The True Source of Security - Life of Paul Part 54

Welcome. Good to have you this morning. Hey, how about taking a Bible, let's open it to Acts chapter 18.

We're going to be continuing in our study of the life of the great man, the apostle Paul, and we hope you'll open a Bible and follow along. Now, I know many of you here know who Sandra Bullock is. Of course, in 1994, she starred with Keanu Reeves in the hit movie Speed. But since then, she's been in Miss Congeniality, Murder by the Numbers, 28 Days, The Net, Hope Floats, Two Weeks Notice, The Secrets of the Yah-Yah Sisterhood, which I did not see and have no desire to see.

But anyway, currently, she makes a minimum of $12 million a movie. And you think, wow, you know, a woman like this, she has homes in New York and LA and Texas and all over everywhere. What would a woman like this ever worry about? I mean, if you had this kind of money and possessions, you'd be worry free, right?

Well, not exactly. She said, and I quote, I always leave the house questioning every single move I make, down to the choice of calves and the timing of every step. It is a sick, sick cycle. I look at the day and half of it was lost in worry. Friends, worry, anxiety, fear, insecurity. This has become the new American disease. In fact, Newsweek magazine reports that even in the best of times, over 19 million Americans suffer from some sort of fear related disorder. And as we all know, this is not the best of times. We've got the home security insecurity meter, which goes, you know, from green to blue to yellow to orange to red.

And I don't think that baby in your lifetime or mine is ever going down to green again. What do you think? And then Newsweek magazine noted this. They said the recent barrage of bad news, nukes in North Korea, snipers in Maryland, an imminent war, a bad economy, and the threat of domestic terror. All of this has left people in this privileged nation feeling unusually vulnerable and anxious.

Psychotherapists are working overtime. Now today, we want to look at a man in the Bible who knew what it was like to have some insecurity in his life. We want to look at a guy in the Bible who knew what it was like to have a little bit of anxiety in his life. His name was the Apostle Paul. And what we're going to see is that God gave the Apostle Paul a strategy.

He gave him a secret as to how to have peace and serenity in his heart in the middle of the most chaotic circumstances going on around him. And the good news is that that strategy that God gave the Apostle Paul still works 20 centuries later for those of us here who are followers of Jesus Christ. So we're going to look at Paul, then we're going to bring all that forward and talk about you and me in the 21st century with our little home security meter that they're running here and how we can be secure no matter what color that thing goes on. So let's look together. A little bit of background. Remember the Apostle Paul is preaching throughout Greece as part of his second missionary journey.

Let's show you a map. And you say, Well, Lon, how's it gone? Well, kind of good news, bad news. Okay, the good news is that Paul has been to the city of Philippi, he's been to the city of Thessalonica, he's been to the city of Berea. And in these cities where he's preached, he's led literally 1000s of people to Jesus Christ, started churches in every one of these cities.

He then went to Athens, where he preached to the intellectual elite of the entire Roman world. So in that sense, good news. He said, What's the bad news? Well, the bad news is that every one of these cities, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, he was run out of town by a mob. He ran into intense persecution in every one of these cities. He's been beaten up, imprisoned, falsely abused.

He's been in constant danger of death. And you know, folks here in Corinth, things have not gone a whole lot better. Remember, we saw a couple weeks ago that he began preaching Jesus as Messiah in the synagogue here in town.

But we saw last week that before long, things got really ugly. Verse six says that the unbelieving Jewish people in Corinth opposed Paul and became physically abusive. So what did Paul do? He said, All right, you Jewish people, your blood's on your own head. I'm done with you guys now. And he went and set up a teaching center for Gentiles in the home of a man named tedious justice, a man who was a Gentile who had come to faith in Christ.

And he established kind of like Corinth Bible College in this guy's home. And that's kind of where we've been now. So let's pick up. That's where we are.

And let's see what happens next. Verse nine. One night, the Bible says the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Now, friends, this wasn't the first time that God had ever appeared to Paul in a vision.

