Go Home and Tell

For a few Sundays now we have been climbing a single ladder together - அறிக்கை முதல் சாட்சி வரை, from confession to testimony. The first rung was to tell தேவன் everything, even the small things we talk ourselves out of naming: the flash of anger when someone knocks into us at church, the little stab of jealousy when a neighbour buys something new. Nothing is too small to say to Him. The second rung was to speak over ourselves what தேவன் says about us, because His word decides who we are becoming, not our past. He Himself puts it this way: "I have declared and saved." First He announces, then He does it, so His word carries all the weight.

"You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He... I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses," says the LORD, "that I am God." - Isaiah 43:10, 12 (NKJV)

"நானே அவரென்று நீங்கள் உணர்ந்து, என்னை அறிந்து விசுவாசிக்கும்படிக்கு, நீங்களும் நான் தெரிந்துகொண்ட என் தாசனும் எனக்குச் சாட்சிகள் என்று கர்த்தர் சொல்லுகிறார்... நான் அறிவித்து, இரட்சித்து, விளங்கப்பண்ணினேன்; உங்களில் அந்நிய தேவன் இருந்ததில்லை; நீங்கள் என் சாட்சிகள் என்று கர்த்தர் சொல்லுகிறார்; நானே தேவன்." - ஏசாயா 43:10, 12 (TAOVBSI)

The third rung was that we do not fight alone. We carry each other's burdens; we tell one trusted person our struggle and ask for prayer. That is why தேவன் gave us fellowship. No sickness, no worry, no sin, no curse is meant to be wrestled with in secret and by yourself.

Today is the last rung, and it is the whole point of the climb: உலகுக்குச் சாட்சி சொல்லுங்கள் - go home and tell. What தேவன் did in the secret place is meant to be spoken out in the open. When we have honestly walked the first three rungs, தேவன் has already changed us; the change is not ours to keep quiet about. Your testimony (சாட்சி) is a weapon, and it sets other people free.

The Man No Chain Could Hold (சங்கிலி கட்டமுடியாத மனிதன்)

Jesus crosses the sea into the country of the Gerasenes (கதரேனர் நாடு), and the moment He steps off the boat a man comes at Him out of the tombs. Look carefully at where தேவன் meets this man. Not in a clean place. The tombs (கல்லறைகள்) are foul, they stink, nobody keeps them tidy. And there this man lives, unable to keep even himself clean, past his own control, cutting himself with stones night and day.

"who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him." - Mark 5:3-4 (NKJV)

"அவனுடைய குடியிருப்பு கல்லறைகளிலே இருந்தது; அவனைச் சங்கிலிகளினாலும் கட்ட ஒருவனாலும் கூடாதிருந்தது. அவன் அநேகந்தரம் விலங்குகளினாலும் சங்கிலிகளினாலும் கட்டப்பட்டிருந்தும், சங்கிலிகளை முறித்து, விலங்குகளைத் தகர்த்துப்போடுவான்; அவனையடக்க ஒருவனாலும் கூடாதிருந்தது." - மாற்கு 5:3-4 (TAOVBSI)

See how honestly the Word tells it. It does not soften how far gone he was. No family to sit with him, no medicine, no doctor, no treatment, and no willpower of his own to climb out. Every attempt had failed, so in the end he had taken shelter in the graveyard itself. This is what real bondage (அடிமைத்தனம்) looks like. When a small trouble comes, we push through it. But when a sin or a habit slowly takes hold and drags us fully into bondage, our own effort brings no result, our family cannot reach us, and we end up alone in an unclean place. Do not hide how deep the pit was, because the deliverance (விடுதலை) is only ever as great as the pit you were lifted out of.

There were two men in the Bible whom chains could not hold. Samson was bound and he snapped every cord and walked away, because the Spirit of தேவன் was on him. This man in the tombs could not be bound either, but by the opposite power, an unclean spirit. That is how total the grip was. No one could control him, and he could not control himself. And then one meeting with Jesus did what years of chains could not.

"Then they came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed and had the legion, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid." - Mark 5:15 (NKJV)

"இயேசுவினிடத்தில் வந்து, லேகியோனாகிய பிசாசுகள் பிடித்திருந்தவன் வஸ்திரந்தரித்து, உட்கார்ந்து, புத்தி தெளிந்திருக்கிறதைக் கண்டு, பயந்தார்கள்." - மாற்கு 5:15 (TAOVBSI)

The man who had been naked among the graves is now sitting, dressed, and clear in his mind. புத்தி தெளிந்து - in his right mind. At yesterday's fasting prayer we asked தேவன் for exactly this. He does not give us a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind, a mind clear enough to make a decision and hold it. Think honestly about your own life. Are you a person who decides one thing, then changes it, then changes it again, going back and forth and never settling? Or can you look at a hard situation and say, "This is how it is, this is what must be done, whatever the cost, this is the way I will go"? A right mind can decide clearly. Deliverance gives you that.

