Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us today. My name is David Harper, pastor of HBC Rome, and we're excited to celebrate with you the message of Jesus Christ.
Expecting that for the next hour or so, you'll be filled with hope, encouraged, and refreshed as we learn together what it means to follow Jesus. If this is your first time joining us, let us know that you're here. Simply text the word "welcome" to 706-229-7838.
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I hope you enjoy today's worship and message, and if you haven't already, go ahead and stand up and let's get started.
Why don't you thank the praise team for leading us in worship here this morning?
It's kind of a sobering moment to think about where we are as a country, what lies ahead of us, and the challenges that are ours. It's probably the same kind of challenge that's in front of you as an individual, our family, our brothers' church. There are challenges all around us.
You ever been discouraged? Anybody ever been discouraged? Anybody ever let you down and it discouraged you? Anybody in the church ever hurt you and made you want to quit on God? I'll raise both my hands. If I could get my feet up in there, I'd raise them too.
I'm a preacher's kid. I've watched it go on throughout my entire life for 69 years now. Almost 70 here in a few months. I've watched a lot of hurt and pain and discouragement take place in church. And I've felt some of that. I've felt, in my time here, I've felt a lot of that.
We're going to talk about that this morning as we talk about the book of Acts. We're going to be in the beginning of chapter 18 and jump into 19. If you'll go there and start looking with me, I want to go back and remind you for a minute.
We somehow think, you know, it's a lot. We think these people in the Bible were superheroes. We think they're Superman. There's no kryptonite; there's nothing ever just like Paul. Things just bounce off of him. He doesn't have any problems; he doesn't have any difficulty. Life isn't hard for him. He's super Paul, and I can't be like that.
Now, he could be like that, but we get discouraged. We have difficulty; we have problems. But Paul, man, he was Superman. Jesus, we know, son of God. I mean, he didn't have any problems other than the disciples and the people around him.
All through the New Testament, all through the book of Acts, we're seeing it. And if you— we're going to be in Acts 18 in a second, but I just want to take you back for a moment in Acts chapter 13.
Even if you go back beyond that, when Saul gets saved on the road to Damascus, even in Damascus, when he started following Jesus, the church didn't trust him because he had been arresting people for being part of the church and putting them in prison. So the church didn't trust him.
And then when the Jews found out he was preaching Jesus, they went after him, and he had to sneak out of the city. Anybody remember how he got out of Damascus? How? A basket out a window. They had to lure him out of— when I've been there and seen that window, they say it's the window. And they lured him down the wall in a basket to escape because the Jews were after him, trying to kill him, and the church didn't trust him.
And for 10 years, for 10 years, he disappears from sight. He goes into the wilderness, and God does a work in his life. And he goes back to the little town where he's from, of Tarsus, and he becomes a tent maker again, a leather worker, if you will. And he stays there till Acts 13, or really 12. Barnabas remembers Saul, now Paul, and he goes and gets him because the church at Antioch in Syria needs some help. They need some Bible teachers and scholars.
Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He's got the first five books of the Bible; he's got Genesis on five. Those first five books, he's got them memorized. I mean, this guy's incredible. He speaks multiple languages. So Barnabas says, "Hey, I'll go get Saul, take him to Antioch, see how it works out."
And in the very next chapter, they're not there long. The church sets out. You remember we talked about this? They said, "Hey, we're going to pick out the Holy Spirit said while they're worshiping, grab these two guys, and I'm going to point them out: Paul and Barnabas. I want you to lay hands on them, and I want you to pray over them, and I'm going to send them out intentionally as missionaries."
First, first missionaries, first intentional missionaries sent out. And Paul goes out, and from that point forward—listen to me— from that point forward, everywhere he goes, somebody tries to kill him. Everywhere he goes.
Now imagine for a moment that everywhere you went, say for the next couple of months— not years; it's years for Paul— everywhere you go, you go to Silver Creek, and there's somebody trying to get you. And you go to Coosa, and guess what? Somebody's trying to get you. And you go to our merchant, and guess what? Somebody's after you. And you go to Lindale, and somebody's after you. And you come to Rome, and everywhere you go, somebody's pursuing you, either trying to kill you or beat you up or put you in prison.
Can you imagine what your life would be like? How discouraged would you be? How ready to quit and give up would you be? If everywhere you went— and by the way, at one place called Lystra, they did kill him. They stoned him and left him for dead.
And I believe—this is David Harper's opinion—because he does, he rises up. Either he wasn't dead, and he was close to dead and got up, or I believe God resurrected him from the dead, brought him back from the dead. Because he talks about seeing God and hearing some things from God that he couldn't share with other people. And I believe that's when that happened.
And God raises him up and sends him back out. And they found out they couldn't even kill him. Well, but everywhere he went, and if you remember a few weeks ago, we talked about he's at Philippi. And he starts preaching, and the little demon-possessed girl, and he casts a demon out. And they arrest him and beat him up and put him in prison.
