Well, it is always more comfortable just to share with you the Word, but the Lord does not like me to get too comfortable. So He always catches me. This morning, as I was preparing, I felt the Lord say, “Well, let’s learn a song.”
It is because I want to share three things with you, and it is very simple. I am glad that Jeffrey is giving you all the nuts and bolts in your workshop as you craft together a good witness. But I want to share three things:
For those three things in mind, the first part is the being of a witness—the essence of a witness. I wanted to share this song because what you are actually doing is engaging in kingdom service.
You are getting out of the cocoon of the church, where everything is sweet and we sing all these wonderful sweet songs, and you are getting out there where there is a howling wilderness. The gospel is to be proclaimed out there.
So the Lord is constituting us as servants of His kingdom, with the goal of sonship. I wrote a song a couple of years ago as we were studying the Gospel of Luke. Jesus came to the Mount of Transfiguration, where, ideally, He could have gone right home to be with His Father. But instead, He went back down into the valley, set His face for Jerusalem, and went to the cross.
This is a song called “The Sojourn of a Son.” The first verse is about Jesus, and the second verse is about us. As we begin to understand and enter into this essence of witnessing, we are actually being constituted in sonship—that is, male and female sonship: responsible people who are able to live in the church and serve in the kingdom of God.
This witnessing is a kingdom matter, definitely a kingdom matter. That is why we need bondservants who are covered and anointed with the Holy Spirit, because you are going out beyond the bounds of safety into serving the will of God.
Anyway, having said that, let us do this. I need Hadassah. Are you still voiceless today? Okay, I just need you to turn the page, really.
In our Bible study at home, she regularly turns the pages for me. I do not know how many of you know the song. Well, I just wrote it, so I am not surprised. But this goes like this.
He stood there on the mount,
In glory bright;
He must have had His Father in His sight.
But He chose the valley road;
He saw our plight.
He set His face; He bore His cross.
It was the sojourn of a Son unto the throne.
It is the sojourn of the Son,
Where the world is not a home,
Just an alien
Who pitched His tent
Along this lonely road.
A cross defines the way,
As faith endures its test;
A distant joy, with pilgrim friends,
To cheer Him to the end.
Pretty simple, right? But there is Jesus standing on the mount. I do not know why He went back down, but He knew our plight. That was what constituted Him Son of God when He rose from the dead, because He took that journey.
You are standing on a mount right now, and you could go up in glory, never mess with the world out there. But maybe there is something in you of the life of Jesus that says, “I know their plight. I am going to take the valley road.” And that is what constitutes you as sons.
So, of your own free will—nobody is forcing you, except the life within.
He stood there on the mount,
In glory bright;
He must have had His Father in His sight.
But He chose the valley road;
He saw our plight.
He set His face; He bore His cross.
It was the sojourn of the Son unto the throne.
It is the sojourn of the Son,
Where the world is not a home,
Just an alien
Who pitched His tent
Along this lonely road.
A cross defines the way,
As faith endures its test;
A distant joy, with pilgrim friends,
To cheer Him to the end.
With every step we take,
Our heart gains light,
As single eyes see heaven’s view at night.
Convinced till kingdom come,
We must press on.
Though sojourn may bring suffering,
A soul’s allegiance must be solely to the King.
It is the sojourn of the Son,
Where the world is not a home,
Just an alien
Who pitched His tent
Along this lonely road.
A cross defines the way,
As faith endures its test;
A distant joy, with pilgrim friends,
To cheer Him to the end.
Lower and slower and harder is the road,
But higher and brighter and finer is the goal;
Pure and poor and weaker here below,
And fuller and deeper and richer in the soul.
It is the sojourn of the Son unto the throne;
It is the sojourn of the Son unto the throne.
We are so very thankful, Lord, that we can be together with pilgrim friends. As soon as we take up this matter of witnessing, we feel the loneliness of it. It is a lonely road in a world that is not our home.
It is so clear; we know that so well. Yet something of Your heart inside us bids us take the valley road. Oh Lord, I pray in Jesus’ name, constitute Yourself in us as sons—responsible sons, bondservants, those who love You more than the world or themselves.
It is a mighty order. Only Your Holy Spirit can carry out such a thing. So we pray, as we fellowship together, that You will give us a vision of something that will take our eyes off ourselves, our own fears, and onto the great purpose that we have before us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
All right, as you see, the essence of a witness. There are some crazy people over on the left there—good, myself—out there in New York. What a place to witness. Wow, the howling winds really blow out there.
Someone said our life in serving God is to be broken bread and poured-out wine. Of course, that comes from Matthew 26. That is Oswald Chambers, who lived the life of the faithful witness.
