Review:
1 Corinthians 11:1 – Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Hebrews 13:7 - Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
What Kind of Example Are You...?
- In handling Criticism? (Acts 11:1-18)
- Taking it personally
- Blaming others
- Criticize back
- Ignoring it
- Agree to appease
- Understand their point
- Understand the motivation behind it
- Take it head-on
- Be objective
- Use the Word of God
- In witnessing Boldly? (Acts 11:19-21)
- In personal Faithfulness? (Acts 11:22-26)
- In giving Generously? (Acts 11:27-30)
5 Wrong Ways of Dealing with Criticism:
5 Ways Peter Rightly Dealt with Criticism:
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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The book of Acts and chapter 11.
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Book of Acts and chapter 11.
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While you're turning there, true or false, we are a people who are very easily influenced by others.
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True or false?
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Very easily influenced by others.
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Some would say, "Oh, man, nobody tells me what to do." But I think in all of us to some degree, we are very easily influenced.
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when we don't even realize it. And I don't know if there's a name for this, but I was thinking about this phenomenon, and if you know the name of this, please let me know.
00:41-02:02
But what is that feeling that you get after you watch Rocky that you just feel like you could whoop anybody? You know what I'm talking about? How many people know what I'm talking about? You watch I remember as a kid seeing Rocky 3. Remember that, Mark? You see Rocky 3 and clobber bang and you know after watching Rocky I remember as a kid just running around the house like I'm gonna block somebody I'm gonna block somebody and I felt like I could take on anybody I felt like I could beat Mr. T. I felt like Mr. T better pity this fool. And not just Rocky but I remember also seeing this movie growing up over the top. Do you remember how many people saw over the top. A couple of you, okay, those of you that saw it, shout it out. What's over the top about? Arm wrestling! I remember when I saw that movie, Over the Top, I'm like, I could beat anybody at arm wrestling, man! And I'm just running around the house, and I'm like, who wants to arm wrestle? And I'm arm wrestling the dog, I'm arm wrestling the gerbil, and I'm like, I can't be stopped! I'm an arm wrestling champion! It was around I remember that time that my parents said, "No more Sylvester Stallone movies for you." But my point is, we can be very easily influenced for good or for bad.
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But you know, this is meant to actually happen in the church.
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And I was studying this this week, and I actually found so many verses about this that I just had to pick two, is extremely difficult.
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But I want you to look at a couple of verses here.
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1 Corinthians 11, verse 1.
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The Apostle Paul writes, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." Again, the same concept.
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Look at Hebrews 13.7.
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"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the Word of God.
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Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
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I want you to look at that second phrase especially.
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Consider the outcome of their way of life.
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You can look at the leaders of our church, and I think of the leaders of our church.
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I think of the Kellers, I think of the Nauers, I think of the Orr's, and I think...
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These are beautiful families with great relationships with their kids and great marriage relationships.
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And considering the outcome of their way of life, I'm like, they seem like they really have it going on in their families.
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Imitate their faith.
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You look at people who are faithful that the Lord is ministering to and using, and people that have a strong walk.
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We should be imitating their faith.
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These people are not just examples to look at, but they're examples to follow.
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I want you to write this down.
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The church needs trendsetters.
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That's what the church needs today.
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The church needs trendsetters.
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Not seat warmers.
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Not church attenders.
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The church needs people who are going to say, "I'm going to set the trend.
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I'm going to have a faith worth imitating.
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I'm going to have a walk with the Lord.
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that should serve as an example to others.
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Now hear me, the church is a body of believers, right?
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But the identity of the church as a whole will be the identity of Christ at work and the individuals in the church.
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Let me illustrate what I mean by that.
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I was talking to a pastor friend of mine that does a lot of traveling.
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things he said was every church that he goes to, he said, "I really feel like these churches have their own identity." And he was mentioning different pastors. He's like, "So-and-so's church, that church has an identity of being very authentic, and they live in a culture that's pretty fake, pretty shallow, but that church is so authentic, and that comes from the leadership of the church." And he was giving several other examples of how these Churches have a corporate identity.
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But the truth is, the corporate identity from the church comes when God is at work in the individuals in the church who are going to be trendsetters.
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It has to start with you before it becomes the identity of the church family.
