SPEAKER_00: This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason and Liz Burns in Access Church in Lakeland and Bartow, Florida.
SPEAKER_00: For more information, visit Access.tv.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, I'm gonna jump into it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you enjoyed our new series free people?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jason gave us some homework, and I hope you have been doing it next week.
SPEAKER_00: He will be checking.
SPEAKER_00: But he said Galatians is is six chapters, and to take some time and read them every week and just allow God to speak to you in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: So last week he started us off with Galatians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you some insight into it.
SPEAKER_00: The first part of this is you gotta know the author.
SPEAKER_00: Who wrote Galatians?
SPEAKER_00: It's this, it's Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote most of the New Testament, and uh so we're gonna study a little bit about his life today and unpack what this understand what he was writing in this letter.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta understand his audience.
SPEAKER_00: His audience was to the Church of Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: It's the church of the Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: And and this is modern-day Turkey.
SPEAKER_00: This is churches that have started to spread out and do the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's writing this letter to this uh group of Christians that are in this in this town, in this city, that are spreading the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what is our theme?
SPEAKER_00: Our theme is this.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is uh the highlight of our series, the free people, is our our our our theme is this is there is freedom in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stop right there for a second because I think we can sometimes just read this and just gloss over and be like, man, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: But I but I want you to understand that God is truly not didn't just die on that cross so that you can get to heaven one day.
SPEAKER_00: He died so that you can live and bring heaven here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what true freedom is all about.
SPEAKER_00: It's about getting excited that you're here, it's about getting excited that we get to worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's to get excited that we get to take part of this message and walk out of these four doors and help a broken world, right?
SPEAKER_00: To show the world that that they need Jesus, that that all the things that the world has to offer means nothing unless we have more of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is the good news, and that is what we're here for.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is good news.
SPEAKER_00: And I see too many times we come to church and we're like, man, I hope this good news affects me.
SPEAKER_00: I hope Pastor Jason gives another amazing word so I can walk out here feeling encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: No, the gospel is good news.
SPEAKER_00: You can go home and encourage yourself in the Lord and to read that book of the Bible and to go through it and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to walk around with my shoulders slumped.
SPEAKER_00: I can have good news right here and right now and watch what God does in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I feel ready.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're ready.
SPEAKER_00: I feel pumped for what God has got for us today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to recap two major things that Pastor Jason shared last week, and and this is a highlight.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that we'll add upon, we'll build upon as we go through this series.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the major parts that Pastor Jason talked about last week is this Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to wrestle with that thought.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to go home this week and wrestle with the idea of what have I added to the perfect good news of Jesus that has made me wrestle with this thought of maybe I'm not good enough to have this or I'm not good enough to be used by God.
SPEAKER_00: That is adding something to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel plus nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't need any help, don't need any creativity, don't need anything.
SPEAKER_00: We just need the gospel to see what God can do in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: He shared it this Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I love this verse.
SPEAKER_00: This is a highlight verse.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new to your faith and you're like, how do I study or how do I read the word?
SPEAKER_00: This is this is a perfect verse to meditate on and to read from.
SPEAKER_00: It says this, for it is by grace that you have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: Not your good works, not your church attendance, not your tithing record, not how many missions trips you've been on.
SPEAKER_00: All those things are great, but it's by his grace that you have been saved through faith.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not from it's not from yourselves, it's a gift of God.
SPEAKER_00: This week uh we we decided to kind of kick off the summer and uh we planned a little trip for my kids and my family.
SPEAKER_00: And so the one thing I loved is we were gonna tell the kids where they were going, but we decided, come on, any good parent, you know where I'm going.
SPEAKER_00: We decided to kind of use it for behavior modification.
SPEAKER_00: We said, hey, we're we're gonna go on a trip, but you kind of have to earn this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you hit your brother, we're gonna leave you at home, right?
SPEAKER_00: If if if you don't listen, if you don't keep your room cleaned, we're gonna deep down my kids have gotten really smart.
