Trustworthy Sayings - Part 5

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Amen.

How you can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I'm going to invite you to take it and open it up to 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one in your row.

I'm on page 991.

And let me say this while you're finding 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Welcome to the second Sunday of spring break, also known as the last opportunity to skip church and blame it on the kids.

Which somebody emailed me and said, Hey, does it bother you?

Because you y'all should have got an email from me that said, hey, about a week ago that said, if your life's really crazy and you've just been going like week after week after week and you hadn't had a break, take a Sunday and go to the House of Blues and go to the Sunday brunch.

Did you get that?

Hello?

Okay.

And somebody, about 10 of you emailed me and said, Hey, did you really mean that?

And I wrote back, I quoted Jesus, Have I been with you this long and you still do not know who I am?

Absolutely.

Now I'm not saying that some of you, some of you were raised very religious, and you were like, oh, Pastor, you shouldn't be encouraging people to skip church.

You think that's what I was saying?

Not at all.

I'm just saying, let's just don't be so serious so we don't forget to have fun.

All right?

Like I went to the rodeo and ate a deep fried Snickers bar for the glory of God.

And my favorite part was before the guy handed it out the little truck wagon of cardiologist dreams, he said, Oh, hang on a second.

And he got a big pepper shaker and put powdered sugar on top of it.

Here.

As if this deep-fried candy bar with batter won't kill you.

Let's put some powdered sugar on top of it.

And I just grabbed that thing and I said, To the glory of God.

And then watch my kids eat it.

But anyway, but I got I got one little bite.

And so, yes, you you need to taste and see that the Lord is good.

It wasn't, oh, skip church.

It was, hey, don't be so serious.

And like Simon and Garfunkel, those great theologians, used to sing, like a rat in a maze, the path before me lies, and the pathway never alters until the rat dies.

That's not Christianity, that's fatalism.

Okay?

And so change up the maze, you rats.

If you're a visitor, I'm not like this most days.

Usually I wear a coat and tie.

And I come out and talk like this.

Thanks for coming.

1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

We're going to finish.

We've been in a series entitled Trustworthy Sayings, because five times the Apostle Paul in different books in the Bible that he wrote, he wrote 13 books of the New Testament.

But on five different occasions, he says this is a trustworthy saying.

And we come to the last one today, which is one of my favorites.

And so I'm a little giddy.

So between that and the pain medication, y'all are going to get it.

First Timothy chapter 1, I'll start reading verse 12.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Paul says, I thank 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, a persecutor, and an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost, the chief, the number one, the El Champion del mundo, the foremost.

No one's better at sinning than me.

Verse 16, but I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, as the chief, as the numerouno, as the champion del mundo, el toro, as the one and only King of sinners, Jesus Christ might have might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life, to the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Paul uh goes out for in this series for us with a bang, because he tells us four things in this trustworthy saying.

If I had to give this a title, I would call this sermon Why Jesus Loves Chiefs.

Chiefs.

You say, Well, what do you mean?

It's kind of a play on word, as you'll see in just a minute, but there's there's four things that Paul says to us when he says, by the way, here's a trustworthy saying.

It's true when I'm saying the Timothy right now, it's true today, on March 18th of 2012, and it'll be true a thousand years from now.

If the minds are wrong and Jesus does not come back on the 21st and the world doesn't end of December, this will still be true.

It's why we come together and open up the Bible so we can build our lives on that which is true.

And he says four things in this passage today.

And the first thing he says to us is simply this.

This has always been the plan.

Verse 15, look at it.

He says this.

He says the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

In other words, everybody needs to get their head around this.

And you say, what do you mean this has always been the plan?

This has always been the plan.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Stop right there.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And one of my concerns in the church in America is that we've kind of, what was his purpose and plan is not necessarily our purpose and plan.

We kind of lose sight of all the other things that we can get going on in the church, but this has always been the plan.

See, some people think that God had this plan for the world that went terribly wrong, and God had to come up with a solution to this new problem.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

You know that, right?

You never look in the Bible and see God ever say, Oh, really?

This has always been the plan.

You say, What do you mean?

God is not like the government.

Just pause and give thanks for that.

He's not like the government, and he's not responding to unforeseen circumstances and making adjustments for these unintended consequences.

He's not like scientists experimenting to see what works.

He's not like businessmen who succeed by finding new ideas that meet the market demands.

It's not like that God had to, it's not something that God came up with in response to Satan's triumph in the Garden of Eden.

It's not like the last resort because He gave us the Ten Commandments and said, Hey, here you go.