If you remember in Acts chapter 16, when Paul and his team were marooned in northwest Turkey at Troas, and they didn't know where to go, and they didn't know what to do. God used a vision to get Paul to understand God wanted him to cross over into Greece and preach Jesus in Greece. Now, this is also not going to be the last time that God appears to Paul in a vision. In Acts chapter 23, when Paul is in jail in Jerusalem, God is going to appear to him in a vision and reassure him that everything's okay, that this is all just part of God's plan to take him to Rome.

And in Acts chapter 27, when Paul is out in a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean and in a horrible storm, God is going to use a vision to reassure Paul that Paul and all of the sailors are going to be delivered and God actually gives him tells him what he wants to do in order to be saved in this vision. But the point I want you to get is that every time God appears to Paul in a vision, there's a crisis going on. They say, Well, what's the crisis going on here in Corinth?

Well, the crisis is that the Apostle Paul is sitting on the top of a powder keg here in this city. Remember, tedious justice, the Gentile, we told you that he went and set up a teaching center in his house. Well, the Bible tells us in this chapter, actually in verse seven, that tedious justice is home was right next door to the synagogue. So what that meant was that every time a Jewish person came to synagogue, they saw the Apostle Paul, the man whom they despise.

And not only did they see him, but they also heard him preaching their scriptures, the Old Testament to a bunch of Gentiles, and coming up with a conclusion that they the Jewish people of hoard the conclusion, of course, that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. And so you see, friends, instead of the tension between Paul and the Jewish community in town, getting better now that he's not going to the synagogue and preaching anymore. The truth is, the tension actually got worse, so much so that this tension is going to boil over into another mob here in this town, as we're going to see in the next couple of weeks, there's going to be a mob action in this town against the Apostle Paul. Now it's while Paul was right in the middle of this tense and explosive situation, that God appears to him in a vision and brings him a strategy for calmness, brings him a strategy for peace, brings him a strategy for serenity in the middle of this storm. And let's see what it was.

Verse nine, God said to him, Paul, do not be afraid, keep on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one is going to attack you and harm you. For I have many people in this city. You know, when I was a little kid, there was a show on television I used to watch every morning. It was called Romper Room. Now, is anybody here old enough and willing to admit they watched Romper Room?

Well, I'm amazed. Now, do you remember Miss Connie? Here's Miss Connie. Yes, she is. Love the dude.

Don't you love the dude? And, and there she had two friends who came on every day with her. She had Mr. Doobie and Mr. Don't Be.

And they would go through their little thing every day. She would say, now, Mr. Doobie says, do be kind. Mr. Doobie says, do be obedient to your parents. Mr. Don't Be says, don't be mean. Mr. Don't Be says, don't be selfish with your toys.

You know, it's amazing how bad I turned out considering I listened to Mr. Doobie and Mr. Don't Be every day. But anyway, you say, Lord, what in the world? There is no way you can make a connection between Mr. Doobie and Mr. Don't Be in the Bible. Well, yeah, I can watch.

Here we go. Because you see, when God appears to Paul in this vision, in a sense, what he gives Paul in this vision is three Mr. Don't Be's. Watch. He says, Paul number one, don't be afraid because I am with you. He says to him, second of all, Paul, don't be silent.

Why? Because Paul, there are many people that are yet going to come to Christ in this city. Well, as a result of your preaching, you're going to reap a huge harvest in this city. And third, he says to him, Paul, don't be discouraged because I'm going to protect you from all harm. God commands the Apostle Paul to continue in his ministry in this city to do it with no fear, no reluctance, no doubt. And so look what Paul did.

Verse 11. So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half teaching the Word of God. Paul, as a result of this vision, settled down to an extended ministry in this town of 18 months. Folks, this represents the second longest ministry stop that Paul is ever going to make in his missionary career. The only place he's going to stay longer is he's going to stay two years in the city of Ephesus on his third missionary journey.

