His Name

Jeff gives a brief and powerful message on the importance of your given name. He explains how Jesus' birth name means so much more than we can even believe!

Matthew 1:18-25

• Audio Transcript

  01:13-01:17

  Matthew 1, we're going to be picking up a very familiar story.

  01:19-01:29

  Verse 18, Matthew writes, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

  01:30-01:40

  When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they had come together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

  01:42-01:51

  and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

  01:53-02:07

  "But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

  02:09-02:29

  "You will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

  02:30-02:39

  "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," This means God with us.

  02:40-02:44

  "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

  02:44-02:50

  He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.

  02:52-02:59

  And he called his name Jesus." I want you to think for a second.

  03:02-03:03

  How did you get your name?

  03:04-03:04

  Do you know?

  03:06-03:08

  Did you ever have that talk with whoever named you?

  03:10-03:11

  Like, why did you decide on this name?

  03:11-03:13

  Do you know why you have the name that you do?

  03:16-03:19

  Well, a name means something.

  03:21-03:22

  Even if it's random.

  03:24-03:28

  I picked that name because there was an actor that had that name and I thought it sounded nice.

  03:30-03:31

  Even if it's accidental.

  03:33-03:36

  I've known people that received their names by accident.

  03:39-03:40

  Even if it's arbitrary.

  03:41-03:42

  Like, no reason.

  03:43-03:44

  Just thought it would sound good.

  03:47-03:53

  So whatever the case is, your name has definitely come to mean something.

  03:56-03:58

  You know, God is all about naming things.

  03:58-03:59

  Did you know that?

  04:00-04:04

  In fact, when you read in the Bible Genesis, when He created man.

  04:05-04:07

  The first job that He gave man was to what?

  04:09-04:10

  Name all of the animals.

  04:13-04:15

  Hasn't really changed, has it?

  04:15-04:17

  We love to name things even today, don't we?

  04:18-04:21

  We name our kids, and we get to name our pets.

  04:22-04:24

  Some of us name our cars.

  04:25-04:27

  Some of us actually name our biceps, right?

  04:28-04:31

  To intimidate people, we say this is truth and justice.

  04:32-04:33

  Right?

  04:33-04:35

  This is law.

  04:37-04:38

  This is order.

  04:39-04:43

  Right now, some of you are thinking, no Jeff, that's more like Bert and Ernie, right?

  04:45-04:47

  But we love to name things, don't we?

  04:47-04:49

  Because a name means something.

  04:51-04:53

  Did you know that God has a name?

  04:53-04:54

  Did you know that?

  04:54-04:55

  And you're like, yeah, it's God.

  04:57-04:58

  Technically, it's not.

  04:59-05:04

  You see, technically, if we're going to get technical, God is more of a title.

  05:06-05:12

  In fact, in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

  05:12-05:20

  The Hebrew literally is "Elohim Barah," and that name "Elohim" means the power, or the Almighty.

  05:22-05:34

  And yes, when we say "God," we say it reverently, And really, it's the title that means "the Almighty." Even when we say "Lord," "Adonai," that's also a title.

  05:35-05:45

  Technically, God's name, as we would spell it, is YHWH.

  05:47-05:49

  What's called the Tetragrammaton.

  05:50-06:02

  four letters, and it finds its source in Exodus chapter 3, when Moses said to God, "Well, who should I tell them sent me?" And you remember his answer.

  06:03-06:14

  He says, "I am who I am." In fact, the Hebrews would consider this name too holy to even speak.

  06:15-06:17

  They would write it, but they wouldn't even say it.

  06:17-06:26

  Even scholars today have said, "We're not even quite sure how to pronounce it, because the Hebrews wouldn't pronounce it." It's too holy to say.

  06:27-06:31

  And that brings us back to the point that a name means something.

  06:32-06:32

  Doesn't it?

  06:33-06:34

  A name means something.

  06:35-06:36

  We call people names.

  06:38-06:44

  We call people names for good and for bad.

  06:47-06:55

  meaning if somebody does a great job playing a game or something, we might say, "Hey, great job, superstar.

  06:55-07:05

  That name makes you feel pretty good, doesn't it?" Or for bad, you hand your friend something and they drop it.

  07:07-07:11

  "Nice hands, genius." Didn't quite mean it for good.

  07:13-07:15

  And they mean something, we get offended.

  07:17-07:19

  We get offended if somebody uses the wrong name, don't we?

  07:22-07:25

  I remember my moment to shine in my high school yearbook.

  07:27-07:30

  You know how they have the candid shots and they have the names on the side, you know what I'm talking about?

  07:31-07:33

  And, well I went to a very small high school.

  07:34-07:37

  Okay, it was very small, it was like the size of two phone booths put together.

  07:37-07:39

  It was a small high school.

  07:39-07:43

  everybody knew everybody. It wasn't just like everybody knew everybody.

  07:43-07:48

  Everybody knew everybody else's family and life history and everything.

  07:49-07:57

  My point is whoever was working on the yearbook, I've gotten over it, it's been a while, but whoever was working on the yearbook absolutely 100% knew who I was.

  07:59-08:11

  But when the yearbook came out, there it was, my picture, and beside it, it said It said Jill Miller. Do I look like a Jill?

  08:13-08:17

  I was a little offended. Because a name means something, right?

  08:19-08:21

  We get offended if somebody uses the wrong name.

  08:21-08:25

  We also get offended if somebody doesn't use a name at all.

  08:28-08:29

  I mean, just imagine with me.

  08:30-08:34

  Imagine we have a guest with us tonight, and they stop by to say hi in the lobby.

  08:34-08:38

  And let's just say it's a lady that's wearing red pants.

  08:39-08:43

  And as you're leaving the lobby, I'm introducing this guest to some of you.

  08:43-08:59

  And I'm like, "Hey, have you met Miss Red Pants here?" "Yeah, Miss Red Pants says this is her first time here." "And where'd you say you're from, Miss Red Pants? How long have you lived there, Miss Red Pants?" "How many times do you think I'm going to say that before she says, 'My name is Jill'?" Right?

  09:00-09:02

  And I'm gonna be like, oh, what a coincidence.

  09:02-09:05

  According to my high school yearbook, me too.

  09:06-09:07

  Don't you see the point?

  09:08-09:09

  Names are important.

  09:10-09:11

  Names are important.

  09:11-09:18

  In fact, when God was giving the commandments, did you know the third commandment, God says, "Don't misuse my name.

  09:19-09:24

  "Don't take my name in vain." Meaning, use my name in an empty way.

  09:24-09:25

  Like it doesn't mean anything.

  09:27-09:30

  God says, "Don't do that." Because my name means something.

  09:33-09:43

  So, in this account that we read in Matthew, God is going to come to the earth in the most amazing way possible.

  09:45-10:03

  But you think about it, if God were going to come to the earth, the Almighty, the Powerful One was going to come to the earth, I don't know, I would sort of expect it would be an entrance like the heavens open up There's lightning and flashes of just brilliant light.

  10:03-10:15

  And He comes with much thunder and fanfare, and every single person on the planet is forced to stop what they're doing and look at Him, because the Creator and the Holy One is here!

  10:16-10:17

  So stop what you're doing!

  10:18-10:20

  That's how I'd expect Him to show up.

  10:22-10:25

  Notice God doesn't often do things the way we expect.

  10:25-10:36

  he comes to the earth is in the most humble and regular way possible a person can come to the earth. He came as a baby.

  10:38-11:21

  So when the announcement is given that he's coming, when the angel in this passage gives Joseph the news, you can be sure that God wasn't going to roll the dice on what his name was going to be I mean could you imagine if the Lord was like you'll give birth to a son and he's gonna save his people from our sins and you know best of luck to you and Joseph and Mary are trying to come up with a name and Joseph's like you know what Old Testament name I really like is Melchizedek let's call him Melchizedek and like in 2016 we would be getting up and worshipping the name of Melchizedek.

  11:24-11:26

  So God wasn't going to roll the dice on this.

  11:26-11:30

  He says, "No, here is what you're going to call him." Did you see that in verse 21?

  11:30-11:46

  "She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus." It's actually the name Yeshua or Joshua, which literally means Jehovah shall save.

  11:48-11:57

  Notice he goes on in verse 21, "For He will save His people." So, He's coming, and He's coming to save.

  11:57-11:59

  So this is a rescue mission.

  11:59-12:01

  This is the purpose for which He came is to rescue.

  12:02-12:03

  Will save from what?

  12:03-12:12

  And it says, "He will save His people from their sins." This is the reason that Jesus came.

  12:14-12:20

  The Bible says it's to save His people from our sins.

  12:21-12:24

  Now the word for sins in the Greek is the word hamartia.

  12:25-12:29

  And it means, literally, it means missing the mark.

  12:30-12:33

  Now when people hear that, missing the mark, they think it means something like this.

  12:33-12:44

  Like, okay, I'm an archer, and there's a target, and I'm going to try to aim at the target, and my aim was just a little off, so I didn't quite hit the center.

  12:44-12:45

  I missed the mark.

  12:45-12:55

  And some people think that that's what the mark means, like, "Oh, you know what? I really tried, I really tried, but I didn't quite hit it." That's actually not what it means at all.

  12:56-13:04

  It would mean you have your bow and arrow, and you have the target, and you decide to aim somewhere else.

  13:05-13:19

  You intentionally - not accidentally - you intentionally miss the mark, meaning this, when God gave His law, He said, "This is how to live.

  13:19-13:21

  This is how I designed your life on the earth.

  13:21-13:23

  This is how I want you to act.

  13:23-13:46

  This is the kind of people I want you to be." And we, the created mankind, we have repeatedly said, "No." God says, "I want you to be people who always tell the truth." And we say, "No. There's times that telling a lie is going to suit me better." God says, "I want you to honor your parents." And we say, "No, because my parents are dumb and always know better.

  13:47-13:48

  And we tell God no.

  13:49-13:54

  God says, "I want you to love others the way you want them to love you.

  13:54-13:57

  I want you to treat others the way you want them to treat you." And we say no!

  13:58-13:59

  They don't deserve it!

  14:01-14:02

  That's sin.

  14:04-14:15

  When the Holy One, the Creator, says to His created, "This is the deal," and His created says, "No, you don't tell me what to do!" and we intentionally miss the mark.

  14:16-14:18

  We have to ask ourselves what are His options?

  14:20-14:21

  What are God's options at this point?

  14:22-14:25

  Some would say, well, maybe His option is just to ignore, right?

  14:25-14:31

  Like sometimes parents are like, "Don't do that!" And then the kids do that, and the parents are like, "What can you do, kids?" And we just ignore it.

  14:31-14:36

  Well, God is unable to do that because of His holiness.

  14:38-14:41

  He can't just overlook flagrant rebellion.

  14:44-14:45

  What are his options?

  14:45-14:49

  Another option is he could punish us as we would deserve.

  14:51-14:53

  The other truth is that he loves us.

  14:55-14:58

  So he can't ignore us, and he doesn't want to punish us.

  14:58-15:01

  He has a third option, and that is right here.

  15:01-15:02

  It's to save us.

  15:04-15:05

  It's to rescue us.

  15:06-15:17

  It's to come into this world himself as a man, as a man, bear the wrath of God on himself on our behalf.

  15:18-15:28

  The thing that he accomplished 33 years after this moment that's talked about here, when he took the penalty of our sin on the cross.

  15:29-15:34

  Right now somebody's thinking, "Wait, wait, wait, I thought this was a Christmas service.

  15:34-15:37

  This sounds a lot like Easter." But here's the reality, church.

  15:38-15:40

  We can't separate Christmas from Easter.

  15:41-15:43

  I think people like the Christmas message in general.

  15:43-15:58

  I think people like the Christmas message better because we've sort of reduced the Christmas message to, "Oh, here's this sweet little Jewish couple, "and oh, she's so pregnant, and oh, they had to travel, "and oh, there's no room at the inn, "and she had the baby in a manger."

  15:59-15:59

  (sighs)

  16:00-16:03

  Wasn't that a Hallmark movie waiting to be filmed?

  16:04-16:07

  And we're sort of comfortable with that.

  16:08-16:16

  When the reality is the reason He came was ultimately fulfilled 33 years after that event.

  16:18-16:41

  He was nailed to a cross to fulfill this mission right here, "For He will save His people from their sins." You know, as God is poised to pour out His wrath on sin in steps Jesus Christ to bear that penalty.

  16:42-16:51

  And there's a sense in which literally God is saving you from Himself because of Jesus Christ.

  16:54-17:01

  And even when some people hear the message about salvation, I think sometimes people think of salvation just as the ticket to heaven, right?

  17:02-17:03

  You don't want to go to hell, do you?

  17:03-17:05

  Well, no, of course I don't want to go to hell.

  17:05-17:07

  Well, believe in Jesus and you'll go to heaven.

  17:09-17:14

  And understand that the mission of saving people from sin is so much more than that.

  17:14-17:18

  It actually has a past, a present, and a future aspect.

  17:21-17:25

  The past aspect - Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin.

  17:26-17:37

  Yet while I deserve and you deserve to be punished by God for all of the wrong things that we've done, Jesus saved us from the penalty that in Christ we are pronounced not guilty.

  17:39-17:40

  Saved from the penalty.

  17:41-17:43

  Some people want to stop there.

  17:43-17:44

  Like, yeah, that's all I want.

  17:44-17:47

  I just don't want to pay for the wrong things that I've done.

  17:47-17:55

  But you see, the reality is the person that's truly saved, the person that's born again, receiving His Spirit, there's another aspect of salvation.

  17:55-17:59

  He saves us from the power of sin.

  18:02-18:09

  His Holy Spirit gives us the power to say yes to God and to say no to sin.

  18:09-18:11

  A power that we wouldn't have on our own.

  18:11-18:19

  So not only are we saved from the penalty, today, right now, we are being saved from the power, but it also has a future aspect.

  18:20-18:20

  Salvation.

  18:22-18:25

  Someday He will save us from the presence of sin.

  18:27-18:33

  The day is coming when sin everything of the past.

  18:34-18:37

  The Bible is so clear in heaven, there is no sin.

  18:38-18:39

  There's no wrongdoing.

  18:39-18:41

  There's no hurt of any kind.

  18:42-18:50

  So when the Bible says He will save His people from their sins, don't just look at it as your passport has been stamped for heaven.

  18:52-18:53

  It's so much more than that.

  18:54-18:59

  Saved from the penalty, being saved from the power, and you will be saved from the presence.

  19:01-19:04

  This salvation doesn't just come from anyone.

  19:06-19:08

  You have to see that it's centered around a name.

  19:10-19:17

  My encouragement to you this Christmas, don't keep it generic.

  19:19-19:20

  Don't keep it generic.

  19:21-19:27

  We say things like, "Well, we're just going to celebrate and spread some Christmas cheer." Like, what does that even mean?

  19:29-19:47

  Or, you know, "We would like to wish you some good family tidings." Or, "Isn't it just a season of heavenly peace?" I want to encourage you to take that name, the name that's given here, the name by which we must be saved.

  19:47-19:51

  I want you to celebrate the name, Jesus.

  19:51-19:52

  I'm going to give you an opportunity.

  19:52-19:55

  I want you to say that name.

  19:56-19:57

  Are you ready?

  19:58-20:02

  Say Jesus. Say it again.

  20:04-20:12

  Jesus, the name of the one who saves His people from their sins.

  20:15-20:17

  We're going to get really specific.

  20:18-20:23

  We're going to celebrate how He saved His people from their sins.

  20:25-20:27

  I'm going to receive the Lord's Supper.

  20:29-20:30

  Will you bow with me in prayer?

  20:31-20:39

  Father in Heaven, we are so familiar with this story as we just prayed before the service.

  20:39-20:44

  We get so familiar that it sort of loses the impact over time.

  20:46-20:53

  And I pray, God, that You would with the reality in a fresh way.

  20:55-21:02

  That you came to save your people from our sins.

  21:04-21:10

  You came to accomplish for us the thing that we couldn't accomplish on our own.

  21:12-21:19

  And you chose to do it by fully embracing humanity.

  21:21-21:29

  That Jesus didn't just step out of heaven and onto the cross for a few minutes and then go back to heaven.

  21:30-21:49

  That you would actually start life in the womb to be born in a way that we can't even understand grow and develop and mature as a human, but to still fully be God at the same time.

  21:52-21:59

  Father, we gather around Your table now to reflect on the reason that You came.

  22:02-22:07

  While we were yet sinners, You died on our behalf.

  22:08-22:13

  You took the wrath, You took the penalty, and took the judgment that we deserve.

  22:14-22:15

  We stepped in.

  22:17-22:29

  So Father, I pray in the midst of all of the other distractions and thoughts and plans and even now the itineraries that are running through our heads over what's going to happen in the next couple of days, I pray Father, it would all be cleared off.

  22:30-22:34

  Right now, we would focus on one thing only.

  22:36-22:43

  The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, represented through communion.

  22:44-22:54

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Unstoppable and Unbound.

Review:

Romans 8:28

Good Things Come from Bad Problems:

1. When you're Bothered enough to do something about your problems. (Acts 16:16-18)



2. When you trust God enough to Worship during your problems. (Acts 16:19-25)



3. When you Love the people are contributing to your problems. (Acts 16:26-34)



4. When you Stand for others because of your problems. (Acts 16:35-40)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
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• Audio Transcript

  01:12-01:15

  Open up your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 16.

  01:15-01:18

  We're going to be picking up in verse 16.

  01:19-01:22

  And this is going to be our last message in the book of Acts for a while.

  01:22-01:23

  We're going to be taking a little bit of a break.

  01:24-01:27

  As you know, Christmas Q&A day, Parenting on Purpose.

  01:27-01:30

  We will actually be getting back to the book of Acts in February.

  01:31-01:34

  So, where have we been this year?

  01:34-01:37

  Our theme is the Unstoppable Church.

  01:37-01:41

  And if you've been with us for any of these messages, You see, this is the message of the book of Acts.

  01:42-01:45

  That Christ created this church, He built this church.

  01:46-01:53

  And persecution from people, the forces of hell, demons, any adversity that has come before the church.

  01:56-01:57

  The church has proven to be unstoppable.

  01:58-02:03

  And 2016, here we are, still today, the church is unstoppable.

  02:03-02:04

  What have we seen this fall?

  02:05-02:13

  Quick review, we saw in chapters 13 and 14, Paul and Barnabas took this incredible mission trip and got back for the Jerusalem Council.

  02:13-02:25

  Remember that in Acts 15, there were people saying, "Well, if you want to get saved, you've got to get circumcised." They're like, "Well, what do we do with this?" What about Gentiles that want to get saved, but they're not circumcised?

  02:25-02:26

  They have to become Jewish first.

  02:28-02:35

  We saw what the Scripture teaches in Acts 15, salvation is by God's grace through belief in Jesus Christ.

  02:36-02:44

  And after the Jerusalem Council, it was back to mission work, but Paul and Barnabas, remember, they had a big falling out over taking Mark on the next mission trip.

  02:44-02:53

  He bailed on the first one, and the second one, Paul's like, "No, he's not going." Barnabas says, "Yeah, I think we should take him." And they had this huge falling out.

  02:54-02:59

  So Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas to Syria and Cilicia.

