06-01-25 Study of Acts Chapter 9:10-17 The Transformed Life Part 2

➡ This Sunday Bible study focuses on the transformation of Paul in the book of Acts, chapter nine. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding Paul’s transformation, as he is a key figure in establishing the church and serves as a model for Christians. The discussion also explores the concept of transformation in general, questioning whether true transformation is possible and critiquing the effectiveness of psychologists and psychiatrists in achieving it. The study concludes that true transformation is not about changing physical appearances or circumstances, but about spiritual change.
➡ The text discusses the human struggle to change behavior and transform society through education, thought substitution, and other methods. However, these attempts often fail, leading to smarter criminals or unchanged behavior. The author suggests that external activities or superficial solutions can’t truly change a person’s nature. Instead, they propose focusing on personal spiritual growth and love as the key to real transformation.
➡ The text discusses the difficulty of truly loving and trusting others in a world full of deceit and selfishness, as highlighted in biblical passages. It suggests that external forces can’t change people, but transformation must come from within. The text also emphasizes that God can bring about this internal transformation, turning people into new creatures. It ends by discussing Saul, who claimed to be the world’s worst sinner, yet was transformed by God.
➡ Saul of Tarsus, a man who once persecuted Christians, underwent a profound transformation after encountering Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. This encounter led him to believe in Jesus, changing him from a hateful man to a loving, gentle soul. His transformation was so deep that the same Christians he once persecuted came to love him dearly. This story emphasizes that true transformation can only occur through faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s not a gradual process but an instantaneous event.
➡ The text discusses the importance of faith and prayer in a Christian’s life, using the story of Saul’s transformation into Paul as an example. It emphasizes that prayer is not just a requirement, but a response to salvation. The text also highlights the role of Ananias, who was chosen by God to help Saul during his transformation. It concludes by reminding Christians that they each have a unique role to play in God’s plan, and that they should be active in their faith, not just passive observers.
➡ Ananias, a lesser-known figure in the Bible, played a crucial role in the conversion of Saul (later known as Paul) to Christianity. Despite his initial fear and disbelief, Ananias obeyed God’s command to find Saul in Damascus and help him understand Christ’s teachings. Saul, who had been blinded and transformed on the road to Damascus, spent three days praying and communicating with God, marking the start of his new life as a Christian. This story emphasizes the importance of prayer as a constant communication with God, likening it to breathing – a natural and essential part of a Christian’s life.
➡ Prayer is like a baby’s cry for a Christian; it’s a natural response to our needs. Just as a baby cries to communicate its needs, Christians pray to express their needs to God. This communication isn’t one-sided; God answers prayers, though it may take time for us to be ready to receive His answers. The story of Saul and Ananias illustrates this, showing how God works in His own time and way, preparing us and others to fulfill His plans.
➡ The text discusses the importance of immediate service to God, using the example of Saul (later known as Paul) who committed his life to Jesus Christ instantly upon his salvation. It emphasizes that God values our present actions and service, not future promises. The text also highlights the story of Ananias, who was initially hesitant to serve God due to fear, but was reassured by God. The author encourages believers to start serving God immediately when they feel called, rather than waiting for the perfect moment or conditions.
➡ Saul, chosen by God, was used as an instrument to convey God’s grace to men. He was called to serve, not by his own will, but by God’s, and was specifically tasked with reaching the Gentiles. Ananias was sent to commission Saul, helping him understand his divine calling. The text emphasizes that Christians are saved to serve, and their service to Christ should be their defining characteristic.

Foreign. This is our Sunday morning Bible study. We are in the book of Acts. We’ve begun last week on chapter nine. Chapter nine is the book that introduces us to the conversion of Paul and establishes his life for us so that we can actually understand who Paul is, what Paul was doing, how he got transformed, what his transformation looked like, what he did after his transformation. And why is that important to us? Because the Scriptures tell us to be like Paul. So if we don’t understand who Paul is, we’re not going to understand how we’re, how we can be like Paul.

And why is that important? Because Paul is the apostle to establish the church, and we are in the church age, which is the last age before the return of Christ, and therefore we need to be like Paul. Okay, so we’re into this. We’re gonna, we’re gonna stay here for a period of time in chapter nine. We started last week looking at his transformed life. Then as a part one in the study, we’re going to move into a part two and we’re going to continue this for a period of time. I know, all the way. We’ll be in chapter nine all the way through June and most likely the first two weeks of July.

Now this is, this should be viewed in conjunction with the study of Ephesians, because in Ephesians, Paul writes what our conduct should be like as a Christian, and that conduct is based upon Paul himself. So as we study this, you will see a lot of correlations between what we go over in Paul’s life and what we’re studying in Ephesians as well. So let’s get going. So in Acts, chapter nine, we study really the conversion of Saul to Taurus. Now we’re going to follow this subject to the transformed life from verse 10 through verse 31. But today we’re only going to get to verse 17.

But you have to understand from verse one to verse 31, it’s really a unit of scripture that ought to be studied collectively. But in, in so doing, in looking at this, the amount of detail that we need to understand requires us to break this down into subpar. But when we get through with this, I would suggest that you go back and sort of put this all together in one setting so that you get, get the, the complete characteristics of this transformed life. Now this is, this is a very interesting subject, the subject of transforming people. And that’s really what this world is endeavoring to do.

Now we, I’ve written some posts in the other, other form of the other website that are getting, I Hope to get people to think about the environment, the, the construct of really what is going on and how, how all of this is connected to us individually. And so we’re gonna, we’re gonna look at this in. In a lot of different ways. Some time ago, some of you might recall this. Those, those of you who are older would. Those of you younger might not even know who this lady is. But Phyllis Diller, whom from the older generation here, knows that she was a comedian and had a very expensive facelift in the latter part of her life.

And at the particular interview that she did after this happened, she said that it transformed her life. Now, I don’t know specifically about how that could transform her life. It did transform her face, and I know what it did for her life or what it will do in the long run. Okay. When, when she came out to say this, she, she indicated to the public that this change in the way she looked would change the way people received her, and people would want to come listen to her. So if you put those together, that’s really not a transformed life at all.

That’s really a transformation of this evil body that we have of Lucifer to make it more likable. Has nothing to do with the transformation of your spirit. Now, once in a while, we hear people say, well, you know, I’m. I got a new job and I’m a new man. Or I got a new. I got a new boyfriend and I’m a new woman. Okay? Do you know, I had a financial problem, and it’s answered. I got a windfall from a great aunt who passed away or whatever it might be. But, boy, it’s a new life. And you hear this very frequently.

People equate things happening in this world, in their life, to giving them a new start, giving them a new position of, of thinking success, giving them a new thought pattern. But somebody who is sick and they’re healthy and it’s in their life doesn’t make any sense in their mind. Okay, I have cancer. I’m taking chemo. I lose my hair. I put a wig on. Boy, I have got a new life. I look different. I, I. That makes me feel different, has that. That is not transformed. That is, that is conforming to this world in the matter of how this world evaluates you.

Now, television says if I use a certain product, I’ll be a new man with a transformed life. There’s a big thing going around now on television about what, guys, what was. What’s that aftershave product that, that our grandfathers used anyway? I can’t, I can’t remember it. But Old Spice, Old Spice. Now they’re coming out with all of this, you know, deodorant and women are using it and all kinds of stuff. You know, there. All this propaganda is, is confusing. It’s really not confusing if you understand the truth. This, but it is actually adding to the fire of this world.

And what it has to offer you has nothing to do with your spiritual side. Some people think when they fall in love, that even transforms them. Now it may for a while. Why? Because they’re going to act a little different until the two people get to really know each other. And then when they really get to know each other, all the newness goes away and all of the thorns start coming out. Now Madison Avenue is forever selling products, I remember this when I was in New York that are geared to transforming us. And we aren’t stupid.

