Where are we at?

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not Brian. I’m Larry and I am Brian’s intern for the next couple of months. I’ve met most of you last week, but if I haven’t, introduce yourself to me. I’d love to get to know you in these next couple of months! So first, let me tell you a little about me. Like I said, my name is Larry. I know I should be at least like 30 years older to have a name like that. I’m just a young guy with an older guy’s name. I grew up in Akron, just 45 minutes west of Warren. I am the oldest of 4 siblings. I have three younger sisters and one younger brother. I love my family and my dog. Probably the coolest trait about me is that I have a motorcycle. That instantly makes me cooler than all my fellow classmates back at school. I am turning 20 years old in a week and a half and I am going into my senior year at MVNU. I am called to ministry, and I am grateful for this opportunity this summer to see what real ministry looks like under Brian. Also, this summer I am splitting my time between here and Akron. I work with my dad doing masonry work like brick, block, stone, and concrete. Pretty much, if it’s a large stone like material, I learn how to build it. Even though I don’t look very strong, I get pretty strong doing work like that and I also get really tan.

During the workday, there are any number of things that can go wrong. The mortar, the stuff that holds the blocks together, could be too stiff or too wet. The concrete truck could be really late and we’d have to work until dark. One of the trucks could break down or one of our tools not work that day. It could be like 90 degrees outside without a cloud in the sky or it could be an unexpected rainy day and we’d have to hurry up or else leave. Probably my least favorite of all, though, is when it is muddy outside. The mud makes everything take longer because it just gets in the way, sticks to your boots, and makes you move slower. It honestly seems like something unexpected happens just about every day. Whatever jobs you’ve had in the past or will have someday, I’m sure that there’s probably going to be some days where something unexpected happens. At fast food places, there could be a sudden rush or you could run out of a certain ingredient. In basically every construction job, you’ve gotta be careful because there’s probably some pretty dangerous stuff lying around. In hospitals, there are probably sometimes where there’s an emergency coming in and every second is vital to the patient’s life. Even office jobs can be unexpected some days. And that’s just a few examples. Whatever jobs you’ve had or will have some day, I’m sure you can relate with this idea of unexpectedness. Even outside of jobs, certain days in life are just unexpected. Sometimes, things happen that we don’t plan for.

On July 1, 1940, a huge, new suspension bridge called the Tacoma Narrows bridge 40 miles south of Seattle had just opened to the public. It actually spanned the third longest distance in the US when it first opened. You’ve probably seen a suspension bridge before. They have those two really big towers and cables between the towers that hold the bridge up. Well, the Tacoma Narrows bridge had something weird going on with it. The wind would blow and the bridge wouldn’t just shake, it would bounce up and down. And the winds didn’t even have to blow that hard. On November 7, 1940, the bridge wasn’t just bouncing up and down, but it was twisting and bouncing pretty badly. I found an old video that shows just how bad the bridge was moving.

The music in that video really makes it seem super dramatic. What I want to know is why would someone leave their car on the bridge and why was the dog on the bridge? When I first watched this video, I was shocked to see all those people just walking normally down the street. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that a bridge is supposed to do that. There’s nothing normal about a bridge doing that. I mean, how does concrete and steel even move like that? There wasn’t supposed to be anything wrong with the design of the bridge. In fact, none of the engineers thought that there was anything wrong with the design. It was supposed to be completely safe. They just didn’t take into account the affect that the winds would have on the bridge. Don’t worry, today engineers would never allow a bridge like that to be constructed. If you’re on a bridge and it’s going to collapse, it’s not going to sway like that. It’ll just break. But the thing that I want to highlight about this story is that sometimes, things happen that we don’t plan on happening. Sometimes unexpected things happen.

I think that the same can be said for us on our journey with God. Sometimes we want to go one way, and God plans for us to go another way that doesn’t make sense to us. We might have the most brilliant, foolproof plan, but it might not be the plan that God has for us. It’s probably not going to be a disaster like the Tacoma bridge, but we have to admit that sometimes, unexpected things happen. Today I want to look at a passage of Scripture from Acts 16:6-15. In this passage we see Paul and his friends on one of his missionary journeys going and preaching the gospel, the good news of Jesus, to new places that didn’t know Jesus. And God led Paul to an area that he didn’t expect to be led. So if you would like, turn with me to Acts 16:6-15. The text reads,

6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Alright, lets pause there for a second. We hear a lot of different places that Paul and his friends are going to in this text, but we have no idea where they are at. There is a map that I want to show on the screen that will help us. Basically, Paul is preaching in modern day Turkey. Paul is moving from these towns at the bottom corner of the map and he was looking for the next place to go to preach about Jesus. There were different Roman provinces in the area that Paul wanted to go to. He probably thought that the best place to go next was to Asia in the West. But we read that the Holy Spirit had prevented him from going into Asia to the West. By the way, this Asia is a different kind of Asia from the one we are used to. This Asia is a Roman province which really means Western Turkey. If they couldn’t go West, then the only way left to go was North. So he made his way up north toward Bithynia. But again, they were prevented from going into that area. Okay, so they are leaving the southern and eastern part of Turkey, and they were told not to go to the west or to the north. So I guess that they decided that going away towards Troas on the far Western coast was their only option. The whole journey likely took about 200 miles. To put that into perspective, from Warren to Columbus, taking 76 west and 71 south is about 165 miles. So it was the same as walking from here to Columbus and then another 35 miles. I don’t know about you, but I can’t even imagine walking that much at once. Keep in mind too, that they didn’t know where to go. They only knew where NOT to go. They had places they wanted to go, but they were prevented from going there.