  03:01-03:07

  We saw that's where they picked up Timothy and Luke, and then got the vision to go to Macedonia.

  03:09-03:21

  On Philippi, the crew witnesses to a group of women, and one of the women, Lydia, receives Christ and invites the missionaries to stay with her.

  03:24-03:25

  Then things get weird.

  03:27-03:29

  What we're going to see today, here's the short version.

  03:31-03:34

  If you're in a hurry and you need to go, Here's the short version of the sermon.

  03:37-03:44

  This is a story of two people who were trapped by evil, but released by God.

  03:45-03:52

  That's why the message is called "Unstoppable and Unbound." But if you want the longer version, here it is.

  03:52-04:01

  You know, if you read the Bible, you notice that there are two things that God especially loves to do.

  04:03-04:04

  Those two things are these.

  04:04-04:06

  One is God loves to save people.

  04:07-04:08

  God loves to save people.

  04:09-04:12

  God loves to give eternal life to the spiritually dead.

  04:12-04:13

  God loves that.

  04:14-04:16

  God spares no expense to make that happen.

  04:16-04:19

  That's what the Christmas message is all about.

  04:21-04:24

  We're going to see God saving people in this passage.

  04:25-04:27

  Something else we're going to see in this passage.

  04:27-04:59

  else that God loves doing. God loves turning bad situations into good situations. God loves doing that. God loves to take the worst mess that you're in right now. And in His sovereignty and in His power, God loves to orchestrate things in such a way that down the road you're going to be looking in the rear view mirror and you're going to say, "That ordeal was was horrible, but God used it to bring so much good from it.

  05:00-05:01

  God loves doing that.

  05:03-05:08

  Romans 8.28, many of you probably have this verse memorized.

  05:10-05:27

  Paul writes, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose." Right now I know there are some people sitting here that are like, "You know what, Jeff?" Yeah, I do know that verse.

  05:28-05:31

  If I can be completely honest with you, I don't see that happening in my life right now.

  05:33-05:38

  And being a pastor, I know, just in our conversations, I know the things that you struggle with.

  05:39-05:43

  I know the trials that many of you are going through right now.

  05:45-05:50

  And if we're honest, sometimes, I'm self-included.

  05:52-05:57

  I can look at the trials that I go through and think, what good is possibly going to come out of this?

  05:58-05:59

  Why would God allow this?

  06:02-06:05

  I don't really see the good happening in my life.

  06:07-06:08

  Well, here's the bad news.

  06:08-06:10

  You can't make it happen.

  06:11-06:16

  You can't say, okay, well, life's given me lemons, so I'm going to make lemonade.

  06:16-06:20

  You really can't make that happen, But here's the good news.

  06:20-06:23

  You can put yourself in a position to see God make it happen.

  06:24-06:25

  That's the good news today.

  06:27-06:32

  For many of us, for most of us, maybe, dare I say, for all of us, we're in circumstances that we cannot change.

  06:33-06:35

  We can't change our circumstances.

  06:37-06:41

  We can't make good come from bad.

  06:41-06:50

  But you can - I'm going to say this again so we're clear - you can put yourself in a position God make it happen.

  06:51-06:57

  If you're still not sure what I mean, I think you're going to see it very clearly here in just a few moments.

  06:58-07:06

  On your outline, the heading is "Good things come from bad problems." Good things come from bad problems.

  07:08-07:10

  When does that happen?

  07:11-07:15

  What can I do to put myself in a position to see God at work?

  07:15-07:17

  Good things come from bad problems.

  07:17-07:21

  Number one - jot this down - You're bothered enough to do something about your problems.

  07:22-07:23

  I'm going to show you what I mean here.

  07:24-07:26

  Look at verse 16.

  07:27-07:48

  It says, "And as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling." Actually, in the Greco-Roman world, fortune-telling was big business.

  07:48-07:57

  You know that in the Greco-Roman world, all of the emperors and military leaders had their favorite fortune tellers.

  07:57-08:00

  And they wouldn't do anything without consulting a fortune teller.

  08:01-08:06

  For an emperor to make a decision that would affect his citizens, you've got to talk to the fortune teller.

  08:08-08:16

  For a military leader to go into battle or to plan a strategy, you've got to consult the fortune teller.

  08:16-08:18

  The leaders all used them.

  08:18-08:22

  So this girl, as we'll see, she would have been a gold mine to her owners.

  08:23-08:24

  This wasn't some charlatan thing.

  08:25-08:30

  This wasn't some speak-in-general terms that covers everybody.

  08:31-08:33

  She was actually possessed by an evil spirit.

  08:35-08:37

  And do I believe that stuff still happens today?

  08:38-08:41

  You better believe that stuff still happens today.

  08:43-08:44

  Look at verse 17.

  08:44-08:58

  says, "She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, "who proclaim to you the way of salvation." Wow, cool, right?

  08:59-08:59

  No.

  09:00-09:01

  Like, well, wait a second.

  09:01-09:07

  Looking at just her message, just looking at her message, these men are servants of the Most High God, is that true?

  09:08-09:08

  Yeah, that's true.

  09:09-09:12

  And who proclaimed to you the way of salvation, is that true?

  09:12-09:13

  Yeah, that's true.

  09:13-09:15

  So what's the problem here?

  09:16-09:17

  What's the harm?

  09:19-09:25

  You see, Satan wanted everyone to think that she was with the missionaries.

  09:26-09:27

  She was on their team.

  09:29-09:33

  What that does is that discredits the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  09:35-09:36

  Let me give you an illustration.

  09:36-09:39

  Years ago, I had a guy contact me.

  09:39-09:41

  He said he wanted to get involved in prison ministry.

  09:41-10:13

  back when we were very heavily involved in prison ministry every week on multiple pods and he said, "I want to go with you to the prison." I'm like, "All right." So we went to lunch with the guy. We got to talk, got to know. He says, "Yeah, one of the things I want to tell... I want to get in there and I want to tell the inmates what a wonderful religion Islam is." I'm like, "What? Like, what are you talking about?" He goes, "Yeah, I want to tell people, you know, Islam's such a a wonderful religion of peace and it's a lot like Christianity that way.

  10:13-10:27

  And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" He's like, "Well, you have a problem with that?" I said, "I have a big problem with that." He's like, "Why?" And I said, "Because there's a huge difference between Christianity and Islam.

  10:28-10:37

  Islam says you have to sacrifice your son to make the God happy, but Christianity says God sacrificed His son for you.

  10:38-11:06

  difference. Work salvation versus grace salvation. Huge difference. Okay? So, no, I'm not cool with you going in and saying Islam is a wonderful religion of peace. He says, "Okay, you tell me what to say and I'll say it." And I said, "It's not going to work that way." I said, "It was a pleasure to meet you. With all due respect, we are not on the same page here at all.

  11:07-11:15

  "Well, why can't I go in with you?" I said, "Because what happens if I get the flu, and you have to go in by yourself, and I have no idea what you're telling the people?" I said, "No.

  11:16-11:18

  I'll just tell them what you want me to say." I said, "No.

  11:19-11:24

  If you're going in, and here's the thing, if you're going in, I want you to be with us, okay?

  11:25-11:29

  I want you to preach the same message because you're on the team with us.

  11:30-11:38

  But in this situation, you have little, you know, demon girl that's proclaiming a message, but she wasn't with them.

  11:39-11:44

  And do you see how that could be confusing for people that God wanted to reach in this area?

  11:45-11:52

  Like he's wanting to reach them with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, but now all of a sudden we have like weird fortune telling demon girl also is on the team.

  11:52-11:53

  Like what's going on here?

  11:54-11:56

  So yeah, this was a huge problem.

  11:58-12:01

  Paul did not need the endorsement from hell.

  12:02-12:04

  And you know, Jesus had the same attitude.

  12:04-12:06

  Remember that way back when we were in the Gospel of Mark?

  12:06-12:16

  Remember the demons were like, "You're the son of the most high God!" And Jesus is like, "Ed, shut up." He didn't want the demons giving the endorsement.

  12:17-12:18

  He doesn't need that.

  12:19-12:21

  Okay, same thing is happening here.

  12:22-12:25

  The verse 18, I love this passage.

  12:26-12:32

  It says, "And this she kept doing for many days." You can probably guess what's coming next.

  12:32-12:37

  Okay, little demon girls following him around like, you know, "He deserves the most high God "and to claim me the way of salvation.

  12:37-12:40

  "He deserves the most high God "and to claim me the way of salvation." For days.

  12:41-12:43

  So how do you think Paul felt after a few days of this?

  12:45-12:47

  Probably exactly what the Bible said, right?

  12:47-12:53

  Look at the next, it says, "Paul, having become greatly annoyed." Scale of one to 10, how annoyed do you think he was?

  12:55-12:55

  Right, exactly.

  12:56-12:57

  (sobbing)

  12:57-12:58

  Just shut up!

  12:59-12:59

  Shut up!

  13:01-13:14

  Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirits, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ "to come out of her!" And it came out that very hour.

  13:17-13:21

  Look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed here.

  13:23-13:28

  It looks like Paul's motivation for driving this demon out of the girl was what?

  13:30-13:31

  Did you catch that too?

  13:32-13:38

  It wasn't like, "For the sake of righteousness, I'm going to exercise the demon.

  13:39-13:55

  For the sake of a witness, I'm going to drive out the demon." It just looks like to me, Paul drove the demon out just because he was annoyed with her.

  13:56-13:57

  She was getting on his nerves.

  13:58-14:00

  Actually, the demon was getting on his nerves.

  14:00-14:04

  And before we start criticizing, I don't want you to miss the forest for the trees here.

  14:06-14:07

  That's simply this.

  14:09-14:11

  The missionaries actually did something about their problem.

  14:13-14:15

  You see, they could have just complained, right?

  14:15-14:48

  Because that's the route that we often take problems, isn't it? Instead of seeking the Lord, instead of asking for prayer, instead of using our spiritual resources - they had spiritual resources certainly as apostles to drive out demons - instead of using our spiritual resources, or even being bothered enough to try to do something to help alleviate the Complaining for many of us, for most of us, often becomes the default mode.

  14:50-14:56

  It becomes the easiest thing to do, and for a lot of us it's the preferred thing to do.

  14:57-15:00

  We have a problem, we just like to complain about it.

  15:01-15:02

  And Paul certainly could have complained.

  15:03-15:04

  Could you imagine that?

  15:04-15:38

  Every day, talking to Silas, "When will she shut up?" And going down to the place of prayer where Lydia and the ladies were meeting, and how are you doing today Paul? Oh it's miserable. We got like this evil spirit involved girl she just never shuts up. So whatever you think about Paul's motives you have to notice in the passage at least he used his resources to do something about the problem. So my question for you is do you want to see good come from your problems? You want to see good come from your problems?

  15:39-15:42

  Well, here's a general reminder for you.

  15:43-15:46

  No good ever comes from complaining.

  15:49-15:54

  You can either complain about your financial problems or you can get some financial counseling.

  15:55-15:59

  You can either complain about your spouse or you can commit yourself afresh to invest in your marriage.

  16:01-16:06

  You can either complain about your job or you can do what you can to make it a better work environment.

  16:06-16:12

  The good always comes to the person who's bothered enough to take action.

  16:14-16:18

  Not just sitting on my couch complaining, but moving forward by faith.

  16:19-16:23

  Good things come from bad problems, first of all, when you're bothered enough to do something about them.

  16:26-16:35

  Number two, good things come from bad problems when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.

  16:36-16:39

  When you trust God enough to worship during your problems.

  16:39-16:40

  Look at verse 19.

  16:41-16:58

  It says, "But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers." Let's not gloss over this too quickly, okay?

  17:00-17:08

  This little girl - Not these guys, they're referred to as her what?

  17:09-17:10

  Her owners.

  17:12-17:13

  This was somebody's daughter.

  17:14-17:16

  And they were using her.

  17:18-17:19

  This is cruel.

  17:21-17:22

  They were using her to make money.

  17:25-17:27

  They had no care for her.

  17:29-17:31

  She was their paycheck.

  17:31-17:35

  And she would have been a big paycheck because again, these weren't charlatans.

  17:36-17:44

  These were people using the forces of demonic wickedness to get the job done.

  17:46-17:50

  So this poor, this child is delivered.

  17:50-17:55

  This child who's been suffering from this evil spirit is delivered for the first time in her life.

  17:55-17:59

  And instead of much rejoicing, these people are thoroughly ticked off.

  18:01-18:02

  There goes our money.

  18:03-18:04

  You know what it's like?

  18:05-18:13

  Remember also, going back to the gospel, Mark, remember the guy, the demoniac that was in the tombs and they called him Legion, because he had all those demons?

  18:14-18:14

  You remember that story?

  18:15-18:17

  And Jesus, when he drove the demons out, where did Jesus send the demons?

  18:18-18:18

  Do you remember?

  18:19-18:20

  A bunch of pigs, right?

  18:20-18:23

  And the pigs go running down the cliff, rum-rum-rum, can you see that in your mind?

  18:23-18:26

  Like, into the water, and they all die.

  18:27-18:29

  And what was the reaction of the people?

  18:30-18:33

  "Yay, Jesus, we've been scared of the boogeyman of the tombs!

  18:33-18:35

  Thank you!" What was their reaction?

  18:37-18:37

  "Can you leave?

  18:39-18:45

  That was our source of income, and you just wiped them out." That's kind of what's going on here.

  18:45-18:51

  Instead of celebrating God at work, it's lamenting, "There goes my money.

  18:54-19:00

  It's horrible." And it says they, see verse 19, It says they dragged him into the marketplace before the rulers.

  19:00-19:03

  The marketplace was like the public square.

  19:03-19:06

  It would have been the social center of the city.

  19:06-19:13

  It would have been shopping and food, but it also would have been things like courts and legal proceedings.

  19:15-19:21

  Verse 20 says, "When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, 'These men are Jews.

  19:22-19:28

  They are disturbing our city.' The magistrates of every Roman colony had two of them.

  19:29-19:31

  But I want you to see the accusation again.

  19:31-19:32

  Don't gloss over it too quickly.

  19:33-19:34

  Look at the accusation.

  19:35-19:36

  Look at the first thing they said.

  19:37-19:38

  These men are what?

  19:39-19:40

  These men are Jews.

  19:40-19:41

  What's going on here?

  19:42-19:44

  I would suggest to you this is anti-Semitism.

  19:46-19:52

  You notice only Paul and Silas were grabbed and not - like what happened to Luke and Timothy?

  19:53-19:57

  I believe that they weren't grabbed because they weren't Jewish.

  19:58-19:59

  Timothy was half.

  20:01-20:02

  Luke was a Gentile.

  20:03-20:05

  But you see, they drag them.

  20:07-20:09

  And what's the problem here?

  20:09-20:10

  The magistrates, what's the problem?

  20:10-20:14

  First thing they say, this is like blatant racism.

  20:14-20:17

  Like, what's the problem?

  20:18-20:20

  Obviously, we have a problem because they're Jews.

  20:21-20:22

  You know how Jews are.

  20:25-20:25

  Horrible.

  20:26-20:27

  Horrible.

  20:28-20:29

  And then they just lie.

  20:30-20:30

  OK.

  20:31-20:33

  What was the next thing they say?

  20:33-20:36

  Oh, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city.

  20:39-20:40

  Bit of an overstatement, do you think?

  20:42-20:44

  They weren't disturbing the city, OK?

  20:46-20:48

  But whatever we can do to get the magistrate's attention, right?

  20:49-20:57

  Verse 21, they continue, "They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.

  20:59-21:14

  The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods." No legal proceedings here, just brutality.

  21:15-21:48

  you know how much the past year we seen in the news videos of police brutality there is nothing new under the sun that's exactly what's happening here their proceedings no court trial no nothing it's just we have a problem with these guys and the police beat them with rods when they had inflicted many blows upon them They threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

  21:49-21:55

  Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stalks.

  21:57-21:59

  In other words, maximum security.

  21:59-22:02

  That's what he called for, maximum security.

  22:05-22:07

  So at this point, they're in prison.

  22:08-22:09

  They would have been beaten.

  22:10-22:20

  I was reading this week, the stalks were actually designed to spread your legs out as far as they could go, and then maybe a little bit further, it was torture.

  22:21-22:23

  And the goal was to keep you from sleeping.

  22:25-22:27

  That's what they did to Paul and Silas.

  22:27-22:31

  So no sleep, beaten, legs spread out in stalks.

  22:33-22:35

  Here comes the complaining and the pity party, right?

  22:36-22:38

  Here comes the "why don't you just curse God and die," right?

  22:38-22:39

  Look at verse 25.

  22:39-22:47

  About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

  22:50-22:51

  What do you think they were singing?

  22:53-22:54

  The Bible doesn't say, but I have a guess.

  22:55-22:58

  My guess is they were singing "Jailbreak." How many people think that's the song they were singing?

  23:01-23:04

  "Glory, glory, hallelujah." I bet you they were singing that.

  23:05-23:07

  And Silas is like, "What are you going to sing now?" Don't break again, man!

  23:09-23:10

  I don't know.

  23:10-23:11

  I don't know.

  23:13-23:14

  Here's something I do know from this passage.

  23:16-23:19

  Praise must not depend on your circumstances.

  23:20-23:23

  Praise must not depend on your circumstances.

  23:23-23:27

  Philippians 4.4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Again I will say, rejoice.

  23:28-23:35

  And if you're looking for some problem-free chapter in your life to praise God, you're You're never going to praise God.

  23:37-23:42

  You're looking for some, you know, problem-free portion of your life.

  23:42-23:45

  Like, now I can worship God because my life is good.

  23:46-23:47

  You're never going to get there.

  23:49-23:56

  Because here's the thing, we don't rejoice in circumstances.

  23:57-23:59

  We rejoice in God.

  24:01-24:02

  We rejoice in His sovereignty.

  24:03-24:05

  We rejoice in His promises.

  24:06-24:07

  We rejoice in His goodness.

  24:09-24:11

  Somebody now is saying, really?

  24:11-24:13

  That's the good that came from the problem?

  24:14-24:20

  Pastor Jeff, you told me good stuff was going to come from my problems, and you're saying this is the good that came from the problem?

  24:22-24:23

  It absolutely is.

  24:23-24:44

  And if you're thinking that, I just want to challenge you to first of all, number one, get a deeper understanding of worship If you don't understand why they were worshiping, and the impact that that had on them, and on the other prisoners, we're going to talk about those guys in a second, you need to get a deeper understanding of worship.

  24:46-24:57

  The greatest commandment in the law, Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Part of our worship has to include loving God with our emotions.

  24:58-25:01

  and understand worship is the way that that happens.

  25:02-25:06

  That's why we start our services with a half hour of worship.

  25:07-25:09

  It is loving God with our emotions.

  25:09-25:10

  That's why God gave us music.

  25:11-25:16

  It lets us love Him from our hearts in an emotional sense.

  25:18-25:20

  I experienced this on Friday.

  25:20-25:24

  I had the worst week.

  25:26-26:10

  the worst week of 2016. And in the landscape of my life it was definitely in the top five. Horrible week this past week. Friday I had a meeting and I got there a little early and I was sitting in my car and just I was just feeling so like at the boiling point with some of these issues that I was dealing with with mostly kid-related issues, and specifically autism-related issues, and no sleep and a week of just-- I don't want to be a downer.

