God Prepares Us | Building a Gospel-Shaped Church | Week 2

This saying, 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 receive mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost,

Christ Jesus might display his perfect

as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Write down your guess. It will matter

what word. Now, I'm guessing that most of you have written down a word that is theologically correct.

You you probably wrote something like grace or love, kindness, mercy,

that which are which are all good answers and would be true. But is that the word that Paul was

intending to to share with his young apprentice, his young Padwan, uh,

Timothy in the context of what he's talking about here today?

What words did you write down? Love, trustworthiness. All right. Well,

if you if you didn't write down the word patience, don't worry.

When I first uh tried this, I didn't write down patience either.

So today will be a reminder to all of us to pay attention. Let's pay closer attention rather than filling in

mentally what we think scripture is going to say. Let's actually read and

understand what it says. So I want to read in context our passage for today. 1

Timothy chapter 1 verses 12-1 17. Now,

now you'll remember Paul's writing to Timothy, the leader of

the church in Ephesus. And we spent quite a bit of time last week talking about the city of Ephesus, how pagan it

was. It was a melting plot, melting pot of pagan religions. Judaism,

Christianity was there. They were all there. And Paul's writing to this young church

leader, helping him understand how to lead a church that is gospel focused,

gospel- centric, pressing back on darkness because darkness was all around. But darkness had also snuck into

the church. There were people teaching false doctrines. Paul's telling him, man, you got to tell

these people not to be teaching false doctrine in the church. That it needs to be sound. It needs to be true to the

gospel of Jesus. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it and don't change it.

So he's writing to this young leader. Verse 12, you guys follow along with me.

Paul says,"I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged

me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer,

persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted

ignorantly ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me

with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 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 receive mercy that Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an

example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and

glory forever and ever. Amen. Father, we

ask that today you would help us understand clearly

what you are teaching in this text. Lord, I pray for every person's eyes to

be opened, for their ears to be cleared to hear what you have to say. Lord, will

you start with me? Father, I pray that the words that come

out of my mouth line up with your word.

I pray this in your holy name. Amen. There's a couple of questions that come out of this this passage that that we

ought to ask or maybe you've already started asking. The first one is is what does it mean that he that Christ uh

found or judged Paul to be faithful? What's that about?

He found him to be faithful. Another question out of verse 13 is what does it mean that he received mercy because he

acted ignorantly in unbelief? Does that mean that ignorance

ignorant unbelief is excusable grounds for receiving mercy?

I just didn't know. Well, I didn't know. Does that does that mean that that

person who I just didn't know? that's grounds for them to receive mercy. I mean, this is a question that

we ought to ask. Well, hopefully today we will be able to tackle that and

understand this. Paul's testimony in verses 12-1 17. And if you weren't aware of that, this is his testimony.

How God has shown him mercy, how his love, his grace overflowed to him.

In verse 11, last week's passage, Paul says, "In accordance with the

gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. I it's

been handed to me and I've been trusted with this gospel." And so verses 12-1 17, he unpacks what

he's been entrusted with. And today, we're going to look at that. He's saying, "Man, listen. I've been

entrusted with this gospel because he s he found me to be faithful for service

even though I was the worst of sinners. I was violent.

I was a blasphemer. But he entrusted me. He entrusted me.

I want to make a note uh for us to observe here. The word entrusted in verse 11 at the very end of verse 11 is

the same Greek word as the word faithful in verse 12. The NIV points this out.

Some of you are carrying an NIV Bible and it uses the words entrusted in verse

11 and trustworthy in verse 12. So that helps us carry he Christ found me to be

trustworthy with this gospel message.

Paul's thankful to Christ because he's the one that gave strength. He's the one

that enabled him to take this gospel message for us.

So today for us to to understand better

his testimony. I want us to go back to Acts chapter nine. So you have your

Bibles there. Turn back to Acts chapter nine. This is when Saul now, now it's

not until chapter 13 that we begin hearing him known as Paul,

but prior to that, we know him as Saul before he came to know Christ. It's in Acts chapter nine that he's on the road

to Damascus to go and hunt down other Christians. Not other Christians, to go

and hunt down Christians, to put them in jail.

e even be okay with killing them.

Acts chapter nine is when he's on his way to Damascus to do just that.

Says that when he's there, he's on his way, he has

an encounter with Jesus. He's on the road. He hears a voice. He's

blinded. Saul. Saul. Uh, which is a literary cue for me and you that that is

a call passage. This is the passage that he's called. Moses. Moses. That was his

call passage. Abram. Abram. Samuel. Samuel. Those are that's a it's

a literary device that triggers me and you to understand this is a call passage. And we see it in Acts chapter

nine again. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Well, who are you? I am

Jesus, the one you're persecuting. And so, we have this this interaction

between Saul, the persecutor of Christians, the one who was trying to eliminate the the memory of Jesus from

the planet. We have an interaction, an intersection between Saul and Jesus.

