Acts chapter 9 verse 8, the title of
the message is, Is God a priority?
And you might be surprised, but I have
to ask this question of myself quite often.
Is God a priority in my life?
Because what happens is other things come in
and they crowd out our relationship with God.
And I believe personally that once you are
saved, the enemy knows that and he's going
to do whatever he can to remove God
from your life as a priority.
Because if God goes on the after burner
and you put everything on the front burners,
you know what I'm talking about right at
home, all the important stuff is right up
here.
I'll put the broccoli on the back burner
and hopefully it burns, I don't care.
But you've got the chicken and the steak
and everything right on the front burners, it's
the priority.
And we have a tendency to put God
on the back end of that and we're
gonna learn from the life of Paul here
what it looks like to make God a
priority.
So Acts chapter nine verse eight and if
you haven't been with us the last few
weeks or few months, go back and listen
to the messages because the book of Acts
is powerful.
It talks about the early church and how
the Holy Spirit worked in the early church.
Then Saul arose from the ground and when
his eyes were opened, he saw no one.
Let me stop right there.
This is the apostle Paul who hasn't changed
his name yet to Paul, his name is
Saul.
And he just got knocked off of his
beast, a horse, a donkey, a camel, whatever
you wanna debate that topic, you can debate
it, doesn't matter to me.
He was knocked off of something.
He was riding towards Damascus, that's why it's
called the Damascus Road experience.
He was on his way to Damascus to
persecute Christians and God said, no, I have
other plans for you.
I'm going to knock you off of your
beast, literally a light shine so bright that
it took out his eyes, his sight.
He knew that this was Jesus Christ and
he said, Lord, who are you?
I am Jesus Christ who you're persecuting.
How long will you keep fighting against me?
He said, Lord, what do you want me
to do?
And that's where we're picking up.
So Saul arose from the ground, he was
on the ground, and when his eyes were
open, he saw no one.
So he's blind.
But they led him by the hand and
brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight and
neither ate nor drank.
It's interesting, Saul thought he was going to
Damascus to persecute Christians, God changed his plans.
Same city, different scenario.
Completely different scenario now.
Instead of persecuting, he's going to be an
apologist.
Which gives, an apologist is a person who
gives others a reason for the hope that
is within you.
You should be able to do that.
And he was three days without sight and
neither ate nor drank.
Now as much as I would like to
turn this into a fasting sermon, I'm not
going to.
Okay, you'll be thankful this morning.
We might get to that some other time
down the road.
But he didn't eat, he didn't drink, he
didn't do anything.
And if you meet Christ like that, you
will probably not eat or drink either.
You will, and it's speculation, but I think
Paul was actually dealing with some regret.
I mean, if you think about it, he
just saw Stephen be killed and he participated.
Now he's with all this zeal, with all
this energy to go persecute Christians, and Jesus
reveals himself.
That would be pretty depressing.
Thinking about all that you were doing against
him and now you finally meet him.
Now there was a certain disciple there at
Damascus, of course, God's timing.
He puts Ananias, his name is Ananias, and
he said to him, the Lord said to
him, in a vision.
Now the Lord spoke to Ananias in a
vision.
He spoke to Joseph to take Jesus away
in a dream.
He's spoken to other people through the Book
of Acts through dreams and visions, Pharaoh.
So this is an interesting topic.
He spoke to Ananias in a vision.
Now I haven't done hours and hours and
hours in research on this, but from what
I can remember, a vision is something that
is before you.
You see something, something opens up and you
see it.
That's different than a dream that happens while
you're asleep.
So somehow the Lord appears to Ananias, and
he said, here I am, Lord.
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.
Ask for him, for behold, he is praying.
So Paul is praying right now.
I don't wanna speculate a lot, but I'm
sure he's praying, Lord, I am so sorry.
Show me what you want to do.
What is your will for my life?
What is all this about?
God, how can you use me?
He's praying, confirm it with me, Lord.
He's praying something, he's there praying.
And God told Ananias to go speak to
Paul.
And in a vision, he had seen a
man named Ananias coming in and putting his
hands on him so that he might receive
his sight.
This is interesting.
God gives Ananias a vision that he needs
to go speak with Paul, and he's giving
Paul a vision that a man named Ananias
is going to come meet with you.
So, let's not immediately walk away from this
topic on dreams and visions.
The purpose of dreams and visions, a couple
things.
My stance is I'm cautiously careful because many
people get weird over this.
They get weird on dreams and visions and
all these things.
And what happens is we tend to throw
the baby out with the bath water.
You know what that saying means?
That you're giving the baby a bath and
now the water's dirty?
Instead of just throwing out the water and
holding the baby, we just go throw everything
out.
And that's what happens, I think, sometimes when
we talk about the work of the Holy
Spirit or the gifts of the Holy Spirit
or all these things that are controversial, dreams
and visions.
Have you met those people?
I've had a dream, I had a vision
every week, every week.
Come on, guys.
You haven't had a dream or vision every
week and God's doing all these things.
