Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24472 - God Is Going to Use That Closed Door - Acts 16:8-40

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#24472 - God Is Going to Use That Closed Door - Acts 16:8-40 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
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more about the many resources available through Abounding
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Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
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into our study. Amen.
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Would you open your Bibles to Acts Chapter 16?
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Acts Chapter 16. We're going to pick up where we
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left off last time, and I've entitled our Bible study.
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God is going to use that closed door.
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And I mean, if we had long titles, I could even put it this
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way. God is going to use that closed
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door in your life in more ways than you can anticipate.
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This whole chapter is about dealing with disappointment.
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Chapter 16 We've studied some of it so far and we've learned that
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God is going to say no. Sometimes.
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It's not always going to be a yes what we are praying and
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asking and seeking and knocking as Jesus teaches us in Matthew
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Chapter 7 and many times our will, it lines up with God's
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will and the answer is yes. But even many more times, our
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will is not lining up with God's will, and his answer is no.
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Or wait. And on occasion, it's a hard no,
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a real strong no, as Paul experiences here in the
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beginning of chapter 16. I mean, he is seeking to obey
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God. He's wanting to do what he was
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called to do. He's wanting to do it the way he
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was called and where he wants to go.
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He's already been used to strengthen the churches.
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He's already been on a missionary journey.
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Lives have been changed. Now he wants to head into this
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area known as Asia in the 1st century.
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It says in verse six it says when they had gone through
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Phrygia and the region of Galatia they were forbidden by
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the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia or this Roman Roman
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province of Asia. Forbidden is a strong word.
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He wanted to do something great and grand for God, preach the
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gospel, live a missionary life. And the answer from God was no,
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not there, no, not there. Paul's response in verse 7 when
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they had come to miss ya. So now he's trying.
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If you pick take out a map, you'll see he's trying to go a
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different way but still heading to Asia.
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They tried to go into the area of bethenia but the Spirit did
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not ferment them a second hard. No.
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I mean, this is startling because closed doors can be very
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painful, disorienting, discouraging, especially when
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you're wanting to do something great and grand for God.
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I mean, the question for us today is, what do you do when
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you're met with a hard no from the Lord?
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And sometimes the hard knows from God?
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They come in prayer, sometimes they come through circumstances,
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sometimes they come through your boss's voice, sometimes they
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come through a pastor's voice or a spiritual leader's voice.
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But hard knows from God come to us nonetheless.
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How do you respond to them? How?
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How do you deal with them? Let me give you a couple of
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things to consider. Perhaps you've handled them
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improperly before or you're looking forward.
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If you haven't experienced a hard no from God yet, you will.
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And let me give you a couple big picture things to consider as we
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see this in Paul's life. Number one, continue to move.
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If you experience a no from God, don't quit, don't quit, don't
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throw in the towel. Don't sit around, be upset with
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God, Mad with God. Because I I dare say that there
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are some among us that are mad at God right now because of the
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circumstances of life. But it's not God.
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God is actually going to use these difficult circumstances in
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your life. He he's going to like like when
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when when God says I don't want you there.
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There's a reason. You have to understand when God
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says I don't want you doing that, there's a reason.
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When God says I don't want you in that relationship, there's a
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reason. When God says I don't want you
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at that job, there's a reason. And although we don't know the
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reason today, like what you walked into the room with right
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now, you don't quite know what is going on, why it's going on,
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what God is doing. I know there are things in your
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past that when you look back on you go, oh, now I see.
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Now I see. So looking backwards is way
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easier than looking forward, isn't it?
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Backward we can see things unfold and things revealed to
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us. But how do we look forward?
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We continue forward by faith. Faith is how we move forward.
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So continue to move forward. God, through this closed door,
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is showing you his will for your life.
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Isn't that what you prayed for? That's what I pray for.
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God, what is your will for my life?
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God will arrange it so he can tell us what his will isn't for
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our lives through closed doors. I'm reminded of Psalm 46 verse
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10 because the movement really often is to praying.
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And God, what is going on in Psalm 46 verse 10?
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It says be still and know that I am God.
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I'll be exalted among the nations.
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I'll be exalted in the earth. Don't give up.
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Don't quit. Continue to move #2.
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You're faced with a hard note from God.
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Continue to obey. Continue to obey.
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Things aren't going your way. No excuse for you and I to live
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a life of disobedience and one of the obedient passages.
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One of the scriptures that we can be best obedient with is in
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Matthew Chapter 7. When Jesus teaches us in verse
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7, ask and it'll be given to you.
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Seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you.
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For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to
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him who knocks. It will be open.
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Continue to obey. In First Samuel.
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Jot it down in First Samuel chapter 15.
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It's a very familiar passage, an episode between the prophet
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Samuel and King Saul. King Saul was impatient.
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He disobeyed God. And here's Samuel's answer to
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him. First Samuel chapter 22.
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Samuel said has the Lord is great delight in burnt offerings
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and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord.
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Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
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How many of you heard that phrase before?
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To obey is better than sacrifice?
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This is where it comes from. First Samuel, chapter 15, verse
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2223. And it's the familiar passage.
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This is what happens with the Bible.
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When passages become familiar, we forget the rest of the
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passage. So let me read the rest of it to
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you. It says, behold, to obey is
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better than sacrifice, and to heed the fat than the fat of
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Rams. For rebellion, as is the sin of
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witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
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Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also
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rejected you from becoming king. And you go, wow, it's an
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interesting passage. How does it relate to today?
