Stop Ghosting God's Calls

Alright, be honest with me just for a second.

Has anyone ever called your phone and you send it to voicemail and don't answer it?

You ever do that?

Yeah?

I routinely do that sometimes.

Hope I don't offend anybody.

People do that to me too.

In fact, I can't help but mention what happened to me last week.

Not really mentioned this in detail, but now's as good a time as any.

It was when it was when the Sooners were playing Texas that I tried to call Todd.

Oh you pulled ahead.

I started sending him all sorts of images of my TV screen as I was watching it, and they're tied, and all of a sudden they're ahead, and OU crowd is going crazy.

And I sent him all sorts of memes.

I sent him the Hulk smashing uh uh Texas, you know, back and forth, and I sent him all kinds of memes and uh tried to get something out of him.

I sent him a picture of the after party where they're wearing the golden hat.

I sent him a meme of Todd next to the guy wearing the golden hat, being a good sportsman.

I sent him all kinds of pictures, tried to get a response from him, and he ghosted me.

Can you believe that?

Nothing.

Eventually he'd answered me, but for the while he would not, he just would not answer.

And it reminded me that uh we all can get to that place.

In fact, if you were to call me around 9.45 last night, I probably would have ghosted you uh watching the Sooners play against yeah, yeah, all right.

They're looking pretty good, they are.

But um we all I would say we all do that to some degree.

Now it gets really bad when it's God who makes a call on our life, and we end up ghosting his call.

It's that moment where he tells us that we need to do something, we need to make a change, we need to make a move, and we say no to his call.

That can show up several ways.

It will show up in several ways in our passage.

In fact, that's what we're going to see today.

We're going to talk about the calls that God has on our life, but sometimes we reject a call to ministry.

Sometimes we are the ones who hear the call from God that we need to engage, we need to have a place in the church or in our community where we're serving.

And sometimes we respond to that call and say, nope, not me.

Here I am, Lord, send them.

Here I am, Lord, send somebody else.

Not me.

I'm not interested.

Too much drama, too much hurt, too much busyness in my life.

And what happens is we're often not busy with the right things.

The enemy of the best is the good.

We're doing lots of good things, but maybe we're not doing the best things.

If Satan can't make you sin, right, he'll make you busy.

If Satan can't make you engage in immorality, he'll clutter your schedule.

And so often we say, I don't have time for ministry.

We resist another call, there's a call to identity in our passage.

A call to identity.

And there are many people who ignore God's call to engage with the identity that He has supplied us.

See, I I think this is a reality in the Christian life.

There are so many of you, even in this room right now, that just live with constant shame.

And you say things like, I'm not good enough.

I um I can never be able to be a minister because of what I've done in the past.

I mean, this is a reality.

I talk to so many people, and so many people feel the shame of their old life and they can't move on to their new life.

Um several of us were at the ACBC counselors uh conference that was here in town not long ago.

And in one of the pre-sessions, I listened to a counselor talk about this case.

This lady uh came to them and basically said, I feel so much shame over my past life, I can't move on.

The things I've done.

And her story was was tragic.

Her story was um when she was a young lady, when she was a young girl, she had an abortion.

And that haunts her.

And now she has several kids, and that abortion haunts her, and she says things to herself like, I don't deserve to be a mom.

I don't deserve these kids.

I'm a terrible mom.

I'm under God's judgment.

I felt that, like, and I bet you feel it right now.

But maybe it's not that sin, maybe it's a different sin.

Maybe it's something you did in college, maybe it's something you did in your past life, maybe it's something where you look at yourself and you say, I'm disqualified from ministry.

I can't do this.

Because of my shame.

She called herself, the counselor said.

I'm abortion girl.

That's who I am.

I'm abortion girl.

And I bet there's people in this room saying things of themselves somewhat similar to that.

I'm I'm pornography guy.

I'm adulterer.

I'm liar.

I'm manipulator.

I'm all these other identities that we tend to put on ourselves.

And instead of preaching the gospel to ourselves, we preach our shame to ourselves.

In Ephesians chapter 1 and 2, we get the identity of a Christian.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And those aren't the things that God says about a Christian.

