Do the Hard Thing

Acts  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  30:41
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Digging a Hole

I always tell stories “on” my parents that make them look terrible. Because we did some terrible things as kids. Dangerous things. It’s past time I told a story that made them look good.
They taught us discipline and we did get in trouble for the things we did.
My Dad made me dig a hole. 5 foot by 5 foot by 5 foot.
And he said it would be hard. He did. And he was right.
Turns out that hole was for an illegal drainage hole for our washing machine because loads of laundry were flooding out our septic system… so maybe this story doesn’t reflect so well on my parents. I’ll keep trying.

Paul - Heading to Jerusalem

Paul is heading back “home” to Jerusalem.
He sails on his way to Mitylene and he calls the elders from the church at Ephesus to him, because he is hurrying to get to Jerusalem for Pentecost.

Paul’s Charge to the Ephesian Leaders

Acts 20:18–19 ESV
And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;
Serving humbly. Facing the trials...
Acts 20:20–21 ESV
how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a model of teaching/evangelism/ministry!!!
Acts 20:22 ESV
And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,
Literally “captive” to the Spirit, “bound” by the Spirit. The Spirit is the source of a compulsion to go to Jerusalem… and while he may not know the details of what will happen, he knows this...
Acts 20:23 ESV
except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
I don’t know the details… but I know it’s going to be bad. It’s going to be hard. And yet, I am “compelled” by the Spirit to go.
Acts 20:24 ESV
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:25 ESV
And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
Acts 20:26–27 ESV
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
And he gives this charge to the leaders of the Ephesian church, and even though we aren’t focusing here today, I wanted to read it all. Because it’s good. And if your a leader of a church or family, this is a charge to all of us.
Acts 20:28–35 ESV
Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
And having given that powerful charge of what leadership, should look like, we get a precious moment. Pastor Paul, kneeling and saying goodbye to the elders he has ministered to and worked beside for the last three years.
Acts 20:36–38 ESV
And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.
Paul knew this would be his last trip. He didn’t know what was coming.
He knew two things:
1) He knew it would be hard.
2) He knew he had to do it anyway. He was “constrained by the Spirit.”
And that didn’t end with the Ephesian leaders. Luke goes to great lengths to underline this idea. Paul knew what was coming would be hard, and he chose to do the hard thing.
He sets sail, Acts 21, Cos to Rhodes to Patara to Phoenicia to Cyprus (remember that island where Paul started his first missionary journey?). Cyprus to Syria to Tyre.
Acts 21:4 ESV
And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
“through the Spirit” they were telling Paul. This is an interesting bit, was the Spirit telling them to tell Paul not to go and Paul heard wrong before? I don’t think so. I think there is an interpretive issue here, and it is clarified in the next encounter.
The Spirit is telling them that Paul is going to face the hard… they are interpreting that to mean “then he shouldn’t go”.
They went on from there, from Tyre to Ptolemais, from there to Caesarea to see our friend Philip. You remember Philip the deacon turned evangelist to the Samarians, then the Ethiopian eunuch… and then God teleported him away to near Caesarea. Well here he is!
Acts 21:8–10 ESV
On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
Four female prophets, another prophet named Agabus, we are about to hear about what is going to happen.
Acts 21:11 ESV
And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”
How would you interpret that. “Don’t go to Jerusalem!!!” Warning!
How does everyone else interpret that? Same!
Acts 21:12 ESV
When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
How does Paul hear that?
Remember, Paul knows two things.
It is going to be hard.
He has to go anyway. He is “constrained”, compelled, bound by the Spirit.
Acts 21:13 ESV
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And then the rest of the team get on Paul’s level. They understand. Maybe they understand that Paul is turning his face towards Jerusalem in the footsteps of Jesus, literally, heading to imprisonment and ultimately execution.
And they echo Jesus’ words of faithfulness:
Acts 21:14 ESV
And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
Paul knew what was coming would be hard. That it was an ending of sorts. He wept with friends and those he had ministered with, labored with. He knew that this was the last time he would see them...
And then he went forward to what he knew the Spirit of God was leading him towards. Jerusalem. Imprisonment and Affliction.
Paul was willing to do the hard things. To walk the path of crucifixion.
How easy it would have been to give in. Go back to Ephesus and be fruitful in ministry. I wonder if the leaders in Ephesus brought that up? Text doesn’t say that, they just wept with Paul in farewell.
But Philip, Luke, the prophet Agabus, the folks in Tyre, they all begged Paul to stay. How easy it would have been to listen to them and avoid the hard road ahead.
There will always be voices, many of them, inviting us and urging us to the “easier” path. Even people we love. Even people we respect and admire.
Everything God commands can seem so hard! Repenting is hard. Forgiving is hard. Turning the other cheek is hard. Overcoming sin in our lives is hard. Honoring our parents is hard. Sharing the gospel is hard. Reading our Bibles is hard.
There is joy, and fulfillment, and gladness in there too… but over and over again God calls us to the hard things, and uses the growth from that to prepare us for the next hard thing.

