Now, if you're a kid in this service, I want to immediately tell you a story about when I was a kid, because I was a very unique, particular kid. I was a shy and embarrassed kid all the time when I was around other people. Does anybody else get shy and embarrassed? Don't raise your hand because you'll be shy and embarrassed. No, I'm just kidding.
I would get shy and embarrassed, and here's what would happen. As a kid, if I did anything that was difficult or hard for me and and it felt weird or uncomfortable, or if I felt embarrassed, I would stop and my impulse would be to kind of run away. I didn't like performances. I didn't like stuff like that initially. And so if it was difficult, I ran away.
And one particular day, my grandfather told me a story that really helped me. He told me about his childhood. He had moved from Mexico to California as a kid. And he, when he moved to California, didn't speak any English. So if you're a kid and you think school is hard, think about how hard school would be if you didn't understand any of the language, if it was, like, taught in German or something, unless you speak fluent German, in which case, I don't know how to say "Auf Wiedersehen." I don't know what— I don't even do German.
It would be difficult, right? It would be difficult to hear language at school taught in another language. But he did want to understand one thing that transcended language, which was sports. He loved sports. Sports.
And so he noticed that at recess, all the kids would run out and play wall ball at recess. And so he would try to get into playing wall ball with them, but they would kind of push him out. And he could kind of realize at a certain point, oh, he's, he's getting pushed out because he doesn't know the rules. So he starts watching and observing, and he watches carefully. Okay, the way it works is after recess, the first 2 kids that go put their hand on this line on the pavement, they're the first 2 people to play wall ball.
So he did it. He ran after recess, beat everybody, got to the thing, put his hand on, and they pushed him off and pushed him down. And he was like, what in the world? And he realized, no, these kids just don't want to play with me. So he got back up, put his hand back on the line.
They pushed him down again. He got back up and put his hand on the line, and they just kept doing it. And eventually, I don't know if it took 1 recess period or 2 or 3 or 10, but eventually the kids let him play wall ball. Probably because it was easier than constantly having to push him down and out of the way. Just let the kid play.
And what it helped me realize as a kid was that sometimes when things are difficult, it's not because you're doing something wrong. Sometimes things are just difficult. Sometimes things are difficult when you're doing the right thing and you have to persevere through that difficulty. And our text today, our story today is going to teach us a very similar lesson. Lesson.
Sometimes when it comes to following Jesus, things will be difficult. Sometimes you might be tempted to think, okay, if things are difficult while I'm following Jesus, I must be doing something wrong. You might think, okay, if— maybe you've even heard from somebody, if you follow Jesus, everything in your life is just going to miraculously get better. The car you drive will be nicer next year. The house you live in will be bigger.
Your job will be better. You will be more famous. You will get more views on your favorite weird you know, fish aquarium review website on YouTube. Like, whatever you think, okay, that's what success would look like for me. You think that is going to happen if I follow Jesus.
And then bam, you suddenly realize, man, things are harder sometimes when I follow Jesus.
So our story today is going to— with the big idea I'm summing up in a question and an answer. And the question and answer actually borrowed from something John gave the kids for the kids' liturgy a few months ago. And the question is this: What can we do with God's help and power? And the answer is hard things.
So I want us all to say that together, to lock it in our mind before we proceed to the text this morning. I'm going to give you the question, you give me the answer, which is hard things. Okay? Question: What can we do with God's help and power? And the answer is hard things.
I don't care if you're 5 or 55 or 85. That is a helpful and important lesson that I think the Lord means to teach us all today.
So, let's look at the text, Acts chapter 14, and let's remember as we read, this is God's Word. "But Jews"— Acts 14, verse 19, please. "But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead." But when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and entered the city.
And on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must 'Enter the kingdom of God.' And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed." This is God's Word.
Lord, I pray for every heart here today, whether there are 10 or 100, Lord, I pray that you would encourage and strengthen and speak faith and strength into our souls this morning through the power of your Word, in the power of the Spirit, in Jesus' name, amen.
6 · Provides narrative context from Acts 14 leading up to the primary text
Well, what we're going to look at first is what happens in the text. So the first thing you do when you open your Bible is you want to make sure you understand what's happening in this story.
And so, to recap, because it's been a few weeks since we've been in the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas are on a missionary journey. They get sent out from a particular city of Antioch, and they're sent out as missionaries to tell others about Jesus and to start churches as people come to faith and are discipled in the faith. And so they come to the city of Lystra in Acts chapter 14. And when they come to Lystra, at first things don't just go well, they go amazing. So Paul and Barnabas are there and a man is there who is totally crippled.
