Your Story - 1 Timothy 1:12-17 - Gospel Church

All right, Mercy Hill, you guys know we mark this date on our calendar every single year this weekend because this is the weekend when all of our college students come back for the summer. Can we at all of our locations give it up for them and welcome them back?

Man, we're excited that you guys are back, particularly at High Point and at Clifton. Listen, we believe that college students are so vital to the local church and we understand that God has a plan, a purpose, a destiny planned out for every single one of you guys. And we want to be a church.

A church that helps you get there, all right? Mercy Hill, never forget this, we meet over 30% historically. We have met over 30% of our sent out ones, our missionaries. That's a big goal for us to send people out.

We met over 30% of the people that go out from this place. We meet them on the college campus. So I want you guys to make sure that you're praying for our college students, praying for our residents as they are coming back this weekend. And listen, we know with our college students, we want you guys to understand that God has put you on a campus for four years, not to make a future income, but to make a right now impact. And we want to partner with you in that. We want to help you get there.

So this is a big weekend for that. Hey, the other thing that I want to do quickly before we dive into the text for today, there's a couple of these cards on your seat. I'm gonna ask everybody at every location to physically get one out and put it in your hands. I want to talk to you about this for just a minute. Guys, this fall, we have coming up all through the month of September, we have vision nights at every one of our campuses, okay? They're all going to be the same experience.

If you can't do the one that goes to your campus, then you can jump in with another campus. But I just want to talk to you about this for a minute because this is a huge deal in the life of our church. As our church comes up on 10 years and we start casting vision for the next 10 years, this is a big event that I want everybody that calls Mercy Hill home. If you're thinking about calling Mercy Hill home, if you're a college student, a high school student, in one of our adult ministries, if you're even thinking about Mercy Hill being home, you need to be at one of these vision nights. This is not your grandma's vision night. This is not your grandmama's vision night, okay?

I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of vision night. Whatever you just thought of, it ain't gonna be that. This is gonna be an incredibly interactive, creative experience that we are pouring tons of energy and been planning for months for you to come through. It's gonna physically walk us through the last 10 years of ministry of what God has done to prepare our heart to take that next step into what He is gonna ask of us the next time. We're gonna worship, we're gonna pray the house down, I'm gonna preach as hard as I know how to do. And we're gonna have an incredible time together. And the capstone of all of it is gonna be that you guys are the next chapter in this story, and we've gotta put our yes on the table. Man, is God the deepest desire of our heart?

And if He is, what does that mean for the next chapter at Mercy Hill? So listen, if you're a community group leader, the week of that for you at your campus, that's group that week, all right? Let's take our group and let's move on to that.

This is a really, really big deal. And let me say one more thing about it, all right? Some of you guys might have been around my group. I've been around Mercy Hill for so long now that you're like, man, I'm in, I don't need to go to a vision night. Like, I get it, I'm in, I'm behind the vision of the church. Man, don't settle for what God might be asking of you.

You know, don't assume that we've already come to the limit of this is what it means for me to be in church, and this is what it means for me to serve, and this is, man, what if God wants us to turn that stuff totally upside down and ask something totally new from you in this new season? Man, He wants to interact with you in a big way, and these are gonna be a big event, all right? So I hope you'll grab these, make sure that you're there.

Make sure that you're at one of those that corresponds to your campus. If you can't make that one, man, jump in on another one. All right, 1 Timothy chapter one, okay? Where we're gonna be again today, we're gonna be kind of jumping into the back half of 1 Timothy chapter one today. Over the next couple of months, if this is your first time, what we're gonna be doing, we did this last week, we started a brand new series. If you're new, it's a great time to be new, because we're starting a new series. We started it last week. Part two today of this new series is just kind of furthering this theme of this idea that a healthy church evidences a heavenly Father, all right?

This is the idea. If God is moving in the world, that should be really evident in the church, and it should be evident in our lives, because guess what? What is the church? Man, the church is us. The church is the people.

