Gospel Conversion

Well, good morning to you all. What a, what a great and special day of rejoicing in God's amazing goodness, to us as, as a church, just overwhelming, the, the goodness of God toward us., I'm trying to figure out what order to do this, and, we're happy to have, the honorable mayor of Riverside, Rusty Bailey, here in our service this morning. And, I'm, I'm not seeing him. OK.

and also, at least, one member. Of the Riverside City Council, Steve Adams is here with his wife, Mary Ann. Thank you. And I don't know if Mike Subaru from the city council is also here, but, it's possible that he and his wife Linda are here also.

But we're very blessed to have, Rusty Bailey, here. this morning, together with his wife, Judy, but he has a proclamation I found out last night that he would like to share with us. So let's, give our brother a warm welcome. Well, praise God first and foremost, right?

To him be the glory for this and for this. And for that, I, as the scripture says, we are blessed to be a blessing to others, and that's ultimately what you are today to our city, and so I wanted to make sure and commemorate that with just a, a, a very, certificate really, not a proclamation, but, a certificate of appreciation for Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church. as was mentioned, my, my wife Judy and Elizabeth and Julia are here. And I think for me it's so important, as a believer and, and, and, to, to show them the body of believers across the city.

Amen. That we are united under Jesus, OK? Through, through that cross and what he did on that cross for us. And so that's what he gave me to share with you in, in, in my heart in one, in one scripture verse, as a part of that, and I'm sure that you've talked about this, and, and, and I'm just so, what's the word?

It's that I'm losing. I, I, I'm so, grateful and thankful that you all went through this process, deliberate process of, if I can see it, prayer, right? And, listening to God and being obedient to him in his time and being patient for this time to come, to open this, this space for the city. And when I, when I, when I looked at Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church on the certificate, Ephesians 2:20 came to me.

And I'll read before that. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with who? Christ Jesus himself as the chief.

Amen. So God bless you all. God bless Cornerstone, and God bless Riverside. Thank you.

God bless you, brother. Yeah, thank you. I would call that a proclamation. Just my opinion.

Thank you so much and may God help us to live up to, to that and to serve the people of this community well. the Church of Jesus Christ, throughout its history. has been so blessed by people who have opened up their homes for congregations to, to meet. In fact, the birthday of the church 2000 years ago happened in the guest room of somebody's house in the city of Jerusalem.

Cornerstone's birthday was almost exactly 33 years ago on August 2, 1991. August 2, 1991, Cornerstone held its first Sunday morning service and it was held in the home of Ed and Leah Lindsay, two members of our church who are actually with us today. This is a picture of that first gathering, in the home of Ed and Leah Lindsay. In fact, Ed and Leah, where are you?

I saw you earlier. Could you stand? This is the first couple to host Cornerstone. Thank you for your hospitality to Cornerstone on that day and all the countless ways that you both, Ed and Leah have served and enriched this church body.

Keep in mind that back in Bible times 2000 years ago, things were different than they are today. The home was actually a place of business and production and enterprise. In fact, our English word economics, literally is oikonomics, oikonomics. the Greek word oikos is the word for house.

The home was the center of economics back in that day. It was not just a place where people went when there was nothing else to do like it is in a lot of ways today. So these early Christians and opening up their homes were not just opening up the place where they lived, but they were opening up their place of business to provide a place for believers. And congregations to meet.

That's exactly what Gordon has, has done for us in this place, knowing that over the last several years we've been praying about the direction that the Lord would have us to go. We were outgrowing the facility where we were down the street, from here, Gordon came to us and said, hey, I have some square footage. In this, place, could you come and take a look at it and we can explore together whether this might work out for Cornerstone. And so we began about three years ago to take a look at this place.

It looked very different than it does today. And little by little our imaginations and our faith grew and we were able to see this place. As the future home for Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church. Standing here today, I know that we would not be here in this amazing moment in the life of our church if Gordon had not reached out to us and offered to share this space with us.

