Enduring Life's Punches with Faith -- Derek Grier
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00:00I want you to imagine a boxer.
00:02A boxer going into the ring and, you know, he's, you know, on his toes and jabs and all
00:08the rest.
00:09And then the other guy in the ring punches him back right in the mouth.
00:14Imagine that that boxer just, oh, God, I don't know.
00:17How does...
00:18God, how could...
00:19It's boxing.
00:24We are fighting the good fight of faith.
00:29It's a conflict.
00:31There's supposed to be opposition.
00:34Does that make sense to you?
00:37Somebody said if God didn't let bad things happen, we would already be in heaven.
00:43How can we expect to do big things, good things in a fallen world without facing some opposition?
00:59We're going to be in Acts chapter 5 and verse 12.
01:09And through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people.
01:18So the church in the book of Acts was founded on the power of God.
01:27But likewise, we need to understand that God intended for it to continue in the power
01:32of God.
01:33Now I turn on the radio and I look at stuff on the Internet and I find preachers, sometimes
01:40even theologians, trying to convince me that miracles no longer happen.
01:47But they're too late.
01:49I've seen it with my own eyes.
01:51I've seen it in my own life.
01:54God never changes.
01:55He will never leave me nor forsake me.
01:57God never fails.
02:01And then it says they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.
02:08Now if you've been in ministry for any length of time, you understand that this may have
02:12been even a greater miracle than casting out demons and healing the sick.
02:17Because one of the most difficult things you'll ever do is try to help people get along.
02:25Because invariably, petty jealousies, unwillingness to share, refusal to check emotions.
02:31How many know some folk like that?
02:33Yeah.
02:34The need to be right, stubbornness, superiority, all those things tend to come into play.
02:39And the apostle's job, and in our case, a pastor's job is not always easy.
02:45And one of the most spiritual things that a church member can do is go home, be good
02:52to your family, and then come back to church and repeat.
02:56Skip to verse 14.
02:59And in this environment, earlier in the chapter, Ananias and Sapphira died, so there was a
03:06level of purity that came.
03:09But here we see power and we see unity.
03:14And in this environment, believers were increasingly added to the Lord.
03:19Multitudes of both men and women.
03:21And that's one of the things I love about Grace is we have a high number of both men
03:26and women.
03:27It's not just the ladies, it's men and women.
03:33But one of the reasons this church was growing is, yeah, it had strong leadership.
03:37But again, the power of the Holy Spirit combined with the unity of its people resulted in growth.
03:45So if you're a pastor listening, stop, just stop.
03:50Stop altogether trying to be big.
03:52Stop it.
03:54Focus on trying to make your church healthy and the growth will take care of itself.
04:00And even in making your church healthy, first you become healthy and then surround yourself
04:06with healthy people.
04:08And then, you know, unhealthy people tend to be unhappy people.
04:11How many of y'all know that's true?
04:14And people unhappy with themselves are seldom happy with others and certainly not you.
04:21And nobody, especially folks that don't know the Lord, want to be around people who don't
04:26like them.
04:27So there was an environment of love and togetherness and unity and just a welcoming spirit in this
04:33congregation that caused it to increase as it was increasing.
04:39Verse 17, then the high priest rose up.
04:43And, you know, when something good is happening, there's always going to be a problem somewhere.
04:47And all those who were with him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, the Sadducees,
04:53you know, were Sadducees because they didn't believe in the resurrection.
04:56And they didn't believe in the supernatural power of God.
04:59Just like many churches, you know, they just kind of believe in a book, but they don't
05:03believe God really does anything today.
05:06So and not only that, they didn't believe in the whole book.
05:09They just believed in the first five books of the Bible.
05:13And they saw the success of these unlearned apostles and they were filled with indignation,
05:20which is a big word for jealousy.
05:23So they got the evil eye, if you will.
05:26And when they did that, as soon as they did that, whenever you yield to competition and
05:32all the rest, you become a spiritual loser.
05:36Because winners focus on winning, losers only focus on the winners.
05:42Let me say it differently.
05:45Losers try to fix the blame, winners try to fix whatever causes the problem.
05:52So the disciples were out there fixing lives, healing the sick, raising the dead, changing
06:00folk.
06:01People were shifting and adjusting and people started gravitating toward the disciples and
06:07they stopped listening as much to the Sadducees because they were Sadducees because they didn't
06:12really believe in the power of God.
06:15And when they heard it and saw it, instead of changing and repenting, say, well you know
06:19what, if they're doing that, you know, God loves me too.
06:22If I would just fall in line with Christ, I could do the same thing.
