Amen. All the little people are heading out for their class tonight. And we are in Acts chapter 18 this evening. Amen. Thank you, Mark and Bianca. Mark and Bianca are heading up our junior church ministry now and excited about what God's using them to do around here. And as Brother Hefner said, we are excited about the Living Nativity. November is the month to mobilize, all right? So we are, there's a lot involved, and we're trying to think through it all and get it all in place. And so you pray for us, and then pray for yourselves as we all get together and work through this. We think we have a good plan put in place, and I'm really excited about what God will do through it in our community. Acts chapter 18. I'd like to preach a message tonight here as we work through the book of Acts called Defeating Discouragement. And I hope it'll be a blessing to you as it's been a blessing to me in studying it. Verses one through 11. The Bible says this. After these things, Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Panis, lately come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because that Claudius, had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, It's interesting, they oppose themselves. Not just the Apostle Paul. And when people reject Jesus Christ, they are in reality opposing themselves. But they were opposing themselves with, not just against the gospel, but also as they debated it out. And it goes on, and it says this, in Blasphemy, he shook his raiment And said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth. I will go unto the Gentiles. This is a major pivot, if you will, in the life of Paul. God is directing him specifically. We know him to be the apostle unto the Gentiles. And this is really that watershed moment in his ministry where we see him really focus on what God has called him to do. Not that he didn't have a heart for the Jews. He did. Not that he didn't still preach the gospel if a Jew was in his presence, he did. But we see him fully embracing what God was doing in the direction that God was taking him. He goes on and says this, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak. Hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you open our hearts to this passage. that you'd help us to see through these verses as well as the verses that are collated in the scriptures concerning this event. Lord, help us to see where Paul was in the encouragement that you brought to him. I pray that you would use us in our hearts and lives. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. William Arthur Ward said this, flatter me and I may not believe you. Criticize me and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me, and I may be forced to love you. It's interesting, as you look through that, you see the emphasis there on the encouragement part. Everyone needs encouragement once in a while, but few people make the need known quite as clearly as one little boy who said to his father, let's play darts. I'll throw, and you say wonderful. Now to really understand all that's taking place here in this passage, as we are journeying with Paul in these missionary journeys, we really have to look at 1 Corinthians to understand what's happening. At this point, Paul has weathered a lot of trials. He has faithfully preached the gospel and faced much persecution already. For most of his journey, we always find Paul with at least one co-laborer. But here, because of leaving Timothy and Silas and them trying to get to him, which they do join him in Corinth, we find Paul alone, apprehensive, and even fearful. He is faced with a very wicked city. Athens and Corinth were about 50 miles apart. And Athens was a city of culture and learning where Corinth was a city of commerce and profligacy, which is reckless extravagance or wastefulness. Corinth was a trade city marked with licentious living. It was a center of worship for the goddess of love, Aphrodite. And in a Roman world hardened by sin, Corinth had a reputation for sexual license. Paul admits to this discouragement in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 3. Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now verse 3. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of spirit and power. 18, he confesses that when he came into Corinth, he came in weakness. He came in fear. He came in much trembling. Paul is dealing with the persecution and the burden of discouragement as he steps foot in to this city named Corinth. And I believe God supernaturally encourages Paul and he does it in a number of ways in this passage. And I hope they're a blessing to you. They were a blessing to me. First, God's encouragement is seen through devoted servants. It says there in verse number three, well, verse number two, and found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought, for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. So we see Paul coming into Corinth. We see him ministering for the Lord. We see him facing all kinds of persecution, seems like at every stop. Now he's coming to this city that is known for its wickedness, for its debauchery. He comes in and God allows him to meet a couple that will continue to be a blessing Throughout the life and ministry of Paul, we know them as Aquila and Priscilla. It was not accident that Paul found them. Here we are introduced to this wonderful couple who would become a wonderful blessing, not only to Paul, but also to Apollos. This couple would serve Paul in the ministry and even risk their lives for the Apostle Paul. This was a divine appointment in the life of Paul. And I believe this, I believe one of the most encouraging things is for us to be around fellow believers that are serving the Lord. We talked about it this morning in my Sunday School class. We're