How the Door of Faith Opens - Ben Stuart

Well, we have a big task in front of us today, and that is that I want to make you optimists. I want you to believe that good can come into this world and that you can be a part of it. And yet I know as I say that, the deck is in some sense stacked against me. The Monitoring the Future survey is issued out of the University of Michigan, and they studied high school seniors, surveyed almost a million high school seniors, and they've seen a disturbing trend over the last several years, and that is a marked increase among young people in an external locus of control, specifically among Gen Z, an external locus of control. Jean Twenge, who's a social psychologist, explains it this way. She says, believing that the cards are stacked against you is an example of what psychologists call external locus of control. If you have an internal locus of control, you believe you're in control of your life. An external is the opposite. It believes that nothing you do matters because it's all up to luck or other people who determine what happens. And unfortunately, that's occasionally true, but it's a defeatist way to look at the world, and it's very common among Gen Z, her words. That matters because locus of control

is a powerful predictor of outcomes. People with an internal locus of control are 40% more likely to engage in healthy behaviors, such as exercising and eating a healthy diet. They're also much less likely to suffer anxiety and depression. A classic report found that internal locus of control was a better predictor of academic achievement among children of color than any other variable. But here's the line. But instead of convincing young people that they can succeed, something has instead convinced them that they can't. There's a pervasive mentality that the world's going to hell in a handbasket and there's nothing we can do about it. And what I want to do is convince you there is good in the world and you can be a part of effecting change. And even though there's a bit of some cards stacked against me, there is some evidence to support that your decisions can make a difference. I'll offer two. Number one is the Knicks in game four of the finals. Whether it's good news for you or not that the Knicks won, it's an undisputable fact that they were down 29 points in game four. But when they came out of halftime, they came back and won and launched the largest comeback in NBA history.

How did it happen? I don't know, I didn't watch the game. But I will say this. Somebody in the locker room believed that their behavior could make a difference. And they believed that difficult did not mean inevitable defeat. And so they stepped out there and played the game before them and made a difference. And so it's possible to effect positive change in your life. The second piece of evidence I want to offer is this text, Acts chapter 14. That what we're gonna see in this text, Paul said it. He said a door of faith opened to the Gentiles. That in a hostile world, the good news of Jesus is gonna get cracked open. And we're gonna watch in this passage the door open for the ethnos, the nations to know the God who made them. And Paul says, hey, this is the door opening. We know on our side of history that that door flung wide and now billions of people on planet Earth today say they have an allegiance to Jesus Christ. That the most successful movement in the history of planet Earth was the movement of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, coming to die and rise for our sins. That message has spread throughout the world, giving hope and love and joy and peace to millions. And right here, we're gonna watch the door crack open.

And it's gonna happen because two men walked into modern day Turkey believing their life could make a difference. Do you believe you have good to offer the world? Then how will it affect how you behave? Last week, we looked at the beginning of what's called the first missionary journey that God sent out the Apostle Paul to go be a messenger to preach the good news of Jesus. And last week, we looked a lot about the content of that message. What is the Christian message? Now today is more about the method of how it was communicated. If last week is about what the gospel is, this week is about how the gospel moves. If last week was the message, this is the method. Or to use it in Paul's language, how does a door of faith open? Which I think is a question that's very relevant to many of you. It's interesting, last week, as we looked at this first part of Paul's missionary journey, I sort of gave you the basic elements of the gospel, of what it means to know God through the finished work of Jesus. And I had so many of you come up to me in the lobby and say, Ben, I believe it. All my hope is in Jesus.

How will my lost loved one? than ever know it. I can't get them to darken the door of a church. I can't get them to show up. They've been so hurt, they have such doubt, they have such anger, they have such resentment, they have such indifference. So many of you came up to me and said, essentially, how can the door of faith get opened? It's interesting if you look around the world today. Now, statistically, it's coming up in multitudes of surveys. There's a great spiritual interest in the world today, that particularly in intellectual circles, people are seeing the societal, structural value of a Christian worldview, and yet they're struggling with whether or not they wanna bow their knee to the Jesus who stands at the center of it. And so there's an interest in spiritual things, more young men than ever are coming to church, but how, ultimately, does the door of faith get opened? We're gonna see it happen today, and we're gonna see it as Paul and Barnabas show up, particularly in two towns, Iconium and Lystra, which we've got a map here, if you wanna see it, we can pull it up there. This is a map of Paul's first missionary journey. Do we have it? Yes, maybe, no, yes, there it is. Last week, we looked at Paul and Barnabas

leave Antioch, their church, and they went down to this island, and then all the way up to Pisidian Antioch, over here. Now, today, we're gonna look at them arrive in Iconium and in Lystra, these two towns, and then, rather than taking the short hop back home, they're gonna go all the way back around and visit everybody they preach to. Iconium and Lystra are interesting towns for two reasons. Number one, Iconium, legends abound about this city. Probably the greatest one is in Greek. The Greeks believed this is where Perseus beheaded Medusa, that if you look at their coins, that was the picture of it, is a severed head of Medusa. That's where the name came from, Iconium, from the Greek word icon, face, from her head. And in Lystra, there was a popular old myth about Lystra that Zeus and Hermes had visited it. Now, why tell you that? For this reason, these are the most Gentile, the most pagan cities Christians have gone to yet. This is Paul and Barnabas at the club with their Bible. The farthest away from Jerusalem, the gospel's gone. How is this gonna go? And we read, when they came home, they said, God opened a door of faith, even to the most lost people you know. What we're looking at today is practically how that happens. And we'll get our first two points, we've got six.

