March 30, 2025 • 61 mins
People label, but God names. You don’t have to chase identity or earn worth, because you’ve always been called, loved, and set apart for something more.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Galatians 1, verses 11-20
Acts 9, verses 3-6
Genesis 17, verses 3-5
Genesis 32, verse 28
Matthew 16, verses 15-18
Acts 13, verse 9
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message you know. God amazes me.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
God has so many ways to confirm what He wants
us to know. I'm thankful that God is consistent and
patient in my life and in your life. And the
truth of the matter is that God wants to speak
to us more than we want to hear him. God
wants us to know His will more than we want
to know it. And so you haven't come here today
(00:41):
by accident. You didn't come here today because you heard
their recute girls at Elevation. Even if you came here
today because you heard their recute girls at Elevation, you
came here today because God has something to say to you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And in fact, as.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I was writing in my journal on Sadday, I realized
that today would be a defining moment that we'll see
a testimony on a screen maybe a year from now,
maybe five years from now, of somebody saying It was
that day for me when the Lord fed me, when
the Lord led me, when the Lord lifted me, when
the Lord gave me a new life.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So I'm just excited.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Don't you feel good to be here for somebody's big day.
Tell your neighbor it could be yours. Tell them this
could be your big day. Now, ask your neighbor. Can
I get your autograph?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Just in case?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Come on, ask your neighbor. Can we take a selfie together?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Just in case?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I want to get a selfie with you? Just in
case I need to prove a year from now that
you're not the person you used to be. You're not
leaving like you came.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
God can change anybody. God can change anybody. God can
do anything.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Speak today for the fifth installment of my series called called.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
You heard me right?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You're like pastor you glitched a little bit, you said,
a series called called what's it called? It's called called
That's what it's called. We've been taking a look at
several people. I don't call them characters in the Bible.
I do say that accidentally sometime I don't mean to.
That makes them sound fictional. But faith is not for
fictional situations or hypotheticals. It's for humanity, people, flesh and
(02:33):
blood and bone and sweat and tears and lies.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
In truth, all of that is found in the scriptures.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Today we're going to look at a passage of scripture
from the Book of Galatians, chapter one, Galatians chapter one.
And I'm so glad that time ran out, because every
five minutes I was waiting for church to start, I
kept adding scriptures to this sermon, and so it's good
(02:59):
that the clock ran out so we can preach. I
like to preach real quick. I won't go over three hours.
It doesn't take the Lord long to say what he
wants to say. But I wanted to give a proper
context for this message today. We talked last week about
a man named Jacob. Jacob, God called his name twice.
(03:23):
That's kind of what I'm looking for in this series.
There are seven seven people that God called their name
back to back two times in a row in the scripture.
So you got Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha, Jacob, Jacob, Simon
Simon who later became Peter, Abraham, Abraham, Samuel, Samuel.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Any guesses who we're going to preach about.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Today, Okay, Galatians, Chapter one, verse eleven. I want you
to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached
is not of human origin. I did not receive it
from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I
received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have
(04:05):
heard of my previous way of life in Judaism. Any
guesses who we're talking about today, getting there? You're getting there, okay,
I'll tell you in a minute, just give some clues.
For you've heard of my previous way of life in Judaism.
How intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried
(04:25):
to destroy it. That word tried would preach itself whoever
this is to say. And I tried to stand against God,
and God stood against me. I tried to persecute the
Church of God and destroy it. I was advancing in
Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people,
and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
But when God, who set me apart from my mother's.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to
reveal his son in me so that I might preach
him among the gentiles. My immediate Resis response was not
to consult any human being.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Wow. I did not go up.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was.
But I went into Arabia, that's the desert. I had
to get prepared. I had to get ready, and later
I returned to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went
up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephis and stayed
with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles,
(05:27):
only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God
that what I am writing you is no lie.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Whoever he is, he's not lying.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Now go over to Acts chapter nine, and I'll show
you who we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Acts chapter nine, verse three.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly alike from
heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do
you persecute me?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Who are you? Lord? Saul?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Last I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Now listen to this. Now get up and go into
the city, and you will be told what you must do.
Hit me again with verse four. He heard a voice
when he fell to the ground, Saul Saw. But justin,
(06:25):
if you can real quick, circle that Saw, Saul. And
today I want to tell you what my subject is.
I want to talk to you about when God gets ready,
when God gets ready. And I also have a subtitle
to help it stick so you can remember it. Here's
(06:46):
the subtitle, Callings have commas. I'll explain it in fifteen minutes,
but say it by faith. Callings have commas. Put a
comma in chat. Tell your neighbor. Callings have commas. So
when he says Saul Saul verse four, Saul, now circle
(07:10):
what comes between comma Saul, Just circle the comma.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
For me, justin, let's preach about that. Father.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I thank you for the little things that give us revelation.
Do a big work through it in Jesus' name. Amen,
you may be seated something as little as a comma
such a big calling Saul Saul. This moment is unique,
as Saul is going to kill Christians, and he becomes
(07:39):
one coming to kill Christians, and he meets Christ called
by the one that he's trying to kill. Bless you
and you say, he wasn't trying to kill Christ. He
was trying to kill Christians. But we found out in
this text, didn't we that Jesus takes it personally?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
How you treat as people?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Tell your neighbor be nice to me, Tell him you
better be real nice to me. The Lord hangs my
drawings on his refrigerator. You better be nice to me.
The Lord likes me a whole lot. You better be
nice to me. He likes my chubby cheeks. You better
be nice to me. Don't call me short. The Lord
made me five foot eight and a half. You better
(08:23):
be nice to me. Be nice to me. When I
was thinking about preaching on Saul Saul, of course, the
comma isn't in the Hebrew or the Greek text.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's just they're in the English for us.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
But it caused me to pause, because that's what a
comma is designed to do. In a sentence, right, a
comma says, pause, let's insert something here.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's one thing that ecmma does.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Another thing that acamma does is it can introduce additional information.
That is called and a positive thank you mss Cratic
fifth grade English. It's called an a. A coma can let
you know, here's some additional information. Comma, comma and additional information.
And yes, I may have had some assistance from a
(09:11):
research tool called chat GPT to bring you this current
information today. But another thing that a comma can do
is to set into effect a different event, or to
introduce it, so to set off an element.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And I'll explain that in a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
But one of the things that a comma can do
that we're most familiar with is to separate items into
a list.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So if you see a list of the Apostles.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
You'll see Simon, Peter, and Bartholomew and James and John,
and there's commas between each of them to distinguish that
although they were twelve disciples, they were twelve distinctive people
with twelve distinctive personalities, and God used each of those
personalities and a unique way that only he.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Could use them to fulfill a purpose and only he
could fulfill.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And the thing I'm beginning to realize about my life
is that not only do I have to exist within
teams and frameworks of organizations and societies, not only do
I have to learn to interact and play and get
along with others, but I have to learn to get
along with myself.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I have to learn to.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Get along with myself because even within this one person
named Stephen.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I have commas.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Usually I don't come down to the floor until about
thirty minutes into my sermon, but I'm coming early today.
I'm heading up walking a little slow because I did
some squats yesterday, a little heavier than I intended.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm gonna get there though. Now in this section.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I was visualizing this before I preached it, and I
thought it would really help us set up for the
message is that I have multiple callings represented just in
this section of the room, and I'll prove it to
you because I have one name, Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Legally I go by Stephen, but to.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Multiple people here, they all call me something different. She
calls me son. That's my mom. They're not putting her
on camera. She's too pre there, she goes, she's too
pretty to miss her camera shot.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Can you see her? Not at all? That's definitely not her.
Came down a little earlier than they were ready for me.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Back there in the back, somebody in the back smoking
a cigarette instead of working the camera. I'm gonna check
into that because back there in the back they call
me boss. Not that I'm a dictator or anything like that,
but I'm the boss. She calls me boss. Mom calls
me son. She gave me a name Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior,
(11:50):
and she knows me in a role. She calls me pastor.
This is cherish. She works on our team. Give it
up for cherish.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Everybody.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
She calls me pastor. She calls me son. He calls
me dad. He used to call me daddy. The saddest
day of my life is when he dropped the d Y.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I was like, Dad, just dad. Now He's like, yeah,
just dad.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I'm like, oh, this is the first step of this
is the next thing. You know, he's going to be
on drugs like I started spiraling out of control. This
whole process of adulthood. So son, pastor Dad. My best
friend from high school is over here. His name is Eric.
He calls me Bo. It's a South Carolina thing. Don't
(12:44):
worry about it. It's kind of like in Australia, mate,
or like you might say dude, or you might say bro,
but in South Carolina we say bo. And its incidentally
what I call my dog, but there's no correlation. He
was calling me bou long before I had a Boston
interior named Bo.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So I'm illustrating to you. Stay with me for a moment.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I'm illustrating to you that I am called all that,
I am called son, i am called dad, Daddy, I'll
always be daddy.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I am called I am called bo. She calls me babe.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah, yeah, Now we got a problem if he calls
me babe. But I am babe while I'm still boy.
It's not like I am babe one day in bo
the next. I might be Bo one day and babe
the next I might. I might be dad one moment
(13:49):
and son the next, because i was a son before
I was a dad, and I'm still a son while
I'm a dad, and I'm still a boss while I'm
a babe. And sometimes she calls me babe, and sometimes
she calls me boss. But the message I'll get off this,
the message that I'm trying to give to you today,
is a simple one. Callings have commas. The process of
(14:15):
your development isn't that you stop being something and become
something else. If it was, it'd be easy if you
stop being son when you became dad, you would know
what to do and you'd be a good one. Wow.
But the truth is you have to learn to become
a dad while you're still a son and a little
boy in some ways yourself. I'm preaching so good you
can't say amen. You had to write that down. I'm
(14:39):
called all of that. Tell somebody next to you, I'm
all that. Don't be too impressed by me.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
But I'm all that.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I'm not saying I'm doing it all well, but I'm
all that. I'm boss, I'm babe, I'm bo, I'm dad,
I'm daddy.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm all that. I'm all that. And I'm trying to
figure out from the passage that we read. And I
may not even go out on the stage today. I
might just preach it all the way from down here.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Because I want to look in your eyes today and
try to figure out, even through that.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Camera, what all are you? What all are you? Let's
take it a little deeper than we did before.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I was looking at comments the other day of a
sermon that I preached, trying to figure out if I
did a good job. Well, that's a dangerous place to
go to get an assessment of your performances, the comments section.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Of you two.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Because I scrolled a little bit and someone said this
man is so anointed. I felt kind of good. I
know it's prideful. I know I shouldn't care, but I
felt kind of good. I thought, yeah, I am kind
of willy, I am kind of annoyed to I am
kind of greasy.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That was a good sermon.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I scrolled a little more, didn't have to scroll very far.