  26:10-26:11

  I'm not going to tell you what happened.

  26:13-26:22

  But I just sat there in my car with this crushing just-- I don't know how much more of this I can take.

  26:22-26:23

  Have you ever been there?

  26:23-26:24

  Have you ever been there?

  26:24-26:24

  Let's be honest.

  26:25-26:26

  Put your hand up if you've been there.

  26:26-26:31

  If you've been to the place of, "I don't know how much more of this I can take." I was so there on Friday.

  26:33-26:39

  And I pulled in, like I said, I was early for my meeting and I just, I pulled out my phone and put it on YouTube.

  26:39-26:54

  And there's a song that's based on Revelation 21 five, where Jesus said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And I just played that on my phone.

  26:54-26:57

  And I sat in my car and I sang that song.

  26:58-27:01

  And I'm sure it wasn't very good, but I wasn't singing it for people.

  27:02-27:03

  It was to God.

  27:04-27:13

  But all the effect that that had on me to sing this glorious truth that things aren't always going to be this way.

  27:16-27:20

  The promise is He is going to make all things new.

  27:20-27:41

  in that moment, worshiping, singing, engaging where I was hurting the most in my emotions, engaging my emotions in worship to God, singing the promise that He has made, changed everything.

  27:43-27:53

  Well, it didn't change my circumstances, okay? It's not like the autism fairy came and took it or something. It didn't change that. You can laugh. It's okay. It didn't change that.

  27:54-28:11

  But what did it change? It changed me. You need to have a deeper understanding of worship. That's why God gave us this gift of worship. Also look at verse 25 again. Look at verse 25.

  28:12-28:22

  It says, "They were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." The point is this, people are watching how you handle trials.

  28:23-28:24

  People are watching.

  28:26-28:29

  They want to know what good your faith is.

  28:29-28:33

  What good is it to trust the Lord in hard times?

  28:36-28:37

  That's what people want to see.

  28:39-28:50

  They don't want to see you like detached from reality and yeah, I worship God, but you really You really don't know what it's like to experience hardship.

  28:50-28:52

  They're not interested in that.

  28:52-29:01

  What they want to see is, does your faith encourage you and comfort you and sustain you in the hardest times?

  29:04-29:09

  And in this case, it resulted in the testimony that God used for the unsaved.

  29:09-29:11

  We're going to look at that here in a couple of minutes.

  29:13-29:23

  The point is this, so much good comes to you and comes to others when you choose to worship during your problems.

  29:24-29:24

  During.

  29:25-29:26

  During your problems.

  29:28-29:29

  Paul and Silas knew that.

  29:32-29:35

  Good things come from bad problems when you're bothered enough to do something about your problems.

  29:36-29:40

  Number two, when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.

  29:41-29:49

  Number three, good things come from bad problems when you love the people who are contributing to your problems.

  29:50-29:53

  When you love the people who are contributing to your problems.

  29:55-30:00

  You verse 26, this horrible day's about to turn around right here.

  30:01-30:12

  And suddenly there was a great earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

  30:14-30:16

  God's done prison breaks before, right?

  30:16-30:18

  In Acts 5, Acts 12.

  30:19-30:19

  Here we go again.

  30:20-30:22

  Last time, Acts 12, God used an angel.

  30:23-30:24

  Now God used an earthquake.

  30:25-30:28

  So it's kind of like supernatural, natural.

  30:29-30:31

  It's all God. It's all God.

  30:32-30:32

  Kind of like healing.

  30:34-30:38

  If God touches you and heals you, God gets credit and glory for that, right?

  30:39-30:45

  If you go to the doctor, and the doctors and nurses use their medical expertise in the medicine, who gets credit for the healing?

  30:46-30:47

  That's still God, right?

  30:47-30:49

  So whether it's natural or supernatural, it's all God.

  30:50-30:50

  Same thing here.

  30:51-30:54

  The same God that did the jailbreak for Peter did it for them.

  30:54-30:56

  He just likes to change it up a bit.

  30:56-30:57

  That's okay, right?

  30:57-30:58

  He's God.

  30:58-30:59

  He does what He wants.

  31:01-31:02

  Look at v. 27.

  31:03-31:12

  "When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, He drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

  31:14-31:23

  But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." Losing a prisoner meant you die.

  31:24-31:26

  Right, that was the downside of the job.

  31:27-31:31

  Pay was decent, retirement was decent.

  31:32-31:34

  Here's one thing that wasn't decent about being a jailer.

  31:34-31:36

  If an inmate escapes, that means you have to die.

  31:40-31:42

  So why did the other inmates stay?

  31:43-31:52

  I would think that, you know, and I've been in jail a lot, but I would think that if the walls came down and the doors were open and the bonds fell off, that they would just bolt.

  31:52-31:53

  Why did they stay?

  31:53-31:57

  Again, verse 25, they stayed because they were listening to Paul and Silas.

  31:59-32:12

  And somehow in the same way, this jailer knew that Paul and Silas were somehow tied to whatever just happened, and they were greatly impacted by their testimony.

  32:15-32:15

  Can you get the scene?

  32:18-32:32

  Business as usual at the jail, except we have these two nut jobs in this one cell, and they're They're just like singing and singing and singing and singing and singing.

  32:33-32:39

  And next thing you know, the prison crumbles and everybody's handcuffs are off.

  32:39-32:43

  They're like, "I think there's a connection here." Right?

  32:45-32:46

  He totally got that.

  32:47-32:48

  Totally got the connection.

  32:48-32:52

  Look at verse 29, it says, "And the jailer called for the lights and rushed in.

  32:53-32:55

  He's trembling with fear.

  32:55-32:57

  He fell down before Paul and Silas.

  33:00-33:07

  Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He got the connection.

  33:08-33:10

  You're singing to your God.

  33:14-33:16

  Okay, I get it now.

  33:16-33:17

  What must I do to be saved?

  33:18-33:27

  Verse 31, "And they said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." There it is again.

  33:28-33:29

  Are you saved?

  33:31-33:36

  Not some list of rules, not keep the Ten Commandments, not obey the sacraments of the church or whatever.

  33:37-33:37

  What did he say?

  33:38-33:39

  It's about belief in Jesus Christ.

  33:42-33:47

  He says, "You will be saved, you and your household," meaning this promise is for everybody.

  33:47-33:48

  This promise is for everybody.

  33:49-33:51

  Everybody who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved.

  33:53-33:57

  "They spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in the house.

  33:58-34:03

  And he took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds.

  34:03-34:05

  And he was baptized at once." He and all his family.

  34:07-34:20

  "Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God." Well, that's the exact same message from last week, right?

  34:21-34:24

  Baptized, hospitality, serving, all signs of transformation.

  34:25-34:31

  But if we can, for just a second, can you put yourself in Paul and Silas' place?

  34:33-34:34

  Put yourself in their place.

  34:35-35:15

  You're in this dungeon, and your legs are in these stalks designed to make it maximum discomfort so that you're unable to sleep, you're hurting - oh, by the way, cops just beat you with rods that's still stinging and now all of the sudden the shackles are off the doors are open let's be honest how eager would you have been to minister to that jailer let's be honest I'm just gonna be honest with you I would have been tempted to make a rude gesture and say so long sucker and I I would have been like Fred Flintstone.

  35:15-35:17

  I would have jumped up in the air about 2 1/2 feet.

  35:17-35:20

  My legs would have turned into wheels and I would have hit the ground running.

  35:21-35:29

  If that was me, I would like to think that God would convict me otherwise if I was ever in that position.

  35:31-35:32

  But you see my point.

  35:34-35:39

  A lot of times we deal with problems and people are connected to the problems.

  35:40-35:41

  Here's the danger, church.

  35:41-36:29

  Sometimes we think that the people problem. Sometimes we think, well, the people are the problem. We were talking about this at small group on Thursday, and Ben Murphy was just like, yeah, totally get that. Like the cop that pulls you over, right? I've talked to a lot of people that have been pulled over by the cops. I, too, have been pulled over by the cops on maybe more than one occasion. I've never heard people say, "That cop was so nice. I got his cell phone number. We're getting together and playing shoes and ladders next week. He was cool. Never heard that. You know what I've heard many times? That stupid jerk cop was such a jerk. He was mean. He didn't speak to me in a friendly manner.

  36:29-36:49

  I hear that. Like it's the cop's fault. But we have a tendency to do that, don't we? We People might be the victim of the enemy, but people themselves are not the enemy.

  36:50-37:02

  How many of us would have been vindictive, or at least indifferent, and Paul and Silas stopped and ministered to the very jailer, keeping them locked up?

  37:04-37:08

  I don't imagine he was very kind and gentle with them at this point.

  37:11-37:15

  Church, loving your enemy sounds great on paper, but it is much harder in action.

  37:17-37:21

  This was an obvious and incredible evangelism opportunity.

  37:22-37:27

  In what other scenario would this jailer have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

  37:29-37:30

  Is there another scenario?

  37:32-37:34

  Obviously, these were the first missionaries in town.

  37:34-37:36

  There are a few baby Christians now.

  37:36-37:39

  In what other scenario would this jailer have come to know Christ?

  37:41-37:53

  In the same way, when you take the time to love the people who look like they're part of the problem, you're going to see good things come from an otherwise bad situation.

  37:55-38:37

  Meaning that co-worker who's been a real pain, maybe instead of seeing that co-worker as enemy may be seeing a co-worker as an opportunity to love them, a minister to them. Maybe that family member that you dread seeing this Christmas. Right now somebody's face came to your mind. Shame on you. That family member you're like, "Oh, we got to go to so-and-so's house and Aunt so-and-so's gonna be there. I want to Maybe if you love the people who are contributing to your problems, you're going to see God do some good things.

  38:37-38:41

  Maybe that neighbor who seems to have the personal mission to annoy you.

  38:42-38:47

  Like, I'm sure that my neighbor has a mission statement drafted and notarized on his wall.

  38:48-38:58

  It is my life's goal to annoy him at every turn Not my neighbors.

  39:00-39:02

  I sure hope that they don't think that I'm that neighbor.

  39:04-39:13

  But instead of seeing them as the enemy, when you love the people who are contributing to your problems, you're going to see God do good things.

  39:18-39:22

  Finally, number four, you're going to see things go from bad to good.

  39:24-39:28

  when you stand for others because of your problems.

  39:30-39:30

  Look at verse 35.

  39:34-39:44

  "But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police, saying, 'Let those men go.'" Why? I don't know. The Bible doesn't say.

  39:44-39:49

  Were they like freaked out by the earthquake or change of heart? It just doesn't say.

  39:50-39:52

  They've suffered enough? I don't know.

  39:53-40:08

  So the jailer, verse 36, "And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, 'The magistrates have sent to let you go; therefore, come out now and go in peace.' So the jailer's like, 'Hey, good news, brand new BFF.

  40:08-40:12

  You guys are free to go.'" You know how the rest of the story goes, right?

  40:12-40:14

  Paul's like, "Great, thanks.

  40:14-40:19

  See ya." This is where the story takes a little bit of an unexpected twist.

  40:19-40:20

  I'm thinking of verse 37.

  40:21-40:31

  "But Paul said to them, 'They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison.

  40:33-40:44

  And do they now throw us out secretly?'" Now, Bible doesn't give us tone of voice, but I am sure that was how Paul said no right there.

  40:45-40:46

  How do you think he said it?

  40:46-40:47

  Go ahead, shout it out.

  40:49-40:54

  "No!" That's how I hear it in my mind when I read this.

  40:56-40:59

  Let them come themselves and take us out.

  41:02-41:03

  "Dude, you were just granted a pardon.

  41:04-41:08

  What's going on here?" I was like, "No, no, no, no, no.

  41:09-41:10

  It's not going down that way.

  41:10-41:19

  Tell them to come down here, and they are personally going to hold our hands and walk us out." What?

  41:21-41:31

  Verse 38, "The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid," here it is, "they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens." Uh-oh.

  41:32-41:40

  "So they came and apologized to them, and took them out, and asked them to leave the city." What's going on here?

  41:40-41:45

  Well, when they found out they were Roman citizens, they realized that they just made That was a huge mistake.

  41:47-42:00

  Because for these magistrates to have the police beat Roman citizens without a reason and without a trial, that was really bad news.

  42:00-42:04

  Because if word would have got back, they would have lost their jobs.

  42:04-42:06

  You beat citizens without a trial?

  42:07-42:10

  You locked them in prison for no reason?

  42:13-42:14

  God have gone well for them.

  42:15-42:16

  So you see the change in their tone.

  42:16-42:20

  They come down and they're like, "We are so sorry.

  42:21-42:22

  We are so sorry.

  42:25-42:26

  Would you please leave now?

  42:27-42:34

  Would you pretty please leave now?" So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.

  42:35-42:37

  When they'd seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

  42:40-42:41

  Why didn't Paul just leave?

  42:43-42:47

  You know, we had a sermon a few weeks ago talking about surrendering your rights.

  42:48-42:50

  So why did Paul make such an issue here?

  42:53-42:55

  The answer is, it wasn't for Paul.

  42:56-42:57

  It wasn't even about Paul.

  42:59-43:03

  The reason he was making such an issue - this was for Lydia.

  43:05-43:06

  This was for the jailer.

  43:06-43:14

  This was for those in the jailer's household This was for others who would eventually come to Christ.

  43:14-43:18

  This was about protecting other future believers.

  43:20-43:25

  As in, think twice before you abuse them.

  43:27-43:37

  You kind of got caught up in the moment, you kind of got all hasty, and now you're sweating bullets like, "Oh my gosh, what have we done? What have we done?" Paul was making them sweat it out.

  43:38-43:53

  Because he knew there were a group of baby Christians that if these magistrates and these rulers and these police thought that you could just kick the Christians anytime you felt like it, it was going to be very hard for the gospel to spread and grow in this brand new territory.

  43:54-43:56

  But Paul's like, "No, let's nip this in the bud.

  43:56-44:05

  You're not going to treat Christians like that." There's a very important principle here, and that is this.

  44:07-44:24

  Paul and Silas went through some very serious stuff, and now they want to stand for others so that they might not have to. It's like the former alcoholic who comes to Christ and is sober and now has a heart to minister to who?

  44:26-44:39

  Other people who are struggling with addiction. It's like the person that was abused as a child that is now in a position where they want to stand for other children who are facing abuse.

  44:41-44:58

  It's like the person that grew up in a horrible neighborhood, and now they want to go back to that very neighborhood and make life better for the kids that are still living there. This is some of the greatest and I would say most common good that comes out of trials.

  44:59-45:17

  These are warriors that have survived the fight and they now become advocates with the experience and the memory of the pain, but the motivation to act and the knowledge of how to help because they overcame the same trial.

  45:19-45:23

  These are the people that make the devil regret ever messing with them.

  45:24-46:22

  The devil thinks they went through these trials broken down while they overcome by the power of Christ and now they're ministering to others and the devil is just like man that backfired much good can come from much bad looking at this story Paul and Silas were arrested they were accused they were beaten half to death they were in prison how many people would say that was a bad day. Well maybe that part, but look at what came from it. A little girl was delivered from the demonic influence. An entire household was saved and future Christians were protected. It was a pretty good day at the office. As I close, and I know we went over time here a but I gave you your opportunity to leave a long time ago.

  46:23-46:33

  But if you still have doubts that God brings much good for much bad, I just want you to turn back a few pages in your Bible to Acts chapter 2.

  46:35-46:37

  See, this is my constant reminder.

  46:37-46:48

  This is the passage that I constantly go back to when I say, "Can God possibly bring good for my trials?" This answers it forever.

  46:49-46:59

  Acts 2.22 says, "Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

  47:00-47:11

  As you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

  47:13-47:21

  God raised him up, losing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

  47:23-47:27

  Here's the thing, if you're ever wondering, can God take your trial and bring something good from it?

  47:28-47:31

  The answer is always going to be yes, because here's the proof.

  47:31-47:38

  God took the absolute worst thing that's ever happened in the history of the world, and he turned it into the absolute best thing that ever happened in the history of the world.

  47:40-47:42

  The worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world, what was it?

  47:43-47:50

  God Himself came to His people, and we beat Him, and we spit on Him, and we pulled out His beard, and we stripped Him, and we nailed Him to a cross.

  47:52-47:54

  We rejected the God who created us.

  47:54-47:55

  That's the worst thing that's ever happened.

  47:57-48:01

  It was through that that God made payment for my sin.

  48:02-48:08

  God made payment for your sin by putting our sin on Jesus Christ.

  48:13-48:17

  God took the worst thing that ever happened, and He made it the best thing that ever happened.

  48:19-48:32

  If God can do that, do you still have doubts that God can take whatever it is that you're going through and ultimately use it to bring much good?

  48:35-48:47

  As I was looking at this passage, I was thinking about Jesus, you know, all of these points apply to Jesus Christ.

  48:50-48:52

  Look at them in reverse order, look at your outline.

  48:52-48:58

  Number four, for example, when you stand for others because of your problems, did Jesus do that?

  48:59-49:03

  The Bible says He's a high priest who sympathizes with our weakness.

  49:04-49:07

  He was tempted in every way, yet was without sin.

  49:08-49:15

  So Jesus did that. He stood for us because we couldn't stand for ourselves.

  49:17-49:21

  Number three, you love people who are contributing to your problems.

  49:22-49:24

  Does that apply to Jesus?

  49:25-49:28

  The Bible says He loved us while we were yet enemies.

  49:30-49:36

  Number two, when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.

  49:37-49:44

  The Bible says Jesus, while He was suffering, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.

  49:46-49:53

  Even in the worst of times, Jesus was praying for us and crying out to His Father while on the cross.

  49:56-50:01

  Then number one, when you're bothered enough to do something about the problem.

  50:03-50:10

  Did God do something about the problem? He did. It's called Christmas.

  50:12-50:14

  We're going to talk about that on Saturday.

  50:16-50:23

  Father in heaven, every single one of us are going through something right now.

  50:23-50:28

  It might seem like apples and oranges when we compare.

  50:30-50:31

  But Father, we don't compare.

  50:33-50:37

  Because to each one of us, our problems, our trials, they are ours.

  50:37-50:43

  And they are constantly glaring us in the face and staring us down.

  50:45-50:47

  And they're a huge deal to us.

  50:48-50:59

  that your word makes a crystal clear and rock solid promise that you work all things for good.

  50:59-51:02

  All things for good.

  51:03-51:06

  For those who love you and are called according to your purpose.

  51:07-51:08

  Yeah, we might not see that today.

  51:10-51:18

  I'm sure Paul and Silas might have been wondering what that was going to look like while they were still chained to the wall.

  51:20-51:35

  But like them, if we are willing to hold on, if we're willing to worship, if we're willing to seek You, if we're willing to invest ourselves in others and for others, we're going to see You do amazing things.

  51:36-51:43

  Father, I pray for a spirit of steadfastness, a spirit of perseverance.

  51:45-51:49

  Give us eyes to see, Father, what you are doing.

  51:51-51:53

  Give us memories to recall what you have done.

  51:55-52:01

  And while we're going through this trial, Father, let us commit now to worship.

