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[0:00] Now come to God in worship. Let us sing to his praise in Psalm 130 of the Scottish Psalter. You'll find that on page 421 of the Blue Book. Psalm 130, Scottish Psalter version.

[0:20] From the beginning of that psalm down to the end, we'll sing the whole of that psalm. Lord, from the depths to thee I cried. My voice, Lord, do thou hear.

[0:33] And to my supplications voice, give an attentive ear. Lord, who shall stand, if thou, O Lord, should mark iniquity, but yet with thee forgivenesses that feared thou mayest be.

[0:46] I wait for God, my soul doth wait, my hope is in his word. More than they that for morning watch, my soul waits for the Lord.

[0:58] I say more than they that to watch, the morning light to see. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him mercy be. And plenteous redemption is ever found with him.

[1:09] And from all his iniquities, he Israel shall redeem. The psalmist, they are trusting in God and relying on him.

[1:21] His hope is in the word as his soul waits upon it. Whatever situation we are in, we can come to the Lord with confidence. Let us stand together and sing.

[1:33] Lord, from the depths to thee I cried. Lord, from the depths to thee I cried.

[1:50] My voice, Lord, do thou hear. And to my supplications voice, give an attentive ear.

[2:18] Lord, who shall stand in the path, O Lord?

[2:29] Choose mark in the glory. God, yet with thee, forgiveness is not fear, Thou mayest be.

[2:56] I wait for God. My soul doth wait.

[3:08] My hope is in his word. More than they that, O morning watch.

[3:27] My soul waits for the Lord. I sing more than they that, O morning light.

[3:53] O Lord, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord.

[4:08] For with him mercy speak. And plenteous redemption His love, O Lord, O Lord, O Lord.

[4:33] And from all his iniquities, He Israel shall redeem.

[4:54] Amen. Amen. We'll now join together in prayer. We'll pray for the younger ones before they go through into Sunday school.

[5:07] Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give thanks for this day that we have the opportunity to come, set aside from the duties of this week, and gather together and worship you, to draw near to you.

[5:22] And we pray that as we do so, your presence and your spirit would be among us. We pray for each one that is gathered here in Persian and online, that you are a God who knows us, and you know the situations of our lives.

[5:40] You know the hairs on our heads. You know the difficulties that we face and the cries of our hearts. And so we come and bring these before you, but also we confess our sins and the waywardness of our lives, but yet with thee forgiveness is.

[6:00] And Lord, we can come to you with confidence. We pray that we would know this as we gather. We just pray also for the young that are gathered with us. We pray that they would know more of Christ and that they would understand what he has done for them by dying on the cross at Calvary.

[6:19] And in him there is the power of life. As he is the one who rose Lazarus from the dead, we pray that they would understand that he can take us from sin and give us a hope and eternal life with you in the heavens.

[6:37] So Lord, we pray, be with us as we gather, as we read your word, as we go to our classes, be with the teachers. Help us to have a mind focused upon you, not distracted in any way.

[6:52] Help us to learn about you and to know more about what you have done for us. Forgive us our sins, we pray. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

[7:03] Amen. Amen. Now before the young ones go off and do Sunday school, just say a wee word to them. Now I wonder, have your parents ever told you to stop doing something?

[7:17] Maybe you don't need to think about that too hard. Maybe this morning you were told to stop doing something. I've got a sign here. Stop on it. I made this one.

[7:30] It's not, I was running out of red pen. Seems all the red pens in our house are empty. But you'll have seen a sign like this when you're in the car with your mommy or daddy or your granny or grandpa or in the bus.

[7:46] And you see them, you see some of them, they're stuck. But then you'll see other ones where a man holds it. There might be works going on in the road and there'll be a man holding the sign telling you to stop.

[8:00] And then your parents, or whoever's driving, probably goes, oh no, we've got to stop. Because we don't like stopping. But then the man will turn the sign and tell us to go.

[8:11] And then we're quite happy to go on our way. There may be some within the congregation who actually work with these tools, this sign, and it's an important job.

