Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
It's been a minute since I've done one of these little videos setting up the sermon for you, but I wanted to let you know that by the time you see this, we are probably already well underway with Elevation Nights, and I want to invite you to join us Elevation Nights dot com in the following cities Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, BC, Sacramento, California, La Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, and Denver.
I have a little cheat sheet over here.
September twenty fourth through October third, it's going to be an amazing night of worship and the Word and me and Holly and the team all we want.
To see you there, So go right now if there's still time, and get a ticket and meet us there.
But I wanted to set up the message for you today personally because I believe there is a word for those of you that have been dealing with the discouragement or maybe even.
Just the deceit of the devil in your mind. In your mind, and just put in the comments real quick. The battle is in your mind. That's where the battle is, and the truth of God's Word has something for you for the battle in your mind.
We're going to be in two scriptures.
Today, Acts chapter fourteen, verses twenty six through twenty eight, Matthew Chapter four, verses eight through eleven, and some other ones too.
But we'll get it as we go.
If you're ready for the word of God, put it in the comments right now.
I'm ready. Let's go. From Italia, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had 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 a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Now, I know I'm dropping you in the middle of that passage and just not telling you much about it at all. It doesn't
even say who the characters are. It just says they they they I'll come back to that, but let's look at one in Matthew chapter four before we officially begin the sermon. Matthew chapter four, verses eight through eleven. And this one should be a little bit more familiar to you, both in the Bible and in your own life.
Again, the devil, you know him.
That is a character who needs no introduction. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, him being Jesus, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. And Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. And verse eight and nine is where a lot of us have been living lately, where the devil has been talking
to us and taking us places in our minds. And verse eleven is where we want to get today by the time I'm done preaching.
Verse eleven says, then the devil left.
Him, and angels came and attended him. Then the devil, how many want to get to verse eleven by the time I finished today. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. So I like to give my messages fun titles, titles that are fun for me, and sometimes I like to have you say them to your neighbor. And basically, what Jesus told the devil was get out of here. And so I'm going to have you say to your neighbor what Jesus said to the devil.
And just tell your neighbor, I know you're not the devil. Tell him I love you. But for the purpose of illustration. Now, the next thing is my title, and you say it to him, real nice, say it, real polite, but say it firm. Look at them like they need to leave. Okay, like they need to leave, they've overstayed their welcome, and tell them this. Let me show you the door. That's my message. Let me let me show you the door. This is an international ministry, so idioms don't always translate
across cultures. That is a polite way of saying, you gotta go. Let me show you the door. I'm making a call. You need to go. Now look at your other neighbor and say, let me show you the door. Yeah, in Jesus' name. Put that at the end so it sounds it's nice and be seated. Be seated, God is good. Jesus ran that devil off away from me, Satan. In the King James version, it says get the hints, Satan. That's basically saying, let me show you the door, got
to go now, I've got something to do. And Jesus ran the devil off and made him flee because when the devil came to him with three different temptations. Each time the devil came at him, he had the perfect comeback. And that's what we need to develop in our lives is a comeback strategy for when Satan comes at us. Come on, when accusation comes at you. I want you
to have a comeback strategy. Have you ever had a perfect comeback but you couldn't say it because you calculated the dam I mentioned that it would do, and you realized you were not in a position to take the shot. Maybe it was your boss, or maybe you just didn't want to have to mop it up later, or maybe you knew that if you said what you were going
to say, maybe they had something they could say. This is not a marriage seminar, So I'm going to move quickly through it to where you have the perfect comeback and you can't use it, or you have the perfect comeback, but it's on a delay, and you think of it like Thursday, but it happened Monday, So it'd be kind of awkward to go back and say, Hey, say that thing again, say that thing again, say it again. I'm ready for you now because it was on a delay.
There's actually like a term for that. They call it staircase wit. It's when you have to go all the way down the stairs and you're almost out the door and you remember what you should have said, or you think of what you should have said, and you turn back around. But I like to share these little stories that we share as preachers because they're funny. And forgive
me if you've heard this one. But there is a story of a lady who went to a church and she was not used to going to church, and so she didn't have a lot of church clothes, and it was a really traditional church, and so she went in what she had, and she went in her her clothes, but they weren't very modest and they weren't very nice, and everybody there was dressed very modestly and very nice, and so the lady sat through the service, and she was moved by it. And when she was leaving the church,
the preacher was waiting at the door. It was a very small church, and he would always shake everyone's hand on the way out the door, and when he saw her, he took the opportunity to tell her, we're so glad to have you as our guest today, and you're welcome to come back here. But before you come back, I want you to pray and ask the Lord what he would have you to wear when you come back to our church. And so she left pretty heiressed by that, and she went home, and she came back the next week.
