She Never Found Paul

She Never Found Paul Romans 1:1-7 Introduction: A. Genelle Guzman McMillan wanted a change from her home in Trinidad, so she moved to New York in 1998. 1. To stay in New York, McMillan knew she needed to get a good, steady job. a. She couldn’t believe it when she was hired at one of the World Trade Towers and was excited as she began her first day there on January 19, 2001. b. She made many friends through work— including live-in boyfriend, Roger—and spent each weekend partying. 2. On the morning of 9/11/01 she went to her job on the 64th floor. a. She and her coworkers hear a loud crash and the building move. b. They stayed on the 64th floor until it became known what had happened. c. Genelle and a coworker started down one of the stairwells and made it to the 13th floor. d. That is when the whole building collapsed. e. Steel and concrete had pinned her where she was and she was injured, but she was alive. 3. She lay there unable to move, rethinking her life. a. Twenty-seven hours after the building collapsed, she was able to push her hand through a few inches of rubble above her head and felt someone’s warm hand close around hers. b. Then she heard a voice say to her: “I’ve got you, Genelle. My name is Paul,” he told her. c. “You’re going to be okay. They’re going to get you out soon.” d. She heard other voices, sirens, and a light. e. “They’re here,” Paul said. “I’m going to go and let them do their jobs and get you out.” 4. Genelle was the last survivor pulled from the World Trade Center. a. There were three things she promised God she would do as soon as she got out of the hospital: get baptized, marry her boyfriend Roger, and find Paul, the one who first held her hand. b. On November 7, after six weeks in the hospital, four surgeries, and hours of physical therapy and rehabilitation, she kept the first two promises she made. c. She and Roger were married at City Hall and Genelle was baptized that evening into Jesus Christ. 5. But Paul? She never found him. Who was he? a. No one knew, no one had ever heard of him. b. She called her preacher and asked him. c. They discussed another Paul, the one in the Bible who was totally in the dark, like Genelle, and fought against God until he saw the light. d. She never found Paul, but may we find the Paul from the Bible this morning. B. Grace is a favorite word of the apostle Paul. 1. He uses it 100 times in his letters. a. At the beginning and the end of each of his letters he mentions grace. b. Last Sunday morning, I announced that we are beginning a series on grace. c. More specifically we will be discussing it as described in Rom 1-8. 2. Grace is a gift that brings joy. a. “Grace” can describe many things. b. For our study, we will talk about the gift that is given when wrath is owed. c. Salvation. 3. A man named Saul could relate to that concept. a. If anyone deserved God’s wrath, it was Saul. b. He went from house to house and place to place persecuting and killing Christians. 4. However, on his way to Damascus to round up more Christians, the Lord appeared to him. a. A heavenly light blinded him while a heavenly voice made his followers speechless. b. Saul was led by the hand into Damascus. c. What frightened him the most is that the heavenly voice was Jesus, the one he was really persecuting. 5. Ananias, a Christian who lived in Damascus received instructions with directions to Saul's address. a. Ananias feared Saul and argued with the Lord, but he finally went and laid his hands on Saul to heal him, and Saul was baptized into Christ. b. God had told Ananias that Saul had been chosen by God for a specific mission. c. “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake’” (Acts 9:15). d. As evidence of that mission, Saul’s name was changed to Paul. 6. Paul himself said in 1 Cor 15:9, “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” C. Paul became the Apostle to the Gentiles. 1. It is strange because he was a devout Jew. 2. In Rom 1:5, he tells us, “…we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake…” 3. He knew that God could have destroyed him and been justified to do it. a. But he also knew that God had forgiven him all that he had done. b. Finding Paul, for us, means finding grace. 4. When we talk about grace, some people are afraid of what might happen. a. When we talk about grace, some people don’t understand what happens when we are forgiven. b. Today, we’ll examine four fears and mix-ups about grace and then four correct responses to grace. I. Four Fears and Mix-ups of Grace. A. Preaching on grace will cause a drop in giving; it will hit us in the offering plate. 