Share the Story, God Will Move!

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

The title of the message that I have for you this morning is Share the Story. Share the story. God will move. Share the story. God will move. And I don't claim to know when this happened, but I witness that it has happened. There's so many people in the body of Christ, in the churches that profess Jesus, that trust the Bible, that believe on the Lord, and even not only the people in the church, even pastors I meet that have lost this very basic early church. You see it all over the Word in the New Testament. This understanding that it was so important to share every aspect in the negative sense of your story—everything you did wrong, everything you were, every wrong way that you were making decisions before meeting Jesus—that you share the ins and outs of that story so that people see and hear when they're around you what God is willing to put up with because of Jesus Christ.

I meet more and more pastors that are a little bit careful, or that have even shied back from the whole idea that your personal testimony—everything I am on my own—that all ends badly compared to who I have been made in Christ Jesus, to show the contrast. I see more and more pastors, or I should say I meet more and more pastors, that are so careful with that it almost sounds like wisdom some days. To the point where, this last week's conference, I'm still processing what a wonderful work the Lord did at that conference. It was the last time I spoke that our bishop came to me after the service. He had teary eyes and he said, "I have never."

That's a statement coming from somebody that has been in ministry for such a long time. He said, "I have never seen a minister speak with such transparency." And as much as he was meaning that as a compliment, that tore my heart quite a bit because I just don't understand why anyone that has met Jesus would feel the need to bury the story and to just appear to people as a person that has it quite well all together.

We don't see that in the Bible. We don't see Jesus come into this world looking for good people that are somewhat strong, that have it a little bit together, and Jesus can make them just that little bit better to where they can be a leader in a church, or a leader in a ministry, or an example in the church. That's not what Jesus did. Jesus bypassed everybody that was somebody in religion. He bypassed everyone that was trying real hard for God. And he went straight to the worst of sinners and said, "Now, this is where I'm going to do a work. This is the kind of people I'm going to cause them to know me. And when they come to know me, I'm going to do something so powerful in them that it's going to bring hope to the entire world."

Share the story, God will move. Every—and I'm telling you every—aspect of your story, the story of who you are without Jesus present. Every bad thing, shameful thing, it don't matter how deep it went. Every single one of those things, God intends to use.

If you will bring the story out, if you will bring the story out, God will cause people to see who you are today. And a question will come in their heart: Can God do that? Could he possibly then also do that for me? Wait, you are right with God after you did all of this? Well, then perhaps I can be right with God as well. It is supposed to bring up a question that God will bring up when we believe Jesus and follow him and say, "My Jesus came for the bad, the ugly, and all of the wrong. Let me tell you why he found me. I have all the bad, all the ugly, and all the wrong. He came into my life, and this is what God did with my life. But first, let me tell you the story of who I am without Jesus." You're going to see it in the Word. I know you've seen it at least in part if you've been here for any time at all. You've seen it in my life. I don't know how to be saved any other way. But I'm telling you, this is so important. And the Lord has been just teaching my heart on the importance of God's people sharing their story, the pre-Jesus story, so that the people that are in your life post-Jesus get to say, "I did not know God can do that. If he did that for you, can he do it for me?"

Let me pray and then we're going to get into this Word. Lord, I ask you, Lord, that you help every single person in this place see that you are willing to take their bad story. And if they bring it out on the daily, that you will move and you will cause people to begin to believe that you are able to work with them even though they have a bad story too. That you are able to forgive, that you are able to love, and eventually even able to use them. Lord God, you invite us to openly bear our story so that you can move, Lord God. And I pray that every person online and in this place can see this morning, Lord, that you are calling us to let go of our story and to put it out there, that you may move on the hearts of those people that are all around us in our private life, Lord God, and in our public life. Lord, we bless you. Holy Spirit, I ask you to do the work in the name of Jesus.

We're going to get into the Word. And I want to start with you in First Timothy chapter 1. First Timothy chapter 1. Paul writing to Timothy. He'd been raising up Timothy. Timothy, he’d been teaching him. Timothy was being discipled by Paul. And now Timothy is working in the ministry by himself. He'd come under the authority of Paul. Paul had done the investing. Then Paul released him into the first ministry of himself—Timothy's ministry—that he is now governing and seeking to build for Jesus' glory. And Paul writes to him. And we're going to start in verse five. And you're going to see how Paul—and you may know that Paul did this many times, even recorded in the scripture. Paul would share his old story quite frequently, and he left out a lot of the details, but he made sure that he highlight every single one of the worst things.

