In the sermon 'God's Ways of Testing and Sanctifying His Church,' Trent Moody explores how God uses trials to test and sanctify His church, emphasizing the importance of faith's genuineness over worldly comforts. Drawing from Acts 11:27-30 and 1 Peter 1:1-7, he discusses the famine prophecy by Agabus and the early church's response, highlighting their faith-driven action to provide relief to Judean brethren. The sermon underscores that trials are ordained by God to purify faith, which is more precious than gold, and calls believers to be active doers of the Word, applying it practically in their lives. It also reflects on the historical context of trials faced by the early church, such as persecution and scattering, to illustrate how God's providence and instruction guide His people through challenging times.

With the great love of God, how would it not motivate us to do all things for Him? Acts chapter 11, and we want to be looking intently at verses 27 through 30, just these four verses. Last week, I spoke about God's ways of spreading and establishing the gospel both then and now and this week. I want you to think upon this theme as we read this together, God's ways of testing and sanctifying his church or his people, and God works in mysterious ways. God does all things well.

Thus says the word of the Lord, And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea and this they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. Our Father in heaven we thank you for the inerrant and infallible inspired Word of God that just as here by the Spirit Agabus spoke and so we have a more sure word of prophecy this word of God that you have given us that we would do well to take heed of as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is displayed to all the world. Lord I pray that you would give us the grace and the faith to believe every syllable of your word.

Lord that every jot and tittle would be as important to us as all of the Word of God itself. That you would help us Lord to walk in your Word and walk in your ways and Lord that the love of God that has been shed abroad in our hearts would then be produced within us, that it would then be shed abroad out of us to minister and meet the needs of those all around us. Not only in ways physical as we see here in this text, but also the great spiritual needs of people all around Lord throughout all the world. Lord, glorify your son today that he may be seen as who he is high and lifted up and seated upon the throne at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and we ask it in Jesus name amen and you may be seated. Peter helps us so much I quoted this last week I read this to you in 1 Peter chapter 1.

Peter aids us so much in what he says because it so rightly and clearly describes what this passage I believe is about not just this passage but really this whole chapter and a lot of what we see in the book of Acts and so I'm going to begin by reading Peter's words in 1st Peter chapter 1 and verses 1 through 7 Because I believe here we will see that God's ways of testing and sanctifying this church are not the ways that we would choose to test and sanctify ourselves. God works in mysterious ways and His ways as I said are higher than our ways and better than our ways and so let us look to His ways. 1st Peter 1 says this, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this you greatly rejoice." Now listen to what he says, though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." And what he says there in these last few verses, I believe, encapsulates what I want to communicate to you in this passage and what I believe God is wanting us to see in this passage because it is truly an unusual thing when a person reads this scripture and we see here that Peter says, though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials. To consider not only in this text, I'm going to list for you some of the trials, some of the various trials, they were multifaceted, multicolored if you will, different trials and in different ways, but also not only for them but for you this morning.

You have a need in whatever trial that you are experiencing this morning. The ones that you have experienced, the ones that you may be experiencing this morning, and the ones that you will experience are because, very specifically, he tells us, because of a need. What is it that you need? Well, he goes on and explains to us here in 1st Peter. He tells us that these trials are for that the genuineness of your faith.

You see God is all concerned about the genuineness of your faith. Our great temptation and our great concern and our great thought oftentimes is about how comfortable I'm going to be, how well I'm going to do, how much money I'm going to make, how much education I can get, what kind of job I can get, how nice a car I'm going to have, what kind of house I'm going to build, and is the air condition set just right on a day like today. But God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. It's very humbling when we read something like this because we think we know our needs. But God is wanting to point something out to us that there is a greater need, a more valuable thing in your life that needs to be dealt with and that is that faith that began in seed form as little as it was that little mustard seed of faith that was enabled for you to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is concerned about purifying and making genuine that faith because brothers and sisters that faith is more precious than all the gold and valuable things in this world. And so the question has to be asked, what is it that we are doing to grow and help and nurture our faith? Do we spend as much effort, I'm not going to say time because we know that we have obligations, we have responsibilities as men and women, we have to go to work, we have to raise children, we have to do all the things that we are commanded to do but I want to say it by effort and importance are we spending the time and effort and giving the value to our faith that God does. God is very concerned about the genuineness of your faith. He's wanting you to be concerned about it as well and in fact he goes on and says it's more precious than gold.

