AMEN Australia 2019 Conference: Witnesses Unto Me

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

Edwin Nebblett

Witnesses Unto Me: In the Church

I have been blessed to have been here and in particular I've had the opportunity of enjoying things that I don't usually have the opportunity to enjoy.

Yesterday, I went with Donny and Kathy and Antoinette to the local market, and I was introduced, reintroduced to mangoes.

I have enjoyed eating mangoes, but I have come to appreciate that mangoes are like church.

Mango is spelt M-A-N-G-O, and that means that there's mango.

But I was informed that while that is a wonderful mango, the Kingston is the mango.

I did not know anything about the Kingston mango and so yesterday I had a Kingston mango, very flavorful.

In church you will meet some very flavorful people.

Not as bursting with flavor as the Kingston, I will admit.

But I'm reminded that where we go and what we enjoy has a lot to do with who we are.

My wife and I had the privilege of being in Malaysia last year where we spoke at the AOI conference.

And a young man there, Sam Castor, really took it upon himself to be a witness for another fruit, very well known and highly regarded in Malaysia.

And so after the meetings, he took us to the local market where we were introduced to durian.

Like mangoes, there is not just 1 durian.

There are varieties of durian, some more flavorful, some more odiferous, but nevertheless, all durian.

And so in that market, Brother Caster bought us a package of durian and I did not know what I was dealing with.

And he informed us that we had several varieties that we needed to enjoy.

I actually indulged and I got reintroduced to durian, but I knew that it would not be a lifelong, how shall I say, pursuit.

We are called upon to be witnesses in the church.

I spoke in terms yesterday of the fact that our text, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come among you, upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost ends of the earth.

So I share that becoming an effective witness for the gospel begins by becoming personally acquainted with God.

It's a prerequisite for being a faithful witness because the definition of a witness is 1 who knows God and makes God known.

And we do this by study of God's word, by prayer, reflection, contemplation, and by receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

That preparation allows us to grow in grace and begin to reflect his character and to be more like Christ.

And so I shared with you that we want to be witnesses after we have received power and I'm going to use the correlate both in Jerusalem being our home, in Judea will be what we're going to discuss today in the church, that's my correlation, and in Samaria in our community and in the uttermost part of the earth, our world.

You know, by coming to dwell among us, Jesus revealed the nature of his Father and the glory of his kingdom.

So what is the essence of God's character?

Sister White tells us that God's glory is the character of his love, which is the foundation of his government.

How can we, his church, reveal to the world the nature of God and his government?

In the same way that the angels in heaven reflect the nature of God and his government by giving love and tireless watch care to souls that are fallen and unholy.

They bring to this dark earth from the courts above by gentle patient ministry, they move upon the holy, they move upon the human spirit to bring the lost into fellowship with Christ.

So how do we then become witnesses in the church who is love personified?

You know, the love of Christ constrains us to become reflectors of his love and to go out into the highways and byways and to issue an invitation.

And we, as him messengers, the same yearning love that God himself has in seeking the lost.

We're not merely to say, come, there are those who hear the call, but their ears are too dull to take in its meaning, their eyes are too blind to see anything good in store for them because what they have received is pain and suffering more often than not.

We can see that it is the love and kindness of God that compels the lost to come to him.

Once again, it is evident that becoming possessors of the love of Christ, it's essential for us to be equipped as witnesses with his character.

And we give them what we have, our courage, our hope, our strength, and by our kindness, we compel them to come.

Contrary to what unbelievers may think, the love of Christ does not make us less fit for actual life, but it enables us to adapt ourselves to the wants of others and will develop highly practical fruit in our daily experience.

It is interesting because we know that this is not of any earthly origin.

This love is elevating in its nature and it's ennobling, it's enduring, it sheds rays of beneficence upon all within its circle of its influence.

So God sent his son, who sent down to this earth heavenly love to unite us with himself.

And brothers and sisters, nowhere is this better seen and demonstrated than in our love for 1 another in the church.

What opportunities do we have within our own body of believers that can show love for 1 another?

We believe that he could do more, but he does not choose to do so.

What can we do to demonstrate God's love?

So our church, the men in our church have gone and we have split wood for her and stacked it up and made it available for her during the months when it gets cold.

Just a week or so ago when my back decided that it did not like my own ministration to my family and I could not lift up the wood and chop the wood as I normally would do and so A brother came over and did that for me.

Our love for 1 another will lead us to have a love for others that are not of our faith.

You know, the disciple John changed from being 1 of the sons of thunder to becoming a possessor of divine love, which is An example of what God calls us to be as members of the body of Christ.

He, John, came under the power of the love of Christ and the knowledge of this love awakened a depth of affection that by its infusion to in his own heart wrought a transformation of character from the son of thunder to a beloved disciple.

As effective witness as John was, 1 who daily becomes thoroughly acquainted with and captivated by the love of Christ, his character was transformed.

And he goes on to bear witness, for he can do no other.

No sooner do we become converted than there is born within us a desire to make known to others.

What a precious friend we have found in Jesus.

You know, now that Jesus has ascended to heaven, his disciples, that's us, our representative among men.

And 1 of the most effective ways of winning souls to him is exemplifying his character in our daily life.

Our influence, this is the take home sentence of the whole message.

Our influence upon others depends not so much upon what we say as upon what we are.

I am much more comfortable reasoning with the left brain.

I like logically presenting an argument, a position.

But a life of disinterested love versus proof texts.

I'm not saying that proof texts do not matter.

I am not saying that this is not an important thing.

There's a place for my left brain approach.

But disinterested love moves the heart like a proof text never will.

Pastor Butcher pointed that out last night in very, very eloquent ways.

I've had the privilege of working at Weimar.

I, my son, my second son married a young lady who is the daughter of the physician that runs the practice.

So I don't know whether there was a strategy involved here, but he now works for the practice as their chief financial officer.

And needless to say, If I want to go visit him, I need to go to him.

And now that he has a young chap called Wesley Tindale, I quite enjoy visiting my son.

I do enjoy my son, but I must confess, there's a smaller package that really kind of captivates my heart.

So nevertheless, needless to say, I go to Weimar fairly often, as often as we can, and being there, I cannot help but see what they are doing.

I will share more of that tomorrow, of what that practice is doing to reach out to the community, and what Weimar Church is also doing in their neighborhood.

But it is not only by preaching the truth, not only by distributing literature that we are a witness for God.

Remember that a Christ-like life is the most powerful argument that can be advanced in favor of Christianity, and that a cheap Christian character works more harm in the world and in the church than the character of a worldly.

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Witnesses Unto Me: In the Church

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