you can make a difference. Yes, you the one watching right now online or listening later on the podcast, you could be the difference in someone's life. God has said it in his word, I believe it in my heart. So, so let's talk about this a little bit. Have you ever heard a woman named Mary King? No, she's not the one who started the fast food chain burger king, although technically that person made a major difference as well. Now you see mary King was a cook in the Newmarket Academy located in Cambridge England And served in the 19th century. Now it was while Mary King was serving as a cook at this academy, a particular teenager enrolled in the school in the fall of 1849, known as cook by all the teenagers in the school. She served up more than just food every single day. She had spiritual conversations with these teenagers and people told her that she both lived strongly and she fed them strongly. In fact, this one particular teenager would later grow up and say that a cook was the one who taught me theology now, who was this individual that was influenced by Mary King the cook. It was none other than the famous pastor Charles Spurgeon Charles Spurgeon is one of the most widely recognized pastors and preachers of all time. Over the course of his lifetime, he would preach to more than 10 million people, which is an incredible feat when you consider the fact that there was no broadcasting tools like television or radio or the Internet during those times. He would also go on to write more sermons and publish more books than any christian pastor in all of world history. Now, why do I tell this story just as Charles Spurgeon had a merry king, the cook who taught him theology, Who is the mary king in your life, Who is the person that invested and believed in you. I want you to take a moment and I want you to think about somebody in your past that invested in your life for the better and when you have that name, I want you to hold on to that name because we're gonna talk about that person at the end of the service. I also share this story because it really sets up our big idea for today which is this everyone needs someone to believe in them. Everyone needs someone to believe in that right now, still in the middle of a pandemic. It's important to recognize that we are all in this together. In fact, it's everyone together. There is not a single story of faith that stands alone apart from other people. People are God's instruments used to impact and change other people's lives. Faith alone saves, but God uses people to share that faith and instill it into others. As our series is called everyone together. Our goal is to help you navigate this new normal and help you get to where you need to go, but part of getting to where you need to go is first looking back at recognizing how you got to where you are today. And more specifically, looking back at who helped you shape who you are today, as we talk about this truth, that everyone needs someone to believe in them. When you look back at your life, you can see God's hand at work. And so here is a helpful truth by recognizing how God has worked in your past. You will be reminded that God is with you in your present and therefore you can trust God with your future. So many things of this fall seem unknown. When will our kids go back to school physically? I know as a local expression of a church who meets in a school or wondering when we will be able to gather again collectively in a large group setting. And so while our future is unknown, I can look back and see how God has blessed me, has blessed our church and how God has worked in the past and when I see and I'm reminded of how God has influenced and impacted my life in the past, That allows me to take a deep breath and to recognize that God is with me here in the present. In fact, jesus name Emmanuel means God with us. And when I recognize that God is with me in this moment that allows me to trust him with my future. I hope you can do the same because when you know that God is at work, you become grateful and here's another truth that I want to share with you. That when the focus on gratitude goes up, the feeling of anxiety goes down now. It's not that all anxiety goes away. And if you're just tuning into mission growth for the first time, I want to encourage you to watch last week's message where we talked about how calming the anxiety within you will help you care for the people around you. And so it's not that all anxiety goes away, but when you focus on gratitude, then the feeling of anxiety will subside or down a little bit. In other words, it's not thinking about what you don't have, but instead being grateful on what you do have. It's not focusing on what you don't know, but it's being thankful for who, who you do know. So this is an important thing. If you're taking notes, write this down that if you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling anxious, choose to elevate your focus towards gratitude. Because when the gratitude goes up the level of anxiety in your heart and your feeling will go down Well, today, I want to talk about one particular individual who's known for encouraging and investing in other people, this mary king like character. His name was Barnabas now, who exactly was Barnabas. His original name was joseph. You know, I grew up in church and I went to bible college and I've even preached sermons on Barnabas before, but it wasn't. So I looked into Acts chapter four verse 36 that I was reminded that his actual name was joseph, you just literally an average joke, but because he encouraged people so much that the apostles gave him the name Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. That's pretty cool nickname. You know, other people in the bible had nicknames like the apostle, john was first known as with his brother as the Sons of Thunder. So here Barnabas is so