1. Some give from a legalistic motive. a. They try to earn God’s favor. b. Once they understand grace, they are not motivated to give. 2. Others are trying to pay God back for what He did for them. a. Grace will lower their motivation to give. b. They reason, “We can never give enough to repay what God did for us, so why give at all?” 3. I have always believed that we should not manipulate people to give. a. In the short run, it might cause a drop in the offerings. b. But in the long run, once we understand what grace truly is, it will unleash sacrificial giving beyond what we could manipulate. 4. The heart of grace is God’s own incredible sacrificial giving. a. Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to give to an offering to the poor in Judea. b. They started to give but for whatever reason they had become slack in giving. c. Paul gives several reasons why they should give, and one reason is “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15). B. Preaching on grace will cause a drop in attendance. 1. If people come to church only because it is their duty to God, or only because we have “guilted” them into it, it’s only a matter of time before they stop coming altogether. a. We often refer to Heb 10:25 to encourage church attendance: “…not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” b. However, we forget that just a few verses before in 10:22 it says: “…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” 2. The “sincere heart” is one that understands God’s grace. 3. I am convinced that those who stay away from worship don’t understand God’s grace. C.Preaching on grace will lead to a deemphasis on truth. 1. Paul explains the condition of all people in Rom 1:18—3:23. a. Rom 3:10, “There is none righteous, not even one.” b. Rom 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 2. Paul says our hopeless situation as sinners doomed to spiritual death drives us to God’s grace through Jesus Christ. a. The truth of our condition leads us to grace. b. Jesus said, “…you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). c. John also says that Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 3. The truth of God leads us to the grace of God! D. Grace Can Be Mistaken as a License to Sin. 1. Rom 5:20, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” a. God needed us to understand how terribly sinful we are, so He gave His perfect Law. b. Once the understanding of sin increased, God’s grace became even greater. 2. So, some people say, “Sin is actually good, since the more we sin, the more God shows grace.” a. Paul responds in Rom 6:1-2, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” b. Grace was bought by God at the highest of prices, the death of His Son. c. Those who receive grace know the price that was paid and will respond in four ways. II. Four Appropriate Responses to Grace A. Gratitude. 1. Through grace we realize the awfulness of our sin and the awesomeness of God’s love. 2. Have we grown so accustomed to hearing about the cross that it has lost its horror and wonder? 3. “Near the cross! O lamb of God, Bring its scenes before me; Help me walk from day to day With its shadow o'er me.” B. Service. 1. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:10) 2. Many people resentfully work for their salvation. a. But Christians joyfully work because God’s grace has saved them. 3. Many people wonder “What’s the least I can do to please God?” a. But Christians wonder, “How much more can I give God who gave all for me?” C.Be Gracious to Others. 1. Wendy Brown, a retired nurse says, “There was a lovely lady that went to my Church a number of years ago. 2. “She was gracious to all and in everything she did. 3. “She had a keen sense of how people ought to be treated, and she made a point of treating everyone with kindness, generosity, and genuine interest in them. 4. “She also had an intense sense of how things should be done. 5. “Tables were laid properly, flowers arranged artistically, packages were wrapped just so…these, too, was an indication of how important people were to her. 6. “She wanted people to know that they were all worthy of her best effort in everything she did for them. 7. “To her everyone was important, everyone was valuable, everyone had something to contribute.” D. Love 1. When many people come to Christ, they come out of fear. a. Some of us may have been afraid of what others would think if we didn’t go forward at the revival. b. We didn’t want to go to hell. c. There isn’t anything wrong with these. 2. However, once we are in Christ, our chief motivators are not to be guilt, condemnation, and self-despising. a. It will take time to change; but sooner or later, love must become the motivating force of our Christian living. b. Guilt and fear are short-term motivators, intended to shake us out of our sins and get us moving toward Christ. 3. But they are poor long-term motivators. a. Being afraid of losing may work for the 100yard dash. b. The Christian life is more like the 26-mile marathon which we are to run with endurance. c. Fear will only take us so far; love will move us steadily across the finish line. 4. 1 John 4:18: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”