Someone else said, this man is so annoying. So all
it took was a little bit of scrolling, and I
went from anointed to one person and annoying to another.
Tell somebody you're all that you're anointed. You know what's
(16:21):
coming next, don't you, and you're annoying. Paul was pretty anointed,
would you agree. I know in the text we called
him Saul Saul, but of course he went on to
become the great missionary to the Gentiles named Paul. He
became Paul after Jesus got a hold of his life,
(16:44):
so we say, but he could be kind of anointed.
I think anytime that someone falls asleep when you're preaching
out of a window and you raise them from the dead,
that counts as anointed. I think anytime you turn to
a sorcerer and say, in the name of Jesus, shut
up and the demon had to leave, you're anointed. I
think anytime God can do miracles not just from your hands,
(17:04):
but from your handkerchiefs, you're pretty anointed. I think that
if your shadow is enough to bring healing, you're pretty anointed.
At the same time that Paul is anointed, I'm sure
that if we were in his close proximity, we might
say that he's a little annoying. I know you don't
like to call your Bible characters annoying, but these are
(17:26):
not characters. These are conflicted human beings. These are people
with pasts. These are people with preferences. These are people
with proclivities. These are people with weaknesses. These are people
with limps like Jacob. These are people with distracted minds
like Martha. These are people with stutters and stammers and
excuses like Moses.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
These are people with shaky faith like Abraham.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And yet what we're learning in this series is that
you are called all of that. I recently released a
song in the verses I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing,
I'm a story time is revealing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I'm all of.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
These things, but mostly I'm thankful. Could that be true?
I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing. I'm a story
time is revealing, And just in case you're looking at
one chapter in my life, don't forget I'm all of
these things. I am all of these things. Can be kind,
(18:33):
can be cruel, all of these things. And the sooner
we admit that we have the capacity to be called
all of these things accurately in any given situation, the
more we will learn to rely on the Lord who
never changes.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The more we will learn to rely on the Lord.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Whose character is consistent, and the more that we will
learn that it is important that although I'm Dad and
I'm son, and I'm pastor, and I'm boss and I'm
bo and I'm babe, I'm all of these things, but
I cannot go to people to figure out who I
am too soon, because people don't see me how I am.
(19:16):
They see me how they need me to be. He
doesn't need a friend, He's got friends. He needs gas money.
So I'm Dad. I'm not an ATM. But he might
see me that way, and I can get frustrated seeing
him as what do I look like to you?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Do I just look like a cash after you? Do
I look like a living, breathing cash after you?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Is that what I look like to you, But I'm
all of these things.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm all of these things.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin,
circumcised on the eighth Day, studied under Gamaliel, which would
be the equivalent of the highest degree of internship.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You could imagine all that Paul. Saul was all that.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And yet when the moment came for God to call
him as important as he was.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
God didn't set up an appointment.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Jesus did not ask Saul's administrative assistant, can I get
some time on the books with my man Saul.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It'd be nice if he could squeeze me in. You know,
sometimes I think.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
That we forget how sovereign God really is when we're
making our schedules, and then something just comes along and
knocks your whole plan apart, and you realize that it's
so important for all the different roles that you have
in your life, to realize that for all of the
roles that you have, there is only one resource that
(20:47):
will never run out, and his name is Jesus. So
Paul said in Galatians chapter one that when God called
me by his grace, I did not immediate confer with
human beings. Why is that because they are not the
source of what I am. I'm trying to say it
(21:09):
another way that will be better. Okay, people label, but
God names. People label, but God names. And people label
(21:29):
through their lens of what they see. But God names
through his lens of what He gave you. Paul said
from even before the womb. And so the moment when
we see Paul being knocked down by the glorious light
of Jesus Christ, I mean, it's a pretty dramatic moment.
(21:50):
In Acts chapter nine, the Bible says that as he
neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him. Now this is somebody that you know,
the Christians were praying about because the faith of the
Christians was flourishing. But there will never be flourishing faith
without a fight. Please get that in your head. There
(22:13):
will never be flourishing faith will never flourish without a fight.
Let me say that again. Faith will never flourish without
a fight.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
It can't.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
The enemy will leave you alone if you are not
walking in faith. But the moment that you walk in faith,
he fights you. So that's why he's been fighting you.
Why God I'll tell you why God, God, God is working.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
In your life. And we see.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Saul in Acts chapter nine, can I preach a little
bit with an outline? We see him go from fighting
to falling to following. From fighting, everybody say fighting to
falling to following.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
He said, I was locking.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Up Christians and consenting to the stoning of Stephen.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And I thought I was doing good.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And it wasn't like I It wasn't like I knew
I was wrong. But one of the most beautiful moments
of your life comes when you encounter the utter relief
of realizing.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You were wrong. We're doing the moment when you realize.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
That I was say the word, well, you had a
hard time getting that out your mouth. You sound like
you went to the dentist and got some novacane before
you said that. Did you hear how hard it was
for you to say I was wrong. I was wrong
to put that pressure on you. I was wrong when
(23:50):
I got angry with you and.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I said you made me mad. You didn't make me mad.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
You just revealed what was already in my heart as
anger at somebody else. I was wrong to yell at you.
I was wrong to believe that you knew God less
than I did, because you struggled with something that my
exposure did not enable.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I was wrong to judge you like that.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I was wrong to think that I was right to
the exclusion of others having the right to know God
in their own relationship.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I was wrong.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I'm gonna do a series sometime in the twentieth year
of ministry called All the Things I Was Wrong About,
and it's gonna be a twenty year series, because that
should be the process of your Christian life is realizing
that you are wrong and repenting. And you said, well,
Pastor Stephen, that's not what I came to church for.
I believe in the blood of Jesus, and I'm right
(24:40):
about it. I believe in the resurrection and I'm right
about it. I believe that He saves and he's coming
again on the clouds on a horse, and he's gonna
kick his enemies, and he's gonna have his blood dipped
in robe, and he's the Lion and he's the Lamb.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
And I believe all of that, and I know I'm
right about it, and they're wrong. You know, you can
be right in the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
To have an arrogant disposition that thinks that you know
everything to be the kind of parent that punishes your
kids for stuff that you know that you did ten
times worse and look at them like, what in the
world is wrong with you? You know exactly what's wrong
with them. It's called your DNA. That's what's wrong with them.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
What's wrong with them is you.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I was spanking one of the kids one time, Please
don't take me to court, and the Lord said, what,
You're going to spank the you out of them?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That helped me because I realized that sometimes the most
righteous thing I can be is wrong. How open are
you coming to church today hearing something that you might
be wrong about? Or do you just want to say
amen to all the stuff that you already say you
believe but don't live anyway?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Now, Saul is an interesting character because other people in
scripture we see and Jesus is rescuing them from a
life of sin. That was not Saul's testimony. Saul was
not a horrible sinner. Saul wasn't rescued from some gross sin.
Saul was rescued from self righteousness. He says, I was advancing,
(26:21):
I was going, I thought I was right, and I
found out I was wrong, and watch this the whole
word that God wants to give you today. Hinges on this.
Sometimes you have to be wrong before you're ready. Sometimes
you are not ready for what God wants to do
next in your life because you are not willing to
(26:43):
be wrong. Are you willing to be wrong for a
moment to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord
so that He will lift you up to be able
to say, maybe there is another way to do that.
Maybe there was a better way to approach that. Maybe
I don't know every style of worship. Maybe I don't
know every way that God can move into church. Maybe
(27:06):
I don't know every way that God can Maybe I
shouldn't keep putting periods in places where God puts a comma.
Maybe I shouldn't write people off so quick. Maybe I
shouldn't just throw people out so quick, like their milk
that went bad. Maybe I shouldn't just make up my
(27:28):
mind that they can't change, because the truth is, I'm
still changing. I'm still changing, I'm still learning, I'm still growing.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Give me space to change. I need a little room
to change. I got a little cocoon, and I'm changing
in here, and I might break out and I might
get wings. But I'm struggling against this right now. Why
would you put a period in a place where God
puts somebody else in a cocoon to transform them into
something that you've never seen before? Or why would you
(28:04):
do it to yourself? Why would you do it to yourself?
Why would you put a period on your purpose? When
God put a comma, I'm trying to say He's not
done with you yet. I'm trying to say nothing is
over till God says this over. I'm trying to say
(28:28):
everything that the enemy meant for evil, God has a
way of turning it for good. I'm trying to say
that the weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper.
I'm trying to say that your latter will be greater
than your past. I'm trying to say that if you're
still breathing, there's a reason that you're breathing. I'm trying
(28:49):
to say that I don't care what they said about you.
I care what God knows about you. Because people label,
but God names. And you might be addicted, but you
might not say that way, and you might be bankrupt
and broke, but you might not stay that way.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
And you might be mean and bitter, but you might
not stay that.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Way because the blood of Jesus has a way of
breaking you out of the prisons of your previous life.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
There are some people in this room who.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Have been in the prison of your past so long.
But I want you to realize that callings have commas.
Comma com The next time the devil starts telling you
is over, just do one of these and keep walking.
The next time people say your best is behind you,
just do one of these and keep walking. The next
(29:38):
time somebody's saying something about you and you know it's
not true, don't even say anything back. Just go boom
and keep walking. Because God does commas. Because God looks
at dry bones and seize armies, because God looks at
red seas and sees highways.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Because God looks at Sol and sees Paul.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Because God looks as Simon sees Peter.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Looks at Jacob sees Israel.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I'm so glad God does commas, and it's just a
quick thing he can do to get you to see
something in.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yourself that you never saw before. Watch this.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
It is so important that you realize that big doors
swing on little hinges and something as small as a comma.
