Saul Meets Jesus

the first two verses here. As we begin to look at Saul, we noticed him in chapter 8 and we labeled him as Saul the scoundrel. Those four characters that we saw in chapter 8, Saul was the scoundrel because he was just so ruthless and ignored God's hand so much. We see him again now, and God's going to reach down and touch his life. So let's look, first of all, at Saul's contemptible condition, we'll call it. He's still very despicable,

very detestable, and he's in this contemptible condition. Meanwhile, verse 1, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. And he went to the high priest, and he asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. Now, the first thing I want you to notice is the first word of verse 1, meanwhile in NIV. It's a word, whatever your translation has, it's the word that's there

means to consider this that's coming in the light of what you've just considered. In other words, there's been a revival going on in chapter 8. The disciples, the believers have been pushed out of Jerusalem into the regions surrounding in Judea and Samaria and all around the area, and revival has been happening in Samaria. And while that's been going on, Saul has been breathing out murderous threats toward the disciples. Now, you can read this one of two

ways, and it will give you a hint of how you view life, your particular worldview, your particular view of the situation that you're in. You can look at this in the negative sense. Oh, there's revival going on in Samaria, but Saul is still breathing out murderous threats. He's gonna kill us. He wants to kill us. Or you can read it from a positive sense. Even though Saul

is breathing out murderous threats, revival is going on in Samaria from chapter 8. Now, let's apply that to today. And especially with these individuals or this individual that I want you to be thinking of who is detestable and despicable and unreachable in your sphere of existence. Oh, even though God's Spirit's moving in these last days, this individual is just so hard, so detestable, it's just impossible for him to be reached. Or even though this individual

right now seems impossible to reach and is just despicable in the things that he's doing, God's Spirit is moving in a tremendous way. We're in the last days and God's bringing to pass everything that he said in his Word. And he has a heart for the lost. It's like I have a heart for this individual. And with God's Spirit moving, there's nothing impossible. I want you to pick up

on that as we look at this and pick up on that in the light of your particular sphere of existence, your contacts with the people that you're involved with during the week in your job or at school, in your family, maybe an unsaved spouse, maybe an unsaved child or unsaved brother or sister, whatever. There's someone that you know that you feel is impossible to reach and God is simply asking you to trust Him where this is concerned. Now, as we look at this, I want you to realize God is moving here in this section between chapters 8 and chapter 9. His hand is moving specifically among His people. He has His program lined up and He's moving specifically

in these lives. If He's doing that here, He's doing that where you are right now, moving specifically and particularly with special plans in mind for your life and for the lives of the people with whom you are coming in contact. Realize that Saul, to go from Jerusalem to Damascus, he had to go right through the middle of Samaria, right through the middle of Samaria. Now, remember our studies from chapter 8. What's going on in Samaria? The revival. Who's God using

in a mighty way in Samaria where the revival is concerned? Philip. Philip's up there. God's pouring His Spirit out through Philip. People are getting saved. Philip called and a couple of disciples came up, laid hands, the Spirit of God fell upon them. The power of God's moving in a mighty way, okay? Saul, who hates Christians, is coming and has to go right through Samaria.

But lo and behold, all of a sudden, in the midst of this tremendous revival, God's Spirit speaks to Philip and says, why don't you go down to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza? And Philip didn't, as far as we know, didn't go. Why? He just went down to the road. That's all God said. God did not say, remember, go to Gaza. Didn't tell him to go anywhere in particular. He just said,

get on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now, what do you suppose would have happened to Philip had he not done that and Saul is blazing a trail right through Samaria? Now, Saul hates Christians, and it would have been a lot to have to stop and tote these Christians along with him to Damascus. He probably, as he came through, thought, there's movements going on here. That's

fine. I'll round all these up in Syria and bring them down to Jerusalem. I'll pick all these guys up on the way down, on the way back. But had Philip been there, the leader, there's no telling what Saul would have done. But God had moved Philip out of the region, moved him down to the road going down to Gaza, and ended up moving him over to Caesarea, clear out of the way. See, God does

more than one thing at a time. That's why he's God. He's got a handle on it. And he wants us to trust in the fact that he has his hand in the program, in the situation of our lives, and he just wants us simply to trust him and see what he does. Meanwhile, Saul, still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples. Now, in NIV, it says breathing out murderous threats. Literally,

in the Greek, it reads breathing in murderous threats. He was inhaling and exhaling murderous threats. He was bursting with rage. He was just consumed with it. He was eating and sleeping dead Christians. He just wanted this sect to die. And he was blinded with rage towards this group that had been labeled the way. And we'll talk about that in just a minute as we get down to it

in a verse or two. Breathing out murderous threats. Now, he just didn't want him in prison. He wanted him dead. That was in the base of his heart. He wanted him dead. Eliminate him completely. And not just the 12, breathing out murderous threats against the disciples, not just the 12, but all who followed the way, all the people who followed this particular Jesus.