I don't know if you're brand new to this whole thing and new to all this Christianity and all that, but listen, you gotta understand something. The church is not a building or in a multi-site model like Mercy Hill. The church is not in a couple of buildings or a few buildings, okay? The church is not a program. The church is not an institution.

The church is a movement of people who God is changing their lives by His Spirit, and they are on mission together, and that's what a church is, and the idea is that if God is interactive in the world, the proof is gonna be in the pudding, that if you interact with the church, you're gonna understand something about God, but don't misunderstand. Here's what many of us do. Here's what we do. We say, well, the church should be this, or the church should do this, or the church should do that. No, no, no. You should be that.

You understand what I'm saying? It's like, well, the church should do this. No, you should do that.

Why? Because the church is not a building. It's not an institution. You can't talk about it like it's just some kind of organization.

I mean, there's organizational elements. I understand that, but guys, at its heart, the church is the people. The church is us. The church is God's Spirit residing in a people who have covenanted together under the leadership of elders who are growing into a spiritual house that are on mission together.

That's what a church is, and so what I wanna say is like, man, we're gonna talk about what should the church be? That starts with what are you? Do you have a story? Do you have a gospel story? Man, is the Spirit growing you? Is God interacting with you? What have you learned lately? What sensitivities is God bringing up by His Spirit in your life? That's what it's about. Today I wanna talk to you about our gospel story because that's where Paul goes in this text.

Here's the big idea. Our gospel story points to the overwhelming grace of God. If the proof is in the pudding, you interact with the church, you know something about God, break that down one more level. All that it means is when people interact with the individuals of the church or they interact with the families of the church, man, they see something in their story that lights them up and points them to a Heavenly Father, and that's what Paul begins to get into. We're gonna walk right through this text. Pretty much the whole sermon is just gonna be walking through line by line here, so let's go for it, starting in verse 12.

Here's what it says. Guys, last week we started talking about 1 Timothy chapter one, where Paul says you need to guard the gospel. Well, today he's saying you need to celebrate the gospel. Today he's saying, hey, I'm having a Spirit. Paul is basically saying I'm having a Spirit. I'm having a spiritual moment here, man. I'm thinking about what God has done in my life, and we need to guard the doctrine, but the gospel is not just a set of truths or principles. It is a life.

It is something that God has done with you personally. I've told you guys this before, man. I grew up on the old music, okay?

And I love it. We did even some hymns today. Some of you guys grew up on the old music. When me and my dad break out the guitars at home, we do not sing My Chains Are Gone, Amazing Grace. We sing Amazing Grace, Amazing Grace, okay?

The old school. Maybe some of you are from that, and you remember this song. You remember the song. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood. And now listen. All that is is a set of principles. All that is is a set of truth claims, washed in his blood, born by his Spirit, but it's never just that. What's the next phrase of the song?

This is my story. This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Now, that's what Paul's getting at. Man, we could talk about the elements of the gospel, and he's even gonna do that here, but it's never disconnected from our story and our song. That's what Paul is doing.

Man, yeah, we guard the gospel. We talked about that, but now he's talking about celebrating it by remembering what God has done in his own life, and he starts in verse 12 by saying this. He appointed him to ministry, and that is something that is beyond what Paul can imagine his wildest dreams should have been based on who he was. And we're gonna get into that in just a minute, but the first thing that it says here is that Paul thanks God, thanks Jesus Christ for strengthening him.

Don't you understand? God doesn't just save. He strengthens. God saves us, and he strengthens us. Some of us today might need a strengthening because there is a trustworthy ministry that you need to step into. You keep putting off that conversation you know you need to have with a parent or with a child.

Man, there is somebody in your workplace that you know you need to invite or begin to share your story with. Maybe there is a relationship, especially among our young people, maybe there is a relationship that is anything but godly, but you keep thinking to yourself, I just can't break up with them. Yes, you can actually.

