Serve Christ Anyway

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Transcript:

If you would turn with me to Acts chapter 9 tonight. Acts chapter 9. We’re going to look again at the life of Paul at another set of circumstances.

I didn’t plan it on purpose that we’d be talking about Paul’s life twice today, but here we find ourselves. I don’t know if any of you have ever had the conversation with your children where they say, I don’t want to go to bed. I don’t want to clean up my toys.

I don’t want to eat my vegetables. I don’t want to do my schoolwork. I don’t want to do it.

Now, we may come up with different ways of saying it, but a lot of times our response to that is, so do it anyway. I know that’s my response a lot of times. I don’t want to do my schoolwork.

Do it anyway. It’s good for you. Sometimes it’s good for you to do things you don’t want to do.

That’s a hard lesson that we need to learn early. Sometimes we do the right thing. We don’t want to do the right thing, but we do it anyway.

And I understand, you know, we’re told sometimes, well, you don’t do the right thing for the wrong reason. You know, don’t teach a class at church if your heart’s not in it. Don’t, you know, is it really, should I go to church if I’m just going because I’m supposed to go and my heart’s not in it?

Well, I mean, I understand what’s being said there. I have said that myself. You know, you don’t want to do it for the wrong reasons.

But the fact is, you know, God never tells us you don’t have to obey me just because you don’t feel like it. Just because you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. As a matter of fact, what I’ve often found to be the case with me is even if I don’t feel like doing whatever it is he’s told me to do, if I just get it together and do what he told me to do, even if I don’t want to, I end up being glad that I did.

I mean, something even as simple as going to church. You ever have those days where you feel like I just don’t want to go? I just don’t want to.

Me either. That never happens. If we ever feel that way, and I have felt that way at times, I just don’t want to go tonight.

Whether I’m the one preaching or somebody else, I don’t want to go. But you know what? I end up going, and I’m glad that I did because those seem to be the times that God speaks to me or God deals with me more than any other time is when there are heel marks going in the door for whatever reason.

You know what? There are a lot of reasons that could compel us to not serve Christ. In whatever form or fashion he’s called us to do it. And I’ve told you many times before that I’m not your Holy Spirit.

I wouldn’t presume to be your Holy Spirit and say, well, you, you’re called to do this and you, you’re called to do this and I think you ought to do this ministry. I might be able to give you some insight in that, but I’m not the one who calls you. That’s God.

But each of us has something that God’s called us to do and it may be something we’d look at and say, well, that’s a big thing. Or it may be something we’d look at and say, well, that’s just a little thing. It doesn’t matter if we look at it and think it’s big or little.

God has called each of us to serve him in ministry in some form or fashion. Now, what that ministry is, I’ll leave you to the direction of the Holy Spirit to find out. And then there are some ways that he’s called all of us to serve him as believers.

We’re all told to share Christ and share the gospel. We’re all told to study his word. We’re all called to live a life of holiness in serving Him.

Folks, whatever we’re talking about when it comes to serving God, whether it’s the things that are expected of us all as Christians, just the basics of living out our faith, or whether it’s the specific ministry He’s called us to do, there are ways that we are supposed to serve Christ that sometimes it would just be easier to say, I don’t feel like doing that. Or I’ve got this reason, or I’ve got that reason, or what if this happens? and there are all sorts of reasons that could dissuade us from serving Christ. I will look at something tonight, just a few verses, that took place in Paul’s life that I think, my goodness, if anybody ever had a reason to stop doing what they were doing for Christ, it was Paul.

It was in this circumstance. I didn’t know I was going to be preaching on this this evening, but I mentioned this story this morning. And you know what?

In this passage, Paul was a new Christian and had every reason to just put his service for Christ on the back burner with the things that were going on in his life. And yet we see that he did the complete opposite. And especially being a new Christian, I know we like to think of him as Paul.

Well, he was just always the Apostle Paul. He was always this great man of God. Here is somebody who’s just been saved out of this life of killing Christians and persecuting Christ. He is a baby Christian, and even he was able to find the strength with God’s help to continue to serve Christ even when it got difficult.

