Someone Believed - Tim Timberlake

Hey, I'm Tim Timberlake, and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Celebration Church podcast.

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Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Last week, Pastor Jan did a phenomenal job.

Walking us through the Acts of the Apostles, continuing in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

She laid the groundwork and did a phenomenal job digging a trench that only God could fill.

Amen.

How many of you received the word that she released last week?

Applied it to your life.

Come on, can we bless God again for the incredible gift?

Hey girl, I love you.

I'm proud of you.

We're proud of you.

How many of you got your swords today?

I believe God has a word for you.

We're going to pick up verse 26.

Let's get to work.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples.

And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

I want to utilize these verses, this passage for the subject matter.

The Holy Spirit has given me for a time together today entitled Someone Believed.

Someone Believed.

Let's pray.

Himly Father, we thank you for your word.

I ask right now in the name of Jesus that you would be like a spiritual surgeon today, cutting away at everything that has become a hindrance between us and you.

Allow us to experience you today in a fresh and a new way.

Speak to us.

Change our minds, change our lives.

Allow us to not just be changed, but allow us to be transformed by the Word of God.

We declare you alone are worthy of all of the honor, all of the praise, and all of the glory.

And it's in your name we pray, the name that is above every other name, the name of Jesus the Christ, our King.

And so we take this opportunity to lift your name up high.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Come on, if you're glad he's alive and well shot, amen.

And take your seat.

In Acts chapter 9, beginning at verse 26, we find ourselves in this incredible chapter following the life of Saul of Tarsus, who has been converted to following Jesus Christ.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And although his life has been changed and he has been redeemed, his reputation still remains the same.

Because oftentimes when you change your life, the people in your life don't know your life has been changed by Jesus Christ.

And it takes some time for them to catch up with what Jesus has already done.

Amen.

And it is our obligation, if you would have one, to not appease people and try to prove how much you've changed, but just continue to walk hand in hand with Jesus and allow your life to bear fruit.

Like as your neighbors say, your life should bear fruit.

We have to understand that just because God has changed you doesn't mean everyone has had time to change their mind about you.

And there's some people that got their minds made up that they just not go like you regardless of the change that is taking place.

And so stop wasting your time trying to get the approval from people who would never like you in the first place.

So if they don't like you, wipe the dirt off your feet and keep moving forward.

Amen.

What we see in this passage is Saul's encounter with Jesus changed his relationship with God, but it didn't eliminate his need to be reconciled to the people he once persecuted.

And oftentimes the very people that God allows us to be around are the same people that maybe saw you in your sin and know you as a different person and knew you way back when.

You got people in your life that knew who you used to be.

Can I get a good amen?

You got family members that still remember the things you used to do.

Every time I go home, I run into somebody that reminds me of who I used to be.

You used to be in them streets, man.

Used to be a wild boy.

I sure was.

I'm not avoiding that, I'm not negating that, but that's not who I am anymore.

Amen.

And so I refuse to talk more about my past than I do about where God is taking me and who I am becoming.

And so God can change a person in a moment while the world may need a lifetime to believe the change that God has started.

Because there's still some things about you that remind people of who you used to be, although you're not that person anymore.

The historical context of this passage is that Saul has experienced a radical encounter with Jesus on the road of Damascus.

The man who once persecuted Christians is now preaching the same Christ he once persecuted, and it takes people a little while to catch up to the transformation that has taken place in Saul's life.

What we see happen in this passage is beautiful.

What we see happen in this passage, according to verse 27, Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So Saul has been transformed by grace.

But the disciples are still processing his history.

And it may take people a little while to get beyond your history and come to grips with what God is doing in your life and your present, and beyond that, what he has a desire to do in your future.

The power of this passage is that God knows who Saul has become, but the disciples only know who Saul used to be, and he has to walk out the rest of his life in complete obedience and surrender to God so that the people he once persecuted will now be pushed into the presence of Jesus because of his obedience and his yes.

