180 Life Church

Paul stood before the religious supreme court of his day — bloodied, mocked, and outnumbered — and didn't flinch. In a room built to intimidate him into silence, he looked them in the eye and spoke the truth anyway. What would change in your life, your relationships, your faith, if fear no longer got the final word? This week in Acts 23, we ask the question that changes everything: what if we weren't afraid?

Paul shares his story with the people of Jerusalem and is arrested and almost flogged because of it. But his status as a Roman citizen allows for a different way out of the situation. It's a look at how our testimonies carry significance but also how our culture allows us the ability to connect with some people more than others.

Every day we're faced with voices telling us what to believe, who to trust, and what God wants for our lives. But what if the loudest voices are wrong? In Acts 21, Paul is surrounded by assumptions, rumors, and a furious crowd, yet he shows us how to discern God's voice in the middle of chaos. Discover a biblical framework for testing what you hear before you trust it, so you can confidently follow Christ no matter the circumstances.

Have you ever felt powerless? Have you ever thought "how can God use me?" Have you ever felt jaded or discouraged in your Christian life? Well as we work through Acts Chapter 20, we're going to discover that we have unstoppable power, an unstoppable calling, and that an unstoppable loves us. We will see three things. First, God works through people and places. Second, God empowers us to do remarkable things, and then third, God's plans cannot be shaken. The overarching theme is that God is building His church and is unstoppable. He wants to use you if you are willing to be open to it, and His good and perfect will and way will prevail. This is encouraging and reassuring for us all.

Pastor Jordan Smith of Eden Church continues our walk through the book of Acts.

Have you ever felt powerless? Have you ever thought "how can God use me?" Have you ever felt jaded or discouraged in your Christian life? Well as we work through Acts Chapter 20, we're going to discover that we have unstoppable power, an unstoppable calling, and that an unstoppable loves us. We will see three things. First, God works through people and places. Second, God empowers us to do remarkable things, and then third, God's plans cannot be shaken. The overarching theme is that God is building His church and is unstoppable. He wants to use you if you are willing to be open to it, and His good and perfect will and way will prevail. This is encouraging and reassuring for us all.

We are all faced with decisions each day; some small and some big. How do we ensure that we're making wise choices that align with God's plan for us? As we re-start our study of the Book of Acts, we see how three different groups of people react to the Gospel message and this gives us some valuable insights into how we can make Godly decisions today. We see that by being open-minded, seeking wise counsel, and relying on Scripture, God can direct and guide our path.

Many Christians know how to read the Bible, but struggle to let it change them. What happens when we skip observation, ignore context, or approach Scripture looking for confirmation instead of transformation? In this message, we'll learn how to interpret God's Word faithfully through the Historical, Biblical, and Christocentric lenses, and discover why understanding was never meant to stay in our heads. Understanding has wheels. It's meant to take us somewhere, and application is where faith finally begins to move.

Have you ever learned the wrong lesson because you only heard part of the story? When we pull verses out of context, ignore the audience, or miss where a passage fits into the larger narrative of Scripture, we risk misunderstanding what God intended to say. The Bible is not a collection of disconnected stories. It is one unified story of redemption, and learning to read it biblically changes everything.