Pastor Mac v.8 "I've Been Changed for This!" Acts 9:17-22

words of encouragement and inspiration

"A Few Minutes with Pastor Mac"
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SPEAKER_02 1:04

I just want to make sure we give opportunity to uh associate us ministry. We can't make it again. Our website as well. Give a website and uh give it a fire. Thank you again for tuning in with a few minutes of Pastor Mike Podcast. We hope you had a great uh fourth. Those who celebrate the fourth of July had a great weekend. Some still celebrating now. Fireworks yesterday. Eating good food and whatnot. Those again, those who celebrate the fourth. God is kept you hippie last week and is keeping you even now as we move further into July. You already had July. Middle of year, sorta. Close to hot days of summer. Stay cool and hydrate as the doctor professionals. We're glad to have you once again, Anyway, those tuning in. Acts 917 through 22. And uh keep that as we go further into Axe. I'm gonna do some adjustment, make sure we all schedule for finishing the acts in December. Calculation and some adjustments. Third side, six hundred, six hundred. Drop, drop, faith. Stay faithful to Acts and Axe. But Acts nine, seventeen. Sadanias left and entered the house and he laid his hands on Saul and said, Brother Saul, Lord Jesus will appear to you on the road as you as you came to the master, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. In order to proclaim Christ to both Jews and Gentiles, immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. He took some food and was strengthened. Several days afterwards, Saul remained with the disciples who were at Damascus. Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogue, saying, This man is the Son of God, the promised Messiah. All those who heard him continued to be amazed and said, Is this not? The man who was Jerusalem attacked those who called on his name of Jesus, and had come to Damascus for the express purpose of bringing them bound with chain before the chief priest. But Saul increased in strength more and more and continued to perplex the Jews who lived in Damascus by examining their logical evidence and proving with Scripture that this Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointing, the word of God for the people of God, for the edifier. Let's pray. Oh God, we come thanking you for this opportunity to hear a word from you. We ask you to bless these few minutes with Pastor Matt, this podcast, broadcast, we said to be a blessing to someone. We give you glory and praise right now. We love you. We thank you. We don't say it enough, we don't do enough to show our gratitude, worship for you. Turn up for you. And all that we have in this life. We may not have what we want, but you blessed us. We should be content. Our gratitude should be enough to say we're content with what we have. It's enough. Until you want to bless us more. And we're waiting on the blessing, huh? But until then, we'll keep on praising up your name. We love you. We thank you. I let the words of my mouth and meditation are accepted by Saint O my Savior, my Redeemer, in Jesus Christ's name. We pray at all. Amen. Again, next Sunday, Acts 9 22 through 31. Next Sunday. I've been changed for this. I've been changed for this. There are some moments in life that do not just change your schedule, they change your story. There are some encounters that do not just adjust your plans, they alter your purpose. That is what we've seen and see in Acts 9. Saul did not come to Damascus looking for a blessing. Saul did not come to Damascus looking for a breakthrough. Saul did not come to Damascus looking for a church home. Saul came to Damascus with letters in his hand and hatred in his heart, and he came to arrest believers, bind believers, and drag them back to Jerusalem. But somewhere on the road, Jesus interrupted his agenda. He met him in his mess. And Saul learned that you can be sincere and still be wrong. You can be religious and still be blind. You can have passion and still be outside the will of God. Saul thought he was defending God, but he was actually fighting against God. So the Lord knocked him down, blinded his eyes, humbled his heart, and sent him into Damascus, waiting for instructions. And by the time we get to Acts 9, 17 through 22, Saul is no longer standing in his own strength. He is sitting in a house, blind, fasting, praying, and waiting on God. Then God sends Ananias. Ananias walks into the room with a word that sounds almost too gracious to believe, but does not call him enemy. He does not call him murderer. He does not call him persecute. He says, Brother Saul. That is when we learn what grace can do. Grace can walk into a room where your pastor's sitting and still call your family. Grace can put hands on the one other's on other afraid, the one other's afraid of. And grace can open eyes that religion left blind. Grace can feel empty places with the Holy Spirit. Grace can turn a dangerous man into a delivered man. Grace can turn a persecutor into a preacher. And that is the word for somebody