It all starts and comes off of this verse that we all know, Acts 1:8:
Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
I want to take us back to the origin of this phrase, “My witnesses.” What does it mean? Are we to be preachers? Have we got any Billy Grahams in here? Street hawkers out on the streets, holding signs and placards? Door-to-door salesmen? What does that mean? What do you sense yourself being called to? Oh boy, scary stuff.
The twelve disciples were witnesses—kingdom witnesses. They were propelled by the Holy Spirit out into the world. You see some of the disciples mentioned here, some of them all the way over in India, as Thomas; Matthew in Armenia; Andrew up to Scythia. We would not even know how to find that place today.
But they were compelled by the Holy Spirit, led from place to place, led out into this world representing God’s kingdom as witnesses. They bore great fruit all across the world, as you can see.
The origin of the term “My witnesses” in the Bible does not come from Acts 1:8. It comes from Isaiah 41–44, and it has to do with “I AM.” The translation of the name of the Lord is, “I will be that I will be.”
So “My witnesses” is something very big, important, and wonderful—way beyond ourselves. We are lost in the smallness of this matter if we truly understand its greatness and glory.
In Isaiah 41:21, this wonderful new revelation of Isaiah begins as he sees the Servant of the Lord, that is, Jesus. He also sees, as a preamble to it, God—the I AM—establishing His case in the world court, as it were.
The question is: Who is the real God? If you read Isaiah 41, you will see that He says, “Bring all your gods before Me. Bring all of you; come with your gods. Let us sit down and talk about this together. Who is God?”
This is the court of this world. As it says:
Present your case, saith the Lord;
bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in the court of this world, and they are saying, “Who is God? Is there a God? I have a god—it is money. How is Your God greater than my god?” All these gods are saying, “There is no I AM. All there is is me.”
So everybody is bringing their little gods before the I AM. I wonder who is going to win this contest, right? The I AM challenges the so-called gods. “Behold,” He says in the end, “you are nothing, and your work is nothing.”
Let us turn to Isaiah 41 and hear this tremendous picture: God saying, “Okay, I am holding court. Let us go. Gather, gather.”
Isaiah 41:21–24:
Present your case, saith the Lord;
bring forward your strong arguments, saith the King of Jacob.
Let them bring forth, and declare unto us what shall happen:
let them declare the former things, what they are,
that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;
or show us things to come.
Declare the things that are to come hereafter,
that we may know that ye are gods indeed:
yea, do good, or do evil,
that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.
Behold, ye are of no account,
and your work is of nought:
an abomination is he that chooseth you.
In other words, bring your gods and have them tell us what is going to happen in the future. Come on. That wooden god, that god of the moon—what does he say about the future? Oh, nothing, huh?
The sum is Isaiah 41:24: “Behold, ye are of no account; your work amounts to nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.” And so the story goes: the I AM declares His absolute sovereignty.
Isaiah 43:9–13. David, how about reading that?
Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the peoples be assembled:
who among them can declare this,
and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified;
or let them hear, and say, It is truth.Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord,
and My servant whom I have chosen;
that ye may know and believe Me,
and understand that I am He:
before Me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after Me.
I, even I, am the Lord;
and besides Me there is no savior.
I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed,
and there was no strange god among you:
therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord,
and I am God.
Yea, since the day was, I am He;
and there is none that can deliver out of My hand:
I will work, and who can hinder it?
All right. Here is God stating His case. Our brother Joel Lim—where is Joel? I think he is back there somewhere—wrote a song for us when he was in Manhattan: “I, He.” Because that is what God is saying: “I, He. I AM.”
“I am He” is how we translate it in English. It is actually, “I, He; I, no other; I, no face before Me.” How big is your God? Is He that God who can tell the future? Who can stand before His face? Who can save besides Him? From eternity, “I AM.” When did you become a god? None can deliver but Him. He acts, and nobody can reverse it.
This is the God of Israel: the I AM, the Lord, the mighty God. He makes His case. But in a court, as one makes a case, it is necessary to have witnesses who say, “I agree with the I AM. He is the I AM.”
That was Israel’s calling: just to say, “Yes, the I AM is the He. He is it. He is our God. He is everything to us.”
So He says to the children of Israel, “Do not tremble, and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?” That is where Acts 1:8 comes from: “Ye are My witnesses.”
Is there a God besides Me?
yea, there is no Rock;
I know not any.
Again, in Isaiah 43:12:
I have declared, and I have saved, and I have proclaimed,
and ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord,
and I am God.
Wow. So powerful. Now the importance of “My witnesses” becomes obvious. Israel’s calling was to be an eyewitness to the I AM in the world court. That is where He is challenged.