She came back the next week and she sat through the service, and this time people were a little bit more offended and annoyed, and especially the pastor, because the whole sermon he's thinking, woman, I told you, And so he's waiting for it at the door when the service is over and he says, hey, I thought I told you to pray and ask the Lord what you should wear to this church before you came back. And she said, oh, I did. And he said, but you're wearing the same
thing that you wore last week. And she said, uh huh, and he said, well, didn't you pray and ask the Lord what to wear before you came back to this church? And she said I did. And the preacher said, well, what did he tell you? And she said, he told me he didn't know, he'd never been to this church before, and that it is the power of a perfect comeback. Shut that down. What do you say to that? Three times Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Three times Jesus
had the perfect come back. Satan said, if you're hungry, because Jesus had been fasting for forty days, turn these stones into bread. You know, the Bible says that God can do anything. And Jesus said, it's also written, do not put the Lord your God to the tests the perfect come back. Okay, well, let me get you to prove God's power. If you're really the son of God, throw yourself off this high point and the angels will catch you. Doesn't the Bible talk about angels? Angels will catch.
You right, prove that you are who you say you are.
And Jesus said, uh, I don't. I don't have to do that because I know what the word says. It is written. Each time the enemy came to Jesus. Each time Satan spoke, Jesus had the perfect come back. The third time is the one we reference just now in Matthew chapter four. And it's so beautiful because Jesus doesn't even bother to argue this time. He just says, let me show you the door. Get the hints away from me, Satan,
and it works and the devil leaves. So there's three things that are happening in this passage that may be happening in your life, and it's what I want to talk about for our lesson today. The first one is the devil led Jesus. The second one is he lied to Jesus. The third one is he left Jesus. So he led, he lied, and he left. What did he do?
Everybody say, he led, he lied, and he left.
Now it occurs to me that a lot of us are stuck in the first two that in your mind, the devil is telling you stuff, and he is leading you, and he is lying to you, but.
You can't figure out how to make him leave.
And thankfully for us, Jesus gives us the perfect comeback. Isn't it amazing though, that a lot of people, when you talk to them about you know, the devil is talking to you, or the devil is tempting you. They kind of have a not me. I don't know what you're talking about, attitude, and it is possible. Let me just say this in the very beginning. It is possible that the devil is not talking to you. It may be that you are a more advanced Christian than Jesus.
So maybe Jesus had to fight this, but you don't. Maybe you have matured more than Jesus. Or there is a second possibility, and I can illustrate the second possibility this way. You say, well, the devil doesn't discourage me. I never think I'm not good enough. I never think I don't have what it takes. I never think I can't do it. I never think I should change all of this. You know how, on your GPS, this is just an illustration. You put in a destination and then
you put it. Some people leave the narrator on where it says out loud where you need to turn in stuff like that, But the person on the GPS does not talk unless it wants you to turn in a different direction. You can run the GPS as much as you want, and if the GPS likes the direction you're headed, it won't say anything. So maybe the devil isn't saying anything to you. Yellow Wake Now, maybe he likes the direction you're headed in. Good golly, miss Molly, help this
man preach. So if the devil is talking to you, that tells me something about where God is taking you. If he's not, it shows me that he doesn't want to waste any resistance on a Christian that doesn't have any forward momentum. If he's not discouraging you, you are not being pushed past your comfort zone. He will feed you. He will comfort you all the way into complacency. But
if you ever start making progress, everybody say progress. It is significant for a lot of us to realize that Jesus was tempted by the enemy on the verge of his earthly ministry. He was the eternal Word of God. He was not new to the scene, and yet this was the moment that the Word made flesh was about to begin his mission to the cross. And so the devil starts talking, And the fact that the devil is talking to Jesus tells us that God is taking him somewhere.
God is taking me somewhere. Tell your neighbor.
That's why I've been struggling, because God is taking me somewhere. See, I used to just give in to every sin, but now I try to resist it. So I'm struggling now. But the struggle that I have now is proof of the fact that I'm headed somewhere. I wasn't headed before. The fact that I'm struggling more now does not mean how I need to preach this for somebody. Because the devil has been telling you the exact opposite, and the Lord has been talking to me about the fact that
the devil has been talking to you. You are worthless. It is too late, It's over for you. Nobody even cares. Nobody would miss you if you're gone. It would be better for them if you were gone. You are actually the reason they are that way. You can't recover from that. You didn't recover from the thing before it, And what makes you think is going to be any different now. It is very instructive for me to realize as a preacher that I'm not the only one up here talking.
I'm not the only one who's saying words to you right now, at the very moment, Jesus is about to do the most good.
He is the most tempted. Coincidence, I think not.
And what happens is you get so distracted by the conflict that you don't see the progress. You get so distracted by the conflict that you don't see the potential.
Wouldn't it be just like the devil to kill you.
