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The Lives God Ruined • Sermon • Submitted
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Mark Dell“Good morning, my name is Mark Dell, Senior Pastor here at Legacy Bible Church. I would like to welcome all of you here today. And I would also like to welcome those who are listening online too.
INTRODUCTION (10 minutes)
INTRODUCTION (10 minutes)
Jab 1
Have you ever believed in something, I mean really believed in something only to find out later that you were wrong? It’s not that you are trying to be difficult, I mean you have the best of intentions, you are just wrong?
There is a group of people that are, I believe completely wrong about something and you are not going to convince them otherwise.
There is a society out there called the Flat Earth society. Yes, there are people out there that belong to this club of people that believe that the earth is literally flat. That is right, flat. They believe that all the evidence we have to support the fact that the earth is round is all an elaborate hoax made up by NASA to keep the truth from us.
They believe that there is a 150 foot ice wall all around the pancake shaped world and that there are armed guards from the military to keep people away so that they don’t climb it and fall off.
Now, I need to tell you that they really believe that they are on to something here and that it is the rest of the world that is wrong and that they are the ones with the truth. And they really believe this. They aren’t lying, they truly believe it.
Jab 2
Now the nice thing about the flat earth society is that they are a non-violent group and their belief doesn’t really do anything to hurt anybody. But sometimes what someone believes can be downright dangerous.
Most of us know of George Washington who was the first president of the United States. Washington was an incredible man who served his country in many battles. He survived much war and finally was able to retire. About 2 and 1/2 years after he left the presidency and retired, Washington came down with an illness.
His throat was terribly sore, he had a fever and he was having trouble breathing. Earlier that day he had been out in the cold rain and hail supervising some work that was being done on his property.
That night a doctor was called in. The doctor gave him some medicines and took about 12 ounces of blood from Washington. This is how Dr.s would treat patients, especially with inflammation. They thought that if there was pain due to inflammation then if you removed some of the volume of blood then you would get relief from the inflammation.
Well, this would prove to be trouble for Washington. Over the next 12 hours there would be 4 episodes of bloodletting removing 80 ounces, or 2.3 liters of blood. That would be 40% of Washingtons total blood volume.
In the end, we don’t know how exactly Washington died, but losing 40 percent of your blood surely didn’t help him.
It is interesting. If you read all about what the Doctors did, their treatments, their remedies, their medicines it would make you cringe. It would make you think that what killed Washington was the doctors!
And we would probably be accurate if you think that.
But here is my question; did the doctors mean to hurt Washington? Of course not. They were not trying to end the life of the first American President. They were not trying to end the life of the Father of our country. No, they were just doing what they thought was right and in the end it would cost the life of George Washington.
Right Hook
Jab 3
George Washington.
Right Hook
You can be sincere and be wrong can’t you? Have you ever been wrong—even though—you were sincere?
This is our last week in The Lives God “ruined” series where we have been looking at the interaction God has in the lives of His people and what He/God accomplishes through what may look to us like ruining. But the ruining that God has for us might just be exactly what He has for us so that we can glorify Him through our lives.
And God may choose to ruin you in order to actually help you even if it doesn’t always look like it or feel like it.
I want to talk about a character in the bible, one of my favorites who was very ambitious, who was very smart, who was incredibly zealous for the Lord. This guy gave his whole life over to the will of God.
His name was Saul of Tarsus.
Saul would have been the poster boy for Jews. He had it all going on. He was climbing the ladder to success and success for a Jewish man during this period of history would be to become a pharisee.
A pharisee was a leader in religion and law. Now those terms basically meant the same thing. Here in this country we have religion and government which are separate. But there was a period of time when religion and law were the same thing. The 10 commandments were commandments that were lived by. And if you broke any of those laws you were a law breaker.
The pharisees would interpret the scriptures, the laws and were the ruling group in this area.
Saul was one of these guys. He studied under one of the best pharisees, Gamaliel. He was hungry and he was motivated and he was qualified.
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
He was set up!
He was set up!
And listen, he was zealous for the Lord. For the Lord! Saul was wanting to do what was right by God. You know, very often when we talk about the Pharisees in the New Testament we usually don’t have a lot of good things to say because of Jesus’ criticism of them. And there were some really bad Pharisees, there were selfish, greedy and bad Pharisees AND, there were also some very good zealous Pharisees that wanted to do what was right by the Lord.
who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Scripture introduces Saul in Acts when the Christian movement was really just getting started, getting some momentum. And it was getting really excited because people were really coming to this understanding that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus was the one who was prophesied to come and Jesus WAS Raised from the dead! Even some of the Pharisees were coming around and surrendering their lives to Jesus.
In there is a story about a young man named Stephen. And Stephen is arrested because of his faith in Jesus. He is accused and then he gives a beautiful speech that goes through the whole Jewish history over the years about how God called the Jews his special people and he talks about Abraham and Moses and King David and then he gets to the Prophets and he quotes the Prophets who had made prophecies about Jesus and calls them out.
He calls out the Pharisees and the Scribes and he lumps them in with their forefathers who had turned their backs on God! And then he became the first Christians martyr. That’s right, he was killed because of his belief in Jesus Christ to be the Son of God.
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
And Saul approved of his execution.
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
Acts 7:58-8:
What a terrible guy right? How dare you do this to Christians! How dare you rise up against them and put them in prison.