But I believe that God does speak to
people through these means.
I don't think this stopped, but I think
we need to be careful.
The main purpose of visions and dreams is
to warn, is to confirm, and to direct
sometimes.
Now dreams and visions don't supersede the word
of God.
They come underneath it.
So everything must line up with scripture.
If you have a dream or a vision
to leave your spouse, okay, that's a wrong
voice speaking to you.
It must come under the truth of God's
word.
It is actually under its authority.
Now, people would say, though, now that we
have the scriptures, we don't need things like
this.
And there's some validity to that.
We know how to live godly and in
righteousness and what God's will is.
But you're not gonna open up the Bible
and read, oh, I'm supposed to go see
a man named Saul today.
It doesn't happen.
The principle is there that God will guide
and lead, but sometimes God uses visions and
dreams, prophetic words, words of wisdom to come
alongside and supplement and help Christians in their
walk.
That's what they are for.
So I don't know why people get so
weird about them, and I don't know why
people wanna discount them.
The Bible, if God wants to speak, he's
going to speak through different areas.
And I've had a few, I've shared these
with you in the past.
I used to have a lot of dreams
where I would walk out and I would
just see a sea of people that I
would be speaking to.
Well, that made no sense 16 years ago.
Now it makes perfect sense.
So it confirms God is, and it helped
me get through some very difficult seasons in
life, knowing, okay, God, you showed me what
your plan is for me.
Some of you remember some time ago, I
had a very vivid dream that I was
preaching to some convicts on some bleachers and
also some priests.
I'm like, that is weird.
That's odd.
And I wrote it down, and about a
year later, I end up meeting and talking
to priests and sharing the gospel and showing
the differences and talking about those differences.
I would have never did that had I
not had that written down in my journal.
So it confirmed what was already God was
going to do.
So that's often the purpose of those.
However, I don't know if it's healthy to
have dreams and visions every week, right?
What does this mean?
Well, I had water and then I was
drowning.
What does this mean?
And then last week, I was dreaming that
I was under an apple tree and one
hit me on the head.
What does this mean?
And we tend to just always, and I
don't see that in the word of God.
You should not live on them.
You live on the word of God.
It is bread to you.
It is life to your spiritual soul.
And then God will use different areas.
So I'm open but cautious.
I'm careful, and I'm also, you try to
use discernment in this area.
So that's what happened.
He gave them both a vision because Ananias
is not gonna go to Paul on his
own, and Paul might not receive somebody without
knowing who they are.
So God confirmed his will.
That's the word I was looking for, confirmed
his will.
Verse 13, then Ananias answered, Lord, I have
heard from many about this man.
Ananias is going, wait a minute, you want
me to go speak to the guy who
wants to kill me?
Wait a minute, God.
Lord, wait a minute here.
I've heard many things about this man.
He's done harm to your saints in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority in Damascus.
He has authority from the chief priests to
bind all who call upon your name.
But the Lord said to him, go, for
he is a chosen vessel of mine to
bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the
children of Israel.
For I will show him how many things
he must suffer for my namesake.
And we don't like that last verse, do
we?
I wish it said, and I will show
him how many blessings he will receive for
following me.
But it doesn't work that way often.
There's suffering that goes with following Christ.
But before I go on, let me stop
here for a minute.
Ananias said, basically, Lord, wait a minute here.
Wait a minute here, do you know who
this person is?
And I don't fault him in this because
there's nothing wrong with asking questions.
If you have questions about God, if you
have questions about God, there's nothing wrong with
that.
The difference is, are you a skeptic?
Or are you genuinely asking the questions?
Here's the difference.
Somebody who has questions, they truly seek answers
and they're trying to understand.
But the skeptic is a scoffer, scoffer.
Big difference.
At the college, people say, where's your God
now?
Why doesn't he appear right now, huh?
Scoffing, you scoffer.
Or somebody saying, I wanna know more, how
does it work?
And why doesn't he appear now?
Why doesn't, see the difference?
There's nothing wrong with questioning, saying, because if
I could question God, I would start with
hell.
I understand it, I understand the reason, basically,
a rebel gets his way and spends eternity
separated from God, but there's things about that
I don't understand.
There's passages in the Old Testament I don't
understand.
I, people ask, well, how could God allow
this to happen?
I don't understand everything.
Because also, if you understood everything, I don't
think he'd be God.
And this is what, actually about this debate,
I hope I remember this, I didn't write
it down for tonight.
But let's assume, I mean, I hope we
can all agree that we don't know everything
that there is to know in the universe,
correct?
Okay, good, at least we're on the same
page.
Personally, I'll be conservative, but I don't even
think we know 1% of everything that
goes on in the universe.
So that means we don't know 99%
of everything that is out there to know.
So who are we to question God?
We're gonna say to the creator, why have
you done this?
Instead of humble ourselves and bow our knee
before him and say, Lord, I don't know
why, but I'm trusting you.
That's faith.
Faith is exercising and understanding God.
Faith is the substance of things not seen.
It's the evidence of things hoped for.
