As we get together this morning – as I was working on this section of the Scriptures this week, I kept trying to find the principles that I could give to you, and what I kept getting was an examination of my own life. And so what I want to do is I want to give you the same experience I had this week in studying the book. It’s interesting, because as we look at the lives of other people, he ends up giving us an opportunity to evaluate our own life. It’s like another reference point to see who we are and where we’re going and what we’ve done. For some of you, that’s why you love biography and history so much. I adore biography, because as I look at the lives of other people, it causes me to reflect on my own life, especially someone who you – who you admire, who you respect. To date, as we read this section, you’ll be looking at a gentleman named Paul. He’s the author of more books in the New Testament than any other author and he tells us his story. In a sense, he briefly writes for us his biography. The end of this morning, as we study with Paul, you’ll see that there are basically four people that are spoken of in this great text, and it’s an examination of each of their lives; and so is an invitation for us to examine our lives as well.

Two are Timothy and Paul, who are godly men who work together and serve God together and are very faithful; and two men are named Hymenaeus and Alexander, and these two guys are a exactly the opposite of Paul and Timothy. And it goes to show you that really, our lives are a story. That’s why, even when we get together and we meet new people, we’ll say, “Well, what’s your story. Tell me your story.” Some people’s life story is just joyous and extraordinary and some people’s are, quite frankly, just tragic and very sad. As we get into the text today, you’ll see that Timothy and Paul’s story both started out very tragic and became very wonderful, joyous and good – which is what we want for y’all. Hymenaeus and Alexander’s story started off pretty good and then became quite tragic and sad. And the point of the text, I think, is very simply this. It really doesn’t matter where you begin because we all begin at the same place – in sin and in tragedy. It’s where you end that counts.

And Paul is going to enable you to take a look at your life this morning. And this is important because so much of the time, you and I have a propensity to work in our life that we forget to pull back and work on our life, right? We have a propensity to be so busy with the things that we’re doing that we forget to pull back and ask if we should even be doing those things. And what we’re gonna do today, we’re gonna give you, in this hour that we have together, an opportunity to look at the life of Paul and then at the end, I’m gonna give you some tools to look at your own life. And my hope and prayer is that as you walk out, you start to work on your life, not just in it.

Paul starts telling us his story, here, in Chapter 1, Verse 12. Here’s Paul’s story. He says, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.” Paul says, “Here’s who I am today. I’m a pastor. I’m a guy who gets to serve God.” And he is so grateful that God has appointed him to this – do you know that God has appointed something for each of his children to do. God has given you experiences and talents and abilities and skills and because of that, all of that helps shape you as a person and then God has something appointed for you to do. If he gives you certain children, it’s because he’s appointed for you to raise them. That he’s given you a certain spouse, it’s because God has appointed you to love them. God has put you in a certain church, as Mars Hill, then he has placed you here and appointed that this would be the place that you would help grow this spiritual family. He’s brought friends and family into your life he’s appointed for you to love and care for and look after and speak the truth to them. That God has appointed each of us to something and Paul says here that he’s appointed to service.

So the first question I would have for you is this – what has God called you to do? Who are you supposed to be serving? In the church, outside of the church, in your home, in your school, in your place of work, in your place of recreation. Where do you serve? If you’re not serving, you’re not doing that which God has made you to do, and that it is to benefit and bless others. When Jesus told us to love our neighbors, he didn’t just mean feel real fuzzy, he meant do something. Love is what we do. It’s serving. It’s pouring ourselves out. It’s contributing to the welfare of others around us. So Paul says “I thank God, Jesus Christ, for appointing me to serve.” And in our culture, we don’t look at service as a great honor. Most if you are in service jobs and your goal is to get out of the service job, right? You don’t want to have to wear a uniform. You want to wear your own clothes. You want to get into a real job. That’s what you’re hoping to do. Our whole service economy is based on paying other people to serve you, and your whole goal is to make enough money to pay people to serve you, so that you don’t have to serve others. But in the Bible, it’s an inverted paradigm. Servants are wonderful people. People who serve have a high place of honor. Jesus says, in fact, that he didn’t come to be served but to serve. Jesus describes his whole ministry as service. That’s why the Bible says that God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. He takes humble people, who are just serving faithfully, and he lifts them up into positions of leadership and prominence and influence because they’re not in it for the power; they’re not in it for the money; they’re humble and servant-minded.

And he says here that he thanks God that not only has God and Jesus Christ appointed him to serve as a pastor. I don’t know what God has appointed your service – maybe it’s working in kids’ ministry, maybe it’s teaching a Bible study, maybe it’s being a person who prays a lot or being a person that cooks meals so that when a mom has a new baby, that they don’t have to worry about feeding the family for a few weeks. I don’t know what God has appointed you to, but he’s appointed you to something and Paul says, “I thank God that he has appointed me to service and that he has given me the strength that enables me to be faithful.” And some of you have a weird understanding of Christianity because you went to church before. And when you go to church, sometimes you get told this – you’re saved by grace. You don’t do anything to merit your salvation but once you are saved, you gotta work your butt off to keep God happy.

And you know what? That’s not really true. The truth is, you’re saved by grace and you’re also empowered by grace. Okay? I, in my natural state, quite frankly, I don’t have the goods to run this church. I just don’t. I’m not that smart. I’m not that good. I’m not that insightful. I’m not that creative. I’m not even that nice. You know? And so I look at the task God has appointed me to pastor this church. I can’t do it, God. I have four kids. Great kids. Love my kids, but I do not have, within me, the ability to be a good father to those children and to shape them into kids that don’t grow up and make the news for doing terrible things. I have a wonderful wife but I don’t have the innate – God has appointed me to be a husband to her and to serve her, as he’s appointed me to serve my kids and serve this church. I don’t have within me the ability to do that. Some of you are gripped with a sense of fear. When you look at what God has appointed to you, you say, “I cannot do that.” You know what? You’re right. You can’t. That’s why Paul says, “I praise God that he has given me the strength to be faithful.”

Not only do you need God to give you the kind of grace that enables you to be a Christian, you need God to give you additional grace that enables you to remain a Christian, and be a fruitful Christian. It is God who saves us. It is God who appoints us to service and then it’s God who enables us to serve faithfully. If it wasn’t for God, I could not be a husband, father or pastor, accomplishing any kind of good works. I just couldn’t. I don’t have it. And Paul says, “Here’s who I am. I’m a guy that God has called to do something and I do it with joy and I do it with courage because I know that God also gives me the strength to accomplish it. You need to know that. You need to know that God has appointed you to do something in this life and upon doing that, God also will enable you to do it by his strength. That’s why, when the Bible says when we’re weak, we’re strong. When we don’t have the ability, God’s ability shows up.

