[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to kind of continue what we started last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we go verse by verse chapter by chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And last week was kind of a, I don't know how to explain it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was like, what God's doing in my life, a little bit of verse by verse.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was kind of more of a topical message, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it does tie right into this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so last week, if you were here, or even if you weren't, I asked the question, who,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd be coming, and now this was something personal that God was doing in my heart in my life through our vacation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We took a vacation last month there, and so, but I asked you guys the question, who are you becoming?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the truth is, the actions that you take today are going to change and form you into the person you're becoming tomorrow, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can understand that, we obviously, we get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing we're going to look at today is that, okay, who am I becoming, who do we want to become?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to see Saul, and now Saul, I think we oftentimes read through Acts chapter 9 for example, and we'll just kind of, we're like, well, Saul was a persecutor of the church, he was an enemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got saved and then he was the super mega pastor and started planting churches all over the place and it became the apostle Paul who we know and love today and we're like man, he was just a superstar.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the 18, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone think that sometimes you just read through, you're like, well that's nice for you Paul, but this is my life, this is real life, like you're,
[SPEAKER_00]: special and chosen but it wasn't that case we can read through Acts chapter 9 you think well this just happened over the course of 48 hours 72 hours a few days maybe a week but that's not the case it actually was over the length of many years and here's the thing I want us to see today is that God will call you in a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, with Saul, he's on the road to Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got his plans laid out for his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to persecute the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he thought he wanted to do and he was zealous and he was all in, but God, I mean, God is good and he will disrupt our plans at times.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some of you're like, well, I don't like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: My plans disrupted, but when God disrupts your plans,
[SPEAKER_00]: it's a good thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we agree with that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we can trust God that like, hey, God, your plans are better than my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know best, you made me, so I think it'd be best to surrender unto you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that happened in a moment and that will happen in a moment in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're God will get to your heart, you know, cut to the heart to where you're like, I just need to, I need to repent.
[SPEAKER_00]: as many of you last week would give a little like altar call moment like hate is respond to the Lord and raise your hand as pray for you and there are many hands that went up right it's like God will do a work in your life in a moment but here's the thing is that that becoming who God wants you to be fully takes time
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's frustrating, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we want to be like what we read in Acts chapter 9.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want to be like, I was of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: I repented, I got saved, now I want to be Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be used.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to have a ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be successful, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our success standards are kind of like the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we think numbers and things of that nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here's success with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: His definition is faithfulness in obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's success.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they're not there's a bunch of numbers, conversions, like people who get in saved, like that's the work God's going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Leave that to him, he brings the fruit, but becoming who God wants you to be, it takes time, it takes testing, it takes faithfulness, and it takes just, uh,
[SPEAKER_00]: it takes time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's read through our verses for today, Acts chapter 9, verse 19 through 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to start.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says for some days, he was with the disciples at Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying, He is the Son of God, and all who heard Him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon His name, and has He not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priest, but Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: When many days had passed, and I'd underline, or highlight that if you're a highlighter type of person, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But their plot became known to Saul.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were all afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Barnabas, maybe underline that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenist, but they were seeking to kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Cessaria and sent him off to Tarsus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the church threw out all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: it multiplied.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the word of the Lord that we're looking to this morning and I hope to unpack it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a lot of things I hope to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, our question last week, who are you becoming?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to come to this point of surrender and Paul or Saul, if I say Paul, just understand I'm talking of Saul here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Saul, he had this moment of surrender.
