Set Apart For Service! Series

SERMON OUTLINE:

(1). God changes lives (vs 1)

(2). God’s general call to service (vs 1-3)

(3). God’s specific call to service (vs 2)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

• In ancient Roman mythology, Janus was the god of beginnings and transitions.

• He was usually depicted as having two faces looking at opposite ways,

• One towards the past and the other towards the future.

• From his name we have in the English language Janus-words,

• They are words with two meanings that seem to contradict each other.

• Examples of Janus words are:

• CLEAVE:

• To divide by or as if by a cutting blow or to cling firmly.

• DUST:

• To make free of dust or to sprinkle with fine particles.

• OVERLOOK:

• To look past, to miss or to look over: INSPECT

• WEATHER:

• To endure or to erode.

• TRIP:

• To dance, skip or caper with light quick steps or to stumble.

• OVERSIGHT:

• Watchful and responsible care or an inadvertent omission or error.

• BUCKLE:

• To fasten or to bend and then break.

• CHUFFED:

• When you’re chuffed, you can be either pleased or displeased.

• FAST:

• To move quickly (as in "running fast") or not moving (as in "stuck fast").

• TRANSITION: I think as we start a New Year,

• I would like to apply those examples of Janus words to our Church fellowship,

• e.g., CLEAVE:

• I hope we can say that in 2022 we will ‘cling firmly.’

• Or in application deepen our fellowship, friendship with each other!

• DUST:

• To make free of dust or to sprinkle with fine particles.

• The gathering of dust is an idiom meaning,

• ‘To be unused or forgotten, especially for a long period of time.’

• I hope we can say that in 2022 that our baptistry will not fit that description!

• OVERLOOK:

• I am going for the positive meaning, which is INSPECT,

• Inspect the Christian faith and respond accordingly.

• It was Jim Elliot the American Christian missionary & martyr who said,

• “Wherever you are - be all there.”

• And if this gospel, faith, book is true then it deserves everything!

• WEATHER:

• To endure or to erode.

• In 2022 you don’t have to endure Church; you are allowed to actually enjoy it!

• But I would suggest that the attitude you bring along with you when you enter the building,

• Will determine your experience while you are in the building!

• TRIP:

• To dance, skip or caper with light quick steps or to stumble.

• One of the four meanings of the word trip is,

• ‘A device that activates or disconnects a mechanism, circuit, etc.’

• God calls us all to be switched on, and to walk in the light,

• So that we do not spiritually stumble!

• OVERSIGHT:

• Watchful.

• That we will show care for one another,

• This is the responsibility of all the believers and not just the leaders,

• In fact, members looking after members is always the best support a person can have.

• BUCKLE:

• To fasten,

• We live in an age of false teaching, Biblical heresy,

• Sadly, you can find it in a few minutes on YouTube or stations like God TV.

• May God give us discernment to buckle down to the historic Christian faith.

• CHUFFED:

• I hope in 2022 we will all be chuffed, be pleased to be here, to meet together

• God is in the place how should we ever leave disappointed?

• FAST:

• I hope we will move forward i.e., make progress love to see us grow.

• Grow numerically as folks come to faith,

• Grow deeper personally in our walk with God.

• Grow stronger in love as we enjoy fellowship together.

• So, as we start a New Year, I hope those few Janus words might encourage us,

• To look back and also to look forward.

• Quote: Hymn, “We’ll praise him for all that is past, and trust him for all that’s to come.’

Ill:

• The Danish existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard,

• My favourite philosopher, once said,

“Most people don’t understand that while life must be understood backward, it can only be lived forward.”

• We are looking back at the early Church in the book of Acts,

• To understand and to learn, but this is more than a history lesson.

• The principles and the lessons we can discover are very much applicable for today.

Note:

• Chapter 13 marks a turning point in the book of Acts.