North Parish Sermon for 16/11/14

Genesis 12: 1-7

Acts 9:1-31

WE ARE ALL WITHOUT EXCEPTION CALLED TO MISSION.

That may seem like a bold statement, but we are indeed all called to mission for Gods instrument for world evangelism is the church.  Christ himself founded the church and it is the church that he uses to reach the world

All of us in OM are members of the church. 

I am a member of the North Parish and my own call to mission is in administration or what the king James Version calls the gift of governments. 

For some it means going to the mission field

For others it is prayer and supporting those who have gone,  but all of us are called in some form or another.

Abraham was called.

Abraham was the first missionary

God told him to leave his home and go to  land that God would show him.  Abraham did not argue about it.  He left all that he had known and took his wife, his nephew and his possessions.

It was a life changing decision, but Abraham did it in accordance with his call and in obedient to God.

God promised him that he would become a great nation and through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed, and Abraham believed God.

Note that the promise extended to the whole world.  In that promise God was promising that not only would he bless Abrahams family and descendants, but every nation in the world and that is mission.

If you have trusted in Christ and accepted him as your saviour, then you are part of the promise that God made to Abraham that day.  We are grafted in to Gods family. We are adopted sons and daughter with all the rights of family members as if we had never sinned.

We can see that as we reach out in love to all the nations of the world down through the ages to the present day, then God is Faithful. 

He has not forgotten his promise

He is still carrying it out.

Those around Abraham were blessed.  There were those who trusted in Abrahams God the only God.

Even when Abraham was called by god it seemed to Sacrifice Isaac his only son, Abraham still believed the promise and that God was well able to carry it out, and we must also learn to trust the lord like Abraham did.

God sometimes works in ways that we would never dream of.  In the promise to Abraham, we see that God promised that the gentiles would be blessed. We would be grafted in and Gods instrument for doing that was his bitter enemy, a man called Saul of Tarsus

In acts 9 v1 we see that Saul was not a nice man

In fact he breathed threats and murder against the disciples

If we had a company meeting about strategy and how to move world evangelism forward, it would not occur to us that we would use a man like that.  Saul hated the disciples and had the them in prison and many faced death.

It was on the road to Demascus to arrest the disciples that God confronted Saul

Note what God said to him, “Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”

Saul in his misplaced zeal was persecuting the very God whom he thought he was serving.

God also said to him, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”.

If I had been in Sauls sandals that day ( not shoes), I would have been terrified.

We also read in V10 that there was in Demascus ( the city Saul was traveling to) a disciple called Ananias and in a vision, God told him to go to a street called straight and enquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus called Saul, FOR HE IS PRAYING.

In that moment as Saul was praying God was acting in response.

God told him that in a vision, Saul had seen a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him that he may receive his sight.

BLINDNESS DID NOT STOP SAUL SEEING GODS VISION

Ananias did not understand why God would send him to Saul, for he knew that Saul had come to arrest the disciples.

God however told GO FOR HE IS A CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO BEAR MY NAME BEFORE THE GENTILES AND KINGS AND SONS OF ISRAEL.

I will show him what HE MUST SUFFER FOR MY NAMES SAKE.

Ananias did as he was told and when he got there he said

BROTHER SAUL. Can you imagine it?

The enemy, the persecuter for the first time is called Brother.

Can you see how precious those words must have been to Saul?

As soon as Saul had his sight and had stayed with the disciples learning more of Jesus Saul set about going to the synagogue and proclaiming Christ.

THE MINISTRY HE WAS CALLED TO STARTED IMMEDIATELY.

WE ALSE SEE THAT SAUL, WHO BECAME PAUL, STARTED OUT WITH A PLAN, BUT GOD HAD A DIFFERENT PLAN FOR HIM

MY OWN LIFE IS LIKE THAT

I grew up in another church which is now closed and at 17 years old, I decided that I had enough and did not want to go to church again, so my plan was that I would go round a number of different churches each Sunday to satisfy my parents ( who wanted me to go to church) and then when I had been around a lot they would be so tired that they would not concern themselves about the matter.

The first church I went to was this one.  MY INTENTION WAS TO COME FOR ONE SERVICE.

As I set out that day, “If I am ever going to go to this place a second time then I will have to be impressed with the preaching and as I have never heard impressive preaching, that is not likely to happen, is it”?

How wrong I was

BALCONY/ PREACHING

STOPPED AT DOOR, /MEETING KATE/ BILL AND JEAN TAIT.

I CAME A SECOND TIME, THEN THIRD AND A FORTH. Six months passed, I was in the youth fellowship and the prayer meeting .

We see from the passage we read, that when Paul started his ministry there were those who did not believe him and were afraid. 

HAVE YOU EVER FELT THE NEED OF A BARNABUS?

Sometimes you need another believer to re assure you and encourage you.  I have had many such people who were once members of this church who are now with the lord.

Agnes Whiteford encouraged me to come to the prayer meeting. I had never been to a prayer meeting before ( Tell the story)