Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message you know. God amazes me.
Speaker 3: God has so many ways to confirm what He wants
Speaker 3: us to know. I'm thankful that God is consistent and
Speaker 3: patient in my life and in your life. And the
Speaker 3: truth of the matter is that God wants to speak
Speaker 3: to us more than we want to hear him. God
Speaker 3: wants us to know His will more than we want
Speaker 3: to know it. And so you haven't come here today
Speaker 3: by accident. You didn't come here today because you heard
Speaker 3: their recute girls at Elevation. Even if you came here
Speaker 3: today because you heard their recute girls at Elevation, you
Speaker 3: came here today because God has something to say to you.
Speaker 1: And in fact, as.
Speaker 3: I was writing in my journal on Sadday, I realized
Speaker 3: that today would be a defining moment that we'll see
Speaker 3: a testimony on a screen maybe a year from now,
Speaker 3: maybe five years from now, of somebody saying It was
Speaker 3: that day for me when the Lord fed me, when
Speaker 3: the Lord led me, when the Lord lifted me, when
Speaker 3: the Lord gave me a new life.
Speaker 1: So I'm just excited.
Speaker 3: Don't you feel good to be here for somebody's big day.
Speaker 3: Tell your neighbor it could be yours. Tell them this
Speaker 3: could be your big day. Now, ask your neighbor. Can
Speaker 3: I get your autograph?
Speaker 1: Just in case?
Speaker 3: Come on, ask your neighbor. Can we take a selfie together?
Speaker 1: Just in case?
Speaker 3: I want to get a selfie with you? Just in
Speaker 3: case I need to prove a year from now that
Speaker 3: you're not the person you used to be. You're not
Speaker 3: leaving like you came.
Speaker 1: God can change anybody. God can change anybody. God can
Speaker 1: do anything.
Speaker 3: Speak today for the fifth installment of my series called called.
Speaker 1: You heard me right?
Speaker 3: You're like pastor you glitched a little bit, you said,
Speaker 3: a series called called what's it called? It's called called
Speaker 3: That's what it's called. We've been taking a look at
Speaker 3: several people. I don't call them characters in the Bible.
Speaker 3: I do say that accidentally sometime I don't mean to.
Speaker 3: That makes them sound fictional. But faith is not for
Speaker 3: fictional situations or hypotheticals. It's for humanity, people, flesh and
Speaker 3: blood and bone and sweat and tears and lies.
Speaker 1: In truth, all of that is found in the scriptures.
Speaker 3: Today we're going to look at a passage of scripture
Speaker 3: from the Book of Galatians, chapter one, Galatians chapter one.
Speaker 3: And I'm so glad that time ran out, because every
Speaker 3: five minutes I was waiting for church to start, I
Speaker 3: kept adding scriptures to this sermon, and so it's good
Speaker 3: that the clock ran out so we can preach. I
Speaker 3: like to preach real quick. I won't go over three hours.
Speaker 3: It doesn't take the Lord long to say what he
Speaker 3: wants to say. But I wanted to give a proper
Speaker 3: context for this message today. We talked last week about
Speaker 3: a man named Jacob. Jacob, God called his name twice.
Speaker 3: That's kind of what I'm looking for in this series.
Speaker 3: There are seven seven people that God called their name
Speaker 3: back to back two times in a row in the scripture.
Speaker 3: So you got Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha, Jacob, Jacob, Simon
Speaker 3: Simon who later became Peter, Abraham, Abraham, Samuel, Samuel.
Speaker 1: Any guesses who we're going to preach about.
Speaker 3: Today, Okay, Galatians, Chapter one, verse eleven. I want you
Speaker 3: to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached
Speaker 3: is not of human origin. I did not receive it
Speaker 3: from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I
Speaker 3: received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have
Speaker 3: heard of my previous way of life in Judaism. Any
Speaker 3: guesses who we're talking about today, getting there? You're getting there, okay,
Speaker 3: I'll tell you in a minute, just give some clues.
Speaker 3: For you've heard of my previous way of life in Judaism.
Speaker 3: How intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried
Speaker 3: to destroy it. That word tried would preach itself whoever
Speaker 3: this is to say. And I tried to stand against God,
Speaker 3: and God stood against me. I tried to persecute the
Speaker 3: Church of God and destroy it. I was advancing in
Speaker 3: Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people,
Speaker 3: and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 1: But when God, who set me apart from my mother's.
Speaker 3: Womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to
Speaker 3: reveal his son in me so that I might preach
Speaker 3: him among the gentiles. My immediate Resis response was not
Speaker 3: to consult any human being.
Speaker 1: Wow. I did not go up.
Speaker 3: To Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was.
Speaker 3: But I went into Arabia, that's the desert. I had
Speaker 3: to get prepared. I had to get ready, and later
Speaker 3: I returned to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went
Speaker 3: up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephis and stayed
Speaker 3: with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles,
Speaker 3: only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God
Speaker 3: that what I am writing you is no lie.
Speaker 1: Whoever he is, he's not lying.
Speaker 3: Now go over to Acts chapter nine, and I'll show
Speaker 3: you who we're talking about.
Speaker 1: Acts chapter nine, verse three.
Speaker 3: As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly alike from
Speaker 3: heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
Speaker 3: heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do
Speaker 3: you persecute me?
Speaker 1: Who are you? Lord? Saul?
Speaker 3: Last I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Speaker 3: Now listen to this. Now get up and go into
Speaker 3: the city, and you will be told what you must do.
Speaker 3: Hit me again with verse four. He heard a voice
Speaker 3: when he fell to the ground, Saul Saw. But justin,
Speaker 3: if you can real quick, circle that Saw, Saul. And
Speaker 3: today I want to tell you what my subject is.
Speaker 3: I want to talk to you about when God gets ready,
Speaker 3: when God gets ready. And I also have a subtitle
Speaker 3: to help it stick so you can remember it. Here's
Speaker 3: the subtitle, Callings have commas. I'll explain it in fifteen minutes,
Speaker 3: but say it by faith. Callings have commas. Put a
Speaker 3: comma in chat. Tell your neighbor. Callings have commas. So
Speaker 3: when he says Saul Saul verse four, Saul, now circle
Speaker 3: what comes between comma Saul, Just circle the comma.
Speaker 1: For me, justin, let's preach about that. Father.
Speaker 3: I thank you for the little things that give us revelation.
Speaker 3: Do a big work through it in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 3: you may be seated something as little as a comma
Speaker 3: such a big calling Saul Saul. This moment is unique,
Speaker 3: as Saul is going to kill Christians, and he becomes
Speaker 3: one coming to kill Christians, and he meets Christ called
Speaker 3: by the one that he's trying to kill. Bless you
Speaker 3: and you say, he wasn't trying to kill Christ. He
Speaker 3: was trying to kill Christians. But we found out in
Speaker 3: this text, didn't we that Jesus takes it personally?
Speaker 1: How you treat as people?
