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The Weekend Pulpit: Whose Son Is He? · Enjoying the Journey

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  There is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word.
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  Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey, Scott Pauley leads us in
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  a brief study of Scripture. Today on The Weekend Pulpit,
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  we are happy to share a full-length Bible message given through
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  Scott's pulpit ministry. These messages were recorded live
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  in a local church or gospel event in recent days. It is our
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  prayer that the message will be a help to you today.
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  Would you open your Bible with me again to the book of Acts? And we're
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  coming really just a few pages over from where we started with Brother Barnabas
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  We were in Acts chapter 4, and we come now to Acts chapter number 11.
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  Now, in Acts chapter 4, Barnabas was in the church in Jerusalem.
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  By the time you come to Acts chapter 11, we're 300 miles north of Jerusalem
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  in what is now Syria, and about a
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  half million people in the 3rd largest city of the Roman Empire that is known
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  as Antioch. It's really fascinating because Jerusalem
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  was the original gospel-sending church.
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  And by the time you get to Acts chapter number 11 and moving forward,
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  Antioch becomes that church. Could I say just
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  a personal word to this church family? Would you pray God would make this church
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  a gospel-sending church?
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  Everybody wants their church better, stronger, bigger,
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  whatever. Let me tell you how to have the blessing of God on your church.
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  Pray that God would make your church a church
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  that helps get the gospel around the world.
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  And I wanna tell you, when you become a gospel-sending church,
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  God will not only use you around the world, God will
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  do more here than you could ever imagine.
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  Look at Acts chapter 11, beginning in verse number 19. The Bible says, now they
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  which were scattered abroad upon the persecution
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  that arose about Stephen
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  Stephen. Let's stop just a minute. That does not sound positive to me. Remember Stephen,
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  the first martyr of the Christian church, stoned to death,
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  and great persecution came? I hate to tell you this, I really
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  do. I've traveled in parts of the world where there is religious persecution.
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  We take our religious liberty for granted, you know. You take all
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  liberty for granted till it's gone. And I hate to tell
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  you this, But it may just be that the loss of liberty and
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  the rise of persecution will be the means of purifying
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  the church again. Now, I'm not praying for that,
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  and I don't want that. I'm a flag-waving,
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  red-blooded, liberty-loving American, but I want you to understand
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  something, that everywhere persecution has arisen,
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  instead of it being a negative, it's always been a positive to the work of
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  God Because when people realize they got nothing but God,
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  God does in them what only God can do.
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  In fact, see that word scattered in verse 19? We think of the word scattered
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  as a negative word. It is not. Did you know there's 2 different words in
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  the New Testament for scattered? One means to make disappear. That's the scattering that sin
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  does. That's not the word that's used here.
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  The word that is used here is the other word which means to scatter
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  like a sower would scatter his seed. Remember, the sower sows the
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  seed and the fruit comes up. I love this thought. When God,
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  look up here, when God was scattering his disciples
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  and people were leaving their homes and losing their jobs and traveling
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  all over the Roman Empire, they didn't understand it at the time, but all
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  the Lord, the great sower, was doing, he was scattering his gospel witnesses
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  everywhere they went. See, God is never just scattering,
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  he's gathering. And so the scattering of the persecution
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  brought the, the gathering of souls. Keep reading. Look where
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  they went. They traveled as far as Phoenice and
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  Cyprus. Now that's significant because that is actually the hometown
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  of Barnabas. He's from a beautiful place, from this island
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  in the Mediterranean, Cyprus. And here's our city,
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  Antioch, preaching the word to none but
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  unto the Jews only. And some of them were
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  men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch
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  spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus.
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  And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and
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  turned unto the Lord. The only way people repent and believe is they've got to
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  hear the gospel. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
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  And how shall they hear without a preacher. And so people came to town bringing
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  the gospel of Jesus. And watch this, the gospel works everywhere.
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  It is still the power of God unto salvation. There's a divine order.
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  It came to the Jew first. The Bible says in another place, also to
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  the Greek. How many of you are glad God loves all people?
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  Christ died for every man. And so it came to the Jew, but it
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  didn't stop there. Now it comes to the Gentile. And Antioch sees a
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  number of people saved. Verse 22, then tidings of these things came into the ears
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  of the church which was in Jerusalem. I love this.
