In the Bible Christian Ministry
Sunday 9-06-26 (Faith Goes to the Stand, Part 2)
  • We've Come to Worship
  • Awesome God - Tammi & Gerald Haddon
  • Days of Elijah
  • He is Exalted / Give Him Praise

  • Series: Faith Goes to the Stand: Living as a 24/7 Witness
    Sermon Title: What Is a Witness? (Firsthand Faith Over Hearsay)
    Primary Scripture: Acts 6:8–15; Acts 7:51–60; 1 Timothy 6:11–12
    Supporting Scripture: Deuteronomy 19:15; Matthew 5:14–16; Romans 12:1–2; John 15:4–5

    I. The Comfort of Inherited Religion

    As many of you know, I grew up in church.
    My parents were ministers; my mother was always at the church building serving, teaching, and praying.
    Church culture was the air I breathed from the time I was an infant.
    And when you are raised in a deeply Christian home, it is easy to assume that your environment is your faith.
    In my mind, growing up in that household felt like enough.
    I had the vocabulary, I knew when to stand up, I knew when to sit down, and I knew how to look the part.
    Then I grew up, moved out into adulthood, and married a good Christian woman who also grew up in church.
    And let me be completely transparent with you this morning: back then, she practically had to drag me to church on Sunday mornings.
    I didn't feel like going. I didn't want to wake up and sit in a pew. But out of love and respect, when she said, "Let’s get up, let’s go to church," I’d say, "Okay, let’s go."
    I was present in the building, but if I am honest with you, my heart was completely disconnected.
    I was living on secondhand faith.
    I was riding the spiritual coattails of my parents' ministry and my wife’s devotion.
    I was showing up because someone else desired it for me, not because I had an active, personal reality with the living God.
    And that disconnect remained until one day, I stopped relying on other people and started opening up to God for myself. I started reading, studying, and seeking God on my own terms.
    And when I did, the difference in that connection, the difference in that bond, and the reality of a firsthand, personal relationship with Jesus Christ changed everything!
    It wasn't an outward rulebook anymore. It was a living, breathing relationship.

    II. The Trap of the Religious Checklist

    Church, how many of us in this room are living on hearsay faith?
    We treat God like an employer who hands us a weekly punch card.
    We come to Him and we ask ourselves:
    "What good deed did I do this week to keep God off my back?"
    "Did I read a verse so God will make my week go smoothly?"
    "Did I avoid getting caught in anything bad so God stays happy with me?"
    We turn the Christian life into a "user-friendly" transaction:
    If I perform ABC, God owes me XYZ.
    But religion that focuses only on tasks and outward checklists will always leave your soul exhausted and empty. Religion can reform your manners, but only a genuine relationship can transform your heart.
    God is not sitting in heaven looking over a checklist of your chores.
    He is looking at the state of your connection. When you stand before Him at the end of the day, the end of the week, or the end of the month, the primary question from heaven is not: "How many religious rules did you keep?"
    The question is: "How close did you draw to Me today?"

    III. GOD: The Eyewitness Mandate (Acts 6:8–15; Deuteronomy 19:15)

    This brings us right into our brand-new series: "Faith Goes to the Stand: Living as a 24/7 Witness."
    You can not testify to what someone else experience.
    Relying on hearsay faith. Like telling someone about a movie you have never seen.
    sounds good in casual conversation but under cross examination- it falls apart quickly
    Hearsay—-INADMISSABLE
    The Scenario: You witness a car accident. You did not see who ran the red light, but your neighbor ran out of their house and yelled, "The blue car ran the red light!
    When we hear the word witness, many of us immediately picture an awkward task:
    Knocking on strangers' doors,
    Waving a sign on a street corner, or starting an aggressive argument in the office breakroom.
    But that is not biblical witnessing.
    In ancient Hebrew jurisprudence, the word for witness is means to duplicate, repeat, or affirm.
    Under the Mosaic Law in Deuteronomy 19:15, an issue could never be decided by rumor, assumption, or hearsay; it required two or three eyewitnesses who could testify to what they personally experienced.
    Deuteronomy 19:15 NIV
    15 One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
    In the New Testament, the Greek word for witness is Martys (MARTOOS)—the root of our English word martyr.
    In a 1st-century courtroom, a martys was not a salesperson trying to persuade a jury with clever rhetoric or emotions.
    A martys was an eyewitness under sworn subpoena who simply took the stand and stated: "This is what I saw. This is what I heard. This is what happened to me."
    In Acts 6, we meet Stephen. Stephen was not an apostle; he was a faithful believer waiting on tables to care for widows.
    Acts 6:8–9 NIV
    8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen.
    Acts 6:15 NIV
    15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
    But Scripture says he was "full of grace and power" (Acts 6:8). When opposition arose, religious elites dragged him before the high council inside the Chamber of Hewn Stone in the Temple courts.
    False witnesses stood up and lied about him.
    Israelite Law—False Witness—- Receives the exact punishment of the person they are testifying against.
    Why did Stephen's face shine in a hostile courtroom?
    Because he wasn't reciting a rehearsed script from memory!
    He wasn't relying on his parents' pedigree. Stephen had a firsthand, living connection with the risen Christ, and the internal presence of God radiated right through his countenance.
    Stephen understood what we must realize today: Hearsay is strictly inadmissible in the Kingdom of God. You cannot testify to a Jesus you do not personally know.