And God rocks the prison. Everywhere they went— I mean, if you read chapter after chapter, it doesn't matter where they are. When they go to Lystra, when they go to Antioch in Syria, in chapter 15, they go back and report. And then they break up. Paul and Barnabas break up. His best friend breaks up with him because he wants to take John Mark. And Paul says, "No, I'm not taking John Mark."
Can you imagine division causing problems in the church? We Baptists wouldn't know anything about that, would we? No, we'd get mad because of the color of the carpet in the children's nursery that we didn't like. And we'd move one block down the street and start a new church and call it Fellowship. Huh? Huh? That's the church. That's the church planting movement of the Baptist. Greater love. Greater joy. We're going to name our church something better than your name.
I walked in, kid Jason Stockton. If we changed the name of our church, we were going to call it Best Life Church. You'll get that later.
Everywhere Paul went. Now, it's easy for us 2,000 years later to look back and go, he's the great apostle Paul. My gosh, that couldn't have affected him. I mean, he's Paul. He doesn't have that problem. Can I tell you, he's discouraged.
For two chapters, for four chapters, we've talked about over the last few weeks, everywhere they go, they're in prison. They're being beaten. They're in Thessalonica. They get chased out of Thessalonica. Somebody in the city raises up a mob. A mob comes after them and tries to kill them. And they're trying to sneak out of the city or go here or go there. When they're in Berea, when they're in Athens, when they leave there.
And where we are today, they go to the city of Corinth. And the same thing is going to happen. And here's what I believe. I believe Paul is struggling with discouragement at this point. He is struggling. There are some things about to happen to him that if you look at it a certain way, you go, "Wow, Paul kind of went off the rails right there."
Now, he gets back on track, but it changes the whole course and direction of his life. And if you're not careful, if you're not careful, when discouragement comes to you, it's real easy to quit when you get discouraged.
Do you know how many people have come through this church in almost 39 years of ministry here? Probably a couple of thousand. I have people all the time. They'll see me somewhere at Walmart. "Hey, preacher, I came to Hollywood back in 1994."
Well, if you weren't real involved or real, I don't remember you. I've watched a lot of folks who serve God, and they'll serve for a while. But then when it gets tough, when it gets difficult, when you have to make hard decisions, when things don't go their way, when we don't pick the color they wanted, when we don't do the song they like, they pack up and go away.
I tell folks I've pastored the same church for almost 39 years, but I've had about 10 different congregations. And I'm grateful you're here this morning because it can be discouraging. And I'm going to talk about that.
I think there's some things God's going to do here in chapter 18 and 19 that's going to encourage Paul. So I want you to know discouragement's real. Discouragement is difficult. It's—maybe some of you are sitting here this morning feeling very discouraged.
And when Greg talks about looking at the election, there's a lot of folks that day when it's up, "Well, I don't know if we're going to know for several days." Whenever that day comes that we know, and I don't even know if we're going to know then what's going to happen for the future.
Somebody's going to be discouraged. Somebody today may be discouraged. Maybe I went to the doctor this week, and you didn't get a great report, and you're discouraged. A lot of people around us are losing their jobs with the inflation and the difficulties, the economy that we have today and what's going on.
I remember seeing all this in the seventies. I was telling Beverly the other day, we were talking about what's happened. And I remember the seventies. Remember gas lines? Remember gas rationing? Remember how people— if you have— what was it? If your tag number ended in an odd number, you could get gas on like Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And if it ended in an even number, you could go Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and then you had to go get in line, and you could only get like 15 gallons of gas if you could afford it and get— and there were always people— there'd be a line half a block long or longer blocks long waiting to get it.
And people would run out of gas waiting to pull in the gas stations. Remember those days? People were losing their jobs left and right. I was one of those guys. Got laid off from a job I had in the mid-seventies during that time. I remember those days. It can be discouraging. The economy can be discouraging. Politics can be discouraging. Health finances can be discouraging.
Dear Lord, please help us. Don't let church be discouraging. We come here to worship Jesus, and we're not going to agree on every jot and tittle. We're not going to agree on everything.
My dad was the godliest man I've ever known. He was my pastor for, well, till he died for 37 years. He was my pastor, and I loved him with all my heart. An incredible man of God, godliest guy, godliest man I've ever known. But we didn't agree on everything that came to the word of God. We didn't agree. There were things that we didn't agree on. I saw things differently than he did.
Now, it wasn't major issues; it was minor issues. But here's the deal, guys. If it's a minor issue, let's keep it a minor issue. Let's keep the focus on the main thing being the main thing. Keep Jesus prominent. Keep the gospel prominent. Share the gospel. Walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. The word of God is prominent. We keep it in an important place, but the other issues, we're going to put those down here on a lower level, and we may disagree on those, but let's keep the main thing the main thing.
