Youth Ministry for the Mature - Psalm 71:17-18

"God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still proclaim Your wonderful works. Even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me. Then I will proclaim Your power to another generation, Your strength to all who are to come" (Psalm 71:17-18, HCSB)

WANTED: MATURE PEOPLE FOR YOUTH MINISTRY! 

That's the message contained in these verses. The Psalmist exclaims that God needs him for youth ministry even though he is an old man.

The Psalmist reasons that a person of maturity who has known and benefited from God's grace and mercy for a long time is the person best prepared to declare God's power to the next generation.

Trouble Along the Way - Acts 14:6

"And there they kept evangelizing" (Acts 14:6, HCSB).

This is one of those days when I get to the end of the day and find myself really weary. Some would say "weary from well-doing," though I question how much "well" I'm really "doing."

I'll spare you the details of all my troubles because as hard as I think I have it, my troubles pale in comparison to the troubles encountered by Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13 and 14, who were undertaking the task God had assigned them.

Fortunate Misfortunes - Psalm 66:10-12

"For You, God, tested us; You refined us as silver is refined. You lured us into a trap; you placed burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us out to abundance" (Psalm 66:10-12, HCSB).

The Psalmist indicates that refining is a process meant to purify God's people.

And if these verses allude to God's deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, the Psalmist seems to apply Israel's experience personally to us.

Men riding over the heads is a description of oppression, but there also may be an allusion to the chariots of Egypt. Fire and water are used elsewhere in the Old Testament in the context of trials, but they may also allude to God's pillar of fire and the water of the Red Sea.

How to Grow a Church - Acts 9:31

"The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers" (Acts 9:31, NLT).

With the conversion of Saul (vs. 9:1-19), the Jewish persecution of the Church declined and during this hiatus the Church grew in strength and numbers.

There are three principles of church growth we can glean from this verse:

They Will Want What You Have - Acts 13:4,9-12

"So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit...Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye...Then he said....the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind...When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord." (Acts 13:4,9-12, NLT)

Barnabas and Paul’s first missionary journey was undertaken by the leading and in the power the Holy Spirit.

Landing in the town of Salamis on the eastern end of Cyprus, they went to the Jewish synagogues where the Jews could hear and respond to the gospel message. They would also meet converts to Judaism and spiritually hungry Gentiles who were sometimes described as "God-fearers."

Believing or Belonging? - Acts 11:26

"The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch." (Acts 11:26, HCSB)

The term "Christian" occurs only three times in the New Testament.

Besides this verse, in Acts 26:28 King Herod Agrippa asked if the Apostle Paul was trying to persuade him to become a Christian and in 1 Peter 4:16 the Apostle Peter referred to suffering for being a Christian.

The word for Christian in the Greek is Christianos and comes from christos, meaning "anointed one" with a modifier borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership.

Getting Out of God's Way - Acts 11:17

"And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?" (Acts 11:17, NLT)

After Peter proclaimed the gospel of Jesus in Caesarea to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius, a Roman officer, Peter had to explain his actions to the apostolic leadership and believers back in Jerusalem.

As Peter recounted the sequence of events, he explained it was only by God's initiative that he took the gospel to the Gentiles.