How To Ward Off Spiritual Discouragement

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Well, that's the core issue, is our heart.

You place a high value on our heart.

When you have our heart, you have the rest of us.

And so the hardest thing for us to do, God, is anything that our heart's not fully committed to.

And so we give lip service to ideas and concepts and things.

But if our heart is not in that place, it's just a matter of time before we're gonna spit the bit and quit and just add it to the list of things that we failed at.

You did not create us to be a failure.

You created us to be sons and daughters of God.

That's who we are.

We're the beloved of God, we're accepted by God, we're fully forgiven.

That's what's true of all the believers, all the Christians in this room.

If there's any unbelievers, Holy Spirit, today, uh just kind of reveal the Father to them, Lord, by you from your word and by your spirit, cause the truth to come to life in their heart and in their head.

And so, Lord, uh, we know that you place a high value on the heart.

So, Holy Spirit, come after our heart this morning.

Ravage our heart, Lord.

Just come and claim what is rightfully yours.

This is our prayer.

We pray in Christ's name when everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seed if you got a Bible.

I'd invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

I want to talk to you this morning about how to ward off spiritual discouragement, how to ward off spiritual discouragement because it's going to come.

There are going to be periods in your life where you're just kind of in a in a funk.

You're just kind of like, I don't know what my deal is.

Uh and if you it hadn't happened to you already, you hadn't like had this God like ping in your brain, like, hey, uh about this Paul guy.

We've been going through the book of Acts for a while now, and he's been through a lot.

I mean, he's been beaten, he's been abandoned, he's been left, he's been falsely accused.

And so if it hadn't popped through your head already, it should at some point, hey, what keeps this guy just from saying, hey, dude, I quit.

I don't have to put up with this.

How can he keep going?

Well, that's what you're gonna see in the text.

There's four things.

I'm gonna read, I'll start reading in chapter 18, verse 1.

I'll read all the way down to verse 17, and then I'll come back and I'll point to four things in the text that I think Paul experienced to help him to ward off spiritual discouragement.

And here's a great thing about the Bible, okay?

It helped people back then, and it could also help us today.

Amen.

It's not a history book, it's not just a book written by men.

No, it is a breathed-out word of God.

People recorded the Bible under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So anytime you open the Bible, you are reading something that has spiritual authority, and it is God's spoken word, okay?

Let's learn from it today.

Acts chapter 18, verse 1.

Acts 18:1

It says, After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently came from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome.

And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and he worked, for they were tent makers by trade.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and had to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Now, when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garment and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads.

I am innocent.

From now on I will go to the Gentiles.

And he left there, and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.

His house was next door to the synagogue.

Christmas, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household.

And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed or were baptized.

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.

And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

But when Galileo was proconsul of Achai, the Jews made a uh united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.

But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, O Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own law, see to it yourself.

I refuse to be a judge of these things.

And he drove them from the tribunal.

And they all seized Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.

But Galeo paid no attention to any of this.

My favorite part that at the end, they're all worked up, laved up, ready for a fight.

They didn't get a fight with Paul, so they beat this other guy who just happened to be there, like, okay, we're gonna take it out on you.

Well, welcome to religious persecution.

Anyway, how to ward off spiritual discouragement?

There's four things in the text I want to point to.

Number one is good friends.

It's good friends.

You should have good friends.

It's verses one to five.

It's this couple, actually, Priscilla and Aquila, which that's people don't have like Priscilla is a woman's name.

Aquila, you're like, what, dude?

Did your parents hate you or something?

Uh were they hippies?

Did they eat granola every day?

But this is a not just a couple, but this is a very influential couple.

When I say how to ward off spiritual discouragement, uh, have good friends.

And now notice good friendships are progressive by nature.

They are progressive by nature.

If you have short but intense friendships, you should ask yourself, what's going on with me?

Okay, because friendships, healthy friendships are progressive by nature.

If you look in verses two and three, you see Paul went to see them.

Now stop right there.

Who is this Priscilla and Aquila couple that the apostle Paul would go to see them?

He already knew about them.

They had a reputation.

They got kicked out uh uh uh over here because the dude, the guy in charge said, all the Jews get out of here.

And so Paul knew about them, okay?

That's what I'm trying to uh help you to understand.

So he goes to here's the progressive nature of their friendship.

He goes to see them, he stays with them, he begins to work with them because they were both tint makers.

Uh, if this was modern day, uh, they would be from Yokum, Texas.

Anybody know why I would say they'd be from Yokum, Texas?

Say it again.

Somebody said it.

It's a leather capital.

If you go to Yokum, Texas, there's a sign that says, Welcome to Yocum, the land of leather.

