Which way are you walking?

Acts, chapter 9. So many months ago that for different reasons, we postponed the study of the book of Acts, but I told them that we were not going to close it, but that God has been doing many different things, themes that have come up in the In the interim, weeks of prayer and fasting, and guest speakers, many things, but we want to continue, we have always had it in mind to continue this in-depth examination of the book of Acts.

Because? Because it is a tremendously foundational book. It is the book that teaches us the acts of the Holy Spirit at that key time in the life of the church of Jesus Christ. It is the book that inspires us, to believe that what God did in that time can be done in our time as well, because we have the same Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is the book that helps us form a supernatural mentality, as we have said. That mentality that we want to instill in our congregation. A mentality that sees life in an eternal, spiritual, supernatural way, that believes that God still works miracles.

As we declared through that choir and those choirs that we sang. When we were there saying the Holy Spirit come and visit us and bless me and pour yourself out on my life, I was like, well, we have to believe that. We can't just leave it as an aesthetic experience, a very beautiful song, we clap and then we go to the next chorus. I believe that God wants that if we ask something like that, that we say, okay, Lord, we are asking you, make it real in our lives, make it real in my life, make it real in this service and that we dare to put the Lord in a bind so to speak, because he is never in a bind, but he likes sometimes when we push him so he can then respond and do what he wants which is to bless us.

And then we see that God touches us, God blesses us when we act and become fragile and believe what we are declaring, and we put hands and feet and action on our declarations. That is what it is about, that our life responds to that, that we take supernatural actions, that we do not wait there in the flesh simply to see if God does something, but that we go ahead and like Esther say, I want to enter the room of the king and I know that he is going to extend his scepter to me and if it does not go well for me, amen, but I know that he is going to do it.

And so we do it and God is there ready and waiting. So we want to instill in our church and in our lives that attitude of expectation, that supernatural attitude, that attitude that believes that God is always speaking to us, that God is always inviting us in different ways, that he wants to respond, and that he wants to do what he says. his word, which he is willing to do.

And the book of Acts is that book that shows us the Holy Spirit working in miraculous ways, in extraordinary ways, in totally amazing ways. And we're going to see that now here in chapter 9. We've already seen it at work in the previous chapters: the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We have seen the miracles that God does to open the prison door for Peter and John, a lame man who is healed, Peter's speech that provokes a decision of faith in the hearts of thousands of people, Ananias and Sapphira who are judged by God for telling a lie before the Holy Spirit and unfortunately they lose their lives.

We have seen the God who answers when believers ask for courage and blessing, that the Holy Spirit descends and the place shakes and they are filled again with the Holy Spirit. We see the movement of the spirit continually directing and guiding his children. We have seen the growing institutionalization of this church that is in formation. The 7 deacons who are chosen in response to an organizational need of the church in the distribution of food to the widows of the Greeks and Hebrews.

But not everything is triumph, not everything is bonanza, there is also a threat. The Jews are upset because they feel their faith is being threatened by this so-called false sect that is threatening to destabilize the Pharisees and Sadducees' control of the religious industry, if you will, of Israel. And then we see that there are threats, there is continuous persecution. Stephen is martyred and stoned and yet, in the midst of that, God is doing things, because we see that the disciples who are scattered throughout the region continue to preach the Gospel, continue to share the word of God.

In Samaria there is a great revival and hundreds and hundreds of Samaritans, a group totally outcast and rejected by the Jews, receive the word of Jesus Christ and there is a great revival there. We see the evangelistic ministry of Philip, a man greatly anointed by God. God works great miracles through the life of Philip. And at one point we see that the Holy Spirit who gives strategy, who directs his people, speaks to Felipe and takes him to a place that supernaturally transports him where there is a eunuch, an official of a distant, foreign court, a high public official, and this man is already being prepared by the Holy Spirit, he fears God but he does not know, he has no answer. So many people out there like that, right?

And he's reading the book of Isaiah that talks about a weird character that he can't figure out who he is. Felipe approaches him and asks him, do you know what you read? And he tells him, how will I know if I don't have anyone to teach me. Felipe opens the Gospel to him, preaches Jesus Christ, this man believes in Jesus, is baptized and goes happy to his destination.