Speaker 3: Tell your neighbor be nice to me, Tell him you
Speaker 3: better be real nice to me. The Lord hangs my
Speaker 3: drawings on his refrigerator. You better be nice to me.
Speaker 3: The Lord likes me a whole lot. You better be
Speaker 3: nice to me. He likes my chubby cheeks. You better
Speaker 3: be nice to me. Don't call me short. The Lord
Speaker 3: made me five foot eight and a half. You better
Speaker 3: be nice to me. Be nice to me. When I
Speaker 3: was thinking about preaching on Saul Saul, of course, the
Speaker 3: comma isn't in the Hebrew or the Greek text.
Speaker 1: It's just they're in the English for us.
Speaker 3: But it caused me to pause, because that's what a
Speaker 3: comma is designed to do. In a sentence, right, a
Speaker 3: comma says, pause, let's insert something here.
Speaker 1: That's one thing that ecmma does.
Speaker 3: Another thing that acamma does is it can introduce additional information.
Speaker 3: That is called and a positive thank you mss Cratic
Speaker 3: fifth grade English. It's called an a. A coma can let
Speaker 3: you know, here's some additional information. Comma, comma and additional information.
Speaker 3: And yes, I may have had some assistance from a
Speaker 3: research tool called chat GPT to bring you this current
Speaker 3: information today. But another thing that a comma can do
Speaker 3: is to set into effect a different event, or to
Speaker 3: introduce it, so to set off an element.
Speaker 1: And I'll explain that in a minute.
Speaker 3: But one of the things that a comma can do
Speaker 3: that we're most familiar with is to separate items into
Speaker 3: a list.
Speaker 1: So if you see a list of the Apostles.
Speaker 4: You'll see Simon, Peter, and Bartholomew and James and John,
Speaker 4: and there's commas between each of them to distinguish that
Speaker 4: although they were twelve disciples, they were twelve distinctive people
Speaker 4: with twelve distinctive personalities, and God used each of those
Speaker 4: personalities and a unique way that only he.
Speaker 1: Could use them to fulfill a purpose and only he
Speaker 1: could fulfill.
Speaker 3: And the thing I'm beginning to realize about my life
Speaker 3: is that not only do I have to exist within
Speaker 3: teams and frameworks of organizations and societies, not only do
Speaker 3: I have to learn to interact and play and get
Speaker 3: along with others, but I have to learn to get
Speaker 3: along with myself.
Speaker 1: I have to learn to.
Speaker 3: Get along with myself because even within this one person
Speaker 3: named Stephen.
Speaker 1: I have commas.
Speaker 3: Usually I don't come down to the floor until about
Speaker 3: thirty minutes into my sermon, but I'm coming early today.
Speaker 3: I'm heading up walking a little slow because I did
Speaker 3: some squats yesterday, a little heavier than I intended.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get there though. Now in this section.
Speaker 3: I was visualizing this before I preached it, and I
Speaker 3: thought it would really help us set up for the
Speaker 3: message is that I have multiple callings represented just in
Speaker 3: this section of the room, and I'll prove it to
Speaker 3: you because I have one name, Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior.
Speaker 1: Legally I go by Stephen, but to.
Speaker 3: Multiple people here, they all call me something different. She
Speaker 3: calls me son. That's my mom. They're not putting her
Speaker 3: on camera. She's too pre there, she goes, she's too
Speaker 3: pretty to miss her camera shot.
Speaker 1: Can you see her? Not at all? That's definitely not her.
Speaker 1: Came down a little earlier than they were ready for me.
Speaker 3: Back there in the back, somebody in the back smoking
Speaker 3: a cigarette instead of working the camera. I'm gonna check
Speaker 3: into that because back there in the back they call
Speaker 3: me boss. Not that I'm a dictator or anything like that,
Speaker 3: but I'm the boss. She calls me boss. Mom calls
Speaker 3: me son. She gave me a name Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior,
Speaker 3: and she knows me in a role. She calls me pastor.
Speaker 3: This is cherish. She works on our team. Give it
Speaker 3: up for cherish.
Speaker 1: Everybody.
Speaker 3: She calls me pastor. She calls me son. He calls
Speaker 3: me dad. He used to call me daddy. The saddest
Speaker 3: day of my life is when he dropped the d Y.
Speaker 1: I was like, Dad, just dad. Now He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: just dad.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, this is the first step of this
Speaker 3: is the next thing. You know, he's going to be
Speaker 3: on drugs like I started spiraling out of control. This
Speaker 3: whole process of adulthood. So son, pastor Dad. My best
Speaker 3: friend from high school is over here. His name is Eric.
Speaker 3: He calls me Bo. It's a South Carolina thing. Don't
Speaker 3: worry about it. It's kind of like in Australia, mate,
Speaker 3: or like you might say dude, or you might say bro,
Speaker 3: but in South Carolina we say bo. And its incidentally
Speaker 3: what I call my dog, but there's no correlation. He
Speaker 3: was calling me bou long before I had a Boston
Speaker 3: interior named Bo.
Speaker 1: So I'm illustrating to you. Stay with me for a moment.
Speaker 3: I'm illustrating to you that I am called all that,
Speaker 3: I am called son, i am called dad, Daddy, I'll
Speaker 3: always be daddy.
Speaker 1: I am called I am called bo. She calls me babe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Now we got a problem if he calls
Speaker 3: me babe. But I am babe while I'm still boy.
Speaker 3: It's not like I am babe one day in bo
Speaker 3: the next. I might be Bo one day and babe
Speaker 3: the next I might. I might be dad one moment
Speaker 3: and son the next, because i was a son before
Speaker 3: I was a dad, and I'm still a son while
Speaker 3: I'm a dad, and I'm still a boss while I'm
Speaker 3: a babe. And sometimes she calls me babe, and sometimes
Speaker 3: she calls me boss. But the message I'll get off this,
Speaker 3: the message that I'm trying to give to you today,
Speaker 3: is a simple one. Callings have commas. The process of
Speaker 3: your development isn't that you stop being something and become
Speaker 3: something else. If it was, it'd be easy if you
Speaker 3: stop being son when you became dad, you would know
Speaker 3: what to do and you'd be a good one. Wow.
Speaker 3: But the truth is you have to learn to become
Speaker 3: a dad while you're still a son and a little
Speaker 3: boy in some ways yourself. I'm preaching so good you
Speaker 3: can't say amen. You had to write that down. I'm
Speaker 3: called all of that. Tell somebody next to you, I'm
Speaker 3: all that. Don't be too impressed by me.
Speaker 1: But I'm all that.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying I'm doing it all well, but I'm
Speaker 3: all that. I'm boss, I'm babe, I'm bo, I'm dad,
Speaker 3: I'm daddy.
Speaker 1: I'm all that. I'm all that. And I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out from the passage that we read. And I
Speaker 1: may not even go out on the stage today. I
Speaker 1: might just preach it all the way from down here.
Speaker 3: Because I want to look in your eyes today and
Speaker 3: try to figure out, even through that.