I don’t think we should all know that these are hopelessly superficial. All of this that were talked about is. So that brings us to the real question here. Can anybody really be transformed? Is that even possible? Can you actually take a bad man and make him a good one? Can you take a sinful woman and turn her into something very lovely? Can a shattered, broken relationship be put back together as good as new or even better? And can you be cured if you’re classified as incurable? Yes, those are really the questions really in transformation. Psychologists and psychiatrists and counselors and therapists have in our society been given the assignment of transforming people.

And they’re doing frankly a miserable job at it. It’s hopeless. But they’ve even put it in textbooks and that’s what they study. They, they study. I was listening to an interview the other day. Harvard, Harvard class interview. And this, this lady said that she was taking, she was studying for a degree in philosophy because she wants to understand how people think. Now that was on national television and I sat there and I almost just busted out laughing because how can you manage to tell people or to, to understand how people think when you don’t even understand how you think.

It’s really interesting if you’ve ever got a chance to look at psychology textbook or some other kind of an advanced textbook along that line of study. And you’re finding many of them an introductory statement to the effect that this is only a so called science and none of the cures which are connected to it can honestly be connected to it on a positive basis any more than they could be connected just to the passing of time and the changing of circumstances, stances, which is quite an omission. That’s a result. Scripture tells you do not, do not study or trust or believe in psychology and psychiatrist.

It’s right in scripture. In fact, changing human behavior is a seemingly impossible task. You guys who’ve been married ought to know that women went into a marriage and says, I, I want to marry this guy and I’m going to change him for the better. Well, that didn’t end well. And you guys saying, oh my gosh, you know what? She’s, she’s just all I need. And then when you get into it and the thorns start coming out, you can say, now how can I change this? Most psychological problems are with people are very chronic in nature. You get them over one the neurosis and there get another one.

It’s inevitable in most cases. Why? Because you’ve not cured the problem. You, you who, who practice this or know people who do practice this only provide the same thing that any medical doctor provides when they provide prescriptions. You mask. This is the problem. Now I’m not saying that psychology, psychology, psychologists and psychiatrists and counselors and, and, and those, those, those alike have no place in society. Everybody needs to have somebody to talk to. That’s our nature. The issue is, is we don’t lead. We don’t lead with this true solution. We lead in what they want to hear versus what they need to do.

Somebody else comes along and says, well, it’s an education. And that transformation, really education that transforms. If we could educate people, we can change our society. We can get rid of crime, we can get rid of this and that. And so we, we go and educate it. Matter of fact, we make it a requirement that anybody you hire must have a college degree. And a lot of times you really don’t care what the degree is. All you want is that piece of paper that says that they got educated and now we have smarter criminals and psychotics with bachelor administration degrees.

And yet every, everybody still is pressing the issue of transforming people. Oh, you see it in, you see it in threads throughout both websites. Everybody wants to place their opinion on somebody else in order to transfer them to the opinion of the people who actually put the opinion forth to begin with. There’s not been no discernment of fact. There’s not been any consideration about what has been said or what is being said relates to your spiritual component of your being. No, nobody does that. We have everything from shock treatment, which is stark and risky and ultimate and desperate, to the kind of positive general urgings of Like a Norman Vincent people pill and the power of positive thinking.

And all the way down to the children’s version, which is the little train that keeps saying, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. And guess what? Everybody wants to change behavior. Now I had a friend some time ago, I might have. I, I don’t know if I’ve talk. Talked about this friend or not. Excuse me, with you, who wanted to change, get into a seminar on changing behavior. And so we went to this particular seminar and he paid $500. And when we got there, the. They gave him a coin. They said, this coin will change your behavior.

Oh, I almost flipped out. It was one that had particularly had a particular design. Think about AA and their coins. Think about all of these societies that have coins that they give you. Even that started in the United States military. And it had a kind of a relief thing that you could rub in your fingers. And they told him to find something he didn’t like about himself and write a reverse positive statement. Like if he was unorganized, he would say, I am an amazing organizer. Tried to change his thought pattern by changing a sentence. And then every time he touched the coin in his pocket two or 300 times a day, he repeat that statement.

And pretty soon he’d convince himself that he was a good organizer. But let me tell you, went to his house, was an organizer at all. He just thought what he had was then organized. Now they tell people who didn’t love their wives that all they had to do was say, I’m madly in love with my wife. Right? Right this statement down and memorize it. They said every time you touch the coin, I’m. You say this. I’m madly in love with my wife. And if you did that long enough, guess what? You’d throw the coin away. No, you’d really be madly in love with your wife.

And you know what? It doesn’t work. It’s fine and dandy as an approach. You always want to change your thinking patterns. There’s a law that says the law of thought substitution. You always want to change your thought pattern when you come to those areas that need a thought pattern shift. But it doesn’t change your behavior. Somebody else came along and says, well, society needs to reform people. So we have a sophisticated prison system which is not just incarceration, but it’s reform. And we talk about reformation, reformatories, and we talk about rehabilitation, but the majority of them go back and they’re not only repeat offenders, but they get more wicked each time.

They do it. And one of those who didn’t go back, we wondered when we talked to him whether it was real reform or whether it was only fear of having to go back into a place they didn’t want to go back into. So that they restrict what is, what would be their normal behavior. They shifted a pattern of behavior change because of fear. That’s not scriptural. And we, and we are promised that people were economically better off than that we would be able to change them. And so we moved in with the sufficient 60s and 70s, those of you who lived in that era, and we reached the apex of what riots, revolutions, killing, and everything else.

Then a writer called B.F. skinner comes along and he says we can only transform men by controlling them like an animal, genetically controlling the children they produce. Brain control work, okay, we’ve talked about a lot about MKUltra, we’ve talked about a lot of social engineering. We’ve talked about a lot of that, not in our biblical studies, but in, in our business area and trying to get people to understand this world of government that we live in are all based upon controlling of the people. And they will do that by any means necessary. So you get this BF Skinner coming along that says, okay, we need to do this, but we need to do this by genetically controlling the children they produce, which is brain control.

And then watch this. And then the movie Clockwork Orange comes along. It says it won’t work. And so everybody’s worrying about how we’re going to. To transform people, how we are going to change them into what they have to be to preserve themselves. Is the world easily? I mean, is we’re really doomed? Are we sentenced to a full existence of hate, lust, murder, rape, violence, robbery, war, psychological disease, and psychosomatic illnesses? I mean, is this just because this man can’t change? You can’t resist the flow of his nature, the bent of his person? Ephesians 2. You were born in this world with a demonic spirit controlled by the prince of the power of the air.

And your whole focus, mental focus, active focus, what you do in life is based upon total chaos. So I mean, can’t we transform man somehow? God has something to say about this. And if you want to go to the book of Jeremiah and kind of linger there for a while, you’re going to see some verses there that are very, very important. We’ve talked about these before. Jeremiah 13:23, very interesting verse. Listen, this is what God said about people being transformed. Can the Ethiopian. Jeremiah 13:23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin? Here’s a better one. Or the leopard change his spots.

Then may he also do good that are accustomed to do evil. God says that it is against your very nature to change a leopard by sitting in a corner and thinking about removing his spots doesn’t do it. An Ethiopian, by determining that he would rather have a different kind of skin doesn’t accomplish it. And a man doing anything and everything to try to alter what he is is unsuccessful. Why did I just go through all of this? Because you need to stop trying to change who you are. You need to get on with the business of educating who you are in the relationship to Jesus Christ.

