Review:
How Do I Know When God is Working on Someone's Heart?
- Is the door open to Witness? (Acts 16:11-12)
- Is the person Seeking God? (Acts 16:13-14a)
- Is the person open to the Word? Acts 16:14b)
- Is the person ready to Obey? (Acts 16:15a)
- Is the person wanting to Serve? (Acts 16:15b)
1 Peter 4:9 - Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:12-01:16
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Acts 16.
01:19-01:21
Alright, Acts 16, are you there?
01:24-01:37
What we're going to be talking about today is we're going to collectively get together here and have a conversation that I've had with many people in this room on an individual basis.
01:39-01:41
We're going to kind of do this together today.
01:41-01:47
And the question is simply this.
01:48-01:51
It's happened whether it's at a hospital visit.
01:52-01:57
It's happened when people bring family members to our church that I have the privilege of meeting.
01:59-02:02
The conversation comes up, I say, is that person saved?
02:02-02:05
Is that person a follower of Jesus Christ?
02:08-02:21
And a lot of times the response something like this? I think so. Well, he doesn't seem opposed to church.
02:22-02:32
Or, hey, you know, your brother that you brought to church, is he saved? Well, he went to Promise Keepers, like, back in, like, 1997.
02:35-02:40
Or sometimes it's just simply, you know, is, you know, that family member, that and a friend are they saved?
02:40-02:50
And we say things like, "Well, he's Episcopal." Why do we say things like that?
02:51-02:52
It's because we don't know.
02:53-02:53
Right?
02:54-02:58
And the truth is, I don't know what's going on in anyone's heart.
02:58-02:59
That's between you and the Lord.
02:59-03:00
I don't know that. You don't know that.
03:04-03:06
Jesus said you know a tree by its fruit.
03:07-03:30
and we have a unique privilege in that even though I don't know what's going on in any one person's heart, even though I don't know that, something I do have is I have this book, and in this book, we're going to be looking at a story today of a lady who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
03:31-03:39
And the advantage that this book gives us that we don't normally have on our own is the Bible tells us some things in the heart, okay?
03:39-03:43
God gives us the insight to say here's what was happening in her heart.
03:43-03:46
We know how the Lord was preparing her to receive salvation.
03:47-04:20
That's why because of God's Word, we can say, oh, well, if this is what's happening in her heart, and we see all these evidences around that, that shows us some evidences that we can look at with the people that we're trying to witness to and a family member that's come to church, that friend that I visited in the hospital, where we're just not sure where they're at with the Lord, let's look for some signs that God is at work on someone's heart.
04:21-04:25
And these signs that we're going to look at today, honestly, you have the outline, take some notes.
04:26-04:29
The truth is, these are things that should be true of you if you're truly born again.
04:32-04:35
Let's look at verse 11, Acts 16.
04:36-04:47
So, "Setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis.
04:50-04:58
We left Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke in Troas last week, and we saw that they were en route to Macedonia." Remember, Paul had that vision.
04:58-05:08
There was a guy who was like, "Hey, would you come and help us?" And he had this vision, like, "We could go to Macedonia now." And that's where they're heading, from Troas.
05:09-05:11
What's this Samothrace?
05:12-05:20
Well, that was a place that was halfway between Asia Minor and the Greece mainland where they were heading.
05:21-05:26
Verse 12 says, "And from there..." From Minneapolis.
05:26-05:35
"From there to Philippi, which is a leading city in the district of Macedonia, in a Roman colony.
05:37-05:49
We remained in this city some days." Now, when you study the book of Acts, you see that usually the first thing that Paul did when he showed up to witness was he went to the synagogue.
05:49-05:53
But we see in Philippi there was no synagogue.
05:54-05:56
Like, what does it take to have a synagogue?
05:56-06:38
Well, actually, in Paul's day, to have a synagogue, you needed Jewish men in order to have one. You didn't have ten Jewish men, you didn't have a synagogue, so instead the Bible tells us they went out and they found a place of prayer. Look at verse 13, it says, "On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside where we supposed there was a place of prayer and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God.
06:41-06:45
The Lord-- this next phrase is like the most important phrase in the whole passage, OK?
06:45-06:47
So get ready to underline this.
06:47-06:59
It says, "The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul." underline that. The Lord opened her heart.
07:02-07:03
Before we get to that, again, a little background here.
07:03-07:08
This woman, Lydia, it says she was a seller of purple.
07:09-07:24
And in Paul's day, purple was something extremely expensive. Only wealthy people, or only royalty, could afford to wear purple.
07:25-07:29
You probably have the same question that I had when I was reading this.
