In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not giving up and always relying on God's help, even in the face of failure. He uses the example of a pitcher who gives up a home run but is encouraged to try again. The speaker also highlights the faith-building power of reading and meditating on the Word of God. He encourages listeners to not hold past wrongs against others but to instead show love and forgiveness. The sermon concludes with a call to be like Barnabas, an encourager, and to spread the gospel and uplift others.

How many have ever had at least one disagreement in your life? I don't want to lose respect for you, so I'll close my eyes, but lift your hand. How many have ever had a disagreement with a Christian? And I know this couldn't happen, but with your spouse? Nah, come on, sis, that's not true. Disagreements do happen, don't they? Now, I want you to study how we follow this as we read the Bible, because this is another example of reading the Bible and speaking to the text and saying, what are you saying to me? Now, in the book of Acts and in the life of Paul, as we've picked it up, he's just completed his first missionary journey. Everything was happening every day. All kinds of things were happening. Why would Luke pull out this fact about a disagreement, an argument? In the Greek, it means heated argument. And why would he put that in the Bible? What's the lesson for us? So when you read the Bible, you just say, out of all the things that happened in Jesus's life, all the things that happened in the life of the early church, why did God put this in the Bible? For the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit written through the mind and hearts and pens of certain servants. Well, the context is we've been following Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. They were sent out from the church in Antioch in Syria, where all the killing is going on right now. We found out that Barnabas was an older Christian than Saul of Tarsus, but on that first missionary journey, Saul's name was changed from Saul of Tarsus to Paul. And suddenly he takes the lead because it's not who's Christian longer. Ministry is based on gifting. And God just gifted the apostle in unique ways. We've followed them as they've preached the gospel. They were threatened in every place they went. Sometimes they just had to get out of and shake the dust off from their feet as a testimony against the town. Other places they found out they were planning to stone them. And in the last place we read about last week in a town called Lystra in Turkey, called Asia in the Bible, Turkey to us, Paul was stoned. So he survived that. And then they went back to the church in Antioch to give a report. They were sent out by local church. They came back to a local church. Local churches are very important. You can't be Lone Ranger and just running around reporting to no one, having no one supporting you in prayer, no one helping you, no one giving you guidance and counsel. So they came back and gave a report to the church. The part we're skipping as we go through the book of Acts is a controversy that I don't feel we should focus on right now, which is when they came back to Antioch, certain Jewish believers from Jerusalem who used to be Pharisees came and started preaching a very troubling doctrine. Paul and Barnabas had not only converted Jews to following Jesus, they had converted Gentiles, which was very new. In fact, their congregations had Jew and Gentile. This was new, but it was that way in Antioch. And these men came from Jerusalem, the mother church, and started preaching this. To become a Christian, if you're a Gentile, you got to get circumcised if you're a male. In other words, you have to become Jewish before you can become Christian. Because Abraham was circumcised. That was the sign of the covenant in the Old Testament. The males were circumcised. And if you didn't, you were in disobedience. But this was a new day. Now Jesus had come. We're not under the Old Testament law. They had a dispute with these men, Barnabas and Paul. It indicates they got right up in their grill and said, no, you're teaching something false. They went to Jerusalem, to the apostles to settle this. Like, did you send these guys with this teaching? Because when we're preaching, we're not telling Gentiles to get circumcised and then believe in Jesus. We're just saying only Jesus. Just believe in Jesus. You don't need anything else. Just Jesus. So they went to Jerusalem. It's talked about in this chapter 15. And the ruling was made that Gentiles do not have to be circumcised. You don't have to become Jewish before you become Christian. So then Barnabas and Paul went back from Jerusalem and they brought with them two men who could confirm the ruling of the apostles. One man named Judas and another man by the name of Silas. So now they were teaching and working in the church in Antioch and resting from that arduous journey that they had taken, stopping at all those places, preaching the gospel. And now an argument broke out. Wow. Even apostles argue. Watch what happened. Sometime later, Paul said to Barnabas, let us go back and visit the brothers and sisters and all the towns where we preach the word of the Lord. What was the word of the Lord? That was the gospel. Let's go back and see how they are doing. Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark with them. But Paul did not think it wise to take him because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. That's how converts are made work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company and never worked together again. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus. That's an island in the Mediterranean. But Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. You got it? They're back in Antioch. And now Paul says, let's go back and strengthen the churches. Let's see how the guys are doing and the new believers that we made. And the first thing Barnabas says, he will go back, but let's go back with the same team that we had last time. Let's take John Mark, who was related to him. Mark, by the way, is the same Mark who wrote the gospel. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. And Paul says, no way. Because on the first journey, when we started getting threatened and when it got hard, he deserted and left. Barnabas said, no, he's got to go. He's the man. Mark is good. That won't happen again. Paul says, no, it's too much at stake. We need help. You can't have people bailing. And it got into a dispute, an argument. And then Paul took off with Silas later, and that will be the next missionary journey that we're going to read about, very famous. And Barnabas went off with Mark to the island of Cyprus. What's the moral of this story? You know, when you read literature in school, do you remember the teacher used to say, what's the moral of the tortoise and the hare? What's the moral? The moral is, the race isn't always won by the fastest. It's the person who keeps going, right? What's the moral of some of Jesus's parables? You stop and you get the moral of the story. What's the moral of this? The commentators and experts in the Bible are in disagreement. No one knows what to do with this passage, because what's the moral? Who was right? Who was wrong? Nobody agrees. Why did God put it in the Bible? We got Paul. We got Barnabas. We got poor Mark. We see a division. We see Paul take off with Silas, and Barnabas take off with Mark. And what's the point? What's the moral? What's the lesson for us today? Let's try to gather something briefly before we close here. The first thing that I get from as I read this passage, and brothers and sisters, when you read your Bible and read it every day, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. People who are struggling to believe, it's usually because they're cut off from the word of God. They're so busy, they have no time to read the word of God and meditate on it, which means chew it. You chew it and you speak to it, and you speak to the text. And you say, text, what are you saying to me? Luke, why did you write this? Paul, why did you do that? Barnabas, what's the lesson here? You talk to it and you listen for the Holy Spirit to give you understanding. As you read this text, I get a couple of lessons from it. First of all, do you notice the care that they had for the new believers and the courage to go back and visit them? Paul and Barnabas were talking and Paul said, let's go back to the places where we were. Yo, Paul, you got stoned in Lystra. This is not a good place to put on the itinerary. You got threatened in Iconium. We barely escaped from Antioch and Pisidia and Derby and some of these other places. But Paul says, no, I got to see how the new Christians are doing. Those are family. He didn't say the folks who go to church. He said, we got to go back and see how the brothers and sisters are doing. When you become a Christian, oh God, help us to feel this more. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can do this. When you become a Christian, you become a part of a family. You see these folks from Montreal? Those are my brothers and sisters. I'm spending eternity with them. Their problems become my problems. Their joys become something I can rejoice in. This impersonal Christianity that some of you might be practicing, where you just stop in for an hour at a church, wherever you go, or here, and then you go home and then you get back to your real life, that's so sad. That breaks God's heart. Who's going to help the believers? Who's going to help people who have a lot of baggage? Who's going to help people walk through valleys? Who's going to do it? No church can hire enough pastors to solve all the problems. So this was an instinct that is something we need. You know, it's great to sing and use your voice for the glory of God, but how about the people who are listening to you? It's great to sing in the choir or clean the building and do your thing, but notice the concern they had. How are the folks doing? How are they doing? Has the devil come in? Are they being discouraged? It's like a mother caring for her child. How did he do in school today? What's the homework assignment? Is he going to be ready for the region? That's the concern they had, and that's what Pastor Cimbala needs more and the staff of the church, but that's what we all need for each other, concern for each other. You can't live in your own bubble. I mean, give it up. Let it go. Start getting involved in someone's life. Don't you care about them? Don't you have