Radical Change

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I'm excited that Evan Shealy's gonna be a dad.

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And there's no joke about that.

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That's for real.

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That's happening.

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That's real life.

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That's exciting.

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God is so faithful, is He not?

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And He's been, man, God has been so good to us this morning.

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It's better than a 54-yard kick with nine seconds left in the game.

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When I start talking about football, things are, things are, things are happening.

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God is good.

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God is good.

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Amen?

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Amen.

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If you're joining us on live stream, yes, this is Springhouse and I am Kevin O'Day

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and we're glad that you're here.

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Couple other things this morning.

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Following this service, following right out those doors into the fellowship hall, we are

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going to have a luncheon for those who are newer to Springhouse, want to meet our pastoral

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team.

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If you're new today or maybe you didn't register, but you'd like to stop in, we have plenty

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of food.

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We'd love you to come and hang out with us.

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We want to get to know you, tell you a little bit about our church and, and just meet you

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and talk with you.

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So that will be immediately following.

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Barbies said, please make sure you dismiss them out that backside door.

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I'm probably going to forget later.

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So go out that door at the end of the gathering, right through those double doors into the

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fellowship hall, if you're participating in that.

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And then on Tuesday morning, if you are a business leader, manager, owner, aspiring

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leader in a business, would you raise your hand?

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Put them up high, put them up high.

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I'm a business leader, manager, owner.

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Okay.

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We have something called the business collective that meets on the second Tuesday of every

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month.

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And let me tell you, it is rich and it is powerful.

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There is a free breakfast for you and Joshua McLeod with alongside Justin Bashir co-lead

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this and I want to invite you eight o'clock on Tuesday morning here in the foyer to join

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us for breakfast and be a part of that.

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Even if you're an aspiring leader, I, every time I've heard Josh speak, Justin speak,

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it's been, it's been great.

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And so I want to invite you to that this Tuesday, if you have capacity at eight o'clock.

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Does that sound good?

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Okay.

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We are, we are today going to be in Acts chapter nine and you all, so many of you, because

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you've been following along with us knew that already.

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And you've read Acts chapter nine and you've done the exhaustive study on Acts chapter

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nine.

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So I really don't have to teach much because you've already done the work.

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Right.

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But because so many of you are following along with us, we had a scheduling change with our

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staff in the next few weeks.

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So I want you to continue to read along with us.

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So I wanted to inform you about that.

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So today we're going to be in Acts chapter nine, but here's the schedule for the next

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three weeks.

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Next week we'll actually jump to chapter 13 and then we're going to backtrack 12 and then

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11.

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Okay.

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So if this week you'll jump to 13, then we got chapter 13, chapter 12, and then chapter

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11.

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Okay.

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That's just because we had a little bit of a scheduling change that needed to happen

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with our speaking team.

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Okay.

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So that's the plan.

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And then also before we get into this, we will be reading Acts chapter nine.

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And if you know Acts chapter nine, because you have read it, correct.

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We're talking about probably one of the famous, one of the famous stories in scripture that

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we know about the, the moment where Jesus Christ encounters Saul.

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Right.

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Well, I wanted to go and say this off the top.

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I want to clean up perhaps a misperception or a misconception of Saul and Paul.

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Okay.

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Cause we're, we're heading into this, this, we're going to be talking about Saul today

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and Saul and Paul, this Saul we're talking about, they're, they're the same person, Saul

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and Paul.

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A lot of believers have thought for, I was one of them that the name change happened

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with this moment in scripture we're about to read.

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And that's not actually the case.

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That was not written in scripture.

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Actually it's an Acts chapter 13, which we're talking about next week where Saul, the first

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time we look at Saul's name being changed over to Paul or, or, or, or whatnot.

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So I just wanted to clean it up because today we're going to use the name Saul because that's

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what's written in the scripture.

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And I didn't want you to be confused about who we're talking about.

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We're talking about one in the same person.

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That sound good?

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Are we all on the same page?

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Okay, great.

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Well, we're going to stand this morning and we're going to read as if your favorite football

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team won the game.

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And if they didn't, proclaimed by faith next week.

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Let's read together.

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"Saul was still breathing murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.

