LEGACY 5 - ENDORSE - PTR. ALVIN GUTIERREZ - 10AM MORNING SERVICE

2. Endorse

3. 10 In Damascus there was a disciple
named Ananias. The Lord called to him
in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

4. 11 The 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. 12 In a vision he has seen a
man named Ananias come and place
his hands on him to restore his sight.”

5. 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have
heard many reports about this man
and all the harm he has done to your
holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he
has come here with authority from the
chief priests to arrest all who call on
your name.”

6. 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go!
This man is my chosen instrument to
proclaim my name to the Gentiles and
their kings and to the people of Israel.
16 I will show him how much he must
suffer for my name.”

7. 17 Then 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.”

8. 18 Immediately, something like scales
fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see
again. He got up and was baptized, 19
and after taking some food, he
regained his strength. Saul spent
several days with the disciples in
Damascus.

10. This is such a common issue for us.
Because sometimes the voice of Jesus
gets drowned out by the voice of fear,
and sometimes it’s hard to hear what
Jesus is saying because fear is trying
to drive a decision.

12. 10 In Damascus there was a disciple
named Ananias. The Lord called to him
in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

13. 11 The 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. 12 In a vision he has seen a
man named Ananias come and place
his hands on him to restore his sight.”

14. God gets to do whatever God wants to
do, but God doesn’t have to do
anything. God can do anything and
some supernatural things he does, but
not all the time, and we can’t make
him do those things.

15. What’s a vision? To distinguish it from
a dream. A dream is when you’re
asleep and you see something. Now,
you need to know this, not every
dream is a revelation from God.

16. Not every dream is from the Lord, and
similarly, a vision is like a dream. God
is revealing things to you visually. Now,
this is that God still does this on
occasion.

18. How do we know whether it’s a vision
from the Lord or not from the Lord?

19. We believe just because you see
something or hear something; we
don’t assume it has to be the Lord.

20. How do you test the spirits?
Two very simple ways. Check it by the
word of God, and secondly, check it
by the people of God.

21. The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of
Scripture, and the Holy Spirit indwells
God’s people, and so if you want to
know whether or not it was the Holy
Spirit, check with God’s word, check
with God’s people.

22. And since the Holy Spirit inspired the
writing of Scripture, if what you’re
hearing or seeing contradicts what
God is saying, then you know it’s not
true.

23. God doesn’t change his mind. God
doesn’t contradict himself. Check with
the word of God and check with the
people of God.

25. 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have
heard many reports about this man
and all the harm he has done to your
holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he
has come here with authority from the
chief priests to arrest all who call on
your name.”

26. 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go!
This man is my chosen instrument to
proclaim my name to the Gentiles and
their kings and to the people of Israel.
16 I will show him how much he must
suffer for my name.”

27. This is where God is a Father, and he’s
patient, loving, gracious, and kind to
get his kids into the place that he
needs us to be. He’s going to allow
Ananias to articulate his concerns and
to work this through.

28. You need to know that God is like that,
that God loves you with a fatherly
affection.

29. And it doesn’t mean that defiance or
rebellion is good, but it means if you
don’t at first agree, that God the Father
wants to work it out with you and get
you into the place of obedience.

30. He doesn’t get any of that because we
live by faith, not by sight. And so God
isn’t going to give him facts, God is
going to give him himself.

31. God doesn’t always tell us what’s
going to come, but he tells us that we
can trust him and that he knows
what’s going to come.

32. And God commands both Ananias and
Saul, and he is going to send them
both—because to be a believer is to
also be a missionary.

33. Some of you, God’s going to call you
to go invest in one person. Others of
you, God’s going to send to go invest
in many people. And it’s about being
faithful to what God has called you to.

35. But to be a Christian is to be sent, and
what causes us not to go is that we’re
fearful of what could happen to us
negatively as a result of proceeding
forth to talk about Jesus, and so they
both need to overcome their fears.

36. Jesus was already punished on the
cross in your place for your sins, so
when you’re suffering don’t assume
wrongly it’s like karma. We believe in
grace, not karma. That’s not true.

37. Jesus already suffered in your place,
and it would be unjust for you and
Jesus to both suffer. Jesus already
suffered. That penalty and price was
paid and you don’t need to suffer as
well.

38. But it does mean that though Jesus
has suffered for you, if you love him,
and serve him, and speak about him,
some people will hate you because
you belong to him and they ultimately
hate him.

39. This is nothing that we seek, but it’s
something that we accept, and that
God will use even suffering to make us
more like Jesus and to give us a
greater love and affection for Jesus
because we have caused him to suffer
for us.

