Sermon Tone Analysis

Topic: From Killer to Convert

Text:

Date: 7/21/19

Series: Stories

Faith Community Bible Church

Introduction:

A change, a change has come over me

He changed my life and now I'm free

He changed my life and now I'm free

He washed away all my sins, and he made me whole

He washed me white as snow

He changed, my life complete, and now I sit

I sit at his feet.

To do what must be done

I'll work and work, until he comes

A wonderful change has come over me

A wonderful change has come over me

What’s your story?

When you think about you back in the day, how were you?

Did you think that you knew everything?

How did people react to you?

How did you react to people?

While each of us all have a past, (have a story) one thing is true for us all… we needed (or need to be) converted.

Because I natural inclination is to pursue our own desires or rather what we think is right, the only way for us to see things differently is to be converted.

Well, how can I be converted?

Well, family conversion only happens when we experience Jesus.

The Main Point of the Sermon is that "Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus".

Listen, conversion is the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another.

Back in the days when Saul was one of those leaders who thought he knew everything.

He ‘knew’ that Jesus was an imposter.

He ‘knew” that the disciples were not only wrong but were endangering the peace with the Romans.

He “knew” that the only good follower of Jesus was a dead follower of Jesus.

Wrapped in his own self-righteousness, he decided he was the one to do something about it, and he set about attacking everyone who was one of these insane followers.

He wanted to cleanse the earth of such people.

Filled with hatred, he set out to do it.

When we see someone like Saul, our immediate response is similar to his, we believe that those who go around with hate in their heart, attacking others in the temples, mosques, and churches, should themselves be put to death.

What is amazing isn’t that Saul exists, he will exist in every generation.

We see that in those who choose to hate and kill others.

Whether it is a gang, “Kill or be killed,” or a religious fanatic, or a student in a school who wants to make a name for themselves, people like Saul not only exist in our world today, but make the news almost every single day.

What amazes us is what the Holy Spirit had in mind … not only to change him, but to use him.

This Angry young man would go on and establish 14 churches that are named in the New Testament, but he would write to them to encourage and instruct them.

In so doing, 28% of our New Testament, in fact, the oldest writing from the New Testament were written by Paul.

More than 50,000 words are attributed to him, and these are only the letters that survived.

How did this happen, because He experienced Jesus.

Lots of us will never change, because we won’t take our hands off of our lives, thoughts and ideas long enough for Jesus to show us anything different.

We are so stuck in:

How we think things should go

How we think something should be done

How we think something should be said

How we think that people should move and shake

That we totally box out the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

We talk all the time about how we try to play the Holy Spirit in the lives of others, but here’s the thing, I believe that in an attempt to be something that we aren’t, we try to play the Holy Spirit in our own lives as well.

We want to:

change ourselves (hanging out with new people)

Change ourselves (getting new social)

Change ourselves (if I just find this new job)

Change ourselves (looking for an exit door in marriage)

Without experiencing Jesus all of the changes that you make are temporary.

Without experiencing Jesus, all you do is take a broken, unconverted heart and try to force it to do something it’s not capable of doing.

The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

But when you experience Jesus, real conversion (real heart change happens)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

"Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus"

Here in this text, () Paul experienced Jesus and his life was forever changed!

He went from killer to converted.

Saul of Tarsus as he traveled to Damascus, where he intended to bring great persecution upon the Christians in that city.

The Scriptures tell us that Saul was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” ().

He was consumed by murderous intent so much so that he couldn’t see past himself.

But God got Saul’s attention in a way he never expected.

He sent Paul crashing to the ground with a blazing light and instructed him to enter the city and wait for instructions.

When Paul opened his eyes, he found himself blind and had to ask others to lead him by the hand into the city.

In one unforeseen moment, God gained Saul’s undivided attention, striking him with the adversity of blindness and no doubt humiliating him in front of his traveling companions as he groveled in the dust.

But God had Saul exactly where He wanted him.

Saul felt more than ready to listen when the Lord asked, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Up to that point, Saul had no idea he was persecuting the Lord; he thought he was doing the Lord a favor by ridding the world of Christians.

A period of intense adversity resulted in a complete turnaround for Saul.

Within a matter of days, he was proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues ().

If it took temporary blindness and humiliation to get Saul’s attention, it was certainly worth it, for through Saul—known to us as Paul the apostle—the gospel expanded and churches grew across the Roman world.

Don’t delay in responding to the Lord when He makes a move to get your attention.

Respond quickly and humbly, and listen for what He has to say to you.

"Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus"

Here in this text, () Paul experienced Jesus and his life was forever changed!

He went from killer to converted.

What about you?

Pastor Byrd this is a bit far fetched!

Conversion is something that I can’t experience.

NO FAMILY!

You too can experience conversion by experiencing Jesus.

God doesn’t want us to stay that way that we are, He desires for us to be conformed to the image of His son.

How does he do it?

This text reveals for us 3 things that Christ does in our conversion:

1.

He reveals Himself to us:

Number 1, He reveals Himself to us.

3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. 4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul said.

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied

Many of us never experience real change because we are expecting a Damascus road experience.

We are looking for God to crack open a door, walk through it and just shake us up.

We are constantly waiting on this “small still voice” to speak.

When the reality is we lock our doors so tight that no entry can be breached.

We can hear the small still voice, because our lives are too loud!

But im so glad that we serve a god who strong enough to breach the doors of any hardened heart.