Understanding Grace Pt 1

I can move everything back.

Let's do this. Yeah, I meant to move this before we started. All right. Good morning. It's good to see everybody. You guys want to go ahead and stand with me? We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, I just thank you for the day. God, I just thank you for who you are, for how much you love us, and for what you've done for us, Lord. I just pray that as we worship you and spend time with you this morning, Lord, I just pray that your Holy Spirit minister to us, God, and just do something awesome in here this morning. We love you and we praise you. We thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You guys go ahead and have a seat if you like, and we'll continue on here.

Jesus is come.

Jesus is come. I count on the same God that never fails, will not, you won't.

The same God who's never late, who's working all things out. You're working all things out,

left to bless your own things out.

The God of Jacob, whose love endures through January 4.

The same, the same God, the same God, my God, I need you, oh God, my God. I'm standing on the fifth. Father God, I just pray that as Pastor Ryan comes this morning, Lord, God, that you would just fill this place with your Holy Spirit. God, do something awesome in here today, Lord. God, you're the one who did mighty and awesome things, Lord, in your word. God, you sent your son

to pay the price for our sin on the cross, Lord, and you rose him. Again, three days later, Lord. God, that's awesome. God, do something awesome in here today, Lord. God, you're a big God, and you're awesome, and you're mighty. God, do something big and mighty today. We love you, and we praise you in your precious name. Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Good morning. If you could start to locate your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Glad you could be here. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin are the different services. Studies that go on throughout the week. So look for one of those spots to get plugged into. In the middle section of your bulletin, a few things to take note of. First of all, just a reminder, if anybody's interested in serving in any way,

we'd like for you to have been around for a few months. But if you have been, and you're looking for a spot to get plugged in, come talk to me afterwards. Those of you, a few weeks ago, some of you signed up to share your testimony at the outreach that Rick Hawkins is doing. And so you guys, you're going to be getting together at 2 o'clock today right here in the sanctuary to kind of work on what that's going to look like, pray through those kinds of things.

So come join him for that. And then also something that's not in your bulletin, there's a new ladies' study starting on March the 16th. They're going to be doing 1st and 2nd Timothy, and the sign-up sheets for that are in the lobby. So if you're interested in getting plugged into that, there's three different kind of things that you can get involved in. There's a Monday night at 6 p.m.

It's 7 o'clock. There's a Thursday afternoon at 1 o'clock. And then if you can't make either one of those, but you still want to get the Bible study, you can sign up for that and just work on them on your own. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced so that we don't partake in your sweet ringtone

during the service. And then for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 26. Psalm 26. We'll look at the New American Standard Bible just so we understand. It'll sound the same. If you need a copy of New American Standard Bible, it should be one in a row around you. And as you're turning to Psalm 26, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

Psalm 26. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Examine me, O Lord, and try me. Test my mind and my heart. For your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth.

I do not sit with deceitful men, nor will I go with pretenders. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I shall wash my hands in innocence, and I will go about your altar, O Lord. That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all your wonders. O Lord, I love the habitation, of your house, and the place where your glory dwells.

Do not take my soul away along with sinners, nor my life with men of bloodshed, in whose hands is a wicked scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be gracious to me. My foot stands on a level place, in the congregations I shall bless the Lord. Father, we come to you now, and thank you for who you are, Lord.

We do bless you this morning for giving us this wonderful gift of your word, and for blessing us with the salvation that comes through you. And so, Lord, I pray that as we take time to study your word this morning, that you would speak to us through the power of your Holy Spirit. Father, we need to hear from you, and so overflow me with your gift of teaching, and all of your people here, Lord, overflow with the gift of hearing. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter one. Galatians, chapter one. The title of this morning's message is A Story of Grace, and it's gonna be the first part. We're gonna be talking about this the next two weeks. Paul, as he opened up this book of Galatians to us, of course, as we've mentioned before, did three things.

He introduced himself as the writer, he introduced the Galatians as the recipients, and he introduced Jesus as the main subject of his book. And then he started talking to the Galatians about the issues that they were having. The issues that they were having weren't involving the Bible, the gospel, the false gospels that they had found themselves falling for. And then after he talked to them about the false gospels, we took a little bit of time last week to talk about what the gospel actually looks like.

Because after all, if we want to identify the false, the best thing we can do is know the genuine. And so, as we move now into this next part of chapter one and really in through chapter two, we're gonna see him defend this message of grace and really defend himself as the messenger of grace. Because there were two issues really that were taking place within the Galatian churches. And that's that they had an issue with the message of grace and an issue with the messenger.

And so Paul's gonna take this time to defend himself. And the way that he does so is really by telling his own story of God's grace in his life. And so that's what we're gonna look at over these next two weeks. And so there'll be four things that we cover in these next two weeks. We're gonna look at his message. We're gonna look at his testimony. We're gonna look at his commission.

