Amen. Thank you Mo. Just be ready. I might even call you to preach sometime. So I'm not joking.
You're there in acts. And last week we saw just the persecution of the church.
We saw that Saul was present at the death of
of Stephen in Acts number seven.
And so we're just kind of going through basically,
it's almost like a buildup, right?
Of every chapter just keeps showing us
how much more persecution,
how many more challenges the saints.
I've got her phasing but also how many more lives are being changed and how many more people are being saved because of the
Acts of the Apostles now and we're there and the title of the sermon this evening is
It's acts nine of course, but it's Saul's
Saul is saved by grace. So before Paul was Paul he was Saul and
In this occurrence, we see that he's saved by grace.
And there's a couple of things that I'm really going to emphasize today.
And I want to put to bed, I'm not really priest to Sermon on it and maybe I'll one day bring
a full Sermon on it, but I am going to spend some time on a couple of things.
And the one thing that I'm really going to emphasize as we get to those verses is the
fact that salvation really does come by somebody preaching the gospel to you.
You know, one of the things that we see that's always been around, but we've, I've seen recent
two things, number one, that people could just get saved randomly.
You know, if they're reading the Bible or they're just around people that
are preaching God, then one day, you know, they'll just understand it and get saved.
And we know that's not true because in Acts chapter 8, Philip preaches to the Ethiopian.
He's like, how do I, how would I even understand this?
And then we're going to see even the same thing here.
And then the other thing that we see is that people are like, well, you can get saved from
someone who is not saved, which is not true either.
You know, you have to get saved by someone like Mindit.
And I'm going to really emphasize those points.
So those are the main kind of themes that we're going to cover.
Of course, when we're going verse by verse, there's a couple other things that'll stand
out.
It says in Saul, yet breathing out threat knees and slaughter
Against the disciples of the Lord went unto the high priest and
Decired to of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of this way whether they were men or women
He might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. So before Saul gets saved. What is he still doing?
he's persecuting the church right and
Before he even has an encounter with Jesus, you know, Saul didn't slow down
And I think the reason that the Bible makes it clear of that or lets us show that is to show us
Just how hard of a worker's soul is, you know, the enemy can work hard, too, right?
There's a famous, I would never of course promote this person, but there's a famous saying that I think they asked
Bob Marley one time why he was preaching against I mean why he was singing against peace or what not and he said well
Because the enemy never sleeps either but you know, it's a true statement, right?
The enemy never sleeps and so we should take that that that mentality and we should I mean obviously we want to sleep
The Lord's always on our side, but we want to work as hard as we can until the day that we can't right?
Really there's nothing more important to life than redeeming the time
And there's something that really frustrates me as I grow in my faith is the fact that
I have to get a job not because I'm lazy, but because I just wish I could spend all
my time doing the work of the Lord.
But the reality is you know why God makes this do work and why we have to have
vocations, stuff like that in the family and everything is because if I had all
the time to just go preach the Word of God and read the Bible and all that,
probably what would end up happening is I'd end up with some idle time and then
I wouldn't do the things that I need to do, right? I mean that just comes over
time and disciplining things like that. But one of the things that really stands
out here in verse number one, it says, in Saul, yet breathing out threatenings,
So Saul is actively threatening and persecuting the Christians and he's seeking to arrest them,
but I think it's interesting that it says breathing because how often do we breathe?
When was the last time you counted your breaths or I mean you're breathing right now it's an
involuntary action like he's so good at just persecuting the church it's almost second nature to him.
Right, and I mean that's just the way the enemy is but you know what when he turns around here shortly
And he has that conversion
He's also then become so good at preaching the word of God that it becomes second nature to him
Right, we should be so good that it becomes second nature to us
This week I had to do a funeral on Monday man the weeks just go by quick. I can't believe it was this week
It feels like it was
I'm not gonna but and go back to x8 while we're doing that but well I'm tight
But I was at at a funeral and when I got to the funeral the really short funeral
It was last minute. I didn't know the person that passed away. I didn't know the son
So that's why they called us
But the mom came out and she's like, oh, well, you know, do you speak Spanish?
I said, yes, she's like, do you mind doing it in Spanish?
I was like, no, so I did the service in Spanish and English, but the one thing is, thank God,
you know, we preach the gospel enough that it is second nature, you know, at least the gospel message,
I can preach it out, you know, for us, you know, for all have sin and come short of the glory of God,
I can quickly turn around and be like, por cuanto todos pecaron están destituidos a la gloria de Dios.
I mean I honestly speak both languages but we preach it enough in both languages that
at least that's second nature. You know we should always be preparing
so the day comes when we need that preparation to show up, right?
That's why when I told Moe that one day I might call him to preach
He should just be prepared because you just never know I might actually call him to preach and then you know
If he's not prepared he's gonna let me down let himself down let everybody down
I'm not picking on you Moe, but I am I'm sorry, but it acts eight in verse one
It says in Saul was consenting unto his death the death of Stephen
And it says and at that time there was great there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem
And they were all scattered abroad throughout the region of Judea and Samaria except the apostles and devout men
Carried Stevenson's burial made great lamentation over him as for Saul
He made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women committed to the prison. I mean
He's wreaking havoc. He's breathing out
Persecutions. I mean literally Saul's like on fire for the enemy
In Galatians, you don't have to turn there but in Galatians 1 verse 13 the Bible says for you have heard of my
Conversations as Paul speaking in time paths in the Jews religion how they beyond measure how that beyond measure
I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and
Profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation being more exceedingly zealous
the traditions of my father, you know, one of the hardest things I think Paul had to realize was when after he got saved
We see a lot of these verses is that he's dealing with the fact that he did persecute so hard
You know, he caused a lot of people to get killed a lot of people to lose interest in the gospel
A lot of people did not have the opportunity to listen to the gospel in 1st Timothy 1 13 says
Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and an injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief
And so why do we preach the gospel?