The very thing that you and me that we so highly value, currency. God does not value. He says it's more valuable than gold. Though it is tested by fire, even that gold that we so highly value, we highly value gold because it has been purified by fire. And the purpose of this purification he tells us here is that it may be found, your faith may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

I preach this in 1st Peter. You remember these things. It was your faith and the purity of it and the value of it is for the purpose of praise and honor and glory at the revelation, at the revealing of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what is it that God is doing here? What are the ways in which God was testing and sanctifying the faith of this early young church here in Antioch.

And I hope and pray that this will be beneficial to all of our souls. I want you to realize something first and foremost that God gives the church a word, if you will. Just in simplicity, I just want you to know that God does not leave us without testimony, He does not leave us without instruction, He does not leave us without this witness for us to read and to see and to understand for the instruction of our souls and for the genuineness of our faith. He wants us to understand something And so what does he do in the early church before they had the New Testament written, before they had the very word of God and of the New Testament in their hands that they could read it and see it. They were living it and so what did they do?

God did what God does. He speaks so that we can understand and that we can know what we should do. And that's what He does here. Look with me at verse 27. And in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch and then one of them named Agamus stood up and showed by the Spirit.

Now I want to stop there right in the middle of that sentence don't let that trouble you. God sent to the church a prophet. Now I do not think that this statement is insignificant, but rather I believe that what God is wanting us to see is that it was significant because God had a word for the church. Remember this is a new church. This is a church that is less than a year old.

This is a church that Barnabas went to. The apostles and elders at Jerusalem sent Barnabas and they knew that they needed this son of encouragement, this good man who is full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith and then we also see now, I believe through God working that this same church in Jerusalem sent prophets from them to go to Antioch so that they would have a word from the Lord. I don't think it was just merely man sending men to go do something, but I believe it was God sending men to speak His word. Very specifically, He sent prophets. They needed to hear what God had to say.

And I prayed today that you're here to hear what God has to say. It's not by happenstance that you are here. You're here because God has something to say. Can you imagine if a prophet of God stood up in the midst of the congregation and he said, thus says the Lord? And you knew that when he spoke this was the word of God.

Well brothers and sisters that just happened. I'm not his prophet but this is the prophecy of God. This is the revelation of God and it says and in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch and God wants you to know something about this passage of Scripture. That's why you're here. I hope you didn't come here just me.

Because you want to hear from God. You want to hear what does God have to say. You have something you need to know. Your faith has something that needs to be worked upon that the genuineness of your faith would be proven and shown. And that's what God's doing through His Word in your heart this morning.

And may your prayer be throughout this message, God speak through your Word to me. Let me hear and see all that you have so that my faith would be tested and purified, or that I would be sanctified by the Word of God. And that's what was happening here. When God moves his prophets, I want you to understand, from one place to another, there's a good cause of anticipating that God has something to communicate to his church. When the church gathers and God's Word is opened in the same way.

I want you to understand that there is good reason for you to anticipate that God has something to say to you. So what is it? What is God wanting to say to you today. I want you to think about that as we go through this passage. It seems reasonable that they would be listening, that they would be understanding.

I believe it's reasonable to understand that these men were not only sent by the apostles of the church at Jerusalem, it seems reasonable that they would do that, but because Antioch was becoming this hot spot for the advancement of the gospel. Barnabas was sent to see what was going on and when he saw the grace of God he rejoiced. He was glad. He was so glad that he went to get Saul and bring him. And Saul and Barnabas are there teaching this church and preaching the Word of God for a whole year but in the midst of that and in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

God had something to teach this church that they needed to understand and something that was going to help them to grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. A great many people were being saved and therefore more men were needed to preach and to teach and to proclaim the gospel and all of the gospel, the whole council of God to these people. They had not the New Testament to instruct them, but what they needed was the Word of God to come to them and that's what God did. And we will see that there was a situation approaching that they knew not of. They didn't know what was getting ready to happen, but God did because why?

Did God just foresee this thing that was approaching? Or did God ordain this thing that was approaching? Well, we believe God ordained this thing, this famine that was approaching and in God's kindness and goodness and in his work of purifying and testing and sanctifying his church, God knew they needed to know something. He wanted them to know something. And as we will see, there was a situation that was approaching that that not only demanded doctrinal clarity, but would also be very practical in its benefit for them and other believers.

So again I want you to kind of bring this thing and apply it to yourself as we're walking through this passage of scripture. What is it about God's Word this morning that you need that's not only doctrinal, but highly practical for your benefit and the benefit of other believers? This is not just a time of spectating. It's not just a time of being hearers of the Word, but you will see as we get through this that you're going to hear the Word of God and I pray be doers of the Word of God. Because if it stops in between those two things, we've stopped short.