Here's a question for you Are you willing to be patient enough for the people that knew your past until you can usher them into the future God desires for them?

Because there's some people that will have hurdles to get over with who you are now because of the pain you caused them in the past.

How many have ever hurt somebody in your life before?

You don't got your hand raised, you're hurting somebody right now.

All of us have hurt people that we love, all of us have hurt people maybe we don't even know.

And it will take them a little bit longer to see the fruit of your life now after you have decided to follow Jesus to catch up to the grace that He's given you, so you have to extend grace to them.

One of the things that I love about this passage, it teaches us something very profound.

Point number one is this you don't prove you've changed by demanding trust, you prove it by becoming trustworthy.

You can't rush people into trusting the version of you they haven't yet experienced.

Verse 26 says, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

So in this passage, Saul wants fellowship, but the disciples remember the violence he brought to the region.

His conversion was instantaneous, but them rebuilding trust was not.

So one encounter changed Saul's heart, but it didn't erase the memories of those that he had hurt.

So look at this.

God can change your heart in a moment, but people may need time to recognize that change.

And the more you start telling them, I've changed, I'm not the same person, I'm different, I've changed, I'm not the same person, I'm different, the more it's going to take time for them to believe you because when you have really changed, you don't have to tell people about the magnitude of the change that God has done.

All you got to do is continue to walk it out.

Look at your neighbor, tell your neighbor, walk it out.

What are you walking out?

You're walking out the obedience, you're walking out the endurance, you're walking out the loyalty to Jesus, you're walking out the faithfulness.

And when you do those things, there is fruit that follows your life that speaks for you louder than your voice could ever speak for you.

And you're too busy trying to repair your reputation when the fruit you have following you is going to repair every breach of the bridge you have caused.

So grace can give you a new beginning without demanding everyone forget the old version of you.

I don't need people to forget who I used to be, I just need people to recognize that there's fruit that I'm bearing now that sustains me for where I'm headed.

Sometimes the consequences of who you were outlive the desires of who you become.

And when that happens, you have to be mature to understand it will take people a little while to get used to this version of you.

And so maturity is being able to acknowledge someone's pain without making their healing about your impatience.

Let me repeat, maturity is being able to acknowledge someone's pain.

I understand I hurt you in my past.

I understand I was not a good person in my past.

I understand the things that I did, they brought chaos and confusion into your life.

I apologize and I repent for that.

This is what maturity does.

Maturity does not rush the healing process because you are impatient.

What does maturity do?

Maturity says, I am willing to be consistent, faithful, and loyal until you see the fruit of my life because of the decision I have made to follow Jesus and not the decisions I used to make when I did not know him.

And so, although salvation happened in a moment, healing may take a process.

As long as you have air in your lungs, you're still in process of becoming who God intended for you to become.

That is the tension of the text.

Being misunderstood does not give you permission to become the person you used to be.

How easy is it for us to become who we used to be when someone treats us differently than how we expected?

How easy is it for us to become who we used to be when things don't go as planned?

How easy is it for us to become who we used to be when someone disrespects us, when someone calls us out of our name?

You know, the only time you break character when someone calls you out of your name is when you actually believe the name they call you.

That's why I don't get all caught up in all of the social media drama when people call me out of my name.

I know my name, I know who I am.

They are looking at an opinion of me based upon their perspective.

They don't know me, they don't know you.

So don't trip when people call you out your name.

When somebody calls you out of your name and you get angry and frustrated about it, it's because they are touching on an area in your life that you have not allowed God to heal you.

When God has completely healed you, they can call you whatever they want to call you.

You know what God called you.

He calls you a son and a daughter, he calls you the head and not the tail, he calls you above and not beneath, he calls you the lender and not the bar.

It don't matter what they call you, you know what God calls you.

He says you will live and not die, you will have more than enough.

He calls you these things because you belong to him.

So you get confused when you don't know who sent you.

When you live for the approval of men and women, you you you start to base your identity off of what they call you instead of what God called you.