He's totally unable to walk. And Paul, with the power of the Holy Spirit, God uses Paul to heal this man. And this man who wasn't able to walk at all, all of a sudden gets up and is able to walk. And the city is amazed. And the city starts chanting and cheering and shouting.
And I bet Paul and Barnabas thought, "Man, this is going really well. This is going— I mean, this is maybe our most successful missionary journey ever." But then suddenly they realize, "Oh, they're chanting and excited because everybody in Lystra thinks that they're Roman gods who have come down to visit the people." and are probably a little afraid, as John told you guys a few weeks ago, a little afraid that they're going to— if they don't show them hospitality, they'll nuke the city, which is what Roman gods did a lot. Don't— yeah, we don't have time for that.
7 · Identifies Paul's rejection of idolatrous worship as passing a 'test of prosperity'—refusing comfort and acclaim to remain faithful to the gospel
So that's what happens. And Paul in this, he experiences a test of prosperity in a sense.
All these people think they're gods. Paul and Barnabas would be set up for life. They could just live there. They'd probably build them a nice house, bring them food all the time. And yet Paul says, "No, no, no, no, you got it wrong.
We are not gods, but we've come to tell you about the God who made everything, about the God who made you," and begin to share the gospel with them. And so, in a sense, Paul and Barnabas passed the test of prosperity, which is a real test. But now we're going to see them in the test of adversity. Difficult things will begin to happen.
8 · Exposits Acts 14:19, emphasizing the extraordinary malice of Paul's opponents—traveling long distances to oppose the gospel—and the severity of the violence Paul endured
And so, let's break down what happens.
Verse 19, "But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds." And so these Jewish leaders who don't like them from Antioch and Iconium, they travel all the way out and essentially are following Paul and Barnabas, and any town they go to and preach the gospel, they try to turn against them. This would be like, man, we hate these guys so much that we're willing to walk from El Paso to Albuquerque just to stop what they're doing. That's how much these people hate Paul and Barnabas, which would be discouraging. But it gets worse. It says they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
9 · Uses a childhood story about accidentally throwing a rock to make the violence of Paul's stoning vivid and comprehensible to children
Now, look, we don't have to get into how brutal this would be since we do have children in the room, but let me break this down, hopefully in a way that kids can understand. When I was a kid, I got a— I was trying to mess with one of my friends who was playing basketball. There was a big group of us hanging out, and after— I think it was after school or a class or something, and I took one of those good old El Paso dirt clods. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Those little clumps of dirt that when you throw it, they make a real satisfying, like, poof, like when they hit the wall.
So I thought, "Oh, I'm gonna play a joke on my friend, and I'm gonna throw this dirt clod while he's playing basketball, and it's just gonna go poof, and he's not gonna know where it came from." It's gonna be hilarious. So I wind up, I throw it, excellent aim. I'm an excellent athlete, and as you can see, and the— I'm just kidding. I managed to hit him by some miracle, except it doesn't go poof, it goes clunk. Because, as you know if you're from El Paso, sometimes those little dirt clods have rocks in them.
That's how they have a little clump. And so I just essentially just threw a rock at him. He wheels around, everybody playing basketball wheels around with him, And it's like, "Hey, what are you doing?" And then some of my friends who were there with me, they realized, "Oh man, here we go. Like, this guy's angry." So they rush in and they're like, "Hey, hey, hey, he was just messing around. Don't get angry." And so we're about to have a brawl, a small schoolyard brawl, until an older kid comes in and kind of breaks it up.
And all that was over one rock. Why? Because one rock hurts a lot. And so Paul in this story isn't just hit with a rock. He's hit with so many rocks.
And not just small rocks, but large ones, so many that they think he is dead. That's the only reason they stop. And they drag his body out of the city supposing he's dead.
10 · Exposits Acts 14:20, identifying two miracles: Paul's survival and his immediate return to the city that just tried to kill him
But then, verse 20, God sustains him with a miracle. "When the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city." Now, the implication of the text is that they show up and they're all gathered around Paul, not because they're praying for him, but because they think he's gone.
They're mourning him. They think, "Man, this brother that we loved, he is gone. What are we going to do now?" And all of a sudden, as there may be mourning and weeping, he gets up, which is extraordinary. If they believed that he was dead, the only way he survived was that God somehow sustained him. Now, He sustained him, though, not in a way that just blocked all the rocks.
We learn later from Paul's letters that he has scars on his body from this incident. He has hurts and pains. I mean, he is severely hurt. And yet, first miracle, he gets up. Second miracle, he goes back into the city.
