The Road to Damascus - Acts 9:1-19

Good morning, Southeast family. It's great to see all of you this morning. Aaron Couch is on vacation with his family for spring break. So if you get an opportunity, say a prayer for him and his family, that they have just a really, really good time together while they're away. So we're going to continue on in our Acts series today, we're going to be talking about Acts 9, and when Saul is on his road to Damascus. So I came across this quote a couple of weeks ago. It says this, "We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness." This is by Francis Chan.

So we never grow closer to God when we just do the next thing. Or just live our life were Monday looks like Tuesday looks like Wednesday. If we're not deliberately and attentively pursuing God. Pursuing him, pursuing his plan for our life, it takes attentiveness. So about 20 years ago, I was at the store and I had my cart. Have you ever been to the grocery store before? And you know how when you go down aisles and then somebody else is going down the aisle the other direction. And then you get in a pattern and then the next aisle, you see them again. And the next aisle, you see them again.

Maybe you're on aisle three and you see this person you haven't seen in a really long time, and so you catch up and you find out about their family and about their school, or their friends, or whatever is going on in their life. And so then you pass them on aisle three and then you come around again on aisle four and you're like, "Hey," because you just saw them. And so then you realize you're going to see them again on aisle five. So then you go get eggs. So that you're in a different rotation. Going to the grocery store is an incredibly amazing balance between task and relationship.

You've got this task, you got to go get all this stuff. You've got a list things to do, but you also have all these people that you have to see. Whenever I go to the grocery store, it's all about going in, getting my stuff and getting out. Anybody else? Maybe more of a task person. My husband, however knows the names of almost everyone that works at the grocery store. But anyway, I was at the store and I was pushing my cart and I was going down one of the rows, and I passed this mom and her about three-year-old little girl. And I passed her and I heard the little girl start singing, "Jesus loves me." And I thought, "Oh," it's just the sweetest little voice. And then I heard her mom say, "Shh, stop singing."

Been there. I just thought to myself, "Okay, mom's having a bad day." But I didn't think much of it. So we kept cruising around, saw again on the next aisle, next aisle, past her, and I heard the little girl start singing Jesus loves me again. And this time her mom said, "Shh, stop singing that song. I don't know who taught it to you, but I don't ever want to hear you sing that song again." My heart was broken. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. And in my brain, I was saying to myself, "No little girl, you just keep on singing that song. You just keep on singing that song."

And so then I started praying, "God, what do you want me to do about this? What am I supposed to do right now?" And I felt like God's saying to me, "I need you to pray. I need you to pray." So I've been praying for that little girl, and her mom, and whoever it is that taught her that song. Whenever I think about it for the past 20 years. Now, the thing is I will never know the end of the story. I will never know what happens. All I know is that my job for that day is to pray for the little girl. My job, my purpose for that day is to pray.

So this is a definition of purpose that I gathered from a lot of different definitions of purpose. It's this, "The reason for which something or someone is created or the reason it or he or she exists." So purpose is the reason for which we're created or the reason for which we exist. Last week, Aaron, when he was talking about purpose, he said, "People chase happiness, but then they end up sabotaging it because what people are really looking for is purpose." So we're going to talk about purpose today. We're going to talk about somebody who stepped into new purpose today when he had a radical encounter with Jesus.

So we're going to talk about a man named Saul. So who is Saul? Saul is Paul. He has two names. There wasn't a time when his name got miraculously changed, he goes by either one. Saul all is his Jewish name. Paul is his Roman name. In the Bible, we call him Saul till about Acts 13, and then they just start calling him Paul. So today, sometimes I'll call him Saul, sometimes I'll call him Paul. My mother-in-law has two names. She's either Margaret or Peggy, just depending on where she is, she's called something different. So that's how it'll be today, this is Saul. So who is this guy?

So he's a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin, a Jewish man. He's also a textile maker, or a lot of you have heard he is a tent maker. We think that the word translated as maybe a little broader than just a tent maker, that he probably also worked in carpets. He is a textile maker. He's also a Roman citizen from the city of Tarsus. Now this is a big deal because the city of Tarsus is a big deal. Tarsus is the capital city of Cilicia. And so whenever the Roman Empire came in and absorbed Cilicia, and the city of Tarsus, they gave everybody who lived in the city of Tarsus Roman citizenship.

