Testimony #2

Yesterday we learned the basic ingredients of a personal testimony: 1) Your life before Christ. 2) The day you met Christ. 3) Your life since Christ came in and saved you. Today let me give you some practical guidelines.

Practical Guidelines:
DO's and DON'T's:
Do give the gospel clothed in your own experience. Give a lot of the gospel and little of your life. In other words, be sure your testimony gives the biblical gospel message. Be specific about the message and general about your personal life. After they hear it, can they be saved just by what you said? The main ingredients in Paul's testimony should be ours: 1) Consciousness of Sin. 2) Conviction of Sin. 3) Conversion. 4) Commitment to Christ.

Don't refer to your age or to dates. Don't mention specific cities or places. Why? Because it's not necessary that they know you were 14 years old when you realized that you were a sinner and your life was displeasing to God. What is necessary for them to know is that you were a sinner and your life was displeasing to God! And if you were saved much later in life, don't glamorize your sinful past. Don't talk in such a way that you sound as though you miss being lost. Bottom line: Don't give lots of unnecessary details. Be brief and be biblical.

Take some time and write out your testimony. Putting it on paper forces you to think through your salvation experience. One more tip: Take a biblical presentation of the gospel, like the Roman Road, and use that as a template to weave your testimony through. When you're done, you'll have a biblical presentation of your testimony--lot's of the gospel, little of your life. Write it out and then be ready to share the reason of hope that is in you.