Acts Chapter 9:1-12

What's your heart towards the Lord? When I talk about serving God, when I talk about sparkle and stuff, are you like, oh, I've got to do that? Are you like, oh, Lord, this is awesome. I get to do something for you and for your people. I'm so grateful for the opportunity. Lord, what do you want me to do? That should be your attitude. After what Jesus did for us, there should be nothing that we won't do for Him.

Now, notice something. Some of you are really going to relate to this. Saul says, what do you want me to do?

The Lord does not say, well, Saul, here's the deal. I'm going to raise you up. I'm going to disciple you. I'm going to put some awesome knowledge and thoughts in your head. I'm going to use you as a missionary to go world ride. You're going to write two thirds of the New Testament.

It's just going to be stinking awesome. That's not what He said, is it? Arise and go in the city. Step A, no more.

No less, but no more. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Did you know that you are part of God's plan to reach the world?

Well, it's true. And today, Pastor David tells how you can be used to change people's lives as he continues teaching in the book of Acts 9. Here's David McGee with his teaching, Who Are You, Lord? Turn with me to Acts 9. What's been going on is the early church is beginning now to spread out. And the reason they're beginning to spread out is, well, Saul was persecuting the church at Jerusalem. And we're going to continue on with the story of Saul. So Acts chapter 9 verse 1 reads, Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. So here's Saul. He's been persecuting the church. He's continuing to persecute the church. And he was a big part of the reason the church got scattered outside of Jerusalem. But for Saul, who was kind of this all or nothing guy, even that wasn't good enough. The fact that he had driven a lot of these guys underground outside of Jerusalem still wasn't good enough. He says, you know what?

I hear some of them are in Damascus, which is like 130, 140 miles away, about a week's journey. And he's like, can I go get some of them there and mess with them there? This guy was, man, he was hot. He was hostile towards Christianity. Now this is interesting because a lot of times somebody will be hot and hostile towards Christianity. And sometimes I'm, you know, I watch people on television and, and I certainly wondered this with, you know, Madeline O'Hare, who had a lot to do with getting prayer taken out of the schools.

I looked at it, I thought, what happened to her? I mean, was a Christian really mean to her or, you know, what happened? But a lot of times people like that are right on the edge of coming to the Lord.

Now we don't think that's right. Somebody who's hostile to us and they're sharing the gospel, we think, man, they're hostile. They're way away from coming to the Lord.

But you know, sometimes the shell gets the most brittle right before it breaks. So be encouraged, be encouraged with that. Next time you go to like a family reunion or a family get together and you know, and a family member is hostile about the gospel towards you.

It doesn't mean that they're that far. It's really, it means the Holy Spirit is now really getting under their skin and they're having a hard time running from the Lord. Saul was trying to run from God. He was trying to drive these Christians, not just out of Jerusalem, but he was trying to exterminate, if you will, the Christians. Obviously he wasn't very successful, was he?

All right. Verse three, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. And then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? This is interesting. Notice the words and far too often we read the Bible. We don't pay attention to small details. There's no detail just thrown in there. Jesus is speaking to Saul and notice the question, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

That's interesting. Was Saul actually physically persecuting Jesus? Well, no, because Jesus had already died, been resurrected and then ascended.

But in fact he really was persecuting Jesus both spiritually and literally by persecuting the body of Christ. See, we are the church. I know that sometimes we refer to buildings as churches and understand that that's the name that we've given to the structure and we can designate, you know, the fact is it's not the building, it's the people. We are the church.

And, and so we've tried to help you with this by putting a church in a warehouse and hopefully it's helped you to overcome some of that separation thing that the church is not the building, it's the people. But we're called the body of Christ, the body of Christ. Why don't you stop and just think about that, of the significance of that phrase.

This isn't something that we came up with or I came up with. This is what the Bible says. Actually Ephesians chapter four, verse 11 and 12, and these are important verses, say this, he, talking about Jesus, is the one who gave these gifts to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Verse 12, their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Now leave that verse up there for a moment.

This is a key verse around here and I'll tell you why. Because far too many people think Christianity is a spectator sport. They think, well, you know, the body of Christ, you know, you go and visit a church on Sunday and there's a guy standing up there talking and he's got some people that help them and they basically are supposed to do everything. I'm sorry, that's very unbiblical.

