This Sunday, we begin our summer worship series on the Apostle Paul. Aside from Jesus, Paul is the most central character of the Christian faith. Paul wrote 13 of the New Testament’s documents and influenced 3 others. The author of Luke and Acts was Paul’s traveling companion.

Today, we look at Paul’s childhood through Paul’s own words. We will consider his parents and his teacher Gamaliel.

We don’t know much about Paul’s early years. What we do know about Paul offers a profound picture of a greatly flawed man who relentlessly proclaimed that the salvation offered through Jesus Christ is available to all people.

Despite Paul’s shortcomings and failings, God used Paul to do amazing things. That is good news for us, because that may mean that despite our shortcomings and failings, God might use us as well.