Sunday Worship - July 4

I'll fight on my knees, with my hands lifted high, oh God, the battle belongs to you, and every fear I lay at your feet, I'll sing through the night, oh God, the battle belongs to you.

And if you are for me, who can be against me? For Jesus, there's nothing impossible for you. When all I see are the ashes, you see the beauty.

When all I see is a cross God, you see the empty tomb So when I fight I'll fight on my knees With my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to you And every fear I lay at your feet I'll sing through the night, oh God, the battle belongs to you. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow, you win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. Almighty fortress, you go before us. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. You shine in the shadow. You win every battle. Nothing can stand against the power of our God. So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees With my hands lifted high Oh God, the battle belongs to you

And every fear I lay at your feet I'll sing through the night Oh God, the battle belongs to you Oh, God, the battle belongs to you.

Thank you. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul. Worship His holy name. Sin like never before, oh my soul. I worship Your holy name. The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass And whatever lies before me Let me be singing When the evening comes Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship Your holy name You're rich in love And You're slow to anger Your name is great and your heart is kind For all your goodness I will keep on singing Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship his holy name. Sin like never before, oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name.

And on that day when my strength is failing The end draws me and my time has come Still my soul will sing your praise unending Ten thousand years and then forevermore Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sing like never before O my soul I'll worship your holy name Bless the Lord, oh my soul Oh my soul Worship his holy name Sin like never before Oh my soul I'll worship your holy name. Yes, I will worship your holy name. Lord, I'll worship your holy name. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Transcription by CastingWords Thank you. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. We'll be right back. Thank you. O Lord, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord. Come and listen to me. Let's pray. Thank you. Thank you. into our time of communion um we're going to be singing together i wanted to share a couple verses out of Psalm 107 uh just as we focus today on our hope that we can find in God and it's uh Psalm 107 says give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south. Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty.

Their soul fainted within them. They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with good things and I love that verse 9 there because everybody's been hungry before and in a bad mood Brandon's pretty famous for that whenever he's hungry but it doesn't just apply to actual food it applies to all the things that God fills us up with he can fill us with joy in times of darkness he can fill us with hope in a time of hopelessness, and he fills us up with good things, and it's just a really good reminder that

all things from God are good, and he wants good things for us, and so we're going to sing together Break Every Chain, and then we're going to move into our time of communion.

There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain To break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. Oh, sufficient sacrifice, so freely given, such a price. On our redemptions, heaven's gates swing wide There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus Break every chain, break every chain, break every chain There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus Break every chain, break every chain Break every chain, break every chain Break every chain

If you haven't had a chance to pick up your communion elements and you would like to partake with us this morning, they are on the little table right as you come in. And as I was thinking about gathering together with you for the Lord's Supper, And I was thinking about today, 4th of July, a day we celebrate freedom. Rachel did not let me wear my shirt with the bald eagle on it that says, I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of my freedom. I was thinking about that, and I've shared some of this with some of you before, but probably one of the most memorable times that I ever participated in the Lord's Supper. There was no songs. There wasn't really even any Bible reading. just a little bit of fear. I was 17 years old and I was visiting my uncle who was a missionary

in Belarus and in that area there was mandatory military service when you turned 18 and so one of the young men had just from the youth group had gone into military service and you were allowed to go visit them on Sunday afternoons and one of the things about Belarus which is still true today is that it's not a friendly country toward Christians. And so we were there with some of the kids from the youth group, and he said one of the things he wanted to do is he said, I'd like to partake of communion. And so we gathered around, and they told me and a couple of my cousins, I said, stand over here. And I was like, well, why are we standing here? And it said, so the guy who's looking over the fence

to make sure that we're not going to do what we're going to do can't see him. And if we get in trouble, you as an American are going to get off easy compared to anybody else and it was in that moment i think that i realized the privilege that you and i have um to not have to be afraid right we have this freedom and when Paul prays in first Timothy the second chapter and he prays for governments he prays that we would have this kind of freedom not just to enjoy but rather to proclaim the gospel and the question I think for God's people is what are we doing with this gift that God has given us where we don't have to gather in fear and we don't have to hide and we don't have to be afraid but I think the freedom that we remember