Doing Hard Things

Weightlifting. If I do the easy things, I don’t progress, I don’t grow, I don’t do the work… in fact I atrophy. I start getting weaker and lose muscle every week I don’t do the hard things.
But when I do the hard things, what happens? I get stronger. Squatting 265 as many times as I can, and the soreness that comes with it the next day… that prepares me to get back under the bar and squat 315!
God prepares me in the “hard things” to do work. He strengthens my character, my love, my discipline, my heart, mind, soul and spirit.
Paul is flexing here. Against the advice of all, he knows the Spirit’s call on his life, and he is strong enough to be faithful even when everyone tells him different! He is strong enough to be faithful even when he knows it is going to be bad, it s going to be hard, it is going to imprisonment and death.
That strength was forged in adversity, a history of doing hard things.
The reward for avoiding pain is remaining the same. The reward for avoiding pain is remaining the same.
The reward for doing hard things is growing stronger.
Now, here is the important distinction: Paul wasn’t picking arbitrary hard things for the sake of being impressive, or even with the specific intention of “growing as a person.”
There was one question he asked: “Spirit, where do you want me to go?”
One question. And he has spent years growing in intimacy with the Spirit, asking that question, and following where it led him. So the Spirit could tell him “no, not that way...” And the Spirit could call him into Macedonia, or tell him to stay in Corinth for 18 months, or lead him to Ephesus. Paul has asked one question “where do you want me, Lord.”
And so for five years or so, he hasn’t been beaten, stoned, lynched or mobbed… because that isn’t where the Spirit led him. But now he hears the “compelling” movement of the Spirit, calling him to Jerusalem, and he will follow.
Because the only question is “where is God leading me.”
and the only answer to that is “the Lord’s will be done.”

Where is the Spirit leading you?

And are you willing to do the hard thing?
The right thing to do and the hard thing to do are so often the same thing. The way is narrow and few are those who find it.
Consider it pure joy when face the “hard thing”, “trials of any kind”, for it is producing in you faith, and steadfastness, perseverance… God is shaping you!
Where is the Spirit leading you?
I know some of you are facing brutal challenges in your families right now. The hardest thing is to stay and fight for love, fight to love.
Sometimes just walking into church is the hardest thing. Being in fellowship, in community with a bunch of broken sinful humans? Gross. Ugh! I’m supposed to invite them in, be vulnerable with them??? When they’ve hurt me before? and again and again?
Is God calling you into spiritual covenant with a bunch of broken sinful humans… this I can say with absolute prophetic confidence: “Yes, He is.” Because that is every church.
Just being called to church can be a call to do the “hardest thing”, to face affliction for the name of Jesus… let’s do it. Let’s do the hard things.
Let’s love when it’s hard to love.
Let’s evangelize, even though it is hard and scary and outside our comfort zone.
Let’s serve when it’s gross.
Let’s forgive when it’s hard and it still hurts.
Why? Because when we “do the hard thing” we follow in the footsteps of our Savior. Who turned his faith toward Jerusalem and said “Thy Will be Done” and walked to his own crucifixion, to forgive your sins and mine.
Everything I am, and everything I long to be, I lay it down at your feet.
Oh, what a sweet exchange! I die… to rise again. Lifted up from the grave into His hands of grace.
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