We've got our first two points in the city of Iconium. And the way things go down in Iconium is a lot like how things went down last week. So we'll move through it pretty fast. But if you're studying a narrative like the Gospels or the Book of Acts, I'll tell you this, it's helpful to always look at the subjects and the verbs. Who's in the story and what are they doing? Because if you look at that, the who and the what, you can often kind of figure out what the point is of that passage. So let's look at these first couple verses together and I'll draw on them, Lord willing, to kind of point out the subjects and verbs class, maybe, possibly, if we've got it. Oh look, there it is, all right. Here we go, who's involved in this? Now at Iconium, they, this is Paul and Barnabas, entered together into the Jewish synagogue. That's the first thing they did is they showed up where the Bible was taught and explained and they spoke. And they did it in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews, that is those who didn't believe, stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. That's a strong language. Poison their minds means to stir up evil intent to harm you. So they're preaching the good news

and some people believe and some people not only don't believe, hate you for even bringing it up. What do you do when people's minds are poisoned against you? So, that is inversely a result, they remained for a long time, speaking boldly. That may not be the set of verbs you expect. Some people are like, no, if many people oppose me, I leave. I only do something if God gives me a piece about it, right? Well here, these people wanna beat him up, we're gonna find out later, wanna kill him. And they were like, well, okay, some people wanna kill us. We're gonna keep going. And a little opposition's not gonna stop us. Why, why were they like that? For gives you the reason, because there's a different player on the field. For the Lord bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. But 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 Iconia. to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel. Now there's a lot we can talk about in this. We're gonna focus mainly right on verse one, and they spoke in such a way that a great number believed. And we're gonna focus right here.

The Lord bore witness to the words of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. What can we learn from this? Point number one, how does the door of faith open to your lost friend, to the world? It opens when there's a confidence in the content. That's your first one. There's confidence in the content. Did you notice it said they spoke boldly, this good news, even in the face of opposition. And they spoke boldly, why? Because it was the gospel. The word gospel is literally in Greek the combination of the word good and news. I've got a message that I think is good. I think it's good for you. I think it is a good, and because I'm convinced of that, I'm going to share it with you, even if I have to overcome some inconveniences and difficulties. Confidence in the content leads to communication. That's how the door is opened. Somebody believes what I have is good. Or Christian, another way to say it is, do you buy what you're selling? Because if you don't buy it, someone else isn't gonna wanna buy it, right? Boldness leads to belief, that I really believe this. And so I'm bold to tell you about it because I believe it'll help you.

I'm from Texas, and let me tell you, there is no more serious subject in Texas to discuss than that of barbecue, and which barbecue establishment is superior. Even now, I regularly check the list on Texas Monthly of the premier barbecue institutions, and I go regularly to fly down to make sure that I believe the list is true. Call it an obsession, a passion, I don't know, but there it is. And I remember at one point, I discovered, I was leading a college ministry at the time. One of the girls that worked for me, her parents lived in Luling, Texas, which at the time, the Luling City Market was one of the top five barbecue joints in Texas. And so I said, look, you have a job here. In Jesus' name, every time you go home, bring back barbecue. And I would just give her cash and say, I trust you. I don't even need the change. Just when you see your parents, don't come back without brisket, right? And she faithfully did it, wonderful girl. And I remember at one point, I was at home, and this guy came over that, bless his heart, he starts telling me about some chain of restaurants that he thought had fantastic brisket. And I said, man, you don't know what you're talking about. I understand it may be the best you've ever had,

but it's nowhere near the top 10, nay, top 50 in Texas. And so I gave him a multitude of examples. And then he began to resist me, insisting that his chain restaurant had not only good barbecue, but superior barbecue. And I was like, you are displaying your ignorance in a way that's painful to me. And finally, I said, you know what, man? I've got leftovers from Luling in my fridge, and I bet my leftovers are better than something fresh from your bum establishment. I dare you to taste and see. And he took leftovers out of the fridge, microwaved them, and my friend, who is kind of a cantankerous, argumentative person anyway, so I was expecting some kind of resistance, he took one bite, shut his eyes, and then looked at his wife and went, whoa. I was like, yeah, yeah, and I was vindicated, right? Now, how could I be so bold? Because I had tasted and seen that it was good. And so a little opposition was not gonna stop me. I know what good is, and I want you to taste it, right? Christian, how is your friend gonna know the content of the gospel of Jesus Christ? It's because you're confident in the content. I actually believe this is good news. I actually believe this will bring you peace. I actually believe this is what you're made for. I actually believe the answers are here.