06:25But verse 18, they didn't do that.
06:27And they laid their hands on the apostles, and watch this, and put them in a common prison.
06:32Now here is the paradox of God's power, particularly in the lives of people in which His power
06:40shows up.
06:42You know, we kind of ask ourselves, how could a congregation, how could these men with such
06:47power from God end up so persecuted?
06:50This is really important.
06:52Faith that cannot be tested cannot be trusted.
06:58So if you want to continue in the power that God has in your life, you're going to have
07:02to go through some tests.
07:06You know, the will of God will not take you where the will of God or the grace of God
07:09can't keep you.
07:11And like the three Hebrew boys, how many remember the three Hebrew boys?
07:16You know, they were like, well listen, I don't know what God's going to do, but let me tell
07:19you something, Mr. King, I'm not bowing down to you.
07:22And they threw the three Hebrew boys in the fire.
07:26But as the king watched, they saw a fourth man in the fire, and then over time, the three
07:32boys didn't burn.
07:33And this is the big point.
07:35Sometimes God chooses to protect you from the fire.
07:39Other times He chooses to protect you in the fire.
07:43Either way, God is faithful.
07:48So we say, Lord, if you loved me, I would have never went in the fire.
07:51God said, I love you, and I'm going to keep you while you're in the midst of the fire
07:54and flame.
07:55And you know, those three boys not only came out alive, they came out not smelling like
08:00smoke, meaning they weren't bitter.
08:02They weren't bitter.
08:04They weren't angry about the situation.
08:05Let's move on, because of time.
08:08But at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them, what, out.
08:13This is important.
08:14God cannot get you out unless He first lets you go in.
08:22Going doesn't mean God has failed.
08:26It just means He's not done yet.
08:31And the angel said, listen, guys, I'm sorry that, you know, following God has put you
08:38in this very, very difficult situation.
08:40I'm sorry that God didn't show Himself strong.
08:43I really want to apologize to you for the difficult situation your faith has put you
08:49in.
08:50No.
08:51But what the angel said is go stand in the temple and go back to doing what you were
08:56doing before and speak to the people all the words of this life.
09:02Here's a question.
09:03What would you think of a football player who, you know, got on the football field,
09:08lined up, and then he saw 11 players on the other side, and he fell down and started weeping
09:14because he knew that those 11 men were going to try to do everything in their power to
09:18stop him from getting to where he wanted to go?
09:21Likewise, sometimes in the faith, we just think that earth's supposed to be heaven,
09:27but God said, we're to pray God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
09:32If it was already done, we wouldn't have to pray.
09:33Do you hear what I'm saying?
09:35In this life, we're going to deal with stuff in opposition.
09:39And what would you think of that football player?
09:41It's like, man, you are not ready.
09:42I don't care how gifted, how talented you are.
09:45You are not ready.
09:46I want you to imagine a boxer.
09:48A boxer going into the ring, and, you know, he's on his toes and jabs and all the rest.
09:55And then the other guy in the ring punches him back right in the mouth.
10:00Imagine if that boxer just, oh God, I don't know, how does, God, how could, it's boxing.
10:10We are fighting the good fight of faith.
10:14It's a conflict.
10:17There's supposed to be opposition.
10:20Does that make sense to you?
10:23Somebody said if God didn't let bad things happen, we would already be in heaven.
10:29How can we expect to do big things, good things in a fallen world without facing some opposition?
10:39And when they heard it, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught.
10:46I love these guys.
10:49Despite the conflict that it created, they kept doing what God called them to do.
10:54And in fact, one thing I respect about these men so much is they knew how to take a punch.
11:01How many of y'all are old enough to remember Ali's rope-a-dope?
11:03Yeah.
11:04You see, some times in God's strategy and in God's plan, He lets our adversaries punch
11:13out before we can go on the offensive.
11:20You see, I don't always know how long I am necessarily going to be on the ropes, but
11:26Scripture says, having done all to stand, stand therefore.
11:31Yeah, I may be taking some blows and some hits, and it may hurt, and each time it hurts,
11:37you know, I feel it, but here's the deal.
11:40If I continue to stand for God, God will continue to stand for me.
11:45But we at times have to learn to stand.
11:49We are dealing — listen, this is a race where there are opponents and there are things
11:55in our way.
11:58But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together with the elders
12:02of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought.
12:06Now Peter and John had already been put in prison, but this was the first time that all
12:1212 apostles were in prison or incarcerated at the same time.
12:16But their commitment, their unity to the gospel was so strong that not one of them flinched
12:23under pressure.