SPEAKER_00: They know about grace and they know that I don't ever fall through with these punishments.
SPEAKER_00: Because my son would like do something, he'd be like, What?
SPEAKER_00: You're still gonna take me.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're gonna take me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know so many times, like I tried to hold it above his heads.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, North Licking, you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I tried to say, son, like, listen, I need you to get your stuff together, and because you might not make it to this trip, you might not get to go.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Naples, and oh my gosh, did they have a blast, right?
SPEAKER_00: They got there, they they they ran around that place, they had so much fun.
SPEAKER_00: But but this, it was it was not by their works.
SPEAKER_00: I looked at my son at the finally when we got there, I was like, son, I want to let you know you didn't earn this trip this week.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you did absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And if babysitting didn't cost so much, I would follow through and have a babysitter come watch you.
SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to teach them that it wasn't by your works, like you didn't deserve this, but you got it.
SPEAKER_00: And I know we all laugh, but it's the same thing with our walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't do anything to deserve our perfect savior to die on that cross, but he did, and we get to receive it, we get to operate in it.
SPEAKER_00: That is the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take you down memory lane.
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, uh, we might might like have just experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a kid, maybe, maybe, uh, maybe your kids just experienced it, maybe, maybe you could think back far enough to remember these days, but anybody remember this moment in your life or maybe your kids' life?
SPEAKER_00: This is my cute little brody.
SPEAKER_00: It's a funny thing, I was trying to find photos of my kindergarten graduation, and I was finding them with my kids, and my son's like, Dad, like you didn't have a cell phone to like snap a photo?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, son, like we were on the cusp of this thing called the car phone, and it cost like seven, at least my parents told me, it cost like seven dollars a minute, and so like we didn't have cameras to snap a photo.
SPEAKER_00: So I said, I'm gonna have to use your photo at church.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but remember this moment, remember kindergarten graduation?
SPEAKER_00: Remember the moment where they they kind of they kind of get you and all your parents are there, they're taking photos and they're like so happy for you.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, it's so cute, right?
SPEAKER_00: But remember the question they asked you?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, what do you want to be when you grow up?
SPEAKER_00: I remember my son in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where he gets it.
SPEAKER_00: Ever get the the kids' craft around Mother's Day or Father's Day where they answer questions about you and they're like, my daddy's an air private.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't I don't fly airplanes.
SPEAKER_00: It's like where'd they come up with this?
SPEAKER_00: My son answered that question on his kindergarten graduation.
SPEAKER_00: He says he wants to be an astronaut.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, son, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: But first off, you can't even ride Guardians of the Galaxy at Disney.
SPEAKER_00: That's a big leap.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: To go from scared of roller coasters to going to space.
SPEAKER_00: God can do it and won't He do it, but maybe let's focus on baseball.
SPEAKER_00: But you remember those moments?
SPEAKER_00: I think I think I said I wanted to be an astronaut.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my lord.
SPEAKER_00: I I never knew of this thing called a ladder.
SPEAKER_00: I hate heights.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I get really Pentecostal when I get up on the top of the ladder, like full on speaking in tugs, like Jesus take the wheel.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's it's so I I wasn't gonna be a firefighter.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't in my path.
SPEAKER_00: Um, remember this moment in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, remember your senior year?
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the scary part, right?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, am I speaking to anybody?
SPEAKER_00: I know we had some graduators, graduation people.
SPEAKER_00: This is when you kind of have to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't like, hey, I want to be a firefighter, I want to go to space.
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment where you're like, I've got to pay for gas that's maybe$7 tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's all pray together.
SPEAKER_00: No, um, remember this moment?
SPEAKER_00: You gotta figure it all out.
SPEAKER_00: You you you you've lived some life by this moment, you've you've accomplished some things, you've worked for that little piece of paper.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you still have it?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, nobody?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, mine didn't last the first move.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I promise you I graduated.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but but there's so many times in your life you you get to this point and and you're trying to figure out what you're gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: I lived in a small town, and this is my photo from Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida, class of 08.