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  And they sent forth Barnabas that he
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  should go as far as Antioch. Remember I said to you that Barnabas was such
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  a consolation, such an encourager, that he got to be
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  known that way? I love this. When they needed an ambassador,
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  guess who they chose? They said,
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  let's pick the guy who's the greatest blessing to us.
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  And so Barnabas gets sent as the representative from the church at Jerusalem to
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  Antioch. Verse 23, who when he came and
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  had seen the grace of God— oh, I love that.
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  Does anybody see the grace of God in you? How do you
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  see grace? Excuse me,
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  how do you see grace? You can only see the effects of
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  it. They saw the
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  grace of God on these people, and Barnabas, the Bible says, was glad.
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  You know, you can tell a lot about a man by what makes him sad,
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  glad, and mad. And you know what made him
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  glad? God's changed these people's lives.
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  The gospel's come to town. Jesus is here. The Lord is
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  at work. He was glad and he exhorted
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  them. Remember I said he was an encourager? He exhorted
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  them all that with purpose of heart
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  they would cleave unto the Lord.
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  He said to them, now you've come to know the Lord, get as close
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  to him as you can. You've trusted him, good. Now be a true
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  follower of Jesus Christ. Don't just say you're a Christian, live like
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  you're a Christian. We were talking about a man earlier who was an exhorter,
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  Barnabas, He was an exhorter, and he came
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  with this exhortation, and he said to these believers, look, God has changed my life.
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  Let me tell you about it. Now God has changed your life.
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  Live like it. And he exhorted them that with purpose of heart,
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  they would cleave to the Lord. For the record, if you cleave unto the Lord,
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  it won't be on accident. It will be on purpose. It must
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  be with purpose of heart. And then you come to our verse,
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  verse 24. Here is the
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  one-verse description of the man the Bible
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  called the Son of Consolation. 3 things. Would you mark them?
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  Number them. The Bible says, for he
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  was a— what, church? Number 1, he was a good
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  man, and he was full
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  of the Holy Ghost. That's number 2.
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  And he was only full of the Holy Ghost. He was full of what?
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  Of faith. And the Bible says, and much people
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  was added unto the Lord.
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  My dad was a faithful Christian.
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  I told you, pastored a church for 33 years, but he was not always a
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  preacher. My dad was a businessman.
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  He was in the cemetery business. And some people think that's
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  morbid, but somebody's got to do it, you know. And my dad started
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  18 years of age, never went to college, started working
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  in a cemetery and worked his way up the company. And by the time I
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  came along, very successful. And then
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  God called him to preach. It's quite a story, quite a journey of faith.
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  It's funny though, whatever your dad does for a living,
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  It's just normal. We'd be driving along on vacation,
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  somebody in our car would say, that's a nice cemetery. Sound like the Addams Family
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  on vacation, you know. But I
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  fell in love with old cemeteries. I still, to this day,
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  the kids will laugh at me. I'll stop the car, walk through an old cemetery.
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  I like the epitaphs of what's written on
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  a grave marker. Did you know there's some things I've never seen
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  written on a grave marker? I've never seen anybody put
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  how much money they were worth on a grave marker.
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  Never. I've never seen a picture of
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  the home of their dreams on
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  a grave marker. Never. To be
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  honest with you, I've never even seen a grave marker with the corporate title of
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  a man who was a CEO and a successful
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  man. I've never seen that on a grave marker.
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  You know why that is? Because the nearer you get to the end and the
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  closer you get to eternity, the less most things mean, and a few things
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  start to mean a whole lot more.
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  I would say this is the Holy Spirit-inspired
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  epitaph of Barnabas.
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  You wanna know who he is? He's a good man full of the Holy
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  Ghost and full of faith. Now I gotta, I gotta make a connection here,
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  so stay with me. Hold your place in Acts chapter 11,
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  put your right hand there, and go back to the verse where we first met
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  him in Acts chapter 4. I want you to mark something.
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  I said to you that Barnabas, his name means
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  consolation, but actually look at verse 36 again.
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  The full interpretation of Barnabas is— would
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  you mark it— the what? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. The what?
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  The son of consolation.
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  That's a very Jewish idiom, the son of.
