Review:
3 Attitudes of Faithful Christians:
- Longevity: I'm In This for the Long Haul. (Acts 14:1-4)
- Tenacity: I'm In This No Matter What. (Acts 14:5-7)
- Humility: I'm In This for God's Glory. (Acts 14:8-18)
Review: 1 Cor 15:58
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Acts.
00:04-00:05
Chapter 14.
00:07-00:15
And our theme this year that we started at the beginning of October as we walk through Acts 13-20, our theme is the unstoppable church.
00:16-00:26
And that's what we're going to be looking at in these chapters is that no matter what happens to the church, everything that this early church faced didn't stop what God was doing.
00:29-00:30
The church is unstoppable.
00:32-00:38
And while you're turning there, just to give you a quick review, let's get us all caught up to speed where we've gone this year.
00:38-00:44
We kicked off by seeing that Paul and Barnabas and Mark are on this mission trip tour.
00:44-00:49
And after they left Antioch, which was their headquarters, the first stop was Cyprus.
00:52-00:57
Where Bar-Jesus - do you remember we talked about him, this Jewish occult magician?
00:58-00:59
and was struck blind.
01:01-01:09
Well, Mark left them when they were in Perga, went back home, and we're going to be talking about that down the road.
01:10-01:13
But Paul and Barnabas went to Antioch and Pisidia.
01:13-01:16
This is a different Antioch than where they had started.
01:17-01:40
We saw Paul preach at the synagogue where jealous Jews started problems by contradicting and reviling the missionaries, resulting in the city being divided and the missionaries being driven out and off to their next stop, which is where we're going to be today, a place called Iconium.
01:41-01:48
Despite the obstacles, the gospel didn't lose any steam because the church is unstoppable.
01:49-02:00
And I'm not sure when it happened exactly, If you just let me rant for a second, and if you have answers, I'd love to talk to you after service sometime.
02:00-02:04
But when did we as a culture get so easily offended by everything?
02:05-02:06
When did that happen?
02:07-02:09
That's kind of a more recent thing, right?
02:09-02:14
I don't remember that growing up, that everybody was always offended by everything.
02:15-02:18
I was thinking about that this week.
02:18-02:29
You know, there are things that over the past few years, at the time, we were so offended by this thing, that if I would mention it now, you're like, oh yeah, I forgot that everybody was offended by that.
02:31-02:33
Things like, remember the Dukes of Hazzard?
02:34-02:41
Everybody was so offended that the Confederate flag was on the roof of that car and the show had to be yanked from TV.
02:44-02:48
Everything from the name the Washington Redskins football team.
02:49-02:50
Everybody's offended.
02:51-03:00
More recently, I'm sure you've been following this, Colin Kaepernick, you know, the third string quarterback for the-- what's he play for the 49ers, right?
03:01-03:02
And he took a knee.
03:02-03:11
He was kneeling during the national anthem out of a protest for the way minorities are treated in our country.
03:11-03:14
and everybody was so offended by that.
03:17-03:18
Here's my take on that, by the way.
03:18-03:23
This is free of charge, but that doesn't offend me at all.
03:24-03:30
We have family that served in the military, and honestly, it's not against the law to be jerky.
03:31-03:35
If you wanna make a spectacle of yourself, it's just, it's not against the law.
03:36-03:43
I don't agree with him, nor did I lose any sleep over it either, okay?
03:43-03:47
So some third string quarterback kneels down in a football game that I'm not gonna watch anyways.
03:47-03:49
Like why are we so upset about this?
03:53-03:55
Yes, we should be praying for and respecting our military.
03:56-03:57
Okay, so somebody doesn't.
03:58-03:59
Why are we so offended?
04:00-04:04
I think the reason this has been brought to the forefront of my mind was just very recently.
04:06-04:23
This was like, just when you think it can't get any worse, I think Aaron pointed it out to me. There was an article, there was this Halloween decoration they were selling, I think it was at Target, and the Halloween decoration was this spooky looking guy looking through a window.
04:24-04:39
And you're supposed to like put it up, and I'm like, "Oh, there's a scary guy looking in the window." Well, that offended somebody so bad that they wrote letters and started this whole protest that Target ended up pulling this Halloween decoration from the shelves.
04:40-04:41
and issued an apology.
04:43-04:47
"We are so sorry that we weren't more sensitive," and blah blah blah.
04:47-04:49
It's a Halloween decoration.
04:49-04:53
And really, a guy looking in a window, that's where we're offended, with Halloween decorations?
