God's Sustaining Grace Series

Good morning and a blessed New Year to all of you!

• As we step into the new year, we give thanks to God for our health, our family and our work.

• God has been good and will continue to be good in 2021. We trust in His presence with us and in His sustaining grace for us, whatever the circumstances.

PRAYER:

Dear God, we thank you that you make all things new. Thank you for all that you've allowed into our lives this past year, the good as well as the difficult things, which have reminded us how much we need you.

We rely on you to lead us each step of this New Year. We ask that you will guide our decisions and turn our hearts toward you, that we may seek you above all else.

We ask for your wisdom and for your strength to make us strong for the road ahead. May 2021 be another year of learning to trust you, to depend on you, and to walk in obedience to your ways. May you be honoured and may others be drawn to you.

We pray for your protection over our families and loved ones. Keep us from temptations and deliver us from evil. Help us stay faithful and true to you. Forgive us for the times we have turned self-sufficient and forgetting our need of you.

We confess our need for you for 2021. We ask that you will plant your truth firmly within us and bless us with faith, hope and your peace. We ask that you would provide for our needs. Let the fruit of the Spirit be seen in us. Let your light shines through us.

To you be the glory and honour in this New Year, and always.

Bless our time now as we look into Your holy Word. Enlighten us again. Strengthen us, for this we pray, in Jesus’ Name! AMEN.

We see God’s sustaining grace in Paul’s ministry as he moves from city to city preaching the Gospel of Christ.

• Despite the oppositions, persecutions and rejections, Paul continued undeterred.

• He did not give up. He kept moving from place to place, many times fleeing by force rather than leaving by choice.

• But the Lord was with him and working through him. We see many coming to faith in Christ, both the Jews and Greeks.

• Churches were established as Paul travelled from city to city.

Paul was in Athens in Acts 17. He moved on to Corinth in Acts 18.

• Corinth can be considered one of the most difficult city to preach the Gospel.

• If Athens was known for its intellectual pride, then Corinth for its sensual lust.

It was the capital of Achaia (Roman province of Greece), located on a narrow neck of land between the Adriatic Sea and Aegean Sea.

• The good location made it a wealthy city of commerce and trade.

• Sadly, it was also a city known for its licentious living and sexual immorality.

• Near the city stood a temple dedicated to Aphrodite (afro die tee), the goddess of love or sex and many prostitutes, both male and female, plied their trade in the streets of Corinth under the banner of religion.

Paul came to this pagan and godless city alone. Let’s read Acts 18:1-5.

1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

We see how God provided the SUPPORT Paul needed.

By this time, Paul needed to support himself. He has been separated from Silas and Timothy since he left Berea.

• By God’s providence, he met a Jewish couple Aquila and Priscilla who were tentmakers. Paul was able to find a place to stay and work at his trade as a leather worker.

• And the couple came to Corinth only not long ago, when they were forced to leave because of the decree of Roman Emperor Claudius, asking all Jews to leave Rome.

The Lord provided for Paul while he waited for Silas and Timothy to join him.

• And they turned out to be not just co-workers in the trade but co-workers in the ministry.

• Paul mentioned in 1 Cor 16:19 “Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.”