The things that God will say about a Christian is that they are chosen, that they are redeemed, they're adopted, they're loved, they're sealed.

Instead of saying, I'm guilty and I'm ashamed, we ought to be saying, I'm forgiven.

I'm useful.

I'm loved.

We don't answer that call to identity.

We miss it.

Others resist the call to community.

We'll see that in our passage.

That God calls us into a family, and there's an entire generation who has rejected the call to be a part of the church.

In fact, many live this way.

I don't need the church.

It's just me and Jesus.

I'm good.

I don't need to be with people.

I don't need to be known.

I say it this way at Central.

We're a big church, but we try to get small.

We have small groups, and we try to stay small.

We try to be known.

But there are many people living with that mindset that I don't need other men in my life.

I don't need other women in my life.

I don't need relationships.

I don't need the church.

I can do life without the church.

And we need to be reminded that Christ loves his church and has called us to gather together, but there are many rejecting that call.

We're back in Acts chapter 9 and 10, a series I've entitled Search and Rescue.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Now, this event happens after the road to Damascus.

Up next is a character called Ananias.

And if you remember from the last time that we studied Acts chapter 9, we saw uh we saw the future Apostle Paul.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

His current name is Saul, and uh we saw him uh basically left broken, convicted on the roadside.

He's just met Jesus and the blinding light has come, and now he's left blind, and his state is so bad that the end of that last passage in verses 8, 9, and 10, it basically explains that he's left in Damascus, refusing to eat, refusing to drink, and then God comes calling through Ananias.

And basically, there's going to be three calls that we see in this passage.

And I think that the sermon title should be Stop Ghosting God's Calls.

He's making calls to Saul, he's making calls to Ananias.

And from this passage we learn that when God gives a call on our life, we need to be responsive.

So let's take our Bibles, let's stand in honor of God's word.

Again, we're back in Acts chapter 8, or chapter 9, excuse me, and we're looking at verse 10.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

It says this.

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, Go, or rise and go, to the street called Strait, at the house of Judas.

Look for at 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 at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument 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.

So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, what a great little two-word statement.

Acceptance, love.

He's my brother.

Brother Saul.

The Lord who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you might regain your sight.

Isn't that a great picture of community?

You're in my life to help me see things more clearly.

I'm in your life to help you see things more clearly.

And be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

Then he arose and was baptized.

And taking food, he was strengthened.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.

What a change and what a story.

Today, what it I always try to give a big idea.

If you're a newcomer to Central Church, I always try to give the whole sermon in a sentence.

I think what this is essentially saying is that when God makes a call on your life, don't ghost him.

God makes all kinds of calls to us.

And we need to be sure that we're responsive.

And I think there's three things, three areas, three calls that he makes where we need to be responsive.

And maybe one of these sticks out to you in your life.

I think there's three areas.

There's the call to ministry.

All of us are ministers.

Who's Ananias?

He's just a normal, average Joe, a disciple.

But when God calls and puts a call in his life, he's responsive.

We see the call to identity.

Ananias is going to give some, or there's going to be some language given to Ananias about Saul, that he's a chosen vessel.

He's a missionary.

He's going to have suffering as part of his life.

He's going to have to be faithful in that.

There's all sorts of identity markers in verses 15 and 16.

We're going to see what that looks like, and we're going to try and grasp and answer the call towards an identity of who we are and leave behind the shame because it's nailed to the cross.

And then we're going to answer the call to community.

It ends with him being strengthened in the community of God and being sent out.

And really, that's how our passage will end today, and that's how our service will end today.

You're going to be sent out.

So may God bless his word and may you answer the call.

You may be seated.

Let's answer the call to ministry first.

If you're a Christian, you're in ministry.

Some of you have had a dream to be in ministry.

You wanted to be a pastor, you wanted to be an elder, you wanted to be something at some point, and you wanted to be used of God, but it just didn't happen for whatever reason.

I've got good news for you.

If you're a Christian, you're in ministry.

I'm not the only one doing ministry.

Our staff is not the only one doing ministry.

All of us are in ministry.

All of us are ministers.

There's the priesthood of all believers.

Look at verse 10 with me.

Notice Ananias, it says the only description of this man's life.

