Latest / The Travis Rutland Podcast / Barnabas | AKA (Part 3)
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker A: You're listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. Travis Rutland is a spirit filled pastor and ministry leader who has been featured on International Christian Television. He serves as lead pastor of Liberty Square Church in Cartersville, Georgia and as president of Global Servants. His sermons focus on clear biblical teaching, practical truth and encouragement for everyday life. Each message is designed to strengthen your faith and draw you deeper into God's word. This podcast is brought to you you by Global Servants. For more information about Global servants, please visit globalservants.org now here's Travis Rutland.
- 0:42Speaker B: Now if you will turn to Acts chapter four. We're going to begin reading with verse 36. This morning is a name change. This is Barnabas. This morning we've dealt with some Old Testament stuff, but this morning is New Testament. So turn if you will to Acts chapter 4 and verse 36. Acts 4 and 36 and Joses or Joseph probably and Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Let's pray. God, I ask in the next few moments that you will speak to each of us, to all of us. We want to hear from you this morning. You have moved here so wonderfully. Continue to let your spirit move in this place. We want to hear from you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. When I was 7 or 8, my parents bought all three of us kids little plaques with our names on it to hang on the wall. I have no idea if my mom even remembers this or not, but bought plaques for each of us and it had our name at the top. Underneath was what our name meant and there was a Bible verse that went with it. Now I have no idea what happened to my sisters or if they were engaged by that at all. But that plaque, dad hung it on the wall next to my bed and it said Travis. And underneath it it said diligent. And I said, wow, I never knew but Travis means diligent. And there was something about that idea that clicked in my slightly odd little brain. And I was like, that's what I'm supposed to be because that's what my name means. And so I just said to myself, okay, I'm not ever going to be the smartest guy or when it comes to athletics the fastest or whatever it is, but I can work hard, I can be d. Diligent. And I took that to heart in. In a way that I can't really explain even now as a grown Man. And I just decided, okay, I'm going to finish what I start. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to do those things. And I have seen that carry over into adulthood. There's. I'm not the. I'm not the greatest preacher in the world, but I work hard at the craft. I work hard. I'm here. I try to be diligent. I try to finish things. When I talk to the staff about stuff we're going to do, I don't just forget about it and move on. I try to do those things. And it really sprung out of those adult characteristics, came out of that little plaque that my parents bought that said Travis Diligent. Except Travis doesn't mean diligent. Travis doesn't. That's not the meaning of the word. My parents just bought those three. They had them made at a Christian bookstore in town. And I guess my dad felt like I needed to finish some of the stuff that I started, and they just invented that. Travis doesn't mean diligent. Know what Travis means? It's an English name with French origin. It's derived from the word traverser, or to cross as. Like. Like when you would be on a trip or a journey and you would cross something. So it was originally started as a surname or a last name. Some of you that know Texas history. One of the defenders of the Alamo was Colonel Travis William Travis, his last name. Right. So it started as a surname and became a first name. It was mostly given as a last name to people who worked as toll collectors because they would traverse. People would traverse, and they worked as toll collectors. Now, I've been through a number of tolls, having lived in Florida and other places, and I'm going to say I have not seen a lot of diligence from those folks. So if it had said Travis Toll Collector on it, my life might be completely different. But it said Travis Diligent. And I took that to heart. I became what I thought the name meant. Didn't, but I thought it did. Barnabas is the exact opposite. He is given a name because of who he is. He is renamed because of his very essence, his character. It means son of encouragement. So he didn't have the name Barnabas and decide to become encouraging like I tried to as a little boy. He was encouraging. It was the essence of who he was. So much so that to a point, the apostles said, this guy's not Joseph anymore. This guy is Barnabas. He is the son of encouragement because he encourages us so much when we Meet Barnabas in Acts chapter four. He owns a huge parcel of land. He sells that parcel of land, brings the money. He could have done