Because we don't know who's doing it ignorantly and unbelief.
Now we know there's people that are actually reprobate and they hate God, but there's people
that are actually doing it for a just cause.
I mean, I've read a lot of history.
I could always use to read more, but I read a lot of history, especially about, you know,
World War II and the Nazis.
And they thought a lot of the Nazi soldiers thought that they were doing the work of God.
Like they thought that they were exterminating not only the Jews, but anybody who was in
the equal race in the name of God.
So you know, we have to use the name of God properly, literally.
You know people were getting killed because the soldiers thought they were doing the work of God, right?
They did it ignorantly and unbelief now
I know the leadership was probably reprobate but not every soldier that serves as reprobate
I mean if we were to go to World War three, which is a very real possibility the way things are going
I don't think that all those soldiers that are gonna go fight for our country are literally against those enemies
They're just there to defend our country
I mean and we know that because if you study history and when they interview soldiers a lot of them were like
I didn't realize the gravity of what I was doing or I didn't know the things that I was
getting into.
I mean, so much so that the people who dropped the bombs, the atomic bombs in World War II,
I mean, it was a big deal for them when they realized the catastrophe or the gravity of
what they had done.
I think, and like I said, I should have probably brushed up on it because I wasn't thinking
of it, but I think some of those guys actually committed suicide because it was just so stressful.
and some of them really suffered some really traumatic events because once they saw the
big mushroom cloud, I mean, they realized, oh man, I just, I basically just murdered
millions of people. So sometimes we're zealous, but we're just not zealous for the things of God,
right? Let's go down to verse three of chapter nine. It says, and as he journeyed, he came near
Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to the earth
Why persecute is thou me?
And he said, who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute is.
It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And this is the, I made this point a couple of weeks ago,
as we were going, you know, when you're preaching the word of God,
it's either going to start to soften your heart,
or it's going to cut through the heart.
Remember a couple of times we see that, you know,
when Peter was preaching, it cut.
The Pharisees to the heart or when Stephen was preaching and said it cut them to the heart so much so that they actually killed them
Right, but with Paul Paul's being literally softened, right?
He's he's like why is it so hard for it? It's hard for you to kick against the pricks, right Paul?
So Paul
This is why I personally
believe
This is not, I mean, I mean, you can kind of draw from it, but it doesn't say it explicitly,
but I believe that the seed for Saul to get saved was planted when he saw the death of
Stephen.
Even though shortly after he's still wreaking havoc because the Bible says why is it hard for you to kick against the pricks right like in other words
He's already struggling
He already has this internal struggle with the fact that he's zealous and he's doing this good work for the Jews to kill the Christians
But then Jesus says hey
Why are you doing this like you're you can see that there's already an internal battle and then in verse 6
He says and he trembling and astonished that Lord
What will thou have me to do and the Lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it should be told
Thee what thou must do and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless
Hearing a voice but seeing no man and saw the rose from the earth and his eyes were open
And he saw no man
But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he was three days without side and neither did he eat or drink
So Paul's blinded
And so I guess he doesn't feel I guess I wouldn't feel like eating very much either if all of a sudden
I'm walking down the road and Jesus talks to me and I have this vision and then I can't see when I open my eyes
You know Paul has his experience and Paul uses this experience even in his defense later on in Acts chapter 22
We'll see that in Acts chapter 26
And he talks about it, but let's go to 1st Corinthians 15. He also talks about it in 1st Corinthians
And in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 1 the Bible says more over brethren
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you which also you have received and where in ye stand
But by which also ye are saved if you keep in memory what I preached unto you
Unless you have believed in vain
For I delivered unto you first that of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures
And he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, and he was seen of Cephas,
then of the twelve, and then he was seen of the five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained unto this present,
but some are fallen asleep.
And after that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time for I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meant to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all.
Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me therefore whether it were I or they so we preached and
So ye believed and so we see that this this experience
You know basically changed them and then he you know Paul was really good at
Letting everybody know like his his resume
And I think that was necessary because he's just so zealous that people were you know
We're gonna see this here shortly after you get saved people are confounded
It would make sense that he would have to at least carry his resume around because remember I mean the old school are gonna look at
I'm gonna be like Paul aren't you the guy who was like or Saul wasn't your name Saul
Weren't you killing people before or persecuting them or throwing them in jail?
Now you say you're a Christian
I mean, we're actually gonna see this in acts 9 like even the apostles are like yo, he's coming to Jerusalem
But I don't know if we want to let him in this guy is gonna kill us like that makes perfect sense and
If you think about your life, I don't know when you got saved or what you did, but I got saved when I was 25
So I already had lived some life not a lot of life
But I'd live some life and I remember my friends thinking. Oh, you know, you're mr.
Goodie tissues or you're trying to just
Change the leaf. We don't really buy it because they remember the old you and so I think that's why Paul is always
Reminding us of this like great conversion and the fact that also he was the last one to see Christ
We're here from Christ, right? He says I and last of all he was seen of me also as one born out of due time
So let's go down to verse 10 of Acts number 9
Chapter 9 and I guess I should have given you the points
I got a little zealous in my in my preaching
But the first point was that Saul is still persecuting
But then he has an encounter with Jesus my second point in the in the next set of verses is and Aniah's directive
Saul's conversion and this is where I'm really going to start to emphasize the
fact that you know if you pay attention to these verses and an eyes is given the
directive to go speak to Paul now it's Paul saved or Saul right it's Paul saved
at this time or not he's not and I'm gonna prove it to you from the Bible
right he is not yet saved he's still you know Jesus talked to him he said hey go
You know, and we know that people can't be enlightened, or people can come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, right?
Ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
In Romans 1, it talks about how they knew God, yet they didn't worship Him as God, or they didn't recognize Him as God Almighty.
So you can know the gospel and still not get saved.
I mean, the Catholics read the Bible.
I don't know if you know that. I mean they also read a bunch of other stuff
But they read the Bible that doesn't mean that they understand the Bible
That doesn't mean that they believe in Jesus Christ if you go to Acts 9
I mean I acts 9 yeah verse 10 it says and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him set the Lord in a vision
Ananias and he said behold I am here Lord and the Lord said unto him arise and go into the street
Which is called straight and I love the way that's worded
Because even back then, you know, sometimes we think we're really sophisticated. We're not right. They've been doing stuff organized for a long time
I mean literally the street is called straight, you know, they still had maps back and they might not have Google Maps
But they had maps it says an inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for Beholdi Prayeth
And here's another thing that stands out. These are little things that I just left to talk about
God listens to the prayer of the unsaved if they're seeking God.
You know, I could have made a whole other point just on that alone,
but we know, you know, here we see it.
And had seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in
and putting his hand on him that he might receive this sight,
then Ananias answered,
I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem,
and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my
name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how
great things he must suffer for my namesake."
You know, we have to accept where God has us in life.
We don't have to settle, which is two different things,
but we do have to accept the fact that
God has us in certain places in life for certain things.
We love to talk about Paul, we love to talk about Saul,
but
You can't take away from the fact that God chose Ananias to lead Saul to Christ, right?
I mean think about though the rewards that Ananias is going to get for being the one who let Paul to Christ
They're about getting to heaven and be like, yeah, I'm the one who let him to Christ, you know imagine
You know all these great preachers that we love to follow if you meet the guy who actually let them to Christ, right?
Be like well, that's pretty cool if it wasn't for you
This guy wouldn't be doing these great things or if it wasn't for you. These guys wouldn't be so windy, you know
Pastor Pope is the one who let me to Christ. Pastor Cobb is the one who ordained me
You know, I wouldn't be able to do the things that I do if it wasn't for these these individuals, right?
We can negate the fact that there's always somebody there to serve and they're just as important
You don't have Paul without Ananias
And God knew something about Ananias that we don't know and the Bible didn't even give us that much context other than
God doesn't just choose people randomly. He chooses the best of the crop
So Ananias is one that stands out. He's probably very faithful. He's probably serving the Lord
He's highly obedient and we know he's highly obedient if you go to oh, you don't have to go there
I'll just I'll just make the point stay there in Acts
But in first Samuel 15, this is the famous verse that we know it says in Samuel said in verse 22
He said let's have you said hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to harken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being
king."
So look, a couple of things stand out.
You can reject Christ and be reprobate or go to hell, but as a safe individual, you
can actually reject the word of the Lord.
Not Saul who became Paul, but King Saul was saved. We know that
King Saul submitted committed suicide and then it going and ended up going to heaven early and
He was saved. He actually started out great in his ministry went off the beaten path
And why did he go off the beaten path because he rejected the word of the Lord?
What's the difference and Anise is not rejecting he's accepting the word of the Lord because even though he pushes back
He doesn't disobey
Right. He's like Lord. I'm just a little concerned. I mean, you got to understand
I mean if I was anonymized, I might feel the same way literally Paul has the fame or Saul has this fame of literally
Killing or throwing
Prisons in jail and persecuting them. I don't know that I'd want to go
Right, I don't know that I I'd want to you know, just I've been deposed before I've gone up
you know against
Finra like these are things that and I did them
But let me tell you what I wasn't like looking forward to them
I was a little nervous your heart beats a little bit faster imagine it evolves so we get a call and they're like hey, you know
The city government or the city council is calling you because there's an edict not to preach the word of God
And now you have to go answer for that
Right, I might not necessarily be that excited to go
But Ananias does it anyways. It says, you know, sometimes, actually oftentimes, God places us in difficult situations to do great things, you know.
For me, Ananias stands out as this great stalwart of the faith because Paul comes out of, you know, he's basically a child, a spiritual child of Ananias.
We don't know much about him other than that, but right here in verse 17,
after the Lord tells him, hey, you need to go,
he says, and Ananias went his way and entered into the house,
and putting his hands on him said,
Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way,
as Thou came as hath sent me,
that Thou mightest receive thy side and be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And immediately there fell from his eyes had been scales and he received sight for within a rose and was baptized
Why did Ananias let him be baptized because now he knew he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
In a couple then he said now notice the Lord sent someone to do the work people get so mad when you say
Hey, I let someone to the Lord and they're like what Jesus does the same. Yeah, we know Jesus does the saving
But he lets us take the credit
Unlike you who are selfish God actually doesn't care who gets the credit. He just wants the job done. I
Mean it makes sense, right? God's almighty. He doesn't need to credit for anything
I mean he created the world, but he shares the wealth
He's not communist right in that sense
He's not taking from one to give to the other, but he will share his glories and his riches
And it says, and when he had received me, he was strengthened and saw certain days with the disciples, which were at Damascus.
And so salvation will always be faith to faith. Go over to Acts 8, 26,
and then I'm gonna have you go to Romans, but go to Acts 8, just one, a few pages back,
depending on the size of your Bible. And in verse 26 it says, and the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip,
saying to rise and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem into Gaza,
which is in the desert. By the way, didn't God leave us a command?