SPEAKER_00: Ah, yeah, almost 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Um but this moment, I I lived in a small town, and every now and then I would run into somebody at the grocery store or run into somebody at the supermarket, and and and and we'd bounce back and we'd ask, you know, do the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, how's life?
SPEAKER_00: How's the family?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any kids?
SPEAKER_00: And then they asked this question Hey, what do you what do you do now?
SPEAKER_00: I didn't live a crazy life in high school.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna ask my wife, you can ask we are child high school sweethearts.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I wasn't crazy, but I wasn't like like living out my faith.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody experienced that?
SPEAKER_00: You you you kind of just blending in.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the one that was like praying for people in the hallway, but you weren't the one rolling joints in the bathroom.
SPEAKER_00: Like you you kind of just like you blended in.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, public high school, you get it.
SPEAKER_00: Um you just kind of lived a life, and so I remember the last confrontation I had with somebody, and they're like, hey, what do you do now?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, get ready for this one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a pastor now.
SPEAKER_00: And I love dropping that on somebody's uh plate right there.
SPEAKER_00: Because then they're like, you know, sometimes they're expressing their story, they maybe slipping a couple choice words, and then when you say, I'm a pastor, they're like, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that because they look at you like, oh, you are a pastor?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I think I might be offended, but I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this moment right here, what what I just explained to you, that experience of looking back through your life, of looking back of how far you've come, looking back at the choices you've made, looking back at the decisions you've made, and having these moments of being, man, I don't think I'm where I thought I was gonna be, but thank God I'm where God has me right now.
SPEAKER_00: In one of these moments, Paul's getting ready to live out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna continue in our series, and I'm I'm gonna take the second portion of Galatians, Galatians 1, and it's we're gonna go from verse 11 through 24.
SPEAKER_00: And and if I was to name this series or put a title, it'd be The Gospel Transforms Us.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel Transforms Us.
SPEAKER_00: This is a portion of Paul's scripture where he's gonna begin to talk about his testimony, talk about the things he's done, talk about all this thing, not to boast and to pick himself up, but to give glory to the power of Jesus and what he did for us.
SPEAKER_00: If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down.
SPEAKER_00: When the gospel truly invades our life, it changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Like I want you to grasp to that.
SPEAKER_00: Like when the gospel of Jesus and who he is, and we're gonna dive into this because I think some of you think that you have to read all this scripture and all these things are great, but but when the gospel, the good news of who Jesus is, comes into your life, it changes everything from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 1, if you're reading with me, starts off like this.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 11, I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that is pre that I preach is not of human origin.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't receive this from any man, nor was I taught it.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, I received it by a revelation from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is so important here.
SPEAKER_00: I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you're still taking notes, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel gives us perfect instructions.
SPEAKER_00: If you're out there looking for how and what to do, I want to let you know that the Bible and what it says about Jesus and what it says about you is perfect instructions to handle everything you need to accomplish here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: I loved uh when we first, me and my wife first got married, we we've celebrated 14 years just recently, and uh man, won't he do it?
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh they don't teach you this in school or church, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh how to be a husband, how to be a better man.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you just kind of figure it out and you look at the gospel, right?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but but one thing I loved is is when we first got married, we we we lived this life of both living at home and our parents cooked for us, and so like growing up, it's like now we have to figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you gotta go to the grocery store and you gotta figure out all these things, and there's only so much frozen pizza and uh and you know mac and cheese that you can eat before you realize, hey, we're grown-ups, and we have this thing called a kitchen, and maybe we should use it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so I I love one thing that the my parents did, and her parents did, is they they compiled a book, it's a cookbook, and everybody that came to a couple of her showers uh wrote their favorite recipes on index cards.
