Acts chapter 14.
Thank you so much for your prayers.
We had another fantastic tour.
And again, God is so special.
It seems like every Bible site we went
to, the Lord would isolate us and we'd
be alone.
That we could just fellowship with Him and
worship, just get into the Word of God
and had a wonderful time.
But there's no place like home.
And spring is here.
Man, the birds, you know.
The finches are back at my house.
You know, eating that black fennel seed or
whatever it is.
Man.
Verse 19.
We'll look in this.
Acts 14, 19.
I think that's where we left off.
You remember, if we can, that Paul and
Barnabas were mistaken for gods.
And this particular portion of Scripture shows you,
you know, the fickleness of man.
How popular we can be in man's eyes.
And then the very people that called them
gods turn right around, are incited by the
rabbis and the Jews that come and followed
them and finally caught up with them and
turned them against Paul and Barnabas to stop
the spread of the gospel.
And the very people that one minute were
calling them gods and praising them, stoned them.
You know, the popularity of man is so
fleeting and so shallow.
Never be impressed with someone's compliment.
The Bible warns about flattery.
The Bible tells us that usually when someone
begins to flatter you, they're setting you up.
And you're to beware of it.
And I've learned that myself.
Well, we learn this and something else is
discovered here.
You know, they're thinking they're gods and then
God allows something to happen to show these
people that Paul and Barnabas aren't gods.
And sometimes that happens too, doesn't it, in
our lives?
People begin to put us on a pedestal
and think more highly than they should of
us and then God has a way of
letting the people know that we're not gods.
And it's amazing how some people can't handle
it.
They almost want to stone you.
Maybe God has used you in their life.
And they're looking at your life and you've
been very influential with your witness.
But then without maybe you realizing it, they're
exalting you in their hearts.
And all of a sudden God may just
let them see a flaw because He's a
jealous God.
And all of a sudden you find that
that person who at one minute had you
on a pedestal is always asking you to
pray for them and thinking so highly of
you, you can actually feel resentment from them.
They've seen your flaw.
Well, don't be discouraged because God is a
jealous God.
And don't be surprised if maybe without realizing
it you've put somebody on a pedestal a
little bit higher than you should of.
And all of a sudden without you realizing
it, they're becoming your Jesus.
And God will allow you to see a
flaw in someone that you've really admired.
Don't change your attitude toward that person because
it's a human.
That person is nothing but a human that
God is using.
An instrument.
So don't change your attitude toward somebody that
you respected or you admired and now you've
seen their flaw.
God's maybe given you the gift of discernment
and the very first person that you have
the gift to operate on is someone very
close to you that you have put on
a pedestal.
And all of a sudden you think differently
of that person.
Don't be that way.
God's just showing you that they're not a
God.
And without realizing it so often in our
own lives, people look at us the same
way.
Here, God allows this to happen to show
that they are not gods.
Remember, I saw a great movie with Sean
Connery.
It seems like before everything was so filled
with filthy language and sexual innuendo, you could
watch a lot of movies.
You can't watch anything anymore.
You can't even trust PG-13 anymore.
Can you trust G?
I don't even know what they mean anymore.
There's so many of them.
And they lure you in, you know, and
pretty soon you're fast-forwarding and you just
give up on them all.
But there was a movie made a few
years ago.
It was called The Man Who Would Be
King with Sean Connery and Michael Caine.
It was an awesome movie.
And the plot was that it was during
the British imperial colonialism and their control of
some area in northern India or up in
Pakistan.
And they were in some kind of a
war.
And here the war was over, and somehow
they'd been discharged, and they still had their
uniforms on.
And they were just a couple of drinking
buddies, and they were coming out of the
wilderness somewhere up there where their particular regiment
was at the end of this war.
And they came upon this area that looked
similar.
It was in the Mideast, you know that,
somewhere up around Afghanistan.
And they came upon this group of people,
this tribe of people in this colony, and
they were pagans.
And they came marching in with all their
regalia, you know, and their British thing, you
know.
It was in the 1800s.
And just all prim and proper with their
weapons.
And, man, they fired their rifles a couple
of times.
And these people were convinced they were gods
because they were pagans.
They'd never seen a white man like a
British soldier before.
And particularly their uniforms, you know.
And then to see this thing fire and,
you know, and shoot somebody and knock them
down in an instant.
And they were convinced they were gods.
And Sean Connery picked up on it, and
he kind of liked it.
And Michael Caine, you know, began to warn
him.
And they wanted him to be their king
and their god to rule over them because
they were so impressed with Sean Connery.
And he went along with it.
He knew they thought he was a god.
And before you know it, as the story
goes on, he gets more and more involved.
