Paul - From Sinner to Servant

Title: Paul - from Sinner to Servant

Elevator Summary:

Focus Statement: No matter who we are or what we’ve done, God has plans and a purpose for us. We can try to do what we think is right, but can easily get led astray. Just as with Paul, we need to allow God to take us on the journey from Sinners (seeking to serve ourselves) to Servants (seeking to serve God and others).

Function Statement: I’m going to start a service oriented small group. I’ll post a service opportunity every month. I hope you choose to join me when you can.

Tweetable Phrase:

Scripture:

Main Text: Acts 7:54-8:1 / Acts 9:1-22

Supporting Text: Galatians 1:17–24, Acts 21:12–13, James 4:7, Isaiah 53:6, Romans 7:15–19, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:13, John 14:23, James 4:4

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus): Jenga illustration

Benediction: Acts 21:12-13 MSG

INTRO

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us, and a special welcome to those joining us online. We hope your doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

DEDICATION

Instead of a kids sermon this week, we have something very special. If I could ask JoBeth / Jonathan and their family to join me up on stage.

We, as a church have the honor of dedicating Lena and Landon this week.

JoBeth and Jonathan, you have brought these children Lena and Landon whom God has given you to be dedicated to God and to His service. By this act you testify to your faith in the Christian religion, and also your desire that your children shall receive the benefits of consecration to God, and of the prayers of the church, and may early learn to know and follow the will of God; and therefore may live a Christian life.

In order for this to happen, it will be your duty as parents to teach your children early the fear of the Lord; to watch over their education, that they may not be led astray by false teachings or doctrines, to direct their minds to the Holy Scriptures as expressing the will and authority of God for all people, and to direct their feet to the sanctuary, to restrain them from evil associates and habits; and, as much as you are able, to bring them up in the Lord’s discipline and instruction. Will you endeavor to do so, by the help of the Lord?

Then the parents or guardians shall answer: We will.

(Then the minister shall read the following Scripture lesson:)

Children are so important to God and to the life of the church. We’re reminded of this fact in Mark 10:13-16 which says.

Mark 10:13-16

“People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them” (Mark 10:13–16).

(Then the minister shall take each child in arms, lay a hand upon the child’s head, and say:)

Lena Crank, on behalf of your parents and of this congregation, I dedicate you unto the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Landon Crank, on behalf of your parents and of this congregation, I dedicate you unto the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Now to help you in the journey of raising your children to know, love, and follow God, the church wanted to give you a small gift. We have a dedication book for each child. It’s a mix of a devotional and memory book to help you remember each of their key steps of faith. I hope this blesses both of you.

Church, will you join me in prayer for the Cranks?

ME - Tension

To start this week, I’d like to ask everyone to close their eyes.  I’d like to tell you a story of an 11 year old boy.  The summer just ended.  He spent it with his best friend.  They went over to each other’s houses nearly every day, shot Barbie’s off from logs with BB guns, climbed trees, and had a great summer doing all the stuff that 11 year old boys do.  Now picture with me his first day of middle school.  He is nervous.  This is a new building.  There are lots more kids because the various elementary schools have all fed a single middle school.  He has none of his friends in his classes.  The only bright spot is his best friend from Elementary School, that he spent all summer with, has the same lunch as he does.  The day starts okay.  He meets a few people, classes go okay, and he doesn’t get lost.  Lunch comes around and he is excited to tell his best friend all about his morning.  He sits at the lunch table they decided to eat at, and waits.  Half way through lunch, his best friend walks up, puts a paper on the table, and walks away.  Finding this odd, this young boy reads the paper.  It said, “I don’t want to be your friend anymore, please don’t ask why or talk to me again.”  This young boy is rather crushed.  He feel rejected, hurt, but being new to the school cannot show any emotion on the first day or he won’t make any new friends.  He soldiers on, but the feeling of rejection stays with him. About a year later that same boy is on the JV hockey team.  It is now his 7th grade year and a movie comes out he wants to see.  He calls a friend from the hockey team, and before he knew what “gas lighting” was his friend thought it would be funny to pretend he didn’t know who he was.  Confused he hung up.  The next day he asked the friend directly, but he continued to pretend not to know him. For nearly two months the kid pretended this young boy didn’t exist. As you’ve probably guessed, the young boy was me.  These two events changed the way that I viewed the world through grade school and into college.  I started to believe that I was not someone that was worthy of being liked.  Since I believed I was not someone who could be liked, I did the best I could to become a person that I thought people would like. I made many choices during those years, solely for the purpose of fitting in.  I did small things like lie about the grades I got when people asked as to never appear too smart.  I became the 1-liner guy, making jokes to get the crowd to laugh, but never sharing anything vulnerable about myself for fear of further rejection. I would see other do things that were wrong, but never spoke up to avoid drawing attention to myself.

