Convictions will \u201cdrive you through life, especially in the toughest seasons of the soul,\u201d Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias told a Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas in 2018.<\/p>\n
Zacharias, president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Ga., shared a message entitled, \u201cConvictions that conquered the world.\u201d He explained the difference between convictions and opinion along with how convictions shape and mold people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn opinion is something you have,\u201d Zacharias said. \u201cA conviction is something that has you. It holds you, it is what motivates you, it is the intelligence in your soul and you can never change a conviction without changing who you are. It is ultimately your convictions that will drive you through life, especially in the toughest seasons of the soul.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zacharias preached from Acts 7 and emphasized the importance of \u201cquestioning our questioners.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you question your questioner, it opens your questioner up in two ways: It opens them up within their assumptions and it opens up the entry point of the discussion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In his sermon, Zacharias gave three truths to \u201cwhy multitudes fall on their knees in front of God.\u201d
\n \u2022 They saw the finger of God in all of history and Christ as its central figure.<\/p>\n
\u2022 They harnessed an area of persecution and transformed it to a platform of opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The priority of a person over methodology.
\nThe importance of God\u2019s finger in all of history can be seen with Christ at the center, Zacharias said. He noted that a question from Jewish leaders contained in one verse receives 50 verses from Stephen as an answer, going all the way back to Abraham.<\/p>\n
He uses Luke 24 as an example of everything the prophets had written coming to pass. \u201cThe Lord connects all of the dots for the disciples,\u201d Zacharias said. \u201cHe gave all of history meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Christians go through persecution, God uses it for a purpose toward His greater good, Zacharias noted.<\/p>\n
\u201c[God] changes an arena of pain into a platform of opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is critical to know that when we go through pain, that we understand that God has a pattern and a program to bring us through for the purposes that He has in life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zacharias emphasized that God\u2019s method throughout history has always been through a person, \u201cGod raises up a voice, God raises up a pen, and God changes history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever lose hope,\u201d he said. \u201cThere will never be another Billy Graham, but God will raise up somebody who Billy Graham could never have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
As an example of God changing hearts, Zacharias preached of Saul of Tarsus being the man who oversaw Stephen\u2019s murder in Acts, becoming Paul the apostle and how his influence had changed history, now being one of the most beloved names in Christianity.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod can use you, He can change your heart and put a new song in your heart, put a pen in your hand and make a difference for history,\u201d Zacharias said. \u201cYou may be in the audience today for whom God is going to chart a course for the future, never underestimate that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Convictions will \u201cdrive you through life, especially in the toughest seasons of the soul,\u201d Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias told a Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas in 2018. Zacharias, president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Ga., shared a message entitled, \u201cConvictions that conquered the world.\u201d He explained the difference between convictions and opinion along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1193,1194,456],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}