You Have a Story to Tell

That lady's talking about the difference that Christ makes in a person's life. The thing I love about that dramatic sketch is the reality that it is real. Not everything is perfect in that young lady's life yet, not talking about Karen, but the lady she's portraying. Not everything is perfect in her life yet. She's still bumping into a few buildings along the way, but she does know that Jesus Christ makes a difference since she's growing and she's learning about the difference that Christ has made in her life since she's come to know Him. What difference does He made in your life? What difference does Jesus Christ made in your life? If you're a follower of Christ, He has made some difference in your life. There is a difference in the way things used to be and the way things are now. Jesus has made some kind of a difference. You do have a story to tell. Have you noticed how many infomercials are on television now? As if two and three minute commercials weren't long enough. We now have half hour commercials selling products, occasionally trying to find my way from ESPN to the weather channel. I'll run across one of those and I've stopped long enough just to have a good laugh, but I think I understand what they're doing. I'm talking about the kind of programs, half hour paid programming type thing where they're selling you something and it may be the Herculizer workout machine. Use this machine for a month and you'll be able to completely reshape your body. Or maybe it's the thing you do on your computer. You sell this particular product, work one hour a day on your computer and within a year you'll be making $100,000 a month, those kinds of programs. Or the kind that if you drink this diet supplement, it tastes exactly like a milkshake. If you drink that, you'll lose 30 pounds in a week. You know those kinds of things that they try to sell you. Why do people buy those things? I mean those things are all over the television. They wouldn't be there if they weren't selling stuff. Why do people buy those things? Well, it's not because of the products. I mean you notice they don't just flash the product on the screen, put a phone number there and expect you to call. What really sells those things, the compelling part of an info-mercial is the before and after stories of people. That's what sells it. It's not just the Herculizer machine. It's that Mr. and Mrs. Universe standing there in front of you saying, I used that, see what it did for me and you're thinking, wow, I've got to buy that thing. It's Ed and Edna everybody who are telling you they went from a welfare check to a winter cottage on Waikiki by selling that thing on their computer one hour a day. It's Mrs. Wanda was large with the wide angle before photographs and the swimsuit after photographs. She's been drinking that diet supplement. Man, I've got to get that stuff. It's the before and after stories of people who say, I've done this, I've tried this product, it really works, you've got to have it. That's what's compelling about an info-mercial. There is something just as compelling in the spiritual realm of a before and after story of what Jesus has done, what difference he's made in your life. If you're a follower of Christ, you have a story to tell. You have it before, you have an experience of coming to know Christ and you have an after. So there is a before and after. In fact, the Bible says there are all kinds of experiences like this. In fact, the gospel in the Bible is often couched in terms of before and after experiences, stories that people could tell. There was a woman at a well. She met Jesus. You know what John chapter 4 says about her? Look at this verse in John chapter 4, verse 39. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him speaking of Christ because of the woman's testimony. This is her testimony. He told me everything I ever did. He straightened out my past. He understood my past. He brought me to Himself starting with my past. Her testimony. What about the man in John chapter 9 who was born blind? Look at what he says. He replied, whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind. But now I see. You see, this guy was blind from birth. Jesus heals him and the Pharisees start grilling the guy on who it was that healed you. He must be some kind of sinner because he healed you on the Sabbath day. Broke a Sabbath law in our eyes. And the man says, I don't know who he is. I don't, whether he's a sinner or not, I don't know. But I do know one thing, my past. I was blind. My present. Now I see. So you've got to be for an after story too. In fact, the Bible's full of those kinds of things. The Centurion whose son was healed. The man at the pool of Bethesda who was unable to walk by Jesus. Jairus who had his daughter raised from the dead. Lazarus himself who was raised from the dead. And the Bible says that because of his story, many people trusted in Jesus in John chapter 12. There are all kinds of stories like that in the Bible, but I think the most compelling story in the Bible before and after to show the reality of what Jesus does and the difference he makes. I think the most compelling story is the story of the Apostle Paul. And he gives us his own story in Acts chapter 26. Let's open our Bibles to that passage of Scripture. Acts 26 where we have Paul's story. Now let me give you a little background here before we jump into his story. Paul has been arrested in Jerusalem because of his testimony for Christ because of his gospel that he's preaching, he's been arrested in Jerusalem. And he has for the sake of his life because there was a plot