  52:03-52:06

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 16:16-40

1. Why did the slave girl's message annoy Paul, since her message was Biblically true (Acts 16:17-18)?

2. Why did God use an angel for a previous prison break, but used an earthquake here (Acts 16:26)? What does this tell you about how God works?

3. *Do hard circumstances cause YOU to worship or avoid God (Acts 16:25)? Why?

4. Why didn’t the other prisoners run when the earthquake freed them (Acts 16:28)? What does this say about the power of your testimony regarding the people who surround YOU? How are you doing in the area of letting people see your faith lived out?

5. Why did Paul demand the magistrate come down personally (Acts 16:37-39)? What trial have you faced that  that drives you to look out for others in similar trials?

Breakout Questions:

Have you been patient, gentle, and forbearing in your relationships this week (spouse, children, friends, co-workers)? Where could you have done better? How will you improve?

Unstoppable Witness.

Review:

How Do I Know When God is Working on Someone's Heart?

1. Is the door open to Witness? (Acts 16:11-12)



2. Is the person Seeking God? (Acts 16:13-14a)



3. Is the person open to the Word? Acts 16:14b)



4. Is the person ready to Obey? (Acts 16:15a)



5. 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!

• Audio Transcript

  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.

  28:28-28:32

  One of Jesus' most favorite phrases He said so many times.

  28:32-28:40

  He said this, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." What are you talking about, Jesus?

  28:40-28:43

  Are you saying this message isn't for deaf people?

  28:43-28:44

  That's not what he's saying.

  28:45-28:49

  He's saying that there's some people that can hear, but they can't hear.

  28:51-29:00

  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.

  29:01-29:03

  It's sensible, but it doesn't mean anything to them.

  29:05-29:17

  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.

  29:18-29:21

  Like, how did the same message hit those people so differently?

  29:21-29:25

  One had ears to hear and the other did not.

  29:25-29:47

  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.

  29:51-29:53

  And we're quite obvious about that.

  29:55-30:00

  I remember one time in particular, as many years ago, stopped at the gas station.

  30:00-30:04

  And the cashier-- I got talking to the guy.

  30:04-30:05

  He's like, well, I got these grandkids.

  30:05-30:11

  And I'd really like to get them something for Christmas, but I don't have a lot of extra money.

  30:12-30:18

  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.

  30:18-30:20

  And I'm like, this is great.

  30:22-30:25

  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?

  30:25-30:28

  This is what I perceive to be an open door.

  30:31-30:32

  And I said, come to my office.

  30:32-30:44

  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?

  30:47-30:51

  I know you're expecting some kind of Hallmark Channel thing where he gets this tear in his eye.

  30:51-31:04

  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.

  31:05-31:32

  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.

  31:32-31:44

  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.

  31:45-31:46

  This was his body language.

  31:49-31:50

  Sitting in the chair.

  31:50-31:54

  I'm sitting literally three feet away from him, and he wasn't even being subtle.

  31:55-31:56

  Like a subtle little eye roll.

  31:58-32:05

  It was almost like he was being paid non-verbally communicate with me like we were playing charades.

  32:06-32:06

  Like...

  32:08-32:09

  It was brutal!

  32:11-32:11

  Brutal!

  32:14-32:14

  You know, you tell me.

  32:16-32:20

  What was the problem in that Gospel-sharing moment?

  32:20-32:21

  What was the problem? You tell me.

  32:23-32:24

  He wasn't ready.

  32:24-32:27

  The Lord had not yet opened His heart.

  32:28-32:29

  I haven't seen the guy in years.

  32:30-32:33

  For all I know, he came to Christ In India, for all I know.

  32:33-32:33

  I don't know.

  32:34-32:39

  But I do know this, on that time, at that day, the Lord had not opened His heart.

  32:42-32:44

  You know when somebody's open because they can't get enough of the Word.

  32:45-32:46

  You know that, right?

  32:46-32:49

  You know somebody's open when they're eating up God's Word like candy.

  32:49-32:56

  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.

  32:56-32:58

  That's the guy that's regenerated.

  32:58-33:03

  That's the lady that God's life is coming into because she's hungry for the Word.

  33:05-33:09

  That's why 1 Peter 2, 2, he compares it to a baby drinking milk.

  33:11-33:17

  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.

  33:18-33:24

  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.

  33:24-33:33

  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.

  33:33-33:33

  Why?

  33:34-33:37

  Because babies have a longing and a hunger for milk.

  33:37-33:40

  And Peter says that's how it is for somebody that's born again.

  33:41-33:44

  You have that same kind of longing and hunger for the Word of God.

  33:44-33:46

  You don't need convinced that you need it.

  33:46-33:52

  You don't need convinced that you should be reading and meditating and trying to memorize.

  33:52-33:54

  I don't need to sell you on that.

  33:56-33:58

  It's as natural as a baby drinking milk.

  34:00-34:01

  Are you ready?

  34:01-34:02

  The fourth question is this.

  34:03-34:05

  Is the person ready to obey?

  34:05-34:07

  Are they ready to obey?

  34:07-34:09

  Because look at the first thing that Lydia did.

  34:10-34:13

  Verse 15, it says, "And after she was..." What does your Bible say?

  34:15-34:16

  Baptized.

  34:16-34:17

  After she was baptized.

  34:18-34:19

  Again, not for salvation.

  34:19-34:23

  We've talked about this, but if you're new around here, baptism doesn't save you.

  34:23-34:29

  Baptism is the visible, God-chosen, God-commanded response to salvation.

  34:29-34:34

  baptism as an outward demonstration of what Jesus Christ has done in your heart.

  34:36-34:51

  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.

  34:52-35:01

  Meaning this, the guy that wants to come to Christ but not change, there is no such thing.

  35:03-35:13

  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?

  35:14-35:15

  Like, who among us is perfect?

  35:15-35:19

  Like, I came to Christ and haven't sinned one time since 1978 or whatever.

  35:19-35:21

  Who among us is perfect? None of us.

  35:22-35:23

  It's about the new appetite.

  35:24-35:28

  you have an appetite, you want to please and honor and serve God.

  35:30-35:30

  Not yourself.

  35:33-35:39

  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.

  35:39-35:42

  They don't want to turn from sin.

  35:42-35:43

  They don't want to turn to God.

  35:43-35:45

  You see no sign of...

  35:45-35:47

  I'm just saying there is no such person in the Bible.

  35:49-35:55

  You know, the Bible says that when you come to Christ, The Spirit of the Living God comes in and dwells you.

  35:55-35:59

  The same God that created the universe by speaking it into existence, that God.

  36:00-36:06

  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.

  36:06-36:13

  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.

  36:13-36:15

  "But you know, I think I got saved yesterday." No, no, no, no!

  36:16-36:18

  You'd know it if God was residing in you.

  36:20-36:21

  He changes you.

  36:24-36:26

  Is the person ready to obey?

  36:26-36:27

  Is the person ready to change?

  36:29-36:30

  Bible calls this walking.

  36:33-36:34

  Walking.

  36:35-36:37

  Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

  36:38-36:41

  Walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

  36:41-36:42

  Walk in a manner worthy of God.

  36:42-36:43

  Over and over.

  36:43-36:48

  Ephesians 4.1, Colossians 1.10, 1 Thessalonians 2.12, 1 Thessalonians 4.1.

  36:49-36:50

  Over and over and over and over.

  36:50-37:01

  Bible says, "Not walking in a manner worthy of God." Meaning, there's daily choices you make to honor God.

  37:04-37:30

  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?

  37:31-37:48

  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.

  37:49-37:51

  Do you see that in verse 15?

  37:53-38:03

  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.

  38:03-38:06

  She's able to spontaneously house all these missionaries.

  38:09-38:17

  But I want you to see in the passage, Lydia had an immediate urgency to serve out of gratitude and love for Christ.

  38:20-38:24

  A lot of people want to serve, but you've got to watch out for the wrong motivations to serve.

  38:24-38:25

  Drop these down quickly.

  38:26-38:27

  Wrong motivations to serve.

  38:28-38:30

  Number one is obligation.

  38:31-38:39

  "Well, if I don't do it, nobody will." That is not impressing anyone.

  38:40-38:41

  Certainly not the Lord.

  38:43-39:05

  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.

  39:08-39:12

  Some people want to serve because there's money in it.

  39:13-39:14

  Like Judas, right?

  39:17-39:26

  Not just financial, but also the prestige and the idea of, I'm going to get kudos, yogi buttons, and pats on the back.

  39:28-39:31

  And it's a pride builder thing.

  39:32-39:36

  Really, you're not doing it for Christ, you're doing it because you want accolades or whatever.

  39:36-39:37

  and that's the wrong motivation.

  39:39-39:42

  The right motivation to serve, gratitude and love for Christ.

  39:43-39:46

  And if you're not serving because of that, you need to really check yourself.

  39:48-39:51

  And her serving specifically was hospitality.

  39:51-39:57

  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.

  39:59-40:03

  Sometimes you think hospitality is just about having, like, your friends over, right?

  40:04-40:09

  Like, you know, it's a Steeler game, or you're going to play some video games, or whatever.

  40:09-40:22

  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?

  40:22-40:23

  Isn't that what hospitality is? Sure.

  40:24-40:31

  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.

  40:32-40:33

  Do you know hospitality in the Greek?

  40:35-40:40

  The word is philozinia, and that's two Greek words.

  40:42-40:44

  Comes from philo, which means affection.

  40:46-40:47

  I think we all knew that, right?

  40:47-40:48

  Here's the thing that I learned this week.

  40:49-40:53

  The second part of that word is xenos, which means stranger.

  40:54-40:58

  Now the true biblical definition of hospitality is showing kindness to strangers.

  41:01-41:04

  not just having your buddies over to watch the hockey game.

  41:06-41:11

  It's inviting a stranger or an acquaintance to your house for lunch.

  41:13-41:30

  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.

  41:32-41:33

  1 Peter 4.9.

  41:33-41:37

  Someday when I preach a whole sermon on hospitality, it's all going to be on 1 Peter 4.9, I think.

  41:38-41:45

  It says, "Show hospitality to one another without grumbling." And easy application point there, right?

  41:45-41:46

  Without grumbling.

  41:47-42:00

  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?

  42:01-42:05

  "Without grumbling." Meaning, great, we'll watch the Steeler game together.

  42:05-42:06

  What time do they play today?

  42:07-42:07

  I don't know, it doesn't matter.

  42:08-42:09

  Anyways, we'll watch it together.

  42:10-42:11

  That's hospitality.

  42:11-42:14

  But Peter says do it without grumbling.

  42:14-42:16

  Why? Because it's an attitude thing.

  42:17-42:18

  It's an attitude thing.

  42:19-42:21

  So hospitality is one another without grumbling.

  42:24-42:25

  How do you know someone's coming to Christ?

  42:27-42:28

  You've got to look for the signs.

  42:29-42:30

  You've got to look for the signs.

  42:30-42:33

  Ask yourself, is the door open to witness?

  42:34-42:36

  Is the person seeking God?

  42:36-42:38

  Is the person open to the Word?

  42:38-42:40

  Is the person ready to obey?

  42:40-42:42

  Is the person wanting to serve?

  42:44-42:46

  The answer to those questions is yes.

  42:46-42:49

  You find that person, and you invest yourself in them.

  42:51-42:55

  "Well, Pastor Jeff, you know, I've shared with you...

  42:55-43:03

  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?

  43:04-43:09

  What do you do if you don't see these signs?" The answer is you pray for them.

  43:10-43:16

  Like, "Well, what do I pray for?" Pray that the Lord opens a door for you to witness.

  43:18-43:21

  Pray that the person begins to seek God.

  43:22-43:29

  Pray that the person's heart is opened by the Lord to receive the Word.

  43:30-43:37

  Pray for the person to be ready to respond to God in obedience and respond to others serving in the name of Christ.

  43:37-43:41

  Pray for those things for that person and see how the Lord answers that prayer.

  43:43-43:45

  So this is what we're going to do right now.

  43:45-43:50

  Somewhere in your outline, I want you to write down a name.

  43:52-44:00

  Or if you need to write down initials, because maybe you don't want somebody besides you to look over and see, whatever.

  44:01-44:02

  I want you to write down a name.

  44:03-44:09

  I want you to write down a name of someone you know who needs the Lord.

  44:11-44:11

  And we're going to pray.

  44:14-44:20

  We're going to pray for the opportunity open up this week for you to talk to them about Jesus Christ.

  44:22-44:31

  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.

  44:31-44:32

  Do you have that name written down?

  44:33-44:33

  Take a minute.

  44:35-44:36

  Write it down.

  44:36-44:37

  We're going to pray for that person.

  44:38-44:39

  You know somebody.

  44:39-44:40

  You know a family member.

  44:40-44:41

  You know a co-worker.

  44:43-44:44

  You know somebody from school.

  44:45-44:52

  You know somebody that needs to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

  44:52-44:53

  You know somebody.

  44:53-44:54

  Write their name down.

  44:56-44:59

  There's a mystery in all of this.

  45:01-45:08

  Where the Spirit empowers us to be witnesses at the same time the Spirit empowers the people we witness to to receive.

  45:08-45:10

  I don't understand it.

  45:10-45:11

  I don't.

  45:11-45:12

  I believe it.

  45:14-45:21

  I just have this bucket that says, "Sovereignty" on the side.

  45:22-45:29

  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.

  45:31-45:36

  And it doesn't need to make sense to me to do what God's called me to do.

  45:37-45:49

  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.

  45:52-45:56

  But God, we come before you as a church and we pray for these people.

  45:59-46:04

  Father, you've taught us through your Son to pray specifically.

  46:05-46:09

  We don't want to throw up some generic prayer like God blessed them and their grandma.

  46:10-46:12

  We want to pray very specifically.

  46:12-46:17

  Father, we pray specifically, I pray that You would open the door this week.

  46:19-46:20

  This week.

  46:21-46:28

  Whether it's through an email, or through a phone call, or running into them at Target, or whatever.

  46:28-46:30

  I pray that You would open the door.

  46:30-46:31

  God, I don't know how You do it.

  46:33-46:39

  But we just read a story where a bunch of missionaries made this incredibly long journey in less than half the time.

  46:40-46:45

  because you had an appointment for them to witness to Lydia and her friends.

  46:48-46:49

  You can do that, God.

  46:50-46:53

  We know that there's no problem making it happen.

  46:55-46:58

  For whatever acquaintance we're praying for now, God, help us.

  46:58-47:00

  Let us look at the name on that page right now, Father.

  47:01-47:03

  We lift that person up to You right now.

  47:05-47:37

  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.

  47:39-47:57

  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.

  47:59-48:13

  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.

  48:15-48:28

  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.

  48:29-48:34

  For the sake of your gospel, the glory of your name.

  48:36-48:38

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 16:11-15

1. 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?

2. What should you do if someone you want to witness to, or tried witnessing to, doesn’t seem open?

3. Acts 16:15 says Lydia's household was baptized. Is this proof of infant salvation? Why or why not?

Breakout Questions:

1. Did you abide through prayer and Bible reading this week?

2. What specifically are you moved to change or apply this week and how are you going to apply it?

Unstoppable Guidance.

Review:

Quick Reminders:

1. All born-again believers have the Holy Spirit.



2. One of the things the Holy Spirit does is Guide believers.



Rom 8:14 - For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.



3. You can Resist, or Follow, His guidance.

Two ways to Resist:

• Grieving the Spirit:
  

  Eph 4:30 - And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.



• Quenching the Spirit:
  

  1 Thes 5:19 - Do not quench the Spirit.

I Will Follow the Holy Spirit When I Drop Some Things.

1. I must drop my personal Rights. (Acts 16:1-5)
   

   Phil 2:6-7 - ...who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.



2. I must drop my personal Plans. (Acts 16:6-10)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:02

  Alright, Acts 16, are you there?

  00:03-00:10

  The title of today's message is "Unstoppable Guidance" to go with our theme of the book of Acts, the unstoppable church.

  00:10-00:16

  And we kicked off part 2 of this series back in October.

  00:16-00:17

  And what have we discovered so far?

  00:18-00:22

  Well, we saw in Acts 13-14 the mission trip, right?

  00:22-00:28

  Paul and Barnabas and Mark their adventures.

  00:30-00:36

  Then they go back just in time for the Jerusalem Council we'll talk about in a second.

  00:39-00:41

  What do you have to do to be saved?

  00:42-00:45

  And the early apostles hashed that out.

  00:45-00:50

  What part does Old Testament ritual and law play into that?

  00:51-00:52

  We'll talk about that in a second.

  00:53-01:01

  Last week we saw that Paul and Barnabas huge falling outs over taking Mark on the next mission trip.

  01:02-01:10

  So Barnabas took Mark and they went to Cyprus, which is actually the same path that Paul and Barnabas and Mark took on the first trip.

  01:11-01:19

  And Paul took Silas and they headed towards Syria and Cilicia, and that's where we left off last week.

  01:21-01:35

  Before we look at what the passage says, I wanted to tell you this story because the introduction of a sermon should show people why they need to listen to the sermon, right?

  01:35-01:48

  And several years ago, when I was serving as associate pastor, the senior pastor had just moved into a new house that was off 38, lots of land, lots of woods, and I'd gone out to see his new house.

  01:48-01:51

  And his grandson was living with him at the time.

  01:51-01:52

  How old was Isaac at the time?

  01:53-01:54

  I think he was like eight or 10, somewhere around there.

  01:56-02:09

  So Isaac says, "Hey, I'll show you around." I'm like, "Yeah, that's great." He goes, "Well, let's go for a walk." So this eight or 10 year old grandson, Isaac, he's leading me on this walk.

  02:10-02:14

  And as we're walking, guys, you know what I'm talking about?

  02:14-02:16

  You have this kind of internal like compass.

  02:17-02:20

  And as we're walking, I'm like, "Isaac, do you know where we're going?

  02:20-02:24

  "I don't think this is the way." I was like, no, this is the way, and just kept walking.

  02:25-02:30

  So I'm following him and we're going over the river and through the woods and over creeks.

  02:30-02:37

  And I just get this sense, I'm like, we are really heading the wrong way.

  02:38-02:42

  I feel like the house is like 12 miles back that way.

  02:42-02:44

  And like, Isaac, are you sure this is the right way?

  02:44-02:45

  He goes, this is the right way.

  02:45-02:46

  The house is just right up here.

  02:48-02:58

  I'm like, "Oh, I felt in every cell in my body." I'm like, "That can't be right." And then I thought to myself, "Jeff, how arrogant you are.

  02:59-03:00

  This kid lives here.

  03:01-03:02

  He lives here.

  03:04-03:05

  Shouldn't he know?

  03:05-03:08

  I mean, he's walking with such confidence and authority.

  03:08-03:09

  Shouldn't he know?

  03:09-03:22

  How arrogant am I that this kid doesn't know where he's going?" I'm like, "Just chill out." So I'm following him, and, "Isaac, are you sure this is the way?" Doubts are starting to creep in.

  03:23-03:30

  He goes, "This is the way." Well, after coming out of the woods, we end up in this clearing, and I see this house that I completely didn't recognize.

