Who’s Driving Your Car?
Acts 9:19-27; 13:13-15; 13:44,45; Galatians 1:15-18
Have you ever known anyone who needed solitude in their lives.
Listen to this story
John had married young, divorced young, came from a wealthy family, had moved from Central America to the U.S. when he was five, lived in New York City, L.A., and Albuquerque, and was a member of a national gang, Las Podillas.
He was scared for his life because he wanted out of the gang, but some gangs don’t let you leave. In fact, they kill you if you try to leave. John’s parents had told him many times that he was a mistake and he wasn’t a part of their family. He didn’t have much faith, because he found little acceptance in church.
John had a terrible addiction to drugs and his criminal record was longer than most. John had a battle within his mind to go back to L.A. or stay in a very quiet suburb of Albuquerque.
He said it was so quiet in Albuquerque that he got restless and was itchy to hear the street noise and get involved with the street life he knew so well in L.A.
It was here that I stopped him and told him God was at work in his life. God had removed him from harm, from violence, from an awful life of hatred, to a place where he could find quiet, peace, solitude, and a family who loved him.
My sister, Diane, knows because of the tenderness of her own heart, that one way God carries us through pain and sorrow is to give us someone else to minister to. So while my sister, the mother of seven, is going through an awful divorce, she is renting out her garage apartment to Peter, offering him a place to find strength, hope, and solitude. This young man is, no doubt, seeking God to change his life.
2,000 years ago the apostle Paul was changed in an astonishing conversion on the road to Damascus.
The man who killed Christians, now became one.
Yet after a life of hatred, killing, and deliberately finding violence on the open road of life,
Paul knew that his new life as a Christian would not grow unless he took time to be with God and listen to him.
SOLITUDE CERTAINLY ENRICHES OUR LIVES
Turn with me to Acts 9:19 & 20, and listen as I read.
Whether it is life of John, or my old Biblical friend, Paul, these are people who needed solitude in their lives
to find the God who is changing their lives for the better.
What about you?
When you are on the open road of life,
who’s driving the car- you or God?
In today’s lesson we will see that Paul found who needed to be driving his car, his wagon, his chariot: God.
We will not have a lot of luck finding much of God
on the open road if we insist on driving the car,
steering it, and even determining the highways we travel on.
Who’s driving your car- you or God?
We find in Acts and Galatians that even though Paul immediately began to preach after God saved him,
he also knew he needed to spend time away from crowds
in order to better get to know God.
Paul went away to Arabia for a length of time.
In that time alone with God he was able to rethink
his former position against Christianity.
During this time alone Paul probably studied the Scriptures, prayed, and thought about the meaning of Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection.
Paul’s beliefs and the very way he was to now live
was not formed from consulting with other believers,
but alone, with God’s guidance.
Paul took time to put into focus the changes
God had brought into his life.
Where are you ?
There has to be more to life than the routine of everyday living;
We have seen how God, provides "graceful curves" in the road of life, even in the midst of danger and crisis.
Find solitude;
Find time alone with God.
To spend all your time with people is to soon have nothing
to give to any of them.
Do you spend time alone with God?
Remember that Solitude enriches.
REPUTATIONS ARE REVAMPED
In reading Acts 9:21-27 we see that there were doubters all around Paul.
Jews no longer trusted him because he had become a Christian;
Christians were hesitant to trust him because he had been a persecutor of Christians.
It is difficult to change one’s reputation, and Saul had a terrible reputation with Christians.
However he had been, he now knew that his new life would anger many-because now he had integrity and would see over a lifetime a new reputation developing.
There has been much written lately about Bobby Knight, head basketball coach for the Indiana Hoosiers.
Most of us would probably agree that he is a hothead, temperamental, and has been pretty rough with his players over the years.
His reputation is not really good, even though there is another side to him.
Fred and Marlene Nichols had stopped at a service station when a trucker who had lost control of his vehicle suddenly struck them. They were both injured badly. As Fred lay there bleeding, unable to move, he felt a stranger’s hand on his shoulder. When he looked up, he couldn’t believe he was looking at Bobby Knight!
Earlier that year Knight’s team had won the NCAA championship. Knight was on his way to receive a coach-of-the-year award when he came upon the scene of the accident. Nichols said Knight took charge of the situation, offered words of comfort and hope, and even stayed with their belongings until the wreckers arrived.
What side of Bobby Knight do you hear about?
What about you and me? Paul struggled to bring his newfound reputation as a man of Christ to light, but it would just take time and faith to reveal to the world who he really was.
What kind of reputation do you have? When God is driving the car, your reputation is being revamped.
ENCOURAGEMENT TAKES HOLD
In Acts 13:13-15 the synagogue rulers asked Paul and Barnabas for a message of encouragement. The word "encouragement" comes from a Greek verb that literally means, "to call alongside". The idea is to enter the lives of others and give them what they most need-a kind word of challenge or a compassionate word of hope.
Some of us are so discouraged because we haven’t received encouragement from anyone in a long time. And some of us are almost proud of the way we sting others with criticism, judgment, and sarcastic comments.
Who in your life needs a reminder to keep doing right or to hang in there?
Perhaps someone needs to be consoled with the truth that God is in control and that he is faithful. If you have a message of encouragement, "please speak"!
When God drives your car, you become an encourager.
When God is driving your car, when God is in control on the open highway of life, then solitude enriches, reputations are revamped, and encouragement takes hold. Yet here is a warning: jealousy can arise.
WARNING: JEALOUSY CAN ARISE
Read Acts 13:44-45 with me. The Jews in attendance were filled with jealousy. Jealousy is obviously a dangerous and deadly emotion! The Jewish leaders attacked Paul and Barnabas because they were jealous.
When we see others succeed where we haven’t or receive the affirmation we crave, it is hard to rejoice with them. How tragic it is that even in churches our own jealous feelings cause us to try to stop God’s work.
If a work is God’s work, and lives are being transformed by Christ, then rejoice, no matter who is in the spotlight.
What about you and me? Do we crave attention? Do we want credit for the good things that happen at our job, in our home, here at church, yet are jealous of others who God has blessed with wisdom, kindness, and a keen eye to what God would have us do?
When God is driving your car, jealousy diminishes and love for others grows.
As much as I liked the late country singer, Charlie Rich, I’ll not forget his jealous act several years ago. In 1975 Charlie was picked to announce the Country Artist of the Year at the Country Music Awards show. The award went to John Denver, who had not experienced a warm reception at that point in the country music community. In fact, many despised him and his style of country rock that was changing the face of country music.
When Charlie Rich opened the envelope, rather than announce Denver’s name, he took out a cigarette lighter, set fire to the paper bearing the winner’s name, and walked off the stage.
Jealousy? I am sure of it.
Is that the kind of heritage you and I want to leave to friends, neighbors, and family? I don’t think so.
Yet many of us live lives full of envy of others: their jobs, incomes, homes, cars, lifestyle, vacations, even their kids or spouses. We grumble that we didn’t get the lucky break that so-and-so did. Then we think we deserve more. Then we become greedy or dishonest. Then we no longer represent Christ.
CLOSING
How about that car on the highway? Is God driving your car? Do you allow him to provide you times of quiet and solitude? Are you allowing God to revamp your reputation? Are you letting encouragement take hold in your life by encouraging others? Is jealousy in the way of being a joyful follower of Jesus?
I want to know God so much more. When I let him take control of this car we call living, then these things take root; and sin, like envy and jealousy, diminish.
Paul is teaching us much about life. But it is really God teaching through Paul’s life.
How do you respond? Who is driving your car?
