July 28, 2025 • 35 mins
In this sermon from Rev. Benjamin Kandt, part of NewCity Orlando’s Preach Your Heart Out series, we are invited to reflect on the profound mercy and patience of God shown in the life of the Apostle Paul. Preaching from 1 Timothy 1:12–17, Rev. Kandt highlights Paul's personal testimony as a model of God's transforming grace. Once a persecutor of the church, Paul becomes a prime example of someone radically changed by the gospel—demonstrating that no one is beyond the reach of Christ’s love.
Rev. Kandt explores how this passage stirs us to humility and gratitude, reminding us that the Christian life is not grounded in merit but in mercy. Paul's response—worshiping God as King eternal—becomes a call for us to do the same: to live lives shaped by grace and to proclaim that same grace to a world in need of redemption. This message is both deeply personal and widely applicable, encouraging listeners to anchor their confidence in the unshakable faithfulness of God.
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(00:27):
your spirit, give usunderstanding, turn our eyes
from looking at worthless thingsand give us life in your ways.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,amen.
Today's scripture comes from 1Timothy 1, 12-17.
I'd invite you to stand, if youare able, for the whole
scripture reading.
I thank him who has given mestrength, christ Jesus, our Lord
(00:52):
, because he judged me faithful,appointing me to his service,
though formerly I was ablasphemer, persecutor and
insolent opponent.
But I received mercy because Ihad acted ignorantly, in
unbelief, and the grace of ourLord overflowed for me with the
faith and love that are inChrist Jesus.
(01:15):
The saying is trustworthy anddeserving of full acceptance
that Christ Jesus came into theworld to save sinners, of whom I
am the foremost.
But I received mercy for thisreason that, in me as the
foremost, jesus Christ mightdisplay his perfect patience as
an example to those who are tobelieve in him for eternal life.
(01:38):
To the King of the ages,immortal, invisible, the only
God, be honor and glory foreverand ever.
Amen.
This is God's word.
Thank you, god.
You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt (01:58):
Well, you may have heard about what Kenny
and Michael and Sam were talkingabout and thinking does that
even work?
Is that even effective?
Is that seems like a waste oftime, and I want to tell you a
quick story to start off, totell you no, it's not a waste of
time.
There's powerful ways in whichGod is weaving invisibly at work
in the people around you, inwhat becomes visible ways.
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So I was trained to do whatthey were doing in college in a
campus ministry, and so we wouldwalk around and we'd have
conversations with people and wewould offer to do, we'd invite
people to do a spiritual survey,which was a wonderfully sketchy
way of getting into aconversation about Jesus.
And there's a question in therethat I still have asked often
now, which is hey, can you tellme a little bit about your
(02:43):
spiritual or religiousbackground?
A lot of people will answerthat question with no problem
your co-workers, your neighbors.
That's an easy question in someways for people to answer.
And so we were doing that and Iwas with another guy named
Tyler who I was discipling, kindof teaching him this is how you
share your faith with somebody,and we ran into a guy who was I
mean just maybe, in his ownwords, belligerent, like he was
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not about what we wanted to talkto him about and he made sure
we knew that.
And so, by every externalmarker, the conversation did not
go well, until I get an emailfrom him four years later.
Now, how did that happen?
I gave him my email then andthere and said hey, if you ever
want to talk more about any ofthese things, shoot me an email,
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let's get together, I'll buyyou coffee, I'll buy you lunch,
whatever that kind of thing.
Four years later, he sends methis email.
It's long.
I'm going to read the wholething, because that's how you're
supposed to start a sermonright, by reading emails to
people.
Know, if you remember me, we meta few years back.
You and another dude approachedmy buddy and me.
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You two had a survey you askedus to participate in pertaining
to our religious and spiritualbeliefs.
I accepted your request toparticipate in the survey solely
to engage in a debate with youand to prove you wrong.
My ultimate motive, I regret toadmit, was to cast doubt in
your minds.
Now I want you to know a fewthings.
First and foremost, I want youto know that I am sincerely
(04:09):
sorry.
Unfortunately, our two pathscrossed during my young,
extremely arrogant, militant,atheist years.
If I were granted a fewdo-overs in my life, that
encounter we shared together,believe it or not, would be one
of them.
Second, although I've thoughtabout our interaction only a
handful of times over the years,I want you to know that you had
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a profound effect on me.
One of the main reasons I turnedmy back on God and Christianity
was due to the sheer hypocrisyI continuously perceived amongst
the Christians I deeplyrespected and admired.
I witnessed so muchincongruence between what they
said, they believed and how theyactually lived their lives and
treated others.
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Despite the fact that I treatedyou so despicably during our
brief interaction, I sensed atruly sincere care and kindness
within you.
You were patient with me and,although our beliefs were
clearly at odds, you seemed toaccept me, despite my juvenile,
disrespectful behavior At thetime.
It further aggravated me, yet Ididn't understand why.
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I've come to realize over theyears that it aggravated me
simply because I didn'tunderstand it.
You were authentic.
You were genuine in characterand in faith.
It was something I perhaps hadonly witnessed a couple times in
my life and, though I didn'trealize it at the time it gave
me hope.
Third and lastly, I'd simplylike for you to know that
several months ago, I came toaccept Jesus into my life.
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It's been an intriguing journey, getting to where I was to
where I am now.
So as to not take up too much ofyour time, I'll spare you the
details which I would havereplied.
Don't spare me the details.
That's the very thing I want tohear, but alas.
However, suffice it to say thechanges God has made, not only
within my life but within mepersonally, have been profound.
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Though we quite literally donot know each other, it is my
sincerest hope that you are well.
I do not know if I affected youin any way that particular
evening, but I want you to knowthat, through God's awesome
power, you certainly had aneffect on me, and for that I am
eternally grateful.
Seriously, thank you.
Keep on keeping on.
God bless Matt.
(06:17):
What an incredible.
I read that to you because everytime I read it I'm struck by
the language he used at the endthere, which was this is a
testimony, this is a witness toGod's awesome power and just the
unexpected ways in which heuses simple seeds that are sown
that don't bear fruit for yearsand years and years that you
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never actually know about.
And so today is part two of atwo-part series on bearing
witness to Jesus, which issimply talking about who we know
Jesus to be and what he's doneboth in history and in our lives
.
And so, as we looked at thislast week, we kind of talked
about a couple reasons thathinder us from living everyday
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life with gospel intentionality,like what gets in the way.
Last week we talked about onething that gets in the way is we
don't know the heart of Jesusfor our not yet disciple
neighbors, people who don't knowhim.
But Jesus' heart beats withcompassion for your neighbors
and your co-workers and yourfriends and your family.
The second reason I gave wasbusyness.
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Simply, we have full lives andit takes time, it takes
interruptibility, in order to bea witness to Jesus.
But this week I want to tackletwo other ones One pretty simple
in one sense.
The other one's more deep andtakes a little bit more work.
The first one is, I don't knowhow, just the simple, like I
don't know how to speak topeople about Jesus.
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What does that actually looklike?
And the second one the gospelhas ceased to be good news to us
.
The old news, the good newsbecame old news, and so it needs
to become fresh, alive in ourlives in a new way in order for
it to be good news, for us towant to actually share with
other people.
And so I want to look at 1Timothy together, chapter one.
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If you have a Bible or a device, so I want to look at 1 Timothy
together, chapter 1.
If you have a Bible or a device, we're going to look at this
text over three points, whichare the simply, this is kind of
a structure for the gospelitself guilt, grace, gratitude.
Those are my three points.