[SPEAKER_00]: God met him,
[SPEAKER_00]: And he made a decision, there was no turning back, so to speak last week we talked about burning the boats or burning the ships and it's like that picture of the people who would go over to conquer a land.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would like their boats and ships on fire and the whole point was like there's no turning back.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no way out and I mentioned last week that some of us like you got to stop leaving yourself away out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, I know God's calling me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have my backup plan just in case like you need to burn your backup plan and you need to get rid of it and just surrender unto God and Saul is in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you have for me and I think for him it's like he doesn't know of what the culmination or
[SPEAKER_00]: fulfillment of what God's going to do in His life yet, but He's open and He's willing and He's ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says for some days, He was, this is verse 19, with the disciples at Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now remember Damascus is where He was going to persecute the Christians, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember that like that was His plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's so like God that he still let him go to Damascus and it's like you went there to persecute Christians, but you ended up becoming a Christian and I just love God's like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will flip your plans if you let him and it's in a good way and so he's there at Damascus and it says for some days I think that's another phrase to highlight in our study for some days.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now if we look to some other context, and I'll give you some verses you can write down, but Galatians 1, 17, I believe, is where it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Galatians 1, 17, Paul, the Apostle, many years later, writing this letter to the church at Galatia.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's speaking of his conversion event, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when he got saved, he's like, I didn't consult with anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I went away into Arabia and returned again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then verse 18 tells us some context that helps us today says, then after three years, I went to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that gives us some context to our study today.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're like, well, Paul, man, I just want to be like, Paul, I got saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on fire for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, what do you have for me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just use me today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he will use you today, but understand this that he still has a lot of work to do on you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pastor Ed Taylor, he's a pastor at Calvary Church in Aurora, Colorado.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a friend kind of a mentor to me in a way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he told me when we came out to church plan, I'd call him a few times and I'd just ask him questions and just be honest and open.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was like, what are we doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, like, things are hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it would be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: things of that nature, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is probably around a year into moving to Texas, this is the year 2020 and COVID's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm working at FedEx, and I was actually driving her out for FedEx, and I'm talking to Ed Taylor on the phone about anything and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he told me he said that Nick, he's like, when you're church planting, he's like, the first few years, if not all the years, he's like, it's more about what God wants to do in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: than through you and he's trying to change my perspective because I'm like, well, why isn't it working?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm right, like, why isn't people coming to church or coming to Christ or whatever?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he just, I mean, I didn't like the answer per se at first either.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, it's more about what God wants to do in you right now than what he wants to do through you on next Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think sometimes we've got to understand, like God is continually working in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not okay, I got it, I'm good, now where's the fruit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we feel that way, and we live in a culture that, I mean, it's,
[SPEAKER_00]: Conditions us to think that way, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, think back to think prior to 2020.
[SPEAKER_00]: I try just to remember, like the things that were introduced, like life today is not the same life as 2019, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like before COVID, like we didn't have curbside pickup at every single store in the universe, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't have, I mean, there's pride door dash, but not to the extent we have today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Amazon, like I remember moving here,
[SPEAKER_00]: same day service, you order it at 2 p.m.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's at your door at 5 p.m. Like it's incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't get me wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm, you know, sometimes it's annoying if it can't be here at 5 p.m.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's just a testament to the culture we live in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we're conditioned to like, well, I did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the results?
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave my life to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why am I not bearing fruit?
[SPEAKER_00]: I surrendered everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've repented of my sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, why aren't you using me yet?
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's still working on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have much to learn.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have much to learn.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not ever finished with this race or this process of sanctification until we're made new and we're in in the presence of the Lord face to face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it says for some days he was with the disciples in Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that's three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not like terribly long, but still it's not just a couple days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three years he's there with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: in Damascus, but then it does say something that's worth noting, verse 20 says, and immediately you could underline and highlight that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's there for three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just given his life to Jesus, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like he or he will be there for three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, well,
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't become the great apostle Paul that we know today right away, but what he did do is he did immediately start to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues at Damascus What does that tell us while he started with what he knows?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Paul, I mean, he's a brilliant guy for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's well-studied.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would have known the Old Testament front to back, back to front, all the things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he started with what he knows.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what does he know at this point?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he knows that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that Jesus is alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that Jesus is the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that Jesus is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he not might not know all the deeper intricate questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God, what do you want of my life?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you want me to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do you want me to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: And all these things, but what he does know, he's like, I know that Jesus is God, and I know that he's alive, and I'm gonna tell people about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So does that kind of mean for us today?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need to have it all together.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, God's still working on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're just like, well, I'll wait until he's done working on me to go to work for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not how it works.
[SPEAKER_00]: We work well, we wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: We keep going out like, what do you know, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully some of you today are going, oh, Jesus is God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that he died for my sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that if I repent to my sins, I can be forgiven and I can live for him and I'll have eternal life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we understand these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's the thing that you need to see is like you might know more than you realize.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Nick, I can't preach like you or say these things, but what do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know very much of the Bible when I first started following Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but here I am, you know, 15, 16 years later, and it's like, and yeah, it's a process and I'm still learning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still finding things where it's like, oh, man, I thought it was one way deeper studies and talking with people, I'm like, wow, I didn't realize that before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got still working, but what do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because God does want to use you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might think, well, where?