You can. You know why? Because there is a God who not only saves, but by his Spirit he strengthens. This is what Isaiah 41 says.

My kids have this little song that comes up, and it plays in my mind when I hear this. Fear not for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you.

I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. God is there not only to save you, but he is there to strengthen you. Paul can't get over this whole thing. I want to make sure you understand, the theme of today is just straight up gratitude. I mean the mark of a mature Christian life is tremendous gratitude.

Thinking about what God has done, not only in saving me, putting me in ministry, giving me a purpose, strengthening me the days of my life, putting his Spirit in me so I never have to feel alone. I mean this is what Paul, and he can't get over this. Look what he says in verse 13. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a prosecutor, a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. That's a little confusing.

We're going to talk about it. The grace of the Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Very simply here, y'all, Paul is remembering who he was and he is thanking God because he remembers, man, I was a blasphemer. What does that mean? Blasphemer means I was one who spoke things aloud about God that were not true. That's what it means to blaspheme.

It's very simple, okay? He says, man, I was a persecutor of the church. Some of you guys might remember this in Acts chapter 8. Paul was at best assenting to, maybe at worst, presiding over the first martyr in the church when Stephen was stoned. When Paul talks to King Agrippa in Acts 26, he says, man, I was one who dragged people out of their homes. I persecuted them to the point of making them blaspheme. Presumably that probably means some type of torture to get them to say something about God that actually isn't true.

I assented to their death. He said, I gave my voice when they were being persecuted even unto death. That's who Paul was and that's who God snatched inside out. It's just amazing. And Paul's looking back on his own life. He's looking at who he was and he just can't get over it. Guys, I think sometimes if we've been raised in a church, maybe we're just like, oh, yeah, Paul persecuted the church and then he got saved and started, you know, churches and was a minister. It's like, whoa.

I mean, think about this for just a minute. One of the ways that I've thought about this before is I don't know if you guys remember shocking images about five or six years ago came out of 30 Coptic Christians from Ethiopia that were martyred and killed on the beaches of Libya. Do you guys remember this? By ISIS. These guys were standing there in black hoods and I mean the whole deal.

It was very graphic and all of that. Maybe you guys remember that. Man, Christians mourn. We seek justice. We want people to be brought to account and all of that. But one cry went up from the Church of Jesus Christ in America and that was, which one of these ISIS members will be the modern day Paul? That puts it in perspective, doesn't it? That's what we need.

We need one of them. We're praying that one of them would change and God would snatch them inside out and make them who once persecuted the gospel become one who now spreads the gospel. Man, this is an immense amount of grace and mercy that Paul has received and he just about never gets over it. Now, this is interesting a little bit.

I want to get into this, okay? He actually says that there are two reasons why God was merciful to him. And on the face of it, it's a little bit odd. Look what he said in verse 13. I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and in unbelief. Now, I want to tell you what I know this doesn't mean and what I think it does mean, okay? What I know that it doesn't mean is that Paul was not guilty before God over sin just because there were things that he didn't understand. That's not what it means. It doesn't mean that our guilt is absolved because we are ignorant or because we are in unbelief.

How do I know that? Because if you weren't guilty, you wouldn't need mercy. Do you understand? Like, we need mercy because we are sinners. And what Paul is not saying is that I was not guilty before God, but there is something else that he's getting into here. He's not saying, hey, I was given mercy just because I didn't know. No, just because he didn't know, he was still a sinner that needed the mercy and grace of God.

Why do I say that? I want to make sure that we understand this point, y'all, because there is a movement that says don't send people to the nations, don't talk about the gospel, because if people don't know, they're ignorant and God could never, you know, God could never hold them account for their sin if they didn't even know about Jesus. So why would we even send? I want to make sure that we understand something very clearly.

Mercy Hill. Nobody goes to hell because they didn't hear the gospel. They go to hell because they sinned and rebelled against what they knew of their creator. That's what Romans 1 says. That's why the task is so urgent for us.