Saul saw something as ordinary as light when binged into
his eyes turned the world upside down. At this point
(30:36):
in his life, Paul thought I've arrived. At this point
in his life, Paul thought I knew at all. At
this point in his life, Paul thought he was everything
but wrong.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
At this point in his life, Paul was ranked at
the top. But just when he got there, God orchestrated
a falling into a new calling.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
The Bible says in Acts chapter nine, verse four, that
as Paul was riding along, he fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying, Saul sauw. It's very interesting
to me that he couldn't hear that voice until he
was falling. Sometimes it takes a heartbreak for you to
(31:28):
be able to hear God. Sometimes it takes an interruption
to get your attention. And Saul fell off. That's what
the young people say, man, he fell off. Jereabay saw
he was doing good man, but I heard he's around
there with that cult called Christians.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Saul fell off.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
In fact, I don't know if you noticed it when
I read in Galatians chapter one, because I get this,
this is very important. You have to live it now
and explain it later. You have to live it now,
survive it now, explain it later. When I read you
Galatians Chapter one, verses eleven through twenty, I read that
(32:12):
on purpose first. But it's not what Paul said while
he was going through his conversion.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's what he said fourteen years after the fact. And Saul,
excuse me.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Paul the artist formerly known as Saul saw his Hebrew name.
He was named after the first king of Israel. He
was from the same tribe of Benjamin. The name Saul
means to hear or to ask, excuse me, not to hear,
to ask is Isn't that crazy that in the beginning
of the passage he's asking for letters to persecute the church,
(32:45):
and after God gets done with him, he's asking Jesus,
who are you?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And God is changing his questions? Is that crazy? And
as he's explaining to the.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Church at Galatian, now, this is a group of Christians
who didn't grow up Jewish. It's a group of Christians
who we would call gentiles, who Paul was called to reach.
And he says in verse thirteen, I know you heard
of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely
(33:16):
I persecuted the Church of God. You heard about my
previous way of life. Now stop right there. Have you
been imprisoned in your previous This is the scary thing
about consulting with people. People will put you in the
prison of your previous. In Saul's case, it wasn't a
(33:39):
life of sin. It was a life of self righteousness.
But see, to them, he was a Christian killer, and
so they could never forget what he represented to them,
And that's why it was important that he went straight
to God. I heard a story one time about three
baseball umpires and they were talking about their philosophy of
(34:01):
calling balls and strikes.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Well, one of the.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Baseball umpires said, I call it like it is, and
the next umpire said, I call it like I see it.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
And the third umpire said, it ain't nothing till I
call it.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I believe God is saying today, it ain't nothing till
I call it. You might think you're really something your resume.
It ain't nothing till I call it.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Paul, who was.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
So credentialed, Paul who was so capable, Paul who was
so incredibly charismatic, said you heard about my previous way
of life. Now get ready, because this is a really
powerful reflection from the apostle. He said, you heard how
intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to
destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of
(34:54):
my own age, among my own people, and was extremely.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Now I want to show you verse fifteen because it's
what really lit my spirit on fire for somebody in
the room today, Paul says, after all of that that
you've heard about me, after all of that that I
did against Jesus, I was fighting against him. Now I'm
following him. I was fighting against him. Now I am
filling the world with his teaching. I am filling the
(35:22):
world with the message that I used to fight against.
This is how big God can do it. This is
how drastic of a change God can make. It is
too soon for you to give up on anybody. It
is too soon for you to give up on you.
It is too soon for you to give up on freedom.
I was telling somebody the other day this is the
(35:43):
way I am and it will never change, and they said,
it's too soon for you.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
To say that you've got too many experiences.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
You've got too many valleys, you've got too many mountains,
you've got too many tomorrows, you've got too many next months,
you've got too many next years. It is too soon
for you to say that. It is too soon for
you to say I'll never. It is too soon for
you to say I'm not. It is too soon for
you to assume that what you've seen so far is
(36:13):
all there is to you. Because Paul, who was called Saul,
thought I've done it, This is it. And God laughed
because where he put a period, God put a comma.
He said, you heard about my previous way of life.
(36:35):
You heard how I advanced. You heard how zealous and
passionate I was. And then verse fifteen says something very powerful.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
But when God comma, I know.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
It's gonna take a minute, but you're gonna get it.
But when God comma, take those three words and get
them in your spirit. Now, put them in your mouth
and say them. But when God, I want to see
the chat light up right now with that three words.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
But when God.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
One of the favorite phrases for us to shout about
in church is but God, this is a little different.
But God means it seemed to be going one way,
now it's going another.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
It looked like this.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It was really that I was dead in my sins
and transgressions.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
But God made me alive. Paul wrote that, by the way,
Paul wrote that after.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
He'd spent his whole life fighting against the thing he
was now following in, Paul wrote that, by the way,
don't you dare tell me that you're done. Don't you
dare tell me that nothing good is gonna come from you.
Don't you dare tell me that it's over. Paul wrote that,
but when God comma, you could see this on the screen.
You're listening to this on a podcast. If you are
(38:03):
listening to this sermon and not watching it, pull the
car over and look at the screen right now, or
pull up this verse in your U version app pull
up Galatians one point fifteen, because I want you to see.
But when God, which means what that it's on his schedule,
not mine. But when God, I was sinking deep in sin,
(38:30):
far from the peaceful shore. But when God, they wrote
me off, talked about me like a dog, said I
was annoying. But when God, I was up to my
neck in it. I didn't think I could take another
phone call or a text message with bad news. But
then a light shone from heaven and knock me off
(38:52):
my horse and knock me off my rightness. But when
God people said he'll never get up. People started playing
my funeral, people started writing my old bits aweary, people
started talking.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
About me behind my back.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
But when God comma, I'll say about this. So when
did Saul's name change to Paul? I know when Abraham's
name changed. I know when Abraham's name changed. Genesis chapter seventeen,
(39:31):
checked his out. The Lord took this man named Abram,
and he said, I like to buy a consonant consonant vinna.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I like the car.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Abraham, look at this Justice seventeen. Abraham fell face down.
Abraham what.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Somebody else felt that we were just talking about?
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Oh, so sometimes the fall signifies that there's a call coming.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
There's a call coming, there's a call coming. I don't
know what you fell into this week.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Some of you fell back into something this week that
you thought you walked away from.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
But after the fall, there is a calling.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
You're gonna help somebody get set free from him. I know,
y'all don't like this, but sometimes it takes wrong to
get you ready. It takes wrong to get you ready.
Stop beating up on yourself. Paul said, by the grace
of God, I was called it's time for you to
fall into calling. Now Abraham fell face down. He wasn't
(40:33):
called Abraham yet, he was called Abram. Abram means exalted Father.
That's freaking name called Abram. Why do you need an upgrade? Well,
when he fell face down, God said to him, that's
the call. After the fall asked for me, this is
my coming with you. You be the father of many nations
because Abram means exalted father.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Abraham means father of many.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
So now we see that God is exchanging a name
as a setup for expansion. I want you to just
be a father. I wants to be a father of
many nations. Who else you don't see? Jacob Jenu is
thirty two. He's wrestling with God all night. He don't
know it's God. He's fighting, and then he falls and
he says, I'm not letting go to your blessing. When
he falls, God said, I see you struggling with God humans,
(41:13):
and you have overcome, so you're no longer going to
be called Jacob, which means heal, grabber. But now your
name is Israel, which means overcomer, because you struggled with
God and with humans and have overcome. Wow, he got
a new name because he was not just carrying himself.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
He was carrying a nation.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
He was all that, all that was coming forth out
of him, All of that was meant to be from him,
all of that. Abram, Abraham, Jacob, Israel. Who else? Simon
Peter Well, he makes a confession. Jesus says, who do
you say that I am? Matthew, Chapter sixteen, verse fifteen.
He said, I know who you are. You're the Christ,
the son of the Living God. He said, blessed you,
Simon bar son of Jonah. Because flesh and blood is
(41:53):
not revealed this to you. You can't figure this out by
thinking it. You can't figure this out by studying it.
You can't figure this out by doing a DNA test.
What is it called twenty three and me? You can't
do twenty four to twenty five to me. The only
way you can know me is the Father in Heaven reveal.
And now I'm gonna reveal who you are. Now that you
see clearly who I am. I say you you are
Peter Petrol Cephis Rock. And upon this rock of the
revelation that you have of who I am, I'm going
(42:14):
to show you who you are.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I will build my church. Wow.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
So every time that God gave someone a new name,
he was building something. Every time that God gave them
a new name, he was enlarging something. Every time that
God gave their new name represented a new assignment, a
new sphere, a new domain, a new level of weight.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
So when did Paul become Paul? Saul? Saul? Now I
have to confess to you here.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
I would like to tell you that I learned that
in Bible school, and I never forgot it. But my
limited mind just all thought that when God touched him
on the road to Damascus, because he went blind, and
then he met him man named Annius, and he got
his site back and he was able to see, and
(43:10):
then he went into the desert to prepare for three years.
I always thought that somewhere in that Acts chapter nine,
somebody God or Antonius or somebody said, and verily, verily,
I say, unto thee Saul, you will no longer be
called Saul. You will now be called Paul so I
(43:33):
read all through Acts chapter nine, and I was like, wait,
I missed it.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Where is it? Maybe maybe as I'm reading the wrong version.
It took me about two hours. I just kept reading.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
I read Acts chapter nine, where Saul got knocked down
and fell and God told him I'm going to call
you to be a chosen vest. I read Acts chapter ten,
Acts chapter eleven, Acts chapter twelve. I read the whole
rest of the Book of Acts, and God never changed
his name. And I was shocked because I thought, just surely,
if he's going to be representing Jesus now as the
(44:06):
apostle Paul, that God must have given him that new name. Well,
it's not until Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine that we
see when Saul became Paul. Pause real quick, kama kamakama,
comma paus paus Pause. I'm telling you this because sometimes
(44:27):
we don't know when we're changing. Sometimes it's fourteen years later,
when you're writing the Book of Galatians that you realize, oh,
it wasn't a fall, it was a calling.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
What looked like falling was actually calling.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
What looked like a disability was actually my unique gift.
What looked like a learning disorder was actually, my brilliant
mind just firing a little.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Different than everybody else's.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
What looked like a rejection from people was God's redirection
for something that he called me uniquely to do.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Why aren't you helping me preach?