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So if you're sitting here thinking today, "You know the kind of church I'd like to be a part of?" Well, you have a say in that just by the example that you're setting for others in your faith.
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In Acts chapter 10, last week, it's a huge chapter in your Bible.
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Acts chapter 10 changed the course of church history.
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Up until this point, the gospel was going out primarily to the Jews, and we saw thousands of Jews come to know Christ, but in Acts chapter 10, the gospel goes to the Gentiles.
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And I'm not going to do a lot of review because the review is right here in the passage.
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But in Acts chapter 11, we're going to see some real trendsetters in the church.
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We're going to look at four of them today.
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Bold believers who set the tone for this young church in crucial areas.
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And these bold believers serve as great examples for us in being trendsetters.
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So the question we're going to evaluate today, you're going to evaluate this for yourself, right?
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You know what is it, 2 Corinthians 13, 5, it says, "Examine yourself." This sermon isn't, I'm not condemning or judging anyone here.
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The Bible says, "Believers, you need to examine yourself." Right?
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I should examine me, and you should examine who?
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You should examine yourself.
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And that's what I want to help you do today, is I want you to examine your own faith.
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And we're going to look at these examples that are set before us, considering what kind of example do I set.
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Number one, what kind of example are you in handling criticism?
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What kind of example are you in handling criticism?
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Let's pick up in verse 1, it says, "Now the apostles and brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God." So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party - that's a terrible name for that group.
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Those are Jews, okay?
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I mean, I've been to pool parties and graduation parties and...
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Anyways, the circumcision party criticized him saying, "You want to uncircumcise men and ate with them." You see, the reason that the Holy Spirit uses that phrase "circumcision party" was the Holy Spirit's making it clear that this was the issue that was going on.
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Interestingly, the news traveled faster than Peter.
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Back to Jerusalem.
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Look at verse 4.
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"But Peter began and explained it to them in order.
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I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.
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Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." But I said, "By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth." But the voice answered a second time from Heaven, "What God has made clean, do not call common." This happened three times.
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All was drawn up again into heaven.
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And behold, at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea, and the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.
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These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
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And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, "Send a Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter.
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He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household." As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them.
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This is on us at the beginning.
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You realize that's the third time in the last two chapters this account has been retold.
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Why is that?
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Because this is, again, one of the most significant events It's never happened in the life of the church.
10:12-10:18
You would not be sitting here today if this didn't happen, if the gospel had gone to the Gentiles.
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It's a huge event. That's why Peter recaps the course again.
10:25-10:39
Verse 16, Peter continues, "And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, 'John baptized with water, You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus said that back in Acts 1.5 before He ascended into heaven.
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John the Baptist said that in Matthew 3.11.
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And Peter's saying, "Hey, you know what? I know this sounds crazy, but the Gentiles actually had their own version of Pentecost.
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Remember Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and speaking in tongues And all of that was happening, you remember that?
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Acts chapter 2 and thousands came to Christ.
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Peter says the Gentiles sort of had their version of that.
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The Holy Spirit came upon them and the Holy Spirit made Himself manifest among them.
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Verse 17, Peter gets to the point here. He says, "If then God gave the same gift to them as He gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, "Who was I that I could stand in God's way?" When they heard these things, they fell silent.
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They glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." So it sinks in.
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So at first, we talked all about this last week, this was a racially charged issue.
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The Jews hated the Gentiles.
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And now all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit has come upon them and news is getting back.
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And it was so radical for the Jews to hear that God would save the Gentile dogs.
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And you see it just kind of sinks in because they fell silent.
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Oh, oh.
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I think it's interesting in this passage, you can look at somebody like Peter, Look at everything that Peter did well in his ministry in the book of Acts.
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You've been going through Acts with us.
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Look at everything that Peter did well.
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Remember Pentecost?
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We talked about that.
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Peter gets up and preaches.
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Thousands of people get saved.
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Remember that?
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Or remember when Peter and some of the apostles were dragged before the Sanhedrin and kind of put on trial for their faith?
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And Peter's like, "Let me tell you how it is!" And he's just like straight Gospel right in their face.
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Do you remember that?
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The Bible's fantastic.
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Do you remember Peter, under the power of the Holy Spirit, raising the dead?