Because we look out at a world and we realize it is filled with sinners, but some of them don't know, and yet they are still guilty before God because they have rebelled in the very little that they did understand and the very little that they did know. The task is incredibly urgent. This is why this is the heartbeat of Mercy Hill. If you're around here, you're going to learn this. Man, for us, it's about sending capacity, not just ceding capacity. It's why we love, and I mentioned this, the 30% of our sent ones being college students at Clifton and at High Point. Man, we love wild-eyed college-aged people who the world has not gotten its hooks in and they are not convinced that the trinkets of the world are better than the nations yet.

It's why we love them so much and we want to see them go out. Man, I had a chance to preach to probably 150 of them this past week at our Wednesday night. They had a college launch. It was incredible. Many of you college students were there. And what was so awesome about it, man, was during the worship and watching them worship, and I was just praying as I was sitting there, God, could this be the generation that finishes the task?

That takes the gospel to the last people group on earth that doesn't know, doesn't have it in their heart language. See, we can't buy into this, well, they didn't know. Therefore, no. Yeah, he didn't know. He was ignorant. He was in unbelief. He still needed mercy. He needed mercy and grace, and it came to him, and this is what we see now. All right, so I don't think it means you're absolved, okay?

What I do think it means, actually, is that while Paul, listen, this is, while Paul absolutely rejected Jesus Christ, he didn't reject the Spirit of God when he came calling. And there's a difference there, all right? Some of you guys have been around church your whole life. Maybe you've heard of something called the unpardonable sin.

You've heard of that before, okay? Actually, the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit is what the unpardonable sin is. What does that mean?

Let me read it to you. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 12. Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Now, remember, the question we're asking is, what does it mean that Paul says, I was given mercy because I was in ignorance and unbelief?

Here's why. Paul was a persecutor of Jesus. That's what this says in Matthew 12. Man, he spoke against Jesus all the time. But when the Spirit of God knocked him off of his horse in Acts 9 on the road to Damascus, when the Spirit of God began to actually draw his heart, he didn't resist. He didn't reject.

See, that's the difference. There are people who the Spirit of God calls you and says, you are a sinner. You need the grace of God. You need to come and fall down and submit and ask Jesus Christ to be your Lord. You need to do that.

And people say, no, I slammed the door. I'm not interested in that. I'm not going to do that. I fight against what the Spirit is calling me to do. And when that happens, I believe we have blasphemed the Spirit. We have cut ourselves off from the very means by which we could be saved. And, of course, that is unforgivable or unpardonable.

You could say it like this. The one who repeatedly rejects the testimony of the Spirit about the gospel has committed the unpardonable sin. The Spirit keeps drawing.

You keep slamming the door. What Paul is saying is, man, I persecuted Jesus. But when the Spirit actually began to draw my heart, man, I fell down in full submission. And when he did, mercy and grace flooded his life.

What did he say? I was shown mercy. Verse 13. Look at verse 14. The grace of our Lord was poured out upon me abundantly, along with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus.

This is beautiful. All right. Verse 13, he says, I was shown mercy. You know what that actually if you want to literally translate that, you would need to say he was mercied.

OK, or say one of the Puritans said it like this. He was be mercy. OK, he was passive. I was shown mercy. God poured out his mercy upon me.

I didn't resist. He poured it out of my life. But not only mercy, but his grace came into my life as well. He not only canceled my sin debt, but he made me his son. And he put, what did he say at the end of verse 14? The very faith and love of Jesus was poured into me that I could begin to manifest it to others. It was mercy and it was grace. Man, this is the gospel. He's looking back. Man, how could it be that God would be merciful and gracious to me?

You guys, quick definition here. You know, mercy is not getting what you deserve. And grace is getting something that you didn't deserve. And both of these things are true in the gospel. I know I've told this story before.

