MAY 15 2016

Sea Change Church · Ryan Pfeiffer · May 15, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

House of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come to the place, his hands, come place his hands on him to restore his sight. Hard for me not to preach as I'm reading this. I gotta not preach. Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.

And he has come here with the authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, go, this man is my chosen instrument, love that, to proclaim the name to the Gentiles and to their kings and to the people of Israel. And I'll show him how much he must suffer for my name. Then Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul.

And he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, he sent me to you. That you might see again and you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Ryan, come up, let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, I just thank you for Ryan, God. This guy is a fountain of revelation and wisdom. And God, it's because he is a man that is completely submitted to you. Just anoint his preaching. I give him the anointing of this pulpit over this church, Lord God. Let him lead. It's his pulpit, Lord God. And we ask that he would speak and you would just speak mightily through him.

And we just bless him. We bless the congregation that we can be people that hear. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. Good morning, you guys. Oh, man. I'm so excited to get into this message with you guys. There's very few things in the world I'd want to preach on more than this passage. And I just hope you walk away just filled with a fresh vision of just how incredible and how beautiful.

Hey, what's up, bro? How beautiful Jesus is. And if you're visiting here and you're not a follower of Jesus and you're just checking out church because a friend invited you and somehow bribed you to come here or just trick you into being here today, I just hope you feel welcome and peaceful. And you would know you're in the right place. And God really has a special message for you as well.

All right. So let's get into this. I want to start off with a question. If there was one person that you just could never imagine becoming a follower of Jesus, maybe that person's you, who would that person be in your life? Maybe it's, like I said, maybe it's you. Maybe it's your spouse. You know, and it's awkward. They're sitting next to you. You're like, oh, no.

You know, and your spouse didn't tell me you were going to be here today. This is totally a God thing. All right. Maybe it's your parents. Maybe it's your roommate, your sibling, your neighbor. Maybe it's just someone at work. Maybe it's a boss. Who is that person in your life that you just feel like, man, if this, to see this person. Like, if they were to be here with you next weekend, if they were, like, here, and as the music started, they stood up and started worshiping God and looked at you and just said, thank you for bringing me here.

It would just blow your socks off. Who would that person be? Take a moment. Think about that person, who that would be. Turn it to a person you're with here. And if you're here alone, just maybe find somebody next to you who's got no one next to them or join another group and just share who that person is. And in one sentence, why? Okay. Why would it be so hard to imagine them following Jesus?

Okay. And if that person's here, maybe pick somebody else. You know, that'd be kind of awkward. Actually, you, you know, because you're such a jerk. No, don't do that. You know, maybe you pick somebody else that would be maybe kind of amazing for you. Go ahead and do that. Take a couple of minutes. Turn and share. Thank you. Yeah, you got it? I'm sensing you're getting all quiet.

Okay, you got it. All right, all right. For me, if, you know, there was a point in my life where if someone were to ask me, who's like the last person you could imagine, I would have said my dad. Not because my dad was some especially bad guy or anything. It's just, you know, when you know someone your whole life a certain way, it's really hard to imagine them being something different.

Do you know what I'm talking about? My dad wasn't a father of Jesus. He was kind of an atheist. I had become a Christian through a close friend who had the courage to allow our friendship to be a vehicle for my salvation. Actually, this guy right here, Dan Lickle, is one of those friends in my life who was one of the first Christians I'd ever met in my life.

And it was one of our mutual friends that was regularly sharing the gospel with me. But when I became a Christian, my family didn't know what to do with it. And I started praying for my family. And I could just never imagine my dad becoming a Christian. And I remember one time just as I was praying for my dad, I felt like God started messing with the way I saw my father.

He started to expand the possibilities of what he could do in my dad's life. And it was just very subtle. My mind just started to wander. And I didn't realize it was God at first. It started to wander to this sort of like imaginative place. I started imagining my dad with me at church. And a couple times I would pray. I just kept seeing this image of him, my dad at church with me.

