1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,720 in the house of the Lord. And it's even better to be in the house where the water is friendly 2 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:19,440 and the word is expected to come forth and nourish. Before I begin, let us go to God in prayer as a 3 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:27,440 family of Christians. Amen. Gracious Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time. I thank you for 4 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:35,840 Seventh Street Baptist Church anniversary. You knew when they began you had already started a great 5 00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:41,520 and wonderful thing. We thank you for the founding families. We thank you for the families that have 6 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:51,200 come forth. And we thank you for the fellowship of Christians. Father God, I ask you to move me behind 7 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:59,680 the cross. Let the words of my mouth simply be a meditation upon your heart. Let it be pleasing. 8 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:09,040 Let it be a worship with action. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 9 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:18,480 Many of you may be familiar with the book of Acts. It is considered the history book 10 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:28,320 of the early church. It is equally controversial, challenging, and action-oriented. 11 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:37,840 So I bring to you the story that many of us are familiar with, Saul becoming Paul. 12 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:47,440 Paul. If the message had to have a title, I'd call it transformer more than meets the eye. 13 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:58,560 Transformer more than meets the eye. If you happen to have raised children in the 80s, 14 00:01:59,200 --> 00:02:05,760 you know there was once a great cartoon and the tagline was we're transformers and we're 15 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:11,680 more than meets the eye. They start out one way and by the time your kids would break them down 16 00:02:11,680 --> 00:02:17,920 and put them together, they were finally something else. And then they made the transformer doll, 17 00:02:17,920 --> 00:02:24,560 and they made the transformer t-shirt, and the transformer pajamas, and all these other things 18 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:32,720 with the one slogan, transformer more than meets the eye. Some of my parishioners don't know that 19 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:42,720 I am a cartoon junkie. I came to Port Arthur and I haven't seen Jackie Chan much since I've been 20 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:50,560 here, but that used to be my Saturday get-along. I had my series of cartoons that I watched and 21 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:57,680 and I was, oh young people I need you. We don't have escapism in here. I still need you. You need 22 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:04,480 to come back. Amen. Wherever you're going, you need to transform right on back in here. Hallelujah. 23 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:10,240 I'm a ninja. Don't go far because I will hold the sermon up for you. 24 00:03:12,800 --> 00:03:18,240 But I liked cartoons and I watched quite a few of them and it got to the point where if I hadn't 25 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:23,600 seen them, I would turn them on and I just would let them run. Well if you had cable, you could watch 26 00:03:23,600 --> 00:03:29,840 cartoons a whole lot, but we didn't get cable until a year or so ago. You know your budget has to get 27 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:35,920 to a point where you can take one thing out and bring another thing in. Transformer is more than meets the eye. 28 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:41,040 So I actually got cable because I wanted to give my husband a gift. 29 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:49,040 Most families say don't give him cable, he'll never let it go, but I just wanted them to have 30 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:55,600 something and I found Cartoon Network. And all of a sudden I was watching Cartoon Network one day and 31 00:03:55,600 --> 00:04:03,280 there it was, Transformer, more than meets the eye. They broke into a lot of different ways and I was like wow, 32 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:09,840 I haven't seen this in a while. And I found myself there was cartoon after cartoon about 33 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:20,240 being changed into other things. Well on the road to Damascus, Saul gets changed. And maybe some of 34 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:26,240 you only remember when he becomes Paul and when you hear of his letters, but maybe you don't remember 35 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:35,200 before he was transformed and more than meets the eye. For you see the story of transformation, 36 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:45,840 Paul was a weapon of mass destruction. And some of you may be saying, that's in the 21st century, 37 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:54,160 pastor, how could you say he was a weapon of mass destruction? Well I would say to you he was a 38 00:04:54,160 --> 00:05:04,000 weapon of mass destruction because he had a purpose to kill. You may not like that about Saul because 39 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:09,440 you didn't know him in the bath. You only known him since he became Paul. You say, oh no, no, no, 40 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:16,320 pastor, how could you say he was a weapon of mass destruction? If you look at verses one and two, 41 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:27,120 it says, meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats. He was aiming to kill and 42 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:36,240 persecute those who believed in Jesus Christ. And though he had a job, though he was on his way to 43 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:43,280 Damascus, he had a job that he intended to do at the synagogue. Because you see he had a letter. 