“Lord I can’t do this anymore” Acts 18:1-11
I guess all of us at one time or another get depressed and feel like giving up. In the heat of a moment we may feel like saying: “there’s no use going on because the harder I try, the worse things seem to get. I witness/preach my heart out but no one listens. I’m getting nothing out of church and the daily stresses and problems are all just wearing me down.”
I know this is true because I’ve talked to those who are going thru it and I’ve been there, myself! Pastoring any church, today is hard enough but one of the hardest things to do is to be the pastor of a single staff church. Single staff pastors are expected to make it all work in harmony while referring fights, outing fires that have the potential to destroy the fellowship all started by gossip. And let’s not forget taking out the trash, unstopping the toilets and being ready to preach 2-3 sermons a week.
So this message may very well be more for me than anyone in this place today.
The truth is that sometimes God’s people need a spiritual 2ndwind…
Let me give you some examples:
Moses was the greatest leader in the Bible. He was handpicked by God and had God’s power on his life. Yet in Numbers chapter 11, we read the Israelites began to grumble and complain, because some foreigners who were with them stirred them up. Verse 4 calls them “The Rabble.” They were foreigners who were wicked people.
They were IN the group but not OF the group…Same thing happens to the church by those who are IN the body but not OF the body.
So in [Numbers 11:11-15a NIV] here’s what Moses says to God “11 He asked the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? 12 Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? 13 Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!' 14 I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me--…’”
Moses had all these people to care for and no one to help him. His leaders were practicing absentee leadership or they were right in the middle of the trouble themselves. All this was happening because there was some among the people of God who were out of the will of God, causing trouble for the whole body; Moses felt he’d be better off dead. He was ready to throw in the towel and go home.
Next let’s think about Joshua. He was the greatest General, also handpicked by God to lead Israel into the Promised Land. They had won every battle they faced because the hand of the lord was upon them. They defeated Jericho with nothing more than a parade and a victory shout, but in [Jos 7:7-9 NIV] listen to what Joshua says “7 And Joshua said, "Alas, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!
8 Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?
9 The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?’”
What Joshua was saying was, “so this is what we get for serving God. This is what happens when we are obedient.”
Joshua said this after a horrible defeat at the hands of a little two camel city called, Ai and he felt like quitting!
Why had the Israelites suddenly gone from a force to be reckoned with to being unable to fight their way out of a wet paper bag?
The change took place because there was sin in the camp!
If we look back one chapter we’ll see God’s instructions. [Jos 6:18 NIV] “But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.” One bad apple may not spoil the barrel but one person’s deliberate sin can bring down the whole house.
When we allow open and unchecked sin to enter the house of God we are setting the whole body up for destruction! Allowing sin to reign in our own lives and in the church is a slap God in the face.
You may say, “Well that’s their sin and it has nothing to do with me.” But you’re wrong... one man’s sin brought defeat the entire camp of Israel, according to Joshua 6:18.
So now we come to Acts 18. Paul arrives in Corinth and experiences a time of depression.
[1Co 2:3 NIV] “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.”
Paul was worn-out from a 53 mile walk. He was alone, a stranger in a strange new place. He was bi-vocational and according to v. 3 he was a tentmaker. He received very little if any financial help from the churches.
With all the pressures of dealing with people who could care less about what he is saying we can conclude that he is dealing with a little spiritual stress.
He may have had a sense of failure because there was not as much success in Athens as he’d hoped for. The people called him a “babbler” a seed picker which is literally a person who picks up scraps.
The Holman Christian Standard Bible uses the term: “pseudo-intellectual.” I found this definition. “A person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.” They basically were saying that he didn’t know what he was talking about.
Paul had just left a city of idolatry and is now entering the worst city known for its immorality! Corinth was the home of the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of sex.
A thousand prostitutes sold their bodies IN the temple in the name of religion!
I can just imagine that, at this point, Paul felt very much unappreciated. We know that he later wrote to the people of Corinth, in [2Co 12:15 NKJV] “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.” One might translate this verse as, “The more I love you the less love I receive from you and the more I give of myself, the more unappreciated I feel.”
It’s important to understand that up to this point, he’s been beaten and jailed at Philippi, persecuted at Thessalonica and Berea, ridiculed in Athens, and now he is facing Corinth! There’s no doubt in my mind that he was at a low point, a crossroads in his ministry, and he was just about ready to quit!
But the Lord came to Paul on this day, and showed him that trying times are not quitting times. Trying times are not the time to quit trying!
There are 3 Promises for those who are at the end of their rope and ready to throw in the towel.
