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So we continue our study of book of Galatians we have done until
verse 10 last week. We'll go on from 11.
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is
not something that man made-up. That's verse 11.
Now I was thinking about this one verse whole day.
I was just stuck about this verse.
You know, at the end of the day I said, ah, I spent the whole
day studying just one verse. Now what I have discovered here
is the whole passage is transformation of Saul becoming
Paul. The one who was persecuting
becomes a pursuer. He began to pursue Jesus with a
zeal unparalleled. When I say unparalleled, it
exceeds even the other 11 disciples really how they served
Christ compared to Paul. It just fades before his zeal
and his ministry and the outcome of his ministry.
And he is the one who was committed to destroy the church.
And at the end he gets destroyed.
The old Saul gets destroyed and a new Paul is born from out of
that. Like a sphinx, he rose up out of
his ashes. You know, that's just amazing in
itself. I cannot just the more I thought
about Paul, the more I was saying, oh, this is he set up an
ideal. It's so far high I may never
come anywhere nearer to it. You know, one lifetime is not
enough to achieve what Paul achieved in his life.
And you see he writes to the Corinthians and says in chapter
15, verse one. Now brothers and sisters, I want
to remind you of the gospel I preach to you.
He's talking about the gospel he preach to the Corinthians, which
you received and on which you have taken your stand.
And then listen carefully. By this gospel you are saved.
If you hold firmly to the word, I preach to you.
What kind of courage is that? What kind of boldness is that?
Hey, I have preached, you have believed.
Stand on it. You deviate from it, you are
going to be doomed. You will go to hell.
What is the kind of courage? Where does it come from?
Where does this courage to say? The gospel I preach is the Word
and there is nothing you can add to it, you cannot subtract from
it. And that is it.
And that is what is going to save you.
That is what is going to take you to heaven.
And I tell you guys, you don't do it.
You are going to lose it. Wow.
I said this is courage in the purest form, the passion for the
gospel, the commitment for the gospel, and how firmly he knows
that. He knows that.
He knows that the gospel he has preached is the only gospel that
is that assurance. Before that assurance, I had to
salute him and say, hey, this is Paul.
The kind of thing that you are exuberating, the kind of thing
that you are showing out what is woozing out of you is amazing.
That confidence in the gospel is amazing.
And he says, hold firmly to the word.
I preach to you. Otherwise you have believed in
vain. You have wasted your life, Huh.
This has to be more certain. Can anybody be more certain
about the gospel than Paul himself?
My question is, how much do you believe the gospel in your own
life? What is the certainty you have?
Are you sure this is the only way?
Amen. Amen.
Yeah. If you believe it, that will
show in your life. That will show in your life.
You cannot just hello just people to walk past you.
Other day I went to buy some Chinese fried rice and I see a
Sri Lankan man come there and order some Chinese fried rice
and he was waiting there and the lady said one the price was
there and it was $1.00 extra. I said what is the price?
She gave the right price but he charged me $1.00 extra.
You wanted it spicy, so it's $1.00 extra.
So I talked to, hey, this man was smiling.
So I look, he also ordered spicy rice.
So I said, hey, you're from Sri Lanka or India.
He said I'm from Sri Lanka. Oh, I guessed it right.
And I said, oh, come, come sit here.
And then I told him briefly, 1 1/2 minute gospel, you know, I
want to have more opportunities like that.
It's just one person. One in a week is just not good
enough. But when you are a pastor and
you don't have a secular job, that's the problem.
You have to go out to meet people and that's that's the
challenge. And then you look at this thing
for I received OK, verse three, he says for I for what I
received. I passed on to you as a first
importance that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. That is what the confidence that
Paul has about the gospel. Where does it come from?
Ask your neighbor where does it come from?
Before I launch into that, I will give you one more verse he
writes to Thessalonians. First Thessalonians chapter 2.
When you received the word of God, which you heard from us,
probably a team of people, he must have gone with one of us is
the first missionary journey. You accepted it not as a human
word, but as it actually is the word of God, which is indeed at
work in you who believe it is the word of God, and you have
accepted as the word of God, not our word.