44 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:51,280 And he was going to inform them that whatever is going on at the synagogue needs to stop and I have 45 00:05:51,280 --> 00:06:01,280 a tool that I can use. So right off the bat, starting in this passage, Paul was not yet Paul. 46 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:14,400 He was Saul and he was a weapon of mass destruction. You see this little can off? It says, 47 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:24,720 it says deep woods off. And it's unscented. And it has a purpose of killing. But for those of us who 48 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:30,560 carry it to keep the mosquitoes down and put off the taxes, we don't think this is a weapon of mass 49 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:37,520 destruction. But to the mosquito, it's floating around here. Some of these new mosquitoes, because 50 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:43,200 these old mosquitoes don't respond as I've learned them. I've only been able to put on a short period 51 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:50,320 of time, but deep woods off is not a weapon of mass destruction to some mosquitoes up in this community. 52 00:06:52,240 --> 00:07:00,960 But if I were to use this with a simple purpose of destroying, I'd be acting with a weapon of mass 53 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:07,600 destruction. Not necessarily a human, not necessarily the dogs, cats, kids, or whatever. 54 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:14,240 But I would be using this to destroy some mosquitoes. And what I've learned since I've been here a short 55 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:22,480 period of time is the mosquitoes here have a special lifetime. They come, they go, they hide, 56 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:27,520 they slip to the side, they come back around, they get cool, they get warm, they go under the curve, 57 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:31,520 they say, hold tight, just give us a few more hours, it's going to get warm enough for me to come back. 58 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:36,480 And deep woods doesn't work. 59 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,000 Even though it's a weapon and it's designed to kill mosquitoes, 60 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:52,160 it's not working. But on the other hand, Saul worked to be a destructive individual. 61 00:07:53,120 --> 00:08:00,560 But Jesus had another purpose. God had another plan for his life. And even though he was walking 62 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:08,640 down the road and had all intention on using his weapon of mass destruction, something happened. 63 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,600 Something happened. Something happened. 64 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:22,960 And it happened on the road. If you look at the verses that were suggested to be highlighted, 65 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:30,080 they go a little something like this. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, 66 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:40,560 Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you, Lord? Saul asked. I am Jesus. 67 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:47,920 Who you are persecuting. He didn't say you have persecuted or you might have persecuted, 68 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:57,120 but who you are present tense. Persecuting. And he replied, now get up and go into the city. 69 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:04,720 You will be told what you must do. I need some students to come down for a second. About five 70 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:15,760 or ten. Now you either go and find your posse. I need you to come on down. Get your posse. 71 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:23,680 Who will be Paul? You'll be Paul? This is the man that's going to be transformed. So I need 72 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:33,680 you all to watch him. It's the one. But these are the crew that was traveling with Saul. 73 00:09:33,680 --> 00:09:41,200 And you realize that they didn't know that he was a weapon of mass destruction. Do that little 74 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:48,000 dance move you do. Come on behind him. You just want to do one of those. Wave over. 75 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:52,800 Something comes over him and he doesn't know what hit him. This posse doesn't know what hit him. 76 00:09:52,800 --> 00:10:02,000 He sees things and he hears things, but they don't see none of it. And then, something happens. 77 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Saul goes blind. He can't see. And I'm not even sure he can still hear. But these people have to help him. 78 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:28,000 This is the one, the man's destruction. He's going to tear stuff when he gets to Damascus. 79 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,000 These folks have to get him, help his brother onto the back so he can get to Damascus. 80 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:44,000 He has to lean and depend on some of the very folks that he wanted to help. But they didn't know that. 81 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:52,000 And he realized that he was a weapon of mass destruction. And he realized he had another agenda. 82 00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:56,000 Well, I need you to keep that on for the rest of the service. And I will be there for you. 83 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:02,000 And I'll be calling you and letting you know when we're going to take it off, okay? 84 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:08,000 You need to feel what Saul felt before he was transformed. 85 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:16,000 We have to watch out what we volunteer for. Because when God says, I'm going to use you, you never know how it's going to happen. 86 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:25,000 His posse continues to hang with him. Gets him to Damascus, but they don't see anything that he sees. 87 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:37,000 They don't even hear anything he heard. Because, well, you see, the visionary wanted to speak to Saul 88 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:44,000 because his life was going to be transformed more than meets the eye. 89 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:53,000 He continues on to Damascus, and he runs across a disciple that Jesus has spoken to. 90 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:59,000 Young man, you're my disciple that Jesus has spoken to. 91 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:05,000 I know you had another place to go and other things to do. But that's how Jesus works. 92 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:14,000 We be on one road going somewhere else. And he says, hold on. I told you something. 93 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:19,000 This is Anna Naez. Anybody know what Anna Naez knew? 94 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:27,000 She came and gave a vision to this young man. Let me tell you what your job is, Bruce. 