But I’ll tell you this – God’s ability doesn’t show up until you get to work. Some of you are saying, “There’s – as soon as I feel strong, I will serve the Lord. As soon as I feel strong, I will do the things that God has appointed me to do.” And the issue is, God’s enabling strength and his empowering grace shows up when you need it. When you need it. You’re never fully ready to serve God faithfully until it’s time and then God enables you at that moment. And that’s the way it always is. Before you get married, you’re not ready. I don’t care how many books you read. You could read all the books and then you get married, it’s different. It’s totally different. You could read all the books you want on parenting. You will never be fully ready to parent until you have your kids in God’s grace enables you, strengthens you to do it. I’m finding this out. Each of my kids is totally different. Supposed to serve them, but I’ve got to serve them differently. Each is a different kid.

Like two year old son, Calvin, I love him, he’s great. But right now he, he and I are going at it, because he, he doesn’t understand that his mother is my wife. He doesn’t understand that at all. I’ll be sitting on the couch. He’ll come sit between the two of us, shove me over and lean into her, literally. I’ll be sitting at the table, he’ll come over and he’ll push my chair and put his between our chairs. I finally started telling him. I said – he says, “My mom.” He pointed to her. “My mom.” And I pointed to her and I say, “My wife. My wife. My wife.” So now, I come home – I was in San Diego this week for a couple days – I come home. My two-year-old son climbs into bed between me and my wife and he throws his hands behind his head like he’s king. He looks over me says, “My wife.” And I’m sitting there, thinking, “I didn’t read this in any manual. You know, I didn’t read this anywhere. I’m not ready for this. I’m not ready to all of a sudden have the greatest threat to my marriage be my two-year-old son.”

You know and as you get into life, you don’t really know what tomorrow holds. You don’t – the people you’re serving, the things you’re doing – you don’t know. You know what? In this church, in that marriage, with these kids, the places that God has appointed me to serve, I say the same thing as Paul. I praise God for the strength. I praise God for the ability, because in the moment, God shows up and he’s good and you end up finding out what to do. So I explained to him that he needed to get a job and a house and his own wife. He’s got a good idea and he’s actually got good taste. He just doesn’t have a plan.

So that’s Paul. You know, he knows his service and he knows – do you know your service and do you know that God will be there when you throw yourself into it. The next thing he says, in Verse 13 – he’s telling us his story. “Even though I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.” Here’s my next question. Do you know your sins? Many people don’t. Okay, you got all quiet. ________ sin. _________ “Tell me the funny story.” No, now we gotta talk about sin. When we’re talking about sin, we’re talking about this: God calls us to live a certain way. He created us to live that way. It’s recorded in his Scriptures and we violate and disobey that, either by omission or commission, meaning we didn’t do what we were supposed to do or we did what we weren’t supposed to do. Okay?

Now, in our sin, it’s important for us to be aware of our sin because you and I may say, “Okay, I’m appointed to this. This is – I’m supposed to serve in this job in this church, in this family, with this person and these friends and these opportunities, and this ministry. I’m appointed to this service. God’s grace enables and strengthens me but it’s not working. How come?” Well, the odds are, there’s probably some sin in the way. Sin is what causes God’s enabling grace to not be as effective as it should. So you gotta evaluate yourself and ask yourself where’s the sin. Do a lot of teaching and training and consulting and management on church and I always get this question from pastors and leaders. They say, “So what’s the biggest hurdle in your church?” They wanna hear parking, sound system, my weird sense of humor. Something is our biggest obstacle to growing. And I say, “Sin.” Sin is always that which gets between which God has appointed you to and what you’re really doing. It’s sin. It’s sin that gets in the way. And so we’ve gotta name and know our sin. Now some people like to deal with the effects of their sin and they don’t understand it as sin. “I’m really big and I’m really unhealthy, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Gluttony. “Oh.” Anything else? “No, that’ll, that’ll be enough.” “I’m broke all the time. I’m broke all the time. Why?” Well, maybe my sins are disorganization or coveting. I keep buying stuff I don’t need to impress people at don’t like with money I don’t have. Maybe that’s my problem. Here’s my problem, my problem is I’m lonely. I don’t have any friends. Well, is this your sin? You don’t leave the house or you’re mean.

Yeah, you know, we, we always deal with the facts and not causes. And here’s what Paul says, “I was.” There’s no victim language here. There’s repentant language, but not victim language. “I was,” and then he names his sin. You need, if you want to live a life that God has appointed you to and be fruitful in it and experience the joy of serving God as Paul did, you’re going to need to continually name your sin. Lots of people don’t like this. He names his sin. I don’t know what yours are. You’re need to name yours as well. “A blasphemer.” This is somebody who says terrible things about God. This could be using God’s name in vain. Guy who strikes out or hits his thumb with a hammer and says Jesus Christ in a way that’s not honoring but is dishonoring. Blasphemy. It could be saying things about God that isn’t true. It’s blasphemy. It’s using the tongue and the mouth that God gave you to say things about or to God that don’t honor him and are not respectful. He says, as well, “I was a persecutor.” He was actually a murderer. Paul’s a murderer. Now he’s a pastor. He was a guy who spent his time going out, killing people who worshiped Jesus and now he’s their pastor. Talk about a life-transformation and transition. He says, “I was a violent man.” Any guys here violent men? Hotheads. Short temper. Right? I was that guy before I was converted. Total hothead. I haven’t lost my temper since I got converted but I tell you, before I got saved, I grew up in a rough neighborhood and I, I had a short wick. I mean, I told you before, I actually got in a fight with a guy on my own baseball team in our own dugout. We had a bench-clearing brawl with one team. Usually it’s two teams – they meet in the middle and beat each other up. No, we had a one-team bench-clearing brawl because I attacked another guy in my own dugout between innings. I don’t even remember why. Something, he said something – like I struck out and he said something, so I punched him in the mouth. You know, violent man? Yeah, yeah. That’s a violent man. A very violent man.

Some of you are that way. You’re just – your wick is short, your temper is hot, you go quick, violent. Paul says, “I was violent. I wasn’t patient, kind, loving.” He says as well that he was ignorant. He was ignorant. He had heard about Jesus but he didn’t believe it. He didn’t understand the implications for all that he was doing. Some of you that are here today, you’re ignorant. It doesn’t mean that you’re stupid. There’s a difference between stupid and ignorant. It’s not that you have the mental incapacity of knowing – he says it here “because I acted in unbelief.” That’s what it is. That’s his next line that ignorance is what happens when you get that information but you don’t believe. It doesn’t mean that it’s too complicated or you’re not smart. People that aren’t Christians are ignorant. Doesn’t mean that they are not mentally smart. It means that they don’t believe that which they’ve received about Jesus. There’s unbelief.