But other than that, this is the longest he ever stayed anywhere. And he stayed here teaching the Word of God in obedience to the vision that he got. And when was Paul here?

He was here from the fall of 51 A.D. through the spring of 53 A.D. Now that's as far as we want to go in our passage because it's time to ask a question. And everybody knows what our question is. And we're going to actually let Mr. Doobie help us. So you're ready?

One, two, three, right. And you say, Lon, this is wonderful. You know, I mean, Mr. Doobie, Mr. Don't Be Romper Room, Miss Connie, who cares about any of this? What difference does this make to anybody's life? Well, let's make that connect for you because, you know, earlier we said, friends, that Americans are struggling with fear and anxiety and feelings of insecurity in a way that's somewhat unprecedented for us.

And people have all kinds of ways of coping with this insecurity. For example, I'll share a couple with you. When I was in Greece on one of my tours a year or so ago, I ran into a bus driver who was sitting up there the whole time we were there twirling these little beads like this. And in fact, I watched him. He could actually stick his fingers in between them and flip them from finger to finger to finger to finger and back. I was amazed.

I've never been able to figure out how to do this. But I said to him, what are these? He said, these are worry beads.

I said, they're worry beads? He said, yeah. I said, well, when you do that, does it make your problems, you know, get less? And he said, no. He said, but it gives you something to do with your hands. I said, okay. Well, it is a little addicting, you know, I mean, honest, it is.

These are kind of cute, but that's one way. Then there's the way Ms. Doro Edelstein of Queens, New York copes with anxiety here in America. I saw her story on the news when Tom Ridge raised the terror warning to Orange a couple of weeks ago.

Ms. Edelstein decided to use a free plane ticket that she had. She went to Las Vegas, got a room in the MGM Grand and she's been playing craps roulette and slot machines ever since. And when they interviewed her on television, here's what she said. She said, I know I can't stay here forever, but I was in Manhattan on 9-11 and it was the worst day of my life.

Whenever they say there's going to be another attack, I remember that day, this time it sounded real and I figured the terrorists are less likely to attack Las Vegas than New York, so here I am. Well, there you go. She's probably right about that, so there you go. Now on a more serious note, in coping with stress, there's Dr. Joyce Brothers. I saw her on television and she was asked by an interviewer, how can people cope with anxiety?

How can people feel more secure? And Dr. Brothers noted psychologist gave three answers. Number one, she said, go to a happy place. Okay? Number two, her second suggestion was, get angry at something you can fix.

Okay? And number three, meditate on something green. She said, look out the window and the green trees and your green grass and meditate. Went out the problem, Dr. Brothers, is that here in Washington right now, there ain't nothing green in sight.

We got nothing but snow. So number three doesn't work in Washington. And she, this was it. This was, she was totally serious and this was it. This was her strategy for feeling more secure. Now friends, enough of this psychobabble nonsense. Enough of this pop psychology nonsense. What do we need for security in our world today? Do we need to go to Las Vegas and gamble? Do we need a bunch of worry beads?

Do we need to go to a happy place in our mind? What does God say about all this? That's what we want to know. Well, let me tell you what he says. Luke chapter 12 verse 22, Jesus said, therefore I tell you do not worry about your life.

He even tells us why. Who of you by worrying, Jesus said, can add a single hour to his life. Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Friends, listen, if worrying caused people to live longer, Felix Unger would be 200 years old. And so would every Jewish mother that's ever lived.

They'd all be 200 years old. Well, they're not. They're not. And the reason is it's like Jesus said, worry doesn't change anything. Never has, never will. It's like Corrie ten boom said, wonderful lady, you know, the hiding place is her story. She says, worry doesn't empty tomorrow of its problems.

All it does is empty today of its strength. And she's absolutely right. Now you say, okay, Lon, wait a minute. I hear what Jesus saying here, but you know, worrying is a, it's natural. I mean, it's human.

