Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Would you stand? As we honor the reading of God's word, I want you to turn with me. Oh, by the way, we do have the notes in the Bible app. If you like to use the you version, you can also track with the reading plan.
[00:00:24] If you're a part of that, all of that's on there. You can actually follow our church on the, if you scan that, you can follow the church, you can see when we post the notes, you can see the Bible reading plan and all of that. And just even to give you a second, I don't. We don't. I don't typically do this at the beginning, but I just. I'm going to pray before we get into the Scripture and give you a second to pull up the notes there.
[00:00:49] Holy Spirit, I thank youk for your presence.
[00:00:54] I thank you for your nearness.
[00:00:59] From the moment we came on this campus, Jesus, I felt as if you were walking right in our midst.
[00:01:08] And I don't want to miss a single thing you desire to do today.
[00:01:13] So we surrender to your will, we surrender to your desires and ask you to meet us in a special, in a powerful way today.
[00:01:22] God, I pray that for those who are maybe new to their walk with you, or they don't even know you, I pray that today won't just hear a sermon about you or songs about you, but they would encounter you.
[00:01:36] God, I pray for those who are seasoned veterans in you, those who've been walking with you for many years.
[00:01:42] Even as we sang in that Glimpse song earlier, we've heard you, we've seen you. But we know there's more.
[00:01:51] We know there's more.
[00:01:53] And so we ask you, Lord, to show us.
[00:01:57] Show us your glory. Show us who you are in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I want you to look with me at Acts chapter 22, beginning at verse 4.
[00:02:08] This is one of the times where the Apostle Paul is sharing his testimony.
[00:02:15] He's had his encounter. You can read that in Acts chapter 9. I'll reference it a time or two. He shares it on one other occasion, but this is the last time he's actually on trial here.
[00:02:24] And this is him sharing his testimony. I persecuted. Verse 4. This way. That's what they called walking with Jesus, early binding and delivering into prisons, both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness. And all the council of elders from whom I receive letters to the brethren. I went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there, to Jerusalem to be punished. It happened as I journeyed. Do you know this story?
[00:02:54] It Happened as I journeyed. I came near Damascus around noon, and suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. I fell to the ground. I heard a voice saying, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
[00:03:09] So I answered. I said, who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
[00:03:15] Those who are with me indeed saw the light and were afraid. But they did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me. So I said, what shall I do, Lord? The Lord said, arise and go to Damascus. There you'll be told all the things which are appointed for you to do.
[00:03:35] Since I could not see for the glory of the light, being led by the hand of those who are with me, I came into Damascus. Verse 12. A certain Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, he came to me.
[00:03:53] He stood and said, brother Saul, this guy's a terrorist.
[00:03:59] Hours ago, Brother, Brother Saul, receive your sight.
[00:04:11] And at that same hour, oh, I need the Lord to help me. At the same hour, I looked up at him and he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you.
[00:04:23] He's chosen you, Paul, that you should know his will, that you should see the Just One and hear the voice of his mouth. He's chosen you. What? To know his will, to see the Just One, to see the righteous One and to hear the voice of his mouth. You will be his witnesses to all men that have seen and heard.
[00:04:49] Now, why are you waiting? Rise, be baptized. Wash away your sins. Call on the name of the Lord. And this Trinity Church is God, God's Word, and I believe it to be true. You may be seated.
[00:05:08] To kind of recap really what we've cast vision for over the last month through our season of prayer and fasting, we have really prayed and. And dug into the idea that God desires us to grow in four areas. Everybody say grow.
[00:05:28] We're going to grow in four areas. We're going to grow in the knowledge of God.
[00:05:32] We're going to grow in grace.
[00:05:36] We're going to grow in our thanksgiving and understanding of salvation, and we're going to grow in our love for one another.
[00:05:45] We've prayed about these things. You're going to hear about them probably through the entire year. But one of the things that even as Pastor Jim and I were talking late last week, we were really kind of unfolding the idea that most of these ideas kind of intersect with one another.
[00:06:03] Like, you understand, you come to know the Lord, you begin to discern his call. On your life, you begin to understand his heart.
[00:06:14] You're going to start to love the things that he loves.
[00:06:17] You're going to encounter his grace. These things really begin to intersect. They begin to cross over. You begin to experience his grace. And the Bible Talks in Galatians 5 How your life will naturally produce the fruits of the Spirit, the first of which is love.