41. 17 Then 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.”

42. 18 Immediately, something like scales
fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see
again. He got up and was baptized, 19
and after taking some food, he
regained his strength. Saul spent
several days with the disciples in
Damascus.

43. Ananias overcomes his fears and
obeys his God.

45. And Saul receives three things. He
receives the Holy Spirit, he receives
healing, he receives help. In receiving
the Holy Spirit, it comes through the
laying on of hands. So the Holy Spirit,
he is God. He lives in God’s people. He
empowers us for life and ministry.

47. God doesn’t need to send Ananias, and
he doesn’t need to send Saul, but he
sends them both because he wants
them to join him in his work. That’s
ministry.

48. What every new Christian needs is a
Christian filled with the Holy Spirit to
come alongside, and to be a friend,
and to walk, and to pray, and to
encourage, and to give answers, and
to come alongside.

49. Sometimes God’s just going to burden
your heart to be that person for
someone, and like Ananias, who didn’t
even know Saul, pursued him.

50. Sometimes God is going to burden you
to pursue somebody, to pray for them,
to encourage them, to feed them, to
help them, to be there for them, and
that’s what it is.

51. We’re all sinners. We sin in our
thoughts, we sin with our words, we
sin with our deeds, we sin with our
feelings, and we sin with our motives.

52. Jesus says that he’s perfect and never
sinned. He goes to the cross and dies.
Why does he die? Not for his sin, he
had none. He dies for our sin as a
substitute. He trades places with us.
He takes our place.

54. So, here’s what happens on the cross:
Jesus took your place, and he put you
in his place.

55. In Christ you are clean, so live clean. In
Christ you are holy, so live holy. In
Christ you are forgiven, so go and sin
no more. In Christ you have new
desires, so nurture those desires and
not the old ones.

56. In Christ you have a new mind, you
can start thinking differently about this.
In Christ you have a new power, you
can start living differently as a result of
this.

58. Here’s the big idea:
The difference in identity between a
non-Christian and a Christian is the
difference between identity as sinner
and identity as forgiven sinner made
saint.

59. You are a saint. Sin may explain some
of your activity, but does not define
your entire identity in Christ. You may
sin some of the time, but you are a
saint all of the time in Christ. Sin is
some of what you do, but not the
totality of who you are in Christ.

60. There is a difference between having
sin and being sin in Christ. Because
you have a new identity as saint, you
can have a new victory over sin in
Christ. As a sinner, God saw you as
you were, but as a saint, God sees you
as you are in Christ.

61. This is not just good news for us to
enjoy, it’s also good news for us to
share. And so he sends Ananias to
Saul, and he’s going to send Saul to
various groups of people, and he’s
going to send you.

62. Elisha Gray
(1835-1901)

63. Elisha Gray was a Quaker from rural Ohio
who grew up on a farm. He studied
electricity at Oberlin College. In 1867, Gray
received his first patent for an improved
telegraph relay. During his lifetime, Elisha
Gray was granted over seventy patents for
his inventions, including many important
innovations in electricity.

64. He devised a tone telegraph of this kind
about the same time as La Cour. In Gray's
tone telegraph, several vibrating steel reeds
tuned to different frequencies interrupted
the current, which at the other end of the
line passed through electromagnets and
vibrated matching tuned steel reeds near
the electromagnet poles.

65. Gray's 'harmonic telegraph,' with vibrating
reeds, was used by the Western Union
Telegraph Company. Since more than one
set of vibration frequencies – that is to say,
more than one musical tone – can be sent
over the same wire simultaneously, the
harmonic telegraph can be utilized as a
'multiplex' or many-ply telegraph,

66. conveying several messages through the
same wire at the same time. Each message
can either be read by an operator by the
sound, or from different tones read by
different operators, or a permanent record
can be made by the marks drawn on a
ribbon of travelling paper by a Morse
recorder.

67. On February 14, 1876 at the US Patent Office,
Gray's lawyer filed a patent caveat for a
telephone. However, he arrived at the
patent office two hours after an engineer
named Alexander Graham Bell arrived to
apply for a patent for his version of the
telephone.

68. On February 14, 1876 at the US Patent Office,
Gray's lawyer filed a patent caveat for a
telephone. However, he arrived at the
patent office two hours after an engineer
named Alexander Graham Bell arrived to
apply for a patent for his version of the
telephone.

69. On the basis of its earlier filing time -- a
mere few hours -- and on the subtle
distinctions between a caveat and an actual
patent application, the U.S. Patent Office
awarded Bell, not Gray, the patent for the
telephone.