95 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:33,000 Anna Naez gets a vision from Jesus. In verse 10, he says, the Lord says, 96 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:40,000 go to the house of Judas on Straight Street, not Crooked Street, on Straight Street, 97 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:48,000 and ask for the man from Tarsus. His name's Saul. Okay? 98 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:55,000 And he'll be back there praying. Because he don't know what's going on in his life right now. 99 00:12:55,000 --> 00:13:03,000 He got blind. But, you know, I have a vision for you, for him that's coming through you. 100 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:10,000 I want you to lay hands on him and restore his sight. 101 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:18,000 Now, wait a minute. I don't want you to go on and quit. I want you to go, you prayed up. 102 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:23,000 You straight? You dead? Okay. 103 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:29,000 Now, you know, you can't just do this if you don't believe that the Lord can make a move. 104 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 Okay? I got you. Now, I'm not going to give you all my oil. 105 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:39,000 Just a little bit, because it don't take much to handle up on this situation. 106 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:45,000 I want you to visit the brother on Straight Street. He's blind. He don't know why he's blind. 107 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:50,000 But he's been back there praying because, see, as a weapon of mass destruction, he had another purpose. 108 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:54,000 And now he's blind and he's just like, Lord, Lord, Lord, help me! 109 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:57,000 And I don't know what's going on. I don't know how I got to be blind. 110 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,000 Everybody else can hear. I can't hear me. What is it? 111 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:04,000 Go pray for him. Go pray for him. And you had the power. 112 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,000 Because I gave you the vision. Restore that brother. 113 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Go on back there. Now don't sway no off on him. 114 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,000 Handle up, man. Handle up. 115 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:20,000 He runs into Anna Mayer. 116 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:29,000 And he says, okay, I have heard many reports about this man, and he's a harmful kind of guy. 117 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:33,000 And he's done some really terrible things in Jerusalem. 118 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,000 And you want him to go back here and want me to pray for him? 119 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:41,000 He says, yeah. And here's the important part that we have to remember. 120 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:50,000 Our past lives are lives of sin, are lives that need to be transformed. 121 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:56,000 And Jesus doesn't hold it against Saul, and he's not interested in holding us against him. 122 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:03,000 But this visionary experience through Anna Mayer says these things. 123 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:09,000 The Lord says to Anna Mayer, go, this man is my chosen instrument, 124 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:21,000 to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 125 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:29,000 I will show him how much that he has suffered for my name. 126 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:34,000 And Anna Mayer went to the house and placed hands on Saul and said to him, 127 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:39,000 Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has appeared to you on the road, 128 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000 and now I've been set and filled with the Holy Spirit. 129 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:49,000 Immediately the scales fell off his eyes. 130 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:54,000 Saul, there's the scale. He ain't blind no more. 131 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Come on up here, Saul. Let the people see you. 132 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:01,000 Let it be known that you can see again. 133 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:06,000 But it's not just his sight. He's a transformed man. 134 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:11,000 He has the same clothes on. You don't know his heart has been transformed, 135 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:17,000 but something else happened to him besides having his sight restored. 136 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:23,000 Thank you, young man. You were fantastic. Thank you so much. 137 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:29,000 The point of this is we've all been blinded by something. 138 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:32,000 We've all been challenged by something. 139 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:41,000 And we all have a need to be transformed, individually, collectively, and as a community. 140 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:47,000 Jesus chose the very person who was the weapon of mass destruction 141 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:54,000 as the instrument to our pole of salvation. 142 00:16:54,000 --> 00:17:01,000 Paul became one of the strongest words and experiences of Jesus Christ. 143 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:05,000 He went on to save the souls of many a Gentile. 144 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:12,000 He planted more churches, wrote more Scripture, dealt with more issues than people want to admit. 145 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:17,000 But in his early days, he destroyed people's lives. 146 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:23,000 And there was something about him that Jesus said, that God said, 147 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:28,000 I have chosen him as my instrument. 148 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:33,000 Saul proceeds on, stays in Damascus a little while, 149 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:38,000 and he realizes that he is challenged by the whole process. 150 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:48,000 Because he says to himself, why me? Why me? Why did you choose me? 151 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:58,000 But if you go back up to verses 4, 5, and 6, there's a hint there. 152 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:05,000 The word from on high says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? 