Didn't Jesus, His final command was just go ye out into all the world and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?
Literally, all these guys that are leading people to the Lord and they're doing great things are getting what? A command from the Lord.
So we should probably learn that our biggest command is that we do the work of the Lord.
It says, and he arose and went and behold the man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority
under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure and come
to Jerusalem before the worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah's
the prophet.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot, and Philip
ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah's, and said, Understandeth
thou without readest.
And he said how can I accept some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him
The place of the scripture which he read was this he he was led as a sheep to that to the slaughter and like a lamb
Dumb before his shears so open he not his mouth and his humiliation as judgment was taken away
And who showed the Claire's generation for his life is taken from the earth and the Enoch answered Philip and said I pray thee
of whom speaketh, speaketh the prophet of this, of himself, or some other man.
In other words, the eunuch who's in it, who's, if he's serving under a queen, you know, he's educated.
Obviously, he's educated because he's carrying around a Bible.
You know, I mean, it's not like you can just go to Walmart and get a King James if they're carrying Bibles
It's because either one they have access to education and you know
There's a lot of uneducated people in that time in history and he has access to to wealth
So that he can carry this book around but he says hey, how can I understand it unless somebody explain it to me?
Even Paul the great Paul that needed somebody to explain the gospel to him, you know, if you go to acts 10
Verse eight, but let me just read that last verse and then Philip opened his mouth and began the same scripture and
Preached unto him Jesus and I love that you can you know, you can preach the gospel from the book Isaiah
Because the Bible makes that clear. Hey, son, Enrique, go give me a little water, please
Romans 10 and in verse eight the Bible says but what sayeth it the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart
That is the word of faith
Which we preach
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
But I like pay attention there actually let me slow that down, but what sayeth it Bible says the word is nigh thee near thee
Thank you
Even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach
So there is something that we said about the fact that when someone's preaching the gospel to you
You were already either thinking of people that are receptive or thinking about it says the word is nigh
into the in their mouth and in their heart and that's why the next verses make sense
You know we use those verses without a lot of the context says that if thou shall confess with thy mouth
The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised them from the dead. Thou shall be saved
For with the heart may I believe with unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture sayeth
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
And there's that word, call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord should be saved.
But then I love these verses. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher?
And I'll show they preach except they be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
And bring glad tidings of good things. So why would God put this in here if people could just randomly get saved?
And the other thing is let's compare verse 15 to verse 8 verse 8 already says that they the word is nigh to them in their heart in their mouth
But yet they haven't figured this thing out
It's not until somebody comes and preaches it to them
That they get it and that happens. I mean, I remember reading my but I read my Bible through
When I was a young man like in my early 20s
I didn't get saved I was 25 and let me tell you something if you were to ask me what I learned
I probably don't remember much of it
It's not until after you get saved that you actually understand the Bible, right?
So it's not like somehow I read my Bible at age 20 and I read John 3 16 and it all make I mean
How many times have you been out soul winning and you actually can see the light go off when you quote John 3 16?
It's quoted like you go to baseball games you go everywhere John 3 16 and nobody's ever put two and two together that's a
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begun son that whosoever believed within him should not perish but ever lasting life
Right people just it rolls off their tongue without ever thinking. Oh, it's whosoever believed within him
I don't have to do all this work. I don't have to you know, love God
I don't have to have a relationship with God. All I got to do is believe but it's not it's not of them
But it's not clear to them without the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?
You can't get it just because you got it
The other thing I want to point out and I did the research because I want to make sure because you know
There's always some guy on the internet who's gonna try to like debunk what you're saying, but the other thing that I've heard
So I said the first two this is the other one is that you know, they say well, you know other people can you don't
You're not the one leaving people to Christ. It's it's the Lord which I agree
Then the statement that I heard recently was well isn't Jesus the vine and we are the branches and the thing about that
Is that where does the fruit hang on the branches?
Right obviously you can't have the branches without the trunk or the vine or the roots
But the branches are the ones that get the credit, right?
We, and so I looked it up, there's literally, and I, I, I kind of just did some
research and I could only find, there's literally only one tree or a set of trees
in there in Brazil of all places that grow their, their fruit on the trunk.
It's an anomaly.
In other words, the exception proves the rule.
All fruit trees, for the most part, 90% plus of all trees, where does the fruit
grow on the branches?
Right because Jesus is not if Jesus wanted to be the soul winner he would have just stayed on earth
I mean Jesus can do anything right, but he said you go out ye into all the world and preach the gospel
You know baptizing him in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and the reason I bring that up is because that really
Kind of irks me a little bit because it it downplays the work that the Lord did and the commands that he gave right
It's literally going against the commandments of God. It's actually being disobedient
To say, number one, it tells me you're lazy because why would you just assume that someone's
going to understand the gospel means that you're not willing to do the work to clarify
that.
You know, people get annoyed, but if somebody comes in here and I don't know if they're
saved, I'm going to clarify it.
Now I might not have checked everybody that's come recently, but I also do preach about
it quite a bit.
I don't know why you're even coming here because it's not like I make any bones about it. It's not
like I'm being kind of vague about the situation. It's not like I get up here and I'm like well
salvation is by grace but you know I mean literally I say that all the time like it shouldn't be
anything but a clear gospel message right because I've been to churches like that where they preach
the gospel message and then they say confusing stuff and then you confront the pastor and they're
like can never clear it up. You could you ask me you can ask me anything you want about the gospel
You know, I don't get offended if someone says, well, how do you know you're saved? Because the Bible says I believe the Lord Jesus Christ
Are you sure you're going to heaven? Absolutely. Well, nobody can know a hundred percent. I can the Bible says I can't
Like I don't have a problem with it
You shouldn't either and if you do I still don't know why you're here there. I mean, let's just be honest
But go back to Acts 9. Let's go to verse 20
So so we see here that Ananias follows the instructions that because Ananias is obedient
Saul gets saved
So don't doubt play the fact that you never know who you're leading to Christ
I don't think that the people who nudged me in the direction of salvation ever thought
that one day I would be preaching behind the pulpit.