going through our statement of faith and our constitution and we come to the local church. The local church is so important. It's not just an organization. What we're doing here this evening is not tradition, though it's been done for a long time. What we're doing here tonight is spiritual. It's been commanded of God. And this group of people, Great Hope Baptist Church, is a body. We're a family. The Bible references us as a building. We are connected. We're supposed to be connected. We are to weep with those that weep, and we're to rejoice with those that rejoice. We are to bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. We are to encourage each other. In fact, when you come to church, you should not come to church with the mindset of, what can I get? Your heart should be, what can I give? First, to my Savior in worship, but secondly, to my fellow Christians in edification. Iron is supposed to sharpen iron and we are to encourage one another. Your presence here encourages this preacher. It's encouraging to see you every Sunday. I'm going to be here unless I'm providentially hindered or out of town. And I love seeing you. I love seeing each of us. Even when I forget Josh Wright's name, I still love seeing him. This morning, all I could think of was Jim Valance's son-in-law. And I know that wasn't going to work, all right? My mind just glitched. But talking around a cough drop, there's a lot of things going on. And I'm kind of a one-track kind of guy, all right? So, but I enjoy seeing each year. I miss you when I don't see you. And that's exactly how we are to be as a family. We are to be ministering, we're to be giving, we're to be pouring out, not soaking in. And here God allows the Apostle Paul, his path to intersect with Aquila and Priscilla and God uses them for a long time. What an encouragement it must have been to the Apostle Paul as he comes in, as he testifies in weakness. and feared and trembling. And God allows him to be encouraged by this group, by this couple. Not only did God provide fellowship for the Apostle Paul and encourage him with that, but God provided funds as well. Again, you have to see what's going on here in the passage. First, God gave Paul a way to provide by tent making. Now, this is the only time in the ministry of the Apostle Paul that we know that he did something like this. And he specifically tells us why later on in his epistles. And the reason was because there would be those that came into Corinth, philosophers, teachers, and they were only there to fleece the people. They were there to live off of the the means of others, and they would make them give towards them for their teaching. Some of these teachers or philosophers, they weren't sacred, if you will. They weren't sharing the word of God. They weren't religious. Many of them were even secular, but they believed that they had such great things to say that people should pay to hear them and that they should be taken care of by the masses. And so Paul, not wanting the gospel to be limited because of the culture, chose not to take money of God's people. He chose not to take money of the Corinthians. Why? He didn't want to be lumped in with that group. And so God provided and allowed him to be a tent maker. Now, we have a lot of philosophies going on today, things that, you know, I don't believe are biblical. You know, I believe this. There have been times. Again, I try to stay off of Facebook. I want to fix everybody. And and Facebook's not healthy for me, I think. And maybe it's healthy for you, but it's not for me. And one of the things that frustrated me a while back is I don't know, it's probably a year ago. I was looking on this ministry page and this guy was on there and he was encouraging young preachers. He says, listen, don't just get a Bible college education. Go get a secular degree as well. Get a trade, because if it doesn't work out, Then you'll have something to fall back on and this is what I wanted to do I wanted to reach in and say if that's your mentality don't ever go in ministry Because if you have a plan B you're not surrendered There should be no plan B. And I'm not against the preacher doing something on the side. Paul did that. But this is not the idea that I'm going to have a foot on both sides of the fence in secular work. Right. We I've experienced this in in my ministry. I've seen this where a man is a deacon his whole life and or a Sunday school teacher makes all his money in the world. And then after he retires, all of a sudden God calls him to pastor. Now there's a problem with that, right? Now that he's financially secure and he's made all his money, now God's called him to pastor. Either God had called him to pastor his whole Christian life and he was in rebellion to God, right? Or he's not called to pastor all of a sudden. And what I would see is these guys would go find some small church that couldn't pay for them. And then because no one was paying them, the pastor, they were in charge and they would drive the sheep. Now, this is we see this repeated all over rural America. All right. Here's the thing. There's a plan for ministry. God gave it to us. There's also a plan for planting churches and the Apostle Paul used that plan in the vast mature Majority of the churches he planted he was funded by God's people by other churches And we're gonna look at that just in a second by the churches of Macedonia specifically they funded the work of the gospel just like we do to the missionaries that go around the world and We didn't make that up. We didn't come up with this idea of missions and go, well, you know, we'll just, uh, we'll just come up with a scheme. How can we get churches planted? Oh, I got an idea. We'll have people go to church to church and raise support. That's a