07:30-07:32
What made purple so expensive, right?
07:32-07:36
Why would purple be more expensive than green or plaid or whatever?
07:37-07:38
What made purple so expensive?
07:38-07:42
Well, it was the way they had to get the purple.
07:42-07:45
There was this, like, one certain snail.
07:45-07:51
And in this snail, there was, like, a vein in which they had to extract.
07:51-07:52
And it wasn't really blood.
07:52-07:54
It was some other kind of snail juice.
07:54-08:01
But they extracted this snail juice from this one vein, and that's where the dye came from.
08:03-08:05
How much snail juice do you think you get from a snail?
08:07-08:18
OK, so they needed 200,000 snails to make one ounce of dye.
08:20-08:21
Like, why are you telling me this?
08:22-08:32
Because tomorrow, many of you are going to go to work, and you're going to say, "I hate my job." And I want your brain to flash back to this part of the message.
08:33-08:44
And I want you to say to yourself, "At least I'm not extracting snail juice to make purple." Okay? But that's how they did it.
08:47-09:21
"200,000 snails for one ounce of dye." Verse 15 says, "And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.' And she prevailed upon us." Another thing we have to answer from the text, it says that she was baptized, it says, "And her household as well." I'd like to remind you that this passage isn't teaching household salvation.
09:22-09:26
Meaning, your family isn't saved just because you are.
09:27-09:28
And vice versa.
09:30-09:35
You're not saved just because your family or somebody in your family is saved.
09:37-09:44
The passage certainly isn't teaching that, nor - and I have to address this elephant in the room - nor is this passage addressing infant baptism.
09:44-09:51
Some people use this passage as proof text Well, see, here's proof of infant baptism right here.
09:52-10:01
It says, "Lydia was baptized, and her household as well." That doesn't say anything about infants.
10:02-10:04
It just doesn't.
10:05-10:12
And the thing that's troubling to me, I mean, we've been going through the book of Acts verse by verse since October of last year, right?
10:14-10:21
Are we going to throw away everything that we've seen so far about how someone gets saved.
10:22-10:22
You know, there's a formula.
10:23-10:24
You can go through the book of Acts and see it, right?
10:25-10:38
Somebody shows up, shares the gospel, the people that hear the gospel receive the gospel, and as an act of obedience and in response to the gospel, they are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
10:38-10:46
And they receive through salvation, through belief, through faith, they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
10:46-10:49
That formula is over and over and over.
10:49-10:53
Preach the message, hear the message, receive Christ, born again, baptized.
10:54-10:57
You see this formula throughout Acts.
10:57-10:59
You just see it over and over and over and over.
11:00-11:13
And then somehow we get to this passage, and we say, "Oh, okay, so here's another way to get saved." It's like your mom gets saved, and we baptize the baby, and it's not there.
11:15-11:19
The Bible's crystal clear about how to get saved.
11:19-11:21
We've seen that so many times in Acts.
11:22-11:29
And again, we started this - we spent a whole year talking about one verse really, and that's Acts 1:8.
11:30-11:39
Jesus said, "You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be My witnesses." One of the reasons the Holy Spirit indwells God's people is so that we would be witnesses.
11:41-11:57
Today we're going to look at the other side Because not only does the Holy Spirit give us the power to be witnesses, we see in this passage the Holy Spirit also has the power to prepare the person that we are witnessing to, to receive the Word.
11:58-12:01
And it's our prayer today that the lights are going to go on for some people.
12:04-12:13
That again, as we read it, the key to the whole passage is verse 14, talking about Lydia, it says the Lord opened her heart.
12:14-12:18
This has to happen for somebody to receive Jesus Christ.
12:20-12:26
Because if this doesn't happen, it doesn't matter what we say or what we do.
12:28-12:28
Please hear me.
12:28-12:32
Some of you, I know I've had this conversation and I share this frustration.
12:33-12:33
I've been there.
12:34-12:43
How many times do we have somebody that we know and we love and we're inviting him to church We share the gospel with them, and we see they're making a complete train wreck of their lives.
12:44-12:45
We're like, there's a better way.
12:45-12:46
There's a better way.
12:46-12:48
Why wouldn't you follow Jesus Christ?
12:48-12:51
And they're just like not getting it.
12:51-12:52
Not hearing you.
12:53-12:54
Not caring.
12:54-12:57
How in the world can you not care?
13:00-13:02
Because the Lord hasn't opened their heart.
13:04-13:07
That has to happen before anything happens.
13:09-13:12
Put it another way, I want you to jot this reference down.
