Harvest Pointe Christian Church, Milford Ohio is a non-denominational Christian Church (Church of Christ) on the Eastside of Cincinnati OH

"Note: Due to technical difficulties an audio version of the sermon on 10-05-08 is not available"
Making a Difference in You and Me | Series: Harvest Pointe's Vision Statement| 10-05-08

Harvest Pointe Christian Church Vision:  Making a Difference
In You and Me
Acts 22:3-16

  I. Making a difference in my Attitudes.

 II. Making a difference in my Actions.

Full Text 

Jesus Christ is in the business of changing lives.
 He makes a difference in you and me.
 He made a big difference in JP's life.

And Jesus made a huge difference in the life of
 a man named Saul,
  who later changed his name to Paul.

Saul was a phenomenon of his day.
 He rose to the highest position possible
  at a relatively young age.

He served God with all his heart.
 He gave his all to God.
Saul was a Pharisee.
 He was a protector of the Old Testament Law and
  all the customs of his sect of the Jews.

Then along came Jesus.
 Jesus was changing things.
So Saul was one of those wanting Jesus dead.
 And Jesus was crucified.

But Jesus' movement didn't stop with His death.
 Rumors were flying around about
  Jesus rising from the dead!

Saul wasn't gullible.
 He knew people didn't come back from the dead.

But the Church continued to grow any way.
So Saul was one of the engineers of
 the killing of a deacon in the Church at Jerusalem
  named Stephen.

Stephen was the first Christian to die
 for his belief that
  Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

The death of Stephen began
 a severe persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.

Saul crashed into homes and
 drug people off.
If a Christian was found in a Jewish synagogue,
 they were immediately arrested.

Christians developed secret signs
 so they could identify each other.
Through torture, Saul learned the secrets and
 found Christians in the streets,
  carrying them off to their doom.

Saul was pure evil in his treatment of Christians.

To escape the extreme brutality,
 Christians were scattered over all the world

Only the 12 apostles were left in Jerusalem.

There.  Saul had stopped the superstitious movement
 that threatened the customs of the Pharisees.

But wait! 
 Do you know what those crazy Christians did?
Where ever they went,
 they shared their belief in Jesus!

The Church was like a tsunami
 crashing across the world!

Saul was a top politician in Israel.
 He couldn't do anything about
  the spread of the Church in other countries.
 But he could sure stamp it out in Israel.

So Saul gathered his troops together and
 headed to a northern city in Israel
  where the Church was blossoming.
The city was called Damascus.

Let's hear about it from Saul himself.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 22:3-5.
 "Then Paul said:  '3I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia,but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just  as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4I  persecuted the followers of this Way to their death,  arresting both men and women and throwing them into  prison, 5as also the high priest and all the Council can  testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers  in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as  prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished."

Saul had some evil intentions.
 But Jesus had another plan.

Verse 6.  "6About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.
 7I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul!Saul! Why do you persecute me?'
 8'Who are you, Lord?' I asked.
 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. 9My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
  10'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked.
  'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.'

Saul was devastated.
 Everything he had been living for was wrong.
 The people he had tortured and killed were innocent.

This one who thought of himself as so righteous,
 was a brutal murderer of innocent men and women.

The man he had hated, Jesus,
 was alive and powerful!
He truly is the Christ, the Son of God!

This once proud man was humbled.
 Now he was ready to be used of God.

Verse 11.
 "11My companions led me by the hand into Damascus,  because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
 12A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a  devout observer of the law and highly respected by all  the Jews living there. 13He stood beside me and said,  'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' And at that very  moment I was able to see him.
 14Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you  to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15You will be his witness to
 all men of what you have seen and heard. 16And now  what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash  your sins away, calling on his name.'"

Saul became the apostle Paul,
 who wrote much of the New Testament.

Jesus Christ made a difference
 in the life of Saul.

And just like He made a difference in
 JP's life,
He can make a difference
 in your life as well.

The reality is, the Harvest Pointe Christian Church
 is not really the change agent that
  makes a difference in you and me.

Harvest Pointe is one of the avenues that
 Jesus uses to make a difference in our lives.

