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Grace Community Church

JOURNEY WITH THE FAITHFUL #10 Saul & Ananias

JOURNEY WITH THE FAITHFUL #10 Saul & Ananias

Journey with the Faithful - a 3 month series looking at the lives of a number of men and women in the Bible. Each of them chose to leave their comfort zone to follow God and do what He wanted them to do.

Locations & Times

Grace Community Church

8950 M-79, Nashville, MI 49073, USA

Sunday 10:00 AM

Our summer series is entitled JOURNEY with the FAITHFUL. We are looking at the lives of a number of men and women in the Bible. Each of them chose to leave their comfort zone to follow God and do what He wanted them to do. Each person had to GET UP and GO; they had to move from HERE to THERE.
Two sets of questions:

First - the direction and course of your life
-Have you ever come to the place where you recognized that what you believed and how you were living was wrong?
-What brought you to that conclusion and if you changed, how hard was it to admit that you were wrong?

Second - the decision and commitment to take a risk
-Have you been faced with making a choice that potentially could cost you, a lot or possibly everything?
-How did you weigh the factors involved in taking the risk?
Today we are looking at the lives of Saul and Ananias. They are found in two primary scripture passages, Acts 9 and 22.
Both had a dramatic encounter with the Lord and each of these encounters brought them into a personal relationship with each other. This not only impacted their lives but all of history over the past 2,000 years.
First we'll take a look at Saul.
His name means "asked for" and carries the idea of "answered prayer."
-From Tarsus
-A Jew born into Roman citizenship
-A Pharisee
-Watched over the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:58)
-Destroyed/persecuted the church (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-2)
Secondly, there is Ananias.
Ananias is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Hananiah. It's meaning is "Yahweh is gracious" and implies "God's gracious gift."
-From Damascus (Acts 9:10a)
-He was devout and highly respected (Acts 22:12)
-Follower of Jesus, keeper of religious traditions, and an influencer of people.
The lives of these two men were on a collision course...a divine appointment.
We see a number of truths in Acts 9 and 22. Today we will look at just 4 of them. If we can grasp and apply these truths to our lives, God will be honored, our lives will be maximized, others will be reached, and our world will be impacted!

First - God is aware of our life and wants us to have a relationship with Him.
Proverbs 15:3
Second - God is able to get our attention so we can know His will.
Acts chapters 9 and 22 shows us that God intervened in their lives to get their attention and make His will known to them. Acts 9:4
Third - God's purpose for our life requires our submissive obedience.
God's will for Saul is seen in a couple of passages: Acts 9:15; Acts 22:14-15
God's will for Ananias is seen in Acts 9:10b-12.
Fourth - God wants to accomplish great things in and through our life.
Saul became Paul the great Apostle. Acts 9:20-31
His success is directly tied to the obedience of Ananias. Acts 22:12-13
In scripture there is a clear pattern. When God wants to do something great, He chooses the life of an individual to GO.
What if God wants you to GO so that someone is helped? Someone is saved? Some church can bloom? Some people can be reached? Some culture restored?
What happens if you say NO?
Application and Discussion Questions:

1. Read Acts 9:1-31 and 22:1-21. Take note of the directions given to each person and their responses.

2. Have you ever recognized you were wrong and had to admit it? Have you ever had to take a risk that potentially would cost you everything? Think about this and explain.

3. Review the four points of the message. Which point spoke the most to you? What questions do you have?

4. What things has God asked you to do and how have you responded? (submissive obedience, hesitation, reluctance, defiant disobedience?)

Online Giving Link

Contact Lisa Sterkenburg (lisa@gc3.org) if you have any questions about online giving.
https://www.gc3.org/giving/

Sunday Tools Link

Here you can find the Connect Card, prayer request, paper notes (to print), and online notes.
https://www.gc3.org/tools/
Birthdays and Anniversaries this week:

Sunday, August 9 - Beth Knoll, Pat & Shellie Theisen
Monday, August 10 - Sara Walker, Kyle & Leslie Booher
Tuesday, August 11 - Pat Theisen, Jonathan Denton, Sam Krauss, Nora Mann
Wednesday, August 12 - Alice Miller, Dakota Foster, Brice & Mindy Hasselback
Thursday, August 13 - Colin & Holly Paul
Friday, August 14 - Paul & Jillyn Boldrey

Grace Church YouTube Channel

Our live broadcasts on Sundays @10am and midweek inspiration on Wednesdays @5pm are now on this channel. You can also catch any previously missed message as well! Be sure to "subscribe" and click the bell to receive a notification when we are going live or have uploaded a new video.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO1bU2wTtioJgwUOgD_diWg/featured

Opportunity to Help in Community

The deacon team at Grace Church is running a donation drive for two of the local organizations that our church supports, Manna's Market and Siren Shelter. They are in short supply of several items due to the overwhelming needs of the community.
We are asking you to consider purchasing items from the list below. Items can be brought to the church between August 2nd and August 16th and placed on the coffee counter in the lobby.
16 oz. cans of baked beans
facial tissue
spray window cleaner
paper towel
dish soap
all-purpose cleaner
toilet bowl cleaner