Look at 1 Timothy, chapter 1,verses 12 through 17.
With me, if you have a Bible ordevice, go ahead and get it out
in front of you.
We're going to work through itverse by verse.
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First, timothy 1.12 says this Ithank him who has given me
strength, christ Jesus, our Lord, because he judged me faithful,
appointing me to his service,though formerly I was a
blasphemer, persecutor andinsolent opponent.
But I received mercy because Ihad acted arrogantly in unbelief
(08:47):
.
Right out the gate, paul givesus what is actually a helpful
tool, which is called abefore-because story.
So you want to learn how toshare your story with people.
This is a helpful framework.
Who were you before Jesus?
Who are you now?
After or because of Jesus?
Now, some of you are like, oh,I've always known Jesus.
That's great, that's afantastic testimony.
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What is God doing in your life?
That's a great way to answerthat question.
Before you gave fresh faith toJesus and who he says he is, and
because of that, whatdifference has it made?
That's just simply a way to doit.
So my before because story andI've written this out I'd
encourage you to take the time10 minutes, just jot down 30
seconds of before Jesus, becauseof Jesus, that you might be
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able to share with a barista, acoworker, whatever.
As they ask about why youbelieve this weird thing called
Christianity, mine goessomething like this I lived a
life searching for satisfactionand belonging and purpose, but I
did it all on my own terms andI didn't realize that the fact
that my life revolved around mewas actually a rejection of God.
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But because of Jesus, heactually exchanged my brokenness
and rejection for his beautyand belonging and he gave me
newfound purpose.
He gave me belonging I couldhave never had on my own and
he's satisfied me in ways that Inever thought were possible.
Full stop.
That's it A before-becausestory, super simple.
You're able to tell somebodyvery quickly, and I get that
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from Paul.
Look at what he does in thetext.
We get his before-because story, verse 13,.
Though formerly you could say,before I was a blasphemer,
persecutor and insolent opponent, that's the way he describes
himself before he knew Jesus.
And Paul wants you to see whatin our tradition we call total
depravity, which basically meansthere is not one part of who
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you are that is not desperatelyin need of the grace of Jesus
Christ.
And so he says he's ablasphemer, which means he
opposed Jesus in his speech.
But not only that.
He was a persecutor, whichmeans he opposed Jesus in his
actions.
And then, maybe, underlying allof that, he was an insolent
opponent, which means there wasan arrogance there, which means
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he opposed Jesus in his wholeattitude and entire way of life.
Paul needed the grace of Godand he knew it.
So the question is, how does ablasphemer persecutor, son of a
Hebrew and a Pharisee, droppedin the middle of a forgotten
spot in Jerusalem by a Damascusroad encounter, grow up to be a
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hero and a scholar?
How does that happen.
Well, look at Paul's becausestory, verse 13.
He says this but I receivedmercy because I had acted
arrogantly, ignorantly, inunbelief, because you hear the
word there.
Then he goes on in verse 12,christ Jesus, our Lord, because
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he judged me faithful.
So which is it, paul?
Were you faithful orunbelieving?
Yes, the answer is yes.
How is that possible?
Well, because Paul knew whatwas his unbelief, but Jesus knew
what could be.
Faithful missionary, faithfulapostle.
You see, the story that Jesuscan tell about your life will
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always surpass whatever storyyou tell about your life or
anybody else tells about yourlife.
And so, while Paul is admittingI lived in unbelief, jesus
declared over him, judged himand said I see faithfulness Now.
Was that because he looked atPaul and thought oh, there's a
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spark of something really goodinside of you?
Not at all, in fact, later inthe text, paul tells us that the
faith itself came from ChristJesus, which we'll look at in a
moment.
But I think what it comes downto is that Jesus loves to flex
his grace muscles to take themost antagonistic opponents and
make them the most enthusiasticproponents.
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I'll tell you a quick story.
Just last month, we have thisprayer gathering on Wednesdays
from 12 to 2.
Seek Orlando it's when we, asthe church in Orlando, gather
with for and as the church ofOrlando, to pray for an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit inour time, in our city.
That's what we do, so there'salways people from other
churches there gatheringtogether.
And a woman came up to me afterone of the prayer times last
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month and she said hey, I cameone other time and you don't
maybe remember, but I came withanother woman that was with me
and she said she recognized you,but you didn't recognize her.
And I was like, oh, I alwaysfeel bad when that happens.
She said but it's okay.
She said she's changed a lotsince you saw her last.
You see, when you were astudent at UCF, you were trying
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to tell her about Jesus and shewas this is her word, a quote
stubborn atheist.
And she said but I think you'dbe interested to know this that
she and her husband are plantingthe church that I now am a part
of, and she wanted you to knowthat, but didn't get a chance to
tell you that day when she cameto this prayer meeting.
Listen, that was 15 years agoand that story was just dormant.
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I didn't know anything about ituntil one month ago.
Because Jesus loves to show hisawesome power in the lives of
the least expecting the least,the people that you would think
that would be the mostantagonistic to the good news of
the gospel, and that's why Paulactually tells us his story
here and he wants to belabor thepoint that it's nothing in Paul
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that made him judged faithfulby Jesus.
In fact, he goes on look atverse 15.
It says this Christ Jesus cameinto the world to save sinners,
of whom I am the foremost.
He's just like doubleunderlining that for us.
Now you've probably heard someof you heard this before, but if
you pay attention to theletters of Paul, there's this
interesting progression inPaul's self-perception that
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happens over his writings.
Like look at this in 1Corinthians 15, verse 9, which
was probably written about AD 55, okay, he says this I am the
least of the apostles.
So that's his first statementabout himself I'm the least of
the apostles, unworthy to becalled an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God,which is like there's a humility
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in that.
But listen, if you're ridingthe bench on a championship team
, that's still pretty good.
Right To be the least of theapostles.
But he goes on in Ephesians 3,8.
This is about seven years later.
After he said he's the least ofthe apostles, he writes to the
church in Ephesus.
He says this to me though I amthe very least of all the saints
.
Okay, so now there's aprogression Not only the least
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of the apostles, I'm the leastof the saints.
In other words, you're theleast but you're still kind of
on.
It's a little low but you'restill on the team.
But then we get to our textthis morning, which was about
three years after that, AD 65.
And he says this the saying istrustworthy and deserving of
full acceptance that ChristJesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am theforemost.
Do you hear the progression?
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Now he's the chief of sinners.
He went from the least of theapostles to the least of the
saints, to the foremost or thechief of sinners.
What's happening here?
Like what is going on in Paul'sself-concept, his evaluation of
his life.
Is he actually getting worseover time or is his sense of
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self deteriorating?
Or does he need a little StuartSmalley?
Daily affirmations like I'mgood enough, I'm smart enough
and doggone it.
People like me Like does hejust need a little of that in
the mirror.
This is what I think ishappening.
This is how the gospel grows asgood news in the life of a
believer in Jesus.
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Now I'm going to throw a diagramup behind me here.
This is something that some ofyou I'm sure have seen the
gospel grid.
I just pulled that out ofGoogle because I knew what I
wanted, had to find it.
The gospel grid looks like thiswhen you come to know Jesus,
that says conversion.
There the cross is kind ofsmall because you don't know
much about God.
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You don't know much about you.
You definitely don't understandthe depths of God's holiness or
the heights of his holiness andthe depths of your sinfulness.
But as you grow in anunderstanding of who God is and
who you are, the cross of JesusChrist becomes more significant
and profound and you see howmuch the grace of God in Jesus
Christ really was for you.
