Strengthening Your Faith

01-20-08 message by Pastor Rich Doebler

This is the fourth in a series of messages called Faith Comes By Hearing. The title comes from Romans 17, which says: So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (NASB) If we listen to the Word, if we really hear it and soak ourselves in it, then our faith will increase. We will become stronger believers. I want to have stronger faith, don't you? That's why I'm so enthused about the CD NT listening plan.

Today, is the half-way point in the plan: the 20^th day out of 40. For the third Sunday in a row, our text comes from the portion of Scripture assigned for the day. If you're on track to listen to the entire NT during the first 40 days of 2008, then you will be listening today to Acts 10 - 15.

Each week we've looked at a portion of Scripture that shows us something about God's Word—Scripture commenting on Scripture. Today our text uses the phrase "good news"—which translates what the old KJV rendered as "the gospel."

Acts 14:19-22 (NIV) ¹⁹ Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. ²⁰ But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. ²¹ They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²² strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.

There is an amazing contrast in this passage of Scripture! Two words that reflect extreme, polar opposites: Good news  (v 21) AND Hardships (v 22).

Paul and his companions preached good news in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. But Paul was stoned so severely everyone thought he was dead. He regained consciousness, however, picked himself up, and went on with his work—going back to the people they had preached to and explaining things a bit more fully: "Oh, by the way. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. You could be stoned! There might be trouble for you!"

How is it possible that something called "Good News"—the Gospel—would involve "hardships"? Hardships certainly don't sound good. Hardships sound like the opposite of good: They're not easy; they're not convenient; they're not comfortable; they're not warm and fuzzy. Hardships are difficult, painful, challenging, inconvenient, tough, stressful.

NASB: tribulations; TEV: troubles; NRSV: persecutions; NCV: suffer many things; MSG: "...urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn't be easy: ‘Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times.'"

This is an anomaly. Why—if the Gospel is "good news"—why should it include difficulties, challenges, and hardships?

We hear the Good News and we say, "Yes! I want that! I want to be free from power of sin, from the consequences of sin. I want to get rid of all the problems in my life. I want to have a fresh start. I want to experience the joy of the Lord."

We say, "Thank you, God, for giving me new life. For giving me a second chance. For giving me hope for eternity." But we don't say, "Thank you, God, for starting me on this long and arduous journey. Thank you for hardships. Thank you for the privilege of suffering for you. Thank you for making me a stranger and an alien in this world. Thank you for difficulties, persecution, misunderstanding, ridicule."

You may recall from yesterday's NT passage that the apostles were put in jail and flogged. But they left the court, "rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41).

We hardly ever talk like that because we don't like the thought of pain or trouble. Human nature is to try to find comfort, not pain.

We're like our cat, Bailey. We put him outside so he can get some fresh air, but he has an aversion to cold air. In no time he starts clawing at the door, frantic to get back inside. We open the door, and he comes streaking through the door like he was shot out of a cannon! He doesn't stop until he's run through the kitchen, down the hall, and reached the other side of the house. He hates -25° and -40° wind chill! He wants to get out of it as much as we want to get out of trouble and hardships.

But here is an amazing thing. The Bible says that we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God! Why is that?

I think it's because the Good News is not merely about salvation—it's about our call and destiny, it's about discovering our purpose in life, it's about finding an eternal meaning for our being. The Good News is not only about escaping our troubles; it's about finding a reason for what we do, a purpose for what we endure. We can say several things about hardships:

1. Hardships reveal deeper values. Some things are more important than comfort.

Peyton Manning, QB for the Indianapolis Colts, is taking it easy this afternoon. If he wants, he can lounge on the couch eating chips and salsa. Why? Because he's not playing in the AFC championship game against the New England Patriots. His brother, Eli Manning, on the other hand, Eli is not taking it easy this afternoon. Why? Because he is QB for the New York Giants. Unlike Peyton, he faces hardship and challenge and discomfort. He has to go to Lambeau Field in Green Bay to face the Packers in the NFC title game. He has to go to Green Bay, where it's cold and miserable (perhaps a high of 0°) and where ugly, 325-pound defensive linemen will be trying to pound him into the ground and generally harass him all afternoon. Eli Manning faces all sorts of trouble today. His brother, Peyton, will be sitting comfortably this afternoon. But I can assure you that Peyton would rather be dealing with trouble and pain and fierce linemen in the AFC title game than sitting at home taking it easy.