As a disciple or as an apostle. And we're gonna look at his defense. The first two things that we'll look at this morning will encapsulate the rest of chapter one as we look at his message and his testimony. And so we start with the first here in verse 11. And it says this. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation. Of Jesus Christ. And so this message of grace that he's going to defend is really just the heart of the gospel. We defined the word gospel last week. And if you're interested to know the full teaching, again, as I've mentioned before, you can go to our website and check out that message.

But we define the word gospel. The word gospel simply means good news. We could also use the phrase good tidings, glad tidings, like we see there in the story in the book of Luke. But it means good news. And he says, this message of good news that I preach to you was first of all, not delivered to me by man. Second of all, it was delivered to me as through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

And so we're going to look at those two things with his message. He says, it was not according to man. Now, this is an important thing for us to pay attention to because when we think about this teaching of man, we think about a handful of things. Number one, if it was a gospel that was according to man, man would be the subject. Man would be the subject. I find that if I was going to come up with a gospel

that had me as the subject, do you know who the hero would be? Me. I'd be the hero of that story, right? I think I told you guys, I went and watched the Top Gun movie, Top Gun Maverick here a few weeks ago. And when I say I went and watched it, I mean, I went to the Amazon and clicked rent now. And so I watched the movie Top Gun Maverick not long ago. And I knew from the outset

who the hero of that movie was going to be. It was going to be Maverick, right? We all knew that's who it was going to be because it's a movie about him. He's the subject. He's the theme of the movie. We knew he was going to be the hero. And when a gospel is according to man, man makes himself the hero. After all, men, talking to you in particular right now,

aren't we always the hero of every story that we tell? Wasn't everything going wrong until we stepped in, right? Like that's who we are as human beings. And so he says, this gospel that I preached to you was not according to man because it's not a gospel that man came up with. But it's also not according to, because it's not a story about man reaching up to God.

You know, I think sometimes there can be this tendency within the church to think that we just have to try a little bit harder. If I could just really reach down and pull myself up by my bootstraps, after all, that's the American dream, right? That's the American story is that we've all tried just a little bit harder. And it's not a story of, of men reaching up to God.

It's not a story of men realizing their need and extending their hands to God and saying, God, I need you. You say, hey, but I thought that is what happens. No, it always starts with that work of the Holy Spirit. There's a fascinating thing that's taking place in our country right now. And it's a little bit under the surface, although it's gotten a little bit of national play.

And that's that there's a real heart for people to know God right now. I don't know if you've picked up on that, but the thing that's going, that went on in Kentucky a week or so ago is not an isolated incident. There's actually incidents at colleges all over the nation right now where there is a renewed sense, a renewed desire for people to know God. And it's not because man all of a sudden went, yes, I need to know God.

It's not even because the church is doing all that great of a job of preaching the gospel. It's because God has been doing a work. And that brings us to the third part of the fact that this gospel is not according to man. This gospel that Paul preached is a story of God, creator God, reaching down to man and giving him the only help and the only hope, that he will ever have in this life.

Paul says, this gospel that I preach to you, it's not according to man. It's not a story about man being a hero. It's not even a story of man reaching out to God. It's a story of God's grace. Because in his grace, he reached down to man and offered us the help that we so desperately needed. He went on from there to say, in this gospel, I received through a revelation

of Jesus Christ in verse 12. Through a revelation of Jesus Christ. That word revelation means a revealing or an unveiling. Now, Paul's story is decently unique. I would venture to say that most of us in this room, when we came to faith in Jesus Christ, it's because somebody spoke to us a message. They spoke to us a message about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We believed that message

and then we put our faith in the God who is the subject of that message of the gospel. Paul says, Paul's story was very different. Although, may I say, he's not the only person with this story, but Paul's story was very different. You see, Paul actually had a vision of Jesus Christ himself saying, Paul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting.

Now, listen, if you ever pick up a magazine or some articles about things that are going on in some third world countries right now where they don't have the word of God, you're gonna hear some really similar stories to this because I do believe God can work this way if he wants to. But Paul was very unique in the way in which he came to Jesus because he came to Jesus, not because somebody shared the message of the gospel with him, but because Jesus himself revealed himself to him. Now, it's important that this happened with Paul for one reason. Paul had claimed what we call apostolic authority.

In other words, he claimed that he had the same authority in his teaching as the other 11 disciples of Jesus Christ to lay down doctrine for the church. Now, the one thing that was unique about the other 11 disciples of Jesus Christ and their ability to lay out the doctrine for the church is that who had they received their teaching directly from? They had received their teaching directly from Jesus when he walked with them for three years on the earth. So it's important that if Paul is going to maintain that same level of apostolic authority that he received the gospel, that he received the message in the same way that the other 11 did.

