This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom. I want to welcome you to week four of our look together
through the book of Acts. This is day one, chapter 14.

Remember we're in the midst of Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey. And
in this missionary journey, the first missionary journey, we see in chapter 14,
this pattern begins to emerge that, well actually it is repeated because we've
already seen this pattern in the book of Acts and we're going to see it again
and again as we continue through this book. It is a pattern, by the way, that
you're going to see in your own life.

Here's the pattern. First you have growth. First you have something wonderful
happen.

First you have a miracle. First comes the good, the awesome thing that God is
doing. Step one, growth.

Step two, problems. I wish there was no step two. In heaven there's going to be
no step two, it's just going to be all growth and him, but on this earth we have
a step two, problems.

Now in the book of Acts, because of their faith, there's a step three, and that
is they deal with the problem. They do something about the problem. They don't
do away with the problem, but they deal with the problem as best as they can.

And that results in the pattern starting all over again. Growth, problems, deal
with the problem. Now if you don't take the third step, guess what?

You live in the problem. You live in the problem the rest of your life. And you
think, well, why not?

I mean, I like this problem as well as any other problem. If I'm going to have
problems the rest of my life, why don't I just live with this one? At least I
figured this one out, because then there's no growth.

The process of growth in my life, in your life, is this growth, problem, deal
with the problem. Growth, problem, deal with the problem. I'm going to show you
how it works out in this chapter, in Acts chapter 14.

It begins with growth. Growth chapter 14. 1, "At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas
went, as usual, into the Jewish synagogue.

There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles
believed. " Growth, then verse two, problem, "But the Jews who refused to
believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. "
So they've got this problem.

When something good happens, there's always a negative reaction against it.
That's just what happens in this world. Evil is at work in this world.

So you cannot have growth in your own life without somebody in your life
negatively reacting against it, somebody in your office, somebody in your
family. You can't have growth in the church without somebody in our culture,
maybe somebody in your office, negatively reacting against it, problem. So you
deal with the problem.

In verse three, "So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking
boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to
do miraculous signs and wonders. " They didn't run from the problem. Oh, there's
a problem.

That must mean God doesn't want us here. No, they stayed and they dealt with the
problem, as long as they could. Now, it may be sometimes that God has somebody
else to deal with the problem.

We're going to talk about that in a moment. But in this case, they were the
ones. So they stayed and they kept preaching.

They dealt with the problem. And because of that, many people grew. And God
confirmed what they were saying, "Growth, problem, deal with the problem.

" Verse eight, we skip on down. We're going to see the same pattern again. This
time it begins with a miracle.

Miracle in verses eight to 10, "In Lystra," now they're in Lystra, from Iconium,
they've gone to Lystra, "there was a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from
birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked
directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, 'Stand up on
your feet.

' At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. " Now that is an awesome
miracle. It's awesome what God did.

That's the growth. That's the miracle moment. What happens in verse 11?

Problem. Listen to what happens, verse 11, "When the crowd saw what Paul had
done, they shouted in the Lyconian language, 'The gods have come down to us in
human form. ' Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he
was the chief speaker.

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and
wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to
them. " God uses them to do this great miracle and immediately the people want
to worship them. That's a problem.

That's going to take them in the exact wrong direction in life. So what do they
do? They deal with the problem, verses 14 to 15, and then verse 18.

"But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes
and they rushed out into the crowd, shouting, 'Men, why are you doing this? We
are only men, human like you. '" Verse 18, "Even with these words, they had
difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

" But the point is they dealt with it. They went into the crowd and they told
the truth. They didn't scratch their head at the problem.

They didn't wonder why would God let there be a problem. They realized there's
going to be problems. With growth comes problems.

With miracles come problems. And so what do you do? You deal with the problem.

"God, what do I do next? " In this case, they told the truth of what God was
doing. In Lystra, they stayed with the people so they could see who they really
were, the character that they really had.

Now in verse 19 comes another problem right away. A second problem based on this
miracle, this growth. Then some Jews, by the way, sometimes you get that.

You don't just get the one problem that comes from the growth. Sometimes you get
the two and the three. You get the two-fer and the three-fer.

In verse 19, "Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and they won the
crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city thinking he was
dead. " Not only a problem, big problem.

There's this huge mob and they've been incited by people from other towns who
are angry at what Paul brought there because it's changed their culture. It's
changed their comfort zone. So they have Paul stoned.

If you don't know what that is, you would go outside the city and put somebody
in sort of a low place, off in a pit, and you would take boulders, not small
stones, boulders that you would bring up over your head and you would throw it
down on the person in order to kill them. They thought he was dead and they left
him for dead. You got problems, so what are you going to do?

You got to deal with the problem. How do you deal with this kind of problem?
They think he's dead.

In verse 20, "But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and he
went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. " This is
a reminder to me that some problems are in God's hands alone, but at least we
can do what they did.

They gathered around him. At least in prayer and in trust in God, we can gather
around that problem. There are a lot of problems I can't solve, but that doesn't
mean I have to run from that problem.

I can go to God and I can say, "God, here's a problem I cannot solve. I don't
know the answer to this one. Would you give direction?

Would you give guidance? Would you work a miracle if you want to work a miracle?
" Paul almost dies here, and many people believe I do, that this is the point at
which he talks about in 2 Corinthians 12 that he goes and he sees a vision of
heaven.

God uses even this, their attempt to kill Paul, to give him a kind of experience
upon which he built a new faith, that even in his weakness he could trust in
Christ. Problem, deal with the problem. Now Acts begins to tell us of their
continued journeys, journeys of Barnabas and Paul, and then they go home to tell
the story of what God has done.

Verses 26 to 28, "From Atalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they'd been
committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving
there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done
through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and they
stayed there a long time with the disciples. " So they've gone out, they've done
this missionary journey, they've gone through the growth and the problems,
they've come back home, now they're in a safe zone, they've told the story, no
more problems, right?

They're just going to be able to rest back on their laurels on all the history
of what God has done. Wrong. One of the biggest problems in all the book of Acts
is about to hit.

We're going to see it in chapter 15. We're going to see how the church deals
with one of its greatest disagreements. So that tells me the whole idea that
somehow I can have a problem-free life in this world.

There's no such thing. The question isn't, "How can I get rid of the problems? "
The question is, "God, how do I deal with this problem?

" Let's pray together. Let's pray together. Just ask Him that simple thing,
"Lord, how do I deal with this problem that I'm facing?

" Lord, first give me your perspective on the problem. Help me to know that even
through this, You can grow me. Help me to know that You're greater than this.

Help me to know that the eternal life You've given me is going to outlast this
problem by far. Lord, also give me Your plan. Show me what it is You want me to
do.

Is there someone I need to talk to? Is there some way that I need to stay? Is
there a prayer that I need to pray?

How can I be faithful to You, even in the midst of this problem? Lord, I do not
want to run away from this problem. I want to deal with it, but I don't want to
deal with it in my way anymore.

I want to deal with it with faith. So from Your perspective and with Your
strength, show me how to deal with this problem in my family or at my work or in
my personal life, how to deal with this problem in my finances, how to deal with
this problem with a friend in my neighborhood. Show me how, Jesus.

I pray this in Your name, Amen.