SWYC 2010: Stand

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

GYC Southwest

Sebastien Braxton

The Urge of a Fadeless Vision

Father, we want to pause to acknowledge how grateful we are for who you are, for the gifts that you've given unto us.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

And 1 of those gifts that you gave to humanity and allowed us to carry outside of the garden was the gift of the Sabbath.

To have time to come apart, to spend time with our Father.

To remember that we are loved, that we are not forgotten, and that God desires our happiness.

We pray this morning that as we have gathered here in this place that the Spirit of God would not fail to speak to every mind and every heart, young and old, revive us again, Lord, and speak to us on this subject of the urge of a fadeless vision, is our prayer in Jesus' name.

The title of our message is, The Urge of a fadeless vision, F-A-D-E-L-E-S-S, vision.

We're going to take a bird's eye view at the life of Paul.

There's 1 thing that I found in the very little experience that I've had in training young people in ministry, studying the Bible, is this inability to concentrate.

Many of us are struggling in our devotional lives because we have a hard time concentrating.

And so we just want to get to the application.

Where's the powerful idea that I can go share with my friends tomorrow?

But many times, if we could read the Bible With concerted thought, chapter to chapter to chapter, there are messages that lie from the bird's eye view of Scripture.

Now there's a place for the depth of every text, and I'm a firm believer.

I don't like preaching on 15, 20, 35 texts.

I know some preachers, you know, that's fine.

Enabled to see when you get to chapter 10, you can connect it to chapter 1.

But by the time we get to chapter 10, we forget what we even read in chapter 1, because of the inability to concentrate.

So today, I want to share a message with you that came out of concentration, trying to remember after chapter, after chapter, after chapter of Paul's life.

In Acts Chapter 9, we're familiar with this passage.

Says in verse 1, then Saul, that was his name originally, still, breathing threats and murder against the what?

Now I want you to notice something that if you were a careless reader, you might miss.

Nowhere in the book of Acts are Christians called members.

So it says, and God added to the church daily as many as should be saved, but when it refers to them it says the disciples were multiplied.

And in understanding that when you look at Simon Peter, Nathaniel, Thaddeus, Simeon, these were the kinds of individuals that were multiplied.

A disciple is an individual whose life is reorganized around his master.

And you have a situation where the Bible says, okay, The devil's always busy.

The Bible says that Saul was breathing out threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord.

Now, if you're not a disciple, Saul has no problems with you.

An individual whose life is lived centered around Christ.

Not Paul, not Peter, as powerful as his sermons are.

And this is something that's very key, just as an aside.

Moving away in our church from this personality-driven kind of movement.

You go places and people have their favorite preachers.

And they have individuals whose sermons they love to download and listen to and preach like.

And I have no problem with mentors and with discipleship within the body of Christ.

But we have this error in our church right now, which in my opinion can be an abuse.

A person gets up to preach and God uses him.

And we praise God that God is still using imperfect men and women.

But we're not to be driven around personalities.

You are a disciple of Jesus, not Randy Skeet, not Sebastian, not Dr.

Disciples of the Lord, and when this movement is become driven by the mission, not a man.

The reason why we gather in this place on this day is because we believe in the mission, not a man.

And when we are driven by that, it doesn't matter if there's an SWYC.

It doesn't matter if there's a conference.

We stand because of this particular message.

And in this sense, as we gravitate away, I pray that we gravitate away from this.

That people do not attend SWIC based upon who is speaking, but because they believe in the mission.

He went to the high priest in verse 2 and he asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, that's what they used to call Christianity, the way, any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said in verse 5, who are you, Lord?

Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

It is hard for you to kick against the pricks or the goads in the new King James.

So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, What do you want me to do?

Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.

And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no 1.

Then Saul arose from the ground and when his eyes were opened he saw no 1.

But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

And he was 3 days without sight, neither ate nor drank." Now here is a man on a mission for the Lord.

In his mind, as Jesus had foretold his disciples, men will persecute you and kill you and drive you from city to city believing they are doing the Lord's service.

And Saul is a clear fulfillment of that prophecy of Christ.

In his mind, I am jealous for the glory of God, a young man of great promise in the Jewish nation, having learned at the feet of Gamaliel, a Jewish theologian, full of zeal and passion.

1 focus is to destroy this heresy coming in.

Now there's a lot to be said about a man's character like that.

And Saul, whether men or women, dragged you to the tribunal to be tried.

Some condemned to prison, some condemned to death.

And he asked permission, can I go to Damascus, because this thing is spreading beyond Jerusalem?

And so as Paul is traveling, we know the story, the light meets him.

Now I want you to understand what's happening in this passage.

When Saul falls to the ground and out of the light, he hears a voice saying, why are you persecuting me?

And Saul's response is, who are you, Lord?

So you have a situation that up until this point, Paul has believed that he is doing loving service for God.

And now he's on a road to persecute and all of a sudden light.

Back to Menu

The Urge of a Fadeless Vision

Transcript

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

How to Give God the Glory

49m

Living the Word

If Need Be

56m

Chad Kreuzer Weekend

02 Wilderness Revival

1h

Skin for Skin

40m

Restoration 2003: From Eden to Eternity

An Issue of the Heart

40m

Fill Me with the Spirit

50m

Revelation of Jesus Christ

1h 17m

Seeking His Face: Without the Veil

38m

Climate Change and Laodicea

42m

Remember What We Left

33m

What If It's Better?

What If I Fail?

49m

Crisis of the Empty Lamp

43m

Sound Doctrine