12:25But when the officers came and did not find them in the prison, they returned and reported
12:31saying, indeed, we found the prison shut secretly or securely and the guards standing outside
12:37before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside.
12:44This was a bona fide miracle.
12:48But God did this to show the Sanhedrin that as powerful as they were, as respected as
13:01they were amongst the people, God remained in ultimate control.
13:06But the second reason I believe God did this was to show us God has no shortage of power
13:12to get us out of any prison we may find ourselves in.
13:19We will suffer at times, but not because God has a lack of power to stop it, but often
13:31because God is working out a higher purpose.
13:35Ali was on the ropes taking those hits, I mean a pounding and this way, that way, flinching.
13:41It hurt and his hands wanted to come down, but he stood there because he knew at the
13:47right time this thing would turn around.
13:52And sometimes in God's wisdom, he sets it up where we got to learn to take a punch before
14:01God will show Himself strong.
14:05Sometimes God saves you from the fire.
14:09Other times He keeps you and preserves you while you're in the fire.
14:19Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priest heard these things,
14:25they wondered what the outcome would be.
14:29And when God is really at work, it will make you wonder and those watching wonder.
14:36Ali said every time I try to put God in a box, I end up sweeping up pieces of broken
14:41cardboard.
14:42How many of you know that's true about what God will do with your particular box?
14:47So one came and told them saying, look, the men whom you've put in prison are standing
14:54in the temple defying you and teaching the people.
15:00Always keep in mind God set you free so you can set others free.
15:06Even your freedom has a purpose, so don't take it for granted.
15:11You say, well I'm not free, I got all these problems.
15:13Let me tell you something, you better be grateful for the problem you had because there was
15:17a much bigger problem that was on your way, but God said I'm not going to let that happen,
15:22but I will let this happen.
15:24And it is mercy you only have the problems you have.
15:30Even the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared
15:35the people lest they should be stoned.
15:38Now again, you would think that if God had miraculously brought them out the last time
15:43that, you know, he would keep them from being arrested again, that he, you know, no harm
15:49would ever happen to them again.
15:51But again, God reserves the right to protect us from the problem or to protect us in the
15:57problem.
15:59Either way, he's faithful.
16:03And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked
16:08them saying, did we not strictly command you, another attempt to intimidate the apostles,
16:17not to teach in this name?
16:21The only reason our adversary tries to intimidate us is because it usually works.
16:28Most of us, not you, but some other people, the first flash of trouble, we throw our hands
16:36up and we began to run.
16:39But these guys were confident in their God and had a fiery love for God's people, so
16:46much so they refused to back down.
16:51And then the high priest continues.
16:52You got to understand he's in all his regalia.
16:55The Sanhedrin had 70 individuals that were a part of it and you just have these 12 men
17:00looking at these very learned, powerful individuals, all of Rome back the Sanhedrin or Sanhedrin
17:07and they said, look, you fill Jerusalem with your doctrine.
17:13And by the way, this is what we're trying to do each and every week, fill the earth,
17:17fill our region, fill our communities with the message of God's love and God's grace.
17:23When you intend to bring this man's blood, watch this, on us, they recognize that it
17:29really wasn't the Romans that killed Jesus as much as they did.
17:33They put the Romans up to it.
17:35And here's the deal, Christ's blood only judges those who reject His mercy.
17:41You see, this is really important.
17:43Rejecting Jesus is not about rejecting a religion.
17:49It's about rejecting God's only way for forgiveness.
17:54You see, no mercy was shown to Jesus on the cross, so all of God's mercy could be shown
18:02to you and to me.
18:07But Peter and the other apostles were made of something.
18:12And they answered and said, again, they looked, this council of 70, again, these guys, many
18:20of them memorized much of the Old Testament.
18:22I mean, they went to the harbors, the Princetons, the Yales, the Oxfords, I mean, these were
18:27the guys, they, you know, hobnobbed with royalty and this whole thing.
18:34Peter, this fisherman, looked him in the eye and said, we ought to obey God rather than man.
18:44You see, the fear of God is not being afraid of Him.
18:50It's being afraid of being away from Him.
18:55And you know, life can be scary and people can be scary.
18:59Frankly, even as a pastor, y'all can at times be a little bit scary.
19:05But as scary as life may be and people may be, as much as I love you, you don't have
19:14a hell to put me in.
19:15And as much as I care about you and don't want to hurt your feelings or all the rest,
19:28sometimes you have to make a choice, well, am I more concerned about hurting your feelings
19:35and you kind of pushing me back?
19:38Or me hurting God's feelings and Him pushing me away?
19:42You see, the fear of God is not being afraid of Him, as I said, it's being afraid of being
19:49away from Him.
