Unstoppable Unity - Part 2

Review:

Prov 24:16

For the Love of Unity:

  1. Avoid offending people. (Acts 15:19-29)

  2. 1 Corinthians 10:32 - - Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God...


    Quick Test: If you answer NO, then NO, don’t do it, don’t say it, don’t post it on Facebook!

    1. Is this respectful towards their opinion?

    2. Romans 14:1 - - As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.


    3. Is this motivated by love?

    4. Romans 14:15 - - For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.


    5. Will this bring peace and encouragement?

    6. Romans 14:19 - - So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.


  1. Celebrate Salvation. (Acts 15:30-31)


  2. Be an Encourager. (Acts 15:32-35)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:03

    Open your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts in chapter 15.

    00:05-00:08

    If you're visiting with us, we've been going through the book of Acts.

    00:09-00:14

    And I want to get you caught up on where we have gone so far.

    00:15-00:32

    In Acts chapters 1 through 12, we saw that Jesus had promised, clear back in the beginning, Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses." And really that verse serves as the foundation for the entire book of Acts.

    00:32-00:35

    It serves as the basis of why we're here doing what we're doing today.

    00:36-00:42

    You know, that we were given the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might be witnesses for Christ.

    00:46-00:51

    We started this year, kicking off the ministry year, with Acts chapter 13 and 14.

    00:51-00:56

    We followed the amazing story of Paul and Barnabas and Mark on a mission trip.

    00:56-01:00

    And then we saw they got back just in time for an attack on the church.

    01:01-01:07

    But there were people that claimed you had to obey the Old Testament law in order to be saved.

    01:09-01:10

    Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem.

    01:10-01:15

    They had a big church meeting with the apostles to settle the issue once and for all.

    01:15-01:16

    We talked about this last week.

    01:17-01:22

    Their verdict was salvation is through the grace of Jesus Christ alone.

    01:23-01:29

    that keeping the rules and the rituals of the law are not required for salvation.

    01:31-01:46

    You know, sometimes I read the Bible and I think, "What does that mean for me today, and how can I apply this to everyday life?" Or, "What does this look like in the context of where I live now?" And sometimes it's just so obvious.

    01:48-01:50

    In this passage we looked at last week, you remember?

    01:50-02:03

    These Gentiles were saved and then all of a sudden these people came down and said, "Unless you're circumcised, you aren't saved." And all of a sudden they're like, "Well, am I really saved or am I not saved?" And it turned into a big thing at the church.

    02:04-02:06

    And that stuff still happens.

    02:07-02:15

    Several years ago, I was at this big meeting at this church camp that included a bunch of different churches.

    02:16-02:38

    And our church, at one of our weeks of camp, one of the counselors had a kid approach and say, "Hey, what do I have to do to get saved?" And the counselor said something like, "Well, you have to believe in Jesus Christ and ask Jesus into your heart." Well, at this meeting, some people, some officers of the camp were outraged.

    02:39-02:46

    They said, "You told that kid all they needed to do was receive Jesus, and you didn't mention anything about baptism.

    02:46-02:53

    And it turned into this thing where there was name calling and fighting and like one guy got fired.

    02:53-03:03

    And it was just, and I'm sitting in this meeting going, could you imagine if like some unsaved person like walked in the room and thought, this is the church.

    03:04-03:05

    These are the churches.

    03:06-03:09

    Oh, this is what you want me to come and be a part of.

    03:10-03:11

    It was, you guys are on the same team.

    03:12-03:14

    It was disgusting.

    03:16-03:20

    And I told the camp president as much immediately after the meeting.

    03:20-03:28

    I said, "There needs to be some massive repentance happening here." I said, "What about this meeting was Christian? Do you see the irony here?

    03:28-03:30

    We're called to love one another.

    03:30-03:34

    We're called to show the world that we belong to Jesus by the way we love one another.

    03:35-03:36

    And this is how we conduct business.

    03:38-04:07

    Shameful. Shameful." this horrible story, Pastor Jeff. The reason I'm telling you this, it was the exact same situation in Acts. You had these people coming along saying, "You can't be saved unless you keep the rules, unless you do this." And you, you know what I believe about baptism. It is, it's an important act of obedience. It's a reflection of what Christ has done in your heart. But baptism does not save you.

    04:07-04:11

    Okay? But this narrative plays over and over.

    04:11-04:15

    Somebody's going to come along and tell you that Jesus isn't enough.

    04:16-04:19

    If you want to go to heaven, if you want to be saved, you have to keep my rules.

    04:22-04:24

    And it destroys unity in the church.

    04:26-04:30

    So for the love of unity, if you have an outline, I want you to jot some things down this morning.

    04:30-04:32

    This is part two of our message from last week.

    04:32-04:35

    If you missed last week's, it's available on our website.

    04:36-04:42

    But if we're going to have unity in the church, for the love of unity, number one, I want you to write this down.

    04:44-04:47

    Don't you want this church to be unified? I do.

    04:48-04:53

    Don't you want our church to have a unified relationship with other churches in our community?

    04:54-04:56

    What a blessing it is for me to see.

    04:57-05:03

    Ken Chevalier is here with us today on vacation from Northway, and he just came to worship with us. What a blessing that is.

    05:04-05:10

    What a blessing that church has been to me and to Harvest Bible Chapel and how many people we've baptized with them up there.

    05:10-05:14

    But what a blessing to have our brother from Northway worshiping with us today.

    05:15-05:18

    How many people love unity? All in favor of unity?

    05:19-05:21

    Okay, so you have to have a part in that.

    05:22-05:24

    So how do I do it? What's my part?

    05:24-05:25

    Number one, I want you to write this down.

    05:26-05:27

    Avoid offending people.

    05:28-05:34

    Picking up from where we left off last week, James, the half-brother of Jesus, is still speaking here.

    05:34-05:35

    Look at verse 19.

    05:37-05:43

    They already said, "Look, you don't have to keep the Old Testament law to be saved." We gave all the reasons for why last week.

    05:44-05:45

    Now we're getting to the nitty-gritty here.

    05:45-06:06

    James says, "Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.

    06:08-06:14

    For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him.

    06:14-06:17

    For he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues.

    06:19-06:45

    "Then it seemed good to the apostles and elders "with the whole church to choose men from among them "and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas." Remember, Antioch is where this problem started, where the people said, "You're gonna get circumcised "to be saved," and the whole thing started, and they sent the representatives down, Paul and Barnabas, "Let's get an answer." They're like, "We need to send the answer back." You with me?

    06:45-06:54

    It says, "They sent Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers." With the following letter.

    06:58-07:14

    "The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia." Okay, Syria and Cilicia were part of a Roman district and Antioch was the capital of the district.

    07:15-07:28

    In other words, if this letter were being written today to our geographical area, it would say something like, to the brothers in Pittsburgh and Allegheny and Beaver counties, same kind of thing, all right?

    07:29-07:56

    Greetings, since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, It is seem good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    07:57-08:03

    We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.

    08:04-08:12

    For it seem good to the Holy Spirit and to us To lay on you no greater burden than these requirements.

    08:13-08:24

    You abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality.

    08:25-08:29

    If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

    08:31-08:33

    Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, stop, stop, stop, stop.

    08:34-08:34

    Hang on.

    08:35-08:38

    Okay, so last week for 35 minutes, We timed it.

    08:39-08:43

    Pastor Jeff, you stood up and told us that keeping the rules doesn't save anyone.

    08:43-08:44

    That's true.

    08:44-08:44

    You're like, okay.

    08:46-08:48

    Then why did they just like give them a bunch of rules?

    08:48-08:50

    Like what's up with that, right?

    08:50-08:52

    Like they're like, you don't need rules to get saved.

    08:52-08:54

    And then they gave a bunch of rules.

    08:56-08:58

    Listen, listen very closely or you'll miss it.

    08:59-09:01

    This is not a salvation issue.

    09:02-09:03

    Look at verse 29 again.

    09:04-09:07

    He says, if you keep yourselves from these, and we're gonna talk about the rules.

    09:07-09:11

    He says, "If you keep yourselves from these, you will..." What?

    09:11-09:12

    What does your Bible say?

    09:13-09:16

    "You will do well." Does it say, "You will be saved"?

    09:17-09:19

    Does it say, "You will go to heaven"?

    09:19-09:21

    Does it say, "Your sins will be forgiven"?

    09:21-09:26

    He says, "You'll do well. These are good things for you to do." This is not a salvation issue.

    09:27-09:28

    This is about fellowship.

    09:29-09:30

    This is about unity.

    09:30-09:31

    Listen closely.

    09:32-09:51

    This is about Gentiles keeping credibility with Jewish non-believers and keeping unity with Jewish believers who lived their whole lives under the law before receiving Jesus Christ.

    09:51-09:55

    In other words, this was the verdict.

    09:56-10:00

    Jews, don't trouble the Gentiles with your legalism.

    10:01-10:03

    Okay, you grew up in a very ritualistic mindset.

    10:03-10:06

    Don't trouble the Gentiles with your legalism.

    10:06-10:17

    But then they turn around and say, "Listen, on the other hand, Gentiles, don't trouble the Jews with your freedom." You see that?

    10:18-10:20

    Why? Because it's about unity.

    10:21-10:26

    The problem was the church was about to be doctrinally and racially divided.

    10:30-10:43

    See, these Gentiles would have come out of idolatry, and the things on this list that he gives, these are things associated with idolatry that obviously would have troubled the Jews because of their upbringing in the law.

    10:45-11:00

    So the point in this letter is saying Gentiles avoid anything connected to idolatry that might offend the Jews, believing and non-believing for the sake of unity and for the sake of evangelism.

    11:02-11:06

    That make sense? Okay, what things? Oh, there's four areas.

    11:07-11:09

    Jot these down. I'm going to go through these quickly.

    11:10-11:23

    The first thing, things polluted by idols. Things polluted by idols. That was a huge New Testament times issue. You can read about this Romans chapter 14, 1 Corinthians chapters 8-10.

    11:24-11:24

    Big issue.

    11:26-11:27

    What was going on here?

    11:27-11:31

    There were animals that were sacrificed to idols.

    11:32-11:35

    And then they would take the meat from that animal and sell it in the marketplace.

    11:36-11:39

    And you can understand why that was such a big issue for the church, right?

    11:40-11:44

    Because you have some people in the church that were like, "Don't touch that meat.

    11:44-11:46

    That meat was sacrificed to the idol.

    11:47-11:50

    We as a church should have nothing to do with that meat." Right?

    11:51-11:58

    But then you'd have people on the other side that were like, a hamburger's a hamburger, right?

    11:59-12:01

    A boogeyman doesn't live in the burger.

    12:02-12:06

    I'm not scared that I'm going to have a demon go in my belly when I eat the burger.

    12:06-12:07

    It's just me.

    12:08-12:08

    It's just me.

    12:08-12:09

    What's the idol?

    12:09-12:10

    The idol's nothing.

    12:10-12:11

    The idol's nothing.

    12:11-12:12

    It doesn't matter if you eat the meat.

    12:13-12:15

    So then you'd have the people, you can't eat that.

    12:15-12:16

    That was sacrifice.

    12:16-12:17

    It's just a burger.

    12:17-12:19

    There is this whole big thing, right?

    12:20-12:22

    And so much of the New Testament addresses that issue.

    12:22-12:24

    Like, how should you handle that?

    12:26-12:27

    We'll talk about that in a second.

    12:29-12:36

    Second thing, fornication, in particular in this context, it was very much a part of pagan worship.

    12:36-12:42

    They had temple priestesses that were actually prostitutes.

    12:43-12:46

    Again, something very much tied to their old way of living.

    12:49-12:54

    And the apostles were like, "Yeah, stay away from that.

    12:55-13:15

    Everybody thinks it's a good idea? Yeah, I think it's a good idea." And then numbers 3 and 4 on the list, he talks about things strangled and blood, again, part of the idolatry, but something else that would have really troubled the Jews, especially because of their dietary laws.

    13:15-13:18

    just jot down Leviticus 17 talks about that.

    13:19-13:21

    We saw what a huge issue that was.

    13:21-13:27

    Remember in Acts chapter 10, the Lord says to Peter, "Kill and eat." And Peter's like, "Absolutely not, Lord.

    13:27-13:29

    No way, never will I eat anything unclean.

    13:29-13:36

    I never have in my life. I never will." That was just so ingrained to them that there's things that you just don't eat.

    13:37-13:39

    And even for Peter, it was an issue.

    13:40-13:56

    This whole dietary thing, they're like, just things strangled, blood, stay away from that. You know, about a month or so ago, in a message, we discussed people being offended by everything.

    13:56-14:13

    You remember that? We live in a day that people are offended by everything, whether it's political or, you know, the silly flag on the roof of the Dukes of Hazzard card. You remember that whole thing? That was a whole thing for like 15 minutes, like country divided over the Dukes of Hazzard.

    14:13-14:15

    Those were some strange times.

    14:15-14:17

    The people are offended by everything.

    14:18-14:19

    And it's true.

    14:21-14:24

    We shouldn't be people that are offended, really, by anything.

    14:26-14:30

    We should expect wickedness and offense and evil from the world.

    14:30-14:32

    We shouldn't be people that are caught up in all these offenses.

    14:33-14:34

    But here's the point today.

    14:35-14:39

    nor should we be intentionally offensive people.

    14:41-14:48

    In other words, people are going to be offended, but that doesn't mean they have to be offended by me.

    14:50-14:52

    Now there is a natural offense in the gospel.

    14:52-14:53

    You can't get around that.

    14:54-14:58

    It's offensive when you tell people, hey, look, you know what, you're a sinner by birth and by choice.

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    And we all are.

    14:59-15:01

    There's an offense to that.

    15:03-15:03

    That's going to happen.

    15:04-15:18

    But, but listen church, if people are offended by you over a conviction matter, over a non-salvation matter, they're not going to hear you when you try to witness to them.

    15:20-15:21

    And some people have said it.

    15:23-15:26

    "I don't care who I offend." How many people have heard people say that?

    15:26-15:29

    "I don't care who I offend." You've heard people say that?

    15:32-15:37

    I'm telling you this with as much love as I can muster, that that is an extremely immature attitude.

    15:37-15:40

    It just is. It's immature.

    15:40-15:42

    "I don't care who I offend." Really?

    15:45-15:58

    So you're willing to risk an opportunity to witness the gospel of Jesus Christ to someone because you want to stand up for some minor or silly issue?

    15:58-16:00

    Is it worth losing your witness?

    16:01-16:04

    Is it worth losing that person's ear? Is it really worth it?

    16:06-16:17

    1 Corinthians 10.32 says, "Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God." Paul says, "You should always take the higher road.

    16:17-16:36

    You should always look at how can I not be offensive in other things so that I have the opportunity to share the gospel." If you're trying to evangelize and you're offending the person that you're trying to reach over some non-essential issue, they're not going to hear you.

    16:38-16:46

    If you're insisting on your freedom in some matter in the church, but you're offending somebody, you're eroding unity.

    16:48-16:50

    That's why I look at your text again. Look at verse 21.

    16:50-16:52

    This is kind of a weird verse.

    16:52-16:56

    I had to read through this a few times before I really got what he was saying.

    16:59-17:14

    He says, "For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues." What he's saying is, you're going to be witnessing to sensitive people with a long-standing tradition.

    17:15-17:16

    That's what he's saying.

    17:17-17:26

    Like this, "Moses and the Law of Moses." you're going to be going. There are people that have lived their entire lives from birth through decades of living. That's all they've ever known.

    17:27-17:48

    And these people are everywhere. Is it worth offending them? Is it worth offending them? Is it worth losing your chance to witness? And even some Christians, even though they are free in Christ, there are some Christians who You have a delicate conscience in matters that are tied to their upbringing.

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    I'll give you a couple examples.

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    Let's say you have some Catholic friends.

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    Let's say you have some Catholic friends who you know do not know the Lord.

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    And it's Lent.

    18:01-18:05

    And they want to get together on a Friday night, and you invite them over to your house.

    18:05-18:06

    Are you going to serve them meat?

    18:08-18:09

    No.

    18:10-18:11

    "But what are you talking about?

    18:12-18:13

    I can eat whatever I want.

    18:17-18:18

    But are you willing to offend them?

    18:19-18:20

    As soon as they walk in, like what do we have?

    18:20-18:21

    Like roast beef?

    18:23-18:24

    With a side of chicken?

    18:25-18:27

    We have hamburgers as an appetizer?

    18:29-18:29

    Really?

    18:31-18:41

    Or even somebody, maybe there's somebody in the church that just recently came to Christ from a very Catholic background and maybe that's still an area of sensitivity in their lives.

    18:41-18:44

    Like, I've never eaten meat on Friday during Lent.

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    Are you going to try to, like, force that on them?

    18:51-18:52

    Say, "Look, that's your old life.

    18:52-18:58

    You don't need to worry about that now." You willing to violate their conscience?

    19:00-19:05

    Instead of, as we all need, loved through the growth, right?

    19:06-19:11

    We're all in this process of growing in Christ, and some of us are at different places.

    19:12-19:14

    We need love through that.

    19:18-19:27

    Another example, let's say you're invited to a barbecue, and you know a lot of the people at the barbecue are part of a recovering addict group.

    19:29-19:31

    Are you going to show up with a case of beer?

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    They go, Pastor Jeff, I'm free in Christ.

    19:36-19:37

    I'm allowed to have a beer if I want.

    19:37-19:38

    That's true.

    19:38-19:43

    You can. You are not going to lose your salvation if you have a beer. That's absolutely true.

    19:44-19:50

    But is it worth offending those people whom you're trying to reach by showing up with a case of beer?

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    Is it worth it? Is the beer that good that you're willing to offend or violate somebody's conscience?

    19:59-20:03

    I don't think it is. I don't think it is.

    20:05-20:13

    Another example, as you know, last November, a group of us went to Thailand to do some mission work, and Barnabas was here speaking a couple weeks ago.

    20:14-20:15

    How incredible was that, right?

    20:17-20:21

    But before we went to Thailand, they said, "Hey, here's some things you've got to keep in mind.

    20:23-21:08

    One is you don't point at people with your feet, because they consider that extremely rude." Meaning like, you've got an armful of stuff, and like, "Well, who's the guy in charge?" Like, "Oh, that guy." you know you don't do that they consider that like extremely offensive and so they said don't put it people with your feet and they say when you go into somebody's house you take your shoes off and uh... they say you always eat what's put in front of you i was given a tip that i learned the hard way you have to eat slowly because if you're like really hungry and they put the food in front of you and you're like and you eat it all, as soon as it's empty, they fill it back up immediately.

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    So you have to eat slow, otherwise they're going to stuff you like a Thanksgiving turkey.

    21:14-21:21

    So when we went over there and they gave us these rules, they weren't like, you know, Jeff, understand that your salvation is in jeopardy if you violate the rules.

    21:22-21:23

    Why did they give us those rules?

    21:25-21:31

    They gave us these rules so that we wouldn't offend the very people that we're trying to reach.

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    And that's why these rules are given here.

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    So, when in doubt, I want you to jot a couple things down here.

    21:40-21:41

    We're going to have them on the screen.

    21:43-21:58

    When in doubt, if you're like, "Man, I..." Before you open your mouth, before you do something that you aren't sure if it's going to hinder your evangelism or hurt the conscience of a brother or sister in Christ, I'm just going to give you a quick test.

    21:58-21:59

    This is all from Scripture.

    22:01-22:14

    I'm going to give you three questions, and if you answer no to any of these questions, if you answer no to any of these questions, then no, don't do it, don't say it, don't post it on social media.

    22:14-22:17

    And I want to talk about that specifically because some of you are social media people.

    22:20-22:22

    You have opportunity to offend people on social media?

    22:24-22:27

    For some people, they do it like they get paid by the post.

    22:29-22:42

    "Oh, I can't wait to - all the people I'm going to offend with this!" And you find some political meme, "Oh, that's going to make some people mad!" Okay, what are you proving?

    22:43-22:48

    You know how to share a picture, great, but is it worth offending people you're trying to reach?

    22:50-22:52

    Sometimes I'm just not sure. I'm going to give you a test.

