The Lord's Providence
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Crazy week
I’ll be honest with you. I never thought I’d be living through what we are seeing right now. As a husband and as a father, I’m still navigating the best ways to practically love and lead my family with whats happening.
Like most of you I’ve had moments of fear. I’ve had moments of worry where I’ve had to stop and just take a breath and begin to pray. It’s during those moments I try to recall scripture and remember that the God who was in control last week is still in control this week.
17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
God is in control and He has a plan. I saw a clip of Billy Graham making a statement this week that went something like this “If we asked God what he was doing, he woudln’t tell us because we wouldn’t understand”
We are not God. We think we have so much control and yet here we are…with no control over what’s going on around us.
Each passage I read, article I’d reference, and time I’d recall of something bad happening in the Bible or even in history it seems as though I’d come across times of revitalization.
Knowing God is in control is a great reassurance for believers.
Revitalization is a lot like revival except for instead of taking something that has worked in the past and bringing it back, it is the process of breathing new life into something.
For instance, a revitilzation of Christianity is not the return to what it once was, but what it is and can be.
What does that have to do with what’s happening around us? How does that provide us hope? Those are great questions. thank you for asking.
However, if you haven’t put your faith in Him for salvation, it means nothing.
But to those who believe in Jesus, it should not only provide hope but it should generate a sense of excitement as we go forward.
Today I want us to see the Apostle Paul on his second missionary Journey and how God changed his plans and what came from it.
For those that don’t know, the Apostle Paul is first mentioned in scripture by the name Saul and he is a persecutor of Christians. We then see his conversation to Christianity after a miraculous appearance of Christ on the Demascus road and then after a few years in church at a place called Antioch, he is called by the Holy Spirit to be the first missionary.
Now he is on his second journey to spread the gospel and we catch up with him here at a crossroads. Follow along as I read
6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7 After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.
8 And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
12 And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
15 And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
PRAY
6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7 After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.
8 And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
11 Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;
12 And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
15 And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
18 And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
Notice first
I. The Lord’s Plan
I. The Lord’s Plan
Paul had been traveling through Phyrgia and Galtia, modern day turkey, and it would seem was planning to go east into Asia. We don’t know how the holy Spirit forbade him but that doesn’t matter as we see the Sensitivity of the Apostle
A. The Sensitivity of the Apostle
A. The Sensitivity of the Apostle
Because the Apostle Paul was Sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit He was able to place himself into a situation to be used and blessed by God in a great way.
How can we be sensitive to the Holy Spirit?
Die to Self
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
When we know Jesus as our Savior, it should be our desire that He lives through us. That takes laying down our plans and going with the ones He has given. It’s apparent to me that each of us had a change of plans in life the last week or so.
We can get extremely prideful during days like this and say things like “I wanted to do this...” or “I shouldn’t have to do....” That shows a major focus on us. When we put up the wall of pride we won’t be able to hear the Holy Spirit that screaming on the other side.
2. Be in commune with God
What does that look like? What does that mean? It means that you a person that believes in Jesus as your Savior and spends time with God. Praying to Him and seeking His guidance and wisdom. Reading and hearing the Word of God regularly in order to properly understand and know Him without taking things out of context.
It’s when we put pride aside and spend time with God that we can hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit that speaks to us and guides us. Sometimes in a way that we didn’t plan on going.
I believe God is sovereign and just as He led Paul to not go into Asia, I believe He is in control over this virus and is leading us into being the church outside the walls of the building.
We have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and hear and see Him working in our lives. And then, like the Apostle Paul we must be obedient. Notice with me the obedience of the Apostle.
B. The Obedience of the Apostle
B. The Obedience of the Apostle
A
10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
Paul saw the vision and immediately left for Macedonia. There was no questioning what he should do when he gets there. There was no discussion about it being part of the plan. There was an instant willingness and obedience to the call.
As a community of believers we have been placed in a position to be obedient to the Lord. Yes there is a virus infecting people, yes our community is being impacted, yes you should be cautious regarding what you do and how you conduct your life while this is going on, and yes you should keep your faith in God through it all.