So how do we receive the gospel? Do we say this is the word of
God? No, we have diluted the gospel.
You know, sometimes you get used to it.
After five years of being a believer, 10 years of being a
believer, somewhere it loses the power.
You, you just accept it. You are a believer.
That's it. What does it mean for you in the
present, today, today? What does it mean to you?
What will it mean to you tomorrow?
That gospel, that is how we had to live.
It has to have a grip on your heart.
It has to grip your mind. It has to grip your soul.
It has to, it is it has to propel you.
It has to compel you, and it has to push you to do things the way
that you don't want to do. You say no, no, no, that's not
my comfort zone, but it's going to compel you to come out of the
comfort zone. And that is when we know that
you believe the gospel. So where does it come from?
First He says Jesus died. I pass on to you as a first
importance. That crash died for our sins.
Accord to the scriptures. Everybody says scriptures.
Where did he get the scriptures from?
Jewish boy growing up in a home he is acquainted with Book of
Genesis to the last book Malakai.
But what is special about Paul is he went to study at the feet
of a famous man called Gamaliel. Gamaliel was one of the a part
of the son Hedren, highly recognized for his authority on
the knowledge of the scriptures. If you want the best teacher,
during Paul's time it was Gamaliel.
So he had the best teacher teach the scriptures, so he went and
learned from him. But it raises some questions.
If Gamaliel was living in Jerusalem and Paul was learning
from Gamaliel in Jerusalem, how did he not see Jesus?
How he did not hear about Jesus? How did he escape Jesus?
Notice I have no answer for it. I only raised a question.
But what he learned from Gamaliel is that the scriptures
are the final thing. You cannot add to it.
You cannot subtract from it. The scriptures have to be
fulfilled. Messiah is going to come and
when the Messiah has come, he is not the Messiah.
They are thinking they want to wait.
Let's see what's going to happen.
At one point when the Christians are being persecuted in the book
of Acts, Gamaliel is the first guy who tells the sun headed,
hey guys, don't go after them. Don't put them to death.
Why? If this movement is from God,
you cannot stop it. You will be fighting God, but if
it is not from God, it is going to die by itself so you don't
have to do anything. A very passive and non
aggressive approach to solving the problem.
But Saul went one step ahead than his own master and he says,
if this is the Scriptures and this is how we know that the law
Israel, the Lord your God is 1 and this man is saying I am the
son of God. You cannot have a son to the God
for God. And that makes two people gods
because you cannot just son means less than God, it means
equal to God. You cannot have more than one
God. So he said, I want to finish
this, I want to nip it in the bud.
I don't want it to progress. I don't want to take roots.
So I am going to finish it. He took it into his hands and he
started going from synagogue to synagogue, going into the homes
of the people, dragging men, women and children and arresting
them and putting them in the jail.
And this man was actually the word used here is ravaged.
What is the word ravaged actually mean?
The word ravaged actually is used in in terms of war.
When you have a band of people attacking another people who are
living in peace, you are going to attack that place and you are
going to demolish everything. And after you capture the
people, you take away all the good things from the homes and
you walk away. And what you leave is ruined
place that is ravaged. And he was doing it for the
church. He was ravaging the church by
his zeal. By the way, the word zeal comes
from the word zealotis, the Greek word that is.
It is like when you unleash a dog and you wanted to go on to
chase and fire. I mean catch a rabbit or some
other animal. What kind of ferocious he's
going to show. It's like a hunter going after
his price, whatever he is hunting for.
So zeal is that is the kind of a driving force it is.
It is more than just let it. You do not let anything survive.
It is you who will have a supreme authority and you will
show, use your power, your strength to obliterate the
object that is before you. You are going to kill it and
take it. Was there anybody among the
among the disciples of Jesus who is called a zealot?
There was a man among the 12 There was one called Simon the
Zealot. What is basically it means is he
belonged to a group of people who were jealous for the word of
God, Simon the Zealot. Do you hear anything about his
zeal? Probably three years of staying
with Jesus must have bellowed him down, and that zeal died.
He must have become a normal guy.
But here is Saul who is demonstrating what zeal is to be
a zealot. He exceeded one who is born or
belonged to a particular group committed with that kind of a
zeal. He exceeded it.