He's writing to this church. He's writing to the guy that he's been investing in and encouraging him and discipling him. Starting in verse 5: Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk. Now, that's the progression that you see so often in so many church people. It's not supposed to be the progression, but it is one that happens when people stray from a pure heart. They stray from a good conscience, and they stray from sincere faith.

When the heart is not pure anymore and begins to worry about how people look at us, and now all of a sudden we care about what we do and we do not share—or they stray from a good conscience. They're secretly still trying to have a love life with sin. So their love life with Jesus is kind of on the rocks, and now their conscience is accusing them. Again, the Word tells us God is greater than the heart. If the heart accuses us, God is greater than the heart. If our heart does not condemn us, neither will the Lord. In other words, when that conscience has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus, there's a peace that just lets you be everything you are and everything you're not. And all that your life is about is walking in the light. You want everyone to see who you are because it helps them see something about your Lord.

When that good conscience is no longer there and people stray from it, they also end up in the idle talk. And when they move on from sincere faith—so in other words, their sincere faith is between them and Jesus. They do not care how people perceive them. Their faith is not used to look like a Christian to other people. Their faith is not used to do a ministry. Their faith is not used to be a great example to some people. Their faith is simply between them and Jesus. It has given them relationship, divine relationship with the living God. When they stray from that, this is the progression. They turn aside to idle talk. Now, you've met people like this. You may not realize it yet, but this is the person that you meet. They're generally in church, and you try to talk to them about Jesus and they go, "Oh, yes, no, I know Jesus." But something in your heart can just tell it's not that real to them. And you keep on going and they say, "Oh, yes, no, I'm forgiven." And it's all—they have all the right words. They have all the right explanations. They have the right verbiage. But somehow, some way, you can kind of tell: it doesn't really feel like they have a pure heart. Doesn't really feel like their conscience is clean. Doesn't really feel like they have sincere faith.

All they seem to have strayed from those things, and now all they have is idle talk. Some translations say empty talk. All the words are there. They know how to dress it up, so to speak. But it's empty. Now, the next progression—here it comes: Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. That's the next progression. In other words, people—first they turn, when they stray from these things. They turn to empty words. They just talk along with everyone. And then they desire to be teachers of the law. They become lovers of the rules. They become lovers of making up new rules. Nobody knows where they came from. They don't make sense when you really write them down and talk about it. But this is what we do. Respect it.

Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. Verse eight: But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Knowing this—here comes his explanation—knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, sound beliefs according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which has committed it to my trust.

He makes it very simple. He says the law is good. The law is kind of like school. You shouldn't be in school your whole life. Some people didn't get that. We love them. Amen. But some people come to the law as if the law is what we come through God to. We should never serve God, love God, come to God without the law. The law is kind of like school. It is for a season to teach people that do not believe they are sinners yet, the law has a work to do. Amen. The Holy Spirit will come upon that situation and he will convict the world of sin. How does he do that? He does it by showing that there is a different standard—that God is holy, altogether different, without sin, good and pure, no wrong, no darkness in him at all. And when the Holy Spirit can show that to the heart, we begin to realize that we are different than God, that we are not at peace with God, that we cannot know God.

The law is used to teach people that don't believe they have sin or they don't believe they are sinners. The law is used to teach those people that there's a difference between their good and God's good. But when a person has learned everything they needed from school, they then got to graduate. Amen. And not stay in school trying to learn the same thing over and over and over again. And Paul explains to us that God has given a gospel. God has given a law first, and then he has sent the gospel because the law was sent to those that do wrong. The law was not given to the righteous. And so when you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, you may still make some mistakes, you may still not walk a perfect walk, but Christ has clothed you in his righteousness. The law just bounces off of you. The law cannot cause you to feel shame or guilt. It cannot corrupt your conscience. It cannot cause you to sway from any of these things because Jesus has clothed you in righteousness. And the law is not for the righteous. And so the law's effect—because the law gives knowledge of sin—the law's effect has become useless in your life.

