church for longer. And at that particular point in my life, I wasn't as humble and godly as I have
become and becoming. And so, you know, I quickly rebuked him and corrected him and explained that
I was at the front, basically, and I had the Bible and, you know, so he needed to listen to me. But
as I've grown and gotten a little bit wiser and a little bit more self-aware,
I recognised that actually it's a really valid question. Why should he listen to me?
What basis was there that the things I was saying was something that he should actually
submit his life to and take as, you know, stuff that's going to shape who he is and how he lives?
You actually need to work out on what basis are you going to listen, not just to me, but to anyone
who's going to speak into you. And that's the situation for Paul with his church in churches
in Galatia. He is the one who planted them. He's the one who spoke the gospel to them. He's the one
who introduced them to Jesus. But what's happened is there's a group of people that have turned up at
these churches in Paul's absence and have basically started questioning his authority,
questioning why the Galatian churches would listen to him and his message. And, you know,
obviously on the side, they had their own message that they wanted to replace it with. But the rhetoric
went something like, why believe Paul? He's not even from Jerusalem, which is where, you know,
the church started. And plus, his gospel sounds too good to be true. He's not even a good Jew anymore.
He's not making you do Jewish things. So you can't trust him. And I guess the question that
we rightfully ask is, how do we know that Paul's gospel is the one true gospel?
I mean, why should the Galatians, as they hear these competing messages, decide to listen to Paul?
Why should we, opening the Bible thousands of years later, with lots of other voices speaking to us,
telling us that this is what your life is about, this is what you should do, why should we listen to
this message from Paul in the Bible and say, this is the one that I'm going to trust? This is the one
I'm going to submit to. I mean, Paul covered pretty clearly last week, if you missed it, there is only
going to be one gospel. There's not multiple ones. So how do we know that this one is the one?
Well, Paul wants to give us two reasons. First one, his gospel is not his. His gospel is
not his. Have a look at verse 11 from what Deborah did out in Galatians 1.
I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.
I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation
from Jesus Christ. Now, this matters. This is what this section is really driving at. Paul wants
the Galatians to know that this message that he's bringing, this message of grace and peace through
Jesus is not something that he just made up. In fact, he wants to go a step further and say,
it's not something that any human made up. Paul didn't receive it from some people who taught it
to him and he's passing it on. He didn't hear it from a preacher. It was actually revealed to him.
He got direct revelation from the risen Jesus Christ. You can read about it. If you're in a community
group this week, spend some time in Acts chapter 9 and Paul is travelling along the road to Damascus
and all of a sudden he is physically confronted by the risen Jesus. This is after the crucifixion.
Risen Jesus presents himself physically, challenges Paul about what he's been doing and literally turns
Paul's whole life around. It's a dramatic episode. And so these people who have turned up and are trying
to undermine Paul's gospel, trying to undermine the trust in Paul, they thought it would serve
their purpose to point out that Paul doesn't come with the authority of the other apostles.
He didn't come from Jerusalem. He's not from Peter and James and John, you know, the disciples that
hung out with Jesus. He's not from there. And so you shouldn't listen to him. That was their logic.
But Paul flips it. He's like, you're right. I don't come from them. But it's because my gospel isn't from
human sources. I received it directly from Jesus, the one who the gospel is about.
In fact, Paul's going to go on and go out of his way to give us random details about what he did and
didn't do around the time he became a Christian, just to make it really clear that his gospel,
which actually lines up with the one that Peter, James and John are preaching in Jerusalem,
he's going to make it clear that his gospel did not and could not have been taught to him by some
human teacher. It's a divine thing that was revealed to him. Have a look at verse 16.
So this is when he's been called by, he's telling his story, he's been called by grace,
God's revealed the son in him. And verse 16,
my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those
who were apostles before I was, but I went to Arabia. Later, I returned to Damascus. Then after
three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days. Cephas is
Peter, if you're not sure. I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother.
