SPEAKER_04: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_04: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProquay.org.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Lord Jesus, would you at the deepest part of who we are, would you remind us we're fighting a battle you've already won?
SPEAKER_03: And God, today we woke up this morning one day closer to seeing your face.
SPEAKER_03: The Bible says in Colossians 3, when Christ, who is your life, appears, not if he appears, but when he appears.
SPEAKER_03: Holy Spirit, help us to wait well and fight with confidence, knowing you've already won.
SPEAKER_03: Now, God, I ask that you speak through these scriptures that you've preserved for us.
SPEAKER_03: God, thank you for another morning.
SPEAKER_03: We get to learn and hear from you.
SPEAKER_03: Speak directly to our hearts.
SPEAKER_03: God help me to get out of the way and you be the conduit.
SPEAKER_03: It's in your beautiful name, I pray.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning, Har.
SPEAKER_03: Are we good?
SPEAKER_03: Hey, if you're your Bibles, would you go ahead and grab those and go to Acts chapter 9?
SPEAKER_03: Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_03: We were in the book of Judges last week, but we're gonna come back into our study in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_03: Acts chapter 9.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't have a Bible, you can just relax as the text is gonna appear here on the screen.
SPEAKER_03: Um my name is Leo Almeida.
SPEAKER_03: I am the teaching pastor here, and um I like a good awkward video.
SPEAKER_03: I like me a good awkward video.
SPEAKER_03: So as you're flipping there, I have 18-second awkward video I want you to look at.
SPEAKER_03: Here you go.
SPEAKER_03: Here's a here's an awkward video for you.
SPEAKER_04: Alright, so here we are, one of the uh elephants.
SPEAKER_04: Cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long trunks.
SPEAKER_04: And that's that's cool.
SPEAKER_04: And that's pretty much all there is to say.
SPEAKER_03: That's pretty much all there is to say.
SPEAKER_03: This is my man right here, Kareem.
SPEAKER_03: And if he looks nervous, that's because he is.
SPEAKER_03: He's recently, at that point, he's recently um unemployed.
SPEAKER_03: And that video right there is called Me at the Zoo.
SPEAKER_03: Me at the Zoo.
SPEAKER_03: Him and his boys quit their job at PayPal to start this dating, online dating website, and that crashed.
SPEAKER_03: And since that crash, they pivoted to say, uh, this is a video sharing website, share anything.
SPEAKER_03: So he uploaded the very first video on the website called Me at the Zoo.
SPEAKER_03: And they had five days of nothing.
SPEAKER_03: And then five days later, somebody else added a video uh of airplanes landing and taking off, and then nothing.
SPEAKER_03: And then people started following suit.
SPEAKER_03: And then lo and behold, till this day, people are still uploading on YouTube right now.
SPEAKER_03: As a matter of fact, for every minute that I'm talking, okay, 400 hours worth of content will be dumped onto YouTube.com.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, for every day that goes by, one billion hours, one billion hours of YouTube is watched.
SPEAKER_03: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_03: Because if you're in, if this is 2004 and you're at the San Diego Zoo and you walk by that, you think nothing of it.
SPEAKER_03: You just walk on by, oh, there's a goofball, blah, blah, blah, and you just keep on walking.
SPEAKER_03: In that same way, okay, all we're gonna do this morning, we're gonna look at a road trip.
SPEAKER_03: A six-day road trip that ends up transforming everything.
SPEAKER_03: There's a transformation, an awkward transformation that happens on this road trip.
SPEAKER_03: And at face value, if you were there, all you would see is men on horses riding by.
SPEAKER_03: But the transformation that takes place literally changes the whole world.
SPEAKER_03: The same way that that video changed, it was actually awkward as it was, groundbreaking.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna look at a six-day journey that literally changed the entire world.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna look at the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
SPEAKER_03: This right here is the most famous conversion in the history of the church.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, what happens here shows us what type of God we were just singing to.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna look at what type of God we glorify.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna jump right in.
SPEAKER_03: This is Acts chapter 9, I mean verses 1 through 19.
SPEAKER_03: Again, you can relax and look at the screen if you need to.
SPEAKER_03: Here he goes.
