How to Live a Transformed Life Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Live a Transformed Life Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 9:1-31.

Those who claim that hypocrites only seem to show up at the church, and therefore that gives them the excuse not to come and be with the family of God, I notice nobody saying to me, hey, I’m going to quit going to the grocery store, because there’s a bunch of hypocrites walking up and down those aisles.

Hello, and welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. This is Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church, and grateful to have this opportunity to share God’s word with you. Today we’re going to be in Acts chapter 9.

We’re continuing the study of the life of the conversion of the Apostle Paul as he shares this great testimony. We learn what it really means to live a transformed life. And I hope that as you and I study this, that this will continue to compel us to strive to be more like Jesus Christ.

So let’s get into our study today. Prayer is not just a religious duty. It’s not just something that we do because we feel compelled to do is to keep God happy. But rather, part of our transformation is that as we are praying, God is changing us.

People say to me, why should I pray, Pastor? Well, I want you to know not only should you pray because God works through prayer, and God has chosen to bless through prayer, and that God in his sovereign will always accomplishes eternal works through the prayers of his people.

And I want you to know that we should pray because prayer blesses others, and God calls us to pray. But did you know that you should pray because God will change you as you are praying? Now, so many people see prayer as for somebody else, or prayer as praying for a particular circumstance or situation, rightly so.

But prayer goes deeper, and prayer goes further. You wanna be that person of God? You wanna be that person who honors God in your life that be fervent in your prayers. Because through prayer, God is humbling your heart.

Through prayer, God is shaping your heart. Through prayer, God is molding you into the image of Christ and He is bringing us in alignment to His will. You remember our Lord and Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane that as He was preparing Himself to be crucified on the cross that was imminent upon Him, that He had invited the disciples to come into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with Him.

He finds that as He looks back that they’re sleeping. How would you feel calling on people to pray and partner with you? And when you look, you find them sleeping. You find them sleeping. The weight of the sins of the world.

approaching the savior of Jesus Christ, that the immense responsibility of paying for the sins of mankind upon our savior, and just the emotional task, the physical task that was before him, the Bible says that he was sweating great drops of blood.

The stress, the immensity of it weighing upon his mind and his heart was right there, but what does he do? He calls out upon God and he says, Lord, if it’s possible, allow this cup to pass from me. What cup?

The cup of suffering, the cup of sacrifice. He calls out to the Father, if it’s possible, let the cup of suffering pass from me. But he says, Lord, not my will, your will. What is God doing in prayer?

He is aligning your heart with his heart. For we are taught by Jesus Christ himself in the Lord’s prayer that we are to pray, Lord, not my will, but your will. We are taught that we are to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in, thank you.

And this is the alignment of prayer that God is doing in your life. Those who neglect prayer in their life are not only powerless and they are not seeing the eternal work of God in the hearts of their own children and their own lives and their people that are around them, but their hearts are not even aligned with the will of God.

You wanna live a transformed life in this world, you wanna make a difference, you wanna impact your family, you wanna impact your children. I cannot stress enough to you that you need to be a person who is fervent in prayer.

The third thing I want you to see is that we are called to be faithful in service. Look at verse 13. of chapter nine, the Bible said, Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard him, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

Have you ever been there? And Ananias, he was a faithful man of God, he was doing the work of Christ, and God revealed to him in a vision that he was to go to Saul, and that he was to lay his hands upon him, that Saul might receive his sights.

And Ananias is like, wait a minute, Lord, I think, A, you got the wrong man, and B, I think you don’t know who Saul is. And you and I have been there, we have said, Lord, we think that you don’t fully understand.

We have thought, you know what, Lord, maybe. this is not what you clearly see, what is going on here. And so here he tells the Lord, he wants to straighten him out, verse 14 says, and here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.

Lord, that puts me in the fire and lane. But look at the response in verse 15. The Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake, verse 17.

And Ananias went his way and entered the house and laying his hands on him, he said, brother, Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you came has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

What are the keys to being faithful in service? First, there is a calling that God has upon us. I want to remind every one of you that every believer is called to be a minister. Every believer is called to some ministry.

You say, I wanna make a difference, then listen, you have to live a life of ministry, a life of service. You can’t wake up every day and say, I wanna live for self. You can’t wake up every day and say, I want it all to be about me.

Friends, you’ll never make any impact upon others, but when you get up in the day and say, Lord, here I am, send me, send me to that person, send me to that situation. I want to be a blessing, I want to serve you, I want to help others, I want to make a difference.

You see, there’s a call that is upon all of us. Maybe you’re not getting a vision and maybe you’re not hearing a voice and you wonder, God, do you wanna use me? I tell you that he does. that this call is upon each and every heart that has committed their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There was not only the call to service, but there was the understanding of the cost of serving God. Did you see that in verse 16? God said to Ananias, I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

I want you to know that when you serve God, it won’t be easy. I want you to know that serving God is messy. And why is it messy? Because people are messy and lives are a mess and there are imperfect people that live in this world and you get frustrated and you want everything to be perfect and you want everything to come together and you just want everything to be so wonderful.

