This morning, we have been, this Advent season,
which I know many of you haven't because of the
weather, been out. I hope you took, if you have
not gotten a devotional, we still have a few
days left before Advent ends. I did take them
to the coffee shop so that people could easily
pick them up there. So those are there if you
need one to end out your Christmas season. But
our focus for this Advent has been pilgrimage,
journeying. Because this is not our home, right?
We are pilgrimages, pilgrims. And in Psalms it
says, Blessed is the man whose heart is set on
pilgrimage. And so our focus for this Advent,
as you can see the different weeks, we started
out Advent with hope, with Mary journeying to
visit Elizabeth, her cousin. And then we moved
to joy. The Magi, the wise men, had their journey
of worship. And then the last week was a week
of peace with Mary and Joseph traveling to Egypt
to a place of peace and safety. And so today
we're ending it out with the week of love. And
we're going to look at another group of people
that encountered love coming down. And so we've
been talking and singing today about... Love
coming down, that was Jesus, right? And we see
that in 1 John 4 that says, this is how God showed
his love among us. He sent his one and only son
into the world that we might live through him.
This is what love looks like. Love coming down
in Jesus. And so today... How many of you would
say, I have been touched by that love come down,
right? Yes. So I wanted to read you a brief story
of a missionary in the 1840s. And his name was
John Getty, and he left the pastorate of a church
in Canada to take his wife and two small children
to the South Sea Islands to begin a mission work
there. After a voyage of more than 20 ,000 miles,
they arrived in New Hebrides Islands. I know,
I think that's supposed to be two. Twenty seems
a lot. The island chain was filled with cannibals.
More than 20 crew members of a British ship had
been killed and eaten just months before the
Gettys arrived on the mission field. Okay, all
you young parents. With little kids. Can you
imagine taking your children on the mission field,
much less a mission field where they are cannibals?
You got to know that you're called. They faced
the difficulty of learning a language that had
no written form and the constant threat of being
killed. Slowly, at first, a few converts came,
and then soon many more received the gospel.
Getty continued his ministry faithfully, including
translating the entire Bible into the native
language. Can you imagine not being able to read
your Bible, not having it in your language? I
can't even fathom what that would be like. But
there are, even today, cultures where that is
the case. He planted 25 churches. For many of
those years, Getty labored with little help and
little word from home. But God was faithful,
and in the pulpit of the church Getty pastored
for so many years stands a plaque in his honor
which says, when he landed in 1848, there were
no Christians here. And when he left in 1872,
there were no heathen. Isn't that good? Let me
tell you the story of another group of evangelists,
the first evangelists. This was a group of shepherds.
Because you might say, well, I could never do
that. I could never be a missionary like that.
This is why I like the shepherds. The shepherds
are a little more relatable for me, right? The
shepherds were a bit of a nomadic people because
they had to travel with their sheep from place
to place to find food. And in Israel, in Bible
times, this was such a huge part of their economy.
Just for a reference point, have any of you raised
sheep in here? We had one person for a while.
Yeah, they're noisy, aren't they? They're noisy
sheep. In Israel, Job, how many of you love the
book of Job? I think I had one new believer that
started in the book of Job. I was like, no, let's
move you off of the book of Job. But Job at the
end had 14 ,000 sheep. How many did you have,
Catherine? Highest was 27? Yeah. 14 ,000 Job
had. I'm just imagining the noise of 14 ,000
sheep. King Solomon, at the temple's dedication,
he sacrificed 120 ,000. Can you imagine the smell,
the flies? You think that God's aroma that he
receives has got to be this beautiful, sweet
smelling. That would be a stinky smell. But it
was a sacrifice. And so God's not afraid of what
comes out of you. Right? He received the sacrifice
of 120 ,000 sheep. So shepherds were essential
to the economy of Israel, but they were considered
lower on that social platform. I love, how many
of you like Bear Grylls? You guys follow Bear
Grylls? Oh my goodness. Do you guys know who
Bear Grylls is? Okay, so this week you need to
go and watch Bear Grylls. He's an outdoor, he
was a British special unit guy, like hardcore.
Like the stuff he does, he teaches you how to
survive in the wilderness. So he did a series,
he's a Christian, on diving into the Holy Land.
And so he walks you through the Holy Land. And
so in that series, he interviews a shepherd.
