Acts 16

So many times in life we look back on events, that maybe at the moment seemed small, maybe insignificant or perhaps very painful and agonizing. Maybe in the moment we wondered why is God allowing this to happen to me, why is He doing this. Then, years later we look back with hign sight and say things like… if that would’t have happened I would have never… Met my spouse, gotten that job, made that friend. God is always at work… always working beyond our capacity to fully comprehend, He is painting a master pice and we are simply a speck of the paint, unable to see from His vantage point, he sees the canvas of your life while you simply see the present moment.

God is constantly working in your life for His glory… and if you are a follower of Jesus, you have given your life walk in His ways to be, as he would say, His disciple He is working in your pain, your joy, your confusion, and your clarity for your good.

We are going to see this in several ways today.

The call is a call to faithfulness before He calls us to specific action.

Paul and Barnabas split up… Paul take Silas they head north though Syria up to Lystra which is now modern day turkey. Here they pick up Timothy. The go to Galatia (the letter to the Galatians)… and attempt to go to Asia but the Holy Spirit stops them, they attempt to go to Bithynia but again the Spirit of Jesus stops them so they meander down to the city of Troas.

Seasons Of Spiritual Wandering

General will of God vs Specific will of God.

I’m not 100% sure but I’m going to be 100% faithful until He (the king of my life) gives me 100% clarity.

The great Apostle Paul is wondering… Then God shows up and gives him a vision in the night of a man of Macedonia calling for help.

If Paul does not go to Troas there is no book of Acts.

Niapolus a seaport in greece. From Neapolis to Philippi

The call is a call to faithfully follow in the UNFAMILIAR.

If

Throughout ACTS where is the first place Paul goes when he enters a town?

Paul goes the the Synagog… to what is familiar. There is a natural bridge between the Jews and the Messiah, Christ.

Here is Philippi there is no Synagog. The rule is that in order to establish a Synagog you must have what the Hebrews call Minyan. Simply, 10 adult jewish men.

Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia - 200 to 17… 7 men 10 women.

There are not 10 Jewish men in all of Philippi… so Paul gives up and leaves. NO… He faithfully follows God, trusting that God has something greater for him there.

The handful of Jews have set up instead a place of prayer outside of town down by the river where there would be water for certain Hebrew rituals. Here, Paul meets Lydia.

God brings fruit out of faithfulness amidst the unfamiliar.

How many of you are not from Utah? Less than 10? 8? 5? 4? 2? 1?… Weather you realize it or not God has brought you here and needless to say this place is UNFAMILIAR.

Chances are in the place where you are from there are multiple Gospel Centered churches with good music, ministries, and preaching within a few miles of your old home. MULTIPLE. When you came here you may have been shocked to find your options are not the same. Costco has replaced alchohol with conservative dress section. People are ubsesid with ice cream and fry sauce instead of actual good food. This is unfamiliar and strange.

REMEMBER THIS: God has brought you here for something far greater than your career, greater than your love for the outdoors, greater than the friends you may make along the way. Will you give you life to discovering His plan for you here? Will you walk in obedience to that end? Will you have a Lydia moment?… where nothing goes according to plan, you don’t know what your are doing, it unfamiliar, and God shows up because you were faithful to follow. WILL FAITHFULNESS MARK THE DAYS YOU SPEND HERE? If not… you won’t last, and I believe there is something great in store that you will miss out on if you bail.

The call is a call to FORSAKE COMFORT.

Verse 16 - 24 Paul is beaten and thrown in prison.

Paul and Silas are laying in a prison cell with their feet in the stocks, bloody, battered… This is where God has led them! One moment you are excited because finally God is going to show up, God is going to do something BIG I have recieved a vision!! And next you are beaten to a pulp and locked in a prison in a foreign land.

So Paul gives up faith, yells at God… HOW COULD YOU! I FAITHFULLY FOLLOWED YOU AND THIS IS WHERE YOU LEAD ME!!… NO. Verse 25, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God...”

God brings fruit out of faithfulness in the midst of intense discomfort.

In my short 5 years living in Utah I have seen many people come and go because they are uncomfortable here. The culture here makes many uncomfortable… and without a doubt there is a spiritual element to this.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The average pastor stays in Utah for less than 3 years, the average church planter last less than 18 months… I don’t have an official stat but my guess is the term of the average christian is not much longer.

REMEMBER THIS: Suffering does not mean that this is not what God has for you. There is something Greater in the midst of suffering for those who are willing to faithfully endure. The call of Jesus in is to GO therefore… However, I would argue that the call on the lives of genuine followers of King Jesus, the disciples of our day and in this place my very well be to STAY therefore.

Philippians 1 ESV

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

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Pauls Call To Macedonia Explained