And notice where such clarity comes from. Not from us searching for it on our own. You can put the question to ChatGPT and it will not have the answer for your soul. Ask Meta AI, ask Claude, ask Gemini, and none of them can hand you a clean heart or a settled mind. Use these tools, by all means, but do not lean your life on them, and never let any of them quietly become a god to you. We live depending on தேவன் alone. Until we are people with a clear mind before Him, we will not make the clear decision.

The whole town knew this man only one way: the screaming figure up in the hills, cutting himself. That was the only picture they had of him. தேவன் was about to hand them a completely new picture of the very same man, and that new picture would preach on its own.

Go Home and Tell (வீட்டுக்குப் போய்ச் சொல்)

Now watch what the freed man wants. It is the most natural desire in the world. "Lord, You set me free. I want to be with You. And I am finished with this town. What did these people ever do for me? They beat me and drove me off. Nobody brought me medicine. Nobody came near me while I lay in the tombs. It is just me and You now, Lord; I will go wherever You go." Every one of us would feel the same in that first hour of freedom. But look at how Jesus answers him.

"And when He got into the boat, he who had been demon-possessed begged Him that he might be with Him. However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, 'Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.' And he departed and began to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled." - Mark 5:18-20 (NKJV)

"அப்படியே அவர் படவில் ஏறுகிறபொழுது, பிசாசு பிடித்திருந்தவன், அவரோடேகூட இருக்கும்படி தனக்கு உத்தரவுகொடுக்க அவரை வேண்டிக்கொண்டான். இயேசு அவனுக்கு உத்தரவுகொடாமல்: நீ உன் இனத்தாரிடத்தில் உன் வீட்டிற்குப்போய், கர்த்தர் உனக்கு இரங்கி, உனக்குச் செய்தவைகளையெல்லாம் அவர்களுக்கு அறிவியென்று சொன்னார். அந்தப்படி அவன் போய், இயேசு தனக்குச் செய்தவைகளையெல்லாம் தெக்கப்போலி என்னும் நாட்டில் பிரசித்தம்பண்ணத்தொடங்கினான்; எல்லாரும் ஆச்சரியப்பட்டார்கள்." - மாற்கு 5:18-20 (TAOVBSI)

Jesus refuses him the one thing he asks for and gives him something harder. Not "come with Me," but "go home." Go back to your own people (உன் இனத்தார்), to the very street where they saw you at your worst, and there, in that exact place, tell them what தேவன் has done for you. The assignment is not a sermon and not theology. It is "tell them what the Lord has done for YOU." Your own story. You do not need a degree to say, "This is what தேவன் did for me."

And the saying of it is part of the healing.

"Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy." - Psalm 107:2 (NKJV)

"கர்த்தர் சத்துருவின் கைக்கு நீங்கலாக்கி மீட்டவர்கள் அப்படிச் சொல்லக்கடவர்கள்." - சங்கீதம் 107:2 (TAOVBSI)

The redeemed are told to say so. If தேவன் has delivered you, if He has blessed you, you are meant to speak it, not sit quietly on it. And the more you speak it, the more of the healing comes through. I am not telling you I have arrived. There are more things in me that still need to change than I could count, and தேவன் is working on them every single day. But this is how it happens: as I keep telling what He has done, He keeps moving me to the next level and showing me the next thing to surrender. The telling and the changing go together.

I know this because I live it. When I was unwell recently, many of you came and sang over me, and it helped more than I can say. I can tell others about that now only because I passed through those days myself. If I had never lain in that valley of sickness, I would not know what to say to a person suffering in bed. But because I went through it, I can go and sit with them, sing two songs, and even that becomes a real blessing to them. Your worst days become the very thing that lets you help someone else.

This week I went to see a man everyone had warned me about, a rough, hard fellow (முரட்டு ஆள்), they said. But when I met him he was sitting there like gold, speaking so gently and so well that you could never believe anyone had called him rough. That is what தேவன் does with a person. And I have made it my habit: whatever home I walk into, I start telling my own testimony. "I was like this. I was like this. தேவன் changed me." Plenty of people already know how much mischief I got into as a boy. So wherever I go, I say it, and every time I say it, I watch தேவன் move me a little further on.

