People of Grace: Bigger Than Life - May 11, 2025

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

This morning, I want to start a new sermon series with you that will cover several

weeks and be, I'll probably interrupt at a time or two, but I hope that you'll

stick with it because I think it's transformative and it's vital to who we are as a people.

And it's a good reminder sometimes, I think, for all of us that we are indeed

supposed to be people of grace.

And I just want to introduce this sermon series this morning and just talk about

what it means to be people of grace,

but really looking to the scripture for the example in following Christ and

following even the Apostle Paul and what he's instructed us to really be bigger than life.

You know, you come across some people, and I don't know, maybe your mom was

like that. She was just bigger than life.

And sometimes maybe it wasn't in a big, showy,

flashy way, but maybe a lot of times it was just in the humble ways that she

cared for you and your family, and the relationship she had with your father

and just in the person she was.

And perhaps sometimes we idealize moms, and maybe you didn't have that great

of experience with the mother.

No matter where you're at, I just want to tell you today that there's a grace

that's extended, a special grace that's extended through parents and especially through moms.

And if you think about it, just biologically speaking, we come out of the womb as needy people.

We come out of the womb and we're crying all the time because we've messed ourselves,

whether a spit up or throw up or out the other end.

And, you know, there's just some things that we just can't take care of ourselves. We're needy people.

And even as we grow, we still are in need. And even I find myself occasionally

calling my mom because I need something.

Now, not for the former things that she used to have to take care of me on,

but perhaps for other things, a memory that I'm just trying to struggle with

to remember Or I kind of remember something that happened in my life,

but is it the way I really thought it went?

And so to call her on the phone to have that privilege, I want to take advantage

of that as much as I can while I have the opportunity to do that.

We think about what it means to be people of grace. We look to the Apostle Paul.

We consider him and his history as one who was against the faith,

as one who was a very religious man who knew the Torah.

Someone who was steeped in the Jewish thought, the Jewish practice,

as it says in the scripture, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. We're talking the top-notch

religious person there ever was, and the zeal that he had for God.

So much so that he persecuted believers in Jesus Christ, that he would chase

them down because he felt they were against God and what God had planned for the world.

Until he had an encounter which just blows you away and you can read it in the

book of Acts when he was traveling to Damascus to persecute Christians when

he was consenting at the death.

Of one of these Christians named Stephen who's holding the coats while other

people did his dirty work we know that he this apostle Paul whose name used

to be Saul had a transformative experience where he was knocked off of his donkey onto the road.

And God spoke to him. Jesus spoke to him. He was involved in an experience that

transformed the course, the trajectory of his life.

And the people that he used to work for, they didn't like that so much,

but he found in that experience an encounter with the true God,

with who God really was and who God wanted him to be.

If you think about it, for the last 2,000 years, we've revered the Apostle Paul. Thank you.

We in the Christian church have always regarded him as one of the greatest servants

of Christ throughout Christian history.

And like I said, to most, he was bigger than life.

Think about it. Paul the apostle was a traveling missionary.

I love when I was a child, and I will admit I got bored in church sometimes,

and I would like to go to the back of my Bible,

and I would just like to study the map that is back They're just the full-blown

color map, and you have all these symbols about where Paul went,

and your imagination can just run wild with.

I wonder what it was like when he got to this city, and then you look in the

book of Acts, and, you know, I don't know if you've done that.

Hopefully not. Hopefully you're a better person at paying attention.

But I kind of did my own Bible study sometimes, you know, when you hear the

sermon about 30 times already, and you know where the preacher's going.

But you like to study that, and you just see in those maps in the back of your

Bible, the traveling missionary and how he impacted those different places.

Recently, our own Doug Anders and his wife, Wendy,

went to Asia Minor and went to Turkey, and I got back some great pictures from

Ephesus where Paul ministered to the different places and just seeing what it's

like now versus what it used to be, and it's just incredible.

But the Apostle Paul, he was one of those missionary giants that you think about

and hear about. He was an exceptional evangelist.

Who took the gospel of Jesus Christ to those that were not of Jewish descent,

to what the scripture calls Gentiles, those non-Jews, to share the good news

with the Gentiles, of which probably most all of us are here today would be considered Gentiles.

We got to receive the message of salvation through faith.

Because of the Apostle Paul's ministry way back when, an incredible,

bigger-than-life person.