SPEAKER_03: But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that he would that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_03: And he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_03: And he and he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_03: But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_03: The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
SPEAKER_03: Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
SPEAKER_03: So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
SPEAKER_03: Now there was a disciple of Damascus named Ananias.
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
SPEAKER_03: For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him, so that he might regain sight.
SPEAKER_03: But Ananias answered the Lord, I have heard many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_03: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: For I will show you how much he for I will show how much he will suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_03: So Ananias departed and entered the house.
SPEAKER_03: Laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained sight.
SPEAKER_03: And then he rose and was baptized.
SPEAKER_03: Taking food, he was strengthened.
SPEAKER_03: Now, um, our culture loves a good transformation.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, this is why weight loss shows are so popular.
SPEAKER_03: This is why renovation shows are so popular.
SPEAKER_03: Before and after pictures, that's our jam.
SPEAKER_03: We like a good before and after picture, but this before and after picture should make you glorify God.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, this whole Bible is about the glory of God, the whole human history is about the glory of God.
SPEAKER_03: This earth, this planet, this universe is all a theater of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_03: And right here, this passage answered the questions: why does God deserve all the glory?
SPEAKER_03: Why does God deserve all the glory?
SPEAKER_03: And number one, this is a God who interrupts beasts.
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who interrupts beasts.
SPEAKER_03: Now, before we actually get the conversion of Saul, Luke gives us little small commercials of Saul.
SPEAKER_03: The first time we see Saul, he's playing the role of coat hanger.
SPEAKER_03: So back in chapter seven, um, Stephen is getting martyred.
SPEAKER_03: He's about to get killed.
SPEAKER_03: And listen, any coach for any sport that involves a ball will talk up to you about how important form is.
SPEAKER_03: If you want a ball to go far, you're not gonna throw a ball like this.
SPEAKER_03: You know full range of motion.
SPEAKER_03: And the people who are playing deck the deacon that day know this.
SPEAKER_03: So they take their jackets off, and there's a pile of jackets on the floor, and the camera of the Bible lifts up, and you see for the first time a man named Saul of Tarsus.
SPEAKER_03: Back in high school, and you could tell girls were about to fight when one of them would reach for their ear and take out that earring.
SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna hand that earring or that purse to a random bystander, they're gonna uh give it to somebody who approves of what they're doing.
SPEAKER_03: In that same way, um, Acts chapter 8, verse 1 says exactly that.
SPEAKER_03: If you see Saul, and not just the coat hanger, but the cheerleader, the Saul approved of his execution.
SPEAKER_03: How much hate would have to be in your heart for a movement?
SPEAKER_03: Like how much would you have to hate a movement to watch one of its one of its members get publicly tortured and your response be, amen, who's next?
SPEAKER_03: Or amen.
SPEAKER_03: That's a good start.
SPEAKER_03: But the thing about Saul, he doesn't just ask who's next.
SPEAKER_03: He wants to be very much involved in who is who is next.
SPEAKER_03: And then next we see Saul in Acts chapter 8, verse 3.
SPEAKER_03: It says that Saul was ravaging the church.
SPEAKER_03: This word right here is so interesting.
SPEAKER_03: Some of your Bibles say destroying the church, some of your Bibles say wreaking havoc on the church.
SPEAKER_03: Nevertheless, this right here is actually a pretty rare word, a really rare word in the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: It's the word luminomai, and it the only other time it's used, it's describing how wild boars behave in a vineyard.
SPEAKER_03: If you know how wild boars behave, they don't play nice, they're disruptive and they're dangerous.
SPEAKER_03: Think bull in a china shop.
SPEAKER_03: But instead of ripping up lawns, um, this right here says that he was entering house after house.
SPEAKER_03: He dragged off men and women.
SPEAKER_03: He believes in equal rights.
SPEAKER_03: Look at him.
SPEAKER_03: He's an equal opportunity persecutor.
SPEAKER_03: So, men, imagine your daughter, your wife, your grandmother, your sister being dragged out of their house because they have faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: And then now we get here to this passage in Acts chapter 9, and it says this but Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for the letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so that he found, if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: Saul is an absolute beast.
SPEAKER_03: Even that those words right there, um, uh the the still breathing uh threats and murder, this is um how uh uh uh alluding to the panting and snorting of beasts.
SPEAKER_03: Paul is a Saul is a beast against the church.