And so he's defending himself as the messenger, not only the message as he does this. But may I make a sidebar point to us? Nobody comes to the truth of Jesus Christ without Jesus revealing himself to us. I would venture to say that of the people that are in here this morning that have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, you're born again. I bet you heard the message of the gospel more than once.

You may not always remember that you heard it more than once. As a matter of fact, you may over time look back and go, you know what? They were preaching the gospel message to me for a long time, but you didn't pick it up yet. You see, 38 people, could have preached the gospel to you. But on the 39th time, somebody presented to you the fact that you were a desperate sinner.

You really needed a savior and Jesus loves you enough to be that savior for you. And finally on that 39th time, Jesus said, and made it real to you. And you're like, I need Jesus because he finally revealed himself to you. The great thing about what Jesus reveals himself to us like that, even if it's through the preaching of another, is that once it's the message of Jesus Christ implanted in our heart, nobody can ever change my mind about it.

There's not a soul in the world that can change my mind about the truth of Jesus Christ because it is so real to me. It's as real as the ground that I'm standing on right now because I've watched what it's done to my life. Paul says, this message that I preach to you, I didn't receive it from man because it's not man's idea. It's not a story about man. It's a story about God.

And it was revealed to me through the very revelation of Jesus Christ himself, just like it was with all of the other apostles. But then Paul simply began to say, he begins to give us his testimony. Starting in verse 13, this is what it says. For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had said, set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went away to Arabia and returned once again to Damascus. Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him for 15 days.

But I did not see any other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by the side of the churches of Judea, which were in Christ, but they only kept hearing this. He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith

which he once tried to destroy. And they were glorifying God because of me. Paul's testimony, Paul's testimony takes on four parts. The first part that we see is we see who he was before God, who he was before God. And this is how Paul describes it. He says, for you heard of my former manner of life in Judaism. Here's the thing. By this point in time, a lot of people had heard the message

about Paul's testimony. The message about Paul's testimony had gone out to a lot of people because everywhere Paul went, he wanted to do the same thing. He wanted to tell the message of God's grace in his life, of exactly, what God had done for him. Listen, you all that are here this morning who have come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have a testimony.

And that testimony will always be the most powerful proof of the reality of the God that you serve. Because anybody will be able to look at your life and they will be able to know who you were before and who you are now. And that testimony of a changed life is the greatest testimony to the power of God that there ever possibly could be. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, the fact that, what I am standing up here in front of you is a testimony to the power of the grace of God and the lives of the worst of sinners.

And that testimony, Paul was willing to tell to anybody. Not because he wanted to brag about who he had been, but because he was so amazed at what God had done. Because he was so amazed at what God's grace had done in his life. And so he says, my former manner of life, you know all about. He starts talking about who he was in the life of Judaism. The life of the religion that he followed.

You heard of my former manner of life in Judaism. How I used to persecute the church of God. How I used to oppress, suppress, and try to destroy the church of God. As a matter of fact, he uses a couple of explanatory phrases when he says that he persecuted the church. He says he persecuted the church beyond measure. And he persecuted the church to the point where he tried to destroy it.

That's how opposed he was to the grace of God. That's how opposed he was to Jesus Christ. That's how opposed he was to this, what he considered false Messiah. He wasn't just a bystander who wasn't willing to throw in with all of these other people that were following this Jesus. He actually tried to destroy those who would follow this Jesus. And may I say, as much as he knew that he was forgiven,

I think he still, to an extent, held on to some of the guilt of who he was before he came to know Jesus. Because in every, presentation of the testimony of Paul, he, in a more ashamed way, presents that he had tried to destroy the church of God. And he says, it wasn't just that I was opposed to Jesus. He said, I had been the best Jew that anybody ever thought could exist.

I had excelled in Judaism. As a matter of fact, he uses the word advancing. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions, for my traditions. This is an important thing for Paul to point out. I want to tell you why. The false teaching, the false gospel that had come into

Galatia at this point in time was that it was wonderful that they'd put their faith in Jesus, but they also needed to add the works of the law, the works of the Mosaic legal system to the things of Jesus. And if anybody would have had that same desire, if this was the case, if that was true, if anybody, if anybody should have promoted the adding of the law to grace, it should have been Paul. Because Paul knew the law better than all of them. Paul had studied the law more than all of them.

And Paul had adhered to the law more than all of them. That's why he points out who he was before. Not just because of the great change that God had made in his life, but if anybody was going to promote Jesus and, it would have been Paul. But that wasn't the message that he preached. As a matter of fact, he says, that's who I used to be. Because that's who I was.

