Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
It's great to be in the house of the Lord.
You know, we're like away even just a week.
As you know, we're out in Colorado last week and I got to watch on Monday morning.
Well, Danny Jackson just did an amazing job.
Didn't he?
Just phenomenal.
In fact, do you remember what the key points were?
Rise and run.
Remember the next one?
Ask.
And the last one is?
Open your mouth.
Or speak.
Someone listen.
No, I'm kidding.
But anyway, it was great.
And it's great to be back.
In fact, Jill and I drove up from the shore this morning.
We're going back down after this to my sister has a house down there.
So once a year, we all meet at her house and it's a good time.
So it's a long beach island, but it was great.
It's, you know, it's great.
It's fast driving on Sunday mornings.
You know that we got here in like an hour and a half.
It was great, but it's great to be with you guys.
And so and this morning, the message is from blindness to breakthrough.
If you've been reading through acts, you know what's next,
even just by looking at that title, right?
We're talking about Paul today when he was blinded and then he received his sight back.
And I love this story.
It's phenomenal.
It's amazing.
And so let's pray and ask the Lord to really pierce through any blindness.
We might even have this morning.
Any short sightedness that we might have.
Lord God, we ask you to really pierce through any, any worldly cataract
we've allowed to grow over our spiritual sight.
Lord God, we ask you to open our eyes so we could see the way you see.
Lord, that we could see ourselves the way you see us,
that we can see our lives the way you see our lives,
that we can see our destiny that lies ahead of us.
It's such an amazing destiny, an amazing future, Lord, that we can live into.
And so, Father God, we ask you to move powerfully in here.
Lord God, we ask your Holy Spirit to speak.
Lord God, I just want to default to you and just ask you to do all the heavy lifting today.
Lord God, all the surgery that's needed to be done today,
all the healing that's needed to be done.
We ask your Holy Spirit to just flood through us.
Lord God, and just wash away anything that needs to go.
Lord God, you would just burn it up and wash it away.
And Lord God, we would be revived, Lord God, to see ourselves the way you see us.
We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.
I like that title.
Isn't that a kind of catchy title?
From blindness to breakthrough.
You know, have you ever had an epiphany moment?
Like that aha moment.
Where suddenly you realize, wow, like everything I'm doing is wrong.
Like, I mean, like, you know, I've had lots of them, by the way.
And you're like, I'm sure you have, you know.
But really, I mean, you're just suddenly realizing that, like, I am way off.
I'm going in the wrong direction.
And I've had several of them in my life.
I really have.
I mean, they keep going.
But when I was young, I was very irresponsible.
So most kids are.
But I was just really apathetic, had no drive, no focus.
And I was just, you know, you know, just a real,
I would just say a disappointment as a son, I'll just say.
And I lived my early life and adolescence,
just, you know, without any drive to do or be anything.
And there I was, a junior in college, okay,
still a mess up, just still partying in no direction.
And also, I got the phone call, you've heard this before,
that my father had died tragically in a car accident.
And I was just like, boom, like, what, you know?
So, of course, that took some time to process.
But one thing that happened out of that is suddenly I had,
and I was an unbeliever, by the way, of course,
but I had a rude awakening that, like, you know,
I have to gain some responsibility.
Like, if I don't take control of my life, like, who is?
I mean, daddy's not around anymore, okay?
Mom, you know, she doesn't have the answers for my life.
And, you know, and just suddenly I realized, like,
I have to get my life under control.
And I really just started, the Lord just almost gave me
this aha moment, even before knowing him,
to like, say, you got to get some responsibility,
some self-discipline, and go after life.
Because life is just blowing you by.
And it was, from that point on, I could just go back
to that point that I started having a drive to do things,
to accomplish things.
And I really credit it to that moment that God did that,
even though I didn't know him yet.
I had an aha moment realizing that,
if I don't do something to better my life, no one else can.
And so many things happened after that.
I started pursuing business, doing really well and everything.
And there I was, suddenly I was married to Jill, okay?
And you say, how did that happen?
I still don't know, okay?
But, you know, she was saved, but she was backslidden
or else we wouldn't have been married
because I was unsaved and we got married.
And her church wouldn't marry us
because they said you're unequally yoked.
I don't blame it.
In fact, I thanked the pastor after I got saved
for being truthful with me.
But I was saved at that point.
But we were married
and then she started going back to church.
And by then we had Zach and Jesse.
So they were like two and one
and they were going to church.
And I was just like, I had no meaning,
like eternal meaning.
I was pretty successful.
I had a wonderful wife, two wonderful kids,
but I was empty, really empty.