That’s the whole purpose of going through Ephesians and the associated book of Acts is for you to look at a self assessment and determine whether or not you’re spiritually moving towards that utopian relationship to Christ. Are you trying to figure out how to change you in this world? So let’s listen to this one more time then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Only if the leopard can change his spots and the Ethiopian change his skin. And that can’t be done. And so man cannot really change what he is, says God. Will a new deodorant.

So do it. Old Spice. Will a New Deal deodorant soap transform us like they say? Jeremiah says this. He knew all about the deodorant soaps, by the way. And probably you probably didn’t know that at all, but he did. Jeremiah 2:22 says this. For though thou wash deodorant, so thee with lie soap and take the much soap, yet thine inequity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. Soap doesn’t work. You can’t wash off the badness of who you are. Very superficial in nature. How the world treats this thought pattern of thinking that we can transform our life by means of an external activity.

You see, I know what will change the whole world and so do you. It’s called love. What the world needs now is love. There’s a song that came out about that, right? I think Hooten did that. An old group, I can’t Carpenters. So saw a little film deal on that, you know, recently as well. The answer is love. That’s such a superficial answer at that point. It’s like one guy said, it’s, you know, I love you. Humanity, it’s people I can’t stand. And that’s a very common reaction. Why? Because nobody understands at this point they are two spiritual focuses in their life.

But Jeremiah said something about whether we can just really count on all of us loving our neighbors and all of that brotherhood of man thing. In Jeremiah 9:4 he said this. Take heed every one of his neighbor. You know what he says? Watch out for your neighbor and trust not in any brother, for every brother will utterly supplant and every neighbor will walk with slanders and they will deceive everyone his neighbor and will not speak speak the truth. Everybody has been taught that their tongue to speak lies and they wear themselves out committing inequity. You know how to really get buffed every time you turn around.

Just start loving everybody with complete blissful trust. You’ll get wiped out, believe me. I’m telling you, this world is full of con men and women. You can place yourself in that category as well. Everybody is out to get what they want. And it yet it’s very cheap to talk about the things that we need to convince others of that we’re really focused on. And that’s the word love. How many of you recall one time in your life that basically out of out of your mouth says, oh my man, I love all, all mankind, and then walk out into the street and bypass a homeless person who needs help.

You ever recall doing that? Oh, I love mankind. And then yet you don’t even stop and ask whether or not that individual on the street, which might be an angel by the way, is in need of anything that you could help with. You might say, well, if you can’t really just love everybody. This, this, this what? This, this universal love. This, this. The thing that started us off many, many months ago on a deep dive about Christ and God being a warrior and not of love. Yeah, he loves us. He gave his son for us. But he had to protect his bloodline in order to do that.

And he fought wars for that unconditional love that has no place in your spiritual life. There is a conditional love that should be in your life. But the unconditional love, what the law of duality, the complete opposite, the unconditional love is of this world. If you’re going to go around watching your brother because he’s going to try to splant you, move in and take what you have, maybe then what we need to do is have firmer laws and correction methods and we’ve got to strengthen our prison systems and discipline, well, that might be fine, but Jeremiah had something to say about that as well.

Chapter two, verse 30, he says this. And here God is actually doing the talking through Jeremiah. In vain have I smitten Your children, they received no correction. God said, I tried correction. And that didn’t do it. So. Doesn’t transform you. Love isn’t really a commodity that you can even use. It’s foreign to the humankind in its real, honest depth. And it even rules and disciplines and chastisement and punishment doesn’t seem to do a whole lot either. I guess B.F. skinner was right. I guess the only way to transform people is to smash them, is to just crush them.

Crush out all their personal issues and all their dignity, and you make them a nut in a cosmic machine and nothing more. What in the world has. Has we got today in our society? Solomon even had something to say about this. Listen to what he said in Proverbs 27:22. This is a great verse. Just listen to it, though thou should have crushed a fool in martyr among grain with a pestle. Have you ever seen a mortar and a pestle? That’s this little bowl and this thing that you. You can, you know, grind grain or in. In our days, we do it because we do guacamole in it.

Okay, so that’s what it. That’s what it is. It is used to crush things. A little stone thing. And today if you go into the chemistry lab or something, you’re fine. Worn out of steel, met. Okay, still metal. So listen to what Solomon says, though. You crush a fool in a martyr among grain with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. You’re not going to get rid of a fool. You’re just going to have a crushed one. You can’t press upon man a crushing, debilitating experience and expect to turn him into something wonderful.

There’s absolutely no outside force that can change a man or a woman. None. Now, do you know why? Because man doesn’t have an outside problem. He was born in that. What kind of problem does he got? He’s got an inside problem. And if you’re going to get at transformation, you got to get at it from the inside. It’s not a facelift. It isn’t soap. It isn’t superficial, lovely, deadly brotherhood, communal love. It isn’t any of these. It’s not a prison. It’s not a genetic control. It’s got to be inside. And that’s exactly what Jeremiah hit on in chapter nine, verse one.

Listen to what he said. Oh, that my head were waters, in mine eyes were a fountain of tears. He’s laying out the understanding that he’s really sad about the state of people, that I might weep day and night. For the slain of the daughter of my people. Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men. Do you think Wayfair came about today by some stroke of genius and naming, that I might leave my people and go from them? I’d like to go out to a cabin in the woods and just cry, Jeremiah’s broken.

Here’s one. For they are all adulterers as an assembly of treacherous men. They bend their tongues like they bow for lies, but they are not violent for. Or they’re not valent for the truth upon the earth, for they proceed with from evil to evil. And they know not me, saith the Lord. That’s the problem. Jeremiah went on to say in chapter 17, verse 9, the heart of a man is deceitful above all things. And what desperately wicked. Isaiah really hit it on too, in Isaiah 1:5. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revoke more and more and more.

Here’s the problem, guys. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is weak. And you see, that’s the problem. We cannot transform people on the outside. That’s got to be something again on the inside, you say, well, is there anybody that can do that? There is, by the way. God can do it. He tells us so. And you see, this is where the word of God moves in. In 2nd Corinthians 5:17. If any man be in Christ, he’s what? A new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Remember the exchange processing that we went through in the last part of Ephesians, chapter 4? The exchange happens upon transformation.

God is in the business of transforming people. That is his only business, by the way. God is in the business of doing that. And we come now into Acts chapter nine to just one of those people that God has done this for. And his name is Saul. Now, Saul, we talked about him a bit, but I’m gonna. I’m gonna give you a little bit more information. And I asked that you just let your imagination run over these thoughts as we go along. So clear your head, think about nothing except what we’re talking about and. And allow this to speak to you.

First of all, he claimed to be the world’s worst sinner. We know. We know sin. But I got whether any of us would announce to our friends that it is a characterization of us. Do you do that? You go up to your friend, you say, oh, last night I committed adultery. Oh, you know what? I just robbed a convenience store. I ran over somebody yesterday. I hope they’d make it. Do you do this stuff to your friends. And let’s take it very simple. Yesterday I walked past someone in need, somebody that I knew, and today I went to see him and they had died.

Saul said he claimed to be the world’s worst sinner and he really had a lot of things to support that claim, didn’t it? He lived his life to hurt, injure and in need be to kill people who disagreed with what his belief system. Oh my gosh, how many people have you seen in the forums that we provide for discussion just go off on somebody because it wasn’t in accordance with what they believed or what they knew. Isn’t it funny or isn’t not funny word that I shouldn’t use? Isn’t it unique that we have been so programmed in our life that we’ve come now to a reality to understand that program? And we’re trying to gain the truth.