And, man, they make this big palace for
him, and there's gold and silver and women
and all this.
And so then as it gets toward the
end of the movie, as they've actually begun
to worship him and put him on this
pedestal and everything in the movie, then they
bring the most beautiful girl in this kingdom
to him.
They're going to marry her to the god
Sean Connery.
And so then they have the big ceremony
the night before the wedding and everything.
And it's a celebration according to their pagan
customs.
And you can hear all the noise and
everything.
And Sean Connery is getting all ready.
Michael Caine is warning him.
This thing is getting out of hand.
And if they discover that you're just a
human, you know, it's going to be horrible
what they do to you because they know
the background of these people, how brutal they
can be in their pagan ideas as far
as torture and death.
He said, you know, you're carrying this thing
too far.
They're going to find out.
If they find out that you're not a
god, we're both dead.
And Sean Connery says, no way.
You know, I finally found my niche in
life, so to speak, and I like this
power.
And so they had done something with the
girl the previous night, and she had some
kind of a drug in her, part of
the purification so-called ceremony for her to
prepare her for her marriage to the god
Sean Connery.
And they brought her out in the big
procession the next day.
And, man, all these priests are all bowing
down to him and giving him adulation, and
the crowds are just in hysteria.
And she's led up by the maidens and
everything, all of her companions, and they bring
her up to Sean Connery.
And somehow she just emotionally goes up to
kiss him, and she bites him on the
lip as she loses control in her emotions.
And as she bites him, he pulls back,
and blood trickles down his mouth.
And the whole village and all the people
go, oh!
And the camera, the timing, the silence.
And then you could just see the looks
on all the priests.
They knew that gods don't bleed, and they
just stared at him.
And you could see the change.
You could feel the emotion and the danger,
everything.
Because he bled, they realized he was no
god.
They'd been duped all along.
And the next thing you know, they're running
for their life, you know, across this big
rope bridge over a big gorge.
And you don't know how it all ends
up.
They catch them, and then somehow the movie
goes into the future, and it shows this
old decrepit old guy all hunched over, you
know, coming into a pawn shop in India
somewhere years later with this woven basket.
And you find out that he's relating this
story, and he trips and stumbles.
He's all crippled and broken and bent over
like a leper.
And as he trips and stumbles, Sean Connery's
old head rolls out of the basket.
And you find out that this old crippled
beat-up old beggar that begs the rest
of his life was Michael Caine.
They had tortured him and crippled him to
such a degree that he was never the
same, and they beheaded the god and gave
it back to him, let him live as
a reminder.
But I got to thinking, you know, he
faked that he was a god, and they
discovered that he was not a god, and
they treated him pretty terribly because he bled.
Now, Paul, you remember, is confused as a
god.
Now, God says, I'm a jealous god.
Now, you remember at Paul's conversion, he said,
there's someone going to show you the things
that you must suffer for my namesake because
God is going to use Paul in a
mighty way.
And God will never allow someone else to
be a god, particularly someone he's using for
his own kingdom.
And he will allow things to keep us
from being put on those pedestals.
Now, if we climb up, he'll knock us
off.
Believe me, God has ways.
Don't ever climb up on some pedestal because
God is using you or because God has
gifted you.
That's a dangerous thing to do.
Well, look what God allows to take place
to show them that Paul is no god.
Just as easily as they can get all
stirred up in a crowd because of a
miracle, of a man being healed supernaturally, no
matter what Paul tried to do, he was
having a difficult time convincing them that he's
not a god.
You know, the priest, remember, is going to
bring an oxen down and slaughter the thing
right in the center of town and offer
up worship.
And then in verse 19, just as quickly
as the crowd is exalting him and calling
him a god to worship him, notice how
quickly the crowd can change, how fickle human
beings are.
It doesn't take much to just, you know,
turn things and the wind can change.
It says in verse 19, there came thither
certain Jews from Antioch, all the way, you
know, from Syria, all the way over to
Turkey, looking, trying to stop this spread of
this new sect, this new truth, Christianity.
And Iconium, who persuaded the people and having
stoned Paul.
They actually, and it didn't take long and
they convinced.
Now, Paul couldn't convince them that they're not
a god, but Satan stirred them up and
before you know it, the very people that
were claiming they were gods were talked right
out of it and now they're wanting to
stone him, they hate him.
They stoned Paul and drew him out of
the city, supposing he had been dead.
You know, they pummeled him so with stones,
probably knocked him, you know, silly, physically damaged
him to a tremendous degree that they thought
he was dead, probably in a coma.
And the way they throw these stones, I've
seen Arab women stone their children outside the
Damascus gate.