    22:52-22:55

    This is all from Scripture. It's all specifically from Romans 14.

    23:03-23:05

    We'll just talk about posts, right?

    23:06-23:07

    Like social media posts.

    23:07-23:10

    Is this respectful towards their opinion?

    23:11-23:14

    Is this post respectful towards other people's opinion?

    23:14-23:31

    Romans 14, 1 says, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." So, we're not going to be talking about Don't quarrel over opinions. Everybody's got opinions, okay?

    23:33-23:51

    And everybody who loves Donald Trump isn't an ignorant redneck, and everybody who voted for Hillary Clinton isn't a baby murderer, okay? It's a little more multi-layered than that, okay? But we get on there and have to assert our opinions on these things, and we're going to offend some people. Is it really worth it?

    23:52-23:53

    Is it really worth it?

    23:56-23:59

    Another question to ask, is this motivated by love?

    24:00-24:08

    What you're about to say, what you're about to type, can you stop and evaluate yourself and say, is love motivating what I'm about to say?

    24:08-24:10

    This comes from Romans 14, 15.

    24:11-24:18

    For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, getting back to that whole food sacrifice to idol thing, but you can apply this in so many ways.

    24:19-24:21

    He says you are no longer walking in love.

    24:21-24:24

    If you're offending someone, you're not walking in love.

    24:24-24:31

    He says, "By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died." Is this motivated by love?

    24:34-24:39

    Third question to ask, will this bring peace and encouragement?

    24:41-24:46

    Some people just like to get on social media, and it's like throw a can of gas, throw a match, and walk away.

    24:46-24:48

    Like, they love to stir things up.

    24:48-24:52

    But is that the mature way? Is that the Jesus way?

    24:53-25:16

    Because according to God's Word, Romans 14, 19 says, "So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building." So if you answer "no" to any of those questions, don't say it, don't do it, don't post it.

    25:16-25:17

    All right?

    25:18-25:20

    So for the love of unity, avoid offending people.

    25:23-25:27

    Number two, for the love of unity, celebrate salvation.

    25:28-25:30

    Look at verses 30 and 31 with me.

    25:32-25:37

    "So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch.

    25:37-25:41

    And having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.

    25:41-25:49

    And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement." Could you imagine the anticipation at Antioch?

    25:50-26:02

    There's this big fight that breaks out, and all of a sudden I'm not sure if I'm saved or not, because these people said just Jesus, and then these people said Jesus plus the Old Testament law, and now I'm wondering if I'm even saved.

    26:02-26:03

    When are these people getting back?

    26:03-26:04

    How long have they been gone?

    26:06-26:10

    Could you imagine the anticipation?

    26:10-26:14

    And can you imagine the joy when they heard the news?

    26:15-26:16

    You don't have to imagine, it's right there in the Bible.

    26:17-26:20

    It says they rejoiced because of the encouragement that they got from this letter.

    26:22-26:23

    Rejoice. Rejoice in what?

    26:24-26:30

    Rejoice in this truth that salvation is a done deal in Jesus Christ.

    26:32-26:33

    Haden Full.

    26:34-26:57

    When Jesus was on the cross, He didn't cry out, "It is mostly finished!" "Almost done!" He declared. "It is finished." 100%! No more sin, no more guilt, no more shame, just a glorious new life in Jesus Christ.

    26:58-27:02

    Does that bring anyone here joy today?

    27:05-27:11

    As a church, the finished work of Christ must be our rallying point.

    27:12-27:15

    It must be the only flag that we put up.

    27:15-27:17

    It must be our only focus.

    27:17-27:22

    That's why we do things like the Lord's Supper that we'll be celebrating here in just a couple of minutes.

    27:24-27:26

    Because it brings us back to our focal point.

    27:26-27:28

    That's why we baptize.

    27:30-27:34

    That's why we sing to and about Jesus Christ.

    27:34-27:36

    That's why we dig into the Word.

    27:36-27:44

    That's why we strive above all things to be a vertically minded church, because Jesus is our unity.

    27:46-27:58

    As the old saying goes, "The ground is level with the cross." There's so many differences of the people in this church and other churches.

    27:58-28:01

    There's so many differences in what we celebrate.

    28:04-28:05

    These glorious things that we have in common.

    28:09-28:11

    Tony, are you a sinner saved by grace?

    28:12-28:14

    Me too! We have that in common, brother!

    28:15-28:16

    Isn't that fantastic?

    28:17-28:18

    That's awesome!

    28:20-28:24

    Darren, do you need God's Holy Spirit to guide and empower you every day?

    28:26-28:30

    Me too! Isn't that awesome? We have this stuff in common.

    28:32-28:41

    Jane Auer, are you not yet perfect, but you're growing in Christ, and you can see in your life that Christ is continuing to change you constantly.

    28:42-28:42

    Is that your experience?

    28:43-28:45

    This is awesome, man. Me too.

    28:45-28:47

    We got so much in common.

    28:49-28:51

    You know, how about Mark?

    28:53-28:54

    Do you mess up sometimes?

    28:55-28:57

    And you're thankful that you're forgiven in Jesus Christ?

    28:58-29:00

    This is just weird. Me too.

    29:02-29:04

    Me too. Do you see all of these things that we have in common?

    29:05-29:08

    That's why we get together and celebrate these things.

    29:09-29:11

    We celebrate salvation.

    29:11-29:13

    And then finally today, be an encourager.

    29:14-29:14

    Be an encourager.

    29:14-29:15

    Look at these last few verses.

    29:17-29:28

    It says, "And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets, encouraged and strengthened the brothers with many words.

    29:30-29:36

    And after they spent some time, They were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them.

    29:38-29:46

    Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, many others also.

    29:47-29:48

    Look at verse 32.

    29:49-29:56

    Judas and Silas took the opportunity, as I would commend to you, number three in your outline, be an encourager.

    29:57-29:57

    Be an encourager.

    30:00-30:04

    Church is a place where you should come expecting to give.

    30:05-30:09

    The problem is some people come expecting to give the wrong thing.

    30:10-30:13

    Give complaints, give criticism, give negativity.

    30:14-30:33

    What if instead, just what if, imagine what this church would be like if every single person who came decided ahead of time, "When I go, I'm going to give encouragement." Because every single person in this room is struggling with something.

    30:35-30:37

    People are one step away. Do you realize this?

    30:38-30:42

    People are one step away from financial ruin.

    30:45-30:48

    There are people in this room who are one step away from ditching their marriage.

    30:51-31:02

    There are people in this room that are one step away from overdosing on something. There might even be some people in this room that are one step away from attempting suicide.

    31:04-31:07

    That's why this has to be a place of encouragement.

    31:09-31:24

    This has to be a place where no matter how badly the world has knocked you down and then kicked you while you're down, you need to know and we need to make this place a haven, A time out from the world.

    31:24-31:32

    This needs to be a place where I celebrate that I'm loved by God, and I celebrate that I'm loved by God's people.

    31:35-31:39

    Church, I, speaking personally now, I need your encouragement.

    31:41-31:46

    And others need you to be an encourager.

    31:49-32:18

    And as we strive to not offend our brothers over matters of conviction, as we strive to rally around the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we strive to be intentional about coming here to build people up, we're going to experience unstoppable unity.

    32:19-32:27

    Speaking of rallying around the gospel, we're going to celebrate by receiving the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him.

    32:28-32:40

    But today, let's close out our time around His table, celebrating the unity that we have, the glorious gift of His Son.

    32:40-32:41

    Let's pray.

    32:42-32:50

    Father in heaven, thank you for the grace that you give us.

    32:52-33:00

    Father, it's my prayer for our church specifically today that we would seek to be intentional about some things.

    33:02-33:10

    When we let our guard down, when we sort of let the flesh govern us, we love offending people.

    33:10-33:12

    We know how to do it.

    33:12-33:13

    We know how to push the right buttons.

    33:14-33:15

    We know how to do it.

    33:17-33:27

    God, I pray that we would be intentional about watching our words so that we're not losing our witness by being intentionally offensive.

    33:28-33:32

    Father, I pray that we would be intentional about celebrating our salvation.

    33:34-33:45

    It's easy to go to a church and criticize what you don't like, what your preferences are, and how the thing you like isn't being met.

    33:45-33:50

    But Father, I pray that we would come to celebrate our salvation.

    33:52-34:01

    We were sinners on the fast track to hell when you intervened with your love and your grace and took that penalty for us.

    34:04-34:06

    Let's celebrate that salvation.

    34:06-34:08

    and Father, let us be intentional about encouraging.

    34:09-34:11

    It's easy to tear down.

    34:12-34:19

    It's easy to become self-focused and to think that I'm the main event of church and people should sort of cater to me.

    34:21-34:25

    Father, I pray that we would come looking for somebody else that we can lift up.

    34:27-34:29

    That this place would actually be a haven.

    34:29-34:36

    This place would be a time out from the world where people know they're going to come.

    34:38-34:40

    They're going to be encouraged by you and by your people.

    34:41-34:43

    Fathers, we gather around your table.

    34:44-34:47

    We do this in the spirit in which Jesus had given it to us.

    34:47-34:49

    We do this in remembrance of Him.

    34:51-34:55

    And as we've studied these last two weeks, there is not a thing that we can do to save ourselves.

    34:58-35:07

    No amount of law-keeping, no amount of baptisms, No amount of ritual or good works, none of those things can save us.

    35:07-35:12

    We are saved solely by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

    35:12-35:17

    Our faith is just accepting the work that you've already done on our behalf.

    35:18-35:26

    So Father, let us come to your table today in humility, and in celebration, and in thanksgiving for the salvation you purchased.

    35:28-35:30

    We praise you in Jesus' name.

    35:30-35:31

    Thank you.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 15:19-35

  1. If rules don’t save (Acts 15:1-18), why did the apostles give Gentiles these 4 rules?

  2. What are ways we as a church can ensure the Gospel of Jesus Christ remains our focal point?

  3. What are some ways Christians can be offensive with their freedom in Christ in our day? What would you say to a fellow believer who is offending someone with their freedom?

Breakout Questions:

Are there any areas where you tend to offend people and don’t care? What changes do you need to make?

Unstoppable Unity - Part 1

What must a person do to be saved?

Do I Need to Keep the Old Testament Law to Be Saved?

  1. NO! Because keeping the Law can't Change you! (Acts 15:7-9)


  2. NO! Because the Law Never Could save anyone! (Acts 15:10-11)


  3. NO! Because the New Covenant is here now! (Acts 15:12)
  4. Hebrews 2:4 - While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

    Hebrews 8:13 - In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

  5. NO! Because God's Word says so! (Acts 15:13-18)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:04

    Acts chapter 15. Do you know what I always hated in high school?

    00:05-00:22

    What I always hated in high school was when you walked into the classroom and the teacher was like, "Pop quiz! How many people hated the pop quiz?" So not fair! If you're going to test me, you need to tell me ahead of time so I can be ready. With that in mind, we're having a pop quiz today.

    00:23-00:29

    Alright? One question, short answer, It's on your outline. We're not going to be collecting these.

    00:32-00:33

    But here it is. You're going to write this down.

    00:34-00:37

    What must a person do to be saved? Write down your answer.

    00:38-00:40

    What must a person do to be saved?

    00:42-00:43

    Go ahead. Write it down.

    00:47-00:47

    Are you done?

    00:49-00:56

    Okay. At the end of the day, the answer The answer to this question is the only thing that's going to matter.

    00:56-00:57

    You understand that.

    00:58-01:04

    At the end of the day, it's not going to matter how much money you made, or where you worked, or what kind of a car you drove.

    01:04-01:07

    At the end of the day, the answer to this question is all that matters.

    01:08-01:10

    What must a person do to be saved?

    01:10-01:13

    And it's been a crazy week, hasn't it?

    01:13-01:14

    How many people would say it's been a crazy week?

    01:16-01:17

    It's been a crazy couple of weeks.

    01:19-01:20

    Did the Cubs win a World Series?

    01:21-01:21

    Did I hear that right?

    01:22-01:52

    watched that game and I still have a hard time believing the Cubs won the World Series. And also did I hear this right that our president-elect is Donald Trump? Did I hear that right? It has been a crazy... I'm gonna tell you what's really crazy. That stuff is tame. I'm gonna tell you what's really crazy. Here's what's really crazy. The most important question in the world has the clearest answer.

    01:53-01:59

    And it's written out in black and white in the most popular and available book in the world.

    02:01-02:07

    But it is the most often confused and wrongly answered question.

    02:08-02:11

    The question is what does a person have to do to be saved?

    02:12-02:14

    How in the world do people get this wrong?

    02:15-02:21

    God says, "I wrote it down for you." So many people get this wrong.

    02:23-02:27

    And the first big church meeting tackled this question.

    02:27-02:28

    Look at Acts 15.

    02:29-02:37

    It says, "But some men came down from Judea..." Came down to Antioch, where Paul and Barnabas and company were.

    02:37-02:49

    "Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

    02:49-02:50

    Wait, what?

    02:52-02:53

    Circumcised? What's that all about?

    02:54-02:58

    Well, that was the sign of the covenant for Israel in the Old Testament.

    02:59-03:03

    If you're not sure what that's about, your parents can explain it to you.

    03:04-03:11

    But they were basically saying you have to keep the Old Testament law if you want to get saved.

    03:12-03:19

    And circumcision, understand, He's sort of the poster child for the rest of the Old Testament law.

    03:21-03:22

    What must I do to be saved?

    03:22-03:25

    These men came along and said, "You're not saved unless you're circumcised.

    03:26-03:41

    Unless you do everything according to the law of Moses, you can't be saved." So Christianity obviously had these Jewish roots, despite the crazy claims that Christianity is anti-Semitic.

    03:43-04:35

    was Jewish. That's where the apostles. But in the early church they had this issue what should a Gentile do joining the Jewish church? So the Jews would say well here's the deal if you want to be a Christian you got to be a Jew and if you want to be a Jew you got to keep the law and if you want to keep the law you got to be circumcised. You got to keep the law in "What must I do to be saved?" Or in other words, "How do I become a child of God?" Or some people might say, "Well, what does it take for me to go to heaven when I die?" And just like in Acts chapter 15, also today there are too many people pushing lies.

    04:36-04:39

    Now maybe nobody told you that you have to get circumcised.

    04:41-04:47

    but people often push their rules to be saved.

    04:48-04:54

    Things like, "Well, if you want to be saved, you have to be a good Catholic, and you have to attend Mass.

    04:55-04:58

    You have to abide by the teachings of our church.

    05:00-05:12

    That's how you get saved." Some people say, and this is more in kind of the background of the church the affiliations that I came from, people say you must be baptized to be saved.

    05:13-05:15

    You want to pray to receive Christ? Fantastic.

    05:15-05:17

    But unless you're dunked, you're going to hell.

    05:17-05:19

    I know people that teach that.

    05:19-05:30

    You could want to receive Christ and say, "Okay, let's drive to get baptized and on the way you die in a car accident." I have friends that say you would go to hell because you weren't dunked.

    05:31-05:34

    That the baptism is the thing that saves you.

    05:37-05:39

    People say, "Well, you've got to baptize the baby.

    05:39-05:41

    You've got to get a haircut.

    05:41-05:42

    You're not allowed to have a beard.

    05:42-05:44

    Ladies, you're not allowed to wear lipstick.

    05:47-05:48

    You're not allowed to have tattoos.

    05:49-05:50

    You're not allowed to dance.

    05:51-05:52

    You don't play cards.

    05:53-05:54

    You don't listen to secular music.

    05:55-06:07

    You don't ever go to a movie rated R." Or just to sum it up, remember the old expression, "You don't drink, smoke, or chew, or run with the girls who do?" How many people heard that one?

    06:08-06:10

    That is old school, right?

    06:11-06:12

    What are these things?

    06:12-06:14

    These are rules that people have made up.

    06:14-06:15

    Like, you want to be a Christian?

    06:15-06:16

    You want to get saved?

    06:16-06:18

    These are the things that you have to do.

    06:19-06:24

    And we find ourselves in the exact same position as the early church in Acts chapter 15.

    06:26-06:26

    Verse 2.

    06:29-06:42

    Listen, "After Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them," Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and to the elders about this question.

    06:44-06:50

    This obviously could have caused some huge problems for the church, so Paul and Barnabas said, "We need to bring in the big guns here, okay?

    06:50-07:05

    This is a serious issue." Verse 3, "So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers.

    07:06-07:16

    When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.

    07:18-07:22

    Well, brace yourself, because here comes the second wave of party poopers.

    07:22-07:23

    Verse 5.

    07:24-07:30

    It says, "But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees..." Take a note of that.

    07:32-07:34

    People were preaching legalism, but the Bible calls them believers.

    07:36-07:39

    Don't you become legalistic in a backlash against legalism.

    07:41-07:42

    That's what you call irony.

    07:44-08:20

    It says, "But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, 'It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.'" So these believing Pharisees said, "Yeah, if you want to become a Christian, you do have to keep the Old Testament law, including the circumcision part." Verse 6, "The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter." Let's discuss this.

    08:20-08:22

    I love the leadership on display here.

    08:23-08:25

    They didn't react. They didn't get defensive.

    08:25-08:29

    "You guys are stupid." or they didn't hide behind a Facebook meme.

    08:31-08:32

    They said, "Hey, let's handle this.

    08:32-08:38

    Let's meet together, let's talk about it, let's deal with it head on." You've got to appreciate that.

    08:39-08:40

    Here comes the verdict.

    08:41-08:42

    They get everyone together.

    08:43-08:45

    And here comes a message from four preachers.

    08:45-08:47

    Wouldn't you have liked to have been there for this?

    08:47-08:56

    Peter speaks, Barnabas speaks, Paul speaks, and James - not James the Apostle, This is James, the half-brother of Jesus.

    08:57-09:05

    The question is, do I have to keep the Old Testament law in order to be saved?

    09:07-09:08

    And the answer?

    09:10-09:12

    Do I have to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?

    09:12-09:13

    Here's the answer.

    09:16-09:16

    No.

    09:18-09:18

    You are not.

    09:19-09:20

    You say, "Well, hang on.

    09:21-09:26

    You're going to have to explain that a little bit." We're going to see what the Bible says about that.

    09:27-09:29

    Do I have to keep the Old Testament law to get saved? No.

    09:30-09:31

    So, look at your outline.

    09:32-09:32

    Here it is today.

    09:33-09:35

    Do I need to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?

    09:37-09:44

    We all want to bring in some element of, "What do I have to do?" It's just, it's human nature.

    09:45-09:46

    It's human nature.

    09:46-09:49

    We want to say, "I got to do something to get saved.

    09:49-09:51

    I got to do some work.

    09:51-09:55

    I have to contribute somehow in order to be saved.

    09:55-09:58

    And well, the Old Testament law, I mean, this is like in the Bible, right?

    09:59-10:04

    So I should at least have to obey the Ten Commandments in order to get saved, right?

    10:06-10:07

    No. No.

    10:09-10:11

    So do I need to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?

    10:11-10:12

    Number one, drop this down. No.

    10:13-10:16

    Because keeping the law can't change you.

    10:18-10:19

    Because keeping the law can't change you.

    10:19-10:21

    This is all going to come straight from the text.

    10:22-10:25

    And I want you to have your Bibles and read this with me.

    10:25-10:35

    This is stuff that some of you might not have heard this before, and some of you right now might be rebelling in your heart a little bit to say, "You're telling me I don't have to obey the Ten Commandments to get saved?" That's what I'm telling you.

    10:35-10:37

    But I want you to see it from the text, okay?

    10:37-10:38

    Don't take my word for it.

    10:39-10:39

    Look at verse 7.

    10:41-11:10

    It says, "And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, 'Brothers, Do you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by My mouth the Gentiles should hear the Word of the Gospel and believe in God who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us?

    11:12-11:13

    Stop there for a second.

    11:13-11:15

    Keeping the law can't change you.

    11:15-11:19

    Notice first of all in verse 7, Peter says God made a choice.

    11:20-11:21

    God made a choice.

    11:21-11:25

    So when it comes to matters of salvation, you don't get a say in how that happens.

    11:25-11:26

    Do you understand that?

    11:27-11:28

    You don't get a say in it.