This is, that's just kind of how we're wired. So if God tells us not to worry, what does God say to us? What does God offer to us? What truth does God give us that'll help us to be able to obey and not worry? What strategies does he give us to have serenity and security instead of worry in our life? Well, friends, let me say that God gives us, God says to us, God offers to us the very same thing that he offered to the apostle Paul. And what did he offer to the apostle Paul?

Here's what he said. He said, Paul, do not be afraid for I am with you. Don't be afraid for I'm with you. You see, true security in life, folks, doesn't come from money, material things, talent, education, family power.

It doesn't come from making $12 million per movie. Real security in life comes from Jesus's promise that he is with us, that every moment of every day of every month of every year of our life, we are not alone. We are not unguarded. We are not unprotected. We are not in this by ourselves, but the living risen Christ, the living risen Messiah of the universe is walking hand in hand with us through every problem, every trial, every difficulty, every success, every failure, that it's he and us together.

Now that's security. And you know, when you look at the Bible, at the men and women in the Bible whom God asked to face the biggest obstacles, whom God asked to face the scariest enemies, these were people who had good reason to worry. These were people who had good reason to have anxiety when they needed reassurance, when they needed courage, when they needed peace and serenity. Isn't it interesting what God offered every single one of them? He offered every one of them the same truth he offered Paul. Watch Moses at the burning bush. God says to him, Hey Moses, I want you going back to Egypt. I want you going back to Pharaoh. I want you to demand he let the people of Israel go. And Moses said, well God, this is kind of a big job you're sending me to do here.

I mean, how am I going to pull this off? And I'm a little scared and you know, you'll Brenner's a mean guy and, and what's going to happen to me? And you know what God said to him from the burning bush? He said, Moses, Exodus three 12 to give him assurance, to give him confidence. Moses, he said, certainly I will be with you. Hey, when Jacob, when God called Jacob to return home after 20 years of exile and he was a little bit scared about facing his brother Esau from whom he had stolen Esau's blessing.

If you remember that he was worried about what Esau might do to him. What did God say to Jacob to reassure him? He said, Genesis 31 three go and I will be with you Jacob. When the Israelites, when God called them to invade the promised land and they were all worried about the huge armies there in the walled cities there. What did God say to them through Moses to give confidence and to calm their hearts? Deuteronomy 31 Moses said, do not worry or be afraid for the Lord your God is the one who is with you. And when Joshua got the command to take over Israel and lead them across the Jordan and into the promised land and he was a little bit worried whether he could do this. What did God say to bring security and calm to Joshua? He said, Joshua one verse six, be strong and courageous for just as I was with Moses, so I am going to be with you, Joshua. And I love what David finally said about facing the scariest enemy of all death.

You remember what he said? Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why? For you are with me. Dear friends, God's solution for worry, God's remedy for fear, God's antidote for insecurity has always been the same.

And that antidote is God's promise that I will be with you. And if you're here today and you're a follower of Jesus Christ, friends, this promise belongs to you. Jesus has made you and me the very same promise. Hebrews chapter 13 verse five. Jesus said, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. Jesus said, John 14 18, I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. And we sang that wonderful song, how firm a foundation earlier in our service. Part of that hymn is lifted from Isaiah 43, where God says, when you pass through the deep waters, I will be with you. When you walk through the fire, the flames will not hurt you, for I am the Lord and you are precious in my sight. So do not fear, for I am with you. Now, when we as followers of Jesus Christ, when we focus on this truth, when we focus on this promise from God, when we focus on it intently, when we focus on it deliberately, when we allow it to dominate our worldview, when we allow it to permeate our perspective on life, something happens in our soul. There is a confidence, there is a peace, there is a serenity, there is a security that comes into our heart that this world system cannot copy.

I don't care how much money you got. In fact, listen to the writer of Hebrews. He said, after quoting Jesus, I will never leave you or forsake you.

