Saul God is so powerful that He can redeem anyone. Saul killed Christians and wasn’t too far gone to save. The faithfulness of Ananias to obey God no matter how uncomfortable the request resulted in the salvation of Saul. There are no limits to God’s power in what He can do, or how He can use us.
Gospel Seasoned Life The story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch is a fantastic example of the ability we have to share the gospel in our lives. It’s not something that should feel like a daunting task but is more simple than we realize. Through the Holy Spirit, we can recognize opportunities and meet people where they are. We can listen to people’s needs instead of feeling like pushy salesmen. We just have to believe the Holy Spirit will support us, that there is power in the gospel, and believe in ourselves.
The Gospel Spreads Acts Chapter 8 kind of serves as a catch-all chapter. It contains amazing stories about how the gospel has advanced in the nations. We see how God takes bad things and redeems them in the spreading of the gospel despite persecution. Then the story of Simon the Magician shows us the importance of discipleship and how the Gospel unites people from different backgrounds.
Stoning of Stephen The end of Acts 7 brings us to the end of Stephen’s speech and the religious leaders’ reaction to the speech. They are heard-hearted and instead of receiving what Stephen has to say they kill him. They had the opportunity to understand God’s pursuit of mankind, but instead of being teachable, they killed a man who was full of the Holy Spirit. The takeaway from Stephen’s life is that we should be full of the Holy Spirit. Scripture repeatedly describes Stephen this way and instead of striving to be more like Stephen, we should strive to be more full of the Holy Spirit.
Vision Anniversary God is Faithful. We take an opportunity to share and appreciate what God has done in our lives (which has been edited out for privacy and audio issues). Because of God’s faithfulness to us, we should respond by being faithful stewards of what He has given us. At Cloud’s Creek, everything we do is to Connect, Grow, and Serve. We Connect to God and community, grow in spiritual maturity and knowledge, and serve both inside and outside the church. We do everything in Love because of the Love He has so richly poured out on us.
Savior Rejected We continue to look at Stephen’s response to the religious leaders in Acts chapter 7. He begins to point to the parallels between Moses and Jesus, that they were both the saviors who were initially rejected by the nation of Israel. We have to be careful that we don’t end up like the religious leaders of that day, so focused on our own way of living that we miss out on who Jesus is. We have to recognize our own depravity and marvel at the power of the salvation we have received. Instead, we think of our sins as “no big deal” or think that we aren’t that bad. Our salvation is not defined by our ability to be good or follow a set of rules. The question is do you have a relationship with God?