And then one time as I was praying, I let it go a little further. I indulged this image. And I had this picture in my mind of my dad at church. And tears are streaming down his face. And his hands are like lifted up like this, right? And he's crying out to God. And he turns to me and he's like, Ryan, thank you for telling me about Jesus. Now, to me, it was just like something in my mind that was like an imaginative experience.

And it just wrecked me. Okay? It just wrecked me. Like I just started crying. Like, oh my gosh. To see my dad in that light was world changing. Because my dad was like this larger than life person. But he had a million and one reasons why he wouldn't follow Jesus. And one time he asked me, hey, how was your weekend when I came back from college? And I started to tell him about going to this church service.

He goes, don't ever tell me about Jesus again. And don't ever try to convert me. I'm like, oh, dad, I'm sorry. I was just telling you about my weekend. You know, but okay. I got the message. But that didn't mean I couldn't pray for him. And so I had this image in my mind. Saul's conversion from being a persecutor and a torture and a murder. So when we get to this scene, we're reading about Saul.

Maybe you don't know Saul. Maybe you're not familiar with the story. But up to this moment, Saul's on his way to Damascus. If you remember, he's like ISIS. Now, if you think of ISIS, you would get a very accurate picture of Saul. Saul was zealous about his religious faith. And he expressed it through violence. Now, that kind of religion is really a dark kind of fanaticism.

And he was going from town to town looking for followers of Jesus or people who followed the way. It was called the sect at the time. And he was dragging them into prison, torturing them, getting them to recant their faith and to give him information about where these other cell groups of followers of Jesus were meeting. He's on his way to Damascus to go and get the roundups of more Christians.

And on his way, he has a radical encounter with Jesus. And he goes from this persecutor, this torture, this murder, and the greatest enemy of Christianity to becoming Paul the Apostle. And in this moment, it just challenges our ideas about who can come to faith in Jesus. And that's what I want to do this morning. I want you to open your heart to God.

You know, I'm not going to try to give you a bunch of techniques on how to lead people to faith because that has its place in time. The most important thing is you open your heart to God and allow him to invade you, number one, with a vision of what he can do and wants to do through you in other people's lives. Number two, with his burning heart for people who are far from his father.

You just got to let that in. It's a supernatural, personal encounter with God that God wants to have with you this morning. I don't want to give you a bunch of next steps. I want to just create space for your heart to be open to encountering Jesus this morning. And if you're not a follower of Jesus, I'm hoping you'll get such an amazing picture of his love for you, no matter how far you are from him, that maybe this morning you're just going to say, okay, Jesus, I'm coming home to you.

But there's nobody he can't reach. And Saul represents that person that God has put in our life that we could never imagine coming to faith in God. And God, through your life, wants to invade impossible situations to glorify his gospel. And there are people in your life that feel impossible to you. But God has put you in their life because he wants to invade their life through you.

Does that excite you? Or does that kind of terrify you? Maybe a little bit of both. Yeah, here we go. Let's. So as we get into this, who are the Saul's in your life? Hold on to those names, those pictures, those images of people's faces. As we get into this passage, everyone can see the Saul's in their life transformed by allowing Jesus to give them fresh vision in three ways.

Number one, we need a fresh vision of Jesus. And that's what this passage talks about. Number two, a fresh vision of our friends. We need to see them the way that Jesus sees them right now and this morning. And number three, a fresh vision, Jesus's vision of our role in their life. Here we go. God, open our eyes. It says in Proverbs that without vision, the people will perish.

Without revelation, without prophetic vision, people throw off restraint or are discouraged. God, we just want to ask that you would open our eyes to see you with fresh faith. That there's nobody you can't reach. That, God, there's nobody you can't use. And that you are mighty to save. Open our eyes. In Jesus's name, amen. Number one, here's the first point.

The first thing I want to land on is we need a fresh vision of who Jesus is, all right? In verse 10, let's go back to verse 10. The Lord called to him in a vision. Everyone say vision. Vision. Vision. Now, vision is something we think of only in terms, sometimes only we can have an ecstatic experience, spiritual experiences. Or we think of like from a business standpoint.

