Know God to Obey God
Road to Damascus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 1:03:07
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· 35 viewsYou have salvation, now what? In this new series we will engage the difference between being called and being chosen.
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More than Salvation
Contemplating the process of conversion we seemed to have simplified making Christians to the following:
Step 1. Believe that God loves you
Step 2. Admit you are a sinner and acknowledge your sins
Step 3. Commit your life to Christ
I understand this over-simplification makes it palatable and easy for someone who wants to be saved to come to salvation.
Here is the problem the year come and go the emotions of becoming a Christian fade… we lose purpose in being a Christian and begin to even doubt our own calling…
Take for an example the following questions
1. What are you saved from? Most will answer from Hell
should answer from (a)myself and (b) to live for Christ
2. What has the Holy Spirit done in your life?
does the Holy Spirit to work…
3. What were you chosen for?
I don’t know
Questions like these bring me to an awareness to the fact that there is more to salvation than just being saved.
The 2 polarizations of Christian Life
Made to know the God of our calling and to Obey the Lord to be used by Him
Made to know the God of our calling and to Obey the Lord to be used by Him
You cannot have salvation without knowing God
more than just saying or praying
You cannot serve God you do not know
4 take-aways
Calling into Right Salvation
The Work of being Chosen
The Work of the Holy Spirit
Commissioning
Calling into Right Salvation
Calling into Right Salvation
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest
and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
The Problem of Religiosity
The Problem of Religiosity
Taught by the Gamaliel (Acts 22:3)
Knew the Law
Head-knowledge
Religiosity was his zeal.
Commissioned by men
He sought their approval over God’s
Legalism
the belief that religion can save
Today the belief that the ritual of praying or other religious traditions can save
certain way
certain words
certain motions
The Interception
The Interception
Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.
And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Paul is accomplishing his perceived vocation
Paul is working in the Old Path. (many are found here)
The Law: if you’re a good person
The Law: if you live in perfection
Proved they could not keep the Law with out the Helper
Jesus stops him dead in his tracks
Saul is brought to a place of humility
his friends abandon him
he is left blind
He is knocked off his horse
Paul was waiting for the messiah did not know who the Messiah was
Christ Revealed
Christ Revealed
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Serving the Lord?
cannot serve Him unless you know Him
Becoming a Christian is more than just a prayer or change in religions… (wash up get dressed)
Which Lord? (Who are you Lord)
Paul was confused with who he was serving
Paul was alive when Jesus was alive but didn't go to see Jesus instead studied under a religious teacher
Jesus comes to visit Paul
Christ Identifies with the Church
why do you persecute me?
without knowing who God is… without knowing who Christ is… and without knowing who the Holy Spirit it is impossible to worship the Living God
The call on our life is a call to salvation… salvation comes from the call to repentance without which there can be no salvation neither of which can occur if do not know who Jesus is…then
The Work of Being Chosen
The Work of Being Chosen
Many today have come into salvation (be concerned with what you were called to do)
If you are already serving be concerned with how you are serving
We will all give an account for our lives.
Paul’s account: What do you want me to do
But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
The Lord now instructs Paul what he should do
Paul is brought into obedience
Ananias told to go and lay hands on Paul… He was a follower of The Way and is terrified of this murderer(6-15)
In the meantime Paul spends 3 days in deep reflection not eating food or drinking water… what must have been going through his mind.
“I am blind how can I serve”
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
He is a chosen instrument
not by a person but a purpose that the Lord was about to place in him
If we were to map this out to this point:
knowledge of Christ
repentance
Conversion to obedience
3 days in reflection
not everyone called is chosen (Matt 22)
there are two parts to this choosing
to be chosen by God
to accept the selection
excuses made why they cannot or should not be choses
Paul in this time is counting the cost, self reflection,
Calling is the work of Salvation… Choosing is your vocation
without counting the cost we jump into choosings that are not ours… jobs that we were never selected to be…
Work of the Holy Spirit
Work of the Holy Spirit
So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;
and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.
Paul sets out to do God’s will according to his own understanding when he encounters Jesus he is put in a holding pattern waiting for the HS
Paul receives a part of the mission and the remainder is withheld to test his obedience
tested gradually (makes some hesitate)
grows out maturity
Once he is filled with the Holy Spirit
Guided plainly
Acts 16:7 Paul wants Asia but is not allowed to
Empowered (2 Cor 12:2)
given visions
given insight
transported to the third heaven or paradise
No ministry where there is no guidance no guidance where there is no Holy Spirit
There is a large cost when we do not wait on the filling of the Holy Spirit
Acts 27 Paul is filled with fear until the Lord reminds him of his purpose
Abraham losing hope turns to the handmaiden to have a child
David pretends to be crazy
how do we avoid such issues if not by being filled with the Holy Spirit
The scales fell from Paul’s eyes (we need this)
The Work of the Commissioning
The Work of the Commissioning
In the encounter Paul is radically transformed
He comes to know Jesus
Obeys Him
Is Filled with the Holy Spirit
Now is commissioned
And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
Paul was accustomed to turning to men for his commissioning to murder Christians… now he would endure to bring life to the gentiles.
He was now seeking his Commission from the Holy Spirit
Ch.9 v16 He will know plainly what the cost is… He was beat stoned scoffed ridiculed… plants in Corinth
The trap is believing I am in control … HS in control
Our Path is shaped to allow us to speak from personal experience
we will affirm or forgo our selection
the manner in which we press in is the manner in which the Lord pours out
So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
The commissioning causes the church to grow when the fear of the Lord is in us
There will be peace
If you want to be used:
Believe in Christ: What do you want from me Lord
Go to your Damascus: Reflect, prepare and count the cost
Be Filled with the HS: Go and complete your purpose in the Lord