this morning is more deeply, is more deep than simply physical freedom. Jesus, when he preaches his very first sermon in his home church in Nazareth, reads from Isaiah and he says this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind and to set the oppressed free. And Jesus says, I come to bring freedom. And he's not talking there about physical freedom or being afraid of governments or being allowed to do what we want, but he's talking about a freedom that goes deeper to the very core of our being, a spiritual freedom. That we are no longer crushed under the burden of sin, that we are no longer slaves to sin,

that we don't have to be afraid, but we have this freedom in Christ that nourishes the very depth of our soul. Paul says it this way, For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God? For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now we are reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. More than that, we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we now have received reconciliation. That we're free from fear. If you're a Christian, the bonds of sin have been broken. You're given the Holy Spirit to help you and encourage you and strengthen you. So as we break this bread this morning, let's be thankful for the freedom. The freedom of the country in which we live. The freedom to proclaim the gospel. But most of all, and most importantly of all, the freedom that comes through Jesus. I'm going to pray and we'll read from 1 Corinthians 11 and then we'll partake together. Father in heaven, thank you for how you have blessed us. We so often do not appreciate the gifts that you've given us. Help us not to lose sight of the good news of the gospel that frees us from our sin and our fear and our shame

and brings us into a relationship with you where there is hope and there is peace and there is joy regardless of our external circumstances. We thank you for how you help us and encourage us. As we break this bread and as we drink this cup this morning, may you nourish our hearts, strengthen our faith, bring us to repentance for our sins, and help us to see your love that has been so freely given. I ask that you bless this bread and bless this cup. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Jesus, the night that he was betrayed, will take bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's partake together. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper,

saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let's drink together. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for hope. Thank you for grace. Thank you for strength. Thank you for your church. Thank you for your church, not just here, but throughout the world. And we ask this morning that you would be with those Christians who are proclaiming the gospel in dark and difficult places that you would strengthen them and you would give them courage. Thank you for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Jesus ends like this. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

This morning's reading is from Acts, the 9th chapter, verses 1 through 19. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Domestics, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city. You will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless,

Hearing the voice, but seeing no one, Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. And they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he went without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and Ananias said, Here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in, and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man,

how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on Paul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you in the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may migraine your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened.

For some days Saul was with the disciples in Damascus. This is the word of the Lord. All right, as we have journeyed through Acts, we've seen the promises of Jesus that the gospel would go, not just in Jerusalem and not just in Judea, but to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We have seen how God equips the church, how the church is under attack both from outside of the church and within the church with stories like Ananias and Sapphira and Simon the sorcerer. And this morning we come to the conversion of Saul who will later become known as Paul the Apostle. So we'll pray and we'll dive right into it this morning. Father in heaven, thank you for your church and for your word. We thank you for how you have equipped your church.

We thank you for how throughout history you have been at work in your church and in different ways giving us exactly what we need. So help us this morning as we look at the life of the Apostle Paul. We see how you have changed and transformed him. And we see the promise of hope for all of us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So it's really easy for us to take some of the conveniences of our modern life for granted. So yesterday afternoon, we had run around a bunch of places yesterday and done a bunch of errands, and I was falling asleep, laying on the couch, and I hear this giant boom, and then the house just goes quiet. And I yelled at her, Rachel, I think the power just went out. And sure enough, in kind of the warmest part of the afternoon, the air conditioner was stopped,

the fish tank had stopped, the fan had stopped, the lights had stopped, and thankfully it was restored. It was just an hour or two. But it's one of those things that we don't think about very often until we don't have it. The remarkable fact that we can walk into a room, turn on a switch, and all of a sudden there's light. Or we can walk over to our wall and push a button, and our house gets colder or warmer. And we don't think about the wonder of those things and the remarkable things that we have until they don't work or they're not there. And when it comes to the conversion of Saul, who will become the Apostle Paul, one of the things for those of us who have been in the church for a while,