We need vision for our organization to accomplish the goals and da-da-da-da. But I want to just kind of deepen our understanding of what vision could be. The Lord calls to Ananias in a vision. Ananias. Yes, Lord. He answered. When God wants to inspire us, he needs to bring fresh vision into our life. And it begins with a fresh vision of him. It says that Jesus called to Ananias in a vision.

So what is a vision? All right? I have a couple definitions based on different Bible dictionaries and different, you know, books here. Number one, it could be it represents the sight of things normally hidden from human eyes. You know, there are things that are happening in, but we don't perceive them with our physical eyes or spiritual realities that God wants to open our eyes to see.

And we can see that here because Ananias is not literally seeing Saul pray, but Jesus gives him a vision of what is happening in Saul's life. And in the same way, Jesus wants to give us vision of what he is doing and what he can do in people's lives. They are experiences of a special awareness of God's presence. They are mental pictures used by God to convey messages or reveal future events.

And God wants to give you those. They are experiences that grasp the imagination and evoke feelings in ways that ordinary language cannot. Now, here's my definition. I kind of synthesize those. Let's go to the next slide. Here's my little definition. Vision is the ability to see things that are not as though they are. Now, this is what God wants to give to you.

And this, it's from this place that God wants you to live. Every child learns to live on their experience of the external world as related through their physical senses, their sight, their touch, their hearing, and their smelling. And a child learns. You know, their children are always grabbing things and putting it in their mouth. They're learning to judge the world by their external senses.

But there's more than that. That we have spiritual senses and spiritual capacities of perceiving reality that Jesus begins to awaken in us as we mature and follow him into his lifestyle. Vision is the ability to see things that are not as though they are. Look at this. Romans 4.17. Abraham believed that God was the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

Now, this is so important when you think about your friends, the people, the souls in your life, because spiritually speaking, they are dead. Apart from Christ, we lack the eternal life of God. And we look at them and go, man, there's just no way that person could ever, my dad could never follow Jesus. And we have all these ideas about why they could not follow him.

Possibly them following Jesus is dead to us. And yet, look at this. Like Abraham, Ananias first has to recognize Jesus' authority to call things that aren't as though they were. Jesus has that authority. You cannot judge what God can do in someone's life by the external circumstances. But it begins by having a fresh vision of who Jesus is. And when we look at the people in our life, we go, Jesus, you have the right.

You have the capacity. You have the demonstrated capacity and track record that has earned my trust to believe that you can call things into existence that are not as though they were. You can call faith out of unbelief. You can call apostles out of atheists. You can call apostles out of persecutors. You can call missionaries out of agnostics. You can call blazing Christians out of people who are Muslim, who are Buddhist, who are whatever.

It doesn't matter. You can call people into eternal life out of suicide, depression, anxiety. It doesn't really matter. It's Jesus can do this. This is about him. It's not first about what you have to do, about what they would have to do to become that person. You see, you're looking at that from a worldly point of view. It begins by saying, okay, Lord, I just want to get my eyes on you and see this from your perspective.

Here's the point. Here's the vision. There's no one Jesus can't reach. He is mighty to save. Is that reaching your heart? I mean, I just feel like maybe this is the most important thing to get into the heart. He is mighty to save. And that's what Saul's story offers to us. What reason do you have that this person cannot come to know Jesus? Are you willing to let those reasons bend before the beauty and the sovereignty and authority of Jesus in your life?

Are you going to choose to be more impressed with their sin and their godless life? Or are you going to live your life impressed with who Jesus is? You have to decide right now where you're going to live. I'm just cracking my fingers. I'm just getting warmed up. All right. Here we go. That was, I didn't really mean to do that. All right. Look at this.

Ephesians 121 just has this wonderful, you know, because Saul, now if you don't know this, Saul became this great apostle. And after an experience like that, he had a lot of faith, right? He's like, wow, look at what you did in my life. I think you can do a lot in other people's lives. So Saul went on, as you can see in the text itself, to go on and change a lot of lives.