any love for them? The lady with the 22-year-old who's blind and HIV, what am I going to say? No, no, sorry. I'm writing a book. I have no time for trivial things like this. I'm a big-time preacher or whatever. No, that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. That's what turns people off against Christianity is superstar megachurch pastors and people who are remote from the needs of the people, but not Paul and Barnabas. They not only had this concern, notice the courage, the chutzpah. I was this week with a Muslim believer who is with us now, and while he was working for the Lord over where he was converted in the Middle East, I saw on the phone the fatwa that was proclaimed to take his life because he used to be like an imam, and he used to do that call to prayer, the call that they have over in Bangladesh. I heard that all during the day amplified through the whole country, it seemed. Well, he went from that to receiving Jesus, and there I saw videos of him witnessing on the street to Muslims, telling them, I used to be like you, and I hated people, and I hated Jews, and I hated Americans, but now I have Jesus in my heart. What courage. What courage. And now he wants to be used by the Lord here in America among Muslims. What guts. What courage. And we're afraid sometimes to talk to a friend about Jesus. There's a fatwa out. There's a pronouncement that he should no longer live. It's like, whatever. How many want to be bolder in your faith? Lift your hand. How many want to be bolder? I mean, Paul and Barnabas want to go back and see the places where they had ministered, even though it means risking their lives. Alas, they're not going to go together, are they? Because an argument breaks out over Mark. So, let's analyze it in closing and see what Jesus would have us learn from this. Paul, his position, Barnabas, his position, and then Mark. So, Paul's position was this. Before you go into battle, you test your metal. You test your armor. If you're going to go into battle with a M16, you clean it and you check it. People over in Afghanistan and all of that, they're training, they're watching, they're checking their weaponry and everything. Why? Because you can't, in the middle of the battle, find out something doesn't work. Am I right or wrong? This is how you practice in a sports team, right? You practice and you practice so that in the game, when you need it, you know you can do that. Also, the coach is making decisions. Who do I put in who isn't affected by nerves? There were guys that I played with in New York City at Erasmus Hall High School and then a basketball career in college, playing in the NCAA tournament. There were guys who were great in practice. And in the playground, they were doing it. You put them in a game with 10,000, 15,000 people watching, couldn't do it. Get to the foul line, they could not lift the ball and shoot. They just froze. So, a coach is deciding not only who's talented, but who can do it, who can come up big at the critical moment. And Paul says, Mark did not come up big. He was very small. Because when we needed him, when he saw the threats, when he said they're talking about stoning someone, when he saw the hatred, when we mentioned Jesus, when he saw the plots in the synagogue to get rid of us, he said, I got to go. And he left us and went back to Antioch. We can't take him. Well, there's truth in that, isn't there? Isn't there a principle of truth in that, in the sense that people have to be tested before they're given a position in the church? Did you know that? Oh, the Bible tells us that in 1st Timothy and in Titus, when Paul says, before you make someone a deacon, which just means servant, server, they have to have a reputation that they got it together. Before somebody becomes an elder of the church, you have to check out, do they have one wife? Do they have five wives? Do they rule their children well? Do they train their children up in the things of the faith? Where have they served? Years ago, a man called me and said, I want to meet with you. I came to the church here and I met him and he said, listen, we're down to six people in this church in Greenpoint. It's a building that seats about 240 people. We have $50,000 in the bank. Here's what I have on my heart. We're down to six people. We can't continue. We're older. It's not working. I will give you the building and the $50,000. I'll give you the building and the money. If you just promise me, you'll put a pastor in and you'll always oversee the church as long as you're alive. We prayed about it and said, yes, this is an opportunity to start another church. This was about 25 years ago. The pastors met together with me and we said, we have a building. There's money in the bank. It's a good area to have the gospel preached. Now, what are we going to do? So we started praying and asking God to show us who could we send out to do this? Well, there was a middle class, former drug addict, married to a former drug addict, middle class, Saturday Night Fever, Disco, Studio 54, the whole thing. He had been running the street ministry and had been serving and in every service and prayer meetings and serving so faithfully and showed that the Lord was with him. We approached him, Pastor Michael Durso, and we said, Michael, Maria, we know