This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Well, good morning. Again, happy St. Patrick's Day again. Glad you're here. Glad to be seeing so much green. I have a green name tag, so those that want to come up and pinch me. Please refrain. Well, we are continuing our study in the book of Acts, and we are looking at two full chapters today, because we're looking at the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. And so rather than read all that, it's entirety, which would be rather long. It would take in itself probably a good portion of the sermon. I'm going to be referring to it, but I want to invite you to turn there. It's not printed in your bulletin. But if you have your bottles with you, you can turn to Acts chapter 13 and 14. We're referring to that, and I'm going to be summarizing much of the story for you along the way. So you'll have an idea. But as we look at that here this morning, and draw some principles from that, I wanted to give you a little background and a little update. First, here's a slide. Here's a picture that might be helpful here to tell you, and show you a little bit about where this is happening and what's going on. If you look over here in Antioch, this is where Paul and Barnabas are beginning, and you can see how the track goes over here, and it follows it. If you can see the arrows, not the clearest picture, but they're going to end up in Derby and reverse and come back. This is the first missionary journey that the apostle Paul has, and he has it with Barnabas at this point. It's probably happening sometime in the late 40s. It probably took most scholars think about two years, could be upwards of three years, but somewhere 47, 48, 48, 49, 50 being the upper end, is the period of time that we're looking at here where this trip is happening and going on. Well, as we look at this this morning, we're going to look at the beginning of this missionary journey. We're going to look at its duration or the middle part, and we're going to look at the reflection time at the end. Because we're going to see these three stages represented, and as Luke is writing here in Acts under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there are key elements that are happening in each of those stages. So I just want to give you an overview of what we're going to look at. With that, we're going to look first this morning on how the Holy Spirit's missionary journey looked at the beginning, during, and the reflection stage with Paul and Barnabas, and then we're going to look at your missionary journey. Now, some of you might think, uh, it's got what missionary journey? Well, the same Holy Spirit that was poured out 2,000 years ago, he hasn't changed. He is the living God. In fact, the scriptures say that, you know, God does not change. He's the same yesterday, today and forever, and the Holy Spirit is still the same. So he is still sending the people of God, the followers of Jesus Christ, on missionary journeys. Now, yes, yours might look a little different. In fact, each of ours is going to look unique and different. But each of ours have a beginning, have a during, and have a reflection stage. And, like the apostle Paul found out, he went on several missionary journeys, and us, we go through several different seasons or stages of our life as well, too. And I bet if any of you here are old enough to look back and really reflect and think about it, you can probably go, yeah, there was this season of my life where I was in such a, such a place with such a, such call in my life. Or I can see that there's one coming up. Some of you are students, some of you are out there who are seniors. You're going to be graduating this year, and yes, you may be more in a reflection season of a current, but you know that there's a new one coming ahead. Or your college student about to graduate. Or you're relocating. Or maybe you moved here and you're new to town here. But we each are on a journey that the Holy Spirit has given us. So we're going to look at it, first out was in the Paul and Barnabas, but we're going to also look at it for each of us as well along the way. You know, one of the key principles that I want to mention and talk about this morning that I'm going to be saying over and over again is this. Where trust begins, fear ends. Where trust begins, fear ends. I heard a story of a dad who was trying to teach his young son about trust. And he wasn't in the pool and his son wasn't on the edge of the pool. He was actually just on the back porch. But he told his son to stand up on the rail on the back porch. And he went around, went down just a few steps. It wasn't a very high porch. And went to the ground where he was, you know, a few feet beneath the sun. He said, son, I want you to jump because I'll catch you. And as most little boys would do, at least after a little encouragement, he took a leap. He jumped out there. And the dad very intentionally stepped out of the way and let his little boy come crashing down. Now he knew it wasn't that far of a fall. He knew there would be pain involved. There would be no broken bones or anything serious that would happen. And as a little boy got up confused, obviously, brushing himself off, not understanding. He looked in the eyes and said, son, I want you to know something. You can't trust anybody in life. And don't you forget it. I'm pretty confident that that little boy never forgot that word. Forget that rule. It probably shaped who he was the rest of his life. He probably knew that his dad loved him some degree. And looking back, he probably realized that his dad was trying to teach him a valuable lesson about life. But there was something that went