This is all you gotta do.

And it's not like God said, okay, I gotta come up with a plan B because you guys can't live up to the Ten Commandments.

No, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

I want to say it enough this morning that it mildly irritates you, but finds a resting place inside of you that this has always been the plan.

And when people try to talk Jesus out of it because they did, you realize that, don't you?

You realize that people came to Jesus and said, Oh, you're not no, no.

That's why Jesus, when he said, the Bible says he set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem.

He's out with his disciples, and once they begin to understand that he really is the Son of God, he begins to turn for home and head back.

We saw it in the Gospel of Luke when I preached through Luke, that seven years we were in Luke.

Remember that?

Y'all are always like, How long am I going to be in Luke?

Until we get to the end.

And then we're going to find another book of the Bible.

I'm going on my study break this week, and I and sometime, probably in the fall, we're going to preach to the book of Romans.

That may take two years.

How about them apples?

But anyway, y'all got me off course there.

But it's always his plan.

It's always his plan.

He he he the Peter tried to say, Oh, you're not going to do that?

And Jesus said, Get thee behind me, Satan.

No, no, no.

You got on your mind the things of men, not the things of God, because the things of God involve me going to Jerusalem.

Not because it was his hometown, not because that's where his friends live, not because he wanted to live in a third floor, walk up close to an urban setting that had a bunch of Starbucks now.

No, because that was the place he was going to go and seal the deal by dying on the cross.

How else does God save sinners?

This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

It said, why else would you say, well, this has always been the plan?

Are you kidding me?

Why else would the Bible refer to Jesus as this lamb slain from the very foundation of the world?

From the very beginning.

God has this plan to save sinners.

It's the Greek word, hemarthalos.

Hamartolos.

What does that?

It's someone not free from sin.

Remember back in the garden, that doesn't mean anything unless you go back in the garden of Eden and God says to Adam and Eve, you are free.

And the Bible refers to someone a sinner.

It's someone that's not free from sin.

So they live in relation to something that they were not created to be subjected to.

When you sin, you are subjecting yourself to something that God did not create to have dominion over you.

That's why he says in Romans chapter 6, hey, what shall we say then?

Romans 6 · chapter mention

Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?

God forbid.

How shall those who are dead to sin continue to live any longer therein?

Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father in our next service, we'll baptize little Anna Collie right back there in that baptistry, and we'll say, buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, you too may live a new life.

What is new about life that is not lived in relation to or in subjection to sin.

Jesus came to give back what was forfeited by humanity in the garden.

You say, I don't, okay, he came into the world to save sinners.

It's always been his plan.

And by the way, religious people have always had a problem with that.

If you're in 1 Timothy, keep your finger there and turn to the left to the book of Luke.

Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 19.

Luke 19 · chapter mention

Because I think that we've kind of forgotten a little bit about, well, not a little bit, I think we've kind of forgotten totally about that.

This is why Jesus came.

He didn't come so we get a worship leader that would sing songs we want to have sung on Sundays.

You realize that?

Let me ask this side of the room over here.

Jesus didn't come so you get a worship leader that would sing songs that you want sung on Sundays.

Do you realize that?

He didn't come so the temperature in this room would be what you think it should be.

Some of you are like, are you sure about that?

Because it's cold in here.

He didn't come so the sound would be perfect.

We worked hard to have the sound perfect.

He didn't come.

I mean, he came to save sinners.

And if you're not careful, we can get focused on something that has nothing to do, or maybe very little to do, with why Christ came at the expense of the reason Christ came.

You say, well, what do you mean?

Luke chapter 19, verse 1.

Luke 19:1

He entered Jericho and was passing through.

And there was a man named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector.

See, there's chief sinner in Paul, and here's a chief tax collector.

Jesus loves chiefs.

He loves the worst of the worst.

He was not just a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

And he was seeking to see one who Jesus was.

But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small of stature.

So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.

Alright, is anybody in the room thinking of a little song you learned in Sunday school as a kid?

Anybody?

Can I see your hand?

Does it start with Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a there you go.

And a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.

Remember that?

Yes, don't stop singing.

We'll get to that in just a minute.

But anyway, I could feel some of you slipping away and going there.

Come back with me.

Verse 4.

So he ran on ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him.

For he was about to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

Now just stop right there.

Get your head around that.

I don't have time to preach that.

Can you imagine you're the chief tax collector and you're rich?

You've gotten rich because you've been stealing money from people and overtaxing them, giving the Roman authorities their 4% and keeping two for yourself.