We got a lot of new people. This is the best way I know to think about it. All right. I remember when my daughter was probably about six years old. One day I was out working around our barn and all of a sudden I hear my dog bark, bark, bark. And then I hear him yelp, yelp, yelp.

OK. And I go running behind the barn. Man, he's got blood all over his face and all this. I look down, massive snapping turtle like this big. OK. And the snapping turtle is right there.

Man, he's just bit my dog and the dog's bleeding and it's just this wild scene. Well, my daughter is six years old. She hears all this stuff going on, probably six, maybe a little younger. She hears all this going on. And she comes running down the barn and she walks up. She sees the dog bleeding and all that. She looks up at me and she says, well, dad, what are you doing? Because she saw me and I was walking over to the turtle and I had a big stick in one hand and a machete in the other. OK. And she says, well, daddy, what are you doing? And I said, well, listen, no demon turtle is coming up in my yard and biting my dog's nose off.

OK. There's consequences and repercussions, babe. I'm going to put this stick down, make him real mad. He bites a stick. I chop his head off. We're done. OK. Wrong thing to say to a six year old little girl. All right.

So I learned and oh, she's oh, he's got a family. He didn't mean it. You know, if she would have known this verse, she would have said he was in ignorant and unbelief.

OK. He didn't know. And all this stuff. And she's getting very rattled.

And all the end of the story is this dude goes from getting what he deserves to now. We've got him in this big bucket trash can thing. He's got lettuce. He's got carrots. He's already he's trying to bite my hand off, trying to get him in there.

Now we're on the four wheeler driving him down to the creek to put him in the water so he can reunite with his turtle family. OK. And I think about that story and I've told it before. I think about that story for this reason, because mercy is not getting what you deserve. And in my opinion, he deserved what I was going to give him.

OK. All right. Mercy is not getting that. Grace is all of a sudden something else being poured out on top of that.

And that's what Paul is getting into here. He's saying, man, I was be mercied. And then and this is not that this translation doesn't say it this way.

Some translations say I was over. His grace overflowed to me. Man, I was washed in overflowing grace after I had been be mercied. Man, Paul is just looking back.

He's having a spiritual moment. Look at what God has done in my life. This is what the gospel is. God gives us his mercy. Man, in our sin, we deserve a cross. We deserve death. We deserve hell. But Jesus Christ came and took those things on our behalf. The sinless son of God, 100 percent man, 100 percent God steps in our shoes, goes to the cross, is crucified in our place. And with his death, he has died. The death that we deserve. The wrath of God is poured out upon him. That's mercy. But it doesn't end there. It's not just that all of a sudden we're at a net zero sin canceled.

OK. It's like three days later, he comes bursting forth from the grave and says, why don't you put your faith in me and join me in a new humanity. Why don't you rejoin the family of God? You be a son, not just a no sinner, but a son and a daughter. And you come into the family. The spirit of God comes in you.

And all of the blessings that come with being in the family are going to overflow into your life. It's mercy and grace. Verse 15.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me the worst of sinners. Christ Jesus might display the immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. Guys, look at verse 15. Here's a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am the worst. Many commentators believe that's actually a creed from the very earliest Christians. Our brothers and sisters, 2000 years ago, by the mid first century, we're already saying things like that to each other in creedal form so that they would remember Jesus.

Nine words in English. You ever want to know what Jesus came to do? This is what he came to do.

He came to save sinners. But Paul said, I am the worst. Now, how could anybody know that? I mean, think about this for a minute, right?

How could he know? I mean, what do you mean I am the worst? I mean, Paul's like, hey, it ain't a competition, but I win. OK, I'm the worst, right? And you think, well, wait. I mean, I read an article this week about the 25 most terrible people in all of history. I'm talking about Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler. They all have these terrible names.

OK? And it's like, OK, you're telling me, is Paul at the front of that list? Is that what he's trying to get at?

I think what he's trying to get at is way deeper than that. I think what he's trying to get at is that every single believer should have this attitude. Hey, who's the worst sinner you know?