I don't think I knew.
Actually, I know I didn't know because I remember growing up Seventh-day Venice and
people were like, oh, you should become a preacher or something.
I was like, that's the last thing I'll ever do.
That's a horrible lifestyle.
and we have a conference, and I don't like answering to anybody, I mean, except God, but I don't like
being just part of a clique where they're telling you what to do, just for the sake of telling you
what to do, right? I've always kind of been an independent thinker. That's why I love being
an independent Baptist. But let's go back to verse 20 of Acts number nine. In this next set of verses,
we see Saul preaches and is hated. But I love the way it says here, so Saul gets saved,
And what's the first thing we see, verse 20,
and straight way, he preached Christ in the synagogues
that he is the Son of God.
I remember when I got saved at 25,
the very first thing I wanted to do
was just preach the Word.
Now, nobody gave me the tools
and there wasn't any resources.
That's why I denies this, cool.
Cause you think about it, Paul's like,
And Ananias probably just gave him like a brief training because Paul's been persecuting the church
I mean, I'm pretty sure he knows some of the Bible because he's also serving the Jews religion
But he some at some point somebody had to clear it up and it was when right away
We should never be that stumbling block for people that want to do the work of the Lord
You know if people come to me and they have ideas about what we need to do if for soul waiting stuff
I'm not gonna be one of like poo poo those ideas
The reason people do that is because they're either envious or they don't like that somebody
else is getting the credit.
Look, if you come up with a better plan for Spring Crest to be soul winning and get more
numbers than what we're getting now, be my guest.
I'd be so happy that somebody could do a better job than me.
Sometimes I'm just so spread thin that I'm like, if somebody would take the lead, I'll
follow you.
I really would. I'm not even kidding around like I my biggest frustration is how spread how thinly spread
I am sometimes like I mean my days like start here and they end here and sometimes I'm just like
Every week. I'm like, okay
I'm gonna plan my my sermons out like this and like this and like this and then every week Saturday night comes and I'm like
Hope I I hope that I did a good job because it was all last minute, right? I mean obviously I'm reading my Bible
I don't neglect that so I'm confident that that my preaching is not going to be like
Subpar but definitely if I if I could just spend the time that in my mind
I wish I could I don't like my sermons would just be a lot better, right?
And I'm not talking about the quality of the preach. I'm just talking about the quality of the content that's in here, right?
And so we see here a straight way
he preached Christ in the synagogues, but the one thing that that should be constant
and the one thing, you know, I know we have a little bit of inconsistency in our Sunday
soul winning time, but you know what? Why don't change it? Because soul winning is the most important
thing. So if somebody shows up, I'm going to be here. We'll drop everything we're doing.
Soul winning is the most important thing. If somebody were to call me honestly and say,
Hey, let's go soul winning. And I've done that. Like, Brother Mike sometimes calls me during the
I'll try to drop everything I'm doing and go so and you know what I mean? I want a straight way
That's what that means like immediately go preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
Says but all that heard him were amazed and said it's not this
He that destroyed them which called on his name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound
into the chief priests
But Saul increased
The more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt in damasca
Proving that this is very that this is very Christ
And after that many days were fulfilled that you used to counsel to kill him. I it's amazing
That's how you know you was preaching the truth because they're like
Well, first of all, this is confusing
Aren't you saw that like was doing all this damage now you're preaching the word of Christ and then
Paul gets better at it. He just gets better and better at the preaching and they're like, okay
Well now we got to kill him
I mean, the devil would love nothing more than to kill all of us.
You know, you should probably remind yourself on occasion, just to pump yourself up that
somebody's out there willing to kill you for the cause of Christ, right?
And so don't be afraid to preach the gospel because the fact that you're saved, the devil
wants to kill you anyways.
You know, these people that hide or that are afraid to stand up for their faith.
They're they're dumb actually. It's just stupid because the Bible makes it clear that Bible says if they hate it
If the world hate you remember that it hated me first
Right. I mean, it's they're the devil's always gonna hate those that have the light
Darkness hates light. That's why cockroaches when you turn on the light they scatter right because they hate the light
That's all I can think about when I think about the evil people that they're just bunch of cockroaches
But anyways verse 24 says but they're laying with a weight was known of Saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him
Then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket
So we see something very similar to previous right when the apostles are now being attacked it says but Barnabas
took him
and brought him unto the apostles and declared unto him how he had seen the Lord in the way,
and they had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus,
and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem, and he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus
and disputed against the Grecians, but they went about to slay him,
which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus.
right? Barnabas is another guy who just kind of brings everybody together and makes sure
things are, are, are good. And sometimes people want to be appalled when God needs Ananias
and he needs Barnabas. Right? I mean, probably where, where it would be harder. I pray that
I don't think I have this problem, but if I do, I just pray that I don't, but
You know when you're looking at ministry sometimes you have a tendency to want to compare or maybe when I was a younger man
I did that but I'm happy that there's churches that do better than us
And I'm happy there's churches we can learn from and that they're out there
You know taking names and kicking butt and just you know doing the work of the Lord. I mean seriously
because we don't all have the answers we don't all have the tools to do stuff and
If if I if the Lord wants our church to be anonymized in Barnabas, then that's what we'll do
Now if it wants us to be Paul, I'll take it as well. You know, that's pretty cool
But I don't know what I do know is that we just need to get up and do the work of the Lord
All right, verse 31 says then at the church's rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Zamora and Samaria
And we're edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost
They were multiplied
So here's kind of like two sub points. Hey, you should walk in the fear of the Lord, not the fear of man and
in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
You know, we're watching
Pastor Cobb, they've been doing this for years, and Sister Karen, on Wednesdays,
I'll come in the church and start getting ready, and they're watching the five o'clock news.