And there's actually warnings about doing that in the scriptures. We need to advance all the way from being hearers to being practical doers of God's Word. God does not leave his people without instruction on how to deal with difficult situations, but he provides us wisdom so that we can walk through the midst of great trying times, difficult times. And so here, God sends prophets And now he gives us the very word of the living God and written right here in these pages in our Bibles that we all hold in our hands. And I want you to know that God still speaks to his church very plainly.

And if you want to hear it audibly, read your Bible out loud. But let's take just a moment and understand the purpose of prophets. We see in Ephesians chapter 4 that God gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ. See, that's where God is aiming your faith. The trial that you're facing, whether it be exactly like this, which is not a famine, none of us have been in a famine, none of us has hardly missed a meal.

But whatever that trial may be, whatever the difficulty of your life, whatever it is God is using to test the genuineness of your faith so that you would be like this until you come to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, until you come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that you would henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive you. God wants to establish your fate to such a degree that if any false teacher or false doctrine comes your way you will be unflappable in its face. Unmoved, Not convinced, not shaken, but your feet will be upon the solid rock of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. That's where God is wanting to take you through your trials and through understanding them by the Word of God. We see that he sent prophets.

I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on this. Prophets are not a new thing. The Old Testament was full of prophets. God used prophets to declare His Word to men. And that's what he's doing here in the New Testament.

It's almost like this seamless line to some degree, that God is going to communicate His Word through His man to His people. And so what did they do? They functioned in two basic ways in the Old Testament. They proclaimed the Word of God, as I said, to men, and they foretold future events by direct communication from God to men. So you would have, as many dictionaries will say, they were foretellers and forth-tellers.

They would oftentimes tell you what was going to happen in the future, but they would also proclaim to you, foretell to you, not foretell to you, the very Word of God. What did God say? What has He said? And that's kind of what I'm doing in the sense of that role of a prophet today, which is now pastors and teachers or elders, we tell you what God's Word says to the best of our ability and by the help of the Holy Spirit. The difference is is when a prophet spoke it was infallible.

When I speak it's not, except when I'm reading this to you then it's infallible again. Isn't that wonderful? So you can know what God says to us. And this man that we see here, his name was Agabus, he was a chosen vessel of God to proclaim His word. It's the first time we've seen Agabus, but we will see him one more time doing the same type thing.

He comes and he has a word and both times in the Book of Acts it has something to do with a difficulty that's coming, some trial that's coming. First it is about the trial that the church is going to face, and next, the next time, it will be about the trial that the Apostle Paul would face. In both cases, it was speaking of future events that were going to happen, and specifically those that would be difficult. The interesting thing here, and I think that is so helpful for us and so instructive here is that this man Agabus, this prophet, he stood up and these words are spoken and showed by the Spirit that That is absolutely essential information that we understand. This was not standing up and him telling us his opinion about what he thought about the future.

He didn't say, you know, I was looking at the landscape of our economic times and I was noticing that the distributions of goods is looking kind of fragile so you might want to get prepared for a downturn in that economy. It's not what he was talking about. What he was talking about was, thus saith the Lord. By the Spirit he spoke and showed these things. His message was not his message, this message was God's message through him to God's people.

He spoke by the Spirit And so my understanding of this is not that there was some unusual thing that happened that he did, but that he indicated or signified or made known by the Spirit what was about to happen. And apparently it was clear to all that this was by the Spirit. It was, I don't know exactly, we're not told exactly how they understood, but I want you to know they believed that it was by the Spirit because as soon as they heard it and before the famine came they acted upon what he said. They believed this was straight from God and so they acted upon it. So in seeing that this was not his own thoughts but this was God telling them what was going to happen And so it tells us that God wanted his people to know this information, which was really specific information.

And the point that I've been trying to get to is this. I find it interesting that all of the preaching and the teaching that was going on during this whole entire year of Barnabas and Saul, and now these prophets being there, the only information we have about what was preached and what was taught was only a few little things. In verse 19, they preached the Word. That's kind of generic. The next thing we see in verse 23 is Barnabas.

He encouraged them that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. And then the third thing that we have specifically in a whole year of recapping what was taught was this, there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world. That's all we have as we're in regards to the very specific words that were proclaimed to this church. And with that said, what do we learn from this passage? I would have to say that this is important information if this is only one of three things that we know that they spoke in a whole year.