153 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:10,000 Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? 154 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:16,000 Transformers have to answer those questions to the most high God. 155 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,000 They have to respond to what their behavior and posture has been. 156 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:27,000 We serve a risen Savior. We serve a Savior that's ready to forgive everything we do. 157 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:32,000 But he says, come unto me. Seek me first. 158 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,000 It doesn't say seek your friends. It doesn't say seek the neighbors. 159 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:42,000 It doesn't say seek your posse. It says seek deeper. 160 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:49,000 Saul wasn't interested in Jesus. He didn't even have a clue that he was selected. 161 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:56,000 As a matter of fact, if it was up to Saul, he would have kept on with his weapons of mass destruction. 162 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,000 He would have kept on killing. He would have kept on destroying. 163 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:05,000 He would have kept on robbing people. He would have kept on in the posture that he was in. 164 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:12,000 But what changed his life was an experience on the road to the masquerade. 165 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:16,000 Have any of you ever been on your own personal road to this masquerade? 166 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Have you ever stood before the Lord and you were going in one direction and something happened? 167 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:28,000 And lo and behold, you turn and you're going this way over here. 168 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:33,000 Maybe you weren't hurting anyone directly or maybe you weren't shooting anybody 169 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:38,000 or maybe you were trying to do your best to help the people up the street. 170 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:44,000 But you were on the wrong street. You hadn't got the straight street yet. 171 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:50,000 You had a secondary agenda. You were operating one way and talking like this, 172 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:59,000 back and forth, see-saw, ha-ha, go-go, whatever. Go-go, yo-yo. There you are. 173 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,000 The bottom line is we've all been on our personal road, 174 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:10,000 whether you've named them Damascus or whether you've kind of teared them under the couch in the living room 175 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,000 or whether you've put them in another box in the article. 176 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:21,000 Maybe you say, oh, if you only knew who I used to be. Well, we all have a past life. 177 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:27,000 We all have a road that somehow intersects somewhere on a road called Damascus. 178 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:31,000 Maybe yours was Houston Avenue. Maybe yours was Straight Street. 179 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,000 Or maybe yours was Seventh Avenue. Or maybe yours was on Stillwell. 180 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:42,000 Or maybe yours was on Savannah. But the bottom line is we've all crossed some streets. 181 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:47,000 And Jesus has stopped us in the middle of the street, made us blind for yet a moment, 182 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:55,000 and somewhere along the way, somebody laid hands on us and prayed for us, and we became sighted yet once again. 183 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:59,000 That's a blessing. That's something to shout about. 184 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:05,000 And I'm almost sure in 36 years of this here church, there's been some Damascus Road experience. 185 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:10,000 Maybe it's been in your Board of Deacons meeting. Or maybe it was in the building front committee. 186 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:15,000 Maybe it was with the people that said, we like children. And this one said, oh, no, we don't want them in there. 187 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:20,000 Oh, we like all of them. Oh, don't have them over here. Maybe it was somewhere. 188 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:29,000 But up the middle of the aisle came the Spirit of God and said, up in here you're going to be changed. 189 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:36,000 Or maybe it was the day that the pastor came and said, your new mission is to feed the homeless. 190 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:42,000 And the next mission was to educate the people on HIV AIDS. 191 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:48,000 The harsh reality is straight street is a street of truth. 192 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000 Crooked street is a street of denial. 193 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:59,000 And if we look at our family situation, a young man said yesterday in a discussion at the Who's Who, 194 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:06,000 that part of our challenge today is that we don't choose to walk in unity. 195 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:15,000 So I would say to you, straight street brings us to a place where God calls us to be unified. 196 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,000 There's a lot of things relevant in this passage. 197 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000 There's a lot of things I could say about this passage. 198 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:32,000 But when it gets personal, you have to say to yourself, self, I'm glad Jesus changed me. 199 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Turn to your neighbor and say, neighbor, I'm glad Jesus changed you. 200 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:47,000 And then point back at yourself. I'm so glad that he changed me. 201 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:52,000 He made me blind, but now I can see. 202 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:59,000 That's a praise report. That's a praise report. 203 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:08,000 16 years almost to the date, I arrived in Houston, Texas with my own agenda. 