anything with the money that he wanted to. He brings it to the apostles and gives it to the early church to advance the spread of the gospel, to advance God's kingdom, to tell more people about Jesus, to bless the church, to encourage the church. He gives them this money and they rename him son of Encouragement, Barnabas. Now that is not where Barnabas story ends. It is instead where it begins. But that is where his name comes from. So now turn over, if you will, to Acts chapter nine. We're going to kind of be in the book of Acts today. Acts chapter 9 and verse 26. This is right after Saul, who becomes Paul, is converted. You remember, Saul is anti. Is violently anti Christian. He's arresting Christians. He's. He's taking them in chains. He's doing everything he can to destroy the early church. And Saul has this encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and he's transformed. He is saved. He's filled with the Holy Spirit, he's water baptized. And. And Saul is a different person. But the problem is nobody believes he's a different person. They believe that he's lying and pretending to be a Christian so that he can find out who all the Christian leaders are and have them arrested. So nobody believes that Saul is actually who he says he is, except for one person. And I take. I'll give you one clue to figure that out. Right? Acts 9:26. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the disciples. Everybody but Barnabas is the one. He is the one who. The son of encouragement. The first thing is this. Encouragers see potential. Encouragers see potential. This is vital. You want to be an encourager? We need more Barnabas. All of us need to be a Barnabas. All of us need to be a Barnabas. The encourager sees potential. He doesn't see. The encourager does not see others as they are. He sees them as they could be, as they are called to be. It's so easy to go, this is who this person is, and that's who they're always gonna be. This is who they're always. They're never gonna change. They're never gonna transform. Barnabas says, you guys all see Saul, the guy who's throwing people into jail, but I see a man who has been Transformed through an encounter with Christ. Encouragers see potential. When I was in the seventh grade, I took seventh grade English when I was in the seventh grade. And my teacher at the time was a lady named Mrs. Probst. No idea what happened to Mrs. Probst. I'm a middle aged man now. I have no idea where she was, what happened to her, anything else. But in the seventh grade, Mrs. Probstaught English and literature, we had a writing assignment and I turned that writing assignment in and she asked to see me after class. I was always in trouble, so I thought, oh, it's another thing every, you know, all the teachers wanted to see me after class. So I went to her desk after class and she said, Travis, this essay, this thing that you wrote, she said, this is fantastic. This is amazing. She said, your words have potential. You should use them more. I've never forgotten that. Now I use my words on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. And she just spoke that into my life. I don't know why. Maybe she was just trying to be nice to me so I'd be better in her class. I have no idea. But she just spoke that word of potential to me. She could see that there was something out there. That's what encouragers do. Everybody else sees Saul. Saul. And Barnabas said, I see something entirely different. He takes Saul, he brings him to the disciples, he introduces him, says, saul, this is Peter. Saul, this is John. Saul, this is James. And he is the one who gets Saul's foot in the door. He is the one who introduces Saul to the early church. Without Barnabas, there might have never been anything for Saul to do. Somebody had to see the potential that was there in him. Encouragers, it's easy to. It's so easy to only see who anybody is right now, including ourselves. Listen, I've heard this a million times. The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. I've heard that a million times. Except when it isn't. Except when God does something inside of you. Except when God births a dream inside of you. Except when something changes or is transformed. And then the best indicator of future behavior is no longer past behavior because you're no longer the old Saul. You're the new person. But somebody has to speak some encouragement into you. Do you see what I'm saying? The world is always going to tell people, you'll never be anything more than you've ever been. Somebody has to be a son and a daughter of encouragement to step into the gap and say, no, Christ has more for you. God has called you God has chosen you. He's put his hand on you. You have potential, you have destiny, you have a future, you have a calling. Somebody has got to be Barnabas. We disqualify ourselves and others disqualify us. Everybody in here needs a Barnabas to speak into their life about the potential that they could attain. Encouragers see potential. Now look at the next thing. If you will, go over a few more chapters to Acts, chapter 13. We're going to begin reading with verse two, Acts 13:2. Barnabas and Saul are now serving with other prophets in the church at Antioch. We're not going to read that verse, but they're in the church of Antioch. And then the church at Antioch decides to send these guys out on missionary journeys. So I want you to see this. Acts 13:2. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So they send Barnabas and Saul on a mission trip, missionary journey. Look at verse six, same chapter. When they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of the Lord. So Barnabas and Saul are sent on the missionary journey. Barnabas and Saul go to this island of Paphos. Now look at verse nine, same chapter. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, and right there he's Paul. And he's never again referred to as Saul in the New Testament. That is the moment, Boom, verse nine. He is no longer Saul, he is Paul. I'm not going to preach on Paul in this series, by the way. I'm not going to do the name change of Paul because I want to deal with other ones you might not be as familiar with. But in that moment, he is no longer Saul who persecuted the church, he is Paul the Apostle and he totally embraces his new calling. All right, now, Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul. Saul who was named Paul. Now look at verse 13, the very beginning, 13 and 13. Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, now when Paul and his party set sail From Paphos in 1959 in Detroit, Michigan, there was a female. An all girl group was founded in 1959 in Detroit, Michigan. They called themselves the quaint name of the Primetz, the Primettes were formed. There were four girls in this band. They were formed in 1959. For the next two years, they tried to get signed to a record label. Specifically, they wanted to be signed to Motown Records. That's the huge record label. Motown records in the 1960s and 70s was massive. And this all girl group worked hard to get signed to Motown records. Finally, in 1961, the President, founder of Motown Records, this guy named Barry Gordy. And Barry Gordy signed the Primetz. One of them had left the group. So it was just three girls left. It was a trio. But Barry Gordy said the Primetz is the worst name ever for a band. I agree. He said, here's a list of acceptable names. If you want to be signed to the Motown record label. Here's a list of names that you can have. And they went through it and they decided on one of them. And in 1961, the Primettes were signed to Motown Records and they changed their name to the Supremes. They became the Supremes. And in the 1960s, they were the biggest girl group in the entire universe. And one of the biggest groups in the entire world. Numerous times. Their record was number one over the Beatles in the 1960s. And all the girls were talented, but one girl in particular was particularly talented. And she became the biggest name, the most famous person in the group. And that was a woman named Diana Ross. And Diana Ross was part of the Supremes, but she became larger than life and her fame outstretched the other girls. So MOTOWN Records made a decision in 1967 to change the name of the band again. And the band name changed from the Supremes to Diana Ross and the Supremes. As you might imagine, the other Supremes were supremely unhappy about that. You understand, we all used to be Supremes, right? Three girls singing with one microphone. But now we're not. The Supremes were Diana Ross and the band, you understand? And that feels weird. If you're in the band that feels challenging to you, you go, wait a minute, I'm part of this. I'm doing this thing. And now I'm relegated to, literally relegated to second fiddle. I'm relegated to just being part of the band. Diana Ross and the Supremes. The same thing happens in Acts, chapter 13. I don't know if you saw it as we read through those verses. It starts out as Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul are going on a mission trip. Barnabas and Saul show up at the island of Paphos. Now Saul is Paul. And now look again at the beginning of verse 13. And when Paul and his company. You understand, it used to be Barnabas and Saul. Now it's Paul and the Supremes. You see that? Barnabas isn't even listed. He's just one of the dudes in the band. It used to be Barnabas. First Barnabas I and Saul. Now it's Paul and a bunch of other guys. You got to understand how that must feel to Barnabas. But we have no indications from scripture that it bothered him at all. Because of this, encouragers do not care who gets the credit. Encouragers don't care. They just want the ministry to go forward. They just want the gospel to be preached. They just want to be on the missionary trips. They want to see people saved and transformed. They want the kingdom of God to move forward. Encouragers