this is a familiar story. We know about Paul's journey to Damascus. We know about his encounter with Jesus on the road. We know what happens next. And for many of us, we treat this story kind of like we treat it electricity, right? We just sort of take it for granted. So this morning, as we look at what happens to Saul, and I'll probably jump back and forth between Saul and Paul, because we mostly think of him as Paul, but at this point he's still Saul. There is a tendency for those of us who are Christians to become dull to the wondrous power of God to transform lives. And so I hope we see that as we look for hope in the story of Paul. And so as Acts chapter 9 begins, it begins with a startling contrast.

If you remember, Acts chapter 8 has been primarily all about Philip. And he's a deacon in the church, and as persecution arises, he runs away from Jerusalem. But he doesn't sort of go empty-handed. He goes with his hands full of the gospel. And where he goes, he proclaims the gospel. And he goes to Samaria and he teaches them about Jesus and a church is started. And while he's there ministering in Samaria, the Holy Spirit says, hey, I want you to go to this deserted road. And along this road is an Ethiopian and he's riding along in his chariot and he's reading the Bible and he's spiritually searching. And what God does is he says to Philip, go to the chariot. He goes, hey, do you understand what you're reading? The guy says, no. And so Philip says, well, let me tell you about Jesus.

And he tells this guy about Jesus. The guy believes in Jesus. He goes down and the water is baptized. And Philip disappears and finds himself. And Acts chapter 8 ends like this. Philip found himself in Azotus. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So he starts by preaching in Samaria, preaches on the desert road to the Ethiopian. God moves him and then he just continues preaching. And then you get to Acts chapter 9, and there's this startling contrast. Listen to how it begins. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. So on one hand, in Acts chapter 8, you have the gospel going to the ends of the earth through Philip to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth through the Ethiopian.

And as he goes, he tells everybody about the gospel. And then you're met with Saul, who is seeking to do the opposite. He wants to bring the gospel back from the ends of the earth and kill those who are declaring the gospel. And so before we talk about what happens to Saul, I want to introduce you just a little bit to him. So he's from a place named Tarsus. And as part of his upbringing, Saul of Tarsus would have learned to trade as a young man with his father. And the trade that he learns, one of the things that Tarsus is known for is weaving in fabric, and he learns to make tents. And so by trade, he's a tent maker. By birth, he's a Roman citizen. And this is a big deal because Roman citizens are afforded different

rights and privileges and a higher status. So he's a tent maker by trade. He's a Roman citizen by birth, and his religion is that he is Jewish, but more than that, he's part of the sort of most conservative sect of Judaism. He is a Pharisee. He'll say this about his life. My manner of life for my youth spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, and if they are willing to testify according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. Now, Pharisees were a group that began to sort of take the word of God seriously. They looked at what was happening in the beginning of the first century with the Jewish faith and says, we need to go back to what God says.

And we know ultimately that gets transformed into legalism, ultimately involving this conflict with Jesus where they put him to death. But Paul was one of the most conservative Scripture guys of his day. So, by trade, a tent maker, by birth, a Roman citizen, by religion, a Jewish Pharisee. But more than that, he's not just sort of a casual interest in Judaism. He is sent to Jerusalem, likely by his family, to learn at the feet of one of the greatest Jewish teachers of the day, Gamaliel. And he learns and memorizes, likely, much of the Torah. Paul is also, or Saul, is also filled with a zeal to destroy the church. We met him first in Acts chapter 7, verse 58. They cast him out of the city and stoned him, speaking of Stephen. And the witnesses lay down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And the picture of Saul as Stephen is being murdered for his faith is the fact that he's in a position of authority, that he's watching the cloaks and giving approval to what is happening. And in chapter 9, but Saul, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And that word breathing threats, it's not just that he's speaking threats. It's literally the air that fills his lungs is hatred for the church. This is not just a guy who is a little annoyed by Christians. This is a guy who wants to go round him up, tie him up, drag him 150 miles back to Jerusalem

and prosecute them, maybe even ending in their demise. In Acts 22, Paul will say this, I persecuted the way to death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. In Acts 26, he'll say, I was convinced I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving the authority from the chief priest, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, And I punished them often in all the synagogues. And I tried to make them blaspheme. And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to a foreign city. So Paul isn't just annoyed at the church. There's things we find annoying. For me this week, it was the fireworks at 2 a.m. that woke up all our kids and made our dogs.