And may I say, brothers and sisters, I think one of the greatest things that we can do when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior is understand that that's who I was. I fear oftentimes for believers in Jesus Christ, we wear so much of the guilt of who we were beforehand around our neck like a noose. It becomes like a suit of clothes that simply, weighs us down. Because we still live with the guilt of who I was before, forgetting that that's not who I am now.

That's who I was. But you know what else I think sometimes happens for us as believers? Is that even though Jesus has set us free and that's who we were, we still carry around all those same sins with us. We still live just like we did when we were in the world, even though that's who I was. And whether you are someone who is struggling with guilt or someone who is struggling with continuing

to live in the same sin, the same sins, you need to realize something. That's who you were. And I was reminded of something earlier. I was reminded of the fact that sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, we fall back into sin. And the guilt that we deal with is not the guilt of who we were before we came to know Jesus. The guilt is where we stumbled after we came to know Jesus.

And I just want you to know right now, that God's grace is greater than all of your sin. The sin that you committed before you came to know Jesus Christ, is your Lord and Savior. And listen, the sin that you have fallen into afterwards. He does not want us to live in that same sin. He does not want us to live in that same guilt. He does not want us to live in that defeat

of what we have done wrong. He wants us to live in the victory of the grace that he shows in our life. He wants us to live in the victory of the forgiveness that we have. He wants us to live in the freedom of loving and living in Christ. Because that's who he was. And this is who he is. That's who you were. But this is who you are. And after he talks about who he was,

he goes on to talk about what God did. It says, But when God, who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh. And blood. What God did. There's an amazing switch in the language that takes place in this verse.

It went from these are the things that I was doing to this is what God did. Because the subject of the gospel is not what I do, but it's what God did. And so there's a handful of things that he says that God did here. Number one, he starts off with a phrase that's just fascinating. He starts off by saying, But when God. So let's remove the word when. Really quickly from that,

I'll put it right back when I'm done. Let's remove the word when and let's just use those two words. But God. Two of the greatest words that you could put together in all of any language. But God. Listen, when I think about who I would be if it weren't for what Jesus Christ had done in my life, I'm well aware of something. I'm well aware of the fact that I would still be a massive hypocrite.

Not that I don't still struggle with that because I do. But I would still be a hypocrite who was living a double life. I would still be coming to church on a Sunday morning while living like the world the whole rest of the week. I would still be someone who probably was getting drunk on the weekends. I would still be someone who was living to please other people

and make sure that other people's opinion was the most important thing to me. I would still be living in the death of that double life. And I would be living a hopeless, joyless, lifeless existence. Because that's who I was. I was someone who lied. I was someone who cheated. I was someone who could not be trusted. But God. But God came in and he changed me.

That's why that night in April in 1997, excuse me, 1998, will always be the biggest change that's ever taken place in my heart and in my life. Because from that point on, God changed me and I've never looked back. But God. And you have the same story. Your life was going down a destructive path and then God stepped in. God reached down. God got a hold of your heart.

And now you can say, that's who I would be. But God. Because he stepped in and he absolutely changed the very fabric of who I am. He says, but God. And then the next phrase he uses is just beautiful. He says, but God who set me apart from my mother's womb. This is a great phrase that he uses here. And I did a little word search, a little word study to make sure

that I had this identified correctly. And I did. My thinking was correct on this. That's a rarity, but it did happen this time. Because what that phrase means, who set me apart from my mother's womb, it means that even before his birth, God had a plan for him. You know what that means? There's no such thing as a life that doesn't have value. There's no such thing as a life that's an accident.

Amen. Whether out of the womb or in the womb. I think one of the most beautiful things that we can begin to understand is the message that God gave to the prophet Jeremiah when God called Jeremiah into service. He said this. He said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you and I separated you. I called you to be a prophet to the nations. Everybody that's in this room

and everybody that's watching me online, we all need to understand something really clearly right now. You are not an accident. Your life is valuable for a reason. And that's because God, from the moment that you were conceived, had a purpose for your life. As a matter of fact, even before you were conceived, God had a purpose for you. Sure, mom and dad may have gone,

whoops, but God didn't because God knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly what he was doing when he formed you. And when God knit you together in your mother's womb, as it says in the Psalms, and I don't know how you view that verse, but I view that verse very literally. I think God is actually personally, physically, intimately, intricately involved in the forming of every single human being that walks on top side of planet earth.

And listen, every human being that never made it out of the womb, God is intricately and intimately involved in the forming of all of them. And he has a purpose and a plan in the way that he did it because you are not here on accident. And if there's any moms in the room that have a baby in your tummy, you need to understand that is not an accident. That is a miraculous work of God.

And if there's any moms watching me online right now that haven't decided yet whether or not you're going to go through with the pregnancy, I want you to know the life that is in you is ordained by God. And he has a plan for it. And he has a purpose for it because every life has value. You may be sitting here right now saying, my life has no value. I have no talent.

