How The Mission Keeps Moving

Well, good morning, everybody. Would you help me welcome all of our brave campuses who are watching me with us today? So good to have all of you. Couple quick announcements. As a reminder, if you want to go to Israel with us, October 6th through the 16th, you can still sign up. It is an incredible opportunity for you to grow in your faith. I've told people many times, about 10 days in Israel is like a seminary education. You'll see your Bible in new and fresh ways. If you can go with us, I'd love to lead you over there and spend some time there. Men, as a reminder, February 28th is our Warrior Summit. Looking forward to that. We planned this out months in advance, but I did meet a guy here in the last week. I've been praying about an opportunity for someone else. Met a guy who's a former coach, has some sons that play in the NFL. He just recently retired from coaching, so he can go into full-time ministry to men and to families. I just spent an hour with him on the phone this week. When we were done talking, I'm like, you have to come this year. I think we're being remiss. Patrick Nix, Bo Nix's dad, is going to be with us as well, and so it's going to be a great time. You're going to want to be a part of that. Men, now's the time to sign up. Wives, if you don't know what it is, just sign your husbands up and send them. Girlfriends, send your boyfriends. If he doesn't go, tell him you'll break up with him, all that kind of stuff. Just get them there. It's going to be a great day. With that, let's continue our worship.

Let's go before the Lord, and let's seek his face. Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are, for all you're doing. Lord, we give you all the glory and honor, Lord, because you and you alone are the only one worthy of all of our praise and adoration. It's a privilege to be in your house today, God, to sing praises to you, to pray to your name, and to hear your living and active word, because we as a people believe that every time that your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed, that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer individually and collectively this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Most Christians believe that if they're doing what God wants, and they're walking in obedience to him, that resistance will lessen. Many Christians believe if I'm just doing what God asked me to do, and I'm yielding to his spirit, that opposition and resistance will wane a little bit. Things will get easier as we continue to walk with Christ, but the Bible is clear that's not the case. The Bible says that anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There's one thing about coming to know Christ. When you come to know Christ, and you realize it's not just a statement about, oh, I know things about Jesus, but I truly know him, and I believe he died on the cross for all my sins, and I've surrendered to his lordship, and I've exchanged all my sin for all of his righteousness and forgiveness, and he's coming to my life. You're a new creation, and you know that you're a new creation, and everything's changed, and your lens for the world changes, and it's phenomenal, and you begin to think, if it's this good, it's only gonna get better, and it does continue to get better, but you have to realize there's challenges to walking with Christ. It's like, for those of you who are married, you know what it's like when you date, and

you're engaged, and you're doing it God's way, and you both love Christ, and you both are centered on similar values, and you get married, and you think to yourself, all the marriages that have gone before me, they don't get it. We know it's gonna be easy, and then you get married, and realize, maybe it's not as easy as I thought, or for those of you who have the privilege of being parents, you know what it's like when you are dating your spouse, and you're at dinner, and there's that one family that was over there making all the noise, and their kids were crawling on the floor, and you piously look at each other, and you say, when we're a family, that's never gonna happen, and then like five years later, you're like, go ahead, just eat off the floor. We don't care. Just don't make any noise, right? I mean, you know what that's like, and the same thing is true in our faith in Jesus, that yes, it's true that we're forgiven, and we're forgiven to the full from the moment that we trust Christ, and we're His, and we have a new identity, and none of that changes, but as we walk with Christ, it can become difficult, and I want to let you know why it's difficult, because it's the way that God designed it. The way that God designed it is that you would be built through the battles, that you'd be built through the trials, that you'd be built through the sufferings, and God is the one who's orchestrating all those things that you would never have designed for yourself, and so the question becomes, when God is doing that, what is our response? What should we be doing when we're going through the battles, and how should we live when we're going through the battles, so that we can grow to the full measure of what God wants, and become stronger in our witness for Him? In answer to that question today, we're going to be in Acts chapter 14, Acts chapter 14, so I invite you to open your Bibles up to Acts chapter 14, and as you're turning there, you'll remember, as we finish this last chapter in Acts chapter 13. They had been speaking the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles and the Jews were like, we don't like what you're saying. We don't believe in what you're saying. So they said, fine, we're going to the Gentiles.

And all the Gentiles rejoiced and they went on their way. And this is where our story picks up. So let me read this first section and we'll attempt to get through all of it today. I'm gonna give you five truths that you need to continue to do when you're being built through the battle this morning. Notice what it says. It says, in Iconium, they entered the synagogue of the Jews and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed both Jews and Greeks, but the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore, they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to his word of grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews to their rulers to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it. And they fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra, and Derbe and the surrounding region. And there they continued to preach the gospel. So here's the first thing I want you to see in the text this morning. When you're being built through the battle, when you're going through hardship,

when you're going through trials, here's the first one, continue to speak when opposed. Continue to speak when opposed. Continue to proclaim the gospel, not if you're opposed, but when you're opposed, right? And that's what they were doing. I mean, they left, they went to preach the gospel, they entered a synagogue and they spoke in such a way that a large number of people believed, both Jews and Greeks. So they go to the city. What's the first thing they're gonna do when they get there? It's the first thing they do where they go everywhere. They preach. What are they preaching? Here's what they're preaching. They're preaching that God the Father loved the world so much that he sent his son to die for the world. They're preaching this, that Jesus Christ is unique to anyone else. That Jesus, when you see him, he's not a mere man. He's the God man. He's always existed. He put on flesh. He was born of a virgin. He lived and did what you couldn't do. He fulfilled the law, which means he never sinned one time. The Bible makes clear that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If you're here today, you've broken God's commandments.

