Encouragement: The Heartbeat of Community and Leadership

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Acts 4:32-37** - The early church's spirit of generosity and Barnabas's act of selling his land to support those in need.
2. **Acts 9:26-28** - Barnabas vouching for Paul and integrating him into the Christian community.
3. **Acts 15:36-41** - The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark, highlighting the importance of second chances.

#### Observation Questions
1. What actions did Barnabas take to support the early church during the famine in Jerusalem? ([43:43])
2. How did Barnabas help Paul gain acceptance among the apostles in Jerusalem? ([57:05])
3. What was the nature of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas regarding John Mark? ([01:08:46])
4. How did Barnabas's generosity impact the early Christian community? ([46:15])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. Why do you think Barnabas was willing to sell his land to support the early church? What does this say about his character and faith? ([43:43])
2. How did Barnabas's encouragement and support change the trajectory of Paul's ministry? ([57:05])
3. What can we learn from the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas about handling conflicts within the church? ([01:08:46])
4. How does Barnabas's willingness to give John Mark a second chance reflect the broader Christian principle of forgiveness and grace? ([01:10:17])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflecting on the challenges faced by pastors today, how can you personally support and encourage your church leaders? ([36:19])
2. Barnabas's generosity was a reflection of his faith. How can you practice generosity in your own life, not out of obligation but from a genuine desire to help? ([46:15])
3. Think of a time when someone’s encouragement significantly impacted your life. How can you be that source of encouragement for someone else this week? ([57:05])
4. Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a second chance? How can you extend grace and second chances to others in your community? ([01:10:17])
5. Barnabas was known for his encouragement and support. What specific actions can you take this week to be a modern-day Barnabas to those around you? ([01:13:08])
6. How can you incorporate prayer for your church leaders into your daily routine? What specific prayers can you offer for their strength and endurance? ([37:21])
7. Reflect on the personal anecdote shared about the transformative power of generosity. How can you start a similar journey of giving in your own life? ([49:33])

Day 1: Strength Through Prayer for Leadership
In today's fast-paced world, church leaders often face immense pressures that can lead to burnout and despair. It's crucial for the congregation to uplift these leaders through dedicated prayer, providing them with the spiritual strength and endurance they need. Prayer acts as a vital support system, helping leaders to navigate their responsibilities with wisdom and grace. By committing to pray for our leaders, we not only support their personal well-being but also contribute to the overall health of our church community. This spiritual support is essential for fostering a thriving church environment where leaders can effectively guide their flock. [38:36]

James 5:14-16 ESV
"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Reflection: How can you commit to regularly praying for church leaders this week, and what specific areas of their ministry and personal life will you focus on?

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Day 2: Generosity Reflects Our Faith
True faith often manifests itself through acts of generosity, as demonstrated by the early church and figures like Barnabas. When we give not out of obligation but from a genuine desire to help, we embody the love and grace of Christ. This type of giving not only aids those in need but also strengthens the bonds within our community, creating a nurturing environment where faith can flourish. Let us be inspired to live generously, reflecting our faith through our actions and interactions, and in doing so, build up the body of Christ. [46:15]

2 Corinthians 8:2-4 ESV
"For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints."

Reflection: What is one way you can practice generosity this week that goes beyond financial giving, perhaps through your time or talents?

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Day 3: The Transformative Power of Encouragement
Encouragement can significantly alter the course of someone's life, as seen in the relationship between Barnabas and Paul. By advocating for Paul, Barnabas not only facilitated his integration into the Christian community but also enabled his future ministry, which was pivotal for the spread of the Gospel. Let us learn to be sources of encouragement, recognizing the potential in others and supporting them in their spiritual journey. This act of encouragement can lead to transformative changes both in individuals and in our broader community. [57:05]

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV
"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

Reflection: Who in your community needs encouragement today, and how can you offer them support that might change their trajectory?