I remember one night coming around the Damascus
gate and these two little Arab kids were
upsetting their mother and she just picked up
a couple stones and let them have it.
Right out in the street, outside the Damascus
gate.
They didn't give her any more trouble.
I kind of slowed down too.
I mean, they're radical people, you know.
You heard about the Arab and the Jewish
businessmen got together and it's always the same
with Arabs and Jews and they got in
this big argument and pretty soon the Arab
guy says, You know, you guys, you're troublemakers.
You cause all the trouble in the Mideast.
You're even responsible for the sinking of the
Titanic.
The Jewish guy said, What?
I'm responsible for the sinking of the Titanic?
An iceberg did that.
The Arab said, Iceberg, Goldberg, you're all the
same to me.
I told you, it's four o'clock in
the morning.
But he's lying there, stoned.
Legally stoned.
I'm stoned.
How be it as the disciples stood round
about him, he rose up and he came
into the city and the next day he
departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
I'd have gone the opposite direction.
Now, this is interesting what happens here.
Now, not only is God maintaining his honor
and glory, that he's a jealous God, but
for Paul's own sake he's allowing these people
to realize he's not a God.
If he was a God, he could not
have been stoned to that degree and dragged
out of the city and left for dead.
So that's been corrected.
But God still is showing Paul, it doesn't
matter what Satan does, you see, I'm going
to raise you up.
I'm not going to allow anything to stop
your ministry until it's time to come home.
Now, it's interesting what Paul learned from this,
and he gives a little bit of the
autobiography of this some 15 years later.
So turn to 2 Corinthians 11.
Let's see what Paul learned from this experience.
You know, we see, oh, poor Paul.
Well, nobody wants to get stoned to such
a degree that he's dragged out of town
and left for dead.
But you remember, some 15 years later, Paul
is reflecting on this incident.
He's put in a situation because he's being
slandered and lied about, and he's forced to
share some of the things that took place
in his life.
And as he goes through chapter 11, you
remember in verse 25, he makes mention of
the fact that he was stoned.
Just brings it out, some of the other
things he went through, sharing the gospel and
laying his life down for these very people
that have turned upon him.
And then he speaks of glory, verse 30.
Now, he could glory because people thought he
was a god.
He could glory because he led multitudes to
Christ.
He could glory because he planted churches.
He could glory because through the anointing of
the Holy Spirit he could cast out demons,
call down blindness on wizards and witches, raise
people from the dead.
If anybody could glory, I mean, he had
so much to glory about.
And through some of the experiences that he
had, he'd learned the most important thing as
far as glorying.
And look at verse 30 of 2 Corinthians
11.
If I must needs glory, I will glory
of the things which concern mine infirmities.
Now, that's also translated sickness in the New
Testament, weakness, disease.
He says, if I'm going to glory, I
will glory of the things which concern my
infirmities, my weaknesses, my sicknesses.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I
lie not.
Now, here's the great apostle Paul, and he's
showing that he's not living above anybody just
because he's Paul doesn't give him some kind
of a glory road or easy ride or
privilege above any other saint.
In Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the king,
kept the city of the Damascenes with a
garrison desirous to apprehend him.
You remember in Acts chapter 9, they had
taken a vow.
They were going to kill Paul.
They were plotting, watching every gate into the
entrance of Damascus to kill him.
Now, he didn't get to Damascus to kill
Christians, and so the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees
from Jerusalem sent another batch now to kill
Paul.
They came all the way from Jerusalem.
That's 135 miles, and we travel that same
road up over the Golan Heights, the Damascus
Road.
There's a spot where we're less than 35
miles from Damascus.
In fact, on a clear day in the
Golan, you can see Damascus from the Golan
Heights.
And so here, the very same road that
Paul took and met Jesus Christ, now the
Sanhedrin, in their hatred, send an entourage of
priests with new papers to find this Paul
now, because he's spreading the gospel in Damascus,
and they want to kill him.
So Paul's on the wall, the outer wall,
and all the cities had these walls, like
Jericho and Jerusalem, and he was in a
house hiding after a Bible study, and God
didn't supernaturally move him like He did Philip.
He could have transported Paul.
He transported Philip several miles, you remember, after
he shared the gospel and the Ethiopian was
converted.
And all of a sudden, supernaturally, God just
picked up Philip and placed him in Caesarea,
several miles away, a tremendous distance away, from
the Gaza Strip all the way up to
Caesarea.
God could have just as easily transported Paul
to protect him, because he knew that these
men were after him, you know, a hundred
miles away.
He could have just as easily, you know,
as he released Peter from an angel.
He used an angel, and he released Peter
from prison, you remember.
Blinded the guards, put them in a stupor,
and made Peter almost invisible.