Would you rather be out of the game and comfortable—or in the game and facing trouble? If you knew facing challenge and hardship was necessary to do something significant in the kingdom, would you be willing to take the trouble? Would you prefer to relax—or would you rather accomplish a cause? You can have no pain and no gain, or you can accept pain in order to gain. Which is it for you?

2. Hardships turn us into difference-makers.

The Good News is that God invites us to struggle, to battle, to wrestle—and ultimately, to win. God transforms us from bench-sitters on the sidelines to players on the field. God doesn't call us to be couch potatoes; he calls us to become key players—difference makers.

Experiencing trouble and difficulty for a worthwhile cause is far better than living a life of ease for nothing. Sacrificing comfort to make an eternal difference is better than enjoying a life of ease for a few short years on earth and accomplishing nothing for the kingdom.

In Africa we saw missionaries making do as best they could in adverse circumstances, giving up the conveniences of life in the U.S., living for weeks at a time without electricity, unable to get ordinary things like a charger for their camera or simple comforts (like chocolate), dealing with sickness caused by amoeba in their intestinal tracts, sleeping under netting to avoid a mosquito bite that could give them malaria. It's not easy to give up the comforts of home to take the gospel to foreign lands, but they do it because the Good News is not about comfort—it's about the kingdom.

The Good News is about much more than the Four Spiritual Laws, "Number one: God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." That's true, but it's only part of the story. The Good News goes beyond that to reveal God's call to be and do something significant—something bigger than ourselves.

God wants to give us a reason to live; God wants us on his team; God wants us to fight the good fight, engaged in a cause for his kingdom.

The Good News calls you to make a difference in this world—to make a difference in your family, in your marriage, with your friends, with your boss, with your co-workers, in your church. To be different in how you live and how you talk.

3. Hardships prepare us for what really matters.

God allows hardships and difficulties to prepare us—to train us. An athlete has to prepare and train, and so do believers. Effective training requires strict discipline. If we're going to improve and mature so we're prepared for the "big event," we've got to endure some hardships to get there. God uses troubles to make us stronger.

1 Cor 9:25-27 ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training... ²⁷ [Therefore] I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

There's nothing like pain and tribulation to put things into focus. Nothing like problems to motivate us to fight harder. Nothing like adversity to challenge us to push through and win. It's when we're backed into a corner that we find the inner resolve to fight harder.

Hardships and troubles equip us to fulfill God's purpose and to lay hold of his kingdom. Maybe that's what Jesus was suggesting when he said in Matthew 11:12: ...the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it [NASB: take it by force]. (NIV)

When polar explorer Ernest Shackleton needed men to step up for his expedition to the Antartic, he ran this advertisement: MEN WANTED for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. Five-thousand men responded for the 27 available positions. Shackleton said: "It seemed as though all the men in Great Britain were determined to accompany us." Men are motivated by challenge more than convenience.

Paul and his companions preached the good news, but they didn't stop there. They expanded their preaching to prepare the believers for the hardships to come as they followed the Lord and entered the kingdom. Paul returned the places he had been to:

1.     Strengthen the disciples.

NASB: literally, strengthening the souls of the disciples. That's where we most need strength—in our innermost being, deep in our souls, where it touches our hearts and helps us at the core of who we are.

There is a huge difference between those who give up and those who manage to keep going. And it's not because of physical stamina—it's because of spiritual strength: hope, faith, and a sense of God's presence. Those without hope despair more quickly, no matter what their physical condition.