And so God was getting ready to do something that we might not think was terribly significant other than the fact it was going to affect a lot of people. It was important in this sense not just doctrinally but very Practically and I want you to understand this is that when you come to the Word of God It's not only so that your head would be filled with grandiose ideas of doctrinal truth But that you would take this information and use it for highly practical outworkings of that doctrinal truth So if we come week after week and we listen to the Word of God and we say, man that was really, that was good information, I now know more about God, about His Word, about Jesus Christ than I did last week, that's just really good. And we do not act upon that doctrinal truth that we have. We have become hearers of the Word and not doers. And we are in a grave danger.

Faith without works, finish it, is dead. I don't want a dead faith. I want a living faith. I want a faith that is quick and powerful. I want a faith like Barnabas had and even like others had.

Stephen is described this way as well, that he was a man full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith. That's what I want. I want God to give me a fullness of faith. That's what Stephen was. We'll see that in just a moment.

But why did the church need to know this and why do we need to know this? Why do we need to know about a famine that happened 2, 000 years ago? This may be obvious but it is important to know that God oftentimes gives the church, and when I say the church I'm going to say individual Christians, trials. Has anybody or can anybody testify that that is true? God gives his church trials.

God will give you trials. Write it down, mark it down, be ready, be looking, it's coming. I don't care how much money you have, it's coming. I don't care how healthy you are, it's coming. I don't care how smart you are, it's coming.

I don't care how you fortify yourself against it, in what ways that you come about to think of, how can I fortify myself against all trials? It doesn't matter, a trial is coming your way. So what do we gain from this? What is it that God wants to do through this trial? It says in verse 28b, then one of them named Agabus, we read this, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

As a side note, that's how we know that he was a true prophet of God. It came to pass. It's helpful for us to let the context of this whole section that we've been looking at to settle upon your heart and mind. I want you to think back as we've preached through the book of Acts and we think about all the stuff that's happened. Let the context of that settle in.

Last week we read that God's people were scattered because of a great persecution that arose after the death of Stephen, who was, as we also read earlier in chapter 6, that this man Stephen was one of God's chosen men to be a deacon by the congregation. He also was described in chapter 6 verse 5 a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And this man who was full of faith and the Holy Spirit was murdered because of his preaching of the gospel. It's the same testimony that Barnabas had, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And then at the end of the chapter seven we see again like I said Stephen's put to death and in chapter eight We see that Saul made havoc of the church and was dragging men and women off into prison.

I'm giving you context so that you can see some of the trials and difficulties that the church was facing. I mean this church had just started in Jerusalem. Bam! You got 3, 000 souls who were saved. There's so much going on.

There's a need. There's a need among the widows. They need to be fed. Hey we need some men that will take care of this. They raise up men to take care of this and one of them named Stephen who's mighty in word and deed.

He's a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit and he preaches the word of God and they kill him. Why would God have a man killed that was so useful? Let me let you in on a secret. God doesn't need men. It is simply a pleasure and a privilege for us to serve God for as long as he wants or as short as he wants.

But it goes on from there in chapter 11 we read about this great persecution that scattered the people, God's people out of Jerusalem. This new brand new believing in the Lord Jesus Christ Church gets hit with a tremendous amount, a great persecution that scatters them and they had to flee their home, they flee their land, they flee what they know, all of the things that are familiar to them, they are now scattered out of this place. Can we even compare that to our anything that we've gone through? Can you sympathize with this? It's astounding to think of.

Now there are believers in this world today who know exactly what this is like. We do not. Yet the hand of the Lord we read was with those who were scattered. And a great many people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and there was so much growth, so much numerical growth and spirituality, they were growing in edification, is taking place at such an extent that in Antioch they're becoming kind of the hub of a evangelism explosion, if you will. There is a great thing taking place, the preaching of the Word and people are coming to faith in Jesus Christ and now on the very heels of this great revival, God sends famine upon the whole world.

As if persecution and martyrdom and difficulty and fleeing from your home and being scattered to different parts of the world and was not enough. Now some of you have experienced difficulties in trials where you think Lord surely this is enough and sometimes you find that it is and sometimes you find that it's not. Sometimes you find no the the fire is not quite the testing temperature is not quite where God wants it. He dials it up a degree or two, but never beyond what you are able to bear by the grace of God. A famine, as you well know, some of you children may not fully understand this, but it is a shortage of food and the reasons for that shortage may vary.

It's not only a drought but it could also be a severe flood. It could also be a crisis in the community. It could be caused by war. It could be caused by a host of things that would cause a famine or a lack of food to the point where people are going hungry and even to the point of starvation. It's happened throughout all of history throughout the Bible you can read about it and really it had there's people starving today.

