We Are The Heathens - Week 3

Out of Control:

In the third week of our We Are The Heathens series, Pastor Aeric Wallace asked us a difficult but important question: What do you hate? But more importantly, how did we get there?

Paul is one of the most famous men in the Bible. In fact, much of the new testament was written by Paul. But before he was Paul the Pastor, Paul the Preacher, or Paul the Prisoner for Christ, he was known as Saul the heathen.

Saul was honored among the Pharisees — he followed his own convictions and hurt and killed many Christians before being called by the Lord. In Saul’s world, his people were suffering because their way of life was under scrutiny. On the other hand, New Christians were suffering persecution from the Jews. There was so much confusion, hurt, and pain suffered on both sides.

If we think about it, we live in a world much like Saul’s. While we are supposed to live in harmony with each other, we don’t. Instead, we attempt to control the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the other side, which causes personal suffering for everyone.

We attempt to control the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the other side, which causes personal suffering for everyone.

In our demand to control things, we remain out of control. In Saul’s attempts to control his suffering and that of his people, he actually contributed to greater suffering all around. 

In many of these cases, we tend to blame our actions on our feelings of hate or dislike. Even though we claim we don’t “hate” very many things because it’s such a strong emotion, we actually do. Hate is simply the idea that if something, someone, or some event didn’t exist, then our life would be better or easier. 

This is how Saul feels about Jesus. He believes that if Jesus didn’t exist, his life would be better and he hates him. However, it’s important to note that hate is never the first step.

Fear is usually the first step, which is followed by anger and eventually hate. We were created to feel feelings of fear, anger, love, joy, and more, but we were never meant to let them control our actions.

It’s common for people to inherit fear. It’s not God’s desire to let us suffer. Instead, he has done everything in his power to stop our suffering. While our fear may be innate — just like Saul’s — we can decide to allow God to give us a new name and point us toward a new path.

Watch this week’s message below or catch up with the series here!