I mean, can you imagine the look on the people's faces that just, you know, that are going home like, "Yeah, we got that guy," and only to, like, sit down on their front porch and watch that dude just walk back into the city? I mean, that is a miracle in and of itself.
11 · Exposits the geographic and physical challenge of Paul's next move—traveling while injured to another city—and his immediate return to gospel ministry
And then on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. So he not only does that, he doesn't just stay there and rest up. He's like, all right, well, I guess, I guess we got to get going.
The door of the gospel is closed here, so we're going to the next city. And Derbe is not like, okay, it's not like walking from here to downtown. You're like, oh, I'm hurt. I'm going to, you know, but I can get to downtown. No, Derbe is Horizon, Texas, on the far east of El Paso, to downtown Las Cruces.
Okay? I mean, so he's like, he's not just, "Oh, okay, I'll just—" He's like, "All right, let's go. We're going back on the road." That's how determined Paul is. And you know what he does when he gets there? Because you might be tempted to think, "Well, he's just trying to get away from this city.
He's just trying to get away from the rock-throwing mob." Verse 21, "When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch." What does he do? He goes right back to preaching the gospel in the next town. He is undissuaded by this persecution, undissuaded by the scars on his body. He goes right back to work.
12 · Signals the shift from narrative recounting to theological application
So, what do we learn from this text?
And we always want to ask the question, "So what?" when we read a passage in Scripture. "So what? That was an interesting story. So what?" Because these stories aren't just meant to be interesting, entertaining stories, brothers and sisters. They are meant by the Lord, they've been preserved by the Lord for over 2,000 years for our help and edification.
And so, the question we want to ask is, "So what? So what is God teaching us through this story? Why would God preserve this for thousands of years for the believers?
13 · Exposits Acts 14:22, identifying Paul's explicit teaching to the church: tribulation is the normative path to God's kingdom
Well, in this case, I think there's many things that we are meant to learn, but the lesson of the text, the lesson that Luke records is right in the text. Because Paul comes back to Lystra and he meets with the disciples.
And it says in verse 22, he strengthens the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. So what does he do? He goes back to these people, and maybe they were tempted to be more fearful after this incident. Maybe the word spread, like, "Oh, man, Paul got attacked. He was nearly killed.
We got to be more careful. Don't tell people you go to church. Don't share the gospel with anybody." Maybe that was a temptation for this early church. And so Paul comes back and says, "No." The lesson you're meant to take from this is that we must continue in the faith, and it is through tribulations we enter the kingdom of God.
14 · Announces the sermon's structure (four lessons) and introduces the first lesson
So what are the lessons?
Well, we're going to learn 4 lessons today. The first one, at first seems like it's not in the text until we look a little bit more closely. The first lesson is Jesus did hard things for us. Remember, the big idea is— the big question is, what can we do with God's power and help? The answer is hard things, and the first principle is Jesus did hard things for us.
15 · Makes the canonical-theological move connecting Paul's stoning to two prior narratives: Stephen's martyrdom (where Paul was the persecutor) and Jesus' crucifixion (where all humanity is implicated)
Because as we read this text, remember that the author of this, Luke, wrote the beginning of Acts and he also wrote the Gospel of Luke. And if you're reading this as kind of a two-part story, this story should remind you of two very important other stories. The first story is Paul, the story of Paul and another incident of somebody being stoned. To death. We see early in the church that Paul is in Jerusalem and he— and a mob forms to attack Stephen, one of the early church leaders, and he preaches the gospel and they hate it.
And so they attack him with stones, and Paul is there, and Paul is approving of the whole thing. Paul is so approving, he volunteers to hold on to everyone's coats so that they can attack Paul— attack Stephen more easily. And Luke records that he approved of the whole thing. And not only that, but he goes from there to attack all the Christians in the surrounding areas. He gets authorization from the Jewish leaders to go jail and beat up and attack and destroy.
And because he sees Stephen being stoned, he thinks this needs to happen to every Christian everywhere. This is what I'm going to take on the road. And Paul at that time, As you realize in the book of Acts, he's a bad guy, but he thinks he's a good guy. He's hurting others, he's rejecting Jesus, the one true King, but he thinks, "No, I'm doing the right thing. I'm the person that's in the right here," until Jesus stops him.