This is all we get.

This is all we know of him.

What is he?

He's just a disciple.

It doesn't say he's an elder.

It doesn't say he's a pastor.

It doesn't say he's a deacon.

He's just a disciple, an average Joe.

And yet he's used of God.

And what this is telling us is that ministry doesn't come when you get a job title.

Ministry doesn't come because you went to seminary.

Ministry doesn't come to you.

You're not equipped and ready for ministry.

It's not only for the super spiritual in the church.

All of us should have a place that we minister the gospel and the scriptures.

We should have a place in our community where we're serving.

For some of you, that will be students.

Some of you that will be children's ministries.

Some of you, that will be evangelism.

Some of you, in fact, I was really blessed to find this out.

Pete and I were talking, the conference that's happening this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

We have like 40-something people signed up to be ministers.

People that are just coming to serve.

People that have just put their name on the list and said, you know what?

I would like to just come and be a servant at this place.

I love that.

That was so encouraging to my heart.

I was thrilled just to discover that.

God calls us all into ministry, and there ought to be this place where you can look at your church, your place in the church, and say, that's the area of the church God has called me to minister in.

Some of you have the gift of evangelism.

Everyone you talk to, you just have a rapport with people and you're able to share the gospel.

Use that.

Where is it that you can identify where you're ministering?

How does this call come to us?

Look at verse 10 with me.

Let's just dig into this.

Notice God does this call.

He gives this call to us personally.

You might even write that word down.

It's a personal call.

It's a personal call.

In verse 10, the Lord said to him in a vision.

It won't always come by a vision, by the way.

A lot of times, it's as you read the Word of God, the Holy Spirit moves in your life.

He directs you.

He applies the scripture to you.

You sense that he's calling you to obedience in some area of your life.

But notice he calls him here by name.

It's personal, Ananias.

And I love here the reflex of this personal relationship.

When you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, there ought to be this reflex of, here I am, Lord.

Now, this has always been the pattern.

Whether it was with the story of Samuel or Moses or Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Isaiah pipes up.

He sees this vision of the glory of God, and he pipes up, and God says, Who will go for us?

Who will go for me?

And he says, Here I am.

Send me.

It's the same response of all of God's people.

There's a response here of yieldedness.

Or it's the response of what it should be.

Ananias answers yes.

And I love this.

This is a great illustration.

He gives the yes before he even knows what the job is.

It's almost this just this reflex.

I don't know if you've ever done this.

Have you ever taken somebody out to eat and uh you said to them, hey, dinner's on me, and they said, All right, and they get in there and they order two tomahawk steaks.

Has that ever happened to you?

I'll have the surf and turf.

And you're you're looking at the menu, getting nervous, and you're like, why aren't there prices on this menu?

I don't like this anymore.

Um and it's like, but you've already said it.

It's on me.

You're paying for it.

That's what ministry is like.

Ministry is basically saying yes to God, handing him the credit card and saying, Lord, order what you want.

Whatever you want, I will pay.

I'll pay the price.

That's ministry.

There is this personal call and a personal reflex by Ananias.

Here I am, send me.

Christianity is that reporting for duty that Mark Spence talked about last week.

Here I am, Lord, reporting for duty.

Whatever you put in my hands, whatever you put in my life, that's what I'll do.

I'll submit to it.

Write this one down.

Not only does God call us personally, he calls us specifically.

There's a great deal of specificity that I see in verse 11.

Notice all the specific things there.

The Lord said to him, Rise and go.

Go where?

To the street called straight.

To the house of Judas.

Look for what?

A man of Tarsus named Saul.

That's a lot of detail.

He gets very specific.

In fact, you can actually still go there today.

In Damascus, there is still the street called straight.

Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world, and this street is still there.

It reminds us that the Bible is bound in history.

It's not legendary.

The Bible is true.

The Bible is historical.

But it also reminds us that God puts a specific call on each of our lives.

And part of our role is to get very specific with what God has called us to do: a name, a place, a house, a ministry.

Some of you will serve in young adults.

We have an evangelism team that goes out on, I believe it's Monday nights.

They're often at festivals and carnivals.

They're often at fairs.