You're rich, people loathe you, they hate you, but they fear you and they won't tell you to your face.

But when you walk in a room, they think thoughts about maiming you and have anger fantasies with your name in them.

And you're up in a tree to check out this religious upsart Jesus, and he comes to your tree and looks up and calls you by name.

All the money in the world can't save you from the revelation of God.

He looked up in the tree and said, Zacchaeus, come down.

Zacchaeus' first thought, Rutro.

I done treed and the coon dog.

Is that the anybody here go coon hunting?

You know, there's a bark that a coon dog makes when he's treated a coon.

They bark when they're on the trail, and all of a sudden they call it bark and treed.

Cecil Guess, a little man in my hometown, back in Hicksville where I grew up, he had coon dogs and he would take you out at night when he's all you had to do was hold the lantern.

He'd let them dogs go, and we just walk in the direction of their sound, and all of a sudden he goes, Oh, they're barking treed.

I remember.

Barking treed?

What in the world?

They're indicating that they got a coon up a tree.

Jesus has got a chief tax collector up a tree.

He's barking treed.

Look what happens.

He says, Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house.

Zacchaeus is thinking, Ah, is the kitchen clean?

What are my kids?

What's my So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

Don't miss that.

Verse 7.

And when they saw it, they all grumbled.

He had gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

He beats Jesus to the punch.

You ain't got to tell me what a stingy, crooked thief I am.

Let me tell you something.

I know I've been ripping people off my whole life.

That's how I got rich.

Here's what I'm willing to do.

You convicting Galilean, you back off of me.

I just want to get up in a tree and see a Jesus parade go by.

And now you've messed me up.

He said, if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house.

How do you know salvation has come to this house?

Since he also is a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

See, hear that.

I don't want to get I'm getting too far into Luke 19.

That's not where I'm preaching from today.

I'm preaching from 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

That this has always been the plan.

The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost.

It is a trustworthy saying, men and women that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Don't lose sight of that as an individual.

Let's not lose sight of that as a church.

What does that mean?

That means you should have people who are not freed from sin, someone who lives in bondage to sin into your house.

You should come to the trunk of their tree and look up and say, Hey, what are you doing?

What do you do this afternoon at 2 o'clock?

Can we buy you a cup of coffee?

And they come down and they are joyful at the thought of time with you.

Does it not provoke you to curiosity that the people that were most unlike Jesus were giddy at the thought of hanging out with him?

Who gets excited about hanging out with you?

Or when you call and say, hey man, I hadn't seen you in a while.

Let's get together.

Meet me at Tasha, Texas, let's have that New York strip with that garlic butter on top of it.

Oh, then we'll go and slap our mother-in-law's, it's so good.

So much for my anger fantasy.

But anyway.

When you leave a voicemail on people's phone, do they think, whoa, whoa, what does she want?

Whoa, whoa, what is this about?

Are they just joyful?

Like, yes, whatever it is, it involves time with you.

I'm in.

See, people knew deep inside what the church has forgotten, that he came into the world to save sinners, not throw rocks at them.

That's the first thing Paul says to us today.

Secondly, he says there's a difference in knowledge and experience.

So I'm back in 1 Timothy.

Are you still with me?

Okay, look at what he says there.

He says, verse 15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving a full acceptance.

Don't slice it up and just take the part you like this morning.

Take it all or take none.

It's worthy of deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners.

And then he says, Oh, by the way, unless you think, oh, I'm now judging you, he says, whom I am the foremost, the chief.

I am the number one.

See, this is what I mean when I say there's a difference in knowledge and experience.

Most people know about sin, but they don't know themselves to be a sinner.

You know, there's a difference in the two, right?

They know about sin.

Sin exists in the world.

We live in a fallen world.

They use sin to explain the things that they cannot explain.

Well, why did that hurricane happen?

Those tornadoes seem to be tearing up a certain part of the country.

Where's a good God?

How does a good God let things like that happen?

Well, you know, we live in a fallen world.

They have a knowledge or a theory about sin, but they can't personalize it and say, let me tell you something.

This is not about knowledge.

This is about experience.

Paul marinates what he's talking about in his own life.

That's why when he talks, people's hearts kind of beat faster.

It's like the disciples talking to Jesus on the Emmaus Road.

They said, did not our hearts burn within us as he opened up the scripture?

When you try to have a spiritual conversation with someone, how do they respond?

Are they like, no, thanks, I'm good.

I'm good.

Or do they does their heart burn within him?

Are they like, man, I hate God and religion and Christians, but for some reason I want to hear you keep talking.