But I tell you that when you serve God, you have to get your hands dirty. When you serve God, you have to be willing to humble your heart. When you serve God, I want you to know that sometimes people will misunderstand you.

They will misunderstand your motives, and they’ll misunderstand what you’re trying to do to help them. When you serve God, you’re gonna get some pushback. When you serve God, even your own family might think that you’re a little weird.

Why? Because every day, through all the different media platforms that are out there, they’re told to glorify self. They’re told to live for self. They are told to make it about them. All you gotta do is listen to how people talk.

I listen to people talk, and it’s always about them. It’s about how they can one -up your story. But when was the last time that you heard somebody who was really interested in you, who was interested in what you are dealing with, and they’re asking questions about your circumstances, the heart is revealed in how you listen to others.

And sometimes the best way we can serve is being a listener, right? Sometimes the best way we serve is praying for others. Sometimes we serve by jumping in and getting a task done. Sometimes we serve by being an encourager.

Sometimes we serve by filling a need. However God has called you to serve, every believer is a minister, but there is a cost to that service. And we must remember, and what we see in verse 17 is that he is commissioned by God.

I want you to know that you are commissioned by God. You don’t have to wait for Pastor Mike to lay hands on you and grab you by the neck and say, get busy for Jesus. No, you don’t have to wait for that.

The Spirit of God is residing in you, the hand of God is upon you, and you are ready. Some of you say, well, I need to take a few more classes, Pastor Mike. Can you come up with any more classes? Well, friends, we can come up with all the education, all the classes, but you know what I found?

Sometimes you just need to jump in and get her done. That’s what you need to do. You need to get out there and make it happen. I’m rejoicing that so many are coming back to the house of the Lord, that they’re coming back to worship God.

But here’s my biggest disappointment. Are you putting your seatbelts on church? Because I’m talking to you. You know, one time a man asked me, he said, I feel like that when you’re up there preaching, that you’re preaching at me.

And I said, duh, okay. Now, if you think I just got up here to just talk to the wind and the walls, then you’re crazy. You’re crazy. I’m not picking on you. The Spirit of God is speaking to you. But here’s what I wanna say to you, church.

The biggest disappointment is that God’s people have not reactivated in serving. So many just coming, sitting, and soaking, saying, I’m not gonna help out in the nursery. I’m not gonna help out in children’s ministry.

Pastor, we want all these programs. We want all these activities for our young people. We want these things to happen, but Pastor, you do it all. Hey, listen, I’ve learned that one person cannot do it all.

It takes teamwork to make the dream work, amen? And so it’s gonna take all of us finding our place. If you’re just a sitter and you’re just a soaker, let me tell you what’s gonna happen in your Christian life.

You’re gonna be sour, a sour Christian, because you’re gonna be like that person who stands on the sidelines or up in the stands at a football game or a baseball game or a soccer game. You’re complaining about everything.

You’re complaining about the coach. You’re complaining about the refs. You’re complaining about the athletes. You’re complaining about everything while you’re sucking down a hot dog and a 20 -ounce Mountain Dew.

As if they’re the problem and you’re not. My friends, I wanna be kind. Get off your tail, get in the game, and let’s make a difference for the Lord Jesus Christ. It’d be good that we didn’t maybe eat so many hot dogs, huh?

But I want us to get active for Jesus Christ, and I wanna encourage you that if you wanna live a transformed life, you gotta not only sit and soak, but you gotta serve. And when you serve Jesus Christ, you’ll be a sweet Christian, and you’ll be the kind of Christian that is refreshing people, renewing people, encouraging people.

Now I know what some of you say, well, Pastor Mike, I did my time. I did my time. Friends, I want you to know that maybe we can’t do what we used to could do because of maybe… It may be our physical limitations, but I tell you that all of us should find a place where we can serve Jesus Christ and keep helping the gospel of Jesus Christ to go forward.

Amen? Now let me tell you a fourth way for us to live a transformed life, and that is to be filled with the spirit. Look at verse 17. At the end of the verse, as he said, brother Saul the Lord Jesus appeared to you on the road as you came and he sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That’s the key. It is the Spirit of God that empowers us to do God’s work. It is a divine empowerment that he gives us. The Spirit of God is effectively working in us, but yet we do not tap into all that the Spirit has for us.

So many times we neglect full surrender and yielding to the Spirit of God, but God wants us to be. some of you might feel like you need more of the spirit, but I’m here to tell you, you got all the spirit that you need.

