Gabriel Ruhl: How to Continue When You Are Beat

Acts chapter number 14 and let's look together vs. number 21 and when they had preached the gospel to that city and it taught many they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God definitely father we love you and we thank you for a wonderful weekend all of the labor all of the work all of the expense would have been worth it if one had accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord as we have been reminded from our pastor tonight what a joy what a thrill and privilege it is to be a part of this local New Testament church as we attend serve and give to see your hand a favor upon it and today not one but dozens who have responded to receive you as Savior Lord I pray now that you would use these few moments in your word to give us direction as to what we should do as we conclude this day and will praise them thank you for it in Jesus name Amen thinking you may be seated as we come to these verses in Acts chapter number 14 in the life and the Ministry of the Apostle Paul Paul is completing his first missionary journey in fact Paul has been city to city teaching and preaching the Word of God and as we come to verse number 21 Paul is preaching in the city of Derby this is the last stop on the first missionary journey God has blessed Paul and Derby as the Word of God has been taught and been preached people have responded people have been saved it has been a good meeting if you will and a parallel would be it would be like having a good open house Sunday God has blessed the labor of Paul and Barnabas and the believers there God has given work to their account and favor and reward to what they have done in tested in this way and God has blessed Paul now this journey has not been an easy journey certainly the travel and the itinerant schedule and the preaching and the teaching and the needs of the people but in certain portions of this journey was quite arduous in fact look at verse number 19 in your text where the Bible says and there came through there certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and having stoned Paul drew him out of the city supposing he had been dead howbeit in verse 20 as the disciples stood round about him he rose up and came to the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Durban so prior to getting to Derby his last stop on his first missionary journey to teach him preach the Word of God he's ministering in Iconium in Lystra and the people from that region gathered together dragged Paul out of the city and stoned him so we may come tonight after a three weeks of intense door-knocking and a day of service like this and a weekend like we have enjoyed and we might physically be tired we might physically be weary I'm sure that many of us might be filling some of those effects even at this moment but Paul literally had just been beaten Paul had just been drugged out of the city and stoned and the Bible says they supposed him to be dead but Paul gets up not being dead the next day goes to Derby and preaches the Word of God now the missionary journey is concluded the meeting has happened people have gotten saved and Paul is going to relax Paul's looking for a hammock and some lemonade some time off and some respite that's not what Paul does in fact the verses that you and I read in verse 21 and 22 teach us what Paul did as he finished this missionary journey and I believe as we study this passage tonight that we will be helped with how to continue when we are beat now I don't think any of us were drugged out of Lancaster our palm down the last three weeks and stoned for passing out a track but we might physically be weary tonight we might to spiritually be a little fatigued tonight as we have been spent for other people of the Lord and we may need some encouragement from the life of Paul on how to continue when we are beats and Paul had faced persecutions and tribulations throughout his ministry God had got him through that and delivered him time and again and Paul was very determined in the ministry that God had given him and Paul even though he literally was beat continued in his work now how did Paul continue what can we extract from this performance of Paul as he journeys back from this first missionary journey that we can apply to our lives even this week and month as we begin to follow up I want you to see tonight first of all that Paul returned in verse number 21 the Bible says then when they had preached the gospel to that city speaking of Derby and it taught many they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch so Paul and Barnabas finish the last stop on this missionary journey they've just been through a fatiguing a time of ministry Paul literally has been beaten but now that that's over in God has blessed they return and I believe the fact that Paul returns back and traces his steps for a purpose a follow up shows that he had a great heart for his work Paul was invested and what God had given him to do it he certainly could have taken a much easier route in fact if you look at the map if he just would have gone from Derby to Antioch of Syria he could have made that trip and about a third of the time instead of tracing his steps back the way he had come but he was determined in his heart to return back in this direction so that he could follow up on these people Paul had a desire that his work would continue Paul wanted a fruit that remains and I have no doubt that that is a staple of Lancaster Baptist Church and near and dear to the heart of our pastor that what God has done today would continue so Paul returning when he received the return to the same place to the same place where the people here in Lystra and Iconium had gathered together to stone Paul Paul returns there anyway and I want to remind you 9:00 tonight we're not always going to get a warm reception every place we go one of the doors on my wife and I were knocking on this past week we knocked on the door and and the gentleman opened the door and before I could get out anything he said I'm not interested he slammed the door and while he was slamming the door I tried to get out as fast as I could we're here from the sweepstakes and you just won you know and but we weren't going to give him his prize you know for that behavior but some people are not going to give you a warm reception it's not always going to be that way but Paul was not going back based on the reception of the people Paul was going to be found faithful because he was being obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ and as you and I served the Lord where it may not be popular we want to be found thankful because it is right Paul said in acts 5:29 then Peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey God rather than man and that was Paul's heart I want to be obedient to the Lord I'm gonna