Well, okay.

That makes for a great combination.

I love to talk, you love to listen, I'll just keep talking.

Words, by the way, my wife has never said.

What do you mean there's a difference in knowledge and experience?

Well, look at back what Paul says.

Look up in verse 12 to 14.

Paul uses three words to describe himself.

Look at him with me this morning.

He says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, trustworthy.

In other words, he didn't look down and say, Hey, this is because of something in Paul.

He says, I'm entrusting you with this.

He appointed me to his service.

Though formerly, here's the three words.

Even though he says, Hey, God did this for me, although formerly I used to be, first of all, he says, a blasphemer.

And then secondly, a persecutor.

And then finally, an insolent opponent.

I was a blasphemer.

Now hear those words today.

I was a blasphemer.

I was a persecutor.

And I was an insolent opponent of Christianity to such a degree that don't turn there now, but if you looked in Acts chapter 6, when the church, Acts is the stuff is the book in the Bible that is a story about how the church got started.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the story of Jesus from four different perspectives, but same story, okay?

One of them emphasizes the Jewish slant on things, one of them emphasizes kind of the grace of God and the gospel of God on things, but same story, four different writers.

But then you get in the book of Acts, and it's like this is what people did with the life of Jesus after he died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the dead, and they were like, oh my gosh, it's true.

So what does that mean for us?

It means the church.

The church gets started in the book of Acts.

And in the book of Acts, there's a character named Saul.

Saul of Tarsus.

He's a mean man.

He goes around persecuting Christians and he wants to stamp out what he calls the way.

There's a young man in the church named Stephen.

Very godly, consequential person.

People come to Christ because of Stephen's preaching.

And the religious people of the day said, you know what?

If this guy keeps going, he's gonna put us out of business.

And so they picked up rocks one day, much bigger than these down here, and they stoned Stephen.

In other words, they took rocks and they hit him with rocks until they killed him.

And the book of Acts has a little this little single phrase in Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And it says when they took their coats off, so they could really warm up and drive off of their back leg and throw and drop their shoulders to present to get an arm angle where they could really bring the heat.

It says they laid their coats at the feet of a man named Saul.

That was Paul.

That's what he was referred to before he became a Christian.

He was Saul of Tarsus.

And when God changed him on the inside, he changed his name on the outside, he became known as Paul the Apostle.

So when Paul says I was a blasphemer, I spoke evil of Christianity.

I was a persecutor.

I was a persecutor.

Now that we we're not real familiar with this word.

Last night at some ungodly hour, my 14 year old wanted to have a conversation about persecution.

And I just said, Hey, babe, people that have really experienced persecution, don't pray for it.

She's like, Don't we need to pray for persecution in the American church?

But baby, we think persecution is driving to church in the rain, okay?

Let's just start there.

Whatever happened to that girl, you know, she she was 17 and she grew up Muslim.

When she converted to Christianity and her parents are going to kill her.

What's an honor killing?

Had to explain that to my 14-year-old.

And then, boy, I mean, at about 11 o'clock, she comes alive and just like, hey, little monkey.

Zip it.

Ain't no zipping it.

You can't get that back.

That that that jack in the box is out.

And I'm like, I think your mom's calling you.

And then I run back to my office.

I lock the door.

But I thought about Paul says I'm a blasphemer.

He says, secondly, I was a persecutor.

We don't understand persecution.

I remember June 22nd, 1980, between my sophomore and junior years in high school.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, Texas, a little town in East Texas, 60 miles due north of Tyler.

But if you go 15 miles to the right, on what we call the Dangerfield Highway, there's a town called Dangerfield.

And see, the highway between Pittsburgh and Dangerfield is called the Dangerfield Highway.

Because if you get on that and go 15 miles, you arrive in Dangerfield.

Yeah.

Hence it's called the Dangerfield Highway.

Now to strangers, it's Highway 11, but to us it's the Dangerfield Highway.

You say, why'd I tell you that?

Because on June 22nd, I think it was Father's Day that Sunday, 1980, a man named Alvin Lee King walked in the back of the First Baptist Church in Dangerfield and opened fire on the congregation.

Dangerfield's a town of 2,200 people.

Up to this point, church shootings, you hadn't really heard of that.

This is the one that put them on the map, 15 miles from my hometown.

Killed five people, injured 10 other ones.

I mean, there were more reporters in Dangerfield than there were citizens in Dangerfield for about a week-long period.

There was nowhere to eat, there was no hotels.

People were driving 15 miles to our town.