When you consider the New Testament, he wrote 13 of those books,

those letters that were turned into books in the New Testament,

which composed almost one-fourth of the Scripture here, the New Testament Scripture and its content.

We know from 2 Timothy 4, 7 and verse 8 that he fought the good fight,

he finished the race, and he kept the faith.

And we know through church historians like Eusebius, writing so many,

many years ago, that he died as a martyr for the faith.

And we are confident that he

received the crown of righteousness that he spoke about in 2 Timothy 4.8.

The tradition goes from Eusebius that he, as a result of Nero and trying to

blame the Christians for some things, that the Apostle Paul was beheaded while

he was imprisoned there the second time in Rome by Nero or some of his cronies.

And so we know that he lived and he stayed true to what he believed in, even to the very end.

And, you know, we think about the Apostle Paul.

It's like, wow, yeah, we want to strive to be a person such as him who would

stay true, even through prison, stay true to his faith.

And I want you to know this morning that God calls each and every Christian.

Each and every disciple of Jesus Christ, to get involved in making disciples just as Paul did.

And when we think about that, let's look at his example, because Paul set a big example.

First of all, Paul followed Christ's example. That's why he was so successful

in everything that he did, was that he followed Jesus.

As a matter of fact, 1 Corinthians 11.1, Paul encouraged believers to follow

my example as I follow the example of Christ.

So follow me as I'm following Jesus, the apostle Paul said.

And the beauty of it is we have all these 13 books in the New Testament that

show us how to follow Christ, what it means to follow Jesus, just like Paul did.

We think about Christ's example, who Paul was following.

When we read the scriptures, we see that Jesus Christ personally invested.

He had a personal investment in his own disciples.

He invested much of his attention in three guys, Peter, James, and John.

When you think about Matthew 17.1, it alludes to this fact, the special quality

time that these three leaders would get with our Savior.

We think not just of the three, but of the 12 apostles that Jesus invested heavily in them.

We think about how he would take each of them and teach them.

Provide teaching examples as Jesus would travel all around Palestine there,

all around the land of Galilee and Israel and beyond.

We just know these 12 had a special relationship with Christ,

and Jesus invested in them, invested his time, invested his teaching.

But it wasn't just the three. It wasn't just the 12. We're told in Luke 10,

1, how Jesus invested into 72 disciples who would then go on to, guess what?

Make more disciples. And those disciples would, guess what?

Go on to make more disciples of Jesus by the proclamation, the word,

by the bringing along to show how to be about the business of Christ.

We know that Paul, since he followed Christ's example of investing in these

three, these 12, these 72, and more, the apostle Paul caught that example.

And we know that Paul was not a lone ranger.

Heil silver, away! That was not Paul's way.

Not to be a lone ranger, some individualist who maintained a solo ministry,

who maintained an aesthetic lifestyle, but in fact that the apostle Paul built a web of workers,

built a web of other disciples that knew what the mission of Jesus Christ was,

that he had these supporters in every city that he went to, every city,

like I said, in the back of those maps in the Bible that he stopped at,

that he planted churches that God would grow, that would send out even people

from those towns and places.

I mean, the apostle Paul did this just like Jesus.

Paul invested in fellow believers at every single level of ministry.

And we could see how this pays off, this investment.

In Romans chapter 16, I want to read verses 1 through 16 today.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

You can stand if you wish. There's a lot, and it's going to be an unusual kind

of thing that perhaps a pastor preaches from, but I hope you'll find the value

in these people of grace that are listed in this passage of Scripture.

Again, from Romans 16, verses 1 through 16, the Apostle Paul writes this,

Romans 16:1–16

I commend you, our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Sincre,

and I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of his people.

And to give her any help she might need from you, for she has been the benefactor

of many people, including me.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risk their lives for me.

Not only I, but the church of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

Greet also the church that meets in their house. Greet my dear friend Eponidas,

who was first converted to Christ in the province of Asia.

Greet Mary, who worked very hard for you.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me.

They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

Greet Ampelatus, my dear friend in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker in

Christ, and my dear friend Asteches.

Greet Apelles, whose fidelity to Christ has stood the test.

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodian, my fellow Jew.

Greet the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, the women who work hard in the Lord.

Greet my dear friend Persis, another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord.

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who has been a mother to me.

Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Petrobus, Hermas, and the other brothers and sisters with them.

Greet Philogulus, Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympus,

and all the Lord's people who are with them.

Greet one another with a holy kiss.

All the church of Christ send greetings.