  03:30-03:47

  I'm like, "That's not your house." So finally I said, "Isaac, where are we?" And he stopped and he went, "I don't know." I was a little exasperated because I wasn't planning a hiking trip that day.

  03:47-04:05

  I said, "Isaac, you told me like six times that you knew where you were going!" And as straightforward a matter of fact as anything, he said, "Yeah, you shouldn't have trusted me." Lesson learned, right?

  04:05-04:23

  And the reason we need to tune into this passage today is we're going to see the early church We had to learn how to follow someone who was leading them, but this someone that we need to learn to follow isn't going to get us lost in the woods.

  04:24-04:27

  We're going to be talking about the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

  04:28-04:32

  And instead of just launching into the text, I really feel like I've got to give you a bit of an on-ramp.

  04:33-04:36

  This is going to be review for a lot of you, and for some of you, some of these things might be new.

  04:37-04:41

  But as we talk about guidance of the Holy Spirit, I've got to give you three quick reminders.

  04:41-04:49

  I want you to jot these down on your outline, because if you don't get these down, none of the rest of this is really going to make much sense.

  04:51-05:10

  The first thing is this, letter A, "All born-again believers have the Holy Spirit." Okay, so when we talk about the Holy Spirit guiding you, don't think, "Well, the Holy Spirit, you know, like Paul had the Holy Spirit, and Billy Graham has the Holy Spirit, and like John Piper probably has the Holy Spirit," but that's not for regular Joe's like us, and that's not true.

  05:11-05:17

  The Bible says that everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God's Holy Spirit indwells them.

  05:17-05:33

  1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" And I could share several verses in the New Testament talking about God's Spirit indwelling us.

  05:34-05:35

  I just want to remind you of that.

  05:35-05:39

  When we talk about guidance from the Holy Spirit, this isn't just for the elders.

  05:40-05:41

  This isn't just for the pastors.

  05:41-05:42

  This isn't just for the missionaries.

  05:43-05:44

  This is for you.

  05:44-05:45

  This is for you.

  05:46-05:47

  Letter B.

  05:48-05:52

  One of the things the Holy Spirit does is guide believers.

  05:52-05:53

  This is one of the ministries.

  05:53-05:57

  God puts His presence in us, and what does He do?

  05:57-05:59

  Why do we have the Holy Spirit?

  06:00-06:04

  Well, one of the things the Holy Spirit does is guide believers.

  06:05-06:11

  Romans 8:14 says, All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

  06:13-06:14

  And vice versa.

  06:16-06:20

  All who are sons of God or daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God.

  06:20-06:28

  So the promise is, if you have the Holy Spirit, He's leading you to something or to somewhere.

  06:30-06:34

  Let me remind you that we don't need to pray that the Holy Spirit will lead us.

  06:34-06:39

  We don't need to say, "In whose spirit will you lead us?" Because He is. That's what He does.

  06:40-06:40

  Right?

  06:42-06:48

  What we need to pray is that we would be ready to follow where He's leading us.

  06:49-06:51

  See, I think we need to pray more than He does.

  06:52-06:59

  And Him leading us following transaction, I think I have much more confidence that He's going to do His part in that.

  07:00-07:00

  Amen?

  07:02-07:04

  So what does it mean that He leads?

  07:04-07:05

  He leads in a lot of areas.

  07:05-07:07

  We could do a whole other Bible study.

  07:07-07:08

  This is a whole other sermon.

  07:08-07:09

  He leads in a lot of areas.

  07:10-07:11

  He leads us to the truth.

  07:11-07:13

  He leads us in fruitfulness in ministry.

  07:13-07:15

  He leads us to assurance of our salvation.

  07:16-07:20

  He leads us to - do you remember, if you were with us, we spent a whole year talking about this.

  07:21-07:21

  He leads us in witnessing.

  07:22-07:29

  Jesus said in Acts 1-8, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be My witnesses." So He leads us in witnessing.

  07:29-07:41

  He leads us in a lot of things, but what we're going to see in the passage today Specifically, when we talk about guidance, is the Holy Spirit literally directs us for ministry.

  07:42-07:45

  Takes us where He wants us to be for ministry.

  07:46-07:48

  How does He do that?

  07:49-07:51

  Sometimes it's through circumstances.

  07:51-07:52

  We're going to talk about that in a couple of minutes.

  07:52-07:54

  He opens and closes doors.

  07:55-08:07

  You know, as we follow Him, we come to a door, and He shuts the door and says, "No, no, no, you're not going that way." And we're following Him, He opens the door and says, "This is the way I want you to go." Sometimes He does it through our circumstances.

  08:08-08:10

  Sometimes He does it through a still, small voice.

  08:11-08:13

  And that's just something I can't explain.

  08:14-08:15

  But I believe it.

  08:16-08:17

  And He speaks to you.

  08:18-08:20

  That's what got me into ministry in the first place.

  08:20-08:21

  It wasn't my idea.

  08:22-08:32

  It was the Holy Spirit saying, "I want you to tell people about Jesus." And I was clueless and I didn't want to do it, but He kept saying it.

  08:32-08:35

  Okay, it is hard to kick against the goad, right?

  08:36-08:36

  So here we are.

  08:38-08:41

  One of the ways the Holy Spirit speaks to you is through other believers.

  08:42-08:47

  That's why we do this thing called preaching, whether me or one of our elders or a guest speaker.

  08:47-08:52

  One of the ways the Holy Spirit will speak to you is through a preacher proclaiming the Word of God.

  08:52-08:54

  That's one of the ways the Holy Spirit works.

  08:55-08:58

  One of the ways through other people is also in small groups.

  08:59-09:05

  Getting with a group of brothers and sisters in Christ who love you and are praying for you.

  09:06-09:08

  Those are some of the ways that He guides.

  09:08-09:10

  But that is one of the things that He does.

  09:10-09:11

  He guides believers.

  09:13-09:15

  Something else to think about too, the way He guides.

  09:16-09:23

  Ephesians 5.18 says, "Do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be..." What's the next phrase?

  09:25-09:39

  "Filled by the Holy Spirit." If you think about it, It's kind of an interesting illustration that Paul uses to describe being filled with the Holy Spirit.

  09:39-09:42

  He compares it, in a sense, to being drunk.

  09:43-09:45

  Now when somebody's drunk, what do we call that?

  09:45-09:52

  Like if somebody's drunk and they are driving a vehicle and they get pulled over, that's called, they were driving under the what?

  09:54-09:54

  Influence, right?

  09:54-09:56

  They were driving under the influence.

  09:56-09:58

  They were under the influence of alcohol.

  09:59-10:01

  Meaning, they weren't in control of themselves.

  10:02-10:04

  The alcohol was controlling them.

  10:05-10:12

  Now when somebody is being filled with the Holy Spirit, that means they are under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

  10:13-10:14

  Think about it.

  10:15-10:16

  How many people here have been drunk?

  10:16-10:17

  Don't raise your hand.

  10:18-10:19

  Don't raise your hand.

  10:19-10:21

  Some of you already raised your hand.

  10:23-10:27

  If you've ever been drunk, or if you could have somebody I'm not going to explain it to you.

  10:29-10:31

  It changes the way you talk, doesn't it?

  10:32-10:33

  It changes the way you talk.

  10:35-10:36

  It changes the way you walk.

  10:37-10:39

  It changes the way you think.

  10:39-10:41

  It changes the way you act.

  10:41-10:42

  Right? Are all these things true when you're drunk?

  10:45-10:47

  And it's the same when you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

  10:48-10:51

  Being under the influence of the Holy Spirit, does He change the way you talk?

  10:52-10:53

  Does He change the way you think?

  10:54-10:55

  Does He change the way you act?

  10:56-10:56

  (P)

  10:56-10:57

  Absolutely he does.

  10:57-10:59

  You see that's sort of a picture there.

  10:59-11:06

  Instead of being under the influence of alcohol, we should be allowing God's Holy Spirit to be our influence.

  11:08-11:09

  Letter C.

  11:10-11:16

  You can resist or follow His guidance.

  11:18-11:21

  Okay, so all believers have the Holy Spirit.

  11:21-11:22

  The Holy Spirit guides believers.

  11:23-11:26

  And you as a believer, You can resist or follow His guidance.

  11:26-11:31

  You see, just because God's Holy Spirit entwines us doesn't mean that we become robots.

  11:31-11:34

  Like God has us on this remote control.

  11:35-11:36

  It's not like that.

  11:38-11:42

  You can resist the Holy Spirit or you can follow the Holy Spirit.

  11:43-11:43

  How can you resist?

  11:44-11:44

  Well, there's two ways.

  11:44-11:45

  Write these down in your outline.

  11:47-11:52

  There's two ways you can resist the Holy Spirit's influence, and one of them is in Ephesians 4:30.

  11:53-12:10

  called "grieving the Spirit." Ephesians 4:30 says, "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Now the context of Ephesians 4, Paul's talking about sin.

  12:11-12:22

  And then in the midst of talking about sin, he says, "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit." What that means is simply this, when the Holy Spirit is telling you You're not to do something.

  12:24-12:25

  And you do it anyways.

  12:26-12:28

  You're grieving the Holy Spirit.

  12:29-12:31

  You don't lose your salvation.

  12:31-12:33

  If a believer sins, it doesn't mean you're out of the family.

  12:34-12:34

  It's not that.

  12:35-12:41

  But what you do, believers, when you sin, you're grieving God's Holy Spirit.

  12:41-12:43

  God's Holy Spirit is saying, "No, no, no, don't do that.

  12:43-12:49

  Don't do that." And in our persistence, in our sinful flesh, we do it anyways.

  12:49-12:51

  the Spirit, that grieves Him.

  12:52-12:54

  That's one of the ways that we resist Him.

  12:55-12:57

  The other way is quenching the Spirit.

  12:57-13:00

  You can grieve the Spirit, and you can quench the Spirit.

  13:00-13:05

  1 Thessalonians 5.19 Doesn't get much more straightforward than this, right?

  13:05-13:07

  Do not quench the Spirit.

  13:08-13:13

  Now the context in 1 Thessalonians - we went through this a summer or two ago.

  13:14-13:17

  But the context in this passage, if you go back and look at it, is God's will.

  13:19-13:20

  He's saying this is God's will for you.

  13:20-13:24

  God wants you to do this, and God wants you to follow Him in this way.

  13:24-13:29

  And in this context of talking about God's will, he says don't quench the Spirit.

  13:30-13:37

  Meaning when the Holy Spirit says to do something, and you say no, you're quenching the Holy Spirit.

  13:39-13:40

  You see the difference?

  13:41-13:44

  Grieving the Spirit is the Holy Spirit says don't do this, and you do it.

  13:44-13:45

  He's grieved.

  13:45-13:53

  But when the Holy Spirit says here's something I want you to do, and you say, "I'm not going to do that." What you're doing is you're quenching the Spirit.

  13:53-13:57

  The Holy Spirit's trying to light a fire under you, and you're just throwing buckets of water on.

  13:57-14:02

  "No, no, no, I don't want to do this." The Spirit says, "Do it." You're like, "I don't want to do it." You're quenching the Spirit.

  14:02-14:04

  That's how you can resist.

  14:05-14:08

  But I don't imagine there's many people sitting here that's like, "You know what?

  14:08-14:13

  I'm really interested in knowing how to resist." I think we're pretty good at that naturally.

  14:14-14:16

  What we want to know is how to follow.

  14:17-14:19

  And we're going to look at two specific things.

  14:19-14:23

  There's so much we can say about this passage, but we just want this passage to speak for itself.

  14:25-14:28

  That's what expository Bible study is all about.

  14:29-14:31

  We're just going to let this passage speak for itself.

  14:32-14:38

  If you want to follow where the Holy Spirit is leading you, we're going to see in this passage you've got to drop some things.

  14:39-14:40

  You've got to drop some things.

  14:40-14:45

  So in your outline, "I will follow the Holy Spirit and I dropped some things.

  14:47-14:52

  Number one, I must drop my personal rights.

  14:54-14:55

  Don't run out the door.

  14:55-14:56

  I want you to hear me out on this, okay?

  14:57-14:58

  I must drop my personal rights.

  14:58-14:59

  Look at what the Bible says.

  15:01-15:04

  "I must drop my personal rights." Look at verses 1 and 2.

  15:04-15:07

  Paul came to Derbe and to Lystra.

  15:09-15:13

  A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman He was a believer.

  15:15-15:16

  But his father was a Greek.

  15:18-15:23

  He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra in Iconium.

  15:24-15:25

  He mentions Derbe and Lystra.

  15:26-15:31

  That's where Paul and Barnabas visited on their first trip back in chapter 14, verse 6.

  15:31-15:36

  Now Lystra - remember, that's where a lot of crazy stuff went down.

  15:36-15:39

  Do you remember when we studied that back in Acts 14?

  15:39-15:43

  In Lystra, Paul and Barnabas, and they healed the lame man.

  15:43-15:44

  Do you remember what the people did?

  15:45-15:53

  They're like, "Let's worship these guys!" And they're like, "Paul, you're Hermes, and Barnabas, you're Zeus." And they were like trying to worship these guys.

  15:53-15:55

  "No, no, no, don't worship us!

  15:55-16:10

  We're just people." And the priest of Zeus came and was like, "You guys are awesome and crazy." That's also the place where the apostle Paul was pelted by rocks.

  16:10-16:18

  and they tried to kill him by stoning him, and they dragged him out of the city, and they thought he was dead.

  16:18-16:21

  What do you think Paul looked like if they thought he was dead?

  16:22-16:22

  Right?

  16:24-16:33

  This all happened in Lystra, and that's exactly where they go back, and when they do, it says they met a disciple named Timothy.

  16:34-16:36

  Now Timothy's mentioned 26 times in the New Testament.

  16:38-16:39

  He's pretty significant.

  16:39-16:49

  But Philippians 2.20, the Apostle Paul, speaking of Timothy, says, "I have no one like him." On a scale of 1 to 10, what kind of a compliment is that?

  16:49-16:54

  When the Apostle Paul says, "I have nobody like this guy." Pretty amazing, right?

  16:55-16:56

  It tells you a little bit about him.

  16:57-17:01

  He eventually became Paul's right-hand man, and Timothy would have been led to Christ.

  17:02-17:30

  On Paul and Barnabas' first trip through, at this point he was probably in his teens early 20s. Verse 3, "Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places." They all knew that his father was a Greek. Like whoa, whoa, whoa, okay, pause. What is going on here?

  17:31-17:39

  Like we just spent all that time in Acts chapter 15. Do you remember the Jerusalem and what was the big issue of the Jerusalem Council?

  17:40-17:48

  You had these Jews that were like, "You've got to get circumcised if you want to get saved." And these new believers were like, "Are we even really saved?" Because we didn't know that was part of the deal.

  17:48-17:54

  And they're like, "You're not saved unless you're circumcised." So the apostles and the elders had this big meeting in Jerusalem.

  17:55-17:58

  They're like, "How does somebody get saved?" And you remember that?

  18:01-18:03

  Paul was there, wasn't he?

  18:03-18:05

  Wasn't Paul there?

  18:07-18:11

  In fact, didn't Paul speak at the Jerusalem Council?

  18:12-18:13

  Did I imagine that?

  18:14-18:26

  So why in the world, you have this young man, Timothy, like, "Hey, I want to be a missionary like you guys." And Paul's like, "Okay, first thing we got to do, let's get you circumcised, pal." Like, what?

  18:28-18:29

  What in the world is going on here?

  18:31-18:37

  Well, I want to remind you that the Apostle Paul wasn't scatterbrained.

  18:39-18:40

  This wasn't a salvation issue.

  18:40-18:48

  He didn't say, "Timothy, in order to get you saved, we're going to get you circumcised." That wasn't the issue at all, and the text, I think, makes that pretty clear.

  18:50-19:02

  It says, look at verse 3 again, "He took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places." He did it not for Tim's salvation.

  19:03-19:06

  He did it because of the Jews.

  19:07-19:13

  Timothy, we even see in the beginning here, he was half Jewish and half Gentile.

  19:15-19:22

  In fact, in Galatians 2.3, the Bible tells us that Paul refused to circumcise Titus.

  19:23-19:23

  Why?

  19:23-19:25

  Well, Titus was a full Gentile.

  19:26-19:28

  And that would have just been legalism.

  19:29-19:53

  But here you have a young Jewish, half-Jewish man, and Paul says, "Okay, we're going on this mission trip, and we're going to the synagogues, and if you're a Jewish person and you're not circumcised, we're going to have a hard time getting these people to listen to us when we share the gospel." Because you know, like, for Jews in this day, An uncircumcised Jew was considered apostate.

  19:54-20:12

  Like if you're a Jewish man and you're uncircumcised, the religious Jews said, "You have completely renounced what it means to be a Jew, man, and they won't hear you." Paul's like, "If these people are going to hear us share the Gospel, we've got to get this taken care of." Now you might be wondering the same thing that I was wondering this week.

  20:14-20:16

  Anybody else really uncomfortable talking about this?

  20:18-20:18

  Just me?

  20:19-20:20

  Seriously?

  20:21-20:21

  Just me?

  20:24-20:24

  Okay.

  20:26-20:28

  Here was the question that I had.

  20:29-20:32

  How would people know if Timothy was or he wasn't?

  20:34-20:39

  I mean, you get a card that you carry in your wallet, that they check at the door.

  20:39-20:42

  I mean, I was like, "Look, you preach next week, okay?

  20:42-20:59

  These are the questions you're going to ask." And I'm like, "How would they have known?" And I got to tell you, this is kind of funny, because I was kind of wrestling with this this week. I'm like, how would they have known? How would they have known? How would they have known? So I'm like going back to the text and I'm like, the Bible tells us how they would have known.

  21:00-21:06

  Duh! Look at it. Look at the next, the very last phrase in verse 3. What does it say?

  21:06-21:19

  "For they all knew that his father was a Greek." What that means is they knew who he was. Everybody knew this guy was half Jewish. So when Paul shows up with him, it It wasn't like Paul was bringing in this stranger.

  21:19-21:20

  They're like, "Oh, we know him.

  21:21-21:23

  That's the half Gentile, half Jewish kid.

  21:26-21:34

  He's circumcised." They would have asked him because they knew who he was and it would have been an offense for Paul to bring him without him being circumcised.

  21:36-21:38

  Can we talk about something else now?

  21:38-21:38

  Okay, we're moving on.

  21:40-21:44

  We're moving the stumbling block for the sake of evangelism.

  21:44-21:45

  We did a whole sermon on that.

  21:45-21:46

  You can get that online.

  21:47-21:49

  removing a stumbling block for the sake of evangelism.

  21:49-21:50

  That's why he did it.

  21:52-21:55

  But you also have to think for Timothy, you also have to consider this.

  21:55-21:59

  This would have been a huge step of faith.

  22:00-22:07

  Here's a young man in his teens or early 20s, and he's signing on to go on a mission trip with Paul.

  22:08-22:09

  How scary would that have been?

  22:13-22:16

  Because what happened when Paul I was in his hometown the last time.

  22:18-22:20

  Could you imagine a conversation with Timothy and his mom?

  22:21-22:38

  "Hey, Mom, I want to join the missionaries." "What missionary?" "Paul." "You mean the guy they tried to kill?" "That's the team you want to sign up for?" "You want to sign up with those guys?" "The show up in town and everybody tries to kill you?" "That's what you want to do?" His mom was a believer.