And the truth can only come by history. And yet when that’s put out, people don’t want to even hear it. So they want to continue through life to receive whatever blessings that God might provide to them without the understanding once they get them, they’re going to be taken away. To me it’s sort of amazing that people are actually now showing themselves. We’re past the studying, we’re past the knowledge base, we’re past all of that. And it. And as I talked about last Thursday night, it’s proof in your fruit as to what you do with your life.

In fact by Paul’s life he blasphemed God and he made good people who love God suffer torture. He was a very bad man. He was a man who was the heirling to make it worse are dirty politicians, he worked for crooks in Jerusalem. He was very, very evil. His name was Saul of Tarsus. But you know something? That man was absolutely totally transformed. And it wasn’t superficial, it was deep. Listen to what this same man Saul said to a group of Christians in this little city called Thessalonica. Thessalonica, the first letter, second chapter, verse one. For yourselves brethren, know our interest in to unto you.

Now can you imagine this fire breathing Christian hated hater arriving? What you’re going to be like? You know how we came unto you. These telling him, you know how I came unto you. I came unto you as a hater of Christians. I came unto you as to kill you, as to imprison you. He’s reminding them who he is. It was not in vain. But even after we had suffered before and were shamefully treated and as you know, at Philippi we were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. For our exhortation was not of deceit or uncleanness or guile.

We were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel. Even so, we speak not as pleasing men, but God who test our hearts. For neither at a time used we flattering words, as you know, nor cloak of covetness. God is witness, nor of men sought. We glory neither of you, not yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you as a nursing mother cherishes her children. Now you say, how did we. How did he get tender all of a sudden he goes from this evil, hateful, despicable man to a tender, gentle soul of love.

Listen this. So being affectionately desirous of you, he used. He used to hate them, remember? He used to want to kill them, and now he loves them. We were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God, but also our own souls because you were dear unto us. We just love all you wonderful Christians, the same ones he was killing not too long before. Now I love this in verse 11, as you know how we exhorted and encouraged and charged every one of you as a father does his children. You see, here’s a change.

This man is a whole new man. Something drastic happened in his life. At the end of the first, well, in the middle of the first chapter of Philippians, verse 18, he says, notwithstanding every way, whether it pretends or in truth, Christ is preached. And in that I do rejoice ye and will rejoice. So we see that now all of a sudden this person who hated Christ is rejoicing when he’s preached. He was absolutely and totally transformed. In fact, Christians fell in love with him when he left Ephesus. They fell all over him and cried like babies because they loved him so much.

Now what in the friggin world can change a man like that? Put yourself in Paul’s shoes now, or sauce, because you can’t be any more vile than than Saul was. So if Christ can change Saul, he can change you. So it was only Jesus Christ, only God, because God gets at the heart of the issue. He’s not a psychiatrist at all. Now as we look at chapter nine of Acts, we’re going to see the characteristics of this man transformed life. And I think really what is a pattern for all transformed life? You got to get this to get back into Ephesians.

This is One of those chapters that gives us some great insights into the basics of the Christian experience. It’s not a far kind of thing or an obscure doctrine that you’re going to be finding as we go through this. It’s just some basic route. I chose that word particular because that is the seed of your salvation. It is a basic root, first floor, bottom shelf kind of stuff. But it’s so important. Now, there are seven ideal characteristics of a transformed life. The first one is faith in the Savior. Now that is in the first nine verses.

And we covered that last week, by the way, and we’re not going to go back into that. You can go listen to the recording of the last session if you need a repeat of that. Except. Except we’re going to bring it back to our attention. We know that this transformed life of this man came when he put his faith in Jesus Christ. We know that. We know the apostle Paul was on his way, what, to Damascus to kill Christians. And Damascus was at the upper end. So he’s going to do Damascus, come back to Samaria, Judah, before he went back to Jerusalem, he was going to take care of business all throughout the region in accordance to how the commission of Christ gave his apostles.

That’s exactly what he had in mind. And on his way, the Lord Jesus Christ stopped him in the middle of the road to Damascus just prior to coming into the city. And he fell on his face, as you recall. And at that point Christ revealed himself to him. He saw Jesus Christ in blazing glory. And at that point he believed that Jesus was who he claimed to be the Messiah who had died and risen and was alive. And he put his faith in Jesus Christ. And the transformation took place on the Damascus road. And Paul said to Timothy I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me in that he counted me faithful for faith.

I believed, putting on into ministry who was before, a blasphemer, a prosecutor, injurious. But I obtained Mercy, verse 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. He said, I was the changed. I was changed because of Jesus Christ. It was his. It was the grace and the mercy and the hope and the love and the faith all wrapped up in Jesus that changed my life. Transformation then comes by faith number one. That’s the first part. There will never be a transformed life again apart from Jesus Christ.

You can fiddle around with the superficial things, but you’re never going to get at the issue unless you change a man’s heart and his heart is only changed by Christ himself. Now here’s the reason why Scripture tells us, don’t listen to philosophy or psychiatrists. Our therapists were basically in. The root of that word is rape. Okay, you do not do that. Why? Because it cannot change the heart of the man. You can change the thinking, the physical brain of a man, most likely, but you can’t change the root, which is the heart. Only God could say to the prophet Ezekiel, I’ll take out the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

I’ll put my spirit within you. Only Jesus could say to Nicodemus, here’s how you to be born all over again. I can change you. I can create metamorphosis. You hear about the word, this word in the New Testament. Regeneration, new creation. That’s all it means, the new birth. And it’s only in Jesus Christ. And this man’s soul of Taurus was changed in that specific moment. He became a new creation. He was dead in sin, became alive to God. He who was insensitive to divine truth began to taste that God is good. Okay, now here are the exchanges.

Go back to Ephesians. This is what Paul is telling you. I had exchanged my old self to my new self. I stopped the lies. I started telling the truth. All kind. All of the things that you’ve learned in Ephesians that apply to you. He who was blind began to see. He was in darkness, stepped into blazing life. He who not only evil continually began to. To do and have a desire to do good. He who wasn’t sure what the questions were now had all the answers. The hellbound became the heaven bound. The rebel became the sun.

And it all happened in an instant on the Damascus road. Now, some people say salvation is a process. Nope, salvation is not a process. Salvation is an event. It’s an instantaneous miracle. The process of conviction only leads up to the instant miracle. So if you’re looking for a changed life, the only place you’re going to find it is by personal faith in Jesus Christ. Now, that’s where Paul began. The transformation took place. That was the positional transformation. He was a new man. Then there became some practical things that needed to be adjusted as he went. And.

And the transformation continued. Because you see, the transformation then is a process of being confirmed, conformed to Jesus Christ. And that’s finally. That’ll finally be complete when we see him face to face. All right, we. We won’t say any more about that because that’s a familiar and very basic concept that we learned that we Went over last week. The transformed life begins with faith in the Savior. Now the second point, fever in supplication. This term fever just means energy, passion, drive. Supplication means prayer. I believe this is one of the characteristics of a truly born again saved individual is prayer.

I don’t think prayer is just a requirement. I think prayer is a response to salvation. And I hope you get the difference. Paul says prayer without ceasing. That means 24, 7, 365. That’s what Paul says. Christ says, when you pray to me, I will hear you and I will provide the blessings that have already been given to you. But those are only heard in total media. I don’t think that prayer is something we have to beg Christians to do some, well, Christians, true Christians, you shouldn’t have to beg that. To do that should be just automatic.

I think that if you’re really born again, you do it. You have no, you have no condition of thought that says you don’t want to do it. Now I think you need to encourage Christians to do it more than they do. Of course, we talk about that all the time. But I believe that a true Christian can be determined on the basis of his favor of fervor, of supplication. Now, the narrative here leads us to this and I, you know, when you consider this, it’s a beautiful thing. Saul is now blind on the Damascus road. He cannot see.