You got any hotels?

Well, we got the Surrey House, but I wouldn't stay there.

Why am I telling you this?

Because the question that broke out, because see, Surrey House had a motel, but it also had a little, like a, like a diner, like a little pit grill kind of thing.

Me and my friends would all go kicker dancing at the Orange Blossom Special over in Mount Pleasant and then come home about midnight and go to the Surrey house because they had chicken fried steak and eggs.

Glory to his name.

And I remember being in a drunken stupor.

This is before I was a Christian.

It was between my sophomore and junior years in high school.

But I could sneak into the club and go kicker dancing and come and eat chicken fried steak and eggs at one in the morning and then go home.

But I remember me and my friends in a drunken stupor being so enraged, and one of the guys said, and their waitress even said, Yeah, but one of my guys said, Who would do something like that?

What kind of a guy would break into a church?

I mean, I'm not a church going man, but I would never do anything like that.

Yeah, yeah.

And we're all righteously worked up and indignant.

Who would do something like that?

And the Bible tells us out of his own mouth, Paul says, I would.

That's what he's saying when he says, I was a persecutor, and I was an insolent opponent.

What am I saying?

I'm saying the next time you try to beat yourself up and you try to prove to God how unworthy you are, you just hold up these these three phrases.

Because I don't think any of us have done anything like that.

The thing that made it horrible is there was a little girl, I'll never forget her name, Gina Lynham.

She was seven years old, she lost her life that day.

Her dad wrote a book about it.

That was the thing.

I mean, there were people in my town that were driving over going, I tell you what, we'll handle this our own way.

You just let us in that jail.

People were enraged.

But what we failed to see was we couldn't flip it and turn our rage on ourselves and say, like the apostle Paul, I have the same need he does.

Because thirdly, Paul tells us in this letter to Timothy, third thing he tells us from this trustworthy saying is that mercy changes everything.

Look at verse 16.

Well, stay back if you were in verse 13.

He says, Though formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent opponent.

If you know someone that's a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent opponent or an adulterer or an embezzler or a tax cheat or a fraud or whatever, or a liar, or addicted to prescription pain medication, or someone that pours too many glasses of wine and sits in front of the TV and drinks himself into a sleepy stupor.

If you know anybody like that, what do they need?

You don't need to bring them to church, you don't need to get them into this, they don't need to go see this, they don't need to get a book.

They need mercy.

Because Paul says in the next sentence, but I received mercy.

He's so affected by this.

He says down in verse 16, after he says, Hey, this is a trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came in the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

I am the chief.

Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector, I'm the chief sinner.

Look at verse 16, but I received mercy.

But I received mercy.

Now, this is twice he has said the phrase, but I received mercy.

Paul may as well have said, but I drank poison.

It had just as much of a consequence on my life.

What do you mean?

Two times.

Why did he receive mercy?

He tells you twice.

He says, first of all, what I call ignorant unbelief.

That's what verse 13 is.

Look at it.

He says, but I received mercy.

Why?

Because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.

I don't think this is for everybody, but I think this is for somebody, so let me say it.

If you're in the room today and you've ever thought, is God gonna get me for that one thing I did?

Maybe I didn't kick in the door of a back of a church and scream, this is war, and open fire on unsuspecting, undeserving people.

But we all have one or two things, some of us more than that, in our minds, in our past that we think, Yeah, I better do some extra good stuff because I don't know if God can forgive me for that one.

I have one word for you today.

Mercy.

Paul says, I received mercy, and mercy changes everything.

It is the basis upon which God says we should do everything.

So Paul writes in Romans chapter 12, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, because of the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

This is your spiritual act of worship.

But he says in Ephesians chapter 2, after he builds a case about our inability to do anything to save ourselves, he says, Hey, you were born dead in your trespasses and sin.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

You don't stand a chance.

There's nothing you can do, but God, who's rich in mercy, made you alive.

See, mercy changes everything.

Paul says, Why did I receive mercy?

Because first of all, I acted in, I was ignorant and I acted in unbelief.

Translation, I didn't know any better.

I didn't know any better.

I mean, I didn't know God back then.

If I knew God, I wouldn't have done it that way.

I wouldn't have said that, I wouldn't have done that, I wouldn't have been with that person, I wouldn't have stole that.

I don't know what to do.

Mercy.

Mercy.

And here's the second reason.

He says it's hope for unbelievers.

Look at verse 16.

He says, but I received mercy.

Why?

For this reason that in me, as the foremost, the chief, the champion of sinners, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.