I have no ability. I don't feel like anybody loves me. That is a lie from Satan. Because before you were formed in the womb, God knew you were a woman. And he has a purpose and a plan in the way that he did it. And he has a purpose and a plan in the way that he did it. And he has a purpose and a plan in the way that he did it. God knew you. And he separated you out

for a special purpose that only you can fulfill.

Paul said, but God who separated me, even from my mother's womb, not only was he called apart by God, but he was saved by God's grace. Notice what it says. He says, and he called me according to his grace. That word grace, literally means undeserved favor. Brothers and sisters, if I can be sure of one thing in my life, I can be sure of this. I don't deserve

salvation. It's to do in your life. The only reason that I can stand before you and do that is because God showed me his grace. Because God in his undeserved favor was like, hey, let's choose him. And listen, and I agree with Charles Spurgeon on this. I have no problem with the fact that God chooses. I have real problems with the fact that he chose me. Because I don't know why God would choose me.

Right? I am made to be the last guy chosen on a team. Right? I am the shortest, smallest guy and always got chosen last for the teams. And I feel that exact same way in life sometimes. But God, by his grace, chose me. And God, by his grace, has chosen you. And God is calling everyone to come to him by his grace, that unmerited favor. If anybody didn't deserve the grace of God,

it was Paul. Why? Because he had persecuted the church of God. As a matter of fact, he said, I'm the least of all the saints. I'm the chief among the sinners because I persecuted the church of God. Because the Jesus that all of the Old Testament scripture declared was coming stood right in front of me and I rejected him and tried to destroy everybody that followed him.

If anybody, if anybody didn't deserve God's grace, it was Paul. And yet God called him by his grace. Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever heard in your life? Because you know what that means about you? It means that God called you according to his grace. You say, all right, I don't deserve that. That's what makes it grace. See? He said he called me according to his grace

and then he went on from there to say, and he revealed Jesus in me. Now, that's kind of an interesting phrase that he uses because usually when we talk about the gospel being preached to us, we might use the phrase, he revealed Jesus to me. Now that did take place. Don't get me wrong, but he uses a different phrase. He says, when God who chose me out of my mother's womb,

who chose me and called me by his grace, when he saw fit to reveal Jesus in me, what does that mean? It means that Paul's life is the greatest testimony to the reality of Jesus than anything else in the world because people looked at him as to who he was before and who he is now and they're like, there's got to be a God because he's here. There's got to be a Jesus because he's a different man than he used to be. And brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus does with us is he reveals Jesus in us through our changed lives.

I'll never forget coming back to school at the beginning of my senior year in high school. It was the end of my junior year when I started walking, walking with Jesus when I decided I was going to leave the world behind and start following him. Over the summer, I worked at a Christian camp and got poured into and then I came back to school. I didn't go to all the parties with all my friends over the summer.

Then nobody had seen me all summer long and I show up at school in the first few weeks. I'm just a completely different human being than I used to be. I talk different than I used to. I hang out with people that I didn't use to. I was just a different person because Jesus changed me. I'll never forget one of my buddies sitting with me in Mr. Lamb's English class

and going, dude, what happened to you? And I was like, of course, I was 18 years old at the time so I wasn't real bold about it. I was like, you know, I was like God and stuff and, you know, church things, right? Because I didn't know really how to preach the gospel to anybody but I didn't have to because my life was completely different than it used to be.

You see, that's what Paul means when he says, he separated me from my mother's womb, called me according to his unmerited favor and then he revealed Jesus in me because everybody looked at my life and they went, that's way different. than it used to be. Brothers and sisters, that's all of our testimony, isn't it? That's the testimony for all of us of what God has done in our lives is that he revealed Jesus in us to the world that's around us and he revealed Jesus in Paul for a reason.

Notice what it says, middle of verse 16, to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. You see, Paul was saved for a purpose because Paul was saved for a mission. I don't always remember who I say what to so I'm just gonna say it again. We were created for a purpose. It was a twofold purpose but it all has Jesus at the heart of it. We were created to know God

and we were created to serve God, right? That is why you were created. Sin is what got in the way of that purpose but now that you are saved, you can not only know God but you are saved to serve God. I fear, I fear oftentimes that in the church we think that we got saved so that we could fill up somebody's church, right? Why did you get saved? Well, I got saved so that I could not go to hell

and make sure that church stays in business. You're not saved so that you can keep a church in business. You're saved because God has given you a purpose in your life and God wants to use you to share that same message of salvation with the people that are around you. He will do it through the things that you say. He will do it through the career that you have.