And I'm like, I don't know if I want to be known for that, but yeah, they work basically with animal hides.

They made they made tents.

And so basically, Paul goes to see them, he stays with them, he begins to work with them.

As good friendships progress, you realize the mortis of what you have in common, and you come to enjoy that person and that friendship more and more.

So much so that I didn't put this in my notes.

You can write it down if you're taking notes.

In Romans chapter 16, by verse 3 and 4, Paul's winding down the book of Romans, and he basically says, Hey, listen, I want you to know that Priscilla and Aquila risk their necks for me.

Romans 16 · chapter mention

I love that that phrase is in the Bible.

Check me on that.

Isn't it just like that?

I love that this man and this woman, this couple, they risk their necks for me.

And so I thank God for them.

Not only me, but all the Gentile churches thank God for Priscilla and Aquila.

Let me ask you something.

How many people are gonna thank God for you?

Because Paul says they risk their necks for me.

Because he, one of the ways to ward off spiritual discouragement is just have good friends.

People that know you.

You say, what do you mean, good friends?

I don't mean people you enjoy getting lunch with or having play deck with your kids.

But when you get together, you are a better person.

You're spurred on to love and good deeds, you're invited into spiritual maturity by this person.

That's just why you seek this person now.

You enjoy them, you have seven and the same interests, but you're gonna walk away sharpened, not just polished, okay?

Does the difference make sense?

Sharpen.

The Bible says as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Ladies, you want to spend time with other women that sharpen you, not just polish you to where you're real shiny and you feel better about yourself.

That means sometimes you invite a girlfriend to lunch to complain about your husband, and she kind of flips it back on you in love and says, I think you're being selfish.

Yeah, y'all like, Well, I don't want friends like that.

Those are good friends.

Like, like I asked somebody recently, a friend of mine, who goes, I don't need counseling, I just need to talk to my friend.

I said, Okay.

And he starts talking and I just paused after about 10 minutes and I said, Let me ask you a simple question.

How have you contributed to the state of your marriage?

What do you mean?

What have you done to help your marriage get to the place that it's at?

Well, I didn't come talk about that.

I'm curious about that.

Because I don't want you just to sit here and complain about your wife for for the next hour.

I just want to hear, because your wife's not here.

We can't fix your wife, but you're here.

And if you're aware of how you've contributed to the state of your marriage, then we can make progress in your marriage.

Dude, I didn't want counseling.

I just want to complain.

What?

Finish that word?

You see, because I'm friends with him, I have to love him enough to say, hey, let's progress in this thing.

So the first thing you see in the Bible, in the text today, how to ward off spiritual discouragement, is you got to have some good friends.

For Paul, it was this couple, Priscilla and Aquila.

Secondly, you got to have a good message.

You got to have a good message is verses five to eight.

You may be thinking, okay, great.

Well, what makes a good message?

It's simple.

A good message is a biblical message.

And a biblical message is biblical preaching, it's Christ-centered preaching.

The book of Acts records the birth of the church, the spread of Christianity.

And one of the reasons Christianity spread, we lose sight of this.

One of the reasons Christianity spread like it did in the book of Acts is that it was radically Christ-centered, okay?

It was incredibly Christ-centered.

It was so focused on that.

Look at verse five.

Part of verse five, he says this.

He said that Paul was there.

He was occupied with the word.

What a great thing to have said about you.

It says, when Saul, when Silas and Timothy arrived at Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word.

Here the next line: testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

Testifying to the Jews who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

So when it says the Christ, that's talking about Messiah is Jesus.

And basically, he's testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

What Paul is doing here is he's translating all their religious history through the lens of Jesus Christ.

Basically, the person that you've heard about and you're waiting for has already come.

So it's no longer a matter of you waiting for the Messiah to come.

You have the opportunity to know and enjoy the Messiah because he has come in Jesus Christ.

Said differently, what he says to them, but what I would say to you is that Jesus is the only person whose life helps you make sense of your life.

Let me say it again.

Jesus Christ.

You may be sitting here thinking, I'm an atheist, I'm an agnostic, I had a bad experience, whatever.

I'm sorry for all of that, but I would say this applies to everybody.

Jesus Christ is the only person whose life helps you make sense of your life.

If you just apply that, lay that down as a template over yourself.

This is what Paul is doing.

He's very Christ-centered in everything he does.

A man named Walt Nielsen said this.

He said, All of scripture builds to the climax of God's revelation in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Christ-centered preaching doesn't search to find Jesus in every text.

No, it exposits where texts stand in relation to Jesus and where they find fulfillment in him.

And so a good message is a Christ-centered message.

It's not a religious speech, it's not a lecture, it's not a dialogue.