Look at how he describes Jesus. Look at how Paul, Saul who became Paul, describes Jesus. And I want to invite you into this. He describes Jesus in this way. Jesus, who is far above. Here we go. Verse 121. He is far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked. Not only in the present age, but 2,000 years from now in La Jolla on May, what?

16th, 15th, 15th, 2016. 16th, it says, in the ages to come, God placed all things under his, Jesus' feet and appointed him to be head over what? Everything. I know what's so beautiful about this is that everything is under his authority. There's no sin in our friends' lives. There's no unbelief. There's no unbelief. There's no proud, pretentious thought.

There's no barrier. There's no temperament. There's no sinful experience that is above Jesus' authority and power to overcome. That should just blow your mind. You should be looking at these people in your life and go, There's actually no reason in your life right now that can stand between you and God's love. There's nothing that can stand between that person and what Jesus can do in their life.

There's nothing in their life that supersedes Jesus' power and authority to change their life. Every doubt, every argument, every reason they have given you to believe that they cannot come to faith, every obstacle to their conversion is within his great power. Come on now, people. Let yourself be inspired a little bit. Come on, it's all right.

It's all right. I mean, it's all right if a little emotion creeps in. You know, we won't get emotionalistic, but, you know, it's good to have a little bit of emotion, you know. You can let it in. Let it just flood your heart. Because it's really good news. Let's go to part two. When we get a fresh vision of Jesus, this begins to allow us to have a clear picture in how we look at other people.

When we're seeing Jesus for who he is, it's like he's like a big lamp, a big light. And when he comes in the room and you take the basket off his light and he shines, you're like, Wow, I really see who people are in a different way. And Jesus wants to shine light on the way you see people in your life. Jesus gives Ananias a faith vision of Saul.

We're going to talk about Jesus' vision for our friends. We're going to look at how Jesus gives Ananias a fresh vision of what Saul can become. A whole new perspective on who Saul is going to become. All right? Now, if we go back to the text, it says at the end of verse 11, it shows us, at the end of verse 11, if you have your Bibles, you can look at it, that Jesus gives Ananias an image of Saul praying to him right at that very moment, humbled and ready.

In verse 11, you can see right there, he's like showing him Saul on his knees, just like this. On his knees. I want you to just get this image in your mind. If you can't see me, I'll come out here. Because it's going to be important later. Can you all see me if I get on my knees here? He's seeing Saul like this. And he's just humbled. Saul is not proud and pretentious, coming with threats.

Jesus is not giving Saul this vision of, or Ananias a vision of how he's going to destroy Saul and take his life so that he can protect the people of God. He's showing Ananias how, who Saul is becoming and who he was meant to be. And Saul is on his knees and he's praying. Can you imagine how mind-blowing that must have been for Ananias? Like, whoa, wow.

I mean, that must have been mind-blowing. So he gives him this picture of Saul. Now, in verse 15, he blows Ananias even more. Look at what he does to Ananias. In verse 15, Jesus asks Ananias, Ananias, okay, now, Ananias, is this blowing your mind? And Ananias is like, this is ridiculous. Jesus, even for you, this is ridiculous. And then Jesus is like, okay, I got something even more for you.

Buckle your seatbelt, Ananias, because I'm going to really, I'm going to really blow your mind. You ready for this? Okay, here we go. I want you to imagine Saul, the persecutor, the torturer, the murderer, right? Saul was there when Stephen was stoned to death. That guy, I want you to imagine him, one of my greatest apostles, taking the gospel to the Gentile world and kings, queens, and people in distant lands are going to come to faith through this man.

And what if he had said to him, 2,000 years from now, Ananias, people are going to be reading his letters in a book. Ananias is like, oh, come on, Jesus. Even for you, this is too much. I mean, he just blows his mind. And you can just see what's happening here. Jesus is just expanding Ananias' perspective of who Saul can become and is becoming.