deep and was planted deeply in that young boy's mind. Well, that boy is not this boy. This boy is a boy who's learned to trust. How can you tell? Arms wide open. Eyes closed. Both feet left the ground at the same time. No hesitation. This is a confident little boy that knows there is a mom and there is a dad that is going to catch him. And most dads, I know, not almost all of them, always run the other end catching that little boy because we want them to know, or if you're the mom, you want your child to know. That you can trust certain people. And there are people that do love you and do care about you. And you don't have to have a cynical view on life because there is a God. And he calls himself a father in heaven. And where trust begins, fear ends. Well, the Holy Spirit, his journey with Saul and Barnabas, it had a beginning. And Paul and Barnabas are here. If they were in the shopping mall somewhere and trying to figure out where they were at, they looked at the little map in the marquee. It would have said, Paul and Barnabas, you are here. You're at the start of it. This is the first missionary journey that they go out on. And I'm going to read just the first four verses of chapter 13 of the book of Acts. This is this. In the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Sareon, Maneon, who was brought up with Herod the Tatraart and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work to which I've called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them sent on their way by the Holy Spirit went down to Celusia and sailed from there to Cyprus. Where trust begins was with a posture. Notice what's happening here. With Paul and Barnabas, Paul at this point is still being called Saul. But in this missionary journey, his name has changed from this point going forward by Luke. And he's used by his Greek name, Paul. So same guy. But in this place here, we see a posture of trust that begins. I want you to think about it for a second. One we know persecution is on the rise at this point. Just a few chapters ago, Stephen is martyred. He's stone to death. Wide spread persecution is happening. In fact, the Christian churches pushed out of Jerusalem except for the apostles were told. And then soon after that, the first apostle is martyred. James. He is put to death by the sword by Herod who we read of his demise just last week. So the posture that could be happening here right now could be one of retreat. It could be one of fear. But it's not. They're not fearful. They're not retreating. See, God's power is also on the rise. We just read and studied last week in the previous chapter that Peter had been rescued miraculously by an angel. In fact, he had been put in jail probably to face the same fate that James had. And yet the angel comes in and miraculously takes him from jail. And on the contrary, Herod, remember, who puts himself out to be God-like is humbled by God. And an angel comes and strikes him with a terrible disease. And he's eaten by worms within four or five days. History tells us. So we see the same time the power of God is on the rise. But notice, too, they also had a temptation even with that. They had a temptation. They could have postured themselves to be focused on outward public activity of ministry. They could have been saying, look, now things are going great. Let's take it to them. Everybody's got this great example of how the condemnation of God has come against one who opposed them. Let's take this. You wouldn't have thought there would have been quite as much emphasis in time focused on prayer, fasting, seeking the Lord. It was time to get to work. Strike by the iron's hot. So there's not a posture of fear, but there's also not a posture of hurry, busyness, of activity. Like what most of us think is just, you know, I pray more if I had more time. I'd really take things more seriously, but there weren't so many pressures throughout the day. The leaders here, the apostles here, Paul and Barnabas had a posture of trust. So fear didn't pull them away and busyness didn't pull them away either because they knew where their power was, was relying and trusting in him. What did it look like? Well, trust we're told from these first few verses was holding steady in prayer. We're not only were they steady in prayer, we're told they were daily engaged in worship. We were told that they were fasting, you know, which is prayer and worship, you know, on steroids. They were taking it seriously. They were listening to the Holy Spirit. How do we know that? Because they heard him. And how do we know they were truly listening? Because they did what he said. Spirit says, set apart Paul and Barnabas. When they prayed and fasted, some more laid hands on him and they sent him. And Paul and Barnabas went. They responded in obedience. Trust in obey for there's no other way. We just sang about it. While they were worshiping the Lord, verse 2 says, in fasting Holy Spirit, set apart from Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I've called them. It took trust to set apart Paul or Saul and Barnabas. Let me think about it for a second. They've got a great team going here. Did you look at some of the names they're listed here? One, you got Saul in the story or Paul. You know, talk about a great conversion story. You know, here's a guy you want sharing his testimony every single week. Here's a guy that people know he was still out killing Christians just a few months ago. And now he's proclaiming Christ. Keep that guy around. Or think about Simeon. Simeon, this Simeon is probably the one who helped bear the cross for Jesus on the way to Galgotha. Most historians think. And here's another great guy. Here's