Speaker 1: Camera, what all are you? What all are you? Let's
Speaker 1: take it a little deeper than we did before.
Speaker 3: I was looking at comments the other day of a
Speaker 3: sermon that I preached, trying to figure out if I
Speaker 3: did a good job. Well, that's a dangerous place to
Speaker 3: go to get an assessment of your performances, the comments section.
Speaker 1: Of you two.
Speaker 3: Because I scrolled a little bit and someone said this
Speaker 3: man is so anointed. I felt kind of good. I
Speaker 3: know it's prideful. I know I shouldn't care, but I
Speaker 3: felt kind of good. I thought, yeah, I am kind
Speaker 3: of willy, I am kind of annoyed to I am
Speaker 3: kind of greasy.
Speaker 1: That was a good sermon.
Speaker 3: I scrolled a little more, didn't have to scroll very far.
Speaker 3: Someone else said, this man is so annoying. So all
Speaker 3: it took was a little bit of scrolling, and I
Speaker 3: went from anointed to one person and annoying to another.
Speaker 3: Tell somebody you're all that you're anointed. You know what's
Speaker 3: coming next, don't you, and you're annoying. Paul was pretty anointed,
Speaker 3: would you agree. I know in the text we called
Speaker 3: him Saul Saul, but of course he went on to
Speaker 3: become the great missionary to the Gentiles named Paul. He
Speaker 3: became Paul after Jesus got a hold of his life,
Speaker 3: so we say, but he could be kind of anointed.
Speaker 3: I think anytime that someone falls asleep when you're preaching
Speaker 3: out of a window and you raise them from the dead,
Speaker 3: that counts as anointed. I think anytime you turn to
Speaker 3: a sorcerer and say, in the name of Jesus, shut
Speaker 3: up and the demon had to leave, you're anointed. I
Speaker 3: think anytime God can do miracles not just from your hands,
Speaker 3: but from your handkerchiefs, you're pretty anointed. I think that
Speaker 3: if your shadow is enough to bring healing, you're pretty anointed.
Speaker 3: At the same time that Paul is anointed, I'm sure
Speaker 3: that if we were in his close proximity, we might
Speaker 3: say that he's a little annoying. I know you don't
Speaker 3: like to call your Bible characters annoying, but these are
Speaker 3: not characters. These are conflicted human beings. These are people
Speaker 3: with pasts. These are people with preferences. These are people
Speaker 3: with proclivities. These are people with weaknesses. These are people
Speaker 3: with limps like Jacob. These are people with distracted minds
Speaker 3: like Martha. These are people with stutters and stammers and
Speaker 3: excuses like Moses.
Speaker 1: These are people with shaky faith like Abraham.
Speaker 3: And yet what we're learning in this series is that
Speaker 3: you are called all of that. I recently released a
Speaker 3: song in the verses I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing,
Speaker 3: I'm a story time is revealing.
Speaker 1: I'm all of.
Speaker 3: These things, but mostly I'm thankful. Could that be true?
Speaker 3: I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing. I'm a story
Speaker 3: time is revealing, And just in case you're looking at
Speaker 3: one chapter in my life, don't forget I'm all of
Speaker 3: these things. I am all of these things. Can be kind,
Speaker 3: can be cruel, all of these things. And the sooner
Speaker 3: we admit that we have the capacity to be called
Speaker 3: all of these things accurately in any given situation, the
Speaker 3: more we will learn to rely on the Lord who
Speaker 3: never changes.
Speaker 1: The more we will learn to rely on the Lord.
Speaker 3: Whose character is consistent, and the more that we will
Speaker 3: learn that it is important that although I'm Dad and
Speaker 3: I'm son, and I'm pastor, and I'm boss and I'm
Speaker 3: bo and I'm babe, I'm all of these things, but
Speaker 3: I cannot go to people to figure out who I
Speaker 3: am too soon, because people don't see me how I am.
Speaker 3: They see me how they need me to be. He
Speaker 3: doesn't need a friend, He's got friends. He needs gas money.
Speaker 3: So I'm Dad. I'm not an ATM. But he might
Speaker 3: see me that way, and I can get frustrated seeing
Speaker 3: him as what do I look like to you?
Speaker 1: Do I just look like a cash after you? Do
Speaker 1: I look like a living, breathing cash after you?
Speaker 3: Is that what I look like to you, But I'm
Speaker 3: all of these things.
Speaker 1: I'm all of these things.
Speaker 3: Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin,
Speaker 3: circumcised on the eighth Day, studied under Gamaliel, which would
Speaker 3: be the equivalent of the highest degree of internship.
Speaker 1: You could imagine all that Paul. Saul was all that.
Speaker 3: And yet when the moment came for God to call
Speaker 3: him as important as he was.
Speaker 1: God didn't set up an appointment.
Speaker 3: Jesus did not ask Saul's administrative assistant, can I get
Speaker 3: some time on the books with my man Saul.
Speaker 1: It'd be nice if he could squeeze me in. You know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I think.
Speaker 3: That we forget how sovereign God really is when we're
Speaker 3: making our schedules, and then something just comes along and
Speaker 3: knocks your whole plan apart, and you realize that it's
Speaker 3: so important for all the different roles that you have
Speaker 3: in your life, to realize that for all of the
Speaker 3: roles that you have, there is only one resource that
Speaker 3: will never run out, and his name is Jesus. So
Speaker 3: Paul said in Galatians chapter one that when God called
Speaker 3: me by his grace, I did not immediate confer with
Speaker 3: human beings. Why is that because they are not the
Speaker 3: source of what I am. I'm trying to say it
Speaker 3: another way that will be better. Okay, people label, but
Speaker 3: God names. People label, but God names. And people label
Speaker 3: through their lens of what they see. But God names
Speaker 3: through his lens of what He gave you. Paul said
Speaker 3: from even before the womb. And so the moment when
Speaker 3: we see Paul being knocked down by the glorious light
Speaker 3: of Jesus Christ, I mean, it's a pretty dramatic moment.
Speaker 3: In Acts chapter nine, the Bible says that as he
Speaker 3: neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven
Speaker 3: flashed around him. Now this is somebody that you know,
Speaker 3: the Christians were praying about because the faith of the
Speaker 3: Christians was flourishing. But there will never be flourishing faith
Speaker 3: without a fight. Please get that in your head. There
Speaker 3: will never be flourishing faith will never flourish without a fight.
Speaker 3: Let me say that again. Faith will never flourish without
Speaker 3: a fight.
Speaker 1: It can't.
Speaker 3: The enemy will leave you alone if you are not
Speaker 3: walking in faith. But the moment that you walk in faith,
Speaker 3: he fights you. So that's why he's been fighting you.
Speaker 3: Why God I'll tell you why God, God, God is working.
Speaker 1: In your life. And we see.
Speaker 3: Saul in Acts chapter nine, can I preach a little
Speaker 3: bit with an outline? We see him go from fighting
Speaker 3: to falling to following. From fighting, everybody say fighting to
Speaker 3: falling to following.