And I think if Paul could find that strength, surely God’s got strength enough for those of us who’ve been walking with him a little longer. So if you’re not there with me yet, turn to Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 20. It says, In straight way he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.

That word straight way means immediately. And so for it to be immediately, it’s immediately after what just came in the prior passage, which is his baptism. And his baptism followed nearly immediately after his conversion.

You remember he was on the road to Damascus. I mentioned this this morning too. He was on the road to Damascus.

He saw Jesus Christ appear to him. And God got a hold of Paul’s heart. God convicted Paul through this experience.

And he realized that the Jesus he’d been persecuting was the Son of God, was God in human flesh. And he repented of his sins. His life was changed.

And he was told to go to Damascus and wait for a man named Ananias. Ananias was called of the Holy Spirit to go see Saul at that time. Really, I think, sort of went reluctantly because he said, I’m paraphrasing here, but he said, God, don’t you know who this is you’re sending me to?

Well, Ananias went anyway and laid hands on him. He received his sight back and his life was changed. He was baptized shortly thereafter.

And so in verse 20, it says immediately after that baptism, well, he didn’t waste any time getting into ministry. A lot of times we come to Christ, we have this conversion experience, we get baptized, and the attitude a lot of times from people in the church is, now you just sit there and let us minister to you. And there’s nothing wrong with us ministering to a new Christian.

At the same time, there’s nothing wrong either with bringing that new Christian along and saying, let me minister to you by letting you be part of ministry too. And you come along and be part of this. Folks, we’ve got to learn ministry somewhere.

And we need young, young believers. I don’t mean young age wise, but new believers. We need new believers who come in with a heart for ministry.

And so he really hit the ground running immediately in ministry. And it says straightway immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God. He went in and got right down to the heart of the matter.

And really, guys, it would have been easy for him to, I’m not saying it would have been easy for them to let him in, but it would have been easier for him, I think, to go to the churches that were already established and go preach about Christ and go teach. If you can get past the whole murdering Christian’s past, then you’re going to find a more receptive audience in the people who already believe in Christ. But he went back to his own people, the people that he had just been sent by and on behalf of in order to murder the people who were spreading the message that he’s now preaching. He went back to the synagogue and began to preach to them Jesus Christ, the very message that he was just out to kill people for.

Preached not only Christ, oh he’s a good man, he’s a good moral teacher. No, no, he preached that he was the son of God. This is the thing that was getting people killed by him just a few days ago.

But all that heard him, verse 21, were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them, which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests. So the guy up there preaching about Jesus, isn’t he the one who in Jerusalem used to kill all the people who preached Jesus and the same one that they sent here to take them bound back to the high priest for trial? Is it my mistake or is that the same guy?

Yeah, it was the same guy. But Saul, it says in verse 22, but Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. Now the way that sentence ends is a little confusing to our modern English reading. But what that verse is teaching is that as he studied, as he listened to the Holy Spirit, as he learned more about this newfound faith he had, he became stronger in his faith, he became stronger in his delivery, and God quite frankly opened his mouth and put the words in so that he was able to confound the Jews.

He doesn’t mean they all accepted his message, but it was hard for them to argue with. As he went to Damascus, he confounded them, proving, making the case that they could not argue with, that Jesus was the very Christ, that he was, in other words, the Messiah that they’d been looking for. And did so in such a way that, I don’t know that I believe it, but I don’t know how I could argue with it either, was sort of the response.

Because he made such a compelling case out of the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. And the fact that he made such a compelling case, and the fact that God gave him the words to speak, and the fact that God gave him a message so powerful, really bothered the leaders of the Jewish people in Damascus. And so it said in verse 23, And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him.

My goodness. I don’t know that I’ve ever been so angry with the message somebody has promoted, even if I didn’t agree with it, that I’ve wanted them dead. This is ISIS kind of stuff here that we’re talking about.