04:53-04:56
The flaming demon skull didn't offend us, right?
04:57-05:00
The toy bloody chainsaws didn't offend us.
05:00-05:04
And, you know, we're offended at a...
05:04-05:06
It's just... it's lunacy!
05:07-05:10
how easily we're offended by everything.
05:10-05:13
And it's like we're just looking for something to be offended.
05:13-05:24
You know, let me get on CNN.com, let me turn on the TV, let me get on Facebook, and see who's going to post something that's going to offend me.
05:25-05:30
And speaking of Facebook, I think that's a big reason why there's so much being offended.
05:31-05:34
It's because in our day of social media, everyone has a voice.
05:35-05:43
Everyone has a voice, and we like to throw our opinion into the ring and just look for ways to be offended.
05:45-05:46
Here's how bad it is.
05:46-05:56
As I was working on this message and thinking about this introduction, I thought, "You know, somebody's going to be offended by this." And then I thought to myself, "That's exactly proving my point.
05:57-05:59
I can't talk about being offended without somebody being offended.
05:59-06:05
There's somebody right now sitting here, right now, somebody's sitting here going, I can't believe he's saying this stuff. I'm offended.
06:05-06:08
And to you I lovingly say, that's the problem.
06:09-06:10
Why are we so offended by everything?
06:12-06:13
Brush it off.
06:15-06:17
In 15 minutes, it's not going to matter.
06:20-06:21
But I want to talk about attitudes today.
06:22-06:24
Because if the church, if the early church...
06:24-06:25
Now some of you have been with us through this.
06:26-06:28
We went through Acts 1-12 last year.
06:28-06:34
But I want you to imagine, Imagine if the early church adopted this thin-skin attitude.
06:36-06:38
How far would the church have advanced?
06:40-06:41
The church would not have made it out of Jerusalem.
06:42-06:54
If the early apostles, the early disciples were so offended by everything, "Can you believe what they said to us? Can you believe what they said about us?" And they would not have made it out of Jerusalem.
06:56-06:58
What attitudes did they have?
06:58-07:02
That's what we're going to see in this passage.
07:03-07:12
The attitudes that these early believers - the early church - obviously, as we've been talking, we've talked about this for a whole year, it's the power of the Holy Spirit.
07:12-07:15
I am not ignoring that or minimizing that whatsoever.
07:15-07:20
But I believe that these attitudes also are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
07:20-07:27
The reason that these people could have these attitudes because they had a Holy Spirit-empowered faith.
07:27-07:44
So if the church is going to be unstoppable, I want to simply look today at the attitudes they had and what attitudes we should embrace to see the church continue to be unstoppable.
07:45-07:46
Okay, are you nice and offended?
07:49-07:50
If not, just wait, we'll get to you.
07:51-07:54
Three attitudes of faithful Christians.
07:55-07:55
Three attitudes.
07:55-07:59
You're going to see these very clearly in the text, but I want you to jot some things down.
08:01-08:01
This is an attitude.
08:01-08:05
As we look through these things, you need to be asking yourself, "Do I have this attitude?
08:05-08:08
Have I embraced this attitude?" The first one is longevity.
08:09-08:09
Longevity.
08:10-08:13
I'm in this for the long haul.
08:14-08:15
How are you doing there?
08:16-08:17
Look at verses 1-4 with me.
08:17-08:18
Acts 14.
08:19-08:26
It says, "Now at Iconium, together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.
08:28-08:35
But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
08:36-08:38
In other words, they were offended.
08:39-08:41
These Jews were offended with all this Jesus talk.
08:43-08:46
So they remained for a long time, the apostles.
08:47-08:48
So they remained for a long time.
08:49-09:01
speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." We've talked about this several times.
09:01-09:11
The apostles had special spiritual gifts as God was authenticating His message of the new covenant in Jesus Christ through them.
09:13-09:15
First forces, but the people of the city were divided.
09:16-09:18
That was like the whole sermon last week, right?
09:19-09:20
Some sided with the Jews.
09:21-09:23
Some with the apostles.
09:24-09:25
Let's pause here for a second.
09:25-09:27
Longevity. I'm in this for the long haul.
09:29-09:30
First of all, it says they went to Iconium.
09:30-09:35
That was a place 80 miles southeast of Antioch and Pisidia.
09:38-09:40
And the same problems that we saw in chapter 13.
09:41-09:45
Jealous Jews caused problems which divided the people.
09:45-09:48
How specifically did they cause the problems?
09:48-09:51
in verse 2, it says they poisoned their minds.