We would have never reached this point if Gordon and his team. We're not willing to spend countless hours meeting with us, collaborating with us, dreaming with us, trying to decide if this would be a good fit for Cornerstone, and then how to divide up the cost and to get the work that needed to be done. There were roadblocks and discouragements along the way and as the mayor said, this did require patience on. The part of the leadership and the congregation of Cornerstone, but we're very grateful this morning for the persistence and the patience of Gordon and his team and their effort to show hospitality to us and to host us in this place.

In Romans 16, the apostle Paul refers to the church at Rome as the church that meets in the house of Aquila and Priscilla. So Paul, we're here today, he would refer to Cornerstone as the church that meets in the house of Bourns. And given that it only seemed fitting to have Gordon come this morning and to play the role of a good host and to pray a blessing over us as a church. So Gordon, why don't you come and let's give our brother a warm thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Mark. I love you, brother. It is a, a joy and honor to be able to say a prayer of, of blessing this morning. In fact, as we've gone through this, process of creating this wonderful new home for Cornerstone, we've already had some use for this facility.

About 3 months ago, Pastor Milton presided over a celebration of life for my father. just a couple of weeks ago, we had an anniversary of one of our employees, a 50th anniversary, lunch in one of the rooms back here. Coming up on October 14th and 15th, we're gonna have in the same room, 4500 students and the next day, 250 teachers for our STEP conference, the Science, Technology Education Partnership. And this facility has been purposed for accommodating S STEP and, Other such educational programs, in the coming years.

We're now the permanent home for the STEP conference. And it, it is really a, a joy. So let me, let me pray. Please join me.

Heavenly Father, you are the creator of the universe and everything in it. You've called us to be members of the body of your Christ, of your church with Jesus Christ as its head. And Lord, you have appointed this building to house a portion of your church. Now, Lord, we come together to marvel at what you have done for Cornerstone.

We celebrate your provision of this new home, remembering that the journey has not been without work. Our pastors were careful stewards of our resources. You enabled us to work well with Riverside's building and fire departments, from architects to artists, from facilities manager to designers. And a host of volunteers, you caused all things to be done with excellence.

Father, I pray that you help us remember that the mission of this new home has now begun. Father, empower us to reach out to our community and to the world to help people journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray for your blessing on Pastor Milton and his message from the word. Just as you have opened this facility to our church, I pray you now open our hearts to your truth, that we may know you better and serve you more faithfully.

We pray this in the name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother.

Appreciate you. So perfect and such a beautiful prayer. May God grant everything that you have asked for, Gordon, and may God bless you a thousandfold, for your kindness to us and your hospitality to us. For a time in God's word today, We're going to be looking at a handful of passages of, of scripture talking about a theme called gospel conversion.

over the coming weeks, we'll be focusing on. On themes that I'll be explaining to you in just a moment. And today, our orientation will be on the topic of conversion to Jesus, Christ. Our stated purpose as a church is to help people in their journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As a church, we're here in this community to help people to understand. Their brokenness. Most people intuitively know that they're broken, but they don't have the vocabulary for that. They don't have a way of understanding that brokenness between them and God and between them and others and within themselves.

And what we want to do here is use this book, God's Timeless Truth, his timeless word to help people to understand their brokenness. And to give them the good news of the gospel so that they can begin to flourish in their relationship with God, with others, and within themselves. At the very core of Christianity. is not a set of rules to live by.

It's not a list of commandments or advice that we are supposed to follow. At the center of our faith is a staggering announcement of amazing good news that God has sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to live the life that we have failed to live. To die the death that we deserve to die, God raised him from the dead on the 3rd day and ascended him to his own right hand in heaven, and from that position of absolute lordship where Jesus can do whatever he pleases, Amazingly, Jesus is giving out righteousness and forgiveness.

And freedom and love and relationship to everyone who sees their bankruptcy and looks to Jesus and says, You, Jesus, are the savior for me.

This is the good news of the gospel, and it should make a huge impact in our lives and our outlook every day. It should affect every relationship. In our lives, every arena of our lives, this good news of the gospel. Several years ago.