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  Simon, son of Jonas. Son of.
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  We don't talk that way in our world today, but if we did I'd
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  be Scott, son of Roger. Son of.
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  Now watch this carefully. When Barnabas got the name
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  encourager, exhorter, a comfort
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  to many, consolation, when he got the name, please don't miss this.
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  How many of you think God does everything on purpose? He did
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  not call him the man of consolation.
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  His name is what? The Son of Consolation.
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  Do you know what son of reminds you of?
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  Watch this carefully. The son of something reminds
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  you that it's not just about them,
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  it's about the one they've come from.
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  It's a revelation that the son is merely
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  a reflection of the one from
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  which he received this nature.
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  Would you like to know why Barnabas was such a blessing?
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  It wasn't Barnabas, it was God
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  in Barnabas's life.
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  In fact, just this week as I was meditating on our verse— go back
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  with me now to Acts chapter 11, look at verse number 24— these 3 things
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  brought on a whole new meaning to me because it dawned
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  on me that in this threefold description, we have a threefold
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  connection to each member of the Godhead.
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  Do you see how every part of this points us back to
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  God? Look, friends, there may be many channels,
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  but there's only one source. There may be many
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  means by which God is made known in this world, but the fountainhead
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  is our God Himself. We sang that song earlier
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  and I loved it. I didn't know what you were singing today about the Father
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  and the Son and the Spirit. We don't believe in 3 gods. We believe in
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  one God expressed in 3 persons. God the Father, God the Son,
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  and God the Holy Ghost, coequal, coexistent, and coeternal. And I love
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  this. You see God the Father and you see God the Son and you see
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  God the Holy Ghost in the life of Barnabas. And that's what made
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  this man a blessing. May I ask you a question? Whose son is
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  this man? Whose son is he?
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  My dad has
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  lived in our hometown all of his life, his whole life. Everybody knows him
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  and he knows everybody. And I look much like
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  my dad. Now the older I get, the more like
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  him I look. Curse or blessing, it's just the way it is.
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  How many of you live in my dream? Would you raise your hand? Yeah.
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  And when I moved back to our hometown a few years ago, I would
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  meet people out and they would say, are you Roger Pauley's boy?
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  You know who you look like? You remind me a lot of Roger Pauley.
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  Whose son is he? Watch this. Sons begin to
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  reflect the image of the one they come from.
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  And maybe you think it makes sense that if we're really born again and belong
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  to God and and God's really made a difference in our life, that the image
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  of God should begin to be seen more clearly in his children.
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  So look at the threefold description. Watch it carefully. Number 1,
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  verse 24. Let's take 'em in the order we're given. He was a what?
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  A good man. Number 1, write this down, would you please? What does it mean
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  to be a good man? I want you to write down that here,
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  this is the consolation of the heavenly Father.
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  Do you understand that goodness is not us, it's God
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  in us? In fact, in Romans chapter 3,
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  we're told that there is none that doeth good.
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  None. What's none mean? None means none.
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  And that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What's all
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  mean? All means all. That's an all-inclusive
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  word. Watch this very carefully. I've been to funerals where they stood up, the man's
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  died, he didn't know God, lived like the devil,
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  and some minister stands up and says, well, he was a good man. No,
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  he wasn't. He was a dirty rotten sinner,
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  that's what he was. And somebody said, well,
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  that's the truth, that's the truth. Wait now.
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  And then some very moral man dies who gave
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  to charity, Did good deeds,
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  and people say, well, I'll tell you one thing, he was a good man.
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  Have you heard that before? No, he wasn't.
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  No, because there is no such thing on our own.
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  Look here, you don't believe me, you'll have to argue with God, because Jesus
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  said in Mark chapter 10, when a guy came to him one day, wanted to
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  have a religious conversation, Jesus said, and I quote,
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  Mark chapter number 10, verse 18, there is none good
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  but one, that is God.
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  In fact, the greatest Christian that ever lived, the Apostle Paul, said himself in Romans
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  chapter 7, in me, that is in my flesh,
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  dwelleth— ready for this— no good
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  thing. So, so if none of
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  us do good and there's none good in us, and there's none good but God,
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  how is it consistent to say that Barnabas was a good
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  man? I'm glad you asked, because Barnabas was
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  simply showing forth the goodness of the Heavenly Father that
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  had saved him. See, if there's any good
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  thing in Scott Pauley, it's not Scott Pauley. I know
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  me. You're just listening to a dressed-up sinner this this
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  afternoon. And you know what I'm looking at?