That's why faith is so important, trusting God.
Why, God, why?
I asked, why me?
I was comfortable in construction.
I had weekends off.
Get home at four o'clock, day's over.
Man, Lord, why me?
Why did you, there's so many questions.
Why, why, why, why, why?
And sometimes we will not have answers, but
I just wanna encourage you, there's nothing wrong
with taking questions to God.
Come to me, let us reason together.
Why is my parent getting sick?
Why is my son or daughter this?
Why did I lose that person?
Why, God, are you allowing this?
Why?
It's okay, it's okay to ask questions.
And this is the point in Paul's life
where God became a priority to Paul.
He was a religious leader.
He loved religion, but he didn't have a
relationship.
That's the difference.
Here's the thing you need to remember about
Paul.
He had a, he had religion, but he
didn't have relationship.
How many of you have religion, but not
a relationship with God?
You go through the formalities, but there's not
a relationship.
So once Paul experienced God, everything became a
priority, God became a priority.
And also we see here, true conversion changes
the heart.
It was Saul, now he's Paul.
He was persecuting Christians, now he loves Christians.
He was legalistic and rigid and hard, now
he's broken and humbled before God.
So a true conversion, when God truly changes
you and you are truly, genuinely born again,
there's a change of heart that takes place.
If there's not, there's nothing wrong with saying,
Lord, examine me.
Paul said, examine yourself.
Do you not know yourself?
Is Jesus Christ in you?
So that's a good question to ask.
Do I know Christ?
Is he really in me?
Do I have this change of heart that
the Bible talks about?
Is God a priority?
That's one thing you can't run away from.
If you've truly been converted, you will love
God, you will love his word, and he
is a priority.
Now, not a perfect priority, right?
I still put him on the back sometimes.
And Lord, help me with that, and I
work on that.
But there's a change in the heart where
you love the word of God, you love
God in his word, he's a priority.
A.W. Tozer said, the Holy Spirit never
enters a man and then lets him live
like the world.
You can be sure of that.
The Holy Spirit never enters you and lets
you live like the world.
You can be sure of that.
Now, some of you might go, okay, you
just lost me.
Holy Ghost, Spirit, what?
Well, God reveals himself as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit resides in a believer.
Once a person believes they are a child
of God, the Holy Spirit resides in them,
and they are guaranteed, the Holy Spirit seals
them.
Now I have the character and nature of
God residing in me.
I want to do what's good, but I
also have evil present.
I want to love God, but I also
have the flesh that says, no, you don't.
I want to do things for God, but
the flesh says, no, you don't.
So we have this struggle within.
So when a person is filled with the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not going
to let you live like the world.
The world is the mindset.
Here's what the world is.
You might be thinking, what's wrong with my
car or my house?
None of those things.
The world, I actually should have used the
word cosmos in the Greek language.
It is a world's mindset.
So in case you didn't catch this, the
world is hell-bent on rejecting God.
We just, let's just get that out of
the way.
The world hates God.
So the world's mindset, so as we're living
in the world, we're enjoying the things of
the world, everything about the world, when we
are saved, and now I have the Holy
Spirit residing in me, even though the world
is pulling on me, right?
It's pulling on me, I still want to
love God.
The Holy Spirit's not gonna let me love
the world and love God.
And what happens is when you start to
love the world and say, okay, God, you're
no longer a priority, I'm loving the things
of the world, you quench and you grieve
the spirit within you and the things of
God are lost.
There's no passion for the things of God.
There's no purpose.
You're pretty miserable, actually.
A Christian caught on this side is a
miserable person to be around.
They're angry.
Why shouldn't I, why am I angry?
They're bitter, they're unforgiving.
Why, why, why?
Because they're living in the wrong house.
They're living with like the world.
So let's talk about that for a minute.
How can a loving God allow suffering?
That last verse we talked about.
I will show you how many things you
must suffer for my namesake.
He's gonna show Paul, and boy, if I
had the list, we're gonna get to it.
Shipwrecks, stoning, was beaten up, was clubbed, many
things happened to Paul, suffering for Christ's name.
Now, how can a loving God allow suffering?
Well, that would be a whole sermon on
its own, wouldn't it?
But let's talk about that for a minute.
If God were to remove all suffering, and
it's just blessings, then we wouldn't know a
lot of things that we know today.
We'd become very weak.
If it's all about bless me, bless, have
you ever given a kid everything?
Oh, boy, you wanna get away from that
child.
By the time they're five or six, it's
just mess.
Mine, mine, mine.
Throwing things, wanting things, everything.
They control the whole house at six years
old because they were given everything.
And I don't quite, that would be another
question.
Why suffering, why?
But here's a few things we can glean
from Scripture.
There is redemption through suffering.
Christ had to suffer on the cross to
redeem people.
There was suffering that had to take place.
Here's what else happens through suffering.
Humility.
I am humbled when I suffer.
But people can become bitter or they become
better.
That's why I say that often, because when
suffering comes, when suffering comes, it can humble
you to such a degree, more than anything
else.