But it is this hey, this starts and ends.

It begins with Jesus, it finds its fulfillment in Jesus.

Just remember this simple phrase.

Jesus Christ is the only person whose life will help you make sense of your life.

Now, I want to just point to look at verse six.

You can have a good message and not always get a good response.

No, Paul is not hooked by their lack of response.

As a matter of fact, they just kind of they it says in verse six, and when they opened, uh when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garment and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads.

I am innocent.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

And he left there and he went to the house of Tichus Justice, the guy that lived right next door.

Now, here's what I want you to understand: a good message isn't good because of people's response to it.

A good message isn't good because people have a good response to it.

A good message is good because it's the truth with a capital T.

It is absolutely and infinitely true.

It is true today, it'll be true tomorrow, it'll be true a thousand years from now if Jesus tarries in his coming.

Again, a good message is what makes us good messengers.

It's not a good response to the message.

Paul was faithful and he he drew this sense of encouragement.

I mean, people just go back and read.

Uh, if you're not going to watch the Aggie game today, go back and read the first 17 chapters of Acts, and you'll just see how many times he was opposed, how many times he was lied about, how many times they drug him to court and trumped up charges on him.

And what does he do?

He keeps saying the same thing.

Earlier in the book of Acts, they said, these people have set the whole, they've turned the whole city over.

They're trying to turn the whole world over with this message.

And in Acts chapter 4, they beat these two guys and they commanded them, stop talking about Jesus.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And they said, We can't help ourselves.

Why?

Because for them, the life of Jesus Christ is the only thing that helps make their life make sense.

And so they want other people to be able to make sense out of their life.

You ever go through something like and you just think, I don't know how this fits.

I don't, I can't get my head around.

I can't make sense of this.

Again, this is what I say to you Jesus Christ is the only person whose life will help you make sense of your life.

Here's a third source of spiritual uh encouragement.

Uh, it's good doctrine.

It's good doctrine.

It's verses nine through eleven.

Let me read this, okay?

Because I want to pump the brakes here and teach a little bit about this.

And it says in verse nine, and and the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.

He doesn't say no one will attack you.

He said, No one will attack you to harm you.

In other words, they'll attack you, but it won't hurt.

No one will attack you to harm you.

For I have many in this city who are my people.

And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.

Now, when I say good doctrine, let me just say this: a church's methodology reflects their theology.

Okay.

Methodology is their methods, how they do what they do.

You watch how a church, their methods, and it'll tell you what they believe.

That's what their theology is.

A church that's light on doctrine will be heavily dependent on creativity, simulation, personalities, lights, fog, smoke, all this kind of stuff.

Uh, preaching and teaching biblical doctrine is like the foundation and the framing of a house.

It's the first thing you do because it's going to support the weight of what is to come.

Let me say that again.

Preaching biblical and teaching biblical doctrine is like the foundation and the framing of a house.

It's the first thing they do when they build a house because the construction people know this is going to support the weight of what is to come.

Uh most of you know that my wife and I have been walking through some stuff this past couple of weeks.

We lost her dad a couple of weeks ago.

Uh, and so uh, and people are like, You've been very gracious.

I so much appreciate that.

And somebody said to me recently, they said, How are you doing?

I said, We're sad, but we're good.

He goes, What does that mean?

I said, We're sad, but we're good.

We're sustained by what we believe.

And I said to him, I said, good doctrine says to us, hey, you know, this is my my father-in-law was 90 years old.

He lived a full life, he was peace with God, he was ready to go, okay?

And so we are sad, but we're good.

We're we're held up by what we believe, not by what we feel.

If you're if you're supported by what you feel, when bad things happen to you, it will devastate you.

But if you're supported, you have good biblical doctrine, you understand core teachings of the Bible, you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and your cup is running over.

It's just like, hey, I'm walking and my cup is running, my cup is just runneth over.

That's a good King James word there.

So when he says good doctrine, what do you mean?

Uh I let me say this: there's a sustaining encouragement you find in good doctrine that you find nowhere else.

Okay?

And so let me point to what I mean by good doctrine.

It's like something the Bible teaches, like a core belief, a tenet of the Bible.

It's in verse 11.

When he or verse 10, he says, For I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you.

Hear this phrase for I have many in this city who are my people.

I have many in this city who are my people.

And then it says, This is where he gets encouraged.

Look at the next verse, verse 11.

And he said, A year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

This is when God says, I have many in this city who are my people, this is a reference to the doctrine of election.

Uh, now, now, when you hear that word, you may think, I don't know what you mean by that.

Okay, so what do you mean by a doctrine of election?

I brought you a definition of the doctrine of election.

Election is God's choice of individuals to receive salvation before they've done anything good or bad.

