MTYC 2010: You Are My Witnesses

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Montana Youth Conference

Wes Peppers

Get Real

Father in Heaven, Lord tonight we have come to this place not to hear the words of Wes, but to hear words from Heaven.

Tonight to hear the words that would proceed from the throne of God.

And tonight, Lord, we earnestly seek your blessing.

And Lord, the theme for this weekend is how to be a witness.

But Lord, before we can be a witness, we must become a witness.

And Lord, we pray this weekend that you will make us witnesses for you.

And Lord, that you would transform our hearts beginning this moment.

That Lord, when we leave this place at the end of this weekend, we would not be the same people as when we came.

Tonight Lord we ask your Holy Spirit to be poured out as it was in the days of old, where young people gathered together in the days of the pioneers and they sought your blessing and they opened your word expecting that you would reveal truth to them.

We expect that same blessing tonight, Lord.

We would expect no less from the God of heaven.

We thank you, Lord, for your wonderful love towards us, your wonderful sacrifice, and Lord, for what you have in store for your people.

And we look forward, Father, to this weekend as we open the Scripture together, as we sing together, as we pray together, as we rejoice together in You.

Help us to be the people that You have designed us to be.

And so now, Lord, as we open the Word of Life, we pray that Your Spirit would make it come alive to us and we would see truth from Your Word that is just, that applies to our life today.

So we ask this blessing now and we seek it earnestly.

How many of you would say that you're, you may not be the best witness?

Now when I say that I don't mean you're a bad witness, okay?

What I mean is some of you say when you think about a witness you think of what?

Somebody that goes out into the community and gives what?

When you think about a witness you think of what?

When you think about a witness you think about somebody that has a pack of glow tracks in their pocket, right?

And every time they go to the supermarket what are they doing?

Giving out glow tracks or standing in the Walmart parking lot or whatever, right?

And when you, or when you think about a witness you think about some powerful preacher, some powerful evangelist, right?

But that's not exactly the kind of witness I'm talking about.

When you think about a witness, you think about, I want you to think about your life, right?

Now, and some of you may say, well I don't know how to give Bible studies or what not.

How many of you, if you were thinking just about giving Bible studies or knocking on doors, how many of you would say, I'm a bad witness?

I don't really, I'm a little bit nervous about doing that.

How many of you have that feeling tonight?

Don't raise your hand just because I said raise your hand.

But if you really feel that, raise your hand.

Now, I want, but being a witness goes much deeper than that.

And I want to look at a story with you this evening about somebody who was the least likely person to be a witness for God, okay?

A person that was the least likely to be a witness for God, but God got a hold of them and He changed their life and this person became 1 of the greatest, most powerful testimonies to God's love, His power, and His character than anyone you could imagine.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 5.

We're going to look this evening at God's power to turn you into a witness for Him.

If He can turn the worst case into a powerful witness, do you think tonight that there's hope for you and I?

If God can turn the worst case into a powerful witness there is hope for you and me, amen.

Mark Chapter 5 and we're going to just take it verse by verse and I'm going to bring out a number of points here.

Mark 5, verse 1 the Bible tells us, the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no 1 could bind him, not even with chains.

Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him.

And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones." Would you say tonight that this person is about the worst case of humanity you could possibly imagine.

And this man was as far away from humanity as possible.

In fact the Bible says that he had about 2, 000 demons inside of him.

Because the Bible says that there were 2, 000 pigs and Jesus sent the demons out.

And there was at least 1, 000 because He says, My name is what?

And typically I think there was something like a thousand Roman soldiers in a legion.

So there's at least a thousand demons in this man.

And the Bible says that he lived out in the tombs.

And every night it says he would cry aloud at night and he would cut himself.

And people would try to, maybe several strong men from the village would come, and they would tackle this man, and they would put chains around him and bind him and maybe throw him into the graveyard, it says, out with the tunes.

And did those chains hold that man, yes or no?

And so he had chains hanging from his arms and this man cried like a wolf out in the dunes, as far away from humanity as a person could possibly get.

You know, this man, this demon-possessed man tonight represents you and I, did you know that?

It represents humanity, who has gone about as far away from heaven's image, from God's first intentions for humanity, we've gone about as far away as we could possibly get from God's plan for our lives.

And the Bible says that Jesus crossed the sea to reach to the land of the Gadarenes to save this 1 soul.

Jesus crossed the sea for how many people?

Aren't you thankful that Jesus left heaven and came here to this earth for you and I?

How many of you are thankful that Jesus didn't cancel His appointment to come to this earth?

That gives you an idea of the value of 1 soul and the sight of Jesus, doesn't it?

You know, it wasn't just jumping in a boat and speeding across the lake back in those days, right?

It wasn't like me jumping on the plane and coming to Missoula, but it was hard work to cross the sea, right?

And Jesus knew that this man was there and He was willing to cross the sea for 1 soul.

You know, that soul that you think may never come to Jesus.

That person you say, oh, you know what, this person is so bad.

I could never imagine that person coming to Christ.

He sees the depths of the soul and there is no case that it's too bad for Jesus, amen?

And so Jesus the Bible says crosses over and it says when He had come out of the boat how fast did this man approach him?

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