    11:30-11:31

    How does somebody get saved?

    11:31-11:36

    "Well, I think somebody gets saved this way, and I think somebody gets saved this way." Alright, well, I think we're alright.

    11:36-11:37

    You don't get a say in it.

    11:38-11:40

    Peter says this was something that God came up with.

    11:40-11:41

    God made the choice.

    11:44-11:50

    All you can do and all I can do is proclaim how God says salvation happens.

    11:50-11:52

    And it's right here in verse 7.

    11:53-12:05

    He says that by my mouth, look at this, "The Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe." Hear the word and believe. Have you done that?

    12:06-12:08

    Let me just pause right here and ask you, have you done that?

    12:08-12:09

    Do you know the gospel?

    12:11-12:15

    The Gospel is that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died for your sins.

    12:15-12:18

    And He rose to give you eternal life.

    12:19-12:24

    That whoever believes in Him, whoever receives Him, He gives the right to become children of God.

    12:26-12:27

    You know the Gospel.

    12:27-12:29

    The second question is, have you accepted the Gospel?

    12:30-12:31

    Like, well, what's the difference?

    12:33-12:34

    I'll tell you what the difference is.

    12:36-13:00

    a lady who has been dating this guy for a while, and he gets down on one knee, he opens the box and says, "Will you marry me?" Now see, at that moment, she knows that he loves her, right? And she knows that he's wanting to enter into a relationship with her, right?

    13:01-13:03

    But has that happened in that moment? No.

    13:05-13:08

    In order for that to happen, she has to accept the proposal.

    13:09-13:10

    She has to say yes.

    13:12-13:15

    And it's the same in coming to Christ.

    13:15-13:18

    You can know the truth of the gospel, but have you received it?

    13:20-13:28

    Because the promise of God is that when you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, we just saw it here, the Spirit of God comes and resides.

    13:28-13:30

    Did you see that in verse 8?

    13:30-13:32

    By giving them the Holy Spirit.

    13:34-13:38

    And that results in cleansing and in life change.

    13:38-13:39

    Look at verse 9.

    13:41-13:45

    It says, "And He made no distinction between us and them." We spend a lot of time talking about that.

    13:46-13:54

    Jews hated Gentiles, Gentiles hated Jews, and God's like, "I love you all the same. Don't care." We could take a lesson there.

    13:57-14:04

    Look at this last phrase, "Having cleansed their hearts by faith." You cannot deny life change.

    14:05-14:20

    No matter what people think about the Bible, what people think about the church, what people think about Jesus, no matter what people heard on TV or read on Facebook about Christianity, when they see a life that is radically transformed, they cannot deny that.

    14:22-14:24

    But the law can't change you.

    14:25-14:30

    You see, the gospel is about transformation, not about keeping the rules.

    14:30-14:35

    And you can't keep the rules enough that it will change you.

    14:36-14:38

    Here's what happens if you're all about the rules.

    14:38-14:39

    Two things happen.

    14:39-14:45

    Either you're going to get prideful, to say, "Look at me, I keep the rules." That's pride.

    14:46-14:47

    How does God feel about pride?

    14:48-14:49

    Thumbs up, thumbs down.

    14:49-14:51

    How does God feel about pride?

    14:51-14:52

    Yeah, thumbs down, big thumbs down.

    14:54-14:55

    You know, that's going to happen.

    14:56-15:02

    Or, you're going to feel resentful because you can never measure up.

    15:03-15:07

    I try to keep the rules, and I can't even keep the rules for myself that I want to impose on others.

    15:08-15:12

    I can't keep the Ten Commandments, and we become resentful.

    15:13-15:15

    We become despondent.

    15:15-15:16

    I can't do it.

    15:17-15:18

    It's not about the rules.

    15:18-15:20

    It's about transformation.

    15:21-15:22

    Rules can't transform you.

    15:23-15:46

    The first thing that Peter points out, "Do I need to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?" Rather, "No, because the law can't change you." Secondly, "Do I need to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?" "No, because the law never could save anyone." Look at verse 10.

    15:48-16:01

    "Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test?" placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.

    16:04-16:07

    You're expecting the Gentiles to keep the law?

    16:08-16:09

    You can't keep the law.

    16:10-16:13

    Our fathers couldn't keep the law, but you expect the Gentiles to?

    16:14-16:18

    And if the law didn't save the Jews, why in the world are we requiring it for the Gentiles?

    16:20-16:23

    Right now you might be asking yourself, I can't wait a minute, Pastor Jeff.

    16:23-16:25

    You're saying that nobody can keep the law.

    16:25-16:26

    Is that correct?

    16:27-16:33

    Well, why in the world would God give a law that he knows that we can't keep?

    16:34-16:35

    That's a fair question.

    16:37-16:38

    What was the purpose of the law?

    16:39-16:40

    I want you to jot this down.

    16:41-16:42

    This is the purpose of the law.

    16:44-16:49

    That's a lot of things, but I just tried to narrow it down to just three things for our study today.

    16:49-16:53

    The purpose of the law, first of all, was to keep the nation of Israel distinct from all the other nations.

    16:55-16:58

    That was the first purpose. God says, "Israel, I want you to look different than the other nations.

    16:58-17:02

    You're going to talk differently, you're going to act differently, you're going to grow your crops differently.

    17:03-17:09

    You're going to be different. I want you to be different." He wanted Israel, Old Testament Israel, to be distinct.

    17:12-17:15

    Something else about the law, secondly, the law revealed the heart of God.

    17:17-17:19

    The law revealed the heart of God.

    17:19-17:20

    Like, what do you mean by that?

    17:21-17:22

    Let's just look at the Ten Commandments.

    17:22-17:23

    We won't look at all of them.

    17:23-17:24

    Let's just pick a couple.

    17:24-17:26

    Why did God say, "Do not commit adultery"?

    17:26-17:27

    Why did God say that?

    17:29-17:32

    Because God is a God of keeping a faithful covenant to His people.

    17:34-17:38

    And He wants His people to reflect that glory.

    17:39-17:42

    To say, "I'm keeping my covenant with my wife.

    17:43-18:01

    I made a covenant and I'm keeping it." And God says, "You keep that because that's how I am." God wants us to be content with the things that He's provided us.

    18:01-18:04

    That's also why we don't covet. You see this?

    18:05-18:09

    Why should we honor our parents? Because God is a God of authority.

    18:10-18:17

    And He wants us to understand that there are authorities in place, ultimately Him, that we should love and we should respect.

    18:18-18:19

    So, the Old Testament is a God of authority.

    18:19-18:23

    The Old Testament law revealed the heart of God in so many ways.

    18:25-18:29

    But something else the Old Testament law revealed...

    18:29-18:32

    The Old Testament law, thirdly, it revealed sin.

    18:34-18:38

    Israel distinct, it revealed the heart of God, but the Old Testament law revealed sin.

    18:38-18:40

    This is a big thing.

    18:40-18:41

    I'm not going to turn there.

    18:41-18:42

    You can turn there.

    18:42-18:45

    Romans 7, the Apostle Paul talks all about this.

    18:45-18:47

    But the Old Testament law reveals sin.

    18:48-18:49

    Well, what does that mean?

    18:50-18:51

    I'll just illustrate it for you quickly.

    18:52-18:53

    How the law reveals sin.

    18:54-18:55

    You want to know how that happens?

    18:56-19:06

    You're walking through the park on a sidewalk, and all of a sudden you see a sign that says, "Keep off the grass." What do you want to do in that moment?

    19:07-19:08

    Let's be honest, we're in church.

    19:09-19:09

    What do you want to do?

    19:11-19:12

    You want to walk on the grass, don't you?

    19:13-19:14

    You want to take your shoes off?

    19:15-19:16

    You want to roll in the grass?

    19:18-19:21

    All you can think about is getting on that grass, right? Why?

    19:21-19:35

    You didn't even think about the stupid grass like five seconds ago, but as soon as you saw the sign, you're like, "I want to - man, I really want to walk on that grass." What did the sign do? Think about the sign.

    19:35-19:41

    What the sign did was revealed the rebellion in your heart.

    19:43-19:44

    That's what the sign did.

    19:46-19:48

    And that's sort of a picture for what the Old Testament law did.

    19:48-19:59

    That's why Paul says in Romans 7, "I wouldn't have even known what coveting was, but the law revealed it." The law was to show us that we are sinners that can't save ourselves.

    20:00-20:04

    The law exposes the truth that we're sinners in need of grace.

    20:05-20:07

    The law was never meant to save.

    20:07-20:13

    There's not one person who was ever saved by keeping the law because no one can keep it.

    20:14-20:20

    And I promise you, for those of you who have received Christ and are going to be in heaven someday, you can ask every single person in heaven that you meet.

    20:21-20:24

    You're not going to find one person in heaven that's like, "Yeah, you know why I'm here?

    20:24-20:28

    Because I kept the law." Like, "Oh, high five, man. Way to go.

    20:28-20:36

    I thought that was hard." "Well, it was hard, but I kept the law perfectly." You're not going to find anybody with the exception of Jesus Christ.

    20:37-20:42

    You're not going to find anybody that made it to heaven because they kept the rules.

    20:45-20:46

    So what does it take?

    20:46-20:47

    Look at verse 11.

    20:48-21:01

    "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will." That should be either underlined or highlighted in every Bible.

    21:02-21:05

    And we will have people at the door checking on your way out to make sure.

    21:06-21:09

    You can pick underlined or highlighted, underlined or highlighted.

    21:10-21:13

    We believe that we shall be saved through the - what?

    21:15-21:18

    Grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.

    21:21-21:22

    I think that's an interesting way to put it.

    21:22-21:26

    He doesn't say, yeah, they're going to be saved the way we are.

    21:27-21:29

    He says we believe that we're going to be saved just as they are.

    21:29-21:30

    How is that?

    21:32-21:32

    How are they saved?

    21:33-21:33

    Say it.

    21:35-21:35

    Grace!

    21:36-21:36

    Grace!

    21:39-21:41

    Salvation is by grace.

    21:41-21:42

    What is grace?

    21:44-21:47

    Well, some people define grace as unmerited favor.

    21:49-21:52

    Some people define grace as getting something you don't deserve.

    21:52-21:53

    Those things are true.

    21:53-21:55

    Here's my favorite definition of grace.

    21:57-22:01

    Grace is God giving to you what He requires from you.

    22:03-22:04

    What does God require from you?

    22:04-22:06

    He requires that you're holy.

    22:06-22:08

    He requires that you're perfect.

    22:08-22:10

    He requires that you're righteous.

    22:10-22:12

    Here's the problem - none of us have that.

    22:12-22:13

    None of us. We don't have it.

    22:14-22:17

    God says you've got to be perfect, and I'm like, I'm so far from perfect.

    22:19-22:22

    God gives us perfection in Jesus Christ.

    22:23-22:31

    2 Corinthians 5:21, "God took He who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God." God gives us His righteousness.

    22:31-22:36

    God looks at us in Christ, He sees us as perfect as He is.

    22:38-22:40

    God requires perfection, so He gives it to us.

    22:40-22:41

    And that's what grace is.

    22:41-22:45

    God gives to us what He requires from us.

    22:47-22:49

    You can't muster that up on your own.

    22:49-22:51

    It has to be a gift from God.

    22:52-22:52

    That's grace.

    22:55-23:01

    So if you're sitting here today hoping to be saved by good works, Hoping to be saved by keeping the rules.

    23:02-23:05

    Hoping to be saved by obeying the Old Testament law.

    23:05-23:07

    You are never going to get there.

    23:09-23:11

    Your only hope of salvation is grace.

    23:11-23:14

    It's the one exclusive and universal method.

    23:15-23:16

    Be saved.

    23:18-23:19

    Do I need to keep the Old Testament law to be saved?

    23:20-23:22

    No, because the law can't change you.

    23:22-23:25

    And no, because the law never could save anyone.

    23:26-23:32

    And thirdly, no, because the new covenant is here now.

    23:33-23:34

    Look at verse 12.

    23:37-23:46

    It says, "And all the assembly fell silent." They're just like, oh, we just can't wait to hear what else is going to be said.

    23:47-23:50

    I'm sure they were thinking about what was just said.

    23:51-23:54

    Kind of like absorbing the moment kind of thing, right?

    23:55-24:07

    the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

    24:09-24:14

    Paul and Barnabas give testimony to the miracles that they've seen that we have studied.

    24:16-24:19

    I'd like to remind you of the purpose of the miracles.

    24:19-24:20

    Why did they mention that?

    24:20-24:26

    They weren't like, "Hey, we did some really cool tricks." God did some just really crazy things through us.

    24:26-24:31

    The purpose of the miracles was to confirm the New Covenant message.

    24:34-24:36

    Hebrews chapter 2 verse 4, do we have that verse?

    24:38-24:50

    It says, "While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to His will." God was bearing witness to the New Covenant through the miracles.

    24:50-24:53

    That's why you don't see as many miracles today.

    24:53-24:55

    Does God still do miracles? Absolutely He does.

    24:56-25:11

    But they seemed a lot more normative in the book of Acts because God was confirming this radical, new covenant message of salvation solely through faith in Jesus Christ and the work that He accomplished through His death and His resurrection.

    25:13-25:15

    Miracles weren't just random displays of power.

    25:15-25:16

    They had a definite purpose.

    25:20-25:21

    The purpose was the new covenant is here.

    25:21-25:24

    That's why Paul and Barnabas, that's why they talked about the signs and wonders.

    25:25-25:27

    God has put His stamp on this.

    25:27-25:29

    God says the new covenant is here.

    25:32-25:37

    And you, church, you live under the new covenant.

    25:38-25:40

    Understand, you were never under the old covenant.

    25:42-25:44

    You weren't. You never were.

    25:45-25:52

    Because the Old Covenant was just for a season for the history of the nation of Israel.

    25:54-25:58

    And the Bible says that the death of Jesus Christ ushered in the new covenants.

    26:00-26:09

    So unless there's somebody here that's a lot younger than they look, and you're more than a couple thousand years old, you never lived under the Old Covenant.

    26:09-26:10

    You never did.

    26:13-26:26

    Hebrews 8.13 says, "In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete." What is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

    26:27-26:36

    So even if you could keep the law, and I think we already are pretty convinced that we can't, even if you could keep the law, it doesn't matter because keeping the law is not even a thing anymore.

    26:39-26:41

    According to Hebrews 8.13, it's obsolete.

    26:42-27:00

    obsolete mean? Obsolete means it's useless and out of date because something better has come along. It would be like going down to the Verizon store, saying I need a phone, but I want one like I had when I was a kid. You know, the tin cans and the wax string.

    27:00-27:29

    Do you have any of those? But my grandma lives in another state, so I'm going to need some extra string. How many people would do that? They'd be like, "Why do you want tin cans and a wax string? We have these new things, they're like the size of a credit card, you can access like all of the information on the planet." Like, "No, I really like the tin cans and the wax string, I just really like, you know, a very ergonomic feel." Like, What, are you crazy?

    27:31-27:34

    Tin cans and wax tray, that's obsolete, right?

    27:36-27:41

    Or it would be like going to a jewelry store saying, yeah, I need a new timepiece.

    27:42-27:44

    Like, what can you show me in a sundial?

    27:46-27:47

    You know, can I get like a little sundial?

    27:48-27:56

    And it's going to be really handy, because as long as the sun's out and I can stand just so, I can approximate that.

    27:58-27:59

    Are you crazy?

    28:00-28:05

    We have all these new watches that-- what are you talking about?

    28:05-28:06

    A sundial.

    28:08-28:13

    Is there somebody really that went down to the voting booth last Tuesday and was like, I'm voting for Abraham Lincoln?

    28:13-28:15

    Like, that's not a thing anymore.

    28:15-28:16

    Like, what are you doing?

    28:19-28:20

    That's the point.

    28:20-28:21

    The old covenant is obsolete.

    28:21-28:23

    The old covenant is the sundial.

    28:24-28:27

    The old covenant is the tin cans and the wax string.

    28:27-28:28

    It's obsolete.

    28:30-28:32

    We don't use it anymore because we live under the new covenant.

    28:33-28:35

    And the new covenant is a whole new way of living.

    28:36-28:38

    It is a completely whole new way of living.

    28:42-28:48

    When Erin and I got back from our honeymoon, I remember we drove back from the airport.

    28:48-28:48

    It was getting late.

    28:50-28:53

    I threw the suitcase in the house and started to unpack my stuff.

    28:54-29:20

    I said, "Let me throw some of this stuff in the drawer, and throw some of this stuff in the laundry." And I said, "It's getting late, I'm gonna take you home." She's like, "What do you mean?" I said, "It's getting late, I'm exhausted, I'm gonna take you home, just give me a second to get my stuff together here, I'll take you home, just give me a minute." And Erin goes, "What are you talking about?" And now I'm getting frustrated.

    29:21-29:25

    I said, "Just let me get some of my stuff put away, I'm going to take you home.

    29:25-29:27

    And Aaron said, I am home!

    29:29-29:33

    I'm like, oh, because we got married, now you don't have to go.

    29:35-29:35

    Got it.

    29:37-29:41

    But see, the marriage ushered in a whole new mindset of living.

    29:42-29:44

    We don't live like that anymore.

    29:44-29:49

    Now we live under this whole new set of rules, so to speak.

    29:49-29:51

    A whole new way of living.

    29:54-29:55

    It's the same with the New Covenant.

    29:58-30:03

    The time of the Old Testament, the time of the Old Covenant, the time of law-keeping - it's over.

    30:05-30:07

    So do I have to keep the Old Testament to be saved?

    30:08-30:08

    No.

    30:10-30:12

    Because the law can't change you.

    30:13-30:14

    Because the law never could save anyone.

    30:15-30:17

    Because the New Covenant is here now.

    30:18-30:23

    And finally, no, because God's Word says so.

    30:24-30:25

    Like, dude, you should have led with that.

    30:26-30:29

    The sermon would have been over like 20 minutes ago.

    30:29-30:31

    I'm just going through the text, okay?

    30:33-30:39

    So, verse 13, "And after they finished speaking, James replied, 'Brothers, listen to me.

    30:41-30:47

    Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles.'" Who in the world is Simeon? That's Peter.

    30:48-30:49

    Simon Peter.

    30:49-30:51

    Like, why in the world did he call him Simeon?

    30:51-30:52

    I don't know.

    30:52-30:54

    We'll come up in heaven and ask him, I don't know.

    30:55-31:01

    Simeon is related to how God first visited the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.

    31:02-31:07

    And with this, the words of the prophet agree, just as it is written.

    31:08-31:13

    And then he quotes, this is from the book of Amos in the Old Testament, chapter nine, verses 11 through 12.

    31:14-31:18

    After this, I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen.

    31:19-31:24

    I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord.

    31:26-31:26

    Here it is.

    31:27-31:43

    "And all the Gentiles who are called by my name," says the Lord, "who makes these things known from of old." James gives the final word, quoting Amos.

    31:44-31:49

    Now this passage is about the future kingdom, saying that Gentiles are going to be called and enter the kingdom.

    31:50-32:00

    And James' whole point is this, in the past, in the present, and in the future, Gentiles are saved as Gentiles.

    32:01-32:06

    Nowhere in the Old Testament does it say you gotta make a Gentile become a Jew, and then they get saved.

    32:06-32:08

    Gentiles are just saved as Gentiles.

    32:10-32:13

    So now let's go back to your answer for the pop quiz.

    32:15-32:16

    What's your answer?

    32:18-32:20

    What must a person do to be saved?

    32:23-32:24

    Keep the 10 commandments?

    32:26-32:27

    Go to church?

    32:29-32:30

    Be a good person?

    32:32-32:52

    At a funeral a couple of weeks ago, the one man got up to speak of the deceased, And he said, "As everyone knows, being a good person is how you get to heaven, so we know that this man is in heaven." A lot of people believe that.

    32:54-32:56

    But these are all wrong answers according to God.

    32:58-33:06

    The right answer is stated twice in this little passage that we read today, verse seven, the very end.

    33:07-33:11

    You hear the word of the gospel and believe.

    33:13-33:29

    Verse 11, "But we believe that we will be saved "through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will." I got some good news for you that I never got in high school.