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He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus so that

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if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them

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as prisoners to Jerusalem.

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As he reared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

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He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute

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me?'

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'Why are you, Lord?'

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Saul asked.

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'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,' he replied.

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

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The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless.

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They heard the sound, but they didn't see anyone.

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Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing.

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So they led him by the hand into Damascus.

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For three days he was blind and did not eat or drink anything.

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In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias.

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The Lord called to him in a vision, 'Ananias.'

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'Yes, Lord,' he answered.

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The Lord told him, 'Go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask for a man from

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Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

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In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hand on him to receive

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his sight.

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'Lord,' Ananias answered, 'I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he

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has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.

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And he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your

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name.'

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But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name

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to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.

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I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'

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Then Ananias went to the house and entered it.

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Placing his hands on Saul, he said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on

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the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled

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with the Holy Spirit.'

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Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again.

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He got up and was baptized and after taking some food, he regrained his strength."

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Father, I thank you for great readers and I thank you Lord for your holy word.

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I pray that it transform our lives.

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I pray Lord that you would open our eyes today to see you and what you want to share with

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us in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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So we are continuing our series in Acts paired with the theme of his church.

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We're watching the Holy Spirit move.

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How many know that the Holy Spirit wants to be an active part of your day in day out life?

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The Holy Spirit wants to be an active part of your life.

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He wants to show you things that you're not seeing.

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He wants to blind you from things that you shouldn't be looking at.

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The Holy Spirit wants to be active in your life.

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And if we let him, he will do some real incredible things in us and through us.

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I was in an accident on Monday.

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Another accident, yes.

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And it was not fun.

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A hornet fell on my face and flew on my face and I freaked out.

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And I'm glad nobody else was in the car with me because it would have been a real special

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moment for them.

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But I freaked out and I slapped this hornet off of my face and it landed in my shoe and

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stung my foot.

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And as it proceeded to sting my foot, I rammed my truck into a tree.

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And so there's my truck and it is getting the work necessary to fix it.

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I want us to start this morning with this.

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The smallest distractions are often the most destructive.

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The smallest distractions are often the most destructive.

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When we look at Saul, the top of our scripture says that he had been vomiting murderous threats

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against those who are following the way.

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And you might think to yourself, well, this isn't necessarily a small distraction.

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That seems pretty big.

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What I want us to understand is actually Saul was in the majority.

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He was not in the minority.

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The church was just starting.

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The church was beginning and believers were being added to the numbers every day.

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But Saul's mentality and his thought process, he actually was in the majority of what people

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thought about those who are following the way.

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He just had the guts to get out and say, I'm gonna do something about this, including going

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to the high priest and saying, could I have letters that gives me the authority to walk

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right up into the synagogue, right up into the churches and say, I'm gonna yank you out

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if you believe in this Jesus, if you believe in this resurrected Jesus.

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And so Saul was ruthless.

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He was on fire for just going after those who had followed the way.

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And so he was distracted by what he could not really see.

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And can I tell you that sometimes even as believers, we are distracted and blinded by

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what we cannot see, what we cannot see.

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And so on the way on the road and on the way to Damascus, as he's going, the word tells

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us that a light appears, a bright light appears around him.

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And it of course is the Lord Jesus.

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And you know, there are portions of this scripture and all throughout scripture I find humorous,

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but the very man that he's persecuting is the man who appears before him in this moment.

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And he asked him, Jesus says, Saul, so why are you persecuting me?

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And I wonder how many of us need Jesus to ask that question of us in the way that we

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have chosen to not only live our lives, but we have chosen to remain blind though we have

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been given the right to see.

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Saul, so why are you persecuting me?

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And Saul retorts, he answers, he says, who are you Lord?

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Who are you Lord?

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I've resolved as a maturing Christian that I need to ask the question, who are you Lord?

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Far more than I do.

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I need to ask the question, who are you Lord?

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You know, I get to a place where I think I know him and I know him really well, and then

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he'll reveal something new about himself and in his character.

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Don't we ever get to a point where you think you've got all of the knowledge of who he

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is.

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He has so much more than you can even fathom on this, on this, on this earth and in this

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world.

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And Jesus answers, he says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

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And the word tells us that because of the light and because of his interaction, Saul

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was blinded for three days.