Now, he wanted to go to the synagogues in Damascus. And he wanted letters from the high priest to be able to do that, to go into these synagogues. Why? Well, when you look at history, when you read like Josephus or some historians at that time, you find that Damascus was the largest gathering of Jews outside of Israel at that particular time. It was the largest location

of a Jewish population at that particular time. Now, remember that this Christianity is still predominantly Jewish. It will be particularly Jewish until God raises up Paul in chapter 9, and then starts saving Gentiles in chapter 10, and then commissions Paul out to the Gentiles. So, it's predominantly a Jewish thing. Where's Paul going to find this sect? Among the Jews. Where

do the Jews congregate? At the synagogue. At Pentecost, they were in the temple, the temple area. And after the spirit fell, they continued to meet regularly for prayer at the temple. So, Paul came in one of the letters from the high priest to be able to go to the areas of Damascus and haul these Christians out. Now, Damascus is about 100, and if you have a study Bible,

it'll tell you between 150, 160 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It's about a four to six day journey, a good hard journey, depending on how you're traveling. Now, nothing in here says Saul was on a horse. People say, well, Saul got knocked off his horse. Nothing in here says anything about a horse or a donkey. He was probably with a pretty good contingent of soldiers. He probably

had, we could easily assume he had temple guard with him who were armed, just like the Roman soldiers. He could very possibly have been in a chariot or he could have walked, but there were probably many troops with him on foot. So, you can say it would have taken a good solid four or five, probably six days to move from Jerusalem up to Damascus. And he wanted these letters from the high priest for two reasons. Number one, when he got there, he was going to go into the synagogues

and roust out the sect, this group of the way. So, he wanted to have the authority from the high priest to be able to do that, to come into this strange country and do that. And they might get a little resistant, so he would probably have to be rough and some of them might not make it back alive. You know, he'd have to kill a few maybe to get them back there. And he wanted the authority

from the high priest to do that. That's one reason, is to find the authority in favor with the priests of the synagogue in Damascus. But secondly, this area around Damascus was still a Roman province. It was still under Roman authority, Roman rule. And the Romans didn't want uprisings among the Jews. They were trying to keep that kind of a thing down and they gave pretty much

leeway to the hierarchy of the Jewish religious sect. You remember when Jesus was brought before Pilate and the priests demanded his death. He tried to negotiate his way around it. The people wanted Barabbas, they wanted Jesus to die. Pilate washes his hands and says, I'm washing my hands of the responsibility of this. This is on your head. And they said, fine, let his blood be on our

head and the head of our children. And he gave them what they wanted. He wanted to pacify them. And that's the way the Roman rulers were in the region. If they could pacify the Jews and quell an uprising, that's what they'd rather do. When Stephen was stoned back a couple of chapters, we didn't read any account, nor was there any historically of any move by the Romans to put

that down. They let them do that. Even though it was against Roman law, it was part of Jewish custom. The high priest was behind it. They let it go. And so Paul seeking these letters from the high priest would also get him by the Romans that were in that region and let him do what he had to do. And some of his dealings would probably get rough and people would probably die. But if he

had these writings from the high priest, it would help him in the eyes of the Romans as well as he moved up through that area. Then he says that he might have the authority to drag back men and women, any who belong to the way. Now, so far, they're not called Christians. They won't be called Christians until several chapters later. And we'll see where that happens, where that first

occurs. But until that time, they were called the way. You remember in John's gospel that Jesus taught and John recorded, and he probably taught up more than that, but we haven't recorded in John, that he told John that I am the way. John said, show us, show us the Father, or Philip said, show us the Father and it suffices. And Jesus said, have I been with you so long? And you don't yet

know who I am. I have to leave. And where I'm going, you can't go. And well, where are you going? Show us the way. And Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no man comes to the Father, but by me. And Jesus was expressing there an absolute. I am the way. I'm the only way to God. I am the truth. I am the only truth. I am the life. I am the only source of true life. And no man

comes to the Father, but by me. Now, in these last days, there is a move in a couple of major directions, and you need to keep your eyes on the most. First of all, there's a move politically to make us one geopolitical governing group around the world, the United Nations that had been impotent for so long. It was funny when you, when you go out of the country, when you, when we went to Israel back in 89, even, and we were on in the Golan Heights and on the very edge of the border up there with Syria, and you'd look off and you'd see a UN base and the, and the, the Jews would laugh at it. United nothing is what they called it because there was no power there.

There was no authority there. They didn't trust in the, in the authority of the United Nations. But even in the last decade, we find that their prominence is increasing in the worldview. And there's a move to make one geopolitical group, one, a one world global community. And you continue to hear that phrase. We're globalizing. We're global. Our company's global. You've got to be

on the net because it's a global community and global trade and global commerce, one world politically. Secondly, they're moving to make it one world economically. And so you have the Euro dollar and we're moving to how, how are you going to stabilize the, the Eastern economies that the, the, the Thai and the Chinese, Hong Kong economic systems are on the verge of collapse. We've already bailed, bailed them out once. Korea is on the verge of collapse, already bailed them

out once. How are you going to merge these systems? How are you going to keep these systems stable? Only one way to do it. And that's to merge them all together where they'll have the economic base of all of the, all of the societies around the world. There's a move towards that. You'll see that continuing. But the third area is a move religiously. There is resistance to the first two.

And you know where the main cause of resistance is found, and that's in the religious community because the different religious systems don't want to give up their religious base, their religious beliefs in order to come in politically. Why is there famine in India? It's not because they don't have any food. It's because of their religion. Cows are gods. You don't eat cows.

Rats are gods. You don't kill rats. So you've got an abundance of food that they feed to the cows and they don't let the cows get eaten. And the rats proliferate and they don't kill the rats because those are gods and they have pestilence and all based on their religion. But they don't want to give up their religious system. So the way you, you solve that is you move and merge

the religions together where they're all one, where everyone is, is affirming everyone else in the name of tolerance. Well, we can tolerate each other. You have all these different groups and watch because there's the Templeton Institute that gives out a million dollars a year to, to individuals or groups that seek to bring about religious unity. Uh, Templeton's a very wealthy, wealthy, wealthy, wealthy, wealthy man in this country whose sole aim is economic and political. And, uh, to do that, he sees emerging of,

of, uh, the religions in the world. But Jesus said, I'm the way and I am the truth and I am the life and no man comes to the father, but by me. Well, Buddhists and Confucius and Hindus and Muslims and, uh, all these different, we all pray to the same God and not according to the word of God. There's only one name under heaven. The Bible says whereby you must be saved. That's the

name of Jesus Christ and his only, we didn't say it. Christians didn't make it up. It's in the word. It's according to scripture. And so that's what Paul or Saul at this time is seeking to tear apart is this way it's, it's so, uh, foreign to anything that he could, anything that he can conceive right now, because he's so, he's so blind with rage and he's moving against the way. So here we have the beginnings of this contemptible

condition that Saul's in. But now I want you to see quickly the Lord's creative confrontation. God is creatively confrontive. Look at verse three, as he neared Damascus on his journey, on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? Saul asked,

I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. He replied, now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. First of all, I want you to notice God's timing, God's timing. It says as he neared Damascus on his journey. So let me ask you a question. Where is Saul at this time? I hadn't got the slightest idea. He's on a road somewhere. He's nearing Damascus as he nears Damascus on his journey. He's in the middle of nowhere

somewhere. He's, if it's four to six days, he's nearing Damascus. So he's close. We don't know how close that is. The, the idea here is that he's coming close to the end of his journey. He's in this consuming rage, in this pursuit of those involved in the way, and he has almost reached his goal. Now I want you to view this from a different perspective. I want you to view this

from the eyes of the Christians that are there in Damascus. Now remember when back in chapter seven, the, the believers are forced out of Jerusalem. Why were they forced out of Jerusalem? Because of Saul, his rage is getting fierce. And so they leave Jerusalem and they move around to the, to the vicinity or around Jerusalem and Judea. And they evidently went to Damascus

because there were believers there at the time. Now Saul is getting the believers pretty well cleared out and rounded up. Now the, the disciples, the, the, the 11 or the 12 are still there in Jerusalem, still teaching. There are people still getting saved, but he is moving out now to Damascus to try and head off another outbreak of this sect. Now this is, there's not

in here. I'm just asking you to kind of follow along and think with me. Probably there were messengers that were there that heard, I mean, he had to go to the high priest and get the papers and somebody was probably there. A lot of priests got saved, remember? So there's still a lot of priests that are there that probably heard the word and they're probably on the verge of converting

and they hear this and they get messages out and probably a message was sent to Damascus, Saul's coming, he's coming to get you. Now they're probably watching for him and they see he's getting near, near Samaria and probably messengers are coming in and they're saying Saul's not too far away. How would you feel as a Christian in Damascus? And you know, Saul's coming to get you.

Well, if it were me, I'd be going, God, it's not fair. I mean, you know, we're the ones who believe in Jesus. We see the answers, we see that Jesus is the Messiah, he's the one we've been waiting for and we've committed our lives to him and now here comes this guy and he's coming and he's gonna arrest us and take us back and probably we're all gonna die. Lord, it's just not fair.

Let me ask you, where does it say anything in the Bible about fair? Where does it say anything in Scripture about now that you're a believer in Jesus Christ, everything is gonna be hunky-dory and if you've got a spouse that's an unbelieving spouse or you've got a child that's wayward and they've strayed or you have somebody on the job who is just, he's the worst employer you've ever had or you've got this teacher at school and they just don't understand you or you've got a child that's sick with a disease or you've got a cancer in your life and you're ready to cry out, it's not fair. Let me ask you, where does it say fair in the Scripture? It doesn't say fair,

it says trust. God has a plan, God has a purpose, God has his program lined out and we can't see it all, he just simply says, be obedient to me and trust. We, on Wednesday night in our home fellowship, we're in 1 Samuel and we just finished chapter 23 and it's the point where King Saul in the Old Testament is chasing David and his men and they're in the wilderness and Ann and I have been over to Israel and seen the wilderness there, you know, you're just riding along and all of a

the way around this mountain hill and it's just a drop off down into nothing and when David was being pursued, the idea in chapter 23 of 1 Samuel was that he was on one side of this hill with his men and on the other side of the hill coming around was Saul with his men and it wasn't a let's run up the hill or down the hill, it's we got to go around and we're going to run into him one way or the other and the idea is Saul was about to get David and all of a sudden it says a messenger was sent to Saul saying that the Philistines are attacking, we need your help and Saul had to break off his chase and leave and David didn't say it's not fair, he cried out to God for God's help in Psalm 52 and another one 142 and 57 but he didn't say it's not fair,

he trusted the Lord and God delivered him and that's the idea here is the enemy seems to be getting too close God, he's getting too close and God's just saying simply sometimes from your perspective it looks too close, sometimes from your perspective it looks hopeless and all I'm asking you to do is to trust and Saul is almost there. Okay, this is the timing, now let's look again at the place, I want to focus in on the place and where did we say Saul was? I don't know, he's somewhere on the road nearing Damascus, he's just on the road, isn't he? Remember in chapter eight, where was Philip? Just on, here we are on the road again, on the road again,

what's the purpose? What's God trying to communicate? This is the least likely place for a conversion to occur. Now, if you have somebody that's not saved, what do you and I usually do? You know, if it's an unsafe family member, an unsafe spouse, you know, you try and write Psalm 23 with spaghetti on the plate, you know, so that when you serve them dinner, they're trying, you're trying to ingrain scripture into them, you know, to get them saved.

If it's somebody that, you know, your family member is somewhere else or somebody that you work with, my prayer is God surround them with Christians who love you, so that they can see and get saved, and because that's from our perspective the only way it's going to happen, right? But when you look at scripture at how creative God is in his confrontations, maybe it would be better if we simply prayed, Lord, you reach him however you can reach him. You've got ways that I don't even understand, I don't even realize, so just reach him. I pray that you touch him and reach him.

Both the eunuch and Saul were just out on the road somewhere, away from any potential area of conversion, away from any way that according to our eyes we could understand how God's going to do it, how God's going to reach out and minister and confront and bring this person to salvation. Now, how does he do it? Well, we look at his creative method here, all of a sudden there was a blinding light and a voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why do you persecute me? So, God is confronting Saul in a personal way with a blinding light and a verbal audible

encounter with the Lord. Now, that's awesome. Now, God probably won't do that in the life of your spouse or your child or your friend or your co-worker or your boss, probably won't do that. But Saul was blind with rage against the church, against the move of God's Spirit and so God blinded Saul. Saul's blind with rage and so God blinds him. Now, God is very creative that way

and if you take a minute to think back about how God reached into your life, there was probably a particular area of interest or something that you were doing in a way that he wanted to reach you and he used that very thing in your life, very simple yet very creative to touch your life at that particular time because that's the way God is. And see, where we might tend to be like the priest at the beginning of the study and just lash out and condemn, God is very patient to wait. God is very patient and at the same time he's pouring out his love and he's pouring out his grace. And the person might be resistant to it at first, but God knows just how long and how to bring them

into that very creative situation to where he brings about his confrontation. And all he wants you to do is to trust him where that's concerned. Now, as you look at verse 4, verse 4 here is not, there's a part, if you're reading King James, you have part of verse 4 that we don't have reading NIV. In verse 4, it says, when he says, he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? If you're reading King James, the rest of the verse that you have is,

it's hard for you to kick against the goads. Now, in the earlier manuscripts that are used to translate NIV, that's not there in this particular chapter. In chapter 26, when Paul recounts his conversion experience, he mentions that and that verse is there. And it's believed that a scribe, probably in transcribing this, could very possibly at a later time added that here.

It doesn't take away or add to either way. You'll pick it up when you get through chapter 26, but I want to bring it out here because I love it. I love that particular part of the verse. It's hard for you to kick against the goads. Now, even though we live in an agricultural community, a rural community by most standings, most of us may not know what a goad is.

But at this particular time in this culture, you did a lot of things with oxen. You transported things with oxen. You plowed with oxen, usually two oxen yoked together. And if you have a little, you know, primitive type of plow and you put the reins back over your shoulder, like you see on Little House on the Prairie, you know, kind of, and you kind of move along with that little rickety plow, and you've got the oxen right there. Now, one thing about an oxen is you get them going in

one direction and they don't want to go any other direction. And so if you want to stop, or if you want to turn them and you yank on the reins, they're very much not wanting to do that, and they will kick. They'll kick back at you. Now, if you've got a little primitive plow and you're back there very long, it doesn't take too many times getting kicked before you realize you've got to do something about that ox that's kicking you. And so they had either a stick that they

called a goad, an ox goad. It was just a stick with a little pointy end on it. Or they would they would take a board and they would put these little spikes on the board and drape it down off the harness back behind the legs of the oxen down about foot level, so that when the ox would kick, although the outer part of their hoof is hard, the inner part is fleshy and soft, and they would nail one of those spikes, or they'd nail that goad. And they would learn very quickly not to do that and go in the direction that you want them to go, or to stop after they got speared with the goad. And God, Jesus says to Saul, when he says, he says,

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It's hard to kick against the goads. The goads he's referring to would have been Stephen, who Saul consented to and probably even led in the stoning, even though he didn't want to dirty his hands with throwing a stone. He held the coats of those who threw the stone, debated Stephen, probably debated several of the disciples, heard and saw the miracles, not only of the lame man, but several miracles that we don't have specifically recorded for us.

The Spirit of God was reaching down and trying to pull Saul, trying to lead him into faith where this was concerned, and Saul was willingly rejecting it, rejecting it, rejecting it, and each time he was kicking against the goads, and his heart would feel that that prick of the Spirit, and he inside knew that that was the wrong thing that he was doing, but he was resisting it so hard. How many of you this morning are sitting here, and God is wanting you to move in a certain direction, he's leading you, he's wanting you to go a certain way, and you don't want to do that, you don't want to give this up, you don't want to sacrifice this, you don't want to do this particular thing, I don't want to do that, Lord. If you ever act that way to God, you

got to know something's wrong, okay? If you sense the Lord's leading, if you've entrusted your life to the Lord, and you believe that he leads you, then whatever direction you're going, as you sense him turning, you go. There's a one of the, on the, a couple of days earlier this week, on one of our little flip calendars, and in one of the bathroom downstairs, it was, oh, I wish I could remember exactly how it was phrased, but if, if you are truly in the hands of God, if you're truly where, you believe you're where God placed you, how can there be any fear? If you really believe God's in control, and God's directing your life, how can there be any fear in the way that he's

directing? And maybe God's wanting you to move in a certain way, and you're kicking against that, and, and it hurts, and God simply is wanting you to trust. Well, God's confronted us all here in this, in this unique way, quickly, and I'm getting us through here, hang, hang with me, we're about ready to close. The last half of six, he says, well, that's another one, now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do, and the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless, they heard the sound, but did not see anyone, and Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing, and so they led him by the hand into Damascus, and for

three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. Verse six, there's a part in NIV that's missing, that's also in King James, and I think New American Standard both have it, same reason, it says, so he trembling, he says, now get up and go to the city, and you will be told what you must do. Well, right before that, in King James, when he says it's hard to kick against the goats, it says in verse six, so he trembling, Saul trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And here we see Saul's complete conversion, we've seen this despicable, contemptible individual, and God creatively confront him, and now we see his complete conversion, he says, Lord,

he's astonished, and he's amazed, and he's trembling, and he says, Lord, in other words, you're the master, I'm the servant, that's one of the first things that happens in a repentant heart, is I am no longer in control, God, you are. Lord, what do you want me to do? What would you have me to do? And there's a declaration of obedience, of a willingness before the Lord. Listen, a conversion

is genuine when obedience is evident. A conversion is genuine when obedience is evident. When you know what God's Word says, and you refuse to do it, you're in disobedience, and conversion is questionable. But when you know what God's Word says, and you're willing to obey, that's an evidence of conversion. That's the book of James. James says, you tell me you have faith,

well, fine, if I don't see it, it ain't there. Faith without works is dead, being alone, James says. And so Saul says, Lord, what do you want me to do? And God says, get up and go into the city, and you'll be told what to do. Saul receives his instructions from God in stages, just like Philip did. Get up and go, and I'll show you what's next. And Saul does it. He gets up,

and he goes. Now, let me suggest to you, he does this in the midst of peer pressure and humiliation, in the midst of peer pressure and humiliation. Look at verse 7. Verse 7 says, the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound, but they didn't see anyone. This entourage that's with Saul are his peers. And they didn't, they saw the light, and they were trembling too, but I'm sure they got over it more quickly than

Saul did. And now, okay, Saul, now what do we do? Well, I need to go into the town and take me into the town. And they're going, Saul, you're going, you're coming, you know, you're coming like this. You don't want people to see you like this. I mean, what are they going to think? They see you like this. You know, they're going to see you like this, and they're going to think, here's Saul.

They're not going to be afraid of you. They're not going to want to follow you when you want to take him back. What are you doing, Saul? And so Saul would have had the peer pressure from these guys. And he also faced tremendous humiliation. He had to be, it says, led by the hand because he was blind. And so they led him by the hand into Damascus. Saul, the flamethrower. Saul,

the one who was hauling these people back. Saul, armed to the teeth, now being led by the hand, blind into Damascus in front of all these people. It would have been humiliating for him, but he was obedient, quickly obedient. In spite of peer pressure, in spite of the humiliation, back to you and me. What's God wanting you to do? And you have to make that decision to do it,

to honor the Lord, not to keep everybody happy. Saul had to make a decision to honor the Lord, not to keep his men happy. And he would later write, as the Apostle Paul to the church at Colossae, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing that it's from the Lord that you receive your reward. He didn't just come up with that theologically because he was such a wise individual. He lived it. And he began living

it right here. He trusted God. He was obedient to the Lord in spite of what the people said, in spite of what they thought about him. Got some more, but we'll close. Where were you when God touched you, when God finally broke through?

It was probably in a very simple, very creative way that he did that. He wants to do that in the lives of the people that you're encountering this week, in the life of that one individual that just seems so desperately hopeless that you just don't know how that's ever going to happen. Let him be creative. Let him be God in that particular area. And what direction is the Lord maybe moving in your life right now as far as directing you? He

wants you to be moving in some certain way. He wants you to be involved in some certain area of ministry. He wants you to be being still and knowing that he is God, but you're ready to go racing out and doing something. In what area are you kicking against the goads and you're beating yourself silly? And you're here this morning and you're frustrated and you're down and you're upset

and you're down and you're upset with God because it's not fair and all God's saying is just trust me. I've got the thing worked out. I know the directions that it's going to go and it's going to work out fine. Just trust me where this is concerned. Father, help us this morning.