I remember when I was young, I used to think, how am I gonna get the boldness to share my faith? I'm not an extrovert, I'm an introvert. How would I ever get up the courage to tell a friend about Jesus? And then I remember I was working at an oil company when I was in high school, and I was driving around in a truck with one of the geologists, and he was talking about going to college and how I'd pick a major, and I asked him, what got you into geology? And he was like, well, I don't really care about rocks. I just knew that there was a lot of security and money in the oil business, and so I just went for security and money, because he who dies with the most toys wins, right? And I remember when he said that, I just went, no! He was like, huh? I said, no, I don't think that's right. I don't think you just accumulate toys and then die. And he who dies, like, I never thought someone would actually believe that in real life. Your life's valuable. You're meant to spend it on something valuable. I'll tell you, that's not it. That's making a living, that's not really living. And I found I was talking to him about the gospel because I just believed I got something better than what you got.

Not because I'm so great, but because I've tasted and seen it's good, and I had a boldness because I believed it. And that's how it starts. I remember when I was in college in a classroom where they were talking about some of the violence and breakdown and distrust among so many different groups in American society, and they said, how will that get healed? And one after another, students were like, education, education, the right textbooks, the right classrooms, and as the more people said it, I was like, violence has been perpetrated by some of the most educated nations in history. A textbook isn't gonna solve this. There's something wrong with the human heart. It's not just about more information, it's about a change of inclination. And I believe Jesus Christ is the one who changes hearts. And suddenly I'm preaching to a classroom because I believe I got something better. We've grown as a church, statistically. We have surveyed data that most of you arrived here because a friend brought you. That somebody had confidence in the content, not of what Ben's saying, but what the Bible says. That this is good news. That Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. And how does the door of faith open to a lost world? It opens because there's people who believe

that it's true and it's good and worth sharing. And let me tell you, as soon as I say that, some of you go, are you preaching technique on how to evangelize? I don't even believe this. I just came because my friend made me. Well, if you're here and not a Christian, let me encourage you. Probably something brought you here that you have some spiritual interest or see some value. Let me encourage you, keep seeking. Keep studying the person of Jesus. No one changed history like that man. And he claimed to be the son of God and the hope of the world. Keep studying him, because I promise you, when you taste and see that he's good, you will not be able to stop speaking about what you've seen and heard. That's how the door opens, because someone believed it and wanted to share it. And that's the second thing, is they had compelling communication. Compelling communication. How does a door of faith open? Someone puts their faith in Jesus. One of the very practical things, did you see in verse one? They spoke in such a way that many believed. How does the door of faith open to somebody?

It's because you explain it in a way that makes sense. And then did you notice as they kept explaining it in verse three, it says the Lord bore witness to the word of grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. They had compelling communication in word and deed. Can you articulate your faith, Christian? And do your actions match the message? Can you articulate it? That's a way to start, a very practical way. How does the gospel go out? Someone explains it in a way that makes sense. I remember I was in a ministry in high school, and they said, hey, we wanna give you high school students a chance to preach. And there was a young man who was particularly gifted speaker, communicator. He was like, I'll do it, and they were like, great. And so he was just excited about being up front. He liked talking to people, and so he told some real funny story that then he realized didn't illustrate anything, scripturally, and kinda lost the crowd. And then didn't know what he was talking about, and suddenly his sermon took a real nosedive. And at the end, he could tell he was kinda losing the room, so he went, just, you know, be a good person and go to church, and then he left. And I remember I was like, whoa! It's actually not the message at all.

So that's the opposite. We don't earn our way to heaven through our good deeds. Jesus Christ was perfect on our behalf, and rescues and forgives us by his grace, not by our merit. And so I was like, yeesh, this kid's been in this group a long time, but can he articulate the message clearly? And I remember when I was a young pastor, I would sit down with kids that had been a part of my ministry for a while, and I was like, okay, step one in our mentorship program is I'm just gonna explain to you the basics of the gospel. And every time I did that, one of them would say, Ben, I'm already a Christian, I already believe it. And I went, oh, okay, well then you explain it to me, and cite examples from the scriptures. And they were like, um, I just, well, there's, you know, why don't you go ahead and show me how you would, I'm like, okay, all right. Yeah, there's one thing to know something, there's another thing to know it well enough to be able to explain it. Christian, are you prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have? Paul here gives you some really helpful language in this passage, he calls it the good news, the gospel. Of grace, did you notice that? God testified to the word of grace. That's unearned kindness. That Christianity is different from religion. Religion is I do things to earn God's approval.