There's a group that goes out and they did all summer long, they went out serving hot dogs with Mark and with Greg, and they're just sharing their faith.

And that it was amazing to me.

That group just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, more and more people finding their place to serve.

There are many people who serve this building on Sundays.

There are many people who serve in the ministries.

But you ought to seek, you ought to endeavor to get specific with your ministry.

I think that's what this is saying.

God is very specific in the places he calls us to.

You need to get specific in your life.

Notice another one, write this down.

Not only does he call us with specificity, he calls us to a partnership.

I mean, what a privilege.

He calls us to partner with him, his work.

God has already prepared the mission field.

Look at verse 12.

Look at his partnership.

Saul had seen what?

In a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him.

What's going on here?

Essentially, what this is saying is that God's already prepared the way for Ananias.

God is already working in the place where Ananias is being sent.

And you're going to have to trust, this is an act of faith, that when you step out and you find your place of ministry, you find your place to serve, you find that place where God is calling you.

You're going to have to trust that God is already at work there.

God's already working there.

He's already preparing the ground.

God had already given Saul a vision of Ananias coming.

He's already working at both ends of the street called straight.

He's working in Ananias.

And he's working in Saul so that Saul would be receptive.

That takes faith.

But you have to expect that God is going to partnership with you.

He calls us to persevere.

Write that one down.

In verse 13, we see the fear of Ananias.

Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

I have to laugh and enjoy the raw honesty of Ananias.

It's almost like he's reporting back to God things that God may not know.

Lord, I don't know if you know this or not.

I don't know if as you uh you lift at Jesus, as you lifted off the ground, you don't know what's going on in Jerusalem.

Maybe I need to catch you up.

But uh this guy is no good.

I mean, he has some pretty strong authority.

He's done terrible things.

He's informing God.

And what I see here is a man who's just honest about his fear.

And that's okay.

Whenever you're called to serve in an area, to do ministry, you can be honest to God about your fear.

God, I'm afraid to talk to that person.

I've heard how rude they were with the last person that tried to share the gospel with them.

Lord, I don't know how those kids in youth ministry or kids' ministry would accept me.

I'm afraid.

There's nothing more fearful than a sixth grader.

Somebody say, Amen.

That's a scary thing to fall into the hands of a sixth grader.

I saw a YouTube video one time.

They showed what it was like to be a youth volunteer.

And the youth pastor walked in on a group of uh teenagers, and the leader was in one of those roly chairs tied up, and they were feeding him pizza.

And it's just like, it's a dangerous thing to become a volunteer in some of these areas.

Lord, I'm afraid of these people.

I'm afraid.

The good news is our fear doesn't disqualify us.

We're to persevere through it.

We're to bring it to God and allow him to comfort our fear and still send us.

Put it all together.

This is what accepting God's call looks like.

The assignments usually come with specific names, specific places, specific ministries attached.

They come with fear, but we have to be like this man.

We have to be like Ananias.

Lord, here I am.

Whatever the cost, reporting for duty, I'll do whatever you ask me.

That's the Christian life.

And it takes faith.

It takes faith to do that.

I don't think I have time for that.

I know.

You're going to have to trust God that He will supply the time.

This week I was blown away.

Cars are getting wild today, aren't they?

Did you guys see this?

You know what I'm about to bring up, don't you?

There's a car that they're selling now.

That doesn't have a steering wheel.

It's a driverless car, just a big screen right in the middle.

Todd actually told me that when he went down to Austin, I believe, he got in one of these, ordered a cab, and it drove him all over town.

No steering wheel.

Then I got on the news this weekend and I saw this flying car that Elon has produced.

And did you see this?

It was like jumping over a semi, and there were air jets beneath it, and the air jets were like allowing it to land, compressed air.

I had three thoughts that I gave my children.

I'm going to give you my mini-sermon that I gave my children about this event.

Are you ready?

Number one, I don't think that most of society is ready for something like that.

That's a lot of responsibility.

Number two, I am not most of society.

Number three, I want my flying car.

Amen?

And uh that's how I felt about that.

I mean, that was unbelievable.

Now, here's the question: would you entrust your life to that?

Would you?

Some of you are saying no.

Uh, some of you already have.