When you and I receive church from the Scriptures, we see, receive truth about the Lord Jesus, we’re supposed to believe it so that we’re not ignorant anymore. Ignorance is when you get the truth and you reject it. Paul says, “These are my sins. I was mean, violent, nasty, murderer, ignorant, acting in unbelief.” You’re gonna have to name your sins. You’re gonna need to name them this morning. You know what the beautiful thing is – most of us would never do like Paul did and write them down. My main sin before I got to be a Christian at age 19, pride. That was my deal. I thought I was better than everyone. I didn’t drink, smoke, do drugs, most likely to succeed, student body president, man of the year, four-year letterman, you know, captain of the baseball team, editor of the newspaper, everything and I had this major sense of self-control and I felt like, in high school, I was the adult and everyone else was the child. And the only reason I didn’t do all these things is because I thought I was better than everyone and I wanted to show it. Just arrogant, proud. Some of you here today say, “Well, I don’t have, “ you think the same thing that I did. Some of you know your sin, right? Because it’s caught you. You got somebody pregnant you weren’t married to. You’re hung over right now. You know, you woke up this morning and the person lying next to you wasn’t your spouse – you’re not sure who they were. You know your sin. It’s pretty obvious.

Some of you though, you think like I do. I don’t have any sin. I’m a great person. Wonderful! You know, Jesus can come back and intern under me. I got it all together. This is great. And then I realized pride is the worst sin. I was like, “Oh no!” I thought I didn’t have any sin and then I realized pride is the worst sin. Then I realized I’m the worst sinner. I went from the front to the back of the line. You gotta name your sin. What’s your sin? Perversion? Gluttony? Drunkenness? Lying? Cursing? Violence? Unbelief? Pride because you don’t do those things? You gotta know what God’s called you to. You gotta know what your sins are that get in the middle of enabling you to live a life of service and fruitfulness by God’s grace. He says here, though, he says, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.”

Here’s what he says. God’s been good to me. Has God been good to you? The concept here of the pouring out – it’s like there’s a river and all of a sudden, there’s an overflow that just spills. That’s what God’s grace and love and faith are. They come in abundance. God is a loving God. God is a gracious God. God is a merciful God. God is a kind God. God is a good God and when God involves himself in your life, it’s to the capacity of overflowing. You know, can you say that about anyone else that you know – that their love is overwhelming? That their kindness is overwhelming? That the grace they extend to you is overwhelming? It’s too much. You can’t even contain it all. You can’t say that about any philosopher, any teacher, any religious leader or any human being. We can only say that about God.

And what Paul does in telling us his story is this. He’s not trying to make himself look good. He’s trying to show us how good God is. And so oftentimes, when we tell our story, we leave out the bad parts. We emphasize the good parts and we’re trying to give an inaccurate assessment of who we are. We’re trying to look better than we are. What Paul’s saying here is – “I’m really bad but God is really good.” That’s the truth. That is the truth. You say, “Well how did Paul get over his sin?” It was God’s grace that forgave him. “Well how did Paul become a Christian?” It’s the faith that God gave him to believe. Do you know that? Do you know that God gives you the faith to believe? That God gives you the grace to be saved? And God gives you the mercy to be his child and his friend. It all comes from God. There’s nothing in salvation that comes from you and me. Some people say, “Just believe.” You can’t unless God gives you faith.

Well just – you can’t do anything – when it says in Ephesians that we’re dead in our trespasses and sins, it’s literally like there is a corpse there. That’s us, spiritually, and then it’s like God gives us mouth-to-mouth. He breathes his life into us and we come to life. A person doesn’t stand up and say, “I did it. I got up.” Well you did get up because someone else gave you life. God did. You and I are spiritually dead. We’re born in sin. We’re dead in sin. Sin has separated us from God. It’s separated us from each other. It’s polluted and corrupted everything. You say, “Well, what’s the answer? Should we work hard? Should we fix it? Should we develop a philosophy or a religion? Should we be moral? Should we start a new political party?” No. None of that will close the gap between us and God and all of those things can deal with the effects of sin but they can’t deal with sin at its root and so God gives us grace. God gives us faith. God gives us love. God gives us mercy and it is more than sufficient for all the terrible things that we are and all the terrible things that we’ve done.

It’s great – when Paul tells his story – it looks real bleak when he’s talking about Paul. It looks real good when he’s talking about God. You could see where his hope is. He continues then. He explains this. I’ll ask this question, too. Where have you seen God’s grace in your life? Some of you who are non-Christians say, “I don’t know.” You do know. Think about it. Look back on your life and ask yourself, “Where has God’s grace already been?” Some of you should not be here today. You should be dead. God has spared you. That’s mercy. Some of you don’t deserve the job you have, the spouse you have, the kids you have, the life you have, the opportunities you have, you – you’ve been blessed. There’s been love there. But even if you don’t believe that there is a good God, if you look at your life, you will find that there are a lot of gaps and things that you can’t account for. Things that show grace and love and mercy. That was one of the things that got me as a non-Christian. I started looking at my life, saying, “I’m not a Christian, but.” I could see where God has been woven into the story of my life, habitually and I see where God has showed up, even though I didn’t really believe in God.

Paul, in retrospect, sees where God has woven himself into his life. He says, “Here is a trustworthy saying,” Verse 15, “that deserves full acceptance:” Here’s his summation of the Gospel, the story of Jesus. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” Do you know Jesus? Do you know why he came? Some people say, “He came to be a good teacher.” Jesus was a great teacher. That’s not why he came. Some people say, “Jesus was a wonderful example.” Jesus is a wonderful example, but that’s not why he came. Some people say, “Jesus is a loving, gracious person that builds the kind of communities that enable us to have joyous lives.” That’s true but that’s not why he came. He came for one reason. What is it? Save sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. God came into human history to save us from what? Ourselves, from sin, from the effects of sin, death, from the punishment for sin – Hell – and from the Lord of sin, Satan. He came to save us from all of that. God’s on this tremendous rescue mission coming into human history. Jesus Christ is God and he came here with a mission to save sinners.

