The Mission is a Mess

Acts 14:1-18

Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

Sermon Transcript:

Good morning. Thank you worship team. Thank you all as we worship with one another, reminding each other the reality of our God. We’re gonna be in Acts chapter 14 as we continue our series in the book of Acts. You got your Pew Bible. It’s gonna be 8 68. 8 68 in your Bible. We’re gonna be looking at Acts chapter 14 versus one through 18.

I’m gonna start off by reading that and praying this morning. X 14. Now at I Iconium, they entered together in the Jude into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed, But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with the rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to lira and derby cities of Laconia and to the surrounding country.

And there they continued to preach the gospel. Now at Lira, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and never walk. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made. Well said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet.

And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds had saw what Paul had done, they lifted their voices saying, In Laconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices with the crowds.

But when the apostles Barnabas and saw heard of it, they tore their garments, rushing into the crowd, crying out men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature to you, and we bring you of good news that you should turn from these VA things to a living God who made the heaven in earth and the sea and all those in them.

In past generations, he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, Yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you reins from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them.

Father, this morning we come before you recognizing that you are the one satisfied our hearts with food and gladness. In times where we recognize that and in times when we don’t, we look to this passage this morning and ask you for clarity and wisdom. Of how to live life together with you and one another in Jesus’ name.

Amen. By way of context here, if you’ve been following along in the Acts series, we’ve talked about three different seasons. Going back to Acts one, eight, where Jesus said, You’ll be my witnesses to Jerusalem, and we saw that lived out. In Acts one through eight, and then it also says, End to Judea and Sumaria eight through 12.

We see that lived out called season two. And then starting in chapter 13 says, Be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And here we see Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas taking the message of Christ on the first missionary journey. And they’re in modern day Turkey in the region of Galatia. Um, if you see the book of Galatians, it’s written right around this time to these actual towns that, uh, Paul is speaking to and involved in right here.

And they, Paul and Barnabas are going through modern day Turkey into these various towns preaching the good. Now if we were wound and looked at acts kind of two through four, we see the birth of the church back in season one, and we see this purity of the church where, where no one is hurt by one another.

There’s not a, um, a sense of being against one another in any way. Each person was so committed to one another in this baby church that they’re giving of their homes and their stuff and their money to take care of one another. No person had ever experienced pain, misunderstanding, or rejection in this new, peaceful community.

The message of Christ went out in a pure way, accepted without fear, and love happened without territorial squabbles. That’s the very baby church next two through four, but it didn’t last long. Perfect church. Perfect family, perfect marriage, perfect parenting doesn’t. And while we long for this perfect relationship set up, it is not what we will see in the book of Acts, nor what we will see in everyday life.

And here’s what I wanna say. The early church would not have thrived without bold and passionate leaders, but the early church would not have survived without wise and humble leaders who handled conflict well. The ideal is over conflict is going to be, has been starting before this, and then we’ll continue on a natural and continued part of what it means for this church to be established.

Working with people is messy and hard anywhere at any time. We wish the community of faith was, was different. The problem is, is that we’re still made of people To me, I, I, early on, I figured out the drama with people is, is made of two things, intimacy and immaturity. You take intimacy and immaturity, you put that together, you have drama.

Well, guess what we’re all about the church getting close to one another. But we have immaturity. So you naturally have drama. People with wounds, fears, and judgment. One of my favorite analogies of what it means to, to do life in community, whether that’s in your family or friendships or town or church or whatever, is Porky Pines and Porky Pines.

I have no idea if this is biologically true. So if you like understand this in a deeper way, that’s fine, but. Porcine. The idea is they go out and they’re running around. I love Porky Pines and they’re doing their things. Actually, they don’t really run very fast. They go out and then they realize they’re cold and they’re lonely.

So the Porky Pines come and they huddle up together. But the problem is they start poking each other and the closer they try to get with each other and they wanna get warm and close, they, they start poking and it’s difficult. So what do they do? They go back out. This is too hard. Community’s difficult.

It’s tough to be together. They get lonely and gold. So they come back together and it’s this process of community. I really believe this often happens with us, right? We feel so lonely and we come back and try to get close and we realize this is really hard. Family life can be hard and painful. Workplace relationships, school, church.