In the wilderness where Jesus was when he fasted forty days and forty nights. We know that this devil stands no chance against Jesus, but we're not so sure about us. What I want you to realize today that took me a while to figure out, is that when I am coming into the season of my greater impact, when I'm coming into the season of greater surrender to God, which is the goal of a Christian right, the goal of the Christian is not just our eternal and everlasting preference
being met at every turn. When I'm coming into that season, when God wants to do something new through me, I should expect the following. Every door that God opens, there will be opposition. Listen to me. No door that God opens will be unopposed in your life. No door that He opens to your growth, no door that He opens to your relational intimacy. No door that He opens for you to be a witness for Jesus Christ and your sphere of influence. No door that God opens will be
without opposition. The greatest way that you can deal with the opposition is to realize that God opens doors that nobody can shut. If he opened it, they can't close it. If he opened it, your IQ can't close it. He knew the exact number of your IQ and your SAT
score when He called you into your situation. So if the statistics can't close it, if the haters can't close it, if the sickness can't close it, the only one thing that can close it is if you get distracted by the conflict and give up on the progress, which is why Jesus said, away from me. I'm on the verge of something that God sent me to do. I'm on the verge of fulfilling my mission to forgive the sin
of all who would believe in my name. And I know I'm repped up real early in my sermon, but I need to preach to somebody to tell you that God is not the only one who opens doors. The devil does too, doors of discouragement, doors of disappointment, doors of dysfunctional behavior that were planted in your heart, sometimes in early developmental stages of your life. And when I heard about Jesus saying away from me, Satan, it gave me.
It gave me hope to realize that he's giving me an example that every door he opens will be opposed, but it cannot be closed by anyone other than him. Clap your hands and give God praise because he's a door opening God. Jesus had the perfect comeback for the devil. He said, away from me, Satan. And sometimes we don't come back at the devil like we need to. In fact, instead of telling him to go away, we tell him keep coming. And we don't even realize we're doing it. Now.
I know this message is not comfortable to hear.
You think it was comfortable to prepare. I don't preach what I want to preach. I preach what God gives me to preach. And the Lord told me that the devil has been talking to you. Telling you is just one time. It doesn't matter telling you. Everybody does that. It's not abnormal, Yes it is for you. You're a child of God. Your family has different customs. Uh, huh.
You're a citizen of a different kingdom, and I wanted to share with you an example of how as God opens doors in your life, and in my life, and in the life of our church, that there will often be opposition. Go with me to Acts chapter fourteen, the scripture that I read first, and I want to show you about two people that God really used. One of them I know you've heard of. His name is Paul, and the other one you don't know as much about.
His name is Barnabas. And when the Bible says in Acts chapter fourteen, verse twenty six, God, I love your word. Thank you for the privilege to preach it. From Atalia, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. That burst, to me is so rich that I don't want to skip it. It says that they went back to the place Antioch where the center of the church was really beginning to be molded and melded.
Jews and Gentiles all coming out of the church. At Antioch the third biggest city in the Roman Empire, and so it was positioned in such a way as to be ascending hub and the first missionaries that were sent out from the Church at Antioch were Paul and Barnabas. Now, when it says that they had been committed to the grace, put the verse back up for me for the work they had now completed. It really spoke to me because sometimes I do the opposite, I try to complete the
work without getting the grace. And so there was a period where the Church at Antioch was fasting and praying, and they wanted to send two believers to the Gentiles, those who weren't Jews, those who were not included in the Old Covenant but were being grafted into the New Covenant through Jesus Christ. And they knew they wanted to send Paul because Paul was uniquely gifted and graced for this assignment. I want you to remember, when the devil starts talking to you, God will never let you go
where you are not graced to be. You can go there on your own, but he'll bring you back. He'll bring you to a place where he'll show you you are not grace for that. Paul was grace for it. So every time God says go, he gives grace for everywhere he says go, and in this season of your life, you may be trying to grind without grace, and that would be a problem because when you try to grind without grace, you leave yourself wide open to the devil.
And it's possible that life could open a door to you, but you don't have the grace to go through it. And until we get sensitive to the spirit of God, we will find ourselves going into situations that we don't have grace for because we've seen others go there because we thought we had to go there to prove something.
Just like the devil was tempting Jesus, you know.
Throw yourself off the highest clip. You're the son of God, Jesus, I don't have to prove anything to you. I was just baptized into Jordan, where my father said I was his beloved son and whom he was well pleased, you know that scripture. So Jesus had the grace to do it, Paul had the grace to do it. Barnabas had the grace to do it. So when the enemy comes to you and tells you you can't do it, tell him I got grace for this practice at one time, Say I got grace for it. I can't explain it. I
got grace for it. I can't break it down for you in a formula. I got grace for it. It makes no sense on paper. I got grace for it. I didn't even think I was that good at.
It, but I've got grace for it.