Now look at that phrase.

Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience.

See, Jesus didn't come for perfect people.

If the world was full of perfect people, if there was one perfect person in the world, then God would not get to demonstrate.

He would not have a canvas against a backdrop against which he could display his perfect patience.

He said, Why was I shown mercy?

Because everybody knew that I was a blasphemer and I was a persecutor and I was an insolent opponent.

I was educated in the ways of religion.

And when people were going over to Jesus and talking about a relationship and grace and mercy, I hated them and I wanted to kill them.

And I opposed them in the temple.

I taught against them.

I did everything I could do to keep this thing from getting out of hand.

So much so that when he was converted in Acts chapter 9, and God struck him to the ground and struck him blind, God spoke from heaven and said, Why are you persecuting me?

Acts 9 · chapter mention

I mean, the record of heaven knew that Paul was a persecutor, but he received mercy.

What does that mean?

Hope for unbelievers that Paul could say, hey, if God could forgive me, he could forgive you.

The greatest, listen to me, beloved, the greatest story you have to tell is your own story.

It's to say to people.

Not get up on a mic in front of people, but say to people in conversation over lunch or breakfast or in your home or in their home or on a shopping trip or going antiquing or whatever you do with your friends.

Hey, and something comes up and they go, Well, you know, I just, you know, I just said you can just say, Well, I want you to know that the mercy of God changes everything.

And I'm not talking to you out of a book, I'm talking to you out of a life.

And it was jacked up.

I never forget being in a church where young lady, she just graduated college.

I think she was 23.

And I was like, College, 23?

She said, Yeah, I did four years and then two victory laps.

And I mean, she was inconsolable.

And I sitting down the front row after everyone was leaving, just a few people standing around.

There's some lady over there with a denim skirt and had like some patchwork quilt and stuff on it.

And I was going to her house for dinner.

And I was like, rock and roll.

Paula Dean's taking me to dinner.

This is gonna be good.

Her husband standing there, and the woman was just undone, couldn't get it together.

And I said, What's the what's going on?

She said, Well, when I was in college, I just went off the deep end and basically I had three abortions.

And every time I come to church, I just feel guilty, and I just feel like, oh God, don't please don't get me today.

I'm gonna do better.

I'm gonna make up for that.

I'll adopt kids, I'll give money away, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm sitting there on the front row, kind of like, and then I look over here and here's Mama.

She's got her denim skirt on and her white thing, and she's standing there with her Bible, and her husband just leaned over and said, I think, I think you need to go over there and relieve Pastor Neil.

And this woman just walked over and set her Bible down, took her little reading glasses off, and sat down beside that woman and said, Let me tell you about my abortion.

See mercy.

And I just, because preachers don't know when to shut up.

I opened my mouth to say something.

I was gonna say, you know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians, we comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

So she's received comfort and she's got some comfort to give you.

But instead, I open my mouth and God said, Shut your yapper.

So I went.

I see at your house.

I'm gonna go with your husband.

Won't you bring her to dinner at your house?

And and and the ladies looked at me and said, We got this.

Translation, shut your yapper and leave.

And I got in the truck with her husband and I said, Okay, I never would have picked your wife out.

Not that people, and and and he said, It's it's my wife's ministry.

God brings people into our life who live with the silent shame of abortion, and my wife sets them free.

He said, No, our dinner's at home in the oven, and we're gonna pull it out because this may be a while.

So we went back and we pulled it out of the oven, and we had chicken and rice peel off and green beans and rolls and the whole nine yards.

We were having coffee and two women walked in.

I recognized one, I didn't recognize the other.

Because mercy changes everything.

Paul says, I was an insolent, hard-hearted opponent.

But the mercy of God found me and unwound me.

And people look at him and they say, Hey, he's the foremost of sinners.

And God had perfect patience, complete patience and divine forbearance with that religious honk.

Maybe there's mercy for me.

And there is.

Because mercy changes everything.

Not perfect people, but perfect peace.

If you've got your Bible in your first Timothy, turn to the left of the book of Matthew.

You still with me?

Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

We're just about done.

We've called into the tower.

We've been given clearance to land.

Matthew chapter 9.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

By the way, did you just feel what was in this room?

Hello?

I don't know who you are, but I just want to tell you there's mercy for you.

I don't know who you are.

I don't want to know.

You ain't got to come tell me.

It's none of my business.

But God doesn't have a list of things that he looks at and says, hey, I can forgive all these, but this one right here, if you ever do that, well, by golly, I'm gonna get you.

That's not the God of the Bible.