against him. He has appealed his case to Caesar which means he's going to be sent to Rome. But he makes a pit stop on the way in Caesarea which is the port city, the Roman capital of the province of Judea. And while there he's incarcerated for two years. It's in jail for two years waiting to go to Rome. He gives his testimony and pleads his case before Festus, the governor, and then a new governor, governor comes on the scene, Felix. And he gives his testimony and shares his case with Felix. Because there's a new governor in town, the king comes to greet him and honor him. Be kind of like the president coming to help install or honor or campaign for a new governor. It's kind of that thing. So Agrippa is in town. And Governor Felix says to Agrippa, I got this prisoner that I just think is a fascinating case. You'd love to hear his story. I'm going to bring him in and let him plead his case to you. And so we come to Acts 26 and Paul is pleading his case. Paul is actually giving his testimony, telling his story to King Agrippa. And the story falls into three sections. Notice if you will, his past. He first of all talks about his past. Look at verse four. The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child. And the beginning of my life in my own country and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify if they are willing that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. Now, down to verse nine. I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem on the authority of the chief priests. I put many of the saints in prison. And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished. And I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them. Now, those verses Paul is talking about his past. He's talking about his BC days before Christ days. Before he came to know the Savior, he talks about the fact he was very religious. In fact, he was a member of the strictest religion of his day. He was a Pharisee. Tried to keep every law of Moses down to the letter of the law. He was doing his very best to be a religious man. And he also talks about his antagonism toward Jesus Christ and his wild hatred of Christians. And what he did to try to persecute the church, that's all his past. A religious man, but a man who hated Christ and Christians. That's his past. But he doesn't stop there. Paul talks about his encounter with Christ in verses 12 through 18. That's the second part of his story. Look at verse 12 where he begins to talk about his encounter with Christ. Verse 12, on one of these journeys, I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About Noon O'King, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats. Then I asked, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, the Lord replied. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. That's his encounter with Christ. Second part of his story is, I met Jesus. I came to know Jesus as my Savior and noticed how he explains the circumstances surrounding that. He talks about the fact that he was on a trip. He was actually on one of these trips to go find Christians and throw them in jail. He was going to a certain city, Damascus and all of a sudden something happened and he describes the circumstances of seeing a great light and hearing a voice and what Jesus said to him. He is talking about the situation, the circumstances of his salvation experience. What happened when he came to know Christ? He is explaining all of that. That's his encounter with Christ. But he doesn't stop there either. Not only does he describe his past in this testimony, his story. Not only does he describe his encounter with Christ in his story, but he also goes on to describe his life since meeting Christ. In verse 19, he begins talking about that. His life since meeting Christ reads like this, verse 19. So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But I have had God's help to this very day. And so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen, that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles. So here's Paul giving his testimony and he's talking about his life since meeting Christ. Now, he has described his past, he's described his encounter with Christ, he's now talking about his life since meeting Christ. And he talks about how he has devoted his life to proclaiming the one he used to hate. What a difference, what a radical transformation in this man's life. The one he used to hate, the one the people he used to try to throw in prison and kill as many as he could. He now loves those people and he loves the Savior and he's proclaiming the same Christ that he once hated. That's his life now since meeting Christ. And he's talking about this radical transformation that has taken place in his life. Now, do you see a pattern there? Do you see a pattern for a personal testimony? Paul has very clearly described what he was like before he met Christ. He described the circumstances of his coming to know Christ and then he's described what his life has been like since knowing Christ. That's pretty good pattern for a testimony. In fact, I think that's a good pattern for your story and my story. Let's take Paul's story and just apply it very practically for a few minutes to you and to me. If we do the same kind of thing Paul did and this, by the way, is one of the greatest ways to share Christ with other people, if we do the same kind of thing Paul did, then we need to understand how to tell our story. You have a story to tell. I have a story to tell. We all have a story to tell of what we were like before Christ, of our encounter with Christ, and what it's been like since