Discovery Community Church
Welcome special guest, Gary Kinnaman!
Gary served as Senior Pastor of Word of Grace Church in Mesa, Arizona (now Hillsong Phoenix), for twenty-five years. Under his leadership, the church grew to an average weekend attendance of over 4500. He now serves as a pastor at large, mentoring and networking church, government and market place leaders to serve the Phoenix area. His leadership in this regard led to his appointment to Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Faith and Community. Gary is currently serving as the Phoenix mobilizer for the American Bible Society.
Gary is a graduate of Biola University, Arizona State University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Western Conservative Baptist Seminary. He and his wife Marilyn and three children and nine grandchildren.
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You never know ... where the road of life ... is going to take you.
Acts Chapter 16 is a story about the unexpected outcomes of God-ordained change — all the bad and all the good, and how we can learn to be content and give God the glory no matter what happens.
Acts 16:6-8 NIV
Verses 6-8 — Paul and Silas and ministry team have walked over a thousand miles. Weeks have gone by, and their are still unclear about the will of God.
>> Lesson: Most of the decisions we make are ____________ _____________________ and they affect _______________ __________________, who may or may like what happens to them because of our decisions.
Acts 16:9 NIV
Verse 9 — At last! A sense of God’s leading!
>> Lesson: When we are walking with God, we can make
decisions with:
- _______________ — you don’t know everything now that you’ll know later,
- and ______________________________ — that things will work out, and if it doesn’t God’s grace will sustain you. Paul and Silas looked forward, but they didn’t look back. See Verse 10.
Acts 16:10-12 NIV
Verses 11-12 — Where do Paul and Silas end up?
What’s the name of the city? ________________________
Acts 16:16-24 NIV
Verses 16-24
- How could everything so right turn out so wrong?
- If we knew then what we know now, we would never had made this decision.
- Why is this happening to us if we were so sure God was leading us in the first place?
- Somehow, we failed. Or people have failed us. Or God has failed us.
”From time to time, and more often than you think, the failure must be big, bold, embarrassing, face-losing, and public. If we (you and me, our unit, our company) don’t make utter fools of ourselves from time, we grow smug — that is, we do not grow at all.”
— Tom Peters, Crazy Times Call for Crazy Organizations (p. 279).
You never know where the road of life is going to take you, but wherever it takes you, God will be there to meet you.
>> Lesson: Life is not about living happily ever after. It’s about making the ____________ of every situation and being as _____________________ as you can be no matter what happens, even if it seems like God led you into this mess.
Look how Paul and Silas respond in Verse 25:
- No sniveling
- No attitude
- A great attitude
- And...”the other prisoners were listening to them.”
Acts 16:25 NIV
Conclusion: Where was Paul thrown in prison? _________________. See Philippians 4:11-13:
”Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”