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But let me show you the secondslide.
This is the constant temptationfor all of us right here that as
we get to a certain point wecannot tolerate the holiness of
God or our own sinfulness, andso we shrink the gospel.
We make the cross smaller bybasically either denying that
God is as holy as he really is,or denying that I am as sinful
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as I really am, because, as weall know, honest self-awareness
can be painful.
And without this one thing,there's one thing that makes it
possible for us to take anhonest look at our own lives in
light of the holiness of God.
Only one thing, and that isgrace.
Only if I know that I could beaccepted and belong and beloved
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by God, regardless of who I am.
Only by grace, not a result ofme doing enough to perform or to
prove myself, only grace canactually enable me to see God as
holy as he really is and myselfas sinful as I really am.
And then the cross bridges thegap more and more and more, and
we see, we grow in thanksgivingand gratitude for all that Jesus
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is for us.
This is how the good newsdoesn't become old news but
stays fresh, fresh good news forus.
And so we looked at Paul'sguilt.
But let's look at grace.
This is my second point.
Look at verse 14.
It says this, and the grace ofour Lord overflowed for me.
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Listen, there's something webelieve as Christians that the
Holy Spirit inspired the Bible,co-authored it, with Paul in
this case.
But we also believe that theHoly Spirit takes the inspired
scriptures and illumines them aswe read them.
And this sermon right now isgrowing out of September I'm
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sorry, april 12th, a Saturday.
I was reading the McShane Biblereading plan that's like on the
front of your worship guidehere, and 1 Timothy 1 was the
date was reading for that dayand I'm just cruising along and
I get to.
The grace of our Lordoverflowed for me and I was
struck, and so I like to pausewhere the Spirit gives me pause,
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and so I slowed down and Ilingered over that and I began
to meditate on that that day andover the next few days and even
weeks, and I would just askquestions like Lord, how are you
going to show your graceoverflowing for me in this?
What is that going to look like?
And this sermon, like I said,grew out of that.
We call this series Preach yourHeart Out.
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This is coming from my heart,because this was the Lord met me
in this particular text.
And so what can change anopponent of Jesus to a proponent
of Jesus?
Only the embracing grace ofverse 14.
The grace of our Lord thatoverflows for me Notice the
personalization, not overflowsfor people, for me as that
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begins to be internalized.
Like we can exaggerate about alot of things in life.
You just listen to people talk.
People exaggerate all the time.
You can never over exaggeratethe abundance of favor that is
found in Jesus Christ towardssinners like you and me.
You will never over-exaggeratethat because the grace of our
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Lord overflows.
The picture is like a cupthat's being filled to the brim
and you're like uh-uh, stop slowdown.
And then it just pours over andover and over a super abundance
.
Paul does this sometimes wherehe's at a loss for words, so
he's just grappling for languageto describe how much there is
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for us in Jesus Christ.
When we say all of us need allof Jesus for all of life.
There's a lot in Jesus and itoverflows for us.
But notice how it continues.
He says the grace of our Lordoverflowed for me with the faith
and love that are in ChristJesus.
The faith to believe in Jesusis in Christ Jesus.
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The love for Jesus is found inChrist Jesus.
So even those things you don'tmuster up Another way to say
that is Jesus.
Would you let your grace justhop the banks of the river and
flow towards me and let yourfaith overcome.
Let this faith overcome myunbelief, let this love overcome
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my animosity.
And Jesus says yes, that's whatI love to do, that's my joy, to
overflow with grace, coming atyou with faith and love that are
all in Christ Jesus.
That's part of what comes to usthrough Jesus in the gospel.
And so Paul goes on to explaina little bit more what this
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looks like.
Verse 15,.
He says this the saying istrustworthy and deserving of
full acceptance.
He's getting superlative here.
He's like listen, what I'mabout to say is not only true
but reliable.
And not only reliable, but youcan bet your life on it, and
therefore I want you to openyourself up fully to receive it
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without defense.
What the Spirit of God is aboutto say in this next phrase
deserves unhindered opennessfrom you for these words.
What are the words?
Christ Jesus came into the worldto save sinners.
The pre-existent second personof the Trinity, the Son of God,
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came into the world, took onflesh and bones in every way,
just as we are yet without sin.
Why, what's the purpose clause?
To save sinners.
This is what he's about.
It's what he's been about.
It's why he came.
It's what he's still about.
It's why he's inviting you tojoin him in his mission to bear
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witness to this good news toeveryone.
You can hear that, can hear it.
Christ Jesus came into theworld to save sinners.
Now notice something here itdoesn't say he came into the
world to make salvation possible.
No, it's all of a piece.
Jesus saves sinners.
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One of the reasons I haveconfidence to go up to somebody
like Matt, who I talked about inthe introduction, and just talk
to him about Jesus he'sstubborn, atheistic, militant,
all these things he calledhimself is because I have zero
confidence in Matt.
I have no confidence he's goingto like or me for that matter.
I'm going to have a greatlogical flow to my argumentation
.
It's going to be winsome in,for that matter.
I'm going to have a greatlogical flow to my argumentation
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.
It's going to be winsome, andstories and all that, and I
could do some of that stuff.
No confidence in it.
I have confidence that ChristJesus came into the world to
save sinners and that he savesthem fully and completely and
entirely, with no lack, and thathe is powerful to save and that
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the resistance of a militantatheist is nothing for the king
of the ages, as he calls himlater in the text.
That gives me boldness, becauseone of the other reasons we
don't share Jesus with people isbecause we're afraid.
I get afraid.
Paul got afraid.
He told the church, I think inColossae he said pray for me for
boldness.
You don't ask for that ifyou're not afraid.
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But one of the things thatbuoys me is the fact that there
is something that is trustworthyand deserving of full
acceptance.
Christ Jesus came into the worldto save sinners, including the
one in front of you that you'resharing Jesus with and the one
in front of you that you look atin the mirror.
He came to save sinners.
So some of you this morning youmaybe wonder you've got that
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little part, that little cornerof your heart that you're just
like is this like?
Have I gone too far?
Even this?
I think we all have that, theselittle pockets of darkness in
our hearts and our minds and oursouls where we wonder if
there's enough in Jesus for eventhat.
And I would just say to you hisgrace overflows, because Christ
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Jesus came into the world forthis purpose to save sinners.
But Paul goes on, he says ofwhom I am the foremost.
So not only does Jesus come tosave sinners, that's a
universally true statementoffered to all who will receive
it, but it must be personallyapplied, of whom I am the
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foremost of sinners.
In order to come to Jesus andhim to be good news for you, you
have to be willing to recognizeI need him.
All of us need Jesus for all oflife.
I am a sinner.
I am somebody who actuallyneeds this from him, and Paul
got there, which is why this wassuch good news for him.
He was able to receive thisoffer of Christ Jesus coming to
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save people like him.
But why did Paul receive it?
Look at verse 16.
But I received mercy for thisreason that in me as the
foremost in case you forgot thesentence before he's reminding
you again, I'm the foremost ofsinners.
He says it twice that in me asthe foremost, jesus Christ might
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display his perfect patience asan example to those who were to
believe in him for eternal life.
What I love about that sentenceis that is actually empirically
true.
This is what I mean.
In our cultural parlance, likethe way we talk.
We talk about a Damascus roadexperience, don't we, as a
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moment where somebody had aradical encounter that led to a
life-altering kind of event thatled to a change of life right,
we use Damascus Road experience.
So Paul, actually, this becametrue in his life.
He became an example, a pattern.