And I mean, I was watching the five, you know, I'm hearing it as I'm walking through and getting ready, and today was pretty, pretty intense.
You know, it's like the bad weather is coming this way. So I know that just be ready tornadoes are coming and hail is coming
And I mean like that's the whole wasn't it like that for like the whole hour
It's just like fox weather report and it's like california and the east the west coast that it's all like a easterly wind
It's coming from the west to destroy, you know the world like it always does
That's what they're saying, but where do we take comfort in the lord? I mean who cares?
But the world they'll listen to that and then they like they'll go crazy and the HEB won't have any water
And they won't have any toilet paper and there's no eggs
You know all the chickens are poison. I mean isn't that how often have you not witnessed that here in Houston?
There's a couple of things I hate in Houston
whether events in Houston are the worst.
Like, I don't even want to go out.
Everybody's freaking out.
I mean, you can feel it.
Like, everybody's in a frenzy.
They're fighting over everything.
I'm like, honey, always keep water.
Now we keep toilet paper too.
We should just buy a bidet, you know,
and then you don't have to worry about it.
But that's a whole other thing.
But, you know, we just need to make sure
that we walk in the fear of the Lord
and the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
Now go over to Romans one.
Go over to Romans one.
What's interesting in Romans 1 and the first part of Romans
Paul's talking about the gospel
And the thing that Paul confirms is what he learned from Ananias, which is that it's from faith to faith
Right
The work of the church and they grow the growth of the church is what from faith to faith. It's not just some random
Joe blow down the street who wanted to start a church, you know
Pastor Cobb preached on Sunday and he talked about some billionaire who started churches and he invited them to start churches
That is not the way you start a church
You could pay for nine buildings. If there's no Holy Ghost, there's no church
You know why Pastor Cobb probably never took to key to that was because he probably witnessed the fact that this guy
Was just throwing his money around never in the spirit of the Holy Ghost
I don't know this guy from Adam, but I can just read through the lines, right between the lines
What you but what pastor cops said on Sunday was a it wasn't from faith to faith
Romans 1 tells us that in 1st 15 says so as much as is in me. This is Paul talking
I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein
Is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written that just shall live by faith
That's why I don't like, you know, I really do take offense when people throw out these like, I don't know what you want to call them
Oh
The word the word eludes me
But basically these stupid statements of like, well, you know, they read the Bible so they could get saved or
You know, some guy that was never saved let somebody else to Christ. That's just so stupid
Or, you know, we don't do the saving, Jesus does the saving.
Well, of course Jesus does the saving, but He gives us the power to do it.
Why would he write 66 books where he's literally commanding people to take
Responsibility and do a bunch of work if all the credit was gonna go to Jesus any
We know all the credit goes to Jesus. Nobody's going around saying oh, I let these people to Christ look at how great
I am it's more like look at all the the people that God let me bring to Christ all credit to who?
God Almighty
I've never like let someone in Christ and said, oh, you know, I'll go home to my wife. You'll never hear me say
You know, I'll say hey, honey
We let five or six to the Lord or I let six to the Lord or I let five to the Lord three to the Lord one of the Lord
But you know what you'll never hear me say was that oh, it was because of me if anything it's because of Christ
I mean the greatest thing about being saved by grace with a clear gospel message is you realize
How much grace there is
You know, the the prayer that I always have when I'm preaching is like Lord, don't let all the sins in my life
preclude me from preaching the word of Christ
Because sometimes I'll be up here
You know how your mind can think some multiple things at times and that's why maybe my preaching sometimes is a little scattered because I'm
I'm trying to get all those other thoughts out of that, but I'm like Lord just clear my mind
Don't let those things interfere, you know, because sometimes you can have the tendency to want to feel guilty or be legalistic
Or call people. It's free
You know, you'll never hear me if somebody had some challenge in church and they cleared it up
You're not gonna hear me ever repeat that because God forgives my sins
It's not like God's calling me up reminding me of all the sins. What did David say?
You know, help me not to remember the sins of my youth who him because God doesn't remember
It's us. We're the ones who broke walk around struggling with this stuff
And so how do you you know, it has to be faith to faith. It just doesn't make sense any other way
Right
In Galatians 1 verse 23 you can stay there in Acts 9
But in Galatians 1 23 the Bible says but they had heard only
That he which persecuted us in time passed now preaches the faith
Which once he destroyed and they glorified God in me
Wait a second, I thought the you know, I thought the only credit was to Christ
So either Paul's right here or he's wrong
So people can glorify God because of the things that we're doing. There's nothing wrong. It's not bragging when it's the truth
You know, I used to say that in sports, right when I played sports if I knew I was good at something
I'm like look, I'm good at this one thing or I'm you know
In sports you kind of get a little braggadocious sometimes, right?
But the one thing that I was always clear about was, you know, at least that's what I thought
I probably was bragging, but you know, it's not bragging if it's true
Right? If I can beat you to the basket every time we play, then it's not bragging. This is the truth, right?
But in here, it's not bragging that we leave people to the Lord. It's just the truth. We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And people glorify God because they see us do great things for the Lord.