Living with one another and the reality of everyday life, you get poked, you get hit, you get stung. Paul and Barnabas runs square into these realities in I, Iconium and Lira, and it is here. I believe we learn from these wise and humble leaders how to deal with each other when life together is hard. First town they go to is I Iconium and man, does it start off well, I, Iconium is the eastern most city of Glacier.

The Galatian people, the Galatian region actually came from Ireland. It’s this really unique community that came from Ireland. They’re now in modern day Turkey. They’ve carved out this small space. It’s the people to which Paul would in just a year or two write a letter back to, and this is the eastern most city, the first one he’s entering on the east of Galatia.

It’s a Roman colony. It’s right on the Via Seba, which is a 2000 still in existence, 2000 mile road that the Romans had built. It’s an outpost. It’s, it’s an exit town off this, uh, major highway I Iconium comes from the Greek word icon, which is the word for. And according to the Greek mythology, Prometheus and Athena recreated humanity there after a devastating flood by making images of people and mud and breathing in them into life.

This is how they believe this town was formed. Now in the text, you see that right away in verse one. They killed it. They spoke so effectively. There’s not a lot of times in scripture where there’s a sermon and then the narrator stepss back and be like, Man, that, that was a great sermon. Right? But that’s what happens here.

They, they speak and the, the narrator, Luke says they spoke so effectively that, that a great number believed. That response, however, is short lived. Now similar to what Pastor Mark led us through last week of Pisidian Antioch, religious leaders rose up to try to strangle out this message, stirring up and in the text poisoning the minds of people and conflict breaks out.

This lived Jesus filled revival scene is now strangled, and what has happened is they go from hero to zero quickly, and now they’re part of this drama scene that’s presumably happening for weeks or months in this town. Some people were with them, Some people absolutely hated them, and you could say, Wow, so bad to hate Paul Barnas.

What? Nice guys. They’re scared too, right? People are coming and we’ll see, um, later in this chapter that people will come from not only Antioch, but now from meconium, and they’re going to join forces en lira because they believe what Paul and Barnabas are saying is, is outright evil and blasphemous. And so they will travel great miles and days upon days in order to strangle this message.

They’re absolutely hated to the point where they go from poisoning the minds to scheming to attack their bodies. And here is the moment where Paul and Barnabas almost become the second and third known martyr in the Book of Acts. But in the midst of this tremendous conflict, we see some really profound principles of how they responded when they were mistreated.

And just wanna share a few of those with you this morning. First of all, in the face of mistreatment, We remember that Paul and Barnabas were led by the Holy Spirit in Acts 13 when the missionary journey started. Verse two says, While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting right, a moment of pure, unison and peace, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

So they fasted and prayed and placed their hands on them and sent them off. This moment of pure peace and togetherness in Union, Holy Spirit says, Go send them off. Paul and Barnabas were led by the Spirit and were not very effective in I Iconium. In that moment, you could say, Wow, you know, maybe they didn’t really follow the spirit.

Maybe they read a, did a good sermon, they spoke effectively. But maybe if they would’ve prepped a little more, they could have had even greater sermon. You have signs of the Holy Spirit here. You’ve got, uh, works of grace of miracles being done by the Holy Spirit through the Holy Spirit, but just because they were following him did not mean that there was always ease in relation to other people.

I’m not saying every time that we get in a squabble that there’s conflict, we can chalk that off, be like, Well, that’s the Holy Spirit, right? We all know that’s not true, but we also need to remember that even life in the Spirit leads us at times into conflict and through it. Secondly, Paul and Barnabas stayed in there in the conflict.

They stayed in there. Uh, verse two says, uh, the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles poisoning their mind against the brothers. Then here’s the phrase in verse three. So they remained, They didn’t from, They not only didn’t say, Okay, conflict, we are out. That is not what I signed up for, right? I was the Holy Spirit raising hands, mun and peace preaching, lots of people coming to Jesus.