09:53-09:57
You see, they're people that - they don't just reject the Gospel.
10:00-10:02
They also do not adopt this live and let live attitude.
10:03-10:08
Like you know what, you believe in Jesus, good for you, I don't, so you do your thing, I'll do mine.
10:08-10:10
They don't just do this live and let live thing, right?
10:12-10:16
It's, oh, you believe in Jesus and you're telling other people about Jesus.
10:16-10:19
Well, I'm going to tell the other people some different things.
10:20-10:25
I'm going to keep them from embracing your religion.
10:27-10:32
Our culture is constantly poisoning our minds.
10:34-10:48
It's like every time you get on the internet, or every time you turn on the television, It's like taking that syringe and drawing a vial of poison and injecting it into your minds.
10:49-10:53
We are constantly bombarded with toxic immorality in our culture.
10:54-10:59
Everything from the celebration of sexual sin.
11:00-11:04
Things like calling sin, sin is hate speech.
11:06-11:09
abortion is about women's rights.
11:10-11:12
The church and Christianity is obsolete.
11:15-11:26
In our day of everyone getting offended by everything as a church, the temptation - and a lot of churches go this way - we want to back it off a bit.
11:27-11:27
Don't offend.
11:29-11:30
Okay, here's a way we won't offend.
11:30-11:34
We can get people to come and we'll be nice, but there's two things we won't talk about.
11:35-12:02
not talk about sin because we don't want anybody to feel bad and also let's not talk too much about Jesus because then we'll be considered a little too radical you know we've all those Jesus people so if we can just talk about God in this like Hallmark sense like this you know loving grandpa and you know I love you and God loves you and we're a happy family and you know that Barney song we'll kind of sing that in church.
12:04-12:10
The problem with doing that, minds are still getting poisoned.
12:12-12:12
We're not helping.
12:13-12:15
We're not helping when we back it off.
12:16-12:16
What's the solution?
12:18-12:19
What's the solution?
12:19-12:22
Making disciples can be messy business.
12:24-12:31
The very mission of our church is to make disciples, That's a hard and messy business.
12:32-12:33
What do you mean by that, Pastor Jeff?
12:33-12:41
What I mean is, anybody that's in church leadership can tell you, just when you think someone's getting it, they take two steps back.
12:43-12:43
It's frustrating.
12:44-12:49
That's why so many pastors only stay in a church for a couple of years and then move on to the next place.
12:50-12:54
I'll just take my, you know, 20 good sermons and I'll preach them at the next church.
12:54-12:55
And then they move on.
12:56-12:59
is making disciples is messy and hard.
12:59-13:01
I'll just pack up, I'll move on to the next church.
13:01-13:03
I'll just pack up, I'll move on to the next city.
13:03-13:04
It's frustrating.
13:05-13:10
And I'm constantly fighting against this culture poisoning people's minds.
13:13-13:15
What's the solution? Look at verse 3.
13:17-13:25
Because of this ministry, this disciple-making they were trying to do, because these unbelieving Jews "You're poisoning minds. What's the solution?
13:27-13:35
Let's leave?" No, verse 3 says, "So they remained for a long time." That's the longevity.
13:36-13:40
See, it's saying I'm not just going to throw the towel in when things start getting hard.
13:41-13:41
Okay?
13:43-13:47
Yeah, maybe I should feel offended about some things that are happening, but I'm not going to.
13:49-13:50
I'm going to stick with it.
13:51-13:55
I'm going to keep investing in people.
13:56-13:57
Investing in what?
13:57-13:59
Well, it's in verse 3, next phrase.
13:59-14:01
Speaking boldly for the Lord.
14:03-14:04
I've heard this sermon before.
14:05-14:06
You're going to hear it again.
14:08-14:11
You talked about Jesus last week, and we're going to talk about Him this week.
14:12-14:14
Guess what we're going to talk about if you come next week?
14:15-14:16
Any guesses? Jesus.
14:17-14:17
Why?
14:19-14:23
Because discipleship, Disciple-making takes time.
14:23-14:25
It takes time and it takes consistency.
14:26-14:29
And it takes continually preaching boldly for the Lord.
14:30-14:31
It takes longevity.
14:31-14:33
And we see these early disciples had that.
14:34-14:37
That's why we go verse by verse through the Bible.
14:37-14:38
That's why we do that.
14:39-14:43
That's why I don't flip through and say, oh, here's a cute little passage.
14:43-14:48
I'll just share something about this and maybe show a picture of a puppy on the screen and everybody will leave happy.