19:52And even with the concept of sin, I don't even hate sin as much as always I ought.
19:57But I tell you one thing I do hate is being away from Him.
20:00And if there's anything in my life that gets in the way of being with Him, that thing is
20:05gone.
20:06That thing goes on the shelf.
20:07And when you love Him, when you really love Him, that's the way you approach it.
20:15But Peter and other apostles answered and said, again, we ought to fear or obey God
20:20rather than fear.
20:21But skip to verse 40 and you could read Gamaliel's speech on your own.
20:25In verse 40, it said, and they agreed with Him.
20:30And when they had called for the apostles, watch this, and had beaten them.
20:39Didn't God just miraculously get them out of prison?
20:44Couldn't God have used that same power to stop the beating?
20:52You see, sometimes God protects us from the fire.
20:56Other times He protects us in the fire.
21:01But we pray, Lord, Thy will be done on earth.
21:05Not my, Thy will be done.
21:08And at times, we say He's Lord, but for Him to be Lord, we have to accept whatever path,
21:15whatever road He chooses to take us through.
21:21Sometimes He keeps you out of the fire, protects you from the fire, but other times He keeps
21:27you while you're in the fire.
21:32Either way, God remains faithful.
21:38The ultimate proof of God's faithfulness is not necessarily always keeping bad things
21:45from happening.
21:48It's the promise that He will be with us even if bad things happen.
21:58And they commanded these 12 fishermen who had been with Jesus that they should not speak
22:06in the name of Jesus anymore.
22:09Stop preaching the way you preach.
22:10Leave certain subjects off the table.
22:12Don't talk about that.
22:13Don't say that.
22:14You could be somewhat religious, but just leave certain things alone.
22:20Commanded them to no longer speak in the name of Jesus and let them go, so they departed
22:26from the presence of the council, watch this though, rejoicing.
22:31Now these were men of good reputation.
22:36Now, you know, Christ was crucified, but He was a very, very famous rabbi.
22:44And these men were very, very well-known and known by this chapter.
22:48Already miracles had started to happen through these men, and nothing was more disgraceful
22:54than a public whipping.
22:57But I want you to understand that these men took it.
23:00You know, when you're beaten, I mean really beaten the way these men were beaten.
23:04As a matter of fact, the term translated beaten from the Greek literally means to be skinned.
23:11The 39 stripes that were given to these men was not only just to humiliate them, it caused
23:19tremendous pain.
23:20In fact, it was so painful that many people died just from the beating.
23:26And often when you were beating, you'd relieve yourself.
23:29You'd be shaking and quivering, and it's not something you ever want, you'd almost
23:36want to plead, and you're going through tremendous pain.
23:39Not only are you doing that in front of the public, you're doing this in front of your
23:42family, your children see, or Peter had a wife, by the way, his wife saw.
23:47But the Bible says they departed from the presence of the council, watch this, rejoicing.
23:54Did they rejoice because they were sadistic and they're into pain and, you know, that's
23:57the thing?
23:58No.
23:59Watch the reason they rejoiced.
24:03Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer.
24:12They rejoiced because they were honored that the devil saw them as so much of a threat
24:21that they were reduced to Sanhedrin to stoop to this level.
24:26They also recognized that on a Friday night, Christ was beaten above any other man.
24:34But on the third day, He came back again.
24:39And as I often say to you, the worst day of your life doesn't have to be the last day
24:47of your life.
24:49But what I want you to understand is Ali did not invent the rope-a-dope.
24:56Jesus was beaten, and in fact, He looked defeated before the comeback.
25:05And if you are a follower of Christ, at times you're going to be beaten.
25:10At times you're going to look defeated before the comeback.
25:15But if you follow Christ and keep doing the thing God assigned you to do until you can
25:23say like Jesus said, it is finished, God will turn around and get you back up again.
25:30This is very, very important.
25:35These men did not believe in gold-crusted Christianity.
25:43We wear crosses as jewelry and style, even people that don't love Jesus wear crosses.
25:55But a cross was a disgrace.
25:59It was the worst form of suffering known at that time and in that day.
26:04It was humiliating.
26:05And you know, the Babylonians and the Medes, you know, impaled people, and that was awful,
26:12you know, stick a stick through people and just let them die.
26:15But the Romans were like, we're going to do one better.
26:18When impaling, they die too quickly.
26:21We're going to just nail them so they can suffer as long as possible in the pain.
26:27So the cross is not a small thing.
26:35But Jesus went through the cross.
26:38He took the blows.
26:40He took it, took it, took it, took it, took it.