At meanwhile, in Damascus, there's a guy named Ananas, a believer. He has an

interaction with Jesus and he says, "Hey, Ananas, I need you to go over to Straight Straight Street and go to

Judas's house and you're gonna find a guy named Saul in there and I need you to go and pray over him."

Ananas is like, "Now, now are you talking about the Saul that I've heard all about? This dude that's going around

and and arresting Christians? Is that who you want me to go to?" was really

look at it what it says in verse 15 of Acts chapter 9. But the Lord said to

him, Ananas, 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.

sake of my name. disappointment. It informed Paul that he was judged,

trustworthy. He was he was found to be trustworthy

for the service of Christ. And Paul was thankful for that judge judgment that we see in our text in first Timothy. The

judgment of being found trustworthy. Saul's Saul's life, if you think about

it, Saul's life up to this point was marked by being trustworthy.

Trustworthy to the point that the Jewish elite, the Pharisees, the the the the

high ups in the Jewish faith, said, "We trust you enough to go out and hunt down

these people that are following Jesus, that are trusting in Jesus. We trust

you." Go. So his whole life is up to this point has been marked with trustworthiness.

Paul could look back and and see how God had been preparing him all along the way

for this designation of being found trustworthy with the gospel. We see it

throughout scripture. We see it in Jeremiah 1 verse 5. The Lord says,

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I

consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

In Galatians, Paul wrote wrote to the churches of Galatia. He says this, "But when he who had set me apart before I

was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order

that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

God prepares people for the callings, the calling that he has for them in

life. He prepares us. Paul was prepared by God for a specific

task to take the gospel to the nations. Some of you know my story that prior to

being called into into ministry, I I spent the first 13 14 years of my

professional life in coaching football,

West Texas football. I man, I was living the life. It's all I wanted to do. It's

all I thought I would ever do. But then in 96, 1996, if some of you can remember that

far back, I had an intersection with God.

I didn't lose my eyesight. My eyes were opened to what God wanted

for me. And now as an old man, I can look back and say, "God, did I miss you?

Did I miss your calling on of those 12, 13 years of coaching? Did I miss what

you had for me?" And I can look back now and go, "No, I was just preparing you. I was getting

you ready to talk in front of people, to not be nervous." Well, I'm still kind of nervous, but I I was preparing you to

speak publicly. I was preparing you to inspire people to to keep coaching. Joel, just use this playbook and not a

football playbook. I was just preparing you. And some of

you in this room, God has been preparing you to do the good works that he has set

aside for you. He's got things for each of us to do. It

seems crazy that Paul would be found trustworthy. This blasphemer, this violent person,

this one that was persecuting the church, that he would be found trustworthy

and that Jesus had not only appointed him but had saved him from his sins

because he was acting ignorantly in unbelief.

There's some things that that I think we need to have a heads up to here about Jewish people. We can make some mistakes

when it comes to thinking and referring to Jewish the Jewish faith, Jewish

people. First mistake is this that as God's chosen people, which they are, God

doesn't break his covenants. They're they're his chosen people.

We can make the mistake of thinking they have a get out of jail free card

that that they don't have to come to repentance that they just they get to go to heaven because they're God's chosen people. That's a mistake.

Paul was adamant. Where did he go? What was his what was his custom when he went into a new city? He went straight to the

synagogue because he knew his Jewish brothers and sisters needed to come to repentance and place their faith in

Jesus. Another mistake we can make is to think that that that the Jews are just like

any other nation, any other pagan nation, godless nation. United States of America, China, Sierra Leon,

Ethiopia, Philippines, Brazil.

Jews are just the same as everyone else. And that's a mistake

because listen, they were given the ancient oracles of

God. They're not like any other pagan nation. They are worshiping Elohim.

They are worshiping Yahweh. They just have missed Jesus.

They missed it. And Paul was passionate to get the word of God, the word, the

gospel of Jesus to his brothers and sisters who were of the Jewish faith.

He was passionate about that. Though they're set apart from other

nations, Paul was adamant to get the word to them. We see this in Ephesians chapter 2:es 1-3 where he writes to

them. He says, "And you were dead in your trespasses."

dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, following the

prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once

lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children

of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Verse four, but God,

but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.

And in our first Timothy text, Paul tells young Timothy, "Listen, man. I was

the worst of the worst. I was the foremost of sinners." and his grace overflowed

to me. It overflowed to me.

