Why prepare your testimoy and tips on how to do it

A.Why Prepare Your Testimony?

1. The Apostle Peter challenged us to: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15) This becomes the primary reason for giving your testimony. With it, you tell others about how Jesus Christ gave you new life, has changed (and is changing) your life, and given you the hope of heaven. Truly it is a first-hand account, even as the Apostle John wrote, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard..." (1 John 1:3).

2. In Acts 26, the Apostle Paul testified before King Agrippa. Paul told him simply, logically, and clearly about his life before salvation, how he met Christ, and what his life was like afterwards. If you read Paul's testimony, aloud in a conversational manner, it takes about three or four minutes.

3. As you begin writing out your testimony, ask the Lord for wisdom and insight. Remember, God gives His wisdom liberally and without reproach as it says in James 1.

4. Many who have undertaken writing out and proclaiming their testimony have said that the work on the testimony was one of the most beneficial parts of their training. Why use the word training here? As believers in Christ, we are all called to the Great commission. All of us, even if we do not have the gift of evangelism, are to proclaim the Good News. As believers in Christ, given the greatest gift of all time, how can we not share the true Gospel? It is a part of our “training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16); our calling to train or “discipline [ourselves] for the purpose of godliness” (I Tim. 4:6-8)

5. Do you have to be a trained speaker, eloquent in speech? NO. Not at all. Just a willing and even eager vessel used by God, “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11 that he was NOT a trained speaker, but he did speak boldly and without hesitation the Gospel of God. Give time, thought, and prayer to this important part of your training in discipleship.

B. Preparing a Personal Testimony: General Comments

The amount of time and effort it will take each of you to prepare your personal testimony will vary greatly. This has little to do with your intelligence or spirituality. It is a result of the complexity of your story. Some testimonies are extremely difficult to communicate clearly. Some have to be condensed to manageable length. Others need to be expanded. So there are many factors which influence how long it will take you to complete your written testimony. If yours comes quickly and easily, don't be proud. And if the preparation seems to be more difficult for you than others, don't be discouraged. Be consistent in prayer for yourself and your fellow sisters in Christ who are learning with you.

C. The General Outline of a Personal Testimony

1. Before - a short sketch of what your life was like before you became a Christian. Before I became a Christian, I lived and thought this way?

2.How - how, specifically, you came to become a Christian. How did I become a Christian?

a) Communicate the Gospel clearly and briefly

b) The fact of sin (use God's law!) --“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

c) The penalty for sin “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23

d) Christ's payment of that penalty (God’s righteous requirement and Christ’s willingness) --"He [the Father] made him [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" --2 Cor. 5:21

e) That there was nothing you could do to save yourself. Good works are not enough. Even our good works are as filthy rags apart from Christ. (Read I John 1:8-10)

f) The requirement to trust (believe) in Jesus' completed work on the cross. (God’s grace) --"He that believes on Him is not condemned; but he that believes not is condemned already...." John 3:18

g) It isn't enough to believe that Jesus is the One that you think He is; you must believe that He is the One He claimed to be. He claimed to be God by such phrases as "I am the bread of life..." (Jn. 6:35), "...he that believeth on Me shall never thirst" (Jn. 6:35a), "...I am the light of the world..." (Jn. 8:12b), "I am the good shepherd..." (Jn. 10:11a), "I am the door..." (Jn. 10:9a), "I am the resurrection, and the life..." (Jn. 11:25a), "I am the way, the truth, and the life..." (Jn. 14:6a). Therefore, because Jesus was identifying Himself with God, saving faith not only becomes a question of turning from sin, but trusting the Son as well. It's a question of believing Jesus is who He claimed to be. You ask, "Well then, am I going to die in my sin unless I believe that He is all that He claimed to be?" That's right. You ought to find out who He claimed to be, for Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing a message about Christ. You can never have true faith unless you hear the truth about Christ. (Some of the old translations say, "...faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." But the best Greek manuscripts say, "...by the word of Christ.") True faith is the result of hearing and believing with your heart that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and that God verified that claim by raising Him from the dead (Rom. 10:9).