Ephesians chapter 3 talks about
 how God's grace was kept a mystery
  until the coming of Jesus.
It tells of how our salvation is part of the wisdom of God.

In this context, Ephesians 3:10 tells us,
 "His [God's] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known...."

God has ordained that it is through the Church
 we learn of God's grace.
It is through the Church that
 Jesus makes a difference in you and me.
But what kind of a difference does Jesus make?

I. Making a difference in my Attitudes.

When we look at Saul,
 we find a man full of cruelty.
He tortured and murdered.

He had to have been filled with hatred to do that.

But Jesus made a difference in his life.

This same man who could terrorize a country,
 later wrote in Romans 9:3, "For I could wish that I
  myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the
  sake of my brothers, those of my own race."

Paul wished he could go to Hell
 in place of his fellow Jews.
He wanted them saved that badly.

His hatred had turned to love.

When you make Jesus Lord of your life,
 you are giving Him control.
And when you do that,
 He will transform your attitudes.

When you start looking at people through Jesus' eyes,
 you see something different.
You see people who are precious.

That dirty, lazy bum with no ambition,
 is now a person of so much value,
  that Jesus died for that person.
That immoral person,
 always drunk and sleeping with whom ever,
is now someone who is so special
 that Jesus died for that person.

That thief,
that liar,
that obnoxious person,
whatever you saw before,
 is now a soul that is so valuable
  that you want to share the love of Jesus with them.
   You want them to be in Heaven with you.

And because we love people,
 we change and become easier to get along with.

The longer you are a Christian,
 the less grumpy you should be.

Philippians 2:14 simply says,
 "Do everything without complaining or arguing."

I hate to say it, but
 Christians can be a hard bunch to get along with.
Too often they stay spiritual babies and
 do not let Jesus transform them.

One Church
 dropped out of the church softball league and
 joined the factory league because
the factory league did not allow
 bad language or arguing and
 had good umpires who didn't cheat.
Now, what is wrong with that picture?

Ask any waitress. 
They would rather serve a bunch of drunks than
 the after church crowd, because
  the drunks tip well and
   the worst that happens is
    someone slaps their bottom.

But church groups are typically a bunch of
 unreasonable complainers,
 they are bad tempered, and
 they don't tip.
What is wrong with this picture?

When I hear the Rev. Jeremiah Wright
 condemning whites and America
  from his pulpit,
can't people see what is wrong with this picture?

It is time for Christians around the world
 to let Jesus do his transforming work in them;
 to let Jesus make a difference in their lives;
 to start truly loving people.

What does love look like?
 I Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us a glimpse.
 "4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does  not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of  wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with  the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always  hopes, always perseveres."

Let Jesus make a difference in your life.
 Be more and more patient, kind, and polite
  with everyone, including your spouse.
I want Harvest Pointe people to be
 the most generous, understanding, fun to be with
  people in the world.

Waitresses should love to see us coming!
 [Actually, some of they do with our crowd!]

We need to be the ones everyone wishes they were like.
 We need to be the ones who that
  people want to be around.
 Be known for your joy and love.

Not only does Jesus make a difference in my attitudes,
 He is
II. Making a difference in my Actions.

It is amazing how many people think that
 Christianity is a list of "Thou shalt nots".
That we can't have any fun.
That we are restricted.
That we don't really experience life.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When you look at the way Jesus wants you to live,
 you find the keys to the most fulfilling,
  the most joy-filled life possible.

The guidelines that God has laid out for us
 are like the owners manual of your car.
If you keep the oil changed and whatever
 your car will run well longer and
 you will be happier.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30, "29Take my yoke upon  you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in
 heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Yes, there is a burden to bear.
Yes, it is not always easy at the moment.

But the burden is light.
 It is easiest in the long run.

I was sitting in my favorite gourmet restaurant one day,
 White Castle, and
I was watching 2 mothers, who each had 2 children.
 All the kids ranged from about 2 to 4.

The mothers could easily be sisters.

But what was fascinating was that the mothers
 were as different as night and day.
They could not have been more opposite.

And the children could not have been
 more completely opposite.

2 of the children fussed and cried the whole time.
 Mother was frustrated and often snapped at them.
The children were manipulating her.