That is where the Jews were to go: to be a light to the nations and say, “I AM—He is God. If you will acknowledge Him, He will save you. He will redeem you. He will carry you in His bosom. He is the great I AM, and there is no other God. All the other gods are frauds. This is the God.”
This was Israel’s calling. As a matter of fact, Israel’s greatness was in her calling. I mean, who is Israel? “I did not choose you because you were a great bunch of people. I chose you to be eyewitnesses of the I AM.”
Have you seen the I AM do a miracle? Say it. You are an eyewitness in the court now, you see. In fact, the I AM blessed and chose Israel so she could be a witness.
Why is Israel such a great nation? Does it have something to do with itself innately? They are wonderful people? God will bless the socks off of anybody who will stand as a witness to the I AM.
That is why Israel has been kept, chosen, blessed, made intelligent, and made prosperous. All that is nothing. The important thing is that they stand up and say, “We know. We have met, and we bow before the I AM.” That is really what our life is all about.
There was only one problem with this witness coming from Israel: Israel failed as a witness.
Israel was blind and could not witness. Isaiah 42. How can you witness? How can you be an eyewitness if you are blind? I want a witness of this elephant. “No, see, you have got to be an eyewitness.”
Notice Isaiah 42:18–20:
Hear, ye deaf;
and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Who is blind, but My servant?
or deaf, as My messenger that I send?
Who is blind as he that is at peace with Me,
and blind as the servant of the Lord?
Here there is reference made to Jesus, but there is reference mostly made to the servant of the Lord, namely Israel, who comes into the court and sits down. Then the I AM says, “Now, bear witness.” Israel says, “Well, I really have not seen much. Actually, I have not seen anything. Actually, I am kind of blind.”
Do you know what the problem is? Isaiah 44:9:
They that fashion a graven image are all of them vanity;
and the things that they delight in shall not profit;
and their own witnesses see not, nor know,
that they may be put to shame.
What was the problem with the blindness of Israel? The American Idol—I mean, idolatry.
If you take an idol into your life and desire money, comfort, family life, or any good thing more than being a witness of the I AM, it becomes idolatry, and it makes us blind. Now we do not see the I AM moving. We are not depending upon Him. We are not testifying of Him. We are just in our own little circle, in our own little world.
Because Israel failed as a servant, God said, “Now I will raise up My Servant, the One I have chosen.” You know that in the Isaiah 40s, 50s, and 60s, it is all about Jesus, the Servant of the Lord.
He came to witness to the nations of the I AM. He came as a witness to the truth of God. He came to give sight to the blind. That is why it is so important that the Messiah, as the Servant of the Lord, had to come to Israel to give sight to the blind, because they are still blind.
There is a partial blindness because of the hardness of their heart. They cannot even see the I AM. But the Messiah will come and give sight to the blind, as He did to those Jews, even the remnant—even Paul and others—and they finally saw the I AM. This is the Servant of God’s ministry.
Jesus came both as the I AM and as the faithful and true Witness, the Servant of God. He came both as the Servant and as God. I mean, what a powerful witness, right?
In His life, He revealed the I AM. In resurrection, He could see the I AM. In His ascension, He poured forth His witnessing Holy Spirit from heaven upon believers. Now, guess who are the witnesses?
Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses.
What a wonderful new mission we have, such a wonderful accomplishment. When we witness, the Holy Spirit adds His witness.
Now listen: How powerful is your witness? “Well, I am Dana. I have a witness. I want to say that Jesus saves.” Yes, Jesus said, “I am very weak.” But then the Holy Spirit comes along and says, “Did you get that? Jesus saves. There is nobody else who can save you except Jesus.”
It is the Holy Spirit who haunts people and hounds people until they get saved. But He needs that initial little weak witness to say, “You need Jesus.” The Holy Spirit says, “You need Jesus. You need Jesus. You need Jesus.”
So Peter says, “Now we are witnesses of these things regarding Jesus, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” So we are witnesses, and so also is the Holy Spirit.
Or, as it says in John 15:26–27:
But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
He shall bear witness of Me:
and ye also bear witness,
because ye have been with Me from the beginning.
The disciples were eyewitnesses of Jesus from the beginning, and that is why they had a unique position. They could just say, “Wait a minute—I saw the I AM. I saw the I AM go to the cross for you.”
What powerful words when the Holy Spirit is backing it up. Have you ever spoken such words? You feel weak, but there is a clothing of the Holy Spirit upon you that makes those words powerful.
Oh, what a wonderful day when you say something in your weakness, and the Holy Spirit brings that person to the Lord. It is better than New Year’s Eve. It is a celebration in your life.
We have to get to that next time—the doing. We are not there yet. So how important is our calling? Together, we witness who He is: His sovereignty, His redeeming love, the truth of Jesus Christ. We are eyewitnesses of that.