a guy that was with Jesus in his last moments. Or Manayan, who's mentioned here as somebody who grew up with Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas was the Herod that had killed John the Baptist. You might recall. He was a foster brother. History tells us of him. So here's a guy that was in the power. Here's a guy that was in the control who had become somewhere along the way of followers of Jesus Christ. And when Herod was trying to hush that, here's one that had come now to come full circle to trust in that. What another great powerful person to have. And then you got Barnabas. Here's a guy that were told in other places is incredibly a strong, spirit-filled leader. And he's a strong encourager. Man, if you've been around an encourager, the last thing you want is that guy to go. There are a few people you want around your life as much as Simeon who's an encourager. Right? I mean, life is just a little bit too hard. And people are a little too cynical not to have Simeon like a Barnabas around. So there are all kinds of reasons. In fact, human nature would have told them to keep the team together. Human nature would have told them build on that foundation that you got. Human nature would have said, hey, there's strength and numbers. You got a strong leadership team here. A bigger, stronger team here would mean a much more powerful movement later. Human wisdom might say. But not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit said, hey, it's time to go. Set apart Paul and Barnabas for the ministry I have for them. When the Spirit spoke, there was no choice to trust or not. At least, not for them. They chose to trust. And when trust begins, fear ends. Well, that's how it began. That's how this first missionary journey began. Let's look for a second here about the during time. When they were going out there, what was going on? What was happening? In the absence of fear as they began to step out and trust. And first, remember, it took a lot of trust to do that. If you didn't hold them back, they stepped out. They trusted him. And they went on this journey. And I'm going to step aside a little bit because I'm going to be using the map. Sorry for those over here. The little bit using the map here about this journey here. They stepped out from Antioch. Well, you know, get down even lower. I might help you out for a minute. And they first go to the island of Cyprus. See right down here. A couple cities they visit here along the way. And along the way, they run into a sorcerer. They run into a false prophet. Saw pronounced as a judgment of God on one of them. And they're blinded. I'm doing a quick summary here of these two long chapters here along the way. But they face opposition right away in the midst of this. There's a pro-console there. There's a strong Roman leader there. He actually comes to faith in Christ as a result of this. A result of them moving out and trusting in power as they trusted the Holy Spirit. In the midst of great opposition, they begin to see the power of God work. Immediately, as one key leader comes to faith in Christ, because when trust begins, fear ends. From there, they go to the city of Antioch, which is this area up here. Oh, there's the city right there. From there, they go up and wander up to the city of Antioch. They preach on the Sabbath boldly to Jews and the local synagogue. In fact, it's a pretty amazing story here. At first, the message is received according to the text. You're almost by everybody. All the Jews there at that point are welcoming them, inviting them to speak, and they're loving it. It's going good. In fact, they invite them to say, hey, next week's synagogue time, next Sabbath, you guys need to come back here. Okay, we want to hear some more about it. I mean, could there be a better thing happening at that point? If your Paul and Barnabas out there is going, hey, not only was our message received, or were we given the opportunity to speak, but they want more of it. So they're there. They come back the next week. But the only problem is it's not just the Jews that came back next week. It's the Jews and the Gentiles as well. In fact, we're told almost the entire city comes out. And then we're told as well that jealousy began to fill the hearts of the Jews. It was no longer just an us religion. But now their enemies, the oppressors, those who were the Gentiles, those who were the Romans, were now following it as well too and drawn to it. And something inside them thought, wait a minute. This is supposed to be us. This is supposed to be a comfortable thing. This is supposed to be us strengthened and encouraged and not them. And this jealousy takes root so much so that we're told it shifts them. In fact, they come back and they totally begin to try to turn other Jewish leaders against Paul and Barnabas. Great persecution is raised up against them. They are actually forced and kicked out of the town. I mean, just a week ago they were saying, hey, come back next week and stay. We want more. And now the week later, same message, different context and they're kicked out. Opposition. But we're told in verse 52 of chapter 13 that they were filled with joy with the Holy Spirit. Because I haven't had a good time to start being fearful, right? When you get kicked out of the town and things are starting to go well, you start thinking maybe our method's not so good here. We need to get another strategy here. I mean, the Holy Spirit told us to do A, but maybe we should consider B and C and maybe we should face some different routes. And maybe there was more strengthen numbers back with the other leaders. Let's rally around and circle the wagons. That's not the