Human Road Blocks

Salem - January 25, 2009AM

Human Road Blocks

Acts 9 :1-9.

A strange and baffling mystery

- God comes to people

- People do not welcome Him

- the heart is closed to God

- avenues to the heart are shut off

- divine prompting is ignored

- God is not welcome to many hearts

- an incomprehensible fact

- people are not approachable

- God wants to come to them

- people just say “no” to God

Blood of Jesus opens way to God

- road is paved with love

- it is protected by grace

- is illuminated by truth

Stubborn wills blocks God’s approach

Road Signs Tell The Story

The spiritual life is marked with:

“Road Closed” - path over which God might walk is not in use

- infested with obnoxious wild growth

- eroded with deep/ugly pot holes

- tells story of frustration and loss

“Detour” - spiritual traffic must go around another way

- God is directed away from life

- barrier posted at entrance

“Private Property” only for self use

- no sharing life’s values

- no welcome to spiritual interests

“Posted: Keep Out” no admittance

- spiritual influences denied

- cannot search my life

- nothing inside akin to God

- morality is abandoned - left out

Such signs are beyond understanding

- why is God left out of life?

- poisoned spiritual nature by sin

- let sin in and keep God out

God does not give up

- pursues each one in deep love

- seeks to win by His grace

- to redeem by Jesus’ blood

The picture is very clear

- God wants to bring grace

- to awaken a voluntary response

- but finds only stubborn resistance

“Is it hard for you to kick against the pricks (goads)?”

- avoids spiritual wooing of God

- bolts in the opposite direction

- hardens heart with each prodding

- beats conscience into submission

State of spiritual unconsciousness

- is drugged into senselessness

- awareness of God is lost totally

- spiritual sensibilities are dead

God does not give up

- has ordained forces that prod

- seeking to awaken sinful people

- eternal persistent truth never dies

- knows God is present & powerful

- rejects the very idea repeatedly

Pilate asked Jesus “what is truth?”

- he was living a false life

- came face to face with Jesus

- stood mystified and confused

- lived in conflict with truth

- Jesus said: “I am the truth”

The Truth is Indestructible

- truth lives forever

- crucify it and it lives again

- bury it and it rises again

- deny it and have the ultimate lie

- ignore it and it will mock you

- trampled into dust it springs up

- truth always accuses the false

Word of God is the Truth

- living, powerful and indestructible

- cuts through every sham

- divides the true and the false

- convicts people with presence/power

Truth shines in Christian experience

- powerful testimony of living truth

- sustained and empowered by truth

- no answer to a Christian life

- words fail to demolish testimony

- from threats to imprisonment

- gave up arguments took up stones

- still truth reigned supreme

Persecution, hardships, and suffering do not dim the light but make it glow more

People have a “spiritual” nature

- call it conscience if you will

- it is an inherent element of life

- people are packaged this way

- cannot forget is a spiritual being

- surrounded by spiritual forces

- still capable of spiritual responses

these are unrelenting goads

- forever prodding every person

- wake up to how you were made

- a God built vacuum in hearts

- in the very air we breathe

- this is why there is still hope

- keep prodding and pricking

- evangelism rests on this fact

- none too hard to be reached by God

- Paul is the supreme example

How obstinate can people be?

- whole nature poisoned by sin

- fights every force trying to awaken

- keep aware of their presence/appeal

- forces disturb his peace

- does not want to be disturbed

- forces ware of dangerous choices

- does not want choice questioned

- forces call people to repent

- does not want to repent

- forces challenge to righteousness

- does not want to submit

- righteous virtue to tame

In spite of the fighting and refusal to change people makes no difference.

God stays on the road thought bumpy, and hard and tightly closed.

Why Does God Keep Goading Us?

- He knows false gods will fail

- He knows they do not care for souls

- knows he made people for himself

JONAH - smug religious ceremonies

- content by own assurances he was right

- called to preach to Nineveh but rebelled

- tried to run away from the call of God

- away from the need of that city

- saw it as contrary to his convictions

- quite willing to see the city perish

SAUL - a very religious man

- exceedingly zealous in religious practices

- probed by Stephen’s Christian testimony

- pricked in conscience at such courage

- fought back with a fury of persecution

NEBUCHADNEZZAR - a religious man

- considered his own god superior to God

- no hesitation to cast people into furnace

- is they should obey any God but himself

PROPHETS OF BAAL - had religion too

- designed to free lower passions of life

- willing to sacrifice children on their altars

- all who fight the goads of God

- adopt religion which OKs what they do

- and encourages them in doing it

A high-caste Hindu sat under the shade of his veranda, and a missionary sat beside him. Outside, on the edge of the platform, walked some of the outcasts. One of them, overcome by the heat, fell unconscious on the walk. Not one of the high-caste witnesses of the scene made the slightest movement to help him, but the missionary ran forward, raised the man, revived him, and brought, him to a place of safety. One of the high-caste Hindus said to the missionary: “Sahib, will you tell me why you did that? Our religion forbids us to do anything like that.” The missionary replied: “Yes, but my religion compels me to do a thing like that.”

Stubborn will fights all prodding& learns

“It is hard to kick against the pricks.”

Pix of stupidity & futility

- ox goaded to quicken his pace

- to draw yoked burden faster

- he resists, kicks goads, wounds self

Ungodly kick against Christian influence

- appeal presses for decision for Jesus

- resistance gives them fresh wounds

Stub toe against a rock

- may break toe

- stone is not hurt at all

“Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, . . . Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:14, 16)

“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence” (1 Peter2 :7-8)

“And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Matthew 21:44)

Kick against God destroys self

- does not hurt the truth of God

Jesus call, probes, prods, hearts

- opposed with resistance & rebellion

Jesus hovers over such a scene asking

“Why? Don’t you know that you are only wounding, destroying, dooming yourself to eternal death?”

He sees people destroying sensibilities

- sinking into debauchery and evil

- blaspheme & berate holy Name

- witnesses warfare against right/truth

- watches pursuit of carnal lusts

- follows and pleads with them

- offers live and love and grace

Jesus is the Hound of Heaven

- will not give up easily keeps calling

- works through circumstances

- people will not listen - just kick

“Lord, what will you have me to do?”

This is the only was to stop that voice

- for those like Paul on his own road

- who pause and honestly ask

Answer comes back from Jesus:

“Arise, I have chosen you.

I want you to bear my name,

and tell to all the story of

the Savior overtaking you

and rescuing you from yourself”

He wants to give you a life of meaning

One way to escape the spiritual goads probing human hearts is to yield to them and allow them to point us to Jesus

He will save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.

Take down the signs on your road

Road Closed - Detour

Private Property - Posted: Keep Out

He calls the lost to hear Him today.

Calls saved to remove temporary signs. Acts 9:1-9 (NLT)

1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest.

2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them - both men and women - back to Jerusalem in chains.

3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him.

4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!

6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one!

8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus.

9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.