    33:32-33:37

    You can go back and change your answer now if you didn't answer correctly the first time.

    33:39-33:42

    The truth is, there's really only one answer according to God that goes in the blank.

    33:43-33:45

    What must a person do to be saved?

    33:47-33:48

    Receiving Jesus Christ.

    33:50-33:51

    Believing in Jesus.

    33:54-33:55

    Trusting in His grace.

    33:55-33:56

    Trusting in His work.

    33:58-33:59

    Not your own.

    34:01-34:03

    Their worship team comes up, we're going to pray.

    34:04-34:10

    You can pray for anyone for any reason, but specifically what I want us to focus on today is this salvation issue.

    34:11-34:34

    Especially if there's somebody here today that says, "You know, for so long I thought that salvation was about what I did, or me trying to be a good person." It's a frustrating way to live, because you'll never be good enough, and you always make mistakes and you always fall short.

    34:36-34:42

    The great news is, Jesus Christ, He lived the perfect life.

    34:44-34:51

    And He gives us His very righteousness when we receive Him by faith.

    34:52-34:53

    So would you bow your heads with me, please?

    34:56-35:02

    Father in heaven, as we bow our heads, I pray that this is a moment of self-examination.

    35:05-35:18

    We are people who by nature love rules, as if we can evaluate how good we are, as if we have some standard by which we can measure ourselves.

    35:20-35:31

    The reality is we've all made horrible mistakes, we've all sinned, and even if we would vow to do our very best from here on out.

    35:33-35:35

    We have a criminal record against you.

    35:37-35:38

    A thousand miles long.

    35:41-35:43

    But Father, we need grace.

    35:45-35:54

    We can't adhere to some law - even a law as good and moral and righteous as You've given us in Your Word.

    35:58-36:00

    The wanting could be there, but the doing could not.

    36:02-36:04

    Father, we thank You for Your grace.

    36:06-36:14

    In the lives that we live now, our lives of gratitude for You doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

    36:17-36:22

    Father, we acknowledge these truths from Your Word, that we need life change, not rules.

    36:25-36:28

    We acknowledge the truth that the law never saved anyone.

    36:29-36:33

    We acknowledge the truth, Father, that we are people that live under the new covenant.

    36:33-36:34

    We don't live under the old covenant.

    36:34-36:36

    It's gone forever.

    36:38-36:39

    It's been eternally replaced.

    36:43-36:45

    Father, we are a people who believe Your Word.

    36:48-36:53

    Increase our faith by increasing knowledge of you through your word.

    36:55-37:08

    Father, if there's any person here right now who has misunderstood something that your word teaches, let today be the day of new things.

    37:10-37:11

    Let today be the day of understanding.

    37:12-37:13

    Let today be the day of repentance.

    37:15-37:16

    Let today be the day of salvation.

    37:19-37:20

    We praise you, Father.

    37:21-37:26

    In the glorious name of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.


Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 15:1-18

  1. Why did the men from Judea tell the church "you must be circumcised to be saved"? What rules do people try to push today?

  2. What is the purpose of the Old Testament Law?

  3. Are we required to keep the Old Testament Law (like the 10 Commandments) in order to be saved? Why or why not?

  4. What do you have to do in order to be saved, according to verses Acts 15:7, 11?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for someone you know who needs the Lord. What are you doing to be a witness?

Modern Day Miracles

Review: Mark 3:13-15

Follow along with Barnabas as he shares with us photos and stories of God's amazing work on the other side of the world!

The sometimes incomprehensible stories of the disciples in Acts has played out in Barnabas and Martha's life over the past thirty years by simply following God's guidance and not holding back when speaking God's gospel and truth to those in need of hearing it in Thailand and beyond.

  • Pastor Jeff:

    00:00-00:12

    You guys know this because I've been saying this like for quite a while, but I can't even describe how excited I am for our special guest speakers today.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:12-00:15

    Barnabas and Martha, would you please come up and join me?

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:16-00:17

    Up so everybody can see you.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:22-00:24

    Thank you very much.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:24-00:29

    Now, some of you are like, I come to Harvest Bible Chapel all the way from Gibsonia.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:30-00:35

    And some of you say, I came to Harvest Bible Chapel all the way from Allison Park.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:35-00:38

    These two came all the way from Thailand.

    00:41-00:41

    (congregation applauding)

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:43-00:48

    And if you're wondering where Thailand is, it's literally on the other side of the planet, literally.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:49-00:51

    Do you know what time it is in Thailand?

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:51-00:56

    You just change AM to PM with whatever time it is here, and that's what time it is there.

    Pastor Jeff:

    00:56-01:00

    So right now it is 10.38 p.m. in Thailand.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:00-01:10

    And I am so thrilled to have these two come and share what the Lord is doing in their lives and ministries and bring a word from the Lord today.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:10-01:17

    But Barnabas graduated from Chiang Mai Bible Institute and from Cincinnati Christian Seminary.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:18-01:20

    And he speaks seven languages.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:22-01:23

    Now make sure I got these all right.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:23-01:33

    Thai, Chinese, Burmese, Lisu, Lahu, Aka, and English.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:34-01:35

    Yeah, that's the one.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:36-01:37

    Fortunately for us, he speaks English.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:39-01:49

    And since the early '80s, Barnabas has spread the gospel in the hill tribe villages in the Northern Mountain Jungle region in Thailand, around Chiang Mai, if you're trying to look it up on a map.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:50-01:58

    The dominant religion in Thailand is Buddhism, But when you get to these tribal areas, it's mostly animism that you will find.

    Pastor Jeff:

    01:58-02:00

    And what does Barnabas do?

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:01-02:12

    Well, Barnabas and Martha recruit and train evangelists as they go through sharing the gospel, leading people to Christ, and training evangelists and church leaders.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:13-02:18

    He's also founded three children's homes in Thailand and in Myanmar.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:19-02:23

    How did I get connected with these wonderful servants of the Lord?

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:24-02:32

    Well, most of you know I became a Christian in 1995, and shortly after I came to Christ I was called into ministry.

    Pastor Jeff:

    02:33-03:26

    I remember I was having lunch with Pastor Bob, Bob Huber, who had spoken at our church, and I was telling him, "Hey, I came to Christ, and I just feel like I'm called to ministry, and I want to talk to you about it because I have no idea what I'm doing, and I still don't. And you're like, "Amen?" And Pastor Bob said, "Well, we have a group of people that are going to Thailand in a couple of months. Would you like to join us?" And I was like, "Okay." I didn't have a nickel to my name. I didn't know where Thailand even was on a map. I was just a new Christian. I'm like, "Yeah, I'll do whatever God calls me to do, and that was February of 1996. Can you believe that? It was over 20 years ago that I went to Thailand and was completely blown away at the way the Lord is at work.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:26-03:42

    You know, this stuff that we're reading in Acts about the apostles going and sharing the gospel and these conversions and these spiritual attacks and all of these things that are happening, that's sort of the life that Barnabas lives.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:43-03:46

    And I was amazed at the way the Lord is at work.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:46-03:50

    And I've enjoyed spending time with them whenever they come stateside.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:52-03:57

    And as you know, I was able to go back and help with training last November, a year ago.

    Pastor Jeff:

    03:58-04:05

    And at one time, Barnabas was at our house and he shared with me a verse that sort of sums up his life.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:06-04:13

    And that verse is 1 Corinthians 9.23 that says, "I do all things for the sake of the gospel." Remember that conversation?

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:14-04:15

    That's just, that stuck with me.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:15-04:19

    Everything he does, he puts that banner over it.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:19-04:24

    I do all things for the sake of the gospel and everyone needs a hero.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:26-04:26

    So here's mine.

    Pastor Jeff:

    04:27-04:34

    So give a warm welcome and get ready to listen closely to Barnabas Martha Singsarakoon.

    04:38-04:39

    [Applause]

    Barnabas:

    04:41-04:47

    Good morning. In Thai we say sawadee krap. Sawadee krap.

    Barnabas:

    04:48-04:59

    and Lisu is very easy, (speaks in foreign language) and in Burmese we say (speaks in foreign language) and the Lao who will say

    Barnabas:

    04:59-05:01

    (speaks in foreign language)

    Barnabas:

    05:03-05:07

    this is a greeting words from different language.

    Barnabas:

    05:08-05:24

    Thank you very much that allow me to have this opportunity 30 years, how the Holy Spirit has done through my life.

    Barnabas:

    05:25-05:31

    I'm not going to preach, but witness how the Spirit of God is working in my life.

    Barnabas:

    05:34-05:42

    Starting from zero, right now, God's world is bigger and bigger, much more than myself.

    Barnabas:

    05:43-05:57

    I can do it right now. Today is just witness how God, how the Holy Spirit get things done through my life. And I thank you, every brother and sister, you pray for me.

    Barnabas:

    05:58-06:04

    And I thank every brother and sister, you also donate the money for the ministry.

    Barnabas:

    06:05-06:58

    and may the Lord bless you. Your check deduction for the ministry, may the Lord fill according to his promise 30 times, 60 times, and 100 times. This is what we cannot imagine what Christ promised it for sacrificial giving, it's much more than we can understand. But he is, Jesus Christ is God. For him, this is possible. So like this morning, I would like to go by picture and how, you know, 30 years of my ministry, try to short it to about 45 minutes.

    Barnabas:

    07:00-07:11

    That would be pretty, how to say, anyhow, that would be good enough time to share that experience.

    Barnabas:

    07:12-08:08

    Actually, I would like to witness that. Mark chapter 3, verse 13 to 15, what Jesus Christ said in the Bible. Mark chapter 3, verse 13 to 15. Jesus went up on the mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve, designating them apostles, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. But this is like also for us difficult to do. How can you drive the demons out from someone? It's very difficult to do, but for God it's possible.

    Barnabas:

    08:10-08:18

    So in my life, I drive the demons a lot, whether older person or whether younger person.

    Barnabas:

    08:21-08:31

    So what Jesus Christ was said 2,000 years ago, still true till today, still powerful, still powerful.

    Barnabas:

    08:32-08:39

    So it's really worthy to obey God and to worthy to serve the Lord.

    Barnabas:

    08:40-08:49

    And then our life will be blessed and we are ready to bless our children and coming generation in our country.

    Barnabas:

    08:50-09:10

    Especially when I arrived over here, America is like from our forefathers, it red carpet, a healthy country, a very beautiful country, very comfortable, very safe.

    Barnabas:

    09:12-09:17

    So this generation is responsible for coming generations.

    Barnabas:

    09:18-09:20

    Then we will give them the same message to them.

    Barnabas:

    09:22-09:28

    Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

    Barnabas:

    09:30-09:37

    Then by this way, we lead our country, our family, to the internal kingdom of God.

    Barnabas:

    09:38-09:40

    There will be much more than we can tell.

    Barnabas:

    09:41-09:52

    The way that God prepared for us is, our Father, God, we see on the screen, no eyes has been seen, no ear has been heard.

    Barnabas:

    09:54-09:56

    No heart has been thinking of this.

    Barnabas:

    09:57-10:00

    So, totally new, totally new.

    Barnabas:

    10:02-10:07

    So, by that time we feel that, okay, much more than we can imagine.

    Barnabas:

    10:09-10:11

    Things that God prepared for us, much more than we can imagine.

    Barnabas:

    10:12-10:20

    We will be surprised because of this unwilling to serve the Lord in my life.

    Barnabas:

    10:22-10:28

    Most of us would like to say God is with us, or God is with me.

    Barnabas:

    10:29-10:30

    Yeah, I accept that.

    Barnabas:

    10:32-10:36

    But the most important is whether I am with God or not.

    Barnabas:

    10:37-10:38

    Now this is the problem.

    Barnabas:

    10:39-10:44

    God is with me, God's waiting for me to repent.

    Barnabas:

    10:44-10:50

    But whether I am with God or not, if I repent, I'm with God.

    Barnabas:

    10:51-10:55

    If I don't repent, God is with me, He's awaiting me.

    Barnabas:

    10:56-10:57

    I never come back.

    Barnabas:

    10:59-11:07

    So the most important thing is like, yeah, we accept that God is with us, or God is with me.

    Barnabas:

    11:08-11:19

    But the most important is think of ourself, whether I am with God or not in our action, in our speaking, in our thinking.

    Barnabas:

    11:20-11:23

    If we can change, that means worshipping God.

    Barnabas:

    11:24-11:26

    That's the true worship is changing.

    Barnabas:

    11:26-11:33

    Unless we change our attitude, that's not, we don't have a chance to worship God yet.

    Barnabas:

    11:34-11:46

    So, oh, coming to the church also, we hearing the gospel of the word of God, and then when you come and when you go back, will be different.

    Barnabas:

    11:47-11:53

    When you have a new, when we have learn new things, then we will apply into our heart.

    Barnabas:

    11:53-11:56

    That's, we are with God.

    Barnabas:

    11:57-12:01

    So that's the most important thing.

    Barnabas:

    12:01-12:03

    Just cannot be done one thing.

    Barnabas:

    12:03-12:06

    It's going to be done every day, every day, every day, every day.

    Barnabas:

    12:07-12:10

    That makes sure we are with God.

    Barnabas:

    12:10-12:14

    If we are not with God, there's no protection.

    Barnabas:

    12:16-12:21

    If we are with God, we are safe in our daily life.

    Barnabas:

    12:21-12:24

    Okay, I would like to show some pictures.

    Barnabas:

    12:25-12:26

    Thank you.

    Barnabas:

    12:26-12:33

    Okay. Yeah, this is me and Martha in a wedding, the little dress.

    Barnabas:

    12:36-12:37

    And this is my family.

    Barnabas:

    12:38-12:45

    When we came to 1998, when we came over here, my youngest daughter is only four months old.

    Barnabas:

    12:46-12:51

    But right now, she is at the first year at the college.

    Barnabas:

    12:51-13:20

    Okay, second one. Yeah, this is my father. This is my mother. I was born between Burma and China border area, nearby the border area. We can go to China, but we didn't come to Burma side in order to go to market. From our house to go to market is you have to walk for four hours.

    Barnabas:

    13:21-13:24

    If go to China, yeah, about four hours.

    Barnabas:

    13:24-13:27

    If go to Burma side, about one day.

    Barnabas:

    13:30-13:34

    So usually mothers, they didn't see anything.

    Barnabas:

    13:34-13:38

    They just stay at home because cannot go to the market.

    Barnabas:

    13:39-13:42

    Usually men go to the market.

    Barnabas:

    13:42-13:43

    OK, second.

    Barnabas:

    13:44-13:46

    Yeah, this is Martha's parents.

    Barnabas:

    13:47-13:56

    and Martha's father involved a lot in the Lisu Bible translation, starting from 1963.

    Barnabas:

    13:58-14:06

    And our 1967 then, we have Lisu Old and New Testament, they finished.

    Barnabas:

    14:06-14:09

    So we have right now Lisu Bible.

    Barnabas:

    14:11-14:14

    Yeah, this is in Thailand, CBI.

    Barnabas:

    14:15-14:18

    CBI means the Chiang Mai Bible Institute.

    Barnabas:

    14:20-14:25

    In our village, there was Burmese Communist Party and the government.

    Barnabas:

    14:27-14:30

    So they fighting many years.

    Barnabas:

    14:32-14:35

    So in the village, very difficult to live, very difficult to work.

    Barnabas:

    14:36-14:39

    There are so many bad things going on.

    Barnabas:

    14:40-14:42

    And some are stepping on the landmine.

    Barnabas:

    14:43-14:47

    And at midnight, sometimes there's gunfire.

    Barnabas:

    14:47-14:49

    We don't know which way to run.

    Barnabas:

    14:50-14:56

    And we thought banana tree is better to hide.

    Barnabas:

    14:56-14:58

    So try to hide beside the banana tree.

    Barnabas:

    14:59-15:04

    It's not-- banana tree is not a good protection for the bullets.

    Barnabas:

    15:07-15:15

    When I came down to Thailand, people I went to Bible college only four years, but I took six years.

    Barnabas:

    15:16-15:17

    The reasons I didn't have ID.

    Barnabas:

    15:18-15:21

    The second is I didn't know Thai language.

    Barnabas:

    15:22-15:24

    So sometimes I can be in the class.

    Barnabas:

    15:24-15:30

    So sometimes I went and I stay with the Lishu people where the police did not come.

    Barnabas:

    15:32-15:38

    So when the condition is pretty quiet, then I went down and went to the Bible school again.

    Barnabas:

    15:39-15:41

    So I was there for four years.

    Barnabas:

    15:41-15:51

    Actually, that Bible school at the beginning, we are the one who pulled the cement and everything from the beginning that way.

    Barnabas:

    15:51-15:57

    When I graduated, the Bible school also finished building.

    Barnabas:

    15:58-15:59

    And this is in Burma.

    Barnabas:

    15:59-16:06

    After I finished my Bible school there in Thailand, I went back to Burma and suffered a lot at the country area.

    Barnabas:

    16:08-16:18

    traveling a lot, no time to stay at home, traveling to the north, to the south, to the west, to the east, traveling a lot within these four years.

    Barnabas:

    16:20-16:29

    After four years, this is what we call General Secretary of Myanmar Council of Churches.

    Barnabas:

    16:30-16:37

    The middle one is the General Secretary of the Church of England.

    Barnabas:

    16:38-16:45

    And this is me, I dress in Burmese, official dress is like this.

    Barnabas:

    16:46-16:51

    When we go to Burma, you will see this dressing is mostly you can see at the office.

    Barnabas:

    16:52-16:58

    So I was there at the Lisu Christian Church as a General Secretary for four years.

    Barnabas:

    16:59-17:01

    Then I wanted to preach the gospel.

    Barnabas:

    17:01-17:06

    That's why I came down to Thailand in 1986.

    Barnabas:

    17:09-17:18

    And when I came down over there, a group of American group preaching the gospel came to Thailand, but they don't speak any Thai.

    Barnabas:

    17:19-17:22

    They don't speak any Lisu or something like that.

    Barnabas:

    17:23-17:28

    So, they also went to join the Bible class.

    Barnabas:

    17:29-17:32

    And nobody can translate for them.

    Barnabas:

    17:33-17:41

    So I translate for them into Burmese, Lisu, and Lahu, three languages at the same time.

    Barnabas:

    17:42-17:58

    And Mr. Wallaby, he said that, "Okay, if you willing, I'm going to, he's willing to support me two years to go to Cincinnati Bible Seminary." Yeah, this is Burmese writing language.

    Barnabas:

    17:59-18:11

    Yeah, Mr. Willoughby and Mrs. Virginia Willoughby, they brought me to America and I went to Cincinnati Bible Seminary for two years.

    Barnabas:

    18:13-18:14

    This is in Ching Dao.

    Barnabas:

    18:16-18:17

    Yeah, this is Cincinnati.

    Barnabas:

    18:18-18:21

    I was here for two years.

    Barnabas:

    18:22-19:13

    was so urgent. I came to Thailand for a couple of weeks, and I met Mr. Wallaby. I didn't have a chance to prepare that, to go to school. And then when I came over to America, I was late for school, two weeks already. And I couldn't catch, it was difficult to catch because my English was not good. I didn't know this kind of a big city and many rooms like that. I'm lost in the Cincinnati Bible Seminary. I don't know which way to go. So somebody took me to a room, a classroom. Okay, I tried to listen to the professor. And about three, four minutes later, somebody came and said, "This is not your class." So he took me to another class.

    Barnabas:

    19:15-20:15

    And when I came out, I don't know which room is my class, because Usually we have only one room or two rooms, but a big city, I'm lost in the Cincinnati Bible Seminary over there. So after two years, exactly two years, I went back to Thailand and I start preaching the gospel. One thing, when I graduated from Cincinnati Bible Seminary, now I finished. Looks like all the heavy burdens for the preparation and reading for the examination is so much, you know, since it's my second thought language, and I couldn't -- difficult, you know, every day we are struggling, reading assignments, all these things. Usually, American students are three hours in the class. At home, they read maybe about 30 minutes or 10 minutes, then they finish.

    Barnabas:

    20:16-20:21

    But for me, in the class, three hours, back home, another three hours, you know.