[00:06:37] So we're going to grow in all of these things. But even as I was reading the Apostle Paul's testimony, that phrase in verse 14, this is where I'm going to really pull some ideas from this morning.
[00:06:51] This idea struck me.
[00:06:56] Ananias prophesies over him, essentially, and this is what he said. The God of our fathers has chosen you.
[00:07:08] He's chosen you.
[00:07:11] If you're taking notes, if you're looking for a title, I've entitled this message Chosen to Grow.
[00:07:17] Because you'll see the trajectory that the Lord puts the Apostle Paul on, growing him into this incredible apostle. In fact, I don't know if he is or not, but he ought to be your favorite apostle because he's literally the one who carried the Gospel to the Gentiles for every non Jewish person within the sound of my voice. The fact that you are born again believing in Jesus is the fruit of the Apostle Paul's ministry.
[00:07:43] And you read about who this man was. The very fact that you and I are sitting here enjoying the glory of the Lord, we have the hope of heaven for all eternity. We've got a mighty call on our lives. It's all thanks, of course, to Jesus. I won't certainly diminish that. But it's because God called a man named Saul, who became known as the Apostle Paul.
[00:08:08] Something that I was taught, if you know the name George Wood, he was the general superintendent of the assembly of God. And he taught me something about reading the Bible. He said, when you read the Bible, you have to take this into your daily Bible reading.
[00:08:21] You always want to ask two questions. What does it say?
[00:08:26] And what is it saying?
[00:08:30] What does it say? So I want to understand what's going on. What is Paul talking about? Who is he talking to? What is the setting? What are we. What is. What is he actually talking about? What does it say?
[00:08:42] But then we also take and how many know this word is living and it's active and. And it's alive, and it will speak to you. And so we must also ask God, what are you speaking to me? If you spoke this to Paul, then what are you speaking to me? And off the bat, I just want you to know the very fact that you're sitting in this room, the fact that you came to church, that you're hearing this message, maybe you're watching online, is online. It's evidence to me that you, just as the apost. Paul, have a call on your life.
[00:09:16] I want you to tell your neighbor you are called.
[00:09:19] Yeah, turn to your other neighbor, tell him you are called now.
[00:09:25] And you ought to be encouraged by Paul because I mean, this guy was deeply religious, persecuting the church, quite literally a terrorist with religious zeal on his way to murder Christians. And he had a reputation. He was feared in the church.
[00:09:45] I mean, you just imagine when they began to hear about like, okay, this is the Paul, he's coming to us. This is the guy who's been arresting and imprisoning and murdering people. You're telling us we need to make room for him.
[00:09:58] He was feared.
[00:10:00] But as he's on the road to literally persecute and terrorize the church, he encounters God, a light that blinds him and he prays.
[00:10:14] And what's amazing to me is if you read the account in Acts, chapter 9, God comes to Ananias. Ananias isn't, you know, some spectacular person. He's just a regular praying Christian.
[00:10:27] But God comes to him and says, Paul is praying and I've shown him in a vision that you are going to come and lay hands on him and he will be healed.
[00:10:37] Now you think about that. Jesus is hearing, Paul's not been baptized. Paul hasn't even repented. And yet he is praying. And Jesus hears him.
[00:10:50] Jesus hears him. So listen, you're worried about your drug addicted nephew. You're worried about that person you wonder, is my husband. He's not even saved. But I'm telling you these moments that they even have a whisper in their heart crying out to God. Jesus hears it.
[00:11:07] Jesus hears it.
[00:11:09] Oh, I feel my heart burning. He hears it. Don't ever think, even if you're sitting in this place that you are too far gone.
[00:11:18] You don't know what I've done. You don't know what Paul did. And Jesus heard him and raised him up and turned this murderer, turned this terrorist, turn this religious twisted terrorist into a mighty apostle, a preacher of the gospel, a writer of the inspired scriptures.
[00:11:38] Imagine what he can do with you.
[00:11:40] Oh, he's healed.
[00:11:43] After a three day supernatural fast. No food, no drink for three days, by the way, unless you have. I mean, if God shows up to you and tells you you should do this and go for that type of fast. But no Drink for three days is crazy.
[00:12:00] That was supernatural. But it's part of his breakthrough. It's part of his story. So how are we going to grow? Well, a couple things I want to show you. I already gave you the points. They come right out of verse 14. We grow through what we know.