And it says the leaders of the Jews. Please don’t ever think that I’m anti-Semitic or that the Bible is anti-Semitic. It was written by and for Jews.

And I’m sorry, I don’t think you can call yourself a Christian in the fullness of what that word is supposed to mean if you don’t have a love for God’s chosen people. We should love everybody. But a lot of people want to leave the Jews out of that equation.

When I tell you the Jews did this, I’m not saying hate the Jews. I’m just saying there was a group of Jews in Damascus at that time who were so angry, a group of Jewish leaders in Damascus at that time, who were so angry about the message that Paul was preaching and the power that went with it. You know, I talked this morning about the gospel being the power of God unto salvation.

It is a powerful, powerful message, this idea that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh and that he came to die for our sins. And so they were so upset at this powerful message, they took counsel to kill him. But their lying await was known to Saul.

Not just to kill him. We’re not talking about putting him on trial, even a show trial. They’re talking about ambushing him. They’re lying in wait.

They’re ambushing him. It’s like you watch those nature shows that I love and hate at the same time. And you see you’re in the forest and you see the snake all coiled up and the squirrel doesn’t see it as it’s coming down the tree because it’s down there in the leaves and it’s lying in wait until it’s too late and the snake jumps out and grabs the squirrel and it’s all over.

They were prepared for an ambush. And this wasn’t an ambush to arrest him. This was an ambush.

We’re not taking any prisoners. But their lying away was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

So somehow or another, Saul was tipped off. We don’t know if it was by somebody or if God tipped him off. We don’t know how all that worked.

But we know that he was tipped off. And they were well organized because they had somebody at the gates of the city day and night watching for him. Watching as everybody came in and out the gate, watching for Saul.

And so he’s stuck in the city of Damascus. And at that point, they want to kill him. It’s only a matter of time until they find him because he can’t even get out of the city.

Then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket. Let him down by the wall in a basket. They went up to the top of the walls of the city with a basket and a rope, and they had to lower him down out of the city because that was the safest way.

That doesn’t sound very safe to me. I want something sturdier than a basket to haul my big self down the side of the wall. And that was the safest way to get him out of the city.

because he couldn’t walk out the gate because there were so many people who hated him. They let him down by night, down the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples.

Meaning he tried to join them. He tried to go in and be a part of the church at Jerusalem. But they were all afraid of him.

And believe not that he was a disciple. I’ll bet. Folks, they had every reason to be afraid.

Now I look at this and part of me says, We need to not be so quick to judge when people come in. But I think they had every reason to be afraid. I’ve seen this cartoon on the Internet.

I hope you understand the connection that my brain makes here. I’ve seen this cartoon on the Internet that talks about sharks. And I think I noticed it because Charlie’s kind of obsessed with sharks.

But it says, what if sharks are just, what if they really aren’t mean and really aren’t man-eaters? They’re just misunderstood and want to cuddle. Okay, the shark may very well have the best of intentions and may just want to cuddle.

Let’s just assume that. I’m still getting out of there because I’ve seen those big teeth. I’ve seen what they did in that Jaws movie and it was horrible.

I can’t watch it. I know it was made back in the 70s, but I’m not desensitized to that stuff. I don’t watch violent stuff and that was just more than I could take.

I’m getting away from the shark. The shark may have the best of intentions. I don’t care.

I’m getting out of there. Same thing with Paul. He came in and said, I’m one of you now.

And they scattered. And it’s hard to blame them because of the reputation that he had. He was a shark.

He was a shark. And he may just want to cuddle now, but he had the history of killing people. But Barnabas took him.

Okay, there are a lot of things in Scripture. I have a great deal of admiration for Barnabas, what little we know about him. But this is one of the things I love about Barnabas.

He really, literally and figuratively, put his neck on the line here. Because not only do we have the figurative sense that if he’s wrong about Saul, some of his credibility is lost with the brethren, but we also have the literal sense that if he’s wrong about Saul, Saul could kill him. Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Okay, easy to get confused on the he’s here. Barnabas declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, how Paul had seen the Lord in the way. Barnabas said, Paul met with Jesus.

