Redirected Plans

Introduction

Some of you know that I never really wanted to be a Pastor. Not that I entered into it kicking and screaming exactly, but it just wasn’t something that I desired growing up.

I will forever be thankful to my parents who so deeply desired for their children to grow up learning from a Biblical Worldview that they sacrificed much of what they could have had or done to pay for a Christian Education for all 6 of us. My Dad worked two jobs and still we were all there on scholarship, but it was that important to them.

But it was at this Christian School that a well meaning 5th grade teacher was giving out awards at the end of the year and then announced the next award to be the kid who was “most likely to grow up to be a pastor”. I vividly remember thinking… “I feel sorry for that kid”.... yup you guessed it. So I went into middle school with the moniker “Pastor Dan” and no, especially at a Christian School, it was not one of the “cool nicknames”.

That school only went to 8th grade, so I transitioned to a public High School but I was very involved in my Church Youth Group and eventually I started to hear from the very nice ole’ ladies in the Church that upon graduation they thought that I should consider “going into the ministry”. And I was like, “Thank you...but no thank you.”

I started my first job at 12 years old making $2 an hour and over time I had really enjoyed leaning the ins and outs of the small business world. I especially enjoyed the strategy and structure behind it all and then working together with a team to accomplish our shared goals, and making some serious money would be another great by-product. So no, going into “the minsitry” was not a part of my plan.

Continuing in that value that my parents taught me about the importance of a Biblical Worldview, I chose a Christian College, but one with a strong business program. Then on a whim, I decided to sign up for one elective Ministry class along with my business classes in order to effectively rule out the nice ole’ church ladies plans for my life. It was that class that redirected my life into full-time ministry.

And understand, it wasn’t just that my heart changed and now I wanted to “Serve the Lord” and before I just wanted to make money. I was well aware that God needs business men actively involved in His kingdom and I was planning on being one of those men. But that class taught me that many of the same strategic leadership and team-building aspects that I was drawn to in the field of business management were a very real and necessary part of being in full time ministry. So I switched majors…trusting that God was directing me in this new plan.

Tension

At this point I have been in some form of full time ministry for more than 20 year and I have found that there IS a great need for strategic leadership, team building and goal setting in the context of the Church…but there is also danger in it.

My concern is that we in the Western Church may have swung the pendulum too far. We may have grown dependent on our Church structures and Ministry strategies, so much so that we have lost any expectation of leading from the providential hand of our God. In other words, what we call “ministry” today is often so tightly structured, sequentially ordered and strategically designed that there is no perceived need for the supernatural hand of God to move in it…or redirect us away from it.

It is not that there is nothing “supernatural” about it. We certainly do pray before we set out on any new ministry journey, but more often it is a prayer for God’s protection over OUR plan, provision for what we need for OUR plan and requesting the experience of His presence to comfort us as we execute OUR our plan.

Far too seldom is it a prayer to ask God for His plan.

This is reflective of the drift in our society as a whole. Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking at the rise of something called “Secularism” in the Christian Church. We are greatly concerned that more than 80% of invested, Church-going, Christians like us do not make their decisions through the lens of a Biblical World View anymore, but instead they are internally driven by a destructive “self-rule” that is aimed at their happiness and guided by their feelings. There is no need for supernatural involvement in that kind of worldview.

In contrast to that, a Biblical Worldview begins with God as the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything in our natural world. This God is actively at work in our world to move all things in line with His intended purposes for it. So when our sinful rebellion rejected God and wrecked our world, God supernaturally intervened in order to fix it. He sent his Son Jesus to make right in Him what was made wrong in Sin. And Jesus did just that.

But our God’s supernatural movement in our world didn’t stop there. To get this message of our wrong made right out to the world, God created His Church, The Ekklessia. He empowered it with His Spirit and sent them out to share this message with the entire world. Our theme verse for this entire series is Acts 1:8, where the resurrected Jesus said:

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Where does this power come from? From God. God the Holy Spirit who is supernaturally working in our natural world to accomplish His purposes for His glory and our good. He is supernaturally doing these things…through us, His Church, His Ekklessia.

This is why the Bible does say that having a plan is good idea, but an over dependence on natural processes, strategies and structures can be dangerous. Our “programming” can “program” God right of the door.

But the Church was not designed to an “organization” as much as is it an “organism”. A supernatural organism designed, guided and sustained by our supernatural God who reveals Himself and His will to us - the question is are we even listening?

We are returning to the book of Acts this week where we will see how the Apostle Paul, someone who was a natural planner, organizer and strategist, was supernaturally redirected by God from doing what made the most sense strategically, but was still not the direction that God wanted Paul and His team to go.

More than a story in history, I hope that we will discover a deeper drive to listen for the supernatural redirecting of God in our lives individually, and in our lives as a Church family here at Friendship Church. I believe God is moving in our midst right now in a special way, and I can’t wait to see what He is desiring to do among us next.