Now, here's the important part. Immediately in this vision, as he's receiving this kind of picture, this kind of alternative perspective. Okay? You with me? It's an alternative perspective. How does Ananias respond? Does he go, yes, Jesus. I've been waiting for Saul to come to faith. I've been praying for him. Not quite. Not quite. He's probably had some other prayers.

Look at verse 13. Because right now, immediately, this alternative perspective and vision of Saul's future collides with Ananias' own vision of Saul in the present. This future Saul collides with the present Saul. Look at verse 13. Lord, I have heard many, what? Reports. About this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. He has come here to arrest us all.

What this means is, is this represents all the reasons that Ananias cannot believe that Saul could become a follower of Jesus. And when we are asking God to use us in the lives of people who are far from God. When we're asking God to use us to invade the lives of those who seem impossibly far from God. Immediately, what we're going to find is this tension.

We're going to find that all the reasons that we have for why this person could never follow Jesus begin to collide with all that Jesus says could happen in their life. And what he wants to do in their life. And we have to make a choice what we're going to believe. And like I said earlier, we have to make a choice with what we're going to be impressed with.

Their life of unbelief or with Jesus' majesty and his power to save anybody that he reaches into. For some of us in this room, we, it's not just all these reasons about them. It's past disappointments. I want to just pause on this. For some of us, it's not because this person is this way or because this person is that way. The biggest barrier for you seeing them with a different perspective and seeing them and imagining them following Jesus is your past disappointment.

People you've prayed for who have not come to faith. Prayers that you have prayed that have not been answered. And maybe, and I'm going to guess, there are people in this room who have never, ever persistently prayed for somebody to come to faith and seen them come to faith. I'm going to guess. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands because I would, I don't want you to feel like there's some shame on you about that.

But what that means is, is it's hard for you to believe that God would ever do that because you haven't been a part of it. You haven't seen that miracle. And so your life is still, you're more impressed with unbelief than you are in Jesus' power to save. You're just impressed by it. You're like, wow, look at that person. They're so smart. Look at all the reasons they could not believe.

I talk to students all the time. I work with college students. And I'm like, you're so impressed with your professors. You think that they have it all together because they have a Ph.D. And because, you know, they can say all these big words and give you an F if they feel like it. But behind all of that is a human being who needs Jesus just as much as you do.

Because, you know, I'm 42 and I have friends who are professors and who are lawyers and partners and firms and CEOs. And I see their life is not any better off behind the scenes because they have those outward successes. They are just as desperate for Christ and his saving and grace and power as anybody else. But they're impressed with the unbelief in these people's life.

But for some of us, it's our disappointment or it's the things in their life that intimidate us. And we don't believe that Jesus can reach them. And here's the point. Here's the fresh vision. We need a fresh vision that there's no one Jesus can't reach. Everyone is made to worship God. Think about this. Think about this very carefully. Every human being is made to worship God.

Do you believe that? Because if you don't, then you're denying scripture which says every human being is made in the image of God. Every human being. So this person that we're conjuring up, this parent, this spouse, this roommate, this sibling, this friend, this neighbor, this person is made in the image of God. And they are made to worship God.

In them is this spiritual DNA that is waiting to be activated. I was a biology major. I would love to play on that metaphor of active and inactive, you know, DNA. You know, genes that are expressed and unexpressed. But I'll spare you the nerd talk. Talk. But I'll tell you this. That we can have latent potential that isn't activated physiologically, biologically.

And we certainly have that spiritually. It's hidden. It's in us. You know that? You have unexpressed genes in your DNA. Genes that are there. That are not right now producing the proteins and the chemical processes that it could. And at the right moment, sometimes the wrong moment, they're activated. The same is true spiritually. This person was made in the image of God.

It was made to worship God. Every human being was made to worship God. There's nobody Jesus can't reach. Nobody he can't save. It's hard to imagine that. But I want you just to imagine this person for a moment right now. Do what Jesus is doing to Ananias. I want Jesus to mess with you. I want you to close your eyes for a minute. Just close your eyes.