[SPEAKER_00]: How?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, who's going to listen to me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, like, just being a light.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that's probably cliche.
[SPEAKER_00]: You come to church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, be a light.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, how do you be a light?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, just at work.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be, I guess, I would encourage you all to pray that God would fill you with his Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you would ask him to help you to be sensitive to his leading because he will lead you in ways where you're like, but I'm not equipped, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, at work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just say work, for example.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might have been there.
[SPEAKER_00]: for many years and an example of my life I worked at a restaurant the first three years I was there I was not following Jesus I mean I was getting drunk and high every day and people knew it like I was no a shame like you could smell me walking the door up nicks here you know today because I had no shame of of those things and that's who they knew me to be
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and then imagine there's surprise one day, I walk in, I had a little like pocket Bible, not the little like only New Testament, like this is a full Bible, but pocket Bible, it costs like five bucks at a store that was called Gospel Supplies that I went and bought it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It fit in my pocket, it fit in my little server cubby thing, and I bring it to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine there's surprise, I'm like, what are you doing with a Bible, Nick?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, like yesterday, you're getting drunk and high and you want to go out to the bars and whatever with us and now today you've got a Bible in your hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it seems like a contradiction and it seems a little foolish because you're like, well yeah, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can cave to that pressure and be like, yeah, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a mess up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can't do anything right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done too much and then you could just be like, you know, what am I doing and talk yourself out of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you could just be like, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like Jesus saved my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I got a Bible here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't know everything, and they try to argue stuff with me to try to disprove God.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I don't know everything to argue with some of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're much more intelligent, apparently than me, and that's fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I do know is Jesus is real, he's alive, he died for my sins, he died for your sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you repent to, you could have everlasting life and be forgiven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you just start with what you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for you, what might that look like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe it's at work and you've been there for 10 years and like, well, they just know me as the worldly guy or girl and they know all of my past failures and yeah, maybe so.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, like, what do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Jesus has saved you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's called you and starts to share that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying go to the Bible and say you're going to hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't repent, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: If God calls you and stirs you to do that, maybe do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think that's very, what's the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that works well, bashing people with the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like pushes them further away.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says it's Lord's kindness that leads us to repentance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you can just kindly be a light and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, it's like, you'll be surprised of what God might do, because again, you might not know much, but you see someone hurting, you're sensitive to the Spirit's leading and you just, I just want to pray for you, can I pray for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll be surprised, because they might be like, you pray for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what I've also noticed is that most of the time, when you ask someone, can you pray for them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if they're an atheist and they're very vocal about it, and if they're going through a hard time, and you say, can I pray for you, I've never experienced someone that says, no, I don't pray for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you've experienced that, but when you're sensitive to the spirit's lead, and you're just like, can I pray for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is like a month or so ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a guy at work for me who's upstairs, and I could just tell something was going on in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't want to ask him, because I'm like, you know, you can tell something big is going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like to me, I don't know, someone probably passed away or is in the hospital a car crash.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what's going on, but the dude's not who he normally is, and I just said, can I pray for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it was weird, you know, he knows I'm a pastor, and we've talked a lot about he's Catholic, you know, and he has a lot of thoughts, and we kind of debate in this fun in times, but I said, kind of pray for you, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that probably goes against everything, catholicism says, like, you are not a priest, and you cannot, you know, be at my, what do you call it?
[SPEAKER_00]: mediator between God and man, but for me, I know it's like, but anyways, he said, yeah, and I just prayed for him in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't ask any more questions in the next days, like Nick, thank you so much for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I needed that prayer in that moment, like it's just something little.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't know what God's going to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, I just asked the question, like, where you're at right now, God wants to use you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're thinking like, well, I don't know enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not smart enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't read the Bible enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't answer these questions, and that's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, God's still working on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're becoming someone new, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, little by little, day by day, month at a time, year at a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then hopefully, the part is, is like, after a few years, if you look back on your life, because you might, today, you might feel like, well, I haven't changed much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, look at your life five years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it look the same as it does today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is it like, okay, I've grown a lot in these five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, because some of you're like, man, I just haven't done much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember back at Calvary 2 song when I was a pastor there.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a person who came up and I mean, God will use me in ways, because my testimony is drugs and alcohol and drugs and alcohol type people.