encouraging, so supportive that his name literally means encouragement. We also see a description of him found in acts chapter 11 verse 24 and it says for Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of Faith. And I highlighted these two words because it's these two words that really made him a good man. He was not a good man simply by what he did, but rather he was spirit filled and then Spirit led. The Holy Spirit was evident in his life, that he exhibited what's known in Galatians as the fruit of the spirit and that he lived by faith, not by sight, which you're gonna see in this story in just a moment. And so if there's someone to ascribe to. Oftentimes, you hear of people like paul or Peter walked on water or maybe you think in the old testament prophets like Elijah or David killing Goliath. Well, there's this story here in Acts with a person named Barnabas that really has modeled for us what it means to make a difference in somebody's life. Now, Barnabas has a story and a place in scripture because of the person that he impacted and that person was saw. Let me tell you a little bit about Saul, I saw was a religious leader who persecuted christians. In fact, in the stoning of Stephen, Stephen was known as the first martyr of the early church. The person who approved of that murder in Acts chapter eight verse one was Saul. And then actually it says here in Acts chapter eight verse three verse one and verse three, it says that Saul approved of his referring to Stephen's execution. And there arose on that day, a great day of persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and Samaria except for the apostles. But Saul was ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women and committing them to prison. Now, if you take that verse, you would not look at his resume and think, okay, that guy's gonna get hired by God to be the leader of the new testament Church, you see he saw his name was a jewish name, but he also had a roman um context and really greek context. And so later when he began ministry, you might know him as paul, the writer of most, the new testament letters and letters that we call epistles. And so paul who was the same name here. So one is jewish, one is hellenistic or seen as greek and even roman ties. And so he was still referred to as Saul and early ministry. So it wasn't like he had this incredible name change. Like in the old testament where Abram became Abraham or Jacob became Israel, it's really a practical ministry use of name where paul ultimately ministered to gentiles or the Greeks and the romans and not just the juice, but for our story today, I'm going to refer to him as Saul. So saul here ravaged the church, pulling people out of their homes and placing them in prison and in fact the next chapter Acts chapter nine, the story continues and he goes on and it says that paul still breathing threats murdered against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found anyone belonging to the way that was the early name for christians that men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. So he was persecuting christians in Jerusalem. In fact he approved the execution of Stephen and then he went to the high priest and said, hey can I go to Damascus, there are these disciples of jesus known as the way and I want to go and I want to lock them up, but it was on the very road to Damascus and acts chapter nine that he has stopped by a blinding light and he hears the voice of God and ultimately he gets saved. He repents of his sins, He believes in jesus christ as his Lord and savior and that it's only through his dying on the cross and rising again on the third day known as the Resurrection or that we celebrate on easter. It's that when he believed in jesus as Lord and Savior, he gets saved. So he leaves Jerusalem to go to Damascus to lock them up, but instead he gets set spiritually free and they're a man by the name of antonia's took care of paul and there's some unknown time, some say a year, some say three years where paul went off to Arabia and and learned and and really grew in his faith, but he came back to Damascus and the same village where he was going to lock people up, he started preaching the freedom of the gospel found in jesus and you know what ironically happened instead of locking up the christians, the other jewish people started persecuting paul to the point where he had to be like taken out of the city in a secret way, he was lowered down out of a window down the wall of the city in a basket, think about that for a second saul went to lock up the people in Damascus who believed in jesus instead he gets saved and now starts preaching jesus and now he gets persecuted, almost killed and so he escapes out of Damascus. So it's been a couple of years since he was there and he says okay I'm gonna go back to Jerusalem where the core of the apostles and disciples of jesus are now, if you're a disciple, what might you be thinking? Well there's a good chance that you would be afraid of this guy. He literally killed one of your own and was going to different cities to lock people up. He literally was responsible with a group of people for killing one of your friends and now he wants to join that same friend group and preach your same gospel and same message. There was a good group of them that believed that maybe this was a ploy, maybe he was a secret agent wanting to work his way into the system so that he could take them all down and so nobody trusted him even though his life had changed and he had been preaching the gospel now for a couple of years. So let's pick up the story in Acts chapter nine verse 26. And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples and they were all afraid of him, wouldn't you? This guy that was responsible for locking people up and destroying people's lives now wants to join you and says that I believe the same thing says for they did not believe that he was a disciple, But Barnabas here comes our main character for today's lesson. So you have this guy saw who's got an incredibly awful past, but his life has turned around, his sins are forgiven. His life is transformed by the gospel of jesus christ, which on a side note, if you're watching this, I want you to know that it doesn't matter your past, how bad you think you've been, how much shame and guilt that you have struggled with, that when you receive jesus christ into your life that God can and will transform your life just as he transforms Saul's life. And so Barnabas knew the story of Saul, he had heard and seen that Saul's life had been changed and so notice what he does here it says. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them on the road. He had seen the Lord who had spoke to him and how at Damascus, he had preached boldly in the name of jesus. And so we went in and out among them at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the Lord, as we said to start off today, is that you can make a difference and that everyone needs someone to believe in them. So what exactly did Barnabas do to believe in Saul Well, if you're taking notes, Barnabas did four things that come right out of this passage. And so I want to share those with you. First Barnabas took the plunge? What I mean? There is that Barnabas took the risk, Barnabas risked his reputation. He also risked his life when you consider the past of Saul and now you have Varmus coming alongside of him and say no guys, I believe him and I believe in him. And so he took the plunge because Varmus took him. In other words, he received him, it wasn't like he was in the back of the crowd and he said yeah, yeah you can trust him. Alright guys, I'll be over here. No, he, he went to him in order to take him, you have to go side by side, face to face, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. And so Barnabas took the plunge, he took the risk, risked his reputation and even his life to believe in the power of the gospel, working through someone secondly Varmus made it personal. So Barnabas took saw and then brought him to the apostles and he declared to them one of our fund rules and values of our guest services team here at Mission Grove is that we don't point that we walk with people if you've ever been in a store or a new location and you've asked for directions and you had to work or just kind of point and say, hey over there, I mean yes, that was helpful, but have you ever been in a store where you ask for directions and that person says, hey come with me and then they walk you to your destination. That is the heartbeat behind our church family and that when we do gather again that you can experience that again and that we don't point where people need to go that instead we walk with people where they need to go in the same way Barnabas walks with Saul to the apostles, he doesn't say hey the apostles are over there. No, he, he takes him by the hand and he walks with him to the apostles and then declares on his behalf. So Barbara's took the plunge, then he makes it personal. And then 3rd he saw the potential because he declared to them, what did he say? He shared Saul's testimony, he saw the potential of what God could do by seeing what God was already doing in Saul's life. It said that he had seen the Lord and that God had spoken to him and how at Damascus, he was already preaching boldly the name of jesus. So first he took the plunge, he put his reputation on the line. Second he made it personal and walked him to where he needed to go. And then third, he saw the potential in Saul's life and then last he built the platform. In other words, he cleared the path, he set him up to be successful. And so it says here in verse 28 that then Saul went in and about and around Jerusalem, the same city where he was persecuting years ago and he was preaching boldly in the name of the Lord and not in our passage today, but later in Acts Chapter 11. Again, it becomes Barnabas who goes and gets Saul from Tarsus and goes to the town of Antioch and we see the ministry begin and begin to flourish to gentiles and the word gentile. It's it's not super religious, it just means not jewish. So early on the church in Jerusalem was preaching the gospel to jews. And now, with the help of Barnabas and Saul, who was later called paul, they start preaching the gentiles. And the later half of the Book of Acts all becomes about paul's journey, when that name change happens. And while he's going on this missionary journey, planting churches left and right and investing in people like timothy who becomes the pastor at Ephesus. And he later writes a letter to him which is now known as Ephesians. And so he writes all these letters. In fact, he writes a higher percentage of the new testament than anybody else, but none of that happens unless Barnabas invests and believes in him. So if that's what Barnabas did, what can we do to make a difference in the life of somebody else? Well, we can do what he did? We can take the plunge. Are you willing to risk to impact somebody's life? It's not about being comfortable, but about taking a step of courage. Now some risk might be more than others. Some might be a relationship or your reputation, sometimes you might be risking your time, you're investing in someone and you don't know if it's gonna pan out. Some of you took that risk and supported financially when we started Mission Growth Church, and it's because of your generosity, you taking the plunge investing in the church today, that now here we are, continually impacting and exponentially reaching our community for the with the gospel. So, first you have to take the plunge in a relationship second, you have to make it personal. You can really, you know, influence from afar, but you can only impact from up close. So