6 March 2016
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Acts 16:6-10
Acts 16:6-10 (NIV)
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of
Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the
word in the province of Asia.
7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter
Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.
9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia
standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to
leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to
them.
--
yesterday I left Kim in tears -- you see, we went up to Adel to work on the
bus, and things didn’t go as planned -- but they kind of went as expected
-- after
patiently waiting for several weeks for me to buy locks to replace the broken
lock on the door of the bus, Kim took it upon herself to go to a locksmith in
town to find the right lock -- he gave her two locks that he said would work on
the door -- and so we went up to Adel with the high hopes of finally getting
the door fixed so she could head up to Perry with the bus for the dog show in
April
-- Long
story short, the locks on the bus still are not fixed -- and now the starter
has been broken, the cables have been disconnected from the battery and need to
be replaced -- the air suspension system has been taken apart -- the shower
assembly in the bathroom is laying in the back of the van -- and the bus is in
worse shape than it was when I started
-- and that
really wouldn’t have been a big deal, but Kim knows who I am -- I am the king
of unfinished projects -- left to my own devices, none of these things will be
fixed and the bus will not be ready to go to Perry by April
-- I tend
to not complete things -- last weekend, we finally put together the new bed
that we bought -- the mattress had been laying in the dining room in a box for
several weeks and the bedframe we bought to go with it was still in its box out
on the porch where it had been sitting ever since it got delivered -- Kim
finally said it’s time, and so we worked all weekend on getting the bedroom
ready and moving furniture around so the new bed would fit
-- in the
process, we discovered a bunch of half-completed projects that I had started
and set aside for a later date -- I wanted to keep them -- I told Kim, “I’m
going to finish that one day” -- but she convinced me that maybe it was time to
donate these parts and pieces to a thrift store so someone might actually be
able to complete the vision I had
-- maybe
some of you are like that, too -- I think this seems to be more common in men
than it is in women, but I would like to think it’s a common malady and not
just unique to me
-- a lot of
people have half-written novels in their drawers or on their computers -- a lot
of people have written bucket lists, but completed nothing on the list -- a lot
of people have a vision of reading through the Bible in a year, but it’s still
covered in dust on their coffee table -- but I contend this is common -- we
start off every new year with good intentions and solid resolutions for change,
but never get around to finishing them -- our lives are paved with the good
intentions of unfinished business and unclaimed vision
-- this
happens a lot in the church, too, and that’s what I want to talk about today --
the message of the Bible is clear -- God didn’t quit speaking when the canon of
scripture was closed -- God still speaks to us today and He still gives us
visions that He wants us to go forth and complete
-- but all
too often, we never move or act on the visions He gives -- instead, we stay
content and comfortable in our regular church services and programs and never
step out into the unknown of a vision-directed future with Him -- or, if we do
begin, we never see it to completion -- rather than living with an attic full
of half-completed projects or wasting time and resources on church programs
just for the sake of activity, how can we start living out the visions and the
callings of God in our lives today?
II. Scripture Lesson (Acts 16:6-10)
-- in this
passage from the Book of Acts, we read of the Apostle Paul and his companions
on Paul’s second missionary journey -- Paul has been in ministry for quite a
while by this time, and he and his team are a well-oiled machine -- he has been
systematically going through the provinces and out-lying cities of Rome --
Pisidian Antioch -- Lyconium -- Lystra and Derbe -- and now we see him in
Phrygia and Galatia
-- Paul and
his ministry team has this down to a science -- they stroll into a town, head
straight for the synagogue, preach to the Jews -- and when the Jews reject
them, as they always do, then he carries the message of Christ to the Gentiles
-- this is Paul’s modus operandi -- and here’s what I want you to see -- Paul
has a plan and vision and he is systematically going out and accomplishing his
ministry in a logical way -- next on the agenda: Asia by way of Mysia and
Bithynia -- but look what happens
-- verse
6-8
Acts 16:6-8
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of
Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the
word in the province of Asia.
7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter
Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.