then. So let's kind of go through that for a few moments and let me just give you a few pointers and suggestions and ideas as to how you might be able to come up with your testimony. And I would suggest my friend, if you want to be ready to share this with people in the spur of the moment, in life's opportunities that come at you, if you want to be ready to share this, then think through what you would say before the time comes. Now the Bible says, every person who is saved has a past and has a present of future. In fact, very simply, the Bible says it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has gone. The new has come. So there are some old things in your life. There are some new things in your life. If you're in Christ, you're a new creature. There are some old things you can talk about. There are some new things you can talk about. That's true of every Christian. Everyone has a story to tell about those old things and those new things. And how it changed when we encountered Christ as our Savior. So let's talk about that. Let's talk first of all about how you might share your life before Christ. Your life before Christ, think through. As you think through your testimony and how you would share it with someone, think through what it was like before Christ. BC, before you came to know Christ, what was it like? Now in some of your cases, maybe you would have to say, man, I was all messed up in addictions. I was really heavy into violent anger or sexual sin or out of vicious mouth. Or you may describe something about your past that's pretty way out, pretty far down the tubes as far as sin is concerned. Or for some of you, it might be a little less threatening, a little less deep, but just as sinful in God's eyes. For some of you, you might describe your past like, you know, I just had a lot of hurtful selfishness in my life. And I was really selfish. My family knew it. My coworkers knew it. My friends knew it. Or maybe you just, you had a history of family neglect. Or maybe it was just deep bitterness over some hurts and things that had happened to you in your life. Or maybe it was just a consistent deceitfulness. You know, your past may be described as, you know, I used to pull the wall over everybody's eyes. I used to lie about everything. I just was my lifestyle. Or maybe you would describe your past in terms of what you were missing. Maybe you would have to say, you know, I was just a very lonely person. I really didn't know what it was like to have a solid, loving relationship with anybody. It was very lonely. Or maybe you would have to say, I just had a lack of purpose. There was no purpose in my life. There was no direction in my life. I was just floundering, trying to find what real meaning and purpose, fulfillment in life was. Or maybe you'd have to say, I just had a lack of peace. There was just no peace. I was always stressed out, anxious, you know, kind of like the story we heard earlier. My life was just a bundle of nerves all the time. I couldn't handle life. There was no peace at all. You know, maybe you would have to say there was a lot of guilt in my life from things that had happened in the past. Either things I'd done or things that had been done to me. Whatever it comes out like for you, think through how you would describe your life before Christ. What it was like for you before you met Him. That's a very important part of your testimony. But it's not the most important part of your testimony. Let's go to the next part of your testimony. If we follow the example given by the Apostle Paul, then you're going to talk about the turning point in your life. At some point, you're going to talk about where it changed, where it turned corners. The turning point in your life would be when you received Christ as your Savior. That's what Paul talked about. Paul talked about the details of his experience when he met Christ on the Damascus road and how what happened? So I would encourage you to do the same thing. Paul did think through what were the circumstances in your life that made you realize you needed Christ. And you may be going right back or just following up on those things you've talked about from your past. Maybe it was because there was no purpose or loneliness or anger or deep sin or whatever it was. And you finally came to the end of your rope or you finally came to your hog pin like the prodigal son. You finally got to where you just couldn't handle it anymore. Your life was a mess. And then that's where the story picks up. What was the turning point? Did someone talk to you? Did a friend invite you to church? Did you read a gospel track? Did you just open your Bible and desperation one night? Did you see Billy Graham on television? What were the circumstances? That first caused you to understand that you needed Jesus as your Savior. And you realized the only one that could make any purpose out of your purposeless life, the only one that could take care of the haunting guilt from your past sin and forgive you, you finally realized it was Jesus Christ. What were the circumstances that led you to that? Think through that. Be able to tell that part of the story. And then you might want to tell about the things that happened when you got saved. It was at the time when I did read my Bible in that motel room where I did fall on my knees out of desperation and just pray to the Lord or I did talk to a friend or talk about what happened when you actually accepted Christ as your Savior, the circumstances of your decision. That's the turning point for you. What you're doing is you're making clear to another person through your own story