Sunday Sermon | Made for More: Deploy Your Gifts

We trace how Barnabas’s Spirit-formed character opened doors, why investing in people outruns strategy, and how ordinary acts of courage move the gospel from the temple steps to the neighbor’s porch. The charge is clear: discover, develop, and deploy your gifts right where you are.

• generosity that funds real needs and signals trustworthy character
• character before responsibility and ministry doors opening through faithfulness
• risking reputation to vouch for Paul after conversion
• recruiting Paul from obscurity to serve Antioch’s revival
• sharp disagreement over John Mark and the grace of second chances
• courage to leave comfort, live dependent, and fade from the spotlight
• everyday deployment across the street, at work, and in family
• the unnamed usher story and the power of small acts

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Chapters

• 0:00 Baptisms And Series Focus
• 2:45 Discover, Develop, Deploy Vision
• 5:20 Barnabas: Background And Character
• 9:10 Radical Generosity In Acts 4
• 12:20 Character That Opens Ministry Doors
• 16:00 Investing In People: Paul’s Conversion
• 21:00 Antioch Revival And Recruiting Paul
• 24:20 John Mark, Conflict, And Second Chances
• 29:10 Your Kingdom Come: Courage And Humility

Transcript

Baptisms And Series Focus

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Well, good morning, church family. Aren't you praising God for those baptism testimonies this morning? Right? Think about this. You have the beauty of faith like a child, right? Come to Jesus as you are with faith like a child. And you have the beauty of later in life, complexity, mess, and needing just intense forgiveness, and Christ can make you clean. Amen? Praise God. If you're a guest with us this morning, let me introduce myself. My name is Jason Smith. I have the privilege of being the pastor here at First Baptist Bernie. Church family, turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. As we continue our third part in our sermon series, we've been walking through that here at First Baptist Bernie. We help people discover their identity in Jesus Christ, develop their unique gifts, and deploy for kingdom adventure. A gifted businessman in our church had every earthly reason, okay, just to continue to make great money and coast into retirement. He had an amazing portfolio, okay? He had accomplished more in his life than he really ever dreamed. He had experience and could command top dollar. However, he met with me one day last year, expressed that God was stirring in his heart and was calling him to make a major pivot in his career and one with kingdom focus. Before long, he had tenured his resignation and he was on a completely new path, using all of his business experience now for churches and for not-for-profits. Almost a year later, we had lunch a couple weeks ago, and he just sat there beaming as he was telling stories of God's faithfulness. God's faithfulness to open doors in unexpected ways that he never saw, but God was just faithfully opening doors. See, deployed for kingdom adventure. Discover, develop, deploy. Now, church, I need to make sure that when you hear us say the phrase, deployed for kingdom adventure, that you understand deployment for the kingdom is in every aspect of your life. Okay? You do not need to think for vocational ministers only, okay? And you do not need to think only when you go on mission trips or where you serve at church. Yes, those are aspects of it, but you don't have to leave your neighborhood, okay, to go on kingdom adventure. Okay? Church, you need to think of to your family, to your work, to your friends, and all of the responsibilities that God has gifted to you, that in everything you do, you are called to worship God and to glorify Him with everything that you do, okay, as an expression of your salvation. And we're gonna see that today in today's sermon. Okay? So in your minds, I want you to think of Barnabas. Someone who's woven through the New Testament church that you probably haven't thought a whole lot about. Okay? His life is an amazing example of someone who lived on mission for the glory of God, and one that this morning we're gonna learn a lot from. So let me kind of give you the background and a little introduction to Barnabas. Barnabas was a Levite from the island of Cyprus. Okay? So he is a Jew that has been dispersed outside of Israel. His family is no longer attending the temple with the Levites there. He likely came to Jerusalem at Passover and was possibly saved during Peter's preaching to the thousands there at the steps on Pentecost. As a Levite, he was very respected by the Jewish community. But he also had a cultural adaptivity, okay? Because he was distinguished and he had a commanding presence everywhere that he goes. We're told that he's a wealthy landowner with a lot of business sense. His birth name is Joseph, but the early church had given him a nickname, Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. And this was so much a part of his character that his birth name is almost forgotten because he's simply known as Barnabas. And as we will learn today, he was trusted, he was generous, he was a life-giving person. If you were around him, Barnabas gave you life. Spirit-filled and uplifting. And he was courageous in the way that he took risk for the kingdom of God, and as we'll see, that he took risks on people. So listen as I read in Acts chapter 4, our first introduction to Barnabas in the New Testament. Acts chapter 4, verse 36. Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the Apostles, which translated means son of encouragement. And he who owned a track of land, he sold it, and he brought the money and he laid it at the apostles' feet. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, as we open your word, as we think about this incredible character in the New Testament, Barnabas, Father, would you open our minds and our hearts to the understanding that you are calling each of us into your kingdom work? Who are we that you are mindful of us? That you would save us, that you would meet us in our sin and give your son that we might be redeemed. Who are we that you would call us your own? And who are we that you would call us into your kingdom work? That you would that you would use us, that you would give us giftings, and that you would have work for your kingdom laid out before us in our lives. And you are calling us to walk in faithfulness, walk according to your spirit, so that we might accomplish the works that you have prepared. Who are we? And yet, this is the truth of your word, Father. Open our eyes and our ears and teach us, compel us forward. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, the first thing that I want us to see as we study and look at the life of Barnabas, okay, is I want you to notice that his character led to the opening of doors for ministry. His character led to ministry. So there he is. His life has been radically changed because he's been saved by Jesus Christ. And suddenly his closest friends are a ragtag group of what we know as the early church there in Jerusalem. Now, what an eclectic group. There are some rich, but mostly poor and farmers and fishermen from all over. They are feeling immense pressure because of the persecution from Jewish leaders. They are receiving threats of death, stolen property, losing their jobs, all of that mounting pressure. And right there, without being asked, based on his own generosity, Barnabas knew that God had given him the resources and the means to help those who were in desperate need. He felt it a privilege to fund God's new kingdom. So without speech and without notice, he sold his property. Now that is the source of generational wealth in the ancient world. And he just laid the money at the apostles' feet. No strings attached. They could spend it as they saw fit. Now, knowledge of his over-the-top generosity would spill over into public discourse, but no doubt, almost certainly against his will. Acts 11, 24 tells us that Barnabas was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and faith. You see, faithfulness with resources often precedes faithfulness with responsibility. You see, everyone began to know that Barnabas was a man of character and he could be trusted with responsibility. So in the early church, revival broke out in Antioch. And the church in Jerusalem was startled by this. You mean there's revival going on amongst the Gentiles? And who did they send? They sent Barnabas to go check it out. When famine relief fund began to be taken up, they trusted Barnabas with the money and the logistics because his proven character opened the door for ministry. So what about you? Are you a faithful steward with what God has entrusted to you? Are you generous in your allotment? Do you spend your time begging God for more kingdom ministry? Or are you asking God that He would work on putting Jesus' character in your life and then trusting that when the character's there, those doors of ministry will open. Secondly, what I want us to see about Barnabas is Barnabas invested in people. He invested in people. This is my favorite part of studying Barnabas, and one that I desperately want you to understand because here's the truth: you have people everywhere in your life surrounding you. God has given you people that you have influenced that are in your life. So here's the first scene. Picture this. The church in Jerusalem is buzzing because it has been rumored that Saul of Tarsus, the one who persecuted, ran around just torturing the early church, that he has come to faith in Jesus. He is giving testimony that while he was on the road to Damascus, that Jesus himself appeared to him. And now Paul is going around saying he's been radically changed, that he is now on the side of the early church, and he has come back to Jerusalem. And the scripture says that he is wanting to associate with the church now that he's back in Jerusalem. But everyone's afraid of him. So you can imagine Paul goes up to a group of Christians in the marketplace and they immediately run away. Maybe he finds a Christian leader and approaches him, but he thinks it's a trap. So 926 says, Everyone feared Barnabas. Sorry, everyone feared Paul and did not believe his testimony. But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road and that he had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. Barnabas was willing to take a risk on Paul. Because Barnabas believed that the gospel was powerful enough to change even the one who had persecuted the church. Another scene. Many years later, Paul is in Tarsus. He is forgotten in obscurity. And Barnabas has been sent to Antioch, where the church is exploding with revival. When Barnabas gets there and he sees all that God is doing, right? Revival amongst the Gentiles. Barnabas gets there and he immediately goes to Tarsus and gets Paul. Connect those dots for a second in your mind. There is revival breaking out. Barnabas gets there and immediately says, I need to go get Paul. So Acts 