What this book says is that my role and the team God has assembled, our role, our responsibility is to equip you guys to do the work of the ministry. So understand if you came up with a church where it was a spectator sport, this is not that kind of place and I don't make any apologies for that. That's what the scripture points us to, to be a part of the body. Now I understand sometimes party of body gets hurt, doesn't it? And when it gets hurt, you wrap it in a bandage and you care for it. Some of you have been wounded and I understand that and we want to wrap our loving arms around you.

We want to see God pour out his mercy and his grace upon you. But there comes a time when you step out in faith and you begin to serve the Lord. And if you continue not to serve the Lord, well, it's part of the body that's not functioning.

If you're younger, you may not understand this, but the older you get, the more this will mean something to you. As you get older, parts of your body, they just don't work like they used to. It's an interesting thing when parts of your body don't function. Sometimes they fall asleep. You ever have that happen?

That's really annoying because you try to, you know, you're trying to walk and all of a sudden it just, you know, you're like, you know, and, and every, somebody go, what'd you hurt? You're like, no, it's asleep again, you know, but parts of the body are like that and shouldn't be, should be awakened serving the Lord. And again, we're called the body, the body of Christ in another voice. First Corinthians 12, 27 says this, now all of you together are Christ's body. And each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it. See, we all join together. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing to watch here as people serve together and they pour out their life together. And yes, there's challenges and unless there's, there's tough times sometimes, but it's an awesome thing to see it fit together because see, you know, I have certain weaknesses and this person over here has certain weaknesses, but as we joined together, our weaknesses are covered. That's a beautiful thing that happens in the body of Christ.

But if you're trying to do a lone ranger thing, you know what happens? Your weaknesses are uncovered. There's nobody watching your back, if you will. Verse five, Paul answers. And he said, who are you Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It was hard for you to kick against the goads. I'm going to explain the goads thing in just a minute, but notice the question, who are you Lord? That's an interesting question.

Let's get the picture. Saul was raised in Tarsus. We'll find out some of these things later, but Saul was raised in Tarsus. Well, what you may not know is he, you know, he was schooled there and that may not mean anything to you, but it was kind of like the hail, the Harvard and the Yale of the day.

It was the third largest university city in the world behind Alexandria, Egypt, and Athens, Greece. So he was well schooled. Then he went to Jerusalem, was trained under Gamaliel who was a famous rabbi for instructing people in Judaism, all that training. He was religious, serving the church so zealously. He was trying to wipe out people he perceived as being against it, but he didn't know God. He didn't know God. He didn't know who God was. Oh, that's such a relevant picture for us because all over the tribe this morning, there's people sitting in places called churches that don't know God and they won't even get the chance in the service to come to know God.

And that saddens me because somewhere in their mind they think, well, you know, I, I, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. I'm going to church. I'm giving a little bit.

I'm okay. Jesus said there's going to come a day when people will approach him and he's going to say, depart for me. And their response is interesting. They're gonna say, but wait a minute, I did this and I did that and I gave to the poor and I did this, that, and the other. And Jesus isn't going to turn to them and say, well, you didn't do enough.

Now he's going to turn to them and say, you know what? I don't know you. I don't know you. And you don't know me and Christianity. It's not what you know. It's who you know. You got to know Jesus.

You got to know. Well, how do you come to know Jesus? Well, it starts by asking him to forgive you of your sins. Not by you straightening up your life and flying right and all those other little sayings we have, it's coming to him and asking him to forgive you of your sins.

And then you begin a walk and a journey with him through that. But you know, Saul was fighting against God. He was fighting against God and he was hurting himself. See this thing of goads, whenever you're using plow animals, oxen or different things, you know, those animals tend to kick and they can kick you and it can be very painful. So what they used to do is they had these goads, which were almost like spears.

They were spears that were pointing this way as the ox or whatever was pointing that way. That way if they went to kick the person behind them, they would hit that goad and pretty soon they would begin to learn not to try to kick the person. And I'm sure it took some of them a while. Some of you, you're kicking against the goads and it hurts. And your life right now is painful because you're continuing to fight against God. It's got to get tiring. And if you wonder who's going to tire out first, let me assure you, it's not going to be God.