[8:24] Keeps everyone safe. Allows the workers to do their job. But usually they use it because the driver can't see the other side. Usually they've closed one side of the road and whoever's in the car can't see what's ahead.

[8:40] So they need someone to tell them when to stop and when to go. So there's no accidents. There's no crashes. So we don't get ourselves in trouble.

[8:54] When God does the same thing with us, he tells us to stop. He tells us to stop on Sundays.

[9:06] He tells us to stop and read the Bible. He tells us to stop and pray. And all these things are good for us to do. God tells us to do these things.

[9:20] And sometimes, sometimes we don't like it. Sometimes we like to just keep going and doing what we like doing. We like to keep going all the time.

[9:31] You remember the story of Mary and Martha. Mary sat and stopped what she was doing and listen to Jesus. But Martha kept going and going and going. But Mary chose the best thing, to stop and listen.

[9:47] So it was good for us that we are told to stop, stop the work that we're doing, stop going to school, and to come before God and listen to what he says to us.

[10:03] But it's also important to go when Jesus tells us to go. And you'll see in your story today about Lazarus that Jesus waited for a while and then he went.

[10:19] So maybe you'll see if you can spot that in your story today. But whenever you see this sign up, I want you to remember God tells us to stop on Sundays, listen to him.

[10:33] We need to listen to him. If we don't listen to him, it's not good. And then he tells us to go for him and to go and tell people about him.

[10:44] So when you see the sign, remember what God tells us to do. We need to stop and we need to go. We'll pray that'll be blessed to you and be blessing to you as you go to your classes.

[10:58] Let us say the Lord's Prayer together. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[11:11] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[11:24] For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. Okay, thank you for listening. We'll continue in our praise by singing in Psalm 51 and the Sing Psalms version.

[11:38] You'll find that on page 67 of the blue book. Psalm 51, page 67 from the beginning of that psalm, down to verse Mark 9.

[12:02] O my God, have mercy on me. In your steadfast love, I pray. In your infinite compassion, my transgressions wipe away.

[12:15] Cleanse me from iniquity. Wash my sin away from me. It's a psalm where David himself had to stop before God and confess his sins.

[12:26] So let us stand, sing to God's praise from the beginning down to verse Mark 9. O my God, have mercy on me. O my God, have mercy on me.

[12:43] In your steadfast love, I pray. In your infinite compassion, my transgressions wipe away.

[13:03] Cleanse me from iniquity. Wash my sin away from me.

[13:19] For I know my own transgressions. I can see my sinful plight.

[13:35] You, you, only I've offended. And none evil in your sight.

[13:50] So your words are verified And your verdict justified.

[14:05] From my birth I have been sinful Such the nature I received Sinful from my first beginning In my mother's womb conceived Truth you look for In my heart Wisdom to me You impart Cleanse with this Of purify me I'll be whiter than the snow

[15:06] Let the bones you crush Be joyful May I joy and goodness know May I joy and goodness know From my failure Hide your face Altered all my wickedness If you turn with me To your Bibles now And we'll take a reading From the book of Acts Chapter 9 Book of Acts Reading from the beginning Of chapter 9 It's an account of Saul's conversion We'll read down to the end of verse Mark 22

[16:10] Let us hear the word of God Acts 9 From the beginning But Saul still breathing threats and murders Against the disciples of the Lord Went to the high priests And asked him for letters To the synagogues at Damascus So that if he found any belonging to the way Men or women He might bring them bound to Jerusalem Now as he went on his way He approached Damascus And suddenly a light from heaven Flashed around him And falling to the ground He heard a voice saying to him Saul, Saul Why are you persecuting me?

