Paul Bore Fruit

Privilege

-Paul is motivated by the privilege to serve Christ.

1 Timothy 1:12
12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,

-If Paul’s life was easy, this may make sense to us.

-If he was an evangelist who stayed in the same place his whole life. He preached at a nice small church that supported him fully.

-A place where he was able to watch kids grow up and marry and have children, I think we would agree Paul should be thanking God for his ministry.

-But Paul has been beaten.

-By today’s standards, he’s endured cruel and unusual punishment.

-He’s had to flee for his life many times.

-His own people plot against his life.

-And through all this, Paul thanks God he can serve.

He never forgot it was a Privilege

-If we were to question Paul and ask, “Paul, why do you think it is a privilege and not a burden to preach Christ?”

-What do you think he’d say?

-I’m not sure of his answer, but he may say something like this, “My people have cried out for the Messiah since the days of captivity.

-The angels did not know how God’s plan was going to unfold.

-They were not even charged with bringing this message. But someone God chose me to bring this message.

-I get to tell people the GOOD NEWS.”

-Paul has a perspective here that I need to be reminded of.

Illustration: Telling Good news (Baby)

-One of the great joys of my wife being pregnant was sharing that news with us, knowing most people were going to be excited for us, so it was such a privilege to tell people.

-Before Grace and I would get out of the car to meet people who didn’t know, we made sure which one of us was going to tell so we didn’t feel like we were going to overstep by telling the good news too early.

-There’s something about sharing good news with others that we all love to do.

-While it’s great to tell others we’re having a baby, how much greater is it to tell people they have a Savior?

-Paul never forgot that.

-And neither should we.

Past

-What also motivated Paul was his past.

-This is the second motivation mentioned by Paul.

-Paul would often tell others about his past life.

-He does twice in the book of Acts, and he does it here as well.

1 Timothy 1:13
13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

-He used it as an evangelistic tool with the Jews and as an edification tool with Timothy here.

Old Saul

-Paul describes his old life in open and honest terms.

-He doesn’t try to forget but tells Timothy openly, I was not always on the right side.

-I made terrible mistakes.

-I was ignorant.

-I was blasphemous, and I was prideful.

-In verse 15, Paul will even call himself the foremost sinner.

-Which shocks us because while Paul did bad things, we wouldn’t call him the worst sinner.

-Some serial killers and dictators seemed to do much worse things.

-I don’t exactly know how to answer that, but it could be because he persecuted the body of Christ directly, while others did it indirectly. Possible, but I’m not sure.

He Could’ve Forgot

-It could’ve been easy for Paul not to bring that up; in fact, none of the other writers mention their former life as much as Paul does when he’s writing.

-He could’ve said, I’ve done enough good to make up for the sins I’ve committed.

-Or, it’s been so long I don’t need to tell about this

-It does not seem that Paul is motivated by guilt here, but he tells his story to show, “Hey, look what God can do with a wretched man like me!”

-His past was there to motivate others because of what God did in his life.

Prosperity

-Next, Paul was motivated by God’s prosperity.

-God’s true prosperity.

1 Timothy 1:14
14 And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

-Paul’s motivation develops into God’s overflowing blessings into his life.

-Paul will often talk about God’s overflowing or abundant blessing.

-Paul makes it his goal to tell people, “Our God is not a God of the bare minimum; he supplies more than we need!”

-Jesus has given Paul Grace, Faith, and Love

Grace & Love

-Jesus’ love and grace rescued Paul from sin and stopped him on the road to Damascus!

-They washed away Paul’s sins.

-It was because of Jesus’ Grace and Love that he showed himself to Paul

-Those are obvious signs of Jesus pouring out love & grace towards Paul, but there were other ways as well.

-Paul was motivated by what Jesus poured out for him; he treasured these gifts.

-He will tell others to be motivated by these gifts.

Romans 12:1
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,

Paul’s appeal to the Romans is based on the mercies of God!

Faith

-Not only did Jesus pour out grace & love, but he poured out faith!

-Can Jesus give you faith?

-Yes, he can!

-In fact, much of what Jesus did on earth was to give faith to those who would listen and see him.

-There was once a man whose son was demon-possessed in Mark 9.

-The disciples couldn’t cast out the demon.

-The man explains this to Jesus and doesn’t know whether Jesus can heal him.