13:14-13:18
1 Corinthians 3:6-7, again, this is written by Paul.
13:18-13:34
He said, speaking of evangelism and how we all kind of do our part in the chain of God's work, he says, "I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth.
13:37-13:46
So neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
13:47-13:50
You see, Paul compared evangelism to gardening.
13:51-13:53
He's like, I kind of came along and I put the seed in the ground.
13:54-13:57
And then here comes Apollos with the watering jug and he waters.
13:58-14:02
So the question is, which one of us are responsible for the plant growing?
14:04-14:05
His answer is none of the above.
14:06-14:07
That's up to God.
14:10-14:13
Just like you can't make a plant grow in your yard.
14:13-14:14
You can't do that.
14:15-14:23
You can certainly try to optimize the conditions, but you can't make it grow.
14:24-14:25
Only God can do that.
14:27-14:29
It's more so when we talk about evangelism.
14:31-14:32
You can't make someone believe.
14:33-14:35
You can't threaten them.
14:35-14:38
You can't offer them the greatest blessing.
14:38-14:40
You can't scare the hell into them.
14:40-14:43
You can't do anything to make someone believe.
14:45-14:50
All you can do is plant the seed that Jesus made clear - the seed's the Word of God.
14:50-14:56
You can plant, or you can water, You can encourage what's been planted.
14:57-14:59
But you can't make someone believe.
15:01-15:02
Why is that?
15:04-15:08
Because the Bible says that before Christ, we are spiritually dead.
15:10-15:13
Dead men tell no tales, and dead men can't do anything else either.
15:13-15:16
You can't do anything when you're dead.
15:18-15:21
If you don't believe me, next time I have a funeral, I want you to come with me.
15:22-16:25
job shadow me or whatever. And when we get to the casket, you can persuade that dead body to do whatever you want it to do. It's not going to happen because there's no life in it. Same thing. When you're witnessing, there's people that are spiritually dead, and at the point you're at, they're just not ready to hear. You're like, "Well, how do know who God's preparing. That's why we share the gospel with everyone. That's what motivates us to, you know, hand out cards to people and say, "I'd like you to come to church." You don't know if God's preparing them. He might be. God might be wanting to use you to plant or water or whatever, but to get a front row seat to see how He's going to bring the new life. How do we know when God's opening a person's heart? Again, one of the and signs that somebody's ready to receive the Gospel, what evidences are there?
16:27-16:30
That God's bringing new life into a dead person.
16:31-16:33
On your outline, I'm going to go through these quickly today.
16:35-16:37
The question is how do I know when God's working on someone's heart?
16:39-16:41
How do I know when God is working on someone's heart?
16:41-16:42
It all comes straight from the text.
16:44-16:46
Just ask yourself these five questions.
16:46-16:48
Number one, is the door open to witness?
16:50-16:51
the door open to witness.
16:54-17:03
You see, you can read some of this travel stuff in here like in verses 11 and 12, and maybe you're like me, sometimes you get to that point, you're like, I'm not going to get bogged down with the names, I just want to get to the main event of what's happening.
17:04-17:06
But that's in there for a reason.
17:07-17:18
And the reason we have this travel itinerary is because when you get to Acts 20 and verse 6, the Bible says that the trip on the way home It took them five days.
17:20-17:22
But the trip there only took them two days.
17:24-17:26
So what's the significance of that?
17:26-17:28
Well, you look at the vision that Paul had.
17:29-17:30
You look at the travel time.
17:30-17:35
You look at the fact that they were there on the Sabbath and there were women that were ready to hear.
17:36-17:39
Obviously, God was opening the door.
17:39-17:40
That was the whole message last week.
17:40-17:42
If you're sitting here now, you're like, "I don't know what you're talking about.
17:42-17:44
Go to our website." That's the whole message last week.
17:44-17:47
and opens and closes doors for ministry.
17:47-17:48
But that's the point.
17:51-18:02
The Lord was opening the door, getting this divine appointment ready for Paul and his traveling companions to come and share the Gospel with Lydia and her friends.
18:07-18:11
Honestly, I really think we make witnessing harder than it needs to be.
18:13-18:21
Anytime the church talks about witnessing or evangelism or sharing the gospel or sharing your faith, I know, and all preachers know, ok?
18:23-18:26
That many people, as soon as they hear that, they kind of tense up.
18:28-18:32
And I think it's because we place so much pressure on ourselves.
18:32-18:42
We say things like, "What if they ask me a question I don't know the answer to?" Or, "What if they reject me?" Or, "What if they're somehow angry that I invited them to church.