Anybody say amen? We need to be encouraging each other. I almost thought about when Shelly was singing or Greg was praying, saying, "You know what? Let's just get up, turn around, find somebody you could encourage this morning."
Say, "Well, I don't know what to say to you." Tell them you love them. Tell them it's good to see them. Tell them you're glad to be in church. Tell them thank you for what you do. All those folks who serve out there, all the people who cleaned the building and made it where you could get in today, whatever it is that's going on, encourage somebody around you because everybody needs encouragement.
I always tell folks, encourage this. It's Pastor Appreciation Month. Thank you for your gifts. Thank you for what you've done for me and the staff. Thank you for what all you're so gracious and generous. I'm thankful for you. And people say, "Well, I'm afraid if I pat brother so-and-so on the head, he'll get the big head." Well, don't worry. Somebody else will. Somebody else will take the air out of his cell. Don't you worry, honey.
Somebody's going to be mad in this room because it's too hot, and while another person in this very same room is mad because it's too cold. We are Baptists. We can't agree on hardly anything, and especially the temperature in the room or what songs we sing.
"Well, I'd rather sing the old hymns." "Well, I'd rather sing the contemporary hymns." "Well, I'd rather sing some of this over here." I remember what we used to sing, some of that old southern gospel music. Let's sing that.
Well, you know what? You can listen to whatever you want to listen to on YouTube, and every so often, we try to circle through and hit everybody's thing, but we ain't all going to agree on the music, right? I'm not going to let the music discourage me. As a matter of fact, I'm going to try to find in that music something to encourage me.
In Acts chapter 18, the discouragement and difficulty that comes to Paul here is that after these things, Paul departed from Athens. Remember last week, he was at the statue of the unknown God, and he took that opportunity to preach Jesus there at Mars Hill.
He found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius, the Caesar of the moment, had commanded that all the Jews depart from him. So he kicked out all the Jews out of Rome, and Priscilla and Aquila had to leave Rome, and they went to Corinth.
And he came to them because he was of the same trade. They shared that trade of tent making, leather working. A lot of times, by the way, you remember, I remember some old days. I'll tell you how old I am. Does anybody else in the church remember in days to go to a church, and the women sat on one side, the men sat on the other side? Any of y'all ever been in church like that? Shelly has. I have. Some few of you have.
The men sat on one side. The women sat on the other side. You know where that comes from? The Jewish synagogue. In the Jewish synagogue, the men sat on one side. The women sat on the other side. Do you know how else they separated themselves? They sat by profession.
So if you were a white-collar guy, you were an artist, or you worked with gold, and you were a silversmith, or some prominent trade, you sat near the front. And the lesser trades moved towards the back. So the tent makers would sit together in synagogue together.
And I got a feeling that's where Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila at the synagogue in Corinth. And as he sits there with them, he gets to know this couple and finds out they came from Rome. And then it says on further down, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.
And Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia. So Paul's there by himself. They come along. Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles."
And he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man. And he said to them, "I am clean. I am clean. I am clean. I am clean. I am clean." And he entered the house of a certain man named Justice, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.
And then Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord and all his household, and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized.
So he's been through all these difficulties. And yet here he is again at Corinth. When Paul, or when Silas and Timothy show up, he starts presenting Jesus through the Old Testament scripture. And when he does, a lot of them turn on him, and he shakes his garments and said, "I'm shaking the dust off of you. I've shared the truth with you. I've told you what you need to know, and now I'm not responsible for you anymore."
And a man that's next door to the synagogue invites him to come there and teach and preach, and they begin to do that, and leaders of the synagogue begin to get saved.
Today we're exploring the discouragement and difficulty that was experienced by Paul and a lot of his missionary journeys that are through here in Corinth and Ephesus. It's been leading up to this point.
Paul's done an incredible job. I mean, good night. He is Paul, after all. He's just a man. He's just like you. He's just like me. He's just a man that God used in a great way in ministry, and he could do the same thing. There's nothing that says God couldn't do the same thing through us.
Matter of fact, when you looked at Paul and where he came from, persecutor of the church, sold out to the Pharisees and to the way the old Jewish traditions, you would have never thought that's when we're amazed that Saul becomes Paul, and now God uses him greatly. God can do the same thing through you.
He could do the same thing through us if we allow his Holy Spirit to work through us in that way. I love how he does it when he's in Philippi at the Philippian jailer's house. He presents Jesus as that personal Savior that can save you and save your family.
A few verses later, when he's in Thessalonica, he presents him as the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. And Jesus is everything. He's all these things and everything else. He's more. When he goes to Athens and he stands before that statue of the unknown God on Mars Hill, and these philosophers are there, and he begins to present Jesus.