-The man says, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” (Mk. 9.22) Notice the man says, “If you can.”

-He doesn’t know whether Jesus can heal him.

-Jesus replies, “’If you can!’[quoting the man] All things are possible for one who believes.” (Mk. 9.23)

-Jesus calls out this man’s unbelief.

-So the man replies, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mk. 9.24)

-Then Jesus casts out the spirit.

-Did this sign give this man more faith?

-Yes, it did.

-This story and others can give us faith, too.

-This father and Paul both experienced Jesus pouring out faith–and we can, too.

-Jesus gives out of his abundance!

-He is not the God of the bare minimum.

Principles - He remembers the basics

-The fourth thing that motivated Paul was the principles of the Gospel. Paul never forgot the principles.

-He never forgot the basics.

1 Timothy 1:15
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

-This is the Gospel.

-Christ came to save sinners!

-Paul never forgot that.

-If Paul had a motivational quote on his mirror, there’s a good chance this was it.

Paul Didn’t Add or Change it

This was Paul’s mission in life.

-He wanted to tell the world about this great news.

-It was important for Paul to keep this mission in mind.

-Paul was a gifted person.

-He could’ve used his gifts to make money.

-He could’ve used his gifts to get famous.

-Paul only became famous after he died.

-There isn’t any record of Paul’s life outside of the New Testament and the early church fathers.

-There could’ve been a million things that could’ve distracted Paul.

-Good things, too.

-He didn’t let any of them distract him from his mission: preach the Christ who saves sinners.

Illustration: Church Meetings

-One of the blessings of having elders is there aren’t frequent business meetings.

[I don’t ask for this often, but can I get an AMEN to that?]

-If there was ever a time when the MAIN THING is never mentioned, it’s a business meeting.

-I’ve been in business meetings where several sessions were spent on picking the right type of light bulbs.

-I’ve been in meetings where most of the time was spent on how to fix a stucco problem that more than half of us didn’t know existed.

-Church buildings can become the biggest obstacle in spreading the message of the gospel!

-There are great reasons for a building, but our MAIN THING is not having a building.

-If our building negatively affects our ability to keep the MAIN THING the MAIN THING, we should get rid of it.

-If my smartphone or social media prevents me from keeping the MAIN THING the MAIN THING, I should get rid of them.

-If my cats… I’ll let you figure that out

-Paul left a life that was stripped down so that nothing besides his MAIN message could be focused upon and preached.

-I believe it is only right if we do the same.

Purpose - To display God's patience to believers

  • Paul’s last motivation was his Purpose.

1 Timothy 1:16
However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

  • Paul’s motivation is to be an example of what?
  • Jesus’ patience in him!
  • “Look how great the Lord Jesus is because he’s saved someone like me.”
    • Paul’s story wasn’t to show how great he was in changing, it was to show how great Jesus was to change him!
  • Why tell this story?
    • For those who would come to believe! Other Christians.
    • He’s motivation is for other Christians.

Relationships motivated Paul

  • I think we can infer from Paul’s motivation that Paul was motivated by the relationships he had.
  • We talk a lot about the importance of relationships.
  • This is good; Paul also spends time doing this
  • PAUL’S RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER CHRISTIANS
  • We just read he’s striving to be an example to them
  • PAUL’S RELATION TO SINNERS

1 Timothy 1:15
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

  • PAUL’S RELATIONSHIP TO THE LORD JESUS

1 Timothy 1:14
And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Closing - Relationships Count

-We cannot dismiss the power of relationships.

-After I graduated FC, I went to a Sower’s event.

-It was a panel of 4 men who each gave their “coming to Faith story”

-Normally, anyone’s story is enlightening and encouraging, but these men were selected, I think, because of the various backgrounds.

-One came from a Methodist background, a Catholic background, a Muslim background, and a Jewish background.

-There were many great things said there, but one thing each of them emphasized was the treatment they received by Christians as influencing them to come to Christ.

-Two of them had advanced degrees.

-Do you know what the one one common theme between them all was?

-It was one thing that helped tip the scale to them to accepting Christ

-All of them said the hurdles to accepting Christianity were overcome because of the goodness and hospitality of other Christians.

-The dumbest things I’ve done in my life were because I was motivated by a relationship.

-But “peer-pressure” (you know what I mean) can be a tool for good.

Let’s pray that our relationships motivate us to keep serving our Lord.