And so we see all these things, God moving in the midst of persecution, preaching, miracles, even in the midst of the struggles and needs of this fledgling church, the Spirit is providing in all things. So I believe that God is also providing in this congregation, God is moving in our midst, God is working in all the things that are happening in our church, in all the efforts that we are undertaking, in your struggles and needs, in your tribulations and difficulties, God is moving too.

The Holy Spirit is doing his work and it is necessary that you believe that and that you trust that the same Jesus who moved in this way is also moving in your life. Because you know what? I imagine that if the early Christians read in this book of acts what they experienced all those things and they read the book of Acts, they would say, wow, and was it really like that? I don't remember it being that dramatic. Because what we have in the book of Acts is a summary, a tight summary and a condensation of things that took months and perhaps years to take place and perhaps the miraculous move of God was not so obvious except for something that happened there, something else over there, but at least people didn't find out that a lame man was healed in Jerusalem. There were no newspapers, there was no Internet, there was no television, CNN to publish the healing of this paralytic.

But the Lord was moving in all those things. People at the moment hear that the disciples are being scattered and persecuted and martyred and they say, oh my God, the Gospel is being neutralized. But they don't know that over there there is a Philip who is preaching in a town of Samaria and the people are converting. And that only the eunuch and Philip at that moment know that God has moved incredibly to bring this man to salvation. And many people died without knowing that all these miracles were done. But God was moving anyway.

We have the great blessing that Luke condensed all of those things, spread out over months and months, and put them here in this tight book for us to know about. And the Lord is telling me right now that perhaps in your life, in our life, in our church God is moving in incredible ways and preparing something extraordinary, and he is touching lives already and he is preparing something special in your life and he is bringing you exactly to where he wants to bring you. But perhaps you do not see it, you do not feel it, you are not aware of it, because you are living it at this moment. But perhaps when you look back 5 or 10 years from now and you examine this circumstance that you are experiencing right now, you may realize that it was the most glorious moment of your entire life, that it was the moment of God's preparation for you. , that God was planting wonderful things to make you a better man, a better woman of God.

How many can say amen to what I'm saying? We have to believe even if we don't see God in a totally obvious way, we have to believe that God is working in my life. And God is using all circumstances, even the adverse and difficult ones, to bring my life to exactly where he needs to bring it.

So one of the characters that we saw very briefly a long time ago was Saul. And forgive me because I'm a little hoarse, because I was sharing with the brothers, with a group of pastors and lay leaders at the IEP retreat, Institute for Pastoral Excellence, which took place this weekend in …… and I was intervening quite a few times, that's why I'm a little hoarse. Besides the very good worship we had it didn't help me too much either.

But then in chapter 7 we saw that there was a man, thirty something years old, Pharisee, member of the Sanhedrin possibly that when Stephen was being martyred and stoned and killed by a Jewish mob, there was a young man there grabbing the clothes of the stone throwers. so that they could pull it with more force and more comfort and consenting and celebrating what was happening, and that young Pharisee, a zealot, zealous for his Jewish religion and totally hostile to the movement of the Gospel, his name was Saul and he was there contemplating complacently that gloomy scene of Esteban's murder.

And that note stays there, like it's simply the camera goes by for a moment and perhaps shows us the back of this man, grabbing his clothes and continues on to other things. But now, in chapter 9 we are given a close up and this character is introduced to us so that we know who he is. This character, this man is going to play a determining role in the history of the church. This man is going to write two thirds of the New Testament. This man, the story tells us, is going to give his life for that very Jesus he is trying to suppress and whose believers he is trying to stone, and kill, and put in jail. That man is going to show zeal, the same zeal he showed to persecute believers, now he is going to show it, to be part of them and to promote the Gospel and spread the preaching of the Gospel to the four winds. This man is going to change the history of humanity. This man is going to change the course, even of the church itself, up to that point. That man is called Saul.

And then, in chapter 9 we have this scene here in which Saula, still breathing threats and deaths against the disciples of the Lord, goes to the high priest and asks for letters of authority, he asks for certification, a legal permit so that wherever he finds people preaching the Gospel have the power to put them in jail and maybe even kill them. Saul is totally convinced that what he is doing is good and legitimate. His heart is sincere.