don't care. But Barnabas had the perfect excuse, doesn't he? When they started saying Paul and his company. If I was Barnabas, I would have said, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute. Do you know how much money I give to this church? Right? Because just a few chapters before, Barnabas had given such a huge sum of money to the early church that they changed his name to be Son of Encouragement. And now he's one of the Supremes. He's not even listed anymore. He's just. And the company and the party and the band. But Barnabas never complains. He never gets frustrated or angry because he doesn't care who gets the credit. Because encouragers just want good stuff to happen. We need that. We must have that if we want our church to be all that God is calling Liberty Square to be about. We've got to get a Barnabas spirit inside of us. We give and we go. Not so that people say how great we are, but that the kingdom can be advanced so that the church fulfills its mission, so that we can go to Bartow and Beyond. If we're always fighting and making sure that I get mentioned. Well, why didn't Pastor Travis talk about me in the sermon? Why didn't Pastor Chris mention my name? Well, why haven't they given me an award? Why haven't I gotten this or that? We missed the whole point. Barnabas doesn't care. He says, here's the money. He gives it away. He says, do whatever you want with it. He goes and gets Saul. He finds him. He takes care of him. He joins Saul on the missionary journey. And Luke says, you know, when I'm recording this, I'm making a story about this. You know, I'm going to just start saying Paul and his Company Barnabas and Barnabas and Saul is too complicated. I'm just going to say Paul and some other dudes. And Barnabas says, no problem, man, no worries. I'm glad. I'm happy Paul's fulfilling his destiny. I'm helping him, I'm encouraging him. Encouragers don't care who gets the credit. Barnabas still isn't done. Look, if you will, at that same verse where we were, Acts 13 and 13. We'll read the whole thing now. And when Paul and his company sailed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. This is not John the Apostle. This is John Mark, who would later write the Gospel of Mark. Okay? This is John Mark and John Mark is cousins with Barnabas. So Barnabas and John Mark are cousins. They get to Pamphylia and Mark goes home. The missionary journey is too tough. It's difficult. It wasn't what he thought it was going to be. And he goes back home on the. In the middle of the missionary trip. All right, now turn over, if you will, to Acts chapter 15. Just a couple of chapters over Acts chapter 15 and verse 36. They finished some other missionary journeys. They've gone back to Jerusalem. And now Paul is ready to set out again. Look at Acts 15 and 36 now. Then after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. Now Barnabas was determined to take with them. John called Mark, but Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. All right. Barnabas and Paul are about to set out again. And Barnabas says, I want to bring John Mark. He's doing better. What? He's been encouraging him, right? He says, john Mark is doing better. I want to bring him on this missionary journey. He's going to be a great asset to us. He's going to be a help to us. He's going to be useful to us. And Paul says, I'm done with this dude, right? Paul is all focus. He says, he abandoned us on the last missionary journey. I'm not bringing him with us. Well, we're not taking him. And they argue. They argue. Barnabas does not roll over in this argument. He does not say to Paul, well, okay. He says, no, I know that John Mark has a destiny and a purpose. The same way that I knew you had a destiny and a purpose when you were still called Saul and none of the disciples would talk to you. Now Barnabas says, I'm not mad at you, Paul, but I'm telling you, John Mark is useful. He has a purpose and a destiny. Paul won't hear it. They fight, they argue, and they separate. Paul takes Silas and goes one direction. Barnabas takes John Mark and goes the other direction. As far as we know, they never travel on a missionary journey again. Towards the end of Paul's life, he is imprisoned in Rome. And he writes a final letter to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 and 11. Turn over, if you will, very quickly. 