He exceeded, He says, I have exceeded far more than my
contemporaries, those who are of my age, those who belong to my
age, I have exceeded them. He exceeded in zeal, even
Gamaliel Zeal his master. So he learned the scriptures
from him. Now what has to be done is that
has to die. You cannot have two masters in
your life. You cannot have to give a hifer
to your neighbor. Say you cannot have two masters
in your life. So here is Saul who has one
master, the scriptures, and he has the the culture, he has the
traditions, he has the fathers, he has so much behind it.
And now that cannot, that cannot be allowed to exist.
It has to die first. So that's what happened when
Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, That Saul had
to die, that Gamaliel's influence has to die, that
revelation, whatever understanding he had, that
understanding has to be replaced.
That understanding has to be demolished, uprooted.
Otherwise the gospel cannot survive in that heart.
The gospel to have the supreme attention that it requires,
supreme allegiance that it requires, and supreme obedience
is required. For the gospel cannot survive in
a heart if it is committed to something else.
Jesus has to be supreme. All I was singing today was just
after that. He has to be supreme in our
mind, otherwise we will not exalt this Jesus through our
life. It's difficult.
Why there are so many Christians who are so cool, Cold, rather
not cool, they are cold is because they don't understand
the uniqueness of the gospel. We have to understand the
uniqueness of the gospel and demonstrate in our life first,
our family should be impacted by it and demonstrated in such a
way that our neighbors are impacted, our relatives and
friends are impacted, and then it goes into the community and
its community is impacted. So there is a necessity for us
to revisit our understanding of scriptures.
We need to understand the scriptures so that scriptures he
knew it so well, but that needed to be fine-tuned that needed to
be some you had to shine the torch on the scriptures and give
new light has to come upon it and that happens when he that
happened when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus.
So. So Saint Paul had has bordered
us beyond belief. He claims in one Corinthians the
Gospel. I preach to you, by this gospel
you are saved. Can we fathom the depth of his
understanding of the gospel? He commands the Thessalonians
Church for believing the gospel as a word of God.
How can a frail human being make such a claims?
Such claims and people believe it and follow it.
OK, here is Paul going from town to town, city to city, and he is
saying this is the gospel, you need to be saved.
Why should they believe that man?
Why should they believe they are not his friends?
He is not one of their friends. He is not maybe a relative,
probably because he is a Jewish man, otherwise nothing more.
So why would people believe the gospel?
Because He does not preach it from just his mind.
He preaches from his heart and by the power of the Holy Spirit
and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And when you do that, I share crush with so many people.
They just don't care. They don't listen.
Question is where is the passion?
Question number 12, are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
Let that message come by the power of the Holy Spirit, and
then that man, whoever you speak to, it cannot just walk away.
This babbler said something. I am not going to think about
it. I'll just carry on with my life.
No, he cannot do that, because you are going to arrest him by
the power of the Holy Spirit, who is dwelling in you.
What is the source of his boldness?
How can a man sell all his possessions to buy the field in
which he found a Pearl of great value?
You know, we have a parable, a parable where a man finds a
Pearl and then he goes and sells all the fields and everything he
had and brings the money and buys that field because there's
a Pearl hidden inside. He wants to legally possess it.
Now, so many times I used to wonder if you found a Pearl, why
does he have to go and sell everything and he can just take
it and walk? No, he wants to legally possess
it. So he sells everything he has
and buys the to buy the Pearl. To possess the Pearl, he buys
the land where he found it. So Paul, Saul, he found a Pearl
of great value, and he considers everything that he possesses,
his qualifications, his achievements, his knowledge,
everything as dung refuse for the knowledge of the gospel of
Christ. Maybe we have not received the
gospel in that way we don't see as the one supreme thing that
should be consuming our desire, our mind or emotions, our
desire. I mean, that's not really
propelling us or compelling us to live life.
We don't think that this gospel deserves that kind of attention
like Saul did. And then you have another one.
How can a man count all his credentials and all his
achievements as done compared to the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
So all these things have to go first.