Speaker 1: He said, I was locking.
Speaker 3: Up Christians and consenting to the stoning of Stephen.
Speaker 1: And I thought I was doing good.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't like I It wasn't like I knew
Speaker 3: I was wrong. But one of the most beautiful moments
Speaker 3: of your life comes when you encounter the utter relief
Speaker 3: of realizing.
Speaker 1: You were wrong. We're doing the moment when you realize.
Speaker 3: That I was say the word, well, you had a
Speaker 3: hard time getting that out your mouth. You sound like
Speaker 3: you went to the dentist and got some novacane before
Speaker 3: you said that. Did you hear how hard it was
Speaker 3: for you to say I was wrong. I was wrong
Speaker 3: to put that pressure on you. I was wrong when
Speaker 3: I got angry with you and.
Speaker 1: I said you made me mad. You didn't make me mad.
Speaker 3: You just revealed what was already in my heart as
Speaker 3: anger at somebody else. I was wrong to yell at you.
Speaker 3: I was wrong to believe that you knew God less
Speaker 3: than I did, because you struggled with something that my
Speaker 3: exposure did not enable.
Speaker 1: I was wrong to judge you like that.
Speaker 3: I was wrong to think that I was right to
Speaker 3: the exclusion of others having the right to know God
Speaker 3: in their own relationship.
Speaker 1: I was wrong.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do a series sometime in the twentieth year
Speaker 3: of ministry called All the Things I Was Wrong About,
Speaker 3: and it's gonna be a twenty year series, because that
Speaker 3: should be the process of your Christian life is realizing
Speaker 3: that you are wrong and repenting. And you said, well,
Speaker 3: Pastor Stephen, that's not what I came to church for.
Speaker 3: I believe in the blood of Jesus, and I'm right
Speaker 3: about it. I believe in the resurrection and I'm right
Speaker 3: about it. I believe that He saves and he's coming
Speaker 3: again on the clouds on a horse, and he's gonna
Speaker 3: kick his enemies, and he's gonna have his blood dipped
Speaker 3: in robe, and he's the Lion and he's the Lamb.
Speaker 1: And I believe all of that, and I know I'm
Speaker 1: right about it, and they're wrong. You know, you can
Speaker 1: be right in the wrong way.
Speaker 3: To have an arrogant disposition that thinks that you know
Speaker 3: everything to be the kind of parent that punishes your
Speaker 3: kids for stuff that you know that you did ten
Speaker 3: times worse and look at them like, what in the
Speaker 3: world is wrong with you? You know exactly what's wrong
Speaker 3: with them. It's called your DNA. That's what's wrong with them.
Speaker 1: What's wrong with them is you.
Speaker 3: I was spanking one of the kids one time, Please
Speaker 3: don't take me to court, and the Lord said, what,
Speaker 3: You're going to spank the you out of them?
Speaker 1: Wow?
Speaker 3: That helped me because I realized that sometimes the most
Speaker 3: righteous thing I can be is wrong. How open are
Speaker 3: you coming to church today hearing something that you might
Speaker 3: be wrong about? Or do you just want to say
Speaker 3: amen to all the stuff that you already say you
Speaker 3: believe but don't live anyway?
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Now, Saul is an interesting character because other people in
Speaker 3: scripture we see and Jesus is rescuing them from a
Speaker 3: life of sin. That was not Saul's testimony. Saul was
Speaker 3: not a horrible sinner. Saul wasn't rescued from some gross sin.
Speaker 3: Saul was rescued from self righteousness. He says, I was advancing,
Speaker 3: I was going, I thought I was right, and I
Speaker 3: found out I was wrong, and watch this the whole
Speaker 3: word that God wants to give you today. Hinges on this.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you have to be wrong before you're ready. Sometimes
Speaker 3: you are not ready for what God wants to do
Speaker 3: next in your life because you are not willing to
Speaker 3: be wrong. Are you willing to be wrong for a
Speaker 3: moment to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord
Speaker 3: so that He will lift you up to be able
Speaker 3: to say, maybe there is another way to do that.
Speaker 3: Maybe there was a better way to approach that. Maybe
Speaker 3: I don't know every style of worship. Maybe I don't
Speaker 3: know every way that God can move into church. Maybe
Speaker 3: I don't know every way that God can Maybe I
Speaker 3: shouldn't keep putting periods in places where God puts a comma.
Speaker 3: Maybe I shouldn't write people off so quick. Maybe I
Speaker 3: shouldn't just throw people out so quick, like their milk
Speaker 3: that went bad. Maybe I shouldn't just make up my
Speaker 3: mind that they can't change, because the truth is, I'm
Speaker 3: still changing. I'm still changing, I'm still learning, I'm still growing.
Speaker 1: Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3: Give me space to change. I need a little room
Speaker 3: to change. I got a little cocoon, and I'm changing
Speaker 3: in here, and I might break out and I might
Speaker 3: get wings. But I'm struggling against this right now. Why
Speaker 3: would you put a period in a place where God
Speaker 3: puts somebody else in a cocoon to transform them into
Speaker 3: something that you've never seen before? Or why would you
Speaker 3: do it to yourself? Why would you do it to yourself?
Speaker 3: Why would you put a period on your purpose? When
Speaker 3: God put a comma, I'm trying to say He's not
Speaker 3: done with you yet. I'm trying to say nothing is
Speaker 3: over till God says this over. I'm trying to say
Speaker 3: everything that the enemy meant for evil, God has a
Speaker 3: way of turning it for good. I'm trying to say
Speaker 3: that the weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to say that your latter will be greater
Speaker 3: than your past. I'm trying to say that if you're
Speaker 3: still breathing, there's a reason that you're breathing. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to say that I don't care what they said about you.
Speaker 3: I care what God knows about you. Because people label,
Speaker 3: but God names. And you might be addicted, but you
Speaker 3: might not say that way, and you might be bankrupt
Speaker 3: and broke, but you might not stay that way.
Speaker 1: And you might be mean and bitter, but you might
Speaker 1: not stay that.
Speaker 3: Way because the blood of Jesus has a way of
Speaker 3: breaking you out of the prisons of your previous life.
Speaker 1: There are some people in this room who.
Speaker 3: Have been in the prison of your past so long.
Speaker 3: But I want you to realize that callings have commas.
Speaker 3: Comma com The next time the devil starts telling you
Speaker 3: is over, just do one of these and keep walking.
Speaker 3: The next time people say your best is behind you,
Speaker 3: just do one of these and keep walking. The next
Speaker 3: time somebody's saying something about you and you know it's
Speaker 3: not true, don't even say anything back. Just go boom
Speaker 3: and keep walking. Because God does commas. Because God looks
Speaker 3: at dry bones and seize armies, because God looks at
Speaker 3: red seas and sees highways.
Speaker 1: Because God looks at Sol and sees Paul.
Speaker 3: Because God looks as Simon sees Peter.