SPEAKER_03: And what's happening is he probably has a song stuck in his head the whole time he's doing this.
SPEAKER_03: Now, Saul, what makes him such a beast is that he was very, very intellectual.
SPEAKER_03: He was called, he was a Jewish man who had a Roman citizenship and a Greek education.
SPEAKER_03: He went to the top school, said it under the best teacher, and he was actually the top of his class.
SPEAKER_03: So books of the Bible that you and I skip, he has memorized.
SPEAKER_03: Our Bibles go Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and he doesn't play that game.
SPEAKER_03: He has books of the Bible that we skip committed to memory, and one of those is the book of Numbers.
SPEAKER_03: And in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 25, there is a story there where God's people start flirting with the different God.
SPEAKER_03: So God in his discipline inflicts them with the plague until a man named Phineas rose up and kills a couple of the cult leaders.
SPEAKER_03: So God relents of this affliction, he relents of the plague.
SPEAKER_03: So Saul's probably thinking, This is this is this is me right now.
SPEAKER_03: He's thinking Jesus was a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, Christianity is a cult, it's finny time.
SPEAKER_03: It's it's finny time.
SPEAKER_03: So he asked the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, and he starts hunting down Christians and wanting to get them back into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: Now, from Damascus to Jerusalem, it's about a six-day trip on foot.
SPEAKER_03: And on one of those days at noon, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_03: This is verses three through nine.
SPEAKER_03: As he was sent on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_03: And he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_03: And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_03: But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.
SPEAKER_03: The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
SPEAKER_03: Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
SPEAKER_03: So they led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus.
SPEAKER_03: And after three days that he was without sight, neither ate nor drank.
SPEAKER_03: What happened?
SPEAKER_03: The light of the world shows up.
SPEAKER_03: They're on this road trip.
SPEAKER_03: And it's interesting, whenever Saul retells this story, he talks about the fact that it happened at noon when the sun was at its highest, but he also talks about the fact that the light that shone around him was actually brighter than the sun.
SPEAKER_03: The light of the world showed up and knocked him off his horse, blinded him, confused him, called him by name, identified himself as Jesus, and gave him instruction.
SPEAKER_03: So all of a sudden, the beast that's calling the shots is now getting orders.
SPEAKER_03: The one that's the top of his class is now very, very confused.
SPEAKER_03: The one that's dragging, that was dragging men and women out of their homes is now being led by the hand into Damascus.
SPEAKER_03: Friends, we have a God who interrupts beasts.
SPEAKER_03: In our culture, again, we love a good before and after.
SPEAKER_03: And in the before and after pictures we look at, that line in the middle typically represents strength or wisdom of man.
SPEAKER_03: This house was ugly.
SPEAKER_03: That's the before.
SPEAKER_03: But then after Chip and Joanna Gaines got involved, look at the kitchen now.
SPEAKER_03: Look at this backyard now.
SPEAKER_03: When they applied their expertise, when they applied their effort, when they applied their wisdom.
SPEAKER_03: Or, hey, this man was super bald early.
SPEAKER_03: But after he had the wisdom to apply our product, look at his hair now.
SPEAKER_03: No more hats.
SPEAKER_03: So that line typically represents human effort or human wisdom.
SPEAKER_03: But this before and after picture we see here of Saul is not any of those things.
SPEAKER_03: This is actually brought to you by a few things.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: This is brought to you by the overflowing grace of God.
SPEAKER_03: In 1 Timothy chapter 1, um, verse 13 and 14, um, um Saul says this, okay, though I formerly was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.
SPEAKER_03: And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: What type of punishment does Saul deserve for the things that he's done?
SPEAKER_03: And yet, okay, he doesn't just get called, he gets Jesus' signature double call.
SPEAKER_03: Saul, Saul.
SPEAKER_03: If you know what that that's a signature move.
SPEAKER_03: Martha, Martha, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: That's coming from a God who feels deeply overflowing with grace.
SPEAKER_03: So this before and after is brought to you by the overflowing grace of God.
SPEAKER_03: Furthermore, this before and after is brought to you by God's perfect patience.
SPEAKER_03: If I went to your house to have dinner, which I'd love to do that, by the way.