And for now, it's like a faith step. I'm not trying to say right now as we do this that by imagining this, it makes it reality. But it's a faith step, and it allows for God's reality to inspire your faith. I want you to imagine that person worshiping God right now. Just take a moment and imagine that person. Maybe they're sitting next to you at church.

Maybe you're sitting with them somewhere privately praying to receive Jesus. Maybe they're with you at a retreat. Maybe you're reading a Bible. Whatever comes to mind, let it come to your mind right now. Just let some image of you with that person as you watch them worshiping God, coming to faith, turning their life over to Jesus. Maybe it's like my dad.

Their arms are lifted up. Tears are streaming down their face. And you see them turning to you and smiling and just saying, thank you for telling me about Jesus. There's nobody he can't reach. And when we allow that vision to take hold of our life, it opens our life to be a conduit of God's power and grace for their salvation. Let me give you a story.

Two stories real quick. Number one, there was a man named Azam. He was Muslim. He lives in Somalia right now. He's alive. He's a real guy. It's not in the distant past. It's right now. This guy became a believer and started serving the Lord. But his family is Muslim. They're extremist Muslims. Very extreme. And he knew that if they found out, they would kill him.

So he kept it hidden. But he was secretly serving the Lord without his family knowing. His mom was catching wind that he was a Christian. And she told him, you need to get out of here. I know that you follow Jesus. Well, partly because he started to share the gospel with her. He took a risk and started to tell her about Jesus. Because he believed that she could believe too.

She said, I'm not going to accept that. But you need to leave. So he escapes his family. Leaves his family. Finds a Christian community in another town. And starts to live out his faith. Someone comes up to him. It's someone from the community. Someone anonymously dropped off a package. And in that package is a note with a photo. It's a photo of his mom on her knees.

With a knife at her throat. With two men. Saying, we've taken your mom's life. Because of your conversion. And because of hers. Now his mom became a believer. They took her life. And he looked at the two men who were in that photo. And he recognized them. They were his boyhood friends. And they had killed his mother. How would you be tempted to see those two people.

With a knife at your mother's throat. It would be hard to see them in any way. Other than like total hatred. You'd want to see them as the worst. Most evil creature on the planet. Wouldn't you? Well it turns out that. Azam had an opportunity to confront these two guys. He's on the road. And all of a sudden. By coincidence or by providence. These two men are on the road.

And he runs into them. And he sees them. And it's an opportunity. Listen to what he says. I know what you did to my mother. He says to these two men. This is a true story. Azam. The men said. We had to. We had to kill her. We didn't want to do it. But your father ordered us. And threatened us to do it. And as he spoke. One of the men. His name is Mahiri. His right hand moves slowly around his back.

He's going to pull a weapon out. Azam. Who is the Christian. Says. I know all about my father. Azam stared at the two murderers. I haven't come to harm you. He paused for effect. I've come to forgive you. Now listen to this very carefully. Mahiri and Yasin. The two men who murdered his mother. Glanced sideways at each other. And then back at the man facing him.

Wondering whether or not to believe. The words they had just heard. And then Azam said this. You need to know that I love you. And have prayed for both of you ever since. Get this. I saw your picture. Think about that for a minute. That picture represents. The images that we hold in our mind. That intimidate us. And tempt us to be more impressed. With people's sin and unbelief.

Than to believe and be impressed. With what Jesus can do in their life. He could have held on to that picture. And goes. This is who they are. He could have held that picture. Been like. This is who they are. They're murderers. They murdered my mom. But instead he's like. I don't believe this. I don't buy that. They're more than that. There's more to their life than that.

God. You can do more. Listen to what he says. Jesus filled my heart with compassion for you. You need him just like I did. He can forgive murderers. This is so wonderful. His love is greater than anything you've done. Isn't that just so amazing? Listen. If you don't know Jesus. And you're checking out Christianity. This is the heart of Christianity. That as people encounter the beauty.

And the majesty of God. And his love. And his grace. And his truth. It changes their heart. And makes them do things. They could never humanly possibly do. It enables them to see. A reality that no one else could ever see. And Azam sees the possibility. And the hope of their conversion. Over and against this picture of them as murderers. And listen to this.

