 Morning to all of you who are online and over at Portage. Come on, can everybody put their hands together and say hello to those who are joining us online and at Portage, we love you guys. Pastor Stephan and Candice, we love you guys. Jane and I have been on vacation, but we could not wait to come home this weekend because one of my favorite teachers is our guest today. Pastor Rick and Denise Renner lead an amazing church in Moscow called Good News Church. He is a prolific writer, Bible teacher, but the most important thing that you need to know is that Rick has been a mentor and a friend and an encourager to me and to this church for 20 plus years. And when people ask me, who do you listen to? You know, what podcast do you listen to? Whose books do you read? Well, Rick Renner is one of the leading voices that has influenced me. And also you need to know this, today is his birthday. So he's spending his birthday with us. So we are just so thrilled and honored to have them here with us today. So I wanna invite you at both of our campuses and even online, if you're watching at home, I want you to show honor. I want you to stand to your feet and welcome to the platform of Radiant Church. Rick Renner as he comes to bring the word. Good morning. Well, turn to somebody and say, today we're gonna get something brand new from the Bible. Tell somebody else, we're gonna get something brand new from the Bible today, then you may be seated. Amen. We're so good to be here. Denise and I love to be with Pastor Lee and Jane and we love this church. And I wanna tell you, we're impacting the world. I watch you almost every week from Moscow. And I wanna say thank you for your witness, Pastor Lee, thank you for your teaching ministry. You know, you really have a very brilliant pastor. Do you know that? He's a thinker. And it's rare when you get a thinker who's also spiritual. And so you have a great combination in this church and I just say amen. And we're glad to be with you today. It's such a privilege to be with you. And I wanna say I have a couple new books. I'm a writer, so I'm all the time writing new books. And since the last time that I was here, I've written five books. And today I brought two of them. One is called Signs You'll See Just Before Jesus Comes. And the reason I wrote this book is because I was watching prophecy teachers on television, noticing how they very sensationally scare people within time prophecies. And I don't believe in that. God is not in the business of scaring people. He isn't in the business of preparing people but not scaring people. So I began to look at the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 to see exactly what did he say would be the signs that we would see just before he comes. And I found some remarkable things. And in fact, I was quite shocked. I thought the primary sign that he was coming again would be something to do with Israel. But when I studied Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 24, I found out he gave something else as the primary sign that would indicate we're right at the very end of the age. It just stunned me when I saw what Jesus said. And you need to know the answer and it's in this book. I think you're gonna be really surprised. Then I have another brand new book and I'm gonna be doing some teaching from it today because pastor Lee has asked me to teach on the apostle Paul. No one's ever asked me to do that before so this is new today. But I just recently wrote something about it in this book called The Will of God, the Key to Your Success. And the subhead says positioning yourself to live in God's supernatural power, provision, and protection. Wonderful things happen when you get in the will of God. It doesn't mean that you're without resistance or opposition, but when you're in the right place and you're doing the right thing, you have supernatural provision, you have power, you have protection that you do not have out of the will of God. And I know that you want to be in the will of God. Well, how do you get in it? How do you get from where you are to where you know God wants you to be? That's in this book and it will really be a blessing to you. But today, open your Bibles to Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three and in obedience to your pastor, today I'm gonna be speaking on the life of the apostle Paul. You're doing a series in your church on heroes. And so today we're gonna look at Paul. And Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for today. We thank you for the amazing Bible. And Lord, we pray today that the scriptures will be open to us, that we'll see them like we've never seen them before. Take us into the scriptures until we feel them. Let us leave with the word of God burning in our hearts today. We look to you, Holy Spirit, you're the great teacher. You wrote this book and today we ask you to open it to us in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. We're going to begin in Philippians chapter three. Do you have your Bibles today? Let me see your Bibles. Your Bibles are your devices, wonderful. Open to Philippians chapter three and today we're going to begin in verse four. When Paul writes the book of Philippians, he's responding to people who say they have greater credibility than him claiming that they are more Jewish than he is. So when you come to Philippians chapter three, Paul tells us how Jewish he is. And this really is the background of what I'm going to be sharing with you today. So we're going to look today in verse four. He says, though I also have confidence in the flesh, if any other things that he has reason to be confident, I have more. And then he begins to describe his pedigree. He says, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. You can quickly read through these, but if you stop and reflect on each one of these, each one of these things, tell us something very important about the