A great way to do this is as I preached last week…exercise your faith. People are scared, be a beacon of hope. There are needs in our community, let’s seek to meet them and share the gospel.
There is a God who called on us to pray to Him and He will hear us and answer our cries. A great way to exercise our faith during this “crisis” is to pray. Don’t neglect the power of prayer. It is faith in God to do great things that has lead to God doing great things.
He called on the nation of Israel to pray
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
No matter what is happening around us, God is in control. The Lord has a plan. It’s our responsibility not to determine why it is happening, it is our responsibility to be obedient to the Lord when things are going smoothly and when things are going ary.
We may not always understand the Lord’s plan but we can apply the Lord’s process
II. The Lord’s process
II. The Lord’s process
verses 11 and 12 speak of the travel that Paul took to get to Phillipi and then verse 13 we see what he did while there.
He took the first step in the Lord’s process: Prayer
A. Prayer
A. Prayer
Paul and those traveling with him went to pray and commune with God. It’s exactly what we should be doing during this time. Praying for our nation, Praying for our leaders, praying for the sick, praying for this virus to go away, and praying most importantly for Jesus to be glorified and the gospel to be preached.
When Paul wrote to the church at Phillip later on he would admonish them
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
With thanksgiving in our hearts for our salvation and the blessings of God on our lives let’s go to God and call on Him to allow us to do a great work in His name and for His purposes during this time.
While in the place of prayer they met a lady named Lydia. She was a woman that was following the jewish faith at the time but was not a jew.
They met her than and Paul followed the next step in the Lord’s process: Preach
B. Preach
B. Preach
He preached the gospel to her. He talked to her on an individual level and she trusted Jesus as her savior right then.
Preaching the gospel, telling others about Jesus is our role as Christians. We are to be living testimonies and also using our voices to let others know of the hope we have in Jesus.
Preaching the gospel is not just what a person does from a platform on Sundays. It what we do with our actions.
A friend and mentor of mine said something like this yesterday “Our actions either show our fear or our faith.” When we live through dark times with the joy of the Lord in our hearts and in our actions, we show our faith to others. This gives the opportunity to let them know there is something different about people who believe in Jesus. And it’s not just what our weekends look like.
The gospel changes everything. Our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross affects our hearts and can have a major impact on the community we live in, if we will let the gospel free. The gospel isn’t tied to what you wear, how much money you make, or how good of a person you think you are. The gospel is based upon our faith in Jesus. When we believe in Jesus’ death burial and resurrection to pay for our sins and give us a relationship with God and eternal life with Him, we can have that same faith in the god of the universe to take care of any virus that is out there.
The Apostle Paul, at Phillipi, a place where life wasn’t easy was man of prayer. He was a man that preached. And then what did he do after that lady trusted in Jesus as her Savior.
He followed the third step in the Lord’s process: Repeat
C. Repeat
C. Repeat
A slave girl that was possessed begins following them and Paul turns and casts out a demon from her and she gets saved.
This process, this cycle never ends. It is the call of God on every Christian to go out and win the world to Christ.
And when we, like Paul, follow the Lord’s plan and the Lord’s process, we will witness the Lord’s power.
III. The Lord’s power
III. The Lord’s power
Follow along with me in verses 19-24
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
Wait a minute…Paul was doing the Lord’s work. He was living a life that was glorifying to God and what did that get him? Health? Wealth? New home? Brand new car? No.
It got him a lashing with a whip…that’s what “many stripes laid upon him” means and it got him thrown in jail...
He was doing everything right and his life got turned upside down.
What did he do? Where did he turn to? How did he get through this?
Notice the believers focus
A. The Believers focus
A. The Believers focus
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
Paul and Sils in prison, in a trial if you will, did not look around at their circumstances as to how awful things were. They did not try to figure out how they were going to get through. They looked to Jesus. They sand praises to God. They had no control over what was happening so they focused on the one who did have control.
Just as Paul and Silas focused on God, so should we. Don’t look to the left and right at your neighbors and figure out whats going on. Don’t stay glued to the news or social media…sing praised unto God and worship Him.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Be grateful for what you do have and go to the lord in prayer.
