God’s Work in Making Us More Like Jesus

1:01My brother heard about it. My brother Matt, many of you know, he heard about it and only heard about it because he turned the game off with 30 seconds left and heard about the final score this morning when he was awakened by my dad. And as a good older brother, I sympathized with him and promised him I would make fun of him later. That game was incredible. And one of the awesome things that you kind of notice as this game is going back and forth and back and forth.

1:30Into the overtimes and watching these teams compete. Mark Stone and I were talking about this before the service that was so wonderful about it. And just from a fan's perspective, I mean, win or lose to see these incredible athletes compete with one another, go hard. For us in the stands, we just watch this and it's just incredible. And yes, it in some ways can be emotionally draining. I don't know if that says a lot about how incredible the game was or the idolatry that I have in my own heart. But it was draining. It was just such an investment that was there. And you can only imagine how much more invested the athletes were on the field.

2:13And why did they go so hard? Why did they compete for so long? Not even to the end of regulation, but then seven overtimes. Seven overtimes. To see these teams compete for two hours after regulation at such a high level. Why? Because they understood what their goal was. Their goal was victory. Their goal was to win. Listen, one of the goals for an athlete is to play hard. There's no doubt that was happening on the field. One of the goals as an athlete is to compete at the highest level and to compete together. As a team, both teams demonstrated that, but there could be only one winner, and that was the goal, and that's why they went so hard.

3:12They competed so hard at such a high level because they understood the goal. Let me ask you something: do you know what the goal is for the Christian life here on earth? Well, the goal is heaven. Amen. No doubt about that. I don't mean to slight that in the least because that is the goal. That goal is secured by Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. There's actually a goal for us here on earth. And that goal, very simply, is being conformed into the image of Jesus. It's to look more and more like Jesus every day.

3:57In Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, the Apostle Paul, he writes this amazing letter, this amazing letter, in which the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans is about salvation. It's about how a holy God can justify sinful man and yet remain holy and have sinful man into his presence. And the way that he does that, the way that he justifies humans, is by the work of his son, Jesus. He went to the Cross and he paid the penalty that was due for us and for our sin and was victorious in rising from the grave, conquering sin, death, and the grave, and giving us the victory through his death and resurrection.

4:51Those are the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans, but the last four chapters of the book of Romans, 13, 14, 15, and 16 are about what that looks like in the Christian life. It's called sanctification. So we move from justification to sanctification, what it means to live out the truth of the gospel in life. And right in between there, the linchpin between 1 through 11 and 13 through 16 is chapter 12. In chapter 12, it begins like this. Paul lays out what the goal is for a believer. He says, I appeal to you, therefore, in other words, because of what I just talked about in 11 chapters. I appeal to you, therefore, because of the gospel, because of what Christ accomplished on the cross by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

5:58How does that happen? Verse 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be, and here's the key word, transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect. The key word there is the word transformed. Metamorpho-o is the word where we get the word metamorphosis. How does a caterpillar change into a butterfly? There's a metamorphosis that happens, there's a change, a physical change. What Paul is talking about is more than that, so much more than that. It's a transcendent spiritual change. It's the change of the heart, the will, the desire, the vision, the speech, all of those things. It's an all-encompassing transformation. And that word, metamorpho-o, in the Greek, is in the present, it's in the passive, and it's in the imperative as a verb tense. It's in the present. That means that there's no end in mind on earth. It means it's always happening.

7:14It's always happening. It's ongoing. It's in the passive, meaning that the subject, which is us, is being acted upon from the outside. In other words, this isn't something that we can just simply do. In other words, this isn't something I. I just find within myself the ability to do better, to pull myself up by my bootstraps to get better. No, that's not what happens. There's a work that goes on from the outside to the inside. And finally, it's an imperative. It means that this is a command. That means that this must happen. In other words, in the New Testament, there's no such thing as a believer, as a true disciple, who isn't in some way being conformed, being transformed into the image of Jesus. There's no room for cheap grace in God's word.

