Latest / Growing Together in the Gospel / Acts Series Part 13: There is No-one that the Gospel Cannot Reach: The Curious Incident on the Road to Damascus

Transcript

Acts Series Part 13: There is No-one that the Gospel Cannot Reach: The Curious Incident on the Road to Damascus · Growing Together in the Gospel

0:01
SPEAKER_00: In the last podcast in this series, we heard about the Ethiopian eunuch and thought nothing can stop someone becoming one of God's people.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: In this podcast, Acts chapter 9 takes that truth one step further.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Not only can nothing stop us receiving God's grace, but nobody is beyond it.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: In our reading today, we witnessed one of the most remarkable accounts of the book of Acts.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: Luke deliberately remind us who Saul was before introducing the change that takes place.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: Because Saul was a man who approved Stephen's death.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: He was breathing out murderous threats against Christians.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: And who traveled over 130 miles to arrest.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Yet everything changed in that death, and Saul was confronted by Jesus himself.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: A brilliant light stopped in his fact.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asked Saul, Saul, why you persecuted me?
0:59
SPEAKER_00: These words revealed not only that Jesus was alive, but that he so closely identified with his people that to persecute the church had to persecute him.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: In an instant, Saul discovered that everything he believed about Jesus was wrong.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: He was left blind by the encounter and had to be left by the hand of the master before being consecuted by the very people become to persecute.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is fundamentally different to every other religion.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's work humanity trying to reach God to effort morality or religious.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is God coming to humanity.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: He was actively opposing Christ when Jesus came to be.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: There is no thing that would stop us because Jesus has done it to make it possible.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: And that story is wonderful when we talked about the ocean of God's love and how it transforms and shapes us.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to double down on that because Luke doubles down as he records in Acts.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: He goes straight from that story to another one.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: One about a different person, a man called Saul.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Now the the Luke has hinted at him in various places.
2:54
SPEAKER_01: He talks about Stephen being killed, and a man called Saul approved of his killing.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: And you're meant to wonder, who's this man Saul?
3:00
SPEAKER_01: And then a few verses later it says Saul began to destroy the church, going from house to house.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: He dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: And you start to go, well, this guy he seemed to be having quite an impact.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: And then here in chapter 9, we revisit again.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: It says, Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.
3:19
SPEAKER_01: And so now we focus in on this man who's been wreaking havoc among the church.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: He is now breathing out murderous threats.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: He's not just gone from someone who approved a killing and said, Yes, this is a good thing we are doing in God's name.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: Not just someone who is taking part of it and dragging men and women out.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Now that languages, he is breathing out murderous threats.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: This is now who he is.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: He is breathing out, he breathes in murderous threats, he breathes it out.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: It's his character, it's his defining feature, it is all-consuming, it is what he does.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: Wherever he goes, he is going to snuff out these people of the way.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: That's how the Christians were referred to, the way of Jesus, that they followed the way.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: And so Acts chapter 9 tells us what happened.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: It says, he went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: So this man is committed.
4:13
SPEAKER_01: This is sort of a 130-mile journey, just to find some Christians and then drag them all the way back.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: This is not something that he does in his spare time.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: He has dedicated himself to this mission of wiping out these Christians.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: And so it says, as they neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Who are you, Lord?
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Saul asked.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: They heard the sound, but did not see anyone.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias! Yes, Lord, he answered.
5:10
SPEAKER_01: The Lord told him, Go to the house of Judas on Strait Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Lord Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man, and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem, and he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: But the Lord said to Ananias, Go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.
5:43
SPEAKER_01: I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: Placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
5:59
SPEAKER_01: Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food he regained his strength.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: All those who heard him were astonished and asked, Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name?
6:21
SPEAKER_01: And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him, but his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
6:44
SPEAKER_01: When he came to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.
6:50
SPEAKER_01: But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and he told how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, and they tried to kill him.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: Then the church through Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened, living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.
7:22
SPEAKER_01: It increased in numbers.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: Last week we saw this Ethiopian, this man coming in, and we said that everyone can experience the love of God.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: This week we're going to focus on the idea that everyone except.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: Because God is love, isn't he?
7:39
SPEAKER_01: And God loves everyone, and God loves to forgive everyone, and that is a wonderful idea until you bring a certain person to mind.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: Everyone, God can love everyone, God can forgive everyone except, and you'll have your own answer to that.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: Someone who perhaps has done something to you, someone that you've seen do something to someone else, someone whose life has been so horrendous and so horrific that you would say, yes, God loves everyone, but that person, I don't know how that would work.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: But that person, I don't know, and maybe that person isn't that person, maybe that person is this person.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: God could love everyone, but not this person.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm the exception.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: And Luke, I believe, puts this story next to the Ethiopian one just to double down, to say, yeah, the Ethiopian, because he seems like a nice guy, doesn't he?