Once the law convicted me and convinced me that I was a sinner, then I ran to Jesus and he clothed me in righteousness. And I now no longer need the law to convict me that I'm a sinner or to help me believe that I'm a sinner, because Jesus has finished the work that the law had started in my life. Amen. Verse 12: And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Now, if you listen carefully to that, you may just get the idea that Paul is a little bit full of himself. Let me read it to you again: And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. And there comes Paul's story. Paul says, Jesus—what you see right now, Jesus did. The Paul you meet right now, Jesus put together. Here comes his story: Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

In other words, he's saying, "I was horrible and I did all of these wrong things to the point where in another place where he testifies, he says, I approved the death of those that follow Jesus. I did all of these things before I met Jesus." He's telling his pre-Jesus story. He says, "I did all of these things before I ever became a believer in Jesus." In other words, I was still under the law. And when you're under the law, you do all these things because you're under the strength of sin. You're under the power of sin. You've not been made righteous yet, and you have no ability to walk away from sin. You can exchange one sin for another. You can clean things up and make sure that whatever people see looks a bit better, but you cannot cleanse the conscience. You cannot wash the heart. You cannot fill up the hole in your heart that drives you to end up in situations where you realize, I have sinned again. The law is helping me see it.

It says all of that I was before I believed in Jesus. Then verse 14: And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Paul's sharing, listen, what you see today in my life is who Jesus made me. But this is my story. This is what I'm like apart from Christ. And when I first believed on Jesus, he began a change in me. He began to do a setting-free kind of work. And the point is I'm trying to show you something: Jesus came into the world to save sinners. The law only helps people understand they are sinners, but it doesn't save them. It doesn't get them any closer to the Father. Jesus came for those that are convicted of sin to redeem them, to free them, and to lead them to the Father. Sinners—of whom he says, "I am chief." He says, "I'm the biggest one." He's telling his story. He's trying to help people see something through being a man that walks in the light, expecting God to move.

This is what I learned from this story: the law came to point out sinners and to make them guilty. Now the knowledge of sin comes through the law. Now I know I'm guilty. Now I know I'm a sinner. The law came to point out sinners and make them guilty. Jesus came to save the sinner. That's his message. That's what he's seeking to help people understand. And then verse 16: However, for this reason I obtained mercy. Now comes his purpose: That in me first Jesus Christ may show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. He says, "I have a terrible past. Jesus was sent from heaven so that somebody like me could be forgiven. And then Jesus sent me out again with a purpose—that God may show in me something to those people that are going to believe on him for eternal life. He wants to show through me that God is incredibly patient, that it is never too late."

That's what Paul says God wants to show through his life. When Paul shares the story and Jesus shows up to do a work in the heart, Paul says, "I know what the purpose is. God is trying to show people that it's never too late for them. That they've never done too many bad religious things, hurting people, preaching the law, whatever it may be. God wants to show through my life that it's never too late for those people." Now, church, I'm going to give you three points. If you're taking notes, this is what you should be taking home. These three points will help you see that God intends to use your own story—the story you have that maybe you have not been sharing. Maybe you feel uncomfortable sharing it. Maybe you have explained away why that doesn't apply to you. You don't have to share the pre-Jesus story with virtually every person you meet. Not the details, but the highlights—or the low lights, so to speak. These three points will help you see that God intends to use your story.

Now, God has a story. God doesn't need our story, but he intends to use it because there are so many people that will not pick up a Bible until they've heard your story, and the Lord is allowed to plant a seed into their heart of what he has done in your life. And they are tempted to believe for their own life now—invited to begin to believe that God could possibly do something in their situation. I remember like yesterday that I heard it preached for the first time that if you have slept with somebody before marriage, that Jesus can restore that—cleanse your heart from the guilt, cleanse your conscience, and make the sexual relationship you desire to have in marriage beautiful again without it being tainted. I had never heard that, and it planted a seed in my heart that said simply: If that is possible, what would that mean for my life? Could God actually fix what I have broken and give me an incredible miraculous gift of restoration? Could it be that God can actually do this?

