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Acts 13

Antioch church is the first gentiles church

4 things we can learn from Antioch church (what the Antioch church has)

1. Christ centered faith

Act 13

Jesus is the only hope! He will take care of everything for us

   We must believe in God

We are Christian, we should imitate Jesus

Eph 1

We must listen and obey Jesus

   Listen carefully, obey immediately

2.

Acts 13

Listen to the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is very important!

3

We have to pray if we want to hear from God

Acts 13 3

Prayer is a impt part of our life

Nv neglect prayer in our life

Don't give up, rpay without ceasing

4.

Matt 28

Acts

We need to be filled by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel

Prayer, faith, 

dark night of the soul pic ok

4 stages of faith

1. Awakening

2.

Pure.. removing the impurities

   Step by step.. God only reveal bit by bit, only how much we can handle

3.

Changed by God's love

4.

Be as close to God as possible

Coming in union with God is our goal

Without the Holy Spirit, it's impossible

Dark night is caused by God to whine us away from the world

To stop us from eating poison (sins), God gave ice cream (blessings).. then God gives us proper food to make us stronger

One night, God takes away the "ice cream".. God does not want us to focus on the blessings and suddenly things tt we like which could not be sinful is taken away from us

   God takes away cos it's stopping us from the "pure love"

      Can we still love God just Him without His blessings

Pic dark night senses

When nothing make sense

Can we still love God even if we feel nothing?

Job 23

Like Job, he loses his family, career, struck with disease in one day even he didn't sin...

   

Job 23 10

Job is going through the dark night of senses

We are to love God and His will and not the consolation

God will have to darken the worldly pleasure we have

Detaching will be painful, hard and challenging

Pic dark night of soul

God withdrew Himself, making Himself so quiet, make His presence very very faint

Can we still love God even if we feel abondoned

Mark 12

Jesus felt abondoned...He still loves His Father enough to do God's will

Pic

Only those we are able to handle, God will do this divine "surgery"

Dark moments is not dark nights

Suffering is not dark nights

We are experiencing dark night when

   We desire for God nv goes away

   There is a grace and perseverance

We must be prepared tt we are willing to let go of things even if they are not bad or sinful

We are too attached to things in the world.. 

Phil 3 10

Don't be afraid of suffering.. suffering lead is to union

Acts 5

There is so much hope when we are suffering.. God can use them and lead us further

Pic

he needed nothing but God alone

spiritual appetite

gal 5

gen 3

1st act of sin committed by mankind is disobedience.. by eating

gen 3

knowing what is good and evil is not enough, we need to have the power to choose

pic craving

God created us in a hunger within... this hunger requires consumption to satisfy the hunger

aspirations, to want to do something

gen 3 2 3

what kind of food we use to fulfil the hunger.. it matters greatly our appetite

the moment Adam and Eve ate the wrong food, it ruin their apetite for spiritual 

pic

apetite directs our life, determine our spiritual life as well

numbers 11 5

the children of Isreal is not satisfied with mannel, food given by God cos they are thinking of the food they had in Egypt

we need to stop eating junk food and eat food Jesus eat

john 4 34

pic Jesus food

1. self denial

Jesus chose to obey God

to be the ultimate sacrifice for mankind, He was alr in the habit of making daily sacrifices unto the Lord

luke 9

practice self denial daily instead of just self pleasure

pic

2. do things unto the Lord

john 8

who are we things for? if we are doing things for self or fame, will not last for long when pressure comes

isiah 6

isia 6 11

isiah 6 8

to Isaiah, obedience to the Lord is more fulfilling than the reward of success

3. faithful to the work of the gospel

summ

practice everyday on the little times

obedience is more fulfilling than the success

be a blessing to the people all around

union pic ok

Matt 

Matt 11

It's ok to be busy but not burning candles on both ends

Learn to deepen our relationship with God and ppl

Luke 5

What to do during silence and solitude

1. mediation

Apply our mind to God's word

Job

Psalm

Jeremiah 15 16

Mediation is like opening the door of the house of God

2.

Sit there, learning to be still

Come into God's presence quietly.. no agenda

   Simply quieten our soul

Isiah 40

Whenever love comes, there's healing and a deep deep rest in our soul

3. union

Becoming one in God

John 17

This is the end goal of salvation.. to have divine union

John 15

Don't worry abt things (career, family, relationship).. these are impt but not the most impt

John 15 10

We have to freely choose to slow down and enjoy God's presence

Pic

Theosis = the process of becoming into Christ likeness

Pic triangle

Our goal in love

Pic John wesley

Theosis is love perfected in us

It's in the dry seasons tt roots grow deeper and deeper

Summ

Learn to be aware tt 

   God is in us and we in Him

   God is love

Learn to slow down be still

#union #silence and solitude #still #love of God #theosis