Jesus, the resurrected King, stops Paul on the road to persecute more Christians, reveals himself to Paul, and Paul in an instant realizes, "I'm not a good guy, I'm a bad guy." I've been opposing God this whole time. And he asked the Lord to forgive him. And so how can— how can you get a guy that was once attacking and destroying and murdering Christians and jailing them, how does he go from that to all of a sudden being joyful and forgiven and proclaiming the gospel even when it's about to get him killed? How does that happen? Well, because of the other story that this story should remind us of.
In this story in Acts 14, an innocent man is taken by a mob and killed. And you think, "Wait a minute, I know this story. This is the whole point. This is what the Gospel of Luke leads up to, an innocent man being killed by a mob." And that is the story of Jesus. Jesus is the only truly good person in the Bible, and yet he dies an innocent man, and yet he dies an innocent man by allowing himself to be killed for us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that for our sake Jesus, who knew no sin, who committed no sin, was treated as if he had committed our sins so that through him, by believing in him, we might become the righteousness of God, meaning that we might be forgiven and counted righteous.
16 · Simplifies the gospel message for children through contrast between 'good guy' and 'bad guys,' making the substitutionary logic comprehensible
If you're a kid, maybe an easy way to think of it is this: that Jesus, the only perfectly good guy, died for bad guys like us, and that in dying for bad guys like us, bad guys like us can be counted as good in the sight of Christ. That's— man, that I think is what Paul has been preaching. That's what almost gets him killed in Lystra. And that is, I'm sure, what he is remembering even as the stones fall on him.
17 · Preacher's conversion testimony
And look, as a kid, I want you to see something. See this door over here? I've pointed this out before, but see this classroom door? You may be new to the church and think, "What's behind that door?" An awesome room, but we don't have time for that. In— behind that door was a kids' classroom when I was growing up, because we didn't have the whole upstairs, and so we had all the kids downstairs.
And I was in that classroom, and I sat in that classroom every week thinking that I was a good kid and glad that the Bible teacher that we had, or the teachers that we had, were teaching the Bible, because the other kids in my class I knew were bad kids. And they needed the Bible, right? And I sat there going like, "Yeah, I hope you people are listening to these stories. You need to be— you need to stop being angry. You need to, you know, stop doing this and that.
Some of you people, I know you people." You know, and so as a kid I just sat there full of self-righteousness thinking I was a good kid until one day in kids' ministry our teacher told me— he said a sentence that I'd heard 100 million times before, the simple sentence, "Jesus died for your sins." And it was in that moment, bam, I began to understand something I'd never understood before. It was my sins that Jesus died for. It wasn't just the sins of the people in the class that, like, yeah, you people need someone to die for your sins. But no, I needed someone to die for my sins because I was proud. I was arrogant.
I was self-righteous. I was not a good— I didn't love my neighbor. I didn't do any of the things the Bible was telling me to in that area. And I needed help, but Jesus died for bad kids, if you could say it like that, like me, even if they looked good on the outside. And that changed my life.
18 · Applies the gospel logic directly to the congregation, defining what it means to be a Christian and warning against superficial religiosity
And that is what Paul experienced. That's what it means to be a Christian. What it means to be a Christian, it means to admit that you are a bad person that needs Jesus. And if you've never admitted that, if you've sat in church your whole life and you've never gotten to that point of admitting, "I'm a bad person who needs Jesus," I would venture to say you're not a Christian. Because being a Christian doesn't mean you show up at church every week, doesn't mean that you say a bunch of the right things.
It means that you come to Jesus and say, "Lord, there is no way for me to be right with God apart from you. I can't do it on my own. I'm a bad person, but I'm leaning on your help through Jesus." That's what Paul has done. And that's what I think Paul remembers even as people are hurting him. And that's why even as he's being attacked and stoned, he does not give up and he doesn't turn in vengeance, and he doesn't get angry.
He thinks— this is what I think is going on in his mind— he thinks, "If I'm going to die the way Jesus has died for me, so be it. It's worth it." He remembers that Jesus has done hard things for us.
19 · Announces the second major lesson, pivoting from what Jesus has done to what believers must do
Second, the lesson for us then is we will all have to do hard things when we follow Jesus.
20 · Exposits the word 'many' in Acts 14:22, pre-emptively addressing the listener's temptation to minimize the scope of tribulation
It says that Paul returned, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Now, I know that maybe some of you are hoping that I would have studied the Greek language and that somehow that text does not mean what it seems like it means.
Or maybe in the Greek it says, "Saying that through one or two tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." I would prefer that translation, okay? Through a tribulation we enter the kingdom of God. We all have one test and then we pass it and it's like, "Okay, good." No more tribulations. No, Paul is telling them, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." And you think, "Well, maybe that's just Paul.