2 Timothy 4 and 11. He is writing to Timothy and he says, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. All those years later, he realizes that. He realizes what Barnabas knew that John Mark is useful and has a destiny and a future, just like Barnabas knew that about Saul himself all those years earlier. Because the final thing is this. Encouragers exhibit grace even in disagreement. If Barnabas had said to Paul, you're wrong. You're a bum, you're a loser. You'd never even be Paul. If I hadn't pulled you out, if I hadn't introduced you. Who do you think you are? I'm the one that introduced you to the disciples. I'm the one that took you on the first missionary journey. I'm the one that introduced you to people at Antioch. And if he had personally attacked Paul, Paul would have never, ever listened to Barnabas again. Instead, Barnabas, because he is an encourager, he doesn't roll over. He doesn't just agree with Paul. We're always going to have disagreements with other people. That's the nature of humanity. Even all of us within the church, even those of us that are Christians, there are going to be moments where you disagree with a decision that I make. There's going to be moments where you disagree with your spouse or your friends or your kids or whatever it is. We're going to have disagreements. But encouragers continue to exhibit grace even in the midst of the disagreement. So many people think that if they're right, they can say whatever they want, but you can't. Just because you're right doesn't give you the latitude to insult the other person. Just because you're right and you know you're right. You know that in this disagreement that you're having, you're right. And by the way, Barnabas was right. Because guess what? Years later, Paul calls him to him and says, I find him useful. So guess what? The argument that they had In Acts, chapter 13, Barnabas was right. But Barnabas disagreed with Paul with a level of love and grace that did not distance him from Paul. I just want to tell you something. We need to have the spirit of encouragement operational in our relationships with other people. If you find yourself constantly right and constantly abandoned, you need to re examine how you disagree with people. You understand what I'm saying? You go, oh, I used to have all these friends, but they were all wrong and I was right. And now I'm not friends with any of them anymore. You see what I'm saying? Because you can be right and still be mean about it. You can be right and insult people. You can be right and tell them how dumb they are. That is not going to, you know, connect you with that person. Instead you can say, this is what I imagine Barnabas said, I love you, Paul. I love you. I love your passion, I love your energy. I love that you want to do missionary journeys. And I understand what you're saying about John Mark. But I also know that God is doing something inside of John Mark. And I am called to see him fulfill the destiny and purpose that he has. I'm not saying you're a bad guy. I'm not saying you're an idiot. I'm not saying any of that. What I'm saying is I have to help John Mark fulfill his destiny. So I wish you nothing but the best on your. On your travels with Silas. That's what encouragers do. The next time you have a disagreement, I want to encourage you to operate in deeper levels of love and grace as you're having that disagreement. You can be right. You can be right. But in being right, you can sever the relationship and destroy the destiny in the future that existed there. Mark. John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. If Barnabas doesn't pour into that kid, maybe we don't have the Gospel of Mark because Paul doesn't find him useful anymore. Do you see what I'm saying? There's a way to disagree and still exhibit deep levels of grace and love for the other person. Let me close with this. I tried to keep this short this morning because I know we have a lot of stuff going on, but I wanted to give this to you. I will be 51 years old in June. I'm be 51. I've pastored now as a lead pastor for almost 20 years. I worked for my dad for a number of years in my twenties for Global Servants, the nonprofit he started. But I've been pastoring the lead pastor of a church for almost 20 years now. Let me tell you something. Every single Sunday, every single Sunday, I'm a 51 year old man. Every single Sunday, both of my parents send me a text. Sunday morning before church starts. Both of them do. I'm praying for you. I know it's going to be a great word. My mom usually has scripture. My dad usually says something to me every single Sunday for the last 20 years, no matter where they are. And for a long time, they didn't attend the church that I pastored. I get a text from both of them this morning. My dad is preaching over in Athens. Mom is here. I got a text from both of them. That is the spirit of encouragement. That's Barnabas. That is Barnabas. And you go, oh, well, that's easy. They're your parents. I promise you. I promise you that not everybody behaves like that. All right? Some of you in here may have had parents that did things very, very differently than that. Let me tell you about another guy. I've mentioned him before. One of my favorite people in the world. He attended my last church that I pastored. He had been a pastor for decades. He retired and then he came over to my church where I was and he became the senior adult pastor. And he told me every Sunday and every Wednesday after church, he told me that that was the greatest sermon he had ever heard in