26:44And here's the deal, He didn't take those blows because God couldn't get them out or
26:48He couldn't stop it.
26:50He said, listen, if I'd call a legion of angels pilot, I'd stop this whole thing.
26:57But He took it for you and for me and He just took it, He laid on the ropes and it looked
27:02like He was down and out.
27:05Can Jesus ever come back?
27:09But the disciples had faith in the cross.
27:14They recognized with every cross, there'll be a crown.
27:18With every bad Friday, there will be a Sunday.
27:22So as bad as they were beating, they recognized God is somehow up to something.
27:28He's going to work this out for good.
27:30And if you're going through trouble, recognize God might be working on something.
27:35Just hold your ground, stay there, keep the right attitude, stay strong in the Lord,
27:41and in the power of His might, just keep standing, and eventually God will turn it around.
27:47He'll go on the offensive and do what you could never, ever, ever do in your own strength.
27:53Give God a hallelujah for being a God.
27:58Bigger than any problem, bigger than any situation.
28:01God is a breakthrough.
28:02Turn around.
28:04You got, you got to sit down and just say, you got to remember, remember in the Bible,
28:09the way the whole book starts is darkness covered the earth, and the Holy Spirit was
28:16moving.
28:20In your darkest hour, that's when the Holy Spirit wants to move upon the face of the
28:24water and create something new and fresh in your life.
28:29It started with darkness, then came day.
28:33You know, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
28:37Hang on to the morning.
28:39Keep taking the hits until morning comes.
28:41The sun will rise.
28:43You will get back up again.
28:45He's a good God, faithful God, and the same God that raised Jesus from the dead will turn
28:50your situation around.
28:54Yes He will.
28:55Yes He will.
28:56Yes He will.
28:57Yes He will.
29:07Verse 42, and I'm done.
29:14And daily in the temple, and in every house now.
29:20Most of the miracles were done at the temple, but now the miracles are done from house to
29:24house.
29:25You see, because they faced their pain with the right attitude, Jesus forgave from the
29:33cross.
29:34When you're in your pain, can you forgive and let people go like He did?
29:42They faced the pain of this terrible beating, and you say, well what good could come out
29:49of getting beat?
29:51But what it did is it increased the disciples' credibility.
29:55You see, so many people, you know, they want to preach and teach until it costs them something.
30:01And if anyone knew whether or not the crucifixion and the resurrection was real, it was these
30:06men.
30:08And when they were willing to suffer for that which they proclaimed to be true, their credibility
30:14increased.
30:16And that person you're trying to reach, they're not going to believe you often until they
30:21see you suffer.
30:23Until you go through some pain and some inconvenience and you're still lifting your hands to God
30:27talking about Jesus loves you, God is for you, and I love you, and we're going to work
30:33this out.
30:34Do you understand what I'm saying?
30:36Just because you can rhyme well and stand up and talk well don't make you a Christian.
30:42You got to be able to live this thing.
30:44Wake up and go to sleep and deal with difficulty and forgive and let go and then watch God
30:52do what only God can do.
30:59So the disciples here were living out their faith, and because of it, their credibility
31:07went to a whole other level and in fact, they became so popular that the Sanhedrin wouldn't
31:13even touch them for a season because they were so popular and people so trusted and
31:20respected them because they were willing to put their lives behind the things they preached.
31:27And daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching
31:32Jesus as the Christ.
31:36It seems today that we have different doctrine than these apostles.
31:44We believe if God is for us, everything is always going to be hunky-dory.
31:49The sun is always going to be shining bright, not too hot, not too cold.
31:55Everything is going to just be perfect.
31:59And the disciples recognized they followed a gritty Jesus, a Jesus that walked through
32:09difficult times, even the worst of times, and got up again.
32:14And if you're going to really be a follower of Christ, you got to let God put that same
32:19grit in your heart.
32:24These men continued where many today stop.
32:31And there are people listening, and I think this is why I preached this message today,
32:37who stop running their race because someone hurt you.
32:42You stop running the race because something unfair happened to you and say where was God?
32:50You stop running your race because things didn't go the way you thought they should
32:58in the time you thought they should, and if God could do that, why didn't He do this?
33:05But last I checked, God is God.
33:10He's wiser, He's been around longer.
33:14He knows the best thing for every situation in our lives.
33:21And sometimes God not only wants to make us free, He's as interested in making us strong.
33:32And they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
33:43They stayed at it, they didn't walk away, they took it, and God did what only God could
33:53do and turned it around.
33:58No mercy was shown to Jesus on the cross.
34:04So all of God's mercy could be shown to you and to me.
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34:38God bless you.