He will do it through the works of your hands. He will do it as you raise your kids. He will do it. He will do it as you teach little kids Sunday school classes. He will do it as you share your testimony with the people around you. He will do it as you simply show love through the things that you do but you were saved for a purpose and that purpose is not just

to warm up the chair you're sitting in right now. Paul said, when he saved me, he saved me so that I could go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles which by the way is maybe the most far-fetched thing that Paul could have ever been saved to do just so we all fully understand the Jewish people at least for the most part truly Orthodox Jewish people view Gentiles, that's you and me as those who were intended to fuel the fires of hell. That's how Paul felt about Gentiles and who did God tell him to go preach to? Gentiles!

Who do you hate the most? God's going to be like, you should go preach the gospel to them. It's going to be funny. Everybody's going to love it and they're going to get saved because that's what God likes to do with us. Sidebar, my philosophy in high school was friends don't let friends stay in Ark City and now here I am. Isn't God hilarious? Right? He brings us back.

So he says, you were saved for a purpose and the purpose was to preach the gospel among the Gentiles. So we've seen who he was, what God did. Now the third thing we see in his testimony is how he responded. Notice what it says, and I did not, middle of verse 16, immediately consult with flesh and blood. Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me,

but I went down to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. How did he respond? Well, the first thing that he did after he got saved is he went out to Arabia. Let me put that in terms you understand. He went into the desert. He went into the wilderness. Why on earth did Paul go into the wilderness after he got saved? Well, I want to give you a couple of reasons why.

Number one, he needed to make sure he could really hear the voice of God. I think one of the things that we're the most scared of in our culture today is quiet. We're scared of things being really, really quiet because we have so thrived in our culture on media content that we have forgot what it is to just simply sit in the quiet and hear God's voice. I watched an Instagram video yesterday and it was kind of interesting.

I don't know that I agree with everything that this guy has to say, so I won't give you his name, but I agree with this. He said, let me read to you what the schedule for a normal human being looks like. We wake up and we turn on the TV or you turn on your phone or you turn on a podcast or you turn on some music. You make your coffee while you listen to the news.

And then after you have drank your coffee, listen to the news, you watch some Instagram reels while you get ready. And then on your way to work, you listen to your favorite podcast or your favorite podcast. You listen to your favorite radio station that plays your favorite music or your favorite talk show host. Then you get to work and you play, listen to music all day during work because after all, work's kind of boring sometimes, right?

Then you get in your car and you come home and on your way home, you listen to your favorite talk show host or your favorite radio program. And then you get home and you turn your TV on while you're making dinner and everybody sits around the TV while they eat dinner. And then after everybody goes to bed, you turn on Netflix and you binge a TV show until you finally fall asleep on the couch. And then you go to bed.

And I thought, I've never felt more exposed in my entire life. Right? I was like, that dude fully nailed it.

When in the middle of that was there time for me to listen to what God has to say? Now, listen, I'm not saying kill your phones. Well, maybe I am. I'm not saying kill your phones or your TVs or your iPads or whatever. I am saying, maybe sometimes just turn off the noise. Maybe sometimes just turn off the noise so that you can hear what God has to say. There's a beautiful story

in the Old Testament. And it's the story of Elijah. Elijah was going through a really hard time. And Elijah, God called him up to the top of a mountain. And when Elijah went up to the top of a mountain, there was a great big windstorm and God wasn't in the storm. And then there was a great big fire and God wasn't in the fire. And then there was a great big earthquake

and God wasn't in the earthquake. And then there was a still. Still. A small voice. And that's where God was. And brothers and sisters, it's no different today. Typically in the lives of believers, God does not choose to shout. After all, if you've ever worked with a classroom full of kids, you know that shouting only does what? It escalates the noise. What does he do?

He speaks very quietly so that we'll go, what did he say? Say it again. And that's what God's waiting sometimes for us to do. And that's what Paul had to do. He had to get away from all of the noise and he had to get somewhere where he could really hear what God was saying to him, where he could really meditate on God's word and learn exactly what God wanted for him to do.

But you know, that leads me to a second point. And that's that if you take note throughout scripture, everyone that God used went through what I would call a wilderness experience. J. Vernon McGee calls it getting your backside of the desert degree, right? Everyone that God used greatly would go through something like that. Abraham was called to leave everyone,

leave your family, leave everything that's comfortable, your homeland, leave it all behind and go to a place that I'm going to show you. And when he was all by himself with his family, with his wife and the promised land, God revealed to him what it meant to walk by faith. Moses, God called, but before God could call Moses, Moses had to spend 40 years in the wilderness. Learning what it meant to be a shepherd, learning what it meant to be a servant.

Before David could be the king of Israel, he had to spend 15 years running for his life, living in the wilderness, learning what it was to hear the voice of God, learning what it was to follow the direction of God, learning what it was to truly be a leader and learning what it was to be a worshiper. Even Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting before he took on the role in his humanity as a man. He was Messiah. And Paul had to have his time in the wilderness too.