18:45-19:04
In Acts 1:8, Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in church." All you need to do is to be willing to open your mouth when God gives you opportunity.
19:04-19:05
That's really it.
19:07-19:15
You need to be willing to open your mouth when God gives you the opportunity, God is going to provide the power to you in that moment to be a witness.
19:17-19:25
As we see in Lydia's case, at the same time, God is preparing the heart of the person that you're witnessing to.
19:27-19:33
I do have to say this, we can get to this point in the message, and there's somebody here that's like, "Oh, this is fantastic, God.
19:33-19:37
I don't have to think so much about witnessing." Well, this isn't an excuse to be lazy.
19:38-19:40
This is actually a call to be prepared.
19:40-19:43
There's a call to be diligent, because you never know.
19:43-19:48
You never know what divine appointment God has for you.
19:50-19:56
The first question you have to ask yourself we see clearly in this passage, the door was open to witness.
19:57-20:07
So if you're wondering, again, that co-worker that you've tried to witness to or that family member, if you're wondering, is God doing something here?
20:07-20:08
Is God at work here?
20:09-20:12
Is God opening a door for you to witness to that person?
20:14-20:16
And if He is, you can be sure that He's doing something.
20:19-20:32
But if it's like, man, every time I try to witness, we get 30 interruptions, and every time I try to talk to Him about Christ, there's always 12 reasons why we're not able, for some reason, the Holy Spirit hasn't opened that door at that point.
20:34-20:35
Keep your eyes open for when He will.
20:37-20:39
How do I know when God's working on someone's heart?
20:39-20:40
Ask yourself, is the door open to witness?
20:41-20:45
Secondly, ask yourself, is the person seeking God?
20:47-20:48
Is the person seeking God?
20:49-20:52
The Bible says that they went to a place of prayer.
20:52-20:55
And it describes Lydia.
20:55-20:57
Did you see this in verse 14?
20:58-21:05
It says, "She was a worshiper of God." Let's just be honest here.
21:06-21:07
Let's be honest.
21:08-21:10
Let's pretend you're the missionary.
21:10-21:10
Okay?
21:11-21:12
You're the missionary.
21:12-21:14
And you're going and you're telling people about Jesus.
21:15-21:20
And you come across a group of women who are having a prayer meeting.
21:22-21:24
And we're going to be honest here, alright?
21:24-21:27
How many people would think that's a prime evangelism opportunity?
21:30-21:31
I probably wouldn't, to be honest with you.
21:32-21:35
I mean, wouldn't you think, we're going to go find the bad people.
21:36-21:37
There's a group of women praying.
21:38-21:39
Let them go. Good for them.
21:39-21:40
Good for them. Good for them.
21:40-21:41
They're praying. That's fantastic.
21:42-21:43
We're going to go find people that need the Lord.
21:45-21:46
They're already religious.
21:46-21:47
They're already okay, right?
21:48-21:49
Well, here's the point.
21:50-21:51
Please hear me.
21:53-21:55
Religious people need saved.
21:57-21:59
Religious people need saved.
22:01-22:04
There's really two kinds of unsaved religious people.
22:05-22:06
I want you to write this down.
22:07-22:09
There's really two kinds of unsaved religious people.
22:10-22:14
There's self-righteous, and there's reverent.
22:16-22:17
What do you mean by that? Here's what I mean.
22:18-22:23
When you come across an unsaved religious person, there's self-righteous people.
22:23-22:27
Self-righteous people act religious because they believe it makes them superior.
22:28-22:31
And they sort of look at their religion as a badge.
22:32-22:35
Like, look how holy I am.
22:36-22:37
how righteous I am.
22:37-22:38
I'm so pious.
22:39-22:40
I'm so humble.
22:42-22:43
They're self-righteous religious.
22:44-22:47
I'm not really talking about them because that's not who we see in the texts.
22:49-23:03
Because on the other hand, there are unsaved religious people that are reverent and look at their religion more as a fear of God.
23:05-23:30
I do this religious stuff because I know there's a God and I sincerely want to do the right thing by Him. That's what we saw in Acts chapter 10. Remember we saw Cornelius? Remember the whole story with Cornelius? He was like that. He was a worshipper but he wasn't saved. He just had a reverence for God and that's what we see in this passage with Lydia. She was a worshipper but she wasn't saved.
23:30-23:35
And you're like, "Well, how do you know she wasn't saved?" Because the Bible tells us how she got saved.
23:36-23:39
And the missionaries stopped and shared the gospel with her.
23:39-23:45
So we know she wasn't saved until this event.