Me. That's the maturity in the Christian life. And it's not a depressing thing. This meant a lot of self-esteem kind of advocates.

They hate this part of the gospel and they just don't understand it. Understanding the wickedness and the poverty of the human heart, actually knowing who we are, it does a lot for us when we realize that it's met with grace and that God's grace is changing us. And he's making us into somebody. Man, I'm not who I once was. I'm not who I once was in God's sight. But I'm also just not who I once was in practice because he's moving me by his spirit and in sanctification.

This is, I think, what Paul is trying to get us to see. This idea of like, man, who's the worst sinner you know? The mature Christian is like, man, it's me.

You know how you can—quick test. You know how you can tell somebody's faith is legit? You just ask them, hey, are you a Christian? If their response is something like this, what do you mean am I a Christian?

Look at my life. How could you ask me something like that? Of course I'm a Christian. I'd watch them, OK?

But what if their response is more like this? Hey, are you a Christian? And it's like, man, can you believe it? Can you believe the life? Can you believe that God would save me after the things that I've done in my life?

Things that I've thought, things that I've hidden in my heart, ill will I've had toward other, lustful thought? I mean, can you believe it? God sees it all.

I just am overwhelmed. Man, that's the spirit, right? That's the heart. And I think that's what Paul is trying to get at here.

Let me check you on this, OK? Because I've had to sit in this this week just to look. When you're reading this, are you like, well, I never really persecuted the church to the point of death, you know? Is that kind of what your heart is saying? Maybe at our campuses you're saying like, well, man, I look around and I'm like, dude, I'm not as bad as all these other people, you know? I mean, I see them on social media, all their scandalous photos they're putting on social media.

They don't even recycle, OK? I'm a good person, right? Is that is that kind of your—I mean, is that where your heart goes or does your heart kind of go to like, no, man, God sees every secret thought I've ever had. Man, he understands the way I've idolized other people's opinions. He understands the sexual sin that has wrapped up not just my life, but maybe my mind. Man, he understands the things that I've walked in, the things that I've said, the things I've thought about people that I say I love.

Like he understands all that about—or is that where your mind goes, right? Man, I am the worst. I am the chief. But God has met me with his grace. I hope that he's waking us up for what he has done for us. Because, man, when we when we start to understand what he's done by seeing our actual—man, you know, if we don't if we go cheap on the depravity, we also end up pretty cheap on the grace. You understand? But if but if we're like, no, I'm gonna look at right in the face and understand who I am and then see that God saw all that from the foundation of the world. And he chose me anyway. And he sent his son for me anyway. Right?

Look what it says. Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, and the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Me and Pastor Kyle from Northeast, we're talking about this this week. It's a bit of an odd text when you say, why did God show mercy? But he gives two reasons.

The first reason I already talked about. The mercy was able to flow into Paul's life because he didn't blaspheme the Holy Spirit. When God called him, he answered. And you don't know if God's gonna call you tomorrow, call you today, but if he calls, you answer.

The second thing, though, is here's what he says. That he might display his immense patience. God saved Paul in dramatic fashion so that you and I for 2,000 years would be able to say this. If God can save Paul, a persecutor of the church, or make him a spreader of the gospel, if he could take a guy like that and have him write half the New Testament, I think he's got enough grace for me. Man, he could do something in my life.

Or that person in my life that I think is so far away they could never. I'm gonna keep praying for them. Because God can do it.

And that's what I think we're supposed to see here. It leads us to praise. Man, God could do it for Paul.

He's done it for us. And we begin to praise. Y'all, God's patience leads to our praise.

All right? You think about it like this. His mercy leads to our worship. His grace, man, it leads to our gratitude. When we begin to think about what God has done in light of who we are, our heart begins to swell. And maturity in the Christian life is going layer by layer. It's understanding exactly how much depravity the grace of God has covered when he has put the robes of Christ on us and the robes of righteousness.