I know there are more people that are more qualified, and more smart, and more educated, and more intelligent, and more tall, and more broad and more strong, and more holy and more righteous, and have better beards. But I'm grace for it. I just saw a guy with a I was feeling envious, so I had to preach through it. Tell somebody I got grace for this, and then the grace that God gave them at Antioch with the confirmation of the elders of the Church at Antioch, they went out.
And I want you to notice three things that are gonna help you have the perfect comeback for the devil when he comes at you this week. You are not gonna get to the bottom of the stairs and think, oh wait. You are not gonna wait till next Saturday night to say, oh, I gotta go back to church. I gotta go, I've gotta go to elevation. You are not gonna get stuck. Watch me illustrate. Ooh, the Lord
just gave me this. You are not gonna get stuck at the bottom of the stairs this week, thinking I gotta get back to church to get a word for the devil. You are gonna have the comeback for him at the door the moment he knocks to try to tell you what you're not And who am I preaching to? The hasstate for it today? Yeah, a comeback. I thought it was interesting because Jesus had a comeback for the devil. It is written. It is written, he knew the word
of God. He had to come back for the devil. Now, thought was interesting how in the passage we read they were coming back to the place where they were sent from.
They were coming back to the grace that they started with.
I thought that word comeback was interesting, kind of like a double meaning. Right, they're coming back to Antioch. They've been gone, twelve hundred miles of travel have passed, and twelve months of time. Twelve hundred miles of travel, twelve months of time, and they have seen some amazing things. So the Bible says that they came back. And I kept reading and I was like, I want to talk about the comeback, but I also want to talk about
point number two. These all start with. See number one is comeback and number two is I want to talk about the connection because I noticed, and I want you to notice, how many times in this passage Acts chapter fourteen, the word they appears. It says from Attalia they sailed to Antioch. They sailed to Antioch, where they had 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.
What God does through you is a lot of times determined by the they that you are connected to, Because if anybody could have done it alone, it would have been Paul. And for all of you who try to do it alone in your own strength, maybe you're a better Christian than Paul and Jesus, but the rest of us need a Theay.
And so imagine they're picking, like, we got to send Paul because.
He's and he's of the tribe of Benjamin, and he can really speak to the Jews and the Gentiles, and he has a Roman citizenship, so he's very able to be very fluent in both languages, not only the language of faith in Jesus, but the language of Judaism. And who should we send with him? Barnabas? You said Silas. Now Silas went to prison with him in sixteen. Silas could sing. But Barnabas had a very special gift. His
name means son of encouragement. Now does this say something about what Paul struggled with that the one they sent with him was one of these guys. Now look at your neighbor, big smile, thumbs up, and say, you need one of these guys. You need a Barnabas. They looked at Paul. Paul, You're powerful preacher, You're amazing preacher. You're a man of God, and you're annoying it. And you're
called and you're chosen. Now, Barnabas was not only an encourager, but he was the one who brought Paul into the fold. To begin with, they were scared of Paul. Paul was the one who would go and have the Christians executed before he became one. Before the Lord smacked him right off his beast and told him, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who do you think you're messing with? I'm about to show you how much you must suffer for my sake
because you're my vessel. That's where Paul was. And the people were like, you want us to have the guy that was the terrorist on our team, And Barnabas is like, yeah, he's changed, Let's give him a chance. Thank God for Barnabas. Barnabas was hopathetical. Barnabas was optimistic. Barnabas was able to see the best in Paul. He was able to see
the Paul in Saul. So I want to talk about your connections today because the fact that they made it through everything they made it through was the fact that they were they. I believe the reason that the devil doesn't leave your life a lot of times is because you try to run him off alone and there comes a point where you can't fight this in your own head. There comes a point where you can't fight this with your own personality. If you could have gotten you out
of this, you'd be out by now. So what you're still doing here Maybe you are waiting on the right connection. And perhaps the reason that we feed some of our insecurity sometimes is because we stay in isolation where there is nothing to prove anything. Other to us than the words that the devil is speaking. And so it's important and I need to slow down on this a little bit.
That the Lord told me to tell you that there may be a Barnabas that you are missing in your life that is causing you to remain stuck in the loop that the devil has you in. There may be and there may be some people in your life who are the opposite of Barnabas, some people in your life who really aren't headed where you're headed. And I would kind of like to refer you back to my title.
You may need to send them a text right now and just to send them and listening to a sermon, let me show you the door, and that will be code for you to have the conversation that you need to have because you cannot fulfill a Pall sized mission without a Barnabas sized encouragement. And sometimes it will be a byob situation that stands for be your own Barnabas. Sometimes the people that you need to encourage you, they're having a bad week too. Guess what, maybe you need
to do what David said. David said, I encourage my self in the Lord. I know what's written in the psalms because I wrote them. I'll quote my own psalm back to myself when I'm struggling. And this is so important, so you don't get stuck stuck at the bottom talking about, Oh I need to get the church.