So it happened on the on the road to Damascus when he was
going to find people who believe in Jesus the the way the ones
who they were following the way he wanted to arrest them, but he
was arrested there. The bright light shone around
him and he heard the voice saying Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me? He said, who are you Lord?
That word, when he said, who are you, Lord?
He already was surrendered. That light made him blind and
pushed him to the ground. And then he opens his eyes, he
gets nothing, but he has a voice.
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
You know there is an organic unity between Jesus and the
church. Nobody can touch the church
without touching Jesus. You cannot touch any member of
the body of Christ and put throw an insult at him, speak a harsh
word at him and Jesus is not feeling about it.
It is not possible. Why?
He is the head. We are the members of his body.
So the church is organic unity in organic.
It is an organic unity with Jesus himself and we need to
know who we are because the gospel is what is going to make
you is you give value to the gospel.
It becomes the center of your life.
That's only when you appreciate who you are in Christ.
So here is the encounter, and that encounter has so much to
change this man. And when he said, Lord, who are
you? He was yielding to the one who
has encountered him, who stopped him on the way.
He's saying, OK, I'm pursuing the way, but who are you
stopping me? I am Jesus whom you are
persecuting. Oh, I didn't even know I was
persecuting you. I was just going after a handful
of people who are just teaching what you are about you.
And that is a big lesson he learned there.
Saul's first big lesson was that this Christ cannot be separated
from the church. And when you see in One
Corinthians chapter 2 verses 12 to 13, we have not received the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we
may understand what God has freely given us.
And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human
wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual
truths in spiritual words. Its all about the Holy Spirit,
Its not about the intellect, its not about fluency of words, its
not about mesmerizing people with oratory skills.
It is none of these things. It is the power of the Holy
Spirit. So what are the three things
that are making this man bored? His knowledge of scriptures and
his encounter with Jesus. And in that encounter, complete
transformation happened. Complete transformation.
It was very brief, maybe one minute, 2 minutes.
How long does it take to say all those things?
2 minutes of encounter. But he becomes a Newman after
that. He was fasting for three days,
and then he he was, he was told, OK, go into the city.
You'll be told what he should do.
He goes into this man's house and staying there, fasting and
praying, probably repenting of all his how many people he has
tried to kill, how he was standing as a witness when
Stephen was being stoned. Everything must be coming before
his mind. My Lord, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
Hey, I have forgiven you. I have.
I am washing in my blood. God, I cannot overcome this
guilt that is coming against me. Don't worry, my blood is tensing
you. And then he speaks to another
man. Ananyas, go and pray for him.
He's waiting for you. He has seen a vision in which
you are going and laying hand. All those things have happened.
But he says I have not received his gospel from any man.
It doesn't have an origin in man.
It is directly a revelation and by the grace of God, I had few
moments of revelation few times in my life.
I cannot say every day, but I had some distinct experience
with the Holy Spirit and I subscribe to the Bible as the
Word of God. 100%. There are no portion.
You show me what about this? That's the Word of God, this
list of people, that's the Word of God.
There is a specific function for everything.
So I am sold out to this word because of the revelation.
But when you don't have the revelation, what happens is that
we are lukewarm towards this word.
So everyone of us needs revelation about the Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit is the one who can give you the revelation.
And if you say I never had any supernatural encounter with the
Holy Spirit, if that's what you're saying this morning, I
would say begin to fast and pray, fast and pray.
Say God, I need your mercy, I need your mercy, I need your
love, pour it out. I need that encounter.
I want to hear your voice. I want to know that this
Scripture is God breathed. All of us know the Scripture.
Timothy 316. Oh, the Scripture is God
breathed given for this. This is purpose.
We all know that. But when the Holy Spirit
ministers to you and gives you the revelation of a word, then
it makes sense. Then that Bible is no longer a
black and white things spattered on the white pages.
No, it is life. So these are the things that
happened to Saul. He knew the Scriptures, but
there's no power in it. In that encounter, life is
released to the Scriptures that he had.
That encounter removed the scales from his eyes.
Physically it removed and spiritually much more.
And he saw Christ and his glory. You know, there is a great
luxury of all the the 12 disciples he started with.
