Acts (Part 2) | God's Canvas - Acts 22 | November 2

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All right, this is Acts 22. Brothers and fathers, hear my defense,

which I now, this is Paul speaking, just for what it's worth, from last week.

Brothers and fathers, hear my defense, which I now offer to you.

And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect,

they became even more quiet.

And he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city,

educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers,

being zealous for God, just as you all are today.

I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into

prisons, as also the high priest and all the council of the elders can testify.

From them, I also received letters to the brothers and started off for Damascus

in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.

But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noon,

a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me.

And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul,

Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered, Who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene,

whom you are persecuting.

And those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of

the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord?

And the Lord said to me, Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will

be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do.

But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light,

I came into Damascus being led by the hand by those who were with me.

Now a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the law and well-spoken

of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing nearby,

he said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.

And at that very moment, I looked up at him, and he said, The God of our fathers

has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one and to hear

a message from his mouth.

For you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and heard.

Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized. and wash away your sins by calling on his name.

It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple,

that I fell into a trance.

And I saw him saying to me, Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly,

because they will not accept your testimony about me.

And I said, Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another

I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you.

And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing

nearby and approving and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.

And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices

and said, Away with such a man from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into

the air, the commander ordered that he be brought into the barracks,

saying that he was to be interrogated by flogging, so that he would find out

the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who

was standing by, Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?

When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him,

saying, What are you about to do, for this man is a Roman?

The commander came and said to Paul, Tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes.

The commander answered, I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.

And Paul said, But I was actually born a citizen.

Therefore, those who were about to interrogate him immediately backed away from

him, and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman

and because he had put him in chains.

Now on the next day, wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by

the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the council

to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.

Well, amen. Thank you, Eric, for reading that last minute.

I want to start off with something that has a high probability of failure,

just to give you a heads up.

I have not practiced this. I've never done this.

So it's every bit the case in probability that this isn't going to work but

I have a backup plan in case it doesn't work because I thought ahead.

Never do something like this. Never decide to do something you've never done

before a day before you're supposed to do it in front of several people and hope it's success.

So I have behind this not a portrait of Brent like he

suspected but just a blank foam foam

board and i've seen this done

before so with all of the confidence of our

generation believing that we can just do something

we've seen done before i'm going to just go for it i'm going

to try and i'm going to try and give some

space so that you can see what's happening because this is kind of a small board

but have you ever seen like a speed painting thing

anybody ever watch the speed painting thing okay well then this

isn't going to work at all because you already know what's going to happen i'm going

to try and paint a picture they do it in like 90

seconds i'm pretty sure that's not going to happen we'll aim for 90 seconds

but we'll go for like three minutes is going to be a max potentially and then

i'll update you whether or not that's going to happen as we go does somebody

have does somebody want to pull out their phones and and time this not 30 minutes

just three minutes three minutes,

Just, yeah, sit still and be there for 30 minutes. This is all we're gonna do today. See?

This is so good. It's so good that this is all we're doing.

Who said they had, Jake? No, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

This is already gonna be difficult to begin with.

So give me like a solid three, two, one, okay? Are you ready? Okay.

What about go? Thank you. Yeah.

What's the protocol here? We didn't establish it beforehand.

Could you give me like 10 second updates or something? I don't know.

I'm making a mess, y'all. I was convinced also that I wasn't going to be making

a mess at all. But, you know.

That's 30 seconds? Is that what you said? What? What?

30 minutes it's looking more and more are you sure you're not like on 2x time,

I think I put too much paint here I overestimated how much paint I was going to need what,

what kind of weird watch do you have is this an Apple product well that's your

problem goodness gracious 90 seconds was a pipe dream y'all.

Goodness gracious That's halfway, I guess.

Don't worry, we got a backup plan. That's right, it's relative. Relatively fast, Ryan.

All right, what about two minutes? Are we there yet? No guessing,

because it might be too obvious. Again, I've never done this before.

There goes some paint over that

way. All right. I'm supposed to use eight colors. This is my second color.

What? Oh.

Two and a okay this three minutes is not happening a cat,

a chicken baby chicken I don't want to go to anything I'm starting to have a

cat I'm melting a snowman melting a snowman,

is this gonna work I don't know yeah I honestly don't know if this will work

hey three colors we're already at three minutes though probably yep alright

what uh just tell me how far I go over now,

I have a I'm convinced this is still going to work.