    Barnabas:

    20:22-20:30

    So some nights, I stay until in the morning, because our challenge is so great.

    Barnabas:

    20:30-20:42

    I couldn't sleep, so the whole night, typing and also reading, and I think not less than three, four nights that I still do in the morning, you know.

    Barnabas:

    20:44-20:52

    My time is almost finished in staying in America, but I don't have any support to go back and serve the Lord.

    Barnabas:

    20:53-20:59

    Thailand is not my homeland, so I need some support.

    Barnabas:

    20:59-21:04

    So in one class, I met Mr. Bob Huber in the same class.

    Barnabas:

    21:05-21:06

    Actually, the time is gone.

    Barnabas:

    21:07-21:08

    The time is finished.

    Barnabas:

    21:08-21:10

    But one more subject is not finished yet.

    Barnabas:

    21:11-21:17

    So in the midterm, they have a two-week class.

    Barnabas:

    21:17-21:20

    So Mr.

    Barnabas:

    21:20-21:22

    Bob came over there, and we met over there.

    Barnabas:

    21:22-21:28

    So usually in the school, people don't introduce themselves very much.

    Barnabas:

    21:29-21:37

    But Mr. Bob introduced himself to me, then that's why we came to know each other.

    Barnabas:

    21:37-21:46

    Another thing he said, "Our church willing to support a missionary to Thailand." That's me, you know.

    Barnabas:

    21:47-21:56

    And that is the Holy Spirit brought us to know together in order to do the ministry there in Thailand.

    Barnabas:

    21:57-21:58

    I didn't know him.

    Barnabas:

    22:00-22:02

    I have to go back home without support.

    Barnabas:

    22:02-22:04

    That means that we cannot suffer more.

    Barnabas:

    22:05-22:07

    I have to find some other jobs like that.

    Barnabas:

    22:07-22:14

    Yeah, when I went back to Thailand, Mr. Ben Felix gave me a dog bike.

    Barnabas:

    22:15-22:17

    You have only one bike.

    Barnabas:

    22:17-22:22

    Marta stayed at home, no bicycle, no scooter.

    Barnabas:

    22:23-22:27

    When she go to buy some, go to the market, still difficult.

    Barnabas:

    22:27-22:32

    But our families are depending on one dog bike.

    Barnabas:

    22:34-22:43

    Me and Martha in the city, me and Martha, and even Arthur and Lisa, we four people ride on the dog bike.

    Barnabas:

    22:45-22:52

    So whether we go to the village or live in the town, we use four people on one bike.

    Barnabas:

    22:53-22:54

    This is Mr. Phillip.

    Barnabas:

    22:56-23:04

    We came in 1988 here in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    Barnabas:

    23:05-23:07

    During that time, it looks like snowing.

    Barnabas:

    23:09-23:10

    OK, this is Mary Phillip.

    Barnabas:

    23:12-23:16

    She donated-- later that she donated one truck.

    Barnabas:

    23:16-23:19

    And that's very powerful to use in the country area.

    Barnabas:

    23:21-23:24

    To do the ministry, I walk a lot.

    Barnabas:

    23:25-23:26

    I walk a lot.

    Barnabas:

    23:26-23:30

    Looks like our sweat is taking a shower, you know.

    Barnabas:

    23:30-23:33

    Sweat comes out and it dries up.

    Barnabas:

    23:33-23:35

    When you rest, it dries up.

    Barnabas:

    23:35-23:38

    When you walk out, the sweat comes out again.

    Barnabas:

    23:39-23:42

    Okay, so this we call animism.

    Barnabas:

    23:43-23:46

    They worship their forefathers' spirit.

    Barnabas:

    23:47-23:49

    And also we call jungle spirit.

    Barnabas:

    23:50-23:54

    They have two kinds of spirit in their family worship altar.

    Barnabas:

    23:55-24:06

    So when they accept Jesus Christ, we have to take out their spirit altar and put it into the basket, and we burn it outside their house.

    Barnabas:

    24:06-24:14

    And this is —we—so many pictures on this thing, just only a few pictures we can see.

    Barnabas:

    24:16-24:18

    And this is what we call Aka Village.

    Barnabas:

    24:20-24:27

    And the first day they became Christians, 70 people just accepted Jesus Christ within one day.

    Barnabas:

    24:29-24:39

    Yeah, this is, I took off from their spirit altar and I put it on my truck and they said, "Oh, don't let us see that our forefather's spirit.

    Barnabas:

    24:40-24:51

    We burned them in front of my eyes." They said, "Difficult to accept it." So you take away and burn them somewhere else, but not in our village.

    Barnabas:

    24:51-24:55

    So I carried all these things to another village.

    Barnabas:

    24:55-25:07

    But some people said, "Barnabas carries some kind of spirit, "so don't let him burn this area." So, okay, I can burn somewhere else.

    Barnabas:

    25:10-25:25

    Well, we all burn this area, even though we just like, we have to pray to God that nothing happen to us and to the people who accept Jesus Christ.

    Barnabas:

    25:25-25:26

    We have to pray.

    Barnabas:

    25:28-25:37

    Yeah, when we take out the spirit altar, we usually the cross sign put into the family.

    Barnabas:

    25:38-25:45

    So I used from the Joshua, me and my family will worship our God.

    Barnabas:

    25:45-25:49

    So I write the word over there in this.

    Barnabas:

    25:50-25:51

    So in the, that's bamboo wall.

    Barnabas:

    25:52-25:54

    They pick up, put it on a bamboo wall.

    Barnabas:

    25:55-26:01

    And then when we step into their house, we can easily know that this is Christian.

    Barnabas:

    26:02-26:05

    If non-Christian, they are pretty much superstitious.

    Barnabas:

    26:06-26:12

    But Christians, the same Bible changed their life, and the same Bible changed us.

    Barnabas:

    26:13-26:16

    So we feel like brother and sister, you know.

    Barnabas:

    26:16-26:21

    We don't feel afraid or suspect or something like that.

    Barnabas:

    26:23-26:28

    Yeah, they have some threat, white threat or sometimes colorful threat.

    Barnabas:

    26:28-26:34

    They bite on, tie it on their wrist or on the neck.

    Barnabas:

    26:35-26:39

    So they vow something to the spirit.

    Barnabas:

    26:41-26:43

    Sometimes this can be very dangerous.

    Barnabas:

    26:45-26:52

    And so when they accept Jesus Christ, we use the scissor or a knife, cut them off.

    Barnabas:

    26:52-26:54

    Then we lay hands on them and pray.

    Barnabas:

    26:55-26:59

    And then let them follow after our prayer.

    Barnabas:

    27:00-27:05

    So whenever they accept Jesus Christ, I stay one or two more nights.

    Barnabas:

    27:06-27:07

    I cannot go home immediately.

    Barnabas:

    27:09-27:14

    Or sometimes, today, one family become Christian, usually I stay with them, you know.

    Barnabas:

    27:15-27:18

    So my life is, I have, looks like many house, you know.

    Barnabas:

    27:19-27:21

    I can stay with any family.

    Barnabas:

    27:22-27:25

    Means I don't have my private room.

    Barnabas:

    27:25-27:30

    We just sleep on the floor, nearby their stove.

    Barnabas:

    27:31-27:38

    They lit the fire, And in the country area, not enough blankets, so I have to close to the stove.

    Barnabas:

    27:39-27:40

    Then a little bit warmer.

    Barnabas:

    27:41-27:44

    You know, shaky nights, you know, very cold.

    Barnabas:

    27:45-27:50

    Yeah, when they accept Jesus Christ, we baptize them.

    Barnabas:

    27:51-27:54

    Many, many people were baptized, many, many.

    Barnabas:

    27:55-27:57

    Sometimes 70, sometimes 60.

    Barnabas:

    27:59-28:02

    So when we —my truck is enough, not enough.

    Barnabas:

    28:03-28:12

    So I have to hire three more taxi trucks over there, then to go to the water in order to be baptized.

    Barnabas:

    28:12-28:15

    In the village, the water is not enough.

    Barnabas:

    28:15-28:22

    So we have to go out about maybe 40 minutes' drive at the jungle, going very dusty.

    Barnabas:

    28:23-28:25

    Here, I don't see any dust here.

    Barnabas:

    28:26-28:29

    Over there, one truck goes, don't follow after them.

    Barnabas:

    28:29-28:32

    You know, dust.

    Barnabas:

    28:32-28:34

    We couldn't see the next truck.

    Barnabas:

    28:36-28:40

    And we become American because all the hairs become gray.

    Barnabas:

    28:43-28:45

    This fellow is a general, Thai general.

    Barnabas:

    28:46-28:54

    I didn't know him, but his house helper, she's a Lee Su, and knew her, so I give a call to her.

    Barnabas:

    28:54-28:57

    Please ask permission from your boss.

    Barnabas:

    28:58-29:00

    Can I share the gospel to him?

    Barnabas:

    29:00-29:08

    And she asked, and she said, "Yes." So me and my wife and one more couple, we went to preach gospel that night.

    Barnabas:

    29:10-29:16

    And for Thai people, they are really difficult to approach high officers.

    Barnabas:

    29:17-29:22

    When we step in, for Hilltribe people, we just step in this way.

    Barnabas:

    29:23-29:29

    But the two Thai fellow, they just kneel down and crawling in front of the yard.

    Barnabas:

    29:31-29:31

    General.

    Barnabas:

    29:32-29:37

    So I'm a Thai, but counterfeit, you know, fake Thai, you know, like that.

    Barnabas:

    29:38-29:46

    So when I shared the gospel, the general said, "How can it be? I'm the leader of Thailand.

    Barnabas:

    29:46-30:03

    I'm leading in the Second World War and the Vietnam War, joining with the U.S. force." He said, "If I don't know this one, how can I be a leader of Thailand?" So Barnabas give me one night, then I will give you the answer.

    Barnabas:

    30:04-30:07

    So it's about one hour drive from my house to his house.

    Barnabas:

    30:09-30:18

    And then when I'm back home in the night about 8 p.m., watering my plants, you know, the flowers, he give him my call and he said, "Barnabas, I couldn't wait.

    Barnabas:

    30:19-30:28

    If something going to happen to me this night then, tonight then, how can I solve the problem?" He said, "Come over tonight."

    Barnabas:

    30:28-30:28

    (laughs)

    Barnabas:

    30:29-30:30

    I said, "It's very dark.

    Barnabas:

    30:32-30:40

    "God is with you." At the second that you wanted to accept Jesus Christ, God is with you, he's gonna give you protection.

    Barnabas:

    30:41-30:46

    So on Sunday, he came to the church, and we lay hands on him, pray for him.

    Barnabas:

    30:47-30:50

    And the Holy Spirit helped him a lot.

    Barnabas:

    30:51-30:57

    He was 85 and caught car accident a couple times, so his health is not good.

    Barnabas:

    30:59-31:02

    Slivers are dropping all the time.

    Barnabas:

    31:02-31:09

    So whether he, with the net tire or the white shirts, getting wet.

    Barnabas:

    31:11-31:14

    So he came to, he stayed with us for three days.

    Barnabas:

    31:15-31:25

    And then we prayed together and the dropping slivers, Slavery is gone, immediately gone.

    Barnabas:

    31:25-31:29

    He said, "If this happened to someone, "I don't believe," he said.

    Barnabas:

    31:30-31:31

    "But it's happened to me.

    Barnabas:

    31:32-31:33

    "What shall I say?

    Barnabas:

    31:33-31:36

    "If I don't believe, now I'm dried up.

    Barnabas:

    31:37-31:42

    "If I believe, what happened to me?" He said, "Jesus Christ is so surprised," he said.

    Barnabas:

    31:44-31:49

    So in the Second World War, he killed so many Vietnamese.

    Barnabas:

    31:50-31:52

    So that bothered him a lot.

    Barnabas:

    31:52-31:54

    In the nighttime, he couldn't sleep.

    Barnabas:

    31:54-32:05

    All the people that he killed coming back to him in the nighttime, even though he closed eyes, still coming, and he couldn't sleep the whole night.

    Barnabas:

    32:06-32:10

    So after we went to his house and prayed for him, all this gone.

    Barnabas:

    32:11-32:12

    He was so happy.

    Barnabas:

    32:13-32:19

    So wherever our evangelists are going, the Holy Spirit is with us.

    Barnabas:

    32:20-32:28

    How can we drive, how do you say, the spirits in the Second World War come to bother him?

    Barnabas:

    32:28-32:30

    How can we drive them out?

    Barnabas:

    32:30-32:32

    Only in the name of Jesus Christ.

    Barnabas:

    32:33-32:37

    So when he became a Christian, he was so happy.

    Barnabas:

    32:38-32:39

    He was so happy.

    Barnabas:

    32:41-32:53

    As you see the dirt bike, very muddy, the hillside, our bridge, it's only wooden bridge, not last long, but we're very scary.

    Barnabas:

    32:54-33:03

    In this motorbike, me and my wife and my son and my daughter, four people on our dirt bike, very slippery.

    Barnabas:

    33:05-33:07

    Don't say to ride on a motorbike.

    Barnabas:

    33:07-33:11

    Just walk down is not easy, you know, not that way.

    Barnabas:

    33:13-33:21

    To ride on motorbike, we have to ride, and the left leg must be strong, because you have to keep side by side like that.

    Barnabas:

    33:22-33:28

    So this is, I walk at the country for one day, two days, I walk.

    Barnabas:

    33:30-33:35

    because I want to know Jesus Christ more, you know.

    Barnabas:

    33:36-33:41

    By traveling, God has performed something better than before.

    Barnabas:

    33:41-33:43

    Something new, something new.

    Barnabas:

    33:43-33:46

    I always keep this thing all the time in my mind.

    Barnabas:

    33:48-33:52

    So, I didn't feel like I'm tired.

    Barnabas:

    33:53-33:54

    You know, I didn't complain.

    Barnabas:

    33:55-33:59

    Even those difficulties, I didn't complain.

    Barnabas:

    34:00-34:02

    But one day I complained one time.

    Barnabas:

    34:04-34:05

    The road was so slippery.

    Barnabas:

    34:06-34:11

    Before I could reach the village, I fell off a motorbike six times.

    Barnabas:

    34:12-34:16

    You see, I fell off a motorbike six times.

    Barnabas:

    34:16-34:23

    So I said, "Lord, only one mile." I fell off six times.

    Barnabas:

    34:24-34:28

    There are another 30 more miles. How can I go?

    Barnabas:

    34:29-34:41

    So I sit before the Lord and I pray, "Help me on this trip." And then the rest of the journey, I didn't fail out from the bike, you know, right to the village.

    Barnabas:

    34:41-34:47

    My motorbike road is a path, it's a very small path, very steep.

    Barnabas:

    34:48-34:53

    When you come, I will point out for you the places that I went.

    Barnabas:

    34:53-34:55

    You just don't believe me.

    Barnabas:

    34:56-34:57

    You don't believe me.

    Barnabas:

    34:58-35:03

    But it's real. All the people over there, they knew that I went this road.

    Barnabas:

    35:04-35:05

    Very difficult.

    Barnabas:

    35:07-35:14

    Yeah, Mr. Wallaby, when we have a motor with a dog bike and he bought me this truck.

    Barnabas:

    35:15-35:18

    This truck looks like all the Leasing people owned it.

    Barnabas:

    35:19-35:21

    One truck, we loaded 30 people.

    Barnabas:

    35:23-35:24

    27 people.

    Barnabas:

    35:27-35:28

    Very helpful.

    Barnabas:

    35:29-35:32

    Got a truck in the country, very helpful.

    Barnabas:

    35:32-35:36

    Not necessarily with the air condition, a warmer system.

    Barnabas:

    35:39-35:41

    This is not with air condition.

    Barnabas:

    35:43-35:47

    And also, the steering is not power.

    Barnabas:

    35:48-35:57

    So my journey is about 150 kilometres, but you have to drive five to six hours.

    Barnabas:

    35:59-36:11

    More than a thousand turns, you know, almost, yeah, just, almost turning all this way without steering, HDR, how to say, shoulder pain, arm pain, like that.

    Barnabas:

    36:13-36:23

    Mary Phillip, she donated this truck, So we put the other truck is now four by four, so cannot go this way.

    Barnabas:

    36:23-36:27

    So this one, we have to put four chains on four wheels.

    Barnabas:

    36:30-36:34

    Yeah, here, like this is Mr. Chuck Ralph.

    Barnabas:

    36:35-36:41

    Now he is here, Denise and Mr. Chuck, they donate this truck.

    Barnabas:

    36:41-36:50

    And now I'm not using this one because my left leg is not so strong.

    Barnabas:

    36:50-36:52

    So this truck came.

    Barnabas:

    36:54-36:57

    At the time, I really needed this kind of a truck.

    Barnabas:

    36:58-37:00

    So that really helped me a lot.

    Barnabas:

    37:00-37:03

    So will you please stand up for me, Mr. Chuck and Denise?

    Barnabas:

    37:05-37:07

    OK, Alexis, thank you.

    Barnabas:

    37:07-37:08

    Give applause to them.

    Barnabas:

    37:08-37:08

    OK.

    Barnabas:

    37:13-37:13

    [APPLAUSE]

    Barnabas:

    37:14-37:29

    When we loaded generator, sandbox, and everything's on one truck, above them we have six, seven people sit on the top.

    Barnabas:

    37:29-37:32

    So very shaky like that.

    Barnabas:

    37:32-37:34

    In the country, the road is not good.

    Barnabas:

    37:34-37:40

    You must learn how to hold—we have to learn from monkey, you know, how much they are strong.

    Barnabas:

    37:41-37:45

    And when you lose out, you'll be losing out like that.

    Barnabas:

    37:46-37:51

    So we have to-- the whole time that we are on the top, you have to hold this way.

    Barnabas:

    37:52-37:57

    And so riding the truck over here is a lot easier, very comfortable.

    Barnabas:

    37:58-38:01

    Over here is-- you hold very tight.

    Barnabas:

    38:02-38:02

    OK.

    Barnabas:

    38:04-38:15

    And the truck right now is like-- actually, I couldn't drive the truck anymore because my left leg, so since we have automatic gear, I got this one.

    Barnabas:

    38:16-38:24

    So my stay at home and stay and live in the truck, my time in the lift truck is more than my stay at home.

    Barnabas:

    38:25-38:28

    So traveling in the day or in the night.

    Barnabas:

    38:28-38:34

    So like I have to be, in the past time, I run 40 village by myself.

    Barnabas:

    38:35-38:43

    But right now I keep 20 village, maybe 25 village, and we have 17 fellow evangelists.

    Barnabas:

    38:45-38:51

    So right now, not alone, you know, we have some fellow evangelists that I trained.

    Barnabas:

    38:51-39:06

    We train them monthly, and from time to time I go to the village, and especially I met with the headman of the village, or spirit man, like a witch doctor.

    Barnabas:

    39:07-39:12

    So they're a little bit hesitant to go, but for me, it's no problem.

    Barnabas:

    39:13-39:16

    To see the headman or to see the witch doctor.

    Barnabas:

    39:17-39:20

    We are come here to challenge, to meet these people.

    Barnabas:

    39:22-39:25

    Okay, these are some of our church right now.

    Barnabas:

    39:26-39:28

    That was Nong Choe Church.

    Barnabas:

    39:29-39:42

    Yeah, all this church, we mostly send, The money came from non-seclusion church, that we can able to build all this church.

    Barnabas:

    39:42-39:44

    This is my fellow evangelist.

    Barnabas:

    39:46-39:55

    Yeah, when we have some money, we pave church floor, and our church members are helping in the mixing cement, like that.

    Barnabas:

    39:57-40:02

    Yeah, in my life, I just don't agree with the Muslim, what they do.

    Barnabas:

    40:02-40:07

    So I use this one and I pray for Muslims.

    Barnabas:

    40:09-40:11

    The reason is like very difficult.

    Barnabas:

    40:12-40:19

    If we don't pray for the Muslims, don't send our kids as a missionary to other countries.

    Barnabas:

    40:21-40:22

    They will be killed, you know.

    Barnabas:

    40:24-40:28

    So we have to, our prayer must be like a long reach missile.

    Barnabas:

    40:29-40:31

    Let our prayer go there first.