He doesn't mean all Christians everywhere." No, he does.
21 · Cites 2 Timothy 3 and John 15:18 to establish that persecution and tribulation are universal realities for all who follow Christ, not unique to Paul or the early church
In 2 Timothy 3, he reflects on this exact situation and he talks to Timothy about all the persecutions and trials he endured. And he says, "these persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Meaning that every single follower of Jesus will face some kind of opposition for following Jesus. Or in John 15:18, Jesus says that "in this world you will have tribulation," but calls us to take heart that he has overcome the world.
22 · Uses the slip-and-slide analogy to contrast the false expectation of easy Christianity with the biblical reality of a rocky, difficult path
So what I want you to see is this: the Christian life's path is not a smooth kind of slip and slide toward godliness and glory, right? Does anybody— do we still do slip and slides? I don't know. Those things are incredibly dangerous, but incredibly fun. Has any kid ever done a slip and slide where you slide on the thing?
Isn't that awesome? Anybody been really injured doing that? Yeah, yeah, several of you.
Sometimes we think of the Christian life as, "Okay, I'm just going to— I believe in Jesus and I'm just going to slide into glory. Yay, now I'm in heaven," right? And we think if the Christian life doesn't feel like that, we must be doing something wrong. We think, "Okay, this path looks rocky. This path, there's elevation changes." This path, it's hot out and the sun's baking me.
This can't be the right path. I'm looking for the slip-and-slide path. And I think there can be a discouragement that sets into the Christian life when we think, "Man, I've wandered off. Something's wrong." Paul is encouraging us, brothers and sisters, sometimes on the path of the Christian life nothing is wrong. In fact, experiencing tribulation and hardship may mean, may well mean, that you're on the right path.
23 · Categorizes the types of tribulation Paul experienced—relational, physical, and discouragement—and directly applies each category to contemporary Christian experience
And look at what Paul experiences, the kinds of things he experiences. He experiences relational difficulties, meaning that some of the people in this town he probably thought were— liked him and wanted him to be there and they were bringing him food, and then the next day they're throwing stones at him. There will be those kinds of relational challenges and difficulties when we follow Jesus. Some of our relationships will be strained, or Jesus and following Jesus will cause relational difficulties, meaning we have to bear with people that we don't want to bear with. We have to reconcile with people we don't want to reconcile with.
We have to forgive people we don't want to forgive. Paul endures physical suffering. As I said before, that the scars on his body that he bears the rest of his life reminded him of this moment. And probably he had— Paul had a number of physical ailments throughout his life. And maybe today you as a Christian are facing sickness or illness or difficulty.
And some of it's not going away, and some of it's settling in, and some of it looks like it may be with you for your whole life.
Paul may have faced discouragement thinking the work of the gospel in Lystra at first seemed so promising, only to have these, these kind of enemies come in and turn the whole city against him and think, "Oh, great. All the work that I put into this, all that I hoped God would do, it just seems like it's evaporated." The same thing could be true of our Christian lives where we're frustrated after working hard at something, working hard at godliness, or working hard at parenting, or at marriage. All of a sudden it seems, "Oh, no, there's a difficulty. There's a challenge." We work hard at work only to be undermined by someone being unethical.
24 · Concrete application directing children to identify and visualize their specific hard things, and adults to inventory theirs
And so, if you're a kid, you've got a little coloring sheet that has an enemy, a difficult thing for you.
"I want you to draw something," whether it could be an illness or a or a, you know, a kid at school that's mean, or going to school that's difficult, or working hard at your homework is hard. Whatever that is for you, I want you to write and turn it into a monster, right? Turn that thing into a monster. You know, draw tentacles and all kinds of eyes coming off of it. Because we all will face something and various things in life that are a challenge even when we're Christians.
And if you're an adult, think about what will go in that box of hard things for you. Where is following Jesus right now difficult? Maybe it's putting to death a pattern of sin. Maybe it's, it's being just and doing the right thing at work. Maybe it's reaching out to a neighbor you don't want to reach out to.
Maybe it's dealing with a difficult family member. Whatever it is, there is something in your life that is difficult. And I think it's important to remember that's just part of following Jesus.
25 · Announces the third major lesson, pivoting from the reality of hardship to its ultimate value
But there is help and hope with point number 3: the hard things of following Jesus are worth it.
26 · Exposits the second half of Acts 14:22, emphasizing the destination ('kingdom of God') as the motivating reality that makes tribulation bearable
Look at how Paul encourages them.
