A RELIABLE GUIDE FOR CONFIDENT LIVING
Notes
Transcript
After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.
There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.
Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Have you every felt like You Just can’t take any more.
Maybe Financial, Health, Loss of Loved ones, problems at work, Discouraged by work, or discouraged the church is not growing
Have you experienced that loss of Hope
Just when you think you have licked it a new setback comes along
I believe that is the way the Apostle Paul felt when he reached Corinth
He had been driven out of Macedonia and blandly tolerated in Athens
The persistent hostility of the Jews confronted him wherever he went
Paul was exhausted in body, mind, and soul
Paul was a prime candidate for despair
His heart was heavy with the memories of Philippi’s beating and imprisonment, the Jew’s disruption of his success in Beroea; the anger of the mob in Thessalonica; the polite, smug complacency of the Athenians
A pall of depression hung over him
He was a sick and discouraged and troubled man
Later he described his condition in a letter he wrote back to the church in Corinth
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
Exhaustion and depression mingled and gave and gave illegitimate birth to negativism
But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
He was angry and more or less said “to hell with you”
Elijah broke down when he defeated to priests of baal on Mount Carmel only to find That Jezebel had seemly achieved a final victory in her tireless efforts to get rid of him
He fought for the Lord but was tired out
The saints of God are most vulnerable when they do their best and evil is still undefeated
The way of the grace of God nursed the prophet back to health, and hope brought him to a new level of experience of the Spirit resourcefulness
From that point on he knew his task was to allow God to work thru him rather than trying to work for God
HAVE NO FEAR
HAVE NO FEAR
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.
Like a wounded boxer, he could not make himself get up for one more punch
If you feel the unrelenting persistence of evil, if you see the forces of complexity endlessly sending new troops into the battle to defeat you, if you have come to that terrible place of feeling that your finest hour will surely be followed by one of your lowest- hear a trumpet blast to exorcise your hopelessness
The first thing the Lord wanted to heal in Paul and to exorcise in us is fear
Paul lost sight of the fact that there was only one man to fear in Corinth: the person that lived in the skin of Saul of Tarsus
There is only two days in a week not to worry, today and tomorrow
Paul Finally learned that when he discovered that the Lord will not allow any more difficulty than will take a person to a deeper faith in him
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Love extinguishes the fires of fear
He felt newly loved by the Lord
He had a new love for the people he feared
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
SPEAK AND DO NOT BE SILENT
SPEAK AND DO NOT BE SILENT
One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.
He was given confidence to continue
Silence would imprison his fear: boldness would liberate it
He would have to depend on the Lord and not his own eloquence
When my strength is depleted, when my rhetoric is unpolished by human talent, when I am weary, the Lord has a much better tool for emphatic, sensitive communication
When I know I can do nothing by myself, my poverty becomes and channel of his power
Are you feeling weak or fearful right now
“FOR i AM WITH YOU”
“FOR i AM WITH YOU”
For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The assurance of the Lord’s presence is the only way Paul could face Corinth
Nor can we in a contemporary Corinth focused in our city, our job, family, church or challenge without the confidence of “lo, I am with you”
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all;
GOD WILL GIVE US FELLOWSHIP TO FACE FRUSTRATION
GOD WILL GIVE US FELLOWSHIP TO FACE FRUSTRATION
For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
This was a city filled with potential converts
The gift of priscilla and Aquila
There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,
Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.
Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.
We need to begin looking for the Lord’s people
The people around us have a undeniable right, whether we are clergy or laity, to see what a Christ liberated life is like