[SPEAKER_00]: They find comfort and like, because I understand, you know, someone who's never done it before like, you don't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel the same way about people when they try to, but anyways, that's just my own thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: This person comes up and they just felt bad for themselves, like, you know, like, I just don't know what I'm doing, but they've been sober for five days, you know, like, but they thought like it wasn't enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just asked the question and I said, when was the last time you were sober for five days, I was like, well, five years ago or whatever he said years ago, I was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: that's progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, God's working in your life, you don't even realize it, you know, and he's working in all of our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: So who are you becoming?
[SPEAKER_00]: God is shaping and molding you, but it does take time, but there's also things in the timeline, if that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're God wants to use you in little ways with what you know today, and you have influenced in people's lives that the person's sitting next to you, even myself, we don't have access to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, we don't, they won't listen to me, but they might at work, they listen to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be there and be that light in that time of need.
[SPEAKER_00]: God will use you in mighty ways and so, so, so, in this moment, he might not know it all, but what he does know is Jesus is alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He talked to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He healed me of my, he struck me blind first, then healed me of my blindness and he saved me for a purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he starts to preach immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he does what he knows how to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says verse 21 and all who heard him were amazed and said, is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those called who called upon his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're just like, isn't this the guy that like hates Christians?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like the guy that was persecuting Christians in Jerusalem, the guy like, I mean, they might even have said, like the guy who is there who approved of Stevens execution isn't this the guy?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it says, I mean, they wouldn't be wrong, yes, it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God is working on him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't he trying to do the same thing to us?
[SPEAKER_00]: But says, but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving
[SPEAKER_00]: that Jesus was the Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's the thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Saul's converted, he's changed, he's saved, whatever word you want to use there, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He believes, and he's starting to preach Jesus, might not have it all together, but he tells what he does know, but here's the thing is just because God has started to change you, the people around you aren't going to believe you right away.
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't let that like discourage you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, going back to the restaurant story of mine, it's like, yeah, my coworkers made fun of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they didn't believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, honestly, I didn't know if I could do it either.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, I'm trying to be a follower of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm praying and hoping for the best kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: But people around you, they're not going to believe you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're change, all of a sudden, oh, Mr. Christian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you're too good for us now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if some of you ever experience these type of things, but this is stuff I've experienced real people will do that, but don't let that discourage you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's working on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's forming you into who he wants you to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as you stay close to Jesus, yes, some people are going to think you're crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're closest friends, coworkers, family members, especially like, oh, you're
[SPEAKER_00]: You're saved now, and now all of us, we're going to hell, huh, right, you know, and if you wanted to play that, it's like, well, you know, if you don't believe in Jesus, technically yes, you are, but, you know, family gatherings can get a little tense at times when that stuff happens, but don't let it discourage you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's still working, and so even Saul, he doesn't let it discourage him, it doesn't let it stop him here, and I think one point we could understand or take here is like, you don't have to have it all together just to be faithful to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just being faithful, again, it's like success in God's eyes is faithfulness in obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And oftentimes it's in small little ways that you're like, well, that doesn't really matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll do that tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or somebody else will do it for sure, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just little things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody else can pray for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, just small little acts of obedience and faithfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: God will use those and so Saul is being used by God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's preaching Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's even proving that Jesus was the Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think in Paul's mind, Saul's mind, is like everything is coming together now.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of a sudden it's like he thought he knew but now it's like full color picture.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sees it because Jesus is the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the promise Messiah from the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's all clicking into gear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he's starting to tell the Jewish people like, hey, I was wrong too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're wrong too, but let me tell you and he starts to prove that Jesus is who he says he would be and so going back verse 23 says when many days had passed right again this is years going on here says when many days had passed the Jews plotted to kill him now I said last week it's like Paul's closest friends or Saul's closest friends before coming to Jesus would become his enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like his homies, his like, they got my back.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we go, you know, to war, like, they're coming with me, like, we're that close.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's there, that committed and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: But those friends, if you will, would soon become his enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see that here is said that they plotted to kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, oh, well, I thought you had my back, man, I thought you'd love me, I thought you cared for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but this is a thing to consider when giving your life to Jesus, that things will change.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's like between friendships.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's between relationships and different stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the people you thought were your homies, ride together, die together, become your enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that's something you have to consider when giving your life to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Am I willing to give this up?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know it's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very difficult, like that I love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not saying that you don't love them and they don't, but at the same time as Jesus calling you and that's the one thing holding you back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, because I mean, I don't know, God can do a lot of things that you probably don't realize.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of my friends, there was a season where I had to just kind of,
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I don't love you guys and I don't think you love me, but it's like I'm too weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's like y'all are doing the things that I'm tempted to do and I just can't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't be around anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need a season of just, I'm done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for a few years it's like I just didn't hang out with them or call them, but like now it's like there's still my best, some of my best friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: I still will go see them, and if we're in Tucson, just be like, hey man, what's up, how are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And see how life's going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God will, he's good in a way that he will bring new friendships into your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you think, well, who am I going to hang out with?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who my friends are going to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, God has bigger plans than you realize.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know you think you're losing something, but the thing that's you're losing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think God has a hundredfold for you in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, his closest friends become his enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: They plotted to kill him, verse 24 says, but their plot, their plan, became known to Saul.