8:29
SPEAKER_01: He's searching, he's reading the scripture, he's he's outside, we feel sorry for him, of course he can come in.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: But then we come to Saul, and Saul is a very different person.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: Saul represents someone who is murderous.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: That's the language, murderous threat, someone who is deliberately, intentionally, not accidentally, not mistakenly, but purposefully going around, men and women being dragged from their homes, thrown into prison, watching the execution, approving of it, pleased with it, and seeking to do more and more.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: And this man, that him too, Ethiopian, of course, but this guy.
9:09
SPEAKER_01: And here we see the extent of God's grace and love.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: According to Open Doors, there are 380 million Christians worldwide who are currently experiencing persecution because they follow Jesus, because they call on his name.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: The thing we've done this morning so often, called on his name, praised his name.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: They have been persecuted for doing just that.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: Imprisoned, beaten, even killed.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: I can introduce you to three of them.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: One of them is a man named Ahmed, lives in Egypt.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: He grew up in an environment dominated by Islamic extremism.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: And from an early age, he memorized the Quran, was taught that Christians were enemies of God.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: And as he grew older, he joined a radical Islamic group and became directly involved in persecution, organized attacks on Christian communities, burnt down churches, burnt down homes, assaulted believers in the streets, abducted Christian girls to force them into conversion, into Islam.
10:00
SPEAKER_01: And if you met him, he is someone that you'd want to steer clear of.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: He assaulted and abused and attacked.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: Niladri in India, a man who belonged to a radical Hindu organization and group, organized attacks on church and intimidated Christian families, forced believers to renounce their faith.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: There's a language, I can't remember what it is, but there's a certain practice because in India there's the belief that everyone is Hindu and that things like Islam and Christianity are taking people from their heritage.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: So there is a threat that can be initiated almost like a price on their head that unless they turn, they are boycotted or they are attacked or they are vilified and destroyed.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: And this man, the ladri, did that, hated and tortured Christians on a regular basis.
10:45
SPEAKER_01: Even said that I'd learnt to hate them and torture them.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: People like Adam in Ethiopia, a man who was so opposed that it wasn't an organized thing, but he knew a neighbor who was a Christian and took a spear to go to his house to kill him, to eradicate this stain on his culture, this person who proclaimed the name of Jesus.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: These people still exist.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: These Sauls.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: People intent on snuffing out the name of Jesus wherever it is proclaimed.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: And Saul is a man who is like that.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: Saul was brought up in a place called Tarsus.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: It meant that he was both Roman and Jewish in his culture and heritage.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: It was unique to Tarsus because of where it sat in the world.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: He was educated, trained under a man called Gamaliel.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: We met him earlier in Acts, a high-ranking Pharisee, a man who was very educated and impactful, a rabbi who was greatly respected, trained under him.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, he says, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, top of my class, knew the Bible, memorized the scripture, circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: He even says at one point, I was faultless.
11:51
SPEAKER_01: To the law of Moses, all 613, or wherever you want to count them, every single one, I was faultless.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: I got it down to a T, driven by zeal, and I persecuted the church because my God had told me this is what I was to do.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: This is a man who was convinced he was doing God's work.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: And this is the danger of religion.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: There are those who are outside, like the Ethiopian, who know they're outside, but the more dangerous is those who are outside and think that they're inside.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: Those who are wrong but think that they're right.
12:22
SPEAKER_01: Those who think that they know it and yet do not have the humility.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: Those who have self-righteousness but not righteousness.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And just so you know, those are the kind of people who most often show up to church.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: The outsiders don't come, but those who think they're on the right come here.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: We are more likely to be more like Saul than we are the Ethiopian.
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Those who think we are in and yet aren't.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: And Paul isn't indifferent, Saul isn't indifferent, he is attacking.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: And on this road, this light shines.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: He's going about, he's not searching, he's not looking, he's not like the Ethiopian who's searching scripture and desperately trying to find.