I assure you before God, what I'm writing you is no lie. Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was
personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report. The man who
formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. It was three years after he
received the gospel, three years after he met Jesus, that Paul first made the trip up to meet
some of the apostles. And when he got there, he only met two of them. And he was only with them for
about two weeks. And we know that while he was there, because it says it in Acts, that he spent most of
the time preaching. So he didn't actually go there for gospel classes. He didn't go there to, you know,
learn some stuff and be clear on what the gospel actually was. He already had received that. That's
what he got when he met Jesus on that road on the way to Damascus. Now, it's worth us just slowing down
for a second here and flagging that what happened for Paul is unique. It's a unique experience for Paul
because Paul was a chosen apostle. Apostle just means sent one. And so when we talk about the
apostles in the Bible, we talk about the men that God chose, that God sent as direct eyewitnesses of the
physically resurrected Jesus. So every one of them got to encounter Jesus physically alive after his
death and resurrection. They were chosen so that they would be the baseline by which we measure the
gospel. So they got to meet him in person. They got to encounter him and they delivered a message
that was authoritative, that we don't get to argue with because they have that special position. Now,
for us today, we encounter that message in the Bible. That's why when we read the scripture,
when we come to church, when we do it in our community groups, we approach this as more than
just human words and human stories. This is God speaking to us through those humans because it is
that divine truth that he revealed to them. And so what Paul is doing here is he's not defending
himself. He's saying that this battle is not between the credibility of these new people and me.
This battle is between the credibility of these new people and the God who gave me this message that
I'm giving to you. That's who you've got to decide who you're going to trust. These people have turned up
and saying, look how impressive we are. We're from Jerusalem and the God who's delivering the good
news about how people like us can be forgiven and adopted into his family. The reason you can trust
this gospel, the reason you can know this gospel from Paul is the genuine article is because it comes
from God himself. And the proof of that, the reason you can believe what is a pretty massive claim
is because of the power of this gospel. See, what Paul's doing in this little chunk of Galatians
is essentially giving a mini testimony. And I'm pretty sure I've talked with you guys before about
the testimony insecurity that I have. You know, when Christians talk about testimonies, they're
essentially talking about their story of how they met Jesus, how their life was before and then how
they became a Christian and what changed. And a lot of the famous stories or testimonies involve
dramatic things like drug addictions or prison time or those sorts of things. And they are amazing
stories of God's power to transform the obviously bad people into obviously apparently better people.
And that is amazing. But when I hear those stories, I can't help but feel like I need to spend some
time working on my before I met Jesus story so that my testimony will be more exciting. Go on like,
you know, a year bender as a Christian just to build up some, you know, some serious sin in the
background. Now, you know, I've got serious sin. But you know, like the dramatic ones that you can
include in a story and sound exciting. Anyway, that's a bit of a sidetrack. But you know, when you hear
testimonies, that's sometimes the place we go. We compare their story to our story. But I love this
story that Paul gives because this is a story that everyone can connect with. Like literally,
whether or not you're the recovering drug addict or, you know, this is your first day release from
prison, in this story, you can see that the gospel has power for even you. Or if you're at the other
end of the spectrum and you are nice, you're even-tempered, you're middle class, you're Sunday
school educated, even there you will see in this story that you need the gospel just as much. And not
just that you need it, but the gospel has power to do something with your life here. This is a story
about the gospel power to reach and transform anyone. Paul gives us two halves to his life before he met
Jesus. And they couldn't be more different. Have a look at the first half, the serious bad side from
verse 13. Now, I'm going to read that verse again in just a second. We sometimes go into autopilot when
we read the Bible and we just skip through, we've read that verse, what's the next verse? And we miss
the gravity and the weight of what just got described. So listen carefully and try and visualize
what Paul is saying he did here. You have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely
I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. Those are blood-stained words.
words. Paul's not being dramatic here saying, you know what, I really didn't like church and I've
been just ragging on church on Facebook statuses for the whole time I've been on Facebook. He means
persecute when he says it. He was pouring his life out to destroy the church of God through whatever
means possible. He was literally traveling from town to town to try and find secret churches and get
Christians arrested and even killed. He was the kind of person who would have delighted in the suffering
happening to Christians around the world that we see today. In fact, in Acts chapter 8, which is just
before we see him meet Jesus, there's this episode where we see Paul standing, looking on approvingly
as Stephen is stoned to death for following Jesus. This is a guy who had a deep hatred for God, a deep
hatred for Jesus especially and followers of Jesus and yet the gospel of grace somehow grabbed hold of him.
I can understand why some people sometimes feel unworthy of Jesus. I can understand why, you know, people use
words like God couldn't love me. You don't know what I've done. I get the sentiment. It makes sense and on
one level it's correct. You don't deserve to have God love you. But that's the power of the gospel.
That's the power of God's grace that even those who seem the most unlikely, who seem impossible,
who you would think they could never follow Jesus,
even they can be reached by grace.
Paul wasn't looking for Jesus when he became a Christian.
He was literally traveling to a new town so that he could arrest and kill more Christians.
That was his agenda for that week. He was actively trying to destroy the church and that's not an
exaggeration. He wanted the church done and finished and removed from existence so that he could be part
of the Jewish synagogue system, so that he could have more power there. He had nothing but hatred for
Jesus and anyone who followed him and yet the gospel grabbed him. The message of Jesus still managed
to grab him while he was running in the opposite direction. Jesus grabbed him and completely transformed
him. If you're somebody who feels beyond God's love, if there are things in your life that you think
there's no way God could love that about me and no one else knows it, you need to listen to this.
The gospel, God's grace is powerful enough for you and for anything that you've done.
But the crazy thing is that's not even Paul's whole story. That's one half of his before life.
Let's look at the other half. He was also one of those really religious people who didn't think
they needed a gospel. Have a look at verse 14. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age
among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. See, Paul was an
impressive Jew. He was in the Jewish synagogue. He was getting promotions. He was been giving
opportunities to lead and to teach. He had Bible knowledge. He would have memorized huge chunks of the
Old Testament and not just the catchy bits that fit well to a rap. Like he spent time memorizing,
you know, the books that you skip over in your quiet time, you know, you get to Numbers and
Leviticus and Deuteronomy and it's just like law after law and you, you know, survive chapter one,
chapter two, and then you go back to like Matthew or, you know, one Thessalonians somewhere, you know,
it's a little bit easier, easier going. He's memorized these whole books. He's invested time. I mean,
he is seriously zealous about being a Jew. He's putting hard work in and even his life, he's trying
hard to obey the laws of the synagogue. Now, obviously, something's got twisted in there because he was
killing Christians, but he's trying very hard and to the point where he's excelling above the people
around him. And so when Paul looks at himself and even when the people around him look at him,
they don't think he needs a gospel. He's going, I'm good. I'm better than most people. I'm putting
effort in and gospels, good news is for people who need help, people who need rescuing. And according
to Paul, that's not him. See, simultaneously, Paul was too bad and thought he was too good.
He's put up a double wall against the gospel. And yet when he finally encounters Jesus, the gospel
is powerful enough to show him the depth of his sin and his need for Jesus and to show him the
sufficiency of God's grace to love even somebody as evil as him. The gospel is powerful.
I mean, ironically, this second bit of being really zealous for religion, trying really hard to be
holy, is what these new people who turned up in front of the Galatians were saying they should be
doing. They're going, Jesus is great, but put effort in. And Paul's like, I've done it. It doesn't work.
What you need, the only thing that can make a difference is the only true gospel. And that is
the fact that Jesus has died for you and is risen. The power of the gospel means no one is beyond grace.
No one is too far gone, too bad that they can't be reached and loved and forgiven. And the power of
the gospel means that no one is above grace. Whether people know they need Jesus or not, whether they're
looking for him or not, the gospel is powerful enough to reach them, to confront them, to get their
attention. And here's why it's powerful. Because when it grabs them wherever they are, it shows them
Jesus. Have a look at verse 15.
When God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal
his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles. But when? This is the God intervention
moment in Paul's life. He wasn't just sitting around waiting, looking for something to do. God
intervened dramatically for him. And look at the power of God's grace at work in his life as he
kind of stepped through these couple of things. First thing, he set me apart from my mother's womb.
God chose Paul before he was born. Before he'd even had a breath, God had already decided Paul would
belong to him. Paul would be used to take the gospel out to the Gentiles. In spite of everything
that Paul was going to do and be in his life, God had already decided, I'm going to use him.
God had already chosen him. God even uses the fierceness and the evil that is there in his life
before to become the backdrop so that we can see how dramatically powerful the gospel is to change
somebody. It doesn't make it less evil, but God is powerful enough. His grace is powerful enough to
take that evil and turn it and use it for good. What that means for you and me is that the stuff in
your life right now that might make you question whether or not the gospel offer of forgiveness is
an offer for you is actually the kind of stuff that God loves to take and use. So it shows just how
powerful he is, just how gracious he can be. It could be something that causes you shame, something you
try and hide, something you try and pretend never happened. That stuff can be used by God to display
Jesus. That's what he did for Paul. Having set Paul apart and having patiently waited as Paul spent his
life and his days trying to destroy the church, then God called him, called him by grace.
Now just sit in that for a second. Again, this is one of those moments where we can go into autopilot
when we're reading the Bible and not understand how drastic this is. Remember who we're talking about.
Remember who this is that God just called by grace. Remember his former way of life, bent on destroying
God's church, overflowing with hatred towards God, killing God's people. And yet God calls him by grace
to be forgiven, to be loved, to be brought into the family, to become a messenger of that same hope that
he's just discovered. The gospel is powerful enough to dramatically punch through that wall of hatred that
Paul is putting up. He's not looking for Jesus at this point. Paul's not a seeker. He's not visiting
church because he's not in church because he's not in church because his wife or his girlfriend or his
housemate or his parents dragged him along. If Paul's in church, he's there looking for people to kill,
people to arrest. And yet God calls him.
So powerfully that all of that hatred and anger and rejection of God subsides and is overwhelmed in an instant.
But there's not even a progressive journey that's talked about here.
See, there is no human argument that is that powerful.
There is no story that a human could make up, no human gospel powerful enough to change someone like that.
There wasn't even time for Paul to take little progressive steps, you know, to go from,
I hate God to maybe he's okay. I guess I could check stuff out.
I'll just dip my toe in and try and trust him a little bit. And you know what? He's really good.
I'm going to follow him. And in fact, I'm going to be a missionary and I'm going to tell other people about him.
There's no timeline like that. He is traveling to kill Christians and he meets Jesus and it all changes in an instant.
That is the power of the gospel.
That is the power of encountering Jesus as a risen Savior.
If you're in this room right now and you're here under coercion,
you've been dragged along by that special someone in your life or mom or dad or brother or sister or whoever it is,
I want to say that's okay. I get it. I've been there.
But what you need to understand is that if God has chosen you,
and he does that before you're born,
if God has chosen you, there's no point running.
His grace and his gospel is so powerful that when he calls, you're going to answer.
You might not even know that he's getting ready to call you,
but when he does, when he shows you just how good he is,
when he gives you a chance to see how incredible he is,
you're in.
Paul wasn't looking for Jesus,
but the gospel call was irresistible.
You might be thinking, well, maybe he didn't choose me,
and so maybe I can just mind my own business and keep doing my own thing,
and look, you could be right.
But you're here today on a day when we're preaching the gospel.
So maybe today is your day.
Maybe today is the moment when God is getting ready to call you,
getting ready to invite you in to be part of his family.
Finally, the gospel call is irresistible.
It was irresistible for Paul.
And the reason it's irresistible is because what the gospel does is show you Jesus.
What it does is just like it did for Paul,
where he was confronted physically with Jesus,
when we look at the gospel message,
when we look at what God has done in Jesus,
we are confronted with a God who is loving and gracious and forgiving and patient and holy and just
and majestic and yet chooses to invite people like us into his family.
So having set Paul apart in his mother's womb,
having called him by grace,
he reveals his son in him.
Paul meets Jesus on the road.
Paul knows about Jesus.
He's heard the stories.
I mean, he's traveling around killing the people who follow Jesus.
He knows for a fact that Jesus was crucified.
I mean, you know, that was common knowledge at this point.
And then when he sees him alive on the road in front of him,
suddenly all these things that he's heard,
all these bits and pieces fall into place.
I mean, if Jesus is alive and he was killed,
then his claim to be the Son of God is genuine.
If Jesus is alive and he's still here,
then him saying that he was going to die for sins
and his offer of forgiveness is genuine.
Because Jesus is alive,
his claim to be the rightful king over all creation
and over every human life is legitimate.
Paul's life is redefined at this moment.
He becomes a completely different person
because he is transformed by the truth
that he can no longer unsee.
Jesus is alive.
That is the gospel message.
The one who died to offer us forgiveness
is now alive and sits on the throne.
The truth of the gospel transformed Paul.
The truth that by grace,
God sent his son to die
so that sinful people could be rescued.
The truth that Jesus offers hope beyond death
transformed Paul
from being one of the church's fiercest opponents
to one of the greatest evangelists
that the world has ever seen.
He went from being a persecutor
to the one being persecuted
all because he met Jesus.
The gospel is powerful enough
to reach and transform anyone.
The measure of the genuine gospel
is its power to transform.
And so you've got to ask the question,
what is it that's being transformed here?
Because there's a risk for us
when we hear a dramatic story
like we did for Paul
that we focus on the details.
So what's changed is
before he was doing persecuting people
and afterwards he's doing preaching.
And that's real.
That's a genuine shift.
But we've got to look deeper than that.
We've got to ask the question,
what shifted to make him
want to stop this
and start this?
What made him willing to go
from somebody who's exerting force on people
to somebody who would choose to suffer?
It's not just a,
I'm going to do something else.
Something deeper has changed for him.
And the clue
is there for us in the passage.
It's at the beginning and the end.
Have a look at verse 10.
Am I now trying to win the approval
of human beings or of God?
Or am I trying to please people?
If I was still trying to please people,
I would not be a servant of Christ.
See, before Paul met Jesus,
his life was driven by a desire
to please people.
I mean, he says it explicitly just there.
He says if he was still trying to please people,
meaning that's what he was doing before.
So his religious zeal,
his effort to be a great Jew,
even his persecution of the church
was driven by a self-serving desire
to please people.
He wanted to please people
not because, you know,
he loved them and he wanted to serve them.
He wanted to please them
so that in pleasing them,
he would get back
the significance that he craved.
Because the reality is,
without Jesus,
who makes it possible for us
to bring praise to God
and find the significance
of being in his family,
the only option we have
when searching for significance
and identity
is the accolade that we can get
from the people around us,
from the achievements that we do,
from the presence that we are in their life,
from the way people talk about us
and need us.
That's where we will go searching
for our significance in life.
But Paul's heart shifts from that place.
It shifts in response
to being loved by grace,
to the grace that God shows him in Jesus.
And it shifts so far
that his deepest desire is now
there in verse 24.
The end of his big story
about his transformation
is,
and they praised God because of me.
It's all about God now.
Paul will now be somebody
who will choose to bear
a huge cost to himself
and he'll do it
because his heart's deepest desire
is now that God be pleased with him,
that God get praise.
Instead of being someone
who is seeking his own identity,
looking after number one,
he'll be somebody who denies himself.
He'll end up in prison.
There's this whole catalogue of stuff
that Paul ends up going through
as a follower of Jesus.
And the only reason he can do that
is because his heart is motivated
by a desire for God to get credit,
not him.
His life agenda has shifted.
His first question now
as he negotiates life
is,
how do I please God
with this decision?
How do I put God first?
He finally recognises
where he fits
that his God-given
created purpose
was to point
to the one
who called him
to live in grace,
was to point
to the one
who forgave him,
to point to the one
who satisfies him
more than all the other things
that he had in his life before,
to point to the one
who loves him
in spite of all that he is
and all that he's done.
And so the last question
we've got to ask is,
if you're following Jesus
or if you're trying to decide
whether or not you want
to follow Jesus,
the question is,
how can you be sure
or how can I be sure
that we are trusting
the only actual gospel,
the one that comes
from God,
the one that has power,
the way you'll know
is to ask yourself
the question,
is my heart
being transformed by it?
Is my heart
shifting from being
that people-pleasing,
self-serving person
to being the self-denying,
God-pleasing person?
If the answer is no,
it's possible
that you've fallen
for a perversion
of the gospel.
It's possible
that whatever it is
that you're trusting
or following
is enough to make you
do religious things.
I mean,
you're in the room,
you're at church,
you may be even serving
and doing other things,
but maybe it's not
powerful enough
to actually change
your heart.
And if that's the case,
you need to hear
the gospel tonight.
You need to hear
the message
that God invites you
to receive grace
from Him,
to be loved
even though you
don't deserve it,
even though your
heart's inclination
is to love yourself
first.
You need to hear
the invitation
that because Jesus
died and rose again,
God offers to love
you anyway
and to begin
the work
of transforming
you to be
who you were
made to be.
As I was writing
this message,
I was chatting
with Sal about it
last night
and saying
that feels like
a really sharp
place to stop.
It feels almost
a little bit offensive.
And so I was trying
to think of a second
option.
You know,
if you're not being
transformed to say
maybe you don't
have the gospel,
maybe there's
another softer version.
And as I was
thinking that
through and
processing that,
I realised two
things.
The first thing
was that there
is no other
option.
The gospel
transforms hearts.
It's what it
does.
And so if our
hearts are not
being transformed
so that we care
more about
pleasing God
than we do
about pleasing
people,
we have to
seriously ask
the question,
do we know
Jesus?
Have we met
him?
Do we know
his majesty
and his love
and his
worthiness?
But the
second thing
I realised
was that
my desire
to soften
this point
was ultimately
a people
pleasing desire.
I want to
be,
you know,
I want you
to come and
let me know
afterwards how
encouraging the
sermon was.
I want to
be known
as the
good
preacher.
But that
doesn't change
anything about
that first
reflection.
It doesn't
change the
fact that the
gospel changes
hearts.
But what it
did do is
remind me
that maybe I
need to keep
hearing the
gospel.
Reminded me
that maybe I'm
not a finished
product yet
in that
journey from
people pleasing
to God
pleasing.
I'm sure
that many of
you guys are
aware that I'm
in the process
of training for
a half marathon.
You're probably
aware because I'm
always telling you
how fast or
slow I'm running
or I'm limping
as I try and get
up on the
platform on a
Sunday.
It was a whim,
it was a silly
decision.
I was on
holidays a little
over ten weeks
ago and my
brother-in-law,
he's an
indigenous marathon
runner.
He has a
slightly different
body type to
me and he's
been doing
marathon running
for a while and
he managed to
talk me into
why don't you
just have a go,
just run a
half marathon.
Why don't I?
Because I'm
nearly 35 and
I've never done
it before is why.
But I wasn't
thinking logically
on holidays so I
committed and
said yep let's
do it, have a go.
I signed up, I
registered for the
half marathon and
I started training
and it was fun for
about a week and
then now I'm about
ten weeks in.
And it's
interesting to
watch how it
goes.
I have, I'm
trying to think
how you're
reading left to
right, yeah.
So if this is my
journey of training,
I have some weeks
where I'm running
really fast and
stuff's good and
other weeks where
it's slow.
But my slow
weeks ten weeks
into the journey
are much quicker
than my slow
weeks week one.