Being being Jewish wasn't a free ticket to salvation. What did Jesus say to

Nicodemus in John chapter 3? You must be born again.

H, Nicodemus, how how can that how can that be? How can a how can a person go back into

his mother's w you must be born naturally by the water but you also have

to be born of the spirit. It has to happen

so you and I can be very sincere in our

religious walk. Paul was extremely sincere in his

religious walk. My next door neighbors, the Mormons, are

extremely sincere in their religious walk. There might even be somebody in

this room that is extremely sincere in their daily Bible reading, in their

attendance at church, in their prayer time. But friends, listen. Being sincere

is not what leads to salvation. It's faith. Faith in Jesus Christ.

Sincerity is not the ticket. It is not.

So when Paul I'm sorry, when Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus,

Jesus not only appointed this blasphemer to his service, but he also saved him from his sins.

This was all Christ's doing. that Saul had nothing to boast about.

His grace overflowed to him. Some of you will remember

February 15th of this year was the 10-year anniversary of the 21

the 21 Christians, Coptic Christians

that were executed in Egypt.

You remember this? standing behind these men in the orange

jumpsuits. There were 20 of them, 21 of them. 20 of them were from Egypt. One of

them was from Ghana. This man from Ghana

gave his life to Christ because when all of them were arrested, he was blown away by the testimony of the faith of these

that would not turn from Christ. And he said, "I want some of that." and gave

his life to Christ. That day on the beach somewhere there in Libya,

these men were executed by members of ISIS.

You see the person on the kind of the left side of the screen that looks like he's wearing camo standing in the back.

See him? He's the leader of that group, that extremist group.

And in just a few moments after this picture was taken, they were beheaded by

knife. It is reported that these men as they were dying were saying the words

and let me let me say the words correctly. Yab Yesua.

Yab Yesua. Yab Yesua. Oh Lord Jesus. Oh

Lord Jesus. in their dying moments confessing the

name of Jesus. Friends, listen. When we encounter Saul in chapter nine,

he's the guy in camo. He's the leader of people that are going

after Christians. He's trying to eradicate the planet from any memory of this man named Jesus. But I'm going to

tell you something. At the end of Paul's life, he's one of the guys in orange

who gave his life for the name of Jesus.

And so Paul is writing this young Timothy with a passion that I'm not sure you and

I can fully grasp. His desperation to get the word, to protect the gospel of

Jesus, to get it out to the world, to the nations.

verse 15. It's our memory verse for the week. And by the way, you know what a good memory verse is, right? A good

memory verse is one that is is really powerful in context, but it's also

really powerful even out of context. For God so loved the world, Nicodemus, in

context, that he gave his one and only son that whosoever, that includes you, Nicodemus, if you believe in him, you

will not perish, but you'll have everlasting life. And me and you, we can take it out here out of the story of Nicodemus. And for God so loved the

world that he gave his one and only son that whoever will believe in him will not perish. Man, they won't spend

eternity apart from Christ but will have eternal life. That's what makes a good memory verse.

and verse 15 today which contains the gospel in nine words.

It works in context to the le the letter to Timothy and we can take it out here

and it is a great verse. This is trustworthy and deserving of full

acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to

save sinners of whom I am the foremost.

Nine words Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Christ didn't come into existence when he came into the world. He's always been.

He came to save sinners. And Paul says, "Dude, I was the worst.

I was the worst."

Luke 19:10, "For Jesus said himself, for the son of man came to seek and save the

lost." Do you realize that when you and I when we commit ourselves to going out and

sharing the good news of Jesus, we are being extremely Christlike.

One of the most Christlike things we can do is to share Jesus with other people.

And man, that's that's what I was talking about last week and I continue to talk about this week is that I pray that it is more difficult for people in

80015 and whatever zip code you live in. It's

harder for them to to spend eternity without Christ because this church is in

this community. This church is pushing back on darkness. Man, we are committed

to going and telling people about Jesus.

Jesus came to live a life that we couldn't, to die a death that we deserved,

and to defeat the enemies that we can't defeat. Sin and death.

Jesus came and he did that. He did that.

So, let's be a church that's committed to pushing back on darkness and telling people about the light of life.

The troubling part for me is that there are people out there,

there might even be a person sitting in this room that thinks you have messed up so bad.

You have so much sin in your life that there's no possible way that God

could ever love me. God could never forgive me for things that I've done, even the things that I

did last night. And Paul's testimony

is just a reminder to me and a reminder to you that if if his if his love and

mercy can extend to that chump Saul, it can extend to me and extend to you.

Man, if you believe that that you've messed up so much that you're with you're outside the reach of God's love,

you're mistaken. You can't out sin his reach. You can't

do it. God loves you so much and desires to be in a relationship with you.