Speaker 1: Looks at Jacob sees Israel.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad God does commas, and it's just a
Speaker 3: quick thing he can do to get you to see
Speaker 3: something in.
Speaker 1: Yourself that you never saw before. Watch this.
Speaker 3: It is so important that you realize that big doors
Speaker 3: swing on little hinges and something as small as a comma.
Speaker 3: Saul saw something as ordinary as light when binged into
Speaker 3: his eyes turned the world upside down. At this point
Speaker 3: in his life, Paul thought I've arrived. At this point
Speaker 3: in his life, Paul thought I knew at all. At
Speaker 3: this point in his life, Paul thought he was everything
Speaker 3: but wrong.
Speaker 1: At this point in his life, Paul was ranked at
Speaker 1: the top. But just when he got there, God orchestrated
Speaker 1: a falling into a new calling.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in Acts chapter nine, verse four, that
Speaker 3: as Paul was riding along, he fell to the ground
Speaker 3: and heard a voice saying, Saul sauw. It's very interesting
Speaker 3: to me that he couldn't hear that voice until he
Speaker 3: was falling. Sometimes it takes a heartbreak for you to
Speaker 3: be able to hear God. Sometimes it takes an interruption
Speaker 3: to get your attention. And Saul fell off. That's what
Speaker 3: the young people say, man, he fell off. Jereabay saw
Speaker 3: he was doing good man, but I heard he's around
Speaker 3: there with that cult called Christians.
Speaker 1: Saul fell off.
Speaker 3: In fact, I don't know if you noticed it when
Speaker 3: I read in Galatians chapter one, because I get this,
Speaker 3: this is very important. You have to live it now
Speaker 3: and explain it later. You have to live it now,
Speaker 3: survive it now, explain it later. When I read you
Speaker 3: Galatians Chapter one, verses eleven through twenty, I read that
Speaker 3: on purpose first. But it's not what Paul said while
Speaker 3: he was going through his conversion.
Speaker 1: It's what he said fourteen years after the fact. And Saul,
Speaker 1: excuse me.
Speaker 3: Paul the artist formerly known as Saul saw his Hebrew name.
Speaker 3: He was named after the first king of Israel. He
Speaker 3: was from the same tribe of Benjamin. The name Saul
Speaker 3: means to hear or to ask, excuse me, not to hear,
Speaker 3: to ask is Isn't that crazy that in the beginning
Speaker 3: of the passage he's asking for letters to persecute the church,
Speaker 3: and after God gets done with him, he's asking Jesus,
Speaker 3: who are you?
Speaker 1: And God is changing his questions? Is that crazy? And
Speaker 1: as he's explaining to the.
Speaker 3: Church at Galatian, now, this is a group of Christians
Speaker 3: who didn't grow up Jewish. It's a group of Christians
Speaker 3: who we would call gentiles, who Paul was called to reach.
Speaker 3: And he says in verse thirteen, I know you heard
Speaker 3: of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely
Speaker 3: I persecuted the Church of God. You heard about my
Speaker 3: previous way of life. Now stop right there. Have you
Speaker 3: been imprisoned in your previous This is the scary thing
Speaker 3: about consulting with people. People will put you in the
Speaker 3: prison of your previous. In Saul's case, it wasn't a
Speaker 3: life of sin. It was a life of self righteousness.
Speaker 3: But see, to them, he was a Christian killer, and
Speaker 3: so they could never forget what he represented to them,
Speaker 3: And that's why it was important that he went straight
Speaker 3: to God. I heard a story one time about three
Speaker 3: baseball umpires and they were talking about their philosophy of
Speaker 3: calling balls and strikes.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the.
Speaker 3: Baseball umpires said, I call it like it is, and
Speaker 3: the next umpire said, I call it like I see it.
Speaker 1: And the third umpire said, it ain't nothing till I
Speaker 1: call it.
Speaker 3: I believe God is saying today, it ain't nothing till
Speaker 3: I call it. You might think you're really something your resume.
Speaker 3: It ain't nothing till I call it.
Speaker 1: Paul, who was.
Speaker 3: So credentialed, Paul who was so capable, Paul who was
Speaker 3: so incredibly charismatic, said you heard about my previous way
Speaker 3: of life. Now get ready, because this is a really
Speaker 3: powerful reflection from the apostle. He said, you heard how
Speaker 3: intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to
Speaker 3: destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of
Speaker 3: my own age, among my own people, and was extremely.
Speaker 1: Zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 3: Now I want to show you verse fifteen because it's
Speaker 3: what really lit my spirit on fire for somebody in
Speaker 3: the room today, Paul says, after all of that that
Speaker 3: you've heard about me, after all of that that I
Speaker 3: did against Jesus, I was fighting against him. Now I'm
Speaker 3: following him. I was fighting against him. Now I am
Speaker 3: filling the world with his teaching. I am filling the
Speaker 3: world with the message that I used to fight against.
Speaker 3: This is how big God can do it. This is
Speaker 3: how drastic of a change God can make. It is
Speaker 3: too soon for you to give up on anybody. It
Speaker 3: is too soon for you to give up on you.
Speaker 3: It is too soon for you to give up on freedom.
Speaker 3: I was telling somebody the other day this is the
Speaker 3: way I am and it will never change, and they said,
Speaker 3: it's too soon for you.
Speaker 1: To say that you've got too many experiences.
Speaker 3: You've got too many valleys, you've got too many mountains,
Speaker 3: you've got too many tomorrows, you've got too many next months,
Speaker 3: you've got too many next years. It is too soon
Speaker 3: for you to say that. It is too soon for
Speaker 3: you to say I'll never. It is too soon for
Speaker 3: you to say I'm not. It is too soon for
Speaker 3: you to assume that what you've seen so far is
Speaker 3: all there is to you. Because Paul, who was called Saul,
Speaker 3: thought I've done it, This is it. And God laughed
Speaker 3: because where he put a period, God put a comma.
Speaker 3: He said, you heard about my previous way of life.
Speaker 3: You heard how I advanced. You heard how zealous and
Speaker 3: passionate I was. And then verse fifteen says something very powerful.
Speaker 1: But when God comma, I know.
Speaker 3: It's gonna take a minute, but you're gonna get it.
Speaker 3: But when God comma, take those three words and get
Speaker 3: them in your spirit. Now, put them in your mouth
Speaker 3: and say them. But when God, I want to see
Speaker 3: the chat light up right now with that three words.
Speaker 1: But when God.
Speaker 3: One of the favorite phrases for us to shout about
Speaker 3: in church is but God, this is a little different.
Speaker 3: But God means it seemed to be going one way,
Speaker 3: now it's going another.
Speaker 1: It looked like this.
Speaker 3: It was really that I was dead in my sins
Speaker 3: and transgressions.
Speaker 1: But God made me alive. Paul wrote that, by the way,
Speaker 1: Paul wrote that after.
