Powell Butte Christian Church
Powell Butte Christian Church exists to know, love, and serve God by helping people CONNECT to Jesus Christ and God's Family, encouraging them to GROW to become more like Christ, equipping them to SERVE in ministry and facilitating the Body of Christ to GO - both locally and globally - in the expansion of God's Kingdom. Enjoy our sermons and please feel free to visit us online at powellbuttechurch.com.
Powell Butte Christian Church
ACTS: THE MOVEMENT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Week 5 - GROW pt 2 - REFINED BY THE PROCESS
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Remember the old tv game show Name That Tune? Where you are given a certain number of notes and you have to figure out what song is being played? Well this morning I want to play a version of that game. We’ll call it Name That Person.
I’m going to give you some clues, straight out of Scripture, and you keep track of the amount of clues it takes for you to guess the person
“I am like one born at the wrong time…”
“I am less than the least of all God’s people…"
“I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin…”
“I know that nothing good lives in me…”
“For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…” So...who does that describe?
Alright, let’s shift the clues.
A man who breathed out threats and murder against the followers of Jesus…
A man who went from house to house dragging men and women off to prison to face possible execution…
A man who was on the scene approving of the lynching of first Christian martyr…
Name that person.
Same answer. Saul… who would later be known as Paul.
Do you see the tension? In the last set of clues you have a man who seems to be so confident of his convictions and commitment to doing the right thing. But on the other hand, you get this man who recognizes his brokenness - like the tax-collector in the parable who goes to the temple and can't even look up at God, he is so cognizant of his sinfulness. He is humble, he acknowledges his weakness, he is no longer self-righteous.
And somehow, those two realities live in the same person. Which raises the question: what happened in between? What made this self-righteous, confident persecutor of the church become a selfless, humble servant --- one who would actually go from NUMBER 1 persecutor of the Early Church to the NUMBER 1 missionary to the Gentile world?
The answer, of course, is Jesus. But more specifically, the answer is that Jesus refused to leave Saul where he was. And that really is what spiritual growth is all about.