“Tracking”
Ordering a package and the - Check in on the status to make sure it arrives on time.
Stay committed to the Lord so that you will arrive your intended destination.
THE FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY
OF PAUL A.D. 46 TO 48
From Jerusalem Paul returned to Antioch. From there he, Barnabas and Mark set out upon the missionary journeys that are divided into three stages in the Acts of the Apostles. From Seleucia, the harbor of Antioch, they sailed to Cyprus, preaching first at Salamis and then at Paphos, the capital. Sergio Paulus, the Roman proconsul stationed there, requested to hear from Paul and Barnabas. He accepted the new faith in spite of the interference of Elymas, a magician, and after witnessing a miracle at the hands of Paul (
1. Your commitment to The Lord is based on the choices you make.
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled: They hated me for no reason.,
10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance, 11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured—and yet the Lord rescued me from them all. 12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 Evil people and impostors will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.
3. If someone were to look at your life, would they understand that the way to the kingdom of God includes suffering for the kingdom of God? Why / why not?
2. As a Christian your work is a result of God’s preserving grace in your life.
14:27 Declaring What God Had Done
THAT THE MISSION BE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED. CHRYSOSTOM: They did not say what they themselves had done but “what God had done with them.” It seems to me that they mean through their trials. It was not for nothing that they went there, nor to rest. They were providentially guided by the Spirit, so that the preaching to the Gentiles might be firmly established.… And note Paul’s ardor. He does not ask if there is need to speak to Gentiles; he speaks at once. This is why he says, “I did not refer myself to flesh and blood.” HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 31.
APPROVAL THROUGH TRIBULATION. BASIL THE GREAT: “And he snatched me from all my tribulations.” The just person’s entire life is tribulation,13 “both straight and narrow the way,” and “many are the tribulations of the just ones.”15 Therefore the apostle elsewhere says that he has been “afflicted in every way,” and here, that “we must enter the kingdom of God through many afflictions.” God does rescue the holy from affliction, but he does so not by rendering them untested but by blessing them with endurance. For if “affliction brings about endurance, then endurance brings about an approved character.” Whoever rejects affliction deprives himself of approval. Just as none is crowned who has no rival, so none can be pronounced worthy except through tribulations. Therefore, “he snatched me from all my tribulations,” not by allowing me not to be afflicted but by granting with the test a way out, in order to be able to endure. HOMILY ON
