Humble Discernment (and the Shifts it Requires)

Follow Along with the Message

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

⁵ Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

⁶ The apostles and elders met to consider this question. Acts 15:1-6 (ESV)

1. Seeing God in our Prayers – Peter (vv.7-11)

Prayer is the regular and gradual process of learning to    through God’s eyes.

1. Seeing God in Circumstances – Paul, Barnabas (v.12)

            To see God in circumstances, we must be  and  not to attribute our man-sized accomplishments to God and not to attribute God’s Spirit-filled activity to men.

III. Seeing God in Scripture – James (v.13-18)

            We see God most clearly and unmistakably in .  The more time we spend in it, the more recognizable God becomes to us in the world around us.