When they say Saul

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When they say Saul/Paul went to Arabia it stands for the desert. • Which was a time to get away from distractions of the world and seek God. o Have you gone away… have you taken the time to get away… just you and Jesus? § How do we do that in our day to day life? § What sort of distractions do we have taking our time away from seeking God first? Another thing that struck me from the sermon… Was rods story of paul with peter. Saying… tell me about him… • Are we prepared students to tell others about him? o Jesus died not just to save us but to “bring us into relationship with him” § If I asked you about your best friend think to yourself what would you say? Turn to you neighbor and tell them 3 things you would say… • Who is he… what is he like. Saul was a highly trained, talented, well known, intelligent, feared person before he was converted to Christianity. Once he had his encounter with Jesus his life flipped upside down. Now people wanted to kill him, his social status tanked, he had t retreat to Tarsus (most likely to stay with his parents), lost friends, felt rejected and uncomfortable. This was for a period of time believed to be 10-15 years. This shows that just because you are a Christian doesn't mean your life with be free from struggle. • Are any of your students in this period of struggle? • How do you stay the course, what gives you hope in times of struggle? When we look at biblical heroes we see the whole picture of their life and the triumphs but often forget how they struggled and got there. • The idea of deserving "happiness." What do we deserve?! • On what basis do we make these claims? o We deserve the cross and to die for our sins but Jesus sacrificially did that for us so we wouldn't have to. The backwards way of the Kingdom (opposite of what our world tells us) • To be rich you must give it away • To be free you must become a slave • To go up you must start by going down.... Will you follow Jesus. Example: Jesus washing disciples feet. Historically not even a slave would wash another man's feet because that was too low. • How can you Go Low this week?