A New View

Text:  Acts 9: 1-9, 18-22:

‍ And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,‍ ² ‍And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way‍^a‍, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. ‍ ³ ‍And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:‍ ⁴ ‍And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?‍ ⁵ ‍And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.‍ ⁶ ‍And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.‍ ⁷ ‍And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.‍ ⁸ ‍And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.‍ ⁹ ‍And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.‍

^{Verse 18}  ‍And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.‍ ¹⁹ ‍And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.‍ ²⁰ ‍And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.‍ ²¹ ‍But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?‍ ²² ‍But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.‍ ^[1]

Message Title:  “A New View”

Saul had his act together, only for the wrong reasons:  he was working against the Holy Ghost and he didn’t even know it.  On his journey to Damascus, however, a magnificent light stopped him.  God knew what he was up to:  Saul wanted more Christians dead.  He had the permission and the paperwork he needed from the High Priest.

Everything seems fine for Saul, but as he is approaching Damascus, an incredible light from Heaven shone all around him.

**Don’t you just love it when someone refuses to turn off their brights on the highway?  It can be difficult to drive when you are staring into somebody’s brights.

**Don’t you just love it when you have been sleeping all night and somebody walks into the room and turns on the lights!  It’s blinding.

Here is Saul, getting an overhaul! God is literally revealing His true self to Saul.  This would require a name change.  This required temporary blindness.  This required obedience now on Saul’s part.  There had to be a nature change from the inside out. 

That change happened on this Damascus Road.  It was awesome, but it was also painful for Saul.  He was used to being in control, and now he was having to relinquish that control to God.

When Saul asked Jesus what he should do, Jesus told him to go to the city.  This totally took Saul’s men by shock and awe.  They did not understand why they heard a voice but could not see anyone.  It’s because they too were spiritually blind.

When Saul gets up and opens his eye lids, he is blind.  He cannot see the people around him nor the beauties of God’s creation.  Saul is probably horrified to say the least!

Enter Ananias.  The Lord speaks to Ananias and tells him exactly what street to go to and whose house to go to.  He was to go to Straight Street and to Judas’s house.  Judas would be the man who would pray for Saul to receive his sight.  The Lord told Ananias that he told Saul that Ananias would pray for him and that he would receive his sight.

Ananias was frightened because he had heard about the persecution and the evil that he had done to the saints at Jerusalem.  Ananias understood the Jewish system and it frightened him even more to know that Saul had gone though that system well, thus giving him even further reason to doubt God at this point.

¹⁵ ‍But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:‍ ¹⁶ ‍For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.‍ ¹⁷ ‍And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.‍ ¹⁸ ‍And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.‍

Saul got two kinds of sight restored:  Physical and spiritual.  Once you can see, and once you have a new view, you can know exactly how to proceed.  Notice that the first thing he does is to get baptized.  I desire to see our baptistery tank full!

God used Bro. Stoddart to basically come in and say many of the same things that I have been saying for 3 years.  You couldn’t see many of the things I said before the revival, but God has peeled away the scales that have developed over the years.  Now you can see much more clearly in the Spirit:  You have “A New View!”

We all remember the Northeastern Blackout of 2003.  Utility companies are now collecting and analyzing more real-time data on their systems to prevent a repeat of last year’s blackout.

Electric companies can now see more details about their power generation and transmission systems, as well as what is happening in other parts of the country.

The plan is for a smarter transmission grid that could spot and resolve problems and reroute power around network blockages.

Most utility companies didn’t know what was happening at other utility companies and had to be notified if a problem that might affect their systems was rolling across the transmission grid.  The Power Coordinating Council, a group of around 30 industry executives from New York, New England, Quebec, and Ontario now has a VIEW of the overall transmission grid out to Ohio.  One Executive said, “The Council couldn’t get that view before.”

If we are to be the kind of church that God would have us to be, we had to have a new view of our situation:  that is what our revival did for us!  It gave us a brand new view, not only of where we were and are right now, but of where we need to go and how we need to get there.  We learned that we will worship our way there.  We learned a long time ago that we don’t get very far by arguing.  Our engines run best on the fuel of love, grace, and unity.

Some people refuse to see things a new way, but they are the minority!  Most of us caught the vision of lifestyle worship.  Most of us felt the passion and we worshipped our way through the entire two week revival.  What a time we had, and I believe the glory will yet pick up intensity in the long term.

Mathew 15:12:  ¹² ‍Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?‍ ¹³ ‍But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.‍ ¹⁴ ‍Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.‍^[2]

There is only one way that a person can make it to Heaven, and they must be led to the fountain of Salvation by somebody who can see for themselves.  That is why this revival was so critical for us, because we cannot lead people when we cannot see.  We now have A New View.  Our church can now move forward with genuine Apostolic Revival.  I feel like some serious Spiritual roadblocks to revival were dealt with.  We have gained some good ground.  We are in a good position now to grow.   This is my take, and I am trusting God for Him to step in now and do an awesome work!

I see the Lord, Exalted high upon the worship of the people of the earth.  My eyes have seen the King, The Lamb upon the throne who reigns forevermore.  The train of His robe fills the temple.  A cloud of heavenly worshippers Surrounding His throne.  We join with them now, crying Holy Holy is the Lamb, the lamb alone.

Remember that it is when worship is not just a dinner date, but it is when we learn to worship not only here in the house of God, but when nobody else is around as well.  When we do that, we won’t have to pull teeth!  Our services cease to be a struggle and they move into the delight stage.  That is what God is wanting to do among us.  That is my current updated vision for our church.  I want people to look forward to church, and once they get here I want it to be a very pleasant experience for them.  I want our church to be a church that showers our guests with agape and makes them feel like they belong.  I want our guests to experience the presence of God here in such a way that they won’t feel like they need to look anywhere else.  This is my new view after our revival.  I see things much clearer now.  I can see hope.  I can see purpose.  I can see promise.  I can see blessing.  We are a chosen people.  We are a privileged people.  We are a royal people who have been handed a glorious torch.  Let’s run with our best foot forward, In Jesus Name!

Everybody join around the front for unified prayer.