12:57
SPEAKER_01: He is doing the exact opposite.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: And as he stands there, he goes, he's going down to Damascus, and as he goes, this light shines around, it says.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: A light flashes around him, and he is knocked to the ground, and he hears a voice.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: And the voice says to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
13:17
SPEAKER_01: It's so significant that it's it's there twice.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: Saul, Saul.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: Throughout scripture, God speaks to different people in different ways, but those that he wants to communicate with most intimately and most clearly, often you find this repetition.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: You find Moses, Moses, you find Samuel, Samuel, Martha, Martha, Simon, Simon.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: Again and again, those that God is speaking intimately to, he speaks to this double phrase, and here we find Jesus meeting him and saying, Soul, so.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: This isn't a harsh tone, that that doubling up, it shows that there is a gentleness to this, a power.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: Yes, God is both gentle and powerful.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: He's knocked to the ground, and yet he speaks to him, Soul, Soul, why do you persecute me?
14:03
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the clearest pictures we have in scripture of our union with Christ.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: To touch God's people is to touch Christ.
14:10
SPEAKER_01: To be with God's people is to be with Christ.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying, Why do you persecute my people?
14:15
SPEAKER_01: Why do you persecute me?
14:18
SPEAKER_01: Paul's response is, Who are you, Lord?
14:21
SPEAKER_01: Who are you?
14:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who you are.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus replies those simple three words I am Jesus.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: And the name that we've spoken about is spoken to Saul.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: The name that he didn't believe in, the name he thought was a myth, the name that he thought was a lie, the name that he thought was just a group, a sect of people trying to distort his pure faith.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: This name is shown to him, and the name changes everything.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Instantly, as Jesus speaks those three words, Saul learns three things.
14:52
SPEAKER_01: One, Jesus is alive.
14:55
SPEAKER_01: He's believed it that Jesus was the resurrection was a hoax, it was a rumor, it isn't reality, but here he is, stood in front of me.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alive.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Lord.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: He's not simply another rabbi, he's not simply a teacher who got ahead of himself and got too big for his boots.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lord Himself.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: Saul thought he was serving the Lord, but now he is seeing the Lord.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: He's seeing his glory, and that glory is so powerful it knocks him to the ground.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: The third thing he sees is that he isn't as righteous as he imagined.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: His confidence evaporates.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: The one who thought he could see is ironically left blind.
15:33
SPEAKER_01: And that blindness isn't a punishment, it's actually a mercy from God.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: For three days, Saul can't rely on himself, can't feed himself.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: He strips away all the false confidence.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Andrew has just said that.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: Some of us need to be broken.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like a harsh thing, but it's not.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: What Andrew means is some of us need to realize that we rely on ourselves, we depend on ourselves, and some of that's survival, some of that's learned.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: We simply got no one else to depend to, we've had to all our lives, I've had to look after me, I've had to look out for me, I've got no one else to lean on.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: But there is a work that God sometimes does where he has to show us even you cannot rely on you.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: That you are not enough, that your strength is not enough.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: And for Paul, it comes in the form of this blindness where all is taken away.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: God sometimes has to dismantle before he rebuilds.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't gradually drift towards Jesus or don't seek him.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: They need God to interrupt, to expose, and to lovingly take away the foundations, not to destroy us, but because they would destroy us.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: Not to make us weak, but because the foundation was already weak.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: To show that with that surrender comes the grace of God to be built back up into something new.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: And here we find Saul who isn't looking for Jesus, isn't curious, isn't spiritually searching, he's trying to arrest Christians.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: Saul doesn't find Christ.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Christ finds Saul.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: Saul doesn't seek for Christ, Christ is seeking him.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: And this is unique to Christianity.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: It starts with God's search for us.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: What makes Christianity different?
17:09
SPEAKER_01: People sometimes ask.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: How do you know it's true?
17:11
SPEAKER_01: It's a fair question.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: There are many religions, many philosophies, many spiritual experiences.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: How do we know?
17:16
SPEAKER_01: For me, it's three things.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: One, it's the history.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: Even in this passage, you've got, oh, go to Judas on Strait Street.
17:22
SPEAKER_01: Where's Straight Street?
17:23
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but they did, because this is a real place.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: This isn't a mythical idea that there are real people in a real place.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: A man called Ananias, a man called Barnabas, Straight Street, Damascus.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: These are real places.
17:33
SPEAKER_01: You can go to some of them and see them.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: You can walk down the road, you can touch it, you can smell it, you can see the dust and the dirt, you can see a sense for it because these things happened in history.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ the same.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: He lived, he ate, he slept, he wept, he spoke, he was questioned, he was touched, he was pushed and jostled backwards and forwards.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: He went from one place to another, he spoke here, met here, he went to a cross, real nails in real bits of wood on a real hill where he is hung to die.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: And he's taken down and laid in a real tomb, and a real stone is put across it.