We can’t control what’s going on around us…He can. So let go of the fear and have faith. Drop the anxiety about what could happen and give into the truth that He knows what will happen.
And he doesn’t want bad things for you.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
He thinks peace towards us and Paul reminded the Roman believers who were living in more difficult times than we are
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ you can rest on these promises.
What if your not though? What if you don’t know Jesus as your savior?
Christians I’d like for you to see what impact you living out your faith in a difficult time can have.
Notice the Jailer’s faith.
B. The Jailer’s faith
B. The Jailer’s faith
27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
The Jailer saw the faith of these men and the power of God through them and wanted to know what He needed to do in order to be saved. What did He have to do to have eternal life?
That’s a great question. What do you have to do to have eternal life in Heaven and have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ? What do you have to do? There must be something great. You must have to pay money, you must have to pray, you must have to live a certain way....
No..no that’s not true. The Bible is very clear on this…listen…The answer to the Apostle Paul gave to the Jailer…He said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved”
He didn’t save a baptism saved him. He didn’t tell him that confession saved him.
What saves us...
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Faith. Faith in the gospel…the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
God’s power is seen when God’s people exercise and live out their faith for His glory.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Believers....in these uncertain times turn back to the pages of scritpure and see that we are promised trials and tribulations. Throughouth the old and new testament you can find uncertainity.
Again, a statement I heard yesterday, I don’t want to give his name in case I misquote him, “ The Bible is full of people going through uncertain times but it is grounded on the certainity of God”
We can Be certain God knew where we would be this month. We can be certain God is in control. No, we can’t be certain of what tomorrow holds but we can be certain of the one who holds tomorrow.
I’d like to ask you here and those at home to bow your heads for a moment. We do this every week at Liberty. We have a time of response to the message.
I want to give you that same opportunity this week to respond to how God spoke to your heart.
Christians, have you been consumed by what’s going on around you and not focused on the one who controls it all? I encourage…have faith, lean on Jesus, and exercise your faith for others.
Are you watching today and don’t know how to feel comfortable in uncertain times? Are you watching and don’t know what to think about what’s going on? Would you like to have peace and certainty in these uncertain times?
First, you need to know Jesus. You need to have a relationship with Him by faith. You need to know the love of God
The Bible says in
that God loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for your sins. In that same verse Jesus said that whosoever believes on him will not perish but have everlasting life.
Eternal life in Heaven with Jesus is based upon your belief in Jesus’ death burial and resurrection paying for your sins.
It’s that simple. Believe on Jesus…have a relationship with Him.
To those who do believe in Jesus: Are you stewarding what God has given you or are you squandering it on the things of this world? Make the decision to make investments in the eternal things of life, like the kingdom of Heaven in your local church and through the missions program.
If you made the decision to trust in Jesus this morning I want to invite you to confirm that with prayer. The words of the prayer mean nothing if you don’t believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God who died for your sins and was raised from the dead.
If you want to make the decision to trust Jesus as your savior this morning please pray after me
“Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, I believe you came to die on the cross and rose from the dead. I put my faith right now in you and ask you to come into my life and change me from the inside out. Amen.”
If this message was an encouragement to you I’d like to ask you to share that on social media for others. If you made the decision to trust Jesus as your savior, would you let us know by emailing me at “pastor@lbcbristol.org” I’d love to pray for you and I have a gift I’d like to send you as well.
Couple of announcements before we close
This week we had plant to host our Liberty Worldwide conference to highlight what God is doing through our missionaries and locally with the gospel. Due to the coronoavirus we will now be doing a viritual missions conference. That starts tonight at 6pm live on Facebook and we will have something Mon-Wed on FB just about every hour to be an encouragement and blessing to you. We will be interviewing missionaries, asking them to teach little devotions for us, and sharing uplifiting songs throughout the day.
Be in prayer for how you could commit to support the furtherance of the gospel worldwide and in our community. We will get info out to you soon as to how you can turn that information in anonymously.
If you would like to give to support the local ministry of Liberty Baptist church you can do so at lbcbristol.org/give
I love you, I’m praying for you, and I hope you have a blessed week.
See you soon.