From Persecutor to Persecuted | Pastor Daniel Gouveia

[Music] oh is oh is [Music] my god [Music] praise jesus our next song will be number 187 jesus what a friend and i pray that each one of us every day will realize how precious jesus is and what a friend he is for sinners number 187 and we will seeing one two and four [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] oh is [Music] foreign i me jesus is [Music] he is praise jesus and he is a friend of all of us sinners and you did hear me all of us sinners because we are sinners and yet he redeems us and we will be purified and glorified our song for opening is number 310 i would draw nearer to jesus number 310 i would draw nearer to jesus and if you would please stand we will sing 3 10 and we'll sing the three verses [Music] this is the key to that salvation us in [Music] safe is [Music] is [Music] here jesus [Music] seeking his dream to be true is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] amen you may be seated and just remember to keep drawing near to him if you stumble and fall just get back up and realize it's moment by moment good morning happy sabbath i know is it my ears or do i hear a ring all right it's so nice to see you here in the house of the lord the sabbath morning if you didn't know it you look blessed all right be blessed today uh we want to welcome all of our visitors uh if there's anyone visiting this morning uh who's not a member here i see one two three four okay five it's so nice to have you worshiping with us this morning and as always we want to extend an invitation to you that if you're looking for a church home you found it right here and uh our church clerk pam madala is right up here you can see her right afterwards she'll sign you up for the tour so welcome and then to our members our regular members it's so nice to have you here this morning we hope that this morning service will be a blessing to each of you i have some announcements to make um let's start here with uh potluck october the 16th haystacks this is i understand the last time this year we'll have a potluck that says last time this year for haystacks all right correct me this is the last haystack potluck of the year and if i can and i can intrude oh absolutely thank you because he doesn't know this uh in the lobby there is a sign up sheet thank you very much so you can sign up for whatever a vegetable that you want to bring for the potluck and so please go out there and sign up please let me know if you're going to be attending and also for our deacons deaconesses and other members we would like you to sign up also for the uh to be servers so please look for both of those in the foyer and please sign up thank you you're welcome actually you did put that in the notes but that's okay that's all right all right um let's see also there is an announcement from elder cerns who is our new conference president for a central california conference he has four things that he would like us to do and so i'll let you know what those four things are and then we'll give more information as time goes on as to how we can accomplish these four points he wants us to consider the first one is be healthy i want everyone to be in good health the next point is keep listening to each other keep listening to each other you know it's interesting in the physiognomy in the body god gave us one mouth and two ears which probably means we should listen twice as much as we speak we probably don't but he wants us to keep listening to each other he also point three would like for us to visit every every member of the church by december 10th a brief doorstop visitation and we'll talk more about that uh in weeks to come how we can accomplish that but he'd like for us to be in touch with each other and then he would like every baptistery the central california conference filled on december 11th and we're anticipating that there may be someone who would want to be baptized by then but he wants each church to have its baptistry filled and ready for a baptism so um these are the four points that the conference president would like for us to consider now i have some other things to talk about but in terms of announcement i would like to announce that pastor jensen has an announcement that he would like to make an announcement for the announcement you know because of this pandemic we've been over the last year and a half socially isolated from each other other than the last few months when i've been at church i believe that family that no the church family that not only prays together but plays together will grow together in christ so tomorrow at the academy from 10 to four fresno adventist academy which is between peach and clovis avenues on olive avenue from 10 to four the men's ministry will be sponsoring a church picnic now we we're going to be providing corn dogs for sale which will be a pathfinder fundraiser there we we'll be providing as men's ministry drinks we're inviting you to bring some kind of salads we're also providing ships and anything else that you want to add for the picnic be sure to bring lawn chairs and there was confusion earlier in the sabbath school class i know some of the ladies have been invited to a deaconesses meeting tomorrow i talked to queenie just a minute ago and got that clarified there will be a brief meeting here at the church from 10 to no longer than noon and when you're finished with that you can come over to the academy and still partake of the picnic because we won't be eating that early we'll be setting up for games and other things be sure to bring your children let's have a good time and fellowship together and enjoy each other's presence tomorrow from 10 to 4 at the academy thank you and the women's deaconess meeting will be here at the church at 10 o'clock and then when you're finished be prepared to go over to the academy thank you thank you pastor jensen okay so last week we were introducing new members and uh two uh sets of the new members were not here so we want everyone to know who our new members are and so i'm going to introduce ayman kumar and i want you to know that he has a friend rohei who's with him eamon speaks only punjabi but rohie speaks english and punjabi so afterwards if you want to greet them you can use his friend roje as an interpreter so amen are you here yes in the back raise your hand okay this is eamon i can't say in the striped shirt because they both have striped shirts on but yeah but uh rohey thank you for coming uh with him as well and uh you know he will interpret as you greet after the service thank you paul okay and then also we have gilbert maria lourdes and valentino ruiz are here this morning please stand okay and you've probably seen them out in the lobby uh visiting a greeting and so we want to welcome you to officially to the fresno central family thank you so much for coming and being with us all right now um for prayer we have a few things that we want to mention uh and first that we want to give thanks for the rain that