Probably about a decade ago, I received some good news that I was getting a $1900 tax return on my taxes and I had gone into that tax season thinking that I was probably going to owe some taxes, but I found out that not only did I not owe any taxes, but I was getting $1900 back in taxes. I can't begin to tell you how much that news made my day. I was in a good mood for the rest of the day after that. I was a cheerful husband to my wife that day.

I was patient and easygoing with my children. I was less anxious about the future. I was an even more patient driver on the road. My heart literally was filled with a spirit of goodwill toward all other drivers on.

The road. I remember that day, that afternoon sitting at a four-way stop at an intersection in Moreno Valley, and it was clearly my turn to go. I had waited for my turn, it was my turn to go, but someone crossing my path was in a hurry and they decided to go in front of me. And normally, I might be a little bothered by that, but not on this day.

I just waved them on and said, you go, it's all good. It's all good. Because I'm getting $1900 back on my taxes. That good news that I received that morning changed me for that whole day and almost every area of my life.

the next morning I was back to my normal grumpy self, but, but at least for a day, it impacted me. That's the power of good news. There's an interesting verse in the Bible. It's Proverbs 15:30 where Solomon makes this statement.

he says, good news puts fat on the bones. Hearing that might make you, not so interested in hearing good news. Or maybe you're thinking, I think I've been listening to too much good news. But fat on the bones was not a bad thing to Solomon.

It was a good thing to Solomon. The bones represent the core of our physical constitution, what gives structure to our body. It was viewed as the marrow of the bones was viewed as the source of life and physical vitality. Solomon is saying that receiving good news.

Can affect you in the deepest parts of your being, even your physical being and put fullness there, bringing fullness to your life. We'll take that statement that Solomon makes and multiply it by a million, and that's the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Cornerstone is here to be a bringer of this amazing good news about Jesus. We're here to tell the people of this community that Jesus is Lord and he's a merciful Lord, and with his lordship, he's giving out salvation and forgiveness to everybody who looks to him and believes in Him as their Lord and Savior.

We're here as a church to unpack what all of that means and in the process, hopefully put a whole lot of fat on your bones. In Romans chapter 1, verse 16, the apostle Paul says this about the good news of the gospel of Christ. He says the gospel is the power of God literally into salvation to everyone who believes. Notice what he calls it.

The gospel is the power of God. It's not a power, it is the power of God, meaning it is the ultimate location where God's power resides and does its most amazing work. If you're hungry for the experience of God's power in your life, you will find that power in its highest concentration inside of the good news. The gospel about the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

And look what it's powerful to do. It is the power of God into salvation to everyone who believes. In other words, the gospel has the power to generate movement into your life, to take you from where you are right now with whatever brokenness you have, and to move you into this realm called salvation. And then once inside, it has the power to take you deeper and deeper into all the blessings of salvation.

Inside of this thing that we would call salvation through Jesus are 5 critical elements or 5 points in the journey from brokenness to wholeness. And just reviewing these very, very quickly, there's conversion, that's what we'll talk about today, being born again. Into the family of God, becoming a child of God, repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus, and then immersion after being converted, being immersed in gospel truth and learning how to think gospel and reason from that good news to all the areas of your life, and then community.

Living life in relationship with other people who are a part of your gospel inheritance in Christ, and then mission, doing all that you do for the sake of God's gospel purposes in you and, and others, living your life for the purpose of seeing the gospel go forth around the globe, and then glory.

Entering heaven's glories, fully glorified in the presence of Jesus, where you can rejoice in his presence forever. If you come to Cornerstone, just know that this is our mission. We're not here to play church. We wanna see you in God's grace converted to Christ, believing in him, and then we want immerse you.

And gospel truth every week and put fat on your bones and to help you get involved in a loving community and to help you live your life with intentionality where you're living every day in the workplace and everywhere else as a missionary for Christ and to help you in your journey to heavenly glory. Over the next few weeks, we're gonna be pondering each of these 5 points of this journey from brokenness to wholeness. And to do so, we're gonna track a particular man in the Bible named Saul of Tarsus or he later became known as Paul.