SPEAKER_00: And they began to just like put them all in this book, and and what they did is is on our uh wedding day, they gave it to us and they said, This will help you uh you know cook.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, thank God, right?
SPEAKER_00: Is there instructional videos with this?
SPEAKER_00: A QR code I can scan?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and there was nothing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so one thing that I loved was when me and M first started, we tried them all.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what you gotta understand if you don't know anything about us, is my wife M, she is by the book, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If it says a pinch of salt, guess what's going in there?
SPEAKER_00: A pinch of salt.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: If she's gonna make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, guess what's going on the peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
SPEAKER_00: Peanut butter and jelly, okay?
SPEAKER_00: She she is by the book, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Me, on the other hand, I'm a modifier.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, North Laken, you understand?
SPEAKER_00: Barto, you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: Modifier, right?
SPEAKER_00: How many people know in here that everything tastes better with just a little more butter, a little more salt, come on, and a little more garlic.
SPEAKER_00: Everything tastes better.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, you can't go wrong.
SPEAKER_00: If it says like a teaspoon or a tablespoon, I still don't know the difference.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the spoons, uh, it's it's open for interpretation, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like everything tastes better with another scoop of butter.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously you could tell, that's why I wear the overshirt to cover the extra scoop of butter.
SPEAKER_00: Um also offends me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but one thing I realized is that sometimes it gets out of control.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I add too much, sometimes I over-modify.
SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning of our marriage, some of our silliest moments of arguments was M would say, my wife should be like, babe, sometimes you just do too much.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you over-modify, sometimes it doesn't need more garlic.
SPEAKER_00: And she says, This, these people wrote these cards with exact specif specifications of what this is supposed to taste like.
SPEAKER_00: And if you just stuck to the card, it would actually taste pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing this story and he is counteracting what people are trying to do to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The people are modifying, they're they're modifiers.
SPEAKER_00: These Judaizers are going, man, the gospel's great, but man, if you just did this and you do more of that, it could be even better.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is writing this saying, hey, listen, the gospel is just perfect and as good as it's gonna get by itself.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to do anything else to it, we don't need to add some more to it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is fighting for the just the simplicity of how perfect and how good the gospel is.
SPEAKER_00: And see, here, this is what I want you to understand because Paul will echo this across all of his books.
SPEAKER_00: He will echo this across all of his letters is by saying that we don't need a new gospel because we have a new generation.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to add things or modify it.
SPEAKER_00: See, the world right now wants to modify things.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to change what sin is and what sin isn't.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to change what truth is and what truth isn't.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to change what identity is and what it isn't.
SPEAKER_00: We want to change how to get to God and what salvation looks like.
SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you one thing today?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel doesn't need to modify with culture.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't need to change with culture.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, the same gospel that happened 2,000 years ago, is the same gospel that's gonna transform your marriage, your finances, your kids, your prodigal son.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to change it.
SPEAKER_00: The same cross still redeems, the same blood still heals, the same message still transforms life.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one thing you gotta understand.
SPEAKER_00: The power is not in our creativity.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the gospel doesn't come with us going, man, this is this is a really good idea.
SPEAKER_00: I think I can, I think I can witness better, I can share better, I can do more of this.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love about our church.
SPEAKER_00: We're not trying to reinvent the wheel.
SPEAKER_00: We're giving to you Jesus and letting Jesus reinvent your life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the salvation message.
SPEAKER_00: We don't gotta think of new creative ways to present Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We just present Jesus and let him do all the rest.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's about.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the power is in the gospel itself.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, as we continue reading, this is when Paul starts to talk about his life, he says, This for you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to this at the end.
SPEAKER_00: But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: My immediate response was not to consult with any human beings.
SPEAKER_00: I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went to Arabia and later I returned to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're still taking notes with me, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel transforms our story.
SPEAKER_00: If if you read this at the beginning, he says, For for I was, I uh you heard about my life.
