The Grace Of God Sermons – Today’s story is about an event that completely and radically changed Paul. As you know, Paul was the most important person, who took over the message and ministry of Jesus until the creation of Christianity as we know it. Paul’s thoughts are the foundation of what we believe without Paul, I’m not sure we would have Christianity. Jesus gave the message in the ministry and Paul really described who Jesus was, what salvation is and everything. Therefore, he was the most important person in Christian history, but he was not a follower of Jesus from the beginning. On the contrary, he was against the message of Jesus and wanted to destroy the movement. He was intelligent, well versed in the Scriptures, and very, very strong. He was on his way to Damascus to arrest the Christians. This is what he says: “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murders against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and asked him for letters for the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found anyone dead – on the road, men or women , can bring them bound to Jerusalem.” Saul was a Hebrew name. Many people mistakenly think that Saul was called before he was converted. No Saul was a righteous Hebrew name, and Paul was a Greek name. So Saul didn’t become Paul, just another name, like John and Johan, so it’s just another name. All who belonged to the street were Christians. At that time, Christians did not have a name for themselves, so people called them ‘those who follow the path’.
When I read today’s story, I realized that people can change. In 30 years of service, I have seen people, but people do not change. They are so stubbornly the same. I mean 30 years, the outside looks like they have changed, but the inside is still the same. So I really don’t see the change. But reading today’s passage of Scripture, I realized that change is possible. People can change. Paul was strong and full of conviction. He was full of passion and enthusiasm. He was so sure of himself. He was convinced that he was right. He was religious and he was a man. Can you tell this guy won’t change? Hear all the discretion I just did. You will suspect that this guy will never change, but this person has changed impossibly.
The Grace Of God Sermons
You know, religious people can be very tough. Religious people believe that what they think and do is what God wants them to do. They are very tough. They can be very stubborn. It’s nice to be religious, but when that nice faith can blind us and we can become very stubborn, that’s how Paul was before he met Christ. He was so sure of himself, but the irony was that he didn’t really know who he was. He didn’t even know that he didn’t know about himself. He was so blind to himself. St. Paul was passionate perhaps even before he met Christ. There’s nothing wrong with being passionate. Being passionate is good. Being dedicated to what you do is good, but when your passion is so strong that it consumes you and blinds you to yourself, then that passion can be dangerous. People who are so sure of themselves when they don’t know much about themselves. Those people are dangerous people. That’s what Paul did. His passion consumed him and wounded others, and even killed him. That’s why Jesus asked: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He used the word persecuted. In other words, why hurt people? Why do you abuse people? He was so blindly strong that his thoughts were gospel to him. His will was God’s will and his purpose was God’s purpose. Arresting Christians, killing them and destroying the movement was not his goal, but he believed it was God’s plan. This is why change is so difficult. Once you get to where Paul was, nothing can really change you. Everything he did was what God wanted him to do, he believes. He fully believed that everything he was doing was what God wanted him to do, but he was wrong. In the end, he admitted that he was wrong. He became completely blind to himself. Parker Palmer, an educator said, “Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I have to hear my life tell me who I am.” Look at the screen, meditate on it. Before I can tell my life what I want with it, I have to hear life tell me who I am.
The Dynamics Of God's Grace
Just because you are doing evangelistic work, it does not mean that you really know God and that God really knows you. Now it is important whether you are doing God’s work or not, but whether it is something you do with God rather than everything you do with yourself, you have to ask yourself. There is a very insightful passage about this. Matthew records it this way: “Not everyone who says to me: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me: “Lord, Lord, am I not in your name prophesied and in your name cast out devils and more?” In your name there is power. Then I declare to them: “I do not know you. I do not know who you are. Get away from me, you evil ones.”
The change that took place on the road to Damascus was not a bad person becoming a good person, an immoral person, becoming a moral person, an unbelieving person becoming a faithful religious person. The change that took place on the road to Damascus was really about a person who was so blind to himself that he came to find himself. This change was not a miracle. For me, this change was a miracle. The voice, the light, that’s not what was amazing, what was really amazing was that this person really changed until they died. That change was a miracle for me because I don’t often see such a change in people. Pavla, a real miracle happened on the way to Damascus. In the end, he realized that his will was not the will of God. His intention is not God’s intention. His work is not God’s work. He understood that like what Isaiah revealed: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than yours. he thinks.” He realized that he was not as righteous as he thought, and he realized that God’s grace is not given to those who think they are righteous, but to those who realize that they are sinners. He realized that salvation is not his own nor does it depend on him, but only from God. He realized that his religious beliefs, traditions and behavior would not save him. All these theologies do not cross this limit of his experience on the road to Damascus. All kinds of things happened to him that day. Paul’s whole world changed on the road to Damascus. My friends, when you discover yourself, the universe opens up. He saw God in the right way and was able to experience God’s grace. His zeal and passion blinded him, but God’s grace opened his eyes. What happened on the road to Damascus? God’s grace fell on Paul. That is the power of God’s grace. This is what made the change possible. God’s grace. who are you How would you define yourself? Your abilities, your work, your religious agreement, your righteousness? Not. You are what you are by the grace of God. You are who you are by the grace of God.
Ultimately, that was Paul’s conclusion. This is what is said: “Since I am the youngest among the apostles, it is not right for me to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God, but because of the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace no no yet was the opposite. I do more than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.” There is nothing more important than knowing that we are who we are by God’s grace. This was experienced by all those people who met God. We are what we are by the grace of God. It was not my ability, nor my religious zeal, nor my righteousness, only God’s grace. You know, Paul tries to do everything himself, to please God, to do God’s work. He did everything. He worked hard to do it, but he got even angrier. It became more violent. Without God’s grace, when he tried to do everything himself, he became just an angry person. But the grace of God brought him back to where he should have been
Sermons on the grace of god, sermons on power of god, the god of all grace, time of grace sermons, the love of god sermons, the amazing grace of god, about the grace of god, the grace of god, the god of restoration sermons, the favour of god sermons, sermons on grace of god, by the grace of god
