On The Way

Greeting (4 MIN - CASUAL)

Good morning, everybody! I am so humbled to be on this platform for this moment during service. Pastor Tyler asked me a while back if I’d speak and of course, when you get an opportunity to speak life and encouragement into a bunch of people that you care so deeply about- it’s a no-brainer! Before we jump into what I believe God has for us, I want to take a moment and honor our Pastor. For the past four years we have served together through youth ministry, young adult ministry (for him that was about 15 minutes before God began shifting him into his next season) and now today right here at Faith Goose Creek and to see how he leads his family, loves on the people in our city, and lives his life behind closed doors is inspiring to me. So can we put our hands together for him and show him some honor?

If you have a bible with you this morning, go ahead and open with me to Acts 9:1-9. If you don’t have a bible with you, it’s completely fine, we’ll have it up on the screens for you to follow along as we read.

Acts 9:1–9 ESV

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 if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 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?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Today, if you’re taking notes and you want to write this down- oh and by the way, we do have fill-in-the-blank outlines most weeks on the back of the bulletins that are by the doors if you want to use those. I want to speak to you for a few moments a message I have entitled On The Way.

Prayer Prepare our hearts.

Tension (8 MIN - INTROSPECTIVE)

Have you ever had a moment where you were headed someplace exciting, but you

really weren’t looking forward to trip to get there?

A few years ago, I found myself sitting in the back of one of those classic church 16 passenger vans, anybody ever been in one of those?

*PUT PIC ON SCREEN*

Yeah, you know the ones that kind of smell like the French fries that whoever used the van last ate but then decided to leave half of under the seat- anybody remember those? So all of our campus worship leaders were on the way to Kansas City for a big worship conference. Now, I’ve never taken a geography class, and maybe you didn’t either, but I was aware of about how long the ride would be. 16 hours. Yeah. 16. Hours.

Now, I don’t get car sick or anything like that, I just don’t like car trips. I am wired way too ADD to be stuck in such a small, enclosed space for that amount of time with those people. You know how loud and crazy worship leaders can be sometimes. So leading up to the trip I wasn’t thrilled about the drive and I kept complaining to Elizabeth about how how I knew how irritated I was going to get and how much I was dreading this ride. And by the time we got going, I found myself feeling apprehensive and kind of on edge.

This went on for a while, and you know how it goes- when you’re on that long road trip, your kids ever shift into their “are we there yet” gear and every little noise they make ever just tap right on that last nerve that you can’t believe somehow you still have? Yeah, that wouldn’t bother me either.

*SMILE*

So we had been on the road for a little bit, and once I realized that I was feeling like that, I had to make a choice. Did I really want to continue feeling like this for the entire trip or would I choose to settle in, engage in the conversations happening around me, and learn to enjoy the journey to Kansas City as much as I was looking forward to just being there. Once I stopped being so uptight and bothered by the whole trip, I found myself actually enjoying the time I had with those guys. And now I look back at that ride up and still tell stories of how much fun we need up having just on the way before we even got to Kansas City.

And don’t we see this in so many seasons of our lives? That we can get so caught up in getting the promotion, having the perfect spouse with a house full of kids, or coming across as healthier, wealthier, and wiser than the person across the street that we often lose sight of what God wants to do in us and through us while we’re on the way.

Arthur Ashe has this quote- and I love it. He says:

“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”

Passage (4 MIN - BEGIN PREACHING)

This is exactly where we’re at in our passage. Paul and his crew are headed to Damascus which is essentially the capitol of Syria and he’s looking for anyone that he can find who is a follower of Jesus so that he can arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem. And if you’re new to the faith, you’re probably thinking to yourself- wait: I thought being a follower of Jesus was a good thing, right? We’re seeing what we call persecution- which is just a fancy word for the mistreatment of an individual or group based on things like their ethnicity, nationality, or religion happening within the early church of the book of Acts.

And I love the imagery that we read- we find Saul on his trip and our New Testament tells us that he “was breathing threats and murder” against those who are following Jesus. Now, here’s a man who’s truly and honestly following his convictions. Saul is by no means an unintelligent man. Since around the age of 10 he would have spent his days studying the Old Testament laws with a rabbi in Jerusalem. He knew what God had said to his people- it was just a relationship with Jesus that He hadn’t quite figured out. He had the religion down, but not the relationship and that’s dangerous.

And in verse 3 we read this incredible almost other worldly experience that Saul has that’s described as “a light from heaven shining around him” causing him to temporarily become unable to see and actually fall off of his horse. And we have the benefit of being two thousand some odd years in the future, so we see now as we read that it’s actually God who comes to Saul and says: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And so Saul is instructed to get up and to go into Damascus and wait for what God is going to tell him next.