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Day 4: Embracing Second Chances with Grace
The disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark highlights the importance of grace and second chances within our communities. By choosing to believe in John Mark’s potential despite past failures, Barnabas modeled a forgiveness that we are all called to emulate. This reflects God’s forgiveness towards us and teaches us to extend grace to others, allowing for growth and redemption. Let us be gracious in our interactions, offering second chances and fostering an environment where individuals can learn from their mistakes and thrive. [01:10:17]

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."

Reflection: Think of someone who might benefit from a second chance. How can you show them grace today?

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Day 5: Living as Instruments of Encouragement
Every day presents new opportunities to be a source of encouragement to those around us. Whether through financial assistance, affirming words, or simply our presence, we can significantly impact others' lives. By striving to be modern-day Barnabases, known for our encouragement and support, we contribute to a positive and uplifting community atmosphere. Let this spirit of encouragement permeate our actions, helping us to build stronger, more supportive relationships. [01:13:08]

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV
"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

Reflection: What specific action can you take today to encourage someone in your community, and how can you make this a regular part of your life?

Want them, want them, you got them. I hadn't heard that one before, but I'm going to use it. I like it.

I love coming to Lake Point. I'm a big fan of Pastor Scott and Karen and Pastor Chris. And the only thing I would suggest, the only negative I have about this church is that Pastor Tom could use more energy. Just, where is he? He's, okay.

This is a great church and I love what God is doing here. And I see great things in the future. And I'm just thrilled to be a part of this. And thank you for your generosity to Barnabas Ministries. You've been a blessing and you've allowed us to do some things we couldn't do without your help.

Pastors, coming out of COVID, it was very, very difficult. For pastors, 43% said they would rather do something else and were thinking about quitting. A recent study has that gone down to about 33%. Fifty percent of pastors don't make it for five years. So these young men and women were going off into ministry and quit before they hit their fifth-year anniversary. So it's really tragic and it's hard, very, very hard for churches.

In fact, one statistic I just read here, it came out maybe three or four weeks ago, is that one out of six pastors has contemplated taking their own life. One out of six. Thankfully, they just think about it and don't follow through. But even a few weeks ago, we had a funeral for a pastor that fit into that category. And the funeral was on a Saturday.

So pray for pastors. Pray for your pastors. And one of the things I enjoyed most when I was pastoring was getting notes from people that said, "I pray for you." I love the ones that say, "Pastor, I pray for you every day." The best gift you can give your pastor and his wife and the pastor and staff here is to pray for them.

And even as you're traveling in this area, going to and from work or going out to dinner and you go by a church, you can tell by the sign that the church probably preaches the gospel. As you go by, leave your eyes open, but pray for that pastor and pray for the church, that God would just bless them and protect them and direct them.

With Barnabas Ministries, we try to do that. We try to come alongside pastors and encourage them, meet whatever needs they have, if we can, and try to keep them encouraged and healthy and in the game. The answer to the problems of our world today, you know, is not found in political systems. It's not found in candidates. It's found in Jesus.

And the church is the answer to share the message of Jesus Christ with a world that desperately needs to hear it. And so to make that happen, churches have to be led by healthy pastors. So pray for pastors, if you would, pray for Barnabas.

We try to do this with mentor groups. And so we gather pastors, usually four or five at a time into mentor groups. We meet for a couple of years. I like to do them in groups because we also have the peer mentoring going on, and we'll spend two hours a month for a couple of years. And then they open up their lives to their families and their ministries and provide tremendous opportunities for ministry.

We started those in southeast Michigan and they've expanded out to across Michigan. Actually, I'm working with a friend now who wrote the book "Survivor Thrive," Jimmy Dodd, to try to strategize and develop a pastor mentor movement. In every state, we have a group. And once that group is finished, each one of those guys will start a group, and each one of those guys will start a group.

So it's multiplication so that eventually every pastor in the United States will have a mentor, will have somebody who's safe that they can talk to and seek advice, somebody who's always there to pray for them, always in their corner. So we do those mentor groups and those have expanded now to across the United States.