And, you know, shepherds are unique individuals.
I just don't think anybody could go be a shepherd.
It's a very isolating job. It's you and some
sheep. You're living on goat's milk and dried
meat. They're kind of, in my mind, like lighthouse
keepers. If you visited a lighthouse, I feel
like more of you have done that. Lighthouse,
yes? Yeah. We visited a lighthouse in Maine.
And they are a unique breed. They are assigned
that job. It is on the end, right, into the ocean.
The wind, like you could like lie on the wind.
It would hold you up. And in that kind of weather,
that constant wind and cold, they had to garden
to grow their food. They had to be a self -sustaining
people. And it's interesting to me because It
is very common amongst light keepers that for
generations, their sons and their sons and their
sons, they all will take up the cause of being
a lighthouse keeper. And so I find them to be
a unique breed of people. And I think shepherds
are like that as well. But I feel like we can
relate to shepherds, and Jesus often brings that
comparison to the good shepherd, right? And us
as the sheep. And so I feel like their account
of evangelizing will be a little easier for us
to identify with. And so let's look, Lila already
read part of it, but let's read in Luke chapter
2, starting in verse 8, the account of the shepherds.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields
nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the
glory of the Lord shone around them, and they
were terrified. Well, wouldn't you be? If suddenly
the angels of heaven were surrounding you, you
might be a little terrified. But the angel said
to them, Do not be afraid. I bring you good news
that will cause great joy for all the people.
Today in the town of David, a Savior has been
born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This
will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped
in cloths and lying in a manger. And then suddenly
a great company of the heavenly host appeared
with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to
those on whom his favor rests. When the angels
had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem and
see this thing that has happened, which the Lord
has told us about. They're kind of like, you
know, on the side of the road when there's an
accident and everybody pulls out their phone
to record it, right? I'm just like, why? What
are you going to do with that video? I don't
understand, but there they are videoing things.
And so, you know, I feel like the shepherds would
be pulling out their phones to video this occurrence.
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph
and the baby who was lying in the manger. And
when they had seen him, they spread the word.
Everybody say that. Spread the word. They spread
the word. What were they doing? They were testifying.
They were sharing their story. All who heard
it were amazed at what the shepherds said to
them. But Mary treasured up all these things
and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds
returned glorifying and praising God for all
the things that they had heard and seen, which
were just as they had been told by the angel.
So when the shepherds saw the Messiah, the Lord,
Their immediate response is we need to go and
tell someone. This is not news to keep to ourselves.
Love has come down. We must tell someone. Now
listen, all of us in here have said we have been
touched by love coming down. And so my question
for us today is what is our response? Is our
response to hide it under a bowl, like in Matthew
5, it says, do people with a light hide it under
a bowl? No. The response is to tell, to let the
light shine, to let the love shine. And so today,
I have just two directives that I want to share.
And the first directive is this, tell your story.
It's as easy as that. You don't have to be a
missionary called to go to an island full of
cannibals. I'm not saying he won't call you.
It would give me no greater joy than to send
some of you off to the mission field. As much
as we love you. You don't have to be a missionary.
going off to an island full of cannibals. You
just have to tell your story. It's as simple
as that. A few weeks back, for our Thanksgiving
service, we walked through Psalm 107. And at
the very beginning of that chapter, we touched
on it briefly. But this is the source of our
first directive. Psalm 107, verse 2. Let the
redeemed of the Lord. How many of you have been
redeemed by the Lord, right? Let the redeemed
of the Lord tell their story. I know, the New
King James says, say so. But I like the NIV because
it says, let the redeemed of the Lord tell their
story. Tell your story. Those he redeemed from
the hand of the foe. Have you been redeemed from
the hand of the enemy? Yes. And so let the redeemed
of the Lord tell their story. You have a story
to tell. You have a story. You have encountered
love coming down. You have a story. I love that
this word tell, it has all kinds of different
levels of telling. You can speak it, you can
shout it, you can declare it. But what you get
from that is that it's definitive. Listen, you
may not be able to debate theology with the smartest
people. You may not understand everything that's
in the, you may not have even read all of the
Bible yet. You may be so new on your journey.
That's okay. That's not what the verse tells
us to do. Debate doctrine, does it? It just says,
redeemed of the Lord, tell your story. It's that
easy. It's that simple. It's that uncomplicated.