    Barnabas:

    40:32-40:46

    I remember when the Jews, Israelites came up from Egypt to Canaan, 600,000 Israel were lost.

    Barnabas:

    40:47-41:00

    So the same thing, like in this generation, if 600,000 Jihadis gone, then the next generation is open to the gospel.

    Barnabas:

    41:01-41:07

    So I pray for them like a war.

    Barnabas:

    41:08-41:16

    So I lit the candle and kneel before God and fast and pray.

    Barnabas:

    41:18-41:24

    Because even this generation's gone, we want coming generation to come to Christ.

    Barnabas:

    41:25-41:31

    It's not the end time, but still we have hope like that.

    Barnabas:

    41:31-41:38

    But here in America, I think you better not use your candle, because you are paved with the carpet.

    Barnabas:

    41:40-41:47

    Carpet is very flammable, so if you-- sometimes it burns your house away.

    Barnabas:

    41:47-41:49

    Over there, we don't have a carpet.

    Barnabas:

    41:49-41:54

    So even though it drops down there, there's only cement floor.

    Barnabas:

    41:56-42:03

    But here it's very difficult if you use the candle, must use a light, electric light.

    Barnabas:

    42:05-42:07

    Yeah, this is a monthly meeting.

    Barnabas:

    42:07-42:09

    So Martha is cook.

    Barnabas:

    42:10-42:11

    Our meeting is three days.

    Barnabas:

    42:11-42:16

    One day they come, the second day I teach, I train them the whole day.

    Barnabas:

    42:17-42:21

    And they have to give me report, every monthly report.

    Barnabas:

    42:22-42:25

    What has been done this past month?

    Barnabas:

    42:26-42:27

    what is your new plan for next month?

    Barnabas:

    42:29-42:36

    So like monthly, but starting from this year, I divided out two sections.

    Barnabas:

    42:37-42:41

    This first mission part, this is second part like that.

    Barnabas:

    42:42-42:50

    So they will be meeting their own village, and then the second month come to meet me in Chiang Mai.

    Barnabas:

    42:51-42:56

    So when evangelists come in my house, about more than 20 people.

    Barnabas:

    42:57-43:01

    Mother are cooking and well to prepare for their sleeping.

    Barnabas:

    43:01-43:08

    But here in America, every time when I came over here, they give me private room like that.

    Barnabas:

    43:08-43:11

    Over there, we don't have a private room, just sleeping line.

    Barnabas:

    43:14-43:18

    This is just before I came over here, when they were sleeping, I just took a picture.

    Barnabas:

    43:19-43:19

    (laughs)

    Barnabas:

    43:22-43:27

    Yeah, my ministry in Chiang Mai is not to start a Lisu church.

    Barnabas:

    43:28-43:31

    From the Lisu to start a Thai church.

    Barnabas:

    43:33-43:39

    So now the country people become pastors in the city or evangelists in the city.

    Barnabas:

    43:40-43:43

    Country people went to Bible college a lot.

    Barnabas:

    43:44-43:51

    So like I preach in Lisu, Mata interpreted into Thai language.

    Barnabas:

    43:53-43:57

    Up there was the Christmas time, down there is Thanksgiving.

    Barnabas:

    43:57-44:07

    So Mata is always cooking, cooking for the Christmas or Thanksgiving or monthly meeting.

    Barnabas:

    44:09-44:14

    This is last year that Mr. Bob came to Thailand.

    Barnabas:

    44:15-44:20

    And our Thanksgiving and here your Thanksgiving is a little different.

    Barnabas:

    44:21-44:27

    So this is our Thanksgiving is what you can see from biblical like that way.

    Barnabas:

    44:29-44:32

    Yeah, this is Ben Rath.

    Barnabas:

    44:33-44:34

    He came to Thailand.

    Barnabas:

    44:35-44:40

    And also, he also encouraged the people over there.

    Barnabas:

    44:42-44:48

    Yeah, this is just beside my house.

    Barnabas:

    44:49-44:50

    This is what we call bamboo house.

    Barnabas:

    44:52-44:55

    We use the bamboo, make a big hole.

    Barnabas:

    44:56-45:08

    We don't let, how to say, in the middle, we don't have the post, so we try to make ourself a bamboo house, and then we can hold many people.

    Barnabas:

    45:09-45:12

    In my house church is still very small.

    Barnabas:

    45:13-45:17

    Maybe 67 people can stay, but 300, 400 people.

    Barnabas:

    45:17-45:23

    Sometimes, Thanksgiving, we have more than 1,000 people came.

    Barnabas:

    45:23-45:25

    Sometimes 300 people came.

    Barnabas:

    45:25-45:26

    Sometimes 400 people came.

    Barnabas:

    45:28-45:31

    Yeah, this is how bamboo house.

    Barnabas:

    45:32-45:35

    That is my fellow evangelist.

    Barnabas:

    45:37-45:43

    My fellow evangelist from Lisu, Thai, Laos, Aka.

    Barnabas:

    45:45-45:49

    So I'm serving the Lord among the four tribes here in Thailand.

    Barnabas:

    45:51-45:54

    So I speak Burmese and sometimes I went to Burma.

    Barnabas:

    45:55-46:01

    At the border one time I met the immigration officer.

    Barnabas:

    46:02-46:03

    He's a Burmese.

    Barnabas:

    46:04-46:08

    When I share the gospel to him, he accept.

    Barnabas:

    46:09-46:22

    And I said, "Okay, you who live here in Burma, you can take out his idol, all idols from his house." And they said, "No, no, no, Barnabas.

    Barnabas:

    46:23-46:24

    We cannot do it.

    Barnabas:

    46:24-46:25

    You do it.

    Barnabas:

    46:26-46:41

    We don't know how to do it." So I told this immigration officer, "Okay, let's go to your house." So I went to his house and asked, "Do you agree that we take all these things?" He said, "I agree." I decided.

    Barnabas:

    46:42-46:54

    So I put all the idols, the Buddhist idols, put into the paper box and I tied it up and I told one young man, "Take and run."

    Barnabas:

    46:54-46:55

    (laughs)

    Barnabas:

    46:56-46:59

    They can run and don't let anybody see.

    Barnabas:

    46:59-47:00

    They don't speak this rule.

    Barnabas:

    47:01-47:07

    So I said, "You went out there in the wood and you can use your hammer to break out.

    Barnabas:

    47:08-47:16

    Don't let anybody know." The idols used the hammer, hit their heads at the jungle.

    Barnabas:

    47:16-47:19

    We cannot hit them in front of them.

    Barnabas:

    47:22-47:26

    Actually, your support is good enough for my family.

    Barnabas:

    47:28-47:35

    I can spend more money, but I cannot do, I cannot be each village.

    Barnabas:

    47:36-47:42

    So, what sort of a you give me, I separate it up, give to 70 people.

    Barnabas:

    47:45-47:46

    So, what sort of a left?

    Barnabas:

    47:46-47:53

    Maybe $100 left, $200 left, and our family depend on that.

    Barnabas:

    47:55-47:59

    So God, the Holy Spirit give us more food, you know.

    Barnabas:

    48:00-48:04

    When they have Thanksgiving, they give some more rice to us.

    Barnabas:

    48:05-48:08

    When we go to the village, they give some chicken to us.

    Barnabas:

    48:09-48:15

    So I don't lay my treasure here on earth.

    Barnabas:

    48:16-48:20

    What's all that we have, just share with the evangelists, share with the evangelists.

    Barnabas:

    48:20-48:24

    They can be where they are, I cannot be, you see.

    Barnabas:

    48:25-48:28

    Then this little money I can spend, yeah, I can spend it.

    Barnabas:

    48:29-48:33

    But if they have it better than it has in my hand.

    Barnabas:

    48:34-48:38

    So I share all the support to our fellow.

    Barnabas:

    48:39-48:42

    Yeah, in their hand, their whole envelope.

    Barnabas:

    48:44-48:45

    One family, $100.

    Barnabas:

    48:47-48:49

    One family, $150.

    Barnabas:

    48:50-49:04

    Every month when I give them, "Okay, you pray for North South Christian Church and also how to say, Mr. Jeff, I give them the name, you have to pray for them.

    Barnabas:

    49:06-49:13

    So when they hold the envelope and pray for you, and you are responsible to use this money.

    Barnabas:

    49:15-49:25

    So like the word of God is, you know, going to 17, 18 area, usually 25 villages that we are running.

    Barnabas:

    49:26-49:27

    Yeah, they are praying.

    Barnabas:

    49:27-49:28

    Next one.

    Barnabas:

    49:28-49:30

    Yeah, actually here we have one song.

    Barnabas:

    49:32-49:33

    Can we hear their song?

    Barnabas:

    49:35-49:37

    Actually we together sing a song.

    Barnabas:

    49:39-49:44

    In my prayer, God use me a lot.

    Barnabas:

    49:44-49:51

    So just we, let us give ourselves to God first and he can use.

    Barnabas:

    49:52-49:55

    Like your money, if you don't give me, how can I use your money?

    Barnabas:

    49:57-50:02

    The same way, if we don't give our life to God, God cannot use.

    Barnabas:

    50:03-50:12

    If I say this is mine, then God, okay, you are, by your own, then God cannot use us.

    Barnabas:

    50:13-50:36

    So like Father says, a while ago we read Mark chapter, verse three, chapter three, 13 to 15, is that the signs will be authority, the same authority that he gave to 12 disciples and 70 people and gave it to the apostle Paul.

    Barnabas:

    50:37-50:45

    And even today, the same authority we receive to drive demons and evil spirits.

    Barnabas:

    50:47-50:51

    So what he had said in this world is true.

    Barnabas:

    50:52-50:58

    Then what he said for the coming promise that he will take us to heaven, that will be true.

    Barnabas:

    50:59-51:03

    So our hope is really true.

    Barnabas:

    51:04-51:06

    So don't be discouraged in our life.

    Barnabas:

    51:07-51:11

    Worshiping God and preaching the gospel.

    Barnabas:

    51:13-51:33

    Actually, in preaching the gospel, like a bear in fruit, like a bear in fruit means when I receive the Bible and I have to speak out the Bible, go to all nations, means let the word of God go out from our mouth.

    Barnabas:

    51:35-51:38

    Let the word of God come out from our mouth.

    Barnabas:

    51:39-51:39

    It's good.

    Barnabas:

    51:40-51:47

    the Word of God go anywhere and everywhere, you can let the Word of God go out. Let the Word of God go out.

    Barnabas:

    51:49-51:53

    Then God will use his Word to change someone's life.

    Barnabas:

    51:54-52:06

    So evangelist means I told my people like we must be talking Bible, walking Bible. This Bible is not talking Bible.

    Barnabas:

    52:07-52:12

    It's not walking Bible, but it transfer to in our life.

    Barnabas:

    52:13-52:18

    Then the Bible, we ourselves like the Bible, talking Bible and walking Bible.

    Barnabas:

    52:20-52:25

    So even on the way, anywhere you can talk the gospel to everyone.

    Barnabas:

    52:27-52:30

    Since we did dedicated to the Lord.

    Barnabas:

    52:30-52:34

    So God will, we give and God will use.

    Barnabas:

    52:36-52:41

    Many times we face the spirit problem, spirit battle.

    Barnabas:

    52:42-52:57

    I faced many times, but God gave me, suppose something is happening, I couldn't see clearly, but in my dream, God gave me, who is bothering this young boy?

    Barnabas:

    52:58-53:00

    I know that the spirit is bothering.

    Barnabas:

    53:01-53:02

    Which spirit?

    Barnabas:

    53:03-53:06

    Where even spirit, they have a higher position, a lower position.

    Barnabas:

    53:07-53:11

    The spirit of Bardo, this younger, is from the higher position.

    Barnabas:

    53:13-53:19

    So I drove one hour, two hour, to go there and help this youngest out.

    Barnabas:

    53:20-53:22

    So she's now okay.

    Barnabas:

    53:24-53:34

    So like, I wanted to witness that, what the Bible said in the Jesus time is still true to this day.

    Barnabas:

    53:36-53:39

    If we dedicate to him, he will use us.

    Barnabas:

    53:41-53:47

    And then things that are happening, we don't understand.

    Barnabas:

    53:48-53:52

    It's increasing, the number of Christians is increasing.

    Barnabas:

    53:53-53:59

    In my area, just before I came over here, One family, it's a Thai family, became Christian.

    Barnabas:

    54:00-54:03

    Three children and a father and mother, all five people.

    Barnabas:

    54:06-54:15

    So my preaching gospel place is whenever I meet non-Christian, that is the place that I preach in the gospel.

    Barnabas:

    54:15-54:23

    I don't choose the place, whether at the cemetery, whether on the bus, at the restaurant.

    Barnabas:

    54:25-54:32

    Usually when I eat something at the restaurant, the restaurant over there is, you know, at the city and the country area is very different.

    Barnabas:

    54:33-54:38

    One meal about $1, but here it's maybe not one meal, $1.

    Barnabas:

    54:40-54:46

    And then, if not many customer, I can share the gospel to shop owner.

    Barnabas:

    54:48-54:58

    So like, I would like to witness that the Holy Spirit done it in my life and all these spirits gone.

    Barnabas:

    54:59-55:00

    And many people become Christian.

    Barnabas:

    55:01-55:07

    Right now we have more than 2,000 people become Christian within this 30 years.

    Barnabas:

    55:08-55:11

    So worker also more increased it.

    Barnabas:

    55:12-55:20

    So like here also more stronger support must be increased it and then we will reach more area.

    Barnabas:

    55:21-55:24

    and my preaching the gospel is a lot improved.

    Barnabas:

    55:24-55:35

    At the beginning, I have to, in order to preach the gospel to one person, is have to wait opportunity, make a friend, make a friend.

    Barnabas:

    55:36-55:40

    Like I said, be a friend, be a friend, be a friend, the rest of all your life, be a friend.

    Barnabas:

    55:41-55:43

    Nowadays, I don't make a be friend, you know.

    Barnabas:

    55:44-55:46

    I just directly preach gospel to them.

    Barnabas:

    55:48-55:52

    Be a friend is take, spend a lot of time.

    Barnabas:

    55:53-55:54

    Just share the gospel immediately.

    Barnabas:

    55:56-56:01

    I said, I'm faithful to your life, so I share the gospel to you.

    Barnabas:

    56:02-56:05

    I'm faithful to your life, that's why I share the gospel to you.

    Barnabas:

    56:07-56:16

    So like, I thank you for your prayer, and thank you for your listening, and thank you that allow me to be with you.

    Barnabas:

    56:17-56:17

    It's a great honor.

    Barnabas:

    56:18-56:19

    May God bless you.

    56:22-56:22

    [APPLAUSE]

    56:23-56:26

    [APPLAUSE]

Unstoppable Against Tribulation.

Review:

Prov 24:16

Get Up!

  1. You have lost people to Evangelize! (Acts 14:21)


  2. You have believers to Encourage! (Acts 14:22-23)

  3. Matt 16:24 | John 13:16 | John 15:20


  4. You have a testimony to Share! (Acts 14:24-28)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:00-00:05

    Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts and chapter 14.

    00:05-00:11

    Now, certainly, certainly Harvest You is my highlight of last week.

    00:11-00:24

    It's a little taste of heaven because you're with people from all tribes and nations all over the world and you're coming in one place to worship Jesus Christ and it is a little preview of heaven.

    00:25-00:27

    So that was certainly my highlight from last week.

    00:28-00:37

    But you know what is my second highlight last week is I went to the toy store and I bought something for my youth.

    00:37-00:37

    Do you want to see it?

    00:39-00:43

    How many people remember or had one of these things when you were a kid?

    00:43-00:45

    How many people had one of these when you were a kid?

    00:45-00:47

    A lot of you did, okay.

    00:47-00:54

    Now, we had this, but this one has Ninja Turtles on it.

    00:54-00:55

    This is the deluxe model.

    00:55-00:59

    For those younger people here, you're asking, where do you plug it in?

    01:00-01:02

    Where do the apps go on this?

    01:02-01:05

    No, this is a real toy, kids, okay?

    01:05-01:11

    This isn't one of your finagled iTunes store toys or whatever, your Google Play whatever.

    01:11-01:13

    This isn't an Xbox.

    01:13-01:14

    This is a real toy.

    01:15-01:16

    This is a bop bag.

    01:17-01:25

    And this sophistication of technology has water in the base, And you're like, well, Pastor Jeff, it just looks like a balloon.

    01:25-01:27

    Okay, it kind of is just a balloon.

    01:30-01:32

    But this is the deluxe model, as I started to say.

    01:32-01:36

    It's got -- on the front, it's got the Ninja Turtles, so you can train with them.

    01:36-01:39

    And on the back, it has the bad guy.

    01:39-01:39

    What's his name?

    01:41-01:41

    Shredder. Right.

    01:42-01:42

    You guys knew that one.

    01:43-01:45

    Either way, I was talking to Darren about this.

    01:45-01:48

    We had one of these when we were a kid, but it didn't have, like, cool superheroes on it.

    01:48-01:54

    It had like, I don't know, like a clown or like an emergency room surgeon or something.

    01:54-01:55

    I don't know what it was on ours.

    01:55-01:59

    But we didn't have anything near as cool as this.

    01:59-02:01

    And some of you are like, well, what does it do?

    02:01-02:03

    Well, here's what the bop bag does.

    02:04-02:09

    You punch it, and it comes right back to life.

    02:10-02:10

    Isn't that amazing?

    02:12-02:16

    Some of you are smiling ear to ear because you're reliving your childhood with me.

    02:16-02:26

    And some of you are looking at me like, "Wow, you are easily amused." But no matter how many times you punch this thing, it just keeps getting back up.

    02:28-02:32

    Well that is until you let my brother play with it and then he'd punch it really hard a couple of times and get a hole in it.

    02:32-02:39

    But I'm saying the way it's designed, this thing is to get up no matter how many times you punch it.

    02:40-02:47

    And if I stood up here for an hour and just did this, you would get very bored.

    02:49-02:54

    But this thing would keep getting up over and over and over.

    02:56-03:09

    The reason I bought that, the reason I brought that today, to go with our text in the book of Acts, this thing is a picture of what it means to be a follower in Jesus Christ.

    03:12-03:22

    Proverbs 24:16 says, "For the righteous falls seven times and rises again." This is the Christian life.

    03:24-03:27

    You're going to get knocked around from all angles.

    03:27-03:28

    You're going to be hit.

    03:29-03:30

    You're going to be slapped.

    03:30-03:33

    You're going to get knocked down through the circumstances of life.

    03:35-03:42

    The righteous falls seven times This is again Acts 14.

    03:43-03:44

    We're going to be picking up in v. 19.

    03:44-03:45

    Are you there?

    03:45-03:48

    Just to get us an on-ramp to where we're heading in this text.

    03:49-03:53

    Recall Paul and Barnabas and Mark were on this mission trip and they went to Antioch.

    03:54-03:57

    Or they left from Antioch, excuse me, and their first stop was Cyprus.

    03:57-04:07

    And after Mark deserted them in Perga, heading back to Jerusalem, the disciples went to Antioch in Pisidia, a different Antioch to preach the Gospel.

    04:08-04:14

    and they went to Iconium, and they went to Lystra, where we stopped last week, and in Lystra, remember, the people tried to worship them.

    04:16-04:26

    Despite all the obstacles, the Gospel didn't lose any steam, because that's what we're discovering in the book of Acts this year, is the church is unstoppable.

    04:28-04:30

    Look at verses 19-28 with me.

    04:33-04:37

    It says, "But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, having persuaded the crowds.

    04:40-04:46

    They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

    04:48-04:56

    And when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

    04:58-05:16

    When they had preached the Gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, saying that through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.

    05:17-05:26

    And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

    05:27-05:31

    Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Amphylia.

    05:33-05:37

    And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Italia.

    05:38-05:48

    From there, they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.

    05:50-06:01

    And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

    06:02-06:06

    They remained no little time with the disciples.

    06:08-06:20

    So if you recall the passage we looked at last week, and look at the passage this week, the Apostle Paul went from being worshipped to attempted murder.

    06:21-06:22

    That was a long day.

    06:24-06:29

    And the truth is, life's going to knock you down.