English Standard Version Chapter 7
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Saul Ravages the Church
8 And Saul approved of his execution.
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
is the first verse where we are introduced to Saul.
Now, just wait, just wait one minute. Saul was actually defending God. Stephen was—as far as the Pharisees knew—blaspheming God. And Saul loved God so he was going to do what was “right”. (air quotes) He really did think he was doing what was right.
So you can be sincere and be wrong. You can be sincere and wrong!
Acts 8
Saul is probably thinking in his head that this is exactly what David did to Goliath. When Goliath the giant stood up and blasphemed God, said horrible things about the God of Israel and David was going to defend God’s honor. This is what Saul is doing. His heart was right. I believe that he was completely right in his convictions and this is why I think that.
Saul is on his way to Damascus, with letters in his hands with written approval from the priests to rip more of these people who follow the way when something crazy happens.
EXPLANATION (10 minutes)
EXPLANATION (10 minutes)
Acts 9
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Saul has an encounter with the risen Christ! Jesus says, your heart is right but you are fighting on the wrong side. What must THAT have been like?
Saul’s life has just been ruined. Completely ruined and shattered. He finds out that he has been on the wrong side of the truth. What could that do to a person? That would be hard; to find out that you have been completely and utterly wrong about something. Peoples lives were destroyed and he was at the center of it.
He was sincerely wrong but he was humble about it. Be humble about it.
Have you ever been completely wrong, even though you were sincere? How do you handle it?
Paul handled his situation with humility. Yeah, he thought he knew was he was doing but as soon as he was shown his error he humbled himself and became like one of those who he was persecuting. Only Jesus can do that!
Many of us, if we end up being wrong get bitter, we dig our feet in. We don’t admit we are wrong. I hate to admit when I am wrong. It’s hard, our pride keeps us from doing it. But we are called to be humble and if we are wrong, even though we are sincere we need to know how to be humble about it.
Please also Remember that when we have been wronged that we have to be forgiving.
When Paul was converted he was also blinded. God did this. And when God did this God sent a man named Ananias to pray for Saul.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.
For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
God tells this man Ananias to go and pray for this guy Saul. Wait, Saul? You know who Saul is right God? You know that he has been on tour arresting and ripping families apart because of your name, right God?
But it is great because Ananias prays for Saul, the scales fall off Sauls eyes and what does Saul do?
And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?”
Acts 9:20-2
Paul was wrong, God ruined that old life and now the man who was hunting Christians has become one and apparently become their spokesperson! Isn’t that just like God? God humbled Saul.
And God broke Saul. His life was broken. But God used his brokenness for His Glory. And he is honest about where he had been. He wasn’t trying to gloss it over to make it spin a little better.
Remember what he was. A Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the eighth day, a Hebrew among Hebrews. He was a Roman citizen which also carried certain benefits. There wasn’t anything about his life that wasn’t impressive. And yet after his encounter with Christ his life was broken.
Sometimes that happens to us. Sometimes our lives are ruined by brokenness. Maybe you have been fired. Maybe you have lost a friendship. Maybe it seems like you haven’t been able to reach the goals that you have always had for yourself. That brokenness can be used by God.
But what did he do with that brokenness? That verse says that he immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues. Immediately. That would have been an incredible testimony right? I would have been nervous seeing Paul get up there thinking he was doing the double agent thing. But he wasn’t, he was truly turned around and was honest about where he was. This gives God the glory.
You know, there were probably people for the rest of Pauls live that never trusted him again. People that would ridicule him, that would make fun of him because of his new faith. Paul carried scars that would always be. There would always be people who would say about him, “isn’t that the guy who was persecuting these people? Wasn’t he the guy?”
Paul moved on and instead of making a name for himself he would make a name for Jesus.
We know Paul for his writings. He wrote 14 of the New Testament books. He battled false teachers and he corrected false doctrines.
He taught pastors and elders and teachers and planted churches all over the place.
If we looked at Paul’s resume we might think that he made a huge mistake there at the beginning. He had this great thing lined up but something changed.
He didn’t make any money. He had no property, as a matter of fact it looks like his life was pretty hard.
He was shipwrecked, he was beaten multiple times, there were attempted murders on his life by throwing stones at him. He went hungry, he went without shelter he was arrested multiple times. People were against him.
What a life! What a ruined life
And what ruined his life is what saved his life. It was an encounter with Jesus that saved Pauls life and shaped Christianity forever. That is what a ruined life will do.
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
So what Paul is saying is that the things that matter the things that rate in this world, accomplishments, accolades, titles, prestige, all those things amount to trash, even dung in order that he gain Christ.
God uses Pauls ruined life to create something new and beautiful.
And God will use your story too. He will use your scars and he will use your pains to make you who he called you to be.
God uses our past hurts and our past pains to mold us and shape us into people who can glorify him.
Embrace the process that God has put you through. Embrace the scars that seem to have ruined you so that God can do Hos perfect work through you. Your heartbreaks and your pains, your disappointments and your failures. All of those things God is using in you to bring glory to Him. Let Him do that today. Let Him do that.
It is scary and it might even be dangerous but you can trust Him today.
God will use your past to define your future.
APPLICATION (10 minutes)
APPLICATION (10 minutes)