The next thing he says is, therefore, in light of that promise, therefore, he says, we may say with confidence, the Lord is my helper. I am not going to worry. What can man do to me? Hey, if Jesus walks with me every single day, if Jesus is with me every single second, if he's right there beside me, holding me, protecting me, being there for me, what am I afraid of?

What am I worried about? I don't care where that meter goes, orange, yellow, green, red. Hey, that doesn't change Jesus being with me. I have that promise regardless of what color it is. Now, if you're here today, and you've never trusted Jesus in a real and personal way, let me say to you that there is a peace available in a relationship with Jesus Christ that you can't find anywhere in this world, friends. It's a peace, the Bible says, that passes all understanding. And Jesus referred to this when he said in John 14 verse 27, peace I give you, he said, my peace I give you. It's a peace that the world cannot give.

The world cannot duplicate. And friend, if you're here and you've never trusted Christ in a real and personal way, I'm here to invite you to enter into a whole new dimension of living, a new dimension of living where anxiety and stress and fear and insecurity do not have to rule your life. But that kind of living is only available in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And I hope you'll think about that. There is peace that passes understanding available, but only Jesus can give it. Now you say, but Lon, wait a minute, I'm a follower of Christ here. I mean, I'm already walking with Jesus, but I got to be honest with you, Lon.

Can we be honest here? You know, sometimes in my life, it just doesn't feel like Jesus is with me. Sometimes in my life I look around and I see how circumstances work out and it doesn't make sense to me that they would have worked out that way if Jesus had really been there with me. So how can I really be sure of this? I mean, how can I really know that God's telling me the truth when all of my senses sometimes don't seem to confirm it? Well, that's a great question.

Great question. Let me answer about telling you a story. I taught all three of my boys how to ride two wheeled bicycles. And what I would do is I'd promise them, I'd say, okay, now you start riding, you start peddling and I'm going to run right behind you.

And if you start to toddle and you start to wobble and you start to tip over, I'm going to catch you before you fall and hurt yourself. Now without a doubt, the hardest one of my three sons I had to teach to ride a two wheeler was my oldest son, Jamie. And let me tell you why, because Jamie would tell about two pedals and then he'd turn around and look to see if I was there. Well, when he turned around and look, he turned the wheel and the bike would go over. And so I'd put him on the bike and I'd say, don't worry about it.

I'm behind you. He'd ride for about two pedals, turn around and wheel would turn, boom, the bike would go over. We'd go about four feet at a time like this up the street. And finally I said to him, Jamie, you cannot ride a bicycle looking behind you. You can't ride like that. You gotta look forward. And he said, but daddy, if I look forward, how can I be sure you're really there behind me in case I fall?

Well, that's a good question. And I said, Jamie, here's how you can be sure. Because I promised you, I promised you I'd be behind you. And I never lie to you, son. I would never lie to you. You don't need to see me, Jamie. You can trust me.

You don't need to see me. You can trust me. Now friends, the Bible says, Titus chapter one, verse two, that we have a God who cannot lie. That doesn't mean we have a God. The Bible doesn't say that we have a God who will not lie. We have a God who cannot lie.

It is a violation of his very character and if he ever lied one time, he would cease to be the God of the universe. Now this God who cannot lie, what did he say to you and me? I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. When you walk through the deep waters, I will be with you. So do not fear.

That's what this God said. Friends, we don't need to see him. We don't need to feel him.