You've lied, you've thought immoral thoughts, you've cheated, you've stolen. Even if you've just thought those things, you're guilty of breaking all the law. Jesus didn't break any laws. And yet before he left the earth, he went to the cross on purpose to take the full measure of the wrath of God for all the sin of humanity. And God poured all his wrath for sin on Jesus who died on a cross for all sin. And then he validated he was indeed God's son because three days later he got up and walked out of the grave. And that is the message of the gospel. And here's what it means. Jesus is the only one who can save you. There is no other salvation. There is no other name under heaven which can be given among men by which we must be saved. You either believe Jesus died for you and rose and he's your Lord, or you don't. If you do, you will be welcomed into his kingdom. You will hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant. If you don't, you will still meet Jesus. And when you meet him, he will say, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, for I never knew you. And even if you're here today saying,

I don't believe that, it doesn't change the fact you will stand before Jesus to give an account for your life because the Bible says that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You will do it whether you believe it or not. The question is, will you do it now? And that's what they were preaching. That message still offends people. That message still saves people. It does one or the other. You either hear the message and you think, I know I'm a sinner. I know if I were to die today, my religion won't help me. My good works won't help me. I'm gonna go to hell. I know I'm gonna go to hell, but I believe Jesus died for me. He took my punishment for me. I want him. I don't care what else I need. I need Jesus. I want to repent and turn from my sin. I'm asking Jesus to come be my Lord. That's one response. The second response is either passive indifference. Like, I don't really care. I just came to church to watch somebody get baptized.

I don't really care about any of that stuff. Or two is hostile resistance, which is I hate what he's saying. Like you either resist it or you accept it. You can't do anything else. It's like the gospel is like being pregnant. You're not kind of pregnant. You're either in or you're out. You're either all in with Jesus or you're not in with Jesus. And there is no middle ground to kind of be in with Jesus. And this is what they were preaching. And a number of people were coming to Christ. Jews were coming to Christ. Jews who believed our religion's the right one recognized that Jesus is the Savior of the Jews. Those who weren't Jewish were realizing Jesus is the Savior of the Jews. the world and I need him. So many people are coming, but notice what happens. Verse two, the Jews who disbelieve stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. So what are the unbelieving Jews doing? They're getting around all the other unbelievers, they're stirring up lies, they're stirring up falsehoods. They're basically trying to do a cancel culture, like don't speak in the name of Jesus, you can't do this, don't come into our city and talk this way. So what are they gonna do? Verse three, therefore they spent a long time there.

Doing what? Speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord. What were they doing? They were continuing to speak when opposed. Christian, let me tell you something. When somebody tells you, you can't speak in the name of Jesus anymore, here's what you do. You keep speaking in the name of Jesus even louder. That's what you do, right? We don't cower to that, we don't back down. Don't be a jerk, don't be mean, be loving. But when people say, don't talk about Jesus, talk about him even more. It's an opportunity to do that. That's what was growing them in their faith. And what builds you during the battle is not to silence yourself when people are offended, it's to speak up even more. Now I realize not all of us are called to be preachers, that's totally fine, but all of us have people in our life that we're influencing for Christ. And the hardest people to influence for Christ are who? Religious people and family. And if they're religious family, it's the hardest, right? And so those are the people that tell you, be quiet, don't come to Thanksgiving dinner if you're gonna talk, talk even more about it. How could I not talk about the most important one in my life, Jesus?

He's changed me and you're gonna meet him and you need to know I love you enough to tell you you better be ready when you do, right? That's the gospel, that's what they were doing. So when they stirred up controversy and they were trying to have people say, oh, they're lying to you, they're doing this, all they did was all the more clearly present the word of God. And God was testifying to the word of his grace by granting signs and wonders be done by their hands and we'll see some of those in a second. But the people of the city were divided, that's what the gospel always does, it divides. You're either for Jesus or against him, there's no middle ground. If you're like, well, I'm good with him, I just don't think he's a savior, you're against him. Anyone who's not for him is against him. Do you understand? And so the city was divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. So notice what happens. The gospel is being preached, lots of people are coming to Christ, they're stirring up controversy, when they do, they continue to preach all the more and now the city's divided. Because some of the people are like, we are all in on this Jesus,

we believe he's God's one and only son, we believe that he's the God of the universe, we're gonna give our lives to him, our support to him and our allegiance to him. Others were saying, well, we don't believe this, we are not giving our lives to him, we are not giving our support to him, we give our support to Rome, we give our support to the Jewish allegiance that we have, we give our support to our things and this ruins our thing because if we gave our allegiance to him, he would trump anything that we do. So we're against that. And so you got this division, you always have division where the gospel is preached. So for some of you who are young in your faith, like I don't wanna share about Jesus because it will divide, it does, but it divides rightly because it gives people an opportunity to be saved, amen? And so what happens is there was an attempt made by both the Gentiles and the Jews to get their rulers to mistreat and stone them. So word got to them, they became aware of it. So the Jews and the Gentiles, and this is what happens often, these groups that never ever come together, these groups that have absolutely nothing in common, when the gospel becomes that powerful,

you'll see groups join with each other that don't even like each other because they hate the gospel even more. And so they're coming together and the word gets to Paul and Barnabas that, hey, they're gonna mistreat you and even stone you, they're gonna kill you. So what are they gonna do? Well, here's what they do. It says, when they became aware of it, verse six, they fled to the cities of Lyconia, Lystra, and Derbe and the surrounding region. So when they get word that all of them that are in this mission are gonna be killed, they leave. And you might say, what a bunch of cowards, but notice what they did. And they continued to preach the gospel. So here's what they said, well, we're done preaching here. I mean, it's pretty clear we've done a good job because the whole city's divided. We're either for Jesus or against him. We did the work God wanted us to do. Now they're gonna kill us, we're out of here. Let's go to some other cities and guess what we should do? Let's do the same thing there. Let's tell those people about Jesus. Let's see if God can use us there the same way he's used us here. So they go to these other cities and they continue to proclaim the word of God, right?