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Listen, when you face a hard no, you find yourself in a place and
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in a position where you no longer want to obey the God,
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obey God. You no longer want to follow
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God, and you become resistant to further leading from God because
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you're disappointed. Or you could say it this way.
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You didn't get what you wanted. And because of that you have a
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very negative response to that. Sometimes it's disobedience,
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sometimes it's rebellion. But I don't want you to miss a
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word. It's probably more common than
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any of those. And that is, he says
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stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
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I find, and I've seen over the years, that when things don't go
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a believer's way, a Christian's way, they become very stubborn.
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And there are many stubborn people in the house today.
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I don't want an Amen. You know who you are.
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Some of you, you actually even take pride in your stubbornness.
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You know, it's just the way I am.
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Somebody maybe even told you this week you're so stubborn.
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And your response was, I know I'm stubborn.
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That's just the way I am. Well, the Bible says your
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stubbornness, it's like iniquity.
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It's not good for you. It's not a great posture to live
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your life, to be so set in your ways and resistant.
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If you look that word up in the Hebrew language, where it comes
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from here in the Bible, in the Old Testament, you'll find that
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the word means exactly what you think it means to be resistant.
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You're stubborn, you're stubborn toward people, you're stubborn
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toward change. You're just stubborn.
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And it's iniquity. But also he says idolatry.
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And when it comes to a no or a hard no from God and you respond
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in a stubbornness, it's like idolatry.
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And you say pastor, what do you mean?
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How does that connect? Well, when you are resistant to
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what God is obviously doing in your life, for example, I want
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to do this and God says no, and you say I'm going to do it
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anyway. Stubbornness.
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It's like idolatry because you have set yourself up as God,
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little G to do your own thing, your own way, instead of
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accepting and being, as we've learned, open and flexible to
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whatever God wants to do in your life.
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Stubbornness is not good, gang. Watch out for it in your life,
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especially when you're disappointed, Especially when
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you're disappointed with God. Just stay open to the Holy
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Spirit because notice what happens with Paul in verse
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eight. They passed by.
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Miss you. Now he's going a whole different
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direction and they came down to Troas.
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If you look on a map here, God gave a hard no to Asia, although
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he's going to open that door in two years.
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Remember we said not now from God doesn't mean not forever, it
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just means not now. We don't know what the future
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holds. So another couple years he's
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going to end up in Asia. And the most popular church we
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know of in Asia is Ephesus. He ends up landing in Ephesus,
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spending a couple years there, ministering to them, and then he
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writes the book of Ephesians. So he'll get there, but in God's
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timing and God's way, he's not going to kick down doors.
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He's not going to kick down and fight against God.
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With this stubbornness he's open.
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So he ends up in Europe, He ends up in Europe.
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God has a has a purpose for him in Europe and he says in verse
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9A, Vision appeared to Paul in the night.
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A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, come
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over to Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the
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vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that
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the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
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This is a beautiful thing because I I imagine I try to put
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myself in the shoes or the sandals of Paul, you know, he
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had to have a long night. This was very hard for him.
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I mean, it started with losing his friend.
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He lost his partner, man, Barnabas.
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I mean, this is the guy they went to.
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They they went on the first journey together.
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God used them in incredible ways.
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They're ready to go back and do it again.
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And then they had that hard split another no, they aren't
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going to go out together. So he picks up Silas and he
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heads off, but he's reeling from that.
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We read it in the Bible, page to page, word to word.
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But this is real life, gang. This is emotional stuff.
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When you lose a friend. This is emotional stuff.
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When things don't work out the way you want and when you kind
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of had your life planned. Disappointments when when
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somebody disappointments, someone doesn't come through for
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us. This is hard stuff, man.
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This is deep stuff. So it started with Barnabas.
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But he picks up. He meets Timothy.
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That's kind of encouraging. So he takes Timothy with him.
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He has Silas. First he takes Silas, then he
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takes Timothy. He's heading off.
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Let's go, Let's go, let's go. And God says no.
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All right, wait a minute. Let's try this way.
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And God says no. And then you have the night,
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can't sleep. You don't understand.
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It's confusing. What do you mean, God?
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I just want to do what you call me to do.
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I mean, this is a guy that has God's hand, is upon his life
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like this is what he was born to do.
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God says no. God says no.
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He's wrestling, but he's open. He's open.
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And while he's open, he receives this vision.
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He gets direction from the Lord. And you know what I found at
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times? That when God wants to get my
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direction, when God wants to get your direction, he'll bring you
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to a real quick, abrupt full stop so that we have the
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opportunity to give God our undivided attention.
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He does that through pain. He does that through sorrow.
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He does that through conflict. He wants our undivided
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attention. He wants our obedience.
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And he brings Paul to a place where Paul is open to the
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spirit. And a vision of this man says we
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need your help. And you know that hit Paul's
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heart. He was born to help.
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You know, it's like, oh Lord still wants to use me.
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He's not done with me. These nose can't possibly mean
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mean forever. And he's open and he follows
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along. Now notice with me the
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importance of the vision where it says in verse 10.
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After he'd seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to
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Macedonia and concluding that the Lord had called us to preach
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the gospel to them, Therefore, selling the trust, we ran
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straight through Samothrace. Now there's a couple of things I
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want you to see before we move on to the rest of the chapter.
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First of all, I I want you to see that when he received the
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vision, he went back to the brothers.
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He started talking about it and they said, hey, let's do it.