I started off doing it because I thought I had to, but eventually I started to believe that is just how things are, and there was nothing wrong with the life I was living.

I had compromised what I knew to be right. I had normalized sin.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of sin, in the bible it is the word “Hamartema” and means to miss the mark.

Sin

“Hamartema”

To miss the mark

If I wanted to throw this paper away…and missed…I guess I just sinned in church. But that is only sin because I set the target as the basket.

To sin as the bible describes, is to miss the mark that God has set for our lives. To act contrary to how God has directed through the bible the and leading of the Holy Spirit. James states the tension I was living quite clearly in James 4:4.

James 4:4 (NIV)

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

WE - Tension

So I ask you...

Where in your past have you made compromises to what you know is right?

What sins have you convinced yourself aren’t really “that bad”?

Where are you currently acting in a way that is contrary to God’s will for your life?

The fact is, as a society we’ve compromised on all types of issues, normalizing all kinds of sins.

According to the American Worldview Inventory of 2020

8/10 people say they believe in a faith that discourages sinful behavior

YET ONLY...

56% say that they try to avoid sinning

48% of adults believe you can get into Heaven by being a “generally good” person, even though the bible clearly states Jesus is the only way

58% believe there is no absolute moral truth, even though God sets the absolute moral truth through the Bible

58% believe that truth is based on sources other than God

77% believe right and wrong are determined by factors outside the Bible

59% believe the bible is not the authoritative word of God

These are general facts on how culture has compromised on basic tenants of faith, but more specifically a Pew Research study on sin found that Christians believe the following

Only 57% believe abortion is a sin

Only 44% believe same sex marriage is a sin

Only 33% believe it is wrong to live romantically with a partner outside of marriage

Only 21% believe divorce is a sin

It feels like culturally we absolutely have, and if we’re honest there are probably some areas where we personally have, compromised God’s will for culture’s pull, and normalized the sins in our lives.

This week we’re going to talk about just that. We’re in week 3 of our series called “Work in Progress”, where we’re looking at biblical figures that God called to make some big changes in their lives. We saw how Abraham went from Comfortable to Called. Last week, we saw how Moses went from Fearful, to a man of deep Faith. This week we’re going to look at a character in the Bible that made some questionable choices after convincing himself he was doing what was “right”.

This week we’re going to look at the New Testament Saul, later Paul. We’re going to see how God took him from, in his words, one of the “worst of all sinner”, to an apostle to the Gentiles and more importantly a servant of God. I’m titling the message this week From Sinner to Servant.

We’re going to start in Acts 7:54.

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

As you turn there I want to give some background on Paul.

He was born in the Roman city of Tarsus and consequently a Roman Citizen

He was born into the Jewish Tribe of Benjamin

He was educated in Jerusalem and studied at the School of Gamaliel, one of the most respected Rabbis of the time

He was a Pharisee and zealous for obeying the law of the Old Testament

So when we meet Paul in Acts 7:54, Paul is a highly educated, highly respected, highly connected, highly passionate Jewish Pharisee.