And listen, I want to tell you something. We have a tendency as human beings to fight the wilderness experience. After all, we want everything to be perfect now, right? Like I want everything to be good now. I read the most discouraging thing and most encouraging thing I've ever read the other day. I like to try to stay in shape. I'm not very good at it, but I like to try to.

And I was watching this video and this guy said, your goals that you want to achieve, and weightlifting will take you three years to achieve. You're not going to achieve it in one month. And I thought, oh, that sucks, right? First of all, I was like, that explains why I'm so weak. But second of all, I was like, it's going to take me forever. But that's kind of the way

it is in our walk with Jesus too. We want everything instantly. We want it right now. And God's like, I'm so glad that you want to know me. Let's go to the wilderness. And we're like, that's not what I had in mind. I was thinking Starbucks. Right? Like, I was thinking a nice restaurant, maybe a retreat center. He's like, no, let's go to the wilderness. I went through my own

extended wilderness time. It was right after I graduated from Bible college and I started questioning everything about faith, everything about me, everything about God, everything about whether or not I even really belong to God. God gave me the most beautiful wilderness job I could have ever imagined. He made me a groundskeeper at a retirement center. That I affectionately refer to

as the wrinkle ranch.

And now that I start to wear some of those myself, it's still just as funny as it was. Anyway, I learned truly about scripture. I learned sitting on that lawnmower as God revealed himself to me through nature. As God took his word and made it real to me. As I saw nature and all of the things that God was doing and as he simply just spoke to me. Many of the sermon illustrations

I used to read, all came from those two or three years of me being a groundskeeper at Lakeview Village. It was a wilderness time. I'd never choose it again. But I'd also never live my life without having gone through it. Because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what I learned through that time made me the man that I am today. And that's what Paul had to have.

He had to have that wilderness time. How long did he spend in Arabia? Everybody debates on it. He spent an amount of time there. Some people say three years, some people say less. But he spent that time in the wilderness. And so it says, I didn't go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. Middle of verse 17, I went to Arabia and I returned once more to Damascus.

So when Paul got saved, he was on his way to Damascus. At Damascus is where he really got saved and got his life right with the Lord. He then leaves Damascus and goes to Arabia for an extended period of time. The book of Acts chapter nine calls it many days. And then he comes back to Damascus and he starts preaching. By the way, if you want to know more about this,

if you want a little more history on this, look at Acts chapter nine. So in the side margin of your Bible, you might write Acts nine because that gives a lot of the history of these things. And so while he was in Damascus, he's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and he's making enemies. It tells us for about three years, he preached the gospel in Damascus.

And then there's a threat against his life. So according to the book of Acts, the believers there sent Paul over the wall in a basket. They let him down in a basket so that he could be free from Damascus. And at that point in time, he went down to Jerusalem. And this is what happened while he was at Jerusalem. It says verse 19, or excuse me, verse 18. Then three years later,

I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days. That's Peter, by the way. But I did not see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. And what I'm writing to you, I assure you before God, I'm not lying. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and was still unknown, but I was still known. I was still known by sight

to the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. So he's in Damascus three years. He has to flee from Damascus because they want to kill him there. So he goes down to Jerusalem. Now he didn't go down to Jerusalem so that he could get the stamp of approval from the disciples. He went down to Jerusalem as a tourist. That literally is what that phrase means when he traveled down there.

He traveled as a tourist to Jerusalem to see Peter. And he hung out with Peter for about 15 days. You know what happened to Paul when he showed up down in Jerusalem? They were like, hey, remember that one time Paul tried to kill us all? He's back. Because none of them really knew what had happened with him. And none of them wanted to accept him till a guy named Barnabas comes along.

Old Barney wraps his arm around Paul and says, come on, buddy. And he goes and tells the disciples, don't you worry about a thing. He's with me. He's been changed by the grace of God. So he hangs out with Peter. He hangs out with James, the brother of the Lord. But anytime Paul hung out anywhere, he always preached the gospel. So he once again made some enemies.

And they were like, bro, you need to get away from Jerusalem. It's sort of the hotbed of you about to die. And so let's send you home. So he says, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And where he went to was his hometown of Tarsus. And then he's going to hang out in Tarsus for nine more years. I want you to think about something. And notice how he describes himself in Tarsus.

Unknown. Nobody really knew who he was. In all, before God calls Paul, to begin the missionary journeys that will prompt him to write over half of the New Testament, he spent 15 years being prepared. 15 years. And do you know what he did in those 15 years? He did what I call active waiting. Actively waiting means, number one, he was pouring into his relationship with the Savior.

Number two, he was learning as much as he could. Number three, he was serving in the ways that he could right in front of him. He was actively waiting for those 15 years on what God was going to call him to next. But you see, we've seen who Paul was. We've seen what God did. And we've seen how he responded. But the fourth thing that I want to tell you about this message of the gospel is the result.