you work. He worked in his family's food business, Italian higher end food. Would you pray about this? Because we see the zeal that you have and we've watched you. So he went off with his wife and we sent about 30 people with him. And who do you think we chose? You think we just went in the congregation and said, what's your name? Bob, Bob, go with him. No, no. We said, no, here's a good musician. Here are people who have been shown they can teach the word. These people will serve you. We sent 30 of our best people. Why? I don't want to give them a problem. You don't give problems to people. You want to give the best people to people. Am I right? So now the rest is history. That's one of the best churches, I think, in New York City. God has blessed it. So we assessed it and said, what's his track record? If you aspire to leadership and you want God to use you, you got to be faithful in something so people can say that you're the real deal. They can see it. All in favor say, aye. You just can't come from nowhere and say, God told me, God showed me. You got to have a track record of you can trust me. So Paul was saying, I don't know if he bailed once, he could bail again. And we need help. Do you see Paul's point? Barnabas's point was this. Hey, he's young. He got afraid. When you hear people talking about killing you, that can have an effect on you. Yeah, he did turn back, but God is the God of a second chance. God is the God of a 200th chance. God is the God of a 2000th chance. And for some of us, we've proven he's the God of a 2 millionth chance. Am I right? Can we put our hands together and say amen to that? But you see, Paul's strength and fearlessness might've worked against him because people who are strong in one area find it hard to have compassion for people who are weak in that area. People who are given to study and they can concentrate and read well, they love to be in their Bible and they're digging. When they meet someone who struggles with reading and spending time in the Word, they go, what's wrong with you? Aren't you serious about Jesus? But you don't know the battles that person is having. We're not all constructed the same. And people who are strong in one area from the Lord many times can be very judgmental and not have a lot of mercy and compassion on people who struggle. But you have your area where you're not so hot. And I have my areas where I'm not so hot. Like a man, a great man of God, I heard say in Argentina, he said it in Spanish to me. And then he translated it to me. And it was, Jim, he said, Jim, remember this. Everybody has something that's not convenient for them. The Spanish word he must've used translated into convenient. We all have something that we're weak. Am I not right? Do I get an amen here or are you all, you're all sanctified angelic beings here? Barnabas's point was, let's give him another shot. God is merciful, Paul. I know he's merciful, but we need help. I don't know if I can trust him. Trust him, Paul. He's got something in him. Well, one word led to another, and that's a very, another encouraging lesson from this. Even apostles can lose it because a sharp disagreement broke out. They didn't stop and say, let's pray about it. They got up in each other's grill about it and talk back and forth. And then somehow, I wasn't there, but they must've said, enough. I don't want to talk about it anymore. You do your thing. I'm going to go do mine. It doesn't sound like the Lord's plan, does it? But someone's beautifully pointed out. God can even take our mistakes and our arguments and work it for good. Because instead of one missionary team, God made it two missionary teams. Instead of just Paul and Barnabas, now it's Paul and Silas and Barnabas and Mark. How many of you had that happen in your life? You've made mistakes and messed up that only you and God know about, but he even turned that around for good. Is there anybody here? Can we give God just a hand clap of praise? So I get Paul's argument. I see his point and I see Barnabas' point. Oh, blessed Barnabas. Blessed Barnabas. He rooted for someone who had messed up. You know what the world does when you mess up for the most part? It throws you away. You let down a friend, they don't want to know about you. My mother's here today. She'll tell you about two relatives that didn't talk for 18 years, 20 years, two of her relatives, because at one person's wedding, the other one didn't like the table they sat at. These are major things, you know. Didn't talk for almost two decades. What? They put us in that table way in the back? Come on. How many know folks are like that? They're just looking for any little thing you say or do, and they are right there. But how great is it to have a Barnabas spirit? You know what his name was? Son of Encouragement. He had an illustrious history in the Bible. We once studied about him a few months ago. He was just a regular guy from the tribe of Levite. He came from Cyprus. He wasn't an apostle at the beginning. He was just a believer who shared and gave offerings, but he was called Son of Encouragement because he had this beautiful gift, ladies and gentlemen, of going around and encouraging people. You might not preach like Peter or Paul, and you might not be called to be a missionary, but for the sake of