his life. That the law of averages tells you that's not even true. It can't be the greatest sermon. Every Sunday it gets greater and greater and greater. That's impossible. And I'm telling you, there's ones. If you haven't ever preached before, there's ones where you're preaching. I'm up here and I'm like 10 minutes into it and I know it's a stinker. It's a dog. And there's nothing to do about it. You just got to power through it. There's time in it. Ten minutes in, I just want to go, you know what? This one's a stinker. I'm going to pray and just let you guys go. And, you know, and when I'm. And when it's done, Donnie would come up to me and he'd say, that's the pastor Travis. That's the greatest sermon I ever heard. Wednesday Night. That's the greatest teaching ever heard. Two or three Sundays a month. He would be so enthusiastic about the message that at the end of the service when I would pray, he would stand up and go, pastor Travis, that's the greatest preaching I ever heard. He was so just. What? Barnabas? He was just full of the encouragement to the extent that it couldn't just help but overflow out of him. He was like that with everybody. He tell Courtney, you're the greatest pastor's wife I've ever met. Oh, that's the greatest sermon I ever heard. That's the greatest song I ever heard. That was the greatest choir special I ever heard that. Listen, if we need anybody from the Book of Acts operational in the modern American church, it's Barnabas. It's Barnabas. That's what we need. What we think is we need. Oh, we need another Paul. We need another Peter. I'm telling you what we need. What the world out there needs is Barnabas. We live in a discouraging and dismaying world. Everything in the world is getting worse. People. Every person you meet, every person you interact with, somebody has told them how stupid they were that day. Some customer at their job, their boss, their co worker, their spouse, their kids, their mother in law, somebody has told them they're an idiot. What they need from the church is sons and daughters of encouragement who speak life into them. That's what I want us to be about. That's who I want us to be. Sons and daughters of encouragement. If you had people pour into your life, you need to be that person for the next generation. If you had Barnabas in your life, parents, as I did, co workers, friends, whatever, if you had that for your life, you need to return that to the people around you now. Now you may be sitting there and saying to yourself, I didn't have parents like that, Travis. I grew up very tough. Nobody ever spoke encouragement. Nobody ever spoke life into my life. Okay, here's what I would say to you. Think about how much you needed it and become the person that you needed to the people around you. You can't make somebody else be Barnabas, but we can be Barnabas to them. If you need that encouragement, then become Barnabas to the people around you. That's what I would say. Now, in just a moment, I'm going to pray. And as I pray, the ushers are going to come forward and prepare the elements. But this sermon doesn't really connect to communion. Sometimes they do. Here's what I would say. Be sons and daughters of Encouragement. That's what we need in the church. That's what the world desperately needs. Somewhere out there is a Saul. God has called him to be a Paul. And without Barnabas, he will never fulfill his destiny. Somewhere out there is a John Mark. And without a Barnabas, he will never fulfill his destiny. We are called to be sons and daughters of encouragement. Let's be encouragement to the world around us. I'm gonna pray, and when I say amen to this prayer, I hope you'll remain seated. We're gonna distribute the elements and receive communion together. The ushers can make their way forward. Let's pray. God, I thank you for every person here and ask that you finish this simple message in the hearts of every person. God, that you would just move in this place, challenge each of us, all of us, God. We need all of us to be more encouraging. Each of us needs to be sons and daughters of encouragement. God, help us. Help us to speak life and love and grace and encouragement into the lives of people around us. God, I also ask that you bring Barnabas into our life. While we want to be a Barnabas, each of us also needs a Barnabas. God. Bring a Barnabas into every person's life that is represented here. In the same way, help all of us to be a Barnabas to someone around us. Help us, God, to be sons and daughters of encouragement in a church full of encouragement. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
- 33:26Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Travis Rutland Podcast. If you enjoyed this message and you're in the Cartersville, Georgia area, we invite you to join us at Liberty Square Church. You can also watch online and connect online with us on Facebook and YouTube. We'll see you next week for another message from Travis Rutland.