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Now what I want us to understand is we know that Saul was blinded for three days, but

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at the moment where his sight was taken away, that could have been eternity in his mind.

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He didn't know that three days there was going to be a man named Ananias coming around to

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touch him.

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He was blinded.

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So for all intents and purposes, if you're putting yourself in his shoes, I'm blind.

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This is it.

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This is, this is the start of the rest of my life.

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And have you ever been in a situation where something extraordinary happens and you think

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it is the start of the rest of your life.

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Something's taken away, something stolen from you.

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Some, some egregious act has taken place in your life, some relational conflict, and you

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begin to make up in your mind that this is now forever.

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But can I tell you that we have a glorious God who is awesome and wonderful and working

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on your behalf that just because something's going on today doesn't mean that it's forever,

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that you're better is yet to come, that there's, that there is hope that you can lean into

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Christ Jesus, though you may not know the end for the beginning, you have a hope in

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this savior.

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You have a hope in this, in this savior.

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We want an experience with Jesus, but I want to ask you what if the most powerful experiences

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in your life were the ones where Jesus took something from you rather than giving something

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to you.

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With his desire for us to become more like him, he may choose to remove the thing that

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is distracting you from him that you don't think is a distraction.

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Your will, your rights, your comfortable lifestyle, your money, or a relationship.

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But God would never want to take those things away from me.

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He absolutely would if they were in the throne of your life.

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We serve a jealous God.

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We serve a God who sees the end from the beginning and has an amazing plan for your life.

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He wants to be on the throne.

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He wants to be on the throne in your life and he's not going to share that seat with

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anyone or anything.

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So that we can get to a place where we can really see church in every situation.

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Look for Jesus in every circumstance that you find yourself in.

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Look for Jesus when you're tackling a hard question or even a decision, or maybe it's

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going to the grocery store and determining whether you need to buy this or that.

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Look for Christ Jesus in the situation.

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He will always present himself.

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He can be found.

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He can be found.

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The Holy Spirit gives us the power to see the things that we cannot see.

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I worked at Chick-fil-A for a number of years.

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And when I became a manager at the age of 16, I'd already been working there for a year

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and a half.

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And I remember my first night closing as a manager and being in that manager spot, the

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owner came in and he said, I'm going to have you close the store and then I'm going to

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come review what you've done.

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I'm going to come check it out.

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And so we had a team about five or six there and they usually stay till about 930.

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I kept them there till 10 o'clock because I was going to have this place spick and span,

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and I was going to make it look great for the owner when he came.

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Well, the owner comes down at 10 o'clock and he says, Kevin, do you think you did a good

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job?

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I said, yes, sir.

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The team and I, I think we executed this well.

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I think we've gotten everything.

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In fact, I think you're going to be so impressed with what we've done.

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Do you know that that man kept me there till 1 a.m. showing me everything that I did wrong

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and I missed and I had to clean it myself.

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Can I tell you, I now have a curse in my life.

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When I walk into any environment, I see everything that is wrong with what's going on in the

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room and I have to train my eyes to see the fruit.

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I have to train my eyes to see the good.

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And guys, is that not a Christian principle that we need to train our eyes to see the

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good?

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We need to train our eyes to see Jesus in the situations that we're in.

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I have a propensity to see everything bad, but man, especially when it comes to looking

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at people, I hope that I can look and say, I see Jesus.

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I see Jesus.

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He's not hard to find.

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Have you ever been looking for something and it was in your hand?

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Hey, where's my cell phone?

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Have you seen my phone?

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Have you seen my, where are my glasses?

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You know, where are my, they're on your head.

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Anybody, where are my keys?

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And you're holding them, right?

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This is not hard to find.

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He is not.

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And what a privilege it is to look for Jesus.

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Where can I find Christ in this?

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And most of the time, friends, it is not in the most obvious places.

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Although once you find him, it's kind of like, how did I miss him?

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Right?

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Once you find the Lord, it's kind of like he was always there and I just, I can't believe

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I didn't see him.

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He was, he was always right there at the school.

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I played a game of hide and seek with the teenagers when I did lock-ins.

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I used to do lock-ins, but I'm not a youth pastor anymore.