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  I'm looking at a bunch of sinners. That's right. And we get pretty proud
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  of ourselves when we clean up for gatherings like this and feel like we've done
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  God a favor. Let's just get real for a moment. We're all black-hearted,
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  hell-deserving sinners. If all of us get what we deserve, we're all going to go
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  to hell forever. Nobody gets to heaven because they were
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  good. The Bible says, for by grace are you
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  saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
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  not of works, lest any man should boast. Look here,
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  if it was based on your goodness, then you'd have something to brag about
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  and you could take the credit for it. But there's none good but God,
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  and the only way to be saved is through the good mercy and grace of
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  Almighty God. And that is so only our God will get the glory for it.
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  Now, there's no doubt that a man's living as a child of God is exemplifying
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  the nature of God and the goodness of God, because God is good.
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  Look, people, people who say they know the goodness of God and
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  then live in evil, they're inconsistent, because God's
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  children ought to show forth the goodness of their Heavenly Father.
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  Let me just tell you, I got a good Father. I got a good earthly
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  daddy, but I got a really good Heavenly Father. He is the Father
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  of mercies and the God of all comfort. He is the Father of of our
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  Lord Jesus Christ, and he's my Father. He's always been a good Father.
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  And as a child of God, I ought to demonstrate the
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  goodness, the consolation of the heavenly Father
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  in my life. I started driving years ago.
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  I was— I had a problem. I was driving too fast.
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  You kids listen to me now, all right? I was driving like Jehu. That's a
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  Bible way of saying you're driving too fast, all right? I was driving my
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  chariot furiously, and I was driving through the plaza
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  in our town one day and had my mother in the front seat, my sister
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  behind me. That's a recipe for disaster right there.
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  And my mother said to me, you're going to get a ticket.
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  And no sooner were the words out of her mouth— she's a prophetess, that's what
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  she is, she spoke evil into my life— no sooner were the words
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  out of her mouth and I heard that siren and looked at the rearview mirror
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  and saw those lights. How many of you got that sick feeling in your stomach
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  right now? You know what I'm talking about. And I pulled
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  over. I'll never forget the day. I was just a young man, pulled over in
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  an empty bank parking lot. Police officer came up,
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  license and registration, he barked at me. And I was nervous,
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  of course, and got my things together and handed it to him. He didn't smile.
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  There was no chitchat.
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  He grabbed my stuff out of my hand, marched back to the car, and he
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  was back there a long time. How many of you know that's a bad sign?
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  In a few minutes, he came back up and
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  he looked at my driver's license and he looked at me, and he looked at
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  my license and he looked at me, and he said, are you
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  Roger Pauley's boy?
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  For a moment I thought, I wonder if he knew my dad before he got
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  saved or after he got saved. And I said,
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  Yes, sir, I am. I'll never forget that moment, Pastor. He smiled.
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  He handed me my license back and winked at me and said, son, have a
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  good day and slow it down. I heard angelic choirs sing the Hallelujah Chorus.
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  It was wonderful.
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  You know why I got mercy that day?
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  Because whose son I was.
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  Let me just tell you that every good thing in my life is
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  because of my good Father. And don't you think
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  that God's sons and daughters ought to be showing
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  forth his goodness in a world filled with evil?
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  Don't you think somebody ought to be able to look at you and think,
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  you know, I wonder who their father is? Who's— whose son
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  is he? Little boy on the streets of Chicago years ago,
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  living on the streets, dead of winter, and a fine wealthy woman came
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  out of a department store and saw him there freezing to death. And she said,
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  son, have you, have you eaten today? No, ma'am.
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  You come with me. She walked him across into a diner and sat him
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  down, let him order anything he wanted, ate till he could eat no more.
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  And when he was finished, walked him across the street back into that same department
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  store, back into the boys section, bought him new clothes and new shoes and warm
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  coat and hat and gloves. I mean, she, she outfitted him right.