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We think it's from the Lord. Let's take a step of faith.
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They they weren't licking their wounds and saying, oh poor us,
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we can't go to Asia. They said, hey, I think God's
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speaking here. And the way to find out if God's
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in something is to take a step of faith and you'll find out.
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And so he got this vision. He's like, I I really think it's
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from the Lord. They stepped out in faith and
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God met them there. But also in the text, as we're
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reading through, as we read the Bible, you can miss things.
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This is something you'll learn to.
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You'll learn how to read the Bible very carefully, because
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the better you read the Bible and observe the Bible, the more
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you'll see. And that makes sense.
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And as we're reading straight through, you might have missed a
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very significant word here. Notice it's said in verse 10.
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Again, after he had seen the vision.
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Immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, that he called us to
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preach the gospel of them. And then in verse 11, sending
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from Troas, we ran a straight course.
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Wait a minute, who is we exactly.
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I want to ask that question. If you already know the answer,
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I want you to say it out loud. Who was just added to this
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ministry team? Who is we?
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Who's the one that's added? Luke.
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Luke. Luke is the author of the book
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of Acts as well as the Gospel of Luke.
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So he's writing in the first person, and as he's writing it,
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he's going, hey, guess what, I joined the team.
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So now you've got Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke.
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Now, why is the addition of Luke so significant?
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Well, first of all, a lot of what we're reading in the book
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of Luke is eyewitness. This is stuff that's real.
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You know, sometimes you'll share a story with someone and they
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don't believe you and you're like, bro, I was there.
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Like, whether you believe me or not, it happened.
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This is the work of God. It's amazing.
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Well, that's what Luke is doing. But also, I just want to step
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outside of the text just for a moment to share the obvious with
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you now, you Bible students, you know, and if you don't, I'm
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teaching you right now that Luke was a physician.
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He's a doctor, a medical practicing Dr. And it was not
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unusual in the 1st century for doctors to attach themselves to
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a patron or someone that that's they had personal doctors.
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Here God is giving Paul the Apostle his own personal doctor.
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Isn't that cool? I mean, think about it.
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You got to make an appointment at Kaiser tomorrow, and you're
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on the website and you're looking for the page.
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Where do I get a personal doctor that follows me everywhere for
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the rest of my lives? You won't find it.
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It's not there. You can make an appointment, you
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you can go through that, But this is not how it works today.
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Although it would be really nice to have someone, like, if you're
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sick and they're in the back room and you're like, hey, I'm
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sick and like, I'm making some right now for you, don't worry
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about it. And they're all setting it up
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for you. This is Paul the apostle.
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But it's deeper than that. Paul the apostle is a guy that
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is going to see and experience more signs, more wonders, more
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miraculous, more supernatural healings than just about anybody
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else in the Bible except for Jesus.
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I mean, this guy is going to be used in amazing ways and he is
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going to see the supernatural work of God in healing men and
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women. He's going to see a supernatural
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healing of a girl right now as we get later on in the chapter.
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And at the same time, God gives him a practical, physical,
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natural means of healing through this doctor, which is important
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for you to understand a couple of things.
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Number one, in the Bible, the supernatural and the natural are
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not at odds. Does God still heal today
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supernaturally, Yes or no? Yes, of course I believe it.
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The Bible teaches it. We've seen it.
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But can God use natural means to being healing to your body?
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Yes. If you have a headache, take
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some Tylenol. Get rid of the headache.
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Aren't you grateful that somebody figured out?
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I mean, forget about Tylenol, Take an aspirin.
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Aren't you glad? Someone down the road Way back
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behind us. True.
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Chewed some tree bark and said, hey, this takes away headaches.
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Let's make a pill out of it. And it was very natural, but
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supernatural, don't you think? God gave wisdom and and through
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creation they both work together.
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They both work together. Which leads us to a couple of
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conclusions. #1 There are people on YouTube and television that
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are teaching you a false gospel, a false teaching.
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Though there are people that will say you know the reason
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you're sick and the reason why you're not healed is you don't
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have enough faith and you don't give enough money.
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And it's interesting. Anybody that says that, they
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always become the one that you can give money to and you can
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lean on their faith, that is an absolute lie from the pit of
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hell. God heals sovereignly.
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And it's not about how much faith you have and it's not
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about how much you give to the church or some Yahoo on
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television or on YouTube. God is doing what He's doing in
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your life, and he knows what He's doing.
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Sometimes he'll supernaturally heal you and blow the minds of
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the doctors, and sometimes he'll naturally heal you and blow your
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mind that God used the doctor to help you.
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But the supernatural and the natural are not in opposition,
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and God bless every single one of you that work in the medical
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community and the medical professionals.
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We love you and appreciate you, and May God continue to use you
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and your studies and all the things that you're learning and
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growing in. And there are some that are
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waiting right now for a miraculous touch of God in your
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healing, and you are doing it by faith.
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But I believe today God is reminding you, and I'm using the
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phraseology, but you'll get it. Like God's giving you
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permission, but you've always had it.
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You can go ahead and make an appointment with the doctor.
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It's OK. You're not a faithless person.
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You're not a person that you know.
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It's just you know, you're you're scared.
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You you you're trusting God. But you can make the
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appointment. It's OK.
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Go ahead and make the appointment.
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See the doctor this week And who knows what God might want to do
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through the supernatural and the natural.
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And here Paul gets his own personal doctor for this trip.