And then God did something here about a year and a half ago that we had not anticipated. I had not even dreamed about it. And that is the international mentoring of pastors. And so we've just brought a man on our staff, Eli Garza, who heads up the international pastor mentoring segment of Barnabas Ministries of Michigan.

In fact, it was Friday morning at eight o'clock, eight o'clock our time, but it was evening around the world with some of the guys I mentor. I had a group with a man who is second in charge of the Assembly of God in Sri Lanka. He's got 400 pastors, church planters that he's training. A man from Ghana, I assume in Guyana, a great church leader there. A guy I really enjoy named Ola Segan Taluthi out of Nigeria.

He's got an MBA out of Harvard and a PhD. God is really using him in Nigeria. But he's got a vision that encompasses all of Africa. And so these are really the cream of the crop guys. And we meet together once a month for two hours and it's never long enough. And then afterwards, the exchange of emails and WhatsApp goes on.

What we're doing is expanded beyond the United States. And then we have retreats. We do retreats to basically encourage and connect pastors. Sometimes there's a leadership theme, sometimes there's not. Sometimes there's a preaching theme. But the real goal is to connect pastors so that every pastor knows that he's not alone, that he's got people who love him and care for him and will be there for him.

And so we do that. We have podcasts that come out every Monday that are really valuable and encouraging to pastors and leaders. So we do a lot of other things. But let's thank you again for your encouragement and for your win in the sales to help us encourage pastors.

So I want to talk to you about Barnabas today. Not Barnabas Ministries, but Barnabas. Remember the guy in the New Testament who is such an encourager? In fact, his name wasn't the name his parents gave him. His parents gave him the name Joseph or Joses. But after a while, especially after he came to know Jesus, he's interacting with the apostles.

The apostles thought, man, he's always encouraging somebody. At Starbucks, he's always helping people. But somebody needs to move. He's there to help load the truck. He's always there with an arm around you. He's just such an encourager. Let's just call him that. They call him Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

I've often wondered what would people call me if they had to? If my name was a descriptor of my actions, what would they call you? Would they call me a busybody, a gossiper, lazy? What would they call me? What would they call you? Barnabas was called an encourager.

And I want to look at four episodes in his life today that will help us perhaps even understand how we can be encouragers. He was linked with the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul was fantastic at a lot of things like writing letters, starting churches. He was the leader of taking the gospel ministry to the Gentiles.

Excuse me, none of us can be an Apostle Paul, but all of us can be a Barnabas. I want to show you how. Would you join me in your Bibles in the book of Acts? We'll look at four episodes that are all found in the book of Acts.

The first one is Acts chapter four. Just a little bit of background. Barnabas was from the island of Cyprus. He was a Jew, part of the Levite group of the Jews, a priest, and he had come to know Jesus. We don't know how, but he came to know Jesus and he was so sold out and serving Jesus.

But what was happening is that there was a famine in the whole region, focusing on Jerusalem. And there were people in this church that had gathered. Some had money, some did not. Most what happens. Let's pick up the story in verse thirty-two.

Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

There was not a needy person among them, as for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold and brought the proceeds of what was sold. Just a parenthetical thought here. Some will look at these verses that I just read as a proof text for communism or at least socialism. And I want to say to you, I don't think so at all.

I don't think those verses can be used with communism and socialism. It's everybody has everything in common, but it's forced. It's not voluntary. What you find in the early church is they voluntarily, if they had land or houses and they had people in need, some would sell their land and houses and bring it and lay it at the apostles' feet, and the apostles would distribute.

Can you imagine if you were the recipient of that? You have come to know Jesus. Now there's a famine in the land, perhaps complicated by the persecution of your faith. And you have nothing. You have nothing.

I remember when we were first married, we would go home after church, and on the way home, I'd say to my wife, "What's for lunch today?" And she would say, "Well, we've got one can of tomato and rice soup." She knew I hated tomato and rice soup. And that was her cue. We got to do something different.

I don't think we ever ate that can of tomato rice soup, but she always used it as an incentive. We need to go out. We need to find something else to eat. But can you imagine? And then all of a sudden one of the apostles comes to your door, and it's dinner time and you've got nothing. The table's bare. The family's gathered around.