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I'm trying to help you recategorize, reclassify some stuff, because
it ain't nothing until God calls it. You can't call
it good, you can't call it bad. You can't call
it success, you can't.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Call it failure. It's nothing until He calls it.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
And here is the mighty apostle, Paul, saying, God who
called me from my mother's womb. And then I realized
In Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine, Oh.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
This is the most annointed verse I've read all year.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Ah. This will change your life. Ah, this will set
you free, because everybody's waiting for this change to come.
You know when I'm gonna feel better and be better
and do better and get taller and get richer, and
everything's gonna be going my way, and everybody's gonna be
nice to me and smiling me, and I'm not gonna
struggle with this anymore.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Acts, chapter thirteen, verse nine.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Here it is Vin Saul Comma, who was also called Paul.
What you mean God didn't change his name. Nope, Saul
was his Hebrew name. Paul was his Roman name because
(46:23):
he was all that. I said, he was all that.
To be born in Tarsus of Sicily, where Paul was born,
gave you a unique advantage that although I am Jewish
by heritage, I am Roman by citizenship. So it means
(46:44):
that I'm Saul and I'm also Paul. Saul isn't bad,
Paul isn't bad.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I'm just both.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Saul is the life I built until I met Jesus.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
All is my name.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
I'm gonna take the Gospel to the gentile world with.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
So God is saying to.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Somebody, I don't know your given name, I don't know
your legal name.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
God has you're standing on the precipice of I don't
know what you're shaking about. I don't know what you're
dealing with. I don't know who's talking to you about it.
I don't know who's counsel you're keeping. But God has
somebody here so you can hear today you already? Are
you all ready? Are you all ready? Are stop trying
(47:34):
to be that you all ready are? Stop trying to
give sex to get love. You already are loved. Stop
trying to give yourself away to people who do not
have the capacity to receive it. Because the Bible says,
when it came time for the gentiles to hear the Gospel, Saul,
(48:00):
who was also called Paul, step forth, and the Book
of Acts never calls him Saul again because listen to this,
listen to this. It's time for you to use your
other name. It's time for you to step into what
(48:20):
God already called you. And didn't it just bless your
socks off to realize that there was not a moment
where he said you shall no longer be Saul, you
shall be Paul.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
He said, simply, I just want you to use what
I already gave you.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
And maybe that's the calling in this season of your
life to start using what He already gave you, to
start using the resources that your heavenly Father has already
placed in your spirit through a deposit. Because I'll tell
you one thing about it. Everything I've got that's worth having,
I got it by grace, Paul said, when God was pleased,
(49:07):
give me galicians one fifteen one more time. When God
was pleased when God was pleased, and then what comes
between those commas who set me apart from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. So I just
want to say to you today that the grace was
(49:27):
there before the mistake was ever made. Oh oh, I
can hardly preach this to you because God is putting
it inside of me. I make mistakes, but the grace
outran the mistake. The grace outran the mistake. So when
(49:53):
you get done feeling sorry for yourself and get done
groveling and thinking God won't forgive you and God won't
use you, you'll realize callings have commas. But when God,
who set me apart from my mother's womb, my name
has always been Paul. I don't know who this is for,
but you've always been Paul. Some pain happened to you,
(50:16):
but you've always been Paul. You've always had a purpose,
You've always had a unique gift. You've always had that
smile that can light up a room. You've always been
able to listen to people. You've always been able to
unlock things. It just got buried for a little while.
But I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I said,
I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I'd rather
(50:39):
go blind for a little while than spend my whole
life fighting when God has called me to follow.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
So maybe we.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Didn't come today asking God to change us into something
that we're not. Maybe we came to allow God to
remind us.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
And he got it, already, got it, already, got it,
already got it.
Speaker 3 (51:05):
The grace came before the mistake was made. High five
Greek people say.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Already got it.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Before I pray, he hears me, before I cry.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
He's got a kleenex. I already got it. May this
be the day. May this be the.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Day that you stop running to people and letting them
put periods where God would call us because calleingues have commers.
I'm annoying and annoyted. I'm Saul, I'm Paul.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
I'm messed up.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
Had I got up? Had I got a message for
the world. You a shepherd or a singer? David, My
calling has commas. You a sinner or a saint, Stephen,
(52:10):
My calling has commas. And before I was born, Oh,
I hear Jeremiah being echoed right now. He set me apart.
Because another thing a comma can do. Watch this, it
can set something up to set something off Acts thirteen,
verse nine. Then Saul, who was also called Paul filled
(52:37):
with the Holy Spirit. Oh he fell, Now he's filled?
Speaker 6 (52:43):
Why because callings have commas. God's not done with you, dude.
God's not done with you, bro. God's not done with you, mate.
God's not done with you, bau. God's not done with you.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Mom.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
God's not done with your babe. God's not done with
your son. God's not done with you, cherish. God wants
all of you, all that. I've come a long way.
I've seen how you work. There's so much goodness and grace?
Speaker 1 (53:23):
How much?
Speaker 3 (53:28):
All right, sir?
Speaker 1 (53:29):
Because I know who I am? Saw?
Speaker 3 (53:34):
But I can't stay where I'm at. Paul, Yes, a
new assignment. What's the next line? Y'all got a singer.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Now?
Speaker 3 (53:47):
You gotta declared put it in a Doll's nice.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
You're not tied with me. You're not chime with men.
PAULA yay, so got so loyal? Got something fresh for you.
You're not You're harm with oil. You're not ungrpeat, not yet,
(54:13):
not ever, not yet.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
You're not tong.
Speaker 7 (54:16):
Repe granther that they.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Are so much to this story. Just go a little
deep talk with, but you left your hands.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Stay at the fake time, he said, not about that.
Speaker 7 (54:34):
Cra worse, I said, will be to the wr.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
I'm a storys Highness, the dealing.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Time or not with your hand on your hearts. Take
you're not.
Speaker 7 (54:51):
Talking it that something I don't play grid will people
you're not done with.
Speaker 5 (55:12):
When God gets ready, When God gets ready, When God
gets ready.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
I brought you to this moment in the sermon to
let you know that you might have been wrong. But
while you were getting it wrong, God was getting you ready,
and you're ready. Now you're ready to use the name
he gave you. You're ready to use the gifts he
gave you. You're ready to use the experiences he's given you,
(55:47):
the sweet ones and the bitter ones. While you were
getting it wrong. Paul says, I did all that stuff. Man,
I thought I was ready, But when God got ready,
I tried it in my own strength and I fell.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
But when God got ready, I went completely.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
The wrong way. I was making good time, but I
was on the wrong road. But when God got ready
to reveal his son, now watch this. There's one more
thing I've got to give you, he says. When God
was pleased to reveal his son and me. Watch this
reveal doesn't mean that it started to exist. Reveal means
(56:25):
I let you see what was already there. So, my sister,
my brother, my friend, my son, my wife, my mom,
get ready to see what God will reveal now that
(56:48):
you fell into his arms. Get ready to see what
God will reveal now that you've stopped fighting and started following.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
Get ready to.
Speaker 3 (57:01):
Cease Saul, become Paul, and confess it. For everybody who
has somebody in your life that you love. Man, we've
all been there, somebody who's going the complete wrong way.
Maybe you even brought him to church this morning. Don't
look at him right now, be awkward. But I remember
looking at my dad when he was skipping church, and
I said, I'm praying for you.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
God's going to get a hold of your life, he said.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
But you didn't know at the time is that I
had a drinking problem and I was so low and
I didn't know what I was going to do. And
I felt sorry for you because you believed that God
was going to do something in me. But neither of
us was laughing when he came to the altar two
years later and surrendered.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
His life to Jesus. So I've seen this. I've seen
it in our church. God is so strategic in his preparation.
Speaker 3 (57:49):
When God gets ready, it's different than when people get ready.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
I used to.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
Always get frustrated in church. They say God's getting ready
to bless you. God's getting ready to move, God's getting
ready to show up. God's getting ready to turn it around.
And I would think, he's God.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
Why does he have to get ready? That's something we
have to do before we leave the house.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
What's God doing putting on his coat because it's a
little cold. What's God doing putting some makeup on? What's
God doing? God's getting ready. He's not preparing.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
He's God. He's already prepared. He's not preparing. He's positioning.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
So that when it's time for Paul to write the
letter to the Galatian Church, he can do it with
his name Paul. When God gets ready, no person can
stop it. When God gets ready, no devil can stop it.
When God gets ready. When God gets ready, he'll take
(58:50):
where people put a period and make it a comma.
Now right now, right now, there's somebody who needs to
give their life to Jesus in this room, bow your
head and close your eyes. Please don't fight this off.
Jesus told Paul, go to the city and you'll be
told what you must do. And in the obedience to
(59:11):
follow that instruction, he received his assignment. Right now, I
want to lead you in a prayer that the light
of the gospel that you've received today would not just
bring you light in this room, but it would transform
your life.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
For the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
And if there's somebody here who's never put your faith
in Jesus, or you did and then you went the.
Speaker 1 (59:32):
Wrong way, He's not done with you yet. He brought
you here.
Speaker 3 (59:37):
Don't you understand He loves you so much that he
called you by name.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
Today he's speaking to you. I'm not speaking to you.
I don't know you like that.
Speaker 3 (59:44):
That's Jesus speaking to you, telling you that if you
will call on his name, you will be saved. Right now,
heads bowed, eyes closed, all over the room. I'm going
to lead you in a prayer. And if this prayer
expresses your heart. The Bible says that if you confess
with your mouth Jesus's Lord and believe in your heart
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
(01:00:05):
right here right now. This is your moment. Repeat after me,
Heavenly Father. Today is my day of salvation. I am
a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the
(01:00:27):
savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the
Lord of my life. I believe he died that I
would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.
I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
(01:00:48):
I am a child of God. On the count of three,
shoot your hand up. If you prayed that, one, two, three,
all over the room, hands going up, hands going up,
Angels starting to party in heaven. Come on, Shane's breaking off,
hands going up, New life's beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Thank you, Jesus, Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message you know. God amazes me.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
God has so many ways to confirm what He wants
us to know. I'm thankful that God is consistent and
patient in my life and in your life. And the
truth of the matter is that God wants to speak
to us more than we want to hear him. God
wants us to know His will more than we want
to know it. And so you haven't come here today
(00:41):
by accident. You didn't come here today because you heard
their recute girls at Elevation. Even if you came here
today because you heard their recute girls at Elevation, you
came here today because God has something to say to you.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And in fact, as.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I was writing in my journal on Sadday, I realized
that today would be a defining moment that we'll see
a testimony on a screen maybe a year from now,
maybe five years from now, of somebody saying It was
that day for me when the Lord fed me, when
the Lord led me, when the Lord lifted me, when
the Lord gave me a new life.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So I'm just excited.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Don't you feel good to be here for somebody's big day.