go back to these same places and then II went back to the same people to the people who picked up the stones wanting to take the life of Paul Paul goes right back to those people a second time physically fatigued I'm sure physically feeling the effects of being stoned and takes them the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jew to the Gentile to every time and every tongue Paul had a heart that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be delivered to those people I love Paul's words and Romans 1:16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek and Paul so believe that every person could be saved and I believe Paul often were to minest his conversion on the Damascus Road at a time in his life where by vocation he would go city to city taking the lives of God's people and distinguishing them and God reaches out to him in a miraculous way and God converts his soul and God changes his life and his name has changed from Saul to Paul and I believe this Paul goes through these cities even where there's not a warm reception even where there's some hostility it's a persecution if you will Paul is convinced I've got to keep going to these people with the gospel Jesus Christ because God changed my life and God can change your life as well we've been reminded even this week that not everyone in our community is living for the Lord that there's people in desperate need of what Jesus Christ can do and Paul was convinced I've got to go back to these people even those who rejected I need to go and des minister to them he went to the same place into the same people and with the same purpose every place Paul went on this journey he went for the purpose of teaching and preaching the Word of God and no doubt as Paul gets to Derby and preaches and people get saved Paul's got to be thinking if I just went this way Antiochus Syria is right there I could be home I could put my feet up I could give my wounds some time to heal from this journey I could just take some ease and everybody would agree with them but Paul recognized I've got a purpose that's not yet fulfilled and while we're thankful for an amazing open house Sunday while we're thankful for the dozens who walk these aisles this morning and went back here with the council after the preaching of the word of God and placed their faith and trust with Jesus Christ we're reminded in this five o'clock service tonight they're still people Lancaster going to hell there's still people in palmdale and heed to the gospel and Paul said I'm beat I'm physically weary but I've got to keep going because I've got a purpose and that purpose is to take the world the gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul was committed to his purpose and had a desire to follow up on people I loved his letter to The Weavers of Glacier where he says my little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you and Paul it was a staple of his ministry to go back and to follow up and to be passionate and persistent and as we think of an open house and we know this on staff for sure while we praise God for an amazing day our work is not over in many ways our work has just begun now we've got to follow up and we've got to return Paul returned with embassy secondly in our text tonight that Paul confirmed notices in verse number 22 confirming the souls of the disciples now the word confirming means to strengthen it in our context here it's speaking of strengthening in the faith and this was the practice of Paul in his ministry in acts 1823 and after he had spent some time there he departed and went all over the country of Galatia and Phrygia and order strengthening all the disciples whatever Paul went he had a passion to teach him preach the Word of God that people might know Christ as our Savior and then he had a compassion and a passion to instill in them the life of a disciple he wanted to confirm upon them these things that was Paul's heart and that is the heart of our church we're so thankful for every decision made on this campus today and in every language we're so thankful for every decision made it every satellite campus today but our heart is that that is just the beginning and our heart is now that we roll up our sleeves and engage in a work of confirmation a follow up and of discipleship what was Paul confirming first of all see in our text that he was confirming the decisions the Bible says confirming the souls Paul as he was going back to Iconium in Lystra as he was tracing his steps back through his first missionary journey he was doing so with a heart to follow up on those who had accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior Paul had a passion to equip believers with the knowledge necessary to live a life that pleased and honored the Lord and to share their faith and Paul knew that was not going to happen one trip through town so Paul was determined I'm going to go back through and I'm going to confirm the decisions that have been made so that they have this assurance and we must understand tonight as a church family that we're thankful for every decision made today and every counselor that dealt with somebody today but we will do the same thing tomorrow we will take all the decision cards and for the first of all myself and others and we'll assign that decision to somebody for follow up this week and they'll set an appointment and they'll go to the home and they'll think them for being our guest and they'll go over the decision that they made and make sure they understand that their faith and trust is in Christ and then we will encourage them to and we'll give them the first step for new believers booklets and we'll talk to them about coming back to church and we'll encourage them to get baptized because what Paul was doing is what we want to be doing here in 2016 the Bible says that they that gladly received the word as people heard it today we're baptized in the same day there and about 3,000 Souls and so Paul was confirming these decisions these souls that were saved but then we see that Paul was confirming the disciples the Bible says confirming the souls of the disciples now Paul recognized the need for believers to be made strong in the faith Paul news it says in Ephesians 4:14 that we hid forth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Paul understood that these who've recently placed their faith and trust in Christ must have knowledge and must know the Word of God or they could be taken to side by some philosophy of the world there's no doubt that Satan thought every person to be a guest today and we had some victories and some guests came we had some defeats and some people not show up then out of all the guests in attendance today Satan was fighting people walking an hour getting saved and we're thankful for the dozens that responded but when somebody accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior there's nothing Satan can do to change that decision thank God for that God assures that when we place our faith and trust in him that it is sealed in palm of his hand and no man can pluck it out so we're thankful that that is he totally guaranteed and confirmed by God but Satan then will try to render a new believer ineffective in his life for the Lord and so when somebody accepts Jesus Christ as our Savior Paul understood that if they're going to become a committed follower of Christ if they're going to become a disciple then they must grow and they must be nurtured and someone must invest in their life and that's our passion here at Lancaster Baptist Church is to reach people have them come and hear the gospel as they heard today but then to follow up and to assimilate them and help them in the production process of becoming a disciple a committed follower of Christ now what is our assimilation process here well first of all it begins with getting someone plugged into our connection groups one of the things that we will do tomorrow is take a stack of all of the first-time connection cards that were turned in today and but first of all I and others will go over all of those and will pray and discern who invited this person in what life stages are they in and where would be the best fit for this particular individual and that all of the guests from today will be assigned to somebody for specific follow-up and we will encourage that individual to set an appointment then to go to the home and to thank them for coming and certainly to witness to them if they did not make a decision here but then specifically to invite them next Sunday October 16th at 10 a.m. to a connection group of Lancaster Baptist Church because that's the first step of our assimilation process Paul was beaten Paul was tired Paul wanted to go home Bacall went back to these cities confirming the souls of the disciples why so that they would be rooted in the knowledge of God's Word and could grow and we may be tired tonight but one of the things we're going to do this week is go back to every visitor and thank them for coming and encourage them to come back next Sunday and get into connection group because we want them to get rooted and to grow as well then from the connection groups we're going to encourage all of these to get involved in our core class this is taught by our pastor it's coming up in just a few weeks on Sunday October the 30th and then it'll be held on November 6th and the 13th as well and for these three weeks we will encourage all of our newer members and those who are interested in becoming a member of link has to Baptist Church to leave their connection good for those three Sundays to join with pastor and pastor will teach that class personally and he'll tell them the history of Lancaster Baptist Church and all that God has done here he'll teach them what we believe in why and how that's founded on Biblical principles and then he will help them know how they can get involved in the weekly body life of Lancaster Baptist Church and that's such an important part of our simulation process that people would get to know our pastor and our doctrine of belief and how they can be involved and that happens in our core class and then from there we encourage these new members to get involved in continued discipleship and we encourage them come back on Wednesday night at 7 o'clock and meet over in our revels building and let somebody who has already been through this program take you through it on a weekly basis teach you the basic fundamentals of our faith so that you can understand what we believe and why we believe it and most importantly so that you can teach it to someone else down the road and so we want to encourage you get involved in a connection group go to the core class and then enroll in our continued discipleship program and all of us I'm going to be reminded tonight when we think about how to continue when we're tired when were beads when were a bit fatigued that we've got to continue to go back and to encourage these that they might become disciples but we have to remember that we have to continue to live the life of a disciple too many Christians are like travel agents they're trying to send people to places they've never been we can't afford that at Lancaster Baptist Church the the greatest teacher is the passionate student the the greatest disciple maker is the person who is still becoming a disciple who's still learning who's still growing who's still making decisions and commitments in their own life and we want to make sure that's happening here because at the baseline of being a disciple as a personal walk with God and we want to make sure in our own life that our time in God's Word in our time in the prayer closet is exactly where it ought to be that we might set a pattern for all of these that are coming and now going to be a part of our church family and the life of a disciple is greatly enhanced by hearing the preaching of the word of God and I know I'm preaching to the Sunday night crowd and I'm excited that you're here but I want to encourage you you've got a target on your back just like the new convert from today and Satan would love to render the rest of your Christian life ineffective why won't occur just stay in your walk with God stay in church a stake tended to the preaching of the word of God stay excited when we worship God in Saul stay involved when that offering plate comes by make sure that the the principles and the lifestyle of the site will still fresh in you as we go back to confirm on these decisions and these disciples that God has given what's appalled do he returned he confirmed and Leslie we see that he exhorted notice it in verse 22 confirming that the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must do much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God Paul going back to these cities charging these people to keep growing and to renew their dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul exhorted these new converts first of all to continue in the faith and while this was such a simple exhortation it was a very important exhortation why because when the initial excitement of anything passes the temptation to discontinue the pursuit of it is often very strong for many people who left here today heavily received Christ as their Savior they're excited they heard about Jesus Christ John 3:16 pastor preached they saw the unused gift cards and they didn't want that to be the story of their life and they received the gift of Christ they're excited but a Satan begins to work to wane that excitement if we are not there to exhort if we as a church family are not continuing if we are not there to encourage if we are not doing our part the the desire to grow as they should will