It's not a choice that is based on or in light of certain deeds or choices that we make, but it's based solely on God's sovereign grace.

This is what I mean by the doctrine of election, okay?

Now, when we shrink back from the doctrine of election, we're cutting ourselves off from one of the greatest sources of confidence you can have in evangelism.

This is why Paul can keep teaching and preaching for 18 months in a difficult environment.

Well, okay, because he knows that there are people there that belong to God.

This is what God says right there in the Bible.

He said, I have many in this city who are my people.

And Paul's looking around, kind of going, It doesn't feel like it, bro.

Yes, but what God is saying is there's people here that belong to me.

I've chosen these people.

They haven't come to faith yet, but God is going to involve Paul in bringing them to faith.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

Now, a lot of people hear the doctrine of election, and you go, Oh, no, wait a minute.

Are you saying, are you doing blah, blah, blah?

No, I'm just saying what the Bible says, okay?

Now, the doctrine of election gets a bad rap in in the church in America, uh, mainly because a long time ago, I mean, like in the back of the 1500s, there was a Swiss theologian by the name of John Calvin, and he kind of wrote out some tenets, and people say, anytime you hear the word election, people go, oh, because the followers of John Calvin, they kind of follow a thing called Calvinism.

And and so a lot of people are like, oh, so you're a Calvinist.

No, I don't I I never refer to myself as that.

What I do refer to myself as is I'm a Biblicist.

I believe the Bible, I believe what the Bible says about anything the Bible says anything about.

So let me give you two introductory thoughts about the doctrine of election because I want you to understand this and not be put off by it, okay?

Two introductory thoughts.

Number one, it's not divine keep away.

It's not divine keepaway.

What does that mean?

You'll never meet anybody who says, I want to become a Christian, but God didn't choose me.

You will never meet anybody that says, you know what, I wanted to come to faith, but I don't think I'm one of the lucky ones.

I didn't get a lottery ticket called election.

Never gonna happen.

Why?

Because people we are all born spiritually dead.

So any inkling of a desire for God is a sign that God is at work in you.

So the first introductory thought is it's not divine keepaway.

Secondly, we don't know who the elect are, so the gospel's for everyone.

You don't know, I don't know.

I'm not put off by this.

If you read the Bible, you'll see that the doctrine of election is all through the Bible.

When I say we don't know who the elect are, so the gospel's for everyone.

Let me ask a real honest question.

If you're in this room right now and you're kind of like, uh I'm not quite sure I'm down with this, or I'm a little bit confused, say amen.

Say it louder than that.

Come on, people, say amen.

It's okay.

Think of it like this, okay?

Think of it like this.

You're walking into the gates of heaven, there's a big archway sign over the gate of heaven, and it says big letters, whosoever will, let them come.

You got you got that?

You track with me so far?

Okay, you walk through the gates of heaven, you look back, and on the back side of the sign it says, chosen before the very foundation of the world.

Whosoever will, God knew this all along.

He said, I I I don't know.

Like I was somebody asked me um a couple weeks ago, I was working on this, and they said, Hey, uh, uh, where are you in Acts?

I said, We're in Acts 17, Paul, Marcel, and blah, blah, blah, we're Acts 18.

And they said, Oh, and so uh what's in Acts 18?

I said, Well, we're gonna talk about the doctrine of election.

And this person just scripted and said, Hey, how did how do you know you're one of the elect?

And I said, It's not divine keep away, it's not like a club of lucky people over here.

Anyone that is a Christian, that's somebody that God set his affection on long before that person ever existed.

And so your salvation is as secure as the nature of the person you believe to be responsible for it.

Let me say that again.

Your salvation is as secure.

So if you're if you doubt your salvation a lot, you don't understand the certainty that is yours because of the doctrine of election.

Now, what do you mean?

My friend said, How do you know?

How does a person know?

Uh and I said, Oh, great.

Two simple answers.

Number one, a changed life.

A changed life.

Uh, let me just let the Bible speak, okay, instead of me.

First Thessalonians chapter one, starting verse two, says this.

This is what I mean by changed life.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before God and before our God and Father, your work of faith, your labor of love, and the steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you.

Stop right there.

Did you hear that?

For we know, brothers, loved by God, that he has chosen you.

You don't have to convince me that you're a Christian.

We know that God has chosen you.

Why?

Look at verse five.

Because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.

Because our gospel came to you.

When I say it changed life, this is what I mean.

Because the gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction.

If the only thing that changed about you when you came to faith is your vocabulary, you probably struggle with assurance of your salvation.

I just got some new words and phrases and I learned some new songs.

The gospel comes with power and the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.