8:11How does this happen? What does this look like? I'm so glad you guys asked that. Because if you look at our text in Acts chapter 9, the text that we're going to be resting in this morning, you see, in the very beginning of Paul's walk with Jesus, you see how God begins to mold him and make him and transform him from Saul, the persecutor, the Christian hunter, into Paul, the writer of two-thirds of the New Testament, and one who would give his life, who would martyr himself for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the gospel for the Gentiles.

8:51How does this happen? Well, I want to just posit to you this morning that we're going to see here in Acts chapter 9. In verses 19 through 31, we're going to see three different ways, three different tools that God uses to transform Saul into Paul, to transform him into the likeness of Jesus. Read with me in verse 19. We'll see the first tool that God uses. And these tools are not exhaustive. God uses all sorts of means to be able to make us into the image of his Son, but we're going to focus in. We're going to hone in on these three specifics.

9:32The first thing that we see is that God uses solitude to make us like Jesus. God uses solitude to make us like Jesus. Read with me in verse 19. For some days, he, Paul, or Saul at this point, was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God. And all who heard him, it says that they were amazed by this. That word amazed can also be translated as not just amazed, but astonished to the point of insanity. In other words, that these people saw the life of Saul and they thought to themselves, I must be going crazy because this can't be the same guy. I must be going nuts because this can't be the same person. They were amazed and they said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

10:30Has he not come here for this purpose? To bring them bound before the chief priest. They were afraid that Saul was still the man that he was. But Saul increased all the more in strength. See how God does this to him? It doesn't say that Saul went to lift weights. It says that something happened to him, that he increased in strength, and he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. I love that verse. Paul's life was proof that Jesus was the Messiah. Paul's very life, his transformation, was proof that Jesus was who he says he was. What does that have to do with solitude? Go back up to verse 19, where we just started there. And I want to explain what that means. It's a loaded verse. For some days, he was with the disciples at Damascus. What does that mean? What happened there? Because here's the deal. Acts chapter 9 is how Saul gets saved and how he gets placed on the road to ministry and becoming God's missionary to the Gentiles in the rest of the known world.

11:50How does that happen? Well, it begins with this obscure verse, it seems like an obscure verse. What happened when Paul was in Damascus? Well, all of chapter 9, the beginning of chapter 9, leading up to that point, you can go back and read about the conversion of Saul. Essentially, Saul was on his way to Damascus. He was on the road to Damascus to go find more Christians to go and persecute, to go and find and to put in jail, to take before the religious leaders, to go and kill, if need be.

12:24And on that road to Damascus is where the living Lord Jesus meets Saul where he is. And he saves him. And he brings him to faith in Jesus. He regenerates his heart and brings him to faith in Jesus. In Galatians chapter 1, verses 15 through 18, Paul is going to recount his own conversion story. And he's going to tell us what verse 19 means, what happened to him in verse 19. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

13:11Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him for 15 days. When Paul Was converted. He didn't immediately go and seek out other Christians to hang out with. God drew him to Ananias, and he spent time with Ananias. But in this time period of being in Damascus, there was a time where the Lord sent him away, this brief time that we don't know a whole lot about, where God sent him to the wilderness of Arabia, where he spent time alone. Now, what was God doing in that time with Saul? Saul was well acquainted with the Old Testament. Remember that he was discipled under one of the greatest rabbis of that time, Gamaliel. He was a man who knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. He testifies that about himself in Philippians 3, in a passage that we're going to read later on. He knew, he was well acquainted with the Old Testament, but Saul didn't know Jesus. He didn't know Jesus. And the truth of the matter is, God desired to get him apart from everyone else to reveal to himself things about his son, to fully help Paul understand who Jesus was, to help him to understand that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah of that Old Testament that he thought he knew so well. And he did this apart from other people. He did this. In solitude. As you go back and you read through the scriptures, one of the things that you find is that solitude is this great tool that God uses to reveal himself to his people and to conform them into the image of his son. Think about the prophet Moses. Moses lived to be 120 years old, and you can essentially divide his life up into thirds. The first 40 years of his life, he spent in the house of Pharaoh, where he was learning all sorts of things about science and about history and about literature and government and all these other different things because he was going to lead a nation. How about that? He had no idea that God was preparing him for that. But God was preparing him in the house of Pharaoh for those things. And then the last 40 years of his life, Moses is leading the people of Israel through the desert. What about those middle 40 years? You know what he was doing? In those middle 40 years, he was in the same place that Paul was, he was in the Arabian desert as a shepherd.