Tell your neighbor it could be yours. Tell them this
could be your big day. Now, ask your neighbor. Can
I get your autograph?
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Just in case?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Come on, ask your neighbor. Can we take a selfie together?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Just in case?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
I want to get a selfie with you? Just in
case I need to prove a year from now that
you're not the person you used to be. You're not
leaving like you came.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
God can change anybody. God can change anybody. God can
do anything.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Speak today for the fifth installment of my series called called.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
You heard me right?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
You're like pastor you glitched a little bit, you said,
a series called called what's it called? It's called called
That's what it's called. We've been taking a look at
several people. I don't call them characters in the Bible.
I do say that accidentally sometime I don't mean to.
That makes them sound fictional. But faith is not for
fictional situations or hypotheticals. It's for humanity, people, flesh and
(02:33):
blood and bone and sweat and tears and lies.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
In truth, all of that is found in the scriptures.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Today we're going to look at a passage of scripture
from the Book of Galatians, chapter one, Galatians chapter one.
And I'm so glad that time ran out, because every
five minutes I was waiting for church to start, I
kept adding scriptures to this sermon, and so it's good
(02:59):
that the clock ran out so we can preach. I
like to preach real quick. I won't go over three hours.
It doesn't take the Lord long to say what he
wants to say. But I wanted to give a proper
context for this message today. We talked last week about
a man named Jacob. Jacob, God called his name twice.
(03:23):
That's kind of what I'm looking for in this series.
There are seven seven people that God called their name
back to back two times in a row in the scripture.
So you got Moses, Moses, Martha, Martha, Jacob, Jacob, Simon
Simon who later became Peter, Abraham, Abraham, Samuel, Samuel.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Any guesses who we're going to preach about.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Today, Okay, Galatians, Chapter one, verse eleven. I want you
to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached
is not of human origin. I did not receive it
from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I
received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have
(04:05):
heard of my previous way of life in Judaism. Any
guesses who we're talking about today, getting there? You're getting there, okay,
I'll tell you in a minute, just give some clues.
For you've heard of my previous way of life in Judaism.
How intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried
(04:25):
to destroy it. That word tried would preach itself whoever
this is to say. And I tried to stand against God,
and God stood against me. I tried to persecute the
Church of God and destroy it. I was advancing in
Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people,
and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
But when God, who set me apart from my mother's.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to
reveal his son in me so that I might preach
him among the gentiles. My immediate Resis response was not
to consult any human being.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Wow. I did not go up.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
To Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was.
But I went into Arabia, that's the desert. I had
to get prepared. I had to get ready, and later
I returned to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went
up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephis and stayed
with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles,
(05:27):
only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God
that what I am writing you is no lie.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Whoever he is, he's not lying.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Now go over to Acts chapter nine, and I'll show
you who we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Acts chapter nine, verse three.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly alike from
heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and
heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do
you persecute me?
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Who are you? Lord? Saul?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Last I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Now listen to this. Now get up and go into
the city, and you will be told what you must do.
Hit me again with verse four. He heard a voice
when he fell to the ground, Saul Saw. But justin,
(06:25):
if you can real quick, circle that Saw, Saul. And
today I want to tell you what my subject is.
I want to talk to you about when God gets ready,
when God gets ready. And I also have a subtitle
to help it stick so you can remember it. Here's
(06:46):
the subtitle, Callings have commas. I'll explain it in fifteen minutes,
but say it by faith. Callings have commas. Put a
comma in chat. Tell your neighbor. Callings have commas. So
when he says Saul Saul verse four, Saul, now circle
(07:10):
what comes between comma Saul, Just circle the comma.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
For me, justin, let's preach about that. Father.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I thank you for the little things that give us revelation.
Do a big work through it in Jesus' name. Amen,
you may be seated something as little as a comma
such a big calling Saul Saul. This moment is unique,
as Saul is going to kill Christians, and he becomes
(07:39):
one coming to kill Christians, and he meets Christ called
by the one that he's trying to kill. Bless you
and you say, he wasn't trying to kill Christ. He
was trying to kill Christians. But we found out in
this text, didn't we that Jesus takes it personally?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
How you treat as people?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Tell your neighbor be nice to me, Tell him you
better be real nice to me. The Lord hangs my
drawings on his refrigerator. You better be nice to me.
The Lord likes me a whole lot. You better be
nice to me. He likes my chubby cheeks. You better
be nice to me. Don't call me short. The Lord
made me five foot eight and a half. You better
(08:23):
be nice to me. Be nice to me. When I
was thinking about preaching on Saul Saul, of course, the
comma isn't in the Hebrew or the Greek text.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It's just they're in the English for us.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
But it caused me to pause, because that's what a
comma is designed to do. In a sentence, right, a
comma says, pause, let's insert something here.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
That's one thing that ecmma does.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Another thing that acamma does is it can introduce additional information.
That is called and a positive thank you mss Cratic
fifth grade English. It's called an a. A coma can let
you know, here's some additional information. Comma, comma and additional information.
And yes, I may have had some assistance from a
(09:11):
research tool called chat GPT to bring you this current
information today. But another thing that a comma can do
is to set into effect a different event, or to
introduce it, so to set off an element.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
And I'll explain that in a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
But one of the things that a comma can do
that we're most familiar with is to separate items into
a list.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
So if you see a list of the Apostles.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
You'll see Simon, Peter, and Bartholomew and James and John,
and there's commas between each of them to distinguish that
although they were twelve disciples, they were twelve distinctive people
with twelve distinctive personalities, and God used each of those
personalities and a unique way that only he.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Could use them to fulfill a purpose and only he
could fulfill.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
And the thing I'm beginning to realize about my life
is that not only do I have to exist within
teams and frameworks of organizations and societies, not only do
I have to learn to interact and play and get
along with others, but I have to learn to get
along with myself.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I have to learn to.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Get along with myself because even within this one person
named Stephen.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
I have commas.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Usually I don't come down to the floor until about
thirty minutes into my sermon, but I'm coming early today.
I'm heading up walking a little slow because I did
some squats yesterday, a little heavier than I intended.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
I'm gonna get there though. Now in this section.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
I was visualizing this before I preached it, and I
thought it would really help us set up for the
message is that I have multiple callings represented just in
this section of the room, and I'll prove it to
you because I have one name, Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Legally I go by Stephen, but to.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Multiple people here, they all call me something different. She
calls me son. That's my mom. They're not putting her
on camera. She's too pre there, she goes, she's too
pretty to miss her camera shot.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Can you see her? Not at all? That's definitely not her.
Came down a little earlier than they were ready for me.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Back there in the back, somebody in the back smoking
a cigarette instead of working the camera. I'm gonna check
into that because back there in the back they call
me boss. Not that I'm a dictator or anything like that,
but I'm the boss. She calls me boss. Mom calls
me son. She gave me a name Larry Stevens Ferdick Junior,
(11:50):
and she knows me in a role. She calls me pastor.
This is cherish. She works on our team. Give it
up for cherish.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Everybody.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
She calls me pastor. She calls me son. He calls
me dad. He used to call me daddy. The saddest
day of my life is when he dropped the d Y.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I was like, Dad, just dad. Now He's like, yeah,
just dad.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Now.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I'm like, oh, this is the first step of this
is the next thing. You know, he's going to be
on drugs like I started spiraling out of control. This
whole process of adulthood. So son, pastor Dad. My best
friend from high school is over here. His name is Eric.
He calls me Bo. It's a South Carolina thing. Don't
(12:44):
worry about it. It's kind of like in Australia, mate,
or like you might say dude, or you might say bro,
but in South Carolina we say bo. And its incidentally
what I call my dog, but there's no correlation. He
was calling me bou long before I had a Boston
interior named Bo.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
So I'm illustrating to you. Stay with me for a moment.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I'm illustrating to you that I am called all that,
I am called son, i am called dad, Daddy, I'll
always be daddy.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
I am called I am called bo. She calls me babe.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah, yeah, Now we got a problem if he calls
me babe. But I am babe while I'm still boy.
It's not like I am babe one day in bo
the next. I might be Bo one day and babe
the next I might. I might be dad one moment
(13:49):
and son the next, because i was a son before
I was a dad, and I'm still a son while
I'm a dad, and I'm still a boss while I'm
a babe. And sometimes she calls me babe, and sometimes
she calls me boss. But the message I'll get off this,
the message that I'm trying to give to you today,
is a simple one. Callings have commas. The process of
(14:15):
your development isn't that you stop being something and become
something else. If it was, it'd be easy if you
stop being son when you became dad, you would know
what to do and you'd be a good one. Wow.
But the truth is you have to learn to become
a dad while you're still a son and a little
boy in some ways yourself. I'm preaching so good you
can't say amen. You had to write that down. I'm
(14:39):
called all of that. Tell somebody next to you, I'm
all that. Don't be too impressed by me.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
But I'm all that.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I'm not saying I'm doing it all well, but I'm
all that. I'm boss, I'm babe, I'm bo, I'm dad,
I'm daddy.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
I'm all that. I'm all that. And I'm trying to
figure out from the passage that we read. And I
may not even go out on the stage today. I
might just preach it all the way from down here.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Because I want to look in your eyes today and
try to figure out, even through that.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Camera, what all are you? What all are you? Let's
take it a little deeper than we did before.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I was looking at comments the other day of a
sermon that I preached, trying to figure out if I
did a good job. Well, that's a dangerous place to
go to get an assessment of your performances, the comments section.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Of you two.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Because I scrolled a little bit and someone said this
man is so anointed. I felt kind of good. I
know it's prideful. I know I shouldn't care, but I
felt kind of good. I thought, yeah, I am kind
of willy, I am kind of annoyed to I am
kind of greasy.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
That was a good sermon.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I scrolled a little more, didn't have to scroll very far.