[SPEAKER_00]: He probably knew, like, I know the plays they're going to run, because I used to run them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was on that team.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to call the shots, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the plot became known to Saul, and they were watching the enemies, the religious leaders, watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, they're just waiting for Saul to leave Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got to go home at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just keep watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to find him eventually.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to kill him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It says, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we don't know who these disciples are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I think maybe it's the ones that were with him on the road to Damascus that were going to persecute the church, but they saw like their committed leader, brought to his knees, surrender to Jesus, maybe just maybe they surrender to Jesus too, and they're the ones like, man, like, I mean,
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe what you I've witnessed your transformation and now I want to be changed to maybe it's them Maybe it's some of the Christians that were in Damascus, but either way they help them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: They hide them They lower them down in a basket opening in the wall to get them out of there and it says verse 26
[SPEAKER_00]: Says in when he'd come to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, just remember, this is three years or so later, Galatians 1, 17, 18 tells us that after many days, but after three years, he goes up to meet the disciples, like Peter, John, these guys, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas is in the mix in there as well, but he says when he'd come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm saved in your Peter Paul like you're preaching the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've seen Pentecost and like, you know, tongues of fire and people in the thousands repents and come to be baptized and then the guy who killed Stephen comes up, you know, and it's like, hey, what's up, man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm on Team Jesus now, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, you know, if we were there, we'd be the same, like, uh...
[SPEAKER_00]: Pass, like, uh, no, thank you, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I get in line with all the other people and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they didn't believe him at first.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, becoming transformation, it takes time.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's working in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has worked in many of your lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just because someone doesn't recognize it, doesn't mean we should give up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't get discouraged.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, yeah, I have done too much, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we all said we abandoned our call.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, because they're right, they're not wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a sinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did do those things.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but just because they don't believe you at first, doesn't mean we should retreat.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he goes over there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a picture of, I think, one of the notes I wrote down, like, anybody can say that you're faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just think of again, like, the work employer environment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone can say they're a hard worker on the resume.
[SPEAKER_00]: But does that mean it's true?
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously not, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you can, but at the same time, it's like that stuff is proven over time in testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you say you're a hard worker.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to believe you, but I don't really know if that's true until I see you that you're a hard worker.
[SPEAKER_00]: You understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, so here it's like, he says he's saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I believe them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, but that's gonna be tested.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna be something that needs to be proved, proven out over time, out over testing.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Scripture tells us in a few different places, James chapter one tells us that testing or trials produce steadfastness, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when you get the testing and hard things come in your life and you endure through it,
[SPEAKER_00]: It actually helps you become more steadfast or helps you to persevere more later.
[SPEAKER_00]: You understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like working out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys like working out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody have you ever worked out?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just just still looking understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you go to the gym, so say it's day one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, you know what, I'm going to go back to the gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what was the last time you worked out all years ago, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, well, you better take it easy, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That'd be my advice as a coach, like, take it easy, baby steps, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're like, no, I'm going to go squat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do five sets of 10 back squat at my old squat weight, and then be like, no, you're not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will not be walking tomorrow, and it's like takes them time, but you go to the gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard, all right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your sweaty, all the things then you become sore.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like that, that's an act of working out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your muscles like it makes you stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: After you're, of course, you recover right the next couple of days like I don't feel stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like my body is breaking down.