We begin to see how big of a sinner we are, but it's always reflected in how big of a God we serve, right? You guys remember in the Chronicles of Narnia? Listen, every time, okay, when Lucy gets back into Narnia, after she's been gone for a while, what does she say? She says, listen, she says, Aslan, you look bigger. He says, no, child, you're just older. Now what does that mean? As you mature, I get bigger and bigger and bigger.

And that's, listen, that's the idea for us. Man, as we mature in the Christian life, it's not like, oh, my sin becomes really small, God's grace becomes really small. I understand who I am and I start having more moments like this, like what Paul is having in 1 Timothy 1. I can't believe God would save me. I can't believe he would use me.

But he does because he is that big and we overwhelm and we overflow with praise to him. Hey, here's our application for this weekend, all right? Give glory to God over your gospel story. Now, here's what I want to do for the rest of our time, okay? We had two things in your seats. I know we could do some of that sometimes.

But, man, I want everybody to grab this now, okay? This is a little card. We're not going to fill this out right now together, but I want to use it to frame up the last few minutes of this sermon and certainly give it to you guys as something of an application for this week. Hey, my gospel story, didn't you see, didn't you kind of figure out when we're looking at 1 Timothy that there really ain't but three elements to a gospel story. It's who I was before I met Christ, what Jesus did, and who I am now, right?

That's it. That's kind of what Paul gets into. Man, I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor, overflow with mercy and grace, and now he's strengthened me to be part of the ministry.

I mean, it's just a beautiful thing. That's what every Christian has, a story that is like that. And so what I want to do is kind of push on this story a little bit and call you guys. Man, fill it out, remember your story sometime this week, and we're going to share it. We want to share it with our kids.

We want to share it maybe with somebody in the community, be pushed in that way. Hey, the story is very simple. It starts like this. This is who I was before I became a Christian.

Who were you before Christ? Maybe it's something crazy. Maybe it's drugs. Maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's biker gangs.

I don't know. But maybe it's not. And I think some Christians are self-conscious about this. They're like, man, I don't have some crazy story like that.

Don't you understand? The sensational part is not how you acted when you were dead. It's that God made you alive.

Okay? And so I don't know what it was like. Maybe there was a lot of hurt. Maybe there was broken relationships. Maybe you were on that carousel of broken relationships.

You're looking for God's love in an endless kind of carousel of relationship after relationship. Maybe you were just a kid, man. I mean, that's my story.

I would say very young. And I pray that for many of the kids here. We used to say we want kids that grow up with nice, boring testimonies.

We don't say that anymore. Okay? But the idea behind that was, the idea behind that was, okay, that they don't have to go out and be a biker gang member to experience the grace of God. I think for every one of us, what we want from our kids is to realize that they need a Savior very early in life. So that God, they can walk with Him all the days of their life. Right? What was your life like before Christ?

Secondly, in that second block, you guys see it right here in the middle. Man, what Jesus did for me. What did He do? Who shared the gospel with you? Was it a parent? Was it a friend? Was it somebody at college?

Hey, college students, was it somebody in a D group or family group from Mercy Hill? Maybe it was even this very week. We had a bunch of you guys indicate that you want to walk forward in baptism. Maybe you accepted Christ this very week. You know, what was it like when the mercy and grace flowed into your life? Did God use some kind of tragedy to wake you up and open your heart?

What was it like? Thirdly and finally, what is God doing in your life right now? If you're a believer, you have been spiritually gifted. You have passions and talents.

How are those things being put to play in the real world? Man, outside of the walls of the church, inside the walls of the church, how are you walking around as a servant on the front line, not the sideline? Jesus didn't die to create spectators.

Okay, He died to create servants. And what does that look like in your life? How are things that you handle now different than the way you handled them then?

Without the Spirit inside of you? You know, I mean, all of that, that goes into that third block of what it looks like for you to do this now. Hey, here's what I want to do. I want you guys to take this. All right, you can take multiple if there's empty seats.