Someone else said, this man is so annoying. So all
it took was a little bit of scrolling, and I
went from anointed to one person and annoying to another.
Tell somebody you're all that you're anointed. You know what's
(16:21):
coming next, don't you, and you're annoying. Paul was pretty anointed,
would you agree. I know in the text we called
him Saul Saul, but of course he went on to
become the great missionary to the Gentiles named Paul. He
became Paul after Jesus got a hold of his life,
(16:44):
so we say, but he could be kind of anointed.
I think anytime that someone falls asleep when you're preaching
out of a window and you raise them from the dead,
that counts as anointed. I think anytime you turn to
a sorcerer and say, in the name of Jesus, shut
up and the demon had to leave, you're anointed. I
think anytime God can do miracles not just from your hands,
(17:04):
but from your handkerchiefs, you're pretty anointed. I think that
if your shadow is enough to bring healing, you're pretty anointed.
At the same time that Paul is anointed, I'm sure
that if we were in his close proximity, we might
say that he's a little annoying. I know you don't
like to call your Bible characters annoying, but these are
(17:26):
not characters. These are conflicted human beings. These are people
with pasts. These are people with preferences. These are people
with proclivities. These are people with weaknesses. These are people
with limps like Jacob. These are people with distracted minds
like Martha. These are people with stutters and stammers and
excuses like Moses.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
These are people with shaky faith like Abraham.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And yet what we're learning in this series is that
you are called all of that. I recently released a
song in the verses I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing,
I'm a story time is revealing.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I'm all of.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
These things, but mostly I'm thankful. Could that be true?
I'm a sinner, Grace is still healing. I'm a story
time is revealing, And just in case you're looking at
one chapter in my life, don't forget I'm all of
these things. I am all of these things. Can be kind,
(18:33):
can be cruel, all of these things. And the sooner
we admit that we have the capacity to be called
all of these things accurately in any given situation, the
more we will learn to rely on the Lord who
never changes.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
The more we will learn to rely on the Lord.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Whose character is consistent, and the more that we will
learn that it is important that although I'm Dad and
I'm son, and I'm pastor, and I'm boss and I'm
bo and I'm babe, I'm all of these things, but
I cannot go to people to figure out who I
am too soon, because people don't see me how I am.
(19:16):
They see me how they need me to be. He
doesn't need a friend, He's got friends. He needs gas money.
So I'm Dad. I'm not an ATM. But he might
see me that way, and I can get frustrated seeing
him as what do I look like to you?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Do I just look like a cash after you? Do
I look like a living, breathing cash after you?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Is that what I look like to you, But I'm
all of these things.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I'm all of these things.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin,
circumcised on the eighth Day, studied under Gamaliel, which would
be the equivalent of the highest degree of internship.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
You could imagine all that Paul. Saul was all that.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And yet when the moment came for God to call
him as important as he was.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
God didn't set up an appointment.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Jesus did not ask Saul's administrative assistant, can I get
some time on the books with my man Saul.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It'd be nice if he could squeeze me in. You know,
sometimes I think.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
That we forget how sovereign God really is when we're
making our schedules, and then something just comes along and
knocks your whole plan apart, and you realize that it's
so important for all the different roles that you have
in your life, to realize that for all of the
roles that you have, there is only one resource that
(20:47):
will never run out, and his name is Jesus. So
Paul said in Galatians chapter one that when God called
me by his grace, I did not immediate confer with
human beings. Why is that because they are not the
source of what I am. I'm trying to say it
(21:09):
another way that will be better. Okay, people label, but
God names. People label, but God names. And people label
(21:29):
through their lens of what they see. But God names
through his lens of what He gave you. Paul said
from even before the womb. And so the moment when
we see Paul being knocked down by the glorious light
of Jesus Christ, I mean, it's a pretty dramatic moment.
(21:50):
In Acts chapter nine, the Bible says that as he
neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him. Now this is somebody that you know,
the Christians were praying about because the faith of the
Christians was flourishing. But there will never be flourishing faith
without a fight. Please get that in your head. There
(22:13):
will never be flourishing faith will never flourish without a fight.
Let me say that again. Faith will never flourish without
a fight.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
It can't.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
The enemy will leave you alone if you are not
walking in faith. But the moment that you walk in faith,
he fights you. So that's why he's been fighting you.
Why God I'll tell you why God, God, God is working.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
In your life. And we see.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Saul in Acts chapter nine, can I preach a little
bit with an outline? We see him go from fighting
to falling to following. From fighting, everybody say fighting to
falling to following.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
He said, I was locking.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Up Christians and consenting to the stoning of Stephen.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
And I thought I was doing good.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And it wasn't like I It wasn't like I knew
I was wrong. But one of the most beautiful moments
of your life comes when you encounter the utter relief
of realizing.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You were wrong. We're doing the moment when you realize.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
That I was say the word, well, you had a
hard time getting that out your mouth. You sound like
you went to the dentist and got some novacane before
you said that. Did you hear how hard it was
for you to say I was wrong. I was wrong
to put that pressure on you. I was wrong when
(23:50):
I got angry with you and.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
I said you made me mad. You didn't make me mad.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
You just revealed what was already in my heart as
anger at somebody else. I was wrong to yell at you.
I was wrong to believe that you knew God less
than I did, because you struggled with something that my
exposure did not enable.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I was wrong to judge you like that.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
I was wrong to think that I was right to
the exclusion of others having the right to know God
in their own relationship.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
I was wrong.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
I'm gonna do a series sometime in the twentieth year
of ministry called All the Things I Was Wrong About,
and it's gonna be a twenty year series, because that
should be the process of your Christian life is realizing
that you are wrong and repenting. And you said, well,
Pastor Stephen, that's not what I came to church for.
I believe in the blood of Jesus, and I'm right
(24:40):
about it. I believe in the resurrection and I'm right
about it. I believe that He saves and he's coming
again on the clouds on a horse, and he's gonna
kick his enemies, and he's gonna have his blood dipped
in robe, and he's the Lion and he's the Lamb.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
And I believe all of that, and I know I'm
right about it, and they're wrong. You know, you can
be right in the wrong way.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
To have an arrogant disposition that thinks that you know
everything to be the kind of parent that punishes your
kids for stuff that you know that you did ten
times worse and look at them like, what in the
world is wrong with you? You know exactly what's wrong
with them. It's called your DNA. That's what's wrong with them.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
What's wrong with them is you.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
I was spanking one of the kids one time, Please
don't take me to court, and the Lord said, what,
You're going to spank the you out of them?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That helped me because I realized that sometimes the most
righteous thing I can be is wrong. How open are
you coming to church today hearing something that you might
be wrong about? Or do you just want to say
amen to all the stuff that you already say you
believe but don't live anyway?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Now.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Now, Saul is an interesting character because other people in
scripture we see and Jesus is rescuing them from a
life of sin. That was not Saul's testimony. Saul was
not a horrible sinner. Saul wasn't rescued from some gross sin.
Saul was rescued from self righteousness. He says, I was advancing,
(26:21):
I was going, I thought I was right, and I
found out I was wrong, and watch this the whole
word that God wants to give you today. Hinges on this.
Sometimes you have to be wrong before you're ready. Sometimes
you are not ready for what God wants to do
next in your life because you are not willing to
(26:43):
be wrong. Are you willing to be wrong for a
moment to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord
so that He will lift you up to be able
to say, maybe there is another way to do that.
Maybe there was a better way to approach that. Maybe
I don't know every style of worship. Maybe I don't
know every way that God can move into church. Maybe
(27:06):
I don't know every way that God can Maybe I
shouldn't keep putting periods in places where God puts a comma.
Maybe I shouldn't write people off so quick. Maybe I
shouldn't just throw people out so quick, like their milk
that went bad. Maybe I shouldn't just make up my
(27:28):
mind that they can't change, because the truth is, I'm
still changing. I'm still changing, I'm still learning, I'm still growing.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Give me space to change. I need a little room
to change. I got a little cocoon, and I'm changing
in here, and I might break out and I might
get wings. But I'm struggling against this right now. Why
would you put a period in a place where God
puts somebody else in a cocoon to transform them into
something that you've never seen before? Or why would you
(28:04):
do it to yourself? Why would you do it to yourself?
Why would you put a period on your purpose? When
God put a comma, I'm trying to say He's not
done with you yet. I'm trying to say nothing is
over till God says this over. I'm trying to say
(28:28):
everything that the enemy meant for evil, God has a
way of turning it for good. I'm trying to say
that the weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper.
I'm trying to say that your latter will be greater
than your past. I'm trying to say that if you're
still breathing, there's a reason that you're breathing. I'm trying
(28:49):
to say that I don't care what they said about you.
I care what God knows about you. Because people label,
but God names. And you might be addicted, but you
might not say that way, and you might be bankrupt
and broke, but you might not stay that way.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
And you might be mean and bitter, but you might
not stay that.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
Way because the blood of Jesus has a way of
breaking you out of the prisons of your previous life.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
There are some people in this room who.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Have been in the prison of your past so long.
But I want you to realize that callings have commas.
Comma com The next time the devil starts telling you
is over, just do one of these and keep walking.
The next time people say your best is behind you,
just do one of these and keep walking. The next
(29:38):
time somebody's saying something about you and you know it's
not true, don't even say anything back. Just go boom
and keep walking. Because God does commas. Because God looks
at dry bones and seize armies, because God looks at
red seas and sees highways.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Because God looks at Sol and sees Paul.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Because God looks as Simon sees Peter.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Looks at Jacob sees Israel.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
I'm so glad God does commas, and it's just a
quick thing he can do to get you to see
something in.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yourself that you never saw before. Watch this.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
It is so important that you realize that big doors
swing on little hinges and something as small as a comma.
Saul saw something as ordinary as light when binged into
his eyes turned the world upside down. At this point
(30:36):
in his life, Paul thought I've arrived. At this point
in his life, Paul thought I knew at all. At
this point in his life, Paul thought he was everything
but wrong.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
At this point in his life, Paul was ranked at
the top. But just when he got there, God orchestrated
a falling into a new calling.