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And I, and I, and I did a lock-in at the school and I hid in a great spot.

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I hid at the top of a bookshelf in the library and I was just laying there and those teens

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circled that, that bookshelf.

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I had to be a hundred times and I was right there.

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I was right there.

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Well, about 10 or 15 minutes into the game, my weight took over and the bookshelf crashed

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down and I fell.

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And they said, "I couldn't believe you were there all the time."

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And I said, "Yeah, I was, I've been here the entire time.

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I heard you searching.

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I heard you looking saying, 'Would he be here?

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Would he be here?'"

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Guys, Jesus is not hard to find.

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He's not, and he is in your situation.

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He's not trying to not be found.

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He wants to be found.

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We look at Elijah and the story in the Old Testament, and we see him looking for the

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Lord in the cave and, and the Lord provides a mighty wind and he provides an earthquake

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and he provides a fire, all spectacular things.

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Can I tell you that most of the time, the Lord's not going to be found in the spectacular.

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He's going to be found in those small moments, those mundane things.

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This is why we don't come to a church where we just put, "Well, I could do fireworks.

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That's probably something I would do not to get your, not to get his attention or take

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away from him, but that's because I use object lessons."

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But we're not here to have a concert.

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We're not here, we're not here to, I mean, we want things done with excellent, but we're

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not here to provide a show for you so you can keep your distance from Christ and go

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home and live the same way that you've always lived.

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We're here because we want to be sanctified as a church so that holiness can prevail and

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that people can be added to the kingdom.

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But in order to do that, we have to engage and look for Jesus Christ.

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This is what he says.

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He says in Jeremiah to the prophet, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with

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all of your heart."

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Also to Jeremiah, he says, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden

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things that you have not known."

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The book of Proverbs known as the book of wisdom, "I love those who love me," says the

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Lord, "and those who seek me," what?

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"They find me."

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Are you seeking the Lord?

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Has anybody seen the movie The Matrix?

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It's an older movie now, but The Matrix, red pill, blue pill.

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Morpheus says this in the movie, he says this, "You take that blue pill, the story ends,

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you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

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You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole really

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goes."

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This is the difference in the kingdom.

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After you get saved, you have an option.

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You have a choice.

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You can continue to live your life blinded or you can wake up and realize that your life

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is far more than just the 80 years, 90 years that you have on this planet.

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I've showed this example a hundred times it seems, but this is not your only life.

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It's not just here.

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People who walk around blind believe that this is the extent of our lives, but this

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is just a portion of it.

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This is a portion of it.

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What really happens is this eternity.

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Whenever you decide to believe, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, allow the Holy Spirit

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to open your eyes, you realize that what you do in this red part determines what happens

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in the white part.

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Your eternity is secure in him and you have an eternity to live with him.

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What are you doing with your limited time here on earth, friends?

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What are you doing?

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How are you allowing?

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Are you walking around blind or are you allowing the Lord to open your eyes, to see the things

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that you need to change to become more like him?

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But more than that, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, I want you to use me, use me as a vessel to

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proclaim your gospel, to advance your kingdom.

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Unfortunately, many believers, even though they've received their sight, choose to walk

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around as if they're still blind.

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May I submit to you this morning that you cannot follow someone you choose not to see.

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And the Holy Spirit will lead us to Jesus every single time because the Holy Spirit

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is a revealer.

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He reveals things to us.

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He reveals Christ to us.

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He opens our eyes to see the reality.

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And once we see the reality, we stop our destructive behavior.

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And so this man appears on the scene by the name of Ananias.

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Now, this is not the same Ananias we talked about several weeks ago.

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He's dead.

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He's dead.

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Okay.

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He died.

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Do you know that people can have the same name, right?

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This is a different Ananias, okay?

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And Ananias is on the scene and I love what happens here.

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And it's in the small things if we pay attention in scripture, the Lord appears to Saul and

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he says, "Saul, Saul."

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And his response is, "Who are you, Lord?"

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And when he says, "Ananias," Ananias says, "Yes, Lord."

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Oh, that we would know the Holy Spirit's voice so well that our first response is, "Yes,

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Lord."

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"Yes, Lord."

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"I'm listening, Lord.