The gospel is a message of grace. God's undeserved kindness comes to me, right? And it says many believed. How do you come into a right relationship with God? Not by your works, but by his. That by grace, you've been saved through faith. Now, last week he was a lot more technical about it as he talked to the Jewish people. He used the word justification, declared to be right, to the forgiveness of your sins that came through the resurrection of Jesus, that Jesus lived a perfect life. We could not, on our behalf, die the death we deserved, rose from the grave, and now is in heaven with God, and promises that those who believe him are not bound by their tragedies to determine their destiny, but they're bound in his victory because of their association with him. And so there's complicated ways you can explain it. There's simple ways you can explain it. Second Timothy, Paul told Timothy that he's an apostle according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. And that's an easy way to remember the gospel. It's a promise. It's not something you earn, something God promises to give. It's a promise of life, meaning you don't have life, but God promises to give it to you. And it's the promise of life in Christ Jesus. Where is life ultimately found? In a person, not in your performance, but in him.

Can you articulate the message? And then do words and deeds match? And here, for Paul, they were miracles. And sometimes he got to work miracles, sometimes he didn't. And just a little side note, Paul didn't always work miracles at will. He's gonna get stoned later, not with marijuana, but people are gonna hit him with rocks. And Paul doesn't have magical powers where he stops the rocks with his force and moves them. Like, that's not how miracles work in the Bible. They always sort of augment and authenticate the message. So Paul didn't do miracles at will, but God would work miracles through him to help bolster the message. And so sometimes it's through miraculous acts, and we should pray for miracles that God authenticates the message. Sometimes it's not through something miraculous, it's through the miracle of your morality, that you have a changed life, that they can see there's something different about you, that you have a BC and an AD, that there's a before Christ to you, and then after him, something's changed. John Lennox, the great apologist, one of the greatest alive today, was just recently on the Diary of a CEO podcast. And John Lennox is brilliant. If you never heard him, Oxford professor,

just fantastic at articulating great defense of the faith. But it was something interesting. As he was in this conversation, he was so warm and gentle and kind with the host, Stephen, who was trying to challenge him on his faith. And at the end of it, after about an hour and a half of talking to each other, it was fascinating, because the interviewer said to him, you know the greatest apologetic for God, for belief in God from our conversation? He said, it's not a single thing you said. And then he paused, and then he looked up at John Lennox and said, it's you. He said, you have such a peace and a contentment and a kindness. And he says, I interview so many people, but the way you are, I've only seen it in you and a couple other Christians that I've interviewed. And John Lennox, with his little smile, just goes, there's many of us, you know. And even after he says that, John Lennox says, keep searching. You're made in the image of God and have dignity. Keep searching the person of Jesus, and I wish you well. Then just continue to bless this young man who's on a journey. And you go, man, the greatest apologetic was not the arguments, but the life, that I see that your words and your deeds match. That's a great definition of integrity.

Your words and your deeds say the same story. And here, they heard the message, and they saw their life, and it changed things. It's fascinating, we don't have time to go into this. There's an extra biblical source, probably isn't fully true, that kind of explains this time at Iconium of Paul. The only reason I mention it is because it's kind of funny, because it's the only ancient attempt at a description of how Paul looked physically. We don't know if he really looked like this, but this is the only description of Paul physically we get from an ancient document. And it says this about the Apostle Paul. He was a man small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, well-built, with eyebrows meeting, rather long-nosed, full of grace. I don't know how you would feel if someone explained that to you. I don't know if Paul was alive, someone told him this. Sort of a rollercoaster of emotions. He's a man small in size, yeah, okay. Bald-headed, that happens. Bandy-legged, is that necessary, really? Well-built, oh, all right, okay, thank you. With eyebrows meeting, okay, honestly. Rather long-nosed, come on, full of grace. Oh, kind of a little, why bring that up? Because you don't have to be pretty to be potent. Paul changed the world, and by one account,

he was not a very attractive man. But he had integrity. And there was something about his words and deeds together that testified that the grace of God is real and worth pursuing. How does the door of faith open to your lost loved ones? your friends, your family, it's because you believe this message helps them and your life backs up the message, right? Now, we could talk about their practical perseverance. We will in a moment. They continue to preach, even in the midst of opposition, until they threaten to kill them and then they move on. But now let's move on because our last points are in Lystra. And just a side note, Paul, we looked at last week, his method of evangelism was to go to major Roman cities. Lystra is not that. It's not a major city at all. Actually, it's funny because there's a lot of ancient documents that talk about the city and they use words such as rustic, illiterate, backwater, difficult, stubborn, unsophisticated, having little regard for civil law, being full of robbers, a source of much trouble. And so Paul ends up in kind of a wild spot. And yet it's interesting the way Luke does this chapter. He shows you Paul in Iconium, the most civilized of Gentile cities, and now in Lystra, the most rural and uncivilized.

