Where Are You Going

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“Where Are You Going? Galatians 1:13–17

I. Intro

A. Sometimes our lives feel like they’re on spin cycle.

1. We get up in the morning.

2. We go to work.

3. We go home.

4. We go to bed.

5. We get up in the morning.

6. We go to work.

7. ... and so on and so on.

8. We’re making the same turns we’ve been making all our lives.

9. We may feel like we have no true direction and no true purpose in life. 10. Its like we’re just killing time until it’s time to go home our eternal home.

B. If that describes your Christian life this Scripture may help you today.

1. Read Galatians 1:13–17.

Galatians 1 : 13-17

13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it:

14 And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

15 But when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called [me] by his grace

16 To reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.

II. Paul’s Story

A.Paul shares about His Former Way of Life.

1. Paul was a dyed–in–the–wool Jew.

2. He had advanced farther in his education than most people his own age.

3. He was zealous on fire for the Jewish way of life.

4. He could not stand the church or what it taught.

5. Acts 7:58 tells us he was present at the stoning of Stephen a leader in the first church.

6. Here in this Galatians passage he says that he persecuted the church (v.13).

7. Acts 8:3 says “But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3)

8. Here he says he tried to destroy the church (v.13).

9. He went into Christian’s houses dragging them off to prison.

B. Paul was no friend of the church.

1. And he was no Christian.

2. He hated everything Christianity stood for.

3. He tried to wipe Christianity off the face of the earth.

C. Then Jesus was Revealed to Him.

1. In verse 16 Paul simply says Jesus was revealed to him and in him.

2. Acts 9 gives us more detail into the conversion experience of Paul.

3. We all know the Damascus Road experience that Paul had.

4. Jesus revealed Himself to Paul and Paul was never the same again.

5. He came to know who Jesus really was.

6. Jesus became Paul’s Savior and Lord.

D. He Began Preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1. He says Jesus was revealed in Him so that he could preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

2. Talk about a drastic change.

3. One day he’s going to Damascus to persecute Christians.

4. One day he’s going to break up the church.

5. A few days later he’s out on the street preaching about the One he had tried to destroy.

6. But God had a purpose for Paul before he was ever born

**to be a preacher and a missionary.

7. And that’s what Paul did for the rest of his life through good times and bad.

8.When things got tough and his life was hanging in the balance Paul never returned to who he used to be.

9. Paul died preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

E. All Christians have had a similar experience.

1. Most of us weren’t as bad as Paul before we were saved.

2. But all of us lived contrary to the ways of God.

3. All Christians had a life–altering experience when they met Jesus Christ.