Speaker 3: He'd spent his whole life fighting against the thing he
Speaker 3: was now following in, Paul wrote that, by the way,
Speaker 3: don't you dare tell me that you're done. Don't you
Speaker 3: dare tell me that nothing good is gonna come from you.
Speaker 3: Don't you dare tell me that it's over. Paul wrote that,
Speaker 3: but when God comma, you could see this on the screen.
Speaker 3: You're listening to this on a podcast. If you are
Speaker 3: listening to this sermon and not watching it, pull the
Speaker 3: car over and look at the screen right now, or
Speaker 3: pull up this verse in your U version app pull
Speaker 3: up Galatians one point fifteen, because I want you to see.
Speaker 3: But when God, which means what that it's on his schedule,
Speaker 3: not mine. But when God, I was sinking deep in sin,
Speaker 3: far from the peaceful shore. But when God, they wrote
Speaker 3: me off, talked about me like a dog, said I
Speaker 3: was annoying. But when God, I was up to my
Speaker 3: neck in it. I didn't think I could take another
Speaker 3: phone call or a text message with bad news. But
Speaker 3: then a light shone from heaven and knock me off
Speaker 3: my horse and knock me off my rightness. But when
Speaker 3: God people said he'll never get up. People started playing
Speaker 3: my funeral, people started writing my old bits aweary, people
Speaker 3: started talking.
Speaker 1: About me behind my back.
Speaker 3: But when God comma, I'll say about this. So when
Speaker 3: did Saul's name change to Paul? I know when Abraham's
Speaker 3: name changed. I know when Abraham's name changed. Genesis chapter seventeen,
Speaker 3: checked his out. The Lord took this man named Abram,
Speaker 3: and he said, I like to buy a consonant consonant vinna.
Speaker 1: I like the car.
Speaker 3: Abraham, look at this Justice seventeen. Abraham fell face down.
Speaker 3: Abraham what.
Speaker 1: Somebody else felt that we were just talking about?
Speaker 3: Oh, so sometimes the fall signifies that there's a call coming.
Speaker 1: There's a call coming, there's a call coming. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you fell into this week.
Speaker 3: Some of you fell back into something this week that
Speaker 3: you thought you walked away from.
Speaker 1: But after the fall, there is a calling.
Speaker 3: You're gonna help somebody get set free from him. I know,
Speaker 3: y'all don't like this, but sometimes it takes wrong to
Speaker 3: get you ready. It takes wrong to get you ready.
Speaker 3: Stop beating up on yourself. Paul said, by the grace
Speaker 3: of God, I was called it's time for you to
Speaker 3: fall into calling. Now Abraham fell face down. He wasn't
Speaker 3: called Abraham yet, he was called Abram. Abram means exalted Father.
Speaker 3: That's freaking name called Abram. Why do you need an upgrade? Well,
Speaker 3: when he fell face down, God said to him, that's
Speaker 3: the call. After the fall asked for me, this is
Speaker 3: my coming with you. You be the father of many nations
Speaker 3: because Abram means exalted father.
Speaker 1: Abraham means father of many.
Speaker 3: So now we see that God is exchanging a name
Speaker 3: as a setup for expansion. I want you to just
Speaker 3: be a father. I wants to be a father of
Speaker 3: many nations. Who else you don't see? Jacob Jenu is
Speaker 3: thirty two. He's wrestling with God all night. He don't
Speaker 3: know it's God. He's fighting, and then he falls and
Speaker 3: he says, I'm not letting go to your blessing. When
Speaker 3: he falls, God said, I see you struggling with God humans,
Speaker 3: and you have overcome, so you're no longer going to
Speaker 3: be called Jacob, which means heal, grabber. But now your
Speaker 3: name is Israel, which means overcomer, because you struggled with
Speaker 3: God and with humans and have overcome. Wow, he got
Speaker 3: a new name because he was not just carrying himself.
Speaker 1: He was carrying a nation.
Speaker 3: He was all that, all that was coming forth out
Speaker 3: of him, All of that was meant to be from him,
Speaker 3: all of that. Abram, Abraham, Jacob, Israel. Who else? Simon
Speaker 3: Peter Well, he makes a confession. Jesus says, who do
Speaker 3: you say that I am? Matthew, Chapter sixteen, verse fifteen.
Speaker 3: He said, I know who you are. You're the Christ,
Speaker 3: the son of the Living God. He said, blessed you,
Speaker 3: Simon bar son of Jonah. Because flesh and blood is
Speaker 3: not revealed this to you. You can't figure this out by
Speaker 3: thinking it. You can't figure this out by studying it.
Speaker 3: You can't figure this out by doing a DNA test.
Speaker 3: What is it called twenty three and me? You can't
Speaker 3: do twenty four to twenty five to me. The only
Speaker 3: way you can know me is the Father in Heaven reveal.
Speaker 3: And now I'm gonna reveal who you are. Now that you
Speaker 3: see clearly who I am. I say you you are
Speaker 3: Peter Petrol Cephis Rock. And upon this rock of the
Speaker 3: revelation that you have of who I am, I'm going
Speaker 3: to show you who you are.
Speaker 1: I will build my church. Wow.
Speaker 3: So every time that God gave someone a new name,
Speaker 3: he was building something. Every time that God gave them
Speaker 3: a new name, he was enlarging something. Every time that
Speaker 3: God gave their new name represented a new assignment, a
Speaker 3: new sphere, a new domain, a new level of weight.
Speaker 1: So when did Paul become Paul? Saul? Saul? Now I
Speaker 1: have to confess to you here.
Speaker 3: I would like to tell you that I learned that
Speaker 3: in Bible school, and I never forgot it. But my
Speaker 3: limited mind just all thought that when God touched him
Speaker 3: on the road to Damascus, because he went blind, and
Speaker 3: then he met him man named Annius, and he got
Speaker 3: his site back and he was able to see, and
Speaker 3: then he went into the desert to prepare for three years.
Speaker 3: I always thought that somewhere in that Acts chapter nine,
Speaker 3: somebody God or Antonius or somebody said, and verily, verily,
Speaker 3: I say, unto thee Saul, you will no longer be
Speaker 3: called Saul. You will now be called Paul so I
Speaker 3: read all through Acts chapter nine, and I was like, wait,
Speaker 3: I missed it.
Speaker 1: Where is it? Maybe maybe as I'm reading the wrong version.
Speaker 1: It took me about two hours. I just kept reading.
Speaker 3: I read Acts chapter nine, where Saul got knocked down
Speaker 3: and fell and God told him I'm going to call
Speaker 3: you to be a chosen vest. I read Acts chapter ten,
Speaker 3: Acts chapter eleven, Acts chapter twelve. I read the whole
Speaker 3: rest of the Book of Acts, and God never changed
Speaker 3: his name. And I was shocked because I thought, just surely,
Speaker 3: if he's going to be representing Jesus now as the
Speaker 3: apostle Paul, that God must have given him that new name. Well,
Speaker 3: it's not until Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine that we
Speaker 3: see when Saul became Paul. Pause real quick, kama kamakama,
Speaker 3: comma paus paus Pause. I'm telling you this because sometimes
Speaker 3: we don't know when we're changing. Sometimes it's fourteen years later,
Speaker 3: when you're writing the Book of Galatians that you realize, oh,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a fall, it was a calling.