So what do you do when things get tough? What do you do when people tell you to stop talking about Jesus? You just talk about him all the more and you become more bold in what you say. I mean, it reminds me, you know, if you watch a sporting event, I mean, a referee that makes a bad call against the home team at a basketball game and 17,000 people are chanting all sorts of obscenities toward this guy, he does. doesn't leave, he stays and continues to make calls because that's his job. Or a quarterback, when the play is too loud, he can't hear, he's still gotta make the call. He still stays in the game. Or if you're in the marketplace, and people tell you you can't speak in the name of Jesus anymore, then what do you do? You continue to speak the name of Jesus more boldly. I mean, that's why the Bible tells you this all the time. I mean, 2 Timothy 4.2, Paul told Timothy, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season. Here's why, because the time's gonna come when men will no longer put up with sound doctrine or teaching. Instead, they'll gather together a number of teachers to say whatever their itchy ears wanna hear. What are they saying?

There's gonna come a time, and it's been for the last 2,000 years, and we're living in it now, where you can gather people who will tell you everything you wanna hear, who will never draw a line in the sand about Jesus, so you can leave and say, that was a great message. What was it about? I don't know, I liked that story about the puppy, and it was so cute, and I just feel good. It was just the leadership. That's not the gospel. The gospel should let you leave, and when you hear the gospel, you should say, yes, that's what I needed to hear. I needed Jesus, or I hate what he just said. That's the gospel, and that's what the gospel does. It divides, right? I mean, Acts 4.29 says, and now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant your bondservants may speak your word with all confidence. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, and Paul even said in 1 Corinthians 9.16, for if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion. For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. Can there be consequences for speaking out loud?

Can there be consequences for living for Christ in the way that he's called you? Yeah, our good friend Charlie Kirk was murdered. He was martyred last October. For doing what? For being a Christian that spoke his mind in the marketplace. That's it, but while Charlie's no longer with us, he's with Jesus, amen? But, but his legacy of standing firm for Christ continues. Amen? No weapon formed against you will prosper. God will always use everything. When you speak boldly and you live for Christ, God will use your life. So when you're being built through the battle and you feel like you need to be silenced or canceled or shut, just continue to speak when opposed. Continue to speak louder. Secondly, do this. Trust God's ability to work in others. When you're being built through the battle, turn your eyes from yourself and turn them towards others and trust God's ability to work in others. Notice what happens when they got to Lystra. Verse eight, at Lystra, a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke,

who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said with a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he leaped and began to walk. Now here's the power. God will use his word to accomplish everything God wants his word to accomplish. Now here's what I don't believe the text is teaching. I don't believe the text is teaching, hey, pastor, every time you preach, find somebody who can't walk and tell them to stand up and walk. I don't think that's the message. I think the message is, when you're sharing the word of God with people, pay attention to what he's doing in other people's lives and believe that God can do in other people's lives what he says he can do. Because sometimes we see people and they're thoroughly depressed or they're in a bad marriage or they're struggling with their finances and we minister to them, but deep down in our hearts, we're like, I don't think it's ever gonna get any better. Don't believe that way. Believe that God can do everything that he says he's going to do in the life of another. So the reason I believe Paul told that man who had never walked, which by the way, it's not like he had walked a little bit

and then become crippled at 16. He never walked in his entire life. He came out of his mom's womb and he couldn't walk from that point until he's just laying on a mat there. And Paul's preaching and he sees this guy's eyes and something stirs in his spirit, the Holy Spirit, that says, I'm about ready to do something here. So Paul, I need you to have the boldness to tell that man to stand up and walk. And so Paul says, stand up right and walk. The man didn't just stand up, he leaped up. The guy's never walked. He jumped and he's running around. I mean, you've watched kids learn to walk. They don't do that. They wobble and fall, wobble and fall. This guy's jumping up, never having walked and doing it perfectly. That's God, amen? Now, why did Paul say what he said? Because the spirit of God prompted him to say what needed to be said. When you as a believer are speaking with somebody and you're speaking boldly, there are times where the Lord's like, you need to tell him this. And there's times where like, I'm not telling him this because that will cause some problem. No, you tell him because you're believing in them.

