruitful witnessing means we must be fruit-bearers who are filled with the Spirit which will lead us to become fruit-harvesters.
    To illustrate a fruit-harvester, let me change the analogy from fruit to fish. Jesus said we must be fishers of men. Once, my sons and I were on a canoe trip and a fish simply jumped up through the air, hit my youngest son in the face and landed, flipping and flopping in the bottom of the canoe. We cooked it and ate it and it was the easiest time of fishing we ever had. While that is a true story, it is not the best strategy for fishing.
    Fisherman go to the water, equipped and prepared for fishing. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus called four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, specifically out from the lake to fish for people. “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
    There are two things in life that are inevitable: death and taxes. While we cannot help people and their taxes, we can give a lifeline for rescuing unbelievers from the trap of death. Every person you meet has a terminal illness due to sin and our fallen nature, and you have the cure. Determine first to fish for souls.
    When we develop our spiritual senses to bear fruit, and are filled with the Spirit, and are ready to fish for souls of people, we will be fruitful witnesses for Christ.
    Remember, you cannot save anybody! But you can be a spirit-filled witness that God uses by your faithful service. Someone described witnessing as the following:
I am just a Nobody, trying to tell Everybody
about Somebody who can save Anybody.
    We are going through the different ways to grow in our faith, by having God at the center, providing the hub of our power through the spokes of the wheel to develop obedience in our lives. Yesterday, we saw that we receive that power for obedience in reading the Word
    Today, we saw that we are to be witnesses of the good news, the gospel. Do not be ashamed of the gospel but be prepared to share it. Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Witnessing gives us power to obey.

   I tell you the following story, knowing that it is going to push us over our normal two-page reading. You are just going to have to deal with! But don’t miss this story. In 2014, I went into the hospital with diverticulosis. While I was there, I tried to share a witness of Christ to everyone I met. This is one of the stories I posted on my social media about Bettye with an “e”.
  She hobbled into the hospital room, and even though she was supposed to be cleaning the room, and I was the patient in the hospital bed recovering, I wanted to get up and finish her job. She seemed so feeble. She was probably younger than the six decades she looked: ebony skinned, weathered, jet black hair, and skinny as a rail. She was missing her front tooth but to be honest that made her smile all the more endearing. And she smiled a lot. 
  “What's your name?” I asked.
  “Bettye with an ‘e’at the end,” she said proudly, even though she undoubtedly had said the same thing all of her life.
  “In my work,” I said, “I visit with a lot of people in the hospital. I always try to pray for everyone who works in hospitals, from housekeeping to the doctors, and all persons in between. You are all instruments used for God’s healing. Can I pray for you?”
  Bettye with an “e” collapsed almost immediately on the chair opposite of my bed, and I quickly thought she just might stay there a little longer than she ought to. But I really didn’t mind. I mean, I was in the hospital and what else is there for me to do?
  “She shared her prayer requests, saying she had fallen while getting gas last Saturday. She told me her life story and with such sincere simplicity I wished it wouldn’t be rude to pick up my phone and start to record our conversation. I listened, easily reflecting her smile with my own.
  After a bit, we prayed.
  She told me of an ex-son-in-law who ridiculed her for her faith. He had a doctorate degree but he wasn’t happy, he was not a good husband to her daughter, nor a good father to her grandchildren. And sadly, years later, she heard he took his own life.
  “I’d tell him, ‘I know there is a God.’ I’d tell him, “I feel Him in my heart and in my life. But he didn’t listen.” She smiled with her gap-toothed smile. She didn’t need theology or apologetics and probably didn’t want either one anyway. She knew God personally.
  I smiled at Melissa when she left, thinking, “I wished more people were like Bettye with an ‘e’.”
  Later, she came back, smiling, of course, and if it had been at all possible, she was smiling with a bigger smile than she had had before.
  “I wants to thank you for praying for me. Lawd, I’ve had the best day today! Even my ‘fake’ boss was nice to me. I have two bosses. One’s my real boss and the other is my fake boss but he thinks he’s my real boss. I don't listen to him though ’cause he’s never nice to me. But I saw him coming and would you believe it, he was nice to me. I knows you prayed for me today.”
  (I'm trying to recreate her cadence and the conversation as best I can. Like I said, I wished I could have recorded her.)
  I tell you this story, not to say anything about me or my prayers but to encourage you to look for ways to witness to others in everything. My friends, Craig and Rhonda Smith, ask their waiters if they have anything to pray for them about. They learned it from their parents, I’m sure.
  Yes, I’ve had a few bad experience from people who say they don’t want me to pray for them. No, it’s not pleasant. Yes, it’s a little awkward. A lot awkward. But when you get to see the stories of people like Bettye, it’s worth the risk.

    I share this story, not to say “Yay! Tim!” I share as an example to encourage you to witness with your testimony. Witness with the Plan of Salvation. But witness by bearing fruit of the Spirit. Witness by being ready to be a fisher of people. Witness by being filled with the Spirit and focus on the heavenly vertical and not on the earthly horizontal. I didn't make Bettye have a good day, God did.
    God didn’t tell us to go make converts. He said go make disciples. He didn’t say be “Be fruit-inspectors”; He said “Be fruit-bearers.”
    And remember, you cannot save anybody!
    Witness with your testimony.
        Witness with the Plan of Salvation.
            Witness by bearing fruit of the Spirit.
                Witness by being filled with the Spirit
                    Witness by being ready to be a fisher of people.

    Tomorrow, we will see the third spoke: Talking with God in Prayer. 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Welcome to Membership

An Overview   “Members Only”   “Membership Club”  “Membership Rewards”  “Member dues”   Everywhere we turn, we are bombar...