16:05Guess what shepherds do? They hang out with sheep. Sheep are terrible conversationalists. They don't talk a whole lot. But the whole point is, God was doing something with Moses. It was there in that solitude that God revealed himself as the burning bush, right? And spoke to Moses and called him out to lead his people out. Of bondage. It was in solitude that God did that. Don't discount that time alone. Think about David. What was David's life like before he was anointed as king? Who was he? What did he do? He was a shepherd. What did he do? He spent time alone out in the wilderness with his sheep.

16:54When David was being pursued and persecuted by Saul, God, through Saul, drove David into solitude. But it was out of that solitude that God revealed himself to David. And out of that time alone, out of that time of persecution, is where we get some of these wonderful psalms, which reveal what it looks like to cling to the Lord God. An example of that, we see very clearly in Psalm 142, verses 1 through 5. When David says, With my voice I cry out to the Lord. With my voice, I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see, there is none who takes notice of me.

17:57No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. In solitude. In solitude, God begins to do something in the heart of David where David begins to trust less on the things around him because there's nothing around him and more upon the Spirit of God. Think about Jesus. From the ages of 12 to 30, we don't know a whole lot about what goes on in his life, only that he's the son of the carpenter and that he lived perfectly and kept the law perfectly. But we don't know a whole lot.

18:42We do know that at the beginning of his ministry, the first thing that happens when Jesus goes and is baptized by John the baptizer is he goes and God by his spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. Solitude. To depend only upon the Lord. Think about this. This is God the Son, co-equal and eternal with God the Father and God the Spirit, who lays aside, not his deity, but lays aside the opportunity to wield the power of that deity in many ways. To go and be dependent upon the Father, Jesus saw how important solitude was.

19:42Solitude is a tool that God uses to make us into the image of Jesus. What about you? It is really difficult. This tool right here, solitude, is a really difficult tool to acquire and use in today's age because everybody is screaming at you. Maybe not audibly, but through social media, through the attraction of electronic media, through the attraction of just wanting to be connected in some way or another. And listen, I'm not just talking about, hey, I'm guilty, I always listen to music all the time. Hey, us guys and gals that are always listening to podcasts, we're no different. We have to fight that battle to be alone with the Lord. Mark 1.35 says that in rising very early in the morning, this is the example that Jesus gives of what it means to go and to be alone with the Lord. Rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and he went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And you see that as a mark of Jesus over and over and over again that he goes and And he seeks out solitude to seek out that quiet time when we're alone with our Bible and alone with the Spirit of God and allowing him by his Holy Spirit to speak to us to not be distracted by this world, not be distracted even by the connection we have with other people, but to spend time alone. What about you?

21:30Are you spending time alone with the Lord? Are you allowing the Lord to use that tool of solitude to conform you to the image of Jesus? Do you know what the goal is? The goal is to be more like Christ. And if that's the goal, then we'll do anything that it takes to get there. And we'll fight for that time of quiet. How hard are you fighting for that time of quiet? I've got to be honest with you, I don't fight that hard a lot of times. And I'll use an excuse. I'll even use my family. I said, oh, Lord, I need to go and just be with my family, right?

22:05Not admitting that there were other times that I could have been with my family as well. We'll use excuses to get away from this tool of solitude. Austin Phelps was a great congregational preacher from the 19th century. And he wrote this little devotional book. It's only like 136 pages called The Still Hour. And he makes this comment. I just think really hits the importance of solitude in the life of a disciple. He says, it's been said that no great work in literature or science was ever wrought by a person who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often long alone with God.

