From Killer to Convert (The Story of Paul)
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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. I'm so glad that our God doesn’t speak with a small still voice only, but that he reveals his power through His word and speaks so that we can hear him clearly. He reveals himself to us.
The text talks about how a light from heaven flashed around him. That’s significant for us today family because as we are converted, God reveals himself to us by reveals his glory to us. What im saying here is that he reveals to us the beauty of His spirit. He reveals to us His character and all that He is.
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the voice or conscience of the Father and the Son living in us. When we listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, we will most certainly know God’s desires and intentions for us.
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE BIBLE
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE BIBLE
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH THE BIBLE
says, Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. God’s Word, the Bible, is one way God reveals Himself to us.
The Bible reveals God’s love for us, His promises to us, His expectations and His desires for us. The Bible reveals God’s plan for us, His definitions of sin, and warns us against the consequences of our disobedience.
3. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH OTHERS
3. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH OTHERS
GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US THROUGH OTHERS
Just like God used Moses to reveal himself to the Israelites, God often uses other people and situations to reveal himself to us.
In our conversion He reveals himself so that we won't try to take glory in conversion. So that we will know that He converted us and not we ourselves. "Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus".
2. He uses other people for His glory and our good
Not only does he reveal himself to us, but second He uses people for His glory and our good. (Let's look at the text)
While I firmly believe wholeheartedly that conversion only happens when we experience Jesus, I also wholeheartedly believe that God us people to help us through it as well. We’ve painted a picture in our mind that when things get difficult, we time alone or when we are having trouble in this walk, we have to figure it out on our own.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Though scripture has lots to say about it, we tend to overlook it:
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
God uses people to come along side of us to walk out life with us. I’m not referring to just a random text here and there or we just happen to bump into one another. I'm specifically talking about DOING LIFE TOGETHER!
Notice in this text (if will) that those who helped him, where the one who were with him.
7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.
Who will you allow to lead you by the hand? Who are you allowing to walk close to you? Now understand this… It goes to ways. You can’t just expect people to always come in your space, but you have to make time to go in there's. God uses people for his glory and our good.
This text shows us that there’s 2 types of people in this world that God uses. People who just know you, and people who just heard of you from others.
See, the people who knew Paul actually grabbed him by the hand and led him to Damascus. Once he got to Damascus, there was another man there named Ananias.
God said to Him “Get up and go over to Straight Avenue. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus. His name is Saul. He’s there praying. He has just had a dream in which he saw a man named Ananias enter the house and lay hands on him so he could see again.”
Ananias protested, “Master, you can’t be serious. Everybody’s talking about this man and the terrible things he’s been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem! And now he’s shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us.”
There’s people who know us because the lead us in times when we can’t see, but there are also people who only know us based off of what they heard from other people. (BUT GOD USES BOTH)
Your haters aren’t your elevators! All of those cliche statements about how God uses your haters to bless you is all dumb dialogue. How about you focus your time and energy on how God uses people whether they are close to you are not to get you to see Him.
Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus. God uses people for his glory and our good!
Though Ananias only heard about him from what others said, He was still obedient to the Lord.
The Text says So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, “Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes—he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized, and sat down with them to a hearty meal.
3. He helps us to truly see
Which leads me to my third and final point, when Jesus converts us, He helps us to see.
“Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes—he could see again!
Notice this, He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit…. What I want you to see here is that God converts us because he wants us to see. Not just temporarily, but permanently. It’s his desire that we have eternal sight. So, He fills us with his spirit so that we can see what he will is for our lives.
Notice when he filled him with the spirit, He didn’t start speaking in tongues, but rather he wasted no time preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God.
If seeing is believing, then believing is proclaiming! God doesn’t just convert us to hide. He converts us to waste not time sharing and proclaiming to others.
Conclusion:
Just as Paul was a killer to convert! You too can be changed! From sinner to saint! From slave to free! From criminal to Christians! From lost to found! From corrupted to converted!
You too can have the testimony of John Newton (a man who didn’t grow up with any religious conviction) once he experienced Jesus, He said:
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
T'was blind but now I see
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come.
T'was grace that brought us safe thus far
And grace will lead us home,
And grace will lead us home
Amazing grace, Howe Sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
T'was blind but now I see
Was blind, but now I see.
Conversion only happens when we experience Jesus!
When he converts:
He reveals himself,
He uses people for his glory and our good and
He helps us to see!