When Your Story Becomes Your Sermon

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us today? So good to be with all of you.

One final reminder. I will not belabor the point, but this coming week, June 5th and 6th, the last stand is going to be here last week to register for that. We do have a brave discount of 50%. If you can be here for Friday night or Saturday or all of it would be a great thing for you to do. One of the reasons we have not started renovations on our church yet is we wanted to host this event.

Once that is done, we will be getting you information about what we're going to do. We're going to be doing all this area. The stage is going to look a little different. We got new screens coming in, new chairs, all the stuff that we talked about in our capital campaign that we're going to do in Westminster. We're redoing the parking lot.

We're adding more spaces. They're getting our LED wall here, up there. A lot of different things. What that means is we here in Inglewood will be worshiping next door at the Academy for a period of weeks. Our hope is, and we'll know soon, our hope is that that June 21st is our last service in here for a period of weeks.

Hope to be back in by the end of August, which would be giving us the fall to go ahead. As you know, with construction processes, it can be difficult to do everything when they say so. It's a prayer request. Friends, please be praying for what God wants to do. We will keep you informed as to what that looks like, but we think God's going to do some really neat things.

So we're excited about that. And with that, let's continue our worship today as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and active word. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we do give you all glory, all honor, all praise for who you are and for all you're doing. And Lord, we ask in these moments that we have together that you would speak directly to us.

Lord, it is a privilege to gather in your house. It's a privilege to worship your name. It's a privilege to be with other saints as we look around in community and see you do your work among us. And, Lord, it's especially encouraging because we as a people believe that every time your word is expressed, every time your word is explained, every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking, Lord. So our prayer this morning is speak for we are ready to hear.

And so now, for all those who have gathered, who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith, put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word Amen? Amen. Everybody loves transformation stories. Every single one of us love to see before and after pictures. Whether we're talking about transformation that happens at the gym, when we see someone and we see pictures before and they're big and unhealthy, and all of a sudden they look fit and athletic, and we see more than one of those stories that moves us and say, how can my story look like that?

Or when we see stories of a marriage that wasn't doing so well that all of a sudden is doing well, and the after picture is, here's what's happened to make our marriage better. We love that kind of story. When we see people who are former prisoners now be productive citizens, we look and we say, that's incredible. Or when we see people that were former addicts that are now sober and walking in a new way, it motivates us. Every single person love stories of transformation.

And deep down in our heart, there's something inside of us that says, I want to be transformed in some way in my life. When I look at all the different dimensions, I want to have those things going on for me. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a transformation story. The Gospel of Jesus Christ transforms every single life that he is able to get a hold of through the power of His Holy Spirit. Every single person who has been born again by the Spirit of God has a transformation story.

The Christian gospel is not words. The Christian Gospel is a demonstration of the power of God in a life that is submitted to Him. Amen. And so the reason we really enjoy transformation stories is spiritual ones. When we know what we used to be and we see what we are now, and we see where we're going and what we're becoming, there's something motivating.

It's why every time at Brave Church, when we do baptisms, we have a couple of the people verbally share their story about what they were and what God's done and how they've responded, because it motivates us. And if told correctly, all of us have the same story. We have different expressions of that story, but it's all the same story. And today we're going to take a look at what transformation really looks like. In Acts, chapter 22.

In Acts, chapter 22, you're going to see the story of transformation in the Apostle Paul and as we see it in his life. I not only want you to be motivated and by his before and after pictures, but I want you to be motivated and ask yourself the question, do I have a story like this? Every. Listen to me. You need to hear this part.

Every single believer in Jesus Christ has this identical story. If you don't have this identical story, you're not a believer in Jesus Christ. I'm saying that from the onset because a lot of times people hear me like, well, I haven't had that experience, Shad, or I've. If you don't have this story, you can have this story today. Amen.

And so we're gonna be in Acts chapter 22, and we're gonna take a look at when your story becomes your sermon. When your story becomes your sermon. How does your story give him glory? That's what we're gonna take a look at today. So if you turn your bible to Acts 22, and while you're turning there, you'll remember we're in the middle of a story.

Acts chapter 21 ended where Paul had gone to Jerusalem against the wishes of all the elders and all of his best friends. They told him they had heard from the Spirit that if he goes there, only chainsawait him. He's saying, I hear the same thing too, but I'm willing to go there and even die for my faith because it's where God wants me to go. So you're hearing God correctly as to what would happen if I go. You're just thinking self preservation is the answer.

Jesus is telling me self preservation is not the answer. What's the answer is my obedience to Christ. So. So I'm going anyway. And when he goes, he gets chained, he gets dragged off, he's on his way to prison as all the Jewish people are furious with him and yelling at him and saying, away with him.

He doesn't even deserve to live. And that's where we were in the middle of the story last week. And I'll end, I'll pick up. In verse 40 of chapter 21, Paul says he's a Jew of Tarshish. And in verse 40, he said, when he had given him permission, this is a soldier, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand.

And when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying, so now we're going to hear what he said to the people. He said, brethren and fathers, hear my defense, which I now offer to you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew in Tarsus of Cilicia and brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons. And as also the high priests and all the Council of Elders can testify from them, I also received letters to the brethren and started off for Damascus.

And in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. Now, I'm going to give you four points of your story today that you'll have if you're a Christian. And the first is this. Remember who you were. Remember who you were.

You could say I was. If you're a Christian, there's part of your story that's I was. Because you're no longer what you were. Because if you've been born again, you're something fundamentally different. You're completely changed.