today. God did not change you just so you could feel better. God changed you so you could live different. God changed you so you can see different. Saul came in blind, but he left seeing. Saul came in empty, but he left field. Saul came in feared, but he left family. Saul came in breathing threats, but he left preaching Jesus. That was grace, that's what grace would do to you. Grace will change you around like a like a like a like a wind that blows in um like a blender, and it'll turn you around until you get to where God wants you to be, and that's all because of his grace. Well, look at what this did changed to receive what grace gives. And then 199 and 17, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me. Look how he addressed him. He said, Brother Saul, huh? It's a powerful moment because Ananias calls him brother. That is not casual language, that is kingdom language. That is somebody who's addressing the grace that he sees that somebody has been forfeited. God Saul came to Damascus as an enemy of the church, but Ananias addresses him as Phantom. People remember Saul as the persecutor. Heaven now remember recognizes him as brother. That is the scandal of grace, if you want to look at it. Ananias could have said enemy Saul or could have said dangerous Saul, could have said church hurting Saul, but instead he says brother. Why? Because when Jesus saves a person, the church must learn how to receive what grace has redeemed. That does not mean wisdom disappears. Saul's ass was real, but the hurt he caused was real, but the grace was also real. Some people always remember what you did, but God reveals who you are becoming. John Stock wrote concerning Saul's converted. He said the persecutor was to become a preacher, and the hunter was to become the haunted. And that is the powerful grace of God. God can take the one who was fighting the church and make him family in the church. Somebody knows what it feels like to be known by your worst season. God said, but God says, I know what they remember, but I also know what I redeem. People may remember the old you. I told you last week, but grace has renamed you. Grace gives him a new name. Ananias calls him Brother Saul. Saul's past called him persecutor, but Grace called him brother. Grace gives him a new family. The man who came to attack believers is now being received by believers. Grace does not just save us from sin, it brings us into the family of God. Grace gives him what he did not earn. Saul did not deserve healing and mercy and brotherhood, but grace is not God rewarding the worthy, grace is God redeeming the unworthy. Aren't you glad he redeemed you with grace? You don't deserve it, but you got it. Grace gives him confirmation through community. Jesus met Saul on the road, but he sent an Anias to lay hands on him in the house. God often uses people to confirm what he's already started privately. Grace gives him restoration without denial. Grace does not pretend Saul's past did not happen. It simply declares that Saul's past does not have to have the final word. Touch somebody around you in your house and say, It ain't over. Tell him you ain't throwing in the towel. Tell him you're gonna keep on keeping on, despite what your reputation may say, despite what you did in the past. I told you last week your purpose is greater than your past. You've been changed for this. Grace gave Saul a name, his reputation could not give him. They remember what he did, but God revealed what Jesus had done. Grace does not call you what you were, grace called you what Jesus is making you. That's good news for somebody. Quit letting folk call you by your nickname. I told you last week, don't let them call you by your street name. I got a new name in Christ. Uh the songwriter wrote, I gotta thank the Lord, I got a new name. And when you got a new name, you don't want to be, you don't answer to the other name. You you you keep on moving. You don't let somebody call you out your name. And number two, change to see what God reveals at verse 18. And immediately, immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes. Uh, then he got up and he was regained his sight. And Saul here was physically blind, but his physical blindness was showing us something deeper. He had been spiritually blind. And can I say that too? Some some people that you know, or some people we know, are not only uh not they're not physically blind, but they're spiritually blind. They can see with their eyes, but they can't see spiritually. He knew religion, but he did not know Christ. He knew scripture, but he did he missed the savior. He knew the law, but he did not recognize the law. That is why this moment is so important. The scales falling from Saul's eyes show that Jesus not just changing Saul's assignment, Jesus is changing Saul's sight. Before grace, Saul saw Christians as enemies. After grace. He's talking about fame. Before grace, Saul saw Jesus as a threat. After grace, uh, Saul saw Jesus as the Son of God. When the spirit fails Saul, Saul does not just get his eyesight back, he gets spiritual vision.