If you are saved, you have a witness. You are eyewitnesses of this great and wonderful God.
So our raison d’être—some of you have gone far enough in school to know that sometimes they throw out French terms just to make everybody feel intelligent—your reason for being is witnessing. Did you know that?
I know you are going to be a son, and I know you are going to be Jesus-bright, and I know all these nice indoor things. But how about the outdoor recreation in your life? Listen, you know this calling. It is a great and glorious calling.
First Peter: Peter is the absolute kingdom witness. Every time you touch Peter, read Peter, you are always seeing kingdom, kingdom, kingdom stuff. He was a great fisherman of the kingdom. Are you going to join his trawler and fish for men?
But ye are an elect race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession,
that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him
who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.
Why a chosen race? Why a royal priesthood? Why a holy nation? Why a people for God’s own possession? So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. That is your raison d’être.
That is why you are given all this stuff. You are not a royal priesthood so you can wear fancy garments, like I am wearing this morning—a green turtleneck, right? You have been saved, blessed, and led by the Spirit so that you can proclaim the excellencies of Him who brought you out of darkness into light.
That is your job out there. That is who you are. It all has to do with this glorious calling: chosen race, royal priesthood. Wonderful, wonderful. How many of you like being the chosen generation, holy nation, royal priesthood? You like that? Well, I hope you do. You have been given that by the grace of God.
Now, that largeness of being needs to translate into the reality that comes out of you in the essence of a witness—the fragrance of a witness. Your act of witnessing flows out of your essence as a witness.
I do not know why they did this, but in this particular park downtown, they built this pulpit and took it away after a summer. Anyway, that is one of our brothers out there preaching in the park off that pulpit. The pulpit was bigger than he was.
But you do not have to be big to have a big essence of witnessing.
Let your light so shine before men;
that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
That is big business. That is kingdom business we are all involved in, right?
In contrast, there are those in the world who have large souls but a dead spirit. The world goes for large-souled people. They are busy gaining the world. You have big-intellect people—that is a big soul when your mind is huge. You have big-money people, big-ego people, big-name people, big-game people. But: big soul, dead spirit.
What has to happen in us is when we say, “I must decrease, but He must increase.” We are talking about a transformation from a soul-centered bigness to a spirit-centered life that has possession of our souls. This is quite a transition involved.
The world is so impressed: “Oh, he has got money.” Yes, but he has no spirit. “He has been through five marriages.” Okay, is he a great man now? “Marriage is nothing. My job, my career, my industry, my vision is everything.”
That is why it is one of the most heartbreaking things when you see somebody serving the Lord and they do not have time for their family or their wife anymore. There is breakup and divorce. That is tragedy against the very essence of who God is, right? He did not tell us to be big-souled, did He?
Witnesses are those full of the Spirit. From the Spirit there is brought to us an expansiveness of soul. These people, when they get up and speak, have an expansiveness that comes out of the fact that they have a life with God.
Any of you know Corrie ten Boom? There she is. Wow. Have you ever heard Corrie ten Boom speak? Well, she has gone on to be with the Lord—probably before you were born, now that I think of it. When she spoke, just God came out.
Knowing the Lord, a generous heart, compassion for others, a bigger picture of life, seeing beauty inside and out—this is a person whose spirit has filled their soul with a whole other view. They have a spiritual largeness because of an inner relationship with God.
A witness has an incredible largeness of being. Do you not want to look like that?
What do I mean by an incredible largeness of being? Forget about yourself. I know you think you are a tiny mite. I am looking at myself, and, oh boy. After Jeffrey was through last night, everybody was looking at themselves: “I am ashamed of everything. I have got nothing but shame.”
Okay, just forget all of that for a minute, right? Let us just declare it: everybody here is ashamed. All right, you are over that now? How about realizing what your destiny is—the sonship that God is carving out into your life? It involves something large. It has nothing to do with body size, of course.
What do we mean by an incredible largeness of being? You embrace a larger view of things. You have friends and associates around you who have a big view of their job, their future, and what they want to do, but they do not have a larger view of things.
But somebody who has seen the kingdom and seen the Lord Jesus Christ has a larger view. That is part of who you are, and it comes out in your daily, everyday things. At the water cooler, they say, “Man, that guy—what is up with him?”
They include the God factor in their plans. How strange. The world just laughs.
I remember one time I was talking to a girl who lived in the apartment building where we were living. She said, “How did you ever get involved in all of this anyway?” I said, “Well, I felt like God spoke to me.” She laughed right in my face. She said, “What? You believe God talks to you? You must be one of these crazy people around.”