Saul met with Jesus on the road to Damascus. And that he had spoken to him. Barnabas tells them that Jesus had spoken to Paul and really had changed his life.

And how he, meaning Saul, had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And it’s not just something he’s coming into Jerusalem and saying, I’m one of you now. There’s a little bit of a track record to prove it.

You know, anytime there’s an ordination, they talk about looking at the life of the man over the long road. Not just did he just wake up this morning and want to be a pastor. Or is there a history here of doing the kinds of ministry that he says he’s called to do?

And they take that into consideration. You don’t just wake up one day and decide, I want to be a pastor. Is there a track record?

And guys, granted here there’s not a long track record, But Barnabas is telling them there is some evidence from his life. There is some evidence here that God has called him in this way. There is some evidence of him being a changed man.

Because if he was working underground for the Jews, they wouldn’t have wanted to kill him so badly for his bold preaching. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. Now we know from the book of Galatians that this was not a long time.

But he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. it appears that there was some level of acceptance for Saul at this point. As he was there at Jerusalem with the other apostles, and as he ministered with them, as he was part of the church, as he served with them, and he taught, and he preached, and he just declared Jesus to be the Messiah everywhere he had the opportunity.

So he goes from Damascus, or he goes from the road to Damascus, where he’s had this conversion experience, goes to Damascus and immediately does something about it. immediately begins to serve Christ in the way he feels called to do, in the way that God has called him to do. And the immediate response of that is that they want to kill him.

They try to kill him. They don’t just want to kill him. They try to kill him.

They have a plan in place, and they are going to kill him if they get their hands on him. He escapes from Damascus, fortunate to have his life as he escapes, goes to Jerusalem. They are not willing to give him a fair hearing on this, And it’s one man who steps up and says, you need to listen to him.

And they give him an opportunity and he continues to serve. Folks, so many obstacles here that would have been easy for Saul, Paul, those names we can use interchangeably. It would have been so easy for Paul this early on to say, no, I’m not doing this.

Look at what’s happened. Look at how my life has gotten messed up. Look at the Jews hate me and the Christians hate me.

Why should I go on doing this? Because you’ve been called to serve Christ. Lord, I can’t serve you. I can’t serve you in this way that you’ve called me to do.

Look at all the trouble it’s caused. Look at all the people who are mad at me. Look at all the people who hate me.

Lord, I can’t serve you in this way right now. I don’t want to serve you in this way right now. Do it anyway.

I want to share with you three things that could have dissuaded Paul from serving the Lord. Things that could dissuade us in our life if we let them, but they didn’t let him. The first thing that could have dissuaded Paul is that people remembered his past. People everywhere he went, they were bringing up his past. Do you notice that?

In Damascus, the Jews are bringing up his past. Isn’t he the one who used to kill the Christians? Yeah. Oh, so you’re a flip-flopper.

The Jews weren’t mad that he used to kill the Christians, but he’s a flip-flopper. Okay. One day you hate Christ. Now you love Christ. What do we believe?

We don’t know. You have no credibility with us. Okay.

So he gets to Jerusalem. He goes in among the apostles there at the church at Jerusalem. And what’s their response?

Wait, aren’t you the one who used to kill Christians? And admittedly, what he did was horrible. By his own admission later on, what he did was horrible.

And yet his past continued to be dredged up every time he was just trying to serve the Lord as he’s been called. And quite honestly, I know that none of us in here have gone and murdered entire churches of people. But what believer hasn’t in their past done something that they wish they had not done?

What believer in their past doesn’t have some black mark on their past that as they try to serve Christ now could be thrown in their face and say, wait a minute, I remember you. You were the one who used to, and then fill in the blanks. Didn’t you used to be the one who ran around to the bars all the time?

Didn’t you used to cheat on your wife? Didn’t you used to this or that? I’ll tell you one that I’m still trying to live down.