life of the apostle Paul. For example, he says he was circumcised on the eighth day. Well, all Jewish boys were circumcised, but only boys born into extremely strict religious families were circumcised exactly on the eighth day. So in the very first statement, we find that Paul was born into a very strictly religious Jewish family. That is why he was circumcised on the eighth day. Not only that, he says he is of the stock of Israel. This is a very nationalistic statement. This is not a patriotic statement, this is a nationalistic statement. You have to remember that Israel was occupied by foreign troops, the Romans were there, and the people of Israel had interbred with other nations. And those who were pure Jewish, those who were pure breads, had a real sense of elitism about who they were. And when Paul says he is of the stock of Israel, this is one of the most elitist, nationalistic statements that can be made. He is elevating himself above everyone else, saying not me, I'm not like others, I'm not interbred with other nationalities, I'm a purebred, I'm of the stock of Israel. So first of all, we find that he's born into a strictly religious family. Second, we find he's very nationalistic and very proud of the fact that he is a purebred Jew. And then he says, of the tribe of Benjamin. Well, the tribe of Benjamin was the most cherished and the most treasured of all the tribes. And in fact, it was so treasured that when the men of Israel would go to war, before they commenced fighting, they would lift their voices and they would scream for Benjamin. They fought for the sake of Benjamin. And Paul says, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, they don't come much better than me. Basically is what he says. Then he says, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, which means born to Hebrew parents, obeying Hebrew customs, speaking the Hebrew language, living by the Hebrew scriptures, everything about him was Hebrew. You have to understand that in the first century, the Roman world, the Greco-Roman world was a very divided world. Jews had nothing to do with Gentiles. Jews saw themselves as better than Gentiles. Gentiles, by the way, did not like Jews. They saw themselves as better than Jews. The circumcision versus the uncircumcision. Even the barbarians felt they were better than Scythians. It was a divided world. You may say, well, who are Scythians? Scythians were low level barbarians. They were a group of barbarians. But the barbarians would say, we may be barbarians, but we are not Scythians. This is how divided the Roman world was. Then there was bond versus free. But the Bible tells us in Colossians 3, one that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither barbarian nor Scythian, neither bond nor free, and in Galatians, Paul adds, neither male nor female, but Christ is all and in all. I want to tell you that was a revolutionary concept. In Christ we are the same. But Paul grew up in a world that was very divided and nothing was more divided than the Jewish world. Hebrews, purebred Hebrews, despised Gentiles. They saw Gentiles as low level, dirty, filthy, stinking, uncircumcised barbarians. By rule they were not allowed to sit at the same table and share a meal with a Gentile. They had nothing to do with Gentiles. And in fact every Jewish boy when he was growing up was taught to pray every morning. God I thank you that I was born a Jew and not a Gentile. Better be born a dog than to be born a Gentile. And in fact among those that were strictly religious Jews they believed the only use of a Gentile was to hire one to stand at the front door of your house to wash your dirty feet as you walked into your house. But you would never have a Gentile into your home, never. They were to be loathed, they were despised, they were considered to be disgusting barbarians. And Paul says I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews which means this was his mentality about Gentiles. And this is very foundational to what I'm going to tell you today. But that's not all. He goes on and says as touching the law he was a Pharisee. Well among the Jews there were two camps. You could say there were two denominations. There were the Sadducees. I always say the Sadducees were sad you see because they were very liberal in their doctrine. They didn't believe in anything supernatural. They dismissed all supernatural stories from the Old Testament. And that's why the Sadducees hated Jesus. They didn't believe in any of this supernatural miraculous nonsense. Then there were the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the most strict in terms of religion and keeping the law. And Paul says when it comes to what we believed I was a Pharisee, which by the way is the same as saying I was at the very top of my denomination. I wasn't just religious, I was a Pharisee. They don't come much stricter than I was. Then he continues to say concerning zeal, persecuting the church. The word zeal is an interesting Greek word which was used to describe the right wing political faction of Israel. Which means Paul was as right wing as right wing could become. And in fact those who were part of the right wing party were very upset about the presence of the church because they saw the new church as a deviant group who had deviated from pure Judaism. And because they saw these as rebels, renegades, as a deviant faith, they believed it was their job to ethnically cleanse the nation of Israel from these Christians. And if they could kill the Christians or imprison the Christians by killing them they would heal the nation of a spiritual disease. That's what they believed. By killing them, by exterminating Christians they would cleanse the nation. It was a kind of ethnic cleansing. And by killing the Christians it would bring healing to the nation of this disease group called Christians. And that's why Paul says concerning zeal, I was