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Do you remember that?
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Everything that Peter did well, he comes back into town after doing ministry, and the Bible says, verse 2, that the circumcision party, the Jews, criticized him.
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I have that underlined in my Bible because that gives great hope for the rest of us.
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Because no matter who you are, No matter what you've done, no matter how great the things have been done, or how many great things have been done, somebody is going to come along and criticize you.
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And trust me, church, if there's one thing I've learned in 20 years of ministry, it's this.
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You can do 12,000 things right.
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One thing that you do that might not even be wrong, they didn't approve of, they didn't agree with, they will lay the hammer down.
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Criticism can be very hard to deal with.
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And I don't know what it is.
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I don't know what it is.
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But you can receive 100 compliments, and you can get one criticism.
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And what's the thing that sticks out to you?
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in your head all day. Tell me. You ever been there? You get a hundred compliments, you're getting emails, you're getting texts like, "Oh that was fantastic." One person can send you an email and they're like, "I didn't think the way you said that was, I don't think it was handled very well." And that's the one thing that just sticks. True? Criticism can You pour yourself out and pour yourself out and pour yourself out.
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And then someone comes along who wasn't there, doesn't know what happens, has no idea what's going on, and suddenly they're the expert and they're going to offer this unsolicited criticism.
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I want to share some things with you regarding this today because honestly, this is one of the biggest areas of growth in my life.
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simply because this is the area that I had the most room for growth.
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I want you to jot some notes down because you're going to get criticized for whatever, whether it's leading worship, whether it's the way you conduct a prayer meeting, whether it's something that happens in small groups or an outreach ministry or whatever, at your job, in your home, you're going to be criticized.
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And there are a lot of wrong ways that Peter could have responded.
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I want you to jot this down.
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I'm going to give you five wrong ways to deal with criticism.
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These are five things that Peter did not do.
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He gives us a great example here.
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I want to just slow down and look at this for a couple minutes.
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ways of dealing with criticism. Number one, taking it personally. Taking it personally.
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It is true that some criticism is a personal attack. I don't like you, I'm looking for the opportunity to get my digs in here. But you know what, a lot of criticism isn't meant that way. It's just, I see how this thing happened and I see how this thing could have been done better and I'm just simply expressing that. But we are so quick to immediately take Like, I did that and I worked so hard and now you're telling me what I'm hearing, maybe not what you're telling me, but what I'm hearing is, "You did a bad job.
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I take it personally." What I'm hearing is, "I'm a bad person.
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I did a bad job.
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I'm taking it personally." That's a wrong way of dealing with criticism.
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Number two is blaming others.
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others, you're criticized, and instead of objectively looking at what's being said, we'll talk about that in a second, but you're quick to, "Who else can, who can I throw under the bus?" You know, like, "Pastor Jeff, I don't like the way you did that." Well, it really wasn't my idea, it was Mark's idea, and Mark was the one that thought I should do this, and suddenly it's, "I'm not listening to what they're saying, I'm looking to throw somebody under the bus." That's the wrong way. Peter others? Great example here. Number three, criticize back. Criticize back. That's a wrong way of dealing with criticism. This usually happens because the criticism was taken personally. But instead of hearing what's being said, we're looking to launch our own attack.
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Like, "Oh, you didn't like the way that I said that in the sermon?
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Well, I don't like the way you hit those stupid drums. How about that?
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And...
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That's not the issue. We're like subject topics.
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And...
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Criticize back. That's the wrong way of dealing with criticism.
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Do I sound like somebody speaking from experience?
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I've done every one of these.
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To my shame.
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I'm growing.
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You growing?
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You got some areas to grow?
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Don't judge me.
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Don't judge me. Do you have some areas where you're growing?
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Okay, I do too, alright?
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Somebody's just shaking their heads at me right now. Criticizing.
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Number four. This is a wrong way of dealing with criticism. Ignoring it. Ignoring it.
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Listen, that's wrong. Some people are like, "Just ignore it!" But, what if there's an element of truth in it?
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What if - now this is going to sound radical in your ears - but what if there is a way that I could be doing it a little bit better?
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But just wholesale ignoring it, do you realize that's pretty arrogant?
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That's saying, "I have mastered what I'm doing to the degree in which there is no room for improvement." like, not even listening, don't care.
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That's wrong.
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Peter didn't do that.
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Number five, I just called this agree to appease.
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Agree in order to appease, meaning you just agree with the person, but you don't really believe them.
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You're not really listening.
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you're not allowing it to be an area of growth, you just agree in order to appease.
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That somebody's like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, I think this could be done better." "Oh, you know what, you're right, it probably could be done better." And then it's like, you know, in one ear out the other kind of thing.
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And I just didn't want to have a hard conversation with you.
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I didn't want to have conflict with you.
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Agree to appease.
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Those are all wrong ways of dealing with criticism.
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But now I want to just share with you five quick things.
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These are Peter's example of rightly handling criticism.
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Peter's example of rightly handling criticism, OK?
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These are the things that we're going for.
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Number one, understand their point.
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Understand their point.
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Like, what exactly are you trying to say?
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Like if somebody comes to me and says, "Pastor Jeff, I didn't like your sermon because I think you're stupid." That's not really criticism, okay?
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That's just an insult.
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It might be true, but it's not technically criticism.
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When somebody says, "I think you should say this or do it this way or do it better that way or whatever," try to understand the point.
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What point are you trying to make?
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Then number two goes right with that.
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Understand the motivation behind it.
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Understand the motivation behind it.
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Understand the motivation.
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What I mean is some people when they criticize, they're not trying to hurt you, they're not trying to cut you down.
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A lot of times people love you and want you to do better.
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And in this passage, we see that Peter really understood the motivation because he rolled into Caesarea not too fond of the Gentiles either.
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And the Lord radically transformed him that area of that racial prejudice. So when he comes back into town, he sees a group of Jews that were just like him, like, you know, yesterday, and they're like, "We don't think you should hang out with Gentiles." And Peter's like, "Yeah, I know why they think that. Because that's totally me." But understand the motivation behind it.
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Number three, take it head-on. Take it head-on. That's a very hard thing to do, but it's a very appropriate thing to do with criticism.
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Take it head on.
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All right, let's look at what's being said, and why is it being said, and let's address it.
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We're going to take it head on.
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Number four, be objective.
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Be objective.
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That's something you see in Peter's response.
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Basically, all Peter did was recap everything we studied in chapter 10.
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Peter didn't say, well, here's what I feel.
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Here's what I think.
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You notice that Peter just repeated the facts.
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He's like, "Here's what happened.
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I understand what you're saying, but here's what happened." He didn't insert his opinion.
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He was very objective about it.
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And finally, number five, use the Word of God when applicable, when appropriate.
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Use the Word of God. Peter did that.
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He was like, "I know what you're saying, but let me tell you what happened." And he tells the story. He goes, "You know what?
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It's exactly what Jesus said.
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And then he quotes Acts 1.5, which is quoting Matthew 3.11.
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He gets back to the Word of God.
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I know what you're saying, but here's what the Bible says about it.
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So Peter was a trendsetter.
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Peter was a trendsetter.
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He handled it right, and you can see that the result was everyone bought in.
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The Jewish congregation had changed their minds in the same way that Peter had changed his.
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So it's a self-evaluation time. Are you ready?
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I want you to consider for yourself, what if everyone in this church handled criticism like you do?
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Just examine yourself. I have to think that for myself.
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But that's a good self-evaluation question. We're going to be looking at that in these other ones too.
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Let's pretend everybody in the church handles things the way that I do.
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Would this be a church where we're constantly evaluating for excellence, seeing where there's room for improvement and growth, where we're owning up to our mistakes?
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Or would we be a church of very bitter, very offended, very always personally holding grudges because we don't like what somebody said?
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What kind of church would we be?
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What kind of trendsetter are you going to be when it comes to handling criticism?
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So what kind of example are you in handling criticism?
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Number two, we're going to go through these next ones very quickly.
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Number two, what kind of an example are you in witnessing boldly?
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Look at verse 19, it says, "Now those who were scattered because of the persecution of the rose over Stephen," and that thing was still in their minds, we talked about that.
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Here's this young, good-looking, charismatic preacher mowed down at the very start of his ministry, and it caused the church to scatter, and they're still talking about it.
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Such a huge impact.
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So those who were scattered because of the persecution of the Rose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
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Antioch was more than 300 miles north of Jerusalem.
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And the day that this was written, Antioch was the third largest city in the world.
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Behind Rome, behind Alexandria, Antioch was next.
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It had more than a half a million people.
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So the gospel is going that far, to this kind of place.
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But verse 19 says, "They were speaking the word to no one except Jude." That's that prejudice we spent last week talking about.
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Verse 20 says, "But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, The one coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, those are the Greeks, also preaching the Lord Jesus.
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They spoke to the Hellenists also preaching the Lord Jesus.
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Some of them reached out.
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A lot of them had the racial prejudice thing going on.
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The Bible says there were some who were not afraid to reach out to the Gentiles, to the Greeks.
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Verse 21 says, "The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord." God was at work.
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I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because this was the message last week.
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The prejudice the Jews had against the Gentiles.
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It was so easy, and it is in our day, it's so easy to be intimidated, to hold on to prejudices.
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It's easy for us to find any excuse not to witness.
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In these verses I want you to see it took a group of trendsetters who weren't afraid to reach out.
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Trendsetters.
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They could have been like everybody else and said, "Oh, apparently we're just going to the Jews, we're just going to the Jews." Here are a group of people that weren't afraid to reach out to the Gentiles.
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Your Bible says that the hand of the Lord was with them.
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That's what we've been talking about all year, right?
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you'll receive power, you'll be my witnesses.
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The promise of Jesus.
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We have the Holy Spirit's power in order to be witnesses.
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You might say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, you know, I'll be honest with you, I'm not really feeling the power." Maybe if you try being a witness, then you'll experience the power that He's already provided.
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Or, in our evaluation question, let me ask you, what if everyone in the church What kind of church would we have?
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Just evaluate yourself.
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Are you somebody that looks for opportunities to talk about the Lord, looks for opportunities to invite people to church, or are you just sort of like, "You know what, I think everybody should just sort of keep their faith to themselves." What if everyone in the church witnessed like you do?
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Would you be like, "Man, we'd have to find a new place to meet because we run out of seats." If everybody witnessed like I do, if everybody invited like I do, what would our church look like if every one of us were like these trendsetters saying, "I'm not afraid to reach out." Yeah, I might be rejected. Yeah, they might think I'm stupid, but I'm not afraid to reach out.
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What kind of example are you setting in your personal witness?
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Number three, what kind of an example are you setting in personal faithfulness?
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What kind of example are you personal faithfulness?
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Look at verse 22.
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We're going to see another trendsetter here.
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"The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
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When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.
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You know, it's kind of crazy because this is a day that they didn't have social media and Twitter and Internet, anything.
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It wasn't like a bunch of people came to Christ in Antioch and they set up a website.
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You know, first curse of Antioch, word traveled back, over 300 miles, back to Jerusalem.
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So the Jerusalem church hears what's going on and they're like, "We need a guy who's going to be able to make this trip and who's going to be able to rightly handle all of these people coming to Christ to disciple them and to make sure that they have a good start and they're healthy.
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Like, who could we possibly send?" And they decide on Barnabas. Remember Barnabas?
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We met him in chapter 4 when Acts was talking about his generosity.
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We saw him in Acts chapter 9, verse 27, when the Holy Spirit was telling us in Acts how it was Barnabas that introduced Saul to the brothers because none of them believed that this church hater could become a Christian.
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He stood up for his friends.
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So Barnabas was sent to investigate.
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And when he gets there, he sees that this was a little too big for one person to handle.
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Verse 24, "For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord." This was just growing and growing and growing to the point that Barnabas was like, "Man, I need some help. We need backup." Who could we possibly call that would be strong in the Word and loves the Lord and works hard?
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Verse 25 says, "The Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul." Good choice.
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Again, this was a day without the internet and cell phones.
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I don't know how he found them. It couldn't have been easy.
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Years had passed. How did he find them? I don't know.
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He did.
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Verse 26 says, "And when he found them, he brought them to Antioch." For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people.
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For a whole year.
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Notice the Bible says that they taught the people.
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That's the primary function of the church.
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That's why we don't just have worship and then go home.
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Because one of the primary functions of the church is to teach, to get into the Word of God and understand what the Bible teaches.
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I spent a whole year doing that.
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Look at this last phrase.
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It says in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
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Some of you today might say, "I'm proudly a Christian, I'm proudly a Christian." Well, you know when that term first came about, it wasn't a compliment.
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It was actually an insult.
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To be called a Christian in the first century, Somebody wasn't applauding you.
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Somebody was making fun of you.
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This is where that term, where that word came, the word Christian, which literally means "of the party of Christ," literally.
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Great party.
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"Of the party of Christ" started in Antioch.
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But verse 23, jump back there for a second.
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Verse 23, look at Barnabas' message to them when he shows up.
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He says, "He exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose." Why would that be His message?
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It doesn't say that He taught about creation. He probably did.
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It doesn't say He taught about the purpose of the Old Testament law. He probably did.
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But why did He pick this particular message?
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Why does the Bible say this was the message that He focused on?
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"Remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose." The reason He gave that message was because He knew it was going to be hard for them.
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It was going to be hard.
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Be encouraged and be faithful.
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Stick with it.
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You need to endure.
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And a reminder, the idea that following Jesus Christ is easy is foreign to the New Testament.
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Following Jesus Christ is a hard road.
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Yes, there's joy.
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Yes, God provides.
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Yes, there's so much to celebrate.
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But also, yes, there's pain.
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Also, yes, there's heartache.
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Yes, there's discouragement.
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But the Bible never promised that following Christ was going to be easy.
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Never. There's not one verse.
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There's not a hint.
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Nothing in the Bible says that following Jesus Christ is going to be easy.
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The overwhelming testimony is following Christ is a hard road.
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And if we made it this far in the book of Acts think that Christian life was meant to be easy.
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Either I failed to communicate what the Bible says or you failed to listen.
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One of those is true.
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But our trendsetter in this passage was Barnabas, who was obviously preaching from a platform of experience.
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How was Barnabas so faithful?
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Look at verse 24.
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It says, "For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith." That's what made Barnabas a good man.
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First of all, it says he was full of the Holy Spirit.
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He was somebody that loved the Lord and was walking in the Spirit.
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We could say that's God's part.
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But it also says that Barnabas was a man of faith.
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That's man's part.
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Man's part is trusting and abiding in the presence of God.
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He had that.
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That's why he was a trendsetter.
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That's why he could show up and say, Christian life is hard.
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We're seeing people in Jerusalem get killed for their faith.
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It's hard.
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You need to endure.
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Let me ask you, what if everyone in the church were as faithful as you?
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I want you to consider your own walk with the Lord right now.
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I want you to consider right now the amount of time that you spend in prayer.
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I want you to consider now the amount of time that you spend in God's Word.
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The amount of involvement that you have in ministry the involvement that you have in a small group.
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And I want you to ask yourself, what if everybody in the church had a level of personal faithfulness that I do?
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Convicting, isn't it?
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What if everyone in the church was like Barnabas?
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Available, resourceful, inviting, but most importantly, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
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And finally today, What kind of example are you in giving generously?
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Look at verse 27.
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It says, "Now in these days prophets" - that's another name for preacher - "prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
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And one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.
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This took place in the days of Claudius." 45 to 46 AD this word was fulfilled.
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The great famine. Verse 29 says, "So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul." Did you see the trendsetter in this passage?
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The news came that this famine was going to happen, and when it took place, verse 29 says, "The disciples determined," here's your trendsetters in this one, "They determined that everyone, according to his ability, should send relief." According to ability.
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This is New Testament giving.
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You should give according to your ability, not according to someone else's ability.
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You see, people get all bent out of shape when you talk about giving, but we're going to talk about giving here for a minute.
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Understand when the Bible says give according to your ability - you know that commercial, "What's in your wallet?" You know that commercial I'm talking about?
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What's that commercial for?
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What's in your wallet?
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Capital One, okay.
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What's in your wallet?
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See, when it comes to giving, the Bible says that we should give according to our ability.
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In other words, what's in your wallet?
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God's not expecting you to give according to what's in somebody else's wallet.
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Like, man, I wish I could give more money.
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The issue with God is are you giving according to the ability that He gave you?
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Your job is to give proportionately according to what God has entrusted you with.
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I just want to encourage you, church, God's not comparing what you give to someone else.
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If you find out, "Well, so-and-so at the church, he gives $1,000 every week. I'm so lame." Maybe for so-and-so, that's according to his ability.
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Maybe that's not according to your ability.
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giving, you see these people, these trendsetters were highlighted in Scripture because they saw the need and they said we're going to give according to our ability. In other words, if you had ten dimes, could you give one to God?
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You had ten dollars, could you give a dollar to God?
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You had a thousand dollars, could you give a hundred to God? You had ten thousand dollars, could you give a thousand The harder the more we're talking about.
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But it's about according to ability.
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You see, God gives each one of us a certain amount of stuff to handle.
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And God's just trusting you to handle the stuff that He's given you.
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That's all.
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Like, I have so much passing through my hands, and God's trusting me to be faithful and generous in proportion with what He's entrusted to me.
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and according to ability.
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Remember when we went through the Gospel of Mark?
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Remember the little boy who gave Jesus his lunch?
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Do you remember that story?
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Five thousand men plus women and children, there were probably around twelve thousand people that hadn't eaten all day, and nobody had any food.
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And the Bible tells us that this one kid - this is actually in John 6 as well, it's in all the Gospels - this little kid gives Jesus his lunch.
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In other words, you could say that that kid gave according to his ability.
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That kid didn't have enough food or money to feed 12,000 people.
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Do you know what he gave God? According to his ability.
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He's like, "Here's what I got that I can give." And what did Jesus do with that?
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He fed everybody, not just fed everybody, but Jesus fed everybody to the point that they had leftovers.
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And the point is, a little bit put in the hand of God results in a lot.
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And I don't know what you give. I don't know what anybody in this church gives.
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Aside from Aaron Miller and Jeff Miller. Those are the only two people in the church I know who give.
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And what they give. Beyond that, I don't have a clue.
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What I want to challenge you with, for you to evaluate for yourself, are you giving according to your ability?
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Are you giving according to your ability?
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In other words, what if everyone in the church gave like you?
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When it's offering time, if everybody in the church gave with the heart motivation and the proportion and the ability, if everybody gave like you, what would the church look like if everybody gave like me the church would be bringing in like $35 a week or if you're like you know what I trust the Lord with what he's given me and I trust the Lord enough to give it back I do give according to my ability what if everyone in the church gave like that what kind of example are you setting we see some trendsetters in this passage what kind of a trendsetter are you because it's through the influence of individuals like you the church can be what it needs to be. What kind of example are you setting today?
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Harvest Bible Chapel Pittsburgh North needs trendsetters, people who lead by example in handling criticism and witnessing boldly and remaining faithful and in giving generously.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for the examples that You've given us in Your Word.
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And certainly Your Word gives us some people where it's very clear.
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You say, "Don't follow this guy's example.
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Don't do what this guy's doing.
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Don't do what she's doing." It's clear that that happens sometimes in Your Word.
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But it's very clear in Acts 11 that we see some people that serve as tremendous examples.
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Father, I pray for this church, that we would be a people who look at the examples and consider what kind of example we're setting for this church.
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Whether it's handling criticism like Peter, or reaching out to unlovable people like some of those believers did in Antioch.
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Maybe it's in handling money, the way that they raised funds to help those who were in need.
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Maybe it's just in our walk.
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The example that Barnabas set for us.
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Full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
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God, we live in a day where so many people are content to try to be passive Christians sort of let things go by and maybe go with the flow a bit, maybe contribute a bit, but God I pray from this church as you have already, I pray that you would continue to raise up some trendsetters, some people that say I know what the Word of God says, I know what God's called us to do, and I by the power of the Holy Spirit I want to be faithful. God, continue to raise up godly examples right here that we can follow.
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To your glory and honor, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 11:1-30
Evaluation time! In the 4 areas we discussed, how would you rate the church and rate yourself, personally? Use the 1-10 scale, 1 is “We/I am completely weak here” and 10 is “We/I am a world-changer here”.
HBC You, personally
Handling Criticism
Boldly Witnessing
Personal Faithfulness
Giving Generously
Breakout Questions:
In this evaluation, where were you personally weakest? How can you grow in this area?