14:49-15:01
It takes time and work to go through the Bible and say verse by verse, this is what the Holy Spirit inspired people to write, so we're going to go through it and seek to understand that it takes time and it's work.
15:03-15:08
That's why we dig deep in small groups, asking questions, getting deeper into the passage.
15:08-15:11
That's why we pray so much.
15:13-15:22
Just as these early apostles stayed For the new believers' sake, speaking boldly for the Lord, that's our solution.
15:24-15:34
In our day of minds being poisoned, we have zero intention of backing off the Gospel message.
15:35-15:37
We have zero intention of doing that.
15:38-15:40
Instead, we're going to ratchet it up twice as hard.
15:43-15:44
Longevity. Why?
15:44-15:46
Because it's easy to pack up.
15:48-15:53
It's easy to pack up, but longevity says, "I'm in this for the long haul." You have that attitude?
15:54-15:55
Is that your attitude?
15:55-15:56
"I'm going to stick with it.
15:56-15:57
I'm going to stick with it.
15:57-15:58
I'm not going to give up.
15:58-16:01
Yeah, last week was a rough week, but this is a new week.
16:01-16:06
We're going after it twice as hard this week." Second attitude I want you to see is tenacity.
16:06-16:07
Tenacity.
16:08-16:24
"I'm in this no matter what." Longevity says, "I'm in this for the time commitment." Longevity says, "I'm in this no matter what gets thrown at me." Look at verses 5-7 with me.
16:25-16:45
It says, "When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, into the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the Gospel.
16:46-16:47
Let's pause there for a second.
16:47-16:48
It says that they fled.
16:48-16:50
Now, this wasn't cowardice.
16:51-16:56
You're like, in light of everything you said in the first point, Pastor Jeff, why did they flee?
16:57-17:01
This isn't cowardice, because if they were cowards, they would have left a long time ago.
17:01-17:02
The Bible's very clear.
17:02-17:03
They stayed a long time.
17:04-17:08
Cowardice is, as soon as I get wind of any kind of danger, I'm gone.
17:08-17:09
I quit.
17:11-17:14
The Bible tells us to fear not, but the Bible doesn't tell us to be stupid.
17:14-17:14
Okay?
17:16-17:26
Somebody was plotting their death, so they packed up and moved on after the work of laying the foundation of discipleship was done.
17:27-17:38
I also know that this wasn't cowardice, because if this was truly cowardice - think about it - if this was truly cowardice, if they were truly afraid, what would they have done next?
17:39-18:01
So I go and I preach the gospel and some people want to kill us and so I'm gonna move on to the next town and I'm Going to well reasoning would say well, I'm not gonna preach the gospel because every place else I've done that Hasn't gone over well with everyone. So, you know, I'll maybe at the next time I'll sell toothbrushes or something because this gospel thing seems to get me in trouble. But what does your Bible say?
18:02-18:09
What does it say in verse 7 when they moved on it says there they continued to preach the gospel It doesn't sound like cowardice to me.
18:12-18:14
They could have been afraid.
18:16-18:22
They could have been afraid after the previous "failures." Every time we preach the gospel, there's backlash.
18:23-18:26
That's what we've seen already in the first 13 chapters of the book of Acts.
18:27-18:29
Every time they preach the gospel, there's some kind of a backlash.
18:31-18:46
But tenacity says, "I'm going right back after the mission." I heard somebody say one time, when life drives you to your knees, you're in the perfect position to pray.
18:47-18:53
And I want to encourage you, church, are you experiencing setbacks in life?
18:54-18:58
Keep at it. You know, that guy you've been witnessing to at work?
19:00-19:06
Keep witnessing. That prayer that you've been praying, it doesn't seem like God's answered it yet, keep praying.
19:09-19:10
Are you tired?
19:12-19:13
Keep serving Christ.
19:15-19:22
Because you know, a lot of life, a lot of life, and I know, well, you could stand up here and give this sermon.
19:22-19:29
A lot of life, you're like that boxer in between rounds, sitting on the stool.
19:29-19:30
You know what I'm talking about?
19:30-19:32
Have you ever seen a boxing match or an MMA?
19:33-19:40
You know, in between rounds, you know, the bell rings and they bring that stool out and you see that guy sitting there who just got pummeled.
19:43-19:47
You think it ever crosses their minds, you know what, let's just call it a day.
19:48-19:49
Let's just quit.
19:50-19:50
I've had enough.
19:51-19:53
I don't want to get hit no more.