It was the first meeting. Between the three men. But they met again. And at night. And several more times. And convinced by Azam's testimony. Mahiri and Yassin. Offered their lives. Of piracy. To a forgiving savior. They became followers of Jesus. True story. It is awesome. So there I am. One night. I'm falling asleep. This is the last point I want to make about Jesus.

It needs to give us a fresh vision for our friends. I'm falling. I'm asleep. My dad wakes me up. And I look at my dad. And he's like. Son. You need to tell me about Jesus right now. And I'm like. It's been six years. Since my dad told me. Never ever bring up Jesus again to me. My dad's face is pale. I'm a little bit groggy and confused. So I sit up in my bed.

And I look at him. And he's like. I want you to tell me about Jesus right now. I try to do my life on my own. And it's not working. My mom was on the verge of divorcing my dad. And leaving him. And beyond that. My whole dad's life was falling apart. You know. We had a big house. And a Porsche. And all this stuff. But everything. My dad would eventually come.

He had. You know. Had lost his job. Lost the car. We were. You know. Our family was in financial problems. But he was also losing his marriage. And he was desperate. And he was realizing that he didn't have control of his life like he thought. And there he was. Reaching out to me. Begging me to tell him about Jesus. Now get this. I sat and I started talking to my dad about Jesus.

But I was terrified. And as I'm sitting there talking to him about Jesus. I still can't believe I'm having this conversation. Get this. At one moment. He is on his knees. Like this. Literally like this. And he puts his hands in the air. And he just starts crying. And his hands are like this. You're screaming at his face. Right. Just like I was describing earlier.

And I'm sitting there looking at him. And I just feel like Jesus tap on my shoulder and go. See I told you so. And I'm just like. I can't believe this is happening right now. And he says. God I've mocked you for the last. My whole life. And for the last six years. I've mocked my son. Forgive me. I'm not mocking you anymore. Yeah. It was just amazing. I just sat there like afraid.

Overwhelmed. Stunned. My dad was just getting small. But Jesus was getting big. Come on. Let's go to the final point. Part three. Is this allowing Jesus to give us fresh vision for our role. If we go to verse 17. This is my favorite part. Verse 17. It says this. Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. It's not enough just to get a vision of Jesus.

It's not enough just to get. You know. A fresh vision of what God could do in their life. We have to have faith in a fresh vision of how God wants to use us in their life. And we have to be willing to step into that vision. When God gives us the opportunity and opens the door. We have to be willing to not just allow God to show us what he could do.

And what he can do. But we have to be willing to let God do that through our life however he directs. In Ephesians 3.20 it says this. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Are you with me on that? Do we all agree that God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine? Are you with me on that? Have we got that?

He can do more than you can imagine around you in your neighbor's lives and your family's lives. But get this. According to his power that is at work through his mighty angels. No. That's not the scripture. Let's try again. According to his mighty power that is at work through the pastor at my church. Sometimes, yes, thank God. But no, no. Or through his amazing wife.

No, yes. God willing, yes. But not only. Look at this. According to his power that is at work within. Who? Now that's so important. This is so important. The biggest barrier, I think, for you to enter into the impossible with God is you don't believe that God wants to use you. I think you think, yeah, Jesus is awesome. I can buy that. Oh, Jesus wants to save everybody and there's nobody he can't reach.

I believe that. He can reach anybody. But I don't believe he would want to use me. I don't believe that he would want to use my life. I'm an engineer. I'm a business guy. I'm a stay-at-home mom. I'm a teacher. I'm too busy. I'm not spiritual enough. You know, I don't have the availability. I don't have the spiritual know-how. Now, we have to begin to allow Jesus to give us a fresh vision of how he releases his saving power through our life.

Jesus only gives vision to people who he knows will do something with it. We have to be willing to step into what he has, what he wants to do through us, in order for him to give us the vision. We have to be willing to obey him. Now, listen, the point is there's no one Jesus can't use, and he wants to use you. Do you feel like you're powerless?