There may be some in the lobby. I mean, just grab them if you want to use them with your family or whatever. But the idea is, man, take this and share it. Here's what I want to challenge us to do. Hey, guys, first of all, we can celebrate this. Last weekend was the highest attendance of kids combined with students that we've ever had in the history of Mercy Hill Church.

Can we praise God for that? Man, I love the song that we sang. The first song we sang at all of our campuses, faith in every generation, right?

We want to declare. So what I know is we got a lot of parents. We got a lot of parents right now. Do your kids know your testimony? I mean, have they ever heard you talk, just the five minute, hey, this is who I was, this is what happened, college, man, I was walking through that, whatever.

Man, this is what my life's like now. Do they know your story? Hey, let's share your story with them. Let's make sure it's filled with immense amount of gratitude. You guys remember, gratitude is the dominant theme in a true testimony, all right?

Man, we're thankful. But then the second thing I want to charge our believers in the room to do is, hey, who else can you share this with? Who's at the gym?

Who's a coworker? Who's somebody else that needs to hear your gospel story? And if you don't have anybody that comes to mind, man, let's pray this week. God, give me an opportunity. That is a prayer that God will answer, I'm telling you. He'll put somebody in your path.

Pray for that. Now, I've left a little bit of time here, and here's how I want to close, okay? Because I want to get really real for a minute, especially at all of our campuses here, I want everybody to kind of lean in for one minute. Listen, in a church like Mercy Hill, the truth is, there are probably dozens, if not hundreds, if I had to guess, I'd say it's in the hundreds of people that when you go to fill this out, you're not exactly going to have a story for right here of what Jesus did. Because the story is something like this, I've been trying to be a good person, and I went to church when I was young, but man, this idea of like, you talked about like, man, the Spirit confronting you and drawing you, and you submitting to Him and putting your faith in Him, and mercy and grace cascading your life, and the shame and guilt of past sins falling away, the truth is, maybe you're sitting here today and you're like, man, I don't have that part of my story.

Well, you know what we need to do? We need to pray to receive Christ today, and that be what you write down this week. You just go ahead and nail that down today, and that be the part of this story where Jesus met you. And then you know what? You go public on October 6th and 9th, we're going to be baptizing again at Mercy Hill, and I'm praying that there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of people that come forward and say, man, that was the weekend that I nailed it down. In hearing Paul's story, who I was, what happened, who I am after, I realized there's a gaping hole here. And I don't know when Jesus changed my life. I don't know what that was like.

I don't know that. Well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you an opportunity to respond here today, all right?

So, hey, if you would at our campus as well, man, you can close your books up, all that. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes for just a minute. I'm going to give everybody at all of our churches, all of our campuses this weekend, an opportunity to respond. Man, if you want to respond to the gospel and have a story to write down when someone asks you, what's your testimony?

Well, here's what Jesus did. Then I'm going to push you to pray this prayer with me today. Believers in the room be praying. Believers at our campuses be praying. Man, we've been praying over this.

I've thought about that. Man, I just feel like there's dozens of people right now that need to pray with me. If you want to accept Christ and accept that grace and mercy, then you pray this prayer in line with the gospel from the book of Romans. You just repeat this in your heart after me. Father, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I'm separated from you.

But I believe that Jesus Christ lived the life that I didn't live and died the death that I deserved. I believe you have given me mercy, canceled my sin, but also you have been gracious to me and given me the opportunity to come into your family as a son or a daughter. And I receive you. I receive you as the Lord of my life. Father, I pray right now, Lord, as we close, God, that those who prayed this prayer with us this weekend at all of our campuses, God, I pray that they would take that next step. Lord, they would write down their story and they would seek to go public in October. Lord, I pray that we would release thousands from these services this weekend of missionaries all over the triad to go out and be faithful and just to share the good news of what you have done for them. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.