We don't know anything about that and just as a side note don't think that it's because of some virtue in us that we haven't experienced it. There's no virtue in our nation that has kept God's hand from sending famine. Just as the pagan nations sacrifice children to idols, our nation sacrifices children to their pagan cults today. And I want you to understand something that even this very fact, this one point, is enough to provoke God to a great judgment upon this nation. We sang about God does not deal with us as we deserve.

He doesn't deal with our sins as we deserve. I want you to know he has not dealt with this nation as it deserves. It's only the mere mercy and good pleasure of God that we do not experience famines in our country today. And may I add that God could easily do it. It would not take a miracle for God to bring a famine to this land.

By solely natural consequences, by the by the arrogance and pride of man God could cause this thing to happen and what do I mean by that well I'm going to give you a little current information that may shock you you may know about it you may not know about it you may not want to know about it but here you go you're getting it anyway Our food supply delivery system is what I would say is on a razor's edge all the time. If you don't believe me, I want you to research a word or a phrase that's called just-in-time food delivery. You ever heard of this? Just-in-time food delivery. This is the logistical strategy that ensures that food products are delivered exactly when they're needed.

In other words, they show up in a truck to the store almost at the same time that you purchased something and took some stuff out of the store. Now This may not seem like a big deal, but this is done so that food is delivered fresh, which we all like, and it also saves costs because companies don't have to use warehouses to store food in, and it saves them money, therefore you get cheaper food. Or they get more money, one or the other, or both. It's delivered just in time of when it is needed. It's really, I'll be honest with you, it's an amazing logistical strategy that the world, mostly in America, has come up with that they are so scheduled and so syncretized that they can make all of these things happen and it's not just a truck getting to your store in time but it goes all the way back to the planting of the food in the fields and all of the steps in between that bring about this process to get you food right when you show up.

You may think I'm going too far with this but humor me. If there's one breakdown in that chain then there could be a major food shortage. Any type of crisis could do it, a war, a drought, a flood, civil unrest, a fire, a pandemic. Very quickly, there could be a major supply chain issue and no food would be on the shelves. The grocery stores have how many days of food if no trucks show up?

How many do you think? Three. In three days if a truck does not show up to your grocery store the shelves are empty. How close are we if something broke down that supply chain would you be without food and you would understand what's coming here in the book of Acts. Now I'm not saying this to scare you, but I also don't think that blind faith in the wisdom of man's ability to have a great strategy and logistics is a wise thing.

Neither is the mentality I just don't like to think about things like that, therefore ignorance is bliss. It's good to be informed and to know just how fragile our food supply is because guess what you need it every day. And God throughout all of history has used either the abundance or lack of food to teach and to judge and to bless His people and all people. So it is important. So on a side note please have more than a day or two supply of food.

This is just a little instruction from your shepherd here. Have more than one or two days supply of food in your house just in case we have a bad hurricane or there's a fire or something stops that supply. I don't think it's unspiritual to be prepared. Would anybody think it's unspiritual if you're going on a you know seven-day hike to just say you know what we're gonna wing it. Is that spiritual?

I don't think so. Be prepared for these things. And remember Joseph in the Old Testament was the first prepper. It's biblical to be prepared for future problems regarding food supplies. It's not a sign of spirituality to be unprepared or fearful.

Remove fear. I'm not doing this to create fear. Faith, love, obedience, and being prepared. My advice is this, trust in God and keep your pantry full. Okay, back to the text.

These famines were not unheard of and I'm just going to list a few of them for you for sake of time. I don't want to go on too long with this. In Luke chapter 20 chapter 21 Jesus Christ himself taught about famines and he said guess what they're coming. Here's what he says and there will be a great will be great earthquakes in various places and famines and pestilences and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, deliver you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and rulers for my namesake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony." An occasion for testimony.

God's people have always been susceptible to famines. Guess what? Being a Christian does not immune you. You're not being vaccinated against famines and difficulties and trials. In fact, we have them just as much as other people, but we actually get a God's eye view of what that trial is like.

And that's what this text is wanting us to understand. God is wanting to communicate something to you that God always speaks the truth to his people so that they can be prepared and informed about how God wants you to obey his word. He's laying it out for you so that you'll know how to obey him. And so he sends a man of God, in this case, to bring the Word of God. Guess what?

He says there's going to be a great famine throughout all the world. I doubt they went home and said, well thank you, that was great information. I mean seriously, folks. When God speaks, He expects us to act. He doesn't just expect us to take the information and store it away and you know I'll keep that one for later.