So Tarsus is a major trade route from the west to the east. So everything that goes through from the west to the east has to go through the city. So it's an extremely wealthy city. There's a university there. And because of that, Saul was very well versed in Greek philosophy. We'll hear a little bit about that later as we continue to study Acts, how he uses that later. Saul's also a Pharisee, an educated student of the Torah. Because he's a Pharisee, he has the opportunity to be able to speak in the synagogues, which he's going to use later. He's an educated student of the Torah. In fact, he is a student of Gamaliel, a very famous rabbi.

Now, Gamaliel is the grandson of Hillel. And if you want to know about Hillel and Shammai, and some of the different yolks of the rabbi. Those yolks of the rabbi, you're going to need to go to Turkey with Aaron. So Aaron's going to Turkey in June. I actually get to go as well on this trip with Aaron and Kelli. I'm super excited to go. If you've been thinking in the back of your mind that you might want to go to Turkey, I think you need to sign up by tomorrow. So if you've been thinking about it, go online and check it out. But I'm really excited to hear all this stuff that he has to teach, especially about this and about Paul.

But anyway, he studied under Gamaliel, who was the grandson Hillel. Gamaliel, if he were here today, I think we would all love him. He's a seems like such a really, really nice guy. Definitely, put people before the law, had a more relaxed view of the Old Testament. And in fact, we have a little clue of how Gamaliel thought of things in... Because there's a story that happens a couple chapters before. And it's when Peter and the apostles were put in jail, an angel frees them, and then they leave the jail and they go right back to the temple courts. Now they were put in jail because they were talking about Jesus, but they go right back into the temple courts and begin talking about Jesus, again.

And so they get arrested again. They're taken in front of the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin says to them, "We told you to stop speaking about Jesus." And of course, Peter and the Apostle's answer, "We have to follow what God says." And then Gamaliel, talking to the Sanhedrin says this. "Therefore, in the present case I advised you, leave these men alone, let them go. For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You'll only find yourselves fighting against God." So that's who Gamaliel is. Incredibly wise rabbi.

And then we have a student, Saul. Now, the job of a student of a rabbi was to be just like their rabbi. But this is what we're seeing from Saul. Saul steps onto the pages of the book of Acts, and this is what he says, or this is what he does. So they all rushed him, we talked about this a couple weeks ago. They all rushed at him, Steven, this is the crowd. They dragged him out the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man name Saul. He is looking on and approving of this action. A few verses later, we see this. But Saul begin to destroy the church going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in to prison.

So we have to add to our list, who is Saul? We have to add this. Saul was a religious terrorist. How on earth did Saul get this way, if he's a student of Gamaliel? How did he become so incredibly different from his rabbi? Well, we have a little clue in Galatians. So this is Saul later, Paul later, when he is writing to the church of Galatia, he says this, "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism. How intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. You've heard of this. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people." So he's advancing among many. So he knows the Old Testament, like the back of his hand.

And he says, "And I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my father." So this word zealous is a clue because the people who heard this letter would have known the Old Testament. And there's a couple of stories in the Old Testament in particular that use this word zealous. One of them is Elijah and the prophets of Baal. And the other one is a not very well known story that I'd like to tell you about today. It's about a man named Phineas. So the Israels had been wandering in the desert for almost 40 years. And they're on the edge on the water side, about ready to go into Jericho. So they've been wandering all this time.

God's chosen people are about to enter the promised land. And then the men get distracted by some prostitutes from Moab. So some Moabite and Midianite prostitutes distract these men and distract them and lead them into the worship of their god, the god of Peor. And God's anger burns against them. His anger's burning against them. Why? Because he knows sin is not good for them. That's why he gets so angry because he knows that sin is not good for any of us. And he's so angry and the Israelites, all of a sudden, there's this plague and people start dying. And so Moses and the Israelites are weeping. They're so upset. They're weeping. They're in front of the tent of meeting weeping.

And then an Israelite man with a Midianite prostitute walk right by them. And then this happens. "When Phineas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest saw this, he left the assembly. He took a spear in his hand and he followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them, right through the Israelite man and into the woman's stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped." You know exact what was going on. They treated it really delicately in the Old Testament. But you know exactly what was going on.

And after that happened, the plague stopped. But 24,000 of them died, because sometimes that has to happen in order to preserve life. God sometimes has to take life to preserve life. And then the Lord said to Moses, "Phineas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest has turned by anger away from the Israelites since he was a zealous for my honor among them as I am. I did not put an end to him in my zeal. Therefore, tell him I am making a covenant of peace with him. He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites." Three times, we hear that word zealous.

We know that Paul knew the Old Testament really, really well. And so here's what had to happen. He had to get rid of the threat for the honor of his God and the protection of his people. This happened with Elijah, this happened with Phineas. So here is Saul, thinking he needs to get rid of the threat for the honor of his God and the protection of his people. He thought he was being zealous for God's honor. He thought that Jesus and the followers of Jesus was not the Messiah. He felt like the Messiah was going to be different. And so he didn't realize that was the Messiah. And so he thought he was being zealous for God's honor.

So here we are in Acts 9, "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples." So this isn't just a situation where he's going after them. It says he was breathing out. That means it's all consuming with everything in him, this righteous anger, he's going after these disciples. He says he went to the high priest. This was probably Caiaphas and 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. I love that they call it the way. Because our commitment to Jesus is not about a belief system, it is about a way of life.

And so they're called the way. But this is how incredibly passionate he is. He's going after people in Damascus and he's in Jerusalem. I didn't really realize how far that is. That's 150 miles between Jerusalem and Damascus. So I decided if I was going to go head out on foot after somebody that I felt like was a threat for the honor of God and the protection of our people. And I was going to go after him. How far would I have to go? If I took off towards Colorado Springs, that's only 49 miles. Pueblo, 89, I'd have to go all the way almost to Raton, if I went that direction. Can you believe how far away that is? He went that way to go after disciples to bring him back. That is how passionate he is for the honor of his God.

And so I was looking at all these local distances and I went on the map and I went 150 miles Northeast, just like it would've been at Damascus. And I found this little town called Harrisburg, Nebraska. It would be like I was going after people to Harrisburg, Nebraska on foot. Is this man passionate or what? But it's a righteous passion, a passion for the honor of his God. As he neared Damascus on the journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

We find out in another passage a little bit later that the light was so bright at noon. It was at noon when the light from heaven flashed around him, and he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul." So repeating a name two times in Hebrew is a term of endearment. But in the Bible it happens seven times. When the Lord speaks to someone and says their name seven times, four in the Old Testament, three times in the New Testament, we says their name two times. He's inviting them into a new purpose. He's inviting that person into a new mission for their life. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? "Who are you? Lord" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." This right now, this is Jesus saying, "If you are persecuting my people, you are persecuting me."

Now, get up and go into the city, and you'll be told what you must do. Isn't that just like the Lord to just tell you the next thing. You may never know the end of the story. You just know the next thing. And then he'll tell you again, the next thing. So the men traveling with Saul, stood their speechless. They heard the sound, but they didn't see anyone. And so all got up from the ground. But when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So his spiritual blindness has now become physical blindness. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. Started thinking about the people that were traveling with him. Their purpose was to take him by the hand and lead him to the next place.

I wonder how many of you in the room right now have that purpose for somebody in your life? You don't know the end of the story. You don't know what's going to happen, but you know God has asked you right now to take him by the hand and lead them to the next place. Thank you for being obedient and doing that. So for three days, Saul was blind and he did not eat or drink anything. Back in the ancient world, they believed that for if you didn't drink for three days, that you would die. And all through scripture, you see this three days over and over, like Jonah being three days in the belly of the fish. And then he's vomited up onto dry land and given a new life. Jesus in the tomb, three days, and then there's life.

Here's Saul being invited into new life. God may wreck your plans to save you. Saul's plans are being completely wrecked. He might wreck your plans to save you. And I think a lot of us are okay with that. A lot of us are okay, "If it really means that you're going to save me God, I'm okay if you wreck my plans." But here's the thing that I know to be true and I've seen. God may wreck your plans to save somebody else. Are you okay with that? "God, are you going to wreck my plans to save somebody else?" So in Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias." "Yes, Lord." He answered. The translation there is, "Behold me, behold me, Lord." He answered.

And the Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias, come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. "Lord." Ananias answered. "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he's done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your Name." But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my Name to the Gentiles and their Kings and to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my Name."

And if you know anything about the story of Paul, he suffered and suffered. There's a whole section in 2 Corinthians about being beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, left for dead, cold, hungry, all the things that he went through. He definitely understood suffering probably more than a lot of us, many of us, most of us in this room. But I do have a friend and I've talked to some of you about her before. She's got a rare tissue disease and she's in her 40s, but she's had 58 surgeries in her life. In fact, she had one on Monday. Recently, she was in the hospital for a couple of years. She lives her life in chronic pain.

And we were eating lunch together a couple weeks ago and she said this to me. She said, "I believe that suffering allows us in a secret club where we get to be closer to Jesus." I've heard that before from people who have gone through intense suffering. And so after she said that I leaned forward across the table and I said to her, "Is it worth it? Is it worth it?" And she didn't even hesitate. She said, "Yes, absolutely." And if you know her, she will not stop talking about Jesus.

So then Ananias went, he went to the house and he entered it. I love this sweet conversation between Ananias and the Lord. Where the Lord ask him to do something, but he feels free to have some dialogue with him. Think the dialogue looks a little bit like this. "God, I don't think you have considered, but I will still, like you've asked me." Anybody find yourself in that situation right now? "God, I don't really think that you have considered, but I will still, like you've asked me." Here's what I'm afraid happens to us a lot of the time. This, "God, I don't think you have considered my family, my health, my finances, my job situation. And this is why I cannot, like you've asked me."

Because We often ignore God's direction in favor of human reasoning, don't we? We like to know the whole picture. We like to know the end of the story. And a lot of times we ignore what he's telling us because we think we know better. Somebody told me one time, "If God asked you to do something and you don't do it, he's going to ask somebody else to do it." You know what? I think that's true of the time. But I think that we're looking at a crazy messed up world right now because a lot of people said "No," when God asked them to do something. And what would it be like if we started saying "Yes." If we started saying yes to what God was asking us to do.

But we often ignore his direction in favor of human reasoning. But obedience allows us to participate in God's best for us. It does. It allows us to participate in God's best for us, but obedience allows us to participate in God's best for other people as well. And so here's what happens. Ananias goes in and as he's placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Spirit." Filled with the Holy Spirit because here's the thing, we do not see the same way when we're filled with the Holy Spirit. Do we? We just do not see the world the same way. And that's what happened. And then immediately, something like scale fell from Saul's eyes. I sure would love to see that.

And he could see again, he got up and he was baptized. And after taking some food, he would regained his strength. That's pretty immediate, the baptism, isn't it? For those of you in the room that are considering baptism and are waiting. Make this your example, you can go online and sign up and get baptized. It says he got up and was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his strength. And we're good to hear more of the rest of the story next week. But here's what I love about this story. We saw zealous persecutor, have his purpose changed. And he's going to become the greatest missionary I believe the world has ever seen.

This one phrase that God says to Ananias. "This man is my chosen instrument. This man right here is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles." That's anybody that's not Jewish. "He is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles, and their Kings and to the people of Israel." This one man. So we are here because Paul said yes to God's purpose for his life. I started thinking over 2,000 years, how many people have followed Jesus because of Paul? I was amazed. And then I thought, "I wonder how many people follow Jesus right now. Right now?" And so I Googled it and ended up on Wikipedia and I started scrolling.

So I made a video of me scrolling on Wikipedia. I just want you to notice how many nations, because Jesus is for every tongue, every tribe, every nation, it's the most exclusive, the most exclusive religion. I'm just amazed. Look at this. Look at all these countries in the middle. This is how many Christians are in those countries. And to the right, this is the percentage of people who follow Jesus in these countries. Look, we're only on Ds. Look at this. It's jerky because that's how it is on Wikipedia. Look at that. That gets me jazzed you guys, because of one's decision to say yes for God's purpose in their life.

We have no idea. We have no idea when God tells us to do this one thing what's going to happen. I have no idea what's going to happen because I've been praying for this girl, who knows she's an adult now. I don't know what she's doing. Gosh, I hope she knows Jesus loves her. And I hope she's telling everybody about the Lord. But anyway, I think that's super fascinating. So here's how Paul did it. He gathered unlikely people together and he called it church. Then he went to the next place and he gathered unlikely people together and called it church. People from all different backgrounds, he had people like the Jewish people here. They were rule followers, Sabbath observers, religious, ritualistic. They worshiped one God. And then he got these Gentiles together with him.

They were consumers of unholy meat, idle worshipers, polytheistic, superstitious, unstructured. And he put them all together in one place. And it was a mess. Can you imagine what would happen if we maybe put people together that were from different political backgrounds, different religious backgrounds, different family backgrounds, different economic backgrounds. What would happen if we put all these people together in one room? We might have some problems. They had some problems and here's what he did. He wrote them letters. He wrote them letters and he addressed some of their problems. I love this one.

This is in Philippians. When you wrote to the church of Philippi and he said this, "I plead with Euodia, and I plead with Syntyche, to agree with each other in the Lord." Is there two ladies that can't get along? And he says, "Help these women who have continued at my side and the cause of the gospel." These are two women who love the Lord, but they can't get along. Can you imagine that happening? I can't. Can't imagine what would happen. And this is another problem he addressed. And I love the way he says it. He says, "There's neither Jew nor Gentile." Remember all their different backgrounds? "There's neither Jew nor Gentile, or slave nor free, nor even male nor female." He says, "Because you are all one. You're all one in Jesus Christ."

Imagine when we all get together and that becomes our identity, that we are one in Christ, Jesus. So I believe that church is a lot like this. It's a lot like a river full of rocks. And we're the rocks. And we come to church, we're jumping in the river, we're there, and the water rushes along us and the rocks scratch up against each other. Anybody have that happen? The rocks scratch up against each other. But what happens is they're being smooth and all the rough edges are being worn down so that these rocks are getting exactly the right shape that they're supposed to be because they're scratching up against each other.

Because listen to this, this is in 1 Peter, "As you come to Him, the living stone," this is Jesus, "rejected by humans, but chosen by God and precious to him. You also like living stones. You also like river rocks are being built into a spiritual house." You got to be built and choose to the perfect shape as we're being built together in this spiritual house, that's all of us to be a holy priesthood, to be a representative for Jesus, offering spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because our purposes they're all tied together. Our purposes are tied together, but we resist things that refine us. Sometimes we resist jumping into the river and we prefer to stay on the bank.

There's not as much refining that goes on the bank. It takes a little pain sometimes to be refined and be placed together into the spiritual house. Hebrews says this, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more, as you see the day approaching." I've met a lot of people in the community that over the past couple years have said this to me. "I've just gotten out of the habit of going to church." I just got out of the habit. Isn't that amazing that's addressed in the book of Hebrews.

"Don't give up together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching." So why are we supposed to meet together? It says to encourage one another. I'm going to go back, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. And then encourage one another." How many of you said I'm going to go to church today because I want to encourage somebody else? That's the purpose for church. To encourage each other, to spur one another on towards love and good deeds. But we live in it only if it's convenient for me. And only if I feel like it cultures. Is this getting anybody else like it's getting me?

I can't imagine what would happen if when my mom, when I was little, my mom and dad said, "Go pull weeds." And I said, "I don't feel like it." But that's exactly what we do, right? When God calls us into a purpose. A lot of times you say, "I don't feel like it." Or "That's not really convenient for me." So I'm going to ask you the question. What are you zealous about? What are you really passionate about? Because I believe we pursue what we're passionate about. We do, we pursue what we're passionate about. But I also believe that we become passionate about what we pursue.

So Paul, a little bit later says this, "For me to live is..." That means for him, his life was about this one thing. That you could see by the way that he lived, that his life was about this one thing. And so I started thinking, "I wonder what I might fill in the blank or what you might fill in the blank." So I came up with a few things. How about power, wealth, status, ease. Maybe it's a little bit easier to sit on the side of the riverbank than jump in. Entertainment. What does it look like you're living for? When someone looks at your life, what does it look like you're living for? Convenience, luxury.

So when I wrote this when I was convicted. So I have a heating pad on my bed. It's not a heating blanket. It's actually a heating pad, like a whole heated mattress pad. And so at dinnertime, I turn this thing on. So when it's time for me to go to sleep at night, I get to slide into the warm sheets, pull the covers around me, my big fluffy pillow. And I think about Paul who was beaten and left for dead and probably went sleep with his head on a rock. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that God doesn't give us good gifts. He's such a good gift giver. He is. But what are you living for? What does it look like your purpose is about? How about security or safe? That's a big one right now. This is what Paul says, "For me to live is Christ."

"It's whatever, my hands are open. You tell me to go to this city. You tell me to do that thing. You tell me to do that. I'm available. I'm willing. I'm going to do it." And then he says this, "Never be lacking in zeal." Don't you love what he did there. He uses that word again. "But keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord." Don't be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Don't make Monday look like Tuesday, look like Wednesday when we're not pressing into our relationship with Jesus, but we're just doing the next thing. Because I don't think any of us in our life want to go all the way to the end of our lives and look back and said, "That year looked like that year, looked like that year and I wasn't pressing in and finding God's purpose for my life."

None of us want to miss it. I don't think we want to miss it. And so people say to me, "I want to serve the Lord, but I don't know what he wants me to do." I love this quote from Dr. Tony Evans. He says this, "Don't worry about locating your purpose. Don't worry about it. Because if you are seeking after God, your purpose will locate you." I've got just a few implications for us today. First one is this. "God has created purpose for all of us. And our job is to pursue it with passion. Our job is to say yes and pursue it with passion." And the second one is this, "And we know God's voice, we can discern his purposes for us." I love that sweet conversation between Ananias and the Lord.

When the Lord says, "I need you to go do this thing." And he says, "But," but he still obeys. But he knows the Lord's voice. If you want to know the Lord's voice, His whole story's right here, His whole story's right here. Maybe instead of reading it for what it says about me, maybe we read it for what he's saying about himself. And then we're learning his voice. And the third implication is this. "It does doesn't matter what our assignments are. It doesn't matter." If you ever looked at somebody else's purpose and had purpose envy, you wanted their purpose. No, you want your purpose. You are designed for a purpose. It doesn't matter what it is. We have daily ones. We have ones for a whole. It doesn't matter what they are. Right. It matters that we carry out the ones we've been given that we say, yes, that's what matters.

And the last invocation is this. "We have not been chosen to be spectators of the church. We have been chosen to be the church." We've been chosen to jump into the river with our rocks, scratch up with each other. And then as a church to really press into our relationship with Jesus and find out what our purpose is as a church. And if you're here today and you haven't been here before, welcome. I'm glad you're here. If you're here and you've been hurt, I just want you to know that I see you, that God sees you. And I'm just glad that you're here. But I'd love to invite you to just jump in, jump in, because we have been chosen to be the church.

So when I was thinking about our purpose, I was thinking about Jesus. Who had this purpose to come to earth, and to die on the cross for us. And I know it was painful and incredibly difficult. But I know, that I know, that I know when he looks back over it, he said, "I am so glad I did it. I'm so glad I did it." So I'd love for you guys to take a moment and thank him. Should grab your communion, we'll take it together in a minute. But right before we take it, ask him, "God, Show me how to make Monday not look like Tuesday, look like Wednesday. Show me how to be intentional in seeking you."

Jesus broke the bread. And then he said, "This is my body given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me." And then you said, "This cup is my blood, that was shed for you. Drink this and remember me." Dear Lord, thank you. Thank you for loving us so much. Thank you for giving yourself to us. And God thank you that you have purpose for each one of us. And God, I pray that you will show us what that is. And God, I pray that every one of us in this room will have the courage to say, yes. Even though we may not know the end of the story, even though we may not understand exactly what it is that you're asking us to do or why you're asking us to do it. But God, I just pray that we would say, yes. And that this world would start changing as a result of your people and your church being obedient. And we thank you in Jesus Name. Amen.