It's going to wear you out. And Saul found himself worn out and the Lord said, you know what? You're hurting yourself. As you try to run from me, as you try to fight against me, you're hurting yourself.

And I wonder how many people in this very room this morning that describes you're fighting against God and you're hurting yourself and you're hurting people around you and you're hurting those that love you because you're fighting against the Lord. You know, we often try to blame God for our pain. We often try to blame others for our pain.

Don't we? Do you realize who's inflicted more pain on you than anybody else? It's you, not somebody else. The problem usually lies within our own heart, doesn't it? I know that's tough to hear because we like to think, well, so-and-so said this and so-and-so did that, but our biggest problem is in here.

And it's also the problem we don't like to deal with and it comforts us to run around and go, oh, wait a minute. The Lord says, why are you kicking against the goats? He didn't ask Saul, Saul, why is everybody else kicking you? That's not what he said. He said, why are you kicking against the goats?

You're hurting yourself. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Reedsport, Roseburg, Seaside, Selma, Sprague River, and the Dalles in Oregon and also Hammett in Pennsylvania. Father, we thank you for these cities.

We thank you for the people living in them. We pray that your Holy Spirit would pour out and draw many people into a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. Father, we pray that many people would be healed who perhaps have had bad experiences in the past, God, that they would receive forgiveness and forgive those in their lives who have offended them. Lord, we pray that you would draw people into Bible-teaching churches, that you would give the pastors wisdom and discernment, Father, to love the flock, to serve them well. Lord, we pray for all the city leaders, that we would honor them and respect them, and that you would give them wisdom and discernment, Father, Lord, that it might go peaceable with us. Lord, we love you. We pray that you would bless the people living in these cities. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 6. So he, talking about Saul, trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. Now, it's an interesting passage, and it's mentioned here, Acts chapter 9.

It's also mentioned in Acts 22 and Acts 26. Saul retells the story. Now, Saul's name later will be changed to Paul. We'll see that.

We're not there yet. But why did Saul keep telling the story? This is an awesome story. This is the story of his conversion.

And let me encourage you to share that story often. Not about Saul. Yours.

Because it's a very powerful thing. But notice what Paul says. Paul says, Saul, I'll use those words.

Saul says, okay, your Lord shouldn't kick against you. And his first response is, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Man, I love that question.

Not what do I got to do. What do you want me to do? My father taught me a lot about leadership. And he used to say something that stuck with me all these years. As a young child, I'd see him go to work and I'd say, you got to go to work. And he'd say, no, I get to go to work.

That stuck with me. Because I grew up understanding that a job was not only a responsibility, but a privilege and a blessing. Another saying he had is once you're in leadership, you get to work half days. There's 24 hours in a day, half that's 12.

So when you're a leader, you do the 12 hour day thing. Now, what do you want me to do? Let me ask you a question, friend. What's your heart towards the Lord? When I talk about serving God, when I talk about sparkle and stuff, are you like, oh, I've got to do that. Are you like, oh Lord, this is awesome. I get to do something for you and for your people. I'm so grateful for the opportunity. Lord, what do you want me to do? That should be your attitude. After what Jesus did for us, there should be nothing that we won't do for him.

Now notice something. Some of you are really going to relate to this. Saul says, what do you want me to do?

The Lord does not say, well, Saul, here's the deal. I'm going to raise you up. I'm going to disciple you. I'm going to put some awesome knowledge and thoughts in your head. I'm going to use you as a missionary to go world ride. You're going to write two thirds of the new Testament.

It's just going to be stinking awesome. That's not what he said, is it? Arise and go into the city. Step A, no more, no less, but no more. See, a lot of times we want the steps laid out for us. Well, Lord, show me A, B, C, D, and E and F, and then I'll step into A and God goes, ah, no. Many of you are in the military.

There's that saying in the military, need to know basis. We are on a need to know basis with God. And when God says step into A, he usually just waits to see what we do. And if we're not willing to step into A, he's not going to show you B. And some of you are waiting for the whole plan to unfurl in front of you before you step into A. And I'm sorry God doesn't work like that. He's never done it with me.