I'm also not a painter. I should have led with that. So not only have I never

done this challenge before, I don't paint.

Even draw that's right i i don't even draw we should have got sandy to do this

how come how come uh maddie has to be having a baby right now i feel like she could do this.

All right one two more colors or three more colors how far over am i okay we'll

go for five minutes five minutes and now i'm putting a color on you can't even see,

so this is a waste of five minutes again just in case i got a backup video,

what if it looks like a person we're on the right track it doesn't look like

it's an alien it's an alien yeah an alien goodness gracious.

It looks like Daddy now It looks like Sonia Jones are we have five minutes yet

what all right i know we changed we we adapted,

all right is does it work does it you see a picture my hand is covered in paint

did that work It kind of works It kind of works I didn't plan on Cleaning up,

Hey he saw that it was Jesus,

It's because it's cool, Brent. No, sit back. Sit down.

All right. All right. Settle down. Settle down. Thank you.

You're going to have blue all over your... Can you get that for me? Your ass on me. Yeah.

While Brent's getting me a baby wipe, because that's what I needed at this stage

of my life. Let's pray. Good job.

90-second prayer. God, thank you for today and just sitting and worshiping together,

singing your praise, honoring your name singing the

truth of who you are and just feeling your presence this morning and you are

always with us we know that to be true the universe is just permeated with the

weight of your presence every single moment but to feel it push through,

is always a blessing.

So thank you, Lord, for your felt presence as well as your continued presence as we live our lives.

And thank you for being a trustworthy, faithful, steadfast God,

no matter what happens, that our faith and our trust is in you and you are always

faithful, no matter how faithless we are.

So whatever seasons, whatever life brings, whatever happens,

God, we rest and trust in the knowledge of you and your truth and that you are

not only great, not only glorious,

not only trustworthy, but you are good as well.

And so we praise you, God. We thank you.

And just pray that you would speak to us through your word this morning.

We would be receptive and we'd be good soil God. Amen. Alright well you can

figure out it's Jesus so that's good enough.

Maybe next time I'll practice. How about that? But at what point did you realize,

what it was a picture of? When death was.

That ruins when I flipped it. Anybody see it before then?

Got some like cognitive ability that you could, a couple of you.

Yeah, that gave it away. So without like a knowledge of what was happening,

without a knowledge of what every single stroke meant, every little push of

paints, every little splotch, it could have been pretty erratic and confusing.

Also, given the fact that I told you I didn't know it was going to work.

And, you know, it kind of worked. We'll give it a solid C or B minus. I don't know.

But this is this is kind of a reality that we interact with when we think about God as well.

And there's a verse that I want to return to, and it's not in Acts 22,

but it's in Romans chapter 11.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

And the version I'm going to give you first is not the version that's going

to be on the screen. So just be aware of that.

But it says that, this is Paul just kind of waxing poetic about the glorious nature of God.

He says, oh, the depths of the riches in the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How inserchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.

For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who

has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him

and to him are all things to him be glory forever, amen.

And this is a reality that Paul lived in that God is painting a picture of his

life through every moment, through all of the suffering through all of the times,

even before the Damascus Road experience that he revisits here again in Acts 22.

God's painting this picture of our life and that truth is reflected in us as

well that God is painting a picture of your life.

Telling your story. And sometimes the brushstrokes might seem erratic.

Sometimes the little splotches of paint might make no sense to us.

But he's painting this beautiful picture. In Ephesians chapter 2,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Paul says this about God as well, that we are God's masterpiece.

I guess he says it about us as well, that God is the master painter and we are his masterpiece.

He is the master sculptor and we are his clay or sculpture that he is forming.

He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the things,

good things he planned for us long ago.

That you are God's masterpiece.

That you are God's much better picture than that is.

You are a masterpiece. So we give that title to works of art that have spanned

history, that are painted by the hands of a person who has known their trade

for a long time and knows every purpose of every stroke.

And again, at times it just, that still looks like a bunch of blotches of paint,

but at times it just looks like some splotches of paint on a canvas,

random, disordinate, disordinated.

You fulfilled your calling and you're brought home to glory,

when the canvas is flipped, so to speak, it'll all make sense.

It will all come together as this beautiful, beautiful portrait.

