No Other: Praise

Introduction

SCRIPTURE: Then after THREE YEARS I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days… And I was still UNKNOWN in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were HEARING it said, “He who USED TO persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” and they GLORIFIED GOD because of me.

STORY: MICROPHONE OBJECT EXAMPLE.

PROPOSITION: Jesus is AMPLIFIED through your AUTHENTICATED life.

INTERROGATIVE: How do I live an authenticated life when there is temptation all around me? What happens if I mess up, does that make me a failure in God’s eyes?

TRANSITION:

POINT 1: LONG obedience in the SAME direction will produce HOLINESS in your life.

Paul was proving a point that he had not received the gospel from any man it was given to him by God, but tucked in there it tells us a little bit more. He says that after THREE YEARS of being in Arabia and returning to Damascus he went to Jerusalem. That means that Paul spent three years being consistent in his walk with the Lord. He was growing, learning, deepening in his relationship with Jesus, sharing with others the good news that had changed his life so radically. Paul had been changed by Jesus and his life was an active representation of that.

Paul was obedient to God as he was going. The mark of a believer and the strength of ones faith is dependent on obedience. It tells what you think about God. It tells what how much you trust what He says…or even KNOW what he says for that matter. Someone who knows and walks with God LISTENS to Him. They lean on His word and their lives are like a reflection of Christ every day.

Paul lived around temptation. How do I know that? Think about the letters that He wrote to different churches. Think of the culture and the sin that was so readily available in those cities and towns. Paul could have partook in those things. But Paul was so focused on what God was saying that the Enemy was background noise. PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU PAY ATTENTION TO.

POINT 2: You will elevate SOMETHING, choose to elevate JESUS.

The Judaizers elevated the Law over grace. People involved in addiction are mastered by pleasure. Athletes can become increasingly entangled in their pursuit of the fame and the platform and the opportunity to play at the highest level. Musicians become obsessed with mastering their instruments that their instruments end up mastering them. You cannot serve two masters. This is the point of a fast. To find out if something is mastering you and starve it and bring it under submission to the Holy Spirit. Fasts reveal how tight your heart has been tied to any given thing. Simply put... This is how you can gauge if something has too much sway or influence in your life: If you can’t take a break from something or you believe you can’t live without it, then you’re addicted and you run a high risk of that thing (whatever it may be) becoming an ultimate thing. That means that good things can become bad things when they become ultimate things. When good things become ultimate things they become identity things. And when our identity switches from a son or daughter of God to JimBob the saxaphone player or Nathan the baseball guy or James the fastest guy on the track team or kimmy the smartest person in her class or jamie the girl that has over 10k followers on instagram or Sean who is tiktok famous. Does that mean that all things we do are bad? NO. It means that we have to pay very close attention to what we pay attention to. Maybe ask those close to you if they could say what is most important to you based on how they see you. That’s what you need to be most weary about.

With all that to say, you will elevate something, choose to elevate Christ.

POINT 3: Authenticity is the MEGAPHONE, the gospel is the MESSAGE.

I used the Megaphone earlier to prove a point. When you live in a way that is true to your relationship with Jesus, your life becomes a megaphone for the gospel. When you live in a way that glorifies the flesh its like your hand covers your mouth and your message is choked out and loses all of its power. The way you live says something about the God you love. Don’t live in the flesh and suffocate the fire in your heart for the spread of the gospel.

You are INFLUENCING those around you, but what are you influencing them TO? The way Paul lived was so influential for the Kingdom of God that those that had never met him had heard of what God had done in and through him. His megaphone was reaching because his authenticity was acting as a megaphone. His words and his actions lined up and were like your voice coming through a megaphone AMPLIFYING the message and INCREASING the IMPACT of Paul’s ministry.

APPLICATION:

You obey what you TRUST. FAITH in God means trust in God. Trust in God means obedience to God. Obedience to God means an AMPLIFIED life.

Elevate JESUS.

Authenticity is key to a life that impacts OTHERS.