Denying Distractions! Taking a Tough Stand In a Wimpy World!

 

I was reading for my personal devotion tonight and came across this passage of scripture in Acts 21.13-14:

Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart?  I am not only ready to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”  When he would not be dissuaded we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done!”

 

There is a good reason why Agabus and his friends were attempting to dissuade Paul from going to Jerusalem.  Agabus was a prophet and had been shown that in Jerusalem Paul was going to have trouble.  Opposition with violent intensity!  Paul already had confessed that in every city he entered “prison and hardships” (Acts 20.22-24) awaited him.  Either Paul was a card-carrying moronic religious fanatic or he was extremely dedicated to Christ as His Savior and was committed to fulfilling his purpose on earth.   He wasn’t a lunatic!  What kept this man going when the going got tough? Why didn’t he quit?  Give up?  Wave a white flag of surrender?  We can only hope to have this man’s commitment.  Let me show you something here in Acts 21.

 

Let me break down what Paul explains in verses 23-24 of Acts 21.

He considered his life worth nothing to himself.  This is important because this is a statement of humility.  I think Paul realized his value to the church and especially his peers.  As an apostolic leader he had to know his value to the kingdom.  But he says he had no “worth to himself.”  Paul always placed those he was called to serve above himself in value.  This is the starting point of great leaders, managers, business owners and even parents – the humility of self.  You have to be willing to surrender your “rights” to become a leader.  Knowing your value is one thing – knowing your sense of not being valued by yourself is quite another.  The second deserves a transparent trophy – one we can’t display or brag about.

He wanted to finish the race and complete the task the Lord had given him.  There are two things Paul is saying here.  1) He was disciplined for the race. Running takes discipline, time, practice, and endurance.  Paul was focused on the end result of his race for the right reason.   2) He was task oriented.  He knew he had to “finish” what the Lord had begun in him.  He knew he could only do it in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit.  He knew he had to finish the specific work assigned to him.  What about you?  Are you committed to running the race and finishing the task?

He identified his task as his testimony of the gospel.  I have shared a lot about the power of testimony in our church lately.  Notice Paul didn’t say his task to finish was to build a certain number of churches or reach a certain number of people.  His goal wasn’t focused on church politics or becoming a high profile preacher.  His focus for his calling?  His testimony!

 

Today, if we could understand that pleasing God is not about our trophies, receiving accolades, making brownie points or becoming image driven in his calling.  His focus was testimony.  He was wiling to die for his testimony.  It was all that drove him.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if today we could just focus on our testimony and finishing the work God has called all of us into – sharing our personal testimony!

 

I will say two things here in closing tonight.  If you don’t have a testimony you need to double check your commitment to Christ.  Second, we need to engage in practicing our testimony.  I think Christians at large have left testimony up to the church and a handful of professionals to accomplish reaching the lost.  I will say this one more time – churches don’t reach people – people reach people.

 

How dedicated are you?  Back to my text mentioned above.  What would you do?  If someone you trusted came to you and said that the Lord had shown them that tomorrow at your office, in the factory or in the grocery store – you would be confronted in a violent manner for your testimony – would you retreat or would you engage forward motion faith?  There is only one right answer to this question.  What would you do?  Just a thought.