I love fireworks as much as the next guy. But 2 a.m. with a sleeping two-year-old, that's annoying. He's not just annoyed. He is ready to kill Christians. He says it. He says, I cast my vote that they would be put to death. So Saul, taint maker by trade, Roman citizen by birth, Jewish, a Pharisee, educated in the best school of his day, breathing threats and sustaining hatred for the church. So he heads to Damascus. And what he does is he gathers his sort of goon squad. We find from the text that he's not just by himself, but he has some backup. He has the legal authority from the chief priest's letter, so he would be able to go into the synagogues and say, point me to the Christians, here's my letter, we're ready to arrest them,

we're ready to drag them out. And they journey probably likely around 150 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus, depending on the way in which they travel. And for our day, that's not very much, maybe two and a half hours by car. But for him, it would have taken a minimum of a week. So this guy is dedicated, right? He's not just saying, I don't like Christians in my city, but here's a city that takes me a week and a half to get there, and I have to walk, and I'm going to go there, and I'm going to get them, and I'm going to bring them back, and I'm going to teach them a lesson about following Jesus. And what we find is sometimes you and I encounter events in life that turn our world upside down.

I remember one of those for me. Some of you know that I really like the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. And so Martin Luther had never really planned to get married, and eventually he does get married, and he'll say this, there's a lot to get used to in the first year of marriage. One wakes up in the morning and finds a pair of pigtails on the pillow that were not there before. And I remember when Rachel and I got married, thinking, you know, not that big a deal. We get married, and all of a sudden I realize that we're difficult people to live with, right? It's not easy, because we're both really independent. We've been really independent for a long time. And it really came to a head because I had the house, my house, the way I liked it, right?

and now there's somebody moving my couch, and she's painting my walls, and she's tearing walls out of my kitchen, and I can't find my valuable stuff that I love. And then, the worst thing she could have ever done. She's like, I'm going to Goodwill, and I got a box of your books. If you know me, I love books. And I was like, oh, no, no, no. And she's like, well, you're not reading them right now. And I looked at her, and I said, well, you're not eating at the kitchen table right now. Should I take that to goodwill too? It was difficult. In that moment where we stood in front of the church and got married, it turned my world in a lot of ways upside down. Now the Apostle Paul is about to experience that, but times a million. Everything that he thought

he had figured out, everything that he had done his whole life, all those patterns that he had developed and how he lived is about to get turned completely upside down by Jesus. Now, as he was on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he goes, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus who you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, you'll be told what to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. They led him by the hand, brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and he neither ate nor drank.

You ever wonder why God does it this way? Why God gets Saul's attention by literally knocking him to the ground and making him blind and turning his world upside down in this manner? It's because this is what it takes to get Saul's attention. God works in our lives in the ways in which we hear. So for the Ethiopian in chapter 8, that was through the prophet Isaiah and the testimony of Philip. But Paul, like a lot of us, is a little more hard-headed. And God has to come in and hit him over the head and knock him to the ground to get his attention. And that's what God does. And God uses those events. Sometimes some of us come to Christ through the testimony of Scripture and somebody who witnesses to us sort of in a quiet way.

And for others, it's when our world gets knocked out from under us and turned upside down, and we see the invitation of the gospel to come to the one who heals our hurts. And so Paul, the world is turned upside down. Everything that he devoted himself to, the very air in his lungs, breathing out threats, is all of a sudden finds out that Jesus is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and you can see it in his emotions as he doesn't eat or drink for three days. Right? Rachel alluded earlier that I get grumpy when I'm hungry. Three days. He's so, I think his world is so turned upside down that he doesn't even think about it, right? We know that he's praying, I think repenting, broken by what he has learned about God.