The chains fell off their wrists, you remember,
and the gates swing open automatically from the
prison, and out they walked, the angel and
Peter, and the Roman guards didn't even see
it.
God could easily have done it that way.
But God does it differently all the time,
so we'd learn to trust Him and be
flexible.
And notice what He had to do.
It says, And through a window and a
basket was I let down by the wall,
and escaped His hand.
As they were watching the gates, somewhere between
two of the gates of the city, at
late at night, they put Paul in some
kind of a basket, lowered him out the
window down the wall of the city, so
he could escape.
Normal means.
God is supernatural, and a lot of times
God is super when we're natural.
And I think there's a mistake in the
church sometimes, that it's a lack of spirituality
to use my noggin and make a rational
decision, and do something in the physical.
Instead of just sitting and waiting for an
angel to appear, and thinking that it's going
to be more faith, more spirituality, more depth,
if it's strictly supernatural, and it's mysterious.
And there's whole portions of the church that
operate in that realm, and really sometimes they
make fools out of themselves, and they suffer
harm rather than make a decision and do
something in the natural.
If God isn't doing it in the supernatural,
be super in the natural.
You see, He's equipped us with the Holy
Spirit, and the mind of Christ to think.
Jesus didn't just automatically disappear, and vaporize, or
just dissolve Himself all the time.
There were times when it said He hid
Himself in the crowd.
He passed through the crowd.
One time He even disguised Himself.
He could have used the supernatural, so to
speak, all the time.
And so we need to be flexible.
God gave us a mind to think.
And sometimes you need to make a rational
decision.
And here, there was an emergency.
God wasn't just making Him end up somewhere
else and transport Him, so to speak.
And so in the middle of the night
when they figured out, hey, here's the best
place, here's the greatest possible, they just bounce
Him off the wall, lower Him down, and
let Him escape that way.
Nothing to glory about.
Now just think what He could do on
the testimony trail if He had Philip's experience.
You know, Satan just about had me, and
God just, I got up, and I floated
in the air, and the next thing I
know, I was 100 miles away.
And this can happen to you.
We'll pray for you if you'll line up
after breakfast.
We'll lay hands on all of you with
a special anointing.
And you'd be amazed at the people that
line up for some of that stuff.
No, sometimes we just have to, Lord, You're
not doing it in the supernatural, so I'm
going to be super at being natural and
make a wise decision in my life and
do something instead of just sitting and waiting
for an apparition.
And then He goes on to say, and
this is interesting, it's not expedient for me
doubtless to glory.
I will come to visions and revelations of
the Lord.
Now notice what He says here.
I knew a man in Christ about 14
years ago.
That's the exact time when he was stoned
in Lystra and dragged out of the city.
In any of the records, He's never talked
about it since then.
He didn't change his whole ministry about that
situation, what he experienced there.
And here he's being forced to talk about
it.
Man, could he write a book?
I knew a man in Christ about 14
years ago, whether in the body, I cannot
tell.
Some people, boy, they're just so specific about
what they've experienced in the spirit realm.
He says, whether in the body, I cannot
tell, or whether out of the body, I
cannot tell.
God knoweth such a one caught up to
the third heaven.
This person that I knew about 14 years
ago was taken into paradise, the garden of
God.
Literally, it's from a Persian word, the pleasure
garden.
That's where we're all going.
The pleasure garden, paradise at the rapture to
dwell with Jesus.
And I knew such a man, whether in
the body or out of the body, I
cannot tell.
Notice how he's deflecting all the attention to
maybe him again.
To make sure that they aren't overwhelmed with,
oh, this experience that Paul had.
He's sharing it in such a way that
they're just concentrating, or going to be able
to concentrate on what happened, not the individual
that it happened to.
I think so many times we are in
a situation, and if we're not careful, we
can share in such a way, be so
subtle with such false humility, that we can
really share things and everybody will notice me.
In such a way that I'm the one
who prayed.
Of course, we'll give God the glory, but
it was my prayer, my faith.
What I did, it was my idea.
No, it wasn't, you see, we can either
share it, you know, the Holy Spirit really
did something wonderful here.
No, it was my idea, and it blessed
everybody.
My painting, my song.
I knew such a man, whether in the
body or out of the body, I cannot
tell God, Noah.
Very similar experience to John, when he was
given the revelation.
Now, we find out that they supposed he
was dead.
He wasn't dead, he was probably in some
kind of a coma, so badly injured.
And as he's lying there with his soul
there, God just takes his spirit up in
the glory, just like he did John.
Now, John didn't die when he got the
revelation.
Remember, he heard God say, Jesus said, get
up here.
When he was in the spirit on that
day, you remember Revelation chapter 4.