Now, I have a little rhyme for you. Okay, are
you ready? We're going to see if you can figure
out this rhyme. Loftily poised in the ether capacious,
strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous. Did you
get it? You need me to read it one more time?
Scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific. Fain
would I fathom thy nature specific. Loftily poised
in the ether capacious. strongly resembling a
gem carbonaceous. Anybody have the interpretation?
What? We got star? Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
how I wonder what you are, up above the world
so high, like a diamond in the sky. Do you see
how we can overcomplicate something? I felt that
way when I first started working on my master's
degree because I didn't have an undergraduate
degree. The first, like, article or book that
I had read, I had my phone next to me so I could
look up what these words meant. And I would read
the word and I would be like, right, Derek? Like,
why can't you just say that? Why does it have
to be so complicated? I get it if you would just
say it, but they use all these lofty terms, right?
Listen, this sometimes we overcomplicate telling
people about Jesus when all he's really looking
for is us to tell your story. Tell your story.
So here's what we're going to do. We're going
to have a little training 101 right now from
the Apostle Paul in Acts 22. Okay, so go to Acts
22, starting at the end of verse 2. There are
three things that Paul includes when he's telling
his story. Okay, now if you've done any reading
of Paul, you know Paul can be very long -winded.
Paul has so many run -on sentences. It's like
a whole paragraph that's one sentence. Paul is
a wordy guy. But when it comes to sharing his
story, it's pretty simple. The first thing he
does, he tells who he was. All right? And so
we find in verse 3, I am a Jew born in Tarsus
of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied
under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in
the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous
for God as any of you are today. I persecuted
the followers of this way to their death, arresting
both men and women and throwing them into prison,
as the high priest and all the councils can themselves
testify. They can tell you how I killed Christians,
he's saying. I even obtained letters from them
to their associates in Damascus and went there
to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem
to be punished. This is who the apostle Paul
used to be. It's who he was. He was a murderer
of Christians. Dragging them out of their homes.
In the first account that we see of Stephen,
the first martyr, who was overseeing that? The
Apostle Paul. And so this is very simple. Number
one, he says, this is who I was. Here's number
two, part two of his testimony. This is the part
where it's his conversion account, his conversion
story, his turning point. Damascus Road. Yeah,
some of us like to lead Jesus on a chase too,
don't we? Why don't you give him one of those
little cutout cookies off of the tree in there
that Alexandra made? He'll enjoy that. Some of
you adults might enjoy it. Okay, so who he was.
And now his conversion experience, his turning
point. About noon, in verse 6, as I came near
Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven
flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard
a voice say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
me? Who are you, Lord? I asked. I am Jesus of
Nazareth, whom you are persecuting, he replied.
My companions saw the light, but they did not
understand the voice of him who was speaking
to me. What shall I do, Lord? I asked. Get up,
the Lord said, and go into Damascus, and there
you will be told all that you have been assigned
to do. My companions led me by the hand into
Damascus because the brilliance of the light
had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see
me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly
respected by all the Jews living there. He stood
beside me and said, Brother Saul, receive your
sight. And at that moment, I was able to see
him. This was Paul's conversion experience, right?
He went into that experience as Saul and then
fell to the ground because the light of Jesus
was in front of him. And suddenly, Suddenly,
he became a new man. Now listen, your turning
point with Jesus, your conversion experience
may not have been as dramatic as a Damascus Road
experience. It may have been. For a lot of years,
I kind of was timid about sharing my story because
I didn't have a dramatic turning point like that.
I wasn't freed from drugs or alcohol. I didn't
have anything great like awe -inspiring like
everybody was like, oh, yeah. I didn't have that.
I had who I was, a young Catholic girl that even
in my limited understanding had a heart toward
God to the point that I, as a young child, was
considering becoming a nun. And then my dad had
that radical turning point experience. And we
came into an Assembly of God church. And I didn't
have, in fact, I remember being at camp one year,
and it was Salvation Night. They have, like,
Salvation Night, Holy Spirit Night, you know.