23:46-23:51
So there are unsaved religious people, like Cornelius, like Lydia, that are reverent.
23:54-23:57
Like, do we have those people today?
23:59-24:00
We absolutely do.
24:01-24:02
Please hear me.
24:03-24:12
I believe that we see many of these people in our friends that are involved in the Catholic Church.
24:16-24:18
I want you to hear very closely what I'm saying.
24:20-24:24
I do not-- do not-- I do not-- everybody say, Jeff does not.
24:25-24:29
I do not believe there are no Christians in the Catholic church.
24:29-24:30
I don't believe that.
24:32-24:41
So before the person walks out of here and says, oh, Jeff hates Catholics, the reason I'm sharing this is because I love Catholics.
24:41-24:43
I have some wonderful Catholic friends.
24:43-24:45
Some are saved and some aren't.
24:46-24:49
It has nothing to do with the Catholic person.
24:49-24:50
I'm talking about the Catholic religion.
24:52-24:53
I've read the catechism.
24:53-24:54
Have you?
24:54-24:54
Have you read it?
24:55-24:56
I've read the catechism.
24:56-25:04
It is teaching something quite different than salvation by grace through faith, as the Bible teaches.
25:04-25:13
And I'm sharing this stuff with you because I love you, and because it's my job to equip you, and I'm saying this because I love my Catholic friends.
25:16-25:28
And for us to say, "Well, they go to the Catholic Church, so they're okay, let's just move on to prime mission field," That would be like Paul walking by these women having a prayer meeting, saying, "Well, we don't need to stop and witness to them.
25:28-25:31
They're obviously religious." They needed Christ.
25:32-25:32
Okay?
25:33-25:47
There are some people in the Catholic church that have come to Christ through that, but there are many, many, many people who are involved in that church because it is the religion.
25:49-25:52
They are modern-day Lydia's.
25:54-25:57
They aren't there because it's a status symbol for them.
25:57-25:59
They are there as an act of reverence to God.
25:59-26:00
I know there's a God up there.
26:01-26:02
I want to be reverent towards Him.
26:02-26:12
That's why I do the Eucharist and I do the confession and I go through all these things as an act of reverent worship.
26:12-26:18
They are worshipers of God, but not according to the saving faith that comes through Jesus Christ.
26:21-26:34
And many times, it's these friends who are open to hearing the Gospel because they're already sold on some things that we're already sold on.
26:35-26:42
Things like the existence of God, creation, the Bible, Jesus, the cross.
26:42-26:46
Their hearts are already inclined to I want to do what God wants.
26:48-26:51
But like Lydia, they just haven't been given the whole story yet.
26:53-27:01
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but there are many people in this room that I know right now can totally identify with what I'm talking about, because you came from a Catholic background.
27:03-27:04
And I know you.
27:04-27:08
When you were Catholic, you weren't doing it because it was some ego trip for you.
27:09-27:12
At the time, you thought you were being a reverend at worship.
27:12-27:23
And if you were to come up and stand here today, and understood the truth of the Gospel, and you're a modern-day version of what happened in this passage right here.
27:24-27:24
Amen?
27:27-27:28
Religious people need saved.
27:30-27:31
Okay?
27:31-27:37
So, ask yourself, is the person seeking?
27:38-27:50
We have so much in common Foundation, starting point, things that we already sort of agree on.
27:51-27:52
Look for the person.
27:55-27:56
Modern-day Lydia, worshiper.
27:57-27:59
Needs to know the whole story.
28:00-28:01
Number three.
28:03-28:05
How do I know when God's working on someone's heart?
28:05-28:07
Number three is the person open to the Word.
28:09-28:11
The person open to the Word.
28:12-28:14
Again, key phrase. Here it is again.
28:14-28:15
The Lord opened her heart.
28:17-28:19
Jesus talked about this another way.
28:20-28:23
Jesus had an expression He used over and over and over.
28:23-28:26
He used it at least eight times in the Gospels.
28:26-28:28
He used it seven times in Revelation.
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One of Jesus' most favorite phrases He said so many times.
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He said this, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." What are you talking about, Jesus?
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Are you saying this message isn't for deaf people?
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That's not what he's saying.
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He's saying that there's some people that can hear, but they can't hear.
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Meaning, they can receive the sounds of the words and they understand the language and the syntax and the context of the way this is being constructed.
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It's sensible, but it doesn't mean anything to them.
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They can sit and hear a Gospel message and just walk out and be like, "I don't know what that was all about." While the person that was sitting and tears that God loves them so much and He sent His Son to die for them.