what it means to come to Christ and accept Him as your Savior. But that's not all the story either. There's a lot more to the story. If we follow Paul's example again, not only did he talk about his past, you'll talk about your life before Christ. Not only did he talk about his encounter with Christ and you'll talk about the turning point in your life too, the circumstances that caused you to receive Christ. But there's more than that. Paul also talked about his life since meeting Christ and what you will want to do is talk about your life with Christ. What has your life with Christ been like? What difference has he made? Now it's going to be different for all of us. But I would suggest that maybe you think through one of these three ways to talk about the difference Christ has made in your life. You may want to talk about the change in your life. Now if you're a new creature, there is a change. It's taken place in your life. And you may want to talk about that change that's taken place. Now please, if you start talking about the change that Christ has made in your life, please don't talk about it in these terms. Please don't say, well, I go to church a lot now and I've stopped doing these things. And I believe a lot of different beliefs than I used to believe. Because if you describe it in that way, you may give the wrong impression to a person about what it means to be a Christian. You may give them the impression that all it means is you go to church now. So okay, I'll start going to church. Or I need to stop certain things in order to become a Christian. Now please, if you talk about the change Christ has made in your life, talk about something specific. Tie back into your past. As the example, the illustration we heard earlier, a lady who struggled with deep anxiety and fear and nerve issues. Now, although she's not 100%, she knows where to go for help. She knows that Jesus has made a tremendous change in her life. And she knows that he is her strong tower. And she's learning that he is a refuge. And she's finding some help. And sure, you know, she may still need some medicine from the time to time and some medical help and all that. But she's learned also that there is a spiritual dynamic too that she needs to address in her life. And Jesus is that answer and he's helping her with that. That's the kind of change you need to talk about. Heart change, life change. I've learned how to be forgiven and to get rid of the past from the sin. I know what it means now to have peace in my life. I know what it means now to have some purpose. And not their times when I still get fouled up and confused, but I know what purpose in life is all about. I found it in Christ. And you know, Jesus has even helped knock off a few of the rough edges of my personality. I used to really go off and now I'm learning a little better. Not there yet, but I'm learning. You know, talk about the change he's made in your life. If you were to come to me and you were to say, tell me about your marriage. And let's say I were to pull out our wedding album. And I were to show you the pictures you would look through them and you would say, wow, Jeannie hasn't changed a bit. But would you tell me who her first husband was? Yeah, that's probably probably what you would say. But if I were just to show you the wedding pictures, you know, and then close it and stop, you would say, is that all? Been married 34 years. Is that it? Is that it? I mean, is there nothing else? Just the wedding pictures, the candles and the nice clothing and the ceremony. That was it. Of course, if I'm going to tell you about my marriage, I'm going to tell you about more than that. What's the difference it's made in my life since then? I would tell you about what a great lady Jeannie is. In fact, I don't have a lot of time right now. So I can't do that, but I would tell you that if I had the time, I would tell you that there's there's no person who in my heart and life and experience has had a deeper heart for God than that woman. And no greater impact on my life and ministry than that woman. Jeannie, I mean, she just has transformed my life. And we have three kids and I'd show you the pictures of the grandkids. And we got three grandkids and I'd tell you all kinds of other changes in our lives because of the fact that I married to Jeannie. I wouldn't stop with the wedding album. I'd talk about the changes since then and you went to Painsture was one of the greatest golfers this country has ever seen. He died tragically in October of 1999. He was at the top of his game really and he boarded a plane to fly to a promotional event in Texas and then he was going to play the next golf tournament there. Something happened. They don't really know what happened on that private charter plane. Something happened in the flight. Everybody died that was on the plane and the plane just kept flying. And instead of going to Texas, it ran out of fuel and crash landed in South Dakota and he died. tragically at age 42. But a couple of years before that, Painsture had received Christ as a savior. And there was a dramatic transformation in that man's life. Everybody knew him as a rude and arrogant man on the golf course. Four months before he died, he won his second US Open in June of 1999. And the camera's course that were on him all the time noticed he had a bracelet on and somebody asked him after the golf tournament, what's that bracelet? It was a WWJD bracelet. What would Jesus do? And so he's being interviewed by sports illustrated and he gives this clear testimony of the difference Jesus had made in his life. And he talked about how he