In expectation of that, lets open up our Bibles to Acts chapter 16, it is on page 925 in the Bibles in the Chairs. As you are turning there I will pray.

Truth

So it has been a few weeks since we have been in Acts, and chapter 16 begins Paul’s second missionary journey. And if you are one of those geography nerds this is your day, because I have a lot of maps today.

You remember how on Paul’s first missionary journey (map) he started at one Antioch in Syria, went across the island of Cyprus all the way up to the other Antioch and then drew a crowd of opposition in Lystra and Derbe so much so that they stoned him and left him for dead. But the Church prayed for him and then he got up and went back into town to preach the word again. Then he made his way around to encourage the young Churches he just planted to remain faithful despite opposition, even extreme opposition like being beaten and stoned to death…almost.

Now take a close look at the Island of Cyprus down in the lower center of this map. Compare that to the size of the same Island on this next (map).

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey was much longer. He began in the same cities, this time by land, and he picks (map) to the other Antioch and back to the first with the young Timothy joining Paul’s missionary Team. It says:

Acts 16:1 (ESV)

(on map) 1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy,

And that is why for the past few weeks we have been in the books of 1 and 2 Timothy, learning form the advice Paul later gave him on how to lead the Church he was called to. Now back to Acts, Timothy is on board, Paul and his crew continue in the ministry that God has given them. Verse 4 says:

Acts 16:4-5 (ESV)

4 As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.

Paul and his companions are still after it. They are still preaching the Gospel, planting Churches and then going back through and encouraging the Churches with instructions from the Apostles and the Word of God.

Starting in verse 6 we read about where they went next…and where they did not go:

Acts 16:6–8 (ESV)

6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.

They were “forbidden” and “not allowed” to go certain places. “Secularism” would say that those kinds of words are not acceptable. They sound rather “judgy”, like you are trying to get in the way of what I believe makes me happy. Yeah. A sovereign God will do that sometimes.

There are a lot of places to deal with here in these verses, but the big idea is that Paul and his companions intended on a particular course but God supernaturally redirected them to another course. This leads us into our first theme, where...

1. We must continually seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance to align us with God’s plans (Acts 16:6–8).

So what about all these places, geography nerds listen up the rest of you can take a little snooze. I’ll wake you up in a few moments.

We left off somewhere close to Timothy’s home stomping grounds in Lystra and Derbe, and then they thought they would continue westward from there, but they were “forbidden” from ASIA. Then after going through Phrygia and Galatia they tried to go North and they were “not allowed”. So they passed by Mysia and ended up on the coastal city of Troas.

Ok, now everyone else wake up (I didn’t say it would be a long nap).

The big idea is that Paul is a long way from home base in Antioch. They thought they were circling out pretty wide this trip, but God’s plan was much bigger. God was going to bring them into territory much further away than they would have thought to be strategic or even safe at this point.

Sometimes God does this in our lives. We have this comfort zone that we are good with and at times we get charged up enough to take a step out of our comfort zone but still close enough that if things get crazy we can hop back in.

But what if God is calling us out into deeper waters…where all we have is our dependence on Him and the clarity of the call that He has given us.

And if I am honest, that is where I often get stuck. It is not so often that I doubt that God’s plans are good, but I do doubt whether or not I am hearing them clearly. And this story doesn’t help much because as you can see we are not told how the team was “forbidden” and “not allowed” to go to these places but just that they were.

It could have been given to them in a time of prayer, through a dream or a prophetic word of some sort. It could of just been a spiritual sense of unrest over the idea that drove them into prayers for confirmation or redirection. God does and has supernaturally communicated in all these ways, but all we know for sure at this point in this story is that God made it clear to them that these places were to be avoided at this time.

And when God does that....

2. We must faithfully obey God’s confirmed call for redirection in our lives (Acts 16:9–12).

Paul and the team have already shown their faithfulness in this, even though we don’t exactly know how God communicated these first instructions. But we are told how God led them into the next step of their journey:

Acts 16:9–10(ESV)

9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

So this time we are given the mode of God’s communication. God met Paul in his dreams to instruct him to go on to Macedonia.

Have you ever had a strange dream that you remembered after you woke? Researchers tell us that most people dream for more than 2 hours every night, they just don’t remember most of our dreams.

I don’t know about you, but when I do remember my dreams, they are often a melding of all kinds of places, experiences and people that are completely disconnected in my real life but somehow seamlessly come together in the story my dream is telling.

Dreams are a part of how our minds work. Even people born blind have dreams - they are just governed more by their other senses of smell and taste and less dependent on sight.

Sometimes we forget how throughout the Old and New Testament, the Bible records many times that God revealed His will to selected people through dreams or visions.

Joseph’s brothers were angered when he shared his dreams,

Solomon chose wisdom over everything else in his dream.