brilliant idea. No, there's actually a lot better ideas out there, but they're not biblical. They're not biblical. Everybody wants to reinvent the wheel. Here's the problem with that. It's not our wheel. It's God's will God's the one that gave us the pattern and the blueprint. I remember one time a while back There was a well-known college and they were teaching they were teaching their missions graduates Don't go to churches and get funds for missions. What you need to do is you need to go to businessmen and And you need to go to businesses and have them sponsor you. All right. And and then use secular money to plant churches, because that's going to be better in the long run. OK, that may be a brilliant idea. The problem is, it's not biblical. We don't have the right to reinterpret this. We don't have a right to reinvent the wheel because like I said, it's not our wheel. God is the one that gave us the pattern. Now, this is the only time in the ministry of the apostle Paul that he makes tense that we know of and he gives us specifically the reason for it. He didn't want to be a deterrent or a distraction from the gospel. So first God gave him a way to provide for himself in Corinth. But second, Silas and Timotheus arrived with funds from the Macedonian churches. Look what it says in verse five. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Again, we collate that with second corinthians chapter 11 and verse 9. Look what the bible says there It says and when I was present with you and wanted I was chargeable to no man for that which was lacking to me the brethren Which came from macedonia supplied and in all things i've kept myself from uh being burdensome unto you and so will I keep myself So Silas and Timothy come from Macedonia and I believe this is the specific time that Paul is referencing that they brought the funds that he needed so Paul here not wanting to be a Distraction to the gospel makes tents with Aquila and Priscilla and then God provides financially for him now I don't know about you, but when God for not provides financially for me, that's an encouragement and And God is meeting Paul's needs in every single step of the journey here. So first, God's encouragement through devoted servants. The next thing we see is God's encouragement through delivered sinners. Through delivered sinners, look at it, it says there in verses six through eight. It says, and when they opposed themselves in blasphemy, he shook his raiment and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth, I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed hence and entered into a certain man's house named Justice, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized." So the Jews reject the gospel. Paul has faced rejection once again, which led him to those who are ripe for the harvest. We see Justice and Crispus enter the scene, and God is doing a wonderful work in their heart. You know, there's a principle here, and it's invest your energies in that which is right for the harvest. Now we should give the gospel to everyone, but Paul is specifically being led of God to go to the Gentiles. The Gentiles were willing to listen and to heed and to accept the gospel. And I'll tell you, we should be thankful for that because it's because of God's leading in the life of Paul that we sit here today and the gospel came to the Gentiles in this form and fashion, and specifically his vision that led him westward instead of eastward. You know, when I think about Proverbs 1130, where the Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that went in souls is wise. I think about the wisdom of, and not only the wisdom, but the wisdom that's given forth in these verses, but also the picture of horticulture in our scriptures when it comes to soul winning. We think about sowing seed. We think about harvesting. Jesus Christ said, look on the fields, right? They're white unto harvest. And even in my own life, I love having a garden. I haven't had a garden since I I came back to Chesapeake mostly because it's just not where I want to invest my time right now. But when I lived in the mountains, I had a garden just about every year. And right now I don't have a garden, but I have built one raised bed that I'm nurturing some blackberry vines in. And last week I put a cattle fence up in the middle of them and zip tied them up to the fence so they can begin to run. You know, none of us want, I have another raised, well, it's like a planter that my neighbor, that the people we bought the house from left. And I did try to plant something in that, but it died. I mean, it was horrible. And I thought, man, that thing, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna mess with that one. I need to totally redo that thing. It's just not right. But the one that I built, it's working great. All right. Those blackberry vines are taken off and I'm thrilled and I want to put more of them in there. I want to try to plant things I don't have to lay. A garden's a lot of work, but if I can do some fruit, you know what I mean? A few blackberry vines, blueberries, raspberries, that sort of thing. And you know, all of us like to invest our time and energy in areas that are ripe. Areas that produce. And here we see God, the Jews had rejected and they continue to reject. And I'll say this, the heart of the Jews is still hard towards the gospel. Now it's not always gonna be. During the tribulation, God's gonna do a great work in the heart of the Jews. But Paul, realizing what was happening, what does he do? He goes to the Gentiles and he begins to preach and God saves people immediately. So the encouragement, that God brings through delivered sinners. I don't know about you, but when people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior, that's