So he wasn't tripping because the disciples did not acknowledge or see the transformation that had taken place.

Have you ever noticed this about Jesus?

The transformation that takes place often happens in private, but he still calls you to serve in public.

Not having gone to the people that he's called you to serve first to tell them, no, no, he actually changed.

Why does God do that?

Because God loves partnering with you.

He loves to see if you're gonna be consistent with what you told him you would be consistent in.

He wants to see because he's a promise keeper, will you be a promise keeper as well and do the things that you promised that you would do?

And it takes time for people to catch up to the transformation of what Jesus has started on the inside of you.

Point number two is this, according to the text.

Saul understood he had received grace, and so he had to extend it.

The grace you celebrate in your own life should be the grace you're willing to recognize in someone else's.

How many of you have received grace before?

You're a recipient of grace.

So if you are a recipient of grace, then you should recognize the grace someone else needs in their own life.

The right people don't have to deny where you've been to believe and where God is taking you.

Look at what the text says.

Verse 26, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas, two words that changed the narrative of Saul's life.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.

These two words transformed the direction of this story.

Everybody else was afraid.

Barnabas stepped forward, put his reputation on the line, laid his reputation down, and said, I'm willing to vouch for the transformation of Saul because I've seen him preach in the name of Jesus in the temple.

I've seen his life, I see his fruit, and I'm willing to vouch for the transformation that has happened in private so that he could serve publicly.

Look at what Barnabas did not do.

Barnabas did not pretend Saul had no past.

He testified to what Jesus had done in Saul's life.

He had become the bridge between a transformed man and a traumatized community.

If you're to do inventory on your own life, God has sent a barnabas across your path to vouch for you and no one else would.

I remember every barnabas that has come into my life.

I remember every person that vouched for me when I couldn't vouch for myself.

Believed in me when I didn't have enough hope and faith to believe in me.

I was in the streets would speak life into me and tell me, man, God's got plans for you.

God's have a destiny for you bigger than what you could see.

And I didn't believe them, but they believed in me when I didn't have enough faith to believe.

I remember the barnabuses that opened the door for me and closed the doors that I wasn't smart enough to close and kept me shielded and protected.

I remember the prayers they prayed for me.

I remember the times they went to the police on my behalf and said, no, no, don't arrest them this time.

I I'll I'll look out for him.

I remember those people.

I'll never forget those people.

And you should never forget the people that opened the door for you.

We live in a society and a culture that thinks the rooms that they stand in, they're the ones that opened the doors to position them there.

And the reality is, is you are not that person that opened the door for you.

Someone went ahead of you.

Someone laid down for you so that you could stand on their shoulders.

Someone ran so that you could walk.

Someone pioneered the path so that you wouldn't get scratched up and hit with branches.

Someone went and did the hard work so that you could understand the significance of walking in the footsteps.

You were not wise enough to walk in in the first place.

Don't forget the barnabuses in your life.

What does barnabas teach us in this text?

Barnabas teaches us.

Was it not God that turned your life around and reminded you that you have a life worth living?

Was it not God that woke you up this morning and clothed you in your right mind?

Was it not God that woke you up this morning and said new mercies?

I see that as long as you receive them, they belong to you.

Was it not God that said, My grace is sufficient for you?

Was it not God who said, I'm gonna save you, I'm gonna heal you, I'm gonna redeem you, I'm gonna renew you, I'm gonna transform you.

Was it not God who did that for you?

Don't act like you got all your stuff together.

It is only God that will take your life, mold you, and make you and pull greatness out of you.

Tell your neighbor, you don't look like what you've been through.

God can take anything and pull greatness out of it.

Was it not God who pulled Joseph out of the prison and placed him in the palace?

God is the only one that can pull greatness out of anything.

Was it not God that told Moses, you're no longer a fugitive, you're now a deliverer?

God is the only one that can pull a mess and make greatness.

