00:00Hello everyone, this is William Chambers. It is so good to be here with you all.
00:04I love to do what I do, talk to people who love the Word of God.
00:08That being said, let us go ahead and get into the text.
00:12If I had a title for today's text, I would call it
00:16Grace Found Me at My Worst
00:20and Changed Everything.
00:23Oh goodness, I'm already excited.
00:25I've already preached already. That was the sermon already.
00:28I'm joking. That was the study already.
00:32No, Grace Found Me at My Worst and Changed Everything.
00:37Grace changes everything in our life
00:41and we're going to look at an example of how Grace changed the Apostle Paul's life.
00:46If we could have seen the Apostle Paul's mugshot
00:51before Christ, we would never choose him for ministry.
00:55Let me see your prison mugshot, man.
00:57Or, because he went to prison.
01:00Had a mugshot too. I'm joking. They didn't have cameras.
01:03Anyway, if we could have read Paul's resume,
01:06we would have never chose him for ministry.
01:10Paul's resume would have said something like this.
01:12First, persecuted believers.
01:15Next on the list would have been destroyed churches.
01:19Next on the list would have been caused suffering.
01:23That's what this man did.
01:24No one would accept him to lead their church, but God did.
01:32Let's get into the text.
01:33For I am the least of the apostles that am not meet to be called an apostle
01:39because I persecuted the church of God.
01:41But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
01:44And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain.
01:47But I labored more abundantly than they all.
01:50Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me.
01:55Paul here is aware of his past.
01:58He was a persecutor of the church.
02:01He was a destroyer of the church.
02:03Great sinner, rebelling against God.
02:06Ah, help today.
02:07He said, I feel like the least of apostles.
02:11He said, I don't feel worthy.
02:13I don't feel fit or suitable for this.
02:16But God has divinely summoned me for this task anyhow.
02:23Although I'm not worthy.
02:26Although I feel unsuitable and unfit.
02:28But God has still given me the task.
02:31I got to stop right now.
02:34So Paul honestly confesses who he was.
02:37Paul owned his past.
02:39He didn't act like he was a good old church boy, choir boy, all that.
02:42No, he owned his past.
02:44Help me.
02:45He did not hide his past.
02:48What I want to say is, if you hide your past, you will limit your testimony.
02:55What am I talking about?
02:56Your past, when it's properly owned, magnifies God.
03:01When you properly own your past, when you properly stop hiding it, when you properly do it with wisdom in
03:08Christ Jesus.
03:09Don't let everybody know about it.
03:10But when God puts it on your heart and in the way he puts it on your heart, let people
03:16know.
03:16When we properly own our past, it magnifies God and not us.
03:22Paul said, I was a persecutor.
03:25That means I tried to, I used violence and opposition to get the people of God.
03:30I did intentional harm against the people of God.
03:33By telling the truth, Paul is really saying, look at what God has brought me from.
03:38I used to do that.
03:40Look at the grace of God.
03:41He's magnifying the grace of God.
03:44The darker the past, the brighter the grace.
03:47If Paul would have watered down what he had done, the grace of God couldn't show as powerful.
03:54But Paul became powerful because he told the truth.
03:58Look at what God has delivered me from.
04:00God can pull a man out of such atrocities as what I have committed.
04:05Oh, you must let people sit in the reality of what you have done so they can fully appreciate who
04:14you are now.
04:15You wouldn't appreciate what I am now until you find out how terrible my past was.
04:24You wouldn't appreciate what God has done in my life until you see how gutter I was.
04:30Oh, then you try to say, wow, God lifted him from that.
04:37Don't sanitize your past.
04:39Ah, help us today, God.
04:42Next thing I want to talk about is a transforming grace.
04:47Paul had had an encounter with a grace that transforms.
04:53Oh, believer, have you had an encounter?
04:55If you are a believer, you've had an encounter with a grace that transforms.
04:59Paul didn't just say that God forgave him.
05:03He said that God redefined him.
05:06He said, by the grace of God, I am what I am.
05:11It's by the grace of God.
05:12God has given me this purpose.
05:15God has taken me from persecutor to preacher.
05:21Calm down, Will.
05:22You got to keep going.
05:23God has taken me from destroyer to builder.
05:29God has taken me from the monster I was to a model and an example of how to live the
05:36faith.
05:37He said, I persecuted the church, but by the grace of God, I am what I am.
05:45But, but, but changed everything.
05:48Everything.
05:51Every believer should have a but God moment.
05:54I had a but God moment.
05:56Paul had a, he said, I had a but God moment.
05:58I was a persecuted church, but I had a but God moment.
06:01Meaning, I was lost.
06:04But God.
06:05I was hurtin', but God.
06:10I was confused, but God.
06:13They tried to destroy me, but God.
06:17They didn't like me, but God.
06:20But God.
06:22But God, but God.
06:23I was broken, but God.
06:26I was the problem, but God stepped in.
06:29And, ah, Lord, help me.
06:31Honestly speaking, Paul was not qualified as an apostle.
06:36He wasn't.
06:37Let me see this resume, Paul.
06:38You were not qualified by human standards.
06:41You have no business being an apostle.
06:44Don't try to build no churches.
06:46There is no explanation why you should be building churches.
06:50But, grace.
06:52Ah, help me.
06:53I got to calm down already.
06:55Oh, you know, the only thing that makes Paul's story make sense is grace of God.
07:03Ah, but grace of God stepped in.
07:05I shouldn't have been this, but the grace of God.
07:08He said, I was a persecutor of this church, but by grace, I am what I am.
07:13Only way my story makes sense is by grace.
07:17Grace did this.
07:18It don't make no sense.
07:20I know you don't think I deserve it, because I don't.
07:22I don't think I deserve it either.
07:25But grace has done this.
07:28Hallelujah.
07:29If your story makes sense without grace, then grace is not the center of your story.
07:34You should have something in your story.
07:35There should be something in your story that you cannot explain away, but grace did it.
07:40Ah, praise be unto God.
07:42Last thing I want to talk about in Paul's life was he had a life that proved that grace was
07:48real.
07:50He said, his grace was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all.
07:57Ah, I labored more abundantly than everybody.
08:00You can see grace working in my life, but what God was working through me, he gave credit to grace
08:06and not himself.
08:07He said, the grace of God in my life produced visible evidence.
08:13The grace of God, we should look in your life and be able to see some evidence of grace.
08:18He said, it resulted in labor.
08:21I labored more abundantly than they all.
08:24Grace, if it's truly in your life, it should produce some effort.
08:30It should produce some sacrifice of your time, your finances, your resources.
08:36It should produce some endurance.
08:39You should keep on doing some things for God.
08:41It should produce some love.
08:44It should produce some patience.
08:46I'm a lot better at that now.
08:49I wasn't always that good, but I'm a little better at it now.
08:53It should produce some fruits of the spirit, some long-suffering.
08:58Ah, help us today.
08:59We are in need of God.
09:01If someone examines your life, would they see evidence of grace?
09:07If someone examines your life, would they see evidence of growth?
09:12If someone examines your life, would they see evidence of effort?
09:17Help us today, God.
09:19If grace has touched your life, there should be something to show for it.
09:24Paul himself, he went from persecutor to preacher by the word of God.
09:30Grace found Paul at its worst and changed absolutely everything.
09:37The coming show is the day of the story between perfection andингism.
09:41What can you do with Patreon?
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