Ten years ago, I was, I’ll say I was not the nicest person. Kind of had a chip on my shoulder because I thought as a Christian, I’m better than so many others. And it wasn’t that I tried to be mean to people, but I think I came across as having a very harsh attitude toward people who didn’t think and believe and act the same way I did.

I look back over my life and as short as it is, there aren’t a lot of vices. I mean, I look back, I don’t have a wild past. But there are still people today in Moore, Oklahoma, who would hear my name and think, oh, no, I remember him from high school. He was harsh.

He was judgmental. There are still people who remember me that way, and I hate it. I wish I could go back and fix it. And sometimes I think, well, what’s the point of trying to talk to people if all they want to remember is who I was 10 years ago?

You know what, whatever the black mark is on our past, we could say, yeah, I can’t talk to them about Christ because they just remember me talking to them about Christ and being so harsh and judgmental and self-righteous 10 years ago. Or we could say, I can’t talk to them about Christ because they remember how I used to run around and drink and carouse 50 years ago. Folks, the end result is the same.

We’re letting the fact that people keep bringing up our past and who we used to be and how we used to live, and we’re letting their memories dissuade us from serving Christ. We can’t give the world that power. We can’t give people that power. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to blame people for remembering our past and how we used to be.

But we ought to use that as an asset. Instead of trying to hide it, instead of trying to say, well, I didn’t mean it. Instead of trying to minimize it and sweep it under the rugs.

What a testimony to God’s grace. Yeah, I was, in terms of morals, I was a good person 10 years ago, and I tried to be nice to people. But yeah, you know what?

I was judgmental and a little bit self-righteous too until I got knocked around and mugged by life a little bit. But you know what? God woke me up out of that.

God put me through some things over the last two years, over the last five years, over the last 10 years really, that you know what? He held me down and force-fed me some compassion, and I’m so glad that He did. What about your life?

What about your past, your history, whatever it is? I don’t know and I don’t presume to know. But you know what?

So what if you ran around and drank and chased girls 50 years ago? That’s not who you are now. And you didn’t change yourself.

I mean, as much as we like to think of ourselves as good people, we didn’t change ourselves. God changed us. Absolutely.

You know what? I know that that’s how you remember me. And I know that that’s true.

And that is who I was. It’s not who I am anymore. That was Barnabas’ testimony of Paul.

That’s not who he is anymore because I’ve seen him in action in Damascus. Folks, we can’t let our past and who we used to be and what we used to do prevent us from serving Christ. And we need to prepare ourselves because it’s going to be brought up. There’s something very hypocritical about a Christian saying, do as I say, not as I do.

But there’s nothing hypocritical at all. And as a matter of fact, it’s a testament to God’s grace when we can say, do as I say, not as I did. There’s a difference.

I’ve learned from my mistakes and God has changed me and God has transformed me into something completely different. And that’s why I serve him. And that’s why I bring you this message.

And that’s why I do this. Folks, our past will get remembered and we need to make an asset out of it. Second of all, it could have dissuaded Paul from serving Christ that he made people angry.

Not very many of us like to make people angry. I know some people who do. You probably know some people who do.

They evangelism that just seem to get a thrill out of how many death threats they can get from people on a college campus. I don’t want to purposely make people mad. I do not like conflict.

When somebody’s upset with me, I get sick to my stomach, I can’t eat. It’s a horrible way for a pastor to be because somebody’s always upset with you, it seems like. I don’t like conflict and I don’t like making people mad.

I realize sometimes it’s necessary. Sometimes to do the right thing, you’re going to make people mad. But I don’t go looking for that.

Who likes that? Paul made people mad in his ministry. He made them so mad they wanted to kill him.

Pick up on that? He made them so mad they wanted to kill him. I can’t serve, God, I can’t do what you called me to do.

It’s going to make people mad. It’s going to ruffle feathers. It’s going to upset somebody.

It’s going to offend somebody. You know what? We should not try to be deliberately offensive.