Oh I need to get around the right people.
You do. But there's a lot of time between Sunday and Sunday, so there will be situations in your life where you need a connection to something. You need a connection to someone, You need a connection to people that can remind you of the purpose that God put inside of you. Come back. Connection. Isn't that good?
Paul and Barnabas, It says this.
Abby, go get my notes off the shelf for me, real quick. Just get the whole folder. The whole folder. Now, this will be great. I want to act this out because I really want you to get the story in your heart. Abby. They bring me the whole folder, Abby, Abigail means Father's joy. So sit down with me, be my Barnabas for a minute. In the illustration, remember I told you Paul and Barnabas. Go back to verse twenty six.
Show them. In the text, it says they went from Italia to Antioch, which is not like going from Marvin to Ballentine. This is a three hundred mile trip in itself. Remember I told you they've already been twelve hundred miles twelve months, and now they have a decision to make on the way back because they have to give a
report to the church how it went. And the part that I didn't read you was everything that happened before Acts fourteen, twenty six, and twenty eight, kind of like I didn't read you how Jesus fasted forty days before the devil left.
I just got straight to the park the devil left, and I was.
Hoping you would shout, but you didn't even shout about that, so I know you're not going to shout about this. And the angels came, and that's exciting, and we all want to get there. But realize, if we put ourselves in the historical context of this passage, that Paul and Barnabas have three hundred miles to travel and they have to figure out what are we going to tell them
when we get back. And you know, Barnabas was probably keeping good notes and stuff like that, because Paul was the one who was mostly talking, and so they have three hundred miles to figure out together when we stand in front of the church that send us, when we get back to Antioch, what will we report? And I'm not saying that Paul was a pessimist, because I don't believe he was. He wrote amazing verses like I can
do all things through Christ. His strengthens me, and now unto him who is able to do him measurably more So, I am not throwing Paul under the bus, but Barnabas. Barnabas had the gift of encouragement, and so I think while they were going back, they were probably going through their log of everything that happened over the next twelve months. Okay, what are we going to tell them when we get there? Barnabus and they're going through their notes, because how do
you condense twelve months into one talk? Because it said they gathered the church together and told them. I imagine the first place they realized they had to talk about was Cyprus. When they got to Cyprus, the island called Cyprus that's in Acts chapter thirteen. And while they were there, God was using them, and Paul's like, you remember that guy, that sorcerer in Cyprus? And Barnabas like, yeah, yeah, what was his name again? And Paul's like, oh, I'll never
forget his name, Elimis Elimas. His name literally means sorcerer. Barnabas like, oh, yeah, I remember now, Elimas.
Yeah.
Even Barnabas couldn't see much good in Elimis. He's like, yeah, he was a bad dude, because right when we were going to have an audience with the governor of that city, Elimas started trying to interrupt us and distract from g Jesus. And just when it looked like we were going to make progress with a very important governor, Elimas stood up and distracted. And Paul's like, yeah, that guy, he got on my nerves. I hate Alimis. If I ever see
a Limis again, I'm gonna tell him. And Barnabas is like, well wait, wait, not, Paul, do you remember what you said to him? And Paul's like kind of and Barnabas goes, I got it. I got it written right here. Now put up acts chapter thirteen, verse eight. Look what happened. But Elimas, the Sorcerer, for that is what his name means, opposed them and tried to turn the governor from the faith he was about to receive Jesus, which would have been a major open door for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He was a gentile and he was a governor. And remember, right on the verge of God doing something amazing in your life, right when you are.
At the threshold of it, right when.
You are at the doorframe of it, anybody there right now, there will be a devil. The devil doesn't mean the door wasn't real. The devil doesn't mean God wasn't in it. The devil at the door might mean you are headed in the right direction and he's trying to get you to turn around. And Barnabas says Paul. You looked at Elimas and I quote verse nine and told him, well, verset in, you aren't chid of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right. You are full of
all kinds of deceit. Will you never stop perverting the ways of the Lord. And Paul's like, I said all that. He's like, yeah, you said all that. You called him a child of the devil. It is kind of mean, Paul, but it was the perfect comeback for the situation. Because watch what God did in verse eleven. Then suddenly after Paul spoke up, Suddenly after Paul confronted the opposition, suddenly after Paul refused to let the devil block his door, I'm looking for somebody today who refuses to let the
devil have he said. The hand of the Lord is against you. You're gonna be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun, and immediately missed in darkness came over him, and he groped about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And look what happened in verse twelve, Barnabas said, and when the pro consul saw what had happened, he believed, for
he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. So maybe when we get to Antioch in a few days, we'll tell him about the sorcerer at Cyprus, and we'll tell him how we faced resistance. But we'll tell him that after the resistance came a revelation, after the resistance came a revelation. Yeah, Paul said, we're going to tell him about the sorcerer, and Barnabas said, yeah, but we got to make sure to tell him that if the Sorcerer wouldn't have been struck blind, the governor wouldn't have
seen Jesus. Let me show you the door the resistance. What's the starting place of the revelation? Now? What resistance? You ok? Being up here with me like that, I didn't check. Let you tell me. Tell you didn't get to choose what to wear to be on stage and nothing like that. But you're doing great. Imagine this that the resistance that you're facing in your life right now might be the door to a revelation of how great God is. Maybe, maybe let me show you the door.