18:07
SPEAKER_01: And three days later that stone is removed and it is found that he is really resurrected, and that he appears to real people, and he has a real fish supper with them on the on the bit of fish breakfast, actually, on the beach with his disciples.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: And then they meet him and they touch him, and then they they know him and he speaks to them, and then he ascends and sends a real Holy Spirit to feel real people.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: There is a history to this that is unique.
18:27
SPEAKER_01: As I say, this is not once upon a time, this is he lived, he died, he rose again, and people saw him.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: And Saul thought it was a myth, a fairy tale, make-believe.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: But here he is, stood in front of him, and he can no longer question that.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: The second is the experience.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Christianity, the Christian faith changes people, not just changes opinion.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: There are some Christians who just have Christian opinions but aren't Christian.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: A lot of our politicians seem to like to do that trick.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: But there is a power in Christianity that changes lives, that transforms people.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Here, the persecutor becomes the preacher, the murderer becomes the missionary.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Paul is Saul is a real character.
19:06
SPEAKER_01: We know about him historically, and he is he baffles historians because he has no incentive to become a Christian.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: If he did this of his own volition, then he made a mess of his life because he ends up dead because of this.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: He ends up with nothing.
19:19
SPEAKER_01: He ends up shipwrecked.
19:20
SPEAKER_01: There's a wonderful passage where he talks about this.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: I was shipwrecked this many times, I was flogged this many times, I was beaten this many times, I was rejected this many times, I lost all family, I lost all friends, everyone thought I'd gone mad, he loses everything, and yet he counts it worthy because he's come to know Jesus.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: His experience transforms his life.
19:37
SPEAKER_01: So the whole direction of his life is different.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: The history, the experience, and the third thing for me is the nature of Christianity.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: Not most, every philosophy works like this: you climb the mountain and you get to where you need to be.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: You reach up and you'll arrive where you want to.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Whether it's a religious thing, you climb up to reach God or heaven, you climb up to reach fulfillment or nirvana or ecstasy or some height that you want to, or if it's not Christianity or religion, then it's some sort of philosophy of life.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: If you rise up, if you make enough, if you do enough, if you achieve enough, if you do that, then you'll rise up.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: And Christianity is the only thing that says, no, God comes down the mountain.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: God meets us in the dirt.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: God does not ask us to rise up, he comes down, he enters our world, he took on flesh, he moved into our neighborhood, he lived among us, he carried our sin, he carried our death, he rose again in victory.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel was not find your way to God, it's that God has come to find you.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: And Saul is perhaps the clearest example.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: He's not searching, he's not looking, but Jesus comes to find him.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: That means Christianity can't be thought of as another religious making another religious claim.
20:51
SPEAKER_01: It's making a completely different claim altogether.
20:54
SPEAKER_01: Every other worldview says this is what you must do to reach the ultimate.
20:58
SPEAKER_01: And Christianity begins with the ultimate who reaches down to find us.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: And Acts 9 is exactly that story.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes down to Saul.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: The shepherd finds the sheep.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: You shepherds know sheep don't tend to look for you, do they?
21:14
SPEAKER_01: They look for holes in the fences, they look for the good grass, they look for everything else, but they're not looking for you.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: You look for them.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: And this shocking change is then played out.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: The men see him and they know that he's blind, so they have to lead him into Damascus.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: And then this man called Ananias, I love this.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: The uh a vision comes to him and says, Ananias, and he says, Yes, Lord, he's listening to God.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Go to the house of Judas on a straight street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: And so I had to find a name named Ananias, and you'll do, I found one, so you're gonna have to go to him and place your hands on him to restore his sight.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: And Ananias' response is sorry, what was the name of the guy?
21:54
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Saul.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: The Saul, the Saul that we've heard about.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Saul that's been wreaking havoc in Jerusalem.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: You want me to go and pray for him?
22:03
SPEAKER_01: This is at such a I mean, Saul's normally the hero of this story, but Ananias, no platform, no title, no this, no miracles beforehand, an ordinary disciple, but Jesus meets with him and essentially says something like, Go and pray for the leader of Isis.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: It's that kind of idea.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: Go and pray for the one who's doing this.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: And Ananias, I don't think he's lacking faith, but he's really being realistic.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: Lord, everyone knows this man.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Yes, and so do I.
22:29
SPEAKER_01: I have chosen him.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: And before Ananias ever trusted Saul, Jesus had already transformed him.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: And so what comes is this beautiful moment.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: It says he goes to the house, he enters it, he places his hands on Saul, and look what he says.
22:42
SPEAKER_01: Brother Saul.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: First words he speaks to a man that for all he knows is there trying to deceive them, is playing a game to catch them out and find out who the Christians are.