There's something about what was going on. All the way back to Genesis 26, there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. So they're keeping time by famines, just like we keep time of COVID. Like we base time periods now. We say, well, that was before COVID.

Oh, well, that was during COVID. Oh, that was after COVID. It's like a new time epoch that we use here. Oh this was that. This is how we describe things.

How long ago was that? When were you preaching? What book were you in Scott? And during COVID? We know he was in the book of Revelation.

What a providential time to be in the book of Revelation. One day it was great. We got to see our eyes focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph, again I mentioned Joseph before in Genesis 41, indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt and after them seven years of famine will arise. And the whole story revolves around Joseph being a wise and prudent man and preparing his household but also preparing the whole land of Egypt, not only to feed them but also to feed others.

And so often there were forms of God's judgment for sin in the midst of those famines or the purpose of those famines was often because of sin. Nothing gets your attention like going hungry. I don't know if you've ever read anything historically about testimonies of people in lands who went hungry. It's terrifying. It was terrifying of the things that they thought and the things that they did.

In Elijah's time, 1st King 17, and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew or rain these years except at my word. And we know that there was a famine during that time. Ezekiel also, Ezekiel 5, listen what Ezekiel says, when I send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction which I will send to destroy you. That's what God said. He is an arrow of famine.

I'm not saying that the church was it was because of sin in the church that this famine came. That's not my point. My point is in God's secret Providence, he can shoot an arrow of famine anytime he wants to to bring judgment upon land. But think about the Roman world at this time, they were ripe for an arrow of famine. They were ripe for the judgment of God.

To receive what God had sent to them, He was going to bring judgment upon them, but at the same time remember when God sends just judgment, He always with His people remembers mercy. Okay, so That's why we do not fear these things. We are full of faith, we're full of obedience, and we want to see all that God has for us. Here's the more scary type of famine in a Christian's mind. In Amos 8.11 it says this, behold the days are coming says the Lord, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." That's a terrible famine.

When the bread of life and the water of the Word is not to be found, proceeding from our mouths and proclaiming it into people, that is a judgment of God when there's a famine of the Word of God. However we know that Psalm 37 says, the Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied." Isn't it wonderful that when churches were shutting down in the in COVID that we were sitting here being satisfied by the Word of God. The water was just being poured out, the food was coming, we were just receiving all of the goodness of God and when we entered these doors and these this four walls right here when we entered here all of the nonsense disappeared and we sat here and we had a feast of the goodness of God. It wasn't it wonderful?

That's what God does for his people. He feeds his people. You will be satisfied in the day of famine for those who love and trust the Lord. And I want you to know something else. Romans 8 says this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine? None of these things can separate you from the love of Christ and this famine did not separate these believers from the love of Christ. In fact, the famine was sent not only as judgment, I believe, but also for the very purpose of sanctifying and purifying and testing His people. They were given instruction and they were given warning. That's part of the love of God for his people.

He gave them warning about what was going to happen. Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that none of these things ever happened by happenstance. These trials were ordained by God. This is not just his foreknowing of the trials, but the ordaining of the trials. And this was God's way to prepare his people for the trials.

And so God's people will nearly always experience the difficulties of the trials yet it will be mixed with the provision and strength to endure those trials that you face. And so God, you need to understand God is always about the business of conforming you into the image of Christ and He is always about purifying your faith by stretching it and testing it. And in the midst of every trial I want you to know the third and final thing that God gives the church a faith that works. God gives the church a faith that works verse 29 through 30 look at what the Bible says then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea and this they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. What do I mean that God will give you a faith that works?

Well I referenced this earlier in the book of James. Faith without works is dead but God doesn't give you a dead faith. God gives you a living faith and therefore it is a faith that works. It's a faith that hears the Word of God and acts upon the Word of God. And it works out what you hear and what you believe begins to be enacted in your life.

And you're working that true faith out so that it's seen by the world. And so that the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, remember what Peter said, to the praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the genuineness of your faith. How do you know when your faith is genuine?

When you act upon it and you're not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and you're steadfast and steady even in the midst of trials. So in every trial I want you to understand you can write this down, in every trial there is an opportunity for your faith to grow. So when you experience a trial don't think, man why's this happening to me? Doesn't God love me? Do you think that these believers, these new believers here on the heels of great persecution and now on the heels of people being martyred and now right knowing God's saying you're getting ready to be without food and you're gonna go hungry.

Do you think they had reason to say Lord we just believed on your name we just forsook all We turn to the Lord and this is what happens next. We don't read any of that. What we see is a people that when they hear it, they do not pine away, they don't complain, and they don't murmur. They act upon what they know to be true. Think of the doctrine that must have been poured out on them by Barnabas and Saul for that year.