He shows him as the creator, the sustainer, the ruler, and ultimately the judge of this earth as he presents the gospel to them in such an eloquent way. And now he comes to this town of Corinth.
And don't think of Athens was in that time. Athens was small. There were these state regions, kind of like we have states in America. We're Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, all broken up. Greece was like that. Athens was an area. Corinth was another area.
Today, Athens is the capital of Greece. But in that day, Corinth was 20 times bigger than Athens. It had around 200,000 people in Corinth, this incredible city, this wealthy city, this powerful city. Ephesus, again, going to be the same way.
Corinth, to be called a Corinthian, was an insult. It was a city of immorality. It was a city—it's known for its architecture. It's known for its games, like we talk about the Greek Olympic games. The games in Corinth were second only to the Olympic games that happened in Athens.
But the main thing in Corinth was the immorality. There is a plateau behind the city. There is a plateau behind the city of Corinth. And on that plateau was a temple, a temple to Aphrodite. You know Aphrodite, the name, the goddess of love.
There's the temple to her. In that temple were a thousand prostitutes that were religious. As part of their religious action and carnal religion, they gave themselves over to prostitution. That's what Corinth was known for, the immorality of Corinth.
And to be called a Corinthian was to be called an immoral person. And even to this day, and I know there are people, there are churches that named themselves Corinth, and I don't understand why any church would want to be named Corinth.
First of all, because of all this. Second of all, every book, every letter that Paul wrote to them was, "Stop doing that, stop doing that, stop doing that, stop doing that. Tell that guy to stop living with his mother, stop all this, and change, and do this, and do it the right way." It's a book of correction to them.
It's an important part to see there. Here's what I want you to hear. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9, listen to these verses. Listen to what—this is Paul's letter back to this Corinthian church. And hear what he says to them because of the culture they're in.
A lot like the American culture today, isn't it? I mean, we're all—everything is called sexuality, and immorality, and anything goes, and you can be whatever, and do whatever, and get—it's all okay. That was Corinth.
And Paul writes to them and says, "Do you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" This is 1 Corinthians 6, 9, in case you want to jot this down and look at it, and you're going to hear me say these words, and you're going to—where'd that come from?
He says, "Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God."
And he doesn't stop there. Listen to what he says. "And such were some of you." And such were some of you, he says to the Corinthian church, and he says to us today. Some of us lived in immorality, but no longer. You were that, but now you're not that, he says.
"But now you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God." God changes you when you come to know Jesus. When Jesus comes to live within you, you don't live in that old life any longer. You change your life and live your life in a new direction.
Anybody say amen? God gives you a new direction. I heard a story this week about a—there's a legend told about the devil. It's a story that at one point the devil advertised his tools for sale. He needed to raise some things, so he got some buyers assembled, and he had this one oddly-shaped tool that was labeled "not for sale."
Every other tool he had was for sale but this one. And somebody asked, "Why? Why is this tool not for sale?" And here's what he said. "I can spare my other tools, but I cannot spare this one. It's the most useful implement that I have. It's called discouragement. And with it, with discouragement, I can work my way into hearts otherwise inaccessible. When I get this tool into a man's heart, the way is open to plant anything in his heart that I desire."
Boy, it's one thing to understand all of us have faced discouragement, and some maybe are still facing that discouragement today. And I want you to know Paul faced that same discouragement.
Don't you think that being driven out of every town, riots taking place, being put in prison, being beaten, being stoned and left for dead, did not leave a mark on Paul of discouragement, that he got tired, physically tired of going through that process, much like many of you. You get tired over time.
I watched so many people. I watched so many people that lived their whole life. Listen to what I'm going to say to you. They lived their whole life living discouragement. As a young person, they get saved, and they live for God. And they find a godly husband or a godly wife. And they raise their family and they serve God.
And it's not without difficulty because somebody in the family makes fun. "Why don't you all go to church for everything? You all go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. You all spend too much time down at that church giving your money, doing all that stuff. It's all for nothing."
And you raise your kids, and they serve God. And one day you get to the place, you retire, and you quit on God. And you go home, and you walk away. I've watched people not even at retirement age do that over and over again.
"I just can't take it anymore. I just can't stand what's happening up there. I can't believe so-and-so would do so-and-so to so-and-so. So I'm going to take my stuff, and I'm going to the house. I'm going to get my ball and bat, and I'm going home."
And it's because of discouragement in their heart. I can't tell you how many times I've sat across people in the conference room in our office area or in my office or even in the church buildings and had them say to me, "You're the best preacher I've ever had."
Listen to this. "I love this church. I love you. I've learned more from God, about God from you than anywhere I've ever been. You're the greatest pastor I've ever had." But what comes next? What comes next?
"I'm leaving the church. Don't try to stop me. Don't try to talk me out of it. Don't ask me any questions. I'm just going. I'm tired. I'm going home. I'm out." I've heard that.