19:55-20:00
And you see a lot of life is like that for us spiritually, that we're in between rounds.
20:01-20:08
You got pummeled at work on Friday, and you know Monday, the bell's gonna ring and you're gonna get back in there and you're gonna get pummeled some more.
20:10-20:24
And that family member you've had a falling out with, you know, round three's coming, and we're sort of sitting on that bench in the corner, going, what am I gonna do?
20:26-20:27
Well, you have two choices.
20:27-20:28
You can quit.
20:30-20:33
You can quit, you can take the easy road and say, I'm done.
20:35-20:38
Or you can get up and get back in the ring and keep swinging.
20:40-20:42
Those are your choices.
20:43-20:46
Tenacity, because it's easy to quit.
20:46-20:51
And the longevity that we saw this early church have, the longevity requires tenacity.
20:54-21:01
Meaning this, if you're gonna fight for a long time, You better be willing to fight the whole time.
21:03-21:05
You can make a thousand excuses to quit.
21:06-21:07
You can make a thousand excuses to quit.
21:08-21:12
I've tried, I'm tired, they never listen, I'm sick of it.
21:15-21:20
You can make a thousand excuses to quit, and I'm going to give you one excuse not to quit.
21:21-21:22
I'm going to give you just one.
21:23-21:26
It's 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 58.
21:27-21:46
The Apostle Paul says, "Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." There's so much more I want to say about this, but this is actually the whole sermon for next week.
21:49-21:54
But just to cap it off by saying this, you know, it would be much easier to quit.
21:56-21:59
It would be much easier to just play it safe.
22:01-22:03
Let's not get too radical about Jesus.
22:03-22:04
Let's just sort of take a back seat.
22:05-22:09
Let's just back off of the enthusiasm and the urgency.
22:11-22:14
It would be much easier to quit.
22:16-22:18
But you know what the Bible says about where the easy road takes you, right?
22:20-22:20
Nowhere good.
22:22-22:23
So tenacity.
22:23-22:25
I'm in this no matter what.
22:26-22:29
And finally for today, humility.
22:31-22:32
Three attitudes of faithful Christians.
22:32-22:33
We've got longevity.
22:33-22:34
We've got tenacity.
22:35-22:37
And finally, we're going to see in this passage, humility.
22:37-22:39
I'm in this for God's glory.
22:41-22:42
I'm in this for God's glory.
22:45-22:50
Verse 8 says, "Now at Lyster there was a man sitting who could not use his feet.
22:52-22:56
was crippled from birth and had never walked.
22:59-23:00
I think things like this are kind of funny.
23:01-23:08
It's just me, like obviously under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke wrote the book of Acts, but you sort of see his personality coming out.
23:08-23:09
He was kind of a details guy.
23:10-23:12
Luke doesn't say, okay, so there's a lame man there.
23:13-23:17
He tells us three times in this passage that the guy was lame.
23:18-23:21
Like in case you missed it, he goes, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet.
23:22-23:23
and Luke's like, hmm.
23:24-23:27
Somebody might read this and think maybe he couldn't play soccer.
23:27-23:30
He was-- I know, he was crippled from birth.
23:33-23:35
Well, somebody might read that and think maybe he grew out of it.
23:35-23:36
OK.
23:36-23:37
He had never walked.
23:37-23:39
Obviously, he's trying to make a point.
23:39-23:40
This guy-- here's the point.
23:41-23:44
This guy was hopeless from the world's perspective.
23:44-23:44
He was hopeless.
23:46-23:49
Lame from birth, crippled, couldn't walk, never walked.
23:51-23:57
So as the disciples move on to Lystra, it says in verse 9, "He listened to Paul speaking.
23:58-24:26
And Paul, looking intently at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, 'Stand upright on your feet!' And he sprang up and began walking." Okay, he didn't get up like, you know, I get up off the couch, it's like a process, it takes me like five minutes from seated to standing position.
24:26-24:35
It says, "He sprang up and began walking." Now right here, we'll pause.
24:36-24:37
Does any of this sound familiar?
24:37-24:40
You're like, "Oh yeah, I know this sermon.
24:40-24:42
I've heard this sermon before.
24:42-24:45
Like Peter in Acts 3, remember the lame guy in Acts 3?
24:46-24:48
And Peter and John, and hey, can we get some money?
24:48-24:52
I'm not going to give you money, but in the name of Jesus Christ, walk." We know how this happens.
24:53-24:54
We've been going through Acts.
24:54-24:55
We've read the book of Acts.