Like I knew I just had no significant purpose for my life.
Is it really all just about this little bit of things
that's going on and then it's over?
And finally the Lord just saved me.
I just cried out to him.
I got saved and that was my second huge aha moment.
I now knew I had an eternal purpose.
I had an eternal destiny
and I knew that my identity was tethered to Jesus Christ.
But I still pursued worldly things
and I still really chased after the money.
And I still really just wanted to build my earthly empire
knowing that, oh yeah, but I'm a citizen of heaven
and all that, you know.
And so finally I had this financial big loss.
I won't go into detail.
I don't have time.
But suddenly the rug was pulled out from under us
in the mortgage business.
It was before 2008.
That happened again.
And I realized like, really, I am addicted to money.
I am like still like a slave to money.
Again, another aha moment.
And the Lord said, you have to get your priorities straight.
Stop living for this stuff.
And I realized that when I just started serving God
and that's when I started getting involved
in ministry at our church,
I started to spiritually thrive.
And I realized I needed less and less of that stuff
and more and more of God's stuff.
And my life just started again flourishing
because it was that aha moment that I finally realized,
wow, like now I'm starting to gain
understanding of what this life is really all about.
Haven't you gone through an aha moment of your own
from time to time or that epiphany,
that personal great awakening that you realize,
I'm going, I'm wasting my time.
I really need to rededicate my life and gain sight
and vision for what's happening.
But did you ever notice a lot of that happens after darkness.
It's after like loss or like a sudden like dark period.
Like my father dying.
Wow.
Like what now?
Like, you know, this is, what am I going to do now?
Like it took that God didn't do that,
but it took that from me to gain a breakthrough.
You know, it took me needing to have a financial crisis
to suddenly realize I don't even need that stuff.
I got God.
I got what God gave me.
I got a family.
You know, I have everything I need to succeed.
I don't need, you know, it's suddenly that dark period
that when suddenly you experience how lonely you are
and how worthless all that stuff is
that you suddenly have a breakthrough.
And that's what Paul is going to experience,
a real breakthrough.
This is the same man who wrote in Romans 12 too
that he said, don't conform to the patterns of this world.
I like NIV throws in patterns,
although it's not in any other version,
but patterns of this don't conform,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Then you will be able to prove the good,
acceptable and perfect will of God.
It's when your mind suddenly gets blown
and you suddenly have a breakthrough and say,
wait a minute, I'm doing everything wrong.
I got to get right with God.
We have to have the right trajectory, don't we?
Towards heaven, we can't get skewed off
to all kinds of other things.
We need to be tethered to our destiny.
And that's when we live that abundant life
in Jesus Christ.
So anyway, let's dive right in to Acts 9.
And we're only going to stop once here
as we go through.
You got it?
Acts 9.
Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder
against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest and asked letters from him
to the synagogues of Damascus
so that if he found any who were of the way,
whether men or women,
he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
And as he journeyed, he came near to Damascus
and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
And then he fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying to him,
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And then he said, who are you, Lord?
And then he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
Now, if you don't have that verse,
we'll talk about that in a minute,
depending on your version.
Verse six, so he trembling and astonished said,
Lord, what do you want me to do?
And then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city
and you will be told what you must do.
And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless,
hearing a voice, but seeing no one.
And then Saul arose from the ground
and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one,
but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
And he was there three days without sight
and neither ate nor drank.
So if you're scratching your head and say,
what did you just read there?
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
Who didn't see that in your verse?
In your verse, what verse was it?
Five, okay.
Did a few of you not have it?
Anyway, well, the earliest versions
didn't have that part of the verse.
So the new King James version,
the King James and a few others do have it.
But we know that it happened.
And how do we know that it happened?
Because Paul retold this story when he was in custody
and he was speaking to King Agrippa
and he was recounting what happened on his way to Damascus,
how he ended up getting saved.
And as he was sharing what happened,
he said in Acts 26, 14,
and when we all had fallen to the ground,
I heard a voice speaking to me
and saying in the Hebrew language,
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
It is hard for you to kick against the goads,
the Greek word kentron.
So what does that mean?
How do you kick against the goads?
What's a goad?
Anybody know what a goad is?
Okay.
Well, a goad, I had to investigate
because I didn't know what a goad was,
but a goad is like a prod, okay?
It's when you're farming and your oxen
are starting to get tired and lazy
and you start poking them in the butt.
Let's go.
Come on, come on.
You got to pull this plow
and we got to dig this ground up to plant crops, right?
Plant some seed.
So that's what a goad is.
It's you prod them.