You want God to take the resistance away while you're simultaneously praying for him to make you strong. How will he make you strong with no resistance? How will he show you who he is if he doesn't let you find out who you're not without him? Remember that, Paul, when you looked at him and said you child of
the devil? That was the perfect comeback. So when we get back and we get to Antioch and we're in front of the church council, let's make sure that we tell them that there was resistance, but it led to revelation, and then and then we should tell them about the pettiness in Pasidia. I like to alliterate it because I believe Paul would have done that, don't you. And Paul said, we got to tell them how when we got to Pasidia there was so much pettiness that these Jews who
were jealous started trying to stir up trouble. And Barnabas is like, yeah, but Paul, you handled it, great man. You handled that so good when they were trying to stir up trouble against you and they rejected you. Do you remember what you said, Paul? And Paul's like, well, yeah, kind of, but tell me about it. And Barnabus goes, oh, yeah,
well I wrote it down. Look at Acts chapter thirteen, verse forty four in this good bed, because I'm trying to get you to see that what the devil is telling you tells me something about where God is taking you. And I want you to get your stack back in your hands, and I want you on your three hundred mile journey with your Barnabas. Whether the Barnabas is a friend, whether the Barnabas is this sermon because you're watching it alone on YouTube, Whether the Barnabas is your own spirit
because you've been consulting. Your flesh too long, and your feelings too long, and your past too long. But greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. I want you to remember the pettiness in Pasidia. We got to Pisidia. We were preaching, man, it was amazing. We left the island of Cyprus. We got the Pasidia. People were listening Acts Chapter thirteen, verse forty four. Please, on the next Sabbath, the whole city
gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And Paul, you were preaching, man, And the Jews saw the crowds, and they were filled with jealousy, and they began to contradict what you were saying, and they heat the piece on you. They said things about you that weren't true. Man, this is Barnabas talking. Word to the wives. Let Barnabas talk. Let Barnabas talk. Quit listening to the accuser all the time. Let Barnabas talk. Let the God who believes in you speak.
And Paul was having abuse heaped on him, and Paul and Barnabas answered him boldly. Now Barnabas got in on this too.
He said, we had to speak the word of God to you first.
Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life. We now turn to the gentiles. Let me ask a question. How many of you are not Jewish by birth? Raise your hand. This is how you got here. Think about it. They rejected Paul, and because they rejected Paul, Paul reached you. So maybe Paul and Barnabas decided on that three hundred mile trip back to Antioch. When we get there, let's make sure to tell them that rejection can become redirection. I thought your neighbor and say,
they didn't reject me, they redirected me. That was my GPS talking. That was God using that to get me on a different path, because I would have always stayed in that place if I didn't feel a rejection. Paul actually turned to the crowd and said, we were preaching to you, but now we are turning to the gentiles because rejection can be redirection. So let's make sure we tell them about the pettiness in Pasidia and the sorcerer, the sorcerer in Cyprus. But Paul, I also think we
need to tell him about the lynching. I think we need to tell them about the lynching. That you went through in Litta, because when they got the little Paul was doing miracles. Man, you'll mind if I tell you these Bible stories real quick. My barber told me, don't forget. The people you're preach into hadn't opened their Bible all week. I was like, they open it some. He's like, maybe the app but you really need to dig into these
stories for us now. Yeah, I want you to get it because if you don't get this part of it. When I read you a verse that says the Devil left Jesus or Paul and Barnabas stood up and reported how the Lord opened the door, you'll think that the door opened without difficulty, and you will be surprised when you struggle, and you will think that you are not a saint because you struggle, and you may even begin to believe the devil that you are not who God
says you are. And when they got to lit A, Paul performed miracles to the extent that one who was crippled from birth got up. Now, when he got up, the crowd went crazy, as crowds do when people who have never walked before start to walk. And they took it a little too far. In fact, they started saying, Paul and Barnabas are gods. Barnabas is Zeus, Paul is Hermes. And Paul's like, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, we're servants like you. And they're like, oh, yeah, we
know who you are. You are Zeus and Hermes. But see, other people can't tell you who you are. When you know who you are, and when you know who you are, you don't get too high and you don't get too low because your hope is built on what Jesus says about you. So Paul wasn't too swayed by the lows, he wasn't too swayed by the highs. He said, we are just men. We are servants who have come to tell you about Jesus. That's all we are. We are just the ones who opened the door. We're not the door.