He says, "Through tribulation we enter," what? "We enter the kingdom of God." He encourages them to remember where they are going, not just what they're experiencing right now, but where they are going, where the path leads. In other words, he's saying this difficult rocky path at times, that path leads somewhere glorious and amazing.
27 · Paints a vivid picture of the kingdom of God by cataloging what will be absent (suffering, death, sadness, evil) and what will be present (God's unmediated presence, joy, light)
And here's what we know about the kingdom of God, just a few things from— for this passage. First, we know that the kingdom of God is a place where we will be together with God forever, and we will be with God's people together forever.
It will be the family reunion that never ends. No goodbyes, no "we'll see you laters," no "hasta la vistas." It is one giant family reunion forever. Forever. The kingdom of God will be a place where no physical suffering will exist. No doctor's checkups will be necessary.
No, all of the oncologists will be out of business. All the doctors will need to find a new occupation. I'm sorry, Craig, but you will need another occupation in heaven. Anybody working in the medical system, prepare for retraining because in heaven there will be none of that, none of that corruption. Of our fallen— of our bodies in this fallen world.
Where there will be no discouragement, no sadness, no fear. There will only be the presence of joy and life in Christ, where the river of life will flow freely. Where we will have no need for a sun or a moon because it says that God himself will be our light. Right? That is the kingdom of God where we are headed.
And, by the way, there'll be no evil. There'll be no mobs, there'll be no injustice, and none of that forevermore. That is where we are heading. That is what Paul is encouraging this church with. Through tribulations, yes, we will experience, but we will through them enter the kingdom of God.
And in a moment it'll all be worth it. It'll all be worth it.
28 · Congregation participation segment gathering examples of long road trips
Has anyone taken an epic road trip this summer? A really long road trip? Who's it? We had somebody, I'll give you the count from the first service. How many hours was your road trip?
Who is it?
9 days? Is that real? Okay, wow, okay, well that's, I'm gonna come back to that. Okay, what was the road trip over here? 11 hours, where'd you go?
Houston. Oh man, it's just humid over there, man. Oh, what about you?
From North Dakota? Oh my goodness, 24 straight hours. Did you do it in one shot? No, 2 days? Okay, oh my gosh.
Okay, where did you go in your 9-day road trip?
Oh my goodness, and so you— you went up and down kind of around the country? Oh my goodness. That's amazing. Okay. You definitely beat the first service.
Somebody in the first service drove from Miami in 28 hours, which is, which is like crazy.
29 · Uses contrasting personal road trip experiences (Phoenix vs
But if you've ever been on an epic road trip, here's I think what makes the difference. Knowing where you are going changes your experience of the road trip, doesn't it? If you were going to someplace you don't want to go, that road trip feels like it takes even longer, right? We did one of those road trips this summer. We drove to Phoenix, and as we were driving to Phoenix, impulsively, I just kept checking the temperature. I just kept refreshing the temperature app because I just thought, that can't be right. There's gotta be a glitch here. And it would be like 112, 113, 114, 115, and I'm like, it's going up. And then I think, at some point, it's gotta come down, and it just kept going up and up, And I'm like, "Well, the humidity's got to be low, though, right?" It's like 30% humidity.
And I thought, I don't— and so the road trip just felt like it took forever because I thought, "I'm going someplace I don't want to go." It just, you know. But we did another road trip to the mountains of Colorado at the beginning of the summer, and it was glorious. And that road trip was long. It was probably a 12-hour road trip. But we went to the other side of the Rocky Mountains and north, and the temperature in the morning where we were was like 50.
58 degrees. I mean, I just— I walked out and I just thought, "Man, this is what heaven's going to be like. It's going to be 58 degrees." And— but here's the thing. My ex— our experience of knowing we are going someplace good and cool, there's water, there was a— there's a river going through the town, you know, there's lakes. I mean, I'm going to experience all this, and I knew where I was going.
All of a sudden the road trip flew by. It was like, "Okay, it's worth it." "We gotta stop again for the bathroom. We're getting slowed down." "I don't care. We're headed to the lake and the cool morning."
30 · Applies the road trip analogy directly to the Christian life, then moves to Paul's evangelistic motivation
In a similar way, as Christians, knowing where we are going changes our experience of the journey, doesn't it? When we know, man, through many tribulations we will experience, but we will through them take the path to the kingdom of God, all of a sudden it's worth it.
All of a sudden it's worth it. And that is why Paul does not give up on his mission either, because he knows where he's going. Jesus wants to invite as many people as possible to take the difficult path to the kingdom of God. He says, "Listen, you may be taking a slip and slide, but that slip and slide doesn't lead anywhere good. It only gets way hotter where you're going.