Hugo Gryn, a London rabbi, wrote of an experience in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, where prisoners had become emaciated, sick, and starving: "It was the cold winter of 1944 and although we had nothing like calendars, my father, who was a fellow prisoner there, took me and some of our friends to a corner of a barrack. He announced it was the eve of Hanukkah, produced a curious-shaped clay bowl, and began to light a wick immersed in his precious, but now melted, margarine ration. Before he could recite the blessing, I protested at this waste of food. He looked at me, then at the lamp, and finally said, ‘You and I have seen that it is possible to live up to three weeks without food. We once lived almost three days without water. But you cannot live properly for three moments without hope!'" [Jamie Buckingham, Charisma, 3/89, 106]

The Good News gives us hope to strengthen our souls so we can endure!

2.      Encourage the disciples to remain true. This word is translated more times in the Bible as "exhort" than "encourage." It comes from parakaleo, made up of two words: para (beside, by the side of) + kaleo (to call).

In Africa I met a young American doctor who worked in a remote Kenyan village. One day, during a community celebration, they held a race—something like 15 K. He was young and in shape, so when they asked him to run, he said, "Sure. Why not?" It wasn't until he started running that he realized he was in Kenya—running next to world-class athletes. Some of those from this remote village had run in marathons in the U.S. The man who won the race (he found out later) had just received $50,000 from Nike for the use of his picture in an advertisement. The young doctor began the race by pacing himself, but the others took off full speed. They began lapping him, going around twice in the time it took him to go around once. When the race ended, he had made it around the track 16 times while the winner had gone 24 times. But—and here's the lesson—ever time this slow American passed the spectators, the people would yell out to him: "Run faster! Try harder! Do better!" And he did run faster because of their encouragement. Though he wasn't fast enough to win, he did better than he would have if no one had been calling from the side. That is parakaleo—encouragement!

Paul encouraged the believers—and he encourages us: Remain true! Hang in there! Don't quit!

3.     Warned the disciples about hardships.

Paul's warning to us is to be prepared. Don't be surprised about problems, difficulties, and persecutions. This is one of the promises in the Bible.

There will be times when you feel like giving up, like throwing in the towel. You may go through periods of great difficulty or doubt. But hardship is part of the package if we want to finish the race. If we want to rescue others with the Good News.

A while back PBS's American Experience did a program called Bataan Rescue, about the U.S. Army Rangers attempt to rescue over 500 POWs from a Japanese camp in the Philippines. The prisoners were men who had survived the Bataan Death March, who had been held captive for three years, who were barely surviving in harsh conditions, who were sick with beri beri, malaria, and dysentery, whose only protein were the bugs and worms in their rice soup. The Rangers were attempting the single largest rescue in modern military history. They had to penetrate 30 miles behind enemy lines just to reach the prison camp. And they had to do it with thousands of the enemy in the area.

ROBERT ANDERSON, 6th Ranger Battalion, said his CO warned them: "You're going on a dangerous raid, some of you may not come back, and I want you to pledge this, that you'll give your life, if necessary, to see that those prisoners come out."

JOHN RICHARDSON, another Ranger, said, "Before we went, they wanted us to meet in the chapel, and they said they was going to have prayer for us. Colonel Mucci met with us. And he says, ‘I'm going to tell you this, probably all of you will come back—or none.'"

One of the commanding officers, ROBERT PRINCE had his company line up in front of him. He said: "I'm going to turn around, [and] I want every man that wants to go on the raid to step one step forward." When he turned back around to see who had volunteered for this dangerous mission, it looked like nobody had volunteered. It looked like no one had stepped forward, because they all had stepped forward. Everyone of them.

They were warned, but they still stepped forward. Just like those Army Rangers, you've been warned. Paul says, "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." Are you prepared? Are you willing to listen to and obey the Good News? Will you step forward?