May God bless the reading of his word to your life today. You can be seated.

In spite of my butchering all these people's names this morning.

I like it when I'm by myself reading names because I just make up however that should sound.

So if you have trouble with this, you're in good company, or maybe I'm in good company with you.

We think about all these people that Paul personally invested in.

There's a whole list of people that experienced the grace of God,

that unmerited, undeserved favor that comes through the salvation that Jesus Christ brings.

We see a great list here. We see here in the scripture in verse 3,

some like Priscilla and Aquila, who preached and taught alongside Paul,

men and women together, coming together to proclaim the word.

If you look at verse 3, verse 6, verse 9, it's amazing.

Paul was not the Lone Ranger kind of guy. He needed people. He followed Christ's

example to bring others along and to develop them.

We see that some of them offered up even their own homes as meeting places for the church.

I know this became vital perhaps here, but I know definitely in McCall and to

other places where I talked to their pastors,

people did not stop worshiping God, even though some decided not to hold worship

gatherings together in a building or were instructed not to.

They continued to worship God even in their own homes, in their own living rooms,

wherever they could gather to meet, they'd continue to.

And here even, that's a biblical practice when people would meet in homes to

worship God. We see in the Scripture that some brief befriended Paul,

and they worked hard behind the scenes to make what happens happen.

I'm so grateful for the people that are here that they work so hard together

to make sure that we've got a clean place to meet, that it's presentable,

that copies are made, that people are prayed for.

I mean, you can go down the list with everything that has to happen in order

for us just to gather on a Sunday morning, and it's tremendous.

And those people are people of grace. You people are people of grace.

You've experienced the grace of God and aren't afraid to serve others.

There's a power in that, a special privilege in that. We know that some here

that are listed in verse 7, especially when you look at that,

some suffered with Paul in prison.

While the dude was locked up, he wasn't just alone. He was writing all these

letters to the churches, and there were people that would attend to his need.

It's not like the prisons we have today, the prison that Paul was in.

I mean, basically, from what I understand and from some historical photos that

I've seen of what they would consider to be a similar prison,

if not the prison that the apostle Paul was in, it was just like a big pit in the ground.

You didn't have, you know, your nice cot with a pad and three square meals a

day and a TV that you could still watch your favorite shows. It was a pit.

And if you didn't have anyone to come and bring you anything,

you probably wouldn't eat.

You probably wouldn't have sustenance or care.

You might be tempted by the rat that's going by to say, hmm.

Kind of like those old cartoons when there's a guy on a desert island who hasn't

eaten in a while and something comes walking by and the guy's eyes,

it looks like a chicken walk and a fried chicken walking on the island.

I mean, that could have happened for the Apostle Paul had it not been for grace-filled

people that loved God and loved him and wanted the work of the church to continue

that attended to the Apostle Paul's needs, even while he was in a Roman prison.

These are people that are filled with God's grace, that have had a transformative

experience by the grace of God.

We know that some served here in this list as examples of the transformative

power of Jesus Christ, that their lives were so completely transformed that

who they used to be was not even close to who they were now,

having experienced the grace of God unleashed in their lives.

We know that some nurtured Paul and.

As Paul traveled, just like a family member, he said in here that there was

one lady who was like a mom to him, and she'd been like a mom to many.

When we think about these grace-filled people, we can't help but understand

the secret to the success of the Apostle Paul.

Yes, of course, it was Jesus Christ.

Yes, of course, it was the power of the Holy Spirit of God working in him and through him.

But also, Paul's ministry flourished in every local community of faith that

he had contact with because in every place Paul trained and Paul left lay leaders

in charge when he would then go away to plant a new church.

And God would call those men and women to dedicate their lives to him.

He would call them into ministry, not just the mission's work,

but even in the local church right there to be about the mission.

Of God, to be about the mission of Jesus. When Jesus came to seek and save that

which is lost, that's what they continue to be about.

That's the secret of any church's success, is when we get past ourself,

our own wants, our own desires, and we submit ourselves to God and say, God, here I am.

I might not be too much, but if you want to use me, then have at it.

God, if you want to change me and make me useful, then here I am.

Use me, God, take me. Because it's in that using, and I know that's got a negative

connotation, right, in today's culture.

We don't like to be used, but when God has purposed for our life,

given us a purpose and a mission, we know that in that we are fulfilled.

We're not used up, but we are built up.

We're not thrown aside once God's done using us.