[16:58] And he said Who are you, Lord? And he said I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting But rise and enter the city And you will be told What you are to do The men who were travelling with him Stood speechless Hearing the voice But seeing no one Saul rose from the ground And although his eyes were opened He saw nothing So they led him by hand And brought him into Damascus And for three days He was without sight And neither ate nor drank Now there was a disciple at Damascus Named Ananias The Lord said to him in a vision Ananias And he said Here I am, Lord And the Lord said to him Rise and go to the street called Straight And at the house of Judas Look for a man of Tarshish

[17:58] Named Saul For behold He is praying And he has seen a vision Of a man named Ananias Come in And lay his hands on him So that he might regain his sight But Ananias answered Lord, I have heard From many about this man How much evil he has done To your saints at Jerusalem And he has authority From the chief priests To bind all who call on your name But the Lord said to him Go For he is a chosen instrument of mine To carry my name Before the Gentiles And kings And the children of Israel For I will show him How much he must suffer For the sake of my name So Ananias departed And entered the house And laying his hands on him He said Brother Saul The Lord Jesus Who appeared to you On the road

[18:58] By which you came Has sent me So that you may regain your sight And be filled With the Holy Spirit And immediately Something like scales Fell from his eyes And he regained his sight Then he rose And was baptized And taking food He was strengthened For some days He was with the disciples At Damascus And immediately He proclaimed Jesus In the synagogue Saying He is the Son of God And all who heard him Were amazed And said Is not this the man Who made havoc In Jerusalem Of those who called Upon his name And has he not Come here For this purpose To bring them bound Before the chief priests But Saul Increased all The more In strength And confounded The Jews Who lived in Damascus By proving That Jesus Was the Christ

[19:59] Amen May the reading Of God's word Be a blessing To each Who hear it Let us Turn in prayer To him Let us pray Our Father in heaven As we come To your word We see the miraculous Works that you can do That you can change The man Who is rooted in evil And change him To be devoted To your cause Lord We come into your presence We pray that you would Give us a clearer Understanding Of who you are And to whom We come before And through Christ Jesus and his We gain a greater Understanding So as we come To your word Open up Our eyes And block Our ears That we may Hear See And know The riches That are Unmestable To be found In this man

[21:00] Jesus Christ And the hope That he can give us In a world That is full Of confusion And hopelessness And that you give us A sight Beyond this world Into things That are eternal And everlasting So let us As your people Hold fast To you That we would Keep our eyes Upon you In every walk Of life Wherever you Take us And whatever Situations you Bring us into And often we are Tempted to turn Away And we confess In the foolishness Of understanding We see Easier paths To take But Lord We pray That we would Be obedient And faithful To you That we may be People set apart And holy From this world That we May be Lights And darkness And show

[22:00] Forth Who Jesus Christ is A hope Beyond all Understanding That the world Gives to us And in our Weakness We confess That our Words Do not Portray this In the way We wish At times Nor do Our actions But we ask That your spirit Would be Indwelling Within each Of us That it may Strengthen us And guide us Along the way That we may Come to you In prayer Asking Show And reveal To us Your ways So that we May walk In it That we May walk Along the Paths That are Set aside For us That we May not Turn again To foolishness As pilgrims In the progress Turned Looked To turn Back And looked To seek A path Other than Whole difficulty

[23:01] We seek We seek An easier Way Lord It's not The best That we Would strive And be Encouraged And find Our strength In you For the Difficult days That lie Ahead That we Would not Grow Lukewarm In our Hearts That we Would hold Fast To you And as we Come to your Word Open it up To us We pray So that we May be like The two On the road To Emmaus Confessed That when It was Opened Their hearts Burned Within them Pray Lord That you Instill Within us A fire For the Gospel That we May see And Understand The Souls Need In this World That we May have A heart Of Compassion To those Who are Lost And extend The compassion

[24:01] That Christ Offers to Them in the Gospel And he Calls them To come And receive Of these Riches Sweeter Than honey And richer Than gold Lord we Pray That you May make Us Lights In darkness To bring Forth These Things Remember Those Who are Set Set Aside In Illness We Pray For Them That you Would Give Them Strength We Pray For Those Who are Anxious About Operation We Pray That you Would Be With Them And give Them Peace In Their Hearts We Pray Pray For Those Who are Looking After Those Who are Unwell We Ask That you Would Give Them Strength And be With Them We Pray Also For The NHS Service As a Whole We Hear Of it Being Over We Thank For It We Pray That we Would Be Able To Have Access To