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Like, how did the same message hit those people so differently?
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One had ears to hear and the other did not.
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That's why Jesus said, "Hey, if you're spiritually tuned in, listen." And as a pastor, I've had the, let's put it this way, I've had the discomfort of sharing with people that did not have ears to hear.
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And we're quite obvious about that.
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I remember one time in particular, as many years ago, stopped at the gas station.
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And the cashier-- I got talking to the guy.
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He's like, well, I got these grandkids.
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And I'd really like to get them something for Christmas, but I don't have a lot of extra money.
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But at the same time, I had another friend of mine that had some money and he said, hey, if you know of anybody that needs anything for Christmas, let me know.
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And I'm like, this is great.
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Like I'll have this guy come to my office and I'll share the gospel with them before I give him the money, right?
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This is what I perceive to be an open door.
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And I said, come to my office.
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And he came and we went down to the conference room and he sat down and I said, you know, I have the money for your grandkids, But before I give that to you, Sanjay, can I tell you the good news of what Christmas is really about?
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I know you're expecting some kind of Hallmark Channel thing where he gets this tear in his eye.
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He's like, "Oh yes, young pastor. How my heart longs to hear the message that you will bring forth." And that's what I wanted. That is not what I got.
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He goes, I said, "Can I tell you the meaning of Christmas?" And he's like, "Okay." I'm like, "All right, rough start, but we're going to pick it up here." So I pull my Bible out, and I'm just, I'm like, "Getting all the good ones, right?" I'm sharing all these passages that really just have cut me to the heart.
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and I'm like, "Man, get the baptism tank ready, because we've got somebody we're going to dunk here." And I'm sharing with him, and the entire time I'm talking to him, the guy - no joke - this was his body language as I'm talking.
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This was his body language.
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Sitting in the chair.
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I'm sitting literally three feet away from him, and he wasn't even being subtle.
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Like a subtle little eye roll.
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It was almost like he was being paid non-verbally communicate with me like we were playing charades.
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Like...
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It was brutal!
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Brutal!
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You know, you tell me.
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What was the problem in that Gospel-sharing moment?
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What was the problem? You tell me.
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He wasn't ready.
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The Lord had not yet opened His heart.
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I haven't seen the guy in years.
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For all I know, he came to Christ In India, for all I know.
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I don't know.
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But I do know this, on that time, at that day, the Lord had not opened His heart.
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You know when somebody's open because they can't get enough of the Word.
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You know that, right?
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You know somebody's open when they're eating up God's Word like candy.
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They're not sitting there like, "Oh!" They're just like, "Tell me more!" And I've been reading the Bible to help me understand this.
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That's the guy that's regenerated.
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That's the lady that God's life is coming into because she's hungry for the Word.
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That's why 1 Peter 2, 2, he compares it to a baby drinking milk.
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You know, our family babysitted some kids from church, and one of the huge blessings for me was I got to hold Alice Murphy for like two hours.
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But when it was like eating time, it wasn't like I had to give some kind of as-seen-on-TV sales pitch like, "Come on, Alice.
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This is nourishing, and it has like vitamin B in it, and you'll be strong." When I got the bottle, He just latched on and drained it.
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Why?
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Because babies have a longing and a hunger for milk.
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And Peter says that's how it is for somebody that's born again.
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You have that same kind of longing and hunger for the Word of God.
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You don't need convinced that you need it.
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You don't need convinced that you should be reading and meditating and trying to memorize.
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I don't need to sell you on that.
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It's as natural as a baby drinking milk.
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Are you ready?
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The fourth question is this.
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Is the person ready to obey?
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Are they ready to obey?
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Because look at the first thing that Lydia did.
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Verse 15, it says, "And after she was..." What does your Bible say?
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Baptized.
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After she was baptized.
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Again, not for salvation.
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We've talked about this, but if you're new around here, baptism doesn't save you.
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Baptism is the visible, God-chosen, God-commanded response to salvation.
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baptism as an outward demonstration of what Jesus Christ has done in your heart.
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And in the same teaching where Jesus said go baptize them, Matthew 28.20 same passage, Greek commission, Jesus said to teach disciples to observe all that He commanded.
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Meaning this, the guy that wants to come to Christ but not change, there is no such thing.
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If you don't see someone that's had a change, if you don't see someone that has a new appetite - and we're not talking about perfection, right?
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Like, who among us is perfect?
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Like, I came to Christ and haven't sinned one time since 1978 or whatever.
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Who among us is perfect? None of us.
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It's about the new appetite.
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you have an appetite, you want to please and honor and serve God.