We don't need our senses to validate this. If the God who cannot lie said it, we can trust him. We can trust him. We can trust him that he's there holding you and me and his everlasting arms. We can trust him that he's there guiding you and me with his everlasting plan. We can trust him that he's there protecting you and me with his everlasting power. We can trust him that He's there shielding you and me under His everlasting wings, we can trust Him, that He's there nurturing you and me with His everlasting love, He made you and me a promise, we don't need to see Him, we don't need to feel Him, we can trust Him. And this is where real security comes from, friends, knowing that whatever we face and wherever we go, that we have the living God of the universe right there beside us doing all these things for us. You say, you know Lon, God bless you son, you know up there, I mean you're just preaching your heart out son, God bless you, but you know what, it's a lot harder out in real life to live this than it is to preach it, I mean out in real life, this is tough to do sometimes when everything's falling apart and everything looks like it's flying apart at the seams and you're asking me to believe God's here with me, this is not always easy to do, hey I know, believe me I know, I have an 11 year old little girl with severe disabilities, I can't tell you how many times over the last 11 years I've been standing in an emergency room with her or riding in the back of an ambulance with her or sleeping in a reclining chair in a hospital room with her while Brenda goes home to get a nice rest and then we switch off the next night, I can't tell you how many times friends that the question has popped in my mind, God, are you really here with me, are you really here with my wife and my daughter because it sure doesn't feel like it sitting in this chair in this hospital riding in this ambulance, it sure doesn't feel like it and you know what God always said back to me friends, the same thing, he always whispered back in my ear, hey Lon, I can't lie to you, if I tell you I'm here, I'm here, now you know what, you need to trust me, you need to believe me, I told you I'd never abandon you, I told you I'd never leave you as an orphan, now trust me, you don't need to see me, you don't need to feel me, you just trust me and friends that's really the only choice we got, we're either going to trust God or we're not, now here's the good news, the good news is even when we doubt God he's still there with us just like he promised, that's the good news but when we doubt him, we lose all the joy in our Christian experience, we lose all the spiritual vitality in our Christian experience, we dishonor God in ways that we've got to go back later and apologize to him for dishonoring him like that, doubting God doesn't change his promise one bit, it just ruins our experience going through it, you know I asked God in those days for God to give me the strength to trust him, even though I didn't feel, even though I didn't sense that he was really there and he did, oh I had good days and bad days but he did and he did that for Brenda and you know now 11 years later looking back on those times, I can see God was there, honest I can, I can see exactly how he was there, he didn't lie to me, he did exactly what he said, I couldn't see it then and I'm so glad I decided by faith I was going to trust him because I don't have anything to apologize for now to God and there really was some goodness and some joy in the experience even through the hard times because I decided I was going to trust God, now friends many of you here have got tough things in your life, you may not have a daughter with disabilities, but you've got things in your life where it doesn't feel like God is there, you can't sense God is there, things don't look like they're working out as though God ought to be there and so you've got a choice to make just like I did, you're either going to believe God or you're going to doubt him, I'm here to tell you whether you believe him or not, he's still going to be there for you, that's the good news, but you'll have a much finer experience if you decide to believe God, remember the Bible says we don't walk by sight, we don't walk by feeling, we don't walk by our senses, our feelings, our senses and our sight will betray us friends, we walk by faith, believing what God tells us, God will never betray us and that's how we walk, the Bible says, may God help you do that, let's pray together, Lord Jesus there are many of us here today and you know this, who are struggling to really believe that you're with us, who are struggling because it doesn't feel like you're with us, who are struggling because their senses can't validate that you're with them and they're going through difficult and hard times where it doesn't seem like things are working out in a way that they ought to work out if you were really there, Lord Jesus my prayer is that you would remind every one of us here today that you cannot lie and if you say you will never leave us or forsake us, if you say we will not be orphans, if you say fear not I am with you, then that is truth and my prayer is that you would help us to embrace that truth by faith, Lord that you might give us the strength we need to believe you even when we can't validate it with our senses and that we may be able as a result of this to walk through even the most difficult and insecure times with peace, with serenity because our faith is strong and centered in the promises of God, Lord take people who came in here today worrying, feeling insecure, fretting, feeling alone as followers of Jesus help them to walk out with hope and peace and encouragement in their hearts because of the word of God. Change our lives because we were here Lord, lift our spirits and keep our focus on you the living God and we pray this in Jesus' name and God's people said, amen.