Do you feel like you just wouldn't have the right words to say to somebody if you were asked to go share the gospel with them? Do you feel like you don't have time in your busy schedule to love anybody or to make room for your neighbors? Or do you feel maybe you've been too hurt or disappointed by the people in your life that God is asking you to pray for?

Maybe like a zombie, you've had people who have hurt you, and you feel too disappointed to pray, to believe that God could do something. Listen to this, okay? Exodus 3.11. But Moses protested to God, who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Look at this. You know, Moses, this amazing leader, started right here. Look at this. Maybe you can relate. Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?

I'm going to invite Adam up in a second here, but what I want to say is this. I think for some of us, we need a fresh vision that Jesus wants to use us in people's lives to make an eternal difference. And maybe like Moses, you've been saying, who am I? Who am I? And Jesus wants to ask you to stop hiding behind your insecurities to justify disobedience, to justify unbelief.

And he wants to say, stop putting your eyes on your insecurity, on what you can't do, on your past disappointment. Put your eyes on me, and let me use you. Let me work through your life. So there I was, terrified. It's my dad. My dad was a bit of a rough character when I grew up. He could kind of lose his temper, and I had every reason to be intimidated to pray with my dad.

But there I was, and I said, Dad, do you want to accept that Jesus, do you want to accept Jesus as the leader and savior of your life? And after three hours of talking with him, I led my dad to pray. And as we prayed, I just could not believe that God was doing this, that God would use me to lead my dad to faith. This guy who held me in his arms when I was just a newborn baby.

This guy who changed my diapers. This guy who took me to my soccer games. This guy who came home from work late at night to support our family. This guy who told me, don't ever bring up Jesus again to me. This guy, God was using me to bring this guy home to Jesus. God wants to use you. God wants to use you. I want to invite Adam to come on up. Yeah, good word.

Let's give it up for Ryan. Solid. Dude, I want to, let's go to Balboa Park, dude. Just you and me and go walk through that like atheist road, dude. And go hang out, dude. I'm ready. I'll get behind you, dude. That'd be so fun. So humbling to listen to people that can preach. I just go, whoa. I got a long way to go trying to shepherd this church. What I do know is God has brought evangelists now twice in the last month.

It was Serene who came and gave us a word of evangelism. Ryan came and gave this word. I believe that God wants us to start leaning into evangelism here. I'm not an evangelist by nature. It's not what I'm a discipler. I'm a builder of the church. That's who I am. I want to be an evangelist. Glenda, would you put it, Glenda's our head elder. Would you put it on the agenda that we can start talking about how to weave evangelism in here on a regular basis here at the church?

And we'll meet and do that. I believe that God has sent these people for a reason because he wants to do something special here. This is such a powerful message, Ryan. I talked about raw truth last week, and I've been asking God to show me my heart. Ryan, you're using language that we've been talking about, the heart. If you want God to show you your heart and you ask him to do it, it can get real ugly.

And the way we know our heart is because it comes out of our mouth. And this week, my daughter and I were talking about some of the forces in the world that are coming against Christ. And just out of my mouth came my desire for certain people in these forces. And it was not pretty. And after I dropped my daughter off, I was like, oh my gosh, how did I say that to my eighth grader?

And it was coming from a place of not seeing them with that vision. I so needed to hear that. It gave me so much freedom. I don't know if you experienced freedom today in that. With that said, I want to ask that you stand. Ask the band to come forward. And I'm going to have Ryan come. And if there's a person on your heart, we're just going to take a couple minutes.

If there's a person on your heart that you need to bring before the Lord, that you have made their sin, I love that point, their sin more glorious than the love of God, bring them before God. Or if you need some evangelism, if you need some evangelism and you want that spirit of evangelism on you, we're going to sing a chorus here. And then I'm going to come up and I'm going to have Ryan pray a blessing over our church for you and for evangelism and for those that we lead.

And we'll just do that right now. Let's sing.