And that verse in Romans chapter 11, those three verses or four verses,

Romans 11 · chapter mention

the NLT, which the version you have, says how impossible it is for us to understand

his decisions and his ways.

God is so magnificent. he's

so marvelous again he has the deft

hand of a true master for all of you who

are actually artists and painters and and know

how to control the movements and and and points of a brush i've watched all

bob ross series so you know that makes me pretty pretty close to an expert but

one thing is for sure with a skill that high you know every stroke and what

it's going to do and if not it's just a happy accident,

as Bob Ross has said, but God is so magnificent.

He created everything that we know and experience with just a word of his mouth,

the Bible says, and we can't even fathom how that would potentially even be possible.

There's this idea that even exists that I've brought up before,

and I don't want to give too much time to it other than just to mention that

everything that we know and experience first started out as an idea in God's mind.

Just how incredible that is to understand.

It all started out with an idea which became a word, which flashed everything into existence.

As much as I can convince myself that I have some control over my circumstances,

that if I can imagine the worst case scenario, then I can guarantee that that's

not what's going to happen.

As much as I can convince myself that my thoughts have some sort of power over

my reality, and if I can think it, if I can imagine it, it'll somehow affect

my experience lived on this earth.

Will be times and there will be events and there will be things that we encounter

that we just can't possibly understand.

We can't see it. We can't understand it. We can't realize.

We can try and justify them all that we want. But because God who is in control

is outside of our complete understanding and outside of even a fraction of our

understanding, there will be things in this life that he does that just won't make sense to us.

In fact, if there's any point in your life where you're like,

I've got God understood and everything he does makes sense, every decision he

makes, I'm completely on board with.

All of my desires completely agree with his desires.

All of my purposes agree with his purposes. All of my thoughts are his thoughts.

I would be very suspicious that perhaps what you're worshiping is a God of your

own creation and not the God of the universe.

Because one thing we can guarantee is that his thoughts are not our thoughts.

And as much as we spend our lifetime seeking him, there will always be a surprise

because he is incomprehensible by our finite minds on this side of glory.

And we always say like, it'll make sense in eternity, or we'll have this question answered.

And maybe that's true, but I tend to respond with, I think you just probably

won't care anymore to have your questions answered when we're there in the presence

of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God is the master.

God is painting a picture and right now it might look pretty messy in our eyes.

It might look disordinate. It might be, there might be no clear purpose,

no clarity at all, or at least even the hint that it's moving in the right direction

to form some cohesive picture.

Is where we find, well, not Paul per se, because as we'll see,

he responds in gratitude rather than regret, perhaps.

But this is kind of where we meet him again in Acts 22. And Acts 22,

in my opinion, is perhaps not just 22, but people tend to skip from Acts 20 to chapter 26.

And so there's these span of chapters that are pretty underrepresented in the

grand scheme of things when it comes to the book of Acts specifically.

I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on Acts 22 that I can remember.

It's said that Charles Spurgeon preached two sermons, like a two-week series

on John 11, 35, which if you haven't put that together in your mind is the verse that says Jesus wept.

So Charles Spurgeon apparently, and it might be somebody else,

but preached two entire sermons, probably for a long time on two of the shortest

words that we can encounter.

And yet it seems like Acts 22 and the other chapters are sort of absent from

history, from theology in a way, but not really.

And I think for the most part, it's because we've heard Paul's testimony before.

This is not even the second time that we've heard his conversion story.

And even as I was reading it, the first thoughts I had had nothing to do with Damascus Road.

They had to do with the fact that when Paul's preaching in front of this large

crowd, at some point they quiet down even more, which I don't even understand

how you get more quieter than you already are.

And then he's preaching and it's fine. And then at some point they all get indignant about it.

For me, the first thing I'm drawn to is like all of us have this sticking point in us.

React to emotionally. And so my thoughts were already that direction and not

on this Damascus Road experience, because we've seen it before.

We've heard it before. It's old hat.

What is there to be learned anymore? What treasure is there to be had hearing this same story?

But God keeps bringing Paul back to his story.

And Paul keeps returning to his story, because that is the truth that God is

painting this picture with his life.

Beautiful picture. And even though life seems chaotic and life seems disordinate

and life seems random, that God is using all that together to paint this picture,

to knit this, I don't know, sweater, does that work?