Everything has been changed for you. So here's what Paul's saying. He begins to speak to them in the Hebrew dialect. And how does he welcome them? Brothers and fathers?

This mob of people is wanting to kill him. They are saying, away with him. He doesn't even deserve to live. And when he speaks to God gives him a platform. How does he get his platform?

Through his persecution. How does he get a pulpit? Through his pain, like many of us are always looking? I need a pulpit. I need a platform.

I need people to recognize me. All you have to do is walk with Jesus. I promise you he'll give you a place to speak into what he's doing. So here's Paul getting dragged off to prison. This is his opportunity to open his mouth.

And when he gets the God given opportunity, God takes the riot and calms them all down so they can hear what Paul's going to say. And Paul, who likely spoke three different languages. It says here he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, which was likely Aramaic. He spoke Hebrew. He likely spoke Aramaic.

He also clearly spoke Koine Greek and wrote that because that's what all the New Testament letters are written in. So he's trilingual. Trilingual means three languages at least. Bilingual means two languages, one language, American. Okay, so he's at least trilingual.

And so he's speaking to them in a Hebrew dialect. He's talking to them in a way that basically says, I'm one of you. And while all these people are wanting to kill him, what's he doing? He's saying, brothers and fathers, like, I'm a Jew, just like you. I was born a Jew.

I get you. When you're telling your story about what you were, you're identifying with people that are still in that predicament. Amen. And that's what he's saying. He's saying, I was just like you.

I'm a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia. I was brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel. You remember In Acts chapter 5, Gamaliel was the one who gave great counsel and said, if these people are the way, or if they're not of God, they'll die out. You remember how every time a spiritual uprising starts and then the person dies, it dies, but if it's of the Lord, you won't be able to stop it. That was Gamaliel.

Paul studied under him. Paul was taught by him. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he said, I was strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you are today. What's he telling them?

You guys are all zealous for God. I get that. I was just like you. I kept the law. I did what you did.

I'm one of you. I'm a Jew of Jews. I'm a Pharisee of the Pharisees. As to the law, blameless. That's who I am.

I, I. That's what I was. Let me tell you my background. I get you. I understand you.

He goes on to say, I persecuted this way to the death. The way. This way. That's the Christians, they were called the Way. In other words, I persecuted Christians to the death, binding and putting both men, notice this, and women in prisons.

We read the New Testament, we hear about the Apostle Paul, and we're like, man, what a great missionary theologian. I can't wait to meet Paul when I get to heaven. I look forward to meeting Paul when I get to heaven, too. You should as well. But you need to know who he was.

Who he was. If you flip your Bible over to Acts 26:10, we'll get there in a few weeks. Says this, and this is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I. I cast my vote against him when he had the opportunity. Hey, live or die.

He's like, every time, if I had a Chance to vote down with the Christians when he was at Stephen's death. He gave approval to Stephen's death. After Stephen's death, Acts 9:1, he's still breathing out, what murderous threats. He wasn't just a, quote, bad guy. He was a Christian killer.

That's what he did. So he's saying, this is what I was. I was so jealous for the Jewish law. I tried to get every Christian I could find to be dead or dragged off into prison so that they could be tried because I did everything I could to stop this movement. That's who I was.

And so what's he doing? He's identifying. He's identifying with their anger. He's identifying with their rage. He's identifying with their Jewish heritage.

He's identifying. He's identifying with how they think. He's calling them brothers and fathers. He's telling them that they're zealous for God. He's speaking to their heart.

Like, I get you. I. I totally understand you. That's who I was. And also as the high priest and also the councils and elders can testify from them. I also received letters to the brethren and I started off to Damascus.

He goes, even your chief priests and council can tell you, to this day, they gave me letters so that I could go find these people. I was appointed as the chief so and so Christian sniper to go get them and to bring them back. That. That was my life. That's what I did.

I get it. I know how you feel about me. So he's identifying with him. When you tell the story about what you were, it's not to glorify what you were, it's to say what you were. When I went off to college at the University of Illinois, I went to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting.

I went for about three weeks or four weeks because I was told that when I went off to school, I'd just become a Christian, like three or four weeks earlier, before I went off to college. And they said, you need to get involved in a ministry. And I found Campus Crusade for Christ. And I went to there and they would do what was called a testimony, which is what I'm teaching you today, what they were, what Christ had done and who they had become. But here's what I heard.

I don't know that it was said this way, but here's what I heard. I heard the glorified. Here's what I was. If it was a guy, it was like, I used to do drugs. I got drunk all the time.

I partied, I slept with all these women, I mean, it was incredible. And blah, blah, blah. It sounded like what they were was really exciting. Then they would say, then I met Christ. And then it got really serious.

And now I do Bible studies and I go to church. So what I heard was, you need to have a really radical turn. And then when you meet Jesus, your life's gonna become boring. And I heard for three weeks people tell stories like this. That's not a testimony.

A testimony is I was this. You could be that until you were four. Then I met Jesus and I've been walking with him ever since. That's a testimony. Amen.

But I didn't know that. So week three, they asked me. They found out I played football. They said, you need to give your testimony. I said this.

I said this. I don't have one of those. Because I didn't think I did. But I left that night convinced I was gonna go build one. And I tried and I was miserable having one foot firmly planted in the world and one foot trying to be Christian.

Cause I didn't know how to get that testimony thing. I'm here to tell you, you don't need to go off the rails to have a Christian testimony. A Christian testimony is Jesus changing you. Amen. That's the most exciting thing that can happen.

So Paul's not excited about who he used to be. He's not glorifying what he once was. As a matter of fact, he hated who he once was. First Timothy calls himself an aggressor of the church. I mean, he was a violent aggressor of the church.