I am not in this for the fighting. That is not. So not only did they not bounce right away because there was conflict, they leaned in. Not only didn’t run, they leaned in in a gracious way. I don’t know if you’ve ever been hated. I know you’ve been mistreated. They’re really, really painful experiences.

and to the point where I don’t need to say more about that. Because if you’re a person, you know how that feels. Uh, Pam Beasley from the office, Anybody ever see the Office? Some of you that are chuckling realize it’s the funniest show of ever cause it is. But Pam Beasley from the office, uh, had a squabble, um, basically Jim, who was the heart throb of the office.

Come on ladies. You know it’s true. And, uh, uh, Karen and Jim were together and eventually they break up and then Jim and Pam in together, which is what you’re wanting from the very first season. But Karen can’t stand Pam at this point. And Pam has this moment where she’s wrestling with the fact that someone hates her.

And she says this, she says, I, I can’t stand the fact that anyone out there could hate me. She said, I even can’t stand that Al-Qaeda could hate me and she made the line. Maybe if they really got to know me, maybe Al-Qaeda would not feel why. Cuz it’s a horrible experience to realize that someone out there really doesn’t like or hates, or perhaps even believes it’s the right thing to mistreat you.

It’s here in these chapters that we dispel the myth that it is possible to have everyone pleased with you all the time. Now, no, most of us know that that is true and most of us absolutely hate that. That is true and many of us try everything we can healthy and unhealthy for that not to be true. . Paul and Barnabas do not let their love grow cold or their disposition hard.

They stay in there day after day, walking into the difficult situation, faithful, not cynical, no evidence of anger, or I punning other people’s motives. They stayed in the conflict. Third, what we see is they responded with grace. What a funny word to stick here in the passage. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord who confirmed the message of his grace.

What kind of message goes into conflict? What kind of message goes in here? Here’s, there is a boldness where they are holding and standing by the conviction of what is true. And what is true is our God is a God of grace, who enabled them to do signs and wonders in the face of mistreatment. They gave the message of God Grace.

There’s, um, in the New Testament, this worldliness thing, and it talks about don’t, don’t be as, uh, you know, stuck on what the world is doing, but be focused on the kingdom of God. And, and at times we can say, Okay, what are the worldliness things? And, and the things that can often go into our minds are like, well, worldliness that must have to do with substances or having relationships with wrong people, or these kinds of things.

I believe that what that worldliness, of course, can include those things. But so often what worldliness is, is adopting the methods of the world in how we behave and treat one another. One of the easiest ways for us to be worldly people is in how we respond when we are mistreated. I won’t respect them because they don’t respect me.

I’ve got no obligation to those humans because I’ve determined they are toxic to me. Maybe I will be kind to you, but you have to show that you are safe. First tip for tat, they did this, so I did that. It’s a taste of their own medicine. Sometimes we try to tuck that in and say, Well, it’s tough. Love this karma oriented religion just doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus’s message at all.

Jesus came and said, There’s a whole new way of being. He said, Well, yeah, you’ve heard that It was said. This is in Matthew five, that if someone slaps you on the right cheek or no, you’ve heard that it’s been said. An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, and he said, No. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them.

The other. Also, you see, it’s not how we’re going to roll here, that when we see mistreatment, we rush in with trying to pay and get people to pay for their sin. The gospel looks different in the world of Christ. For many of us in this room, the greatest testament for Jesus Christ that you could possibly have is to obey your savior and forgive someone who has mistreated you forth.

While they maintained grace, there also did come a time to. , Paul and Barnabas not trying to say, Well, you’re gonna try to stone us and so I’m gonna get a group of people to try to stone you and we’re gonna have a big stone fight back and forth with each other and, and have it out. They said, Okay, our presence here is not doing any good.

Um, we are, our message here is not, um, making the inroads we had hoped it would. They maintained grace, but they also left. There’s a beautiful passage in Romans 12 that I think is so important for, um, how we live with people. It’s written by Paul, and you can even imagine Paul remembering his first missionary journey, remembering how he lived out, these exact words he encourages to us.

He says, Do not replay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, it is mine to revenge. I will repay follow, says the Lord.

I think there is time to leave. There are relationships that after staying in there, after responding in grace, that are no longer effective to be in there. But it is not. It is always our calling to live at peace with everyone as far as it is with us. Paul and Barnabas realized this situation is producing more hatred.