And so they started preaching that, and the people were going crazy. And then what's what happened? In Acts, chapter fourteen, verse nineteen, it says that they stoned Paul. What happened Some people came in who were jealous, some people came in who were mixed up, and they stoned him and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead and maybe.
Paul says, we've got to tell them about the lynching in Lita, and then Barnabas says, yeah, but we gotta make sure we tell them what happened next, Paul, because it was amazing, because they stoned you and left you for dead, and they turned on you and they condemned you, and they accused you, and they buried you, and they maligned you, and they hurt you, and it looked like
it was over. But give me verse twenty. It is written, It is written, but after the disciples had gathered around him, but after the help came, but after the connection came, Paul got up and went back. Now, I don't know who needs this in your section. Be a Barnabas for five seconds, tell them get up and go back. Come on, be my Barnabas for fifteen seconds. Reach three people, say get up and go back, Get up and go back, Get up and go back. Because the report isn't in
the rocks they threw at you? Is that who rows up after the rock? Ah? God, you see what I'm saying. Come on, you might have to be yob for a second, but take twenty four sect five seconds and praise.
God, get your gut up, and you went back.
I'm going through my list. I'm going through my list. High five. Your neighbors said, we got up and we're going back. I'm not staying in this place. I'm not staying in this place. I'm not staying under these rocks. I'm not staying on this debt.
I'm not staying.
Under this crippling anxiety. I'm not staying under this bad report. I'm not staying under this weight of depression. I'm not staying under the same of my past. I'm not staying under the written record that was held against me. Y'all, Thank God for Abigail Barnabas verdict, and thank God for Jesus, who is my Barnabas. Thank God for the Greater Wise, thank God for the Holy Wife, thank God for the Annointment.
Thank God said they threw their rocks by you, Rosa al Rosa, How rose up? Who feel like breaking today?
Yeah? How five? Your neighbors say you'll be balmed, I'll be barnabus Now encourage.
Him, saying you can make it.
You got this. God's with you, you got a grace for it, you were made for it, you were porn for it. You were falling for it, you were filled for it. You'll got the holly ghost. I'm trying to get to the sea.
Your door is off us.
Go through.
Your door. Fill a Barnabas spear in the house today. And verse twenty six, so that's chapter fourteen says that on the way from Italia to Antioch, where it all started, God said, let's go back to where it all started. He who will be a good work in you, will be faithful to perform it. If God opened the door, he will fill the room when you get in it. That's how I know I'm so full of this word.
I'm so full of this word to help somebody who has been hungry in the wilderness for forty days, who has been lynched in Lita, who has been stirred up in a place called Pasidia, or who has even had to deal with a sorcerer in Cyprus. To remind you of everything that you went through was the door to who God knows you can be and who you can help. And by the way, verse twenty seven says something so
fascinating to me. For our narcissistic culture that always wants to know why is the devil doing this to me? Or when are people going to do something for me? The Bible says Paul and Barnabas got up verse twenty seven, and they gathered the church together. That's connection, and they reported all that God had done through them. That's credit. God did it through you. Given the credit. There's the comeback, there's the connection, and there's the credit. Stop giving the
devil God's credit. What the devil did to us to try to destroy us, God turned into a door to develop us. Even some of the little things in your life that you call coincidence, some of the things that you call coincidence, are just things that God did that you haven't given him credit for. Yet. The odds that you would be here, the odds that you would be you, the odds, the odds were against you, But God was for you. Give him his credit. He said. God was
working in the rejection. God was working in the resistance. If the sorcerer wouldn't have spoken against us, he wouldn't have been blinded.
If he wouldn't have been blinded, the governor wouldn't have seen.
If they hadn't rejected us, we would not have redirected to the gentiles and this church wouldn't have been here today. I'm trying to get you to show the devil the door. How do you get him to leave your life? Begin to list all the things that God did that you've been forgetting about. So when I lift my hands like this, I'm not just lifting. I'm listing. One he brought me out of bondage. Two he brought me out of sin.
Three he broke my shame and set me free. For he cut my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stamp. Five he's fuck piece to my storm. Now it's your turn. You got a hand. What did he do for you? Begin to lift your hands, Begin to lift your victories. Begin to report the open door, the door he opened, the way he made, the time he came through. When the devil shows you your deficiency.
Showing the door, showing the door, you have the perfect come back.
Jesus said to the devil, away from me.
He was showing you what to do, and he could do this because of who he is, and he's in you.
He's in you.
Greater is he that is in me, then he that is.
In the world. So resistance is a door. Rejection is a door. Rocks are a door. I just gotta stop and remember who he is.
Jesus said to Satan away from me.