The gospel is for everybody. And yet Paul's method was to always go to the big city and then to hope that the gospel would spread out into the suburbs and into the rural areas. Why did he end up in Lystra? Well, we noticed it's because people wanted to kill him and he was on the run. So he was just fleeing some of these people that wanted to stone him to death, right? Little side note, sometimes God sends us places we never thought we would be. Wasn't on Paul's plan to go to Lystra. Well, we're about to see something interesting happen. Paul is gonna have to on the fly here start to articulate his theology in a way that will become the seedbed for the book of Romans, Paul's greatest contribution to the Bible. And he's gonna pick up his protege here, young Timothy, who he wrote 1 and 2 Timothy to in our text as well. So let me give you a little encouragement, family. Just because you don't know where you are doesn't mean you're lost. Paul had to detour, and yet this detour will be profoundly important for the history of the world. But it's interesting when he shows up, something fascinating happens in Lystra. No mention of a synagogue. He used to always go into a city where there was a Jewish presence, a familiarity with the Old Testament,

and then he would show them how Jesus is a fulfillment of all these prophecies. When he gets to Lystra, there's no synagogue there. These are just straight up pagans. These are people who are worshiping all kinds of stuff, and so Paul's gonna have to adapt. And you see in verse eight, now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked, and he listened to Paul speaking. And Paul looked 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. So Paul does a miracle, and the language in it is almost identical to Acts chapter three where Peter did this in the city of Jerusalem. And it's meant to show you the same God who was working through Peter to the Jews is working through Paul to the Gentiles. God wants to save people from all ethnic backgrounds. And yet it's interesting, it says when he sprang up and leapt around, it's an exact quote from Isaiah 35, a prophet in the Old Testament, that Isaiah prophesied when the Messiah comes, the Christ, the hero of our story, he will usher in God's kingdom, and it'll bring in God's blessing. The world will be as it should be,

including those who are broken will be made whole, and those who are disabled will leap like a deer. And here it uses that language that's often used in the gospel, that Jesus' arrival was sort of the in-breaking of God's kingdom in the earth, right? And yet it's fascinating, when Paul does this miracle and Luke name drops, it's just like the prophet said the people of Lystra aren't gonna make that connection. Actually, they're gonna make a very different one. And you see in verse 11, and when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycanian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus, Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gate, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. What is happening? Well, it's interesting, some of you know this because it's recorded in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, which I know you've all read. But by way of review, there was an ancient story about Lystra that Zeus and Hermes had showed up disguised as weary travelers, and no one would take them in except one old couple. So they killed everyone but the old couple. And yet it's fascinating,

Paul comes and is preaching about Jesus, and we don't know how well it's going, but he sees this disabled guy, and in the power of Jesus, heals him. And yet this crowd doesn't go, well, this is a fulfillment of God's eschatological kingdom prophesied by Isaiah in chapter 35. They look up and go, great Zeus, the gods are back! Get a cow! And yet they're saying it in their local language, and so Paul and Barnabas don't know what's happening. They're like, why is everyone excited? We don't know. And then suddenly the priest comes running up. with its kind of garlands around an oxen's neck, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, and somewhere around getting the knife out to slit its throat, Paul's like, oh, they think we're gods, uh-oh. Suddenly, we are off the map of what we expected. And in verse 14, it says when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard it, they tore their garments, which was a universal sign of mourning, so people would know, oh, something's wrong here. They rushed into the crowd, saying, men, why are you doing these things? We're men of like nature with you. We're bringing you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heavens and earth,

the sea, and all that's in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave them without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. But even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. It's fascinating, Paul begins to preach to them, but you notice what he didn't do? Last week, when he was with an educated Jewish audience, he quoted the law, the prophets, the histories, the poetry, showing them Jesus is the fulfillment of all of Israel's history. Here he's with these people, who are about to slaughter a cow to him, because they think he's Hermes, and he doesn't try to quote this text, because they don't know it. What does he do? He appeals to the sky. Look up. Somebody made all this, and it's not the idol you have in that little temple over there. Somebody's fed you, and that somebody has a name, that he appeals to natural revelation. He starts where they are, and that's point number three.

How does the door of faith open? It's with a contextualized message. Let me contextualize it. Let me adapt my method to the context I'm in. He doesn't change the message. It's always the message of the grace of God through Jesus, but he adapts the way he says it. Let me use words that you understand. I'm not gonna quote these passages you don't know, but let me start with something you do know. Crops, this all came from somewhere, and he tells them that, hey, in the past, God let you go your own way. We don't have time to read all this, but that's not good news. In the book of Romans, that's a sign of God's judgment, that when humanity broke faith with God, that we went our own ways, and God gave us over, and in Romans, Paul says, they began to worship created things, and their foolish hearts went dark, and their lives were futile. That means would not reach its intended purpose, and so in Romans, Paul said to the Gentiles, he appeared to nature. Somebody made all this, and then in Romans 2, he appeals to conscience, and you have a sense of what's good and bad and the fact that you haven't lived up to your own standards, and so in Romans 3, he says, so all are under judgment,

whether you have the scripture or not, and so the grace of God has come to all through Jesus. That theology is being worked out right here as he sees these people trying to kill a cow, and yet when he does it, did you notice, he just starts where they are. Let me meet you where you're at, and then try to explain the gospel from there, and this is something Christians need to work on. How do I meet my friends where they're at? One of the greatest things you can do as a Christian with your lost friend is listen to them. Ask questions about their life. Talk to them. One of the greatest questions I saw a friend of mine ask is he would talk to friends who were talking about their lives. Most people talk about the tragedy and pain pretty quickly, and he would ask them, hey, can I ask you this question? Where is God in that for you? How does God fit into that? And as people would talk, he would tell them, hey, I'm a Christian. Do you mind if I pray for you? And I never saw someone go, how dare you? You make me sick, right? But suddenly, he was introducing the gospel into all these questions or people's lives because he cared, and like a good physician, he would listen to the symptoms before applying a cure.