came you know it was interesting as we prayed together in the mornings on the prayer line folks were pleading for rain i was putting a roof on a shed and i was asking the lord just to hold off a little bit and just as soon as i got the cover on it rained and so we can all thank the lord for rain amen the lord knows how to do those things all right rita inahosa had surgery and is doing well we can be thankful for that and we want to welcome and congratulate the jensen family uh john edward and his wife christina for kirsten marie jensen who was born october the 5th so there is another yet another jensen amongst us yes yes all right i understand that father and mother are doing well all right um we want to keep in prayer pastor melanchook and his son edward who are in the hospital edward fell at work yesterday broke his arm in his wrist so let's let's hold him up in prayer he had surgery last night nelly and allah also need our prayers sam barone will be having surgery on his shoulder on thursday let's keep him in prayer then the following families the cervantes the christers the eats the issa family gravorkian the greers the govea the jones family canobulians the lewis's the melnachik the montes and the rinkers we also want to pray for the following persons pierre steenberg lynn winters gosell oxley scott bear helen excel deborah holland earl myers and our conference president dan cerns we also want to remember our children and families our children are back in school we'll pray for their protection and that they will excel in their studies also we want to remember our pathfinder club sam barone thursday i did say that yes all right so the servant of the lord says when every other voice is hushed and in quietness we wait before him the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of god let's kneel as we pray our father and our god we come this morning on this your holy sabbath day into your house of worship for all people and we come thanking you for your goodness and your mercy to us because you have been better to us than we could have ever been to ourselves you have supplied our needs you have provided for us and we are grateful for all that you have done lord so that our prayers are not hindered we ask for forgiveness for things said or done or undone that we should have done differently we pray father that you would not only forgive us but that you would cleanse us from our unrighteousness and that you would search our hearts and give us clean hearts so that we will want to serve you then lord we ask that you would watch over those who have special needs we have listed them by name and so we ask through the power of your holy spirit and ministering angels that you would stop by and touch hearts and bodies and minds heal them raise them up give them encouragement energy and strength so that they can once again worship here with us in spirit and in truth we pray father for our pastor and his family as they lead out we pray for the leaders of this great nation we ask for them knowledge and wisdom to make correct choices we pray for each family represented here today those present and those viewing online we asked father that you would be with our students open their minds help them to grasp concepts help them to understand the benefits of eternal life and then lord we ask that you would watch over us that you would keep us that you would prepare us for the soon return of christ not only us but for all those who would love his appearing keep us faithful until the end we pray in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] if our deacons would come forward we'll prepare to receive the morning's tithes and offerings let's pray our father and our god once again we come into your presence and we bring only that which you have given to us we return a portion of it to you we ask father that you will take it that you will break it and bless it and multiply it for the finishing of your work in jesus name amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] and now it's time for our children's story and it says here that auntie pam madala is going to give us our children's story this morning and so we would like for our little ones to come down and gather here at the front for the children's story come [Music] i know we have lots of kids today come on down [Music] all right very good [Music] nope nope go sit down keep going go sit down go sit down go sit down [Music] good morning oh we have more kids coming it's always a joy to see kids it's always a joy to see everybody in church isn't it do you like coming to church yes i love coming to church we love to listen to stories about jesus he says no i want dad so when somebody does something nice for you what do you say you that's right so there and there's a story in luke versus a pastor there's a story in chapter 17 of the book of luke and it's the story is about 10 men who can't live with their families what would you do if you couldn't be with your family would you be happy i'd be really sad yeah if you couldn't if you if you wanted to see your family you'd have to come and to come around them and say don't come close to me don't come close to me i have i have a disease i'm a leper you can't come close to me and you know what a leper is hold on hold on it's like a disease that's like uncurable i think okay virus the virus well it's a it's a really bad disease and and when you get it can you imagine what would happen if your fingers were you know hold your hand up you can see your fingers right right what would happen if you all of a sudden held your hand up and your finger fell off oh no my finger my finger is gone i lost my finger and what happens if if you're i don't have a fake ear what if your ear fell off how would you feel wouldn't that be sad happy you couldn't hear oh you'd have if you uh also if your ear fell off in the other ear there might be like a ring sound we have we have we have doctors on the way okay well do you know what happened with these ten men in in luke 17 do you know what happened do you know that jesus came and he healed them they took their leprosy completely away they weren't sick anymore so they got to go home would you be happy you guys don't look happy come on i want to see some smiles thank you they got to go home with your f with their families and they can you imagine the rejoicing that they were having yes they finally got to hug their families but okay so when somebody does something nice for you what are you supposed to say and do you know that of these 10 lepers that jesus healed how many of them said thank you to jesus that's right one my goodness the other nine didn't even say thank you okay so october is what month do you know what we do in october yes this month he's right this month okay who else knows what this is october is pastor appreciation [Music] okay and so pastor the kids made you some cards and so guys would you go ahead and go over the pastor and give them give him your cards that you made yep go right over there