And the next thing you know, John's in
the presence of Jesus Christ in paradise.
His spirit, but his body was still on
Patmos.
He said, I was caught up into paradise
and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful
for any man to utter.
Now, what this means is, he wasn't given
instructions.
Now, it's against the law of God to
describe what you saw up here.
What Paul is saying is that it would
just be a crime to try and describe
it with his human intellect.
It would detract from the beauty, so rather
than even try, he wouldn't even speak about
it.
Man, could he write a book?
Just think of the testimonies.
Just think of the bookshelves in the Christian
bookstores that Paul could sell the books, man.
Describing everything and what happened to him up
there.
But he says, you know, I saw things,
it would be a crime with my intellect
to describe it.
It would just detract from the beauty, it
wouldn't even come close to depicting the beauty
and the glory and the perfection.
So I'm not even going to try.
All I know is, this guy experienced paradise.
And he's having a hard time remembering exactly
how it was.
So it shows you, you see, as Paul
goes on in his life and grows, the
new experiences are greater than anything in the
past.
It's not like every six months he keeps
telling the same story.
Every new town he goes to, every new
person he meets.
Boy, you know what happened to me?
It's 14 years later and he's not quite
sure exactly what happened, but he knew of
a guy that was taken up into the
pleasure garden of God, paradise.
And then he was forced to bring it
out to defend his character.
Why?
Why would he almost forget?
Why would it just be once in 14
years?
Because his everyday experience, every new day with
Christ was so superior to the last.
You forget the past days.
It's not like, oh, I wish my Christian
life was like it was five years ago.
Where'd the good days go?
Why isn't it as exciting as it used
to be?
Because, you see, his relationship with Jesus Christ
was such that every new day was more
glorious than the last.
And you forget what's behind.
Jesus is so wonderful.
He's got so many wonderful, glorious things in
each new day.
The experience, the fellowship, the love, the joy,
the communion with Jesus Christ is so wonderful,
so new, and so exciting that you forget
those things.
Oh, yeah, I got baptized.
Yeah, I got tongues washed.
Yes, I was healed.
I've seen this.
Oh, yeah.
But what's just happening right now is so
wonderful.
Of such a one will I glory, yet
of myself I will not glory, but in
mine infirmities.
Hey, I could really get off on this
Paul thing.
I could just, everywhere I go, every new
town, every new group of people, I could
start the study off by saying, I'm the
one that this happened to.
I'm the guy that wrote the book.
He says, but if I'm going to glory,
if I'm going to touch on anything, I
realize how weak I am.
No matter what my revelations and experiences, it's
just reminding me more and more how weak
I am and how desperately I need Jesus
Christ every day, His strength in my life.
More of Him.
All I do, I hunger and thirst for
more of His righteousness.
For though I would desire to glory, I
shall not be a fool, for I will
say the truth.
But now I forbear, lest any man should
think of me above that which he seeth
me to be, or that he hearth of
me, and lest I should be exalted above
measure.
Through the abundance of revelations there was given
to me.
He realizes it was a gift.
He's experienced something as a gift.
Physical pain and buffeting from an angel of
Satan.
He's seeing it as a gift.
Because of his weakness, his tendency to boast,
his tendency to receive the praise of man.
He realizes through what God's doing in his
life, this thing, and it could be, and
I am convinced, you don't have to agree
with me, that this thorn in the flesh,
this physical imparity that he received, that he's
been given from by God as a result
of being stoned and so injured that he
didn't heal properly.
And it changed him forever.
And probably instead of being an upright, normal
looking man that you could deceive, be deceived
in the thinking of God, he was probably
so beat up and scarred and brutalized from
the stoning, and God didn't allow him to
heal 100%, it crippled him for the rest
of his life, and it disfigured him, all
the things that happened.
He said, this can't be a God walking
around in human flesh.
They'd never make that mistake again.
And that's probably what he received from God
when he went into paradise, when he was
in that coma, and God instead said, no,
I'm going to, you're not going to die.
I'm sending you back.
I'm not finished with you.
But no one will ever make the mistake
of thinking you're a God again.
And maybe there's someone here, you've made a
mistake in life, and people will never again
think that you're a perfect Christian.
Don't let it bother you.
Because Jesus Christ has perished for your flaws.
He shed his blood.
Or has strived to be like him.
But maybe you're never going to be the
same.
You may never recover from your fall.
You may never be the same.
But it doesn't mean God's not going to
use you.
It may disfigure you in some way.
But no one will ever make the mistake
again of thinking you're perfect, and that you
can't make a mistake either.
And God can even use you more.
It may be that it's just to knock
a little bit of pride and self-righteousness
out of your life.
