Paul said, "Man, I desire to see these people saved," and he was telling the truth.
He really did.
But did that equal the call of God on his life?
No.
Look at Acts 22 verse 17, "And it came to pass that when I was coming into Jerusalem,
even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him," Jesus, "saying unto
me, 'Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem.'"
Why?
"For they will not receive thy testimony concerning me."
Now look, this is the same old story all throughout the book of Acts.
We're just looking at one scripture.
We could look at scripture, after scripture, after scripture, where all of the apostles,
they just want to keep going soul-witting in Jerusalem.
Let's just keep going in Jerusalem.
Let's just go to the Jews.
And then finally, when he gets them to go to other countries, they're like, "All right,
where's the synagogue?"
No!
It's so frustrating, and God, every time God speaks, he tells them, "No."
And then you'll see Paul three times in the book of Acts get angry and say, "That's it!
I'm done with the Jews!
I'm going to the Gentiles!"
And then a few chapters later, it's like, "Well, let's try the Jews one more time."
And then he realizes they don't want to get saved, and he's like, "That's it!
I'm done!"
Three times he said, "I'm done."
He just keeps going back.
Why?
Because he's wrong.
You know, God specifically told the twelve apostles to go into all the world, go teach
all nations, and what did they do?
They told Paul, "Hey, we're going to go to the Jews.
You go to the Gentiles.
All right, buddy?
All right.
Go to the Gentiles."
Wrong!
You're all supposed to be going to the Gentiles.
They just would not obey.
They wouldn't do it.
And God had to keep sending them persecution and scatter them.
I mean, God has to come to Paul and tell him again.
Because Paul keeps going back to Jerusalem.
And prophets come to him and tell him, "Don't go to Jerusalem."
He goes anyway.
He won't listen.
What does God tell him?
Get out of here.
Quickly.
Leave.
Go somewhere else.
Why?
Listen.
Now look, why would you want to be a missionary in a place where they don't want to listen?
You hear about these missionaries, "Oh, 10 years on the field without a single convert."
Are you stupid or something?
I mean look, there's people dying and going to hell every day, and you're spinning your
wheels for 10 years, getting nothing done.
I'm sorry, but that's not cool, and I'm sick of these hero glorifying stories of, "Oh,
this missionary, he was there for 20 years, and then he got his first convert.
Isn't that great?
The dedication."
That's the stupidity, because he wasted 20 years of his life.
He should have been bringing forth 30, 60, or 100 every year.
So there's 2,000 people, right?
Or 600 people that could have been saved that didn't get saved, because he's beating his
head against the wall somewhere where nobody's interested.
And God tells Paul, "I don't care what burning desire you have to see your people Israel
saved.
That's not the plan, buddy, because they don't want to listen.
You need to go to the Greeks, because they're going to be receptive."
And so he tells him, "I mean, look, I just wonder, do people just not read this in the
Bible?
I mean, it's on every page, but people are just obsessed with reaching the Jews, aren't
they, in Israel?"
He said, "No, no, get away from here.
They will not receive my testimony concerning me."
And I said, "Lord," he's arguing with the Lord, like Moses, "and I said, Lord, they
know that I am prisoned and beat in every synagogue, them that believed on thee.
And when the blood of thy martyr, Stephen, was shed, I also was standing by and consenting
unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him."
Oh, okay, you're right.
Just stay in Jerusalem, then.
Is that what he said?
No.
And he said unto me, "Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles."
He's like, "Buddy, you get as far away from Jerusalem as you can possibly get.
I'm sending you far away."
You know, a lot of these people, they get, "Oh, God's calling me.
They get this burden.
God laid it on their heart."
You know what?
If it doesn't make sense though, don't do it.
Do something that makes sense.
Go to a receptive place where you speak the language.
And that's my sermon, Common Sense Missions.
I'm not going to re-preach that.
You know, God wanted the Apostle Paul to go to Spain.
I don't know if he ever made it to Spain.
You know, he said in Romans, "Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, you know, I want
to come by and see you in Rome as well."
You know, I don't know if he made it to Spain, but I bet you if he would have quit goofing
around in Jerusalem, he would have been more likely to have made it to Spain.
And then maybe Spain wouldn't be as screwed up as it is right now, where Spain is filled
with Roman Catholicism and false doctrine.
You know, maybe if Paul would have got in there in the first century AD and started
a bunch of red-hot, soul-witting churches in Spain and just said, "Hey, the Jews had
their chance."
You know why?
For three and a half years, Jesus and the apostles went to every town and village in
the whole nation of Israel and they finished the job, they finished it.
And then God had a plan for them to stay in Jerusalem just until Pentecost and then in
Pentecost there was one last hurrah for the Jews, right?
And then it was like, "Okay, now it's time for you to leave."
But they were slow to follow that and then what happened?
They didn't make it to Spain.
Maybe he did make it to Spain.
There's no record of it in scripture.
Probably never happened.
But where else could he have made it?
He could have gone north or just anywhere far from Judea is where he belonged.
Right?
That's what the Bible says.