There is a great luxuries. They stayed with him, they ate
with him, they slept with him. They were with him for three
years. And that was not the case with
Saul. He didn't have the luxury of
moving with the Lord for three years.
So how does it, how does God compensate after this encounter?
He did not consult anybody. It didn't go to anybody.
Hey, I had an encounter. Is it true?
Did I have a true experience? I don't know.
Maybe it may not be. No, he knew he is an encounter.
He knew that Jesus is God. He knew that he is the Son of
God and he knew beyond any any question in his heart that there
is no other gospel. This is the gospel.
And because he knew it so well, he he laid his life as a
sacrifice upon it. He could say I wish my my life
is poured out like a liberation on your faith to somebody and to
somebody says I may be accursed. Maybe I become anathema.
Let me be cursed so that you can be a blessing that God may
encounter you with this gospel because I want you to be saved.
Even expense of himself being lost.
He wants others to be saved. That is what is Christ like love
that is what is passion like. Christ is you know, it is just
beyond words so many times sitting in the chair and looking
at the computer and trying to study the word, but it just
comes like a like a big wave hitting you and and then you say
nothing. Nobody in my in my house see me
what is happening to me when I'm studying the word.
Do do John see what do you see me why anything happened to me?
I tell inside I am burning with that word because that is how it
should supposed to operate in your life.
Anything less you don't value this book.
If this is the book that you value, it should be your breath,
it should be your life, it should be your light, it should
be your bread. And I tell you, you will not
treat this book lightly and you will feed on that word which
will sustain you. Man shall not buy bread alone,
but by every word that is come out of the mouth of God that
will become your experience. So Paul's personal revelation
received supported that Jesus Christ died according to the
scriptures. Secondly, he had an encounter
with Jesus Christ which he which had destroyed his understanding
of scriptures received from Gamaliel and a new perspective
planted by Jesus Christ. And thirdly is taught by the
Holy Spirit expressing spiritual truth with the words taught by
Spirit. These are three things that I
have chained the man saw into Paul, the man who was
persecuting to be 1 persecuted. He becomes the object of
persecution and rejection and what exactly was trying to do is
it is done to him rest of his life.
People wanted to get rid of Paul from the face of the earth,
anything they hated. They didn't want to see him at
1.30 or 40 of them. They made a vow to kill him
before he gets to the place where he's going to be tried.
They've made a vow they are not going to eat food that touch
anything until he is killed. And when that news goes to a
little boy who was his sisters son and he goes to Paul and says
this is what I hear these people are saying.
And he says OK, go to the commander.
He calls the commander. He, this little boy, has
something to say and then he tells you what is the matter.
Then he gives a full army to support him and take him safely
to other place. Why did people hate him?
Why did Paul was hated so much? Because he believed that there
is no other way other than this gospel of Jesus Christ.
That gospel is the only way and when he preached it, lived it.
People hated him because of that.
There are many people sometimes I hear they say because I
believe in Jesus, I have no relationships, no relative
around me. Some people say I have no
friends because I believe in Jesus.
You know, when I was in India, people came to know that I am a
Christian and from a Hindu background.
So they look at me always like this guy is like a missing sheep
from a flock. They'll talk to you nicely, but
in their heart they are drawn the line.
You cannot become this side. In one family, my classmate, I
used to go and study together. We both study.
They are allowing me into their house and sometimes because I'm
there studying, his mom would say hey have some food because
you are here and I eat the food with they sit there and eat the
food, but I came no later that the plate they gave me is
separate even though I am from the same community.
They separate the plate and the glass that I drink from.
Why I am not one of them anymore?
I had the treatment in many places like that.
I am not bothered. Why this gospel deserves any
mistakement you ever get in this life.
You know when you are persecuted for the sake of the gospel, you
are compensating for anything that is lacking in the
sufferings of Christ. That is how Paul viewed it.
That is how Paul would suffering for the gospel because
meaningful when you appreciate what this gospel is all about.
And when Jesus himself said in John Chapter 7, Jesus answered,
My teaching is not my own. It comes from one who sent me.