How many people there are who resist the Gospel and who criticize Christians because, in reality, they have a sincere heart and the devil has blinded them. And that word blinded is very important, because later we are going to see that scales miraculously fall from Paul's eyes when the Lord visits him for the second time on the right street.

So what we have here is the miraculous conversion. We see Pablo on camera, for the moment, he focuses on Pablo on a horse that is running at full speed with several companions, on a road to Damascus and is looking for people to grab and take them prisoner and imprison them. Then verse 3 says that:

“…But as he was going along the road, it happened that when he got close to Damascus, suddenly a flash of light from heaven surrounded him and, falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

the Lord evidently had a purpose with this man, sincere, but misguided. The Lord had purposes with Saul since before the foundation of the world and the Lord brought Saul to life because he had something to do in his life. The Lord knew that Saul was just a very sincere man, but he was confused.

I have sometimes wondered, but what was it that motivated the Lord to choose Saul out of all the people he could have chosen? There were other disciples who were surely already convinced of the lordship of Christ. There were probably very capable people that God could use, who had not persecuted Jesus, had not consented to the death of a man.

Listen to me, there are times in our lives that we are persecuted for guilt, even when we are in the ways of God and sometimes having been in the ways of God we have sinned against the Lord, we have done something that we believe has offended, and we know that it has offended the Lord. Lord in a tremendous way and the devil has put this lie into our minds that God already, as perhaps he has forgiven us so that we enter eternal life, perhaps God in his mercy has not consigned us to the fires of hell, but he has not He can use us, like he's going to use us, but perhaps for minor things, but for major things, he can't use us because we've exhausted the only card we had.

You know what? Saul's life reminds us that we have a very, very merciful God. A compassionate God, a God that even when we've failed him in extraordinary ways he's not as finicky as we think he is, you know? He is willing to forgive us, to wash our clothes and clean our dirty knees and tell us, stand up because I have a purpose for your life. Don't let the devil overwhelm you with guilt. Don't let the devil steal the blessing God has for your life.

Saul, Paul, always said, I am the greatest of sinners, I should not be the Apostle that God is using for such great things, because I persecuted Christ. And yet the Lord had a purpose with Paul, Saul, and he wanted to use it. Because Saulo despite all that, I believe that God saw his sincere heart, God saw a man who when he dedicated himself to a cause was upright and defended it to the death. God saw a man too, that those are the people that God can use, diligent. In this case he was diligent for evil, but he did it out of sincerity. But he was a diligent man, there he is.

I have to do something, I can't allow this false sect to harm my religion so he goes and wants to look for letters, and he is doing everything possible to defend his faith. And God knew that that same engine changed a little and realigned, God could use it mightily for what lay ahead for the spread of his Gospel. God knew that he needed a man of great physical courage because this man was going to suffer great persecution, because the way that God was going to use him was going to provoke great persecution from his enemies, and he needed a man who would not back down. easily. And we see that Saul, Paul was that kind of man.

God is looking for strong and courageous people. God is looking for people who have a heart that he can use. God can fix the rest of the things, brothers, but God wants your heart, God wants a willing heart, a heart ready so that if God calls me, I will give everything to him.

So, I believe that Saul had those qualities, he was also a man who was already trained theologically, he had a mind that could think in theological terms. He had been brought up at the feet of one of the greatest teachers of his time, Gamaliel, a very special Pharisee, we see him for a moment on the page in the book of Acts, and his speech tells us about a man who had a very understanding heart and a certain wisdom.

And then Saul had already been prepared intellectually and he was going to need a mind that could argue, that could write to prepare the church that was to come in the future and that is why Paul writes two thirds of it, the letter to the Romans, for example, the pastoral letters, and all these kinds of things, Paul was prepared for that.

So, the Lord knew, here I have a man, it's like when you see a car that's a little dented here and there, and it has a door that's painted differently from the rest of the car but it says, but do you know that? You raise the hood and wow, this engine is clean, it's good, the transmission sounds perfect. The seats, yes, they're a little torn here and there, but I'm looking for a lady from the church who will fix them and sew them on for me and can work well, and this car can last me a long time. And they are selling it to you for a good price, imagine. And with trembling hands you offer the person the money before he regrets it and walks away happy that he has made a great purchase.