And he said, "We just brought this for you today. So for you to eat. And there's enough for tomorrow and the next day and for all this week. And if you need more, let us know." What a blessing it is to be the recipient of somebody else's generosity, to know that they cared enough to encourage you to sell something to meet your need.

Barnabas did that. Notice what it says here. And they laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as he had need. Thus, Joseph, who is also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold the field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

We don't know how much land. We don't know for how much it cost. The wording, though, the way it's talked about here, he sold the money and brought the money, which seemed to indicate he brought the whole amount of the sale price. That was a little bit different than the story that we find of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter six, where they also, in the same setting in Jerusalem, sold land, brought the money, laid it at the apostles' feet.

But the difficulty is they didn't have to do that at all. This is all voluntary. So they did it. But it appears they led people to believe that they gave all the money when they didn't give all the money. And God took that very, very seriously.

At the beginning of this time period called the church age, he did something very similar to what he did when the children of Israel were entering into the land of Israel, the promised land. Remember, he said to them, "When you come into the city and I'm going to circle the city, remember Jericho seven times and blow the trumpets."

But what you find in that city is dedicated under the Lord. Don't take it. And one of the men, you remember his name, Aiken, took some of that, put it under his tent, buried it in his tent. And there was a long process you read about in Joshua chapter seven. And God said, "You have to die. You have to die because of this."

And so at the beginning of that time period, he's making a statement, as he is at the beginning of the church time period, that my standards and my bar for righteousness have not been met, not been lowered. I am the same God. And so it's severe, severe judgment there.

Someone said, "We need to live by the Book of Acts." I don't want to live by Ananias and Sapphira standards, do you? And if God were judging that way today, this place would probably be empty, except for probably Karen Blanchard would be the only one left. No, you wouldn't.

I remember the morning I got a call. I was in my office. I got a call from one of the guys in the church. And he said, "Can you come over to my house?" I said, "How urgent is he?" "Well, it's not urgent, but it's really important." So I went over to his house, a modest ranch in the city of Troy.

I stepped in from the porch into his entryway, and he gave me this uncirculated silver dollar. Beautiful. And I said, "What's this about?" He said, "Well, come here, there's more." And so we go into his kitchen. And on the kitchen table, there are these wooden boxes about like this that are filled with these plastic cylinders of uncirculated silver dollars, Kennedy halves, that kind of thing.

And there were boxes of these. I said, "What are you doing? What are you trying to do?" He said, "Years ago, I heard that the economy was getting bad and I had to be ready. And somebody said we need to have either silver or gold. So I got a lot of silver. And he said, then God has been convicting me that I've been trusting in silver rather than trusting in him. So I want all this gone."

I said, "What do you want to do with it?" He said, "You're going to take it and going to give it away." He said, "I'd rather not, rather didn't go right into the church offering, but maybe directly to help people." And I said, "Well, all these flags came up from seminary warning signs about be careful."

And so I said, "What if, how about if I come back a week from now and have a plan?" He said, "You can come back a week from now with your plan, but you're taking the coins today." So it took two of us to carry a box, put it out into my trunk. The trunk of the car, the car went down the back of the car.

I drove it to our house, unloaded it in a closet off my study, covered it with blankets. The kids wouldn't find it, spend it all on bubble gum or something, baseball cards. And I went back to his house and said, "I've got a plan. What about we will do? What? We'll sell it for you and get the currency, the cash. And what about you and I pray about how to give this away and give it to people who have needs?"

And he was agreeable to that. So that was a one-year adventure where we just prayed. The first one that God brought to mind was a man that both of us knew when we served on a short-term trip in the Dominican Republic. We met a missionary there. He and his wife had been serving in the Dominican Republic in the poverty there.

For 42 years, they had nothing, but it's now time for him to retire and they were moving to a double-wide house outside of Oshawa, Canada, and his wife's dream was to have a new living room set, a couch, a chair, maybe some coffee table or something. She'd never had that in all their years of marriage and all the years of ministry.

