Discouraged and Distressed!!!!! Acts 18:11

I suppose all of us at some time or another get discouraged, or want to give up and quit. In the heat of a moment we’ll say, "I’ll just leave this job, this church, or this family, and they’ll miss me…they’ll wish they had treated me different!" Often we have some of these feelings: “there’s no use/harder I try, worse things get

Examples: • Moses The Greatest leader, handpicked by God! Had God’s power on his life, but in Numbers 11:15 he said to God, “if thou deal thus w/ me, kill me, I pray thee!” • Joshua Greatest General, handpicked by God to lead Israel into the Promised Land…but in Joshua 7:7, he said, “would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan” (so this is what we get for serving God, he said, after a great defeat!) • Elijah Greatest prophet of OT/willing to challenge the idolatry of his day/called fire down from heaven/won a face off w/ prophets of Baal, but in I Kings 19:4 after it was all over, he requested for himself that he might die, and said, it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life! • Job We talk about his patience and faith, and he was truly a great man…he had a great beginning and a great ending, but in-between, when he lost everything, he wished he had not been born, became suicidal, extremely depressed for a period of time! Job 3:3 he said, let the day perish in which I was born! • Jonah He wanted God to kill him, and was spiritually depressed and not even happy for the all the souls that just got saved in Nineveh! • Paul In Acts 18 we find Paul in his 2nd missionary journey, arriving from Athens to Corinth experiencing a low time in his life I Cor. 2:3 Paul says of that time in Acts: 1 Cor 2:3 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 1 Thess 3:6-7 7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:

I) Reason

A. Fatigue (53 mile walk)

B. Forlornness – loneliness from isolation

C. Failure - not much success in Athens/called a “babbler” (seed picker) -Frustrated, leaving a city of idolatry and heading for the worst in the world for immorality! (Sin city! The Temple: Aphrodite, goddess of sex, and a thousand prostitutes sold their bodies in the temple in the name of religion!)

D. Forsaken – unappreciated …he later wrote to the people of Corinth:

2 Cor 12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

II) Results A. Struggled with Fear (Be not Afaid)

B. Witness was Hindered (Hold not thy Peace)

C. Contemplated Leaving (In this city)

III) Remedy

A. Companions (Aquila, Priscilla, Silas, Timothy, and Justus)

Eccl 4:9-12

9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.

11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

12 And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

B. Communion

Acts 18:9-10

9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

Acts 27:22-25

22 And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.

23 For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

24 Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Cæsar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

25 Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.

God was with Moses going through the wilderness

God was with Joshua fighting in the promise Land

God was with David in the valley with Goliath

God was with Daniel in the Den of lions

God was with 3 Hebrew children in fiery furnace

God was with the disciples in the midst of a storm

God was with Paul in the Philippian Jail

God was with Paul in a Raging Storm

God will be with You

C. Confirmation Acts 18:9-10

9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

D. Converts

Acts 18:9-10

9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city