-- God
said, “No” -- God said, “Stop -- I don’t want you to go into Asia right now”
-- and
there’s a couple things we need to see in these verses -- first, notice that
Paul heard God when He spoke -- notice that when the Spirit of Jesus prevented
them from going into Bithynia, Paul recognized it was God who was keeping them
from preaching to the people of Asia -- so Paul went past Mysia and went down
to the city of Troas
-- the
principle we learn from this is that we are to be open to the vision -- we are
to be open to God’s voice in our lives -- we have to believe and trust in the
fact that God still speaks and still directs His people -- and, most
importantly, we have to be listening for God when He does speak
-- spend
some time in the Old Testament this week and just look at how many times you
read in the prophetic books, “the word of the Lord came to ‘so-and-so’” -- or
“at this time and place I had a vision”
-- what’s
the difference between these prophets and most of us today? -- as they were
going about their normal lives, they did so with their ears and their eyes
tuned to Heaven -- and when God spoke, they heard -- when God moved, they saw
-- we need to be like them and like Paul in this passage -- open to the truth
that God is speaking to each of us -- listening for His voice -- looking for
His presence -- and ready to receive His message when it comes
-- the
second principle we see in this passage is that we have to be willing to accept
change and to stop what we’ve been doing if God so directs -- sometimes God
calls us to quit what we have been doing all along, so that we will be ready for
what He has next
-- when I
started pastoring at Wright’s Chapel and Naylor Methodist churches, one of the
big events they had at both of these churches were their annual revivals --
these had been going on for years -- it was just something they did -- it was
an established part of their ministry
-- but
after just a couple of years, I realize that this service was not really
accomplishing its purposes -- it was only reaching the 10 or 15 people who were
the regular churchgoers at both of these congregation -- the revivals were not
reaching out to the community nor bringing in the unsaved to hear the gospel --
it had become a program that we were doing simply because it was what we had
always done -- and I felt it was time to end it
-- so we
did away with the revival, to the consternation of churches, so that we could
move forward in the vision that God had given me -- we started a joint service
called “Fifth Sunday Revivals” that were held during regular church services on
Sunday mornings, not during the week as a revival normally is -- and we made an
emphasis on inviting friends to church on that Sunday -- instead of just
reaching the 10 to 15 regular members, we started ministering to 80 people
during these special Sunday services, with about half of them from outside the
church
--
sometimes God calls us to quit what we have been doing and to put aside our
vision and our plans, so that we can move forward to what He has prepared us
for
-- Paul
wanted to go into Asia -- he tried a couple of times, but when God said, “no,”
Paul got the message and cancelled his plans for revival in Asia so he could be
ready for what God had next
-- verse 9-10
9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia
standing and begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."
10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to
leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to
them.
-- as soon
as Paul was obedient to God’s direction to not go into Asia, God spoke again --
and that’s the third principle we need to absorb -- God rarely gives us the
whole picture of what He is doing or what He wants us to do for us -- when God
speaks, He usually only tells us a little part of His plan and then He waits
for our response -- if we move forward and do what He says, then He gives us
the next part -- if we don’t, God either gives us the vision again or He stops
speaking until we respond
-- we see
this pattern throughout Scripture -- when God called Abram out of Ur, God
didn’t tell Abram that He was going to settle Abraham in the Promised Land and
create a great people from his lineage that would bring forth the Messiah and
be the keepers of God’s Holy Word -- no, God simply told Abram, “Get up and go
to the land that I will show you” -- God didn’t even tell Abram where to go --
God just said, “Get up and move, and then I’ll tell you where I want you to go”
-- when God
spoke to Jonah and Jonah ran away, God kept giving Jonah the same message, “Go
to Ninevah and preach against them,” until Jonah finally got the point and went
to Ninevah
-- we see
the same thing here -- God told Paul to stop what he was doing -- to not go
forward with his plans to evangelize in Asia -- and Paul didn’t hear anything
else until he acted on God’s word -- and when Paul heard God and turned around
and bypassed Asia, God sent him a vision in the night with the next step in the
plan
-- and
notice that even then, Paul wasn’t given the whole picture -- he wasn’t told
what would happen in Macedonia or what he was supposed to do when he got there
-- he was simply given the vision of the man from Macedonia begging him to come
and help them
-- which
brings us to our next principle -- we have to act on the vision that we are
given -- Habakkuk 2:2 says, “write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, so
that a herald may run with it”
-- as one
person blogged, “The first part of accomplishing any vision is to take it from
the unseen world and bring it into the natural world. This can be accomplished by simply writing
down the vision. Articulating the vision
on paper pulls a dream that is in your spirit into the visible world so that
others capture it in their own hearts.” [http://jesusculture.com/posts/1450-the-power-of-a-vision/]
-- Paul
received the vision from God and told others about it and then Luke wrote it
down and shared it with us in this passage
-- when you
receive a vision from God -- when God speaks to you -- you need to capture it
-- you need to write it down so you won’t forget it -- you need to put it in
front of you and look at it and meditate on it and remember it so you can act
on it
-- too many
times I have great ideas -- I’ll be riding along and I’ll have this epiphany --
this great idea for a ministry or for some other project -- and, before I know
it, I get distracted and the idea is lost
-- that’s
why I’ve started doing what John Maxwell advised -- I carry a notebook in my
pocket and when I have thoughts and ideas and visions from God, I stop and
write them down -- or, lately, if I’m driving, I just take my phone and record
the idea into my phone -- most phones have recorders now, so you can do
that -- same principle
-- the
point is that we have to capture the vision so we can act on it, which is the
final point -- when God has given you a vision, it’s time to step out in faith
with the vision
-- if you
look back at verse 10, you’ll notice that it’s actually written a little out of
order -- if you read what is there, you’ll see the next step in the process of
completing the vision from God
-- Luke
tells us that after Paul received the vision, he shared it with his team and
they got ready at once to go to Macedonia, after they concluded God was calling
them to preach to the people there -- and that’s an important step we need to
consider
-- when God
shares a vision for ministry with a person, usually the vision is not just for
one person, but for the whole community -- it is a vision for the church to act
on -- we see that here in this passage
-- God
didn’t call Paul to go into Macedonia by himself, but He was calling the entire
group of people with Paul to go into Macedonia to share the gospel -- when Paul
received the vision, he shared it with the group and asked for confirmation --
the group heard the vision, considered the situation -- I’m sure they prayed
about it -- and together they concluded with Paul it was clear direction from
God and they should proceed with God’s plan
-- when you
have a vision for ministry, you need to share it with others -- both for
confirmation that it is a true calling from God and to allow them to be part of
the ministry -- Luke says they got ready at once to leave for Macedonia in
obedience to God’s vision and call
-- when we
get a vision from God, we need to capture, we need to confirm it, and we need
to commit to completing it
III. Closing
-- Let me close by giving you a
modern-day example of someone who got a vision from God and went forth in His
name to do all that
-- In 1998, Sagen Woolpert was an
8-year old girl from Warner Robins who had a vision -- She listened in church
as the pastor challenged the congregation to go forth in Christ's name to the
world around them -- but she did something that most of the adults around her
didn't do -- where they just heard the message and commented on it at the end
of the service, she took it to heart and did something about it
-- she left there inspired and went
home and asked God to give her a vision to reach out to others -- in her own
words, she wanted "to do something during the week that would carry the
message to the community." -- So, she prayed and God gave her a concern --
He put a burden on her heart -- He gave her a vision and a task that was
greater than her
-- One day God drew her attention
to the kids in her school at lunch -- She saw that a lot of the kids received
free lunches during the school year because they couldn't afford to buy lunches
for themselves, and she wondered, "Now that school is over for the summer,
what do they eat? If they couldn't
afford lunch for nine months of the year, what did they do the other three
months?" -- she decided that God was calling her to do something about it
-- she stood up in church and told
them about this vision that God had given her -- this vision to feed kids
during the summer -- she visited other churches in the community and asked them
for their support -- and in 1998, she started what she called, a "Kid's
Kitchen Lunch Program," based out of the Warner Robins First United
Methodist Church
-- this program consists solely of
children volunteers who make sack lunches for needy kids in their community --
the adults help by providing transportation and moving supplies, but the work
is totally done by kids under the age of 13 -- during the first two years of
operation, they served 600 lunches each Wednesday during the summer to needy
kids -- If you do the math, that comes out to over 7,500 lunches provided free
of charge -- God gave Sagen, an 8-year-old girl, a vision on how to reach out
to His people and show them Christ during the week -- reflecting on her
experience, Sagen offered this advice, "If you have a dream, just pursue
it, and if you want it bad enough you can change your world by helping someone
else."
-- Helen
Keller once said, "The saddest thing is for people to have sight but no
vision."
-- we are called to have a vision
-- we are called to be more than we are -- to do more than we can do -- we are
called to serve God by sharing His love and His message to a field full of lost
souls -- to open our eyes and see what God wants us to do and then to go out
and do it
-- the difference between most of
us and Sagan Woolpert and the Apostle Paul is what we do with the vision we’re
given -- do we step forward and complete the vision? -- do we act on what God
has told us to do? -- do we capture, confirm, and complete the visions or are
these visions just cluttering up our attics as half-finished projects?
-- the Bible tells us that without
a vision, we perish -- what that really means is that if we are going to be the
people that God wants us to be -- the church that He wants us to be -- then we
need to make a commitment to act on and complete the visions He gives
-- as I close this message this morning,
I have an assignment for you -- this week, I want you to get a sheet of paper
and a pen -- and I want you to get your Bible -- and I want you to sit before
God in a time of prayer and study
-- I want you to ask Him to open
your eyes and to open your ears and to open your heart and to give you a vision
for what we can do for Him this week -- this month -- this year -- both
individually and as a church
-- and I want you to capture that
vision -- to write down what God tells you -- and I want you to share it with
us next Sunday for confirmation and commitment
-- vision is the key to ministry --
vision is the key to life -- and we must take the visions from God and capture
them and confirm them and complete them -- this is how we make a difference in
our world today -- this is how we do what God wants us to do and be who God wants us to be
-- let us pray
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