[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning, everybody. Glad you are here. We are concluding our series today on Marked. It's been a series that's designed to help us identify characteristics of people who belong to Christ. And we did this analogy. We've said that as our children bear our images and our likeness, you know, and our personalities and a lot of the characteristics of their families, so does the children of God that his kids bear his likeness and his image and his characteristics. And we've talked about how in Scripture you can look and see what are some of the distinguishing characteristics of people who claim to know Jesus Christ. And how do we live up to that standard of being called a child of God. It's an awesome opportunity and it's a heavy responsibility because we all know that the greatest argument for Christianity is a Christian and the greatest argument against Christianity is a Christian. And so it's important that we live up to this name of being called a Christ follower. And it's very different than your religion, as we'll see this morning. Religion has its place and it's important, but this has nothing to do with one's religion. I spoke to a person, a friend, a few weeks ago about their personal faith in Christ. And we were just curious. I was curious about. Because I'd never really had them share that with me. And I just was kind of pressing a little bit about, well, tell me about your relationship, you know, to the Lord. And they said, well, you know, I was raised in a certain denomination and. And because I was raised in that denomination, they said, I've always felt close to God. I've always felt like he's near me and he's with me. And I said, well, that's. That's wonderful. And the presence of God is with us and he is near to us. But I said, let's set aside your religion for a moment and let me ask you, have you ever invited Christ into your heart as a relationship to him apart from your religion? Religion? Your religion's good. But have you ever asked him into your life in terms of a relationship in. They said, no, I don't think I've ever done that. And we talked a little more, and they said, you know, I think I'd like to do that. And so they invited Christ into their heart, and it was a wonderful thing to see. And I said, from this moment forward, you know, beyond shadow of doubt that you have not just a religious background, but now you have a relationship with the Son of God. And, folks, I say that as I go into my message. That is the most significant decision anyone will ever make. Whether you're religious or irreligious, whether you ever go to another church again, ever again, or this is your last time, you're one and done, the most significant thing I would say to your heart is the decision you make concerning Jesus Christ. That is the decision of all eternity. That is the only thing that matters. When we stand before God one day, he's not going to say, what church did you attend? How much money did you give? You know, did this experience happen or that experience happened? He's gonna be curious about one thing. What did you do with Jesus? You've either received him or you rejected him. And in Matthew 23, the Bible said, one day, those who reject him will hear him say, depart from me. You have worked deceit, You've deceived yourself. He said, I never knew you. And so the most important thing, ladies and gentlemen, is to have that relationship with Christ. And once you've stepped through that threshold is to then understand that God is beginning a work in your life and mine to conform us into the image of His Son, to make us look like our Heavenly Father. Think of your salvation two ways. Think about it first of all as a radical transformation. If anyone be in Christ, they're a new creation radical. That moment you receive Jesus Christ, you become his child. He doesn't hang you out over the precipice for a little while and kind of observe you and put you on a watch list to see. I want to see how sincere they are. No. The moment you receive him as Savior, you belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He said to the thief on the cross, today you will be with me in paradise. When Isaiah was describing how quick a radical transformation takes place, he said in Isaiah 9, then flew one of the angels to me, meaning that that work of transformation is immediate. It's radical. However, the second part of not only is there a radical transformation, but there is a gradual confirmation, meaning that it will take a lifetime for us to truly look like and finally be like our Savior. Why? Because I still have an old nature in me. You still have your old nature in you we're going to struggle every day to be the person God has called us to become. And so it's a confirmation. It's. It's Romans 8:29. It says, he is in the process of conforming me into the image of His Son. Think about him as a craftsman as he's carving this beautiful figure out of a block of wood, and he's making something beautiful out of your life. And with each cut and with each pairing of knife, God is creating something and he's bringing out features that we didn't see before. So every experience you and I have in life, good, bad, happy, sad, the verse prior to when it says he's conforming us into the image of His Son, says in Romans 8:28, he's making all things work together ultimately for our good. So I'm just saying as we go into the message this morning, that when you know Jesus as savior, there's a. There's a gradual process of him conforming us into the image of His Son, where we begin to look more and more like Him. And I like to use a personal illustration or the illustration of a personality, I should say, in the Bible, that really underscores what I'm talking to you about and kind of look at what God did in his life and compare that to what he might be doing in our life. And the personality I wanted to talk about for a few moments this morning is the Apostle Paul.
