Welcome back to
Books of the Book.
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I'm Pastor Mark Howard. I'm here
with my co-host, my brother,
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Jim, and we are studying the
book of Acts. We have a powerful
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chapter today, once again, I can
say in the book of Acts as we
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are looking at the conversion
of Saul. Now we had picked up on
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this, Jim, in Acts chapter 8,
well right at the end of chapter
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7 and 8 where we looked at the
stoning of Stephen. It tells us
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in Acts chapter 8 verse 1
that a young man, Saul, stood by
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holding his garments and
consenting to his death. We said
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we are going to get to that a
little bit later. Well here in
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Acts chapter 9 we find that Saul
is still fighting the Christian
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church and I want to pick up
there in Acts chapter 9 verse 1.
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I hope you have your Bibles
with you and before we go into
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reading, we're going to turn our
attention to the Lord and ask
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his guidance as
we study his word.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word and again we thank
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you for the Spirit of Truth to
guide us. We ask that He would
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lead us now as we study and help
us to apply these things to our
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hearts. We ask it
in Jesus name Amen.
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We're reading in Acts chapter 9
and beginning in the first verse
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the Bible says, Then Saul still
breathing threats and murder
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against the disciples of the
Lord, went to the high priest
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and asked letters from him
to the synagogues of Damascus so
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that if he found any who are
of the Way, that is followers of
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Christ or those who were part of
the Christian faith, whether men
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or women, he might bring
them bound to Jerusalem. As he
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journeyed he came near Damascus
and suddenly a light shone
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around him from heaven. Then he
fell to the ground and heard a
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voice saying to him, Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me?
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And he said, Who are you Lord?
Then the Lord said, I am Jesus
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whom you are persecuting. It is
hard for you to kick against the
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goads. So he trembling and
astonished, said, Lord what do
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you want me to do? Then the Lord
said to him, Arise and go into
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the city and you will be told
what you must do. And the men
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who journeyed with him stood
speechless hearing a voice but
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seeing no one. Then Saul arose
from the ground and when his
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eyes were opened he saw no one,
but they led him by the hand and
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brought him into Damascus and he
was three days without sight and
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neither ate nor drank.
This is a powerful passage of
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scripture and I think we need
to comment on a few different
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things in this passage. First
I find it very interesting.
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Of course Saul is breathing
threats and murder against the
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disciples and we'll talk about
that in a moment, but it says
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as he is journeying and coming
near Damascus and he sees this
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heavenly light that a voice
speaks and says, Saul, Saul,
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why are you persecuting ME? You
know, it's interesting here that
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that Lord counts that
which happens to his people as
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happening to him. He identifies
with us when we go through
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ridicule, when we go through
difficulty, when for standing
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for Christ we have to face
opposition or whatever it might
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be, he recognizes that as
happening to him. I don't know
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that Saul would have been
thinking that when he was doing
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it, but now it's coming home
to him that this was really the
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Lord that he was persecuting.
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Well in addition to that, if
he was simply doing his duty as
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he viewed it of ridding the
church of heresy, that isn't
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persecution. In other words,
persecution would be something
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that would be wholly different
from what he was doing. He just
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envisioned that he was
keeping the faith pure.
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He was doing what was right
and persecution makes it clear
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that it's wrongful.
Yeah, and to be accused of that
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was shocking to him.
Absolutely, but certainly by the
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evidence of this clear, bright
light and supernatural presence
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that he was in, he immediately
says, Who are you Lord? And the
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Lord's response, I am Jesus whom
you are persecuting. It is hard
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for you to kick against the
goads. First and foremost, he
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stood by at the stoning of
Stephen. He was involved in the
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persecution that scattered the
disciples there in the beginning
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of Acts chapter 8. All of that,
no matter how many people it was
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Jesus says I am the one you are
persecuting. Then he says, It is
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hard for you to kick against the
goads. Now you've heard of being
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goaded on. A goad was like a
stick with a pointed end that
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would prod on cattle or animals
that needed a little bit of
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extra push. You get this sense
that Jesus is saying, I've been
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pushing you, I've been prodding
you through the power of the
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Holy Spirit and it's hard for
you to keep resisting the Holy
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Spirit. That's an interesting
thought because we read here in
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the story of Saul and we think
Wow! Saul was going totally this
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direction. He seemed
so hard and calloused.
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Right. All of a sudden
he's going totally the other and
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from outward appearances, I mean
here it says here in verse 1
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he's still breathing threats and
murder. I mean, it seems that he
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is 100% confident in what he's
doing. How did he turn around so
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fast? Well the
reality is he didn't
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turn around so fast. I believe
there was a process that the
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Lord was taking him through
and that's revealed in this
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statement by Jesus, It is
hard for you to kick against the
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goads. My spirit has been
speaking to you as you were
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standing by at the stoning of
Stephen and he said, Lord charge
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not this sin against them. That
prodded the heart of the Apostle
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Paul and the Apostle Paul had
to fight against it. I'm sure he
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wrestled over the matter. But
when it was all said and done
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the best way he could find to
silence that voice of conviction
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was to just get all the more
furious breathing threats and
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murder. That's
right. Breathe threats
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and murder. So I think there's
a lesson in that to us too.
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Sometimes we try to drown
conviction by being overly
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adamant or overly dogmatic about
something as if to prove that we
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are right and sometimes we need
to recognize that conviction
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comes to each one of us in
different areas of our life and
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sometimes our responses can
help to enlighten our minds that
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maybe we need to stop and take a
look at what's happening. Maybe
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the Lord is speaking to us.