Translation you don't try to feel some things, you cannot help but feel these things.

And this sense of conviction doesn't leave you alone.

Matter of fact, it guides your life.

And the more you surrender to that, and it guides your life, the better your life becomes.

This is What I mean by a changed life, okay?

And secondly, uh, how does a person know?

You could know if you have a relationship with God, you have a changed life.

Secondly, you have a changing life, you have a changing life.

What do you mean again?

Let me let the Bible talk.

This is 2 Peter chapter 1, uh, starting in about verse 5.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

He says, for this very reason, make every effort to supplement.

Or the NIV says, add to.

I kind of balk at the word supplement because it's not like your faith is lacking.

It's just that you just don't come to faith and you just sit down and do nothing.

Okay?

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith or add to your faith virtue and a virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here verse 9.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he has been, he was cleansed from his former sins.

Let me pause right there.

Here verse 9 again.

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted.

You know what nearsighted is?

Like I'm nearsighted.

Nearsighted means I see up close, I see things up close, but I can't see things at a distance.

That's why I wear contacts or glasses.

And the Bible says that hey, it whoever lacks these qualities, whoever has these other things, is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

What do you mean?

To be spiritually nearsighted means that you're constantly focused on your sin.

You're always struggling with what you're doing right now in this moment.

Well, I you won't believe I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And you've forgotten, you're so nearsighted, you've forgotten, you've been cleansed from your former sin, from your former sins.

Translation, when you realize that you've been for uh you've been cleansed, you've been forgiven of all of your former sins, then you're free to supplement and add to your faith and grow in your faith.

You're not obsessing over your past mistakes and your present mistakes, you're liberated from that and you're not no longer nearsighted.

Now look at verse 10.

He says, Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling in election.

Be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall.

For in this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In a phrase, I would say it like this: a changing life is confirming to your faith.

Now, what for I don't look for assurance of faith back to a prayer I prayed in July of 1982.

I don't do that.

I've never done that.

Let me say it again.

I don't look back to a prayer I prayed.

That's when I came to faith in July of 1982.

I look to right now, okay?

And what's God doing in my life right now?

And so I my life was changed in July of 1982, but it is changing today.

Like you want to hear your pastor's confession of one of my more recent sins?

Yeah, of course you do, you wicked sinners.

Somebody down here is morbidly obsessed.

He's like, Yeah, let me write this down.

Someone came to me not long ago and said, I need to ask your forgiveness.

And my first thought, it was like a bottle rocket shot across my mind.

I do not want to forgive this person.

And here's why.

This person is consistently asking my forgiveness.

I was like, hey, dude, at some point, just stop sinning against me.

Yeah, brother, I just need to ask your forgiveness.

And I didn't say it, but I thought it, I don't want to forgive this person because there'll be three or four more months.

He'll be right back just asking me for forgiveness again.

How about you just grow up and stop being a little boy?

I thought all of that in about that long.

And I even thought this.

I don't think you deserve forgiveness.

I don't see you bringing forth the fruit of repentance.

You know, the more you know about the Bible, the more you can use it to get your way.

Have you come to that realization?

And preachers are the worst.

And so I'm standing there in that moment, and he's almost on the verge of tears, and I'm just like, I and I thought, I didn't even say it.

I thought you do not deserve forgiveness.

Grow up and change.

And about that time, you know the psalmist says in the 139th Psalm, before a word is on my tongue, God knows it.

About that time, the Holy Spirit said, Hey, you want to talk about people who don't deserve forgiveness?

Let me see here.

I got your name on the list.

And I said out of my mouth, what I didn't want to say.

Absolutely, I forgive you.

Now, I'm not making light of me struggling with forgiving somebody.

It really wasn't a struggle.

It was a struggle for about two seconds.

And then it hit me like a ton of brick.

No, wait a minute, wait a minute.

Okay, okay.

Of all the people who don't deserve forgiveness, I'm at the top of the list.

I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I didn't forgive this guy.

Even if I know he's gonna be back in 90 days.

Absolutely, bro.

I forgive you.

Of course.

Absinkin lutely, I forgive you.

You said, What do you mean?

That's what I mean.

My life was changed in July of 1982, and it is changing.

All right.

Uh Jonathan Edwards was a famous preacher back in the 1600s.

He said this: He says, although self-examination be a duty of great use and importance, and by no means to be neglected, yet it is not the principal means by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate.

Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action.

Just hear that last phrase.

It's old English.

The cat was brilliant, okay?

Hear that last phrase.

Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action.

This is what the Bible says in 2 Peter 1.

It's action.

It's not self-examination.

It's, hey, is my life changing?

Here's the last thing that I want.

Now, by the way, let me just say this before we move on.