    06:31-06:34

    Maybe for you it's not going to be stoning.

    06:35-06:39

    Maybe getting pelted with rocks isn't the thing that's going to put you down.

    06:41-06:42

    Maybe for you it's a health issue.

    06:43-06:46

    Maybe it's some health issue that you're dealing with that has you down.

    06:48-06:56

    Speaking from experience, maybe it's the health issue of somebody close to you that has you put down.

    06:58-07:04

    I've shared with you before struggles that we have with children on the autism spectrum.

    07:06-07:18

    I know how that can put you down and keep you down. Maybe that's not your issue. Maybe you've recently experienced a job loss which has resulted in financial problems.

    07:20-07:23

    I know you weren't hit with rocks but you feel like you're down and out.

    07:23-07:26

    Maybe you feel like you rather would have been hit with rocks.

    07:29-07:34

    For some of you, maybe it's the death of a loved one.

    07:37-07:39

    Like, you know, Pastor Jeff, that's the thing that put me down.

    07:39-07:43

    I never quite recovered when this person in my life passed away.

    07:44-07:47

    I never really got back on my feet after that.

    07:49-07:59

    Maybe you had a relationship that went bad, a close friendship or a family member that were so close and what happened?

    08:01-08:07

    Speaking in general terms, you know, for some and I fall into this category a lot, for some people it's just discouragement.

    08:09-08:18

    You know, you're working so hard and it seems like you take four steps forward and then you're taking five steps backwards and it's it's discouragement.

    08:20-08:23

    For some, maybe it's just full-on depression.

    08:25-08:27

    You know what, Pastor Jeff? I am down.

    08:27-08:30

    And guess what? I really don't care that I'm down.

    08:30-08:35

    I have no intention of getting back up.

    08:37-08:39

    I don't care. I don't care.

    08:42-08:43

    What is it for you?

    08:43-08:47

    What is it in your life right now that you are getting pelted with?

    08:47-08:52

    What are the metaphorical rocks that you are getting pelted with that could keep you down.

    08:54-08:54

    What is it for you?

    08:56-08:56

    You've got something.

    08:57-09:01

    Every single one of us in here has something that could keep you down.

    09:04-09:08

    And like Paul in this story, there might be people gathered around you watching.

    09:10-09:15

    It wasn't funny at the time, I'm sure, but I can't help but smile a little bit when I read this story.

    09:16-09:20

    Because here the Apostle Paul, he's stoned, he's dragged out of the city.

    09:20-09:21

    What do you think he looked like?

    09:23-09:26

    Bloody, gory, he was probably a mess.

    09:26-09:29

    He looked so bad that his closest companions thought he was dead.

    09:30-09:31

    That's how bad he looked.

    09:33-09:40

    And in this passage, Paul's laying outside the city where they dragged him and the Bible says they're all kind of standing around him looking.

    09:40-09:42

    And you had to be wondering what's going through their minds.

    09:42-09:44

    Like, the preacher's dead.

    09:44-09:52

    I don't know how we're going to tell them back home, They're just like standing there looking at him, wondering now what?

    09:54-09:56

    You might have some of that going on in your life.

    09:56-10:04

    Whatever it is that's pelting you and knocking you down, you have people around you looking, going, "Is he going to stay down?

    10:05-10:06

    Is he defeated?

    10:06-10:15

    Is he done?" When I was looking at this passage the last couple of weeks, I was thinking, "You know, What if Paul never got up?

    10:16-10:17

    What if he never got up?

    10:17-10:19

    I mean, he survived, obviously.

    10:19-10:21

    It didn't kill him, even though they thought it did at first.

    10:22-10:26

    But I just mean spiritually or emotionally, what if Paul never got up from that?

    10:27-10:32

    What if he was helped to his feet and walked, but he walked away?

    10:33-10:34

    And he said, "Forget it.

    10:35-10:36

    It's not worth it.

    10:36-10:37

    I've had enough.

    10:39-10:41

    You know, I've only been a Christian for a short time.

    10:42-10:44

    I didn't deal with any of this stuff when I was a Pharisee.

    10:44-10:45

    You know that?

    10:46-10:48

    People actually liked me and respected me.

    10:48-10:51

    Ever since I became a Christian, everybody's taken a shot at me.

    10:54-11:02

    Like Paul, some of you have been the victim of something horrible.

    11:03-11:07

    You see, it'd be one thing if it was a sin that was committed that has you down and out.

    11:07-11:09

    That's called consequences for sin.

    11:10-11:11

    and always has consequences.

    11:13-11:13

    Right?

    11:14-11:17

    But you see, in this passage, Paul was a victim.

    11:19-11:23

    He was treated mercilessly at the hands of others.

    11:24-11:25

    And that's happened to some of you.

    11:26-11:29

    The thing that has you down and out is of no fault of your own.

    11:30-11:32

    You are the victim of somebody else.

    11:32-11:36

    And I am not minimizing the hurt.

    11:38-11:42

    I'm not minimizing how horrible it is.

    11:44-11:46

    But here's what I am saying this morning.

    11:47-11:49

    God does not want you to stay down.

    11:51-11:53

    Like, well, what does staying down look like?

    11:54-12:01

    You know, metaphorically, if you're talking about we're pelted with these metaphorical rocks and we're down, what does staying down look like?

    12:01-12:06

    Well, for some people, staying down means you're just going to complain.

    12:09-12:14

    Whatever it is that has you down, the way you've chosen to deal with it is just to complain about it.

    12:15-12:19

    And that's just your only conversation you can have with people.

    12:19-12:20

    Complain.

    12:22-12:26

    "Oh, how are you doing today, Jeff?" "Well, you know, autism.

    12:26-12:36

    Let me tell you about that again." You're like, "Okay, like you did the last 25 times we talked." complaining. That's staying down.

    12:37-13:05

    Another way you stay down is by lamenting. Or to put it in another term, it's having the constant pity party. You know, woe is me. Nobody understands the pain that I go through. All the challenges that I face. Nobody understands. Nobody gets Maybe my life is so miserable, that's staying down.

    13:08-13:12

    For some, maybe staying down is by choosing to be afraid.

    13:14-13:16

    You know, once bitten, twice shy, right?

    13:17-13:20

    I'm not going to stick my neck out again.

    13:22-13:22

    Bitten there, done that.

    13:23-13:25

    That is the last time I trust somebody.

    13:27-13:31

    That is the last time I get involved with a group like that.

    13:33-13:34

    And you're afraid.

    13:34-13:35

    You're afraid.

    13:35-13:38

    You're afraid because trusting means you're going to make yourself vulnerable.

    13:41-14:25

    But for a lot of people, you choose to stay down by making whatever this thing is that has you knocked down, whatever this thing is that's afflicting you, you choose to stay down by making this thing your identity. You know, what if Paul did that? Let's just mark up this tree for a second. What if the Apostle Paul, after, I mean, it's mentioned in passing almost in this passage. You know, there's no details. You would think an event like this would have like three chapters of your Bible dedicated to it. It's almost like a passing phrase, like yeah, they stone Paul dragged him out of the city and he went back to preaching.

    14:27-14:27

    Like, what?

    14:29-14:31

    Like, did you even know this happened to Paul?

    14:31-14:45

    I think he mentions at one time, like in what, in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 25, he mentions it, but imagine if he made this his identity.

    14:47-14:53

    You know, instead of preaching the gospel, the apostle Paul says, "I'm going on a speaking tour." And there's posters up all over town.

    14:53-14:56

    stoning victim, Paul of Tarsus.

    14:57-15:00

    And there's like a picture of him with rocks coming at him.

    15:00-15:03

    He's like, "Ahh!" Like, that's his thing now.

    15:04-15:15

    And he travels around and he tells people, "I was a stoning victim, and you were a stoning victim, and we can get over this together." And what if he made that his whole thing?

    15:17-15:18

    The gospel wouldn't have gone very far, would it?

    15:20-15:26

    What if every conversation Paul had after this got back to stoning, right?

    15:28-15:40

    Like, "Paul, what do you want for dinner?" "Well, I don't want any of that bread that you served yesterday, because those things were hard as rocks." And speaking of rocks, did I ever tell you about the time that I got stoned?

    15:42-15:44

    Only every time you open your mouth, Paul.

    15:44-15:46

    Let me tell you, that was horrific.

    15:47-15:48

    Oh, no, here we go again.

    15:50-15:52

    That's what happens when you make these things your identity.

    15:54-15:55

    Paul goes on a book tour.

    15:56-16:04

    You know, I wrote a book about the horrors of being stoned and how I survived and don't be a victim.

    16:06-16:07

    He didn't do that.

    16:08-16:13

    Nor should we allow whatever trial we're going through to become our identity.

    16:14-16:17

    Your identity is in Jesus Christ.

    16:19-16:24

    You are an adopted, born again, child of God.

    16:26-16:28

    The Bible says you are an overcomer.

    16:31-16:33

    What knocks you down cannot become your identity.

    16:36-16:40

    Because truth be told, it's not even the trial that usually knocks people down, or keeps them down.

    16:41-16:44

    Usually it's people's attitudes about the trial.

    16:47-16:54

    So today, I want you to take a page out of the Ninja Turtles book.

    16:55-16:57

    You're going to get knocked down, right?

    16:59-16:59

    But you're going to get up.

    17:00-17:02

    You're like, why should I get up?

    17:02-17:04

    Well, I'm a preacher.

    17:07-17:08

    So you know what's coming.

    17:09-17:11

    There's three reasons, alright?

    17:11-17:14

    There's three reasons why you should get up.

    17:14-17:16

    All straight from the text.

    17:17-17:19

    Number one, get up.

    17:20-17:22

    You have lost people to evangelize.

    17:23-17:25

    You have lost people to evangelize.

    17:26-17:28

    I'm not going to re-read this whole section again.

    17:29-17:31

    We just read it, but I want to highlight a couple things.

    17:31-17:32

    Do you see?

    17:34-17:38

    Ok, so he's stoned, dragged out of the city, they think he's dead, the disciples are gathered around.

    17:38-17:50

    He goes on in verse 20 and says, "He rose up and entered the city, and on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe." When they had preached the Gospel to that city, this is crazy.

    17:51-18:04

    The man was just publicly executed unsuccessfully, but he gets up, dusts himself off, and he's like, "Let's get back to work." What are you still doing standing around?

    18:04-18:05

    We've got people to preach to.

    18:06-18:21

    There's people that are lost near the gospel. Why are you just standing here? Well Paul we thought you were dead. I'm not! Let's go. It says that they went back to Iconium and Antioch.

    18:22-18:47

    Do you see that in verse 21? They went back to Iconium and Antioch. Why is that such a big deal? Well look back at verse 19. The Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and those were the people that initiated the stoning. This is the place the murderers came from. Okay, Paul, where do you want to go? Opposite direction, right? He goes, no, we got more work to do back this way. And they go back to the place where the attempted murderers came from.

    18:50-19:03

    He could have made a thousand excuses, and quite frankly, I would have accepted any of them, why he shouldn't have gone back there. And we can make excuses why why we should stay down.

    19:05-19:07

    I want people to like me.

    19:07-19:10

    I don't want to face rejection.

    19:10-19:12

    My life is already hard enough.

    19:15-19:22

    But when we choose to stay down, we choose to be so self-focused that we forget the mission.

    19:24-19:31

    The mission of Jesus Christ tells us My life is more than about me.

    19:33-19:37

    Your neighbors, your co-workers, your unsaved family members, they need the Lord.

    19:39-19:44

    They are heading on a path to hell apart from the salvation of Jesus Christ.

    19:44-19:45

    Do you believe that?

    19:45-19:47

    Well, yeah, we believe that.

    19:47-19:52

    I guarantee you, if we pulled everybody in this room, that's the answer.

    19:52-19:53

    Yeah, I believe what the Bible says.

    19:53-19:57

    Yeah, I believe the message of the Bible, Do you care?

    19:58-19:59

    Do you care?

    20:01-20:12

    People are waiting for an invite to church, but they're not going to be excited about the invite you give them if you're a person that stayed down instead of a person that gets back up.

    20:14-20:15

    What do you mean by that?

    20:15-20:17

    Well, imagine this is your testimony.

    20:18-20:19

    You're witnessing to people.

    20:19-20:21

    You're witnessing that neighbor or co-worker.

    20:21-20:23

    And this is what they hear from you all the time.

    20:23-20:25

    "My life is miserable.

    20:25-20:33

    "Oh, it's me. Don't you feel sorry for me?" Oh, by the way, do you want to come to my church with me and know the joy of Jesus like I do?

    20:34-20:34

    Like what?

    20:36-20:38

    Do I want to go to church and be like you?

    20:38-20:42

    No, I sure don't, because no offense, sir, but you look quite unhappy.

    20:45-20:49

    That's what you're communicating when you choose to stay down and let the trial become your identity.

    20:51-20:54

    Is staying down more important to you than the Great Commission?

    20:55-20:59

    fear or hurt a greater power than the Holy Spirit and the Gospel.

    21:01-21:02

    You're still breathing.

    21:04-21:05

    So that means your work isn't done.

    21:07-21:08

    See, the mission is clear.

    21:11-21:13

    And God supplies the power.

    21:14-21:16

    What you need to do is get up.

    21:17-21:18

    Get up.

    21:19-21:20

    You have lost people to evangelize.

    21:23-21:27

    Another reason you need to get up - You have believers to encourage.

    21:29-21:30

    You have believers to encourage.

    21:30-21:43

    Not only did they go and share the Gospel again, but they went back to the cities where they had previously shared the Gospel to encourage the disciples.

    21:43-21:45

    Look at verse 22 again.

    21:46-21:49

    "They returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch." That's verse 21.

    21:49-21:51

    What were they doing there? Verse 22.

    21:51-21:54

    You're strengthening the souls of the disciples.

    21:57-21:58

    That's done with the Word of God.

    21:58-22:00

    Do you want to be strong in your faith?

    22:00-22:02

    You've got to get in the Word of God.

    22:03-22:05

    Then it says encouraging them.

    22:07-22:11

    That word "encourage" can also be translated "exhort." What does "exhort" mean?

    22:12-22:16

    "Exhort" means you teach somebody how to apply the Word of God.

    22:17-22:18

    That's exhortation.

    22:21-22:24

    Here's some Bible facts in case you're ever on Jeopardy! and New Testament is one of the categories.

    22:24-22:25

    You'll be ready to run the category.

    22:26-22:31

    It's not like Bible FYI. Exhortation is understand how to take the Word of God and apply it.

    22:31-22:33

    What does the Word of God look like in my life?

    22:33-22:35

    You know, Monday morning at work.

    22:35-22:38

    What does the Word of God look like in my life? Saturday afternoon with my kids.

    22:38-22:41

    What does the Word of God look like when I apply it?

    22:41-22:44

    That's encouraging. That's exhortation.

    22:46-22:47

    What did they exhort them to?

    22:47-22:52

    Do you see in verse 22? Encouraging them to continue in the faith.

    22:55-22:56

    How do you think that message came across?

    22:58-23:05

    Did you imagine Paul showing up and he looked completely different than he did last time he was in town, didn't he?

    23:06-23:09

    Last time he looked pretty fresh, just from the salon.

    23:10-23:14

    This time he looks like an extra from a zombie movie.

    23:14-23:15

    How do you think he looked?

    23:16-23:18

    Battered and bloody and swollen?

    23:20-23:28

    And here he shows up and he says to these believers, "Listen, you guys have to continue in the faith." Why would he preach that?

    23:28-23:29

    Because it's hard.

    23:31-23:32

    That's why. It's hard.

    23:34-23:35

    Who said it was going to be easy?

    23:36-23:41

    Where did you get this idea that following Christ was going to be easy?

    23:41-23:47

    How did you get this idea that as long as I'm a worshipper of God, my life is going to be easy?

    23:47-23:49

    Who gave you that idea?

    23:49-23:50

    Was it Abraham?

    23:50-23:52

    Did you read that about Abraham in the Old Testament?

    23:55-23:57

    Was it Joseph in the Old Testament?

    23:58-24:01

    Was he the poster boy for having an easy life following God?

    24:02-24:02

    What about Moses?

    24:03-24:04

    Did you read that for Moses?

    24:06-24:10

    Was Moses the example of, Here's how a faithful man always has everything easy.

    24:12-24:14

    David? Did you learn it from David?

    24:14-24:16

    Oh, I know. You learned it from Jesus.

    24:18-24:20

    That doing the right thing was going to be easy, right?

    24:24-24:34

    Jesus promised us in John 16.33, He said, "In this world you will have trouble." And you see, that's the same sermon that the apostles were giving here.

    24:36-24:44

    in verse 22, it says, "encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying," here it is, you have to memorize this next part.

    24:44-24:45

    You're like, I don't memorize.

    24:45-24:46

    You're going to start memorizing.

    24:46-24:47

    You have to memorize this part.

    24:50-24:57

    "Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God." It would do you well to memorize even just that part of the verse.

    24:58-25:14

    It's a part of the verse that I say to myself many times when life is hard, When ministry's hard, when evangelism, discipleship, small groups - when it's hard, I remind myself with many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God.

    25:14-25:16

    Nobody said it was going to be easy.

    25:17-25:28

    And we're not doing anyone any favors by trying to persuade them to become a follower of Jesus by saying that it's the easy road.

    25:29-25:31

    By the way, Jesus never did that, right?

    25:33-25:35

    Jesus never said, "Follow Me. It's easy.

    25:36-25:54

    Follow Me. Everybody's going to love you." Jesus said things like Matthew 16:24, "If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross." You must say no to yourself and be willing to die.

    25:56-25:58

    John 13, 16; John 15, 20.

    25:59-26:01

    Same book of the Bible.

    26:02-26:14

    couple of chapters apart, same discourse. This is the upper room before Jesus' crucifixion. He says it twice. He says a servant is not greater than his master.

    26:16-26:30

    In John 15, immediately following that statement, he said if they persecuted me they're going to persecute you. Did they persecute Jesus? Absolutely. So what makes What makes us think that our lives are going to be easy?

    26:31-26:36

    What makes us think - well, they hated the leader of the kingdom that we belong to.

    26:36-26:38

    They hated him, but they're going to love me.

    26:38-26:39

    No.

    26:41-26:43

    A servant is not greater than his master.

    26:43-26:45

    They persecuted Christ.

    26:46-26:48

    They're going to persecute us as well.

    26:51-26:52

    People need encouraged.

    26:53-26:54

    I love that.

    26:54-27:07

    The Apostle Paul could have gone back to any of these cities, between his legs and said, "Look guys, I need you to encourage me right now "because I'm hurting." And I'm sure that he did receive encouragement.

    27:09-27:13

    But he seemed of a mindset that he needed to go encourage others.

    27:15-27:31

    One of the best ways for you and for me of not dwelling on our problems, of not dwelling on the things that knock us around in life, one of the best ways of not dwelling on those things is to get invested in other people, because you're not the only one that's suffering with something.

    27:32-27:35

    We're not playing the who's suffering the worst game here, OK?

    27:36-27:40

    Because I know we're all dealt a hand, right?

    27:42-27:43

    You have problems, and I have problems.

    27:43-27:46

    And I'm not saying that my problems are any better or any worse than yours.

    27:47-27:49

    And we shouldn't be evaluating each other that way either.

    27:50-27:51

    Like, oh, he has an easy life.

    27:51-27:52

    She has a hard life.

    27:53-27:54

    We all have our share.

    27:55-27:55

    We all have our share.

    27:57-28:01

    But other people are going to suffer as you have.

    28:02-28:11

    And you can either close yourself in, you can stay at home, you can lament life, or you can get invested in other people.

    28:13-28:19

    You can get a small group to encourage people and to be encouraged.

    28:21-28:23

    that is life, have you knocked down?

    28:24-28:24

    Get up.

    28:26-28:28

    You have believers to encourage.

    28:30-28:31

    You can't teach what you don't model.

    28:33-28:34

    People need encouraged.

    28:36-28:38

    And that should be a motivator for you to get up.

    28:38-28:41

    There's other people in this church that are counting on me.

    28:42-28:45

    I can't sit in a puddle of my tears and lament my problems.