a member of the right wing party and as a result he says, persecuting the church, that's what he did. Then he adds these words, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Whether we're more than 600 laws it's not possible for one person in one life if he tries his very best to keep all 600 laws. So this is a statement that baffles theologians. How could he possibly mean he was blameless? If you're gonna translate it literally means concerning the righteousness that is in the law the 600 so laws I kept them all. That's impossible. So it must mean I kept them as best as any human being has ever kept them. Now in addition to those things there are other things we know about the apostle Paul for example. When in his youngest years he grew up in Jerusalem but later in life he moved to what is today Southern Turkey, Celicia near the city of Tarsus where his father was a very wealthy man. You may have read in the Bible that Paul was a tent maker. Well in fact he was from a family of tent makers and his father owned the largest factory in Southern Turkey that fabricated tents for the Roman army and because of that he was from a very wealthy family. He was educated in the University of Tarsus which was one of the most sophisticated universities of that time. We know that Paul spoke multiple languages and was extremely wealthy. He was so wealthy that he was able to purchase his citizenship. The book of Acts tells us that and citizenship back in those days in today's currency would be the equivalent of $220,000. That's what it cost to become a Roman citizen. Not only that we know that he was wealthy because when he was arrested in the city of Jerusalem was transported to the city of Caesarea the Bible says he was transported. One prisoner, one prisoner was transported by 200 footmen, 200 men carrying spears, 70 men on horses. That's a lot of men to transport one prisoner. And when he finally arrived in the city of Caesarea he was not placed in a normal prison hole but rather he was placed in a room inside the Imperial Palace. You can go there, you can see exactly where Paul was put with a huge window that overlooked the hippodrome and the beautiful bay. It was a lovely place, not a place where you would normally put a prisoner. And in fact, Paul was so rich financially by birth that the Bible tells us that Felix, you can read this in Acts chapter 24 and Acts chapter 25 kept him there bound for two years hoping to get money from him. Well, what kind of prisoner do you have that you're hoping to get money out of your prisoner? They thought Paul had enough money to buy his way out of prison. So Paul was a man born into privilege. Some scholars in modern research even believed that he was a distant relative of Herod himself. This was a powerful man who had been raised to believe that he was elite, he was nationalistic in a very negative way, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, he was the top of his denomination, and he believed, as a member of the right wing political faction, that it was his job to ethnically cleanse the nation, to persecute these people called Christians to eliminate the church, and he really believed it was his divine service to do that. Now, turn to Acts chapter seven. Let's go to Acts chapter seven and see what we find next. And when we come to Acts chapter seven, we find that Stephen is preaching. And because Stephen has made such a ruckus with his message, he has been brought to Jerusalem to stand in front of the Sanhedrin, and he is preached. And in Acts chapter seven, verse 54, the Bible's describing the reaction of the Sanhedrin to his message. And when they heard these things, speaking of the Sanhedrin, they were cut to the heart. And how did they respond? They gnashed on him with their teeth. If you can imagine, these men were so filled with hate, they took Stephen and began to bite him, physically bite him to stop him from preaching. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God. And what does it say next? And Jesus' standing. Jesus' standing on the right hand of God. Verse 56, and Stephen said, behold, the Greek word behold in Greek is almost impossible to translate. A better translation would be, and wow, can you imagine it? He struck with such a sense of astonishment that Stephen literally says, wow, what does he see? I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Verse 55 says he's standing on the right hand of God. Verse 56 again repeats he's standing on the right hand of God. And even this is significant because Jesus in heaven is seated. He's seated on the throne. His work is finished. But in these verses he is standing. He has stood to attention because Stephen is about to become the first martyr of the church. And Christ stands to salute the first martyr of the church. Verse 57, then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped him with their ears and ran upon him with one accord and cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was what? Saul, and we know that later became the apostle Paul. Chapter eight, verse one. And Saul was consenting under his death. That word consenting is a Greek word which means Paul gave the final word or the final vote. It was Paul's final word that gave them permission to kill Stephen. So there Paul stands, watching as this young man is preaching the gospel. Paul is watching members of the Sanhedrin so filled with fury that they are acting like animals. They are biting this man with their teeth. They're putting their hands over their ears. They're screaming. They're picking up rocks to stone him. And Paul has the power to say he can live or he can die. And it was Paul who consented kill him. And in fact his death was so miserable. The chapter eight and verse one says, Saul was consenting under his death. That word death is a horrible word. It describes a massacre or an absolute slaughter. What they did to Stephen was