So we bought that for him, and then we prayed and we prayed and God would bring things to mind. What happened? It was really interesting. I was able to see people cry when they received a gift that they hadn't expected. The tears would come and we would talk between the two of us.

When you say almost we love this, we love to make people cry. We love to make people cry, but something was happening in my heart. I thought we'd, my wife and I had been generous, but not to this level I was experiencing in my part. The joy of giving away somebody else's money, and I thought, how much better would it be if we gave away our money, our stuff?

And that began a journey for us that started many years ago from that one-year adventure that my wife and I have lived in. Just recently, probably two weeks ago, we were talking and saying, we have to give more away because we want to be an encouragement like Barnabas was.

We can say we can see a need. We can say I'll pray for you, and that's great. Sometimes God expects us to do more than pray. In fact, when the apostle John was writing, he said, "How can we say we love one another?" In the King James it says, "And yet you shut up your bowels of compassion."

In other words, you never follow through or open up your wallet or write a check. How can we say we love each other if we shut up our bowels of compassion and don't ever meet those needs? Barnabas did. He was an encourager.

The second episode we find in his life of encouragement is found in the ninth chapter of Acts. What was happening here is Paul encouraged a man who was isolated, not trusted, and lonely. What happens is that Saul was a persecutor of Christians. You remember reading the story? He tells this story in Acts chapter nine, Acts chapter 22, and Acts chapter 26.

He was a persecutor of Christians. He was a raised Jew, extremely well and highly educated in the Jewish rabbinical system. And so in this new sect, what he called a sect of Christianity came along. He was doing everything he could to persecute Christians, to make sure that no one left Judaism, so to speak, and entered this new religion called followers of Jesus, the way.

And so he was persecuting Christians. We read about Saul first in Acts chapter seven when Stephen preached his message, and at the end of his message, they stoned him. You know you're preaching a good message or maybe a bad message if they stone you at the end of it.

But the apostle Paul, as people were taking their coats off to stone Stephen, the apostle, or Saul at that time, was standing over their coats. So he was a part of this. And then he's on his way to Damascus to bring back Christians to persecute or maybe stand trial, right?

And on his way to Damascus, you know the story, the Lord Jesus met him and said to him, "Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me?" "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" To me, those words are tremendous encouragement as people, our brothers and sisters around the world, are suffering for their faith and dying for their faith.

And the Lord says, "No, you're not persecuting them. You're persecuting me." Jesus once said, "No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you." We've not experienced a lot of that in our country. That may and probably will change in the days ahead, by days and maybe months, maybe years.

But I think we as a church need to be ready to be a persecuted church. And so this is where Saul was. He comes to know Jesus on the way to Damascus. Now, the Jews don't want him. In fact, he's preaching in Damascus, and they're trying to kill him.

And so he escapes out the window in a basket, remember? And then comes to Jerusalem. So he's caught between now the Jews that probably knew him and loved him, now want to kill him. So he's coming to the church. How is the church going to respond to him?

Let's pick up their answer to that when we come into verse 26. And when he came to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he's trying to enter this group because this group's trying to kill him. And this group doesn't want him because they don't trust him. Infiltration is an old tactic of the wicked one. A friend of mine, Georgi Vins, pastored the largest underground church in Russia back in the late 70s, early 80s. His church made up about 750 people.

They met in the woods. And so people at a particular time would all gather from different directions in the woods. And he told me, he said, "We knew every time we met, there were KGB agents in our services. We just didn't know who." So infiltration. So they were suspicious of him.

Somebody, one of them might have said, "I don't want any part of that guy. He had one of my relatives killed just because he was a follower of Jesus." So here's Saul. These people want to kill him. These people don't trust him. He's caught in no man's land.

But, notice the next word, but Barnabas. Barnabas came, probably put his arm around him, introduced him to the apostles and said, "I've watched this guy. And he's the real deal. His faith is real. He preached the gospel in Damascus. In fact, the Jews tried to kill him."