And we're gonna focus on his story.

And these 5 points of the journey because his story is our story. You will find yourself in him. Paul lived in the 1st century AD. if you have a Bible, 25% of your New Testament was written by the apostle Paul, and his life story is an amazing story and the story of his conversion.

is equally amazing. What we'll do with the time that we have, this morning is we're just gonna look at three truths to help us to understand Paul's conversion to, to Christ. And we'll look at who he was before and then how he became converted, and then how that changed him. First of all, before conversion.

The apostle Paul experienced great brokenness in his life. He would tell you that he was a broken man before he came to Jesus. This brokenness was seen in three areas. There was brokenness between himself and God.

Between himself and God. In Ephesians 2:3, Paul includes himself in this when he says, we were, we used to be by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest of mankind. Paul would tell you that before he was converted to Christ, he was under the wrath of God because of his sins. He would tell you that he was at enmity with God, fighting against God.

At war with God. He would tell you that there was a chasm between him and God that he was not able to cross. You might think, wow, he must have been a really wicked, unspiritual man before he was converted. Actually, he was intensely spiritual.

More religious than any of us in this room are. And yet he says, we, including himself, were children of wrath. We were under God's wrath because of our sin. Speaking of sin, Paul not only experienced brokenness between himself and God, but also within himself.

He struggled with this brokenness. In Romans chapter 7, the apostle Paul talks about how he experienced the law of God written in the Old Testament before he was converted. He's like I would read the 10 Commandments and I would come to the command, for example, that says you shall not covet. But rather than that inspiring obedience in him, look at what happened to him.

He says sin. That was in him, taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind. When the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. Paul was a religious man, he studied the law of God.

He had the 1st 5 books, at least of the Bible memorized word for word. He knew his Bible, he knew the law of God. And yet, He was unable to live up to that standard. He's admitting that here.

In fact, not only was he not able to live up to that standard, but he's admitting here that his study of the law actually made things worse. He would read, Thou shalt not covet, and the sin that was in him. would become aggravated by that command and cause him to act out even worse than if the command had never been given in the first place. Paul says in this chapter of Romans 7, the law is holy and good, but that it had an aggravating effect upon sin inside of him.

You ever experienced this? A number of years ago, probably about 6 or 7 years ago, I, I did an experiment with my son, Benjamin, who is now I think 18, but he, he was about 11 or 12 at, at the time, but I was sitting one morning on our bed with him and we were doing school together and there was a box in between us that I had put there. And at one point I said to him, I said, I need to run downstairs for a couple of minutes. so I want you to do your schoolwork while I go downstairs.

But, and I pointed to the box and I said, do you see this box here? He said, yes, I do. I said, whatever you do, don't open this box. And he said, I won't.

And I said, I'm serious, do not open this box. He said, OK. So I went downstairs for 2 or 3 minutes and then came back into the room upstairs, making a lot of noise as I was walking up the stairs so that he would know that I was coming. When I walked into the room, he was sitting there with an angelic look on his face, and the box was beside him as if it had never been touched.

What he did not know. is that I had set up a video camera. Pointing at him the entire time that I was out of the room. So I walked over to the camera and I grabbed it and sat next to him and I said, I've had this camera pointed at you over the last 2 or 3 minutes while I was gone.

Let's watch this video together. He groaned. The video we watched was most interesting. As soon as I walked out of the room, he became transfixed by the box.

He thought of nothing else. He picked up the box, he studied the box, he touched the lid of the box. He turned the box around and looked at it from every side. He even put it down for a few seconds and picked up his book to start reading again, but then he put his book down and went back to the box and started studying it again.

And he had just begun to open the box ever so slightly when he heard the sound of me walking back upstairs. He quickly put the box down and put on his angel face, and I had it all on video. But here's the deal. Had I never said anything about the box, he would not have been so riveted by it, right?

