00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all. It is an honor
00:04and a privilege just to look through the Word with everyone. That being said, I'm just going
00:09to get right into the text. Today, if I had a title for this message, I would call it
00:14Left for Dead, But God Wasn't Finished. Has someone ever counted you out, left you for dead?
00:25There are moments in our life when people look at us and silently conclude in their minds
00:32that your best days are over. They just look at you and count you out like, you're going down now.
00:39They see the pain that you have endured. They see the losses that you have incurred. They see the
00:45isolation that you have incurred and they assume you will never ever recover. You are done with,
00:52you are finished. That's it for you. Our story today is of a man who was literally
00:58left for dead, but God was not finished with him yet. That being said, let us dive into the text.
01:05We're looking at the story of Paul and the Bible says, and there came thither certain Jews from
01:11Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city,
01:18supposing he had been dead. How be it as the disciples stood around about him, he rose up
01:25and came into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby. Well, as we look at
01:33this text,
01:33what we see is how quickly human opinion can change on you. Earlier in this chapter,
01:42the people were ready to honor Paul excessively. Earlier, they were amazed at the miracles God was
01:50performing through Paul, but the atmosphere quickly changed. Now the public was persuaded to stone the
01:59very man that they were amazed by. Human opinion is easily influenced. Human opinion is unstable. Let us
02:08not build our life on human opinion. If Paul had built his identity on being approved by men,
02:15he would emotionally collapse, but he didn't collapse in this situation emotionally because his dependency
02:21was up on God. Those who once celebrated you may suddenly reject you. Public opinion may change in
02:33your life, but God's purposes do not. God does not. Lord, help us to base our identity up on you.
02:42So,
02:43God's purposes has survived these brutal moments. These were some very brutal moments for Paul.
02:50The text says that they had stoned him, having stoned Paul. Now, this wasn't a small inconvenience.
03:00Paul was violently attacked and left for dead like a piece of garbage. Then they drug him out the city.
03:11That's that, that doesn't get more scandalous than that. Paul's body was broken. Paul's body was
03:19bloodied. Paul was abandoned outside the city. He was brutalized for obeying God. Uh, he wasn't,
03:28it wasn't like he was sinning. He was obeying God. Stones were threw at him for the intention of
03:34silencing him. We don't like that this man keeps on preaching. The devil didn't like it. People were
03:39being healed. People were being saved. The devil did not like it. Even though this was brutal,
03:45Paul survived something that should have ended him. This stoning should have ended him, but the Bible said
03:49that he, he rose up, uh, God's presence in our life is not always visible in comfort. Sometimes it's
03:58invisible because you've endured. I went through that and I was should have taken me down. That should
04:04have taken me out emotionally. That should have just rocked my world, but I endured. And that is
04:09visible press. That's visible evidence that God's presence is with us. Now they left Paul for dead.
04:19What other people call dead, God can raise again. And that's hope people might count you up, but God is
04:27able to raise you again. The Bible says supposing that he was dead. They drug him out thinking that he
04:33was dead. The enemies had totally misread the situation. They thought Paul was done. They thought his
04:39ministry was over. They thought his voice had been silent, but God had a final word in this. God said,
04:45I'm not done with this man yet. Oh, this is not his last chapter. This is only chapter 14.
04:52Oh, if we read the book of Acts, we know that Paul's chapters end in verse 28. And this is
04:57only
04:58verse 18. This is only chapter 18. So his chapters are not over. Ah, thank you, God. People might think
05:04your chapters are over, but God is still writing beautifully. God ain't put his pen down because
05:10God said, it's not over for you. Oh, and there's some things that I need to accomplish in your life.
05:15You ought to thank God. People may misjudge your future based on present conditions. They may see
05:20your weaknesses, your failures. They may look at your exhaustion, all the loss that you have experienced.
05:26They may look at your abandonment and brokenness. They may look at all that and misjudge you.
05:30But when God sees us, he sees us totally different. God sees unfinished business. I'm not done with
05:39this woman yet. I'm not done with this man yet. After the stoning, the people drug him out of the
05:46city, supposing he was dead. They had discarded Paul like a piece of trash. They took him outside the
05:53city, outside of a place of acceptance and community. They had left him out. Many of us know what it
05:58feels
05:58like to be left out. We know what it feels like to be forgotten, treated as though we're insignificant,
06:03rejected by men, but to the point that we look dead. Ah, but what looks dead to men can be
06:12revived,
06:13can be restored, and can be raised by God again. Ah, you can rise again, no matter how bad it's
06:22been,
06:22no matter what you've been through. You, your story is not over. God can raise you again,
06:29and that is great hope. Help us, oh God, to know that we can be raised again. In Jesus name
06:34I pray and say, amen.
06:35Amen.