11, 26 tells us that Barnabas brought Paul back and that they will spend a year teaching and discipling new Christians. No angel told him to go, no vision, just wisdom and thinking of people. You know who would be good in this situation? Paul. Connecting people in order to invest in people. One other prominent example of how Barnabas invested in people. When Paul and Barnabas were on their first missionary journey, Barnabas's cousin, John Mark, also went on the journey with them. But early on in that journey, we don't know exactly what happened, but things got to be too much for John Mark. Okay? And he jumped ship. He turned back and went home and did not continue with them on the journey. So Paul and Barnabas would go on without John Mark. Well, fast forward, and a couple years later, Paul and Barnabas are back in Antioch. They had been in Antioch for a while, and then Paul turns to Barnabas and says, You know what we need to do? We need to go back and check on the churches that we planted. And Barnabas says, You know what? That's a great idea. I would like for us to give John Mark a second chance to go on the journey. Now, at that point, Paul and Barnabas, the scripture just says, are in sharp disagreement. Paul says, absolutely not. He deserted us. He did not do the work, okay, and we cannot risk him again on this second journey. And Barnabas courageously stands up to Paul and says, listen, we need to give him a second chance. And Luke just records there was such a sharp disagreement. Okay? A sharp disagreement. Show the scripture. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And Barnabas sailed out of the book of Acts, taking John and Mark on a separate missionary journey, and they began in Cyprus where Barnabas was from. So think about this. Paul guarded the mission, but Barnabas guarded the man. Scripture never comments to us on who was right. Is it truth or restoration? God used both of them. But church, when we look at the example of Barnabas, someone has to take a risk on grace. Barnabas believed that the gospel restores, and he was willing to take a risk on people. Now what's amazing about this situation is that Scripture will quietly vindicate Barnabas for taking a risk on John Mark. In Paul's final letter, what we call 2 Timothy, at the uh at the end of Paul's life, he writes to Timothy, hey, bring with you John Mark, for he is useful for ministry. And if you're not aware, John Mark would go on to write the gospel that we call Mark. Church family, the kingdom of God is first and foremost about people. It's not a movement or strategy or anything else before it is simply people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. People going from death to life. Guys, it's a love for people. So when you hear us say that you are deployed for kingdom adventure, we first mean to your relational influence that God has given you touch points with people in your life, in your family, at your work, with your friends, through your kids, that you don't have to leave your neighborhood to be deployed on kingdom adventure. Now, one of the godliest women that I know is a widow who is, shall we say, advanced in years. But she walks the neighborhood each morning, and she is rounded up a group of ladies, and they pray together, they study the scripture together, and they are deeply invested in each other's lives. See, deployed for kingdom adventure. Yes, the kingdom of God goes to the ends of the earth, but it also goes across the street. Yes, Jesus loves the unreached, and he also loves your stepson who feels unseen. It is both and. Church, who is God calling you to take a risk on, to invest in, to faithfully pray for, and to pursue in a relationship. Thirdly, Barnabas, when you study his life, when you look at it, you can see that Barnabas, like Jesus, said, Your kingdom come, your will be done. So let's start with the courage of faith that Barnabas had to step out in faith for God's kingdom. So again, revival broke. Out in Antioch, and Barnabas was in Jerusalem, and the church in Jerusalem said, Barnabas, will you go to Antioch to check out what's going on? And Barnabas said yes. Now we know very little about Barnabas' family situation. If he was married, if he had kids or whatever. But we know he had some family. We know he had friends. And Jerusalem was his home now. That had been base, that had been everything familiar to him. He had established life there. And he was willing to give up comfort, to give up that which was familiar, to say yes to the kingdom of God. Yes, God, you are opening that door. I will go on kingdom adventure. Now he would spend a couple years in Antioch. And while he's there, the Spirit of God would begin to say to the church, set apart Barnabas and Paul and send them as missionaries to the work that I am commissioning. And they go where the gospel had never been. And they would face persecution, dangers of travel and robbers. They are completely dependent upon God to provide finances everywhere they go. You understand that? When they would step out, they would enter a place and they needed someone to support them. And then as they would go on to the next place, it wouldn't be until after they left that they would ask for any sort of provision. They were completely dependent upon God every step of the journey. But Barnabas steps out in courageous faith, saying, God, your kingdom come. But I also want you to notice the way that Barnabas fades into the background in order to lift up others. You see, catch this scene. There's a movement in the book