he has lots of cards to go home and pastor from the from the deaf group they brought you flowers so what do we want to say to the pastor say thank you that's not a thank you say it again thank you there we go thank you for all the beautiful cards shall we have prayer okay dear heavenly father we want to thank you for all the blessings that you give us the things that we don't think about thanking you for and we want to thank you for each one of our pastors that is here in our church with us today in jesus name amen thank you guys okay you can go back to your seats [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] wasn't that beautiful could hear him play all day amen so you know that you could do that all day all right well praise the lord and wasn't it wonderful to have so many kids here up front does he have kids in the church you have a future amen so i'm i was so happy and i was um very very blessed to see upfront not only the kids but um two nurses actually that were instrumental in uh in these past few weeks or a couple of months in my wife's um life pamidala and manny hiss are we actually have at least two nurses and two doctors in this church that have been such a great blessing to us pam manny dr jesse keller dr sammy he said these these brothers and this sister they have been so amazing and i just i just have to praise god and many others who have been praying and just sharing god's love in so many ways and i have to say this because my wife is here today after many weeks so praise the lord i can look at you all and i see that you are all so beautiful but god thought that it was a good idea for the most beautiful woman in town to come to church today so i am happy i am very happy actually i was just thinking about something that happened when she went to the hospital that tremendously terrible awesome and frightful day that she was having such a great great pain as she was there already being blessed by some of the members of our church but a nurse came to her because he read her last name he read govea and she came up to her that was manny by the way and he and he said are you pastor gouvei's wife and she said yes said oh i'm manny i'm from your church and i don't know if she ever had seen manny before but she was so happy to have a nurse there and he took so good care of her and before his shift ended he came to pray with her what a great blessing right in the last days of earth's history or in your last day or in your life when god looks at you he's going to see the name jesus right yeah that's what god wants to see my friend jesus are you with jesus are you married to jesus you're good he's going to take care of you amen god has given jesus for you to take his name if you have the name jesus you you can't forget about the name governor okay i always pray lord help people to forget about me but remember jesus amen i was so blessed to know that because this nurse recognized her last name it was so nice to her because it was his pastor's wife and when god looks at you if you are in jesus he is going to see someone that he loved so much he even gave his son to save that person and that person accepted the name of jesus to cover him or her and he accepted jesus to live in his heart and transform his character so now god is taking care of you not because of your name your name is sometimes a little bit complicated but because of the name of jesus you will have wonderful treatment in heaven amen so this is my way to say also thank you manny for being such an awesome nurse to my wife praise the lord all right well friends today i have i have several things here up front with me and i'm not going to tell tell you about them now it's going to be at the end after i preach so i'm going to keep them here right in front of me so i can remember i can't cannot have a long sermon because i have to talk to you about these things all right so pray for me that i can preach whatever god wants me to preach this morning but at the end i can share with you some things that are really awesome that i have here up front with me so let us pray i am so happy to see all of you here today but you did not come for me to look at you you came to hear the voice of god so let us pray father in heaven thank you so much that we can be in your presence today we go through so much pain so much heartache we have good days and bad days we have days when we can walk and we're good we have days that we can barely walk there's people in our church lord that are suffering with so many illnesses there's people in our church that are being persecuted in so many ways not only in their health but in their workplace in their families in their marriages with their children there's people suffering for so many different reasons and i know that there is a god in heaven who is a wonderful kind merciful god our father who loves us who gave his son for us help us lord never never to forget the great blessing that we have to be called children of god because of the name and power of jesus christ in his name i pray that you may bless each and every one of your children who are members of this church who are here today who are watching online even those who are not or maybe attending in other churches i pray that your holy spirit may come and heal and save and bless each one through the name of jesus and for us who are here today and those who are hearing these words online i pray father that you may grant us a blessing as we open your holy word that minds may be drawn from that which is visible to that which is invisible from the visible human pastor to the invisible divine and human great shepherd of the sheep jesus christ in his name i pray that the holy spirit may have freedom to use these mortal lips that are so sinful but by the grace and blood of jesus christ purify me and use me to bless your people i pray in the name of jesus amen the bible says in ii timothy chapter 3 verse 12 yes all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution the title of our message today is from persecutor to persecuted from persecutor to persecuted from persecutor to persecute it we're going to be reading in acts chapter 9 but before we go to acts chapter 9 i would like to do what you should never do in a sermon never start a sermon by reading a lot never do that in life okay but i'm going to do it today i'm going to read a lot and you're going to read with me it's in the bible first of all we're going to read in first corinthians chapter 15. first corinthians chapter 15 and we are going to read the initial verses of this great chapter to give you a little bit of a context to what happened in acts chapter 9 the great conversion of saul of tarsus that became this so-called apostle paul we are going to read a little bit in some of the letters of paul about what he said concerning himself in his early days his experience as a man who was fully fully converted to judaism and very convicted about what he should do as a jew let us read first corinthians chapter 15 moreover brethren