Do you know what he did? Jesus lived a life in my place. My life is filled with sin. Jesus’ life? No sin. Jesus died a death in my place. The wage for sin is death. When he died, all my sin was placed on him. He was punished, suffered and died in my place. They put him in a tomb. Three days later, he rose from death. He conquered sin and death for me. Now, I don’t need to be mastered by sin. I can belong to God and have freedom. Now, I don’t need to die and go to Hell. I can go to be with Jesus. And I don’t need to sit in a tomb, decomposing, one day my body will be called forth, resurrected, newness of life like Jesus. That he saved me from Satan, sin and death and Hell. Jesus Christ has accomplished exactly that mission for which he has come. God came into human history, did exactly what he intended to do. Do you know that? And I know some of you are Christians, you’re saying, “I know that.” Do you know that? Do you believe that? Is that the thing that gets you out of bed on Monday morning? Is that your mission? To serve by God’s grace that enables you to overcome your sin so that you can introduce people to Jesus that they, too, might be saved from their sin? That’s Paul’s whole life.

I tell you what. I’ve been a Christian since 19, late ’89, early ’90. I’ve heard over and over and over and over and over – some of you have, too – Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Sounds good every time. You’re gonna hear that every week here. You know why? You need to know why God came as Jesus and you need to receive it as good news. Every day I get home, my wife says, “I missed you.” Sounds good every day. Every day I get home, my kids throw their hands in the air, they run at me, it’s a race, “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” see who gets first kiss on the head and first hug. It’s good every time. You and I can never get to the place where hearing that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like us is old news. It should always be good news because we’re still sinning. We still need his grace. We still need his forgiveness and I’ll tell you what, your sins past, present and future are all placed on Jesus. He is punished in your place. He has dealt with your sin. That’s where our hope is. Paul doesn’t have any hope in Paul but Paul has much hope in Jesus.

He says as much in the next line. He says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” We would look at him now, and say, “Poor Paul. Low self-esteem.” Poor Paul. Poor Paul. See, we have this weird thinking in our culture that says if you think highly of yourself, then you will achieve great things. Like Satan who was proud and accomplished a great deal but not for God’s glory. We continually, as a people, fall into the same trap of Satan. “I just need to think more of myself.” No you don’t. You need to name your sin. You say, “But that just makes me feel bad.” Well, I’ll tell you what it does. It convicts you. It teaches you that your hope is not in you, that your hope is in him. That you need Jesus. And all of a sudden, you go from having faith in yourself to faith in Jesus. It brings this honesty and this humility and it enables you to receive that strengthening grace that we were speaking of from God. The saving and the strengthening grace.

See people that are just trying to live off of their own esteem – they don’t need God. They don’t need God to save them from sin; they’ll take care of it themselves. Sure they will. They don’t need God to empower them; they’ll get organized and put their life together by pithy statements they got from talk shows. The only way to live life is to name your sin, understand that Jesus has saved you, and to realize that apart from Jesus, your identity is nothing more than bad, wicked, sinner. Apart from Jesus. Now when Jesus saves you and he loves you and he gives you faith and grace and he enables you, you get to leave that which lies behind, Philippians 3 says, you get to be a new creation in Christ. It’s weird isn’t it in our day, people get filled with self-esteem. They’re proud, they’re arrogant. Out of that, they don’t serve anyone but themselves. Even people who oftentimes do good things. Some of you in this room, you think, “Well, no. I have a high self-esteem. I think very much of myself. And because of that, I do very good things.” Who do you do them for? Do you do them out of love for God and love for a neighbor or do you do it because it makes you look better and people will say, “Well done. Good job. We’re impressed.” They worship you and you get to be a little god.

Motives count. Reasons that we live our lives certain ways and do certain things count. Paul says, “I’m the chief sinner.” Apart from Jesus, you gotta ask yourself, for those of you that are Christians, what would your life look like if you had never met Jesus? Do you ever ask yourself that question? Sometimes we get so busy being Christians we forget to ask, “What would I be doing today?” I started thinking about it. It actually terrifies me to think of who I’d be and what I’d be doing if I hadn’t met Jesus. Paul says he’s the worst sinner. Some of you say, “Oh, no. I can beat him.” You’d probably give him a run for his money, true enough. But you start thinking about it. What if God had never weaved himself into your life? Even if you’re not a Christian. God giving you a conscience, certain friends, certain opportunities, sparing you from certain things. Who would you be? Where would you be?

I tell you, I wouldn’t be in church today. I tell you what, I wouldn’t be married today. There’s no way that I would have remained faithful to one woman, apart from Jesus Christ. It is not possible. There is no way that I would have four kids and they wouldn’t look anything like the kids I have, apart from Jesus Christ. There is no way. There is no way that I would weigh this much. I would have no self control. There is no way. There is no way that my life would look anything like it does today. I would be bigger, sadder, meaner, lonelier, and today I would probably would be sitting in some dumpy apartment with a dead-end job, watching porno, being pissed. That’s who I am, apart from Jesus Christ. That’s the truth. That’s who I am. You gotta be honest about it. Say, “You know, if God isn’t involved, my life is different. I am different and it’s not good.” And I don’t need to have esteem in myself, “Just think more of yourself.” No, I need to think of God. And I need to receive from him that salvation from sin and I need to receive from him that appointment – why in the world am I here? What am I supposed to do? Okay. You’ve given me service. Great, now I have something to do. I can’t do it, God. I need your strength. Oh, that means I’m gonna need to continue to walk with you. That every day, I have a new task and responsibility that you have given me so that my life is meaningful and purposeful. And God, I need to be close to you because I need your grace and your strength and I need you to get me over my sin and over my pride and over myself so that I could live a life that glorifies you and benefits others and I’m not a totally self-absorbed, narcissistic, it’s all about me kind of person.

Paul says, “I’m the chief of sinners.” Today, we would say, “Paul, you know what? You need – write down all the good qualities you have. Write down all the successful things you’ve done. Write down all your accomplishments. And then build on those.” Paul’s saying, “Yeah, but I look at it and I say, ‘I was a self-righteous, murdering, blasphemer, persecutor who rejected Jesus. I can’t build on that.’” Right? I could say, “Well, I got straight A’s and I was most likely to murder. I got most likely to murder in high school. But I can’t build on that.” Right? I was president of the Blasphemy Club when I was in junior high. You can’t build on sin. You have to build on Christ. Paul says, “Chief of sinners. That’s who I am.” What we’re looking at today, though, is a guy who is not devastated in his identity. Chief of sinners. It’s Paul. He wrote more books of the New Testament than anybody. I mean when you write books of the Bible, that’s a big deal. That’s huge. Paul now is getting his identity not from himself but from Jesus. His esteem doesn’t come from Paul. His esteem comes from Christ. You have dignity, value, worth. You’re an image-bearer of God. God made you. But because of sin, that’s all bent and broken and it works itself out in crooked, sinful ways and apart from God intervening and giving you a new heart, causing you to be a new creation, straightening you out, there’s really no hope for you. Some of you want all the effects to go away but you don’t want to be a new person. And it’s the silly thing that we think, “Well, I – I wanna do the same thing with different results,” which is the definition of insanity.