And as a result of Barnabas' actions there, Saul was able to have a great ministry, preaching the gospel in and throughout Jerusalem. We can be an encouragement sometimes, but just by looking for that isolated, not trusted, lonely person.

I remember getting a letter one day from a lady. I didn't know her at the time. She said, "I've driven by your church for a long time now, and I've wanted to come in, but I knew that I wouldn't be welcome because of my story, of who I am."

And she said, "Then one day, on a Sunday morning, I drove into the parking lot, and I just sat in the car, and I thought, I can't go in. I'm going to be rejected." And then she said, "Then I watched a man drive up, get out of his car. He's a big man. I knew who she was talking about, a man by the name of Neil. He looked like he'd come off one of those biker gangs. He had a big leather jacket, cut-off sleeves, or normally just sort of a nice little jacket. He had sort of a t-shirt on underneath. He looked rough, looked like he'd probably just beat up somebody. Little did people know, he was actually a florist."

So she said, "I watched this guy get out of his car, walk into the church. And I thought, you know, if they accept him, maybe they'll accept me." And she says, "I came in and I watched him worship, and I watched people accept him. And I've been coming to church ever since. And I've come to know Jesus."

Everybody's got a story. Sometimes our stories make us feel isolated, alone, lonely, marginalized. And we have to be people of encouragement to encourage each other. Barnabas did that.

Notice that, I wonder, by the way, there are probably people like that in your neighborhood, and maybe people like that in church today, that just need somebody to come alongside and say, "I believe in you. I want to get to know you." Or maybe even invite them into your life group.

I was telling a friend earlier in the hallway after the first service, there was a lady he and I both know. But I didn't know her at the time I met her. She came into our church on a Wednesday night. A friend of hers had come to know Jesus and had invited her.

And so I'm talking to her in the center aisle after a Wednesday night Bible study. And she's probably five years older than I am, and not married, and pretty rough. The language she used in the worship center, probably the first time those words were used in our worship center, I hope.

And I thought, she doesn't belong here. I thought, no, she does belong here. She does belong here. And I got to know her and invited her into our life group. And she started coming. We meet in the basement of our house. We've been doing it for 12 or 15 years.

And after the Bible study, we'd be talking. And again, some of the same colorful words, usually with four letters. And then I watched what God did in her life. She came to know Jesus as her Savior. Her life began to dramatically change. She had such a thirst for the Word of God that she just wanted to know more of it.

She started coming to Bible studies. She wanted books that she could read. Now she's leading. She's leading Bible studies. Invite people in. Put your arm around them and say, "Come."

There's a third illustration from the life of Barnabas I wanted to share. And it's found in the 11th chapter. Let me quickly tell you, give you a little bit of background on what happened. When the persecution hit the church of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 7, following the death of Stephen, the first martyr, the Bible says that the Christians were scattered.

And the apostles were the only ones who remained in Jerusalem. And as the Christians were scattered, they went about sharing the gospel. And some of them went as far as the city of Antioch. And they were sharing the gospel there.

But what had happened is they were sharing it not just with the Jews, but with the Hellenists or the Greeks or Gentiles as well. And some of these Gentiles were coming to know Jesus as Savior. Well, the word got back to the church of Jerusalem that Gentiles were accepting Jesus as Messiah.

So they were wondering about this. How could this be? And so what happened is they had to have somebody go up there and check it out. So they chose Barnabas to do it. And you'll find that the scripture tells us that he was a man full of faith and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

We find here in the 11th chapter, then, they sent him up there to check it out. And he checks it out. He sees that it's real. Sends word back to Jerusalem. What's happening here? It is of God. And he begins teaching there.

And then something very unusual happens. He leaves there to go to Tarshish, the hometown of Saul. The Bible says to find Saul. The word find or seek is used only of seeking for human beings with some degree of difficulty in finding.

So it appears that some commentators believe, scholars believe, that Barnabas might, excuse me, Paul might have actually been hidden in Antioch, excuse me, in Tarshish, perhaps for his own life. And Barnabas says, "You need to come with me to Antioch because I need you to help teach the Bible to these new disciples."