It’s producing more persecution, and it is time for us to depart. They were the ones that left, but it is only after tremendous efforts. To try to bring about, um, peace and purity to the gospel message. Well, they go from I Iconium and now they go to Lira and Entra. They’re gonna experience, uh, somewhat a similar thing and somewhat kind of a crazy thing.

If you look at Lira, this is one of the most unique passages, um, of like, if you just think of how comical what’s actually happening is the entra. Paul is speaking now in most of the places it looks like Paul goes to the Templer synagogue to preach in the town. He does not go to the synagogue as noted here, and that’s probably because Entra, there was not a large Jewish community and there was no established synagogue.

So he just goes in a town square where he can find out and he starts teaching. It’s amazing. They come from such. Conflict, uh, laid in incredibly difficult circumstance and situation in I Iconium, They leave and they’re like, Let’s do it. Let’s get up and preach again. It, it demonstrates the amount of objectivity the spirit gave them.

And lister. There was a man who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and never walked, and he was listening to Paul speaking and Paul’s out there. It doesn’t say he spoke so effectively, so maybe not quite as good of a sermon, but he sees this guy and he’s crippled since birth. He stops the sermon, looks at him seeing that he had faith me way.

Well, he said in a loud voice, Hey dude, stand up on your. And the guy’s like, uh, it’s been since birth, right? Like, I don’t know how long, you know, birth, right? We’re not even talking about muscles. We’re talking about balance. I’ve got no concept of standing. No. He stands right up on his feet. God granting grace to this person and these people, presumably understanding, knowing this person, were like, What just happened?

Right? Sermon was okay. That miracle was something other. And now in Lira there is this whole scene. We don’t know if Paul keeps trying to preach or not, but the people go crazy and they say the gods have come among us in the likeness of men. The funny part about this is they’re saying it in Licon. There is no reason to believe Barnabas or Saul Paul know this language.

So all of a sudden these people are shouting in a language they don’t know. So Paul speaking does a miracle. Now there’s this yelling about how they’re gods. Presumably Paul and Barnabas don’t even know what they are saying, and there’s people shouting all around Barnabas, they call Zeus. Paul Hermes cuz he was a chief speaker.

Then they get the priest from outside cuz there’s a temple to Zeus in the town. And so they bring up the cows and the fat and the garlands and all this stuff. And now Paul and Barman’s like, oh, that’s what they were talking about. Right? And so they’re realizing this. Now Zeus is the chief god of the Pantheon, right?

We mentioned in I Iconium, there’s some Prometheus stuff and Athena stuff. There’s Hermis. But Zeus is the big guy. He’s the chief of the Pantheon. And the one to which in multiple places intra there is temples and alters. Two. Hermes’s is the talker. Hermis was the messenger of the God. And they’re like, Paul, that guy talks a lot, so he’s probably doing the talking.

But Barnabas, he’s the big shot and they’re coming to do this in front of him. And this seems like maybe an overreaction, right? Like this is a little much. It’s interesting. In this town, there was a, um, like any town, right, there’s lore, there’s story, there’s reason why people think and feel the way they do.

Ovid, who was a, uh, historian, poet and would, would speak of the gods and, um, be a big influence in that region, actually told a story 50 years earlier. He writes a poem in his, uh, big treatise called Metamorphosis, uh, which I think we ha Yeah, there it is. Obviously that’s a little updated, but this guy Metamorphosis, or O V I D, writes this metamorphosis and he writes a story of how Zeus and Hermes come into Lira.

And they say, and the, the, the poem goes that the, the Zeus and Hermes’s coming to Lira and they’re hungry and they’re disguised as just normal human beings. And so they knock on the doors of somebody in Lira and they’re denied food. And they do this according to Hermes’s, 1000 different homes until they come to an old couple named FileMan and Bku, FileMan and Bku accept them.

In this is a 16 hundreds painting by a Flemish painter of the scene depicting this scene of the god’s coming in an older couple, serving them. At the end of this, uh, poem, the concluding lines of the poem says, The goods that I are God’s peculiar care, such as honored heaven shall heaven’s honor share.