Now, when you meet the Apostle Paul, you would not refer to him as a St. Paul at all that rhyme. You would see him as Saul of Tarsus. And Saul of Tarsus was a man who hated Christians. He lived at the time of Christ. He was very much aware of the crucifixion. He was very much aware of what Jesus represented, that he was on the earth as the Son of God. And we'll celebrate that, what, five weeks he was here. God incarnate means incarnate. Carnus is flesh, God in flesh. So when Jesus came to the earth, he became one of us. He became flesh and dwelt among us. Paul was well aware of the claims of Jesus to be the Son of God. Not just a son of God, the Son of God. And so the Jewish people regarded that as blasphemous. They regarded anyone who claimed to be the Son of God as being. That's blasphemy. And blasphemy means you should be put to death. Well, the Jewish people in the first century, at the time that Paul lived, didn't have the authority to put anyone to Death. They couldn't even put Jesus to death on the cross without the Roman government signing off on it. And so what happened was Pilate signs off on the death of Jesus Christ. And Pilate's conviction about why he had Jesus crucified was not that Jesus claimed to be God. He didn't care. That was offensive to the Jewish people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Jewish leadership of the day wanted him stoned to death or crucified because he claimed to be God. But Pilate could care less. They were polytheists. He said, maybe he is a God. I'll light a candle under him like they do the others that I got on my mantle, right? He didn't care, didn't move the needle at all. But what got Jesus in trouble with Pilate was when they said, but he also claims to be king. He says he's the king of kings and he says he's the Lord of lords. And Pilate said, whoa, whoa, whoa. You can say that you're God all day Jesus, and I don't have a problem with that. But you can't say you're a king because there's only one king, and that's Caesar. And anyone who doesn't swear allegiance to Caesar is guilty and should be put to death. It's a capital punishment. And if you don't recant that, I'll have to crucify you. Because you cannot say that you were a king. Well, Jesus doesn't recant it. He doesn't refute it. And so the superscription above the cross of Jesus when he died was, here is Jesus King of the Jews? Because that was the legal right they had to crucify Jesus. So what I'm saying is Saul was alive when all that was going on. He knew about these radical followers of Jesus that came out claiming that Jesus had indeed not only did he die on the cross, but he rose three days later. And they were claiming this Jesus was walking around on the earth and ascended back to heaven and left his presence on the earth in the form of a church, which was a called out collection of people that gathered to worship and to study scripture and to minister to others. And Paul's commission from the government of Rome was to kill that influence, stamp it out. Anywhere you find a Christian, you either imprison them or you put them to death. And you do so with the authority of Rome. So when you first see the sweet apostle Paul, he's Saul of Tarsus and he is meaner than a snake.
And this guy's going around putting Christians to death. And he loved his job. He was very good at it. And in Acts, chapter seven, he comes across a Christian unlike many that he had seen before. This Christian's name was Stephen.
And Stephen had this unique gift of communicating God's word. And he had just communicated about the power of God and the transforming power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit in Acts, chapter seven. And, man, when that religious crowd heard that, they were so incensed and angry, they wanted to kill him immediately. And the Bible says that Saul was there. He didn't pick up the rocks and throw at Stephen, but he held the coats of the people who did.
And the Bible uses this term in Acts chapter 7. He consented to the death of Stephen, meaning that he signed his death warrant, meaning that he said, you guys have my blessings to kill this man because of what he claims to be and who he claims to be. And they began to throw these rocks at Stephen. Stephen became the first martyr of the church in the New Testament. In fact, the Bible says in the closing moments of Stephen's life, he looks into the heavens and he says, I see Jesus standing at the Father's right hand. And that's an amazing subject. Amazing statement, rather, because every time in the New Testament you read of Jesus, it always talks about him seated at the right hand of the Father. He's always setting at the right hand. And now Stephen sees him in heaven, not seated at the right hand of Jesus of the Father, but he's standing. And I'll give you my opinion of that. But I believe that Jesus saw the martyrdom of Stephen and what one of his kids were willing to go through and suffer for his name. And Jesus was standing, I believe, to welcome one of his kids home.