I think Saul represented that, a person who had a good engine, had a good heart, had interesting things, but had a bit of dents there, you had to work with some rough edges. And the Lord searches the heart always.

And then God calls Saul for that, because he was the person he needed. I was struck by something very interesting here that I had never seen before. In verse 2 and 3 there is a play on words that I had not seen before. Saul is in one direction, how interesting, verse 2 says:

"... He asked the high priest for letters so that if he found some men or women of this Path..." - meaning, because it is a strange word, people of this Path, he did not say of this religion, no, of this Path.

First, because the Christian life is a path, the Christian life is a lifestyle, the Christian life is a journey, it is a destination, it is a process that you live. The Christian life is not a religion, it is something that you embrace and that fills you and that is something that will direct your whole path on earth, but it also says here in verse 3:

"...that as he was going along the road (with a small 'c'), it happened that when he arrived near Damascus, suddenly a flash of light surrounded him..."

Don't you find that a little intriguing? That there are people who know Jesus and are on the path, they belong to a Path. Saul is chasing Jesus, he does not know Jesus, and he is going down a path that he believes is the right path, but it is a path of perdition, it is a path of death in the last instance.

So, that struck me. I say here, in verses 2 and 3 they show us two ways, the Way of Jesus and the way Saul goes. And that led me to remember a verse that is in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 12. It says here.

"... There is a path that seems right to a man, but its end is the path of death..."

There is a path that seems right to a man, to a woman, but its end is the path of death.

“…Even in laughter the heart will have pain and the end of joy will be sorrow. The fool of heart will be fed up with his ways, but the good man, the good woman, will be happy with his…”

That passage is beautiful, isn't it? How many people are there in this world, and actually the question I wanted to ask you and me is, which way are you walking? If you examine your life right now, which of these two paths are you walking? By the Way, which is the way of Jesus Christ, the way of truth, the way of life, the way of salvation, the way of inner peace, of knowing that you are where God wants you and needs you? Or are you walking on a path that seems right to you? You are convinced that you are correct, and perhaps you have come here this morning and you are here to perhaps examine, to see if you can glimpse some light in what is happening here in this place, but you are not convinced yet . And maybe God is speaking to your life.

Because when I started to elaborate this, I didn't think I would find that bit of truth there, so many times that I have read this passage, right? Which way are we walking at this moment? Are you happy, comfortable, with your lifestyle? Because that's what I believe, I believe that God is speaking to someone or possibly some this morning, in this place, I don't know everyone who is here frankly. But how does God want you to listen to this, this challenge and that question. Which way are you walking? Are you on the Path where Jesus Christ is, where you know that if you die right now you are going to go with God? It is the Way of eternal life. And you don't understand that Path right now and it causes you perplexity and perhaps you even feel a little hostility for it. Perhaps you come from an intellectual, academic background, or perhaps you come from a past of pleasure or worldliness, and you do not understand this path well, but it is the correct path, it is the right path. And maybe you think that your path is very good, but it is the wrong path and it leads to death, it leads to perdition.

And like Saul you think that you are fine, but God has other purposes for your life. God has another calling for you. And you have to exercise faith and you have to wake up from your torpor and your sleep and you have to listen to the voice of Christ that tells you, "Wake up you who sleep and Christ will enlighten you." Wake up in your mind and recognize that you are on the wrong path and surrender your life to the Lord Jesus.

Because I see, like never before, that this is a passage about what the conversion process is. To convert, to repent means to change the path, change the route, turn. If you were going in one direction, if you were going one way, now you change to another way or you change 180º of direction and you go in a different direction, in a different way, in one direction, because you are going in the opposite direction.

And the conversion is that. Here, like Saul, I see a totally graphic, dramatic, exemplary conversion like never before, where Saul is the self-confident man, convinced of the correctness of his path in life, but he is eminently wrong, but God has a purpose with him, God loves him, God is willing to cancel all his debts and forgive him and use him for his glory and give him an incredibly wonderful and sublime destiny, but something has to happen.