We are built up, we're edified so that we can then pour our life into other

people who will then understand the mission of God and be about the mission

of God to seek and save that which is lost,

to understand the perseverance that God has for all to be saved,

the purpose that God has for all to be saved, for all to come to repentance.

When we think about what God wants for us, Paul did not miss a beat with people.

As a matter of fact, what Paul did was exemplify that he welcomed everyone who

showed an interest in God's kingdom.

Whether that was a traitorous Roman, whether that was someone who would definitely

not be considered one of the faith or one of the faithful,

perhaps even pagan in their practices, in their ideology, in their philosophy.

Paul did not care. If anyone showed an interest in the kingdom of God, he welcomed them.

And I got to tell you, folks, every community of faith, we must provide a welcoming

and nurturing environment to everyone who visits. But here's the key in that.

Here's the key. We expect that when people have an encounter with Jesus Christ,

that there'll be a transformation that takes place.

So you may have come in the door with some expectations of you're being welcomed.

And we say, you are welcome.

Everybody's welcome. But you got to know that God will do a work in you,

that God will do a transformative work in you, and that how you entered might

not be the way that you leave when God calls you out.

There's going to be a change that happens. Hey, we affirm this,

that you are a creation of God.

We affirm this, that God loves you, that God has a plan for you,

that God has a purpose for you.

But that plan, that purpose, the transformation that's going to take place in

your life, just hang on because you never know what that's going to be.

But you do know that God will never leave you nor forsake you.

He'll be right with you every step of the way as you lay down your old self

and as you lean fully into who God wants you to be, to who God created you to be.

God transforms you that way. And it's powerful. That's what happened to all

these people that Paul has given greetings to.

They are encountered by the grace of God, the transformative power of the grace

of God, their lives are changed.

They become people who they perhaps never thought they would be.

And that had to happen, first of all, with the welcome.

Come on in. Have a seat. I have a friend who passed away this last year.

His name was Tim. Tim was an older fella. I think he died, was he, 92 or 93, 94?

When I first came to the Nazarene church, my family and I, he would always ask

this question and it's one I might steal because it was very effective.

He would always ask, has anyone told you that they loved you today?

Whether he was out in a restaurant, whether he was just filling up his gas tank,

he would ask this to every person.

And it would take people aback and say, well, no.

Well, let me be the first to tell you that I love you and there's a God that loves you.

God had transformed Tim's life and had given this calling to be a man of hospitality,

to be a man that's welcoming, to make sure everyone knew that there was a God that loved them.

He was a man full of grace who was not afraid to welcome everyone.

No matter who they were, whether it was the farm worker coming down to the Chevron

to get a cool drink to then go out and continue his day, or whether it was the

businessman that just stopped to fill up his Porsche with gasoline,

it didn't matter who the person was.

He was welcoming to everyone, even those who other Christians might have stayed away from.

He wasn't afraid to show God's love and to tell others that God love them.

You see, we need to understand that concept that the Holy Spirit of God draws

those who need Christ through what we call in the Church of Nazarene in our

theology, prevenient grace.

Now, not convenient grace.

Convenient grace is that kind of grace that you say, I'm just going to rely

on God's grace when I need his forgiveness.

I know I'm going to sin, so I'll just ask God to forgive me later.

Well, convenient grace isn't really grace at all. It's something we call presumptuous sin.

So don't go there. Don't be a person of convenient grace, only to tap into God's

forgiveness when you need it.

But prevenient grace is God's grace that goes before.

God's grace that draws other people to him. What did Jesus say?

If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself, all people unto me.

It's that drawing, that grace that draws others to come to the point to where

they recognize their need for a savior, to where they recognize they need something

greater than just who they are, what they're experiencing right now.

We'll talk more in the upcoming sermons about this prevenient grace,

but I think it would be suffice it to say, God draws those who need Jesus and

pairs them with people who know Jesus, who can share that grace with them.

Have you ever heard the term divine appointment?

It's that kind of thing, where perhaps throughout your week,

all of a sudden you run into someone and you've never met them before,

but they've got questions about God.

They've got questions about the church. They've got questions about life and how God fits into that.

Or they have questions about Jesus and what salvation means.

It's those divine appointments, those appointments that aren't in your date book.

They're not on your Google calendar. They're nowhere. It just happens that God,

through his pervenient grace, puts you two together.

And he just wants you to be faithful in sharing his love with them.