SPEAKER_03: And as we're seeing to eat, we're at the table, I see a Grammy Award right there with your name inscribed on it.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: First thing you're gonna think of is you wanted me to see that.
SPEAKER_03: And two, I'm gonna start making connections about your characteristics based on that trophy.
SPEAKER_03: That probably explains a major part of your life.
SPEAKER_03: This probably excellence as a musician in this person.
SPEAKER_03: Or if I come to your house for Torchies Tacos, and you open the door and you're wearing a purple heart, and with your name inscribed on it, I'm gonna make connections.
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay, you wanted me to see that.
SPEAKER_03: You're wearing that because you want me to see that.
SPEAKER_03: And also, okay, this person's probably brave, they're probably courageous, they're they probably love their country.
SPEAKER_03: In that same way, okay, Saul of Tarsus considers himself God's very own trophy that we should look at, the entire universe should look at and make the connection.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, God's perfectly patient.
SPEAKER_03: He says as much in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 16, he says this, but I receive mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost at the edge, Jesus Christ might deplay display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, Saul is hanging out there as a trophy of God, okay, with overflowing grace tattooed on him, so we can all look and go, that God is perfectly patient.
SPEAKER_03: Lastly, this this this this before and after picture is sponsored by God's pleasure.
SPEAKER_03: Rarely do we think about a God who takes pleasure in anything, but the Bible opens up that way.
SPEAKER_03: He he created and he saw that it is good.
SPEAKER_03: He saw that it is good, he saw that it is good, he saw that it is very good.
SPEAKER_03: And later on in Galatians chapter 1, Paul says, God, okay, but he was pleased to reveal his son to me.
SPEAKER_03: That's huge.
SPEAKER_03: He was pleased to reveal, he didn't go, I need somebody, and I guess this is he was here we go.
SPEAKER_03: He was pleased to reveal his son to me.
SPEAKER_03: So it's brought to you by that.
SPEAKER_03: Now listen, here's what that is.
SPEAKER_03: I get on the off-ramp at this point, here's what that means for us.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so you have here God's overflowing grace, God's perfect uh patience, and you have God's pleasure that are playing a part in this incredible before and after picture.
SPEAKER_03: There's implications for us here in this room today.
SPEAKER_03: At the macro level, okay, at the macro level, here it is, okay?
SPEAKER_03: The great, like Billy Graham of my generation, or the great um revival starter of my generation may not even be a follower of Christ yet.
SPEAKER_03: The same way we you and I woke up this morning and put our clothes on to come to church, they might have woken up angry with the hatred for God.
SPEAKER_03: And they're kicking against the goads or kicking against the corrective nature of God, and they're just days away from getting knocked off their horse.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray for that, okay?
SPEAKER_03: That's at the macro.
SPEAKER_03: Now here comes the micro.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, listen.
SPEAKER_03: Don't stop praying for your friends.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, for some of us here have adult kids that have strayed away from the faith.
SPEAKER_03: Don't stop praying for your unbelieving kids.
SPEAKER_03: And for our students right here, most of the people around you have their families on this campus somewhere, but there's at least a handful of students who are here by themselves.
SPEAKER_03: And your family thinks that this is just some phase you're going through.
SPEAKER_03: Hey, as long as they don't get pregnant or do drugs, go out and do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_03: Go and go to that church.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, start praying for your parents.
SPEAKER_03: Some of us used to share our faith with our unbelieving friends or even our unbelieving siblings.
SPEAKER_03: We've resigned ourselves to if God was gonna save them, he would have done it right by now.
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03: Don't stop praying for your friends, your coworkers, even your unbelieving spouses.
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who takes pleasure and is patient and he's overflowing with grace.
SPEAKER_03: What this shows is this is God can start with anyone under any circumstances and transform them.
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who interrupts beasts.
SPEAKER_03: Why does God deserve all the glory?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, this is a God who stands by his word and his people.
SPEAKER_03: I'll be brief on this point because this is so straightforward.
SPEAKER_03: Now, according to the book of Matthew, Jesus' last words, or he was here on this earth, he said this, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_03: Now, as humans, we don't always keep our word.
SPEAKER_03: Because of our frailty, because of our sin nature.
SPEAKER_03: But this passage shows that God deserves the glory for consistently keeping his word.