How many of them was it not God who told David, and when he was being overlooked, I anoint you to be king?

And was it not God that told Job, you have lost so much, I'm going to give you double for your trouble?

Was it not God who told Ruth when she was a widow the lineage of Jesus will flow through your womb?

Was it not God that looked at Esther and said, I'm gonna turn you from an orphan girl to a queen who saves her people and prophesied over you?

You would have been born for such a time.

This was it not God.

Was it not God who looked at Peter when he denied his son three times and said, You will preach the thousands and you will love my church, and I will establish the kingdom of God through your obedience?

Was it not God who looked at Saul of Thomas, called him Paul, and said, You're gonna go from persecuting Christians to now proclaiming Jesus Christ?

Is it not God who looked at Lazarus as a corpse in a tomb?

Called him by name.

Called him out of death into the marvelous light, gave him a testimony, and said you're now a moving, living, moving, walking, breathing testimony for the glory of God.

Was it not God who did that?

Was it not God who sent his son into this mess of a world?

Full of iniquities and sin and sickness and sorrow.

He sent his perfect son into this mess and said, Deliver them.

And our perfect Savior went to the whipping post with you on his mind.

Took 39 lashes with you on his mind.

Hung on that cross, nails in his wrists and in his feet, pierced in his side, crown of thorns on his head, because you were a mess.

John Mary at the foot of the cross thought that their Savior was being killed.

And that it was impossible for the promises to be fulfilled.

God said, I'm not finished yet.

I am that I am.

And as long as I am, you are.

And as long as I am on the throne, there is still an opportunity for me to pull greatness out of you and position you on the path of righteousness.

Not for your name's fabric.

Not for your feminist men's sake.

Not for your friends' mention.

Not for your color's men, not for my name.

Somebody believed in you.

Somebody believed in you.

Somebody, some purpose on the inside of you, and all you can see was problems.

So somebody is prospering on the inside of you and all you can see is pain.

Somebody believed in you.

And if you're like, well, Pastor, I don't have a bonabus in my life.

I don't have nobody that opens the door for me.

I don't have nobody that closed the door for me.

I can't think of one person that's some purpose on the inside of me when I couldn't see it myself.

I want to remind you, greater than bonabus, there's a man and his name is Jesus who laid his life down for you.

And he rose again with you on his mind.

There is a man that's some something on the inside of you that you cannot see it in yourself.

And so, regardless of you knowing it and you feeling like it or not, someone believed in you.

Sit down, I'm just getting started.

This great grace that you have received is the same great grace you have to give.

Be careful, be careful.

Be careful not to imprison someone in a version of themselves that Jesus has already delivered them from.

We are not like the world.

We will not hold someone hostage to the way we met them.

We will see how God is developing the gift on the inside of them.

You may not see it, but sometimes you got to close your eyes to see in the spirit of who God is making someone that you don't even realize God is making.

When you feel a certain kind of way about that person that you don't like, it is possible that Jesus has already met them and is changing and transforming them.

And so, who are you to keep them out of heaven?

You're not powerful enough to keep someone out of heaven, but you can make the decision to position yourself to go to hell.

Be careful how you judge people, be careful how you limit people, be careful the prisons you put around people because of how you met them.

Some people will never see your growth because they're too committed to remembering your failures.

Thank God something in the soul that other people could not.

If you believe that Jesus can change anybody at any time, any place, then you have to learn how to leave a room not to believe it.

What I mean by that.

If you believe that Jesus has the power to change you, but not change your enemy, see, we'll praise God for the grace he's given us through his son Jesus, but we won't thank him for the grace he's extended to our enemy.

Look at what the text says.

The same man that came to persecute Barnabas is now being given permission to sit at the table with Barnabas because Barnabas is extending to him the same grace that Barnabas has received.

Don't become so familiar with someone's past that you become blind to their future.

Some people use your history to keep you out, while others use their influence to help you grow.

You catch that when you get home.

Who are you helping with your influence?