You know that, right?

Mercy.

The Bible says, as a matter of fact, where sin did abound, grace did abound all the more.

Not making light of sin, but you're not chained to that memory that you can't seem to forgive yourself for.

You say, What do you mean?

Mercy changes everything.

Matthew chapter 9, verse 9, Jesus is calling his disciples.

Matthew 9:9

Remember, I said he's always, this has always been his plan.

He came to the world to save sinners.

Matthew chapter 9, verse 9.

Matthew 9:9

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me.

And he rose and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.

And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to themselves, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician.

But those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Jesus says, Go and learn what this means.

And maybe in your community groups tonight, you could just ask yourself over pie and coffee or whatever you're having.

What does it mean?

What does God mean when he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice?

Fourthly and finally, Paul tells us in this faithful saying, be spontaneous.

I'm back in 1 Timothy chapter 1.

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Look at verse 15 again.

Just to get the flow of thought, you've got to start there.

He says, This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.

But I received mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, that Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.

People are going to look at me, Paul says, and go, hey, if that guy can become a Christian, I can become a Christian.

God's not going to be eternally mad at me after all.

And just the thought of that causes Paul to kind of burst into this doxological thought.

He's talking about the perfect patience as an example for those who are to believe in him for eternal life.

Then he goes, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

And so, what's the big deal?

He's talking, he's writing to Timothy about how God had this divine forbearance, that God was perfectly patient with him while he was acting like an idiot.

And just the thought of that makes Paul just burst into this thankful gratitude.

What do you mean?

Maybe I say it like this.

Remember those cars you had as a kid?

They had little wheels on the bottom, and to make it go, you had to put it on the floor and pull it back and go.

I mean, the more you it was like, and then you let it go.

That's what Paul's doing.

Starting in verse 12, it's like verse 13, verse 14, verse 15, I mean, he's got that thing, and it's like the car starts to shake.

He can't take it anymore.

He just explodes.

You ever talk to somebody that spits on you?

You know what I'm talking about?

I remember Bill Cower, the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the worst.

He'd be talking, Joey! And the players would be like, I remember one of the linebackers, he said, I just close my lips so it won't get in my mouth.

One Sunday, I don't know, probably a year ago, my youngest said to me, Dad, sometimes when you're talking, spit comes out.

I said, Your dad gets excited.

I know, but I'm glad there's nobody close.

Have you ever would you ever spit on anybody?

I said, Well, if I did, I'd just call them a Methodist.

I just sprinkled them right there and they're in.

I don't know what that means.

Don't miss this.

Here's the last thing Paul's saying to you and I.

He's saying, be spontaneous.

Be spontaneous.

In other words, be so affected by the good news of the gospel that you're freely forgiven, that you just sometimes you just burst into song.

You can't contain yourself.

It just comes out.

You should, you should have something so enjoyable.

Like I was in a court, I was speaking at a thing in North Carolina, and the guy said, Hey, bring your golf clubs because you're gonna be here, uh, you're gonna speak at night from Sunday through Wednesday night, and we're gonna suck the life out of you, okay?

But during the day, at least twice, preferably three times, I want you to go play golf, and we're gonna pay for it.

Oh, yes, you are.

And so the Monday morning, I got there, the course was supposed to be closed, and the guy said, Hey, the superintendent, or the not the superintendent, one of the guys, like Big Mucky Mucks, goes to our church, and he said, Tell Neil to come and play.

We'll just be here taking care, just be the grounds crew, and you'll just be here all by himself.

And he can play as much as he wants.

And I was playing, and it was just me and a golf cart and a cup of coffee, and I teed off about 7:30, and the sun's coming up, and it was oh, it's incredible.

There was in the fall, and there's beautiful fall foliage everywhere, and I'm just driving around, and I got to about the fourth hole, and it's a par three, about 180 yards, kind of a downhill, and it had this big pond right here, and a bank of flowers coming over like that beside the green.

And if you knocked in the flowers, you didn't go look at it.

You had to go up there and just drop in the drop zone.

And I'm on the T-box and I'm kind of standing back, kind of looking at it, just thinking, I'm gonna hit a big high cut fade right up there, at the flowers, and then away from the flowers, and all of a sudden I'm kind of lining it up, and I just burst into tears.

I was just like, And here's why.

It was like it dawned on me.

Oh my gosh, I should be burning in hell right now, but instead I get to play free golf.

And it's not on some little Muni cow pasture.

This is beautiful, and I didn't know what else to do, so I took my shoes off, and I played the rest of the day barefooted.