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Not yourself.
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But the guy that comes along is like, "Yeah, okay, I guess I'll go to church and I'll receive Jesus, whatever." But they don't want to change.
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They don't want to turn from sin.
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They don't want to turn to God.
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You see no sign of...
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I'm just saying there is no such person in the Bible.
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You know, the Bible says that when you come to Christ, The Spirit of the Living God comes in and dwells you.
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The same God that created the universe by speaking it into existence, that God.
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The God who is called the Holy One of the universe, the transcendent lofty high and lifted up exalted God, comes in and dwells you.
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And don't tell me for a second that that God can come in and dwell you and you're no different than you were.
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"But you know, I think I got saved yesterday." No, no, no, no!
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You'd know it if God was residing in you.
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He changes you.
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Is the person ready to obey?
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Is the person ready to change?
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Bible calls this walking.
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Walking.
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Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
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Walk in a manner worthy of your calling.
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Walk in a manner worthy of God.
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Over and over.
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Ephesians 4.1, Colossians 1.10, 1 Thessalonians 2.12, 1 Thessalonians 4.1.
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Over and over and over and over.
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Bible says, "Not walking in a manner worthy of God." Meaning, there's daily choices you make to honor God.
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The good news is, like everything else in a Christian life, it's something that the Holy Spirit empowers, right? Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We don't have to try to like muster these things up that's the natural outflowing when the Holy Spirit's at work in a person's heart. Is the person ready to obey? And finally, is the person wanting to serve?
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Is the person wanting to serve? Ready to obey, that's more of the vertical thing. Wanting to serve, obviously serving out of a motivation because of gratitude and love for Christ, but It's a desire to serve other people.
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Do you see that in verse 15?
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Immediately after Lydia was baptized in her household, it says, "She urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.'" She was obviously very wealthy.
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She's able to spontaneously house all these missionaries.
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But I want you to see in the passage, Lydia had an immediate urgency to serve out of gratitude and love for Christ.
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A lot of people want to serve, but you've got to watch out for the wrong motivations to serve.
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Drop these down quickly.
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Wrong motivations to serve.
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Number one is obligation.
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"Well, if I don't do it, nobody will." That is not impressing anyone.
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Certainly not the Lord.
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out of obligation. That's a wrong motivator. Second wrong motivator is number two, guilt. If I don't do it, I'll feel bad. That is a wrong motivator to serve. Here's a third one, serving for number three, personal gain. Personal gain.
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Some people want to serve because there's money in it.
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Like Judas, right?
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Not just financial, but also the prestige and the idea of, I'm going to get kudos, yogi buttons, and pats on the back.
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And it's a pride builder thing.
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Really, you're not doing it for Christ, you're doing it because you want accolades or whatever.
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and that's the wrong motivation.
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The right motivation to serve, gratitude and love for Christ.
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And if you're not serving because of that, you need to really check yourself.
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And her serving specifically was hospitality.
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And I want to talk about this for a second, because in 20-some years of preaching, I don't think I've ever preached one sermon about hospitality, but I learned some stuff this week.
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Sometimes you think hospitality is just about having, like, your friends over, right?
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Like, you know, it's a Steeler game, or you're going to play some video games, or whatever.
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You're like, "I'm going to have my friends over, and we're going to bag of chips out." And then at the end of the night, you're like, "Weren't we just so hospitable?" And I thought, "Well, yeah, that's hospitality, right?
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Isn't that what hospitality is? Sure.
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You're nice to, like, your friends that come over to your house." And I learned this week that that is not the biblical definition of hospitality.
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Do you know hospitality in the Greek?
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The word is philozinia, and that's two Greek words.
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Comes from philo, which means affection.
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I think we all knew that, right?
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Here's the thing that I learned this week.
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The second part of that word is xenos, which means stranger.
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Now the true biblical definition of hospitality is showing kindness to strangers.
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not just having your buddies over to watch the hockey game.
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It's inviting a stranger or an acquaintance to your house for lunch.
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It's like inviting that new guy that's been coming to church to your small group that meets in your home and treating him like an old friend, even though he's a new acquaintance, That's hospitality.
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1 Peter 4.9.
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Someday when I preach a whole sermon on hospitality, it's all going to be on 1 Peter 4.9, I think.
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It says, "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." And easy application point there, right?
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Without grumbling.
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Meaning this, guys, when your wife says, "Hey, these people we knew at our church, and I was going to invite them over for lunch." And you guys are like, "Yeah, but do you know the Steeler's playing the piano?" at one today." What does the Bible say?