23:01Saul, who would become Paul, took that time of solitude. The Lord led him to Arabia. The Lord led him to be quiet so that he could reveal himself to him. Why should we be any different? God uses solitude to make us like Jesus, but not only that, God uses suffering to make us like Jesus. Look at verse 23. When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. And they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him. But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket. Saul has already had to prove to his new brothers in Christ that he's not there to kill him.

23:54All right, we accomplished that one. Now, the second goal here, or sub-goal, I guess you could say, in today's world, Being conformed to the image of Jesus is not necessarily to die right away, right? So he has to be lowered through a basket out of the city walls because persecution was coming right away. Can you imagine? Saul was the darling, was the darling of the Jewish religion at this time. In Philippians 3, he would call himself a zealot for the word of God, that he was a Jew among Jews. He was born of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the faithful tribes of Israel. He was circumcised on the eighth day according to the law. And yet now he is running scared, being lowered in a basket to escape the clutches of the people who thought he was so great only a short time before.

24:55Saul immediately encounters persecution and suffering. And this isn't even going to be it. This is just the beginning for Saul. Remember that the Lord told him in verse 16 of chapter 9. He told him in verses 15 and 16, the Lord said to him, This is Jesus speaking to Saul, go. Well, actually, he's speaking to Ananias to go and get Saul. But he says, go, for he, Saul, is chosen instrument of mine to carry my. Name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

25:42Jesus had promised Saul that he would suffer for the sake of his name, and indeed he would. Not only in the beginning with his life being pursued, but listen to Saul's own account when he becomes Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He says, Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Saul was not called to a life that excluded suffering. He was not called to an easy life.

26:56But he also understood that there was purpose. In suffering, and that purpose was transformation into the image of Jesus. Saul did not look necessarily for suffering any more than we should go and look for opportunities to suffer. But he also did not turn back from suffering when the Lord had that as his plan. As a matter of fact, Saul could understand how God would use this in his life to the point that Saul understood that there's certain parts of this that I need to embrace in order to know Jesus better. He says this essentially in Philippians chapter 3. Listen to this account or read with me Philippians chapter 3 verses 8 through 11. He says, Indeed, I count everything as a loss. Well, look at those everything. Well, if you look back earlier in chapter 3 of Philippians, he recounts all the good things about being a leader, a religious leader of the Jewish people. And he says, all those things that I had counted as such greatness, he says, all those things I count as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things. And he says, I count them as rubbish, as dung, as the old King James would say, in order that I may gain Christ. And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own. This isn't something that he came up with. This wasn't just him being good. This isn't a righteousness that came from within. This is a righteousness that came from the outside.

28:44The Holy Spirit regenerating his heart. But that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. And listen to this: He says, That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. And listen to this, may share his sufferings. Do you hear that? He says, That I may share the sufferings of Christ. Why? Why was it so important to Paul that he share in those sufferings? Not that he's actively going and looking for ways to be miserable, but sharing in these sufferings with Christ. Why?

29:29Becoming like him in his death. You see the goal? The goal is transformation. The goal is Christ's likeness. The goal is to be conformed to the image of Jesus. The goal is to have his desires. The goal is to act like him. The goal is to see like him, is to speak like him. That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Church, listen. Paul's goal, Paul's goal, was easily identifiable. He wanted to be like Jesus.

30:10And he saw that God may use that instrument of suffering from his life being pursued in the beginning to all of the other different ways that he suffered through his life and ministry, even unto death. Paul understood that God uses suffering to make us like Jesus. There was a fellowship and intimacy with Jesus that he could only know and understand through walking through suffering. What about us? You know, our society, our culture, I think our default mode is to be averse to suffering, right? I mean, when you think about technology, everything comes about, whether it's from our phones to medical technology to whatever it is, it's there to reduce suffering. Now, some of that is first world suffering, amen, right? Here in the United States.

31:14But it's there to give the stiff arm to suffering. And look, I'm not against medical advances or technical advances. I love the newest smartphone as much as anybody else. I geek out over that stuff too. But the truth of the matter is, God uses suffering in our life to conform us to the image of Jesus. And we live in a world and in a culture and a society that does not embrace it. We have to be different.

