Dare You to Act

Dare You to Act

Acts 1:8

 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Introduction: (clip)

He gets nothing. He won’t be richer. Won’t appear on TV. Still anonymous, not a bit more famous. What he does receive are emotions, he witnesses happiness, reaches a deeper understanding, feels the love, receives what money can’t buy. A world made beautiful. In your life? What is it that you desire the most? What is that intense feeling to satisfy a need?  Luke 12:34, “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be (NLT).” We have read messages after messages from this pulpit. One by one, building up to its culmination preparing for the climactic event —to bear witness and to witness for Christ. Being a witness means to give or serve as evidence of; testify to. This sums up all the messages.

WE are Carefully Created to be a Witness

“Our desires always disappoint us; for though we meet with something that gives us satisfaction, yet it never thoroughly answers our expectation” - E. Hubbard. Desire makes a man. You can tell a man by his desires or what fills his heart. The question in my mind when, the writer and American poet Elbert Hubbard said this quotation was, are we desiring the right things? When we say “right” it means morally good, justified, or acceptable. For by doing that of which is right you can be satisfied. For satisfaction is confident acceptance of something as satisfactory, dependable, true, etc. So it is safe to say that by doing what is good or right it can and will result to satisfaction.

 In the very first chapter of the Bible we can see the purpose why man has been created, Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” Gen. 1:26.  God created us not only as a representation of his external form but for us to have a resemblance of him or be like him. We sing “God is good!” that is true. For God is definitely good. Since that we have been created “according to His image and likeness” it should emanate through us.

WE are to Conform to be a Witness

When God created us in was not just a “spur of a moment” it was carefully planned out. The psalmist said, 13 “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” Psalms 139. For what purpose did God create us? For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” Ephesians 2:10. Apostle Paul attested that we imitate him as he imitates Christ 1 Corinthians 11:1. Apostle John second it by saying, “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” 1 Jn. 2:6. Christ Himself manifested, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you” John 15:16. These passages are crystal clear indications that we are to be conformed to the pattern of our Lord Jesus for that is His will from the beginning. As Madeleine L’Engle said, “To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist.”