[25:02] Medical Staff And Med We Just Pray That That Burden Of That Service Would Be Lifted We Are Mindful Also Of Those Who Mourn And We Pray Especially For Them That You Would Draw Near To Them And Be With Them In Their Loss And Sadness And If It Even Provokes Questions Within Their Hearts We Pray That You Would Be With Them To Answer And To Show Them Life In Jesus Christ We Pray For Those Gather In The Center As They Worship You We Pray For Our Children As They Consider The Story Of Lazarus And Even In The Darkness Of Death Those Who Trust In Jesus Can Have Life Eternal We Just Pray For Those Who Go For With The Prayer For The Training Of Your People You Would Raise

[26:03] Up Men To These Riches Of Christ And That We Would Be A Nation That Would Understand And Turn Back From Our Foolishness That We Would Turn To Your Word And Be Guided By It So Lord We Pray That You Would Guide Our Thoughts May We Know Your Spirit Spread Over Us As We Turn To Your Word Speak To Our Hearts And Minds We Pray And All This We The Confession Of Our Sins And The Name That Is Above All Names And Jesus Christ Who Died For Us On The Cross At Calvary And Whom All Authority In Bestowed We Ask These Things By The Power Of His Name Amen Continue And Praise By Singing In Psalm 86 On The Scottish Psalter Version We'll

[27:03] Find That On Page 341 Of The Blue Book Psalm 86 Singing from Verse Mark 10 Down To Verse Mark 13 Page 341 Because Thou Art Exceeding Great And Works By The Are Done Which Two Which Are To Be Admired And Thou Art God Thys Alone So We'll Sing From Verse Mark 10 Down To The End Of Verse Mark 13 And We'll Stand To Sing Because Thou Art Exceeding Great Because Because The Because The Vortex He Think Great And Works By Thee Are Done Which

[28:03] Are To Thee Admired God Hi Faith And Tell Teach Me Thine Way And In Thy Truth Oh Lord In Walk Will I unite my heart That I thy name may fear Continually O Lord my God With all my heart

[29:07] To thee I will give praise And I the glory Will ask Christ And to thy name always Because thy mercy Toward me In goodness Thou excel And thou Be delivered As my soul Out from the lowest hell

[30:11] If you could turn back with me To the passage that we read In the book of Acts Chapter 9 And the text I would like to give focus to you Is from verse 15 But the Lord said to him Go For he is a chosen instrument of mine To carry my name Before the Gentiles And the kings And the children For I will show him How much he must suffer For the sake of my name So Ananias departed This morning The passage that we read together It reveals to us One of the most astonishing ways In which God can work How he can take the person Who is proudly consumed With a deep hatred towards God And changing into a man

[31:14] Who is humbly devoted To his way The great work of conversion Within the soul of a believer Or the soul of a sinner From one that was ready here In the passage To murder the Christian In verse 1 To the man that we find Sitting and eating In the company of the Christian In verse 19 And joining in the worship of God In many ways We don't understand this It defies our logic And our understanding That one of such evil Could be changed In such a manner But with God Anything is possible Saul is not the only character In this passage And while there are others In the background We have another man in focus His name is Ananias

[32:14] This man is seemingly A resident of Damascus And is a disciple Of Jesus And a follower Of the way And as we turn To this passage We can see That both of these men Have been directed By God God has spoken To them The Lord has appeared To each of them Giving them instructions That they must obey Saul Has essentially been Stalked in his tracks While Ananias Has been told The one who is newly Converted To this way And the other Who is continuing To live By this way And we are told Of Saul That he is an instrument Of the Lord There in verse 15 But it is surely true That we can say The same of Ananias In this passage

[33:15] Although he is there To fulfil A different purpose But even in this Understanding We don't just Stop at this passage For surely That term Is true Of every Christian Surely that term Is true Of all the Lord's people Who are gathered Here this morning That they are Instruments For his cause Whether we are Young Or old Whether we are New to the faith Or mature In faith Surely it is true That we can say That we are all Instruments Of the Lord And the believer Is an instrument But what does it mean To be an instrument Of God You can imagine A musical instrument Like a guitar Or a piano They can create The most spectacular Compositions