The grace that you experienced, he wants you to share that with them.

You see, that's a welcoming spirit. That's the spirit of hospitality.

They show an interest in God's kingdom, turn them away. Don't turn them away.

Turn to them, I should say, and say, what do you want to know?

How can I help you to know more about this God that I love?

It might start with just that simple question. Has anyone told you they love you today?

If not, let me be the first. Open that door.

Christ's disciples, all of us who want to follow Jesus, we must accept responsibility,

for nurturing individuals into the faith, helping them grow in that grace until

they become mature believers.

I mean, we just don't reach the point of maturity and then we say,

well, I'm mature now, so I'm going to look for someone to help.

It doesn't work like that because we're always growing. We're always understanding more.

And as I thought I had a lot figured out being a pastor, right?

And then my kids graduated high school.

And then I'm like, oh, this is new. I need God's grace even now.

And one of my kids gets married.

I'm like, oh, this is new.

Lord, I need to understand and to learn some more things here.

And I'm sure those of you who have grandchildren can testify that it's a continually ongoing thing.

Those with grandchildren and great-grandchildren and those who've been blessed

with great-great-grandchildren or great-great-great-great and continue on.

I mean, there's a growth in grace that continually happens.

And where do we need to be? Well, we need people around us that have been through

the same experiences so that we can then reach out to others who are going through those experiences.

It's not just the concept of mentoring, but even deeper than that,

going into living life and being real with people.

So I just want you to know this morning as I wrap this up, the Great Commission

wasn't only for those who were called to full-time Christian service.

If that was the case, and if Jesus' command here to these disciples in Matthew

28, 18 through 20, was only to those who would gather there,

then the church would have dined out a long time ago, don't you think?

But it was for more than just the 12 or the 120 people.

It was for every believer who would accept the grace of God expressed through Jesus Christ.

It's for you and for me to obey these commands, to be about the mission of God.

It's for all of us here, those of you who wish to follow Jesus.

You're like, well, dude, I'm not a pastor. I don't even want to get close to that.

Great, because God needs you right where you're at. God needs you to be you,

the transformed you, who Jesus saved from hell, who Jesus gave his grace to

so that you could grow and experience

what it means to live to be the person that God wants you to be.

God needs you, you, right where you're at. That's not to say God won't ever call you to something,

that God won't call you to go on a short-term missions trip,

that perhaps God even will call you to be a missionary, or that God might call

you into a preaching ministry, a professional ministry vocation.

Hey, you never shut the door on that. Man, look at Moses.

God called him in his 80s, right? Is that my understanding of Scripture?

He was 80 when God called him at the.

He was faithful even at that age to follow the call of God. And man, was that a call.

But I want you to know, no matter what God calls you to, we know he calls us to the Great Commission

to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded

you. That's all of our calling.

We know that in that, Jesus helps us today. Hey, you're not alone. Look around.

You're not alone. But even if you are by yourself, Jesus is right there with you.

In those divine appointments that I spoke about just a few minutes ago, guess what?

Jesus is there because he arranged the appointments.

You're like, I don't know what to say. Well, don't worry.

Jesus is right there with you. The Holy Spirit of God is right there with you.

He will tell you what to say when you don't know what to say.

And I'm going to tell you, sometimes you don't even have to say anything.

Just shut your mouth. and listen, and pray, and God will give you what you need

to say at the time that you need to say.

Jesus helps us in two important ways. He gives us a nurturing faith community

right here in which to serve.

Doesn't matter how old or how young you are, everyone can serve in some way.

Hey, did I mention that we've got Sunday Funday coming up? Man,

there's a great application of this sermon to that day.

You're going to have a chance to invite people, but also just to serve on that day.

We've got the Pinewood Derby coming up. We've got a lot of great things coming

up that you can just say, how can I help?

The greatest spiritual gift there is, isn't the gift of proclamation or preaching or prophecy.

I think the greatest spiritual gift there is, is just the gift of helps,

just being available to help. Can I help you?

Jesus helps us in that way to fulfill that command, but he also gives us his

presence to guide us every step of the way.

Every single step that we take, God's with us. Jesus said, I will be with you

always, even until the very end of the age.

Do you realize that? You know he's with you.

You're not alone. When we start feeling like we're alone. That's the enemy speaking to us.

We need to call up our brothers and sisters. We need to text Pastor Mike.

We need to say, hey, I'm feeling a little bit lonely here.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon as well as other sermons and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.