You prod them.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus said,
it's hard for you to kick against the prodding.
And we're going to think about that for a minute, right?
But it also means something else.
The same word means stinger.
Stinger, like at the end of a scorpion
or the end of a bay or something like that.
It's a stinger and revelation.
Actually, if you have revelation,
revelation chapter nine,
it recounts the story of these locusts
that have stingers
that are tormenting mankind for five years, okay?
Except for those who have the seal of God upon them.
And so there you see the same word goad for a stinger.
So why am I even talking about the stinger
and the goad and so forth?
Well, there's a reason
because Paul himself talks about the goads
and the sting, the sting of death, which is sin.
And we have that first Corinthians chapter 15.
And you've heard this verse before.
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Oh death, where is your goad or sting?
Oh Hades, where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin
and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So you look at all this, okay?
And what does it all mean?
We think about the sting,
the sting of sin, okay?
Causes the death.
Who does it kill?
So I was thinking about this.
You know, when you ever get stung by a wasp, okay?
I remember one time I was doing something in my garage
when I was growing up as a kid.
And suddenly I saw this nasty looking wasp
flying around in the air.
I'm like, that thing looks nasty.
Suddenly I'm like, ow, ow, ow.
And here they got under my shirt.
There's more than one.
There's always more than one.
And it got under my shirt and they're stinging me.
But they don't stop there.
They keep stinging.
And then I got one of my shorts.
And he's like, ow, right?
And they said, but they can keep stinging and stinging, okay?
But you know, bumblebees, they're a one and done.
Okay?
I have a picture if you have that, Christine.
They sting you once, okay?
And it's like a barb, okay?
It pierces you.
And then when they leave the stinger behind,
its intestines come out with the stinger, okay?
And it dies within an hour or a little longer than that.
And it dies.
It's basically stinging is its death sentence.
Well, you know, it's the same thing with us.
Sin kills us.
You know, it could cause someone else a lot of grief
and aggravation and problems too.
But sin killed us until we came to Jesus Christ, right?
Then he became our sin, right?
On the cross.
So now we don't have to die because of it.
So what is Jesus saying to Paul?
Here Paul is, think about this.
He's going to prove himself to God, how righteous he is
because he's going to stamp out all the blasphemy
from these crazy, you know, ludicrous, blasphemous Jews
that are now believing in this guy who already died
and supposedly went up to heaven, right?
I'm going to crush it out.
And I'm going to prove to God how good I am
and all my fellow, you know, religious people.
I'm earning righteousness.
I'm proving my righteousness.
And he brags about how ridiculous he used to be
on all the things he was doing so right
and he was doing everything so wrong.
He was doing the exact opposite
of what he should have been doing in his life.
He was pursuing, killing, wiping out the body of Christ.
And so now Jesus said, it's hard for you.
You know, you're trying to be righteous through your actions
but your sin is right behind you.
It's like that pride behind the ox.
It's going to keep pushing you and keep pushing you.
You're never going to outwork sin.
You know, the law is going to always own you
until you allow Jesus Christ to be the fulfillment
of the law in your life.
Once you say, no, Jesus Christ is my law and I have him.
Now I'm not working and working to get rid of this sin
because the sin's right behind me, prodding me and prodding.
No, I'm still here.
I'm still here.
No, I'm with you.
And you got to keep working and working
and you're never going to be enough
until you come to Jesus Christ and say, Lord, I can't do this.
I surrender my life.
I'm dying with my sin so that I can have your new life.
Does that make sense?
So Paul is just striving for this
and he's also striving so that, you know,
the sting of death is not present
but Jesus is saying you're not going to outwork your own sins
because it's always going to catch up to you.
Does that make sense?
And so let's read on
and just one thing about the blindness too.
So Paul is struck blind, named Saul at that time.
He was struck blind, you know.
Now, why would Jesus have to strike him blind for three days?
Okay.
I really believe it's kind of like saying,
all right, you're taking a time out.
It's so funny when I hear, you know,
my kids now telling their little kids,
do you want a time out?
Okay.
And they're like, no, no.
And they put them away for a time out.
And meanwhile, they're screaming and hollering
in their bedroom and, you know,
because they don't like being in time out.
You know, it's so gracious of God
when we're making a mess of our lives.
Okay.
And we're doing all the wrong things
when he finally intervenes and says,
all right, you're taking a time out then.
All right.
We're just going to shut this thing down
because you're going in the wrong direction.
You know, we're putting a stop to this.
Thank God that he doesn't.
Many times God uses people to intervene
and come up to us and say,
Hey, you know what?