Can I just tell you all, y'all, don't come tell me that. Don't come tell me that. There are people in this room that have lost family members serving God, and they haven't quit. Don't you quit. Stay with God. Where are you going to go?
Do you remember in the Gospels when all the people— Jesus started preaching hard sermons? You know, for a long time, it was fish and chips. "Hey, little boy's got a lunch. Man, let's pray over it, and we're going to give everybody a fish sandwich for showing up today. And we're going to have a big time. We're going to do some miracles, and people get healed."
Then all of a sudden, Jesus started talking about, "You've got to die with me. You've got to carry a cross with me." When you start preaching hard stuff like that, guess what happens? The crowd starts thinning out. People started leaving as Jesus was preaching.
Literally, people are walking out on Jesus. Can you imagine? If you walk out on me, it's one thing. Man, when you walk out on Jesus, that's a whole different animal. Jesus turns to His disciples that are sitting there near Him, and He says to them, "Will you also walk away?"
Because the crowds are leaving. Are the disciples going to leave Him? And I love what they say to Him. They look at Him and say, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life."
In other words, where are you going to go when you leave Jesus? Who's got a better message than Jesus does? Is that where you're going? Because there's nobody else that has the words of eternal life. Nobody else gives you the hope of eternity and the hope of heaven and the hope of the Holy Spirit here and now.
When I was growing up, it seemed like everything we sung was about heaven. One day, by and by, in a sweet by and by, one day out there, it's going to be wonderful, and everything's going to be glorious. How about the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit of God's here right now, and this is a special moment in the power of God, even in the difficult days in which we live.
Today's the day God's working. Thank you for those four people. Today's the day. By the way, look at me. Today's your day. Paul isn't here. John isn't here. Apollos isn't here. The great heroes of the New Testament, they're not here. You are. You are.
It's your day, and it's my day to serve God and make our life count for God. Don't blow it. Rome, Georgia needs you. Coosa needs you. Lindale needs you. Silver Creek or Murchie, Rome, this area, wherever you are, people need you, and they need to see God in you.
And I believe with all my heart in the difficult moments, David, in the troublesome times and the discouragement of life, when trouble comes your way, that's the greatest moment for you to show— that's the greatest moment for you to show somebody who Jesus is.
When you got a big check, and you got an inheritance, and you got a bigger house, and you got a nice car, people aren't looking. They're not looking to see who Jesus is to you. When your mama dies, they want to know how you're going to handle that.
For some of you, when your child dies, how are you going to handle that? When you lose your job, how are you going to handle that? When the doctor comes in the room and says, "It's cancer, and there's nothing we can do," how are you going to handle that? That's when people look to see, is Jesus real or not?
It's in the difficulty that you see Jesus at work. Paul knows that. Now, does it make that less difficult? No, it does not. It does not.
If somebody you love— if somebody you love dies, it's going to crush your heart, and you're going to weep, and cry, and grieve, and moan, and hurt. It's going to be painful to walk through that. But Jesus promised He'd never leave you or forsake you. He didn't forget you in that. He's carrying you through that.
So many of you can give testimonies to that. You've watched God carry you through the difficult moments. Does it make it less difficult? No.
They ask me all the time— they ask me all the— like preachers have got some secret language or something. What do you say to people when their son dies, or their mama dies, or something bad happens? What is it that you say to people?
You go put your arms around them, and you hug them, and you tell them you love them, and you tell them you're praying for them, and you tell them you're here for them, and "I'll cook you a meal, I'll bring you some food, I'll help you wash the car. I'll do whatever you need to do. How can I help you?"
There's no secret words that take that pain away. It's real. It's difficult. And you walk through it with Jesus. And that's exactly what Paul does. But it's starting to wear on Paul. It's starting to tear at him that everywhere he goes, somebody's trying to kill him and attack him.
I mean, you and I can't even imagine, unless you've been in combat somewhere, and knowing that every day somebody's shooting at you, trying to kill you, you don't understand the pressure that's on Paul at this moment.
The American church can't appreciate this. Because if somebody posts something bad about us on Facebook, we lose our mind. Good Lord, honey, what would you do if they were shooting at you?
I know most of you rednecks, you'd shoot back. I got to tell you, some time ago, somebody asked me, some of the security guys asked me, said, "What would you do if somebody came in and started shooting at you in church?" I said, "I'm getting on the floor."
I'm going to get on the floor in the fetal position wherever I am. And they said, "Are you that nervous about somebody shooting at you?" And I said, "Oh, heck no. It's all those rednecks that are fixed to pull guns out of their pockets and purses and everywhere else and start returning fire."
The return fire, by the way, all these walls are concrete. All those walls, they're concrete behind that sheetrock right there. This floor is all concrete. Bullets ricochet on concrete.