But Jesus had a deeperintention than just a radical
encounter that leads to a changeof life.
Look at what he says in verse16, that in me, jesus Christ
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might display his perfectpatience.
Does anybody need any perfectpatience in here this morning,
like I told you that I actuallysaw a hand.
I like that, I see that hand.
That's what I should say.
I told you back in April I wasmeditating on this text.
Overflow of grace was someaningful In preparation for
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today.
The two words the Holy Spiritwas illumining in the text were
perfect patience.
Oh, I need perfect patience Like.
There is no source of doubt inmy life about Christianity
greater than this one I'm aboutto name right here the lack of
life transformation I see inmyself that causes doubt.
I struggle with it.
The Bible, true, authentic,yeah, that doesn't bother me.
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Jesus Christ resurrected,ascended, whatever God existing,
not a problem.
The fact that I don't look morelike Jesus than I thought I
would by now, that troubles me.
And so I go to Jesus and I sayJesus, I need your perfect
patience With somebody like mewho takes a long time.
I think I'm a work in progress,but man, progress is not fast
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enough.
And Jesus comes and he says hey, look at Paul.
Look at Paul, if I could havemercy on him, I can have mercy
on you, like you're a juniorvarsity center Ben Jesus said
that, not me.
I'm just saying he didn't saythat.
But you track with me.
I need his perfect patience.
This is what this looks like.
Is inviting this, asking for it?
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And so some of you this morning, when you hear me talking about
bearing witness to Jesus, youthink how could I possibly do
that?
I've ruined my witness.
That's maybe true.
Actually, you've lived in acertain way.
You've said certain things thatare so antithetical to Jesus
and the gospel that peoplewouldn't actually want to hear
anything from you about Jesus.
(28:56):
Well, good news the worlddoesn't just need our
righteousness, it needs ourrepentance.
Where else are they going tolearn what it looks like to turn
back to Jesus for mercy?
But you.
Where else are they going tolearn that there's a king of
ages who also happens to be fullof grace, overflowing with
perfect patience towards peoplewho can't get their act together
(29:18):
fast enough?
But you?
And so it might look likesomething like this hey, listen,
I just want to acknowledge,like, when I said this or when I
did that, like you know, that Iprofessed to follow Jesus and
that did not look anything likeJesus, and I've asked him for
forgiveness and he's forgiven me, but I want to ask you for
forgiveness too.
Will you forgive me for that?
(29:39):
Now, that's simple, not easy.
That's simple, though, and it'samazing the way that opens up
opportunities to talk to peopleabout the perfect patience of
King Jesus.
And so where do we get thestrength to do that, though?
Because if it is simple buthard, we might need strength.
(30:00):
Well, this is where I'm goingto close.
Paul back at the top.
This is third point, gratitude,verse 12.
Paul says this I thank him.
I thank him who has given mestrength, christ Jesus, our Lord
.
Notice Paul begins with thanksand he ends with praise.
(30:20):
Look at the last verse, verse17.
To the king of the ages,immortal, invisible, the only
God, be honor and glory foreverand ever.
Amen.
Paul's writing a letter, and hejust breaks out into doxology.
He can't help himself.
He's just getting dialed up ashe's writing this out and he's
like oh, my goodness, this istrue writing this out, and he's
(30:41):
like, oh, my goodness, this istrue.
So where does our strength comefrom?
Paul says in verse 12, I thankhim.
Who has given me strength,christ Jesus, our Lord.
The very strength to bearwitness to Jesus comes from
Jesus himself, according to Paul.
And so how do we draw on that?
(31:01):
I wish I had a whole, not other, sermon to preach on how do we
draw on the strength of Jesus?
I've been meditating on thisfor a while, so it's probably
coming down the pike.
I'm just warning you, but thisis my point right here the
strength that we need to bearwitness to Jesus, this strength
comes as the overflow of graceflows over in gratitude.
That's where the strength comesfrom, as the overflow of grace
(31:21):
to us flows over ingratitude toGod.
Because, like many of us, thegospels just become white noise.
It's like a family that livesreally close to I-4 or something
like that, and you go overtheir house for dinner.
You're like, don't you hear allthe cars?
Like, no, what cars?
It just becomes white noise,it's kind of the background.
(31:43):
And so the gospel penetratingagain into our hearts with
freshness is so essential, andone of the ways that the old
news becomes good news again iswhen we use our tongues properly
.
This is what I mean by thatJames, in James 3, the
half-brother of Jesus.
He says this just like a shipis steered around by this little
(32:03):
tiny rudder.
In the same way, he saysactually, here's the exact quote
.
He says quote so also thetongue is a little tiny part of
you, steers your entireexistence.
Let me say that differently.
Your soul goes where yourpraise flows.
The things you speak about, thethings you praise, the things
(32:25):
you say affirmative things about, is going to shape and direct
your entire life.
I think that's why Paul beginsin thanks and ends in praise.
He knows this is true.
And so what does that mean?
Maybe, after this, you takethis text, you take it home with
you and you just simply go.
Jesus, thank you for yourperfect patience.
I need it, jesus.
(32:48):
Thank you that your graceoverflows for me.
Those two words are sobeautiful for me.
Maybe it looks like Jesus.
I praise you that the immortalGod verse 17, became mortal,
took on mortality so thatthrough his dying, his undying
love could be made known to me.
(33:08):
Thank you, jesus.
Father, I thank you that youare, from age to age, king of
kings.
Holy Spirit, I thank you.
The invisible God verse 17, isvisibly at work in my life and
in the life of people around me.
You begin to thank and topraise and you speak to God who
he is, tell him who he is.
(33:31):
Cs Lewis says that praise isinner health made audible.
He goes on in.
You can look this up a wordabout praising Just Google that.
You'll find this section fromhim.
He says all enjoymentspontaneously overflows into
praise.
The world rings with praise.
Lovers praising theirmistresses, readers their
(33:53):
favorite poet, walkers praisingthe countryside, players
praising their favorite sport,praise of weather, wines, dishes
, actors, motors, horses,colleges, countries, historical
personages, children, flowers,mountains, rare stamps, rare
beetles, even sometimespoliticians.
I like how beetles made it inthere before politicians.
(34:13):
He knew a thing or two.
You see people spontaneouslypraise whatever they value.
So then, when they valuesomething, they spontaneously
praise it, and then they urge usto join in in praising.
That's what it means to bearwitness to.
Jesus is for the good news tobecome so good to you, to mean
(34:34):
something so much to you thatthere's a spontaneity to the
fact that you start talkingabout Jesus.
I've been around people likethis.
They're infectious with theirlove for Jesus.
And so, to close, when we bearwitness to Jesus, what we're
doing is we're simply doing whatall people do when they speak
about things they care about.
It's nothing more than that.
(34:54):
And so, as we tell Jesus abouthow good Jesus is, we will grow
in our ability to tell othersabout how good Jesus is.
We will grow in our ability totell others about how good Jesus
is.
That's the invitation.
As we recognize our guilt andsee the overflowing grace of
Jesus, and it results ingratitude, we will become
witnesses of the King of theages.
Let's pray, lord Jesus, we comebefore you.
(35:19):
Thank you that there is afullness in you that we don't
even know.
That gives us such hope andexpectancy and we want to reach.
We want to reach for all thatthere is in you.
Christ, I pray, holy Spirit,that you would fill us, give us
the boldness that you gave thechurch in Acts 2 and Acts 4, the
(35:40):
boldness to go out and tellothers about Jesus, but a
boldness that flows from ustasting and seeing that our Lord
really is good.