You just need to allow the spirit to have more of you. You need to be more surrendered every day. You say, how do you stay motivated for the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you keep going at it, Pastor Mike?

I tell you that it is through the power of the Spirit of God. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. Some of you, it doesn’t take long, for you’re gonna quit, get discouraged, be defeated, and ready to throw in the towel.

Hey friends, following Jesus Christ is not gonna be easy. Nobody said that it was a bed of roses, and so we are called to be a people who are firm, courageous, and we are ready to move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that it is too soon to quit, and that we understand that we will reap in due time, if we will just stay faithful for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you something else about the filling of the Spirit in your life. It not only empowers you to do God’s work, but it’ll eliminate undesirable characteristics in your life. That’s the work of the Spirit.

You see, Saul was a new man in Christ. He was a new person in Christ. It was the Spirit of God who began to point out things that he needs to change in his life. Some people come to church, and they hear the word of God, and the Spirit of God speaks to them, and they say, well, that’s for somebody else.

Well, I’m glad Pastor Mike said that for that person over there, but you know what? Spirit of God’s speaking to you. Is there anything God is saying I need you to get that out of your life so you can be a better servant for me?

Is there anything I need you to change in your life? Every day when I read my Bible, I am always asking this question to the Lord as I’m praying. Lord, is there anything you want me to change? In my heart.

Is there anything… that you want me to confess to you and make right with you. When you come to God’s word and you have a heart that is ready to receive from the Lord and that you are willing like Saul, Lord, what do you want me to do?

Lord, what do you want me to change? Lord, what do you want me to confess to you? That’s when God can use your life. So many people are not teachable. They’re proud, resistant, even now some. You have that wall up and you have it nice and high so that the spirit of God could never speak to your heart.

You go through the motions, you do the religious thing, you walk out of here and you’re the same person when you came in. There’s something wrong with that. I want to walk out of here different. I want to open my Bible and be a better Christian, be a better husband, be a better father, be a better grandfather.

I wanna walk outta here and be that person that God is calling to me. I’m okay if there’s a little conviction. I’m okay if the Spirit of God is saying, hey Mike, work in this area. I’m okay, as the old timers used to say, if the preacher steps on my toes.

Just not my ingrown toe now, amen. I’m just teasing you, trying to keep you awake. I’m almost done. So hang in there, okay? The fifth, now there’s seven points and I’m flying through them fast, okay?

But we gotta get through this. The fifth characteristic of a transformed life is fellowship with the saints. Look at verse 18. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales. This is Saul.

He arose, received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized. And so when he received food, he was strengthened. And then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. I was telling our teachers just this week that it’s important for them to stay connected with one another.

It’s important for you to stay connected with your church, your family. It’s important for you to stay connected to believers because you are more powerful together than you are alone. And I want you to remember this.

When you are tempted by the devil, you cannot grow spiritually in isolation. You just can’t reach your optimum for God in isolation. God wants you to fellowship with the saints. He wants you to be connected with the believers.

He wants you to be a part of the family of God. Now, many people say to me, Pastor Mike, I don’t have to go to church. I can worship God anywhere. I can worship him on the lake. I can worship him in the trees.

I can worship him anywhere. Who said you couldn’t? I never said that. I don’t know that it’s taught anywhere in the Bible. The Bible says the heavens declare his glory, amen. and I’m telling you, all of creation is from God, and when I look at the mountains and I see the beauty of the forest and I see God’s handiwork all around us, certainly my heart lifts up to God Almighty in praise, but who said that you couldn’t worship God anywhere and everywhere?

That’s not the point, that’s not the point. That’d be like a player saying, hey, I can throw a baseball by myself, I can throw a football by myself, well, who said you couldn’t? But you know what? There’s something better about together.

There’s something about making a difference about being together. You not only can worship God while you’re fishing, but you can worship God in the house of God, and you can love the Lord Jesus Christ when you are with the family of God.

And I want you to know that you say, I wanna be that Christian, I wanna be that transformative person, I wanna be that… The person who makes a difference in others, it’ll only happen in the context.

Are you with me? Of relationships with God’s people. It won’t happen any other way. I don’t know of any great Christian. I don’t know of any Christian that’s making a difference that lives in isolation, apart from the family of God.

So I encourage you, know this, the Bible says in 1 John 3, 14, we know that we’ve passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. People say, well Mike, there’s a bunch of hypocrites at that church, a bunch of hypocrites.

Well come join us, come join us. Are you saying that somehow you’re not a hypocrite? Is that what you’re telling us? As you are judging us and calling us all hypocrites, are you saying that you’re not?

Is that what you’re saying? I noted that those who claim that hypocrites only seem to show up at the church, and therefore that gives them the excuse not to come and be with the family of God. I notice that they didn’t quit going to the grocery store.