[34:16] Of music But they can also Create the most horrendous The quality Of the sound That comes from it Is not dependent On the instrument You may remember A film called Greenbrick Where there was a film About a pianist And he was going Around the country Playing on pianos For people to enjoy But he had to play On a certain type Of piano And one time It wasn't A Steinway Is what they call it It wasn't a Steinway Piano that was set Before him To play on But he must They were endeavoured To get him A Steinway Piano But even if you gave me Or anyone here A Steinway Piano I wouldn't do much With it I wouldn't I wouldn't be a pianist I wouldn't create Anything That you would Be an off Well Maybe it would

[35:16] It wouldn't be very good It would be horrendous So the praise The adoration Of the music Does not go To the instrument It goes to the person Who plays it It goes to the person In whose hands It falls Now an instrument You know It could be described In different ways An instrument Could be a tool That you use for work As many of us here Could associate with The tools that we use And the quality Of the items That we use Make all the difference For us As skilled persons That use them But giving that item To someone else Doesn't mean That they will be As skilled Or produce The same results You see It is the one Who holds the item Who knows best What to do with it

[36:17] The master The one who is familiar With it Knows how to use it And knows how to get The best result From it It is not determined By the instrument It is determined By the one Whose hands It is placed Within And the words Here in this passage As instrument It could equally be Described as A vessel That may be more Familiar to many of us That he is a chosen Vessel And same again If you take A vessel Or a bowl In our imaginations It's same It's held In the hands Of someone And in this passage If it is a vessel You can imagine it Being filled And the vessel Then being passed In the hands Of someone May receive From that vessel The contents

[37:18] That are in it Like people Would receive The music That comes From the instrument And everyone Here Should realise That we are To place Our hands In God The Christian In particular Should be Of that mind But even The unbeliever Is to understand That when we Place ourselves In the hands Of God We fulfil Our purpose In glorifying And glorifying Him This is what Happens When we put Ourselves In the hands Of God And we trust Ourselves Fully To His Way It is there Where the Instrument Produces The best Music It is in These hands Where the Vessel Is filled With all The desires Of life That are

[38:20] Lasting And satisfying Not the desires Of the flesh The desires Of our lives That we find In Jesus Christ As He Fills That vessel And those Who place Themselves In the hands Of God Are honourable To God And give Honour To God We are Instruments In the hands Of God And I would like Us to look At this passage Of the two Instruments That God Employs For His Glory In this Memorable Record Two Individuals That are Used In individual Ways Distinctly Saul Is forced To stop At first Ananias He is told To arise And go Commands Of God Saul Stop And Ananias Arise So let

[39:20] Let us Consider Saul At first Saul Is brought To a Place Where he Must Sit And stop Obviously He was the Man That was Hunting Down the Christians He was the Man who Was slaughtering The Christians The next Stop Was Damascus In his Mind He had The written Order Of the High Priest Within His Pocket He had The soldiers Accompanying Him On the Way And it Seemed Like there Was nothing That could Be done To stop This Advance Of evil But as We proceed In reading In verse Three All of a Sudden We read Of a light From heaven Flashing Around him That like The flash Of lightning This light That appeared Before him Says that he Fell But we Better Translated That he Collapsed He could Not stand Before the Presence of This light

[40:20] Because it Was the Presence of Christ Christ in Whom all Authority had Been bestowed The Christ In whom you Remember when The people Came to Arrest him They fell Back when He spoke To them In the Garden of Gethsemane He could Not stand In his Presence Nor could Paul Saul Nor can We Stand in The presence Of God Or Jesus Christ If we're Going to Stand by Ourselves We Cannot And amidst This light That shone There was There was a Voice Saying Saul Saul Why are You Persecuting Me Now We Would Assume Because of The evil Of his Heart That the Anger of Christ Was kindled Against This man It may Have been But it is Not expressed In these