And by the way, it's not even bragging because I've already told you that the reality is that there's churches that do it better than we do.
And there's people that preach the gospel better, there's people that...
I went out with a brother, oh man, remind me.
The guy who's in the Philippines, he came here one time.
No, not him.
The guy who...
Brother James.
Yeah, I went out with Brother James one time.
And that was the only time because he came here shortly before he went to the Philippines.
And the reason that stands out to me is because his preachy, his gospel preaching method was like,
man, I wish I could preach the gospel like that. I just don't have that temperament.
You know, usually, and you can, Brother Mike can attest to this, he actually,
I want to get to the people that want to listen to the gospel, which by the way,
I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm just, I'm just like, I don't have the patience.
So when someone says no to me,
Don't always necessarily follow up. I'm just like, oh, you don't want to hear the gospel great. I'm gonna go give it to somebody
I'm just like moving on, you know, I'm just like ready go ready go
I'm just always on the move and
So we went and he'll he knocked on one of the doors and I won't forget it and the person was like that
You know, he's like, hey, you know if you were to die today or 100% sure I'm pretty sure that wasn't what he presented
I'm just telling you how
And the person rejected it like they're like, oh, I'm not interested right now or anything
And he's like, oh, well, can I leave you with them with one with one verse and they're like sure
You know you most people aren't gonna be rude and they're like, yeah, and then he just like goes into the gospel message
And he just like starts telling the in this person
I guess feels bad because he's delivering it so nicely that then it's like we're there for 15 20 minutes
And he's now given the gospel to this person that didn't want to hear in the first place
But it wasn't antagonistic. He just had this ability to just break him down because he's just so nice
Like I mean, I was like I was kind of done fine. He did that like two or three times and I was like, man
I wish I'm not kidding. I wish I could give the gospel like that
I don't have that temperament. My temperament is like, oh, you don't want to talk to me?
Oh, you're going to be a jerk. I'll be a jerk back next. You know, I'm just going to move on
I've tried to have that temperament. I mean, I'm pretty sure I could work at it
And maybe over time I'll get better, but I just I just want to like next
I just want a result where he was like the result is giving the gospel and they're both
I don't think they're either one of them wrong. It's just that's his temperament. That's his gift his skill set
Now, there's two ways I can look at it, I can be like, oh, you know, this guy's just
trying to be a show-off, he wants to give the gospel attempt, or I can be just like,
oh, he just gives a better gospel, maybe next time we'll just let him do more of the talking.
Not because I'm lazy, but just, you know, that's good.
God has given us skill sets for all different types of people.
You know why?
Because at the same time, his method probably won't work with people that are more aggressive,
whereas my method would.
You know, that's just the way it goes. So God got sets up different people for different skill sets
We need to take that and run with it, right?
And so and we need to glorify God because of it
Go down to verse 32 as we kind of get close to to wrapping this thing up
Because the next said I'm probably gonna spend the least amount of time here because basically we're just kind of recapping
What we've seen in the last eight chapters, which is where do we start in chapter one of Acts?
Who do we start with Peter and the Apostles, but Peter's kind of leading the charge, right? Paul becomes the head figure at the end
But but before Paul Peter was kind of that the leader of the Apostles right and and that didn't just because Saul got converted
And now he's turning the world upside down. You know what the apostle and that's the attitude we need to have
You notice the Apostles weren't like whoa
Paul Paul's an idiot
I mean the guy was persecuting the church and now he thinks he can so when better than us. No
Peter's just doing his thing. You know, it would be good for us to learn this lesson
How about you just do the work that you've been called to do instead of?
Worrying what everybody else is is is doing. Oh
What is this guy doing? Why does he think he I don't have time for that?
And people are so antagonistic when you're out doing the work of the Lord
You know why? Because they're lazy, they're wicked, they're slothful, they're envious.
And if you're just doing your work, you don't have time to think about anybody else.
But go there to Acts, verse 32 of Acts 9, it says,
And it came to pass as Peter passed throughout all the quarters.
He came down also to the saints which dwelt in Lidda.
And there he found a certain man named Aeneas.
which had kept his bed eight years and was sick of the policy, and Peter said unto him,
and he is, Jesus Christ, make it the whole, rise and make thy bed, and he rose immediately.
And all that dwelleth, that Lita and Sarin saw him, and what? Turn to the Lord. Hey,
God's getting soldiers. He's getting some big guns for the work of the Lord. Notice they're not in
the same place. That means that we want some big guns everywhere. You don't want to be top dog. You
David at 30 mighty men, not one mighty man, right? The Lord needs more than just one mighty man
Peter's like over here doing his work. Paul's over here doing his work. You got Ananias and Barnabas
You know doing their work quietly subtly
As a matter of fact, I just remembered but there's probably a sermon I need to preach about and the title would be unsung heroes
When we get to heaven, there's going to be a ton of people, I believe that with all my
heart, that we never heard of them, we never saw them, and yet they let people to cries
like nobody's business.
There's a guy that I, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
And I remember they would announce it at the church.
This is how leadership needs to promote it and then hold people accountable to it.
Right, sometimes I have a tendency me personally to feel bad
Like I don't want to inconvenience you guys to do the work of the Lord
I'll inconvenience myself all day long, but sometimes I'm like, hey, you know
We need this or can you do that and can you can you do this and I'll feel bad?
But you know what?
I'm coming to the conclusion the more I read my Bible that I need to not feel bad because that's what God wants you to do
And the reason I point that out is because they would, they would announce it and it
just would kind of go over my head because they wouldn't make a big emphasis on it.
And I guess one time it just finally resonated.
