Open and Shut Case

Title: “An Open and Shut Case”

Text: Acts 16:5-15

Introduction:

A.     Sold out believers want to know God’s will for their life.  Preachers often make it sound like an “open and shut” case in terms of recognizing it, but it may not always be that easy.

B.     Several years ago a church member agreed to fly me to seminary for a doctoral colloquy.  I met him at the airport around 4:00 that morning.  It was my first time in an airplane and I was a little anxious.  As we climbed in his little Cessna, he introduced me to one of his students that would be flying us under his supervision.  Here is what he said, “This is Tom, he needs some hours of instrument flying and we are hoping to hit bad weather between here and there.” 

C.     Do you ever feel like following God’s will is a little like getting your instrument only hours in and there is a bad weather ahead?  It may not always be as easy as we make it sound, but it doesn’t have to be difficult either.  Here  are 5 ways God directs your path, and you should acknowledge Him:

I.                   Through Closed Doors.

A.     Nobody enjoys hearing no.  Though it is one of the first words we recognize, we often try to push through the objections.

B.     (Verses 6-8)

C.     One day you will look back at times God hindered you form advancing and you will be able to thank Him.

D.     Paul obviously was trying to fulfill the calling on his life to carry the gospel to the Gentiles and to him going into Asia Minor made perfect sense.  But his response to the closed doors of that region can serve as a model for your response to closed doors:

1.      He did not loose the passion to preach.

2.      He did not sit down and quit because he did not get to go where he wanted.

E.      Not only must we have the faith to go through opened doors, we must also have the grace to accept closed ones.

II.                Through His Indwelling Spirit

A.     (verse 10)

B.     The same spirit that lived in the Apostle Paul lives in you.

C.     Several years ago a group of clergymen were discussing a city wide evangelistic meeting and who they should invite to come and preach.  One young preacher suggested they invite the famed D.L. Moody to come.  Another minister stood up and said, “D.L. Moody, D.L. Moody, that’s all I ever hear.  You would think the way people talk that Moody has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit.”  After a moment of deafening silence, an aging pastor stood and quietly rebuked the first, “No one here thinks that Moody has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit, but we do see evidence that the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on Moody.”

D.     If you are going to hear the voice of truth, you must become spiritually minded. 

E.      We will be visiting Lily soon and in advance of our traveling to Guatemala, Sheila and I will be brushing up on the little Spanish that we know.  But we will notice that after a few hours there, we begin to understand more and more what our little girl is saying.  After a few days we become even more in tuned.

F.      If you want to understand the Holy Spirit’s prompting, you need to spend time with Him.

III.             Through Spiritual Men and Women

A.     Look at verse 10.

B.     Luke records what happened the next morning following Paul’s vision.  “We concluded…” is such an interesting phrase.  Can you imagine the breakfast meeting?  The night before during their evening briefing and prayer service, they talked about the strategy for reaching this important coastal city.  Now Paul announces that we will be boarding a ship to sail north into Macedonia, or modern day Greece.  If one in the group need ask, “But why?”  “Because God spoke clearly to me,” he would say.

C.     God can reveal Himself to you through someone else, their story, their writings, and their teachings.  If they are spiritually minded and you know close to God, listen.

IV.              Through Open Doors

A.     Not only does God close doors, He often opens them.

B.     Verse 11-12

C.     The door to ministry was wide open.  Prevention and permission are God’s tools for getting you where He wants you to be.

D.     There is a scene in Apollo 13 where the astronauts are called on to manually maneuver the spacecraft out of the moon’s gravitational pull so that it can be guided back in to the earth’s atmosphere.  In the scene, the flight commander fixes his eyes on earth and they launch forward, keeping earth in a small window, until the automatic system can take over.

E.      A similar method works in determining God’s will for your life.  Fix your eyes on Christ and launch out in faith at some point the internal navigational system will kick in.

V.                 Through Spiritual Gatherings

A.     (verses 13-15)

B.     There I a prayer meeting, Lydia prayed to receive Christ.

C.     Many of you felt the heart tug of the Holy Spirit while in a service of prayer or worship.  Your heart was made ready by the Holy Spirit to receive God’s Word.  Some maybe even this morning.

Conclusion:

A.     The biggest barrier to accomplishing the will of God is the word someday.  We spend our whole lives for someday.  Someday when I graduate.  Someday when I get my dream job.  Someday when I get married.  Someday when I retire.

B.     Putting it off until tomorrow is a subtle way of saying no to God.  When you say “no” to God this morning, you will find it difficult to hear from Him tomorrow.  You may feel like the student pilot getting you instrument reading, but you have a more than capable flight instructor and you need by faith to zoom into the wild unknown!

C.     So, right now, right here, follow Him.