He was blinded by the sight of Jesus Christ. Remember this. Snow, snow buns white as snow. Sun off of snow. Will take, will get, will blind you. And just a short period of time he was going to go into Damascus breathing fire. He goes in there blind instead. And all he can see is the blazing sight of Jesus Christ before him. Like a man who stared at the sun and can’t see anything but the sun, no matter what he looks at. And he sees only Jesus Christ and somebody is leading him by the hand and he’s stumbling around and he goes on into Damascus and he finds his way to the house of a man by the name of Judas.

Not Judas Iscariot, but some Judas we don’t know anything about at all. Scripture doesn’t tell us who this really Judas person really is. But there’s no point in speculating the purpose here. And he goes in that place, and the Bible says in verse nine that he stayed there three days and he didn’t eat and he didn’t drink for three days. He just stays there. The Lord told him to go there and wait, and that’s exactly what he does. And he exists in solitary blindness, without food and without drink. A type the apostles had to know Jesus Christ.

They had to experience his death, burial and resurrection. These three days are Paul’s experience of that event. And I really know what is happening in those days. Those were days when he concentrated on Jesus Christ. Those were days when the shock of the transformation began to settle into his physical brain. He began to understand what had happened so rapidly and so dramatically. Now as he’s sitting somewhere in this little house of Judas on Straight Street. Meanwhile, God is beginning to move on his heart of another man who’s going to go to him and pick up the ministry that needs to be accomplished in his life.

And that’s where we begin in verse 10, as God is dealing with another man on the other side of town, Ananias. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Remember, every Christian is a disciple by classification. That’s different than the Ananias who was executed by God in chapter five for lying to the Holy Spirit. And the Lord just said this Ananias isn’t that interesting? And listen to what he says. And he said, behold, I am here Lord. And and I said this. I mean he obviously knew that there was not the voice of Mrs.

Ananias or any other little Ananas is running around. He knew it was God. So he said I’m here. God moved. And maybe in a dream situation, we don’t really know how he talked to Ananias, but maybe God just brought it across his attention. Maybe there was something with physical eyes that he was able to see. We absolutely don’t know because scripture doesn’t tell us. But nevertheless God said Ananias and he knew who who he was. I love somebody who is listening for the voice of the Lord, by the way. And I think you should too. You know, some Christians, God could say John and you would say, huh, who’s that? Because the least person they expect is God.

Ananias lived in a communion with God, apparently to the point when God spoke, he was already listening. Some Christians are listening to the mirrored voices of the world. And what the still small voice of God comes. They’re not ready to hear it. But Ananias apparently walked with God. And so when God talked to Ananias, he knew who was speaking. So anyway, he says this Ananias, he said, behold, I am here, Lord. Now here’s Ananias. And we don’t know anything about him except in verse 22. Let me chapter 22, verse 12. It tells us that he was a devout Jew and he had good reputation.

He was a devout Jew who had not believed in. In who had now believed in Jesus as the Messiah. And I just think, and I may be wrong, but this is a risky guess in part, but it may well be that Ananias was a leader, if not the leader of the church in Damascus, that he was a primary kind of person there. He had status, he had clout, he was politically in tune. Now remember when Christ set forth his apostles to go teach the gospel to the world, you now understand that there was a two prong approach.

The first prong was to teach the faith and the works of Jesus Christ for people to come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ to be saved. And the second one was to rid the government of the evilness and depart the pagan gods to the underworld. So Ananias was in this realm, okay? He understood both sides. He understood the condition of his community and he understood the, the. The condition of what God was working in his life to do. And in fact, when all the records are done and we get to. To heaven, it may be that if we chat with Ananas, we’ll find out that he was really.

That it was really him that Saul was after that, after he was the head guy that Saul wanted to get at. Which then brings an interesting flavor to this whole thing. Anyway, Ananas appears very suddenly and he disappears very suddenly. In other words, he appears in scripture, works with Saul to become Paul, and then he disappears. He’s done. That’s the end of Ananias. But it is a beautiful thing to see how God just picks his chosen instrument to do his bidding. He just had Ananas created, saved and living in Damascus just to go over there and minister to the infant Saul when he was born into the kingdom, Ananas was the right guy for this task.

God determined that and eternity passed. Oh, did you get that? God determined that in eternity past. That means before the foundation of the world. He set it all up, he moved on. Ananias put the whole thing together before Ananias and even Saul were ever born. Now you got to love the sovereignty of God. And the more you study of Ephesians and begin to put it, put it together now with this glove fit of the church in Acts, you’ve got to actually love the sovereignty of God. I like to see God doing these things from his end.

Why? Because it teaches us history. That’s a securing doctrine, people. That’s a securing doctrine. God is very selective in choosing his people to do his task. Every one of you, you Got to listen to this. As a Christian who has a specific task, what should I say? Specific gifts, specific ministries that the spirit of God has designed for you to carry out within the framework of what? God’s master plan. Not yours, but God’s master plan. And you know, it’s only as you’re available that those things come to fruition. Fruit, guys, we’ve talked Thursday night about how do I recognize or why.

Why do I. Do I have concern over some of you? Because they see no fruit. Fruit comes in a lot of things. And you can identify that with how you act just in normal course of your life, day to day. The willing people are the used one. You can’t be a couch potato, because one James says, space without works is dead. So if you’re a couch potato and you say, I got all the faith in the world, you better go read up on what transformation really is. And then you ought to question whether or not you’re truly saved.

And Ananias was willing, and he got used to. So Ananias is one of the forgotten heroes within scripture. If we always say we owe the conversion of Paul to the prayer and the testimony of Stephen, and I think we also owe the conversion of him to the service and brotherliness of Ananias, he fits in there. Without him, Paul would not know the doctrine of Christ. Listen to the command that came to him. Ananias says, lord, I’m Lord, here am I. Now, we’ve already learned in previous educational settings the difference between here am I and here I am.

Ananias says, lord, here I am, meaning I am, here I am present. I am ready to go. What have you got? And the Lord said unto him, just get what his reaction must have been, Arise, go into the street which is called straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one call. Saul of Tarsus. I just want you to think. Can you imagine what Ananas thought at this point? God, Are you kidding? This guy is evil. He wants to kill us. He wants to imprison us. Can you just see the face of Ananas when God says, oh, go find this guy.

I’m telling you where he is. And Ananias, I just believe in his. In his heart. And he just thought it, he didn’t say it. Are you kidding me? This isn’t really God. Who. Who is speaking to me, is it? You know, you. You want me to go after this guy knowing that I’m the one he’s after? Are you sure you know who you’re talking about? Saul of Taurus. Really this man’s reputation followed him everywhere. He didn’t even. And there was no statement about Saul is to become a believer, which may not have changed the situation anyway because that would have been so, so incredible.

He likely would have never had believe that either at the very first contact. Now, Ananas didn’t know Saul. He didn’t know Saul had been blinded on the Damascus road either. He didn’t know that Saul had his life transformed. He didn’t know he was now a Christian. He didn’t know anything about it. So can you imagine what Ananias must have felt because God didn’t tell him these things. This is get up, go into the straight street and go to the house of Judas and find this guy called Saul of Taurus. Taurus is sorry. So just a historical note here.

Damascus is. We call this. We talked about this. It’s an ancient city. It had a street that ran right straight through the middle of it and it still does today. From the eastern gate to the western gate. Straight about three miles long. It’s. Yeah. And basically it’s not. It’s in the old city, but the new city is around it. But that street still exists in the old city today. The street’s called Straight there. Straight, just like Straight and narrow. St. A I G H T Straight. That’s the name of the street. It’s called Darb. All must equim a different name, of course, but it’s still there.