22:52
SPEAKER_01: As happens today sometimes, people will infiltrate and break into Christian communities to find out who they are.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: He knows nothing about him, but Jesus has said this, so we can trust that.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: And he goes and says, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: And something like scales.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: I love it because Luke is a doctor and he knows about these things, but he's not clear on what this is.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: It was something like scales.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm not really sure.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: My medical profession fails me at this point, but they fell from his eyes, and he could see again.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: And Saul gets up, he goes and he preaches.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Not just a new opinion, not just the new ideas.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: Saul doesn't have a better theology now, his whole heart has been changed.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: He's going in a different direction.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: We often talk about this, don't we, when people come to faith, oh, they've gone all religious, they found religion, they found God, but this isn't what we see here.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: Saul's whole purpose, his direction, his purpose, his identity, his relationships, his future.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: This is what we call conversion.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: I was and now I am not.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: The old is gone and the new has come.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: I am a new creation.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: The destroyer becomes the builder, the enemy becomes the evangelist.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: Everything that wants to find him is now transformed.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: God does not merely forgive Saul's past, he redeems it, he changes it, he transforms it.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: And that's the sticking point, isn't it?
24:19
SPEAKER_01: We look at Saul and we go, that's a wonderful story, but does God just forgive?
24:24
SPEAKER_01: Is that what he does?
24:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what about all the stuff that he did?
24:28
SPEAKER_01: Just forgive, and off you go.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: And what you see with Saul is that God never just forgives.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Just forgiving is the language that we use, but God never just forgives.
24:39
SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness is not something that God just does.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Forgiveness is this thing where God says, someone must pay.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: Evil is real.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: The suffering and pain we have brought into the world, the darkness we have inflicted, it cannot be swept under a carpet.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: It cannot be removed by your efforts, it cannot be washed and scrubbed away.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: It is real and it is painful and it brings tears to God's eyes and it breaks his heart.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: It was never the way it was meant to be.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: And so someone has to pay.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: And the question is not will God just forgive, the question is who will pay?
25:09
SPEAKER_01: Who will pay such a debt?
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Who will wash away such a stain?
25:16
SPEAKER_01: The answer is the same person who meets Saul on that road.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: The name of Jesus.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: The one who gives grace to us for free because it was unimaginably costly for him.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: On the cross, where God pays the full price, not a get out of jail free card.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Christianity, sometimes people think, well, you just say sorry before you die and everything's fine.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: But that isn't biblical grace.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: God can't be manipulated, he knows every heart and every motive.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: That may happen, we see it at the thief on the cross, but it's not because you found a loophole.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't say, Oh, well done, I hadn't thought about that.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Here, come in.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Grace doesn't reward clever excuses, it creates new people.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Everyone who genuinely calls on his name is transformed, but they are also broken and humbled and then transformed.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see with Saul.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: At first glance, it might seem unfair, but here is a man who will lose a lot for following Jesus.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: The grace to come to Jesus was free, but as he follows, many things will be taken.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Not because God is robbing him, but because he is leading him into something greater.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: The consequences are still there.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: We read it in the passage.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: People still suspect, people are still unsure.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: He spent years, Paul would go on and spend years being rejected and beaten and imprisoned, but all the while saying it is worth it.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: Because I've found the one whose name is greater.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: I have been the chief sinner, he says, the worst of sinners, but his grace has met me and it has changed me forever.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: He was not just forgiven.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: Grace doesn't minimize evil, it overcomes evil.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: There's a verse that Paul would write years later in the book of Romans where he tries to explain what grace is like.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: And he says, In Christ we are more than conquerors.
27:04
SPEAKER_01: Now I know many a good story where evil conquers good conquers over evil, where right conquers over wrong, where the good guy wins and the bad guy loses.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: We know those stories, don't we?
27:14
SPEAKER_01: We love them.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: They're the films we watch, they're the stories we read, they're the things we celebrate, that all the things that we watch, where the all the sports and events where you have the underdog and then they overcome this is our story.
27:24
SPEAKER_01: Good conquers evil, good defeats evil, good overcomes evil, good wins the day.
27:30
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we can apply that to the Christian story.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: That's the ultimate God will win, good will triumph over evil.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: But Paul doesn't say good conquers evil or that we are conquerors.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: He uses the word that says we are more than conquerors.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: How can you be more if you either conquer or you don't conquer?
27:45
SPEAKER_01: How can you be more than a conqueror?