GOD - Text

The first time we meet Paul is in Acts 7:54 where we see first hand his passion for the integrity of the Jewish faith.

Acts 7:54–8:1 (NIV)

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

And Saul approved of their killing him.

The bible says that Saul was holding the coats of those who actually did the killing and approved, but the meaning is a little more dire.

The fact is in the Old Testament stoning is a punishment within Jewish law for some crimes. There is a process for finding guilt and procedure for carrying it out. In Jewish law the accused needs a trial. If found guilty of an offense deserving stoning, the guilty would be pushed off a 10-12 foot high cliff. The accusers / witnesses would be the ones who rolled boulders (very large stones) off the same cliff onto the person. The reality of the punishment was that the guilty party would most likely not survive the first stone that was dropped on them.

In this case, what is described is more of a mob. The trail is out of control, the crowd was all throwing stones (presumably small) as Stephen was able to talk as he was being stoned. And Paul wasn’t just the coat rack, he was the essentially the person in charge, sanctioning the murder even though with his education he would have known that this was outside of what was prescribed by Jewish law.

After Stephen’s stoning, Acts 8:1-3, says

Acts 8:1–3 (NIV)

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Saul went on a mission to destroy the church, at that point in time known as “The Way”, arresting all those associated and sending them to Jerusalem for trail and death.

Similar to my story when I was young, Saul was convinced he was doing right. He thought he was defending God’s honor against this new faction that was dirtying the Jewish faith. But even though Saul thought he was doing right, he was sinning. He was missing the mark that God set for his life.

In Acts 9 we find that Saul got permission from the high priest to go to Damascus to find and arrest the Christians there.

It was at that point that God was about to let Saul know exactly how far he’d missed the mark with his life.

Acts 9:1–9 (NIV)

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

Jesus personally confronted Saul, and called him to a repent (to turn away from his sinful life) and start walking the path God created him to walk. In Acts 9:15 Jesus makes it clear that Saul is to be

Acts 9:15–16 (NIV)

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Saul (later Paul) was to walk away from his high position within the Jewish community to suffer and serve as the God’s missionary to the Gentile people.

Paul sums up his new perspective in Colossians 3:23-24:

Colossians 3:23–24 (NIV)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

In one moment of Saul life, based on nothing more than being in the presence of Jesus, Saul went from the “worst of all sinners” to a servant of Christ and Apostle to the Gentiles.

And this is how my story ended. I didn’t have a Damascus road experience like Paul, but I did have a pastor at the church I was attending in college call me out. I was attending a 15,000 member mega-church, sitting in the last row every week, and just attending. The pastor got up on stage one week, said “the sanctuary is full every week, yet we’re turning away kids from the kids ministry because you’re not serving. Either serve, or find another church, so someone else can fill your seat that will serve”.

I wasn’t doing anything with my Sunday’s so, I started serving. I stared in the Middle School as I figured since they are already crazy I couldn’t do any harm to them. That step, starting to serve, changed the trajectory of my life. The middle schooler’s were amazing. Their passion / faith was convicting. They wanted to live out their faith in ways I wasn’t even thinking of at the time. The problem was there wasn’t anywhere for a middle schooler to serve because of age restrictions. The only option I had was to sign up to serve in the 1st grade class at church. I was the group leader, the middle school students could be my student helpers.