SPEAKER_00: You heard about the things that I've done, you've heard about the the ways I was uh zealous for the traditions of the God, like of the Bible and and of the ways I was I was persecuting church, and and by all metrics in his mind, he was successful.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was successful in his mind.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was successful.
SPEAKER_00: He was doing the things that he was taught, he was doing the things that he thought were right.
SPEAKER_00: But how many of you know in your life you you could feel, right?
SPEAKER_00: Underline the word feel, you can feel like you're doing all the things you're supposed to do and still feel empty and still feel lost.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the idea, that's the that's the understanding.
SPEAKER_00: You can you can get to that point in life where you're walking into your graduation to grab your diploma and you did all the things to handle and to receive and to do the right things, but you can still feel lost and empty.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's here, he says, I've done it all.
SPEAKER_00: I've done it all.
SPEAKER_00: I did everything that I knew that I was supposed to do, and yet I still needed something more.
SPEAKER_00: I love what it says in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: It's when he had his but win God moment.
SPEAKER_00: He had this moment where he was like, I did everything right.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like some of us are in here today and you're in that exact same place.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like some of us are sitting at one of our locations, and you're sitting here today going, I feel like I'm doing everything right.
SPEAKER_00: I went to next steps.
SPEAKER_00: I'm currently scrolling through the groups to try to find the group I want to get into.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing everything right, but why do I still feel lost?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is this.
SPEAKER_00: When do you sit back and realize of the story that God had in your life and what he did for you?
SPEAKER_00: When did you when do you sit back and realize the but-win-god moment of your life?
SPEAKER_00: This is what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Just for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna jump to it at the end, but I want you to, while we're finishing this thing up, to start to pinpoint that moment in your life of when you had a but-win-god moment.
SPEAKER_00: When did God show up here in your life and it changed everything for you?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's your story.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what God can use in you and through you.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, as we wrap up this portion of scripture, he says, this, and then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas, which is Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And I stayed with him for 15 days, and I saw none of the other apostles, only James, the Lord's brother.
SPEAKER_00: I assure you before God that I am writing to you, that what I'm writing to you is not a lie.
SPEAKER_00: Then I went to Assyria and Sislacalia, and I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a favorite part of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: They only heard the report that the man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: What a testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Still taking notes.
SPEAKER_00: The last one, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel redefines our lives.
SPEAKER_00: After this conversion, word is starting to get out about Paul's transformation in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's his whole life was been about persecuting the church.
SPEAKER_00: His his life has been about persecuting Christians.
SPEAKER_00: His his life has been about uh disrupting what Jesus came to do.
SPEAKER_00: There's there's even stories, if you go and read in Acts 7, I don't have it up for you, you could do some more homework, but there's stories that Peter or Paul being a part of disciples' deaths, and you got Stephen being stoned, and you got all these stories of Paul just radically doing things against the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And now word has gotten around to the churches that Paul is now changed.
SPEAKER_00: His life is different.
SPEAKER_00: That the same man, I love that, that that the same man that once persecuted the very gospel that he's Now preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_00: Words getting around, Paul's coming, and people are freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: They're going, man, the same guy that persecuted the church, he's coming.
SPEAKER_00: I really hope, I really hope and pray that the message is true and that Paul's not just coming to destroy us again.
SPEAKER_00: See, one thing you got to realize is when God gets a hold of your life, the gospel right not only changes what we believe, it changes what we live for.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us the why to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: Some people come to church because they're searching for the why.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I here?
SPEAKER_00: Why was I created?
SPEAKER_00: And I think some of us have had so many moments in our life that have seen the ups and the downs, and we begin to sometimes blame God for the reasons why we're what where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: We have these moments where we're like, God, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: And and I just want you to realize that God can use your past to set somebody free in the future.
SPEAKER_00: I love what it says in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: This is like the climax of the whole story right here.
SPEAKER_00: He ends chapter one by saying this, and they praise God because of me.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we read that and we go, man, Paul's, you know, Paul needs to be humbled.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: That people are now following Christ because of him.