27:47
SPEAKER_01: The idea is it's a Roman idea where you don't just conquer over an enemy, but the enemy becomes something that serves you.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: That you don't just wipe out the enemy so they are no more, but everything that belongs to them becomes something that serves you, that works for you, that blesses you.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: And here we see that played out in Saul's life.
28:08
SPEAKER_01: Saul is not conquered, kicked to the dust.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: There you go, that will show you.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: Right, let's get on with our Christians now.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Saul is brought in more than conquered.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: He's knocked to the dust, yes, but then he is brought in to become an instrument in God's hand, a tool of God's grace, a minister of the very thing he tried to stamp out.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Here we see good doesn't conquer evil, good transforms evil.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: Good takes the darkness and turns it into light.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't just get rid of the darkness.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: This is a power beyond power.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Like I say, there isn't a really a human equivalent.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: All our stories basically good conquers evil.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: This is almost the unique that God Himself doesn't conquer evil, he doesn't wipe it out, he takes it and turns it back into good.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: Just as he did on the cross.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: The most evil day, we call it Good Friday.
28:55
SPEAKER_01: Why?
28:55
SPEAKER_01: Because he turns evil into good.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: That is the power of his love, that is the power of his grace.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't just defeat evil, which is what we often pray, God defeat evil, wipe it out.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: And one day he will, but do you notice he does it?
29:08
SPEAKER_01: He does it by renewing all things.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: That's what resurrection is: death and then resurrection.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: There is darkness, but light wins out.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: It is reversed.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: Death itself will be reversed, sin itself will be reversed, sickness will be reversed, hatred will be reversed.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: This is the hope of us who follow Jesus.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: It changes people.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: And it should shock us.
29:33
SPEAKER_01: It shocked the original people.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: Not Saul.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: All of it, not certainly not Saul.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: And as he goes to different places, Barnabas has to go, no, trust me, he is alright.
29:42
SPEAKER_01: He's okay.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: And we have to convince others because it just seems impossible.
29:47
SPEAKER_01: And it seems impossible.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: I think we come back to this idea of God's love.
29:52
SPEAKER_01: Just show you this video quickly, because this was this is just my illustration of enemies becoming one in Jesus.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: So last night after the England game, where we thrashed them, 6-4.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: And all the while their rivals were afterwards, if you notice all the Christian players on the pitch got together and started to pray together, those who are opposites come together and begin to pray to the same God.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a very silly example, not all silly, it's a very simple example with a football match.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: But here we see the same with Saul someone who is opposed to Christians suddenly standing with them.
30:24
SPEAKER_01: This is what the gospel does.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: It takes those who are at opposition and brings them together.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: But it's the love of God and it's understanding that that is key.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: So we come back to it.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: I've got a couple of cups of water here.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: So the first, what we can do, there is an ocean of God's love.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: That's the idea.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes we we we get some water and we go, well, I don't need that, I'm gonna make my own ocean.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is, isn't it?
30:50
SPEAKER_01: Salt water.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: There you go, I've got my own ocean.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: So we get these man-made versions, these substitutes for the God of love.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's church, sometimes it's it's singing, sometimes it's ministry, sometimes it's just the life we have, but it's our own little substitute.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: But you notice it's it might be like salt water, but it's it's not really.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of small.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes we get the real thing.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: So yesterday I drove all the way to the seaside and I scooped up some real.
31:16
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: But just for today, your imagination, I went and I got some real seawater and I scooped it up because I got a real thing.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: So this is the real love of God.
31:25
SPEAKER_01: I've got some of it, not the man-made stuff, I'm not getting a substitute, but I've got the real stuff.
31:30
SPEAKER_01: But you notice it's still a bit small.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's it's enough, but if I was to try and wash myself in this, it probably wouldn't go so far, very far.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: If I was trying to share it with others, then I would I'd run out pretty quick.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: And so we come back to this idea that God's love is like an ocean.
31:50
SPEAKER_01: And it's not something little, it's something so big.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: So big that it can bless me and fill me.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: But as I go deeper, it's enough for everyone, even Saul.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: Not everyone accepts Saul, but everyone even Saul.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: And like I say, that might be someone else that you know, there is love enough for him, or there's love enough for you.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: But the reason that we question that, the reason we go, really, them two, is because we're holding a tiny bit of God's love, going, well, it doesn't look like that's enough.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't look like enough for a soul.
32:25
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't really look like it's enough for me.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: But it just betrays the fact that actually I haven't quite understood the depth, the breadth, the height, and length of God's love.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: I've dipped my toe in it, perhaps.