I think you ought to stop that.
Do you realize what you're doing?
I mean, thank God.
Sometimes it's a little tough when you first hear it.
You're like, I don't want to hear this.
But we need to like, think about it
and say maybe there's some validity to this.
Maybe this is God sending that messenger
to say, stop what you're doing
because you're going in the wrong direction.
The Lord had to shut Paul down
with blindness for three days.
So he could mull over this thing
that he could pray for three days,
that he could fast for three days and say,
I thought I was going so right.
Like Jesus, like where was he?
Like he came shouting down from heaven.
All these things, you know,
the Lord often does things like this
that are gracious by producing blindness.
Just a couple of examples.
Do you remember when the two angels went into Sodom
to rescue Lot and his family
and all the perverts are around the house
trying to rape the angels?
And if you don't know where that is,
it's in Genesis 19, 11, two,
and they're banging on the door
and then Lot goes out.
No, no, no, no, please don't, please don't.
I have my daughters.
That's the sickest part of scripture
that we'll ever read.
But we don't have time to get into
that sick and twisted thing.
He'd been in Sodom too long.
Let me just say that much.
And so they're pushing against him.
The angels bring him in
and they strike the men with blindness
so that they couldn't even find the door anymore.
I mean, he's going to bring the wrath anyway,
but it's almost like a little bit of grace
saying you don't want to try to rape an angel
or this man's daughters either.
It's like he's shutting them down.
I remember another time when Elisha,
the prophet, was living in Dothan
and he was hearing the king of Syria
speak or dream in his own bedroom
about how he was going to attack the Israelites.
And Elisha was getting visions
and hearing in the spiritual realm
exactly what the king of Syria
was going to do when he came to Syria.
We're going to block them off at this path.
We're going to attack their supply.
He's making all these strategic planning
and Elisha is listening to all of it
in his spiritual soul.
He's hearing the king of Syria speak.
And so he would go and tell Elisha,
I mean, the king of Israel,
make sure you stay away from this area
because the king of Syria is going to attack you.
And he would tell them everything
that the king of Syria is going to do.
Finally, king of Syria is saying,
do I have a spy in this place?
Like, what is going on here?
How do they know exactly where we're going to be,
when we're going to be there?
They say, oh, no, they have a prophet in Israel.
And so he sent a team of men
to go and capture Elisha
and bring that valuable resource back to Syria.
So he went and as they're surrounding his city,
Dothan, suddenly Elisha is there
and his servant says,
you know, master, they're surrounding us.
There's an army here.
He goes, Lord, open up his eyes.
So he opened up his eyes to see the Lord's arm,
the chariots of fire,
and the horses of heaven.
You know, I think if we ever really thought
we were outnumbered by the enemy
and we just ask Lord,
show me how many you have
that are fighting for me.
He would open up your eyes.
You realize nothing to worry about.
I mean, I am victorious in this world.
I don't have to worry, right?
We don't have to worry. Amen.
And so he opened up his eyes
and he sees this fiery,
you know, glowing army from heaven.
He's like, wow.
And then Elisha said,
strike the Syrians with blindness.
So the Syrians came in.
I couldn't even picture it,
but they're blind and they're like,
yeah, we're looking for this guy Elisha.
Oh, I'll take you to him.
Meanwhile, it's him.
And so he leads this mini army,
the squad, okay,
about 12 miles journey to Samaria.
They get into Samaria.
He's bringing them in.
And all of a sudden he says,
Lord, open their eyes.
And they suddenly open their eyes
and they're surrounded by the Israeli army.
And the king said,
master, should I kill them?
He was calling Elisha master at this point.
Should we kill them all?
He goes, no, no, no, no.
Make a feast for them.
Just treat them well
and then send them back.
And that's what they did.
They blessed the Syrian army
who was coming to kill Elisha
and to wreak havoc in Israel.
And he sent them away.
And the word says that
that squad never came back to Israel again,
because they learn and they appreciated
the blessings of the God of Israel.
I bring that up
because a lot of times
we need to experience darkness
as grace.
When we're not really
seeing things properly,
maybe we should just take a break
and say, Lord,
I don't want to just keep going
if I'm going in the wrong direction.
Lord, speak to me.
It was because of that blindness
that the Syrians had a chance
to appreciate and experience
the grace of Yahweh,
the God of Israel,
that they could go home
to the king of Syria
and say, you know what?
They're not so bad.
In fact, we like them
and we love their God.
And he struck us with blindness
and then he opened our eyes.
And so that time,
don't always think of blindness
as a bad thing.