Anyone who can chooses to do the will of God will find out
whether my teachings come from God or whether I speak on my
own. Whoever speaks on their own does
so to gain personal glory. But he who seeks the glory of
the one who sent him is a man of truth.
There is no nothing false about him.
Ha, when I read that, I said this is true about Paul.
He's not glorifying himself. He's laying down his life, he's
glorifying the one who chose him and he chose him.
Later on, he says God chose me. Even even before I was born,
when I was still being formed in my mother's belly, God chose me.
So between his choosing and between his conversion on the
road to Damascus, there's so much has happened.
So why did he become why did you so much a bad in his life and no
answer to that. We all have gone through many
bad things we have done between the choosing and between the
saving. We go through it, but Jesus
covers us with his blood and says you are clean because my
blood has cleaned, cleansed you. You are my son, you are my
daughter. All the past just goes away.
You know, the depth of this understanding the gospel is what
consumes me now and how he can write to the core.
This is behold, all things all have passed away.
Everything has become new. Is that power of the gospel?
You cannot say anything in any other words, but question is, do
we have this insight that this man Paul had about the gospel?
How deeply it can penetrate your soul, How deeply it can change
your spirit? How deeply it can cover your
sin? How deeply it can change you
from a Wildman, a wicked man to become a St.
So Paul is clearly following the Lord Jesus Christ, emulating
him, following him, imitating him.
He doesn't claim his own authority, gives glory to the
Lord who encountered him and changed his life.
He seeks the glory of the one who sent him.
We are to seek the glory of the Father and the Son of the Holy
Spirit. That should become our motto of
life. That should become the object of
our life. That should become the desire of
our life. That should be the propelling
factor in our life is to glorify God, nothing else.
So not the glory of God am I proceeding anywhere.
So he says I did not receive from any man, nor was I taught
it. Rather I received it by
revelation from Jesus Christ. And then what he says is you
have heard by way of life and all that he talks about.
And then he says how intensely I persecuted the Church of God,
persecuted the Church of God. Verse 13 where is it here was
studying intensely persecuted Greek word is DEA Co like a
hunter pursuing his catch used sometimes positively and also
negatively. In both cases it means pursue
with haste in order to overtake in order to overtake.
Imagine a running race. If there's a 400 meters running
race. The everybody is running, but
there's somebody who is take overtaking another and he
overtakes the another until there's nobody else there.
When the when they touch the tape.
What kind of passion is the in the in the sprinters heart that
makes him run, run, overtake, overtake, overtake.
This is Saul trying to be better than anybody of his generation.
He was persecuting the church. He was pushing his like an
athlete and he was pursuing it with so much of zeal that he
overtake everybody. He overtook everybody, he says,
persecuted it, the Church of God, and tried to destroy it.
The word destroy is in Greek portheo.
That simply means destroy. Ravage.
Waste is a picture of an invading force, and this he
tried to ravage. It ravaged him.
Look at it in verse 23. The man who formerly persecuted
us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy what he
tried to ravage. It ravaged him.
Now what he was trying to destroy has destroyed him, but
in the process he gains life. In the process you gain life,
eternal life. So what we see here is many
other things you can see but he says in verse 15, But when God
who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was
pleased to reveal his Son in me, everybody say he reveal his son
in me. What does it mean If there's
anything that ever you want to go away today from, you know,
from this morning session and you I want you to walk away with
this one thought. God wants to reveal his son in
you and in me. So what does it mean?
What does it mean for his Son to reveal his son in me?
Basically he wanted to live in such a way that only Christ will
be seen in him. His eyes are eyes of Christ.
His hands are hands of Christ. His feet are feet of Christ.
His heart is a heart of Christ. He says in in Galatians.
In Galatians 220, he says, I just disappeared from my mind.
OK, ah, it is no longer I that Christ is no longer I live, yet
I live but not me. It is the Son of the living God.
He lives and reigns in me. So to the point where he says,
well you see, me living, this flesh has life which not me.
It is Christ who is living in me.
That is when his name will be revealed in you through you,
when it becomes a passion, when it becomes the one goal for life
when it becomes the breath of your life is to breathe out the
gospel to see people saved, healed, delivered.