SPEAKER_03: I've pointed this out before, but I think it's so important.
SPEAKER_03: Look at verses four and five again.
SPEAKER_03: Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_03: And he said, Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_03: And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_03: The most fascinating thing about those two verses is what Jesus doesn't say.
SPEAKER_03: What Jesus could say and didn't.
SPEAKER_03: He could have said, I am Jesus, the leader of the great movement.
SPEAKER_03: Or I am Jesus, the head of these, the body of sinners.
SPEAKER_03: Or I'm Jesus, even the husband of the bride.
SPEAKER_03: All those things could be true.
SPEAKER_03: But instead he says, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, this shows his identity how he identifies with his followers.
SPEAKER_03: To persecute them was to persecute Christ.
SPEAKER_03: That's Jesus being faithful right there.
SPEAKER_03: He's standing by his words like I'll never leave you.
SPEAKER_03: And therefore, he stands by his people.
SPEAKER_03: He's been with these people this entire time.
SPEAKER_03: So I'll just say this very, very bluntly.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, Jesus is about the church.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, you need to be about the church.
SPEAKER_03: What do you pay attention to?
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: I pay it's that time of year.
SPEAKER_03: I pay attention to pollen levels.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I sneeze like my body weight away on Friday over here coaching basketball, but pollen levels, basketball scores.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you use your favorite team or your favorite politician or social media or your favorite show.
SPEAKER_03: Listen, Jesus pays attention to the church.
SPEAKER_03: He pays attention to the church.
SPEAKER_03: And one of the ways you see this most clearly is in the last book of your Bible, the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of mystery in the book of Revelation, but one of the things that is a hundred percent obvious is this reality that he pays attention to the church.
SPEAKER_03: That book starts off with seven letters to these seven churches in Asia Minor.
SPEAKER_03: And all of them start off with some variation of I see you.
SPEAKER_03: I see your works.
SPEAKER_03: I know where you dwell.
SPEAKER_03: I see you.
SPEAKER_03: Out of all the mystery in the book of Revelation, that is obvious.
SPEAKER_03: He's paying attention to every volunteer, every Bible study, every ministry, every member, every Sunday.
SPEAKER_03: He is about the church.
SPEAKER_03: And since your Savior is about giving his life to the church, so should you.
SPEAKER_03: I know there's a lot of us, maybe some of us here, a handful of us that are either visiting or this is um, you're still very, very new here.
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you're new and you're evaluating, you're kind of on the outskirts, and you're evaluating this community.
SPEAKER_03: Is this a place where I want to devote my that I want to identify with?
SPEAKER_03: Um, and you're kind of looking at this at a distance.
SPEAKER_03: And I just want to say that is good and responsible.
SPEAKER_03: There's others of us who've been to church for a while, not just this church, but church for a while, and you're still kind of just here.
SPEAKER_03: And for you, I'll say what my mentor used to tell me casually doing church is the worst hobby of all time.
SPEAKER_03: You could be doing something so much more fun than this.
SPEAKER_03: Like fishing is more fun than like listening to a spiritual.
SPEAKER_03: Why would casually doing it is is the worst hobby ever.
SPEAKER_03: Rather, your your Jesus is about his people.
SPEAKER_03: So be about what he is about.
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who stands by his word and he stands by his people.
SPEAKER_03: Now, lastly, okay, why does God deserve all the glory?
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who deploys ordinary people for extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, look at verses 10 through 17.
SPEAKER_03: He says this and there's a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight.
SPEAKER_03: And then a house at Judah of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying.
SPEAKER_03: And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him, so that he may regain his sight.
SPEAKER_03: But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: And here he has the authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.
SPEAKER_03: But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: For I will show you, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
SPEAKER_03: So Ananias departed and entered the house.
SPEAKER_03: And laying hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Fascinating.
SPEAKER_03: Because what God just finished displaying is he doesn't need help.
SPEAKER_03: He can do it all by himself.
SPEAKER_03: Saul is not having doubts about his persecuting because he heard a great Leo Almeida sermon.
SPEAKER_03: Although I think he would, right?
SPEAKER_03: He got blown off the horse by the glory of God.
SPEAKER_03: That's what happened.
SPEAKER_03: And now he's sitting in darkness, contrite and confused.
