Good morning friends: My name is Joan M. Blake and today, I will be presenting the third in a series of six messages taken from the book of Galatians. Let me begin with a word of prayer. Father in the name of Jesus, I pray that you will lift every burden, that you will supply every need according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Amen. In our previous podcast, I discussed how to live by faith. Today, I will discuss living with assurance.
Friends, are you certain about the mission that the Lord has given you or are you trying to please others? Let us read Galatians 1 verses 15 through 17 and get a glimpse of how Apostle Paul lived with assurance. I am reading from the NIV version. “But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.”
Paul assured the Galatian Church that the Gospel he preached “didn’t come from man but from Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:11-12). They need not be swayed from the Gospel that Paul was preaching to receive other teachings. He discussed his previous manner of life, how he was a persecutor of the Christian Church, but God had mercy on him and by grace, called him to preach to the Gentiles the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn’t seek assurance from any man but did exactly what God wanted him to do (Gal 1: 15-17). In Gal 1:18-24, Paul described how he was unknown to the churches at Judea. After three years, he went to see Peter and later James, and continued on his missionary journey.
Paul lived with assurance because He knew that Jesus, who called him, would never leave him, would be his helper, his strength, his joy, his peace and would carry him throughout his missionary journey. He remained committed to his mission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and bring salvation to many despite what others had said about him: that he (Paul) was the one who persecuted the church and was preaching the same gospel he tried to destroy.
Friends, what about you? Are you afraid to come forward and do what God has assigned you to do? Are you worried about what people would say about you or what they would think about you? I want to encourage you to imitate Apostle Paul and live with assurance that God who has called you, will carry you.