If you're like, huh, okay, doctrine, big word, doctrine of election, big spooky kind of concept, doesn't have to be.

One of our midweek classes coming up in the fall is a class on Christian salvation where we'll just kind of walk through some of the doctrines that are involved in a person coming to faith.

That way, when you talk to somebody, you don't talk like someone who's trying to sell a 67 uh uh Plymouth Valiant with bad breaks.

You can just be at ease and peace knowing that, hey, unless the Holy Spirit reveals this to them, they're never gonna come to faith.

I ain't gotta get them to try to preach some prayer so I can feel good about myself.

You can sit on the inside and trust the efficacy, Presbyterian word, the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

Okay.

The last thing, how do you ward off spiritual discouragement?

You gotta have good friends.

You gotta have a good message, you gotta have good doctrine.

Doctrine is like the foundation and the framing of the house, it supports the weight of what is to come.

And lastly, you gotta have good help.

You gotta have good help.

Oh, yeah, I don't know what you mean.

If you've ever heard of Billy Graham, say amen.

If you've ever heard of William Randolph Hearst, say amen.

Some of you, uh Hearst, uh, his granddaughter, Patty Hearst, got kidnapped.

Yeah.

But you say, who is William Randolph Hearst?

William Randolph Hearst, best we know, he was not an overly spiritual man.

Uh he was a newspaper magnet.

That that that didn't mean that does not mean he attracted newspapers.

He it means he owned a lot of newspapers.

And in 1949, Billy Graham was doing a tent revival in Los Angeles, okay?

He was preaching, it'd been going on for weeks, and look at me, it wasn't that big of a deal.

They had okay crowds, but not a lot of people came.

William Randolph Hearst, who, by the way, never spoke to Billy Graham, never met Billy Graham, Billy Graham never spoke to him in person, never, never talked to him on the phone, nothing.

William Randolph Hearst, just for whatever reason, we don't know.

He never publicly said, sent a telegram to all of his newspapers all over the country, had two words in it, Puff Graham.

You're like, Puff, like he's smoking Billy Graham?

What?

That ain't good.

No.

Puff Graham is Puff is a newspaper type.

It's like, push Billy Graham.

Let's build up Billy Graham.

And so all of his newspapers in a matter of days began to run front-page stories about Billy Graham, this tent revival out in Los Angeles.

And what happened was public curiosity went through the roof and famous people started coming.

And a famous actor in the time got saved, became a Christian, and more people came.

And the tent revival went on.

And within two months, Billy Graham was the most popular preacher in America, and he was that way the rest of his life.

Now, you may be thinking, what's that got to do with good help?

William Randolph Hearst decided to use his influence and his resources to help Billy Graham.

Okay?

Now, in the in the in the passage we're looking at today, it's that guy towards the end, verses 12 to 17.

I won't read it again, but it's Galileo.

Gallio, by the way, was a brother of the Stoic philosopher Seneca.

Have you ever heard of Michael Seneca?

Galio was his brother.

The Jews, remember, they got mad at Paul.

They dragged Paul in there and they said, Hey, this guy's not teaching right.

He's not teaching according to the law, according to Jewish tradition.

And before Paul could open his mouth and defend himself, Galio says, Hey, hey, I got this.

Hey, you Jews, if this was like something serious, like somebody was killing somebody or doing something, I would get involved.

But I tell you what, I'm not gonna get involved because y'all just scribbling over a bunch of words.

Now, when I say good help, you're like, uh, this is the one that you're most likely to kind of miss.

But let me let me just point this out.

Basically, remember in the vision when God said, Hey, no one's gonna attack you to harm you?

Remember that?

Hello?

Okay, remember Paul, um God said to Paul in the vision, no one's gonna attack you to harm you.

And now he's been drunk before the tribunal, and they're trying to get him trumped up and sent to prison or punished, or even worse.

And Galileo, this man who was the William Randolph person of the moment, he said, Hey, listen, guys, get out of here.

Y'all just quibbling about little words.

I don't care anything about this.

I won't even let this even get off the ground.

And so what's happening, and you guys see this, is God was keeping his word to Paul when he said, I'll let no one attack you to harm you, because with this ruling, with this decision, in the context of the tribunal, basically Christians could no longer be arrested and tried for preaching the gospel.

And so Galileo provides us protection for them to go out and preach the gospel without fear of being sent to jail.

And so basically, what happens is that God uses this man to prep prep to provide protection for Paul and others to preach the gospel.

And so it good help.

Let me say it like this good help doesn't always come from fellow Christians.

You say, what do you mean?

You're sitting on a piece of property that a long time ago, when I, my first year, I started in April 2006, and all we had was that building right over there and an asphalt parking lot.