Just imagine what was going on in their heads. These guys didn’t have any place to come back to at the end of the day. They just wanted to preach the gospel to people who needed it. Why weren’t they allowed to go into these places? There were people there who needed Jesus as well. These people were completely dependent on God to know where they needed to go, yet it seemed as though God wasn’t telling them where to go. He was only telling them where not to go for like 200 miles. If you’ve ever been lost before, you can probably relate to the way they were feeling. Today, we use phones to get directions. But I’ve heard that a long time ago, people used to have to use this thing called a map. It didn’t speak to you and it didn’t have a single clear line to where you were going. It had tons of lines all over it and if you wanted to go somewhere, you had to first find where you were and then find out where you needed to go. And hopefully you didn’t get lost along the way, but if you did, you could try to find your way back, just as long as you had your map. Now Paul and his crew didn’t even have this. They might have had roads, but they didn’t know where their destination was. So where was God in this?

Finally, in Troas, on the edge of Turkey, Paul gets a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him to come and help him. After discerning what the vision meant, they decided that the Spirit was leading them to Greece. At last, they got an answer! But Macedonia was not in Turkey anymore, Macedonia was in Greece. This was completely new territory for Paul across the sea. The areas he was used to preaching in were different from this new area where he was going into. Of course, when they got an answer, they got a difficult answer. Paul and his grew were probably thinking that there was still so much work to in Turkey, so why were they called to Greece now? Keep in mind too, they did not hear God’s voice boom from the sky telling them to go to Macedonia. They received a dream, but it was not clear at first what it meant. It took some time for them to understand what it meant. To really see why Paul and his friends needed to go to Macedonia, we have to finish the story. Let’s pick up the passage where we left off continuing with verse 11.

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

So, Paul and his companions made their way across the sea to Macedonia, northern Greece, where they come to a city called Philippi, which was the main city of Macedonia. Paul and his buddies go down to try to find a synagogue on the Sabbath, which is basically Sunday church for Jews, to try to find some Jews to hear about all that Jesus had done. But Paul doesn’t find a synagogue. For there to be a synagogue in a city, there needed to be at least 10 Jewish men. Apparently, there weren’t even 10 Jewish men to have a synagogue in Philippi. Instead, he finds a place of prayer by the river. There were women gathered there, and the record doesn’t say anything about any men there. Yet again, this is unexpected for Paul. Remember the vision he received at Troas? It was a Macedonian MAN begging for Paul to come and help him. Yet who Paul finds in Philippi is not men, but women.

And then we get to Lydia. She was not even from the city of Philippi, she was from the city of Thyatira. Thyatira wasn’t even close to Philippi. It was actually on the other side of the sea in Turkey, in the province of Asia, the same place that Paul was kept from going. She was also a dealer in purple cloth, which meant that she sold to the rich and powerful. Lydia is not associated with a man, meaning that she had control over her own household and business. She was an independent woman, and in her day, this was definitely not normal. Somehow, Lydia was in Philippi at just the time when Paul was there, at the same place that Paul was too. We read that the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message and her and all her household was baptized and then she persuaded Paul to stay with them. Notice too, that the passage doesn’t say that Lydia forced herself to believe or that it made sense to her, so she believed. No, here we see the Lord prepare her heart and allow her to receive the message.

Whenever we read this passage, it can seem like the main character is Paul and his buddies and Lydia. But I want to challenge this thought. When first looking at the passage, it can seem like Paul is the hero of the story and Lydia is the only who gets saved and becomes a believer. But really, the main character of this passage is God. We see God move to not allow Paul to go to Asia to the west, even though that was his plan. And then we see that as Paul decides that going North is the next best option, God pulls him away from there and gives him a vision to go to Greece. And when Paul is in Philippi, God is still moving to bring Lydia to him to hear the message. If Paul went to the west in Asia, Lydia would not have gotten that chance to hear from Paul. If Paul went to the north in Bithynia, Lydia would not have gotten the chance to hear from Paul. But because Paul listened to the Spirit and was patient, Lydia came to believe the gospel. Paul was flexible, faithful, and patient to see where God would lead him. Like Paul, how much are we willing to let God change our plans? Are we prepared to receive unexpected answers sometimes?