And the street called Straight and at one end of it was the house of Judas. Today some people say that there’s a spot where that house was and supposedly a closet where Saul was praying for those three days. But that’s just conjecture on people’s part. But it’s something to note in case you ever go there or read stuff and you find people talking about it. Nevertheless, he was. He told him to where to go. You don’t know anything about that Jesus either, I said. And at the end of verse 11 he has a footnote. For behold, he prayeth.

He’s over there in Jesus’s house praying. Now Judas was probably another Christian and God had set that thing up as well, which we don’t know about. The text says nothing about it. We get no history of Judas or anything. It’s just a house that Saul was taken to to stay at for these three days. But Saul is over there praying in Judas’s house. Well, this is. This has got to be too much for Ananias. You know, this beggars your faith. Have you ever thought of the worst enemy to Christianity in your life and then just written him off.

That’s one guy God will never get. That’s terrible to do that. I’m sure that these Christians haven’t even thought to pray for Saul of Tarsus. Christ said, pray for your enemy. These guys were fearing his, the enemy. And here he is over there. God’s got a hold of him. This is Paul. He’s down at Judas’s house and he’s praying. And to Ananias, this is a total shock. You said, what is he doing there? And again he’s praying. That’s why I say the second thing in the transformed life is fervor and supplication. Do you know what Saul spent three days doing? Yes, praying.

You know what prayer is? Prayer is just communication with Jesus Christ, isn’t it? It’s communication with God. And all alone for those three days, the only thing he could see in front of him very likely was Jesus Christ. And the shock of what happened on the Damascus road preoccupied his every thought with the things of Christ. He just spent three days in communion with him. That’s a prayer. And I believe these people at that time that somebody who really was born again, somebody who really comes to Jesus Christ, finds himself lost in in communion with him.

Now it’s not just going around mumbling prayers and it’s not formally getting on your knees or folding your hands or just grace at the table. It’s just this constant kind of life flow in communion with Christ. I have told you that. You know what? Christ is sitting by me in the truck when I was driving down the road. We were having just communication, driving a truck, looking at the road, talking to Christ, kind of cool, walking down the streets. Sometimes I start speaking out loud and misty says, who are you talking to now? This isn’t the first time Saul prayed, by the way.

It’s just the first time he got through condition of obedience. He used to pray like a Pharisee depending upon his own self righteousness. Now he prays like a broken contrite sinner depending upon the mercy of God. But he’s praying, he’s talking to God. The transformed life is the life in constant contact with God. If somebody says to me, oh yeah, I’m Christian, but they have no desire to commune with God, then I don’t think their Christianity is legitimate anyway. And I’ve illustrated this point a long time before now for the Christian prayer is like breathing. You don’t come to the end of the day and say, boy, I’m all tired out.

I’ve been breathing all day. It’s easy to breathe. Why? Because the atmosphere around you exerts pressure on your lungs. And it’s just all you got to do is relax to breathe. You don’t go to sleep at night saying, boy, I hope I remember to breathe while I’m asleep. You breathe better when you’re asleep than you do any other time because your body relaxes and the pressure of the air just moves right in. Now, I made a post in the other thread. Do you think that the air that you breathe listens to you? Do you not know that that’s the complete energy of God? God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he molded Eve out of what he gave to Adam into her.

That breath of life was God’s own breath. God didn’t say, I’m now putting a, a, a, an airfield around you, an atmosphere of my energy. No. Why? Because he was God. So to answer the second part of my question, when did this begin? God breathed his own very life into Adam. Adam need, didn’t need to breed anything else because every, because he was breathing Christ. When do you think this power of this air came to become uniquely different in our lives? It’s a Pentecost. Christ had to rise in order to send back what? The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which is Christ.

And he. And he immersed us in that spirit. Spirit. So our, our ability to be listened to and given energy by in this world came and pen. Now it’s hard to hold your breath. Matter of fact, it’s extremely difficult to hold your breath. Now, in terms of prayer, that’s exactly what it is. Prayer is just breathing. It’s harder not to pray for a Christian than it is to pray, because when you’re not praying, you’re holding your spiritual breath. If you’re really born again, the easiest thing to do is just let God flow, flood your life. That’s just a normal kind of thing.

The transformed life lives amid the, in the atmosphere of God. Did you get that? Now we live in the atmosphere of God. It’s normal to just relax and let God get involved with us. A lot of people think that this is the, this is the communal love. This is the unconditional love. That’s not true. I’ve defined it this way. Take it for what it’s worth. Prayer is simply this, the soul of the Christian moving in the presence of God. That’s what it is. Prayer is not formal little things. Prayer is the soul of a Christian moving in the sphere of the presence of God.

Then again, on another angle, prayer is the same to a new creature that’s in Christ is crying is to a baby. Why? Because you’re both babies. When your baby comes into the world, you don’t teach it how to cry, do you? It just comes in crying. You might ask, why do babies cry? Well, you guys know I’m not a doctor and don’t even want to profess to be anything of that sort. And I don’t know all the secrets of why babies cry, but I have a great idea from scripture. They cry because they want something. Go to Ephesians 2.

You’re born in this world, demonic spirit controlled by the prince of power of the air. You die as soon as your head hits the air and your total mind is a chaos. So you want everything you can get as a baby. They come into this world and they want something and when they get it, guess what? They stop crying. Which is a pretty good indication of why they cry in the first place. A baby comes into the world and a baby needs something. And he wants the supplier to be aware that he needs it. But since he can’t articulate it, God just supplied for babies the knowledge and whatever it takes to yell.

And the supplier usually responds. For the Christian is much the same thing. Prayer for a new Christian is not learned by a manual, nor is it learned by someone giving you a lecture on prayer. It’s like crying. You come into this world and you have needs. And as a Christian you have needs. And the very normal thing for a Christian to do is just to start saying supplier, I have needs. And so we cry a lot. And I wonder sometimes if you’re not crying whether you’re have been born again or not. I believe Saul was crying for milk, for clean clothes, to do the whole transformation, for somebody to teach him how to crawl and then how to walk and to give him all the things he needed.

And so he just spent three days just crying. And I think we can prove that. Incidentally, prayer is not one sided communication. God answers it. Now God may take three days to do it, but he always answers. But God can actually do it immediately based upon his declarations to us from Scripture. And it is manifested into our physical being in that instant. The question goes back to these, whether or not you’re being heard. So it’s beautiful to realize this, that all the time he’s over there crying in Judas’s house, God’s working on the answer somewhere else.

We’ve talked a lot in previous discussions about preparedness. You may Ask God for a particular need, and you might need to be prepared in a way to receive it. You may ask God for a particular need, and while that need is going to come, it’s not. It’s. It’s got to be. It’s got to come from another human being that God uses. Therefore, he has to prepare them to deliver it to you. So the question is not whether or not God immediately answers prayer or not. The question is, what does it take for us to be prepared to receive that which we ask for? Have you ever come down to something in your life and you can’t get down? And you.

And you can’t get down, and you say, I’ve got to pray about this. You start praying and you think, God’s a million miles away. It just seems very remote. And you wonder if God is a little silly thing here. But you just. You think God got all these things to do, and he’s got to make sure Venus stays on course, and he’s got to take care of that, all of that first. It’s just really too much for him to ever get involved in your little petty deal. And then all of a sudden, you forget that God is somewhere and he’s got to throw the whole universe into a different gear to get back down to you.