One of the other challenges Christians have is when we're sharing the word. One of the reasons we have a hard time sharing the word is we're so consumed with our own challenges. I mean, I don't even have to ask. This is a rhetorical question. How many of here have a challenge? I mean, you could have a physical challenge. Like if you're my age, you could have a mental challenge. You could have a financial challenge. You could have health challenge. You could have relational strife. You could have all this. And what ends up happening is we have enough stuff of our own to think about that we think that our relationship with God is just him dealing with my stuff. And I spend all my time spending time on my stuff. Well, God does care about your stuff, but here's what he tells you to do with it. Cast all of your anxiety, cast all your stuff on him because he cares for you. Come to me all who are weak and heavy laden, I'll give you rest, cast it all on me, right? So that's what we're called to do. But if we give it to him so that he can deal with our stuff, then what are we called to do? Lift our eyes up and glorify him and then check out what he's doing in other people. If you can get your attention off of you long enough

to start caring about what God's gonna do in others, oftentimes that's where your healing comes from. Your healing comes from, I believe God can do this in them. And when you see God do something in others that's miraculous, it builds your joy. Certainly the people that were there as part of that congregation that were sitting there watching this man who they knew from birth who had never walked upright, leaping around, walking, they were amazed at it. But it wasn't as though Paul did it. Paul was just listening to the prompting of the spirit in his life. Paul was listening to the prompting of the spirit in his heart. Paul cared about the people he was ministering to and he wanted to see them get the fullness of everything Jesus had for them. So if the spirit was prompting him to say something or to do something with those people so they could be the fullness of Jesus, that's what he was doing. And again, not all of you are preachers, it's okay. But there are gonna be times where you're ministering to people. And by ministering, I mean serving people that you love and that you care about. And you're gonna have a burden on your, I think God wants to do something here. Sometimes it can be as scary as this.

Just pray for him right now. I've never really prayed out loud for a person that's gonna be weird. My family doesn't do that. Just pray for him. Do you understand what I'm saying? It's that next little step of faith that God would prompt you to do. Because if you really believe in his ability to do unto others what he says his word can do and you're looking for God to do that, you'll be excited when he chooses to use you as his conduit of grace to get that done. So when you're going through the trial, right, don't keep your eyes fixed on you. Keep your eyes fixed on him, but then be looking out for how can you use me, Lord, to build the others up around me? I trust you for that. Paul wrote this to the Philippians. He said, I'm confident in this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. And here's the beauty of this. Paul's not taking any glory for himself. I mean, this is like the coach that sees potential in an athlete before they see it, or a teacher that sees potential in a student before they see it, or a friend who sees potential in somebody who doesn't know Christ

before they know Christ and starts praying for them to respond. It's the idea of a farmer that's going out planting seeds in the dirt that just believes if he does all the right things, it will sprout. And guys, guess what? You know what we need in the body of Christ? We need more people that are seeing those things that can draw them out of others. Because here's what I want you to know. The Bible says this, if you're born again, that you've been supernaturally gifted by God from on high. Every single person who's born again is supernaturally gifted. God didn't just supernaturally gift one or two. He supernaturally gifted everybody who's born again. And then he makes them part of a life-giving body called a church so that what? So that his supernatural gifts can be put on display. Most Christians do not believe they're supernaturally gifted. Most Christians do not believe that they have something to offer. So what does it take? It takes a believer who can discern what they see in other people and call it out. When I was really new to my faith, I got asked to go out and share my testimony a lot, just how I got saved and what, what Jesus had done for me.

I didn't know how to do anything, but I could tell my story. And I would go out and tell my story. And inevitably, every time I told my story, whether it's a small church or a gathering or whatever, somebody would come up and bring somebody to me saying, hey, this is Joe, or hey, this is Susie. They gave their lives to Christ tonight when they heard your testimony. And I thought that was just normal. That's what happens every time you give your testimony. And somebody called me aside one time and they said, hey, you're an evangelist. I'm like, I don't even know what that word means. They said, it means you like to share the good news of Jesus and when you do, God uses it supernaturally to draw others to himself. I said, okay. So I knew I was an evangelist. And so I continued to share my faith and did all that. But there was one summer I was at a camp and I taught every single week for about 12 weeks during the summer. And every week I'd have all these different people that would come in and I was teaching the Bible and teaching different things. And about week seven, there was a girl who was there with her mom. And at the end of the week, they came up and they were just affirming me.

And they said, hey, you're a great teacher. And I remember telling them, I'm not, I'm an evangelist. And they said, no, you really teach the Bible. I'm like, no, I've said, that's really nice of you. I'm not a good Bible teacher. I don't even know that much about the Bible. I'm like, I'm just, I know the gospel, but I don't know much about the Bible, but that's really nice. of you to say, and they wouldn't have it. She kept saying, listen, I've been a Christian for this long, I've heard so many people teach, but when you teach, I understand what the heck you're talking about. You're actually a good teacher. Well, that registered with me. Now, what would have happened if people didn't tell me I was an evangelist and a teacher? I wouldn't be doing evangelism and I wouldn't be teaching. Do you understand what I'm saying? There are people in here, and I can stand up here and rant and rave and say, all of you are supernaturally gifted, find a place to serve, and you can be like, that's great, I hope other people will do that. So how's it gonna work? When you see things in somebody else, would you call them out? Would you trust God's ability to work in their life?

Like, so often we think we need to be perfect or ready, and then God can use us, and that's never who God uses. God uses imperfect all the time, because there's never gonna be a time that we're ready. And if all you're doing is working on your stuff till you meet Jesus, you're still gonna be working on your stuff the day you meet him. Amen? So let him work on your stuff while you open your eyes and worship him and find other people who you can minister the gospel to. Amen? So when you're going through the battle, continue to speak when opposed, trust God's ability in others, and then do this. This is really, really important, because if you're gonna do those things, this is gonna happen. You need to redirect the praise of people to God. You need to redirect the praise of people to God. If you are gonna encourage others, and you are gonna be bold, there's gonna be people that are gonna benefit from that, and they will misplace where they need to give their praise, and they'll start giving it to you. And when that happens, you redirect it. Notice what happens here. It says this in verse 11, that when the crowd saw what Paul had done. So Paul's preaching, tells the man to get up.