If you're suddenly seeing,
you're not experiencing clarity.
Say, God, all right,
I'm just going to wait until I do.
One more blindness story.
You okay with me?
You're tracking.
So Paul,
the very man
who is now sitting in blindness,
we didn't move on yet,
later on down the road,
once he received his sight
and he's in a great evangelist
and he's preaching,
he's on the actually island of Cyprus
in this town of Pathos.
And as he's there,
this sorcerer named Elimus,
okay,
he starts trying to turn
the whole proconsul
in the town against Paul.
And he's saying all kinds of things to them
and say, don't believe them.
He's a liar.
And all of a sudden,
Paul is looking at him
and he just,
in fact, we have that verse up there.
I think Acts chapter 13.
It's a lot of reading,
but let's do it.
Then Saul,
who also is called Paul,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked intently at him
and said,
oh, full of all deceit and all fraud,
you son of the devil,
you enemy of all righteousness.
Will you not cease perverting
the straight ways of the Lord?
And now, indeed,
the hand of the Lord is upon you.
And what is he going to do?
And you shall be blind,
not seeing the sun for a time.
And immediately,
a dark mist fell on him
and he went around seeking someone
to lead him by the hand.
And you know,
because of that blindness,
the people of the town believe
in the power of God.
They actually received the gospel
because Elemis the sorcerer was blinded.
So why am I telling you that story?
Because notice,
Paul was blind too.
But then he received his sight.
You know,
is this really just a curse
that Paul was pronouncing
on Elemis?
Or was he possibly
giving him some grace?
Saying, you know,
I had to be blind for a bit of time too,
so I could actually see the light.
You need some blindness
for a little while.
You need a time out, Elemis, okay?
So you can suddenly gain insight.
You ever notice
when you send a kid into time out
and they stay there long enough,
then you come back in
and then they're,
oh, sorry.
And you're giving them a hug
and you're like, you know,
and hopefully, right?
Sometimes it takes longer, okay?
But how many days of blindness do you want?
But yeah, you see this,
and this is Saul
now going to be named Paul
from this point forward,
that he actually said,
you know what?
I know exactly what you need.
You need some blindness.
No thanks, you know?
But sometimes we need a time out.
We get full of ourselves.
Oh, I'm sure of this.
I'm sure of this.
Stop.
You know, we see it in ministry all the time.
You know, I've been there.
I've done that.
I'm saying, I'm so sure of something.
And all of a sudden, like, you know what?
I'm not so sure.
It's so good to have accountability.
It really is.
It's like anyone who thinks
they are the lone ranger
and they don't have a bunch of tantos,
you're in trouble, okay?
You really are.
You need a council of Godly people
to just say, yeah, I'm not so sure about this.
Have you thought of this?
Have you thought of that?
It's awesome to have accountability.
It really is.
Because we can just be off in this trajectory
so far off.
And God is saying, no, no, no.
No, come back and listen to me.
Until then, you're blind.
So anyway, let's read on.
I'm going to finish it now.
And so now there was a certain disciple
at Damascus named Ananias.
And to him, the Lord said, in a vision,
and Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord.
So the Lord said to him,
arise and go to the street of strait,
called strait, and inquire at the house of Judas
for one called Saul of Tarsus.
For behold, he is praying.
And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias
coming in and putting his hand on him
so that he might receive his sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard,
I have heard from many about this man
how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priest
to bind all who call on your name.
But the Lord said to him,
for he is a chosen vessel of mine
to bear my name before Gentiles,
kings and the children of Israel.
For I will show him how many things
he must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered the house
and laying his hands on him,
he said, Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus who appeared to you
on the road as you came
has sent me that you may receive your sight
and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Immediately there fell from his eyes
something like scales
and he received his sight at once
and he arose and was baptized.
So when he had received food, he was strengthened.
Then Saul spent some days with the disciples
and at Damascus.
Immediately he preached the Christ
in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.
Then all who heard were amazed and said,
is this not he who destroyed those
who called on his name in Jerusalem
and has come here for the purpose
so that he might bring them bound
to the chief priests?
But Saul increased all the more in strength
and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus,
proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
So there was a transformation
in Saul who will be called Paul
and he was preaching Jesus.
Now some of us look at this and say,
all right, well, I looked at this
and so he knew the law,
he knew the scriptures,
and now he knew Jesus.
He had the Holy Spirit.
So he was certainly equipped
with most people that you would say today
who are saved
and suddenly they want to go out
and be an evangelist.
But yet the Holy Spirit gives us
the utterance to do so.