horrific. And the rest of the verse says, and at that time as a result of this, there arose a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. When Stephen was killed and the religious leaders had a taste for blood, something was let loose. And it resulted in a great persecution. The word great is the word mega. Just as you would imagine, the word mega describes something that is enormous. So this was not just a little localized persecution. This was a mega persecution. It embraced the entire city of Jerusalem. The word persecution is from the Greek word dioko. The word dioko is a hunting term. It literally describes a hunter who puts on his hunting clothes. He begins to follow the tracks of the animal. He begins to follow the scent of the animal, hunting, hunting, hunting, following, following, following until he either captures, apprehends or kills his game. And now we find that in the city of Jerusalem there were religious police and their leader was Saul. Saul was a powerful man, an educated man, a privileged man, a respected man, a man who loved his pure Jewish faith and who wanted to cleanse the nation of this deviant religion. And he had been empowered by religious leaders to lead the secret police who like hunters begin following the scent of believers, following the tracks of believers, camouflaging themselves to look like believers, to sound like believers, to sneak their way into believers' meetings so they could discover where believers met, who were the leaders, infiltrate the ranks and then begin to destroy them. And the leader of these police was a man named Saul who later became the apostle Paul. And the Bible tells us in verse three, as for Saul, he made havoc of the church. Well, this word havoc is a shocking word when you read it in the Greek language because this word havoc is an old word which described a diseased, rabid pig. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How could you use the word pig to describe a Jew? Jews have nothing to do with pigs, they don't eat pork, they have nothing to do with it. They consider it to be unclean. But now Luke, who is writing this story, borrows a word which really lets us know how much hatred had grown in the heart of Paul. And when he says Paul made havoc of the church, it literally means he began to act like a pig. That's a terrible thing to say about anybody but this particular pig was really worse because it described a wild, sick, rabid pig and these pigs were like boars that had big tusks and they were very notorious. They were known to come in from the countryside to destroy a vineyard, to destroy everything surrounding a house, even to go into houses where with their boars, they would begin to grab people, especially children, drag them out of the houses, maul them, kill them, these boars were horrible. And that is the very word used in this verse to describe the apostle Paul. A man so consumed with hatred, a man so consumed with rage that Luke says this man became like a sick pig. And that's why he goes on to describe his activities in this verse, in this way. Dragging men and women out of houses, acting just like one of these pigs. And in fact the word dragging that is used here means to forcibly drag against the will. These believers were kicking, they were screaming as they were being dragged out of their homes. And the Bible says, committing them into prison, the word prison, the Greek word fulake which describes a Roman prison, there was nothing worse than a Roman prison. If you were put into a Roman prison, you were put there possibly for the rest of your life. He was putting them away forever. And his objective was to do God a service to cleanse the nation of this deviant cult called Christians. Now the language which we find in this verse, which is written by Luke because Luke wrote the book of Acts, it is so negative it would be difficult to write anything worse. But when you come to 1st Timothy chapter one verse 12 and verse 13, we have Paul's own description of himself in his own words. So I want you to turn there. To 1st Timothy chapter one verse 12 and verse 13. 1st Timothy chapter one verse 12, let's just look at verse 13. And in verse 13, Paul says, before that, before Christ, I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor. And then he uses this strange word in the King James version. He says, I was injurious. So Paul's describing himself. He says, before Christ, I was a blasphemer. The word blasphemer is a translation of the Greek word blasphemeo. Most of us think that if you blaspheme, it means you're saying something negative about God, but in fact, the word blaspheme only has to do with God if you're using it in the context of God. The word blasphemy, the Greek word blasphemeo, which Paul used, means to speak foul language, foul language, nasty, profane words, words that you would not want your wife to hear. And Paul says, this is what came out of my mouth. And in fact, the word blaspheme, the Greek word blasphemeo means to deliberately and calculatedly insult and embarrass someone else, to fashion your words in a way that you deliberately humiliate somebody. So though he was educated, though he was elite, nationalistic, strictly religious, a member of the right wing party, top of his denomination, and even dressed like a very religious man, his heart was so dark that when he opened his mouth, a filth came out of his mouth. There is no other way to interpret this. Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, what? The mouth speaks. The mouth is the outlet for the human heart. What is in you comes out your mouth. And when Paul opened his mouth, what was in him came out. It was vile. It was nasty. It was derogatory. It was profane. A religious man dressed in religious clothes, but sewage came out of his mouth. It was profane. Secondly, he says he was a persecutor. Again, from the Greek word dioko, which means I was a high-level hunter. He wasn't just hoping that he would catch believers. He was following their tracks. He was following their scent. He was a high-level hunter when it came to persecuting the church. But then third of all, in verse 13, he says he was injurious. It's a very strange word. It's a translation of the Greek word hubrisis. And believe it or not, the word hubrisis translated injurious is the old Greek word for a sadist. One who inflicts pain on others for the sake of enjoyment. Now Luke in Acts chapter eight verse three called him a wild pig. Said he was like a diseased person. That's what Luke said about him. But now Paul says, let me tell you what I think of myself. Before I came to Christ, let me tell you in my own words, he said hubrisis, I was injurious. I was involved in sadism. I inflicted pain on others and enjoyed it. When they screamed, I got a thrill out of it. When their blood splattered, it gave me a sensation. This man was consumed by hatred, consumed. And if you were to translate the verse correctly, it would read like this. Before I was a slanderer who took delight in speaking nasty derogatory words about those whom I deemed were unfit for society. My goal was to defame, injure and harm their reputations. I relentlessly pursued those with whom I didn't agree. And my goal was to pursue them, capture them and see to it that they were put away forever or even exterminated. In fact, I was so twisted that I actually derived pleasure from the pain I inflicted on others. And the truth is that back in those days, nothing gave me more gratification than those moments when I terribly abused those I was pursuing. This is remarkable. What is more remarkable is that this is the man who wrote the bulk of the New Testament, which means if Paul can be saved, anybody can be saved. Anybody can be saved. This was a hopeless case. If ever there was a hopeless case, well now go back to Acts chapter nine. Acts chapter nine, where we pick up the story. And in Acts chapter nine, the Bible continues to tell us more about Saul. Acts chapter nine, verse one, and Saul yet breathing out threatening and slaughter, breathing out means with every breath, with every breath that he spoke, hatred was coming out of his mouth, with every breath that he spoke, threatenings were coming out of his mouth. And not just threatening slaughter. The word slaughter that is used here is the word for mutilation. It is the word for massacre. He didn't want to just kill believers. He wanted to make an example of every believer that he killed. This is horrible bloodshed. And Saul yet breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went into the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus. Now you're going to find out as we get to Acts chapter 26, that Paul had already worked through the whole city of Jerusalem. He had gone from house to house, trying to eradicate Christians. When he was finished with Jerusalem, he began to go to other nearby cities. And here's the thing about hate that we all know and need to know. If you don't restrain hate, it just takes you to the next level. And when he was finished in one city, the hate took him to the surrounding areas. And when he was finished with the surrounding areas, his hate drove him until now he was ready to take it all the way to the city of Damascus. It was unrestrained hate. And he desired letters to Damascus, to the synagogues. That if he found any of this way, this way refers to the deviant sect Christians, whether they were men or women. That's a big statement because women were treated better, but not in the case of Saul. Saul didn't care whether they were men or whether they were women. He wanted to bring them down to the city of Jerusalem. Verse three. And as he journeyed, he came nigh into Damascus. And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth. And heard a voice saying into him, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? The word persecutes, the Greek word dioko, which means to hunt. Why are you hunting me? And Saul answered and said, who art thou? What? Lord, everybody say Lord. In Greek it is the word kurie, which is the direct form of the word kurias. The word kurias means supreme master, the one to whom I have submitted, the one to whom I give complete control, kurias. In this moment, he calls Jesus, Lord. We're told in Romans chapter 10 that if you confess Jesus is Lord, you shall be saved. We're told in Romans chapter 10 verse 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, the same word that is used here, the Greek word kurias shall be saved. And in this moment, Paul is converted. Now when you read this in Acts chapter 19, nine, which is written by Luke, this is Luke's account, there's some details that are not included which we're going to read in Acts chapter 26. We know, for example, though when Paul was knocked to the ground, he looked up into the sky and standing in the glory above him, he actually saw Jesus. So when he said, who art thou, Lord? He wasn't speaking to something invisible. He was seeing Jesus in the sky, standing in front of him, speaking directly to the one that had appeared unto him. Jesus appeared to him and he called Jesus, Lord. Now I know that many times people think you're not saved unless you pray the sinner's prayer exactly the right way. He did not pray the sinner's prayer. He just surrendered. He didn't even know that he was being converted. Paul gives his own testimony in Philippians chapter three, verse 12, where he says he was apprehended of Christ Jesus. That word apprehended can really blow your theology to pieces because we all think that we make a choice to accept Jesus. But that word apprehended is the Greek word kata lumbano, the word kata means down, the word lumbano means to seize. You put the two words together, it means to forcibly take somebody down, to tackle them, to master them, to subdue them. When Paul says I was