We pray this in his name, amen.
your spirit, give usunderstanding, turn our eyes
from looking at worthless thingsand give us life in your ways.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,amen.
Today's scripture comes from 1Timothy 1, 12-17.
I'd invite you to stand, if youare able, for the whole
scripture reading.
I thank him who has given mestrength, christ Jesus, our Lord
(00:52):
, because he judged me faithful,appointing me to his service,
though formerly I was ablasphemer, persecutor and
insolent opponent.
But I received mercy because Ihad acted ignorantly, in
unbelief, and the grace of ourLord overflowed for me with the
faith and love that are inChrist Jesus.
(01:15):
The saying is trustworthy anddeserving of full acceptance
that Christ Jesus came into theworld to save sinners, of whom I
am the foremost.
But I received mercy for thisreason that, in me as the
foremost, jesus Christ mightdisplay his perfect patience as
an example to those who are tobelieve in him for eternal life.
(01:38):
To the King of the ages,immortal, invisible, the only
God, be honor and glory foreverand ever.
Amen.
This is God's word.
Thank you, god.
You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt (01:58):
Well, you may have heard about what Kenny
and Michael and Sam were talkingabout and thinking does that
even work?
Is that even effective?
Is that seems like a waste oftime, and I want to tell you a
quick story to start off, totell you no, it's not a waste of
time.
There's powerful ways in whichGod is weaving invisibly at work
in the people around you, inwhat becomes visible ways.
(02:21):
So I was trained to do whatthey were doing in college in a
campus ministry, and so we wouldwalk around and we'd have
conversations with people and wewould offer to do, we'd invite
people to do a spiritual survey,which was a wonderfully sketchy
way of getting into aconversation about Jesus.
And there's a question in therethat I still have asked often
now, which is hey, can you tellme a little bit about your
(02:43):
spiritual or religiousbackground?
A lot of people will answerthat question with no problem
your co-workers, your neighbors.
That's an easy question in someways for people to answer.
And so we were doing that and Iwas with another guy named
Tyler who I was discipling, kindof teaching him this is how you
share your faith with somebody,and we ran into a guy who was I
mean just maybe, in his ownwords, belligerent, like he was
(03:06):
not about what we wanted to talkto him about and he made sure
we knew that.
And so, by every externalmarker, the conversation did not
go well, until I get an emailfrom him four years later.
Now, how did that happen?
I gave him my email then andthere and said hey, if you ever
want to talk more about any ofthese things, shoot me an email,
(03:27):
let's get together, I'll buyyou coffee, I'll buy you lunch,
whatever that kind of thing.
Four years later, he sends methis email.
It's long.
I'm going to read the wholething, because that's how you're
supposed to start a sermonright, by reading emails to
people.
Know, if you remember me, we meta few years back.
You and another dude approachedmy buddy and me.
(03:48):
You two had a survey you askedus to participate in pertaining
to our religious and spiritualbeliefs.
I accepted your request toparticipate in the survey solely
to engage in a debate with youand to prove you wrong.
My ultimate motive, I regret toadmit, was to cast doubt in
your minds.
Now I want you to know a fewthings.
First and foremost, I want youto know that I am sincerely
(04:09):
sorry.
Unfortunately, our two pathscrossed during my young,
extremely arrogant, militant,atheist years.
If I were granted a fewdo-overs in my life, that
encounter we shared together,believe it or not, would be one
of them.
Second, although I've thoughtabout our interaction only a
handful of times over the years,I want you to know that you had
(04:31):
a profound effect on me.
One of the main reasons I turnedmy back on God and Christianity
was due to the sheer hypocrisyI continuously perceived amongst
the Christians I deeplyrespected and admired.
I witnessed so muchincongruence between what they
said, they believed and how theyactually lived their lives and
treated others.
(04:51):
Despite the fact that I treatedyou so despicably during our
brief interaction, I sensed atruly sincere care and kindness
within you.
You were patient with me and,although our beliefs were
clearly at odds, you seemed toaccept me, despite my juvenile,
disrespectful behavior At thetime.
It further aggravated me, yet Ididn't understand why.
(05:12):
I've come to realize over theyears that it aggravated me
simply because I didn'tunderstand it.
You were authentic.
You were genuine in characterand in faith.
It was something I perhaps hadonly witnessed a couple times in
my life and, though I didn'trealize it at the time it gave
me hope.
Third and lastly, I'd simplylike for you to know that
several months ago, I came toaccept Jesus into my life.
(05:34):
It's been an intriguing journey, getting to where I was to
where I am now.
So as to not take up too much ofyour time, I'll spare you the
details which I would havereplied.
Don't spare me the details.
That's the very thing I want tohear, but alas.
However, suffice it to say thechanges God has made, not only
within my life but within mepersonally, have been profound.
(05:55):
Though we quite literally donot know each other, it is my
sincerest hope that you are well.
I do not know if I affected youin any way that particular
evening, but I want you to knowthat, through God's awesome
power, you certainly had aneffect on me, and for that I am
eternally grateful.
Seriously, thank you.
Keep on keeping on.
God bless Matt.
(06:17):
What an incredible.
I read that to you because everytime I read it I'm struck by
the language he used at the endthere, which was this is a
testimony, this is a witness toGod's awesome power and just the
unexpected ways in which heuses simple seeds that are sown
that don't bear fruit for yearsand years and years that you
(06:39):
never actually know about.
And so today is part two of atwo-part series on bearing
witness to Jesus, which issimply talking about who we know
Jesus to be and what he's doneboth in history and in our lives
.
And so, as we looked at thislast week, we kind of talked
about a couple reasons thathinder us from living everyday
(07:00):
life with gospel intentionality,like what gets in the way.
Last week we talked about onething that gets in the way is we
don't know the heart of Jesusfor our not yet disciple
neighbors, people who don't knowhim.
But Jesus' heart beats withcompassion for your neighbors
and your co-workers and yourfriends and your family.
The second reason I gave wasbusyness.
(07:21):
Simply, we have full lives andit takes time, it takes
interruptibility, in order to bea witness to Jesus.
But this week I want to tackletwo other ones One pretty simple
in one sense.
The other one's more deep andtakes a little bit more work.
The first one is, I don't knowhow, just the simple, like I
don't know how to speak topeople about Jesus.
(07:42):
What does that actually looklike?
And the second one the gospelhas ceased to be good news to us
.
The old news, the good newsbecame old news, and so it needs
to become fresh, alive in ourlives in a new way in order for
it to be good news, for us towant to actually share with
other people.
And so I want to look at 1Timothy together, chapter one.
(08:04):
If you have a Bible or a device, so I want to look at 1 Timothy
together, chapter 1.
If you have a Bible or a device, we're going to look at this
text over three points, whichare the simply, this is kind of
a structure for the gospelitself guilt, grace, gratitude.
Those are my three points.
Look at 1 Timothy, chapter 1,verses 12 through 17.
With me, if you have a Bible ordevice, go ahead and get it out
in front of you.
We're going to work through itverse by verse.
(08:25):
First, timothy 1.12 says this Ithank him who has given me
strength, christ Jesus, our Lord, because he judged me faithful,
appointing me to his service,though formerly I was a
blasphemer, persecutor andinsolent opponent.
But I received mercy because Ihad acted arrogantly in unbelief
(08:47):
.
Right out the gate, paul givesus what is actually a helpful
tool, which is called abefore-because story.
So you want to learn how toshare your story with people.
This is a helpful framework.
Who were you before Jesus?
Who are you now?
After or because of Jesus?
