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Acts 9.10-19
You Want Me to Do
What?
 01.05.2013 – First UMC St. Cloud
Note from Pastor Mike: I want to encourage our church family to look
deeper into what God speaks to us through the Message.
Here at First United Methodist Church of Saint Cloud we believe that
God speaks to us through the Message. One way for all of us to hear
from God more clearly is to read the Scripture verses and the
Message again during the week.
I would really like to hear your comments and how God is challenging
you through the worship service and the Message. It would be great
to hear your discussion ideas. Please feel free to send me your
discussion points.
Your friend on the journey,
Pastor Mike
Contact Pastor Mike at:
 Pastor.Mike.FUMC@gmail.com
OR
 First UMC St. Cloud 1000 Ohio Avenue Saint Cloud, FL 34769
(NIV) Acts 9.10-19 – 10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord
called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"
"Yes, Lord," he answered.
11The
Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a
man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man
named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."
13"Lord,"
Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all
the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with
authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."
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15But
the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my
name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will
show him how much he must suffer for my name."
17Then
Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he
said, "Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you
were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with
the Holy Spirit." 18Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he
could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19and after taking some food, he
regained his strength.
The “Big Idea” – We have been created to work alongside God in bringing
abundant life, in bringing forth New Creation, into this world.
A. The Story so Far
1. It will help for us to understand the context of the situation that Ananias finds
himself entangled. (NIV) Acts 9.1-1 – 1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out
murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest 2and
asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any
there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take
them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey,
suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and
heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"
5"Who
are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6"Now get up and go into
the city, and you will be told what you must do."
7The
men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound
but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened
his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.
9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
2. Then we come to the person I want us to consider this morning. (NIV) Acts
9.10 – 10In Damascus there was a disciple [follower of Jesus] named Ananias.
The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" God speaks to Ananias, a
believer in Jesus. Can you imagine the fear that Ananias feels when (NIV)
Acts 9.11 – 11The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street
and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. My first question
would be, “God, you want me to do what!?” We first meet Paul as the Jewish
religious leaders drag Stephen, a leader in the early Christian church, (NIV)
Acts 7.58 – out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses
laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul [that is, Paul].
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3. Saul is now Paul. Yet, as far Ananias knows, Paul is still the man who watched
and approved of the stoning of Stephen because Stephen spoke about
Jesus being God. That was not even the worst of it. (NIV) Acts 8.2-3 – On that
day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all
except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2Godly
men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3But Saul [Paul] began to
destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and
women and put them in prison.
4. “God, you want me to do what!?” We find Ananias is very upfront with God
about his fear. (NIV) Acts 9.13-14 – “Lord,” Ananias answered, "I have heard
many reports about this man [Paul] and all the harm he has done to your
saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief
priests to arrest all who call on your name." I would imagine, Ananias went
on, “Just in case you weren’t aware of this, um, I am one who calls on your
name. So, just to be clear about this, God, you want me to go to meet with
the guy who wants to arrest me, and who thought stoning Steven, who also
called on your name before he got rocks thrown at his skull, was a good
idea.”
5. “God, you want me to do what!?” Yet, God is pretty clear about what
Ananias is supposed to do: go and meet this man Paul who up until a few
days ago (NIV) Acts 9.1 – was still breathing out murderous threats against
the Lord's disciples.
B. Fear
1. Fear robs us of life. Fear prevents us from making good decisions; fear leads
us to make poor decisions. Fear paralyses us. Yet, God asks believers to enter
into uncomfortable and even dangerous situations. There is no escaping it –
the central symbol of our faith is one of the cruelest forms of execution in all
of history - the cross. Jesus enters our world to face our history of evil and sin,
the defeat of which cost him his life. There is a cost to the work of
redemption, often one which might well elicit great fear. There is a cost to
the work of God in purchasing humanity and all of creation back from the
clutches of sin and death. God has chosen humans to work along side of him
in this great endeavor.
2. Believers are often paralyzed by fear. We are fearful of moving out of our well
worn places, our comfortable way of doing life, our respectable place in
society of our town (Saint Cloud, Kissimmee, Harmony.) So we ask, “God, You
want us to do what!?” God, you want us to love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us? You want us to give to the poor and needy, and
get no accolades of our magnanimous acts? You want us forgive the debts
other owe to us just because you have forgiven us our debts? You want us to
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go and tell others about your love for us seen most clearly in Jesus and to
help them see that real and abundant life comes from obedience to you?
You want us to gather together to worship you and then bear each other’s
burdens? “God, you want me to do what!?”
C. Dreaming with God
1. This comes in large part because we become so fixated on our deficiencies,
our disagreements, our rituals, our rules and a host of other things which we
allow to distract us from what God is doing. We fear letting go of what is so
we can see what might be. You and I have been created by God to be
creative. We are created in God’s image part of which is to dream and
imagine and then to make something of these visions using all the abilities
and passions God has given us. It has to break God’s heart when believers
and churches squander these abilities and passions and go after lesser
dreams than Jesus’ work: to bring redemption to humanity; to offer justice for
the oppressed; to give food to the poor; to heal the broken hearted; to end
the hatred of racism…
A SERVICE OF WORD & TABLE
INVITATION
Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him,
who earnestly repent of their sin
and seek to live in peace with one another.
Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another.
CONFESSION AND PARDON
Merciful God,
we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church.
We have not done your will,
we have broken your law,
we have rebelled against your love,
we have not loved our neighbors,
and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hear the good news:
Christ died for us while we were yet sinners;
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that proves God’s love toward us.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!
Glory to God. Amen.
2. Our relationship with Jesus frees us from the fear of what we don’t have and
from whatever changes the future brings and unleashes the boundless
energy of the God’s Spirit to imagine and innovate and experiment and
engage with whatever God is up to in our sphere of life. Are you and I willing
to let go of things as they are so we can see the immense possibilities God
has for things as they might become?
3. We are paralyzed by fear because we do not really believe God is at work in
our here-and-now lives and in the lives of our friends and neighbors and in
the world around us. The same Paul, who before he met Jesus wanted to kill
Christians, writes, (NIV) 2 Corinthians 5.11-21 – 11Since, then, we know what it is
to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men….14For Christ's love compels us,
because we are convinced that one died for all....18All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of
reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not
counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message
of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God
were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be
reconciled to God…. God is working to bring people into eternal life, into
abundant life now through a relationship with Jesus. Here, God is working the
way God has always worked, in and through ordinary believers - believers like
you and me - to bring reconciliation and freedom to this world which God
loves so very much.
THE GREAT THANKSGIVING
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
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It is right, and a good and joyful thing,
always and everywhere to give thanks to you,
Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
And so,
with your people on earth
and all the company of heaven
we praise your name and join their unending hymn:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
D. Failing to Act
1. This is not always the easy path to follow. Here is the important part: you and I
need to constantly ask, “God, what is it that you are doing and how can I
get involved?!?” Ananias asks this question and God reveals to Ananias what
he is doing. (NIV) Acts 9.15 – 15But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is
my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings
and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for
my name." You see, God is preparing Paul to be one of the greatest leaders
in church history. Yet for this to happen, Ananias needs to overcome his fear
and obey God.
Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant
by water and the Spirit.
On the night in which he gave himself up for us
he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread,
gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.”
When the supper was over, he took the cup,
gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:
“Drink from this, all of you;
this is my blood of the new covenant,
poured out for you and for many
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for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of me.”
a. You know, you and I can’t always know exactly what God is doing, but
the Scriptures make it abundantly clear that God is working in our world.
The point with Ananias is that he acted! He risks entering into a fearful
situation, trusting that what he does for God really matters.
And so,
in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ,
we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving
as a holy and living sacrifice,
in union with Christ’s offering for us,
as we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here,
and on these gifts of bread and wine.
Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ,
that we may be for the world the body of Christ,
redeemed by his blood.
2. In second book of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy, Perelandra, Ransom, the main
character, comes to the realization that God has brought him to the planet
Venus to save its new race from being clutched in the hands of Satan. As he
deliberates with himself as whether or not he will act to fight this evil, he
contemplates if his actions really matter in the end. “As long as he did his
best – and he had done his best – God would see to the final issue...He must
not be worried about the final result. Maleldil [God] would see to that…
a. Then Ransom mind shudders like an earthquake, “It all snapped like a
violin sting. Not a rag if this evasion was left…His journey to Perelandra [the
planet Venus] was not a moral exercise, not a sham fight. If the issue lay in
Maleldil [God’s] hands, Ransom and the Lady were those hands. The fate
of the world really depended on how they behaved in the next few hours.
The thing was irreducibly, nakedly real. They could, if they chose, decline
to save the innocence of this new race, and if they declined its
innocence would not be saved. It rested with no other creatures in all time
and all space….”

