Sermon Series
Week 8
Road Trips: 2 Acts 9:1-19
Preaching Commentary
Saul's Confident Error
Last week, we considered Abram and the way that God may send us out on a journey, waiting to see his will without knowing the destination. Today we move forward to Saul on the Damascus Road and consider how God meets us in the midst of…
Sermon Resources
Key Quotes
- View
You can do something other than working with God in His purpose, but it will always be something lesser, and you couldn’t come up with something better.
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If we're going to impact our world in the name of Jesus, it will be because people like you and me took action in the power of the Spirit. Ever since the mission and ministry of Jesus, God has never stopped calling for a movement of "Little Jesuses" to follow him into the world and unleash the remarkable redemptive genius that lies in the very message we carry. Given the situation of the Church in the West, much will now depend on whether we are willing to break out of a stifling herd instinct and find God again in the context of the advancing kingdom of God.
Key Illustration
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What it Means to Be Sent into the World
[Jesus] sends us into the world as he was sent into the world (John 17:18; 20:21). We have to penetrate other people’s worlds, as he penetrated ours: the world of their thinking (as we struggle to understand their misunderstandings of the gospel), the world of their feeling (as we try to empathize with their pain), and the world of their living (as we sense the humiliation of their social situation, whether poverty, homelessness, unemployment or discrimination).
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
- Adapted from Isaiah 6:8-9View
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
And he said, “Go.”
Lord of Hosts, you have sent us, we have said we will go. Please give us the courage to stand for you, to break the chains of injustice, and proclaim your Good News.
Arranged for liturgical use
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Prayer of Confession and Assurance of Pardon
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Pastor: Because God is our refuge and strength, we can acknowledge our weakness and confess our sins before Him. Because He is our fortress, we know we are secure in His grace and mercy.
Silence for personal confession
Pastor: Holy and gracious God,
People: I confess that I am spiritually blind, for I am by nature sinful and have sinned against You this day. Some of my sin I know—the thoughts and words and deeds of which I am ashamed—but some is known only to You. In the name of Jesus Christ, I ask forgiveness. Open my eyes to Your grace that I might walk in Your ways and bring glory to Your name.
Pastor: Be still and know the Good News: God has not forsaken or forgotten you, but has redeemed you through the perfect life and innocent death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has forgiven your sins and removed your guilt forever. You are His own dear child. May God give you strength to live according to His will.
People: Amen.
Benediction
- Colossians 1:9b-12View
May you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Amen.
Adapted with minor modifications for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: WEB World English Bible eBible.orgScripture quotations marked (WEB) are from the World English Bible. The World English Bible is in the public domain.