And Paul brings, Barnabas brings Paul into that Antioch setting and they teach together. You just want to interrupt the story and say, "Barnabas, are you sure, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Because you're not only inviting a man to share ministry with you, you're inviting a man who's got leadership gifts that are stronger than yours.

I think Barnabas knew exactly what he was doing. When I work with pastors, one of the questions, one of the things that we always try to emphasize, you always have to do what's best for the church, even if it's not best for you. What is best for the church?

Barnabas was making a decision based on what is best for the church, and he brought, we brought Paul in, they began teaching. It's a little surprising that in Acts chapter 13, the Bible says while they were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate for me Barnabas and Paul for the work of the ministry."

And they let him go. And then the first missionary journey began. As they began going and starting churches, what happened then was very subtle when you read the text, it was Barnabas and Paul, John Mark was with him. And then it later on it's Paul and Barnabas.

And then later on it's Paul and the company with him. Leadership had shifted. And I think Barnabas knew exactly that was the potential outcome, but it didn't matter. He invited him into ministry.

I think when you look at local churches and all the opportunities to serve, some people will serve in a position because no one else will. Some people will serve because someone else would if they didn't. And that's their area of service.

They've got squatters' rights to the third-grade boys. They've been doing it for years and don't even try to take my class. And that teacher was Barnabas who said, "Would you come help me? Would you come help me?"

And you can do that even with your life group. Invite people to come in and help you and grow together and serve together and encourage each other.

And so one more illustration of Barnabas and the encouragement is found in the 15th chapter. They take a look at it. They come back from their missionary journey and they started a number of churches.

And then they reported to the church of Antioch. As they're reporting to the church of Antioch, it was wonderful, and now Paul says to Barnabas, "Let's go back now and visit the churches we've started." And Barnabas, if I can paraphrase, said, "I'm all for it, let's do it. I'll get John Mark and we can start right away. We'll get my backpack ready and an extra coat."

And Paul said, "No, no, no, no, no, you and me, no John Mark." You see, what had happened is John Mark had been on the first missionary journey. He was a relative of Barnabas. So he was on the first missionary journey, but he quit and went back home to Jerusalem.

People have guessed as to why. Some say that the persecution was too much. He hadn't counted on that. He hadn't counted the cost. So I don't want any part of being persecuted. I'm going back home. Some say he saw the leadership shift take place from his relative Barnabas to Paul.

And he didn't want any part of that. His loyalty and commitment was to Barnabas. Others say, perhaps he saw that shift from an emphasis on Jews to an emphasis on Gentiles. And maybe it was his own prejudice that said, "I'm going home."

For whatever reason, he went home. Now Barnabas is saying, "Let's take John Mark with us." And Paul said, "No, he's not going. He had his chance." And the Bible says here, let me just identify one verse here. Look at verse 38.

"But Paul thought best not to take with him one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work." And there arose a sharp disagreement. Do you know what sharp disagreement is? We probably all do. Sharp disagreement.

The word is the word paroxysm. And the noun is used here just to describe a disagreement that's sharp, it's contentious, normally not long-lived, but in its duration, it's intense. The verb that forms that noun is used only one other time in scripture, and that's in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10 and verse 25, where it says, "We need to provoke one another to love and to good works."

The word provoke is that, where are we going? You get that sharp provocation or sharp contention. In the book of Hebrews, it's positive. In this text, it's negative, a sharp contention. It happens among Christians. They couldn't come to an agreement.

So what happened is that Paul went his way, second missionary journey started, and Barnabas took John Mark, and they went on to ministry in Cyprus. And the obvious question is, well, who was right? Who's right? And scholars have argued that. Some say Barnabas, some say Paul.

Some say Paul because the Bible says he's commended under the churches. I like to say Barnabas because our ministry's named after him, you know, so he had to be right. But the point of encouragement for him here, by the way, nobody knows, and if it was important, God would have told us. That's not the point of the text.