To tell this story, the story of your life. And as Christians,

it's important for us to believe this, that there is no such thing as coincidence.

As much as we have grown up believing that, as much as we would love to think

that especially in difficult times because we don't understand how it could be for our good.

We don't understand how it could work to paint a picture.

There is no such thing as coincidence for the Christian. There is no such thing as random events.

And so when we look at Acts 22 and Paul's Damascus Road experience and Paul's

life in general up to this point,

have you ever had this thought that God could have spared Paul from half a lifetime

of pain, half a lifetime of regret.

Half a lifetime of looking back on what he had done and wondering how God could

ever love him or have chosen him.

God could have intervened before Paul stood there at the feet of Stephen being killed.

He could have intervened before Paul got the letter to go and persecute and

hunt down and kill Christians.

He could have protected him from that.

God didn't just decide one day on a whim that Paul was his chosen vessel.

But Paul was chosen and called long before he studied with Gamaliel,

long before he became this zealous Pharisee.

Established and determined. And Paul knew this in Galatians chapter one,

he writes, even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace.

Then it pleased him to reveal his son to me so that I would proclaim the good

news about Jesus to the Gentiles.

And so from his birth until that opportune time, when it pleased God to reveal

Jesus to him, that's the time where all of these persecutions that Paul led took place.

God chose Paul. He called him even while he was persecuting God's people,

even while Paul was dead in his trespasses, even while Paul was walking in the

futility of his mind, which he would walk right later on in his own life about other people.

That was Paul when God called him.

And certainly God could have called Paul long before that moment,

long before they were on the road to Damascus.

So why didn't God stop Paul earlier?

Why does God wait? Why does God delay?

And what I submit to you is that although we don't understand it,

and although we can't always see it, there is this plan that is at work.

There is this masterpiece that is being painted.

And it's not just of all history. It's also of your story. It's your picture, your portrait as well.

And every movement is important. But Paul's past, though regrettable it may

be as we look at it, it is not wasted.

And we see that it becomes a part of Paul's purpose in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.

And even while Paul is speaking to this hostile crowd here in this chapter of

Acts, he retells his past.

He retells the violence of his life. He retells the anger that he had to the

way, as he calls it, to Christians, believing that he was right.

Of his encounter with the risen Jesus. He tells of his calling.

Every part of that story is not a wasted piece.

And instead of hiding in his past, instead of wallowing in his regrets,

Paul does this wonderful thing where he uses it instead of hiding it.

Instead of choosing anger and regret, we see Paul over and over again,

choosing gratitude and thankfulness.

And there are parts of our lives that we would soon choose to forget or write over or rewrite.

Revisionist history, one might say, or some others say that history is written

by the victors, which is actually not that true.

There are parts of our story that we would erase. And yet God signs his name on those pieces.

He signs his name on us and our life every bit.

There's this beautiful story in John chapter 11, which I kind of already alluded

John 11 · chapter mention

to earlier. It's where that verse Jesus wept comes from.

And it is the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

And it says at the very first verse, a man named Lazarus was sick.

He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha.

And these are names that we are familiar with, or we should be familiar with.

We've met them before, even if we aren't as familiar with the book of John or

their stories as we might think.

Mary and Martha were the ones that Jesus had already been at their house.

And Mary was sitting at his feet and Martha was busy serving others.

They are, this family was dearly and beloved by Jesus.

When their brother becomes sick, they think to themselves, I know someone who

loves my brother and who has the power of life, the power to heal.

And they even say that, that they refer to Jesus as loving them,

but also loving him, loving Lazarus.

So they know because Jesus loved him, if they could just get Jesus there, he wouldn't die.

And they say that as much a few times in that chapter.

And so they speak of, Mary and Martha speak of Jesus's love for them and for their brother.

And they use this Greek word phileo, which means brotherly love, brotherly affection.

It's just a really interesting thing that when they think about Jesus's love

for them, they think of this type of love.

In the very next verse, when Jesus says that he loves Lazarus and that he's

going because he's fallen sick,

Jesus uses the agapao verb, the agape love that we maybe have heard about before,

the unique love that is exclusive to God himself, the love that is steadfast and faithful,

the love that endures, the love that overcomes.

Jesus refers to his love for them in that way. So they don't even understand

the truth that they're speaking.

So it says in verse five and six that now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

He agape loved them completely, holy.