He might not have even noticed that it was there, but my command, my prohibition aroused something in him. That's the sin in all of us. We all have this problem. by the way, being the great brother that Benjamin is, as soon as he and I got done talking about the video, he said, Dad, you got to do this to Brianna.

So So I did and And the experience was very similar, although she never opened the box, but she was riveted by the box the whole time that I was out of the room. But, we, we laugh at this, but the truth is, we've all done worse than opening up a box during a video experiment. We've disobeyed God. We've reaped the consequences of brokenness that come as a result of that.

I, I can weep right now thinking of all the times throughout my 50 years that I have sinned against God when his word told me to do otherwise. I brought great hurt to myself. I brought great hurt to other people through the sinful choices that I have made. I am broken inside.

Just as Paul is admitting here, he's saying before I was converted, the more I understood the law of God, which is good and holy, the more I found sin being aroused inside of me. Rather than getting holier, I was only becoming more sinful, the harder I seemed to try. Paul experienced brokenness between himself and God within himself, and then also he experienced brokenness before his conversion between himself and others. In Titus chapter 3, Paul makes this confession.

He says, for we also once, talking about before he and his readers were converted to Christ, we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived. Enslaved to various lust and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Not everyone is as transparent as the apostle Paul is here. Not everyone admits their guilt in these areas, but we get this, don't we?

We see malice and we see hate everywhere. We see this between nations, between political parties in this country. We see this within ourselves, wishing ill will upon people feeling prideful and superior to others. who are different than we are.

We see malice and anger inside of marriages. We saw malice and anger on display in Ferguson, Missouri recently, and we see this in our own hearts. We're all guilty. We've all been foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, feeling malice and envy and hate, and Paul is admitting this about himself.

He doesn't point a finger at others and say everyone else is a hater. No, he doesn't do that. He includes himself and admits that he was guilty of these very things. This religious man is admitting.

That he was just like everyone else, broken. Fortunately, the story does not end there. Yes, Paul was broken with the brokenness of sin, but God saved him. He became converted to Jesus Christ.

That brings us to the second part of his conversion story. Paul experienced conversion after Christ appeared. To him on the road to Damascus. When you read the book of Acts, you find that Paul was a great persecutor of the church.

He just didn't handle well when people disagreed with him about stuff. And he ravaged the church at every opportunity, hauling off men and women to prison, and he not only sought to chase Christians out of his city, but when they fled his city and went to other cities, he pursued them even to those other cities. In Acts 9, Paul is on his way to the city of Damascus to find some Christians and imprison them. But a funny thing happened on his way to Damascus.

He got converted. Listen to the story. I just, I'll just read the story to you as it is told in Acts chapter 9. It says, but Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, those are Christians, men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem.

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing, so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and for 3 days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.

And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. But Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. He's saying, I don't, I don't want to go talk to this guy. This guy is bad news with all the evil that he has done.

Verse 15, but the Lord said to him, go. I'm so glad Jesus said go rather than oh. To him, right? He could have been like, oh, what, I didn't know that about Paul, that he was such a bad person, so yeah, what, scratch what I just told you to do.

No, Jesus said go. And told Ananias the vision of what Paul's future would be. So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, This guy was terrorist number one to the early church. And Ananias knows the power of Jesus Christ.

So he's able to walk into this place and say, brother, Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from Paul's eyes, and he regained his sight, then he rose and was baptized. Awesome story. I won't say much about what we've just read, except to just point out, maybe 3 things very quickly.

Notice here guys, Paul was not seeking Jesus. In fact, he was on his way to capture Christians and to haul them off to prison. Paul did not find Jesus because he was seeking Jesus. He found Jesus because Jesus was seeking him.

Paul did not find Jesus. Jesus found him. Also noticed that Paul probably thought he was just persecuting Christians, but Jesus says, you've been persecuting me. Jesus is saying, I take what you have done to my people personally.

Your sins against others have been against me. we need to be aware, folks that when we sin against other people, we're sinning against God. Every person in your life is created in the image of God. When you sin against other people and bring hurt to them, you're sinning against an image bearer of God.