SPEAKER_03: God did that alone.
SPEAKER_03: And yet the scene changes to this random man named Ananias.
SPEAKER_03: We don't know much about him.
SPEAKER_03: We don't know if he's from Damascus or if he's from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_03: And he just ran to Damascus.
SPEAKER_03: We don't know much about him.
SPEAKER_03: What we do know is this God called him by name, and he was available.
SPEAKER_03: God called him Ananias.
SPEAKER_03: What is the first thing he says?
SPEAKER_03: Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And I love the Bible's honesty.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: Um it isn't, it documents his apprehension to go pray for pray for Saul.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't say it doesn't sound like he's super gung-ho at first.
SPEAKER_03: So God says, Hey, I want you to go pray for that guy.
SPEAKER_03: And he's like, Lord, the streets are talking.
SPEAKER_03: The streets are talking.
SPEAKER_03: And rightfully so.
SPEAKER_03: Like if you were a Jewish person in the 1940s or 1930s and you were in hiding, and then God came to you while you were in hiding and goes, Hey, called you by name and says, Hey, you know that Nazi general that's making all your family and friends disappear?
SPEAKER_03: He's sitting in a room right now, waiting for you to go lay hands on him and pray for him.
SPEAKER_03: If I heard that, I'm like, oh man, that pizza's gonna be tripping, man.
SPEAKER_03: That pizza.
SPEAKER_03: That pizza's crazy.
SPEAKER_03: Y'all heard that?
SPEAKER_03: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Because you'll be thinking, am I gonna give up my hiding spot?
SPEAKER_03: Give up my family?
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have to snitch.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, snitches again?
SPEAKER_03: That's what he's facing, and yet he was available.
SPEAKER_03: As I was meditating on this passage, I was thinking to myself, how many people said no before Ananias said yes?
SPEAKER_03: I wonder, that's conjecture.
SPEAKER_03: I wonder how many people said no before Ananias said yes.
SPEAKER_03: Yet he said, Here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: The answer is yes, no matter what.
SPEAKER_03: The last language of openness.
SPEAKER_03: And if you know your Bible, this is reminiscent of other men and women who've said yes, here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, Isaiah sees the glory of God, and he says, God says, Who am I gonna send to here I am, Lord?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, even Genesis chapter 22, verse 1, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Or even um God waking up Samuel in the middle of the night, he calls him by name, says, Oh, here I am, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: That's language of openness.
SPEAKER_03: God gets glory from using ordinary people for his mission.
SPEAKER_03: This begs the question: listen, are you settling for are you settling for an identification as just a polite Christian?
SPEAKER_03: Or are you an available disciple of Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: God used the hesitant but available disciple to get his work done.
SPEAKER_03: Because listen, um, when it comes to the kingdom of God, sometimes the best ability is availability.
SPEAKER_03: And he's called to extraordinary work, both in impact and in nature.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, what I mean what I mean by that is in nature, okay?
SPEAKER_03: Um what's according to this passage, um what's the what are the first what's the first word Saul of Tarsus hears from Christian lips towards him?
SPEAKER_03: What's the first word he hears?
SPEAKER_03: What does he say?
SPEAKER_03: What does Ananias say to Saul when he first sees him?
SPEAKER_03: Brother.
SPEAKER_03: Brother Saul.
SPEAKER_03: Ananias doubtless knows people who've been murdered or implicated in situations where Saul is involved, but he says, brother.
SPEAKER_03: That's extraordinary work in its nature, and furthermore, it's extraordinary in its impact as well.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 18 says, and immediately something like scales fell from his uh fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
SPEAKER_03: This is an ordinary man who is deployed to do extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: This is a God who glorifies himself by using ordinary people for extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: So you should ask yourself about availability.
SPEAKER_03: See, and I'll end here as well.
SPEAKER_03: So, furthermore, he he calls Saul this chosen instrument.
SPEAKER_03: Okay, he's a chosen instrument to carry Jesus' name before the Gentiles, before kings, before the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: Shredded cheese.
SPEAKER_03: I like to put shredded cheese on my hot dogs, don't judge me.
SPEAKER_03: I like shredded cheese.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: Now, how is that shredded cheese, how did that come to be?
SPEAKER_03: Did somebody have a block of cheese, start flinging it around a warehouse?
