Let me be specific. I am not talking about a place that caused you to say, "That sure is pretty." I am talking about much more than that. I am talking about a place that took your breath away. As you soaked in this scene, you stood silently as you were filled with a sense of awe, a sense of smallness, a sense of mystery. Have you ever visited such a place? Where was it? I want you to remember it right now.

Maybe your place involves a mountain view. This mountain view filled you with a sense of awe and mystery. No matter how much you looked at it, you never tired of seeing it. (On the screen is a view of mountains.) As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it started with a creative act of our God.

Maybe your place involves the view of a valley. As you saw this scene, it touched you deeply. Something deep inside you simply never tired of looking. Through your eyes it spoke to your heart, and your heart stood in silence as it was filled with joy. (On the screen is a view of a valley.) As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it started with a creative act of our God.

Maybe your place involves a view of a desert. As you looked at this scene, you had difficulty believing what you were seeing. The view was simply too big, to inspiring to exist. How small you felt as you drank in its vastness. No matter how many others were near you, it was as though you were all alone. You were so awed by what you saw you could have looked, and looked, and looked. (On the screen is a view of a desert). As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it started with a creative act of our God.

Maybe your place involves a view of an island. Out of what seemed to be the "nothingness" of water suddenly there arises an island. It is almost mystical, full of life, just appearing "out of nowhere." As you watch it rising before you, it is almost surreal. The closer it gets, the more life filled and awe-inspiring it becomes. (On the screen is a view of an island.) As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it started with a creative act of God.

Maybe your place involves a view of a sunset or a sunrise. Maybe it is a place that provides you a spectacular view if you get up early enough to watch the sun climb over the horizon or sit silently and watch the sun fall below the horizon. Maybe you listen to the world all around awaken at sunrise or listen to the world all around you go to sleep at sunset. The sounds and the sights truly overwhelm and absorb you. (On the screen is a view of a sunrise or sunset.) As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it started with a creative act of God.

Maybe your place involves a view of a city. It is not a view of an individual, but a view of where masses of people live. You look at where they live. You identify as a part of them, but you marvel at how different all of you are. (On the screen is a view of the skyline of a city.) As you look at your view in your mind, remember that it all started with a creative act of God.

1. There is nothing good that we see, nothing good that we experience that did not have its origin in our Creator God.
   1. Our God is a God of incredible power, a God of incredible holiness, and a God of incredible purity.
      1. The astounding thing is this powerful, holy, pure God has such concern for us weak, unholy, impure creatures.
      2. About three thousand years ago, the psalmist David wrote these words:
         Psalm 8:1-9 O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!
      3. About a thousand years later, Paul [who was the author of many of the New Testament letters] quoted from Isaiah and Job as he wrote these words in Romans 11:33-36:
         Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
      4. This same Paul wrote this statement to the Christians in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:18-23:
         Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, "He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless." So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
   2. What does it mean to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and appointed him to be the Christ?
      1. "It means that I turn away from the evil in my life and turn to God." Yes, it means that, but believing in the resurrected Jesus means much more than that.
      2. "It means that I choose to be baptized into Christ." Yes, it means that, but believing in the resurrected Jesus means more than that.
      3. "It means I worship God as the living God and the only God, and worship Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords." Yes, it means that, but believing in the resurrected Jesus means more than that.
      4. "It means I serve God as the ruler of all things in my life." Yes, it means that but believing in the resurrected Jesus means more than that.
      5. "What more does it mean?"
         1. It means that I constantly grow in my understanding of how great God is.
         2. It means that I constantly grow in my awareness of how evil I am.
         3. It means that I know that even when I am the best me I can be that even then I can stand in God's presence only because He forgives me.

   [Let's sing together "We Bow Down" (577)]

2. The same Paul who declared God's greatness to Christians in Rome and Christians in Corinth made this statement to the Christian Timothy:
   1 Timothy 1:12-17 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
   1. Before Paul became a Christian, you and I would say that Paul was a very evil, violent person.
      1. He was a very accomplished religious person--he was not mean for the sake of meanness; he was mean because he misunderstood God.
         1. In his understanding of God, Christians were God's enemy.
         2. In his understanding of God, it was God's will for him to abuse and arrest Christians.
         3. In his understanding of God, it was a act of service to God to vote for the death penalty for some of the people he arrested.
      2. But the resurrected Jesus had use for Paul--even though this man thought Jesus was a dead disaster who even dead was a threat to God's people.
         1. When the Christian Ananias thought it was a mistake to take a message from the resurrected Jesus to this man, the resurrected Jesus made this statement:
            Acts 9:15,16 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake."
         2. He who had caused suffering to those who belonged to Jesus would suffer because he belonged to Jesus.
   2. Please notice that Paul felt a deep sense of honor and privilege to belong to Jesus Christ.
      1. In no sense did he feel that he was being punished.
      2. In every way he realized how much mercy God gave him through Jesus.
   3. He noted two reasons that God's mercy and grace we given to him in Jesus Christ.
      1. First, he received God's mercy and grace because he acted in the ignorance of disbelief.
         1. "I don't understand that. How could he say he was ignorant?"
         2. His ignorance was the result of a lack of faith.
         3. He did not understand the relationship between Jesus and God.
         4. He did not understand what God was doing for people through Jesus.
      2. Second, he received God's mercy and grace to be the forever example to all who lived after Paul.
         1. God through Jesus forgave Paul to demonstrate Jesus Christ's perfect patience.
         2. If God was merciful to Paul when he finally understood and turned to the Savior instead of fighting the Savior, God can and will be merciful to anyone who will understand what God does through Jesus Christ, and turn to the Savior.
         3. We all need to understand that God's number one priority in His relationship with people is to forgive them.

Please notice that long after a believing Paul was baptized into Jesus Christ, long after the Christian Paul endured great suffering for Jesus Christ, long after Paul gave great service to Jesus Christ, he still knew who and what he was. By his own classification, he declared he was the greatest sinner on earth because of the mean, violent things he did against God's purposes.

Paul understood that the only reason that he had the privilege of suffering for Jesus Christ was this: God's mercy and grace.

You and I do not deserve God's kindness and forgiveness. The only reason that we can approach God is found in the fact that He has forgiven us. The only reason that we have God's forgiveness is found in the fact that God has mercy on us and in His mercy gives us grace through Jesus Christ.

Every good thing that exists began with a creative act of God. That includes your salvation and mine.

I invite you to the God who will forgive you, not because you deserve it, but because He is merciful.