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It says that they started sailing in verse 11.
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They came to Neapolis about 140 miles in a couple days, which is
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really fast. And then they came to the city
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of Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of
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Macedonia, a colony which is basically saying it was not a
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town, but a city. And it was like a mini Rome that
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was scattered throughout the region and it was like a roam
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away from Rome. And it was a real bustling city.
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They end up landing in Philippi, staying in that city for some
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days. Then verse 13, in the regular
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course of their life, on the Sabbath day, they went out to
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the city, to the Riverside where prayer was customarily made.
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And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.
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And a certain woman named Lydia heard us.
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She was a suller of purple from the city of Thyatira who
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worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to
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heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household
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were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to
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be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.
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And she constrained us. This is amazing.
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This this is unbelievable, what God is doing in Paul's life.
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He's got all these difficulties, all these hardships, all these
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challenges, this hard no from the Lord.
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But then God's still speaking and God's still leading and he's
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still following. He ends up in Philippi.
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And remember, we're asking and answering the question today.
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Can God use this closed door in your life?
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The answer is yes. And in Paul's life, notice, not
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only has God used the closed door to get him in the direction
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where he wants him, but number one, he added a doctor to his
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ministry, which I think is pretty cool.
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And now he's about to add a woman.
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But before he adds this woman to the ministry of Paul, he's going
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to save her because she's ready. How could Paul ever know that?
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Was he ever praying? You know, Lord, just help me get
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to Philippi. Lydia's there.
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I can't wait to meet her by the Riverside, and I just want to
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see her get say. He knows nothing, but God does.
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God knows exactly what he wants to do.
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So let me ask you this. Would God close a door in your
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life? A hard no to reach just one
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person? Yes, absolutely.
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Here's the revelation and and many have to come to this
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conclusion. It's not about you.
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It's not about you. It's about God using your life
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and reaching others and blessing this world.
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It's not about us. Paul's learning that.
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You and I are learning that, and he arranges for this apostle
23:56
with just the right words, just the right attitude to be there
24:00
at just the right time. So Lydia, out of her ear over
24:04
there hears, wait a minute, what is that?
24:08
And she begins to hear they have a conversation.
24:11
Paul shares the gospel with her and it says God opened her heart
24:15
because she was ready. She was ready.
24:20
And when you have a person that's ready on one side, then
24:23
God is preparing the other person on the other side so that
24:28
he might receive the glory. Now, you may have come to church
24:34
today, or TuneIn on the radio or watching online, whatever.
24:38
However you're connected to me right now, you may be tuned in
24:41
just for this moment. So I want you to pay attention,
24:43
Church. I think this is probably, of all
24:46
the things we're going to learn today, one of the most important
24:49
parts of what God wants to teach us today.
24:52
And it focuses on Paul. Understand this.
24:56
If Paul had allowed the closed door to discourage him, if he
25:02
allowed the closed door to immobilize him, if he allowed a
25:07
root of bitterness to come in, or anger or frustration that
25:11
would disconnect him with God, then the next great call in his
25:16
life, this vision he would have never seen.
25:21
He would have been too caught up in himself.
25:23
He wouldn't have been open. Do you hear what I'm saying?
25:26
It's a very, very important that you not get caught up in a place
25:30
of self pity when difficult things happen because God is
25:34
doing something greater, He's doing something greater.
25:38
And you could pull yourself out of being usable to God because
25:42
of the pain that you're carrying.
25:43
Listen, it's OK. Get up and move forward from
25:47
that hard. No.
25:48
From God. Get up.
25:50
Yes, take a breath. Feel it, experience it, express
25:59
it, Acknowledge it, accept it, Cast your cares upon the Lord
26:07
and be ready to move forward. Can you imagine what the rest of
26:11
the Book of Acts would be like if Paul said forget about it.
26:14
I'm not doing this anymore. If I don't get what I want and I
26:18
don't go where I want and I don't get to do what I want, I
26:21
quit. Oh, poor Lydia.
26:24
I mean, God will accomplish what he wants with with or without
26:27
us. But don't you want to be a part
26:28
of it? I want to be a part of it.
26:30
I didn't get saved to watch it. I got saved to do it.
26:34
I want to watch and do and see and be a part of what God's
26:39
doing in this world. So God connects Paul with Lydia
26:43
here. And don't you think Lydia was
26:44
happy? We can imagine the conversation.
26:47
You won't believe what happened. We wanted to go here.
26:49
We wanted to go here, but here we are.
26:51
Couldn't find a synagogue because that was Paul's.
26:54
That was his methodology. He'd find a synagogue because he
26:58
could make a connection. But apparently it was no
27:00
synagogue in Philippi. It required 10 men, 10 believing
27:04
Jewish men, to start a synagogue.
27:06
So Philippi was so lost. They didn't have 10 believing
27:09
men to start a synagogue. But there were women there
27:11
praying. Thank God for the women that
27:13
pray. Thank God for the moms and the
27:15
grandmas that pray and there they are praying at the
27:18
Riverside and God connects them not with all the women, but with
27:22
Lydia, which is so cool. Now commentators and Bible
27:27
scholars, they look at this and I agree with them that God
27:31
connected Paul with Lydia because Lydia would become the
27:36
number One Financial supporter of the rest of the ministry of
27:40
Paul. Lydia was very successful.
27:43
We see this in the text. She was from Thyatira and a
27:46
seller of purple. She was an entrepreneur, very
27:49
successful woman, and she was hobnobbing with the rich and the
27:53
wealthy and the important because that's the only group
27:56
that had the money to buy this purple dye.