Christ, couldn't you encourage somebody today? I mean, what does it take to encourage somebody? I wasn't aware as I was reading that last reference of that person, so I saw them at some moment and bought them a cup of coffee. Why would she be mentioning that? Because it meant something to her. It takes so little to encourage somebody. What does it take to encourage someone? Did you know there are people right now in every row who are fighting discouragement? The enemy's attacking them. Their relatives attack them. Other Christians attack them. They've gotten in messes in churches where everybody's fighting and fussing, and they're going through a day of evil, like the Bible says, in spiritual warfare, and they just need someone to come along and say, come on, brother, you can make it. Come on, you can make it. You can make it. Come on, you're going to make it. No, I can't make it. No, you're going to make it. Come on, I'm going to pray with you. You're going to make it. No, I'm going to die. You won't die. You're going to live. You're going to make it. No, but I grew up in a house where everything was negative. It's no more negative. Now you're in Jesus. The promises of God are yay and amen in Christ Jesus. Can we say amen to that? Come on, you can do it. Come on, I'll pray with you. I'll pray with you about that job you need. I'll pray with you. I just won't say, oh, yeah. No, I'll pray with you right now. I'll pray with you right now. Maybe I could call some friends. What would that cost you? Just pick up your phone and talk to someone. Encourage them. Instead of complaining about how hard your life is. You know the old saying, I cried when I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet. All you have to do is look around and get people to talk to you, and you'll have lots of material for encouragement. That's what Barnabas was. You want to encourage Mark, because when you fail, and now we'll end with Mark, when you fail, that's when the devil comes to knock you out. So imagine Mark now. Mark is on the trip, and he gets afraid. You've never been afraid? I've never been afraid? Yeah, I've been afraid. So he gets afraid. I've been afraid, and no one ever threatened my life. Mark turns back. Now, how did that play out? He goes back to Antioch. Yo, Mark, aren't you back a little early? Where's Barnabas and Paul? They're up preaching the gospel. Didn't you go to help them? Yeah, it was just like, I had this like pain in my back there. It was starting to bother me. A little crick in my neck. I need a chiropractor, and I'll be good to go. I'll be just... No, he probably had to tell the truth. I just wasn't cut out for it. Notice also, too, that Mark was not a first man. There are some people who are called to leadership positions, like the Apostle Paul, or to be a pastor of a church, but many others are called to be leadership, but helpers in leadership. Mark was never like Timothy, a pastor of a church, but he was very, very valuable, because we all have value to God. So how did the people talk to him? Like, did you hear? Mark is back in town. No, I thought he was with Paul and Barnabas. Yeah, it didn't work out. When the kitchen got hot, he had to get out. How do you live that down? Maybe that's why the son of encouragement named Barnabas said, no, I got to encourage him. Come on, Mark. You can do it. Get up, son. Get up. Don't feel sorry for yourself. That won't change anything. Come on. We can do this. Mark had to get his faith back that God can use you after you mess up. I want to say that in closing to everybody here today. God still loves you, and he wants to bless and use you, and I don't care how you messed up. It doesn't matter, because the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. I don't care if you bailed out of fear. I don't care if you bailed out in giving into some fleshly lust. I don't care. You blew up. Your temper used language you shouldn't have used, and all the rest. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. It's not excusing any wrong behavior, but I am so happy there's life after failure. How many are happy that there's life after failure? Because the devil wants to identify you in your mind. He wants you to identify yourself as a mess up, a failure, and God wants you to say, no, I'm not a failure. I'm not a mess up. I've had my moments, but I am a child of God. God loves me. He has a plan for my life, and how I failed in the past does not mean my life is over. So if you're here today, and you have a call on your life to do something for God, don't back away just because you messed up. Don't back away. I'm your Barnabas today. Get up. One of you feel a calling, and you say, I can't step out because it didn't work out. No, you get up. You get up because the best is yet to come. God is going to use you. God is going to help you because he restores the years that the locusts have eaten. Even if some of you have for years been on the sideline because the devil has paralyzed you by reminding of you of that mess up. Get up. Get up. In our leadership conference, Mariano Rivera, the great pitcher for the Yankees, is going to be here in the conference. His people called and said he's going to go out and preach the gospel now. He wants to be trained. Did you know Mariano told me one time talking