He didn't do it with Saul. The life lesson here, following Jesus is made up of many small steps. A lot of times we look for the big steps, but God is saying, here's the small ones. We say, well, God, you know, may have me do this and have me do that.

And God's like, you know what? I want you to take small steps. And as you learn to walk, then you'll be strengthened. See, there's, there's a process to it. You don't, you know, you don't, you don't enter your two year old into the Boston marathon because they're not going to be able to run 26 miles. You teach them to walk.

And there's a, there's a realism to that. I remember I was like six years old, first time my parents ever dropped me off at a public pool. I couldn't hardly swim a lick. And then they were taking up signups for the swim team. I figure I'll try, you know, but I couldn't swim. My parents would say, you can't swim. I signed up for a swim team. I said, you can't even stand in the three foot.

It's over your head. See, there were steps that I needed to take and there's steps that we need to take. And, and you know, God, God will give you dreams and visions about doing things for him. God will fill your heart and fill your mind with stuff that he's desires for you to do.

And these small steps are part of it. I don't know where we got in our mind that God is the dream killer. You know that, well, if I, if I say that I'll serve God, he's going to, you know, and I hate the cold, he's going to send me to Alaska or, you know, I hate the heat. He's going to send me to the desert.

No, you believe in the law. You step out to serve the Lord and what you're going to find is more joy and more peace than you ever knew existed as you serve him. He's not the dream killer. That's not what this book says. This book says he's going to do more than you can imagine more than you're able to even comprehend or think above that.

Don't, don't die to those things. Now I understand in a sense you kind of got to die to him if you will, and so that you can live for the Lord and it can't all be about ministry, but the Lord does want to raise up people. Verse seven and the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but saying no one. That's kind of funny. So there was people there with Saul who heard the voice but didn't see anything. That may strike some of you as bizarre.

It's really not that bizarre. You realize there's people here this morning that will hear, but they won't see. They'll hear me talking about coming to Jesus to be forgiven of their sins, but they won't see him as their savior. They'll hear me talking about serving the Lord and surrendering your life to him, but they won't see it. It's a sad thing.

I hope that doesn't describe you. I hope that you not only hear but see. In verse eight, then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened he saw no one, but they led him by the hand and brought him in to Damascus and he was, was three days without sight and neither ate nor drank. And we see several people in the Bible that they were given sight to. Saul was one of the few people that sight was taken from, and I think it was to allow him some time to think about what had just happened.

I mean, think about it. He was on his way to persecute the church. All of a sudden he finds out that he's working not for God, he's working against God. You understand there's going to be a horrible moment for some people when they get to heaven and stand in front of Jesus because they're not going to be allowed in because they've been persecuting Jesus in the name of God, in the name of religion. It's sad. I guess in a way towards other believers and followers of Jesus, we need to be a little bit tolerant.

I hate using that word. I am religiously tolerant by the way. You know, whether you're Muslim or you're Buddhist or you're Baha'i or whatever, you know, you can all come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That's my definition of being religiously tolerant. It might be different than other people, but verse 10. Now there was a certain disciple of Damascus named Ananias and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am Lord. Verse 11, so the Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he is praying.

Verse 12, and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. In this part of the chapter, we've got three main characters, if you will. We have Saul, we have Ananias, and we have Judas.

These are interesting names, aren't they? These are not names that you think of when you think of spiritual greatness. I mean, we're in the book of Samuel talking about Saul and how he just blew it over and over. A few chapters ago, we were talking about how Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and was struck dead. And then you've got Judas who was the deceitful one who betrayed Jesus.

And here, here we have these names popping up again. But something wonderful is going on with these three people. That can't be by accident.

That's by design. You know what? God's in the redemption business and things that have happened to you that are bad and negative and painful. God wants to redeem those things. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. Visit crossthebridge.com and click on God's Plan for New Life to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God wants to bless you and encourage your relationships today. Whether you are married, considering marriage, or engaged to be married, we have a resource for you. Pastor David wants to send you his four-part video series, Allies Stay Friends. Allow God to minister to your marriage through His Word today. This was an unforgettable weekend that encouraged many marriages, and you and your spouse can be encouraged too. Allies Stay Friends is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give a gift of any amount and get your copy of Allies Stay Friends. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free, so folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse through the book of Acts.