[41:20] Words When Christ Speaks to Saul For to Call out One man's Name twice Is a sign Of affection A loving Concern For the Person You may Recall Other Instances Where God Spoke And said Samuel Samuel Martha Martha Simon Simon It is Far From an Expression Of anger It was That we Called it Compassion This is The compassion Of Christ Coming to Saul And he Asks Him Why do You Pershing And yet He could Not answer That He knew The efficient Answer To give To this Authority And although He asked Who spoke By saying Who are You It seems That he Already Knew It was The Lord And in The response He got

[42:22] It was Probably The most Fearful Response He could Have Asked For I Am Whom You Are Persecuting Jesus Stopped This Man And Afterwards After he Had been Stopped He was Given Direction To go Into The city And wait His Eyes Had Been Taken From him And he Waited For three Days Without Seeing And without Eating We are Told Can you Imagine What he Was Thinking As one Who was Killing Christians And Killing Those He Lived By The Name Of Jesus Christ Was Forced To Stop And Wait To See What Christ Would Do With Him He Had Been Placed Within The Hands Of But He Had A Vision And It's Very Important Because

[43:22] He Didn't Get That Vision He Would Have Been Left To His Own Reasoning And His Own Understanding And For All That He Had Done To The People Of Christ And The Followers Of His Way I Think He Would Have Gone Mad And He Would Have Been In Deep Depression Awaiting How Christ Would Repay What He Had Done To His People But Because He Had The Vision He Had A Hope Of Followers And A Hope From Despair And With His Sight Remused Physically I Believe He Turned To Look Within Himself In These Three Days It Is Good For Us To Do That At Times To Turn And Stop And Look Within Our Hearts And Who We Are Before God Saul Realized Whose Hands He Was In Prior He

[44:23] Realized He Was In The Hands Of Enemy The Evil One Who Had Directed Him And Now Before The Presence Of Christ That Vessel Was Surely Empty In His Eyes All That He Had Done Amounted To Nothing Before The Presence Of Christ But The Lord Was Set To Fulfill With The Abundance Of His Compassionate Love His Mercy And His Grace And See Here In This Point In The Great Conversion Of Saul Although He Lived A Life Turned And Directed Against God Against Jesus Christ Christ Saved Him Christ Died For Him And Though He Would Have Expected Death By His Own Reasoning And Expected Punishment He Received Eternal Life And

[45:24] He Received The Inheritance That Had Been Set Aside Even For Him And Though I Am Fully Persuaded That He Knew Himself To Die He Knew Himself He Was Unworthy Of Receiving All These Riches Of Christ Jesus For All That He Had Done And For All That He Had Lived His Life By Before But It Is The Same Today While We May Not Be People Opposing The Church We May Well Be Living Life Without Christ Without Jesus And For This Moment He Has Set You To Sit And Stop That You May Come Under The Power Of The Light Of The Gospel Of Jesus Christ And Regardless Of How You Have Lived Up To This Point Regardless Of How You Have Lived Up To This

[46:24] Point He Calls Out To You Not Once But Twice Because All Of His Compassion And Love Is Extended To Every Single Once Here This Morning But He Still Asks Of Us Why Do You Live Without Me What Can We Say In Response To That If We Are When He Is Offering All These Riches Of His Love And Eternal Peace With Him He Is Asking You Why Would You Turn Away From These Things What Are You Going To Say In Response To Him Is He Saying To You I Am Jesus I Am Calling You You Are Rejecting Me Before

[47:26] His Glory All Your Responses And All Your Reasonings To Why You Aren't Will Collapse And Fall There Will Be Nothing To Say There Will Be A Time When We Meet Him When We Stand Before His Presence And All We Shall Do We Won't Have Anything To Reason To Why We Never Trusted In Him The Bible Tells Us That All We Will Do Is Bow The Knee Fall Before Him And Confess That He Is Lord So We Are Told In His Grace To Stop And Consider Who We Are Before Him This Morning What Is Our Vessel Before Him Christ Is One Who Is Willing To Fulfill It I Believe Saul Sat In These Moments Pouring Out His Heart Pressing All His Wrong Doing And The Foolishness Of His Ways