For a new Christian to respond like this. That's amazing. This is true genuine faith and it's a faith that works. That's the true faith. So the disciples acted upon this information.

It says, then the disciples, this is preparing you for action. This tells us that they were not simply hearing the word, but they were sitting down and getting ready to act upon what they had just heard coming from the prophet of God, from the very mouth of God. They didn't doubt the word. Notice, they acted upon it. It hadn't happened yet.

But yet, they were making preparations to provide something, to do something based on what they heard. So today I could ask you, what are you going to do when you leave this room in preparations to act upon what you've heard? I'm not telling you there's a famine coming, could be, I don't know, but I guarantee you there will be a trial in your life and there will be difficulties in other believers lives that God wants you to act upon. Guaranteed. They acted upon this word.

It's interesting that we're not told that Agabus told them to do anything either. He didn't say verse verse 28, Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world. Therefore, here's what you need to do. We don't read that. What else was said?

What was done? These believers heard what God had said and they made a wisdom decision. He told them what was going to happen and then they made a determination. Then they determined to do something. They determined to do something.

God most often uses natural means to provide for his people when they're going through difficulties and trials and famines and pestilence. Rarely throughout history you're gonna see something miraculous happen. God always is working but to see like you're not gonna see you're not gonna go outside in the midst of a famine and see manna on the ground and say there we go. No, God is going to use and most often use as natural means to provide for his people. They first took, I want you to notice this, They first took inventory of their ability and responsibility.

This is just wisdom decision for each of us as we face things that are difficult. They here, it says in verse 28, then the disciples each according to his ability. I don't think they just started throwing stuff at it. They actually had responsibility and they had to understand their ability. They didn't go out and get a second mortgage so that they could send money to help relieve somebody.

Now, did they give until it hurt? I think they did. We read some of that in 2 Corinthians 8. They gave above their ability it said. What does that mean?

We'll hopefully look at that if we got just a few moments left. You see there's a responsibility and an ability that God gives us and I want you to understand this your first responsibility is to your family. I'll prove that by 1st Timothy 5. I'm not going to read all of it. He's teaching about widows, but he says this, and these things command that they may be blameless, but if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

How do you get worse than an unbeliever? That's pretty bad. That means even an unbeliever knows I'm going to feed my wife and children. Now what this does not mean is that we're going to continue to live at a very comfortable standard and we're going to enjoy all the pleasures of America. And when all of my pleasures and when all of my comforts are met, then if I have some left over, I'm going to help other people.

That's not what this is teaching. He understood a reality. They looked at his ability. What is my ability to help this? What can I cut back?

Can I do without, you know, a mocha frappe, whatever, you know, six times a week and spend seven or eight dollars for it? Can I do without that thing for a week? Can I take that money and say, you know what, I'm going to cut back on these expenditures? I want to be able to get my resources and use them to help the Word of God and help God's people. But they did understand that they had a responsibility to take care of their families.

And then after that we see It was actually starting to have an effect immediately upon the people that they assessed this ability of theirs, again, not neglecting their own responsibilities, and they were looking. And I want you to know something that they considered. These were new believers who were sitting in darkness. There was a famine in their land before there was a famine in the land. Amos 8.

There was a famine of the Word of God and I want you to realize I think that these Christians at Antioch, they acknowledged that they were starving to death because they did not have the Word of God and God's word came from Jerusalem and it poured down upon them and an abundance of provision just flooded their city. And I think as a response to that, they said how can we who have been recipients of such a great provision not in turn show a kindness and a love to them from whence it came. And they provided right back to the very place where the gospel had come from to them. I think it's a beautiful picture of understanding these things. Next I want you to understand it goes from your family and responsibility there but then the generosity to their brethren.

They then consider their second priority and responsibility. They determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. Psalm 41 says blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. Also note this, that the famine was going to be in all the world.

That included Antioch. I find it helpful and challenging to think that these new believers were considering others in the midst of the difficulty that they were going to experience. You know one of the dangers of us when we go through a trial whether it be a physical, financial, whatever it may be, some sort of trial that's going to hit you, the temptation there is to think only of how bad I've got it. Man, this is tough and we just we turn inward. And I want you to realize that one of the greatest blessings in the world and a work of the Spirit of God is when that trial is in your face that you actually consider others in their trial.