response at all. They shake the dust off of their shoes and symbolic protests against the city and they keep moving. We're told from there they go on from there down to Diaconian and they're going to eventually go to Derby as well too that they win many Jews and Gentiles to faith in Christ in Iconian specifically. They perform miraculous signs and wonders the text says. What that usually means means that people are being healed. Some are maybe being even raised from the dead. Those are the kinds of things and power that was already being displayed. But with the same miraculous signs and wonders, opposition continues. In fact, opposition gets even harder than it was before. Because not only are they persecuted, they actually stone Paul. Now we saw what Stoning did to Steven, just chapters before this. And when the matter of minutes his life was gone. Well, they thought they had successfully stone Paul. In fact, they dragged him out of the city, leave him outside for dead. And the text says that the disciples gathered around him, presumably probably praying. And Paul gets up, shakes it off. And gets the heck out of Dodge, right? No. Paul heads on, continues on in the ministry. That's been a good time for Paul to say, you know. All right, it's a little time for a little vacation, God. How about we take a little, you know, a little break here from the action. Can we let some of these wounds heal up? I'm not sure if he was instantly healed or if he just was given the strength. My guess is he was given the strength to carry on. And my guess is that there were still some bruises and black eyes and cuts and all kinds of things. But God sustains them. And where fear could enter in, trust. Confident trust in their God who had sent them is what they hang on to. Because when trust begins, fear ends. In fact, we're told from there he's going to go on to, from there to Listera, on the journey. And Paul encounters a crippled man. In fact, a crippled man from birth, chapter 14, verse 8. Why they put that in there? Because they want you to know. They hear a guy that everybody knows has never not even been able to stand up on his own. The people are so amazed because Paul comes in and he speaks and he tells them they rise up and walk in the name of Jesus. And he does it. The people are blown away. In fact, the people are so blown away that they think Barnabas and Paul are actually Zeus and Hermes. They actually think that these are these mystic, mythical gods that have come and been incarnate in their presence. In fact, they're so excited about this. They begin to come and bring and offer sacrifices to them. Now this is kind of like, you know, this is like over success. You know, Paul and Barnabas were looking to find people that would believe them and follow their message. But they were not looking for people to come and make them to be gods. In fact, now maybe in some ways more dangerous situation they've ever been in, they have to try to convince the people that they're not gods. What an amazing story. They passionately persuade that they're not gods. Eventually, the people agree with them, but so much so that again, they are radically drawn to be in opposition against them. And other Jewish leaders who had come in from other cities came in here and tried to stir up dissension against them. One derby were told that the heat preaches faithfully there. When they win many people to faith in Christ, they return back along this entire path. After all this, there's two, three years, they reverse back. And you know what? They could have just taken a little shortcut and gone, whoop, we ever thought about that? They could just go, whoop, or let's catch a boat right here. Right here is a good short boat ride. But no, they go back, city by city. Almost every stop by stop, back, strengthening the disciples were told. The people they had just taught two months, maybe a year earlier, they come back. Hey, how you doing? Incredible trust. Because see when trust begins, fear ends. Now another stage from this is this sweet time of reflection. They come back, and we're told in chapter 14, verse 27, and 28 says this. This is arriving back home. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all the good. I mean, all that God had done through them, and how he had opened the door faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. There's a powerful part of the Spirit's journey here is this time of reflection on this journey. They're reflected in praise God for His work. They're actually celebrating the truth that when trust begins, fear ends. So you have this picture, you have this journey that they're going on. But let me ask you for a second. Not about their journey, which has been a real quick summary. You'll need to read that on your own this week to get the details. But your journey, the Holy Spirit's journey with you. Because again, each of us who were a follower of Christ are on that. And if you're not a follower of Christ and you're here, I'm really glad you're here on that. Because it's important for you to see what being a follower of Christ entails. And entails not only submitting and calling Jesus Lord and Savior, but entails submitting to the Spirit. And following His Spirit, and this is what He's called, His followers to do. To be on a journey with Him. See, the Holy Spirit is still working with Plant A. There is no Plant B, C-D-E-F or whatever else. There's only Plant A with God. And the Holy Spirit is still busy at it. Some Spirit led journeys might take some people to other countries and across borders. It took the duly's, the other country the last couple of years. It looks like it might be taking the Martins to another country