Now, some of you are like, oh,I've always known Jesus.
That's great, that's afantastic testimony.
(09:07):
What is God doing in your life?
That's a great way to answerthat question.
Before you gave fresh faith toJesus and who he says he is, and
because of that, whatdifference has it made?
That's just simply a way to doit.
So my before because story andI've written this out I'd
encourage you to take the time10 minutes, just jot down 30
seconds of before Jesus, becauseof Jesus, that you might be
(09:29):
able to share with a barista, acoworker, whatever.
As they ask about why youbelieve this weird thing called
Christianity, mine goessomething like this I lived a
life searching for satisfactionand belonging and purpose, but I
did it all on my own terms andI didn't realize that the fact
that my life revolved around mewas actually a rejection of God.
(09:50):
But because of Jesus, heactually exchanged my brokenness
and rejection for his beautyand belonging and he gave me
newfound purpose.
He gave me belonging I couldhave never had on my own and
he's satisfied me in ways that Inever thought were possible.
Full stop.
That's it A before-becausestory, super simple.
You're able to tell somebodyvery quickly, and I get that
(10:13):
from Paul.
Look at what he does in thetext.
We get his before-because story, verse 13,.
Though formerly you could say,before I was a blasphemer,
persecutor and insolent opponent, that's the way he describes
himself before he knew Jesus.
And Paul wants you to see whatin our tradition we call total
depravity, which basically meansthere is not one part of who
(10:36):
you are that is not desperatelyin need of the grace of Jesus
Christ.
And so he says he's ablasphemer, which means he
opposed Jesus in his speech.
But not only that.
He was a persecutor, whichmeans he opposed Jesus in his
actions.
And then, maybe, underlying allof that, he was an insolent
opponent, which means there wasan arrogance there, which means
(10:58):
he opposed Jesus in his wholeattitude and entire way of life.
Paul needed the grace of Godand he knew it.
So the question is, how does ablasphemer persecutor, son of a
Hebrew and a Pharisee, droppedin the middle of a forgotten
spot in Jerusalem by a Damascusroad encounter, grow up to be a
(11:19):
hero and a scholar?
How does that happen.
Well, look at Paul's becausestory, verse 13.
He says this but I receivedmercy because I had acted
arrogantly, ignorantly, inunbelief, because you hear the
word there.
Then he goes on in verse 12,christ Jesus, our Lord, because
(11:41):
he judged me faithful.
So which is it, paul?
Were you faithful orunbelieving?
Yes, the answer is yes.
How is that possible?
Well, because Paul knew whatwas his unbelief, but Jesus knew
what could be.
Faithful missionary, faithfulapostle.
You see, the story that Jesuscan tell about your life will
(12:03):
always surpass whatever storyyou tell about your life or
anybody else tells about yourlife.
And so, while Paul is admittingI lived in unbelief, jesus
declared over him, judged himand said I see faithfulness Now.
Was that because he looked atPaul and thought oh, there's a
(12:23):
spark of something really goodinside of you?
Not at all, in fact, later inthe text, paul tells us that the
faith itself came from ChristJesus, which we'll look at in a
moment.
But I think what it comes downto is that Jesus loves to flex
his grace muscles to take themost antagonistic opponents and
make them the most enthusiasticproponents.
(12:46):
I'll tell you a quick story.
Just last month, we have thisprayer gathering on Wednesdays
from 12 to 2.
Seek Orlando it's when we, asthe church in Orlando, gather
with for and as the church ofOrlando, to pray for an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit inour time, in our city.
That's what we do, so there'salways people from other
churches there gatheringtogether.
And a woman came up to me afterone of the prayer times last
(13:08):
month and she said hey, I cameone other time and you don't
maybe remember, but I came withanother woman that was with me
and she said she recognized you,but you didn't recognize her.
And I was like, oh, I alwaysfeel bad when that happens.
She said but it's okay.
She said she's changed a lotsince you saw her last.
You see, when you were astudent at UCF, you were trying
(13:30):
to tell her about Jesus and shewas this is her word, a quote
stubborn atheist.
And she said but I think you'dbe interested to know this that
she and her husband are plantingthe church that I now am a part
of, and she wanted you to knowthat, but didn't get a chance to
tell you that day when she cameto this prayer meeting.
Listen, that was 15 years agoand that story was just dormant.
(13:52):
I didn't know anything about ituntil one month ago.
Because Jesus loves to show hisawesome power in the lives of
the least expecting the least,the people that you would think
that would be the mostantagonistic to the good news of
the gospel, and that's why Paulactually tells us his story
here and he wants to belabor thepoint that it's nothing in Paul
(14:13):
that made him judged faithfulby Jesus.
In fact, he goes on look atverse 15.
It says this Christ Jesus cameinto the world to save sinners,
of whom I am the foremost.
He's just like doubleunderlining that for us.
Now you've probably heard someof you heard this before, but if
you pay attention to theletters of Paul, there's this
interesting progression inPaul's self-perception that
(14:37):
happens over his writings.
Like look at this in 1Corinthians 15, verse 9, which
was probably written about AD 55, okay, he says this I am the
least of the apostles.
So that's his first statementabout himself I'm the least of
the apostles, unworthy to becalled an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God,which is like there's a humility
(14:59):
in that.
But listen, if you're ridingthe bench on a championship team
, that's still pretty good.
Right To be the least of theapostles.
But he goes on in Ephesians 3,8.
This is about seven years later.
After he said he's the least ofthe apostles, he writes to the
church in Ephesus.
He says this to me though I amthe very least of all the saints
.
Okay, so now there's aprogression Not only the least
(15:25):
of the apostles, I'm the leastof the saints.
In other words, you're theleast but you're still kind of
on.
It's a little low but you'restill on the team.
But then we get to our textthis morning, which was about
three years after that, AD 65.
And he says this the saying istrustworthy and deserving of
full acceptance that ChristJesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am theforemost.
Do you hear the progression?
(15:46):
Now he's the chief of sinners.
He went from the least of theapostles to the least of the
saints, to the foremost or thechief of sinners.
What's happening here?
Like what is going on in Paul'sself-concept, his evaluation of
his life.
Is he actually getting worseover time or is his sense of
(16:06):
self deteriorating?
Or does he need a little StuartSmalley?
Daily affirmations like I'mgood enough, I'm smart enough
and doggone it.
People like me Like does hejust need a little of that in
the mirror.
This is what I think ishappening.
This is how the gospel grows asgood news in the life of a
believer in Jesus.
(16:27):
Now I'm going to throw a diagramup behind me here.
This is something that some ofyou I'm sure have seen the
gospel grid.
I just pulled that out ofGoogle because I knew what I
wanted, had to find it.
The gospel grid looks like thiswhen you come to know Jesus,
that says conversion.
There the cross is kind ofsmall because you don't know
much about God.
(16:47):
You don't know much about you.
You definitely don't understandthe depths of God's holiness or
the heights of his holiness andthe depths of your sinfulness.
But as you grow in anunderstanding of who God is and
who you are, the cross of JesusChrist becomes more significant
and profound and you see howmuch the grace of God in Jesus
Christ really was for you.
(17:08):
But let me show you the secondslide.
This is the constant temptationfor all of us right here that as
we get to a certain point wecannot tolerate the holiness of
God or our own sinfulness, andso we shrink the gospel.
We make the cross smaller bybasically either denying that
God is as holy as he really is,or denying that I am as sinful
(17:31):
as I really am, because, as weall know, honest self-awareness
can be painful.