[00:12:17] This was Ananias Word. He lays hands on Paul and he says, God has chosen you to know his will.
[00:12:29] So part of the way we grow into God, who God has called us to be, is by what and who we know. Part of what we've determined to grow in this year is our thanksgiving and our knowledge of salvation.
[00:12:45] And this is very important for us to understand because there have been studies that have been done on the Christian faith and people as they go after God. And what they have found is that most Christians begin to plateau in their Christian growth after two years.
[00:13:03] The first two years, you come into the body of Christ, you have a radical encounter. You're dealing with your sin. You're. You're gaining some assurance. Okay, I think I actually do have a call, and I do believe that God could use me. But what tends to happen is the moment that we have some assurance of our walk with the Lord, some assurance of our salvation.
[00:13:23] Well, now that I know that I got my fire insurance, we just kind of cruise.
[00:13:28] We kind of set on autopilot and we just go about our walk with the Lord.
[00:13:34] But one of the things that we must understand about salvation. I need you to hear me.
[00:13:39] Salvation is not the finish line when we're saved. That's the starting line.
[00:13:48] That's the starting line. See, we even hear. And I'm not trying to diminish anything, but it's a very Western mentality. We hear and we preach and we do evangelism around the gospel of salvation.
[00:14:01] This is the end game, and this is the goal. We need to get people into salvation. We need to make sure that people escape hell. We need to make sure that people go to heaven and listen.
[00:14:12] Probably even stronger than the pastoral call on my life. I'm an evangelist. I carry a burden to see people rescued from hell.
[00:14:23] No doubt about it.
[00:14:25] But did you know Jesus never once preached the gospel of salvation?
[00:14:32] Never once preached the gospel of salvation. In fact, reading through the gospels since the beginning of this year, I have been stunned at how rarely he even talks about being rescued from hell or how rarely he talks about eternity or eternal salvation. What does he do?
[00:14:50] Message after message, teaching after teaching, sermon after sermon? He is preaching about the gospel of the kingdom.
[00:14:59] You understand, when you come to saving faith in Jesus. And I'm thankful for my salvation.
[00:15:05] We now are just getting started.
[00:15:09] See, when we talk about if salvation is the finish line, then once we get saved and once we're assured of our salvation, then we stop our pursuit of God.
[00:15:21] But if we understand that we're coming into a kingdom with a king and we have a right understanding of our salvation, that our salvation is not just getting people into heaven when they die, but salvation. The gospel is about getting the kingdom of heaven on the earth today.
[00:15:43] I don't know, are you guys tricking with me on this so far? The gospel is about getting heaven the earth.
[00:15:52] So if we have a right understanding, I'm telling you, I understand that I'm honoring a king in a kingdom and I'm not just a servant or a slave in that kingdom. I'm actually a co heir with Christ. I have a part to play, I have an inheritance in what God wants to do in the earth.
[00:16:13] This is the understanding of salvation.
[00:16:16] And I tell you, if you begin to understand that, oh my goodness, I'm barely getting started in this thing.
[00:16:23] I'm barely beginning to discover the nature of God. I'm barely discovering who I am in Christ and what I have access to, well, I'm telling you friend, it will transform the way you pray and pursue God.
[00:16:39] Your kingdom come, your will be done on the earth just as it is in heaven.
[00:16:49] You see, this mindset has even affected the way we view. You know, you get these debates over predestination and I'm just going to read to you the New Testament references about predestination because we make this a salvation thing.
[00:17:07] But predestination is actually a sonship thing.
[00:17:14] People debate predestination like, well, God predestined people for heaven. God predestined people. The Bible never says that.
[00:17:25] I'm just telling you, the Bible never says that.
[00:17:29] 100% of the time the Bible talks about predestination. We'll read the verses 100% of the time. Romans 8, 29, it says those God foreknew he predestined. For what? To be conformed to the image of his son.
[00:17:45] You know what you've been predestined for? To look like, to image, to resemble Jesus in the earth.
[00:17:53] That's what you've been predestined for. You want to know what God's destiny, what his calling over your life is? It is to image the Son of God in the earth. As Jesus was on the earth, so are we in the earth.
[00:18:09] That's what you and I are called to do. That's the call of God on our life. That's what you've been predestined for. Ephesians 1, 4, and 5 says that God chose us before the foundation of the world. He predestined us for adoption. You want to know what you are predestined for? To be adopted. To be brought into the family of God through Jesus. And then in verse 11, it says, we have an inheritance because we were predestined to do good. Good works. You know what you were predestined for to do good works. To do. Jesus works in the earth.
[00:18:46] This is what predestined. This is what you ought to thank God for your salvation. He called you to look like Jesus, to be a part of his family and to do God's stuff in the earth. And by the way, that last verse 11, we have an inheritance.
[00:19:04] That means that what he's called you to do, he also plans to finance.
[00:19:11] Come on, Jesus. That's a good word.
[00:19:15] He's asked you to do some crazy things.
[00:19:18] I want to know Him.
[00:19:20] Do you want to know Jesus?
[00:19:22] I want to know him.
[00:19:24] I want to know him more. I want to know him more deeply.
[00:19:28] It's like I. I heard a pastor describe his marriage, and he says, it's like discovering new galaxies. It's like Captain Kirk on the starship Enterprise discovering a new galaxy, going boldly. Do we have Star Trek fans in the place?
[00:19:47] Wow. Surprising. Okay, more of a Star wars guy, but I know the quote.
[00:19:54] Boldly going where no man has gone. But that's what it is. That's what it's like in marriage, you know, still today, I'm discovering new things about my wife all the time.
[00:20:03] And I've known her for decades now, but still I'm discovering new aspects to her heart, things that she likes and things that she doesn't. I'm watching her. I'm discovering her. Now imagine our walk with God. We can know Him.
[00:20:19] And the moment that you think that you know him, he begins to turn the page. And you discover, oh, there's so much more that is undiscovered. There's a whole new galaxy that I haven't even begun. There's a whole new world that I barely begun to step in. And I'm discovering new places in God.
[00:20:36] Oh, this should never. I want to get what we were singing about. That glimpse. I want a glimpse, but I'm barely scraping the surface. I'm barely tapping in. You can talk to people who've been walking with the Lord 40, 50, 60 years, and they're still discovering new things about God and still realizing. I have barely begun to know all there is to know about God.
[00:20:59] I think about these angels in heaven.
[00:21:04] Isaiah, he has an encounter. He's in heaven, and he hears the songs that they're singing in heaven. Holy, holy, holy.
[00:21:15] You know, it's mind blowing.
[00:21:18] You go forward thousands in thousands in thousands of years. Now, John the Revelator, in the last days, he's discerning a time that I believe is close to this day. He has a vision in heaven. And they are singing not just the same worship song, but they are singing the same worship word.
[00:21:41] Like, we get irritated when they sing the same worship song. Two weeks in a row, didn't we just sing this?
[00:21:50] But these angels are so encountering the living revelation of God Almighty wave after wave of revelation that they literally stand in awe. And they cannot even move past the one word that they've been declaring about him for thousands and thousands of years. And I have a sense for all eternity, oh, we're going to be declaring holy, holy, holy, holy. Oh, I can't even handle it.
[00:22:27] I want to know you, Lord.
[00:22:29] I want to know you, Lord.
[00:22:34] The second thing you'll see with the APostle Paul, verse 14, we grow through what we see.
[00:22:42] Now this is very interesting. This is really the one that, that struck my heart.
[00:22:50] God, our Father has chosen you. Everybody say, chosen you.
[00:22:55] You're chosen to grow.
[00:22:58] This is how it happens. You're going to know him. You're going to know his will. And you are going to see the just one. You are going to see the righteous one. You are going to see Jesus. Now, in Acts, chapter nine, you can read the actual account. It says, Saul arose from the ground. And when his eyes were.
[00:23:19] He saw no one.
[00:23:23] His eyes were opened, but he saw no one.
[00:23:31] His eyes were opened, he saw no one.
[00:23:38] He was blind to the world. But you know what he was seeing?
[00:23:42] Jesus.
[00:23:44] He was blind to everything around him. To the men who were walking with him. He was blind to those who are around him.
[00:23:54] But now he's getting visions from God.
[00:23:57] The Lord is beginning to show him. You're gonna go here and this person's gonna come and pray for you. He's having visions of heaven, visions of the future, visions of the people of God, visions of Jesus.
[00:24:08] But he's blind.
[00:24:12] When you have a real encounter with Jesus, he will disrupt your vision.
[00:24:18] When you begin to see the resurrected king, the King of righteousness, I'm telling you, he Will mess up your sight.
[00:24:27] And I thank God for it.
[00:24:30] You hear stories like Pastor Becky taking care of people who are struggling.
[00:24:38] We spent years doing homeless ministry. And I remember I used to get irritated by the homeless begging for money.
[00:24:44] And then Jesus messed up my sight.
[00:24:49] And all of a sudden, I have compassion for a people I never cared about before.
[00:24:54] He'll mess you up.
[00:24:56] You begin to see Jesus, he'll disrupt your vision.
[00:25:03] That business situation that discourages you, that you see no hope. The moment that you see Jesus, all of a sudden, he gives you a strategy. Now I see a path that's gonna lead to a way out of this.
[00:25:16] Your marriage that you felt like was over. There's no hope in this thing. You see Jesus and he disrupts your vision. Now all of a sudden, I think there is hope for this. I see him through God's eyes. I see her through God's eyes.
[00:25:33] The people you dislike because they look different, vote different, have different backgrounds, have different styles.
[00:25:44] But you see Jesus and he messes up your vision. And all of a sudden you find yourself, brother sister, where one new man in Christ. He'll mess you up, man.
[00:26:03] He will mess up your vision. He'll give you new eyes, and we need this. Oh, my goodness. He was chosen to see, but the first thing that happens is he was blinded.
[00:26:16] You ever had experiences like that? This is gonna be great.
[00:26:20] I got to speak at Christ for the nations this last week. All these students, gung ho for Jesus, first week of school. Some of them just been walking with the Lord for, you know, a month or less.
[00:26:31] I'm gonna go after God, and all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose against them. And they're like, wait a second. I thought this was just gonna be like a walk in the roses, you know, I just thought we were gonna hang out with you. Actually, a walk in the roses would be unpleasant.
[00:26:53] Have you ever had experiences like this? You begin going after God, and all of a sudden you hit walls. You're going to see.
[00:27:01] The first thing that happens is you're blind.
[00:27:04] God, what's up? But you'll notice this was very common in the Bible.
[00:27:09] Jesus was transfigured in John, Matthew 17. He was transfigured white as lightning. And the Bible says that they all fell down, but then Jesus touches them.
[00:27:22] They were fearful, and he touches them. They saw him.
[00:27:27] They were overwhelmed. They fell and he touched them.
[00:27:33] And John, John the Revelator sees the resurrected Jesus.
[00:27:40] And the Bible says in Revelation 1 that he fell down as one who was dead.
[00:27:46] He knew Jesus, he leaned on him at the Last Supper, whispered. I mean, if there was any disciple who knew Jesus, it was John.
[00:27:57] And yet he saw him in a new light.
[00:28:02] And it was so overwhelming that he about died.
[00:28:08] And the Bible says, Revelation 1:17 and 18, that Jesus bent down and touched him.
[00:28:16] He saw him. He was overwhelmed. And then God touched him.
[00:28:22] Isaiah. The very same thing happens. Woe is me. I am undone. He was mentally ruined at the revelation of God, and God touched him.
[00:28:35] Ezekiel experiences the same thing. Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel 8. He sees God. He falls as though he's dead. And God touches him.
[00:28:47] I could give you so many examples. I've got a few more listed here, but I'm gonna move on.
[00:28:52] But this is what happens. These moments where you get a glimpse of God.
[00:28:57] This is more than I can handle.
[00:29:01] And then God begins to grow you.
[00:29:04] He begins to touch you.
[00:29:06] He begins to stretch you.
[00:29:09] He begins to mold you.
[00:29:11] And then all of a sudden, you find yourself stepping into that which he gave you a glimpse of.
[00:29:17] This is the process of growth.
[00:29:21] You see it?
[00:29:22] God, I just got a glimpse of where I think you're taking me.
[00:29:28] That seems impossible.
[00:29:31] That's overwhelming. That's too big. I'm afraid you're overwhelmed. I might die.
[00:29:40] And then he begins to touch you.
[00:29:43] He begins to minister to you.
[00:29:46] He begins to speak to you, begins to show you.
[00:29:52] The apostle Paul sees, and he can't even handle it.
[00:29:56] He's blinded.
[00:30:00] And then God, sometimes through another man, Ananias, Peter, later, others begin to shape him, mold him. God begins to touch him. And by the end of the story, boy, I read it. It makes me weep. Almost every time. At the very end of Paul's life, he's writing a letter to a son named Timothy.
[00:30:18] In the very last chapter, he's talking about all the people who've left him, all the people who betrayed him, all the people who failed him.
[00:30:25] But he said, but Jesus stood by me, spoke to me and comforted me. That which once blinded him, the revelation of God as he grew in the Lord. Next thing you know, he's talking with Jesus in jail cells. He's seeing Jesus as Jesus is walking on the earth with him.
[00:30:52] Is this getting in your heart at all?
[00:30:57] Don't be discouraged and don't be afraid. When God gives you a glimpse of what he is going to do, it's big.
[00:31:08] It's overwhelming.
[00:31:11] It's going to freak you out.
[00:31:13] But that's how you know it's God.
[00:31:17] And the moment that you feel like you're going to die. I can't handle this.
[00:31:22] I can't do. This is the very moment that God reaches down and touches you, gives you his grace. No. I'm going to help you do this.
[00:31:34] I needed you to know you couldn't do this. In your own strength.
[00:31:38] I needed you to know this wasn't your idea. This was my idea. This is my will. This is my call. This is my vision that I'm giving to you. And I'm going to touch you. Yeah.
[00:31:53] Been fascinated as I've been reading the Bible again.
[00:31:56] You'll see all these moments. One of the things that I've been doing is I'm. I'm highlighting in blue all the moments that God spoke. A vision, an angelic visitation. These powerful encounters.
[00:32:11] And I noticed that the gap between the blue and.
[00:32:15] And the next section of blue sometimes is pretty wide.
[00:32:20] God will speak to Abraham, and it's like the whole chapter's blue. God's speaking. God's cutting covenant. God's giving him visions. God's show. Angels are showing up at his tent.
[00:32:30] And then 20 years goes by walking after God.
[00:32:36] Stars, sand.
[00:32:38] That's how numerous my descent. That's too much God. His wife's literally laughing over it.
[00:32:45] But then he begins to grow him.
[00:32:48] Then he begins to touch him.
[00:32:50] Then the grace is coming.
[00:32:53] You read Jacob.
[00:32:55] Great Encounters with God. Bethel. Whoa. The Ladder of God. God is in this place 14 years.
[00:33:05] You can listen to Reggie's sermon if you want to know about those 14 years.
[00:33:11] I'm gonna preach a message about you one day, Reggie. Huh?
[00:33:17] Fourteen years goes by, and he's working on a farm.
[00:33:22] But as soon as he's done on the farm again, he's encountering God.
[00:33:27] So you'll notice these moments where God will come and he'll speak to you and he'll show you things, and you're getting glimpses of him, and you'll have vision. And then you get back to your life.
[00:33:39] And in the day today, you're walking after him and being faithful to God and loving the Lord and doing the last thing that he told you, even if it was years previous. I'm gonna be faithful with what he's asked me to do. And I'm gonna continue to stay on track with this. And I'm growing, and I'm growing, and I'm receiving grace, and I'm growing in my knowledge of God, and I'm loving people, and I'm loving God, and I'm being a witness. I'm doing what he asked me to do.
[00:34:04] And as you Grow.
[00:34:07] All of a sudden you find yourself, how did I get on this mountaintop?
[00:34:12] God, this is what you showed me 20 years ago. God, this is what you showed me a decade ago. How did I get in this place?
[00:34:20] Don't be discouraged.
[00:34:22] This is Paul's vision, part of what you may have to do if you want to receive God's vision. Sometimes God has to close our eyes to lesser things so he can open our eyes to eternal things.
[00:34:39] This is what happened with Paul. Paul, I know you've got a vision. You want to go here?
[00:34:45] I'm shutting your eyes to that. You're going to go over here.
[00:34:49] Paul, I know you're being influenced by all these men around you, but I'm blinding you to all of this because you're going to hear me and you're going to meet one guy who's going to heal you. He's going to raise you. He's going to pray for you. You're going to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:35:02] So often we have to. You may be moving a wrong direction and say, I'm going to close my eyes to that.
[00:35:09] Lord, what's the vision you're giving me?
[00:35:12] You may have voices that you fear. What's their reaction going to be? What are they going to think?
[00:35:18] I'm closing my eyes to that and I'm setting my eyes on Jesus.
[00:35:25] And it's amazing, you know, that this became a pattern in the Apostle Paul's life, because many years later he writes the book of Ephesians.
[00:35:32] And in Ephesians 1:17, he says to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, he prays, give the spirit of wisdom and revelation in what? The knowledge of him.
[00:35:44] Point one, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened. Point two, I want to see and that you may know the hope of his calling. That's kind of point one again. And the riches of the glory of his inheritance. In the same, he begins to walk through the exact same thing. And this is what encourages me. Ananias prays for Paul. Paul begins to walk this out. Now. Paul is praying for you.
[00:36:09] Open the eyes of my heart.
[00:36:15] Enlighten the eyes of my understanding. Enlighten the eyes of my redeemed imagination. One translation says, Paul is still in the place. Though he received his physical sight, he wasn't led by his physical sight.
[00:36:31] He still had his spiritual eyes open, and he still continued to pray. Lord, I want to see what you see.
[00:36:38] I want to have revelation and knowledge the way that you do. Show me your eyes. Show me what you see?
[00:36:47] Oh, God, open our eyes.
[00:36:51] Open my eyes.
[00:36:56] Let me add one last idea, and then we're going to pray.
[00:37:03] If you struggle with sin with your eyes, your path to freedom and healing and wholeness is found in the eyes of Jesus.
[00:37:26] I never saw this until earlier this week, but in the book of Revelation, Jesus is addressing all of the churches and he's bringing faults before them.
[00:37:38] Ephesus, you've left your first love, but he presents himself as the God who's walking in the midst of the church.
[00:37:50] He presents himself as the solution to what their problem is. You guys have left your first love. You need to walk with me again.
[00:38:00] That's Ephesus to another church in Pergamos. He says that, listen, you guys have bought into some false doctrine, some false teaching, but he presents himself as the God from whose mouth proceeds a two edged sword. You need to receive my word.
[00:38:19] You need to receive my word. But do you know what he says to another church? Oh, this is going to help somebody.
[00:38:27] To the church who had issues with perversion and false prophecy, he said, I am the God who has fire in his eyes.
[00:38:39] I'm telling you, you want to become blind to sin. You want God to close your eyes to the influence of this world. You begin to look in the eyes of he who burns with eyes like fire. The Bible says that his face is as radiant, radiant as the sun. When the apostle Paul was blinded, I'm telling you, he wasn't seeing somebody, just in a white robe. He was in midday. And he said that the brightness of Christ was brighter than the light of the sun at noonday.
[00:39:10] In the book of Revelation, it talks about, I looked upon the throne. I saw him seated on that great white throne from whom before all heaven and earth fled.
[00:39:24] Have you ever looked at the sun?
[00:39:27] I don't recommend it, but we've all tried it, haven't we? You look at that thing and all the world around you begins to fade away.
[00:39:37] And it's the very same thing. If you could see Jesus, if you could look into his burning eyes of fire, Everything would fade away.
[00:39:57] I was anxious. And then I saw his eyes.
[00:40:00] I know, you got me.
[00:40:02] I was in sin. And then I saw his eyes. No, you're. You're consuming that.
[00:40:08] I was hateful, I was resentful. And I saw his eyes.
[00:40:13] And now I feel the same burning love. In your heart? In my heart.
[00:40:22] This is why Jesus said the greatest commandment.
[00:40:26] He's in a conversation with a pretty righteous man by any church standard. I've never murdered I've never committed adultery, never stolen. I give.
[00:40:38] What do I need?
[00:40:42] Love God, look at him, know him, see him.
[00:40:52] And it's going to help you love others.
[00:41:01] The last thing. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.
[00:41:06] We grow through what we hear.
[00:41:10] We grow through what we hear. We grow through what we see.
[00:41:13] We grow through what we hear.
[00:41:17] Now again, I just think it's pretty radical.
[00:41:26] The two things that Ananias prophesies over Paul.
[00:41:31] You're gonna see him and you're gonna hear him.
[00:41:36] And the first two things that happen to Paul is he's blinded and the voice of his mouth is shut for three days.
[00:41:47] He shut his mouth in a fast.
[00:41:50] So what? Fasting, the word fast literally means to shut your mouth.
[00:41:56] And that's what he did.
[00:41:57] You're gonna see God and God closed his eyes.