[SPEAKER_00]: But after you recover, your muscles aren't sore anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that the next time you do back squats, like, okay, now you can endure a little bit more.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what James tells us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like testing trials, produces more steadfastness, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So when people are like, well, I don't believe you, but you endure, like, okay, I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did do a lot of things that I wouldn't believe me either.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm still committed to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still committed to his work in my life through my life and then it's like it produces more steadfastness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Romans chapter 5, it tells us that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, this is like the act of becoming who God's calling you to be, it's like, well, you gotta go through some hard things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you go through them, you're going to get more endurance to persevere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you persevere, you're going to gain character, which is like who are you becoming?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're becoming a new person who can endure through trials and testing and people making fun of you or thinking you're out of your mind or whatever it may be, and as you go through that in Romans chapter 5 says character produces hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter writes in first Peter, he talks about how our faith is tested and it's refined like gold in the fire and I just, I love, I bring some of these up to like let you know because like we gotta understand like you will be tested, it's not, did I do something wrong?
[SPEAKER_00]: And why am I being tested?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are hard things coming?
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Jesus says, and I said this last week, He says, this world, in this world, you will have tribulations, you will have trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hard things will come, but take hard I've overcome the world, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you will, and so some of these verses here when Peter's like, he even says it's, I think, first Peter chapter four, he's like, don't think of it as strange when these fiery trials come upon you to test you.
[SPEAKER_00]: right because it's testing your faith okay like you said you're the real deal and you've given your life to Jesus will now prove it how you do it's like well you just faithful obedience day after day after day and then again you get to five years down the road it's like you hopefully you look back and like I'm not the same person
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, going to the gym example, if you were to do something similar right day after day, like because you're not going to be strong and have a six pack and be shredded after a week in the gym.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why, that's just the honest truth, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like day after day after month, after month, after year after year, all of a sudden five years down the road and you go look at a picture of you from five years ago, you're like, whoa,
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've changed, right, like you'll see like there's progress, but it takes time.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're being refined, you're being molded, and so don't let, I guess, people's disbelief keep you from being obedient and what God's calling you to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Saul certainly didn't let it stop him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he goes to Jerusalem, he meets with the disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're afraid of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They did not believe he was a disciple.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love this verse 27, but Barnabas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Barnabas's name means son of encouragement, and he's known for to be that, he's the encourager, and this is a big reason why.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Barnabas took him, took Saul, and brought him to the apostles, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe Paul or Saul showed up one day to their prayer meeting and like, hey guys, like I wanna,
[SPEAKER_00]: kind of join and they're like, no, no, you can't, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we don't believe you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who knows, this is my own thoughts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just play the Bible out in my brain sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then Barnabas is like, oh, man, what happened?
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought you're going to be at their Bible study today, or they're prayer-meaning and like, oh, they don't believe me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, ah, come on man, let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Barnam is like, he took him, he brings him back to the disciples, he declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, no, this guy's legit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know he killed Stephen, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know he's done some terrible things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what he thought was God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know these things, but no, trust me, he's declares him like that he has seen the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And says he, the Lord spoke to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So who spoke to him and how had Damascus, he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he is defending his character.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only has he seen the Lord, had a moment with God, but he actually surrendered unto Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know and I can testify to you today that he has preached Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel of Jesus, two people at Damascus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's a pretty powerful like witness, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like in that day in age, they couldn't just go, like, well, let's just go check out his Instagram feed or his Twitter feed and see if he's really living for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like then you gotta have eyewitnesses who'd be like, no, he's legit.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Barnabes being the son of encouragement, he's encouraging in that way where he's like, okay, no, he's real, he's the real deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think to vouch for Saul at that day in time, specifically, like that has some dangerous implications, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: the ability to become real divisive real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to vouch for this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Barnabas, if you're going to be on team Saul, you're not going to be on our team anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Barnabas, he was just, I think, full of Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Spirit led.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, no, I've seen it, you preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know the work God's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to go tell them about the work God's doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he vouches for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's, that he's preached boldly in the name of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 28, he tells him that he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in name of the Lord, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenist, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Hellenist or some Greek speaking Jews to say somewhat simply and quickly here, but they would have been, I mean they would have been like Saul, but like a Greek version of Saul.