verse 1 i declare to you the gospel which i preached to you which also you received in which you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which i preached to you unless you believed in vain for i delivered to you first of all that which i also received that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by cephas then by the twelve and after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remained to the present but some have fallen asleep after that he was seen by james and by all the apostles and here it comes then last of all he was seen by me also as by one born out of due time several translations actually say as one born at the wrong time paul felt that he was born at the wrong time because he was not like the other apostles who lived with jesus for three and a half years who interacted with jesus when jesus was here presently present on earth in his flesh but he came out of due time he was born at the wrong time as an apostle because he was born after jesus ascended to heaven and he says for i am the least of the apostles that's what he considered himself who am not worthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god this man considered himself the least of the apostles he considered himself an apostle born out of due time at the wrong time and he said i'm not even worthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god i was a persecutor but by the grace of god i am what i am and his grace toward me was not in vain but i labored more abundantly than they all yet not i but the grace of god which was in me so as you read the writings of the apostle paul you see that this man had strong convictions he knew he was a persecutor he knew he was unworthy he knew he was born out of due time as an apostle of jesus christ but he also knew that god had worked through him more than even through all the other apostles now come with me to galatians chapter one right there after second corinthians you're in first corinthians turn a few pages to second corinthians and then galatians galatians chapter one we're going to read what the apostle paul wrote to the believers in galatia in chapter one starting at verse 11. and he says but i make known to you brethren that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man for i neither received it from man nor was i taught it but it came through the revelation of jesus christ if you jump to jump back to verse 1 he's going to say paul an apostle not from men not nor through man but through jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead paul knew that the gospel that he was preaching the message that he was preaching was not something that he was taught by men he was taught by god he was transmitting what god shared with him what jesus shared with him so he continues verse 13 for i have for you have heard of my former conduct in judaism how i persecuted the church of god i was a persecutor i persecuted the church of god beyond measure and tried to destroy it and i advanced in judaism beyond many of my contemporaries actually several translations say beyond many of my age paul was a young man when he was persecuting the church trying to destroy the church that's actually what you read the word tried is actually not there i i persecuted the church of god beyond measure to destroy it he was really trying to obliterate christianity being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers verse 15 but when it pleased god who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace you know there's a lot of people out there in the world doing terrible things and god may have chosen them since before they were born and they will end up doing amazing things you should never judge people right jesus warned us don't shut it don't judge anybody call me through his grace to reveal his son in me that i might preach him among the gentiles i did not immediately confer with flesh and blood nor did i go up to jerusalem get this important detail to those who are apostles before me i did not go first to talk to them to find out about jesus but i went to arabia and returned again to damascus so we're having another detail here about paul he went to arabia spent some time in arabia in the desert of arabia alone getting from god what he was to preach verse 18 then after three years i went up to jerusalem to see peter and remained with him 15 days but i saw none of the other apostles except james the lord's brother now concerning the things which i write to you indeed before god i do not lie afterward i went into the regions of syrian cilicia and i was unknown by faith to the churches of judea which were in christ but they were hearing but they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us who was a persecutor now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy and they glorified god in me so you learn that paul received his message from god you learned that he spent some time alone with god examining the scriptures connecting the dots seeing how jesus fulfilled all the prophecies of the old testament praying in the desert and then he came back to damascus and we learned that the church was amazed and even those who did not knew him by those who did not have the opportunity of seeing him face to face they were saying the one who was persecuting us now he is preaching this faith that he was persecuting now lastly before we go to acts 9 i would like you to read with me philippians chapter 3 some verses in philippians chapter 3. and this will give you a better even better idea of who saul of tarsus was now galatians chapter 3 we're starting in verse 1 finally my brethren rejoice in the lord for me to write the same things to you is not tedious but to you is it is safe beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of mutilation he was referring to circumcision the believers in philippi were being tempted by some jews to circumcise themselves and they were gentiles and the church did not require that for we said paul are the circumcision who worship god in the spirit rejoice in christ jesus and have no confidence in the flesh though i also might have confidence in the flesh and here's my resume in case you are having some doubts circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of hebrews concerning the law of pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless look how he thought about himself before his conversion blameless doing everything that i was supposed to do as a young jewish man but what things were gained to me these i have counted loss for christ yet indeed i also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i have suffered the loss of all things and count them all as rubbish that i may gain christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in christ the righteousness which is from god by faith that i may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death if by any means i may attain to the resurrection from the dead brothers and sisters we learn as we read these words from the apostle paul