And what happens to Saul is that when he goes down that road he sees a light, a blinding glow and like thunder that explodes and knocks him off his horse. What a beautiful image of what God has to do in your life and mine for us to truly be saved and enter the true path.

You know what? The first thing you have to do is that God has to knock you off the horse. Either you fall off the horse or you throw yourself off the horse, or you get off the horse, but you have to get off the horse. Getting off the horse, for me, means humiliating oneself, it is taking that great manhood that Paul and Saul had and placing it at the feet of Christ.

He knows that God has to knock us off the horse so that we can truly have eternal life. Until a man or a woman humiliates himself, his manhood, his intellect, his security, his self-confidence, he cannot know the true God.

The word says that if you do not become like children, you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And it's hard for many of us to humble ourselves, believe by faith that Christ is what he says he is, and change his path. Get off the horse, let our guard down and let ourselves be held by the hand by Christ Jesus.

He says here the word that the Lord says to him, he knocks him off the horse, humiliates him, stops him dead, but how beautiful is the voice of the Lord and how tender. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

Wow, if it had been me, I would have gotten 20 feet into the ground, I would have planted it deep inside. But no, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Look at the contrast, for me what I love is the power of Christ and his tenderness as well, because he knows that Christ is the Lord of lords and the king of kings. He is tender, he is loving, he is patient, but he is the Lord of lords, it is better that you humble yourself in front of him because he can knock you off the horse if he wants and sometimes there are people who have to be violently knocked off the horse. There are people who have to go through terrible suffering and God is telling them, change your path.

I believe that this is what is happening in humanity at this time. I am not going to go into the issues that the Japanese are sinners and that is why what happened to them, or that the United States is a sinner and that is why we had 9/11. No.

I do believe, however, brothers, that we are at a time in the history of humanity in which the word of God that God gave, from eternal times, is being fulfilled. And when man strays from God, when humanity, when a society, whatever strays from God's path, there are consequences that come, without God having to lift a finger.

There is a passage that says that it is not God who is going to judge us but the word of God, right there it is in the book of Acts. I don't believe that God is there for every thing that happens moving his finger so that lightning strikes a city, a person, an animal, whatever. No, it is much cheaper than that, he gave his word eternally and when man distances himself from God, what happens is that then there is an enemy, a devil, an infernal army that has more power to do what he truly wants. The only thing that stops the evil power of the enemy of humanity is the active presence of God in a society, in a culture, in nature.

When we move away from that divine protection, then that void is filled by the power of evil that only knows how to kill, steal and destroy. And that is why tsunamis come, that is why earthquakes come, that is why terrorist acts come, that is why wars come, that is why famines come, that is why diseases and plagues come. Because God is not there to protect and save and say to Satan, stop!

The Lord Jesus Christ said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I wanted to cover you as the hen covers her chicks and you did not want to, therefore your city today is left to destruction.

God wants to protect, God does not want tsunamis, God does not want terrorist acts, God does not want plague, God does not want famine, but when man chooses a path, then there is the path of death. There are people who believe that the path of technology, of philosophy, of pluralism, of multiculturalism is badly directed, because there is a good multiculturalism, but there is one that is badly directed, that this is the right path, and they are sure of that. And when they hear people preaching that Jesus Christ is the Way, the truth and the life, they get offended. But he is the only one who can stop the devil's attacks on humanity. And we cannot apologize for announcing to the people that this is the Path of salvation, that is the Path of truth. follow that Path and live. Follow that Path and the Lord can cover you with his protection and his graces. Because he has come so that you may have life and life in abundance.

But to reach that moment of grace we have to recognize that we are on the wrong path. And not wait, because what I believe is happening, these are not the terrors and cataclysms that are going to happen, these are announcements of cataclysms, these are announcements of disasters. These disasters are solvable and it looks like this latest atomic crisis is probably going to have a solution that isn't as terrible as it could be. But I believe that God is saying, my people, my son, my creation, I don't want worse things to come, I don't want to knock you off your horse. I don't want you to break your head when you fall off your horse.