27:59
It was very rare. It it was very valuable, costly
28:03
and expensive and it made Lydia very rich woman and here she is
28:09
a rich woman praying together. God connects them together, and
28:15
as they now have a relationship, many people believe that God
28:19
attached this woman with money to support Paul.
28:22
Take one big load off his mind that for the rest of his
28:25
missionary journeys, God had somebody where he's going to
28:28
fund them and take care of them, That he could take all these
28:30
offerings and send them to Jerusalem.
28:32
As you'll see in the rest of the book of Acts, which reminded me
28:35
of a story here in our church when I met for the very first
28:39
time in my entire life, a real, bona fide millionaire.
28:42
I never met a millionaire before, and it was a man that
28:46
had visited our church way back in the day.
28:48
We were probably 50 people meeting in the school and he had
28:52
come out to visit his mother-in-law.
28:54
But I was in California at the time because I took the family
28:57
back. It was very early on getting a
29:00
little homesick. So we went back to California,
29:02
see my parents, see our family and friends.
29:04
And so we had gone back, and I had left the voicemail code to
29:08
the phone to a brother to check the messages while I was gone.
29:12
But whatever the brother did in pushing the buttons, he erased
29:15
them all. And I'm like, oh man, how many
29:18
were there? I don't know.
29:19
And so I went through and figured out what the phone
29:21
company caller ID and all that. I called all the people back
29:24
individually, apologized. How could we serve?
29:26
You gave him the whole story. And one of the brothers was
29:30
Steve and I called Steve and I said, I'm so sorry, I know you
29:34
didn't get a call back. And and he said, oh, don't worry
29:36
about it. We were able to figure it out.
29:38
And we visited the church and it's really good what God is
29:41
doing there. And I'm like, oh, that was
29:42
encouraging, really good. What God is doing there was so
29:44
young and so new. And then we just kind of stayed
29:48
in touch, you know. And then maybe a month later, we
29:51
got this check in the mail from Steve for a lot of money, more
29:57
money that we would see in our offerings back then in a month.
30:01
And I'm like, what is this? So I called him up and I said,
30:03
what is this? Are you sure you sent this to
30:05
the right place? You know, what are you doing?
30:06
He said, oh, no, no, This is what God uses, how God uses.
30:09
We're very successful in our company and this is how God uses
30:12
us. We just give to ministries that
30:14
God puts on our heart. And right now it's you.
30:16
And so, you know, here this is, this is what we do.
30:19
And I'm like, great, thank you so much.
30:20
I thought that was the extent of it.
30:22
Then another month, then another month and another month.
30:25
And so we just put it in the bank.
30:26
We didn't have any really used to it use for it until an open
30:30
door came for us to take our teachings and put them on the
30:34
radio. And that that's where we were.
30:36
We was like, man, this is amazing, but it was a very
30:39
expensive thing to do for this little church, thousands of
30:42
dollars. So I remembered, ah, we've got
30:45
that money in the bank. So I picked up the phone and I
30:48
called Steve. I said, hey, Steve, you've been
30:51
given all this money here. And I just wanted to call and
30:53
ask for your permission. Can we use this money to go on
30:56
the radio? And I explained it to him.
30:58
And so Steve, being a little bit older than me and a little more
31:00
mature than me, he laid into me a little bit.
31:04
And he said, you know what, Pastor Ed?
31:05
Look, I didn't give that money to you.
31:08
You don't need to ask my permission.
31:09
I gave that money to the Lord. If you're going to ask anybody's
31:12
permission, you need to ask the Lord how to use that money.
31:16
I'm like, whoa, whoa, calm down. Wait a minute.
31:19
You guys calm down like you like to.
31:21
You like to see me all get beat up.
31:23
Like it was a pivotal moment in my life.
31:26
And we did ask the Lord and what do we do?
31:28
We went on the radio, paid in full upfront, went on the radio.
31:32
And now for 2324 years, we've been on the radio.
31:36
But listen, listen, This is how God uses your giving.
31:39
You go all that. I don't have that kind of money.
31:40
No, no, no, no, no, don't. Don't misunderstand the essence
31:43
of this, because giving is always proportionate.
31:46
It's always proportionate. So let me just say, if you have
31:49
been entrusted with a lot of money from God, then you should
31:52
be giving a lot. You should be generous.
31:55
That's God's gift to you. And if you look at your own
31:57
banking and go, well, Ed, I haven't been really given a lot
32:00
from the Lord. I've been given a little, then
32:02
you should give a little. It's proportionate by faith.
32:05
God uses it all. But on occasion, God does give
32:09
someone a lot of money that's used.
32:11
I think of harvest crusades. I think of the Billy Graham, I
32:13
think of this little thing in our little church because Steve
32:18
actually planted seeds for us. I didn't know he was doing that.
32:22
He probably didn't know he was doing that.
32:24
Lydia going to a prayer, didn't know she was doing it.
32:27
But he was planting seeds because what we were all, what I
32:30
was all worried about with thousands of dollars were
32:33
preparing us for a day, 10 years later or so, when another
32:36
opportunity came to our desk and it came across my desk.
32:41
And we're not talking thousands anymore.
32:43
We're talking millions. It's Grace FM.
32:47
Grace FM was landed on my desk and it was multi millions of
32:51
dollars in a variety of different ways of what they
32:54
offered to us. And yet God had already shown me
32:57
that where he guides he provides.
