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Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

Lessons from the Life of Paul

David Shin

Conversion and Conviction

Three Years in Arabia

Gospel to the Gentiles

Hermeneutics

Colossians 2:16

The Lordship of Christ

Romans 7

I Keep Under my Body

I Have Finished the Course

Father in heaven, you have been so good to us.

Lord, we are amazed at your patience with us, your forbearance, your long suffering.

And we pray this morning that as we open the words of life, that you would speak to each and every heart.

And we pray that you would bless us this morning with your spirit.

May you apply the truth Specifically to our situations and to our own hearts.

We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus Amen We're continuing in our series entitled lessons from the life of Paul and for today's study I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 9.

We pick up Right after Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, remember last Sabbath we touched on Paul traveling to Damascus to persecute Christians, to take them back to Jerusalem, take them to trial and ultimately to their death.

And on the road to Damascus, he sees Jesus.

His eyes are blinded, and he recognizes that he has been on the wrong side, and for 3 days, the Bible tells us that he was not eating, probably not sleeping very much, not drinking any water, and he was blind for 3 days.

I wonder what was going through his mind during those 3 days as he sat in isolation in an undisclosed location and suddenly God comes to Ananias, a Christian living in Damascus and says, I want you to go see Saul of Tarsus, who would become Paul, and we pick it up here, he goes to see brother Saul.

Paul in verse 17, so Ananias departed and entered the house after laying his hands on him said brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now this is the point in Paul's ministry where his eyesight is restored.

But the other part that I missed many times as I read the Book of Acts was here Ananias laid hands on Saul, and the Bible says that in that moment he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is a reoccurring theme in the Book of Acts where you see that the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Bible paints this picture of this metaphor of the Holy Spirit being an agency that is poured out.

And it gives the implication that we as human beings are like vessels, we're like cups in a way, that have the potential to be filled with different spirits.

In Acts chapter 5, the Bible says that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias and Sapphira.

And I don't know about you, but I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

All of us have the potential to be filled with different spirits and we can every day ask for the Holy Spirit to fill us.

We don't want any vacancy in our own hearts because we are spiritual vessels with that potential to be filled with different spirits.

Paul begins preaching the gospel, and we pick it up in verse 25 and 26.

I'll give you the opportunity to read the whole chapter on a Sabbath afternoon.

Verse 25 and 26, then his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

The reason why Paul had to flee was he was preaching the gospel, you can imagine this man that was a persecutor and was gonna drag Christians off to be incarcerated had suddenly become a Christian and he was preaching the gospel giving his testimony and he became such a threat to the Jews that They were going to kill him so he escaped through a basket or through the wall in a Basket and then in verse 26 the Bible says that he went to Jerusalem.

Now, an important principle of Bible study is that you want to compare Scripture with Scripture because the book of Acts moves on to the next notable event, but I want to invite you to turn with me to Galatians chapter 1, verse 17 and 18.

An important principle is to compare scripture with scripture, and in Galatians chapter 1, verse 17 and 18, Paul tells us that in the gap between verse 25 and 26 was not several days or several weeks.

It was actually quite a bit of a period of time.

Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and once more to Damascus.

Then 3 years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days.

Now follow me here because the Bible says that Paul was in Arabia for 3 years before he went to Jerusalem, according to Galatians chapter 1, 17 and 18.

Now I have it here on the screen for you.

And so this gives an indication of the gap between verse 25 and 26 of Acts chapter 9.

You have Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, and if you fill in the blanks and read some of other Paul's writings, Galatians tells us that between Paul's conversion and him becoming a missionary to the Gentiles, introducing himself to the Jews in Jerusalem, there was a gap of 3 years where Paul spent time in isolation in the deserts of Arabia.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you wondered, What in the world am I doing here?

I mean, this was a leave of absence, where his life was on hold.

I wonder how many more books of the New Testament we would have if Paul had been not missing in action for those 3 years?

How many more churches could we have from an efficiency standpoint?

But God had Paul missing in action, in isolation, for 3 years.

Have you ever had a time in your life where you're wondering, Lord, what am I doing here?

This situation, it seems like my life is on hold.

Now, I've noticed that it's very difficult to get a direct flight out of Alaska.

I remember I was flying to Africa and it was a long flight over the ocean.

Then we had a layover in Paris that was overnight.

And because we were so cheap, we decided to spend the night in the airport terminal.

And it seems like they make those seats as uncomfortable as possible.

I remember trying to spend the night in Paris, and I just wanted to get to my final destination the thing about a layover is That you know that this is a temporary Holding pattern this is not your final destination This is not the place that God ultimately wants to lead you.

I wanted to go to Africa I didn't want to hang out in Paris and we were there for what seemed like an eternity in the security terminal with our little Blankets if you can call them that just just trying to get some sleep and we slept absolutely 0 during that time in that layover.

And sometimes following God means a detour.

Sometimes following God means that God says, I want to put the pause button on your life.

I want to put you in a holding pattern on a layover.

When I graduated from the seminary, I was eager to do ministry, and I was put in my first district in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Yes, there is a place called Kalamazoo, by the way.

I was to be an associate there, to be trained as an intern the first year.

And while I was there, Quentin said, I want you to give worship to these elementary school kids and I want to observe you.

So I went into our little school that was attached to our church there and gave worship to our elementary school kids and afterwards Quentin says I want to have a conversation with you and he said do you realize David that those young people did not understand a single word that you said you can't use words like existential David you you've got a you've got to do something about this.

And I had just come out of seminary studying Bultmann, Penenberg, and Reinhold Niebuhr, and all of these theologians and so forth.

So now I was coming off the ivory tower and I could not relate to individuals.

And I said, praise the Lord that I'll never have to do youth ministry.

Well, a year later, the brethren decided that they would place me in a congregation of 1, 000 people, a multi-pastoral staff, where you had the senior pastor, you had the associate pastor, you had a full-time counselor, and they said, David, we want you to be the youth pastor, which meant specialization.

And for 3 seemingly eternal years, It felt like a long time.

I was in Berrien Springs doing youth ministry.

I didn't even get to preach but maybe 2 times a year to the main congregation.

But every single Sabbath, I was giving the lesson to the youth.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love youth ministry, but I'm just not cut from that particular cloth.

You know, there are individuals that are gifted with youth ministry and I praise the Lord for them, but I knew that this was not my final destination and here I was in Berrien Springs doing youth ministry for 3 years and I would call my mom and I'd say, Mom, I just don't know what I'm doing here.

Month after month after month after month.

Now looking back on that experience, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Because every single Sabbath, I had to take beautiful heavenly principles and make them simple and understandable to children.

Every week I would give Bible studies to 10, 11, 9 year olds, and I would have to take biblical principles understandable to a child.

And God told me, look, anyone can take something and make it more complicated.

But you as a minister of the gospel, you need to take heavenly principles and make them understandable, comprehensible.

And so during that time, by the way, I met my lovely wife as well during that time, the Lord knew what he was doing, you know?

And I knew that this was not my final destination.

I knew that this was not where God was going to lead me, but God put my life on hold and said, David, there's some things that you need to learn.

And so for this time period, for 3 years, your life is going to be what you think is on hold.

It's not going to be your final destination.

You're going to be in a situation where you're thinking, what in the world is going on?

I know that this is not where I'm supposed to be.

But God is saying, look, I want you to stay in this pause, period.

And that's where Paul was for 3 long years.

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Series

Lessons from the Life of Paul

Three Years in Arabia

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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