apprehended of Christ Jesus, the Greek literally means Christ tackled me, he subdued me, he mastered me, he took me down and made me his own. Which means he didn't have much of a choice about his conversion. Jesus said, you're mine and I'm taking you. That's what he's gonna do with the people that you're a little concerned about. He's gonna take them down, my friend. And in this moment Christ tackles him. And he said, who art thou, Kurias? The direct form, Kuria, who are you, Lord? Absolute master, I give you everything, you're the one that's in charge. And Christ seizes him. And the Lord, the Kurias, the master said unto him, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutes. Look at verse six. And he trembled and astonished. That word trembling, the Greek word tromasse. If you just read it on a surface, it looks like Paul was just terrified in this moment. But in fact the word tromasse is the Greek word which describes somebody that is trembling, someone having seizures or convulsions. He is literally having convulsions as he lays on the floor. His entire body is in seizures. He's violently shaking. What's happening? He's being born again. The spirit of God is coming in. And as the spirit of God comes in, the rage, the hatred, the vile darkness is going out. And what we find in this verse is a divine transaction is taking place. Paul is becoming a new creature in a moment in the flash of a second. Life is coming in. The old life is going out. And Paul is literally quivering, convulsing as this divine transaction is taking place inside him. And the Bible says he was astonished from the Greek word thambeil, which means to be at a loss of words. He didn't know how to describe what was happening to him. He didn't know how to put words to it. Something was happening that was unexpected. As suddenly he was being born again. And notice what were his first words. Lord, what would you have me to do? That's evidence that he's a born again man because when you're saved, that's the first thing you ask. Lord, what's next? Lord, what do you want me to do? Lord, what do you want me to do with my life? This was a man saying, I'm yours. I'm yours. What do you want me to do with my life? And the Bible says that Jesus spoke to him and said, arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. Verse eight, and Saul rose from the earth and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. He had been temporarily blinded. God's not in the business of removing people's sight. He wasn't really blinded. He was just temporarily put on pause. And they led him by the hand and brought him into the city of Damascus. Then if you would look at verse nine and he was three days without sight and neither did he eat nor drink. Three days without sight, couldn't see. When you can't see, you're stationary. Can't move around, you can't get in, you can't go out. You're just stuck in one place. All you can do is just sit. For three days he couldn't see. Accompanying his blindness, he didn't eat, he didn't drink. Somebody said, well maybe he started his ministry with a fast, had nothing to do with a fast. Had nothing to do with a fast. He lost his appetite. Why did he lose his appetite? The answer is in Acts chapter 26. So turn to Acts chapter 26. Are y'all with me? Are you getting any new insight to the apostle Paul? Acts chapter 26, verse nine. Paul is standing before King Agrippa giving his testimony. Remember, Acts chapter nine was written by Luke. It is Luke's words about Saul's conversion. But when you come to Acts chapter 26, Paul is standing in front of Agrippa and we have his own words. Well you know, you can give my testimony, but nobody can give my testimony better than me. I know things about my testimony that nobody else knows. So Luke didn't do a bad job. It's just that Paul knew more details than anybody else because it was his story. So now when we come to chapter 26, he gives his own story in his own words and we find details that we don't read in Luke's account in chapter nine. So now we come to Acts chapter 26 and verse eight, verse nine, and the Bible says, I rarely thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints that I shut up in prison. By the way, it describes a permanent concealment. He thought he was shutting them up forever and having received authority from the chief priests, when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. By the way, Pastor Lee, something important here because the chief priests at this time did not have the authority to authorize death. It meant they were going beyond their perimeters of authority. They were going beyond what they were allowed to do. And Paul says, I'm the one that cast the final vote for them to die. I gave my voice against them. Verse 11, and I punish them often. And every synagogue can compel them to blaspheme, compel the Greek word, anacrodzo. The word anacrodzo is the Greek word which means to scream your head off incessantly. He was so out of control, he would begin yelling at believers, anacrodzo, screaming at them and screaming at them, yelling his head off. It was horrible the way he spoke to them, compaling them, blaspheme, blaspheme the name of Jesus. And then Paul says, I'm being exceedingly mad. That's what the King James Version says. Exceedingly mad, the word mad in Greek is exactly the Greek word from which we get the word for a maniac. Paul says, I was a maniac. I was out of control. So now in Acts chapter eight, verse three, Luke tells us, and by the way, Luke is a doctor. He's careful with his terms. Luke says he was like a wild, rabid pig. Now we know from 1 Timothy chapter one, verse 13, Paul says, who braces injurious, I was a sadist. I enjoyed the pain that I inflicted on others. And now we have Paul's words in chapter 26, verse 11, where he says, I was a maniac. He had become deranged with hatred. I persecuted them even under strange cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me, and then which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, Luke tells us he fell. Paul says all of us were knocked flat. I heard a voice speaking into me, saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? Why are you hunting me? Verse 15. And I answered, who are thou curious? Who are thou, Lord? Sovereign, master above all? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you're hunting. Verse 16. Jesus said, rise and stand up on your feet for I have appeared unto thee. You see, he appeared unto Paul. This wasn't just a nebulous voice or some invisible entity speaking to him. There was a divine appearance. When he looked into that glory, he saw Jesus standing there. And Jesus said, rise, stand up on your feet. And I love this because Jesus didn't say grovel. Jesus didn't say beg. Jesus didn't say crawl. He said, get up on your feet. And likewise, when Christ comes into our life, he does not require us to grovel before him. He sets us up on our feet and gives us a new future. And Jesus says, I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and to witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of the things in which I will appear unto thee. What a miraculous moment. In one minute, filled with rage that is driving him to Damascus to arrest and to execute. In the next moment, he is knocked flat by the power of God, looking up into blazing glory. He sees a figure standing before him and it is Jesus. And by the way, it may not be the first time that he's seen Jesus. Jesus had been in Jerusalem at the time that Paul was there. Paul may have encountered Jesus at an earlier moment. But now he sees Jesus standing there. Jesus says, rise, get up on your feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. And this is so powerful because in the very moment that he was saved, God's will for his life was imparted to him. And I wanna tell you friends, if you need to know the will of God, it's not floating out in the heavens, it's in you. The will of God is located in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mind of God. And when the Holy Spirit comes into you at conversion, he brings everything with him, including God's will for your life, which means God's will for you is right here. It may not have connected here yet. It's waiting to connect. And when you get it from here to here, it's what the Bible calls understanding. Suddenly you understand. But in this very moment, God's will was revealed to Paul. And Jesus says, number one, I'm gonna make you a minister. One second ago, you were killing ministers, now you are in the ministry. And then he even tells him what kind of a ministry he's going to have. He says, I've made you a minister and I'll witness both of those things which thou has seen. He's talking about this revelation and which you will be seeing, which means he's going to have progressive revelations and more revelations and more revelations. It will be a revelatory ministry. That's why he was able to write the bulk of the New Testament. And then he says, delivering thee from the people, the word delivering really means removing you from the people, the word people, the word Laos. But in this particular case, it means removing you from your own nation. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I remember the right wing political party. He loved his nation. He was trying to heal his nation, cleanse them of this new faction. And now Jesus says, I'm going to remove you from your own people. And I will protect you from the Gentiles. Everybody say Gentiles. Unto whom now I send thee, the word send, the Greek word apostellates where we get the word for an apostle. So in the very moment of his conversion, he's thrust into the ministry. He's going to have a ministry of supernatural revelation. God is going to remove him from his own nation. And God is going to send him as an apostle to the... Who? Gentiles. Now I would imagine it was probably hard for him to hear anything Jesus said after that. Because when he heard the word Gentiles, send you to the Gentiles, the Gentiles, the Gentiles, the Gentiles. He wouldn't even sit at the same table with a Gentile. And now he's going to be the apostle to the Gentiles. But notice what else? Delivering you from your own people and protecting you from the Gentiles unto whom now I send you as an apostle is a little translation. To open their eyes, understand the Greek means to open Gentile eyes. To turn Gentiles from darkness to light. Gentiles from the power of Satan unto God. That Gentiles may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith. That is in me. This man thoroughly, thoroughly Jewish, will not even sit at the same table to eat a meal with a Gentile. His only use of a Gentile is to stand outside his door and wash his dirty feet. As far as he's concerned, low level, stinking, filthy barbarians, they're good for nothing. I have nothing to do with them. They stay over there. I have nothing to do with them. I despise them. I despise their culture. I despise their religions. They're filthy. They're dirty. They're stinking. They're over there. I am over here. I have no contact with them. And now Jesus says, hey, guess what? You are the apostle to the Gentile. In Russian we have a phrase that some people in their calculations and their statements, they don't swim very deep. They're not deep swimmers. I love that statement in Russian. I mean, you pull up a torch and glub a call. They don't swim very deep in the way they think. And sometimes shallow swimmers say, you know, God will never send you anywhere where you're not comfortable. God will never ask you to do anything that will make you unhappy. God will never move you out of the zone where you're most comfortable. Those are not deep swimmers. Those are not deep swimmers. If that was the case, none of us would be saved today. No missionaries would have ever gone. No missionary has ever relished going to mission fields where they could be killed. But there's a grace when you're called to a place. There's a grace. The apostle Paul later said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Most people think that means, hey, don't try to change me. I am what I am by the grace of God. This is the way I am. If you don't like it, you can lump it. This is what I am. That word grace is the word carous. I'm my my. The word carous was a pagan term that Paul borrowed and put in the New Testament. The word carous was a word used among pagans to describe that moment when just a simple person was touched by the gods in some magical way. And when a person was touched by the gods, a common person could suddenly do the miraculous. A common person suddenly became uncommon. Something happened to him that changed him. And in fact, in Paul's day outside the New Testament, when somebody began to act really strange or they begin to do something really remarkable, other pagans would say, wow, that person's under grace. Isn't that amazing? Which means the grace of God doesn't just accept us as we are. It empowers us to be different than we are. And when Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of God, he's literally saying, I'm not what I used to be because the grace of God touched me and I am what I am now because I'm under the divine spell of God himself. And it changed me. That's what the grace of God will do for you. Even if God calls you somewhere that's not natural to you, his grace will come on you. It will empower you to be everything you need to be for where he's called you to be. That's my testimony. A boy from Sand Springs, a girl from Miami, Oklahoma. Whenever I dreamed we'd live in Russia, have relationships with people in the Kremlin, speaking Russian, having Russian grandchildren, Russian family, Russian church, everything about us Russian, who would have ever thought that? But the grace of God touched us and enabled us to do something beyond our ability. And the same with you. But Paul hasn't embraced the grace yet. Now he's sitting in the house in Damascus. He's on pause. God has stunned him so that he can't see, he can't move, he can't do anything. He's sitting in that house. He doesn't eat, he doesn't drink, he's not fasting, he has lost his appetite. He keeps hearing the word. Gentiles, Gentiles. I'm sending you to Gentiles, Gentiles. He can't eat, just thinking of Gentiles. He can't eat. Food's not interesting. What do you mean? Gentiles, Gentiles, Gentiles, Gentiles. And in those three days, he was doing what you have to do when God speaks to you. He was trying to jerk himself into alignment with what God had said to him. And three days later, a visitor showed up by the name of Ananias, a Christian from Damascus. And Ananias had received a prophetic word for Saul. He walked in the house, he said Saul. King James Version says, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you in the way, spoke to me, he gave me a word for you. He told me that I'm to come here and lay my hands on you, that your eyes would be open, that you would be filled with the Holy Spirit. And by the way, he gave me a prophetic word for you. You what the Lord said? The Lord said, you are a chosen vessel to carry the name of Jesus to the Gentiles. Then he added to kings and to the children of Israel. But the prophetic order was clear. First, foremost, above everything else. Before you do anything else, your number one priority, your biggest assignment is you to take the name of Jesus to the Gentiles. And by the way, if you have time, then speak to the kings. And last and least of all, if you have the opportunity along the way en route to somewhere else, if you can, speak to the children of Israel. God reversed this man's desire. His heart beat for the Jews. He hated the Gentiles. And God said, let's turn it around. I'm gonna send you to the Gentiles first. And the Jews are gonna be the lowest priority. And Paul, over a period of years, really took about five years to study it. It's in my book, The Will of God, The Key to Your Success. Took him about five years. He finally aligned himself that he was the apostle to the Gentiles. He even says it over and over in his writings. I have a grace for the Gentiles. I have a dispensation for the Gentiles. I'm the apostle to the Gentiles. He says it over and over and over. He finally aligned himself with it. And when he finally pulled himself into alignment, he became the legendary apostle. And single-handedly is the greatest contributor to Western civilization through his writings, through his revelations, and changed the Gentile world. It's quite a change for a man who began loathing Gentiles to become the apostle to the Gentiles. But that's what happens when the grace of God touches your life. That's what can happen to you. And if you have a husband that's unsaved or a wife that's not living for God or a child that has wandered, a relative or a friend, and you look at them and you think, oh, I don't know if there's any hope for them. Just think of the apostle Paul. Because if Jesus can take him down, Jesus can take anybody down. He can take anybody down. I want you to bow your heads and put your hand on your heart. I'm gonna pray for you. Father, we thank you so much for today. Lord, your word is totally amazing. It is just amazing. We are so grateful for it. Father, we pray for our friends, our family, our acquaintances that are unsaved. And Lord, we ask that your grace would swing into action, do for them what they wouldn't do for themselves. Take them down, Lord. Conquer them. And for people in this room today, you have given them a call that doesn't seem quite convenient to them. Let your grace come upon them to change them and fit them for what you've called them to do. In Jesus' name. Everybody said? Can we just show our appreciation to Rick? Thank you so much.