[SPEAKER_00]: They spoke Greek, but they were deeply religious, type people, Jewish people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you could just imagine Saul now knowing what he now knows and seeing them like that just has like Let's skip coffee together written all over it like you I know what you believe trust me You know what I mean, but let me tell you what I found out
[SPEAKER_00]: and so he's disputing with them and says then they were seeking to kill him right there's another death threat on his head there and says when the brothers learn this they brought him down to cestry and sent him off to tarsus so i think in this moment it's just kind of like okay Paul like it's not safe for you to stay here
[SPEAKER_00]: I know like you want to like we need to get you to some hiding spots like because otherwise you're going to be killed here until they send them off to Tarsus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now where is Tarsus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tarsus is where he is originally from.
[SPEAKER_00]: Solve Tarsus like he was born there like you're going to go back home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I just feel like in that moment if I was saw like I don't want to go home now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the truth, like I've seen Jesus work in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I want to be here with you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he wants to be in the big leagues, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, but I want to be with you, Peter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul James, I wanna be here and proclaim Jesus and be a part of this work that he's doing in Jerusalem, but they're like, no, you need to go back home and to go to Tarsus, go back home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause they're still, and it's not a bad thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I said, God still has some work to do, not only in use, but in the hearts of people around here, because if you stay here, you're not gonna be here very long.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it may be even in this moment like they knew that God has big plans for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you'll see these like, well, we could say baby Christians who, you know, they've given their life to lower, just been a few months or even a couple years and they just have this zeal, which is awesome to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also scary for me as a pastor because I see that fire spark up and it's like, yes, you get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, God has for you, but then something happens and when I was the pastor of the College of Ministry often times that something was someone, you know, so say a single guy on fire for Jesus, and then someone, a potential girlfriend comes into the picture and then all of a sudden they don't want anything to do with Jesus anymore, and you see him a few years months, whatever, sometimes it was
[SPEAKER_00]: Later, where you've been and what you've been doing is like, oh man, I just need you to pray for me Nick, I can now tell me it's you know, and they they've had this spark and then it just it's quickly put out some time Then it's definitely sad to see but Not exactly sure where I was trying to go with that, but I had a point I was gonna bring it back but Yeah, I don't know I lost it Paul what?
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul Zeele, he's going back to Tarsis, good things, see it?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a test, I wanna see, you know, guys listening, they ain't attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: My those of you online just put them in the chat and I'll relay to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's where I was going.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, we'll just keep moving on here, but yeah, it goes back to Tarsus, goes back home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, he wants to be in the big leagues, you know, that's where I was going with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This fire, like, I want to be like you, but it's also like what you got, God has some work to do on you still, and he's got some work to do on other people still, like, and I think,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know all of what the disciples knew about Paul, but what we know, looking back, is God had amazing plans for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to go to the Gentiles and you're going to preach the gospel, which is totally like God, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would think, well, wouldn't he go to the Jewish people?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he knows the law and all this stuff and he came out of religion and all that stuff that come to Jesus, wouldn't he go to the Jewish people?
[SPEAKER_00]: But God's like, no, you're going to be my light to the Gentiles, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul would go to,
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, in a very big way, changed the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you plant all these churches, which we'll see throughout the rest of the book of Acts, he goes on different missionary journeys.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, some things take time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, maybe you're eager, maybe today you're on fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got, got what's next, and you want to, I don't know, maybe you want to preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, let me preach, like, well, let's,
[SPEAKER_00]: Pump the brakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying it's not what he wants for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you may be very gifted and that was another thing I was trying to get at.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like you see some people and you know that they have a gift too, but it's like you just also got to be wise where it's like...
[SPEAKER_00]: just not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs to be developed, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, becoming someone takes time.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some of the kids yesterday, I don't know, like, I could just, you could tell on the YouTube, I'm like, that kid has a gift, and I don't even know if they know it yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it just needs to be refined, and it could be used for a great tremendous good for God, but at the same time it could be used for like tremendous disobedience from God, but they're like, they got a gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can see that in people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you guys can see that at times where it's like, you just know, like, God has great things for you and you don't even realize it, but it's just gonna take time and faithfulness day after day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's the boring mundane where like, well, I just don't wanna do that again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I do that all the time and it feels like I'm not getting anywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: But again, over years, it's like all of a sudden, hopefully you look different.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Paul, they send him back home, but then it says verse 31, and we'll wrap this up here pretty quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: says, so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, my God's work is happening amongst this church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just even with the persecution of Saul and the testimony of Saul and even the kind of the division maybe even that's starting to erupt.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like it says that the church was at peace for one and they're being built up.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to be built up in knowing God more for sure, being built up in fellowship, coming together as they continue to endure persecution, because this wouldn't be a popular thing in that day in age to be like, I'm a Christian now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't something you'd go right on a sign and put it out in your yard, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So that people may know Jesus, like that'd be a sign of like, well, you're going to get probably killed or arrested in that day in age, but the church was being built up, even in the midst of intense persecution.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can take heart in that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going through hard things again.
