As students are being sent out into a brand new season of their education full of uncertainty and unknowns, they are also being reminded that they aren’t getting sent out alone.  They are also being sent out with the Presence of God and with hope; an eager expectation that good things are awaiting them in the midst of the uncertainty.

God’s word teaches us in Ecclesiastes 3 that there is a time and a season for everything.  Although change is a part of our everyday lives, most of us remain very uncomfortable with it.  Leaving behind what is familiar and consistent is challenging to do.  However, we would not have the very familiar things that we love right now in our lives had we not at one time let go of our previous season of life and entered into this one.

Our last kiddo is moving on from elementary school to high school next week.  That means no more PTO or class parties or birthday snacks.  That means leaving behind rec leagues with their pay-to-play policies and onto school sports with tryouts and the potential for rejection.  For us, that means merging with two other elementary schools and meeting all kinds of new people, new teachers, new administrators, a new building, lockers, schedules, and so much more.  That means going from being top-dog in the school to being the little kid again.

If we don’t take risks in life, we miss out on the abundance that life has to offer.  If we try to keep things the same, we’ll find ourselves frustrated and fighting a losing battle.  Learn from the wisdom of that great animated, native-American woman named Pocahontas who Disney had sing, “You can’t step in the same river twice. The water’s always changing, always flowing.” 

You just can’t stop change.  Over and over again, God says in His word that He is doing a new thing, calling us to sing a new song, and leading us into new revelation.

Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, who absolutely is consistently our Healer, rarely healed using the same method twice.

If God wants to do something new, why would we try so hard to cling to the old and miss out on Him?  That’s certainly not being Spirit-lead!

In our spiritual lives, trying to keep things the same is what leads to man-made religion with rules and traditions and end up like the Pharisees who didn’t recognize God when He literally stood right in front of them. 

It leads us to miss out on the move of the Holy Spirit and can even lead us to call what God is doing evil or demonic.  After all, that’s exactly what the religious people of Jesus’ day said about Him.

We now turn to Acts 18 to see how God leads us by the Holy Spirit through the changing of times and seasons.  We’ll also consider how detrimental it would be if any one person chose to be a stick-in-the-mud and refuses to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead through change.

We follow the missionary journeys of the first apostles, an apostle simply meaning “one sent.”  All of us have a degree of an apostolic ministry.  We are all sent by God to seek and save the lost to some degree.  These apostles, however, were called to travel throughout the nations leading people to Christ, displaying His miraculous powers, and planting churches.

The journey that we are primarily following this morning is that of the apostle Paul’s, however, we’ll quickly see how none of us minister alone, we all need each other to fulfill their purpose in the body of Christ.  It’s only when we work together and fulfill our role that we are truly effective at leading people to Christ and equipping them to serve and to reach others as well.

Paul was a unique individual.  He was a Jew of Jews and was fully convinced that he was doing the will of God as he oversaw the murdering and imprisonment of those following Jesus.  He was determined to put an end to the early church and to silence those sharing the gospel.  After his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, his life was changed.  He gave his life to Jesus