[00:42:01] You're gonna hear the voice of his mouth and his mouth was shut.
[00:42:07] But in turn he began to see Jesus and began to hear him.
[00:42:19] There's so much more in God.
[00:42:24] We're going to worship for a few moments. We've still got some time.
[00:42:30] I really had one assignment today.
[00:42:39] I want to stir our hunger for the Lord.
[00:42:46] I want to stir our hunger for the Lord. I want to know him.
[00:42:50] I want to see him.
[00:42:53] I want to hear him.
[00:42:57] We sang it in glimpse and I think we're going to sing this again.
[00:43:01] I've known your still small voice.
[00:43:05] Everybody within the sound of my voice, you know the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
[00:43:11] You know that still small voice.
[00:43:13] You know his leading, you know his prompting.
[00:43:18] But I know there's more.
[00:43:21] I have never heard what John heard the voice like many waters.
[00:43:28] I've heard the Lord.
[00:43:31] I've never heard that.
[00:43:34] And if John could hear that.
[00:43:37] I want to hear that.
[00:43:40] I've had three people bring up to me in this last week job when God spoke to him from a tornado.
[00:43:49] Brace yourself like a man.
[00:43:52] I've heard this still small voice. I've never heard a voice greater than a tornado.
[00:43:58] I don't know if I want to.
[00:44:02] Waterfall sounds nice.
[00:44:13] Can I give you permission to desire wild encounters with the Lord?
[00:44:28] I want to give you permission to seek that.
[00:44:34] I don't know why, but the church that I was raised in. Maybe you were raised in a church like this. They would discourage that, you know, don't get weird.
[00:44:44] You can hear the whisper, but don't get weird.
[00:44:50] Don't talk about angels.
[00:44:53] Don't be a radical.
[00:44:55] And I heard that for years and years and years.
[00:44:58] I think God began to Redeem my rebellious nature and said, go after all the things that they told you not to.
[00:45:08] It's a redeemed rebellion. I'm going after it.
[00:45:11] And because I've been hungry for it.
[00:45:17] About four years ago, I had a dream.
[00:45:32] And Jesus came and stood next to me.
[00:45:44] I'll mess you up.
[00:45:49] Because I looked down and I could see him right next to me.
[00:45:56] And we began to walk together and he just began to minister to people.
[00:46:05] He just walked close and touched people.
[00:46:09] And they were strengthened, they were delivered, they were transformed.
[00:46:14] I woke up. That's all the dream was.
[00:46:19] And I didn't know.
[00:46:20] Like, to me, if God speaks to me, I want to respond. I want to have a response.
[00:46:27] And the only response that I had in that moment was I recognized the shirt that I was wearing when I was standing next to Jesus.
[00:46:36] And so I went into the closet that Sunday morning, I was preaching and I put on that same shirt.
[00:46:44] My wife got mad because I'd worn that same shirt the previous Sunday.
[00:46:50] But I'm like, it's literally the only act of obedience that I know to respond to this.
[00:46:58] And so I wore that shirt.
[00:47:09] And I tried to pray in the service. It came to the transition. I tried to pray. I couldn't even pray.
[00:47:20] I felt Jesus walk into the room the same way.
[00:47:28] The same way he did in the dream.
[00:47:34] You began to touch people in the service that day.
[00:47:40] I didn't speak a word.
[00:47:42] People were healed, people were touched, People were transformed.
[00:48:03] I got one glimpse of Jesus and I can't talk about it. I can't think about breaks me.
[00:48:17] I've never heard the voice like many waters.
[00:48:24] But I want to.
[00:48:36] I want to see you, Jesus.
[00:48:42] I want to see your hair, white like wool.
[00:48:47] I want to look into those eyes that burn with fire.
[00:48:55] I want to grab your feet, Those feet like burnished bronze.
[00:49:07] I want to behold your countenance as radiant as the sun.
[00:49:17] I want to hold your nail pierced hand.
[00:49:26] I want to hear your heart.
[00:49:32] That burns with fiery love.
[00:49:47] Would you walk in our midst today, Jesus?
[00:49:55] Would you walk in this room today?
[00:50:01] Oh, if Moses could say, show me your glory.
[00:50:06] I want to see your face.
[00:50:11] Moses saw it. He went in the cloud angels giving him tablets. He heard the voice of God, and still his heart said, show me more.
[00:50:26] Show me your glory.
