Stoned and Standing : Witness, Suffering, and the Cost of the Mission | Bill Dogterom

Paul closes his first missionary journey by walking back through the same cities where he was beaten, driven out, and left for dead. His message to the new believers there is a hard one: we must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.In Acts 14:21-28, we sit with what it means to keep following Jesus after the initial excitement fades. We look at three places hardship tends to show up: pressure from the outside, tension inside the church, and the harder battle within our own hearts. We watch Paul entrust brand new, still-forming believers to the Lord. And we're pushed to think about what following Jesus looks like once it moves past Sunday and into how we spend our money, treat people, and handle disappointment on Monday.