And the story is saying that those who welcomed Zeus and Hermis well, and this, this old couple were filled with riches also in the story. The thousand homes that were rejected them were completely obliterated by Zeus and Hermes. So now 50 years later, these people come and they do a miracle disguised as human beings, right?

And they’re like, We will not be one of the thousand homes that gets destroyed. There is a, a fear here and a hope now zoos who we have been sacrificing and looking to for all this time and hermis have come to be among us. And in this moment, Paul and Barnabas perhaps have more power than at any other moment in their missionary journeys.

They have not only the power of doing the miracles by the Holy Spirit, they have the cultural power of being seen as Jesus and Hermes. Anything they say goes, or everything will be destroyed. Literally, they have more power with a word out of their mouths to get these people to do anything they want with this power.

The Apostles, Barnabus and Paul tore their garments, rushed into the crowd, say, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of nature like these. Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering I, I believe that character is deeply tested when someone is suffering. I believe Paul and Barnabas’s character were deeply tested in I Iconium when they were mistreated, but I believe character is most fully revealed when someone is in power.

Paul and Barnabas respond by tearing their clothes, saying what you are saying of me is blast for me. Declare, open up their clothes and say, Look, it’s flesh, it’s bone. Few things that we can learn from their humble response in lira of how to handle when we are in more positions of power. First off, Paul and Barnabas were led by the Holy Spirit.

In order to lead this young church well, in order to to handle being wanted to be stoned, in order to handle being treated like the head of the Greek God pantheon, they had to have the grounding of the Holy Spirit. So much of, of Christian community is not just principles of how we can treat each other well.

It’s having the power of the Holy Spirit to respond to mistreatment, to respond in humility when given power. Secondly, it’s important to know that Paul and Barnabas did not elevate themselves. They were not saying, Oh, we just came from I Iconium, and boy, was it brutal, right? So we now are gonna try to carve out some space, put us above the rest so that we are not gonna be stoned.

We are not trying to spend, we’re gonna spend a week establishing about how amazing we are, we’ll do some miracles, et cetera, and then try to establish ourselves as untouchable, and then we will give our pearls of wisdom. No, they come right in the fray, not trying to elevate themselves. Many of you have heard a podcast called The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, and I don’t pretend to be a part of that.

The, the church or this podcast. It’s a, it’s a podcast, I believe, fundamentally dealing with how Christian leaders, we deal with power and celebr. , and it’s somewhat of a rebuke of how much we all, we each want celebrity and so then tend to follow a singular person. And when that person falls, so does everything else.

There’s a person that they feature in this and, and in this story, uh, this gifted man, um, who’s still a gifted man, uh, came and he was, he rose into influence, but there was moments where realized that his, he was wanted to be treated as celebrity and he elevated himself in some of this status with the message of Jesus.

And I don’t believe he had all these horrible motives back and forth. I believe he rode the waves of pride, which are the sneakiest possible tides that we can be influenced by. But at one point there’s this line which is so breaking bad, he says this, Do you know who I am? To somebody like, Whoa, did you think I was just a person?

That’s not what Paul Barnabas did here. They did not elevate themselves. Pride is when we are trying to see ourselves or trying to get other people to see us as separate from other people as having the best house on the block or the best grade on the test. Being the best looking person in the friend group, doing the most work of anyone in the your work group.

Having your child best at grades or sports or drama or whatever, pride is the internal desire to look and compare against everyone else and say, Okay, where am I? One step above. How in this situation, this group, this people, this family, just different and a little bit exceptional? That is the beginning place of pride.

I deeply believe that the downfall of leader after leader is isolation and pride. It is where secret sin grow, and I’m not sure that isolation and pride really are not two sides of the same exact coin. Paul and Barnes didn’t elevate themselves, but they also remained grounded when others tried to elevate.

They didn’t start reading their own press. They weren’t like, whoa, you know what, that miracle was pretty dope, right? Like, they weren’t standing back and saying like, Yeah, no one, I can’t believe I said dope. That was weird. But I, I can’t believe no one else has ever done this. Like, like this is the first missionary thing.