And God doesn't leave him in that broken state. That's what I love. There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight. And in the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many things about this man and how much evil he has done at your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine

to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed, entered the house. Laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road which you came has sent me so you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, regaining his sight. He arose and was baptized and taking food he was strengthened. So can you imagine the surprise of Ananias? God says, hey, I've got somebody that you need to talk to about Jesus. And I imagine Ananias says, great, who is it? And he says, it's Saul of Tarsus. And Ananias goes, that guy? I have heard nothing good about him, right?

I don't want him. He's not a good guy. And God says, go. He's praying. He's expecting you. And so Ananias, in obedience to God, goes to have the hard conversation with the guy who he thinks wants him dead. And do you notice how Ananias approaches him? He doesn't come in in anger going, man, you've really messed up, Saul. You've really, really attacked the church of the almighty God. But what does he say? He comes in, he lays his hand on him. I don't think it's kind of like at a distance where he sort of touches him. Lays his hand on him and he says, brother Saul. Isn't that wonderful? The grace we see from God pouring out through the life of Ananias. And so Saul, seeing and hearing about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus,

the good news of the gospel, that Jesus died in his place for his sins, rose again for his victory, is baptized. Romans 6 tells us, buried, sins are gone, rose again. This beautiful picture of the gospel exhibited in the life of Paul. And then what do you find the Apostle Paul doing? Over the rest of his life, he'll start something like 14, some people say as many as 20 churches. He writes 13 out of 27 books of the New Testament. And ultimately, he will die for the same Jesus that he persecuted. So what I want us to see this morning, as we look at Paul, is I want us to see that there is hope. And one of the things that the conversion of Paul teaches those of us who are in the church is that there is no one who is without hope.

There's a tendency for some of us to think that there are others who are beyond the grace of God. And we think, well, they're too far gone. There's not any hope. But what you see in Paul, the persecutor turned preacher, that there is hope. You see, the conversion of Paul addresses this attitude that you and I have in the church, that there are some that are hopeless. And what it says to us in the church is that there is nobody beyond the grace of God. That family member that you love deeply and want to see them respond to the gospel. That neighbor that you love deeply and want to see them respond to the gospel. That friend that you love deeply and want to see respond to the gospel. What this teaches us is there is no one beyond hope.

No matter how hopeless it looks from our perspective. Because I imagine the church looks at Saul and they never had an inkling that he would be a Christian. But what happens? He plants church after church after church. He writes book after book of the Bible. There is no one without hope. But Paul's conversion is also an invitation to those who are outside of Christ. What he is saying to you, the Apostle Paul, is that you are not without hope. When you look at your life, and we all do this, and we look at our brokenness, and we look at our mistakes, and we say, how could God, the Almighty God, creator of the universe, how could he love me? The testimony of Paul is that in that we find hope that God does love us.

That there is no one. You are not without hope. You are not without love from the creator of the universe. And then Paul gives us hope that God uses all of the events of our life and all of the events of our past for the good of the gospel. So you remember how he started with that list of things about Saul? And we started by saying he was a tent maker by trade. God uses that. In Acts chapter 18, you find Paul planning churches. And what is he doing to support himself as he plants churches? He makes tents. God uses his simple physical occupation to spread the gospel. Remember we said Paul was a citizen of Rome? Several times during his ministry, Paul finds himself in trouble with the Roman authorities. And do you know what he says?

I'm a Roman citizen. And they say, we're sorry, sir. You're free to go. God uses his very citizenship to proclaim the gospel. God uses his religious upbringing and education. The time as a Pharisee that he studied and memorized the law. The time that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel. And so when Paul goes to a new town, he walks into a synagogue. And because he was Jewish, he was able to speak to them. And because he had studied and memorized the word of God, He was able to proclaim it clearly that God uses his trade, he uses his citizenship, and he uses his history in the Jewish faith to proclaim the gospel. You say, well, those are all good things. There's a big chunk of Paul's life that wasn't good. How can God use the part of my life that's broken and filled with hurt and that I'm ashamed of?