[SPEAKER_00]: God sees where you're at.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows what's going on in your life, but just be obedient and faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Know that God does have something for you, but he also has something for you now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you know enough for the assignment he has at hand, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: God's not going to give you a test that he hasn't prepared you for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that makes sense?
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I give a teacher at school gave you a test.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, I know it's first day at school, but we're gonna have our final exam today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, wait, I, this is calculus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what that even means.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or I don't, you know, that would be messed up.
[SPEAKER_00]: A teacher doesn't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's a good father, and he's not gonna give you a test that he hasn't prepared you for first.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, just trust him, stay close to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a plan, he is at work.
[SPEAKER_00]: now he's at work in Saul's life and it says the last part of that verse and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it's that's the church multiplied.
[SPEAKER_00]: multiplied, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Saul's waiting and going back home to continue maybe maturing, learning.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's still at work in his church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still growing the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Saul, even though he's a big name in the Bible, he's not the center of God's plans.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the center of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're all just lights, or even maybe we're just pointing to the lights, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know last week I quoted the Andy Minio Song today, I'm going to do it again, not intentionally.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not in my notes, but he has this song where he says, I'm just another bigger, pointing people to where the bread is, and like that's what we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: People are like, oh, and you change my life, like, no, I just showed you where to get food.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just showed you where I got found for a given this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just showed you where I got salvation, where I found hope, where I found peace, like it's not me, it's all him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so again, God will continue his work in his church, through his church.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not the center of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not God's plans, doesn't necessarily hinge on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I've said it before, I God wants to use you, but if you won't surrender to him, he will find someone else to do his work.
[SPEAKER_00]: His will.
[SPEAKER_00]: will be done as it is in heaven, and that's a fact, but he invites you to be a part of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where surrender comes in.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's where, like, okay, I'm going to surrender to this process of sanctification.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to take time and God's going to use me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then my last part here is that I guess to try to tie it all back together in a way is what we could say I forgot to mention but with Paul those three years there's a lot we don't know and I imagine a lot of that's like it's behind closed doors and that's where God will do a lot of his work in your life right it's in the in the hidden moments and oftentimes
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to like, you know, when you like, I don't know, someone tees it up on a tea, a baseball to hit it far, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, it's in the moments when you're like, alone, like, do you choose Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you obedient to Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you faithful to Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul, I mean, again, there's a lot we don't know, but he was faithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for you, we're becoming someone.
[SPEAKER_00]: but it takes time but you also got to understand it's not going to just be here at church like oh I did good like this is part of it was your life look like at home was your life look like it work like do you pray whatever it is but you know but again coming back to this question I mentioned it last week and we'll kind of end today but who are you becoming and what is God developing just in your life right now it's like he's molding you into someone he wants
[SPEAKER_00]: But he has good plans for you and so with that we'll pray we'll welcome the worship team back up getting into the communion But father we thank you for this time
[SPEAKER_00]: that we can come here to read your word, to study what you've done in past times, Lord, and as we study your word and things you've done in the past, it reminds us of who you are and that you're the same God and you do the same things here today in the present God and I pray that as we're just considering these things and as we enter into a time of worship God, we consider who are you shaping and molding us to become.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the work that you're doing in our life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are we becoming, Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are the trials we're going through that maybe we're pushing against, we're resistant, we're even bitter about, but I pray that we would yield to you, your Holy Spirit, your working, and know that God threw the trials.
[SPEAKER_00]: You make us stronger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through the persecution God, you make us be able to endure more Lord and you're forming and building and molding our character.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that character is something that the world will eventually see and they will see your work in our lives God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray God, that's exactly what would happen in that as they see the work in our lives, God, that they would know it's you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That you'd use us as a light to draw others in to find the same hope for goodness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation Lord and even transformation Lord of our lives that you've done in ours.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we go into worship, God just have a moment with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stir our hearts, our minds to respond and allow you to continue the work in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm impressed in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.