Text: Acts 16:25-40 | Listen to Message Purpose in Your Pain Paul and Silas found themselves in prison, the victims of gross injustice. Their only “crime” was delivering a demon-possessed girl from the exploitation of her masters. But predators are too devious to be troubled with facts, so they’ve had the missionaries beaten and imprisoned on false charges. This is the cost of doing God’s business in Philippi. But the missionaries’ response to pain, adversity, and injustice is remarkable. As everything is caving in around them, they choose to pray, and sing, and witness to their captive audience! Even...
Text: Acts 16:11-24 | Listen to Message We all need grace On the surface, people’s lives are as different from one another as night and day – and as different from one another as the two women Luke highlights in this section of Scripture. The first is a devoutly religious and successful businesswoman who’s made a small fortune selling beautiful things to beautiful people. The second, at the opposite end of the socio-religious spectrum, is a demon-possessed, exploited slave girl who’s been stripped of her dignity and name. But underneath their radically different situations in life, are they really...
Text: Acts 15:36-16:10 | Listen to Message How is God leading me? People often expect God’s leadership in their lives to be both spectacular and specific. They want a voice from heaven that speaks their name and provides fresh, detailed instructions regarding that upcoming decision. But more often than not, God’s leadership comes through other means. 1. Are you led by the priorities of Jesus? When Jesus walked this earth he was all about proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom: forgiveness, healing, and restoration were all happening because the King had returned to lavish grace on his broken people. Then...
Text: Acts 15:1-35 | Listen to Message What must I do to be saved? It was a controversy that threatened to divide and even kill the Early Church. Was salvation by the free grace of God or by grace plus works? Was faith in the Gospel sufficient or did you also need to keep the Law of Moses? Picture a long metal suspension bridge spanning across a canyon with a river snaking through the valley 1,000 feet below. Legalists would have you believe that Jesus built 99% of that bridge out of high-strength steel, but left 1% of it for...