33:00
So if God's in this, then we're just going to go by faith.
33:04
And God provided for Grace FM a totally different way.
33:09
Because Steve stopped giving a long time ago.
33:10
He moved on to another ministry and and we we, you know, we've
33:13
been friends ever since. God's, I love the brother, but
33:16
he stopped giving it. God did not provide for Grace FM
33:19
through Steve, do you know how God provided for the first
33:21
station? Actually, both stations, Grace
33:23
FM. The very initial provision of
33:25
Grace FM was through the faithful ties and offerings of
33:30
this church. It was all internal by then.
33:33
The whole church. It was not external.
33:35
It was internal by your faithfulness.
33:38
If you were here, and perhaps you continue to be here because
33:41
it stays on the air, You see, God knows what he's doing when
33:45
he closes the door. You may not see it now, but just
33:50
wait. Don't give up, don't throw in
33:53
the towel. Because although money is going
33:57
to be a piece of how Lydia ministers to Paul, it's actually
34:00
not even about the money. It's about God.
34:04
Who cares for people and will move us wherever he wants to
34:07
move us, send us where he wants to send us.
34:09
Use us however he wants to use us.
34:11
Amen. All right, let's move on verse
34:14
16. Now what happened as we went to
34:16
prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of
34:19
divination met us, met us who brought her masters much profit
34:25
by fortune telling? This girl followed Paul and us
34:29
crying out saying these men are the servants of the Most high
34:33
God who proclaimed to us the way of salvation.
34:36
And this she did for many days. But Paul greatly annoyed.
34:40
You might want to mark that phrase in the Bible and you can
34:42
say, well, if Paul was greatly annoyed, I can be too.
34:47
Yeah, yeah, you can be too, for the right reasons because notice
34:51
he's greatly annoyed or that can also be translated greatly
34:53
distressed. And he said to the Spirit, I
34:56
command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
34:59
And he came out that very hour. What was he annoyed at?
35:04
Well, some say he's annoyed at the demonic, you know, influence
35:07
in the you know, because you don't want the devil to be your
35:09
hype man, right? In the gospel, you don't want
35:11
the devil to be your hype man. He's a liar.
35:14
He's a deceiver. We don't give the devil any more
35:16
attention than any tension for the for that matter, we want to
35:20
teach who he is so he can resist the devil.
35:22
But you don't want him to be your, you know, public
35:25
relations. But I don't think that's the
35:27
essence. That's annoying.
35:30
I think what Paul's annoyed at here is this young girl,
35:34
probably 12 or 13, is being taken advantage of by the devil
35:38
and by these men. It's not nothing new, is it?
35:41
The sex trafficking, horrific attacks upon our children.
35:47
It's nothing new. And it should bring out some
35:50
type of holy, righteous anger in US.
35:53
And it should respond. Some of you have a calling to
35:55
step into this area of ministry and life, so that you might
35:59
stand in the gap, and in this case it was a demonic influence
36:05
where he releases her. But then in verse 19, when her
36:08
Master saw that the hope of profit was gone, they seized
36:12
Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the
36:15
authorities, and they brought them to the magistrates and
36:18
said, These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city,
36:22
and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans,
36:25
to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up
36:28
together against them, and the magistrates tore off their
36:31
clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
36:34
Now did Paul know he was going to be beaten in Philippi?
36:37
Again, it's excitement, excitement, excitement, and
36:40
boom, he. I mean, this is no small he's
36:42
not being slapped around, you know, Pat on the back.
36:45
They took sticks, thick rods, and beat him half to death.
36:49
It says right here that they laid many stripes on him, which
36:53
means they lacerated his back. And very similar to the
36:56
scourging that took place with Jesus, except with sticks, they
37:01
beat the life out of him close to death, and they threw him
37:06
into the prison. It says, verse 23, commanding
37:10
the jailer to keep him securely and having received such a
37:13
charge, he put him into the inner prison which was the pit
37:18
where all the feces and everything would come down and
37:20
the rats and the animals. Like, I don't think in prison
37:24
when you read the Bible like our modern day equivalent of prison,
37:27
it's it's the exact opposite. It was a pit and it was a pit
37:32
among pits. And they put them in, fastened
37:36
their broken bodies and jacked up bodies and hurt and they
37:39
fastened them in their feet into the stalks.
37:43
And you're like, can God use a closed door to reach just a
37:51
little kid? The answer's yes.
37:56
I mean, can he connect you with someone that you need that you
37:59
don't even know you need, like a doctor?
38:02
Yes. Can he connect you with someone
38:04
who needs him more than you need them, bringing someone to
38:08
salvation? Yes.
38:11
God's going to connect you with somebody you don't even know yet
38:13
because God's going to use them in your future?
38:15
Yes. Will God arrange your life in
38:18
such a way where you can help a hopeless kid get right with God
38:23
or be delivered from a demonic presence?
38:25
Yes. Will God allow you to be beaten?
38:29
Yes. Many stripes?
38:31
Yes. Will He introduce you?
38:34
You know, for some of you a jailer.
38:37
Is God going to use a closed door in your life to even reach
38:42
a police officer or a jailer through your own faults and
38:45
failures or not? Yes, yes, yes, yes.
38:50
You see, when our our lives are abiding in Christ, we see things
38:55
from God's perspective. And here this is so unfair.