But one thing we don't realize
is during this time,
believe it or not,
between verses 20 and 22,
there's a three-year period of time
because Paul would be in Damascus
and he was sent out to Arabia
where the Lord Jesus
actually personally preached to him.
In fact, we read about that
in Galatians 1, 16 to 18, 17.
To reveal his son in me
that I might preach him among the Gentiles,
I did not immediately confer
with the flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem
to those who were apostles before me,
but I went to Arabia
and returned again to Damascus.
I bring that up only because
it looks like it just went
from one verse to the next,
but there's actually
a three-year period of time
that Saul at the time
went and learned directly
from Jesus Christ,
not in the spiritual realm.
And so he learned from Jesus.
And so, in fact,
we have a little map
just to kind of give you a glimpse
of what that looks like.
There's Jerusalem down there,
but Arabia is kind of
southwest of Damascus.
So at some point he went
and was tutored by the Lord
to equip him.
I just bring this up because
there's a lot of celebrities
that get saved
or they claim Jesus Christ
was the Lord and Savior.
And a lot of times
they immediately plunge
into preaching Jesus,
which is great.
But we have to be careful.
I mean, we've seen a thing or two.
Kanye and some others
that suddenly,
are they really grounded
in the Lord?
You know, Paul was
because he spent time with Jesus
and he already knew the law
and he already had the Holy Spirit.
But it's like,
we have to be careful
when people are saved
and then immediately
they want to do it all.
All right, just take a little bit of,
just take some time
to really learn
before you go out there
and just start sharing.
Because you know,
a lot of times
you can have a gift of the Spirit,
but not yet have the wisdom
to know how to use it.
Did you know that?
You ever notice
in 1 Corinthians 12,
the first gift of the Spirit is what?
Wisdom.
Like, you need wisdom
to be able to carry everything else
that's coming your way, right?
Because otherwise,
we can really mishandle
gifts of the Spirit
if we're not wise and mature.
So I just say that
because Paul did receive
a lot of tutoring from the Lord
before he went out
and did his ministry
and actually went back
to Jerusalem again.
And so, as we think about this,
you know, this is, you know,
Saul, Paul, is now born again
and he's going to be
just an amazing voice for God.
He can now finally see.
You know, a lot of times
the truth is like right there.
I grew up in religion
and the truth was right there.
It's in even all the words we're reading.
But it wasn't until I got born again
that the light went on.
I'm like, wow,
like all those things
I was reading in church
and singing about.
Now I get it.
Like the light suddenly went on.
It was like right there
in front of me
and I didn't get it
until suddenly the Holy Spirit hit me
and I got it.
You know, it's amazing.
I love reading all about
like entrepreneurs and inventors,
you know, and
how things don't suddenly get invented.
There's always other inventors
who had tried it in the past, right?
And failed.
But the next inventor
kind of studies what they did.
They augmented a little bit.
They tweak it and suddenly
it's working a little better.
And so the next guy gets a hold of it.
Rarely do you hear about anything
that just suddenly happened
in one moment.
And the Wright brothers
always like struck me
because, you know,
people were trying to fly
since like, you know, before 1000 AD.
There's a story about this one guy.
He literally made wings.
Like he was like,
what do they call the glider suits?
And they fly through the air.
That is the most insane sport
I've ever seen.
Like who?
How do you practice that?
Yeah, I'm going to fly by
at about 90 miles an hour
and just miss that cliff.
And I still don't have a rush enough.
Okay.
I need a bigger thrill.
Like how do you,
what, where are they invented
these people, right?
And so, well, this guy
back in 900 some AD
actually made the first,
what's that suit called?
Anybody know?
I still don't hear anybody.
A squirrel suit?
Oh, yeah.
All right.
Cool.
So he had the first squirrel suit
in nine something AD
and he literally leaped off
of a cathedral rooftop
and he didn't make it too far.
He did make it 600 feet.
Then he hit the ground
and then he became a paraplegic.
So sad stuff,
but he tried it, you know,
but like,
but until the Wright brothers,
they were like working on this thing
and, you know,
they had seen other crashings
and everything
and everyone always thought
all we need is a bigger engine,
a faster engine
to lift this thing off the ground.
And yet, as they keep kept working
or they finally,
I think there's something else.
We have to worry more
about staying in the air.
If we worry more,
if we consider focus on staying in the air,
it's going to lift off,
but we won't crash.
That's even better.
And so they designed wider wing spans
with curvature and warping
and warping
so that you could turn.
I can't do it
because I got a broken wing.
But like,
you can kind of turn it this way
and turn it this way, you know,
so that you can turn.