I tell you that is how you live for Christ.
That is how live for Christ. So the one who this whole change
you know great and wonderful turn around.
He exhibited. He exhibited his life.
This how he turned around from persecutor to the one who
persecuted, the one who wanted to destroy the message became a
carrier of the message. He was a messenger of the
message. And then it is not self reform
but divine intervention. All that happened in source life
is not reform. OK, I need to become a better
man. I need to become a Goodman.
I will stop doing this. I stop saying this.
No, it is an intervention where God had changed him into a
Newman and that's what supposed to gospel to do with each one of
us. That's what the gospel is
supposed to do, each one of us. As the world tries to obliterate
the church, it becomes stronger in witness.
The persecuted has its own role. You know Jesus said when he is
come, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, he shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to uttermost
parts of the earth. But how did he do it?
He used persecution because of the persecution.
Church became strong because of persecution that run for their
life as they went different places because they are being
persecuted as they went, they were spreading the gospel as
well, sharing the gospel as well.
So the seed is scattered in a long larger area.
So you have got a massive harvest happening because you
have scattered everywhere. So within the gospel is.
Intricately woven is the concept of persecution.
You cannot separate the gospel from persecution.
Sometimes the church in the West, church in New Zealand, is
not flourishing, is not having a rich harvest, because we are not
being persecuted. Final victory belongs to the
lamb. Final victory belongs to the
Lamb through this all. The Lamb is a is the 1 He is The
gospel is about the Lamb. And ultimately you will see a
Lamb in heaven as if it is slain with the seven eyes and seven
horns. And you got the four living
creatures surrounding and the 24 elders falling on their knees
and worshiping holy, holy, holy. You deserve a God because of the
Lamb that has taken away the sin of the whole world.
As you fall down and worship this Lamb that is in the future.
But you have to do it now in this world.
It is not. Sometimes we think the worship
is for future. No worship is for the present.
You worship now for revelation. You worship now.
To have life, you worship now. To have that zeal to worship
now, to have that passion for the gospel, to worship, you
become a living person. How much time do we have for
worship? Sometimes when I start praying,
I always make sure that I first worship, whether it's 3 minutes,
5 minutes, 10 minutes, I give, I don't ask anything straight
away. I just worship and sometimes I
apologize. God, you know, this is very less
time. I'll give another time to
worship, but now I need to pray. This is I don't have much time.
I'm going to pray about it. Please forgive me for that
because that is how you have to come.
Worship is #1 in your life, if this gospel has changed you, you
will be a worshipper. So authentic zeal springs from
invaling spirit, not fleshly ambition.
The zeal that that Paul had, that comes from the invaling
Holy Spirit. Secondly, it fixes on God's
glory, the edification of His people and obedience to His
Word. This is how it is going to
change you. Then the manner in which it
happens is it is regulated by love, humility and wisdom is not
rash, it is not rough. It is no, it is just humility
and love and outcome is it multiplies good works strengthen
the church, exalts Christ. Is it all true about Paul?
Yes, it is all true about Paul. The question is we need to ask
is, are we anywhere nearer to living like Saul who became
Paul? So he was set apart from his
mother's belly. Acts 13, Two, when they prayed
in Acts 13, two, when they prayed, the Holy Spirit said
set, set apart for me, Saul and Barnabas.
So when was he set apart? When was his mother's home?
When is the Holy Spirit confirming it?
After many, many years, persecution encounter of the
Damascus, and then he was trying to preach the gospel, rejected,
goes into Arabia, comes back, and now the Holy Spirit says set
him apart for the work that I have.
So between the choosing and the actualization of the choosing,
there will be many things. Much water has to pass from the
Avon River. There is not much there anyway
before it happens. So that is how it is.
So in Matthew 1349, this is how it will be at the end of the
age. Angels will come.
Sorry, sorry, I'm running into it.
So setting apart continues in two parables.
Angels of God will separate the sheep from the goats.
So the this this word setting apart is used not only to
describe his destiny, but is also used in the context of the
church where you have two parables that explain it.
And one of them is Acts. I mean, Matthew 1349.
This is how it will be at the end of the ages.
Angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous.