  22:40-22:41

  And he went with her blessing.

  22:43-22:49

  What happened to me actually as a young Christian, the first time I went to Thailand, I was 20.

  22:51-22:52

  I remember mom was scared to death.

  22:52-22:53

  You remember this, Darren?

  22:53-22:54

  Mom was scared to death.

  22:55-22:57

  And mom was actually talking to Darren about this.

  22:57-23:02

  And Darren's like, "Mom, Jeff's gonna be fine." Big brother had confidence in him.

  23:02-23:18

  He goes, "Jeff's gonna be fine." Mom's like, "He's not gonna be fine, Darren, because Barnabas told me that they have snakes and they have tigers and they have all kinds of, "There's dangerous things over there. He's not going to be fine." And Darren goes, "Mom, Jeff's going to be alright.

  23:18-23:30

  Just let him go. He's going to be fine." Mom goes, "Jeff can't outrun a tiger, Darren." And Darren said, "Mom, Jeff doesn't have to outrun a tiger.

  23:31-23:37

  He just has to outrun Pastor Bob." So, here we are.

  23:39-23:47

  Young Timothy says, "All right, I want to join up with the missionaries." Paul goes, "Hey, it might be dangerous.

  23:48-23:53

  I got stoned last time I was in town." Timothy's like, "I am counting the cost.

  23:53-24:12

  I'm going with the missionaries." And Paul says, "Alright, we're going to have to get you circumcised." And Timothy says, "Can I just take the stoning instead?" Verse 4, "As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

  24:14-24:15

  Meaning, that was the message as they were traveling.

  24:16-24:17

  They're saying, "Hey guys, we've got good news.

  24:18-24:25

  All the elders and apostles got together in Jerusalem to hash out this salvation issue, and here's the result.

  24:25-24:30

  Salvation is by God's grace alone." Our part is just receiving.

  24:32-24:42

  So many people get the message wrong, and they want to add stuff to the Bible, and they had stuff to the salvation message, and that's what they went and told people.

  24:44-24:45

  Good news.

  24:46-24:48

  Salvation isn't about what you can do for God.

  24:48-24:50

  Salvation is about what God has done for you.

  24:52-24:56

  Your job is to trust in the work that God's already accomplished. Amen?

  24:57-25:02

  And while we do that, we're to live in love and unity and harmony with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

  25:02-25:04

  That was the result of the Jerusalem Council.

  25:04-25:05

  That's what they went around preaching.

  25:05-25:19

  The Bible says, "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily." The results were a strong and growing God at work group of churches.

  25:21-25:24

  I want you to see that all of this started with a young man who was willing to give up his rights.

  25:26-25:30

  Did Timothy have to go through all this? No.

  25:31-25:32

  It wasn't a salvation issue.

  25:33-25:51

  Jesus said, "Paul, Jerusalem Council buddy, I know that that's not necessary for salvation." Paul's like, "But we're going to be evangelizing some very sensitive people, and it's going to be a huge stumbling block. They're not going to want to hear us." Timothy, I want you to see in the passage, Timothy was willing to give up his rights.

  25:52-25:56

  And I would suggest to you a very big one.

  25:58-25:59

  This is a big issue.

  26:01-26:16

  I'm not sure I would have taken that step if I was Timothy, to say, "Wow! I need to do what?" He was willing to lay down his rights so that God's Holy Spirit could use him.

  26:18-26:27

  The question for us, is there some right that we are holding onto that's keeping us from fully following where the Spirit would be leading us?

  26:28-27:30

  Like, what kind of rights might I be holding onto things down one is a right to fairness I deserve I should get that's not fair and we get so used to everything should be fair for me that might be a right that you need to lay down for some it's the right to be heard my opinion should matter most why doesn't everybody just do what I say and maybe that's a right that you need to lay down. Here's a big one. A right to comfort. You know we talk about doing like these small group outreach projects and I'm sure there's some people that are like, "You know what? That's not really my comfort zone to go to a group of people I don't know and and share with them and hang out. That's not really in my comfort zone." And you have every right not to go. Your salvation is not hanging in the balance on whether you go to an outreach.

  27:32-27:41

  But if this is something the Holy Spirit is leading you to do, is it really worth holding on to some right when you're missing out how He might want to use you in such a big way?

  27:43-27:45

  Yeah, you have the right to comfort.

  27:46-27:47

  You have the right to be heard.

  27:47-27:48

  You have the right to fairness.

  27:48-27:50

  But listen, the mature attitude.

  27:51-27:57

  The mature attitude is saying, "I'm willing to give up my rights." That's the mature attitude.

  27:59-28:08

  We can hold on to them and we can enforce them, or we can say, "You know what, I'm willing to give that up." Well, how do you know that's the mature attitude?

  28:09-28:12

  Because that's the attitude that Jesus had. Right?

  28:13-28:14

  That's the attitude that Jesus had.

  28:15-28:30

  Philippians 2, look at this, talking about the Incarnation, it says, "Who, though He was in the form of God," talking about Jesus, He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

  28:32-28:33

  What does that mean?

  28:34-28:38

  That means he could have held on to that title, that prestige, that majesty.

  28:38-28:39

  He could have held on to that.

  28:41-28:41

  Here's what that means.

  28:41-28:43

  He says, "No, I don't need to.

  28:44-28:46

  I don't need to hold on to this.

  28:47-28:52

  I'm willing to give up the majesty of being the Almighty to become a flesh and blood person.

  28:53-28:54

  I can let go of that.

  28:54-28:55

  I'll let go of the majesty.

  28:56-28:58

  I'll let go of the glory that I had.

  28:59-29:00

  I'll let go of that.

  29:01-29:18

  The passage goes on and says, "But he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man." Okay, so when God became a man, how much did He have to give up in order to make that happen?

  29:21-29:22

  Do you even measure something like that?

  29:24-29:28

  He could have became a man and said, "I'm God.

  29:29-29:30

  I don't walk places.

  29:31-29:31

  I fly.

  29:33-29:36

  I don't get spoken to the way these people are speaking to me.

  29:38-29:40

  I don't get rejected.

  29:42-29:43

  I'm God.

  29:43-29:48

  I shouldn't ever have to feel hungry or thirsty or tired.

  29:48-29:49

  I shouldn't have to feel this stuff.

  29:51-29:54

  He could have done that and he would have had every right.

  29:56-29:59

  But in the incarnation, Jesus said, "No, I'm willing to let that go.

  30:01-30:07

  I'm willing to let that go." Why? Why did he let that stuff go?

  30:07-30:11

  See, he let that go for us. He let that go for love.

  30:12-30:18

  For ministry, for doing what the Father had sent him to do.

  30:18-30:57

  He let go of these things to save you For us we Should embrace that same attitude and say I'm willing to give up my rights the sake of what God would have me to do I Must drop my personal right secondly I Must drop my personal plans Must drop my personal plans look at verse 6 It says and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." Now, when we think Asia, immediately we think of China and Thailand and Japan.

  30:58-31:03

  And Asia, that they're speaking of in the Bible, is actually modern-day Turkey.

  31:04-31:07

  It was actually west of where they were heading.

  31:07-31:08

  They were intending to go west.

  31:09-31:11

  Eventually, many churches were planted there.

  31:11-31:16

  Many churches like Ephesus and Colossae and Laodicea and many, many, many others.

  31:18-31:25

  They're like, "Well, let's go here and preach." And it says they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word there.

  31:26-31:27

  The Spirit said no.

  31:29-31:35

  They're like, okay, verse 7, "And when they had come up to Mycaea, they attempted to go into Bithynia.

  31:37-31:44

  But the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." Okay, so Mycenae was north and they wanted to go further north to a place called Bithynia.

  31:45-31:47

  And once again, the Holy Spirit said no.

  31:47-31:49

  And you're like, well, what was that like?

  31:49-31:51

  And my answer is, I don't know, I wasn't there.

  31:52-31:54

  Was it a still small voice thing?

  31:55-31:57

  Was it a prophetic word?

  31:57-32:02

  I don't know, but something I do know is for these missionaries, it was crystal clear.

  32:02-32:04

  The Holy Spirit said, you are not going there.

  32:04-32:05

  You are not preaching there.

  32:08-32:09

  Okay, verse eight.

  32:09-32:14

  It says, "So passing by Mycenae, they went down to Troas.

  32:16-32:28

  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night." Meaning, again I wasn't there, meaning it could have been a dream, a vision that showed up in a dream.

  32:29-32:31

  But regardless, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night.

  32:32-32:39

  A man of Macedonia was standing there urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us.

  32:42-32:43

  So where's Macedonia?

  32:44-32:48

  Some of you guys are going to be getting in the back of your Bibles and getting those maps and following this stuff.

  32:49-32:53

  But Macedonia was actually across the Aegean Sea on mainland Greece.

  32:55-32:58

  Eventually this is where we're going to get the churches of Philippi and Thessalonica.

  33:01-33:07

  It was also the first entry of the Gospel into Europe, would have been huge and was huge.

  33:08-33:15

  Because when Paul had seen the vision, what's the next word in your Bible?

  33:16-33:19

  And when Paul had seen the vision, what's the next word?

  33:21-33:22

  Immediately. Does your Bible say that?

  33:23-33:25

  I thought we were going to pray about this for a few weeks.

  33:26-33:37

  Immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia concluding that God had called us "We preach the gospel to them." Okay, observing people.

  33:37-33:38

  I know it's late in the sermon here.

  33:38-33:40

  Did you notice anything weird about that verse?

  33:41-33:42

  Some of you are shaking your head yes.

  33:42-33:43

  What is it?

  33:44-33:46

  Yeah, "we." The pronouns changed, didn't they?

  33:47-33:48

  And there's a reason for that.

  33:49-33:51

  Luke wrote the book of Acts.

  33:52-33:54

  And they would have picked Luke up in Troas.

  33:54-34:12

  Did you notice up until this point, like verse 8, "they." That's what we see. "They did this." "They did this." "They did this." Luke, friend and companion of Paul for the rest of Paul's life.

  34:13-34:20

  Again, he wrote the Gospel of Luke and this book that we're studying right now.

  34:21-34:21

  Here's the point.

  34:23-34:29

  To go where the Holy Spirit is guiding you, you're going to have to give up some personal plans.

  34:30-34:31

  You're going to have to give them up.

  34:31-34:31

  You're going to have to give up your personal plans.

  34:32-34:45

  And I know this is going to be hard to hear, and I wish I could communicate how hard it is to say, but I know that I'm going to lose some people here.

  34:47-35:16

  Because the thought of, "What does the Holy Spirit want me to do?" That thought is not even on some people's radar. Because and you jammed your schedule so full, you don't even have time to think, "I wonder where the Holy Spirit would have me going, sir." Like, well, hang on, Pastor Jeff, I have the right on how I spend my time.

  35:16-35:17

  You absolutely do.

  35:19-35:27

  You know, we say things like, you should get involved in small group, and you should get involved in these outreach projects that these small groups are involved in.

  35:27-35:36

  We've seen the Lord do some amazing things in our small group outreach ministry, and in our small groups through breakout time, you should be a part of this.

  35:36-35:38

  You should get involved in a small group sometime this year.

  35:38-36:01

  We say these things, and a lot of times the response we hear is something like, "I can't, because I'm boating and camping and hunting and fishing, and I'm in an adult dodgeball league, and my kids are in dance, soccer, basketball, wrestling, lacrosse, baseball, gymnastics, football, hockey, and tennis, and we're busy next week too." All of these things are good things.

  36:03-36:07

  And true, you have every right to do whatever you want with your time.

  36:09-36:26

  But to put a stone in your shoe, I just want to ask you, when you've completely over-committed yourself, when you have completely jammed up your schedule, have you left any room for the Holy Spirit to show you how He wants to use you?

  36:29-36:30

  Maybe you need to give up some stuff.

  36:32-36:41

  Because if you're going to find the open door that He's giving you to serve Him, you have to be available.

  36:42-36:44

  You just have to be available.

  36:46-36:49

  The very first church I pastored, I was in charge of the youth group.

  36:49-36:53

  Wonderful group of kids, but I've got to be honest with you, frustrating.

  36:55-36:56

  Frustrating.

  36:58-37:29

  kids they went from you know we're trying to plan youth group meetings and events and all these things and okay guys we're planning this for this month like there was like 20 kids are like we can't why not wrestling season once wrestling season over well it's over first part of November okay well then first part of November we're gonna we can't why not basketball okay great once basketball over like middle of January great okay middle of January we can't Why not?

  37:30-37:31

  Because that's when tennis starts up.

  37:32-37:33

  I'm like...

  37:35-37:37

  Is there any sport that you guys aren't involved in?

  37:37-37:40

  They just went from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing.

  37:40-37:42

  And all those things are good.

  37:42-37:44

  I love sports. I played sports.

  37:45-37:53

  Great things, but don't you think it's a problem when the thing that always gets shelved is church involvement?

  37:54-37:54

  Why is that?

  37:55-37:57

  I can't possibly miss...

  37:57-38:06

  I can't possibly miss this thing, this hobby, but I'm gonna easily forgo the opportunity to lead somebody to Christ.

  38:09-38:11

  There's gotta be some balance there.

  38:11-38:14

  And honestly, I think for some of you, I think you need to let go of some things.

  38:15-38:16

  So you know what?

  38:16-38:21

  It's good that I'm gonna let go of it because I haven't had time to serve Christ the way that I should.

  38:21-38:26

  I don't even know what the Holy Spirit wants me to do because the Holy Spirit looks at my schedule and says there's just no room for me.

  38:28-38:29

  You've got to be available.

  38:30-38:34

  One of the main ways the Holy Spirit guides - we saw it in this passage, and we can look at many others.

  38:35-38:36

  We're winding down here.

  38:36-38:40

  But one of the ways the Holy Spirit guides you is by opening and closing doors.

  38:41-38:42

  We see that.

  38:42-38:47

  The Holy Spirit doesn't always just say, okay, here's where you're going and here's what you're doing.

  38:48-38:52

  The Holy Spirit uses people on the move and looking to say, I'm going to share the Gospel here.

  38:52-38:54

  The Holy Spirit says, no, you're not going to share the Gospel here.

  38:56-38:57

  I'm gonna go share the gospel here.

  38:58-38:58

  Where am I gonna share the gospel?

  38:58-38:59

  Oh, this door's open.

  38:59-39:01

  And that's how the Holy Spirit works.

  39:01-39:03

  You see that throughout the New Testament.

  39:04-39:06

  Like, what does that look like today?

  39:06-39:06

  Here's an example.

  39:08-39:12

  Many of you know, we've had people involved in the Butler County Prison from our church, going up to do Bible study.

  39:13-39:19

  And I gotta tell you, over the past year, what, Mark, year, year and a half, it has been getting harder and harder to get into jail.

  39:21-39:28

  What I mean by that is, it's, well, you gotta get clearances, And then you gotta get more clearances, and then you gotta get more clearances on top of that.

  39:28-40:00

  And even with the clearances, the one time I drove up, show up, all my clearances, everything ready to go, and then the guy at the front says, "You're not on the visitor list, you can't come in." And I'm like, "There must be some mistake," because I did all the classes and signed all the papers, and he goes, "I'm sorry, you're just not on the list." And the next week I called them, and the girl that I spoke with said, "Oh yeah, you're definitely on the list, "I don't know why they wouldn't let you in." And Mark and I were talking about this, and what we had said was, it looks like maybe the Lord's just closing that door.

  40:00-40:03

  I mean, how many years have we been involved in prison ministry?

  40:03-40:07

  And I love it, but it just looks like, for whatever reason, God's closing the door.

  40:08-40:10

  There was a part of me, it's like, I don't want him to close that door, I like doing that.

  40:12-40:14

  It's kind of like this passage.

  40:14-40:16

  They're like, why shouldn't I share the gospel in Asia right now?

  40:17-40:19

  And the Holy Spirit's like, you're not gonna do that right now.

  40:20-40:21

  But isn't that a good thing to share the gospel?

  40:21-40:24

  The Holy Spirit says, yeah, it's a good thing, you're not going to do that right now.

  40:25-40:26

  That's sort of what we ran to at the prison.

  40:28-40:39

  At the same time, at the same time that that door was closing, Ross Howells from our small group said, hey, why don't we do an outreach at this Mars Home for Youth?

  40:40-40:40

  Let's go try it.

  40:40-40:41

  Check it out.

  40:41-40:43

  Like, OK, let's go see.

  40:46-40:49

  And we took Barnabas with us in the first event that we went to.

  40:49-40:58

  and after Barnabas spoke, three kids came up wanting to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, three kids.

  40:59-41:13

  And then this other kid comes up and says, "Hey, I wanna support the missionaries." And then since then, I've gotten probably somewhere, I lost count, somewhere probably between six and 10 emails from the Mars home, "When are you guys coming back?

  41:13-41:14

  "Will you please come back?

  41:15-41:16

  "You had such an impact on the kids.

  41:16-41:17

  "The kids just loved you guys.

  41:18-41:25

  "Will you please come back?" I'm like, "Is this an open door?" What do you think? Is that an open door?

  41:27-41:29

  I think that's how the Holy Spirit works.

  41:29-41:34

  It's certainly how He worked in Paul's day, and it's certainly how He seems to be working in our day.

  41:36-41:40

  So, why should we be sensitive to the Spirit's leading?

  41:41-41:57

  As we see in this passage, the Holy Spirit is always going to take you to a good place, or God's going to be glorified, and you're going to be blessed, even if things don't make sense.

  41:58-42:00

  Why wouldn't He want me to preach the Gospel there?

  42:01-42:03

  Even if it doesn't make sense.

  42:03-42:07

  Or even if He says no to something that looks like a great thing.

  42:08-42:10

  God knows what He's doing.

  42:11-42:14

  And there's a reason that He shuts some doors and He opens others.

  42:16-42:17

  what resulted here.

  42:19-42:29

  For Paul and Silas to separate from Barnabas and Mark and take this route, you realize they picked up Timothy in their first stop on this route.

  42:30-42:32

  That means they would have had Timothy for the whole rest of the trip.

  42:33-42:35

  That wouldn't have happened if he would have went the other way.

  42:37-42:41

  Also, we saw in this passage that Paul and Silas and Timothy picked up Luke.

  42:43-42:47

  If they weren't redirected, Maybe they wouldn't have run into Luke.

  42:49-42:50

  And we wouldn't have half of the New Testament.

  42:53-42:55

  They attempted to go after certain cities.

  42:57-43:01

  The Holy Spirit said no, and instead he gave them an entire continent.

  43:02-43:03

  Because now the gospel is going to Europe.

  43:05-43:07

  All good results.

  43:09-43:13

  All because there were some people that said, we're willing to let go of our rights.

  43:15-43:16

  We're free in Christ.

  43:17-43:18

  Our salvation's secure.

  43:18-43:22

  And yeah, sure, we'd be totally within our right to hold on to some things.

  43:24-43:36

  Timothy's like, "I'll give up my right "so not to be an offense." The missionaries collectively said, "Holy Spirit, here's our schedule book.

  43:37-43:37

  "Here's our day planner.