She totally put me off. Oh, maybe she did. But you know what? I include the God factor in my life. How about you? Do you just make a decision without the God factor? I hope you do not, because that is part of your incredible largeness of being as a witness.
You can say, “God led me,” and all your worldly friends might say, “Ho, ho, ho. What a jerk.” But they will see in your life that God has led you.
How about you elevate the lives of those around you? Is that not wonderful? Do you do that in your life? Just being with people, they have a great time. Then they say, “You know, that person is okay.”
“We were just sitting around watching some stupid show on television. They came into the room. Next thing you know, we are talking. Next thing you know, we are playing Blockus or something like that, and then we are having a good time.”
What happened? How did we suddenly have a good time? It was that guy, that girl, who came into the room. Things lifted up. They elevate my life. I feel like I am nothing, a total failure, but this person says, “No, no, no. I think God has a plan for your life.”
Why did they say that? It is because you can elevate somebody’s life with these things you know about the great I AM, right?
You are poised in crisis, are you not? When crisis comes, everybody else says, “Oh, they are laying off the whole group. My life is over. I will never get another job.” You say, “You know what? I think there is a plan in this whole thing.”
They say, “Wow, how can they handle it that way?” It is the incredible largeness of your being.
Still, I have not convinced you of all this. Anyway, the whole thing is that you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Here is the real point: it is not the largeness of your being; it is the largeness of the I AM in you.
Now, you can see I have a largeness of being that is natural. But I became a Christian, and very soon in my Christian experience, I had a dear brother who took me witnessing.
I was twenty years old and two months old in the Lord. I could not have found the Book of Exodus if you gave me a Bible. I mean, really, I was a real beginner. But we went out witnessing, and the guy would put me in situations where I had to say something. All I could tell people was how I got saved.
When you experience the incredible largeness—the Who, the I AM—behind your witness, it is a tremendous feeling.
I remember one time this guy took me up to East Tennessee State. We went up there, and he took me into a men’s dormitory. They all came down, and he said, “This guy is going to tell you about how he got saved and what it means to be a Christian.”
There were about forty freshmen and sophomores sitting around. East Tennessee State back in those days was still impressed by a New Yorker. They thought, “Oh boy, this guy must be some kind of a beast. How did he get saved?” Then I gave my testimony.
Afterwards, people started asking questions. They started throwing questions at me. I was only three months a Christian.
I felt God answer questions through me that I did not know the answer to. When that was over, I went into the men’s room before leaving, and I was shaking. Why? Because the I AM actually uses us. I could not believe it. That was the first time I touched the reality of Christ in me.
I wanted to share with people that He would take a small, baby Christian who knew nothing and silence the questions of this worldly, skeptical crowd. A couple of boys got saved that night before we left. But oh, what it did in me.
Listen, I may be large in person, but I am small in being. But I have an I AM who is, and He is in you. That incredible I AM gets released when we are willing to be who we are—not pretend to be a witness. You just have to be who you are.
A couple of reasons why being a witness is such a significant spiritual issue.
First, you may not see it on the surface, but the enemy loses ground whenever a witness can identify the I AM from experience. The enemy loses ground.
You have read Ezekiel, and you know about the gospel trumpet. The gospel trumpet is a trumpet that warns, and the gospel trumpet is a trumpet of good news.
In times such as we presently live in, it is just as important for you to warn with the truth as it is to win with the truth.
God does not judge anybody who has not heard anything. But if people hear the truth, then they have to decide. The Holy Spirit can then start to work. So the enemy loses ground every time you share the truth of who the I AM is.
What Jesus tells us is a fact of life, ladies and gentlemen:
Ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake:
but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher,
and the servant as his lord.
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub,
how much more shall they call them of His household!
That is part of the cost of carrying around the I AM and being a witness for Him.
Second, witnessing is the primary meaning of bearing the cross. All of you have probably been exposed to wonderful teaching about the cross. The cross is an objective experience. When we get saved, we come to the cross. We understand the working of the cross in Galatians 2:20, as we begin to understand how the Lord has to deal with the old man in us.
It is a tremendous, liberating lesson. But you must remember that when Jesus talks to His disciples about denying themselves and taking up their cross for the sake of the kingdom, that is the primary meaning of bearing the cross.
You say, “Oh Lord, yes, I am willing to deny myself, take up the cross, and follow You.” This certainly has to do with you being a witness. You have got to clear the self out of the way, as our brother Jeffrey shared last night.
I reckon that you can witness to ten thousand people, and when the opportunity comes again, you will still have butterflies and still not want to do it. It just does not go away. You do not say, “Ah, I have got no more problem with that.”
Sometimes, emboldened by the Spirit, you are given great grace. But ladies and gentlemen, the truth of the matter is that there is self-denial involved in the Christian life, and there is a taking up of the cross for His sake.