And so first night's Salvation Night. We got
to get all these kids saved at the beginning
of camp. And I remembered them saying, you need
to come up and say the sinner's prayer. And as
a young Catholic, I'm sitting back there saying,
I don't know the sinner's prayer. I know an awful
lot of other prayers I memorized for grade at
school, but I don't know this prayer. How am
I supposed to pray this prayer? I don't know
this prayer. You know, I never, and even now,
people will look back and say, on this date,
I gave my life to Christ. I had no date. I have
no date like that. We just kind of started going
to the church, and I flowed right into, got filled
with the Holy Spirit, loving Jesus. It was just
like this smooth transition for me. But I've
been following Jesus ever since. Never once have
I walked away from him. And so your conversion
experience, your turning point may be very dramatic,
but it also may be very simple. It doesn't matter.
One moment I didn't have Jesus, the next I did,
right? Tell my story. And then the Lord really
later showed me that my conversion experience
was the freedom from the law into relationship
with Jesus. And I'm convinced that it is the
greatest testimony because it's the most deceitful
thing, the law, when you are... It's all about
the outward, right? And I was saved from the
burden of that. That was powerful when I realized
this is my testimony. And so who you were, your
conversion, your turning point experience, and
the third part of the testimony was who he is
now. And in verse 14, he said, the God of our
ancestors has chosen you to know his will. So
this is God speaking to him. Actually, it was
Ananias and then God speaking to him. The God
of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will
and see the righteous one, Jesus, and to hear
words from his mouth. Isn't that good? You, Paul,
have been set apart to see the righteous one
and hear his words. You will be his witness to
all people of what you have seen and heard. And
now what are you waiting for, Paul? Get up, be
baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on
his name. And then the Lord said to Paul, Go,
I will send you far away to the Gentiles. This
is who he is now, a missionary evangelist. And
so it is very simple, your story, who you were,
what Jesus did, and what you are now, who you
are now. This is your story. If we think about
Paul, who he is now, who he was after Jesus,
he himself wrote this, that he was flogged by
the Jews five times with 39 lashes. He was beaten
by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks,
shipwrecked three times, adrift on the open sea
for a night and day, traveled hard year in and
year out, forded rivers, fought off robbers,
struggled with friends and enemies, endured risky
conditions in the city, wilderness, and storms
at sea. Betrayed by people he thought were dear
friends, served hard labor, was often lonely,
sleepless, hungry, and freezing cold. felt the
constant weight of responsibility for supporting,
training, and encouraging all the churches. That's
weight. And he experienced deep desperation.
I list all of that because what Paul endured
after his conversion is what gives his testimony
the weight of truth. Would he have endured all
of this? If he wasn't positive that the one who
stopped him on the road to Damascus was Jesus
himself. Who would endure that? Nobody. Why?
Why would you endure all of that? If you weren't
convinced that Jesus had changed everything for
you. And when you're convinced of that, nobody
can debate you out of anything. I know the one
who has saved me. And you can talk about all
kinds of things, but I know him. I've seen him,
and I know him. And that's my story, and I'm
sticking to it, right? And so Paul knew this
is no fictional story. So my question is, how
convinced are you of your story? How convinced
are you? You might say, I am not a missionary.
I am not Paul. But can you be a simple shepherd
who tells what they saw, who tells what they
experienced? Can you tell your story? Let the
redeemed of the Lord tell their story. The angel
declared, I bring you good news that will cause
great joy for all the people. This is why your
testimony is needed, why your story is needed.
What you have received should be cause for great
joy for all people. But how can it be joyful
for other people if we don't tell our story,
right? And so here's altar call number one. This
week, part of your end of your Advent time, if
you have never sat and thought out your story,
I want to encourage you to take a few moments,
15 minutes this week, and write your story down.
Just to, if there's something that happens in
your mind, it'll make it easier for the telling
if you just write your story down, who you were,
how Jesus changed you, and who you are now. Write
it down. Look at how simple it is so you're ready
to tell somebody, okay? So that's, your altar
call is at home this week doing that. Okay, so
directive one was what? Tell your story. Directive
number two is live your story. Don't tell your
story if you're not living your story. Nobody
wants to hear your story if you're not living
your story. That will do more damage for the
kingdom than if you just would not say anything.
And so 1 John 4 says it pretty straightforward
in verse 20. Whoever claims to love God yet hates
a brother or sister is a liar. This is a person,
this is just an example of a person that is not
living their story. They claim they love God,
but to love God is to love people because God
loves people. Here's an account of a woman that
has lived her story that I found fascinating.