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  And they walked out of that store. He looked up at her and he said,
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  ma'am, could I ask you a question? She said, certainly. He said, are you Jesus'
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  mother? And she said,
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  no, no, but God's my Father. That little
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  boy said, I knew you were related to him somehow.
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  Would it be a great thing if the people that met us this week thought
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  we were related to God? He was a good man.
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  Here's the second one. Look at it carefully. He was not only a good man,
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  the Bible says he was full of the Holy Ghost. Here is not only the
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  consolation of the Heavenly Father, here is the consolation of the Holy Spirit.
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  Where does real goodness and every other good thing come from? Read Galatians chapter 5.
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  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness,
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  faith, temperance, all the way through. Look, every good thing comes
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  to us from the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, do you know what the
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  Holy Spirit's name is? If I had time, I'd take you to John
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  14 and John 15. Pastor, you're living in that right now, aren't you? And John
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  16. At least 4 different times, Jesus called
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  the Holy Spirit that was going to come the what? Comforter.
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  Do you know that the word that he used there for Comforter was the word
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  Paraclete. It literally means one called alongside
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  to help. And did you know that the word for consolation comes from the exact
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  same root word? Watch this. When the Bible says that Barnabas was
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  the son of consolation, it's the same word as
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  the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. This is
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  a man who has the Holy Ghost living on, on the inside
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  of him, but he doesn't just have him. The Bible says he is filled
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  with the Holy Spirit of God. Can I tell you, on the day God
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  becomes your Father, the Holy Spirit becomes your resident. But it's one thing for
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  him to be resident, quite another thing for him to be president. It's one thing
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  for him to be present and quite another for him to have his ruling presence
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  in your life. How many of you know you've been born again? Would you raise
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  your hand? All right, then the Holy Spirit moved into your heart on the day
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  of your salvation. He does not rent, he buys.
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  He doesn't move in and out. He moves in to stay. But may I just
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  tell you, it's one thing to have the Holy Spirit living in you and quite
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  another to let him have the keys to every room in the house. To be
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  filled with the Holy Spirit of God is not some spooky,
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  weird, euphoric kind of thing that happens and people get mesmerized.
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  It rather means we've come under the controlling presence of the Spirit
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  of God. This is a man who is so given to God
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  that the Spirit of the Lord in him was ruling in his life.
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  I wonder, would anybody say you remind them of the
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  Heavenly Father? Would anybody say you remind them of
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  the Holy Spirit? Whose son is he? And then look at the third one.
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  The Bible says he was not only full of the Holy Ghost, he was full
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  of faith. I think those 2 things are always connected in Scripture because the Christian
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  life is a faith life from start to finish. But what does faith
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  reveal? Watch this carefully. Our faith is in the person of Jesus
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  Christ. I don't think faith is last
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  here because it's least. I think faith is last here because it's the secret to
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  the other 2. Watch this. You want God as your Father? You must come through
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  faith in Christ. You want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? You must come
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  through faith in Christ. It is through faith in Christ that
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  we access every good thing that God has for our lives.
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  What is faith? Faith is the consolation of Jesus,
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  the Son of God. I love this. Everybody look at verse 23.
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  When people saw Barnabas, they didn't see Barnabas. They sent—
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  look at it, please, verse 24. They saw his good father.
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  They saw the Holy Ghost. And they saw the Christ
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  who he had trusted. I love that.
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  My favorite book of the Bible is the book of Philippians.
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  Philippians 2:1 starts like this, if there be therefore
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  any consolation in Christ. Can I just stop and
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  say the answer is yes, there is consolation in Christ.
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  40-some years ago, somebody gave me the gospel, told me I could have
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  my sins forgiven and peace with God and everlasting life. Let me tell you,
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  that was some good consolation. I found eternal consolation
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  through faith in Jesus Christ. And now it
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  is my privilege to live like it and
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  to share it with somebody else.
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  Woman came pushing through the crowd just trying to get to Jesus, just trying to
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  get to Jesus. She could only get
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  close enough to touch the hem of his garment, but that was close enough.
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  And Jesus stopped the whole parade. Somebody touched
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  me. And Peter said, Lord, I don't want to be disrespectful, but lots of
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  people touching you. He said, no,
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  no, somebody touched me in faith.