We’re kicking off a whole missionary campaign. This is gonna be thousand years in the making. Like this is something exceptional. They weren’t reading their own press. I remember having a lunch, uh, with Ralph Freek and uh, and we were talking about something and we were dealing with things in, in Collinswood and Mount Laurel and, and I was in Collinswood and, and I didn’t preach live that much there and, and, uh, started preaching live a little bit more.

And I felt like, Wow, there’s more people coming. And I just ventured to Ralph A. Little bit like, Hey, Ralph, you know, seems like when I preach live, more people show up than when we have the screen. Any thoughts? He said these words to me. Be very careful Ben,

and they were as gentle and fell as hard as they needed to do not start reading your own press cuz the press will change so quickly.

Third, Paul and Barnabas presented or fourth presented their limitations and humanity to people in order that others did not elevate them. It is so important you heads of household, you, you leaders and bosses at work, you Christian leaders in various ministries. . We naturally, we live in an individualistic culture.

We just do it is the way we have, This is something I, um, I watched, this was Beijing Olympics. I was like watching the, the introductory ceremony and they had 2000 people with the exact same haircut and body build doing the drums. And I’m like, Wow, this is so not American. . Right? We have a band, we have a singer.

Rihanna is headlining this. Like we don’t watch teams, We follow LeBron. We follow like, this is, we naturally, we’re a celebrity culture. We, we blame all the good and all the eve on the government on a single person. We are naturally a celebrity oriented culture. It is so important when people want to elevate us to being, Oh, we need to know what so and so think.

It is a drug that is so tempting, but we need to, those who rise in power need to lead speaking their limitations and humanity so that Jesus is the head of the church. There’s a, a beautiful story, Oh, I’m forgetting the guy’s name. Um, it’ll come to me. I should have written it down. Anyway, this sky at Reed College and, uh, there’s.

There’s this, uh, Reed College was kind of known to do, like, have a debauchery week, and this was like a classic week where they spent seven days doing all kinds of raves and parties and all kinds of activities, um, that happened at their school. Um, Mike, where are you? Is Mike here? Who am I talking about?

Wow. Thanks, . Here’s five seconds of my life, I’ll never get back. . Um, so at Reed College, they, they, um, talk and they were trying to, a group of Christians were saying like, How do we be a witness in the midst of all of this debauchery? And so they came up with the idea of we’re gonna set up this college kids, set up a confession booth in the middle of the square as everyone comes in.

And so they did, they set up this little booth in the middle of, I don’t remember what the week was called, but this week they had confession booth. And so people would come and they’d sit in the confession booth. Do you know. I’m Donald Miller. Thank you, Mike, man, not alive. Donald Miller and the people.

And so they have this confession booth and he’s, they would, um, have people come in. They’d be like, So am I supposed to tell you what I did in the last 24 hours or the last 48 hours? And they’d stop people immediately. They said, No, no, this confession booth, that’s not this one. This one is set up for us to say we’re sorry.

We’re sorry for a lot of the evil done in the name of Jesus over time. And we talk about the crusades and some different things that have been deeply painful and ugly things done by Christians, but they’d also get personal. They’d say, Hey, we’re supposed to be an example of Jesus here on Reed College campus, but these are things I’m dealing with, ways that I don’t trust God, ways I’m failing.

And you’d think the other people are like, . This is going way better than I thought. , right? I don’t have to confess anything. People broke down weeping. Why? Because they were trying. They were walking in thinking they had to rise and confess enough to, to carve and elevate themselves up enough. They left realizing that this is a God of grace, and that people representing Jesus were not the perfect, made them see Jesus even better.

Dear words, we have New Testament. God opposes the proud. You wanna live a life against God. Be proud. The pride inside of me puts me at war with the Christ that I love. And here’s the cool thing about God and about pride. God loves you too much to let you hold onto it. Long it will come crashing down.

Three things I want to end with and, uh. . First thing is to keep perspective. Some of you guys know this man right here? Yeah, you can, you can right here. This is Who is this guy? That’s Howie Roseman. Okay. Howie Roseman is a person who has been, he’s a general manager of the Philadelphia Eagles. And, uh, he has been loved the last few weeks, um, genius level, like all these things praised by him.

