He is entrusting him with the gospel and not to be ashamed to fulfill God's call on his life. Beth Moore will challenge us as well in this study to do the same.
Our theme for session 1 was found in Acts 14:1-7. Though we won't find the younger man's name anywhere in sight, Paul's last letter to Timothy originates in Acts 14.
In verse 6, Lystra was the crossing of the paths of Paul & Timothy.
In this study, Beth says "we will establish one enormous goal. We were meant to be mighty!" We must grasp that there is no higher calling than to be called servant of God. Her statement says it all:
"Mighty servants of God turned loose on this globe in the great name of Jesus."
In the New Testament, Paul and others describe themselves as the servant of God or bond-slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Any age, any background can be raised up to be a mighty servant of God.
The truth is we cannot be mighty on our own. Beth said this: "only when the Holy Spirit begins to fill us and the word of God begins to thrill us, that's when courage starts coming to the surface."
We must remember that we are not just studying the scriptures to build up our Bible knowledge. We study to get to know our God. In knowing the scriptures, we can then be equipped to do what He's called us to do.
In Acts 14:1from the NIV it says ".....there they spoke so effectively...."
How can we ramp up our effectiveness? Through the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit.
How should we communicate our faith?
- Share Christ's story (Luke 1)
- Share your story
- Share our story
Bring to them what you know. A big part of our effectiveness is also our connectedness.
Throughout this series the constant theme will be the Paul & Timothy Paradigm. The elder and the younger. The elder bringing the younger along, getting him on his journey and his calling.
Beth also stressed that we cannot become a mighty servant of God by ourself. We need connectedness to the body of Christ.
Along with our effectiveness we also need focus. We cannot mulitask and think we are effective. We must decide on what we want to focus on. The question we need to ask ourselves is:
What do I really want my life to be about when it's all said and done.
Walking with a higher level of effectiveness takes faith. Look at Acts 14:8-11. Paul "looked at his face". He must have noticed something in this man when he looked at him - probably noticed his faith. What did the man do? He sprang up to his feet.
We can do everything right but never get to the next level of effectiveness without faith - Hebrews 11:6.
We learned:
- We are called to do what we cannot do
- We are called to be someone we cannot be
- We are called to speak to mountains
Through the Spirit of God, we are enabled to do this. God responds to our faith.
We are apt to say to ourselves "but I've always been this way."
We were then challenged by this statement:
"Who among us is willing to believe the power of Jesus could dramatically change something that has been true of you since birth?
God has always been miraculous, omnipotent, all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise. He's always been the creator who can make something out of absolutely nothing. And because God has always been who He's always been, you do not have to be who you've always been."
Powerful statement.
Look at Acts 14:11-18 - the people reacted to what had just been done. Know this, that all our serving lives, we will deal with "erroneus estimations of others." Those who adore us can also so drastically turn quickly on us. They first wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas thinking them gods and then so quickly turned on them.
Notice what Paul did after he was stoned by the people:
"...he got up and went back into the city."
Beth's last words in this session to us were these:
Just. Keep. Getting. Back. Up.
Session 2: "Purpose and Grace"
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