This morning I want to give you three simple reminders that if you’ll always keep in front of you- you’ll find yourself not only enjoying the journey, but maybe even impacting someone else’s life forever. First, it’s important to remember that...

Points (15 MIN - PREACH)

1. NOBODY IS TOO FAR GONE.

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

In verse 1, we see a fiery Saul who’s ready to arrest anyone he can find who’s Team Jesus. He’s not a friend to Christians. Doesn’t hang out with them, doesn’t bring the chips to the cookout, doesn’t even respond to their friend request on facebook- just completely against them.

To give you perspective, the early Christians that we read about were severely beaten often just to the brink of dying, thrown into jail, or drug out of the city and stoned with large rocks. So Paul goes to the high priest and gets permission to head to Damascus to find these people and hurt them.

And yet- I just love a good, “and yet”, don’t you? Like a good twist in a story? And yet- Even in all of this hatred against these people- God still chooses this man in this moment to take time with. I don’t know about you, but I’m grateful that God took a moment with me. See often times, when we look at the story of Saul on the road to Damascus we can say “this is such a good message for the drug addict or the person who’s got all the outward signs of living a hard life”, but I want to remind you this morning that this is a message for all of us.

When we first say yes to Jesus and get more involved in church, it’s easy to look up at the stage and think that the people holding a microphone are on some other level with God. I love how our Pastor describes it sometimes has a special phone to call God on hidden in the back of his office. Growing up, I had everything I needed. My parents weren’t making a ton of money, so we weren’t living some grand lifestyle, but I never went lacking. When my parents found out they were going to have me, they starting getting back into church, so I ended up being raised with parents who kept me in church all the time.

Until I was about 16 years old, I lived my life for me. I played the church game. Then one day during some service or something else so ordinary that I actually can’t remember what it was right now, I started really grasping what the love of God meant for my life and I began taking my faith seriously and living in surrender to whatever he had for me. Isn’t amazing that God can work so powerfully in ordinary things?

And my story doesn’t have one of those moments when God intervened on my bathroom floor after I had just taken an entire bottle of anti-depressants or anything like that- but that doesn’t mean I don’t have one. I lived however I wanted to and didn’t care at all about living my life fully surrounded to God. It wasn’t until I was 16 that I was finally aware of God’s love for me, and when I realized that- everything changed. I began living differently, and it wasn’t to try to earn my salvation and approval from God: but rather out of it. See just because my story isn’t full of near death experiences doesn’t mean He isn’t writing it.

Where else can we see this incredible grace that God gives- look at Romans 5. The author says that God demonstrates his love for us in that while were were still sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians reminds us that God tells us that His grace is sufficient for us and in our weakness, His strength is made perfect.

So in our passage, Paul is headed to Damascus in verse 3- can we throw that picture of the city up on the screens, I want us all to go to the same place in our minds.

*PIC ON SCREEN*

At that time, Damascus was the capitol of Syria and was considered an inexhaustible paradise. It’s geographical location had made it very prosperous because of how close it was to the trade routes of the day.

Some of you guys were probably looking at this for the entire time I’ve been up here wondering what in the world is her going to do with that? Let me get saddled up here... don’t worry, I’m not going to go take my horses down to the old town road or anything like that- what you guys know about that?

Last week, we talked about the children of Israel heading into Canon- the land of comfort, and you can kind of think of Damascus as this kind of place where they all rode horses all the time maybe not, but this is my moment, so you’re just gonna have to go with me here. The people had all that they needed. They could just ride to the store and get what they needed. They’d pick up their kids from Damascus school. They had their plan and they were working it. There wasn’t this overwhelming sense of “I need God”.

I can imagine that every morning they woke up with their list of things they needed to do and they knew exactly how to do it. They’d get on their horse, put on their headphones as they went to Walmart to get their groceries and ride right past the man sitting on the corner who’s obviously hurting and needs to know that somebody still cares about him. *PAUSE* They would ride to their kids ball games and sit alone rather than choosing the seat next to the mother who’s in the middle of a nasty divorce and feels like she’s the reason their family is falling apart.

*PAUSE*

And how many times do we find ourselves riding along and chasing our “paradise” or simply living our lives for ourselves and God has to come and just like we read about with Saul- knock us off of our horse to get our attention... See: God makes a point to find us where we are. Now I’m not saying that God is the cause of all the terrible things that happen in our lives, but If I know anything about Him it’s that He will not let anything be wasted.

Secondly, if you’re taking notes, there is such incredible value found in remembering that...