Some of you have already been in the driverless car thing.

I have.

I've done it.

It's unsettling, but I did it.

And some of you are saying, I'll never do that.

But I would say this is an amazing thing.

Our society is at a point where we're willing to trust AI with our life.

But here's the problem with the church: the church isn't ready to trust the Lord when God gives us a call to ministry.

It's an issue of trust.

That's where the breakdown is.

We're willing to trust computers, we're willing to trust AI with our jobs, with our driving and our lives.

But but why is it so hard to trust the Lord?

When he calls us to something, we've got to be willing to answer the call.

It takes faith.

There's another call you need to answer, number two.

We need to answer the call to identity.

Not just the call to ministry, yes, the call to ministry, Ananias shows us that, but we also need to answer the call to identity.

There are many living in their past identity.

There are many who have no hope for people because of what they've done, sins they've committed.

There are many in this room saying God could never use me.

Because of my addiction, because of my divorce, because of my failure, because of my adultery, because of my pornography.

God can't use me.

Praise God, there's hope.

God has a way of putting our life back together and making us useful vessels.

There's something called Kinsugi pottery.

You've probably heard of this.

It's where a pot is intentionally broken.

And then they take it and they put the pieces back together, but they solder the pieces together with gold.

And they make it beautiful.

I want this to be the image for point number two.

This is what God does with Christians every day.

He puts our lives back together.

He uses the broken pieces of our life to tell a story.

And it becomes beautiful, and you can become useful to God no matter what you've done.

I think self-rejection, I think self, this guilt that we preach to ourselves all the time, that's one of the greatest enemies in this room.

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy to overcome.

And we have to have this realization that you're actually loved by God and He wants to use you.

In fact, Tim Keller said it so well.

He said, You are more flawed than you can imagine.

And more loved than you can believe.

What is the new identity that God gives us?

How does he put our life back together?

How does he overcome our shame?

Write these down.

And I'm just pulling them right out of the text, guys.

I hope you understand.

When you come to Central Church, that's what we do.

It's just expository preaching.

I just take words and phrases and just pull it right out of the text.

I just want you to see this.

Look at verse 15.

First of all, we see that phrase.

He's a chosen instrument.

God doesn't see Saul as failure, as guilty, as shameful.

He's encountered Jesus Christ.

He's come face to face with Jesus, and God calls him now a chosen vessel, a chosen instrument.

You see, what happens is we tend to live from two files.

One file is all the bad that we've done, the other file is what Jesus' file says about us.

Two files on the same man.

Which one is his identity?

That's the fight with shame that we have to realize.

You see, guilt and shame are two very powerful things.

Guilt says I did something bad.

Shame says I am something bad.

And there are many people who can't differentiate between guilt and shame.

Shame disqualifies us.

I'm pornography guy.

I'm addiction guy.

I'm abortion girl.

And that's the fight.

And by the way, Paul will have to battle with this his entire life.

In fact, if you write down 1 Corinthians 15, we see him still living with some of this shame in verse 9.

He calls himself the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.

Why?

Because I persecuted the church of God.

That's the shame that he lives with.

This is always the pattern of God's people.

Moses will live with a degree of shame because of his failure in Egypt.

Remember when the burning bush comes to Moses?

Do you remember this?

The burning bush appears, and Moses at first has the right response.

Here am I.

It's that response that we see in the story of Samuel.

It's the same response that we see here.

It's the response that we see in Isaiah 6.

Here am I.

That's his answer.

And then God tells him what he wants him to do.

I want you to go to Egypt.

I want you to confront Pharaoh.

And I have to believe that in that passage, what's happening is Moses is now doing battle with shame in his mind.

That's the place Egypt.

Pharaoh, that's the place where I killed the Egyptian.

That's the place where I failed, and I've been hiding in the wilderness these past 40 years.

I'm not excited about going back there, confronting the place of my shame.

I believe he's doing battle with his shame in that moment.

Shame is a very powerful thing.

It keeps many people from doing the ministry God's called them to.

And they it sounds like this God can't use me.

I'm too broken.

Not after my divorce, not after my addiction, not after the crummy dad that I've been.

God can never use me.

But what's happening in this passage is God is rebuilding Saul's identity.