diminish and there will not be the encouragement and the support in their life that they so desperately need so Paul was coming back to these cities for the purpose of exhorting them to continue in the faith now why is this a necessary exhortation giving for quick thoughts continuance in the faith is necessary to have a good Testament with the world what is the world think about what happened today well these new believers that's nice and everything but it's not going to last that long but the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new and God wants our lives to be new and God wants those that heard the gospel today to be new and God wants them to be encouraged to continue in the faith we see that it's necessary to possess a strong assurance of salvation Satan would love to get these new believers to doubt their relationship with the Lord to take away their joy or to render their service ineffective but God has guaranteed this for all of eternity and we want to encourage and exhort them to continue in their faith that they might have assurance of their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ church family as we think of exhorting them and we be reminded that we too can fall in seasons of doubt when there's disobedience in our life disobedience always brings doubt but will breed obedience divison and we want to make sure that we're obedient in our life they were being absorbed continued thirdly we see to be used in the Lord's work faithfulness is a requirement to be used in the work of the Lord the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 4:2 moreover is required in stewards that a man be found faithful and continuance in the faith is necessary to grow in the faith oftentimes people are not reaching their potential in their spiritual growth because they have stopped being active and the things of the Lord the Bible says but growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Paul went exhorting them to continue in the faith but then lastly to continue in the fight he says that we must do much tribulation entered the kingdom of God Paul was warning these new believers that not everybody would rejoice with their newfound faith in Christ that they were going to face some tribulations the church family we understand tonight all too well that every guest that was here today and all those who place their faith and trust in Christ probably even today and certainly this week will face some moment where somebody will try to discourage what God is doing why did you go to church why did you make that decision why do you believe what they say and somebody's gonna work and by the way Satan is working overtime all the time one of the reasons that we have to continue when we're tired one of the reasons we have to return and confirm and exhort is because Satan's always at work and while we may be tired and we aren't it's for a good reason but Satan is going after these people who visited and these people who made a decision and he wants to discourage any further progress for the things of God but Paul says this is a necessary element of growth and I want us to tonight to see as we close some characteristics about these tribulations that these will face them that we will face as well first of all they're expected the Bible says yay and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution we're going to face it every guest and every person who made a decision today they're going to face it as well which by the way is why they need us to continue it's why they need us to continue to exhort and encourage these tribulations are productive though you see tribulations help give us a backbone a faith that cannot be tested as a faith that cannot be trusted and the Lord is going to allow us and these new believers to go through a time of testing that we might be made stronger and that we might be deepened in our faith and as these new believers are going through that time of testing oh what a help it is to them to have a church family who's exhorting them to continue hey we're going to face some tribulations but we're going to face them together then we see that the tribulations are many notice that verse number 22 we must through much tribulation not a few not sometimes not a little Paul says through much tribulation and Paul obviously knew that he had just been stoned and drugged out of the city and thought and supposed to be dead through much tribulation Paul says hey as you and I live for the Lord Jesus Christ in 2016 here in the Antelope Valley there may be days and times and seasons where it feels like there's much tribulation but can I encourage you tonight for the word of God in Psalms 34 and verse number 19 where the Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of them all and we are to be reminded tonight that God is still on the throne and he that in me is greater than he that is in the world and we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us and with him nothing is impossible and as we continue we can encourage these new people at Lancaster Baptist Church to continue as well we're not going to experience trouble every day but we will experience these tribulations throughout our entire Christian life and then we see these tribulations our faith related Satan is not going to attack a non-believer the same way the attacks are convert because of this reality tonight everyone who has attended today and certainly those who have made decisions of faith they need us to continue so we might be beat we might be tired our feet might hurt we might have a little extra Sun we might have a growing to-do list at home that has not been attended to in two or three weeks but can I encourage the size of church family let's continue the Bible says and let us not be weary in well-doing for a new season we shall reap if we think that my dad used to tell us growing up blessings don't ride piggyback God gave us a great day today and that's a wonderful thing tomorrow is a whole new opportunity and may we learn from the life of Paul he could have taken a different route home and taken some much-needed rest the Paul said that's not why I'm here and Paul went right back into the ministry for the purpose of confirming some new believers and may you and I tomorrow morning get up and walk with the Lord and say God would you use me again today to go back to that guest who did it come or to go back to that person who did and may I be some source of encouragement in their life that we might see continued growth

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 969

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, sermon, Christian, Gabriel Ruhl, continue, beaten, return, purpose, decisions, disciple, exhort, characteristics, faith

Id: OnR7C_sz8N4

Length: 28min 12sec (1692 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 09 2016