an encouragement to me. It's an encouragement to me when God works in my heart, convicts me of sin, and renews my relationship with Him. It's an encouragement to me as a pastor when I see God working in the hearts of our people and drawing you to a deeper relationship with Christ. This is the work of God, and it's an encouraging work. The next thing we see is God's encouragement through divine speech. verses 9 through 11 says this then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision be not afraid but speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this city now this to me is interesting in the fact that I I don't look at the Apostle Paul as a weak individual. Nor do I look at the Apostle Paul as a man who would be burdened or plagued by indecision, by fear, by timidity. When I think of the Apostle Paul, I think of a man who was very courageous in his exhortation, a man who was bold in proclaiming the truth. We've seen it. You look back to the first missionary journey now the second missionary journey, and I don't see any timidity But yet when we look at the scriptures here not only what he says in first Corinthians where he confesses to be coming to them in weakness and in fear and and in much trembling, and then we see God, through this vision, encouraging him. And how is he encouraging him? He's encouraging him not to be afraid. And he's encouraging him to proclaim the gospel, and to speak, and to not hold his peace. This encouragement, first, God provides peace to the Apostle Paul. Where do we find peace? Well, God's peace is always found in God's plan. It's the Word of God. Now, for the Apostle Paul in that moment, again, the book of Acts is a transitional book, and God did some special things in the book of Acts to verify his will and to certify his word, use the sign gifts. The Apostle Paul here receives a vision that's not out of the ordinary. For you and I, we have the completed Word of God. We have everything we need. God's not gonna give us a vision. Why? Could he? Sure. God could do anything. But God doesn't. Why? Because we have what we need. And we find peace in the plan of God. And the plan of God is found right here in the word of God. As we navigate our life, as we go day to day, we find that God's plan through the word of God will encourage our hearts and bring us peace. It is encouraging to know that you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing and you're exactly where you're supposed to be. You know, they say in the mountains, don't cut a tree down in the winter. Why? Well, because every tree in the winter looks dead. And so it is, we should not doubt in the darkness what God has clearly shown us in the light. There have been times in my life that I was so thankful that I could look back and I could with complete assurance know that I was right in the middle of the will of God, that God had led me to this point and though the seas had gotten rough and the storms had come and the trials were bearing down on me, I knew and I had peace, why? Because I was in the middle of the plan of God and it was his word that certified that in my heart. God's plan for the Christian within his word is this, to proclaim the gospel. There is no peace for a Christian who holds his or her peace. God wanted the apostle Paul to preach the gospel. So peace is found in God's plan. Peace is found in God's presence. He says, be not afraid, speak, but speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee. You know, friend, we have that same promise. In Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20, it says, teaching them to deserve all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo, I am with you all way, even to the end of the world. Amen. Now listen, the end of the world hasn't come yet. So what does that mean? God's still with us. He's promised to never leave us nor forsake us. And we can find peace in the plan of God, but we can find peace in God's presence. And this is exactly what God told Joshua in Joshua chapter one in verse five. He says, I will be with thee. I will not fail thee. It's what he told Isaiah. He says, fear that not for I am with thee. It's what he told Jeremiah. And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee. Here the apostle Paul, God sees his discouragement, maybe even some fear that's permeating his heart. And he encourages him by saying, listen, this is my plan. Preach the gospel. This is my presence. I am with you. Not only does God provide peace, God provides protection. Now, this is a fascinating portion of scripture, and we must balance this with God's specific plan for Paul, and also God's plan for you and I as set forth in the word of God. What does he say? He says, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. Now, God's will is not always the safest place, but God's will is always the best place. If God's will is for us to be safe, then nothing can touch us. And Romans tells us that. Romans chapter 8, verse 31 says, what shall we say to these things if God be for us, who can be against us? And so if God's not done with our life, if our days are not, I have not come to an end, if God's still using us, he's going to protect us. And if God does not want us to be touched, we will not be touched. And there are scores of missionary stories and there are stories of Christians and testimonies of Christians that have faced great adversity and have not been in any way harmed because that was the will of God for them. But if it's God's will for us to suffer for his sake, then it is a blessed place. Timothy tells us in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 12, Paul speaking to Timothy, yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Matthew chapter 5 verses 10 through 12 speaks of persecution and