“I wanna keep doing what I’m doing, I just wanna have different results. I wanna be this kinda person, but I wanna have a different kind of marriage and I wanna stay this kind of person and have this kinda gift. I wanna be this kinda person and have this – but I want a different kinda life. I wanna be this kinda person, I wanna have a,” you can’t. And what he’s talking about here is repentance, saying, “I don’t want just things to change, I want to change.” And I start changing by saying, “I am a bad sinner. Here are my sins. How am I gonna deal with that? Not by thinking more of myself and pulling myself up by my bootstraps because I don’t even have boots, but by saying, Jesus came and lived and died for sinners. I’m a sinner. Hey! I should connect those dots. Sinner. Jesus came for sinners. We could work something out. And I could be a child of God and start fresh.”

He says why God saved him. Are you saved? Are you Christian? Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Have you been saved from sin? I know sin’s not popular. It’s not a hot topic. Satan, Hell, sin. Not popular topics. Self-esteem, spirituality and all roads lead to somewhere, very popular. Have you been saved? Have you met Jesus? Have you received from him grace, life, forgiveness, new heart, new creation and you think about it in our culture, that’s all that people want. We sit around watching television shows like “Extreme Makeover,” look like a different person. Right, we watch Dr. Phil and Oprah. Get principles to be a totally different person. Everyone in the culture is crying out, saying “We wanna be different. We wanna be different. We wanna look different, wanna act different, wanna feel different.” That’s why everybody’s doing Atkins, right? Or Fatkins. Everybody in America’s doing one of those two diets. Everybody’s “I wanna diet. I wanna feel different. I’ll get a makeover. I wanna look different.” We even have men that are metrosexuals that are shaving their back and – why? they wanna be different. Everybody wants change. Everybody wants to be a new person. Everybody wants things to change and nobody thinks about Jesus. It’s really funny.

Again, it’s chasing all the effects and ignoring all the causes of our lifestyle. Have you received Jesus? He goes on to say that he has, by grace and in Verse 16, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” What he says is this. He says, “I know why God saved me. I’m the poster child for hope. Right, if God could love me, everyone should say, “I am a terrible person.” “God saved Paul.” “You’re kidding. Paul? There’s hope.” You know, it’s – that’s why, guys, we watch that show where all the unattractive bachelors get the shot at Miss America. There’s hope. There’s hope for us all. People need hope. They need to look at someone more pathetic than them so that they don’t kill themselves, right? That’s why you always have at least one friend that’s more pathetic than you. People say, “Why do you hang out with him?” “To make me feel better. That’s why.” It’s true. Some of you go, “I didn’t know I was that friend.” Well you are, okay? We do that. We look for more pathetic people. How many of you look for more pathetic people and you compare yourself to more pathetic people. “I’m nasty but not as nasty as her.” Well congratulations. That’s wonderful. What he says here is, “I’m the kinda guy everybody could compare themselves to.” People say, “Well, I got a little bit of a drinking problem.” “God saved Paul.” “Really? He was a terrorist who murdered Christians.” “I think God could deal with my drinking problem.” “I have a coveting problem.” “I have a porno problem.” “I have a foul mouth problem.” “I have a hotheaded temper problem.” “I have a whatever problem.” When you look at a guy like Paul, you realize, you know what? God can love, save, forgive anybody.

I’ll tell you what. God is a father, the church is a family, Christians are children. Paul is out murdering the children of God. I cannot think of anything that would be harder for me to forgive than someone murdering my kids. I can’t – I can’t think of anything. Paul murdered the children of God. God is a father and God looks at Paul and says, “I forgive you. Not only do I forgive you, I’m sending my son – you already murdered my sons and daughters – I’m sending my son, Jesus. He’s gonna die in your place. You get to murder him, too. And then he’ll forgive you.” Paul says, “You know what, if God can do that for me,” imagine that you murdered one of my kids and when it came time for you to get executed, I sat in the electric chair and my last words to you were Jesus’ last words from the cross. “Forgive us.” That’s grace. That’s what God has done for us. And what Paul says is, you know what? If God could forgive me, it’s obvious that God can forgive anyone. And I know some of you here today, okay? You have sin. You know your sin, you feel the burden of your sin and you may be thinking, “Is it beyond God’s ability to love and forgive?” Of course it is. And the only reason you that wouldn’t give it to him is because you’re an arrogant, proud person. And you wanna be God and clean up your own messes. You don’t want to receive anything from him. There is only one God and there is only one way to God. Repentance of sin, receiving of grace. That’s it.

You should look at Paul, though, and you should realize how he tells his story. Many of you have friends, family, coworkers – many of you are Christians. How do you tell your story to them? Well one of the things you tell them in your story is you tell them how wicked you are. People hate hearing from hypocritical, judgmental, finger-pointing Christians – and they should. What Paul is not doing is saying, “I’m Paul. I write the Bible. I preach. I’m very, very, very holy. You need to get it together.” What he’s saying is “I’m a terrible man. God’s been good to me. God can be good to you, too.” There’s a humility in Paul that makes Jesus the hero of his story, not Paul. You need to keep that in mind as people ask you about your faith and your life if you’re a Christian. “Yeah, well, I’m a sick person. You wanna hear what I’ve done?” Tell them. It’ll shock them. Say, you know what God did? God came and died for that. You know what? He forgives me. I tell you what, if he can do that for me, I know he can do that for you. There’s no arrogance in that, just humility and honesty. He goes on.

“Now to the King,” names for God, “eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,” I would stress that, the only God, “be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Do you know who God is? Do you know who God is? This is so important in our day because you can say God and everyone imports into that word varying definitions and understandings. He says here that God is his King. That he rules over all. He tells us that God is eternal, never had a beginning or an end, that God’s over and apart from time, though he does work in it. This is not a God that was made. This is not a God that we can see. This is not a religion or a philosophy that came into existence. This is the eternal God. That God is immortal. That he doesn’t get old. He doesn’t get tired. We do. That whole picture that some people have of God being an old man in the sky – well God’s not a man, but if he were, he’d be a young man. Sin makes us old. Sin makes us tired. Sin causes us to wind down. God is immortal. God is strong and young and free and vibrant and at his peak, always. God is not ever incapable or diminished or in the process of decay. God is immortal. That’s why you could put your faith in God and know that it’s good forever because he’s eternal and immortal and he’s a king who is over all. And he says, as well, that he is invisible. What this means is that we cannot find God. He’s invisible. Our five senses, our scientific empiricism doesn’t work to find God. All of our best speculation can’t do a thing because he’s invisible. God is spirit. Those who worship him, Jesus says, worship him in spirit and truth. That he’s like a stiff breeze. The only way that we perceive God is not through our five senses but through the sixth sense of faith that God cannot be known and so God who is invisible reveals himself to us and God makes himself visible in Jesus Christ, who is God and man.