24:55-24:56
We know how this happens.
24:57-25:07
Somebody gets saved, and then there's some preaching, and then people get mad, and then there's like a kerfuffle or whatever, and not this time.
25:08-25:09
Look at verse 11.
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And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" What?
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This just gets weird.
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First of all, Barnabas they called Zeus.
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And Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
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And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds." What?
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Okay, did not see that one coming.
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What is going on here?
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I actually read this from several sources.
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It kind of makes sense what was going on, There was a tradition.
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There was this sort of urban legend, this folktale that got passed down in Lystra many, many, many years ago.
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Zeus and Hermes came to Lystra and visited the people incognito.
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Zeus and Hermes were among the people and they were looking for a place to stay and nobody would take them in. Nobody would take them in until finally they found this dear sweet elderly couple that said you can come and stay with us. Well because everybody else in the town was so inhospitable, Zeus and Hermes drowned them all. Well according to one tradition, story kind of deviates, instead of drowning him, Hall. One tradition says that they turned them all into wolves.
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But that was the story, depending on who you ask. So now you can see why it might make a little sense to hear Paul and Barnabas come into town. The Lord performs a miracle through them and the people remember this story that's been attached to their city for generations about Zeus and Hermes and they're like "They're back! Zeus and Hermes are back!" And they're like, "Okay guys, let's not screw it up this time." You remember what happened last time they came, and we didn't give them the ticker tape parade?
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We all got turned into wolves.
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So, let's not mess it up this time.
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And to the point that they brought the pro in, verse 13, the priest of Zeus, they had a temple for Zeus, and he was bringing sacrifices and garlands, and like, "Hey, let's have a big sacrifice!" Well, Paul and Barnabas didn't catch on at first what was happening.
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Look at verse 14, it says, "But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out..." Pause here for a second.
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are going to preach the message.
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But what I want you to see here, take note.
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This sermon that they give is a different kind of message than the other sermons that we've seen in the book of Acts.
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And I need to explain to you why.
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Other sermons that we've seen, we've seen these Jewish men going to Jewish people in the Jewish synagogue and giving a Jewish sermon.
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And they talk about the Old Testament.
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You know, the Old Testament.
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They had that foundation.
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Do you remember God promised a Messiah through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob?
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Remember God promised Moses, I'll raise up a prophet from among you?
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Just like you remember David, you know, one of your descendants is always gonna be on the throne.
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They had this whole Jewish history and Jewish culture and Jewish people who understood the Jewish scriptures.
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But this sermon is really different from the other sermons that they preached.
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I want you to see how they preach.
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I'm going to break it down a little bit here.
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Verse 15.
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"Men, why are you doing these things?
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We also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God." Pause there for a second.
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The first thing they say, "We've got good news for you.
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You need to turn from the vain things.
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That's repentance.
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Meaning, you need to stop the silly idol worship.
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Notice how he phrased it.
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He called them "vain things." He goes, do you realize the things that you worship are just completely empty?
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They're meaningless. Do you realize that?
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And we today live in the same kind of culture where people are constantly worshiping empty things.
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People worshiping the love of money.
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Another idol today - lust.
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Pornography.
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These are things that people put so much time and effort and energy - it's worship, people.
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It occupies their minds.
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It occupies their thoughts.
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It's a permanent resident in their hearts.
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It's idol worship.
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Let me ask you, just talking about lust and pornography, since we're not worried about people being offended today, but where has that ever gotten anybody?
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Is there anybody that has the testimony that can say, it's-- pornography's made my life so much better.
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It's made my life so much freer.
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And I'm so thankful to be able to worship at the altar of pornography.
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No.
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It destroys lives, it destroys homes, it costs people jobs, it costs people their reputation.
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That's why there's a turn from these vain things. Why are you worshipping that?
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It's stupid! It's sinful and it's not going to get you anywhere.
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Turn from the vain things.
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Look at the next part of their message.
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He launches right into a creation message.
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It's just about turning to a living God, as opposed to your dead gods, non-existing gods.
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There is a living God.
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There's one living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
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Satan has bombarded our culture today with evolutionary thinking.
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It's taught in schools, it's taught in movies, and it's always, always, always - everybody say always presented as science, right? Evolution is always presented as science.
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The molecules to man idea of evolution. By the way, we talk about evolution. Do I believe in evolution? Yeah, evolution just means change, right? Things change. Do I believe in molecule to man evolution? Absolutely not. That's a specific thing. That's called macroevolution. It teaches that once upon a time there was like this amino acid that became a protein that became a cell that became a fish, that became a dinosaur, that became a bird, that became a monkey, that became a man kind of thing. That's macro evolution that over the course of millions and billions of years, through mutations and random processes, ta-da! Here we are.