Because I believe that much worse things are going to come. What we have are beginnings of pain. What we have are principles of judgments and God is saying to this Saul of the 21st century, why are you persecuting me? What do you have against me? Why are you instituting laws that are contrary to what I have declared? Why do you reject me? Why do you think that your intellect is more powerful than the revelation that I have left in my word? Why do you persecute my son? Why do you persecute those who announce the truth and tell you, come to the true Way that is Christ Jesus? Why are you chasing me? I have purposes for you, I want to do good things in your life.

And then it is required that you decide, when you are there on the ground, and hopefully you do not reach the ground, hopefully this humanity repents in time, hopefully you do not let you reach a moment of tragedy in your life where you are in a hospital bed, or with an overdose, or with a virus, a disease that you contracted due to bad behavior, or a blind bullet that found you in a nightclub, or whatever, so that then you cry out to God, when you already You're going to have consequences to deal with.

And the Lord is saying to that person or those people, hey, why don't you listen to my voice? Why don't you change your way? Saul had the virtue, because he had a good heart, when the Lord knocks him off his horse and says, why are you persecuting me? Saul's response is the response that each of us must give when confronted by God. Lord, who are you? Who are you?

I say, that is the question that we must ask the Lord who is calling us. I want to meet you, who are you? Tell me. I am willing. If you tell me who you are, I'll go where you tell me. I thought I knew you but now I understand who you are. I had only heard you by ear, but now my eyes see you, said Job.

Many times we believe that we know God but we only know a part of God, very infinitesimally small. I told the Lord, Lord, I want to know you, every day I want to know you more, show me your face.

I believe that each person before the call of Christ, has to say, Lord, who are you? Because if you tell me who you are, I'm going to accept you. There are people, I believe, that in their hearts even if Christ tells them who he is, they are hardened and they will not accept it. Because? Because it represents an abyss too deep for them to jump into it, it represents a radical change for their lives, a change for their destiny, a change for their habits, a change for their lifestyle, a change for the things they think are the good and the true ones and they have to die and be born again. And throw away 90% of what they thought was true, and that's painful. You have to die to live.

And then Saul is sincere, he says, Lord, who are you? And he said to him, I am Jesus, whom you persecute. It is hard for you to strike against the goad. There the tone changes, see?

It still maintains a certain degree of cuteness. The Lord identifies himself. Wow, I guess Saul's blood ran cold. The one I am persecuting, that faker, the one whose followers I must kill. And the Lord says, yes, I am that Jesus, the one you are riding on that horse to chase right now, that is me. And you know what, Saul? It is hard for you to kick against a large steel spike, because what you are going to do is that you are going to put your foot inside the point.

That's the idea, a stinger. It was like a giant iron nail. Imagine, what an image, kicking that nail with the tip of the nail. Who gets hurt by the nail or the meat that gets into the nail? It is a very powerful image. Man can do nothing to him Jesus Christ. The Lord is not concerned about anything right now, we evangelicals are the ones who are concerned about the state of society. Oh, the world is going here, there and we put on makeup and change our hair and remove the cross from the front and change the name of the church to see if people come and bless us with their presence.

It is the world that needs the world, not Christ the world. He is a sting, he is there, he is a stone, which can be a cornerstone that holds up a building or they can make a stone that causes you to stumble if you do not accept and receive it. But he is not worried about anything. Humanity needs Christ at this time so that Christ can save it, heal it and free it from everything that the devil wants to throw at it to hurt the heart of God who loves it.

The Lord says, look, Saul, the truth is that it is hard to do what you are doing, it is hard to resist the Christ who is calling you. It is hard for you to live contrary to the will of God. It is hard for you to pretend that you can continue on the path that you are rejecting Christ, and that something terrible is not going to happen to you and that you do not have a horrible destiny at the end of the day. It is hard for humanity to reject and renounce and deny the truth of God, because the only one that is hurt is it, the living, powerful, immutable, inaccessible, eternal God, he is totally immaculate. He looks from above with pain at this humanity says, my children, why don't you let me cover you? How hard it is for man to pursue his ways instead of pursuing the Path that can lead him to salvation.