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I want to hear your — I want to hear what you have to say."

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And just like Pastor Ronnie said last week with that joke, "Knock, knock, who's there?

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Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit who?"

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It takes a cultivation of a lifestyle to practice listening to the Holy Spirit's voice in order

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to know when he's speaking to us.

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He wants to speak to you.

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Do you know what the Holy Spirit's voice sounds like?

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Ananias did.

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And I love that Saul having no idea that he wasn't going to be blind in three days is

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being taken to Damascus and the Lord is in the wing space prepping an Ananias for to

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deliver Saul out of his blindness and launch him into his ministry.

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How many Ananiases do we have in here where God is speaking to you and he has something

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for you in the preparation for someone else, in the preparation for you to be a vessel

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to go and speak something to someone else so that their ministry can begin, so that

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thing can change in their life?

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Are we listening to the Lord with the spirit of an posture of, "Yes, Lord.

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I am listening to you."

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Go to Judas' house on Straight Street and ask for Saul, "I'm going to use you to restore

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his sight."

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Now, Saul has not written these letters to these churches yet.

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He's barely been introduced to Christ.

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We don't have the testimony yet of Saul.

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You know what we know about Saul?

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He's wanting to murder some Christians.

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And you know what he wants to do with Ananias?

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He wants to kill him.

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That would be Saul's choice for Ananias.

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And so Ananias kind of goes, "Uh, Lord," and this is so funny to me, "Lord, do you know

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that Saul is like, he went to the high priest and got a letter and permission to go in and

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yank the believers out of the church and arrest them.

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Like do you know, like, 'Lord, excuse me, I hear what you're saying, but do you understand

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that Saul, he might hurt me, he might hurt me.'"

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And I love the Lord's response here.

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He says, "I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

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Oh, that's comforting, Lord.

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I'm going to show him how much he has to suffer for my name.

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I want you to go tell the guy who wants to kill you that you're going to suffer, that

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you're going to suffer.

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But I love that Ananias's yes was on the table.

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Because when I read the scriptures, when I read these letters that Paul wrote, when I

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read these, that when I see that believers throughout the course of thousands of years

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have been added to the kingdom, guess what, Ananias's fingerprints are all over it because

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he chose to have a yes on the table.

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So when you render a yes to the Lord, you are a part of a greater picture of advancing

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the kingdom of God.

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Over in Judges, there is a guy by the name of Gideon.

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And Gideon, I love this story.

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And the Lord has told him to go out and kill some folks and he's scared.

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And he says, I don't know if it's really you, Lord, this is what I'm going to do.

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I'm going to put this fleece out.

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And if you make the fleece wet and the ground dry, then I will know it is you.

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How many have ever tested the law?

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Be honest.

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I've tested the Lord God in that.

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I just said, Lord, if you'll do this.

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Well, Gideon goes out and it's exactly like he said it would be.

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Exactly like this.

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Now, I don't know if anybody in here is like Gideon and Kevin O'Day, but then the next

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day he said, you know what, Lord, I just want to make absolutely sure.

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So let's do the opposite here, Lord, this time you make the ground wet and the fleece

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dry.

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And then I will know that I know that I know that it's you.

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The next day he gets up and guess what?

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It's exactly that way.

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Now, I have no problem with laying out fleeces, but let me tell you something.

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God answers that fleece, you better do what he tells you to do.

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Now, if anybody is still as weak as Gideon and Kevin O'Day, he musters 32,000 men to

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go out to fight this battle.

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And the Lord says, no, that's too many.

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You're going to have to give up some of them.

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So, okay.

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All right.

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I hear you, Lord.

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Okay.

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I know that's a bit aggressive.

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10,000.

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Let's get them out of the way.

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No, that's too many.

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Let's go down to 300 because if you go out with 300 men, then when you're victorious,

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I get the glory says the Lord.

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I get the glory.

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Guys, when we are looking for Christ, when we were looking for the Holy Spirit in our

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circumstances and situations, it's always going to be in a situation where he gets the

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glory.

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Guys, unfortunately, I don't believe that God considers our circumstances as a prerequisite

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for your obedience to him because a lion doesn't bother our Lord.

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A fiery furnace does not bother the Lord.