Speaker 1: What looked like falling was actually calling.
Speaker 3: What looked like a disability was actually my unique gift.
Speaker 3: What looked like a learning disorder was actually, my brilliant
Speaker 3: mind just firing a little.
Speaker 1: Different than everybody else's.
Speaker 3: What looked like a rejection from people was God's redirection
Speaker 3: for something that he called me uniquely to do.
Speaker 1: Why aren't you helping me preach?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to help you recategorize, reclassify some stuff, because
Speaker 3: it ain't nothing until God calls it. You can't call
Speaker 3: it good, you can't call it bad. You can't call
Speaker 3: it success, you can't.
Speaker 1: Call it failure. It's nothing until He calls it.
Speaker 3: And here is the mighty apostle, Paul, saying, God who
Speaker 3: called me from my mother's womb. And then I realized
Speaker 3: In Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine, Oh.
Speaker 1: This is the most annointed verse I've read all year.
Speaker 3: Ah. This will change your life. Ah, this will set
Speaker 3: you free, because everybody's waiting for this change to come.
Speaker 3: You know when I'm gonna feel better and be better
Speaker 3: and do better and get taller and get richer, and
Speaker 3: everything's gonna be going my way, and everybody's gonna be
Speaker 3: nice to me and smiling me, and I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: struggle with this anymore.
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter thirteen, verse nine.
Speaker 3: Here it is Vin Saul Comma, who was also called Paul.
Speaker 3: What you mean God didn't change his name. Nope, Saul
Speaker 3: was his Hebrew name. Paul was his Roman name because
Speaker 3: he was all that. I said, he was all that.
Speaker 3: To be born in Tarsus of Sicily, where Paul was born,
Speaker 3: gave you a unique advantage that although I am Jewish
Speaker 3: by heritage, I am Roman by citizenship. So it means
Speaker 3: that I'm Saul and I'm also Paul. Saul isn't bad,
Speaker 3: Paul isn't bad.
Speaker 1: I'm just both.
Speaker 3: Saul is the life I built until I met Jesus.
Speaker 1: All is my name.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna take the Gospel to the gentile world with.
Speaker 1: So God is saying to.
Speaker 3: Somebody, I don't know your given name, I don't know
Speaker 3: your legal name.
Speaker 1: I don't know what.
Speaker 3: God has you're standing on the precipice of I don't
Speaker 3: know what you're shaking about. I don't know what you're
Speaker 3: dealing with. I don't know who's talking to you about it.
Speaker 3: I don't know who's counsel you're keeping. But God has
Speaker 3: somebody here so you can hear today you already? Are
Speaker 3: you all ready? Are you all ready? Are stop trying
Speaker 3: to be that you all ready are? Stop trying to
Speaker 3: give sex to get love. You already are loved. Stop
Speaker 3: trying to give yourself away to people who do not
Speaker 3: have the capacity to receive it. Because the Bible says,
Speaker 3: when it came time for the gentiles to hear the Gospel, Saul,
Speaker 3: who was also called Paul, step forth, and the Book
Speaker 3: of Acts never calls him Saul again because listen to this,
Speaker 3: listen to this. It's time for you to use your
Speaker 3: other name. It's time for you to step into what
Speaker 3: God already called you. And didn't it just bless your
Speaker 3: socks off to realize that there was not a moment
Speaker 3: where he said you shall no longer be Saul, you
Speaker 3: shall be Paul.
Speaker 1: He said, simply, I just want you to use what
Speaker 1: I already gave you.
Speaker 3: And maybe that's the calling in this season of your
Speaker 3: life to start using what He already gave you, to
Speaker 3: start using the resources that your heavenly Father has already
Speaker 3: placed in your spirit through a deposit. Because I'll tell
Speaker 3: you one thing about it. Everything I've got that's worth having,
Speaker 3: I got it by grace, Paul said, when God was pleased,
Speaker 3: give me galicians one fifteen one more time. When God
Speaker 3: was pleased when God was pleased, and then what comes
Speaker 3: between those commas who set me apart from my mother's
Speaker 3: womb and called me by his grace. So I just
Speaker 3: want to say to you today that the grace was
Speaker 3: there before the mistake was ever made. Oh oh, I
Speaker 3: can hardly preach this to you because God is putting
Speaker 3: it inside of me. I make mistakes, but the grace
Speaker 3: outran the mistake. The grace outran the mistake. So when
Speaker 3: you get done feeling sorry for yourself and get done
Speaker 3: groveling and thinking God won't forgive you and God won't
Speaker 3: use you, you'll realize callings have commas. But when God,
Speaker 3: who set me apart from my mother's womb, my name
Speaker 3: has always been Paul. I don't know who this is for,
Speaker 3: but you've always been Paul. Some pain happened to you,
Speaker 3: but you've always been Paul. You've always had a purpose,
Speaker 3: You've always had a unique gift. You've always had that
Speaker 3: smile that can light up a room. You've always been
Speaker 3: able to listen to people. You've always been able to
Speaker 3: unlock things. It just got buried for a little while.
Speaker 3: But I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I said,
Speaker 3: I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I'd rather
Speaker 3: go blind for a little while than spend my whole
Speaker 3: life fighting when God has called me to follow.
Speaker 1: So maybe we.
Speaker 3: Didn't come today asking God to change us into something
Speaker 3: that we're not. Maybe we came to allow God to
Speaker 3: remind us.
Speaker 1: And he got it, already, got it, already, got it,
Speaker 1: already got it.
Speaker 3: The grace came before the mistake was made. High five
Speaker 3: Greek people say.
Speaker 1: Already got it.
Speaker 3: Before I pray, he hears me, before I cry.
Speaker 1: He's got a kleenex. I already got it. May this
Speaker 1: be the day. May this be the.
Speaker 3: Day that you stop running to people and letting them
Speaker 3: put periods where God would call us because calleingues have commers.
Speaker 3: I'm annoying and annoyted. I'm Saul, I'm Paul.
Speaker 1: I'm messed up.
Speaker 3: Had I got up? Had I got a message for
Speaker 3: the world. You a shepherd or a singer? David, My
Speaker 3: calling has commas. You a sinner or a saint, Stephen,
Speaker 3: My calling has commas. And before I was born, Oh,
Speaker 3: I hear Jeremiah being echoed right now. He set me apart.
Speaker 3: Because another thing a comma can do. Watch this, it
Speaker 3: can set something up to set something off Acts thirteen,
Speaker 3: verse nine. Then Saul, who was also called Paul filled
Speaker 3: with the Holy Spirit. Oh he fell, Now he's filled?
Speaker 6: Why because callings have commas. God's not done with you, dude.
Speaker 6: God's not done with you, bro. God's not done with you, mate.