I mean, Paul is a violent terrorist towards Christians. That's who's writing your New Testament. Two thirds of it. If we were Christians in the first century, we would have been terrified of him. You wouldn't have wanted to shake his hand.

You would have been running from him, wanting to know where he was at at all times. And so Paul writes this throughout all his letters. In Philippians chapter three, he's like, even though I might have confidence even in the flesh. And he goes through who he was, and a Jew and a Hebrew of the Hebrews and circumcised on the eighth day and all this stuff. But he says, I consider that rubbish, literally the Greek word excrement, to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Jesus Christ.

First Timothy 1:13. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. See, here's the story you need to understand before you come to Christ that you're dead in your sins. Romans 3:23 says, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. As Paul writes to the Ephesian Church in Ephesians chapter two, one of the great chapters on salvation.

He says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins as a sinner, you're dead. Physically, you're alive. Spiritually, you're dead. When we go to the hospital and we see a newborn, we get so excited because they're so cute and they're moving and they're doing all this stuff and oh, they're starting to smile. And physically they're alive.

Spiritually, every one of them's dead. And they remain dead until they come to Christ. Everybody's spiritually dead. And if you're dead, you are under the wrath of God. Why?

Because of your heredity of sin. And because of your heredity of sin, you will have symptoms of it creep out all over the place. You will either become hyper religious and go churchy and do all this stuff and not deal with your deadness, or you'll just live out a sinful pattern that's definitely sinful. Either way, you're still, what, Dead and under the wrath of God. So Bible makes clear, it's appointed unto man to die once and after that face judgment.

That's Hebrews 9. And so when you die in your sin, God will cast you into hell. That's true for every single person who has breathed their first breath. It's just true. It's true of every single one of you here.

If you come to brave church since our inception, but you've never trusted Christ. You're still dead in your transgressions and sins. And Paul said, and you were. He's talking to the Ephesians, y' all were this way in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in among the sons of disobedience, Jesus said, there's a narrow road and a wide road, and many are on the wide road and very few are on the narrow road. If you're going the way the world's going, like if you call yourself a Christian and you're still walking all the way that every non Christian walks, you're not a Christian.

You're not a Christian because of what you say. You believe you're a Christian because of how you live. Wait, I thought all I had to do is pray a prayer and I go to heaven. No, that's the truth of where you need to give allegiance. Who's in charge of your life?

Who's the allegiance in your life? Paul's saying, the allegiance in my life used to be me and my Jewish faith. That was the allegiance in my life. That's what I was. That's how I lived.

That's what I did. He's not saying I'm proud of it, but he's not hiding what he was. By the way, if you are a Christian, you don't need to hide anything about your past because it's all washed. You don't brag about it like it was really, really good. Because if you are a Christian, you'll know, I hated that.

I don't want to go back to it. But you don't need to apologize for it, because sometimes in church, some Christians are afraid to talk about their past. And you don't need to glorify it, and you don't need to tell everybody about it, but you don't need to be embarrassed by it. Christ came and died for you so you could be freed from whatever that was. Amen.

So I was. I was. I mean, the Bible makes clear that the law is really, really good. But what the law does, it shows you the holiness of God and it points out that you're not good enough to get there. That's the purpose of the law.

So if you're thinking, well, when I get to heaven, my good outweighs my bad. You are so wrong. Your bad so outweighs your good. It's not even a contest, not even close. Because you're not comparing yourself to a perfect holy God that says, one mistake, you're out.

You break one part of the law, you're guilty of breaking it all. Romans, chapter 3, verses 19 and 20, says, now we know that whatever the law speaks, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Why? Because when you walk through the law, do not steal.

Have you ever stolen anything? Yes. Do not covet. You ever seen anybody else's stuff from the time that you were born and say, I wish I had that. Yeah.

Have you ever lusted if you've hit puberty? You have. Have you ever lied? Have you ever cheated? Have you ever stolen?

Have you ever talked bad about somebody that wasn't there? Have you ever bear false. Every single one of us has broken every single one of the laws. So when you stand Before Jesus, you can look really good before everybody else and paint yourself up and look really good. But when you stand before the God that's watched you in every single circumstance and.

And not only sees your behavior, but knows your mind, you can't stand before him and say, not guilty because you know you're guilty. The law will shut your mouth. This is what I'm judging you according to. I'm judging you according to perfection. And there's only one who's ever lived perfect, the God man, Jesus Christ.

Amen. So here's what you have to understand. If you're not a sinner and you don't see yourself as being punished by the wrath of God and going to hell, there is no such thing as good news. There is no such thing. And because the church won't tell people about their sin, which is their only problem that they have, it's the only problem Jesus came to solve.

Because they don't want to tell people that God's wrath is on you from the time that you're born. And no matter how good you are, you're still going to hell. And because we don't tell people the truth, then we have to pivot the gospel and make it all about this. Okay, well, Jesus is really, really good. I know your life's good, but Jesus is good too.

And if you accept Jesus, he. He's gonna make your life better. And it'll be better financially. It'll be better with your health, It'll be better with your money. It'll be better every other way.

Your relationships will get better. Don't you want to have that kind of life? And we sell something that's not the gospel. Jesus didn't die on the cross so you could have a better life. He died on the cross because you were on your way to hell and deserved the wrath of God.

And he said, dad, I'll take all the wrath. I'll take it all so that no human being ever has to take it. And when he said, it is finished, it wasn't like it's so finished so the people can now have prosperous lives. It is finished. The wrath of God is settled.

For anyone who would believe that Jesus is the Christ. Amen. And we love transformation stories. We love transformation stories. Some of you will know the name Chuck Colson, who went to prison during the Watergate hearings and was found guilty.

And in prison, he met Christ and started a prison fellowship because of what he experienced in prison and got the gospel out to many who were in prison. In church, we sing the song Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found Was blind but now I see but we probably don't realize that John Newton, who wrote that song, was a slave trader. He was a blasphemer, and he was an enemy of God long before he ever wrote that song, Right? That was his before story. And then.

But God did this. I mean, I think about my story every single time I'm getting up to preach because you guys get to see my after story. Some of you got to see my before story. Some of you didn't get to see enough of my before story. But I know my before story because I live my before story.

And I'm not excited about my before story, but I know what it was and I'm not embarrassed about it. And I never want to go back and relive it. But the reason I understand anybody that comes in here, if you tell me I'm totally steeped in sin, I get it. I'm consumed with alcohol. I get it.

I'm totally immoral. I get it. I've walked where you walked, and I can tell you that Jesus can heal it all. Amen. I know that.

And here's the important thing to know about your I was like. I look back on my life and I'm like, man, Lord, it would have been so cool if I had been homeschooled, gone to Moody Bible for college, gone straight into seminary, done. That would have been great. But God uses my story to connect with certain people that if I hadn't had my story, I couldn't connect with. I know what it's like to play five years of college football and only play 10 downs and be looked over.

I know the disappointment. So when you say I've been overlooked for my job, I've been. Get it. Totally understand that. I know what it's like to live for a success in this world and be going after it and feeling totally empty on the inside.

Totally, totally get it. I know what I was. I don't like what I was, but I know what I was. I'm not embarrassed about what I was because Jesus saved me from what I was. Amen.

Don't be embarrassed about what you were, but be grateful that you're no longer that. I mean, it's really interesting because when Paul writes to the Corinthian Church, which was a great church and a messed up church all at the same time, lots of sin going on in the church, he wrote to them in First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 9, he says, or do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Don't let anybody tell you differently. Only righteous people enter the kingdom.

Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexual, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Like. Let me just be clear. Nobody like that goes to heaven. Such were some.

You. That's what you are. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. Don't you love that? Heaven is not a place for people who have tried to make the most out of their lives and become the best versions of themselves.

Heaven's a place for people that know they're dead in their sins and deserve the wrath of God who have called on him for their mercy and been set free. That's salvation. Amen. So remember who you were. Have part of your story that says I was.

Because if you're sitting here today and say, what I am now is what I've always been, then you don't have an I was. Because if you've been saved for five seconds, you have an I was because you were that, but now you're no longer that. Amen. So the application is this. The gospel begins with honesty.

Not pretending, not performing, not hiding, not adding value to your life. It's honest that I'm dead and. And I'm a sinner and I'm in need of God. Remember who you are. Then secondly, do this.

Recount what God has done. Recount what God has done. This is where you say, but God, I. I was but God. And notice what he's going to say. That's what Paul's going to tell us.

He's telling them, I get you. I was. That. He's like, but. But God.

Here comes the but God in verse 6 of chapter 22 and Acts. But it happened that I was. I was on my way to. I was on my way. Approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven around me, and I fell to the ground.

And I heard a voice saying to me, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting. And those who were with me saw the light, but to be sure, they did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And.

And I said this. What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, get up and go into Damascus. And there you'll be told of all that has been appointed for you to do. Now understand this.

The Gospel says, for it is by grace you've been saved through faith. It's not your own doing, it's a gift of God so that no one should boast. Ephesians 2:10. The very next verse says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ, Jesus Christ, for works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So he's going to get saved.

And being told, here's what I've already appointed for you. Every person I've ever met that's come to Christ, I would be one of them. Says this, I wish I would have met him sooner. I met him when I was 18. Wish I would have met him sooner.

Some people meet him at 40. Wish I would have met him sooner. Some meet him at 75. Wish I would have met him sooner. Yeah, you get to spend eternity with him, so you'll get plenty of time.

But all of us wish we would have met him sooner. If I would have only known. If I would have only thought this way. If I would have only known Christ like I do now, then, right, that's what's going on. But here's what you gotta understand.

From the moment you trust Christ, God has things appointed for you which he's gonna succeed in, in your life. Amen. So he tells him, I'm gonna tell you what you're appointed to do. But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand of those who were there with me and came into Damascus. And a certain Ananas, who was a.

Who was devout by the standard of the law and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came in and standing near, said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight. At that very time I looked up at him, and then he said, the God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one and to hear an utterance from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins.

Calling on his name. Here's what he's going to do. He's going to recount what God has done. He's going to say, this is who I was. But God intervened Who's God?

God is the Trinity. God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all one God, head distinct, one essence, and three distinct persons that have co equally existed for all eternity and none of them were ever created. I don't know how to explain that. I just know how to tell you what the Bible teaches. Our God is so awesome and so magnificent that when we spend eternity, there's not going to be a moment where we're not in awe of who he is as our God.

He's awesome. I mean, incredible. And here's what God does. God is the one who does the work in our lives. God is the one who does the saving.

And Paul's like, I'm on my way to Damascus. I'm persecuting Christians. I'm killing them. It's about noontime. I see a light.

I hear a voice. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I'm like, who are you? Like, Lord, who are you? I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.

Why? Because when you attack one of Christ, you attack Christ. When you attack one of Jesus, you attack his church. That's a fact. So Jesus was feeling the persecution of Paul, going after Christians.

Right. God feels that when Christians are persecuted, then Paul asks, what do you want from me, Lord? What do you want me to do? He's like, I want you to go to this house, and I want you to wait and see what you're appointed to do. Like, when God saves you, he saves you for something.

Did you know that? So he's recounting the truth we talked about in Ephesians chapter two, how you were once dead in your transgressions and sins. But what we read about is what God does. Verse 4. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. Recount what he's done. When did he save you? When did he save you? When was that moment in time?

Oh, now you're talking Baptist. Oh, now you're talking Pentecostal. Oh, now you're saying I have to have one of those stories. No, I'm not talking Baptist. I'm not talking Pentecostal.

I'm not talking fundamentalist. I'm talking Bible. If you don't have a testimony of what you once were and what you are now, you're not a Christian, period. You can go to church your whole life. Your parents can take you there your first week of infancy.

You can get baptized there, you can profess Christ there, you can go through all the motions there and still not be saved.

Every single Christian has a story of I was but God and what did God do? But while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus paid the price for us. He died in my place so that I could live. Before he left this earth, he took the full measure of the wrath of God on himself so I'd never have to experience.

So you'd never have to experience. And when I knew I was dead and I knew there was no way out, I came running to Jesus. Remember they gave an invitation at the camp I was at? I was the first person to stand. I'm like, I want that.

And I want it now because I can't wait for it anymore. I thought I had that. I want him. Because the gospel is changing allegiances. It's not giving lip service.

It's I was, I served the God of this age. I followed sports, or I followed career, or I followed wealth, or I followed money, or I followed my desires. But now I follow Christ. He's the Lord of my life. He's my God.

He's the One I give allegiance to. He's the One I give praise to. He's the one I seek. Amen. But God, here's what he did.

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, all things have passed away, all things have been made new. What happens when you get come to Christ? You get a new identity, you get a new name as saint. And everything that's true of Christ is now in you through the Holy Spirit.

Positionally, you're holy. Positionally, you're righteous. Positionally, you're good. Now, our behavior hasn't always caught up with that. And we spend the rest of our lives allowing God to change us into our new identity.

But you are fundamentally different from the moment that you trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. That's why they tell Paul, you ready for this? You heard the Lord. You heard him say what you're going to do.

What, what do you got to do now? You need to get up and give your allegiance to him so that your sins can be washed away. Do you want Christ? If you do, give your allegiance to him, the first step of obedience is that you be baptized. And that's the way we want you to walk, which is the norm of every single conversion in the New Testament.

Salvation followed by baptism, not so that you're saved, but you get baptized because you now are saved. Amen. It's so simple, it's clear. It's everywhere in the New Testament. And that's what he's going to do.

Because you see, God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Or how about Colossians 1, 13, 14? For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption and, and the forgiveness of sins. Guys, you not only change allegiances, you change, change dominions. You're once living in darkness, thinking you're living in light, and all of a sudden now you're living in the kingdom of God's beloved Son.

That's where every Christian resides. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let me live your kingdom values here until you get here and Jesus come and, and come soon and set them all up so that everybody's living them out. That's our prayer.

Amen. That's what we see. I was. But God, I mean, we see it in our world. Some of you remember Nikki Cruz from years ago, the gang leader, the violent criminal that was transformed by Christ, did a movie called the Switchblade.

I forget what it's called. What was it called? Cross and Switchblade. Thank you. Or Zacchaeus.

You know, this white collar criminal, this thief that all of a sudden becomes immediately generous when he receives the love of Christ into his heart. What would the prodigal son have said? Obviously not a true story, but it's an account of Jesus telling what his Father's like. When the Son runs off and sins wildly and decides to come home and repent. The Father runs to him.

Or Lazarus. Lazarus is dead. His sister's like, jesus, if you'd have been here, he'd be alive. He's like, he'll rise in the resurrection. Yeah, yeah, but if you'd have been here today, he'd still be alive.

He's like, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will not die, will live, even though he dies. Do you believe this? And what's Jesus do? He takes dead Lazarus and all he says is, lazarus, come forth.

And this man's been dead for four days, gets up and walks out. That's salvation. That's what it looks like. Here's the application. Nobody's gone too far.

Nobody's beyond God's grace. Nobody's unreachable. There's not one of you here that would say, if God only knew What I did. He knows everything you've done, and he still came on purpose to wash away all your sins. Christianity is not behavioral modification to appease a God that's mad at you.

Christianity is a total life transformation. When you give your allegiance to Christ and he changes you from the inside out, behavior will change as you live out your identity. But you can't change behavior to change your identity. Identity starts first. Amen.

I was but God. And then we get to this third part. We need to respond to what God commissions. Respond to what God commissions you to do. Because then you say, and now I was but God.

And now, like, what? What am I doing as a result of this Christianity? Because there needs to be evidence of the change in your life, right? People will see the evidence of the change in your life. If there's a group of people that you spoke bad on and you hated and you're really repentant, then the change that you would see is you speak lovingly towards them.

You're reaching out to them. You're changing your behavior. Repentance always has a change of behavior. I once was, but. But God.

And now. So I'm living differently than what I once did. Before I knew Christ, I lived for me and the idols of my own life. But God got ahold of me. Now I live for Jesus.

And now let me tell you what's going on as a result of what he did, because here's what I want to tell you. You can't be saved and stay the same. I'm going to say it again because you're not even giving me a golf clap. You can't be saved and stay the same. You can't.

Sometimes we think, well, I stood at church, or I filled out a card, or I told the pastor I believe, or I prayed a prayer. If you really gave your allegiance differently, you won't stay the same. If Jesus is your highest authority, you're not going to remain the same. Things in your life are going to begin to change over time. Some immediate, some with a process.

Jesus being lord of them all. And that's what Paul says. Notice what it says. It happened now, verse 17, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple that I fell into a trance. This is early on in his ministry.

And I saw him. That's Jesus saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. Paul, you're going to need to get out of town. They're not going to accept it. And I said, lord, they themselves Understand that in one synagogue after another, I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you.

And when the blood of your witness, Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him. He's like, I don't need to leave. Everybody in Jerusalem knows that I'm like one of them. Here's what Paul's saying. I can be the cool Christian.

I can be just like the non believers. And they'll think I'm cool because I'm a Christian now, but I'm just like them. They'll know what I did. I mean, when Stephen was being persecuted, I was holding all the coats of the older men. I was.

I was giving approval to his death. I was breathing out murderous threats. I went after Christians. I gave my approval to turn them down and make sure they were killed. I dragged him into prisons.

Everybody knows what I was now, Lord, if I can just befriend them and we'll be buddies. And they'll see that I'm like them. But I'm a Christian too. He's like, you don't understand. When you live for me, they won't like you anymore.

When the and now takes place, what you were is. And the group you hung out with won't accept you anymore. Well, I've been a Christian for 10 years. I still hang out with all my same non Christian friends. Okay, then you're really not letting the Lord be the full allegiance in your life.

Cause if you were, there would be things about them that fundamentally bother you. And the only reason you'd be hanging out with them is to share the gospel. That wouldn't be your social network. I promise you that. If your same social network is the unbelieving friends you have when you got saved, you are not progressing in the fullness of Christ.

Your closest friends must be born again believers who are pushing you to grow. Andy Schmidt, I introduced him my Campus Crusade for Christ leader. Kind of got back involved three years later. He really helped me grow my faith. And I remember one time he asked me this question when I was in college.

He's like, why do you live in your fraternity? And I'm like, cause it's fun. And he said, what percentage of the 90 guys living here are Christians? I'm like, I don't know. There's probably like five.

Five of us. He's like, then why are you living there? And I said this. I said, because I'm an evangelist. He said, how often do you share Your faith Silence.

He's like, why don't you pray about moving out? I never even thought you could. I was so spiritually mature. I didn't know you prayed about stuff like that. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm willing to pray about it.

And even when I prayed, I was like, okay, Lord, I've never done anything like this. But I told him at the time, I'm not gonna move into some junky apartment just to move out of this fraternity. Because our fraternity was really nice, but whatever you would have, Lord. Like a week later, I went and met my friend. We were going to his buddy's house and we walked into this apartment complex that was a former schoolhouse, had just beautiful hardwood floors and 17 foot ceilings and tin prints on it.

And we walk into this guy's apartment and this guy said, you know, can you guys pray for me? He said, I just got a call from Campus Crusade. I'm moving to Colorado Springs and. And I gotta sublease this place in like two weeks. Okay.

Now. When I was walking in, I was like, now this is the kind of place I could live. I said, well, what's it cost? And he told me, and it was less than what I was paying to be in my fraternity. And I said, I'm your guy.

I buy it, I'll take it. When I moved out and my friends were all Christians, majority of people I was hanging out with, Christians, everything changed in my life. I lived in a fraternity for three years. I didn't lead one of those people to Christ. When I moved out, there were about 50, 30 of them that came to Christ because they were like, what in the world happened to you?

Used to be like us, used to do what we. I'm like, I'm not doing that anymore. If you want to come to my house and do Bible study, that's what we'll do. I was leading people to Christ in all different fraternities and sororities. My sister had one that at her sorority.

I had like 60 people in it. I didn't even know what I was doing. I would talk to Campus Crusade for Christ person. I'm like, what do I say about this scripture? I don't even know anything like this.

So he would tell me what to ask and what to say, and then I go lead it. And people be like, this is amazing. I didn't even know what I was doing, right? But the spirit of God did. And what happened is everything in my life began to change when Jesus had my full allegiance, right?

And it's the same for you. So, Anne, now what are you doing? Jesus calls us into a mission. I mean, the real way that the Bible works is it's a wake up call, like, hey, wake up. And then there's an identity call, like, be courageous.

Live out your God given identity. Be bold, resolute, authentic, virtuous and engaged. And then, hey, join the fight. Like, get in the mission, like fight back. You've been in a spiritual fight your whole life.

You didn't even realize. Now you realize that you've been pinned down in your marriage, you've been pinned down in your singleness. You've been pinned down in your immorality, you've been pinned down in your addiction, You've been pinned down in all these things. It's time to fight back. And spiritually, you're not the one doing the fighting.

But Christ in you will do all the fighting for you, right? That's what Christian. That's what the Christian life looks like. If you say, I'm a Christian and nothing's changed, then either A, you're not a Christian or B, you're not living the fullness of Christ in your life, period. I mean, when Isaiah saw the Lord and he was overwhelmed by his glory, he didn't say, this is awesome.

Here's what he said. Here am I. Send me. If you can use a man of unclean lips like me. If you can use someone that's messed up like me, I'm your guy.

Just you use me however you want to use me. Jeremiah did the same thing. There's a fire on my bones. I'm weary of holding it in. Indeed I cannot.

Every time I try to suppress God's word, it's like a fire in my bones. It rises up. I gotta speak right? Hudson Taylor was a British missionary. Lived a really comfortable life.

And then he had a radical calling to go to China. He formed the China inland Mission in 1865 that no Westerners had ever been to. He dressed like the Chinese people, he cut his hair like the Chinese people. And he reached a ton of Chinese people. Friends.

God will give you a burden for what he wants you to do. God's given me a burden for this church. It's why I moved to Denver. God will give you a burden for something in your heart that you must do. And when you must do it, you have to walk in it.

It could be your neighborhood, it could be your family. It could be where there's a mission. And the mission is to tell other people this truth about Jesus. That's the mission. We oftentimes in church do everything but the mission.

The mission is that here's what you're hold accountable to. How did I use your life to get my story out? How did you. How did. How was I able to use your life to let other people know that I'm the Lord?

How did I use your life for my glory? That's the question on Judgment Day. And there's myriads of answers. But oftentimes in church, instead of being about the mission, we're about comfort and we're about community and we're about gathering and. And we're about complaining and we're about grumbling and we're about right kind of music and right color carpet and all this stuff, which means jack squat.

The mission is everything. And it's not a Jesus didn't have a come and see ministry. You know what his ministry was? Go and tell. How's God going to get the word out to the world?

You. Who's he holding accountable? That the world knows you. That's the fact. Well, I didn't know if I signed.

I didn't sign up for that. Yeah, you did. The day that Jesus Christ became your Lord, you signed up to be on mission with Jesus. God did not save you merely to go to heaven. God saved you because your life is a living testimony of who he is.

I was, but God and now. If you don't have an and now, it's likely because you haven't taken the step of faith that God has for you. If you're born again, which is not of your own doing, but you don't have an and now it's because you've aborted your growth by saying, that's all I wanted was to get to heaven. That's not what. God saved you.

God saved you so you'd be a force of his glory here on the earth. Amen. Using your own personality, whether you're introvert or extrovert, whether you're male or female, whether you're a man, whether you're a boy, whether you're a woman, whether you're a little girl, whoever you are, that you would live for his glory now. So other people would see Jesus in you. Amen.

And you respond to what God commissions, because God will begin to burden your heart. Some of them are very centralized, very local. Some of you are at your school, some of you are in your job as employers. Like these are the people I feel burdened to today. I gotta tell them about Jesus and they don't need to Hear about all the benefits of Jesus.

They need to hear that they're dead in their sins and they need a savior that can save them from their sins. Who are you telling? And listen, I'm not making this a behavioral thing. Like, come back next week and let's check the box with how many people you shared your faith with. This is not that.

This is you listening to the Lord and being obedient as he opens up doors for you to share Christ. Amen. And then you do this. You release the results to God. You release the results to God.

I was but God, and now then this. Because you can't control how people are gonna respond. There's only two ways they can respond. Accept what you say or reject it. That's it.

There's no middle ground. Some people you share this with will have tears in their eyes and say, this is what I've been looking for my whole life. I thought it was in religion. I've been trying to search every other religion in the world, and I've come to realize that. That it's Jesus, and He alone can save me.

Thank you for telling me. And some people, either violently or nominally, will be like, I don't want anything to do with that. It's good for you. That's good that you're a pastor. The world needs people like you.

I hear that all the time. I'm like, you don't even know me. The world definitely does not need more people like me.

But some people get violent. They don't like it. I used to do a lot more street preaching than I do now. And I've been called every word in the book and seen every gesture. And in England, they flip you off differently than they do in the United States.

So I learned that. I mean, not everybody responds gloriously, but the results are God's. So Paul tells his story, and he ends by telling his story this way in verse 21. And he said to me, here's my commission. Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

What was God telling Paul? You're a Jew. I'm going to go use you to reach all the Gentiles and notice what happened. They listened to him right up until this statement. Then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he shall not be allowed to live.

They've been silent, listening the whole time. They're fine with who he was. They're fine listening about what Jesus did. But when he says, my call now is to go to the Gentiles, not the Jews like you. They're like, we're done with this guy.

Away with him. He's not even fit to live. And what he gave approval to Stephen's death for now it's about ready to happen to him. And as they were crying out and throwing their cloaks, throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust, Dust into the air, the commander ordered him that he be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why. They were shouting against him that way.

Like, even the Roman commander's like, we don't even know what's going on, but just take him downstairs, beat him until he tells you why this is happening. But when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion, who was standing by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is Roman and uncondemned? Like, he's getting stretched out, about ready to get beat, and he's like, hey, is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman without a fair trial? And when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, what are we to do about that? For this man is a Roman.

So the commander came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, yes. And the commander said, I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money. And Paul said, but I was actually born a citizen. So the commander comes in and says, wait, are you a Roman?

He's like, yeah. He goes, how did you become a Roman? I had to pay a big sum to become a Roman. Paul's like, I've always been Roman. I was born a Roman.

Therefore, those who were about to examine him, meaning they were going to beat him till they got the truth out of him, immediately let go of him. And the commander was afraid. And when he found out that he was a Roman and because he had put him in chains. But notice this. But on the next day, wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the council to assemble and brought Paul to assemble to sit down.

I'm sorry. He brought Paul down and set him before them. So what happens? The Roman commander's like, yeah, I can't scourge him because he's Roman, but I got to get to the bottom of this. So Paul, the commander, rather, commands the Jewish leaders to have Paul come in and explain to them what he did.

So what's Paul get again? He gets another platform he's going to get another pulpit, he's going to get to tell another sermon to a different group of people. If you live for God, God will always bring you in front of the right people to share your faith with. And here's the truth. Your story is not like anybody else's story.

