Today we're finishing up talking about the Apostle Paul.
And Apostle Paul, for a lot of people, causes mixed feelings.
And there's a reason for that.
Because of his single mindedness.
When you read, he literally wrote half the New Testament.
And when you read what the Apostle Paul says, it's very specific.
And it's very, kind of, life changing.
Now that you're a believer in Christ,
that means you change.
Kind of think back to his roots, when he was so specific about what God says.
He takes that seriously.
And I think that makes sense that we take that seriously.
But he is so specific about what it means to be a dad.
He challenges us, right?
What does it mean to be a mom?
What does it mean to be a male?
Or what does it mean to be a female?
And he challenges us to say, what does it mean if you're a slave owner?
And what does it mean if you're not a slave owner?
What does it mean if you're free?
Like what do all these things mean?
As a kid, and a child, what as an employer?
All of these things are challenging.
And all of these things push us as a Christian to say, like,
"What's next?"
And as a guy, I think you kind of think about the life of Paul.
I'm 100% sure I wouldn't want to hang out with him.
He sounds kind of miserable to be around.
Not because he wasn't such a great Christian.
But because he was.
Just think about his single-mindedness to the task.
It says that once he understood the Gospel, remember,
he goes immediately into Damascus and starts to preach.
They want to kill him.
He goes to another town.
They want to kill him.
He does that there.
He studies for ten years.
He teaches for a year.
They estimate he traveled 10,000 miles on foot for his
three, and possibly four, missionary journeys.
That's not even counting what he traveled on a ship.
He's dedicated to a singular mission.
And with all these accomplishments,
and starting all these different churches,
and writing half the New Testament, you would think like, that at the end of his life,
as he faces prison, really, this is ultimately what takes him.
He goes and he goes into prison once, which isn't a big deal.
Like, house arrest.
But then later on the Mamertine Dungeon in Rome,
you can still go see that today.
He's in here and towards the end of his life he comes to this conclusion.
It's not about the stuff that I have.
I was listening to a story and I could not find it.
I searched and searched and searched.
But it was on NPR, or something like that.
But a woman was saying, I thought she was from Australia.
She was talking about her grandfather.
When her grandfather died, they're going through his stuff in the closet
and they get to the back of the closet and there's this shoe box.
And they open up the shoe box and it had like four Olympic gold medals in it.
And she said, "I was blown away at his humility because
he never, ever mentioned this."
If this was me,
and I even thought about going to the Olympics,
that would probably be my starter for every conversation I ever had.
They'd be like, "Would you like the regular oil change?"
I'm like, "I was, almost went to the Olympics.
You know what I'm saying right?"
Like this is how he's, like Paul at the end of his life
has all these things.
And as far as following and dedication to Christ
that would put him towards the top.
But he says very simply, "For me to live is Christ.
And to die is gain."
That's it.
In all this stuff, like if God lets me still live,
I'm going to continue to proclaim him.
And if I die, I'm with Jesus.
And I think if our biggest takeaway on this whole earth is:
A. That God can use you.
But, B. As God uses you
and puts opportunities in your life,
it's very, very simple.
Do whatever you can to get closer and closer to Jesus
and I find that God's going to open
the doors for you in your life.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, You appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus.
You changed who he was and you used him.
Use us in that unique way.
Help us look at all the opportunities that you have.
The gifts that you've given us.
And, not that that puffs us up.
But, instead, these are gifts that you've given us.
How can we use these gifts for your church?
How can we use these gifts in the people's lives that we live with?
And how can we proclaim so clearly who you are?
Because, ultimately, if we keep living on this earth, that's fantastic.
We get to give you glory.
But if we die, we get to be with you.
So it does not matter in the end.
We push all that aside and see what Paul proclaimed so very clearly.
The sufficiency of you as our Savior.
And that life doesn't really happen.
And identity doesn't happen until we find it in you.
We ask this in your name. Amen.