Notice what it says. Verse 22 for context. I was still unknown by sight to all the churches of Judea, which were in Christ. But only they kept, hearing he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith, which he once tried to destroy. And they were glorifying God because of me. What's the result? Well, number one, they saw his changed life. He said, the guy who was at one point in time

trying to destroy the faith is now preaching it. I've said it before, and I'll say it till the very dying breath that I have in my lungs. The greatest miracle that you will, ever see is a life that is changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it's not just a physical healing that takes place. It's an eternal spiritual healing that takes place. Because they can say,

he was dead. And now he's alive. Perhaps many of you know people that even though you know what your testimony is, you know who they are. And then all of a sudden they get saved and you're going, what? Because it's the most fascinating, anything that you've ever seen. The coolest thing that you'll ever see is when you find somebody that was the most rough mouth,

rough living guy on the face of the earth. And all of a sudden his life is just completely changed because he came to Jesus and said, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. The Lord came in and made a change and he didn't just save his soul from hell. He saved his life from sin. And then he gave him a purpose. And you can say, look at that guy. I don't know what's happened,

but he was dead and now he's alive. Look at her. We remember what her reputation was. She was dead and now she's alive. Look at him. He lived a life of self-righteousness. He once was a jerk. Now he's really humble. Look at him. He used to walk around wearing the weight of the world. And now he looks like the most free person I've ever seen. Why? Because it's the,

it's the power of the grace of God. It's the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. And what does that power always cause us to do? And they were glorifying God because of me. See, this is how you know that it's really the gospel of Jesus Christ is because nobody gets credit for it. Only God. People look and they're just like, that had to have been an act of God.

I've not gone to see the Jesus revolution. Movie yet. I'm going to go see it this week. I'm excited about seeing it. It tells the story of the church that I love so much, right? But one of the most fascinating things to know for those of us that have grown up in the Calvary chapel movement is that God received all of the glory because everybody goes, how did they do it?

It was just the grace of God. And at a time when no one trusted old people in a time when everybody was searching for truth. In a time, that the world was counterculture. Everybody started showing up to a church, a church pastored by a guy who BT does is about my age. Now he was 42 when the Jesus movement really started kicking off and he was a bald guy. Look,

I'm not saying Jesus is going to do it here. I'm just saying all the components are right. And he wore a suit. All of the things that people of that age did not trust. And yet all these kids showed up. Why? Because that's the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All you can do is look and go. It's got to be God. That's why they made it on the cover of time magazine is because it had to be

God. It would take a generation that was so lost and turn it around again. Brothers and sisters, as we stand here today, if we want to see it happen again, it can't be because we came up with a really good idea. It just has to be God. And if you're here this morning and you don't know, Jesus is your Lord and savior. And you're going, I don't understand this whole thing.

I don't understand, but all I know is I need something in my life. Listen, it's God. And he's calling you by his grace right now to come to know him. He's calling you by his grace to come to a place where you finally surrender your life to him to where when all of a sudden done, you'll go had to be God. Let's all stand as the worship team sings this last song.

A song about our gratitude towards God. I want you just to think, just to think about how great God's grace is and how much he's done in your life. And again, if you're here this morning and you, you don't know that grace of God for yourself, then today's the day. Today's the day for you to experience that grace in your life because God is calling you. Father,

we come to you now and we just thank you for the morning that you've given to us. Thank you for the opportunity that we've had to be in your word. This morning. And I just ask that you would move in this place by the power of your Holy spirit, Lord, that we would no longer be people who are, who are identified by who we were, but we will be people identified by what you've done.

It's the Lord moving us by the power of your Holy spirit. We pray Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. Words fall short.

I've got nothing new.

Let's try this again. Words fall short. I've got nothing new, but I could sing these songs as I often do every song. So I throw up my hands and praise you again and again. Cause all that nothing else fit for a king except for a heart singing. I'm stretched wide. I worship you for a king except for a high soul. Don't you get shy.

You got to lift up your except for a man again. Cause all that,

it's not much, but I'm nothing else fit for a king.

Lord God, I just thank you for your son, Jesus. I got it. And honestly, Lord, just thank you. Doesn't even, doesn't even really seem to be quite enough just to express the gratitude of what you've done. For us. Lord, God, you are good and you are kind. I don't care what anybody else says. Lord, you are awesome and you are good and you're kind. Lord, I just pray that if there's anybody here today,

Lord, that that that doesn't know how good and awesome and kind you are. Lord, I just pray that today would be that day. God, I just pray that your Holy Spirit go with us as we leave here, Lord, and just continue your mighty work. We love you. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Guys. Have a wonderful week. Be blessed.