All people will be gathered before the throne of God.
God is on the throne and he's going to say, OK, this black
man, this yellow man, this white man, this red man, OK, come on
my right. You are my sheep, OK?
What I am trying to make it is humorously put in the word he
chooses from every nation, tribe, tongue and tongue and
language. And those who love him, He knows
he is like come on my right, you are my sheep.
And those who are opposite Kingdom come on my left.
You are the goats, and the goats will go to hell and they go to
be with him forever. This is how it is that choosing
is happening in an individual life, and this is how it happens
in a larger scale at on the human, human race.
The choosing is going to separate.
Are you on this side, right side, or on the left side?
If you are on the right side, rejoice, because good things are
going to come. OK.
And Matthew 25 verse 31 when the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him, He will sit on His glorious throne.
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate
the people one from the another. As a shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats, He will put the sheep on His right and
the goats on His left. Revelation is not self attained,
is divinely bestowed. You are not chosen because of
your hard work. You don't choose, He said in
John 15 I had chosen you. So how blessed it is to be
chosen. Flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you In one time when he was talking to Simon, he, Simon
Says you are the Son of the living God.
He says flesh and blood has not is revealed this to you, but my
Father in heaven. So the revelation comes from the
Father. So worship the Father through
Jesus Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit on your knees as
you worship Him. Revelation will come.
And I tell you, if you have not had revelation in the last one
month, its time to begin to pray now.
Because if you don't have revelation that means your
Christianity has gone down the drain.
How do you know a Christian is with fire when he moves in
Revelation? No revelation.
You are part of the Levodician Church.
Lukewarm. Lukewarm.
That is how you know, a live Christian and a compromised
Christian, or a dead Christian, or a cold Christian or whatever
you call it. God was pleased to reveal his
Son in Paul. He is the same God who wants to
reveal his Son in you, through you, and through me and in me.
Shall we bow our heads in prayer?
Father, we thank you again for helping us to focus a little on
Your Word. There's so much more, but we
praise You and we worship you for speaking to us this morning.
This is Your desire to reveal Your Son in us, through us.
We thank you, Lord. Let this gospel Incarnate in us
again. Let the passion be lit up in us
again. Let that fire for the gospel be
lit up on it again, that we may look at people who are perishing
and long for their salvation. And that will compel us to open
our mouth and share the gospel at the cost of being rejected
and persecuted. Thank you, Lord, Thank you,
Lord, thank you, Lord, thank you, Jesus.
I don't want to give actually kind of a altar call, but you
know, I feel right now in my spirit that I need to give you
this opportunity. If you want to commit yourself
to this gospel, if you want to live like Paul, consumed by the
desire to carry this gospel, if you want to serve this gospel,
just stand where you are. And I want to pray for you
Saravan the sakrono Marshall sakurno riba renimanahandraste
sakarana sastaroni riba shaktaroni ho rabba cinema rasi
sama rasakundo risanamanda sakuroni.
In the name of Jesus. I thank you for children who are
responding to say this gospel shall dominate my life.
This gospel shall propel me. This gospel is the one I want to
live for. I want to breathe and eat this
gospel in the name of Jesus. I pray that the power of the
Holy Ghost will come upon the children to set them up, impart
that kind of passion, impart that kind of power in the name
of Jesus, that they will not be ordinary Christians, but they
will be extraordinary, and they will turn the world upside down
to the glory of your name. May your favor come upon them,
may your countenance shine upon them, and may your peace rest
upon them this morning. Thank you again for your
children who love you. My Master, I praise you.
Lord, look at me as well. I want to be consumed by this
passion for the gospel. In the name of Jesus, we yield
all this to you. You reign supreme in our hearts
to the glory of your name. Thank you Lord, let a Kingdom
come read. It will be done.
I know that this is heaven to the glory of your name.
Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.
Oh my Father, I can be standing
here saying thank you to the whole day.
It will not be enough because this comes from your mercy and
your grace. Oh, we thank you.
It is divinely bestowed. It's not earned.
So I praise you for your visitation.
That's happening to some of us here and I worship you Lord
Father, in Jesus name we ask Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Omega.
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