Venture ChurchThis sermon explores how God often utilizes the unexpected to fulfill His plans, as exemplified in Acts 9:1-2, 9:10, and 9:17-18, where Saul's transformation highlights God's transformative power, the courage found in faith overcoming fear, and the importance of hearing and obeying God's voice to enact faith in action and achieve divine missions.
1But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked for letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, both men and women, he could bring them tied up to Jerusalem.
3When I fear, I trust you. 4God, whose word I praise, God I trust; I do not fear. What can mere flesh do to me? 5All day they twist my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
10You must not fear, for I am with you; you must not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, indeed I will help you, indeed I will take hold of you with the right hand of my salvation. 11Look! All those who are angry with you shall be ashamed and humiliated; your opponents shall be like nothing and shall become lost. 12You shall seek them, but you shall not find them; your opponents shall be like nothing, and the men of your war like nothing.
8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “I am here! Send me!” 9And he said, “Go and say to this people, ‘Keep on listening and do not comprehend! And keep on looking and do not understand!’ 10Make the heart of this people insensitive, and make its ears unresponsive, and shut its eyes so that it may not look with its eyes and listen with its ears and comprehend with its mind and turn back, and it may be healed for him.”
5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out from the womb I consecrated you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Look, I do not know how to speak, for I am a youth.” 7But Yahweh said to me, “You must not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for to whomever I send you, you will go, and whatever I command you, you will speak.
16but whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
21if indeed you have heard about him, and you were taught by him (just as truth is in Jesus), 22that you take off, according to your former way of life, the old man, who is being destroyed according to deceitful desires, 23be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
Acts 9:1-2 mentions Saul's threats against the disciples. What stood out to you about his change of heart later on?
The pastor talked about the 'allure of underdog stories.' Why do you think we're drawn to stories where the unlikely hero wins?
Saul was on a mission to hurt Christians, but God changed his path. What's something surprising you've seen God do in a tough situation?
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