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And it's so foolish. You can look at the design of creation and say there had to been a designer. You know, we've gotten a lot of compliments on these new banners.
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How many people are like, are a huge fan of these banners? And the answer is all of you.
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True or false? But I've had several people say, like, where did those banners come from?
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Those are fantastic. And I tell them, you know what, Mike Gates, when he was packing up, he accidentally dropped a bucket of red and black paint on our old ones, and it formed this picture and Darren's like go with it.
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How many people would believe that?
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That's foolishness, right?
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Do you realize how intricately complex every single cell of your body is?
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Do you realize?
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Every single cell of your body is more complex than any machine that the greatest minds in the world can create.
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And these cells in your body, Not only are they complex, they have the ability to replicate themselves.
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If somebody looks at the cells and they're like, "Oh, that just happened by chance over millions of years." Foolishness.
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Infinitely more foolish than believing that a jar of paint fella made that banner.
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By the way, in case you're asking, Darren made those banners. He designed them and I think they're fantastic.
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But they were designed, that's the point.
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Design demands a designer.
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And that's where Paul started his preaching here.
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And that's where we need to start our preaching in the church, because our kids are constantly...
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I learned it in high school, I don't know about where you went to high school, but I remember in high school sitting learning the evolutionary chart, and here's how we came from the ape-like ancestors and whatever.
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Notice, next thing in the sermon from Paul.
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He says, "In past generations, He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
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Yet, He did not leave Himself without a witness." Meaning God, even though nations went their own ways and God permitted that for a season, God was still revealing Himself. How? Look at this.
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"For He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
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God revealed His goodness through provision.
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Even people that have never been to church, never cracked the spine of a Bible, they automatically know some things about God.
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They know that God is a giver of good gifts.
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They know that.
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That's inherently in us.
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That somebody's looking out for me.
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I know atheists that have children.
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And they're like, "Oh, what a precious gift." They're like, "Well, if there is no God, what you have is this product of evolution." Right? This purposeless life.
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But there's something in you that says, "No, no, no, no, no. This is a beautiful gift from God." God's given witness.
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Any goodness that you enjoy in life, you know deep down in your heart, you know that you are being provided for by God.
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But see how Paul and Barnabas, when they gave this sermon, they didn't give church talk, okay?
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They didn't give the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob talk.
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They didn't talk about Old Testament sacrifices.
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They didn't even launch into the Old Testament law.
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They talked about creation.
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They talked, first of all, you have to reckon with the idea that there is a God.
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But let's be honest here for a second.
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After all the hatred, after all the attacks, after all the hecklers, after all the revilers, after all the murder attempts, would you agree with me that maybe, just maybe, just maybe Paul and Barnabas at this point in their ministry took a big breath and thought, "This is a nice change of pace." I mean, everywhere else we've gone, they've tried to kill us.
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Here, they want to offer sacrifices to us.
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They want to call us gods.
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I could get used to this.
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This is different.
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This is nice.
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But they didn't do that.
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They deflected the glory that was being sent towards them, saying, "No, no, no, no, no.
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Do not worship us because we are just people.
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We are just people.
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God will not share His glory with anyone else.
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And He's pretty clear about that.
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Remember we talked about Herod back in Acts 12?
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And Herod tried to take some glory for himself?
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What did God do with him?
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Remember that story?
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Eaten by worms.
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As soon as he wanted people to worship him, as soon as he in his pride exalted himself, and literally became worm food.
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There's a real danger in churches when we have celebrity pastors.
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I'm not pointing anybody out.
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I'm not going to mention names.
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I just want you to think of this objectively, would you?
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There's a danger in the church when you have a celebrity pastor and the church becomes a cult of personality People are drawn to the church by the character that the pastor portrays on the platform.
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And it's easy to do.
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I mean, you put on your nice clothes, you stand up in front of people, and you share the Word of God, and in people's eyes, "Wow, look at this guy.
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He's got his act together and he knows the Bible, and he's spiffy." I wouldn't even have time if I was going to start listing people that I know and the ones we've seen in the news over the past few years of pastors who have been wrongly exalted to that status and then have fallen.
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Please hear me. Please hear me.
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I'm not pointing the fingers at the pastor because that could be me.