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The Red Sea is nothing for our God.

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And so he wants his people to rise up in faith.

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The book of Hebrews says without faith, it is what?

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Impossible.

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Can you say impossible?

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Impossible to please the Lord.

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We want to be a people of faith who please the Lord, but that takes us listening to the

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voice of the Holy Spirit when he opens our eyes to see the things the way he sees them

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and not the way we choose to see them in our flesh.

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We have this misperception that God will never give you more than you can handle.

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That is baloney.

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That is absolute baloney.

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He'd never give you Aaron.

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He'll never give you more than you handle.

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You just keep living that way.

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You just keep carrying that yourself.

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Are you kidding me?

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If God only gave you what you could handle, then you would have no need for God.

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And he is a God who desires to be needed and we need him.

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You are going friends to be asked to suffer for Christ.

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Ananias, you're going to be asked to suffer for Christ.

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Jesus said, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross

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and follow me.

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And when you get up in the morning, you have flesh desires and Jesus is asking you to deny

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your flesh, to deny the things that you want to do.

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When I wake up in the morning, I want number one priority be Kevin.

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That's if I'm honest with myself, it's like, what do I want to do?

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How's my day going to go?

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How do I want to interact?

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And I have to quickly first thing in the morning, surrender and deny myself.

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I have to quickly in the morning say, God, you've got to have this day because I know

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if I take it, I'm gonna mess it up really, really bad.

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Paul would come to write this very Saul that's been persecuting Christians and now is blind.

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He writes this in a letter to the Galatians.

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I have been crucified with Christ.

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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who is in me.

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And then he would write to the Philippians for to me to live is Christ and to die is

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gain.

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Guys, do we have a heart posture that says to live is Christ, to die is gain.

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And so Ananias, he finds brother Saul and when he finds him, he boldly proclaims what

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the Lord told him.

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And the Lord meets them there and he says, I'm not just here.

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Listen to this.

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I'm not just here to restore your sight.

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I'm here so that you may see and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

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You see Saul, it's not enough for you to set, retain your sight.

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It's not enough for you to see.

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You need the power of the Holy Spirit because God has some churches that he's gonna use

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you to write some letters to.

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He's going to use you, he's gonna have you thrown into prison for proclaiming the way,

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the truth and the life.

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You're gonna need some supernatural strength that you don't have within yourself.

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You need the Holy Spirit and friends, believers, can I tell you, you need the Holy Spirit.

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You need the Holy Spirit in your life.

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You do not have the strength to suffer for Jesus the way he's asking you to, but the

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Holy Spirit gives you the strength.

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And thus this begins a new life for Saul, a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

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And I'll tell you, there's nothing better than having a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

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Ananias could have justified his way out of obeying the Lord.

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In fact, I believe if Ananias was here today, I believe some of us would tell Ananias, it's

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not God's will for you to go to Saul.

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God would not want you to, I mean, do you know that he could arrest you and throw you

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in the jail?

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Surely there's another way.

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Don't worry about going.

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I don't, I don't really resonate with, and what we're actually saying is I don't have

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the faith to believe that God said what he said.

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And because of my lack of faith, I'm going to tear down your, your faith.

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Always follow the voice of the Holy Spirit.

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Always follow the voice of the Holy Spirit.

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Bruce Coble, this is Bruce Coble.

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He was our mission pastor for two decades, a little over two decades.

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And I, he told me a story once and I'm going to share it with you.

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I've shared it before, but he said, in listening to the Holy Spirit, he painted this picture

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of a catastrophe that had happened.

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And in this catastrophe, there was a young girl along the way who needed a cup of water.

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And the Holy Spirit has told me, I want you to go take this girl a cup of water.

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And so I've got this cup of water, but along the path, there are these casualties from

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this accident.

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And to my left would be, let's say a woman whose arm has literally blown off because

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of this, this, this, this, this massive explosion that has happened.

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And she's screaming out to me for help.

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She's screaming out and calling me by name.

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And there would be a man over here who would need something else and he would be crawling

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out to me and I might even have what he needs on my person.

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The question is, am I going to go help those people or am I going to, am I going to do

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what the Holy Spirit's told me to do?

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And that's hard.