When Jesus is talking to them in Luke:
Whosoever would save his life shall lose it:
but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake,
the same shall save it.
For what is a man profited,
if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose or forfeit his own self?
For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words,
of him shall the Son of man be ashamed.
If you want to talk about bearing the cross, this is the number one application: “I am a witness.” That is what it means.
The cross of witness sometimes includes denying yourself good things. For the sake of whatever you are about, sometimes you have to deny things we all love: a nice warm home, plenty of comfort, prosperity, climbing the ladder of business success, and watching television.
You know what the number-one advertisements I get in my email for this weekend are? “What are you going to binge-watch this weekend?” I get advertisements from Netflix and this and that: “This weekend is a good weekend of binge-watching.”
Some of your friends are going to binge-watch two whole years of some television show, The Walking Dead. They are going to catch seasons one, two, three, and four, and they are going to be the walking dead by January 1. You know what I mean?
People are so taken with all these things. It can be a distraction, but it is more especially my rights to my space and my time. It is interesting how you will get many witnessing opportunities when you least want to be involved in other people’s lives.
In making you a son, you are going to find that His priority has to reign. Whatever your desires are, the Lord is merciful and kind, but we have to lay some of these things down.
Third, witnessing is such a spiritual issue because the enemy hates a witness who goes out for the sake of the kingdom. The church that is involved in the kingdom is like this.
So many things that are routine to us have a kingdom dimension to them, and then there is something so much more. The church loses that kingdom dynamic when it hides in the upper room for fear of the Jews.
When it gets about its business, the church becomes the kingdom, and the kingdom becomes the church, and things are living again. Breaking bread at the table is so wonderful when the person next to you just got saved and has their first opportunity. You know how that is. I am just saying, right?
Being a witness—which in Greek, of course, is martyria, martyr—is costly, and therefore exudes a beautiful fragrance: a sacrifice worthy of kingdom reward.
Ladies and gentlemen, you have got to get off your duffs if you want to be part of this great kingdom inheritance that you have. There are some marching orders involved. There is some attaining to sonship involved. There is some obedience involved. There is some self-denial involved. There is just no way around it: a living sacrifice.
God receives an aromatic offering through the sacrificial life of devoted witnesses. Good old C. T. Studd—the cricketer pioneer, as his biography is called—was the leading cricket player in England. He left the whole shebang to go out to China with the Cambridge Seven.
He said:
Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell;
I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.
He was a real kingdom guy. At the end of his life, this was his motto:
If Jesus Christ is God and died for me,
then no sacrifice can be too great
for me to make for Him.
Think about it. Probably most of you will not be called upon to actually become a martyr in the sense of physical death. But I think I can say that along in that sojourn of sonship, you have to pay a price. There is sacrifice.
This church, this Christian idea, is all wrong if it is like, “I have my cake and eat it too.” There are a lot of things that need to be deferred if we are going to be faithful witnesses.
A door waits before us. The Lord is looking for a consecrated witness to testify of His salvation to the world. Oh, and how He can use such a one.
Here it is now specific regarding yourselves: His call in this matter of witness is actually generation-specific. You remember Psalm 24, how it talks about a generation of those who will seek His face.
What happens is that God, in a generation, sends out kingdom witnesses—perhaps just the size of this group here—and a whole new impulse of revival and recovery of the church results.
Most of you, thankfully, were raised in a group of people who stood in some simple way in a testimony of being the body of Christ in the church life. But that kind of thing—the wineskin starts to age.
But thank God, He is generation-specific in His raising up a new generation of those who see things outside these smaller confines. They have a kingdom purview. It makes all the difference, and the Lord can continue to recover.
Zeitgeist varies with each generation. Zeitgeist is German for the spirit of this age. There is an atmosphere in every age. It is a lot different from when I got saved at twenty years old.
There is a whole different mindset, a whole different way of thinking, but there is also a whole new way of penetrating into that.
You are the door for the next generation. This is the catch of being a witness, as I am calling it. Your generation produced the present zeitgeist, so you hold the keys to its modality. Only you can understand what is necessary to break into it.
Some of you are probably Generation Z, are you not? Beyond millennials. Oh yes, there is a whole new generation here. But the millennials have got something going, I do not know. The old gospel wineskins cannot hold a new-wine witness.
You know who that is right there? Billy Sunday, famous Methodist gospel revival preacher in the United States. He used to be a professional baseball player. He became an evangelist, and he was really quite a character—throwing chairs around and yelling at the devil and everything.
Here is the deal: you are the door for your generation. You. You cannot wait for Billy Graham. He is ninety-nine years old or something.
The one great lie that hinders I AM witness is believing you are still too young.