himself that he did not even consider himself to be in a to be called an apostle apostle he did not consider him consider himself to be worthy to be called an apostle even though he was the greatest apostle in terms of work he was the one that worked the most but he always had this very humble view concerning himself and he had a sober view concerning himself he wrote actually to the romans that no one should think more of himself or what you know of what reality is you should be humble and sober like i'm not worthy to be called an apostle but i actually work more than the others apostles but not me so i'm not glorifying me it was the grace of god in me brother and sister brother and sister you should have an idea of yourself based in the word of god amen knowing that you are not the one that is supposed to be worshipped even if god is doing great things through you be humble amen and he also knew very clearly that what he was speaking to people came from where not from men but from god see if what you are sharing with people is what the pastor teaches or what you see in youtube videos or what you hear here and there or what this great doctor or scientist is saying because you like it you're sharing it but you really didn't receive it from god then my friend you're really not following the example of the apostle paul before he even talked with peter for 15 days before he talked with those who had been eyewitnesses to the life and teachings and death of christ he wanted to know from god is this really what you want me to preach i doubt i doubt sincerely that everything that we are sharing on social media and texting each other is what we heard from god sometimes we just share stuff because we like to share stuff and we like to share stuff that is spooky right we would do well to share the word of god we would do well to pray even before even we read so that the lord may speak to us because you know satan also wants to teach you the bible satan also wants to teach you the bible in the wrong way are you sure that what you are sharing is from god's word paul was entirely sure that's why god could bless his ministry even though he was very very persecuted and that's the third point we read today have you noticed here in philippians that the apostle paul is telling you i had it all i had a great resume everybo everything was smiling in my career but i caught it out i counted that all lost to me that's all rubbish everything that in which i could glorify myself in the flesh i counted all rubbish for the excellence of the knowledge of jesus and i want to be conformed to his death i want to be a partaker of his sufferings that's what we don't like right we come to church so that god can bless us and heal us and take away suffering we pray every day so that god can bless us and heal us and take away suffering but the apostle paul was kind of different he knew that jesus had suffered for him and now he was saying jesus i want to suffer for you not that he just wanted to suffer because you know i'm a masochist is that the word you use mazakis is that a word in english i know the word in portuguese i'm just making a free translation here masochist masochist i'm a massacre so i like to suffer no that's not the apostle paul i love jesus so much i want to have the privilege of suffering a little bit for the one who suffered for all of my sins and actually he suffered a lot for me even more than he had to suffer for other people so i want i want to be so close to him that i even want to experience something of his sufferings if that is you praise the lord but i know that i i i sometimes i'm like lord i'm tired of suffering i'm tired of seeing my wife suffering i'm tired to see my members suffering we probably should you probably are doing something right i was yesterday on the phone with david lewis we were praying for him for his family and he was telling me you know pastor the last year i don't know what it is but it seems that our church is just suffering so much so many people are sick people are dying even young people are dying and and i was like i was thinking yeah we must be doing something right for satan to hate us so much so let us not give up right even if we have to embrace some suffering amen acts chapter 9 starts with a tremendous expression by the gospel writer luke that also wrote the book acts of the apostles starts with this tremendous expression concerning saul of tarsus this truth this reality what he was living at the time when the church in jerusalem was being persecuted and the weeks and months that followed look at what it says acts 9 verses starting verse 1 then saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of damascus so that if he found any who were of the way that's how they would call the followers of jesus in the early days the people who were this sect called the way jesus said i am the way the truth and the life and if you belong to the people that believe that jesus is your way to heaven and your truth and your life because he is really the way the truth and the life you also belong to the sect the sect of the way the christian true christian church whether men or women he might bring them bound to jerusalem see the bible says that not only he was threatening the church not only trying to destroy the church not only trying to bring men and women bound but he was breathing threats and murder the air that he was breathing the atmosphere around him was just threats and murder he hated these people he wanted to crush these people he hated jesus of nazareth even though even though this is not the first time that we find the name saul of tarsus we found his name three times prior to that in the book of acts two name two times connected with the stoning of stephen and one time saying that he was causing havoc in the church so we know that god was working in saul even before and the bible is going to show us this right now look at this verse 3 as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him saul saul why are you persecuting me saul saul why are you persecuting me see in these first verses of acts 9 we find this great truth that you find elsewhere in the bible that for god his church is very very important you know that zechariah says zechariah chapter 2 verse 8 he who touches you touches the apple of his eye you want to try to touch the apple the pupil of the eye of the person sit sitting next to you come on try it think it's going to be easy is he going to let you do that and be okay if you touch the church of god god is not okay you know there's an expression there's a quote by ellen white that i really love it's in the book the acts of the apostles verse page 12 and i've been asking you to read this text by ellen white the the book acts of the apostles by ellen white i've been asking you to read it i know that we should read many more books by the by the inspired pen and we should read most and foremost the bible but read this book it is important i have reasons why i want you to read this book enfeebled