h) Jesus was guilty of nothing. Yet on the cross, the Father treated Him as if He had committed personally every sin ever committed by every individual who would ever believe. Though He was blameless, He faced the full fury of God's wrath, enduring the penalty of sin on behalf of those He came to save. In this way, the sinless Son of God became the perfect substitute for the sinful sons of men. As a result of Christ's sacrifice, the elect become the righteousness of God in Him. In the same way that the Father treated the Son as a sinner, even though the Son was sinless, the Father now treats believers as righteous, even though they were unrighteous. Jesus exchanged His life for sinners in order to fulfill the elective plan of God.-John MacArthur

i) Always uphold the Bible as the authority. Don't say "Mike told me that I was a sinner," say "Mike shared with me from the Bible that I..."

3.After - relating the changes in your life. After I became a Christian, what changes took place?

a)two or three personal changes (benefits) of becoming a Christian.

b)You should be able to pull from current evidences in your life that it is changed and not just from way back when.

c)If you cannot use current evidences, then you may want to “examine your faith”

4.Scripture or life verse. Pertinent verse that comes to mind when thinking of your salvation in Christ?

D. Preparation Tips

1.Even before you begin writing, pray for God's help. Look to Him for wisdom.

2.Make three separate headings labeled Before, How, After and write key words to help you remember what you mean

3.Make a draft using what you have written in your three notes. Read it conversationally and time yourself.

4.Make improvements on your draft (simplify, keeping essential details).

5.Make a new (maybe final) draft. It should read at 3 to 5 minutes long.

6.Now make an outline of your presentation on a 3" x 5" index cards or write it out. Whatever is more comfortable.

E.Two Formats

1.Chronological... Before — Salvation — After — Eternity

2.Flashback... Before — Now — Salvation — Eternity

Note: The ‘flashback’ works better if the "how" is very short or there's more that you want to share about "now".

D. Common Pitfalls in Preparation.

1.Too cautious in your first draft. It's rough. Even if it's long, get it down. You can shorten it later.

2.Too much dwelling on the past.

3.Let people know that you are a human being saved by the grace of God alone. Avoid sounding super-spiritual as though you’ve arrived. Only Christ has.

4.Don’t have an exact date of your conversion? Sometimes there is more than one time/event that led to conversion. If you are not sure, ask a spiritual leader (elder) for help to sort this out.

5.Procrastinating. Putting it off doesn't get it done.

6.Don’t get caught up in what other’s may think of you.

7.“…concern yourself with what is true… present [your testimony with the Gospel] as clearly, and as accurately as possible. If we are faithful in that, the soil God has prepared will bear fruit. His Word will not return void.” –John MacArthur

8.You are not a commercial pitchmen and you are without excuse. You are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20). God’s Word does not say that proclaiming the Gospel is optional or someone else’s gift. It is a command to every Christian to proclaim the Gospel. How can we not share what God has so greatly accomplished while we were yet sinners? The fear of man is no excuse.

9.“Paul was not ashamed of the gospel (Rom 1:16). He willingly suffered for the truth’s sake (2 Cor 11:23-28). He did not back down in the face of opposition or rejection. He did not adjust the truth to make unbelievers happy. He did not make friends with the enemies of God.” –John MacArthur

10.“If anything, the obligation to communicate the truth of the gospel clearly and accurately weighs more heavily on our generation than on those who have gone before us, because our opportunities are so much greater. Luke 12:48 says, “From everyone who has been given much shall much be required. No previous generation has been blessed with the means of mass communication like ours.” –John MacArthur (no excuses) Read Romans 10:17

11.Remember, “There is no neutral ground, no purgatory, no waiting place in this day and age. Hell may have different designations as to its final form and identity, but there are only two places-- heaven, where God is, or hell, where God is not. You may have heard the old line, "He had nobody to blame but himself." That is actually biblical. There may be a big theological argument about who is responsible when people get saved--whether it's God, or whether men have anything to do with it--but there's no question about who is responsible in the Bible when people go to hell, because it says that men choose.” (read Romans 1:20)