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: What happened was someone was daydreaming about that deliciousness of this little shredded cheese, and they made an apparatus for it.
SPEAKER_03: They made this specific apparatus for uh this grater to make shredded cheese.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: In that same way, God wanted his name carried to the Gentiles, to the kings, and to the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_03: God was daydreaming of letters that billions of people would drink from for thousands of years and know and love Jesus more.
SPEAKER_03: So he saved and so he saved this instrument called Paul for his own glory.
SPEAKER_03: God saves this nerd named Saul for his own glory.
SPEAKER_03: And what he does is he redeems his privileged status, he redeems his resilient nature, he redeems his Saul's brilliant mind, he redeems Saul's prolific pen, he redeems his single uh his loneliness as a single man, all for his own glory.
SPEAKER_03: You should ask yourself, hey, what type of God, what type of glory is God pursuing with my life?
SPEAKER_03: Or the the follow the cheese analogy.
SPEAKER_03: Um what's uh cheese analogy?
SPEAKER_03: What was God daydreaming of getting done when he created and saved me?
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: This is a god after his own glory, and in his pursuit, he's even more glorious because he deploys ordinary people for extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: So this is a God who interrupts beasts, a God who stands by his words, and a God who deploys ordinary people for extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: Now, um, what's interesting is that he's blinded, Saul is blinded by the light.
SPEAKER_03: And what's happening there, it's actually really profound.
SPEAKER_03: God is mirroring his physical condition with his spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_03: And then afterwards, um he is prayed for, okay, the scales drop from his eyes.
SPEAKER_03: And the man who was once had gathering fame for killing and imprisoning Christians gets up and gets baptized.
SPEAKER_03: So the beast becomes a sheep.
SPEAKER_03: And next week we're gonna see this sheep start making baby steps becoming a shepherd.
SPEAKER_03: That's the glory of God.
SPEAKER_03: Let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_03: Help us to see you as a God who takes pleasure and is patient and is overflowing with grace to interrupt beasts.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for being a God who will never leave his people, and thank you for being a God who deploys extra or ordinary people for extraordinary work.
SPEAKER_03: We're humbled by your glory this morning.
SPEAKER_03: I'm humbled by this text this morning.
SPEAKER_03: And as we mentally worship, would you please um prick our hearts as out how we ought to respond to this?
SPEAKER_03: So you're beautiful, and I pray, amen.
SPEAKER_03: Um, so up here we have um some questions just for you to think about um what we just heard.
SPEAKER_03: What you can do is you can take a picture of these questions, or you can right now just venture with the Holy Spirit with one of these questions um insight.
SPEAKER_03: But nevertheless, I'm gonna step back for about 90 seconds or so and just let you respond to this um in prayer and mental worship.
SPEAKER_03: Holy Spirit, you turn beasts into sheep.
SPEAKER_03: May the reality of the before and after picture of Saul, Tara, Cynthia, Paul the Apostle, may that fuel our faith and help us to glorify you.
SPEAKER_03: Help us to join the first century church in giving you glory for what you've done.
SPEAKER_03: Lord God, we love you.
SPEAKER_03: We ask these things in your name.
SPEAKER_03: So you're beautifully I pray.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Um well, thank you so much for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_03: If you are visiting with us this morning, welcome.
SPEAKER_03: We're thankful to have you here with us.
SPEAKER_03: Um, if you don't mind, would you just text us welcome to this number here on your screen?
SPEAKER_03: That gives us a welcome, that gives us a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_03: And if you are here, I just want to let you know that there's some pastors are gonna be available for you down front.
SPEAKER_03: Um ready to pray with you and meet you um after the service.
SPEAKER_03: And if this is um uh your Sunday to worship through giving, um, if this is your home church and this is your Sunday to worship through giving, there are boxes all over the room where you can do so.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: This is um, I always like to let you know what's happening in life for our screen, uh our church.
SPEAKER_03: Would you direct your attention to the screen?
SPEAKER_02: Here's what's happening at Grand Park Way Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_02: If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.
SPEAKER_02: This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that we have a church app?
SPEAKER_02: You can use it to get involved, register for events, listen to sermons, podcasts, and more.
SPEAKER_02: Find it wherever apps are available for your devices.