and defective as it may appear oh friends you know i remember that day that i was driving my wife to the hospital she came out of the car she could bear she could barely walk i can i can help her get in to the hospital because they wouldn't let me get in i went and talked to the lady said no i'm sorry i can't let you get come in see all these people here sitting i cannot even let you sit here in the in the entrance because all these people are waiting for their covet tests come back and if they have kova they might share it with you so i'm sorry sir i cannot let you be here and i went i went back and i could remember just that image of my wife barely able to walk entering the hospital do you think i loved my wife as she was in that state yes or no god looks at you i look at you you look at me we are enfeebled and defective yes or no yes and feeble and defected as it may appear the church is the one object upon which god bestows a special in a special sense his supreme regard people hurt you they are hurting god people persecute you they are persecuting god people hate you they are hating jesus when you did it to one of these little one little ones of these my brethren you did it to me when you fail to do something good to one of these little ones when somebody is supposed to bless you and they fail to bless you they are failing to bless jesus christ now you know the reverse of the coin is also true right have you ever thought about that when you can do something for someone and you fail to do something for someone it doesn't even say when you forgot to do something to one of these seventh-day adventists no no no no no let's talk about humanity jesus christ shed his blood for all human beings not all human beings will be saved but jesus shed his blood for every human being jesus feels the pain of every human being when it's in your power and in my power to help someone to do something for someone and we neglect to do it we are neglecting to do it to jesus and when we are hurting someone if we are breathing hate towards someone we don't call it like that because we're a christian and we come to church so oh no i don't hate him but in reality if you could obliterate him or her from the earth you know that would be much easier my life would be much better if this person was just poofed right or just go to another continent and i don't have to see you and interact with you when you have that in your heart towards a human being the when you did it to one of these my little brethren you did it to me you hate people you can you you think you can hate people and love god the bible says if you hate your brother that you see and you say that you love god you're not you know you didn't you never saw god and you say that you love him when you hate people that you can see no no no no so jesus comes to saul appears to him in glory and says saul saul why are you persecuting me and saul is going to ask two questions i wish we would ask these two questions to god then he said who are you lord every time that god calls a human being to him that human being should have as its utmost priority and even us who have given ourselves to jesus a long time ago and who want to renew our covenant with him every day our utmost priority should be to know him i want to know him and the power of his resurrection said paul who are you lord right there and then the first time that he has an encounter with jesus the two main questions of his life were asked by paul who are you lord who are you do you know who jesus is everything you do is important or unimportant because of this one main thing in your life your knowledge your personal knowledge of the one revealed by scripture jesus christ do you know who he is are you asking him reveal yourself to me i want to know you when i study daniel chapter 9 i want to know you when i study matthew 24 i want to know you when i study daniel 7 i want to know you when i study revelation 13 i want to know you it's not only to know stuff to share with others to scare people is to know christ so we can share with others so that they are converted to him amen i want to know you who are you lord what are you teaching me about you here and jesus answered i am jesus whom you are persecuting it is hard for you to kick against the goats you know my grandfather was a very humble farmer in portugal when i was growing up he had oxen yes i it's true i'm 42 but when i was just a little boy my son of my age at the age of my son 12 years old my grandfather was living in a small village in portugal he had oxen always would come always in two he would walk for miles and miles to buy his oxen he always had the best looking oxen in the village he would spend hours grooming his oxen you know there's oxen of different sizes his were really big of course i was really tiny at the time so i look up but i kid you not i remember very well the features of the oxen you know there's oxen from different parts of the world these were huge their horns were huge their eyes were huge their tongues were huge and i was mesmerized looking at the oxen seeing them eat with those big teeth eating all that straw that came from the corn and i can remember this the smell of the oxen the smell of the straw and the smell other smells you know and i was always impressed and my my grandfather he was shorter than i am today he was not a very big and strong man of course he was strong because of his work in the fields but he was not like a huge human being no and he always had this goat in his hand was just a slender piece of wood or like a stick a long stick and had a little metal sharp little metal tip you know and with that he would keep his oxen in control and and they were submissive to him even though he was these was were brute big beasts i remember that one day i was coming out approaching the oxen from behind and don't approach the oxen from behind and think it's safe no no be careful i was just a kid it was running and approaching the oxen from behind and one oxen tried to kick me and you know it would just be necessary one kick for me at the time little tiny daniel skinny daniel one kick and i would not be here today to tell the story but my grandfather saw what the oxen was inten intending to do and he pricked the skin of the oxen with his goat and immediately the oxen stopped he knew that was the prick of the master right jesus was telling paul it is hard for you to kick against the goats isn't it it's hard you know you saw stephen you saw his face like an angel you heard him preach you saw how he was actually making sense of the old testament by preaching my name you saw how he died praying and asking god to forgive the people that hated him when you have hatred in your heart it is hard for you to kick against the goats we sometimes think that you know jesus appeared to paul with all his glory and poofed paul was converted yes and no yes jesus appeared to paul in all his glory but the holy spirit had been working in the heart and in the mind of paul pricking