And then verse six, so when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill,

he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Jesus loved them completely and wholly.

So he delayed. Jesus delayed because he loved them.

This is a detail of the story that we've probably picked out before and heard

before, but it still doesn't quite make sense to us that Jesus'

love for Lazarus would cause him to delay two more days, so by the time he arrives,

Lazarus has already been dead four days.

And I don't know, I didn't look it up, how long it takes to travel from where they're at to Bethany.

Not sure at what point Lazarus actually dies. Has he already died before Jesus hears and he knows that?

Or does he die along the way? I don't know.

But Jesus' love caused him to delay. We don't understand that.

It doesn't make sense to us.

But even when we don't understand, God's loving kindness and his faithfulness still endures.

So we can trust in that. And this story became a powerful witness for the glory of God.

It became such a powerful witness that in the chapters that follow,

we see Jesus again reclining with this family.

I think it's at a different person's house, but Lazarus is there.

He doesn't say a word. Lazarus never speaks, I don't think, in the entirety

of the scriptures, which is kind of interesting.

And yet we see Jews coming from all over to see Lazarus, to meet Jesus.

And it says that many of them believed, which is also kind of crazy because

you would assume that it should say all of them believed when they saw a person

who was dead and is now alive, but still others didn't believe. Many believed though.

So Lazarus' new life became a witness for Jesus once again in renewed purpose.

And Paul's calling, his past, his present.

Found purpose on that Damascus road. He already had purpose,

but he didn't know how off it was.

But Paul in his new life found purpose.

And so it says that he's baptized and he sets off on this new life,

this new journey completely changed.

That my testimony of belief were as dramatic as Paul's sometimes.

We all would get that sort of jealousy, but I'm very thankful that God has spared

me from such potential regret as Paul had experienced in his life.

I was baptized at like 11 or 12, something like that.

It wasn't that I understood finally everything and now I could make a decision

to know Jesus and to give him my full life.

I didn't really know what I was signing up for completely. What I did know is that...

On being baptized, something was different. And that something that is different

bound me to other people who had made that decision as well, that call.

It was a depth of understanding that is continuing to grow even into this day

over many, many hard fought years.

And maybe your story is similar to that.

Maybe you don't have a Damascus Road type experience like Paul did,

which is probably a testimony that we need to celebrate more in the church instead

of being regretful that we don't have a dynamic, powerful testimony to share with us.

We probably should share more of the faithful call of children who become adults

who never depart from faith. That should be something we celebrate.

But what do we all need a Damascus road experience?

If we don't think about it as complete changing of our life from one way,

from darkness into life, we think about it in a different way.

Do we all need for it to finally click for us?

Whether it be the gospel, which we've heard a thousand times to finally take

root in us, for us to finally understand what it means that God calls us beloved.

For us for it all to finally come together what our purpose here is in boon

on this earth and this community family of believers do we need a damascus road

experience for all of that to finally make sense to us it doesn't have to be

as dramatic as darkness into light,

what do we need to be shaken awake to what do we need to be called out from.

We simply need to trust that whatever splotches of paint and confusing brushstrokes

are being painted in our lives or have hit your canvas in this season or the

last, that they are very important to the picture that God's painting in your life.

Maybe we just need to trust and believe in that so that these strokes that we

would erase are so very necessary to complete the masterpiece of our lives.

Even if right now the canvas hasn't been

flipped over and we're still stuck wondering what's

it all mean we can't see it i heard

this story once of how saris the

dress gown in india are made especially for extravagant weddings and how a lot

of times these are these beautiful ornate pieces of fabric gowns whatever you

might want to call them often they are woven together by these father and son teams.

And the father will sit with this pattern in his mind and he will instruct the

son for every pass of the shuttle, for every moment that he weaves this beautiful

pattern together, this fabric.

The son never being given an instruction further than the next stitch,

the next weave, whatever you call it. I don't weave either. I don't paint. I don't weave.

Father only gives the next instructions, never revealing more than is needed

at the time to reveal this beautiful wedding dress from just a kaleidoscope

of different colored strings.

And that's the picture that we are given today, that God is painting this story

with your life in every moment, even the ones that you wish to wish away,

you wish to fast forward through.

And if I could have thought well enough, there could probably be a joke in there

about the Adam Sandler movie Click, which you know is a fine masterpiece of a movie in itself.