Just see what's going on in your life. One of the greatest evangelism stories I know was a mentor of mine who owned a hair salon, and he was living a pretty wild life, and he would have Christians come and tell him to go to church because they knew he lived kind of wild, but he said, but you know, they were gossipy and rude and petty and didn't tip my people well, and so I had no interest in their God or their church. He said, but there was one woman that would come to our hair salon, and I knew she worked at this high-powered job, and she would come get her hair cut, and then after a while, he said, I noticed just her demeanor change. Nicer, softer, kinder. And finally, I asked her, what's going on with you? And she told him about some big changes in her life, that she realized her life was going nowhere, she'd been successful financially, but it didn't fulfill her heart the way, and so she started going to a church because she got a flyer in the mail, and she said, this is gonna sound crazy, but I put my faith in Jesus, and it's changing my life. And he said, I believe you. And she said, why? And he said, your scalp. He said, it used to be so dry.

and flaky, and now it's not. And so I knew something changed in your life, I just didn't know what it was. And so he went to her church and put his faith in Jesus. And years later, was a mentor to me. Now that's called scalp evangelism, it's pretty niche. Yet it's fascinating, she showed up in his chair and he saw her changed life. Some of you, you have friends who are deeply lonely, and they're going places online for fulfillment and it's not answering it for them. Some of you have people who have a question of the problem of pain and does God care. I don't know where your friend's starting point is, but it's important to start with where they are, and just to meet them right where they are. I remember sitting with a woman that she said, I have no interest in church, and yet she was fascinated with horses. And she started telling me all about the character of these horses, and as she did it, I would say, you know what's weird? I was like, you keep pointing out characteristics that I could put Bible verses to. And she said, show me. And so she would tell me something about horses, and I would say, this is about something God does in people's lives. And it was this fascinating conversation we had about God based on horses.

And I was like, Lord, would you just open a door to help us talk about you? A contextualized message. Paul does it, and he meets them where they're at. Now, things take a weird turn in verse 19, because it says, and Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. These are the cities where he got run off, and they were seen as sister cities to Lystra. And so they came and they persuaded the crowds, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing he was dead. Now, some people look at it and go, wait a minute, this is the crowd that wanted to sacrifice to him a minute ago. And you go, yeah, the same mob that wants to sacrifice to you one day will stone you the next day, right? That's why you don't get too excited when they celebrate you because the same crowd might stone you. Ask any celebrity on social media, right? The mob is fickle. I remember watching NSYNC sing the national anthem at the World Series. And when they showed up on that stage, the men in the crowd booed vociferously. You're like, they might die. And yet they sang the national anthem so beautifully, by the end, they got a standing ovation. And you go, that was fast. In three minutes, it went from, this stadium might kill you,

to suddenly they might buy your albums. It's amazing. Mobs change fast. And here in this situation, they go from sacrifice to stone him. And they think they got Paul dead. And yet, as the disciples gather around him, it says in verse 20, when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up, and look at this, and he entered the city. And on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derby. What I love about that is they beat him with rocks till they think he's dead. They drag his body out of town, and they leave it on the ground. And the disciples come to get his body, and he goes. They're like, ah! And he goes. Let's go back. We're not done. He walks back in the town. That's crazy. But that's your fourth point. Courageous choices. What opens the doors of faith? Courage. To say, I'm gonna keep showing up, even in the midst of opposition. It's interesting, Admiral McRaven

is famous for a number of things, including he gave a famous speech at the University of Texas at their graduation ceremony about making your bed, having a sense of agency first thing in the morning. And he already had a stellar military career, and now became famous among young people for just giving agency to young college graduates. They wrote it into a book, Make Your Bed, a very motivational book for young people. He wrote a book before that, far less well-read, called Spec Ops, about the important and critical nature of special operations to overcome larger forces that are in an entrenched position. Little less well-read. But radically changed the face of warfare. And his whole thesis was a small, highly-trained, motivated force can overcome a bigger and entrenched force. But then one point in his book stood out to me. How does a small movement overcome a big one? He says, it frequently requires the intervention of courage, boldness and perseverance, or what could be called moral factors. How does a small force accomplish a great good? Courage. And so that's why when Paul goes back in verse 21, notice he could've just gone home the short way. Verse 20 says, one says, when they had preached the gospel to that city