I told them, "I'm getting in the floor. That's why. It's not the person trying to shoot me. It's all y'all that will return fire that worry me."
There's one little lady. She's gone now. God took her home some years ago. I thought for sure in my—she carried a big purse, and I guarantee you there was a 10-inch revolver in there somewhere. I don't know. I'm sure she had one.
She'd be—see, I know. I know you rednecks because I are one. I'm from, you know, I am from Alabama. I can't help it.
In difficulty, you walk with God. Somebody takes a shot at you. You keep walking with God. Somebody threatens your life. I've had that happen here.
I used to get phone calls at 2 o'clock in the morning every night. "We're coming for you." That was back before Star 69. Every night, my phone would ring.
I'm not quitting on Jesus. Now, if He wants to take me out, He can take me home. And praise God, hallelujah, when that day comes. But I'm not trying to get on the next bus headed to heaven.
I'm not trying to be some Mr. Super Brave guy. I just believe God can do more to take care of me where I am than I can ever do to take care of me where I want to be. Did you get that?
God can take care of you right where you are better than you can take care of you somewhere else. Stay with God. That's what I'm trying to get you to see. Stay with God.
Man, here he is. One of the greatest encouragements I see in all this. I've got to go. I've got to give you these things real quickly this morning. It's the friends that Paul has.
You know what keeps you going? What keeps me going? What keeps the church going? I think Shelly said it. It's about relationships. It's about connections. Greg Polly back there, been in and out for years with us. Shelly, come and gone. Back again.
Seeing Greg and Candy Hyde over here serving. I could start calling all of your names. Seeing you here this morning encourages me to keep on keeping on for God. And it ought to encourage you.
The friends. Paul, all of a sudden, Silas and Timothy show up. He makes these new friends, Priscilla and Aquila, that are sold out to serving God. There's another young man at the end of this chapter, a guy by the name of Apollos, that's a bold, powerful speaker that he's going to raise up.
And Paul's going to help him rise up to a place of prominence in the church as a great preacher of the Word of God. Those people kept Paul going, his friends and those that were around him.
He's got Luke. You don't see Luke because Luke's the narrator. You ever watch a TV series or a movie where there's a narrator's voice in the back, and you keep going, "Whose voice is that? Who's doing the talking?"
Well, in this case, the book of Acts, it's a guy named Luke. Dr. Luke is with Paul. He's got this group. He's got his companions. He's got what you'll call him his posse or whatever you want to call him. This group of people is with him, and they encourage Paul because he's got these friends.
And I just want to say to you, many of you, you're such an encouragement to me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the difficulties you've been through, and yet you're still here. And that encourages me, and you encourage others around you this morning.
You see that. You see God working through those people, God working through the people around Paul. But it's not just the people. And you go down to verses 5 through 8 of chapter 18, and you see the positive results.
People are still getting saved. Lives are still getting changed. I don't have the freedom this morning to tell you, but there are people in this room, right now, God's working on their lives. He's working on their home. He's working on how they live. He's working on their salvation. He's working on their spiritual walk with God.
There are stories across this room of God doing things in people's lives. Can I tell you, that encourages me to keep on going. This may not be the days that it was in the 90s. I'm not looking around seeing a Gary Diggs or a Bobby Vernon or some of those, but I'm seeing people still get changed by the past.
This is the hour of God, and that encouraged me to keep on keeping on, and it ought to encourage you. By the way, that's the reason we came today. The reason we turned the lights on. The reason the air conditioner or heat or whatever is on right now. The reason the doors are unlocked and the bathrooms are clean and the seats and the carpets cleaned.
You know why all that was done? So we could get to the invitation so God could work in somebody's life. That's why we're here. We didn't show up so you could sing your favorite song or you could go, "Ooh, that song gives me goosebumps and makes me feel a certain way."
We didn't come so I could get red in the face and yell at you, although you know that's going to happen because I preach with passion about this. We came to see God work in somebody's life. Life, that's what the worship service is about for me is I want God to do something in you, and there are people in this room that you don't see yet, and you don't know it all yet, and you haven't put all the pieces together yet, but God's doing something, and that encourages you.
It encouraged Paul that he continues to see people at work. He was compelled by the Spirit. He testifies to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Some opposed him. Some grabbed him, but some followed him as he followed Jesus.
Man, I could tell you, I don't have time to tell any more stories. I know a story of a guy in England years, a couple of hundred years ago. They appointed him to be the pastor of this church, and the people in the church said, "We don't want him; we want somebody else."
For 12 years, for 12 years, he tried to be the man of God in that church, and people opposed him. If you've ever been in some of those old churches, they have pews; they have doors on the end of the pew. You ever been in any of those old Anglican churches? They have them in Virginia or like that.