And so every sin against another person, be it your neighbor or coworker, or your little sister is a sin against God. He takes that personally. Notice also that Paul was baptized here, the consistent pattern that we see. In the New Testament is that when people believe in Jesus and surrender to his salvation, they are baptized in some cases right away, if not right away soon thereafter.

What Paul is experiencing in this story that I read is what we call conversion. A day earlier, he was under God's wrath. Now he's in God's loving embrace. A day earlier, he was at war with God.

Now he is at peace with God. A day earlier, Paul was under God's condemnation, and now on this day, when the sun sets on this day, Paul's sins are forgiven and he's declared not guilty of all the sins that he has committed. That's the conversion. That's salvation.

There are many today who doubt the power of human beings to change in the deepest parts of their being. But here at Cornerstone, we believe that rebel sinners can be converted to righteous saints, that slaves to sin can be converted to people who are free to live righteously. The children of Satan can be converted to children of God, that arrogant people can be converted to humble people, that haters can be converted to lovers, people in sexual bondage can be converted to people who walk in sexual freedom, and the list is endless.

This all can happen through the power of Jesus Christ and the good news about him, and we have a congregation full of such people.

And I Speaking for myself and the chief sinner among them who is in the process of being amazingly saved by the power of Jesus. Paul was a broken man before his conversion. But then he was converted when Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus. What happened to him after that?

Did he go back and live the way he was living before? No, there's a third part of this story, and that is that after conversion, Paul was radically changed. He was a radically changed man. Let's just look at 3 ways, we could make a list of 20, but let's just look at 3.

Here's one way he was changed, he gloried in Christ, not in his own credentials. Look what he says in Philippians chapter 3. He says, for we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Notice what Paul says here, we are the true circumcision.

Circumcision in the Old Testament was a sign of the true people of God. What Paul is saying is we are the true converts, the true people of God, who worship God in the Spirit of God. On the surface, it sounds maybe like he's bragging, doesn't it? We are the true converts.

But notice what he says that identifies true converts. We are the true converts. Who worship in the spirit of God and who glory or who boast in Christ Jesus. Paul is telling us that true converts to Christ are people who boast in Jesus and not in themselves.

This is one way for you to assess, am I a true convert to Christ or not? Here's a question for you. What do you boast about? Do you boast about Jesus?

Or do you boast about you? If you died right now and stood at the gate of heaven in the presence of God, and God said, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? Would you start pointing to yourself and everything that you have done?

Would you boast about the good things that you have done? Or would you in that moment, point to Jesus and start talking about him and all that he has done to save you? Who would you boast about? Who do you boast about?

True converts to Jesus boast about Jesus, not themselves. Keep in mind this is, this is not coming from a man who was not religious and had nothing to brag about. Paul was very religious, very spiritual, a man of great spiritual religious attainment. If anyone had things to brag about, he did, and yet he says my boast is in Jesus.

Look what he says. In Philippians 3, he says, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more, he says, when I see people who are proud of themselves and saying, yeah, look at this about me, this is why God and I are OK, he says, when I see the things they brag about, I'm thinking, man, I got more to brag about than they do. In terms of my own accomplishments, I was circumcised the 8th day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.

I wasn't just a Jew, but Jews pointed to me as the ultimate Jew. As to the law, I was a Pharisee. Pharisees were very religious, very strict. They fasted twice a week for spiritual reasons.

They gave 20% of their income to the Lord, and every 3rd year they gave away 30% of their income to charity, basically. They separated themselves from anything unholy. Everyone looked at them and thought these guys are amazingly righteous and holy. He goes on, as to zeal, I was a persecutor of the church.

He's saying no one was more sincere. Then I was, I gave those I disagreed with on religious issues a hard time, and I thought I was doing God a service in persecuting the church. As to the righteousness which is in the law, I was found blameless. What he's saying by that is anyone who would look at my life from the outside would not have been able to find a single flaw in me.

And he says these things used to be gain to me. These are the things I used to find my identity in and put in the credit column on my ledger sheets. When I wanted to know how I stood with God, these are the things that I reviewed about myself to assure myself that God and I were OK. These are the things I used to brag about, but I don't boast about these things anymore.