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Why?

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Because these people need me.

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But my job and my role is to obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.

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Because you see, by my choice to obey the Holy Spirit and what he's asked me to do,

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I trust him with this lady and this man.

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But when I go and I try to get into this situation with this woman and this man, when the Holy

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Spirit hasn't told me to do that, then I don't just cause mess and wreak havoc in their lives.

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I wreak havoc in my own because I'm listening to my own voice.

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We can trust the Holy Spirit.

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We can trust his voice and we can do what he tells us to do.

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And I would argue that probably the harder thing is for us not to do the things he's

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telling us not to do.

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And so what I want us to understand today is you have a choice.

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The Holy Spirit is not a manipulator.

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He doesn't force you to do anything.

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Ananias had a choice.

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He stated his case, but he had a choice.

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And you too have a choice.

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And the choice really boils down to two things.

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I will obey or I won't obey.

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I will obey or I won't obey.

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Comfortable circumstances are not a prerequisite for our obedience to the Lord.

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I don't believe that the Lord changes his mind based on our circumstance, but he looks

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for our faith.

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You have a choice.

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You have a choice.

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And with that choice, the Holy Spirit empowers us to do hard things.

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He empowers us to do hard things.

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Worship team, you can make your way back.

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I'm going to close with this story.

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Well this.

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On Wednesdays, our staff meets in here.

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It's huge on my heart that the pastoral team at this church meets regularly and prays together.

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And thankfully we all meet.

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We are all here.

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We all meet together and we pray for you and for the church.

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And this last Wednesday, I asked everyone to bring an answer to the question, "When

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was the last time you were wrong?"

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When was the last time you were wrong?

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And we went around the circle.

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We shared and had a time of fellowship together.

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And one of the pieces of conversation that happened in that had to do with my position

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here as lead pastor and leading from a vulnerable point of view.

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And guys, can I just tell you, I hate it.

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I hate illuminating my mess for you guys.

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You know, it's like, Lord, what mess do you want to eliminate for me, you know, in me?

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But it's part of what I feel like I'm called to do.

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And so I'm gonna get real vulnerable with you guys here for a minute.

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Okay.

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Something happened this very recently.

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And I, a group of guys, they were talking, they were bantering back and forth and just

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chumming it up and whatnot.

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And my name got brought up in that group.

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And in this group was somebody I care so much about, deep love for this guy.

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And so in the context of the conversation, my name got brought up and they started to

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say some real hurtful things about me.

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And what they didn't know is they were doing that around students at the school.

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This was late in the afternoon.

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And one of the students was recording the conversation.

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And so I, this is fresh off the press.

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And so the student apologized and said, I think that you need to hear this, especially

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because of who was in the conversation.

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And guys, it crushed me.

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It crushed me because I never thought that this person could say or be a part of conversations,

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really none of them, but especially this person I care so deeply about.

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And so after listening to it for like 40 times, hoping that there's some, like, I missed something.

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There's this can't be, this person loves me.

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I know I just, and it's just, there's no way around it.

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I just went to the Lord and I said, Lord, I'm going to have to talk to this person about

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this.

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I don't know how to do it.

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And in tears, as I'm crying there, the Lord said, I want you to love them above the hurt.

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And I said, Lord, but when I look at them, I'm going to know that they have, or they

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have the propensity to say and do.

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And the Lord said, but yeah, when you look at them and you know that, you also know how

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much you actually love them.

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And so I haven't shared that with the people or the person I don't plan to.

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I have just chosen to love harder and love deeper because the Holy Spirit empowers me

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to do hard things.

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Guys, the Holy Spirit will empower you to do hard things.

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If you allow them to open your eyes, allow yourself to be used by Him.

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You'll see Jesus.

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And He's really the only one that matters in the first place.

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Would you stand with me?

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Those who are ministering to people, if you'll come forward, I don't know if some of you

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are hurting today or you need a special touch from the Lord today.

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But if that's you, I invite you to come.

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You can leave here the same way you came, or you can leave a changed person because

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of the Holy Spirit, not because of anything these people have done.

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They're just going to go to the Holy Spirit with you.

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So let's worship together and do some business with the Lord.

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Amen.

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Amen.