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the grace of God. I'm not pointing fingers at the pastors, but I want you as a church to understand what a danger it is to make the pastor feel that way. Now don't get this idea, "Oh, I heard what you say, Pastor Jeff, so I'm going to treat you like dirt, keep you humble." Don't do that either, okay? But you understand there's so much pressure put on the pastor. It doesn't matter how good last week's sermon was. And there's this fleshly temptation to say, "Well, I gotta try to make this sermon for this week even better, because I need people to like me." And you're looked at as the Bible authority, and you're looked at as the counselor and the expert in all things, and it's hard for the pastor to reject that, because people are counting on you, right?
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Like, I have to be what they need me to be.
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And so you adopt this mentality of being the superstar.
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Too much is put on the pastor.
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And then when the pastor falls, like I said, we've seen it.
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You can Google it.
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Pastors running around with prostitutes and pastors embezzling money.
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The church is devastated.
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Why? Because their God has proven to be human.
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Celebrity pastors, we need to pray for those people.
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Because in many cases, they don't want the celebrity status.
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And I think what we see from Paul and Barnabas here for sure is a great humility.
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And this humility comes from having a worldview that's rooted in reality.
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He is God and I am not.
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Humility because it's easy to receive praise.
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It's easy to receive praise.
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I don't know, just be honest with you 'cause you're not worshiping me.
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I read this story and I'm like, I don't know, maybe if I was Barnabas, I would have let that ride for a few days.
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Seen how far this thinking I'm a God thing would have gotten me.
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Maybe put me up in a nice room for a week.
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You guys aren't laughing, I'm kidding.
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Oh no, we don't joke about this, pastors.
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It's easy to receive praise, is my point.
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That's the easy part.
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But what they did here, rejecting the praise, rejecting the adoration, that might have been even harder for them than dealing with the people who were trying to kill them.
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Here's the point of the whole passage.
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one statement, don't be discouraged by opposition and don't be lured in by praise.
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As we evaluate church and ministry, I need to remind myself, you need to remind yourself that people hating you isn't failure, that people loving you isn't success either.
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going to be hard, but your attitude now will determine your testimony later.
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May we be found faithful by carrying an attitude with these three things.
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Longevity.
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Are you in this for the long haul?
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Are you in this for the long haul?
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Tenacity.
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Are you in this no matter what?
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How easily offended are you?
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Humility.
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I'm in this for God's glory.
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Are you more concerned with what people think about you?
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Or are you more concerned with what people think about the Lord?
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That's correct.
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Father in heaven, I thank you so much for the testimony that we have in these early Father, today I simply want to pray for our attitude.
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So often we pray for maybe a hardship that we're going through, that you would take it away.
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We pray for finances.
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We pray for people.
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Today, Father, I want to pray specifically for our attitudes.
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I want to pray for this church, Father, that we would adopt an attitude of longevity.
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that we are committed to making disciples, and nobody told us it was going to be easy.
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Father, I pray for tenacity.
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We're going to talk a lot about that next week.
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It's just so easy to throw in the towel, to quit, to give up.
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It's too hard.
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And not only do I not want to have a mindset of sticking with it for time, I want to... I'd just like to quit now.
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Father, through it all we know it has to come from humility.
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It has to be humility, Father. We have to understand that we are nothing.
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We are nothing apart from You.
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The only good in us is You.
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The only life in us is You.
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The only thing we have to offer anyone is what You've entrusted to give to us anyways.
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I pray, Father, for great humility.
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I pray specifically for our leadership, Father.
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We have leaders here, some of whom are going to Harvest University this week.
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But I pray, Father, for myself, for my brothers and sisters that are shouldering the weight of ministry in this church.
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For them, Father, I pray longevity, and tenacity, and humility.
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We know that your church is unstoppable, Father.
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We need you to empower us to embrace these attitudes.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 14:1-18
In what ways are people’s minds "poisoned" (Acts 14:2)? How do we combat the poisoning of minds (Acts 14:3)?
How do you know when to keep witnessing (Acts 14:3) and when to flee (Acts 14:6)
How do you see ministers "worshiped" today? What are the dangers of exalting a "celebrity pastor"? How did Paul and Barnabas react when they were worshiped (Acts 14:14)? Why is humility such an important trait for people serving in church leadership
(Bonus questions!) Break down Paul and Barnabas’ sermon in Acts 14:15-17. What subjects did they address? How is it different than Paul's sermon in Acts 13:16-41? Why did they take a completely different approach to the people of Lystra? What does this say about the way we should view evangelism?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another to have longevity, tenacity, and humility.