absolutely used to have no peace at all in his life. He was rude and arrogant and just but the Lord had given him such a piece and he didn't know how he lived without that. Everything had taken its proper place and now his family, golf and his career and all of that was in its proper place under Jesus Christ. He clearly talked about that at his funeral service at the church he had become a member of in Orlando, Florida. First Baptist Church in Orlando. I remember seeing part of that on television and there were several other golfers, one of them a fellow Christian, Paul Azinger, who gave a clear testimonial about the change he had seen in pain stewards life. You see there was a change in his life. It was dramatic in his case but it was about his personality. It was about how he related to people and issues in his life and priorities in his life but it changed drastically. And that was his story. That was his testimony. Change in your life. Maybe that's what you'd want to talk about in your testimony. Maybe in your testimony you would talk about something else. Maybe it would be the difference Christ makes in difficult times. You know I believe one of the greatest opportunities we have to witness to people is in life's hardships. Someone has said, I don't remember the source. I read this somewhere but someone has said, if those without Christ want to know the difference he makes in our lives, let them come to our funerals. There's a lot of truth in that statement. For you see it's in the hardships of life. It's in the really tough times of life that the opportunity for gold to shine that has been refined in the fire is there. It's the opportunity for gold to shine. And so let it shine. You know let people see the difference that Jesus makes in the difficulties of life. People ought to be able to see and you ought to be able to very humbly share with them the difference that Christ made when you got laid off from work. The difference that Christ made when you got that scary medical diagnosis. The difference that Jesus made in your life when your family really struggled. It ought to be clear the difference that Jesus made when you've gone through the furnace of fire and you've gone through great difficulty and you've lost this or that or the other but Jesus makes all the difference in the world. People ought to be able to see that. That's a part of your story. Maybe that's the after Christ part of the story that fits best in your story in your testimony or maybe it's something like this. Maybe it's talking about how Christ helps in every area of life. You know this is a great way just to very naturally relate to people when you're talking about life's issues. Talk about the difference that Jesus has made just in every area of life. What new people talk about adults talk about when they get together. They talk about okay parenting issues. You know wow man I'm having all this difficulty with this you know and you can talk about how you've struggled too but there were some things you learned from a classic church or you learned from reading your Bible and not going to preach a sermon but just me share something that was really helpful to me in dealing with a parenting issue I went through. Something like that. Maybe it's not a pairing issue. Maybe it's stress and anxiety. You can talk about how Christ or knowing the Lord or finding comfort in your Bible has helped you through times in your life like that or maybe some other struggle that somebody has had or is talking with you about and you can relate to that but you can also share the difference that Jesus has made in your life. You see people need to see the difference that Christ makes. That's not the end of the story and it's not even the gospel but your testimony your story can lead to a telling of the gospel. It can lead to a hearing of the gospel. It can lead to a person connecting with you so that you have the foundation from which to share the gospel and talk about Christ but you can begin with your story. Back in 1995 grand central station terminal in New York City was cleaned. Now it's obviously cleaned all the time but I'm talking about the ceiling. The ceiling is a beautiful mural. I've never seen it but I've read about it. It's a beautiful painting a mural. It was done in 1945 but it had never been cleaned. So in 1995 they hired a couple of ladies, one from Russia, one from America who did this kind of work and they built the scaffolding and so forth and they cleaned that huge mural on the ceiling of that terminal where a million people a day changed trains and get other forms of public transportation. In some places they found a half inch of grime that needed to be taken off. I mean all those years of diesel fumes and cigarette smoke and dirt and dust and all that stuff. It just gathered and caked onto that mural and so they got all that stuff off and cleaned it off and the difference was stunning from what I read to just the colors, the brilliant colors, the clear defining shapes came out like never before but they did something interesting. They left a three by eight foot section uncleaned so people could see the difference and now when you look up at the ceiling, it's been 11 years since then but now when you look up at the ceiling you can see the huge difference when all the dirt and grime covers up a beautiful piece of art and you can see what it looks like when it's cleaned up. Now that's the difference people need to see in our lives. They need to see what it looks like when Jesus Christ moves into a life and cleans it up. When we come to know the Savior, what it was before, this is it, the three