How many of us have ever desired so badly just to hear God’s voice so we can know what to do? I know that I certainly have. Sometimes I just pray, God if you’ll just tell me where to go and what to do, I’ll do it. And I expect God to answer immediately. It’s like I’m waiting for a text message from God and he doesn’t text back immediately. It’s like that friend that texts you back, but it is at the most random times and even though you wish they would text back sooner, it’s always a wait in between text messages. But we can’t put God into a box. Sometimes God doesn’t speak to us exactly when we want him to. One of the hardest things to discern in my life was my call to ministry. I had so may questions, like what if I’m not good enough and what about the money. But I was willing to put all that aside if God called me to ministry, because more than anything, I just wanted to please God and do what’s right. I just never seemed to get a straight up answer on what I should do. I had feelings like maybe I should be a minister, but I had to have a clear call, not just some thoughts in my own head. I never even declared my major until my first week on campus, and even then I wasn’t quite sure. But I finally felt comfortable with my call to ministry when I realized that everything else would not fulfill my life. I would always feel regret if I didn’t become a pastor. It took me time to discern my call.

I once heard a story about Mother Teresa. A man came to her seeking advice and he wanted her to pray for him. So Mother Teresa asked him, “What do you want me to pray for?” He replied, “Clarity. Pray for me that I will have clarity on what I should do.” Mother Teresa shocked him by what she said next. She flat out told him, “No.” The man was confused and couldn’t figure out why Mother Teresa wouldn’t pray for him to have clarity. After all, if he had clarity, he would know God’s will for his life and he would be able to do what God wanted him to. So he asked Mother Teresa why she wouldn’t pray for him for clarity. She said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.” “But you always seem t have clarity,” the man replied. Mother Teresa answered, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.” Our lives with God should not be defined by clarity, but by trust.

There are times in our lives where we clearly know and hear what God wants us to do with our lives. But there are definitely other times when God’s voice doesn’t boom from the clouds and tell us what to do. God doesn’t always work exactly when and where we want him to, but he is always at work. The important thing for us is that in any situation, we learn to trust God. Even when we can’t see the outcome or we think that it will be bad, God still has a plan for our lives that reaches far beyond our own imaginations. And sometimes it doesn’t make sense and seems unexpected because we can’t see the whole picture. God may lead us to unexpected places and he may give us unexpected answers, but it should never be unexpected for us that God has a plan for our lives. For us, the guidance and discernment we seek should never come as a surprise, although we have to be patient sometimes. I am reminded here of one of my favorite Bible verses from Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” There is comfort for us in simply knowing that we have a God who always works for our good, no matter how unexpected it may seem. Like how Paul could not have known that he needed to go to Macedonia for Lydia and many other people later, we often don’t see the full picture of God’s plan for us. But God does. Often times it’s the radical trust in God’s love and plan for us that helps us realize that it’s going to be alright in the end. And sometimes that trust is all that we can hold to.

All throughout this Acts passage, unexpected things happen for Paul. Rather than going into Asia or Bithynia, he goes to Macedonia. Rather than finding a Macedonian man, he finds Lydia. Rather than getting his answer from God immediately, it takes time and is not clear at first. For us, God is the God who sometimes turns our expectations upside down. While Jesus was expected to come as a conqueror king who would restore the nation of Israel, he came instead as a little baby from the humble beginnings in a manger. Rather than coming for the privileged and upstanding people, he came for the outcast and marginalized people. Rather than to hate people, Jesus taught to love people, especially those who are hardest to love. And rather than leading Israel to overthrow Rome, he died a criminal’s death on a cross. Everything about Jesus’ life testifies that he is a radically different way from what we are used to, a way that defies all expectations. God defies our expectations, but in the best way possible.

So in each of our lives, let’s be more open to God. Think about areas in your life that seem to cause you worry or stress. There may be some areas of your life where you plan ahead, only to have your plans fall out in front of you. You may want some answers on what to do or where to go next and it may seem like the answers will never come. These areas of your life that don’t make sense or that seem like God is absent from are the same places that you will see God work. Like Paul, we have to learn to be patient. We are people not of clarity on where to go, but people of trust in our God. When the unexpected in life hits, our answer will be to turn to God and wait for his answer because we know that he has a great plan for each and every one of us. And we can’t see that plan sometimes, but that’s all right. Keep being faithful to God because he is faithful to you.

Let’s pray, “Gracious God, I thank you for this opportunity that I have to bring your word to your people today. Open our hearts today and enable us to receive your message. We recognize that in life, sometimes unexpected things happen. It can be confusing and we tend to wonder what we should do in times like those. Today, we recognize that we need patience and we need faithfulness in you. Sometimes, it takes time to discern your will for our lives, and that’s okay. Teach us to be people not of clarity but to be people of trust. Then when the unexpected hits, we will turn to you and seek what you would have us do. We love you and we thank you today, Lord Jesus. Amen.