HEALTHY, GROWING CHURCHES:

1. Constantly share opportunities & release people to serve.

Acts 15:22-29 (NLT)

22 Then the apostles and elders together with the whole church in Jerusalem chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision. The men chosen were two of the church leaders—Judas (also called Barsabbas) and Silas. 23 This is the letter they took with them:

“This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings!
24 “We understand that some men from here have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them! 25 So we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.
28 “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: 29 You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. If you do this, you will do well. Farewell.”

Acts 6:1 (NLT)

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

HEALTHY, GROWING CHURCHES:

1. Constantly share opportunities & release people to serve.
2. Are filled with people choosing to use their gifts to their full potential, not holding back.

Acts 15:32-35 (NLT)

32 Then Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging and strengthening their faith. 33 They stayed for a while, and then the believers sent them back to the church in Jerusalem with a blessing of peace. 35 Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. They and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there.

Romans 12:1 (NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:4-5 (NIV)

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

HEALTHY, GROWING CHURCHES:

1. Constantly share opportunities & release people to serve.
2. Are filled with people choosing to use their gifts to their full potential, not holding back.

THE RESULT? THERE IS JOY.

Acts 15:30-31 (NLT)

30 The messengers went at once to Antioch, where they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter. 31 And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message.

For my personal time with God this week:

[#1] Read Acts 15 one last time, considering the topics we have covered in this series. As you think about your own life, and particularly your commitment to the community at Grace, which do you struggle with the most: being focused, being unified with others, addressing stumbling blocks in your life and/or those around you, or sacrificially playing a part, using your gifts here to their fullest potential? What do you sense God asking of you moving forward?
[#2] Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, which describes those in a church like parts of a human body, all functioning together and in need of each other/each other’s gifts to function properly. What function, what part do you play in the body at Grace? What part do you feel God is leading you that you should play? Are they different? Pray about this, and consider sharing this with someone on the Grace staff so that they can help empower and encourage you.
[#3] Read Romans 12, which talks about giving sacrificially of ourselves to God as an offering of worship to Him. As you read this chapter, listen carefully to how God might be speaking to you about the way He is calling you to sacrificially play a part in the Grace community and your greater community in the coming year.