31:49By faith, we have to look at suffering for what it is and say, Lord, it's not that I want the pain, but Lord, I want you more. It's not that I want the heartache, but Lord Jesus, I want fellowship with you more. I want you more. And understanding that God will use that instrument of suffering to make us look like Jesus. There was a sculptor who had made this amazing statue in Europe of a horse. And it was lifelike and it was majestic and powerful and beautiful.

32:40And someone asked the sculptor, how do you do that? How do you take a block of granite and make it into this horse? And this is what he said. He says, well, I start with a picture of a horse in my mind, what it's supposed to look like. And then I take a hammer. And I chisel, and I go to that block, and I hammer away anything that doesn't look like a horse. God uses suffering as a hammer and chisel to conform us into the image of Jesus. And he takes suffering to knock away at those edges and areas where we aren't fully dependent upon Jesus.

33:26Well, we're dependent upon our own strength, our own wealth, our own abilities. And he knocks those things away like a wonderful artist, making us into the image of his son. God uses solitude, God uses suffering. And then finally, God uses seasoning to conform us into the image of Jesus. He uses seasoning to conform us into the image of Jesus. Read verses 26 with me through 31. And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him. And we understand why. For they didn't believe that he was a disciple. Look at verse 27. It says, 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 he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were still seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and they sent him off to Tarsus. And so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. How awesome is that, right? They're being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit. And it multiplied. God used Saul in this. When he was brought before the churches, they saw his transformed life and it encouraged them. But how did Saul get there? I mean, still, we're still talking about this guy that at the beginning of this chapter in chapter 9, verse 1, he's still persecuting Christians. How do we get to verse 31? How do we get there? Well, why did he go to Jerusalem in the first place? Remember back in Galatians chapter 1 that we read earlier, verse 18, it says that it was to visit Peter. It says that then after three years, Paul says, I went to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, Peter, and I remained with him for 15 days. Why did he go to Peter? Well, the answer is in that word visit. That answer is in that word visit. That word visit historically. Rayo. It's where we get the word history, by the way. Why did he go to visit? He visited for a purpose. He visited to learn the history of Peter. How about that? He had a purpose in that. It was to learn about Peter's life. Why?

36:20Why? Saul had been in Arabia where God met him. He had an experience that you and I have never had. He met him in a way that you and I could never know because we didn't write the New Testament. Amen. He met him in a way that was special, that was different. And then he went with the disciples, though. He went and sought out the disciples in Damascus and then went to Jerusalem to be with Peter. Why Peter?

36:51Saul knew the Old Testament. He knew the scriptures. When he was in Arabia, he had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit as to how the Old Testament all pointed to Jesus. But Saul did not live with Jesus on this earth for three years like Peter. He didn't walk with Jesus like that. He didn't witness Jesus' miracles. He wasn't rebuked like Peter was by Jesus. He didn't turn his back on Jesus like Peter did during his scourging and during his trial.

37:44He also wasn't restored by Jesus the way Peter was. Peter had something that even Saul didn't. And what's awesome about that is not Peter. What's awesome about that is that Saul understood that. And he knew that he needed to go spend time with this man. And he did. Saul had the book of learning, folks. Amen? Like none other. But that experience, that seasoning of being with Peter was something that he sought after. He went to Damascus because he had never lived life as a Christian. He went to go hang out with other believers to pick up the rhythms of what it meant to look like a disciple, to gain for himself these spiritual disciplines of the Christian life.

38:44Don't discount that. That is so important in the life of a believer. And not only that, he needed the seasoning of another brother to walk alongside him. And he got that. In this dude, in verse 27 of chapter 9 of Acts. This dude named Barnabas, son of encouragement, right? He needed Barney to walk alongside with him. Everybody needs a Barney. A brother for encouragement. A brother for accountability. Paul would do ministry with men in his life from here on out, by the way. Whether it was with Barnabas or whether it was Silas or with John Mark.