Instead of asking for something,
 her children would start fussing or crying and point.

She would instantly stand up,
 even though she was sitting right next to the child and
  give them whatever they wanted.

Less than a minute later the child would
 start crying again.
She would instantly jump up and
 remove what they had saying,
  "It's all right! 
   You don't have to eat it if you don't want to!"

And when they left, her younger child cried until
 she picked him up and carried him.
He wouldn't take a step.

About the time they got to the door,
 he cried, so she put him back down.

Now, across the table from this trio
 was a happy mother with 2 kids that were having a ball.

At one point her little boy said,
 "I want another chicken ring!"
The mother smiled and looked at him and said,
 "Mother, may I please have another chicken ring?"

It was so cute.
 The little boy tried.
He got the key words in there, but
 they weren't quite in a good order.

Instantly the mother said, "Of course you may!"
 And she gave him another chicken ring.

And he and his sister continued to laugh and giggle and
 get up on their knees on the seat so
  they could look out the window and
   point at something.

When it was time to go,
 they jumped down and bounced to the door.
Now, from a child's perspective,
 the first mother was nice.
She gave her kids whatever they wanted
 when they wanted it.

The 2nd mother was mean because
 she had all those rules
  they had to obey.

So, why were the first children always crying and unhappy
 while the disciplined children were having a blast?

Because the disciplined children
 knew their mother loved them.

She cared enough to set boundaries and expectations
 that would help them be safe and
  do well in life.
The do's and don'ts were not oppressive.
 They were freeing!

Even so, our Heavenly Father loves us enough to
 set some boundaries and expectations.
He wants us to be eternally safe and
 to do well in life.
His do's and don'ts are not oppressive.
 They are freeing!

When Jesus makes a difference in your actions,
 you have a better life!

I had a friend that
 I had the privilege of leading to Christ.
When he accepted Christ as Lord and Savior,
 he took the Lord part seriously.
Prior to accepting Christ,
 He would be drunk from
  Friday after work until Monday morning.
 He lit one cigarette off another.

From the time he was baptized,
 he stopped drinking, cold turkey.
He cut way back on his smoking.

Their house needed a lot of work.

But within a year of not drinking,
 The house was nearly all fixed up and
  looking good.

You see,
When Jesus made a difference in his actions,
 my friend suddenly found he had
  more money for the house and
  more time to work on the house.

Another friend and his wife were always fighting.

It got so bad that one evening
 he slammed her against the wall with one hand and
  had the other hand in a fist to punch her. 

He didn't hit her, but it shook them both. 
 They decided to try this God thing. 

They not only fell in love with Jesus, but
 they also fell in love with each other again. 

You see, the qualities that we are to have as Christians
 are the same characteristics that make a good marriage.
So many of people's problems and heart-aches are
 actually brought on by sin; 
  by not letting Jesus make a difference in their lives.

If Jesus is Lord of your life,
 He will make your life so much better.

Speaking of sin,
 there is one other difference
  Jesus wants to make in every person's life.

We have all sinned.
 We all fall short of the glory of God.
None of us deserves Heaven.

Only the blood of Jesus
 can wash away all our sin and
  bring us the hope of eternal life.

It is all based on faith.
 But it is an active, saving faith.
  It is a faith that demands some responses.

One response of faith is repentance.
 Repentance is deciding you are going to
  stop living for self and Satan and
   start living for King Jesus.

Another response to faith is confession.
 Confession is admitting your faith in Jesus.

And another response to faith is baptism.

When Ananias came to Saul he told him in Acts 22:16
 "And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name."

Why didn't he tell him to believe?
 He had just spoken to Jesus!
 He was blinded, but
  now he could see!

After that encounter,
 Saul believed Jesus is the Son of God.

Why didn't Ananias tell Saul to repent?
 Saul had not eaten in 3 days.
 He was sitting there praying.
 He was already seeking God's direction.

So the last response to his faith was to be baptized.

If you believe Jesus is the Son of God and
 would like His blood to wash away your sin,
come forward when we sing and
 we'll help you confess your belief and
  be baptized into Him.

Maybe you've already done that and
 would like to place your membership with us.

Then come forward as we stand and sing.