00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all today with people
00:05who love to hear the Word of God. Let us just dive in because there's so much I want to
00:09talk about.
00:10Today, if I had a title, I would be calling it From Monster to Model. How Grace Rewrites a Life.
00:20Oh, I like that title. Gotta take you from being a monster. I'm talking about just a sinner. Oh,
00:26from a lifestyle of sin to modeling Christianity for him. I gotta get off this point. I'm gonna get
00:35too excited if I don't get off this point. Some people have a past that they try to hide,
00:41like a mugshot. I don't want anybody to see my mugshot. I'm too embarrassed. But God has a way
00:48of turning a mugshot into a masterpiece. I want to talk about Paul today. Paul, when he wrote a
00:57resume, at the top of his resume, he would put, Chief of Sinners. Well, I'm kind of joking. But
01:05in the text today, he's talking about he's the Chief of Sinners. Can you imagine that being at the top
01:11of your resume? Meaning that Paul did not try to hide his past, but he put it on the display
01:19to
01:19magnify God's mercy. Paul is saying in this text, let me tell you my story. If anybody is disqualified,
01:29it's me. Oh, but God still used me. And if he can use me, then he can use you too.
01:36And the grace of the
01:38Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying
01:45and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
01:54chief. How be it for this cause, I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all
02:03longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
02:12He says, I'm the chief of sinners. He doesn't say that I made some mistakes, you know. He didn't say
02:18that I had a few struggles. He says, I am the chief. It don't get no worse to me. Put
02:23me at the top of
02:24the list of sinners. Paul owns the worst version of himself. He lives honestly aware of what
02:33he was apart from Christ. Ah, help us. Paul does not glorify it. He does not excuse it. He does
02:41not
02:41hide it. He does not rename his past, but he places it underneath the mission of God. He's saying,
02:48look at what God has done. Meaning he does not let, he acknowledges his past and he don't let the
02:56shame
02:56control him. He's going to let his past magnify what God can do. Paul didn't hide his past. He let
03:05the gospel shine. Look at what God did with my past. I'm going to put it on display. This is
03:10who I was,
03:11chief of sinners. This is who, this is in some ways who I am, chief of sinners. But look at
03:17what God is
03:18doing in my life. Don't hide your past, believer. Put it on display. In verse 13, he says that grace
03:29was exceedingly abundant unto him. Paul went from chief of sinners to a pattern for other believers
03:40by the grace of God. He said that I'm chief of sinners, but he doesn't just stay there. In this
03:48text, he's saying a few other things. He said, I'm a recipient of God's mercy. I'm not just a chief
03:54of sinners. I'm a recipient of the mercy of God. Ah, I am a display of the patience of God.
04:02God has been
04:03patient with me and I'm putting that on display. I'm a pattern for others. I'm just not stuck in who
04:09I
04:09was. Paul is acknowledging the monster that he was, but he's also going to rest in the grace of what
04:17God has made. Ah, some people are quick to say I was wrong. I was bad. They can acknowledge that,
04:26but they won't fully embrace that God has changed you. You're not that same person. God is working
04:32on you. Ah, Paul is acknowledging who he was, but also acknowledging the grace of what God has made
04:41me. Look at me. Now I am apostle. God does not just forgive our sins. He said, I'm the chief
04:49of
04:49sinners, but he also goes on to say that I'm a pattern for those who will come after. God does
04:56not
04:56just forgive, but he repositions. He took Paul from being a persecutor of the Christian to a preacher.
05:07Look at what he's took me from, persecutor to preacher. He's took me from a destroyer of the
05:13church. Paul used to try to tear down the church. He opposed the truth. He harmed believers. He resisted
05:20God. And God took him from a destroyer of the church to a builder. Thanks be unto God. He took
05:28me from an enemy of Christ Jesus to an example unto believers. So we're not supposed to be stuck in
05:38our
05:38past, resting what God has done. But at the same time, don't pretend like you ain't got no past either.
05:44If you pretend like you're all goody-goody two-shoes, then people can't hear the grace of God. The grace
05:51won't magnify. I have done nothing wrong. I can, I need to, when I'm listening to a preacher, I listen
05:58to them all, but I do not so much, uh, I don't so much enjoy the choir boy preachers.
06:09And I don't mean to harm. I'm more enjoying what I can see that God has saved you from something
06:15that, that's the, that speaks to me even deeper because, uh, you're not talking to a choir boy
06:20here. Ah, praise be unto God. Anyway, moving on. The grace of God has the power to erase our past.
06:29Let me, let me talk about that. Not, not erase the consequences of our past, but it has the ability
06:34to justify us just as if we had not sinned. Ah, the power of grace does that, but it doesn't
06:42just
06:42justify us. It also establishes us a future. God wants to reposition and use you. You are not defined
06:53by what you did at your worst. I don't, God don't want you to be just defined by what you
06:59did at your
07:00worst. He wants you to be defined by what he did at his best. Oh, this is what God, this
07:06is what I did
07:07do. And I'll acknowledge that, but look at what Christ has done. Now Paul says, I am a pattern to
07:16them whom will come here after a pattern of what I'm a pattern of the long suffering of God. Look
07:23at
07:23how he long suffered with me to get me to this place. I'm a pattern of what God can do
07:29with a
07:29man. He said that in me, Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern. God's
07:40tooken me from monster to model. Tooken me from shame to purpose. Ah, this is what God does. He'll take
07:49you from guilt to making you a pattern for other people. Oh, there's nothing great about any of us.
07:54Oh, he'll take you from monster to model. God wants to say in your life, he wants to, like he
07:59said
08:00through Paul's life, he wants to say, I can save absolutely anyone. Like I said earlier, Paul opposed
08:07the truth. He opposed believers, harmed believers, resisted God, but God endured fully with Paul.
08:14He endured his rebellion fully. He endured his rebellion completely. He endured his rebellion
08:22patiently, meaning that he was long suffering with Paul. And now Paul is a example of a restored
08:29man. Ah, God said, I want to put you on display as an example of a restored man. That's what
08:35he wants
08:35to do in our life. A template as proof and evidence of what I can do. That's what he wants
08:40to do in your
08:41life. I want you to be a living example of what I can do. I want, I want to be
08:46able to say, look at
08:47what I can do in a believer's life. Help us today, God. Paul is serving as proof of what God
08:57can do in
08:57others. God forgave you and he wants to use you to display what he can do in your life. You're
09:06not to
09:06be defined by what you've done. You're to be defined by what God has done. Let the light of
09:13Christ shine through your flaws, thus magnifying the grace of God and what he can do. Help us today,
09:21oh God. Help us to know that you can take us from a monster and to model us as a
09:27pattern for other
09:28believers of what you can do in their life. In Jesus' name we pray and say amen.
09:36What God bless you, God bless you and how you can do in your life.
09:39Thank you God bless you and Ges jak from you.
09:40Amen.
09:53Amen.
09:55Amen.
09:55Amen.
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