    28:45-28:47

    There's people in this church that need me.

    28:48-28:49

    Get up.

    28:50-28:53

    And finally, number three, get up.

    28:54-28:56

    You have a testimony to share.

    28:57-28:59

    Look at verse 27 with me again.

    29:01-29:05

    It says, "And when they arrived..." This is back to home base.

    29:05-29:09

    This is back to Antioch where they had started this journey.

    29:10-29:13

    "When they had arrived and gathered the church together..." I love this.

    29:13-29:24

    "They declared all that God had done with them and how He had opened the door of faith Gentiles. One of the greatest motivators for you to get up is your testimony.

    29:25-29:38

    Imagine, I mean, you went on this trip with us, right? Imagine if the first sign of trouble that these disciples encountered, they just went back home. So what was the first sign of trouble? You remember when they ran into Bar Jesus?

    29:38-29:53

    Remember that guy? That Jewish occultic guy that kept contradicting them and trying to stop them from sharing the gospel with the pro-council? Remember They're like, "Okay, we're in town to share the gospel, and here's Bar Jesus.

    29:53-29:58

    Don't listen to them, they're crazy!" They're like, "Ah, okay guys, let's just go home.

    29:59-30:10

    We failed." And they go back to Antioch, and they're like, "What are you guys doing back already?" We ran into a guy named Bar Jesus, and he said some hurtful things, and our feelings got hurt.

    30:11-30:13

    And just forget it, it's not going to work.

    30:16-30:16

    Their testimony.

    30:18-30:22

    when they finally got back, their testimony would have sounded something like this.

    30:23-30:24

    Yeah, we faced opposition.

    30:25-30:29

    We had this occultic guy named Bar-Jesus opposing us.

    30:29-30:31

    And he was struck blind.

    30:31-30:31

    How about that?

    30:32-30:34

    And then Mark deserted us and went back to Jerusalem.

    30:34-30:36

    We were reviled. We were persecuted.

    30:37-30:39

    This one day, we had these people trying to worship us.

    30:39-30:42

    They thought we were like Zeus and Hermes and that was really crazy.

    30:42-30:45

    And then there were people trying to kill us.

    30:45-30:47

    They had Stone Paul driving him out of the city.

    30:47-30:50

    and a bloody heap of himself where all thought he was dead and he got up and went right back to preaching.

    30:51-30:56

    And then we did the circuit on the way back home to encourage all the people we just shared the gospel with.

    30:57-30:59

    All the stuff that happened, God still used us.

    31:01-31:03

    That sounds like a much better testimony, doesn't it?

    31:05-31:07

    Then we turned tail and ran at the first sign of trouble.

    31:10-31:15

    And for you, church, people are watching your life.

    31:17-31:19

    They need to know this about following Jesus.

    31:20-31:22

    They need to know this.

    31:23-31:24

    Is it just a religion?

    31:26-31:28

    Is it just a moral standard?

    31:30-31:32

    Or does it really make a difference?

    31:34-31:41

    In other words, to boil it down in the simplest phrase, people are wondering - when they find out you're a Christian, they're wondering, does it work?

    31:42-31:43

    Does that really work?

    31:45-31:48

    Is this really the power of God within?

    31:49-31:51

    Does that really work?

    31:53-32:07

    And when you choose to stay down, what you communicate is, "Well, it doesn't work for me." Or, maybe, it doesn't work for you.

    32:10-32:11

    So I want you to think of your testimony.

    32:12-32:13

    Think of your testimony.

    32:14-32:17

    and think of how you are representing the faith.

    32:18-32:22

    The people in your life that know you're a Christian, they know you one of two ways.

    32:22-32:23

    Are you a victim?

    32:25-32:26

    Or are you a victor?

    32:27-32:32

    You're like, yeah, she's a Christian, but she sure seems to be down all the time.

    32:33-32:35

    Or they say, you know what?

    32:36-32:39

    That guy would have every right in the world to complain.

    32:40-32:41

    But he never does.

    32:42-32:48

    It just seems that no matter what happens in his life, he shows up with a smile on his face.

    32:49-32:51

    It seems like his faith is really strong.

    32:52-32:54

    It seems like that's working for him.

    32:55-32:56

    Are you a victim?

    32:58-32:58

    Or are you a victor?

    33:00-33:00

    Which one?

    33:02-33:04

    Which testimony do you want?

    33:06-33:08

    Yeah, life - here's your options.

    33:08-33:09

    Life defeated me.

    33:10-33:11

    I knew it was going to be hard.

    33:13-33:14

    And one day I got knocked down.

    33:16-33:17

    And I never got up again.

    33:19-33:20

    Is that the testimony you want?

    33:20-33:26

    Or, option two, yeah, yeah, I got knocked down.

    33:27-33:28

    I got knocked down hard.

    33:28-33:30

    I got knocked down hard several times.

    33:31-33:32

    But I got up.

    33:33-33:35

    Because the mission was too important.

    33:36-33:40

    Because the people who were counting on me was too important.

    33:40-33:47

    And because my testimony in Jesus Christ was too important, so I got up.

    33:49-33:54

    Father in Heaven, we thank You for the example that You've given us in Your Word.

    33:55-34:00

    And it's crazy for us to think - I know if something like this happened to me, I'd probably talk about it a lot.

    34:02-34:07

    By the power of Your Spirit, it just seemed like the Apostle Paul open the road.

    34:09-34:11

    Father, I pray for that kind of faith for myself.

    34:13-34:14

    That I wouldn't be lamenting.

    34:17-34:23

    Father, that I wouldn't be so self-absorbed that I've paralyzed myself for what you've called me to do.

    34:25-34:31

    And remind me, and remind my brothers and sisters here that the mission is still ongoing.

    34:33-34:39

    And you are still equipping and empowering us by your Holy Spirit to fulfill the Great Commission.

    34:41-34:45

    And there may be seasons where we need ministered to.

    34:45-34:51

    There may be seasons where we need to take a step back and rest and recover.

    34:53-34:58

    And I pray, Father, that none of us would be knocked down and stay down.

    35:00-35:09

    Father, let us consider the lost, the people that you put in our lives that I need to hear the Gospel, I need to see the Gospel alive in us.

    35:10-35:24

    Father, help us to consider the other people in this church, the people in our small group, the people that are going through hard times themselves, that I pray there would be a mutual encouraging thing happening here.

    35:26-35:27

    We're building each other up.

    35:29-35:31

    Father, help us to consider our testimony.

    35:32-35:42

    None of us want to walk around with our head down with the testimony of "I have been defeated." Because we know, Father, that in Christ there is victory.

    35:43-35:56

    We want to be a people, Father, who no matter what has happened to us, whether it's been our fault through sin, or whether we are purely the victim of somebody else's malicious intent.

    35:59-36:21

    Father, we want Your power so on display in our lives that people look at us and say, "There's only one way that that person's still standing, that's because the power of God is mighty within them." Father, glorify Your name by helping us all in those times that we get knocked down, Father.

    36:23-36:24

    Give us the strength to get up.

    36:25-36:26

    We pray in Jesus' name.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 14:19-28

  1. "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). Why isn't this message preached more often in churches in America? Why is this an important part of the message to encourage believers?

  2. How does giving testimony of the Lord's work encourage others (Acts 14:27)? How do your hardships make for an effective and powerful testimony?

Breakout Questions:

What, in your life, could have you "down and out", tempted to stay down? What motivates you to get up?

An Unstoppable Attitude.

Review:


3 Attitudes of Faithful Christians:

  1. Longevity: I'm In This for the Long Haul. (Acts 14:1-4)


  2. Tenacity: I'm In This No Matter What. (Acts 14:5-7)

  3. Review: 1 Cor 15:58


  4. Humility: I'm In This for God's Glory. (Acts 14:8-18)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 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.

    25:12-25:28

    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?

    25:30-25:32

    This just gets weird.

    25:32-25:35

    First of all, Barnabas they called Zeus.

    25:36-25:41

    And Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

    25:42-25:56

    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?

    25:58-25:59

    Okay, did not see that one coming.

    25:59-26:00

    What is going on here?

    26:02-26:04

    I actually read this from several sources.

    26:05-26:09

    It kind of makes sense what was going on, There was a tradition.

    26:10-26:22

    There was this sort of urban legend, this folktale that got passed down in Lystra many, many, many years ago.

    26:24-26:30

    Zeus and Hermes came to Lystra and visited the people incognito.

    26:32-27:08

    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.

    27:10-27:40

    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?

    27:41-27:42

    We all got turned into wolves.

    27:43-27:45

    So, let's not mess it up this time.

    27:47-28:06

    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.

    28:08-28:24

    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.

    28:26-28:28

    are going to preach the message.

    28:29-28:30

    But what I want you to see here, take note.

    28:32-28:38

    This sermon that they give is a different kind of message than the other sermons that we've seen in the book of Acts.

    28:38-28:39

    And I need to explain to you why.

    28:41-28:48

    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.

    28:49-28:51

    And they talk about the Old Testament.

    28:51-28:52

    You know, the Old Testament.

    28:53-28:54

    They had that foundation.

    28:55-28:58

    Do you remember God promised a Messiah through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob?

    28:58-29:01

    Remember God promised Moses, I'll raise up a prophet from among you?

    29:01-29:05

    Just like you remember David, you know, one of your descendants is always gonna be on the throne.

    29:05-29:10

    They had this whole Jewish history and Jewish culture and Jewish people who understood the Jewish scriptures.

    29:11-29:19

    But this sermon is really different from the other sermons that they preached.

    29:19-29:21

    I want you to see how they preach.

    29:21-29:22

    I'm going to break it down a little bit here.

    29:24-29:25

    Verse 15.

    29:26-29:28

    "Men, why are you doing these things?

    29:30-29:45

    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.

    29:45-29:49

    The first thing they say, "We've got good news for you.

    29:50-29:51

    You need to turn from the vain things.

    29:51-29:52

    That's repentance.

    29:54-29:57

    Meaning, you need to stop the silly idol worship.

    29:59-30:01

    Notice how he phrased it.

    30:01-30:10

    He called them "vain things." He goes, do you realize the things that you worship are just completely empty?

    30:10-30:11

    They're meaningless. Do you realize that?

    30:12-30:18

    And we today live in the same kind of culture where people are constantly worshiping empty things.

    30:20-30:22

    People worshiping the love of money.

    30:24-30:26

    Another idol today - lust.

    30:27-30:27

    Pornography.

    30:29-30:36

    These are things that people put so much time and effort and energy - it's worship, people.

    30:36-30:38

    It occupies their minds.

    30:38-30:40

    It occupies their thoughts.

    30:40-30:42

    It's a permanent resident in their hearts.

    30:42-30:43

    It's idol worship.

    30:45-30:54

    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?

    30:56-31:01

    Is there anybody that has the testimony that can say, it's-- pornography's made my life so much better.

    31:02-31:04

    It's made my life so much freer.

    31:04-31:09

    And I'm so thankful to be able to worship at the altar of pornography.

    31:10-31:10

    No.

    31:11-31:18

    It destroys lives, it destroys homes, it costs people jobs, it costs people their reputation.

    31:20-31:23

    That's why there's a turn from these vain things. Why are you worshipping that?

    31:24-31:28

    It's stupid! It's sinful and it's not going to get you anywhere.

    31:31-31:32

    Turn from the vain things.

    31:33-31:34

    Look at the next part of their message.

    31:36-31:39

    He launches right into a creation message.

    31:41-31:46

    It's just about turning to a living God, as opposed to your dead gods, non-existing gods.

    31:46-31:47

    There is a living God.

    31:47-31:55

    There's one living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

    31:58-32:02

    Satan has bombarded our culture today with evolutionary thinking.

    32:02-32:13

    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.

    32:14-32:56

    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.

    32:59-33:12

    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.

    33:12-33:15

    How many people are like, are a huge fan of these banners? And the answer is all of you.

    33:16-33:22

    True or false? But I've had several people say, like, where did those banners come from?

    33:23-33:37

    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.

    33:38-33:40

    How many people would believe that?

    33:41-33:43

    That's foolishness, right?

    33:44-33:49

    Do you realize how intricately complex every single cell of your body is?

    33:49-33:50

    Do you realize?

    33:50-34:00

    Every single cell of your body is more complex than any machine that the greatest minds in the world can create.

    34:01-34:06

    And these cells in your body, Not only are they complex, they have the ability to replicate themselves.

    34:08-34:14

    If somebody looks at the cells and they're like, "Oh, that just happened by chance over millions of years." Foolishness.

    34:17-34:21

    Infinitely more foolish than believing that a jar of paint fella made that banner.

    34:24-34:28

    By the way, in case you're asking, Darren made those banners. He designed them and I think they're fantastic.

    34:28-34:30

    But they were designed, that's the point.

    34:31-34:32

    Design demands a designer.

    34:33-34:35

    And that's where Paul started his preaching here.

    34:37-34:40

    And that's where we need to start our preaching in the church, because our kids are constantly...

    34:41-34:50

    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.

    34:53-34:56

    Notice, next thing in the sermon from Paul.

    34:58-35:01

    He says, "In past generations, He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

    35:03-35:15

    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.

    35:15-35:26

    "For He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

    35:28-35:30

    God revealed His goodness through provision.

    35:32-35:37

    Even people that have never been to church, never cracked the spine of a Bible, they automatically know some things about God.

    35:37-35:39

    They know that God is a giver of good gifts.

    35:40-35:41

    They know that.

    35:41-35:43

    That's inherently in us.

    35:44-35:46

    That somebody's looking out for me.

    35:48-35:49

    I know atheists that have children.

    35:49-36:02

    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.

    36:03-36:13

    But there's something in you that says, "No, no, no, no, no. This is a beautiful gift from God." God's given witness.

    36:13-36:23

    Any goodness that you enjoy in life, you know deep down in your heart, you know that you are being provided for by God.

    36:24-36:30

    But see how Paul and Barnabas, when they gave this sermon, they didn't give church talk, okay?

    36:30-36:33

    They didn't give the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob talk.

    36:33-36:35

    They didn't talk about Old Testament sacrifices.

    36:36-36:38

    They didn't even launch into the Old Testament law.

    36:41-36:43

    They talked about creation.

    36:43-36:46

    They talked, first of all, you have to reckon with the idea that there is a God.

    36:49-36:50

    But let's be honest here for a second.

    36:53-37:18

    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.

    37:19-37:22

    Here, they want to offer sacrifices to us.

    37:23-37:24

    They want to call us gods.

    37:26-37:28

    I could get used to this.

    37:28-37:30

    This is different.

    37:30-37:31

    This is nice.

    37:33-37:34

    But they didn't do that.

    37:36-37:40

    They deflected the glory that was being sent towards them, saying, "No, no, no, no, no.

    37:40-37:43

    Do not worship us because we are just people.

    37:44-37:45

    We are just people.

    37:47-37:50

    God will not share His glory with anyone else.

    37:51-37:52

    And He's pretty clear about that.

    37:52-37:55

    Remember we talked about Herod back in Acts 12?

    37:56-37:58

    And Herod tried to take some glory for himself?

    37:58-37:59

    What did God do with him?

    38:00-38:01

    Remember that story?

    38:02-38:03

    Eaten by worms.

    38:04-38:14

    As soon as he wanted people to worship him, as soon as he in his pride exalted himself, and literally became worm food.

    38:16-38:23

    There's a real danger in churches when we have celebrity pastors.

    38:24-38:26

    I'm not pointing anybody out.

    38:26-38:27

    I'm not going to mention names.

    38:29-38:33

    I just want you to think of this objectively, would you?

    38:33-38:47

    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.

    38:50-38:51

    And it's easy to do.

    38:52-39:01

    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.

    39:01-39:27

    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.

    39:30-39:32

    Please hear me. Please hear me.

    39:34-39:37

    I'm not pointing the fingers at the pastor because that could be me.

    39:39-40:32

    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?

    40:33-40:35

    Like, I have to be what they need me to be.

    40:36-40:41

    And so you adopt this mentality of being the superstar.

    40:44-40:45

    Too much is put on the pastor.

    40:48-40:52

    And then when the pastor falls, like I said, we've seen it.

    40:52-40:53

    You can Google it.

    40:55-40:59

    Pastors running around with prostitutes and pastors embezzling money.

    41:01-41:02

    The church is devastated.

    41:02-41:08

    Why? Because their God has proven to be human.

    41:11-41:15

    Celebrity pastors, we need to pray for those people.

    41:17-41:19

    Because in many cases, they don't want the celebrity status.

    41:22-41:27

    And I think what we see from Paul and Barnabas here for sure is a great humility.

    41:29-41:32

    And this humility comes from having a worldview that's rooted in reality.

    41:33-41:37

    He is God and I am not.

    41:39-41:42

    Humility because it's easy to receive praise.

    41:43-41:44

    It's easy to receive praise.

    41:47-41:49

    I don't know, just be honest with you 'cause you're not worshiping me.

    41:50-41:54

    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.

    41:55-41:59

    Seen how far this thinking I'm a God thing would have gotten me.

    41:59-42:00

    Maybe put me up in a nice room for a week.

    42:01-42:02

    You guys aren't laughing, I'm kidding.

    42:04-42:06

    Oh no, we don't joke about this, pastors.

    42:08-42:10

    It's easy to receive praise, is my point.

    42:10-42:11

    That's the easy part.

    42:12-42:22

    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.

    42:25-42:26

    Here's the point of the whole passage.

    42:28-42:34

    one statement, don't be discouraged by opposition and don't be lured in by praise.

    42:36-42:49

    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.

    42:52-43:02

    going to be hard, but your attitude now will determine your testimony later.

    43:05-43:09

    May we be found faithful by carrying an attitude with these three things.

    43:09-43:10

    Longevity.

    43:11-43:12

    Are you in this for the long haul?

    43:13-43:14

    Are you in this for the long haul?

    43:16-43:17

    Tenacity.

    43:19-43:20

    Are you in this no matter what?

    43:21-43:25

    How easily offended are you?

    43:27-43:28

    Humility.

    43:29-43:30

    I'm in this for God's glory.

    43:31-43:34

    Are you more concerned with what people think about you?

    43:35-43:37

    Or are you more concerned with what people think about the Lord?

    43:39-43:40

    That's correct.

    43:42-43:56

    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.

    43:56-44:02

    So often we pray for maybe a hardship that we're going through, that you would take it away.

    44:03-44:04

    We pray for finances.

    44:05-44:06

    We pray for people.

    44:09-44:11

    Today, Father, I want to pray specifically for our attitudes.

    44:13-44:17

    I want to pray for this church, Father, that we would adopt an attitude of longevity.

    44:19-44:27

    that we are committed to making disciples, and nobody told us it was going to be easy.

    44:30-44:34

    Father, I pray for tenacity.

    44:35-44:37

    We're going to talk a lot about that next week.

    44:40-44:44

    It's just so easy to throw in the towel, to quit, to give up.

    44:44-44:46

    It's too hard.

    44:46-44:56

    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.

    44:58-45:00

    Father, through it all we know it has to come from humility.

    45:02-45:06

    It has to be humility, Father. We have to understand that we are nothing.

    45:08-45:13

    We are nothing apart from You.

    45:14-45:17

    The only good in us is You.

    45:17-45:19

    The only life in us is You.

    45:20-45:28

    The only thing we have to offer anyone is what You've entrusted to give to us anyways.

    45:30-45:32

    I pray, Father, for great humility.

    45:33-45:35

    I pray specifically for our leadership, Father.

    45:35-45:40

    We have leaders here, some of whom are going to Harvest University this week.

    45:43-45:54

    But I pray, Father, for myself, for my brothers and sisters that are shouldering the weight of ministry in this church.

    45:56-46:00

    For them, Father, I pray longevity, and tenacity, and humility.

    46:02-46:05

    We know that your church is unstoppable, Father.

    46:06-46:12

    We need you to empower us to embrace these attitudes.

    46:13-46:15

    We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 14:1-18

  1. In what ways are people’s minds "poisoned" (Acts 14:2)? How do we combat the poisoning of minds (Acts 14:3)?

  2. How do you know when to keep witnessing (Acts 14:3) and when to flee (Acts 14:6)

  3. 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

  4. (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