Because I think that's a lesson
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we can learn here. Apparently
Saul didn't stop and say maybe
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this what I'm experiencing in my
heart is the Lord speaking to me
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I think about a friend that
I was studying the Bible with
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once. We weren't talking
anything about lifestyle or how
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to live a godly life in that
way. We were just talking about
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simple things like the authority
of the Bible and that sort of
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thing and after one of the first
Bible studies we had together
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he started talking to me about
this violent video game that he
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had created and whether or not
I thought that that was right or
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wrong. I remember talking
to him and saying, You know, I
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don't think we've talked
anything about that. So who's
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been talking to you? Sometimes
we need to recognize that the
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voice of the Holy
Spirit is active in our life.
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That's right. You know, it's
interesting, Jim, sometimes when
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the Holy Spirit convicts us
we can get that feeling that to
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yield to that conviction is
going to be too hard for us.
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But if we would take a look at
what happens when we don't yield
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or even when we hesitate or
delay in yielding. This is what
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we see here with Saul. Not only
did he lose his sight on the
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road to Damascus here
temporarily; it says there in
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verse 9 that he was three days
without sight and neither ate
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nor drank. Now I can see
not eating much and not having
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appetite and I've had situations
like that but not eating or
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drinking. The whole ideas here
is he is now having to deal with
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the guilt, the immense of
guilt... Keep in mind he was
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putting to death the very
people that he should have been
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defending. He was thinking
he was standing for the cause of
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God and he was stamping out the
cause of God. And now when he
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comes to the realization of
that he has to deal with the
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aftermath and the anguish and
the guilt of that and he can't
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bring himself to eat or drink.
So I say when the Holy Spirit
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brings conviction sometimes we
feel like the follow-through is
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going to be difficult but the
way of the transgressor is hard
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the scripture says and it is
much better to yield when the
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Holy Spirit calls us, while
it is still called the day, the
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apostle says,
than to put it off.
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That's exactly right. If
you look further now in verse 10
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the story continues and Saul now
has lost his sight and we have
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a bit of a problem that needs to
be dealt with. It says in verse
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10, Now there was a certain
disciple at Damascus named
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Ananias and to him the Lord said
in a vision, Ananias, and he
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said here I am Lord. So the Lord
said to him, Arise and go to the
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street called Straight and
inquire at the house of Judas
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for one called Saul of Tarsus.
For behold he is praying and in
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a vision he has seen a man named
Ananias coming in and putting
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his hand on him so that he might
receive his sight. This is a
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fascinating account. First
of all, notice that it says that
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when the Lord comes to Ananias
he says arise and go to a street
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called Straight. So specific.
You can't help but think that
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there have been times when the
Lord has sent his own servants
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to our own street, to our own
homes. I think often that when
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I was studying my Bible in my
own conversion experience in the
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basement of my parents' home
when I was 22 years old that the
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Lord knew that. He knew
the town I lived in, the street
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I was on, the home I was in, the
room in that home I was in and
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he will come to us wherever
we are. Here he says I have a
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servant named Saul and he's
praying and he needs a bit of a
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revelation here. Now I
wonder though, Saul was such an
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educated man and he had received
this clear revelation from God
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on the road to Damascus.
Why did the Lord not give him
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instruction right there? Why did
the Lord bring him into contact
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with Ananias and send Ananias
to him. God was connecting Saul
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to the church and I find
that while God works with us
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independently and he certainly
does work on our hearts
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individually, just to take
instructions from God is not all
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that humbling. But to take
instructions from another man
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and to have someone else
to whom we are accountable...
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who has like
passions and weaknesses...
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Exactly who has those same
weaknesses that we do, it can
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be very, very humbling.
So another point here is that
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besides the fact that this is
intended to help bring humility
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to Saul, it also is helping him
to see that God has established
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a church and God, while he does
work with people individually
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outside of the church, his
goal is to have one fold and to
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connect people with that body.
There is really no such thing as
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a lone ranger Christian.
No. In fact, Jim, we don't have
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any record in the book of Acts
which again is our template for
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how church is done according
to God, we don't have any record
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in the book of Acts of somebody
where God reached and converted
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and they were baptized of
the Spirit that was not put in
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connection with the church, the
organized church. We saw it with
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the Ethiopian eunuch and we'll
see it other places as we go on.
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We never see somebody who's just
independently sent off separate
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from his church. So even someone
as well educated as Saul, now he
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comes into contact with people
who maybe have less experience
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and the like but they are
instructing him. Ananias is
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asked to instruct him. One thing
I'm thankful for though is if
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you look back at verse 6 when
Saul first responded to the Lord
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he said trembling and astonished
Lord what do you want me to do?
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So you know as hardened as we
see Saul the Lord saw something
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in him. He saw someone who
was really thinking he was doing
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God's service and while we may
look at people and not be able
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to see from the outside what's
really going one and we may
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judge in certain ways, the Lord
knows when someone has the right
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intent and he can turn somebody
around just like Saul. Now it
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may not have happened in
this moment, it may have been a
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process, but this is pretty
dramatic, this conversion, and
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God can do that for us. Well
we need to keep going but before
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we do we've got to go to break.
So stay tuned and we'll be back
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with you in just a
moment with Books of the Book.
00:13:49.25\00:13:51.08