Speaker 5 (31:01):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
The Bible says in Acts chapter nine, verse four, that
as Paul was riding along, he fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying, Saul sauw. It's very interesting
to me that he couldn't hear that voice until he
was falling. Sometimes it takes a heartbreak for you to
(31:28):
be able to hear God. Sometimes it takes an interruption
to get your attention. And Saul fell off. That's what
the young people say, man, he fell off. Jereabay saw
he was doing good man, but I heard he's around
there with that cult called Christians.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Saul fell off.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
In fact, I don't know if you noticed it when
I read in Galatians chapter one, because I get this,
this is very important. You have to live it now
and explain it later. You have to live it now,
survive it now, explain it later. When I read you
Galatians Chapter one, verses eleven through twenty, I read that
(32:12):
on purpose first. But it's not what Paul said while
he was going through his conversion.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's what he said fourteen years after the fact. And Saul,
excuse me.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
Paul the artist formerly known as Saul saw his Hebrew name.
He was named after the first king of Israel. He
was from the same tribe of Benjamin. The name Saul
means to hear or to ask, excuse me, not to hear,
to ask is Isn't that crazy that in the beginning
of the passage he's asking for letters to persecute the church,
(32:45):
and after God gets done with him, he's asking Jesus,
who are you?
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And God is changing his questions? Is that crazy? And
as he's explaining to the.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
Church at Galatian, now, this is a group of Christians
who didn't grow up Jewish. It's a group of Christians
who we would call gentiles, who Paul was called to reach.
And he says in verse thirteen, I know you heard
of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely
(33:16):
I persecuted the Church of God. You heard about my
previous way of life. Now stop right there. Have you
been imprisoned in your previous This is the scary thing
about consulting with people. People will put you in the
prison of your previous. In Saul's case, it wasn't a
(33:39):
life of sin. It was a life of self righteousness.
But see, to them, he was a Christian killer, and
so they could never forget what he represented to them,
And that's why it was important that he went straight
to God. I heard a story one time about three
baseball umpires and they were talking about their philosophy of
(34:01):
calling balls and strikes.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Well, one of the.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Baseball umpires said, I call it like it is, and
the next umpire said, I call it like I see it.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
And the third umpire said, it ain't nothing till I
call it.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I believe God is saying today, it ain't nothing till
I call it. You might think you're really something your resume.
It ain't nothing till I call it.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Paul, who was.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
So credentialed, Paul who was so capable, Paul who was
so incredibly charismatic, said you heard about my previous way
of life. Now get ready, because this is a really
powerful reflection from the apostle. He said, you heard how
intensely I persecuted the Church of God and tried to
destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of
(34:54):
my own age, among my own people, and was extremely.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Zealous for the traditions of my father's.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Now I want to show you verse fifteen because it's
what really lit my spirit on fire for somebody in
the room today, Paul says, after all of that that
you've heard about me, after all of that that I
did against Jesus, I was fighting against him. Now I'm
following him. I was fighting against him. Now I am
filling the world with his teaching. I am filling the
(35:22):
world with the message that I used to fight against.
This is how big God can do it. This is
how drastic of a change God can make. It is
too soon for you to give up on anybody. It
is too soon for you to give up on you.
It is too soon for you to give up on freedom.
I was telling somebody the other day this is the
(35:43):
way I am and it will never change, and they said,
it's too soon for you.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
To say that you've got too many experiences.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
You've got too many valleys, you've got too many mountains,
you've got too many tomorrows, you've got too many next months,
you've got too many next years. It is too soon
for you to say that. It is too soon for
you to say I'll never. It is too soon for
you to say I'm not. It is too soon for
you to assume that what you've seen so far is
(36:13):
all there is to you. Because Paul, who was called Saul,
thought I've done it, This is it. And God laughed
because where he put a period, God put a comma.
He said, you heard about my previous way of life.
(36:35):
You heard how I advanced. You heard how zealous and
passionate I was. And then verse fifteen says something very powerful.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
But when God comma, I know.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
It's gonna take a minute, but you're gonna get it.
But when God comma, take those three words and get
them in your spirit. Now, put them in your mouth
and say them. But when God, I want to see
the chat light up right now with that three words.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
But when God.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
One of the favorite phrases for us to shout about
in church is but God, this is a little different.
But God means it seemed to be going one way,
now it's going another.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
It looked like this.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It was really that I was dead in my sins
and transgressions.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
But God made me alive. Paul wrote that, by the way,
Paul wrote that after.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
He'd spent his whole life fighting against the thing he
was now following in, Paul wrote that, by the way,
don't you dare tell me that you're done. Don't you
dare tell me that nothing good is gonna come from you.
Don't you dare tell me that it's over. Paul wrote that,
but when God comma, you could see this on the screen.
You're listening to this on a podcast. If you are
(38:03):
listening to this sermon and not watching it, pull the
car over and look at the screen right now, or
pull up this verse in your U version app pull
up Galatians one point fifteen, because I want you to see.
But when God, which means what that it's on his schedule,
not mine. But when God, I was sinking deep in sin,
(38:30):
far from the peaceful shore. But when God, they wrote
me off, talked about me like a dog, said I
was annoying. But when God, I was up to my
neck in it. I didn't think I could take another
phone call or a text message with bad news. But
then a light shone from heaven and knock me off
(38:52):
my horse and knock me off my rightness. But when
God people said he'll never get up. People started playing
my funeral, people started writing my old bits aweary, people
started talking.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
About me behind my back.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
But when God comma, I'll say about this. So when
did Saul's name change to Paul? I know when Abraham's
name changed. I know when Abraham's name changed. Genesis chapter seventeen,
(39:31):
checked his out. The Lord took this man named Abram,
and he said, I like to buy a consonant consonant vinna.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
I like the car.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Abraham, look at this Justice seventeen. Abraham fell face down.
Abraham what.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Somebody else felt that we were just talking about?
Speaker 3 (39:55):
Oh, so sometimes the fall signifies that there's a call coming.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
There's a call coming, there's a call coming. I don't
know what you fell into this week.
Speaker 3 (40:04):
Some of you fell back into something this week that
you thought you walked away from.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
But after the fall, there is a calling.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
You're gonna help somebody get set free from him. I know,
y'all don't like this, but sometimes it takes wrong to
get you ready. It takes wrong to get you ready.
Stop beating up on yourself. Paul said, by the grace
of God, I was called it's time for you to
fall into calling. Now Abraham fell face down. He wasn't
(40:33):
called Abraham yet, he was called Abram. Abram means exalted Father.
That's freaking name called Abram. Why do you need an upgrade? Well,
when he fell face down, God said to him, that's
the call. After the fall asked for me, this is
my coming with you. You be the father of many nations
because Abram means exalted father.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Abraham means father of many.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
So now we see that God is exchanging a name
as a setup for expansion. I want you to just
be a father. I wants to be a father of
many nations. Who else you don't see? Jacob Jenu is
thirty two. He's wrestling with God all night. He don't
know it's God. He's fighting, and then he falls and
he says, I'm not letting go to your blessing. When
he falls, God said, I see you struggling with God humans,
(41:13):
and you have overcome, so you're no longer going to
be called Jacob, which means heal, grabber. But now your
name is Israel, which means overcomer, because you struggled with
God and with humans and have overcome. Wow, he got
a new name because he was not just carrying himself.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
He was carrying a nation.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
He was all that, all that was coming forth out
of him, All of that was meant to be from him,
all of that. Abram, Abraham, Jacob, Israel. Who else? Simon
Peter Well, he makes a confession. Jesus says, who do
you say that I am? Matthew, Chapter sixteen, verse fifteen.
He said, I know who you are. You're the Christ,
the son of the Living God. He said, blessed you,
Simon bar son of Jonah. Because flesh and blood is
(41:53):
not revealed this to you. You can't figure this out by
thinking it. You can't figure this out by studying it.
You can't figure this out by doing a DNA test.
What is it called twenty three and me? You can't
do twenty four to twenty five to me. The only
way you can know me is the Father in Heaven reveal.
And now I'm gonna reveal who you are. Now that you
see clearly who I am. I say you you are
Peter Petrol Cephis Rock. And upon this rock of the
revelation that you have of who I am, I'm going
(42:14):
to show you who you are.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I will build my church. Wow.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
So every time that God gave someone a new name,
he was building something. Every time that God gave them
a new name, he was enlarging something. Every time that
God gave their new name represented a new assignment, a
new sphere, a new domain, a new level of weight.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
So when did Paul become Paul? Saul? Saul? Now I
have to confess to you here.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
I would like to tell you that I learned that
in Bible school, and I never forgot it. But my
limited mind just all thought that when God touched him
on the road to Damascus, because he went blind, and
then he met him man named Annius, and he got
his site back and he was able to see, and
(43:10):
then he went into the desert to prepare for three years.
I always thought that somewhere in that Acts chapter nine,
somebody God or Antonius or somebody said, and verily, verily,
I say, unto thee Saul, you will no longer be
called Saul. You will now be called Paul so I
(43:33):
read all through Acts chapter nine, and I was like, wait,
I missed it.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Where is it? Maybe maybe as I'm reading the wrong version.
It took me about two hours. I just kept reading.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
I read Acts chapter nine, where Saul got knocked down
and fell and God told him I'm going to call
you to be a chosen vest. I read Acts chapter ten,
Acts chapter eleven, Acts chapter twelve. I read the whole
rest of the Book of Acts, and God never changed
his name. And I was shocked because I thought, just surely,
if he's going to be representing Jesus now as the
(44:06):
apostle Paul, that God must have given him that new name. Well,
it's not until Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine that we
see when Saul became Paul. Pause real quick, kama kamakama,
comma paus paus Pause. I'm telling you this because sometimes
(44:27):
we don't know when we're changing. Sometimes it's fourteen years later,
when you're writing the Book of Galatians that you realize, oh,
it wasn't a fall, it was a calling.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
What looked like falling was actually calling.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
What looked like a disability was actually my unique gift.
What looked like a learning disorder was actually, my brilliant
mind just firing a little.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Different than everybody else's.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
What looked like a rejection from people was God's redirection
for something that he called me uniquely to do.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Why aren't you helping me preach?
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I'm trying to help you recategorize, reclassify some stuff, because
it ain't nothing until God calls it. You can't call
it good, you can't call it bad. You can't call
it success, you can't.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
Call it failure. It's nothing until He calls it.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
And here is the mighty apostle, Paul, saying, God who
called me from my mother's womb. And then I realized
In Acts chapter thirteen, verse nine, Oh.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
This is the most annointed verse I've read all year.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Ah. This will change your life. Ah, this will set
you free, because everybody's waiting for this change to come.
