Category: Christian

On Sunday May 07TH 2017 I preached my 4TH sermon to my church family. It was titled “Testify & Preach”.

Here’s an excerpt of it that I’ve updated and enhanced 3 years later:

John Chapter 15 Verse 27, and this final verse (of this Chapter) is so critical. This is what it all leads up to. This is what it’s all about – as the branches of the vine that is Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ – through the love of God and the hate of the world – as God’s arms, hands, legs, and feet in this world:

You must testify about Me – because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Merriam-Webster defines “testify” in this way:
– to make a statement based on personal knowledge or belief; to bear witness
– to serve as evidence or proof
– to express a personal conviction

YES ! – I will always testify on what I know – on what I believe – is the Truth.

We all need to testify.

“But Chris I’m not qualified to testify. I’m new at this. I’ve done many bad things in my life. I don’t know what to say. I don’t talk good. I’m shy. I have stage fright. I’m scared of the spotlight. I don’t have credentials. I don’t have a seminary degree.”

Let me tell you this. Everyone who believes, and follows, and trusts, and obeys, and loves God is qualified and obligated to testify. It doesn’t matter if your dad was a Preacher and you grew up in a Christian family, or if you’re the only one who’s been saved in your immediate family. It doesn’t matter if you were saved 10 years ago, or 10 months ago, or 10 weeks ago, or 10 days ago, or even 10 minutes ago. If you call on Christ as your Lord & Savior then you must testify and preach !

Someone once described my teaching – now preaching style – as a series of personal testimonies interconnected by Bible verses. OK – I’ll take that. It’s what I know how to do. I read the Bible. I learn something new every time I read the Truth. I try to understand everything I read. Sometimes I don’t understand – so I keep reading until I do. I try to apply what I’ve read to my own personal journey of the past nearly 14 years. I put my thoughts to written words on my home computer as best as I can. Those written words eventually form a lesson plan or a sermon based on a title, a theme, or a subject matter. Sometimes I’m writing several sermons simultaneously. I have a collection of sermons that I’ve written over the past 4 years. I update and enhance them on a regular basis, and then when I’m called upon to do so I determine which sermon is the most relevant at this time to preach on. I ask God which sermon are you going to place on my heart to “Testify & Preach”.

So I’m testifying on what I’ve lived – on what I’ve experienced – and I’m teaching and proclaiming – I’m preaching – on what the Bible tells me so about those life experiences. God gives me the right words at the right time through the Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

Happy Sunday April 19TH 2020 !  This is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. And let us continue this praise, this worship, this celebration of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ – right where we are – in our own homes.

This is the 5TH Sunday in a row in which my church family will not be meeting corporately at our building for our weekly celebration of Christ. Our Worship Pastor taped a sermon and placed it on Facebook on our 1ST Sunday away from each other, and our Lead Pastor did the same for the next 3 sermons after that. I’m looking forward to the next one online, as they have all been relevant and powerful – giving glory to God.

Here at #CountUp I preached a full sermon in blog form in 4 parts over the past 4 Sundays. I broke my own rule of “3 minutes or less”. That is – each one of my blog posts can be read in 3 minutes or less – except for my 4-part sermon. Each part was closer to a 5-minute-read. I knew I wanted it to culminate on Easter Sunday, so that gave me 4 Sundays to do so. I actually thought about breaking it up into 5 shorter parts and then presenting the extra part on a Thursday – perhaps Holy Thursday / Maundy Thursday – but I didn’t need to do so. While it may have taken you about 20 minutes to read it all it would have taken me over 45 minutes to preach it all from the pulpit in front of my church family. At 13 Microsoft Word pages it’s actually my longest sermon ever written.

It was even longer than that. I removed an entire section on Satan and hell. That got spun-off into its very own sermon (which I’m currently writing). I’m making pretty good progress so far. I’ve already got about 10 minutes of pulpit-preaching material. Incidentally my goal is to keep my sermons at about 35 to 40 minutes. I’ve been known to be “long-winded” in the past, so I’m learning how to shorten my sermons to my church family.

My 4-part sermon – “Faces & Heels” – was substantially enhanced from its original form – written in 2017. It was the 11TH sermon that I wrote since 2016 (when I started preaching). It sat idle since then. My new sermon – “Satan & Hell” – is my 35TH sermon.

As for future sermons here at #CountUp – I may do it again sometime soon.

Preach the Word of God. Be prepared – whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. (2 Timothy 4:2 NLT)

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries