Cause and Effect | Ps Seraya Davidson

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and builds your faith, but it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy can.

We be outstanding tonight. Can we honour the word of God

tonight? Thank you.

Jesus, look at she's all getting up so quick.

I love it. I love it.

This year is a church, just as you've seen on the screen behind

me and the video that we just seen.

We are going over a theme called is there not a cause?

Is there not a cause? And what this is is not just a

fun tagline. It's not just something that

City Point would thought would look cute on social media.

The way we get some reposts and, you know, slang it out and say

it's all good. No, no, this is a declaration.

This is what this is. It is a call.

It is a call for our people to rise with conviction.

It is a call for our people to live with purpose, to pray with

passion, to stand with boldness. This is what is there not a

cause means when we declare it over our cities, over our lives,

over every single space we go into.

And the only way that this can be done, the only way that we

can answer this question is there not a cause, is with Jesus

Christ. There is no other 'cause there

is no other way. It is only with Jesus Christ.

So today, as we get into the message, I want to pray over

each and everyone of you. So if you bow your heads with me

this morning, this afternoon, Father, Your Holy Spirit is here

with us tonight ready to move and bring fresh new revelation

through your living and active word.

Father, we know the Holy Spirit carries a fire and a fire that

can dwell within us and burn up to create and foster that

conviction, to foster that boldness, Lord God.

And we stand here tonight with hearts open and ready to receive

what you have for us. Lord, we thank you for your

spirit and for your Son tonight. And we declare all of this in

the mighty name of Jesus. And we all said Amen.

Amen. You may take your seats tonight.

I might accidentally keep saying this morning, I'm sorry.

It's just going to keep happening, but you'll get it.

OK. I'll stop correcting myself

after a bit. So this is what we're in.

Is there not a cause? And the cause is Jesus Christ.

I want to talk about a life today, a life that caught the

cause of Christ, carried it all the way through with such an

effect that it's seen so many cities, towns, people, places

come to know Jesus. It had such a big effect on the

world and as on our Bible as we know today.

So the title of my message tonight is Cause and Effect,

because when Jesus Christ is the 'cause when we send to Him where

He is supposed to be centred and we exalt Him and put him in his

rightful place, the effect is a life that is physically,

emotionally, mentally and spiritually transformed.

The effect ripples through generations of families.

The effect restores brokenness and restores relational intimacy

with the living God. The effect is seen in towns,

cities, and in nations. There is no way that Jesus can

enter a place and when hearts are humbled and ready to receive

from Him, that an effect cannot take place.

There is just it's not possible. So today I want to look at the

life of the Apostle Paul, who was a man who encountered Jesus

radically and then carried the cause of Christ every single

place he went for the rest of his life.

And whose life proves the truth that when Jesus is the cause,

transformation is the effect. But it all carries a cost.

So let's get into the first part.

The first part is the cause. So if you turn with turn with me

in your holy Bibles this afternoon to Acts 91 to 16, it's

a little bit of a meaty piece of Scripture, but we need the whole

bit so we know what's going on. So Acts 91 to 16, I'm reading

from the ESP version and it says but Saul.

And for those who don't know, Saul is Paul.

His name just hasn't been changed yet.

So if you hear that we're just talking about Paul, but Saul,

still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of

the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters

to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any

belonging to the way, that's what they called Christians back

then, men or woman, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and

suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to

the ground he heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why are you

persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to

do. The men who were travelling with

him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were open, he

saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and

brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without

sight and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at

Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a

vision, Ananias. And he said, Here I am, Lord.

And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called

Straight, and at the House of Judas look for a man of Tarsus

named Saul. For behold, he is praying, and

he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay

his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.

But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this

man, how much evil he has done to your Saints in Jerusalem, and

here he has the authority from the chief priest to bind all who

call on your name. But the Lord said to him, Go,

for he is a chosen insurance of mine to carry my name before the

Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will

show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Told you it was a meaty bit of Scripture, but we needed it to

see what Jesus Christ did on that encounter with Saul on that

road to Damascus. Straight after this, scripture

says that Paul immediately began proclaiming Jesus in the

synagogues, that he grew more in strength and baffled the Jews by

provide up by proving that Jesus was Lord.

But before this, Paul was literally on his way to the same

synagogues to bring Christians back bound to Jerusalem for

persecution. It says that he was breathing

threats and murder against the disciples.

Now I've been mad before. You can ask anyone in my family.

I've been mad before. I've been angry, but I don't

think that I have ever breathed murder.

Like, how would that even look like?

I can just picture Saul, Paul, Saul Paul on the way on the road

to Damascus, just breathing murder.

Like, what would that look like? That would affect your physical

being? Like you've got to be something

like this. I really think so.

It had to be something you have to see and go.

That guy's breathing murder. It had to be something like

that. I love Scripture.

I love scripture. I'm a very visual person.

And what I love most about Scripture is that we have all

these different people involved in in the testimony and the

story of Jesus Christ. So in this one, I love to

picture Ananias. You know, Ananias is just

minding his business. He's in his secret place.

He's praying to God. This is his secret place right

here. He's like, oh, Lord.

And then he has a vision. And the Lord goes, Ananias.

Ananias goes, here I am Lord, like a good obedience servant.

Here I am Lord. And then the Lord goes, do you

remember Saul? And Ananias is like the guy who

breathes murder? And the Lord's like, yes, can

you please go to him? I could just picture Ananias

just standing there, like, yeah, OK, all right, let's do this.

OK. But what Ananias didn't know was

that Paul had an encounter with the living God on the road to

Damascus, that he met Jesus Christ, and he could never be

the same. Before meeting Jesus, Paul had

everything. He had a title.

He had status. He had influence.

Influence. Not influencer.

I don't know. Sorry.

Not influencer. He had influence, he had

education, he had authority, he had power, all of those things,

but none of this compared to the effect that Jesus Christ had on

him. He immediately changed.

There was no space for the old soul Paul to stay.

The cause of his life was no longer breathing murder against

Christians, but to be one that's it's like not even a whole 180

like that's that's out of this world.

Like your head is spinning. You don't know what's going on.

You went to go breathe murder at people and now you're preaching

that Jesus is Lord and you've got scales on your eyes.

You don't know what's going on. This is what was happening to

Saul Paul. See what happened was that Paul

didn't just change his mind. He didn't just have a change of

heart on that road to Damascus. He didn't just find a neat new

message that sounded cute that he could go and tell people.

He didn't just find a new group that he could try out and he

thought these people seemed cool.

He didn't. It wasn't that.

It wasn't that he met Jesus Christ and it changed every

single thing for him. Nothing could stay the same

because of the encounter that he had had with Christ.

And then he carried the cause of Christ straight away without any

delay, without any shame or embarrassment.

I don't know about you, but if I was just over in a different

town going, yeah, well, I'm going over there.

I'm on the road to Damascus and I'm going to come and kill

people, breathe, murder their way.

I'm yeah, I'm going to get letters from the high priest and

we're going to bring them back here and we're going to, we're

going to do something to them. I'd feel a bit embarrassed if

then I came back and was like, oh, actually I was blind for

three days, didn't eat, couldn't drink.

People had to come and hear me with the power of the Holy

Spirit. Like that would have been

embarrassing for me, would have gone back with my tail between

my legs. But not Paul.

He carried the cause of Christ without delay, without shame or

embarrassment, without any timidness, without any worry for

what the culture was saying or trying to impose on to him.

You see, this is what happens when we encounter the living

God. This is what happens when we

encounter Jesus Christ. He changes us in a way that

doesn't make sense. It literally does not make

sense, but it shifts every single thing about what we are

currently doing and it affects every single part of our life.

You may be here in this place today and you don't know Jesus

Christ. You don't know this Jesus that

Paul had the encounter with. And I want to tell you that

there is no better place for you to be than right here, right now

to be able to have the same kind of encounter that that Paul did

on the road to Damascus. You see, Jesus isn't just for

church people. Jesus isn't just for people who

can tick off that they come to church every Sunday.

That's not who He was. He came for every single living

person that they would no longer be bound to death and sin, but

would be set free by the price that He paid for every single

person in this room. And if that's you in here today

and you haven't experienced it, like I said, there's no better

place for you to be than right here, right now.

And at the end of the service, we will put a call out for you

to encounter Jesus Christ. But it doesn't even have to wait

there. If you can feel the Holy Spirit,

you feel something funny in your heart, your feet feel funny,

your hands are shaking, it's OK. Jesus is here and He wants you

to know him. He knows that he paid the price

for you and he is for you. So this encounter changed Paul

and had an effect on his life. And see, this is the cause and

the effect of Christ. And that's what we're going to

move into next, which is the effect had an effect on Paul.

And the effect that it did have was a life that could not stop

preaching Christ. This is where we see Paul go.

Paul carried the cause of Christ wherever he went.

And we see the effect it had on Paul and to the places that he

ministered to. Acts 19, eight to 10 says this.

The whole of Acts 19 is just incredible.

If you've got time, which we all do to have in our Bible, go read

through the whole of Acts 19. But Acts 19, eight to 10, says

this. And he entered the synagogue,

and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading

them about the Kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn

and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before

the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples

with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus.

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia

heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

So we see here Paul is in Ephesus, and he's been

ministering for a bit, but we see the effects that this had on

Paul. He's no longer breathing murder

at people that won't listen to him.

He's speaking boldly. He's reasoning with people and

persuading them about the Kingdom of God.

And when he's rejected by the synagogue, he doesn't go back to

his old ways or retreat, become violent, anything like that.

He redirects and goes out to the Gentiles because the cause of

Christ had too great of an effect on him to stop.

And he preached daily for two years.

I can barely do a weekly one, and he's doing preaching daily.

And the effect is that all the residents of Asia heard the word

of the Lord. You see, the effect it had on

Paul was that the gospel didn't just stay contained to his safe

little space with his nice people that he trusts and in his

nice little world. No, it's spread.

The cause of Jesus Christ in Paul's life had such an effect

on him that there was no other objective than the advancement

of the gospel. Acts 19 continues on to say this

in 11 and 12. And God was doing extraordinary

miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or

aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick,

and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of

them. Not only did Paul experience the

effect of Christ, the town of Ephesus got it too.

I said, I preached this at Bribee and I said the same

thing. And some people look blank at

me. But do you ever remember Oprah?

She doesn't, she doesn't do anything.

But Oprah, you know, when she's, she's so rich, she's given

things out to people and like, there was that joke where she's

like, you get a car and you get a car and you get a car.

Well, Paul was like the Oprah of the Christian world back then.

He's going out with life. So he's coming out to everywhere

and he's like you're, you're getting Jesus and you could get

Jesus and you don't, you're not baptizing the Holy Spirit.

All 12 of you can get it as well.

And Jesus over there, you can get it.

Jesus for everyone. This is Paul.

He was the Oprah. He was the Oprah of back then.

He was telling everyone could get it.

Anyone who came near it got him, got it.

So the effects we continue to see, where that extraordinary

miracles were happening, there was healings, deliverance, and

the authority of Jesus was publicly displayed.

The effects we see here in Ephesus flowed from one thing

and that was Jesus being preached without compromise

because Paul understood the cause of Christ, then we see

revival break out. Acts 1917 to 20 says this.

And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews

and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the

Lord was extolled also. Many of those who were now

believers came confessing and divulging their practices, and a

number of those who had practiced magic arts brought

their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000

pieces of silver, which roughly adds up to $5 million today.

So the word of the Lord continued to increase and

prevail mightily. You see the effect this had in

Ephesus when Jesus is the cause and was brought in by Paul.

The fear of the Lord fell, Jesus was exalted, repentance became

public, and all of the items that no longer aligned with

Jesus will for their lives were brought forth and publicly

burned and the word of the Lord prevailed mightily.

See, this wasn't emotional hype. This wasn't just, hey, my friend

went up and put their book down, so I'm going to put my book down

as well. This was not that.

It was not just emotional hype. This was transformation that was

caught by the cause of Jesus Christ and was having an open

effect over this town and its people.

Because when Jesus is the cause, transformation is the effect.

When Jesus is the cause for freedom is the effect.

When Jesus is the cause, revival is the effect.

This was Jesus Christ having deep effect in people, that

there was no space for them to be the same.

Could you imagine what that would look like over our city if

we had a modern day Ephesus revival where people are coming

up to the altars with things that they don't want to give

away because they're like, no, I can't give this to somebody else

because I know the death that's in it, but I need to do

something with it. I said this out at Bribie.

We would. We need to have burn barrels

everywhere. We would need to have like a

string of burn barrels that are just going 24/7 because people

would be coming with all of these things.

It's not just witchcraft stuff that stuff can come and get

burnt to, it can get it, But everything else that that keeps

us in death and chains away from Jesus Christ.

This could be things that you were harboring like addiction,

stuff that are addictions. Could you imagine what that

would look like over Caboolture? I've lived in this town for so

long and the things that you see here, but I couldn't picture and

see in faith, people coming to the altar with bottles of

alcohol saying I can't do anything with this anymore.

I can't give this to anybody. I don't want to finish it.

I need to get rid of it and I don't know what to do.

But Jesus Christ has such an effect on me that I have to burn

it and it has to go. This is things like vapes and

cigarettes and all those kinds of things that that cigarette

shop at the end of the street here.

Could you just picture it? People coming and going.

Imagine if that owner, I'm just going to just bear with me.

Imagine that owner coming down here and going, hey, I've got

the keys to my shop, I've got the keys to my shop.

I don't know how to get out of what I'm in, but I've got the

keys to my shop. You need to either burn it, you

need to take it from me. I can't do this anymore.

Could you imagine that? You see, when Jesus Christ is

the cause, the effect is so amountable in our lives that it

doesn't matter how much we paid for something, doesn't matter

how much we will lose for something, because the cause of

Jesus Christ is greater than any of that.

And the effect that he has on your life, when you fully let

him into your heart, it's so great that it doesn't matter.

None of it matters. I'm declaring that we should

see, we should see that owner and go, oh, where's your keys?

Give me your keys, mate. But there is a cost, right?

There was a cost for Paul. There's a cost for us today.

We opened in Acts 9, and at the very end of the scripture I read

out in Acts 916, the Lord says to Ananias that I will show him

how much he must suffer for my name.

This is him talking about Paul. You see, Paul didn't carry the

cause of Christ without a cost. And God was very upfront about

it here in Acts 916. He didn't sugarcoat it.

I love this because what if we didn't sugar coat it for people

when they come to Christ? What if we didn't sugar coat

things for them and tell them that it would be easy and tell

them that nothing would change and that it would still be the

same and you could still got What if we didn't sugar coat it

for them? How much more would they catch

the cause of Christ in their life?

Says here, Paul must suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.

I have the honour of being able to teach an internship.

I love it. My pastors are great.

They're just like, off you go. And I'm like, awesome.

And if you're going to sign up, I think you've got like 10

minutes, so you better do it soon.

But anyway, I have the honour of being able to teach an

internship and I think last year I taught maybe two or three

times and you get to interns go through a book, so you get given

a chapter and then you got to come and teach about that

chapter. And last year, I think by the

end of it, when I was in my last chapter and I was coming to do

my last class, I look back on my other ones and realise that the

whole time I'd been talking, every time I'd stood in front of

interns, all I talked about was suffering.

Silly thing. One of them was about ordering

your private world, I think it was.

And I was like, suffer, suffer for Christ.

Like I just don't know how we get there, but we always get

there when I'm talking about it, like you want to follow Jesus

Christ and order your world according to his will.

Suffer like this is just where I go.

And so I acknowledged it when we were in internship.

I was like, I don't want you to think I'm some like sadistic

woman. That's like looking at all these

people who are wanting to get in ministry and do things, you

know, for the cause of Christ. And I'm just telling you about

suffering, but the the point is is because I understand that to

follow Christ and to carry his cause and to allow him to have

an effect in your life so that that can go out into the world

of other people. There is a a cost and there is

some suffering for it. You see, the reason I share this

is because as Christians there are things we will suffer for

the cause of Christ. I'm not talking about, you know,

you ate too much pasta last night and your stomach hurts

today. That's not what I'm talking

about. I'm not talking about

self-inflicted suffering. I'm talking about suffering for

the cause of Christ. You see, Jesus spoke about it

during His time on earth. These are some of the

scriptures. They won't be on the screen, but

in Matthew 510 to 12, John 1518 to 20, Matthew 1022, John 1633.

These verses show that as people who carry the cause of Christ,

we should expect suffering and opposition for following Jesus.

But we are encouraged to endure with joy and confidence, just as

Paul did. You see 2 Corinthians 1124 to 27

tells us exactly how Paul suffered.

Says this five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40

lashes less 1. Three times I was beaten with

rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, and

night and day I was adrift at sea.

On frequent journeys. In danger from rivers, danger

from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles,

danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea,

danger from false brothers in toil and hardship.

Through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often

without food, in cold and exposure.

So here we see some things that Paul enjoyed.

Whippings, beatings, stonings, imprisonment, starvation,

exposure. Paul says in Philippians 129.

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you

should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

You see, there was and still is a cost, but the cause was and

still is greater. You see, you don't endure

through what Paul suffered unless you were utterly

convinced of what you're living for.

Paul says that believing in Christ also means to suffer for

His sake as a band comes up. Like I said, I don't say this to

a room of believers tonight to say that you must be in pain and

suffer for the rest of your life.

I say it in the context of just look at the world right now.

Look at what is happening in our world.

It is getting harder for us to be able to freely go out,

proclaim the name of Jesus without coming up with some kind

of opposition. This may be in your workplace,

you may have to suffer for the cause of Christ.

This may be in your family. You have to suffer for the cause

of Christ. This may be with your children.