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"Without grumbling." Meaning, great, we'll watch the Steeler game together.
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What time do they play today?
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I don't know, it doesn't matter.
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Anyways, we'll watch it together.
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That's hospitality.
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But Peter says do it without grumbling.
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Why? Because it's an attitude thing.
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It's an attitude thing.
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So hospitality is one another without grumbling.
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How do you know someone's coming to Christ?
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You've got to look for the signs.
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You've got to look for the signs.
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Ask yourself, is the door open to witness?
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Is the person seeking God?
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Is the person open to the Word?
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Is the person ready to obey?
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Is the person wanting to serve?
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The answer to those questions is yes.
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You find that person, and you invest yourself in them.
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"Well, Pastor Jeff, you know, I've shared with you...
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I just talked to a dear brother-in-law this morning, he was talking about a family member that he shared the Gospel with so many times!" Like, "Well, what do I do if they're not responding yet?
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What do you do if you don't see these signs?" The answer is you pray for them.
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Like, "Well, what do I pray for?" Pray that the Lord opens a door for you to witness.
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Pray that the person begins to seek God.
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Pray that the person's heart is opened by the Lord to receive the Word.
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Pray for the person to be ready to respond to God in obedience and respond to others serving in the name of Christ.
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Pray for those things for that person and see how the Lord answers that prayer.
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So this is what we're going to do right now.
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Somewhere in your outline, I want you to write down a name.
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Or if you need to write down initials, because maybe you don't want somebody besides you to look over and see, whatever.
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I want you to write down a name.
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I want you to write down a name of someone you know who needs the Lord.
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And we're going to pray.
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We're going to pray for the opportunity open up this week for you to talk to them about Jesus Christ.
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And while the Lord is preparing you, we're also going to pray that the Lord's preparing them for when this meeting takes place.
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Do you have that name written down?
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Take a minute.
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Write it down.
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We're going to pray for that person.
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You know somebody.
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You know a family member.
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You know a co-worker.
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You know somebody from school.
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You know somebody that needs to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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You know somebody.
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Write their name down.
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There's a mystery in all of this.
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Where the Spirit empowers us to be witnesses at the same time the Spirit empowers the people we witness to to receive.
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I don't understand it.
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I don't.
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I believe it.
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I just have this bucket that says, "Sovereignty" on the side.
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And when I get to stuff like this, I just throw it in that bucket and say God is sovereign, He is awesome, and this stuff makes sense to Him.
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And it doesn't need to make sense to me to do what God's called me to do.
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Father, as we consider these names that are written down, God, You know whether somebody wrote a name or maybe somebody's looking at a blank spot on their page and maybe there's a name they don't even want to write down.
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But God, we come before you as a church and we pray for these people.
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Father, you've taught us through your Son to pray specifically.
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We don't want to throw up some generic prayer like God blessed them and their grandma.
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We want to pray very specifically.
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Father, we pray specifically, I pray that You would open the door this week.
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This week.
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Whether it's through an email, or through a phone call, or running into them at Target, or whatever.
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I pray that You would open the door.
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God, I don't know how You do it.
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But we just read a story where a bunch of missionaries made this incredibly long journey in less than half the time.
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because you had an appointment for them to witness to Lydia and her friends.
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You can do that, God.
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We know that there's no problem making it happen.
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For whatever acquaintance we're praying for now, God, help us.
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Let us look at the name on that page right now, Father.
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We lift that person up to You right now.
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We lift that person up, God, and we ask, would open the door. Whether we invite them to come to church, invite them to Christmas or Q&A day or the Parenting on Purpose series or whatever, God open the door. We pray right now, right now God we pray that you are preparing their hearts just as you did Lydia. We can't do that God, that's why we're praying. Only you You can do this, God.
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At the same time, we pray that we would experience in a very humbling, in a very bold way, we would experience the power to be witnesses that Jesus Christ promised His church.
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Give us eyes to see what You're doing those hearts that are expected, that you will work, because you want this person saved so much more than even we do.
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Open the door, Father, and open us up for a floodgate of testimonies for the way that you're preparing us, the way that you're preparing others.
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For the sake of your gospel, the glory of your name.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 16:11-15
How do you know someone’s heart is opened by God (Acts 16:14)? What should you do? Who do you know that seems open right now?
What should you do if someone you want to witness to, or tried witnessing to, doesn’t seem open?
Acts 16:15 says Lydia's household was baptized. Is this proof of infant salvation? Why or why not?
Breakout Questions:
Did you abide through prayer and Bible reading this week?
What specifically are you moved to change or apply this week and how are you going to apply it?