The invisible God makes himself known to us, makes himself visible to us. If you want to see God, look to Jesus. That’s it. He goes on, then, and he says that he is the only God. All roads don’t lead to the same place. All religions don’t teach the same thing. There is a silliness in American culture that says, “Well, all religions basically believe the same thing.” No they don’t. If you put me in a room with a devout Jew, a devout Muslim, a devout Mormon and a devout Hindu, we will not agree on who God is. We don’t. It’s not even close. We will argue vehemently. They are as passionate as I am. I will declare that they are wrong. They will declare that I am wrong. Only silly people that have a very vague and miniscule understanding of religion and theology would ever make such a claim. And it’s very insulting to those other religions. It’s very insulting to me as well. I believe, I know by faith that there is only one God. Jesus Christ is it. He said, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one gets to the father but through me.” Period.

Christianity is exclusive. It is singular. God did that to keep it simple. You don’t need to be brilliant. You don’t need to be highly educated. You don’t need to be old in years and long in tooth. What you need to know is Jesus. That’s it. God has kept it simple. There is only one God. Everything hinges on this issue. To him, he says, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. He’s praying here. This is the God that we worship. Here’s my two questions. Do you know who God is and do you worship him? Do you know who God is and do you worship him? Glory, honor, praise, forever and ever, amen. In your job, in your speech, with your money, with your life, with your days, is your life understanding who God is and living a life that honors him.

He then writes to Timothy. This is Paul’s story. He tells us that basically, his story is a prototype for us. I was a sinner. God opened my eyes. Jesus came, died, rose, saved me. I’m a new person, now. My sins, by God’s grace, are behind me. I’ve seen change and transformation. Now, I live my life worshiping God, learning about God, serving God by the strength that he gives me. Okay? If you’re a Christian, your story is different but those pieces are constant. That’s the Christian life. It’s prototypical. Now he writes to Timothy. Timothy is in the process of determining what his story will be, like many of you. What’s my life gonna look like? How’s it gonna end? Where am I going? What am I doing? Timothy is in a church where he’s a pastor and he’s got a crisis because some men have come in that are false teachers, they’re heretics. They’re teaching a different God, a different way to God. They’re messing the church up. They’re confusing the people in the church and Timothy has a decision to make. And what he says, by basically, Timothy’s story to this point has been raised in a multicultural family with parents that believed in two different religions. Gets saved as a young man, grows up in the church. They love him. Paul picks him up, circumcises him – curious – takes him on missionary journeys. Timothy now is a pastor, young man, serving God. He’s not longer with Paul, he’s by himself. Paul said, “Here’s my story, Timothy. What’s yours?” And Timothy’s gotta make some decisions in life. What’s my story gonna be? Am I gonna go with the heretics or not? Am I gonna stay in Ephesus or am I gonna run for my life? What am I gonna do now? Some of you were there today. You’re at that place where you have huge, important life decisions to make. Maybe your story up to this point has been joyous or tragic or a combination thereof but you gotta decide where it’s going to go from here and what the next chapter will be. So Paul gives him counsel.

He says, “Timothy,” Verse 18, “my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience.” He says, Timothy, when we called you into the ministry, we laid hands, we prayed over you and God gave some prophecy, some words of your future. He says some godly men who were praying over you. They said, Timothy, that your future was to be one of fruitfulness and faithfulness. He says Timothy, you’re at a place right now you have to decide is that what it’s going to be. Is that what it’s gonna be? And he says Timothy, here’s what you need to do, now. You need to fight.

Throughout the Bible, oftentimes, Christianity is compared to a fight or a struggle or a competition. Some of you don’t like that military imagery. I’ll tell you what. You’re in a fight. The world is against you. Your flesh is against you. The enemy is against you. You’re in a fight. There are times when if you want to remain faithful to God and you wanna walk with God and you wanna be able to tell a story like Paul and say, “Well, I love God. Times were hard but I walked with God faithfully; there will be times that you will need to fight. You’ll need to fight your own desires internally. You’ll need to fight heretics and false teachers externally. You’re gonna need to fight. So many Christians don’t like conflict that what they do is just simply allow Satan and godless people to win because they refuse to fight. I’ll give you an example. There was a pastor, called me up – actually his wife did – said, “Can you come visit? My husband’s not doing too good.” I said, “Okay.” I drive to their house. Some false teachers had gotten in their church. Money times were tight. Things were hard. I walk in their room. There’s mother, the sons, and the father, who’s quite a bit older than me, laying on the floor, curled up in the fetal position. I mean, it was one of the most shocking things I’d ever seen. What are you doing? And what does this say to your teenage sons? I looked at him, I said, “What is happening?” He said, “We don’t have enough money. There’s – false teachers that gotten in the church. Our doctrine’s gotten astray. Everybody’s fighting, complaining.” I told him, “Fight! Get up! There’s a church. There’s your wife. There’s your kids. There’s the Gospel. There’s Christ. Get up! Don’t sit there and do this whole, ‘How am I feeling’ conversation. How you’re feeling will change once you win. So go win and you’ll feel better.” That’s my theology. If you feel bad, change. You’ll feel better. Don’t sit there and analyze and specialize in how you feel if it stinks. Feel something else. Trade in. Upgrade.

