TAKING GROUND | Week 2 | Sermon · Rewind

TAKING GROUND | Week 2 | Sermon · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Sep 18, 2023

Big Idea

God changes people so that changed people can change other people — that's His whole plan to transform the world.

In Acts 9, Saul the terrorist meets the resurrected Christ and is completely remade — not improved, but rebuilt from the ground up. When we really encounter Jesus, He doesn't just fix our problems; He changes our purpose and our perspective, and then sends us out as change agents to the people around us.

Key points

1
1God's transformation is total renovation, not a touch-up.
Pastor Daniel tells the story of buying and gutting a rundown house near his old church, and pairs it with a C.S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity about God rebuilding us into a palace, not a decent cottage. He argues American churches often preach a small message of self-improvement when God actually wants to make us an entirely new person.
2
2Saul's conversion is the descriptive pattern of what happens when someone truly meets the resurrected Christ.
Pastor Daniel gives the backstory of Saul as a brilliant, wealthy Sanhedrin member and approving witness to Stephen's stoning, then walks through his blinding encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. He notes this isn't prescriptive for exactly how conversion must happen, but it is descriptive of what a regenerated life looks like.
3
3Meeting Jesus changes your purpose, not just your profession.
Saul stays a preacher of God's word both before and after, but his purpose completely flips from persecuting the message of Jesus to proclaiming it. Pastor Daniel challenges listeners to ask whether people around them could say their purpose has actually changed since they started following Jesus, warning against confusing success with purpose.
4
4Following Jesus doesn't remove your problems, it changes them.
After his conversion Saul loses status, gets hunted by the same Jews who once idolized him, and is lowered over a wall in a basket to escape death. Pastor Daniel warns against a therapeutic, genie-in-a-bottle version of Jesus, insisting the real gospel doesn't promise easier circumstances, just better ones.
5
5Peace and purpose are found in the middle of problems, not in their absence.
Pastor Daniel points to Acts 9:31, where the church grows and finds peace even while being persecuted, and argues this only makes sense if peace isn't the absence of trouble but the presence of God within it. He ties this to Saul's changed worldview, which reshaped his beliefs, values, and behavior.
6
6God changes cities by changing people first.
Using the story of Waco, Texas going from the stain of the Branch Davidians to a tourist destination because of Chip and Joanna Gaines, Pastor Daniel argues God's strategy for renewing places is always through transformed individuals living out that transformation where they are.

Application

Pastor Daniel's charge is that God changes people so those changed people can go change people.

Ask how your purpose has changed
Reflect honestly on whether the people in your life would say your purpose looks different since you started following Jesus, rather than settling for mere success.
Stop treating Jesus like a genie
Let go of the idea that following Jesus is meant to make your problems disappear, and instead expect Him to change who you are in the middle of them.
Ask God to change how you see the world
Pray specifically for a new worldview — asking God to help you see your problems, your purpose, and the people around you the way He does.
See your sphere of influence as your mission field
Recognize the workplace, school, or community God has placed you in as the place He wants to reach through you, and share your own story of what God has done.
Share your story without waiting to be ready
Like Saul, who began preaching immediately without years of training, tell people what God has walked you through as your starting point for reaching them.