The Word of Your Testimony (உங்கள் சாட்சியின் வசனம்)

Heaven names our weapon plainly.

"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." - Revelation 12:11 (NKJV)

"மரணம் நேரிடுகிறதாயிருந்தாலும் அதற்குத் தப்பும்படி தங்கள் ஜீவனையும் பாராமல், ஆட்டுக்குட்டியின் இரத்தத்தினாலும் தங்கள் சாட்சியின் வசனத்தினாலும் அவனை ஜெயித்தார்கள்." - வெளிப்படுத்தல் 12:11 (TAOVBSI)

This is a scene from a war in heaven, and it shows how தேவன்'s people defeat the accuser. Two weapons: the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. One of those weapons is your own mouth. The accuser did not love his life even when death was near; he stood and spoke. The whole power of the accuser (சாத்தான்) is to keep dragging up your past, to remind you of the secret thing and make you hang your head. You prayed today, you stood and sang, you read the Word aloud, you led the prayer, and then he leans in: "But there is that one sin nobody here knows about. Remember it?" And in that moment we go quiet and ashamed.

I know this from my own home. When I was younger and I would try to correct my father about something, offer him a little advice, he had one word that ended every conversation: "நீ யோக்கியமா?" - "Are you even a worthy man to talk?" And I had no answer. That single word would silence me and I would walk away, and for a long time it wounded me. So I prayed, and தேவன் changed my life little by little. Then one day the same thing happened, the same word, "நீ யோக்கியமா?" And this time I said, "Yes. I am a worthy man. I am righteous, because I have been washed in the blood of Jesus. I will speak, and you must listen." From that day my father never used that word on me again. When the accuser reminds you of the old life, you answer him the same way, and he has nothing left to say.

"how much more shall the blood of Christ... cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" - Hebrews 9:14 (NKJV)

"கிறிஸ்துவினுடைய இரத்தம், ஜீவனுள்ள தேவனுக்கு ஊழியஞ்செய்வதற்கு உங்கள் மனச்சாட்சியைச் செத்த கிரியைகளறச் சுத்திகரிப்பது எவ்வளவு நிச்சயம்!" - எபிரெயர் 9:14 (TAOVBSI)

In the old days people ran from தேவன். When the ark came near they fled; when தேவன் came down on the mountain in Moses' day they cried, "This தேவன் is too terrible, we will die if we hear His voice," and they ran. But today He has us standing, and standing boldly, because the blood of the Lamb has cleansed our conscience. Yes, I was a man who spoke badly, who went back and forth, who told lies. But தேவன் has set me free, and so I will live as His witness.

Think of two people who have quarrelled. Go to one and he says, "I know I was wrong. But I will not go and apologise. Why should I, when he was wrong too?" Whether the other man was wrong is not the point. If I did wrong, I apologise, and that is all. The moment I open my mouth and ask forgiveness, தேவன் forgives, and the accuser is left with no ground to stand on. But if I keep it hidden, he uses it forever. Even when தேவன் blesses me with a raise, the accuser whispers, "What is the use of that? Don't you know your whole life is running off the rails?" So beat him to it. Say it first: "Yes, that is who I was. I am washed in the blood of Jesus. I am righteous now." Once you have said it, he cannot speak.

And you do not need to hold a whole seminary of arguments to do this. Look at the man born blind. Jesus heals him on the Sabbath, and the scholars in the temple drag him in and interrogate him: who healed you, it is the Sabbath, this man is a sinner, name him. He has no answer for their theology. He has only one thing.

"He answered and said, 'Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.'" - John 9:25 (NKJV)

"அவன் பிரதியுத்தரமாக: அவர் பாவியென்று எனக்குத் தெரியாது; நான் குருடனாயிருந்தேன், இப்பொழுது காண்கிறேன்; இது ஒன்றுதான் எனக்குத் தெரியும் என்றான்." - யோவான் 9:25 (TAOVBSI)

One thing I know. I was a terrible sinner; now I live in holiness. I was caught in evil desires; now I walk in freedom. I was ruled by evil thoughts and my old nature; today I am joyful, at peace, in my right mind. That is the whole testimony, and it is enough. You do not owe anyone a bigger explanation than that. When you open your mouth and declare what தேவன் has done, that is the day you become strong.