Did you know hypocrites are everywhere? They show up at the grocery store, they show up at the restaurants, they show up at the gas station, they’re everywhere. But nobody’s saying to me, hey, I’m gonna quit going to the grocery store because there’s a bunch of hypocrites walking up and down those aisles.

Hey, let me ask you, where should the hypocrites be? Where do you want them to be? I want them to be under the sound of God’s word, amen. Hey, did you think this place was a museum? Did you know this is a hospital?

We don’t come and gather together because we’re perfect, because we somehow want to proclaim, we got it all together. We come here every time you walk through the doors and this might clean out. out some of you, but every time you walk through the doors, did you know what you’re saying?

I’m broken. I need grace. I need help. I need encouragement. When you walk through the doors, you are indirectly proclaiming your need for God and your need for grace and your need for his peace and your need for his power and his strength.

Friends, we’re not here claiming that we got it all together. We’re here saying, hey, just like you, we need Jesus. Amen. I mean, I was in the ER a while back and I looked around people having all kinds of issues.

And I didn’t get up and say, you know what? I’m not going to the ER anymore because a bunch of hypocrites appear. And I didn’t say, hey, you know what? Those people, they got brokenness. I don’t wanna be around a bunch of people with brokenness.

And you say, well, everybody’s a hypocrite. your self -judging attitude and self -righteousness is your brokenness. My brokenness may be another area, and your brokenness is that you think you’re better than everybody.

And your brokenness is that you judge everybody and rather than trying to help the hypocrite to become a genuine, authentic follower of Christ, your brokenness is that you’re looking down on people. Some of our brokenness is we already know our life is a mess.

And we’re looking up to the Savior and saying, Lord, I’m here because without you, I can do nothing. Our sixth characteristic of a transformed life is fervency and speaking. I won’t spend a lot of time, but verses 20 through 22, we find that Saul was immediately proclaiming Christ.

He was immediately preaching the gospel. He was immediately teaching the Bible. He was immediately telling others about Christ, which only helps us to understand the importance of being a witness. Helps us to understand that Christ’s mission is our mission.

John 17, verse 18 says, as thou has sent me, Jesus said, referring to the Father, as you have sent me, Father, into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. His mission is my mission.

My last point is that we are fearless in suffering. In verses 23 through 31, you could spend some time reviewing it this afternoon or evening. But here, Saul is dealing with the reality that one day he not only is going to suffer, but he deals with the reality that there is a plot against Saul in verse 24 to kill him.

And he was facing suffering. He was facing threats. He was facing humiliating treatment. And I want you to know that perhaps… serving Christ does mean that we take up our cross. Jesus said, if you wanna be my disciple, you have to deny self and take up your cross.

Your cross is not my cross, but all of us bear a cross. It is the cross of sacrifice. It is the cross of suffering. But you must be fearless as you stand for God. What we need today are courageous disciples who are not afraid to suffer for the cause of Jesus.

What we need today is people to look at our lives and say that our convictions and our principles and our values are firm. And though all the world is pressuring us on the outside to change our value system, and they are trying to convince us that we’re the wackos.

and that there’s something weird about us, let us be assured that as we are in God’s word and we are walking by faith, that we are the ones who are called to be the light in the darkness, and that this is not a time church to shrink back, and this is not a time to be fearful, and this is not a time to be ashamed believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

When a country, when a nation, when a people reject God, I’m telling you the Bible tells us that God will get out of our way. You’re not gonna like what I’m saying, and you’re gonna get mad, and you’re gonna send me wonderful emails, but I’m just gonna delete them.

Because what I’m getting ready to say is gonna upset you, and that’s this. If you wanna be stupid, I said it, God’ll get out of your way. He will get out of your way, read Romans chapter one. This nation wants to be stupid and throw away common sense and what is right and what is honoring the God, then God will get out of her way.

But for the people of God, for the family of God, we will stand up if we’re the last voice on this earth. If we are the last people who love this country and who love the freedom that we have, if we are the last people on this earth, we are gonna go down fighting, but we are not quitting, and we are not giving up.

We are gonna be fearless for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So church, let us commit our hearts to living a transformed life, not being ashamed of what we know is right and honorable to God.

Thank you. We’ve covered all the characteristics of a life that is transformed, and there’s certainly a lot for all of us to work on, and it doesn’t matter who we are, we’re always working to be more like Jesus.

God did a dramatic change in the life of the Apostle Paul, and he does that to those who believe in Jesus Christ. And as we strive to be like Jesus, we must remember that God is calling us to live a transformed life in a world that is constantly compromising.

But I hope you are encouraged and strengthened in your faith. We want to encourage you to check out our website, HopeWorthHaving .com. That’s HopeWorthHaving .com. There’s a lot of resources there, and you can tap into those resources and be an encouragement to your faith.

So check us out on HopeWorthHaving.com. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having. Thank you.