What do you think of when you hear the term, “witness?” Does it evoke a negative response? Are you reminded of people in their Sunday best, going door to door, handing out flyers about Armageddon, the person standing on a table in the food court yelling at everyone below that they’re going to hell, or the coworker that looks at your lifestyle and makes a checklist of things you need to change about yourself before you can go to heaven? I’m a christian, have experienced some of these and it puts me on the defensive. I can only imagine how it goes over with someone who hasn’t read the bible, and doesn’t know that God’s call is to believe first. When we witness, should we witness about God’s love, what it’s done for our life, and what it can do for the lives of those who do not yet believe? Do we even have the right to judge? We are all sinners, after all.

In this age, we come across so many people that do not fully understand, or even know God. Many times within our own friends and families. Even so, witnessing is extremely painful for me. I’m bombarded with negative thoughts every time I’m about to tell someone about God. What is this person going to think of me? Am I going to come across as crazy, judgmental or dumb? Will they still want to speak to me after I talk with them? Will I lose their friendship? Will I get in trouble at work? It’s funny that the reason I don’t witness is out of respect for the person, but really – not witnessing is neglecting to let them know about real peace, and a relationship that will change their lives for the better. It’s not respect, it’s fear.

Pastor Zedick’s message this Sunday was about spreading the news, or witnessing about God. He made the illustration of the aircraft carriers turning on their lights so the Hornet pilots from Mid Way could safely land, even though it risked submarine attacks. So we have to be bold when we talk to others about God. And likewise bold when we see God’s word twisted into a judgmental story. Jesus didn’t witness to the righteous, he witnessed to the tax collectors, the adulterers, the sick. When you read the bible, that’s what you find out. It’s a message of love and forgiveness. “Therefore I tell you, her sins, many as they are, are forgiven her – because she has loved much.” Luke 7: 47. So how do we witness? I think it will be situational, but for myself, with whatever I say to someone – I will stay consistent with the messages from the bible to spread the news about God.

Click here for the full sermon notes.