But hear me in this and hear my heart in this, how much it hurts me to say this. Sometimes God’s going to call us to do things that while we’re not being deliberately offensive, when we stand for God, when we serve God, when we’re true to His Word, it’s going to make some people mad and they’re just going to have to get over it. Sometimes when somebody’s serving God, it might make me mad and I’m going to have to get over it because it’s what God’s called them to do.

It used to bother me when somebody would leave church. We all just, I love this church. This was before I was a pastor.

It used to bother me when people would leave Southgate to go do ministry other places. No, no, this is Southgate. We all need to stay together.

I hate it when you leave. Get over it. It’s what God’s called them to do.

He made people mad. They took counsel to kill him. He made people angry.

Folks, if we refuse to serve God when it’s going to make other people angry, if we refuse to serve Christ when we’re afraid it’s going to make people angry, we’ll never serve him. Because in this day and age, it will make somebody angry when we serve Christ. So that could dissuade us. And the fact that some people aren’t going to believe us anyway.

Some people aren’t going to respond to what we’re doing. He went to Jerusalem saying, I’ve become a Christian. I want to serve Christ with you.

You’ve got to be kidding. We know who you are. Some people are not going to respond the way we think they ought to respond to our ministry.

I used to go every Thursday night down to Bricktown, just right by downtown Oklahoma City, and pass out tracts with Richard Parker and some other people. Some of you know Brother Parker, who passed away about nine years ago now. You know what?

We passed out tracts, and I don’t know personally if anybody ever came to Christ. I know we had some good conversations with people. I know he may have followed up and led some people to Christ. I do remember some people getting upset. I remember some people saying, no, I don’t want that tract.

I remember some people wanting to argue. You know what? It was ministry.

It was ministry that I felt like God called me to do at that point in time, and I went and did it even though it wasn’t always fun, and I’m not so super spiritual that I can’t admit to you that it wasn’t always fun to go pass out tracts in Bricktown on Thursday nights, but it was ministry, and it was what God told me to do. Folks, people didn’t always respond the way I thought they ought to respond. In a perfect world, you hand somebody a gospel tract, they get saved immediately, and they start helping you pass out gospel tracts with them, and it’s a Walt Disney movie, bluebirds land on your shoulder and everybody’s happily ever after.

People don’t always respond to ministry that way. There were times that at the church in Bethany, we went and gave food to needy families before the holidays. Found out one or two families were scamming us out of food.

Some of the women in the church wanted to go take them out. Interestingly enough, it was not the men, it was the women. Gone and helped somebody who called the church and said they needed help, they needed food and showed up where they lived where they were living at the time to give them the food and instead of thank you we really appreciate this just reaching out grabbing the bag through the door taking it and slamming the door that kind of bothered me I was expecting at least thank you but you know what people don’t always respond to ministry the way you think they ought to respond people don’t always respond to our service to Christ the way we think they ought to respond that was certainly true in Paul’s day okay the Jews are ready to kill me surely the Christians will take me in because I’m one of theirs now.

It didn’t work out that way to begin. And we can get a toe into ministry and into service and realize it’s not going the way we thought it was going. So, Lord, I can’t do this anymore.

I don’t want to do this anymore. You know what? It’s normal to have those feelings.

We need to do it anyway. Whatever He’s called us to do, we need to do it anyway. We need to serve Christ anyway.

Do what He’s called us to do. Be obedient. And as we talked about with the gospel this morning, trust the results to Him.

Trust that He’ll take care of the results, that the ministry will have the effect, the service will have the effect that it’s supposed to have. That’s not our job. Our job is just to be obedient to what he’s called us to do.

And you know what? I’m sure if I tried hard enough, I could sit there and you could sit there and we could think of reasons together, other reasons that don’t have anything to do with these three for why I don’t want to do ministry today. I don’t want to serve him today.

I don’t want to live for him today. Come up with all kinds of reasons or we can just call them what they are excuses. and I’m not saying that I never make excuses I’m right there too but folks if anybody had an excuse not to serve Christ because it was difficult it was Paul but he kept doing the only thing he knew