I glory and I boast in Jesus. This is the way a true convert talks. Another way we see that Paul had undergone a massive change was after his conversion, he was happy to lose his former credentials in order to gain Jesus. He says, but whatever things were gained to me, those things I've counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

He goes on to say, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them, but rubbish, garbage, manure are three possible translations of this Greek term, so that I may gain Christ. Paul was happy. All of these credentials he used to take pride in and find his identity in. Paul was happy to part with all of them, to remove all of them from the credit column of his ledger sheets of his life, he took all of that stuff and removed it from that column and replaced it with only Jesus.

And he suffered the loss of all these things he used to find his identity and in becoming a Christian, Paul lost his status in the minds of many as the ultimate consummate Jew. He lost his status as a Pharisee, he lost his status as a lawkeeper. He lost all those things, his reputation for those things, and he was happy to lose them, so long as he gained Christ. I want you to think about it.

What, what could have possibly happened to Paul? That would cause him to at one point be very impressed with all of these attainments and his own righteousness, and then to turn around and now happily part with all of that. What happened to him? That changed his perspective in this way.

Here's what happened. Paul caught a glimpse of Jesus and his righteousness. Paul was once impressed with his own righteousness. until he met someone whose righteousness exceeded his own, and it ruined him in the best of ways.

He never looked at his own righteousness the same after that. Here's what most of us do. Most of us, in our culture when we wanna know if we're OK with God and he's OK with us, we will find people in our lives that are worse than we are, and we will compare ourselves to them. And we're like, what, actually I'm doing pretty good.

I'm better than these other people. I think I'm at least in the top half. of people in the world or at least people that I know, and we just hope and assume God's gonna grade on a curve when we stand before Him at the judgment. But imagine doing this instead.

Imagine instead of looking at other people and seeing their unrighteousness, spend time studying Jesus and staring at his righteousness. he's the one who was in line in front of you into the presence of the Father. Jesus was perfectly righteous in every way. He never sinned, he always loved God.

He always loved others. He even went to the cross in obedience to the Father, laid down his life, paid the ultimate price in order that he might show love to us and give us salvation. He never spoke a sinful word. He never thought a sinful thought.

He loved and he was righteous and paid the ultimate price. And showing that righteousness to bring us love from God. And what? Jesus is the one in line in front of you who's gone into the presence of the Father.

That's the righteousness that the Father has been staring at for the last 2000 years. Forget the curve You won't be graded on a curve. When you compare yourself to Jesus' righteousness, Suddenly you don't feel so righteous anymore. That ice bucket challenge you did a few weeks ago with a $100 donation doesn't seem quite so impressive when compared to the righteousness of Jesus.

Listen, if you're gonna pass muster at the judgment, you need a perfect righteousness. That's the only way you're gonna get into heaven. A perfect righteousness, a righteousness that only Jesus can give and that brings us to the last observation we can make about Paul after his conversion and that is Paul wanted to be found with Christ's righteousness, not his own. He says, I want to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

Paul was once a very religious man, yet he threw all that aside and he said, what, I worked so hard to be as righteous as I could be. I used to be impressed with myself compared to other people, but now this is the way I think. When I stand before God at the judgment, I don't want to be found by him in my own righteousness. I want to be found dressed in the righteousness that comes to me from God through faith in Christ.

I just want to be found in his righteousness, not mine. That's the way a true convert speaks. Back in April I was reading the Huffington Post. and, came across an interview, that the Huffington Post had with Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City.

He's in his 70s now, thinking about his mortality. And he talked about how people in his life are passing away and he knows that his time is soon. But the writer of this article made the observation that, listen to this, Mr. Bloomberg has little doubt about what will await him on Judgment Day.

And I read that in the article and I thought, oh that's, that's cool, that's cool. but then I read on and listen to what the writer of the article says. He says, pointing to his work, Mr. Bloomberg, pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity, and smoking cessation, said, here's what Mr.