Your story, God will use when you openly share it, to help people realize what he can do. And I want to ask you: how often do you take charge—intentionally, premeditated—you take charge of a conversation you're having with a person, and you start to share all of the reasons, all of the real-life events? You know, don't be vague: “Well, I did many bad things.” And you know—no, they don’t know. You go ahead and share your story. How often do you take charge of a conversation and say in your heart, I'm going to turn this conversation to what really matters. I'm going to share every reason God has ever had to reject me, and I'm going to tell them that he has accepted me instead because of the blood of Jesus Christ. How often do you do that? I can answer it for myself. How often do you choose to bring your story in so that people can learn something about your Jesus? Ask yourself for a moment: are you one of those believers that walk like Paul walked—that walk a biblical walk—confident that God shows up when I begin to tell the truth? That God will do a work in the heart when I tell them what the law taught me, but where Jesus took me? That God will show up and begin to do a work in a heart that does not yet experience the full forgiveness for their sins?

That because of Jesus, someone like you—that’s the message—letting people see who we really are without Jesus. And someone like me is clothed in righteousness because of Jesus.

Can you believe it? Someone like me—clothed in righteousness. Three points will help you see that God intends to use your story. Number one: Sharing will help to explain God.Sharing will help to explain God. I'll read to you verse 16 again—we just read it together: “However, for this reason, I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.” Paul says, “When I tell you my story and you see where God has taken me, you're going to learn something about God. It's going to explain a part of his character to you. When I tell my story, it's going to cause you to begin to see that God is incredibly patient and he will put up with a whole lot.”

And when I tell my story—and I've told you this before—I believe with all my heart, God asks me to tell my story so that people may begin to see that God is willing to forgive so much. He wants to show that as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for eternal life.

When you share your story, God has a design. Your story, when it’s shared, is going to show something about him that helps people realize what God is actually like. Maybe you say, “Pastor, I don’t really feel I have a testimony. I was raised in the church. I never went very far, and I’m still in the church today. God is doing wonderful things, but I don’t really have a story like that.” Church, I’ve never met a person who said that and was speaking the truth in my life. If you share the things you have been forgiven for, oh—you’ll have a list so incredibly long. And it will show people that you can be in church and God will even save the hypocrite. God will even save those who had no reason to get stuck in sin, yet in secret they did anyway.

They twisted the truth, they lied a bit, they were able to hide it—and still God was willing to meet them. Even though they were living a double life in the midst of the church of the living God, he was still willing to forgive. He will allow your story to begin to speak to a person and show something about the heart of God. That even though your sins were so yucky, so hidden, tucked away under the table—while you still tried to look like a Christian, having no idea what you were really doing—God still did not take offense with someone like you. It shows people, when you share it, something about the character of God. When you choose to share your story of what Jesus forgave you for, it helps explain to people what God is like. And God intends to show something through you every time to the people right in front of you.

You can’t do that on your own. All you do is tell the truth: “This is all that I am apart from Jesus. And because there was a cross, I have been washed, and I am forgiven for my sins.” Only God can come into the heart and begin to move, planting the seed of faith in that person’s heart. But I am telling you now, he will do it through you when you trust Jesus—the God of light—enough to live your life in the light where Jesus is. To say, “I’m going to live where Jesus is. Because every time I do, Jesus is allowed to work with whatever I place in his hands.”

Share the story, and God will move. Your story shows that the power of the blood of Jesus is greater than your story.

Amen. I love, and if you have a chance, you should really ask Norman to share the story of how Jesus forgave him, and what he forgave him for, and where Jesus is taking him. Because the testimony today in our midst is that someone like Norm has decided to be baptized and to follow Jesus. That's the testimony. You can only understand the weight of that and what it tells about God when you know his story. That's only when you see the weight of a decision like that. That's when you only see the amount of work that God must have moved in that person's life. That's when you're only triggered to begin to believe and say, "Wow, if God did it for him, then I begin to believe for my cousin and I begin to believe for my relationship and I begin to believe for all of these different things." Because this story is showing me something about God. It's not just head knowledge. I can't help but see it right now because the story is so personal. When you don't have to make it up, you don't have to quote all the right scriptures and have it all together. You're simply telling the story. God shows up and begins to work in the heart.

And the story is Jesus put up with all of this, and he had the power to bring me home. He had the power to wash me, and he has the power to send me out. And more so, he has won my heart. I hated Jesus. I turned away from Jesus. I chose against Jesus. Somehow he has won over my heart, and now I love him. Tell the story. Share the story, and God will move. The first point: sharing will help to explain God. Number two: sharing will help show God's love. You want people to see the love of God? Share your story. It'll help them see the love of God. First John 4:19: "We love him..." He's won my heart. We love him because he first loved us.