Man gets up, starts dancing around. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lyconian language, the gods have become like men and have come down to us. I mean, you talk about being encouraged as a preacher. The gods are here with us. And they begin calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Zeus was the chief God. He was the supreme authority. He had all the power. Hermes was the speaker for all the gods. So Paul was doing all the teaching. He was called Hermes. Barnabas in his older stature, he was called Zeus. So these people who believed in Zeus and who believed in Hermes, felt like Hermes and Zeus had incarnated themselves and were with them. So notice what they're gonna do. Even the priest of Zeus, verse 13, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. So they get done preaching, guys standing up and walking. They're calling them gods. Even the priest of Zeus is coming to offer praise to the God that he believes in, who's now among them. I mean, this is what's happening. They're praising Paul.

They're praising Barnabas. How are they gonna respond when that happens? Here's exactly what they respond. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd. They're grieving. They're showing contrition, like, don't do this. And here's what they said. Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, and yet he does not leave himself without a witness in that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and goodness. Now, what's he saying? When all of them are coming to give him praise, what is he doing? They're tearing their robes. They're showing, don't do this. We're men just like you. Here's what you're witnessing. We're testifying to the God that just did all these things. We're testifying about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one you need to give your praise to.

He's the one you need to give your glory to, not me, not us. Friends, that's so important. Do you know why? We weren't made to be worshiped. We weren't made to be praised. Exhibit A, Hollywood. We just weren't. We don't do a good job of it. We weren't designed nor created for that. We were designed and created to give praise, not receive it. We're designed to deflect it and say, if God did something good, praise God. Now, it doesn't mean you need to be hyper-spiritual and pious if somebody says, hey, thanks for taking my kids in the ministry today and serving them, or hey, thanks for helping me with the parking spot. You don't need to stand there piously and be like, it wasn't me, it was the Lord. You don't need to do that. You can say thank you, that's fine. I'm glad God used that service in your life, good. But what I'm talking about is when people wanna praise you, you're who I'm giving my allegiance to. You never give your allegiance to any man. You give your allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone, amen? And that's what they were teaching.

And that's what they were saying. And so they turned the opportunity for praise. Talk more about what? The gospel. And he was saying God overlooked things in past. And I love verse 17, Acts 14, 17. It's one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says it like this. It says, and he did not leave himself without witness. In every culture, everywhere around the world, God is giving witness that he is. Every culture. I've taken classes where I've studied this and all sorts of other tribes where you're looking for, hey, where's God doing this? And what's God about? And how's he doing this? And you can read different missionary biographies of people that have gone out to share the gospel. Like Don Richardson that went to a head hunting tribe to share the gospel. And he was so frustrated because he walked him through the entire Bible. And when he did, they saw Judas Iscariot as the hero because betrayal was a great value in the culture. And he's about ready to give up after spending all this time with his people he's trying to see get saved. And one day he notices, one day he sees that when these two warring tribes

were coming together, that one tribe offered the other tribe a child. And he's like, what in the world is this? And why'd you stop fighting? They said, well, this is the peace child. When things get really hostile, we give one of our sons to the other tribes to show that we're bringing peace between us. And all of a sudden his mind went, bam, now I know how to share the gospel. And he shared Jesus as the peace child between humanity and God and everybody got saved. God does not leave himself without a witness. In every culture creation cries out, there has to be a God. I mean, we live in Colorado for heaven's sakes. We look West and we see the mountains. They didn't just spring up. Someone had to create them. You hold a newborn. They didn't just appear. They had to be created by God. It's a miracle. We see the evidences of his creation all around. And then we have a conscience and our conscience tells us there's a right and a wrong. And our conscience tells us that there's a moral code and our conscience tells us there's gotta be more to life than this. Why is that?

Because God is not leaving himself without witness. He's letting you know that if you really wanna know that there's a God, I'm giving you evidence that there is. And if you seek me and find me, you'll seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. And you'll know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. So you redirect your praise to him. And don't we love that in our culture when we see people do that? I mean, that's why it says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 9, 23, thus says the Lord, let not the wise men boast about his wisdom. Let not the strong men boast about his strength. Not the rich man boast about his riches, but let him who boasts boast in the Lord. Amen? I mean, and why? Why are we called to humble ourselves before the Lord and that he'll exalt us? Because Isaiah 42, eight says, I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not share my glory with another or give praise to idols. I'm God, I'm worthy of all of it. And isn't it true that when we see someone

in the public sector that stands up and deflects personal praise to Jesus, we say, I like that. I may not even know their testimony, but I like that. I like it, the music awards when Jelly Roll stands up and says, it's all about Jesus. I like that. I like when athletes deflect and say, it's all about Jesus. I like that. I don't know who's gonna win the Super Bowl today. Reason I don't is because nobody invited me to do their chapel, but. Lutheran basketball team did on Friday night and they won, I'm three and O, so thank you. Just saying, Broncos. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm not gonna say anything. Just saying, Broncos. But don't you love it? Because whoever wins the Super Bowl today, there's a number of Christians on both teams and you're gonna hear both teams after the game give testimony to Jesus. And it's gonna be glorious, amen? That's deflecting praise. That's deflecting praise.