Speaker 6: God's not done with you, bau. God's not done with you.
Speaker 1: Mom.
Speaker 3: God's not done with your babe. God's not done with
Speaker 3: your son. God's not done with you, cherish. God wants
Speaker 3: all of you, all that. I've come a long way.
Speaker 3: I've seen how you work. There's so much goodness and grace?
Speaker 1: How much?
Speaker 3: All right, sir?
Speaker 1: Because I know who I am? Saw?
Speaker 3: But I can't stay where I'm at. Paul, Yes, a
Speaker 3: new assignment. What's the next line? Y'all got a singer.
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: You gotta declared put it in a Doll's nice.
Speaker 7: You're not tied with me. You're not chime with men.
Speaker 7: PAULA yay, so got so loyal? Got something fresh for you.
Speaker 7: You're not You're harm with oil. You're not ungrpeat, not yet,
Speaker 7: not ever, not yet.
Speaker 1: You're not tong.
Speaker 7: Repe granther that they.
Speaker 1: Are so much to this story. Just go a little
Speaker 1: deep talk with, but you left your hands.
Speaker 3: Stay at the fake time, he said, not about that.
Speaker 7: Cra worse, I said, will be to the wr.
Speaker 3: I'm a storys Highness, the dealing.
Speaker 1: Time or not with your hand on your hearts. Take
Speaker 1: you're not.
Speaker 7: Talking it that something I don't play grid will people
Speaker 7: you're not done with.
Speaker 5: When God gets ready, When God gets ready, When God
Speaker 5: gets ready.
Speaker 3: I brought you to this moment in the sermon to
Speaker 3: let you know that you might have been wrong. But
Speaker 3: while you were getting it wrong, God was getting you ready,
Speaker 3: and you're ready. Now you're ready to use the name
Speaker 3: he gave you. You're ready to use the gifts he
Speaker 3: gave you. You're ready to use the experiences he's given you,
Speaker 3: the sweet ones and the bitter ones. While you were
Speaker 3: getting it wrong. Paul says, I did all that stuff. Man,
Speaker 3: I thought I was ready, But when God got ready,
Speaker 3: I tried it in my own strength and I fell.
Speaker 1: But when God got ready, I went completely.
Speaker 3: The wrong way. I was making good time, but I
Speaker 3: was on the wrong road. But when God got ready
Speaker 3: to reveal his son, now watch this. There's one more
Speaker 3: thing I've got to give you, he says. When God
Speaker 3: was pleased to reveal his son and me. Watch this
Speaker 3: reveal doesn't mean that it started to exist. Reveal means
Speaker 3: I let you see what was already there. So, my sister,
Speaker 3: my brother, my friend, my son, my wife, my mom,
Speaker 3: get ready to see what God will reveal now that
Speaker 3: you fell into his arms. Get ready to see what
Speaker 3: God will reveal now that you've stopped fighting and started following.
Speaker 1: Get ready to.
Speaker 3: Cease Saul, become Paul, and confess it. For everybody who
Speaker 3: has somebody in your life that you love. Man, we've
Speaker 3: all been there, somebody who's going the complete wrong way.
Speaker 3: Maybe you even brought him to church this morning. Don't
Speaker 3: look at him right now, be awkward. But I remember
Speaker 3: looking at my dad when he was skipping church, and
Speaker 3: I said, I'm praying for you.
Speaker 1: God's going to get a hold of your life, he said.
Speaker 3: But you didn't know at the time is that I
Speaker 3: had a drinking problem and I was so low and
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I was going to do. And
Speaker 3: I felt sorry for you because you believed that God
Speaker 3: was going to do something in me. But neither of
Speaker 3: us was laughing when he came to the altar two
Speaker 3: years later and surrendered.
Speaker 1: His life to Jesus. So I've seen this. I've seen
Speaker 1: it in our church. God is so strategic in his preparation.
Speaker 3: When God gets ready, it's different than when people get ready.
Speaker 1: I used to.
Speaker 3: Always get frustrated in church. They say God's getting ready
Speaker 3: to bless you. God's getting ready to move, God's getting
Speaker 3: ready to show up. God's getting ready to turn it around.
Speaker 3: And I would think, he's God.
Speaker 1: Why does he have to get ready? That's something we
Speaker 1: have to do before we leave the house.
Speaker 3: What's God doing putting on his coat because it's a
Speaker 3: little cold. What's God doing putting some makeup on? What's
Speaker 3: God doing? God's getting ready. He's not preparing.
Speaker 1: He's God. He's already prepared. He's not preparing. He's positioning.
Speaker 3: So that when it's time for Paul to write the
Speaker 3: letter to the Galatian Church, he can do it with
Speaker 3: his name Paul. When God gets ready, no person can
Speaker 3: stop it. When God gets ready, no devil can stop it.
Speaker 3: When God gets ready. When God gets ready, he'll take
Speaker 3: where people put a period and make it a comma.
Speaker 3: Now right now, right now, there's somebody who needs to
Speaker 3: give their life to Jesus in this room, bow your
Speaker 3: head and close your eyes. Please don't fight this off.
Speaker 3: Jesus told Paul, go to the city and you'll be
Speaker 3: told what you must do. And in the obedience to
Speaker 3: follow that instruction, he received his assignment. Right now, I
Speaker 3: want to lead you in a prayer that the light
Speaker 3: of the gospel that you've received today would not just
Speaker 3: bring you light in this room, but it would transform
Speaker 3: your life.
Speaker 1: For the rest of your life.
Speaker 3: And if there's somebody here who's never put your faith
Speaker 3: in Jesus, or you did and then you went the.
Speaker 1: Wrong way, He's not done with you yet. He brought
Speaker 1: you here.
Speaker 3: Don't you understand He loves you so much that he
Speaker 3: called you by name.
Speaker 1: Today he's speaking to you. I'm not speaking to you.
Speaker 1: I don't know you like that.
Speaker 3: That's Jesus speaking to you, telling you that if you
Speaker 3: will call on his name, you will be saved. Right now,
Speaker 3: heads bowed, eyes closed, all over the room. I'm going
Speaker 3: to lead you in a prayer. And if this prayer
Speaker 3: expresses your heart. The Bible says that if you confess
Speaker 3: with your mouth Jesus's Lord and believe in your heart
Speaker 3: God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
Speaker 3: right here right now. This is your moment. Repeat after me,
Speaker 3: Heavenly Father. Today is my day of salvation. I am
Speaker 3: a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe
Speaker 3: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the
Speaker 3: savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the
Speaker 3: Lord of my life. I believe he died that I
Speaker 3: would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.
Speaker 3: I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
Speaker 3: I am a child of God. On the count of three,
Speaker 3: shoot your hand up. If you prayed that, one, two, three,
Speaker 3: all over the room, hands going up, hands going up,
Speaker 3: Angels starting to party in heaven. Come on, Shane's breaking off,
Speaker 3: hands going up, New life's beginning.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jesus, Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 2: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 2: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 2: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.