204 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:13,000 It didn't include what I do now. 205 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:22,000 Because I had my own plan, I was on my own road, and challenging to say, I had my own weapons of mass destruction. 206 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,000 I worked in corporate America, and I was a salesperson. 207 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:33,000 And I didn't realize when I came to Texas that I was running up against something I had never experienced before. 208 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:39,000 The good old boy, super duper Texas Network. 209 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:49,000 I'm not saying they don't have any of that up east, but I'm telling you it was something way different down in here. 210 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:55,000 I don't even want to give it that much credit, but it was deeper than I had been before. 211 00:23:55,000 --> 00:24:01,000 I immediately started calling Jesus. Fast and furious. 212 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:06,000 Okay, Jesus, you got me down here. What are we doing? 213 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:10,000 And he said to me, I got you. 214 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:14,000 I said, oh, okay. 215 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000 I found a church home in Houston, and as my mother lovingly said, 216 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:24,000 was it an AME church, baby, that you were looking for when you started out on your adventure? 217 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,000 I said, no, no, no. I was just looking for anybody who was teaching Jesus. 218 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:35,000 Because when I got down and had my first experience down there in Texas, I immediately ran to the church. 219 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:40,000 I have now accepted the wrong position. I'm on the road to Damascus. 220 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:46,000 And help me, Holy Ghost. 221 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,000 I'm telling you, it shook me from my knees all the way down to my toes. 222 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:55,000 I was like, have mercy. 223 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,000 And I said, it's got to get better. 224 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,000 I can't say, God, that has just got different. 225 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,000 But I kept talking to Jesus. 226 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,000 And I had a transformation experience. 227 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:16,000 He took the scales off my eyes. He woke me up and said, boo, you're in the wrong job. 228 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:24,000 And just like Saul, I had all kinds of reasons that this was the thing I ought to do. 229 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:29,000 Lord, you know I've gone and got a very good education for what I'm doing. 230 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:36,000 And Lord, I have a three-year plan that really should allow me to come right out of this with a few scars 231 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:42,000 and go right on to whatever else is on my five-year plan. 232 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000 I didn't expect to encounter the blindness. 233 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,000 I didn't expect to encounter my posse on the road. 234 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:58,000 I didn't expect to encounter people that said, the Lord's right, young lady, you're doing the wrong thing. 235 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:09,000 But I look at it and I say, around this room, there's thousands and dozens and quadruple numbers of Damascus experiences. 236 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:16,000 But the most powerful thing that they have in common is that we all woke up. 237 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:24,000 It's that we all woke up from our blindness, and God gave us His vision for our lives. 238 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:28,000 He gave us a vision for this church. He's given a vision for this community. 239 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:30,000 He's given vision individually. 240 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:36,000 And they all work together like pieces of a common puzzle. 241 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:43,000 But I say to you, the challenge now is to accept the vision. 242 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,000 We understand our past life. 243 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:52,000 We even quietly will say to somebody, yeah, child, my blindness lasted about 15 years. 244 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,000 How long did yours last? 245 00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:00,000 Mine was 15 days, 2 months, and 32 hours. 246 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:04,000 We know how long it lasted. 247 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:14,000 But the encounter with Anna Neistat that had the vision that Jesus gave was the change agent moment. 248 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:19,000 Just say to your neighbor, there's a change agent moment going on. 249 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,000 And we are involved in it. 250 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:31,000 Don't say you sitting over there is involved, but I'm sitting right here on this pew, and I don't have to worry about it. 251 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000 We're all involved in it. 252 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000 We all. 253 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:44,000 Now, if I was truly all the way to Texas, I'd say, y'all involved, and I'm involved, and we all. 254 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:50,000 I'm moving on to that. 255 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,000 It takes a while to get that picture. 256 00:27:53,000 --> 00:28:01,000 I don't have that special birth certificate, so I have to be reborn into this. 257 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,000 I'm preliminary. 258 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:07,000 All right, I'll take it. I'll take it. 259 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:13,000 After you encounter the change agent, there's a transformation. 260 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,000 And that truly is walking your spiritual journey. 261 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000 That is truly listening unto God. 262 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,000 That is truly all the time periods where you submit. 