Don't go try to build a story. Just be the person Christ called you to be and he will use your story to reach who he wants you to reach. As Christians, too many times we hear somebody's story like oh I wish I had a story like that that was so compelling. You have a story like that. The compelling part of your story is you were but but God and now than this.

Do you have that story? Do you have that story? I'm asking you rhetorically because you need to have that story. Do not leave this earth without having that story. I mean, when you relieve the results to God, it doesn't matter who gets credit.

Paul says in First Corinthians 3, 6 and 7, I planted Apollos water, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. It doesn't matter if you're sowing seeds, doesn't matter if you're leading people to Christ. You're just living your testimony for Jesus and telling people how awesome Jesus is. Just do that.

God will use it. Amen. I mean we see this all throughout the scripture. Noah was faithful. I mean he preached for 120 years and eight people were saved.

And it was only his own family and he was called a preacher of righteousness in his generation. Jeremiah was rejected and mocked and still preached. Stephen preached one message and was murdered. But Saul was still listening. And that's why we're having this testimony.

I think about the missionary Ed Nariam Judson. He was the first American missionary, went to Burma in 1812. He endured prison, the death of his wife, the death of his children and years of hardship before ever seeing a church in the Burmese language. But during that whole time he translated the entire Bible into Burmese. He spent his whole life for Jesus.

Can I just tell you something? Sometimes in church we would rather sit around and I like this. I kind of enjoy theology. I went to school for 10 years after college. I like theology.

I like talking theology. But if you like talking theology more than you like sharing the gospel, you have bad theology. You have really bad theology. Well, I believe God does all the work. Great.

I believe we're responsible to respond. Great. You're both right. Now Go share the gospel. Amen.

I promise you, when you get to heaven, having the right theology is not nearly as important as having the right practice of the theology you say that you have. Well, Paul's a Calvinist. You trusted the Lord. Okay, great. He went out and gave his very life to death to share with everybody he could.

Well, Paul was an Arminian. Great. Here's what he did. He went out and he shared his faith with every single person, believing that all could come to Christ. Who cares what you are?

We'd rather talk about what's right than actually do what God wants us to do. I'm telling you, Brave Church, if this is your place and this is your home, whether you leave here or not, God has commissioned you as a born again believer to be responsible for everyone in your sphere of influence that they know who Jesus is. That's a fact. It's a weight. It's a fact.

It's a heavyweight, but it's a fact. And it's one you should pray about a lot. Not how do I become a better person? You can't become a better person because if you could, Jesus didn't need to die for you. What you can become is one who lives out their identity in great thanks.

And Jesus is the Lord. And you ask him to open doors and show you what the next step of faith you need to take is. And you keep taking that so that people in your sphere of influence know beyond a shadow of a doubt you're a Christian and you're living different than them. With that, some will come to Christ and many will reject you. And that's a fact.

And for many of us, we care more about worldly comforts and having close friends than we do about Jesus and the gospel. And that's just a fact. It's just a fact. I don't. I hear somebody go woo.

It's just true. It's just true. Right, so here's the thing. At your funeral, what are people gonna say about you? I've officiated a number of them, man.

I want you to imagine for a minute somebody standing around your casket. What will they tell, what will they say? Will they talk about the money you made? Will they talk about the way you liked your family? Will they talk about what your career did?

Will they talk about what you invented? Or will they say Jesus clearly changed them? Will they say they lived on mission? Will they say about you? They pointed people to Christ?

I had a privilege of officiating a funeral right here at Brave within the last month of a Woman that went to this church that died of cancer. And it was one of the most glorious funerals that I had been a part of because it was just a testimony. Speaker after speaker after speaker after speaker. Not about the success this woman had. She had a lot of it.

But every single person talked about how she impacted them for Jesus. And as I was sitting down there as the officiant, I was saying, I hope people can say that about me at my funeral. I hope people will speak that way about me at my funeral. And. And they even had a video of her.

And it was awesome because they, they recorded her like a week or two before she died. And she was saying, if you're at my funeral, she's like, I'm not looking down on you. I'm not even thinking about you. I've worried about you all way too long. I'm focused on Jesus.

I was like, amen. Amen.

See, here's the thing. We have to realize when we come to Christ and we know our future's secure, we forget the fact that, that there's people out there that God still wants to save to. And no one's gone too far. These messages right now, just so you know, ADX Supermax prison in Florence, they're hearing the message today. Every single one of you guys, I'm telling you, amen.

There's not a guy in that prison that Jesus Christ can't save. Right now. None of you have gone too far. Amen. And that's the hope we find in Christ.

So here's my question as I end. Do you have that story? Do you have a story where you can say I was, but now in God I can tell mine in five seconds. I was a religious kid that grew up and tried to be good, thinking I was going into heaven. But God saved me when I was 18 and showed me I was on my way to hell.

And I called out to him, placed my faith and trust in Jesus and now I'm living for him, serving him the best I can to preach his word. That's my testimony. Now I can tell that story in three hours too, and give you a lot of color commentary. But that's my testimony. Do you have that testimony?

Testimony I was but now and God than this because that's how he wants to use your life. Amen. Way more for you than getting you to heaven. He's got purpose and mission for you to accomplish. Amen.

Would you stand with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you glory, we give you honor, we give you praise for who you are. And Lord, we pray that each and every person here would have a testimony. If you don't have a testimony today, here's how you can pray. Lord, I'm still living in my sin.

I'm still under your judgment. You, Jesus, save me now come into my life, be the Lord of my life. I confess you as my Lord and use my life for the mission where you have me. I give you all the praise, I give you all the glory. I give you all the honor.

In Jesus name, amen and amen. Could we give God praise for his word?