Jesus won my heart when I was still like this. While I was still running around with the prostitutes, Jesus won my heart. When I was still running around lying every other word that came out of my mouth, Jesus won my heart. When I was running around selfishly, only seeking what would improve my life and would be good for my life and would be good for my finances, Jesus won my heart and taught me somehow, someway, to love him. And he has taken the love of the world and the love of money out of my heart. I love him now because he loved me while I was still right there in the midst of my story. When you don't tell the story, it means very, very little. Church, when you grow quiet about the story of what Jesus has done over your life, in your heart, and to your sins, it becomes meaningless.

Just smart words and you quoting scripture can become a condemning experience for somebody that doesn't know Jesus yet. Did you know that you can be quoting scriptures as you talk about God to people that don't know him, and you don't intend to, but they feel condemned because they don't quote scriptures like that? They could never remember that kind of stuff, and now they feel even lesser than you. When you tell your story—when you tell the story of everything, everything that you would have hidden until the end of the world if you had the chance, but you brought it into the light to Jesus and he washed it all away—when you tell the story, there's not a sinner alive that is discouraged.

There's not an unbeliever that begins to say, "Well, then it's not possible for me." Share the story and God will move. We love him because he first loved us in the midst of our mess. That's where he loved me. He's won my heart because of the way he loved me before I could ever change a thing about my life. Sharing will help to explain God. Sharing will help to show God's love. And number three, sharing will always have an effect. I can't tell you how many people in the church become discouraged or stop sharing their entire story because there's a doubt in their heart as to whether or not it will ever have an effect, or if it ever has a good effect, or maybe people will laugh at me or think about me this way and God won't show up in the midst of my story. And now they'll forever remember me like this or that or the other thing.

Let me tell you now, church, I am gladly remembered for the man that I was before I met Jesus. Because when people see where Jesus will take you, when people see the level to which Jesus has changed you, they can't argue with it. They can't understand it. And God will bring up a question in their own heart that has more power than any dry scripture you could have quoted to them at the wrong time, even though you had the right words. But when you step into the light for all to see, and you vulnerably, honestly, as a child of the light, dwell there and say, "This is all that I am on my own. And my Jesus loved me just like this. My Jesus sought after me. When all I had was all these runs," all of a sudden God begins to work in the hearts that are hearing it.

All of a sudden, God begins to upset the status quo. All of a sudden, people begin to wonder. How come you don't feel the power of the law? How come you're not condemned with all these things? How come you're not ashamed? How come you've been set free to that degree? How come? How's this possible? Christ and Him crucified. I called on Jesus and he washed all of my sins away. They're gone. That man has died and stayed in the grave. That man has gone on the cross as Jesus carried all my sins to the cross. They've been paid for. And now what the devil meant for evil, I get to openly share. And somehow, all that the devil meant for evil, somehow God turns it around and is able to use a story like that to cause faith in the hearts of those that are going to believe on his name for eternal life. Sharing will always have an effect.

2 Corinthians 2 verse 14 and 15: Now, thanks be to God who always—say it with me—always. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. You see, the verbiage here is very particular in the sentence. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. If you look into the original language, it's a very particular thing that is being said here. It's a Roman statement from the Roman Empire. And what a Roman general would do is when he had conquered a city or conquered a nation, he would try to find the highest official and put him in bonds behind his horse or chariot and parade him through his city to show that he had conquered this man. That's the word that is being used right here: God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

In other words, he demonstrates what he can conquer. That's what Jesus does in us. What does the word say? Almost always? No. Always. In most places? No. In every place. That's the promise. You show the story. You show what Jesus has conquered. You show what Jesus has done. You show what he's put up with. You show what he's been able to forgive. And he will move. He will show up because he always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. People can't help but sense that there's a knowledge of God inside of you that has been brought about by a supernatural act that they don't understand yet. A fragrance being spread always and in every place when we simply show up as this man that is bound to follow Jesus because he was able to conquer a heart like this. He was able to wash away a sinful life like this.