You know Martin Luther, right? At thirty-three years old, he stood against the whole Roman Catholic Church. Of course, he had the help of God, or he would not have lasted long.
Martin Luther was a big guy, and his soul was big, but his spirit predominated. He spoke the truth in Christ, and God stood with him and changed the belief in God throughout the world.
Zwingli, at thirty-four years old, freed the Swiss from the Roman Catholic Church. In Switzerland, he brought about a whole Reformation and set Switzerland free as a country. At thirty-four years old. I do not even want you to raise your hand if you are thirty-four, because some of you are already behind, I think.
Of course, John Calvin. He wrote the Institutes, one of the most famous theological works of all time. He ruled and led Christians in Geneva by twenty-six years old.
I am pointing this all out to shame you. No, I am pointing this all out to say that people who understand who they are get about the business.
There is red beard; he must be John Knox. A good Celtic Calvinist who established the Church of Scotland at thirty years old.
Of course, you know George Fox, right? The Quakers. At nineteen years old, he began itinerant preaching in search of spiritual reality, and he formed the Quakers. He spent a lot of time in jail, but his witness was so powerful that it broke through the whole institutional church scene in England.
He brought reform to prisons, and it was tremendous. This man was an itinerant preacher who found the I AM.
John Wesley, at twenty years old, became a missionary and traveled over the United States. It was the greatest failure of all times. He went to Georgia as a witness. He was terrible.
But on the way back on the boat, he met some Moravians. At thirty-five years old, on his return trip from a total failure, he gained assurance of his salvation. That is what the Moravians spoke about: the assurance of your salvation.
As he came back to London, he went to a little meeting of the Moravians. Something was being read, and his heart was strangely warmed. At thirty-five years old, he jumped on his horse and traveled about England. The Methodists were formed, and England was never the same.
Jonathan Edwards, a good old American boy, became a pastor in Connecticut at twenty-four. At thirty-one, he started America’s Great Awakening of the 1730s. Can you believe that? Thirty-one years old.
And his buddy in it—who is that? George Whitefield, that is right. At eighteen years old, he preached his way on horseback through England. He got to the United States at twenty-four and preached from Georgia up to New England. He brought that Great Awakening of the 1730s we just spoke about.
There he is, twenty-four years old, so aware of the greatness of the I AM. I know these men were set aside, and the Lord has special servants. These are special servants. But the thing that is not so special about them is when they discovered the great I AM.
D. L. Moody, at twenty years old, started the Sunday school movement in Chicago with six hundred and fifty kids. Nobody wanted him because he could not talk; he had a poor education. But he went around, dragged up all these kids, and got them saved in this Sunday school thing.
At thirty-five, he went over to England and brought the revival of 1853 to England and Ireland. Charles Spurgeon started preaching at sixteen; at twenty-one, he was pastor of a six-thousand-member church.
J. N. Darby, at twenty-five, left his lawyering to become a preacher. At twenty-seven, he began to found groups known as the Brethren. George Müller, at twenty-five, came from Germany as a preacher, and by thirty had established that wonderful orphanage for which he became known.
Hudson Taylor left medical studies at twenty-two to go to China with his vision for China and mission. Margaret Barber, at thirty years old, first went out to China, prayed twenty years for God to raise up young men, and met Brother Nee at fifty-four years old. There is a life given to the Lord—a hidden life God mightily used.
C. T. Studd, at twenty-five years old, left with the Cambridge Seven to become a missionary to China, India, and Africa. Watchman Nee, at twenty-one years old, started serving God in Fuzhou and Shanghai with a vision for China.
Evan Roberts, at twenty-six years old, was an instrument the Lord used to carry the Welsh Revival of 1904–1905. Stephen Kaung, at twenty years old, was preaching the gospel and working with Watchman Nee.
David Wilkerson began preaching at fourteen years old and, at twenty-seven, started Teen Challenge in Brooklyn. He went there and saved the leader of the Mau Maus, Nicky Cruz. The rest is history.
Francis Chan, at twenty-seven, started a megachurch, Cornerstone. In 2008, he gave up his two million dollars in assets, bought a simple house, lived simply, went to Africa, and spent a lot of time there witnessing and working.
Now he is part of a house-church movement where they are starting little house churches all over San Francisco. His life is really given to the Lord. He is a wonderful brother. Praise God for such people.
You know Greg Laurie? Probably, on the total scene of things, he is one of the great evangelists of the contemporary youth and millennial movement. At seventeen, he got saved during the Jesus Movement. He started a Bible study, and it became a megachurch called Harvest Christian Fellowship.
He holds large youth Harvest Crusades. If you hear of a Harvest Crusade, this is his doing. He does it around the country.