39:29He had people around him that he did ministry with. He did life with. Why? Because even Saul, who had become Paul, needed seasoning to become more like Jesus. And God uses people for that seasoning. We need the accountability. There are no lone rangers for Jesus in this. Proverbs 27, 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. You know how iron gets sharpened? It doesn't get sharpened just by being in proximity with one another. It's not just hanging around, it's engaging with one another. It sharpens, it gets sharpened with conflict, where you knock off those dull edges and become sharp. Sometimes that knocking off is painful. Being held accountable for my own sin is not easy, but I'm thankful for the brothers. That I have in my life that spend that time with me, pouring into my life and walking with me like Barnabas, holding me accountable and encouraging me along the way. We all need seasoning. Amen? We all need seasoning. We need one another.

40:54When the Knights of the Round Table used to meet, it was a long time ago. King Arthur would commission and send out these knights and they'd go into battle on these incredible adventures. It was said that they would all come back to the round table. And one of the first things they did, and I love this because this just reminds me of a locker room. They would come back, and the first thing they would do is they would start taking off their armor, hanging out in the locker room. You can imagine what the locker room with the Bright Center was like last night, right? At the end of that game. It was incredible. And they're taking off that armor, and they're taking all their clothes off. And the reason why is not to get weird, but it's because it's so that they could show one another their scars from battle.

41:45They say, hey, man, look at my scar. Why? Because your scar, that's the mark of a warrior. That's the mark of one who is in the fight. And it was said. That if King Arthur saw you and you have a scar, you know what he'd tell you? Go back out and get your scar if you want to come here. Listen, church, Jesus Christ has ultimately borne the scar of our sin, and there was nothing that we could do, nothing that we can do to make up for that. He did that willingly, he did that out of love for you and for me. He did, as the book of Isaiah says, that he bore the stripes of our sin on our behalf, and he rose again.

42:43And we have life in him because of that. That's the gospel. But the Christian life is hard. And the Christian life is a life in which we bear the mark of a disciple. We bear the mark of Christ-likeness. We are to look like Jesus. And the way God makes us into the image of Jesus is through solitude. It's time alone with him. It's through suffering. It's through enduring for the sake of Jesus and drawing into intimacy with him. And it's through seasoning. It's being around other brothers and sisters. In Christ, who love us enough to tell us the truth, who will bruise us now so that we won't bleed later. That's what it means to bear the scar, to bear the mark of Jesus Christ. That's the goal, and that's the win.

43:49Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you. Lord, we worship you because you are worthy of worship. We thank you for the work of your Son Jesus, who willingly went to the cross and took upon himself the punishment that was due to us. Lord, we deserve hell. We deserve an eternity away from you in a real place called hell. Suffering judgment. But your Son Jesus went to the cross and took upon himself, bore upon his own body the stripes for our own healing.

44:51And Father, out of that, Lord, you have not only judged ourselves. Sin at the cross. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, Lord, you have called us to Christ's likeness. You have called us to the process of transformation, of being conformed no longer to this present world, but to be transformed into the image of Jesus. Father, help us to see that that's the goal, that's the win on this side of heaven, is that continual transformation. It's that time spent in solitude, alone with you in your word and in prayer.

45:49It's that time spent even in suffering, living in a world that does not value the things that you value, Lord, that does not treasure the things that you treasure, and suffering the consequences of living in conflict with this world. And Father, you've called us, Lord, to seasoning. That just like you called Saul to be around Barnabas and around the other brothers in Damascus and in Jerusalem, so that he might continue. Continue, Lord, to walk in encouragement and in accountability. Lord, you've called us to the same thing.

46:42I pray, Lord, that you would help us to examine our lives, God, to see those areas where it's too noisy and busy and it's not quiet enough for us to be able to understand and hear your word and your still quiet voice. To see those areas, Lord, where we reject suffering and run from it instead of seeing it as a tool that you can use in our own lives. Father, help us to see those areas, Lord, where we still need seasoning, where we still need brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside us.

47:28Father, I pray that we would desire you above all things. We love you and we bless you in the name of Jesus. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.