But you go back like 18 months and he was absolutely despised. And I, I just googled some and, and look at this. This is from like, I don’t remember what the dates are, but like the Eagles news, the poll shows over 95%. 95% of humans don’t agree on anything. But 95% of humans of fans think Howie Roseman should be replaced.

He’s that bad at his job. Then this was a little while later. Do you approve of the job how Roseman is doing? 98%? Absolutely. And you think, Well, that’s his family. That’s 6,600 votes on that. Right? Part of this is keeping perspective. When we’re being mistreated, when we are being elevated, man, the tides come and they go, Right?

This is why we hold onto the Holy Spirit because it is a step by step, day by day reality. It says that in Galatians and I, I’m pulling all these three from Galatians, cuz it’s the letter that Paul would write to them after leaving. Secondly, for perspective, find identity in Jesus Christ. Th there is no greater, bigger, better reality.

Them being the beloved of God, brothers and sisters, with Jesus Christ being found in his reality. It is what pride searches for. It is a beauty that there’s nothing better. Uh, real quick, there have been times where like, um, I’ve succeeded, or you’ve succeeded, and there’s a feeling that goes along with that, right?

There’s under euphoria, there’s a sense of like, Yes, I did a good job, or, Yes, this is going well and it feels really good, but next time you feel it, think what? Go deep into it because almost always for me, when there’s this feeling of satisfaction or euphoria, you know what the shadow is of it. For me, it’s fear, but what if I fail next time?

What if my kid doesn’t do as well? Next time? What if? What if I, This doesn’t work out right, And so I’m still riding that good feeling, but what if I lose this? This is what’s true, dear Beloved, about the love of God. When you truly experience the love of God, it is like this is all I need, past, present, and future.

And when I am truly understanding his love for me, it is the only moments in my life that I can say there’s no fear here at all. Per love drives out fear. Galatians four says this, You are his sons. God sent the spirit of his son into your heart. The Spirit who cries out. Daddy Aba Father. Dear Beloved, you’re no longer a slave, but you’re God’s child.

So much of the effort of pride is try to show I am somebody. The beauty in Jesus Christ is that you really are, and it’s not something that pulls you out and elevates you better. It places you among and among is where love lives. You are no longer a slave. You are God’s child, and since you are his child, God made you also his He.

And finally, anecdotally, back to Porky Pines, here’s, here’s what I would say when it comes to the Porky Pines. How do we live life with each other when we poke each other when we’re having difficult, It’s simply this. We bleed, Well , we bleed well, because guess what? Some porcupine is gonna be over here and they’re scared of something else.

So they’re backing up into me, and that ticks me off. So I’m gonna wave my little tail and nail the person next to me. Right? And then chain reaction is gonna happen again. Again. But what? What’s the wave response is to say, Whoa, that that Porky P just backed up next to me. Wonder what they’re scared of.

They must have a lot going on. And instead of me taking the blood I’m experiencing and trying to take it outta somebody else, I’m gonna try to bleed. Well, I’m gonna try to heal. Well, I’m gonna recognize that we are a people of insecurity, of immaturity, and we’re trying to be close. And that’s really tough to do in a family, in a workplace, in a church.

I’m gonna expect to bleed a. But I’m also gonna try to bleed. Well, beloved, won’t you stand up. I’m just gonna give you the benediction again from Galatians based in the spirit, this, uh, the fruit of the spirit, such an awesome little passage. It’s given in the context, not of just how we know God better, not of just how to pray or read the Bible.

The context of the Spirit is how we live with one another. The context of these, the fruits of the Spirit is how we live together. It says in Galatians five, um, these words, desires of the flesh are against the spirit. Desire of the fear spirit are against the flesh. These are opposed to one another. It talks about loving your neighbor as yourself and the number one commandment.

The whole law fulfilled worship. Verse 14 is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In this context, he gives us what the fruit of this spirit is. He tells us how porky pine should live together. The fruit of the spirit is love. It’s joy, it’s peace, it’s patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

If we live by this spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceded provoking one another and envying one another. . It is by this spirit, dearly beloved, that we walk forward even when the mission becomes a mess and the power of this spirit. Great to be with you this morning. We are finished.

Thank you.