unknown 13:35

F.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

F. Bruce said he wrote the recovery sight was an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual illumination which had come which had come to Saul. And that's what normally says that's that's good theology. Saul's eyes opening on the outside, pointed to what Jesus had already done on the inside. That's what happened when you get your insides right. Oh, the outside reflects what's going on on the inside. That's what that's what some people get messed up because they still look at the folk on the outside. You don't know what's going on in my heart. You don't know what God is doing for me. We laughed Thursday night at Bible. We still a work in progress. Yes, we're not all we supposed to be, but thank God I'm not what I used to be. Grace is still making me and shaping me and creating me more like Christ each and every day. Ought to have some, yep, somebody ought to be clapping twice at that. Grace just ain't gonna leave me alone. Grace is gonna bother me. Because grace is afforded by Jesus' death, burial, his resurrection, his life is great. And we got to make sure we match the giving of grace by Jesus in our life daily. That's why some people can have open eyes and still not see. You can see your job, your house, your bills, your enemies, your pain, and your past, but still not see Jesus clearly. When the Holy Spirit gets involved, scales start falling off. That's why you got so much hell in church. Some folk ain't seeing uh spiritually, they looking at physical. That's why I say, I say, I can't. We never see we can't and Jesus in the same sense. I can't. The church, yes, we can. Somebody said, Yes, we can. Yes, we can do this, yes, we can. It's no can't in God. He said, He asked uh uh Marion looks at is there anything too impossible for God? Nothing is impossible. Scales fall off. You start seeing spirits, the scales of pride and bitterness and self-righteousness and religious arrogance and old identity fall off. And when the scales fall, you do not just see better, you live better. Uh-oh. Saul once saw Jesus the false threat. Now he sees Jesus as Lord, Messiah, and the Son of God. Saul, he saw zeal, he had zeal, education, religion, but he was still blind. God revealed that sincerity without truth be dangerous. God over your eyes does not show you what show you where you are, he shows you who you who he is. Some people have eyesight but no insight. Scales did not just fall from Saul's eyes, they fell from Saul's understanding. That's we got we got a problem with the church. There's no understanding. We understand. We supposed to be in the word, we supposed to be singing songs of Zion, of trust and faith and grace and mercy, but yet we don't practice it. We don't you talk to us and we sound like we some defeated people from the street, from the world. But God's grace is sufficient. He'll help make do, and we that's why I know if it looks like we can't do it, that's good. Because that means God is gonna come in and do the rest. If it look like we can have looking at all this, your past been praying and and and going through it and doing, but I'm not consistent, not praying and and out of concern, it's just praying that God will be done. But if you look at the paper, we ain't we can't do it. We do in our own strength, no, we can't touch it. No, we can't do it. We can't, but with God, all things. Yeah, possible. That's where your grace and your faith mix up. That's why I've been changed for this. I've been changed for the better. Now I understand when they uh why Peter got off the boat and walked with faith. I understand. I understand when the boy brought the two fish and the five. I understand because who we giving it to? Who we talking to, who we letting handle our bitterness, his name is Jesus. Well, uh, but first change to receive what grace gives, and secondly, change to see what God reveals. Thirdly, and finally, change to speak what Christ has done. At verse 20, there I want to highlight, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue. Okay, Jesus, the Son of God. This is the same Saul who tried to silence the believers. Now he's preaching Jesus. That's transformation. That was supposed to happen. You once you get Jesus in your life, you don't stay the same. No, no, you change. They should see an outward change in your life. You can't be going around talking, I'm saved, I love the Lord. And you still doing the same old stuff, still smelling like the same old places, still hanging around the same old people. He he doesn't wait till folk understand him. He doesn't wait to everybody to trust him. He does not wait until everybody forgets his past. He immediately begins proclaiming Jesus, right? That's what Jesus does when he comes into your life. It wasn't Saul gonna sit around and say, I'm gonna wait till everybody knows. No, he couldn't hardly wait. Immediately begins preaching Christ. Notice what he preached. He does not preach himself. No, he does not preach his gifts, does not preach his intelligence. He doesn't put shine on him, he put shine on the Son of God. And that's the sinner of the mess. That's my message right there in a nutshell. The evidence that Saul had been changed is not just that he stopped persecuting Christians, it is that he started proclaiming Christ. And if I can tell you the impetus or the synopsis of my dissertation for this sermon, it is you should be showing Jesus because you've been changed. Well, that's that's all in context. You'll put that's the Facebook post right there. If I got Jesus, I should be showing him. Because real conversion