But the difficult path, the slow path, the tribulation path at times leads to the kingdom of God. Won't you come? Can I tell you about Jesus, the guy who forgave me? I was even a murderer. I even attacked him, and yet Jesus forgave me and died for me.
Can I tell you about that?" That guy? Right? This is what Paul is doing. He knows that following Jesus and doing those hard things is worth it.
31 · Announces the fourth and final major lesson, shifting focus to the divine empowerment that makes perseverance possible
And then last, we can do hard things with God's help.
32 · Exposits Acts 14:23, emphasizing that Paul and Barnabas commit the church not to their own ongoing presence but to the Lord's
Now, this is tucked into that last verse. It says, verse 23, "When they appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Now, this is not the church committing Paul. This is Paul and Barnabas committing the church. And I don't know about you, but I would— if Paul the apostle was at my church, I would just beg him to stay.
I mean, if we had the opportunity to hire Paul the apostle, like, we would probably say, yeah, we'd probably do that. And I bet you anything we'd all want to be in Paul's small group. Like, if we said, hey, Paul, you know, there's various small groups. I think everyone would come to the information table asking, "That's— I like Alec, but which one is the Apostle Paul?" Like, I would be like, "Sweet." Or having people sign up for discipleship, you know, "We can match you up with a good mentor." "Oh, that'd be great, but especially Paul. Like, is Paul available?" That's what I'd be asking.
And see, these folks might have been tempted to be discouraged that Paul is about to leave, but notice what they do. They, with prayer, and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Meaning this: Paul is leaving, Barnabas is leaving, but they are committing them to the one who is not leaving. They're committing them to the Lord, and not just the Lord, but the Lord in whom they had believed. Meaning the very one who saved them, who changed them, who forgave them, who helped them, was going to be with them.
And remain with them and help them. The same helper who brought them Jesus, who died on the cross, who rose again, that same helper will continue to be with them. And that's why Paul and Barnabas can leave, because they're committing them to his help. Paul's saying, "Man, I'm not worried about what's going to happen to you guys. I'm committing you to the Lord himself.
He's going to be your helper even when we're not here." anymore.
33 · Generalizes from the exposition to the contemporary congregation: believers are in the Lord's care, sustained by his strength, regardless of what tribulations lie ahead
Look, this road of tribulation and difficulty may seem intimidating, it may seem overwhelming, but we remember that on this road we have been committed to the Lord in whom we have believed. We have been left in the Lord's care and he will continue to sustain us and help us and be with us, and it is in his strength that we walk this path. Look, Paul doesn't know, this church doesn't know what persecution or difficulty or tribulation they may next face. But it doesn't matter because they've been left in the care of a God who is strong and mighty and able to do more than they ask or think.
34 · Live object lesson using a child, father, and heavy weight
All right, in the first service we had tons of little kids, but I need one final illustration help. I need a kid and a dad. And the younger the kid, the better, and the stronger the dad, the better. Okay? And it— now, here's the thing.
I just want to say this from the first service. From the first service, none of the military guys volunteered, and it took a fireman to come up here and do the illustration, and he did it really well. So if you're an Army guy, don't let these firemen and local guys show you up. I mean, come on. I know we have a couple of Rangers in the church.
Any dad who's a strong dad and child. Anybody want to volunteer? Oh, Steve, your daughter's volunteering you. I love— okay, we have to do that. We got to do Steve because his daughter volunteered for him.
So we got to do this. Come up, Steve.
Okay, so I have here a weight. Oh gosh, I can barely lift that because I'm a weakling. So, Here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do. So first, you're going to try to lift this weight by yourself and tell me if it's very light or very heavy.
Tell me. Oh, wow. OK, careful, careful. OK, put it down. Oh.
Was it heavy a little bit or a lot? A lot heavy. A lot heavy. Do you think you could carry this all day? You don't?
Oh my goodness. OK, I think you'd get tired. Okay, so now we're gonna do this one more time, and Steve, you are gonna help your daughter lift it up as much as possible. And so she's gonna lift it, but you're gonna help her, okay? So try it.
You guys mean it? Ready? Thank you for helping us. Ready? Go.
Oh, is it pretty light? Oh, wow, look at that. It's so easy to carry it, right? Can you do that all day? Yeah, it's easy to do.
Awesome, good job. Let's give them a hand. Good job.
Okay, you guys can go back.
35 · Applies the weight illustration to personal testimony about chronic health issues, then universalizes to the congregation
So here's the thing. That was adorable. Yasmina, thank you so much.