I said, “Well, where do these guys live? Let’s go to their house.” He’s like, “Well, we can’t do,” “Why not? I have a full tank of gas and a decent right hand. Let’s go fix it. Let’s go deal with these guys. Come on! Let’s go! We’ll just go put them in their place. Tell them, you know, ‘knock it off’ or the same thing Paul’s gonna tell these guys. ‘I’m gonna hand you over to Satan.’ Plan A, Plan B.” The guy never got up. Never got up. Sons sitting there going, “That’s my dad.” Wife sitting there going, “That’s my husband.” Church siting there going, “That’s my pastor.” That church does not exist. That church – it’s over. Closed. Gone. Finito. The end. Couple hundred people to nothing. Why? Wouldn’t fight. Wouldn’t fight. As Christians, we are not to be a contentious, combative, mean-spirited person. But when Satan or Satan’s teachers or Satan’s servants show up, it’s time for war. You have to fight. You fight to protect that which you love. Somebody breaks into my home, there’s gonna be a fight. Somebody comes to harm my children, there will be a fight. Somebody comes to take my wife, there will be a body buried in the backyard and I’ll be doing prison ministry from the inside. That’s the way it is, right? If you love someone, if you love something, when it becomes attacked and someone’s trying to destroy it, you fight. Guys, I love this church. I’ve given my life to this church. I plan on being here until I die. I don’t wanna fight but if false doctrine gets taught, heretics come in, people start getting led astray, I’ll fight. We have to fight. We have to fight because there’s only one God. There’s only one Gospel. There’s only one Bible. Anything that isn’t in agreement with that is wrong and we have to fight it.

That’s why it’s so important for you to know your Bible. To get in a community group, to take a class. To go through the Gospel class. That’s why we teach here because we want you to be equipped that you can fight for yourself. Somebody comes and teaches you false doctrine or people start to ask questions that you can’t answer and you start to lose your faith or your confidence – we want you to be able to fight, say, “No, wait a minute. I got answers. I understand. I know the truth. This is the way that it is. I know who God is. I know what the Gospel is. I know what Jesus has done. I know what he’s called me to. I know that he has strengthened me so that today I could answer your questions and love you. But I’m able to fight. And if there’s anything that is lacking in the modern-day church, it’s this ability to fight. Not fight each other but to fight the world, the flesh, the devil, the false teachers. Not to fight one another over baptism or speaking in tongues. That’s not the kind of fighting I’m talking about. We are brothers and sisters. Others are false brothers and sisters. They are enemies in the same way that Judas Iscariot slipped in among the twelve. Had Judas not been dealt with by Jesus, you and I would not be here today. Judas woulda been the hero of the story. Paul says to Timothy, “Fight. Time to fight. You’re young, you’re outnumbered. You’re surrounded. They’re older. They’re smarter. You have an ulcer. Fight!” “What if I die?” “At least you’ll go down with dignity. The last thing a man wants is to be alive with no dignity. I would rather be dead with dignity than alive without any.

Paul tells Timothy, “Fight.” He’s got two guys to fight. Two to one. He says, “Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.” These two guys? They’ve gotten good teaching. Some of you have gotten good teaching, here or elsewhere. Here’s what they’ve done, though, they’ve rejected it. They have heard there’s one God. No. Jesus is the only way to salvation. No. They have rejected the truth. There’s two things that are important for you to be a healthy person. One, good teaching. Two, receptive heart. If your heart is hard, then truth comes to you like bullets off an enormous rock. Nothing penetrates, nothing is gained. Some of you think, “Well, I’ve had a lot of good teaching.” Have you received it? Or have you rejected it. And sometimes people don’t like the truth that they receive because it calls them to repentance and they don’t want to change. So they reject it and they choose their sin and it shipwrecks their faith, Paul says.

Some of you are boaters. Some of you know what this is like. A shipwreck is a tragic and terrible thing. That’s where everything on board dies a slow, painful death of one sort or another. These guys had gotten good teaching. They had been taught by whom? Paul, right? They can’t say, “Well, you know, I just – I didn’t get a very good teacher.” Paul. It is possible to have a teacher as good as Paul and still be a heretic who rejects the truth and shipwrecks their faith. You need to know that. You need to know that. And today, you need to ask yourself, next question: “Am I receptive to God’s word and God’s truth and God’s son and God’s grace. Or am I rejecting and in the process of shipwrecking, destroying my faith.

My responsibility before God is to teach. Your responsibility before God is to learn. You are as culpable as I am. Paul tells Timothy, “Fight. These guys have rejected the truth. Now, they are in the process of shipwrecking their faith. Do not allow them to bring other people onto the Titanic with them. Don’t allow them to start infiltrating other people. Having them over to dinner. Handing out weird literature. Creating strange arguments. Pulling people aside in the foyer and saying, “Hey! Think like this. Think like me,” because when the boat goes down, you want everybody off. So here’s what we’re gonna do, Timothy. “Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander,” are you surprised that he names them? This letter was sent to the church of Ephesus and it was read to the congregation. Wow. Some are you saying, “Are you gonna do that?” I would submit to you that these guys were very, very, very well known – perhaps elders in the church. It doesn’t say explicitly, but they definitely were teachers and widely known. There were at least very important leaders, if not senior leadership in the church. Everyone knew who they were. Everyone was talking about them. It had split the whole church over whatever sort of funky doctrinal weirdness they were throwing down. It had become a public matter, so Paul deals with it publicly. This is church discipline.

Church discipline is something that is almost altogether gone. Most churches you could do whatever you want and they never deal with you. Okay, we’re a church that practices church discipline. We’ll meet with you. We’ll try to get you straightened out. If it gets to the point, though, that you’re just continually rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, rejecting, we can’t allow you to bring everybody else on your ship because it’s sinking. That’s what Paul’s doing here. In the history of this church, we have had very few occasions for church discipline and I can say gladly that they’ve all worked out very well. The people that had walked out on their families repented and put their marriage back together. Great. That’s great. The purpose of church discipline is the same purpose of parental discipline. It’s not to punish, it’s to correct. You don’t discipline your kids to punish them but to correct them. Church discipline is – the church as a family and that when people in the church are astray, we discipline them. We correct them to bring them back.

Here, it’s very extreme. Apparently, they had tried everything. They tried meeting with them, Bible studying with them. They tried working it out, they had given a lot of time, a lot of energy and these guys just would not stop running toward Hell and taking other people and grabbing them by the hands to go along for the run, so here’s what he says. “I have handed over to Satan to be told them not to blaspheme.” At the end of the day, when you won’t listen to the Bible and you won’t listen to your pastor and you won’t listen to reason and you won’t listen to love and you won’t listen to wisdom, you say, “I work for Satan.” Well, then go be with him. Don’t come to this church. You’re out. Don’t come here anymore. If you want to run with Satan, run with Satan. But don’t run with Satan in the church. Hand it over to Satan.