Putting the pieces back together with gold.

Yep, there's guilt there.

You failed.

But now you've got a story.

And now you're going to be my vessel to tell that story.

You need to build your identity around that title, chosen instrument.

There's another identity.

Look at the next word in verse 15.

It's the word mine.

And that that tells us that we're owned.

That we do not belong to ourselves.

We are not here to do our own will.

He's a chosen instrument of mine.

For those who have been redeemed, God has bought you with a price, with the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.

And he's able to take his shame and his guilt and set it aside.

What do you do with your guilt and your failure?

How do you deal with your guilt and your failure?

Romans chapter 5, verse 8 reminds us that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, when we were guilty, when we were broken, what happened?

Romans 5:8

Christ died for us.

It's not that the guilt isn't real.

He's living from two files.

He has the file of his guilt, but then he has the reality, the other file, that Jesus has dealt with his guilt.

Christ died for us.

And so he nails his guilt and his shame to the cross.

And friends, I just want to train you for this.

When Satan comes to you, and when Satan says, you're disqualified, you can never be used of God, Satan will come and he'll whisper in your ear, those kind of thoughts.

God can't use you because of what you've done, because of where you've been, because of what you've become, because of all of your past, God can't use you.

You need to be reminded that Jesus has abolished your guilt.

And now when God looks at you, he sees his son Jesus.

That's what Mark was talking about last week with the great exchange, right?

All of the punishment that your sin deserved, that happened on the cross.

And so now you're free.

You're free.

And now when God looks at you, he doesn't see the guilty if you're in Christ.

And the way that he would accept his perfect son Jesus, he accepts you.

You gotta answer the call today.

God accepts you.

Man, if I could just say one thing to this body today, if you're in Christ, you're accepted.

You're accepted.

God loves you.

He's committed to you.

And the degree of his love for you, it equals the love that he has for his son.

That's life-changing.

That'll transform every part of your life if you can hear it and if you can believe it.

The love with which God has loved his son, such is his love for you.

You are owned and you are loved.

In verse 15, we see another identity.

Write this word down.

Missionary.

What will Saul's life be now to carry my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the children of Israel?

He's basically calling other people to call on the name of Jesus.

Now, back in verse 14, what did he come to Damascus to do?

He was going to bind all who called on the name.

This is a title for Christians.

It's those who call on the name of Jesus, right?

That's what a Christian is.

It's the callers, the ones who are called out to call on.

That's who Christians are.

And now he has a responsibility here.

There's been a great shift.

In fact, if you look ahead, if you look in Acts 22, when Paul recounts what Ananias said to him, this is later in the book of Acts, but in Acts 22, Paul will tell his story and he will remember what Ananias said to him.

And Ananias basically says this: Why do you now wait?

Why do you wait?

Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

The one who went after the ones who were callers is now calling on the name, and then he's going to call others to call on the name.

He's going to become a missionary.

You're a missionary.

You need to embrace that mission.

You need to embrace that identity.

That's your identity.

God has called you to take on this identity.

In fact, I believe it was, oh goodness, it was it was Spurgeon who said that every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.

I like that a lot.

What are you?

I'm a missionary.

That's the goal.

Another identity, last one.

You're a faithful witness.

In verse 16, it says, For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Paul will get beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, jailed.

Paul was constantly in jail, wasn't he?

He's what you call a repeat offender.

Amen.

Constantly sharing the gospel, constantly in jail.

And what we see here is that his new life is more privileged life than any life he had before.

But he takes on this identity.

I'm willing to persevere, I'm willing to suffer.

Shame for the name.

And so here's the question I want to end point to with which file are you living from?

Are you living from a past file, where you've been, what you've done?

Or are you believing what God says about you?

Are you preaching false things to your heart every day?

That you're rejected, disqualified?

You need to hear the mercy of God in this sermon.

It was Richard Sibbs that said that there's more mercy in God than there is sin in you.

Take that in.

There is more mercy in God than there is sin in you.

And so stop beating your chest in misery.

Start believing God for his mercy.

That's what God wants you to do.

And then I would also say this: you can believe it for someone else.

The most far from God person that you can imagine, God can transform their life.