[48:27] By Not Being In The Hands Of Christ Asking For The For All That He Had Done But We Are Told That Christ Said He Was Praying Christ Listened To His Prayer Christ Listened To Everything That He Said And Forgave Him Of The Way In Which He Had Lived His Life He Saul He Did Not Know How Instrumental He Would Be In The Future As An Instrument Of God But He Placed Himself In His Hands And Trusted Him To His Way And It Is A Place Where We All Must Come We Place Ourselves In The Hand Of God And We Find There The Purpose Of Our Lives And We

[49:27] Ask That As We Do As His Vessels He Will Fill Us To Overflowing Saul Had To Stop In Christ We Have The Power To Be Saved But He Does Not Save The Person To Stop He Saves The Person To Go Let Us Turn To Ananias And Look At The Account Of Ananias He Is Told To Arise Ananias Is Introduced To Us In Verse 10 And In All Understand He Is A Mature Christian The Lord Also Spoke With Him But It Is Interesting To Note That He Only Addressed Him In Name Once I Do Not Have An Answer For That But It Is Worth Noting That Ananias Was Not An Instrument Of Paul's Conversion But

[50:28] He Assured Encouragement That These People Whom He Persecuted In In Paul's Eyes The Persons Who He Murdered Were Undoubtedly Of Christ Because Ananias Came To Him With The Vision That He Had From God Confirming That Christ Was In This Man Christ Was Speaking To Ananias And Paul Saul Knew The Extent There And Then Of The People To Whom He Had Killed And To The Extent Of His Persecution Which Was Of Christ Himself As Jesus Said To The Lord Spoke To Ananias And He Said Here I Am Essentially Ananias Is Saying Lord Yes I Am Ready For You What

[51:28] You Want To Do With Me And We Read There From Verse 11 Down To Verse Mark 13 What Was Said And The Lord Said To him Rise And Go To The Street Called Straight And To The House Of Judas And Look For A Man Of Tarsus Named Saul For Behold He Is Praying And He Has Seen A Vision A Man Named Ananias Come To Lay His Hands On Him So That He May Regain His Sight Now You Can Just Imagine After Hearing All These Words I Think He Probably Only Heard A Man Of Tarsus Named Saul At Which He Would Have Recoiled This Infamous Man Of Great Reputation Responds You Can't Be Serious That I Need To Go And See This Man He Has Authority From The Chief Priest To Bind Everyone Who Calls On Your Name It Would Be Certain Imprisonment For Me Murder To Go To Meet This Man But

[52:31] The Lord's Response Is To Him That He Is No Longer A Man That Binds The Name Of The Lord In Verse 15 He Is Told That He Is A Person That Will Carry My Name Although Ananias He Shows Resistance To The Order Of Christ And He Questions God If This Is Right Or Wrong Is This Is Something That We Are Very Good At As Mature Christians When We Feel Pushed Out Of Our Comfort Zones We Tend To Question Is It Right Should I Go But The Lord Has A Plan For Each Of Us And Regardless Of How He Thought Saul Already Had The Vision The Lord Had The Way Ananias Arise And Go With My Message And

[53:33] Where The Lord's Name Was Previously Been Bound By This Man It Was To Be Carried Out Across The Nations And This Is A Task Not Just Of Saul But Of The Instruments And Roles Of The Lord To Glorify His Name To Carry The Riches Of That Person Out Into The World Though Paul Had A Weighty Responsibility Particularly Placed On Him We Read it There In Verse 15 To Carry My Name Before The Gentiles The Kings And The Children Of Israel But Also It Had Significant Consequences For Him I Will Show Him How Much He Must Swear For The Sake Of My Name The Lord Has A Plan For Each Of Us May Surprise Us To Where He Leads Us He Has Planned At Different Times Of Our Lives There