says we're blessed if we suffer persecution. John chapter 15 verses 19 and 20, 21 tell us that if you're of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 16 in verse 2 says, they shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whatsoever or whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God a service. There will be people who persecute us who actually think they're doing the work of God. What does this teach us? Well, for the apostle Paul in this moment, God said, listen, I want you to go. I want you to preach the gospel. I am with you. And at this moment in his life, he said, no one's going to touch you. Now we know, and we will continue as we journey through this, that's not what happens once Paul leaves Corinth. Paul's still gonna suffer some great persecution and the will of God is gonna be for Paul to ultimately give his life in Rome. And so this wasn't a blanket statement. This wasn't what is communicated today in the Naaman and Clement type synagogues around the world that, hey, if you get saved and you give your life to Christ, you'll never have anything negative happen to you. It's the power of positive thinking. No, that's not the truth. And the apostle Paul will suffer for Jesus Christ. But it just so happened in this city, in the city of Corinth, God's will was to protect him. But God not only provides peace and protection, but he also provides purpose for the apostle Paul here in these verses. He says, for I have much people in this city and he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. What was God's purpose? Well, God's heart is the salvation of the lost. Witnessing is not some high level spiritual, some high level of spiritual growth. Witnessing is the natural habit of a good Christian, normal Christian, and a godly Christian. Witnessing is the job of every born again believer. And the apostle Paul was called to preach the gospel to the lost of Corinth. And God does a work. God establishes a church. And I'm thankful for the church at Corinth because we have first and second Corinthians and God uses those books written by the apostle Paul to deal with a myriad of situations and problems and circumstances that are a blessing to us today to know how we should operate in a way that pleases God as a church. They were a church with a lot of problems, but they were also a church that saw great growth spiritually and God used them. And the Apostle Paul was used to start them here in this second missionary journey. Sometimes we think the Apostle Paul was impervious to discouragement. Sometimes we look at these biblical characters and we think that they did not face fear. They didn't face weakness. that they never trembled at the will of God. That's not what happened here. And God uses people like Aquila and Priscilla, God uses the provision that he brought to the Apostle Paul, both of the churches of Macedonia, and through being able to make tents in this specific situation. And God uses his word, God uses his protection and his peace, and all of this for the purpose of winning souls. The gospel is not an accident. The Apostle Paul's ministry was not an accident. And friend, let me tell you, just as God was doing all of that for the Apostle Paul, he is still doing it today. And the purpose of the gospel is still going forth. And we must never lose sight of what God has called us to do. There are still people that need the gospel, people that will receive Jesus Christ. And that's why we are here. So don't be discouraged. Allow the encouragement of a brother or sister to propel you on. Allow the encouragement of God's provision to propel you on. Allow the encouragement of God's word and plan and promises to propel you on. And allow the purpose for which God has left us here, the Great Commission, to propel us on and bring about an environment where we can defeat discouragement. Father, I pray that you'd use this in our hearts and lives. We thank you for this passage. We thank you for the realness of it as we look at the Apostle Paul, as we see him here in the midst of ministry, serving you, having needs, want, as he said, finding friends, co-laborers that were burdened and were gonna be used to bless him and all that he does. Father, I pray that you would help us to just realize that Just like Elijah, these men were subject to passions just as we are. And Father, I pray that you'll help us to find encouragement the same way Paul did, through your peace and your presence and your purpose and your protection and your promises. Father, that we go from this place and do what we're called to do, and that is to be salt and light in a dark and sinful world. We love you, we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. If you would, stand with me, take your hymnal, turn to page 236, 35, 235 this evening. God spoke in your heart, we encourage you to come. As we sing this first verse in chorus, if you don't know Jesus, Christ is your savior, I encourage you to come. If you never accepted Christ, you're not sure the heaven's your home, we'd love to lead you to Christ, show you how you can settle that tonight. Whatever the need may be, we encourage you to come as we sing 235. He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction he hath His love has no limit. His grace has no measure. His power has no boundary, no none to measure. for out of his infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth and giveth and giveth. It's bowed, eyes closed as these here at the altar do business with God. How about you, friend? God giveth more grace. God provides. Are you discouraged this evening? I'll tell you this, if Elijah and the Apostle Paul can face a situation with weakness, trembling, and fear, we're kidding ourselves if we don't think we can succumb to that as well.