Who are you helping with your resources?

Who are you helping with your relationships?

Are you a king and a queen maker, or do you want to be the king and queen yourself?

Are you a king and a queen maker, or do you want to be the king and the queen yourself?

Who has God placed in your heart to utilize the influence that he gave you so that they can fulfill the purpose that God gave them?

Think about Saul's life if he never would have encountered Barnabas.

If Barnabas never put his life and his influence and his relationships and his resources and everything that God had allowed him to steward on the line so that he could create a place for Saul, it is quite possible we would not know Paul.

So my question to you is who is waiting to be transformed?

Because you have not lended your influence to seeing the transformation.

There are people in your life whose gifts will never be fully recognized unless someone with influence is willing to advocate for them.

Verse 27, Barnabas didn't just believe in Saul privately.

He was willing to associate his own reputation with Saul publicly.

And some of you forget what God delivered you from.

I said some of you forget what God delivered you from.

Some of you forget that you used to be an alcoholic.

And you turn your nose up at people that struggle with alcohol addiction.

Some of you forget that God delivered you from pornography.

Some of you forget that God delivered you from being a drug abuser.

Some of you forget that God delivered you from cutting yourself.

Some of you do you forget that God He removed suicidal ideation out of your mind.

You forget it because you've been in church now for a year.

You've been watching faithfully online for six months, and all of a sudden, you've forgotten what he has delivered you from, and you turn your nose up at people who are wrestling with the same thing you wrestled with six months ago.

No, no, be a barnabas in someone else's life.

See more in them than they can see in themselves and open a door for them and provide room for them for them to grow.

Because God did that for you.

Point number three is this.

Sometimes the miracle isn't that God changed you, it's that he changed what you wanted.

Saul in the first one of Acts chapter 9 came to this place with murderous intentions.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And in verse 26, now desires community in the same place that he once desired to pillage.

His wants changed.

So the miracle isn't that God just changed him, it's that he also changed what he wanted.

The greatest evidence of freedom isn't that you can say no to sin, it's that you no longer want to say yes to it.

You may be saying no to it, but you still want to say yes to it.

There's some things in my life that I want to say yes to that I know I can't say yes to.

Y'all not talking to me.

It's okay, I'll talk to myself.

Y'all perfect.

I understand.

I'm talking to a perfect group of people.

Yeah, yeah, there's some things I know I have to say no to, but there's a part of me that wants to say yes to it.

There's a part of me that have been living with that yes and that sin for so long that the enemy has made me believe you can continue to do that little yes, and it won't hinder or hurt the gift and the anointing on your life.

Well, I know that it will.

So every single day I wake up, I have to tell that portion of me, no, no, you will not do that, you will not do that, you will not say that, you will not think that, you will not go in that direction, no, until that number becomes I no longer want to say yes, I don't want to talk to anybody, I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna say no, I'm gonna say no until I'm no longer what to say yes.

I'm just saying no anymore because I have to.

I'm saying no because I want to.

So some of y'all still want to sin, but you're saying no.

And it's not until you no longer have a taste for sin in your mouth that you understand how much you've grown and how much you've matured, and how much God actually has his hand on your life, and when you love him, more than you love sin, then you know the purpose of your life is greater than the sin you've been living in.

And sometimes the greatest miracle isn't what God removed from your life, but what he removed from your appetite.

So every single morning I wake up, I ask God, remove the taste of sin out of my mouth and replace it with things that give me an appetite for your grace, for your glory, for the things you desire for me to have an appetite for.

God make me so desperate for you, make me so hungry for you, make me so thirsty for you, that it removes the appetite of sin from my life.

And if you got a pass or a pass, that's some mornings you wake up and you want to revert back to who you used to be, and then you remind yourself I'm not that man anymore, I'm not that woman anymore, that person is dead because God is alive on the inside of me, and you gotta remind yourself great up is he that is in me, then he that is in.