You know when I'm gonna feel better and be better
and do better and get taller and get richer, and
everything's gonna be going my way, and everybody's gonna be
nice to me and smiling me, and I'm not gonna
struggle with this anymore.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Acts, chapter thirteen, verse nine.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Here it is Vin Saul Comma, who was also called Paul.
What you mean God didn't change his name. Nope, Saul
was his Hebrew name. Paul was his Roman name because
(46:23):
he was all that. I said, he was all that.
To be born in Tarsus of Sicily, where Paul was born,
gave you a unique advantage that although I am Jewish
by heritage, I am Roman by citizenship. So it means
(46:44):
that I'm Saul and I'm also Paul. Saul isn't bad,
Paul isn't bad.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
I'm just both.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Saul is the life I built until I met Jesus.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
All is my name.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
I'm gonna take the Gospel to the gentile world with.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
So God is saying to.
Speaker 3 (47:07):
Somebody, I don't know your given name, I don't know
your legal name.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
I don't know what.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
God has you're standing on the precipice of I don't
know what you're shaking about. I don't know what you're
dealing with. I don't know who's talking to you about it.
I don't know who's counsel you're keeping. But God has
somebody here so you can hear today you already? Are
you all ready? Are you all ready? Are stop trying
(47:34):
to be that you all ready are? Stop trying to
give sex to get love. You already are loved. Stop
trying to give yourself away to people who do not
have the capacity to receive it. Because the Bible says,
when it came time for the gentiles to hear the Gospel, Saul,
(48:00):
who was also called Paul, step forth, and the Book
of Acts never calls him Saul again because listen to this,
listen to this. It's time for you to use your
other name. It's time for you to step into what
(48:20):
God already called you. And didn't it just bless your
socks off to realize that there was not a moment
where he said you shall no longer be Saul, you
shall be Paul.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
He said, simply, I just want you to use what
I already gave you.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
And maybe that's the calling in this season of your
life to start using what He already gave you, to
start using the resources that your heavenly Father has already
placed in your spirit through a deposit. Because I'll tell
you one thing about it. Everything I've got that's worth having,
I got it by grace, Paul said, when God was pleased,
(49:07):
give me galicians one fifteen one more time. When God
was pleased when God was pleased, and then what comes
between those commas who set me apart from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. So I just
want to say to you today that the grace was
(49:27):
there before the mistake was ever made. Oh oh, I
can hardly preach this to you because God is putting
it inside of me. I make mistakes, but the grace
outran the mistake. The grace outran the mistake. So when
(49:53):
you get done feeling sorry for yourself and get done
groveling and thinking God won't forgive you and God won't
use you, you'll realize callings have commas. But when God,
who set me apart from my mother's womb, my name
has always been Paul. I don't know who this is for,
but you've always been Paul. Some pain happened to you,
(50:16):
but you've always been Paul. You've always had a purpose,
You've always had a unique gift. You've always had that
smile that can light up a room. You've always been
able to listen to people. You've always been able to
unlock things. It just got buried for a little while.
But I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I said,
I'd rather be wrong for a little while. I'd rather
(50:39):
go blind for a little while than spend my whole
life fighting when God has called me to follow.
Speaker 1 (50:48):
So maybe we.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Didn't come today asking God to change us into something
that we're not. Maybe we came to allow God to
remind us.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
And he got it, already, got it, already, got it,
already got it.
Speaker 3 (51:05):
The grace came before the mistake was made. High five
Greek people say.
Speaker 1 (51:11):
Already got it.
Speaker 3 (51:15):
Before I pray, he hears me, before I cry.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
He's got a kleenex. I already got it. May this
be the day. May this be the.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Day that you stop running to people and letting them
put periods where God would call us because calleingues have commers.
I'm annoying and annoyted. I'm Saul, I'm Paul.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
I'm messed up.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
Had I got up? Had I got a message for
the world. You a shepherd or a singer? David, My
calling has commas. You a sinner or a saint, Stephen,
(52:10):
My calling has commas. And before I was born, Oh,
I hear Jeremiah being echoed right now. He set me apart.
Because another thing a comma can do. Watch this, it
can set something up to set something off Acts thirteen,
verse nine. Then Saul, who was also called Paul filled
(52:37):
with the Holy Spirit. Oh he fell, Now he's filled?
Speaker 6 (52:43):
Why because callings have commas. God's not done with you, dude.
God's not done with you, bro. God's not done with you, mate.
God's not done with you, bau. God's not done with you.
Speaker 1 (52:55):
Mom.
Speaker 3 (52:56):
God's not done with your babe. God's not done with
your son. God's not done with you, cherish. God wants
all of you, all that. I've come a long way.
I've seen how you work. There's so much goodness and grace?
Speaker 1 (53:23):
How much?
Speaker 3 (53:28):
All right, sir?
Speaker 1 (53:29):
Because I know who I am? Saw?
Speaker 3 (53:34):
But I can't stay where I'm at. Paul, Yes, a
new assignment. What's the next line? Y'all got a singer.
Speaker 1 (53:47):
Now?
Speaker 3 (53:47):
You gotta declared put it in a Doll's nice.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
You're not tied with me. You're not chime with men.
PAULA yay, so got so loyal? Got something fresh for you.
You're not You're harm with oil. You're not ungrpeat, not yet,
(54:13):
not ever, not yet.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
You're not tong.
Speaker 7 (54:16):
Repe granther that they.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Are so much to this story. Just go a little
deep talk with, but you left your hands.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Stay at the fake time, he said, not about that.
Speaker 7 (54:34):
Cra worse, I said, will be to the wr.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
I'm a storys Highness, the dealing.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Time or not with your hand on your hearts. Take
you're not.
Speaker 7 (54:51):
Talking it that something I don't play grid will people
you're not done with.
Speaker 5 (55:12):
When God gets ready, When God gets ready, When God
gets ready.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
I brought you to this moment in the sermon to
let you know that you might have been wrong. But
while you were getting it wrong, God was getting you ready,
and you're ready. Now you're ready to use the name
he gave you. You're ready to use the gifts he
gave you. You're ready to use the experiences he's given you,
(55:47):
the sweet ones and the bitter ones. While you were
getting it wrong. Paul says, I did all that stuff. Man,
I thought I was ready, But when God got ready,
I tried it in my own strength and I fell.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
But when God got ready, I went completely.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
The wrong way. I was making good time, but I
was on the wrong road. But when God got ready
to reveal his son, now watch this. There's one more
thing I've got to give you, he says. When God
was pleased to reveal his son and me. Watch this
reveal doesn't mean that it started to exist. Reveal means
(56:25):
I let you see what was already there. So, my sister,
my brother, my friend, my son, my wife, my mom,
get ready to see what God will reveal now that
(56:48):
you fell into his arms. Get ready to see what
God will reveal now that you've stopped fighting and started following.
Speaker 1 (57:01):
Get ready to.
Speaker 3 (57:01):
Cease Saul, become Paul, and confess it. For everybody who
has somebody in your life that you love. Man, we've
all been there, somebody who's going the complete wrong way.
Maybe you even brought him to church this morning. Don't
look at him right now, be awkward. But I remember
looking at my dad when he was skipping church, and
I said, I'm praying for you.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
God's going to get a hold of your life, he said.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
But you didn't know at the time is that I
had a drinking problem and I was so low and
I didn't know what I was going to do. And
I felt sorry for you because you believed that God
was going to do something in me. But neither of
us was laughing when he came to the altar two
years later and surrendered.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
His life to Jesus. So I've seen this. I've seen
it in our church. God is so strategic in his preparation.
Speaker 3 (57:49):
When God gets ready, it's different than when people get ready.
Speaker 1 (57:52):
I used to.
Speaker 3 (57:52):
Always get frustrated in church. They say God's getting ready
to bless you. God's getting ready to move, God's getting
ready to show up. God's getting ready to turn it around.
And I would think, he's God.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
Why does he have to get ready? That's something we
have to do before we leave the house.
Speaker 3 (58:10):
What's God doing putting on his coat because it's a
little cold. What's God doing putting some makeup on? What's
God doing? God's getting ready. He's not preparing.
Speaker 1 (58:20):
He's God. He's already prepared. He's not preparing. He's positioning.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
So that when it's time for Paul to write the
letter to the Galatian Church, he can do it with
his name Paul. When God gets ready, no person can
stop it. When God gets ready, no devil can stop it.
When God gets ready. When God gets ready, he'll take
(58:50):
where people put a period and make it a comma.
Now right now, right now, there's somebody who needs to
give their life to Jesus in this room, bow your
head and close your eyes. Please don't fight this off.
Jesus told Paul, go to the city and you'll be
told what you must do. And in the obedience to
(59:11):
follow that instruction, he received his assignment. Right now, I
want to lead you in a prayer that the light
of the gospel that you've received today would not just
bring you light in this room, but it would transform
your life.
Speaker 1 (59:26):
For the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (59:28):
And if there's somebody here who's never put your faith
in Jesus, or you did and then you went the.
Speaker 1 (59:32):
Wrong way, He's not done with you yet. He brought
you here.
Speaker 3 (59:37):
Don't you understand He loves you so much that he
called you by name.
Speaker 1 (59:40):
Today he's speaking to you. I'm not speaking to you.
I don't know you like that.
Speaker 3 (59:44):
That's Jesus speaking to you, telling you that if you
will call on his name, you will be saved. Right now,
heads bowed, eyes closed, all over the room. I'm going
to lead you in a prayer. And if this prayer
expresses your heart. The Bible says that if you confess
with your mouth Jesus's Lord and believe in your heart
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved
(01:00:05):
right here right now. This is your moment. Repeat after me,
Heavenly Father. Today is my day of salvation. I am
a sinner in need of a savior. And I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the
(01:00:27):
savior of the world. And today I make Jesus the
Lord of my life. I believe he died that I
would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.
I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
(01:00:48):
I am a child of God. On the count of three,
shoot your hand up. If you prayed that, one, two, three,
all over the room, hands going up, hands going up,
Angels starting to party in heaven. Come on, Shane's breaking off,
hands going up, New life's beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Thank you, Jesus, Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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