I put my shoes in the golf car and I just walked around feeling the earth.

Oh, thank you, Jesus, for this.

For those who are about to rock, I salute you.

About the 15th hole, I walked up the fairway singing the doxology.

When's the last time something was so good you just had to praise God for it?

You just praise God from whom all blessings flow.

And I was just twirling my club.

Praise him all creatures here below.

Praise him above ye, heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and holy go.

And I even gave him the old school Amen.

And then I putted.

You ever sing and you don't think anybody's around?

There's a guy back over there getting the trash out of the ball wash off the next tea box, and he just shake his head, Lord, Lord, that's good right there.

I said, I didn't know you were there.

And I said, I just got overwhelmed.

He goes, I get overwhelmed all the time, and I tell him thank you.

So Paul gets overwhelmed and he just tells God thank you.

And he just says, To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be glory.

He just burst into this doxological thought, like, I can't help myself.

Next time you have a good meal in a nice restaurant, you should just stand up and just start singing.

I have friends of mine that are rich and they go out to eat these really nice places.

One year they told me, we spent$12,000 eating out.

That was my thought.

I was like, I'm all for enjoying yourself.

That might be idolatry.

But they apparently, when you're in a nice restaurant and it's good, you send for the chef, and he comes out and you tell him in person.

I told him, I said, that's weak.

You need to just next time you go to a nice French restaurant and you have lobster, macaroni, and cheese or whatever you're telling me about, you should just hold hands and stand up and just sing the doxology.

And they're like, Well, that'd be kind of embarrassing.

No, what's embarrassing?

It is to have something so good that you're not spontaneous towards it.

That it doesn't just, there you go, like my little friend right here.

Yes, sir.

Rock and roll.

Absolutely.

You should have things in life that are just so combustible inside of you.

And the main thing should be that when you think about the fact that I receive mercy, and for this reason, that in me, the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ, might display his perfect patience.

He never runs out of patience.

He never says, Oh, that's it.

You've done it now.

I'm taking my belt off.

As an example to people who are going to believe in him for eternal life.

But right now, if they're going to believe in him, it doesn't mean they believe right.

It means they don't believe right now.

That they believe in themselves or they believe things about themselves that aren't true.

That, hey, like the lady in the church that hey, I had an abortion.

There's three abortions.

No way God can forgive me, or I did this, no way God can forgive me, or I did this, and there's no way God can forgive me.

And now suddenly, oh Papa, what are you?

Oh my gosh, what?

You're what?

Oh, you got religion.

I respect that.

No, no, no.

I didn't get religion.

I'm in a relationship.

Mercy.

Mercy.

Because mercy.

Well, I used to be this, but what happened?

I received mercy.

That's what happened to me.

Mercy wrecked my life.

I have some friends that so understand mercy, they named their dog Mercy.

I kind of made fun of that.

First time I was like, what's your dog's name?

Mercy?

You're kidding me, right?

I bet that dog gets beat up every day at the doggy recess playground.

Should give it a name like Spike or something.

I bet he's picked lass at doggy kickball.

And then I think it was the wife who smiled and said, Mercy.

It's just good to keep that before us.

And Paul is saying to me and to you, keep mercy before you.

Keep mercy before you.

He has perfect patience.

If you're here today and you don't have a relationship with this God, he's not put out with you, he's not looking down, going, I tell you what, Father God, just one more time.

If he wanted to whip you, he'd already whipped you.

You think he's waiting for your permission?

You think he's waiting for you to feel bad about being such a screw up?

Maybe he doesn't want to whip you.

Maybe he wants to have mercy on you.

Let's pray together.

Father, there are things in life that are so good that they just we have to thank you for them.

Because James tells us that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father above.

And the best gift of all was Jesus.

He was good and perfect.

And people just wanted to be around him.

And people were giddy at the thought of having dinner with him and listening to him talk.

And their heart beat fast when he talked.

And maybe they saw just that maybe I don't have to be who I've always been.

And that's just mercy.

And so today we're grateful for mercy.

And we understand that you had patience with us as an example to people that we know that don't believe yet.

Let them see in us.

We don't want to come at them with information.

We want to come at them with experience.

Show us what that looks like, God.

We love you.

And we're so, so grateful for your perfect patience.

We just want you to know that in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

We'll be dismissed.

To live in the shadow of guilt is an insult to your Father's mercy.

He has bestowed mercy on you to deliver you from all that is unnecessary and deliver you to what is necessary.

Depart now and live what's necessary.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.

You're dismissed.