upstairs that if you go and you pitch, try to close the game, and someone hits a home run off of you, and you lose the game, the next day, the manager says, get him in again because you can't live with that bad memory. You can't let anybody think, oh, you messed up. They hit a home run against you, and you blew the game. No, you go back. You go back. You never give up. You never give up. You always say, no, God's going to help me now because he loves me, not because of me, because of his love. He's greater than my failure. Don't we serve a beautiful Jesus? Time goes on, and Paul makes all these journeys, and now he's writing his last letter, and he's in the slammer. He's in prison, and he says, I'm going to die soon. God showed him. You're not getting out of this one. Time has come to an end. Everyone's going to die anyway. You that just are holding on to life and not thinking about serving Jesus so much, how long are you going to live? You're not going to live probably older than my mom. She's here 98 years old. She's 99 in November. You're probably going to, wait, you're not going to outlive her, but what is that? That's a vapor. How long are you going to live? You're going to live for eternity. How many know through Jesus Christ you're going to live for all eternity? Right. So a billion years from now, we're still cooking. What does it matter how we do here on earth? How long? No, it's what kind, what kind, what kind of life? So Paul's in prison, and these are his last words, last paragraph of what we know of his life. He's in prison, and some people have bailed on him again and left him because Paul was always around controversy and persecution. So look what it says. Second Timothy, do your best to come to me quickly for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Oh, yes. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is helpful to me in my ministry. The guy who failed and I gave up on him, maybe Paul is saying I was wrong. Send him to me now because he's so helpful. God uses him in incredible ways, and God's going to bless and use you. Close your eyes with me. I'm not going to ask anyone to come forward. If you have fallen down, get up in the name of Christ. Don't you listen to that lie that it's over. It's never over when Jesus is on the scene. He has a purpose planned for your life. Don't let past defeats paralyze you. Don't let what other people say about you paralyze you. Believe what God says. Don't believe what the devil says or people say. Would God give those negative things in your mind? Of course not. That comes from the enemy. Anybody here in this audience here say, Pastor, that was for me. Today, in a way that only God and I know about, I am going to get up and be what God wants me to be. I don't care about my past now. You've brought that out. If Mark could fail and God could so wondrously use him in the future, he's going to do the same for me. I'm not going to call you forward, but I would like you to stand right where you're sitting, behind me or in front of me, in the balcony. I want you to just say in your heart, God, that was for me, what the pastor spoke about from Acts 15. That was for me. Thank you. Thank you. Just stand where you are. Yes, up in the balcony. All of you there, I see, and downstairs. Just stand up, and that's your way of saying to God, just like I'm standing up, I'm getting up spiritually today. I'm standing up because I'm getting up. I'm not going to lie, defeated, discouraged, depressed. Oh, woe is me. I messed up. Everybody's messed up. The righteous man falls down six times, but he gets up seven. Gets up seven. He's not going to stay down. Father God, I thank you for the people, and that you are lifting them up now. You're quickening them by the Holy Spirit. You're quickening their faith. They're going to keep their eyes on you and what you have for them, not their past failures. I thank you that you have not only forgiven us for those, but you have forgotten that we ever did it. Praise your holy name. Praise your holy name that you not only forgive, but you forget. God, don't let us remember stuff you forgot. Help us to be strong today in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now help my friends here who have stood, Lord. Get them back on the right track. The enemy says they can't do, show them that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. That you don't keep records of past wrongs and haul it up in front of them to embarrass them. No, you're a loving father who sent your son Jesus to die for us, that through faith in him we might have life eternal. We're getting up today, Lord, and we're going to praise you now and forever because you restore the years the locusts have eaten, and you use failures, only failures, to do great things so that your name would receive all the praise and honor and glory. Let's all put our hands together and clap our hands for the Lord. Finally, Lord, give us the spirit of Barnabas, the spirit of encouragement today. Before the sun goes down today, let us encourage at least one person or more with our words, with our love, with our kindness. May your gospel run throughout New York City and the world and be glorified. We pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, I want you to hug each other. You hug one another.