And they can be the next Saul.

Turn to Paul.

Final point.

We're done.

We need to answer the call.

God's calling us to ministry.

Where's your place?

Where's your ministry?

Where's the place that you need to answer God's call to be active?

This is what life is about.

All of us are in ministry.

Number two, we need to answer his call to identity.

That we're missionaries, that we're chosen vessels, that we're owned by God, reporting for duty, all of that.

Lastly, we need to answer the call to community.

In verses 17 to 20, we see a beautiful picture of the community.

And community can be quite beautiful in the church and in your families.

In fact, this last week, I'll share just a little bit of my life.

Last week I was at Branson.

We made our two-year pilgrimage to Branson as we do in our family.

And we went to Still Your Dollar City.

Anybody go to that?

Anybody been to Silver Dollar City?

Yeah?

And uh we went there and uh this is my family, that's my brother and my parents, and we had a great time.

We went to Marvel Cave and it was a lot of fun.

Great time.

That wasn't my favorite part.

My favorite part was mealtime.

And uh we would go to this place, and some of you know it, it's called Golden Corral.

Have you you know what I'm talking about?

Somebody said, Amen.

Now, here's here's the thing about Golden Corral.

Let me just share this with you, okay?

Golden Corral is quantity over quality, amen?

Um but but I piled it on, and I had all these great times.

Like I had this waffle experience with chicken and waffle and and just uh the steak and everything that you could imagine.

We just piled it on uh heavy.

It was a great time.

But one of the dinners, my daughter, Sayla, did something really fun.

Um she secretly went to everyone but her grandparents and gave them assignments for dinner.

Like there were things in the conversation that you had to constantly bring up and talk about.

And you had to fit it into the conversation.

And it was really a prank on my grandparents, all right?

And so my brother, his assignment was to just continually talk about the quality of the forks and knives, the silverware.

Um my nephew Ike was supposed to talk about aliens and keep bringing up the subject of aliens throughout the meal.

Uh my wife was given the task of raising a glass and giving a toast several times in in the meal.

I was supposed to get a slow clap going several times in the meal.

Let's get let's hear it for grams and getting us through that line, you know, and it's like, and and all of us were given an assignment, and so we're all doing these things, we're all walking through these things.

It was bizarre, that meal, all right?

It was the weirdest meal that I've ever been in, and my my parents are kind of looking at all of us like, what is happening right now?

This is the strangest meal we've ever had as a family, okay?

And I had to stop it at one point because I thought if I don't bring this to a stop and explain to them what's going on, they're going to think one of us has had a stroke or we've had we've been on drugs, uh something.

And uh it was hilarious.

It was so funny.

We laughed so hard.

Here's the point um life comes through the family.

There there is a refreshing family joy that comes from being around the table.

This is the Damascus table.

This is Saul entering into the family.

Look with me, and we're almost done.

Notice with me the church is a place that welcomes people into the family.

Look at verse 17.

Ananias departed and entered the house.

He makes it easy to belong to the family.

This is really a good challenge for us here at Central Church.

We're trying to do this.

I want you to know that.

In fact, on our website right now, you can go to our small groups page.

This is what it looks like when you click on find a small group.

This is really cool.

This is a new piece of technology.

Go back to that previous slide for just a second, Jennifer.

You can literally click which day of the week you want to find a small group on.

It will populate it for your day.

And all the groups will come up, and it will give you a list of all the groups, and you can find what the group is, when they meet, what they do, is their child care.

You can message the leader.

That's all that's all live right now.

We want to, like, like Ananias, we want to make it easy for you to get into the family.

Why?

Because life happens around the table and in the family.

And we ought to be doing that for each other.

We ought to make it easy to get into the family.

That's so important.

The church is a place of acceptance.

This is community acceptance.

Look at verse 17.

And laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, love that title.

He's a brother.

You're a brother.

There's all kinds of acceptance.

In fact, in Ephesians, we talk about the dividing wall of hostility being brought down.

God does this, God destroys the walls that separate us, and we should be doing that for each other.

Even the title here reminds us of that.

We're also told that the church is necessary to grow.

You will grow slow unless you're involved in community.

Look at verse 17.