263 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:30,000 That is truly the time where you get to learn how God sees you. 264 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,000 He sees your gifts. 265 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,000 He sees your gifts. 266 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:44,000 He puts the gifts together and makes one big, caring, loving community family. 267 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:51,000 I think it's powerful to recognize transformation. 268 00:28:51,000 --> 00:29:01,000 I encourage you not to think of it as simply a lucky meeting between Anna Naus and the man who soon would become Paul. 269 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:07,000 I've looked all through the Bible, and luck never appears once. 270 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:13,000 I often tell my students when I work with them one-on-one, lucky is the name of the dog that lives down the street. 271 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,000 But there is no luck in the Bible. 272 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:21,000 Everything has been ordered by the steps and guidance of Jesus Christ. 273 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:26,000 His will is bigger than you can even imagine. 274 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:35,000 So the long-term effect is if you want your transformation to stick, you've got to choose to surrender. 275 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:44,000 And what that means is every now and then, you may get temporary blindness again. 276 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,000 You know you've seen before. You know he's restored you. 277 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:53,000 But every now and then, you might get a little temporary blindness. 278 00:29:53,000 --> 00:30:01,000 He might even go and tell you to sit on down and just meditate on it. 279 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:09,000 But when he takes the blindness and gives you clear sight again, you need to shout all away. 280 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:13,000 You need to shout in the blindness. You need to shout when your sight comes up. 281 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:21,000 You need to shout when he's taking you for it, because he knows what he wants from his people. 282 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,000 The transformation that he gave to Paul. 283 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,000 Look for the transformation in your spirit. 284 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:34,000 Because just as I said, there are no luckies in the Bible. 285 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:38,000 There's no luckies in your life. 286 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:43,000 I encourage you to change your language. 287 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,000 Embrace your blessing. 288 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,000 Expect the miracle. 289 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:57,000 Love the vision that God has set before you to trust him enough to take the faith of a muster seed and say, 290 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:02,000 I don't totally understand it, but I'm going to step out on faith. 291 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:11,000 I don't totally get the whole picture, but because I serve a loving God, I'm going to go with the wind. 292 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:21,000 And more importantly, remember that God's love and peace is for everyone. 293 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:30,000 It ain't just for special. The deacons, the leaders, the teachers, the preachers, it's for everyone. 294 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:33,000 He expects us to live in forgiveness. 295 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,000 He expects us to live in open communication. 296 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:45,000 He expects us to be able to say, yes, my child has an issue, but I won't live in darkness. 297 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:51,000 He expects us to believe in deliverance because he's shown us over and over and over again 298 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:58,000 that he wants to deliver us from out of our bondage, out of our hellacious situation. 299 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,000 We serve a loving and caring God. 300 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:07,000 And I say to you on this 36th anniversary, celebrate what has been. 301 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:15,000 Stuck together, put your feet on solid ground, link each other's arms and say, where we going from here? 302 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,000 Don't let the vision die in the past. Let it be renewed. Let it be restored. 303 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:27,000 Let it be pruned because where God has us going from here, let him map it out. 304 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:32,000 I thank all those who have been the founders and the ground breakers, 305 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:39,000 but I encourage you to be change agents for the students who sit on the back row. 306 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:51,000 I encourage you to be not dysfunctional, but become who God needs us to be as the elders in this community. 307 00:32:51,000 --> 00:33:02,000 I encourage you to stop having this dialogue with your old self, going back and forth. 308 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:08,000 And say, look, Lord, I accept the transformation with all that it comes with. 309 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:12,000 I set my newness with glory. I accept that I'm going to walk this way. 310 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:17,000 I'm the bold woman of God. I expect God to make another move. 311 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:21,000 I expect him to keep changing, but I'm going to step out with what I know and understand 312 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:26,000 because I'm not going to miss what he has for me. 313 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:32,000 And when I hit that moment of blindness, I'm going to thank him for it because I know 314 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:40,000 even when he brings the depths of darkness down, there's a light of God that shines around us, 315 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:47,000 that lets us know he is the light, he is the way, he is the truth, he is all that we need this day. 316 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000 May your vision go forward in the name of Jesus. 317 00:33:50,000 --> 00:34:11,000 I hope you'll be transformed and you will be more than meets the eye. Have mercy.