39:00
They lied. They they actually told the
39:02
truth about them, but also lied at the same time where hey,
39:06
they're Jews. And and that's interesting to me
39:08
too. There's a lot of interesting
39:10
things in the text, but what happened and why did?
39:13
How did Luke and Timothy skip out on this?
39:16
Where are they right now? You know, Who knows?
39:18
They might have split up, they might have, but they're not
39:20
there. It's only Paul and Silas to get
39:22
thrown into jail and beaten. But again, God knows what he's
39:26
doing in your life and he knows what he's doing in the person
39:29
next to you. It doesn't always have to be the
39:31
way you think it should be. God knows what he's doing.
39:34
And so here they are, either thrown into the inner prison and
39:39
notice what happens. Verse 25 But at midnight Paul
39:42
and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.
39:46
Can we just pause for a second here and say, at least for me,
39:49
this is a very convicting passage.
39:52
This is not my usual response to hardship.
40:01
And maybe you don't have AUI don't typically say come home
40:05
and say, hey Marie, you won't believe it.
40:06
The worst thing in life just happened.
40:08
Put on a music. Put on a song.
40:11
Let's worship I have all sorts of other responses that aren't
40:17
very helpful to God that he does get me through them.
40:20
But this is encouraging to me. It's one of the reasons why we
40:23
introduce these new songs to you.
40:25
They're very prayerfully chosen and carefully chosen, and we
40:29
want you to learn them. We want you to put them on your
40:32
playlist. We want you to put them in your
40:34
heart because you're going to need them.
40:37
You know when you memorize the words, you don't have to worry
40:39
about the screen anymore. You can close your eyes, you can
40:42
lift your hands, you can play it on the way home.
40:46
You can set yourself up for this.
40:49
You can be in this place. Paul and Paul and Silas could do
40:51
it. So it tells me I can do it.
40:53
It's just not always my first goal.
40:55
I have a tendency to do things the hard way in my own personal
40:59
walk with the Lord. I don't like it and God's
41:01
improved it, but that's the way it is.
41:04
And God is growing me through it.
41:07
He wants to grow you through it as well.
41:10
You know, I think of the Psalm 3, or excuse me, in Job 35 verse
41:14
10, the Bible describes God as someone who gives us songs in
41:18
the night. Now I've experienced that for
41:21
sure, that God would just inspire me and put a song in my
41:25
heart to comfort me, to encourage me.
41:27
But church, this is part of the worship life, the disciple life
41:32
of every believer, the songs that God has given to us in our
41:36
generation or for our generation.
41:38
And of course you have songs from other generations, and
41:40
those are great too. Just do it so that you're
41:45
prepared for every good work. And as they're singing, notice
41:50
it says in verse 25, the prisoners were listening to
41:54
them. Really, that word listening is
41:57
very instructive in the original language.
41:59
It it means to give them full attention, which makes sense,
42:04
because if you're in jail, you've been in jail for a while.
42:06
There's nobody singing songs to God in there.
42:08
Never this little dungeon pit of a of a hell hole, if you will.
42:16
But man, God has brought God loves these prisoners so much
42:23
that he's allowed pain into Paul's life.
42:27
So that Paul will listen to God and follow his leading and end
42:32
up beaten, lied about, gossiped about, maligned.
42:38
So these ends up sitting with his new buddy Silas singing
42:42
songs to God. That's how much he loves these
42:45
prisoners. Don't you think?
42:46
He loves you? He hasn't forgotten you.
42:51
Not all is lost. You have a future and a hope in
42:55
Christ and he loves this these prisoners so much they're
42:58
listening to him. And then notice in verse 26, an
43:01
earthquake comes. The foundations of the prisons
43:03
were shaken. Now God breaks them out.
43:06
It says immediately all the doors were open and everyone's
43:09
chains were loose. The keeper of the prison, Verse
43:12
27. Awakening from sleep and seeing
43:14
the prison doors open. Supposing the prisoners had
43:17
fled, That makes sense. Drew his sword and was about to
43:20
kill himself. Why?
43:21
Because a Roman guard, if anybody escaped, he would then
43:26
receive the penalty that they were in prison for.
43:29
So these were bad dudes, He said.
43:32
I'd rather die than pay the price for these criminals.
43:35
But then Paul called with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no
43:39
harm, We're all here. I mean, whatever happened in the
43:43
midnight hour was enough credibility among those guys
43:47
that they didn't run. These were hardened criminals.
43:51
God is doing something. Don't do it.
43:55
We we're all here. And he called for a light.
43:57
He ran in verse 29, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,
44:03
and he brought them out and said, look what was on his
44:06
heart. Sirs, what must I do to be
44:10
saved? So I ask you again, can God use
44:16
the closed door in Paul's life to reach a bunch of criminals
44:22
and this jailer for salvation? Yes.
44:27
And notice the answer. And they said believe on the
44:30
Lord Jesus Christ and be circumcised.
44:33
And you? No, no, we settled that before
44:35
too, isn't it? I mean, we settled that in Acts
44:38
15. There's no word.
44:39
You just believe. This is the message of the
44:42
gospel I have brought. God has brought a messenger to
44:44
you, buddy, and you can be saved from this perverse, twisted life
44:48
you've lived your whole life. All you prisoners can be
44:51
redeemed from your criminal past and your criminal life.
44:54
You can be a new woman for Christ and a new man for Christ.
44:58
I think of all you listening in jail right now.