I've been in the church that George Washington was a member of, and they have family pews. The family would buy a pew. They put a door on the end of the pew, and they locked it. Because nobody else could sit in their pew. Kind of like some of y'all. You're always going to sit in your spot, and you ain't giving it up. Right?
I loved in the old church when I first came here, there were pillows and blankets and stuff scattered all over that building where people had their assigned seat. And if you sat in that seat, they would come sit in your lap.
They would come push you over. I loved the first day, like 10 years ago when we came down here, and we put out chairs like this, and everybody walked in and went, "I don't know where to sit. Where do we sit? I don't know where to sit. I don't know what seat's going to be mine."
Now, some of you have marked your seats in those 10 years. But this old boy tried to preach, so he tried to do an afternoon. They wouldn't let him preach in the morning, so he tried to do an afternoon service. You know what the families did? They all locked the door to their pews.
Well, so you know what he did? He put chairs in the aisle. He put chairs in the back. He put chairs across the front. People kept coming. People kept coming to hear him preach. Lives were getting changed.
For 12 years, he put up with that junk in a church. That stinks, doesn't it? Stinks that a church would do that kind of stuff. People who call themselves believers would act like that.
And after 12 years, God finally fully opened the door for him to be the pastor of that church. But he just kept on keeping on serving God. But why? Because you see, people are persuaded. They're persuaded.
Paul persuades the Corinthians. He appeals to their heart, their mind, their will. You see them. God leads Crispus, the synagogue ruler, to Jesus. And what an influence that things keep happening.
And I can't tell you, that's what encourages me in this church, is God keeps moving. The Lord overshadows the difficulties of life.
Let me give you the last couple of things here. I'll close. The promises of God. If you go down to verses 9 through 11 in chapter 18, you see God spoke to Paul at night. I love this.
You ever had God speak to you at night? Well, I'm not talking about necessarily a vision, but the word of God. Some verse came to mind. Something came to mind. God brought something to your mind in the middle of the night while you were struggling and suffering and going through difficulty.
Paul had a vision at night. Here's what God said. "Don't be afraid, but speak. Do not keep silent, for I am with you. And no one will attack you to hurt you, for I have many people in this city."
And he continued there for a year and six months, a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them. God just gave Paul a promise.
Can I tell you, there's all kinds of promises in this book. If you'll go looking for them, God's got some promises for you. Now, we used to sing a song, and it's not exactly true. We sing a little song called "Every Promise in the Book."
"Every promise in the book is mine. Every chapter, every verse, every line." Well, not every promise in here was made for me, but there's enough promises in here that are for me that'll keep me busy for the rest of my life.
That'll keep me faithful knowing God's with me. Can I just tell you the many, many times that God says, "I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'll always be with you." When He says, "Fear not." 366 times through the Word of God, He says, "Fear not." That's enough for every day of the year and one more only fear.
You can keep following God. Take His promises and follow Him. That's what Paul did. Chapter 19, you see him go into the city of Ephesus, and he's redirected.
There are times in your life you may be redirected. We've had some redirection at Hollywood over the years. Paul was told he wanted to go to Asia. Remember way back in Troas, chapter, what, 14, 15? He wanted to go into Asia when he was at Troas, and God said, "No, go to Macedonia. Go to Greece. Go to northern Greece. Go to Europe and present the gospel there."
Well, now He lets him go back and go to Asia, to Ephesus, in what is modern-day Turkey area, Galatia. And he goes through there, and God gives him a green light to go and present the gospel.
And one of the three most famous cities in the world is Ephesus. And can I tell you, listen to this, Paul's going to create his closest bonds with any church in Ephesus. We'll see that later in the book of Acts.
He's going to minister there for years before he's going to leave them and go back to Jerusalem. He's going to come back again and minister. And when he's finally gone from Ephesus, he's going to send his number one boy, his number one guy, Timothy.
I'm going to send Timothy to Ephesus to work there because it's such a powerful work of God in that city. You know that God can redirect. You didn't plan on singing. You didn't plan on being in music, but God had a plan for you.
You didn't plan on teaching a class, but God had a different plan for you. You didn't plan on working with young people, or you didn't plan on working with old people, but God redirected your life and gave a new direction or a new focus to your life.
Wherever that is, folks, take that direction and follow God wherever that may lead you. The last thing I'd share with you this morning is he still faces the difficulties in Ephesus.
Everywhere he went, the Jewish people would eventually rise up and attack him for presenting Christ as the Messiah, for allowing Gentiles like you and I to come to know Jesus. He was hated. In Ephesus, they had another idol there that they worshipped, Demetrius.
And they made these little golden statues that they would sell for money. And everybody would have a little gold, a little silver statue. They would buy them and put them in their home and worship that God.
Well, when Paul starts preaching the gospel, guess what happens? People quit buying those statues. They quit worshipping those idols. And those guys who made those, the silversmiths who made those little idols, they start losing money.