him pricking his conscience breaking his mind saying hey hey hey hey don't you see what i'm doing don't you see who i am don't you see that the path that you are in is destroying you and destroying other human beings brother and sister is there something in your life a forbidden path is there something that god through the holy spirit is telling you about and is being trying to draw you away from that path that is destroying you putting you in the path of righteousness is there something that today you need to surrender to the lord jesus lord who are you i am jesus whom you are persecuting that's why it's hurting so much if there's something that god is convicting you about you should stop today and pray about it and decide by the grace of god stop and change direction and paul decided it right there and then he said lord what do you want me to do period two questions who are you lord i want to know you and second when jesus reveals himself to you as the son of god as the one who created you and the one who saved you and the one who is interceding for you and the one who is coming to get you and take you home you should ask him every day lord my life does not belong to me my thoughts do not belong to me my money does not belong to me my clothing does not belong to me my family does not belong to me what do you want me to do and jesus puts him in contact with his church look at what jesus says then the lord said to him arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do and the man who journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no one then saul rose from the ground and when his eyes were opened he saw no one but they led him by the hand and brought him into damascus and he was there three days without sight not and neither ate nor drank now what do you think that paul was doing during these three days you don't have to guess because the same chapter tells you just read one or two more verses and god is going to appear to hananiah a disciple who is living in damascus and god is saying ananias here i am lord that's what we all say right we come to church and the pastor doesn't appeal said i want to go out and do this and that i want you to give your heart to jesus we all stand up and say yes here i am lord amen ananias i want you to go and talk to saul of tarsus wait a minute wait a minute i heard you know lord i've heard about this man here now is god convicting you that you have to go talk to someone today if jesus would come today would you be ready all your relationships are at peace is god telling you today i want you to go talk to that person that you have a hard time with and i want you to become friends and brothers and sisters you know god wanted ananias to go baptize saul ananias was having his jonah moment right no not the ninevites no not saul but look at what jesus says about saul look go this is verse 15. the lord said to him go for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before the gentiles kings and the children of israel for i will show him how many things he must suffer for my sake acts chapter 26 actually tells you that when jesus appears to paul he told him some things that you don't read in acts chapter 9 the first time that jesus appeared to paul he said i want to send you to preach the gentiles just think think a little bit this jew who was wanting to crush the christians because they were preaching to they were starting to preach to the gentiles they could not even think and and and not not even consider the possibility that god wanted to save the gentiles this paul in one day goes from being the persecutor of the church to the one that god is sending to the gentiles to convert them from darkness to light to bring them from the claws of satan to those who are sanctified by faith in me said jesus to paul that that same day that same apparition that same vision and god is telling to ananias stop thinking what you're thinking about this new believer see we look at new believers and we think no no i've heard about this person he or she is doing this and they're doing this and i don't know if their conversion is really entirely sure and god is saying i have plans for this person that you are not aware of amen so trust me a little bit in what i'm doing and just go do what i'm telling you to do so paul gets a visit from ananiah he actually had had a vision that a nun that a man would come named anaya would lay his hands on him and he would be baptized and that's exactly what happened i want to read it from you in acts chapter 22 when paul makes his defense in jerusalem after a whole crowd was trying to kill him and destroy him he made his offense when the roman soldiers came and saved them from the crowd before everything got very confused and violent and crazy again he was able to speak the to the crowd acts chapter 22 verse 12 then a certain ananias a devout man according to the law having a good testimony with all the jews who dealt dwelt there came to me and he stood and said to me brother saul don't you love these words he was afraid of him just a few hours prior or a few minutes prior and now he's calling him brother brother saul receive your sight and at the same hour i looked up at him then i then he said the god of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will and see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth for you will be his witness to all men and what you have seen and heard and now why are you waiting arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the lord and paul is baptized by ananiah something like scales falls from his eyes he is baptized that day and the bible tells us that immediately he starts preaching jesus now people were amazed and they were like how could this man be preaching the gospel when he was persecuting the christians and that's when he goes to arabia and spends a few we don't know months years we don't know how much time it was not a very long time but it was enough time for him to be familiarized with the prophecies more familiarized with the prophecies of the old testament connect the dots and ellen white writes this about those days this is acts of the apostles um and i'm reading to you page 125 and 26. says he here in the solitude of the desert paul had ample opportunity for quiet study and meditation he calmly reviewed his past experience and made sure work of repentance he sought god with all his heart resting not until he knew for a certainty that his repentance was accepted and his sin pardoned he longed for the assurance that jesus would be with him in his coming ministry brothers and sisters do we need to long for that today to know that jesus is with us in whatever we are doing and preaching and saying and ministering and then she's going to say this is page 126 of acts of the apostles when the mind of a man is brought into communion with the mind of god the finite with the infinite the effect on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate do you want to have a strong body mind and soul yes or