We have the promise of …
1. God’s presence. God tells Paul in verse 10 “I am with you”
What do these four words mean for you and me?
a. God is with us in times of loneliness
In [Heb. 13:5] we have this promise “I will never leave you, nor forsake you!”
In the Greek the Word “never” is 3 x’s…never, no never, no never!
I read about a young bible college student who was taking Greek and one day he tried to impress a shut-in at his church, as he told her how this verse reads in the Greek. “What do you think about that?” he asked. She replied, “Well, God may have to tell you Greek fellers 3 x’s but once is enough for me!
The gospel of Matthew gives us 2 wonderful bookends.
Matthew’s gospel begins with “Emmanuel, God with us”
In the closing words we find the Great commission, where Jesus promises, “…I am with you always”
Your best friend my stab you in the back, but Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother!
He is with us in times of loneliness…and we have the promise that He is with us;
b. As we walk through the valley.
When defeat comes, He is with us. There will be times when we experience discouragement, sickness and financial breakdown. There will be heartaches and we will struggle with family problems BUT remember this one thing!
The God of the mountain. is still God in the valley!
I read about a little boy who went home after school, one day, very sad. He told his mother about Billy, his best friend, who had been absent from school for 3 days. When he returned to class that day the boy found out that why Billy had been absent. He said, “Mama, Billy’s daddy died, and when he told us, he cried and just laid his head flat on his desk.” The boy’s mom asked “what did you do?” He said, “Oh mama I didn’t know what to do, so I just laid my head on my desk and cried, too!”
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the kind of Savior we have! Your Bible says, “He’s TOUCHED” by the feelings of our infirmities!
In John. 11:35 we read that Jesus wept. Why would the creator of all there is cry? His friend Lazarus had died, Jesus knew he was going to raise him from the dead but Jesus’ heart still broke! Sometimes I wonder if Jesus wept because Lazarus died or because He would bring him back…
Not only is He with us in times of loneliness and in our valleys of despair.
c. He’s right beside you in death.
If we’re honest, we would have to admit we all have a fear of death.
We often quote Ps. 23: “yea, tho’ I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…for thou art with me! But when we look death in the face we tremble over the unknown. It’s natural for us to want to wait for a better time to die…
One Sunday a visiting preacher asked the church, how many want to go to heaven. All of the people raised their hands except 1 old man. The preacher said “Sir, don’t you want to go someday?” The old man said, “Sure, if you put it that way…I thought you were getting up a load to go right now!”
But seriously, when our time comes, the Lord comes Himself! He doesn’t send an angel…He comes for us Himself! He comes to us with dying grace and takes away our fear.
We have the promise of His presence so it’s too soon to quit! Next we have the promise of:
2. God’s protection. Look at the first part of verse 10.
This actually means that he wouldn’t be harmed! We know that Paul was attacked, beaten and hurt a lot during his ministry.
The truth is that they may have finally killed the apostle Paul, but not until he was able to say, “I have finished my course.” “I’ve done what I was sent to do.”
They killed the Lord Jesus Christ, but not before He said, “It is finished!” “I’ve done what I was sent to do.”
God has a purpose for your life and if you choose to, you can live it out, fearlessly. Understand, there will be persecution, trials and hardships. But because God’s not finished with you, the devil can’t harm you, man can’t hurt you, disease cannot touch you, there are no accidents with God…He and He alone will call you home when the time is right!
My friend who owns Richburg’s Electric has a cartoon drawing in his office of a man sitting at his desk, all stressed out. The caption reads “God put me on earth to accomplish a certain # of things…right now, I’m so far behind, I will never die!”
Paul said, “To live is Christ, to die is gain” Our motto should be “God, take me when you’re thru with me but until then, I’m going to serve you!”
Pastor Jerry Shirley said. In front of us He’s our guide, behind us He’s our guard, under us are His everlasting arms, and above us, if we’ll just look up, He’s ever-present with us in a cloud of glory!
It’s too soon to quit! Because next we have the promise of:
3. God’s potential. Look at the last part of verse 10
How could God say that? There was no more than a handful of Christians there!
We must understand it’s not about what I/you can do but what God can do!
God didn’t see the people of Corinth for what they were, He saw them for what they were going to be!
Years later, here’s what happened:
[1Co 6:9-11 NLT] “9 Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people--none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” God is not as concerned about where you’ve been as He is where you’re going!
Do the things, the attitudes of this world bother you? The shameful atmosphere at work the things we see in stores or on TV? (The Hardees commercials. I’m not looking for a sexual experience with a burger)
So what do we do? We start focusing beyond our limitations and focus on God’s potential!
Are you ready to quit? Do you need a spiritual 2nd wind? Invitation…