Are you seeing a common theme? Kind of the same thing happened at Philippi when the little girl that was a fortune teller got the devil kicked out of her. She quit fortune telling. Now they quit buying out, and they're mad at Saul.
And they say, "These are the men who have turned the world upside down, and now they've come to us."
I want you to hear me. I'm done. I'm done. I would to God that people said of Hollywood, this church, "This is the church that's turned Rome upside down for Jesus. This is the church that's turned Floyd County upside down for Jesus. This is the church that's turned Northwest Georgia. They're in a stir. They don't know what to do. Why? Because the people from Hollywood just keep talking about Jesus, and they've turned the world upside down for Jesus."
Down in the Yucatan, there was that bunch from Hollywood in Rome. They've turned Yucatan. They've turned the world upside down for Jesus. When they go to Moldova, it's here, over there. That's the group from Hollywood. They've turned the world upside down for Jesus in Moldova and in every other place we've been and go.
Where you live, work, study, shop, and play. Guys, the call's still the same. Jesus. Present Jesus where you are.
Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you that in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the struggles, in spite of the hardness of our day, you're still with us. It's still your work. It's still your kingdom. It's still your church. It's still your gospel, the gospel of Jesus that we present to the world.
And you're still at work. Thank you, Lord. You're still changing lives. There's folks in this room right now in this moment that are testimonies to the gospel of Jesus and the grace of God changing lives and doing work.
Today, not 50 years ago, not 70 years ago, not even 20 or 30 years ago, but today, you're working. Thank you. Thank you, Lord, that we get to be a little part of that.
I pray that we would move in, that we would press in closer to your Holy Spirit than we ever have. I didn't get to say it there, Lord, but in that hardness, in that difficulty, some of the greatest miracles that happen in the book of Acts, happening in these chapters because you did something special in that moment to encourage Paul by the Holy Spirit.
I pray you would do that among us. Encourage us by your Holy Spirit. Encourage us by your work and what you're doing. Encourage us by the friends and the relationships that we built around this place to follow you and serve you.
There are people in this room that encourage me every week because I see them follow you and continue to walk with you. Do a work among us, but help us, God, to walk out into this world and be a light for Jesus Christ.
I pray that for your glory and your honor. Heads bowed, eyes closed. I don't know what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. I don't know if God said anything to you this morning. The Holy Spirit's encouraging my heart today.
Maybe He's trying to encourage your heart to keep walking with God. Maybe you're thinking about walking away this morning. The Holy Spirit's reminding you what you need to do is keep following Jesus.
Maybe there's somebody in this room you don't know Jesus as your Savior, and you'd like to know that today. Let us show you how. Maybe there's a prodigal son or daughter in the room that's been far away from God, and you wonder, "Can I ever come home?"
And this morning, I'm here to say to you, "Welcome home, my friend. God will take you right back in as a son or daughter if you come back to Him this morning, repent and turn to Him. He loves you, and He wants you to be in right relationship with Him."
Maybe there's people across this room, the discouragement you're facing is overwhelming, and what you need to do this morning is come and get on your face before God and say, "God, here I am. Here's my need. Oh God, work in my heart to encourage me through this difficult moment. I need you."
Whatever it may be, I don't know. I don't know what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. But I believe God's here in a wonderful way this morning calling you. It's the power of the Holy Spirit that makes the difference anyhow.
So if you'll obey His call, He'll do a work in your heart, in life, if you'll let Him. And in just a second, we're going to stand and sing. And it's your opportunity. It'll be your moment to respond to what the Holy Spirit is saying you need to do in this moment.
If you need somebody to pray with you, there are people here to pray with you. If you want to pray alone, you can pray alone. Whatever it may be, just hear my voice. Obey God. Obey the Holy Spirit and His call to you right now, I pray.
Father, have your way. Glorify Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Would you stand with me, please, if you're able? They're going to sing. You need to move quickly to step out and mind the Holy Spirit. This is your moment. This is your opportunity.
You want to come and pray? You want to come talk to God? That's right. Come on. Come on now. Obey His call.
Some are obeying God. Will you? Will you respond to His call? Come on.
You can be seated. Just be prayerful for a moment while these are still praying.
You are holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne.
We'll join with all of heaven in the everlasting song.
We'll join with all of heaven in the everlasting song.
And holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne.
We'll join with all of heaven in the everlasting song.
You are holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne.
You are holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne.
You are holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb upon the throne.
Thank you for joining us today. We hope you experience God's presence in today's service and see God moving in your life.
We would love to pray with you and come alongside you on your journey with Christ. So be sure to connect with us this week and let us know how we can help. You'll find us on social media, or you can visit us at hbcrome dot org and connect with us there.
We would love to hear from you. Have a great week. Amen.
on Oct 27, 2024