Take it into your week

Sign in to ask Rewind about this sermon

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“we're gonna see today in Acts chapter nine, just this unbelievably powerful story of transformation and life change, arguably one of the most important conversion stories in the entire Bible”
From the transcript
“I wanna start reading in verse 19. The second part of verse 19. It says that Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days and immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogue”
From the transcript
“remember the context of Saul's mind. Deuteronomy chapter 22 part of the old testament says that for a man to die to be hung on a tree, that is a cursed man”
From the transcript
“We see Saul first on the scene in Acts chapter six and seven when the first martyr of the New Testament shows up, a man named Stephen, a man who runs the lunch program for the widows”
From the transcript
“Stephen preaches this brilliant sermon that's recorded in Acts chapter seven, basically walking through meticulously all the old testament and showing exactly how it connects to Jesus”
From the transcript
“He's a man who admittingly, if you fast forward to Acts 22, he talks about how he persecuted the church. He said that's all he did. He was a known terrorist”
From the transcript
“Here's how the story continues. In verse 23, it says that after a while, some of the Jews plotted together to kill Saul”
From the transcript
“Verse 24 says, they were watching for him day and night at the city gate so that they could murder him. But Saul was told about their plot”
From the transcript
“It says in verse 26 that when Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers. Okay. Now he's trying to meet with the Christians, but they were all afraid of him”
From the transcript
“Look at this last verse that happens in here. It says in verse 31, it says, the church then had peace throughout Judea, throughout Galilee and Samaria. It became stronger as the believers lives in the fear of the Lord”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

Before Saul became Paul, he was convinced he was doing God a favor by hunting down followers of Jesus. He had credentials, zeal, and a mission — and every bit of it was aimed in the wrong direction. Then, on a road to Damascus, the risen Jesus showed up and asked a single question: 'Why are you persecuting Me?' Not 'why are you so wrong?' Not 'why are you so bad?' Just — why? There is something worth sitting with in that question. Jesus met Saul in the middle of his worst moment and reoriented him rather than condemned him. Pastor Daniel's point lands here: a genuine encounter with the resurrected Christ doesn't just adjust your behavior — it changes your entire reason for getting up in the morning. Saul thought his purpose was to destroy the church. Three days later, blind and fasting in Damascus, his purpose was being completely rewritten. That rewriting is not just a first-century story. It is the normal pattern of what Jesus does. He does not simply fix a problem or two and leave the rest of you intact. He remakes the whole thing — worldview, values, direction. The invitation today is simply to let that sink in: the same Jesus who stopped Saul on that road is alive, and He is still in the business of rewriting people's stories.

For reflection

Where in your life are you still operating with a purpose you chose for yourself rather than one shaped by an encounter with Jesus?

Pray

Pray for openness to let Jesus ask His own questions about the direction your life is currently heading.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Saul of Tarsus went from hunting down followers of Jesus to becoming one of the most unstoppable voices for Him in the ancient world — this message asks what it looks like when an encounter with the risen Jesus doesn't just fix a problem but rewrites a whole purpose.

Discussion questions

1
In Acts 9:19-22, Saul immediately begins proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues — the very places where he had previously come to arrest believers. What does that kind of immediate, public reversal suggest about what a genuine encounter with the risen Jesus actually does to a person?
2
Pastor Daniel made a distinction between treating Jesus as a 'problem-removal service' and surrendering to Him fully. Looking at Saul's story in Acts 9:23-25, how do those two expectations play out differently when real opposition shows up?
3
One of the key points from this message is that if we live for the approval of people, we will be destroyed by their disapproval. How does Saul's experience in Acts 9:23-26 — rejected by his old allies and initially distrusted by his new ones — illustrate what it costs to no longer make human approval the center of your identity?
4
Acts 9:31 describes the church walking in the 'fear of the Lord' and in the 'comfort of the Holy Spirit' during a season of peace — yet that peace came on the other side of real conflict. What might that pattern teach us about where true peace is actually found?
5
Pastor Daniel challenged us that God places people in specific workplaces, neighborhoods, and schools not by accident but as part of His strategy to reach others — and that the most powerful tool we carry is our own story of transformation. What makes a personal story of transformation more or less compelling than a program or a platform, based on what we see in how Saul engaged people in this passage?
6
This message argued that God must change our worldview before our behavior will ever truly change. How might that reordering — seeing the world differently before acting differently — change the way a community of people approaches the city or neighborhood around them?

Pray together

Ask God to rewrite your purpose — not just your circumstances — and to open your eyes to the people He has already placed around you

Sign in to save this message.

Topics

Change Agents Conversion and Transformation Encountering Jesus Personal Testimony Purpose Reorientation

Powered by Rewind · make your church's Rewind →