and across the border. We'll hear from them a little bit later this morning. But the Holy Spirit is called each of us to go. And it may be only across the lunchroom. It may be only across the kitchen table. It may be across the street or across the coffee shop or across the cubicle at work. It may be across the lines of a broken relationship. It may be across the bleachers at a soccer game. It's across somewhere, though. The Holy Spirit has called us each to be on a journey. Not because God is not capable of publicizing His own power and greatness, because He does it all the time, by the way with creation, doesn't He? But because He wants people who have been transformed by His mercy and grace, to have the honor and the privilege to share it with others. It's living testimonies, of His goodness, of His power. Now, it's one thing to come up and tell Smyamankin, can you look at that sunrise or look at that ocean or look at that incredible flower blooming there? People will go, wow, that is pretty incredible. That's another thing altogether to say, hey, can you look at the power of God that has transformed who I am, who has set me free? Let me tell you about how I used to be. Let me tell you what used to be important to me, and why something completely different now is, and why I live my life completely differently. That takes on a whole new power as well too. He calls each of us to a start. And the spirits journeys for each of us have three stages at least as well too. There's a beginning stage. Whoops, let me go back. There's a beginning stage here that we're looking at here at first with us. And many of you are here, maybe most of you are here. I'm not sure. This is a stage right now where you're contemplating. What has God calling you to do, perhaps? What is the next step for you? And the question you might have here this morning is, how do you start? How do you follow the Holy Spirit and the journey he has for you? And let me just encourage you that you start with the same way that Paul and Barnivus and the other leaders did. You start with a posture, a trust. You start taking the steady focus and prayer and worship seriously. You start listening to the Holy Spirit. Why do you do things like fasting? And some of us are doing that with the lent season and things like that. Well, fasting is not a way to beef up your resume so God will speak louder to you. Fasting is like taking your cell phone when you're in a concert, okay? And stepping outside of the concert, putting your finger over the ear, getting in a quiet corner so you can concentrate. That's probably a better picture of what fasting is. Because if you really want to hear from God, we're given wonderful tools like fasting. Jesus says not if you fast, Jesus says when you fast, do it so your father in heaven will see. Fasting is a characteristic of people that want to clearly and focus and move distractions away from hearing the voice of God in their life. Because the Holy Spirit is still speaking. He's still leading his people wherever God is, the father is leading them, and then responding in obedience. Now let's be honest, this might sound a little too religious. This might sound a little bit way too out there. A little too fanatic or a little too extreme. But I believe this is why the church in the USA is currently resembling one that is much more driven by fear than one that's driven by trust. At least in my lifetime, looking back, I think, characteristically. I see the church being displayed and then pockets and rightfully so on a story's out there of what it looks like a church that's much more fearful about what's happening with society than confidently trusting God, the one who's transforming hearts and lies all over the world. Who does it again and again? The one who has said that he will build his church and the gates of hell won't prevail. The one who has said the fields are white with harvest. It's not a lack of people, it's a lack of workers. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would send workers in the field. That's what a church that looks like that's working in trust. See, many of you maybe have heard the phrase fear ends where faith begins. And I thought about using that all over in the sermon this morning. What I don't like about fear ends where faith begins is that it seems to put the emphasis on fear. You can just get rid of fear in your life. Man, the gosh, there's all kinds of room for faith. You got to get rid of that fear. I think when trust begins, fear ends is a much better way of saying, you know, start with trust. Don't think about getting rid of the fear, start with trust. Here's a little illustration, submarines, which I think are pretty cool in general. You know, the way they dive, right, is they have these ballast tanks on the front and the back, and they fill them with seawater. And that's probably a pretty easy part, right? You just open up some valves and pull. Seawater rushes in, and now what has been buoyant or whatever has is sinking, and the engines will take it down, and it dives. But for, you know, US submarine, by the way, which, if it's one that carries missiles, which most of them do, it weighs about 17,000 tons or 34,000 pounds. That's a big piece of metal, okay, floating in the water. But did you know that you can get a submarine almost completely airborne when it has to emergency surface when it blows its ballast tanks with compressed air? A submarine can surface and come out of the water like this by not pumping. They don't pump the water out. They, they send compressed air into those same tanks, and the water is expelled out. They just have to open those same vents that let it in, but now compressed