But God's going to use you now.
And even give you more revelation.
But that messenger of Satan will be there
to buff it.
Just as Paul had to discover, and you
realize it's a gift given by God.
There was given to me, not because Paul
was bad or wrong or evil, but for
his own safety.
A thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan.
This is translated throughout the Scriptures, angel.
An angel of Satan.
An evil spirit.
Not to inhabit him, not to control him,
not to diminish his Christian life, but to
enhance it, the buffeting, the trouble, maybe the
temptation that never goes away.
And this thing was so painful for Paul.
It could be that somewhere one of the
stones hit him in such a degree that
it affected his eyesight, damaged him that he
was never totally recovered from it.
Maybe brain damage to such a degree that
it affected his motor functions, and he lost
some coordination, or he walked with a limp.
Or maybe a natrophy set into one of
his arms.
All we know is that Paul suffered terribly
at times, and he began to plead with
the Lord.
And when he least expected, because of this
infirmity, and it could have been from this
very stoning, a reoccurring pain that shot up
his back or down his leg or in
his head, migraine, headaches, whatever it may have
been.
And he pleaded with God in the beginning
that he would take it away.
But it was necessary, lest he be exalted
above measure.
He'll never be exalted above measure again.
And maybe in certain times when God's really
using him and the anointing's upon him, at
the same time the messenger of Satan is
right there that no one knows about, buffeting
him, giving him pain, and reminding him, this
anointing is coming from God, not from you.
These people are listening because of what God's
doing, not because of you, Paul.
They're coming back because of me, Paul, not
because of you.
Don't ever forget that.
The messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest
I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice,
that it might depart from me.
It was extremely painful.
It wasn't continuous.
It would come when he least expected it.
And he said unto me.
Now, he could have said that to Paul
when he was in the pleasure garden.
But whenever it was, he said, my grace
is sufficient for thee.
You're going to make it.
Your mind is telling you, I'm not going
to make it.
If you don't help me, Lord, I'm not
going to make it.
And he's saying, Paul, my grace is sufficient
for you.
You are making it.
Don't think that way.
My grace is sufficient for you.
Not it will be in the future.
It is.
It's an ever-present, active.
You see, you have all you need right
now.
You are making it.
You just want it to go away.
My grace is sufficient for you.
Why?
For my strength is made perfect in weakness.
It's reminding you how weak you are.
You know, we're pretty haughty when we're young,
aren't we?
You know, you get around some young people.
And I see myself.
You know, you don't think that you're ever
going to have a sore bone in your
body or a weak muscle.
And you really, you know, Mr. Charles Atlas,
Hercules all rolled into one.
And you can be pretty haughty when you're
a kid, especially if you excel in sports
and athletics.
And you get a little weak and things
start happening, a little limp forms here and
you start dropping your keys and you can't
figure out what's happening.
Why do I keep dropping these dumb things?
It changes you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
See, it was forcing Paul just to cry
out to the Lord.
Lord, give me strength.
Lord, I need your strength.
Help me, Lord.
Maybe you have something in your life and
you've been pleading with God to remove it.
Now, he wants to remove sin.
Don't think that you keep sinning because God
has made that the buffeting, the thorn in
the flesh.
No.
Don't make that mistake.
Don't let Satan deceive you and think, well,
I guess this sin is going to stay
with me.
That's what the angel of Satan to buffet
me.
No.
We'll clear that up right now.
God removes sin.
He hates sin.
He wants to remove sin.
But the thing that's buffeting you, it may
be a temptation.
It may be a weakness.
It may be something in your life you
just wanted to go away.
And it's keeping you dependent upon the Lord.
It's keeping you with any semblance of a
prayer life.
When this thing stirs up, you are praying.
It's not just now I lay me down
to sleep.
And so Paul said, Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the
power of Christ may rest upon me, not
knock me down and pulverize me.
I like that.
The power of Christ.
We hear a lot of talk about the
power of God.
Isn't it wonderful?
The power of God rests upon you.
And when does it rest upon you?
When I realize how weak I am.
Not when I'm mouthy and boastful and claiming
and naming and professing and demanding.
When I'm just saying, Lord, I am weak.
Lord, I need your strength.
Lord, I'm afraid.
Lord, I need your power.
And it will rest on you.
I like the way God puts his power
on us.
So Paul said, Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I
strong.
You see, he realized.
And it's all through something that happened 14
years earlier in a city called Lystra.
Not because he was in sin or out
of the will of God.
Just because God designed this for his life.
He was preaching the gospel.
He was stoned and dragged out of his
city.
People were thinking he was a god.
So God allowed something to happen in Paul's
life.
No one will ever think you're a god
again.