Because it isn't just a few moments later. The Bible says, and Stephen fell on sleep, meaning that he died. He just simply said, good night down here to this world, a good morning into heaven. He closed his eyes, and that body went to the earth, and that spirit ascended to God who gave it. Absent from the body, Stephen became present with the Lord. And I say that because Saul saw that.
And I believe with all my heart, when Saul saw that, it did something to him, because you go two chapters later, and he's riding his horse with a band of men on the road to Damascus to kill Christians. And a light shines out of heaven. This light is so brilliant and so bright that Saul falls from his horse stunned. And a voice out of the light is the voice of Jesus. And Saul knew it. Because he knew of the ministry of Jesus. And the voice says, saul, why do you persecute me? And that's an interesting question. Because Saul wasn't persecuting Jesus. He was in heaven. How could he get to him? He was persecuting Jesus because he was going after his kids.
And there's not a person in the room, there's not a parent in the room that would tell you anything differently. You go after my kids, you're going after me, right? Some of you mama bears out there and papa bears, they go after your kids. They going after you, aren't they? And Jesus said, when you go after my kids, you're going after me. And so Saul, all of a sudden, man, he's under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And in that moment, you see the beautiful story of the conversion of Saul. It isn't long until God changes his name from Saul to Paul. And there's a significance, because in the Hebrew, Saul was the first king of Israel, Saul, strong and mighty and powerful. And Saul meant the bold one. Saul meant the fearless one. Saul meant the important one. So every Jewish mama would like to name her boy Saul. Hercules. That boy. That boy is going to be special.
That boy is special. He's strong, he's bold, he's Saul. He's like our first king. But Paul's name was different. Paul meant humble.
Paul meant teachable.
The idea of being called Paul meant you have a gentle spirit.
You aren't driven, you're more led. And so God was not just changing his name, but he was showing us, in that moment, a beautiful transformation that begins to happen with his kids, where the spirit of arrogance gives way to the spirit of humility, and where pride gives way to humility, and the spirit of being served gives way to the spirit of serving. And so Saul's life was being radically transformed and gradually conformed when he brought Jesus into his life.
And there are five markers I want to give you in the next few moments before we go home. That's obvious. That happened on the road to Damascus in the life of Saul. Number one, he discovered a new leader. A new leader. He was under new management. The Bible says In Acts, chapter 9, verse 5, he asked two questions, probably the two most significant questions that could ever be asked. The first question is, who are you, Lord? Who are you? The second question is, lord, what would you have me do? Now? When our Bibles were translated into our English language back in 1611, commissioned by the king of England, King James, they at the time of the translating of the Bible, into the English language, they had Lord and ladies. We don't have Lord and ladies in our country that we recognize, and we have them in our families, but we don't have them in our country. You'll see some of them next week, won't you? You have a Lord and a lady. Those special family members that are coming in, don't act like you don't know who they are. You know who they are.
I love what that great theologian George Burns used to say. He said, true happiness is a large, loving, caring family in another city.
You'll get through it. I'll pray for you.
But there weren't lords and ladies back in that day. So the word Lord to be translated into our English language for us to be. To better understand what that word means, to contemporize the word Lord, I would use this word leader. Leader. It just means my life was being controlled by me.
I was enlarged and in charge of me. I didn't give God any thought. You see, there is all secularism is. Is a form of thinking, a philosophy of life that doesn't include God.
He was a secularist. He just lived his life not necessarily denying that there's a God. Paul believed that there was a God because he was religious and he was a Pharisee. But he didn't see Jesus as having anything to do with God. And so he lived his life really following more after the religious rules than he did after the relationship with Jesus. And so all of a sudden, on the road to Damascus, he's realizing that there's a light shining in the voice that I thought of somebody who had died. I'm hearing that voice. Obviously, he's alive and wow, he was transformed in that moment. And he became a true believer.
And the second question he asked is, after he knew who the Lord was, the leader is Jesus. He said, what do you want me to do? I mean, you designed me with a purpose. There's a plan, and I want to do the thing you've called me to do. And when John was talking about birthmarks in First John, chapter 2, verse 10, he said, we know. We come to know him if we're interested in following his commands. One of the marks of a Christian is under new leadership. You want to do what Jesus wants you to do. You have a desire in your heart to please God. And all of a sudden, man, that's exactly where Paul was. He absolutely was interested in pleasing his heavenly Father. On one occasion In Luke, chapter 6, verse 46, Jesus asked this question, why do you call me Lord? Why are you calling me the leader of your life when you don't do what I say?
Jesus was saying, there's some of you who have a profession of faith that don't have a possession of faith. And it's all talk, and there's no walk.
And he was saying that your walk should match your talk, that if you are genuinely a Christ follower, then there will be a desire to be obedient and follow him. And that's evident in those words, what would you have me to do, Lord? And what was interesting in that moment when you read Acts 9 in context, is that light was so bright that it blinded Saul. And he's blinded for a period of days. And his followers, God directed them to take him to the man of a home by the name of Ananias.
And when he brought them to the home of the man named Ananias, God would tell Ananias, I want you to pray over Paul and affirm the filling of the Holy Spirit in Paul's life. And he's going to receive his sight, and he's going to be a choice servant unto me. And Ananias was a little afraid. Paul had a reputation.
He go, are you sure? This is a guy a few hours ago that would have killed me if he could have found me. This is a guy a few hours ago that would stone me to death just like he did Stephen. And you want me to pray for him and bring him into my house? Are you sure?
And God said, I got you. I got your back. You're gonna be fine. He's a choice servant unto me. Trust me on this. And he did what God told him to do.
And in that moment, not only did Paul discover a new leader, but listen, number two, he discovered a new light.
A new light?
Yes. He was physically blinded for a period of time. But can I tell you, physical blindness is analogous to spiritual blindness.
There's some people who see just fine with their eyes, but their hearts are darkened. They can't see. They can't. Their faith, they can't see with those eyes of faith. A new light. Acts, chapter 9, verse 17. Anais went his way and entered to the house. And laying hands on him, he said, brother Saul, isn't that crazy? He called him brother, Brother Saul. He's a family of God. Now, the Lord Jesus, who appeared on you on the road as you came, notice now, the Lord Jesus, who appeared, who appeared to have Saul, the Lord Jesus, he appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight. And Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember, I said this analogous to spiritual insight when Paul was praying for the people in Ephesus. He says this in Ephesians 1, verse 18, I pray. Listen to the phrasing. I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened. Did you know you can see just fine with your physical eye, but you can't see with the eyes of faith, the eyes of your heart.
That's why people have trouble sometimes accepting Christ. They just. I just can't see it. It's too simple. You mean I just simply humble my heart and I. And I ask Jesus into my life and that's all that transpires when I become a Christ? Yeah, it's that simple.
And it's so simple that people stumble over the simplicity. And sometimes they have to be enlightened. They have to have some light shining. Another word I'd give you is just discernment.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul said that the spiritual person can receive the things of the Spirit, but an unspiritual or a natural person can't. It's like you're on two frequencies. It's like God's speaking on FM and you're on AM before you know Him. You're on different frequencies. You need to be enlightened. You need to have the eyes of your heart open. And what happened was, not only was he physically blinded for a period of time and received his sight, he was spiritually blinded for a period of time. And now he received spiritual sight.
He's seeing things about the law that he had never seen before. He was realizing that there's no way by keeping the law, I can ever be made righteous. It's not in me trying to keep the law. It's in me trusting the Lord Jesus that brings about salvation. He had to be enlightened to have that moment.
And anyone I've ever led to Jesus, and anyone in this room that's ever prayed to receive Jesus had that moment when their heart was enlightened.
When the light comes on and they finally go, I need Jesus.
You know, I was raised Baptist or Catholic or whatever, but I've never placed my faith and trust in Christ. I need that to happen. It's enlightenment. And when that happens, when the eyes of your heart are open and you see your need for the Savior, you trust him. And all of a sudden you find you're interested in pleasing him, new leader, and you're interested in following him, you have a new light.
This happened to the Apostle Paul it's really a phenomenal thing when you consider it a new leader, a new light. Notice the third thing that happened to him. He found a new liberty, a new freedom.
He was finally free from the bondage of the law. Remember, the Bible says he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. In fact, in Acts 9:17, Ananias said, Brother Saul be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now he's not following after or trying to keep all the letter of the law. He's following after the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Now it's interesting because when Paul described himself later, when Paul was writing and he was saying, you know, here's who I was and here's who I am, he said, I was the Pharisee of the Pharisee. And as I said earlier, he was a brilliant student of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Gamaliel. He was his star student. Paul was brilliant.
And Paul thought as a Pharisee, that it's in the keeping of the law. Remember, it started with the ten Commandments of Moses. But the Pharisees weren't done with that. They carefully examined the Old Testament ceremonial law, all of those things, and they came up, are you ready with this for this? 613 laws. They could identify not 10613 laws. And by the way, every one of those laws had amendments and addendums, add ons.
Many scholars believe there was over a thousand laws. I mean, what in the world? And the Pharisees taught that if you want to get into heaven, you gotta keep the law. In fact, Jesus says, unless your righteousness receives the exceeds, the righteousness of the Pharisee, you will in no way enter the kingdom of God. Now was Jesus being contradictory? No. He was saying, if you're going to take the legalism path to try to get to heaven, if you're going to try to be perfect, you cannot live up to the standard.
In fact, when Paul wrote the book of Galatians, he explained the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law was not so that man would keep it. The purpose of the law was to break man before God, so that man would come broken before God to say, I cannot keep your law. And God would say, your law. Right?
And he sent his perfect Son into the world to fulfill the requirements of the law. And when you're in Christ through that relationship, you fulfill the purpose of the law. The law is fulfilled in him, not in me.
What's the standard? The standard is perfection.
Here's what's crazy about that, besides all of it. But here's a point.
In the Old Testament, you had to physically violate the law to be guilty of it. Thou shalt not murder. Okay, you say okay. I've never murdered anybody. All right. Good for you. But Jesus came along in the New Testament and he said, if you're guilty of breaking the spirit of the law, you've broken the law. So he said, if you hate someone, you've killed them in your heart. Oops.
Now, look, I'd rather you hate me as murder me. So don't get me wrong. If you're gonna do something, go somewhere with a brother, just hate on me. Don't kill me. But he's drawing the distinction. Here's the point. Jesus is saying, don't become so full of pride that you think you can keep all the standards of the law. You don't have to just violate the law physically. You can violate it in spirit and be guilty. When the Bible says in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, what does that expression, short of the glory of God mean? The glory of God could be defined as everything that God is, everything that he is is glory unto him. Be glory in the church. Let everything that God is be seen in the church. The glory of God is the standard. What? Who is God? Perfection.
And Paul said, all have sinned and come short of the standard perfection.
Now, let me ask you a question. If you're being held out of a fire by a chain of 10 links, 10 commands, how many links in the chain have to break before you fall in the fire? 10 or 1? 1.
And Jesus said, it's not just violating the command, it's violating the spirit of the command, all have sinned, meaning all of us had violated the spirit. In fact, let me just narrow it down on you a little more before I move off of this. The Bible says in the New Testament, the thought of foolishness is sin.
Who among us have not had at least one foolish thought since we've been in here?
I'm just telling you, man. As that great theologian Clint Eastwood said in Unforgiven, we all got it coming.
We all got it coming.
There is none good. No, not one. There is none righteous. No, not one. You say. I feel bad. You can't come to Jesus until you admit you're a sinner. And I'm trying to get you to see you can't be good enough to get in.
You just come with your broken self and you come with your confused self, and you come with your sinful self. You come to him as you are. And Jesus says, those who come to Me, I will in no wise cast out. That's why he went to the cross, to pay for those sins. And when you receive him as Savior, you are justified. You are in him. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We're kings and priests, and we are part of a royal priesthood. We belong to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And one of the characteristics of a person who has met Jesus is they've discovered a new freedom. We're free from the requirement of the law now. The law is still there. Jesus fulfilled the law. Think about the law this way. The law are the curbs on the road.
The road is grace. And you never know the curbs are there till you swerve out of the road. And what do the curbs do? They bump you back out on the road.
You never know the radar's out there till you're going 70 and 55. And then you discover, ah, the law. Hello, I wasn't aware. Now I'm aware. And so that's all it is. If you drive the speed limit, you'll never have one of those encounters. I'm past that point, but I'm just telling you for what it's worth, if you know theoretically, it's just the idea that when you stay within the confines of that framework, you really never bump the law. And when you're in Christ, the purpose of the law is just to bring us humbly back before to say, I can't do this, but you can. And he goes, you're right, and I will.
And in him I fulfill the requirements of the law. One other point on that, and I'll move off of that.
That doesn't mean when you know Jesus and you have a new liberty or new freedom in Christ, that we're free to do anything we want to do.
Somebody thinks it's like a license to thrill, you know? Now that I know Jesus, man, I've got my fire insurance pot in my pocket and I'm just going to live any way I want to live. No, here's what you're free to sin all you want to, but if you know Jesus, you sin about all you want to. He changes your want to.
My mom and I want to do something when I was a kid that was right. I said, but I want to do. She'd go, you need change your want to, mister.
Change your want to. You know what the Holy Spirit does in your heart? He changes your want to.
You could, but you don't want to. He just changes. You don't have the same appetite anymore. It doesn't do it for you anymore. The thrill is gone. It just doesn't do. Now you've convicted and you have some consequences, and you're connecting it and you don't want to do it. He's changed your life. He's brought about a transformation. You have a new liberty. So now it's not that I'm free to do what I want to, it's I'm free to do everything I ought to. And there's so much freedom in Christ. Gosh, there's so much freedom. Here's the fourth part. He discovered also a new love.
A new love man. God changed the man's heart. Remember, he was a hater. He hated Christians. And look at Acts, chapter 9:19 again. Saul spent days with the disciples in Damascus. Huh? He spent days with who? The disciples. Wasn't he trying to kill him and imprison them? Yeah. Not now. What happened? His heart changed.
Man. What makes a person a lover when they were a hater is they've had a heart change.
And when you know Jesus and you love him, you know what happens to you? You'll begin to love everything he loves.
You'll begin to look more like your heavenly Father. Perfect love produces perfect hate. What do I mean by that? I mean, when you love the things you ought to do, you'll despise the things that you ought to despise.
Let me color that a little more for you. If you love your children, you'll hate anything that harms your children. Does that make sense? Perfect love produce perfect hate. If you love your health, you'll despise anything that harms your health. Right? If you love your spouse, you love your significant other, you hate anything that would harm your spouse or your perfect love. Produce. The more you love Jesus, the more the lines are drawn and the more it's easy to see what God wants you to do and by the way, what he doesn't want you to do. And so, in this relationship with Christ, Paul found a new love. He found caring and loving people that he before didn't love and didn't care about. And all of a sudden, man. God has radically changed this man's heart. What's happening? He's looking more and more and more like Jesus. It's a relationship.
It's interesting. There's a psalm that says that God will guide us with his eye.
With his eye.
Meaning that that relationship with God is so strong and so close that we'll be able to love who he loves and do what he's called us to do. Simply, instinctively, intuitively, because of the spirit of God living within me, can direct me in that way. He guides with his eye.
If you're married or you have kids, you know what it means to guide with your eye.
My dad used to have a certain look he could give me and he was guiding me with his eye.
My mom could look across the room at me and we make eye contact and she just guided me with her eye.
I mean, if you have kids and you're somewhere where you just have to keep the decibel down and the nerves in check and you're trying to get their attention mamas, you guide them with your eye, don't you? You're this thing right here.