Daniel interpreted dreams and had many prophetic visions.

The Wise Men returned home another way because of a dream and

Jesus’ earthly father Joseph took pregnant Mary as his wife and then got his family out of Bethlehem because of what he saw in his dreams.

Not to mention the many times that God instructed the Apostles here in the book of Acts.

And God may communicate through dreams or visions even today, but we need to be careful assuming the significance of a dream or vision just because it seemed clear and vivid. Our minds and our enemy the Devil are both capable of producing deceiving messages out of our dreams.

That is another reason why maintaining a Biblical Worldview is so important. God is never divided. The Holy Spirit would never call you to something that the Holy Word condemns. This brings us back to 2 Timothy 3:16-17 from the past couple of weeks.

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Any calling or guidance from God should always be governed by the Word of God. Paul’s clear calling was to preach the Word of God, particularly to Gentiles, so governed by that Word of God he concluded that God had called them to preach the gospel in Macedonia.

Do you know where Macedonia is? Today it would be northern Greece right at the foot of Europe.

Acts 16:11-12(ESV)

11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days.

And we are back to a map. You probably recognize Philippi as the the city that Paul later wrote a letter to that we call Philippians. It was a city that was very dedicated to the culture of Rome. Many retired military officials made their home here and it would have been one of the last places that Paul would thought ready to receive the Gospel.

This brings us to our final theme for the week

3. We can trust that God’s supernatural redirection to be used for His glory and our good (Acts 16:13–15).

Acts 16:13–15 (ESV)

13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.

A sound business principle says to build momentum by picking the low hanging fruit first. So Paul’s strategy up to this point had always been to go to the Jewish synagogue first. Unlike the rest of the pagan world, Jews already believed in only one God and they were already looking for the Messiah. Plus Paul was a Pharisee, so he knew their arguments and how to reason with them from the Torah.

Philippi, however, had so few Jewish people that they did not have the 10 married men required to form a synagogue. But somehow Paul had heard that here were some people who met outside of town to pray to the one true God…so that is where they went.

Acts 16:14(ESV)

14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

This is where being one of those geography nerds pays off, because guess where Thyatira was? It was in Asia, you know…the people that Paul wanted to minister to but was supernaturally prevented from doing so. Here he is, miles away from Asia, but still ministering to someone from there.

This is one of those supernatural “God appointments” that so often are reported when missionaries return home to share testimonies of how God is working. No natural strategy would have sent a team to Philippi to minister to someone from Asia. God supernaturally guided Paul and his team there at just the right time in their journey and at just the right time in Lydia’s. For the text says that...

Acts 16:14b-15(ESV)

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

There was no synagogue in Philippi, but there would soon be a Christian Church. And remember we are: Macedonia or today what would be Northern Greece. That makes Lydia the very first recorded convert to Christianity in Europe. Think on that for a second. Everything in the diverse and rich history of Christianity throughout the European continent had something of a starting point right here in this supernaturally directed appointment of God.

Not only that, but did you notice how the pronouns in the text changed right after Paul had his vision that led them to Macedonia? Everything up to verse 10 was “they, them and their” but starting in verse 10 it reads “we, us and ours”. What does this tell us? This is the point when the writer of the book of Acts, Dr. Luke, began to travel and minister alongside Paul. If Paul had gone into Asia as he had intended then who knows, we may never have had this record of the early Church to study.

Gospel Application

And here is the thing, We have “literally” been all over the map today - but that is only because we are on this side of history. They didn’t have our map. They didn’t know what each step of the journey was going to look like or what it was going to lead to.

All they knew is that God was supernaturally leading them further and further away from their comfort zone. This required them to lean further and further into their faith in our God who knows what He is doing in our lives as He is working everything out for His greatest glory and our greatest good.

One of the reasons that people say that they go to Church is to “grow in their faith”, but they don’t realize that this is the road to get there. The saying is “stepping out in faith” not moving only when I have all the possible outcomes under my control. That is just another form of “Secularism”.

When we hold to a Biblical Worldview then we will recognize that this world belongs to our supernatural God who created every natural part, process and person. He knows this natural world better than every scientist that has ever and will ever live put together. He designed it all. And since He knows how it all naturally works, He knows where He needs to supernaturally intervene to bring out His greatest glory and our greatest good. The question is:

Are. We. Hearing. Him.

Landing

The Christian Church in the Western world is being hit with many new challenges, but with new challenges comes new perspectives, motivations and opportunities. What might God be redirecting you and your family toward right now that you never would have considered before? What could he be “redirecting” our Church towards?

Jesus gave us our mission to lean into the power of the Holy Spirit as we become His witnesses to the ends of the earth. How might he be leading our Church to do that differently than we have even done or seen it done before?

Let’s pray into that together.

Don’t Forget to Mention the Fireside Room Table Talk Group!!!