and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, the places he got threatened and beat up. Why did he go back? Strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in their faith, and saying that through many tribulations they must enter the kingdom of God. That's his discipleship. Let me impart to you strength and courage because life is hard. And how did the gospel take root? in this part of the world is because of courageous choices. I'm gonna keep showing up. There's a great movie that just came out, Hail Mary. I don't know if you've seen it, starring Ryan Gosling. Fascinating, fantastic movie, won't explain it all, but Ryan Gosling's a coward in the movie, and it becomes critical that he makes some choices that will save all of planet Earth. And he says at one point to one person, I'm not brave, I don't have that gene. And in kind of the key statement in the movie, the guy looks at him and says, it's not a gene. You just have to have somebody worth being brave for. And Ryan Gosling has to learn about loving someone outside of him more than he loves his own safety. And for Paul, I love Jesus Christ, I'm his. And I love the people made in his image. And so I'm gonna do whatever I have to do,

whether it costs me or not. That's how the gospel goes forth. That's how these churches were planted, right? That's how the door of faith was opened, is because people had the courage to stand there and take the hit as they proclaimed the words of life, right? But the good news is, you don't have to do it alone. And in verse 23, it says, and when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. That's point number five, is communal support. How does the door of faith get opened? It's because believers support each other as we advance the message, that people see the way we love each other, that we have an us. It's interesting, Paul didn't just get converts. Paul planted churches, do you see that? He understood that we don't just believe the message, but we get together with other believers to encourage each other. I remember when I first showed up in college, I was kind of shaky in my faith, and I almost joined a fraternity, which isn't bad, but I remember going one night with them to a bar, and everyone's just getting hammered, and then one guy comes over to me, and was like, I notice you're not getting drunk, are you a Christian? I said, yeah, I'm a Christian, and I'm underage,

so I'm not drinking. He was like, I'm a Christian too. He said, I've been coming here for evangelism. I was like, what does that mean? He was like, I just hang out with these guys and don't drink. And when they ask me about my faith, I'll tell them about it. And I said, how's that going? He's like, well, not much has happened yet. I'm gonna stay at it. And I remember as he's talking to me, I'm like, how many years have you been doing this strategy? I was like, I just don't know that this is the best way. I said, because I've had a lot of conversations with guys that are drunk that, at the moment, were very emotional and tears, but the next day, they don't remember any of it. I said, I think you should rather evangelize at lunch, where they're sober, and it all makes more sense. But I just thought, you know what, you are a lone guy in a bar doing your best to stay sober. And I looked at myself and my own kind of shaky faith, and said, if I joined this group, I think that's probably the best I could be, is just sober. But I want more than that. And I realized I can't be the lone Christian in a dark world to make a difference. I wouldn't make a difference. I would just slowly burn out.

And I realized, even then, with a fairly immature faith, I need people around me to strengthen me. And it's fascinating, because that's what Paul's advocating here. When I first met Donna, she used to wear a T-shirt that said, lone rangers or dead rangers. And there's a truth to it, that we're not meant to do life alone. And here, Paul, as he goes to these different towns, he organizes them into groups and appoints for them elders, that you have a community that can support each other, so you can be a sustained light to that lost community. When I turned 50, well, I just turned 50 today, but as I was becoming 50, I decided, you know, I should do one of those physical challenges that people do, you know? I'm not a CrossFitter or anything like that. I was like, but I should try one. And so I called Clay Puryear, who's at our church, and I said, Clay, what if I did that? What if we did five for 50? What if we did five different workouts, 50 pull-ups, 50 squats, 50 push-ups, a five-minute plank, and a five-mile run? And he was like, let's do it. Yeah, let's do it, let's go. I'm like, all right, great. And I kind of forgot about it, and then he called and reminded me that I said I would do it.

And so this week, I had to make good on it. And Clay, in his mercy, invited a couple of boys, and we got out there, and I was feeling pretty good. Pull-ups, squats, push-ups, planks, we're okay. And then we started the run on Thursday, which, if you don't recall, it was in the 90s at 100% humidity. And about two miles in, I thought, I've made a huge mistake. And I sweat so much that my body just ran out of moisture. You ever been to that spot where I was just like, I'm out, my body's like, I'm done. Just like smoke coming off me. And I realized, I'm in trouble. I'm not gonna get as far as I wanna get. This is a problem. And I don't know if they saw that. I didn't hear them whisper amongst themselves or anything, but different guys started to say, I remember James offered me some water. He's like, hey, Ben, I got some water if you need it. Clay said, hey, I know where the next water fountain is. Let's grab some there, right? Kyle started talking about his fiancee to take my mind off my pain, right? And I was like, tell me all about her. Tell me about your love, right? Clay started talking about military philosophy, which is par for the course for him, but he's good at it and it's interesting.