It's all about Him. There's nobody on this earth worth worshiping. Jesus is, and He's the only one that can satisfy, amen? So redirect the praise from people to God. Be grateful that God's using you, that's great. If you're serving other people and trusting God's ability for continuing to speak the word over them and as a parent or a coach or a teacher or a friend or whatever you do as a business owner or in your neighborhood, people like thank you so much. It can feel good in your heart, that's great. But just know it's because of Him. Thank you, God, for using me in that way, amen? So redirect your praise to God and then do this. This may be the biggest one of all and especially for people in the church. Keep serving after you've been deliberately hurt. Keep serving after you've been deliberately hurt. Now notice what happens. I mean, keep in mind where we just left off. Paul and Barnabas are being called gods. God incarnate. Zeus and Hermes have come to us. That's the context of where we're in. Now watch what happens, starting in verse 19. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, meaning this. The cities that they just came from where they stirred up dissension, people aren't comfortable that they left. They wanna go get them.

So they're setting up mission teams to go take out Paul and Barnabas. So they're, and having won over the crowds, notice what they did. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him dead. One minute, you're a god. Next minute, you're being stoned by the same people. Any other story like that in our Bible? When Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey and everybody's saying, praise the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, quoting Psalm 118. Only less than a week later, those same people are yelling what? Crucify him. Free Barabbas. We want him dead. Same people. That's what's happening here. That's why I would tell you this. Don't read your own press. It's not helpful. Because there'll always be people that think you're awful and there'll always be people that think you're better than you really are. Just don't read it. Just be who Christ wants you to be. Amen?

And when you get hurt, because to stone someone, it's not like it's accidental or we didn't mean to hurt him. You're purposely trying to kill him. So when you're stoned, it was a group of people that said, you're not worthy of life and we're gonna take you down and we want it to be physical, emotional, spiritual. We want you done. We hate you. And notice what happens. So they stoned him. Supposing him to be dead, verse 20. But while the disciples stood around him, because assuming the disciples were praying for him, assuming the disciples were standing there in shock thinking he was dead, but while the disciples stood around him, he got up. He got up. Now, before we read any further, what would you do if you got up? You've been called gods by the same people that have now stoned you and left you for dead. What are you gonna do when you get up? I mean, I always think when I read it, like, what would I do? I'm thinking like before seasons for maybe a weekend spa would be good. You know, just to relax, maybe get away, get on a cruise,

go somewhere where I can just relax for a while, get away. That's not what he does. Notice what he does. It's absolutely God honoring and amazing. He got up and entered the city. He went right back to where he was. The next day, he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. So what's he do? He gets up and says, where are we going now to preach? Let's go to Derbe. He goes and preaches the gospel in Derbe. A bunch of people there get saved. And he's like, you know what? Let's go back to where I was stoned and preach some more. And let's go back and make sure the disciples are encouraged. And let's continue this work of the Lord because as long as I have breath, that's why I'm here. That's amazing. That's supernatural. That's Holy Spirit filled, Holy Spirit controlled work. And that's exactly what he did. Amen. Now you might say, I don't think anybody's gonna stone me in this life and hopefully they don't. And hopefully we don't deal with that kind of stuff.

But I would tell you this, if you serve in the body of Christ, you will get hurt. I don't like the word church hurt. I think it's way too generic and way too general. And when people say I've been hurt by the church, they're not specific enough. I don't believe you've been hurt by the church. You may have been hurt by a person in the church. You may have been hurt by a pastor of the church or an elder of the church. You may have been hurt by a human being that was trying to love you and didn't do it in the right way. There can be things. But if you serve, you will be hurt. Why? Because the devil wants you to stop your supernatural service. He wants you to shut it down. So you can get really excited. Like I think I'm gonna help four year olds. I think I'm gonna help with prayer. I think I'm gonna help with the parking team. I think I'm gonna help with shield. I think I'm gonna help with God raise. Whatever you choose to do that's your supernatural gifting, you'll get hurt by people when you do it. So that the enemy's voice gets loud in your ear, be like, you don't wanna help those people anymore. Man, those people hurt you.

You were trying to help them. And look at this, they hurt you. And so you need to be done with that, right? That's naturally going to happen. What supernaturally happens when that happens is here's what you do. Jesus said what to do. Luke 6 27 says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. It means this, when you get hurt by people inside or outside the church, here's what you have. It's an incredible opportunity to witness Jesus. You get to show love to them. You get to pray for them. You get to ask God to bless them. You say, God, continue to keep my heart. tender before you, and it is really painful, but I'm gonna continue serving your people because it's what you've called me to do. When you do that, God builds your character in such a way that you'll never ever be the same again. It's spiritual maturity to continue to serve after you've been hurt. Anybody that serves anywhere in the ministry, they're hurt. Every time I'm together with a group of pastors, usually the first hour or so, just talking about, how have you been hurt in the last three months? Because you are. Anytime you take a step of faith

to help other people grow in theirs, you will get hurt. And when you do, it's a great opportunity to get back up and to continue serving after you've been hurt. Your flesh says, get revenge. Your flesh says, get even. That's not what the Bible says. Romans 12, verse 17 says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. If possible, as far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. What's he saying? He's saying you have incredible opportunity when you get hurt to love the Lord Jesus Christ in such a way that you get to bless others who were being hurtful to you. Did our Savior ever do that? Even when he was being beaten, even when he was on the cross, what was he saying? Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. Isn't that what he modeled? He wasn't giving vengeance. He was entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. God, dad, you have them. I forgive them. I'm not going to my death with unforgiveness in my heart, bitterness in my heart. I'm forgiving them. I'm asking you to bless them even though they were hurtful to me. I love you, God,

because that's what you've done for me. Second Corinthians four, verse eight, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. I mean, when you continue serving after you've been deliberately hurt, it builds others around you. It gives them courage to stand firm for the faith that they too believe in. When you've seen somebody that's been hurt for their faith or you know of somebody in the persecuted church that's been tortured or in prison for their faith and you hear them talk about how much they love Jesus, it bolsters your faith. Right here down the street, there's a friend of ours named Jack Phillips that runs Masterpiece Cake Shop that a few years ago decided because of his faith, he did not want to do a cake for a homosexual union because he believed it went against God. So he didn't make the cake and it cost him dearly. And that case went all the way to Supreme Court and by God's grace, he won that case, which he should have won. But it's his testimony for God. It's his testimony for God. I mean, it was probably only $13 worth of ingredients. Jack, just make this $13 cake, take a profit, be done. No, no, no, I can't ruin my witness for Jesus.