of Acts. At the start, right? Revival breaks out in Antioch, right? Barnabas didn't covet the limelight for himself. He gets to Antioch, as so many leaders are prone to do, to think, oh, revival? This is all about me. I'm in charge now. Instead, he actually feared that the work of the kingdom would be limited if he didn't get others involved. He knew that the kingdom was bigger than him. So he left the spotlight to go search for Paul. Your kingdom come, your will be done. One more progression I want to show you. Barnabas was a man of dignity and presence, a commanding presence. When the small community of Lystra worship Paul and Barnabas, okay, they worship Barnabas as Zeus and Paul Hermes. Zeus. No one has ever accused me of being Zeus. In the book of Acts, Barnabas is trusted. He is the sent one to Antioch. When there is famine relief, Barnabas and Paul are put in charge of it. When Antioch prays to send out missionaries, Barnabas and Paul are prayed over. Do you see that it was always Barnabas' name first? Because he was the trusted, steady presence to lead and go before Paul. But before long, God's giftings in Paul begin to shine and bright. One of the most tenacious and theologically gifted men to ever live, the Apostle Paul. And Paul is the redeemed persecutor of the church who will go on to write much of the New Testament. And in the book of Acts, the names switch to now Paul and Barnabas. The same Barnabas who stood up for Paul in Jerusalem when he was first converted. The same Barnabas who went and found Paul in Tarsus and brought him to Antioch. That same Barnabas is humble enough to take a back seat as Paul exercises his gifts of leadership and excels and begins to outshine him. You see, because it's not about comparison, it's about the kingdom of God. One plows, one waters, but God causes the growth. And you will see Paul and John Mark actually stand on the shoulders of Barnabas. And it pleases Barnabas, who said, Your kingdom come, your will be done. In Acts chapter 13, verse 2, while they were ministering in the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. What is the work that the Spirit of God is calling you to? And what are the works that the Holy Spirit is calling us to as a church? That is the question. As each of us surrender and say with Barnabas, your kingdom come, your will be done. In closing, I want to tell you a story of a man who changed the world. Mordecai Ham was a revival print, uh a revival tent preacher in the 1900s. And in 1934, he was doing a tent revival in Charlotte, North Carolina. In the background of this event, two 14-year-old boys were walking, they were just happened to be walking past this tent revival. And they saw the commotion, they saw all that was going on, and as they drew near, they began to hear a message that they had never heard before. That there is a God in heaven who loves them and who has called them to himself. And so they began to draw near and nearer. And as they did, they got close to the tent revival and they looked around and they saw that there were no seats available. So they turned and they began to walk away. There was an usher who to this day no one knows his name, saw those two 14-year-old boys walking away, and he ran after them. He stopped them, he said, Hey boys, I'll find two seats for you. And he brought them back. He asked some people to scooch over and he found two seats for them. Well, that day, those two 14-year-old boys gave their heart and their life to Jesus Christ. One of the boys was named Billy Graham. Now you probably know him. He would go on to preach the gospel to more people in the history of the world. Tens of millions came to saving faith through the preached message of Jesus Christ. The other boy was named Grady Wilson. Now he would organize Billy Graham's Crusades. So the truth of the matter is, is he changed the world. Not Mordecai Ham. And not Billy Graham and Grady Wilson. The Usher. That we don't even know his name. But he saw two 14-year-old boys walking away from Jesus, and he said, Not on my watch. And he went after them. Deployed for kingdom adventure. Every single one of us. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your salvation. We thank you that you have called us. That you use us. Again, Father, who are we that you are mindful of us? And that you want to use our lives. But Father, you do as an expression of your power and your might and your spirit inside of us to change us and to change the world for the glory of your name. And so, Father, I pray all across this room that we are a church filled with people who are deployed for your kingdom, who realize that our lives matter. They matter because we're made in your image and you have saved us and you have put a calling upon our lives. God, you give dignity and you give worth. Help us to see that and to live that out. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, the praise team is going to come and lead us in one final song of response, a chance for you to be stirred up to respond to however God has spoken to you this morning. We'll have ministers down here at the front who would love to pray with you. If you want to use these steps as an altar to pour out your heart before the Lord because of what he's said, listen, whatever you do, you must be obedient to what the Spirit of God has said. I can't tell you what that looks like. But do not wait. Today is the day of salvation, and today is the day of response where the Spirit of God stirs in you and you step out in courageous faith. Would you stand?