Found Faithful Series

Found Faithful

Acts 18:1-17

According to legend, the devil once advertised his tools for sale at public auction. When the prospective buyers assembled, there was one oddly shaped tool, which was labeled “Not for sale.” When asked to explain why this one tool would not be auctioned off to the highest bidder, the devil answered, “I can spare my other tools, but I cannot spare this one. It is the most useful and effective implement that I have. It is called Discouragement, and with it I can work my way into hearts that are otherwise inaccessible. When I get this tool wedged into a man’s heart, the way is open to plant anything there I may desire.”

If there is one thing that is constant it is that we all are subject to discouragement. There is no shortage of discouragements to hinder us from accomplishing the work of God in our lives.

I’ve told you before that one of the reasons we know the Bible is true is because it doesn’t present people of God as these whitewashed, highly varnished, untouchable spiritual giants. Rather, the Bible is full of people of God who at times became susceptible to that most wicked tool – discouragement. Just consider a few discouraged heroes:

Moses

The Greatest leader of the OT; he was handpicked by God himself! He had God’s power on his life in spectacular ways. But the complaining of the people got to him so profoundly that he prayed this prayer to God in Numbers 11: 14“I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” Numbers 11:14-15

Joshua

Greatest General in Israel’s history; he was handpicked by God to lead Israel into the Promised Land. But after Israel had a victory over the city of Jericho, their next battle was against the small town of Ai. So small it only had two vowels in its name – Ai. But because of sin among the people, the Jewish army got whipped by little-bitty Ai. Notice how Joshua responded to this defeat: “Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites? to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!” Joshua 7:7

Elijah

Greatest prophet of OT. Joshua got discouraged after his biggest military defeat. Elijah got discouraged after his biggest prophetic victory. You know the story… he challenged the prophets of Baal to a face off, calling down fire from heaven to consume their offerings.

In 1 Kings 18 the prophets of Baal are wailing and crying out to their god to send fire down to consume their offering. Nothing, crickets. So Elijah mocks them, “Maybe he’s asleep, or perhaps he’s in the bathroom relieving himself.” That’s literally what Elijah said. So they ramp up their wailing and start cutting themselves. Still nothing happens. So Elijah sets up his altar to the Lord, tells them to drench the altar with water, to fill the trench around the altar with water. He prays to God and miraculously God sends fire down. The fire consumes the offering on the altar, the wood of the altar, and the stones of the altar, and laps up all the water in the trenches surrounding the altar. All the people bow down and say, “Yahweh is God!”

But in the very next chapter, right after his greatest prophetic victory, in 1 Kings 19:4 notice what Elijah says to the Lord: But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life. 1 Kings 19:4

After his greatest victory he experienced his deepest season of discouragement where he literally asked God to take away his life.

But it’s not just OT believers that got discouraged, we find discouragement in the pages of the NT as well. Case and point is the subject of the passage before us today, the apostle Paul. We are in Acts 18. And in this passage we find Paul on his second missionary journey; a missionary journey that took the gospel of Jesus onto the continent of Europe for the very first time. Today we'll see Paul coming into the city of Corinth.

We have the epistles of 1 & 2 Corinthians in our Bibles. Those are letters written to the church Paul established in this city on this missionary journey. Near the beginning of 1 Corinthians, Paul reminds the members of that church of the state he was in when he arrived in their city: And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. 1 Corinthians 2:3