You see, because all things, of all things are tied into you. Every atom in this world is connected. So what he might need to do is shift the universe in a way. Think of the magnificent part of God changing the universe for you. That’s what he’s doing. Because every time he changes you, he changes everything in the universe. Why? Because all. All atoms are connected to. So in the case of Saul, he had to be working with Ananas. Get Ananas all the. In all shape, get that thing going, get him down the street there and care for all those details.

Don’t even assume that when it doesn’t happen immediately, it isn’t happening with God. God immediately starts answering your prayer. The question is, is whether you’re prepared to receive the answer. And if you’re not, then he has got to prepare you or to use that other person and prepare them, getting them stoked up, getting them ready to go with all the tools and all that stuff that requires them to then come to you and administer God’s blessing upon you. God works in his own way and in his own time. So Saul over there, and he’s crying a lot, and he hadn’t gotten his milk yet, but God’s getting it ready, and Ananias is going to Deliver it.

And it is becoming very exciting, believe me. People watch this. The work of God is just that. The work of God. Did you. Did you get that? God is in control. In Ephesians 2:10, it says we’re his. What workmanship. The word in the Greek is masterpiece. Created by him in Christ Jesus unto good works which he has what ordained before the foundation of the world. You see, God is in control of our lives by design. And so God is ordering the circumstances. A pair of corresponding visions at two ends of town are going to meet head on.

Verse 12. Saul has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. This is an interesting word. So God gave Saul a vision, you say? What did he do with that? Because he wanted him to have something to hang on to. He wanted it to have something to trust in. He was blinded by light, had no ability to see. If you can’t see or feel, you can’t trust. So he had to give Saul a vision of what was actually happening so Saul could actually trust the process.

What are the two things that prove to us that God answers prayer number one? The Bible. Did Saul have a Bible? No. What’s the second thing that proves to us? God answers prayer. Past performance. Right. Did Saul have any of that to bank on? He didn’t have anything. And so the Lord just said, here, I’ll give you a preliminary vision. He gave Saul a vision, and in his vision, he saw a man named Ananas coming along and touching him. And he and Paul then getting back his sight. So Saul had a vision and Ananas had a vision, and God got two corresponding visions going on simultaneously at the same time.

Two men who had been not in three days before were at the other end of the world from each other are now on a dead course to hit head on. Now that’s God’s control. So God ordained the events. For three days, Saul prayed and God moved to answer his prayer. And believe me, people, part of the transformed life is fervor and supplication. When you’re really transformed, you spend time communing with God. You know, there’s nothing sweeter than to talk to in. I feel much better all the time by doing it, regardless of how my physical life feels.

That’s just part of a transformed life. Now there’s a third thing here, and you can add a lot to that. But let me quickly go to this. So we’ll. We’ll finish this. At least this. We’ll. We’ll see how far we get. I’ll probably get through this one, at least the third one here. Faithfulness in service. Faithfulness and service obedience. Another thing that comes, I think, right on the heels of the new birth is faithfulness in service. Now, Ananias had lived in Damascus, and I’m quite sure since the time of his salvation, he had been faithful to the Lord.

It’s very apparent to me that he was a servant of the Lord. From his sensitivity to the voice of the Lord. When the Lord said, ananias, what did Anna Ananias do? Bang. He jumped up. And it’s kind of reminds you of Isaiah when the Lord spoke folk and Isaiah said, here am I, send me. He was ready. And so was Saul. At the moment Saul was saying, what’s the next thing. He said, lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What am I going to do now? I’m ready. I. I spoke some time ago to a gentleman who said to me, you know, I’ve been a Christian a long time, more than 10 years.

My Christian life never amounted too much of anything. Only in the last eight months have I really began to live for the Lord to say, is that a common experience for Christians? Well, after thinking about that for a minute or so, I said, that’s a common experience for most Christians to go like that. Maybe they get saved and they’re young and they just don’t ever really amount to much until sometime later and they begin to move for the Lord. But I said something else to him. I said, that is no excuse. There are also Christians who from the moment of their salvation live the life of full service till the day they die.

And a classic example is a man named Saul. That man committed his life to Jesus Christ at the very instant of his salvation. And he never took back claim to his life until the day his head was laid on a block and an ax head started off. He never took his life back. That’s faithfulness on service. Now let’s pick that up in verse 12 and 13 says, Then Ananias, answer the heart. Now I hear your request, Lord, but let me just give you a little thought on this. I’ve heard by many how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem.

Okay, so now Ananias has actually come out of shock and is being. And he’s is actually discussing this task with God that he’s asked that he’s told Ananias to do. And he’s saying, hey, hey, Lord, do you, do you recall all of the stuff that he did to the saints of Jerusalem. This is the guy who’s after the Christians. And here, that is, here in Damascus event, evidently the word that he was coming preceded him. And here hath authority from the chief priests to bind all the call on thy name. In other words, he’s got all of the pol, Political, all of the judicial, the legal rights to prison us, kill us.

Now, Anas, go on. He says, I heard about this guy, Lord. This is the guy who’s got the authority to come to Damascus and do what he’s been doing in Jerusalem. Do you absolutely know what you’re asking of me? I can imagine. The Lord chuckled just a little bit. And he says, he says to them, because he didn’t rebuke Ananias, the scriptures doesn’t say that he was. It was a little hard to handle. I mean, you got to face it, you can think of the worst possible enemy conceivable, and that’s all. And to hear in a word that he’s on his way to Damascus to capture Christians and when he gets there, he’s already turned into one is a little hard to believe.

And so the Lord accepts the lingering doubt in Ananias’s mind and secures him. In verse 15, this is the Lord speaking back to Anne. But the Lord said unto him, ananites, go thy way. Now, I like that. Don’t you like it? I mean, don’t you? Get going. Get. You got to go. Get going. Don’t. Don’t linger here. You got to go, Ananias, get going. Don’t argue with me. For he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and. And Kings and the children of Israel. Ananias, go on, get going now. I like the fact that God demands immediate service.

Well, if God demands immediate service, means that he’s got to immediately provide the provisions for that service, right? That’s answers to prayer, by the way. And I like that because it gives us the basis of understanding the immediacy of answered prayer. I really think that we can branch off of that thought a bit about a lot of things. But I like the fact that God wants us to move for him now, no delay. You know, God must have a monstrous file up in heaven somewhere full of quotes under the category someday. Can you imagine how he hears.

We just talked about that. He hears everything. Someday, Lord, once I get the fence painted and the garage fixed, I’m going to go witness that neighbor over there. And God says, okay, someday. Put that one in there. Follow that one. Somebody else is going to. Lord, I like to teach a class of people. I’d like to start a Bible study. But God, you know, as soon as I get over the hump on this new job and someday, someday I’m going to put that one right over there. I imagine that thing could fit all eternal eternity. Imagine it.

That someday file. God isn’t interested in someday. Don’t know that. You think about that. God doesn’t care about your, what, future. He knows your future. You say, oh, that’s heresy. No, that’s not. It isn’t, because you’ll never live in the future. You never can live in the future. You can’t live in the past. You can only live in the present. Think about that. If you only live in the present, you can’t change the past. So why do you want to change somebody’s life? For what? From the past? It never happens. You live right now. You don’t go to God and say, someday, God, I’m going to do this someday.

Someday that never happened. You never can get there. God wants your love and the investment of your life now. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but right this moment. And what does he say in verse 15? He is my chosen vessel, that’s Paul, to bear my name. And God said, he’s saved. And now is is settled. There wasn’t any difference between his salvation and his call. It happened bang, just like that. Faithfulness in service is just in the same past. In verse 20, it says this, and immediately he preached Christ. Now, that guy really responded immediately.

So only been a believer a little while and he’s already preaching. He didn’t postpone his service. Oh, I’m saved. Now what do I do? When he was saved, he went in prayer. What did he do? He asked God to teach him. What? What is that? That’s sanctification, guys. He did it when God called him. Now, there were times, of course, when there was a postponement. He went to the Arabian desert for several years while God refined him. But he began immediately to do what God wanted him to do. He set his sight upon that. Sure, there was preparation, there was education, there was time to grow.

But nonetheless, he pursued the call immediately. Okay, I’m called. Think about this. I’m called you guys. Oh, I’ve been called to do this. What should I do? Well, if you’re called to do it, start. Why wait? The education, the training, the knowledge, the wisdom, the revelation comes as you work towards Christ. If you think you’re called and you sit there on your Laurels, waiting for something to happen in order to give you the nudge that says, go do this. That’s not going to happen. When you’re called, you’re called. Don’t stop. You know, there, there are needs that we have in this collected body.

There are needs around the body of Christ everywhere, and they’re not being fulfilled because everybody’s going to do it. What, in the future? That’s no good. If I go to Misty and I say, honey, do you love me? I don’t want her to say or hit me in a couple of weeks, I don’t want to be loved in a couple of weeks. I want to be loved. What? Now, that’s. That’s all that matters to me is now. I don’t want to be loved in the future. When I got married some, you know, 10 years ago, I remember standing in, in outdoors with thinking, now these vows I’m going to say, I promise to love you till death do us part.

See, that’s hard to say that. I mean, if you’re really saying, I’ll love you till death. You don’t know that, do you? You have no idea of what the future holds. You haven’t even lived with this person. I mean, Missy’s lovely, and she’s the, the object of my love at that point in time, of course. But how are you going to say, I’ll live with you and love you? And be clear on. You might say, I, I, I, I’m not going to love her for 60 years now. I’ll marry you, but there’s no chance of me loving you until 60 years down the road.

Or you might have decided that I’m not even going to love her for. Or I decided I wouldn’t even love her for the first year. In fact, you might even say, I got to get through the first month Now, I decided right then and there that I would love her right then and there. And that’s the love right now, more than I ever did then. But by the way, and you know, when she wants to be loved, Ask her, too. It’s right now. It’s not tomorrow or in the future is right now. God doesn’t want your service tomorrow because he’s not interested in it.

There’s nothing to do for tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. The Bible says he wants you today. And if you’re sitting around making spiritual plans, there are not spiritual ananias. Protest was overruled. The risen Lord said, you go, I’ve selected Saul. And there’s no dichotomy between his salvation and his service. He is a chosen vessel. Paul himself picked that phrase up and used it at least four times in the New Testament. In Romans 9, vessel of iron, vessel of mercy. In 2nd Corinthians 4, vessel of earth or earthen vessels. In 2nd Timothy 2, he talked about being a vessel sanctified and fit for the Master’s love, and use the term vessel means an instrument to convey the grace of God to men.

He used to be my instrument to convey the grace of God to men. Incidentally, the Greek here, where it says chosen vessel is literally vessel of election. Where did we get that? Ephesians 1. God elected him for service, predestined him. Now, I say this as a footnote. The call to the ministry is not a whim or a will on the part of man. It is totally of God. That’s the reason why if you feel like you’re called and you get the response back that you are called, you better go. In Galatians 1:1, the apostle Paul simply says this.

Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. I was called by God himself. It says, he was called to reach the Gentiles first of all. And you remember now in Romans 11:13 and also in Romans 15:16, he specifically says, I am the apostle to the Gentiles. And so he knew his part. Now, incidentally, he preached to kings as well, Agrippa and very likely Nero, and also to the children of Israel. In verse 16, he goes on, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

He says to Ananias, saul’s going to suffer. Which must have been a comfort of some measure to Ananias, that he didn’t have to fear, because it was going to be the other way around for at least for a while. And Saul did suffer. 2nd Corinthians 11:23, 27 is the list of the things that he suffered from. Well, Ananias was obedient. Discipleship means risk. He was expendable. That’s the fear part. You don’t understand that you’re here for one purpose and one purpose only, to glorify God. And it’s not what you have been born in this world to do.

So when you understand that you’re expendable, that physical feeling that you have is fearfulness. And Ananias went his way, entered into the house. So Ananias went to commission Saul, and putting his hands on him, said, brother Saul, he commissioned him as God’s instrument. He just went to help Saul to understand what God had called him to do. And that was really what his commission was. Ananias said in chapter 22, verse 14 to 15, when he arrived at the house, he used these words, the God of our Father has chosen thee, that thou shouldst know his will and see.

There was getting a sight back. That was the vision. And see that just one which he did, that’s Jesus. And should us hear the voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou has seen and heard. And I said, God chose you to be his witness. And he put his hands on him. People, the transformed life, the man’s service to Christ. Remember the old statement, saved to what? To serve. That’s true. We’re saved to serve. We’re not safe to sit around. When you become a Christian, immediately, whatever your vocation was, it becomes your a vocation.

You. Whereas as a Christian, the thing that you are to be known for is just that you’re are Christianity. You are the church. That’s the key. So let me close with this. First Corinthians. You don’t need to look it up. I’m going to read it to you. It’s four. One. If you’re a Christian, you ought to be known by your service to Christ. If you have none, you’re a contradiction in terms. 1st Corinthians 4. Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ. When somebody points to you, they shouldn’t say, oh, there’s John.

He works over at Lucky or well, look at that, there’s Susie and she is a waitress. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, that’s John. He’s a minister of Christ. Or look at oh, that’s that Minister Christ, Susie. See, that’s what we should be known as. Let a man so account for us of what the ministers of Christ. Stewards. You own nothing. You’re steward of what you have been provided. Stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it’s required in stewards that a man be found what faithful the world ought to know us by our service fruits to Jesus Christ by that we should be identified.

So what are you doing for him? What kind of service do you have? How are you using your spiritual gifts? Where are you using your abilities? If you’re not, you’re a contradiction in terms. The transform life, faith in the Savior, fervor in supplication and faithfulness and service. That ends A look at Paul from the attributes the characteristics of three of the seven that we’re going to study as a transformed new life. Any questions? Comments? No. Yes, I do. I want to say, I just love when you take the examples and break it down and just express and explain to us what you’ve done today.

That just helps me be reminded and remember how I am to be so. Yes, that’s my comment. Thank you very much. Thanks. I do try to bring them into worldW settings so that we can actually identify with them instead of trying to figure out what, what’s being said. That helps tremendously. Anything else, guys? Sure. All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for the time to get into your word, to, to discuss your word, to teach your word. Father, thank you for the many, many blessings that you provided to us and, and the knowledge and the wisdom of really who we are as we’re.

As we’re feeding this seed of salvation of you, the Holy Spirit, inside of us so that it can grow in control and change over our lives. But maybe keenly aware of the transformation process, what that all entails, what that means. And as we look at our self assessments as an ongoing way of life, may you ever mind us that what we need to be focused on is the spiritual side of all things and not of this world. This world is worthless, useless, hopeless. But I thank you for giving us your son to die on the cross.

Be buried, go to hell, get the keys, be risen as the glorified Savior in victory over death, hell and the great, giving us our, our host body system in its total prototype form. And thank you for giving us the ability of the mind to comprehend who you not in the past, who you are today in the present, and has always been in the present. So, Father, thank you for those who are going through hardship, we ask that you put your loving hand on them. For those that have sickness, we ask your healing, healing process to begin.

And Father, for those that are just in despair, we ask that you just touch their heart and give them joy and peace, knowing that you’re in total control with all things in this world. We ask all things, things in your son’s name.
[tr:tra].