Don't watch any movie I ever recommend.

You are chosen, you are called, you are. Your life is here for an incredible purpose.

God is telling a story with every moment. And the truth is that your satisfaction

in this life Life is directly tied to that idea, to fulfilling the calling that God has for you.

It, to walking in it, as much as we can see and as much as we can understand,

to aligning our lives with God's calling for ourselves, that our satisfaction

in this life is directly tied to that.

And other people, I think John Piper will often say things like,

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

But when we hear that or read that, we're like, what does that mean? I don't understand.

But really what we're trying to say is that God didn't create you because he was bored.

He didn't create you because he was lonely. He didn't create you because there

was something missing from him.

God created you out of the overflow of his love so that you might find deep and abiding joy in him.

That's what we're really trying to say. And that's what Paul tries to say.

Paul understood this completely.

And so when we align our lives with what God has made for you,

when you align your lives with what God has made for you, when the brushstrokes

line up, when the picture he is painting,

he gets glory and you're filled with joy.

Glory, and your satisfaction are intertwined. And that's why a life lived outside

of God's design for us feels empty and restless and disjointed and confusing.

And that's why when we surrender to him, even when it doesn't make sense,

he carries these unexplained moments.

These sufferings, these speed bumps on our path.

He carries us through with incredible joy underneath it all,

because we are made for him.

And Paul understood that. Paul understood it so well. He writes in Philippians

chapter one, we're going to end with this, that he writes these words,

these famous words, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain.

If I'm alive, that's great, because I get to keep on serving Jesus.

And if I die, that's even better, because I get to live with him in fullness.

But then he goes on after that, to kind of discuss which is better. Either way, he wins.

And he says, Which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your

progress and joy in the faith so that in me, you may have ample cause to glory

in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.

So Paul was satisfied in the life that God had given him completely and utterly.

He knew his purpose and he knew his calling and he was there to fulfill it to

completion. We talked about this a few weeks ago.

Of that, Paul understood that as long as he still was alive,

that God had a purpose and a calling on his life and that God wasn't done with him yet.

And we can understand that as well, that if we're not dead, as we sometimes

sing in certain songs, if we're not dead, then God's not done.

And until that moment when we are called home and when he flips the canvas and

when it all makes sense, or we stop caring whether it should make sense,

will every shadow, every splotch of paint, every brushstroke,

all of it comes together in the end to form this beautiful picture,

this beautiful painting, this masterpiece that God has called and made you to be.

And I think not being an artist, I can say that one of the most difficult things

for artists, speaking for people that I'm not representing, is to figure out

when the painting's done.

Probably continue to tweak, to manipulate, to work to perfection,

but at some point it's finished.

Until that day, God's not done with you and he's working everything.

Whether we realize it or not, whether we understand it or not,

whether we can see it or not, whether we read Paul's testimony for the third

time, for the sixth time, and just glaze over it because it's old hat.

The truth is that Nothing is chance and nothing is random.

We can trust the God who is faithful and steadfast.

We can trust the God who created us because he loves us.

And he created us that we might find our joy in him.

We can trust that. And we can keep going. Knowing that if we're not dead, then God's not done.

Let's pray. We can, Lord, we

can so easily believe, or we can so easily look back, and we can regret,

and we can weep.

We can forget your goodness.

We can be absent of trust.

We can just let everything in this life get in the way of seeing the picture that you're painting.

Not to belabor that metaphor any longer, but...

It's so easy for us just to not remember. And because we don't see the final

image in our minds, it's so easy for us to be discouraged.

Not choose gratitude, not choose thanksgiving, not choose to trust.

Now I'm just reminded that, you know, it was said of Michelangelo and those

guys that he, whether he said it or not, who knows, but that he just removed

everything from the marble that wasn't part of the statue that he was making.

There was already an image in his mind and you already have an image in your mind.

And we're not promised that we get to see that completely.

I pray that we would not be discouraged. I pray that we wouldn't dwell in the

past in such a way that it hinders us from moving forward in the calling that you've given us.

I pray that we wouldn't be so anxious for the future that we can't see the beautiful

strokes that you've made in the present.

I pray that we would trust you,

I pray that we would glorify the God of the universe who spoke the world into

existence and who did not create and leave and abandon us but who stayed.