So do not be discouraged.
Someone's seen you make a mistake.
Well, Jesus knew all along you were going
to make the mistake.
He still loves you.
They just don't think you're a god anymore.
You put your shoes on like everybody else.
You're a Christian who needs Jesus.
And God will use you.
Notice back in Acts, Howbeit as the disciples
stood round about him, he rose up and
came into the city.
And the next day he departed with Barnabas
to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to
that city, and had taught many, they returned
again to Lystra and to Iconium.
Lystra, the very place where he was stoned.
And to Iconium and Antioch.
And notice what he did.
Notice what he learned through this.
He's going to preach things, and he's going
to experience it himself.
Elijah was going to preach, and he pronounced
judgment, and he did not escape the problems
that came on the whole nation.
He went without food and water for a
while too.
The drought affected him too.
Just because he was the prophet, he didn't
escape.
And notice Paul, just like Jesus, didn't go
back to the people that stoned him to
show him or show them.
He only went to the believers to confirm
them.
Now maybe they didn't realize that he came
back and out of that coma, that near
-death experience, they didn't know he'd gone into
paradise, his spirit.
They may have thought he was dead.
Are we ever going to see him again?
What are we going to do now?
The great Paul.
What are we going to do?
How are we going to make it in
our Christian faith?
So Paul goes back to the very city
where he was stoned, not to reveal himself
to the mob that turned on him, but
to encourage the converts there.
He could care less if the people that
hated him knew what happened to him, that
God had taken his side.
He didn't go back and say, God's on
my side.
No, he was going back to confirm the
saints, the souls of the disciples, and exhorting
them to continue in the faith and that
we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of God.
Jesus said, In this world you shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I
have overcome the world.
You know, we were on the Temple Mount
and things are so volatile.
We are so close to the end and
the Muslim tension against the Jew on the
Temple Mount, the most volatile, important piece of
real estate, 33 acres on the face of
the earth, ready to explode into a third
world war.
And so we're up there on the Temple
Mount.
You can't even take your Bible up there
anymore because the Muslims react.
They're so afraid of, you know, someone teaching
about Jesus Christ.
In fact, Mrs. Clark, one of our teachers,
Pastor Rick's wife was with us.
She just had a map or something rolled
up.
Hadn't even opened it.
And we were standing in a crowd and
I was pointing out some area according to
Bible prophecy on the Temple Mount.
And we weren't there five minutes and they
came walking up, you know, rousting us and
going up to carry on.
What have you got there?
And opened that up and it was just
a map of the Temple area.
No Bibles or anything.
One time I was up there and I
had my arm around my own wife.
You see, one of the things in Islam
is you can't show affection in the presence
of Allah.
And they came running over the police.
Very volatile.
And I was thinking, what if they said
to the Apostle Paul, you can't take your
Bible up here.
And we wanted to make sure we didn't
create an international incident.
You know, Pastor from New York creates mob
scene.
The idea of rubber bullets rocks me and
all the Palestinians are going nuts, ABCs there,
you know, and they're dragging me away.
I didn't do it.
I didn't do it, you know.
All for Jesus.
And so we want to make sure we
listen to the guys that don't take your
Bibles, don't open them up.
They'll go nuts.
They'll come running out of every little crook
and cranny.
They're watching everything you do.
And so, praise the Lord, you know the
Scriptures.
You can make reference and speak.
I started worshiping over at the Eastern Gate
and David said, I knew it.
You're going to start a riot.
I just had to wear the Eastern Gate.
And I just started to sing.
I knew this was the day.
You're going to start a riot.
I don't think the Apostle Paul would have
cared.
I got to thinking about that.
Where he went.
If you share Christ in Saudi Arabia, they'll
publicly behead you.
That's what Paul lived every day in that
kind of tension.
He goes right back to the town where
he was stoned.
And sometimes we are so frightened in this
land of peace to share our faith.
We make so many excuses why we shouldn't
do it.
And really, to be honest, sometimes we're just
flat out afraid.
We aren't at that point.
We may be amoral, but we still have
the freedom to share our faith.
Someone may spit on you.
Big deal.
Or threaten to fire you.
Or not have anything to do with you.
And I always think, if someone doesn't want
anything to do with me because I love
Jesus Christ, I'd be careful of that kind
of a person.
I'd be very careful of a person like
that who just simply because you love Jesus
Christ threatens not to have anything to do
with you.
That's a very dangerous person.
You can't trust someone like that.
That doesn't want to associate with you because
you don't lie.
You don't want to do drugs or watch
pornography or deceive.
You just want to glorify God and you
love God.
And they don't have anything to do with
you?
I'd be very careful of a person like
that.