does not, it does not just change what you stop doing, it changes who you start glorifying. Uh-oh. Charles Spurson said every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. That may sound strong, but his point is that it's clear. When Christ has truly saved us, we cannot keep him to ourselves. No, no. Saul's story became a sermon because Jesus became the center of his life. Somebody here has a testimony that hell was open, but stay quiet. But God did not bring you through it all for you to hide it. You you do not have to know everything to tell somebody what Jesus did. Saul had just been saved, but he already knew enough to say Jesus is Lord. Well, and that's enough to start right there. Saul came to Damascus breathing threats, but now he's preaching Jesus. Same mouth, new message. He does not wait until everybody trusts him. He immediately proclaims Jesus because real transformation produces witnesses. Yeah, he done preach himself. He put the shine on Jesus. They amazed because they know who Saul used to be. His changed life becomes proof that Jesus can save anybody. And then he said verse 22, and I'm I'm almost done. Increase all the more in the strength. The more he walks with Christ, the stronger his witness becomes. And that's the good news today because Saul came into Damascus one way, but he left another way. He came in blind, but he left sin. He came in empty, but he left field. He came in dangerous, but he left delivered. Is there anybody under the sound of my voice who can testify? I'm not what I used to be. We were blind like Saul. We were lost like Saul, but Grace met us. I came in one way, but Grace changed me. I came in broken, but Grace lifted me. I came in guilty, but Grace forgave me. I came in blind, but Grace opened my eyes. And the same Jesus who stopped all on the Damascus Road is the same Jesus who met me in my mess. Thank God for Jesus. Because one Friday he died on. Calvary Hill I stayed in the grave all night Friday night I stayed in the grave all day Saturday and Saturday night but early early Sunday morning he got up with all power in his hands and because he got up I can get up because he got up change is still possible because he got up grace is still available because he got up blinded eyes can still open because he got up broken lives can still be restored because he got up guilty sinners can still be forgiven and I'm so glad that because he got up he lives, he lives, because now I can face tomorrow so don't count me out, do not write me off, uh do not bury me under what I used to be because I've been changed, changed by his grace, changed by his power, changed by his mercy, changed by his blood, and now I can say it with joy. I've been changed for this, changed to live right, change to love better, change to serve stronger, change to speak louder, change to testify killer, change to give God glory, and I've been changed for this. That is why I shout today. Uh that is why I give God the glory, because God will work that thing out for your good. All I'm trying to tell you is that every now and then uh things may not work out the way you thought they should. Uh, things may not work out the way you pray for them. Uh, and that ain't the season for you to throw in the towel. Uh you better trust God no matter what it takes. Uh look at God, he's bringing us favor. Uh looking at God uh and I'm trusting in him no matter what comes my way, because my testimony is because some may trust in cause, some may trust in houses, some may trust in money, but we will trust in the name of the Lord. Well the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous are brought in and they are saved. So lift up your heads, O ye gaze, and be lifted up in the everlasting God, and the king of glory shall come in who is the king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, and I've made up in my mind I've been changed for this, to give him glory, to give him praise, to worship his name, and I'm not gonna give up now because he's been too good and he's been too kind. Living he loved me. Dying he saved me. Buried he carried my sins far away, rising he justified freely forever, and one day Yes, one day he's coming back. Invitation is extended now. If you don't know Jesus and the pardon of your sins, if you would like to get to know him better and get saved, allow him to come into your life, simply say this prayer. Jesus, I need you in my life. I believe you died and rose again on the third day. I trust you to control my life and to enhance my future. If you said that prayer, uh it's as simple as ABC, accept, believe, and commit. If you did that, we would love to hear from you. You may contact us through our email, get praise on at house of praisep.org. Or you may go simply to our website, www.house of praise pp.org, contact us, and someone from our discipleship team will get back with you with other information you need in order to begin this new life in Christ. We love you to life. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank you again for listening to our podcast. We hope something was said to be a blessing for you, and be a blessing for you this week. We know that we are still in the hands of God, and we will trust Him to keep and deliver us. Bless you, God bless you. County Line, we love you to life, and you can't do anything about it. Look forward to next week. The Lord says the same. We hope that you are praying, reading the word, and staying true, and standing on the promises of the Lord. God bless you, and we'll see you next week, Pastor Mac.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

I need to hear you.