Get Back Up: Sermon on Acts 9

This is a modified script of a Sermon that I gave at Phoenix Rescue Mission on February 1, 2013.

I know we all come from different walks of life and today I want to talk about someone who had everything they desired and how they ended up with nothing and yet still had everything.

Please read Acts 9:1-19

As a child we all imagine big things, a big house, a nice car, and a lucrative job. Saul was a guy who obtained these things. He was smart and was taught by the one of the greatest teachers at the time. He was held in high regard by many of the Jewish leaders and feared by many people who believed in Jesus. In fact Saul was beginning to make a job out of killing people who believed in this Jesus, who proclaimed to be God. Saul was kind of like a Mobster who was making a living at killing and persecuting these people who followed Christ. I don’t know if this was his initial intention, but Saul began to see how much power he was able to obtain when he killed these believers.

If we look at our life we sometimes sacrifice our morals and do things that will give us popularity or success. Though we may have never killed anyone we have definitely bent the laws to get what was best for us.  Often times when we do things and receive praise we will go against our moral and begin to justify what we are doing and find good in it.

So, one day as Saul was headed to another town, to crucify more people of this way, he was thrown of his horse and blinded. The Bible tells us that this light in which he saw was the light of the Lord and as we read, it was strong enough to bring him to the ground. As Saul was on the ground he sees a figure and hears a voice. The soldiers that were with Saul could also hear the voice but could not see what was going on. Out of wonderment Saul ask who is the Lord, and the figure in the light responds back, it is I –Jesus.

Now Saul becomes blind from the light and he has to be escorted by the soldiers to the house that the Lord tells Saul to go. Imagine how Saul feels. Yes, he did just saw a glimpse of the Lord but now he is also blind there is no guarantee that he will ever receive his sight back. Imagine his remorse of knowing that what he has been doing, what the world told him was good, was complete evil and wrong.

How do we respond to these moments when we feel like we have been thrown off a horse?

I know in my life I have done things that are not looked upon as being good, in fact some of these things are awful. Often times when something bad happens to me I quickly think of why I deserve this to happen to me, that somehow all the bad things that I have done, all the sin is attributing to the pain that I am going through in that moment. Often times my prayer will be, of pride saying that I will never do something in exchange for the Lord to take away my pain. The problem is I am relying on myself and basing my relationship upon works and not grace.

So what does Saul do in this moment, probably the lowest moment of his life?

He Prays! This man who has just seen God and knows that he has been persecuting his people prays to God. In fact Saul prays and doesn't eat or drink for three days. You see Saul realizes that life without God is meaningless. No matter how much approval we may have from the world, if life is without the Lord it leads to nothingness.

The story goes on to tell us that the Lord has a Christian, the very person that Saul was trying to kill, to come and pray over him to be healed of his blindness (spiritually and physically). Saul is no longer blinded by what drove him to persecute Christians, but is driven by what the Lord wants of him. He is no longer blinded by what others say to be OK and good, but solely relies on what the Lord says.

The Lord will use our moments where we feel like we have been kicked off a horse, our lowest points, to humble us to serve Him.

We come to find out that after this no one could even stand against Saul in their debates on whether Jesus was the Christ or not. Saul went on to live a life that was not very luxurious but was filled with passion and a sense of purpose. Saul found his meaning in God and not of the things that society told him was good. He didn't have to have money, because the Lord provided everything.

One other detail that I left out was that Saul was actually given a new name on that road by God. His name became Paul, The Apostle Paul, and he ended up writing the majority of the New Testament. The Lord used someone that was running the complete opposite direction from where God wanted him and he blinded him to have him realize where God wanted him.

For those of you who believe in Christ, you have a new name. You have a name as a child of God and this name represents freedom, friendship and overcomer. With this new name the Lord prepares us to go out and be bold and have a purpose not of this world but of heaven.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. - Galatians 2:20

Your older self is no longer apart of you; in fact the Bible tells us that it is dead! This process isn't all the same but once you have that new name you no longer reflect on your past but only on what is before you – Jesus the Christ!