  43:40-43:44

  "You do with it what you want." The church, do you want God's Spirit leading you?

  43:47-43:49

  Do you want God's Spirit leading you?

  43:49-43:50

  Well, good news, He is.

  43:52-44:01

  The question you need to walk out of here with, you need to examine yourself, are you willing to give up some things in order to follow Him?

  44:03-44:03

  Let's pray.

  44:04-44:09

  Father in Heaven, I pray for a sensitivity to Your Holy Spirit.

  44:11-44:23

  So sometimes we think and act and behave like the Holy Spirit is just this character from the Bible when He is alive and active in us today.

  44:23-44:24

  And He's still leading us.

  44:24-44:26

  He's still opening and closing doors.

  44:28-44:32

  He's still doing the same kinds of things today that He's doing in these very pages that we're reading.

  44:35-44:39

  God help us in our day of technology when we have all these things that are supposed to make our life easier and quicker.

  44:41-44:42

  Somehow we're more committed.

  44:44-44:59

  We've obligated out every moment of every day to the point that we can't even afford flexibility to ask if the Spirit's leading us to something.

  44:59-45:04

  Father, I pray for you to enlighten us on these things.

  45:06-45:14

  I pray for us to take a hard look at ourselves, Father, and ask, am I following the guidance of the Holy Spirit?

  45:15-45:18

  Has that even been a question that I've been asking myself?

  45:20-45:36

  Because as Paul and Timothy and Luke and Silas and the rest of them found out, following your Spirit always yields infinitely greater results and just trying to figure out stuff on our own.

  45:38-45:39

  Give us discernment, Father.

  45:41-45:45

  We thank you, Father, that today can be a new day.

  45:45-45:48

  We can turn it around today.

  45:49-45:51

  We can start asking the right questions today.

  45:52-45:54

  We can seek your face today.

  45:57-45:59

  We can renew our commitment today.

  46:01-46:04

  Father, above all, help us to look at Jesus Christ.

  46:06-46:26

  It would be so tragic for somebody to walk out the doors here today and say, "I hear what he's saying, but I don't think giving up your rights is that big of a deal." When we look at Jesus Christ, we see that he gave up everything to become a human being so that we might be saved.

  46:29-46:31

  Help us to not hold on so tightly to some things.

  46:33-46:35

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 16:1-10

1. Why did Paul get Timothy circumcised after the church leaders just said that wasn't necessary for salvation (Acts 16:1, 11)? What does this say about us "laying down our rights" for the sake of the Gospel?
    

2. What "rights" do Christians sometimes hold on to - that should be let go of - for the sake of the Gospel? Be specific.
    

3. In what ways does the Holy Spirit guide someone? Again: Be specific. How can you tell the difference between the Spirit speaking and "that was just your imagination"?
    

4. Why would God say NO to something good, like doing mission work in a certain area (Acts 16:6-7)? What does this say about when God tells you NO about doing something, even something good?

Bonus Question: 5 - Explain grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30) and quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thes 5:19). What is the difference between the two?

Breakout Questions:

What is the Holy Spirit telling YOU to do, or to NOT do? Be specific. Pray for clarity in direction and faith to obey. 

Unstoppable Despite Conflict.

Review:

5 Reality Checks about Christians and Conflice:

1. Conflicts happen among God's People.



2. Conflicts are not always as Simple as "he's Right, and he;s Wrong.



3. Conflicts come when my Strengths become my Weaknesses.



4. Conflicts can be Used by God.



Rom 8:28 | Rom 12:18



5. It’s never over: Pray for Reconciliation.



Col 4:10 - Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him)...

2 Tim 4:11 - Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:12

  When I was a kid, I was over at a friend's house playing soccer, and while we were playing, this friend's mother was keeping score.

  00:12-00:13

  We were all sitting outside, right?

  00:13-00:17

  And she's sitting on the deck, and they had like carrots and dip and munchies and stuff.

  00:18-00:23

  She took a carrot and dipped it in like the ranch dip and was keeping score on the window.

  00:25-00:33

  And at the time, I commented, "My mother would never do that." Now, here's how I heard that in my mind.

  00:34-00:35

  "Wow, that's really cool.

  00:36-00:41

  My mom wouldn't do something like that." But here's how this lady heard it.

  00:42-00:54

  "My mother would never do something like that." And this woman was really angry with me for years over that comment.

  00:57-01:04

  And this friend of mine said, "Why don't you like Jeff?" And it came back to the carrot and the dip comment.

  01:04-01:06

  My mother would never do that.

  01:06-01:10

  And this friend had said, "That's not what he meant by that.

  01:10-01:11

  "Is that what you were, that's why you were mad at him?

  01:12-01:20

  "That is not what he meant by that at all." And it was explained, and this lady was like, "Oh, okay," and like totally let it go.

  01:20-01:25

  And that worked out really well for me because this lady eventually became my mother-in-law.

  01:27-01:31

  And the friend is now my wife, obviously, Erin.

  01:34-01:40

  You laugh because it didn't happen to you.

  01:43-01:59

  But the truth is, if every one of us stood up here and told a story about some conflict that happened in your lives, probably the rest of us might think, "That's silly." But when it's you in the middle of the conflict, it's not silly, is it?

  02:00-02:01

  It's painful.

  02:03-02:07

  And we're going to look at a passage in Acts 15.

  02:08-02:11

  We are committed at Harvest Bible Chapel to expository preaching.

  02:12-02:15

  We go through the Bible verse by verse.

  02:15-02:19

  And sometimes, that's easier than others.

  02:19-02:23

  I rather would have skipped this passage to be honest with you, because this is a hard one.

  02:25-02:39

  The title of the message as we're studying this year, "The Unstoppable Church," the title of the message is "Unstoppable Despite Conflict." Just as a quick review, we went through Acts 13-14.

  02:40-02:42

  You remember the story in Acts 13-14.

  02:43-02:46

  Paul and Barnabas and Mark It's a mission trip.

  02:47-02:52

  And they get back just in time for an attack on the church.

  02:54-03:00

  We saw in Acts 15, there were people claiming that you had to obey the Old Testament law in order to be saved.

  03:02-03:12

  And they said, "We've got to take this up with the big dogs." They went down to Jerusalem and had what we call the Jerusalem Council, where the verdict was, salvation is by grace through faith.

  03:13-03:17

  And they said, "Jews, don't trouble the Gentiles with legalism.

  03:18-03:25

  Don't come along and enforce these rules." But then they said, "Gentiles, don't trouble the Jews with your freedom.

  03:25-03:28

  You come from a history of idolatry.

  03:29-03:39

  You've got to let some of that go because some of those things can be offensive to Jews." And it was for the sake of unity that these things were said.

  03:41-03:47

  Despite the obstacles, The gospel hasn't lost any steam because the church is unstoppable.

  03:47-03:56

  And you would think that after coming from the Jerusalem Council, and we've reached this point of agreement, you would think at this point it's going to be smooth sailing.

  03:57-03:59

  Everybody's going to get along fabulously.

  04:01-04:03

  And unfortunately, that's not the case.

  04:03-04:04

  Look at verse 36 with me.

  04:06-04:10

  It says, "And after some days..." How many days? Well, the Bible doesn't really say.

  04:11-04:27

  After some days, Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaim the Word of the Lord and see how they are." They're talking about that trip that we studied in Acts 13-14.

  04:27-04:37

  They said, "Let's go back there and let's check on the people that we evangelized." And what a wild trip that was.

  04:38-04:40

  We'll talk about that more in a few moments here.

  04:41-04:42

  Verse 37.

  04:45-04:51

  "Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark." Okay, you remember him?

  04:51-04:53

  We saw him in Acts 13.

  04:53-04:56

  He went with them on the first trip, partially.

  04:56-05:00

  And in fact, Mark was Barnabas' cousin.

  05:02-05:09

  And the Greek verb where it says here that Barnabas wanted to take with them, The Greek verb tense indicates that this was persistent.

  05:10-05:14

  Like Barnabas was constantly, "Hey, let's take Mark.

  05:14-05:15

  You know my cousin? Let's take Mark.

  05:15-05:25

  Come on, let's take Mark with us." But if you remember the story in Acts 13, you can kind of guess what's coming next.

  05:26-05:38

  Verse 38 says, "But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, had not gone with them to do the work.

  05:41-05:42

  This is in Acts 13.

  05:43-05:43

  Remember?

  05:44-05:55

  They're on this mission trip, and they get to this place called Perga which was in Pamphylia, and the Bible says that Mark left them to return to Jerusalem.

  05:55-05:58

  And that's significant because they launched from Antioch.

  05:58-06:02

  They took Mark with them from Jerusalem to Antioch first of all, and then they left from Antioch.

  06:03-06:06

  Mark didn't just go back to temporary home.

  06:06-06:08

  Mark went back to home-home.

  06:09-06:13

  In essence, Mark went back to Mom on this trip.

  06:13-06:16

  So Barnabas is like, "Hey, mission trip. Good idea.

  06:16-06:20

  You know what? Let's get Mark and we'll go on this mission trip." And Paul's like, "Um, no.

  06:21-06:26

  That's not going to happen." Why did Mark ditch them?

  06:28-06:29

  Well, if God wanted us to know, He would have told us.

  06:30-06:31

  We don't know the reason.

  06:33-06:35

  and there's different scholars have different ideas.

  06:36-06:38

  Was it he didn't want the Gentiles to come to Christ?

  06:38-06:40

  I don't really see that as a reason.

  06:40-06:47

  Some people think, well, it was a dangerous journey from where they would have launched out of Perga and Pamphylia.

  06:48-06:49

  So maybe he was afraid.

  06:49-06:49

  We don't know.

  06:51-06:54

  But here's something we do know that's gonna be very clear in this passage.

  06:54-06:58

  We do know that the reason that Mark left them wasn't an emergency.

  06:59-07:00

  We do know that for sure.

  07:00-07:01

  We'll see that here in the text.

  07:02-07:03

  But it wasn't like Mark got deathly ill.

  07:04-07:05

  Like, we've got to get this guy to a hospital.

  07:05-07:09

  It's not like Mark got word that somebody back home died.

  07:09-07:11

  Like, "Hey Mark, your brother just died.

  07:11-07:14

  I need you to get home." It wasn't anything like that.

  07:14-07:18

  Otherwise, Paul totally would have given him an excuse there, right?

  07:18-07:19

  Don't you think?

  07:19-07:26

  Paul would have been like, "Yeah, absolutely, your trip got cut short due to an emergency." But you see, it's very clear in the text.

  07:26-07:27

  Look at it again.

  07:30-07:37

  "The work was one who," verse 38, "who had withdrawn from them." Literally, that stood aloof.

  07:38-07:40

  He just detached himself.

  07:40-07:47

  Again, in case you missed it, the end of verse 38, "had not gone with them to the work." He just refused to go.

  07:49-07:59

  Verse 39 says, "And there arose a sharp disagreement that they separated from each other.

  08:01-08:02

  Sharp disagreement.

  08:02-08:03

  This is strong.

  08:03-08:07

  This wasn't, "Eh, you want to take Mark and I really don't want to take Mark.

  08:07-08:12

  We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this matter, Barnabas." It wasn't that at all.

  08:12-08:14

  It was a sharp disagreement.

  08:15-08:16

  Barnabas is like, "Come on, man!

  08:16-08:20

  We've got to take Mark!" And Paul's like, "We are not taking Mark!

  08:21-08:22

  Come on, man. Let's take Mark.

  08:22-08:37

  We are not taking him." Mark 13, verse 39, "Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus." That's heading southwest.

  08:37-08:40

  That's actually the same route as the first trip.

  08:41-08:43

  You can see that in Acts 13, verse 4.

  08:43-08:58

  So Paul's like, "He's not going." And Barnabas says, "He is going, and I'm taking him with me." He just takes Mark and they go on the same route that Paul and Barnabas went previous.

  09:00-09:07

  Verse 40 says, "But Paul chose Silas." Who was Silas? He was a leader in the Jerusalem church.

  09:07-09:09

  He was a prophet. He was a Jew. He was a Roman citizen.

  09:10-09:15

  He came to Antioch with the Jerusalem Council letter we see in Acts 15.22.

  09:15-09:22

  But Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

  09:23-09:29

  And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

  09:31-09:34

  Okay, so Barnabas and Mark went southwest.

  09:36-09:40

  Syria and Cilicia meant that Paul and Silas would have gone northwest.

  09:41-09:42

  And they parted ways.

  09:44-09:51

  This is, sadly, this is the last mention of Barnabas in the book of Acts.

  09:52-09:56

  And it was a beautiful partnership that did not end peacefully.

  09:57-10:02

  Apparently, Barnabas never teamed with Paul again.

  10:05-10:14

  You're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, that wasn't a feel-good story so soon after Thanksgiving." The point is, these people dealt with abandonment.

  10:15-10:16

  They dealt with conflict.

  10:17-10:21

  These people, in God's Word that we read, they dealt with rifts in friendships.

  10:24-10:24

  Just like us.

  10:27-10:32

  Like I said, I would have been glad to skip this passage because this is sort of a bummer compared to the other things we've studied in Acts, right?

  10:33-10:40

  Like the Holy Spirit coming, and people being healed, and people getting saved by the thousands.

  10:41-10:44

  And then we get to this passage.

  10:47-10:54

  But, this has so much practical wisdom to teach us about conflict in the church.

  10:55-10:57

  I want you to jot these things down on your outline.

  10:57-11:03

  Five reality checks about Christians and conflict.

  11:04-11:08

  Number one, conflicts happen among God's people.

  11:10-11:11

  Okay, conflicts happen among God's people.

  11:13-11:22

  Well, I'm going to go to the church and everybody there is going to be a Christian and everybody there gets along and everybody is going to love me and I'm going to love everybody and we're never going to have any problems.

  11:22-11:23

  Anybody have that experience?

  11:25-11:30

  You see, even when we agree on theology, do you think Paul and Barnabas agreed on theology?

  11:31-11:34

  How many people think Paul and Barnabas the same doctrinal statement.

  11:35-11:35

  Okay, I do.

  11:37-11:46

  Even when we are committed to evangelism and discipleship, how many people would say that Paul and Barnabas were probably equally committed to the Great Commission?

  11:47-11:48

  I think so.

  11:49-11:58

  Even when we are passionate about Jesus and His church, how many people would say I think Paul and Barnabas both were passionate about Jesus and His church?

  11:58-11:59

  I think that they were.

  12:00-12:02

  These guys were so tight.

  12:03-12:12

  And when you think about it, Barnabas would have had such a special friendship with Paul, because do you remember, Paul was out like, "Oh, you want to kill Christians?

  12:12-12:14

  Let me hold your coat." Do you remember that?

  12:14-12:18

  And then he came to Christ, but the church was scared to death of him.

  12:18-12:30

  So Paul's like trying to get in the church, and the church was like, "Not welcome." And Paul's trying to get in the church, and the church is like, "Don't let him in." Do you remember who came along and stuck up for Paul when nobody else would?

  12:30-12:31

  Do you remember who that was?

  12:32-13:04

  Barnabas right so you know that these guys would have had a really tight friendship Paul would have always had done it down on his mind like Nobody else trusted me Barnabas, but you stuck up for me. You gave me a chance when nobody else would and Then the mission trip do you remember the mission trip? We've referenced it a couple times Acts 13 and 14 could you imagine the stories they told like yeah the first place we went there was the crazy magician guy You know bar Jesus and then like like Paul do you remember that you're like by the power of the Holy Spirit like struck the guy Do you remember how crazy that was?

  13:04-13:08

  And do you remember, we went to the next town and everybody started worshiping us.

  13:08-13:10

  They were like, "Hey, you're Zeus and you're Hermes." Do you remember that?

  13:11-13:11

  Like crazy.

  13:13-13:19

  Oh, and then we went to like the next place and Paul got stoned and we all were standing around thinking he was dead.

  13:19-13:20

  Fun times, right?

  13:22-13:23

  And here's the point.

  13:23-13:25

  These weren't two like acquaintances.

  13:27-13:29

  These weren't two people that bumped into each other in the church lobby.

  13:30-13:34

  These were two of the tightest friends that you could find.

  13:36-13:39

  The Bible never hides these types of things.

  13:40-13:47

  The Bible tells us of these people - their weaknesses and their failures - people who we would otherwise idealize.

  13:48-13:54

  When the truth is, there's only one person you read about in the Bible who you really can't idealize, and that's Jesus Christ Himself.

  13:55-14:07

  But for the rest of the people in the Bible, If we had problems just like us, the point here is if it can happen to these guys, it can happen to us, right?

  14:08-14:21

  If a conflict can come between people like Paul and Barnabas, we are not immune to having conflict coming in the tight relationships that exist and are forming in this room.

  14:22-14:23

  Conflicts happen among God's people.

  14:24-14:26

  Second reality check.

  14:28-14:33

  The conflicts are not always as simple as he's right and he's wrong.

  14:36-14:36

  Okay?

  14:37-14:42

  So, we're going to give you both sides of the argument, and then you're going to pick a side and you have to vote.

  14:44-14:45

  You have to vote.

  14:45-14:46

  Let's hear both sides.

  14:47-14:49

  The conversation would have gone something like this.

  14:51-14:52

  Barnabas comes along.

  14:53-14:59

  Barnabas goes, "Hey, let's take Mark with us." Paul's like, what did he say?

  15:00-15:04

  "No way, Jose." Your Bible does not use those exact words, but that's the essence of what he said.

  15:05-15:10

  "No way. We are not taking Mark with us." And Barnabas - look, man.

  15:11-15:12

  He failed one time.

  15:14-15:17

  Are we going to condemn him for the rest of his life because he failed one time? Really?

  15:18-15:20

  Are those the kind of people we are, Paul?

  15:20-15:23

  We're going to condemn him because he failed one time?

  15:23-15:25

  I think we should give him another chance.

  15:27-15:35

  Paul says, "Mark deserted us "on the last trip that we went on, okay?

  15:36-15:39

  "It wasn't like this was something that happened "when he was a kid.

  15:39-15:42

  "This is something that just happened, all right?

  15:42-15:48

  "And I'm not gonna go on this mission trip "and pack his bags and have him run home to mama again.

  15:49-15:59

  "Not gonna happen." So Barnabas would have been like, "Look, I'm related to him.

  16:01-16:06

  I know him better than you and I can really see how he's growing.

  16:08-16:15

  He should get another chance." And Paul's saying, "Look, this is mission work, man. This is important.

  16:16-16:30

  Okay? And it's not for everybody. It's not for people that get halfway down the road and decide, "I don't really know if I'm really that committed to the mission." Like, look, man, this is serious business, Barnabas.

  16:30-16:35

  We're not putting caps on tubes of toothpaste here.

  16:35-16:37

  We're making disciples for Jesus Christ.

  16:37-16:41

  So we can't do this, man.

  16:44-16:57

  Then I see Barnabas saying, "Well, you know, Paul, Proverbs 24, 16 says, "For the righteous falls seven times and rises again." Then I see Paul saying, "Oh, you want to quit Proverbs?

  16:58-16:59

  How about Proverbs 25.19?

  17:00-17:14

  It says, "Trusting in a treacherous man in times of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips." If we want to quit Proverbs, it warns us about people like Mark.

