This Week’s Experience – 08/11/2019

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Order of Service

Music……………………..Worship Team
Momentum
Welcome………………………Bill Butler
Music……………………..Worship Team
Echo
No Longer Slaves
Red Letters
Message……………..Gilbert Thurston
Evidence of the Gospel
Offering & Announcements
Music……………………..Worship Team
Echo
Dismissal……………………..Bill Butler

Message notes

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My friends, I want you to know that no one made up the message I preach.  I did not get it from humans, nor did anyone teach it to me. My message came directly from Jesus Christ when he appeared to me.

-Galatians 1:11-12

God had special plans for me and set me apart for his work even before I was born. He called me through his grace  and showed his son to me so that I might tell the Good News about him to those who are not Jewish. When God called me, I did not get advice or help from any person. I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia and later went back to Damascus. After three years I went to Jerusalem to meet Peter and stayed with him for fifteen days. I met no other apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord. God knows that these things I write are not lies.

Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again.

-Galatians 1:15-20, 2:2

Objective Evidence #1: Only an actual encounter with the resurrected Jesus can explain Paul’s conversion from Christianity’s #1 to its greatest .

Objective Evidence #2:  Paul’s message with that of the other Apostles and Prophets.

I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.

-Galatians 2:1-2

Our wise and beloved brother Paul has talked about these same things in many of his letters. Some of his comments are not easy to understand, and there are people who are deliberately stupid, and always demand some unusual interpretation—they have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of the Scripture—and the result is disaster for them.

-2 Peter 3:16

Subjective Evidence:  Jesus Paul’s .

Yet if anyone ever had reason to hope that he could save himself, it would be I. If others could be saved by what they are, certainly I could! I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless. But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

-Philippians 3:4-8

If someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.

-1 Peter 3:15-16

LIFE APPLICATION
To discuss during the week with your family or Life Group

1. When you have tried to share your faith with people in the past did you concentrate more on Objective evidence (facts) or Subjective evidence (experiential)? How did it go?

2. Why is it important that we can share both?

3. What is your next step as a result of this message?