The thing is irreducibly, nakedly real – if Ananias does not go to Straight
Street and enter the house of Judas and speak to Paul, Paul might
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never plant new churches all over the known world and write half the
New Testament letters.

The thing is irreducibly, nakedly real – if you do not give of your
finances, something God wants done will not get done.

The thing is irreducibly, nakedly real – if you do not forgive someone will
never see what God’s forgiveness looks like.

The thing is irreducibly, nakedly real – if you do not speak to someone
about Jesus, they will never know abundant life.
3. Oh yes, God’s purposes will come to pass – God cannot be stopped – but
when we fail to act the loss is still real. For Ananias, this all begins because is
able to recognize God’s voice. I wonder if we would recognize God’s voice?
Do we pray together enough to be able to help each other hear God’s
voice? Are we immersed in the Scriptures in such a way that we know what is
important to God?
By your Spirit make us one with Christ,
one with each other,
and one in ministry to all the world,
until Christ comes in final victory,
and we feast at his heavenly banquet.
4. Miroslav Volf in his book Against the Tide writes, “Most of us don’t live for
anything larger than ourselves and therefore cannot fathom dying for
anything except maybe to protect our freedom and our possessions….Jesus
was the Christ [in part, my words] because he lived and died for something
larger than himself – for the love of God and humanity, to give life to others,
not to take it away.”
“Take Away” – Living for something larger than yourself; ask, “God, what is it that
you are doing and how can I be involved?!?”
So, in this new freedom, we no longer ask, “God, you want me to do what!?”
but instead we ask, “God, what do you want me to do?”
Through your Son Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,
all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father,
now and for ever.
Amen.
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And now, with the confidence of children of God,
let us pray:
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
forever.
Amen
BREAKING THE BREAD
Because there is one loaf,
we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
The bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ.
The cup over which we give thanks is a sharing in the blood of Christ.
GIVING THE BREAD AND CUP
The body of Christ, given for you. Amen.
The blood of Christ, given for you. Amen.