You personally, he wants to know you.

When John and Peter were standing before the Supreme Court, the Jewish Supreme Court in Acts chapter 4,

they said to those religious leaders, they said this, "And there is salvation in no one else.

For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, and his name is Jesus."

Sincerity ain't going to get it done. You can't be bad enough to

go beyond the reach of God's love.

So the question, who did Christ come into the world to

save? Which sinners are we talking about? Finish the verse. Look at it with me.

All who would believe.

All who would believe. Verse 16.

All who would believe in Jesus for eternal life. Have you done that?

Have you trusted in Jesus? Or have you been relying upon your sincerity?

Have you been relying upon your church attendance? Have you been re relying upon how good

you are? In the same way that you can't be bad

enough to be so bad that God's love can't reach you, in the same way you can't be good

enough to make your way to heaven. It is only through faith in Jesus. Have

you done that?

Paul's testimony here is powerful and it's a powerful reminder that if he can

save Paul, he can save you. And today, if you're here and you've

never trusted in Jesus, I I pray that you'll come to a place

that God would open your heart or would open your eyes and and even in this moment, you would say, "I recognize that

I'm a sinner and I need forgiveness, and I realize that Jesus died on the

cross for my sins, and today I I'm not going to trust in my

goodness anymore. I'm not going to trust in me going to church or reading my Bible or praying often. I'm not going to

trust in that anymore. Today, I'm going to trust in Jesus to forgive me of my sins,

to make me new, and to be the boss of my life, to be my master and my lord.

Today, I'm giving my life to Jesus.

If you have never done that, I pray that right now in this moment, don't wait till the end of the service. Do it right

now. Give your heart to Jesus.

Surrender to him. It is the most important decision you'll

ever make. So, the big idea today, it's at the bottom of your outline,

is that the gospel is universal. Take John 3:16 for example.

And for God so loved the world. Let's zoom out if we could. Stay with me. Zoom

out and let's make our way all the way back and stand on the moon together. And

we look down at the little blueberry down there called the earth.

God so loved the world. That applies to anyone who will believe.

So the gospel of Jesus is universal. But at the same time, it is also

personal. It's personal for me and it's personal for you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whosoever that

whoever that's me and that's you. Whoever will believe in him will not

perish but will have everlasting life. And verse 17 of our text today

is what should be in the heart of every one of us who have surrendered our heart to Jesus. Every one of us who s call

ourselves a follower of Jesus should should echo in our hearts. Verse 17, let's look at it. To the king of the

ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. Man, that ought to that bell needs to be rung constantly in our heart.

Praise God. Praise God. Hallelujah.

On the back side of your outline today,

I want to challenge everybody to write out your testimony.

It's just a simple format. First part is who were you before Christ? Now we we

just went back to Acts chapter nine and we saw who Saul was prior to Christ.

Who were you? How would you describe your life

before you met Christ? Write it down.

The middle section, what happened? Were you at youth camp? Were you at VBS? Did

a parent tell you about Jesus? I remember driving from Abalene to Breenidge, Texas, when my son, we pulled

over on the side of the road and he prayed to receive Jesus. I hope he remembers that day because I do. What

What about you? What were the circumstances around that moment when Christ made you new?

When you were forgiven and you realized that, man, my life is different. I'm changed. I'm a changed person.

What happened? Then the last part, what difference has Christ made in your life? How are you different today because of

your relationship with Jesus? I want to encourage every one of you to write that out.

In fact, to make it even better, do it on that half page. Joel, that

would be impossible for me to do that. I got Joel, I have way too many words. Well, the reason I want to force you,

and you can write sideways and along the side if you need to, upside down,

because if you share that with somebody, they don't want a three-page testimony.

But if you'll just tell them, man, this who I was, it's kind of like that that guy in scripture that says, man, I don't

know about this guy. All I know is that I was blind

and now I see. What's your testimony? And man, come on. Cut the fat out. Trim

out all the fat and give me the meat and give it to me quick. Because when you share that testimony when you share the

good news of Jesus in your life, they can't argue what he's done in your life. They can't argue it. It's your story. I

was blind and now I can see. So, if you've never done this, I I

really want to challenge you to write out your testimony and then

email me because I love hearing people's testimonies.

And now, if you want me to give you the triple dog dare, should I do that, Roger?

Share it with somebody you know. Share it with a coworker. Hey man, my

pastor asked me to write out kind of my life story, my faith journey,

and then he asked me to share it with somebody. Do you mind reading this?

I triple dog dare you. Let's be committed to pushing back on

darkness and telling people about Jesus. Deal.

Deal. Your memory verse is verse 15 this week. Tuck it away. Christ Jesus came

into the world to save sinners.