Give it a Year
Message Listening Guide
Guiding Question: What do you do when you encounter a gap between what you claim to believe and how you actually live?
Acts 11:19-24 — Unnamed Heroes
The believers scattered by persecution travel as far as Antioch, the third largest city in the Roman Empire. What required a miraculous vision to prompt Peter to do, anonymous everyday believers began doing. The church in Jerusalem send Barnabas to investigate. He sees the grace of God at work, and calls the new believers to remain devoted to the Lord.
Acts 11:25-30 — The First “Christians”
Barnabas travels to Tarsus to find Saul and brings him back to Antioch. Together they teach the church for a full year. It is here that followers of Jesus are first called Christians: people belonging entirely to Christ. When the prophet Agabus predicts a coming famine in Judea, the Antioch church responds without hesitation, each giving what they are able, sending relief to their Jewish brothers and sisters through Barnabas and Saul.
The Point: The path to generosity runs through formation, not obligation.
Application
The goal isn't simply to obey more, it's to be formed more deeply into the image of Christ. Formation happens through consistent, faithful practice of the spiritual disciplines: Scripture, Prayer, Worship, Community, Fasting, Solitude, Giving, and more. Two questions to sit with:
- Which of these is the Holy Spirit convicting me to engage with more faithfully?
- When will I begin — today or tomorrow?
Closing Thought
The people of Antioch looked at these believers and reached for a word: Christians — people who belong to Christ. Their faith wasn't a one-time profession. It was a consistent, visible way of life. That's the invitation for us too.