[54:33] Are Times Where We Must Stop And Reflect There Are Times We Must Follow His Command And Go We As A People As His Instruments Who Have Placed Ourselves In His Hands Are Greatly Privileged To Have Received Such Riches Poured Into Our Vessel But We Are Not To Sit Full Of This The Vessel Is To Be Passed Between One Another The Vessel Is To Be Passed Among People So People So That They May Taste Of The Riches Of What Jesus Christ Has Done And Done For You God Christ Jesus In The Riches Of His Grace Saves Us To Be Instruments And Not To Be Ornaments The Ornament

[55:33] Sits There To Be Looked At But We Are Saved To Be Instruments To Be Placed And Used In The Hands Of God We Are Instruments To Bring Glory To The Name Of God And Not To Ourselves We Are Instruments In His Hand Saul As An Instrument Paid The Ultimate Price In Dine That Vessel Was Poured Out As A Drink Offering As A Sweet Offering To Jesus But According To Tradition Ananias Also Paid The Ultimate Time Apparently The Roman Governor Licinus Arrested Him And Had Him Stoned Outside The Walls Of Damascus For Being A Leader In The Christian Church We

[56:35] Do Not Know The Full Effect Of This Man But He Brought Glory To God In His Own Sphere And Wherever God Places Us We Are To Carry The Name Of Christ Into That Place Whether It Be Of Prominence Or Whether It Be In The Back When We Are Told To Stop We Sit At His Fe And Listen When We Are Told To Go We Get Up And Go To Glorify The Name Of God God Takes Us Into The Most Difficult Of Circumstances But Even There We Are Told To Carry His Name Wherever The Christian Go We Must Carry The Name But Even In The Most Difficult Places Where We Ourselves Suffer He

[57:36] Will Not Withhold His Riches From Us And It May Be In These Particular Experiences We Find Our Cup Overflowing But We Are Also To Take That Name To Everyone Those Who Are Set Aside In Illness To Those Who Are Mourning In Death To Those Whom We Work With To Those Within Our Families We Bring And Carry The Name As His Instruments Are We Placed In His Hands Are We Willing To Be Placed In His Hands Are We Willing Used For His Glory Are We His Instruments For For For His Works The Glory Is Not To The Instrument The Glory Is God As we Go Out Into This World May We Bring And Bear That

[58:37] Name Of Jesus Christ And What He Has Done For Us And Show Forth His Glory May We Lift Up The Name Of Jesus Christ Above All Names And Let Us Be Willing To Bring It As Instruments In The Hands Of God May These Thoughts Be Blessed To Us We'll Conclude By Singing In Psalm 143 A Scottish Psalter Version Find That On Page 440 The Last Verses Of Psalm 143 From Verse 9 Down To Verse Mark 12 From My Fierce Enemy In Safety Do Me Guide Because I Flee To Thee Lord That Thou Mayest Me Hide My God Thou Art Alone Teach Me Thy Righteousness

[59:37] Thy Spirit Good Lead Me To The Land Of Brightness And We See There In The Last Psalm Commits Himself To God By Concluding For I Thy Servant Am Placing Himself In The Hands Of His Saviour To The Glory Of God Let Us Stand And Sing To That Glory From My Fierce Enemy In Safety Do Me Guide From My Fierce Enemy In City Do Me Guide Because I Flee To Thee Lord That Thou Mest Me Hide My

[60:37] God Alone On Earth Teach Me Thy Righteousness Thy Spirit's Good Lead Me To The Land Of Upright O Lord For Thy Name Be Pleased To Waken Me And For Thy Truth Port Take My Soul From Misery And Of Thy Grace Destroy My Fools

[61:38] And Put To Shame All Who My Soul Adore For Thy Servant Am Conclude In A Word Of Prayer Our Father In Heaven As We Come Before You Let Us Be People Who Commit Ourselves Trustingly And Faithfully Into Your Hands To Follow Your Ways That You Are The One Who Will Change Us To Trust In You And Defy The Power Of The Evil One Lord Let Us Instruments In Your Hand To Glorify Your Name May We All Confess That We Bow Before You As Your Servants And Make Us Willing In

[62:39]  Our Hearts To Say I Am Your Servant Be With Us As We Part And Be Blessed To Our Services As We Meet This Evening Forgive Us Our Sins For Jesus Sake Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen