Sermon
Sermon Outline
ME
Can you think back to your favorite trip you’ve ever taken?In February of 2017, Dawn and I took a vacation to the Smoky Mountains that I hope to never forget.
Judah was only a few months old, and it was the days of having two parents for one child! Simple days.
We got an Airbnb just outside of Gatlinburg for $27 a night, probably because it was the extreme off-season.
The night we arrived, it was lightly snowing, and there was a hot tub on the porch calling my name.We spent a week just enjoying our little family.
However, the reality is that trip, no matter how hard I try, is never coming back around!The likelihood of finding a three-story, A-frame cabin with a hot tub on top of a mountain for $27 does not exist in this day and age.
Transition
The issue is that it is easy to live our life looking back at what we had instead of trusting God for where He is leading us.
WE
Today we jump back into the book of Acts and we find ourselves at a spot where looking back and trying to repeat the past doesn’t work out. Let’s read our text:
“After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.” 37 Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. 38 But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work.39 Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated.” Acts 15:36-39A NLT
We humans often desire either what we have had or what we see other people have had.
We lack creativity in life because the truth is God’s ways are higher than our ways. His plans are greater than our plans.
His plans are also typically harder than our plans because with our plans we have an outcome in mind.His plans involve a tremendous amount of faith as to what the outcome will be.
Our study today is both a challenge and a call.It’s a challenge because time and again, like our text today, God calls us to stop living focused on history.It’s a call because what God is inviting us to be a part of is not only different from the past but builds on the past in ways we might not understand in the moment.
The question we all have to face, and will answer with our actions, is when we think about tomorrow, do we compare it to yesterday, or do we offer tomorrow to God to shape as He wills?
Let’s Pray.
GOD
We Plan From What We Know.
“After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back” Acts 15:36A NLT
Theology
Can you imagine why Paul would say this? I can.
Paul has history, relationships, experience, and proven ministry there.Nothing is inherently wrong with this plan.
But contrast the start of this journey with the start of the first.It says when the first journey was commissioned, the Holy Spirit in a time of prayer and fasting called Paul and Barnabas to go out.While we don’t accuse Paul of being prayerless, we do see a clear difference in how the first missionary journey begins with a calling and the second begins with a plan.
While we regard Paul as an apostle, we have to keep in mind that he was also human like us.One thing we glean about Paul’s personality is he is the kind of person that if he doesn’t see a way, he will try and make it.That is Paul’s personality in a nutshell.
He’s spirit-filled; he’s called, and he’s brilliant and courageous. He’s also the guy that when he runs into a wall, he’s not going to quit. He’s just deciding if he wants to tunnel under or climb over.
Application
Let me ask you a question. When you think about tomorrow, how are you planning it?Maybe you, like Paul, have some road under your feet. You’ve done some things. You’ve seen some victories.You’ve chased your goals and seen your goals realized.
Are you letting what has been set the bar for what will be, OR are you allowing yourself to dream God-sized dreams?
Transition
When we plan our path, we easily build our plan around what has been. The hard part comes when our plans collide with God’s leading, and…
GOD
Sometimes Narrows The Road.
Theology
We already read it, but the plan doesn’t develop the way Paul thought it would.
Has that ever happened to you? You had a perfect plan and then other people got involved and ruined your picture-perfect idea?
Look at what then happens.The disagreement gets so intense Barnabas goes a separate way with John Mark.
“Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. 7 Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.” Acts 16:6-7 NLT
Paul begins his journey, and the Spirit forbids Asia.The Spirit then forbids Bithynia.Paul keeps moving, but his options are closing.
Paul's first missionary journey was a series of open doors. The second quickly becomes a lesson in discernment as opposed to opportunity.Not every possible path is the path God has for us.
Application
Here’s where the rubber meets the road for us.When we first begin following God, it’s purely through an open door.It’s the open door of salvation. It’s the open door of discipleship. It’s the open door of diving into God’s word.
As time goes on, we have to learn not to interpret life based on open doors, but based on the Spirit's leading in our life.While it is true that yesterday has created momentum for today, when we live to repeat yesterday, we don’t build on yesterday; we just repeat it.
The hard truth is that living life desiring for it to be like yesterday is a lack of faith when God can do an even greater work today!
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20 NLT
His power is WITHIN us to accomplish INFINITELY MORE than we might ask or think.
I don’t want to live for yesterday! I want to live for infinitely more!Infinitely more than I could ask or think.I’ve got my ideas, but what are my ideas in comparison to a God without limit who lives within me?
This is the difference between living for who we can be and who we are called to be!
Transition
Tomorrow doesn’t always look like yesterday. Sometimes it might, but many times God is going to do something new in our lives. In the moment it can feel restricting, but…
GOD
The Narrow Road Can Open Into A Larger Future.
“That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”” Acts 16:9 NLT
Theology
It’s clear what Paul had in mind doesn’t develop the way he expected, and that’s okay.
To Paul’s credit, he doesn’t go wild and just start running in every direction. When he senses a door is closed, he doesn’t go through it.In fact, because Paul is obedient, the narrower road leads into a larger future.
Look at what happens when the road narrows, but God does what only God can do.Paul goes to Macedonia when he has a vision from God!This is the first time we read of the gospel being preached in Europe.For the first time in the early church, the gospel begins to expand on two continents.This leads to an explosion of the gospel in Europe in the near future.
Application
It’s hard to not measure the future by what we have lost, what doors have closed, or what God has done before.We naturally build our future from what God has done before, but following the Spirit means being willing to follow God beyond what we already know.
Paul had no idea what was waiting for him in Macedonia!He didn’t know if it was imprisonment, revival, anger and frustration, or thousands of people ready to follow Jesus.
Transition
Narrow roads can often open up to larger futures. We see this time and again in the Word of God. The question is how do we apply it to our lives?
YOU
We naturally build our future from what God has done before, but following the Spirit means being willing to follow God beyond what we already know.
How can we grow in our maturity as we follow God on the paths of life?Faithfulness and repetition are not always the same thing.
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25 NLT
Faithfulness for the follower of Christ is not doing the same thing again and again. It’s following the same one again and again.Many times when we say someone was faithful, what we mean is they did the same thing consistently.The important part of that isn’t their consistency; it’s what they were faithful to.
Here’s a thought.
“That’s how I’ve always done it,” is not a reason to keep doing it that way.
- If that’s how you’ve always done it\, what has that gotten you?
- For us as a church that means that our how is always flexible. But our mission is never compromised.
- Until Jesus comes back the mission of the church is to reach the lost and disciple the found.
- That’s it and there is no debate about it.
- Our “how we do that” may radically change over the years and it has changed over the years.
- What if tomorrow when you live another Monday you didn’t begin with\, “Let’s go back and do again what we’ve already done.” and you started Monday with\, “God\, where are you leading me today?”
- You want to know one of the most common phrases I hear from people who have messed up. “I knew I shouldn’t have done that.”
- How did they know? The spirit was leading them and they didn’t follow.
- Story
- A couple months ago I was coming up here for Sunday night and as I pulled out of my road I almost went left to take the longer drive instead of right.
- I wanted to go left\, but I went right. Honestly I didn’t want to take th 3 extra mins that way takes.
- But\, on the way to the office in broad daylight a deer ran out of the woods like it was chased by a mountain lion and broke my front headlight with it’s rear end!
- I knew I should of gone left but I went right because that’s the way I go 99% of the time.
- Faithfulness isn’t doing the same thing again and again and again. Faithfulness is following the one we are called to be faithful to.
- Transition
- We are called to be faithful to God’s leading not our past and when we are we can trust that..
- Where God Places Us God Will Sustain Us
- “I will be your God throughout your lifetime— until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.” Isaiah 46:4 NLT
Following God often means stepping into places where we do not yet know how things will work out.
The confidence of faith is not, “I know how this will go.”
- The confidence of faith is\, “I know who called me.”
- God never asks us to trust the place; He asks us to trust the One who placed us there.
- If God leads you into something unfamiliar\, His faithfulness does not stop at the doorway.
- He will give you what you need when you need it.
- He will sustain you in what He has called you to walk through.
- Conclusion
- I want to end with one last observation of God’s leading.
- We’ll study the rest of this second missionary journey but one of the places Paul was led to on that journey was Philippi and look at what Paul wrote to them
- “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6 NLT
.Wherever you are in life, if you and I will follow God’s lead and let God write the story, the best is yet to come.