no i hope you want it for the right reasons like paul wanted but look when the mind of a man is brought into communion with the mind of god through prayer in the study of his word when the mind of man is brought into communion with the mind of god the finite that's us that's you and me with the infinite that's god the effect on body and mind and soul is beyond estimate and such communion is found the highest education it is god's own method of development acquaint now thyself with him is his message to mankind amen and here you have the apostle paul alone in the desert gaining the strength of body and mind and soul to preach the gospel no matter what so he comes back to damascus and the bible tells us that right there and then in damascus they plot to kill him then they lure him down through the wall in a basket he runs to jerusalem in jerusalem all the disciples were afraid of him they were afraid that he was just pretending to be a christian and they did not want to interact with him so barnabas brings him and he presents him to the apostles and he spends probably right there and then the 15 days with peter hearing from peter about jesus and he is preaching and right there in jerusalem they not only plot to kill him but the the hellenists the greek-speaking jews try to kill him and the persecutor becomes persecuted but you know friends if you are following jesus as the apostle paul was following jesus you don't care if people hate you and persecute you because he wrote for to me to live is christ and to die is gain if i die following jesus and being persecuted because of jesus well it's just a moment friends i close my eyes and at the second coming i regain conscience because god is giving me a new body and i'll be with him forever are you being persecuted today is pain ripping your body today is life very hard for you today are you tired of suffering today i know many of you are remember the words of the apostle paul for to me to live is christ even with pain for me to live is christ and to die is gain love jesus go from persecutor to persecute it and praise god for that amen let us pray father in heaven thank you for the wonderful example of the apostle paul and thank you that he was following the example of our wonderful savior jesus thank you for everything that jesus suffered for us and thank you for men like the apostle paul men and women throughout the ages of christianity who were willing to bleed and die for the sake of the gospel because they loved they wholeheartedly loved the one who loved them and who gave himself for them in the name of jesus we pray that this same faith this same experience that you gave to the apostle paul you may give to us so that if we are sick or healthy if we are persecuted or if we have peace if we are allowed to worship publicly or if we have to worship privately if we are in times of war or in times of relative peace we may say with the apostle paul to me to live is christ nothing else is as important to me to me my life is jesus and if i die that's gain may we all say that not only with our lips but with our hearts and our lives i pray in the name of jesus christ amen amen all right friends so as our orchestra is coming up very quickly i would like to inform you that we have a family of our church that has been kind enough to give us to offer to our church several things first of all they gave us 1 000 great controversies and some of you took some great controversies last week and some of you will be able to take some great controversies this week i encourage you to pray for your friends and family members and even people that you encounter throughout your day pray in the morning and ask lord they want me to give this book to someone today or if god is convicting you about a relationship a friendship please take a few books with you one two three to your home give it to people that you prayed for okay and if you didn't pray for a person but you feel in the moment that god is convicting you here you have them pastor don mclafferty sent us a lot of his books come home and these are wonderful books for the revival of your family and to reach out as an evangelistic tool you can take one or two they're also available available for you at the foyer great book and today i am starting to announce this but we will announce the next two sabbats as well we have the same family they gave to our church 4 000 glow threats for a specific purpose and reason i know you see glow tracks over there in the foyer we all know what it is we've all have distributed glow hopefully if not you can start today but these are for a special purpose you know that the halloween season is coming and these are with the title are ghosts real and myths about hell and can dead people talk these are great to pass out in the halloween season and the idea is i'm going to give you two ideas next week you're going to receive more desiree has been giving me some awesome ideas so i'm going to interview her next week and ask her to share with us some of her ideas but i'm going to give you two ideas today take a few of these home keep them near your door where you have the vegan non-sugar probably doesn't taste good candy right there's actually candy that can taste good and is healthy okay so find something healthy to give to kids and as they come to your door and say trick-or-treat you know leave your we normally leave or we adventists you know we don't want to see people they want to touch people especially if they come all dressed up as with you know as they are skeletons and whatever and we don't we don't want that it's a great opportunity to witness right so leave the the the light of your porch on let them come to you you know they come with all those cobwebs and stuff you have the cobweb of the gospel you know just kidding anyways you they let them come to you and as you give them some nice non-sugary healthy treat you also give them one or two or three glow tracks amen so they they can read or for that night especially or those nights that kids are going out you can actually go out and you can you can ask trick or truth you know and give them one glow track that has the truth of the gospel so these are just one or two ideas next week you'll have more but you can start taking them today okay they will be at the foyer for you so thank you for your attention and may the lord bless you give you a wonderful sabbath thank you for your prayers i am praying for you as well our closing song will be number 511 i know whom i have believed and if you could please stand we'll sing all four verses of number 511 i know whom i have believed i know grace me [Music] until is [Music] is [Music] unto him [Music] god jesus [Music] that he is unto him [Music] my god foreign [Music] you may be seated and please go with those words in peace and know that he will keep you unto that day [Music] you

Channel: Fresno Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Length: 102min 7sec (6127 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 10 2021