This morning we continue our series entitled, “Refined Focus”, with an emphasis on “Focusing on God’s Finished Work”. A couple of weeks ago I gave you five scriptures that we were going to walk through. We have walked through three thus far. The fourth focuses on the call of the Apostle Paul. This is what the Apostle Paul said about his call: “But 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.” (Gal 1:15,16 NLT).
The Apostle Paul went on four missionary journeys, he became a Pastor or Pastors, he wrote half the New Testament and he was (besides Jesus) the most influential person in the first century church. But if you asked him, this is not the story of his life he would have written. See, Paul grew up as Saul of Tarsus. He was being groomed to be part of the Jewish religious elite. He studied under Israel’s greatest teacher of the Law, Gamaliel. He was mentored by Pharisees of the Pharisees. He was too young to participate in the stoning of Stephen, the Christian church’s first martyr. So he held the coats of the men who were there, as they stoned Stephen to death. When he was of age he led the persecution of Christians with all the zeal he could muster. He had Christians imprisoned, stoned, burned at the stake, and eaten alive by wild animals in coliseums. All the while, Saul of Tarsus thought he was doing this for God. This is the crazy stuff that happens in the name of religion, when people don’t have a true relationship with Jesus. But through it all, through all the mistakes, all the wrong turns, all the bad deeds, Paul later acknowledged the fact that God had called him before he was born, by His marvelous grace.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God made plans for you before the world began.
a) While Paul was being groomed to scale the ladder of the Jewish religious elite, God’s plans for his life were already set. Nothing the Apostle Paul did while he was living as Saul of Tarsus could change God’s plans.
b) Before Paul had one Christian killed, before he held the coats of the men who killed Stephen, before he went on one incarceration campaign, God had already called him to preach the Gospel he was fighting against.
c) God’s plan for your life is fixed and established. Nothing you do will cause God to change His mind about His plans for you. The key is understanding that you never experience God’s best until you die to self and rest in God’s finished work.
2. God calls you by His grace and not your works.
a) Paul did nothing to earn or deserve his call. If anything, he worked against it. But God called him anyway.
b) God does not call you because of your works. God calls you to His purpose, by His grace (see 2 Tim 1:9).
c) God’s call on your life is finished. It will not change. You cannot disqualify yourself, because you never qualified in the first place. All you can do is accept, believe, embrace, and walk in God’s call, because it is His finished work. When you do, you will experience the life you were born to live and it will be amazing.
d) There is supernatural life waiting for you on the other side of your personal cross. The day you die to self is the day you will begin living it.
Closing Confession: Father, this is a season of refined focus for me. I bring my life into focus in 2016. You called me before I was born. You established my purpose before the world began. You did not do this by my works. You clearly called me TO Your purpose BY Your grace. I accept the call. I die to self. I die to the person I became on my own. I release guilt, shame and condemnation. I release my past. I embrace my call. I embrace it by grace. I will accomplish what I was born to accomplish. Not by my works, but only because of Your marvelous grace. Not because I am so good, but because You are; because I choose to rest in Your Finished Work! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