Jeremiah the prophet:
Now the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,
and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;
I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.
Then said I, Ah, Lord God!
behold, I cannot speak; for I am a child.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child:
for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go,
and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.
Of course, we know Jeremiah did not look like that. We do not know what he looked like. But however old he was, he certainly felt young at the time. So how about you?
Calling to serving, witnessing, and so forth usually begins with being a door of witness. What door are you knocking on for Jesus? Once you see the door and begin knocking, this is a way that the Lord begins to constitute you in sonship.
There are a lot of Christians who are very lovely people. They are precious. They come to meetings, they are very quiet, and they pray very devotional prayers. I give them credit for all of that as being absolutely legitimate.
But in this day, the Lord needs a few tough people—some substantiating in our lives. Do you know how you find that? You find that when, in contact with this world as a witness, you discover the Lord is with you.
He begins to challenge you to do things, to stand for the impossible, to see unsavable people get saved. There is a whole new dimension in your life when you realize that, even though you are nothing, the I AM in you is tremendous.
Based on that, you gain some Christian guts. It is still a matter of self-denial. It is still a matter of not being ashamed. It is still a matter of bearing the cross, and it never becomes easy.
But you get to the place where you say, “Yes, Lord,” more quickly, because you know the I AM will be with you. He will not forsake you.
I have seen and done some of the dumbest things in witnessing you could possibly do, and the Lord stands with you.
As our brother shared last night, sometimes you will be in a not-so-good place because you are going through some carnal struggle. Do you know what the Lord does? This is something that is marvelous to behold. It really humbles you.
Whenever you go out with the right heart, He covers you by His precious blood, and all those people see is the I AM as you are speaking. They do not see your carnal mess. God hides it from them.
There was a man who witnessed to me before I got saved. All I could see was Jesus in that guy. I got saved, and two months after I got saved, this guy got caught in immorality with another woman in the church. The marriage split up, and everything. It was a terrible thing.
But my point is, all I could see was Jesus in that guy as he witnessed to me, even despite his own compromised life. I am not advocating any compromised life. But all I am saying is, do not be so concerned looking at the lint in your navel that you are not willing to say, “I forget about myself.”
“I take Your precious blood and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, because here is a situation that You are saying I need to go through. There is a door.”
You will see, as you read this word door in the New Testament, that often it is actually talking about witness. Because guess what? Jesus said, “I am the door.”
If there is anybody in here who is interested in going out through that door and being a witness, He is the door. You start knocking on Him.
As He said to the great Philadelphian scaredy-cats—which is pretty much you guys:
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true,
He that hath the key of David,
He that openeth, and none shall shut,
and that shutteth, and none openeth.
But you have got to go tap, tap, tap, tap.
We are talking about the essence of a witness. Next time, we are going to talk about the doing of a witness. I know I am just sharing some larger things, but if I could wish anything for you, I could wish that you could see a vision of the greatness of the Lord Jesus.
I wish you could sense that He is waiting with unlimited power to confirm something that you would say out in this world, as you sacrifice yourself as a witness for Him. It is an amazing experience, and I hope you will find that breakthrough past yourself.
It is really so important that you find some comrades in witnessing. In this day, it is very tough to go out there on your own.
Our brother Jeffrey, the Lord is obviously preparing him as an evangelist. An evangelist has to go out on his own and discover these things. But many of you are not evangelists, though by the grace of God you do the work of evangelism.
You definitely need to discover in your local fellowship some comrades who are willing to go out. This can be very important, and you will hear it, I am sure, spoken of throughout the weekend.
Well, I have got one more crazy song. We still have a guitar here. Thank you.
I am a guy from another generation. This is a song Michael wrote years ago.
We are the Lord’s;
We are His witnesses.
We are unashamed of the gospel’s power,
So let us start sharing.
There is a cross we have taken;
We are sowing gospel seed.
It is time to heed the Master’s call:
Oh Lord, send me.
We are the Lord’s;
We are His witnesses.
We are unashamed of the gospel’s power,
So let us start sharing.
There is a cross we have taken;
We are sowing gospel seed.
It is time to heed the Master’s call:
Oh Lord, send me.
Lord, I pray for this new generation sitting before me now, these precious ones of Yours, that You will raise up those who would seek Your face, those who would testify to the great I AM—not in the largeness of themselves, but in the largeness of who You are.
We know how You told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high. Oh, how we need that power from on high. We dare not go without being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Oh, examine our hearts and work upon us in these days. We are so thankful that You are calling, that You are talking, that You are speaking regarding who You are.
Oh, send Your dear servants out into this world, and shake the kingdoms of this world with the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are so thankful that we can spend these times in fellowship together on these matters. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.