32:38
SPEAKER_01: I've tasted just enough that I know it's good, but I haven't been enveloped in it.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: And when you see the love of God like an ocean, you can imagine that you could step into it and go up to your ankles.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: And that might be enough, but for someone like Saul, he has to go all the way in.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: And it has to cover him head to toe because it has to wash every part of him.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: And if you struggle with the idea of God's love, it may be simply because you've stood on the coastline.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: But God wants you to step deeper.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: It's not that you have to figure it out because you won't figure it out, but when you understand how deep his love is, then you look at Saul and you don't go, surely, God, you wouldn't do that.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: You say, I cannot believe, God, that your love is deeper than I ever imagined.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: But it also means it's deep enough for me.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: Your love goes further than I ever imagined, but that means it will go as far as it needs to for me.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: Your love does more transforming work than I ever dared believe.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: I didn't think those things could change.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: I see some of those things in me, and I didn't think they could change, but it does.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: That means that maybe I need to go deeper to have those things changed in my heart, to have my mind washed, to have my heart washed, to have me renewed.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: That is what the grace of God does.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: It goes further and further and further.
33:55
SPEAKER_01: It washes more and more and more, it renews more and more, it changes more and more, but all the while you just have to keep going deeper into it.
34:03
SPEAKER_01: You don't rise up the mountain to achieve it, you simply walk into it and receive it again and again.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: And this is what we see here.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: You don't clean yourself up, you don't climb the mountain, you don't get another chance.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes to pour out his grace and then pour it again and again until rivers of living water flow out, until we stop believing that God can only save certain people and write off others.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: Because the church at the time would have looked at Saul and said, impossible.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus goes, I'll show you.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: I'll show you what's possible.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: The church at the time might have thought we've got a good thing going on.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: Jewish people becoming Christian, we're actually going to see another barrier crossed in the coming weeks.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, Let me show you that the grace reaches further than you thought.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Not just the Ethiopians who are nice, generally nice people searching for God, the middle class Christians who know when to stand up and when to sit down, know how to be polite and talk nicely.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: But for those who are the complete opposite, those on the outside, those a bit like a man named Ahmed.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: I told you about him a bit earlier.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: The man from Egypt who burnt down churches and desired to kill those who were Christian, who was brought up knowing that he was against them, knowing that these Christians were the opposite, they were not serving God, but they were he was hostile to them.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: A man who eventually became a pastor, who, while searching for Christians, found that they were not as bad as he thought, and thought I'd better start looking into what they believe, who, on one of his trips to persecute a church, picked up a New Testament and began to read it, and in its pages found the grace of God, found Jesus as he'd never understood it, found that he was more than he ever imagined, and had his life turned around.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: A man named Niladri, the man in India who went around persecuting Christians, who in a dream, as Saul was in a vision, was met by Jesus himself, who sent him to a little village where he met another Christian.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that is a picture of him, but his back's to the photo because he has become a Christian and he is leading an organization, but he is still persecuted, and so they didn't show his face in the article.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: A man whose life has been turned around and now proclaims the grace of Jesus to those that he attacked.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: A man like Adam, whose friend Bulbullah, the man he tried to kill with the spear, has become his best friend.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: A man who he walks side by side with as they go around the lake near their home and they talk of Jesus and they celebrate his grace because his heart has been transformed and changed.
36:43
SPEAKER_01: Souls still exist, and they still have their hearts changed because Jesus still exists, and Jesus is still working, he's still setting free, his love is still as vast as the ocean, all the countless people who have drawn on it, all the countless people he's poured into, and yet there's not one drop less.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: The ocean is still vast, and God still meets us.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Christ, as Paul would write later, write, Christ loved me and gave himself for me.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: As we said last week, you need to keep bringing this to him.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: If you think you're the exception, keep coming to him until your answer of why can't I receive this becomes there is no reason why.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Until all the obstacles that you've built up in your head become silence, until you find Jesus who reveals himself with these words, I am Jesus.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: I'm the one you need, I'm the one who can, I'm the one who will.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: I am Jesus.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: My name is enough.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: My grace is enough.
37:49
SPEAKER_01: My love is enough.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: Would you follow me?
37:53
SPEAKER_01: And so Saul becomes instrumental.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: You will know his stories.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: We quote his words, we read his letters that he wrote, he becomes this powerful person being used by God.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: But don't for that reason write yourself off or put them into an unreachable category.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: That love is for you too.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: As Andrew said, perhaps God is inviting you today.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps God wants to meet with you and to work in you.