SPEAKER_00: No, Paul's not saying, look at me, I'm amazing.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying is, look at what God can do with somebody like me.
SPEAKER_00: I hear it all the time, and I think it's hilarious to me.
SPEAKER_00: So when people walk into a church and they go, Man, I you're a pastor, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: You must have lived this perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: If I walk in your church, the walls are gonna fall down.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Let's at least give some credit to the engineers, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna fall down.
SPEAKER_00: But people like talk about their lives as if like like this free gift that was given to us is is is no longer free.
SPEAKER_00: That the things that I've done in life is that disqualifies me for what God has given to me.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to this point where we're like, God, if if if you are so good and you are so great, then why can't you take this from my life?
SPEAKER_00: Can you take this stuff from my life and why can't you rewrite my past?
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you take some of the most painful moments of my life and erase them from my memories?
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you erase the things that I did away from your life?
SPEAKER_00: And I think I it was the cutest moment.
SPEAKER_00: I had this moment with somebody who's getting baptized, and they're just like, I can't wait to go under and forget about all the bad things I did in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, it's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: But I get the heart behind it.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes, like when I showed that photo of graduation, some of you in here were inspired, some of you remembered how you were valedictorian or captain of the football team, and some of you remember, man, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I had my 4.0, and some of you, that's the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you barely remember graduating.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, this brings up some of the darkest moments of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you remember having some of the worst decisions that catapulted you into addictions or catapulted you into the wrong relationship or catapulted you into something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And when you see photos like this, you you begin to think back on all the bad in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But I love what Paul does.
SPEAKER_00: Paul doesn't shy away from his past.
SPEAKER_00: Paul does the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will begin to speak over his past, not because he's ashamed of it, because he realizes that there's power in showing people that broken people can be used by God.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hear me out.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Paul could have erased all the bad things.
SPEAKER_00: Paul had had had authorship and writership.
SPEAKER_00: He could have gone against the will of God and took out portions of where he had Stephen stoned and had all these things happen and where he persecuted the church.
SPEAKER_00: And he could have he could have written his story so inspiring about all the things that he's done and all the amazing things he did, but yet he chose to talk about his past in almost every letter he wrote.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 Timothy, he he even says this: he says, Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And listen to what he says about himself of whom I'm the worst.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound like a man who's trying to hide from his past?
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound like a man who's so ashamed of what he's done that he's trying to run away from it?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's embraced his past because it shows God's power in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He's not this.
SPEAKER_00: This is this this next verse, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: He says in Romans, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of what Jesus has done in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of the things because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
SPEAKER_00: That's everybody.
SPEAKER_00: You know what God wants to do with your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is to use the broken pieces that you're trying to hide to bring freedom to someone else's life.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: We had someone a couple weeks ago in our series about about our minds.
SPEAKER_00: We had someone run out of the room because of dealing with trauma in their lives, and and and I want to tell them, I'm like, listen, there's things in our past that aren't ever gonna go away.
SPEAKER_00: There's moments that you can't just go undo.
SPEAKER_00: There's not there's decisions and things in your life that that you can't go back and say, I want to erase these things.
SPEAKER_00: But what we can do is we can take the power back from our past and apply it to our life and our future, and we can say, I'm not ashamed of my past because it gives power and glory to God who can change everything.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see people begin to talk about the stuff they've gone through, begin to talk about the things that they've done so that we can see whole generations of kids not have to go through the same thing you went through.
SPEAKER_00: My grandpa said this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He used to tell me, he goes, What one generation will do in moderation, the next one will do in excess.
SPEAKER_00: So we have the power to see what they do in excess.
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna help them proclaim the gospel, proclaim the good news of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna have them proclaim who God is and what he has power to do?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we gonna we're gonna just replicate an angry dad, a drunk dad, an abusive family?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna replicate this so our kids in the next generation can just keep doing it?