You have to suffer for the cause of Christ.

That's where we are right now. I will suffer for the cause of

Christ in my children's life every single day because I won't

let culture have them. I won't let culture have them.

I will suffer every day for the cause of Christ in my children's

life because they will be godly men and they will be allowed to

be godly men. I will suffer every day for my

marriage to see my husband sit as the head of our home.

I will suffer every day for that.

Against the words of culture saying hey girl, you can do

better. Hey girl, you could go and do

this. Hey girl, don't you know that

power is femininity and you are a feminist and you can do it.

No, get away from me, get away from me.

I want to hear that. I want the godly covenant of

marriage in my life and I will suffer every day for that.

I will suffer to see the cause of Christ be made true in my

life because the effect it has had has been greater than

anything I've had to give up anything that I've had to set

aside anything that I have said no to.

Jesus Christ has been better every single time, and He will

continue to be better every single time.

You may be in this room today and you don't know Jesus yet,

and you're like, well, I'm suffering already.

And let me tell you, this was one of the hardest things I had

to reconcile when I first came to Christ was I grew up

suffering without anyone to protect me, without anyone to

look after me. I suffered through abuse and

emotional neglect. When I was five years old, we

had to flee states from my father because of domestic

violence. And then my mum, we could just

imagine what happened to her and what she had to try and heal

through and walk through. And we didn't know Jesus back

then. And then I didn't know my father

or see him until I was about 15-16 years old.

And by then I was already a loose cannon, so I suffered.

So when I found Christ and he came into my life and I took on

the cause of Christ, and he had this effect so deep in me, I had

such a hard time trying to reconcile the fact that I'd

suffered so greatly. And my beautiful husband, as he

always does, comes in with a word of wisdom.

We suffer either way in this life.

You suffer without Christ, and you can suffer with Christ for

His cause. And let me tell you now, I take

that side every time. Suffering for the cause of

Christ has seen my life produce a fruit that I never knew was

possible. Suffering for the cause of

Christ has seen my marriage move from bounds and bounds to create

an intimacy I never knew I could have.

Suffering for the cause of Christ meant my sons get to grow

up in a home where they are well looked after.

Not to toot my own horn, but that they know Jesus Christ.

They grow up in a home with the Holy Spirit.

Not scared of what it's going to look like when one of the

parents get home. Not worried about where our next

meal is coming from. Not worried about how we're

going to get clothes or anything like that.

See, the cause of Christ is different.

When you suffer with the cause of Christ, it is different.

So now whenever I suffer, I suffer for the cause of Christ

with joy, hope, and endurance, just as Paul.

And like I said, you might be here today and you don't know

what that's like. You don't know what it's like to

suffer with Jesus, and you're suffering right now and you're

trying to make sense of it. But I'm here to tell you that

the only way you can is with Jesus Christ.

There's no other way. By taking up and carrying the

cause of Christ in your life. You see Paul and joy through

suffering because the cost wasn't as great as the cause.

And we heard about everything Paul suffered through, and it

still wasn't as great as the cause.

The cause had such an effect on Paul that his life was marked

for Jesus until the very end. Paul says in Philippians 38 to

11. This is my favorite Bible verse.

Indeed. I count everything as loss

because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count

them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in

Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the

law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, The

righteousness from God that depends on faith.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and

may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death,

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the

dead. Yes, there is a cost, but it

does not compare to the cause which is Jesus Christ.

I say this message today to empower and encourage you in the

Holy Spirit. We live in a time where it

doesn't look like smooth sailings for believers, and that

is OK. That is OK because we have this.

We have this. That has already given us the

blueprint. Paul, who has already suffered

immensely. I don't need to go out and get

whipped tomorrow. Not in the physical, you might.

No, I'm not going to get whipped.

In the spiritual, it's fine. I walk in the victory of Jesus

Christ. I don't have to suffer the same

way that Paul did. There are other ways that I do

that for the cause of Jesus Christ.

You see, we are modern believers that still hold an ancient

calling. We may not face lashes and

shipwrecks, but we face compromise.

We face distraction, we face comfort, we face fear of

rejection, we face cultural pressure.

Pressure. This is what we face nowadays.

This is what we are coming up against as believers.

But the cause was never meant to end with Paul.

Paul wasn't meant to carry this and go through everything he did

for us to say. Cool story.

No, the same cause still exists. Jesus Christ has not changed.

He never will. The gospel has not lost its

power. The cause goes on and it's the

'cause that you carry as a believer of Christ.

Thank you Jesus.