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person who makes
Text: Acts 9:23-30
You may have heard a lot about Barnabas, but I would like to be a blessing by reading an article about Barnabas today and with the title of a person who makes it happen. There are people who make it work, and there are people who don't work without that person.
According to today's text, when Saul, who will accomplish God's great works, first entered the kingdom of God by the Lord's call, no one or anyone recognized him. It must have been because of the stereotypes about Saul the persecutor. However, at that time, Barnabas played a valuable role in making things happen.
Barnabas is by no means an A-class Apostle. To put it bluntly, you will be second-class instead of first-class in the hierarchy of the kingdom of God. First-class people would be Peter, James, John, and Paul.
However, first-class is not always beautiful. It was Andrew who made Peter exist. It was her mother Susanna who had Wesley, and it was her mother Monica who made Augustine exist. The position of a woman in the Church of God is not the first place in the order. A man may be the head, but a man without a woman is nothing. We all know and acknowledge that a man can thrive and succeed only when he pushes, plays, and supports him to become a woman.
Today you must become the hidden protagonists of the history that makes it happen. I bless you all today to become such protagonists. I will tell you the secret to making it happen today.
(1) Positive thinking and remarks.
How about Barnabas, everyone, a persecutor like Saul? It is said that Barnabas had a positive view and thinking when he said that. Negative remarks make neither me nor others. A prime example of how negative expectations can be affected is the case of Mary Decker, who competed in the 1984 Olympics.
Mary was the best female runner in the world. She was America's great hope in track and field. But she reiterated on a television talk show before the Olympics. I don't get lucky. I'm not always lucky. It's supposed to be luck, but it's not. Even as she said that, it seemed she didn't know what she was talking about. Naturally, she was under great pressure. The negative words she habitually utter had a strong impact on her subconscious mind. In fact, she soon suffered an unfortunate defeat in the Olympic track and field event.
It will do as you say. Words come as you think. Faith is positive, not negative. It's possible. You can. Butler, it will be. Always look on the good side. And I hope you say it positively.
There was a person selling hot dogs. He was almost deaf. So there was no radio in his shop. He didn't have good eyes either. So I didn't even read the newspaper. But he made and sold good hot dogs. He also put up billboards along the roadside. And he shouted, “Buy a hot dog, man!” on the street. Then people bought him his hot dog. He added more meat and bread to his hot dogs and grew his business.
Then one day, my son from college came home to help him. But my son was a negative person. “Dad, haven’t you heard the radio?” “Did you not even read the newspaper? The game is going downhill. The situation in Europe is dire. The situation in America is worse than that.”
Hearing this, my father thought: 'Yes, my son is a college student, so he reads newspapers and listens to the radio, so it's natural to know a lot.' So he cut down on meat and cut down on the size of his hot dogs. And one by one roadside signage was taken down. No more standing on the roadside selling hot dogs. Then his business went bankrupt overnight.
Negative thoughts and words are a formidable enemy that kills me and distracts my attention. However, a person who is positive, always sees the good side, and believes and says that it will be fine is a person of blessing who will surely do well for himself and those around him.
(2) It is encouraging.
Everyone is weak at times and needs comfort and encouragement. Falling down countless times and getting up again is the path of faith. I hope that you will become saints who comfort and encourage your husbands and other members of the church. When a player runs, he has to sit in the stands and applaud and cheer for the player to gain strength. There is a saying in Hebrews that there are thousands of witnesses looking at the race of our faith. Without the spectators, the players have no strength. Please encourage and applaud our male deacons like mothers and female deacons like their wives. What kind of wife is a good wife? The wife who complained that I had been married to you and spent all my life cooking and doing laundry, and now has to find my own way of living, is the one who gives me a headache. And, a wife who says she can't do anything if she tries to do something doesn't make a good wife. The religious life should not be without cooperation. I can't donate. I can't housekeeper. Of course, I can't be an elder.
None of us do not need comfort and encouragement. We need comfort. We need encouragement. It's easy to pour cold water on someone else's passion. It's easier to make others despair. The world is full of people who frustrate others.
But we have a Christian duty to encourage one another. In many cases, a single word of praise or encouragement is enough to lift a person up. Comfort and encouragement are the only oasis for those who are lost in the desert of frustration. May the broken hearts among you be encouraged to be revived anew. So, I pray that you will be blessed by being encouraged and blessed by encouraging your neighbors.
Let's encourage one another with a positive mind, "looking back on one another, encouraging one another in love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24). 'He supported with his words those who were falling, and he strengthened those whose knees were weak' (Job 4:4).
(3) Prayer.
Prayer is the history of making others. A person who prays for is a person who makes others. Nothing happens without prayer. Prayer is what anyone should do. I read something like this:
In the sense that prayers and ceremonies at the sanctuary gave him strength in his work, in the midst of danger and conflict, what he saw at that time was just one glimpse of his mother's prayers, which continued every day without fail. I have come to realize the truth. The saddest emotion he felt when death came and his mother's lips of prayer were finally closed was the loss of a mother who could no longer pray for him. Ladies and gentlemen, it is no exaggeration to say that the future of our church depends on the praying women's evangelism society.
Would it be wrong to say that the future of my ministry and the future of our deacons depend on the Women's Evangelism Society? I hope that you will become the people who will be all of you who are attending today's precious worship service. I hope there will be history wherever I am.