CCF Weekly Services Podcast

Paul and Barnabas pursue sharing the Gospel with a new crowd after the previous group turned hostile. Following a public miracle, they made certain that their audience understood the message it was meant to verify.

1. Wisdom is as important to Ministry as faithfulness.

2. A sign is only useful if it points you in the right direction.

3. To know your audience, You have to be willing to listen.

God addresses where Israel got off track and got to where they found themselves in exile. The leaders were as negligent as the people were themselves of God's Word. The only solution was for both to refocus on or answer to the only One we can all count on to be the perfect leader and the perfect man.

1. The responsibility of every spiritual leader is to point people to the perfect spiritual leader.

2. The responsibility of every member of God's house is to point people to the only perfect member of God's house.

3. God will judge those who abuse His flock. Make sure you're not the one doing the abusing.

Paul and Barnabas are led by the Spirit to minister to the people of Iconium and Lystra. While they had mixed responses, it was successful ministry. They stuck to the Word simply. They made it accessible to their audiences on a personal level. And most importantly, God was and remained the focus through all of it.

1. Apart from the daily filling of the Holy Spirit, the Christian life is impossible.

2. The same God that can encourage you through persecution can also lead you away from it.

3. The only way to discern truth from error is to focus on its source.

Ezekiel is reminded of his calling to be a watchman. While this put him in a position where he could look down at others, he needed to constantly remember that regardless of whether the responses to his ministry were positive or negative, he was ultimately and only serving God.

1. Pride is the greatest obstacle between us and the heart of God.

2. Effective communication is being willing to listen more than we speak.

3. Ministry needs to be in service to an audience of One.

Paul and Barnabas see a tremendous response to simply teaching God's word. From the non-Hebrews, many came to a relationship with the Messiah. From the Hebrews, many turned against them out of envy and self interest. In response, Paul and Barnabas stuck to what worked and left when prompted through persecution. In either situation, they knew joy because their hope in the claims of Jesus were fulfilled either way.

1. Joy is the emotional response to hope fulfilled.

2. If you have anything worthwhile to share with people about God, make sure it's the Bible.

3. Hope centered in the promises of Jesus won't leave you disappointed.

God has Ezekiel grieve for the ultimate fate of Egypt and the nations that are also about to experience judgment. The sin of pride didn't just bring them so low because of how much they did deserving of judgment, but because it also convinced them that there was nothing wrong with it. Pride will dominate all of our lives if we allow it to put distance between us and the mercy God freely offers through His Son.

1. Pride is a self-deceptive view of yourself and others.

2. Pride's greatest influence on our lives is to convince us we don't have it.

3. The only cure for pride is a continual focus on the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus encounter with Simon the Pharisee shows what pride will do in order to keep us from genuine fellowship with Him. He may be in our lives or even a part of them externally. However, without understanding the grace He's shown towards us, we won't appreciate who He is or the honor we've been given to have Him there in the first place.

1. We need to understand our need for forgiveness in order to receive it.

2. Our devotion to Jesus should make those who don't know Him uncomfortable.

3. Your love for God will never exceed your thankfulness towards Him.

The Trinity is as fundamental a doctrine of Christianity as salvation itself. Understanding how we are saved is also tied into who saved us. Since God has personally involved every member of His unique nature into our restored fellowship with Him, we have more reason to trust His offer than any other religious claim.

1. Salvation was the Father's Idea.

2. Salvation was the Son's Accomplishment.

3. Salvation is the Spirit's Purpose.

As Paul and Barnabas are ministering at Antioch, the non-Hebrews in particular are drawn to their message of grace and truth demonstrated through Jesus Christ. They understood that you can't have one without the other, and could relate that kind of heart to others without knowing His Word and Heart.

1. Joy isn't an emotion. It's the natural reaction to hope fulfilled.

2. Grace is God's goodness by nature even when we aren't worth of it.

3. The Grace of God cannot be related to others without the daily filling of the Holy Spirit.

The Pharaoh of Egypt is reminded to do the very thing we all need to do in our lives. He believed he was the exception to what was happening to the kingdoms all around him. He believed he wasn't going to experience judgment from God. Yet like Assyria before him and countless others after him, he still fell. If we learn not to separate ourselves from God and replace Him with the things we try to look for our ultimate sense of peace and security in, we won't have to experience the same outcome he saw.

1. We can learn a lot from the mistakes of the past because there are no new mistakes.

2. Idolatry is when you treat something that isn't God as if it is.

3. Pride is a false view of ourselves and others.