I'm not supposed to be rotating right now,
but anyway,
but like,
so,
but you could turn
and suddenly when they design that,
they could fly.
And now here they are,
you know,
the inventors of modern day flight,
really,
you know,
sometimes the answer is right there,
but we're just not seeing it.
Sometimes it's not about,
I need a new job
because this job,
I can't,
I can't do what God wants me to do.
Why not?
I mean,
they were fishermen
and they still fished probably.
Paul was a tent maker
and he still made tents, right?
Lydia was a purple maker
and she kept making purple,
I guess, you know,
you could keep doing things.
Sometimes it's not about,
I got to like quit everything
and I got to, you know,
like sometimes just about
having the correct perspective
of why you're where you are,
you know,
because God doesn't make mistakes.
You might be in that place
to do the exact thing,
but you're not seeing it correctly,
you know,
I'll never forget
hearing about these Filipinos
that were living in Saudi Arabia
for jobs
because Saudi hires like,
they have more employees
in that country than citizens.
I mean,
they're loaded with,
you know,
they hire all the countries
everywhere.
And so these Filipinos
are there working
in these rich households,
okay,
doing their laundry,
cook,
everything, right?
And it wasn't until a mission,
a mission group
went to Saudi Arabia
and told them why
they're really there.
Like the eternal purpose,
they're there.
That they suddenly realize,
you know,
we can witness to these people.
Like maybe
this is why we're really here,
not just to earn money
and send it back home
to the poor village we came from,
but maybe we're here
to bring the gospel.
Like the light went on,
like,
oh,
and they share that
at this convention
went to in South Korea
that they say,
we own it,
we owe it to the South Koreans
to show us
why we're in Saudi Arabia
because we didn't understand it
before,
except to make money.
Sometimes you are
where you're supposed to be.
You just haven't been enlightened
as to why you're there.
And he wants to open up your eyes
and say,
no, you're in the right place.
You're even with the right people.
You're just not doing
the right thing.
You know,
I remember Jesus said this
after he healed the man,
John 939.
He said,
and Jesus said,
for judgment,
I came into this world
that those who do not
see may see.
And those who see
may be blind.
There's some people,
though I got this,
God,
I got this all figured out.
I know what my life's all about.
I'm good.
No, you're not.
You need a little blindness
until you can really
take a break
and receive my sight.
You know,
we want his sight.
We could see with his eyes
and see,
wow,
this is,
this is his world.
This is,
I belong to him.
I'm his messenger.
I'm acting as him.
I'm his ambassador.
It's suddenly your eyes
are open to all the opportunities
you have all around you.
So I have a couple questions.
Okay.
And the questions are,
what am I doing?
I'm putting it to myself
because I asked myself all this time.
Jill says it to,
what are you doing?
She says it to me too.
By the way,
she has a prod at home too
and she,
when I'm not there,
get moving.
I'm just kidding.
But what am I doing?
And why am I doing it?
Really?
I mean, it's like,
we have to have purpose.
I'm not saying you have to
count for every minute of your day,
every second,
you know,
I get caught up in my YouTube
shorts too much.
Sometimes I'm like,
where did that 20 minutes just go?
Like, I'm like,
I can't believe it.
And here it is,
another road rage thing
and I'm addicted again.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
It's like,
I know one thing,
I learned a lot from that.
Just wave.
You don't get mean,
you don't do anything,
especially the older you get.
Just,
I don't know where they get
these old Karens
that think they're going to beat up
these young motorcycle riders.
Like,
are you crazy?
Just like,
don't you,
you haven't appraised
yourself properly.
Let me just say that much.
Let it go,
dude,
it's going to end up badly for you.
But anyway,
but sometimes you can get hooked
on that stuff
and before you know it,
where's the time going?
I'm not saying get crazy about,
but what am I doing?
And why am I doing it?
We have to have God's perspective.
Remember Elijah suddenly flipped out
when Jezebel's going to kill him
and he gets out to the mountain of God.
He's in the,
and he's in the,
in the cave.
And he's complaining to God,
you know,
I've been zealous for you
and you know,
they,
they have,
they have forsaken your covenant
and they have torn down your altars
and they have killed all your prophets.
I'm the only one left
and they're even trying to kill me.
Suddenly,
God says,
go out
of the cave.
Get out of the darkness.
Okay,
it's time to come out,
right?
And remember,
he wasn't in the wind.
He wasn't in the earthquake.
He wasn't in the fire.
It was that little whisper.
And he says the same exact thing to him again.
Why did you come here,
Elijah?
Like,
what are you doing?
What are you doing?
And why are you doing it?
Like,
you're out here to complain.
I love,
he blessed him.
I'd rather God whisper to me
than yell at me,
right?
And he just whispered to him again,
Elijah,
why did you come here?
I mean,
sometimes the Lord just wants to say,
look,
I have you
and you are in the right place
at the right time.
Just keep the focus.
You have a calling,
a great calling.
Every one of us
have an amazing calling in our lives.
Do you realize that?
Well, how can we all
be that important?
We are.
Each one of you
have a sphere of influence
and everywhere you go,
it's the Lord's,
it's the Lord has already taken it.
And he's saying,
go,
everywhere you step foot,
I've given you that land
just like Joshua.
Like,
you are that important to God.
And of course,
not that he needs us.
Well, he chooses to need us.
Okay.
And you are that significant to him.
We're going to have communion together.
But I just want to say you,
we have to have the right perspective,
God's perspective.
We need to,
we need to just come out of that blindness
and really have breakthrough.
As the worship team is coming up,
let's just take a little bit of time
to contemplate some things.
Anyone feeling,
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands,
but anyone kind of feel
like you're like kind of stuck in a pattern.
And it's all the same.
Day in,
day out,
it's nothing's changing.
Nothing's different.
And you're not sensing that you are
being fueled by the Holy Spirit.
You're not really gaining
any new perspective or purpose.
Instead,
you're just going through the motions.
We're going to pray about that.
And I know,
you know,
I know there's people here
that have so much capability
and calling.
And yet they're choosing
temporal,
less important things.
To fill their time with.
I don't know if that's you,
but time waits for no one.
We're only here but amidst.
That funeral Jill and I were at last week
for my son-in-law's brother,
who's 32,
who died suddenly.
On a bicycle,
riding up a hill in Lake Tahoe
and just,
you know,
this six,
seven amazing athlete kid
just dies,
you know?
And there's something about funerals
when you're at the right kind of funeral
that can be so inspiring.
And his funeral was inspired.
It was so motivating.
And he wasn't some great,
you know, evangelist.
And he didn't,
you know,
he didn't have this big ministry.
He was a business guy,
you know?
But he had a lot of friends
that loved them.
And they spoke so highly of him.
And he had amazing testimonies there
at this funeral.
And as I listened to them,
it just,
it made me really do
some self-analysis, you know?
Am I that kind of friend
to other people?
Am I really going all in
with relationships, you know?
Am I really investing
the best I have in people?
Or am I kind of going through motions,
you know, routine?
Am I really appreciating
everyone that's around me
and seeing it as
like an eternal relationship,
you know?
Even if they don't know the Lord,
it's still eternal.
What can happen is eternal.
And it's important.
Everything we do down here
has eternal dividends.
Thank God the bad stuff
gets left behind.
Thank God, you know,
you've sinned.
Guess what?
You already died to that sin.
He already rose.
He became your sin.
You're forgiven.
But how about the good things, man?
There's so many good things
that are waiting for us
to step into and do.
You know, the words,
Ephesians 2.10,
we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus
for good works,
which God prepared in advance
for us to walk in.
Like, think of that.
There are so many amazing things
waiting for you
to say yes to God.
Lord, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do it.
I'm going this direction,
but suddenly,
I want to go in the right direction.
And I think maybe the Lord
is just going to give each one of us
a sense of like an aha moment
right now,
like an epiphany,
like a great awakening in our heart
and say, Lord,
what have I been missing?
What have I been doing
that's not right,
that doesn't line up
with your calling for my life?
I don't want to miss out.
That's the fear of the Lord,
fear of missing out.
I saw someone walk by us
with a shirt.
Jill pointed it out and says,
you see that shirt?
I said, no.
He said he had a shirt
that said,
I don't got to, I get to.
I'm like, wait a minute.
He stole my saying.
I didn't know anybody else
knew about that saying.
But I love,
I thought God gave it to me.
Well, gave it to him too.
You don't got to, you get to.
Walking in the perfect will of God,
not that we're perfect ever,
but saying yes to the Lord.
Lord, just guide me.
I want to do you on earth
as Christ is so are we in this world.
I want to be you in this world.
I'm not going to be you,
but I carry you everywhere I go.
We are the fragrance of Christ.
That's why you smell so good
because we are the fragrance of Christ.
So let's have communion together.
This is just such a great time to enjoy.
You don't mind stop picking
for a minute, do you guys?
Thanks for joining us
at Lansdale Life Church
as we praise God
and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us
for Worship Live Sunday mornings
at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!