And the Moral Harmon Hospital right up here at 59 and 99 was supposed to be right here.

And then the original developer of Aliana was a man named Mr.

Chang.

Uh, and Mr.

Chang himself said, I'm not a religious person.

But we got word and we said, Hey, can you like give us a little easement so we're not in the shadow of?

And he said, I'll do my best.

But we're signing the contracts in two weeks.

We're selling this land for$6 a square foot.

And this was in 2006, which was a lot of money.

We were like, great, we're gonna have a hospital here with the children got bang.

He called back 10 days later and said, My deal with the hospital fell through out of the blue.

Would your land team want to meet?

Our land team went and met with him, man in our church named Owen Bemint, a retired geologist from Shale, had asked a question in an earlier meeting, where do you gonna put all your because this over here was just pastures?

Uh he said, Where are you gonna put all the water for this development?

He's gonna put it in Oyster Creek.

And because the church is full of people that are smarter than the preacher, Owen Bement said, Oyster Creek won't contain all that.

We've got 40 acres over here off Madden Roan.

It'd be a great detention facility.

When the land deal fell through out of the blue, and the land he wanted to meet with us again and come back, the land team goes to meet with him.

He said, I've got a piece of property, it's 9.133 acres.

It's a long rectangular piece of property, goes all the way back into the tree line.

I'll give you that, and I'll just take over what y'all owe on that land over there.

And then when we agree to that, and we went to close, and the land team said, You want to come to closing?

I haven't done anything.

The bane of this world is preachers that show up on picture day and get in front of the picture.

You guys have forgotten more about land than I'll ever know.

Just go, I'm praying for you.

They go and they come back at closing.

Mr.

Chang, unbeliever.

Okay, good help is good help, regardless where it comes from.

Mr.

Chang slides an envelope across the table and says, I want to be a good neighbor.

In that envelope is a cashier check for$100,000.

Our elders at the time were like, We're gonna put that in a rainy day fund.

I went up there, yanked the blinds open.

I said, It's raining.

It's raining right now.

Because our church was broker than broke.

And they said, What do you mean?

And I said, We got nothing here that communicates permanence.

I here, I got a couple of proposals from Susan Ripley and Teresa, our our preschool person at the time, uh, Teresa Dibble, uh, we need to put it in a playground.

And so we took almost half that money and put it in that playground over there.

You said, What do you mean?

Somebody said, How do you explain this?

I said, Good help.

We didn't say to Mr.

Chang, God put it on his heart to be favorably disposed towards us.

And so, if you, hey, listen, you need to keep yourself open to where help's coming from.

A lot of times unbelievers are more helpful than believers.

I wish that weren't true, but it is.

And so, how do you how do you ward off spiritual uh uh discouragement?

You gotta have good friends.

I I call them garden friends.

It's the people you take in your garden of Gethsemane and you pour your heart out, they don't change their mind about you.

You can say, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

I don't want to do this.

This marriage is killing me.

And they look at you and go, You don't have good grounds, you don't have biblical grounds for divorce.

I know.

That's why I wanted to get with you.

Thank you for not lying to me.

You gotta have good friends, you gotta have a good message, it's gotta be Christ centered.

It's not church center, it's Christ center.

You gotta have good doctrine.

That doesn't mean you're some theological egghead.

That doesn't mean you're a Calvinist.

No, the word Calvinist is nowhere in the Bible.

Stop going outside the text to get a word to just define the person who just believes the text.

That's lazy.

That's lazy.

And lastly, you gotta have good help.

Here's what I want you.

I want to end on this.

Look at me.

I want you to believe in a God that so provides for his people that he will bring help from believers, unbelievers.

He'll he'll he'll bring help from all kinds of places just in order to help you.

Paul was greatly helped by this man Galileo.

And Christianity was advanced because it was no longer illegal to preach Christianity the rest of the New Testament.

This is help.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest today, just know that we like to teach the Bible and give you some space to think about it.

So some questions come up on the screen.

That is for our consideration.

Some of our community groups continue to meet through the summer, and they'll be processing these when they get together.

But for now, if you want to pull your phone out and just discreetly take a picture, or you just want to look at one of those questions and think about that one question, that's great.

Let me voice a prayer.

Let's just engage our minds just for a moment before we're done this morning.

Holy Spirit, thank you that the Bible's thought provoking.

And now, Lord, provoke us, provoke our thoughts, our heads and our hearts and our hands, Lord.

Let it call us to action because when we when we act out our faith, our faith is confirmed.

Now, Holy Spirit, just be on us and be over us for these moments.

God, that's our prayer today.

Let us be a people of a sealed heart.