I love reading about the war and what happened
with Jewish people. And so this is an account
of a Hebrew lady who once told how seeing another
Christian's faith converted her. She was fleeing
the German Gestapo in France during World War
II. She knew she was close to being caught and
she wanted to give up. She came to the home of
a French Huguenot. A widow lady met her and said
that it was time to flee to a new place. This
Jewish lady said, it's no use. They will find
me anyway. They are so close behind. The Christian
widow said yes. They will find someone here,
but it's time for you to leave. Go with these
people to safety. I will take your identification
and wait here. The Jewish lady then understood
the plan. The Gestapo would come and find this
Christian widow and think she was the fleeing
Jew. The Hebrew lady said, I asked her why she
was doing that, and the widow responded, it's
the least I can do. Christ has already done that
and more for me. The widow was caught and imprisoned
in the Jewish lady's place, allowing time for
her to escape. Within six months, the Christian
widow was dead in the concentration camp. Later,
this Hebrew lady accepted Christ as her Savior.
This lady wasn't just telling her story. She
was living it. Love had come down to her, and
she was giving out that love. When you know where
your eternal home is, you can do things like
that. She was more concerned with this woman's
eternal destiny because she knew her eternal
destiny, right? This is living your story. She
believed her story. She lived her story in the
same way that Christ did. He came down to a crucifixion,
bringing us into eternal life. I was in a Bible
study with one of the ladies this week, and we
were talking about baptism. And as we were working
through the verses, our conclusion that we came
to is that more important than the act of baptism
itself, because what is baptism but to declare
to everyone, I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a disciple
of Jesus. But we concluded that even more important,
because a lot of people get baptized and then
walk away. We concluded it's more important to
live a baptized life, right? What is a baptized
life? The life that continually dies with Christ
and is resurrected with him. That is the life
we want people to see. We want people to see
us tell our story and live our story. So you're
going to tell it and you're going to live it.
And so the team's going to come back up here,
but in Matthew 5, verse 16, we referred to this
earlier, and I want to circle back around to
it. Verse 16, let your light shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds and glorify
your Father in heaven. Listen. Let your light
shine, tell it, and then let them see your good
deeds, live it. Tell it and live it. This is
the goal. This is what the shepherds were doing.
They saw it, and it changed them, and they went
and they told. And so we're in a week where many
of you are going to be with family members, and
some of that will be really great, and some of
that might be really hard. Don't just tell them.
You got to live it in front of them. This is
the week. You may not be with them for another
six months or so. And so in this time that you
have this week, this Christmas week, I want to
encourage you to tell your story and to live
your story before your family, before your friends.
We're going to take up the declaration of Psalm
107, and the spirit of the shepherd. And we're
going to tell our story this week. Love came
down so that we could give love out, right? The
only way that the love that came down can give
it out is through you and I. We are the hands,
we are the feet, we are the body of Christ. And
love goes out through you and through me. Amen?
And so, My goal for 2026, we're coming up to
that very quickly. And my goal in 2026 is to
tell my story as often as I can. I love this
phrase, each one win one. What would it look
like if each one of us won one person to Jesus?
Let's be a people that... tells the story, and
lives the story. Amen? And so this morning, here's
what we're going to do. We're going to go out
as we came in, and the team is going to lead
us one more time and go tell it on the mountain.
And as we sing that, let it just be a moment
of declaration for you that, God, I maybe have
been putting my light behind a little bit of
a bowl, but I'm going to be like that lighthouse
keeper, and I'm going to buff the windows. I'm
going to buff the light and make sure there's
nothing to block the light, right? Anything that
I've been hiding behind. Listen, we are a Pentecostal
people. That isn't so weak as much as we love
to get touched by the Lord, and many of you were
being touched by him today. We have been filled
with his spirit that we might be a people that
tell it and live it. This was why he gave the
Holy Spirit, that we would have boldness to tell
and live it. And so as we stand this morning,
let's just, as we sing this, let's make it our
declaration before the Lord. Lord, listen, it
was never the intention that the church, us,
whatever that is, be the ones to do it. Our job
is to equip you to do it. Right? And part of
that is evangelist. Part of that is telling people.
And so let's, you know, loosen up and just shine
the light and be the light and live it and tell
it for people that need the good news that we've
received. And so Candice and Ben, let's declare
it as we finish up this morning.