2. EVERYBODY IS KNOWN BY GOD.

4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

In verse 4 - God says Sauls name twice. Why is this important? Anytime in our Bible that we read God say a name twice, something of importance is about to happen. As a Jewish man, Saul would have known this. Having access to the Old Testament, he would have remembered God calling Jacob’s name twice in Genesis 22. God calling Moses’s name twice in Exodus 3. So when God says “Saul, Saul: why are you persecuting me”- it would be best for him to listen up.

See even in the midst of all that Saul was literally on the way to do, God takes a moment to remind Saul that he is with him and there’s some course correction that needs to take place. And aren’t you grateful to serve a God that knows us so intimately that we don’t have to hide anything from him? How exhausting is it to constantly wear a mask to try to get the approval of the people around us? Maybe you’re like me- I’m pretty hard headed with some things. Or most things. Sometimes it takes someone telling me that the way I’m doing something will not work about three times before I finally start to understand that I should maybe try another way to do it.

But God cut down to the heart with Saul- why are you persecuting me. He didn’t have to rely on small talk to lighten up the mood. He knew Saul. And He knows each one of us. The bible says that before we were even born that God knit us together in our mothers wombs. Here is a God who cares to deeply for us- even when we were in the middle of our sin. Maybe this is a word for somebody today: if God cared enough to create you, He cares enough to connect with you. Stop trying to sugar coat your prayers. You don’t have to have all of the right words or read your bible every day for a week for Him to hear you. He’s always going to want to be near to you- even without the good efforts of our faith or the mask we try to wear.

Lastly, a third final truth- write this down- is that...

3. SOMEBODY IS IN THIS SEASON.

6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

Verse 6 - “and you will be told what you are to do”. If you’re anything like me, wouldn’t it be great if God could just give us a written plan for every decision we need to make, who we need to talk to, and how to raise the perfect kids that will love God, love the church, and actually want to take care of us as we get older? But we don’t. We are positioned in this life with simply the gift of faith. We don’t know the end from the beginning.

And Saul found himself right there. God came to him, knocked him off his high horse, and told him to get up and go. That’s it. But with God in control: that’s enough for us. Rewind with me a few thousand years to Abraham and his son back in Genesis 22. To recap, God tells Abraham to take his son on a trip with him and sacrifice him up on a mountain. If there is any login within you, yes: I’m with you. That’s crazy, but aren’t you thankful that you live today and not back then?

Abraham didn’t know the end of the story like we do. We’re able to read later that God had actually been testing Abrahams faith, and he actually provided another sacrifice that Abraham was able to use in place of his son. There was something else in that place with them.

And this is often the place of blind faith where we find ourselves. There’s someone in this season. And maybe you’re saying ok: I trust you God. And it’s great that you’ve got someone in this season with me. But why? What does this mean? As you read on in Acts 9, you see that God had a man named Ananias waiting for Saul and this moment served as the launchpad for Sauls ministry. From this moment, he would go on to plant several christian churches all over the world, write 13 books of our New Testament, and reach countless people with the Love of God.

And maybe you're saying to yourself, well that’s great for Saul, but that’s not me. You might say, well you don’t know my story. I’m too far gone. God can’t possibly still know me, we haven’t talked in years. I’m alone in my season.

Let me encourage you today: Moments create momentum... this moment served as the turning point for Saul. And maybe you don’t ever have a Damascus moment where God literally knocks you off your horse. But God is always speaking to you. And you always have the opportunity to hear him. But will you listen?

As Ryan comes back up this morning, I want to give you an opportunity to do this. I actually want to create two moments this morning with you. Maybe this morning, God has been pulling on your heart and greatly reminding you that he’s there. Maybe you’ve never said yes to him and lived a life that’s fully for him. I want to give you an opportunity to do that this morning and so right now, if that’s you, I want you to repeat this prayer after me- in fact, can we all say this prayer: “Jesus, thank you for looking past my sin and giving your life for me on that cross. Stating today, I want to live my life led by you. I give you permission to guide my life and have your way in my life.”

I believe that it’s as simple as that, if you prayed that prayer of surrender the Bible says that our God is faithful to hear us.

So now maybe you’ve been around church for a while, but you want to get back into a rhythm of listing to him. Right now, I want to take the next two minutes and give him room to speak to our hearts. So I’m going to pray, and then when I say amen, I want Ryan to play and I just want to listen for a second.

*WAIT... TAKE TIME HERE*

Today, if you made that decision, that is so incredible. Please be sure to tell somebody with a team member lanyard and ask them for your new believers kit we have on each alter stations here at the front.

Thank you guys for being with us this morning, you won’t want to miss next week as we go even deeper into this idea of how God can take simple moments and make them incredible. Have a great week!

Maybe pray to dismiss?