I've never seen anything humble somebody more than
suffering.
It humbles you.
It breaks the pride out of you.
Because the pride doesn't wanna come out easy,
does it?
But if God says, let me humble you.
Let me, some suffering, some pain, some anguish.
Let me, you thought you were all that
and a bag of chips.
I don't know where that comes from.
I should look it up, but it comes
somewhere.
But you think, and then suffering comes.
In this perfect world, you thought you were
the bomb for the young adults.
You thought you were the man.
You thought everything was great.
Look at me, and then everything falls apart.
Suffering.
It humbles us.
And actually, for books on preaching that I
read, that they say you shouldn't even dare
go into the pulpit until you've been humbled
and you've suffered and you've been broken.
Because how can you help broken people if
you yourself have not went through brokenness and
humility and suffering?
There's humility.
You're actually, you draw closer to God through
suffering.
The hard, difficult things, you draw closer to
God.
And it's funny, I was sharing with a
man yesterday that looking back on my life
25 years ago when I was in hell,
here literally, as far as what I was
going through, now I wouldn't trade any of
it.
Shane, would you go back and change all
that?
No, no, no, no, no.
Praise God for that.
I met Morgan, have beautiful kids.
And God called me to plant a church.
And that's what, he used that, he used
that to break me, to draw me closer
to him, to see what his will is
to surrender my life, and then he worked
through that.
But you have to be careful because this
is where many people get mad at God.
I'm pretty sure that most atheists are mad
at God.
You can tell when you talk about God.
They hate him.
They despise him.
They're mad at God.
And of course, the question is, what are
you mad at if he doesn't exist?
But that's where you have to be careful
with pain because you can become very bitter,
you can become mad at God.
How could he, how could he allow these
things?
But be careful because suffering is a wonderful
gift if we point it in the right
direction.
Also, suffering brings clarity and conviction.
The more I suffer, you should see the
things that are written about me on Facebook
sometimes.
The more, and that's not suffering compared to
what's happening in Iraq and Syria and different
things, but the more you suffer, the more
your convictions get stronger, the more you get
clarity on things because it's like building muscle.
Suffering is building faith and you have conviction
on certain things.
You have direction because of the suffering.
And finally, redirection through suffering.
God often redirects because you're walking this way,
right?
I was in my 20s.
I thought, yeah, I'm walking this way.
Boom, God's suffering now.
Okay, thank you, Lord.
What do you want?
So God uses suffering to redirect because we
won't listen when everything's going good, will you?
If you've got the house and the vehicle
and $10,000 a month, everything's going great.
You're ready to hit Vegas and Havasu and
Laughlin all in the same week.
Everything's going good.
You're not gonna change direction.
You're not gonna talk, God, I'll get to
you later when I get back, when I
get time.
But he takes that job from you and
your wife leaves a note on the sink
that she's not coming back.
Well, there's a change of plans real quick,
isn't there?
God will use that suffering to redirect because
we don't.
As much as we would think, I'll just
follow God with all my heart on my
own.
No, you won't.
We can't because by default, we'll go towards
what's easiest, what's more comfortable.
So God uses suffering to keep us close
to the shepherd.
It's like a story, I think I told
it in a marriage, I gave a marriage
series once.
We're still, I think that's the most popular
series ever and we're hearing from people all
over on that.
I told a story about a shepherd and
I've got a book on the 23rd Psalm
and read some shepherding things and it appears
to be true that when there's a wandering
sheep and he's gonna wander to the coyotes
and the wolves, sometimes that shepherd will break
the lamb, the leg of the lamb.
We're like, how cruel.
What he does though is he splints that
leg and carries the lamb around for weeks
until it's healed and he puts the lamb
down and the lamb stays right by him.
No more wandering.
No more going off to wolves and coyotes.
Have you ever seen a coyote take something?
I have, remember I told you guys, November
was a year.
I was out in the desert walking with
my little new puppy, about this big, white,
and I hear, next thing I know, coyote's
got it in his mouth and it's gone.
Gone.
I mean, I talk about a shock, I'm
like, did that just happen?
I can't do anything.
Where's my 30 hot six?
We'll fix this real quick.
But it's just gone.
She wouldn't listen to stay right here.
Stay right here.
So be careful.
God will use suffering to draw you closer
to him.
Verse 17, and Ananias went his way and
entered the house.
And laying his hands on him, he said,
brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to
you on the road has, I'm sorry, who
appeared to you on the road as you
came has sent me to you that you
may receive your sight and be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Uh oh.
Trying to get off this topic, guys, but
every week.
So was Paul a Christian when God knocked
him off his beast on the road to
Damascus?
He said, Lord, what do you want me
to do?
He's broken before God.
He's blind.
He's waiting on God.
But he wasn't filled with the Spirit.
Oh goodness, Shane, where are you going with
this one?
What's going on here?
Well, very simple.
Let's keep reading for a minute.
So three days later, Ananias shows up.
He prays for him.
His eyes are open and he's filled with
the Holy Spirit.
His sight was returned.
He arose and was baptized.
Notice he didn't even wait a week or
a month.
When's your next baptism?
He did it right then.
Get me down to the Jordan River.
Well, I don't know.
Damascus, that would probably be a different river.
But let's just say he went down to
water somewhere and was baptized.
Now that's a good introduction to April 2nd.
If you need to get baptized, don't wait.
Get signed up for it.
Let's baptize you.
Because it's a step of obedience.
So Paul believed three days earlier.
He was healed and he was filled with
the Holy Spirit.
Now what happened here?
In case, I wish I had time to
really talk about this more, but being filled
with the Holy Spirit, what happens when I
just explain a person repents?
They believe they have God's Spirit, the Holy
Spirit.
But it goes back to that question, does
the Holy Spirit have all of you?
You have all the Holy Spirit.
Does the Holy Spirit have all of you?
Now with this, with Paul, it does appear
that this is a second event that happened
three days after conversion.
He's a believer, he's got the Holy Spirit,
but he was not empowered for ministry yet.
John Piper said this, I think the essence
of being baptized with the Holy Spirit, and
I would use the word filled with the
Holy Spirit, but he used the word baptized
with the Holy Spirit, is when a person
who is already a believer receives extraordinary spiritual
power for Christ-exalting ministry.
Now you'll remember back when we started in
the book of Acts when Jesus said, listen
guys, I know you're believers, I breathe on
you, the Holy Spirit, receive the Holy Spirit,
you guys are excited, you wanna do things,
you've seen me now, I'm my resurrected body,
500 witnesses, I've eaten with you, we did
communion, yay, we're excited, he said, don't go.
He said, go and wait until you are
clothed with power, until you receive power.
So it does beg the question this morning,
do you have that power?
Are you truly filled with the Holy Spirit,
this desire to reach others, this desire for
boldness, to proclaim God's truth, or does all
of that sound boring?
The reason it sounds boring and the things
of the world enticing is because that's probably
what you're filled with.
Whatever you're filled with, you're hungry for.
Spiritual hunger works opposite of food hunger.
Food hunger, you get hungry when you're empty.
Spiritual hunger, the more you get full of
the things of God, the more hungry you
are for the things of God.
So if you are dying spiritually, if you
don't have a hunger for the things of
God, that's why, but Paul was filled with
the Holy Spirit.
And then verse 20, and then after his
vacation, what?
Who's following along?
Immediately, immediately, he believed he was baptized, he
was filled with the Holy Spirit, immediately he
went out and preached Christ to everybody.
He went down the road, do you know
who Jesus Christ is?
Who is he?
He's the man who died on the cross
back in Jerusalem, haven't you heard?
And he would go out and he would
debate the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the
religious leaders, he would debate them on all
these issues because he meant the risen Savior.
Immediately, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that
he is the Son of God.
Everything in the Christian faith hinges on this,
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Christianity is relational, this is a God reaching
down, relating to his people.
Shane, that's not true, the Muslims would say
the same thing.
No, they wouldn't.
They would say that God reveals his will,
but not himself.
Buddha, karma, Hindu, many gods, works, works, works,
works, man has to somehow reach up to
God who's somewhere.
Christianity is the only religion, and I don't
even call it religion, it's a relationship, it's
the truth, the way, the truth, the life,
nobody comes to the Father except through Christ.
It's the only belief system that has God
as relational, coming down, revealing himself to man
and wanting a relationship with man.
It's the only belief system.
Christ is the Son of God.
This is an interesting quote from D.
Martin Lloyd-Jones.
He died, I think, in the 1980s.
You hear the word false prophet often, don't
you?
False prophet, false prophet.
The false prophet is a man who has
no straight gate or narrow way in his
gospel.
He has nothing which is offensive to the
natural man, he pleases everyone.
And that's true.
A false proclaimer of God's truth will stand
at the pulpit and make the broad road
narrow and the narrow road broad.
The path is easy, everybody can know God.
All paths lead to God.
Let's just come, let's all come together, all
face, let's just please everybody.
That's a false proclaimer of a false gospel.
Because Jesus said, strive to enter, strive to
enter.
That word is agonizo, it's a contend, it's
a striving against what your flesh doesn't want.
You're fighting against the flesh.
Strive to enter the narrow gate for broad
is the way to destruction.
Narrow is the gate.
Jesus said, I am the only way, the
only truth, the only life, nobody comes to
the Father except through me.
That's pretty narrow, is it not?
That's why you can't say, oh, he's just
a good teacher.
At the college, they told me, he's just
a good teacher.
Really?
He's just a good teacher, he's a lunatic.
Isn't he not, right?
You know C.S. Lewis, he's a lunatic,
he's a liar, or he's the Lord Jesus
Christ.
You can't just say he was a good
teacher.
If that's all he was, he was a
terrible teacher.
Partake of me.
I am the Son of God, I am
that I am.
I was before Abraham.
All these claims are ridiculous if he was
just a good teacher.
So you have to remove that option.
Who is he today?
Lunatic, liar, or he's the Lord?
There really is no other option out there.
So that's what Paul did.
He was proclaiming Christ as the Son of
God.
And the people saw the conversion.
Wait a minute, he was Saul, now he's
Paul.
He was mean and angry, now he's gentle.
He was an arrogant Pharisee, now he's a
humble Christian.
They saw the difference.
And people should see the difference in you
and I.
There should be a difference and a distinction.
The world is hungry for a difference.
The world is hungry, and I'm tired of
Christians wanting to be just like the world.
I gotta look just like the world.
No you don't, it's the difference and the
distinction that draws people to Christ in you.
It's not the similarities of the world, it's
the difference.
Now you don't get weird about it, right?
But you love people, but there's a difference
and there's a distinction.
And then it said, but Saul increased all
the more in strength.
So he would preach and witness and increase
in spiritual strength.
Preach and witness and increase in spiritual strength.
The reason some of you are dying in
this area or you have no spiritual strength,
you couldn't pick up a five pound dumbbell,
is because you're not engaging in ministry.
You're not going out and meeting people.
You're not going out into the hospital homes.
You're not, Lord, how can I?
I mean, we had so many opportunities to
go to the college and pass these out,
and very few people who wanted to do
it.
I mean, maybe what, eight or nine out
of the church's size?
My goodness, folks.
This is a wonderful opportunity.
You can talk to students.
But see, the reason we don't wanna do
is because we've been starving ourselves on other
areas of service.
So if you're not serving, a lot of
people say, well, when I retire, then I'll
do, no, no.
That doesn't work that way.
Start now, start serving God.
What do you want me to do?
And from that, you'll do the next thing.
It builds up spiritual strength.
I can't explain it.
Somebody asked me yesterday, are you taking tomorrow
morning off, meaning today so you can rest
for the debate?
I said, no, no, no.
If I could go straight from here to
the debate, I would, because this fills me
up with God's spirit.
I'm ready to debate the word of God
and to talk about the truth of God's
word, because from the first service and the
worship and the prayer, spiritual strength is increasing,
not declining.
So it says Paul, increase in strength.
So do you feel weak?
God, I'm not doing anything for you.
I feel spiritually weak.
Well, I've got six addresses we can give
you after the service.
And you can go visit these people and
talk to them, pray with them.
Grace Resources are always looking for people to
save or to serve lunch and dinner, different
things there.
There's always areas of service.
But your flesh, guess what, is just like
my flesh.
Oh, it's real comfortable just to sit at
home and watch that TV.
Just, oh, this is comfortable, that's right.
But you will die spiritually.
If you're not doing things for God, you
will not.
Actually, one area, one way of being filled
with the spirit is you start doing things
for God.
And I give the analogy often of the
big, you know the big lake up north
off the 395 Mono Lake, right?
Have you ever caught a fish there?
Have you ever seen anybody fishing in that
lake?
Brine shrimp, that's all that's there.
It smells terrible.
And it's got the beautiful Sierra Nevada, Owens
River flowing right into it with a lot,
living trout, living, just wonder, you could drink
right out of that stream, living into a
dead, running into a dead lake.
There's no outlet.
And that's what happens when lakes get corrupted
and corroded, there's no outlet.
You've got streams of living water coming in
and there's nothing but death because there's no
outlet.
You have to have that outlet.
You have to get, and you have to
tell your flesh, you know what, I'm not
even listening to you today.
I'm going to turn off the TV.
I don't care that the Baseball World Series
is on.
I don't care that this is on.
I'm going to turn off and I'm going
to do something for you, God, and you
will be built up spiritually.
I mean, God does, and it's a dangerous
prayer.
Lord, use me however you want to use
me today.
I want to be used by you.
I'll just be shopping at Trader Joe's.
Excuse me, sir.
Yes?
Could you help me?
What do you need?
And here's an opportunity.
And then you're, and I was at the
post office the other day and somebody, I
was too shy to say anything, but I
need help on my marriage.
Can we, is there anybody you can help
me with?
And post office.
I mean, everywhere you go, it's everywhere.
If you're open, but what do we do?
I'm in a hurry.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Leave me alone, leave me alone.
I get, whew, I get home now.
Now I'm going to go, let me watch
TV for three hours.
And then what happens tomorrow?
Repeat.
We come to church.
Boy, Shane really made me feel convicted.
I'm going to start, I'm going to start
tomorrow.
Then next week and next month.
And so you have to fight the flesh.
You have to say, I'm going to do
something.
And I'm going to start today.
Just pray that prayer.
Lord, how can you use me today?
Show me.
And you'll see, where's the car there?
And then somebody's looking at their tire going,
how am I going to change this?
There you go.
There you, I mean, most people I invite
to church are because of areas of things
like that where you stay and you help
and you minister to people.
Now, unless you think I'm up here being
perfect, please don't make that mistake.
I don't listen many times myself.
You just keep driving.
I'm busy.
But you've got to fight that urge to
be lazy is what it is.
It's spiritually lazy.
We're being spiritually lazy when God is calling
us to do something and we're not doing
it.
Boy, I'll get off that before everybody wants
to walk out.
Verse 23.
Now, after many days passed, the Jews plotted
to kill him.
Wait a minute.
Paul was a Jew.
He was a religious leader.
Now the Jews want to kill him.
Why?
Because he's proclaiming the gospel that Jesus is
the Messiah, that you kill the Messiah.
So all the praises went to, now we
want to kill you.
They wanted to kill him because of this.
But their plot became known to Saul and
they watched the gates day and night to
kill him.
And then the disciples took him by night
and led him down through the wall in
a large basket.
And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he
tried to join the disciples.
Like, wait a minute, we heard about you.
We know this is a trick.
You're just gonna come in and take us
to jail.
We know about you.
You're not gonna be part of our group.
But Barnabas took him and brought him to
the apostles.
And he declared to them how he had
seen the Lord on the road and how
he had spoken to him and how he
had preached boldly at Damascus in the name
of Jesus.
So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming
in and going out.
And he spoke boldly.
Here, boy, we can't avoid that word either.
Fill with the Holy Spirit and bold.
Fill with the Holy Spirit and bold, all
throughout the book of Acts.
So he spoke boldly in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and disputed against the
Hellenists.
The Hellenists were just Greek-speaking Jews.
So instead of taking their mother tongue, they
took Greek, or they took Greek, they spoke
Greek.
So they were the Greek-speaking Jews and
they more looked like the culture of the
Greek people.
They weren't Jews who were set apart.
So now both groups hate him.
The world hates him and religious people hate
him.
And that will happen to you as well.
The carnal Christian hates my kind of message.
Oh, boy, do they hate it.
I'm called a fear-monger, hellfire and brimstone
preacher, mean, negative, because they're convicted.
But the person who wants to change loves
it, because, oh, I feel I'm having my
relationship with God again, I love that, I'm
back with him.
And the religious people hate it as well,
because you're calling out their religiosity, their pride
and their arrogance and their stubbornness.
I have been doing this 30 years.
You have religion, but not a relationship.
So both groups hated Paul and they attempted
to kill him as well.
And when the brethren found out, they brought
him down to Caesarea and sent him out
to Tarsus.
But let's back up a minute.
I don't wanna miss what Barnabas did here.
Barnabas went and grabbed Paul, introduced him to
the disciples.
And it reminded me that someone has to
be the peacemaker.
Okay, guys?
Somebody has to be the peacemaker, but pride
gets in there and says, no, not me.
Because we think this is, we think, no.
We think this is real spiritual.
I'm biblical.
The Bible encourages us to be peacemakers.
So what happens in marriage problems, you have
one spouse doing this, and what's the other
one doing?
Being the peacemaker?
No, no, no.
The other one's like this too.
So days go by, and weeks go by,
and months go by, and years go by,
and nobody wants a peacemaker.
I'm not gonna say I'm wrong, I'm not
saying you have to say you're wrong, but
you have to be the peacemaker.
See, somebody has to, that's biblical.
Paul said, be at peace with all men.
When you start to go to somebody and
humble yourself and say, I wanna be the
peacemaker, I don't want this to keep going
on, you are filled with the Spirit.
You are walking according to God's ways when
you humble yourself and become the peacemaker.
Now, I'm sure somebody's gonna ask, well, what
about, why can't other religions, why can't all
you guys just come together and sing Kumbaya?
♪ Kumbaya, my Lord ♪ Right, you know
that song?
Don't make, Holly, don't make me feel silly
up here.
Right, why can't we?
Because it's not peacemaking for the sake of
peacemaking.
We're supposed to be united with the truth,
united with God, with the Scriptures, with the
Holy Spirit, unity in faith.
So when I'm united with God, sometimes I
can't be united with others that don't believe
who God said he is.
So if there's a false religion out there,
how can I be united with them?
Because if I'm united with them, I'm divided
with God.
So true, genuine unity, because I hear this
a lot, why can't all the churches just,
from every type of religion, just come together,
Shane?
Well, if they acknowledge the one true and
living God, nope, see, there you go again,
you're being narrow-minded.
You're being narrow-minded.
Well, Jesus said he's the only way, so
if they say he's not the only way,
how can I be part of that group?
So this area of unity is important.
It's unity with the Holy Spirit, unity with
faith in Christ, unity with the Father.
That's true unity.
And then those who are also united with
that come alongside of you, and that's where
you get unity, the biblical unity.
Now, I better clarify boldness, since we're gonna
be leaving here in a minute.
Boldness is not loud and arrogant.
Boldness is not loud.
Boy, Shane sure is loud and bold.
That's not necessarily bold.
Bold, the definition of bold is this, confidence,
courage, and willing to act.
So when you talk about your faith, you
can talk like this.
I appreciate your heart, but here's where you
missed it.
I understand, but here's where you missed it.
I have to stand up for the truth.
And you're bold, you're confident, you're not willing
to bend.
But what most people do, they get into
arguments at work.
Yeah, Jesus, this, this and that.
Oh, yeah, you're right, hmm, hmm, yeah, I'm
sorry.
And we're just timid.
So boldness is the opposite of timidity, right?
Because who wants controversy at work?
I'm the only person that probably wants controversy
at work, right?
Wherever I go, you know, but most places,
Northrop or wherever you're, Lockheed and different, I
remember McDonald, Douglas, you know, all those things
out there when I was growing up that
at workplaces, it's hard nowadays that you can't
talk about certain things.
And there's a sense to not be bold,
but I believe that God wants us to
be confident and courageous wherever he has put
us.
So let me sum it up.
I wanna help you with apologetics and proving
that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the Christ.
Jesus is Lord.
Apologetics is giving a defense for what you
believe.
You have to give a defense for what
you believe.
That's what it is.
1 Peter 3.15 tells us to be
prepared, always prepared to give an answer to
everyone who asks why we believe what we
believe and do it with gentleness and respect.
We often wanna cut off that last half,
huh?
Gentle, no, no, no.
But gentleness and respect and understanding.
So a couple things as we conclude.
Know what the Bible says.
Many people don't know what the Bible says.
But when you know what it says, you
read it each year, you try to get
through it, you know how to answer questions,
you know what the character and nature of
God is, you know how to respond to
difficult things.
Also, pray for direction and clarification.
As you're reading, as you're studying, pray, God,
show me, give me clarity, give me direction,
show me what this means, show me how
to understand this and that.
Also, though, limit who you read and what
you watch.
God should be the priority.
Okay, be very careful in this area.
Limit, limit what you watch, because if we
start watching all these things, right?
I just had a lady, she's probably never
coming back again, because it was a whole
Catholic thing, because I don't elevate Mary.
But she was praying, and she had a
genuine concern, I've heard this come out more,
that the earth is actually flat.
Because of YouTube videos.
And it's, because if you're watching those things,
you know, and then apparently George Bush took
out the Twin Towers, and apparently John F.
Kennedy was not assassinated by who we thought,
the Russians, or, I mean, it's like, what
is going on here, guys?
I mean, if this leads you away from
God, and you get caught up in all
these conspiracy theories, I don't know anything about
God, but I can tell you all this
ridiculous stuff, be careful, because I see it
more, like, where do you get that from?
Well, this YouTube, you gotta watch it.
I'm not gonna watch, number one, you don't
know who's producing them, their name's not on
anything, they're like, anonymous, come on, wake up,
we know everything about everything but God.
When was the last time you studied God
and wanted to know His character, His nature?
So get in His Word, pray for direction,
limit who you read and what you watch.
Does it build me up spiritually, or does
it tear me down?
Also, read, read, and read some more.
Read according to your passion.
Because people, you know, they might say, well,
Shane, not everybody has the passion or calling
that you do, right?
But you have a passion or calling, God's
given you a passion for something, right?
Read those things, read, so you can give
every person a reason for the hope that
is within you.
And this is the big problem in the
church.
We say, I don't have time, I don't
have time.
Yes, you do, you don't have hunger.
That's the problem, it's not time.
Because we make time for everything we want
to make time for.
The problem is we don't have a hunger
for God.
And if you were so hungry for God,
and you left here, you could rearrange your
whole day to spend time with God, most
of you could.
So we don't have a time problem, we
have a hunger problem.
Now, I don't say that to upset.
I'm saying to be honest and real.
Because that's the problem, that's where everything hinges.
And I'm gonna repeat what I've said before,
but I think it'll be important.
Here's how you foster, and here's how you
increase that hunger.
The Bible says, those who hunger will be
full.
Wait a minute, there's a continual hunger.
You'll be satisfied.
If you're hungering for God, you'll be satisfied.
Those who thirst will be satisfied.
Those who seek will find.
Those who empty themselves will be filled.
When God is a priority, everything falls in
place.
So the enemy is hell bent on getting
you to redirect your life away from God
and onto everything else that really doesn't matter.
I mean, think of it, if you were
the devil, if you don't believe this, read
C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters.
It's a wonderful analogy or allegory on how
God, and the enemy, thinks.
And he will try to sidetrack us every
chance he gets.
He's not gonna say, oh, God's called Shane
to be a pastor.
Well, I'll just leave him alone.
Oh, no he will not.
No.
Same with you.
God, I'm on fire for you, I wanna
make a difference, I wanna visit the hospital
homes, I wanna do ministry, I wanna reach
out to the homeless, I wanna do all
these things.
Devil, okay, I'll just let you do what
you're gonna do.
Let me go into somebody else.
No, he's going to go at those areas.
He's going to try to discredit.
He's gonna try to bring in fear and
failure.
He's gonna bring in laziness.
He's gonna use all these things, the enticements
of the world.
And really, that's what it boils down to.
He who loves the world does not have
the love of the Father in him.
He who loves the Father won't have the
love of the world in him.
Where's your hunger?
Where's your hunger this morning?
God must be a priority.
There's nothing more important than that.