who was up close in your life that believed and invested in you and who can you in turn invest and believe in and help them take that next step. So, you see the potential in their life when you have a relationship, let me ask you a question, Do you see the problems in someone's life or do you see the potential someone who struggled in addiction? Do you see those failures? Or do you see the fact that someone is passionate about something that if you can redirect their passion into the things of God that they could change in the community and they can be evangelistic when you see someone who is more administrative, but away from God, maybe they're super skeptical. Maybe those people are the ones who become a fluent and apologetics. For example, Jrr token the the guy who wrote The Lord of the Rings, he was good friends with C. S. Lewis and in fact it was their late night discussions that helped really convert C. S. Lewis in his early thirties. And C. S. Lewis was this intense intellectual skeptic that when a friend invested in him didn't see the problems but instead saw the potential and he shared the light of the Gospel so that when his life was changed, he would go on to be one of the most prolific, most read authors in the last 100 years. So look at Barnabas, could you take that step, could you take the plunge risk time or reputation or maybe even finances? Could you make it personal and walk with a person down the path? Even showing them where to go. Could you see the potential in someone's life that when someone is stuck about where they are, you encourage them of where they could be. And then lastly, do you build that platform? Do you give people the space in your life to grow and to live and just shine the light of the gospel for others? That's what I think we're called to do in this time, that it's not about us, but it's about God working through us to reach this community with the gospel and we can do that when we live lives like Barnabas, did you wouldn't hear the story of Charles Spurgeon without the faithfulness of mary king. You wouldn't hear the stories of the early church exploding in the gospels and in the new testament that you see in the life of Saul who became paul without Barnabas, taking a risk and investing in that relationship. Have you ever heard of a guy named Ron Wilson? No, I'm not talking about Don Wilson who started CCV who is now the largest church in this area, which now don really did invest in other leaders. And in fact, they went through a succession plan and they transitioned their leadership to where now he handed off the baton and invested in leaders to where the church now is even growing when he moved on. But I'm not talking about Don Wilson. I'm talking about a man who's not really known. His name was Ron Wilson. This was a man who was serving in a church, elderly and age and just faithfully investing in people. And one day he took out to breakfast, a young man in his late 20s who had only been married for a couple of weeks and this young man shared with him this calling that he thought he had on his life. He was newly married. He was growing in his faith. He had done some bible studies when he was younger, but he felt this call to plant a church and he went to seek out the advice from Ron Wilson and Ron turned to this individual and said Francis chan, I want you to know that if you plant the church, I'm going with you. And after that encouragement, Francis would go on to plant a church and then he would go on to write books and in fact some of his books like Crazy Love have sold millions of copies across the world and he's planted large churches, he's planted house churches, He's now moved across the Hong kong and he's invested in thousands and even reached millions of people with the gospel. But the question is, would you have ever heard of Francis chan if Ron Wilson hadn't bestowed confidence in him at the very beginning, I don't know, see that's not just a big story like Charles Spurgeon or Francis chan, it also is a personal one. When I think back to my life, I think about how I had the godly impact from my parents and how they invested in me at an early age and how I had a great example of my brother David as well and pursuing faith and I saw him as a teenager taking a mission trip over to the Philippines and how I wanted to go on a mission trip later. And, and so by some of you might have not had a healthy family dynamic and so I want to also share with you though that there were other people outside of my family who invested in who I became today, you know, I think about the early days of youth group, I think about the wallaces and the qin singers and the piles and and people who both served as youth leaders for me. And then when I became a youth pastor at that church, they worked alongside of me. Now that had to be a weird feeling, right? You, you were pastoring or serving over this kid who then becomes the youth pastor or youth intern and now you're working with him. But yet they did so humbly faithfully and they demonstrated fruit in their life, I think about josh Amos and his wife who set the example for me as my youth pastor, I think about Matthew Pearson and Aaron Cook who really were leaders at a camp in south Ohio called soda hills christian camp and it was at those camps over the summer and in winter retreats where I would spend hours playing basketball with these guys. But after we would play basketball with these guys that we would talk ministry and we talk about the future of what life could be and they sparked in me this flame or desire to have an impact on other people for christ. So then I got to college and I was undeclared for a couple of years, but then I took this class called interpreting and teaching the bible and it was taught by dr tom Hutchison and scott Dixon and here in this class you would think I was the goofball because well