45:00
I know you wish that a great earthquake would break you out,
45:04
but even if a earthquake happened, you will stay by the
45:08
glory of God, because God wants to do something far deeper in
45:11
your life. If you'll look to him, that's
45:13
how God, how faithful he is even to bring a Bible study into your
45:18
cell block through the radio. Man, that you you think of what
45:22
God is doing. It's unbelievable.
45:25
You know what? This is the bottom line.
45:27
And we're almost done. But this is like we take way too
45:31
much credit for what God does. We think it's all about us and
45:37
all about our good deeds. And and no, we're just walking
45:40
in what God's already doing. He already knows what he's going
45:43
to do. Remember that when Jesus, he's
45:45
like like, you know he he's asking the the apostles away,
45:48
what do you guys have? But he already knows what he's
45:51
going to do. We're discovering it.
45:54
You believe you and your whole household.
45:56
By the way, there are people that come to this text real
45:58
quick that say, well, there it is, universalism.
46:01
Everybody gets saved. If there's one person in your
46:03
family that's saved, your whole household is saved.
46:06
And they'll take you to here in verse 31.
46:08
But they're mishandling the text because you have to read on.
46:11
Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were
46:15
in their house. So now he's preaching the gospel
46:17
to his household and took the same hour.
46:20
That night he washed their stripes, and immediately he and
46:23
all his family were baptized. That's proof of repentance.
46:27
And when they had brought him into the house, he set food
46:29
before them. He rejoiced.
46:31
Having believed in God with all his household, only those that
46:35
believe are saved. You're not saved because your
46:38
dad's saved, or your grandma's saved, or you're in church.
46:41
Only you can repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus
46:46
Christ, only you individually. Everyone else in your family has
46:50
to do the same thing and that's our prayer.
46:53
Now notice when it was day, the magistrates verse 35 sent the
46:57
officer saying, let those men go.
46:59
And I bet they did, hearing what happened when they woke up.
47:03
What happened overnight? So the keeper of the prison
47:05
reported these words to Paul, saying the magistrates have sent
47:08
to let you go now, therefore depart and go in peace.
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But Paul said to them, they've beaten US openly uncondemned
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Romans, and have thrown us into prison.
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And now do they put us out secretly?
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No, indeed, let them come themselves and get us out now.
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When you say Paul's emboldened now, like, like that's what
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faith does. When you step out in faith and
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God meets you there, you know what you get More faith and more
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faith. Faith upon faith upon faith.
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Now Paul's like he's asserting what's happening here is this is
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not the first time, This won't be the last.
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This is the This is the first time, but not the last time that
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Paul asserts his Roman citizenship for the furtherance
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of the gospel. He uses the gift of his Roman
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citizenship to say what you guys did was wrong.
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Which leads to another question. Again, we don't know why, but my
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question is, Paul, why didn't you say that before they beat
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you instead of after? We don't know he didn't.
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But as he looks back and he's maybe kicks himself, you know,
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why didn't I do that? I should have done it.
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I could have escaped. You know what God will say.
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But wait a minute. Don't you think the jailer was
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worth it? Yes.
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Don't you think the prisoners are worth it?
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Yes. I wish you could do it another
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way, but I'll take it for you. Lord, I'm your servant.
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Remember the word that Paul often used to describe himself?
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I'm your Doulos. I'm your committed, voluntary,
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sold out servant. That's my life.
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And so he says, hey, you guys come out, You guys have
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embarrassed us. You've maligned.
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I want people to see the power of God.
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You come and get us out, it says in verse 38.
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The officers told these words to the magistrates.
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They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans and they
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claim came and begged with them and brought them out and asked
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them to depart from the city. I bet they did.
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But you notice in verse 40, Paul's not on their timetable.
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They went out of the prison, but they went back to Lydia's house
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because she needs some encouragement.
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They're going to share the testimony.
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And when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them.
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Then they departed because he's on the timetable, very much like
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Jesus is on the timetable of the Lord.
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And it's just a power in the hard nose from God Church.
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It's just a power in them. We learned some of the ways God
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uses them last time. But I just want you to know the
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yeses from God are just as important as the nose from God.
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And you just don't know how God is going to use you.
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But stay open to him. Let him use you.
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Yield to him. Don't be so bent out of shape
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and bitter, frustrated and angry and waste your life.
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Hey, there's things you can control and then things you
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can't control And the things you can't control, Just look to the
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Lord. Abide in him and he'll deal with
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everything that's surrounding you.
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Amen. So thank you, God, for this
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section of Scripture, this open door, closed door, closed door,
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closed door, open door, open door.
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Like it's so happened so rapidly that we don't even see it or
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acknowledge it. But today we want to acknowledge
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and thank you for all the ways that you have redeemed our
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brokenness in our lives and for forgiving us and helping us and
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moving us along the path. Lord, thank you.
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We're all just weak, beggarly men and women.
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We're not as strong as we think we are.
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We're not as wise as we think. We are just men depended upon
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you, women depended upon you. So we pray for the Lydias and we
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pray for the jailers and we pray for the prisoners and all those
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that we have yet to meet yet. Like we haven't met him yet.
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But we want to. We want to be used mightily of
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you, Lord. So use us greatly in Jesus name.
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Amen. We pray that you've been
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encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
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sanctuary of Calvary Church. For prayer.
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Call us at 87730 Grace. That's 877-304-7223.
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To listen to this message in its entirety or to join us for our
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or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Be blessed as you Worship Jesus this week.