I ain't talking about everybody, I ain't talking to everybody, but I'm talking to somebody, somebody that believes.

Grace doesn't just forgive what you did, it transforms what you desire.

I don't crave the same things I used to crave.

My taste has changed.

My taste has changed.

Let somebody get a little piece of money, they taste change.

They don't frequent it the same places they used to frequent.

They got a little bit more than a Burger King budget.

So they start having roof crisp conversations.

What happens?

Their taste changes.

Their taste changes because provision has changed.

When you know who provides for you, your taste changes.

You no longer have conversations that are not a reflection of your father.

You have conversations that now represent who you are in the kingdom of God as an ambassador, and you don't just say things on your behalf, you say things on his behalf because he's the one that sent you in the first place.

Grace doesn't just forgive what you did, grace also transforms what you desire.

And there's a beautiful kind of freedom that comes when the things you once chased no longer have to chase you.

This is the part of this text that preaches to me.

Because we know who Saul used to be.

And Saul could have spent the majority of his life defending his reputation.

He did not.

He asked God to change his appetite.

Same man, same people, completely different desire.

And that is what sanctification looks like.

Salvation happens in a moment.

Sanctification takes place over a lifetime.

Stop running around telling people how much you've changed and just show them with your life how much you've changed.

Before Jesus, Saul wanted power over them.

After Jesus, Saul wanted fellowship with them.

Before Jesus, he wanted to separate them from their families.

After Jesus, he wanted to become a part of their spiritual family.

You know, grace is working in your life when the things you once wanted to destroy become the things you now desire to protect.

When Jesus becomes the center of your identity, rejection no longer gets the final word over your assignment.

Rejection no longer gets the final word over what you do and how you do it and where you go and when you go there.

No, no, rejection is an indication that the season you are coming out of was too small to hold you, and God is ushering you into a new season with people who believe in you when you don't even know why.

Rejection is the announcement that a season is changing in your life.

The greatest evidence of transformation is consistency when acceptance isn't guaranteed.

Verse 28.

So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Notice what Saul does after being rejected.

He goes in and out, preaching the name of Jesus boldly.

And then he's received.

He doesn't make acceptance his ultimate destination.

He continues to preach Jesus.

The same name he preached in Damascus is the same name he preaches in Jerusalem.

His environment changes, his message doesn't.

Which should give us some valuable applications to hold on to.

One of them should be you cannot spend your entire life trying to convince people of what only time can reveal.

Fruit does not flourish overnight.

Fruit takes a season.

But if you rush the process, you will present premature fruit.

And that fruit will never be ripe.

And when you try to force it on people, it will be bitter, it won't be accepted, and it will be rejected.

Fruit takes a season to develop.

So don't become so distracted to fit in your past that you stop walking into your future.

Your responsibility, say my responsibility, is to live changed.

Not make everybody believe I've changed.

That's your responsibility.

Yeah.

Just live changed.

Live transformed, live renewed, live redeemed, live revived.

Not proving that you are those things to people.

Just live out what God has done, and eventually either they will see it or they will not.

If they don't see it, it's an indication to you that God has not called you to those people.

It is as simple as that.

And when those people refuse that, the people who refuse to recognize your growth don't have the authority to cancel it.

Does not matter what people think about you when God has called you.

People cannot cancel who God has called.

Are you listening to me?

People don't have the power to disapprove what God has proved.

And so continue to walk in what Jesus has already established in and through your life through the grace that He has given you.

There are three observations worth noticing in this passage.

The first is the disciples' hesitation.

It wasn't necessarily a lack of faith, it was a response to history.

And so grace doesn't require people to abandon wisdom or discernment.

Grace just means you have to be consistent.

Everyone say that word, consistent.

Consistent.

Be honest with yourself.

How many of you need to be more consistent?

Okay?

So listen to me, one of the enemy's greatest weapons in your life isn't to get you to stop, it's just to keep you inconsistent.

Just to keep you inconsistent.

You pick up a rhythm, then you break it.