YOU - Takeaway

I want to close with a visual that God gave me while serving in that 1st grade class with my middle school group on how sin works in our lives.  I was volunteering in a first grade Sunday school class.  I was freshly out of college, not too keen on following the rules, and decided that my group was going to be the best.  I imagined that kids were going to want to come to church for no other reason that because of how awesome my group was.  The church that I was at had roughly 50 first grade students all in one room with a leader per table of 5-8 students.  Before the program started, we would play with the kids.  Every week I would setup Jenga at my table and roughly half the kids would run over to play with me.  During those years of playing Jenga with 1st graders, God showed me that Jenga is the perfect analogy for sin.  Bear with me. [take our Jenga game and set it up as you continue talking] You see Genesis 1:26-31 states that God made mankind in His image and

Genesis 1:31 (NIV)

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

We were made to reflect God’s perfection.  Just like a brand new Jenga tower is perfect, God created us perfect.  The problem is just as Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan in Genesis 3 to sin against God, we are tempted as well.  Just like Eve, we know sin is wrong, but the excitement of the unknown is often too much for us to take.

This is exactly what we experience when we take out the first Jenga piece. 

[act it out, test many blocks, mark ones that are very loose, eventually remove one] 

I would watch, year after year, first graders who were learning to play Jenga start very cautiously.  They would test each block.  They would feel the friction and know that pulling that block out was not a good idea.  They would eventually find a block they thought they could remove without knocking the tower down, but they would be so careful.  They would look around like they were getting away with something bad.  They would remove the block, the tower would not fall, and there would be a look of joy on their face knowing that they had gotten away with something. Isn’t this the same thing we do when we sin?  We know what we’re doing is wrong.  I believe that our conscience is the Holy Spirit’s way of warning us that what we’re doing is wrong.  We initially approach a sin just as cautiously as the first grader approaches a Jenga block.  After the sin, we feel the excitement of getting away with it.  Let’s be honest, sin is fun.  Nobody would sin if it wasn’t.  The problem is..

Sin Leaves Scars Just as the Jenga tower is not the same after the first block is removed, we are not the same after we sin.  We leave a scar on our souls. The larger problem is that since we got away with the first sin, the next sin is easier.  You see… Choices lead to habits Each choice you make, for good or for bad, makes the next choice easier.  After enough choices, you have developed a habit. We normalize the sin and, like me in my story and Paul, we no longer think it is wrong

To compound the problem after the first sin, we want the same level of excitement.  To get it we need to up the stakes.  In my first grade Sunday school class after the kids got good at removing one block, we’d change the rules.  Instead of letting them test all the blocks, we made a “no test” rule. 

[remove a previously marked block without testing] 

After they got good at that we change the rules again.  This time “no test, flick”. 

[remove more blocks without testing but by flicking them]

It escalated from there.  We’d remove full rows at a time. 

[remove bottom row]

The truth is...

Sin escalates

As we seek the adrenaline rush that sin provides, look what it does to our souls.  That “very good” creation that we started with is now full of scars.  Have you ever felt like this Jenga tower looks?  The problem is

If our choices create habits… …our habits shape our identity… …and our identity becomes defined by our sins. We become someone who is addicted to the sin that started out so innocent.   We all think first about the “big” addictions; drugs, alcohol, porn, etc.  But just as easily, and just as damaging, we can be addicted to wealth, popularity, success, power, athletic accomplishments, etc.  If we’re honest, I bet … We’re all addicted to something that gets in the way of us hitting the mark that God sets for our lives.

What sins have you compromised and normalized in your life? 

Even worse, sin does not just affect us. 

Sin pulls others in

Jenga is my favorite game.  The small group I had at the time had a game night and I brought my set of Giant Jenga.  Everyone was disappointed, thinking it was stupid.  But they indulged me with a game.  Soon my excitement spread, rules were broken, and take a look at what ensued…

[Show video of Jacob and me] You see,

Sin not only creates bad habits, and shapes our identities, but hurts those around us.

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

I don’t know about you, but when I try to stop sinning more often than not, I fail. It comforts me that Paul reached the same conclusion.  Paul writes in Romans 7:15-19

Romans 7:15–19 (NIV)

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

If Paul, one of the greatest Christians ever, cannot will himself to stop sinning, what hope do I have?  What hope do any of us have?