Saul's heart was a noble heart within everything. Look at the phrase, "trembling and afraid." He understands. At that moment, I think he had a terrible psychological crisis. I was in shock, you tremble when you're in shock. He's terrified, he's shocked, he's humiliated, he's having what psychologists call cognitive dissonance, everything he believed, everything he thought was true, the directions he thought, this is north, this is south, now north is south and south is north, east is west and west is east. Good is bad and bad is good, and this man is completely in shock.

And I believe there has to be a crisis in people's lives before they come to Jesus Christ. I believe that the problem with so many evangelicals and so many churches, what is happening in the United States and in other countries of the world, is that in many cases we have wanted to move the posts so that it is easier for people to enter the Gospel. . We have wanted to remove everything that causes scandal, confrontation and confusion to people, we have wanted to remove everything that questions the Gospel so that people finally accept Christ. And you know what? What we are doing is killing them and fleeing from what truly makes us distinctive, which is Christ, the stone of scandal.

And what people have to do is confront them with the claims of Christ and put them in a crisis, tell them, look, what you believe is not true. This is the truth and if you want, accept it and otherwise it is hard to hit the goad. But we can't move the poles.

I am radical. In that I get more radical every day, I am not going to move any post. I'm not going to try to make the Gospel more comfortable for people because I need to make it more uncomfortable for them to go in and be saved. That is the paradox of the Gospel. It's not like we fill it up with rules and legalities and all this kind of stuff either. No. But the genuine, the true of the Gospel cannot be moved and the genuine and the true will always confront the man, the carnal woman.

So, brothers, I believe that this passage is tremendously graphic and I believe that God is speaking to me and is speaking to us through it. But when I began to meditate on it this morning, it was not what I had in mind, but the Lord is speaking to someone here, he is speaking to humanity, he is doing something and it is this idea that there are confrontations that have to be done There are definitely changes that need to be made. And God is doing some things that require a transformation. There is a cost.

So Paul says, Lord, what do you want me to do? Again, this is the second question one has to ask when God speaks to us, when God calls us, and when He confronts us. The first is who are you? I want to know you, your attributes, your claims, your nature, and the second is, in light of that, Lord, what should I do? How should I walk? How should I behave?

And thank God that Saul had the understanding to say, Lord, what do you want me to do? He was a man of action. Saul knew that what he had just heard had consequences. He humbled himself, lowered his guard. Instead of saying, okay, Lord, I'm going to go study and consult the latest studies that have been done in Judaism about the Messiah or whatever. No, he says, okay, fine, let my guard down, tell me what I have to do, which way should I go?

Are you willing to follow the destiny that God has for you? Are you willing to give the Lord a free hand and say, Lord, I don't know what awaits me now that I have received you, but whatever you tell me, I am going to do. And I'm going to live the life that you want me to live. And I'm not going to be questioning you or looking for five legs to the cat. Where you take me, that's where I'm going to go.

And the Lord, then, says to him, get up, enter the city and you will be told what you must do. That is the Christian life. Pick us up from the fall, pick us up from the slump where we are truly without Christ, and then come into the city, come into life again, come together, continue in a sense what we were doing before, only now, mind you, he's going to enter the city, he is going to enter the same city where he was going, but he is a changed man. He is a very different person with a different purpose, on a different Path.

And that happens, right? When Christ calls you and Christ confronts you, he tells you, you know what? Now join life again, if you were a professional, continue to be a professional, if you were a housewife, wife, continue to be a wife and a housewife, if you were a student, continue to pursue your studies, but now there are something new inside you. You are on a different Path. You have a different heart. You have a different destiny, you have a different calling, and different things await you.

By him he tells you, and you will be told what you must do. When one is in the Ways of the Lord one no longer governs oneself. The Lord Jesus Christ told Peter, Peter, when you were young you would get up, get dressed, put on a belt and go where you wanted, but when you are older, you will get up, another will gird you and take you where You do not want to go. The Christian life is like that. Many times God puts us in places where we do not want to be.

But the son of God, the daughter of God has to tell the Lord, Lord, you tell me where I have to go and I'm going to go that way. You know, when you enter the Ways of the Lord, you have to say, clean slate. Before I governed myself, now I am going to ask the Lord, where do you want me to go? What do you want me to do? What do you want me to be? Where do you want me to move? What are the priorities and prerogatives of my life. What are my privileges and what are my responsibilities?