I must do what's right. And he's been severely hurt and he still stands strong and he makes great cakes and you should go see him because I like his cakes. But more importantly is his testimony of Jesus Christ. You're gonna have opportunity in your life as you continue to walk with Jesus to stand firm in what you believe when there's others around you that will say no. If you're a high school student, later in high school, it'll happen in college. If you're a college student, it'll happen when you get your job. If you have a job, it will continue as you accelerate. I mean, there's always gonna be a chance for you to have a test and an opportunity to say, am I gonna live for Jesus or am I gonna stop living for Jesus? Like there's a lot of people out there just talking about the church that will say this. If you talk to them and they're honest with you, I love GSIs, don't love the church, I'm never going there, it's just a bunch of hypocrites. That's a person that has been hurt and decided I'm not going to continue to serve that's come under the influence of the evil one rather than under the influence of God who said, I've been hurt, but I forgave them. I've been hurt, but I love them. I've been hurt, but I want to see God favor them.

I've been hurt, but even though they mistreated me, it doesn't matter because how bad if I mistreated God and he still loves me? So how could I treat somebody any other way than to love them? And when you do that, that grows your faith. And you say, well, I don't know where I'm gonna get that opportunity. Stand by, it's coming. So keep serving after you've been deliberately hurt and don't give up, amen? So here they got deliberately hurt. They go back, they continue to preach the gospel and then go right back through the cities where they were stoned to preach that. And then let me give you this final one. If you really want to be strong in the Lord and he's building you through this battle and you're continuing to speak out on his name and you're trusting his ability in others and you're redirecting the praise to God and you're continuing to serve even after you've been deliberately hurt, here's what he says to you finally, strengthen and equip believers for lasting impact. Strengthen and equip believers for lasting impact. Notice verse 22. When they went to all these cities, what were they doing? They were strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue.

in the faith and saying, notice they're saying, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. That was their motto. Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Oh, how I wish that was like a banner at every church. Hey, believer, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Hey, if you're a believer, you're gonna go through a lot of tribulations, because you know why? Because when you get to heaven, here's what there's not. Here's who you'll never meet. You'll never meet somebody in heaven when you meet them and say, hey, what did you go through in life? Nothing. It was awesome. I was born into the right family, had the right parents, had all the right teachers, all the right coaches. My life soared. I got better jobs than anybody. I made more money. I had more friends. I had more influence. Nothing bad ever happened to me. I was never discouraged, never depressed, and it was awesome, and I wish I could go back to earth. Yeah. Here's what you will find. You'll find people who have repented of their sin and trusted Jesus, and then they'll walk you through.

And whether they knew Jesus for a long time or a little time, they'll have things in their life that they wish they would've changed, and they're so thankful for Jesus. I mean, you go back to the thief on the cross. I mean, he only knew Jesus for presumably an hour. But if you met him, he would say, you know what? I wish I would've known him sooner. Wish I hadn't said all those things about him during the day. Wish I hadn't partnered with the guy that was on the other cross and said all those mean things, and I'm so thankful that Jesus saved my life, and I don't even know how I deserve to be here because I don't, but he welcomed me in, and I'm so grateful for my God. Amen? That's what you'll meet. You'll meet other people that will tell you, I was doing this for the Lord, and here's how I got kicked in the gut, and I was doing this for the Lord, and here's how I got kicked in the gut, and I went through this in my marriage, and I went through this with my kids, and I went through this, and I went through this. Everybody's going through something. As Christians, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. When they had anointed elders,

notice how they get elders, they anointed elders for them in every church, having done what? Prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. How do they find elders? Where are we gonna find these leaders? Well, you're gonna have leaders that are walking in the spirit of Christ, and what are they gonna do? They're gonna pray and fast and ask the Lord, who are the leaders that can lead with us? Who are the men of strength that can do this with us? And then once you show us who those men are, we're gonna do what Jesus did, we're gonna continue to pray and fast so that you can confirm in our lives, this is who you want to lead, and here's why it's so important, because we need living examples in the church of men that are walking with Jesus, men that are doing these things, not just talking about them, but living them, and they wanted to make sure that every church that they planted had faithful men that were leading those churches, so people in the church could point to a man or men and say, okay, that's an example of what it looks like, that's how you forgive somebody, that's how you love somebody,

that's how you love your wife, that's how you grow your kids, not perfectly, but what? Increasingly. That's what they did. So they wanted the churches to flourish. So they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed, verse 24, then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia, they're going right back the way they came, and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Italia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to by the grace of God for the work they had accomplished. So they went back to their starting point, right where they were, when the Holy Spirit called out Paul and Barnabas to go, and when they arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all the things that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles, and they spent a long time with the disciples. So what did they do when they got back home? They called a church meeting, they told them everything that just happened. And can you imagine how long that church meeting took? I mean, they had to tell them of all their travels and where they went, and oh, by the way, John Mark abandoned us,