air forces it out. That's a better picture, I think, of what it looks like and should look like for those of us from Christ. See, we get so caught up in the enemy, I think, loves this. He's like, man, you're pretty fearful. You're, you're fearful, dude. You're fearful, lady. And we start thinking, fear less, fear less, I got to quit, fear, and quit, fearing. And what does Jesus do when Peter is sinking in the water that he's just commanded him to come out and walk to him on? You know, Peter reaches out, keeps his eyes. He doesn't sink while his eyes are fixed on Jesus, his eyes, he sinks when he looks around at the water and the waves crashing around him. And it takes Jesus hand reaching, grabbing him up. Trust when trust begins, fear ends. It's not looking at your circumstance, it's just looking at him. Ballast tanks are much like hearts when we look at that. When trust begins, fear ends. Well, today is St. Patrick's Day, so that would be very important for us to talk for a second about our 5th century and 5th century saint. Many of you probably know he lived in coastal city of England, but some of you may or may not know that age 16 he was abducted by Irish pirates, taken from his family at age 16. He was there while he was actually abducted, while he was as a slave carrying for pigs, came to faith in Christ. Here's a quote from him. He says, I was 16 and I knew not the true God, but in a strange land the Lord opened my unbelieving eyes and I was converted, feeding pigs. His testimony goes on and says that while he was convinced, or that he was, I'm sorry, convinced that during his kidnapping, during his homesickness there while he was away from home, those were actually the opportunities that he came to walk diligently with his faith with Christ. He came back to be grateful for those. Here's another quote from him. He says, anything that happens to me, he wrote, whether pleasant or distasteful, I ought to accept with serenity, giving thanks to God who never disappoints. That's a guy who was taken captive from his family who was enslaved for years. In fact, six years he was enslaved before he was able to escape. Where trust begins, fear ends. We're told that not long after he'd escaped and gotten back home, guess what? He felt the call of God to go back to Ireland and to serve there as a missionary. The place he had been enslaved, the place he would think probably for how many years did he think, man, I want to get away from here and never come back or come back and read judgment on these guys that took me away from my home. But what does he do instead? He goes back. In fact, he buys a boat with his own money. He sells back and he spent the rest of his life there serving and leading many to faith in Christ. And that is why, largely, we have a St. Patrick's Day, while we still celebrate it here today. He didn't focus on eliminating his fear. He focused on the goodness of God who had rescued him in the midst of fear and who was now his. And if you have him, you can go anywhere, even back to where you've been captive, even back to Ireland. This is why the disciples who had been terrified in the boat during the storm of Jesus. They become more terrified after Jesus gets up, wakes up, and with the spoken words is, shhh, quiet. Now, if I do that loud enough in my house, my kids were small. You did get quiet. Not anymore. But I had some power. But every single molecule of water and the sea galley, every single current of air bowed to the king of kings at that moment. It went perfectly still. You would have been more terrified of Jesus in the boat, too, than the storm. These experienced sailors, fishermen, where trust begins, fear ends. I mean, I love that picture. Well, some of you are here. Some of you are in the daring phase. Some of you have stepped out and trusted and followed the Holy Spirit. Here's a key danger I want to warn you. And I hope that many of us are on this phase here, who have stepped out and said, God, trust you. I'm taking some risks. I believe you're calling me to do. I'm seeking to follow you with my life. I hope many of us find us here. But notice that there are some dangers in this phase. So one of the dangers is that we can move from trusting God to trying to please God. We can move from trusting Him, which is what started this whole thing. God sent the Holy Spirit to Paul and Barnabas and they simply obeyed and they trusted God. To trying to please God. And it looks like this. We've all prayed to this when we are engulfed by our sin, more than engulfed by the love of God. Now, we all sinned and we will all continue to sin. But instead of spending days beat up by your sin, how about spending days overwhelmed with the grace of mercy of God that's forgiven you? Even knowing that you would sin two thousand years later. Jesus on the cross, being God, I miss you, knew that and died for you anyway. How about letting that engulf you? We follow this trap sometimes when we shock ourselves when we sin or don't measure up rather than staying shocked with the ravenous God, love of God for us. We fall prey to this when we believe that we have something that we believe we have to be something for others that we know we aren't before God and ourselves. Did you hear that? We believe we have to be something for others that we know we aren't before God and ourselves. God says simply come as you are. When we begin to live our lives as we've got to be something for Sonny else. We've got to please God or please others. It's exchanging trust in God with pleasing God. There's a reason why Hebrews 116 says without faith it's impossible to please God. It's not saying pleasing God is not important, but it tells you