So let's talk about something that'll take my mind off the fact that I'm about to pass out while we ran. And we finished the run, and I just remember looking at it and going, you know what? I went further faster than I would have gone on my own because I was running with a pack. And Christian, that's what you're meant to do. You're gonna have a more sustained and significant ministry to others to the degree that you run with us. And so let me tell you, if you're from out of town and you're considering where to go to church, let me tell you a couple things to look for in a church. Number one is, did you notice Paul was teaching them? You need to go for good gospel teaching. This church here, we are not disciples of Ben, per se. We're disciples of this book, right? So you get someone who preaches the word. Ben's ideas are not going to change the world, but this book has given hope and life to billions. And so you go to a church that preaches the word, and you go to a church that has pastoral care. Did you notice the appointed elders? You need friends that'll run with you, and you need mentors that'll help teach you. And not just ones online that wanna get your clicks and likes. Ones that will challenge you and confront you, but care about you as you live life together. And there's a presence of the spirit

that you can study this book and be unchanged in the same way that you can read a book about fitness. But when you're done reading, it won't mean you're in shape. You gotta read this and apply what you've learned. The spirit of God applies the word to your life as you begin to walk with him in community. And so you look for a church that preaches the word, has good pastoral care of shepherds, with the presence of the Holy Spirit moving among people, that they're a prayerful people. Here, Paul's establishing these communities, and they will be radiating the gospel for centuries after he's gone. And the last thing is, when he gets back home and tells them what happened, it says he declared all that God had done with them, how he opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. This is your sixth and final point. How does the door of faith open? Through a consecrated life. Do we have an internal locus of control? You do internally have the power to make decisions, and that can do good in the world. But is there an external locus of control? Yeah. But it's not all the bad, evil, horrible things around you. There is a God who's at work that'll take you to an Iconium and a Lystra. And when you are committed and consecrated to him,

that Paul had been commended to his grace, the passage says, then Paul got to come home and say, look at all he did with me, that I was under the care of a great God who loves this world, whose son came to live the perfect life we could not, die the death we deserved, beat death and offer us hope. I am his, and when I surrender to him, look what he did to my life. He sent me to places I never thought I would go, and he broke open doors to the Gentiles that they might know God. A consecrated life to God will lead you to conversations, places, people you never thought. But let me promise you, family, as you put your faith in Jesus and then walk by faith, he'll lead you to all manner of places, but that's where life truly gets exciting and it gets fun. Then when you say, I'm not just trying to make a living, I am really living, because I'm walking with the God who made me into the good works he's prepared for me. I got a consecrated life, I am his. When I was in college, I had a roommate that I desperately wanted to know Jesus, but he really wasn't interested in spiritual things. And I kind of thought wrongly at the time, well, I'm the Christian in his house, maybe I'm the one that's supposed to sort of

help him really open a door of faith. I really never got into a significant conversation about God with him, he just wasn't interested in that. But I'll never forget one day he came home and he sat down and he was like, hey, Ben, can I talk to you for a minute? The craziest thing just happened. I was like, what? And he told me about some difficult things that had gone on in his life. A friend of his who had died, some things I knew about but he'd never talked about. And he said, Ben, I was in the midst of a really hard day. He said, and a guy came by, I don't even know. And he saw me and he just said, hey, are you okay, man? He said, and Ben, for some reason I told him, no, not really. He said, and then this guy said to me, well, what's going on? He said, and Ben, and I just laid it all out, told him everything that was going on, I'd never done that before. He said, and this guy didn't judge me, just listened to me, and then after I was done, he was like, hey, I don't wanna make you uncomfortable, but I gotta tell you, I'm a man of faith, I love Jesus. Would it be okay if I prayed for you? He said, and Ben, then this guy prayed for me, and he said, I've never been a part of something that powerful in my life.

And then maybe he said, I gotta think about it. I wanna think about God. And as he said that to me, I was like, man, I've been praying for an opportunity to talk about God with this guy for years. He was never interested. And God gave it to some rando guy? And I was like, yeah, because that's what God does. And I found myself overwhelmed with gratitude for that random guy that just woke up that day available and God sent him to him. Man, I've been praying for it. And then it just dawned on me, oh, that was my assignment was to pray for him. And then God was like, yeah, I'm gonna get you praying for him. And then when his life's falling apart, he's gonna have too big an ego to tell people who know him, but he's gonna open up to a stranger. So I'm gonna send one of my other guys to him to pray over him, which is gonna change his life and lead him to you and make you wanna talk to you. And I remember sitting there going, it's a game. God's just moving pieces on the board. It's what Paul said to the Ephesians that God has created good works and prepared them that you would walk into them. And I was like, I don't know what mine are,

but some random guy was an answer to my prayer. And then I thought I could be an answer to some random grandma's prayer today. I don't even know, but there's something wild going on in the world. God is moving and I wanna be a part of it. And Paul came back to Antioch and was like, you guys aren't gonna believe it. You sent me out and commended me to the grace of God and God opened a door wide to the Gentiles. Let me tell you, friend, that's a life worth living. There's an old song from the 1980s, which if you were a Christian in the 80s, and I know there's 10s of us here who were, you remember the song. Saddle up your horses, we got a trail to blaze. Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace. Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown. This is life like no other. Oh, this is the great adventure. I promise you, friend, it is.