Bloomberg said, I'm telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I'm not stopping to be interviewed. I'm heading straight in. I've earned my place in heaven. It's not even close.

Hmm. If the apostle Paul heard Mr. Bloomberg say that Paul would say, that resonates with me. I used to think exactly that way.

Before I was converted. Before I met someone whose righteousness exceeded my own. And who showed that righteousness by paying the ultimate price to bring me salvation. And Paul would say, now I don't want to be caught dead in my own righteousness.

I want to be found in his righteousness alone. And Paul would say I actually look forward to being interviewed. On judgment Day. Because in that interview, I wanna boast about Jesus and what he has done to save me.

Paul would say, Jesus earned my place in heaven, and it's not even close. Amen. Folks, that's the way a true convert. To Christ talks.

Think about it. Let me just close with this. If God allowed us to earn our way to heaven, And he allowed heaven to be populated with people who earn their way there, then what will those people do for all of eternity in heaven? They'll spend all of eternity bragging about themselves and what they did to get there, right?

And there's only one name for a place full of people like that. And the word I'm thinking of is not heaven. Who would want to go to a place like that? For heaven to be heaven, it must be populated by people who have been saved from their pride.

This is the genius of the gospel for salvation to be salvation, it must save us from our pride. A salvation from any deity that is structured in any other way, other than to deliver us from pride is really no salvation at all. If God does not save us from our pride, he's doing us little good and he's doing the people in our lives very little good. If God doesn't save Milton from his pride, he's not being very good to Milton's wife and children and to everyone else whose life I may touch.

That's why true salvation is structured the way it is. That's why it's all what God does as we sang about this morning, and it's none of what you and I do. Salvation is a gift that is only given to those who bow before God and say, God, I'm not just broken, but I'm broke. I can't even make one iota of a contribution to my own salvation.

But I see Jesus, your perfect righteousness, and I see all that you have done in dying and being raised and now at the right hand of God, so that I might be saved. I'm, I'm gonna bank on you and I'm gonna look to you and believe in you as my Lord and Savior. I open my empty hands and I simply receive in all humility this gift. That you give, and I'll spend the rest of my life bragging about you and not me.

In a way, it's the easiest thing in the world to do, but because of our pride, that is the hardest thing for people to do, which is why many reject. This gift. Let me ask you to bow your heads. My invitation to you this morning is, are you willing to abandon not only your sin, but abandon your righteousness and abandon your pride and admit you're broken?

Are you willing to look to Jesus? And view him as your only and total Lord and Savior. Are you willing to withdraw your trust from all else and deposit all of your trust in Jesus and Him alone? Is God speaking to your heart right now?

Are you tired of being the center of your life and Wondering, have you been good enough or not? To get into heaven, what, you can set all that aside and just come and take the righteousness of Jesus, and it's free. It's free. Won't you accept that gift?

This morning. If you're ready to receive that gift, just right where you're seated, just, it doesn't have to be fancy, just pray. To Jesus and say, Lord Jesus, you have died, you've been raised, you are the righteous one and I am not, and I am putting my trust in you and I'm asking you to be my Lord and my Savior today, right now. Just do that right where you're seated.

And if you have done that this morning, we would love for you to just fill out the connection card and let us know that you've made that decision this morning. If you've got questions, please let us know that on the connection card and we'll have someone contact you this week or come talk to us after the service. We'll be in the lobby and We'll be happy to talk with you and answer whatever questions you have. We're here as a church to help.

And to be a blessing. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your salvation, for your goodness, for your grace. You're a good savior and we celebrate you and your amazing goodness to us. You are the one that we boast about.

On this special day, you are our boast. It's not in anyone else and not in ourselves. This is all you're doing and you get all the glory. You're an amazing God and an amazing and loving savior.

And we say to you this morning that we love you and we trust you and we're blessed to come together to worship you. And then to go forth and share this news, news with others. We thank you Lord for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you at this time, we ask that you would receive these offerings that we give and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus. We give ourselves to you.

In his name, and all God's people said, And then.