Saul

You know, he's very loyal there.

When Saul first comes to faith and no one in Jerusalem wants anything to do with him, Barnabas is the broker.

He's the beast maker.

He's like, come on, guys.

And of course the church was at the bottom of society, so they were the poorest.

And so these guys, when they hear this prophetic word, they start saving money already, believing that God's going to fulfill it.

And then they send the gift with Barnabas and Saul down to Jerusalem.

So what prophets do is it's not just the kind of telling the future thing, but there's a raising of faith to respond in action among the people.

Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers.

And it starts with Barnabas and it actually ends with Saul.

And then in verse 2, As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them.

As they ministered to the Lord.

Say it with me.

So in ministering to the Lord, the result was, and the Holy Ghost spoke.

The Holy Ghost spoke.

And he said separate unto me, Barnabas and Saul.

I never leave my day without making faith-filled prophetic declarations.

Joshua Selman, you are blessed.

The Bible says your going out is blessed, your coming in is blessed.

This is the day the Lord made, not the Lord and Satan.

In Acts chapter eight, Peter and John, they pray for Samaritan believers.

And then Acts chapter nine, we read about last week, Saul is praying and Ananias shows up as an answer to that prayer.

So all through the book of Acts, the church is a praying church.

I just want to encourage you as we're reading through the book of Acts, that this wouldn't just be like history, like church history, but that we would see this as a mirror, like for us to look through and look in the text and look at the Bible and go, is this a reflection of my life? Am I as passionately devoted to Jesus as they were? Am I dependent on the Holy Spirit like they were? Are we devoted to prayer together? Man, is there a sense of commitment to one another like we see in the book of Acts? Are we willing, are we sacrificing for the sake of the gospel and sharing the gospel like they were? That this would be a mirror to ask the question, is this what I look like? Is this what you look like? Is this what we look like? Or have we drifted? Have we drifted from what we see in the New Testament into something else that looks more like the culture and more like the world than like what we see in the book of Acts? Man, have we been discipled more by our algorithms than by Jesus? Has our faith been shaped more by consumerism and materialism of our culture than what we see in the book? Have we drifted? It reminds me of a story.

Then when somebody comes to faith in Jesus, it is personal, but it's not private.

It's in the context of community that it takes place.

We saw it last week in Acts 9 with Saul.

You'll remember the story.

So there's a precedent there.

I'm trying to think, are there biblical examples of the other types? Are there examples of people who are just a bit too soft and malleable? I'm thinking maybe Saul.

Yeah, that's probably...

Saul just seems to lack that ability to sort of hold true.

He seems to change shape and colour depending which company he's in.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah.

But definitely, definitely them.