but we still preach the gospel, and guess what, not only Jews, but Gentiles are coming, it's going so great, every city is seeing the gospel advance, and it's going so well that the cities are being divided, because people are either for Christ or against Christ, so we're doing a good job of explaining who Jesus is, and guess what, at one place, they even thought we were gods, and the next minute we were stoned, and then we got up and we kept, I mean, this is what was going on. And notice the last verse, because I want you to see this. And I want you to see this because evangelism can happen in a moment. Like if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus, you can trust him right now and receive the full measure of God into your life in a moment, in an instant. But discipleship takes a lifetime. And they spent a long time with the disciples. I don't have time to get into it, but I can tell you between chapters 14 and 15, maybe we talk about it next time, you're talking seven months to a year. Means they're gonna spend time, why? Because you can't just tell people, okay, you got Jesus good, you got everything you need. Now you got Jesus good,

and now we're gonna need to coach you in every little aspect of your life as you grow. It's why coaches don't just do a one-day workshop in the fall. Like here's our playbook, here's our team, guys go have fun. No, every single day, they painstakingly get down and they work on every single thing that they're doing. And they go back and they watch film and they study to see if they're. doing the things that they're supposed to do right. Military does the same thing before they go into battle. I find myself sometimes watching YouTube Navy SEAL videos for what they do for training, and I falsely think to myself, if I was 18, I could do that. And I couldn't. But I like watching it, I'm like, why do they put these guys through such hell? Here's why, because they know the mission they're about ready to be on. And if they can handle this, they'll be able to handle that. Well, what's God doing in your life? He's got a special curriculum for each one of you. Especially those things that you would say, why did this happen to me? Or why did my mom and dad? Or why did my coach? Because that was God's special curriculum in your life to grow you.

Why did this hurt so bad? Why did that not work out? How come this? Because God has a special curriculum to you of tribulations that he's growing you in for you to become the fullness of who he can use. And they spent a long time with the disciples. Discipleship's inefficient. Being a parent done right is inefficient. Being a marriage done well is inefficient. Being a loving church is inefficient. You can't make things happen quickly. You have to walk through relationally all sorts of things all the time to see God do his best. But that's why God tells us to go make disciples of all nations. That's why Paul tells Timothy, the things which you have heard from me in trust of faithful men. That's why Ephesians four tells us to equip the saints for the work of ministry. I mean, that's what it's all about. That's why here at Brave we do Cadres. Why do we do that? Because it's life-giving community where we put you in contact with other people that can help you grow. I can tell you this without reservation as a pastor. I couldn't be who I am if I didn't have other people in my life speaking into my life

or other people I'm speaking into. I need to see the grace of God in others and I need the grace of God in me through others. I can't walk this thing alone. There's no way. You can't either. God wants to do a work in your life and when you're going through it, he's building you through this battle. He's telling some of you, continue to speak boldly. He's telling some of you, get your eyes off yourself and continue to trust my work in other people. He's telling some of you, hey, that praise that's coming your way, that's mine. Give it to me. Tell people why you were able to do that. For some of you, he's telling you, hey, I know you've been hurt. I watched you hurt. Guess what? I know what it's like to be hurt on the earth. Get over it. Bless the people who hurt you. Pray for the ones that mistreated you and continue to serve me. And for some of you, he's saying, hey, stay inefficient. Just spend your life strengthening and equipping other believers for service. That's what he wants to do.

And God wants to use your life to do it. That's the beauty of this. He wants to use your life to do this, which means this, if you don't know Christ, you can know Christ. I mean, I got great news for you. This morning, we're celebrating 73 baptisms across our campus. Let's say amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Every single one of these stories is someone who knew they were a sinner, who's repented and believed that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. They've invited him to be the Lord of their life. Everyone has a unique story here. In a few minutes on all our campuses, you're gonna have a pastor come up and interview a couple of people. You're gonna hear a couple of these stories, and then we're gonna celebrate baptism. And baptism's new life. It's an outward renewal of what God's already done

on the inside that you've died to sin and rose with him. And if you're a believer, the next step in faith is being publicly baptized. But then for each one of these people, none of these people are getting baptized because they're perfect. None of these people are waiting until everything's right, and now I'm walking completely. No, they're being baptized because they've trusted that I was once dead, and now I'm alive, and Jesus made me that way, and I wanna continue to grow in him until I meet him face-to-face. That's why they're getting baptized. Amen? And so we got the privilege of celebrating that. So let me pray for you, and then we'll bring up our pastors on campuses and share testimonies. Father in heaven, thanks for today. Lord, thanks for your word. Lord, it's such a great passage because it reminds us through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. And Lord, for the things that you've stored up in each one of our hearts, Lord, we ask you to do. If you're here today and you say, I don't even know what you're talking about. I've never trusted Jesus, but I want Jesus in my life.

Here's how you can pray right now. Lord, save me. Come into my life, change me. I confess I'm a sinner. I give you all my sin. I want all your forgiveness, all your mercy, all your grace. Come and change me. For those of you who know him, ask him this question. Lord, how can I grow more fully as a disciple of Jesus? And Lord, we give you praise. We give you glory. We give you honor. We give you praise that you're at work in our church and you're doing amazing things. And we look forward to hearing these stories on our campuses today of lives that you've changed and celebrating with those who have committed their lives to Christ. We give you all the glory and honor in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Can we give God praise for his word and bring up our pastors this morning? Let's give him a hand. Yes, Brave Church, we have the great