Why they're in a relationship with you, they know what that look means. You don't even have to audibly say it. They know it by a look because you're in that relationship. I've told you before, man, if you're married or you're in a relationship, have you ever been at a restaurant with friends and decided you were gonna share that you didn't clear with her before you got there?
Dear Lord, man, that's happened to me. I thought it was so funny.
Why couldn't, why wouldn't she laugh? This is hilarious.
And so I get about halfway through the story and all of a sudden our eyes met.
And I'm telling you in that moment when she looked at me and I was married to that girl 42 years before she went to heaven. And believe me, I knew the look. I knew the look.
It's basically saying, abort the story, find the parachute and get out of the plane. And I mean, all of a sudden you're like, how am I gonna make this out to be something different than it? And all of a sudden you just kind of, you know how it is, guy. I don't remember how it went. I'm just stupid, I don't know.
You change the subject, right? Well, what happened? She guided you with her eye.
And when you know Jesus, what I'm saying, it all doesn't have to be black and white. He can follow you in a relationship with him. You get discernment, you get that enlightenment where you know, you know what your heavenly Father wants you to do.
And I found that true in decision making situations, man, if you've got a big decision to make, here's what you can know based on God's word. The devil will pressure you and he will Push you and God will lead you and give you peace about the right decision.
And if you have a decision to make, you already may. You already may know what the decision needs to be, but you're not sure about when to make it. Wait until you have peace.
Don't make it under pressure. Don't make it under duress.
Don't you know that's idea of do something even is wrong is the dumbest advice anybody could ever take.
Just chill. Wait till you have peace. And I'm gonna tell you if you're pressing and you're asking God for wisdom on that thing you're praying about that one day you'll wake up and it'll be enlightenment. It'll be an epiphany. It'll be this moment where you'll just know. And it'll be hard to explain to anybody that especially those that don't get it. Those that do get it will say, I got it. Cause it's happened to me. You'll know what to do. You'll know it's time to do it. Because the Spirit of God will lead you while the enemy will try to pressure you. What's my point? It goes back to your relationship and your fellowship with your heavenly Father. Here's the last thing that happened and we'll go home. It brought about a new labor. A new labor. In Acts, chapter 9, verse 20, the Bible says immediately, immediately he started preaching Jesus in the synagogues, talking about Jesus everywhere he went. It changed the whole focus of his life. Instead of minimizing Jesus, he's maximizing Jesus. Instead of destroying the church, he's building the church. He's starting new churches everywhere. He committed the rest of his life to following after and bringing God glory in everything that he did. And ladies and gentlemen, those are the marks of Christ's work in the life of one of his servants called the apostle Paul. And I think when we examine our life, we can see similarities, right? You can see ways in which God is working. And you see those markers, those little birthmarks of God's work in your life and in mine. And it's wonderful because it's the affirming work of the Spirit of God in my life. So never doubt God's plan, never doubt his work in your life. Realize God has a plan and a purpose for you. And as long as he can keep you doubting and keep you off balance, you're not going to be effective. So stop doubting. Walk in faith, believing God has a purpose for your life. Rest in that and follow that God will not fail you. You, let's pray.
Lord, thank you for this time we could spend worshiping you today.
Thank you Father, for getting to witness this one baptized and for the difference you're making in the life of that one and that family. Father, thank you for those at the 9:30 we saw baptized. We're grateful, Father, for all who are here and those watching online who've experienced worship, who've now had the opportunity to hear your word as it's taught and to and to sense direction from the Holy Spirit concerning things that we ought to apply or we ought to do or stop doing or act on. Thank you for that work and I just pray, Father, for this service today that you'll be glorified in all of our lives. Lift the burdens on the people in this room who are carrying those burdens. Many are watching online who couldn't be here. I pray, Father, you'll meet their deepest need and that this would be an incredible week for them, a productive week for them.
And I pray finally, Lord, for those who may never have trusted you as their Savior that this would be that moment where they humble their heart and they invite you into their life and they just pray a simple prayer like this and say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin and I give you thanks for ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