SPEAKER_00: Are we gonna say, no, I'm not ashamed of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ashamed of what my life was before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna talk about what he's done because here's the thing the gospel does not just improve us, it transforms us.
SPEAKER_00: The things that you've gone through, the pain that you've had, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: But I would love for us to get to a point where we we can talk about it in a healthy way because it gives God glory.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna read it again in verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, and they praised God because of me.
SPEAKER_00: They praised God because of the broken pieces that used to have power in my life, and I surrendered it back to God and I said, God, I'm not ashamed of this anymore because it has no more power in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna give it to you so that God can bring people freedom in the relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna ask you again.
SPEAKER_00: What is your but-win-God moment?
SPEAKER_00: When was that moment in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And see, here's the thing the reason why Paul could recall it so fast is because he talked about it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have suppressed your life so deep and so down into the parts of your life and your heart that you can't even remember your but-win-god moment.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm telling you today, there's nothing more freeing than seeing someone else's chains and bondage fall away because you gave God glory in every part of your life.
SPEAKER_00: When you said, Hey, listen, I had this thing that's got you stuck, it had me stuck.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you there's no other way to get free than to give it to God and say, God, this is yours.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do this on my own.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'd lay this down at your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Like our song we sang, I bow low and lift you high.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: When we can't do it on our own, we bow low and we lift the gospel and the Jesus we serve above everything in our lives, and He is the one that brings freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And my prayer is this is that when you walk out these doors, that your neighbors and your boss and your workers and your schools and your everything will begin to find and praise God because of your story and what God has done in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Can we bow our heads and close our eyes across all of our locations?
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you have had that moment and you're like, I don't even know this butt-win-god moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm here because someone brought me, or I'm here because I heard you guys launched groups this week and I want to find some friends.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, finding friends are great, but finding freedom in the gospel is even better, and that's why you're here.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're in here today or you're worshiping with us online and you don't know Jesus, I want to give you an opportunity to say yes.
SPEAKER_00: But before we pray that prayer, I want to pray for some people in here today that you have hidden your past and you have hidden the things of your life, and you are so concerned that if people knew who I used to be, they wouldn't like me or love me or be with me anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you today, there is freedom in letting people realize how good God is because they saw who you really are.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in here today, I just want to say a prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The thing is, we all have a past.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even need you to raise your hands.
SPEAKER_00: We all have a past.
SPEAKER_00: My prayers today that God, the Lord that we serve, will embolden us to talk about our but-win God moment.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we thank you today, Lord, for each and every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you begin to strengthen us and give us courage.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you allow us to step into our moment of this butt-win God moment.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that we find freedom in our past.
SPEAKER_00: We find freedom in the hurting things of our past that bring us down.
SPEAKER_00: But God, I pray that we surrender them to you to give you the glory.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, today I pray that we will wrestle with our butt-win God moment so that we can bring people freedom in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: With every head bowed and every eye closed, if you're in here today and you're the per the part of the conversation of I've never had this moment, I want to give you a moment right here and right now.
SPEAKER_00: Just what we read in Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: It is a free gift that was given.
SPEAKER_00: And your requirement is having the faith and the trust in God to do what only He can do is save your soul.
SPEAKER_00: With every head bowed and every eye closed at all of our locations, and those joining us online, if if that's you, I just ask you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid, slip your hand up right where you're at, and we'll pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Hands are going up.
SPEAKER_00: You can put them back down.
SPEAKER_00: Here at Access, we don't say anything by ourselves, we don't pray alone.
SPEAKER_00: We we pray together, we stand together, we do this together.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say this out loud?
SPEAKER_00: Say, dear Jesus, come on, say it out loud.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Jesus, I accept you into my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to live for you.
SPEAKER_00: God, I give you my broken pieces of my past.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I ask you to do what only you can do with them.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that you died for me, and now I'm ready to live for you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' mighty name.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, everybody send.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, we just have people celebrate Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Can we get excited?