And without this one thing,there's one thing that makes it
possible for us to take anhonest look at our own lives in
light of the holiness of God.
Only one thing, and that isgrace.
Only if I know that I could beaccepted and belong and beloved
(17:56):
by God, regardless of who I am.
Only by grace, not a result ofme doing enough to perform or to
prove myself, only grace canactually enable me to see God as
holy as he really is and myselfas sinful as I really am.
And then the cross bridges thegap more and more and more, and
we see, we grow in thanksgivingand gratitude for all that Jesus
(18:18):
is for us.
This is how the good newsdoesn't become old news but
stays fresh, fresh good news forus.
And so we looked at Paul'sguilt.
But let's look at grace.
This is my second point.
Look at verse 14.
It says this, and the grace ofour Lord overflowed for me.
(18:38):
Listen, there's something webelieve as Christians that the
Holy Spirit inspired the Bible,co-authored it, with Paul in
this case.
But we also believe that theHoly Spirit takes the inspired
scriptures and illumines them aswe read them.
And this sermon right now isgrowing out of September I'm
(19:00):
sorry, april 12th, a Saturday.
I was reading the McShane Biblereading plan that's like on the
front of your worship guidehere, and 1 Timothy 1 was the
date was reading for that dayand I'm just cruising along and
I get to.
The grace of our Lordoverflowed for me and I was
struck, and so I like to pausewhere the Spirit gives me pause,
(19:20):
and so I slowed down and Ilingered over that and I began
to meditate on that that day andover the next few days and even
weeks, and I would just askquestions like Lord, how are you
going to show your graceoverflowing for me in this?
What is that going to look like?
And this sermon, like I said,grew out of that.
We call this series Preach yourHeart Out.
(19:41):
This is coming from my heart,because this was the Lord met me
in this particular text.
And so what can change anopponent of Jesus to a proponent
of Jesus?
Only the embracing grace ofverse 14.
The grace of our Lord thatoverflows for me Notice the
personalization, not overflowsfor people, for me as that
(20:04):
begins to be internalized.
Like we can exaggerate about alot of things in life.
You just listen to people talk.
People exaggerate all the time.
You can never over exaggeratethe abundance of favor that is
found in Jesus Christ towardssinners like you and me.
You will never over-exaggeratethat because the grace of our
(20:25):
Lord overflows.
The picture is like a cupthat's being filled to the brim
and you're like uh-uh, stop slowdown.
And then it just pours over andover and over a super abundance
.
Paul does this sometimes wherehe's at a loss for words, so
he's just grappling for languageto describe how much there is
(20:45):
for us in Jesus Christ.
When we say all of us need allof Jesus for all of life.
There's a lot in Jesus and itoverflows for us.
But notice how it continues.
He says the grace of our Lordoverflowed for me with the faith
and love that are in ChristJesus.
The faith to believe in Jesusis in Christ Jesus.
(21:10):
The love for Jesus is found inChrist Jesus.
So even those things you don'tmuster up Another way to say
that is Jesus.
Would you let your grace justhop the banks of the river and
flow towards me and let yourfaith overcome.
Let this faith overcome myunbelief, let this love overcome
(21:32):
my animosity.
And Jesus says yes, that's whatI love to do, that's my joy, to
overflow with grace, coming atyou with faith and love that are
all in Christ Jesus.
That's part of what comes to usthrough Jesus in the gospel.
And so Paul goes on to explaina little bit more what this
(21:53):
looks like.
Verse 15,.
He says this the saying istrustworthy and deserving of
full acceptance.
He's getting superlative here.
He's like listen, what I'mabout to say is not only true
but reliable.
And not only reliable, but youcan bet your life on it, and
therefore I want you to openyourself up fully to receive it
(22:14):
without defense.
What the Spirit of God is aboutto say in this next phrase
deserves unhindered opennessfrom you for these words.
What are the words?
Christ Jesus came into the worldto save sinners.
The pre-existent second personof the Trinity, the Son of God,
(22:39):
came into the world, took onflesh and bones in every way,
just as we are yet without sin.
Why, what's the purpose clause?
To save sinners.
This is what he's about.
It's what he's been about.
It's why he came.
It's what he's still about.
It's why he's inviting you tojoin him in his mission to bear
(23:00):
witness to this good news toeveryone.
You can hear that, can hear it.
Christ Jesus came into theworld to save sinners.
Now notice something here itdoesn't say he came into the
world to make salvation possible.
No, it's all of a piece.
Jesus saves sinners.
(23:22):
One of the reasons I haveconfidence to go up to somebody
like Matt, who I talked about inthe introduction, and just talk
to him about Jesus he'sstubborn, atheistic, militant,
all these things he calledhimself is because I have zero
confidence in Matt.
I have no confidence he's goingto like or me for that matter.
I'm going to have a greatlogical flow to my argumentation
.
It's going to be winsome in,for that matter.
I'm going to have a greatlogical flow to my argumentation
(23:43):
.
It's going to be winsome, andstories and all that, and I
could do some of that stuff.
No confidence in it.
I have confidence that ChristJesus came into the world to
save sinners and that he savesthem fully and completely and
entirely, with no lack, and thathe is powerful to save and that
(24:05):
the resistance of a militantatheist is nothing for the king
of the ages, as he calls himlater in the text.
That gives me boldness, becauseone of the other reasons we
don't share Jesus with people isbecause we're afraid.
I get afraid.
Paul got afraid.
He told the church, I think inColossae he said pray for me for
boldness.
You don't ask for that ifyou're not afraid.
(24:27):
But one of the things thatbuoys me is the fact that there
is something that is trustworthyand deserving of full
acceptance.
Christ Jesus came into the worldto save sinners, including the
one in front of you that you'resharing Jesus with and the one
in front of you that you look atin the mirror.
He came to save sinners.
So some of you this morning youmaybe wonder you've got that
(24:50):
little part, that little cornerof your heart that you're just
like is this like?
Have I gone too far?
Even this?
I think we all have that, theselittle pockets of darkness in
our hearts and our minds and oursouls where we wonder if
there's enough in Jesus for eventhat.
And I would just say to you hisgrace overflows, because Christ
(25:11):
Jesus came into the world forthis purpose to save sinners.
But Paul goes on, he says ofwhom I am the foremost.
So not only does Jesus come tosave sinners, that's a
universally true statementoffered to all who will receive
it, but it must be personallyapplied, of whom I am the
(25:33):
foremost of sinners.
In order to come to Jesus andhim to be good news for you, you
have to be willing to recognizeI need him.
All of us need Jesus for all oflife.
I am a sinner.
I am somebody who actuallyneeds this from him, and Paul
got there, which is why this wassuch good news for him.
He was able to receive thisoffer of Christ Jesus coming to
(25:57):
save people like him.
But why did Paul receive it?
Look at verse 16.
But I received mercy for thisreason that in me as the
foremost in case you forgot thesentence before he's reminding
you again, I'm the foremost ofsinners.
He says it twice that in me asthe foremost, jesus Christ might
(26:19):
display his perfect patience asan example to those who were to
believe in him for eternal life.
What I love about that sentenceis that is actually empirically
true.
This is what I mean.
In our cultural parlance, likethe way we talk.
We talk about a Damascus roadexperience, don't we, as a
(26:40):
moment where somebody had aradical encounter that led to a
life-altering kind of event thatled to a change of life right,
we use Damascus Road experience.
So Paul, actually, this becametrue in his life.
He became an example, a pattern.
But Jesus had a deeperintention than just a radical
encounter that leads to a changeof life.