Come and Hear (வந்து கேளுங்கள்)

"Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue... Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!" - Psalm 66:16-17, 20 (NKJV)

"தேவனுக்குப் பயந்தவர்களே, நீங்கள் எல்லாரும் வந்து கேளுங்கள்; அவர் என் ஆத்துமாவுக்குச் செய்ததைச் சொல்லுவேன். அவரை நோக்கி என் வாயினால் கூப்பிட்டேன், என் நாவினால் அவர் புகழப்பட்டார்... என் ஜெபத்தைத் தள்ளாமலும், தமது கிருபையை என்னைவிட்டு விலக்காமலும் இருந்த தேவனுக்கு ஸ்தோத்திரமுண்டாவதாக." - சங்கீதம் 66:16-17, 20 (TAOVBSI)

The psalmist gathers people in and says, "Come and hear what He did for my soul." That is our calling too, week after week. What did தேவன் do for me this week? What did He do last week? Gather people and tell them.

And do not wait until your life is tidy before you speak. Most of us say, "Let me get a little more sorted out first, then I will give my testimony." But the man freed from the unclean spirit was set free in the morning and was already telling his town by evening. Maybe he had bathed by then. But the filth of all those years in the tombs does not come off with one wash. His hair would still have been matted, he would still have carried the smell. He did not wait to grow and trim his beard, spend a few weeks at the gym building himself up, and only then go and tell. The moment he was free, he went. When தேவன் sets you free, tell it at once. If you decide, "I will share it next Sunday," the accuser will have thrown you back in the pit by Monday, and the testimony will be lost.

How do you gather people to hear it? The same way you would gather them for a meal. If you just call them with nothing, it is hard for anyone to come; they would rather go home and cook. So make the food. Call four or five and say, "Come, there is dinner at my house tonight; we are having a small prayer meeting." Tell them you have bought parotta, you have salna, you have chicken 65, and everyone will come. Throw yourself a feast, the way the father threw a feast for the son who came home, and there, over the food, tell them: "I was bound in terrible thoughts, I was a slave to a shameful sin, and தேவன் set me free. Let us sing and eat together." That is how the testimony spreads.

So here is the whole ladder, all four rungs. First, tell தேவன் everything. Second, listen to what He says about you and stop staring at your circumstances. Third, use the few people He has placed around you and stop running alone. Fourth, declare to others the good தேவன் has done for you. Private confession was never the destination. Testimony is.

Before the Table (பந்திக்கு முன்)

"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup." - 1 Corinthians 11:28 (NKJV)

"அவனவன் தன்னைத்தானே சோதித்தறிந்து, இந்த அப்பத்தில் புசித்து, இந்தப் பாத்திரத்தில் பானம்பண்ணக்கடவன்." - 1 கொரிந்தியர் 11:28 (TAOVBSI)

Before we come to this Table, do what this whole message has said. Search your own heart. What is wrong in me? What complaints and faults are still in here? What words come out of my mouth, speaking kindly to a person's face and badly the moment they leave? Whatever it is, a bad habit, a sin, a desire, bring it to Him today: "Lord, set me free from this."

When He asks you, as Jesus asked that man, "What is your name?", answer Him honestly. "My name is Legion, Lord. There are many of them in me. Deliver me from every one." However bad your life has been, however many mistakes, whatever you have said about people, whatever vile thing has held you, Jesus is ready right now to forgive you, to join you to His people, and to make you righteous. Ask Him humbly: "Lord, yes, I did wrong. It is true, I sinned. There is no fruit in me, Father. Give me the fruit. In this morning hour, give me the fruit. In Your presence I surrender. I want to change." You do not need time to go and wash first. The second தேவன் meets you, you are cleansed. In one moment He can make you whole. Come to the Table on that.

Declaration Prayer (சாட்சி ஜெபம்)

பிதாவே, நீர் என்னை விடுவித்தீர்; நான் அதை இனி மறைத்து வைக்கமாட்டேன். ஆட்டுக்குட்டியானவரின் இரத்தத்தினாலும், என் சாட்சியின் வசனத்தினாலும், பிசாசை நான் மேற்கொள்ளுவேன். இன்று முதல், தேவன் எனக்குச் செய்தவைகளை நான் என் இனத்தாருக்கு அறிவிப்பேன். இயேசுவின் நாமத்தினாலே, ஆமென்.

Father, You set me free, and I will hide it no longer. By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony, I will overcome the accuser. From today, I will declare to my own people what தேவன் has done for me. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

One Thing This Week (இந்த வாரம் ஒன்று மட்டும்)

This week, go to one person who knew you at your worst and tell them one thing தேவன் has done for you. Not the whole story. One true sentence. Go home and tell.

This completes the series - அறிக்கை முதல் சாட்சி வரை (From Confession to Testimony). Watch for the confession and testimony workshop, date to be announced, where we will build your own testimony together and take up the Faithful Listener covenant.