by eight section, that's it, that's what it looked like before. Now look at what it's like now with Jesus Christ, that's what people need to see, the difference that Christ has made in your life. Now let me just give a little PS, the end of this message, for those who don't think they have a story, maybe you're like me and you were saved when you were eight years old in a Bible school. You didn't have a lot of bad sin, it was not like you can go out and tell people I was in the sandbox one day and I saw this blinding light from heaven, it doesn't work, it's not like that. So you don't have that kind of glorious deliverance testimony to tell and you think, oh I don't have a story at all, yes you do, you do. You do have a story to tell, you have a story to tell of all the things that Jesus Christ delivered you from that you potentially could have gone into in your life and praise be to the Lord and glory goes to him. Thank God because I knew him, I didn't get into some things otherwise could have. Or you might just simply talk about the current sin monsters that still haunt you because all of us have them don't we? I mean we're still human, we're still sinners, right even though we've come to no Christ as our Savior, we still face temptation and the only way we can successfully face temptation is through knowing Christ and the strength he gives us and thank the Lord, you know, he's helped me with some areas and I'm not perfect and sometimes I stumble and make a mess of things and rub my nose and the dirt too but thank God he's helped me with some areas of my life, you know, talk about those things or the things we just talked about, the difference Christ makes in difficult times, the difference he makes in everyday issues of life, you've still got a story to tell, just be sure and tell it, just don't hold back, tell the story. I've mentioned Tony Campolo here before, Tony Campolo is a professor at Eastern College in near Philadelphia, he's a sociologist, he's a Christian writer, he writes a lot of Christian books and he tells a story one time about being a counselor at a junior camp which he says, a camp for junior high students which he says every Christian ought to do one time at least in their lives, the counselor to camp like that, you know junior high is a tough time, junior high is a tough time for students and it's a time of discovery and learning about who you are and growing through some tremendous life changes but it's also a time when some students can be very cruel to other students, none of you junior high students here are that way but you know some that are cruel at that phase of life and Tony Campolo says that's the way it was in this camp you know he heard a lot of the cruel jokes and things being said and Snickers and all that but he said there was one guy in the camp whose name was Billy, he had cerebral palsy and he was a natural target for the other kids and they were making cruel remarks about the way he walked with kind of his lumbering walk and the way he talked in a very stuttering, hesitating fashion, everybody was making jokes the kids, we're making jokes about that and Tony Campolo said the worst one was when it came time for Billy's cabin to give the cabin devotions one night in the service and all the other people in the cabin voted that Billy would speak, the only reason they did that is so they could make fun of him. So the time came and Billy gets out of his seat and he kind of stumbles and lumbars up to the front you can hear the Snickers of the other kids in the group and he got to the front and he turned around and it took him a full minute to say seven words as they stumbled out of his mouth, slow speech, his stuttering, he said Jesus loves me and I love Jesus. He said by the time that minute was up and he had gotten those words out there were no Snickers among those kids there were some sobs it could be heard and Tony Campolo says I saw a revival break out that night with kids getting right with God he said I still have people come up to me and say you remember that youth camp back in year so and so I was one of the guys that got saved in that week why because Billy had a story to tell nobody else thought he had a story to tell Billy himself probably wondered if he had anything to say worth hearing but he had a story to tell and there's something about your story if you'll tell it no matter how bland it may seem and no matter how haltingly you may seem to give it that the Holy Spirit comes down on and makes powerful in the life of somebody else because somebody else needs to hear your story what it was like before Christ how you encountered him and came to know him and what it's been like for you since then please tell it what you pray with me Father we thank you for Paul's story the woman at the well story the blind man's story Lazarus's story so many stories in the Bible how people came to you came to know you the difference that made in their lives Father thank you for our story the story we have because we know Jesus or do we all have a story to tell I pray you to help us to tell it faithfully clearly in a God honoring way that doesn't draw attention to us but draws attention and gives glory to you but help us to tell our story Lord I pray if there's anyone here this morning that doesn't have a story to tell that they may realize their need of Christ and come to him as their Savior I pray for all of us who are saved who have a story help us not to hide it help us to remember Lord did like the servant that was given one talent where to use it we're not to hide it in the ground help us to tell our story in Jesus name amen