Do you know where you are told what to say? First, the word of God, second, the Holy Spirit that is within you. Those two things are going to guide you through life. Know the word of God, study the word of God. Know the principles of the Gospel. Be a connoisseur of Scripture, for this is your constitution. Here are your rights and here are your responsibilities. This is your life manual. That is the generic word, that is the legal code by which you must live, and that also assigns you terrible and great privileges and prerogatives and rights, and also God gives you his spirit that dwells within you to update and put update that word, so that it can be put to life in the light of your daily existence.

The Holy Spirit will speak to you, confront you, instruct you, teach you where to walk. God will bring words into your life in some moments, of revelation, they will change your destiny, they will take you down a different path than the one you thought you should go. But the Lord tells you, now, when you get up from there, you have to walk in a different way. You will be told what to do.

We have to live each day telling the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to do today? Where do you want me to walk? What do you want me to preach? What do you want us to do?

We arrive here, we sit there in those seats, the musicians are ready, the program is ready, the worshipers are ready, but Lord, what do you want us to do? Tell us, because we want to do what you want, not what we want to do. Rise up and you will be told what you must do.

The men who went with Saulo stood stunned hearing the voice but without seeing anyone. Because? Because there is something that God has only with you and other people cannot fully understand it. They can hear something but they don't understand everything that is happening. And you must not let the voices of others and the experiences of others ruin the purpose that God has for your life specifically.

Your relatives may not understand, because perhaps God has not reached them yet. You are going to be used to reach them. But at that moment God is speaking to you. You have to have the courage to listen to him and to do what he tells you.

And finally, Saul is carried away by the others. It says, “…he was three days without seeing and did not eat or drink…”

It's a boy, it's a baby. He is completely helpless and needs to be led by the hand, because that is how we have to be. Saul was completely useless. And I see there an image also, brothers, of what life is in Christ Jesus. We have to make ourselves like children, we have to make ourselves fragile.

When we start the new life in Christ, we have to understand that we are relearning everything we knew before. And we have to let the Lord begin to lead us and speak to us. And we have to put aside everything we believed in before, our self-sufficiency, our maturity, everything, and start over from scratch.

I imagine that proud Pharisee being held by the hand, blind, his world has fallen apart. Now he has to rebuild the world, his faith, his intellectual beliefs, his profession, his relatives, he knows that they will reject him when he embraces what is anathema to them. His whole world has collapsed and he is blind, he does not see, he has scales on his eyes. Now it needs to be reset by God. Before the woman or man who receives Christ opens a vast unexplored territory, wonderful and also terrifying in a sense. But the question is, are you willing to embark on that Path? Are you willing to listen to the one who tells you, why are you persecuting me? I have a blessing for your life. Get up and listen and walk where I have to send you.

We are going to lower our heads for a moment, and I would like to ask you if God is speaking to you this morning, and you are similar or similar to Saul, and you feel that God is calling you to go a new Path, I want you to know that this message is for you, God has made it, he has made it for your life and God invites himself into your life. Almighty God tells you, I have a purpose for your life, why don't you join that purpose, why don't you change your path, direction and let me guide you, let me take you on the right path?

Interestingly, Saul goes to a street called Right Street. He was on a crooked path and now he is going to Right Street where they are going to initiate him into a new life.

I want to ask if there is anyone this morning who wants to receive Jesus as Lord and savior and tell him, Lord, I want to go on the right Path. If you have heard the voice of Christ this morning I want to ask you to raise your hand where you are, and I would like to pray for you and put you on the right path and bless your life and guide you on the right path.

There will be someone who tells the Lord Jesus, Lord, I want to walk the right Path, I want to walk the right Path where you want me. I humble myself and receive you as my Lord and savior. If that person is here, they want to raise their hand. I invite you to raise your hand, I want to pray for you. Will there be someone?

We are going to stay like this for a little while waiting if God speaks to you, He is speaking to you, do not resist the voice of God and walk the Path of the Lord. Thank you Lord Jesus. We adore you and we bless you. We exalt you, Lord. we bless you