Here's the thing. I think many times we look at the tribulations in front of us, the weight in front of us, and we think, "There's no way. There's no way I can do that." Look, just to be super real, man, I faced a number of health issues the last few years. And when the doctor inevitably would kind of come and say, well— because I'm hoping like there's a pill and then I'll be better next week. And the doctor is like, we're going to talk management.
I'm like, what does that mean? And so I'm like, well, when will I get better? And for some of the things, they'll say, well, it's more about managing kind of the issue. I'm like, dude, but what about the cure? What about the pill?
And they're like, well, let's go back to talking about management. We can learn to help you live with this. And it will feel heavy. It will feel like, "Man, I don't know if I can do this for the next 5 years, for the next 10 years, for the next 50 years. It's too hard." And that, I think, is why Paul leaves the church the way he does.
He says, "Listen, the tribulations that you go through following Jesus may seem heavy, but I am commending you and committing you to the care of the one who saved you. And if you're under his care, If you're committed to— with his help to do what he's called you to do, you can do more than you think.
36 · Dual-track conclusion addressing two audiences: those currently in trials (receive encouragement) and those not currently suffering (give encouragement to others)
And so, as we end here, here's what I want to encourage you. There's two categories. First is if you are experiencing a trial, a difficulty, there's a hard thing in your life today and you're thinking, "Man, this is not the message I was hoping for.
I was hoping for the slip-and-slide version of Christianity through to glory." And yet it's through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God. If you're there, feel the encouragement of this passage. It reminds you you're not on the wrong path. It reminds you that you're going someplace more glorious and more amazing than you can imagine, and that makes the path worth it. And 3, it reminds you that God himself— you've been committed to his care and help.
So whatever you face, you're not lifting alone. The Lord himself "God himself is with you." I want you to— as we sing in a second, I want you to declare that, even in weakness, but in strength in the Lord. And the second category is maybe you're not currently experiencing a trial, or maybe your trial has been in your past, it's in the rearview mirror, and you're thinking, "Man, great. I never want to think about that again. That was a hard trial." Maybe you are called to be the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to those who are in trials.
You know, notice how he is intentional that he comes back to the church and he encourages them and he helps them and he strengthens them. Who can you do that for this week? Look, I can't tell you the encouragement— when I started experiencing back issues a number of years ago, I can't tell you about the encouragement that came through meeting with a few folks from the church that have chronic pain issues who put their put an arm on my shoulder and said, "Brother, this is difficult, but you can do it with God's help. God will use it in unexpected ways." I can't tell you, man, what I— I needed that so much. And so who today could you encourage?
Who from your community group, when they say they're going through a trial, you can share how the Lord has met you? Who today can you build up? And it may be someone in your family, it may be a friend, it may be somebody you meet day, but be ready for that encouraging and strengthening work the Lord has called us to do.
37 · Final participatory recitation of the sermon's governing question and answer, creating a liturgical echo of the opening catechetical frame
So, in the end, I hope you've gotten one thing out of this. We started with that question: What can we do with God's power and help?
So I'm going to ask one more time, and I want the kids to give me the answer. Does any kid remember the answer, first of all? What can we do? Okay, what is it? Hard things.
All right, they got it for us. So we're going to all say this together. And then we're going to close in prayer. So what can we do, church, with God's power and help? Hard things.
Amen. May the Lord help us. Would you stand and let's pray.
38 · Closing prayer summarizing the sermon's core moves: tribulation is normative, God meets believers in it, the destination makes the journey worth it, and hardship is a marker of authentic discipleship
Ah, heavenly Father, so grateful, so grateful for your Word today. Thank you for allowing your Word today, Lord, to strengthen and encourage us. Lord, I pray that your Word would do its work in our hearts. I pray that that every single one of us, young or old, would remember that this path of the Christian life sometimes involves tribulation and hardship and difficulty, and that we're not on the wrong path. And on that path, Lord, you meet us in power and grace.
Lord, you remind us of where we're going, you meet us with the power to continue, And you remind us that the one who died for us, the one who laid his life down for us, the one who helped us in our moments of weakness and lostness and alienation from God, that very same one is the one who stays with us still. And in light of what he's done for us, that path of discipleship is worth it. And so, Lord, As we sing, I pray that you would lift our eyes and that we would declare in faith that we will walk this road of the Christian life, that we will not be dissuaded by the hardships and trials of life, Lord, but rather we would see them as markers that we are on the path of Christ and continue in strength to glory. In Jesus' name, amen.