Paul does the same thing to a guy in 1 Corinthians Chapter 5. The guy’s having sex with either his mother or mother-in-law. Won’t listen to any rebuke. Paul says, “I hand him over to Satan.” What you find in 2 Corinthians, by 2 Corinthians, the guy’s repented. He’s not having sex with his mother and he’s back in the church. That’s the point. Some of you say, “That’s nasty.” Yes. Two thousand years ago nasty. Today. Nasty. Sin’s always nasty. These guys are ruining a church. Have you ever seen guys that were off on some weird doctrine, teaching false doctrine – the church allows them in too long and like cancer, they spread. Next thing you know, everybody’s sick and the church dies. Paul says, “We’re gonna cut this cancer out. We’re gonna remove it from the body. If they want to be with Satan, they can be with Satan, but they’re not gonna be with Satan and infect us.” The hope being that they will repent because you know what? It’s a privilege to be a part of a church. Friends. Joy. Teaching. Love. Worship. Activity. Fellowship. All these wonderful things. You don’t have any right to enjoy those things where you will bring Satan in and destroy them. Paul says you can’t have it both ways.

Some of you need to know this. Some of you have rejected the truth of God. Some of you love your sin. Some of you are in the process – I hate to say this – you’re in the process of shipwrecking your faith. Some of you already have been handed over to Satan. He has complete control of you. Some of you are in the process of, like Judas Iscariot, welcoming him to indwell you, so that he can work through you. We don’t want that for any of you. There’s only two kinds of people in this text. Paul and Timothy, who are working toward Jesus; Hymenaeus and Alexander, who are working towards Satan. And I’ll close with this. If you’ve got a pen – I was thinking about this week. I got a little something. I want you to write this down and take this with you. This is your assignment this week.

I was with a big management consultant, who works with a lot of large organizations. He gave us something like this. It’s got me thinking, and it got me thinking through the text this week. Here’s what Paul does, this is what you need to do. Make some columns, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, across the top, ten down. Think through it this week. Keep thinking through it. Do it in pencil. This is your life. At the end of your life, you’re going to be like Paul. Paul’s nearing the end of his life, here. He just told you his story. “Here’s who I was. Here’s who I am. Here’s who Jesus is. This is what he’s done. This is where I’m going. This is what I believe. This is my life. This is my belief. This is my legacy.” Okay and you want to think into the future and say, “When I’m old, at the end. If I was going to write my story, what do I want it to say?” Timothy is in the process of deciding his story. First thing you need to start with is the first thing Paul did and list your most grievous sins. If you’re a non-Christian, you gotta say, “What are my sins.” If you are a Christian, you can ask yourself, what sins has God died for and forgiven me of? You gotta start there.

What is your identity apart from Christ. That’s what we’re trying to get at. He says I was a violent man, a persecutor, an unbeliever. Next question. What do you want to know? At the end, when you write your story, what do you want to know? I’ve been thinking about it. Man, I want to know every book of the Bible. I want to know every book of the Bible. So, I’ve gotta study for a long time. I want to know the Gospel. That’s what Paul says. I want to know God. What do you want to know? Do you want to know how to be a great husband? A great father? Great wife? Great mother? Do you want to know God? You want to know the Bible? Do you want to know church history? Do you want to know nutrition? What do you want to know? Start thinking through, “Okay, then I gotta – I gotta put that into my life.” What do you want to be? What do you want to be?

When you repent of your sin, you start studying and that helps you be what you want to be. I want to be a good pastor. I want to be a Bible teacher. I want to be a good husband that my wife loves being with for the rest of her life. I want to be a dad who his kids enjoy. I want to be the kind of dad that, when I’m gone, they miss me. I want to be the kind of dad that my kids worship the same God that I do. What do you want to be? You want to be a good employee? Good husband? Good father? Good wife? Good mother? Good Christian? Good Sunday school teacher? Good community group leader? What do you want to be?

Next thing. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? You gonna study? You gonna take classes? You gonna work out? You gonna make a budget? You gonna set a schedule? What are you gonna do? For me, I want to plant a church. I want to plant other churches. Got a lot to do. I want to see people come to Christ. That’s what I wanna do. Serve. Where are you gonna serve? How are you gonna pour yourself into your family? Your friends? Your work? Your church? Paul says, “God’s appointed me to do this,” what’s God appointed you to do? Where you gonna serve?

The other thing is, once you die, what are you gonna leave? You wanna leave a ministry? You wanna leave money for your children? You wanna leave a college fund for your grandkids? You wanna leave a book? You wanna leave an album? When you’re gone, what of you is still gonna be there? You wanna leave kids and grandkids that loved the Lord? What do you wanna leave?

And the last thing is, what’s your legacy? You know, Paul’s dead and gone now. Some 2000 years later, here we are talking about Paul. He’s in heaven. What has he left? A legacy. A legacy. We’re here because the legacy of Paul. We’re part of Paul’s legacy. We’re reading his words. We’re following his example. Where believing the Gospel that he preached. We’re loving the Jesus that he saw. We’re part of Paul’s legacy. What do you want for a legacy? You want your kids to love the Lord? You what your grandkids to love the lord? You want to lead hundreds of people to Christ? You want to see this church become the biggest church in the history of the City of Seattle? What would you want for a legacy?

That’s your homework assignment this week. Take this with you. You do it in pencil. It’s gonna change over time. We just looked at all of this with Paul. He just told us in his story, “Here’s my sins. Here’s what I know. Here’s what I want to be. Here’s what we need to do. Here’s where we’re gonna serve. Here’s what we’re gonna leave.” And now we’re part of the legacy in his wake. I want the same thing for you. Begins with repentance. Name your sin. Come to Jesus. Reading your bible. Get to know God. Be a Christian doing the things that he has called you to do by serving, or has called you to serve, knowing that your life is a gift that you give to the church, your family, your friends, to the city, and that when you’re gone, there should be a legacy in your wake.

You’re welcome to partake of communion, as you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus. We’ll give our tithes and offerings in the baskets and we’ll sing and celebrate God together as Paul did.

Father God, we love you. We thank you for an opportunity to serve. We thank you that however you first loved and served us, Lord God I pray today as we look at the life of Paul, we look at him explaining his own life and his story, I pray that God, we would follow in his example. That we would think through if we were to write down our story, what would it look like and how would we want it to be different and at the very end, what would we want it to read like. God, I pray for us all that our story would have these similar themes – an acknowledgment of sin and a repentance of sin, salvation from the Lord Jesus, an overflowing abundance of grace and mercy and love and faith from him to us, fruitful life of service that built up and benefitted others, that we would leave a legacy in our wake so that others who come behind us would be blessed because we came before them. Lord Jesus, I pray for everyone in this room that they would not walk out of here without owning their sin and coming to you by faith. I pray that you would give them the faith that they need. As we sing and celebrate and worship, Lord God, please give us wisdom as we go from here to this week not just work in our life, but to work on it and to pull back and to think about who are we? Where have we come from? Where are we going? And what corrections and repentances need to be a part of that great journey. Amen.