The Lord Jesus, what did he do?

He sent me so that you might regain your sight, that you could see clearly, right?

And be filled with the Spirit.

This is an iron-sharpening iron.

He rose and was baptized.

You can't do that to yourself.

I can't baptize myself, right?

It takes community, has to be done for you.

And it's a public statement saying, I belong to Jesus and I belong to these people that were one.

The church is a place to be strengthened and sent out.

In verse 19, taking food, he was strengthened.

And for some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

Paul doesn't do life and ministry solo.

He's fed by the people that he came to arrest.

He's strengthened with them, and he's joining their small group.

And this is where Saul gets strong.

And notice he's sent out in verse 20 immediately.

Immediately.

He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is the Son of God.

He's a brother.

He's baptized.

He's fed.

He's with the disciples.

And then he's out the door on the mission.

Why?

Because God doesn't command the world to come to church.

God commands the church to go to the world, right?

We're to be sent out by the community.

He doesn't wait for training.

He preaches what he knows.

He knows one thing at this point.

This is his theology.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is the Son of God.

And so he immediately engages.

And this is the tragedy.

Many who accept Christ, many who become believers, never get to this point.

They never get active in sharing their faith.

And we want to turn the tide on that.

We want to be biblical.

We want to have an immediate response.

And it's the church that we call each other up into that immediate response.

I'll tell you, as we close today and as the team comes out, my favorite story of answering the call came, it was probably about 15 years ago.

There was a young lady in our church, her name was Anita, lost, young adult, sitting in a coffee shop.

She was approached by two college students who answered God's call.

And they said, Can we talk to you?

And Anita said, Sure, she's an atheist.

Sure, I'll talk to you.

And they in that coffee shop shared the gospel with Anita.

And they told their story.

And in the moment, my friend Anita completely rejected their gospel presentation.

In fact, she had some hard words for them.

They left a gospel track with her.

She didn't get their name.

Doesn't know who they are.

Didn't get their phone number.

But she took that gospel tract.

She went to her car.

True story.

She sat behind the steering wheel of her car and she read that gospel track.

And in the moment, she invited Jesus to change her life and become a Christian.

And she repented of her sins.

And she asked God to change her and redeem her.

And today, she's working for a church.

And she's doing ministry.

And today, God has completely, radically transformed her life.

I went on a mission trip with her.

And God has worked in a mighty way.

Why?

Because someone decided to answer God's call.

Now, heads bowed, eyes closed, we're going to have a response time.

I want to invite our response team up to the front.

And I wanted this to be a time where you respond to the call in your life.

Today, are you rejecting the call to community?

Maybe today your response is to say, I need to get on that small group page, or I need to find someone to help me find my place, my people.

Maybe today you need to be like Saul.

You need to come and be baptized.

Maybe you've never done that.

I need to immediately be baptized.

And I need to make my next steps.

Maybe for some of you, you need to have the reflex of, yes, Lord, whatever you call me to do, whatever you, whatever place you send me, I am all in.

What is the call?

Of those three things that we've talked about this morning, what is the call that you have been rejecting?

That you've been ghosting God?

Maybe for some of you, you're still sitting in shame.

You're sitting in lostness.

Today, you need to believe God's word over the voice that you hear in your mind.

The greatest truth about you is not that you're guilty.

The greatest truth about you, if you're in Christ, is that your guilt has been dealt with fully and finely on the cross.

You are more broken than you can possibly imagine, but you are more loved than you can possibly believe.

With your heads bowed, would you pray with me and then we'll respond in this song?

Father, thank you for this day.

Thank you for what you're doing in this service already.

I see people to my left praying, and Lord, I just ask that you would work, Father, in whatever conviction, whatever next steps that we need to have as a church, as a congregation.

And Lord, I pray right now you'd raise up a responsive people, Lord, that we as the people of God, we would constantly be saying, the word of God has come to me, and now I'm going to respond.

I'm going to make the change.

I'm going to answer the call.

Whether it's a call to ministry, whether it's a call to identity, or whether it is a call to the church, to community.

Lord, in one of those ways, I will respond today.

So, Lord, do a work.

Convict us.

Send us out.

Thank you for this word.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.