How can God use that? Look at the Apostle Paul. God uses his brokenness. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, Paul will say this, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason. Paul says, you want to know why Jesus saved me? Here's why. That in me, as the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life. Paul says, one of the reasons that Jesus saved me is so that you would look at my life and say, if God can save him, he can save me. If God can deal with the brokenness of the life of the Apostle Paul, who opposes, imprisons, and kills Christians,

then he can take my brokenness, and he can save me, and he can forgive me, and he can give me hope. And so notice how God doesn't just use the good things. Paul's citizenship and his trade and his education, but he uses the brokenness of his life for the good news of the gospel. And I'll tell you what this morning, God uses the good things that he's given you, but he also uses your brokenness for the good news of the gospel. You see, there's hope. And as a church, as we pray for those who we want to see the gospel, we realize that there is hope. And if you are not a Christian, look at the Apostle Paul and see that there is hope and as you look at your life both the good and the brokenness

see that God can take those things and through his strength and his power and the power of the gospel he can bring hope into your life and hope into this world God uses the brokenness of Saul to say to us that God welcomes you God saves you and your sin is not too great to be forgiven let's pray father thank you for Jesus and for grace and for hope thank you for saul who becomes Paul that you change his life so much that we even change his name that you would encourage us with hope strengthen us with hope and call us to yourself with hope it's in Jesus name we pray Amen Let's stand and sing our hymn of invitation Fittingly we're going to sing Living Hope How great the chasm That lay between us

How high the mountain I could not climb In desperation I turned to heaven And spoke your name into the night Then through the darkness Your loving kindness Tore through the shadows of my soul The work is finished The end is written Jesus Christ, my living hope Who could imagine So great a mercy What heart could fathom such boundless grace The God of ages stepped down from glory To wear my sin and bear my shame The cross has spoken, I am forgiven The King of Kings calls me His own Beautiful Savior, I'm Yours forever Jesus Christ, my living home Hallelujah, praise the One who sent me free Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Then came the morning that sealed the promise

Your buried body began to breathe Out of the silence the roaring lion Declared the grave has no claim on me Then came the morning that sealed the promise Your buried body began to breathe Out of the silence the roaring lion Declared the grave has no claim on me Jesus, yours is the victory

Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me You have broken every chain, there's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Jesus Christ, my living hope Oh God, you are my living hope One of the things that some of the old translations of the Bible translate when they talk about living hope is they will say, a lively hope. And I always think of our pups, when we let them outside after they've been inside for a while, and they're bounding around the yard just full of excitement. The hope that God has given us, his people, is not just simply a hope, but it's a lively hope.

It's a hope that fills us with joy and energizes us for work in the kingdom. So we are very glad that you are here with us today as we see the hope in the conversion of Saul. We're thankful that you joined us, whether you're here or you're online. We will be back Wednesday night. We're going through the prayers of Paul. And so we meet here at 7 p.m., and we're upstairs, and we're studying through and learning together from Paul and how he prayed in terms of his priorities in prayer and how he puts his prayers together. And it's an encouraging time. There's some study guides on the information table if you would like to grab one. Also, this week we have, I'll send out the link on Tuesday, but we have found a way to put some of the sessions online

because we sort of discuss the Scripture and then we watch maybe about a little 10-minute video and then we discuss it some more. So if you would like to view some of those, we'll send out the information on how to do that this week. So that's Wednesday night, 7 p.m. with the prayers of Paul and we'll be back next Sunday, continuing on through the book of Acts. So I'm going to pray. I'm going to read the Scripture, and then we'll sing together the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for hope. Thank you that we have a lively hope that in the darkest times you give us strength, you give us peace, and you give us a future. Thank you for Jesus and for grace, and it's in his name we pray. Amen. At the end of 1 Corinthians 15,

As Paul has been unpacking the good news of the gospel, specifically the resurrection and the hope we have there, he will say this, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says this, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Let's sing the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all creatures here below Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.