Oh, there's a ministry that's going downtown.
So any, and I showed up on Saturday morning and I was kind of shocked because when I showed
up, it was like me, him and like one other guy.
And this is a church of like 300 people.
Obviously I didn't know what I was doing.
He'd been doing that for decades
Every Saturday morning just going out there talking to all the people that are jumping on the train
Who knows how many people he's led to the Lord? I can't even remember his name right now
My wife would know the name. She knows him well
But the Lord remembers his name
You know and he did justice to that church more than most of those church members did because they even have a proper soul when he ministered
You know, it's so sad, right?
People would show up for all the events.
People would show up for their big carnival, but nobody show up to go so any with him.
And I wish I would have known better at the time, because honestly, I would have just
shown up every, the Enrique today would show up every Saturday to go with him.
The Enrique back then showed up to check it out and was a little disappointed.
There was no more people when it wasn't about the people, it was about the Lord.
You know what?
I'm glad that he didn't care that I was disappointed because I know what he was doing the next
He was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
He didn't go like all while Enrique didn't show up. So I guess I won't go. He didn't care who I was good
Because you're not that important anyways. Just just as a reminder my wife makes that reminder to me all the time
It's just I have a wife that keeps me humble. She's like, you're not that important. I'm like, thank you, babe
I appreciate it. I really do but
But on a verse 36 it says now 36 it says now there was a jopa a certain disciple named Tabitha
Which by interpretation is called Dorcas this woman was full of good works and
Omdeeds which she did and it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died
whom when they had washed they laid up
They laid her up in an upper chamber and for as much as Lita was night to Jopa and the disciples had heard Peter was there
They sent on to him two men desiring that he would
Not delay to come to them then Peter arose and went with them when he was come
They brought him onto the upper chamber and all the windows stood by him weeping and showing her coats and garments
Which dark is made while she was with them and I thought about a great lady like she just made clothes for everybody
That's a lot of work
Says but Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed and turning him to the body said Tabitha rise and she opened her eyes
When she saw Peter she sat up
And he gave her his hand and lifted her up and when he had called the saints and widows presented her live
And it was known throughout all Jopah, but I love this all of these events. What happens and many
believed in the Lord
And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Jopah with one Simon a tenor, you know
We have to focus on the fact that
If we're doing the work for the Lord many more will believe on the Lord
Right, I don't count it coincidence that we've had great numbers this year has nothing to do with us
But I it does have something to do with the fact that one thing I have committed
And I know our church has always been committed whether you're new to the church or whether you've been here a long time is
We're just going to keep our heads down and do the work of the Lord
And it might take a year might take a decade before anybody takes notice, but you know who always takes notice
Lord Jesus Christ
You know, we've had people come in here
dangle money and church members and all kinds of stuff, right pastor
Usually it's the Pentecostals. I don't know they love doing that. I'm not kidding at least
Four times and if I'm exaggerating it's only by one or two
I don't at least it feels like it's been at least four times
We've had like some Hispanic guy come in here. It's always the same guy not the same guy
But it's the same type of guy some short little Hispanic guy. I'm a pig on him. I'm short too, right, but
middle-aged
He always has someone with him like a younger like I guess his right-hand guy. It's been weird
It's always like that dressed nice. They'll sit in the in the service
They'll say amen and they do all the right things and then afterwards they'll come up to us and they're like
Hey, we have our church, but we don't have a building and we just want to use your building for Spanish service
And guess what we're gonna bring a bunch of members and tides and all this stuff and we're like, okay
And then we're like, well, what do you believe?
And they're like, well, and then all of a sudden
we realized there were a bunch of kind of castles
and we're like, well, we can't do it.
But like, well, first of all, you wouldn't be the pastor.
We already have a pastor.
This is before me, we already have a pastor.
I don't know.
And then they like, they leave all offended.
I'm like, I don't know why you're offended.
I mean, we got it lining up, right?
But that's just the way it's always been like.
We whether it's two people in church or 20 people in church, you know one of the one thing
You know pastor Cobb's always done and and he taught me is just we just show up
It doesn't matter who's here. You just show up
You just keep doing the work
So maybe spring crest is at an IS maybe we're Paul. I don't know but
What the one thing is we're serving the Lord. That's what we need to do
You know, I always appreciate whoever shows up because it shows that you're obedient to who the Lord
As a matter of fact, I know that you're obedient to the Lord because I know I'm not that you know
I listen to my clips and I just
Really trying to work hard at it
But I'm like I do a lot of myths and stopping to start somewhere else
Which has to frustrate you guys right like I'm just literally in one thought and literally in the next one
I'm somewhere else like I just it's just a limb is like yes, you do. Thank you
But you know, you're here to serve the Lord right you're here for Lord Jesus Christ
The one thing that we know is two things.
Number one, you can't lead other people to Christ
if you're not saved.
And number two, the Lord does hear the prayers
of those that are seeking the Lord.
It's nigh in their heart and it's nigh in their mouth.
Paul wasn't just randomly chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was convicted, he just didn't know.
He's like, how do I know unless someone preached me the word?
It got to, don't worry, I got you.
Go talk to Saul. I know I keep saying Paul, but his name is Saul and at first, but let's close in a word of prayer
Heavenly Father Lord, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your blessings Lord. Thank you for all those in attendance
Also, I didn't have a chance to mention it earlier, but thank you for bringing back
Liberty and our family safe and that they were able to accomplish what they needed to do Lord solve all those
Situations and challenges that they're dealing with and just help them to
you know, just continue to serve in the best capacity they can.
Also, Lord, thank you for everybody here in attendance, and Lord, just help us to have a
good rest of the week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.