Barnabas gave a man a second chance. Aren't you glad of that? That God gives second chances, and he uses people like Barnabas to say, "Okay, you've been defeated. You've been destroyed. You're broken."

I find it so encouraging that the three men in scripture that God used the most had one thing in common, and that's Moses, David, and Paul, or Saul. All three were murderers, and yet God used them. He used them mightily to accomplish his work.

Barnabas encouraged by extending grace and giving a second chance. Every one of us can be a Barnabas. Every one of us. First, we can encourage someone with our finances. Let me encourage you to process that, to think about it, to pray about it.

And you say, "I don't have much." It doesn't have to be much. Maybe a few dollars or maybe something you have. You can give to encourage somebody else who's at a point of need. So we encourage with our finances.

Encourage someone with your words. Maybe you're like me. I've received notes over the years, and many of those I've kept. Just it may be taking somebody less than 30 seconds to scratch it out and to say, "Pastor Doug, I'm praying for you," or "Have a great week. I believe in you." Those words can be fuel and air and wind in our sails as we try to do something great for God.

So encourage someone with your words and then encourage someone with your life to be a Barnabas, to be an encourager. I think it's wonderful to, before you get out of bed in the morning, as you're lying there, you think, "I'm going to get up in five minutes, 10 minutes just to pray and to pray and say, 'God, I want to be yours today. Help me to be an encouragement to somebody with my words, with my money, with my life. You bring them across my path.'"

And if we pray that in the morning, I think we'll be attentive to those people that God brings along our pathway, and we can be an encouragement to them.

Let me challenge you to do that this week, to be an encourager, to be a Barnabas.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would help us. Help us, Father, to see the needs of people. Help us to, when we look into their eyes, see the pain, and then, Father, use us to be part of the encouragement process, to give them hope, a fresh new life, and Lord, we'll thank you for it.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "The answer to the problems of our world today is not found in political systems. It's not found in candidates. It's found in Jesus. And the church is the answer to share the message of Jesus Christ with a world that desperately needs to hear it." [38:36](Download raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



2. "I remember the morning I got a call from one of the guys in the church. He said, can you come over to my house? It's important. So I went over, and he showed me these uncirculated silver dollars. He said, 'God's been convicting me that I've been trusting in silver rather than trusting in Him.' So we decided to give it away to help people." [49:31](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



3. "Everybody's got a story. Sometimes our stories make us feel isolated, alone, lonely, marginalized. And we have to be people of encouragement to encourage each other. Barnabas did that." [01:00:41](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



4. "I think it's wonderful to before you get out of bed in the morning, as you're lying there, you think I'm going to get up in five minutes, 10 minutes just to pray and to pray and say, God. I want to be yours today. Help me to be an encouragement to somebody with my words, with my money, with my life." [01:13:08](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



### Quotes for Members

1. "Pray for pastors. Pray for your pastors. The best gift you can give your pastor and his wife and the pastor and staff here is to pray for them. As you go by a church, pray for that pastor and pray for the church, that God would just bless them and protect them and direct them." [37:21](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



2. "Barnabas was called an encourager. And I want to look at four really episodes in his life today that will help us perhaps even understand how we can be encouragers." [42:04](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



3. "Can you imagine? And then all of a sudden one of the apostles comes to your door and you're it's dinner time and you've got nothing. The table's bare. The family's gathered around. And he said, we just brought this for you today. So for you to eat. And there's enough for tomorrow and the next day and for all this week." [46:15](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



4. "Barnabas, are you sure, are you sure you know what you're doing? Because you're not only inviting a man to share ministry with you, you're inviting a man who's got leadership gifts that are stronger than yours. I think Barnabas knew exactly what he was doing." [01:04:43](Make raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)



5. "Every one of us can be a Barnabas. Every one of us. First, we can encourage someone with our finances. Let me encourage you to process that, to think about it, to pray about it. And you say, I don't have much. It doesn't have to be much. Maybe a few dollars or maybe something you have." [01:10:17](Download raw clip | Make vertical clip | Make vertical captioned clip)