to be honest with you, I was and so I would goof off in the back of class but through their teaching and through study and through practicing and through giving my first sermon that I realized that man, I love studying and teaching the bible and it was that class that opened up my heart to maybe consider ministry. I think about meeting pastor Craig Miller at 1\/4 of july barbecue where I was finishing up an internship in Cincinnati and and through that conversation he extended his hand and even though I had not had a formal role at a church, he invited me to come on as an intern and then he mentored me as I lead junior high and high school ministries, they're in Cedarville Ohio, but it didn't stop there because then we have friends come on and I would focus in on high school ministry and brian Hansen came in and so now I was being mentored by two guys in ministry who believed in me and gave me opportunities to preach and I let me tell you some of my early sermons were not good. Some of my early ministry decisions were not right. I crashed and burned but thankfully with their help when I would fail, I would fail forward and they would give me an encouraging word when I think about sports and my love for sports, there's a man by the name of Don Kallon who believed in me in sports, but also gave me a heart for missions and he would share stories about how he would travel all over the world and in fact, the gymnasium at Cedarville University today is named in his honor. And so Don Kallon gave me a heart for using sports to impact people with the gospel. And these are just some of the early days in ministry. When I moved down to florida, I had some great examples of leaders there and and youth volunteers and pastors who invested in me. And when I moved here in Arizona, I had some healthy relationships there to where I would be encouraged and how to love my family and how to grow in ministry and how to grow on the business side of things. And so I am so thankful for everybody that has invested in me and made me who I am today. Now hear me on this, I've had some difficult situations too. I've been looked over, I've and made fun of, I've had some difficult conversations who people were against me and people who disagree with me and people who believe differently with me and who spoke behind my back. But what is the story that you want to tell? What is it that you want to think about that moves you to that next step. So let me ask you who is the Barnabas in your life, Who is somebody that has invested in you that made a positive difference because remember here's our big idea for today that everyone needs someone to believe in them. So Who is the one that invested in you? Who is the person that made a difference? And who could you be the one for? And so here's my challenge today. We're gonna make it super practical. Remember that name I told you to think about in the beginning of the message. I want you to think of that person And you can think of more than one I shared with you about 10 and I want you to personally thank someone this week who has been a Barnabas in your life? You know, over the last two weeks, I've actually done this all the names that I mentioned today. I actually reached out to them and I just sent some phone call, some a facebook message, you know, some of a text or an email and you might be sitting there thinking, but john, I haven't talked to these people in years. I want, you know, that's okay. You know, I reached out to these people that I mentioned to you today, the ones who had an impact on my life and I just wrote a note or I had a phone call and I said, hey, thank you for investing in me and I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for your faithfulness back then. Now imagine if you're just going through your day and you are worried about the future and you're battling school and work and Covid and finances and everything going on in our country today. And then out of the blue comes an email or a message that says, I want you to know that you impacted my life. You think that's going to bring some encouragement to them. Do you think that might take their anxiety down a little bit? I think so, and that's exactly what I want you to do because when the focus on gratitude goes up, the feeling of anxiety goes down and so thank somebody this week. Thank someone who was a Barnabas, someone who took the plunge and took a risk on you. Somebody who really believed in you, somebody who made it personal, somebody then who ultimately built a platform for you, whoever that is. And there are many more people that I didn't mention, I just was giving you the start of my time in cedarville, but wherever you want to start choose to take just a couple of minutes and thank them today and see test me on this. See if the feeling of anxiety goes down at all. I think it will and not only will that happen, but also you will begin to see the world for how you can make a difference. You can make a difference. Yes. You watching right now are listening on the podcast, God has said it, I believe it, we just discussed it. So now go and do it. Let's pray Dear heavenly Father, thank you for the Barnabas is in our life. God we know that no faith story happens alone, but God you have chosen to use people to impact others. So in the middle of this pandemic, we recognize that we are in this together and that we trust and believe that everyone needs someone to believe in them. So may we start our week by pausing and reflecting and ultimately thanking the people that have invested in us Because if we know how we got here today, we can recognize that you are with us today and we can trust you with our future and we can look to be in a Barnabas for somebody else as well. Thank you for the Barnabas is in our life and help us be that encouragement in other people's lives. It's in your son's name. We pray Amen.