They were, the famine was in the whole world but they understood that actually the people up here in Israel and Judea they were actually going to have it harder because that was the place that the persecution was the hottest right now and they recognize that this is going to be extremely difficult for them and so They didn't only think of themselves but they turned their love outward because the love of Christ had been shed abroad in their heart and now it was going to reciprocate and turn right back from the place which it came. And the Bible says in Galatians, therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. And you know Paul goes into great detail in what our brother read this morning in 2nd Corinthians 8. He goes in and he speaks about how they gave above and beyond. He actually challenges them.

They had made a promise. They had said that they were going to give and now Paul was calling them on it and said now we need to get on with the giving. And that's what happened here and it was it's very instructive for us. It says this in verse 30, this they also did. They they didn't just give lip service to their help to those in Judea and those who were going to be experiencing difficulty and trials from the famine but they actually put action to their words.

They believed what they heard from Agabus, they determined what they could give, they gave a thought and a word of what they would give and then what did they do? They did give and they they reached out to meet the needs of others and again I note they gave before the famine hit in preparation for it. They did what they determined to do. They followed through on their decisions. In 2nd Corinthians 8, 10, and 12, through 12, and in this he says, I give advice.

It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you also must complete the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind it is acceptable according to what one has and not according to what one does not have That was acceptable that they had a willing mind but guess what now it's time to do it And I think that's something that we all need to learn It's one thing to vow or to make a statement, I'm going to do something, but brothers and sisters, let's be doers of the word and not just hearers only. And then also lastly and briefly, they had a responsible giving. They were responsible in their giving. They sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

They actually took steps to assure that the giving was done in a responsible manner. They weren't just throwing money at the wall and seeing where it landed. They knew Barnabas and they knew he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith and they knew the they knew Saul who was there for a whole year preaching and teaching them. They knew also that they had good testimony. He had been with them and he had proven himself to them and now they were going to send it to Jerusalem and they were going to give it to those men who were faithful they were going to give it to the Apostles and to the elders specifically here elders this is the first time that word is mentioned in the New Testament elders regarding the elders of the church New Testament Church and we're going to see it over and over and you're going to see what's going to happen.

Apostles and prophets begin to fade from the scene and you're going to see pastor, teachers, elders begin to take that responsibility role in the life of the church. And this is the beginnings of it. And so it's just this beautiful seamless thing that just flows right on through. And so this was the transition point and God was doing as I said before, he's doing so many things all at the same time. In the midst of judgment he's showing mercy, he's also at the same time producing a genuine faith in the life of his church.

So the question that comes to my mind and the question that I hope to have answered this day is this, why? Why does God mingle such great and various trials in the midst and into the life of a church when it is growing in evangelistic efforts, when the body of Christ is growing numerically, why is it that he introduces these trials? And I want you to remember that what was happening in the church was happening not just to the church it was happening to individuals it was happening to to a Mary it was happening to a Paul it was happening to a Titus it was happening to a whoever they there were individual names lined up with this and that's where the famine was hitting. There was little children that were going to be affected by the famine, there was old people going to be affected by the famine, it was going to affect everybody and that's this context here. Why does God do these things?

What was God doing? And I believe that the answer that I want you to go home with is there is a need within our faith to be purified so that Jesus Christ will be glorified in the midst of that trial. I find that it is very difficult for us to grasp how important this thing is to God. I don't think we we grapple with that. How important is your faith to God?

He's willing to put you in the fire of trial to purify it Because that faith is more precious than gold. It's easy for us to think that the most important thing for God to do is to make us happy and comfortable, but not in God's economy. God did not send his son into the world to be crucified so that you could be happy. God sent his son into this world to be crucified so that you would be justified and that you would be sanctified and that he would be glorified. That's why God sent Jesus Christ into this world and he will even use famines to do it.

He will use sickness to do it. As Peter says, though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven we thank you.

Lord your word is abounding. I'm humbled at How glorious your Word is. Your Word's glorious Father because you're glorious. Your Word is wisdom from heaven above and I pray oh God for your people today that you would help us not only to be hearers of the Word but to be active, practical doers of the Word. That we would take what we hear and apply these things not only in mind but with our hands and feet and that we would go and do what you have called us to do.

And Lord even now I cannot help but think of our activity that is coming forth here in just an hour. Lord that we would go forth to carry the gospel into a community. Lord it's one thing for me to preach about preaching the gospel, it's one thing for us to think about man we need to evangelize but Lord I pray that the hand of the Lord would be with us as we go. Give us strength, give us boldness, give us a love that is beyond ourselves and Lord I pray that you would also give us fruit for these endeavors and I ask it in Christ's name amen.