When we walk around like that, the word says triumph in every situation, every place, every person. He always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance. It's not you doing the work. He diffuses it through you when you show up that way. His knowledge comes to every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved, among those who are perishing. In other words, when you share, it will always have an effect. It don't matter if people don't believe in Jesus, it's going to have an effect. To those that are going to believe on him, it's going to have an effect. It is among those that are being saved, it is among those that are perishing. There will never be a time that you tell the story openly of what Jesus has done and it will go unused. That's what the word tells us. You may not see the fruit right in front of your eyes, but it will never be without an effect.

No matter what your eyes tell you, God is spreading a fragrance through you that people cannot deny. They can't help but smell it. They can't help but begin to wonder. They can't help but remember it, because God will move. The Spirit will bring it back. The Spirit will demonstrate you as a trophy that Jesus has won. You ever been in a household where there was a child, there was a great athlete, and there's a wall dedicated to all the trophies? That's how I love to imagine our Heavenly Father. And the moment that those trophies are not hidden away in a closet, but they're demonstrated, they're right there for anybody to see that comes into the house. And the Father goes, "That's my kiddo." He's able to win every single one of them. I'm telling you now, Church, when you don't hide your story in the closet, but you demonstrate it openly before the people, the Father will always move and point people towards what His Son was able to do, able to win, able to conquer.

When Jesus saved me, He always moved me to tell every person that I ever met everything I'd ever done, and that because of Jesus, somebody like me can be forgiven. Paul was a little different. He shared everything he'd ever done so that people would understand that God is patient enough to still be available to them, to still be willing to move in their life, even if they come to Him this far down the road. Your life, God is going to use maybe in a different way. But I'm telling you, it doesn't matter what your story is. Ultimately, it is a story of things that you did by yourself, things that were done to you, things that Jesus was able to wash away. Things that Jesus was willing to wash away. Things that Jesus was able to put to rest and break the power of those things over your life. When you share the story, God will move.

This is all I've done so that you can see what God has done. Church, it is your and my life to show people the kind of things that God put up with and still brought us home. To show people the kind of power that is in the blood of Jesus. This is who we are. This is who we are: a living demonstration of God's willingness to save sinners, God's willingness to love the unlovable, God's willingness to put up with no matter how difficult you may have been. We're a living demonstration of what God is willing to put up with, wash over, bring us home, even launch us forward into a purpose that God has designed. He's taken everything I've done wrong and given purpose to every single bit of it. Sharing will help you explain God. Sharing will help show God's love. And sharing will always have an effect. If you struggle to believe, or you have been struggling to live that out in every relationship you have for whatever reason, I believe the Lord is inviting you to put that to rest today and to say this: God, I believe You. I believe You will use my story. I'm going to make it available to You.

If that's you, if you want to say that to the Lord today—God, I believe You will use my story, and I'm going to decide to make it available to You—if that is you, I want to invite you to come to the front and to make that declaration together as we pray: God, I believe You will use my story, and I'm going to choose to make it available to Your kingdom. Church, if you are clothed in righteousness, the law has lost all power to make you guilty or to make you feel shameful or unaccepted. And when the law has lost its power, when Jesus has clothed you in that righteousness, sharing is so easy. There's never a thought—ever since the day that I've been saved, I've never had a thought that cares about how people look at me or think about me when I share my entire story. And that's not because I decided to do that. It's not. It was just there. The moment that I was forgiven, the moment that I was clothed in my righteousness that God gave to me in Christ Jesus, I knew all of these sins now belong to Jesus. They weren't mine anymore. It was just my story to tell, my story to testify to, to witness to.

So if sharing is still hard for you, if living in the light feels hard for you, and you say, "I need Jesus to clothe me in that kind of righteousness where the shame, the law, everything just bounces off. I don't have to do anything for it. He does it for me. I need Jesus to clothe me in that kind of a righteousness"—if that is you, I also want to invite you to come forward. But if you say, "I need Jesus to do that for me," join us at the altar. And for those that are with us online, I want to invite you to make that commitment with us: Lord, I believe You, and I believe that You will use my story. I'm choosing today to make it available to You. Lord, whenever You bring it to mind, whenever I meet someone new, I'm going to tell the whole story, and I'm going to see what You will do. I'm going to see You show up. I'm going to see You move. I'm going to make it available to You.

-Pastor Stan Mons