But he went right back to the very
area where he was stoned.
God, by His Spirit, give me that kind
of boldness that if something like that happens
in this country before the rapture of the
church, I'd be like the Apostle Paul.
Lord, grant me the measure of the Holy
Spirit that I don't deny You.
That I always confess You before men.
When they had ordained them elders in every
church and had prayed with fasting...
Now, isn't it interesting?
Satan's trying to stop the church.
Jesus said, remember, that gates of hell will
not prevail against My church.
He's stoned.
Satan sends up more Pharisees from Jerusalem.
But notice, churches are planted through the tribulation,
through the struggles.
Churches are planted.
The power of God is resting upon them.
Outwardly it may seem weak.
But notice, now they're ordaining elders.
They've got so many churches planted in every
church.
And notice how they did it and had
prayed with fasting.
In other words, before they got together with
the local house fellowship and this home and
this neighborhood and this little town and these
areas of Turkey, they'd get together and say,
who do you think would be a good
elder?
Who's really in the Word?
Who's got their act together?
Who's a real witness and example of the
believer?
Let's pray.
Oh, so-and-so.
Oh, Titus.
And so they prayed and fasted and then
Paul said, you know what?
Paul said, we think you're right.
The Holy Spirit, they're the ones.
Pick those.
Start with those young guys.
And off they go to another town.
And they commended them to the Lord in
whom they believed.
And after that they passed through Pisidia.
They came to Pamphylia.
And when they had preached the Word in
Perga, they went down to Italia.
No signs and wonders.
They're just teaching the Word here.
On this particular trip, no signs and wonders.
They're just preaching the Word.
As they're moving around, going back down to
the port of Italia to return to Syria
as they leave the country.
The one real sign was a healing and
then Paul being stoned, dragged out of town.
There's a couple wonders for you.
And yet on other occasions, many healings.
And hence they sail to Antioch.
They're on their way.
They go back to Syria.
And whence they had been recommended to the
grace of God with the work which they
fulfilled.
Notice Paul when he returned from Paradise and
God raised him up out of that coma,
probably brutally disfigured and crippled for life with
this physical pain, whatever it was as a
result of it.
And then Satan, this angel, buffeting and causing
it to flare up when he least expected
it.
Maybe like a kidney stone that'd never go
away or some other malady.
Rather than say, well, it looks like, man,
doors are closing here.
I'm never going back there.
Let's just get on the boat.
Satan's probably just wondering, what do I have
to do to stop these people?
Why do they love Jesus so much?
Why can't I get them to just quit?
There's so many quitters.
But this Paul, he's gone right back to
the town where I did it to him.
Why?
Because it wasn't fulfilled yet.
God hadn't released him yet.
Paul wasn't a quitter.
And seeing little difficulty as an open door
to run and say, well, the Lord's moving
me on.
It wasn't fulfilled.
Now it has been.
And they're back now in Syria.
And when they were come and had gathered
the church together, they rehearsed all that God
had done with them and how He had
opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
And there they abode long time with the
disciples.
Oh, what a report they had!
And what Paul learned through it.
Great report.
Churches planted.
Satan befuddled.
Paul learning more about himself.
How God operates in a life.
Learning that God wants to give more revelation
and learning that the power of God will
be upon you that you don't have to
fear.
And knowing that he doesn't have to worry
anymore about someone putting him on a pedestal.
Tremendous things learned just in those experiences.
And you see, God's got them all designed
for all of us.
For our own good.
It was given unto me.
He learned this thing for my own good.
To make me dependent on Jesus Christ.
That the power of God may rest upon
me.
You don't have to be afraid of the
power of God.
It rests upon us.
Shall we all stand?
Father, you're working in all of our lives
here tonight.
You have a plan for each one of
us.
What a privilege, Lord, to glorify you.
Not to have people think that we're little
gods.
But, Lord, we are people with infirmities, with
weaknesses and flaws that you use to confound
the wise.
And yet we can have the power of
Christ upon us.
So, Lord, we present ourselves to you just
as Paul.
Lord, there are some here tonight that have
thrice pleaded with you to remove this buffeting.
Lord, give them understanding that it may just
be a gift from you as you desire
to do more in their lives.
To give them more revelation as you're calling
them to yourself.
Lord, may we, like Paul, not be afraid.
And may we fulfill, Lord, all those things
that you've planned for our lives, that we'd
have much to share with those that we
meet.
And, Lord, may we confess you openly and
never deny you, Lord.
Help us by your Spirit, Father, for we
truly are weak.
But yet your strength is made perfect in
our weakness.
We thank you for that, Father.
And we thank you that the power of
God will rest upon us when we acknowledge
our weakness to you.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.