38:18
SPEAKER_01: What we're going to do in a moment is respond with a song that speaks and celebrates the love of God.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: But as we've had different people speaking in different ways today, but as Pauline said, don't just sing the words because they're there.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: Sing them if they reflect your heart.
38:32
SPEAKER_01: But if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you today, take this as an opportunity.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not mocked.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: God is not mocked.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: He sees you.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: He knows the opposition in you.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: He knows the way you reject him because it's him you reject.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: He knows the way you push him away because it's him that you push away.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: He knows the way you hold him at arm's length because it's him that you're holding at arm's length.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: You don't deceive him, you can't hide from him.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: But if he's coming to meet you today, don't resist it.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: I'll end just with a story, and it's not the not the uplifting one you perhaps want, but it just just points out this challenge.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: There's a man called Duncan Banatine.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: You might have seen him, he's on Dragon's Den, wealthy man, very successful.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: And he writes in his in his biography, his book, if you read that, he talks about a night where he came to an end of himself.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: He said, I was I was overwhelmed, I was I was burdened, I was worn out with my work, and he said I was there in tears in my garden, crying and crying, they just wouldn't stop.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: He said, and all of a sudden I sensed the presence, a presence of something that came and met with me, and and he's in his words says, and said hello.
39:41
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say it said hello, but it introduced itself.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I sensed it was the presence of God.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: And he said, and it overwhelmed me.
39:47
SPEAKER_01: And he said it wasn't a his words, uh it wasn't a spiritual thing.
39:51
SPEAKER_01: He said it was definitely a Christian thing.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: This was God who would come to meet with me, and he invited me to follow him, to become a follower of Jesus, he says.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, and I thought about it, and I thought about the money I was making and the business I was working, I thought about my success and all that I was building up, and I realized that I didn't want to leave any of that.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: And so I said no.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: And he said, and the presence left, and that's how it ends.
40:21
SPEAKER_01: And it just strikes me that God here we see Saul and Saul responds, but it is entirely possible for God to speak to you and you say no, and that simple word closes the door on so much that you might need, shuts you out from so much that could set you free, that could change your life, that could open your eyes, that could help you build on something that is so beautiful and so strong and so wonderful.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: And this is as simple as a yes and as simple as a no.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: But God comes today.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: We don't build ourselves up, he comes today to meet with you, and his question is the same: I'm Jesus.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Will you follow me?
41:12
SPEAKER_01: And your yes will lead you on the most beautiful journey with the most wonderful Savior, a great shepherd, an incredible friend, the God of the universe dwelling in your heart.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to pray as you consider how you want to respond today.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: Father, we we come to you and I just ask, Holy Spirit, would you would you come and would you introduce yourself?
41:42
SPEAKER_01: For those who perhaps have walked with you for a while, but maybe forgotten, would you reintroduce, would you come and would you invite us to continue to follow you?
41:52
SPEAKER_01: To allow ourselves to be unmade so that we can be remade, to allow certain things to be taken so that something better can be put in their place, to allow some things to die that they might be resurrected in new life.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: Speak to your children, Lord.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: And for any here who feel like they might be on the outside, who've never made that choice, but today sense something from you, sense your invitation, sense you calling them to take a step, and they're full of fear and questions and uncertainty.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Father, we pray that first of all you would speak.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: They would know that you are Jesus, you are the Son of God who gave your life for them, that your love and your grace is so wonderful, so powerful, so able to transform that it doesn't need to be run away from.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: It can be fully received and they will not lose a single thing.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: It can be fully surrendered to and they will not be the lesser for it.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: Help them to respond, Lord.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: Speak to their hearts.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: And as we respond, Lord, may we drink even more deeply of that ocean of love.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: May we step into it, may it surround us.
43:09
SPEAKER_01: And may we never shrink it down to a size that's so small that it cannot reach the worst of situations, the darkest of moments, the greatest of sins.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: For in Christ it is finished.
43:23
SPEAKER_01: Everything is paid for.
43:26
SPEAKER_01: There is power enough for everyone who calls on the name of Jesus.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: And so we call on you now, in Jesus' name.
43:34
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on Growing Together in the Gospel today.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: We hope you've enjoyed the challenge presented in the teaching and would welcome your thoughts or questions that you can direct to us through the podcast.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: Just look for the Send Us Your Questions link once you open an episode.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested in exploring things further, you'll find our website is packed with information too.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: We meet on Sundays at 10.30 in the morning, where, through a crash, classes for young people, and really good coffee, everyone is looked after.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: There really is something for everyone at LVC.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: So please don't be shy.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you drop us a line or come and see us?
44:22
SPEAKER_00: We'd really love to meet you.