You pick up a habit, then you break it.

You start following Jesus, and then life gets in the way, and you break intimacy.

So the enemy doesn't have to get you to stop if he can just get you to be inconsistent.

For the rest of your life, look at me.

Be spiritually consistent.

Let nothing stop your consistency.

Are you listening to me?

Some of you can't be consistent right now.

Because the Jag's playing in London.

And your priorities are out of place.

And so you have demands from God, but inconsistency in your spiritual walk.

How does that work?

It doesn't.

The second observation I want you to take a picture of is Barnabas is a picture of what the church should become.

The church must be a place where repentance is taken seriously, and the past is forgotten like Jesus forgets our past.

He cast it as far as the east as from The West.

And when that happens, genuine transformation is given room to flourish.

The third observation is Saul needed community even though he had personally encountered Jesus.

Don't forsake the fellowship of your community.

I said, Don't forsake the fellowship of your community.

It is in your biblical community that you get the strength to hold your hands up when you don't have the strength in your own right and your own power.

Look at what happens.

He had seen the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus.

He had received the divine calling, yet he still sought fellowship with the disciples.

A supernatural encounter with Jesus does not eliminate your need for ordinary relationships with people.

Some of y'all are so spiritual.

You can't hold a conversation with somebody.

God gave you a language.

Ain't it crazy how you want to pray in conversation more for people than you do in your own private time of God?

What I've come to learn, before you clasp, because you may find yourself in this predicament, what I've come to learn.

What I've come to learn is people love to talk about God to other people but refuse to listen to him.

Love to talk about Jesus, but don't listen to him.

Don't know him.

One of the greatest ways to tell if he has really transformed your life is you don't just talk about him, you talk to him.

And more than that, you allow him to talk to you.

You allow him to tell you what it is he desires and designed for you to do so that you can accomplish more in his power than you could in your own.

This is where we're land the plane.

There are people who only know by what you did.

Those people that refuse to see who you're becoming, those are not your people.

It's okay to acknowledge they exist because they do, and they serve a purpose.

Every person that does not want to acknowledge the transformation of what Jesus has done in your life is an indication to you that God has someone else to draw out of you the purpose and the plan He's placed on the inside of you.

So don't spend your wills wasting time on people who refuse to acknowledge it.

You spend too much time looking for the approval of people who will never give it to you.

Look for the people that make room for you.

Acts chapter 9, verse 26.

Acts 9:26

The scripture says they were afraid of him, but that's not how the story ends.

It also says they didn't believe him, but that's not how the story ends.

Verse 27 says, Barnabas took him, but that's not even how the story ends.

Verse 28 says he was walking among them, and here's the declaration that Saul's life should teach us.

Don't place a period where God is still writing the sentence.

Hear me.

They may know the first chapter of your life, they may remember your worst chapter.

They may have heard about the darkest chapter, but that's not how the story ends.

They may remember your past, but they don't know your beginning.

God said, I knew you before I placed you in your mother's womb.

That word new is the same word we utilize in the Old Testament when Adam said, I knew Eve, that's an intimate new.

God intimately knew you before he placed you in your mother's womb so that they know your past, but they don't know your origin.

They don't know the plans God has for you.

They don't know the purpose, they don't know the promises, they don't know the things that He sets before you.

Let them talk about you.

They don't know your bonus and they show up to God.

You remind yourself when you experience rejection, this is not how the story ends.

It is not how the story ends.

It is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna be the pain right now, but this is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna be going through chemo dynapy right now, but this is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna have radiation, but this is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna have the balance of the but this is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna be walking through the voice right now, but this is not how the story ends.

I'm gonna be separated from my children right now, but this is not how the story ends.

Isn't anybody that has their mind made about this is not how my story ended.

Oh no, God has more for you than what you currently see.

This is not how the story ended.

This is not how it ends.

Body may be in pain right now, but this is not how the story ends.