  17:17-17:18

  Here's the question, who was right?

  17:21-17:30

  How many people would say, "In this argument, I think that Paul was right." How many people, there's no right or wrong answer here, okay?

  17:31-17:33

  Don't be shy. How many people are like, "I'm with Paul.

  17:34-17:35

  I think Paul was right.

  17:35-17:46

  Can't go on a mission trip with somebody that's not ready." All right, now how many people say, "I think Barnabas was right." You've got to give people another chance.

  17:46-17:50

  One screw-up doesn't mean you're disqualified for the rest of everything for eternity.

  17:51-17:53

  All right, Barnabas people? All right.

  17:56-18:12

  I've done some reading this week. Some people are like, "Well, Paul was the apostle, so Barnabas should have yielded to his authority." And verse 40, you notice in verse 40, it says that Paul and Silas were commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

  18:13-18:16

  It's a phrase that is not used about Barnabas and Mark.

  18:16-18:26

  So some people say, "It seems that the church sort of put a stamp of approval on Paul and Silas that they did not give Barnabas and Mark." I don't know.

  18:28-18:29

  Here's what I do know.

  18:30-18:32

  The Bible doesn't really say who was right and who was wrong.

  18:33-18:34

  And I think that's the point.

  18:35-18:36

  I think that's the point.

  18:37-18:42

  I think in this argument, both people were right about some things.

  18:43-18:45

  I think both people were right about some things.

  18:47-18:50

  And I think both people were wrong about some things. You see that?

  18:51-19:28

  Do you see how both people are like, "You know what, maybe you're not thinking about this in the right way." This is a truth that you need to tuck away in the future, because when you hear of two people in the church having a conflict, maybe it's not as simple as, "This guy's obviously right, and this guy's obviously wrong." it's not that simple today. And to really land the conviction plane home, when you're in an argument with somebody, when you're having conflict with somebody in the church, maybe you're not entirely right.

  19:30-19:32

  And maybe the other person isn't entirely wrong.

  19:34-19:44

  Because I think we can agree that that's the situation we have with Paul and Barnabas. Conflicts are not always as simple as He's right and he's wrong.

  19:46-19:48

  Five reality checks about Christians and conflict.

  19:48-19:53

  Number three, conflicts come when my strengths become my weaknesses.

  19:57-19:59

  Conflicts come when my strengths become my weaknesses.

  19:59-20:00

  Here's what I mean, church.

  20:00-20:01

  We all have strengths.

  20:02-20:02

  We all have strengths.

  20:02-20:05

  Every single one of us have strengths in different areas.

  20:05-20:07

  But here's the thing about strengths.

  20:07-20:09

  Every strength has an inherent weakness.

  20:12-20:17

  And when my strength's weakness becomes my focus, conflict is coming.

  20:18-20:19

  Like, what do you mean by that?

  20:21-20:23

  Well, here's what I mean, just to illustrate.

  20:23-20:25

  Here's conflicts that happen in the church.

  20:26-20:32

  Mr. Err-towards-truth versus Mr. Err-towards-grace.

  20:35-20:38

  You know, we voted just a couple of minutes ago on who you thought was right.

  20:39-20:41

  There's no right answer.

  20:43-20:45

  But who you think is right in that argument says a lot about you.

  20:47-20:54

  The Bible says that Jesus was full, is full, of grace and truth in John 1.

  20:55-20:58

  Jesus wasn't like on one side of that spectrum or the other.

  20:58-21:05

  He was 100% both, but the truth is even as God's people filled with the Holy Spirit, don't we have a tendency to sort of fall on one side or the other?

  21:05-21:07

  Don't we? Some people are more truth people.

  21:07-21:10

  The Bible says, the Bible says, the Bible says.

  21:11-21:11

  All in favor of the Bible?

  21:12-21:13

  Yeah, Harvest Bible Chapel's our middle name.

  21:13-21:14

  Yeah, I'm in favor of the Bible.

  21:16-21:26

  But then there's other people that are like, "Grace, man. Truth, yes, but grace." Because not everything is black and white.

  21:26-21:29

  Not everything is as cut and dry as you want to make it.

  21:30-21:31

  Grace and truth.

  21:33-21:40

  I was talking about this passage with Aaron this week, And I'm like, I think I'm on Paul's side here.

  21:41-21:42

  I'm on Paul's side.

  21:42-21:45

  You can't go on a mission trip after somebody bails on you.

  21:45-21:46

  You can't do that, man.

  21:46-21:47

  This is important.

  21:47-21:49

  And I'm on Paul's side.

  21:49-21:56

  Aaron said, you think you're on Paul's side, but you're not.

  21:57-21:58

  I'm like, what are you talking about?

  21:58-21:59

  Of course.

  21:59-21:59

  He goes, no.

  22:00-22:04

  She goes, you think you're a Paul, but you're a Barnabas, 100%.

  22:06-22:09

  And I got thinking about that, we talked about it some more, and you know she's right.

  22:10-22:12

  I want to think that I'm Paul, but I don't act that way.

  22:14-22:17

  I'm more of a Barnabas in that way.

  22:19-22:26

  Mr. - here's another clash - Mr. Gift of Go With the Flow versus Mr. Gift of Administration.

  22:28-22:30

  As you can guess, I've had some of these conflicts.

  22:32-22:35

  My old church, wonderful, wonderful guy, elder in the church.

  22:35-22:37

  He had the gift of administration.

  22:37-22:42

  Wonderful guy, and it's a gift that I envy because I have like none of it.

  22:43-22:48

  I'm Mr. Go with the flow, so I sometimes butt heads with organized people.

  22:50-22:51

  We got into this thing.

  22:51-23:08

  It wasn't like this like knock down, drag out thing, but we got into this little like about our church's preschool, how to get the money from the tuition lockbox in the preschool over to the church office where it would be locked in a safe there after it was counted.

  23:09-23:30

  So he's like, "Alright, what process should we take here?" And he goes, "Here's my proposal." He had like this three-page, 14-point step-by-step on here's the people and the personnel, and the code keys turned at the same time, the secret password and all this stuff.

  23:30-23:32

  And I'm looking at this.

  23:32-23:33

  He goes, what do you think we should do?

  23:34-23:38

  I said, I think we should give the preschool teacher a key and have her carry it over.

  23:39-23:41

  Oh, you can't just do that.

  23:41-23:45

  And I'm like, we're trusting her with our children, but we're not going to trust her with a couple hundred dollars in cash?

  23:47-23:50

  Like, I'm not bashing the guy.

  23:50-23:53

  I'm saying he needs to pull me in the direction that I need pulled.

  23:54-23:56

  But you can see where conflicts can come.

  23:57-24:05

  That wasn't really a right or wrong thing, but it was a "let's get super organized" and I'm like why are we wasting our time making red tape?

  24:06-24:07

  It happens.

  24:10-24:22

  Really, the issue in this passage that we're looking at - the conflict where strengths become weakness - Paul v. Barnabas here - Mr. All About the Mission versus Mr. All About the People.

  24:24-24:25

  You see that, don't you?

  24:26-24:29

  This point in Paul's ministry, he was like, the mission, the mission, the mission, the mission, the mission, the mission.

  24:29-24:30

  Jesus gave us a mission.

  24:31-24:32

  Jesus gave us a mission.

  24:32-25:04

  Jesus said, "Go make disciples." Jesus said, "You And Paul's like, "We've got to stay on the mission, man!" You can see Paul in this passage quoting Jesus.

  25:05-25:06

  What did Jesus say?

  25:06-25:11

  No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

  25:11-25:12

  Jesus said that.

  25:13-25:15

  And Barnabas is like, "You know what else Jesus said?

  25:15-25:28

  'But he who is without sin cast the first stone.'" So you can see how two people with such deep and different passions are eventually going to butt heads because strengths can become weaknesses.

  25:30-25:36

  The hard-on-the-truth person can be very black and white about everything.

  25:38-25:49

  But the all-about people - this is where I fall - are willing to compromise some things on the mission because of relationships.

  25:52-25:56

  "Conflicts come when my strengths become my weaknesses." Okay.

  25:57-25:59

  Who's ready for some good news?

  26:00-26:03

  Number four, conflicts can be used by God.

  26:04-26:05

  Conflicts can be used by God.

  26:06-26:08

  And this is really the big takeaway from the passage.

  26:08-26:11

  If you're like, why did Luke include this passage?

  26:12-26:14

  Why did he make sure that we knew about this?

  26:14-26:17

  The big takeaway from the passage is just simply this.

  26:17-26:18

  God can use conflict.

  26:20-26:26

  You can imagine Satan once again, he saw this fight, you can imagine Satan like, "Oh, this is great.

  26:27-26:28

  This is great.

  26:29-26:31

  The missionaries are splitting up.

  26:31-26:40

  This is awesome." You can imagine Satan like, "This is perfect." Then like five minutes later, Satan's like, "Oh, they've doubled.

  26:42-26:46

  It went from two people going one place, now there's four people going two places.

  26:47-26:47

  (grunts)

  26:49-26:59

  Backfire, right?" Romans 8.28 We know that God works all things for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

  27:00-27:01

  Now listen, church.

  27:02-27:05

  Don't make the wrong application point here, okay?

  27:06-27:08

  "Oh, I know where you're going with this, Pastor Jeff.

  27:08-27:19

  So you're saying if I want the ministry to double, if I want Harvest Bible Chapel's ministry and impact to grow, I'm just going to have to start fights because that's how God works, right?" No.

  27:20-27:34

  That would be like saying, "Do you believe that God can use you even if you're sick?" You're like, "Yeah, I think God can use me even if I'm sick." Well, when we're going up to the hospital and we're licking the floors, you are.

  27:38-27:38

  That's presumption.

  27:40-27:41

  God can use these things.

  27:41-27:42

  God can use conflict.

  27:43-27:45

  That doesn't mean we go looking for it.

  27:48-27:57

  Romans 12:18 says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." That's the goal.

  27:58-28:02

  But even in that passage, notice sometimes it isn't always possible.

  28:02-28:15

  The Bible doesn't say, "You must at all times live peaceably with all." It says, "If possible." That's why at the training center out at the Harvest Bible Chapel, Aaron and I were the odd ducks there.

  28:16-28:21

  because Aaron went to lunch with some of the wives of some of the staff and pastors there.

  28:22-28:28

  And you remember this, they said, "Tell us about your previous church." And Aaron said, "Oh, Jeff and I love our previous church.

  28:28-28:36

  "We have so many great friendships "and we had such a great time serving there." And the lady was like, "Really?" Aaron's like, "Oh yeah, we love them.

  28:36-28:37

  "We still have a great relationship.

  28:38-28:48

  "And they sent us a bunch of money "so we can come out here and train." And, "Really?" Aaron's like, "Yeah, they're great." And they said, "We never hear that story.

  28:49-28:57

  Every story we hear is, 'I'm in the training center because I was with such and such ministry, and we had this huge falling out.'" And I heard those stories.

  28:57-28:58

  I was talking to people.

  28:59-29:08

  "What ministry do you come from?" "I was with this ministry with this big falling out." "I was at this church where we had this big blow-up." So we were sort of the odd ducks.

  29:08-29:13

  A lot of the people that we knew were there because of a fallout from a previous ministry.

  29:14-29:19

  So while fallout is never pleasant, what was the end result?

  29:21-29:23

  More churches were planted, right?

  29:23-29:24

  More ministry.

  29:25-29:27

  That's really the testimony throughout church history.

  29:27-29:29

  Do you know how many denominations there are?

  29:29-29:30

  Take a guess. How many denominations?

  29:33-29:34

  Hard to pin down a number.

  29:35-29:37

  Some people say there's about 20,000.

  29:37-29:41

  I've seen the number as high as 41,000 different denominations.

  29:43-30:10

  how denominations start, right? You just get a group of Christians that are together and they don't see eye to eye on a particular thing, whether it's baptism or Lord's Supper or whatever, ritual, whatever, and well fine, well, those of us that believe this are going over here, and those of us that believe this are going over here, and look, I don't love church splits.

  30:12-30:16

  But if you look back at church history, look at how the gospel has spread as a result of that.

  30:19-30:22

  I'm not saying that we should look for conflict or that God causes conflict.

  30:24-30:34

  Just simply saying according to this passage and according to church history, according to the people that I know, conflicts can be used by God.

  30:36-30:37

  Here's the best news, number five.

  30:39-30:40

  It's never over.

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  Pray for reconciliation.

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  Pray for reconciliation.

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  It's never over. What is never over?

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  The relationship is never over.

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  It's never beyond healing.

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  I want to encourage you to never throw in the towel.

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  Never write someone off.

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  Maybe not now.

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  Maybe not next week.

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  Maybe it will be years down the road.

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  Reconciliation among God's people isn't just possible, it's probable.

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  All things are possible for Christ. Amen?

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  I could give you so many reasons that you should want to reconcile with people.

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  Like, you know, good for the sake of the friendship, And it's a great testimony for the world.

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  There's really biblically only one real motivator to reconcile.

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  It's forgive someone.

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  It's because in Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven.

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  That's the motivation.

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  The Bible says we should be tenderhearted and kind towards one another.

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  Forgiving each other - if anyone has any offense, because Christ has forgiven us.

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  That's the motivation.

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  I want to forgive because I'm a person that's been forgiven.

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  The good news, we know, even though we don't see Him in Acts, we know that Barnabas was eventually reconciled with Paul.

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  In 1 Corinthians 9:6, but also Paul speaks of him positively.

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  1 Corinthians 9.6 says, "For is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?" So Paul was speaking favorably of Barnabas.

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  This is great news too.

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  The Bible says that Paul and Mark were eventually reconciled.

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  Colossians 4.10, "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, "I wonder what those were.

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  Like, what were the instructions?

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  I don't know.

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  And I wonder.

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  Like, if Mark comes, he only likes green M&Ms, or he's allergic to parakeets.

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  I don't know what that was.

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  But it says, look at this.

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  If he comes to you, welcome him.

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  Not, if he comes to you, don't let him in.

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  He's a loser.

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  He'll probably leave at the first sign of trouble.

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  No, no, no.

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  Welcome.

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  Welcome.

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  Also, even better for any of you who 2 Timothy 4.11, Paul says to Timothy, and this is Paul at the end of his life, he says, "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in ministry." Does that sound like the guy from Acts 13?

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  Paul now says, "He's useful." How did they reconcile?

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  I don't know.

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  I just know biblically that obviously they did, because Paul mentions them.

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  Something else I know is I'm not the same pastor that I was 20 years ago.

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  I started doing ministry in 1996 through mission trips and camps, and eventually went to Bible college and pastoring a church through there, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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  But one thing that I know for sure is I'm not the same person that I was 20 years ago.

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  walking with Jesus Christ for any length of time at all, you should see that in your own life. Like, look, I'm not who I want to be yet, but I'm not the person that I was. And something that I've seen in my own life that I've seen in a lot of Christians lives, and I believe a hundred percent was true for Paul, age sort of makes you grab on to grace a little tighter, doesn't it?

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  What I mean is when you're a young pastor, you're full of you-know-what and vinegar, right?

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  And I think Paul had a lot of that.

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  And down the road when he's writing 2 Timothy, he's not this young spitfire.

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  He's this father in the faith.

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  He's this grandfather in the faith.

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  He says, "You know, I haven't let go of truth, but I've learned to embrace grace even more in my old age." However it happened, it happened.

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  Mark - we know that he became close to Peter.

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  Peter mentions him in 1 Peter 5:13.

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  And Mark even wrote a Gospel, which I would like to suggest to you is the mother of all comebacks.

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  Mark went from missionary deserter to wrote one of the Gospels.

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  Isn't that a great story?

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  Isn't that a great story of grace and reconciliation and restoration?

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  Deserter to Gospel writer.

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  I love that.

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  It was a thanks to God using Barnabas that Mark's story turned around.

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  I have to think so.

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  And Mark went back to Jerusalem feeling like a loser.

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  Like, yeah, I thought I was going to be a missionary, but I don't have it.

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  I fail.

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  Barnabas comes along like, hey, you get back on the bike when you fall off, pal.

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  Let's do this.

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  And I think it was Barnabas believing in Mark.

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  That's what God used to restore him.

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  Even an epic fail like Mark's doesn't have to be the end of a ministry.

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  And even a fallout like Paul and Barnabas doesn't have to be the end of a relationship.

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  I just want to ask you, as we reflect on this text, is there someone with whom you've had a fallout?

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  Someone with whom you need to reconcile?

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  I want you to take a couple moments, and here's what I want you to do.

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  But I want you to pray for two things.

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  Just two things, okay?

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  The first is this, I want you to pray for that person.

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  I want you to pray for their personal walk with the Lord.

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  I want you to pray for their family, their ministry, their work.

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  I want you to pray for the person.

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  Even if you don't feel like it.

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  Even if you had this nasty falling out and you're still angry, I want you to set the emotions aside, and I want you to make a choice.

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  You're going to pray for that person no matter how you feel about them.

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  Maybe there's anger, maybe there's hurt, maybe there's disappointment - whatever.

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  I want you to pray for that person.

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  Pray for that person.

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  Now, I want you to pray.

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  I want you to pray for reconciliation.

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  Maybe you've tried.

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  Maybe you've tried to the point that it's borderline harassment.

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  Maybe you've tried to the point that you're not sure how else to try.

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  With God, all things are possible.

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  Pray for reconciliation.

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  That your heart is ready.

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  That their heart is ready.

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  that God would open that door.

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  Will you pray that now, please?

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  Father in Heaven, we know that forgiveness and reconciliation, those are on your list of favorite things.

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  We know this because of the lengths in which you went to make that possible for us with you.

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  We were lost. We were dead.

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  You were enemies.

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  Your Word tells us that you sent your only begotten Son to die in our place and to raise from the dead so that we might have eternal life.

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  You spared no expense at forgiving us fully and restoring us thoroughly.

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  And Your Word makes it so clear that forgiven people forgive.

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  When we've experienced Your forgiveness in Christ, our natural inclination should be to forgive others.

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  And I pray for that today, Father.

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  For every heart in this room that we would let go of any hurts, any resentment, any anger, that our hearts would be open for reconciliation and that You would make it happen.

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  God, I don't know how You made it all happen and Barnabas and Mark and that whole thing, and I don't need to know how, I just know that you did.

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  And I pray in this room, that you would make it happen, whether it's through a running into the person at Target, or maybe you impress upon us to send an email to say, "Hey, I prayed for you today." Or maybe that person calls us even before we take that step.

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  Whatever, God, You are sovereign and You are all-powerful.

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  That is why we cry out to You.

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  For Your glory and honor.

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  Bring reconciliation.

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  Help us, Father, to deal with conflict when it comes.

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  Help us to deal with conflict in a way that glorifies Your name.

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  in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 15:36-41

1. Explain what caused the argument between Paul and Barnabas (see Acts 13:13). Who do you naturally side with? Why?

2. Why doesn't the Bible explicitly say who was in the right? What does this say about some conflicts we go through today?

3. Why do you think God used both "teams", despite the fact that the reason they separated wasn't exactly noble?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for anyone YOU are having / have had conflict with in the past. Pray for God to open an obvious door for reconciliation!