"A Lesson in Futility"

"We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads'" ~ Acts 26:14

That voice was the voice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We imagine that one of the worst persecutors of all time would receive some of the harshest punishment of all time from our Lord. Yet, as the persecutor-turned-apostle stood before King Agrippa to give his defense of the gospel and his ministry, he remembered His Lord addressing not the violence of his persecution, but the underlying problem - Saul's exercise in futility. "Kicking against the goads" was a phrase that came from farming, when an ox would be annoyed by the goad a farmer would use to direct him and would kick against it, which only drove the sharp point of the goad further into his flesh. Our Lord told Saul, and thereby told any of us who fight against His will, that we'll only do ourselves more damage by continuing on such a path. This week at Friendship, we'll discover "A Lesson in Futility" that is contained throughout Ecclesiastes 5 and other Scriptures. When we stubbornly choose to make worship about ourselves and not God, and when we stubbornly pursue things that don't last beyond this life, we are kicking against the goads. Join us and be set free from futile living!