SPEAKER_00: Hey Grant Parkway, I'm Derek Schusler.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Tori.
SPEAKER_01: We've been coming to Grant Parkway for the last six years.
SPEAKER_01: So you may see us around or you may know us, but you may not know that Grant Parkway actually supports us as missionaries.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we work with an organization called the For All Mankind Movement, or FAM for short.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually started working with FAM when I was a college student about 12 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I went on a study abroad to Dubai and worked with this organization, and little did I know that it would change my life.
SPEAKER_00: We've been with them full-time for eight years now working with them.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so FAM mainly works in South Asia.
SPEAKER_01: So think Pakistan, India, and Nepal.
SPEAKER_01: And we do three simple things.
SPEAKER_01: We reach, equip, and send.
SPEAKER_01: We want to reach the people with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And then we want to equip them in disciple making and church planning movements and then send them as missionaries to their own people.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and one of one of my roles at FAM is the mobilization side of things.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to come alongside our partner churches and help them to mobilize the whole body towards God's heart for the nation.
SPEAKER_00: Nations.
SPEAKER_00: One of the ways we do that is our short-term trips.
SPEAKER_00: And so these trips are week-long intensives where you're going and you're sharing the gospel every single day.
SPEAKER_00: You're coming alongside one of our local workers, our local pastors who's trying to plant a church in this area of unreached people groups.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we want to encourage them, encourage the family that he represents through sharing stories and evangelizing.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to start a story group here in this place.
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, we don't want these trips just to be a week on the mountaintop.
SPEAKER_01: We want it to be life-changing.
SPEAKER_01: We want it to change your perspective on the gospel and how the Lord can use you, and how God can work in you and through you.
SPEAKER_00: And this will happen.
SPEAKER_00: You'll you'll share the gospel over there, and then you'll want to come back and share not only what happened there, but how the Lord has worked in you and through you this whole time.
SPEAKER_00: So, we're actually getting to do one of these trips with Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: Here in the next year in 2024, we're planning with the mission team to go to Sri Lanka in 2024.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll send more details about that here soon, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're interested at all in going on one of these trips, we would love to have a conversation with you.
SPEAKER_00: Come see me, come see Pastor Travis Torrey, uh, get more details about this trip.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to have you come with us.
SPEAKER_00: And I just have one prayer request for you, and it's uh it's a prayer request for us as a family, but more so for those of the pastors and leaders overseas in South Asia.
SPEAKER_00: Persecution has always been been real for them, but it has picked up intensity recently.
SPEAKER_00: And so I do pray for safety and for protection for them, but when I ask them, they usually tell me to pray for boldness to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It echoes that prayer request that the believers had in Acts 4, where they were persecuted, but then they asked the Lord for more boldness, more opportunities to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so we wanna we want to honor that and pray for them in that way.
SPEAKER_00: And not just for them, but we pray the same prayer request for us at Grand Parkway, that we would have more boldness in sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
SPEAKER_02: For our retreat, it's the time for our current 7th through 12th grade students to unplug from the crazy rhythms of life and pause.
SPEAKER_02: On November 10th, we'll be heading to Piney Woods Camp for a weekend dedicated to refilling all of our margins.
SPEAKER_02: Our first October Outreach event is next week, October 3rd.
SPEAKER_02: October Outreach offers four ways for us all to love our neighbors.
SPEAKER_02: We want you and your family to pick one and jump in on the movement to reach our neighbors with the best news ever.
SPEAKER_02: For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_03: So um, I know some of you are not leaving yet.
SPEAKER_03: You're gonna stay here on campus.
SPEAKER_03: And if you will, would you consider coming back here after second service to help us stack chairs?
SPEAKER_03: I think the more people we have, the quicker it goes by.
SPEAKER_03: So we're gonna be stacking chairs after second service.
SPEAKER_03: Um, we'd love your help if you're available and able.
SPEAKER_03: So availability, you see that.
SPEAKER_03: Um, hey, would you standly uh um receive this blessing?
SPEAKER_03: Children of God, you're invited into this theater called God's glory.
SPEAKER_03: Be lights in the world for the God who takes pleasure in saving, for the God who is patient to save, overflowing with grace, and the God who is mighty to save.
SPEAKER_03: I declare these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.