    IV. THE SHIFT: The Divine Subpoena of Daily Life

    Stephen was a Matry but I’m an Accountant. Lets move from Stephen’s trial to ours…
    You and I do not have to wait until we die to stand before God’s bench.
    Every single morning when your feet hit the floor, you are stepping onto the witness stand.
    He subpoena’s us daily.
    Tomorrow Mornings Alarm Clock is a Subpeana
    1 Timothy 6:11–12 NIV
    11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
    Your workplace is a courtroom.
    Your school hallway is a courtroom.
    Your dinner table and your neighborhood sidewalk are courtrooms.
    Every interaction you have with a stressed coworker, a difficult classmate, a frustrating spouse, or a hurting neighbor serves as a divine legal subpoena.
    Matthew 5:14–16 NIV
    14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
    The world is watching the evidence of your life:
    When conflict hits the office, do you panic and gossip like everyone else, or does your presence bring peace?
    When pressure mounts at school or home, do you snap, or does the structural integrity of your relationship with Christ hold the line?
    When people talk to you, do they hear genuine compassion, or do they hear a cold, religious lecture?
    John 15:4–5 NIV
    4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

    V. YOU: Auditing Your Connection

    As we close this morning, let us stop looking at our Christian walk as a scorecard of deeds.
    We have to dismantle the performance trap. God is not standing in heaven holding a divine punch card, waiting to see if you clocked in enough hours or checked off enough religious tasks to earn His smile. He is looking for covenant intimacy.
    Husband/Wife
    Take a moment right now where you sit, and let us do an honest spiritual audit of where our hearts truly stand:

    1. Drop the Secondhand Script

    Have you been coasting on inherited religion?
    Have you been riding the spiritual coattails of your parents’ prayers, your spouse’s devotion, or decades of consistent church attendance? Inherited faith will never survive an open-air storm. A court of law will throw out hearsay, and heaven will not accept a borrowed testimony.
    Today is the day to put down the script someone else wrote for you and say: "Lord, I don’t just want to know about You through my family or my church; I want to know You for myself."
    Luke 6:45 NIV
    45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

    2. Audit Your Connection, Not Just Your Activity

    Stop asking at the end of the day, "Did I do enough good deeds to make God happy with me?"
    That is the question of a contractor trying to fulfill a quota, not a child walking with their Father. When you treat God like an employer, faith becomes exhausting, transactional, and dry.
    Instead, ask yourself every single morning:
    "Lord, how can I walk closer with You today?"
    "How can I stay planted by the river of Your presence?"
    "How can I simply abide in the Vine so that Your character, Your patience, and Your peace flow naturally through my life?"
    Remember: the branch does not sweat to produce grapes. The branch has only one job—abide. When the connection is healthy, the fruit is inevitable.
    John 14:23 NIV
    23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

    3. Answer the Subpoena of Daily Life

    Tomorrow morning, when that alarm sounds and your feet hit the floor, remember that you are stepping out of the sanctuary and directly onto the witness stand.
    When you walk through the school doors, step onto the job site, sit in your corporate cubicle, or gather around your kitchen table, you are under a divine legal summons. The people in your life—your coworkers, your classmates, your children, and your neighbors—may never pick up a Bible, but they are reading the living testimony of your life every single day.
    Colossians 3:17 NIV
    17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
    If your last few weeks were abruptly entered into evidence. Who would the Jury say you serve.
    You are an official eyewitness of His transforming grace. You are not there to argue, condemn, or perform; you are there to testify by how you love, how you listen, and how you stand firm under pressure.
    Let your relationship with God become your daily reality—not an occasional Sunday visit, but an unshakeable connection rooted in intimacy, established in peace, and shining as living evidence to a watching world.
    Let us pray.

      • Deuteronomy 19:15NIV2011

      • Acts 6:8–9NIV2011

      • Acts 6:15NIV2011

      • 1 Timothy 6:11–12NIV2011

      • Matthew 5:14–16NIV2011

      • John 15:4–5NIV2011

      • Luke 6:45NIV2011

      • John 14:23NIV2011

      • Colossians 3:17NIV2011

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