Look at what he says in verse16, that in me, jesus Christ
(27:09):
might display his perfectpatience.
Does anybody need any perfectpatience in here this morning,
like I told you that I actuallysaw a hand.
I like that, I see that hand.
That's what I should say.
I told you back in April I wasmeditating on this text.
Overflow of grace was someaningful In preparation for
(27:31):
today.
The two words the Holy Spiritwas illumining in the text were
perfect patience.
Oh, I need perfect patience Like.
There is no source of doubt inmy life about Christianity
greater than this one I'm aboutto name right here the lack of
life transformation I see inmyself that causes doubt.
I struggle with it.
The Bible, true, authentic,yeah, that doesn't bother me.
(27:51):
Jesus Christ resurrected,ascended, whatever God existing,
not a problem.
The fact that I don't look morelike Jesus than I thought I
would by now, that troubles me.
And so I go to Jesus and I sayJesus, I need your perfect
patience With somebody like mewho takes a long time.
I think I'm a work in progress,but man, progress is not fast
(28:14):
enough.
And Jesus comes and he says hey, look at Paul.
Look at Paul, if I could havemercy on him, I can have mercy
on you, like you're a juniorvarsity center Ben Jesus said
that, not me.
I'm just saying he didn't saythat.
But you track with me.
I need his perfect patience.
This is what this looks like.
Is inviting this, asking for it?
(28:36):
And so some of you this morning, when you hear me talking about
bearing witness to Jesus, youthink how could I possibly do
that?
I've ruined my witness.
That's maybe true.
Actually, you've lived in acertain way.
You've said certain things thatare so antithetical to Jesus
and the gospel that peoplewouldn't actually want to hear
anything from you about Jesus.
(28:56):
Well, good news the worlddoesn't just need our
righteousness, it needs ourrepentance.
Where else are they going tolearn what it looks like to turn
back to Jesus for mercy?
But you.
Where else are they going tolearn that there's a king of
ages who also happens to be fullof grace, overflowing with
perfect patience towards peoplewho can't get their act together
(29:18):
fast enough?
But you?
And so it might look likesomething like this hey, listen,
I just want to acknowledge,like, when I said this or when I
did that, like you know, that Iprofessed to follow Jesus and
that did not look anything likeJesus, and I've asked him for
forgiveness and he's forgiven me, but I want to ask you for
forgiveness too.
Will you forgive me for that?
(29:39):
Now, that's simple, not easy.
That's simple, though, and it'samazing the way that opens up
opportunities to talk to peopleabout the perfect patience of
King Jesus.
And so where do we get thestrength to do that, though?
Because if it is simple buthard, we might need strength.
(30:00):
Well, this is where I'm goingto close.
Paul back at the top.
This is third point, gratitude,verse 12.
Paul says this I thank him.
I thank him who has given mestrength, christ Jesus, our Lord
.
Notice Paul begins with thanksand he ends with praise.
(30:20):
Look at the last verse, verse17.
To the king of the ages,immortal, invisible, the only
God, be honor and glory foreverand ever.
Amen.
Paul's writing a letter, and hejust breaks out into doxology.
He can't help himself.
He's just getting dialed up ashe's writing this out and he's
like oh, my goodness, this istrue writing this out, and he's
(30:41):
like, oh, my goodness, this istrue.
So where does our strength comefrom?
Paul says in verse 12, I thankhim.
Who has given me strength,christ Jesus, our Lord.
The very strength to bearwitness to Jesus comes from
Jesus himself, according to Paul.
And so how do we draw on that?
(31:01):
I wish I had a whole, not other, sermon to preach on how do we
draw on the strength of Jesus?
I've been meditating on thisfor a while, so it's probably
coming down the pike.
I'm just warning you, but thisis my point right here the
strength that we need to bearwitness to Jesus, this strength
comes as the overflow of graceflows over in gratitude.
That's where the strength comesfrom, as the overflow of grace
(31:21):
to us flows over ingratitude toGod.
Because, like many of us, thegospels just become white noise.
It's like a family that livesreally close to I-4 or something
like that, and you go overtheir house for dinner.
You're like, don't you hear allthe cars?
Like, no, what cars?
It just becomes white noise,it's kind of the background.
(31:43):
And so the gospel penetratingagain into our hearts with
freshness is so essential, andone of the ways that the old
news becomes good news again iswhen we use our tongues properly
.
This is what I mean by thatJames, in James 3, the
half-brother of Jesus.
He says this just like a shipis steered around by this little
(32:03):
tiny rudder.
In the same way, he saysactually, here's the exact quote
.
He says quote so also thetongue is a little tiny part of
you, steers your entireexistence.
Let me say that differently.
Your soul goes where yourpraise flows.
The things you speak about, thethings you praise, the things
(32:25):
you say affirmative things about, is going to shape and direct
your entire life.
I think that's why Paul beginsin thanks and ends in praise.
He knows this is true.
And so what does that mean?
Maybe, after this, you takethis text, you take it home with
you and you just simply go.
Jesus, thank you for yourperfect patience.
I need it, jesus.
(32:48):
Thank you that your graceoverflows for me.
Those two words are sobeautiful for me.
Maybe it looks like Jesus.
I praise you that the immortalGod verse 17, became mortal,
took on mortality so thatthrough his dying, his undying
love could be made known to me.
(33:08):
Thank you, jesus.
Father, I thank you that youare, from age to age, king of
kings.
Holy Spirit, I thank you.
The invisible God verse 17, isvisibly at work in my life and
in the life of people around me.
You begin to thank and topraise and you speak to God who
he is, tell him who he is.
(33:31):
Cs Lewis says that praise isinner health made audible.
He goes on in.
You can look this up a wordabout praising Just Google that.
You'll find this section fromhim.
He says all enjoymentspontaneously overflows into
praise.
The world rings with praise.
Lovers praising theirmistresses, readers their
(33:53):
favorite poet, walkers praisingthe countryside, players
praising their favorite sport,praise of weather, wines, dishes
, actors, motors, horses,colleges, countries, historical
personages, children, flowers,mountains, rare stamps, rare
beetles, even sometimespoliticians.
I like how beetles made it inthere before politicians.
(34:13):
He knew a thing or two.
You see people spontaneouslypraise whatever they value.
So then, when they valuesomething, they spontaneously
praise it, and then they urge usto join in in praising.
That's what it means to bearwitness to.
Jesus is for the good news tobecome so good to you, to mean
(34:34):
something so much to you thatthere's a spontaneity to the
fact that you start talkingabout Jesus.
I've been around people likethis.
They're infectious with theirlove for Jesus.
And so, to close, when we bearwitness to Jesus, what we're
doing is we're simply doing whatall people do when they speak
about things they care about.
It's nothing more than that.
(34:54):
And so, as we tell Jesus abouthow good Jesus is, we will grow
in our ability to tell othersabout how good Jesus is.
We will grow in our ability totell others about how good Jesus
is.
That's the invitation.
As we recognize our guilt andsee the overflowing grace of
Jesus, and it results ingratitude, we will become
witnesses of the King of theages.
Let's pray, lord Jesus, we comebefore you.
(35:19):
Thank you that there is afullness in you that we don't
even know.
That gives us such hope andexpectancy and we want to reach.
We want to reach for all thatthere is in you.
Christ, I pray, holy Spirit,that you would fill us, give us
the boldness that you gave thechurch in Acts 2 and Acts 4, the
(35:40):
boldness to go out and tellothers about Jesus, but a
boldness that flows from ustasting and seeing that our Lord
really is good.
We pray this in his name, amen.
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