You ever wonder why he waited till the third time the devil tempted him to send him away. I thought about that a lot this week. One, I think he was setting an example for us to know that temptation isn't something you resist once and you're done with it. Two, I think he was doing it to show us the three types of temptation we all face. The lust of the flesh turned these stones into bread, the lust of the eyes throw yourself off, and the pride of life. A bow down and worship me and I'll get all
the kingdoms of the world. But another reason, I think is because of what the devil said the third time. He said, Jesus, you see all this, and he took him to a high place. It says he can see all the kingdoms of the world, which lets us know that this was not a physical transportation, it was a mental one. There's no mountain high enough to show you
all the kingdoms of the world. So this was all happening in Jesus's mind, just like it's all happening in yours, And the real challenge is not to get back to Antioch physically, it's to get back to your grace. Yes, So the devil took him. The devil took him to a high place, and he said, all this I'll give you. Now, Remember the devil did three things. He led Jesus. I
don't mean that Jesus was following him. I mean that he took him there when translation says he led, and then he Now, the first two times the devil quoted a scripture at Jesus, but the third time was an outright lie. He said, all this I will give you verse nine, if you will bow down and worship me. And then the devil said leave. He led, he lied, and he left. And you say, what was the lie in verse nine? The lie is that anybody was worthy of worship other than Jesus. So when the devil said
worship me, Jesus said, get out of here. I'm not the worshiper, I'm the worshiped. To said now let me show you the door. For those of you who really know your Bibles, you will be familiar with John chapter ten, Verse ten. The thief comes to kill, still and destroy, But I have come that you might have life and have it to the full, or King James have it more abundantly. Tell the devil get the hints. I have life. I have life. This is my life. God gave it
to me, and I'm gonna live it for him. But there's another thing that Jesus said just before he said, the thief comes to kill, still and destroy, but I have come that you might have life in verse nine that I want to show you today where Jesus said, I am the door. When the devil shows you your failure this week, show him your door. And when oh yeah, I'm gonna help you for I get off the stage. When he tells you you don't have a right to pray, you know how unworthy you are, show him your door.
Just don't even argue with the devil. Don't tell him you're worthy, you're great, you're awesome, because you and I both.
Know that isn't true.
You and I both know that at your highest you're not God, and at your lowest you're not the devil. So when the devil comes to try to rock you with that stuff this week and try to get you to give up on what God gave you, show him your door. Let me show you the door devil. Let me remind you what Jesus did for me. Let me tell you how he bled for me. Let me tell
you how he suffered on God at this hill. Let me tell you how he sweat with drops of great blood until the point where he was in agony, saying, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. When the devil shows you what you're up, I guess show him your door. Your door is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. When the devil shows you your disease, show in your door, say by his friends, I am here. I got a door, And walk the enemy right to the cross of Christ in your mind and remind him
that Jesus is your way to God. Right now in his presence. There are at least fifty people in this room, and probably hundreds all over the world watching online, who need to give your life to Jesus right now, right in this moment. Not tomorrow, not when you get your stuff together, not when you get your credit score up, none of that. Right now you need to come to the cross. He is your door. Not by words of righteousness so that we can boast, but by grace through faith,
we are saved. And I want everybody to stand on your feet right now as I offer you this invitation to come to Jesus, to come to him and live, to come to him. All of the accusations, all of the sins that you've committed, all of these can be forgiven if you place your faith in Jesus. He is
your door. And right now, in the name of Jesus who Paul and Barnabas preached, in the name of Jesus who defeated the devil and sin and death and hell and the grave, I offer you this abundant life, this eternal life, this life that cannot be taken away.
With your heads bowed and your eyes closed.
Those of you who are here today and you've been captive to the devil to do his will, today is your day of liberation. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And now I'm going to lead you in a prayer. This prayer is for those who are coming to Jesus. Enough of what your past says, enough of what your flesh says, enough of what your good works can do. None of that can say. If you come to Jesus, he will pardon. Come to Jesus, he is merciful. Come to Jesus, he
is flowing with forgiveness. And right now, if you pray this prayer in your heart, the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With head's bowed and eyes closed. At every location, we're praying out loud together as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God. This is your comeback moment. This is your comeback Sunday. Now repeat after me.
If God is speaking to you out loud, heavenly fathered.
Today is my day of salvation.
I believe that Jesus Christ is your son, and today I make Jesus the Lord and savior of my life. I believe he died that I would be forgiven and rose again to give me life.
I receive this new life.
This is my new beginning.
I am a child of God.
On the counter of three shoots your hand up. If you prayed that one, two, three, shoot him up, shoot him up. I knew it. I knew it. God bless him. Amazing. Come on, let's put a party atmosphere in the place for him. Come on, let's put an angels in heaven. Rejoice over one sinner party atmosphere in the place. Glory to God. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is
because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.