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  And the woman knew she couldn't be hid, and she said,
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  it was me. You hear what Jesus said?
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  Daughter, be of good cheer. Watch this. Thy faith
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  has made you whole. Go in peace.
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  Go in peace. How did he touch Jesus? How did he get consolation? Through faith.
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  And Barnabas, a good man filled with the Holy Spirit
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  and faith, is simply pointing us back to a good Father and
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  a good Son and a good Spirit. What a good
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  God we serve.
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  Can I tell you? Somebody ought to look at our
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  life and say, whose son is that? And people ought to say,
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  she belongs to God. That man right there,
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  I don't know who his earthly daddy is, but I think that man's a Christian.
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  I don't know everything about that man, but I think he knows
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  Jesus. Where's Barnabas from? I think
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  he grew up on the island of Cyprus. I think that's right. That's a pretty
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  place. Yeah, but the prettiest thing about him was the loveliness of Christ in him.
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  Well, who's his daddy? Well, I understand he's of the tribe
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  of Levi. Oh, the tribe of Levi. Yeah, but his religion, that's not what changed
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  his life. What changed his life was when God moved into his life.
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  You see, his genealogy and his geography didn't matter
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  if he missed God. If you miss God, if you don't know the Father,
• 27:33
  if you don't have the Spirit and him have you, if you haven't put
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  your faith in Christ, you miss what God wants for your life.
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  Can I show you the effects? Look at this before we pray.
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  And by the way, I'm getting ready to ask everybody in this room to join
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  me in one of 2 prayers. Everybody. Because you can't
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  see this kind of thing and not talk to the God who's been talking to
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  you. Look at it carefully. Here's the effect of this man
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  who was good and full of the Holy Ghost and faith. 2 things. In verse
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  23, look at it. All the church was helped.
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  The Bible says he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart
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  they would cleave unto the Lord. Would you mark the word all in verse 23?
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  Let me tell you, a man who has God on his life and God
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  is big in his life is going to be a help to all of God's
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  other children. He's going to be a help to all of the church family.
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  And then skip down to verse 24. Look at the end of the verse.
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  And don't miss God's and. Much people
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  was added unto the Lord. Would you mark the word much? In verse 24,
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  all in verse 23, and much in verse 24. Watch this: all the church got
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  helped, but much people were saved because of this man's testimony.
• 28:42
  Let me just tell you, when God the Father, God the Son, and God the
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  Holy Spirit have their way in our life, let me tell
• 28:49
  you what the effects will be, the ripple effect, the, the spiritual chain reaction
• 28:53
  will be, that all the church will be blessed by it. But wait a minute,
• 28:57
  it doesn't stay inside the 4 walls of the building. He gets out
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  yonder where we live, where the sinners are, and many more
• 29:04
  people, much people, will be added to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 29:08
  Listen to me now. We don't just need people added to the church roll.
• 29:11
  We need people added to the family of our God.
• 29:14
  And do you know how people get added to the family of God? They meet
• 29:18
  one of his children. Gandhi said,
• 29:21
  I would be a Christian if it were not for Christians.
• 29:26
  You know what I think is sad? I know where I'm preaching. I live in
• 29:29
  the Bible Belt. You know what I think is sad? Some people meet— excuse me—
• 29:33
  somebody who calls themselves a Christian, but there's no more God the Father, God the
• 29:37
  Son, or God the Holy Spirit in that man than a man on the moon.
• 29:39
  They've never seen God in somebody's life, and they equate that with
• 29:43
  Christianity. I want to tell you that some Christian
• 29:46
  may let you down, but what you need, you need the Father and the
• 29:50
  Son and the Holy Spirit. And then once you meet him, live like it so
• 29:53
  somebody else can come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Whose son is he anyway?
• 29:59
  Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me all around the
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  room?
• 30:08
  If this Bible message has been used of God in your life or we
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  can pray for you in some definite way, please contact us at
• 30:16
  enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message
• 30:20
  with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible
• 30:24
  messages, please visit Dr. Scott Pauley's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is the
• 30:28
  Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful
• 30:31
  to attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday.
• 30:35
  Thank you for listening to The Weekend Pulpit, and don't miss
• 30:39
  Enjoying the Journey daily devotional podcast each Monday through
• 30:42
  Friday.