how to please God. Trusting in Him, John Lynch, Bruce Nicholson, Bill Thrall in their book The Cure say this. This statement referring to this verse, they say shows us the path we must take. Only trusting can we truly please God. If our primary motive is pleasing God, we'll never please Him enough and we'll never learn to trust. Pleasing God is a good desire. It just can't be our primary motivation or it will imprison our hearts. When our primary motive becomes trusting God, however, we suddenly discover that there is nothing in the world that pleases Him more. Until you trust God, nothing you do will please God. Pleasing is not a means to our godliness. It's the fruit of our godliness, for it's the fruit of trust. Many of you are sucked into the pleasing God syndrome right now. And it's imprisoning your heart. And God wants to say, you who, I'm right here. Colossians 26, just as you receive Christ, so walk in Him. He wants to say, hey, Mr. or Mrs. My daughter, my son, did you really come to me in the first place giving me your resume? And was I so impressed that I said, all right, you get eternal life. Those other people, but you get it because that's a darn good resume. Or did you say come to me all who are weary and heavy laden? And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is light or easy. Jesus said, that wasn't just the beginning of your walk with me. That is the walk with me, day in, day out, trusting. That's the missionary journey. I have a man out taking to the city in Antioch, but let me tell you that will take you through that struggling marriage. That will take you through that difficult decision. That will take you through personal illness struggles. That will take you through a broken relationship. It's powerful. When trust begins, fear ends. Lastly, some of you might be at this reflection stage and I hope some of you are had a chance here where you've been at a plot spot. You've been in a season. And don't forget to stop and pause and reflect to tell all the stories of God's goodness. By the way, telling the stories of God's goodness from your past is awfully powerful to encourage you in the moment and thinking forward. Tell the stories to yourself. Tell them to your friends and family. Tell them to those you just make in the coffee shop. Remember his faithfulness, dream of the next journey ahead. Paul, after this journey, has at least three or four more journeys. You probably didn't even know that at the time. God was just getting warmed up. You probably have at least three or four more journeys in the big picture of life. I don't know what God's got in store, but he's moving. He's working. We all get to reflect probably on our life at some point. We all have a chance to look back. Whether it's just because we've gotten older and we know that our days are not as many as there were before. Or some of us might be on a deathbed and have a chance to look back. But at some point in the stage, we all have opportunities. We can look back even now in our period of lives that we've had. What will that look like? What will we think about? What reflections will there be? Some of you probably saw this video. This is a video where NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon, disguised himself in the picture on the right as a guy wanting to test drive a car. He's a little nervous about driving this Camaro. So the salesman is trying to woo him in. You might have seen this video already. It's gotten pretty viral out there. Another debate about what was real, what wasn't on it. But tell you what, this guy is a really good actor. He was really freaked out in it. So here you got the race car expert coming in here. And this guy goes on a test drive of his life. All right. He's totally freaking out. All right. He's glad that seat belt, there it is. That seat belt is on through the midst of this. All right. Through this entire journey on it, this guy thinks he's about to die. Until he gets to the end where he's finally revealed that this, you know, it's just a prank. It's Jeff Gordon, the car race driver. And the guy finally, you know, can take a deep breath. And what is his last words, which are priceless? You know, he's just threatened to call the police on the guy. He says, can we do it again? Wouldn't have been so much more fun to be able to buckle in and put that seat belt on gone. Jeff Gordon's driving, proceed. Okay. I wonder how many of us will be at the end of our lives or be with the Lord one day. What mean his loving arms? So there's not guilt about this. But go, gosh, I wish I could do that again. Knowing that he is the one that's driving. Knowing he is the one, it's his spirit that's calling me to step out in faith. Gosh, why didn't I just go for it? You know, why did I let fear grab hold of me versus trust? Gosh, I knew I was going to end up here one day in his presence. And it was going to be sweet and fine and good. And everything was going to work out fine in the end. And I just say, God, let's do it here on earth. Let's go for it. So here's a question. Where are you? You take this little arrow and you put it. I don't know where you're at. But if your follower of Jesus Christ has speared his speaking to you. And wherever you're at, he wants to encourage you to trust him. To move forward. And to never forget this kid's face. When trust begins, fear ends. Because that face he wants to be yours. Let's pray. God, I just ask that your power would work and move. And that you would come reminding us, Father, if you're goodness, if you're mercy and your grace. That you would come and work in power and strength and our power and our midst. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.