That we're not making decisions, that decisions have already been made by our faith.

And so our hearts are sealed up, they're set, they're secure.

That's the way you create us to be.

And that's the life that is ours in Christ because of Christ.

And for that we're grateful.

So we say thank you.

And all God's people said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest, again, let me say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome, okay?

If you have uh questions about anything you saw or heard today, this is for everybody.

If you have any questions about anything you saw or heard today, we'll be available down front.

We'd love to answer any questions or pray with you about anything you got going on.

If you're a guest, all we ask of you today is if you just text welcome to that number on the screen behind me.

That gives us a record of your visit and allows us to begin to engage you in your spiritual journey, helping you any way we can, okay?

We're not heavy-handed, okay?

We believe God speaks a language you understand.

And when you hear that language, all of a sudden the life of Jesus is the only thing that helps your life make sense, okay?

Uh, we've always got things going on in the life of our church.

We'll make you aware of that by our video announcement.

So check out the screen this morning.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Park Way Baptist Church.

Finally, the deadline to register for kids' summer Bible study is on June 25th.

It'll begin on July 2nd and will continue every Tuesday in July from 1.30 to 3 o'clock p.m.

in the student building.

Kids will participate in both large and small group sessions, get at-home devotional assignments, scripture memory, and be taught how to develop daily time with Jesus.

For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org.

If you have any questions or want them to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

By the way, the uh the thing you saw in the the kids just marveling at was an immersive ark experience.

We have people in our church that put all that together.

Uh, and so I walked up because I was curious and I was just like, shut up.

Uh what you couldn't see was they had a dove that would fly out of the ark and and come back with an olive branch in its mouth.

And I was just like, I'm done.

I'm good.

That's why the uh and so anyway, that was just all volunteers in our church.

So if you volunteered, had anything to do with this past week, I just want to say thank you.

It was incredible.

Chris said Nancy and all their volunteers did an incredible job, okay?

Also, be praying for our students.

They leave for camp in the morning.

We've got like 130, 140 people going to youth camp up at Mount Lebanon in Dallas.

And so let's just continue to pray.

This is a summer of formation for our church, okay?

I sent you an email uh last night, probably during the AM game.

Whoop! Uh, be quiet.

Uh you can't help.

Do they make you do that when you go there?

Like you got to say whoop all the time.

Uh and I said, hey, we have a staff work.

Now, Julian, our new spiritual formation pastor, he and his family are in town.

They moved in, they live over here in new territory.

Uh, and so he's taking this week to get his house all set up.

His first day on the job would be next Monday, uh July 1st.

Uh, but we've also hired other people to become part of our staff.

And so I want to introduce you to them by way of video.

So check this out real quick.

Hi, we're Kurt and Jen Freeman.

We have been a part of Grway for about three and a half years, and we have two sons.

On July 15th, we will be coming on staff as the directors of outreach.

As directors of outreach, we will be engaging and discipling people and living missionally, both locally and internationally.

Our hope and prayers we join staff at Grand Parkway is that missions isn't just something that we do, but rather, missions becomes a lifestyle that we live out daily.

We're truly excited to be on staff at Grand Parkway and be on this journey with you all.

Yes, there you go.

Uh, so you may be wondering, uh some of you maybe wanted me to say the email, why are they called the outreach director?

Why don't they call Mission?

Because that was their request.

They said a lot of times when you meet people, especially people from other countries, if you have missions in your job title, the people you meet feel like a project.

It said like a person.

And I was like, that's a great point.

Uh Kurt and Jen have been missionaries in Poland for a while.

He currently works uh for another organization.

Uh, and so theirs is a part-time role.

That was at their request.

They said, hey, let's do this for a year part-time.

We said, absolutely, save me some money.

Amen.

Uh and so uh they are here.

Actually, Kurt is here.

Jen is homesick.

So I'm gonna ask Kurt if you would to stand up so you can put a name with a face.

He's right there.

Yeah, there you go.

That's Kurt Freeman.

Uh and so they'll be over uh uh all of our all of our missional engagement, ESL, and everything else.

And so Kurt's gonna be one of the people available down front.

If you if you know him, come and congratulate you.

If you don't know him, come and introduce yourself, okay?

If you're a missional person, you want to get to know him, okay?

That's all I've got.

Stand to your feet.

Would I conclude our service with a spoken blessing?

So hold your hands out.

God's been loving you longer than you've been loving him.

He's been loving you since before the very foundation of the world.

That is not just a doctrine, that is a relationship.

Never forget that.

He cannot have his mind changed about you by anybody else's words or your behavior.

He is steadfastly committed to you.

Depart now and live in the freedom that is yours because of that.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.