I just came to remind somebody today, as Barnabis reminded Saul, there's still room for you.

There's still room for you.

I know you're past, but there's still room for you.

I know you're still stuck in some things, but there's still room for you.

I know you're trying to figure things out, but there's still room for you.

I know you're confused about this and confused about that, but there's still room for you.

Aren't you glad that Jesus saw fit to make room for you when there was no room?

He says, I'll make a way out of no way in every cricket road, I'll make straight.

He's the same God that will level a mountain for you.

He's the same God that will raise a valley for you.

Aren't you glad that he declares there's still room for you?

I love this text because Saul didn't have to pretend he had never done anything wrong.

He didn't have to erase this history, he didn't have to manufacture testimony.

Barnabas simply told them what Jesus had already done.

And that's the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your past may explain where you've been, but it doesn't have the authority to determine where you belong because there is still room for you.

And I may not be talking to everybody in this room, and I may not be talking to everybody watching right now online, but I'm talking to those that understand the significance of the sin of your past, and you don't feel worthy to stand in the grace and the mercy that Jesus has provided for you.

And I just came to remind you there is still room for you.

But Pastor, you don't know the things I've done in my past, and I'm telling you, there's still room for you.

Pastor, you don't know how great of a sin I have committed, and I would tell you, you don't know how great Grace works on your behalf.

There's still room for you.

As long as you have breath and these lungs, there is still room for you.

How do I know?

Because there was room for me, and I know how great my sin was, and I know how meaningless my life was before Jesus, and I know the rat race I was trapped in, but he he stepped into my situation and my circumstance out of eternity and into time, and he reminded me that there is still room for you.

Just as there is room for me, there is room for you.

I don't care what your sin may be today, there is room for you.

I don't care what your pain is today, there's still room for you.

I don't care what hurdle you feel, you're not strong enough to overcome, there's still room for you.

I don't care how great of a mountain is in front of you, there's still room for you, there is still room for you, there is still room for you, there is still room for you, there is room for you.

Saul of Tarsus was a murderer of the very people he would find himself belonging to, and Jesus reminded him that there is even room for you.

David looking over the balcony of his house, sees another man's wife, kills her husband to sleep with her, and yet still God says, There's still room for you.

Peter denying Jesus three times, Jesus looking at him and says, Do you love me?

Do you love me?

Do you love me?

As a declaration, there is still room for you.

There's room for you.

If you need the grace that only Jesus can provide, wherever you are right now in this auditorium, wherever you are right now online, this is a great opportunity for you to get on your knees and thank Jesus for his grace.

Someone believed in you.

Someone believed in you.

His name is Jesus.

He believed in you.

He laid his life down in you.

He had every reason not to, and he still did it because he made room for you.

There's room at the Lord's table.

There's room.

There's room.

Oh God.

Thank you for your grace and your mercy.

Your love and your kindness shown towards us.

Today we ring out our hearts of sin, envy, jealousy, gossip, slander, lust, pride, ego, ambition.

Fill in the blank with whatever it is that you've been consuming and filling your heart with.

Right now, we ring out our hearts before you, Lord.

We ask that you would take these hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh.

We be sons and daughters after your heart.

And we know that you are God.

We know that you are God all by yourself.

You are the only one powerful enough to save.

The only God that speaks.

And so right now I ask that you would speak to your sons and your daughters.

And allow them to know that you are with them.

And you are for them.

And if you be for them, nothing and no one can stand against it.

If you need to repent right now, repent.

Ask Him to forgive you.

If you don't know how to repent, repeat this after me, Lord Jesus.

Come into my heart.

Forgive me for my sins.

I turn away.

And I thank you for your grace.

I thank you for your mercy.

I thank you for your love.

And God, I confess with my mouth that you and you alone are my God.

I believe within my heart of hearts that you have saved me, changed me, transformed me, renewed and revived me.

And now I no longer just exist.

Now I live.

It is in your name that I pray.

It is in your name that I give all the praise.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.