The level of pain
I'm experiencing
in week ten,
even on the
painful days,
is much lower
than the pain I
was experiencing
in week one.
I'm moving
in a direction.
It's not a clean
line of progress
when it comes to
my fitness and
my strength and
how fast I am.
It's like this,
but it's all
moving up in the
right direction.
It's the same
when it comes to
the transformation
that God is
working in us.
There are weeks
where we will be
way more selfish
than we wish we
were.
There will be weeks
where God in His
grace empowers us
to lovingly put
Him first and
serve people and
seek His glory
way more than
we do at other
times.
The issue is not
are you seeking
to please God
more today than
you did yesterday?
Because we do
this.
We've got to
step back and
have a bigger
look.
We've got to
ask ourselves
the question,
am I seeking
to please God
more now than
I was a year
ago?
Am I thinking
of God first
in my big life
decisions more
now than I
would have when
I started
following Him?
As I think
about what
job I might
take or
offers that
are on the
table,
decisions I've
got to make,
is my first
inclination,
what does God
want me to do
here?
More so than
it would have
been before.
As I think
about being
generous,
is my first
inclination,
what does God
want from me
here?
A year or
four years ago
it might have
been, does God
want me to be
generous?
The answer is
yes, just to
clarify.
But as
you've grown
slowly, as
God's done
work in you,
now it might
be, how
much more
does God
want me to
push in my
generosity?
See, it's a
progressive thing,
but we've got to
be willing to
still ask the
question.
We can't just
hide from the
reality because
our lives
sometimes do
this, because
the message
here is that
the gospel
transforms us.
And so if
there's no
transformation, and
Deb was sharing
this morning, and
I was outside
putting Huddy in,
I don't know if
you shared it
tonight, but
Deb met
Jesus after
serving on a
Sunday school
team for
years.
And so it
could be that
you've been
sitting in
church, maybe
even your
whole life, but
you've never
met Jesus.
And maybe
tonight God
is holding up
this mirror to
say, here's
how you'll
know.
If there's
been no shift
in your heart
in that journey,
then you need
to meet him.
But the
good news
is that the
gospel invitation
is still open
to you.
That if you're
sitting here
feeling uncomfortable,
feeling convicted
that there isn't
any shift in
your life,
that God is
inviting you to
meet Jesus
right now.
That the
gospel is
powerful enough
to grab you,
even if you
came here to
make someone
else happy.
The gospel is
powerful enough
to right now,
in this moment,
introduce you
to Jesus and
start you on
the journey of
getting to
know the
greatest love
that has ever
been expressed.
Getting to
know the God
who made you.
It's an open
invitation.
Tonight could
be the night
that God wants
to show you
Jesus and
begin the work
of transforming
you for his
glory.
God, if
you've never
done that
before, if
you're sitting
there going,
I need to
do that, I
need to take
the step, then
just now I'm
going to pray.
And if you
need to, I
want you to
make this
prayer your
prayer.
Just in your
own head, just
you can repeat
the words as I
go.
Say amen in
your head at
the end, whatever
you need to do
to say, God,
this is my
prayer.
And in
the Bible, God
makes it clear.
When we come
to him and we
ask for forgiveness,
when we come
to him and ask
him to help us
make Jesus the
king that he's
supposed to be,
the answer will
be yes.
So let's pray
right now and
maybe tonight is
your night to
begin this
journey.
Father God,
we're sorry
for caring more
about ourselves
and for seeking
to please people
rather than
living for you.
We're sorry
for going
through the
motions sometimes
of church and
religion without
having hearts
that love you.
We're sorry
for replacing
your gospel
of free grace
with effort
that can
never do
the job.
Please
forgive us
and by your
grace,
transform us
to be the
kind of people
who live every
minute of every
day for you.
Thank you
for sending
Jesus to die
in our place.
Thank you
for being
patient with
us as we
fail and we
struggle on
this journey.
please reveal
your son
in us
so that
others might
come to
know this
powerful,
grace-filled
gospel.
For your
sake.
Amen.