The Wrong Car: The Grace of Admitting You Need a Savior

You cannot be found until you admit you're lost.

Speaker: Pastor Caleb Culver
Date: August 30, 2026

God has two speeds: slow and suddenly. When you’re praying for someone you love, the "slow" can feel discouraging. Watch this sermon from Pastor Caleb Culver to hear how God moves in the "suddenly" moments.

Here's a 5-day devotional guide based on this sermon:

Day 1: Zeal in the Wrong Direction

Acts 9:1–2 | Philippians 3:4–6

Saul was not indifferent to God, he was consumed by what he believed was faithfulness, hunting down believers with letters of authority in hand. His credentials were impressive: trained under a top rabbi, blameless under the law, zealous to the point of violence. Religious zeal is not proof you are headed the right direction. It is possible to be sincerely convinced and still be sincerely wrong.

Day 2: Interrupted by Light

Acts 9:3–6 | John 1:4–5

A light from heaven stopped Saul mid-journey, and a voice spoke his name twice, the way Scripture often signals a moment of direct, personal address. Saul did not go looking for this encounter. It found him, mid-stride, mid-mission, mid-certainty. John describes Jesus as the light that darkness could not overcome, and Saul is proof that no amount of religious momentum can outrun it either.

Day 3: Three Days in the Dark

Acts 9:8–9 | Psalm 139:11–12

Saul spent three days blind, unable to eat or drink, before Ananias ever arrived. That darkness was not punishment, it was space to finally see the truth about himself. David wrote that even darkness is not dark to God, that it becomes as light around Him. Sometimes the most disorienting seasons of your life are exactly where God is doing the deepest work.

Day 4: Everything Counted as Loss

Philippians 3:7–9 | Matthew 13:44–46

Paul later described his old credentials, his pedigree, his righteousness under the law, as rubbish compared to knowing Christ. That is not self-hatred, it is recalibrated value. Jesus described the kingdom as treasure worth selling everything to obtain, and Paul lived out exactly that trade. What you count as gain reveals what you actually believe is valuable.

Day 5: Grace for the Chief of Sinners

1 Timothy 1:13–16 | Ephesians 2:8–9

Years later, Paul called himself the chief of sinners, not because his sin was uniquely worse than everyone else's, but because he had seen with unusual clarity how much mercy it took to save him. Paul insists salvation is a gift, not a result of works, so that no one has room to boast. The same grace that stopped Saul on the road to Damascus is the same grace available to you today, no matter how far gone you think you are.