The answer is that we cannot live a perfect life.  The commands God gives in the Old Testament of the Bible are there to show us that we need a savior who lived a perfect life, who can take the consequences of all our sin upon himself, and who can advocate for us, making us worthy of living eternally in heaven with God.

You see Paul writes in Romans 5:8 that

Romans 5:8 (NIV)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We do not need to clean up our lives before Jesus will save us.  The truth is we couldn’t even if we tried.  You cannot fix a Jenga tower mid game.  I’ve tried...

[try to put a piece back in]

...we only make it worse.  It is through our faith in the person of Jesus, in his perfect life, death, and resurrection that we are saved by God’s grace.  That we receive the gift of forgiveness of our sins. 

First, we receive the Holy Spirit. In our analogy it’s like the clear thing you get in Jenga. It allows you to start rebuilding the tower back to how it was originally created. And that is what the Holy Spirit does for us. He starts the healing process, freeing us of our sins, and repairing the damage we’ve done.

[Put on the clear shield]

But even before we’re completely healed, Jesus stands between us and God’s judgement.  It is like putting the box back on the Jenga tower.

[put the box back on] 

When we believe in Jesus as our savior and ask the Holy Spirit into our heart, God doesn’t see our sin, but only sees the perfection of Jesus.  Our flaws are still there.  The tower was not fixed, but the work of Jesus on the cross covers us, washes us, and makes us perfect again in God’s eyes.  Paul writes in Romans 10:13 that

Romans 10:13 (NIV)

for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Doesn’t this sound too easy.  Like a free pass from our sin problem.  If believing is Jesus, gives us a free pass, why not live it up.  Paul writes about that as well in Romans 6:1-2,6-7

Romans 6:1–2 (NIV)

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Romans 6:6–7 (NIV)

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

To believe in Jesus, means that we believe in him so much that we are willing to change our actions.  And whereas we are unable to change our actions by our own effort, empowered by the Holy Spirit who lives within every Christian, we can say “NO” to the temptations of sin, we can live a life free of the addictions that haunt us, and we can experience healing from our past.

We do not need to be perfect to ask Jesus into our lives

God will accept anyone who puts their faith in Jesus, but God loves us too much to leave us broken.  God will not only heal us from the scars of our past, but use them to help others.  You see…

God turns our mistakes into our ministry

God takes our sins, forgives them, heals us of them, and uses them to equip us for service

God won’t let our past go to waste.  God calls us to use our past, to help others. 

God called Paul to minister to and serve the Gentiles, the same people group that he believed was a stain on the Jewish faith.

God has consistently calls me to serve those that are on the fringes, who feel like they don’t belong, just like I felt back in middle school.

Where is God calling you to use your past mistakes, to use to serve others?

So as we close, I want to put forth a challenge.

If you have not put your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please come find me, I’d love to talk with you.

If you have accepted Jesus as your savior, allow Him to use your past to serve others

Within the church

Music

Tech

Children's

Hospitality / Cafe

Lawn Mowing

Outside the church

I’m going to start a group that serves on various places around town once a month

If you currently volunteer at an organization, let me know what it is and we’ll add it to the rotation

If you currently volunteer or not, I’d love for you to join me in spreading some “Light” to the area (pun intended)

More information to come in the next few weeks

Let’s all let God free us of our sins, and equip us for service within His Kingdom, just as He did with Paul, just as He did for me, and just as I believe He wants to do for you.

PRAYER

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG

BENEDICTION

Acts 21:12–13 (MSG)

When we heard that, we and everyone there that day begged Paul not to be stubborn and persist in going to Jerusalem. But Paul wouldn’t budge: “Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can’t you see that?”

This week let’s take a hard a hard look at all the ways that we’ve compromised and normalized sin in our lives. Let’s turn to the Holy Spirit and pray for healing from the damage we’ve done to ourselves and opportunity to use our past to serve others, drawing them into a relationships with God.

Let’s go our and be a light to this community.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

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